J7-7: When Prayer Is NOT The Answer To Your Problems

When Israel lost the battle at AI, Joshua was worried about two things.

The first concern was what would happen if the other remaining tribes of Canaan got word of the fact that Israel just got soundly trounced by a smaller army.

It would bolster their confidence and they would come after the Israelites to destroy them.

The second concern was that God’s reputation would be damaged.

It’s interesting to note that in the original Hebrew, the word SHEM is used for reputation.

SHEM literally means “name”, but in the ancient Middle East, one’s name was synonymous with one’s character or reputation.

The God of Israel had a reputation of power, invincibility and holiness.

And these attributes carried over to the people of Israel.

However, Joshua was worried that God’s great honor and influence would no longer be respected.

Needless to say, God was not pleased one little bit with how Joshua and the people were handling the situation.

He wasn’t impressed nor affected at all by all of the wailing and weeping go on in the dry sand before Him.

They had posed the wrong question to God at this time.

They had asked God, a perfect being, why hadn’t He given them the victory like He promised He would?

In other words, they were blaming God for what happened.

But instead, they should have pointed their blaming fingers towards themselves.

In response, God orders them to pick themselves up off the ground and STOP PRAYING.

He then makes it clear that that the problem does not lie with Him.

Israel wasn’t victorious because they had sinned.

And what was the sin committed?

The sin was that someone had taken some of the spoils of war that was under the ban or under HEREM.

Ripping off holy property that belongs to God isn’t like breaking some simple rule.

It’s a death-penalty offense and until the matter was resolved, Israel would not be able to move forward to fulfill God’s Will for their lives.

Folks, the takeaways here are huge.

How many times have we blamed God for all of the misfortune in our lives when we should have laid the blame squarely on ourselves?

Are things not going well in your life?

If so, before blindly getting down on your knees in prayer and begging and asking God for help, maybe you need to do some serious soul-searching and ask yourself how have you been living your life in light of God’s commandments and His Word?

What really blows me away is that God commanded Israel here to STOP praying.

This is so contrary to the advice most pastors and preachers give which is to always unceasingly pray about this and pray about that.

Joshua Chapter 7 says the contrary.

Sometimes you gotta stop praying and first find out where there is sin in your life and take care of that sin first.

Because if you don’t, even your prayers will fall on deaf ears.