With success comes great responsibility. When the Lord begins tearing down the walls of opposition and using you to bring glory to Himself, and to see the lost come to Christ, then you need to be careful that you do not fall into sin. Lawrence O. Richards says, “Early [devotion to God] leads to success, prosperity, and greatness. But with success comes the temptation to rely on one’s own assets rather than on the Lord. It is when we have been most blessed that we’re most vulnerable.”(1) When you begin experiencing a measure of success in your calling, it is then that you need to be ever-mindful of how you stand, and be careful to walk in integrity.
When a lack of integrity results in sin then you risk losing everything the Lord has accomplished through you, including the ones you have led to Christ. Rick Warren says, “Integrity is the foundation of leadership. You only lead people if they trust you. If you lose people’s trust, you’ve lost it all.”(2) He continues to state, “I think the most damaging sin a leader can commit is to betray the trust of his people.”(3) If you forgo integrity and betray the trust of those who respect you and look up to you, then be prepared to watch your calling and everything you’ve worked for go down the drain.
We will see today how a lack of integrity can lead to God’s presence, provision, and protection departing from your ministry efforts, just as it departed from Joshua and the Israelites.
An Unexpected Defeat (vv. 2-5)
2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, “Go up and spy out the country.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. 3 And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.” 4 So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. 5 And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
Here, we see that Joshua had great confidence in the Lord, therefore he sent only a small number of people to do battle with Ai. Let me tell you, it takes confidence in the Lord in order to see victory in the conflict. However, I wish to caution that confidence in oneself can lead to failure and defeat. Pride is a sinful heart condition, and the Bible says that sin will lead to death and destruction (Romans 6:23). Pride will lead you to blazing your own trail, and Proverbs 16:26 warns that “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,” and Proverbs 16:18 admonishes that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
But pride was not the problem in this particular scene, for Joshua placed all of his confidence entirely in the Lord; but because the people failed, it indicated that there was likely some kind of sin issue present. Let me ask you, “Have you ever set out confidently to claim new territory for the Lord, only to suffer an unexpected defeat?” Sometimes the defeat will come as a result of underestimating your enemy, the devil, as he is constantly working against your efforts. However, if you are not walking in integrity then you will sooner or later suffer a spiritual upset. As Moses once told Reuben and Gad, in reference to keeping a promise, “If you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the LORD; and be sure your sin will find you out.”
Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines “integrity” as, “moral soundness or purity, incorruptness, uprightness, honesty,” and a “genuine, unadulterated, unimpaired state.”(4) In Psalm 25:21, King David prayed to the Lord, “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.” David’s prayer was answered, and we know this because, in 1 Kings 9:4, the Lord commanded his son Solomon to “walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you.” If you are being faithful to wait on the Lord, and to obey His commandments, then you are someone who is walking in integrity.
If you should suffer an upset, then perhaps you need to question whether or not you have been walking in integrity. You need to perform a thorough spiritual inventory of your heart and motives, and take a good look at how you are living your life. You will likely find that you have slipped in some small area of your devotion to Christ, and you will find that you have a sin issue that has been left unchecked. You might even discover that you have been placing your trust in something other than the Lord – maybe in yourself, in money, or even in the numbers of your army (your congregation).
Complaining to the Lord (vv. 6-9)
6 Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. 7 And Joshua said, “Alas, Lord GOD, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all - to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! 8 O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?”
Joshua new that something was terribly wrong; however, instead of respectfully inquiring of the Lord, he complained to Him. He said, “Why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all - to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!” (v. 7). In this statement Joshua demonstrated a lack of trust, and an ungrateful attitude for all that the Lord had done up to that point. His complaint echoed that of the Israelites who were penned between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. They cried out, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness . . . It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:11a, 12b).
Joshua may not have been responsible for the defeat at Ai; however, it appears that he suffered a momentary lapse in integrity himself. Complaining is a serious offense before the Lord, and Joshua should have remembered this fact. In Numbers 14:27-29a the Lord said,
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me. Say to them, “As I live,” says the LORD, “just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you: The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness.”
Complaining is one of the primary sins that resulted in Israel being sentenced to wander in the wilderness for forty long years (cf. Psalm 106:24-26).
When Joshua complained, he was blaming the Lord for what happened. How many times when we suffer a defeat do we blame God? The Bible tells us that “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33); and the Lord does not cause trials and trouble, but He does allows them (Job 1:6-12; 1 Corinthians 10:13). The Lord is always just in His dealings, for He declares, “There is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior” (Isaiah 45:21b). The Lord is just, and we are not; so, when you suffer a setback you need to first look at yourself. Be sure to remove the plank in your own eye, before trying to identify the splinter elsewhere (Matthew 7:3).
The Lord Will Answer (vv. 10-13)
10 So the LORD said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? 11 Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. 12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. 13 Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because 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’.”
Joshua asked the Lord what the problem was, and God answered. The Lord is just, and He will answer justly and accurately. He pointed out Israel’s failure to maintain moral integrity, stating, “There is an accursed thing in your midst” (v. 13). What did He mean by “accursed thing?” In Joshua 6:18-19, the Lord had earlier warned Israel in reference to laying siege on Jericho,
And you, by all means [must] abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the LORD; they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.
