The discipline of the body Joshua 7
There were three churches – a Pentecostal, a Presbyterian and Baptist and these three decided to sponsor a community-wide revival. After the revival had concluded, the three pastors met at Tim Horton’s for coffee to discuss their results. The Pentecostal minister said, "The revival worked out great for us! We gained 4 new families." The Presbyterian preacher said, "We did better even better than that! We gained 6 new families." And the Baptist pastor said, "Well, we did even better than that! We got rid of our 10 biggest troublemakers!"
Speaking of Baptists, I also heard the story is told of two small churches in a small town and through time their numbers were slowly shrinking and finally the boards got together and decided to merge the congregations. One was a Baptist church and the other was simply called a Christian church but their doctrines were similar. So, the biggest hurdle they had to cross was deciding on a name and during the discussion one old Baptist said, "I’ve been Baptist all my life and I have no intention of being a Christian."
How many Baptists does it take to change a light bulb? And the answer is, 15; it takes one to change bulb, three committees to approve the change and arrange for the lunch.
Well, who we are and what we are is important and we thank God we are more than just a denominational title.
“But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labor thither; for they are but few. So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
And Joshua said, alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
And the LORD said unto Joshua, get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.
So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: and he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken: and he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
And Joshua said unto Achan, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why hast thou troubled us? The LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, the valley of Achor, unto this day.”
A couple of weeks ago we saw how God had destroyed Jericho and then the Jews ran into the city and killed every man woman, child and animal. And I’m sure a lot of us might wonder; where is the God of grace? Why didn’t He give them an opportunity to repent like He did with the people of Nineveh when He sent Jonah?" And what we have to understand here, is that the God of love is also a just God and as we looked at the life of Rahab we heard that these people knew all about the God of Israel which means they had 40 years to repent of their sin and turn to God. So, sin has consequences, it always has and always will. Sin has a payday and though it may seem delinquent or delayed; it’s never been cancelled.
And what we see in chapter 7 is a very disturbing account of the high cost of secret sin. And listen, maybe there’s someone here this morning who needs to repent of something. Maybe someone has someone else they need to get right with or someone even needs to take a public stand and confess their sin. You see, we all need to take an honest look at ourselves and see if there’s something in us that’s holding back God’s blessings. And that’s why Paul says, we need to examine ourselves. You might think nobody knows about your sin and it’s not affecting anyone else but listen, you couldn’t be further from the truth. Moses gave the people a warning in Numbers 32:23, when he said, "Be sure your sin will find you out." And then Paul repeated it in the book of Galatians when he said, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." So listen, someday all of our secrets will be revealed, so, wouldn’t it be better to deal with them before hand?
1. Well, we come to this passage and first I want you to see the setting.
They just had a tremendous victory at this magnificent city of Jericho which seemed so impenetrable but God knocked all the walls down flat. And then we have the failure at this little city of Ai that stands in contrast to the victory at Jericho and we could say that the thrill of victory was quickly replaced by the agony of defeat. And this is true for us as well. One minute we can be riding high on some great spiritual success and the next we find ourselves in the valley of spiritual failure and despair.
Ai was a small place but it was still an important location from the standpoint, they had to take possession of it in order to control the main road that ran from the north and south of the central portion of the land.
So, the battle of Jericho had just taken place and we’re told that Jericho had been placed under the ban and this phrase comes from the Hebrew word, which is, herem, and it means, “that which is a devoted thing, a ban” and the verb form, haram, means “to ban, devote, or destroy utterly.” And basically, this refers to something that’s totally surrendered to God and is no longer available for anyone’s use. And when something was under the ban it meant that everything living was to be completely be destroyed and everything valuable had to be dedicated to the treasury of the Lord.
So, we come to verse 1 and it opens with the word “but.” And don’t forget that the previous chapter deals with the destruction and victory over Jericho and then we read the word, “but.” I heard a little poem one time that said, “If "Ifs" and "Buts" were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas.” So, we begin with the word ‘but’ and it’s meant to draw our attention to what just happened and compare the two events.
They had just experienced phenomenal success at Jericho and now they’re going to experience the torture of losing at Ai. And I think this is a good illustration for all of us. The worst danger any of us can face is right after we experience some kind of success. We have a tendency to drop our guard and feel like we’ve got it altogether and forget how we need to trust in the Lord. I like that verse in 1 Corinthians 10:12 that says, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” or as I told you before, “Jack Wyrzten used to say, ‘let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he stand on a banana peel.”
