[0:00] Joshua, Joshua chapter 7, Joshua chapter 7 is where we will be at this evening. So we'll look at the chapter in its entirety as we just continue to make our way through in Joshua chapter 7 as we're making our way through the Old Testament.
[0:19] Let's open up with a word of prayer and then we will get started together. Lord, thank you so much just for allowing us the opportunity of gathering together. We thank you for the great privilege it is of opening up your word.
[0:33] Lord, we pray that your word would speak truth into our lives. Lord, we pray that we would take these passages from the Old Testament and Lord, we would see not only the truth that it contains for our knowledge and understanding but the application that it has for our daily living.
[0:49] Lord, may your word be active in our lives and may it direct our steps and Lord, draw us closer to you. And as we draw closer to you, we would draw closer to one another. We ask it all in Christ's name. Amen.
[1:03] Joshua chapter 7 is where we are at this evening. I ask you to continue to be in prayer for a number of our kids and leaders that are at camp.
[1:14] They are still at camp at Lee University. So I ask you to be in prayer for those and a lot of activities that are going on around us. But this evening, Joshua chapter 7.
[1:27] If you remember, at this point in the book of Joshua, we are really on the mountaintop of the battle over Jericho, the victory that's at Jericho.
[1:40] Some have described the book of Joshua as peaks and valleys, much like the Christian walk. And that coincides with the analogy we've seen the crossing of the Jordan River, not necessarily being so much going into heaven, but entering full in with Christ and how the Christian walk has its victories, but also has its setbacks.
[2:02] We have our mountaintop experiences, but the mountaintops are so much sweeter because of the valley struggles. So we see that even throughout Scripture dealing with the nation of Israel, their ups and downs, how it seems as every time there is a success, there's always a stumbling or a shortcoming.
[2:22] God's people have a tendency to fall back. That's not an excuse to do so. It's not even a permission to do so.
[2:33] But I love the fact that Scripture deals with realities. It doesn't paint us a perfect picture. Only one is displayed in perfection, and that is Christ.
[2:43] And we see that in every dealing with God, with His people, and how He interacts with them. And we also see that in their struggles in maintaining that covenant relationship.
[2:55] So Joshua chapter 6 tells us of the victory around Jericho, walking around the walls of Jericho, God delivering Jericho into the hands of His people through really most unlikely battle strategy.
[3:06] The walls fall down, the people move forward, and He gives Jericho into their hands. We have seen how that battle was preceded with an encounter. The captain of the Lord's army, who was standing with his sword drawn, and how he was not choosing sides, but he was coming to take over that battle, and he was there.
[3:25] And it was at his feet that Joshua bowed down, and there received the instruction as to how to fight that battle, and how they should march around the city, and how the Lord was already giving them the victory.
[3:37] I want you to keep that in mind as we move into Joshua chapter 7. Because our tendency would be to focus on one man in the 7th chapter, when God does not focus on the one.
[3:49] God's focus is on the nation. God does not isolate the individual as we were introduced to him here in the 7th chapter. God always puts the individual within the context of the body, of the corporate community of His people.
[4:06] And it is there that we begin to see the trouble in the camp. So Joshua chapter 7 shows us trouble in the camp. It says, But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the band.
[4:20] For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the band. Therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Aben, Esoph Bethel, and said to them, Go up and spy out the land.
[4:38] So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up. Only about 2,000 or 3,000 men need to go up to Ai. Do not make all the people toll up there, for they are few.
[4:51] So about 3,000 men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about 36 of their men and pursued them from the gate as far as Shabarim and struck them down on the descent.
[5:05] So the hearts of the people melted and became as water. 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.
[5:18] And they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why did you ever bring your people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us?
[5:30] If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan. O Lord, what can I say, since Israel has turned their back before their enemies, for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off your name or cut off our name from the earth.
[5:45] And what will you do for your great name? So the Lord said to Joshua, Rise up. Why is it that you have fallen on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them.
[6:00] 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. Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies.
[6:12] 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. Rise up, consecrate the people, and say, Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.
[6:25] 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.
[6:36] In the morning, then you shall come nearer by your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes by lot shall come nearer by families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come nearer by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come nearer by man by man.
[6:50] 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, because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.
