My Achan Back! Part 1
Joshua 7:1-15
“Achan son of Karmi…took some of them.“ vs. 1
Not So Sly
The drunk husband snuck up the stairs quietly. He looked in the bathroom mirror and bandaged the bumps and bruises he’d received in a fight earlier that night. He then proceeded to climb into bed, smiling at the thought that he’d pulled one over on his wife. When morning came, he opened his eyes and there stood his wife.
“You were drunk last night weren’t you!” she said.
“No, honey.” He rplied.
“Well, if you weren’t, then who put all the band-aids on the bathroom mirror?” she said.
I think there is a part of us that thinks that we can somehow keep our darker side, the sin we commit, secret. We think we can fool others and believe that we have the ability to hide things we don’t want others to see. We can think we “got away” with it. Truth be told, people see a lot more than we think and we know what we have done and have to live with that. There is a story in the book of Joshua about a guy named Achan. He sins and then tries to hide it. he may have fooled some of the people but He didn’t fool God. If you are able, please stand as we read God’s Word; Joshua 7:1-15
Reading Passage – Joshua 7
But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.3 When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” 4 So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, 5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fearand became like water.
6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads. 7 And Joshua said, “Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! 8 Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? 9 The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name? ”10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.14 “‘In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the Lord chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan the Lord chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family the Lord chooses shall come forward man by man. 15 Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!’”
But…
Let’s take a moment to remind us the background to this passage. After 400 years of captivity and slavery in Egypt, the Israelites are freed by God and they journey to the Promised Land. Along the way they doubt God and they end up doing circles in the dessert for 40 years until one generation has passed and there is a new generation of Israelites. Joshua is now their leader because Moses and Aaron have both died. God instructs Joshua and the Israelites to go into the Promised Land and begin to take the cities one by one and that he will do the fighting for them. This was evident on the first city, Jericho, where they marched around the city once a day blowing horns and trumpets. On the 7th day they march around it 7 times and when they blow the horns and trumpets the city falls in on itself and everyone is killed and they were instructed to destroy everything. Nothing was to be left or taken. So we pick up the story in verse 1:
“But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things…” vs. 1
There is that word; “but.” It is usually not good when you see the word “but” starting a sentence. If you go back to chapter 6 verse 27 it says; “So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.” See they were feeling pretty good about what had just happened and the future was looking pretty bright. God was on their side, he was fighting for them; they were confident, life was good. “but…” We need to take note that when things are going well we can become too confident, especially in ourselves, and open ourselves up to sin.
It Was Going So Well!
Here’s the thing, it was all going so well. They had just fought a battle and never even had to life a sword; never had to fight. All they had to do was to show up. How cool, and easy, is that. So when they get to Ai and this city is so much smaller and there are so fewer people, they don’t take everyone and the tables get turned. They have to fight and the passage tells us that 36 of them died in that battle. I can really identify with Joshua here; he does what many of us tend to do, I know I tend to do it, he exaggerates the severity of the situation. And granted, 36 men lost their lives, that is a difficult thing to deal with. We see his prayer to God in verse 7:
“Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?“ vs. 7
Notice that his perspective is now that they are all going to die. One set back and the situation has become dire. The reality is the situation is sobering, but it is not as dire as he makes it out to be. He’s like, O God, we are all going ot die and your name is going to be tarnished. We tend to do that too. A little set back and the world is coming to an end.
Ex. I get such a kick out of listeing to sports radio. These callers call up and the Giants lose a game and the season is over. Oh the humanity of it all! J It’s one game out of 162!!!! Get a grip people.
Sometimes we need to stop and evaluate when things are not going well or when there is a set back in our lives but we need to be careful not to exaggerate the situation. For the next two weeks we are going to be looking at Achan and some issues He had and what we can learn from his experience.
Achan’s Issue of Obedience
The first issue, what we will look deeper into today, is Achan’s issue of obedience. What happened in Jericho was that God told them to destroy everything; people, houses, animals, and things like food, gold, clothes, etc. Achan saw all the goodies and took some for himself. After all, who would know? He takes three things; a beautiful robe, some silver, and some gold. He wraps the silver and gold in the robe, takes it back to his tent and buries them (ch. 7:21-22). He thought he could “get away” with it, he thought no one would ever know and that he could keep this little secret to himself. We have some things we can learn from Achan about obedience and how we can handle it in our lives.
- Wake-Up
First, Achan needed to wake-up. He thought that his sin could be kept a secret and that it only affected him. Wrong! Go back to Joshua’s conversation with God; verse 11a:
“The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant…” vs.11a
God was dealing with a nation here. He was using Joshua to lead the people but his dealings where with the whole nation so when God tells Joshua there is sin he doesn’t say the sin of an individual but he says “Israel has sinned.” We have a similar philosophy today. We would like to think that our issues are our issues and that they don’t affect others. That is not true. We have a responsibility to others; to our family, to our employees, to our parents, etc. When we fall, it affects others. Sith Achan, his sin caused 36 men to lose their life. There was a price.
