Prescription for an Achan Nation

Joshua 7

 

 

We like winning.  We have been doing a lot of winning lately.  America is having quite a year.  So is modern Israel.  And so were their ancestors in Joshua as they victoriously marched into their promised land.  God gave them Jericho.  What a gift!  It was a monumental miracle.  Only Jehovah could accomplish such a win, and only He deserved the glory and all the spoils.

 

6:19 said they were to give it all to the treasury of the Lord.  You see, more important than the gift of God is the God of gifts.  More important than winning and receiving a great gift is what we do with it.  Often our sin nature leads us to take it all for granted and forget the Giver and become independent and prideful, and to actually start to believe that the spoils belong to us, that we deserve to win, and then expect to continue winning.

 

America has been given a great gift.  Now what will we do with it?  MAGA is quite a movement, but it means nothing unless it means “Make America Godly Again.”  Now multitudes are jumping onto the MAHA train.  I’m grateful for it.  There’s much good there, but it means nothing unless it means “Make America HOLY Again.”

 

Our resident doctor recently made a profound statement, and he should be on Jeopardy because he framed it in the form of a question:  “What does it matter if you enjoy great health but eventually die and go to hell?”

 

Ill.—it’s a mockery that the ‘champion’ of MAHA that so many are celebrating, though he has a lot of great ideas and plans, also supports abortion.  Make wombs safe again!  God forgive us.  Please don’t judge us for this!

 

Our real disease is sin.  The real cure is the Savior!  I support Trump, but he is not our ‘fixer elixir’.  We cannot allow our recent victories to lull us into some sense that we will continue to win.  We are aboard a sinking ship, and bailing water isn’t going to fix it.  Our disease is actually spiritual, not politicical.  And it is terminal.  We need a miracle.  I now present to you the Prescription for an Achan Nation.

 

In our text nothing is left of Jericho but smoking rubble and ashes.  The people of that city are dead, and the spoils were all to be dedicated to the Lord. 

Joshua 6:19
But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

The riches and bounty of that place were to be placed in the treasury.  It’s the principle of the first fruits...found throughout the Bible.  It says that the first of everything belongs to God.  The tithe [10% of our income] is a part of this principle, but God should also get the firstfruits not only of our treasure but of our time and talents.

 

When we give God the firstfruits we are recognizing His provision...that He provided the means, the energy, and the ability to live, work, and prosper.

 

We are also recognizing His property.  Let’s do some math:  If you make $400 this week how much of it belongs to God?  All of it, not just $40.  Returning the first 10% is the Bible way for us to confirm that God is the 100% owner of it all.

 

Finally, we are recognizing His power.  Only God has the power to take 90% and make it go further than 100% could have ever gone.

 

7:1 speaks of the ‘accursed thing’.  Anything you steal from God has a curse on it.  So 90% of my income w/ God’s blessing upon it is much better than 100% w/ a curse [the devourer]  placed upon it.  God is my partner.

 

        Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

When will some Christians finally get tired of trying to dig themselves out of a financial hole?  You’ve tried it your way...how’s it working?  How about giving God’s way a try?  He invites you to put Him to the test that He’s never failed.  Do you have the faith to follow His plan?

 

Joshua 7:21 shows the progression of sin as Achan saw, coveted, took, and hid.  Nobody saw what he did...except for God!

 

The next day Israel needed to finish off a little nearby village.  Not a great walled city like Jericho.  Ai is so small that Joshua’s captains recommend they just send a small detachment to do the job.

 

But no sooner than they invade but they start sensing that God is not on their side.  Up to this point God had been fighting for them and guaranteeing them the victory, but not today.  36 men died and the name of God was disgraced. 

 

Why?  Because there was sin in the camp! There were 2 parts to this sin:  personal and national.

 

The personal sin was Achan’s, and it was covetousness:

He saw, he coveted, he took, and he hid.  First there’s desire, then deed, then deception.  It happened the same way for David w/ Bathsheba.  He saw her, wanted her, sent for her, then covered it up.  And it happens the same today for you and me.

 

Another word for covetousness is worldliness, he was just in love with the world. You know, the Bible says, “…If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” 1 John chapter 2, verse 15. Achan’s real problem wasn’t the love of the world, his real problem was that “…the love of the Father [was] not in him”. Now, you see, the love of the world is symptomatic of the fact that the love of the Father is not in you.

 

Ill.--Suppose you’re driving your automobile down the road and the red light comes on the dashboard, which means there’s no oil. Would you take a hammer and break that light and say, “Well, I’ve fixed that”? You haven’t really fixed it. You see, the red light on the dashboard is simply a warning, an indicator, a symptom there’s no oil in the crankcase. “…If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” - the love of the world is the red light that tells us that the love of the Father is not in us.

 

So there was personal guilt involved...But also national guilt.  The entire nation of Israel bore some responsibility for Achan’s sin.  This was an Achan Nation!  America is too, and God has the prescription!

v. 1a                “The children of Israel trespassed...”

v. 11        “Israel hath sinned...”

 

Why?  Because, if Israel had been right with God they could have prevented all of this. 

