Sunday Morning Service

Joshua 7

“Achan Was Taken" • 12.1.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- Jericho, the most intimidating city in Canaan, has been razed to the ground through the powerful display of God's awesome power.

- God's people have experienced what it is like to be conquerors by proxy.

- God had begun His campaign against the gods of the people of Canaan and His people witnessed it. My words have been chosen carefully to describe what accurately took place.

- God won, Israel participated in the clean up. Which makes what we are about to see quite curious. If one were only to read the first 6 chapters, they'd have a very skewed view of Christianity.

- There's a life in God where there is only victory and miraculous intervention!

- Fortunately and unfortunately, there is a chapter 7, a story of the failure of the people of Israel. We'll collect our lessons at the end. Let's look now at verse 1.

Text

• Joshua 6:27-Joshua 7:1 : "So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel." : The Lord was with Joshua. That was the secret to his success in the things of God.

- Literally, the report about him went throughout the land. The rest of the nations living in Canaan knew Joshua's name and every leader feared his name. The momentum is on their side.

- Then comes the first verse of chapter 7: But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things.

- Someone had purposely crossed the known boundary line and sinned before the Lord.

- The Canaanites were powerless against the children of Israel. They had no chance of defeating them, but Israel didn't need their help! They could defeat themselves!

- The enemy has no real power over you, but who needs him anyway!? Sin is an equal opportunity killer which is the sleeper cell lying in wait within you!

- Notice, it's the children of Israel that did this, though it was a single person that actually did this. Joshua had warned the nation of this in 6:18.

- He had carefully laid out the terms of their conquest of Jericho. All of Israel would share the blame and bear the consequences. Note the specificity of this general report.

-It's a man named Achan, whose Father was Carmi, whose Grandfather was Zabdi, whose Great-Grandfather was Zerah, from the tribe of Judah!

- Nobody was aware of it at the time, except for God, who saw it all!

˚  "Secret sin on earth is an open scandal before God." David Guzik

- The result was the anger of God which was now fixed against the children of Israel, kindled by their actions and burning hot because of God's righteousness. Notice now the details.

• Joshua 7:2-5 : "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. 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.' So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. 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." : Ai was about 20 miles west of the city of Jericho. Joshua's spies returned with an optimistic but none too realistic report.

- Compared to Jericho, Ai was small potatoes. Being smaller and less significant than Jericho, the spies believed that they would need only a fraction of their force to subdue it.

- "Only 3,000 men should go on against it. Don't make the people weary!" which Joshua believed to be the right decision, given his cooperative action. Sadly, they were thoroughly wrong!

- Ai was stronger than they thought and their defeat, while minimal in terms of casualties, was profound in terms of psychology!

- The hearts of the people, which had been confident, bold and victorious, had melted inside of them and became like water within them! Herein lies a tremendous lesson for you and I.

- They were unaware that Achan had taken some of the spoils from Jericho. They didn't know that they had been spiritually weakened leading to the second related issue.

- There is no recorded consultation of God. The spies might have been sent by the Lord's direction, though that isn't taught here.

- When the spies return with the plan, there is no submission of this plan to the Lord, nor has there been any at all! Had their been, they would have known of the sin that was among them!

- Finally, notice thirdly the profound overestimation of their military prowess. "Just send two, maybe three thousand men!?" What had these men done before this?

- All they had done was walk around a city and then God brought down the walls before them. All they did was justly end the life of some very shocked Amorites!

- What begins in pride and over confidence, ends in a humbling defeat and a loss of all confidence. They are essentially back at square one!

- So many Christians find themselves in precisely this predicament: They presume to know more than God, walk ahead of Him in overconfidence and find themselves humbled and defeated.

- When there is victory in our life, our very next step is to fix our eyes upon the Lord and ask Him for our next move. We never outgrow our dependance upon Him.

• Joshua 7:6-9 : "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. 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! O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? 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 tore his clothes, a sign of deep mourning and humbled himself before the Lord with all of the elders for the better part of the day!

- Joshua's words are dire and a summation of all that he declared in prayer to the Lord that day. There is fear and frustration and a tone of complete desperation.

- In Joshua's mind, this was a sign that God was no longer with them and thus, they were ultimately vulnerable to more than defeat. They would be thorougly destroyed!

- "It would have been better to remain on the other side of the river?" I wonder if Joshua is simply wishing that this day had not happened.

- The final phrase is where the rubber meets the road for Joshua and really, every true Christian. "What will you do for your name if we are cut off from the world Lord!?"

- This is the most instructive of the sentences uttered, as God's focus is always His own reputation. Forget about their safety. Forget about what happens to them.

- "What will happen to Your Name? What will people think of Your reputation if we are killed off by the Canaanites that you swore to defeat? What will they say about You?"

- I wish we had this level of sensitivity to the effect that our actions have on God's glory! I wish we could look at all of our actions through that lens. Joshua had that heart, at least in part, here.

• Joshua 7:10-15 : "So the Lord said to Joshua: 'Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? 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. 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. 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.' 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. 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.’" : Get up! Twice the Lord says this to Joshua, who has been in the dumps for the last several hours.

