Rebuilding upon Old Foundations
Reflective Reading: Joshua 4-7
You may have heard me mention that when we study the Bible, we must learn to see not just what it means but how it means. The other day while studying the book of Joshua, I came across this phenomenon of how the text means in a way that made me tremble. So, let’s get right into it. Joshua 4-7 is structured with the following simplified similarities and contrasts:
The above mirrored structure shows the contrast between Rahab, Achan, their families, and God’s response to faith and repentance, unfaithfulness and unrepentance. As we move to the center of these opposite parallels, we find the central focus of God’s primary lesson:
WHATEVER GOD DESTROYS, DON’T REBUILD!
WHATEVER BELONGS TO GOD, DON’T WITHHOLD!
The lesson here is quite sobering. When God has helped us to overcome certain sins in our lives, we must never go back. And the way to keep these strongholds from regaining a place in our lives is to give more of ourselves away to the Lord.
How many times have I allowed sin to be re-established in my life after God helped me to overcome and destroy it? How many times have I selfishly hidden or kept for myself what God had freely given me?
As I write this, I am reminded of a certain incident of which I am ashamed. However, I think telling of it will highlight the meaning of this text more vividly.
In my office I have shelves filled with books. Here and there among the shelves are certain prized possessions—photographs, trinkets from other countries, special gifts, a hand-carved chess set, pottery, a Buffalo Bills leather football, a few guns, a throwing axe, a Chilean musical rain stick, and three bottles of homemade maple syrup.
These three bottles of maple syrup are not just “any” kind of syrup. They contain syrup of the highest quality. In all my years of making maple syrup, I knew I had struck gold when I made this special batch. Most had already been devoured by our Master Guild students, which left me with only three bottles. They had been sitting on my book shelf for over a year. I looked forward to the day when I would pour that slow-moving delicious syrup over my favorite pancakes.
Where am I going with this? Well, the other day they ran out of syrup in the café here at Lamplighter. Since my office is next to the café, and my three bottles of syrup were sitting right there in sight, my maple syrup seemed the logical choice to fill the need. And since we have maple syrup bottles here, there, and everywhere, grabbing a bottle from my shelf did not seem objectionable or out of the ordinary.
Not realizing these were not just any ordinary bottles of syrup, someone used one of them to make a latté. (In fact, when I tasted one of the lattés, I commented on the unusually good flavor, not realizing my prized maple syrup was in it!)
When I found out what they were using, well, let’s just say I placed my maple syrup as a priority over someone who didn’t do anything wrong. But I made sure they understood that these bottles of maple syrup were important to me, and it would have been nice if they had asked first. Clearly, I had conveyed that this maple syrup was more important than they were.
At first, I felt justified. They should have asked me before taking the syrup. But then the Holy Spirit started to convict me. As shame began to surface, there was only one thing I could do—confess quickly, humble myself, and patiently wait for God to restore.
Once upon a time I thought God had destroyed this selfishness in my life, but there it was—it had resurfaced. My guard was down, and what God had once destroyed (my idolatrous altar of “me”), I rebuilt. What belonged to God (syrup in this case), I withheld.
Proverbs 13:10 reads, “Only by pride comes contentions.” I really didn’t think I was acting in a prideful way. But who does? Pride is so deceptive. It convinces us that we are justified in our self-serving entitlement. It disables us from seeing what God has destroyed and tries to rebuild on those old foundations. Growing in the Lord is a constant endeavor. When we do rebuild what God has destroyed, we must confess quickly and begin the tear-down process immediately.
In the last sentence of the book of 1 John we read, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Is there some area of your life you’re holding onto as an idol? Have you taken ownership of something that is God’s and hidden it for your own pleasure?
Whatever the case may be, may our prayer be: “Oh Lord, help us. Help us to be free from self-worship, and—whatever belongs to you, may we never withhold; and whatever you have destroyed, may we never rebuild.”
Sincerely,
Mark Hamby
M.S., M. Div., Th. M., D. Min.
Recommended Reading:
Silver Cup, Illustrated (Ages 4+)
The Wanderer book/audio drama (Ages 9+)
Idols of the Heart (Ages 12+)
Dashed to Pieces book/audio drama (Ages 12+)
