Private Lives?

Joshua 7:1-12

October 29, 2006

Well, what a week this has been for our nation! Have you had about enough of Intern Gate? I knew the media coverage had reached the high-water mark when my 7-year-old son came to me and asked, “Dad, why did Monica Lewinsky testify before the grand jury?” Seven years old! I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a grand jury until I was an adult.

I will confess to you that I was angered at having to explain to my 7-year-old the immoral actions of a man whom we are supposed to honor as our leader.

As you are well aware, there have been all kinds of opinions and perspectives flying around this week, as each of us tries to respond to what is taking place. I certainly don’t want to go into all of that this morning. That’s not why I bring it up.

But as I read Tuesday morning the text of the president’s address to the nation, one phrase in particular grabbed my attention. I read it over and over again. I just couldn’t get past it. The phrase was simply this: “It’s nobody’s business but ours.”

The broader context was this: He said, “This matter is between me and the two people I love most—my wife and our daughter—and our God. It is private. It’s nobody’s business but ours.”

Do you believe that? If you do not believe that, you are in the minority. I don’t know about this week, but in the weeks prior, most polls indicated a majority of Americans believe the president’s personal actions with regard to morality have no real bearing on his performance as the leader of our nation. Most Americans are more than willing to separate job performance from personal integrity.

And beyond that, we have really bought into the resolute individualism reflected in that statement, “It’s nobody’s business but ours.” We seem more than anxious to believe our actions and attitudes only impact us—and no one else.

Well it’s interesting that our text for this week happens to be Joshua 7. Perhaps you can already see why this story and the events of the week have folded together in my mind.

When we left Joshua and the Israelites last week in chapter 6, they were preparing to move in against the city of Jericho, which they did with success. Before they went in and took over the city, however, the Lord had given to them some very specific instructions about what they were and were not to do. Those instructions had to do with the handling of the plunder from the city.

Specifically, the Lord instructed the Israelites to stay away from “devoted things,” instruments dedicated to the worship of other gods. God told them to take those articles and dedicate them to God, and not to take any for their own private use.

Sounds simple enough. The nation went in after the walls of Jericho collapsed and they had victory in their conquest of the city. Everything looked good. The plan was unfolding. And the last thing we hear in chapter 6 is: “The Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout the land.”

But, in the very next verse, the mood changes. The very next words are, “But the Israelites acted unfaithfully, and the Lord’s anger burned again Israel.”

That’s bad news. But even worse, Joshua didn’t know about it. So he was off planning the next campaign against the city of Ai. Joshua and his officials were feeling pretty good about things.

They send some spies to check out Ai and the report was positive.
The spies said, “Listen, this is a cinch. There’s no need to send our whole army. Let’s just send two or three thousand up there and mop things up.” Joshua wanted to be sure, so he sent the 3,000, and they got whipped.

They beat a retreat and in the process, 36 of them were killed. Well that sent Joshua and the people of Israel into a tailspin. They were in despair. The elders tore their clothes as a sign of grief and poured dust on their heads. They cried out to God, “Why did you let this happen?”

I love the Lord’s response to Joshua, (v. 10): “Stand up. What are you doing down on your face?” In other words, “Knock it off, Joshua. This hasn’t happened because I left you. Israel has sinned. And you’d better get to the bottom of it. Until you do, you will never be able to stand against your enemies.”

So Joshua went through the whole nation of Israel, paring down the people tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family, until finally he came down to the family of Achan.

The tension had to be pretty high because the penalty had already been announced. When they found the people who were responsible for breaking God’s command and bringing this disgrace on Israel, that person would be put to death along with everything that belonged to him.

It came down to one Achan. He stood before Joshua and confessed that indeed when he saw the beautiful things the citizens of Jericho had, he coveted them for himself and he kept some and hid them in the ground inside his tent.

So Joshua sent some people to check it out, and sure enough when they came from going through Achan’s tent they had discovered the forbidden devoted things.

So they spread the ill-gotten gain out before the Lord and the people, plus all of Achan’s possessions including his family, and the Bible says, “All Israel stoned him and his family, and they burned up everything that belonged to Achan and covered it over with rocks.”

Wow! The sin of one man profoundly impacted a whole nation. A family was lost, a nation defeated in battle—because of the disobedience of one man.

“It’s nobody’s business but ours.” Oh, really? If this happened in our time we would say, “Hey, Achan did wrong but that’s between him and God. That doesn’t have anything to do with us. We don’t want to be judgmental. It’s not our problem. He has to answer to God and God alone.” Isn’t that what we say? But did you hear what the Lord said? Achan is the one who disobeyed here but the Lord said, “Israel has sinned.”

And did you notice in the very first part of the chapter when the writer tells what Achan did, he names his family for four generations, and the entire tribe of which he was a part?

“It’s nobody’s business but Achan’s?” These people understood when there was sin the life of even one of their members, it impacted their entire nation. They understood that it must be dealt with decisively and seriously.

We may struggle with the severity of the punishment here and struggle to understand the wrath of God, but perhaps we don’t understand God’s wrath because sin just doesn’t really bother us all that much.

Perhaps we are unwilling as a people to hold each other to high standards, simply because we are unwilling to held ourselves to those standards. We have got to cast off the lie of our culture that would say, “My personal integrity is nobody’s business but mine.” Wrong.

Now the specifics of dealing with this kind of sin have certainly changed under the new covenant made possible through Christ, thanks be to God! But the principle here remains: the Lord makes it clear in His word that none of us is an island. There is no such thing as “my private business.” The choices I make and the way I live my life does matter and it does impact those around me.

When we are members of the kingdom of God, we must live with the understanding that we integrally connected to one another, and our lives do affect our brothers and sisters in Christ. In the kingdom of God, you never act as a private citizen. We belong to each other. Paul says in Romans, “We are members of one another.”

And what in the world makes us think Israel was the only congregation who has been or is under the wrath of God because of the disobedience of her members? The Church of Jesus Christ should tremble before this truth. It is the easiest thing in the world to point our finger at Bill Clinton. He deserves strict accountability and should receive strict accountability for his actions. But friends, how does this principle apply to us?

Could it be the apparent lack of God’s power and presence in parts of His Church is because we are unwilling to purge sin from our midst? Dare I go further and say that if you claim the name of Christ and yet you are willfully living in disobedience to His Word, you are damaging the spiritual health of this congregation?

If we are harboring sin in our lives, believing it to be nobody’s business but ours, in fact we are quenching the Spirit of God in our church. The judgment of God no longer comes upon us in stoning and burning with fire. But the judgment of God comes upon us in our utter powerlessness to impact the world with the message of holiness unto the Lord.

Friends, what you do and what I do—how we live—is somebody’s business but ours. How many people carry wounds, both physical and spiritual, because of the sinful choices of one person? How many families have been torn asunder because of the sinful choices of one person? How many churches have been set back on their heels because of the sinful choices of a leader?

It matters to me whether or not you live a life worthy of your calling in Christ Jesus. My guess is it matters to you whether or not I live a life of holiness.

Just as surely as Achan’s selfish action impacted the whole nation of Israel, so the quality of your life has an affect on our whole church family. The quality of your life has an affect on me. It has an affect on my children.

I admonish us this morning to put aside the lie of individualism. Stand up to your responsibility in the Body of Christ. Be holy as the Lord is holy. By His grace, live a life of love and purity.

I want you to be able to count on me to be a man of integrity. And I want to be able to count on you to be men and women of integrity. May God help us all.