Obediently Dealing With Disobedience

Transcript

GRS 2-43
10/1/2006
Obediently Dealing With Disobedience
Joshua 7-8
Gil Rugh

We are studying the Book of Joshua together and we have come to Chapter 7. So if you turn to that portion in your Bibles, just after the first five books of the Old Testament we come to the Book of Joshua and Chapter 6 recorded the great victory of Israel over Jericho. Their first conquest in the land after crossing to Jordan, it came under the leadership and oversight of the captain of the Lord’s host that appeared to Joshua at the end of Chapter 5. And he gave Joshua the instructions, the city is conquered supernaturally, become a well known story of the walls collapsing without any action on Israel’s part except the obedience of faith.

And Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 30 says; and it was by faith the walls of Jericho fell down and we note it; that’s a reminder as all of Hebrews Chapter 11 is that faith is not just some kind of passive feeling in our hearts and minds. But faith is acting upon the word of God, believing what he has said, and that means doing what he has said. So, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. What did Israel do by faith, not just sit back in the camp and wait. But they responded to the instructions of God, went out, walked around the city according to his instructions and so on.

So also, Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 31 says; that it was by faith that Rehab and her family were spared. And again; she believed in the God of Israel and that manifested itself in her action of protecting the spies and then heeding the word of the spies. Remember, only those of her family who gathered in her house would be spared destruction when Jericho was destroyed. So Chapter 6 is a great victory because of Israel’s obedient faith.

Chapter 7 is going to be the record of a serious disastrous defeat because of disobedience in Israel. And so Chapter 7 is about the defeat of Israel at Ai because of the sin of Achan. Remember, back in Chapter 6 verses 17 to 19; the city of Jericho was put under the ban. Verse 17 of Chapter 6; the city shall be under the ban, if and all that is in it belongs to the Lord. Only Rehab and her family are spared. Verse 18; but as for you only keep yourself from the things under the ban so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban and make the camp of Israel a curse and bring trouble on it.

All the silver, gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, they go into the Lord’s treasury. This is like the first fruits of Canaan being devoted to the Lord and Israel’s recognition that he is our God, we are his people and he deserves the best, the first, and he is honored by that. Chapter 7 opens up; but the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban. You note here, the connection is going to come out as we move through the Chapter; the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah took some of the things under the ban therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.

The action of one person brings the anger of God toward the nation and you see the unity of the nation here and the sin of one within the nation has its impact upon the nation and the nation is held accountable and responsible. Even though everybody in Israel didn’t take things from Jericho contrary to God’s word, that the indication only Achan did and perhaps those of his family are part and parcel of that but he brings the wrath of God on the nation. All the individuals comprise one nation, the acts of an individual are viewed as the acts of the nation.

Corporate guilt, individual responsibility go hand in hand in the account here and the individual Achan cannot be separated from the nation to which he belongs. Important point that will come out through this account, we will say more about that. It will carry over to the New Testament, God saves us individually, that was true in Israel, individuals were responsible before God. Achan will die for his sin but the nation also suffers for his sin. That they will come under the same judgment that Achan does but they are held accountable before God until the sin is dealt with and this whole matter of corporate identity and responsibility will be carried over in the New Testament for the church.

For we are individuals within the church and we are personally responsible before God but we are part of the body and inseparably linked and joined to one another and so there is a corporate group responsibility even for the sin of the individual within the group and in the New Testament; within the church. So we are told at the end of verse 1; the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. Now the nation Israel is unaware of what has taken place, Achan has done this secretly, so they are proceeding onwards to -- Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “go up and spy out the land”. The men went up, spied out Ai.

And they come back and say, “It is not that big deal, the whole army doesn’t have to go up against Ai, sent two or three thousand men up and we will clean this up and move on”. So verse 4; about 3000 men from the people went up there but they fled from the men of Ai, the men of Ai struck down about 36 of their men pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the so the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

Disastrous defeat, here Israel is turned and has to flee from their enemy, enemy they thought would be no big deal to conquer. 36 of the Israelite soldiers die, this is the only defeat of Israel’s armies recorded in the Book of Joshua. It is the only report of soldiers killed in battle in the account in Joshua. Here at the very beginning of the conquest you have had a tremendous victory with the conquering of Jericho and a display of the power of God, you turn right around and that is followed by a disastrous defeat and Joshua and the nation are in despair.

