Joshua: God's Power at Work
#4 - How Much Is Your Sin Going to Cost Me?
Joshua 6:17- 19; 7:1-12
By Rev John R. Hannem,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take your Bibles now and let's read God's commands concerning the issue of what the people of
Now flip over to chapter 7. I want us to read the first 12 verses because they tell us how the Israelites did when it came to obeying these instructions, and what happened as a result. (6 slides)
Now let's back up so we can understand exactly what happened. As we read in chapter 6, before the fall of Jericho God had given the Hebrew people very clear commands. Other than Rahab and her family, everything living thing in
Now, normally, the spoils of war were considered a soldier's pay, their reward for victory. But not this time, because as I told you last time, the soldiers didn't win this battle. God did! And as a way of making sure they understood this fact, God had them give all the valuables to Him. He also told them that if this law was broken, the entire nation would suffer. The vast majority of the Hebrews understood and obeyed this clear instruction from the Lord. Everyone listened to God's command and obeyed. Everyone that is but one man, a man named Achan from the tribe of
While the smoke was still rising from
Now it was quite a hike up to Ai-a 3,800-foot climb along a trail that crossed deep ravines and steep inclines, so basically the spies were saying, "It's a hard climb Joshua. The people deserve a break after all this marching around
The 3000 Hebrews were soundly defeated. They marched confidently up there to attack but were defeated and ran in terror leaving 36 dead soldiers behind them. And please understand, this is the only defeat of the invading Hebrew forces recorded in Joshua and the only report of Jews actually being slain in combat. ….. Well, what happened? I mean, the huge fortified city of
(A) As I said, one reason was they were too self-confident.
The people, Joshua included, had almost immediately forgotten that it was not the troops but God who had delivered
(B) A second reason for their defeat was a lack of prayer, particularly on the part of Joshua.
I mean, he should have consulted the Lord when it came to planning the battle at Ai. Instead he acted solely on the recommendations of his scouts. And don't misunderstand, his mistake wasn't in sending out spies, but rather in pridefully assuming that the Lord was pleased with His people and would give them victory over Ai. He and his officers were making the foolish mistake of walking by sight, not by faith. Had Joshua been wise enough, humble enough, to call a prayer meeting, God would have informed him of Achans' sin and he could have dealt with it. It would have been the wise thing to do, especially in light of God's clear instructions about what to do with the treasures of
I believe one reason God recorded this incident in His word was to help us learn that we need to regularly ask God to show us our sin. We need daily "sin check-ups." You see, we can't walk by sight either, because our sight is impaired. Our immoral society distorts our perspective on things. We so easily become conformed to our corrupt culture. We look at life through sin-tainted eyes so regularly, that every day and especially before every "battle" of life, prior to every major decision, we need to pray with the Psalmist: "Search me, O God, and know my heart...see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24) So, self-confidence, pride, was a factor in their defeat. And a lack of prayer was as well. But neither of these were the reason God cited. When the beaten and panicked soldiers come back down the mountain and reported to Joshua, he tore his robes and fell on his face before the Ark of God and finally got around to praying. He basically asked God, "Why? Why has this happened?" God told Joshua to get up off the ground and then He said the reason for their defeat was the fact that His ban had been broken. Someone had disobeyed His clear command. In verse 12 He says, "That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies." In other words, God says, "The men of Ai defeated you because there is sin in the camp."
At this point we can see a vivid example of the fact that sin disrupts our fellowship with God. We can't sin against God and still enjoy communion with Him. As 1st John 1:5ff says, "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another..." Achan's sinful stash interrupted this fellowship. Let me ask you. Have you separated yourself from God due to some sinful stash of your own? Has some hidden sin taken the joy out of your salvation and made you weak and powerless? Remember. A holy God cannot and will not tolerate sin. God designed the human heart to beat in unison with His. When it does we experience a deep and satisfying peace and He empowers us to make a real difference in this world. We live truly victorious lives-abundant lives! But when our hearts don't beat in unison with God's-when we ignore His loving laws, we cut ourselves off from fellowship with Him. We would be wise to remember that uneasiness is the companion of hidden sin. It's an indication that we need to examine our lives and repent.
God told Joshua to have the people come forth the next morning, first, tribe by tribe, and then clan by clan, and then family by family, and then individual by individual until the guilty person was discovered. Now, Achan's name literally means "trouble" and Joshua played on this in verses 23-25 as he confronted Achan and said, "Why have you troubled us? Why have you lived up to your name Achan?"
Then they took Achan and his family and his livestock to a place called Achor-which comes from the same root and means, "a place of trouble" and
Does Achan's sentence shock you? Does it seem extreme? Well, remember, there were 36 widows in camp because of this one man's disobedience. And then remember this as well: part of the reason this judgment and others like it seem so extreme to us is because we are accustomed to living in a politically correct culture, a culture that minimizes sin and its consequences. Charles Swindoll writes,
"If Achan lived today, attorneys would defend him by declaring him temporarily insane, or by finding a technical loophole. Someone would say, 'Joshua failed to read the man his rights!' Or they might have him plead guilty to petty theft and plea bargain a lighter sentence, rather than involve the whole camp in a lengthy, expensive trial. The fact is we live in an age of grace and many twist that concept into a license to sin. Many redefine sin to exclude any act that doesn't hurt someone else. In other words sin isn't something that defies God. Sin is something that harms others. Yet, no where in Scripture can I find anything to suggest that an action has to hurt someone else in order for God to consider it a sin."
