Defeat at Ai (Part C)

The household which Yahweh takes shall come man by man. As the process involved, verse 15, then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed things shall be burned with fire. He and all that he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of Yahweh, because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. As the judgment is very severe, it seems like the way it's written in this whole chapter is painful for Joshua to write it. He leaves out details.

He leaves the gore out. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. The title of Pastor Rick's message today is Defeat at Ai, and he'll be teaching in Joshua chapter 7. The two sins committed here of name by God, stealing and deception, it also ties into putting family before God. That is what the accomplices were doing. We know what God said. We know what you did.

This is a lot of money. We're going to be doing pretty good in the Promised Land after we get through with these wars. Luke chapter 14, that is a very uncomfortable – if you love your family and you hear this verse, it's a wake-up call. Okay, you can love them a lot. Just don't love them more. If you say, well, it was very hard. I mean, I got the baby right here in front.

Look how cute they are, innocent. God says, I understand, but you do too. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. Comparatively, our love for God is to be so strong that compared to everything else is hatred. It's hyperbole. It's exaggeration because it makes its point. And when you read that verse, I think it's one of the verses in the Bible you never forget. That's how powerful the hyperbole is. And we're not supposed to. And so how many parents have said to the Lord, this is your child as much as I love them, but they are yours. And that is very doable. I've seen it.

I've seen it in hospitals and sick beds by parents and maybe you have too. Verse 12, therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their backs before their enemies because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you.

That's pretty powerful. They were supposed to be the Jews, God's instrument of judgment on those who were judged. Well, God could not reward his instruments of judgment if they themselves needed to be judged.

That's the point. I'm giving you this land. God has used other peoples on other peoples for judgment but not rewarding them and telling everybody I'm rewarding them. But the Jews are unique. God is saying to them, the Canaanites are so bad I'm using you to drive them out and you don't be like them. And so here we have one, the seed.

We have this seed planted in the nation. God says I won't stomach it, not for one moment. I cannot justify using the disobedient to cast out the disobedient and reward them for their disobedience at the same time.

That's the message. Verse 13, so he says again and when he repeats himself it's very serious and doesn't mean it's terrifying, it's just no nonsense. Get up, sanctify the people, verse 13, and say sanctify yourself for tomorrow because thus says Yahweh God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst, oh Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. There's nothing about that verse that is confusing. There's nothing in that verse that sends me to the Hebrew.

I can get it all right out of the English. Get up and set yourself apart. There is an accursed thing in your midst and you're not dealing with it and you have to deal with it or you can't stand before the adversary. For us, adversary, Satan. And how he uses the world and the flesh against us, we will not be able to stand. So he says don't lie there. The sanctify, ready your heart, he's saying to Joshua, get your heart ready. Get it ready and right.

And this is probably one of the things, I don't know how, you can't fix this. You say you go to a service and you have a pastor speak and it's an anointed message and everybody can feel it and then five minutes later everybody's out in the parking lot and everything's forgotten. Often. Fortunately, God knows how to retrieve the moment and he gives us flashbacks. And so as we're doing something during the week, the Holy Spirit brings something back our way.

Those are the things that are building blocks. That's what contributes to us being stronger and better at being Christians. And it is often a fight because we have other passions. You know, one of the rookie mistakes I didn't get to is you can't serve two masters. You can't have two passions and expect to passionately serve either one of them. You'll love the one you'll hate. There's going to be a conflict of interest, of devotion, of energy, of time.

You can't do it. And God demands that we the only God, the only God that we have is him. You should have no other gods before me. Unlike Rehoboam who did not prepare his heart and we know his life, one of the dumbest men in the Bible is Rehoboam. Second Chronicles 12, 14.

And he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek Yahweh. And so we are blessed at this time. We have music and a company of music on a Sunday morning and we try to reduce noise around the environment and folks come into the sanctuary and it seems to me that they are preparing their heart. Now that does not mean that everybody who's not in there is not preparing their heart. It just makes the point that this is something we still do.

It is good. It is some more... I still can remember being in the lobby years ago and seeing a couple pull up and they were going at it.

I mean they weren't swinging at each other yet. And then, you know, she gets up and it's like, oh man, it just hurts you to see that. That's not how you go to church or go from church. We are always trying to be perfect in the midst of imperfect circumstances, events and all the other junk that our flesh can throw at us and yet God just keeps saying, get up, there's work to be done. He says, to sanctify yourself for tomorrow because thus says Yahweh God of Israel. Verse 14, in the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which Yahweh takes shall come according to families and the family which Yahweh takes shall come by household and the household which Yahweh takes shall come man by man.

That's the process involved. Verse 15, then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire and he and all that he has because he has transgressed the covenant of Yahweh and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. As the judgment is very severe, it seems like the way it's written in this whole chapter is painful for Joshua to write it. He leaves out details. He leaves the gore out. He was there. He saw it all. He could touch it and smell it and feel it. There's no escaping and he could hear it. Verse 16, so Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes and the tribe of Judah was taken.

