[Richard Kennebeck] Joshua 6, we'll spend much of our time in Joshua 6 today. So if you have—6 and 7 and 8—if you have one of those little markers in your Bible, or if you're using electronic device, you can put a bookmark. You might want to put it there. A little bit of a background before we begin. God had given the land of Canaan to the Israelites through their forefathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But even though God had given this land to them, God expected them to do a part of removing those people who inhabited Canaan. And when Israel crossed over that river Jordan to enter into Canaan, they faced this great flood that the Jordan was at that time.

God created a miracle just like He did in the time of their exodus and He dried up the water, and Israel crossed over unhindered on dry land. The first city that they took was Jericho. It's the first city they faced, and God performed another miracle there because Israel, as they walked around it then blew the trumpets, the walls came tumbling down flat and Israel went in, leapt in unhindered to take it.

Prior to the conquest of Jericho, God had commanded the Israelites to kill everyone, all the inhabitants of Jericho except Rahab and her family, who had helped the spies when they had gone through Canaan and searched it out. And he had also told Israel that as they conquered Jericho, that they were supposed to take all the precious metals, and precious goods and those were supposed to be set aside for the treasury of God, and should not be taken for personal gain.

So let's read about this Joshua 6:17. "Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot, shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent." Verse 18, "And you, by all means abstain 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." Verse 19, "But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated” or dedicated and holy “to the Lord; they shall come into the treasury of the Lord."

And then verse 22 we read of the actual conquest of Jericho, "But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, ‘Go into the harlot's house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her.’ And the young man who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel." Verse 24, "But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord."

Everything in Jericho was burned. No one was saved alive except Rahab and her family and the items of silver and gold and the precious metals were consecrated and put into the treasury. Israel’s on a real high at this point. You must imagine it after they had taken Jericho, there's no indication that anybody was killed during this conquest.

The camp of Israel must have been feeling really high, really excited, excited for the future of conquering Canaan. Maybe this was the beginning of a long string of easy victories as they went through the land of Canaan, which God had promised to them. The next city in their path was the city, cities of Bethel and Ai. They were small, small cities maybe 12,000. Ai was this small royal city which meant it had its own king. Beside it was the town of Bethel. Both of these towns had great significance to Israel, religious and historical significance.

Abraham had lived between Bethel and Ai, and he had built an altar there and worshiped God on it. You probably remember the story in Genesis 28 of Jacob and the ladder, with the angels going up and down between heaven and earth. Well, that happened near Bethel in Ai. And there, God promised the land of Canaan to Jacob and his descendants, and Jacob was so awestruck with that area between Bethel and Ai, that after that dream of those angels going up and down that ladder, he said, "How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven." That area had great significance to Israel.

Now Joshua begins the planning of how to take over Ai and in Joshua 7:2, we read about how he goes about this plan. Joshua 7:2, he says, "Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, 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." Verse 3 “And they returned to Joshua and said to him, ‘Do not let all the people go up, but let only two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.’"

In verse 4 and 5 we find what happens when they go up to battle because they had come back these spies and it said, "It's not significant. Let's not even weary of the people." In verse 4 and 5 we read what happens. These 3,000 men of Israel, they're sent out to go to Ai and to attack thinking this is going to be an easy victory, simple victory, not even worrying about it. And they soon find out just the opposite. As they attack the city, the men of Ai come charging out of the city. And Israel quickly turns about and runs to the wilderness. Thirty-six men of Israel lose their lives as they desperately try to escape Ai. And the people of Israel are so discouraged that it says “the hearts of the people melted and became like water.”

And when Joshua hears about this defeat, he tears his clothes. And he and the elders go before God. And Joshua pleads with God and says, "Why did You let this happen? What are the nations around us going to think about your name? How could You let this defeat occur?" And then Joshua even says, "Why did You let us even cross the Jordan?" And God replies that it wasn't Him who caused the defeat it was caused by sin in the camp. Israel had sinned and because of that God was not with them in battle.

Someone in the camp had taken some of those dedicated things that were dedicated for the treasury. They had taken it for themselves. And because of this, God says in Joshua 7:12 that “Israel could not stand before their enemies” and they were even “doomed for destruction.” The transgression had to be taken care of. Israel was not safe until the sin was removed and made right with God. It didn't make any difference if they had sent 3,000 men to Ai or 300,000 men to Ai. Israel was doomed because God was not part of the battle with them. They would have fared no better.

