The conversation around many office water coolers tomorrow will be about the many CFL and NFL football games played this weekend. You’ll hear comments like: “What was he thinking throwing into that coverage?” “Why did he wait so long to call a time out?” “Couldn’t he see that they were going to blitz? Even my five-year-old could see that coming!” Armchair quarterbacks. We’ve all been one. We find it easy to criticize and second-guess others - even God. When a drunk driver plows into the car of a young mother of three killing her while the driver himself walks away with nothing more than a scratch and then gets off scot-free because the police officer failed to do the breathalyser properly, we wonder: “Lord, if you’re so just and loving, why would you let things like this happen?” Today’s sermon doesn’t offer any easy answers. Instead our Faith Factor text simply urges us to let God be God, or to put it another way: have faith to let God quarterback.
Last week we heard about the stunning victory God gave the Israelites over the city of Jericho. They just had to march around the city and God caused the walls to come tumbling down. So when the Israelites set their sights on their next target, the smaller town of Ai, they didn’t think they would need the whole army to conquer it. And sure enough there was a rout, only the Israelites were the ones routed! Some 36 men died while the rest of the army had to run for their lives from “puny” little Ai.
What went wrong? That’s what Joshua wanted to know. After tearing his robes and flinging himself to the ground he cried out: “Ah, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan” (Joshua 7:7). He doesn’t say it in so many words but don’t you get the impression that Joshua was blaming the Lord for the defeat? That’s certainly what God thought because he responded: “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” (Joshua 7:10, 11).
This exchange between Joshua and the Lord is sadly familiar, isn’t it? When relationships sour we’re quick to blame God. “Why did you let me marry him?” “Why do I have to put up with her?” “I thought marriage was supposed to be a slice of heaven, not a living hell.” Yes, we’re quick to blame God for our marital woes when it is our own selfishness, our own impatience, or our own lack of perseverance that has contributed if not caused the tension. You want God to change your spouse? Fine but first consider how you need to change your attitude because it’s as much our own sinful actions and reactions that cause the stress in a marriage, not the Lord.
What exactly was the Israelite’s sin that caused their defeat at Ai? Someone had taken plunder from Jericho when God had made it very clear that everything from that city belonged to him. As it turns out, it was just one man, Achan, who disobeyed. One thief out of two million people. Don’t you think God should have been happy with those statistics? But then again we’re not God, just armchair quarterbacks. When the Lord gives a command he expects it to be obeyed perfectly by everyone all the time. If not, there are consequences. That’s what makes God, holy.
Certainly there should have been consequences for Achan but why did 36 “innocent” men have to die as a result of his sin? That doesn’t seem very fair. Didn’t I say at the beginning of the sermon that our text raises difficult questions? It may not seem fair to us that 36 men died as a result of another man’s sin, or that 3,000 plus people died when terrorists slammed planes into the twin towers but it’s not as if these people were without sin themselves. The fact that they died proves that they were sinners for the wages of sin is death, says God (Romans 6:23). But I am not suggesting that the 36 men at Ai or the 3,000 people who died on 9/11 were more sinful than the rest of us. Jesus himself tells us that when we see calamity strike others it’s meant to be a warning for us (Luke 13). We are to repent of our sins and acknowledge that we deserve death too. In God’s defense it could be said that it’s amazing those 36 men, indeed, the whole people of Israel didn’t die sooner. After all that’s what they (and we) deserve for constantly rebelling against the Lord. But why those men? Why then? I don’t know but God does. Let him call the plays. Let him QB.
But now back to Achan. What happened to him? God told Joshua that he would make it known who had caused Israel’s misery. He directed Joshua to have the tribes come before him one at a time until Judah was chosen. Then the clans of Judah came forward, then the families, then the individuals until God fingered Achan as the man. When confronted, Achan confessed: “It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath” (Joshua 7:20, 21).
Achan’s confession is refreshing in that he doesn’t hold anything back. Nor does he blame anyone else. Still it’s disturbing because not until he was confronted did Achan come clean. Did he really think he could hide in the crowd? Friends, we may be able to bury our sins and hide them from others, but God knows what they are. Even right now he is urging you to come forward and confess what you have done. And when you do, don’t blame others or hold anything back. Come clean, as did Achan. This is the only way to relieve a guilty conscience. And if you will not do that now, you will have to come clean on Judgment Day. Only then it will be too late for forgiveness and God’s mercy.
Was that the case with Achan? After he confessed his sin, Joshua and the rest of Israel took him outside of the camp where they stoned him to death and burned his belongings. Does that mean Achan went to hell? We don’t know. He may have truly been sorry for his sin and trusted in God’s forgiveness, if so we will see Achan in heaven. But now what happened to Achan’s sons and daughters? Were they punished too? Some think so though the Hebrew does not actually decisively say that they died. It literally says, “They stoned him, and burned them—everything that was his.” (His possessions? His children?) If the Israelites stoned Achan’s children, it was because they knew about their father’s sin but didn’t do anything to stop him. And notice we don’t hear about Achan’s wife, so we can’t be sure what happened to her if anything. God does not make these details clear to us. But don’t be troubled. Just let God QB and trust he followed his own law in Deuteronomy 24:16, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.” (Geoff Cortright) One thing is certain, with Achan’s death God did “avenge” the 36 men who died fighting Ai. And God promises to avenge the hurt caused by all unbelievers on his people (2 Thessalonians 1). We just have to leave the matter in his capable hands.
While we might not understand God’s thinking behind everything in the account of Achan, his feeling about sin is clear. God hates it and he doesn’t like it when we justify our sins. Achan may have told himself, “No one will know if I take these things. Anyway it’s a waste to burn this fine imported robe and God is already getting so much other gold and silver for his treasury, he won’t miss this little bit. Plus who knows how many other people are doing the same thing. And yeah, I need this to support my family.” We do something similar when we think it’s OK to take home office supplies from work that don’t belong to us, or suppose God won’t mind if we get a little tipsy on our birthday, or think that stealing our neighbour’s test answers isn’t really cheating but getting a little “help” to remember what we studied. These may seem like small sins to us but in God’s eyes they’re like grains of sand that irritate. That’s why God’s anger only subsided after Achan was put to death. Only then was his sin removed from God’s sight. This also explains why Jesus had to die. For if Jesus was going to save us from our sins, he had to pay for them by enduring God’s wrath on the cross. This he did. And just as God’s blessing and favour returned to the Israelites after Achan’s death, so his favour and his blessings have returned to mankind thanks to Jesus. His blood has flushed your sins from God’s eyes. You are no longer an irritation to him. You are his beloved child.
No, we don’t understand everything about the way God governs the world. Like why do people in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq suffer while we have it so good here? And why do drunk drivers often seem to walk away from the mayhem they cause? I don’t know. But God does and he knows what he’s doing. Have faith. Let him QB. He will lead you to victory. Amen.
