Joshua Chapter 7: Ai and the Sin of Achan / Israel
1 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.
2 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. 3 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.” 4 So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. 5 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.
"Jericho was a massive victory for the nation. They are on a great high. And in verse 2 Joshua sends men from Jericho to Ai. Now where was their base camp supposed to be? Gilgal. And when we looked at what Gilgal stood for we saw it was a picture of self judgement. It was in that place that they circumcised themselves and it was there that they took stock of what they were. It was in that place that they looked at the monuments that they had come through in the Jordan... monuments of death and resurrection. It was in that place that they received new instruction and the good food of the land. Gilgal was supposed to be their base camp. When you carry on through this book you will see they go out from Gilgal to their battles. So the picture that you have got here is that they go from this battle at Jericho into the one at Ai but instead of coming back to Gilgal, where there would have been self judgement, they just go straight up. In some ways, after a great victory can be our weakest most vulnerable point. When God has actually done something for you or you have been victorious in some aspect or manner, going straight into the next battle can be a real tipping point. One man I thought of was Elijah. Elijah obtained a tremendous victory over 450 false prophets and then the Spirit comes upon him and he outruns a horse and chariot back to the city, yet at the threat of one woman—Jezebel, he falls horrendously. How can you go from victory to victory and then all of a sudden there is a great failing?
So what comes out of it is that when you are really victorious in some aspect, pride comes in, self confidence comes in, and this is what is happening with the nation of Israel. They say in verse 3: 'Look all the people don't need to go. There are only a few people there.' In other words 'this battle is easy-peazy compared to what we have just faced. Jericho was momentous but this is just a small one.' So you have this whole picture here that they have just come from a massive victory and they are self confident. They don't need all the people; this is going to be easy for us to do.
Beware of the two foes – fear and self-confidence.
Self-confidence is a real aspect of the flesh that we need to be careful about. You have these two aspects, first you fear which governs them through the wilderness. What fear does is make situations, problems and enemies bigger than what they actually are. It builds the situation up to be bigger than what it actually is. But self-confidence does the opposite. It makes the situation seem smaller or more insignificant than what it really is and this is the picture you have here with the nation of Israel. 'We don't need all the people to go and fight this battle. We have just defeated Jericho and the people of Ai are only a few, so only a few of us need to go.'
It is interesting when you look at the whole self confidence because in God's economy, He actually chooses the weak and those that aren't full of themselves, who don't think that they have got what it takes. It is very different to the way the world’s system works. In the world’s system, if you take sport for example, you come from a great victory and it is all about you believing in yourself and that you have what it takes. You go into the next battle with that same mind set - you have to believe in yourself. That is what we are taught, whether it is playing golf, or a rugby game or whatever it may be. You go in there believing that you have got the ability to win. And there is a true aspect in that for sports, but in the Christian life it is actually the opposite. Remember this is a walk of faith so your belief and your confidence has to be in Somebody and not yourself. It is actually in the God who goes with you into whatever you are facing just as they did with Jericho. So God is after men and women that really take Him into account and when everything is spiritually really high and really good and we are victorious, that is our vulnerable point because right there comes a feeling of self confidence and pride. I do have what it takes and yes I am right up there. So the first thing that comes out of this passage is that they were confident in themselves and didn't take stock of the enemy they faced.
The second thing is that there doesn't seem to be any prayer from Joshua through this passage. When he met the man with the sword in his hand, he received instruction about what to do. But here there is no account of him asking God what do. He just goes straight into it. He sends out the men, they come back and say 'look, we don't need to take everyone' so there is no record of Joshua asking God 'how do we fight this next battle.' He just did what was natural to him. He just sent out the spies and he had no idea what God had seen - that there was actually sin in the camp. So we need to be careful of prayerlessness because the victory that we get today is actually not enough for tomorrow. We always think that if we are on the heights that will be enough to carry us on to the next battle but it is actually not. Just like the manna in the wilderness, they were given enough for that day. Every day they had to receive it anew. It is exactly the same for us. It is a walk of faith where our dependence upon God does not carry on just because you depended on Him one day. It is a day by day walk of faith where we look to God to meet the obstacle... whether it is a big one that we are facing in our lives, or whether it is only a little one, that dependence needs to be there. So we need to be careful of self confidence and we need to be careful of thinking we have got what it takes. It is a little bit like the whale that said to the baby whale 'when you get to the top and you start to blow be careful because that is when you get harpooned.' It is exactly the same for us, when you get to the top be careful of self confidence and self pride. When you think you have got what it takes, look out. It can be a small little thing like Ai that will defeat you.”
