The Recipe for Sin
Background Story: The Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the promise land with Joshua and God began giving them victory over their enemies. The Israelites were instructed (Joshua 6) that everything in the city of Jericho was to be devoted or given to God. But one man, Achan, decided the temptation was too much and took some for himself. And this sin brought defeat in their next battle against the city of Ai. Not knowing this, Joshua goes before God to see what has happened.
Read Joshua 7:6-23
Joshua and the elders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads, and bowed face down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord until evening. 7 Then Joshua cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side! 8 Lord, what can I say now that Israel has fled from its enemies? 9 For when the Canaanites and all the other people living in the land hear about it, they will surround us and wipe our name off the face of the earth. And then what will happen to the honor of your great name?”
10 But the Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this? 11 Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. 12 That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction.
13 “Get up! Command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord. You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.
14 “In the morning you must present yourselves by tribes, and the Lord will point out the tribe to which the guilty man belongs. That tribe must come forward with its clans, and the Lord will point out the guilty clan. That clan will then come forward, and the Lord will point out the guilty family. Finally, each member of the guilty family must come forward one by one. 15 The one who has stolen what was set apart for destruction will himself be burned with fire, along with everything he has, for he has broken the covenant of the Lord and has done a horrible thing in Israel.”
16 Early the next morning Joshua brought the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was singled out. 17 Then the clans of Judah came forward, and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of Zerah came forward, and the family of Zimri was singled out. 18 Every member of Zimri’s family was brought forward person by person, and Achan was singled out.
19 Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, by telling the truth. Make your confession and tell me what you have done. Don’t hide it from me.”
20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. 21 Among the plunder I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins, and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. They are hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest.”
22 So Joshua sent some men to make a search. They ran to the tent and found the stolen goods hidden there, just as Achan had said, with the silver buried beneath the rest. 23 They took the things from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites. Then they laid them on the ground in the presence of the Lord.
Big Idea: Sin is a multi-step process, not just an action.
If we were going to make the worst recipe ever called, “The Recipe for Sin”, it would go something like this:
1- Take two eyes. With those eyes, you need to identify and see something you want.
2- Combine excuses and desire and mix them well.
3- Once desire and excuses have risen to the needed size, add action.
4- When the action has completed, cover it with shame and hide it away from others.
While that sounds like a terrible recipe, we see these same steps in this story of Achan and throughout scripture as the building blocks for sin. In Genesis 3:1-10, the Bible said that Eve, 1) “saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious” 2) “she wanted the wisdom it would give her” and was “convinced” by the lies and excuses of Satan 3) “So she took some of the fruit and ate it” 4) “they hid from the Lord God.” We also see this same progression in David’s great sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11.
Sin is never just an action. Sin is a multi-step process in which the person continues to makes deliberate decisions to move forward. Instead, Christians have the option to put on the brakes and pray for the grace and power of the Holy Spirit to walk away from the temptation. James 1:13-15 says it this way, “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”
With Achan, Eve, and David, the result of their sin created shame and hiding from God. Instead of bringing fulfillment, each one’s sin brought separation from God and consequences. Also, in each example, the person was eventually found out and their sin exposed before God and others. Sin is never worth it. Today and everyday, pray this prayer of David, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139: 23-24). Bring all sin before God. Once exposed, He can cleanse us and remove the space sin has created.
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