[7:02] So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel nearer by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. He brought the family of Judah near, and he took the family of the Zerites, and he brought the family of the Zerites nearer man by man, and Zabdi was taken.
[7:17] He brought his household nearer man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah was taken. 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.
[7:35] Do not hide it from me. So Achan answered Joshua and said, Truly I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle or robe 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.
[7:59] So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and behold, it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it, 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.
[8:11] 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 donkey, his sheep, his tent, and all that belonged to him, and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.
[8:25] 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.
[8:35] And they raised over him a heap of stone, 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.
[8:48] Achor means trouble, valley of trouble. Joshua chapter 7, trouble in the camp. Here we see a raising of another pile of stones, but it is nothing like the pile of stones at Galid.
[9:00] These are stones of testimony for sure, but they do not testify to a restored covenantal relationship, do not testify to the observance of the Passover. They testify to trouble. Achan's name and the valley itself are very similar.
[9:14] Many believe that they derive from the same root in the original language, having the same meaning, that the trouble in the camp came from the individual and that it was signified in this one place of Achor where he is stoned and then burned and then covered with a pile of stones.
[9:31] But we see here what it takes to move from the mountaintop of victory to the valley of defeat. And we see that it is when trouble becomes evident or prominent within the camp of God's people.
[9:43] And we see a number of things because it would be very easy to look upon the sin of Achan and to see his issues and his problems. And very naturally, we would rather do that because if we can put all the blame on an individual, then we can separate everyone else, right?
[10:01] We can remove all other responsibilities and we can say, well, if it had not been for that individual, and while that is partly correct, it doesn't seem to be biblically accurate from our text because all of the people suffer.
[10:18] Thirty-six men die in the valley. Thirty-six men fall in a battle and Achan is not one of them. His sons and his daughters die with him as well.
[10:31] We see that this trouble in the camp goes much deeper than just one man's problems. Because the reality is this, and we've spoke of it time and time again, and Peter testifies to it.
[10:45] I'm so excited if the Lord allows us to tarry. We get to Sunday morning. Sunday morning is Father's Day. We'll celebrate dads, and we'll recognize that, and we'll rejoice.
[10:56] But when we get to the time of the Word, then we're in Matthew 16. You should be excited about being in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16 is the very first mentioning of the church in all of Scripture.
[11:10] As a matter of fact, the word ekklesia, which means church, is only mentioned two times in the Gospels. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18. Matthew 16 is pivotal not only to the church history, but also to your theology and to your salvation.
[11:25] Because it's in Matthew 16 in which we see the great confession of Peter. You say, what does that have to do with Joshua chapter 7? Stay with me. And we see Peter's confession, and we read of the rock, and we'll get into that, right?
[11:37] And the foundation of church. But then if we go over to the book of 1 Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter uses that same imagery that is there in Matthew 16 and reminds us that he's not the only rock.
[11:52] Because Peter himself, writing to the believer, says, you are all spiritual stones. What does it say? Being built up to one another.
[12:02] Being built up to one another. And much as we have seen, and much as we have talked about, Peter was admonishing the believers that if there's an issue with you, then there's an issue with me.
[12:20] We see this played out in the Old Testament here. No individual in the corporate community of God's people, in the New Testament, that's called the ecclesia, that literally is the called-out community.
[12:36] We call it the church. Here in the Old Testament, it is the nation of Israel, the called-out community. No individual stands in isolation.
[12:47] Because we are all a part of the camp. And the trouble in the camp affects every individual part.
[13:01] And we see it in three manners here. Number one, we see the danger of unchecked sin. The danger of unchecked sin.
[13:14] Joshua gives a clear warning based upon the word of God in Joshua chapter 6. And he does it as he's giving them instructions about walking around the walls of Jericho.
[13:28] And I told you when we were together, you need to note this warning because it has direct application to Joshua chapter 7. And the warning is this. Be careful that you do not take anything that is under the ban.
[13:42] Be careful. Be careful. Don't covet it. Don't take it. It belongs to the Lord God. Now here's the irony of it before we really get too deep in it.
[13:55] Everything in I belongs to the people. So put simply, if Achan had been patient, he would have got rich in the next battle. Because the first fruits belong to the Lord, the rest belong to the man.
[14:08] If Achan had just waited just a couple of days, he would have been enriched in something he could have carried in his pocket instead of hid in his tents. But the problem with man and the trouble that comes into the camp is we would rather have what we need to hide than what we can present.
