TEXT: Joshua 7:6-13

SUBJECT: When Not to Pray

This is one of the Bible's most instructive prayers. It was offered against the dark background of military defeat. Under the blessing of God, the people of Israel had crossed the Jordan River on dry ground and sacked one of Canaan's most formidable cities. The armies proceeded eastward till they came to the outskirts of Ai, a small and unfenced city. Soldiers were mustered for the attack and hurled back at the cost of thirty-six lives. Word came to Joshua and the elders; they were horrified. They knew the defeat at Ai was more than a military setback; it implied the loss of God's favor on which the conquest depended.

Joshua and the elders resorted to prayer. They prayed humbly, tearing their clothes and falling prostrate before the Ark of the Covenant. There's no trace of hypocrisy; they were devout men, offering to God "broken and contrite hearts".

They prayed fervently. Joshua and his men were not mumbling their prayers as we so often do; they were dead-in-earnest: "Alas! LORD God!" In the words of Isaiah, they were "stirring themselves up to take hold of God". They were "searching for [Him] with all their hearts" as Jeremiah put it.

Their prayers were prolonged. They lay "before the Ark of the LORD until evening". They wouldn't quit asking till they received; they wouldn't quit seeking till they found; they wouldn't quit knocking till it was opened to them". They "prayed without ceasing".

The prayers were united. The burden was too heavy for one man; Joshua wouldn't bear it alone. The elders were called in for corporate prayer. "Where two of you agree touching any thing, it will be done for you" promised our Lord.

Their prayers were full of the glory of God. Sometimes "we ask and receive not because we ask amiss"--for selfish ends. But what were Joshua and the elders praying for? "What will You do for Your great name?" They were afraid that Israel might be denied its promised inheritance. If they were, the Holy Name of God would be profaned. The Gentiles would say "The LORD reneged on His Word". The gods of Canaan would triumph over the LORD God of Israel. This was unthinkable.

And so, their prayers were everything a prayer should be. They sprang from a deep sense of need and dependence; they were meek, earnest, and importunate; they sought the glory of the LORD above everything else.

Yet the prayers offered that day were displeasing to God! Why? Nothing wrong with the prayers. Nothing wrong with the men who offered them. The only thing wrong with the prayers was their timing.

The time to pray was past. It was now time to act. Israel didn't need more prayers; they needed action. It wasn't a lack of prayer that caused the defeat at Ai, but the lack of obedience. Achan had stolen a wedge of gold, a bag of silver, and a Babylonian coat from the cursed city of Jericho. Until he was exposed and punished for his sins, no further blessing could be expected of God. It was time to quit praying and start obeying.

Joshua got off his face and called for a sacred assembly. The people gathered, trembling before the LORD, anxious to do His will. Achan was found out, condemned, and stoned to death for his crimes against God and His people. The next day, it seems, the city of Ai fell before Israel. And after Ai, the other cities of Canaan, until every last enemy was subdued, and the full promise of God was realized.

What do these events say to us? Just what they said to Joshua and the elders, of course: there is a time to pray and there is a time to act. And, to pray when we should be acting is not holy at all, but rather, sinful.

Do we sometimes substitute prayer for obedience? I think we do. Why? The most obvious answer is also the truest: It's often much easier to pray than to act. For example:

It is often easier to pray than to obey God. But this kind of praying is both wrong and hurtful.

It perverts the nature of prayer. In prayer we seek to know God's will and to submit to it. Our Lord prayed thusly in the Garden: "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not my will but Thine be done". But when God told Him that "the cup cannot pass from [Him]", our Lord did not keep on praying, but arose and went to the cross.

It mocks God. In the days of the Judges, Israel "Lamented after the LORD" for twenty years. Till Samuel stood up and confronted the people: "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods from among you and the Astororth from among you..." They weren't serious with God; they weren't sorry for their sins; if they were, they would have consigned their idols to the flames. Moist eyes mock God when they conceal a stubborn heart.

It robs us of the high privilege of cooperating with God. Paul thought of himself (and other believers) as "workers together with God". Not that God needs helpers; we need to be His helpers. But when we pray when we might be acting, we drop out of His service to our great loss.

It robs others of the blessing we might be to them. We can bless others by our prayers. I hope we do. But this is not the only sort of blessing we can be. We can bless others with an encouraging word, with a helping hand, with a gift of money, and so on.

"Pray without ceasing" is God's will for your life. It is not all of His will, however. "Get up!" is another part of His will. We needn't choose one or the other. It is best to do both. Praying will sanctify and guide our efforts. And effort has a way of answering our prayers. Israel inherited the promises by prayer and effort. We'll do the same, if God will bless us with hearts eager to know His will and to do it.

Eighty years ago, a Preacher lambasted his brethren for being "egg-headed". He said: "Ten minutes on your knees is worth more than ten hours in your study". B.B. Warfield, a great scholar and Christian, replied: "Why not spend ten hours on your knees in your study?"

Indeed, Why not? Why not pray much more than we do, while at the same time, working that much harder for Christ? It will do us good. And others good. But, most of all, it will bring glory to the One who prayed so much for us and died to Redeem us from our sins and bring us to glory.