Ex. Are you ever really surprised when we see a famous person fall and the rest of there life falls apart? Take Lindsay Lohan. I’m not picking on this young woman but take note of what happens in her life. She gets arrested for drunk driving, for smashin up a hotel room, for going on a binge and we see it affect her, her parents, her career, the studio she works for, etc. It has a much bigger affect and we see it play out all the time in the newspapers. Your sin has an affect on others. I have been reading through the book of Jeremiah the last few weeks and God tells Jeremiah to tell the Israelites: (Jeremiah 7:23)
“Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.” Jer. 7:23
God asks us to trust Him. He has our best in mind. IF we trust Him it will go well with us. It doesn’t mean you won’t have problem, difficulties, etc. but it does mean that ultimately, when it is all said and done, it will go well with you.
2. Grow-Up
Not only did Achan need to wake-up but he needed to grow-up. Let’s continue with verse 11:
“They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. “ vs. 11b
Follow me on this but Achan had a choice. His choice was to follow God’s instructions or to do what he felt was best for himself. I say grow-up because kids usually have difficulty seeing beyond their own needs. You know someone has grown-up when they see the needs of others and see the bigger picture. Achan deliberately choose not to obey God; it is that simple. We have choices all the time. Some of our choices are about being obedient to God. We have a lot of other choices too. It probably isn’t a choice of obedience when you choose the color of your car, of what to eat for dinner, of what shirt to wear today. But our life is full of choices and many of them are issues of obedience to God and like Achan, many times we deliberately choose to disobey and then can’t figure out why things don’t work out for us. At the end of the book of Joshua, he confronts the Israelites and in chapter 24 verse 15 he puts this question to them:
“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” Joshua 24:15
Do you remember that verse? You might remember the end of it because most of us have read it or used it at some point in our life. Joshua tells the Israelites; “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua deliberately chooses to follow God.
Challenge: What thing(s) in your life have you chosen not be obedient to God with? And, do you think you are hiding it? Form others? Yourself? God?
3. Stand-Up
And finally, Achan needed to stand-up. Verse 12:
“I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.” Vs. 12
God tells Joshua that what needs to happen is that whoever has sinned, that being Achan, needs to come clean, confess, and make things right with God. Many times we think this little thing can’t have a big on the big picture. But in God’s economy things are different. Small sin is the same as big sin. IT’s all sin and all needs to be dealt with. The reason I said stand-up is that Achan needs to man-up, confess his sin, and admit his mistake and come clean to God, to Joshua, and to the Israelite people. We like to put a hierarchy to things but in God’s eyes it’s all the same.
Ex. Bill Butterworth – the janitor is as important as the pastor, as the cook, as the accountant, as the CEO, as the mechanic, etc.
We put things on scales of importance. I am so glad God doesn’t. His grace, his forgiveness, his salvation is for everyone. In the same way, all sin is the same. We would like to think murder is so much more severe than lying. Don’t get me wrong, murder is very wrong and very severe but sin is sin in God’s eyes. There is a parable in Luke that Jesus is telling the disciples and he tells them in Luke 16:10:
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Luke 16:10
Our little things are important in God’s eyes. Achan probably though “Who is going to miss a robe, a few shekels of silver, and a small wedge of gold. It’s all going to be destroy anyway.” The bottom line is that if you want to think in God’s terms, we have to consider the little things the same as the big things.
Good For The Soul
Let me end with a quote from David that comes from Psalm 32:5. It says:
“Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Psalm 32:5
Trust me, I know how hard it is to come clean, to admit our sin, to confess. But it is by doing that we find God’s grace and forgiveness. Let me finish with this example. I have this picture in my office. It’s Willie McCovey, one of my favorite baseball players, and Duke Snider from 1995.
Baseball’s memorabilia market, symbol of a sport mired in money, snared two of its all-time heroes Thursday when Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Willie McCovey pleaded guilty to tax evasion. “I got caught. I’m very sorry about it. I hope to get a second chance from a lot of my fans,” Snider said outside the federal courthouse. “We have choices to make in our lives and I chose to make the wrong choice.” The convictions were the government’s latest blow in a crackdown on unreported income from baseball card shows, publicity events, autograph signings and memorabilia shows that became million-dollar businesses in the 1980s. Snider, 68, of Fallbrook, Calif, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit tax fraud. He admitted not reporting $100,000 in cash from card shows and memorabilia appearances from 1984-93. He faces up to six months in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the loss to the government.
Spokesman-Review, July 21, 1995, p. C1
It was sad for many of us to hear that two of our boyhood hero’s would lie and cheat. But after their confession the public was very forgiving. I think that is the case many times. People are more willing to forgive and forget when we come clean. God forgives and forgets everytime; he promises that and God never goes back on his word.
