…One moment you are cruising along safely…the sun is shining…God is close
…Victory after victory…spiritually…mental
But then…how does it happen? What makes it all go do wrong? What did you do?
…Or NOT do?
These are the questions that raged inside Joshua’s mind as he paced his tent in furious agitation. His head spun with the enormity of it all. How could this happen? …What could have made someone do something so stupid? Everything was in place…they made a plan…they prepared…they executed the plan…all was right…except…now…because of someone’s “small act of sin” …it wasn’t…
Confusion assailed the leader of Israel’s mind as he wracked his brain for some kind of explanation. The siege of Jericho had gone so well…the spirit of the people was so high. They had seen God part the River Jordan like he had parted the Red Sea…that act had brought the people back to realize that the God who brought them OUT of Egypt was bringing them INTO the Promised Land! What Joy!
They had camped and marched all week long with eager expectations and God had delivered! When those walls fell with a mighty roar…louder than the roar of their voices…and the dust cloud mushroomed up to heaven as the rubble hit the dry desert sand…and the people ran forward to take the city God had given them…and as the people of the proud city of Jericho fled before the people of God and were destroyed by His army…Joshua’s heart…and the hearts of the people of Israel rejoiced in the Lord.
They had sacked the city…put everything to the sword and to the torch that could be slaughtered or killed. Those things that could not be sliced or burned God had commanded them to give unto the Himself as consecrated…Gold…silver…je
Joshua smiled as he thought about all the Gold and silver and precious stones that the Tabernacle had received that day. The tribes counted it a great honor as they marched into the Lord’s house and delivered the loot they had stripped from the heathen city. The people of God had rejoiced and threw wild parties long into the night for the rest of the week.
That Joy was gone now…Joshua paced over to the flap of his tent and looked out over the silent and somber camp. No one was stirring as dusk overtook the camp. Here and there someone hurriedly made their way from one tent to another…everyone talking in hushed and muted tones. It was a far cry from the revelry of the past weeks…. back when God had been so close…
He thought of the battle… for the hundredth time since it had happened…
He had sent spies…several men to scout out the city of Ai…just as Moses had sent him and the other eleven to spy out Jericho all those years before…
…The men had returned confident…no doubt in part because of the total victory at Jericho…two or three thousand men…that is what they had said would be needed to overrun the city. All of Israel need not toil over this meager city…after the victory over the enormous stronghold of Jericho what was Ai?
…What indeed.
…It had been a disaster…a thorough…unmitigated…disas
Joshua could still hear the screams of his men…the sound of sword striking flesh and bone…he could still see the lifeless forms of his men falling to the earth…their arms splayed wide…their blood soaking into the sand of the promised land. …a land they had inhabited for mere days…
Thirty-six men. Thirty-six fathers…brothers…husbands and sons…gone. The wailing had gone up for hours from the camp. The pain was intense. The people’s hearts had melted…they were petrified with fear of their enemies…such a change from only a few days ago when their haughty courage assured them of complete and total victory.
But what hurt worse…the thing that tore at his chest the hardest and made him sick was the absence of God…what had gone wrong? After all that had gone right…after all that God had done…why this? Why now?
Joshua called the elders together when he returned and before God they tore their robes…in anger, pain and frustration… with tears of anguish and pain coursing down his cheeks Joshua dropped to his knees in the sand under the tent of the tabernacle before the ark of the Lord and wept…he wept for the men who died…for their families…for the nation…and for himself.
“… God why did you bring us out here…” He screamed… “…Why did you bring us over the Jordan just to let us be killed? Was this your plan? Oh if only we had been willing to just dwell on the other side of the Jordan!”
…Joshua knew he was speaking nonsense…it was God who had called them to the Promised Land…but now it all seemed to pointless…what was the promised land without God? If God was not to go before them any longer what was the point?
…What can I say God now that your people have fled before their enemies? Everyone will hear…everyone in this land who once feared us…who once feared YOU after the great victory at Jericho…they will now scoff at us and rise up and wipe us out!
God…My God…what will you do for your great name? …What will you do?
That was when God spoke. That still small voice in the midst of the Tabernacle…breaking through the weeping…breaking through the tears…breaking through the pain and anger in his own heart.
“…What will I do for my name?” God asks… “What will I do? What I will do I have already done! It is not this defeat at the hand of the Amorites that tarnishes my name….but the sin of my people!
“Rise up” God said. “Rise up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned! They have broken my covenant and taken the devoted things and placed them with their own possessions. Because of this Israel cannot stand before its enemies! I will not be with you unless you purge from among you all the things under the ban.
“Rise up!” God said again… “Consecrate yourself and the people!...tomorrow I will bring you the man who has transgressed…and he shall be burned with fire…”
…Sin…this was the reason? …The misstep of one man…one small sin had caused all of this devastation? …One man had dared to willfully defy God’s ban on the devoted things…and all of Israel was suffering for it…not only had thirty-six men died…but God had removed his hand from Israel!
