Today we begin Joshua Chapter 8.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
At the conclusion of the previous chapter we saw that justice was done.
Achan was executed and the holy property he stole was returned back to the Lord.
Again, the spiritual pattern of restoring a broken relationship with God is made clear to us.
FIRST, you must confess your sin.
SECOND, God’s justice must be satisfied.
Both are necessary.
A lot of folks assume that all one has to do is confess his or her sins and then life will go on as it always has.
No way Jose!
Achan confessed his sin but he still had to pay the consequences for what he did with his very life.
The same would also apply to a murderer who confesses his sin.
He may receive forgiveness for his soul but he will still suffer the death penalty.
This ain’t just some ancient principle that doesn’t apply to us today.
Satisfying God’s justice is the ONLY WAY we can be reconciled back to our Father in heaven.
It’s the very reason Yeshua had to sacrifice himself.
Onward.
So now that Israel’s relationship has been restored, God tells Joshua “Don’t be afraid or fall into despair!”
The Lord is reassuring Joshua that when they attack the city of AI a second time, there ain’t gonna be a replay of what happened the first time.
Since the stain of Achan’s sin has been removed, Joshua can rest in God’s promise that the Israelite army will conquer the city of AI as easily as they conquered the city of Jericho.
However, there is one interesting difference to note here.
This time the Lord tells Israel that it’s okay for the soldiers to partake of some (just some, not all) of the spoils of war.
And just to make sure there isn’t any misunderstanding, this means that the war booty that the Lord has said is okay to take is NOT holy property.
In other words, the soldiers don’t have to worry about contracting God’s holiness minus His divine authorization when they take the permitted war booty.
I find this really interesting because if God had given this very same set of instructions to the soldiers before they attacked Jericho, Achan and his family would not have died because of the spoils of war he took.
The very thing that caused Israel to fall into disaster in Jericho is now being permitted in the city of AI!
Isn’t that interesting?
Actually, the more important question is…
…why the change all of a sudden?
Is this just a matter of God exercising his divine will in any way He wants to?
Or is there some hidden Torah principle or pattern here we should maybe be searching for in order to understand what’s really going on?
I think there is and I think the answer might lie in the God pattern concerning FirstFruits.
We’ll continue this discussion the next time we meet.
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