[14:25] And we see this here and time and time and time again in Scripture, right before there is a great fall, there always seems to be an advantageous warning.
[14:39] Remember Cain and Abel? Remember how Cain was warned to be careful because sin was crouching at the door and he slew his brother anyway.
[14:54] You remember how Peter was told that he would be sifted and that he needed to pray because the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak and he fell asleep anyway. Over and over and over and over again in Scripture, God in His grace and His mercy always gives a relevant warning before man falls into a destroying temptation.
[15:16] And a warning is given to the entire people here. Be careful that you do not take what does not belong to you because everything in Jericho belongs to the Lord. Even Rahab and her household, they became a part of God's family, God's community there.
[15:32] Be careful that you do not take it. And the problem and the trouble began in the camp when there was the unchecked sin that was allowed to enter in. And Achan fell into the same pattern that all sin falls into.
[15:46] Now we know this is the pattern of sin, because this is the very, very same words that are used to describe the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Because what Achan did in Jericho is the same thing that Eve did in the Garden.
[16:00] And it's the same thing that we're told in the book of James, man does when he falls into sin. Achan says, I saw it, I coveted it, and I took it. Sin begins with the eye, right?
[16:13] I saw it. It looked good. I thought it would meet a need, or at least I thought it would feel pleasant, or at least I thought it would be applicable to what I desired.
[16:24] I coveted it, so that as my sight became a covet, I decided that if I could see it, I needed it. And I thought I needed it more than God needed it. And therefore, I took it.
[16:35] The Bible tells us in the book of James that each man sins when he is carried away by his own lust. And when lust gives way to temptation, and temptation becomes sin, and then sin leads to death. He saw it, he coveted it, and he took it.
[16:51] The very same description that is used when Eve looks at the fruit of the tree of the garden, decides that it is pretty good for food, coveted it, and then took it, and then gave it to Adam.
[17:04] We see this as unchecked sin because, by the way, let's just be honest. Achan is a part of a larger body. He wasn't fighting the battle alone.
[17:17] He wasn't in some secret operative mission. We could say, well, sin entered in simply through this one man, but we also understand that his sons and his daughters died with him.
[17:27] You say, well, yeah, that's Achan's fault. It is also, but the Bible also tells us that the children should not pay for the sins of their father, right? And God does not contradict himself. According to the book of Numbers, the sins of the father shall not lead to the death of the sons and daughters or the children, that each man would die for his own sins.
[17:48] So evidently, if we want God to stay consistent to his standards, the sons and daughters were a part of the plan too. If not, God is contradicting himself here because the sins of the father do not lead to the death of the children.
[18:07] Each man dies for his own sins. But notice what it says. It says, but the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully.
[18:19] The word of God very clearly says the sons of Israel, that is the entire body, acted unfaithfully because Achan took something. The entire body of God's people were unfaithful because Achan took something.
[18:40] Now we don't like this as much, but here's the biblical truth we see. There's no such thing as a personal sin that doesn't affect anybody else.
[18:58] No such thing. The entire corporate body of God's people were deemed unfaithful because of what a part of their body had done.
[19:13] This is not just an Old Testament principle. Why did Paul tell the church at Corinth to put the man out and give him over to Satan?
[19:25] Is it because that Paul was a mean, vengeful individual? No. It's because Paul understood the principle that a little leaven ruins the whole lump.
[19:37] Hey, before I left home this afternoon, I made some pizza dough. I put leaven in it. It's got yeast. It's rising at home.
[19:47] I can't wait to get home to eat homemade pizzas. I know it blows y'all's mind I made pizza dough. I did. And it's probably going to be good. We had some leftover barbecue, so I'm going to put some barbecue. Well, she'll probably put some barbecue on this pizza dough.
[20:01] And I'm going to eat barbecue pizza this evening. But it, you know, it had four cups of flour. One little package of yeast.
[20:15] And when I get home, that ball that was this size, because my wife likes the house to be a little bit warmer than some of us and the humidity in there is a little bit higher.
[20:26] And it's okay. It's probably going to be this size. It's going to grow. And I needed to do that. Because the flour that's still in the jar that's been unaffected by the yeast isn't going to change.
