So our reading when it comes
will be from Joshua chapter 7 and we'll be reading the whole chapter.
But just let's pause and reflect for a moment upon the fact that
there must have been in the camp of Israel a great delight and
joy after the fall of Jericho. God had proved himself. The people
had travelled for so many years anticipating coming into this
land. They had been filled with a sense
of awe and indeed trepidation and anxiety about what might
stand before them. They'd seen the walls of this
city. They had seen how awesome and
how much of a barrier that it appeared to be. and suddenly
the Lord had just wiped it away. Victory was total. Not a single casualty on the
part of Israel was recorded. And now the attention of Joshua
and the people turns to the next stage, the next step. And Joshua was aware that there
was a little city called Ai, a small but strategic stepping
stone into the heart of the land of Canaan. And so Joshua again
sent spies. He was a careful general. This was not new to him. He had
once been a spy and he practiced this, getting information about
the battles that lay ahead. He was a good and careful general. And the men returned with news
of the city, that indeed it was small, and it ought to be easily
taken by just perhaps a force of two or three thousand fighters. And cautious as Joshua was, he
sent the larger force. but things were not going to
go as planned. And here we read from Joshua
chapter 7 and verse 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. 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. 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. So there
went up thither of the people about three thousand men, and
they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them
about thirty and six men, for they chased them from before
the gate, even unto Sheberim, and smote them in the going down. Wherefore the hearts of the people
melted, and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes,
and fell to the earth upon his face, before the ark of the Lord,
until the even tide. He and the elders of Israel,
and put dust upon their heads. 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. O Lord,
What shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their
enemies? 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? And the Lord said unto Joshua,
Get thee up. Wherefore liest thou thus upon
thy face? 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 stolen and dissembled
also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. 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. Up, sanctify the people, and
say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. 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.
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. And it shall be that he that
is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned 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. So Joshua
rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes,
and the tribe of Judah was taken. 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. 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. 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. And Achan
answered Joshua and said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord
God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done. When I saw among
the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels of silver
and a wedge of gold of 50 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. So Joshua sent messengers,
and they ran unto the tent, and behold, it was hid in his tent,
and the silver under it. 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. 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 Acre. 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. 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 Acre unto this day. Amen, may the Lord bless this
reading from his word. The first thing that we learn
in this chapter was that a man called Achan had taken valuables
from Jericho. And we see two things at once. God was angry because of the
sin, and also that though Achan and he alone sinned against God,
God's anger fell on the whole nation. And this reminds us,
I think, of Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden. God was angry
then too. And although it was Adam alone
who sinned, the sin was set against all of Adam's race. Achan alone had sinned, but it
was the whole of the children of Israel who suffered. Adam
alone sinned, but it was the whole of his race that suffered. All in Adam were guilty of Adam's
sin. all fell with Adam and all died
spiritually by Adam and so too the Apostle Paul teaches us that
all who are in Christ are made alive because of Christ's righteousness
and this spiritual lesson is pointed to here in this story
about Achan. But a little bit more of that
later. Joshua did not know about the sin before he sent these
men to Ai. Neither did he know about God's
anger. The soldiers were dispatched
against AI, but then something unexpected happened. As the force
approached the city, the gates of AI flew open. Now that hadn't happened at Jericho. But as the soldiers approached
the city, the gates flew open and the king with his army came
charging out against them and straight down the hill towards
them. And the Israelites panicked.
