Trying not to be like Achan…

This is going to be short, sweet and straight from the journal…so again, pardon the grammar.

Joshua 7:13 “You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.”

There’s a lot of context here to what’s happening when the LORD says this to Joshua, so I suggest you go back and read Joshua 6:15-7:13 (if you want to see how the story turns out, keep reading until the end of chapter 7) or else you may not understand what I’m about to say.

It’s pretty straightforward here the statement that God makes, and it’s a great example of God’s position on sin (especially hidden sin) and how it effects our relationship with God who fights on our behalf.

Why do we pray and ask God to answer prayer when we are hiding sin in our hearts?  It seems like we so often get upset that He doesn’t answer our prayers right away, yet we continue to hide sin in our hearts that He has blatantly told us to destroy as an act of devotion to Him (6:17-18).

After Israel gets dominated by the wimpy army of Ai (7:4-5), right after defeating the heavily fortified city of Jericho (the difference between Ai and Jericho is like the difference between Muggsy Bogues and Shaquille O’Neal), Joshua goes and falls on his knees before the LORD asking Him why this happened (7:6).  To this, the LORD responds to Joshua by saying, “Israel has sinned.” (7:11…like the convenient store).  He then goes on to explain in 7:12-13 that in order for them (the Israelites) to re-secure God’s presence and favor, they had to destroy those things that were supposed to be devoted/destroyed in the first place (in other words, they had to get rid of the sin).

If you were to read on a little further, what’s interesting about all of this is that nobody (except for one dude, Achan) knew about the sin that was essentially plaguing Israel.  Why?  Because Achan had literally hidden it.  This brings up the obvious question…WHAT SIN ARE YOU AND I HIDING IN OUR LIVES?  Though Achan had hidden the things He had kept (the things that were supposed to instead be destroyed as an act of devotion to the LORD), God still knew!  In the same way, God knows what you and I are hiding in our lives and in our hearts.

There’s two quick things we’ve got to hear from this passage:

1. If we are hiding sin in our lives, it IS effecting our personal relationship with God.  We cannot draw closer to God and we cannot expect Him to be quick in answering our prayers if we continue to live in sin.
2. If we are hiding sin in our lives, it IS effecting the church!  Yes, it’s true!  Notice from the story that Achan’s sin didn’t just effect him, it effected the entire nation of Israel.  Did you ever think about the fact that your sin could be effecting the whole church?

Peace, Love, and trying not to be like Achan,

Austin W.

Advertisement

~ by Austin W. on May 13, 2010.