Confess Your Sin

When Israel was defeated in battle by the small town of Ai, Joshua fell on his face before the LORD and basically asked, “Why did this happen to us?” (Joshua 7:6-9) “The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Stand up! Why are you lying on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, ….’” (Joshua 7:10-11) Was this new news to Joshua? It shouldn’t have been. Before the conquest of Jericho, Joshua himself had warned the Israelites not to take from the spoils that which was to be consecrated to the LORD. Joshua should have immediately suspected sin in the camp. He didn’t know where the sin was, but he could have at least recognized its presence.

In Luke 13:4-5, Jesus says, “Those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, No! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

We in the church of God do not always know where the sin is; and, like Joshua, we hardly seem to recognize its presence. Even worse, we are unlike Joshua in that we fail to at least fall on our faces before God and ask, “Why?” We ought to have some suspicions. Somebody needs to ask the church, “Do we think that when the towers fell in New York, or when a hurricane ruined a big party town in Louisiana, or when wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes in the western United States, that these things happened because they were sinners more than us all? Why are these things happening to us?”

The answer is something like the following: God is grabbing us by the scruff of the neck and saying, “Confess your sin!”