[20:41] But the flour that was mixed with the yeast is going to change. And guess what? You can never take that flour away from that yeast. Because it's a part of a body. The reality is, is that each and every one of us are seen in light of what every individual does.
[21:02] this is why, this is why, this is why the one another's in the New Testament are so important. This is why we ought to admonish one another, encourage one another, love one another, walk with one another, hold one another accountable, disciple one another.
[21:29] This is why, this is why, we are all seen, as a body, in light of, what every individual has hidden in their tents.
[21:44] Which means, friend, listen, Achan's from the tribe of Judah. There are more people in the tribe of Judah than any other tribe.
[21:55] The tribe of Judah all camped together. Now, I can't remember just off the top of my head, but I want to think it was something like 74,000 men in the tribe of Judah.
[22:08] I'd have to go back to the book of Numbers and get that. You want to tell me that in that 74,000 men of the tribe of Judah, nobody's tent was next to Achan and saw him digging a hole?
[22:22] Or do you just want to tell me that nobody cared? The danger of unchecked sin. Because whatever Achan wants to do, Achan can do.
[22:35] It ain't going to affect me none. Tell the families of those 36 men that died in that battle. Because what Achan was doing in his tent affected the entire camp.
[22:48] The second problem we see with trouble in the camp is not only the danger of unchecked sin, this one kind of messes with us just a little bit, it is a decision made in haste.
[23:00] So now we want to look at Joshua just a little bit. Achan had an unchecked sin that he brought into the camp. No one held him accountable for it. No one questioned him about it.
[23:11] His family surely knew of it because he hid it in his tent because they were sleeping on top of it. But Achan isn't the only issue that we have going on here in Joshua chapter 7.
[23:22] You have a decision made in haste because they've just won an amazing battle. Jericho was shut up tight. It was a fortification. There was nobody going in, nobody coming out.
[23:33] They didn't know how they were going to do it. God told them to march around it. They marched around it. They went forward. They took the city. They dedicated it to the Lord and Joshua's on this high. We have just won this battle. So he says, boys, while we've got it going, let's keep going.
[23:45] And he sends some delegates ahead, sends some spies to Ai, which is militaristically what he has done in the past. And they go look at Ai and it says that they come back and they said, you know what? It's not as big as Jericho.
[23:56] Don't send everybody. Just 2,000 or 3,000 people. Don't make everybody toil and labor. Don't make everybody go. Don't send everybody there. Let some people rest and the rest of us will go take it. This will be easy.
[24:08] By the way, Joshua chapter 8, the entire nation goes and defeats Ai. So let's just stop right here, okay? Notice in the preparation for the battle what is not there. There's no mentioning of the Lord God.
[24:21] There's no praying. There's no determining how the Lord God wants them to fight this battle. There's no petitioning or asking. There's men making a decision that this is going to be easy.
[24:33] You know, we usually get in our greatest trouble when God has given us the greatest victory. because all too often after we have won a victory over a stronghold, we think everything else is going to be smooth sailing.
[24:47] We think that the next battle is going to be much easier because the thing that we did not think we could ever overcome, we have finally overcome it, so surely what's coming next is going to be a lot easier. I've seen it personally time and time and time again.
[25:02] Individuals winning these unbelievable battles, these great strongholds and just knowing for a fact that the next one is going to be so much easier and it seems to be the small places, the eyes that cause us to stumble.
[25:19] Because the difference is is that Joshua fell on his face before the battle of Jericho. He didn't fall on his face until after the defeated eye. God has a way of getting his people on their faces.
[25:30] And it's not a matter of if we will fall prostrate before him, it is when we fall prostrate before him.
[25:45] The major problem that we see apart from Achan is that Joshua and the leaders decide that surely this battle will be easy. And they think it's not going to take all of God's people.
[26:00] You know, Joshua does this again later in the book of Joshua. We'll see it. He enters into a covenantal agreement with some people who put on some worn out clothing and put some stale bread in their sacks and acted as if they had traveled from a long way off and they had journeyed for days and days and days and they wanted to make this agreement with the nation of Israel.
[26:19] And Joshua entered into it and then we find out they didn't travel for days and days and days. Actually, they were the very next city that they were coming to. And the problem is God says, Joshua, you didn't ask me.
