There is a
accursed thing in your midst
The
book of Joshua tells this important
story which if a person comprehend
it he will live in peace. That is
why I purposely wrote most of it so
we can understand it and appreciate
the danger of breaking any of God's
commandment.
''And
the seventh time it happened, when
the priests blew the trumpets, that
Joshua said to the people: "Shout,
for the LORD has given you the city
(Jericho)
Now
the city shall be doomed by the LORD
to destruction, it and all who
are
in it. Only Rehab the harlot shall
live,
..,
because she hid the messengers that
we sent.
"And
you, by all means abstain from the
accursed things, lest you become
accursed when you take of the
accursed things, and make the camp
of Israel a curse, and trouble it "
{Jo6: 16-18} here our God commanded
Joshua that , by all means abstain
from the accursed things, lest you
become accursed when you take of the
accursed things, and make the camp
of Israel a curse, and trouble it
"so everything in Jericho was
acursed.
"But the children of Israel
committed a trespass regarding the
accursed things, for Achan the son
of Carmi,
,
of the tribe of Judah, took of the
accursed things;
so the anger of the LORD burned
against the children of Israel.
,[Joshua
said] and spoke to them, saying, "Go
up and spy out the country." So the
men went up and spied out Ai.
And they returned to Joshua and said
to him, "Do not let all the people
go up, but let about two or three
thousand men go up and attack Ai.
. for
the people of Ai are
few.
So about three thousand men went up
there from the people, but they fled
before the men of Ai.
And
the men of Ai struck down about
thirtysix
men,
therefore the hearts of the people
melted and became like water.
Then Joshua tore his clothes, and
fell to the earth on his face before
the ark of the LORD until evening,
he and the elders of Israel; and
they put dust on their heads.
And Joshua said, "Alas, Lord GOD,
why have You
brought this people over the Jordan
at all to deliver us into the hand
of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh,
that we had been content, and dwelt
on the other side of the Jordan!
"O
Lord, what shall I say when Israel
turns its back before its enemies?
..
Then what will
You do for Your great name?"
So the LORD said to Joshua: "Get up!
Why do you lie thus on your face?
"Israel
has sinned, and they have also
transgressed My covenant which I
commanded them. For they have even
taken some of the accursed things,
and have both stolen and deceived;
and they have also put
it
among their own stuff.
"Therefore
the children of Israel could not
stand before their enemies,
but
turned
their
backs before their enemies, because
they have become doomed to
destruction. Neither will I be with
you anymore, unless you destroy the
accursed from among you.
"Get
up, sanctify the people, and say,
Sanctify
yourselves for tomorrow, because
thus says the LORD God of Israel:
"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."
In
the morning therefore you shall be
brought according to your tribes.
And it shall be
that
the tribe which the LORD takes shall
come according to families; and the
family which the LORD takes shall
come by households;
and the household which the LORD
takes shall come man by man.
Then it shall be
that
he who is taken with the accursed
thing shall be burned with fire, he
and all that he has, because he has
transgressed the covenant of the
LORD, and because he has done a
disgraceful thing in Israel"
So
Joshua rose early in the morning and
brought Israel by their tribes, and
the tribe of Judah was taken.
Achan
was taken
.
Now
Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I beg
you, give glory to the LORD God of
Israel, and make confession to Him,
and tell me now what you have done;
do not hide
it
from me."
And
Achan answered Joshua and said,
"Indeed I have sinned against the
LORD God of Israel, and this is what
I have done:
"When
I saw among the spoils a beautiful
Babylonian garment, two hundred
shekels of silver, and a wedge of
gold weighing fifty shekels, I
coveted them and took them.....
Then Joshua, and all Israel with
him, took Achan the son of Zerah,
the silver, the garment, the wedge
of gold, his sons, his daughters,
his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep,
his tent, and all that he had, and
they brought them to the Valley of
Achor.
And
Joshua said, "Why have you troubled
us? The LORD will trouble you this
day." So all Israel stoned him with
stones; and they burned them with
fire after they had stoned them with
stones.
Then
they raised over him a great heap of
stones, still there to this day. So
the LORD turned from the fierceness
of His anger. Therefore the name of
that place has been called the
Valley of Achor to this day''
{Jo7:1-26}
The punishment of the
old testament
From this true story which the
writer was careful to document in
details so we may learn from it.
we learn
from it that the person who disobey
the Bible will suffer badly. In the
old testament
there was a punishment for every sin
and in the case above it was stoning
and indeed the whole family were
stoned. The book of Isaiah tells
these verses which reflects the
heart and mind of God towards those
who sin "Just as they have chosen
their own ways, And their soul
delights in their abominations,
So
will I choose their delusions, And
bring their fears on them; Because,
when I called, no one answered, When
I spoke they did not hear; But they
did evil before My eyes, And chose
that
in which I do not delight".