The rest of chapter 7 tells us about how Joshua and God handled the problem. All the tribes were to assemble and God was going to show which tribe the offender was in, and in which family group the offender was in, and then which household the offender was in, and then finally which person had done the sin, and had taken the items that were supposed to be going to God's treasury. So the next day, all of Israel, all of the tribes gathered together and God selects out the tribe of Judah.

And then the family group, and then the household, and then finally, the person who had offended God. The guilty person was a man named Achan, a man named Achan, and Joshua calmly talks to Achan and gives him an opportunity to confess his sin and to glorify God. And Achan finally confesses that he took these items. He took these items and he had put him and buried them in his tent. A beautiful Babylonian garment 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels were buried in the dirt beneath his tent. And Joshua sends men to his tent and sure enough, he finds them. And because of that sin, Achan and his family are put to death. And then afterwards, God gives Joshua the battle plan to take Ai and Ai is crushed.

So let's take a closer look at the story that being just an overview, and see what things we can learn from it. At the place where Achan and his family died, there's a great heap of stones that were there at least up to the time of Ezra. And that stone monument was to remind Israel of what had taken place at the Battle of Ai, and what the consequences and the impact of the sin of one man was on a nation. But first, let's take a look at two lessons that we can glean from Joshua's preparation for the battle of Ai. In Joshua 7, beginning in verse 1, we see the reason for the defeat of Ai, and there's only one reason, that was Israelite failure to seek God and God was not with them.

It had nothing to do with how many men were sent to Ai. In Joshua 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 Judah, took the accursed things." And this word translated here “accursed things” is the Hebrew word that can be translated dedicated things or devoted. These items that Achan had taken were devoted to God and His treasury. Continuing, "So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel." God's anger burned against Israel. He wasn't happy. Then verse 2 and 3 we read about Ai's battle planning process.

"Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, 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" Verse 3, "And they returned to Joshua and said to him, 'Do not let all the people go up, but only two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few.'" From these two verses, we can glean two errors that Joshua made in preparing his battle plan.

The first, there is no evidence that he asked for God's guidance. We don't see any evidence of that, all we read is that he sends up spies to see what should be done. We don't see a hint that anybody sought the will of God. It makes you wonder if Joshua had sought the will of God, would He have told them, "Hey, there's sin in the camp. Take care of that before you go up against Ai." You know, I think God probably would have told them that. That would have spared this defeat and 36 men's lives.

How often do we forge ahead on things that look simple, and ask God's guidance on those things that seem difficult? How often do we ask God's guidance in the Jericho's but go on our own on the Ai's? How often do we ask God into difficult decisions and trials of life, but overlook Him in the simple and easy things? There's a story of a missionary trapped by a lion, and he pleads for God to make a way of escape, which God does. But the missionary slept all night with a mosquito around him buzzing in his ear and he actually got no sleep all night long. He was willing to ask God's help for the lion but never asked for it for the mosquito.

Secondly, when Joshua went up to Ai and planned for it, we almost seem to see that maybe he was a little overconfident, maybe a little bit self-confident in his own strength. Did he skip consulting God because of that being overconfident? Israel had just decisively won these battles of Jericho and battles on the other side of the Jordan. Had he maybe become a little bit overconfident? There's a hint that this might have occurred in Joshua 6:27 where we read, "So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country." Makes you wonder if maybe his name wasn't being repeated in the stories of the conquests across the Jordan and the stories of the conquest of Jericho weren't being repeated, and maybe Joshua became just a little bit overconfident. We need to make sure that we depend upon God's strength and His power rather than on our own.

Eventually, after Israel was defeated in the first battle of Ai, Joshua and the Elders of Israel humbled themselves before the Lord, and they consult to Him. And it's at that time that we find out for the first time that there's sin in the camp of Israel. Let's go ahead and move on to that, Achan's sin. And what we can learn from that, from that defeat and from what happened at that time. What I'd like to do is take a look at five lessons we can learn from Achan in the story of the battle of Ai.

The first lesson that we can learn from Achan's sin, is that sin should not be taken lightly. Sin should not be taken lightly. God abhors sin. He hates and He doesn't take it lightly. It's serious, and so should we. God wants us to grow and mature and to become sin free as we can be. That's one of the reasons He gives us the Holy Spirit is, to help us remove sin from our lives. It helps us become more like Him and less like our old sinful selves.

