Three things: 1) Obedience/disobedience to God does not only affect you, it affects so many other people you have no idea. 2) When you lead, it doesn’t matter how good you are or how lead by God you are, there is no guarantee that everyone or anyone will follow you. 3) There is a certain mentality that we should have when it comes to our lives.
First of all, when the walls of Jericho fell down, Joshua told the people not to take the things that were “devoted to destruction.” This guy, Achan didn’t listen. Because of it, Israel went to the next puny city to conquer it and they were defeated because God was angry. We can see how important obedience to God is. Because this guy disobeyed, a bunch of his own men died and they could not defeat a small city after just crushing Jericho.
Secondly, we see how great of a leader Joshua has been. How could such a bad thing happen under his watch and leadership? Joshua was a great leader and was being lead by God. Just because you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, doesn’t guarantee that those following or under you will do the same.
Thirdly, we see the kind of mentality we should have. Joshua cried out to God. Basically, he was asking God why he would let such a thing happen to them. The last sentence he says is what shows his mentality and shows the mentality we should have, “What are you going to do for your great name?” Our lives should be so consumed with God’s purposes that when good, bad, or neutral things happen in our life, we are constantly asking ourselves, “how will this make God look?” We should be concerned about our lives making God famous. Joshua was concerned for the nation because he knows that they have been representing God. If they fail, he doesn’t want the name of God to fail. We represent God.
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