Joshua 7:10-26--The Sin of Achan

Joshua 7:10-26
English Standard Version

The Sin of Achan
10 The LORD said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. 12 Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. 13 Get up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the LORD, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.” 14 In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that the LORD takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the LORD takes shall come near by households. And the household that the LORD takes shall come near man by man. 15 And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has done an outrageous thing in Israel.’”

16 So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was taken. 17 And he brought near the clans of Judah, and the clan of the Zerahites was taken. And he brought near the clan of the Zerahites man by man, and Zabdi was taken. 18 And he brought near his household man by man, and Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. 19 Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” 20 And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

​22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. 23 And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel. And they laid them down before the LORD. 24 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25 And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. 26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.

---

This sin that Achan committed is no small thing.  Satan has figured out that the only way to get the LORD to curse the Israelites is to get them to sin.  He got them to do so openly in the book of Numbers with Balaam telling the pagan kings that they could have victory over Israel if their women could seduce the Israelite men into sexual immorality and idolatry.  Now Achan is committing sin that he thinks is secret imagining that his disobedience wouldn't matter to God if everyone else obeyed and that he was mostly compliant with the ban--he only took a few small things for himself that he coveted that no one would ever notice--at least, that must be the kind of lies he told himself.  However, it seems that other people did notice and had to lie for him.  His family noticed and his neighbors should have noticed and his sin was significant enough in the eyes of the LORD that the men sent into battle in our last section died because the LORD did not go with them.  Even when he sees all this, he hides his sin and does not repent.  Throughout this whole process where the LORD gives him multiple chances to confess, he imagines he can hide his sin and not be found out.

When God tells Joshua what is going on He says that all of Israel has sinned by transgressing the covenant He made with them concerning the devoted things of Jericho.  "They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings."  Yep, that's exactly what Achan did, but isn't it interesting that the LORD says that all of Israel is guilty of this act.  Why?  Because they had the moral obligation to stop him and be their brother's keeper, and they did not.  In their failure to be careful that not only each of them individually obeyed, but that the whole camp obeyed, they had broken the covenant.  I pointed out how the LORD warned them that the whole camp would come under destruction if anyone took the devoted items and verse 1 of chapter 7 says "the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things...."  Even the beginning of the chapter puts that blame squarely on the entire camp, though it specifically points out in the next phrase, "...for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things."  We're going to see exactly why Achan is identified this way.

The LORD tells Joshua this is why the Israelites cannot stand before their enemies and must turn their backs to them--because they have been devoted for destruction since they broke the covenant regarding the devoted things of Jericho.  The LORD says that He will be with them no more until they find the devoted things that had been stolen and destroy them.  The LORD tells Joshua to command the people to consecrate themselves and to tell them that it is known that someone has stolen from the devoted things and that they will not have victory over their enemies until they take away these devoted things from among the people.  Notice there is no threat of death for the thief at this point and there is plenty of opportunity for the thief or anyone with knowledge of the theft to come forward--for that seems to be the point of this announcement.  It was a call to repentance, or at least a call for someone with knowledge to turn in Achan for the good of the entire camp so they would no longer be devoted for destruction.

In the morning, they were to come by tribes and the guilty tribe would be chosen by lot.  It may seem that lots was a form of gambling, but since the LORD could manipulate even the laws of probability it was a way a way in which the LORD could communicate His will to His people.  We don't see this used anymore though as we have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit lives inside of the people of God and can speak directly to them without the need for the casting of lots.  This is one of the places when reading the Bible where we have to see that what is happening in the books of History are descriptive and not always prescriptive (though it was right for the people to do this at the time and obey the Word of the LORD).  Once the correct tribe and been selected, then they would come by clans, then by households, then each man would come forward so that there would be a drawn out process where the focus would narrow and the perpetrator would know that they had been found out.  There was ample opportunity to repent but Achan would not repent and it would lead not only to his own destruction, but the destruction of his entire family.

We see that Achan is revealed in exactly the same way that he was revealed in verse 1.  By tribe, clan, family and all way down to being the last man standing.  It is only when he's been completely singled out and told that he must confess that he does.  Achan names everything that he had stolen--a cloak from Shinar, 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels.  Achan said that everything was buried in the earth under his tent and that the silver was on the bottom.  Joshua sent men to go find these things and it was just as Achan said.  However, it was now too late for Achan for he had willfully and reckless disregarded the Law and the lives of his fellow Israelites.  He weighed things in his mind and heart and calculated that his pleasure for taking these things that he coveted was more valuable to him than the lives of the men that were lost or the lives of the others that would be lost in the future, for the LORD told the people they would have no success until the items were found and destroyed.

So then Achan and his family and the devoted things were taken to the Valley of Achor (meaning "The Valley of Trouble," for the text even says, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.”) and Achan and his entire family were stoned to death and they were burned along with the devoted items that were stolen and a giant heap of rocks were piled on top of them.  The wrath of God was satisfied after this and He once again went into battle with His people so that they would no longer be in terror of their enemies, because the LORD was with them.