Achan’s Sin
By Pastor Nick Bibile
Now
here we see Moses dead and Joshua becomes the leader of Israel. Moses
led the children of Israel
from Egypt
and through the wilderness, that generation died, but Joshua and Caleb came
from the older generation, now there is a new generation under the leadership
of Joshua. They are going to enter into Canaan,
the land of milk and honey. However, there are many battles to be won. The
first and one of the big cities they conquered was Jericho. Jericho
lies about 800 feet below sea level, very close to the Dead
Sea. God destroyed Jericho
when the walls came down , only Rahab and family were saved. Jericho
was a large city now Israel
will go to war against Ai, which is a smaller city; Ai is about 1000 feet
higher than sea level. But here Israelites were routed and defeated at
Ai, why; it’s all because of one man’s disobedience to God. And that
man’s name was Achan.
Read
Joshua 6:17-24. Read Chapter 7
Underline
the word ‘accursed’
Accursed in Hebrew ‘haram’ or herem. Today we have the English word for herem means wives quarters in a home. The word accurse in
English has the meaning of under a curse.
Hebrew
meaning is ban for utter destruction, devoting something for God, for sacred
use. Accursed things were given to God by destruction or devotion. God
was the real conqueror of Jericho, Jericho was to be
destroyed and its precious items were to be dedicated to God. Jericho was a kind of ‘tithing’ to be given
to God, as it was the first city, which was conquered in the promise land.
He
took the beautiful robe made of silver and gold from Jericho to himself, knowing that it should be
devoted to God, it belonged to God, so really speaking he stole from God, the
accurse thing became a curse on him.
Result: Because of one man’s
sin, the entire Israel
suffered, some were killed at the battle and a small enemy defeated them.
Lesson:
As
a local fellowship in Christ Jesus, we are one body. We as a body of believers,
as a group together we are marching towards the promise land, our promise land is heaven. As a group of believers were we are today,
listening to the word of God, worshipping God, having fellowship in God. As a
group we have prayer meetings, evangelism bringing souls from darkness to the light
Christ, as a group we are growing in the Lord and waging war against enemy
territories bringing sinners to our beloved Savior.
However
if there is an Achan in our church, then we too are
going to be defeated and there will be no blessings of the Lord. The pastor can
preach the best sermons, but there will be no growth in the church, there will
be no holiness in the church, we will be the same in ten years from now even
worse, we may know a lot of doctrine but we will be hypocrites like Achan and we may be a big church, yet would be a defeated
weak church in the eyes of God.
- Achan was
greedy. Greediness for material, worldly things, greediness for
food. Someone said, “Hell has three gates: lust, anger, and greed”
(Eph 4:19)
- Achan was selfish. Selfishness
is thinking first of yourself, don’t care for the others. (James 3;13-18;
1 Cor 13:5)
- Achan was covetous.
(Eph 5:5)
- Achan was a thief.
Stealing. Spurgeon said on one he steals “stolen waters are sweet and
bread eaten in secret places are pleasant”
- Achan was worldly.
(James 4:4)
- Achan was disobedient.
(Col
3:5-6)
- Achan was a secret
sinner. Spurgeon said on people who commit secret sin, “oh, how sweet it
is the cup of secret sin”
- Achan forgot that God
sees everything. (Heb 4:13)
Resolution.
- Achan took God’s word
very lightly. How many of you today who come to church but not absolutely
serious in God’s word. If you are not then you belong to Achan’s sin. We need to take God’s word serious as
death and life, if you take seriously you will be blessed spiritually and
may be physically but if you take God’s word lightly, it would become a
curse on you, like what happened to Achan.
How many sermons have you heard? If you took God’s word seriously today
you would be teachers, but what happened? It takes only few hours after
the sermon you have forgotten all what was preached from the pulpit. But
if it was a gossip you will remember. Many talk nonsense after church is
over. Read Joshua 1: 7-9 you will receive true soul
satisfaction. (Luke 24:32; Col
3:16-17: Heb 10:24-25)
- Reading God’s
word, meditating on God’s word and prayer will discover your Achan sins. These are your secret darling, pet sins.
You will discover your hypocrisy. Once you discover these sins, you need
to stone and burn these sins, completely destroy these sins like how God
did to Achan. One little yeast
of sin can affect the whole church. Read Romans 6:11-13; Mat 18:9;
Mat 5:23-24; Col
3:5
- If we have Achans in our church, in our fellowship, we will not
stone them, but we would plead them to repent, or else the whole church
would suffer through them. (Prov 28:13; Ps
19:12-14; Ps 26:2; Ps 139:23-24; Mat 5:4)
- Be Sincere with
God. (Josh 24:14; Ps 145:18; Philp 1:10: Mat 5:8)