Your Hidden Sin Series

It was an unusual situation. One evening the president of our fraternity called a special unplanned meeting. When everyone came to the room the doors were shut.

He explained the problem. Wallets were disappearing from the rooms. They were disappearing at such a rate and at such unusual times that there was no other choice but to suspect one of the members who lived in the house must be stealing the wallets. The house held 90 people.

In a very serious tone, he explained to us why the meeting was called. A wallet which was on the dresser in one of the rooms was just discovered missing. Before him was an ultraviolet light.

The missing wallet had been placed out in the open intentionally to find the culprit.

This wallet had been dusted with an ultraviolet dust. No one could leave the room without placing their hand under the ultraviolet light. The light belonged to the police department.

The guilty person was given an option, confess their sin publicly right then and the problem would remain internal. Or if no one would confess the policeman would come in and the one found with ultraviolent dust on their hands would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Imagine the horrible moment for one of the young men in that room. It was a living nightmare. His heart must've been pounding through his chest. Everyone would know his dark secret. He was a compulsive thief, even stealing from his close friends.

He chose the confession option. And what a shocker it was! It was somebody I knew. I had such respect for him. I had taken a spring break trip to Florida with his older brother. His brother had graduated from college already and was attending medical school.

How could this young man throw away his future over a few wallets? It left me feeling sick. If for me and others around him, felt that kind of shock, what must it have been for him? He must have felt like it was a horrific movie.

Think of Joshua chapter 7 where we read about hidden sin. Imagine the intensity of the man by the name of Achan. He must have wished the whole thing was only all a bad nightmare. He had a horrific dark secret sin and it was about to become public.

The background to Joshua chapter 7 is that, for Israel there have recently come to the end of an era. The forty years of wilderness experience and living by God's provision of manna was ended.

Moses recently was gone and the leadership of the children of Israel has shifted from Moses to Joshua. Just days after Joshua took leadership the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground at flood stage. The miracle was epic, to the proportion of the miracle of crossing the Red Sea.

Then the major strategic strong hold in Canaan in the promised land fell like it was nothing. At the battle of Jericho the Israelites blew their trumpets and the walls fell. All the inhabitants of the land were struck with fear of the Israelites because they served a mighty God.

You've probably seen a sporting event where right at the beginning there is such a decisive play that the spirit of the other team is broken. Jericho was that kind of a victory. It was a strategic and decisive victory that broke the spirit of everyone else who would be facing Israel in battle.

Chapters one through six of Joshua the children of Israel go from strength to strength. Then there was an unseen problem that would ruin everything. After the battle of Jericho Joshua sent spies to the next city marked for the conquest.

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. (Joshua 7:2)

The report was that the city will be easy to take so don't even send all the men. The spies reported don't send all the men just 2000 or 3000. This was military speaking an insignificant city.

When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” (Joshua 7:3)

It was routed the 3000 Israelites. They killed 36 men and sent off in a panic their hearts melted with fear.

So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water. (Joshua 7:4-5)