When I Saw

Achan's downfall, Joshua 7:21 - "When I saw among the spoils...."

Note: The eyes lead in temptation and sin. Compare:

• Genesis 3:6 - And when the woman [Eve] saw....


• Genesis 13:10 - And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan....


• II Samuel 11:2 - ...and from the roof, he [David] saw a woman....


• I John 2:16 - ...the lust of the eyes....

VM

The Right Time to Get Right With God

Psalm 32:5-6 - I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.

The time to get right with God is before your sin or anything else brings calamity. Example: 9-11-2001 brought a "spiritual revival" in the U.S. that lasted till about 10-11-2001. What if there had been true and lasting revival prior?

VM

King Josiah an Example of James 1:21-25

RECEIVE WITH MEEKNESS THE ENGRAFTED WORD

II Chronicles 34:14-19 - And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.  And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.  And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.  And Shaphan carried the book to the king [Josiah, about 26 years old, around 624 B.C.], and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to thy servants, they do it.  And they have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.  Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book.  And Shaphan read it before the king.  And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.

II Chronicles 34:27 - Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.

BUT BE YE DOERS OF THE WORD, AND NOT HEARERS ONLY

II Chronicles 34:29-33 - Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.  And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.  And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.  And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it.  And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.  And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God.  And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.

A DOER OF THE WORK, THIS MAN SHALL BE BLESSED IN HIS DEED

II Chronicles 34:28 - Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same.  So they brought the king word again.

II Kings 23:25 - And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

VM

Matthew 12:43-45

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.  Matthew 12:43-45

THE STATE OF THE FALSE RELIGIOUS CONVERT

V. 44 - "he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished."

EMPTY - The man is found devoid of any spirit, including the Holy Spirit.  Now  he is even more susceptible to unclean spirits (cp. v. 29) and to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils (I Timothy 4:1-3), etc.

SWEPT - Cleaned up.  Dusted.  Cleaned off some on the outside but not from within.  Not scrubbed.  Not washed.  Not "white as snow" or "as wool" (Isaiah 1:18); not washed in the Blood of the Lamb.  Not made clean in the eternal record books.  Simply swept.  A few habits temporarily broken, a few disgusting sins temporarily hidden from the view of others.  A few things swept under the rug.

GARNISHED - Decorated.  From the Greek "COSMEO" -->English "Cosmetics."  Well-ordered decoration; well-arranged adornment.  Outward religious trappings added to make the man more attractive in his and others' sight.

Garnished illustration: When I first started working as a waiter, the cook told me that no plate ever leaves that kitchen without garnish - a piece of parsley, a small green onion or some such.  I insisted that it would not be eaten and was therefore of no practical use and a waste of time and money.  The cook said the use was to make the plate of food look more appealing.  I looked at the juicy steak, loaded baked potato and steamed vegetables on the plate and said it looks mighty appealing to me as is.  I was told not to argue, just put the parsley on the plate.  In like manner, the life of one biblically and truly converted to Christ is appealing enough without the useless garnishment of man's religious traditions.  The falsely converted however insist on such garnishment because no inward change has made their life any more appealing than before their false conversion.  Like a well-trained cook in the longstanding tradition of parsley and green onions, the well-trained religious one refuses to hear anything to the contrary against their traditional garnish.

WORSE THAN BEFORE - "the last state of that man is worse than the first."  His false religious conversion has insulated him against the truth.  Not only does the original unclean spirit return, not only do the original habits and wickedness come back with a vengeance, but sooner or later new depths of depravity are sought with the gusto of one convinced of his position.

VM
Developed during daily Bible reading, January 2011

Philippians 4:6

Philippians 4:6 - Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

V. 6 - See illustration by B. H. Carroll, p. 297 of his Philippians commentary.

("Interpretation of the English Bible" by B. H. Carroll).