One Man

     Can you hear the sound of your people celebrating? They are dancing, laughing, toasting to victory. You have won! Jericho has fallen, and a huge obstacle is now obsolete. Your people can walk freely in the land promised to them.

     Can you feel your chest swell with joy? God has saved you.

     High on the sense of victory, you send some scouts to check out the next city, a small city called Ai. It is not long before they return. They tell you that the village is small, and you don't need to send too many men to conquer it. Only a few thousand. After all, God is on your side!

     Later, you stare, shocked. You are defeated. Ai remains, and some of your men have died. Men with families...wives, children. Men with futures, only just stepping foot into the Promised Land. 

     You beg God, Abba Father, "why?"

     When you begin to read the story of Ai in Joshua 7 you may be left bewildered, confused. Why would God allow you to be defeated by a small city? Why after He has just led you to conquer Jericho, a fortified city? When you carry on reading, the answer is revealed. 

     One man.

     One man disobeyed God, and plundered an "accursed item." 

     It only took one man to cause that destruction. One man's disobedience.

God says: "There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you." - Joshua 7:13

     Unfortunately this is all too common. We allow a little bit of leaven, a little bit of sin into our lives, our camp so to speak. We try to justify it or to cover it up. That one little thing hinders us. It separates us from God. We know about it, but we do not address it. And before we know it, our army is broken and defeated. Our camp divided. Our lives desolate. 

     

     My friends, I cannot urge you enough. If we do not repent, we endanger not only ourselves but the people we love, the people we share life with. Spiritually, emotionally, even physically they are in danger. What fruit will come from our work if we do not take on Jesus' yoke, abandoning our past? We must know that we are sinners, and that we are sanctified and justified by Jesus. But if we use His grace as a cheap cover up for our sins, an excuse to carry on sinning, we slap His beautiful face. We take what He freely gives without offering anything to Him.

     

     Take the battle at Ai. Think about it, and apply it in your own life. Are you hiding things, trying to justify your sins? Or are you truly free?