daily java

Daily Java:

But Israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the Lord. A man named Achan had stolen some of these dedicated things, so the Lord was very angry with the Israelites. Achan was the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah. (Joshua 7:1-2)

When I was in the army, in basic training, it was drilled into us that we were responsible for each other. If one of us fell and was wounded, the others didn’t go off and leave us. It hurt the group, but we were shown that the group was important, not just the individuals.

That was well known by snipers. If there were three men on patrol, the sniper would wound one, and the other two were hampered by the fact that they were responsible for each other.

It would have been a lot easier to shoot our wounded. But that would have required a measure of ruthlessness and disregard for human life that we, as Americans, do not have.

Joshua told the Israelites that Jericho was all God’s. It was the first city in the land of Canaan that they encountered, so it was considered the first fruits of the Canaanite campaign. It was all God’s. And it was all to be burned up in a great big sacrifice to him.

But Achan, one man among six hundred thousand men, found some good stuff in there and wanted to keep it on the sly. So he hid it and everybody went on about their business.

The next city was a little town named Ai. It was small enough that Joshua just sent 3,000 men to fight it. They were roundly defeated. The Ai fighters chased them away easily.

Joshua knew something was wrong. He and the elders asked the Lord what was wrong. The Lord told them that someone had taken things that were holy to him and for that reason the entire nation would suffer.

They bought everyone before the Lord, first by tribes, then by clans, then families. You can imagine the dread Achan felt as it got closer and closer to him, then when the divine spotlight was turned on him specifically.

What had he taken? Not really all that much when you think about it. A beautiful robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins, and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound.

That was a fair amount of money, but when you consider the amount of wealth the Israelites were carrying anyway (they had more than enough to make the gold calf and to trim out the tabernacle beautifully with woven gold), his little bit was not all that much.

Besides, where would he have worn the garment? The minute he went outside in it, everyone around him would recognize it as an illicit item.

But the desire to get something blinded him. and it got him and his family killed.

The same thing happened to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. They wanted prestige more than anything else and lied to get it. And they died.

In both of these instances, the people of God were at a crossroads. In Achan’s case, it was whether or not the Lord would put up with disobedience in his new Kingdom. In Ananias and Sapphira’s case, it was also whether the Lord was serious about what he said. And in both these instances, the people involved died.

In Acts 5:11, it says Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened. And you know that the Israelites realized the severity of disobeying the Lord.

But the point is, if one sinned, all were affected. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul told the Christians there that they were sinning as a group. They had allowed things to go on in the church there that were wrong and not only were they not sad about it, they held it up to show their “diversity and tolerance.”

The issue here was a man who was living with his father’s wife. But because of their allowing him to continue his association with them, they also had other problems creeping in. Before long, as is always the case, they began to have people who were greedy, or worshiping idols, or abusive, or drunkards, or cheating people (1 Corinthians 5:10).

The church suffered because of the sin within. Paul said to not only remove themselves from these people but, Don’t even eat with such people (1 Corinthians 5:11).

Sin kills a church if allowed to continue. Sin would have killed the Israelites faster than they died anyway if allowed to go from the very start. Sin would have killed the church if allowed from the very start. Sin was killing the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 5.

So what do we do? I am not sure how far we can go, but one thing for sure, the churches in America that are growing are the ones who have a strong sense of morality and responsibility in their assemblies. The ones that are dying are the ones that have compromised and allowed people to just do what they want.

There is a backbone situation here. Do we have the courage of our convictions needed to show the world the reality of God and his grace?

We can do that without being judgmental.

I thought the answer that Rick Warren, the well-known pastor of Saddleback Community Church in California, gave one day when being interviewed on one of the cable news programs was great. They complained that his interpretation of the Bible was too harsh, and he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t make the rules.”

All we can do is the best we know to do and to show the world that God is real, and that his standards are real. Otherwise, all the world sees is a bunch of people that are no different from them.

The people of Israel knew this, the early church knew it and the Bible says it.