Scripture
Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. Joshua 7:13
Observation
God had gone to great lengths to tell his people that if they would follow his commands they would enjoy his blessings. If also made it clear that if they didn’t follow his commands, they would be cursed. It didn’t take very long for his people to see, God meant what he said.
They had experience a tremendous victory in the battle of Jericho and now they had just experience a huge defeat at Ai. What was the difference; sin.
Application
I cannot quite get over how one man’s sin affected so many innocent people. It reminds me of the text in Romans 5:19 which says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous”.
There is something really important for us to learn about community. What I do affects others in my community. No one sins alone. All through the Bible and life we see how a seemingly little sin affects so many other people.
Prayer
Father, I pray that as I commit to live in obedience to your will, others will be blessed by that as well.
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1 comment:
Many times the Bible has left us counsel on how "sin affects the whole thing". Like the yeast that leavens the whole mass of wheat. It spreads. It is like fire--wild fire. It spreads.
I didn't realize that 1 man's sin really does make a difference and affects all who surround him. From these lessons I see God tells us it does. And even though I don't have complete understanding of the matter, because God says it, I accept it, and hope that my sin will never affect anyone, and try to put sin from me (with God's grace).
Skipping ahead to the lesson on April 3rd and 4th, I didn't understand why Judges 17 and 18 were included in the Bible. I didn't understand what they were telling us. I can only guess that it was to warn us against the sin of the graven images. I also didn't understand how the whole tribe of Benjamin could be cut off from the rest of Israel, but it was because of sin. And they couldn't let 1 tribe's sin contaminate the rest of Israel. Again, we see the problem of the results of "sin."
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