Friday Faithful Faves: Joshua

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

There's so much good stuff in the book of Joshua; I once counted four or five separate applications from the narrative in chapters 6-7-8 alone. I picked one of those for today's discussion.

When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath. --Josh. 7:21

This, my friends, is the progression of sin in our lives. Look at the verbs there:
I SAW
I COVETED
I TOOK and
I HID (implied).

In a nutshell, that's what happens when we do wrong. Think about Eve in the garden, David and Bathsheba...isn't that the same progression?

The actual error begins somewhere in step two: I coveted. I think this is why coveting is specifically called out in the 10 Commandments as something we are not to do....that's where the trouble starts. Seeing the plunder was not the problem...everyone saw the plunder. Probably a number of folks grieved a little that such nice things were to be given over to God (either by destruction or by going into the treasury for the future temple...and there's a sermon there, too...). But only Achan let that grief turn into desire turn into coveting turned into thieving.

So here's the take home thought from this verse: the 'Danger: Bridge Out' sign for us is when that little tinge of interest in...or, as I've heard it described by others, the inclination to take a second look at... something we have no business having/doing/seeing/tasting/pursuing/etc stirs.(Note for any folks inclined to take 'second look' literally; I'm not necessarily meaning that one refuses to look at something more than once; it's the measuring look to see really what is there and what it means to oneself that I'm talking about) True, there's no actual harm in a second look, but...that's when we need to take action to 'nip it in the bud,' as Barney Fife would put it. Recognize that the interest in taking a second look is the Y in the road; not taking the second look will break the progression between 'I saw' and 'I coveted;' interest will never become overwhelming desire and there will never be a need to hide anything.