Joshua 7:6-16
6And Joshua rent his
clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD
until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their
heads. 7And Joshua
said, Alas, O LORD God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people
over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?
would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! 8O LORD, what shall I say, when
Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! 9For the Canaanites and all the
inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round,
and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy
great name?
10And
the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon
thy face? 11Israel
hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I
commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have
also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their
own stuff.
12Therefore
the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned
their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither
will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among
you.
13Up, 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.
14In the morning therefore ye
shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the
tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to the families
thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by
households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man
by man.
15And it
shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt
with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the
covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.
16So Joshua rose up early in
the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah
was taken:"
This is very apt for the day in which we live, and it's not the only occasion in Scripture where God shows His disgust for whining about the situation.
In this event Joshua (a great man of faith ... a biblical hero) succumbs to his frustration in not being able to take the city of Ai. He is no doubt justifiably tired of the Israelites' constantly complaining, being disobedient and having such short-lived faith. He also expresses dismay that the Lord's name may be sullied among the pagans who they are trying to drive out of Israel. But, there is also an element of dejection and disappointment in God Himself, that He has not rescued them out of the hand of the enemy. Let's face it; he was having a moment of self-pity, as had Moses before him.
The Lord was having none of it.
In verse 10, God essentially says: "Get up of the ground and stop groveling. The people have sinned. Right there is the problem. They've broken the covenant and deliberately disobeyed my commands and taken some of the booty than was banned. Get up, round up these stubborn people and find out who has done this thing and burn him up with fire.
Joshua obeyed. The man was found ... he admitted his guilt ... and the people stoned him and burned him with fire, as the Lord had commanded.
No political correctness evident here. Even though the man admitted his guilt, he was destroyed.
This is precisely what will happen to those who allow false prophets into the church today. -- "but we just wanted more people coming to church....trying to get the 'unchurched' ... we thought it was hearsay ... " The whimpering, politically correct, disobedient self-justification of those of this world will only make God angrier.. There will be no reprieve.
NOW is the time to think on these things.
Royal Heir
Posts
