JOSHUA 7 - DEALING WITH HIDDEN SIN
Joshua 7
After conquering Jericho, the Israelites increased in faith. When you see a wonder of God or a mighty breakthrough in your life there is an increase in faith. However, as we grow in faith there is also the danger of growing in self-confidence. A sad turn of events happened when the self-confident Israelites broke faith (v. 1).
The fact that faith can be broken shows us that it is a living and active thing. Faith can be damaged so it must be handled with care.
Faith was broken because a man within the ranks took some things that God said to devote to destruction. Achan saw among the spoil of Jericho a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two-hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, and he coveted them and took them and hid them in the ground of his tent (v. 20-21) Achan sinned, and he tried to hide his sin. His story is a fearful lesson of how hiding our sin only brings ruin.
God was very straightforward in his commands to not take the things that were devoted to destruction. God has purpose for why he keeps his people from these certain things. We must trust that when God says no, it is truly for our good. Achan thought that he could covet and take, and it wouldn’t harm anyone. He believed the lie that our sin won’t have any consequences, at least not for anyone beside ourselves. God’s anger burned against Israel for his single sin. God does not deal lightly with sin.
What Achan thought was a small thing that wouldn’t hurt anyone, ended up causing pain and defeat for a whole nation.
Joshua sized up the next city of Ai with spies and in self-confidence he sent in a small army to conquer (v. 2-3). This was supposed to be an easy win, but instead the army was chased out, and thirty-six men were killed and the hearts of the people melted and became as water (v. 4-5). Joshua couldn’t understand why this happened, and so he cried out to the Lord (v. 6-9). That was when the Lord told him to stop praying and to deal with the sin in the camp.
The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? (v. 10)
Usually we think God wants us to pray, and he does. God even wants us to pray honestly as Joshua did – inquiring about why the promises of God are not seeming to be fulfilled. But there is a time when prayer is not appropriate, because you have not simply done what God told you to do, and you should stop praying and you should fix it. God told the people exactly what they needed to do to make things right.
“I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.” (v. 12)
One man’s sin brought a wake of destruction. That has been the case since the very beginning with Adam. Sin has to be dealt with quickly and properly if we expect to enjoy God’s presence. Joshua gathered all the tribes together, and God revealed the sin (v. 13-18). Yet, Achan only confessed after he was caught (v. 19-21). God will deal much more mercifully with us when we confess before we are caught. Achan tried to hide his sin, and ironically the devoted things were buried, so he couldn’t actually enjoy them.
A reminder that sin is alluring and pleasurable for a moment, but in the end it can never brings real enjoyment.
Achan, his family, and all of his possessions including the devoted things, were burned with fire and covered with a heap of stones. The pile of stones that covered this great sin stood in the Valley of Achor as a reminder of what happens when we break faith (v. 22-26)
The best thing to do about hidden sin is to confess it.
To confess means to say the same thing about sin that God says about sin. Sin brings ruin, both to you and those around you. Sin entered the world through one man, and spread to all, but in Jesus, sin has been covered over. Jesus instead offers freedom and forgiveness, and gives us an abundance of grace that will truly satisfy.