| The Trouble with Achan 3/21/05 George Poulo Two Covenants No servant can serve two masters; for either He will hate the one, and love the other; or else He will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye Cannot serve God and mam-mon. Luke16:13 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth Another, commiteth adultery: and whosoever Marrieth her that is put away from her husband Committeth adultery. Luke 16:18 God's involvement with the children of Israel has been one of covenant since the time of Noah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to Moses. Covenant is the highest form of relationship one can have with God or man. Marriage is a form of covenant. If you are married to one person and you enter into covenant with another, that act is adultery. When Luke brings up the issue of adultery in Chapter 16, he does so in the context of money. If you are in covenant with money (Money is your God.) and you seek to be in covenant with Christ that is tantamount to adultery. If you are in covenant with the Law and seeing Christ perform miracles lust after Him, then, you too, commit adultery. Now the only way to end one covenant to establish another is death. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married To another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but If her husband is dead, she is free from that law; so that She is no adulteress, though she be married to another Man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead To the law by the body of Christ'; that ye should be married To another, even him who was raised from the dead, that we Should bring forth fruit unto God. Rom. 7:3-4 The analogy is complete. One cannot be married to two people at the same time. One cannot be married to Christ and another at the same time. Both are adultery. That is sin and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). What does that have to do with Achan? We read, And the children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because They were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised Them by the way. Joshua 5:7 Achan was one of those children which was circumcised. Achan had entered into covenant with God just like Abraham. When God forbade the Israelites from taking any of the spoils of Jericho, his word was part of the covenant. "But all of the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated to the Lord". (Joshua 6:19) To not obey the voice of the Lord or his word is to break covenant with God. Achan did just that. The result was death by stoning and then fire, the punishment of adultery (See Leviticus). Because Achan was in covenant with mam-mon, he broke covenant with God, and the result was a death by stoning. As Christians we, too, are in covenant. It is a covenant ratified by the blood of Christ. To fully enter into this covenant, we must be free from all prior covenants and we are all in covenant with something. This is a different spin to "ye must be born-again" (John 3:3) To be born again we must die to all other covenants and be wed to Christ. If any man come to me, and hate not his father, And his mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, And sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my Disciple. Luke 14:26 To hate that which we love in the natural is a killer. It is to bring about a certain kind of death, the death of the natural. But if we do, then we are in a position to be wed to Christ and bring about a right relationship to all of our natural relationships. Christ will give us ample opportunity to die. St. Paul says it clearly, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live..." (Gal.2:20) St. Paul died to the law, his hatred of Christians, and became hated by those he loved all his life. He died daily. In order to bear fruit in the kingdom of God, we must be free of all attachments and be wed to Christ. Are you free or living in adultery? St. Paul says in Romans that he dies daily. We must die to self and mortify the flesh so that we can walk in the Spirit. It is a constant battle, but if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal.5:16) and so please God and bear abundant fruit. Amen |
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