God Who Gave Achan a Chance to the End

4So about three thousand men of the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. 5The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, and they chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water. 6Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before Yahweh’s ark until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. 7Joshua said, “Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan! 8Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! 9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?” 10Yahweh said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? 11Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. 12Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. 13“Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, “There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.” 14“‘In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which Yahweh selects shall come near by families. The family which Yahweh selects shall come near by households. The household which Yahweh selects shall come near man by man. 15It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed Yahweh’s covenant, and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel.’”

To fix a roof you need a ladder. But if its two legs are of different lengths, or rungs are missing here and there, the very parts that most need to be sound, then the ladder cannot be used, or someone may be hurt. When a tool is not whole, the work cannot be done as it should. Families, churches, and society are all communities. If a community does not work together, it can only collapse, and much of what has been built up until now will come to nothing. God has made his people members of one another in Christ, to help each other. At a time when we must all look in one direction and move with one will, acting out of wounded feelings and greed would leave the body able to do nothing. In the end we may have to suffer the pain of cutting off an injured member.

Several years ago an earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, left more than a thousand people dead or missing. In one tragic case, a young construction worker survived by cutting off his own right leg, which was pinned under the rubble of a building. As the aftershocks continued, he faced an agonizing decision: should he wait for rescuers, or cut off his leg before the building came down on him? What would you decide in such a situation? To cut off one’s own leg at eighteen is unimaginable, yet in an emergency there are times when one must give up a precious leg to save one’s life.

This incident made me think: what that young man faced is like the faith the church must exercise as it waits for the Lord, deciding every day, for the sake of salvation, with life itself at stake. God has called all his people members of the body of Christ. Israel too is one member of that body, all the churches in the world today are members of one another, and on a smaller scale our own church is also made up of members.

If a problem arises that could shake the whole church, we may have no choice but to make the painful decision to cut off the leg, as that young man did. But like him, we must strive to save the leg until the last moment, praying as we wait for those who will come to help. Just as no one gives up part of their body lightly, we must keep praying to God to the end to save a single soul. But if one person, one part, is causing the body to rot, then for the sake of all, the decision to cut it off is necessary too.

Joshua 7:1

1But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted things; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against the children of Israel.

After the glorious victory of chapter 6, in which the walls fall and the name of God and the fame of Joshua spread throughout the land, chapter 7 at once shows us God’s anger. The cause was that Achan had taken what belonged to God. The sin of this one member of Israel’s community plunged all Israel into suffering. Joshua did not know of Achan’s sin, so, unaware that God was angry, he was drawing up plans to attack Ai.

Joshua 7:3

3They returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Don’t let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Don’t make all the people to toil there, for there are only a few of them.”

In verse 3, the men who had spied out Ai reported to Joshua that there was no need for all the people to go up, and that if only two or three thousand went up and attacked Ai, they could easily win. Ai was that small compared with Jericho, and having conquered Jericho, they were brimming with confidence. Ai stood some 800 meters above sea level, which called for a careful campaign, yet the spies were proud, treating the victory at Jericho, whose walls God had brought down, as if it had been their own achievement.

When people escape a crisis and things begin to go a little better, they mistake God’s grace for their own ability, and pride comes easily. When by his grace God grants success in the world, peace at home, outward growth in the church, or an office in it, they abandon the humble faith they once had and parade their own righteousness. That is an evil heart that claims God’s power as its own, and God’s anger, which rebukes sin, will fall on that person first.

Hearing the spies say that even a small force could easily take the city, Joshua chose three thousand men and sent them to Ai, but they were badly defeated. Even Joshua, always so careful, sent soldiers into this battle without praying. Israel and Joshua had never lost a battle, and when they were beaten by a city as small as Ai, they were deeply shaken. It had never once occurred to them that they could lose.

Like the Canaanites, whose hearts had melted at the very name of God and of Israel, now it was the Israelites whose hearts melted. This came of forgetting that they had won because God had helped them all along, and of failing to give thanks. We make the same mistake, and we too feel a hollow confidence. Though we do not live rightly, we hold a false faith that God must be on our side no matter what, because we believe in him or because we go to church.

To think that everything in life must go well because one believes in God is not faith but that person’s own reasoning. If believers are living by faith, God will exalt them for the sake of his work and honor them with wealth and ability. But when they do not live the life God desires, he will instead take away his hedge of protection in order to save their souls, and he will make them go through hardship so that they sit in a lower place.

