Anybody Looking?

        We were taught to obey a leader's command instantly. This was the instruction in the military. You never thought of not obeying a direct order from a superior as it may cause death to someone else or yourself. We were taught to not argue with a superior in regard to their orders. They held the rank and you were obedient to them. We also had an expression that came about that went, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” If the leader goofs up then you can blame them for the resulting action. It all sounds good and is true in many cases but are a few times when things might be considered differently. Joshua 7:1 says, “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.”

         Matthew Henry begins a commentary on this passage with the words, “The story of this chapter begins with a but.” Things had gone well in Jericho except for one incident that was unknown for a while. The next battle looked like an easy one so only a small force was sent to take the town of “Ai.” One man decided not take the orders of the boos literally at Jericho. It was easy for someone to think, “What harm is there in doing something so insignificant that no one would even notice it anyway, so lets go ahead and do it.”  You know the story of how only 3,000 men were sent to Ai to take the town and the 3,000 end up being chased out of town and 36 of them die in the process. Joshua was beside himself, so to speak, wondering what had happened. They had previously defeated the large city of Jericho and were now soundly beaten by an insignificant amount of soldiers in a little village. We have the Scriptures and so we know what happened as one man decided to disobey the orders that he was given and instead decided to take a little of the loot for himself. There would be times when this would be acceptable but this wasn't one of them. We can easily see that the culprit knew full well that what he was doing was wrong as he saw, he took and he hid his booty in a hole in his tent. Some lessons to learn from this is especially that when God gives an order, you obey it as you want to think that it doesn't apply to you but only to others. Mankind will often come up with all kinds of reason why their disobedience is acceptable. I actually heard of one man's defense against his adultery by saying, “It is okay if you do it 'in the spirit.'” God never condones it yet we will try to come up with reasons why it should be acceptable. Achan knew it was wrong to do or else he would not have hidden the fruit of his sin in a hole in his tent. It reminds me of a child who is told not to do something and out of the corner of their eye, they keep looking at you as they move their hand to do it again just to see if you respond the same way. They get closer and closer until you finally say “no” again and then they stop at least for the time being. We sometimes figure that if God doesn't blow us out of the water immediately, that we can do it again and again. Little do we know that the judgment is just around the corner. Achan probably felt good about his little deception for a few days until he was called forth in regard to the matter. The punishment was severe. Every possession of Achan was destroyed including his children and every animal that he had and even his tent and the items that he had taken from the battle. God gives us clear instruction in the Scriptures and there is no room for arguing with God over the matter. It says what it says. The Word, however, was preparing us for some mighty simple instructions in the future such as in John 3:7. “Ye must be born again.” Praise God today that He is still teaching us through His Word.