Do The Right Thing

“Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.’” (Joshua 7:13)

In the 1989 Spike Lee movie Do The Right Thing, everyone’s hatred and bigotry smoulders and builds until it explodes into violence on a hot summer day in Brooklyn. Spike Lee may have played the race card in his movie about black vs Italian violence, but God has always wanted us to do the right thing. The first battle for the children of Israel to possess the Promised Land was at Jericho, after they crossed the Jordan River. God had given them a great victory at Jericho, and Joshua was now ready to take Ai.

After they spied out the enemy camp, they determined they needed only a few thousand men to gain victory. They went up against Ai only to fail miserably. They lost 32 men in a battle that should have been an easy victory, but instead were forced to retreat. Joshua was devastated: "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 children of Israel failed because they did not do the right thing, because they failed to obey God. God had told them not to take any spoil from their first battle of Jericho because the FIRST fruits of victory, like the tithe or the first 10% of our income, is holy and belongs to God, but that didn’t happen.

Achan was greedy like Gordon Gekko and he hid some forbidden treasures from Jericho in his tent, and God was now judging the entire nation for this one man’s sin. Whenever we act without God’s approval and blessing like living with someone we’re not married to, doing a Kobe, an OJ, an Enron, or keeping God’s tithe, we can expect God to allow the devil to make our lives miserable like Job. God’s word to Joshua was that he could not stand against his enemies as long as there was disobedience among his troops.

Whenever we launch any endeavor, we should make sure there are no unclean things in our dealings that would make us vulnerable to failure: breach of contract, unpaid debts, broken promises, abused employees, unhappy customers, fed up vendors, lawsuits, dishonesty, and illegal acts. Many of these things can hinder God from blessing our enterprises. These things can remove the shield of protection from our lives, which God wants to bless, but cannot because He is committed to righteousness. God’s holy name is blemished when unrighteousness is allowed to permeate. Is God able to bless whatever you’re doing today? If not, then you need to go back, do the right thing, hire The Terminator and clean up a few Dirty Pretty Things before He can do so.
Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries.
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