THE SIN COMMITTED OF THE TRESPASS IN THE ACCURSED THING

Pastor Jerry Rockwell

Joshua 7:1-26 (KJV) 

THE SIN COMMITTED OF THE TRESPASS IN THE ACCURSED THING

 

1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, 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. As the study will demonstrate that one man committed the “trespass in the accursed thing.” This first phrase indicates that all of the “children of Israel” were culpable.  

THE BAD DECISIOIN TO ATTACK THE CITY OF AI, A SCOUTING PART SENT OUT

2 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. 3 And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.

THE DEFEAT OF ISRAEL BY AI AND THE LOSS OF THIRTY-SIX MEN
4 So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. 5 And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

THE REPENTANCE BY JOSHUA AND THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL

6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. 

7 And Joshua said, Alas, 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 Jordan! 8 O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! 9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name? 

THE LORD SPEAKS TO JOSHUA AND EXPLAINS THE REASON FOR THE DEFEAT 

10 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? 11 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, and they have put it even among their own stuff. 12 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 any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. 13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. 

THE LORD GIVES INSTRUCTIONS TO RID THE NATION OF THE ACCURSED THING

14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh 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. 15 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. 16 So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: 17 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 Zabdi was taken: 18 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. 

THE LORD’S JUDGMENT IS APPLIED TO THE PEOPLE OF ACHAN

19 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. 20 And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: 21 When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. 22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. 23 And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD. 24 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 unto the valley of Achor. 25 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, after they had stoned them with stones. 26 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, unto this day. 

 

 

A STRAGEGY FOR FAILURE

“AI and the Accursed Thing”

Joshua 7:1-26

Introduction: There are probably several hundred books, tapes, and seminars on how to succeed in life. There are probably hundreds of pastors preaching today on how to be successful and avoid failure. Why would a preacher like me decide to preach a message on failure? That is probably a good question, yet the Bible does not hide the truth about passages that speak to us. The Bible is a book of truth and a helpful tool for learning life lessons so we might be what God wants us to be. The Bible addresses this matter in Romans 8:37 (KJV) “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” This concludes a list of things that can set us back, such as tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword (Rom. 8:35). Even in these situations, we are still more than conquerors. God wants us to be victorious in the Christian life. Yet some of us are like the event in this passage that brought defeat. We want to explore what caused this calamity and what God wants us to do in the face of adversity and failure. One writer labels this chapter as a treatise on the “Government of God.” Here we see what happens when a people, actually one man, allow the victory God affords them to develop an attitude of self-gratitude that eliminates God’s rule in their affairs. We can be guilty of this very thing ourselves if we are not careful. 

  1. THE SIN STATED, Joshua 7:1, 20-21. There is a lot to be said here. This verse seems out of place, yet it is the way God shows us why these events took place. God explains the problem and then shows the solution. We cannot underestimate the seriousness of sin and its effects. The main lesson of this passage is that sin does not happen in a vacuum. You have seen the TV advertisement where the city of Las Vegas uses the slogan, “What happens here, stays here.” That may be the case, but the effects of behavior in Las Vegas do not stay there. Infidelity eventually catches the culprit in some way. What we need to realize is that sin affects others more than we realize. Everyone has seen the effects of a parent or grandparent’s sinful lifestyle on those who come after them. Everyone with an addiction can usually point to an ancestor who has the same problem. My youngest sister’s two boys developed a problem with alcohol and drugs. They can point to a dad and an uncle who had the same problem. Their behavior is learned, and what they saw had a significant impact on their life. The desire to blame someone else is an empty claim. There must come a time when everyone takes responsibility for their behavior and activities. How many alcoholics will say they would not be in the situation they are in if their dad, mother, granddad, etc., had not pointed the way? That is not a reason to justify their alcoholism/drug addiction; it is an excuse. There must be a time when the individual takes full responsibility for their actions. This is what the lesson here is all about—the discovery and destruction of one who brought a lot of trouble to a large group of people. The point is that we need to be careful because our actions and activities do affect others. We have a clear type of the effects of sin that has been brought on the whole human race by Adam. We can never underestimate the damage that one person’s sin can do. David’s unauthorized census caused the death of 70,000 people (2 Sam. 24). Jonah’s disobedience nearly cost the lives of some sailors (Jonah 1) and we could list several other illustrations of this principle. We need to remember what Hebrews 12:15 (KJV) Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. [Emphasis added.] We need to remember that “your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23). 