In verse 1 in the King James Version it says, “They committed a trespass in the accused thing” but I like the New International translation that says, “The sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things.” And the word “unfaithfully” comes from a Hebrew word that means “to act underhandedly.” It was used to describe someone who was unfaithful in their marriage so, this sin was both an act of unbelief because Achan did something and thought no one saw him but it was also an act of looking for happiness and security from the things of the world rather than from God Himself. And the interesting thing here is that the Lord held the whole camp of Israel accountable for the act of one person and He withheld all of His blessings from everybody until this sin was dealt with.
This shows us that one Christian’s sin has an effect on everyone around him and it also shows us how even one believer who’s out of fellowship with God can negatively affect the rest of the church. The Apostle Paul saw the same principle at work in the church in 1 Corinthians 5:6-13 where he said, “Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?” In other words, everyone in the fellowship is affected by the sins of others in the same way yeast works through dough. And how does it work? It’s an invisible process that happens so slowly that no one even notices but given enough time and the affect is obvious.
When we tolerate sin, either in our own lives or even in the lives of others, it gets God’s attention because sin after all is rebellion and as I Samuel 15 reminds us, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” And listen, this also tells us that nothing escapes the omniscience or the all-knowing power of God because He sees all and He knows all. Or as I’ve heard it said, “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you’re never going to fool the Lord.”
So, first, we see the defeat at Ai and for the longest time I thought Achan had gone to Ai and had stolen this stuff because that was where the Jews lost the battle but Achan was actually grabbing all he could at Jericho while everyone else was fighting.
And even though we know that Achan was the source of the problem it’s also possible that there were other issues involved and Joshua went up to Ai when he shouldn’t have or with less men than he actually needed. Some writers think Joshua may have been a little too eager to move forward and he might have been a little too confident in the people’s power because of the victory at Jericho and he didn’t take time to get alone with God and find out what it was He wanted him to do or even to ask Him for His blessing.
If he had, he might have found out about the sin of Achan and dealt with it before the thirty-six men were killed in battle. And basically, we see four mistakes that were made here: First, they were oblivious to the sin of Achan, second, they underestimated the strength of their enemy, third, they overestimated their own strength and finally, they were presuming on the God’s power which means that they simply took Him for granted.
And then when they went to war without even praying about it and lost the battle they assumed God had let them down; and it says of the people that their hearts melted and became like water and then we see where Joshua and all the rest of the elders went to prayer.
First, we see the prayer
And when we look at his prayer it seems that from Joshua’s perspective everything that happened was God’s fault. Let me just paraphrase what he said while he was praying. He said; why did you let this thing happen to us? We should have been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan, you know back in the desert. What am I supposed to say when all the Canaanites find out what a bunch of losers we are? Are we going to go any further or are we finished now? Everybody’s looking to me for answers and I don’t have any. And he ends by saying, it’s not just us but it’s You that looks bad here.
Listen, they had a huge victory over a gigantic enemy only to fall flat on their faces because of the little distractions and temptations of the flesh. They turned a resounding victory into utter defeat and now they were in danger of becoming a laughing stock among their enemies. And it’s interesting to see the result because one minute they thought they were invincible and yet as soon as they were defeated they looked at God and said it was His fault; when they should have looked at themselves and asked what they might have done wrong. The fact is; we are often our own worst enemy for the simple reason that we tend to see things the way we want to see them rather than the way they really are.
I heard a story about a man who was on holiday in Kenya and while he was walking through the bush, he came across an elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed so he approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant’s foot and there was a large thorn deeply embedded in the bottom of the foot. So, as carefully and gently as he could he removed the thorn and the elephant gingerly put his foot down. The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For a good ten minutes the man stood frozen; thinking of nothing else but being trampled but eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.
For years after, the man remembered the elephant and the events of that day and one day he was walking through the zoo with his son and he told him this story. And as they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to where they were standing at the rail. It stared at him for a while and the man couldn’t help but wonder if this was the same elephant. After a while it trumpeted loudly and continued to stare at him.
The man summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back. Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man’s legs and swung him wildly back and forth against the railing, killing him. And his son thought, I guess it wasn’t the same elephant. You see, that’s the danger of seeing things the way we want to rather then the way they really are.
Well, in spite of his fears and insecurities, I think it was obvious that Joshua really loved the Lord and his greatest concern was that the news of this defeat would reduce any respect these heathen nations had for God. And maybe Joshua was guilty of thinking the way people often do when they fail and that’s that one failure will lead to another and we’ll never get over it because people who lose begin to see themselves as losers. But listen, God is never limited by our failure.
