Spiritual Spring Cleaning
Spring is here! You know what that means? Spring cleaning. Personally, I find myself going through my closet and using this season to get rid of things. Finding clothes and items I don’t need or want and throwing them out, or donating to a thrift store nearby. It’s a time-consuming process, but it’s needed to prepare for the next season, Summer.
Often in life we find ourselves decluttering and digging deep into the things we don’t need, but how often do we do that in our own spiritual lives? When we look at the Book of Joshua Chapter 7, we find Israel leaving the destroyed Jericho and beginning their next steps towards the next town they need to defeat, Ai. They ended up losing because an Israelite, Achan, didn’t obey the command to destroy EVERYTHING in Jericho. Instead, he took some of the valuable items with him and hid it under his tent.
The Lord told Joshua and the Elders of Israel his covenant was broken and, “Israel has sinned and broken my covenant, they have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me.” So one by one Joshua brought the tribes forward. One by one each tribe and family was found innocent, until he finally gets to Achan. Achan repents and reveals all of the items he stole were buried underneath his tent. The consequence of this sin was all of the possessions he took, all of his possessions, and his whole family, were burned and buried in rubble, in what is now known as the Valley of Trouble.
Sometimes we find ourselves in a similar position like Achan. We know God has commanded us to do something or live our lives in a certain way, but at the end of the day we consciously disobey him, then try to bury and hide what we have done. Sometimes we bury and hide it and see how long we can leave it there without anyone noticing it. We are not called to hide those things. We are not called to bury and hide our sin, pretending like it’s not there. Instead, we are called to dig it up and bring it before the Lord.
Here’s the good news, unlike Achan we don’t have to suffer the same fate as him thanks to Jesus. Through Jesus, we can bring our sins before the Lord and ask for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We can go to God with our sin, and he will forgive us So, my challenge for you this week is this, what spiritual spring cleaning do you need to do? What’s buried underneath your tent that you need to dig up and present to God? What sin in your life needs to be confessed to the Lord. He is faithful. He is just. He will forgive you of your sin and purify you from unrighteousness!
“Ai Defeats the Israelites: 7 But Israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the Lord. A man named Achan had stolen some of these dedicated things, so the Lord was very angry with the Israelites. Achan was the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah….16 Early the next morning Joshua brought the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was singled out. 17 Then the clans of Judah came forward, and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of Zerah came forward, and the family of Zimri was singled out. 18 Every member of Zimri’s family was brought forward person by person, and Achan was singled out. 19 Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, by telling the truth. Make your confession and tell me what you have done. Don’t hide it from me.” 20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. 21 Among the plunder I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins, and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. They are hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest.” 22 So Joshua sent some men to make a search. They ran to the tent and found the stolen goods hidden there, just as Achan had said, with the silver buried beneath the rest. 23 They took the things from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites. Then they laid them on the ground in the presence of the Lord.” Joshua 7:1; 16-23
– Preston Haggerty, 2022-23 Intern, Black Diamond Camp