2007-06-15
Good Morning God's Treasures,
Anyone who is strong and true in his faith in the Lord God can be considered God's treasure. That's because while the Holy Spirit is directing that I write about temptation, people please God who have the discernment to recognize it and thwart the work of the evil one in it. God loves us, because He created us in His own image [GN 1: 27] and continually renews believers in His own image, so that we will have a greater knowledge of Him [COL 3: 10]. Having written that, I am led to go on with some examples from the Scriptures of how temptation has caused trouble. This discussion is foundational to Christ's words in MT 6: 22-23- part of His Sermon on the Mount. "The eyes are a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eyes are no good, your body will be in darkness. So if the light in you is darkness, how terribly dark it will be!"
When something is important to God, He will make His direction clear. Such was the case when He commanded Joshua to lead the Israelite army into the Promised Land in general and Jericho specifically. His direction was clear in JS 6: 16b-18, "The Lord has given you the city! The city and everything in it must be totally destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only the prostitute Rahab and her household will be spared, because she hid our spies. But you are not to take anything that is to be destroyed; if you do, you will bring trouble and destruction on the Israelite camp." On first inspection, this seems cruel and ungodly. However, God has made His motivation clear for such a command in DT 7: 1-6, "The Lord your God will bring you into the land that you are going to occupy, and He will drive many nations out of it. As you advance, He will drive out seven nations larger and more powerful than you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. When the Lord your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make any alliance with them or show them any mercy. Do not marry any of them and do not let your children marry any of them, because then they would lead your children away from the Lord to worship other gods. If that happens, the Lord will be angry with you and destroy you at once. So then, tear down their altars, break their sacred stone pillars in pieces, cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah, and burn their idols. Do this because you belong to the Lord your God. From all the peoples on earth He chose you to be His own special people." This meant that every enemy man, woman, child, and even animals belonging to them must be killed in Jericho. Now to the temptation and the consequences of giving in to it.
We learn in JS 6: 20-21 that this command was carried out and in JS 6: 22-25 that Rahab and her household were not only spared this demise, but that her descendants live in Israel to this day. We are also told that Jericho was burned to the ground, except for things made of gold, silver, bronze, and iron, which they took and put in the Lord's treasury. Interestingly enough, modern day archeologists who have dug in Jericho have found the remains of the burned ruins of the ancient city, once again providing proof of the truth of the Bible. However, when human beings are involved, it's rare that everything is perfect. Such was the case when unbeknownst to his commander, Joshua, a man named Achan disobeyed the order not to take any of the loot, angering God [JS 7: 1]. The consequences of his action were seen in the attempt on the Israelite army's part to capture Ai. JS 7: 4-5, "So about three thousand Israelites made the attack, but they were forced to retreat. The men of the Ai chased them from the city gate as far as some quarries and killed about 36 of them on the way down the hill. Then the Israelites lost their courage and were afraid." Later, in verse (12), we learn that God promises not to allow any more Israelites to lose their lives, if the stolen materials are found and destroyed. JS 7: 15, [God speaking to Joshua] "The one who is then picked out and found with the condemned gold will be burned, along with his family and everything he owns, for he has brought terrible shame on Israel and has broken My covenant." Clan by clan, family by family, man by man was picked out until it was uncovered that Achan, son of Carmi and grandson of Zabdi, was the culprit. Achan confessed in JS 7: 20. He was stoned to death along with his family, and his possessions were burned in a place that is called Trouble Valley (25-26a).
Because of my own understanding about the sacredness of the covenant we have with God, I must emphasize the importance of daily study of God's word here, especially JS 7: 15. When we take the time to learn God's will through this kind of study, we are given the discernment to know what conforms with it and what doesn't. Joshua and his men had the teachings of Moses from the Torah [the first five books of Moses]. I suspect they might not have been written down, but instead were oral teachings passed on from father to son with great care and accuracy at that time. They knew they were under the teachings of the Covenant of the Law. Just as today we know the will of God in the Covenant of Grace, under which we find ourselves. Behaviors that were not acceptable were made very clear by God then and are now. When we make choices not to break the Covenant we have with God, we never have to worry about the sometimes dire consequences to ourselves and/or others that come from sinful actions.
PRAYER: O Lord, we are imperfect beings even through we were created in Your own image. Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, we who believe in Him are forgiven. As Paul wrote about the conflict between the body and the Spirit within us [RO 7: 14-25], he has described our problem with the evil one who tempts us daily to stray from You. You are a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God-something which is revealed in JS 7: 26b, "Then the Lord was no longer furious [with the Israelites]." Many people unfamiliar with the OT think that You never show forgiveness in it. Yet You modeled this for all of the ancient believers. PS 32: 5, "Then I confessed my sins to You; I did not conceal my wrongdoings. I decided to confess them to You, and You forgave all my sins," David wrote. There is a great lesson for us in this. We need to confess our own sins to You, so that we too can be forgiven. While the Atonement of Your Son on the cross forgave all our past sin [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; HE 8: 12] and opened the way for our salvation, we still need to confess our present sins and make the choice to stop any wrongful behavior. Our Covenant of Grace with You is sacred. You have commanded us to, "be holy because I am holy" [LV 11: 44-45; LV 19: 2; 1 PET 1: 16]. We find ourselves tempted to disobey You every day. The devil is cunning in bringing these temptations into our lives [1 PET 5: 8]. And yet, through Paul, You have told us, in PHIL 4 :13, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." Dearest Father, we take this time to confess our sins and to beseech You to help us to overcome the temptations the adversary brings in to our lives. We offer You our reverence, respect, and loyalty. We study Your word and pray regularly, listening for Your direction. You are to be praised, thanked, adored, and honored. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
In next week's message, the Holy Spirit directs me to continue to write about how do we deal with temptation. When we hold in secret our sins, things have a way of piling up until they finally are brought out into the open in some kind of destructive way. Each of us has different vulnerabilities. It might be food, alcohol, drugs, smoking, marital infidelity, abuse of responsibilities, emotional or physical abuse, or whatever thoughts, decisions, and/or behavior that we know is not in line with God's will. Fear, confusion, lack of self-esteem, and many other activities of the evil one cause havoc in people's lives. But as true believers in Jesus Christ, we must remember that "the Spirit that is in us is stronger than the spirit of those in the world" [1 JN 4: 4]. Does this mean that we will have an easy time thwarting the devil's work? No, it doesn't. But it does mean that God has equipped us to battle the adversary with the hope of total victory in Christ's holy name [EPH 1: 18-20; EPH 6: 10-18]. The next time any of is tempted, remember these Scripture citations, read them again and again, and know that our Lord Jesus is with us in our battle. For God's direction, go to prayer and listen carefully. He will communicate in His own perfect time and way. He will feed us spiritually when He does this. PS 145: 15, 17-18, "The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time...The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made. The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." We should call to Him and know that if we follow His direction, He will bless us abundantly. Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn