Lesson 172 - Senior
Memory Verse
"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 23:24).
Cross References
I Achan's Trespass
1. Achan sinned by partaking of the accursed thing, [JOS:7:1]; [JOS:6:17-18]; [DEU:13:17].
2. Israel was unable to defeat the inhabitants of Ai because sin was in their midst, [JOS:7:1-12].
II Revelation of Sin
1. Achan hid the evidence of his sin, and thereby thought to escape the penalty of his transgression, [JOS:7:11]; [PS:10:6], [PS:10:11], [PS:10:13]; [PS:73:11]; [JOB:22:13].
2. God exposes all sin and sinners, as He did Achan's sin, regardless of who is guilty, [JOS:7:10-18]; [JOB:34:22]; [NUM:32:23]; [ECC:12:14]; [LUK:12:2]; [2SM:12:13]; [AMO:9:2-3]; [JER:17:10]; [JER:23:24].
3. Achan stood before God and man as an unrepentant and condemned sinner, and suffered the penalty of sin " death, [JOS:7:20-26]; [ROM:1:32]; [1CH:10:13]; [EZE:18:4]; [ROM:6:23].
III Separate from All Sin
1. The Lord used the occasion of Achan's sin to emphasise to Israel that God's work was hindered by the toleration of sin in their midst, [JOS:7:11-12]; [JUG:2:14]; [1CO:5:1-13].
2. Achan's public condemnation was for the purpose of warning Israel against all such future transgressions [JOS:7:25-26]; [PRO:26:26]; [1TM:5:20].
Notes
Trespass in Israel
"The city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: . . . And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it" (Joshua 6:17, 18).
Preceding the conquest and siege of Jericho all Israel had been informed of this curse, that he who partook of the accursed thing would bring upon himself a curse and would also greatly trouble Israel. All Jericho was to be destroyed except the silver and gold and the vessels of brass, which were to be consecrated to the Lord ([JOS:6:19]). It was some of this same silver and gold that Achan coveted and stole.
When Israel went up to attack Ai with a small number of men, they were shamefully put to rout by the inhabitants of Ai, and Israel suffered the loss of thirty-six men. God had not gone with them to battle, and they discovered they were powerless before these obstinate people. Joshua inquired of the Lord the reason for Israel's defeat; whereupon God told Joshua that one in their midst had partaken of the accursed thing, and had defiled Israel. God would not go with Israel until that defilement was removed.
God's Watchful Eye
"Up sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow: for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you" (Joshua 7:13).
With this command ringing in their ears, the Children of Israel were commanded to search and find the accursed thing in their midst. And so, the search began the next day, early in the morning. Tribe by tribe, family, by family, throughout all Israel, the lot was taken by Joshua until it began to narrow down to the house of Achan, of the tribe of Judah. Finally Achan stood before Joshua as the guilty man. Achan had thought to hide his sin from all eyes, and thereby escape detection and the penalty. Achan was not the first who had thought in his heart, "How doth God know?" (Job 22:13). Neither was he the last.
Since Adam tried to hide himself in the Garden of Eden, from the all-seeing eye of God, people have tried to hide their sins, thinking that they will never be exposed. And they think that even if they are exposed, somehow they will be able to come out all right. (See Zephaniah 1:12.) Adam sought to put the blame of his sin on his wife, but Adam's excuses were not accepted by God; and no one else since has ever given a satisfactory excuse to God for sin.
Achan's Sin Exposed
Achan's secret soon became no secret at all, for he found himself publicly exposed. Achan seemed to be an unrepentant rebel against God all the way through this affair. It was only after Achan was exposed by the Lord, and searched out by the casting of lots, that he made any admission of guilt. His words were: "When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it" (Joshua 7:21).
This is the only statement of Achan's confession we have recorded in the Bible; and nowhere are we given any reason to think that Achan was anything but a determined and reprobate sinner. He died a sinner's death, without any plea for mercy or any attempt to make amends for troubling Israel, and his own house.
Divine Justice
"And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: . . . And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day" (Joshua 7:24-26).
Such was the infamous ending of Achan and his household for his covetousness, his defiance of God, and his consequent defiling of the camp of Israel. Was Achan dealt with unjustly? Not at all. He is one of such about whom we read in the Book of Proverbs: "He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1).
It is with such incidents as this that God brings forcibly to everyone's attention the fact that He will not at all acquit the wicked. God has no pleasures in the death of the wicked and is patient and longsuffering; but that does not hinder Him from bringing judgement, swift and sure, on those who dare to presume upon His mercy and goodness. (Read [NAH:1:3]; [EZE:18:23].)
Achan was publicly denounced, and his sin revealed to all the Israelites, that they, and we, might see and learn thereby that every other unrepentant sinner will someday stand before God and men with his life exposed. He will suffer the same fate as did Achan -" death, and eternal damnation! God's great tribunal of justice will convene at the end of the Millennium, and every secret thing will be made manifest; every sin will be exposed; and every sinner will be judged for his sin.
Separation of the People of God
The Bible proclaims the truth; and all who have worshiped God in spirit and in truth have likewise lent their voices and testimony to its proclamation, that he who would be a follower of God must be like God in righteousness and holiness. He must be completely separated from all sin. (Read [1JN:1:6-7]; [1JN:3:5], [1JN:3:10].)
The Word of the Lord to Israel was: "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Exodus 19:5, 6). The Lord also informed Israel: "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine" (Leviticus 20:26). (Read also [NUM:23:9]; [ISA:52:11]; [PS:119:115].) This, then, is the responsibility and duty of every man who follows the God of Israel: to be holy, even as He is holy. (Read [LEV:19:2].) We can see, then, that he who follows God will not only be cleansed of all sin, but will keep himself unspotted from the world. When a saint loses communion with God and commits sin, he becomes a sinner. His sonship with God is forfeited, for he is an enemy of Christ.
Here, then, is much of the reason for the severity and suddenness of Achan's punishment for his transgression. He not only violated the law of his conscience by stealing, but he violated the law of God, and troubled Israel by bringing sin into a camp of people where the command of God was abstinence from all sin.
God gives a sinner a chance to get rid of his sin through the merits of the Atonement, purchased by the shed Blood of Jesus Christ. God has no toleration at all for sin, and in the judgment day of God all sin will be destroyed with those who tolerate or harbour it. Satan, his angels, and all sinners will be cast into the lake of everlasting fire ([REV:20:10-15]).
Achan desired sin. He sought after it in preference to righteousness; and even when confronted with his sin, he would not repent of it, and so perished. This was the cause of Israel's defeat at Ai. Sin was amongst their number, and sin had to be removed before God would dwell in their midst again.
Holiness Enjoined Today
Is a child of God who professes to name the name of Christ, to be holy? Is it possible to abstain from all sin? Most certainly we are to be holy! God is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. What is commanded one is commanded all. In this day of greater revelation of the truths of the Bible, greater responsibility is imposed.
We are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness ([EPH:5:11]). Paul tells us: "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear" (I Timothy 5:20). From those "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" turn away (II Timothy 3:5). Paul also wrote to the church at Corinth about such matters: "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person" (I Corinthians 5:11-13).
"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty? (II Corinthians 6:17).
Questions
1. What was the result of Israel's first attempt to conquer Ai?
2. What was the cause of Israel's defeat at Ai?
3. Describe the circumstances of Achan's sin.
4. Why would God refuse to help Israel because of one man's sin?
5. What was the result of Achan's sin so far as he personally was concerned?
6. Did Achan receive any harsher treatment than other sinners will receive?
7. Why are all who follow God to be holy?
8. What kind of fellowship are we to have with sinners?