Tcn's Biblical Journey Feb 22

Today's readings are Joshua 5-9

Joshua chapter 7 could cause people to cry, "That's not fair!" We see Achan disobeying God by taking spoils from the battle of Jericho he wasn’t supposed to take. However, because of his actions Israel losses the next battle and once he had been discovered, him and all of his family are killed. It just doesn’t seem fair to many, especial with God making it very clear in the law that only those responsible for a crime are supposed to pay for it. So, what is the deal.

First, God knows, and we see it here, that the actions of others can cause devastating repercussions on others, especially family. Many people who are abusers were the children of abusers. The same with alcoholics and most other moral failings. The problem doesn’t end with family as the drunk driver effects those who are in no way related to them. We know the big names, Hitler, Stalin, just to name a couple, but what we don’t realize are the little names which have changed our lives forever and we will never know. We don’t know but the woman who was going to give us the cure for cancer, may have been killed because someone took a shortcut on her brake job.

Second, God’s command was for us to only hold those who have done wrong responsible, God who knows all does what is right on a greater scale than we could image. Here God gives an example to the children of Israel in a dramatic way just how powerful the actions of one person are to a nation and to a family.

We have talked about how the actions of a parent effect the rest of the family some, but you may not realize the actions of one person can change the outcome of a battle. If you like him or not Stonewall Jackson’s actions in the first major land-based confrontation of the civil war changed what could have been a quick victory for the north into a long drawn out conflict (It is possible without the drawn-out conflict the 13^th amendment may not have passed until years later). This is just one example, God though didn’t here allow Achan’s actions to continue to their logical end but allowed a defeat to teach Israel what disobedience cost. We have to trust that God knew he was doing the right thing.

We may not like God’s way here, but he knows more than we do. Some may wish that Stonewall Jackson had failed ending the civil war quickly and saving tens of thousands of lives. Personally, though that cost was great in human lives, the idea that the sin of slavery could have gone of for possibly decades longer is inconceivable.