Make It Hurt

“And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.” (Jos 6:18 AV)

There are many points to be made here.  Being exposed to a cursed thing will naturally make one accursed.  It may not be the physical quality of something accursed, but the spiritual failure of refusing it that makes one accursed.  An alcoholic will receive in his or her body the consequences of such a vice.  But if someone steals and is never found out, the item itself may cause ho damage.  But the dishonesty or lust that motivated the theft will.  Secondly, sin is not enjoyed in a vacuum.  When Achan brought the accursed thing into the camp, it affected the whole nation.  They would lose their next battle.  The men would run away in fear.  God will not bless a nation or church or family where unrepentant sin runs unabated.  But I want to look at two little words here.  “Keep yourselves” implies much.  It implies the ability to withstand temptation lies mostly with the saint.  At least where we can avoid it.  A study of the phrase draws an interesting picture.  The two words put together have the sense of coming apart from that which would cause temptation and building a thorny hedge around oneself so the threat cannot invade.  The understanding is being proactive in one’s walk so what is accursed is not a problem.

I live in snow country.  We had a recent storm of about a foot of snow.  As is the case, many kids were outside having a ball.  Driving in the neighborhood, I noticed one particular group of kids that brought back memories.  In our childhood, we spent a lot of time out in the snow.  We lived near Buffalo, NY where snow is never measured by the inch.  It is measured by the foot.  By mid-January, there was an easy five feet that had fallen so far.  This made for rather large mounds of snow.  Our driveway was a triple-wide driveway.  This would naturally create three mounds of snow several feet high.  With eleven siblings, snowball fights were common.  We would often create teams.  These teams would choose a mound in which to make a fort.  We would dig out a pit, put some lumber on top, then pile more snow on top of the lumber.  We might use a sled or a toboggan (the one you ride down a hill on, not the one you wear on your head).  Then, in case of a fight that wasn’t going our way, we had a place into which we receded.  It was kind of impossible to hit someone with a snowball when they are hunkered in a snow bank.  Any threat was avoided by diving into our fort.

A hedge does many things.  It keeps a threat out.  But it is also designed to keep those inside from breaching it.  The idea above is a thorny hedge.  If temptation came near, it would perceive the wall and know it could not be breached.  But in the same manner, those on the safe side of the hedge must remember to breach it will leave scars.  It must be such a hedge that it would be difficult and uncomfortable to breach.  They say there is a medication one can take to overcome drinking.  It makes the user violently ill if taking this medication and having drinks.  That is a thorny hedge.  The question is, what kind of thorny hedges do we have in place that keeps us from being tempted after the accursed thing?  How much pain do we suffer when we go after something we know is wrong?  This is the intent here.  We should have in place hedges that make it difficult and painful to be in disobedience.