Journeying through the desert for 40 years and now finally they were able to receive the land of promise! Took long enough. Now that all is finally finished, the time of discipline was over, one city stand in the way. The first to be conquered. They walk around it. Then do it again. Every day for a week. Legs preparing for a great mission of purging.
The city was destroyed. One family saved by faith. Then a few days later, another destroyed by the lack of it.
The mission to purge comes to a halt. Their own die on the mission. That’s new. They must now purge from themselves.
One man. One act. One people serving One God. The one act broke the one people and brought distance between them and the One God.
Joshua falls to his face and pleads with God, “Why did You let this happen?! Did you not free us for Your Great Name?” God responds. “Get up! There’s sin in the camp! They cannot stand because they have transgressed. They have broken the covenant. Consecrate yourselves and purge!”
The next day they gather together and find the one man, Achan. He took that which was devoted to God and brought it to himself. He hid it under everything he had. The most precious to him beneath the stolen devoted. They found it just like he confessed. It was underneath.
“God will bring trouble on you this day just as you have brought trouble on us!” Joshua declares. Then they all took him outside the camp and purged.
How serious is this sin! How deep it has affected beyond the surface, and the ones closest to even remain within! The deep was exposed. And purged. The stones brought death, the fire cleansed, and a monument covered completely.
Do we realize what causes the trouble? Do we take the sin seriously? How deep it runs! How greatly it affects, not only the sinner but also the family and the Family. Do we not see that the things devoted to The Lord are precious to Him? Can we not see the importance of what has been devoted to The Lord, then to stoop into a trap to lose our faith for a moment of pleasure that passes and leaves stains? Do we take the mission lightly?
Are we not called for a holy mission of purging? To remove the unholy and replace with holiness? To send the darkness running at full speed because of the Light we bear? To unearth the deep sin and purge?
It only takes one act from one person to affect the one Family who serves the One God. We may not realize it. Achan didn’t realize and brought death to 36. What kind of death do we bring? What kind of death other than eternal? Is the sin so precious that we hide it underneath what we’ve already hidden, not realizing what’s at stake? The lives of those around us?
con·se·crate
ˈkänsiˌkrāt/
verb
make or declare (something, typically a church) sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.
Let the Stone rejected by men bring death to the sin! Let the fires of life troubles and even the temptations themselves bring cleansing to our lives to purge the unholy, and give us opportunity to choose holiness and commit! Let the monument of Christ erect from the stain that once was to honor The One Holy God! He is the One who consecrates! He sets us apart for holy living. Let Him give us Divine purpose!
Thank God for His grace to show us mercy in our time of need, to not purge us from the earth but to make the believer new in Christ! And our mission to bring that mercy to triumph in our lives, to show mercy to other, to proclaim His mercy to the nations!
How serious is sin for you? Is it truly sin that ruins, or is it tolerable? What needs to be purged? What needs to go in your life?
No longer are we tolerant! It must not live with the life Christ has given us! If Christ reigns in me then the life of sin is dead and gone. Purge!
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