He had led the people in washing and consecrating themselves for the sorting that was to take place in the morning. As Joshua looked out over the camp again he noticed with satisfaction that the people were taking this seriously…they were in prayer…most of them…all desiring to see the curse ended…all desiring to see God amongst them again. At last he turned away…saying a final prayer for the preservation of his beloved people…he went to bed and fell into the fitful sleep of a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
Joshua rose early…just as the sun cleared the mountains above the plain of Gilgal. The people gathered dutifully…and silently. Many nervous faces littered the crowd…not a few guilty faces stared back at him as well as the elders sifted the people into their tribes, clans and families. Many of these people harbored their own secret sins and many feared that it was they who caused the hand of the Lord to turn…
…One by one the tribes passed by Joshua and the Lord stayed silent. Ephraim…Reuben…Benjamin…Is
…Then…Judah.
…God singled out Judah…
…As the tribe of Judah moved forward en mass the rest of the tribes of Israel gathered round in one large circle…waiting to see the vengeance of the Lord.
…The Men of Judah…righteous men…were enraged! Who among them would dare defy the Lord the God of Israel? Who had dared commit this atrocious sin and bring this great devastation?
…A low murmur rippled through the Tribe of Judah. Joshua saw the valiant men of Judah grimly strap on their swords…their jaws set and their eyes roving around over their gathered brethren…searching for the man…searching for the brother…who had betrayed them and God…they were willing to do the deed themselves once the perpetrator was named. They would not put down their swords until the guilty man was named and punished.
…One by one the clans of the tribe of Judah paraded before Joshua…family after family…long lines of men, women, children, servants and slaves…until at last God spoke.
And then God chose the clan of the Zerahites. Everyone else stepped back…the people were pressing forward…trying to see…wanting to know who it was who had done this detestable thing…the men of Judah all still stood hard faced stroking the pommels of their swords eyeing the Zerahites…many of whom wore their swords as well and looked around at their own clansmen angrily…
…Joshua felt deep pity for them…sorrow that they had to feel this deep division…sorrow…and anger too that one would dare to cause this much misery.
…The Zerahites passed before him in their families and very soon God singled out the family of Zabdi.
The circle of potentially guilty people was very small by now. Joshua brought the men forward one by one and looked them in the eye. Each man stared back…some with tears in their eyes…their swords hanging heavy about their waists.
At last God spoke again as Joshua looked into the eyes of Achan…the man was watery eyed and trembling…he shifted his eyes and looked around at all the people of Israel and his fellow Judites all gripping their swords…Some with their swords unsheathed…standing ready.
Joshua looked sadly…and angrily…at Achan standing before him…what could have caused him to do such a stupid and terrible thing?
…He was from a proud and noble family…he was from the tribe of Judah…
…He had a wonderful loving and beautiful family…and he had thrown it away…
…For what?
At last Achan looked back at Joshua…his terror-filled eyes finding Joshua’s…
“My son” Joshua says soflty, “I beg of you…give glory to God…praise Him and confess your sin…tell me what you have done…do not hide it from me…”
…For what seemed like ages Achan stood there and stared back at Joshua. Joshua could see his mind racing…should he deny it? Could he deny it? God had pointed him out so clearly. …He could give an excuse…he could make up a story…he could find a way out!
…Joshua could see a myriad of emotions and thoughts chasing themselves across Achan’s face…fear…terror…anger…unc
At long last Achan spoke…his voice weak and faltering and barely above a whisper.
…The people of Judah surrounding them strained to hear his words…what would they be? Defiant? Angry? Would he confess? Would he be spared?
“…Truly I have sinned against the Lord the God of Israel…” Achan says to Joshua grief stricken… “This is what I have done: I saw among the spoil in Jericho a gorgeous robe and two hundred shekels of silver and fifty shekels of gold. I coveted them…and I took them…even now they are buried in the sand beneath my tent…”
…It seemed as though all of Israel breathed a collective sigh at the confession of Achan. Even as the righteous men of Judah started forward with their swords at the ready. A simple word from Joshua halted them…they stood…their eyes trained on the traitor…their brother…the one they had fought and bled and prayed and rejoiced alongside.
…Joshua sent a few of them who were closest to check the story. They returned shortly carrying a dirty bag jingling with money and weighed down with the weight of the gold. …One withdrew a wrinkled mass of brightly colored fabric from Shinar and threw it at Joshua’s feet. Achan didn’t even look at it…he kept his guilty eyes trained on the sand his sandals were sinking into…. the sand that had accepted the blood of his brethren as it leaked out of their slain bodies when they had been struck down because of his foolish treachery. …His one simple sin…that had caused such enormous devastation…
…Joshua said the word and the waiting men of Judah rounded up all of Achan’s possessions…all of his cattle…livestock…his tent…his furniture and his family…and they deposited all of them in the Valley of Achor.
