A Little Leaven
A Little Leaven
Joshua 7:1b And the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel.
In continuance of Friday’s devotional, let’s reflect further today on what Joshua 7:1b does and does not imply about God’s perfect justice. To misapply the meaning of His punishment of Achan will take us down a dark and dangerous road theologically: a road that will leave us as individuals with no moral impetus to choose between right and wrong and make us complicit in the apostacy and prodigality of unfaithful brothers. Oh no—as the Scripture reads, “He will render to each one according to his works” (Romans 2:6), because that’s what justice does. God did not condemn Lot for Sodom’s gross debaucheries, nor did He condemn Moses for Aaron’s fashioning of the golden calf, nor did He condemn Caleb for the faithlessness of his ten comrade spies. The consequences of one man’s sin might drape over the entire commonwealth like a black shroud, but the sin itself is only on the sinner’s head.
Now, if you warned your four children not to go near the cookie jar while you were at the grocery store, but then you came home to discover that a cookie was missing, and you followed the trail of crumbs into your six-year-old’s room to find him sitting in the corner with chocolate smeared across his cheeks, would you immediately punish all four of your kids, even though three obeyed your command? Of course not! So let’s get this straight, friend: God is not angry at Joshua and the priests and the soldiers and the elders and the women and the children who are bearing the promised consequences of their brother’s hidden sin; He holds no ill will against the thousands of pilgrims who woke up this very day and chose to obey rather than disobey. That isn’t what Joshua 7:1 represents about the heart of God. On the contrary, this ‘anger of the LORD’ felt by all is a reference to the widespread consequences of Achan’s sin. All Israelites aren’t complicit in Achan’s sin, but all are defeated at Ai because of it.
God sets a high bar for these pilgrims in order to teach them that a little leaven in the heart of one individual member can end up spoiling the whole lump. And that bar is just as high for the church today.