7. Joshua chapter 7. This lesson is not in the lessons
that Henry wrote on New Testament eyes. This is one that I was
reading and I thought it'd be a good one to bring out this
morning. In this portion of scripture,
we see sin, judgment, and representation. When I was reading it, I saw
the teaching, the doctrine of representation. I could see Christ
clearly as he represented us, and we'll look at that here in
a little bit. But let me read the chapter to
you. I'm debating on reading all of it, but I'm going to go
ahead and read all of it so that we can have a good foundation
to start from. But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmi,
the son of Zabdi, 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 Beth-Avon. 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 2,000 or 3,000 men go up and
smite Ai, and make not all the people to labor thither, for
they are but few. So there went up thither of the
people about 3,000 men, and they fled before the men of Ai. And
the men of Ai smote of them about 36 men, for they chased them
from before the gate even to Shebrim, and smote them in the
going down. Wherefore, the hearts of the
people melted and became as water. And Joshua ran his clothes and
fell on the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until
the evening tide. He and the elders of Israel put
dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, at last, 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 of Jordan. Sounds like Israel, doesn't
it? How many times did they say that?
Oh Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns their back before
their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the
inhabitants of the land shall hear of it and shall environ
us around and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt
thou do unto thy great name? And the Lord said to Joshua,
get up. That's what he says to 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 also stolen and dissembled also. 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 anymore, except you destroy the accursed from
among you." You know, the scripture says your sins have separated
you from God. Our sins have separated us from
God. Sin is separating. 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 oh israel
thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the
accursed thing from among you in the morning therefore you
shall be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that
the tribe which the lord take us 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. Boy, you see the judgment of
God here. He wills it right down to the, thou art a man. 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. 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 Zabdai 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. 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. And Achan answered Joshua and
said, Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus
have I done, when I saw, and you'll notice here the process
of sin. Here's the process and the progress
of sin. When I saw among the spoils of
a goodly Babylonish garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge
of gold and 50 shekel weights, then I coveted them. I saw, I
coveted them, I took them, and then I hid them. I hid in the
earth and I hid 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 into 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. You know, there's a scripture
in Numbers that your sins will find you out. And they go get
him. And here they bring all that
he had stolen and done. And they took them out of the
midst of the tent, verse 23, 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 into the Valley of Acre.
That word means the Valley of Trouble. Took them to the Valley
of Trouble. 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. That's after they stoned him,
after they were put to death, 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 Achor, the Valley of Trouble, unto this day. What
a chapter, what a chapter, how sobering, how sobering. We have here sin, judgment, and
representation. You can put that down as a title.
I have as a title, the sin of disobedience, but I think sin,
judgment, and representation is probably the better title. But in this chapter, we have
the sin of Achan, the sin of disobedience. Look over in chapter
six. Over here in chapter six, look
at verse 17. This is concerning the city of
Jericho. And the city shall be accursed,
even it and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot
shall live. She and all that are with her
in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
And ye, in any wise, keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest
you make yourselves accursed. when you take of the accursed
thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all
the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated
unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury
of the Lord. They were told before they went
into Jericho, do not take anything. Don't take of the accursed thing. And Achan did. He did. This is a sin of disobedience.
It's the same as Adam when he disobeyed God in the garden.
And we have, by nature, we have disobeyed God ever since, haven't
we? Ever since, we've disobeyed God. You know, not to believe
God is to disobey God. Achan evidently didn't believe
what was told to him. Listen, when Adam sinned, he
brought down the whole human race. When Achan sinned, 36 men
died. 36 men died. When Adam sinned, the whole human
race died. Spiritually. Spiritually. And
physically, later on. That's why we die physically.
