20 And Achan answered Joshua and said, "Indeed I have
sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I have done:
21 "When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian
garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty
shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth
in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it."
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and
there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it.
The path of sin will always take you further than you want
to go. Jesus called the path of sin “the broad way” (Matthew 7:13), and because
it appears to be the easy way, many chose it. In Joshua 7, Achan chose this
path and caused great defeat and even death for others and his family. The
first step in the wrong direction will always lead to the second step!
Achan heard his commander give the order that all the
spoils in Jericho were to be devoted to the Lord and were to go into His
treasury (6:17-21, 24). Since Jericho was Israel's first victory in Canaan, the
firstfruits of the spoils belonged to the Lord (Prov. 3:9). But Achan disobeyed
and took the hazardous steps that lead to sin and death (James 1:13-15): "I
saw...I coveted...and I took" (Josh. 7:21). Eve did the same thing
when she listened to the devil (Gen. 3:5), and so did David when he yielded to
the flesh (2 Sam. 11:1-4). Since Achan also coveted the things of the world, he
brought defeat to Israel and death to himself and his family.
Achan's first mistake was to look at these spoils a second
time. He probably couldn't help seeing them the first time, but he should never
have looked again and considered taking them. A man's first glance at a woman
may say to him, "She's attractive!" But it's that second glance that
gets the imagination working and leads to sin (Matt. 6:27-30). If we keep God's
Word before our eyes, we won't start looking in the wrong direction and doing
the wrong things (Prov. 4:20-25).
His second mistake was to reclassify those treasures and
call them "the spoils" (Josh. 7:21). They were not "the
spoils"; they were a part of the Lord's treasury and wholly dedicated to
Him. They didn't belong to Achan, or even to Israel; they belonged to God. When
God identifies something in a special way, we have no right to change it. In
our world today, including the religious world, people are rewriting God's
dictionary! "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put
darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and
sweet for bitter!" (Isa. 5:20). If God says something is wrong, then
it's wrong; and that's the end of the debate.
Achan's third mistake was to covet. "But each one
is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed" (James
1:14). Instead of singing praises in his heart for the great victory God had
given, Achan was imagining in his heart what it would be like to own all that
treasure. The imagination is the "womb" in which desire is conceived
and from which sin and death are eventually born.
Achan’s fourth mistake was to think that he could get away
with his sin by hiding the loot. Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin and run
away and hide, but the Lord discovered them (Gen. 3:7). "Be sure your
sin will find you out" was originally said to the people of God, not
to the lost (Num. 32:23); and so was "The Lord shall judge His
people" (Deut. 32:36; Heb. 10:30). How foolish of Achan to think that
God couldn't see what he was doing, when "all things are naked and open
to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Heb. 4:13).
Today, may the Lord by His grace give us wisdom and strength
to take the path of righteousness instead of the path of sin! And if you are on
the path of sin today, thank the Lord for Romans 5:8, John 3:16, and 1 John
1:9!
God bless!
