Joshua 6:17 – But keep yourselves from the things set apart, or you will be set apart for destruction. If you take any of those things, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and bring disaster on it. (HCSB)

Joshua 7:21 – When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Babylon, 200 silver shekels, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them. You can see for yourself. They are concealed in the ground inside my tent, with the money under the cloak.” (HCSB)

My grand daughter was eating chocolate syrup on her ice cream when she turned to my husband and said, “I may have gotten a little on my shirt.” When my husband looked, chocolate syrup was smeared across her entire chest and down across her tummy! What started out as a barely noticeable spot became a huge stain when she tried to wipe it away. I started thinking about how that so often happens with our sin. We commit a “little” sin, but rather that confess and deal with the consequences, we try to hide it, pretend it never happened, wipe it away. I recently saw “little sins grow fast” posted on a social media site. Sir Walter Scott in the book Marmion summed it up with “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive”. A simple translation of that quote might be “what complications we create when we try to hide a simple mistake.” Joshua 7:20-26 tells us the story of Achan. Joshua 6:20 says there was a trumpet blast, then a great shout, then the walls of Jericho collapsed – the walls of Jericho had fallen because people gave a loud shout! Achan’s adrenalin must have been pumping! Then he goes into the city, and there is just so much stuff – shiny stuff, sparkly stuff, colorful stuff. More stuff than anyone could ever use. And, he wanted some of that stuff so badly. Oh, he knew that God had said not to take anything, but he only took a small fraction of what was there so it was just a little sin, and he was sure he could hide it so that no one would even know. But, like the chocolate on my grand daughter’s shirt, his sins were discovered. Joshua 7:24-25 describes how not only Achan paid for his sin but his family also paid a great price. Lord, we know that sin creates a barrier between us and You (Isaiah 59:2), and Jesus told us in Luke 12:2-3 that our sins will be revealed. As the old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”