Verse 6; then Joshua tore his clothes, that sign of mourning, extreme grief, he fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, both he and the elders of Israel, they put dust on their heads. Even in some of the news you can see that in portions of the east where they throw the dust in the air and comes down and, it just depicting their mourning, their grief. Joshua said, “Alas O Lord God, why did you ever bring this people over to Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. If only we had been willing to dwell upon the Jordan, O Lord what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies, for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth and what will you do for your great name.

All this disaster will happen to us because this is only going to strengthen the resolve of our enemies and they realize now we can be defeated and what about your great name Lord. You have put your name on the line, we are your people and in our destruction people will view that as the God of Israel could not protect them.” Mourning and grief calling out to the Lord in despair and I think the abruptness of the Lord’s response speaks very loudly. The Lord said to Joshua, “I understand how badly you feel, I’m concerned too about my name. Get up, why is it you have fallen on your face, Israel has sinned, they have transgressed my covenant which I have commanded them, they took some of the things under the ban”.

We are just not going to drag this out to make it a week long prayer meeting, of mourning and despair and weeping. You got to correct the problem, get up off your face, there is a time to pray, there is a time of repentance and there is time to act and deal with the sin that has to be dealt with. Sometimes the church today gets so paralyzed, we won’t act too quickly, we don’t want to act things drawing out and it is a disaster. This is not the time to drag it out. Very simple problem, Israel sinned and verse 12; therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turned their backs for their enemies because they have become accursed, this is a strong language, they are the objects of my anger now.

It happens when sin comes into -- among God’s people and if it is tolerated what, you become the object of God’s anger, I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. Solution is simple, it is not -- let us pray about this for the next week, you have got to deal with the sin remove it and I will be with you until it is done, nothing can replace obedience and I then say, “let us call the nation to prayer”, the nation doesn’t need to be called to prayer, nation needs to deal with the sin in its midst.

Rise up, consecrate the people and say, “consecrate yourselves for tomorrow” for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel has said, “there are things under the ban in your midst of Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.” That is it again, faith is acting in obedience, sometimes what would be seem to be, “O great spirituality in the mourning, in the grief, in the praying”. It is just a refusal to obey, to act faithfully there is things that need to be done and I’m not against praying but this is not the time for Israel to be praying.

That is not what they need to pray me, not to call the nation to prayer, they need -- now God has told them; they need to deal with the sin. Israel has sinned, you note the emphasis back in verse 11, Israel have sinned they have transgressed my covenant. Really only one man has done that but you see he is an inseparable part of the nation and his sin is the sin of the nation. And until the nation deals with that sin they cannot experience the blessing of God.

So Israel, verse 13, is to consecrate themselves, set themselves apart for the Lord in preparation for dealing with the sin and then verses 14 and 15 give the procedure and there is a reason God could have just told Joshua; here is who did it, bring him out and deal with him. But there is a reason; you are going to bring the nation together as a nation, then verse 14; in the mourning you come near by your tribes. You have the 12 tribes of Israel as the nation, as the nation is assembled it is comprised of the 12 tribes and then as each tribe comes before the Lord, they cast the lot and the Lord will use that to direct; it is this tribe and then you work through that tribe and the families of that tribe; who make up that particular tribe, will come forth and then by the lot there will be selected the family.

And they then come nearby the household, the family being; it is an extended group of these whole descendants of this group. So you get to the household, then at the end of verse 14 you come nearby man. We are going to do see; you bring the nation, you realize the nation’s responsibility, the nation here is gathered before the Lord, now he is going to select out from within the nation and it is a reminder that this sin is going to come down to one man but it has permeated the nation in its consequences. Already 36 men have died and they are not the guilty ones as far as committing the sin but they cannot escape the consequences of the sin of the one man in the nation.

So Joshua follows the procedure in verse 16, 17, 18 and you come to verse 19. Joshua said to Achan, it comes down to; he is the one. You can imagine this is like; the nation goes through this process and it is narrowed down and Achan sees it coming and finally it is him and Joshua said to Achan, “my son I implore you, give glory to the Lord the God of Israel, give praise to him and tell me now what you have done, do not hide it from me.” He deals with him in a loving manner but firm and here it is him to confess what he has done and his guilt.

Achan said to Joshua, verse 20, “truly I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold; 50 shekels in weight and then I coveted them and took them and behold they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” Here you got a whole nation, perhaps 2 million people, one individual has taken and hidden the stuff, God knows, its impact is there. We read this to someone who thinks; why would Achan do that, what a stupid thing to do.