Morning Repost-Joshua 7: Sin Revealed to the Elders
6 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 tore his clothes, along with the elders, "a token of grief usual among the Jews (see Genesis 37:29, 84; 44:13;… And put dust on their heads, a sign of still more abject humiliation. The head, the noblest part of man, was thus placed beneath the dust of the ground from whence he was taken (see 1 Samuel 4:12; 2 Samuel 1:2; 2 Samuel 13:19; 2 Samuel 15:32; 1 Kings 20:38; Job 2:12; Lamentations 2:10).” (Pulpit Commentary) “Mark, then, Joshua’s action in the crisis. He does not try to encourage the people, but turns from them to God. The spectacle of the leader and the elders prone before the ark, with rent garments and dust-bestrewn hair, in sign of mourning,.. something had disturbed the relation to God, and the first necessity was to know what it was.” (MacLaren)
7 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! 8 O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? 9 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?”
Alas, Yahweh God... Joshua seems to be unaware of the possibility that sin was the cause of defeat. “Reader! depend upon it, if at any time the Lord Jesus seems to frown, the cause, if searched out, will be soon discovered; sin is at the bottom.” (Hawker) “The language of Joshua's prayer is thought by many to savor of human infirmity and to be wanting in that reverence and submission he owed to God. But, although apparently breathing a spirit of bold remonstrance and complaint, it was in reality the effusion of a deeply humbled and afflicted mind, expressing his belief that God could not, after having so miraculously brought His people over Jordan into the promised land, intend to destroy them, to expose them to the insults of their triumphant enemies, and bring reproach upon His own name for inconstancy or unkindness to His people, or inability to resist their enemies.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
10 So the Lord said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? 11 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. 12 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. 13 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.” 14 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. 15 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.’”
Joshua, Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned... "It was no time for unavailing remorse—he must be up and trying to detect and put away the sin.” (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges) “The answer of the divine oracle was to this effect: the crisis is owing not to unfaithfulness in Me, but sin in the people. The conditions of the covenant have been violated by the reservation of spoil from the doomed city; wickedness, emphatically called folly, has been committed in Israel (Ps 14:1), and dissimulation, with other aggravations of the crime, continues to be practised. The people are liable to destruction equally with the accursed nations of Canaan (De 7:26). Means must, without delay, be taken to discover and punish the perpetrator of this trespass that Israel may be released from the ban, and things be restored to their former state of prosperity.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
Sanctify yourself by the truth and the Spirit before drawing nigh. (John 17:17). It entails change towards holiness. And the sinner will then be revealed by the process described. 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…. Deal with sin now or the Lord will deal with it when He comes again to judge the world. And, at that time, those clinging to sin will be destroyed by fire. But: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10)
Paul, like Joshua, dealt with sin in a case where the sinner would not acknowledge it. He put the sinner out of the church, because he knew that sin spreads like leaven in bread to the entire loaf. "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Corinthians 5:1-5)
How much better is a self examination among the people of God! Take heart. “The Lord mercifully points to the cause. Yes! Unless the Holy Ghost discovers to us our sins, never shall we be convinced of them. John 16:8. Such will be the issue in all generations. Sin separates between the Lord and man, and it is Jesus only which makes up the breach, by his blood and righteousness. Reader! Mark the solemn expression of the Lord's determination; in which the Lord saith, 'neither will I be with you anymore, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.' Oh, for grace to search out the Achan in the heart; to accept the punishment of our iniquity; to put away the ungodly thing, and to come under that blood of sprinkling, which alone cleanseth from all sin. Leviticus 26:41-42; Hebrews 12:24.
Reader! Doth not your heart tremble while this examination is making? Do you not feel interested in the prospect of a similar enquiry, which must one day take place in your own circumstances? May there not be an Achan in your heart? Have you looked diligently, searched the ground of your hopes, and seen whether Jesus be indeed your security? Have you heard that precious voice, referring to your own case: 'Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom!' (Job 33:24) Oh, for assurance in a matter of such infinite concern!” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)
Joshua 7: Sin Punished; Israel Restored
16 So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. 17 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. 18 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.