The accursed things were the spoils of war, such as the silver and gold. Partaking of the accursed things was wrong on many levels: 1.) It was outright defiance of God’s command; and 2.) it was the result of greed, and seeking riches for oneself instead of for the Lord. The Bible says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10); and 3.) it revealed a lack of trust in God’s provision, for they sought to keep back some of the wealth in case God did not come through later on. These are serious integrity issues, revealing a complete lack of character and faith, which led to defeat. An author, named Robert Morris, says,
Character is a foundational issue. If character goes, the rest of the house goes . . . In God’s kingdom, character has everything to do with fitness for leadership. God says that we must be found faithful in small things before He will set us over much. So it is important for us to understand that if we allow compromise in this area, we are putting our God-given destiny at risk.(5)
So, let me pose some tough questions for reflection. What is the accursed thing in your life? In what ways have you been defiant? What is it that motivates you to pursue a calling and serve the Lord? Are there any wrong motives, such as greed or seeking personal glory over God’s glory? Are you placing your confidence in finances, or in another human being, instead of trusting the Lord to meet your every need? Where have you possibly made a compromise, or where are you failing to trust the Lord? These are some questions you should ask yourself if you are experiencing a setback or failure in your ministry efforts.
Removing the Accursed Thing (vv. 16-23)
16 So 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; do not hide it from me.” 20 And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 21 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it.” 22 So 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.
Notice how Achan’s transgression – the sin of one man – affected an entire nation. Commentator William H. Morton said that this account “is a classic illustration of the ancient social concept of community solidarity. In such a society,” he stated, “the whole group was held guilty for the sin of one of its members, whose punishment then devolved upon the members of his immediate family.”(6) If you fall as a leader, then you run the risk of causing an entire group of people to fall, and you will be the cause of numerous people losing their faith. When unbelievers, especially, see your poor witness, they will refuse to come to Christ, and you will be responsible for their spiritual death (Ezekiel 33:6; Romans 6:23).
Back in verse 13 the Lord said, “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.” If you discover that you have failed to live in integrity, then you must remove the accursed thing. Removing the accursed thing is recommitting yourself to a walk of integrity. It is a decision to stop taking shortcuts, stop seeking personal gain, and being determined to do things the Lord’s way.
It is also a commitment to do all things as unto the Lord (Colossian 3:23), even when no one else is looking, or will ever recognize your good works. Author and speaker Walt Mueller shares a personal testimony concerning his own commitment to integrity. He says,
Last summer I painted several rooms in our house . . . My last painting project was our walk-in closet. Because nobody other than my family would be entering the closet and because it would be filled with all kinds of stuff once I was done, I caught myself thinking about painting faster, cutting corners, settling for only one coat, and being generally sloppy because, after all, it was only the closet and nobody would ever know . . .
But my conscience got the better of me. I realized that if I had compromised my standards, each time I walked into that closet I would know that even though the rest of the job looked good, the walls hidden in that dark little space didn’t meet my standard. My painting job would have lacked integrity.
Integrity is an issue for all followers of Christ regardless of our age . . . For Christians in my generation, our compromise oftentimes takes the form of putting on a good show for others, while living with lower standards and cutting corners in “the closets” of our lives frequented only by ourselves - those places that we think are never seen by others.(7)
So, what is hiding in your closet? Or, when applied to what we saw with Achan (vv. 21-23), what is hiding in your tent? John Bunyan said, “Let those that name the name of Christ depart from the iniquity of their closet . . . There are many closet sins that [one] may be guilty of, and from which they have need to depart.”(8)
Departing from closet sins and removing the accursed thing begins with confession. For example, Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I beg you, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession to Him” (v. 19a). The principle of confession is found throughout the Bible. In Job 33:27-28 we read that if a person says, “I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it did not profit me, [the Lord] will redeem his soul from going down to the Pit, and his life shall see the light.” David declared, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin” (Psalm 32:5); and 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In confessing one’s sin, it is good to name the specific sin or sins committed. Achan said, “When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them” (v. 21a). He also confessed that he had sinned against God (v. 20). The reason for confession is that it leads to repentance, and repentance is a removal and a turning away from sin. Ezekiel described repentance, saying, “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin” (Ezekiel 18:30); and Paul described repentance as turning to the Lord and doing “works befitting of repentance” (Acts 26:20).
The Israelites brought the accursed things out from Achan’s tent, which showed their repentance, and then they laid them all out before the Lord (v. 23). Placing it before the Lord is laying it all on the altar, where it rightfully belongs. Whenever you lay the accursed thing before the Lord, this action signifies placing it all in God’s hands, and trusting Him with your future and destiny.
Now, when we read the rest of the account, unfortunately, Achan, his family, and all that he had were destroyed. His repentance saved the nation, but not himself or his family. I am so thankful that – because Jesus took our sins on Himself on the cross that – when we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, that we are forgiven and not destroyed. Praise be to God!
Time of Reflection
When the Lord begins working in your life in a mighty way, bringing people to Christ, and bringing glory to Himself, make sure it doesn’t go to your head. Do not become prideful, thinking you are God’s gift to the world. When you become puffed up you have begun to lose your integrity, as it starts with the sin of pride. In your effort to walk in integrity, search your heart and make sure your motives are pure. If something does not hold up, then lay it before the Lord and give it all to Him. Ask for His forgiveness, receive it, and begin walking anew in victory and confidence; knowing that the Lord has a plan for your life (Jeremiah 29:11).
NOTES
(1) Lawrence O. Richards and Larry Richards, Bible Reader’s Companion (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 1991), p. 291.
(2) Rick Warren, “How to Maintain Moral Integrity in the Ministry,” http://www.cbn.com/ spirituallife/churchandministry/clergy/Warren_Ministry_Integrity.aspx.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 edition (San Francisco, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2002).
(5) Robert Morris, From Dream to Destiny (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2005), pp. 66-67.
(6) William H. Morton, “Joshua,” The Broadman Bible Commentary, ed. Clifton J. Allen (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1970), p. 330.
(7) Walt Mueller, “The Need for Integrity,” (1/29/2008) http://www.youthministry.com/ need-integrity.
(8) John Bunyan, The Whole Works of John Bunyan, vol. 2, Harvard College Library (Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: Blackie and Son, 1862), p. 536.