How easy it is for us to think; our sin is unknown, it is hidden no one else knows it, no one else in the church is aware of it and look he has come out pretty good, he has got this beautiful mantle, he has got this silver and gold, he is set for when he gets -- they take the rest of the land, he won’t be starting with little, it is not that much in the overall, can’t be that big a deal but it couldn’t be any bigger deal so to speak. I have in my Bible highlighted in verse 21; I saw, I coveted, took. He saw, he coveted and he took, that process, looking and then desiring it lusting for it and then acting upon that desire, process of his sin.

Joshua sends messengers in verse 22; and behold it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it, he had told them where it was in verse 21, they took him from inside the tent, brought them to Joshua, all the sons of Israel poured it out before the Lord, here it is. Verse 24 Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tents and all that belonged to him and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

Joshua said, “why have you troubled us, the Lord will trouble you this day” and all Israel stoned them with stones and they burned them with fire after they stoned them with stones against them. This is serious matter, you note here, all his sons, all his daughters, all his animals, we don’t give serious enough consideration how awful sin is and what its impact is. Always sin has a certain desirability about it, pleasure associated with it, benefit and there is a good feeling initially, we wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t, but all the disaster of it.

He think when he took that beautiful garment from Babylon, that silver and that gold, the end result of this; my sons are going to die, my daughters are going to die, even my animals will be destroyed and my name will live on in infamy. Achan, what is he known for, when he suffers such a death; to be stoned to death with the family which would probably indicate that they were aware of what he had done and agreed with that. Bible doesn’t go into it. We lose control when we chose to sin, we can’t control the consequences of our sin, it is not just Achan here.

Should have never brought this stuff home, his family, why do you put your family in that situation, you can’t control the consequences, the decisions made when he saw this stuff instead of saying, “So the Lord said, I’m not going to think about it, I don’t want to covet it, but you dwelt long enough, pretty soon you have found reasons; why you should do it. You can’t control the consequences, all said and done; his family has been stoned to death and they have been burned and buried under a heap of stones.

Verse 26; they raised over him a heap of stones that stand to this day and that deals with the anger of the Lord that have been poured out upon the nation Israel. You will note in the judgment, verse 24; Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, his sons, his daughters, his animals and so on. Verse 25; all Israel stoned them with stones, this is an action of the nation. There is no room for disagreement here because if you disagree; you have sided with Achan against the Lord, the sin cannot be tolerated.

Turn over to James Chapter 1 before we move into Chapter 8 going to couple of passages in the New Testament, remember these things were written for our admonition in the church. James, all the way back in the New Testament, James Chapter 1 verse 13; let no one say when he is tempted; I’m being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone. Can never say, “The Lord probably wanted me to sin, I think good has come out of it -- goodwill come out of it,” what a disastrous thing.

And we would even think of rebelling against God and then try to draw him in as the excuse for our sin. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin, when sin is accomplished it brings forth death; that would happen to Achan. I saw, I coveted, I took, lust when it conceived; he acted on his covetous desire, was the end result of it. The end of Chapter 7, he is dead, sin always brings ruin, how many people, we have one of our political leaders in Congress, just resigning in disgrace. Did he think; that when he got involved in that, some day he would be humiliated before the nation.

His family would be humiliated, embarrassed, shamed, no, he sought the pleasure of the time. We all do that when we sin, then stop and think; if I get involved in this immoral relationship, if I do this, down the road think of the grief and the -- no, yeah it is pleasurable, I enjoy, I want to do it, end result of sin is always the same. Come back to Mathew 18; we are not the nation Israel, the church is not Israel, however Israel, the people of God in the Old Testament was a nation and the individuals in that nation are part of the nation and the nation is impacted by the actions of the individuals in the nation, that is true.

We are saved individually but when we are saved we are what; placed by the spirit of God into the body of Christ, for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, making of the body of Christ the church. And as Paul will develop when we get to First Corinthians 12 and following; whatever one member does, whatever happens to one part of the body impacts the whole body, that is why in the discussion of discipline in Mathew Chapter 18 verse 15; if your brother sins, go show him his fault in private, if he listen to you, you have won your brother, if he doesn’t’ listen to you take one or two more with you but by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.

If there is going to be refusal to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and tax gatherer. I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, whatever you loosed on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. And this is in the context verse 20, whatever -- where 2 or 3 have gathered in my name, I’m there in their midst, in other words this is in the context of discipline, the church is responsible to act, when it does not act; it has given its assent to the sin of the individual.

