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Avoiding Achan’s Sin
Joshua 7
©June 17, 2007, Rick Goettsche
This morning we are going to look at Joshua chapter 7 and the story of Achan.
As you know, chapter 7 follows chapter 6, and chapter 6 of Joshua recounts the story of the battle of Jericho.
We looked at this story a couple of weeks ago.
You may remember that basically, the Israelites came across the Jordan River into the Promised Land, and Jericho was the first city which he told them to attack.
It made good military sense, because it would allow them to fight a northern and a southern campaign.
Jericho, unfortunately, was somewhat of a stronghold, with huge walls surrounding it.
God told Joshua to lead the entire Israelite army to Jericho and march around it in total silence, then return home.
He told them to do this for six days and then on the seventh day to march around the wall seven times.
On the seventh time around the Israelites were to yell, and the walls would fall down.
He told them that when the walls fell down, they should rush into the city and kill everything that was there.
He also told them not to take any of the plunder for themselves, but to give all the spoils of war to God.
Everything went exactly how God had told Joshua it would.
They marched, they yelled, the walls fell, and they destroyed everyone.
This is where we pick up in chapter 7.
At the very outset of chapter 7, we read that Achan had disobeyed God’s command not to take any of the plunder—but at this point, no one in Israel (with the exception of his family) knew that he had done so.
So, you can imagine that the Israelites were probably pretty excited by the way things had gone so far.
I would imagine that Joshua, believing himself to be a brilliant military strategist, took note of the fact that everyone in the surrounding areas had heard about how they had defeated Jericho and were afraid.
He probably also noted that his army was confident and ready for battle.
So, he called together his spies and told them to check out the next city he planned to attack—the city of Ai.
The spies returned, telling him that Ai would be an easy target, because there weren’t many men there—they said that it was such an easy target that they didn’t need to send the whole army; just a portion would do.
So, Joshua sent 3,000 men to overtake Ai.
As the army arrived at the city, they quickly realized that they were overmatched, so they fled.
As they were running away, 36 of their men were killed.
The Bible says they were routed at Ai. Now, we might look at this battle and say, they only lost 36 out of 3,000 men, that’s really not a big deal.
First of all, I would contend that to those men’s families, it was a big deal.
But, second of all, I think it’s important for us to note that in the book of Joshua, this is the only time that we hear about Israelites dying in battle.
They had just taken Jericho, a comparative stronghold, without losing a single man.
Now, they were immediately overmatched and several of them died as they fled—something was wrong.
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Joshua’s Response
So, as often happens when someone feels defeated, Joshua turned to God.
He essentially complained to God in prayer about how losing this battle is such a bad thing.
He whined that their reputation was ruined, and people wouldn’t be afraid of them anymore.
He complained that it would have been better if they had never crossed over the Jordan River (you can tell that Joshua was an Israelite!)
At some point during this tirade of a prayer, God stopped Joshua and responded to him.
In verses 10–12, we read God’s response.
10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up!
What are you doing down on your face?
11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.
They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.
12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction.
I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
God told Joshua exactly what the problem was.
He said that the reason they lost the battle was that someone in Israel had disobeyed his command not to take any of the devoted things.
God said that this was the reason they lost, and that they would continue to lose until they destroy everything that is “devoted to destruction.”
In other words, as long as they allowed this sin to continue, they would continue to be defeated.
Now, Joshua had a choice here.
He could have responded to this revelation in three different ways.
I think Joshua’s choices are much like the choices we have when we are confronted with sin.
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Joshua could have thrown up his hands in desperation.
He could have said, “We’ll never get rid of all the sin in our camp.
We’re doomed!
I might as well just join in the sinning, because there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
We may make the same argument when we look at the sin in our lives, concluding that we could never possibly overcome it, so we shouldn’t waste our time trying.
Notice though, that this is not Joshua’s response.
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Joshua could have decided to just wait it out and let it blow over.
He could have said, “If I just give it enough time, the guilty parties will eventually realize that what they’ve done was wrong, and they’ll correct things themselves.
I just need to sit here and wait.”
This is a common position to take in our society today, because we like to believe that everyone is basically good, and if we just give people enough time and space, they’ll do the right thing.
The truth is that isn’t the case.
In the case of Achan, he probably would have continued in his sin as long as he could get away with it.
And he would probably be emboldened by the fact that Joshua did nothing, thinking he’d fooled everyone.
Just waiting for sin to blow over leads only to a downward spiral of sin.
Fortunately, this wasn’t Joshua’s response either.
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Joshua could decide to immediately find the source of the sin and root it out.
This is exactly what he decides to do and it is, I believe, the best course of action.
The next morning, Joshua gathered the entire nation of Israel together and, by God’s direction, selected a single tribe from the group.
From that tribe Joshua selected a single clan.
From that clan he selected a single family.
And from that family Joshua selected a single man, Achan.
Joshua brought Achan forward and confronted him directly, asking him what he’d done.
Achan, realizing that he’d been found out, then confessed everything.
He said that as he was walking through the city, he saw a beautiful robe, and coveted it for himself.
He also saw some gold and some silver, and took those things as well.
Then he brought them home and hid them in his tent so that no one would find them.
So, Joshua sent some men to go to Achan’s tent to find the plunder he had hidden there.
The men returned with everything that Achan had described.
So Joshua led the entire nation to the Valley of Achor (which means the Valley of Trouble), and had them stone Achan and his family, then burn them and everything they owned, including the plunder which he had stolen.
Now, we might look at this and think that Joshua is being too harsh.
We say, “Yes, Achan sinned, but he also confessed!
He tried to do the right thing, shouldn’t that count for something?”
The answer is no.
Achan only confessed when his back was against the wall.
He wasn’t trying to come clean; he was backed into a corner.
Think about how long this process of determining the guilty party took.
They lined up the whole nation and probably cast lots to determine which tribe, clan, and family to bring forward.
Throughout the whole process, Achan must have thought he could get away with it, or that someone else was more culpable than he.
If he had really wanted to come clean, he would have stopped the process at the outset and confessed.
He didn’t.
He waited until he was found out.
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The Seriousness of Sin
It appears that Achan had no intention of confessing his sin as long as he could get away with it.
He knew that what he had done was wrong, and that’s why he hid the things he’d taken.
His family also knew that what he’d done was wrong, and they must have helped in the cover-up.
The issue here was really direct disobedience against God.
Achan and his family knew what the right thing to do was, but instead they willfully and continually rebelled against it.
This kind of attitude could not be allowed to persist, and Joshua made sure that it did not.
You see, throughout the Bible sin is compared to yeast.
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