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| The cost of sin |
Joshua chapter 7 could cause people to cry,
"That's not fair!" We see Achan disobeying God by taking spoils from
the battle of Jericho he wasn’t supposed to take. However, because of his
actions, Israel loses the next battle. Once he had been discovered, he and all
of his family are killed. It just doesn’t seem fair to many, especially with God
making it very clear in the law that only those responsible for a crime are
supposed to pay for it. So, what is the deal?
First, God knows, and we see it here, that the
actions of others can cause devastating repercussions on others, especially
family. Many people who are abusers were the children of abusers. The same is seen
with alcoholics and other failings. The problem doesn’t end with family as the
drunk driver affects those who are in no way related to them. We know the big
names, Hitler, Stalin, just to name a couple, but what we don’t realize are the
little names which we will never know that have changed our lives forever. We
don’t know but the woman who was going to give us the cure for cancer may have
been killed because someone took a shortcut on her brake job.
Second, God’s command was for us to only hold those
who have done wrong responsible. God, who knows all, does what is right on a
greater scale than we could imagine. Here God gives an example to the children of
Israel in a dramatic way just how powerful the actions of one person are to a
nation and to a family.
We have talked about how the actions of a parent
affect the rest of the family some, but you may not realize the actions of one
person can change the outcome of a battle. If you like him or not Stonewall
Jackson’s actions in the first major land-based confrontation of the civil war
changed what could have been a quick victory for the north into a long-drawn-out conflict (It is possible without the drawn-out conflict the 13th amendment
may not have passed until years later). This is just one example, though God
didn’t allow Achan’s actions to continue to their logical end but allowed a
defeat to teach Israel what disobedience cost. We have to trust that God knew
he was doing the right thing.
We may not like God’s way here, but he knows more than we do. Some may wish that Stonewall Jackson had failed thus ending the civil war quickly and saving tens of thousands of lives. Personally, though the cost was great in human lives, the idea that the sin of slavery could have gone on for possibly decades longer is inconceivable.
Jos 7:1-26
(1) But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
(2) And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.
(3) And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.
(4) So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.
(5) And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
(6) 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.
(7) 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!
(8) O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
(9) 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?
(10) And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
(11) 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.
(12) 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.
(13) 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.
(14) 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.
(15) 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.
(16) So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:
(17) And he brought the family 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) And 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.
(19) And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
(20) And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
(21) When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
(22) So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.
(23) And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
(24) And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
(25) And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
(26) And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash
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