It is like Israel, if it refused to deal with Achan and you said; we take our stand in siding with Achan. We say; I don’t want to do that, just want to be neutral. Neutral you cannot be, that wasn’t one of the options for Israel. God doesn’t allow people to remain neutral relating to him. Jesus said, “If you are not with me you are against me”. I don’t think it is right to do that, we don’t want to humiliate people, we don’t want to embarrass and I don’t see any good that comes of it. It doesn’t matter whether you see any good that comes out, it doesn’t matter whether I see any good that comes out, all that matters is what God says about it, doesn’t it.

If I have been in Israel in that day and I said; Joshua, I don’t think we have to make such a big deal of this. Achan, maybe did the wrong thing, there ought to be, maybe some correction made, I don’t know, it is not that big a deal, the total amount compared to what we got from Jericho is not that much, let’s just – oh, that would have been irrelevant, you could not go on with the blessing of God until you do what God says has to be done. I wonder how much of the Church’s ministry has been hindered by it unwillingness to be biblical in this area. Then we pray O Lord bless us, O Lord, this is not time for a prayer meeting, this is time to do what God says to do.

You think -- what people thinking now we are going to take these stones out there, here is Achan, his sons, his daughters, we are going to take up these stones, all Israel has to join in, we are going to throw stones, I just don’t want, my heart is not in this, I don’t want to part of it. Well then maybe you ought to go stand with Achan. I mean, we don’t find any of that kind of disagreement, the body is to stand as a unit here, the church. You tell it to the church, the church stands with the holy, the church doesn’t divide you and say; I don’t know whether I agree with it. This is -- the church has to stand unified, we represent the Lord in this matter.

So it’s easy to read the account of Achan, it is important we see; that is significant for us 3500 years later roughly in how we function. Alright come back to Joshua Chapter 8, now the sin has been dealt with, Israel can go on under the blessing of God. It is not a matter of military might, they can defeat Achan -- they can defeat Ai, they just can’t do it without the power of God and you cannot get the blessings of God unless you do it God’s way. So now Chapter 8 opens up, the Lord said to Joshua, “do not fear or be dismayed, take all the people of war with you, arise go up to Ai, see I have given in your hand the King of Ai, his people, his city, his land and you will do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king.

It is done because you dealt with the sin and that is why you didn’t have the victory, it is done. I like the way it is put, do not fear, be dismayed, go up, see I have given in to your hand the King of Ai, why I haven’t seen that yet, all I saw was defeat. All I saw was 36 dead soldiers, all I saw was the army of Israel running with their backs turned for the enemy chasing them. God says, “See I have given them into your hand” why, what he means; it is done because God says it is done, you do it by faith.

It is good as done, Ai is done for because God says; now Israel can conquer them and furthermore, the middle of verse 2; God didn’t tell Israel he couldn’t have the spoils of Jericho because he is selfish and doesn’t want them to have good things but Israel has to refer first -- first acknowledge their God and honor him and give him the first. Now he tells them concerning Ai, the middle of verse 2, you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. You have to kill all the inhabitants then all the possessions, they are for you.

Too bad Achan couldn’t have waited because if he had not touched the things in Jericho and waited till Ai, then he could have had it. His sons could have prospered, his daughters could have prospered but no he -- here God promises them the spoils, God gives them instructions. Verse 3 to 13; God gives them instructions on how they are to prepare for the battle and what they are to do and then verses 14 to 29 regard the actual battle and it is a complete destruction of Ai.

Verse 27; we are told, Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves according to the word of the Lord which he had commanded Joshua. It says; it took only the cattle and the spoils because they didn’t take the people, the people weren’t taken to be for slaves or anything, they are to be killed and the possessions are for the spoil of the people. They burned the city of Ai, they captured the King of Ai and they bring him to judgment.

In verse 29; Joshua hangs the King of Ai on a tree until evening. At sun set Joshua gave command and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate, raised over it a great heap of stones that stand to this day. Back in Chapter 7 verse 26 concerning Achan, his family; they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day. And these mounts of stones over those that have come under the judgment of God stand as a monument if you will to remind Israel of the consequences of rebellion against God and what happens to those who are the enemies of God.

Verse 30 and following you have the record of the reading of the law at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. These mountains are located in the center of Canaan. They are about 3000 feet high and the base of the mountains comes down and they are about 500 feet apart at the base. So they form something of a natural amphitheater and what is going to happen is; Israel is going to gather part of the nation on the sides -- going up the sides, lower part of one mountain and part going on the lower side of the other and forms this amphitheater down in the middle.

