Hidden Sins, Damaged Lives
Joshua 7
Nobody likes problems. The fact is, though, that problems and struggles make us more dependent on God. They force us to turn to Him for help. When my finances are low, I pray for help. When my body is broken by illness or injury I ask the Lord for healing, or for strength to accept the thorn I’ve been given. Whenever there is a crisis or struggle we turn to the Lord.
On the other hand, there is also a danger in success. Success breeds carelessness. When everything is going smoothly I get the mistaken idea that I can handle things in my own strength and I leave behind my trust in the Lord. One man described the danger of success with these words: For every thousand who can handle adversity, only one can handle success.
This morning’s text from the book of Joshua illustrates this truth.
Think about the recent history of the nation of Israel. God had helped them defeat the kings of Sihon and Og, established a new leader in Joshua, stopped the flow of the flood-swollen Jordan River so that they can cross on dry ground, and finally, he defeated the powerful city of Jericho by miraculously collapsing their fortified walls. All of this was a sign to the nation of Israel that God was with them. One victory after another had boosted their confidence to dangerous levels. Here is the first lesson we need to learn,
Lesson # 1: We’re extremely vulnerable to temptation in moments of apparent success.
The next city on their agenda is Ai. Joshua sends men to spy out Ai, and they send back the message, Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there. 7:3
Ai was a weak city. This was supposed to be an easy battle. But look what happened: So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. 7:4-5
Notice the sequence of events:
1. (v. 5) the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
2. (v. 6) Joshua falls down and prays to God. Listen to Joshua’s prayer (v. 7-9) Joshua and the people have last their former confidence. They are melting in fear before the weaklings of Ai. Think about it: it wasn’t some great and powerful nation who routed them. It was the wimpy little weakling city of Ai. It’s amazing sometimes, how we can be victorious over some of the strongest and most powerful temptations you can imagine, but allow the weakest and smallest, most insignificant temptations to eventually become our downfall.
The defeat at Ai brought them to their knees before God. Their confidence in God, which had produced their success and victory, can very quickly turn to self-confidence.
3. Notice God’s reply to Joshua’s appeal. (v. 10) Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? God will not tolerate Joshua’s discouragement and pessimistic attitude. God had given them victory after victory and then, after one defeat, they’re down on their knees blubbering about how they should have been content to stay on the other side of the river, (read: we want it to be easy), how their enemies are going to hear about this and they will wipe us out (read: your not going to take care of us anymore, are you God?). Do you know somebody like that? We need to hear God’s words to Joshua again, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?”
Yesterday’s victory is not an assurance of victory today, but one defeat doesn’t mean the end. Get up, brush yourself off, and find the reason for the defeat. That’s what God is trying to tell Joshua. There was a reason for the defeat. Joshua seems to imply in his prayer that the whole idea of conquering Canaan was a bad idea; they should have been content to stay on the other side. He seems to give the idea that this defeat was caused by God just as a whim. The Lord looked down and said, “I think it’s time these guys were defeated.”
God lets Joshua know there’s a reason for their loss to Ai. (v. 11) “Israel has sinned.” God doesn’t wink at sin. Sin corrupts. Jesus warned his disciples, “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees.” And what is done in private has a public effect. (explain about the dedicated things from 6:18-19, and how Achan had taken some of these things.) Here is lesson #2,
Lesson # 2: The disobedience of one individual can have a negative effect on the whole community.
To uncover the identity of the one who sinned, God tells Joshua to line up the people, tribe by tribe, family by family, household by household, man by man. Sanctification and purification were needed. The household of God has been dirtied and it was time for the mess to be cleaned up.
Achan is eventually indicted as the culprit. Achan had been relatively successful in covering up his sin up to this point. But as Joshua works through from tribe to family to household to individual he finally comes to Achan. Then, and only then, does Achan acknowledge his sin and confess that he is the cause of Israel’s troubles. (v. 20)
Achan is the epitome of the dark side of every individual and every community. All of us have within us the potential to fall, and fall hard.
He admits to having taken three things that were supposed to be destroyed or turned over to the Lord’s treasury: a beautiful Babylonian coat, 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels.
Notice the way Achan describes the sequence of events that led up to his sin:
1. (v. 21) “I saw…” This is the beginning of all sin: the looking, the desiring, the envying for what we know we cannot have. Looking at those beautiful items was more than enough temptation for Achan.
