By Nick Bibile
Now here we see Moses dead and Joshua becomes the leader of Israel. Moses led the children of Israel from Egypt and through the wilderness, that generation died, but Joshua and Caleb came from the older generation, now there is a new generation under the leadership of Joshua. They are going to enter Canaan, the land of milk and honey. However, there are many battles to be won. The first and one of the big cities they conquered was Jericho. Jericho lies about 800 feet below sea level, very close to the Dead Sea. God destroyed Jericho when the walls came down , only Rahab and family were saved. Jericho was a large city now Israel will go to war against Ai, which is a smaller city; Ai is about 1000 feet higher than sea level. But here Israelites were routed and defeated at Ai, why; it’s all because of one man’s disobedience to God. And that man’s name was Achan.
Read Joshua 6:17-24. Read Chapter 7
Underline the word ‘accursed’
Accursed in Hebrew ‘haram’ or herem. Today we have the English word for herem which means wives quarters in a home. The word accurse in English has the meaning of under a curse.
Hebrew meaning is ban for utter destruction, devoting something for God, for sacred use. Accursed things were given to God by destruction or devotion. God was the real conqueror of Jericho, Jericho was to be destroyed and its precious items were to be dedicated to God. Jericho was a kind of ‘tithing’ to be given to God, as it was the first city, which was conquered in the promised land.
He took the beautiful robe made of silver and gold from Jericho to himself, knowing that it should be devoted to God, it belonged to God, so really speaking he stole from God, the accursed thing became a curse on him.
Result: Because of one man’s sin, the entire Israel suffered, some were killed at the battle and a small enemy defeated them.
Lesson:
As a local fellowship in Christ Jesus, we are one body. We as a body of believers, as a group together we are marching towards the promised land, our promised land is heaven. As a group of believers where we are today, listening to the word of God, worshiping God, having fellowship in God. As a group we have prayer meetings, evangelism bringing souls from darkness to the light Christ, as a group we are growing in the Lord and waging war against enemy territories bringing sinners to our beloved Savior.
However if there is an Achan in our church, then we too are going to be defeated and there will be no blessings of the Lord. The pastor can preach the best sermons, but there will be no growth in the church, there will be no holiness in the church, we will be the same in ten years from now even worse, we may know a lot of doctrine but we will be hypocrites like Achan and we may be a big church, yet would be a defeated weak church in the eyes of God.
Resolution.