A Little Bit of My Way

Joshua 7:1-15

Just one among all the people of Israel compromised with God's Will, taking a little bit for himself against the explicit command of God. What's the big deal? All of Israel suffered for it. The entire conquest of the Promised Land is doomed to failure until this is made right.

Tiny little compromise. Massive consequences.

There are chains of cause and effect that we do not yet understand. But Sin always leads to disaster.

Cause and Effect – Washing Hands

God gives mysterious commands about ritual cleansing, rinsing with water, especially with dealing with things that are “unclean” like dead bodies, before eating break and after using the bathroom. And they bathed once a week before the Sabbath.

In the mid 14th century, the Black death swept across Europe, annihilating nearly half the population. And it mostly passed the Jewish communities by. People did not understand what was different about them.. and so some actually blamed the Jews and there were persecutions.

It wasn’t for another 400 years that “science” would discover the “magic” of washing hands before things like surgery. It wasn’t for a 100 years after that that we would understand a bit of the germ theory that explains why hand washing would help.

But 3500 years ago, God gave the command to the people of Israel. “Dude, wash your hands before eating, after using the bathroom, and after dealing with dead bodies.” There was a cause and effect at play in God’s universe they did not understand, but God gave a command that would help them navigate through successfully.

Cause and Effect – Stealing from Canaan

God gave the command to “devote the people of Canaan to destruction.”

And He gives the command to walk around Jericho. They follow it and the walls fall down.

Enter Achan. He sees Jericho’s walls come tumbling down. With Israel’s thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of warriors, he walks straight forward and sacks the city. Killing all the inhabitants. Burning all the things.

But he finds himself alone at one moment. And he comes across a little treasure trove. A beautiful cloak… perhaps it would make the perfect gift for his wife when they get their own place. And some silver, just thing how that will provide for his children. And a bar of gold… he could provide for his descendants, this is serious money now. The gold alone would be about $26,000 today. What is the big deal?

Cause:

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.

Effect:

Enter description of the defeat at the hands of Ai.

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,

Not just fled, literally turned the backs of their necks to the enemy, absolutely vulnerability. The equivalent of screaming like a girl, and running off sobbing. This is the only time in Scripture this dramatic term is used.

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.

Not many men killed, but 36 more than were killed at Jericho. Defeat, and embarrassing defeat, right after epic victory.

Joshua’s distress

6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads.

What a cathartic way to mourn, to show distress. These guys knew how to do it! They have gone from victory to defeat… WHY GOD???

7 And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! 8 O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?”

(How often do we cry out to God because we do not understand the consequences of our own actions?)

God, in his grace, answers Joshua.

10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. 12 Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

Sin has consequence. Sin has lead to disaster. We don’t understand the chain of cause and effect here. Why does someone taking some devoted thing lead to military disaster? No idea, I see no connection. But God gave the command, someone among them disobeyed, and disaster followed.

Fortunately, by His grace, God tells Joshua what is going on. And he gives him a way to find the sin:

13 Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.” 14 In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that the Lord takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households. And the household that the Lord takes shall come near man by man. 15 And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel.’”

Cause and Effect – Sin in Your Life

Not all hardships are caused by sin in our life (Jesus and the blind man)… but sin in our life will always hardship.

Sin leads to disaster. (Protip: that is why it is sin). God’s commands are not arbitrary. It may take humanity millennia to understand the why, to understand the connection, but it turns out God knows what He is doing.

… and not always disaster for us. Was it Achan who suffered? No, it was the nation of Israel. Achan is going to pay a price in the next passage, but that is in the repentance and payment for sin.

There can be no compromise with sin because sin leads to disaster. Cause and effect.

You can think of it as God punishing sin, and that is true.

But you can also reverse the order. God has created this world as a “real” place where we can make “real” choices that have consequences. Cause and effect. And he has commanded us not to do the things whose effect would be harmful to ourselves, to our relationship with others, and (above all) to our relationship with Him. It is not reactive punishment to our transgression, it is a warning sign to prevent us from hurting ourselves.

I have a law in our house: no baby talk in the house. But it’s only because it bothers me. I might yell at the kids for it, but that is me being annoyed. God doesn’t do that, his laws are for our good.

I have a rule: don’t put metal objects in the electric outlets. It isn’t because it annoys me, it’s because they will likely die if they do that. I gave them the rule long before they could understand the consequences.

Compromise with Sin

So it doesn’t matter if you know and understand and agree with the “cause and effect” connection when it comes to sin. It is there anyways. And sin leads to disaster. (That’s why it’s sin).

What is the big deal with premarital sex? Science is starting to discover some things, not only STDs and the like but about the way God has designed us, hormonal attachment bonding.

What is the big deal with committed homosexual relationships? I don’t know, I don’t understand the cause and effect connection… but I believe God calls it out as sin and so I simply trust that He knows what He is talking about. He knows what is best for His creations.

What is the big deal with pornography, it isn’t hurting anyone! Human beings are just starting to understand some connections: sexual addictions, dopamine receptors… but long ago God said it was devastatingly harmful to look at another for the purpose of lusting after them.

You know the sin in your life. Anyone go for gluttony this Christmas season? Health professionals looking around at the average BMI in America and calling it a national health crisis… and God says “Yeah, I told you!”

Not because He wants us to feel bad. Not because He wants us to feel constantly guilty or, worse, to feel shame. Because sin leads to disaster. And He loves you. And I love you. And I love me too. And I want better for all of us than to keep running into disaster because we are consciously choosing to make compromises with what we KNOW to be God’s Will and God’s Way!

We all slip up. Of course. We all make mistakes. Absolutely. And we live in the grace of, the forgiveness of, and the perfect forever righteousness of Jesus. We are forgiven of all our sins and pure in the sight of God forever.

But we still live in a world of cause and effect, don’t we? And our sin still has consequence, doesn’t it? Some of it we understand and can predict and some is mysterious and invisible… but it is all disaster.

And as Achan’s sin affected the whole tribe of Israel… so does my sin affect my family, my community, my church. Your sin affects me. It isn’t just me, it’s we. It isn’t just you, it’s us.

In a couple weeks we are going to talk about repentance, and grace, and second chances.

But I believe there are some of us who have convinced ourselves that “this” sin is “okay”. You know what that area of sin is. This little bit is under the radar. This little bit is my little secret. This little bit is not hurting anyone else.

I believe God says this to you today. Yes it is. It is hurting you and it is hurting others. I probably can’t explain how, or predict how. But God makes this absolutely clear: sin always leads to disaster.

Let’s have no compromise. Let’s give no quarter.

"...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…" Hebrews 12:1b-2a