“Prayer For The Accursed Thing” Josh. 7:6

“And Joshua rent/tore 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.” Josh. 7:6

Where did he learn to pray like this? From his mentor Moses! So, they destroyed the great citadel of Jericho, except for the harlot Rahab and her household who helped the Jewish spies. She becomes Boaz’s mother, that’s why he marries Ruth a Moabite, because Salmon one of the spies was his father and he married Rahab, but I’m getting off track here. Then they get whooped at Ai and 36 of their men are killed out of 3,000, that’s when Joshua falls on his face and tears his garment. For one thing Joshua went to Ai without consulting God, he felt pretty frisky after Jericho, like every city was just going to fall down before him with a trumpet blast. Secondly they took Achan along whose name means ‘Trouble or Troublesome.’ So, they moved on Ai based on human wisdom, if he would have fallen on his face before the ‘Ark’ in verse one, maybe 36 men would not have lost their lives. Later we will see God’s plan for the ‘Battle of Ai’ in chapter eight and it is very different with a very different outcome.

So, Joshua and the elders are praying with their faces in the dirt, seeking God’s wisdom, God’s direction, God’s help and God’s advice, after the horse is out of the barn. Joshua almost seems to blame God for this defeat, listen to his words in v. 7, “Alas (ahhh; to mourn or grieve) O Lord GOD (Adonay YeHoVaH) wherefore hast Thou at all brought (abar; pass over, cross over, march over) the Jordan, to deliver (nathan; to give) us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan.” (Blah, Blah, Blah…) The blame game, it’s all Your fault God, my spouse has cancer, my child died, my business failed, my dog ran away, why God did you let this happen? Sound familiar? We need to be careful when things are not going as we think they should be going, it may be us and not God that has a problem, Amen? That was a little weak, are you paying attention?

O Lord (Adonay) what shall I say when my family, neighbors, friends and my church turn their backs on us before the enemy? For they will hear of it on Face-Book, Twitter, the Internet and cyber-bully us and cut-off our good name and defame us and You too. What are You going to do about Your great name, O God? Sounds like Joshua and maybe you and I have a tendency to lose it when we are losing it and blame God. But you say, “That never happens to me!” I’ll give the Holy Spirit a minute to prick your sanctified conscience and remind you of when it did happen…… Now are you with me? Good!

I love God’s response in v. 10, “And the LORD (YeHoVaH) said unto Joshua, Get Up! (kum; stand up, rise up) wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face.” There is a time to pray and there is a time to act, why? There is sin in the camp! Someone has taken the accursed thing, (kha-rem; a devoted, dedicated thing of God’s) they stole it and dissembled it (ka-khash; deceived, lied, denied) and put it, (sum; placed, buried, planted) it among their own stuff (kel-iy; vessels, utensils, implements). You say, “Well that could never happen to me or us, or the church today, because that is Old Testament. Really, then get a sharp knife and cut the Old Testament off of your Bible and throw it away or burn it, because none of it pertains to you. Or turn to Malachi chapter three and start reading, especially verse six, where it says that God is ‘Immutable’ He never changes, good thing He doesn’t. Then read vv. 7-11 regarding His ‘Tithes’ and ‘Tithing’ was a principle set up long before the ‘Fiery Law’ was given to Moses in Deut. 33:2, referring to the pillar of fire). Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek in Gen. 14:20, and Jacob promised God he would give Him a tenth/tithe of all He gave him. Who did Jacob learn tithing from, from his father Isaac, who learned it from his father Abraham, who learned it from Noah or Shem who were still living during Abraham’s life. In fact Shem outlived Abraham by five years according to the Biblical records.

However this is not about tithing, it is about prayer and this point is about robbing God of His dedicated thing. I believe the tithe of all the land, Lev. 27:30 belongs to the LORD, the apples, peaches, grapes, etc not just your pay check and He will get it with or without your permission because it belongs to Him, just like the Babylonian garment and wedge of gold in Joshua 7, it is a dedicated thing, (kha-rem). Now whether or not you get a blessing for surrendering His tithe to Him, well that is entirely up to you and whether you give it willingly or He takes it, don’t wait for Him to send the devourer.

Now as far as Joshua is concerned, God told him to “Get Up!” And they found the one who took the ‘dedicated thing’ which was some silver, gold, and a garment, and Achan, his family, livestock, belongings, tent, and children were stoned and then cremated in the ‘The Valley of Achor’ (trouble) but not before Achan made a prayer of confession to God and acknowledged his sin of stealing from God. Notice in Joshua 7:11-18, Achan did not come forward on his own but had to be found by elimination probably by the ‘Urim and Thummim‘ (lights and perfection – stones in the high priests pouch to reveal God’s will). Maybe if Achan came forward on his own and willingly confessed his sin, things may have been different, in v. 20 after he is caught, his prayer is one of ‘Admission’ not one of ‘Acknowledgement.’  He is caught with his hand in the cookie jar, or doing 90 mph in a 45 mph zone, and he says, “You caught me, I’m sorry.” He has to be asked to give glory to God and make confession of his sin, there was no contrition on his part, no acknowledgment.  Webster says, ‘To admit is to concede, to grant the other persons argument, your right, I was wrong, to be in general agreement or consensus.’  I would say, because Joshua had to ask him to pray, he was not broken by his sin or the 36 people his sin caused to die.  To acknowledge is to know something is true, to recognize and answer the claim.  Admission describes assent that has been elicited by persuasion and implies a conceding of the fact, just a simple declaration.  Joshua had to wring it out of him like juice out of a lemon.

However, the sin of Achan does teach us a great truth about the “oneness of the People of God.”  In v. 11, God declares of Achan’s sin, “Israel  has sinned.”  So, He held the whole nation responsible for one man’s sin, corporal punishment.  I experienced this in the Marine Corps.  If one Marine messed up, we all paid for it.  This is seen in 1 Cor. 5:1-7; 12:12-14, 26.  The whole purpose and plan of Christ is hurt by the sin, neglect, theft or unspirituality of just one believer, and the bigger the tree the greater the damage and the louder the noise when it falls in the forest.  I don’t even want to get into ‘Biblical Cremation’ but the only time you find them burning bodies or people is when it is not for good reasons.  So, Till next time when we see the ‘Battle of Ai God’s way’ we’ll see you, “…Between The Lines…”

“Prayer For The Accursed Thing” Josh. 7:6 5/14/18