We don't die because of cancer or heart disease. Those are second
causes. The first cause of death is sin. It's sin. And what we're gonna
see here, representation. Look in Joshua chapter 7 verse
1. Let's go back here to verse 1.
Now Achan took this and hid it in his tent. But now listen to
the language of the Word of God. But the children of Israel committed
a trespass in the accursed thing. You see here Achan is a member
of that body. If my body sins, I sin. If I sin, my body sins. One and
the same. For Achan, the son of Carmiah,
the son of Zebdiah, 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. We never sin alone. It always affects somebody. But
all sins against God. All sins against God. But here's
a little history lesson here. The children of Israel had been
under Egyptian bondage for 400 years. And God sent a deliverer,
Moses, to deliver them from the Egyptian bondage. And he did,
and they traveled in the wilderness for 40 years. And then God delivered
them out of all their troubles, and here they go into the promised
land. And when they go into the promised land, they are to conquer
all those cities in the promised land. In Canaan, they're to do
that. And the first city they meet
with is Jericho. And they were given this commandment,
don't take anything. Everything of these cities is
a curse. It's of the world. It's a curse. And God said, don't bother. But
one man. One man out of 3,000 men, one
man thought he could get away with taking a little silver,
a little gold, and a garment. He thought he could get away
with taking the cursed thing. He didn't see nothing great about
it. But the evidence, listen, here's
the evidence that he knew what he was doing was wrong. He hid
it in his tent. If he didn't think it was wrong,
he wouldn't have hid it. He hid it and he knew he disobeyed God's
command. He knew that. And I told Joshua,
behold, they're hid in the earth in the midst of my tent. Now,
this sounds like no big deal, taking a little silver, a little
gold from the spoils of war. That sounds like it's not a big
deal. Sin is always a big deal. Sin is a big deal with God. Listen
to this. Small drops of rain make a stream. A stream makes a river. And a
river makes an ocean. A little leaven does what? The
scripture says, leavens the whole loaf. All you gotta do is put
just a little leaven in some bread that you're making, just
put a little leaven in it, and what happens? The whole loaf
becomes leaven. The whole loaf. And so God's
gonna deal with this. He's gonna deal with it. So here's the result. The result
is, he comes back, they go to AI because they just whipped
Jericho, and AI's a little old place. They said, we only need
3,000 men. And they go there, and 36 men
die because of this one man's sin. 36 men die. This is representation. Akin represented Israel in his
conduct. He represented Israel. But the
children of Israel committed a trespass. Well, I thought it
was just Akin. No, it's Israel. He's a part of it. Listen to
this scripture over in the New Testament that sheds a lot of
light on this. Romans 5 12 wherefore as by one
man sin entered the world sin entered the world and death by
sin so death passed upon all men for all have sinned we've
all sinned in Adam by representation and we've all sinned individually
we've sinned individually Aiken's sin, listen, we'll get,
I'm gonna come back to Romans 5 if I have time. But Aiken's
sin was the sin of, it was the sin of disobedience. It was the
sin of unbelief. Evidently, he didn't believe
that God would do what he said. And it was the sin of idolatry. He coveted, he coveted. He took a Babylonish garment.
He said, I saw this Babylonish garment. Beautiful garment. When I saw among the spoils a
goodly Babylonish garment. Can you imagine dying for a piece
of garment? Is there any sin? I said this
to someone the other day I was talking to. There is no sin worth
perishing over. There's pleasure in sin for a
season. The word of God tells us that. But oh, how short seasons
are. And there is no sin worth perishing
over. He sees this Babylonish garment
and he lusts after it, he coveted it. You know a garment, and think
about this, this Babylonish garment. Now you know what Babylon represents
in the scripture, false religion. It's that great whore spoken
of in Revelation 17, 5. Listen, and upon her forehead
was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and the abomination of the earth. And listen to this one in Revelation
18, 2. And this is why God said don't touch of the accursed thing,
because this is what it represents. And he cried mightily with a
strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. So what is a Babylonish garment?
Well, a garment is something you wrap yourself in, isn't it?
I'm wrapped in garments this morning. I've got this suit on.
