After Jericho’s miraculous defeat – Joshua’s fame spread. Everything was going well and according to God’s plan. However, chapter 7 begins with a ‘BUT’.
When we obey God, we shall have success in that God’s Way will be done — it might not be success from our personal point of view or how the world may see it – but God’s will is paramount and doing that IS SUCCESS.
‘BUT’ someone sinned. “Achan took the accursed things”(v1). The margin says that ‘accursed’ could be translated ‘devoted’ – this would make more sense because the silver and gold etc. was to be taken and put into the treasury of The LORD. How could it be accursed and yet be given to The LORD?
There is still a lesson for us. Something which is God’s but is held back by us for ourselves can turn out for our curse. Things which are perfectly legitimate in our lives, if not given to God when they should be, can become idols and lead to our shame and ineffectiveness in our Christian lives – not only to our personal defeat, but to the defeat of our brothers and sisters in Christ and to the testimony of our LORD Jesus.
I am not going to list such things, but The Spirit of God will point them out to you if you are willing to listen to Him. There are things which may be perfectly legitimate but there may also be things which are not. You know what they are in your particular lives. Achan sinned in this way.
1 Chronicles 2 v3-7 tells us who Achan was and his family line – Judah gave birth to Zerah (by Tamar (daughter-in-law, thus illegitimate). Down the line was Zimri (or Zabdi) – Carmi – Achan. Achan’s grandfather Zimri (commander of half the chariots of King Elah) had committed treason and was king in Israel for one week and then committed suicide (1 Kings 16). Achan had a mixture of advantages and disadvantages in his family line, but he failed to respond to the advantages.
Defeat at Ai
7v2 Spies were sent to Ai – as its name suggests – a very small place and the spies returned super-confident that they would defeat Ai with a small section of lsraeI’s army – “Do not weary all the people” (v3), but it led to an embarrassing defeat, 36 men killed and Israel fled before the small army of Ai. “At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water” (v5).
Pardon the pun, we are faced with AI today, artificial intelligence, but that led to defeat for them.
What can we learn?
1. This came on the back of a great victory. Jericho had been defeated miraculously – and they were riding high; so confident that they could defeat anybody. We must be careful of confidence in ourselves, especially after great victories. The devil can so easily deceive us.
2. They forgot that God had won the victory over Jericho for them; all they did was to obey. All the people had been involved, now they thought they only needed a small army! We must never go in our own strength, but in the Name and power of The LORD; and we must never understate the power of working together with each other.
3. They underestimated the enemy – or did they? Maybe they didn’t! But the problem here was that they left God out. In Numbers 27v21 at Joshua’s commissioning he was to always seek the will of The LORD before initiating battle. Here in ch.6v2 God gave the instructions to Joshua, but there is now no mention of God’s strategy here. If God had said only send a small army that would have been fine, but it appears to have been their own strategy. If we are doing things for God (and we should all be serving Him in some way) we must always seek Gods face and go His way. This applies to every part of our lives – relationships, jobs, money etc. I’ve said it before, young people (but applies to all) don’t look for a partner in the world, the devil will see to it you that find one.
4. They thought that some could have a rest while others fought. We must beware of resting when there’s a battle to be fought. David made this mistake some years later when his army was engaged in battle he remained at home (2 Samuel 11) and as usual ‘the devil finds work for idle hands’ He fell into sin with Bathsheba and all that ensued from that. We are in a battle, a constant battle, and we need to be alert and in the centre of God’s will. If God gives us rest that’s fine, but the danger comes when we decide to rest whilst allowing others to do all the fighting.
5. But the real reason for defeat was sin. One man’s sin at that, causing an ignominious defeat – 36 lives lost and a whole nation’s hearts to melt in fear (v5). How vital it is that we, each one of us, confess our sin to God; and to one another if necessary, and put that sin away. Achan had taken some of God’s treasury for himself and what’s more it wasn’t much use to him because he had had to bury it in the soil in his tent. All one could say is that he was saving it for a rainy day: But it wasn’t much use to him when the ‘rainy day’ came. Are you harbouring something in your heart? However legitimate it might be! You might not be using it now, but it’s there just in case, to use as and when. If that is taking the place of God, it is something disapproved by God and it will stop the blessing. It will lead to defeat not only personally, but, possibly collectively as a Fellowship.
