Yesterday we discussed how the underlying cause of the
humiliating defeat and failure of Israel at Ai was pride. Pride which led to
carelessness, that led to prayerlessness, that led to presumptuousness. Israel
thought they could defeat little Ai without getting specific instructions from
the Lord! It seems we can conquer the mountains, but we stumble over the
molehills! We can’t afford to take a spiritual vacation from our time with the
Lord each morning, seeking His face and Word for our strength and wisdom for
the day, any more than our hearts can take a vacation from beating and pumping
blood through our veins, or our lungs can take a vacation from breathing!
Carelessness was the national sin of Israel, but what about
the personal sin of Achan, what was the cause of his sin? It was not looking,
it was coveting! Achan confessed this in Joshua 7:21; why did he covet these things? What is covetousness? Covetousness is an
inordinate desire for things that are not rightfully ours, things that we have
no right to. God wants to supply and give to us everything that we need and
everything that we have a right to, but the tenth commandment in Exodus 20:17
says,
"Thou shalt not covet...". Covetousness is like an octopus that just wraps itself
around the human soul and cannot be satisfied and cannot be shaken off apart
from the Lord our God. Another word for covetousness is worldliness. Achan was in
love with the world. He coveted the “beautiful Babylonian garment” so he
could look like the world. He coveted the silver and the gold so he could live
like the world. We need to remember what the Bible says in 1 John 2:15 in the
New Living Translation; “Do not love this world nor the things it offers
you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in
you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for
everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not
from the Father, but are from this world.”
But, Achan's real problem wasn't the love of the world, his
real, deeper problem was that "... the love of the Father is not in
him" (1 John 2:15). Now, you see, the love of the world is symptomatic
of the fact that the love of the Father is not in you. It wasn't that he loved
the world too much. He didn't love God enough. Think about that! It wasn't that
he loved the world enough. He didn't love God enough.
John 2:15). The love of the world is a symptom that the love of God is not in
Suppose you're driving your automobile down the road and
the red light comes on the dashboard, which means there's no oil in the
crankcase. Well, now, would you take a hammer and break that light and say,
"Well, I've fixed that"? You haven't really fixed it. The red light
on the dashboard is simply a warning, an indicator, a symptom there's no oil in
the crankcase. "... If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him", the love of the world is the red light that tells us
that the love of the Father is not in us (1 John 2:15).
The way to handle the covetousness and the lack of
satisfaction, and happiness and the worldliness and sin in our life is to get
the love of God in our hearts. If you're sinning, if there's secret sin in your
life and covetousness that is warping, and ruining your life, rather than
trying to fight that sin, why don't you just load up on Jesus Christ? Why don't
you just let the love of God flow in your heart, and fill your heart, and soul
until you're satisfied with Jesus?
Remember when Jesus was restoring Peter in John 21:15-17,
He asked him three times, “Peter, do you love me.” Jesus says to all of
us in John 14:21; “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who
loves Me…”. Our real issue is our love relationship with Jesus!
Today, like the old hymn says, “Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”
