Daily Lesson for July 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Joshua chapter 7 verse 13:

“There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

In the book of Joshua, just after the fall of Jericho, there is a little-remembered story about a man named Achan, whose selfishness nearly cost the Israelites their claim in the Promised Land.

The story goes that when Jericho fell to the Israelites the LORD gave a strict command to all the Israelites that they were not to take the city's silver and told for themselves, but instead they were to give all the valuables unto the treasury of the LORD. As it happened, one of the Israelites, Achan, acted selfishly, taking some of Jericho's devoted things for himself. As a result, in the next battle at a place called Ai, where the Israelites should have won handedly, they were instead routed and dozens of their men lost their lives.  The Bible says the Israelites were deeply grieved and their hearts melted and became "like water".  Then the LORD spoke to them and told them why it was that they were so roundly defeated.  “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

We will never know the victory so long as we remain devoted to anything other than the LORD and the LORD's will for our lives.  We cannot serve God and mammon.  We cannot serve God and our ego.  We cannot serve God and also serve what is safe, or politic, or popular.

The LORD requires our complete devotion; and the divided heart of even only one may cost us all.