Mistakes

Hey, guess what? You know how the Israelites were told not to take any of the precious plunder from Jericho for themselves?

Yup, you guessed it……

But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.  Joshua 7:1

Saw that coming.

Tell someone not to do something and……

Show an individual treasures and greed will do the rest………

When spies go to check out Ai, they return with good news. The whole army won’t be needed to defeat this lot. Send only tow or three thousand men and let the rest of the army have a well-deserved rest. God does not appear to have been consulted. Joshua has taken control. With one good victory under his belt, he knows what he is doing. He takes things into his own hands. He forgets to ask God. In his confidence, he relies on his own wisdom as leader and the strength of the Israelite army……

So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.  Joshua 7:4-5

The Israelites were defeated. God had not been with them. Joshua had got it seriously wrong this time.

Joshua and the elders of Israel tear their clothes, fall face down on the ground until evening and sprinkle dust on their heads.

What emotions must they have been feeling?

Fear? Disappointment? Shame? Frustration? Self-pity?

The same sorts of emotions as we feel when we make a mistake, I guess……

God, why have you allowed this to happen? How have you let me end up in this mess? I should never have stepped outside my comfort zone. I should have stuck with what I knew. You should never have given me this task to do. I knew all along I wasn’t up to it. Why did you ever trust me to get this right? Look at me now. I have got it so wrong. What is everyone going to say about me now? What will they think of me? And what about what people will think of you……how will you restore your reputation? And mine?

And God’s response?

Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?  Joshua 7:10

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how you respond to them that matters.

Israel has sinned. They have stolen, they have lied, they have taken some of the devoted things.

That is why they were defeated. God will not be with them anymore unless they ‘destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.’ (v12)

Remember the whole CHOOSE LIFE discussion. Choosing life is following God’s perfect way and living life to the full. Disobeying God leads to the opposite – it is like being ‘devoted to destruction’. We make life choices, big and small, every day. Some are life giving and lead to a life lived to the full. Some are not. Some lead to destruction – maybe not today, but in the long term. Destruction of a little piece of our body or mind or heart or soul……..

So Joshua’s instructions are as follows:-

• Go, consecrate the people. Get rid of those things that lead to destruction.
• Present yourselves tribe by tribe (clan by clan, family by family, man by man). Stand up and be counted.

And so Achan is discovered –

“It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”  Joshua 7:20-21

And so Achan was stoned and burned…..along with his whole family, all his cattle, all his possessions and his tent. A large pile of rocks was placed over Achan as a reminder of the consequences of bringing trouble on God’s people. And the place was called the Valley of Achor. Which means ‘trouble’.

A sobering tale.

And what has stood out for me? This line –

Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?  Joshua 7:10

Because when I make a mistake, I struggle to carry on. I may not literally lie face down on the ground, but I am doing that on the inside. I am defeated, ashamed, embarrassed. I lose confidence in what I am doing. I beat myself up. I look for a way out. I try to give up.

Learning from a mistake is hard. Moving on is hard. Letting go is hard.

Here are some famous quotes about mistakes to encourage you if you are anything like me….

I’m most proud of the blessings that God has bestowed upon me, in my life. He’s given me the vision to truly see that you can fall down, but you can still get back up. Hopefully I’ll learn from my mistakes and have the opportunity to strengthen and improve the next thing I do.   Martin Lawrence

If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.   William J. Clinton

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.  Johnny Cash

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.   Neil Gaiman

Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain… To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices – today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.   Kevyn Aucoin

So go ahead and makes some mistakes today. After all, you are human.

The greatest lesson is in finding the way to stand up again.