Joshua 7: 19
Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me."
When they were going to attack Jericho and God did such a wonder for them, He had told them exactly how to do it, and He also gave them instruction concerning all the goods they would find there: it all belonged to the Lord. They were to burn up everything that would burn, and all the metals were to be put into the Lord's treasury (6:18-19).
Then God fulfilled His part, the walls fell down, and they all ran straight in and took the city (6:20).
But one of the soldiers stole what belonged to God. Achan showed a disregard and distain toward God to take these items for himself. And his family were all complicit in this, helping him to hide them. They had no fear of the Lord.
Joshua called out Achan for this disobedience, and implored him to give God the respect He deserves by confessing what he had done.
And he did.
So that this attitude of nonchalant disregard for obeying the details of God's commands would not spread, dire consequences had to happen: they stoned him and his family, then burned them up and buried them under a great heap of stones (7:24-26).
His disobedience had cost them casualties and lost the battle for Ai (7:4-5).
So even this little bit of plunder caused them to lose God's blessing and power. God wanted to live in their midst, so He wanted them to be pure and righteous, to obey His rules and directives. He wanted them to understand how much He loved them. So this rebellion had to be nipped in the bud before it could spread.
The first time I read this, I thought as the World thinks, and considered this to be cruel, an overreaction. But my civilized attitude was just as dismissing of God's holiness as Achan's was.
The more I read and studied God's ways in all that He did to teach His people, the more I came to understand how great, how powerful, how dangerous our God really is, and how we really do need to respect His justice and righteousness and authority to do everything He wills. This is the Fear of the Lord we are to have.
And I also came to understand how much God loves us, cares for us, and is persistent in continuing to reveal Himself to us so that we will want to love Him back.
God is still the same God, He still wants us to know Him. And He has now even given us His Spirit to live inside each of us who know Him, to teach us and strengthen us and help us to produce the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23) in loving others the way He loves us.
This is His Law written in our hearts, as He told His people He would do in The Last Days (Jeremiah 31:31-34). It's the New Covenant that Jesus said He was instituting with His Blood as He sat at the Passover Meal with His disciples (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; and John calls it a new command to love one another 13:34-35).
When we understand what Love really is, and love one another with this pure, strong, compassionate love (instead of the controlling or possessive or permissive attitude that passes for "love" in the World), then we will be obeying the spirit, the underlying foundation, of all the Commandments, Precepts, Decrees, and Laws, and not need to worry about the details. We'll be going beyond the perameters of the Law to do what is right and fair and just toward one another, as well as putting God first in our worship and adoration (see Matthew 22:37-40).
God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us where we are; He will work in our lives in ways we might consider "meddlin'," to shape us up into the image of His dear Son. He will burn out of us all the attitudes and frames of mind that war against His ways rebelliously. He will do interventions to draw us out of dangerous situations (as He did for Saul of Tarsus, Acts 9:1-6). God's "tough love" does to and for us what we need, even when it is painful for us.
Our love for one another must be as powerfully strong as His is for us. We must consider other before self, as He did in the sending of His own Son, which had to be as painful for the Father as it was to Jesus.
O Father, help me to know You better, and love You more every day. Teach me Your ways, that I may obey Your Law of Love. Check me when I am about to stray to the right or to the left, keep me in Your path for me. Let my Fear of God help me do right. Let Your love in me be poured out onto others, even those who have tried to make themselves unloveable.
And use my life to bring the glory to Your Name, for it is You Who are doing all these things, and You alone deserve the credit.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
