A different kind of fire...

Joshua 7:14-15,19-25 AMPC

In the morning therefore, you shall present your tribes. And the tribe which the Lord takes shall come by families; and the family which the Lord takes shall come by households; and the household which the Lord takes shall come by persons. [15] And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be [killed and his body] burned with fire, he and all he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done a shameful and wicked thing in Israel. [19] And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession to Him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me. [20] And Achan answered Joshua, In truth, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this have I done: [21] When I saw among the spoils an attractive mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. Behold, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath. [22] So Joshua sent messengers, who ran to the tent, and behold, the spoil was hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. [23] And they took them from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and laid them out before the Lord. [24] And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, and the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. [25] And Joshua said, Why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord will trouble you this day. And all Israel stoned him and those with him with stones, and afterward burned their bodies with fire.

It's a horrible and tragic story of Achan. He thought he'd got away with hiding forbidden treasures in his secret place.

But the Lord, who sees everything, didn't gloss over it.

There was a fatal penalty that Achan had to pay for his greedy rebellion - he and all he had was burned and cast out.

It was radical and absolute.

Today we see it as too cruel and an over the top response.

Perhaps we've lost that proper respect and awe that God deserves? Maybe the mercy of Jesus has been misunderstood?

Look again at the punishment for sin - the agony, flogging and writhing death that Jesus had to endure in order to pay for my secret sin.

He was brought into public disgrace and shame, hanging naked on the Cross, an object of mocking and ridicule.

No Jesus didn't gloss over sin, He paid for it, in full.

Achan's hidden sinful treasures and his most closest possessions were subject to fire and exclusion from the camp of Israel.

We, however, are subject to a different kind of fire - not a physical but a spiritual one.

The Holy Spirit searches the depths of our beings and locates hidden, forbidden "treasures" in our lives.

We are then confronted and challenged to expose these before the Lord.

He sends His purifying fire to purge these old ways from us.

No longer is that fire destructive, but it is cleansing and brings new life

When travelling through Sequoia National Park we were told how the burl (a large bulge in the trunk of the tree) contains new life when subject to fire. It brings forth more new little Sequoias in its wake.

When the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples in Acts 2, they were transformed from shrinking cowards into bold witnesses for Jesus.

May that kind of fire kindle in each one of us.

Hebrews 12:28-29 AMPC

Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe; [29] For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire.