The Sin of Achan

I was reading this morning in Joshua 7, the story of the sin of Achan and I was struck by the Lord's fierce anger towards sin, and I was afraid. I can say, by the Lord's grace that the Lord sits in His rightful place in my heart and no idols are competing with Him in my life at this time. A few months ago this was not the case, there were things I didn't want to let go, but the Lord disciplined me severely and took hold of my heart in such a powerful way that I in turn took hold of Him, and put the idols to death. My fear is that I could let idols creep in if I do not fight and battle the temptations aggressively and murder any sin that begins to show its ugly face. It was one sin of covetousness and disobedience against the Lord that cost Achan his life, and the lives of all his children, and the lives of many of the Israelites, and worst of all that the Lord removed Himself from His people allowing them to be defeated by their enemies. All because of the sin of one man among hundreds of thousands of Israelites.

Think about it. When the Israelites defeated Jericho, they were allowed to take spoil except for whatever the Lord had banned them from taking. Out of probably 600,000 Israelites (of course not all went to war), one man, Achan, saw a mantle, some gold and silver, coveted it and took it and hid it in the ground in his tent. So when the Israelites went to fight their next battle against Ai, though Ai was very small and should have been an easy battle, the Lord allowed Israel to lose and flee back to the camp, and 36 died.

Joshua implored the Lord why this happened, and the Lord told him that Isreal had disobeyed, these verses struck me:

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

11"Israel has sinned, and (A)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.

12"Therefore the (B)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.

13"Rise up! (C)Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the LORD, the God of Israel, has said, "(D)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."

14'In the morning then you shall come near by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which (E)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.

15'(F)It shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he (G)has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.'"

Wow. I just kept reading that. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.

How does the sin of one person in the church affect the whole? Does God withhold the power of His Spirit because of sin? I believe that He does. I believe He is the same God today that He was then. He may not kill His people in this way, but He definitely hates when we disobey and sin against Him, and I am sure He removes His favor from us when we are disobedient. We may be saved and secure in Christ, but we ought to fear to disobey the Lord and know the consequences are severe and affect the entire body. We can't afford to run this battle, fight this race and hold on to anything!

HOW MANY TIMES do Christians covet and take what they should not? HOW MANY TIMES do Christians lust after something and sin to have what they should not? Achan did it once and if you read furthur you see that he even came out and said he did wrong and confessed it. Yet he had to die for what he did along with his sons, daughters, and all he had. SIN IS A SERIOUS OFFENSE, and as Christians we had better take it seriously because God kills, destroys, and sends people to hell because of it. All sin is rebellion and disobedience to God. Its all mercy and grace if we are under the blood of Christ, and we ought not to take that lightly!

Lord keep us from idols and sin! Don't let me allow any idol in my life or in the life of anyone in the body of our church. If we so want God to move among us we need to walk before Him with a pure heart. It is the pure in heart that shall see God (Matthew 5).