Scripture

Our verse for today comes from Joshua 7:20, “And Achan answered Joshua and said, ‘Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done.'”

Background

When you create a new online account with your bank or with a credit card company, part of the process usually involves answering a security question. You might have to choose between answering what city you were born in, or your grandma’s maiden name, or what was the name of your first pet. The intent is to make it obscure enough to eliminate the chances of someone guessing the answer. And at some point in the future, as when you might sign onto the account from a different computer, the system will ask you that question to verify that you are who you say you are. Now imagine if the security question asked you what have you done to sin against the Lord your God.

Application

I paused for a while after I typed that last sentence. In fact, I hesitated for a long time once I felt that this verse was to be the subject of today’s devotion. And it’s no great secret as to why that would be true. Thinking about the sin in our life is not pleasant. And confessing specific sins, not just thinking about our general failings and slights, but verbalizing what we have done against the holiness of God isn’t what gets our juices flowing. So when you think about being asked about your sins by your computer, or better yet, being asked by the One who knows the answer, “What have you done against Me?” it’s only right to consider fully what is being asked and what the true answers are. It makes me think of cleaning the house. Few look forward to this task, and most begrudge it. But once it’s done, and even while it’s going on and the transformation is occurring, there is a great sense of peace and reclamation. Confessing our sins is like that. It goes to a much deeper level, I realize, but the image of being cleansed and put back like new is weighty. Achan and his family lost their lives for their sin, but God gave Israel victory over thousands because His house had been cleansed. Sin is hateful, deceptive, sly, destructive. Can we dare consider harboring it? We must confess it. That is the secret answer to our security.

Charge

As we seek Him today, let your conscience take you where it needs to. Come clean, and be made anew in Him.

Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words