Too Busy for Prayer (Joshua 1.17)
Only, may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses.
The book of Joshua begins with God speaking to Joshua, telling him that it is time to lead the Israelites into the promised land. God says that he will be with Joshua, just as he was with Moses. Finally, God encourages him to keep the law of Moses and to be courageous.
Joshua immediately tells his commanders to go throughout the camp, announcing to the people that they would be leaving in three days. It was time to go back to the land that belonged to their ancestors many centuries ago.
In response, the people deliver a message for Joshua. In the midst of this message that we have the first mention of prayer (or possible reference to prayer) in the book. First, the people tell Joshua that they will obey him, just as they did Moses, and that they will go wherever he tells them to go. Then, they say this: “Only, may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses.” The people, in response, say that anyone who disobeys Joshua should be put to death. The message closes with the same words that God said to Joshua: be courageous.
This command of Joshua and response by the people is probably an exchange of oaths between a new leader and his people, a common practice in the ancient world. The contents are probably what anyone of that age would expect.
I having included the passage above as one of the prayers, as if the people are asking God to be with Joshua. Yet it is likely that the words above are not a prayer. The people may simply be placing a limit on their loyalty to Joshua. After all, the entire first chapter emphasizes that Joshua is the new leader, the successor to Moses. God says it, Joshua acts it out with his command, and the people affirm it and declare their loyalty. So the words above may simply be a way of saying, “you have our loyalty, but only as long as God is with you.” In other words, they are not asking God to be with Joshua, they are placing a condition on how far their commitment to him will go.
If it is a prayer, then it is a simple petition. We have seen a few of these throughout our study so far. Yet the language here is not like those others—it is not particularly poetic, spiritual, or moving. If it is a prayer, it is rather off-handed, briefly inserted in the middle of a response that has little to say to God or about God. As we noted in the introduction, this attitude is prevalent in the book of Joshua: the few prayers in the book are almost like a brief aside.
It is more likely, however, that this is not a prayer. If not, we might ask, “why not?” Why is there no prayer the beginning of a new leader’s term, at the beginning of an offensive to take the land back. Why is there no petition for God to be with Joshua, and the people? Why is their no thanksgiving for bringing them safely to this moment. After all, when Moses began to lead the people, the people prayed to God for a leader (Exodus 2.23). Moses prays for the leader of the Egyptians, during the Plague episodes, in Exodus 9.28–29, 33, and 10.17-18. When the people are delivered from the Egyptians, all the men offer a prayer of praise (15.1-18) and the women follow suit (15.21). Finally, much like this passage in Joshua, before the people move out of camp (behind the ark of the covenant), a prayer was pronounced (Num 10.25–36).
Why is it, then, at this important moment in Israel’s history, there is no prayer offered?
