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sermonette: Achan's Sin, God's Punishment

Did the Punishment Fit the Crime?
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 21-Nov-09; Sermon #965s; 26 minutes

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Well, good afternoon to all of you. Hi, I'm asking you at this time to begin to turn to Joshua 7 verses 24 to 26. But at the end of my commentary last Sabbath, I mentioned Aiken. His sin and the very swift punishment, and some think a very harsh punishment dealt to him by God through Joshua. So I was asked a question regarding the harshness mentioned. And the answer required that I do a bit of research, so I thought that I would share the results with you. Now the information that I'm going to give you has been distilled from my own past as well as from 9 different commentaries. In Joshua the 7th chapter and in verse 24, it says, Then Joshua and all Israel with him took Akon, the son of Zira, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day. So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Well, that's the punishment that was meted out on. Uh, Aiken. And the question that comes up, of course, mostly about Aiken's children. Were they burned in the fire? Now incidentally, I will tell you right at the beginning here that 8 of those commentaries said yes, they were burned with fire, and only 1 did not. It says in Ezekiel, the 18th chapter, verse 20, you do not have to turn there. The soul that sins, it shall die. The Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father, neither shall the Father bear the iniquity of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon Him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon Him. Now that seems to indicate pretty strongly that Aiken's children did not die, or if they did die, it was unfair, it was unjust, it never should have occurred. So this is what we are going to look at were Aiken's children executed too. Now let's go back to Joshua the 6th chapter. And this is the beginning of this episode. Joshua 6 and in verse 17. Joshua is speaking. Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction. And it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in her house because she hid the messengers that we sent, and you by all means keep yourselves from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver, the gold, the vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord, and they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. Now at first glance, it looks as though Joshua was the one who put the entire city of Jericho under a ban, but careful reading will show that this actually came from God, and Joshua was the messenger of God's will regarding this. So the whole city was put under a ban. You do not see the word ban there, but it was under a ban nonetheless. It was though declared accursed, and this is what made what Joshua said a ban. The word accursed is ke rem, Kerem in Hebrew, and it means devoted or doomed to destruction. That's something consecrated to being destroyed. Now a ban in English states that certain things are prohibited. And if we put it into this context, then certain things were accursed. Now a simple ban in our time would be something that you're very familiar with. You might see a sign in a subdivision that says Trucks are banned on this street. Now that very clearly means that you're not allowed to have trucks. On that street Very simple. Now this particular ban declared three things. Listen to this that everybody and everything in the city was to be put to death and destruction except Rahab and her family. 2 All silver, gold, brass, and iron found and collected were sanctified to God. 3 Anybody who took for himself of the devoted things, made himself and Israel a cursed and devoted thing. Now the 2 of those stipulations. Actually made this an offering dedicated to God by the soldiers, especially, but the rest of Israel too. In other words, it was all of Israel was of one mind with God that these things were dedicated to God, the gold, the silver, and so forth. Now it was normal for a soldier to share in the spoils of their warfare. Thus what they were offering. was what that would normally come to them. A couple of clear examples. When Abraham went against the kings there in Canaan with his 300 men, he came back with the spoils, but instead of keeping it, he gave it back to them. He said, I'm not going to be indebted to you people. So he went against the grain. Another very well known case in chronicles is David. David divided the spoils of a battle. With the whole army of 600 and 400 of those men complained bitterly that 200 of those men were not even there when they fought the battle. David asked for God to give him wisdom on this, and he did exactly what he said. He divided it up in the whole 600, but the issue here is the spoils of the battle. So that made what the soldiers were. Giving that they normally would get for themselves, it was an offering from them to God. Now in Joshua 7 and verse 1, but the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Akon, the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zira of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethhan on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country. 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, but let about 2 or 3000 men go up and attack. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of AI are few. So about 3000 men went up. There from the people, and they fled before the men of AI, and the men of AI struck down about 36 men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shibare and struck them down on the descent. Therefore, the hearts of the people melted and became like water. OK, the children of Israel marched around Jericho, blew the trumpets, the walls came down, and everything seemed right. They had a tremendously successful victory there given to them by God. But the God who knows all and sees all was aware he knew better. But after the battle was over, he hadn't revealed it yet, and Joshua and his men continued their conquest of the promised land by moving on to attack and take the city of Ai. Now Ai was about 15 miles west of Jericho. And it was situated on the top of a hill and thus it actually had a very strong defensive position. Now Israel's intelligence forces scouted the area and reported that they would only need about 2 or 3000 soldiers. It would be a small operation. However, they were roundly defeated and 36 men lost their lives. Now this threw Joshua and the Israelite camp into an emotional tizzy. Why Because they feared that God had abandoned them. Now, let's read verses 10. And through 12. So the Lord said to Joshua, Get up. Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them, for they have taken, even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived, and they have put it among their own stuff. And therefore the children of Israel could not stand. Before their enemies because they became doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you. The breaking of the ban by one person. Aiken. Caused the entire camp of Israel to become accursed. They took the accursed. It became part of them and literally. If God wanted to, he could have legally wiped all of Israel out. The curse came right with the accursed thing. And was thus doomed to destruction. Now from this arises a New Testament principle of major consequences regarding sin and judgment. The apostle Paul states it in only about 7 or 8 words in I Corinthians 5:8. He says, Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Now, this reveals, How precisely God is capable of judging. The quality of the character and righteousness, not only of an individual, but the entire group of his people as one lump, a whole. And it is a warning to each and every one of us. Never to think that what we do doesn't matter. God is showing that each sin. Even if it is only one individual, infects and brings down to some measure the entire congregation. Now consider for a moment what God is showing here. Notice how the effects. Of this leaven spread like a cancer. Aiken's dastardly deed secretly done brought about the death of 36 men. Thus rendering wives as widows, children lost their fathers, mothers lost their sons, siblings lost their brothers, and because God withheld His blessings, they lost the battle, and the spirit of the entire camp was broken. He's giving us quite a lesson here. Now verse 13. Get up and sanctify the people and say sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. In the morning, therefore, you shall be brought according, according to your tribes, and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes shall come according to His families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come by household, and the household which the The Lord takes shall come by man, and so then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, and he and all that he has because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. So, Joshua did that very thing. The important thing out of these three verses. 21, God reveals very clearly the accursed thing is in the camp and Israel is accursed as a result of it, even being there. The second thing is What happened to Aiken? Nothing happened to Aiken. When he heard what was going to be done, and knew that he was the sinner, and knew that God was going to be the one that reveals it, he should have been shaking in his boots. And repented But what it reveals is how hardheaded, how hard, hardhearted Aiken was. He was not brought the repentance, even by the fact that he knew that God was going to reveals himself. Aiken to the whole camp and to do it right in front of everybody. Now, verse 19. And so Joshua said to Akon, He's been revealed now. My son, I beg you, give glory to God, to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And Aachon answered, Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. And when I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold weighing 50 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. Now it's very interesting that the way that Joshua approached him, he actually did it in a very kindly manner. Didn't rail against him one way or another. And it brought Aiken to the place where he accurately described the progress of his sin which actually led directly from his eyes to his hands and then to hiding those things in the earth. And he could not escape God. Now, verse 24. I do not think that I will read that again. We just read that at the very beginning. And verse beginning in verse 6, Going through to verse 26. OK, now I, I want us to consider several factors as we look at this sentence and the judgment that was carried out against him. When we look at the whole story, we find first of all that Aiken was the 4th generation from Judah. Now this means then that he was a reasonably old man. I do not mean that he was the ancient of days or anything like that, but he was up there in years, yet well enough to be able to participate in whatever was being done there. Secondly, there is no mention Of his children anywhere in the revealing of this story as being young. Now considering he was the 4th generation from Judah and that he himself was reasonably old, the implication from this, according to the commentators, and I agree, is that Akin's sons and daughters were also adults, no children as we would think of them, no minors in the lot. They were people of age, adult age themselves. Now let's go to hold your fingers there, let's go to Deuteronomy 13. Deuteronomy 13 and in verse 24 where we have a verse very similar to what we read earlier to you in Ezekiel. 