Delighting to Obey
When pastors break with the Word, they bring calamity upon themselves and the church
[A brief devotional inspired by my time in Joshua 8 this morning.]
The contrast couldn’t be more stark between Achan and Joshua. In Joshua 7 we see Achan (and his whole family) receive the judgment of God for their rebellion against the word of the Lord, for having “broke faith in regard to the devoted things.” Because of this, “the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel” (Joshua 7:1). Achan, of course, couldn’t plead ignorance for the word of God was clear about what was to happen and not happen upon Jericho’s fall:
And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. [17] And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. [18] But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. [19] But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD” (Joshua 6:16–19).
Achan, as you’ll recall, confessed to having kept for himself the things devoted to destruction and, consequently, brought trouble upon Israel. Joshua’s verdict is clear and terrifying for Achan and his family: “‘Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.’ And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones” (Joshua 7:25).
Contrast Achan’s rebellion with Joshua’s obedience to the word of the Lord immediately following Achan’s destruction. After the plans had been laid for the conquest of Ai and the ambush set in motion, the Lord said to Joshua: “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand” (Joshua 8:18). Joshua obeyed and Israel, according to the word of the Lord, began to experience an epic victory over their foe. Everything, you could say, was going according to plan. At this, Joshua may have been tempted to cut his obedience short, to lower his javelin as the victory looked assured. But Joshua knew partial obedience to the word of the Lord is not obedience at all:
But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. [27] Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the LORD that he commanded Joshua. [28] So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. [29] And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day (Joshua 8:26–29).
The point of this story is not that the church today is to sack cities and slay kings. Our sound hermenuetic will keep us from getting it twisted. What is clear from this story is that God’s people must obey God’s word. No short-cuts, abridgments, edits, or omissions. After all, God’s word has authority such that “to disbelieve or disobey any word in Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God.”1
Pastors, therefore, must be leaders who obey the word of the Lord. Not partially, but fully. Too many pastors today, it seems, are like Achan: shunning the word of God for “what seems right in his own eyes.” A faithful shepherd knows that when leaders in the church rebel against God’s word, he not only brings trouble on himself but upon the whole congregation. But a faithful shepherd also knows that obedience to God’s word brings blessing, the blessing of God’s favor. What will this look like? Churches that give picture to the reality of Psalm 1:1–3:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
In other words, churches that are forests of righteousness locally gathered, delighting in the word of the Lord.
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 73.