Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on Joshua 7:1, 10-15, 22-26.
When you were a kid, who made the rules that you had to live by if you expected to see the sun come up tomorrow? For me the President, Congress and Supreme Court resided in a little tyrant named Grand momma. And she was someone who must be obeyed. Some rules were very practical - don’t wear underwear with holes in them in case you get run over by a car and are taken to Norfolk General Hospital and they should see the holes. Another was eat all of your carrots so you won’t go blind based on the fact that she had never seen a blind rabbit. But, there were some marginal rules which had questionable scientific backing. Such as don’t bring a cat into a room with a baby or it will suck the breath right out of that baby. Or the command, “Time to go to bed” right in the middle of the radio show “Truth or Consequences”, before the guy had to push a peanut down Park Avenue with his nose. When I would inquire, “Why?”, I would get the final words on the "Why" question, “Because I said so.” End of discussion as Jack and I trudged up the stairs to our bedroom shared with who ever else was spending the night at Grand momma’s. Then there were the rules which just begged to be broken. Like Grand momma’s rule about going to the swamp at the end of 26th Street. We couldn’t wait to get out the house and sneak down to the swamp. If Grand momma told us not to go there, it must be a place of immeasurable fun. And it was. Lots of trees and bushes where we could play Tarzan and even a stream where Carl Deck, who lived behind us, would dare us to drink from it.
Now what happened if you broke Grand momma's rules? What was your punishment? For me, sometimes it was no supper. Some times it was an early bed time which my Grand momma liked to call “Lillie White’s Party” although I have never known anybody named Lillie White and wouldn't go to her party even if she was serving southern butter pecan ice cream. Sometimes it meant not being allowed to go downtown to the Byrd Theater with Aunt Jennie next Saturday to see the latest Lash Larue movie, Heckle and Jeckle cartoon and the latest episode in the Captain Midnight serial. If the rule I broke was really important to Grand momma, it meant a trip to the weeping willow tree in the backyard to pick out a limb for my switching. I learned one important lesson from all of this. Rules definitely were NOT made to be broken. One of my favorite radio shows then was Red Skelton. One of his characters was Junior the mean wittle kid. His mamma would tell him not to do something and this brought up a debate within his mind. If he broke the rule he would be punished. The big question for Junior was if the fun he would get from breaking the rule exceeded the pain of the punishment. He ended this internal debate by saying. “If I dood it, I get a whipping. I dood it!” And he did dood it. In today’s study, one guy among the Israelites faced the same dilemma that faced Junior - if he dood it he gets punished. And like Junior, he dood it.
What happened last week? Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down. It was a dramatic win for the Israelites. Who really won the victory? God. In order for the success to happen, the people had to obey what God said whether it was accepted battle strategy or not. God promised Joshua even before the battle that the Israelites were going to win. And when they did win, he gave them certain rules they had to follow. For starters, everything was to be destroyed. Well not quite everything. Some things were to be taken and put into the Israel treasury. What were they? Gold, Silver, bronze and iron. One thing no Israelite could do was what? Take anything for himself. Remember, to the winner goes the spoils and God was the winner. So, everything was God's or as the scripture puts it, everything was devoted to God and belonged to God alone. The battle went off like clock work. A great victory and the treasure chest of the Israelites was swelling way out of shape. And this is where we start our study today.Joshua 7:1 But the Israelites broke faith in regard to the devoted things: Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; and the anger of the Lord burned against the Israelites.
I have to say something, here. This is a study which is not taught very often and hardly ever is the source of a sermon. And here is why. In our modern day thinking, what is going to happen in this study doesn’t seem very fair. In fact, for some people, God comes off looking pretty mean and spiteful. Not at all the loving, forgiving God we know in the New Testament. That being said, lets plow on and see if we can come away with a better understanding of what God is doing here.
The Israelites are feeling pretty good with themselves. Word has spread in Canaan of the way Jericho fell. The other tribes in Canaan saw doom and gloom as the Israelites started moving away from Jericho and toward them. Joshua sent out scouts and they saw the next obstacle, a small town named Ai. Ai was an old town close to Bethel and little bit north-west of Jericho. It’s name actually means “the ruins.” It seems that the town had taken over the site of an ancient town, now deserted, but whose walls were still standing. The total number of people living there was very small, maybe a few hundred including women and children.