[26:33] See, God does not always have to meet us on the road with a sword drawn. He does not always have to manifest His presence in a supernatural way to get our attention and to get our worship and to get our adoration and to get our falling before Him and asking Him what it is we should do.
[26:56] More times than not, He meets us there at the beginning and then later on He leads us to the place where we seek after Him. One thing that I have found is the longer I walk with Christ, the more walking I have to do.
[27:11] Right? When I was a new believer, God had a way of doing things and just showing Himself to me and just revealing Himself to me and checks would come in the mail and I didn't know where they were coming from and things were, I mean, it was just amazing and by the way, He still provides that way.
[27:26] He still does it. He still does the supernatural and He still does the wonderful and He still does the amazing but what I have found is that He matures us, right? He grows us up just a little bit.
[27:37] He matures us. He's not always going to carry us. He's not even always going to hold our hands. Sometimes He just wants us to walk beside Him. This is the pattern that Christ does with His disciples. He takes His disciples out and they're with Him and Jesus is doing the miraculous and He's doing that and then He's using them and then He's empowering them and then He sends them out and then He sends them out with a money belt and then He commissions them and then when He goes to heaven He says, okay, I'm with you and they're looking around like, no, not really.
[28:01] You're on a cloud going to heaven. He says, I'm with you. Go and do it. The longer they walked with Christ, the harder it got on their side because we're walking and standing on what He's already shown us over here so God did not have to meet them on the way to Ai as a captain of the Lord's army with His sword drawn because they had that and said, well, I remember before we fought that battle, God told us how we should fight it and here they just decide, we know what we're doing from this point forward.
[28:33] By the way, we always get in trouble when we know what we're doing. Always. We always do. As a pastor, some of the greatest mistakes I've ever made are the ones that I made decisions quick because wait is not one of my favorite words.
[28:51] Patience is really not a big strong point of mine. I'm Peter, right? I want to draw a sword, cut somebody's ear off. I want to walk on water but then I sink and I'm just that way. I'm not John leaning on the Savior's bosom just waiting and thinking and contemplating that thing.
[29:07] We all have our own personalities but I understand the decisions I've made in haste more times than not when I think that I know what we should do they're completely wrong. Completely wrong.
[29:20] And it does nothing but invite trouble into the camp. So much so, Joshua falls on his face and Joshua seems to be when we read this it's amazing here and we're not discrediting Joshua at all we just, again, we celebrate the humanity of the people that God uses.
[29:41] Right? We celebrate that because Joshua begins to blame God. God, why'd you even bring us here? We should have been content to stand on the other side of the Jordan.
[29:51] I should have been content to just be halfway in. Right? Just have enough Jesus I don't have to go all the way I mean, I really don't have to go all in. Right? Just a little bit. We should have been content on the other side on the eastern side.
[30:03] We didn't need to come in here just to be defeated but I do like what Joshua says and I have it underlined and this is something that he heard from Moses and I think this is something that we need to hold on to because he, even in his blaming God there's some truth there.
[30:16] There's always some truth. The book of Job, Job's friends are absolutely wrong but there's some truth in what Job's friends are. And he's not out and out blaming God. He's just questioning and that's okay to do. God, what's going on here?
[30:27] Because he doesn't know yet but I love how he says this. He says, because what will happen or what will you do for your great name?
[30:39] See, the basis of his asking and questioning and wondering is the reality that God is so much bigger than us. If we're wiped off the face of the earth, what does that, what does that say about you?
[30:52] What about your great name? And this is when God responds and it shows us this third and final thing about trouble in the camp.
[31:03] It is the display of God's judgment. It is the display of God's judgment. Joshua had no idea about Achan's sin.
[31:15] Yet Achan's sin had affected the whole entire camp. So Joshua here now in the presence of God has the curtains pulled back and I love what God says.
[31:27] God says, get up. Right? Get up. And he's straightforward with him. God says, I will not go forward with you because there is sin in the camp.
[31:40] not going to do it. He says, I will not walk forward. He says, rise up. Why is it you have fallen in your face? 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 stolen and deceived.
[31:54] Listen, Achan didn't steal from Jericho. Achan stole from God because the first fruits belong to God. Right? He stole from God.
[32:06] I want you to pay attention to this. Look at what verse 12 says. Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies.