Just think; Col. Sanders’ recipe was rejected at least a 1,000 times and yet his Kentucky Fried Chicken became "finger lickin’ good" to millions of people around the world. Joy Ridderholf was devastated when she had to return from the mission field because of her poor health but when she got home she started a little company and called it Gospel Recording Inc. and because of this company millions of people are able to hear the gospel in their own language. William Carey was rejected as a missionary by the Baptist Board in England. As he stood and told them he wanted to reach the lost for the Lord, they said, "Sit down young man, if God wants to evangelize the heathen, he doesn’t need your help!" But thankfully, he went to India and did a phenomenal job; he translated the Bible into 30 Indian languages and today he’s referred to as the "Father of modern missions." And when you think about it, Jesus’ mission on earth was considered a failure because He was crucified in the prime of life but His death and apparent failure from the world’s perspective turns out to be the source of eternal life for all who will put their trust in Him.
So, Joshua and his closest spiritual advisors were having a time of prayer when something shocking happened and we see it in verses 10-15 because they find out that God was actually listening to what they had to say.
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man by man. And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.”
So, God said, "Why are you whining and complaining like it’s all My fault and it’s My name that’s at stake here? The problem isn’t with me, it’s with you!" Now, go find the guy who did this and deal with him.
So, we’ve seen their prayer and now they have to find the guilty party
And we might wonder why there was a search? I mean, why didn’t God come out and tell them who it was and then have them go get the guy and deal with him? I think God wanted to give Achan time to come forward and repent of his sin and yet it’s obvious that he waits until he’s caught red-handed before he’s going to admit to anything.
So, Joshua got up in the morning and it doesn’t say how he did it but he might have drawn lots to find out what tribe to start with and when he had a tribe he turned to the families and when he had the heads of the families he turned to the members of the families and finally it came down to Achan. And as I said, Achan stood there and watched the entire process and never said a word until his name was called and everyone knew he was guilty.
And then, in verse 19 when Achan was confronted with his sin it says, “And Joshua said unto Achan, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.” And then he admits what he did and even though he confessed what he did and said: "I have sinned" tells us he stated the obvious but doesn’t mean he was actually sorry for what he had done. It probably just meant he was sorry he got caught. Saul said the same thing in 1 Samuel 15:24 and Judas did in Matthew 27:4 but neither of them were looking for God’s mercy, they were only sorry someone found out. I’ve heard it said that confession is good for the soul but confession without repentance is useless because all that means is that you’re admitting the obvious.
So, Achan saw, he coveted and he took and the process of his sin was a familiar one. It’s what Eve did with the forbidden fruit when it says, she saw, she desired and then she took. And then we see the same progression with David in his sin with Bathsheba where it says he saw, he desired and then he took another man’s wife and it’s also the same with us. If you focus on something long enough there’s no turning back.
I used to have a friend from Virginia who’d say, “Its one thing to see a bird flying overhead but it’s an altogether different thing when you let him land in your head and start picking bugs.”
Look again at what he took. It says he took gold and silver which suggests materialism but he also had a beautiful robe from Babylon which tells us he wanted to be fashionable even if it was in private. These things represent the things we can want that will not only destroy our faith but can even dominate our lives. They can include things like the desire for position, power, prestige, pleasure, possessions, praise or even recognition.
So, here was Achan trying his best to get what he wanted out of life. And do you know that the strange part is? God had promised and was in the process of taking them all where they’d have their own land, houses and blessings on everything they’d get.
So, he says, “I saw, I coveted and I took them.” And when he says “I saw” this was the beginning his sin like it’s the beginning of all sin but it doesn’t have to be. He could have turned his back and did what he came to do. And just like Achan we find ourselves exposed to things we shouldn’t be and to a degree it’s something we should expect but it’s not the seeing of these things that’s the problem; but it’s the second look that’s wrong. It’s like we know it’s wrong to see certain things but if we go back and take a second look that’s where the problem begins.
And then it says he coveted them. The New Testament defines coveting as idolatry and idolatry is seeking from other things what only God can give.
So, he knew he couldn’t and shouldn’t have them but he wanted them anyway. And do you know what the strange part of this is? He wanted something he didn’t need and something he couldn’t use. I mean, what was he going to do with a Babylonian coat? He certainly couldn’t wear it in public. And there was no where to spend the money and there was nothing to do with the gold. There were no stores, so, all he could do is look at them. But, it says, he saw, he coveted and then he took them. There was 200 shekels of silver which adds up to about 5 pounds and that’s worth about $525 today. And then it says he also saw a wedge of gold and a wedge weighed fifty shekels which is worth around $6,700 today.