The spies report back to Joshua and tell him that taking the town would be a piece of cake. In fact it wasn’t any use sending the whole army against this small village, just send about 150 guys. For Joshua, Ai was important as a staging area for attacking Bethel, a major Canaanite city. What Joshua doesn’t know is that Bethel had heard what had happen at Jericho and probably sent a small detail to occupy the ancient city of Ai and act as a buffer against the Israelites.Joshua needs to take Ai if he is to move into the hills separating the Israelite army from the rest of Canaan. There are a few problems in taking Ai. It is on a mountain side about three thousand feet above the valley and about fifteen miles from where the Israelite army is camped. To get to just the base of the mountain would take about a day and half march. The 150 men make the march and climb up the mountain. They were confident that they wouldn’t even work up a sweat before Ai gave up. When they get to the gate of the city, they find a surprise. Instead of rolling over and playing dead, the men of Ai put up a fight. The Israelites were probably worn out from the march and climb up the mountain and when Ai didn’t send up the white flag right away, they became confused and discouraged. Wasn’t God suppose to make sure they won? But, who came up with this battle plan? God or the people? The people. God hasn’t said anything about taking Ai. Why? God knows that He has been disobeyed at Jericho and until that is settled, no more God given battle plans. Well, not only were the Israelites sent running, thirty six of them were killed.
How do you think the men in Ai felt? They were feeling pretty good. But, they know that Israel has to get past them to get to Bethel. Also, they know that the small group Israel sent to win the town wasn’t the whole Israelite army. Their spies had seen the large army camped at Gilgal. It would be just a matter of time before Israel would come back with a larger army and it would be “Katie bar the door” time. Ai contacted Bethel and told them that they were expecting another attack, but, this time they would be too outnumbered to stop Israel. And, if Israel won, it wouldn’t be any time before Israel would be knocking at Bethel’s door. Bethel would rather have the battle fought in Ai, so they sent troops to help Ai defend the city. This will give the king of Ai the confidence to leave the city and pursue the Israelites when they attack again.When the Israelite survivors reached Gilgal, Joshua was surprised and concerned. What had gone wrong? Where was God? He tore his clothes and put dust on his forehead. This was something that was done at a funeral - a sign of grief. What grief? Could have been for the thirty six men killed, but probably was because God hadn't helped. Something was just wrong here. This wasn’t suppose to happen. The leading men of Israel join Joshua as they lay prostrate before the arc. Remember the ark represents God. Now, the ark had not been taken up the mountain to Ai, but, it was in a place where it was in view of Ai. God had to know what had happened and yet he did nothing.
Joshua and the men prayed to God and asked why God had led them on a fool's errand by taking them from pretty good land on the other side of the Jordan just to be humiliated by a small rag tag group in Ai. He even tells God that the fact that the Israelite army turned tail and ran reflected poorly on their God and that should give God pause to think about what he allowed. After all, God’s people will now be the laughing stock of the other towns in Canaan - all of them now sure that they’ll do the same thing to the Israelite army that Ai did. If God’s people are the laughing stock, so is the God who chose them. The praying continued until nearly dark. And that brings us up to the next scripture.
Joshua 7:10 The Lord said to Joshua, "Stand up! Why have you fallen upon your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I imposed upon them. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have acted deceitfully and they have put them among their own belongings. 12 Therefore the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they turn their backs to the enemies, because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. 13 Proceed to sanctify the people, and say, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "There are devoted things among you, O Israel; you will be unable to stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.' 14 In the morning therefore you shall come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe that the Lord takes shall come near by clans, the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household that the Lord takes shall come near one by one. 15 And the one who is taken as having devoted things shall be burned with fire, together with all he has, for having transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and for having done an outrageous thing in Israel."
Does Joshua get his answer? What does God tell Joshua to do? Stand up. What God is actually saying is that it didn’t do any good to lay prostrate and pray because there is still an unresolved issue. Now is the time to stand up and be counted and resolve that issue.
For the first time Joshua finds out what the problem is and it shocks him. And what is the problem? Israel has sinned. Actually, we know that one man sinned, but, the whole nation is accused. What was the sin? Something that was devoted to God was taken. When Joshua heard this, how do you think he felt? Pretty low. For Joshua this is the big no no. It meant that somebody had actually stolen something that belonged to God. This was too much for Joshua. It was unthinkable. Joshua had been very clear to everybody that there were things in Jericho that belonged to and were devoted to God. Everything else was to be destroyed. This was a black and white rule - no grey areas. To make matters worse, the devoted things that were taken were still in the camp. That means that whole camp and everything in it were now contaminated. Does God tell Joshua that Achan is the guy who took the stuff? No.