They turned around and they fled before the men of Ai. But not all escaped. because
36 of them were overtaken and slain as they ran away. Now that's not a huge number
when we consider that there were around 3,000 of them had gone
up. But the propaganda value was
immense and Joshua knew it. A little minnow of a city had
defied and defeated the mighty Jewish force. And not only that,
but the people of Ai had the bodies to prove it. And they
were able to show that the wounds were all in the back of the Israelite
soldiers. They had run away. Joshua and
the leaders were devastated. This one little battle had great
implications and they knew it. News would get out and energise
the whole land. The benefits of Jericho, the
cudas of the victory that the children of Israel had had at
Jericho was immediately lost. What had gone wrong? Why had
the Lord left the people? The answer was Achan's sin. God had been clear about what
was required of the children of Israel when they took Jericho. They weren't allowed to take
anything from the accursed city. It was to be burned and any precious
metals were to be taken into the treasury of the Lord. This
was his covenant with Israel and it had been broken. Israel
was cursed because of one man's disobedience and Joshua appealed
to the Lord and the Lord revealed that Israel had sinned in touching
and taking and hiding in the camp that which was accursed. And consequently the Lord said,
I will not be with you any more except ye destroy the accursed
from among you. And so began the task of identifying
the culprit or indeed the culprits for all Joshua knew. So first
the tribes were examined and Judah was taken. We don't know
the means by which this test was made, but perhaps direction
was given to the priest through the Urim and the Thummim, which
was a way of getting the Lord's will and direction in past times,
in the times of Moses. Then the families of the tribe
of Judah were examined and the family of the clan of the Zarhites
was taken. They were brought house by house
and Zerah was taken. Zerah brought his family man
by man and Achan was taken. What a nerve-wracking and conscience-stabbing
experience that must have been. Achan thought no one knew what
he had done, but he couldn't hide his sin from the Lord. The
Lord had told the people in times past, be sure your sin will find
you out, and so it did for Achan. Joshua gave Achan an opportunity
to confess, which he did. He had taken silver and gold
and a goodly Babylonish garment. He probably thought, it's a shame
to waste such a beautiful coat. It's a shame that it should go
up in flames. I'll take it. No one will miss
it. But his action brought down shame
on the nation and it cost the lives of 36 men and doubtless
many, many more. Indeed, we might even imagine
that it is for Achan's sake that all the people of Israel who
died in battle henceforth paid that price. The remainder of
the passage tells us of Achan's punishment. It's severe and it
is fearsome. The things that he'd stolen were
gathered up His children, his livestock, even his tent was
brought to the execution place. Joshua said, 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. there's a price to pay for sinning
against God. And these Old Testament accounts
remind us how absolute is God's holiness and how rigorous is
his justice. I want to leave just a couple
of lessons with us from this passage. The first one is this. Sin is not an individual thing. It is true that we are guilty
for our own sin, but sin has consequences on those around
about us as well. Those we sin with, those we sin
against, those we impact and hurt as a result of our words
and our actions. Sin incurs God's anger and it
brings a lingering curse upon us. The Bible tells us in Hebrews
chapter 10, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. And God's covenant concerning
Jericho was with the whole nation and with that the nation, the
whole nation, suffered for Achan's sin, just as the whole world
suffered for Adam's sin. Paul says, As by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And a second little thing that
is worth just emphasising is this. Realising the seriousness
and extensiveness of sin ought to point us to the remedy for
sin. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners and Matthew tells us he shall save
his people from their sins. Paul says in Romans 5 verse 19,
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. This one is
our Lord Jesus. Adam broke the covenant God made
with him and he fell from his sinless state, bringing his natural
posterity all his family that came from him into ruin. In contrast, the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled all the terms of the everlasting covenant made with
him and he rose to glory taking with him all his spiritual family,
all his spiritual posterity. and bringing all who trust him
into glory with him. Paul tells the Corinthians again,
for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. And just finally, the execution
of Achan and the destruction of all that belonged to him,
including his children, seems harsh. But remember the whole
city of Jericho was destroyed for its sin. May the Lord give
us all grace, not to expose those around us to danger by our sin,
but rather to point them to Christ by our faith and our works and
our witness. There's a reason why the Bible
likens sin to an infectious disease. Sin contaminates us and it touches
those around us. And you might think, This event
about Jericho and AI and Aiken happened far away and a long
time ago. Why does it concern me? What
does it mean for me? What does it mean for my family?
What does it mean for my life? What does it mean for my friends?
What does it mean for who I am? It means a lot. The people who
watched the execution, the people that watched the death of Achan
and his family that day, must have trembled before the holiness
and the judgment of God. Would that we all trembled before
the holiness of God. That judgment will come. Would
that the Holy Spirit use our conviction for sin to bring us
to Christ and grant us forgiveness and salvation. We all stand before
God like Achan as guilty sinners. May we by grace find salvation
in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ who died for sinners like
us and may we find the forgiveness that he alone supplies. Amen.