Blood for Sin

The Spirit calls me today. The clouds of oppression form a suffocating blanket and I know I must break through whatever is cloaking the Truth. As we walk with Holiness, there are those days when the reality of who we are in the flesh condemns us.

We have been called to personal and national repentance. The dire circumstances of our nation and our personal lives have brought many back to the promises of our Holy God. 2 Chron 7:14-15, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways,(repent) then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".

Corporate accountability becomes personal when we are called as a nation to repent. Intercession requires a weight be felt for the sin of others while not over looking our own. And the cloud of accountability swirls.

I have been reading in Joshua 5-7, the account of the Children of Israel entering the promised land. They crossed the Jordan and the first battle is the one fought at Jericho. What a great supernatural victory the Lord gave His people.

Celebration and a sense of invincibility were running high in the camp. A much smaller city, Ai was the next one to be conquered in the land the Lord God Almighty had given His people.

But then a darkness enters in. Chapter 7 is like a bucket of cold water thrown on the enthusiasm and fire generated by a wondrous victory. A smaller fighting force was sent out, but the Israelites were unable to take the city and having lost warriors in the battle, they returned to camp in defeat. Joshua sought the Lord to understand why.

It was revealed that there was "sin" in the camp. One man had violated the directive at Jericho: All plunder was to be devoted to the Lord and taken into the national treasury. One man stole things from the plunder and put them with his own possessions. He violated God's command, buried his "treasure" and in doing so brought defeat to the entire nation.

We who live on this side of the Cross, have a difficult time with the mandate of personal Holiness. The sin debt has been paid by another and we do not have to personally face the great penalty for violating God's Holiness. We, through a choice given, have the ability to see our blood guilt transferred to the Savior, on the Cross of death and atonement for our sin.

It would serve us well to look back in history to the ones whose lives were lived before the Cross. We see what price was paid for violating God's directives and commands.

Achan was the violator in question. While the elders and the leaders did not know who was to blame for the offense, God did. Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family was brought forward until Achan was set apart and identified as the one who had rebelled and sinned.

The penalty was swift and sure: death to him and his family. Then all that he possessed was burned and buried. Lest we fall victim to the enemy of Holiness, we dare not have too much compassion for the violator. If we go there, these thoughts will trickle down from a general perspective of God to a personal agreement with the enemy that God is cruel, harsh, exacting and blood thirsty. We dare not even begin to attempt to judge God and His ways.

The Truth is like a nugget of gold that lies beneath layers of dirt and must be unearthed. And the Truth is, that God's Character and His Being are perfect. His laws are just. If you sin, you die. All are given the choice. In the case of Achan, one man among all the people in the nation decided to disobey the directive of their Holy God. Many may have been tempted, but only one man chose to disobey.

Everything the nation of Israel was about to do depended upon the powerful Almighty God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. This tribal family nation had been chosen to bring the knowledge about the One and Only True God of all Creation to the nations they were about to encounter. This was their mission. Their obedience and observance of His law was vital to the mission. No exceptions.

Sin in the camp had to be eradicated. Just like sin in our lives must be eradicated if we are to live a life worthy of our calling.

The church age is an "age" of grace and mercy flowing from our Holy God through the death of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is important that we recognize the mission and the calling to live a life acceptable to the One who calls us. After salvation we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables us to live up to the higher standard IF we yield to Him.

Just like the nation of Israel was called to be "set apart" from all the other nations on the earth, we, as the Church of the Living God, saved and sanctified, are called to be set apart from all the other people around us.

Jericho was recorded, in the minds of all who heard the account of the battle, as a supernatural victory brought through the Power of their Almighty God. Conversely, Ai was initially recorded as a humiliating defeat.

What made the stunning difference in the end was hidden sin. God is calling us to war in His name, to fight the battle so all the world will see His Glory. Victory has already been awarded the Church, because God Himself will fight the battle. But unless we deal with the hidden sin and rebellion within the camp, we will not be able to move forward; not as individuals, not as families and not as the church at large.

God will not be mocked. If we, His people, are living in the same sin as the world around us, how can we ever expect Him to bring forth His great supernatural victories. The Lord has promised to make a "distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve Him and those who do not." What represents the hidden sin in my life? What represents the hidden sin in yours?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?