Why are you laying there?

So the LORD said to Joshua: "Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? – Joshua 7v10

Poor Joshua was in a state. After the great victory at Jericho the nation suffered a smashing defeat at Ai. The men had rushed in with just a small contingent and were caught in ambush resulting in the deaths of thirty-six men.

Ai was not supposed to be the hard battle. It was only a small city compared to Jericho. The battle at Jericho was so east surely Ai could not be hard. The surveillance team reported that there were only a few people there so a couple of thousand men would be plenty!

When the defeated army came back the people we all upset. Their hearts melted and ‘became like water.’

Joshua, their new leader, took it to God and laid the blame at his feet. To parrowphrase his ‘prayer’ he said, ‘Why are you doing this God, don’t you know you are going to embarrass yourself and us?’

Imagine that kind of attitude. Can you imagine any child of God blaming Him for the way things are going?

Don’t worry, God sorted him quickly. Please pardon another parrowphrase – ‘What are you doing there crying? Get up and sort this out!’ God went on to tell Joshua that the reason they lost at Ai was because someone had sinned and stolen forbidden goods. Joshua had to get up and sort things out.

It is far too easy for us to blame God for the mess we get ourselves into. Our troubles are not always as a result of us messing up, but it does happen and when it does the only solution is to quit crying about it and get things sorted!