As is often the case, right after a huge win, there’s a devastating loss. It sometimes happens when teams take their opponent too lightly as Israel did with the city of Ai:

Then the People of Israel violated the holy curse. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of the cursed things. GOD became angry with the People of Israel. Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai (The Ruin), which is near Beth Aven just east of Bethel. He instructed them, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai. They returned to Joshua and reported, “Don’t bother sending a lot of people—two or three thousand men are enough to defeat Ai. Don’t wear out the whole army; there aren’t that many people there.” So three thousand men went up—and then fled in defeat before the men of Ai! (Joshua 7.1 – 4, MSG)

There were really two problems here. One is that Achan had taken things during the battle of Jericho. The other is that Joshua and his spies apparently thought that the Jericho victory was a result of their great prowess in battle. Hence, “two or three thousand men are enough.”

They hadn’t yet learned the lesson that if God wasn’t fighting with and for them, a million men wouldn’t be enough, and if God were with them, the warrior count would be irrelevant (see, for example, the story of Gideon.).

AFTER the defeat, Joshua prays, and God responds:

Get up. Why are you groveling? Israel has sinned: They’ve broken the covenant I commanded them; they’ve taken forbidden plunder—stolen and then covered up the theft, squirreling it away with their own stuff. The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye—they themselves are plunder. I can’t continue with you if you don’t rid yourselves of the cursed things. (Joshua 7.10 – 12, MSG)

And, of course, Achan is discovered, and he offers this timeless recipe for sin:

Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath. (Joshua 7.20, 21, ESV)

That will preach:

• I saw
• I coveted
• I took
• I hid

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1.14, 15, ESV)