A Modern Day Achan

      I have recently had the opportunity to study the story of Achan and how his sin undermined the plan and purpose of the Children of Israel's conqueroring the promise land. If you remember Joshua and his army, along with the people marched around the city of Jericho for seven days and on the last day through a miracle, gave the city over to the Israelites. The people of Jericho were so wicked that God ordered every person, animal and living being to be killed and nothing was to be taken and everything was to be destroyed, wiped off the face of the earth. But Achan had other plans. He saw things that he liked and took them and in doing so doomed Joshua's army to defeat against the people of Ai. The Children of Israel suffered and many died. Sin had entered the camp and until this sin was rooted out, Israel could not move forward. Lucky for them Joshua was a die-hard, commited man of God, sin was dealt with and the Isarelites were able to move once again.

        Sometimes I think how this is very similiar to my life. How much sin do I have buried in the dirt in the back of some tent in my life, and how often do I root it out and deal with it, not often enough. I then started to think that what would have happened to the Children of Israel if Joshua had not decided to deal with Achen and his sin? Would the Israelites still be sitting on the banks of the Jordon river, unable to move any farther than the city of Jericho? Would God have taken Joshua out of the picture and found someone else to do the job? Or would the people have decided that this all was not worth it and headed back to Egypt? How would "undealt" sin affect my life? Would I too become stagnant, unmoving and worthless to God? Would I become stuck in one place, unable to move off the banks of my sin and take the promise that God has given me. And on a greater scale, how would "sin in the camp" affect today's church? Undealt with, would it have the same outcome as the battle for Ai? Would the church become stagnant, unable to move forward? Would the leadership be removed or leave to give way to those who are not willing to compromise with sin?

     Joshua, or rather Achan learned this lesson the hard way, he lost his life. I would like to think that I would be able to "not" follow in Achan's footsteps but rather Joshua's so that the sin in my life would be dealt with and I could move forward. And finally, that the church would recognize that sin in the camp would leave them sitting on the banks of their "Jordon" destined to fight the battle of Ai with the same results time and time again until the leadership was moved to action or was moved to leave.

     

     The story of Achan can be applied to every aspect of today,  through our lives, our families and even our church.  Can we learn this valuable lesson and move on towards the promised land or or are we content to view God's promise from afar never truly dealing with sin in the camp.

October 6, 2008