[32:17] They can't do it. They turn their backs before their enemies. This is what I want you to see. For they have become accursed. The things of Jericho were accursed.
[32:32] It tells us, do not take the things under the ban in Joshua chapter 6. That means the things which are accursed. They belong to God. In taking the things that were pronounced accursed, they made themselves in the position of accursed.
[32:50] One commentator, and I can't remember, you'll have to forgive me because I cannot remember who says it, says this point right here alone shows us that the mission that God has his people on is so much more than the vengeful genocide of the entire inhabitants of the land of Canaan.
[33:05] God is not just concerned about using the nation of Israel to wipe out a whole race of people. He's not doing that. God is using them as judgment for sin. But the moment their sin of Canaan entered into the camp of Israel, they put themselves in the position of the Canaanites, and God says, now my judgment's on you.
[33:26] Because I'm judging sin, not nations. And God pulls back and says, you've put yourself in the same position of those under the judgment, and therefore, you are now under my judgments.
[33:48] See, God always knows the sin. And God does not take sin lightly. And when God's people want to act like the world, they get the world's judgment.
[34:06] We're not talking about eternal position here. We're talking about a punishment of sin. They want the world's temptations and the world's pleasures.
[34:20] And God says, if you want your position of the world, the world's position is my judgment. And he says, so now you've put yourself under my judgment.
[34:32] And until you remove that thing and display the wrath of God upon that sin, I will not go forward. This is why there is such what seems to be to us an over-the-top response to the sin of Achan.
[34:50] God singles him out, calls him forward by the casting of lots. We don't exactly know how it does it again. Scripture doesn't tell us. He just does. He's there.
[35:01] And then Joshua says, give glory and praise to God and confess what you've done. Sometimes the greatest way we can praise God is just to be honest before him. So he gives glory.
[35:11] And this is just a way of saying don't lie any longer. if Achan had confessed this before God's judgment had begun, things would have been so much different.
[35:23] But yet Achan waits until God singles him out. And then he's in a position where he has to confess it. This is not a willing confession. This is a forced confession.
[35:35] So he confesses that I saw a coveted I took. Now it's hid. So they go and they check and sure enough there it is. So then God's judgment has to fall. So Achan, his sons and his daughters, his livestock, everything is stoned.
[35:51] Then it's burned with fire. And then it's covered with a pile of rocks. One thing we find, and I'm closing, every time God does something new in Scripture or not something new but he's moving his people forward, let's say that.
[36:06] That's a better way of saying it. And sin enters into that camp. He deals with it harshly. He deals with it harshly.
[36:18] When they construct the tabernacle and the altar is there and the sons of Aaron go and offer strange fire.
[36:31] The fire on the altar comes out and burns them up, consumes them. Right? Because that was the very beginning of the sacrificial offering. Here they're in the new land, the very first city.
[36:41] Achan sins. Boom. That standard, that judgment is displayed in Achan and his family. We can even take that all the way to the New Testament and the church and the book of Acts where you have the two who are lying about how much they gave.
[36:57] Right? We gave everything and they fall down dead. We don't read of that happening again. But that first time it did. Why? Because God is always gracious to show us what it looks like to be under his judgment.
[37:14] And it serves as a warning to everybody else moving forward. Do you think moving forward if God says don't take it anybody thought you know what I think maybe I can hide some of this in my tent and get away with it?
[37:29] Probably not. Because they could always go back to Acorn and see that pile of stones where Achan and his sons and his daughters and his livestock used to be. See we need to make sure there's not trouble in the camp.
[37:46] Because when there's trouble in the camp it begins to infect the entire camp. And until it's dealt with God will not move forward with his people. Joshua chapter 7.
[37:57] Thank you brother. Thank you dear. I did not get those from you. I'll need one. He cut the camera off.
[38:11] It's okay. You can walk up here. Your prayer lists are coming out to you. Thank brother Troy for making arrangements to get here tonight to help us live stream.
[38:28] I know he had to do some things and work some things out at work. So it's uh I appreciate that. Southern Baptist Convention is currently going on.
[38:38] Before I came up here I was in my office and I was watching some of the live stream of the Southern Baptist Convention. The good news is I'm not really missing anything new because they were still arguing and people on the platform were telling the people out here that's out of order and there was questioning and stuff I didn't understand so so so so so I asked him so so I asked him so so Thank you.