Gold, Silver, and a Goodly Babylonish Garment
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Have you ever been shopping in a grocery store, and in the same store there was a child whose voice you came to know very well?
“I want these chips!” and “I want that kind of juice!” and “I want that pizza!” and “I want those popsicles!” and “Why do we have to get that kind of cereal? I want this kind!” and “I want that gum!”
You could hear their voice in every aisle, as they begged for or demanded the different things they wanted and complained about the things they didn’t want that their mother was buying.
Maybe you have actually been that child. Or, maybe you haven’t, but we’ve all been guilty of complaining about what we do have and coveting what we wish we had.
Coveting means “to desire excessively; to greatly desire that which doesn’t belong to you; to want what God hasn’t given to you.”
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Now, coveting is different than just noticing something and thinking it would be nice to have.
We might see an outfit in a magazine and think, “That is so cute—I love it!”
We may play one of our cousin’s games and think, “This is so fun—I would like this game.”
We may notice our classmate eating our favorite kind of sandwich and think, “That looks so good!”
We may think we would like a pair of sneakers that our teammate has.
If all we do is notice that we would like a particular thing, that is not covetousness.
Covetousness comes when we want it so badly, that we think about it most of the time.
It’s when we can’t can’t be happy until we have it.
Instead of just thinking the outfit is cute, we become unhappy with our own clothes, because we want that particular outfit so much.
We stop noticing that we have enough.
Instead of just having fun with our cousin’s game when we are with him or her, we think about it all the time. We aren’t happy doing other things, because, in our minds, we need that game.
We don’t just notice how much we like our teammate’s sneakers, but we become embarrassed about our own sneakers.
We wish we didn’t have to wear these ugly sneakers. Every practice we notice our teammate’s sneakers and wish they were ours. When something becomes so important to us that we think we have to have it to be happy, that’s covetousness.
Coveting seems like such a small thing—I mean, everybody wants things they don’t have. But we find in the Bible that covetousness really is a sin, and it leads us to places we would never have dreamed it could take us.
In today’s true story from the Bible, we will see how God taught the Israelites how destructive the sin of covetousness is. And He used some very covetable items to teach us—some silver, gold, and a beautiful robe.
Achan Sins
Achan Sins
Achan was the man in our Bible story who coveted.
Family man
Had just crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land.
You would think he would have been so happy—he now had what all the Israelites had been living for the past forty years, as they wandered through the wilderness to the beautiful land God had promised them.
Not only that, but through all those years in the wilderness, God had supplied miraculous food (manna) for them every day without fail.
And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
God had also miraculously kept their clothes from wearing out, and their shoes from getting too small—for forty years!
Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.
Achan had everything he needed, and he had everything the other Israelites had.
He had a tent to keep him dry when it rained and to provide a private place for his family to sleep.
He had food to eat and clothing to protect him from the wind, sun, rain, and cold.
He had a family to be a part of.
He had other people that loved him.
And most of all, he had God.
But that wasn’t enough for Achan.
Instead of looking at how much he did have, he looked at what he wished for.
Now, right before God allowed the Israelites to defeat the city of Jericho, God gave the Israelite people a command through Joshua.
And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the Lord: they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.
God was going to defeat the city of Jericho for the Israelites, but He didn’t want the people of Israel to take one single thing from the city for themselves.
He didn’t want them to take any food, clothing, jewelry, furniture, animals—He didn’t want them to take anything that belonged to the people of Jericho.
The gold, silver, and precious metals were to be dedicated—set aside especially for—the Lord.
But those same wonderful things—the gold, silver, and precious metals—would be accursed (bring a curse on) if the Israelites took them for themselves. They were for God’s treasury.
Everyone obeyed except for one man
As they were going through Jericho, taking the silver and gold and precious things to put into the treasury of the Lord, Achan saw something he wanted.
He wanted it so badly, that it was all he could think of. “It will make me rich,” he thought.
“I will be truly happy if I have that,” he thought.
Achan secretly took of the accursed thing (the things that God had told them not to take), and God was angry with the Israelites.
But no one except Achan (and God) knew what Achan had done.
God knows everything—including what is in our hearts.
Defeat at AI
Defeat at AI
Thirty six men died that day
Joshua’s sorrow and God’s Direction
Joshua’s sorrow and God’s Direction
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.
In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man.
And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.
Achan’s Guilt Discovered
Achan’s Guilt Discovered
Early the next morning, Joshua brought the nation of Israel, one tribe at a time, before him. Achan must have been so afraid.
“Will I be caught?” he thought
“I have hid the things I stole in my tent—will they be found? Will I and all that I have be burned up?
“Oh, no! Joshua has called my tribe—the tribe of Judah! He knows the man is from the tribe of Judah!
“What? He has called the family of the Zarhites—my family. He knows the man is from the family of the Zarhites!
“Now he is calling the household of Zabdi. That’s my household! God knows what I have done!”
And Joshua called Achan before him. “Give God the glory,” Joshua said. “Tell the truth. What have you done?”
Achan knew he was found out. There was nothing he could do now.
“I have sinned against God,” Achan hung his head. “As we were taking the things from Jericho, I saw a beautiful Babylonian robe, and some pieces of silver, and a big piece of gold. I coveted them, so I quickly reached out my hands and took them. Verse 21
They’re hidden under the ground in my tent.”
So Joshua sent men to Achan’s tent, and there were all the things Achan had taken—the things that were dedicated to the Lord’s treasury. There was the silver, the gold, and the beautiful robe.
Application
Application
Achan was blessed just like all the other Israelites. He had everything he needed. And everything he had, God had given to him.
But Achan forgot about his blessings, and he wished for things that God had not given him.
Actually, what Achan wished for belonged to God. And he took what belonged to God.
It’s hard for us to imagine actually taking what belongs to God.
We can’t imagine stealing money out of the offering plate at church, or taking other things around the church. We wouldn’t steal the flowers or the pictures or the furniture.
But the things here in our church building are not the only things that belong to God. Everything belongs to God, and everything is God’s to do with as He knows is best.
God doesn’t give us everything we want, because He knows everything we want will not help us to know Him better or to trust Him more. So, instead of wanting what we don’t have, God wants us to be content with—to be glad for— what we do have. He wants us to, most especially, be glad that we have Him.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Look at all the things that came to Achan’s life through coveting, and then taking what he had coveted:
• He had to hide what he had stolen.
• He wasn’t able to enjoy what he had stolen.
• He lived in fear, knowing he was guilty and would be found out.
• He knew he was responsible for Israel’s defeat at Ai.
• Thirty-six men were killed because of his sin.
• His family had to die.
• He lost everything he had, including his life.
• The people of Ai thought the true God wasn’t strong enough to give the Israelites victory.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Nothing that came to Achan through his coveting was good.
What it could have looked like
He would have been joyful to put it in the Lord’s treasury.
• He would have had peace in his heart—he wouldn’t have been afraid of Joshua and the Lord.
• Israel wouldn’t have been defeated.
• Thirty-six men wouldn’t have been killed in battle.
• His family would have lived.
• No one would have thought God wasn’t strong enough.
Happiness doesn’t come through what we own, but it comes through being content with what we have.
When we are content with what we have, we are full of gratitude to the God who gave it to us, and we are able to keep Him first in our hearts and lives.