There he is again up early to carry out his orders, no dragging of the feet. Verse 17, he brought the clan of Judah and took the family of the Zarites and he brought the family of the Zarites man by man and Zabdai was taken. Now if you're Achan in this group, you're either sweating arrows because they didn't have bullets yet or you're just, you don't know what, have a clue what's going on. Verse 18, then he brought his household man by man and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdai, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah was taken. And here is Joshua obeying orders dealing with Achan's disobedience. What was King Saul's excuse? Because these things were in writing in his day, why was Saul so disobedient when he had a template of obedience for leaders before him and Moses and Joshua are recorded for us too to learn. Verse 19, so Joshua said to Achan, my son I beg you, give glory to Yahweh God of Israel and make confession to him and tell me now what you have done, do not hide it from me.

There's a very tender section and a very ugly tenderness I guess. Joshua has to do what God has told him, he is the judge. But he's humane, he's respectable and he's treatment of this doomed sinner.

It's not a term so much of endearment but it is a term of gentleness of humanity. Son, what have you done? He's saying to Achan, I don't hate the sinner. Your sin will be dealt with, the sin is hateful, it caused death but I don't hate you. And that's what comes out of this and this inquisition has a kindness that belongs to it. So many lessons again abound, they fly off the pages, am I that way when somebody has broken something special to me?

Like my feelings. I beg you, he says, he's urging him to do the right thing and there's a reason. He's saying you do not have to go, you're going out but you do not have to go out dishonorably. He's saying for this sin you will be judged but you have an opportunity here to go right and be right before God. When you leave this life you can clean this mess up in the presence of the Lord right now so that it doesn't follow you into eternity.

That's why I stand by my statement. There are men like Achan and Uzzah who touched the ark and was struck dead. Well if they go to hell, it wasn't for that act.

I don't believe they did. Achan I don't know, he's kind of a gray zone. The Uzzah I have relative to human sight, no doubt about it. He was a man of God, he loved the Lord, he messed up one time and he paid for it with his life but not his eternal life. And I like, if I'm going to err, I'd rather err on the side of grace than judgment, than legalism, than self-righteousness. Well he says he's giving him this chance. Cain refused to confess his sin. Cain was given this opportunity, where's your brother?

Am I my brother's keeper, huh? That was his response. God dismisses that. All I hear is, well he doesn't dismiss it, but he plows over it. He says, the blood of Abel calls out to me. He's dead.

I'm God, I happen to know these things. I'm giving you a chance. And so God passes judgment and what does Cain do?

It's too hard for me, people are going to bother me. He never owns his sin. Well Achan is being given this chance. And that's why Joshua was saying I'm begging you. Son, tell us.

Don't make this get any more ugly than what it already is. Again, a chance to die right and go out with less shame and less judgment on you. The pulpit commentary was one of the first commentaries, the first commentary set I got. That's how God called me to the ministries. He started giving me all these books. And the pulpit commentary, I don't know, I think it's 26 volumes, 22,000 contributions to it, and was written or published in 1890.

And some of it's outdated, of course, because theology evolved, but much of it, when it comes to the human side, is very rich. And this is what L.L. Lias, the commentary on Joshua, this is what he says about this moment.

Because a lot of the modern commentators are a little reluctant to ring in on this my son part. He says, Joshua feels for the criminal. The expression seems almost to imply a belief that, though Achan must undergo the extreme penalty of the law in this world, Joshua entertained a hope that he might be forgiven in the next. It certainly proves that, stern as the law of Moses was, it was felt, at least in those days, to be rather against the sin than the sinner that its severity was directed.

So he says, back in 1890, just like today, they understood the humanity of the situation. God did not hate Achan, and neither did Joshua, and neither should we. In verse 20, and Achan answered Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against Yahweh, God of Israel, and this is what I have done. This is more than remorse, this is repentance. I did it, and I did it against God.

I sinned. The confession won't reduce the sentence in this case. Remorse does not always halt the consequence, as with Judas Iscariot.

Maybe it does with men, but not with God. Judas had remorse, he did not repent and make this confession. If he had, I don't think he'd be the son of perdition. Well, God knew all that in advance and called it out. Peter, on the other hand, of course, bitterly repented, hated himself, and just was just awful. Matthew chapter 23, then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, seeing that Christ was condemned, was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. He had a sense of humanity without deity. That's no good.

They're moralists, people that will not offend other people as best they can, but they still offend God by saying he's not who he says he is. Well, verse 21, when I saw the spoils of a beautiful Babylonian garment, two shekels of silver, a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels, I coveted them and took them, and there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. He says it was a prize find. It's alluring. I saw it.

I got it. He says a beautiful Babylonian garment, literally a beautiful garment of Shinar. Well, it's rare, and Shinar is Babylon, of course.

About six pounds of silver, about a pound of gold. He says I coveted them and I took them, just like David coveted Bathsheba and took her. That was mutual, though. Ahab, he coveted Naboth's vineyards. He saw it, he took it.

