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The situation had changed, and Joshua and the Israelites had no idea. The memory was fresh of their absolute defeat of Jericho. The imposing walls of Jericho had proven to be no problem whatsoever! The men had just returned from spying out the city of Ai.(1) It was nowhere near as imposing as Jericho! Defeating Ai would be a piece of cake – it would not require any effort.

And though the spies didn’t say this, the confidence in their remarks communicated – “we don’t even need God to defeat Ai! We can defeat them ourselves!” “We can even leave 597,000 of our fighting force back in the camp. We only need 3,000 warriors to do this. And they won’t even break a sweat.” Obviously i am putting words in their mouths, but i believe it fairly expresses the sentiment of the spies.

The reason i can so confidently express that sentiment is because i have acted in that same manner myself. i’ve walked through a Jericho-sized situation where the odds i was facing were so overwhelming, i knew if God “didn’t come through” i was sunk. i enlisted a multitude of prayer partners to intercede with me and call upon the Lord for His intervention and favor. And then i saw Him work in an overpowering way. You know the feeling!

After that took place, i was basking in His goodness and grace – and feeling a might bit invincible. So when the next circumstance i encountered seemed so minor – so insignificant – i didn’t think there was any need to even pray about it. But then – SMACK! There was that unexpected blow that knocked the wind out of my sails.

Where did we get this idea that we go to God for the BIG stuff, but trust ourselves for the “small” stuff? And even if we would never actually say that, why do we live that way? Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”(2) And when Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, he said, “Be anxious for nothing, but in EVERYTHING by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”(3)So what part do we get off thinking is excluded from “everything”?

In the case of the Israelites, they went to battle with the people of Ai without some very important information. As a result, they went to battle without the presence of God going with them – and they didn’t even know it. It would have been very helpful for them to know the information that we read as the chapter starts: But Israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the LORD. A man named Achan had stolen some of these dedicated things, so the LORD was very angry with the Israelites.(4) Later in this same chapter of the Book of Joshua we read about Achan’s sin of commission, but for right now let’s continue to look at the people’s sin of omission.

The Israelites were facing an enemy – Ai. So what did they do? Joshua sent men to spy out the town – just like he had for Jericho. They returned with a favorable report for the people to advance on Ai – just like they had for Jericho. And the people by faith sent forth the warriors. The problem wasn’t their hubris in the small size of the force they sent out. The problem was that nowhere do we read that they talked to God about it. We don’t see one mention of Joshua – or anyone – talking to God… until after the defeat.

Is it not reasonable to presume that if they had sought the Lord before advancing on Ai, He would have told them about the sin in the camp? Is it not reasonable to presume that if they had sought the Lord before advancing on Ai, they could have prevented their sound defeat and the death of many of their warriors?

When will we learn that our Lord God Jehovah is the Sovereign and Almighty God of creation? He is omniscient and omnipotent. There is nothing that we will encounter that He doesn’t know. He knows what is ahead. He knows what He wants to accomplish through the encounter – in and through our lives. He knows what we need. He knows if there is something going on in our lives that will cause us to be ill-prepared. And He desires for us to seek Him – with the promise that if we seek Him we will find Him.(5)

And when the Israelites suffered defeat, they blamed God! (Of course, we would never do that, would we?) They cried out to Him that He had let them down and brought dishonor to His own name. Set aside Achan’s sin for a moment. They went off to Ai with their own plan, having never asked God what He would have them do, and then had the audacity to tell God it was His fault! It would behoove us to ask – how many times have we done the exact same thing? And then questioned God as to where He was!

Wherever we are in our journey, whether we are approaching a circumstance the size of Jericho, or one the size of Ai – we must remember that apart from Him we can do nothing! We can’t handle it apart from Him – no matter how insignificant we may think it is. Solomon wisely wrote: Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.(6)

Let’s learn from the lesson at Ai, and not lean on our own understanding!

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You can read about the defeat of the Israelites at Ai in the seventh chapter of the Book of Joshua.

This post is taken from chapter 19 of my book, Possessing The Promise. For more information about the book, click here.

(1)  Joshua 7:1-9 (NLT)

When they returned, they told Joshua, “There’s no need for all of us to go up there; it won’t take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so few of them, don’t make all our people struggle to go up there.” So approximately 3,000 warriors were sent, but they were soundly defeated.

(2) John 15:5 (NLT)

(3) Philippians 4:6 (NKJ)

(4) Joshua 7:1 (NLT)

(5) Jeremiah 29:13

(6) Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

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