By Rick Liggin
There is no doubt that God desires His people to remain pure and undefiled by the things of the world. As individual Christians we are to be holy in all our behavior (1 Pet. 1:14-16). As the collective body (i.e. church, the bride of Christ) we are to be without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:27). And a cursory reading of the book of Deuteronomy makes it clear that God has always felt this way about His people. Whenever anyone among his people erred—whether that be by serving other gods, or leading others into idolatry, or refusing to listen to the priests, or bearing false witness, or involving themselves in illicit sexual relationships—the instruction of God was to remove that individual from the congregation and thus “purge the evil from among you” (Deut. 13:1-5; 17:2-7, 8-12; 19:15-19; 22:20-21, 22, 23-24)
Often times we make the mistake of thinking that our sin doesn’t affect anyone but ourselves. And though it is true that your sin always affects you personally and your relationship with God, often times it goes well beyond that. Our “private sins” can have great ramifications on the group we are a part of and the Lord’s people as a whole. This is why Paul instructed the Corinthians to refrain from associating with brethren who were involved in sin (1 Cor. 5:9-12). Borrowing the language of Deuteronomy, he concluded by telling them to “Remove the wicked man from among you” (1 Cor. 5:13).
No Biblical account makes this point clearer than the devastation that the Israelites encountered in their initial attempt to conquer Ai. Ai appears to have been a much smaller city than Jericho which the Israelites have just definitively and unconventionally conquered (Josh. 6:20-21, 24). The spies who were sent up to spy out the city returned saying that there was no need to send the whole army, as it could surely be taken by a much smaller force (7:2-3). Because of the small size of the city, Joshua sends out a small force of only 3,000 men to take Ai. And then the unthinkable happens: Israel is sent running with their tales between their legs (7:4-5)!
Joshua, the commander of the armies of Israel, is distraught with this unlikely turn of events and asks God why He would allow this to happen (7:6-9). From a military standpoint this was a pretty devastating defeat. Up unto this point the Israelites have always had the upper hand. They have never lost a battle before, and this fact had struck fear into the hearts of their enemies (cf. Joshua 2:9-11). And now a small and insignificant town has defeated them. Could this turn of events renew the hearts of all their enemies? Might they begin saying to themselves, “Their previous victories must have been a fluke,” or “They are not invincible, we should band together and destroy them.” Joshua saw this defeat as a devastating blow to the future success of his army and the survival of their nation. And so he poured his frustration out before God.
God’s response, however, was probably not what he expected, nor is it what I would have expected. There is no word of “Take courage, get back on the horse, try harder next time, everything will be ok.” Rather it’s, “Get up and quit crying! Your current predicament is of your own making!” Israel had sinned, they had not kept the covenant, they had taken things under the ban and kept them (7:10-11). He goes on to say that if this sin is not rectified the Israelites can expect nothing but defeat (7:12). Pretty tough words!
But notice a few things concerning God’s accusation that the Israelites had “taken some of the things under the ban” (7:11). This is obviously a reference to the items taken from Jericho that were to be reserved for God (cf. 6:17-19). But notice that this accusation seems to be leveled against all of Israel, that none of the men had followed this command. What is interesting is that the text tells us that it was not all Israel who did this. It was not even a few who had violated the command. Rather, it was one man, Achan, who had taken what belonged to the Lord (7:1). As a result of this one man’s sin, the whole camp of Israel stood in jeopardy and remained outside of God’s good graces. It was not until this sin was purged from the camp that the Israelites were able to return to Ai and soundly defeat it (8:1-29).
“So the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.”
(Joshua 7:10-12)
Allow me to make a couple observations regarding this Biblical account, and draw some lessons from it that we can apply to ourselves. It is clear that Achan’s sin bore consequences on not just himself. His sin brought down an entire army, causing 36 innocent men to lose their lives (7:5). Furthermore, the sons and daughters of Achan were executed because of the sin of their father (7:24-25). And, the entire nation of Israel was accursed by God when He declared that He would no longer be with them (7:12).
Today, though we think our sin affects no one else, this is rarely the case. I have seen the sin of a few halt the progress of an entire congregation of the Lord’s people (cf. Rev. 2:13-16). I have seen children abandon the Lord because of the mistakes and sins of their parents. I have actually heard them say, regarding the hypocritical behavior of their parents, “If that is what being a Christian is all about, then I don’t want any part of it.” I have seen others lose their faith because another Christian whom they looked up to was involved in “secret” sin that was eventually exposed. Our sins do affect others! This is a fact that we simply cannot ignore. Furthermore, it should motivate us to do our best to remain pure.
The wonderful thing about our God is that He is patient and merciful when we sin. If we would admit our guilt and turn from our sin, He promises to forgive us. But sometimes we wait until it is too late to admit we were wrong. When thinking about Achan, I have often asked myself, “Why did he not confess his right away?” Surely he had to have known that he would be discovered (Josh. 7:13-15). God already declared through Moses that we could “be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23b). Perhaps he was too scared of the consequence and wanted to put it off as long as possible. Perhaps he was too ashamed to admit his fault. If only he had gone right away and confessed, might not God have been merciful to him? Might He have spared his children? He could have come forward at any time during the narrowing process but did not (7:13-18). Unfortunately, he doesn’t admit his guilt until it is too late. He waits until the time of judgment to come clean.
There is a lesson in this for us too. Today, we too can be stubborn about admitting our sins and coming clean. Perhaps it is a fear of how others will treat us. Perhaps we think God will not be merciful. Perhaps we are too proud to admit we did wrong. Whatever our excuse we must get over it and come clean. If we wait for God to confront us with our sin at judgment time, it will be too late to rectify it and receive mercy .
Let us learn from the mistakes of Achan, so that we will not be doomed to repeat history. “Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11).
This bulletin is being published for the purpose of encouraging a further study of the Word of God. Editor – Josh Liggin
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