When you act on your own without consideration
other people can get hurt…
'The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
“Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.' 'Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!’ Joshua 7:10-13, 15
when i was running amok, i never thought about what would happen if i got caught selling drugs, cheated on my wife, when i spent money that was for our home or son, and other stupid things i did. whatever i wanted is what i focused my attention on, regardless of how i got it, and didn’t give a crap about how it would affect those around me.
my story is similar to those before me, and about achan, that thought they could get away with it because ‘no one will find out’, which is nothing but a big fat lie. the same b.s. which you tell keep telling yourself is true, hoping for a different outcome than the others. unfortunately it all ends up the same - heartache, pain, disappointment, anger, and more. it becomes an emotional, mental rollercoaster and complete drain on everyone involved.
achan and his family paid a very heavy toll for his disobedience and disregard for what The Lord instructed. though this may seem cruel because only he stole the goods. what is true is that if you do the crime, there are consequences if you get caught. this certainly applied to me when everything i did was discovered and my life was unraveling - loss of my family, our home, and whatever we built. sachi and yujin didn’t deserve the years of suffering and turmoil that followed.
while this message would seem a downer because of what happened to achan’s family, i want to shift it back to The Lord - that He still gave the people a way to get it right, to honor Him. what was required was to bring those items and to destroy it.
while not the same as “the devoted things”, what He asked of me was to take my pride, my attitude, my ungodly desires, everything not in alignment with The Word of God, and destroy them. to call on Jesus as my Lord and Savior, allowing me to fight against the devil, to be redeemed, then letting restoration to happen in myself and family. even today, it is still happening for us.
dear Heavenly Father, thank you that you always provide a way to ‘get right’ even when we were wrong. i don’t want to be the one who is disobedient because of selfish motives and desires. teach me to be in alignment with all that you are asking of my family and i. may our lives be lived out to bring you glory and honor. in Jesus’ name i pray, amen!