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JOSHUA 7–9; PSALM 54

Week 11, Day 6

When life goes bad, a first inclination is to give in to despair, perhaps even to the point of thinking all is lost. That’s what Joshua did after the defeat at Ai. But it was no time for wailing. God said, “Stand up! . . . Israel has sinned” (7:10-11). It was a time to think and then to get at the root of their problems.

The remedy was a fierce one. Achan was destroyed, with his family, who were seen as party to his theft. And then on to an even fiercer chapter as Israel wiped out the city of Ai: “For Joshua did not draw back his hand . . . until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai” (8:26).

I will not ask that we agree with all that happens in this often bloody book, but only that we seek to put ourselves into the times and to understand something of the setting. The people Israel must be a holy people, altogether different from the nations around them; so purity is enforced vigorously. As for Jericho, Ai, and the others still to come, they were seen as part of a culture whose iniquity had come to the full and upon whom judgment must now fall—and Israel is the instrument of judgment.

On the other hand, see an act of integrity in the case of the Gibeonites. They deceived Israel; but because Israel had sworn a solemn oath, they kept it, even though they could easily have justified doing otherwise.

PRAYER: When I am inclined to despair, help me first to see where I may have erred, and help me to deal with my mistake; in Christ. Amen.

What insight about the communal nature of life do you gain from the Achan story? How is this different from our more independent way of approaching life?