I have hidden Thy word in my heart.
(Picture by Lisa R)

Joshua 7. “Achan replied, ‘It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.’ So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord. Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor.  Joshua said, ‘Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.’ Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from His fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since” (Verses 20-26). Think the punishment was too serve? Then we clearly don’t understand God’s disdain for sin. But more importantly we don’t understand the effect of sin. God said, “DON”T do this….” Achan did it knowing that he was sinning (he wouldn’t have hid it so carefully otherwise). Not only did he know he was sinning, he knew the cost of his sin and chose to do it anyway. His selfish behavior cost 35 men their lives. Upon seeing the consequences of his actions, he still choose not to own up. I genuinely believed that had he confessed God would have been gracious to forgive, however, he chose instead to continue acting as though life was normal. It wasn’t until God personally called him out that he admitted his sin. He didn’t admit because he was wrong, he admitted because he got caught. There was no repentance. That is the problem with sin, it causes one compromise after another, a little at a time till your heart is hard and you don’t care about others you only care about…YOU. That’s why the serve punishment, that’s why God completely eradicated any trace of it. We need to do the same in our lives (no I am not saying to kill ourselves, that is not the message here) I am saying kill the sin. Let go of what keeps God from blessing us. Eradicate it, don’t let anything stand in the way of what God has for us. God disdains sin and if we don’t kill it, it will kill us (and just so you know not all death is physical).