We read at the end of Joshua 7:1, that, because of the sin of Achan, the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. That's how much God hates sin, He's a consuming fire. You know, Achan may have rationalized away his sin. He may have seemed less thinking about it and trying to rationalize it, making it seem okay to him. You know, and he wasn't going to do anything about it, it seems unless he was caught. He was going to keep it secret. He's going to keep it hidden. He may have thought of things like this as he was going through Jericho.

He may have said, "There's so much riches here, God's not going to miss a little bit of it." Or he might said, "What harm can this do as long as nobody sees me take it?" Or he might have said, "Hey, I've worked for this. I deserve it." But we need to make sure that we don't minimize our sins and explain away our sins and justify our sins. Make them seem less than they are so that they're more palatable to us. How often we hear of little white lies? Is there really such a thing as a little white lie? No. Or we recall a romantic encounter of fling rather than committing adultery. Or you may say, "I'm just appreciating my neighbor's car when really I'm lusting after it." If it's sin, it's sin. Don't take it lightly.

Turn with me to Proverbs 6. Proverbs 6:12, because here we see one place where God shows us that He takes sin seriously and so should we. Proverbs 6 contains one of the list of the things that God hates. Beginning in Proverbs 6:12, "A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth; he winks with his eyes." So basically he's saying, “Oh, you know, that's wrong, wink, wink." He's making light of it. “He shuffles his feet, he points his fingers; perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord."

Verse 15, "Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy. These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil,” in verse 19, "a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren." These are things that God hates. We should hate those, too, but we should hate sin. It should not be taken lightly.

A second lesson we can learn from the sin of Achan is that we can't hide our sins from God. We can't hide our sins from God. I'd like to tell you a fishy story. This is from nbcnews.com, an article, "Woman charged with smuggling fish in skirt." Maybe this is a little hint, Mr. Eddington. You may not want to do this when you go back to Australia. “There must have been something fishy about the way she walked. Customs officials said Monday they stopped a one woman as she arrived Friday in the southern city of Melbourne on a flight from Singapore and found 51 live tropical fish allegedly hidden in a specially designed apron under her skirt. ‘During the search customs officers became suspicious after hearing “flapping” noises coming from the vicinity of her waist,’ the Australian Customs Service said in a press conference ‘An examination revealed 15 plastic water-filled bags holding fish allegedly concealed inside a purpose-built apron.’” This woman could not hide her sins from man much less from God.

In the same manner, Achan thought that he was able to bury this sin under the dirt of his tent and then hide his sins from human and from God. He buried that silver and that gold and that dirt under the tent hoping probably, to hide it till a time when he could take care of it nobody could see. But you know God not only has super x-ray vision, but He knows every action of our heart. He knows the moment that Achan was tempted as he was walking through Jericho. He knew the moment that Achan hid those things. He knew what was going on in Achan's mind and in his heart. We can't hide from God. We can't hide our sins from God. God saw that sin of Achan, and He sees the sins that we have. Thankfully, He forgives those if we repent and ask for forgiveness.

Psalms 139, David writes about God's presence. Psalms 139:1 He's everywhere and not only that He searches our hearts. Psalms 139:1, "O Lord, You have searched me and know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought a far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways." Verse 4, "For there is not a word in my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether." Verse seven, "Where can I go from Your Spirit or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there." Verse 9 "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me."

David knew that you couldn't hide your thoughts, your heart, or your actions from God. He's everywhere. He knows everything. There is no such thing as a secret sin. But David had a wonderful heart and an attitude. He didn't mind being transparent to God. He didn't mind having God look into the deepest part of his heart and understand himself. He asked God to look into his heart. He was proactive, drop down verses 23 and 24 says, "Search me," David's saying, "O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties;” verse 24 "And see if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." David actually proactively said, "God, show me my sins. Help me understand where I have problems and sins." He didn't try to hide from God. He didn't try to hide anything from God. He had no secret sins from God. He asked Him to show him what his sins were.

A third lesson is that our sins affect other people. Our sins affect other people. The sin of Achan committed when he stole from God caused 36 soldiers to die during that battle. Thirty-six fathers and sons, husbands, uncles, leaders, teachers never came back to their homes. The whole nation was depressed. If you remember I read earlier that it says, the people of Israel, their “hearts melted and became like water." After the defeat of Israel at Ai, Joshua and the Elders entreat God as to why it occurred, and why God would allow Israel to be defeated.