“The process that God used to point out Achan. God knew who was guilty, why didn't He just tell Joshua who they were looking for? In my opinion, He was giving Achan time to repent and to confess his sins. Be that as it may, the finger of God was getting closer and closer and finally landed on Achan." (Alan Carr)
"See the folly of those that promise themselves secrecy in sin. The righteous God has many ways of bringing to light the hidden works of darkness." (Matthew Henry)
19 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.”
My son, I beg you... "Not said ironically but earnestly, 'my son'; an example of the pity for the sinner which justice feels even in punishing the sin.” (Bp Wordsworth) "When Joshua speaks to Achan, he speaks with love in his heart. He knows that Achan is condemned, but Joshua still cares for this man who brought so much trouble to Israel. In this, Joshua is a picture of God. While God hates sin with His entire being, He still loves the sinner, John 3:16." (Alan Carr)
Give glory to the LORD God of Israel... "By declaring truth: for God is glorified when the truth is confessed..." (Geneva Study Bible), even sin, for therein is His name is cleared. He is faithful to His promises!
20 And Achan answered Joshua and said, “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: 21 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.”
"In these two verses, Achan finally confesses his sin. However, don't believe for a second that Achan repented! He, like some others in the Bible, only confessed his sins after he got caught in them. At this point, it would have been impossible to hide them any longer anyway... Note the progression in Achan's sin, v. 21. 'I saw...I coveted...I took.' This is the same pattern that sin always follows." (Alan Carr)
“Achan’s sin was disobedience and covetousness. All the spoils of Jericho had to be dedicated to the Lord, burned with fire in a huge bonfire except for the gold and silver which was to be taken to the tabernacle...
The people were to make no profit from this victory; it was wholly through the Lord. The people had not devised the strategy for triumph; they hadn’t valiantly fought and shed their blood throughout a long campaign. There were no siege engines, and tunneling under the walls; no battering rams had had to be built; no bombardment and no storming the towers with hand to hand combat on the staircases parrying and thrusting at Jericho’s warriors with their swords; there had been no extraordinary feats of valour which would bring brave men great honour. There was nothing like that. God alone was to be honoured for this day. They had simply done what God told them to do, marching around the city following the ark of the Lord, blowing their trumpets and giving a loud shout. The victory was God’s alone. They were not a bunch of marauding mercenaries entering this land to plunder it and murder and rape as thousands before them had done over the centuries. They were the instruments of God’s judgment on an evil people for whose repentance and new life the Lord had waited 800 years or more, since the time of their father Abraham.
This was only the beginning of the wars of conquest, the very first skirmish, and it was necessary from the very start that the people learned to trust and obey the Lord. This prohibition to take plunder and booty for themselves told the people very pointedly that it would never be their own swords and military strategies that would win this land for them. They could not conquer Canaan in their own strength. The Lord alone could give them the victory. Jericho was a sort of first-fruits and as such it was to be offered to the Lord as a burnt offering." (Thomas Geoff).
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. 23 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. 24 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. 25 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.26 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.
Achan's family partook of his sins and likewise hid them. “These verses give us the sad conclusion to this tragic tale. Achan and all that he had were taken out and stones to death by the people of Israel [and the utterly destroyed by fire- a picture of the first and second death]. It didn't have to end this way! However, these verses demonstrate the horrible end that all sinners who refuse to repent will come to. The name of the valley is called ‘Achor’. This word means trouble. If you are going to sin, you need to know that you are headed for trouble, Pro. 13:15." (Alan Carr) ON THE OTHER HAND, as with the prophet Hosea who prophesied to Israel, many years later, before the Assyrian invasion in 722BC, let us also seek the good in this lesson. "And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." (Hosea 2:15) "As, at the first taking possession of the promised land, Israel learned through the transgression and punishment of Achan, to stand in awe of God, and thenceforth, all went well with them, when they had wholly freed themselves from the accursed thing, so to them shall 'sorrow be turned into joy, and hope dawn there, where there had been despair.'" (Matthew Henry) Daily confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to give you strength to live the victorious life and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Galatians 5:13 - You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.