I. Introduction
A. By the time of the events recorded in this morning's text passage, the once mighty
fortress-city of Jericho had been utterly defeated by the invading Israelites, reduced
to a smoldering heap of debris. All of Jericho -- all the buildings, all the streets, all
the furniture, all the valuables, all the people, all the domesticated animals -- had
been declared by Jehovah as "herem" -- irrevocably consecrated to Him for His
purpose, usually for complete destruction. In fact, God had so designated every city in Canaan, as it is recorded in Deuteronomy 20:10-18:
1. But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as
an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you
shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite
and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your
God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their
abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against
the Lord your God.
Joshua, the obedient servant of the Lord, remembered those words given by
Jehovah to Moses when he issued his terrible command as the walls of Jericho
had begun to collapse:
2. "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is
in it are to be devoted ( "herem" ) to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute
and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the
spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will
not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise
you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble
on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred
to the Lord and must go into his treasury." ( JOSHUA 6:16b-19 [ NIV ] )
3. "Why should Israel's foes in Canaan suffer this bloody dedication to Israel's
God? The clue may lie in one of the brief commands in Exodus 22: 'whoever
sacrifices to a god other than Jahweh will be made herem' (v.20). The link
between herem and sacrifice....is perfectly encapsulated in this brief Exodus
injunction: the offerer will be offered; the dedicator will be dedicated; the
sacrificer will be sacrified."
( A. Graeme Auld: Joshua, Judges and Ruth )
B. Having seen God's mighty hand move through their explicit obedience, the
Israelites were brimming with confidence. Next on their strategic agenda: the
area 15 miles west of Jericho known as Ai ("The Ruins"). Joshua's mighty men of
valour were ready to continue the conquest by moving immediately against the
inhabitants of this obscure and insignificant outpost. The hardest test, after all,
was behind them -- or was it?
II. NARRATIVE
A. Joshua 7:1-9
1. Were the first verse of this passage omitted, the seventh chapter of Joshua
would be a melodrama worthy of a three night TV miniseries! But, as it is,
v.1 "gives away" the essential details behind Israel's first -- and only -- defeat
in the Canaanite campaign.
a. The culprit: A __ __ __ __, from the tribe of J __ __ __ __.
b. His crime: he committed a "t __ __ __ __ __ __ __ regarding the
a __ __ __ __ __ __ __ thing" by t __ __ __ __ __ some for himself.
c. The result: "the a __ __ __ __ of the Lord burned against the children of
Israel."
(1) Curious, isn't it? The sin of one man in a nation of millions is seen as
the cause of God's wrath directed toward that entire nation! Why?
- There is the principle of "corporate involvement" in regards to
God's people -- whether the nation of I __ __ __ __ __ or the
c __ __ __ __ __ of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 12:24b-27 [ NIV ]
But God has combined the members of the body and has given
greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should
be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal
concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers
with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part
of it.
(2) "Our passage also illustrates another truth. One man can be the means
of holding up the blessing of God. We hear a great deal today about
Body Life with the emphasis upon the unity of God's people. This is a
scriptural emphasis. And when we translate that ananlogy over into the
context of our present text, we can see how the influence of one person
can be detrimental. It is possible that one member of the Body can be
corrupt. As Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 5:6, a little leaven
influences the whole system."
( Paul E. Toms: This Land is Your Land )
d. The impact: The army of Israel suffers d __ __ __ __ __ at Ai. (Still,
only 36 men were killed!)
2. Joshua is nearly undone by this turn of events. He does what all of us in a
similar mystifying circumstance should do: he p __ __ __ __.
a. He is properly h __ __ __ __ __ before God.
b. Still, he feels free to speak plainly to Jehovah, to the point of some slight
derision.
"Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan
at all -- to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh,
that we have been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan!
O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?
