SIN IN THE CAMP

BECAUSE OF ONE MANS SIN

Isn’t it amazing how sin will take you further than you ever intended to go, and hold you longer than you intended to stay, and will cost you more than you were ever willing to pay?

In Joshua 7:1 we read ” But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan….took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.”

The accursed thing mentioned here was ordered by God in ch 6:18: “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when you take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”

Achan could not resist the temptation and took of the banned articles and his premeditated disobedience affected the entire nation: “and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.”

The sin that Achan chose obviously was an offense to God, but why did Gods anger burn against the whole nation? Simply because the whole of the nation was in covenant with God.

The covenant with circumcision as its sign, was made with Abraham, passed on to Isaac and then to Jacob, whose name became Israel. His descendants continued in renewal of the covenant in ch 5 after they had crossed the Jordan River under Joshua’s leadership. Until ch 5 this new generation had not been circumcised. Once they determined to be circumcised and followed thru with the act, they became as a unit, now not only in covenant with God, but with each other as well.

As a nation, each member had a responsibility to honor and trust God, but, when one disobeyed, his sin not only was personal but affected the entire group. They had after all agreed to be community.

God tells them in ch 7:11 that because of Achans sin, they had broken the covenant. The whole nation or group was guilty because of one mans sin.

The covenant with God for a New Testament Church believer is not through circumcision of the flesh, but through the heart, by way of the Cross of Christ and the sacrifice of blood that was shed by Jesus Christ the perfect sacrifice.

When will we ever learn that we, who are believers, are members one of another!

What I do as a believer affects you, what you do will affect me, and what we do affects those that we have chosen to place our lives in covenantal agreement with.

Paul teaches this in Romans ch 12:5 “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of another.”

There is no mistake about it , what one does affects the whole.

There are numerous examples of this in Scripture. In Numbers ch 12, we have an account of Miriam’s sin; God struck her with leprosy and because of her sin the whole nation was held back for seven days.

We could examine King David’s life and his willful sin with a woman, and how it caused the innocent servant to be murdered with an entire nation suffering the consequences, and we could go on, and on.

Believers are in covenant with God, through Jesus Christ, and because of that we are in covenant with one another. We are members one with another. We are to encourage each other in the faith, we are also to hold each other accountable, because our sin will affect more than just ourselves.

A Christian family operates on the same principal, sin in the fathers life affects the entire family, until dealt with under the blood of the Christ.

A Church also is like this nation, and family.

We cannot expect God to pour out his blessings when there is gossip, slander, and maligning of personalities on going.

Murmuring about what we like and don’t like, complaints about the flow of ministry, about who is and who isn’t involved, discontent in general, affects the entire congregation in a negative manner.

Sin in leadership will hinder the growth of the fellowship, and likewise sin in the fellowship will hinder the ability of those in leadership.

Sin is a breaking or betrayal of the covenant that we agree upon with God, through the Christ.

It breaks the trust bond and damages us all.

Sin cannot be hidden, it is like leprosy, it becomes an outward demonstration, of a problem inside the individual or group.

Only the Blood of Christ can cleanse the leper from the inside to the outside.

Ask yourself, as I ask myself, is there any sin in our camp.

It is a betrayal of our covenant with God and with each other.