Re:Verse passage – Joshua 7:6-12, 20-21 (day three)
“Why is it that you have fallen on your face?”
God seemed to view Joshua’s posture of humility as a substitute for necessary critical thinking about important matters of moral responsibility. Joshua’s genuflection was a waste of Joshua’s energy and time when, instead, some attention and reflection on Joshua’s part would have made plain to him that he had failed to convey to his soldiers that violations of the ban were placing the nation in danger of spiritual and societal corruption. If total adherence was only a small thing in Joshua’s mind, his thinking would influence the troops to consider their excursions as a free-for-all, devoid of the sober-minded focus on righteous action. This perspective would eventually contaminate all Israel. God said, in effect, “Go do what you know you needed to do in the first place.” Unaddressed sin doesn’t fade away.