I guess the great philosopher Forest Gump was right when he said, “There is only so much fortune a man really needs and the rest is just showing off.”
It’s interesting that Achan referred to these things as "spoils" in verse 21 but they weren’t "the spoils" but they were a part of the Lord’s treasury and they were supposed to be wholly dedicated to Him. They didn’t belong to Achan and they didn’t belong to Israel but they belonged to God.
And this is the sequence of events that all of us follow when we fall into sin. It starts with a look and that leads to desire and it ends with us finding the opportunity and taking it. And then we spent the rest of our lives feeling guilty and hiding our sin with the hopes that no one will ever know.
Listen, the Bible says God is omnipresent and that means He is everywhere and it also says He’s omniscient and that means He knows everything and if any of us think we can do anything and get away with it then we obviously don’t know God.
And then finally, we see the price that he and everyone else paid for his sin. First, there was the thirty-six who died in the battle and there are some who’ll say that God wasn’t fair and that Achan’s punishment didn’t fit the crime but consider this, because of Achan’s sin thirty-six men died. Thirty-six sets of children lost their fathers. Thirty-six mothers lost their sons and thirty-six women became widows.
And then he and his entire family and all the stolen goods and everything else they owned were killed and burned. And as we read this we wonder why was the rest of his family killed since the law prohibited innocent family members from being punished for the sins of their relatives in Deuteronomy 24:16. But, Achan’s family must have been aware of what he had done and even felt good about it, so, they were just as guilty as him in God’s sight.
Achan probably thought this one little sin isn’t going to hurt anyone. It’s so small and insignificant, it wasn’t that important. And we tend to think that God judges sin in amounts and as long as I only do it once and really enjoy it that much then it won’t bother God. But listen, when David, broke the laws of God he didn’t say, “I have sinned against my friends, against Bathsheeba and against Uriah” but he said, “I have sinned against God!” In Psalm 51:4 he says, “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight; that You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.” And when Joseph was tempted by Potiphar’s wife, he didn’t say, “I couldn’t sin against Potiphar” but he said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" You see, we need to see sin the way God sees it, as an act of rebellion against Him.
So, Achan was put to death and this would set an example of the seriousness of sin. And it not only became a warning for everyone else but a memorial was set up to remind them of Achan’s sin and God’s judgment.
Conclusion
Listen, all sin, even our secret sins have a way of exposing themselves whether it’s public exposure or just the detrimental affect of certain sins in our lives. Sin is like a seed and over time, it’ll grow into a harvest of judgment and everyone associated with us will be affected and that means us, our families, our church and eventually the non-Christians around us.
: There are two points I want to close with. I think Achan’s wanted something that nobody else had and somehow he thought that having this stuff would make him something he wasn’t. And Jesus highlighted the same thing in Matthew chapter 6 when He warned His disciples against storing up treasures on earth and against worrying about the minor details of life like food, drink and clothing. And what He was really saying was that a lot of people spend their lives chasing the little things while missing out on what’s really important. Listen, you can have all the best food, drink and the most expensive clothing available but the day you die none of it matters.
And then second, we see that when Achan sinned the blessings of God stopped for everyone and everyone faced failure until the sin was dealt with and then the blessings of God resumed. Listen, this tells us that all known sin not only creates a barrier between yourself and the Lord but it also affects everyone else around you.
Sin has a cost and it’s always more than it’s worth and much more than any of us would want to pay and it has more consequences than any of us would ever want to endure. And sin never stands still but we’ll always reap more than we sow, we’ll always reap the same thing we planted and we’ll always reap much later than we sow. And though we may have crop failure when we farm; we’ll never have it in the spiritual realm; but we’ll always have a harvest. No one can plant sin and then pray for crop failure. It just doesn’t work.
Its important to call sin “sin” most of us would rather use the word “mistake” instead of “sin” but if everything we do wrong can be dumbed down to where it’s just a mistake, that makes me a mistaker, which means I’m not really a sinner and if I’m not a sinner then I don’t need a Savior. And if all you are is a mistaker, then all you have to do is do is try more and do better but until you confess the fact that you’re a sinner, you’ll be in the same boat as Achan who only felt bad when he got caught.
Sin makes, strong men weak, like Samson. It makes wise men do foolish things like Solomon. And it makes good men do bad things like David. And it made Achan think he could get away with something when God was watching him. And we can either be forgiven or be like Achan and die in our sin.
