Sin in the Camp

I’m mentally and physically (as in pounding on the keyboard) tracking my way through Joshua as a means of reflection. Today I’m stopping at Chapter 7 again. It is the turning point of the entire book. After a miraculous, mighty victory at Jericho, Israel was solidly defeated in battle at Ai. Joshua was dismayed, devastated, and fell in grief before the Lord. Was it over-confidence; was it lack of prayer, both clear possibilities? No.

The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned… You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it. Joshua 7: 10-11, 13

God says Israel has sinned and they will not move ahead until sin is removed.
There is sin in the camp.

Israel was stopped in their tracks. The same thing happens with us. There are times when, no matter how hard we try, we are going nowhere. There are times we cycle in and out of the same circumstances of defeat. We analyze, we look at the situation from all angles, we review a hundred reasons, but at some point we get it. Sin. If there is unconfessed sin in our lives, it will eventually trip us up every time. We discover that we, like Israel, have sin in our camp and our spiritual progress is halted. Sometimes everything is halted.

Have you ever been so frustrated, wondering what was holding you back? If we really want to know the truth, we must be willing to ask ourselves the hard question. Is there sin in our camp? Is this what is holding us back? Is this our point of defeat? Is this the reason we’re stuck? Settling our sin with God is the only thing that will get us back moving.