Compromise

Most of us are familiar with the Battle of Jericho and how the Israelites marched around the city as God told them to once each day, the seven times on the seventh day.  The seven priests sounded the trumpets and the walls of Jericho came falling down.  The faith of these people and their love and confidence in the Lord must have been so great; only increasing as the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. However, one man made a fatal mistake, allowing compromise in his life. The Lord had said to them:  

“And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”

~Joshua 6:18

Achan, from the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing. He allowed his flesh to rise up and desire those things that the Lord had specifically said not to take from Jericho. In doing this, the Lord became angry with not just Achan, but ALL the children of Israel.  (Joshua 7:1). One man, in this group of faithful followers of the Lord, had committed sin and caused The Lord’s anger upon the entire group of people!  The spiritual implications of Achan’s sin are what I think, tremendous!  The Lord revealed to me that this kindled a somewhat overconfidence and pride within the Israelites.  But more importantly, the Lord was no longer with the Israelites in their battle because of Achan’s compromising sin.

Their next battle was in Ai and when the “scouts” went to Ai to check out who they were going to battle, they were overconfident in thinking they could win without the entire army - it was as though they were TOO confident in their righteousness and having God on their side. I couldn’t find any reference to their inquiring of the Lord prior to going into the first “battle” with the people of Ai. The compromising sin that Achan embraced opened the door to pride where the children of Israel became overconfident about their next battle.

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.

So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.

And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

~Joshua 7:2-5

Not only did they end up running away from the battle because they got scared, but they lost 36 men in the process!  One man’s compromise had cost the lives of many and dashed the hopes of all the Israelites.  When Joshua cried out to the Lord asking why this happened, He responded with:

Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

~Joshua 7:11-12

The people were faithful to take this to heart, and unfortunately Achan was stoned to death as a consequence of his sin.  However, God used the experience for good once the accursed things were no longer in their midst.  I imagine that there was a spiritual battle as well within the camp to ensure that any residue of the compromise or sin was no longer with them. The Lord told them to pretend to run away, as they had before, to trick the people of Ai into leaving their city unattended.

And he [Joshua] commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready:

And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them,

(For they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them.

Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.

~Joshua 8:4-7

What I find most awesome about this is that despite one man’s mistake, God used the results of the mistake to bless the people.   He had them use the same tactic of running away to entirely defeat the people of Ai.

And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

~Joshua 8:25

Two morals to this story:

1.     Do not allow compromise in your own life, do not allow your flesh to rise up against the will of God, for your mistakes potentially impact everyone you fellowship with.

2.     God even uses our mistakes for good - He uses everything for good with or without our obedience.