Sin Revealed • Joshua 7:10-23
By Roland L. McMillan
Joshua 7:1 is ominous. The author tells the reader something Joshua did not know at the time. An Israelite had taken something that belonged to God. Joshua was leading the Israelite effort to take the fortified city of Ai. He sent out a reconnaissance mission like he did at Jericho. The report was good, like Jericho. Israel attacked, but the result was disaster. The defeat cut deep. The nation lost its nerve. They had set out to conquer the whole land. God had promised success. What happened? Now, their whole future was in question.
Joshua responded by going to God. He and the elders mourned in front of the ark of the covenant, God’s symbolic throne. When Joshua spoke, his lament sounded like some of the complaints of Israel during the exodus. He felt the disaster deep inside. He did not blame the spies. He did not blame the army. He poured his heart out to God and worried about the future. In the original language, the end of verse 8 says Israel had turned the back of their necks toward their enemies, a picture of complete vulnerability. Israel did not have any fortified cities for protection. Their forward momentum was gone. Their enemies might lose the fear of Israel that had given Israel such an advantage. The whole thing was a catastrophe.
God was direct when he answered Joshua. He left no doubt about what had happened. Israel had sinned. Someone had stolen items devoted to God from Jericho. Someone had broken the covenant. Unfaithfulness led to defeat. Then God provided a solution. He would reveal who had sinned. The passage does not say exactly how God exposed Achan. Apparently, they drew lots. The passage does describe Israel coming tribe by tribe, then clan by clan, then family by family, and then man by man. In the end, Achan stood in front of Joshua to answer for his sin. He confessed. Joshua led Israel to gather Achan, the stolen items, his family, his livestock, everything he had, even his tent. Israel stoned Achan, his family, and every living thing. Then they burned everything and everyone. Finally, they heaped rocks over Achan. There was already a memorial at Gilgal, a circle of stones remembering God’s great action at the Jordan River. In the Valley of Trouble, the Valley of Achor, they made a different kind of memorial. The pile of rocks at Achor remembers sin and its consequences.
The whole episode with Achan is a case study in sin. First, we see a consequence, the defeat at Ai. Thirty-six Israelites were dead. Thirty-six families were in mourning. The future of Israel and the conquest of the promised land were in question. The nation was vulnerable. Sin always has a ripple effect. We may understand sin as personal, but its effects are not only personal. The shockwaves of sin always move past the sinner. In the passage, as Achan’s sin is revealed, we see more. The verbs in verse 21 tell a story. He saw, he coveted, he took, and he hid. Coveting on the inside led to actions on the outside. We also see that Achan insulted God’s honor. This was no simple theft. Achan betrayed the covenant between Israel and God. His sin destroyed his family.
Someone today reading about the judgment on Achan’s family may think it was unfair. A key difference exists between how we understand the world and how they understood the world. We usually see people as individuals first. They understood people as part of a group first. We can see it in this story in Joshua 7:1, 18, 24. In each verse, Achan is identified based on his family, his group. Probably, they all participated in the cover-up of the theft. The items were hidden in their common tent. The destruction of Achan, his family, and his possessions is a clear picture of the destructive effects of sin.
In the church world, we often say that every sin is the same. Every sin is the same in the sense that every sin separates a person from God. Yet, every sin is not the same in its consequences. Like Achan’s sin and Adam’s sin, the consequences of some sins are greater than others. In today’s prices, the silver and the gold that Achan stole is worth roughly $76,000. That amount of money may be tempting, but how much is a family worth? Could anyone ever put a price on faithfulness?
McMillan is senior pastor of Roseland Park Baptist Church, Picayune.
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