Tomorrow, at CBC, we will be starting the second half of our autumn series 'Promises Kept and Promises Broken'. Last week we finished Joshua and now we're moving into Judges. If you thought that Joshua raised some tricky questions ('what about all the killing?' for example) then be prepared for more in this next book of the Old Testament. If you want to get a bit of a head start before Sunday - when we're going to be looking at Judges 1:1-3:6 - then a great place to begin would be over with the guys at The Bible Project. Some of you, I know, have been following their daily read through the Bible programme, but we covered Judges a long time ago now (back in March), so you might want a refresher. You can either head over to their website by clicking here and look around and see what else you can find. Or else you can watch the video below. Here's the poster that goes with the book of Judges. You can also download this from their website - follow the link above.
Although we're moving from Joshua to Judges this coming Sunday at CBC I want to go back to the story of Achan in Joshua 7. You'll remember that before the battle for Jericho the people had been instructed by God that they were not to take anything for themselves as loot or bounty, but everything was to be devoted to God. But a guy called Achan had taken some things and as a result they'd lost the next battle - at a place called Ai. You can remind yourself of the story here. When he was confronted with his sin, Achan confessed in Joshua 7:21-22. In his confession he stated that: I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. How often does our sin start with something that we see? Maybe, as in the case of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), we see something that we shouldn't see in the first place - because we're somewhere where we shouldn't have been. Or maybe it's something that we can't help seeing - as is the case here with Achan. But after seeing our minds get to work. And rather than just shut the thought process down we let it run for a bit. We don't know what Achan thought but maybe he had already started spending the gold, maybe he imagined the robe would make a great Christmas present for his wife. But what he should have thought is - all this is to be devoted to the Lord. No doubt a part of this thought process was about how he could conceal what he was doing and whether he was going to be able to get away with it. Maybe he even tried to justify in his mind what he was doing. How it wasn't that serious, and that it wasn't really hurting anyone. What difference would a handful of things make in amongst such a vast horde? Then eventually his run-away thoughts led him to action and he took. And then he tried to cover up what he had done. And the serious consequences that followed occurred because Achan didn't shut his thought process down earlier - instead, he let it run. Last week on my Twitter feed an article from Care for the Family was highlighted. Although it specifically focuses on one area of life it does show how important it is to halt the see-think-do-conceal as quickly as possible so that we don't get to the 'do' stage. You can read the article here.
Before moving to CBC we lived in a part of north west London where there was a large Jewish community and a number of synagogues. Today, in that part of London, and in many other parts of the world, you would have seen smartly dressed men and women walking along the road wearing trainers. I remember thinking that this was a bit strange the first time I saw it. It's not even like they were black trainers. Where were all the smart shoes to match the clothes? Today (11-12 October 2016) is the most holy and solemn day within the Jewish year - Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. It is a day of fasting and prayer, a day of asking for forgiveness for sin. It is a solemn day - a day of personal sacrifice. (Which is where the shoes come in - amongst other things Jews are not to wear leather on this most holy day.) Regular visitors to this blog will know that last year we looked at the passages in Leviticus that dealt with God giving Moses the instructions for the Day of Atonement. You'll find these posts here and here. Two Sundays ago at CBC we were looking at the story of Achan - see here. A story which reminds us of the seriousness of sin. The Day of Atonement speaks of that seriousness and God's provision for dealing with those consequences - a festival that ultimately points to Jesus' death on the cross. Putting things right between us and God once and for all.
Apparently sermons on sin and judgement are really unpopular. I'm guessing therefore that blog posts on these subjects are even more unpopular! At least when you're in church and the preacher announces the theme of his or her sermon you actually have to get up and physically leave - whereas when it comes to something on the internet something else is only a click away. Last Sunday, as we continued our series on Joshua we came to the story of Achan. You'll find the full story in Joshua 7. But by way of summary: When God had given the Israelites victory over the city of Jericho, one of God's instructions was that everything in the city was to be devoted to God. But Achan, it turns out, saw some things he wanted - and so he took them for himself and hid them in his tent. As a consequence of this sin God's anger 'burned against Israel' and when they went up against the next city Ai they were defeated.
It was revealed that someone had sinned and the following morning the people were called forward tribe by tribe, then clan by clan, then family by family. And so Achan was exposed and to cut the story short, Achan, his family and all his possessions were destroyed. This story shows us various things about sin - one of which is the seriousness of sin. The consequences of his actions were drastic. When we come into the New Testament the seriousness of sin is demonstrated by the cross. God's love was demonstrated for us on the cross - as Jesus paid the price for our sin. At that point where we were called forward tribe by tribe, then clan by clan, then family by family - as it came to our turn to step forward, Jesus steps in instead, and takes our punishment in order that we might live. I don't know about you but I'm thankful for the cross and that I live in the light of the New Testament.
