Posted on

When God Fights For You

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: Make no mistake: God still fights on behalf of his people. In a realm that you usually can’t see, there is a battle, and God is at war to bring about complete and utter victory for his kingdom. And while in the seen realm we may not see that victory, let’s be perfectly clear about this: The outcome is predetermined and the victory has already been won! If you don’t believe that, then as they say, fast-forward to the end of the book, and you will see it: we win!

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Joshua 10:9-13

Joshua traveled all night from Gilgal and took the Amorite armies by surprise. The Lord threw them into a panic, and the Israelites slaughtered great numbers of them at Gibeon. Then the Israelites chased the enemy along the road to Beth-horon, killing them all along the way to Azekah and Makkedah. As the Amorites retreated down the road from Beth-horon, the Lord destroyed them with a terrible hailstorm from heaven that continued until they reached Azekah. The hail killed more of the enemy than the Israelites killed with the sword. On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel: “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies.

Obviously, it doesn’t always work this way, but when it does, boy howdy! The situation was different back then, and it called for God to step in on Israel’s behalf in a way that left no doubt in the minds of friend and foe alike that Yahweh was on the side of his people. Like the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, clearly God was fighting for Israel. And it wasn’t a fair fight. It never is when God gets involved.

Israel was taking possession of their Promised Land in fulfillment of the centuries-old covenantal promise that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That meant the Canaanites, a particularly brutal, sinful, godless amalgam of city-states, had to be dispossessed from that land. So city-by-city, Joshua was on a winning streak where Israel didn’t barely eek out victories; these were blowouts. And in this case, not only was the Israelite army crushing the Amorites, but God stepped in and, through a hailstorm of epic proportions, laid waste to the enemy. We are told that more died by the hail than by the sword.

Then, if that weren’t enough, Joshua put his foot on the gas to completely destroy whoever was left. The day was coming to a close, the sun would soon set before the job got done, so he even called out to the sun and moon for them to freeze in place. Imagine that: a man making demands of the solar system just so he could finish his work before nightfall. And it happened! Seriously, the only time before or since the sun literally stood still and the moon didn’t budge until Israel had pitched a complete game—a shutout, and a no-hitter at that.

Don’t you wish that were your testimony with every problem you face? I do! But most times, that is not what is called for. Typically, God has other methods for accomplishing his will. We are not literally going into a physical land to dispossess nations, so what Joshua did would be completely inappropriate for God’s people today. We are to take possession of spiritual lands by capturing people by persuading them through the gospel and bringing them under the loving reign of Jesus Christ. Obviously, it is a bit different today than in Joshua’s day.

However, make no mistake: God still fights on behalf of his people. In a realm that you usually can’t see, there is a battle, and God is at war to bring about complete and utter victory for his kingdom. And while that victory may not be seen like you and I would want it to be, let’s be perfectly clear about this: The outcome is predetermined and the victory has already been won! If you don’t believe that, then as they say, fast-forward to the end of the book and you will see it: We win!

Take heart today, my friend. In whatever battle you face, you have a God who fights for his people. Surely the Lord fights for you in the unseen realm—sometimes in a way that even leaks into the visible realm—just like he fought for Joshua:

Surely the Lord fought for Israel that day! (Joshua 10:14)

In an earlier battle, once again Joshua led Israel to a stunning victory over the evil and defiant Amalekites. When the battle was over, we are told that Moses built an altar there and named it “Yahweh-Nissi (which means ‘the Lord is my banner’). He said, ‘They have raised their fist against the Lord’s throne, so now the Lord will be at war with them.’” (Exodus 17:15-16)

Yahweh Nissi—the Lord is just as much your banner as he was Israel’s!

Choose You This Day: What is your battle today? Take heart, Yaweh-Nissi will do whatever it takes to march you on to victory!

Posted on

A Pox On Both Your Houses

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: Predictably, what we see and sense today at the highest as well as the lowest levels of culture is what happens when, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn lamented, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” As believers, we must let the moral decay of our nation turn our stomachs, but then we must let it turn our hearts to God in intercession for a sweeping spiritual awakening.

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: 9:56-57

In this way, God punished Abimelech for the evil he had done against his father by murdering his seventy brothers. God also punished the men of Shechem for all their evil. So the curse of Jotham son of Gideon was fulfilled.

