Year 4, Day 192: Joshua 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Power

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

Although this chapter is predominantly known for Achan and his sinfulness, I’m going to instead focus on Joshua in this post.  If you want to read more in depth on Achan, see the theological commentary linked to above.

Let’s compare the battle plan from Joshua 6 and Joshua 7.  In Joshua 6, the plan comes from the Lord.  We saw how the people paused and abided in the Lord before attacking.  They took the time necessary to make sure that they were doing the will of the King.  They took time to make sure they had the power and authority from God to conquer Jericho.

However, in the opening verses of Joshua 7 we don’t even hear about God and His involvement.  In fact, the first mention we have of God’s involvement is after things go tragically wrong, people are dead, and Joshua tears his clothing.  Because of the success at Jericho, Joshua becomes overconfident and the plan becomes His own plan.  He doesn’t pause and make sure that he is living out of the authority of God.  He doesn’t stop and make sure that his warriors are taking the battlefield under the power of God.

The soldiers are routed.  They are sent packing.  Only then does Joshua remember what he’s forgotten.  He forgot to check with the Lord and ensure that he is living out of His power and authority!

This is a really neat lesson.  We know that God’s overarching plan is that the Hebrew people should conquer Canaan and take it for their own.  But that doesn’t mean Joshua has carte blanche to do it as he sees fit.  God is willing to step back from endorsing the smaller steps of His plan while still seeing the big picture.  If we walk away from God and start living out of our own power and authority we should expect God to step back and give us the space to fail until we come back to Him.  After all, God has all the time in the world; He’s not on any particular agenda!  It is up to us to remember to walk in God’s power and authority.

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