024. Prayer Of Joshua.

Prayer Of Joshua. The Prayer as recorded.—Joshua 7:6-9. The Answer.—Joshua 7:10-15.

Joshua was anointed with the unction of the Divine spirit, and, like Moses, sought for strength and guidance from God, to fit him for the right discharge of the duties of the high station to which he had been called. The Lord, in infinite justice, had sent defeat to the hitherto successful arms of Israel, and as a punishment for the covetousness of Achan, had caused them to flee before the men of Ai; their loss was comparatively small, yet as a military man Joshua felt the effects of the defeat deeply; he also knew it was a rebuke from God; the people felt it also, and, in the expressive language of Scripture, “The hearts of the people melted and became as water.” Joshua with bowed head inquired of the Lord, while he expressed sorrow and humiliation for the present condition of his charge. Dejected, he lay before the ark in prayer, till evening, when he was informed that Israel could not prosper while “the accursed thing remained among them, and is told the way and means of its discovery.

Achan acknowledges his sin—he had for the goodly garment and the wedge of gold, brought trouble upon Israel, and exposed his own soul to danger. The conduct of Joshua on the discovery of Achan’s sin, as well as his prayer, is worthy of our serious notice; there is no bitter denunciation in his words, no harshness of manner, but sorrow for his sin: “Why hast thou troubled us?” he says, and leads him to acknowledge the justice of God, in punishing those who sinned against Israel. When he approaches him it is tenderly, and the words “My son, tell me what thou hast done,” maybe, should be borne in the heart and on the lips of all Christian ministers at the present day; human nature is perverse and resistant; the bitter denunciation will never lead a man to confess his sins, even if they are clear to his eye and lie heavy on his soul. One of our old poets has said, “When man ceases to justify himself, then it is the last extremity of evil.”

Conceit is the last passion that dies out in the soul when God’s love enters it; its death too is gradual— so gradual, that often in the heart of the believer, we see it welling up and troubling the clear waters of truth. Go, then, Christian teacher, tenderly to the sinner; remember the pit from which thou hast been taken; go gently to warn, to admonish, to caution; teach that God is a Father, a Friend; implant this feeling, and the heart will learn to fear as well as love him.