Pointing Fingers — Image by © Images.com/Corbis
Inspirational Thought of the Day:
When one falls, we all do.
Scripture:
Joshua 7:1, 11-12
“But the Israelites disobeyed the command about the city’s riches. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, stole some of the riches. The LORD was furious with the Israelites. 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenantal commandment! They have taken some of the riches; they have stolen them and deceitfully put them among their own possessions. 12 The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation. I will no longer be with you, unless you destroy what has contaminated you.”
But. I hate that word. It usually precedes something you don’t want to hear. Before the “but” word is typically something encouraging to set you up for the plunge you are about to take. I gotta say it … BUT if it were not for the buts we would probably have many lessons unlearned.
We all want to hear a fairy tale ending for someone who has suffered. The Israelites had just defeated Jericho. We don’t want to hear that they are now about to be annihilated because one person stole what was meant to be destroyed. Instead of celebrating victory, 36 innocent men died because one of the Israelites just had to disobey.
What is difficult for me to swallow in the above passage is the plural on the people group Israelites. One person is named to have sinned greatly before God, but they all take the rap for it.
At first God’s ire seems unjust, but if we consider the family unit, when just one member transgresses, the whole family is affected. People question how the family could allow such an action. So it is with the body of Christ.
Sometimes tragedy awakens us to realize we might have sin in our camp. We can oversimplify and assume that any difficulty was brought about by sin, BUT in reality, whether the root cause is sin or not, there is always a lesson within that has the potential to draw us nearer to God.
Who is right and who is wrong does not really matter. Finding someone to blame does not necessarily fix the problem, either.
If we are all the body, then when one part of the body of Christ is found in sin we should not consider ourselves better, but surround that person and count ourselves in their number until we right the wrong.
Ultimately, the discovery of sin is devastating, BUT it can produce the beautiful fruit of repentance if we humble ourselves and let it. Like Moses who offered to bear the blame of the sin of his people, may God help us to bear one another’s weaknesses and point one another to Christ.
Lord, help us to yield to You when we want to run the other way because of someone else’s or our own shame. May we discover the joy of obedience and help others around us to do the same.
Seeing Deep Blog by Denise Pass 