 

Look in verse 12: “Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies…” (Joshua 7:12). Achan wasn’t the one who was defeated. They were all defeated. You see, we’re members one of another. One drop of poison hurts the whole body. We rise and fall together. Achan sinned, but God said, “Israel hath sinned” (Joshua 7:11). “…we are members one of another” (Ephesians 4:25). And, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12: “…one member suffer, all the members suffer with it…” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

 

Ill.--Have you ever hit your thumb with a hammer? What’s the first thing you do? You jump up and do a little dance, as you scream. What’s your legs got to do with your thumb? We’re in this thing together. When “…one member suffer, all the members suffer with it…” (1 Corinthians 12:26)

 

And we, the people of God, are in some sense responsible for the sins of America.  I’m talking about something called corporate guilt.  Why has America become an immoral nation?  In large part because of the apathy of those of us who know better.  We are supposed to be salt and light.  Salt that penetrates and light that radiates.  We are supposed to be the salty preservative of morality.  We are supposed to be a bright light of truth exposing the forces of darkness, but we aren’t doing a good job of it.  Even the ‘right’ now embraces homosexuality.  We condemn instead the trans movement like it’s the real problem.  The Bible says the real problem is any blurring of the sexes.  Even the right now believes in exceptions for abortion.  But God says there are no exceptions.  Even the right today can attend a prayer breakfast one minute and make a speech about God and morality, and the next minute make another speech laced with profanity.

 

God is not impressed, nor is He pleased.  He is holy, and He judges sin, and we should be afraid.  America needs to wake up, fess up, look up, and be saved.  We need a revival.  And the saddest part is that we are confusing political victories with spiritual.  God help us!

 

Ill.—collateral damage

We use this term sometimes about civilians who die because of war.  We always try to minimize it.  Our enemy actually tries to kill civilians, even their own to win.  It has been rightly said that Palestinian civilians bear some responsibility for what they allowed Hamas to become.  I know they have been oppressed, but by not rising up and overturning their leaders long ago they allowed their own oppression to occur!  We call them innocent civilians, and I think we should call them that, especially little children who have done nothing wrong.  But we need to remember that there is a sense of national guilt that exists.

 

“Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth” (Romans 14:22)

 

Achan was stoned to death and burned, along with his entire family!  His sin affected others around him.

 

It is the churches and the Christians in America that have allowed our own moral backslide to happen and we may become collateral damage!  You know, if America gets nuked, the Christians die along w/ everyone else.

 

“Elections belong to the people.  It is their decision.

If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds,

then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

~Abraham Lincoln

 

God said in II Chron. 7:14, “If my people...”  The White House, the state house, the courthouse...all of these begin with the church house, which is made up of your house and my house!

 

It’s time we admit that we are in a mess in America and we all share the blame for the moral slide we’re on, whether you talk about crime, abortion, homosexuality, greed, materialism, sex...whatever!

 

We all share the responsibility for what is wrong, and we must all share the responsibility to make it right.  We cannot blame God or the government for the condition of our nation if we’re not willing to share the blame.

 

Here’s 3 reasons for Israel’s corporate sin [an Achan Nation]:

 

1.     Pride.

v. 3          They say, look at that little village...they’re no problem.  WE can take them w/ 1 hand tied behind our back.  After all, look what WE did to Jericho!

They forgot that Jericho was God’s victory.

 

Ill.—they were like the woodpecker who was working on a tree when, unknown to him, lightning struck the tree, splitting it in half.  He flew away and got his friends and brought them to the tree and said, “There it is, gentleman, right over there!

 

Our temptation when blessed so much is to think that we somehow are responsible for our situation.

1 Corinthians 10:12
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Proverbs 16:18
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Don’t you know that we in America are asking for it!  The prescription is get over ourselves and find some humility and repent of the pride that will be our downfall.  And the same is true for me as an individual…and for you.

 

2.     Presumption.

They assumed that God was with them. 

 

There’s no power of Satan too great for us to overcome in the power of the Spirit of God...but there’s no power of Satan so small that we can overcome it alone in the power of our flesh.

 

It’s not the Jerichos that defeat most Christians...it’s the Ais. 

Song of Songs 2:15
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines...

In 1961 Boxing Champ Mohammed Ali was preparing to fight Joe Frazier.  He said, “There’s not a man alive that can whip me.  I’m too smart, I’m too pretty, I’m the greatest, I’m the king.  I oughta be a postage stamp...it’s the only way I’ll ever get licked.”

        The next night Frazier beat his brains out.  Why?  Because there’s a difference between confidence and presumption.

 

God doesn’t have to keep blessing us.  We’re asking Him to judge us!

 

Israel shared nationally in the guilt of Achan’s sin because of their pride and presumption, which led to their…

 

3.     Prayerlessness.

Joshua didn’t pray about Ai.  Because as soon as he did get around to praying God showed him what was wrong.  If he had prayed earlier God would have showed him the sin and they would not have been defeated.

 

We do the exact same thing.  We wait ‘til we make a mess of things and then we go to prayer.  Prayer should be our first impulse, not our last resort.  All our failures are prayer failures.  Prayerlessness is an umbrella sin under which all our other sins stay dry and cozy.

 

Pride was the father of presumption, and the grandfather of prayerlessness.

 

I do believe that God spared Trump’s life.  He did this for a reason.  He gave him a gift.  Now what will Donald do with it?   We can’t control that.  We can pray for him, and we should.  But the best thing we can do is remember that God offered to spare Sodom for the sake of just a few righteous people, if they could be found, and if they would stand up and be counted.

 

The needed revival can start right here.  It should start right here.  Let’s ask God to start it right now.  He gave us a gift in our salvation.  Will we return it to Him?