Paging Doctor Can’t-Be-Wrong

And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.” Joshua 7:3

Back in college, I was sitting in my dorm room one day when I heard one of my friends walking up and down the hall, banging two pieces of styrofoam together, yelling, “My name is Scott! I’m always right!” The fact that the rest of my friends found it hysterical reinforced the idea that I was (apparently) an argumentative know-it-all, who couldn’t be wrong. Later in life, after graduating from medical school and getting married, I carried a similar attitude into my marriage, often asking, “Who’s the doctor?” It didn’t matter what we were discussing, I was right because I was the doctor. I always said it in jest – mostly.

It’s perhaps mildly amusing in the contexts described above, but I’ve got to admit that I’ve been guilty of terribly misplaced overconfidence in myself. I’ve simply always assumed that I’m the good guy in my own story, always right, and always on the side of good. Maybe I’d be this way if I wasn’t a Christian, but I think my faith has promoted this arrogance. I’m a Christian. I believe in God. So, God is on my side. I cannot fail and I cannot be wrong. In my addiction, though I knew the potential consequences, I just had this certainty that God would keep me from destroying my life. Like I said – misplaced overconfidence.

That’s the message of today’s passage. In it, as the Israelites continued their conquest of Canaan, Joshua sent two men to spy out the land of Ai. Fresh off their overwhelming victory at Jericho, the spies returned utterly confident. This will be easy. Just send a few men. It will be over quickly. They didn’t consult God’s will, but rather just assumed that God was on their side. It was over quickly, but not the way they thought. The Israelites were soundly defeated because God wasn’t with them due to the sin of Achan (see blog from 12/3).

If we’re not careful, our faith can breed overconfidence and arrogance. The problem isn’t that we can’t know what’s true and right. The problem is that we often assume that because we believe in God, that he’s always on our side, no matter where we go or what we do. God doesn’t back sin though. When we go our own way, we wander from God’s side. Though, he’ll be right there when we repent, he doesn’t follow us. We follow him. If we want God to be for us, we must daily do what it takes to remain on his side, seeking his will. There’s a vast difference between believing in God and following him.