He was not the only one…..
Joshua 22:20 When Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful in regard to the devoted things,[a] did not wrath come on the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.’”
I have split this sermon into the following sub headings so that you'll understand it better:
RIPPLE EFFECT OF SIN
SPIRITUALLY BLIND CHRISTIANS
DISOBEDIENCE
DO NOT BOAST ABOUT TOMORROW
MOTH AND RUST WILL DESTROY
RIPPLE EFFECT OF SIN:
“ He was not the only one..” were the words that screamed out of the Bible this morning while I was reading the Bible on a day of fasting and also after spending the previous Friday night in prayer meeting hosted by us. The anointing oozed out and spread to Saturday also…
I sat at my table to type out my thoughts and also I will be preaching this sermon tomorrow in the Sunday service at our Shiloh Revival Church. Ok hearken to the voice of God today…you cannot be careless about the decisions you take…everything matters to God. Are you hearing me?
When I read the above verse I was reminded of the term ‘rippling effect!’. Let me explain, Sins have long-lasting consequences which is carried forward to the next generation and also affects wider range of people. Just like how a stone dropped into a pond creates expanding ripples, the sin of one man affects a whole gamut of people and brings sufferings and incomprehensible excruciating pain.
Illustration: I recently met a family and I know that the mother (when she was young) had an extramarital affair with a married man that caused terrible misery in the family and the wife shed painful tears and God remembered it. The ripple effect of that adultery, now came upon the daughter of the mother who tried to break a home, was now not married and the entire family are suffering. The curse followed the next generation….did you see how scary it is??? More than all the other worldly wealth, the parents have to work out on passing down blessings and not curses on their children.
The father who drinks alcohol, the dad who watches porn or indulges in relationship with prostitutes are all passing on curses to their children. Remember all the above are spirits that jump from one person to another. Watch out!
Examples of the Ripple Effect in Scripture:
Achan's Sin: Achan's disobedience in Jericho led to the defeat of the Israelites and the loss of many lives.
Who was Achan in the Bible?
First Chronicles 2:7 refers to Achan as “the troubler of Israel, who broke faith in the matter of the devoted thing” What a shameful introduction!
In the days of Joshua, when the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh built their own altar east of the Jordan River, the other tribes used the story of Achan as a warning: “Do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the Lord our God. When Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful in regard to the devoted things, did not wrath come on the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin” (Joshua 22:19b–20). Achan left behind a very name for himself and was the reason for his entire family to be wiped away. This devotion comes as a warning for people who live in a ‘pizza-speed-Swiggy’ era. Nobody has time to think but they have all the time to scroll their mobiles.
SPIRITUALLY BLIND CHRISTIANS: Friend, now listen to me, there are many out there, when they go through persecutions and problems, blame God and others and sulk, instead of searching themselves for any hidden sins, disobedience or anything else displeasing God.
Chapter 7 follows after the great victory in Jericho where God delivers the people by just obediently walking around the walls of Jericho 7 times. They saw the walls come tumbling down at the blowing of the trumpet. What a moment! But one man in the midst of such awesomeness SAW a beautiful shawl among the plunder in Babylonia. His name was Achan , the man who was responsible for the death of 36 soldiers in the city of Ai. God said "you are defeated because of sin in your midst!". Anybody listening today????
DISOBEDIENCE: There was a clear warning:
Joshua 6:18
18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.”
How could this man who was part of the crowd that marched silently around the Jericho wall for 7 days, get attracted to a shawl? Come on…..it doesn’t make sense. Exactly , some of the things people of God do doesn’t make sense at all. Achan was among the soldiers who marched around the walls of Jericho, he was a member of the tribe of Judah, how could he so daringly covet, steal, hide and betray? Someone tell me……my heart cries out……
The metals were to go into the tabernacle treasury; they were “sacred to the Lord” (Joshua 6:19) or “devoted” to Him. Jericho was to be totally destroyed, and the Israelites were to take no plunder for themselves.
How could someone dare to look at something that belonged to God?
A particular pastor had the healing anointing on him, he conducted many healing crusades in his country and other places too, this pastor prayed over me when I was sick and bedridden and I received healing. This same man got attracted to a divorced woman with 3 children in his ministry and went ahead to live with her separately. How could anyone do this? Very shortly he got heart attack twice and he died miserably in the third attack. The ripple effect of this sin affected the family, children, church and many other people. Caveat!
For later use: (Joshua 7:19). Achan confessed his sin, admitting that in Jericho he saw a robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a fifity-shekel bar of gold that he “coveted,” took, and hid in a hole he had dug within his tent. I am going to tell you something that is going to shake you really hard, steal now use it later did not work out for Achan, ‘tomorrow’ never came for Achan in order to use the stolen goods – his entire family were destroyed. Are you listening?
Proverbs 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
James wonderfully explains this, read:
James 4:13-17
Do Not Boast About Tomorrow:
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow [a]we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
MOTH AND RUST WILL DESTROY: Matthew 6:19-21. This verse actually states: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Someone said:” "Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction."
