Joshua 7:1–5 (ESV) — 1 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to
the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of
the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord
burned against the people of Israel.
2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of
Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and
spied out Ai. 3 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.” 4 So about three thousand men went up there from the people. And they
fled before the men of Ai, 5 and the men of Ai killed about
thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and
struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as
water.
NOTE: The
instructions were very clear, but there is always somebody who doesn't think
they apply to them. Actually, this would be even more prevalent in my country,
the USA. We are a people who are independent and prize our heritage of doing
things our way. Add to that the teaching of the last century, that there are no
absolutes, no right and wrong, and pretty much half of the people would have
broken the rule during the attack on Jericho. The world has a rebellion
problem. It started when Adam and Eve rebelled against God as the ruler, the
person who set the rules. Consequently, the painful world we live in today is a
reminder to us from God that we chose to rebel. Far from an indictment against
God for not caring, not knowing, or not being powerful enough to stop pain,
pain is the reminder God left that we rebelled, we chose to be the rulers of
our life. The only fix is repentance of the rebellion, and faith in the what
Jesus did on the cross for us. The promise is that God will restore the world he
created in the way he created it. Pain will be removed as it was before the
fall. But for now, our sin greatly affects other people. All sin affects other
people. Our sin culture slowly degrades the fabric of creation. And God lets it
happen because it was what we wanted, and to do anything less would be to
remove our free will--the very reason he created us--to be able to love freely.
Have mercy on us Lord. Open our eyes and help us to see our sin problem.
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