In the book of Joshua, the Israelites begin to move into the Promised Land to receive what God promised to Abraham hundred of years earlier. They start their conquest with an impressive victory at Jericho, where God brings down the walls of one of the most heavily fortified cities around. After Jericho, they set their sights on to the city of Ai, a much smaller city that should have been an easy victory. However, the people of Ai hold strong and send the Israelites into a retreat, losing 36 of their men in the process.

What gives? Why did God abandon them?

That’s the question that Joshua asks God in Joshua 7:7: “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?” Why did you bring us all this way if you were just going to let us fail? How many times have we all asked similar questions?

Joshua gets his answer a couple verses later in verse 11. God says, “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of hte devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.”

Somebody messed up.

It all happened back in Jericho. God told Israel that everything in Jericho was to be dedicated to him and put into the treasury of the Lord. They were supposed to give everything from their first victory to God, but somebody didn’t follow through on the promise.

So Joshua sets out to find the culprit. He brings out the entire camp of Israel and goes through them, tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family. They find the hidden treasure buried in Achan’s tent. As repentance for his greed, Achan and his family, along with the rest of the devoted things, are destroyed. Verse 26 tells us that God then turned away from his burning anger.

The problem with Israel was not that God abandoned them; it’s that they allowed material goods get between them and God. They allowed sin to disconnect them from God. They let their love of the world interfere with their love of God. In order for them to reconnect with God, they had to purify themselves. They had to clean their camp. Once they did that, they wiped out Ai with no problems.

Sin is what gets in between God and us. It also gets in between us and other people. If we want to feel closer to God, if we want to feel closer to others, then it’s possible that we need to clean out our camps.