This is part 4 of Claiming your Canaan. The first week we dealt with strength for the battle. And then we taught on, This Land is Your Land. Thirdly, we dealt with How to Get Past Your Jordan. Then in chapter 5 we see how they dealt with how the Walls Must Call Come Down, and now we have reached part four of this series There Is Sin in The Camp?
At this point Israel had been on an emotional and spiritual high. In the last few chapters, we have seen two of the greatest miracles in the Bible. First God split open the Jordan River, at its fullest capacity, and they walked across on dry ground, and we know that the Jordan was not the Red Sea, yet God, before their eyes caused the river to split and they walked though on dry land. We seen how the test of faith that God showed by telling the priest to step into the water and it wasn’t until they stepped into the water, by faith, that the river split.
In chapter 5 & 6 we read that God gave Israel a great victory by causing the great walls to fall flat. We understand that Jericho was surrounded by two walls of defense. One was about 12 feet high and about 15 feet back, and the other was over 30 feet high. And over 20,000 people who occupied Jericho.
And by this time Israel must be thinking, “nothing is impossible with God”. As a matter of fact somebody here knows that with God all things are possible, and with without him nothing is possible. Now after going through chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, we have seen the hands of God on these Israelites time after time.
However, by the time we get to chapter seven Israel runs into another snag. After they have gotten past the walls of Jericho now they runs into another snag. In other words it seems like just about time that you get through with one problem, one situation, one crisis, one dilemma, predicament, quandary, setback, drawback, issue, or obstacle another one pops up.
Because after getting past the walls of Jericho, they saw the city of Ai and Joshua calls his leader in and he draws up the battle plan. Just as he did at Jericho, he sent spies into the city to find out how big they were and to figure out what the strategy would be to conquer this land. The spies came back and told Joshua, “Ah don’t worry too much, this will be a cake walk. Compared to the rest this will be a walk in the park. In fact, we don’t even have to send the whole army in just send a couple squad in, just send in 2 to 3 thousand. That should do the trick.” Instead Joshua went with the higher number of foot soldiers to go fight, and still to their dismays 36 people were killed and on top of that Israel fled from this city.
You have to understand this generation didn’t know the word defeat. They had seen the miracles of God. Yet this defeat was devastating, over whelming, disturbing and dreadful to the point that it melted the heart of the people and they became as water.
Joshua knew something was up, and he knew that something was wrong to the point that he tore his cloths, as a symbol of distress and went directly to the Lord. Joshua did what we all should do when we know something is not right instead of going to people for the answers we need to go to the Lord and find out what is wrong from the head source.
With this in mind Joshua appealed to God’s reputation of how he has been with them, and he asked the Lord what’s going on and to his surprise the God told him. I have some bad news for you and that is “There is sin in the camp”.
Now since Joshua went to the Lord and asked him what was the problem and why it is that they had lost the battle to a lesser enemy I decided that I would go to God also.
I said Lord after all of the preacher that I do, sermon after sermon. After all, of the melodious songs that has been song by the choir. After all, of the prayers that has been prayed by the brethrens why are we losing some of these small battles, and of course you know that the Lord told me, he said that there is still some sin in the camp.
This was the same problem here. Sin had entered the camp. You see God had commanded that none of Israel would posses anything from Jericho. Either, it was to be destroyed or dedicated to the work of the Lord, and this was a direct command from God himself.
It was not a command for every city that they conquered; because there would be times when Israel could take what they wanted and keep it for themselves. As a matter of fact, by the time we get to King Saul and David Israel had collected much treasures from their defeated foes.
But as far as it went for Jericho nothing was to be kept. This was God’s command. And this might sound strange but regarless of how we feel we must know that when it comes to God we must learn to listen and obey God’s command”. And secondly we need to know that that we need to keep our hands off of things that don’t belong to us because it could cause some serious problems. And thirdly, we need to know that there is freedom in obeying whatever God tells us to do. Because true freedom is following the commands of Christ.
That’s why some people are afraid to be a Christian because they say that they enjoy their freedom. Yet Christ says, in John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And in a few verses earlier in that same chapter John 8:32, he said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Pause.
I want you to notice how God showed Joshua who the person was that brought sin into the camp. He did not directly tell him that it was Achan, but he sent him through a process. A process of elimination.??Many times the sin that are in our life is just a symptom of a bigger issue. And we need to get to the root of the sin and deal with it, and not just keep dealing with the symptom.
How do you know pastor: because there still people in the church, that can’t stand one another. There are still people in the church that can’t work with one another. There are still those that can’t fellowship with one another and you call yourself Christ-like. Oh I hear what somebody is saying. Well when I see Jesus I’ll deal with that then. You better hope that you get to see Jesus with that kind of attitude. And when you see him you better hope that he bid you well ??Joshua 7:13 " he says Get up, sanctify the people, and he says, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: and New G if you don’t get anything else from this sermon you need to get this. Get Up and Sanctify yourselves. Because it’s time out for us acting like we are better then someone else. Its time out for else looking down our noses at others. It time out for us acting as thou we are higher than others.
He says sanctify yourself for tomorrow, thus says the Lord God of Israel. There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you." In other words there is sin in the camp.
So in the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD takes shall come according to families; and the family which the LORD takes shall come by households; and the household which the LORD takes shall come man by man.
15 ’Then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’"
So, verse 16 tells us that Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. 17 He brought the clan 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.
18 Then 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.
19 Now Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; and whatever you do not hide it from me."
And I heard that Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done. You remember when we was at war and we were told not to take any of the items that were there. Well, when I was looking among the spoils and I saw a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels. And I couldn’t help myself and I took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.
And I think that we need to notice one thing here, and that is if you have got to hide it then you don’t need to do it. So I heard that Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. 23 And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD. 24
Then Joshua, and all of the Israelites took Achan and all of the silver, the garment that he had stolen, the wedges of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor.
And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? But it doesn’t matter because the Lord will trouble you this day." So I heard that Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they piled up on him a great heap of stones that is still there to this day. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day. The problem with sin is, when you sin you just don’t hurt yourself but your sin affects others. Sin caused 36 people to die on the battlefield in defeat
His sins cause a whole nation to lose faith.
And New G we need to be careful who we allow of sins to fall on.
When we sin it affects the church. It happened in the church of Corinth when they gave into the sins of those in the church and Paul had to rebuked them. You might hide now but one day all sin will be uncovered. In fact Numbers 32:23 tells us, be sure that your sin will find you out.”It will happen sooner or later. You can’t hide forever.
Somebody in here might be wondering why they can’t get ahead. Well Proverbs 28:13 He who covers their sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes their sins will have mercy. (grace). Yes sin has its consequences Paul said, “For the wages of sin is death.” The penalty for sin is death.?But most of all Sin will keep you in bondage
Achan was in bondage, and he was looking over his shoulders in fear wondering if people would find out. Sin will keep you from receiving all that God has in store for you.
Sin hinders the blessings of God.
Sin will take you farther than you want to go.
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.
Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.
Sin will keep you from this book or this book will keep you from sin.
Close:
Let me ask you, “Is there sin in the camp?
Is there something in your life that you need to get rid of now?
Is there as sin that is holding you down. ?
I need to tell you If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1Jo 1:9 ??I wonder if there is one here today who is battling the bondage of sin. They know that they are wrong and yet they gave in. Christ can forgive you.Maybe there is one who is a Christian and fell under that bondage.
You are holding onto a hidden sin. It has been your weakness. You need to let it go. I may not know but God does
