“But the
Israelites were unfaithful in regard
to the devoted things[a]; Achan son of Karmi, the
son of Zimri,[b]the son of Zerah, of the tribe of
Judah, took some of them.
So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel. 2 Now Joshua sent
men from Jericho to Ai…” So the men went
up and spied out Ai. 3 When they returned
to Joshua, they said, “Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two
or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a
few people live there.” 4 So about three
thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai,5 who killed about thirty-six of them. They
chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and
struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in
fear and
became like water. 6 Then Joshua tore
his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the Lord,… 7 And Joshua said,
“Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring
this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to
destroy us?... 10 The Lord said to Joshua, “Stand up!
What are you doing down on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded
them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen,
they have lied, they
have put them with their own possessions. 12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their
enemies; they
turn their backs and
run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is
devoted to destruction. 13 “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them,
‘Consecrate yourselves in
preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of
Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them. 14 “‘In the morning,
present yourselves tribe
by tribe. The tribe The Lord chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan the Lord chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family the Lord chooses shall come forward man by man. 15 Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed
by fire, along
with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the Lord and has done an
outrageous thing in Israel!’” 16 Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by
tribes, and Judah was chosen. 17 The clans of Judah
came forward, and the Zerahites were chosen. He had the clan of
the Zerahites come forward by families, and Zimri was chosen. 18 Joshua had his
family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the
son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was chosen.19 Then Joshua said
to Achan, “My son, give glory to theLord, the God of
Israel, and honor him. Tell me
what you have done; do not hide it from me.” 20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against theLord,
the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the
plunder a beautiful robe
from Babylonia,[c]two hundred
shekels[d] of silver and a
bar of gold weighing fifty shekels,[e] I coveted them and took
them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”22 So Joshua sent
messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent,
with the silver underneath. 23 They took the
things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread
them out before the Lord. 24 Then Joshua,
together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the
gold bar, his sons and
daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the
Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble
on you today.”Then all Israel
stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. 26 Over Achan they
heaped up a large pile of
rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger.”
Why am I being defeated?
I want you to notice here that
Joshua WAS NOT, who sinned, but one person from the group of people whom he was
with and whom he was leading, was who had sinned. In other words, one scabby
sheep was spoiling the flock. Watch out,
who you are hanging around with!!! This guy, Achan, he dared to take some of
the devoted things for the Lord for himself; then he hid them. Apparently no one had seen what he did, and I’m
sure he might have thought “Well no one had seen me, therefore who’s going to
accuse me?” But the truth of the matter is that God’s omnipresence saw what had
happened, and “Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere
in all the heavens and earth?" says the LORD.”[1] So, The Lord Himself was who revealed to
Joshua that there was sin in the camp and it had to be dealt with.
When we deliberately choose to
walk away from The Lord, literally we are walking away from the under the Lord’s
protective umbrella, and we’ll get rained on; because of our own fault. You can
cry before the Lord for His help, all you want, BUT if there’s unconfessed sin
in your life, your enemies will defeat you! You’ve brought destruction upon
yourself due to your sinful behavior/actions. God will not be for you, until
you deal with it!
The Lord’s plan is not to destroy
us, that’s the thief/devil’s plan: “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill
and destroy. My (Jesus) purpose is
to give them a rich and satisfying life.”[2]
The Lord wants us all to come to
repentance. “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the
Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!”[3]
At time unfortunately for
whatever reason, we tend to depend more on our physical abilities and consulting
the Lord becomes our back up plan, or our plan c, then we find ourselves regretting.
Seems in life that’s how we learn, when the afflictions to our flesh due to our
wrong doings bring us the opportunity to reflect on our past actions, so we do
not hurt again.
What to do?
Going back to our passage, the
guilty party didn’t confess his sin, until he was confronted. After The Lord revealed to Joshua that there
was sin among them that they have to purify themselves, confess sins, and make
peace with God. He explained how things were going to be done; HE chose to let
him wait until the next morning to reveal it publicly to everyone at the same
time, and all in a very organized way.
First, all the tribes were to be gather
in one place and The Lord was going to single out the tribe whom the sinner was from.
From that tribe’s clans, HE was single out the clan the sinner was from; and then from the clan’s HE was
single out the family who had the
sinning member, and then from that family HE would single out the individual who had sinned. And as
planned, that’s how it went. So this
Achan, didn’t confessed immediately, I’m not sure how he dared to think he wasn’t
going to get away with it, but the thing is that confessing until it was too
late, didn’t do no good for him at all! Because after Joshua recovered the
stolen goods, he was taken out of the camp to the valley and there he was
stoned, and burned. This appeased the Lord’s anger; and reassured the people
that God is not to be played with or taken lightly.
I pray this becomes a wakeup call
to all of us, to keep our records straight with the Lord at all times. As soon as we realize that we’ve sinned, immediately
is time to confess, we shouldn’t wait. Why? As Moses was telling his people, “But
if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord,
and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”[4]
In other words if you stop being faithful to the Lord and you sin against Him,
HE WILL EXPOSE YOU! And really, God REALLY does it better!!!
My friend, fixing our records with The Lord, is having a conversation
with Him as simple as the ABC…
A-dmit that you are
a sinner, and need salvation
B-elieve that God
sent JESUS (HIS gift to us) to die at the cross to pay for our sins
C-onfess The Lord as
your only Savior & Master of your life.
After this believe that God had
cleanse your sins, and ugly past, and HE sees you as a brand new creation with
new opportunities to stay clean as long as you believe that with Him everything
is possible!
I pray you have chosen to have
this conversation with HIM for the sake of yourself. I also for Him to lead you to the church you
need to be at where HIS Word is preached, and idol worshiping is inexistent. I
pray you develop a desire to study His Word and pray DAILY! And you join a
Bible study group in church, that will help you discover that you have new
brothers and sisters that are eager to meet you and grow in the Lord with you.
And I pray for the glory of God, in Jesus name, AMEN!!!
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