January 28th, 2026
Read Joshua 7:10- 15
Focus on verse 13
10 The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.
14 “‘In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the LORD chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan the LORD chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family the LORD chooses shall come forward man by man. 15 Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!’”
If you are keeping track, this is the 2nd time in the book of Joshua that God has told the community of Israel to consecrate themselves. God asks them to ready themselves or set themselves apart …to prepare themselves to stand before a Holy God and account for sin that is among them. Only then can they walk fully in the promise that God gave them to inherit the land.
Consecrate is not really a word that we use much in our everyday lives. So, in light of what God was asking the Israelites to do all those years ago, what does it mean for us? To consecrate something is to make it holy. In this instance in Scripture, sin had crept in, separating the people from the Holy God who led them into the land in the first place. So God was asking them to prepare their hearts to search out and get rid of the sin that was among them, so they could fully be His people again.
For us, that might look like being honest with ourselves and with God about the sin we try to hide in our lives, the sin that we make excuses for or justify by cultural norms. All in an effort to set ourselves apart for a holy God so that He can do something amazing in us and through us.
Hidden sin keeps us from walking fully in the promises of God. Spend some time today in prayer, asking God to reveal the parts of your heart that you keep from Him. Acknowledge any sin that separates you from Him and seek to set yourself apart for Him once more.
