The Sin of Achan

Today’s devo talks about sin and its effect on others. Today we will be looking a bit at Joshua 6 & 7. Please grab your bibles and read along starting in Joshua 6. In Joshua 6 wee see that Joshua and the Israelites were going about conquering the land as they were supposed to. They had just finished destroying Jericho, in fact we’re told that they “devoted all in the city to destruction” (Josh. 6.21). This is just as they were supposed to do (Josh. 6.17), however that’s not all they were supposed to do. In Joshua 6.18 we see that they were told this:

But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. (Josh. 6.18, ESV)

Keep that in mind because we’ll be back to this verse in just a bit. After they conquered Jericho, they were to move on to the city of Ai. They sent spies out to check out Ai and the spies decided that since the warriors in Ai were few that they didn’t need to bring all the Israelites to fight but only “3,000 men” (Josh. 7.3-4). As we continue reading we see that they Israelites lost the fight! To some of you this may be baffling after all, ‘how could they lose if God wanted them to conquer the land?’ The big reason is that they didn’t go to God! If they had they would’ve learned:

1)      How God wanted them to attack Ai

2)      That someone in their number didn’t keep the command found in (Josh. 6.18)

After the defeat they talk with God and learn what they would’ve found out if they had gone to him in the first place (see Josh. 7.11-12). They find out that someone had transgressed the command given them in Jericho! As the account goes we see that they narrowed the culprit down to an Israelite named Achan, and if you read at the end of the chapter we see that Achan and his “sons and daughters” as well as his animals were brought up to the Valley of Achor and stoned (Josh. 7.24). Because of one person’s sin, many suffered!

I know this post was a lot different than my normal one’s but I what I wanted you to see from these two chapters is that the sin of one person can affect many people. Because of Achan’s sin his family was stoned and even on a bigger scale we see that Israel was defeated in battle! What about us today? Our sin has the same effect on some. A sin as simple as cussing could result in another brother or sister in Christ falling away from the faith, or (looking at it on a more grand scale) could result in people seeing you act that way and thinking that all Christians are hypocrites. 

This is a pretty eye-opening thought to me. Our sin affects everyone and because of me the whole cause of Christ could be harmed! We sin, every single one of us (Rom. 3.23), we can’t help that however this week I do want you to think about everything you do and realize that your sin doesn’t just affect you, but those around you as well. - Jack D.

Our Adversary the Lion

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5.8, ESV, emp. added)

Have you ever thought about the devil as a lion? No doubt if you’ve run across this passage you’ve acknowledged the comparison, but have you ever stopped to think about lions? We are told in this verse that the “devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”, and that got me to thinking…How do lions hunt? When looking for information I came across this interesting fact:

“Lions are active during the day and at night but they prefer hunting at night.”*

Think about that…they are active both day and night but they prefer hunting at night. Since the devil is compared to a lion let’s look at how this fact applies to our “adversary” shall we? The way I see it is that the devil prefers to hunt us at our weakest point (that is to say our weakest point in our daily walk with God) but, he’ll hunt us even when we’re at our strongest point. Give that some thought…the devil ones to get you to fall when you’re already at your lowest point. Maybe you’ve been having a bad day, or you got a bad grade, or you got passed up for a job promotion, or anything else that get you to feeling down in the dumps, whatever it may be, Satan wants to use that to get you to turn away from the faith! A scary thought though is knowing that even though Satan wants to get you when you’re ‘down in the dumps’ spiritually, he’ll attack you when you’re on a ‘spiritual high’ (for lack of a better term)! I can see why Peter stressed being “sober-minded” and “watchful!” It’s because the devil will try and get you anytime, and anywhere he can! The devil is an opportunist! He takes every chance he’ll get! 

With this thought in mind this week I want to ask that you’ll try and avoid situations that could lead to the devil getting a hold of you easier. In other words, avoid situations that could lead to sin! Whether that be hanging out with some people that you probably shouldn’t, or going to a movie you probably shouldn’t be going to. If you think there’s a chance that a temptation you have will turn into sin, then do your best to avoid that situation! We need to be watchful for the devil, because I promise you he’s on the hunt! -Jack D.

* lion fact and picture found at http://www.facts-about.org.uk/zz-animals-lions.htm