Yehoshua 7: Overconfidence

After six chapters of triumphs, things unravel quickly in chapter seven. There are important factors missing in the first attack on Ai as opposed to the attack on Jericho. God was not part of the planning process. Joshua consults with his army and not God. The people decided to go into Ai with a smaller force. That displays a level of hubris after one victory. Joshua also did not follow through with the plans from the previous chapter of making sure all the spoils were left to God. Yes, the spoils were taken secretly, but this major part of the Jericho conquest seems to have been ignored. After the army’s defeat, Joshua reenacts Moshe’s encounter with God after the sin of the Golden Calf. Joshua falls on his face and confronts God with the notion that other nations will mock God for bringing the people to the land only to be killed right away. The problem is that Moshe was pleading with God not to destroy the people after the Golden Calf. Here, Joshua is complaining to God after one lost battle. In this context his complaining actually sounds more like the people before the crossing of the Yam Suf. “Why did You lead this people across the Jordan only to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to be destroyed by them? If only we had been content to remain on the other side of the Jordan!” (verse 7).וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֲהָהּ אֲדֹנָי ה׳ לָמָה הֶעֱבַרְתָּ הָעָם הַזֶּה אֶת־הַיַּרְדֵּן לָתֵת אוֹתָנוּ בְּיַד הָאֱמֹרִי לְהַאֲבִידֵנוּ וְלוּ הוֹאַלְנוּ וַנֵּשֶׁב בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן (Joshua 7:7) And: “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, taking us out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11).הֲמִבְּלִי אֵין־קְבָרִים בְּמִצְרַיִם לְקַחְתָּנוּ לָמוּת בַּמִּדְבָּר מַה־זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לָּנוּ לְהוֹצִיאָנוּ מִמִּצְרָיִם(Exodus 14:11) God’s response to Joshua is the same as to Moshe before the crossing of the sea. “But the LORD answered Joshua: ‘Arise! Why do you lie prostrate?’” (verse 10).וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֶל־יְהוֹשֻׁעַ קֻם־לָךְ לָמָּה זֶּה אַתָּה נֹפֵל עַל־פָּנֶיךָ(Joshua 7:10) And: “Then God said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.’” (Exodus 14:15). וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה מַה־תִּצְעַק אֵלָי דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִסָּעוּ (Exodus 14:15) God sees what Joshua is doing. It is a wonky attempt at using the Moshe card. But God’s response is also telling. Like the evergreen leader in Exodus, God has to remind Joshua that not every difficult event requires prostrating to God. The answer is simple—the people have sinned! As a leader, especially one who clerked under Moshe, Joshua should have known something was amiss. Instead, he overreacted like someone whose football team starts the season 1–1. It is extraordinary that the text includes this hiccup by Joshua. However, the book is very much about Joshua’s personal growth as a leader as it is about the people’s conquest of the land. To leave out a misstep would be an injustice to Joshua.