Then we can read in Joshua 7:11, we hear God's response, Joshua 7:11, "Israel has sinned…” He doesn't actually say Achan has sinned, He says "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff." Verse 12, "Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed thing from among you." Verse 11, it says God says that Israel had sinned and transgressed because of Achan's sin. Israel was doomed because of the sin of Achan. One man's sin. One man's actions.

Achan’s sin did not just hurt him, it hurt everybody in the nation of Israel. It also hurt his household. All of whom eventually died because of his sin. Now you may ask why would children and the like die for the sins of a father. It's quite possible that they also knew the hidden metal and precious metal that were on hidden underneath the tent, and should have let them know about it. But how often have you heard people say, "I can do whatever I want as long as I'm not hurting anyone." Or, "It's my life, don't tell me what to do." Or, "It's nobody else's business."

You know, Achan may have used one of these exact excuses. He might have said, "Nobody will get hurt with what I'm doing. I'm just taking a little bit of metal here. It's my life. Leave me alone. I'm not hurting anybody else. If anything I'm just hurting God." But the story of Achan shows us that this isn't the case. We all have connections to each other. We don't live in isolation. We don't live in a vacuum. Our lives and our sins touch each other, even if you don't think so, even if they don't think so, they probably do. If you say you're not hurting somebody, you probably are.

It might be our parents or our children if we or they are taking drugs or committing crimes or sneaking out of the house and doing things they shouldn't be doing. It might be a future husband or wife if you're viewing pornography, or if you're already married, if you're viewing pornography it's the attitude of affecting your outlook of your wife, your spouse, and of other women. Excessive drinking, it affects your kids and your job. Or not staying close to God. If we're not staying close to God and we are seen by some people especially newly converted Christians doing something that we should know better, how does it affect them?

How many of us parents see some traits in our children good and bad that we may wish that weren't there, wish that they were there more, wish that there weren't there at all? And how many older siblings are looked so highly upon by their younger siblings? What you older siblings do is watched by younger siblings. There's an old saying first penned by John Donne that says, "No man is an island entire unto itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main."

Turn with me the 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12, we'll read a familiar passage. Talks about how the Church is interconnected. Paul is talking here about the Church and how we are one body. We have different responsibilities, different gifts as part of that body. But we're all part of one body. 1 Corinthians 12 beginning in verse 20. "But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need for you.'"

Paul is telling us we're all interconnected. We're all part of the fellowship, part of the Body. We all have an impact on each other. Then verse 26, we can see how our decisions impact each other. "And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." Whatever we do has an impact on others in the church whether it's to suffer or to rejoice.

Let's say you're a student and you're taking an exam. And last night, you stayed up till 3:00 in the morning talking to your Facebook friends from the last camp. Didn't get time to study for that exam but, hey, you're sitting next to the brainy guy in school. You've got a choice to make: do you cheat off his paper because you can see it, or do you take it with the knowledge that you have?

You might cheat, thinking it's not going to affect anybody but it does, first of all, you. You probably didn't study that what's on that test as well as you should have, that may impact your future. If your teacher's grading on a curve, it may impact the rest of your students, your fellow students because the curve may change. Your teacher may change the way she does future lessons on that subject because she may think, "Hey, I taught the subject well." Or if you're smoking or thinking of smoking you may think, "Oh, it's just me, it's not going to impact anybody." But there's been so much evidence that smoking, the effects they can have on children and babies, more asthma, more S.I.D.S., more C.O.P.D., more chance of growing up and smoking as they get older. It affects others or drugs, the impact of that. You may think it only affects you, but it doesn't. It affects all those people that are connected to you.

Unfortunately, our culture generally teaches us to think only of ourselves. But God in His way and His culture expects us to think of others. In fact, Romans 14:12-13 tells us that one day we will be judged by God and one of those areas that we will be judged in is how our decisions affect other people. Romans 14:12-13 I'll read it out of The Living Bible it says, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God… Try to live in such a way that you will never make your brother stumble by letting him see you doing something that he thinks is wrong."

You know Abraham's little white lie when he called his wife his sister almost cost Sarah her husband twice. David's disobedience when he did the unauthorized census of Israel cost the lives of 70,000 people in Israel. Jonas' refusal to obey God when he sent them to Nineveh almost lost a ship and all the people on it. There are many other examples in the Bible that we can see of how our lives are connected. So we should never use the excuse of “whatever I want to do, I should be able to do because it affects no one else.” It does affect others. A fourth lesson is to learn from Achan is beware of covetousness. Beware of covetousness. The 10th commandment then tells us that this is the updated version, "You should not covet your neighbor's house, wife, servant, car, pool, job, iPad, cell phone, video game, or anything else your neighbor has."