Admittedly, this is a weird story, and it’s even weirder that it was included in the Bible. Like a few others we have come across as we read the Old Testament devotionally, this is a head-scratcher. But at the end of the day, this story of Abimelech’s brief but brutal rule as a judge of Israel and his abrupt, gruesome death is a reminder of what happens in a person, and in a society, when God has been left out of the picture.

Abimelech was one of Gideon’s sons—one of seventy or so. And it just so happens that he was the one son from Gideon’s union with a concubine who lived in a different town, Shechem. So, there was probably no love lost with his many siblings; he was likely looked down upon by his brothers his entire life. There is a good chance Abimelech had a chip on his shoulder (that unfortunately ended with a millstone on his head—literally. See Judges 9:50-55).

So, Abimelech decided to do away with his seventy brothers, which he did in the most grisly fashion (Judges 9:5) by beheading them at one time. He killed all but one, Gideon’s youngest son, Jotham, who escaped and hid, and then resurfaced with an incendiary prophecy (Judges 9:7-21). This prophecy was a kind of “pox on both your houses” statement that ultimately came to pass. The prophecy was that in selecting Abimelech to be their king, the citizens of Shechem would end up paying for it with their lives, and Abimelech would likewise come to a brutal end for the murder of his brothers. That is the rest of the story of Judges 9.

Now take away the raw brutality of this story, sanitize it a bit, and what you have is the story of leadership in our current culture. Far too common is the way leaders attain power and the way the citizens surrender power to them. Lying, cheating, doing whatever it takes to make their opponent look bad, saying one thing to get elected, then leading another, coming off as a servant of the people but living like a king once in power, seems to be just the way it is in our political world. Often in elections, we feel like we have no choice but to hold our noses to cast our ballots. But we get the leaders we deserve.

Why? Simple answer: men have forgotten God. The writer of Judges prophetically summed up our twenty-first century world in the last verse in this book when he wrote, “There was no controlling moral authority to govern peoples’ lives, so everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) Unfortunately, in our day, as was the case in the day of the Judges, “what was right”, without the presence of the “Controlling Moral Authority”, without fail produces moral, cultural, economic, and global chaos.

Predictably, what we see and sense today at the highest as well as the lowest levels of culture is what happens when, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn lamented, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” In his famous Templeton Address, “Men Have Forgotten God,” Solzhenitsyn said

The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century…Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it.

May we never get used to it! May we never feel at home in this present world the way it is now. As believers, we have the urgent calling to humble ourselves before God, acknowledge our sin, repent, and turn to him for the healing of our land. As disgusted as you may feel reading Judges 9, let the moral decay of America turn your stomach, then turn your heart to God in intercession for a spiritual awakening once again in our land.

Who knows, God may give us a revival as he did throughout the book of Judges, as his people cried out to him.

Choose You This Day: Read 2 Chronicles 7:14 and pray your way through it on behalf of your nation today.

Posted on

Ready, Fire, Aim

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: Joshua’s failure to seek God first should serve as a cautionary tale as you make decisions today. Even in small, seemingly insignificant ones, be innocent of hastiness. Seek God first in all matters, large and small. And when you are ready to move forward in a matter, follow the correct protocol: ready, AIM, fire. May you always, always say, “I will seek the Lord first!”

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Joshua 9:14-16

The men of Israel looked the Gibeonites over and accepted the evidence [that they came from a long distance away]. But they didn’t ask God about it. They examined their food, and it appeared old, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them, guaranteeing their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified the agreement with a binding oath. Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually lived nearby.

“But they didn’t ask God about it.” No matter how overwhelming the evidence, no matter how good the idea, no matter how much something makes sense, we dishonor God, and in the long run if not the short term, hurt ourselves by leaving him out of the picture.

In this case, Joshua and his leaders made a hasty decision about a nation-tribe that lived in the land of Canaan, the Gibeonites. The Lord had instructed the Israelites to possess the land by dispossessing the peoples who lived there. They should have destroyed the Gibeonites according to God’s orders, but the Gibeonites deceived Joshua’s leadership team into thinking they were not a part of those city-states that were devoted to destruction.

Joshua’s mistake was in assuming! In the spiritual realm, assuming pre-decides God’s will, it presumes to know what God desires in a matter. The sin of presumption is a big deal in the Old Testament, and the outcome of this sin is particularly destructive to the kingdom life in Israel. Had Joshua’s team asked God for his wisdom in the matter on the front side, the leaders would have been spared this embarrassing disobedience on the backside.