Here is where this study becomes hard for us. Why is the whole nation condemned because of the actions of one man? If the nation was thinking the right way and acting the right way, then obeying God is good and sinning is bad. The bottom line is that things are either right or wrong. No spinning or justifying wrong actions, but condemning wrong actions. When the nation doesn’t buy what is morally right and winks at immorality or shady actions, then it loses it’s moral compass and permits bad things to happen. Why? Because it is easier to allow them than to declare immoral behavior wrong. You see, if the nation is strong in support of moral behavior and strongly penalizes immoral behavior, then it’s citizens will see the dangers in taking the immoral road. Evidently, the Israelites accepted God’s rules with a wink and a nod. Their personal actions and sense of morality set the conditions for Achan to do what he did.
Look what we have done with our country. Fifty years ago, a man wouldn’t dare say, “damn.” in front of a lady. He wouldn’t because society then said that it was wrong to do it. Now, not only is it all right to cuss and even use vulgar and profane words, it can be done in front of anyone even children. I am repulsed by movies that have little children dropping the F bomb.
Israelite society accepted and went along with people like Achan. This probably wasn’t the first time he cut corners. But, society turned it’s head because it was too much trouble to act or society felt that one little sin is like a drop of water in the ocean - too small to count.
God gives Joshua an ultimatum. If you want God on your side, get your act together. Root out the sin and sanctify the nation. How does Joshua sanctify a whole nation? Purify it. The whole nation is impure because there are items devoted to God hidden in their camp. First, there would be certain purification rites that have to be observed - washing their clothes, bathing, waiting in their tents until evening and not doing any unclean things. Then, in order to purify something according to the Law, it has to be burned.
While God knows who the culprit is, Joshua still doesn’t. How will Joshua purify the nation if he doesn’t know who caused the trouble in the first place so he can deal with it? Here is what Joshua will do. He’ll gather the twelve tribal leaders and draw straws or cast lots. The tribe with the shortest straw or the one whose lot was singled out will be the tribe from which the bad guy came. He’ll continue through the sub tribes and then families - each time narrowing the choice the same way. Do you think this is the right or fair way to determine who that bad guy is? Using short straws or throwing lots seem a little tricky doesn’t it? Believe it or not, in those days, people thought this was a good way to know what God’s wants done. Since the result was by chance, then man couldn’t influence the result, but God could. So, God must be the one calling the shots. Therefore, the short straw or lot came up according to how God wanted to it to be.Right or wrong, it worked. The tribe was narrowed down to Judah and finally down to Achan. While all of this was going on, all of Israel was standing there watching as the betrayer was exposed. Unlike Dancing with the Stars, they didn’t have a vote. Joshua went up to Achan and told him he knew that it was Achan who had taken the devoted things and he should confess because he has already caused a lot of problems not to mention the death of thirty six men. Achan confesses and tells Joshua that while pillaging Jericho he came across a beautiful robe worth a fortune, and to sweeten the deal, there also was a bar of gold and a pile of silver. The more he looked at these things the more he wanted them. It didn’t take long before Achan had convinced himself that nobody knew about these things. With all of the other stuff coming into the treasury, nobody will miss these few things. Isn’t that how sin works? It convinces us that some how nobody will ever find out. But, when sin happens, you’re never alone. God is also there. That brings up another question. If God already knew it was Achan, why go through this drawing lots thing? Since this sin involves all of the people, it was necessary for Joshua and all the people to find the culprit themselves and then deal with it themselves. Remember, until this issue is resolved, God is a taking a hands off approach to Israel and that includes discovering who the thief is. This is an Israelite problem and God is going to let them handle it. Achan tells Joshua that the stuff was buried in his tent right in the middle of the camp!
Joshua 7:22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. 23 They took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites; and they spread them out before the Lord. 24 Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan son of Zerah, with the silver, the mantle, and the bar of gold, with his sons and daughters, with his oxen, donjkeys, and sheep, and his tent and all that he had; and they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, "Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord is bringing trouble on you today." And all Israel stoned him to death; they burned them with fire, cast stones on them, and raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore that place to this day is called the Valley of Achor.