The person pointed out in this verse is an interesting character. His name is Achan. We are given a brief outline of his ancestry, including his tribe of Judah. His name has an interesting meaning: “trouble.” He is the one who “troubled” Israel (Josh. 7:25). Yet note with me that God says, “Now the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing…” (Josh. 7:1) and “Israel hath sinned…” (Josh. 7:11). Why would God consider the whole nation guilty in this matter? The reason is that God dwelt among the entire nation and was part of the nation as a whole. God walked among the people in their camp and thus the camp was to be kept undefiled as in Deuteronomy 23:14 (KJV For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. Today we are the “body of Christ” (1Cor. 12:27). Any sin or imperfection in the church is a reflection on the whole. We do not live to ourselves is the message. What you do as a member of the body of Christ reflects on the entire body. 1 Corinthians 12:26 (KJV) And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. This is the nature of sin.

  1. THE SADNESS OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY, Joshua 7:2-5. This section of the story offers an interesting commentary on how most people respond to something God has done for them in a powerful way. The victory over Jericho evidently gave Joshua and Israel a hefty dose of confidence, and when that confidence excludes God, it becomes self-confidence. Joshua is being a good leader. He surveys the situation and sends out a patrol of soldiers to survey the situation in Ai. The report is that it is such a small berg with few occupants: “They are but few” (Josh. 7:3). Overconfidence is the malady that leads to presumption. We commit this and find ourselves in the midst of a confidence that forgets the source of victory, God. If you examine the passage, you find that Joshua’s strategy involved a small number of fighting men, but God had a different idea. In Josh. 8:1 we find God’s instruction to include “all the people of war.” Proverbs 16:18 (KJV) says, Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. You do not find Joshua seeking God in prayer or consulting with God for instructions and directions to accomplish this seemingly small task. One other matter pointed out by A. W. Pink. He notes that “Joshua sent them ‘from Jericho,’ which is not the true point of departure, he forgets Gilgal, where they learnt what the flesh is, or perhaps he does not yet know that it is the place to which they must return.” That seems to be the attitude of most who belong to God. For the small tasks, I can take care of, we only need God for the large ones. Joshua decides that only 3,000 soldiers are required to conquer Ai, and here lies the problem. He had not consulted with God, and the result was that 36 men died. We cannot be too careful in our calculations about what God wants to accomplish in our lives. It can become a disaster when we leave Him out of the matter (Isaiah 59:2).  I want you to note a phrase in Joshua 7:5 (KJV) And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. [Emphasis added.] Suddenly, the people are discouraged. They lost the confidence they needed, only because they did not follow what God instructed. Can I ask you this morning how your heart is? The Bible calls us to develop a heart for God, and this can happen when we give attention to our hearts. We are to have the following kinds of heart:
  1. 2 Timothy 2:22 (KJV) Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
  2.  Hebrews 10:22 (KJV) Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Caution should be the order of the day because we can develop a:
  3.  Hebrews 3:12 (KJV) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 
  4. Hebrews 3:10 (KJV) Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 

Did you know that there is another person in the Bible whose heart melted? Look at Psalms 22:14 (KJV) I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. Jesus had to die that we might have a pure heart. For us to have a relationship with God, Jesus had to die. That is the way it is today with people who have been placed on a “heart transplant list.” Someone has to die so that another may live.  

