The Shepherd Dealing with Sin - Joshua 7:1-26

Sermon Series: Great Leader, Exceptional Follower

The author of the book of Joshua sets the stage for what takes place in chapter 7 with a shocking statement in verse 1.  He writes, “But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, Son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things.  And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.”  For the first time in the book of Joshua we see this particular generation of Israelites acting in disobedience.  It is the first time that the author records them committing a sin.  Throughout the first 6 chapters the Israelites had been exceptional in their obedience, doing all that both God and Joshua had commanded them to do.  Now the first verse of chapter 7 tells us that because one individual had acted in disobedience by breaking faith in regards to the command that God had given (to devote all of the things of Jericho to God by either placing them in the treasury of the Lord or by destroying them) that the anger of the Lord burned against all the people of Israel.  This is an incredibly shocking and weighty statement from the author of our text and one which calls the reader to pay particular attention to the content of this story.  As we move forward this week in the examination of our text I want us to look at (1) what transpires after Jericho was conquered, (2) what God declares, and (3) how Joshua responds.

Let’s begin by examining what transpires after Jericho was conquered.  [Read 7:2-5]  Having captured and destroyed Jericho, Joshua looks to the next city that the Israelites would pursue – Ai.  And as was Joshua’s custom he sent out spies to spy out the city just as he had done with Jericho before the Israelites set out to capture it.  The spies returned with what seemed like very good news.  The number of people inhabiting Ai was few – so few in fact that the spies suggested that there was no need to send all of the men of Israel to fight.  So Joshua only sent a small fraction of the men of Israel (about 3,000) to fight and to take possession of the city.  Unfortunately the men of Israel failed in their attempt and had to flee from the men of Ai.  We also discover for the first time since the Israelites had entered the promise land that loss of life occurs in battle.  Nowhere in all of chapter 6 do we see any mention of loss of Israelite life in the conquest of Jericho, but in the first part of chapter 7 we find that while the men of Ai were pursuing them 36 of the Israelites were struck and killed.  Against a much smaller and more vulnerable opponent the Israelites were defeated and in the shame and humiliation of the defeat the Israelites began to fear that God had stopped fighting for them.

[Read 7:6-9]  In verses 6 through 9 we see the response of Joshua to the news of Israel’s defeat to Ai.  Tearing his clothes, falling on his face, and putting dust upon his head were all signs that he was mourning greatly.  Joshua was mourning the loss of the lives of the 36 men who had died in the battle with Ai, but it also appears that Joshua was mourning a much greater loss that he perceived would be coming.  Joshua believed the news of Israel’s defeat would encourage all of the Canaanites and inhabitants of the promise land to unite their forces and come after the Israelites, which he believed would surely result in the death and destruction of the entire Israelite nation.  For Joshua this was an overwhelming sense of loss which causes Joshua to be broken in the presence of God.  It appears that Joshua had forgetten the earlier promises of God and looking at the coming destruction he seems to assume that one of two things is true: either (1) God had brought the Israelites into this land for the purpose of destroying them, or (2) the Israelites had bitten off more than they could chew and should have been content to inhabit the land east of the Jordan River.  Whichever was true the Israelites had taken the posture of retreat and Joshua wasn’t quite sure how to give an account.  All he seems certain of at this point is that Israel would be destroyed and that God’s name would once again be the object of reproach among the nations. 

Having seen what transpired with the Israelites and their battle with the city of Ai and Joshua’s reaction to the news, now let’s turn our attention to what God declares.  [Read 7:10-15] The first thing that God commands Joshua to do is to ‘get up.’  God had appointed Joshua as shepherd over His people and He needed Joshua first and foremost to assume a posture and stance from which he could both follow after Him and lead the Israelites.  As the spiritual leader for the Israelites God needed Joshua to once again lead the people spiritually.  Why?  Because Israel had sinned against Him.  There could be no misunderstanding, it was sin that led to this first taste of destruction.  According to verse 11 Israel had ‘sinned,’ ‘transgressed,’ ‘taken,’ ‘stolen,’ and ‘lied.’  And now God was following through with what He said would happen if the Israelites kept anything for themselves from the city of Jericho [see 6:18].  The reason they had turned their backs on their enemies was because God had made them into an object of destruction.  And the only way that God would relent and partner with Israel again was if their shepherd made sure that all of the devoted things had been destroyed and that His people were set apart for God and following Him.  So God instructs Joshua to get up and get busy consecrating the people once again.  After they had consecrated themselves God was then going to go through the process of singling out the individual who was guilty of transgressing the covenant that God had made with Israel.  God says that each tribe would be brought near and that He would ‘take’ (or more literally ‘catch’ or ‘capture’) the tribe to which the guilty party belonged.  Then the different clans of the identified tribe would be brought near and God would catch the clan to which the guilty party belonged.  Having identified the clan then the households of that clan would come near and God would catch the household to which the guilty party belonged.  And then having identified the household the men were to come near one by one until God caught the individual who was guilty of having taken the devoted objects.  That individual, because of the sin which he had committed, would not be treated any differently than the inhabitants of Jericho.  (Note - God is not an unjust God who condemns harshly the sin of unbelievers but overlooks the sin of those who belong to Him.)  God was going to subject the sin of this individual to the same destruction that the wicked and sinful inhabitants of Jericho faced.  The individual that God identified as the guilty part was to be destroyed, along with all that he had, by being put to death and burned, because his sin was in God’s eyes “an outrageous thing” (vs.15).

