Joshua and Judges: Removing iniquity from the camp; the discipline of Achan, Jos 7:10-26.

Title: Joshua and Judges: God's sake in the NT and Joshua's rebuke but answered prayer, JOS 7:10-26. 

 

God rebukes Joshua yet in it He answers Joshua's prayer and points him in the direction of victory.

 

JOS 7:6 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

 

JOS 7:7 And Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord God, why didst Thou ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan!

 

JOS 7:8 "O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies?

 

JOS 7:9 "For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt Thou do for Thy great name?"

 

JOS 7:10 So the Lord said to Joshua, "Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face?

 

JOS 7:11 "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things [furniture].

 

The action of the one affects the entire nation (Israel has sinned) since in her midst are stolen articles that were sanctified unto the Lord.

 

Achan put the stolen articles amongst his own things or furniture so that they might be used with the rest for his own purposes.

 

What is sanctified unto the Lord is not to be used for the purposes of another. This is a major theme in the doctrine of sanctification. Every believer is sanctified and so he is not to use his life for his own purposes. This in no way means asceticism but rather a life that has been entrusted to his faithful creator.

 

JOS 7:12 Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.

 

On account of this sin the Israelites could not stand before their foes, because they had fallen under the ban.

 

And until this ban had been removed from their midst, the Lord would not help them any further.

 

JOS 7:13 Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said," There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst."

 

Joshua ordered them to consecrate themselves the day before they crossed the Jordan, which given the time, was likely not a ritual cleansing as they were commanded to do at Sinai, which took three days. So then it is likely that they are being commanded to sanctify their hearts and to get their hearts off of the topic of their defeat in battle or about anything else other than the person and work of Jehovah. They will present themselves before the Lord through their representatives, the leaders of the twelve tribes followed by the leaders of the clans within the tribe that the lot fell to, followed by the leaders of the households of that clan, and then man by man within the selected household. Not every person will be presented but only those upon whom the lot falls. So then, as they determine the man who sinned they were to have sanctified hearts that were occupied with the Lord and His Law and not with speculation of who did it, rumor and judging concerning the same, or even the details of the coming search. While this solemn process ensues they are to have their hearts solely focusing on the Lord.

 

Every time we do the works of the Lord our hearts must be sanctified unto Him, occupied with Him and not ourselves.

 

We must have our hearts focusing on God's plan and purposes, His will and His means. To be focused on self or the sins and failures of others is to fail to see the real meaning behind the works of the Lord. This cancels all true motivation and thinking.

 

JOS 7:14 'In the morning then you shall come near by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes by lot shall come near by families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household which the Lord  takes shall come near man by man.

 

The lot is not expressly mentioned, but the Hebrew word lakad, translated "takes," is the technical term used for decision by lot (1SA 14:42; 10:20). Moreover, the fact that first the tribe is taken, then the family, etc. is a proof that the lot was employed to discover the guilty man. The lot was not chance but it was divinely guided by the Lord.

 

This entire procedure would have taken place in front of the tabernacle as it would have remained at Gilgal.

 

pic - camp of Israel

 

Though casting lots was a form of divination in ancient pagan religions and is even used today, innocently by flipping a coin, it was practiced in Israel in many cases. When used within God's will, which obviously it is here since God commanded it, the lot was divinely guided so that the right choice was made.

 

JOS 7:15 'And it shall be that the one who is taken [on whom the lot falls] with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire [after being stoned], he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.'"

 

‎Each of these was represented by its natural head, so that we must picture the affair as conducted in the following manner: in order to discover the tribe, the twelve tribe princes came before the Lord; and in order to discover the family, the heads of families of the tribe that had been taken, and so on to the end, each one in turn being subjected to the lot.

 

The lot was frequently resorted to in cases where a crime could not be brought home to a person by the testimony of eye-witnesses.

 

PRO 18:18

The lot puts an end to contentions,

And decides between the mighty.

 

It was firmly believed that the lot was directed by the Lord.

 

PRO 16:33

The lot is cast into the lap,

But its every decision is from the Lord.

 

Israel’s first king was chosen by lot.

   

1SA 10:20-21

Thus Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its families, and the Matrite family was taken. And Saul the son of Kish was taken;

 

The verb lakad, "taken," is used here as it is in JOS 7:14-15.

 

After they conquered the land much of the territory was divided amongst the tribes by lot.

 

JOS 18:6

And you shall describe the land in seven divisions, and bring the description here to me. And I will cast lots for you here before the Lord our God.

 

In the NT we see the casting of lots for our Lord's seamless garment at the foot of the cross. One wonders if God used that lot to divinely choose the recipient of the garment as Lloyd Douglas portrayed so well in his book The Robe. Since it was prophesied in Psa 22 that they would do so it is likely that God changed a life or many lives with that robe. In ACT 1:26 Peter had the bright idea to cast lots to fill the position of the twelfth apostle. We would conclude this lot to be outside the will of God since the winner did not become the twelfth apostle. It was common enough in the OT that we can understand why Peter did  so, but surely it was done Since neither of these, the soldiers at the cross or Peter's job application were commanded by God, and since they are the only instances found in the NT, we would conclude that casting lots for divine guidance is not condoned in the church age.