6. What did Joshua do? He went to God to find out the problem. He and elders of the people fell down before God to seek His face. (v6) Always the best course of action.
“Joshua tore his clothes and fell on his face before the Ark of The LORD.” (v6) “The elders of Israel did the same and sprinkled dust on their heads.”
Joshua even slips into doubt (v7). He comes close to blaming God and asks why God has done this saying that they may as well have stayed across the Jordan. It is hard being a leader, Joshua was chosen by God because of his reliance and trust in God, but he’s beginning to sound like the rest who often complained and doubted and said that they would have been better off still in Egypt. I can assure you that it can sometimes make you like that.
But Joshua is more worried about the shame this has upon them in the face of their enemies (v8,9) but then, even more importantly, in (v9b) he shifts towards concern over The LORD’s Name and reputation. It is understandable that he wants to avoid humiliation, but more important that The Name of The LORD is upheld.
Then he recognises that God can protect His own Name (v9b) “Then what will You do for Your great Name”. But I think there’s also recognition there that we can bring dishonour on the name of The LORD; that God is in some way dependant upon us to see that dishonour does not come to His Name.
In v10 The LORD answered and said “Stand up! What are you doing on your face? Israel has sinned”. Now this is NOT saying that we shouldn’t pray and bring matters before God, but when we do there is usually some action to follow on our part.There is a time to be on your knees before God, but there is also a time to get up and do something.
One mans sin affects the whole. And the whole is responsible – God says “Israel has sinned” Achan is later identified as the offender, but the sin affected the whole nation. That can happen to us all today.
Joshua must have been petrified to hear God’s next words (v12) “I will not be with you anymore”. Joshua was questioning the presence of God, but God was indicating that something had occurred which put a barrier between the people and Himself. It was not that God wasn’t with them, they weren‘t with Him. Sin had come between. “The people have disobeyed (v11) It must be removed (v13)”
God told Joshua how to go about discovering who the offender was. Achan was identified and the punishment was severe.
v19 Joshua said to Achan “My son give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give Him praise. Tell me what you have done, do not hide it from me.” Confession of our sin might bring embarrassment on us, but it brings glory to God. In v20 Achan, at least was honest and said, “It is true. I have sinned against The LORD.”
We must remember that sin is against God. It might be against our fellowman too, but basically it is against God and that’s why it must be confessed to God.
David said this in Psalm 51:4 “Against You, You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” Now he had sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba, but he acknowledges that his sin went further to be against God. He couldn’t confess it to Uriah, he was dead.
What Achan did is often the way we sin – I saw, I coveted, I took, and I hid. We all face temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) tells us that. When Achan saw it, he didn’t necessarily sin but when it moved on from there, that’s when he sinned. We can see things without sinning, but we must be very careful it doesn’t progress from there. The result of Achan’s sin was disastrous and for him and his family was fatal.
He and all his family (who must have been involved) and their possessions were to be destroyed and were destroyed in the Valley of Achor (= trouble).
We have to be ruthless with sin – we have to get rid of it. We must confess it, and we will be forgiven because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, but sometimes we don’t get rid of it in the sense that we continue to let it have a foothold. But that is what repentance really is – a complete turn around.
Sometimes we have to burn our bridges so there is no danger of us crossing them again. In Acts 19 :17-20 we read of those in Ephesus who came to believe – they openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practised sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly.
This may be necessary. You know in your own life what you need to do. I recall over 30 years ago meeting a Christian young man who was a DJ and naturally had loads of secular records etc. We struck up a friendship and talked about his spiritual growth as a young Christian. I felt that his secular record collection was a hindrance to his maturing and after reading Acts 19 with him, I left him to consider. He came back to me some months later and told me he had burned his collection and that it had been a great help to him.
The name Valley of Achor (trouble) continued throughout Israel’s history but in Hosea 2:15 God said, “I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope”
Isaiah 65v10 -” The Valley of Achor shall become a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me.”
The purpose of God’s discipline has always the aim to make us better. It is never an end in itself. It became a door of hope and a resting place for those who seek God. It will also become the same for us if we accept and act upon it.
