Joshua 7:6-15

Joshua's Complaint and the Lord's Answer Joshua 7:6-15

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
7 And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
8 O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
10 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed; neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.
15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

7.

Did Joshua murmur against God? Joshua 7:6-9

Joshua and the elders of the people were affected because Israel, who was invincible with the help of the Lord, had been beaten; and therefore the Lord must have withdrawn-' His help. In the deepest grief, with their clothes rent (Leviticus 10:6) and ashes upon their heads, they fell down before the Ark of the Lord (Numbers 20:6) until the evening. Joshua's prayer contains a complaint (Joshua 7:7) and a question addressed to God (Joshua 7:8-9). The complaint almost amounts to murmuring and sounds very much like the complaint which the murmuring people brought against Moses and Aaron in the desert (Numbers 14:2-3). It is very different from the murmuring of the people on that occasion, however, for it by no means arose from unbelief. Joshua was simply asking God why Israel had been beaten.

8.

What answer did God give to ?Joshua 7:10

God told Joshua to get up off the ground. He asked him why he was lying in that way on his face before the Ark (Joshua 7:6). The time was not a time for prayer; it was a time for action. The sin had to be purged from the midst of the people. Although Joshua did not know it, the sin of Achan was the cause of Israel's defeat. When God revealed this to him, He gave him instructions about how to proceed in getting rid of this sin from the midst of the people. When this sin was removed, Israel would be strong again.

9.

What was Israel's sin? Joshua 7:11

The whole nation was cursed because one man had sinned. For that reason God said the nation had sinned. The specific sin was Achan's taking the material which had been placed under the ban. Things which had been devoted to God to be put into the treasury of the house of the Lord had been taken by one of the men of Israel. They had stolen. Worse than this, they had stolen from God. Achan had practiced deception. The first three clauses describing this deedtheir sinning, their transgressing, and their taking of the cursed thingdepict the sin which had been committed against God. The latter three statementsthey had stolen, they had dissembled, and they had put the spoil in their own stuffdescribed the sin they had committed in the eyes of society. It was indeed a grievous crime.

10.

What was the result of their sin? Joshua 7:12

Because they had sinned so grievously, Israel was not able to withstand the attacks of their enemies. They turned their backs before the men of Ai. All of this occurred because God had forsaken them. A spirit of defeat and terror had evidently come upon them as they fled from before the Canaanites. What had given promise of being an easy victory was turned into an utter rout for the people of Israel, Such a surprising turn of events makes it clear that a nation needs more than munitions in order to win a victory. They must have the knowledge that they are waging a Bellum Justum, and they must have the will to win. Even a small number of people with this conviction and will on the field of battle can bring total victory out of a situation which would otherwise be total defeat, When God forsakes a people, they are forsaken indeed. God had forsaken Israel on account of their sin. For this reason they were chased by the men of Ai.

11.

How were the people to sanctify themselves? Joshua 7:13

As the people of Israel stood before Mount Sinai, they were told to sanctify themselves, At that time Moses told them to wash their clothes and to interrupt their normal way of life (Exodus 19:10-15). As Joshua prepared the people for crossing the Jordan, he commanded them to sanctify themselves. On that occasion they were told to prepare victuals for the journey (Joshua 1:11). The sanctification after the defeat of Ai was something more than any of these former periods of sanctification. Israel had sinned, and it was necessary for the cursed thing to be taken from among them. The sinners had to be punished. All of this would be implied in the sanctification of the people.

12.

Into what groups were the people divided? Joshua 7:14

The tribes, families, households, and men formed the four classes into which the people were organized. As the tribes were divided into families, so these again were subdivided into houses, commonly called fathers-' houses, and the fathers-' houses again into men, i.e., fathers of families Each of these was represented by its natural head. We picture the affair as conducted in the following manner: in order to discover the tribe, the twelve princes came before the Lord; and in order to discover the family, the family heads had to be taken; and so on through the household until the individual was selected.