No Sin Can Be Hidden From God

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

No Sin Can Be Hidden From God

Today's Text: And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. Joshua 7:15

The Message:      The Lord did not specify who was the guilty party, but He gave directions as to what was to be done. He said, "In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come ... man by man."      In thus sifting the matter to the bottom, the Lord reveals the fact that He is acquainted with the hidden things of dishonesty, however people may think that they are hidden. In all the transaction, Achan manifested a determination not to acknowledge his sin; but now the Lord fastened his sin upon him. Had Joshua declared Achan's sin, many might have sympathized with the guilty one as he protested that he was innocent, and they might, in their human judgment, have thought he was misused and maltreated. It is thus that many do today when people are reproved for sin, for they drop God out of their reckoning. This is the reason that Joshua addressed Achan as he did. He said, "My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me."      The Lord had told Joshua just what Achan had done, but so many are led by human sympathy, and the wrongdoer is so often excused, that the Lord meant to give Israel a lesson that should also be of benefit to us in our day. Therefore Joshua entreated the young man to tell him what he had done....      Had punishment come upon Achan before he had with his own lips made confession of his wrong, the people, who were naturally ready to rebel, would have charged Joshua with dealing harshly with the young man, and would have denounced him as unmerciful in apportioning so dreadful a punishment....      Achan confessed, and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them ... and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it."...      "And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones."-Letter 13, 1893 (The Youth's Instructor, January 25, 1894; The Youth's Instructor, February 1, 1894).

Commentary: My friend, in God's dealing with Achan is revealed the mercy and justice of God.  Time was given Achan to acknowledge his sin, and as the process of discovering his sin progressed, the doors of mercy were still open to him.  As the Spirit of God worked upon his heart, Achan resisted the conviction of the Lord until the process settled upon him and the doors of mercy were shut.  Then when his sin was exposed before the people, he acknowledged his sin before them.  He was the cause of the displeasure of God, but this confession was not motivated by a sorrow for sin, but for the consequences of it.  He and his household were destroyed because of his sin. How may of us today are like Achan, harboring secret sin in our lives, hiding them from the church and thinking that God will overlook our sin and save us in sin rather then from sin.  The time of the judgment is just at hand when every secret sin will be revealed.  "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:14). My friend, let us not be as Achan, hiding our sins and resisting the power of the Holy Spirit.  Now is the time for us to confess our sins before the Lord, and laying hold of His promise to forgive us and give us the power to turn from sin.  Any sin that we do not overcome will in the end overcome us. God bless,

Video of the Week I Protest - by Debbie Purviance A powerful testimony by a longtime Seventh-day Adventist member.