Joshua 7:10-15 And the LORD said to Joshua, Get you up; why lie you thus on your face?… I. SUCCESS IN WAR IS A BLESSING WHICH IS GIVEN BY GOD. By this I mean that it does not depend only on the armaments which are fitted out, or the perfection of our war machinery, or the number of our troops, or the sagacity of our leaders, or the power of our enemy, whether we shall be successful in the end. It is clearly told us in Scripture — so clearly that there is no excuse for the man who disbelieves it — that God keeps the ultimate results of war entirely in His own hand. Perhaps there is no other department of human affairs in which Jehovah has so frequently in Scripture asserted His prerogative as that of war. "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." And once more we find that Jehovah retains for Himself the name of Commander over all the armies of the earth. II. SO LONG AS WE CHERISH SIN, WE CANNOT EXPECT GOD TO GRANT US SUCCESS IN WAR. I do not mean to say that success is always given to the holiest — that victory is the guarantee of rectitude and defeat the sign of sin; for God ofttimes tries His people by afflictions, and permits the wicked for a time to prosper. We are not sufficient judges of these things. But the only ground on which we can well expect the blessing of success from God is, surely, that of walking uprightly before Him; and when we cherish sin wilfully and consciously within our breasts, neither this nor any other blessing can we expect Jehovah to bestow upon us. It was the sin of one man in the camp. It is the same with us. For public and national sins we are indeed called to mourn this day. They form a long black roll. They are too many for enumeration. But we have also our private, our individual sins to mourn. They are concerned in our disasters. There has been a vainglorious boasting — a self-sufficient confidence in the prowess of our soldiers, and the irresistible force of our arms, as if we could not fail. We thought we were presenting to the world an unequalled spectacle. We have not been relying, as a nation, upon the help and sufficiency of Jehovah. Until we come to a more fitting state of heart — till our self-confidence be less — till our recognition of Jehovah be more — till we feel that we are less than nothing and vanity — till we feel that all our sufficiency is of God — we can by no means look that the Omnipotent should scatter our foes before us and humble them in the dust. (J. E. Cumming, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?WEB: Yahweh said to Joshua, "Get up! Why are you fallen on your face like that? |
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