The past week I've done a lot of reflecting from a convicting sermon last week at church where there was some things I needed to repent of and get right with God, and this week I have been asking the Holy Spirit to show me all the distractions and things that have a pedestal in my mind and heart and to put those things in the right place or eliminate them entirely if need be.
It is so easy to build up an altar in our hearts or minds. And often because it's not realized (or worse, maybe it is...and it's ignored!) because we don't know the things that go on in others' thoughts it can sometimes be hard to identify that issue if it is happening to another believer. But it's not an issue one can be apathetic about, but rather one should be proactive about it.
I was reading chapter 22 of Joshua and that chapter is set just after the tribes have been allotted their land and are settling into their land the Israelites heard that some of the people had built an alter, the Israelites gathered to go to war with them (v.12) and confront them saying: “The whole assembly of the Lord says: ‘How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now? Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the Lord! And are you now turning away from the Lord? If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel." (v. 16-18)
The people of Israel took it very seriously and we should as well! While the concept of building altars to other gods or idols is a little foreign to us today or not something that's typically seen in a physical sense, it happens with celebrities, others we look up to and even concepts such as relationships, money, power, or (fill in the blank).
Fortunately, in this case it was actually a big misunderstanding!
The alter that was built by some of the tribes was a copy of the one in God's tabernacle and they built it as a reminder or witness (v. 27) for their descendants and the whole misunderstanding was cleared up nicely after a good honest talk!
But reading this chapter brought me joy in seeing how wonderful being proactive in confronting the hints of possible sin - no matter what it is, whether that's confronting yourself with personal reflection or confronting another (with compassion!) it is something God honors and makes His heart happy when His people, then and now do the same.
The alter that was built by some of the tribes was a copy of the one in God's tabernacle and they built it as a reminder or witness (v. 27) for their descendants and the whole misunderstanding was cleared up nicely after a good honest talk!
But reading this chapter brought me joy in seeing how wonderful being proactive in confronting the hints of possible sin - no matter what it is, whether that's confronting yourself with personal reflection or confronting another (with compassion!) it is something God honors and makes His heart happy when His people, then and now do the same.
