And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of Jehovah until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and threw dust upon their heads.
Israel has just lost a battle at the small town of Ai — a shock after the victory at Jericho. Joshua tears his clothes and goes down in the dust. Commentators read that day closely: the place he went was right, but not everything he said there was.
The first thing to note is where Joshua went with the disaster. He did not call a council of war; he went straight to God's presence and stayed there.
What did Joshua do? He did the right thing. He went to the LORD about it. He cast himself down before the ark until evening. There with the elders of Israel, he put dust on his head, and lamented before the Lord. I use that word deliberately, because it is often said that Joshua confessed before the Lord. I do not think he did confess. He did not, like Daniel, say, "We have sinned."
Commentators differ. A writer quoted below calls the same scene confession.
The words "before the ark of the LORD" carry weight. Joshua had gone into battle at Ai without seeking counsel there.
Joshua, as the leader and commander of the people, failed to take counsel. He did not ask by the ark, or through Eleazar, at whose word they were to go out and come in, both he and all the congregation. Under this double failure of Achan and Ai, Joshua tore his clothes and fell on his face — and note where: before the ark of the LORD.
Joshua was not the only one in the dust. The elders went down with him.
That memorable day began in the pride of self-confidence. But it ends with torn clothes in the dust before God. That is a merciful provision of grace, for if it did not end there, where else could it end? There restoration begins, and there only. He and all the elders of Israel put dust on their heads; the whole company confessed and humbled itself. The same is true now. Restoration can only come after confession, whether for the individual believer or the assembly.
God's later reply — "why have you fallen on your face?" — is aimed at one small word. It is not lying down that God objects to, but lying down like that.
How had Joshua been lying on his face? "Thus" — despairing, and in effect laying the cause of Israel's defeat on God. To lie on the face before God is the only true attitude a believer can take in a time of shame and dishonour. To take up any other is only to add the sin of pride to the thing that caused the defeat. True humiliation before God is our only "door of hope" for blessing in a day of distress. But to lie "thus" — not judging ourselves, but blaming God — is not humility.
Why did God let Israel lose? One writer points not to a lack of power in God, but to His holiness.
Joshua did not see, did not understand, that it was the very glory of that "great name" which made the defeat at Ai necessary, just as it had won the victory at Jericho. But there were other elements in that glory besides power. There was holiness too. That holiness made it impossible for Him to give the approval of His presence where evil went unjudged... Israel must judge the evil, or the LORD must judge Israel.
Because the trouble was a hidden sin, prayer alone could not fix it. Someone had to go and find it.
When there is known evil in our hearts or in the assembly, our first responsibility is to judge it, not to pray for forgiveness... And yet Satan often deceives the Lord's people when evil comes to light. He suggests through one person or another, "Let us pray about it." We must confess our sins, but even then only as we seek grace and strength to deal with the evil and to separate ourselves from it.
Another writer sets the two moments side by side.
There is a time for lying on the face, and there is a time for standing on our feet; a time for devout prostration, and a time for decided action. The instructed soul will know the time for each.
- Fall. Defeat drove Joshua to the ground before God. That was the right instinct, and the only place where restoration begins.
- Ark. He fell before the ark he had not consulted before attacking Ai. He had skipped God's guidance, and now he grieved at that very place.
- Dust. The elders shared the torn clothes and the dust. The leaders owned the shame together, instead of loading it onto one man.
- Words. The posture was right, but the words were wrong. He blamed God instead of judging himself, and blaming God is not humility.
- Rise. God's holiness, not His weakness, caused the defeat. So the answer was to stand up and remove the evil. There is a time to lie down, and a time to act.
And Joshua said, Alas, Lord Jehovah, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh that we had been content and had remained beyond the Jordan!
After Jericho fell, one Israelite secretly kept goods God had banned, and the men of Ai then routed the small force Joshua sent against them. Joshua lay on his face before the ark until evening, then prayed the words of this verse — blaming God for the defeat and wishing the crossing of the Jordan undone.
Joshua went to God at once. What he told Him was another matter:
Though Joshua took the right attitude, he said the wrong thing. He put the blame for the defeat on the Lord! He said, "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?" What language! The Lord had done nothing of the sort. He did not bring the people over the Jordan to destroy them. Destroying the descendants of Abraham was not His work. Neither was it His will that Ai should triumph over His redeemed people.
The same writer turns this on the reader. What Joshua said aloud, we often keep hidden:
Do we not sometimes go astray in a similar way? In daily life, trials and sorrows and impossible obstacles come again and again. At such times the heart may whisper, like Joshua, Why has the Lord done this? Why does He allow this? ... Secretly, in the heart, even in the place of worship, our deepest thought may be this: God is a hard Master, and He is not doing His best for us.
Israel attacked Ai without asking God first. One commentator links the complaint in this verse to that failure:
What are we without God? It is healthy that we should feel it. Our only boast is in what He is, not only to us, but with us. They had not God with them; they were utter weakness... They had failed in not seeking direction from God. "Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!" There was complaining, and perhaps a reproach, aimed at the One they thought had failed them.
The second half of the verse looks backwards. Crossing the Jordan was God's own doing, and it is the one thing Joshua now regrets:
Joshua's godly soul recognises the worth of the ark, but he does not know what to do. Ignoring the accursed thing, he pours out regrets — not regrets about what he has done, not about what the people have done, but, sadly, about what God had done when He brought them over the Jordan! "Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!" he said. How plainly these words show what the human heart is! This blessed place is the only one Joshua would gladly have avoided.
