Caught

Our verse for the week is a tough truth.

Numbers 32:23 (NIV) ²³ “You may be sure that your sin will find you out.

Try to hide it in the dark, and you will eventually pay for it. Repenting, owning it by putting it in the light of God’s mercy is our only hope.

The second story in Bizarre Bible Stories is from Joshua chapter 7. Israel had just leveled Jericho, a military fortress. The walls were down, the city taken, it was a huge win. God had a rule for that battle: don’t keep anything for yourself. Achan, walking through the rubble, found a sweet robe and a small fortune in silver and gold. He wanted it. He took it. He buried it under his tent floor. Nobody saw. Nobody knew. Just a little sin, he probably told himself. No blood, no foul.

Then Israel marched on tiny, forgettable little Ai, and Israel got crushed. Thirty-six men died.

God told Israel the loss was because of someone’s hidden sin. In the story God gives Achan chance after chance to come clean before he was named. Tribe of Judah. Silence. Clan of the Zerahites. Silence. Family of Zerah. Silence. Only when God pointed straight at him did Achan admit it. That’s not repentance. That’s just getting caught.

The thing is, when we repent, God relents. Achan never gave himself the chance to experience God’s grace. He waited to be found instead of owning it, and that’s the opposite of how grace works.

His sin found him out. But the good news is, grace goes looking too. Jesus came for us, died, rose, and is coming back for us. He didn’t do this because of what we have done right, but in spite of what we’ve done wrong. Not a payment. A gift, born of mercy.

Be encouraged,

Dan

The full story is in Joshua 7, and for kids, in Bizarre Bible Stories, chapter 2.

Photo by Andrey Metelev on Unsplash

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