Skip to main content

Don't Be That Guy

 


The walls had come down! Israel had just won its first victory in the land of promise. Jericho had been destroyed. Rahab and her family had been saved. The next city on the chopping block was Ai.

Ai was such a small city that Joshua was advised, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” (Joshua 7:3)

When Israel attacked, they were met with defeat. They turned their backs to their enemies and thirty-six of their men perished. Joshua was dismayed and came before the Lord. He informed Joshua the reason for the defeat was sin in the camp. If the sin was not dealt with, there would be not more victories in the land of Canaan.

Achan committed a great sin against God and his own people. He coveted the accursed things from Jericho and hid them in his tent (Joshua 7:21). Earlier, Joshua gave specific instructions not to take any of the accursed things from Jericho (Joshua 6:18-19). Achan presumed to do so regardless of the command given. When the sin of Achan was found out, both he and all he had were taken out and destroyed. 

“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.” (Joshua 7:25-27).

Don’t be that guy. Do not be the one who hears the commandments of God and disregards them. This is the type of behavior that Jesus classifies as the foolish man (Matthew 7:26-27). He heard the teachings of Christ but did not apply them. Therefore, he was a foolish man building his house upon sand.

Don’t be that guy. Do not be the one who believes he can hold on to what God has forbidden. Someone once said, “He is no fool who releases that which he cannot hold onto to grasp what he cannot live without.” Do not be Achan who exchanged the blessings of God for what was only temporary.

Don’t be that guy. Do not be the one who thinks that God does not see. No one can hide from the all-seeing eye of God. He knows what we do in public. He knows what we do while we are alone. If we think otherwise, we deceive ourselves like Achan did.

The Old Testament was written for our learning (Romans 15:4). We do well to heed the examples of the Scriptures so that above all, we will not be that guy.

 

God Bless each of you,

Eric Hicks

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taking Time to Pray

  We have all had those busy mornings where we rush around trying to get out the door. We scrabble frantically trying to gather everything we know we are going to need for the day. We fly out the door only to remember that the cell phone is still on the dresser. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we will turn around, go back inside to retrieve our cell phone no matter how late we may be running. While this is all well and good, the question arises, what if we run out the door and remember we had not yet prayed to our heavenly Father. What would be our response. Would we stop dead in our tracks and offer a prayer before God, or continue in moving toward our daily pursuits with the intention of praying when we have more time? Our great example of a prayer life is Christ. He too had a busy schedule to maintain. Mark records, “And He said to them, ‘Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.’ For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have
Post a Comment
Read more

Walk Worthy

  The Christian life has been compared to a variety of things. One in particular is that of a walk. A walk in the context of the Christian faith involves the way we live and conduct ourselves throughout our lives. The manor in which we live will either reflect Christ or it will reflect the ways of the world. Paul wrote, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Ephesians 4:1). There are a multitude of ways we must walk to be pleasing unto the Lord. We will consider a few. Bearing with one another. Walking worthy before the Lord strongly involves our conduct with one another. Paul continued, “ with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love” (Ephesians 4:2). Bearing with one another is not possible apart from a humble mindset. It is the humble mindset that keeps us from thinking too highly of ourselves. It also enables us to focus on the needs of others rather than our
Post a Comment
Read more

Take Careful Aim

       In the book of Proverbs, we read that where there is no vision the people perish. Vision is an absolute necessity if one is to accomplish anything worthwhile in life. Without vision, there is no goal. Without a goal, there is no purpose. Having a vision for the future is like having a target you do not intend to miss. Like a marksman taking careful aim at his target, we too must take careful aim if we are to accomplish great things for the Lord. There are various goals we should take careful aim at. One is increasing our relationships with one another. The only way this can be accomplished is through effective communication with each other. We can do this in a variety of ways including phone calls, personal visits, and through the positive side of social media. Equally, we grow in our relationship with one another through worshipping God together. The Hebrew writer stated, “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one anoth
Post a Comment
Read more