Joshua 7:9

9For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”

Joshua was caught between God and the people, and he was confused, because he could not see why God, who had clearly led them this far, was not helping them as they lost to little Ai. Believing in God, he had assured the Israelites that they would win if only they trusted God well. Now that they had been routed at little Ai, of all places, he was at a loss for what to say to them. Had he known of Achan’s sin, he would have repented, but since he did not know, Joshua feared that God would lose the people’s trust.

When Israel suffers, that in itself brings a stain on God’s name. Even so, if only he can save his people, he is the God who will make them pass through suffering. Like parents who will endure any pain and pray until their last breath if only their child can take the right path, God has a love that is deeper and wider still. If only Israel could come to a mature faith, God was ready to bear any scorn the world might heap on him.

God knew that if Israel, which had toppled the mighty walls of Jericho, were beaten by little Ai, people would surely mock him. Yet to make Israel the true Israel, he did not hold back the attack of the men of Ai. That is nothing but a father’s heart, leading his children on the good path.

You must feel this love of God. Even if Yahweh’s great name should fall to the ground, he does not hesitate to bear the world’s scorn, if only he can save his children. Only when you can see that love can you be sanctified.

Before Joshua knew that Israel had been defeated because of Achan, he cried out in verse 8 that, now that they had been put to flight by their enemies, he had nothing more to say. Then in verse 9 he prayed earnestly with tears: the Canaanites, emboldened, would all rise up and kill them, so what would become of God’s whole plan in leading them to Canaan to be Israel’s King, and whose King would God be now?

This prayer shows how troubled Joshua’s heart was. Knowing God’s plan, he had told the people confidently that once they entered Canaan they would enjoy the blessings God had prepared, but now he had no explanation to give them for the defeat. And God was, beyond question, Israel’s King, yet Joshua could not understand how Israel had come to be defeated. He was not resenting or doubting God but was bewildered as to why this had happened.

Yahweh, who knew Joshua’s heart, said to him, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that?” He spoke so because he knew that Joshua was praying out of concern for Israel’s future, with the heart of a leader who loves his people and of a father who cherishes his children.

Joshua 7:11

11Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff.

God saw everything: Achan and his sons and daughters stealing together, deceiving, and hiding what they took. Knowing the evil of the human heart, God had said so emphatically that they must never lay a hand on what was his, yet Achan and his children stole from the plunder, lied, and hid it. How it must have grieved God to watch! God, who knew of Achan’s sin and so withheld his help from Israel, would have been in greater pain than Joshua, who wept and wailed all night.

When I read in verse 6 how Joshua and the elders of Israel tore their clothes, fell to the ground before Yahweh’s ark, put dust on their heads, and wept in prayer until evening, I thought, ‘Even so… even so, Joshua and the elders are blessed, because they can at least pray to God.’ But who can heal the pain that God, who truly hates sin, must bear? Who can comfort him? Who can comfort the heart of God as he watches Joshua and the elders crying out for help before the ark?

We sin far too easily, and because we think God will forgive us as long as we repent, we give no thought to his heart. Yet each time, God bears the pain as it is, endures it, and takes us to himself yet again, over and over. God is our Father. Being a Father who cannot abandon his children and cannot help but love them, God bears that pain alone. You must fear sin and feel sorrow before him.

God commanded that the plunder of Jericho belonged to Yahweh and that they must never keep any of it. If they sinned, he said, he would not be with them any more. That he would no longer be with them is a truly fearful word, and yet Achan did not care.

When God said that everything in Jericho was like an offering brought into Yahweh’s treasury, he did not mean that he would keep it all for himself. It carried the sense of devoting Jericho to destruction, utterly ruining and cursing it. These were things God had destroyed and cursed, so the people must never have them. Yet Achan stole them. Since God allowed Israel to take all the plunder in the next battle, his command not to take anything at Jericho may have been training to make them loosen their grip on their desire for the world.

Had Achan obeyed God, God would have given him more to possess and enjoy. But he did not understand that heart, and in the end his greed brought him to death. Whoever commits sin is destroyed along with that sin. Just as it is written “Cain and his offering,” God did not accept Cain or his offering, however much devotion of his own Cain put into it, because Cain’s heart had already left God.

Joshua 7:14

14“‘In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which Yahweh selects shall come near by families. The family which Yahweh selects shall come near by households. The household which Yahweh selects shall come near man by man.

