Joshua 7:10-26. What can I say the story is pretty straight forward.  God had given strict instructions for the battle against Jericho.  All the people and animals were to be killed, the gold, silver, bronze, and iron of the city were to be put aside for God (This would probably eventually be used for the priests and Levites although God may have had a future temple in mind.), and the city was to be burned.  Unknown to Joshua someone had violated the ban (Hebrew “cherem” which means dedicated).  In Joshua 6:18 God had warned that taking things that were supposed to be dedicated to Him would result in a curse on the whole group and that is what happened. So in the next battle God held back and the Israelites were defeated and about 36 of them died.

While Joshua and the leaders were mourning and complaining to God, God spoke to Joshua.  He basically told Joshua to get up and quit blaming Him.  They had broken the rules and He had warned them.  Then God went on and told Joshua how to figure out who had taken the stuff and what to do about it.  God was even involved in showing who it was to Joshua.

God revealed that a man named Achan was guilty.  When Achan was confronted he admitted to what he had done.  He said he saw the banned stuff and wanted it so he took it.  This is the same exact language that is used in Genesis 3:6 when Eve saw the fruit and desired it and took it and we all know where that ended up (If you don’t then read Genesis 3 and “The Old Testament Connection”).  Sin (disobedience) has consequences and the consequences usually go past us.  What we do effects others even if only by example.

The consequences for Achan and his family were severe death.  But in the parallel in Genesis we see that the consequences of sin are worse that just physical death.  When God warned Adam He told him that the very day he disobeyed he would die.  Adam did not die physically that day (though the process no doubt began) but he did die spiritually.  The idea behind the word death is the idea of separation.  Physical death is the separation of the soul and the body.  Spiritual death is the separation of our soul or spirit from God.  That is why God (who sees and knows everything) asked Adam where he was.  God knew but he was showing Adam that they no longer had a relationship.  Spiritual death is much more tragic that physical death, though both are bad.

The good news is the good news though.  God had a plan to fix the relationship and he told Eve, promising that one of her descendants would break the curse (both physical and spiritual), it would be Jesus (See “The Old Testament Connection”).  In our story today we see hope too.  God helped them find out who broke the rules.  God was willing to remove the curse from Israel if they would make it right.  They needed to show respect for God and his purity.  They did this by dealing appropriately with Achan.  It is too bad that his family had to die too but they were probably in on it.  It was around  5 pounds of silver, plus a robe, and over a pound of gold.  It wasn’t a coin or two in his pocket that he could explain away.  And he buried it in his tent.  Also his sin had caused the death of 36 other people.  Like I said the consequences of our sins usually go past us.  It amazes me that Achan actually confessed.  But like I said yesterday if we confess God will forgive (1 John 1:9) and Achan confessed.  That didn’t make the immediate consequences of his sin go away though.  And confessing and turning back to God won’t necessarily erase the consequences of what we have done either.  But it will restore our relationship with God.  It won’t fix our here and now but it will fix our eternity.  The best course is to follow God’s rules.  Trust that he will provide for you.  Don’t take things he has told you not to take.  God help me be satisfied with what you give me.  Help me not to want what is not mine.  Give me peace and trust.  And thank you for being forgiving and willing to help when I fail.  Let me return quickly.

By the way a little side note from yesterday.  In Joshua 6:26 Joshua cursed “the man” who would try to rebuild Jericho.  According to 1 Kings 16:34 in the days of Ahab, a wicked king of Israel, a man named Hiel lost his first born son as he tried to rebuild the foundations of Jericho and his youngest did as he set up the city gate.  This was an exact fulfillment of Joshua’s curse over 500 years later.  Don’t mess with God he is very serious about curses.