The items that Achan had taken were important items and had to be dealt with carefully. After all they did still belong to God. What did Joshua do? He told the men to go to Achan’s tent as fast as they could and dig up the floor until they found the items. They did and found the gold wrapped in the robe laying on top of the silver. They brought it back and laid them at the feet of Joshua. Then Joshua took them along with who and what? Achan, his sons, his daughters, his animals, his tent and everything he had. Where were they all taken? The Valley of Achor. Achor means trouble. What happened to Achan and his children? Stoned to death and then burned. His animals? Burned. His tent and all of his things? Burned. The devoted things? Burned. Burned because that is how the items will be purified.
Lets look at each group. Achan deserved to be punished. Everybody agree? Achan knew exactly what he was doing. He knew the risks. He knew that he was stealing from God. Scriptures hints that at first he lied about taking the items. Let’s look at the laws that he broke. He stole. He coveted what wasn’t his because they belonged to God. He lied. Rejected God’s authority. You might even say he murdered the thirty six men. Why would he take the risk and do such a thing? He had convinced himself that God would never find out and neither would his countrymen. But God did know immediately. The people stoned him, but, why burn him up too? By touching something that had been devoted to God, he became devoted to God too. Since this happened in a sinful way by disobeying God, all the those things devoted to God had to be purified and purification comes through burning. So, the body of Achan had to be purified by burning.What about is sons and daughters? Why are they included? Their dad digs a hole in the middle of their living room floor and they don’t notice? They knew what he did and went along with it. Now, it doesn’t say that all of his sons and daughters were killed. In fact the Law said that children would not be executed because of the sins of their father. So, it seems that only the sons and daughters who knew what their dad did were the ones killed. Their sin was going along with the theft - being co-conspirators
Achan and his children are mentioned. Who isn’t mentioned? His wife. Why was she spared? Maybe she had already died before he stole the devoted things. Maybe she was visiting relatives and didn’t know what Achan had done. Is it possible for a husband to keep secretes from his wife? Ask Anthony Weiner’s wife.
After burning, the gold and silver - the original devoted things - were turned over to the treasury. What happened to Achan and his kids? A pile of stones were put on top of them, probably made up of the some the stones used to stone them. Why? To remind us and everybody, that God means business when he gives us rules.
What happened to Israel and Ai? God forgives Israel and this time God draws up plans for beating Ai. He develops an ambush plan. Joshua will have a larger group, maybe about one thousand men march up to the gates of Ai. He sends the rest of the troops to hide in the hills on each side of the city gate. By this time Ai had gotten additional troops from Bethel and when the king sees only a thousand Israelite troops at the gate, he is embolden and comes out of the city with his army. The Israelites act like they are scared again and start to retreat. The king of Ai sees an opportunity to get rid of the these Israelites once and for all, so, he sends his army to chase down the Israelites and kill them. As soon as they leave the city and start charging after the Israelite army, the rest of the Israelite troops, who had been hiding in the hills, swoop down on the undefended city and set it on fire. By the time the king of Ai saw what had happened, it was too late. There was an Israelite army in front of them and a larger army behind them cutting off their access to the walled city which was in flames by now. The army of Ai was destroyed and the king was buried under a mound of stones as a monument to the power of God. Israel was back and God was with them.Before we leave the study we have to look at one other thing. Did God say what exactly should happen to Achan, his kids and all the stuff he owned? No. God didn’t even identify Achan. Who found Achan, pronounced sentence and exacted the sentence? Joshua and the Israelites. God was going to deal with Achan, but what was more important was that the people decide on the punishment and take the action they considered right. What God did was to step aside and let the people grab the moral high ground. If the people had not acted, God might have had Achan suffer some shame and lost, but might not have executed him.
Achan “dood it” and got more than a whipping. But, there is a more important lesson for us today. Achan thought he could get away with sinning because the society he lived in let him know that as long as you said the right words, you can cut corners on morals. Naturally, we don’t want to become an Achan today. But, our responsibility is the one that the whole nation of Israel had. We can’t be part of a society that winks and nods at the moral rot infecting our nation. If we do and we are devoted things of God, we can expect to go through some purification ritual and pray that it isn’t by fire this time around.
Prayer: Father, this is a hard lesson to understand. Assure our hearts in a way that preserves our understanding of your love for us. Amen.
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