For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and
surround uns, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will
You do for Your great name?" ( JOSHUA 7:7-9 [ NKJV ] )
B. JOSHUA 7:10-15
1. God -- appearing a little irritated at Joshua -- orders him to get up off his face
and to reason with Him for a minute. He tells His mournful servant that, in
effect, only two things can possibly bring about failure in service:
a. either God breaks His p __ __ __ __ __ __, or
b. the recipient of God's c __ __ __ __ __ __ __ (Israel, in this case), fails
to keep the terms of the agreement.
Can you guess which answer is always the correct one?
2. The cause of Israel's failure at Ai was caused by disobedience. Note again
v.11 that God sees this as a national sin.
3. Having put that which God has called "herem" among their own stuff (v.11),
Israel now has become "d __ __ __ __ __ to destruction." (v.12)
4. How can Israel correct this terrible wrong? Read v.12-13.
a. They must act to remove the accursed thing from their midst.
b. They must again s __ __ __ __ __ __ themselves.
5. How will God reveal the guilty party? Tribe by tribe, family by family, house-
hold by household, all the way down to one man.
We are not told exactly how God did this. Two common ways by which God
revealed His specific will to His people were:
a. l __ __
We toss the coin, but it is the Lord who controls its decision.
( Proverbs 16:33 [ TLB
b. the U __ __ __ and T __ __ __ __ __ __ in the ephod ("apron") of the
chief priest.
6. In v.15 God promises that the guilty party will be b __ __ __ __ __, along
with "all that he has."
C. JOSHUA 7:16-26
1. Confrontation: the culprit is, of course, A __ __ __ __.
2. Confession: Achan comes clean, tells everything.
a. He knows exactly what he has done. His confession indicates the
possession of the correct understanding of the nature of sin. He admitted
that he had sinned against the Lord.
b. His confession demonstrates the standard pattern of all wickedness.
(1) He s __ __.
(2) He c __ __ __ __ __ __.
(3) He t __ __ __.
(4) He h __ __.
"So he carted off the booty, dug up the earth under his tent and buried
the loot. And he thought nobody knew. But God knew.
While it is wonderful to have an infinite God, this means we must take
his omniscience into account in our daily lives. There is nothing we do
that God does not know. There is no night so dark, no coal mine so
deep, no astronaut so far out in space that God does not know it. God
knows every single thought, every single action. He knew when Achan
first coveted, and he knew when he carried out his covetousness."
( Francis A. Schaeffer: Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History )
3. So, what comes next? Forgiveness, right? NO! What comes next is God's
j __ __ __ __ __ __ __!
a. Joshua pronounces the sentence in v.25.
b. Achan and everything attached to him -- his illegal booty, his sons, his
dughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and "all that he had" --
were brought together and stoned, then burned.
(1) Warren Wiersbe reminds us that Deuteronomy 24:16 forbade the
punishing of a man's family members for sins which he himself had
committed. We are left to assume, then, that Achan's family had
somehow involved itself in the great sin involving "herem."
(2) God's command on the previous day for the nation to again sanctify
itself comes into play at this point. Since Achan (nor any members of
his family) had not come forward to confess the sin as a part of that
sanctification process), he (and they) had not been "re-consecrated" to
God. Their sins were justly punished, since the wages of sin is death.
( Romans 6:23 )
(3) The New Testament story of Ananias and Sapphira ( Acts 4:31-5:11 )
presents many parallel lessons to those presented in the story of Achan.
4. (v.26) God's righteous wrath is satisfied when sin is removed. THIS
PRINCIPLE REMAINS IN FULL FORCE.
5. Another "memorial" is erected in Canaan.
"The heap of stones in the valley would be a reminder that God expects
His people to obey His Word, and if they don't, He must judge them. The
heap of stones at Gilgal ( Joshua 4:1-8 ) reminded them that God keeps
His Word and leads His obedient people to the place of blessing. Both
memorials are needed in the walk of faith. God is love ( 1 John 4:8, 16 )
and longs to bless His people; but God is also light ( 1 John 1:5 ) and must judge His people's sins."
