Ai and Achan

Notes

The course of Israel in supposing that only a few men would be sufficient to capture Ai, shows that they expected to take it simply by force of arms, and that they were not depending on the help of the Lord. It did not matter if Ai was a very small city compared with Jericho, there was as much reason for taking a large force of men to capture it as there was at Jericho. Since the Lord threw down the walls, Jericho could have been taken with a few men as well as with the thousands who surrounded it. The Lord could have delivered Ai into the hands of the three thousand Israelites who went up to take it, as easily as into the hands of tens of thousands, since it is nothing with him to help "whether with many, or with them that have no power" (2 Chron. 14:11); but the Lord had not told them to take only a few men, and their doing so showed that they thought themselves fully able to help themselves. Perhaps they had become unduly elated and vainglorious over the wonderful victory at Jericho, and had insensibly come to think that the victory was due to their own might. It often happens that the Christian's greatest danger is just after he has had a signal blessing, or gained a great victory through faith in Christ. In the joy that necessarily follows, Satan will always attempt to insinuate some self-gratulation, and before the man knows it, his thankfulness to God has degenerated into self-complacency, and then he falls an easy prey to some comparatively small temptation. Thousands of Christians can tell by sad experience the necessity of the injunction, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

It is impossible to tell from the reading of Josh. 7:24, 25 whether Achan's family shared his fate or not. Verse 25 says, "And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burnt them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones." It is certain that if they were not sharers with him in his crime, they were not involved in the punishment; for God had already given this law to Israel: "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin." Deut. 24:16. And long after this we find the rule obeyed by Amaziah. See 2 Kings 14:1-6. So no one need speculate concerning the fate of Achan's family, nor, imagining that they also suffered death, vainly charge injustice upon the Lord; for whatever occurred, we may rest assured that the Judge of all the earth did right.