
Sunday, January 22, 2023
IT’S UNDER THE DRUM
10 God said to Joshua, “Get up. Why are you groveling? 11 Israel has sinned: They’ve broken the covenant I commanded them; they’ve taken forbidden plunder—stolen and then covered up the theft, stashing it away with their own stuff. 12 The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye—they themselves are plunder. I can’t continue with you if you don’t rid yourselves of the cursed things. —Joshua 7:10-12 (TMB)
KEY:Get Rid of Sin
As a mom with four children to feed and it is always a challenge getting them to clean the kitchen after our meals it was a nightmare at best.
“I did it last time” “It’s not my time” “I am always doing it” and on and on it goes.
So I implemented a system that everyone was responsible for washing their own plate cup spoon or fork that they had used. A few weeks passed and it all seemed to be going fine untilI was looking for certain dishes and utensils and couldn’t find them.
I announced to all the children that if you have any dishes in your rooms bring them downstairs to the kitchen and clean them there would be no punishment. With that I saw a few plates and cups resurface but I was still missing many more.
The next day while they were out at school I thought I would do a thorough search of their rooms to find the other missing dishes. I found nothing until I stood staring at a drum in my son’s room.
“Now why would dishes be under a drum I thought to myself?” Anyway I raised the drum and neatly stacked under the drum were five plates, five cups and five forks.
I was amazed at how he had come up with this idea of using his drum to conceal his dirty dishes.
This thought led me to Today’s bible verse:
Israel had sin by taking plunder that was forbidden but they had hidden it in plain sight among their own stuff.
No matter how we try to cover it up it is always uncovered because God can’t reside where sin is.
Like Israel some sins we cover up bring curses with it. Moving forward with God meant that Joshua had to expose their sin.
Also sin made the Israelites common. God said “ The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye—they themselves are plunder.”
Remember this: In Christ we are a called out people set apart by God but when we sin it makes us common.
NEXT STEPS
- Consider this: what sin is worth your separation from God?
- Imagine Jesus is your house guest for a day would you live the same way?
- Share the devotional