The Heart of the Lesson By T. C. HORTON
God fixes the penalty. The sin is against God and He must attach the penalty. This sin of Achan involved all Israel. “Wrath fell upon the congregation.” Men cannot sin without involving others. Every act of sin in our lives links some one else and every good act brings blessing to others. Sin multiplies at a tremendous rate until confessed. Achan coveted and sinned; he planned and sinned; he took and sinned; he kept and sinned; he buried and sinned; he was silent and sinned; he brought re proach upon Israel and sinned. His sin was a sacrilege, for he took that which God had appropriated for Himself. He robbed God. His sin was presumption. He had ample opportunity for confession and failed. The death penalty fell upon him self and his household. At the opening of the Church Age, Ananias and Sapphira fell into the same sin of covetousness and like wise perished. Sin is terrible and God’s wrath awful. . L esson XII.— D ecember 21, 1913. These eight words may remind us of a military encampment in the midst of sur rounding foes, guarded on all sides, watch ful at every point. First, there come those who deny that Jesus. Christ is God, and these words thunder at them, that it is the Word who became flesh, and the Word was God. Next, there have been those who denied that He was really man; and our text has driven them back by the statement that the Word became flesh. And there are those who say, that while He had a human body He had not a human soul, His deity taking the place of a soul; and our text again repels the attack by the. word flesh, which, in the light of the Saviour’s own words elsewhere, it is im possible to understand here as meaning less than perfect human nature. Others have said that He assumed flesh only for a time and then laid it aside, as being that which was foreign to Himself; and our T he W ord M ade F lesh . Golden Text.—John 1:14.
L esson XI.— D ecember 14, 1913. Golden Text.—Num. 32:23.
There are three little letters, big with meaning that spell this lesson—S-I-N. Is rael had met with awful defeat, not because their army was small, nor from lack of military leadership, not because the men of Israel were not soldiers, but because God was against them and He was against them because sin was in the camp. There was something wrong, a cog had slipped in the machinery and there was a sudden shock. Yesterday there was a shout of victory, to day there is a sound of mourning and the hearts of the people are melted and become as water. There is failure in Israel, and the whole camp is in confusion. Even Joshua is on his face and laying the blame upon Jehovah. When there is trouble find the cause. Joshua should have gone to God. The cause was not difficult of solution. Israel had sinned. When' there is no victorious shout in the Church, when its back is to the enemy, when defeat is written big on its banners, know of a surety that there is sin in the Church. God brings a six fold charge against Israel. They had sin ned, transgressed, taken, stolen, dissembled and hidden. God never uses the word, kleptomania. He left that for the special ists. God calls it sin and transgression. When your Christian life j is weak, when there is nothing doing for God, stop and put your finger on the sin that doth so easily beset you. God fastens the guilt upon the culprit. The sinner is. in the camp. Slowly and surely God narrows the circle until Achan stands alone in the midst and the lot pro nounces the fateful words, “Thou art the man.’’ “Evil pursueth the sinner.” “Be sure your sin will find you out.” God hath a glazed window in the darkest houses of clay. He sees what is done in there when none others can. “For God shall bring every work into judgment with every se cret thing.” There is no escape.
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