The Well
The Well |
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Connecting Hope to the Hurting | |
Thursday
March 27, 2008
Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the city of Ai, east of
Bethel, near Beth-aven. When they returned, they told Joshua, "It's a small
town, and it won't take more than two or three thousand of us to destroy it.
There's no need for all of us to go there."
So approximately three thousand
warriors were sent, but they were soundly defeated. The men of Ai chased the
Israelites from the city gate as far as the quarries, and they killed about
thirty-six who were retreating down the slope. The Israelites were paralyzed
with fear at this turn of events, and their courage melted away.
Joshua
7:2-5
Amazing what one section of scripture can say and how little we know about it until we know the rest of the story. If we simply looked at this we could possibly think that the Lord had led His people to defeat. We would be wrong.
Let's go back to a verse I left out, verse 1. "But Israel was unfaithful concerning the things set apart for the Lord. A man named Achan had stolen some of these things, so the Lord was very angry with the Israelites. Achan was the son of Carmi, of the family of Zimri, of the clan of Zerah, and of the tribe of Judah." Okay, we see clearly that one person did something wrong. Why then did the Lord say that "Israel" was unfaithful if only one person did something wrong? Maybe He wanted to teach us early on that we are one in Him!
Let us very quickly recognize that these people had never seen riches before. Their parents were slaves in Egypt and they have been raised wandering around in the desert. So, this man, Achan, just fell into sin when he saw the wonderful things ripe for the picking.
However, there is another key element in this defeat that we may have overlooked. Joshua did not seek God's will in this battle. He simply listened to the people's opinion and gave his orders based on their opinion. Maybe Joshua had become overconfident because every move they had made recently had gone well. He just assumed that God would guide their steps.
Years ago I saw a sign that left an impression on me: "Seven days without prayer makes one weak." True. Recently I saw the same sign on the marquee of a church, but they had it wrong. They had it worded, "Seven days without prayer makes one week." Well, seven days is seven days with or without prayer, but without prayer it will be a weak week.
We must never forget that God wants to be intricately involved in our daily lives. He wants to guide us, but He cannot give us instructions if we do not take the time to stop, look, and listen. Joshua and his people did stop, they did look, but they did not listen for God's instructions. They simply went out on their own. Let us be very careful to learn from their mistakes, I think they did.
Father, I recognize that many times I, like Joshua, have assessed a situation and leaned on my own understanding instead of seeking Your guidance. As a result, I ended up on the brink of despair. Thank You for reminding me that I need to seek You at all times and not take anything or do anything that You haven't led me to.
