“For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13)
The story of Achan reminds us that sin is serious. It is deadly. His sin caused the whole of Israel to fail. That may not seem fair, but it reminds us that we have a collective responsibility to take sin seriously and to encourage and even discipline one another, so that sin is rooted out.
Achan’s Sin (Joshua 7)
What is worse, success or failure?
What is worse, success or failure?
If you think back to the World Cup, if you watched it you may remember feeling ecstatic when England won, particularly when they played well, but maybe devastated when they lost to Argentina. The immediate effects of success are joy and elation, whilst failure can leave us feeling depressed and miserable.
And success matters. This week, we were delighted that our daughter was successful in her application for a three month internship. Success means she has a job, income and experience to build a career on. Failure, would have left her unemployed and still looking for work.
On the whole success is a good thing and failure is bad. And yet, that is not the whole story. There are dangers that come with success. It can lead to over-confidence and entitlement, whilst failure can teach you valuable lessons. After all, the old adage, “You learn from your mistakes.” Is a very true saying.
The story of Joshua so far has been one of success. Miraculously, God stopped the river Jordan, so that the Israelites could cross over into the Promised Land. The first major obstacle to the Promised Land had been overcome. Then last week, we heard about their success in defeating Jericho, again with the help of a miracle of God, bringing the walls down, so that Israel could charge in unopposed.
The campaign so far had been one of amazing successes. But, success can lead to entitlement and over-confidence. Still revelling over the success with Jericho, Joshua’s spies look over the next target, a small outpost called, Ai. This they say, should be easy. It won’t need all the troops to capture it, only a few will do. So, Joshua sends a small contingent to attack Ai, but it is a total failure. The Israelites are routed and 36 of them lose their lives. Israel are suddenly faced with their first failure. What has gone wrong? How are they going to deal with failure?
How not to Respond to Failure: Joshua’s Despair
Joshua’s response is despair. But at least it is despair directed towards God.
He and the other leaders of Israel, turn to a state of mourning and throw themselves on the ground before God.
Turning to God is good. Perhaps the failure, grew out of their over-confidence. After all, God had helped them cross the Jordan and defeat Jericho, but their attack on Ai had been without reference to God.
What Joshua, says, however, is not good. Look at verse 7:
“Ah, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!” (Joshua 7:7)
In many ways, he is catastrophising, turning a mole hill into a mountain. After all, they had crossed the Jordan and defeated Jericho, now one small force has been defeated and only 36 men lost in the battle, to lose one small battle is not to lose the war, but Joshua speaks as though the war is completely lost. It is easy to lose perspective after failure.
Worse than that, he speaks in a way that echoes the grumbling of the Israelites in the wilderness. A grumbling that looks back to the past as a better place, and fails to trust God for the future. These words of Joshua are focussed very much on himself and the Israelites, they are full of self-pity, they imagine the worst for the future, they show a complete lack of faith in God. These are exactly the same attitudes that caused the previous generation of Israelites to wander in the wilderness for forty years. This is not the way to respond to failure. This is the kind of attitude that turns one failure into a life of failure!
How to Respond to Failure: God’s Diagnosis
Despite Joshua’s defeatist talk, God is gracious and shows Joshua how he should be responding to failure. He needs to see what has gone wrong and deal with the problem.
God says, to Joshua in verse 10:
“Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?” (Joshua 7:10)
He then proceeds to tell them why the failure has occurred and what they need to do about it. The problem was sin. The solution was to discipline those who had sinned. We’ll look into the details of that in a moment.
At a purely common sense level it is better to deal with failure, not with despair and imagining the worst possible outcomes, but to consider what has caused the failure and to take steps to fix the problem
For us as God’s people, though, we need to ask have we failed because of sin. Has God stopped supporting us, because either we are sinning in some way or someone in the team that failed has sinned in some way or there is something wrong with the mindset or culture of the team. This is not always the reason for failure. God may allow us to fail, because he wants us to show perseverance and build up our faith. But it is a question that needs to be asked, and sometimes it will give us the explanation for the failure and show us what needs to be changed.
So, let’s think about the sin that caused the failure for Israel at Ai on this occasion.
