Joshua Chapter 7 – A Puzzling Defeat
The joy of victory. The agony of defeat.
And the distance between a them is one small step. The sudden transition from chapter 6 to 7 of Joshua demonstrates this small tragic step:
[6:27] So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country.
[7:1] But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel.
Between the LORD’s presence and His anger, between fame and defeat, is a single act born out of greed.
One can imagine families still recounting the recent victory at Jericho, and before the excitement of that miraculous event starts to wane off, terrible news of defeat at Ai breaks out from the lips of trembling survivors – 36 of their comrades have died!
Why should this happen? And so soon after the glorious conquest of the formidable Jericho! Has God forgotten to bless them? Or has He changed His mind? Alas, even their military leader Joshua tears his clothes and falls to the ground, totally puzzled.
In response to Joshua’s complaint, the LORD declares: Israel has sinned! Modern Christians often trivialise the physical expressions of faith – why the insistence on unleavened communion bread? And that grape juice on the Lord’s table must be unfermented?
We must recognise it’s because our covenant with God cannot be trivialised!
The hidden Babylonian garment, the silver and the gold hidden in the earth constitute a transgression against God’s covenant (11). These things are said to be “accursed”, but the truth is that they are dedicated to God – either for destruction as act of obedience (6:21) or to be gathered into the holy treasury (6:19).
The word for “accursed” is translated on the one hand, “under the ban”, “doomed to destruction” (Lev 27:29) and on the other hand, “devoted” and thus “holy to the LORD” (Lev 27:21,28). Hence, thievery includes not only stealing things meant for God’s treasury but also things meant to be destroyed in the name of God, for such destruction is itself a demonstration of triumph, and a form of offering to the glory of His great name.
Sin, though hidden and unseen, is a stumbling block in our lives. It could even be fatal, just like the devoted objects buried in the ground.
Because leavening corrupts the whole lump, God in His grace uncovers the sin of Achan, lest the entire community gets wiped out. As individuals, let us be mindful of our responsibility to look out for the entire church, and especially for our own families.