( Warren W. Wiersbe: Be Strong )
D. Joshua 8:1-29
1. This passage, which we encourage you to read on your own, contains the
record of the successful military campaign against Ai.
a. God employs a completely different military strategy.
b. All the inhabitants were killed and the city burned.
c. Since Jericho had served as the "firstfruits" of the campaign in Canaan, the
children of Israel were permitted by God to seize a booty of "livestock"
and "spoils" for themselves. Had Achan only waited!
III. How Should We Then Live?
A. The blessings of God are offered to us through His covenant promises, which are
attached to the faithful obedience of God's people to obey Him. SIN, IN THE
FORM OF DISOBEDIENCE, STOPS THE FLOW OF THE BLESSING.
B. Among God's concecrated people, when one person sins, the blessing is stopped
for the people of God corporately.
C. When God's judgment is applied, victory comes.
"First comes blessing, then sin enters, then comes judgment. If the people of God
return to Him after the judgment, the blessing begins again and flows on.
This process is as much a universal as any continuity we have studied so far. It is
the principle of God's judgment of his people. It is unchanging throughout
Scripture because God really is there. God is a holy God, God loves his people,
and God deals with his people consistently. God blesses his people, and one thing
can spoil the blessing -- sin, wither individual or corporate. When either life in the
church or doctrine is not cared for, this stops the blessing as much as when an
individual sins. Sin among the people of God either diminishes the blessing or
brings the blessing to a halt until it is confessed, judged and removed."
( Francis A. Schaeffer: Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History )
D. There is a fearsome warning in the story of Achan for those who are not numbered
among God's people. Since they have not believed on the only begotten Son of
God; since they have not received Him by faith as their Saviour; since their sins
have not been judged in His blood, their sins will be on their own heads. There's
no "if" at work here. Hebrews 9:27 declares:
...it is appointed for man to die once, but after this the judgment.
Who will be judged? Only "rascals" like Achan? No, the Bible promises that all
will be held accountable. Only those who have believed God by faith will be
spared judgement, and only then because God has judged their sins in the blood of
His Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Lord.
E. Bill Hybels, in a recent issue of Leadership magazine, presented the four basic
facts of salvation to which the Bible attached the authoritative "thus saith the
Lord."
1. Every single person is a sinner. We have failed the moral test. We have
violated the standards of the holiness of God.
2. There's a judgement day on which each of us will stand before a holy God and
give an account of our lives. You can tell yourself until you're blue in the face
that it isn't going to happen to you, but it is.
3. People who repent of their sins and trust Christ will, on His merits, gain eternal
life. Those who don't will pay for their sins in hell. Two options -- that's it.
4. What a peson decides about the first three items on this will list will determine
where he or she will spend all eternity.
ref: Romans 2:10-18
Romans 3:21-26
John 3:15-21
"THUS SAITH THE LORD."
D I S C U S S I O N G U I D E
1. Read Numbers 15:27-31.
a. Does this shed any light on God's severe judgment of Achan? In what way?
b. Does God differentiate in this age between "unintentional" and "arrogant" sin? Explain.
c. Give an example of "arrogant" sin in the life of a Christian.
2. Do you think there was any chance that Achan might have been spared? Could he have done anything to change God's mind? Defend your answer.
3. Read the account of Ananian and Sapphira in Acts 4:31-5:11.
a. What exactly was their great sin?
b. Is there any correlation in this passage with modern day "pledges" and "tithe promises" which are sometimes not honoured in today's churches? Explain.
c. Why does God so rarely deal with sin in this way in the present age?
4. Read 1 John 1:8 - 2:2 and Galatians 6:2. In one sentence rectify the seemingly
disparate teachings of these two passages.
5. Today's sermon dealt broadly with the question of the presence of sin in the corporate
body.
a. Is it possible to commit a sin which hurts no one but yourself? Why, or why not?
b. Do you know our church's policy for dealing with sin in the body?
c. Read the C.O.S. Constitution, Section D, "Church Discipline." Then read the referenced passage, Matthew 18:15-20. What is your opinion of this policy?
d. Many of today's churches exercise little in the way of discipline, using as their rationale a concern for personal privacy, a determination to be more "accepting" and less "judgmental," and our society's changing moral landscape. Discuss the problems such a policy might lead to.
