Scripture Daily

Context No. 429 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 7:1-9: in context

1But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against the children of Israel. 2Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the land.” The men went up and spied out Ai. 3They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them.” 4So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. 5The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water. 6Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the LORD’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. 7Joshua said, “Alas, Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan! 8Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? 9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”

This is the account of Israel's stunning defeat at the small city of Ai, and it comes right after the miraculous victory at Jericho, which makes it all the more jarring. There was hidden sin in the camp, a man named Achan who had secretly taken forbidden plunder, and so when Israel went up against Ai, confident and unaware, they were routed. Thirty-six men were killed, the army fled, and the text says the hearts of the whole people melted and became like water. After walking around Jericho and watching its walls fall, they now cannot take a town they were told had only a handful of defenders.

What Joshua does next is the part to watch. He does not immediately call a council of war or launch an investigation. He tears his clothes and falls on his face before the ark of the LORD and stays there until evening, dust on his head, and he prays, and the prayer is raw and unedited. Why, he asks God, did you ever bring us across the Jordan, only to hand us over to be destroyed? I wish we had been content to stay on the other side. He is confused, grieving, even accusing, and he does not clean it up before he says it. But then his prayer turns to the one ground that is stronger than his own deserving. The Canaanites will hear of this, he says, and surround us and cut our name off from the earth, and then, the final question: what will you do for your great name? Joshua stakes his appeal not on Israel's worthiness, which had just failed spectacularly, but on God's own reputation.

There is a whole model in that response to being blindsided by failure. Joshua's first move is not to strategize or to spiral, but to fall down and pray honestly, holding nothing back, and then to anchor his plea in God's name rather than in his own record. When I am ambushed by an unexpected defeat, is my first instinct to scramble and fix it myself, or to collapse into despair, or is it what Joshua did, to take it straight to God in unedited prayer and appeal, in the end, not to how much I deserve but to God's own great name?

Sources