Chapter 7 concludes with Joshua’s response.  [Read 7:16-26] Once again Joshua serves as a model of exceptional following.  Joshua didn’t wait long at all to get started, he rose early on the next morning to consecrate the people and to begin the process that God had outlined for him the evening before.  Joshua summonsed the tribes of Israel to come near and the tribe of Judah was identified.  Then Joshua summonsed the clans of Judah to come near and the clan of the Zerahites was identified.  Then Joshua summonsed the households of the Zerahites to come near and the household of Zabdi was identified.  And finally he summonsed the men of the household of Zabdi to come near until Achan was ‘taken’ or ‘caught.’  Having been identified by God as the guilty individual Joshua gives Achan a few interesting commands: “Then Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to Him.  And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.’”  Joshua wasn’t instructing Achan to first participate in an act of disengaged worship and praise and then to follow that by confessing his sin.  Instead Achan was to confess his sin to God, Joshua, and the rest of the Israelites, which would in fact be an act of giving glory to God.  No longer would he be hiding his transgressions, but in acknowledging them and confessing them before God he would be demonstrating that God was the sovereign judge and the One to which all of creation would give an account.   

Achan answers Joshua and confesses what it is that he has done.  As the Israelites were collecting items from Jericho to be destroyed and set aside for the treasury of the Lord Achan came across some items that he says looked desirable to him and he began to covet.  Achan had discovered a beautiful cloak, 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels.  Then rather than devoting them to destruction and to the Lord’s treasury, Achan disobediently took them into his own possession and found a way to sneak them into the Israelite’s camp and into his tent. Achan had committed a sin against God – a sin that had gone entirely unperceived by the rest of the Israelites.  And it seems that because no one noticed Achan believed that he had successfully gotten away with an act that he had been commanded not to do.  But while the sin may have been hidden from Joshua and the rest of the Israelites the sin was not at all hidden from God.  And while the hidden sin had not resulted in rebuke or punishment from Israelite leaders, it did have very serious consequences.  God had made the entire Israelite nation an object of destruction, His presence was not currently with the Israelites, and 36 men had lost their lives in a battle against a much inferior opponent.  While Achan had successfully hidden his sin from men he was unable to hide it from God.  And God, being just in His nature, was committed to dealing with Achan’s sin just as He was committed to dealing with the sin of those who had inhabited Jericho.

Joshua sent men to Achan’s tent to find out if in fact Achan’s confession was true.  The men found the items just as Achan had reported, gathered them up, and then brought them before Joshua and all of Israel.  Then in obedience to God’s command Joshua took responsibility for dealing with the sin of Achan.  Joshua took Achan, the items he had taken, his family, livestock, and all of his possessions and destroyed them.  The Israelites stoned Achan and burned his body and his possessions until they were all completely destroyed.  The punishment that Jericho’s inhabitants had received for their sinfulness was the punishment that Achan had also received.  Then the Israelites raised a great heap of stones over Achan’s remains – a mound of stones that would serve as a reminder like the 12 stones that were taken from the Jordan River and placed in a pile as a reminder at Gilgal.  While the earlier mound of stones reminded the people of God’s mighty hand and work on their behalf to bring them into the promise land, this mound of stones would serve as a reminder of the seriousness with which God deals with sin and a reminder to be obedient in all that they did. 

Chapter 7, having opened up with a shocking and weighty statement about God’s burning anger against the Israelites now concludes with another statement about God’s burning anger.  The news this time is much better though.  Chapter 7 concludes by declaring that “the Lord turned from His burning anger.”  Joshua’s obedience in dealing with the sin of Israel and leading the Israelites to make sure that all of the devoted things from Jericho had been destroyed caused God to turn from His burning anger.  And because God had turned from His burning anger He would once again be for Joshua and the Israelites.

I think the toughest part for most of us about chapter 7 is what we read in verse 1.  While verse 1 tells us that it was Achan alone who had sinned and who had broken faith in regard to the devoted things, verse 1 also tells us that God counted that sin towards the whole nation of Israel.  Notice that verse 1 begins, “But the people of Israel broke faith . . .” and ends, “and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.”  This doesn’t seem fair at all to us – in fact it seems incredibly unfair.  But let me remind you that whether or not this seems fair to us the story in Joshua 7 is reminding us of the reality we all face.  The Bible begins by telling a story of one individual who sinned and how that one individual’s sin impacted all of humanity.  Just as Achan’s sin was the first recorded sin in the book of Joshua, Genesis chapter 3 tells us the story of the first sin that was ever committed.  The Bible tells us that God had given permission to Adam and Eve to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden except one – they were not to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  But Satan came along one day and deceived Adam and Eve into believing that God did not have their best interest in mind and that eating the fruit from that one particular tree would make them like God.  Then pay particular attention to what takes place next.  Adam and Eve set their eyes on the forbidden fruit and the text says that they “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise . . .” (Genesis 3:6).  Adam and Eve saw the fruit, desired the fruit, and then they took and ate of the fruit, even though God had commanded them not to.  Achan does the same thing in Joshua 7.  He confesses to seeing the cloak, the silver and the gold, desiring them, and then taking them into his possession, even though God had commanded him not to.