And in verse 31, they had act here just as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded the sons of Israel. Moses gave instructions for this ceremony before he died, told them where to conduct it, what they were to do once they got in the land. Verse 31, then we go, see what Moses said. Just as Moses, the servant of the Lord command the sons of Israel, as is written in the Book of the Law of Moses “an altar of uncut stones on which no man of wielded an iron tool,” they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings. He wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses which he had written in the presence of the sons of Israel.

All Israel, their officers, their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priest who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native, half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim, half of them in front of Mount Ebal. So there you are, and the Lord had parted the foot of these mountains in this amphitheater kind of setting and Moses gave; they have the blessings and the curses from the Law being read. Afterwards he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and the curse according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, the women, the little ones, the strangers who were living among them.

And this reminder again of what God has said and these are the people of God so they live obediently to the word of God. Come back to Deuteronomy Chapter 11, Deuteronomy Chapter 11 verse 26 and following; Moses speaking here and he says, “I’m setting before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I’m commanding you the curse if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God but turn aside from the way. You see the purpose here, of the two groups standing here and the reading of the blessings and the curses, remind them of the importance and the necessity of obedience.

Verse 29; it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. They see as the group is divided on the two mountains, then those who recite the curse will be on Mount Ebal, those who recite the blessings on Mount Gerizim. The altar he has built as we read, you may have not picked it up in Joshua there on Mount Ebal because the altar is what is provided to take care of the curses so that the blessings could become a reality.

Are they not across the Jordan, these mountains, verse 30, still in Deuteronomy 11, west of the way toward the sun set in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh, for you are about to cross the Jordan to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess it and live into it and you need to be careful, to do according to all the statutes and judgment. So you read this as a reminder when you come here to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. That is repeated again in Deuteronomy 27 by Moses.

Come back to Joshua again, just a couple of observations. In Chapter 8 verse 31; the altar that is constructed at Mount Ebal is construction of uncut stones and that is a reminder that man contributes nothing to his salvation, nothing to his cleansing and forgiveness so the altar here where the sacrifice is made for the forgiveness is not the work of man. They bring the stones and set them there but they are not to cut these stones and all of that, here it is not the work of the man. He doesn’t bring his work in this context.

The instructions are there on how the law is to be written on the stones, they take the stone and then they will whitewash them and inscribe across the law and perhaps the ten words or the Ten Commandments as Moses had received them as a summary of the Law. The whole nation again is involved, in verse 35, in this action because they are one nation, the nation Israel comprised of 12 tribes which are comprised then of each individual unit down to the family and then the individual within the family which comprised the nation.

Lot of different breakdowns in the church which is the universal church and the universal church is comprised of all the individual churches and then you come down to the individual within the church since we are not a military nation the breakdown is a little different but the principle is the same. So here we are, Israel has moved into the land, they have experienced a great victory, they have experienced a great defeat, they have had a vivid reminder of how serious the sin of any individual within the nation is.

It can bring the judgment of God on the nation, the nation can forfeit the blessing of God if they don’t deal with sin immediately, quickly as God has indicated they must. When they do then God brings his blessing upon them, they have the victory and the blessing they could not have apart from obedience then they are reminded again of what God said about his blessings and his curses. Blessings come for obedience, judgment comes for disobedience.

Well, we as the church learn we are the people of God today and the church is a unit and the local church is the manifestation of the universal church and as the people of God we are responsible to God and sin in our midst must be dealt with and we cannot overlook the sin and besiege God for his blessing, we must deal with the sin that is why we have church discipline, that is why it is important that we have church discipline, that is why it is important that the church speak as a unit regarding sin in its midst.

Not optional to take sides on this, so that we can experience the fullness of God’s blessing and it is a reminder to us all; sin will not be acceptable among the people of God. God will never accept sin, it is never okay with him and it must never be okay with us, and when we function as God would have us function, we experience the fullness of his blessings.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the greatness of your blessings; thank you for all that you have done for us; thank you for all that you did for Israel. Thank you Lord for that vivid reminder given to them at the beginning of their entering the land, that sin will be unacceptable, it will bring disaster but obedience brings blessing. Lord, we would learn from that, we would desire your blessings. Pray that we will faithfully obey you, and all that we do as a local church, that we stand united as one people to honor you, may we individually have a sense of the seriousness of sin, its consequences in our homes and in our church. May we be quick to deal with any disobedience, so that you might receive all the honor and all the glory, we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.