…Joshua stared at the huddled mass of chaos before him…the faces full of fear and guilt…the hands, now trembling, that had greedily grabbed for themselves those things they knew were off limits…that had dug a hasty shallow grave to hide the stolen precious metal…
…All of Israel gathered around…the men of Judah leading the way…and they began to cast the stones. As each stone fell and screams from Achan and his family went up Joshua’s heart bled and his tears flowed anew…but he did not tear his eyes from the terrible sight of destruction…as much as he wanted too…as much as he longed to…he made himself watch…to witness the bloodshed and see each stone fall and crush the bodies of a once devoted family…to watch as the fire was set and rapidly consumed the bloody and battered corpses and the mangled tent and all of Achan’s possessions…The flames licked skyward and the smoke billowed out on the desert winds carrying away the sin…carrying away the evil…
…The people of Israel did not stop casting stones until all of Achan, his family, and his possessions were covered under a mountain of rock.
…As the last of the people of Israel turned away Joshua looked to heaven and heaved one last large rock onto the smoking monument…it landed with a rough clatter atop the pile…and Joshua sadly turned back towards camp…he shook his head and wondered ruefully if Achan ever envisioned how much devastation his small act of sin could cause.
…The book of Joshua tells us that that massive pile of rock stood even until the day that the book was written…A monument to the devastating consequences of sin…
…It was…and is…a reminder of how fast and how hard we can…and do fall…even in the face of such brilliant victory…
…The times we let our guard down and become the most susceptible to the schemes of Satan are when we are flush with a recent victory…whether physical or spiritual…in our Christian life. Small acts of disobedience can lead to greatest devastation
Achan fell into the trap of coveting…he did not seeing the harm of his “insignificant sin”…. there was SO MUCH treasure in Jericho! Compared to the wealth and available loot in the city a robe and some gold and silver seemed small…even his confession hints at this… But because of his disregard for the covenant of God… for the word of God…and the things of God…Achan cost the entire nation of Israel dearly. His Small acts of disobedience led to greatest devastation…
Not only did 36 men die…but they also suffered their first defeat at the hands of an enemy that was not supposed to be able to withstand them in any way.
…Its so much like us…We can only be beaten by our enemy…who is unable to withstand the Blood of Christ… when we give him leeway into our lives through sin.
And even more like us…as Achan saw the lot drawing close to him…in his stubborn pride and fear…he refused to come forward and repent…until he was cornered and Joshua pleaded with him to repent.
Achan’s confession is interesting….Within his confession he relates that he followed the pattern of SEEING…then COVETING…then TAKING…The same pattern that Eve followed in the garden. He also then admits to his own deceitfulness in hiding the items under his tent…does it not strike you how very useless those items would be buried there? His sin didn’t even have any immediate benefit practically in his life…he would have to wait a long time until he could uncover the stolen items…especially all that money…those stolen devoted things…
…But what are the devoted things in our lives? What are those things that are wholly God’s that he has claimed?
Paul says that WE are a royal priesthood…a chosen people…we are to be devoted to God. In Romans Paul says that WE are the sacrifice…a living sacrifice…that our bodies are to be offered up to God…OUR bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit…
…But how often do we defile ourselves? How often do we take in with our eyes or our ears things that make us unfit to be temples of the Holy Spirit? Things that make us unfit and unholy…undevoted. Maybe its “edgy” music so we can look cool…sketchy TV shows because everyone else is watching them…or because we want the thrill…a glance at pornography…”just once”…maybe it’s the clothes we wear…clothes that don’t define us as “set apart”…maybe they have suggestive messages… advertisements for questionable bands…maybe a shirt is too tight…or too low cut…..or a skirt to short…are we devoted? Are we letting “small sin” in?
To be devoted is to be set apart…to be used and useful for ONE thing. How often do we try to be useful for God…but then to the world as well? We try to be useful for God…YES of COURSE for God…but what is the harm…we think…of being useful for the world as well? The consequence of “small” sin is great devastation….
To be devoted to God is to be useless to the world for its gains and desires and practices. Jesus himself said that we cannot serve two masters.
The people of Israel learned that they must clean house. Everything. All vestiges of Achan and his family were removed…no questions…no pity…nothing half hearted. Half-hearted hearts are not desired. A heart “devoted” to two things is not devoted at all. It is torn. It is split. It straddles the fence. It is lukewarm. It is not desired by God.
Clean house…. it is what God demanded of Israel…and it is what he demands of us.
…Not so that we become legalistic and do all these good things and don’t do all these bad things and live in fear of punishment…but so that we turn to Him…
…We have a great gift…you and i…in the blood of Jesus…in the New Covenant…which allows us to be forgiven…which allows God to lead us to our sin…as he did with Joshua and the people of Israel…and when God exposes our sin then we can repent and it can be covered under the blood of Christ…
…But are we willing? Are we willing to be completely devoted? Where are the men of Judah today who will strap on their swords and with holy zeal pursue righteousness no matter how painful? Are we those men and women? Are we willing to do the hard things…to make the sacrifices…not so that we can claim to live a holier life than someone else…not so that we become hardened legalists…and pharisaical…but so that we are living under the grace and love of God…living a life that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called. Devoted.
God wants his people to remove all vestiges of sin…to remove all notions of being devoted to the world…seek it out…push it away…lead it to a desolate place…burn it…stone it…pile the rocks high so it cant return…make it’s annihilation a monument to your devotion to God…and only to God.
Let not even small sin weasel its way in… the consequences of even small sin is great destruction.