Interestingly, even after discovering that the Gibeonites had deceived Israel into making this peace treaty, Joshua nevertheless honored the treaty he had just made with them. Even though it had been made under false pretenses, Joshua was not guilt-free in this matter. He had not consulted the Lord. I suspect Joshua’s attitude was a precursor to what the psalmist spoke of in Psalm 15, when he spoke of those who walked blamelessly in God’s sight. Among the characteristics of such people,

They keep their promises even when it hurts. (Psalm 15:4)

Now by all rights, Joshua could have broken the treaty he had just made and killed the deceptive Gibeonites—but their submissive posture and willingness to take on the faith commands of the Israelite community spared them from destruction. Joshua kept his oath, even though it hurt.

Fast forward to your life. Do you assume God’s will and fail to seek his input in your daily decisions, both great and small? Do you presume upon God? Are you guilty of a ready, fire, aim approach to living out your faith in the world where God has asked you to represent him? This is so easy to do, and we probably commit Joshua’s sin more often than we think.

Today, may Joshua’s failure to ask God first serve as a cautionary tale as you make decisions. Even in small, seemingly insignificant ones, be innocent of hastiness. Seek God first in all matters, large and small. And when you are ready to move forward in a matter, follow the correct protocol: ready, AIM, fire. May you always, always say, “I will seek the Lord first!”

Hmmm…sounds like something to which the Founder of our faith has called us: seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Be a seek-first person!

Choose You This Day: What is on your to-do list today? What is on the drawing board for your future? Have you asked God first? Have you sought his input before you move even one step forward? If not, do it. If you have, keep doing it!

Posted on

Stay Alert To Sin

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: The story of Gideon’s dramatic rise and precipitous fall in Judges 6-8 is a classic reminder that it is not just a strong start that counts; it is finishing well that is the essential thing in our journey with God.

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Judges 8:27

Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.[/

Conflicted. That is what Gideon was, as we see in Judges 8. Gideon was a conflicted man, increasingly at odds with his own beliefs and his calling. But he is not alone, because most leaders are. And so are most people, whether they are believers or not. You see, people live with a persistent sin nature that rises, early and often, to tempt them with attitudes and actions that are incongruent with their deeply held values.

Conflicted, that is what we are, hopelessly and helplessly! And without our conscious and daily submission to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the continual indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit, we don’t stand a chance.

Consider Gideon. In the previous chapters, we find that he was at once humble (Judges 6:15), obedient (Judges 7:8), and dependent on God (Judges 7:15); yet, as we see from this story in chapter 8, he was also prideful, self-reliant, and disobedient.

Gideon went out to fight Midian in the power of the Lord and routed a far superior army in a stunning victory, but he came back a ruthless man (Judges 8:13-21), arrogantly refusing to be Israel’s king yet living like one anyway (Judges 8:22-24, 29-31), and disobedient in making a golden ephod that would lead Israel to worship it as an idol (Judges 8:27). The text says the golden ephod he made, representing his power, his success, and his status among the Israelites, became a trap for Gideon and his family (Judges 8:27).

What a quick and disappointing turnaround. His impossible victory over Midian was one for the ages. Gideon’s band of three hundred fighting men is still talked about to this day, used as an example of what God can do with a just few who are fully submitted to him. Yet within days of this victory, his base nature was taking over, and it led him to make decisions that set the stage for Israel to not only drift from God under Gideon’s watch by worshiping the golden ephod, but to plunge headlong into national idolatry after he died:

As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal-berith their god. They forgot the Lord their God, who had rescued them from all their enemies surrounding them. Nor did they show any loyalty to the family of Gideon, despite all the good he had done for Israel. (Judges 8:33-35)

As we seek to make sense of this jaw-dropping spiritual reversal, Gideon’s story reminds us that the same sin nature that wreaked havoc in his life will mess us up just as quickly if we are not careful. Here are a few sobering lessons coming to us from Gideon’s story that we would do well to keep in mind:

First, charisma will only take you so far; it will be character that keeps you there. Obviously, Gideon had the ability to inspire others to follow him into an impossible battle, but his core values were not such that he could resist the temptations that came his way after the victory. Arguably, the true test of character is success.

