oncit The book "Whatever Became of Sin?" written by Karl Menninger, well- It was in After the fall of the walls of Jericho, Joshua told them to stay away from the devoted things. All those things were to go into the treasury of the Temple. If you keep anything you will bring destruction upon yourself and our people. Achan found some gold, silver and a beautiful garment, dug a hole and covered them with his mat and sat on it.. The next battle was against AI a small place where the battle should have been easily won, but they were defeated. God told Joshua there is sin in the camp! The next day they were to consecrate themselves a come and stand before
The 61st Psalm is called the "Penitential Psalm" probably written after David's adulterous sin with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. Eventually the prophet Nathan confronted David with his sin and David was repentant and confessed his sin. His confession was good.
There are others in the Bible who said "I have sinned" and their confession was not accepted by God.
1) Pharoah - Exodus 9:27 - made a horrified confession because he was terrified. God sent hail as fiery brimstones to try to convince Pharoah to let the children of Israel go. The crops had been destroyed and Pharoah said to Moses and Aaron "I have sinned. The Lord is right." His confession lasted only 7 verses. In 9:34-35 Pharoah sinned again and his heart was hardened and he refused to let the people go. It is said that "Repentance that is born in a storm, dies in the calm." Have you ever made a promise to God and broken it?!
2) Balaam in Numbers 22:34, made a hypocritical confession. It was insincere and phony. King of Moab, Balak, was surrounded by the Israelites and wanted Balaam to come and get God to curse Israel and Balak would pay him. So God allowed Balaam to go with them but only do what God told him to do. So Balaam saddled his donkey and was on his way when God sent the Angel of the Lord to stand in the path, blocking the way. The donkey stopped and Balaam beat the donkey three times. God opened the eyes of Balaam to see the Angel. The Angel said if the donkey had not stopped you I would have slain you. Balaam confessed I have sinned, but his confession was not sincere. And Balaam went on to do what he had planned anyway.
3)1 Samuel 15:24 - Saul made a half-hearted confession. Samuel told Saul what God said... because of the evil they had done to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, that Saul was to destroy all the Amalekites because they were demon worshippers. God further said to destroy all the animals as well. Saul goes into battle and wins, but the enemy had great sheep and horses so Saul spares them. When Samuel met with Saul he said what is the bleating of sheep I hear? Saul said the soldiers did it. (the natural tendency when we sin is to find someone else to blame it on. Adam did it; Eve did it: pass the blame.) So Saul said I was afraid of the men so I gave in to them. We saved them to sacrifice to God. Samuel said "IT IS BETTER TO OBEY THAN TO SACRIFICE." Saul confesed half-heartedly "I have sinned. "We are inclined to rename the "sin" and call it an honest mistake, I messed up. Sometimes we are half-hearted in our confessions as well.
4) Joshua 7:20 - Achan confessed "I have sinned" and made a "Hemmed up" confession. After the fall of the walls of Jericho, Joshua told them to stay away from the devoted things. All those things were to go into the treasury of the Temple. If you keep anything you will bring destruction upon yourself and our people. Achan found some gold, silver and a beautiful garment, dug a hole and covered them with his mat and sat on it.. The next battle was against AI a small place where the battle should have been easily won, but they were defeated. God told Joshua there is sin in the camp! The next day they were to consecrate themselves and stand before Joshua. Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family. So Joshua comes to Achan and tells him what he had done. V.20 Achan admits I have sinned. Philippians 2 tells us that every knee will bow and every tongue confess. For some it will be too late.
5) David in Psalm 51 - he confession was good because it was personal... he mde no excuses. It was precise. He confessed what his sin was and knew that ultimately his sin was against God. His confession led to his testimony before the people and his joy was restored.
The Old Gospel Song says it well "Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right."
Proverbs 28:13 - Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
There is a song that commemorates a great victory. in 1814 Washington was burned by the British. Then the British set their sights on Baltimore. Ft McHenry guarded Baltimore, so if the fort fell, the city of Baltimore would fall. An American lawyer, Francis Scott Key was permitted to board a ship before the battle began. So at sunrise on September 13, the British began bombardment of Ft McHenry and continued all night long (25 hours). When the bombs burst, they lit up the sky with each burst. He watched wondering if the fort had survived. Early on the morning of the 15th of September, 1814, he saw the 42 foot American Flag with the 15 stars and 15 stripes being raised over the fort and he was inspired to write the words to the Star-Spangled Banner, commemorating the great victory. In 1931, Congress passed a resolution that made it officially the national Anthem of The United States and President Herbert Hoover signed it into law.
Psalm 46 is such a commemorative hymn of a great victory of God over the enemy Assyrian army of King Sennacherib. He had built a great kingdom by conquering other peoples. Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen because of their disobedience to the LORD. He was wanting to take the southern kingdom of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. We find the story in 2 Kings 17-19. It was 701 BCE and Hezekiah was king in Judah and he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD. He was counseled by Jeremiah and Micah and reestablished sole worship of Yahweh in the Temple. The king of Assyria sent a message of fear to Hezekiah saying he would be surrounded with the Assyrian army and he should make peace and surrender, that his God could not save him against such overwhelming numbers of soldiers. (2 Kings 18, nearly 200,000). Hezekiah remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah, "God says I will take care of you." So Hezekiah went into the house of the LORD, covered himself with sackcloth and ashes and spread the letter from the king of Assyria on the floor before the LORD and prayed, "God, you alone are almighty. Save us from the hand of this evil one and may all people know that you alone are LORD. God heard and answered his prayer. That night the angel of the LORD went out and smote 185,000 Assyrians. When they arose in the morning and saw all the dead corpses, Sennacherib and what was left of his army went home to Ninevah.
Psalm 46 is a song of a great victory... of deliverance from troubles.
It is a hymn with three stanzas. 1) God is our Refuge - V. 1-3; 2) There is a Great River - V. 4-7; 3) There is a great Rescue - v. 8-11.
1) God is our Refuge - when trouble comes to us. A refuge is a place of protection (the walls of the city were the protection for the people in Jerusalem.) Notice God IS our refuge, present tense, he IS our refuge. Where is your refuge? Deuteronomy 33:27 The LORD is our refuge. In spite of the destruction, our refuge is personal. God is everywhere.
2) God is our River - The city had to have water to survive and the Kidron river flowed beside Jerusalem. Hezekiah was very wise. He had a long underground tunnel built to provide the water necessary for Jerusalem - a hidden endless supply of water. Where is your river? John 7:37-38 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified." The refreshing power of the Holy Spirit is ever with us. We are strengthened by his presence Philippians 4:13.
2) Remember the Rescue - V.8-11 - Where is your rescue? 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
God stopped the enemy. Be still... cease striving... let God do his part. He rescues us from temptations and always provides a way of escape. We are to obey God rather than men.