“When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.” (Joshua 7:21)
After the amazing victory at Jericho when the walls came tumbling down by the power of God, Joshua didn’t take the small city of Ai very seriously. He sent out some spies to examine the city and evaluate it (which worked well in Jericho). Joshua thought the city was small enough that they could easily take it with taking only 3,000 men, but they got whopped. Why? Ultimately, we find it was because of the sin of Achan. However, there is also a lesson from Joshua here as well. It doesn’t appear he really sought the Lord in how to approach the battle with Ai. He made the logical decision to spy it out, and the logical decision to not take all his whole army since they appeared small and with a weak miliary. He leaned to his own understanding, instead of seeking the Lord’s will. (Prov. 3:5-6) It might be you should defeat them with trumpets and a shout; or it could be by tricking them to run out of the city to pursue you (Josh. 8), which happened after they dealt with the issue of Achan. We should never assume the apparent logical, easy path is the Lord’s will. It might be, but we have to seek and pray for God to guide us, instead of leaning unto our own understanding.