Consecration for blessing

The victories that God grants us should not be the cause of triumphalism. If we have succeeded, it is by his grace and merit and awards only correspond to him. We must not underestimate the enemy even when we are aware that God is on our side, that he is marching in front of our battles. Glory is always from God in all circumstances.

The incredible victory over Jericho filled Joshua with fame and glory. Chapter 6 ends like this: “The Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land. (Joshua 6.27). Fame can eat away at the brain and blur us. God had ordered all the warriors of his people to march to conquer the small town of Ai, but Joshua, misguided by his spies, decided to send only 3,000 men. The result was a shameful and humiliating military defeat. On the other hand, a warrior from the tribe of Judah had appropriated a booty of gold, silver and other belongings that God had ordered to destroy. The sin of one man affected all the people, the covenant had been violated. Doesn't it remind us of the Garden of Eden? Because of Adam's stumbling, all mankind was marked by sin. Because of Achan, the Lord's purpose of continuing to conquer the promised land was temporarily not achieved.

Today's church must be attentive to these disrespects. The sin of a single individual can bring serious consequences to the community of faith, to the unity of believers, to the achievement of new victories that glorify God. The word of the Lord was blunt in the face of sin: "I will no longer be with you unless you destroy the things dedicated to the anathema from among you" (Joshua 7.12). Sometimes we do not quite find out that the Lord does not walk with half measures when it comes to the sin that affects his people. Today we see it everywhere: pastors who forget their calling and abandon God's flock in pursuit of material improvements, leaders who flirt with personal deification, leaping ministers who go from one ministry to another without noticing the need of the sheep. They forget the covenant, they forget God.

Thank God there is always hope. Before Joshua's complaint, the Lord orders him to get up and order the people to consecrate themselves (Joshua 7.13), to return to the covenant, to discover the place where sin is hidden and its motives, to repent to resume the paths of blessing . The pious Joshua calls the sinner, exhorts him to confess the fault and does it as a true father would do with his son: Then Joshua said to Achan: “My son, I pray you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give him praise. Tell me now what you have done. Don't hide it from me. "

Doesn't it remind us of the treatment we receive from our heavenly Father when we sin? Isn't it encouraging to know that if we confess our sin he cleanses us from all unrighteousness? Is it not an invitation to purify ourselves to present ourselves before him and be worthy of his presence?

The Lord constantly invites us to consecration, to purity, synonymous with integrity and integrity of spirit. Spiritual consecration is an imperative of each member of the church, it is to recognize that we are vulnerable to sin and desperately need God's help, every moment, every day. When the church flirts or hides sin, it is not strange to see it stagnant, infertile, disheveled, unaware of Christian ethics; it does not advance, it does not grow, it does not give glory to the one who begot it at the price of his blood.

God wants us to look for the causes that do not allow our spiritual development: sin, and that there be humiliation and repentance, that we confess it to glorify it, that we remove it so that it does not interfere with his purposes and that we accept the consequences. The issue was not that Joshua boasted of his fame, nor was it the sin that Achan committed. The heart of the problem today for God's people is not to forget that Jesus must be at the center of everything.

God bless your Word!

Suggested Reading: Joshua 7