Israel’s Sin: Achan’s Greed
We are told at the start of the chapter, what Joshua does not know. Achan had taken some of the devoted things during the battle of Jericho.
The instructions for the conquest of Jericho had been clear, everything was to be devoted to God. That meant it was either to be burned or if it was gold or silver to be taken into God’s treasury. This was unique to Jericho, because it was the first conquest in the Promised Land. But, it was a necessary way, of Israel accepting that the land and everything in it belonged to God and that it was through God’s actions, that they won the battle. Once they had demonstrated that by devoting all the plunder to God on their first victory, then God would allow them to take the plunder for themselves in future battles.
But Achan had not obeyed this command. He had taken some of what was devoted to God and hidden it in the ground under his tent. Why had he done this?
When Achan is called out for being the person responsible for the sin, he says in verse 21:
“When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.” (Joshua 7:21)
First, notice that Achan does not describe them as ‘devoted things’, but as plunder. He does not acknowledge that they rightfully belong to God, but he thinks that they belong to him as a prize of war, as reward for being part of the successful destruction of Jericho. This is one of the dangers of success, it can lead to a sense of entitlement, that I deserve some kind of reward because of what I have achieved. Achan did not acknowledge God’s crucial role in securing their victory, it was all about him. When we have success in life, let us not forget to acknowledge God and to recognise that everything we have comes from him. Our response to success needs to be gratitude to God, not glory for ourselves.
Second, he says he coveted, took and hid them. Clearly, this is breaking three of the Ten Commandments, the command not to lie, the command not to steal and the command not to covet. But, before we sit back smugly in judgement on Achan, let me ask you a question: “If someone offered you money to give up following Jesus, how much would it take to persuade you?”
What Achan took was worth a lot of money. At today’s value, the gold and silver he took is worth over £7,000. That does not include, what was obviously a luxury cloak imported from Shinar, which was hundreds of miles from Jericho. Achan had taken this haul, because it was a valuable acquisition. He was motivated by greed not obedience to God.
To seek your own glory rather than giving gratitude to God, is a form of idolatry. Greed, which puts possessions as more important than God is also a form of idolatry. Paul says in Colossians 3:5:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” (Colossians 3:5)
Achan’s crime was not a misdemeanour, it was a rebellion against God himself. It was a form of idolatry and idolatry is what the people of Jericho were being judged for. So, it is no surprise that Achan and all who belonged to him, were treated as though they were one of the people of Jericho. They were killed by the Israelites, burned and turned into a heap of rubble.
Achan, despite being an Israelite, failed to fear and trust in the God of Israel. He swapped places with Rahab, who despite being a Canaanite had feared and trusted in the God of Israel. Rahab and her family were rescued from the judgement of Jericho, Achan and his family were treated as though they were under the judgement of Jericho.
Israel dealt with Sin and found Success
This whole story underlines the importance of obedience and commitment to God. As Christians we rightly remember that God is a God of grace and forgiveness, and Rahab demonstrates that.
But, the story of Achan reminds us that sin is serious. It is deadly. His sin caused the whole of Israel to fail. That may not seem fair, but it reminds us that we have a collective responsibility to take sin seriously and to encourage and even discipline one another, so that sin is rooted out.
And of course, although the cross of Jesus, is a great symbol of God’s grace and love, a sign that like Rahab anyone can find salvation through trust in Christ. The cross is also a symbol of the seriousness of sin. If Jesus had to die for our sin, then we are reminded that sin is disastrous and deadly. We need to be serious about cutting it out of our lives.
Israel under Joshua took steps to deal with the sin in their midst. The result was that God’s presence and support were restored and so in the next chapter, they were successful in their second attempt to conquer Ai. Their failure had taught them a valuable lesson.
If as a church we want to be successful, we need to take sin seriously, and acknowledge that it might be the reason behind our failures. In particular, we must avoid any sense of entitlement that forgets God’s role in our success or greed that looks to salvation in possessions rather than God. We need to keep our relationship with God as the most important and valuable thing in our lives. As Jesus says,
“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
St. George's Church Ramsgate 