 

JOS 7:15 'And it shall be that the one who is taken [on whom the lot falls] with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire [after being stoned], he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.'"

 

In what manner the lot was cast we do not know. In all probability little tablets or potsherds were used, with the names written upon them, and these were drawn out of an urn.

 

God did not intend to point out the culprit at once. Maybe He was giving Achan a chance to come out and confess and therefore save them the whole time of performing the process, but we can only speculate.

 

JOS 7:16 So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken.

 

JOS 7:17 And he brought the family of Judah near, and he took the family of the Zerahites; and he brought the family of the Zerahites near man by man, and Zabdi was taken.

 

JOS 7:18 And he brought his household near man by man; and Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was taken.

 

The heads of the people presented themselves and the lot fell to Judah and then the heads of all the clans of Judah presented themselves and the lot fell to Zerah, and then the heads of the households that were in Zerah's clan presented themselves and the lot fell to Zabdi, one of the sons of Zerah, and then his household presented themselves and the lot fell to his grandson Achan.

 

We can imagine the angst that grew in the heart of Achan as the lottery whittled down the many people as the spotlight began to focus more and more upon him.

 

JOS 7:19 Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me."

 

Some translations have it "and give confession to Him," but the meaning of the Hebrew word todah is thanksgiving or praise. So then the instruction by Joshua is to tell what he had done, confess the truth of the sin, and in this he would be praising God. The reason this is praise of God is because it is the act of acknowledging one's deeds to the omniscience, omnipotence, and holiness of God, or to render to God the glory that is due.

 

Confession is praise of God since it is acknowledging the righteousness of the Lord, which the believer does when he performs good or acknowledges sin.

 

When we perform divine good we are confessing His name openly and agreeing that only He is righteous, and when we acknowledge our sin privately to Him we are confessing Him as the only righteous One who possesses the only righteous standard. When we walk in the righteous standard we proclaim it, when we fail to walk in the righteous standard and we acknowledge that iniquity (missing the mark) we are again proclaiming that standard.

 

When Achan had been discovered to be the criminal, Joshua charged him to give honor and praise to the Lord, and to confess without reserve what he had done. It is not ironically, or with dissimulation, that Joshua addresses him as "my son," but with "sincere paternal regard."

 

This serves as a lesson to judges, that when punishing crimes they should moderate their harshness and not lose all the feelings of humanity; and that while merciful they should not be careless.

 

JOS 7:20 So Achan answered Joshua and said, "Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did:

 

JOS 7:21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it."

 

The mantle is a costly Babylonish cloak, artistically worked, and distributed far and wide.

 

It is difficult to get an approximate value in today's money since the market value for gold and silver fluctuate according to supply and demand. The best I can do by piecing together the work of various commentators along with currency converters is approximately 0,000 for the metals alone. Adding the cost of the artistry of the cloak itself we have a very pricy and beautiful object. It must have contrasted greatly with the rest of the stuff in his tent. It's like having a Faberge egg sitting on an old TV in a cardboard shack.  

 

We can imagine the cloak and the gold being placed in a chest with the silver buried underneath it.

 

JOS 7:22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it.

 

JOS 7:23 And they took them from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel, and they poured them out before the Lord.

 

Joshua sent two messengers directly to Achan's tent to fetch the things, and when they were brought he had them laid down before Jehovah, or before the tabernacle, where the whole affair had taken place.

 

JOS 7:24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

 

JOS 7:25 And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day." And all Israel stoned them with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

 

This is a difficult verse, not just because of the possibility that Achan's wife and children were also stoned, but also because the Hebrew is difficult. There is a particle that is used that is singular, but it is used as a marker for the object of the verb and is not to be translated, so then the object of the verb "stoned" could be construed as singular and so just Achan was stoned, however, the verb "stoned" is in the plural, which is why the NASB has "stoned them." Most commentators with excellent knowledge of the Hebrew conclude that the whole family was stoned to death but admit that there is a possibility that only Achan was stoned and his family was present with him in order to witness it. As far as I can see there is no way to settle the question definitely.

In the Law it is forbidden to kill the children for the sins of the father.

 

DEU 24:16

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

 

So then, if the children were stoned then they must have been in on it and the same would be said for his wife. All his possessions were also destroyed. The animals are innocent to be sure, but God is completely removing all traces of the sin from the midst of Israel. The burning of all of them is symbolic in that nothing remains, not even bones in the ground. All in the nation must follow God for success in the land, as God had instructed them.

 

The burning of all of them is symbolic; nothing of the sin remains. In Christ, sin would not just be covered over, but completely destroyed.

 

Fire here represents the ultimate in judgment and destruction, as it will be to Babylon the Great near the end of the Tribulation:

 

REV 18:8

"For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.

 

All sin as well as the world and all in it will be destroyed by fire. The unbeliever along with Satan and the fallen angels will be cast into the Lake of Fire.

 

JOS 7:26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor to this day.