My reading this morning was in the 3rd and 4th chapters of the book of Joshua. A story unfamiliar to me, it takes place early in Joshua's leadership of the people of God. Moses had recently died and the Jews were being led by Joshua into the land promised to them by God Almighty. In order to reach that land, called Jericho, the people had to cross a mighty, rushing river: the Jordan, which was at that time of year at flood stage (3:15). It was a very treacherous endeavor.
The story takes place over a 2-day period. In chapter 3, on the first day, Joshua had proclaimed to the people (3:5) - -
Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.
What did this mean? The commentator, Matthew Henry, offers the following about this passage:
we must separate ourselves from all other cares, devote ourselves to God’s honour, and cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit. The people of Israel were now entering into the holy land, and therefore must sanctify themselves. God was about to give them uncommon instances of his favour, which by meditation and prayer they must compose their minds to a very careful observation of, that they might give God the glory, and take to themselves the comfort, of these appearances.
Ok.....
We must remember that the Old Testament people of God did not have the Holy Spirit continually dwelling within each of them. The Holy Spirit of God would manifest among them according to when and where and even HOW God the Father willed it. He spoke clearly to individuals, whom He ordained to fulfill His purposes. The way that the people of God in that day were to "consecrate" or to "sanctify", "purify" themselves was through confession of sin and doing the prescribed purification rituals of the Law. This command was given to them through Joshua after they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. That's a lot of dust on the soul.
In those days, water was a very precious commodity. Routine bathing was just not done. (Ewwww, right?) The command to cleanse themselves signified that they were prepared to receive the new and magnificent thing that God was about to do in them.
In 2 Samuel 12:20, we see David doing just this: bathing and changing his clothes before going to the holy place to worship God.
Today, those who worship Jesus Christ as God, Savior and Master - - each of us has a personal relationship with Him. His Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. How, then, would each of us consecrate ourselves? And, then, when do we do it?
God has been speaking to me over the past 4 days about confession of sin and how important it is to our walk with Him. This is not something we hear many sermons about. After all, Christ's finished work has covered all of our sins, right? We are forever saved, right? So, why bother with confession, with consecration?
Yes, when we accept Christ as Savior, He forever saves us. Some of you, my dear brothers and sisters, adhere to a position of temporary grace. And, I love you. However, I do not believe that this is what the Bible teaches. If any one of us were to be responsible for keeping ourselves saved, no one would make it to Heaven. We are redeemed, but not able to walk faultlessly before Him each day. That is why we still need confession and consecration.
The way that Christians should consecrate themselves is to acknowledge, yield to the Holy Spirit's lordship in our lives as often as needed. (For me, that is a LOT!) He will often point out to my spirit a specific sin. My response should be to, in humility, confess it and ask for cleansing, for restoration. This is important, so that my walk with Him will be unhindered, so that there will be nothing standing "between us".
Last Sunday we were studying the concept of prayer. The SS teacher, my husband, asked the class what prayer is. My response, because it was not mentioned by others, was that confession is a necessary component of prayer. I was immediately convicted by my own response because, though I know this intellectually, in practice I do not often do it. A friend of mine, this godly man, when he prays aloud, always begins with confessing his own sin. It usually bothers me to hear him do that! My own sinful pride rears its ugly head! But, he is right! The Scriptures say that if I cling to unconfessed sin in my heart, the Lord will not listen to me. David was a "man after God's own heart", and he was no stranger to confession. Look at the psalmist David's words in Psalm 66:17-19 - - -
17I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue. 18If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear; 19But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.…
The apostle John reiterates this truth in John 9:31 - - -
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will.
And then - - - listen! Then, we wonder why God isn't using us more, doing more in our churches, in our communities, in our country. We pray and pray and pray for things to turn around; and yet, we have unconfessed sin clinging to us like barnacles. We allow our spiritual pride to cover our sins, obscuring them from both ourselves and from others. We stand in church during the invitation and piously pray, "Well, I hope someone goes down to the altar this morning." WHAT? Come on, now, you churchy folk - - - can I get an "amen"? You know it's true!
God help us! We need to bow the knees of our hearts - - - not just once a day, not just twice a day, but every time the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. That is, we should respond with confession in this way if we want to walk resplendent, if we want to walk close to our Savior.
I truly believe that we have no idea of the amazing things that God wants to do through each of us His children. Unfortunately, we are not being used to the fullest extent, for His glory, because of the dust on our souls. Instead, we see an awful lot of self-justification of sin going on, and I'm not talking about only in the lives of unbelievers!
There's one more important point that needs to be made here. Confession must go hand-in-hand with true repentance. By the grace of God, and through making many, many mistakes, my husband and I have raised two boys, now 18 and 20. I can remember arbitrating one of their many disputes and getting them to "make peace", only to find that right after I sent them back to play they were "at it again"! True repentance had not taken place! Confession for cleansing is not enough. Acknowledging our sin is not enough. We must repent of it, turn away from it and ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us against it, going forward.
Lord, I am so very sorry that I have not been diligent to keep my soul dust-free. Please remind me by your Holy Spirit to be responsive when He prompts me to confess and repent. I want to be used by You, for Your honor and glory, for the furtherance of Your kingdom! And I know that my unconfessed sin hinders that. Teach me true humility, Lord God! In Jesus' name, amen.
Sources:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+3%3A5
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-consecration.html
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