If you look at Joshua 7:20, you can see that Achan acknowledges that his sin was caused by coveting. His sin was caused by coveting. Joshua 7:20 "And Achan answered Joshua and said, ‘Indeed I have sinned against the Lord of Israel, and this is what I have done.’" Verse 21, "When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty 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."

Achan calls this spoils of war. But that's not what God called them. Spoils are something the victor takes, but God had called them dedicated, dedicated. Achan coveted them so he took them. I don't know how much a beautiful Babylonian garment would cost. I have no idea. Going to Barnes' Commentary on the Bible, “A Babylonian garment was a long robe that was worn by kings for state occasions, and they were beautifully dyed and are richly embroidered robes.”

Now just to see maybe a comparison, I went and took a look at what the cost of an Oscar dress would be, a dress somebody would wear to an Oscar. Fox News says that one of these gowns can set you back over $15,000. So let's say that Babylonian garment cost $15,000. Achan also took 200 shekels of silver, about 500 pounds of silver worth about $1,200. He also took one and a half pound of gold about $25,000. So he coveted $40,000 worth of goods.

Well, that's a lot of money but was it worth sinning against God? Was it worth the lives of 36 men and the lives of his family? The sad thing is, Achan was not a destitute man. He was not poor. He really didn't need that money to keep his family alive. Because we can read a list of possessions given in Joshua 7:24 that says that he had cattle, sheep, and donkeys. He wasn't poor. Achan's theft was inspired by greed, not by need. Not that it would've made any difference. It was still consecrated to God. But it was inspired by greed by coveting. Achan's weakness was coveting and greed.

Proverbs 15:27 tells us the greed of a man will adversely affect his household. It says, "He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house." Again, it affects others. Jesus Christ warned the people of his day in Luke 12:15, to “…Take heed and be aware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." What's in our life, how we do our life, how we live our life, those are the important things — not what we wear or what we have.

In Colossians 3:1-5, we can see what apostle Paul says about covetousness. Colossians 3:1-5 says, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God." Verse 2, "Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Hey, if you want to have a secret thing something hidden, that's what you want to have, your life hidden with Christ.

Verse 4, "When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." Paul calls coveting idolatry. The new English or the Bible in basic English translate that as coveting, which is “the worship of strange gods.” To Achan, those material things worth $40,000 were a god to him. They were more important to him than the commandment that God had given to them. And Hebrews 13:5 it says, "Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’" We need to learn to be content with what we have, that should be a foundation. But put on that knowing that God will never leave us nor forsake us. He'll always take care of us. So be wary of covetousness.

Okay. The fifth and last lesson we'll glean today from the sin of Achan is the process of sin, the process of sin. Joshua 7:16. We can see what happens to Achan after he's picked out of the whole nation for being the one who has sin. Joshua pleads with him, pleads with him to tell him what he has done and to glorify God. You know, and Achan could've just said, "I saw something. I liked it, I took it. I saw something. I liked it, I took it."

But he goes into more detail. Verse 19, we read, "Now Joshua said to Achan, 'My son, I beg you, give glory 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.'" Verse 20, "And Achan answered Joshua and said, ‘Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God in Israel,” so he finally admits his sin, his guilt but by this time it's too late. "And this is what I have done:” verse 21, "When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted… 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."

Here we see the progression or process of sin: one “I saw.” He saw the spoils. Two he coveted, he desired it. Three, he took it. He actually took an action. Four, he hid it. He tried to cover up his sin, tried to hide it. And then when Joshua sends the man to Achan's tent and finds the gold and the silver and brings them back. We continue in verse 24, and we read about that last step, the fifth step in the progression of sin if not repented of, what the result is.

Verse 24, "Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, 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 they brought them to the Valley of Achor." Verse 25, "And Joshua said, ‘Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day.’ So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burnt them with fire after they had stoned them with stones."

So that fifth step is if unrepented of, sin brings death. And that was the end that Achan and his family had. This is often the progression of many sins. We see something that we want or that we want to do, we desire it or we desire to do a sinful act. We think upon it. We allow that desire to grow and we covet. Then we act upon that desire or that sinful act. And then afterwards, we often try to hide it. We try to hide the evidence of that sinful act. We sweep those crumbs underneath the carpet. We throw away the bottles in our neighbor's trash. We clear off the web browser so nobody knows what we've been looking at. We throw away the evidence. We even try to deny the evidence if it's set before us.