In verse 14, God helped Joshua find Achan. Once again he was helping Israel so that he might forgive them. He helped them single out the tribe of Judah from Israel; from Judah, the family of the Zerahites; among the Zerahites, the household of Zabdi; within Zabdi’s household, the household of Carmi; and finally Carmi’s son, Achan.

It must have taken a good deal of time as Joshua went through all Israel, family by family and son by son. With all Israel gathered, Joshua had plainly declared that whoever had sinned would be burned with fire, together with everything they owned. Instead of watching in silence until his name was called, had Achan stepped forward first, confessed his sin to God, to Joshua, and to the people, and taken responsibility for it, he might have saved his children. But this is how sin breeds a greater sin.

When God closed in on Achan slowly, it was a loving heart waiting for him to repent. When the chance to repent was given, Achan should have turned back quickly. God always gives a chance right to the end, yet people do not give up their greed or repent until judgment falls. But an honest and upright person always has a way of escape, even in trouble. Faith sees a way of escape even in the midst of suffering and knows that way to be God’s guidance, which is why it can be at peace even in hardship.

In Matthew 26, at the Passover meal with his disciples, Jesus said that, truly, one of them would betray him. Deeply grieved, the disciples each asked whether he was the one. Judas Iscariot, seated among the twelve, must have heard it too. The first chance he was given to repent passed by.

Jesus spoke again: the one who dipped his hand into the dish with him would betray him. Even apart from that man, he said, he would go the appointed way, as the Scriptures had written, but woe to the man who betrayed him. When Jesus said, with an aching heart, how much better it would have been had that man never been born, Judas, stung in his heart, asked whether he was the one. Asking no forgiveness and hiding his sin, he missed his second chance.

Friends, when the word pierces your heart, it is a blessing, for it means God is giving you a chance through his word. Jesus confirmed to Judas Iscariot that he had it right. Judas should have seized that third chance, fallen on his knees before Jesus, and clung to him.

But Judas went out into the darkness. When people are seized by the powers of darkness, the end is death. So what I earnestly want to say to you is this: while there is still a chance, while God’s grace remains, lay aside your pride and repent. If we do not repent when he gives us the chance, we can only meet eternal death.

The God who seeks out even the sinner Achan in order to bless Israel is a God of mercy. Yes, there was the pain of defeat at Ai and of Achan’s death, but all that suffering was God’s love, working to bless Israel again.

Joshua 7:24

24Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

Achan’s possessions had value while Achan was in God. While Achan lived, they were his sons and daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, and his tent. Though he was given many chances to turn back, Achan went in the end to the valley of Achor along with the possessions he had prized so dearly. Achan, who had driven the community into failure, went down into eternal death. Israel and Joshua suffered because of him, but they were given the chance to recover, and they did.

How grievous it is that Achan, who had seen and experienced God’s miracles with his own eyes alongside the people, could not hold on to God’s grace to the end. What is certain is that each person must answer for their own sin. Israel and Joshua buried Achan with their own hands. The Israelites must all have felt the pain, and it would have been a trial hard to bear. Because of one man, Achan, all Israel had to suffer, and because of that one man the conquest of Ai was delayed.

In a family, too, when there is someone like Achan, the family is shaken and every member is bound to suffer. Without such a person the whole family could enjoy more of God’s blessing, yet because of that one Achan they all suffer. You must therefore hold an honest faith, so that you do not become an Achan who drives your family into suffering. We too try to keep the laws God has set, but if complaint and greed like Achan’s lodge in our hearts, we end up with a faith that cannot live a holy life. In the end God does not use such a church, such a family, or such a heart, so we must turn back while we still have the chance.

Just as God restored Israel when they had utterly destroyed Achan and all that was his, so he will not work on your behalf unless you drive out the Achan in your heart, your family, and your church. When you realize there is an Achan in your heart, you must stone him and bury him yourself. And the church must discipline such a person to protect the lives of its members.

God will keep giving you chances to drive out Achan yourself, but if you do not, he will not help you even when you are stoned with Achan in the valley of Achor. Why? Because he has already given you many chances to choose the good, and still you did not choose it. While God waits for you in love, I hope you will show him your faith, grasp his word deeply, and live wisely.

Now, while God is holding you up by his grace, is the very time to turn back. May you judge rightly by faith and always live a full life. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.