Joshua assumed God had turned against Israel. The reverse was true:
Joshua did not see, did not understand, that it was the very glory of God's own "great name" which made the defeat at Ai necessary. That same glory had won the victory at Jericho. But there were other elements in that glory besides power. There was holiness. That holiness made it impossible for Him to lend the approval of His presence where there was unjudged evil. Joshua should have concluded that there was something wrong in the condition of the people. He ought to have known that the hindrance was with Israel, and not with the Lord.
Joshua's prayer ends better than it begins. Its last question is about God's own name:
We can always plead with Him on the ground of His own name; and whenever we do, our plea is irresistible. It was so with Joshua. After the sin of Achan, the men of Ai struck the Israelites down. Joshua tore his clothes, fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord, and pleaded with God. The whole weight of his cry came out at last in one question: "And what will you do for your great name?" Rising to that height, the answer came at once.
God's reply does not let Joshua stay on the ground. Grief alone was not enough:
Joshua is exactly in the position he ought not to be in. The Lord said to him, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?" Humbling himself over his lack of power was not the only thing to be done: it was time to act... Joshua had to act; the accursed thing had to be put away from among them.
- Defeat. Israel lost at Ai because they moved without asking God, not because God failed them.
- Diagnosis. Joshua blamed God. But the hindrance was with Israel: God's holiness would not back them while evil went unjudged.
- Regret. He wishes he had stayed beyond the Jordan. That wish would undo what God had done: the blessed place is the one he would have avoided.
- Plea. The prayer only lands when it reaches God's great name, and on that ground the answer came at once.
- Action. Lying on his face was not enough; God told him to get up and remove the evil from the camp.
Ah Lord! what shall I say after Israel have turned their backs before their enemies?
Joshua's army has just fled from the small town of Ai, and the leader who watched Jericho fall is now face down in the dust. His cry raises the hardest question after any defeat: who is to blame?
Joshua's instinct was sound. He took the trouble straight to God. But what he said there was another matter.
He did the right thing. He went to the Lord about it. He cast himself down before the ark until evening. There with the elders of Israel, he put dust on his head, and lamented before the Lord. I use that word deliberately, because it is often said that Joshua confessed before the Lord. I do not think he did confess. He did not, like Daniel, say, "We have sinned."
The difference matters. Joshua was the leader in charge, yet he sent the blame elsewhere.
How do we put the case? Do we pray as if the Lord had done it? Or do we take the blame to ourselves? Joshua did not take a particle of blame to himself for Ai. Yet he was the responsible chief in Israel. He made the mistake of blaming God for what had taken place. He was at first far from viewing the defeat as God viewed it, and had to learn the truth.
This was Joshua's first setback after an unbroken run of success. That is why it hit him so hard.
Joshua was little prepared for any setback. Blessing and success had followed him like a rising tide, and now he is in agony. He must learn for the first time how much man may fail in scenes of the fullest blessing. The more blessing and truth a heart knows and enjoys, the greater the dismay that defeat brings, when that heart is true to the glory of God.
Joshua did not know the cause of the defeat. He already had enough light to work it out.
Knowing God, he should have concluded that God would not let defeat overtake His people unless there had been some grievous departure from Him. He should have searched for the hidden evil, instead of reproaching the Lord. Prayer will never make up for neglected action; it leads to action.
Listen to the order of his words: what comes first in his mind, and what comes last. One writer sets Joshua beside Moses, and the contrast is not flattering.
The tone of his prayer shows weakness. First it is Israel, the name of Israel, that fills his thoughts. Then it is the Canaanites, the world: they will hear of it and cut off Israel's name from the earth. Only at the very end does he ask, "And what will You do for Your great name?" Moses had no need, like Joshua, to recover lost communion. He could pray for the people, and God heard him.
Even so, the prayer ends in the right place. That is where God breaks in with an answer.
Real sorrow and shame of heart before God were at work in him; I do not deny that. But patience had not yet had its perfect work in his soul. Then he says, "And what will You do for Your great name?" There at least he was right, and there God answers — "The LORD said to Joshua, 'Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things.'"
Joshua assumed that Israel losing made God look small. The answer turns that around: God's name was the reason for the loss, not its victim.
Their defeat and slaughter came because of His great name. To all appearances the defeat of God's people denied the greatness of their God's name. But God sets His glory above appearances. His name is greater than His people's successes. His character is bound up in His name. His army, His Israel, had sinned. To the spiritual understanding one truth is clear: the honour of the great name of the Lord demands purity and humility in His people, cost what it may.
So why did God not simply hand them the win?
God's glory includes holiness, and that holiness made it impossible for Him to give the backing of His presence where evil went unjudged. Israel must judge the evil, or the Lord must judge Israel. To have given them a victory at Ai would have been a reproach and a dishonour to the One whose name they bore.
- Right place. Joshua took the disaster straight to God. That instinct was right; his words were not.
- Wrong verdict. He blamed God and took no blame himself, though he was the leader. He lamented, but he never said, "We have sinned."
- Wrong order. Israel's name came first in his prayer, the Canaanites second, God's great name last.
- Right ending. The moment he touched God's name, God answered — and the answer was "Israel has sinned," not "I have failed you."
- Right reason. That great name demanded the defeat. God's holiness will not back an army with unjudged evil in it.
When the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear [of it], they will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.