p. 6 | Practical Lessons From the Experiences of Israel

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 1, 1910

Practical Lessons From the Experiences of Israel

By R. D. Quinn

R. D. QUINN

The conquest of Canaan under Joshua occupied seven years, and during the whole of that time there is but one record of defeat and the loss of men in battle. The story of this defeat is told with great minuteness in the seventh chapter of Joshua, because it contained lessons of the greatest moment to Israel and of incalculable value to the people of God to-day.

Two things were responsible for the defeat at Ai,—the undetected presence of sin in the camp, and the self-confidence of the men of Israel in recommending that only a few men go up to take the city. After their humiliating experience, and the turning of their backs before their enemies, they carefully investigated the cause of their defeat, and traced it back to “Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah;” and he and his house were taken to the valley of Achor and utterly destroyed. The record is (Hosea 2:15) that the valley of Achor became a door of hope. The basis for hope was a cleansed and purified camp.

There is no doubt that God would have revealed the presence of sin in the camp just as certainly before the march on Ai as afterward, had Joshua and the leaders been living in that abiding fellowship of God’s Holy Spirit that would have given them the spiritual discernment to detect sin and put it away. See “Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 493.

It was so in a similar case in the experiences of the apostles. As Achan was to Israel, so were Ananias and his wife to the early church. Instead of the fifth chapter of Acts recording a great revival, as it does, with multitudes of men and women being added to the Lord, possibly it would have had to record a great defeat, such as came to Israel at Ai, had it not been for the manifest presence of the Holy Ghost, and Peter’s spiritual insight and discernment, which enabled him to detect sin, and put it away before undertaking a great work for God.

“Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Whenever there has been failure in our life or labor, we may be sure that some cherished sin, hidden in the heart, is responsible for it. We may wonder why God does not deal as definitely and severely with sin to-day as in the past; but the answer is that these great object-lessons of his abhorrence of sin, recorded in both the Old and the New Testament, are sufficient for all time. Great victories for God invariably follow great reformations of heart and life.

The putting away of sin is what brought Christ to this world to die. All else he could have done for us, and remained in heaven. Let the church once more return to apostolic purity and power, and by diligent searching put away the accursed thing, and again we may count on the manifest workings of God, and multitudes both of men and women coming into the light.

New York City.