JOSHUA - Chapter 7 - ACHAN'S SIN AND REDEMPTION
JOSHUA – Chapter 7- ACHAN’S SIN and REDEMPTION
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
July 26, 2016, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
As we approach our annual conference, I am doubling down on repentance of my sins known and unknown. You might say, “Carolyn, you live a clean and separated life.” “Yes, but our conferences are warfare.” We cannot enter into warfare holding on to any pet sin or attitude that is out of harmony with the LORD GOD. I can be assured through three decades of experience that any weakness in the camp will manifest either before or after the conference.
The LORD has called us this year to the Victory of Faith that overcomes the world (kosmos). That is a very imposing calling. The world is in chaos and the LORD is calling his church to the realm of unshakeable peace which overcomes the world.
Through the Blood of Jesus, our Lord is calling forth a sanctified and separated church to do warfare in this time when He is shaking everything that can be shaking. We watched as another throne (the DNC Chair) was overthrown this week.
After the fall of Jericho, 6:17: “The Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.”
One of the tricks of the devil for Christians is after a great victory to become presumptuous, full of pride and not pray. The danger of pride is greatest following victory. If we are to continue to enjoy God’s power in our midst, then we must continue in His principles.
Joshua 7:1: “BUT the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing…”
The Hebrew word for trespass is “ma’al” which means infidelity to God or in marriage. God will not condone sin. Nothing can be concealed from Him. By grace, we are “covered” by the Blood of Jesus. Yet, he continues to deal with us that we may become a “kodak color picture of Jesus Christ.”
“For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing…” Achan was the descendant of Judah’s whoredom with Tamar. Zarah was the twin on whom the midwife tied the red string when his hand came forth first. However Pharez was born first. Pharez’ descendants are of the royal line of David. Achan is a “type” of the people in the earth under the curse who have not received their Savior, Jesus Christ, who broke every curse. There are two sons, one who partakes of the accursed thing and one (Jesus Christ) who broke the curse. Both are from the seed of Judah.
“The anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.”
The whole nation is affected by the SIN of one member. The unity and solidarity of God’s people is here stressed. “I saw…I coveted…I took” is the story of temptation and fall.
1 Cor. 12:14: “For the body is not one member but many.”
Jehovah had warned in Deut. 7:22 about anyone taking of the spoils of Jericho.
Joshua 7: 2-5: “Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and view the country. The men went up and viewed Ai. They returned saying, no need for the people to go up; send about two or three thousand men to go up and smite Ai, for they are but a few. Three thousand men went up and they fled from the men of Ai. The men of Ai smote thirty-six men. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and smote them in the going down; wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.”
This was Israel’s first defeat in seven years. We will discover in chapter 8 that it took two battles to defeat Ai. It is God who withheld his power. We can never be presumptuous that we can enter into any battle on our own strength. Every advance must come by prayer and direction from God. No one is able to stand alone in the face of spiritual warfare. The “few” of verse 3 were a total of 12,000 according to chapter 8:25. Israel’s hearts melted and became as water. True Israelites tremble when God is angry.
7: 6-9: “Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore have You at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turns their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth; and what will you do to Your great name?”
In the middle of the battle, burn all of your exits Joshua! Joshua, the man endued with courage and boldness through visitation of the LORD Himself blames God. If we are in defeat, let us seek the LORD for the cause of the broken fellowship, not blame him for the outcome. He used the same language of the people who spent 40 years in the wilderness. This is the voice from the wilderness. The Israelites in the wilderness were an unbelieving generation. Rending of the clothes is a sign of intense sorrow, fear, anger. Ashes are a symbol of deep mourning and true repentance. Those who stay on the other side of Jordan are those who will not take the FAITH risk to move forward in the Army of the Lord. Joshua listened to his spies rather than the voice of Jehovah. In Joshua’s favor, we might say he was concerned for God’s NAME. He may have remembered Moses’ prayer when he asked God to not destroy the Israelites. Also, we might say he was trying to manipulate God, who is always able to defend HIS GREAT NAME!
7: 10: “And the Lord said to Joshua, GET YOU UP, why are you upon your face?”
One lesson we learn quickly as we walk with the Lord, is self-pity carries zero weight with him; nor does wallowing.
7:11-15: “Israel has sinned, and they also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them; for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and deceived. They put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed; neither will I be with you any more, except you destroy the accursed from among you. Sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow; for thus says the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of you, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies, until you take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning you shall be brought according to your tribes. It shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to the families thereof. The family which the Lord shall take shall come by households; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man. It shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has; because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has wrought folly in Israel.”
All Israel had sinned. Jehovah despised their proud look. It is dangerous for leaders to be ignorant of sin in the camp or to turn a blind eye. It is dangerous for a leader to take the carnal advice of others. Beware of any plan that introduces disunity. A true leader will never get in the middle of trouble and become part of the problem. We must always start with an examination of “self”. Like Achan, all Israel took what belong to God: the GLORY for Jericho’s conquest. They became self-confident, self-directive, and self-satisfied.
7:16-18: “Joshua rose up early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken.” The family is the Zarhites. The household is Zabdi. The man is Achan, great grandson of Zerah and Judah.
The offender with all his family and all his possessions was to be burnt with fire (after being killed by stoning). Mal. 3: 8-12 – You will lose your family and your finances if you rob God. Like Achan, Satan will be punished, along with all those who agree with him.
7: 19-23: “Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray you, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him; and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me. Achan answered Joshua. Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. When I saw the goodly Babylonian garment among the spoils, the two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them. I took them. They are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it. Joshua sent messengers to the tent. Behold it was hid in the tent. They took these out of the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the children Israel. They laid them out before the Lord.”
Like Joel’s army, the Sons of God are beginning to discern the Achans of the Church. No one who lusts for money and the things of Babylon will escape this overcoming army. These are Joshua’s (Jesus’) messengers. Gold and silver is always linked with Babylon.
“I saw…I coveted…I took.” How many things do we have hidden in the earth in the midst (the soul) of our tent, so that His redemption (silver) lies buried and useless to us or anyone else? Joshua’s messengers ran and brought the hidden sins of Achan unto Joshua, and exposed them before God and man. Don’t harbor that which belongs in the treasury of the Lord.
7:24: ‘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 asses, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had. They brought them to the valley of Achor.”
I remember when we were standing at the top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas that I prophesied the “strip” would become as the valley of Achor.
7:25-26: “Joshua said why have you troubled us? The Lord shall trouble you this day. All Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire. They raised over him a great heap of stones to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, the valley of Achor to this day.”
Because Achan repented, I believe he and his family are in Heaven. However, the price for the curse had not yet been paid by Jesus. When Jesus descended to Hell and set Hell’s captives free, I have an idea Achan was among them. Jesus has the keys to Hell and Death. (Eph. 4: 8-10; Rev. 1:18)
“He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.”
Twin sons are a type of the two nations on the earth; those who have received Jesus Christ and his Kingdom have overcome the curse; and those who have not received Christ, the spirit of the antichrist.
The mercy of God has a promise and provision through repentance and reformation: Hos. 2:15: “I will give her vineyards and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. She shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”
Isa. 65:10 is a promise for every wayward but yet contrite saint who will seek his face: “Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me.”
The removal of sin by repentance and the Blood of Jesus makes possible once again God’s Divine aid and intervention.
Chapter 8, the Lord comforts His servant and gives him the assurance of victory.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. I entered into the labors of Principles of Present Truth by: Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.