Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his town, and his land. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.” Josh 8:1–2 NLT

A s a part of laying down roots in our new land of promise, we recently purchased an outdoor dining table and chairs for our deck. Since our old set served us well for over thirty years, i am planning that this one is our “last” set. This set came with those frightful words — “assembly required”. It is a well-known fact that the main difference between men and women is most clearly seen when they encounter those two words. Women, most frequently, will follow the wise course of action of reading and following the instructions. In so doing, they know each step to take — in the correct order — using the appropriate part. And the finished product tends to look just like the instructions show you that it will — and there are usually no leftover parts. Men, on the other hand — at least some of us — can’t seem to be bothered with reading the detailed instructions. We’re men! We intrinsically know how things go together! We can’t be distracted by the instructions. And we achieve great economies in that we frequently do not need to use all of the parts!

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. (Josh 7:3-4 NLT) 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 at all! The men bringing this recommendation had just returned from spying out Ai. And Ai looked nowhere near as imposing as Jericho! Defeating Ai would take no effort. And though they didn’t say this, the confidence in their remarks communicates – “we don’t even need God to do this; we can handle it ourselves!” “We can leave 597,000 of our fighting force back in the camp. We only need 3,000 warriors. And they won’t even break a sweat.” Obviously i am putting words in their mouth, but i believe it fairly expresses their sentiment.