Sat.’s Devo - Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out

Read: Joshua 7:16-9:2; Luke 16:1-18; Psalm 82:1-8; Proverbs 13:2-3 Be sure your sins will find you out. Achan was one man out of thousands and yet God knew who he was and what he had done. His sin had affected the whole Israelite nation. If he wasn’t dealt with all of what Moses did and all of God’s plans would be void. But, Joshua wasn’t going to let that happen. Once he found out the culprit, he took Achan, all his possessions and all he had stolen and his family down to the Valley of Achor (which means “trouble”). Joshua asked him why he had brought trouble on the whole nation of Israel. Then all Israel stoned him and burned all he had along with his family. *** Once sin was atoned for, God told Joshua to go take Ai because he would go with them and they would succeed. God gave him strategy of how to take the city which was totally different than the strategy he had given them for Jericho. This would be an ambush. *** Joshua led half of his army to do a frontal attack, then pretended they were being defeated and retreated. Once the warriors of Ai had chased them out of the city, his other half entered from behind and burned the city. When the men of Ai turned and saw their city burning they were sandwiched between Joshua’s men and had no where to go. *** This time, God told them they could have all the booty of the city. If only Achan had waited. Jericho was the tithe to the Lord and now the booty of the rest of the towns would be theirs. They hung the king of Ai on a tree and when he was dead, they put his body at the gate of the city and heaped stones on it. *** Joshua built an altar to the Lord in Mt. Ebal and burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings on it. He wrote a copy of the law of Moses on the stones of the altar. All of Israel stood some facing Mt. Gerizim where the blessings were spoken and half facing Mt. Ebal where the curses were spoken. Joshua read them both before the people to remind them the consequences of breaking God’s laws and the blessings of following it. *** When all the kings of the “ites” heard about what Israel had done to Jericho and Ai, they met together to join and fight against Israel. *** Jesus told his disciples the parable about a rich man who had a steward who was wasting his goods. He called him in to fire him but first the steward needed to make some friends so when he lost his job, he would have someone to rely on. He went to all the people who owed his boss and had then cut their amount to less to win their favor. Then he brought what he had collected to his boss. The boss commended him for being shrewd. *** Jesus told them that if you make friends by using unrighteous mammon, you will end up spending eternity with them. But if you are faithful in the little given to you, God will bless you with rewards in God’s kingdom. If you are not faithful with other’s wealth, you will not be trusted to have your own. *** The Pharisees who were lovers of money didn’t like what Jesus said and derided him. Jesus told the that they justified themselves but God knows their hearts and what they think makes a man great is an abomination to God. *** Jesus said that the law and the prophets were until John but now it was the time of the kingdom of God to be entered into. Every law given would be fulfilled. Then he says that “whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery: and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.” This sounds out of context but Jesus had been talking about the heart of man. He could have meant: Whoever divorces God’s law and is joined to another doctrine commits a total offense toward God and whoever is joined to this new doctrine is also committing adultery with God. To worship anything but God is spiritual adultery. *** Lord, may we choose daily to follow your Word and love you with all our hearts. May we not get turned by the things of this world but stay in the path of righteousness.