I'm clothed in this garment. It's something you wear. It's
something you wear. It's idolatrous luxury is what
he coveted. False religion is what Babylon
represents. This garment, this Babylonish
garment that he's going to wear, wrap himself in, it represents
false religion. That's what it represents. idolatrous
luxury. And God's greatest judgment has
always been against false religion, mixing grace and works. He's
going to take a little Babylonish garment and mix it with his garments
that he wears. No, you're not. We're not going
to mix any of that. God said, don't you touch that,
that Babylonish garment. You know, Babylon comes from
the word babble. It means confusion. confusion,
which is the religion of this world. Aiken's heart was drawn
to the religion of the accursed thing. It was drawn to it. He took the gold, the silver,
and the garment, which is the commerce of false religion. All
you got to do is turn TV on. Just put it on your credit card. It's nothing but constant money,
isn't it? It's just a constant begging
for money. This is false religion, it's a religion of works, and
it's a religion of commerce. They're after your pocketbook,
I guarantee you, they're after your pocketbook. And it's a religion
of works. Now the one thing you notice
here is the process of sin in the heart is gradual. He said,
I saw, Isn't that what Eve did? Isn't that what Eve did in the
garden? The first thing she saw that
that fruit was a desire to make one, I saw, I looked, I looked. I saw, and then I coveted. What I saw entered into my heart.
I saw, you know, here's, you know, he probably, you know,
I'm sure he's not a rich man, and he was like, you know, here,
I could, I could help my family out. He coveted it. And then after he coveted, he
took. And after he took, what did he
do? He hid. He hid it in his tent. What did
Adam do? What's the first thing Adam did
after he fell? He hid himself in the garden.
He hid. He tried to hide from God. Akin
tried to hide all this as if he could hide it from God. God,
nothing's hid from him. Everything's open. The scripture
says everything's open before him with whom we have to do. As I said earlier, we never sin
alone. All sin is against God. 36 men died because of this one
man's sin. That's representation. His family
had to die. His family, his whole family.
What he did affected his whole family. You know, the sin that
I have, that I have, I received from my mother and father. The
sin, the sinful nature I've got, I received it from my mother
and father. They received it from theirs and all the way back
to Adam. That old nature we were born with has got to die. It's
got to die. And if the Lord doesn't stand
in my place, I've got to die spiritually. I mean, a second
death. I've got to die. Now, as I said here, we'll see
this, sin will find you out. You know, Israel should have
defeated Ai, but God's going to deal with this sin of Achan.
He's going to deal with it. No sin goes unpunished. You know that? Not even a thought. Not even a thought. How precious
does that make Jesus Christ right now? How precious that he took
all my sins and put them away. I want you to notice this, look
in verse 16 and 18 of this chapter. Look at this. So Joshua rose
up early in the morning and he brought Israel by their tribes.
And he makes, this is interesting, he makes Israel come and be a
part of it. He didn't just, Joshua does not
go, just go to the tent of Achan and says, the Lord has revealed
to me you've done this. All Israel has to witness this. So Joshua rose up early in the
morning, and he brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe
of Judah was taken. It's interesting, the tribe of
Judah. He brought the family of Judah, and he took the family
of the Zarhites, and then he brought the family of the Zarhites,
man by man, and Zebdiah was taken. Then he brought his house, whole
man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zebdiah,
son of Zerah, He whittled it down. And here's what's interesting. Aiken was not ready to confess
until he was pointed out. You know, whenever he started
whittling it down, you'd have thought maybe he would have said, it's
me. I did it. But he was going to shut up and
not say a word until finally it was, you're it. Now, Aiken,
what'd you do? You see how exact judgment is?
Hear how exact it is. No one escapes the all-seeing
eye of God. God said every idle word's gonna
be brought into judgment. David said in Psalm 139, for
there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest
it altogether. You know it. You know the attitude
in which I'm saying it. You know it. Now, if I stop here,
this is, this leads to despair, doesn't it? Is there hope? Is there hope? Because we've
all sinned, we've all coveted, even since we believe we've coveted.
We've all done that, we're all guilty. I can look at anybody
and I can say, I'm guilty, I'm guilty. If I haven't done it
in action, I've done it in thought and heart. He said to look on
a woman to lust after is adultery, to hate your brother without
a cause is to commit murder. Every one of us has done that,
every one of us, at one time or another. We've done it. We've done it. Turn over to Romans 5. Thank
God for Jesus Christ. I thank God for representation.
Now, you know, there are those who don't like representation,
why do I have to be punished or die for Adam's sin? If you
understand the gospel, you're thankful. I'm thankful for representation. I'm thankful. Look here in Romans
5, we start in verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for they all have sinned. Now, I want you to jump over
to verse 18. See, that other is in parentheses, but let's
go to verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Even so, by
the righteousness of one, one man, Jesus Christ, The free gift
came upon all men whom he represented. That's what he's talking about.