2. (v. 21) “I coveted them…” There’s no doubt that Achan didn’t need any of those things. What was he going to do with them? He couldn’t use them. Imagine if he tried to wear that Babylonian coat out in public. All he could do with them was take them out, touch them, and feast his eyes on them. Maybe there was some kind of personal satisfaction in knowing he possessed something so beautiful and so rich. But to whom was he going to boast about them. When we possess forbidden things, or engage in forbidden activities, what good is it to us? What good is a treasure that you have to keep hidden so no one will find out about your sin?
It’s no accident that the final and most inward of the 10 Commandments deals with covetousness. Moses warned the people before they ever entered the Promised Land that they could become ensnared by the silver and gold in the land. Jesus restated this principle for our benefit: “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
Achan said, “I saw…I coveted…I took…They are hidden….” This is the sequence of events that all of us follow when we fall into sin. It starts with the look, which leads to the desire (coveting), which ends in eventually finding an opportunity and taking it. Last of all, we hide our sin. That which we wanted we cannot fully enjoy because we’re always hiding it so no one will know. There is someone who knows, however.
A much deeper truth about Achan’s sin is also evident: disobedience to God is a malignancy that has serious effects on the whole community of believers. Thirty-six men lost their lives because of Achan’s sin. The nation went down to defeat because of Achan’s sin.
My sin cannot be isolated from you, and your sin cannot be isolated from me. There are corporate consequences of our sins; even those that are hidden from the eyes of men.
Alan Redpath very forcefully points out the implications of this truth.
“Now mark well a lesson here for all time. What actually had happened? One man had stole property which belonged to God, had taken of the spoils of victory that were to be set apart for the Lord. One individual in the camp had betrayed God’s trust, and the verdict from heaven was not, ‘Achan hath sinned,’ but ‘Israel hath sinned.’ One man had failed, and the whole army was defeated. You see, the children of Israel were a nation—they were brought to redemption ground as one man, the weakest of them and the strongest of them. They were a complete entity; God was dealing with them as a corporate body through whom His purposes for men were to be fulfilled.”
He concludes by saying, “I trust that the Holy Spirit is going to write this lesson deeply on your hearts. Where one member of a local fellowship is guilty before God of sin, the verdict from heaven is, ‘My people have sinned.’ When one man steps out of blessing and does something contrary to God’s will, the verdict of the all-searching eye of our Master is, ‘My people have sinned.’”
A church family can be defeated by the malignancy of an individual’s unconfessed sin. This brings us to the third lesson,
Lesson # 3: God’s judgment is not to be taken lightly.
Achan’s story is one of the saddest in the Bible. A good man overcome by the evil desires of his heart. It’s a story that’s been repeated over and over throughout history. Good men, godly men, men intent on doing God’s will, men blessed with success because of their godliness, but in one moment are brought low by succumbing to the temptation of Satan.
Achan, the coat, the gold and silver, his family and all that he owns are taken to the Valley of Achor and there they are stoned, then burned with fire, and finally a great heap of stones are raised over them as a reminder of Achan’s sin.
I’d like to sugarcoat this whole story and tell you that when Achan confessed his sin, God forgave him and everything was all right—but that isn’t what took place. All around us we see evil men committing terrible atrocities and never suffering the consequences their sins deserve, while good men, godly men, by one act of disobedience will suffer with consequences that seem overwhelming and unjust.
Why? We can hypothesize all day about why God did what He did to Achan, but here’s the lesson to be learned: God is God, and God’s judgments are always just, and God’s judgment is not to be taken lightly.
Even in the NT era God will not wink at sin. “Don’t be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
There is a final lesson to be learned.
Lesson # 4: God can turn disaster into hope and victory.
The place where Achan was stoned was called the Valley of Achor as a reminder of the disaster that came to Israel because of his sin. Many years later, however, it’s given a new meaning. In the book of Hosea (2:15), God says that the Valley of Achor, which means “trouble, or disaster,” will become a “door of hope.”
Where once there was defeat God gives victory, where once there was disaster God gives new hope. In the same book of Hosea he writes, “Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.” (Hosea 6:1). God is sovereign, and His desire for His people is not defeat, but victory.
This story shows us how one man’s sin brought a nation to defeat. But it also shows us how through humble repentance and dependence upon the Lord the defeat was turned into victory. God tells Joshua in 8:1, (read). This time instead of facing defeat, there is victory.