Second, character issues that are left unchecked will resurface at some point in our lives, sooner or later. The only way to effectively deal with our sin is to allow the Lord to obliterate it. If it is not destroyed, it will come back to bite us. Whatever goes underground will resurface at some point.

Third, a victory today does not guarantee a victory tomorrow. We cannot rest on the laurels of past accomplishment; submission to God must be a daily victory.

Fourth, pride is an ever-present enemy of God’s plan to use us mightily for him. Pride is at the core of sin, continually causing issues of godship in our relationship with God.

Fifth, constant attention to sin is required to run our race strong and finish well. Over and again, the Bible calls us to stay alert, to be on guard, to be ever watchful for the Enemy’s work in our lives. Satan never gives up: we can serve up a devastating defeat by our obedience to God one day, and he will be right back at us the next, tempting us to stray from God.

The story of Gideon in Judges 6-8 is a classic reminder that it is not just a strong start that counts; it is finishing well that is the essential thing in our journey with God. May it be said of us, “they started strong and finished well.”

Choose You This Day: Check your heart. Are you fully devoted to God in every area of your life? If not, come to God in repentance. If you are, stay alert to the Enemy today. He is making plans to trip you up. So, keep your eyes on Jesus, and you will be just fine.

Posted on

Don’t Sacrifice Eternal Blessings For Temporal Fixes

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: God desires to bless us—he really does. But there is a path to blessing that we must follow. The path is against the grain of human reasoning and self-gratification, but it is the one and only path that God has chosen for his people to walk. Walk it, my friend! It always leads to untold blessing!

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Joshua 8:2

After Israel’s defeat against Ai, the Lord said, “You will destroy Ai this time as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time, you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves.

God told Israel to completely destroy Jericho—an evil city that was a part of an exceedingly evil culture—which happened to stand directly in the way as Israel entered the Promised Land. It was the first city of conquest, and as such, it was the first fruits of sorts—the initial battle of their conquest of Canaan. The first fruits belong to God—in this case and every time. God says, “Give it to me, then I will give you the rest. This is how you will honor me and keep me first in your life.” Thus, with Jericho, the spoils of the battle were to be totally devoted to the Lord by annihilating this evil city and everything in it.

Yet one man, Achan, secretly, selfishly, and in willful disregard of what God had just commanded, took some plunder (Joshua 7:20-21), and, as a result, this individual’s disobedience led to a national disgrace settled upon Israel. The Israelites lost the next battle—one they should have easily won—and scores of warriors died. Because of the sin of one man, the whole nation suffered. Sound familiar? That is exactly what happened when Adam sinned,

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12)

When you read the story of Achan’s punishment—and the brutality of his entire family being executed for his sin—and you are both feeling sorry for them and miffed that God overreacted, keep in mind that thousands of Israelites were mourning the deaths of their warrior sons who had been killed in battle because of this one man’s selfish act. That will put the harsh consequences of disobedience placed upon Achan, along with his entire family, into a sobering but more understandable light.

The takeaway from this story, and it is a sad one, is that Achan could have had everything his heart desired had he just followed the Lord’s commands. As we see in this next battle, the soldiers were free to take the plunder.

When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. (Joshua 8:24-27)

Achan made the mistake we often make: Sacrificing a future of promised blessings that arrive only through trust and obedience for quick but temporal fixes that will end up destroying us. Call it what you will—delayed gratification, long-range planning, ruthless trust—waiting upon God in faith and obedience is the job of the Christian. And scripture is replete with promises for those who do:

No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. (Psalm 25:5)

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. (Psalm 37:4-5)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33)

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

God desires to bless us—he really does! But there is a path to blessing that we must follow. The path is against the grain of human reasoning and self-gratification, but it is the one and only path that God has chosen for his people to walk.

Walk it, my friend! It always leads to untold blessing!

Choose You This Day: Here is a prayer I invite you to join me in lifting to the Lord: “Dear Father, would I have been an Achan? Would I have given in to temptation and disobeyed you? Am I doing that now? Oh Lord, I don’t even want an answer to that—I just want you to purge me of any disobedience and faithlessness. I want to be pleasing to you. I don’t want to bring shame and injury upon my family or my church. I want to partake of the amazing blessings that come by trust and obedience. I want to be a part of the Joshua crowd, not the Achan clan. Lord, cleanse me and set my feet on solid ground. Lead me in the way everlasting. Establish my coming and my going so that I am completely devoted and pleasing to you!”