All whom he represented, the free gift of life, eternal life,
has come upon all men unto justification of life. You see, by the obedience
of Jesus Christ, all who believe, all for whom he died, are justified. They're cleared of these charges. They're cleared. Whereas by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners." I did not become a sinner at a certain
age. I didn't do any, I did not do one thing to become a sinner.
Not one, I was born one. David said, I was born in sin
and shaped in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Not that she did something sinful,
but the seed by which he was begotten was a sinful seed. is
a corrupt seed. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ
was not born from any son of Adam, the Son of God. And the
human nature of Christ was created by the Holy Spirit. He was begotten
by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary. The sin of Adam never
touched him. That's why he knew no sin. He
never had a sinful nature. His nature was holy. He's the
Holy One of Israel. The Holy One. But now, this Holy
One of Israel, standing as my substitute, as my representative,
has cleared me of all charges. Isn't that good news? I'll tell you what, I thank God
for representation. I thank God for it. For as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. They're going to be made righteous
by him. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That's why you and I, those of
us who believe, those who believe, the reason you and I will not
perish It's because, well the next verse, here it is. That
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The
grace of God reigns on us. How? Through the righteousness
of that one man, our representative, Jesus Christ. Grace reigns on
me through him. Grace reigns on me through the
righteousness of that one man. In Jesus Christ, I'm righteous.
I'm righteous. I thank God for representation.
This is so powerful. This is what jumped out at me
was this doctrine of representation. God said, oh, Israel has sinned.
Israel has taken up the accursed thing. And now this one who's taken
it has got to die. He was made to be sent for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. What's a sinner to do? Look to
Christ. Look to Christ. Look to the Lamb
of God, which takes away the sin of the world. Look to Him. These scriptures I'm gonna read
here, has given me great comfort over the years. First John 1,
9, if we confess our sins, Achan was not going to confess his
sins. He wasn't going to say anything until he was said, you're
the man. You're the man. But if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. God is faithful and just to do
so. Every time we confess our sin,
he's faithful and just to forgive us. Through the blood of Christ,
which answers for the sins I'm asking forgiveness for. 1 John 2, 1 through 2. Listen,
my little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin
not. God never approves of sin. And if any man sin or when any
man sin, and he's talking about those who believe, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he's
a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world, the Gentiles, not just the Jews. You know, Joshua says to Achan,
He says here, and I'm gonna read these to you, in verse 19 through
21, and I'll quit. Joshua said to 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
he said, indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel,
and thus have I done. When I saw among the spoils a
goodly Babylonish garment, 200 shekels of silver and a wedge
of gold. Notice how he has to confess
his sins. And 200 shekels of silver and
a wedge of gold, 50 shekels weight. Then I come to them, I took them. Behold, they're hidden in the
earth in the midst of my tent and the silver under it. He was
made to confess his sins. Charles Spurgeon said this, and
everyone I've read pretty much said this. He believes that Achan
was, was, uh, saved eternally because Joshua said, the Lord
will trouble you this day, this day, the Lord trouble you
this day. God made an example out of Achan
before all Israel that he will judge sin. That he, when he gives
a commandment, he means it. You know, we tell our children
not to do something, they do it. And what do we do? We tell
them again, don't do this. I said, don't do this. I said,
God doesn't do that. God Almighty doesn't do that.
He said, I told you not to do that. And God made an example
out of him. And here we see this example
as an example of representation. It's a beautiful example of representation.
But here's, 36 men die. Aiken was stoned to death. His
wife, his children, and everything he had, all including his tent,
it was all taken without the camp. It was taken without the
camp to the Valley of Acre, Valley of Trouble. Boy, can you not
see Calvary in this? It says he suffered without the
gate. Our Lord suffered without, our representative suffered without
the gate. And God put this sin away. He took this out on Achan
for the sin that he had done. His family and the rest of Israel
was cleared. Our Lord took our sins. He took
the whole sins of Israel and the whole Israel of God is now
cleared. were clear, justified. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of representation? I thank God for Jesus Christ,
my representative. I thank him. All right.