So the Lord said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face?” Joshua 7:10
In Joshua 7, the Israelites suffer defeat in battle against the small people of Ai. After the defeat, Joshua, the brave leader of Israel, prays the most pitiful prayer ever. It’s so bad that God says to him, “Get up off your face!”
Joshua’s prayer was full of doubt and fear. God had promised him victory and here Joshua was saying, “Why did you even bring us here?? We are doomed! What are you gonna do God?? Did you make a mistake telling us to come here?”
Surely it was a let down that they lost a battle, and surely something was not right, but Joshua approached the Lord the wrong way. Joshua’s assumption was that God had messed up. When everything didn’t go the way it was supposed to, Joshua automaticly blamed God instead of searching out other possibilities of what went wrong. It’s kind of like running out of gas in your car and when your car stops you get out and kick it and say, “What is wrong with the stupid car!” And then you call the dealership and say, “You sold me a bum car!” This is exactly was Joshua did.
MANY Christians do the exact same thing. Things don’t work out for them like the bible says they should and so they just assume that God must have failed them. They never think that they could be the reason something is not working out right.
In the case of Joshua, the reason they lost the battle was because Israel had sinned. Once the sin was taken care of, they went back and won a great victory. So what Joshua should have prayed was something like this: “God, I know you promised us the victory. Something has gone wrong and I know it’s not you, because your Word cannot fail. Please, Lord, show us what we need to do.” Then the Lord would have answered him in the same manner, but He wouldn’t have been so insulted.
So don’t assume God is the problem, because He is never the problem, He is always the solution. Ask God what He wants you to do. Then wait patiently for Him. He will answer you.
Hal Chaffee 