Tami’s Meandering Thoughts

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” Romans 8:28

Have you ever done something that later you thought, “What in the world was I thinking?” or perhaps said something that you later regretted? I think that’s about the story of my life – how often do I rehash conversation after conversation and think of better things to have said, more compassionate or insightful responses or better ways to have reacted. Sometimes I am sure I made way too big of a mess for God to clean up. Then today I saw something interesting in the story of Joshua’s take-over of Ai.

To set the stage: God told the Israelites, and Joshua as their leader, that after the walls of Jericho came down they were to totally destroy everything in that city. Take no plunder, leave no survivors, get in and get out. Of course they all readily obeyed, right? As usual, there was one rebel. Achan took a beautiful Babylonian robe, some silver and gold and buried them under his tent. Although none of the other Israelites knew of his sin, God did. The army then marched on to Ai, a small town that was sure to fall easily. To everyone’s surprise, the men from Ai routed Israel’s army and even killed some of the men. Distressed and confused at God’s abandonment, Joshua and the other leaders knelt before the Lord, begging him for clarification of his promise to help them take over the land.

In response, God exposed Achan and demanded he be killed to appease the Lord’s anger. Then the Lord commanded Joshua and the men to march against Ai again. The plan was different this time, though, and this is what hit me. God used Achan’s sin to help Israel destroy Ai. He took a situation that was not only humiliating, discouraging and devastating, but steeped in sin, and turned it around to use for His glory.

The attack: Joshua took a group of men to attack Ai from the front and hid a group of men behind the city ready to ambush it once all the fighting men left to run after the attacking army. Joshua commanded, “When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before and we will run away from them. We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running away from them, you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town.” (Joshua 9:5-7). Did you catch that? During the previous attack God had allowed Ai to defeat the Israelites because of Achan’s sin. Then God used the fact that they had already been defeated as a ruse to draw out their army in pursuit of the fleeing Israelites. Ai’s army followed them because they had defeated the Israelites before and were confident they could do that again.

The entire plan was based on the fact that because of Achan’s sin they had been defeated before. God used the situation of Achan sinning to defeat the town of Ai. Seems like God should have ignored Achan’s sin once Achan had been disciplined and the Israelites had learned their lesson. Seems like God would have taught, “When someone sins there is NO good that can come from that.” Instead, God (after discipline and human repentance) turned the sinful situation around and actually used it to further his plan. Of course, my question comes, what if Achan had not sinned? How would God have defeated Ai then?

That’s when I have to catch myself and say, “There are no “what-ifs”. No, God didn’t need Achan to sin. The point to me is that God used a human’s sinful choice and turned the situation around for good. God actually used Achan’s sin in his plan. What relief that is! All of my blunders, my misspoken words, my errant reactions are not only forgivable, but God can actually cause them to be used for good for those who love God. Our responsibility? To love God, accept discipline and seek forgiveness. After that it’s all up to God. Phew that’s a weight off my shoulders!