Joshua 7 (view this passage)

nathan made this entry on January 29th, 2007
Topic(s): Courage

There are some extremely important lessons packed into this one chapter. Basically after defeating Jericho, A man named Achan went against God's instructions and took some gold and silver for himself. Afterwards, the Israelites prepared to attack their next target, Ai, and Joshua sent some spies to stake it out. They came back saying Ai was small, and only 3,000 troops were needed, so Joshua sent 3,000 troops to attack without consulting God. The Israelites were defeated, and the whole nation complained to God asking why did He let them lose after all of His promises. God answered saying that someone in the camp had directly gone against His instructions and He would not be with them until it was taken care of. God gave Achan many chances to repent, however eventually Achan had to be singled out directly and then he and his family and all his possessions were destroyed. Afterwards God restored His blessings to Israel.

There are so many parallels between this story and our own lives individually and as a church. Many of us are quick to claim God's promises for our success, and it is true that God wants to bless us. But how many of us, like Achan, have secret sins in our lives? With these secret sins present, we still go out courageously to face our own battles in life, and often return defeated and distraught. We get angry with God because He isn't blessing us like we think He should. We don't understand why we aren't successful with school or work. We get confused over why the same things keep getting us down over and over again, and all the while we are facing these battles with our secret sins being slipped under a rug and conveniently forgotten.

If there is one thing clear from the numerous stories in the Bible, it's that God wants our complete obedience, and this can only come from depending on Him. There are times when we are doing something wrong and we aren't even aware of it. This was the case with the Israelite nation, as they didn't know what Achan had done. This is why we cannot trust our own understanding, we must always depend on God every step of the way because He knows everything. The Israelites didn't consult with God before they went to battle Ai. If they had, God would have pointed out the problem with Achan right then and there and Israelite lives would have been saved. Before we face our battles, we should always ask for God to guide us. They may be some things that we need to take care of before we can be successful.

Finally, because of one man's sin, the whole nation of Israel suffered. God withdrew His blessings from the whole nation, which caused them to be defeated at Ai, just because one man didn't obey Him. If this was true for the Israelites why wouldn't it be true for our church? We cannot go around only being concerned about our own individual lives. God wants us to be one body. If one part of the church is going around with secret sins, the whole church may be suffering as a result. This is not to say we should go around trying to make sure everyone is perfect, but we should realize that we are all in this together, and we should do all we can to help each other out. There is no secret sin that God will not help us to conquer. We don't have to "save ourselves" from our sins. We just have to surrender ourselves to His work in us, and God will save us from whatever sin we are struggling with. The Holy Spirit will do some amazing things, just don't resist His work and it will be taken care of!

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