Joshua Chapter 7 Verse 1

• The children of Israel committed a trespass? But it was just one guy! Yes it was but take note, the entire nation was named. This chapter reveals a stunning truth. How a body, a people, a home, a family, a church, a company is undermined and disabled by one member’s compromise! One member doing his or her own thing. Biologically we have a word for that. Cancer.
• A well functioning and healthy organism. The components, the parts unified and symbiotic, producing greatness, being great…and then one part of the whole breaks that unity and disease begins to spread. It’s the same in a family, it’s the same in an organization…
• Literally in the Hebrew verse 1 reads that Achan, and the entire people because of him, including Joshua, one of the many innocents…this literally reads that the nation committed a breach of faith in regard to the devoted portion. A breach. The ship begins to take on water. The Titanic was 275 meters (over 900 feet – three football fields) long. 42,000 metric tons. And yet a blemish the height of only 30 meters sank her!
• What we are about to see is the cancer spread. From Achan, to Joshua, to the entire nation. And finally horror upon the cancer himself as he is surgically removed by God...

Joshua Chapter 7 Verse 2

• Now Beth Aven literally means, “House of Idolatry.” And this is a danger for us all. Charged up over the Lord…huge head-way in terms of victory in our walk and then we just slip back into life’s rhythm…can’t do it man…we must stay the course lest the course be lost…

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 3 – 4

• Now what on earth just happened? Joshua is taking orders from men! We have no record, (and I believe Joshua to be the author of this book), but we have no record of Joshua asking God His desire! The victory in Jericho…that was due to Joshua’s total reliance upon God, right? Now we see a bit of self reliance. Now why is that so bad you might ask…Back at the end of Chapter 6 we read, “So the Lord was with Joshua…” BUT, here’s the issue. Circumstance has changed…the problem…Joshua doesn’t know it! Why? ONE MAN! (Achan)
• Perhaps God would have said, “Do not continue until the sin in the camp, the cancer, is dealt with…” The fact is God doesn’t get the opportunity because Joshua is confident and clean…the problem is that the family is not…And so we see failure upon failure. Achan’s failure leads to Joshua’s failure and we will see innocent, uninvolved people pay the price…
• I’m not willing for that to happen in my life man…that is why no matter how small the task, we do it unto the Lord man…I get on my kids for the smallest things people tell me but I know the small things are the big things…because that is what they become…We need to do what is required of us…what we are responsible for and we need to do it with precision and purposeful praise because our failure, no matter how small, will become the failure of others and innocents will pay the price. If you don’t care about that then the mind of Christ is not in you…

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 5 – 7

• Yes this scene seems childish on the part of Joshua but understand, he now has 36 stopped hearts, 36 lost fathers (most likely they are young families), 36 lost sons, 36 lost husbands and an entire nation of frightened and doubting folks on his conscious!
• Sin takes so much more than we think it will…Achan took trinkets as we’ll see in a moment but the trinkets we toy with in secret will bring terror that we could not have foreseen. You can’t undo > you can’t unsee > you can’t unexperience…Everything is important! Every day man! Doing what is best for God and best for others…every day is important!

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 8 – 10

• I love that! God says, “Get up!” Yes there has been failure, yes there has been sin, yes there has been death and loss and shame…What good are you bringing to it on your face! There is work to do son!

• That’s exactly what Joshua needs. That may not be what you need. Maybe you need to sob and be held for a while and God will meet you right where you are at but the end of it will be the same…GET UP! The enemy would love nothing more than to take you to hell but if he can’t do that then his next strategy is to keep you self-focused and self-defeated. GET UP!

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 11 – 12

• Wow that is powerful stuff there…How is it that we expect the promises and the power of God when we believe that the accursed things are just hunky dory with God? Not so! God says here something that I have seen so true in life after life…that even we as born-again heaven bound Christians, the real deal, can do what God says right here, “Doom ourselves to destruction.” Because we’ve bought the lie, that Christianity is a decision and a title rather than a life given completely to God and lived with Him!!!

Joshua Chapter 7 Verse 13

• Again – GET UP! You out there, me, I’m talkin’ to the man in the mirror! Shame upon us, disappointment upon us, death upon us…GET UP! Deal with it! Repent (that’s what sanctify yourselves means) and prepare for war! To stand in the face of the enemies of God!

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 14 – 19

• This does not mean that Joshua knew it was him. This means that Achan felt the immense weight of sin. That horrible pressure and feeling of guilt mixed with fear that folks will find out but at the same time I’ve god to tell them! Ugh! Horrible stuff! Remember that! Remember how horrible it feels when temptation comes knocking!!

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 20 – 21

• Notice the pattern of unchecked temptation! Don’t let the devil be the only one fighting! Remember Achan! He saw. He coveted. He took. Now, he will pay! Forgiven no doubt but what we will see is an unedited, unsoftened look at the consequence of sin!
• Don’t tell me you are trying to stop sleeping around! Don’t tell me you are trying to stop looking at porn or wasting your time or telling your boss or co-worker off or beating up your husband! (That actually happens!) You lack wisdom man! And the doom you’re working on is not the doom and destruction of sin…it’s your own…

Joshua Chapter 7 Verses 22 – 25

• Where’s his wife? She is left with a family lost. Sons and daughters lost. Husband lost. Why? For a sleazy secretary. For another promotion up the corporate ladder and higher pay… placed above the family in importance. Achan sells his whole family, trades them for the sake of seeing, wanting, taking…

Joshua Chapter 7 Verse 26

• This is the perfect picture of losing everything. Why…what’s the underlying issue in this whole story? Achan is a coward. A mental and spiritually whiney infant that took care of himself rather than his brothers, his nation, his family, his children…his God given responsibility…and for what? NOTHING!

• The absolute opposite of Jesus Christ and what He did…and therefore, the absolute opposite of Biblical Christianity!!!