Week 1 September 2026 – REFLECTION ON CURSED STUFF

“None of those condemned things shall be found in your hands, so that the Lord will turn from his fierce anger…”  Deuteronomy 13:17

“Stuff” in the Bible?  To my young granddaughter Kelly, “stupid” was the ultimate BAD word.  Her Grami and sister Keri explained that people do stupid things, but only saying it to their face would not be good.  Besides, “stupid”  is in the Bible, as is “stuff.”  We have a love/hate relationship with ours. Small things go into a junk drawer, big stuff gets shoved into the garage or winds up in the attic. There, our heirs will decide what is trash or treasure.  Stuff can spell tragedy for a hoarder.  A fellow church member kept it her secret, until fire revealed it when she was found dead inches away from the front door.

David and his valiant men were given refuge in Ziklag by the Philistines to escape murderous King Saul. While absent, the Amalekites raided the town and made off with their families and valuable belongings.  So David and a good number of his companions paid them a surprise visit, and successfully retrieved everything and everybody.  Some of his men, too exhausted to join in the raid, had stayed behind to “stay with the stuff” in Ziklag  Under King David it became a national law that the stuff of valuables plundered from the enemy would be equally shared by those who had fought for it, as well as with those who had vigilantly “stayed with the stuff” on the presumably safer homefront.

If some daring Christians from Greenland would come for a certain huge golden statue on an American golf course, it would bring a curse on their land if they didn’t reduce it to rubble right away.  Silver was just as hazardous.  Israel had to conquer idolatrous cities, and destroy loot that had been polluted by idolatry.  If Israel found silver on Canaanite idols, they were not to let it stick to their hands, but to make them “flee all forms of idolatry.”  Only then would God “show mercy, have compassion, and multiply them” (Spurgeon).  Relatives who traveled the world, once sent us a small golden Buddha. I couldn’t smash it, so I trashed it with disgusting things besides coffee grounds and rotting matter stinking up the vegetable drawer in the fridge. I like to think I never brought back souvenirs subject to divine rebuke, but customs officials once had me explain smoked meat and Swiss cheese not available at Trader Joe’s. These days even rodent droppings alarm everybody because of the shockingly imported hantavirus.

In today’s cultural context the “fierce anger” of God pales against the furious rhetoric spewing out of foolhardy loudmouths. If the unflappable Christ-follower wants to have chills run up and down the spine, reading Joshua 7 can actually be very instructive.. Since the conquest of Jericho was such a piece of cake, going after nearby Ai was to be child’s play.  Things went horribly wrong, because Achan stole the loot and hid it under his tent.  It was burned and Joshua had him confess it to the glory of God…“then all Israel stoned him” with every living being, in the Valley of Achor/Trouble. “Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.”