{Is 66:3-4} And also
"
Who gave Jacob for
plunder, and Israel to the robbers?
Was it not the LORD, He against whom
we have sinned? For they would not
walk in His ways,
Nor were
they obedient to His law.
Therefore
He has poured on him the fury of His
anger And
the strength of battle; It has set
him on fire all around, Yet he did
not know; And it burned him, Yet he
did not take
it
to heart."
{Is42: 24,25}
The God of the
old testament was dealing
with His people very harshly. Anyone
who says that God spoils His people
is stating half the truth. It is
true that God was spoiling His
people if they heeded to His
commandment carefully. But if they
did not honor His word their
punishment were so great.
The punishment of the
new testament
The new
testament or the new covenant
is the covenant of grace where
salvation is free.
Every orthodoxy
should know that salvation is
through grace and that makes it free
"For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of
yourselves;
it is
the gift of God,
not
of works, lest anyone should boast."
{Ep2: 8,9}.
You can read a wonderful
explanation for these verses for St.
John Chrysostom in the Nicene books,
first series, volume 13 pages 146
and 147
If salvation is achieved
without work, so no one should
boast, does that mean after being
saved we live our lives as we
desire? Of
course not. I will explain it
in simple words as follow: Jesus
Christ died on the cross to save the
whole creation, from Adam to the
last man on earth. So His salvation
is free, He gave you His salvation
through His grace so you are saved
if you accept Him as savior and
Lord. But unless your life and your
deeds demonstrate your salvation
then you are not saved. Your life
and your deeds have to demonstrate
the salvation of Jesus Christ and
this is the difference between us
and other denominations. They say
the believer can not perish no
matter what he does. This is
unbiblical fact for the Bible says "
For
it is
impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted the
heavenly gift, and have become
partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of
the age to come,
if
they fall away, to renew them again
to repentance, since they crucify
again for themselves the Son of God,
and put
Him
to an open shame.
For
the earth which drinks in the rain
that often comes upon it, and bears
herbs useful for those by whom it is
cultivated, receives blessing from
God;
but
if it bears thorns and briars,
it is
rejected and near to being cursed,
whose end
is
to be burned."
{He6: 4-8}. The person who rejects
the salvation of Jesus Christ the
curses of Deuteronomy 28 will apply
to his life, they are many curses.
We will write about this topic in
the future.
What if I live for Jesus but I have
sinned?
The person who sins unintentionally
and repent after sinning, this sin
will not be accounted for him. But
the person who says I live for Jesus
and sins intentionally and
purposely, and there are many who
say I live for Jesus and sin
purposely, they will reap adversity
for their sins, for the Bible says
whatever you saw you will reap. We
see many take communion every week
and this is great if you are worthy
of this communion but if you are not
worthy then I will say there is
accursed things in your midst. We
will speak about many sins and large
number of us
fall into them with clear
conscious. Once more, the person who
lives righteously is save person.
The true orthodox faith
The true orthodox faith according to
St. John Chrysostom who is one of
the church pillars,
is that
we are saved by grace through faith
and we are not saved with our good
deeds lest anyone boast.
And that what
the apostle Paul said in his epistle
to Ephesians. This faith
should have good deeds to express
good relationship with our Lord
Jesus Christ.
some claim if they are saved
they do not need to repent any more
after their salvation. This is wrong
because if you sinned you have to
repent.
"Therefore, my beloved, as you have
always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling;"
{Php2:12} the true saved person has
to work out his salvation in fear
and tremble. Your life has to show
holiness "but as He who called you
is
holy, you also
be holy in all
your
conduct"
{1Pe1: 15}
You also be holy in all
your
conduct
I want to say there are not a small
number who live in godliness. They
live according to the word of God
and live in holiness. When the Lord
commands us to live in holiness, He
knows we can live that kind of life.
Any Christian can live in holiness.
My husband and I are asked always
this question when we encourage
someone to live in holiness: does
that mean you do not sin at all? The
answer to this is we do not sin
intentionally and purposely without
the convection of the Holy Spirit,
if the Holy Spirit convict you have
to listen. But we sin
unintentionally and in this case we
quickly repent of our sins
..
in next
articles we will write about the
sins that many falls into easily and
because of such sins the witchcraft
take effect on many. And to cancel
that effect we have to live a life
free of unintentional sins. Please
follow up with us these series so
you will benefit from them
..
to be
continued
