Joshua 7

The sin of Achan

What did we talk about last time we were together? The battle of Jericho.

Someone briefly recap for me what happened in that story?

They were to walk around the city 6 days in a row and on the 7th day they were to go 7 times around and then blow their trumpets and the city would be destroyed.

What is something you were told not to do but you did it anyway?

Now depending on the situation it may of been outright disobedience or it may of been lack of heeding advice.

If I tell Selah don’t run around the pool and she turns around and runs around the pool she is disobeying.

If I tell Selah not to eat something she won’t like it and then she eats it and thinks its gross, she is not heeding advice.

We are going to read in our story an example of blatant disobedience.

Does anyone remember what instruction Israel was given after the walls came down in Jericho? What were they to do?

Destroy everything.

Joshua 6:18–19 “18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.””

Don’t take things for yourself, everything gets destroyed. the silver and gold goes into the treasury and everything else should be destroyed.

Turn with me to Joshua chapter 7. As we work through this we are going to see a literary pattern throughout the entire chapter.

A) Yahwehs wrath in v. 1

Joshua 7:1 “1 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.”

God was anger with all of Israel because of their sin. They were told to do this and they did this and now the anger of the Lord burned against them.

God’s anger is a scary thing. We know that God has restrained his anger, in his justice he could have wiped out mankind at the fall, at the flood, etc. And yet he is gracious and slow to anger.

But he is just and when an offense has been paid, punishment is required. And God gave specific instructions that were violated and so his anger burned against Israel.

B) Disaster for Israel—defeat vv.2-5

Joshua 7:2–5 “2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. 3 And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.” 4 So about three thousand men went up there from the people. And they fled before the men of Ai, 5 and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.”

What happens here? Joshua sends spies out to check out he land. They come back and say we don’t need everyone—this town is small, just a porition of what Jericho is, we can defeat them pretty easy.

Some commentators say this is Israel being arrogant. I actually don’t think it is. I think they are being realistic, this city has less than 12,000 people including women and children, we have good warriors, we can go with a couple thousand people and take them out no problem.

And yet what happens? They lose. They are defeated. Not only do they lose, 36 men are killed and they are forced to run for safety. In the process the nation of Israel’s hearts melt like water.

Just like the kings and nations were terrified of Israel, Israel is now terrified because they have lost. They have been defeated by this little nation.

C) Leaders before Yahweh—perplexity vv.6-9 (read this at your table and tell me what Joshuas compliant is—what does he lament or complain about?

Joshua 7:6–9 “6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. 7 And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! 8 O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?””

Joshua is before the Lord in agony. He is lamenting what has happened. He feels responsible for the loss. He is so upset what does he say? Why did you even bring us across the Jordan? Why did you even bring us to this land just to be killed. This is exactly what the Israelites said after they left Egypt. Why did you bring us out of Egypt just for us to starve and die in the wilderness.

And more than that—God your name is on the line. You made a promise to Abraham and to us that you would make a great nation and we would take this land and we boldly proclaimed that to the nations just for us to be killed by this tiny little city? What does that say about you and your name?

D) Divine revelation of problem vv.10-12a

Joshua 7:10–12 “10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. 12 Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction.

Joshua, stop your crying, I haven’t forgotten you. I haven’t left my throne. I haven’t failed you—you failed me. You turned your back on me. You forgot my instructions.

We see the hingepoint of the story here.

E) Mid-point v.12b

Joshua 7:12 “12 I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.”

As long as this is going on, I will not be with you. Until you destroy these things, i will not be with you. Repent and turn away from or endure my wrath.

D) Divine instruction for solution vv.13-15

Joshua 7:13–15 “13 Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.” 14 In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that the Lord takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households. And the household that the Lord takes shall come near man by man. 15 And he who is taken with the devoted things 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 an outrageous thing in Israel.’ ””

Get up! Stop lamenting and get to work, remedy this or it will continue on.

Bring the people before you and find the man who has done this terrible thing.

C) Israel before Yahweh—clarity/exposure vv.16-23

Joshua 7:16–23 “16 So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was taken. 17 And he brought near the clans of Judah, and the clan of the Zerahites was taken. And he brought near the clan of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. 18 And he brought near his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. 19 Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” 20 And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.” 22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it…”

Can you imagine this? I remember when I was in school, the principle came in with the SRO and some others and said look we know someone stole one of the laptops. Back in the day we used to have laptop carts and we would use them for a short period for class and then put them back.

They said whoever took it can tell us and have a lighter punishment or we will find it out and there will be a stricter punishment. No one spoke up. They then took the class out to the hallway and one by one opened up the lockers.

Everyone was scared in one way or another. I know I didn’t have the laptop but the gravity of the situation is scary. What if they find something else in my locker they don’t like. What if someone put something in my locker? Now imagine being the person that took it—they know full well what they are going to find when theirs is exposed. And yet they remain silent. Eventually it was found and that student went to jail—just kidding I think they were suspended or something.

Imagine Joshua calls Israel together—we have sinned against the Lord and we must discover who it was. Clan by clan they came before the leaders to discover who it was and what happened.

Achan is sitting there thinking—I know it was me.

It zeros in on him.

Reread these verses (16-23) and write down the 4 things Achan did, it was a four step process he committed.

He saw v.21

He coveted

He took

He hid them

Theres an old Casting Crowns song—its a slow fade. You don’t normally find yourself in the middle of the burden of sin in an instant. You slowly give up inch by inch as the devil takes a foothold until you feel trapped. He didn’t just sin against God in instant, which can happen, but it was step by step. He saw it—its not a sin to see, but then he coveted. Sin entered his heart and clouded his conscience. He took. He went down the path to taking it with his hands. But the sin didn’t stop there. They he hid them. He buried them away and on top of that his family had to know he had them, they were living in a little tent, it wasn’t a secret and they didn’t tell anyone. They helped cover it up.

B) Disaster for Achan—execution vv.24-26

Joshua 7:24–26 “24 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25 And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. 26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day.

The punishment for sin is death. And the Lord said he would not relent his anger until this was taken care of. And so he had to be destroyed along with his family.

They are brought to the valley and they are stoned and burned—destroyed. Them and the things that were stolen.

A) Yahweh’s wrath (turned away) v.26

Joshua 7:26 “26 Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.”

The Lord promised them if they corrected this he would turn away his wrath and sure enough he did.

What was the cause of God’s wrath with Israel? Could this happen to you?

How might your sins affect others?

How does the church tolerate sin rather than demand the honor of God?