24 and in verse, oops, I'm in verse, wrong chapter. Deuteronomy 24 and in verse 16, I was in Deuteronomy 16, so pardon me there. 24 and verse 16. The father shall not be put to death for their children, nor their children be put to death for their fathers. A person shall be put to death for his own own sin. I bring this up because the Kyle Delisch commentary is a German commentary, very interesting in this regard, states that this law did not apply in this case. And I will explain why. This law applied in ordinary criminal cases. But Aiken's case was extraordinary. It was extraordinary. It was not a normal situation where they were under this ban and everybody in the camp knew it. Aiken had fallen directly under the ban by stealing what had been strictly dedicated to God by the entire camp. Now, go to Deuteronomy 13 and in verse 10. Deuteronomy 13 and in verse, we are going to read just that one verse there and then jump to some others. Now, what I'm, I'm going to give you a little preface here. And that is that what Aiken had done. was idolatry. And sneaky. God even mentioned it being deceitful. A sneaky lie. Besides thievery. Now, especially because of the idolatry, he exposed himself and his family to the same punishment as a town that had fallen to idolatry. Now let's read 13:10. And you shall stone him with stones until he dies because he sought to entice you away from the Lord your God and who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, dropped down to verse 12. If you hear someone in one of your cities, which the Lord your God gives to you dwell in, gives you to dwell in, saying certain corrupt men have gone out from among you and enticed the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods whom you gods whom you have not known. Then you shall inquire. You shall diligently search out and ask, and if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination was committed, you shall surely listen to this. You shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword utterly. Destroying it, all that is in it, it's livestock with the edge of the sword, and you shall gather all its plunder into the middle of the street and completely burn with fire the city and all its plunder for the Lord, for the Lord your God, and it shall be a heap forever and it shall shall not be built again. So none of the accursed things shall remain in your hand, that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you, and multiply you just as he swore to your fathers. Aiken's sin brought this on himself and his family. Now, in addition to that, As I said, 8 of the commentators believed that The children were complicit in this. It was not that they were just bystanders, but they were. Guilty after the fact. Of the original Uh, Crime. Now several other commentators pointed out. Besides the kd that this was not an ordinary sin committed under ordinary circumstances on at least 3 levels a, it was the theft of things directly vowed and pledged to God by the entire camp. B, it was a presumptuously committed and hidden sin. You can check out the Numbers 15 and verses 30 and 31. Very bad. It was committed right in the beginning of Israel's entrance to the land, and God has shown a proclivity in the Bible to carry out a dramatic punishment to the full extent of his authority on such occasions. Now, let's look at verse 26, 7:26, Joshua 7:26. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones still there to this day, that is to the day of this writing. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger and therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor. This sin was so extraordinary. It was memorialized to give guidance as a reminder of their extraordinary of Israel's extraordinary shame. Now almost all nations memorialize their great victories, but Israel under David. Also raised a great heap of stones to memorialize Absalom's death for his rebellion against his father. He copied what Joshua did here. So that the people would always be reminded. Of the heinousness of this sin. Now I think that we can conclude that Aiken and his children were executed. Some advice for us. Number one, Let's remember to pay all of our vows to God Most High. These people vowed. To destroy everything, etc. At baptism we pledged our life to Him. We are now devoted to Him. And let us not come under the ban by wasting our life through sin. Number 2, let us also remember in deep gratitude how full of grace God is toward us and that that if he chose to do so, he could easily convict us of the same sort of sin and punishment because we have done things equally sinful. And but for Christ's imputed righteousness, we would have absolutely no defense.