He killed Naboth in the process. Of course, Jezebel, the brains of the outfit and Ahab, the brainless one of the outfit. Gehazi, he saw the garments and all that Naaman to give to Elijah. Elijah said, I can't take that. I didn't do anything. And Gehazi said, I see it.

I can take it. And of course, he conspired. He coveted, he conspired, he concealed and then he was revealed. He says in verse 21 also, and there they are hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it. So he comes to God, he acknowledges his guilt and how deliberate it was, but as it was with Jonah, you know, Jonah went down to Joppa, he went down to the docks, down into the ship.

He just kept going down, down. That's the only place a person can go when they're running from God. Here, Achan, he dug. He dug a hole for the treasures, he dug a hole that was a grave for 36 soldiers, and he dug a hole for his family's doom in the process also. He says, I saw, I wanted, I took, I hid, and others suffered.

So the New Testament, of course, scares us, which it should do. But each one is tempted, James writes, when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it's full grown, it brings forth death, and that's what we're seeing in the life of Achan. 1 John chapter 2, I'm not going to read this because we know it, and we're running low on time, but he says, don't love the world.

The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, don't stay away from those things. Verse 22, so Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver under it. So he gets the proof and confirmation, he wants to validate these, his confession. Verse 23, and he took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and it says, and laid them out before Yahweh. Careful wording, is it not? Well we, there's a lot there, and we can't tell, well I'm not touching it this evening.

Verse 24, then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor. The law is strict. It knows no mercy, it's absolute. We're not under the law, but we're not lawless either, this kind of law. Now of course, the picture in our head are these little children, you know, his sons and daughters, these are not little children. They're old enough to tell, and the law was also very careful about that, that the sons do not get punished for the sins of the father and vice versa.

They were in cahoots. Colossians 3, New Testament says, but he who does wrong will be repaid for what he does, what he has done, and there is no partiality. So it's very clear the family is implicated, indicted for their evil deeds, their contribution, and the conclusion is that they buried it, he buried it in the tent, they knew about it, they said nothing, and again it's Sapphire and Ananias in complexion, verse 25. And Joshua said, why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day. Now he's actually being poetic.

I'll get to that in a minute. So all Israel stoned him with stones, they burned them with the fire, with fire after they had stoned them with stones. This, why have you troubled? Well the name Achan means troubler, and so he, it just is there, and he says it. You know when you write something that's creative, it's usually an inspiration, it's a moment.

If you do a lot of writing, you'd be better at it, you start using better words instead of the same word, and just, you know, prose, it gets a little bit more flavor, and it gets that, what you're feeling is what I'm trying to say. And this is a moment in Joshua's life where he says you've troubled Israel, because Joshua hates to have to do this. This is not, woohoo, we're getting rid of a bad guy. This is disgusting for him, but it has to be done. And he knows it, this is a man that's been in God's presence long back in the days of Moses, he knows the deal, and he's following through with how unpleasant it is. And it's tough when a pastor has to excommunicate someone from the church, not from Christ, that's not the right word, the right word is disfellowship. When we have to say, you know what, you can't come back until this gets done.

And that's not easy, but this, this comparatively, okay, let's all do it next time, more levity after considering something like this. So Joshua makes a pun on the name of Achan, you have troubled us, God troubles you, and 1 Chronicles chapter 7 looks back at this event and mentions Achar, which is a variation of Achan, the troubler of Israel, it says in 1 Chronicles 2, 7, who transgressed in the accursed thing. He says here in verse 25 and towards the bottom, so all Israel stoned him with stones and they burned them with fire. Rahab, her entire household was saved because of faith and they submitted. Achan loses his whole family because they did not submit, they tried to pull this off. Joshua 22 verse 20, looking back at these events, did not Achan, the son of Zerah, commit a trespass in the accursed thing and wrath fell on the congregation of Israel and that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.

He didn't die alone, they went with him. So this whole chapter is to take a believer and say, what do you think about this? And kind of leave it there because you do not have to go to seminary to draw conclusions, it's right there on the surface. Verse 26, and they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger, therefore the name of the place has been called the valley of Achor to this day. The place of judgment became a monument for the people of Israel, but there is no valley of trouble before God that does not have a door of hope and when we get to Hosea, we come across in Hosea 2, the valley of hope in the midst of the valley of Achor and that's how God is.

So what is all this about to summarize? Deuteronomy chapter 20 tells us that this is about souls going to hell and souls going to heaven, but the cities of these peoples which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Pezerite, the Hivite, the Jebusite, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations, which they have done for their gods, and you sin against Yahweh your God. So God told Moses when you come to the Promised Land, this is going to be a spiritual war, but they're going to use physical things to corrupt you spiritually. So Israel took Ai's spoils from war after God had forced them to say, you know what, if Achan just had waited, he would have been taken care of. Well, that's the story of Achan that defeated Ai.

Next session we will consider the victory at Ai. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

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