You all are AWESOME!! Joshua chapter 7.
The issue after the Battle of Jericho was with coveting. Coveting is when someone desires something or somebody else that does not belong to them. Achan saw the beautiful items, rather than giving it to the Lord as instructed, he kept it. He coveted it, desired it, he took it, he kept it, he lied about it. Therefore he sinned against God and was punished by death. We see ministries fall because of sin. God can't bless sin. If Ministry is tainted with sin, God can't bless it. He removes himself from it till it is made holy and clean again. We must constantly be evaluating ourselves, our motives, our actions so that we ensure we are staying right with God. When sin is exposed we must do whatever possible to get rid of it and get right with God. I wonder how many times I covet something or someone I shouldn't. When I was very young, around eight years old, we were raising money in Sunday school for people in Africa. I decorated a can with a slit on the top for money. I collected over $2 in coins. But I never took it to the church. We missed three weeks of church and therefore I missed handing the money in on the due date. So rather than take it to the church late I kept the money. I coveted the money and kept it. Doesn't matter how big or small the amount is. What matters is my heart and my heart was evil. I coveted it, I took it, I kept it with my possessions and I lied about it.
Hey, that happened when I was eight. That doesn't happen anymore, right? Sure it does. People, Christian and non-Christians, covet often. They steal from work and justify it. They covet another man's wife. They covet someone's possessions because they wish they had what they have. To covet something is to desire it. The sin isn't just when you take it, the sin starts when your heart yearns for it. Yearning for something comes because we have not learned to be content with what we have. I'm not saying it's a sin to want something and to buy things. The issue has to do with the heart. Is what we desire that which does not belong to us? What is our minds consumed with? What are we going after? Is it off limits? Are we learning to be content or are we trying to keep up with the Joneses? Is our happiness found in the Lord and the blessings he gives us or are we looking for happiness in pleasures in something or someone else?
Thank you Pastor Blair, for your openness and honesty to share with us in a transparent way. I’m glad that God is using you to impact lives.
Thank you Sarah, for sharing those good points about that song from the VeggieTales yesterday. That brought back some memories of repeatedly watching those enjoyable videos with my kids when we were much younger. (My son, Isaiah (3rd child of 5) just walked out the door this morning to go begin his first day of commuting to college.)
In chapter 6, we saw how God gave Israel victory over Jericho and how He rescued Rahab and her family from destruction. Chapter 7 seems like the opposite to me in some ways. We see Israel unable to defeat Ai in what had appeared to be an easy conquest and Israel suffers casualties. What made the difference? There was sin in the camp! Achan coveted and took what didn’t belong to him and God didn’t take this lightly. Sin is always a big deal! What a sobering reminder for us that God always knows everything and He is just. We might be able to hide things from others, but God knows all about it. Achan’s situation reminds me of what we read in Genesis 19:26. “But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” God was providing a way of escape for Lot and his family just as He was blessing Achan and the Israelites with the Promised Land, but Lot’s wife and Achan weren’t satisfied with what God had for them. Lot’s wife couldn’t break free from Sodom just like Achan couldn’t keep his hands off of what wasn’t his. It was a heart issue in both cases.
Going back even further, we read what was told to the first murderer in Genesis 4:6-7. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Cain wasn’t able to rule over sin just as Lot’s wife, Achan, and …the rest of us on our own. We can’t expect to receive God’s blessings and hold on to sin in our hearts at the same time. None of us are immune to sin and the consequences of sin, but we can be so thankful that God did the best thing for us that we read about in Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.
The good news is that God made a way for us to escape the trap! We read this in 2 Corinthians 5:21. “For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Check out Romans 6:7-13. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Achan is remembered in such a terrible way as we read in 1 Chronicles 2:7. The son of Carmi: Achan, the troubler of Israel, who broke faith in the matter of the devoted thing.
May we be remembered in a better way than Achan and not be covetous, but instead be content with what we have as we see in Hebrews 3:5. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
In Joshua 7, we see both the grieving of the Spirit (see Ephesians 430, 31) and the quenching of the Spirit (see 1 Thessalonians 5:19). Although it was Achan’s sin that grieved the Spirit, it was Joshua’s failure to seek the Lord before going into battle that quenched the Spirit.
Paul asked in Galatians 3:3 -Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh?
How many times do I find myself thinking I can handle this little problem with my own energy, insight and ability? I need to share my thoughts with the Lord in humility and transparency but leave the choice and results with the One who knows and sees all clearly.
Amen to all!