- Here's the problem Joshua. It's not in the military. It's not in your plan. It's in the fact that there is sin here. Someone has transgressed the covenant!

- What matters to the Lord is not your power or might. It's your holiness. It's your willingness to be wholly, uniquely His!

- It's important for us to remember a distinction here. Israel had entered into a covenant that was conditioned upon their obedience to God's law, essentially existing in a theocratic environment.

- You and I are not under that same covenant, which is why we are not toast every time we fail to live up to imagined expectations. Salvation is about what Jesus deserves! He's won it for us!

- That being said, there are always consequences to sinful behavior.

- In this environment, one wonders how they could convince themselves otherwise!

- The next day, the people were to sanctify themselves and be ready for the Lord to expose this person. Their worship then was to impose God's punishment upon that person.

- This is why there is a process here. God is giving Achan time to come forward and spare the nation this terrible thing. Instead, he gambles.

• Joshua 7:16-18 : "So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. 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. 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." : What God has called Joshua to is very difficult to actually do. He has been asked to participate with the Lord in an event that will expose someone's sin publicly.

- Lesser men would sleep in. Joshua rose early following the examples of the great men of God before him.

- When is the right time to obey God? As soon as possible! The more difficult the issue, the quicker you and I must be to resolve it!

- This meeting was going to be tremendous, as each of the 12 tribes of Israelis were to present themselves before the Lord. Out of those tribes, Judah was taken.

- Before that moment, Achan likely presumed that he was safe. "There are over 2 million people here."

- When Judah was taken, that lowered the numbers significantly, but the odds were still in his favor. That is until his great-grandfather's family was taken and then his grandfather's.

- Soon it was down to his own family and Achan knew that his sin had found him out.

• Joshua 7:19-22 : "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.' And Achan answered Joshua and said, 'Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 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.' So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it.'" : Joshua encourages Achan to give glory to the Lord. Recognize who He is. Show your honor to Him now by making confession.

- The idea of a confession is to speak directly to God, agreeing with Him regarding our sin. Say what you have done, using the words that define the action.

- Don't call it an affair. Call it adultery. Don't call it a lapse in control. Call it anger! Acknowledge the things that God calls "sin."

- As Christians, we have this privilege to come to God in prayer and admit our wrong, which He then promises His full forgiveness and cleansing in Christ.

- For Achan, this would be a bit different. He had sinned against the Lord. Every sin that we commit is a sin, an offense, against the Lord God. That has not changed at all!

- He next specifically admits to what he had taken and why he had taken them! Notice the progression that every person who has ever sinned will recognize.

- "I saw..." "I coveted..." "I took them..." and "I hid!" This is the same story that has plagued human beings from the very beginning.

- Notice what he took against his own life and the life of God's people, including the 36 men that had lost their lives before the people of Ai.

- He took a robe or a cloak from Babylon, which employed various colors and materials, which in their day would have been a tremendous expense.

- Two hundred shekels of silver and a whole block of gold! Who knows how much this would have amounted to, but is any price worth the consequence?

- Even more telling is that he never got to enjoy any part of it! All they ever were were lumps underneath his body.

- Achan's love of money and material possessions became a snare that he could not get up out of. What would be yours? What is worth the price of your integrity or the security of your family?

• Joshua 7:23-26 : "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. Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge 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? The Lord will trouble you this day.' So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day." : The sentence in a Theocratic Israel was death. His children are involved, indicating that these are grown men and women who were complicit in Achan's actions.

- The law dictated that no man would suffer for the sins of their parents! Achan, whose name means "trouble" had troubled Israel!

- Now, his life and the life of his family was destroyed in the valley of Achor, literally meaning disaster! How amazingly tragic and perennially true.

- Sin is pleasurable for a season. The Bible tells us this truth, but the end of sin, is also death, and disaster.

Conclusion

- Let me recap what we have learned here today.

- First, No Sin Is Secret! God knew before Joshua did. God knew before He asked Adam. God knew before Nathan told David that he was the man! Secret on earth, but scandal in heaven.

- Second, No Sin Is Singular! The effects ripple toward others in their actions, like Joshua's presumption and Achan's cooperative family. Sin spreads like a cancer untreated.

- Third, No Sin Is Secure! It will be discovered, it will be uncovered, perhaps not now, but eventually. There is no place to hide.

- Fourth, No Sin Is Worth The Sacrifice! You sacrifice the joy of the Lord, which is your strength, the enjoyment of God's good things, which is His intention.

- And what of your family and your future? What is that worth to you? Let us learn a better story now. Achan confessed after he had been caught. That's the righteous thing to do.

- It would have been better if he had confessed to God before he had been caught. What would have been best? If he had felt the weight of sin before he even committed it!

- Wherever you are on that spectrum, today is the day to get it right with the Lord. The Lord, who unlike Joshua, took the punishment for His people's sins upon Himself!

- The greater Joshua said, "I will take the punishment for His sin and when I forgive Him, I will choose to remember it no longer!"

- That's the beauty of the gospel: We are free not to sin and today we can choose to be free from it!