Joshua 7:6 And Joshua rent 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.
This account raises very grave questions with global implications for when the narrative is scrutinized, or analyzed, it raises the grim prospect that failure in a war may not be because of equipment or strategy, it might be attributable to an accursed thing or person in the camp. We are just observing the principles in question. Is it possible that one person could do wrong and others suffer as a result, even if they were not aware of the wrong, or did not participate in it.
Is it possible that a nation could actually fail in battle because of some accursed thing, or because some person in question is accursed? Joshua needed to find out the truth in the matter urgently, because, if they have just come off a fresh victory in Jericho, and an army that is much inferior to them is giving them so much trouble, then, as far as Joshua is concerned, he has to get to the bottom of this, to find out what is going on.
Could it be their equipment? It couldn’t be because under God’s leadership in Jericho, their equipment was more than adequate and superior. Could it be their numbers? It could not be because God knows how to win with few or many, as He once did with only three hundred men in Gideon’s day. So, what exactly is the problem? This haunting and complex question would find no answer until, in his desperation and frustration, Joshua asks of God, the all-important question, what’s going on.
Joshua 7:7 And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore have thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
May The Lord add His blessing to the study of His word. God bless!