And then eventually, if we do that, if we hide our sins, if we try to hide them and we don't repent of them, Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." If we don't repent of them, if we permanently turn away from God, eventually death. Think back at Adam and Eve's sin when they ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What steps did they go through? Eve saw the tree and the fruit. It was good and she desired it. She took the fruit and ate it. Then what do they do? They hid themselves, and then God told them they eventually would die. Think back to David and his sin with Bathsheba, same steps.

But do you know there's one thing different with David, and that's a step we need to learn and we need to make sure that we do is he repented. He repented even after he tried to hide that sin, he came back and repented. And that is a step that we need to make sure that we put in place if we ever make it to step four rather than the fifth step of death, we need to have the fifth step of repentance.

James tells us in the New Testament and talks about the same pattern, that same pattern. James 1:14, "But each one of us is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." So remember the pattern of sin so you can stop it before it moves on to its next step. Watch out for that pattern: I saw, I coveted, I took, I hid. I saw, I coveted it, I took, I hid.

If you read through Joshua chapters 6 through 8 at a later time, you can find many more instructions and lessons for our Christian life about the sin of Achan, and that battle of Ai. Paul Harvey used to say “there is the rest of the story,” there is a rest of the story to the battle of Ai. After Achan had been taken punished of the sin and removed, God tells Joshua exactly what to do, and He tells him and encourages him, "Don't be afraid. Don't give up. Get up and do what I say, I'm now with you." So once that sin has been removed, God was now with them and he tells Joshua to take your man and divide them into two groups. A small group and a larger group and have the small group go up to Ai as they did before and have the larger group wait outside Ai.

And so they begin to attack. Israel begins to attack and now comes the army of Ai rushing out and the small group of 3,000 turn and start running. And the people of Ai think another good and easy victory and so they rush out. All the man rush out of the city of Ai and leave the gates open unlocked and rush after the 3,000 of Israel. And as they're getting close, all of a sudden, they notice fire behind them and smoke billowing out of the city. You see, Israel had been just waiting for Ai, all the man the rush out of the city. So Ai is left defenseless. And the larger group of Israelites enter the city, through the open gates and take over the city and burn the city. And the men of Ai see this and turn on their heels and start running back to the city to save it, only to find themselves in a vice between the two groups. Israel has victory at Ai.

There's a sad footnote to Achan death. Joshua 8:26, there's a sad note to it. "For Joshua did not turn back…” this is talking about the attack on Ai. "Joshua did not turn back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai." Verse 27, "Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua." Had Achan just had patience, had just had done what God had commanded, he could have had his silver and his gold and his garments. They were waiting in Ai — if he had just waited he would have gotten his spoils of war.

Turn with me our last scripture to Hosea 2. Hosea 2:14, because the place where Achan was put to death for his sins, it was called the Valley of Achor. The Valley of Achor and it was a reminder of the trouble that came to Israel because of the sin of this one man. The Valley of Achor means valley of trouble or a valley of disaster. Hosea 2 is written many, many, many years after this event in Ai. And he uses the Valley of Achor or that valley of trouble to describe the millennial age. The time of restoration in the future Kingdom of God. After the nation of Israel has gone through the difficult times at the end of this present age.

Hosea 2:14, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her." And then in verse 15, God says, "I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.” This valley that is the symbol of trouble and destruction that goes back to this battle of Ai into the sin of Achan will become a doorway of hope. Continuing, "She shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt." Verse 16, “'And it shall come to pass, in that day,’ says the Lord, ‘That you will call Me “My Husband” and no longer call Me “My Master.”’"

This Valley of Achor where all this occurred points to a time, a time in the future, a time of great things, a time of Christ being the husband. At the end, that Valley of Achor that historical monument marker to the sin of one man will be a doorway and a symbol of hope for Israel and all mankind. Each day we fight our battles, our battles of Jericho, we fight our battles of Ai, we fight our personal battles. Those battles should reflect the life of Jesus Christ living within us. Depend upon God and His deliverance. Seek His counsel. Obey God in His instructions. Remember that our life has an impact on others. Remember the process of sin to prepare to battle against it, and remember the Valley of Achor, God's hope for the future of mankind.