In the story recounted in Joshua 7, the result of Achan’s sin is no different than the result of Adam’s sin in Genesis 3.  God’s anger burned against Adam and Eve for the sin which they had committed and God forced them to depart from the Garden of Eden and from His very presence.  Because of their sin they were appointed to suffer death and destruction – which would be the result of God’s wrath poured out on their sin.  And because of the sin which they committed their offspring would all be born with a natural bent toward sin and self so that all of creation from that time forward would be guilty of sin and separated from their Creator.  In Joshua 7, after Achan commits his sin, we discover that God’s anger burned against Achan.  Sin in God’s eyes is an “outrageous thing” and because of God’s holiness He is unable to simply overlook it.  We find in Joshua 7 that God removes His presence from the Israelite camp.  But that wasn’t enough, sin also had to be dealt with and the penalty for sin had to be paid.  God has appointed that His wrath be poured out on sinful individuals resulting in their death, destruction, and eternal separation from Him.  This is what awaited Achan for his disobedience, and it is also what awaited the entire Israelite nation.  God had said that if some of the devoted items had been brought into the Israelite camp that all of Israel would become an object devoted for destruction (6:18).  Though it may seem unfair, the sin of one individual (Achan) had had a devastating impact on all of God’s people – serving as a reminder that the sin of one individual (Adam) at the beginning of creation had had a devastating impact on all of God’s creation. 

The story recounted in Joshua 7 then takes an interesting turn.  God’s anger was burning towards the entire nation of Israel, but God didn’t demand that each individual Israelite start making amends.  Instead God called to action one individual – the shepherd of His people (Joshua).  God told Joshua that he needed to get to work, consecrating the people by dealing with the sin.  Joshua would be responsible for making sure that the penalty for sin was carried out in its entirety.  Then, and only then, would God’s burning anger be turned away from the Israelites and only then would God be able to come into the presence of His people once again.  And again in Joshua we see a foreshadowing of Jesus because this is exactly what God commanded Jesus to do.  God’s burning anger having been directed at His creation from the time of Adam and Eve’s sin through many generations finally commanded His Son, Jesus – the Good Shepherd, to go to earth and to deal with the sin of creation.  God didn’t call all of humanity to make amends for their sin – instead He called into action One individual, His Son, Jesus.  Unlike Joshua though, God didn’t send Jesus to deal with sin by judging and carrying out the penalty against all of us who are guilty.  God sent Jesus to deal with our sin by suffering our penalty in our place so that we wouldn’t have to.  Instead of us receiving the wrath of God that we each deserve God poured out His wrath for sin on His Son, who served as our substitute.  While Jesus was on the cross God poured out all of His burning anger towards sin on His Son.  That was the means by which Jesus dealt with the sins of humanity.  And because Jesus became the recipient of all of God’s burning anger towards humanity’s sin God is now able to turn His burning anger away from those who by faith trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  Those who believe that they are unable to pay the penalty for their sin themselves and believe that Jesus paid their sin penalty in full when He died on the cross and that He conquered sin and death by rising again will become recipients of God’s forgiveness and salvation.  God will turn His burning anger away from them and will once again allow those individuals to come into His presence. 

Allow me to conclude by pointing you to a NT perspective of the truths we see in Joshua 7 and how they present the bigger story of the gospel in general.  The Apostle Paul writes in his NT letter to the Romans.  “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned . . . Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.  For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” Romans 5:12, 16.  The truth of the matter is you and I, because of Adam’s sin in the garden, are also condemned sinners who are objects of God’s burning anger.  That’s the reality for all men.  But the incredible news is that another individual has come to rescue us from that sin and from God’s burning anger.  The question that remains is “What has your response been towards that individual?”  Have you believed in Jesus and His saving work on your behalf?  Or are you hoping and trusting in yourself?

Small Group Questions for Discussion

1. What are some similarities between Achan’s sin (in Joshua 7) and Adam and Eve’s sin (in Genesis 3)?

2. Even if we are able to hide our sin from other people, what is the reality in regards to our sin and God’s perception of it?  What does this text tell us about how God feels about our sin? 

3. What did God ask Joshua to do in response to Achan’s sin?  How did Joshua deal with Achan’s sin?

4. How does Joshua foreshadow Jesus in this story?

5. What does this story teach us in regards to our response to our own sin?  What do you and I need to do?