  1. THE SHAME OF A LEADER, Joshua 7:6-9. Suddenly, we find Joshua on his face. I want you to note Joshua’s actions in Joshua 7:6-7. There is genuine remorse and repentance. He comes before the Ark of the Lord, and even the people of Israel join in the remorse. We find his prayer in these verses. Note that Joshua suddenly turns the matter onto God and says to God, “Why did you bring us here, to destroy us?” It sounds a little like the complaint of the people of Israel to Moses that God had brought the people into the wilderness to destroy them. Notice that Joshua tells God that His great name is at stake in the matter (Josh. 7:8-9). Joshua could have learned this from Moses. Look at Exodus 32:11-13 (KJV) 11 And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? 12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. Numbers 14:13-16 (KJV) 13 And Moses said unto the Lord, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them;) 14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. 15 Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 16 Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. The motive of Joshua (and Moses) is not totally out of order, yet why do we always want to say to God, “Look at the mess we are in and you need to help us or you will find your reputation a wee bit marred.” This is the attitude of one who wants to pass the blame to someone else. 
  2. THE SERIOUSNESS OF SIN, Joshua 7:10-15. Now we come to an interesting section of the story. God suddenly rebukes Joshua for praying in Josh. 7:10. Why is that so? Did you know there are times when we should act and not pray? It is time to deal with sin according to Joshua 7:11. According to this verse the whole nation is at fault. The principle is very clear in Joshua 7:12: a person living in sin cannot stand before their enemy. Ephesians 6:10-14 provides a helpful perspective on this matter. We cannot take sin lightly. As we saw earlier, it affects not just us but others as well. God tells Joshua “Up” [get up] in Josh. 7:13. The seriousness of this matter is highlighted in Joshua 7:15. I am satisfied that if we fully understood the consequences of our actions, we would weigh them a lot closer. Did you ever consider the condemnation God pronounced on the churches in Revelation 2-3? To the church of Pergamos, God said in Revelation 2:14-16 (KJV) 14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. [Emphasis added.] To the church in Thyatira, He said in Revelation 2:23 (KJV) And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Shall we take lightly that which God takes seriously? These churches are not committing a blatant sexual sin or a sin of stealing, but sins of doctrinal error. There needs to be a time for the church to weigh what God does and take seriously what God takes seriously. Note the sentence given by God to Joshua on the one who sinned against God in Joshua 7:15, “…he shall be burnt with fire…”
  3. THE SOLUTION TO THE SIN PROBLEM, Joshua 16-26. God gives Joshua an elaborate set of instructions to help the people of Israel know that God is in control and knows all that transpires in their life. God wants the people to know that He knows. Do you know that? We cannot hide from God. Darkness will not even hide the deep recesses of our hearts and the sin that lies there. Achan thought he had gone clear, and no one would have seen him take the spoils. His hiding them in the tent kept them from the people knowing he had transgressed the covenant of God, but it did not keep God from knowing. Jeremiah 23:24 (KJV) Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. Amos 9:3 (KJV) And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. 
  1. Discovering the sinner, Joshua 7:16-21. Have you ever thought of the fear that went through Achan’s heart as he saw the process come closer and closer to him? His tribe is taken, then his family, then he is discovered. Jeremiah 16:17 (KJV) For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. Now I want you to notice an important point in this process. Achan confesses but does not repent in Joshua 7:20. We are all a lot like Achan. We confess when we are caught but there is not true repentance for the sin we commit. Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, did the same thing. He confessed but did not repent. The danger we all risk is that we dabble in sin and yet there is not true sorrow for the actions we have committed and not awareness of the consequences of these actions. There is no acknowledgement by Achan that he was responsible for the death of 36 soldiers. The only thing he does is give an excuse for his actions. His sin is in line with the same thing that Eve did in Genesis 3. He saw (Josh. 7:21) and he “coveted them” or desired them and then took them. He simply says that they were there and the temptation was great and I thought to myself, who will be hurt if I take just a little of these things? If we are not careful, we will rationalize our sin in the same manner.
  2. Delivering justice, Joshua 7:22-26. Once the confession was made, there was the necessity to verify, for the people, that Achan had done what he said he had done. The men go to his tent and recover the items that have brought the trouble to Israel. One writer points out that the family of Achan evidently joined in the sin, since children are not to be punished for the sin of a father. Deuteronomy 24:16 (KJV) The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. There was evident culpability in the family, thus the destruction was complete. I read an email about the problems we have in our country. It was a letter to the editor of a newspaper where the writer said, “We kill unborn babies, but it’s wrong to execute a mass murderer.” This is the problem in America. We have distorted right from wrong. 

 

Conclusion: Are you always aware of the consequences of your actions? If not, why not? There is a point in our lives when we need to become aware that God sees all we do. God can even see in the dark. He has night vision glasses, and we can hide nothing from him. When we harbor sin, we set ourselves up for failure. There is no victory when we are sinful. When we allow the flesh to control our thoughts and feelings, then we are headed for trouble. That is especially true with any addiction. What are you trying to hide today? Why not confess and repent?