One sin affects the lot of us. V1 Joshua 7JOS 7:1 But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against
Israel.
It says
Israel sinned. In fact only Achan did.
There is a real corporateness to the way God looks at things. We are a church, so when someone does something bad, we feel it, when someone does something good we get excited. Eg At Armidale one girl Katherine Sinclair, won a heap of eistedford things, yeh, we are glad for her, even proud of her. IN fact we kind of claimed her, especially when she was in the choir the won battle of the choirs. We are like that when an Aussie does something good., Like Cadle Evans winning the World Championship Road Race cycling this week. It is as we won. Notice that I didn’t point out someone who has done something bad. We are in this together. When God gave an order not to take the stuff from
Jericho, that meant everyone. Achan spoilt a perfect record. The act of consecration or setting apart of those things for God was spoilt. Because of one man. I remember at school, someone did the wrong thing, I think it was drawing something on the black board, but I can’t remember exactly, and the teacher kept us all in. It wasn’t fair only one person did it, but we all got into trouble. It affected everyone in the room. I won’t tell you who actually did it.
2. Check out the scene but check you own room first.JOS 7:2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.
JOS 7:3 When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” 4 So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.These soldiers must be getting sick of all this by now. They just want to fight, they get a chance to but get whipped because some guy sinned. Doesn’t seem fair- they get circumcised, get told to walk around a wall for seven days and when they get to fight, some guy steals something so they get punished. Who would want to be in the Israelite army. But there is a principle here. Before you go off to do anything in the name of God, check that your relationship is right first. Check out it is what He wants you to do. How easy is it to do what seems good, but it might not be God’s will. Good is ok but God has best in mind. Let me give you an example. In part of
Africa, one of the Minster’s who used to be at Narrabri, Ray Bluhdhorn was a missionary. They set up a bible college and guys came from their villages and lived in dormintorys for 2 years going home for Christmas. The thing was that these guys always stressed because their families had no one to run the farm and feed them. One clever visiting lecturer asked them what would be better. The people themselves suggested that they bring their families with them, live in traditional huts and farm the college land while they were at college. That reduced the food bill of the college, supported the families and was best all round. See settling for good sometimes isn’t the best we can experience. What is God’s best for you???
3. Why was one man’s sin such a problem? God said those things belong to Him. What of our stuff belongs to God?We spoke this morning about tithes. A tithes is traditionally described as a 10th. Biblically it is the first 10th. Or the best 10th. 10th of what? Whatever we have. God wants the best 10th of whatever we have. That includes our finances, our time, even things that are a bit abstract like our relationships. How does this work out. Well financially it is the easiest to figure out but probably the hardest to actually do. When we get paid, give 10% to God. The first 10%, and the best 10%.Biblically though money was part of the tithe. The bible indicates a tithe of everything. Let’s just look at our time.24 hours in a day.1440 minutes, 1/10th = 144 minutes for God. (2 hrs and 24 minutes a day.Over a week that is 1008 minutes or 16 hrs 48 minutes.What could we do with that. It all sounds a bit impractical. That more than a days work. Remember I said here that we are to give our best 10% maybe that is a way to go. Now, I don’t expect you to come up with 16 hours for church work, what I am challenging here is how we view what is our best for God. Look at a verse in the Old Testament from Malachi that says
MAL 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, `How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse–the whole nation of you–because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it
The interesting part is about Testing God. The only time in the bible that I can find that it says that. In other words. Want to get blessed. Try giving to God what is due to Him. Including that 10%. Reading a bit between the lines, it is as if God is saying I will make the 9/10ths left over go further than the original 10 / 10ths.
I am sure that this creates some issues for people. Another issue is the word store house. The assumption that this is the church comes from some commentators that I have read. The idea is to bring the money to church, trust the deacons will dish it around faithfully and we’ll get blessed as a church. It’s what it says.
Yet we get a bit testy with our money. We don’t like being told what to do. ButWill I rob God? That’s the question I have to ask myself, and that you have to ask.
4. You cant go forward until you sort out sin.This is so interesting. The people are told to consecrate them selves. Set themselves apart for God, get pure, become Holy. Because if they don’t they can’t go forward. Here to it is an all of
Israel thing. Everyone has to do the consecrating – or getting right before God. JOS 7:13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, `Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O
Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.
They were told to do it before cross the
Jordan river, circumcision was about consecration. It appears to me that God takes this consecration thing pretty seriously!!.Maybe we as a church need to take notice of this. We need ALL to be right with God before we go forward. Before the next step is taken, we need to unitedly, publicly set ourselves apart for God.Great how do we do it? Well, there was a process in Joshua’s day that included offerings, making sure that the right tithes and offerings were done, that included money, animals and of course sacrifices. Thankfully, Jesus did the sacrifice bit for us. So consecrating ourselves has to do with our being right with Him. Individually and as a church, all together.
But the real issue is – Individuals being responsible before God. Each of us have got to do it. For ourselves, for each other.
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