Posted on

Horrible Odds, Holy Opportunities

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: Faith is putting our full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1-2) That makes faith ruthless trust in the care and competence of our Heavenly Father, that at the end of the day, he does all things well. Faith is unshakeable hope that God loves us and will work everything out for our good and his glory. Faith is not looking at the unmovable mountain in our way, but it is looking to the Mountain Mover on our side. The acrostic F.A.I.T.H. is absolutely accurate: Forsaking All, I Trust Him. That is why God allows us to be in situations where the genuineness of our faith can be proven, and where his own genuine goodness can be experienced. Do you want to be a person of great faith? Then let go and let God!

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Judges 7:2-7

Gideon and his army got up early and went as far as the spring of Harod. The armies of Midian were camped north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain[a] and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight. But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.” When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, “Divide the men into two groups. In one group, put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group, put all those who kneel and drink with their mouths in the stream.” Only 300 of the men drank from their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths from the stream. The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.”

We want the odds to be in our favor. To mix metaphors, when push comes to shove, we are certainly not opposed to the decks being stacked in our favor. That is just human nature—fallen human nature, that is. But that is not the way of God, which means that is not the way of faith.

The thing is, we are created to glorify our Creator, to worship him, and fully enjoy him forever. Life is not about us, it is all about him, and how we can live to bring him maximum fame through our daily lives—in our everyday, walking around, eating, sleeping, talking, going about our business lives. Our job is to make God famous. And in doing that, we experience the deepest, longest-lasting satisfaction possible during the few decades we have been allotted in this one and only life.

But that means we must walk the way of faith. Faith is putting our full confidence in the things we hope for, it means being certain of things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1-2) Faith is ruthless trust in the care and competence of our Heavenly Father. Faith is unshakeable hope that God loves us and will work everything out for our good and his glory. Faith is not looking at the immovable mountain in our way; it is looking to the Mountain Mover on our side. Faith is Forsaking All, I Trust Him.

That is why God allows us to be in situations where the genuineness of our faith can be proven. You see, it doesn’t take much faith if we don’t really need God to step in. If there is not the possibility, at least on the human, visible level, that we can crash and burn if God doesn’t show up, then we are most likely not stepping out far enough where we have reached the rare air of risky faith. If we can do it without God, most likely we will take the credit for our success.

Remember, however, we were created to glorify him in everything we do. Remember that our one assignment is to make God famous. Remember that he designed us to be most satisfied in him when he is most glorified in us. That is precisely why he allows the decks to be stacked against us. It is then that he can supply us with supernatural power and all kinds of divine aid to rout our toughest enemies, overcome our most overwhelming odds, and win our most stunning victories.

That is precisely why God told Gideon to pare his fighting force down from thousands to just 300—against a Midianite army that was far superior in numbers, experience, and fighting talent. In God’s own words, “If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.” God doesn’t share his glory—and that is a good thing. He allows us to share in his glory, but that comes only by deflecting all the glory that we might receive in our effort back to him. When we do that, his glory is reflected onto us in a way that we could never produce on our own.

Now, like me, you may not be totally comfortable with this whole business of the decked stack against you. But the record of scripture, the testimony of the faithful, and from my own experience, that is the way of faith. And frankly, I am glad it is. Get used to it!

So, if you’ve got horrible odds, not to worry: You are on the edge of a holy opportunity.

Choose You This Day: Are you up against some horrible odds? Good! Began to thank God for your situation. You are on the verge of something grand!

Posted on

Painful Lessons

When God Speaks—Be Quick to Obey!

SUMMARY: We’ve been steeped in a cultural mindset of individualism to the point that we now simply cannot, or will not, consider the possibility of God’s response to community when life in that community goes sideways because of the sin of one. As believers, we need to give careful thought to how our individual behavior will affect those with whom we share life in our covenantal group—marriage, family, team, church, etc. The hard truth is, my private actions affect my public relationships.

God Speaks—I Obey // Focus: Joshua 7:11-13

The Lord replied to Joshua, “Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction. Get up! Command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord. You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.

Any schoolkid of previous generations knows the “unfairness” of the class being punished for the wrongdoing of one unidentified classmate whose crime has yet to be found out. “How unfair, Teacher, that we all have to miss recess because one person stole your apple!”

