v 7 If only we had been content to stay on the other side!
The Israelites had miraculously crossed the Jordan, and captured Jericho without a real battle. But now things had gone wrong; the little town of Ai had defied them and they had run away. Joshua had no idea why – so his first line of thought was to look back to the past with rose-tinted glasses and declare that the past was better. No real thought that God had led them that far for a purpose, enabled them to overcome serious opposition, and had promised them a new country to inhabit. Oh NO – we should have stayed ‘over there’ and been content. That was misplaced contentment that failed to take into account the purposes of God. The fact was that a few Israelites had disobeyed God and looted some of the ‘stuff’ in Jericho. It was discontent and greed that caused the problem in the first place. Joshua still had to learn that lesson, and it was a tough one too.
Some discontent arises from disobedience to God’s purposes. Now that might be a hard thing to suggest, but when we feel a lack of contentment just maybe we have to ask ourselves ‘Have I missed something of God’s purposes for me?’ The whole process of self-examination is one of the hardest things to do in our Christian lives. It needs integrity and an inner honesty to look critically at ourselves. Not that we have to indulge in permanent navel-gazing, but from time to time it is good to examine our motives and actions in the light of faith and our walk with God. This is especially true when life seems to get out of balance and we wonder why God is allowing things to happen that we don’t understand. God fulfils His purposes in mysterious ways, but from time to time we might need to look carefully at the way we are living.
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