Joshua 6:18
“And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye
make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make
the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.”
If you have ever been around explosive material, you will always see warning signs around the explosives. Often,
they will tell you to keep out of the area where the explosives are because they don’t want you to be hurt by those explosives. Only those who are trained to handle the explosives are to be allowed in the area of the explosives.
In the verse above, God is warning the believer that sin is explosive material. God told Joshua, “in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing.” If we could paraphrase this warning, we would be saying, “Warning, sin is explosive.” The thing about sin is that there is nobody who is an expert in handling sin; therefore, everyone must keep away from sin so that it doesn’t explode in their life and hurt them and anyone with them. The verse above gives several warnings about sin that I would like to point out to you.
First, sin is dangerous. When God says, “in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing,” He is saying that whatever you do, stay away from sin. God knows how dangerous sin is, and you would be wise not to think that you can handle it. Sin is dangerous like an explosive but more damaging to one’s life than a nuclear bomb. The best thing to do with sin is to stay away from it.
Second, sin is a choice. You will notice that God says, “lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing.” My friend, nobody makes you sin, you choose to do it. You don’t sin because you inherited someone’s genes of sin, but you sin because you choose to sin. If you don’t want to make the wrong choice and sin, stay away from any sin.
Third, sin’s choice is because of a bad influence. God warned against taking of the accursed thing because it would “make the camp of Israel a curse.” The biggest reason anyone does wrong is because they have been around someone else who has done wrong. If you want to minimize your influences to sin, you had best check who is influencing you and make sure they are influencing you for right and not for wrong.
Fourth, sin will destroy you. The word “accursed” means to be doomed. You can’t commit sin and not think that you will get away with it. You are doomed when you choose to live in sin because it slowly destroys your life like a cancer.
Fifth, sin always affects others to do the same thing. Achan didn’t go into sin alone, but he influenced his family to go with him. If you love your family and friends, you would be wise not to commit sin because you will influence someone to do wrong with you. Don’t think that you can do wrong and your children won’t pick up on your sinful habits. Many children go into sin because they learned it from their parents. You always affect others when you choose to sin.
Sixth, sin always makes troubles for those around you. The bad part about sin is that the innocent around you have to put up with what sin has done to you. You should love your family, church and friends enough to quit your sin so that you don’t make them to have to live in the consequences of your sin. Sin’s effect always affects others. Stay away from sin and you won’t have any sin to hurt those you love.