That is what is happening to the nation of Israel in this story from Joshua 7. They’re being punished—all of them—for one man’s sin. Of course, Israel was unique in that it was a theocracy, and we don’t live under that system today in our pluralistic democracy. So, what was applied to Israel may not be exactly applied in our nation—although I suspect there is still a divine principle at play. Yet each of us does live in a theocratic community if we belong to a family or a church. And in that sense, we need to give careful thought as to how our individual behavior might affect those who share life with us in the community of Christ.

Israel had just experienced the extreme thrill of defeating the great walled city of Jericho—an impenetrable fortress by ancient standards. But it collapsed like a house of cards before the Lord’s people. Then, just days later, in the next battle, Israel was unexpectedly stunned at the fierce resistance of the small band of fighters of a village called Ai. In a matter of hours, God’s people went from the sublime to the ridiculous. Ai was a relatively small and defenseless city of no account, yet they fought for their very existence against the Israelite army—and they punched them in the nose. Thirty-six of Israel’s fighting men were immediately killed in battle, and the rout was on. Israel was stunned and disheartened.

All because of the sin of one man—Achan!

No matter how many times we moderns read the ancient story of the Israelites, we run across stories like this, Achan’s sin, and are left shaking our heads in wonderment—and not in the positive sense of wonderment. This is not a warm, fuzzy, and inspiring story. And there are many like it with which we must contend as we journey through the Old Testament.

When we read these stories—and admittedly, we don’t have the full backstory in every case—we are struck with a bad case of the fear of the Lord. There is no denying the anxiety we feel over his fierce holiness and the swift, sweeping judgment against human violation of that holiness, for if this happened because of one sin, we don’t stand a chance before God for our many sins.

Furthermore, the story in Joshua 7 is not just a one-off; there have been plenty. To name a few, we have witnessed the death of Nadab and Abihu for offering unholy fire on the altar (Leviticus 10), the execution of a blasphemer who cursed God’s name during a fight (Leviticus 24:10-23), the gruesome killing of a man who brought a Moabite woman into his tent to have sex with her—in broad daylight (Numbers 25), and now the stoning of a young man named Achan, along with his entire family, because he kept some of the expensive plunder from the battle of Jericho for himself.

Not that we would condone any of these sins—nobody who truly follows the Lord would justify any of these deliberate violations of God’s commands. Even still, the immediacy and severity of the punishment is hard to swallow for people like us who live at a time where consequences for actions seem to be decreasingly certain. So, we read stories like this, and if we do anything with them at all, we simply toss them into the “Painful Lessons” file.

One of those painful lessons here is the corporate-ness of sin. In our culture, we worship individualism. In fact, the early heroes who built our nation are praised for their rugged individualism. A large percentage of us are proud of that and have embraced that this is the superior way to live. While we nod our heads in agreement that the whole community is important, we tend to see the parts as more important than the whole; the many are servant to the one. You likely have your own story of whining that the whole class was punished for the actions of one student. To our Western mindset, that is the height of unfairness.

Yet while we embrace the idea of unity in the community, and the blessings that derive from it, why would we not accept the opposite? Why should we be surprised when the whole community suffers because an individual violated its values? If God favors corporate unity (Psalm 133:1-3), why would he lift his favor from the community when sin invades it through an individual member? But in God’s economy, it cuts both ways—the whole is blessed when the parts are right; the whole is cursed when the parts are wrong.

I suspect you are still not convinced. I don’t like it either. But we have been so steeped in a cultural mindset of individualism that we simply cannot, or will not, embrace God’s response to community when life in the community goes sideways. Of course, Israel was unique in that it was a theocracy, and we don’t live under that system today in our pluralistic democracy. So, what was applied to Israel may not be applied to the same degree in our nation—although I suspect there is still a divine principle at play.

Yet each of us does live in a theocratic community if we belong to a family, small group, ministry team, or church. And in that sense, we need to give careful thought as to how our individual behavior might affect those who share life with us in the community. And while we don’t suffer the same degree of punishment that Achan and his family suffered, we can—and should—learn the painful lesson of Achan: My private actions affect my public relationships.

I love painful lessons—said no one ever—but thank God for them!

Choose You This Day: Take a moment to prayerfully consider how your private attitudes, habits and actions affect your public relationships. Moreover, when the next temptation to sin comes your way (which will probably be in the next five minutes), ask yourself how giving in to it will affect your relationships at home, in the church, and in your relational world.