And Swindoll is right. God defines sin, not us. He sets the standard, not our culture. All sin is against Him, and with this incident He was teaching His chosen people this vital principle. But that is not all we can learn about sin from this chapter of Jewish history. There are at least three other principles that it can teach us.
(1) First, it shows us that sin is a process.
Achan didn't just walk into that
A. His selfish act of disobedience began with his being dissatisfied.
Like all of the Hebrews, I'm sure Achan knew that God had promised to lead them into a new land of great wealth and opportunity, a country in which each family was to possess its own land and own its own house, a place where as 1 Kings 4:25 puts it every man would, "live in safety under his own vine and fig tree." But Achan's mind was not on the blessings that lay ahead. No, he was thinking of his current situation. And as he explored his assigned part of
Now, think of it. Achan didn't need any of the things he stole. What was he going to do with them anyway? He couldn't wear the Babylonian outfit in public. If he did he'd stand out like a sore thumb. People would KNOW he had disobeyed God's ban. And he didn't need the gold or silver either. God had provided and would continue to do so. In fact, if he had waited one more battle Achan would have had all the gold he could carry, because in that battle God told them they could have all the spoils.
I'm reminded of Jesus' words in Matthew where He said, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, [put God's will first] and all these things will be given to you as well." But Achan didn't think this way. He wanted the other things first. The will of God could wait. He wasn't satisfied with God's provision and this mindset led him to justify his sin. Well, sin is never justifiable. Wrong is never right. As Isaiah says, "Woe to them that call evil good..."
So, dissatisfaction gave birth to sin and that's the way it always is.
B. The next step downward for Achan was to covet what was not his.
He forgot that even though he was a soldier he had no right to take any of the bounty because as I said, God, not Achan, had conquered
C. And, finally, Achan acted.
He stole and then tried to hide his sin. This is the way sin always works. Sinful thoughts lead to sinful rationalizations, which lead to sinful actions. The fact is sinful speculations will inevitably break out into the open. As James 1:13-15 says, "Each one is tempted when by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." So Achan's deed was not a single act. No, it was a downward spiral to sin, a series of stumbles. He saw, coveted, took, and hid. Think how much happier we would be in life if we could learn to nip sin in the bud by controlling our thoughts and desires. The more we make Jesus Lord of our thought life, the less we will fall captive to sin because sin is a process.
(2) A second lesson we can learn here is that sin is not secret.
Achan's experience shows that there really is no such thing as hidden sin, or secret sin. As Numbers 32:23 says, "You can be sure that your sin will find you out."
As Matthew says our Holy God, "...sees what is done in secret." Psalm 139 goes so far as to say that God knows literally everything about us. He knows, "...when we sit and when we rise....He perceives even our thoughts...He is familiar with all our ways." There is no where that we can go that He does not see what we do for, "...even the darkness is not dark to Him..." The clear teaching of Scripture is that there is no such thing as a secret sin. Sooner or later our sins will indeed find us out.
A time will come when our sins will be revealed. The Bible tells us that one day the secret sins of life are going to be brought to light at the final judgment. But you know, it does not always take that long for sin to be exposed. In Achan's case it took only a few days. And I want to remind you again that Achan had plenty of opportunity to repent but he stubbornly, selfishly refused to do so. He continued to hide his sin and in my mind this is why his punishment was so severe. So we can learn that sin is a process and that no sin is secret. But, I think the main lesson of this text is that...
(3) Sin is not private. Individual sin can harm many innocent people.
Ecclesiastes says, "One sinner destroys much good." And that is so true. Sin is never isolated. Private perhaps, but never isolated. Sin, to some degree, always affects others. As a pastor, I have seen more than one example of one person's "private" sin breaking the hearts of his or her family and friends and even hindering the work of an entire church. And, how many churches and even entire ministries have we seen become powerless and ineffective because of the sins of their leaders? How many kids grow up to be bitter, selfish, greedy, unforgiving, or dishonest because that's the example their parents set for them? How many third world nations go hungry because of the greed of the dictator that rules them with an iron fist? We are living in an age of hyper-individualism in which we think, "What I do is my business. What you do is your business. Let's just mind our own business." But that is impossible to do because our lives are intricately intertwined. We can either bring strength to one another or we can bring weakness. This is why God repeatedly said, "
So when a brother sins we could accurately ask him, "How much is your sin going to cost me?" In fact we all need to ask ourselves, "What are the sins, what are the seeds of disobedience in my heart that may grow into actions that embarrass or hurt my kids, my spouse, my church? What thoughts am I entertaining that could sprout into sinful acts that would be dishonorable to the
But you know, even though this is a story of judgment, it is also a proclamation of hope. I say this because in a very real sense the