God takes sin seriously
Early the next morning Joshua had Israel come forward by
tribes, and Judah was taken. 17 The clans of Judah came forward, and
he took the Zerahites. He had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by
families, and Zimri was taken. 18 Joshua had his family come forward
man by man, and Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the
tribe of Judah, was taken. 19 Then Joshua said to Achan, "My
son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell
me what you have done; do not hide it from me." 20 Achan
replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel.
This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful
robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing
fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground
inside my tent, with the silver underneath." 22 So Joshua sent
messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent,
with the silver underneath. 23 They took the things from the tent,
brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the
LORD. 24 Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of
Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his
cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of
Achor. 25 Joshua said, "Why have you brought this trouble on
us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today." Then all Israel stoned him,
and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. 26 Over Achan
they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the LORD
turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley
of Achor ever since. (Joshua 7:16-26)
“’Fess up!” We know that
individually, personally, everyone on this planet wants to hide their sins,
some sins more than others. But we will often demand of others that they admit
what they’ve done. We know the importance of finding out “whodunit,” but we can
also understand a guilty heart not wanting to face the consequences.
Wouldn’t this text make
us fearful to “’fess up?” Joshua almost makes it sound comforting (to our
English ears, anyway) as he urges Achan to “give glory to God” in confession.
Achan does so and gets a nice stoning for his “glory.”
While we don’t know the
state of Achan’s heart, it’s possible Achan received his stoning and went on
into glory. Our gospel-centered training, however, longs to read of Joshua
urging Achan to turn to his Savior-God for forgiveness and Achan responding in faith.
But God the Holy Spirit did not include such a thing, whether it happened or
not, because he wants us to see the seriousness of sin. It can’t be hidden from
God and there are always consequences.
The earthly consequences
can be severe, obviously. I’m reminded of Karla Faye Tucker, famed murderess
turned born-again Christian. In 1998, she was the first woman to receive the
death penalty in this country in 14 years. Many Christians were calling for her
execution to be stayed. In my humble opinion, it was better that her sentence
was carried out so that she could express her faith and confidence in Jesus her
Savior as she faced the needle.
And that’s the point. We
do glorify God when we humbly and honestly admit our wrongdoing and turn
to Jesus in repentance and faith. Yes, we may have to face consequences, even
deadly ones, because we didn’t keep quiet. However, we know what David knew
about holding sin in and the forgiveness that we have in Jesus. “When I kept
silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. For day and
night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s
heat. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not conceal my iniquity. I
said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You took away the
guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:3-5).
Our Saviour did not say "Stone her", He said "Let the man who has not sinned..."
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