Daily Prayer: A Weekly Devotional for Prayer-Filled Living. (Photo: Jesus Club kids acting out a Bible story.)

Daily Prayer ©2006
A Devotional Guide to Prayer and Prayerful Living

Published weekly by the Partners of
Lutheran Ministries of SW Oklahoma

Vol. 13, No. 17
Week of 
April 23, 2006
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An Achan in the Camp
by Pastor Ronald Boelte


Everything seems to be going the way God had said it would, when defeat by the enemy Ai changes everything. So what happened? The Israelites have just entered the Promised Land, and with God's help have destroyed the best defended city in the Promised Land, Jericho. However a lesser enemy Ai has driven the army back and many of the Israelites solders have been killed. What is wrong, Joshua cries out to the Lord, and the answer is that someone has stolen from God. A similar event is also mentioned in Acts 5. We will look closely at these two events where someone has stolen from God.

God does not work easily in an environment where selfish, covetous, unrepentant people are in the congregation of believers, and in these two events death follows.

As we look at this story we may wonder why God is so angry, and why punish the whole nation for the sin of one. Joshua has no idea that this sin had even happened, and yet God withdraws his power from the battle and many people perish. Achan has hidden this sin from everyone, but God still knew, and He makes it clear in Joshua 7:12 "I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction." Why does Achan's sin doom the Israelites, and why does God withdraw His power from them? These questions point to the fact that God wants to work through the whole nation (church) not just a select few, and that unrepentant sin can cause the work for God not to prosper. Israel lost a battle, but what may our church lose if we also have someone who has stolen from God in our midst?

 

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