Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too much,
because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy for
today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect yesterday's
portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to keep
us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going
to change all of that. Let's experience God's words today
and receive the power we need to live healthy, vibrant lives.
Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host, author speaker,
Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, good morning. It is Monday, November three,
twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's Word every single day and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson
study series Lessons from the Faith of Joshua, and our
caption for today is the sin of Akin. The sin
of Akin. For those of you who are watching me,
You're like, what in the world was he doing. I
was trying to find the end of my headphone because
I'm not hearing anything, and I know the broadcast is up,
but I can't hear anything. Well, I had to plug
it in you see, so now you know, and if
you're on the radio, then I guess you can't see
me struggling like what is going on here? Before we
get into it, I'd like to just say welcome to
everyone joining us, especially those joining us for the very
first time. Please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community and pick up the Your
Daily Portion Life Application Guide. And let me tell you
the music that I originally created so that we could
have worship together and teach the Bible lessons through music.
They are there on your Daily Portion dot com as well.
So this is one of the ways that we continue
to build faith and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray
and then get underway. Father, we thank you for this day.
Thank you for loving us so much that you have
given us a freething that we possibly could need or desire.
And I just pray God that you will fill us
with your Holy spirit and teach us your way everlasting.
In Jesus' name, I pray Amen and amen again the
sin of Achen. Oh my yes. So we're going to
begin begin by reading from Jeremiah, I mean Joshua. Why
do I say Jeremiah from Joshua? Chapter seven. That's the
Book of Joshua, chapter seven, and I will begin reading
at verse sixteen. That's the Book of Joshua, chapter seven,
and I will read beginning at verse sixteen. And the
Bible reads, So Joshua rose early in the morning and
brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah
was taken. He brought the clan of Judah, and he
took the family of the Czar Heights. And he brought
the family of the Czar Heights man by Man, and
Abdi was taken. Then he brought his household man by Man,
and Aiken, the son of Kamri, the son of Zabdi,
and the son of Zira, the son of Zira, and
the tribe of Judah was taken. I find it interesting
that he was from the tribe of Judah. Now Joshua
said to Aiken, my son, I beg you give glory
to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to him,
and tell me now what you have done. Do not
hide it from me. Now. Listen, listen, listen, listen. We
should never have gotten to this point where God is saying,
let's get them, let's smoke them out like let's find out. Well,
I know, meaning God, but now I'm giving you a
process to find out, to discover, slowly but surely, who
indeed and in fact did this thing that is causing
the trouble in the camp. And so rather than admitting
early in the process and talking to God about it
and repenting, this dude, Aichen decides he wants it the
hard way. And that's where we begin our discussion today.
We begin with the difficult way. And so in the
book The Desire of Ages, page three hundred and fifty three,
we see we see that Joshua has addressed Aken as
my son. This expression shows not only the age and
leadership role of Joshua, but also reveals the spirit in
which this great warrior approached justice. Now let me go down,
Let me go down, Joshua was again foreshadowing the sensitivity
and kindness and love of the one who, according to
this passage, was never rude. I quote, never needlessly spoke
a severe word. That's Jesus never gave a need needless
pain to a sensitive soul. He fearlessly denounced hypocrisy, unbelief,
and iniquity, but tears were in his voice as he
uttered his scathing rebukes, and so Joshua having to live
up to the model that Jesus would have shown us. Eventually,
he is now in the position where he's just like, why,
why are you putting yourself in this situation? aChn, what
in the world it's going on? And the Bible says
in Jeremiah chapter seventeen and verse seven, if the Lord
searched the heart, I try the reins, even to give
every person according to his ways and according to the
fruit of his doings. Like when God probes into people's minds,
he's only revealing what is there. It's not a gotcha moment.
It's not something where God is trying to entrap us
or make us do something wrong and then charging us
with the crime. You know, the Bible is teaching us
that God gives us soul many many things to avoid
the evil that can come upon us. The Lord is
not slack concerning his promise. He's long suffering toward us,
thinking about what Jesus is doing while he's waiting to
come back to get us. He's long suffering, like patient
with us. He's not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance. He's always been like that,
even back in the days of Joshua and Achan. And
so before exposing Achan's sin, God gave space for confession.
He's not willing for Achin to perish. He all he
wanted was for Achan to come to repentance. He could
have revealed the guilty man immediately. That's what God could
have done, but his investigative process moved deliberately from tribe
to family to household to individual, from tribe to family
to household to individual. God smoked him out. This pause
was mercy in motion. At any point along the journey
while well, while God was saying go to the tribes,
Acin could have said, you know what, I don't want
to put the people of God through this. When he
got down to the family, Akeen could have said, you know,
I don't really want to go. The people of God
don't need to go down through this. When he got
down to the household, he could have said, you know what,
I pause, like, let me just go and confess my sin.
I don't need the people of God going through this.
And now it's down to you, Achen, and it's too late,
and it's too late, so use every delay This is
the action for all of us. Use every delay of
God's discipline as an opportunity to repent. Is God coming
down your lane? Is he in your tribe now? Is
he in your family? Is he in your household? Is
He now coming down your lane directly to you. Use
it as an opportunity to repent, not as permission to
remain silent. Mercy delayed is mercy extended. God is not
trying to get you. He wants you to be saved.
He wants to save you. He wants to save you.
The Bible says in Psalm chapter one hundred and thirty nine,
verses one and two, Oh Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,
and understandest my thought afar off. Let me read it
in another version. Oh Lord, you examine me and know
You know when I sit down and when I get up,
even from far away, you understand my motives. So God
wants us to live transparent lives. That's our second lesson
for today. Live transparently before God, not because he can't see,
Like when He went to Adam and said, where are you?
It wasn't because he didn't know where he was. It
was because Adam didn't know where Adam was. And so
live transparently before God. Live, invite his searching eye to
cleanse once tries to conceal. And then our third and
final lesson comes in comes in from Ephesians chapter four
and verse fifteen. And I wish a lot of these
guys on the internet who have these gotcha ministries with
think about this. The Bible says, but speaking the truth
and love may grow up. So practice the truth. Speaking
the truth and love we will, and all things grow
up into Christ, who is the head. So when we're
correcting others, lead with love. Justice without compassion weakens the
sense of the truth. Both together reveal the character of Christ.
Make it a great day. Peace.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with el David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,