“Why have you, God?”

Ai.

“What is that compared to Jericho?”

“This will be easy.”

The spies went to spy on Ai and came to the following conclusion:

“Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.” – Joshua 7.3

However, their conclusion about the land was not based on correct information. Donald Campbell describes Ai this way:

“When the spies returned, they spoke with great confidence. They said that Ai could easily be conquered with only two or three thousand men. The city had only a few men, they said. But the spies were wrong. Actually, Ai had 12,000 men and women, or about 6,000 men (8:25). Later, when God gave the orders to Joshua, He told him, ‘Take the whole army’ (8:1). Though smaller than Jericho, Ai was well fortified and her soldiers well entrenched.”

The key to all this is that at no point in Joshua 7 do we see that the people of Israel sought the Lord about what they were supposed to do. They had just come off of a huge military win against Jericho. Ai would be a “walk in the park” compared to the laps they had just walked to see Jericho “miraculously” destroyed.

Oh, how dangerous it is and easy it becomes to forget to seek the Lord after seasons of victory and plenty.

But there was also another problem: there was sin in the camp. Achan had coveted and taken (stolen) items that God specifically told Joshua to devote to destruction. For Achan, it wasn’t that much. For God, it was sin.

“Israel has sinned: they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies.” – Joshua 7.11-12

Joshua had no idea that Achan had done this evil thing. And yet, he jumped to a conclusion that revealed so much of myself in his reaction. Joshua went before the Lord with dust on his head until evening, with the elders of Israel, and said to God, “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?” (Joshua 7.7). And then Joshua “wrote the ending” to the story of Israel based on that same limited information (Joshua 7.9).

Joshua was guilty of jumping to a conclusion about God based on incorrect and limited information. Joshua’s limited and incorrect understanding of the situation led him to question God’s plan, providence, and power. And Joshua’s question reveals that same attitude in me before God at times. “Why have you” shows the following attitudes:

1. Superiority. It is so easy to address God from a place of superiority, expecting him to give a detailed explanation of what and why he does and doesn’t do certain things. Remember: God is Sovereign. We are not.
2. Entitlement. It is so easy to think that we deserve more than we already have or to question the character of God because things don’t turn out the way we expected, or even demanded, from God.
3. Pride. When difficult things happen, or we experience loss and defeat, we are prone to think that the problem must be the Lord instead of being us or all of broken and sinful humanity.
4. Lack of trust. When I say, “Why have you” to God, without humility and submission to his will, I convey that I don’t believe in God’s plans, providence, or power.

The truth was that Joshua and Israel had failed to seek the Lord in what God wanted them to do. Because of that, they relied upon their own limited perspective of the situation. On top of that, there was sin in the camp that was offensive to the Lord. If they had first sought the Lord, then the Lord could have revealed the true nature of the town of Ai and revealed Achan’s sin. God was not to blame, but they were. God is not to blame, but we are.

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O Lord, please forgive my arrogance and pride. Please forgive my “why have you” seasons. Please reveal any sin in me that is not confessed. And please show me what I’m missing because of my limited perspective as I approach things coming up. Please teach me to seek you in everything with my whole heart. Please remind me over and over of my utter need for you. Thank you for your loving discipline of me when I’m out of line. Thank you for your patience with me and your faithfulness to me.

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“Though my needs may drive me to prayer, there I come face-to-face with my greatest need: an encounter with God’s own self.” – Philip Yancey, “Prayer”