Unbreakable“Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff.” (Joshua 7:11) The 2000 movie Unbreakable starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson is a supernatural thriller that revolves around a man who learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident. It matters not how strong we are, whether we have the greatest resources and talent or the best plans and procedures, we will fail if we are not unbreakable. This is the valuable lesson Joshua learned when he attempted to go against a small army at Ai, his second battle in the Promised Land. The children of Israel were victorious in defeating Jericho because they obeyed the commands of God, no matter how crazy they appear to be. Imagine marching around the city once for six days then seven times on the seventh day and blowing trumpets and shouting as a way to take a city. Sometimes we try to figure out why we are not successful and we look at every angle to see what went wrong. For the children of Israel, it was not easily seen on the surface. Everything seemed just as it should be from Joshua’s vantage point, so when his army was defeated, he cried out to God, “Alas, LORD God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all- to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?” (Joshua 7:7) The people had been defeated because they had taken what belonged to God from Jericho and He could not bless them. They were told not to take any possessions from the first battle of Jericho because the first fruits, like the tithe, always belong to God. But Achan failed because of pure greed, and the whole army suffered. Disobedience to God’s Word makes our armor vulnerable to attacks from the devil, who then gains permission from God to attack us. If we break down in moral purity, become Unfaithful like Diane Lane and let Harry Potter bewitch our children, the devil comes in and establishes a stronghold. If we give place to bitterness and unforgiveness, we will break fellowship with God and with others. If we become focused on money like Enron or Gordon Gekko, we will fall into greed and deception as we neglect to build God’s house because we are too busy building our house. Furthermore, we will be robbing God of His tithes and offerings and close the windows of heaven from raining down blessings on us. (Malachi 3:8-12) To be unbreakable, we need to remove all chinks in our spiritual armor to make sure we are not susceptible. Repent of our sins, begin from a solid spiritual foundation based on obedience to the Word of God and never taste the agony of defeat again.Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
|