Fighting Temptation – Wanting only what you want

Joshua 7:16-26 ¹⁶Joshua got up early in the morning, and he had Israel come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe of Judah was identified. ¹⁷Then he had the tribe of Judah come forward, and he identified the clan of the Zerahites. Next, he had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by individual familes, and Zabdi’s family was identified. ¹⁸Then he had Zabdi’s household come forward one man at a time, and Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was identified.

¹⁹Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory now to the Lord, the God of Israel, and give him praise. Now tell me what you did. Do not conceal it from me.”

²⁰Achan answered Joshua, “It is true. I am the one who has sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: ²¹Among the plunder I saw an expensive Mesopotamian robe, a fine one, and two hundred shekels of silver and one wedge of gold—it weighed fifty shekels. I coveted them and I took them. Now they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, and the silver is underneath it.”

²²So Joshua sent agents. They ran to the tent, and there it was! The robe was hidden in his tent, and the silver was underneath it! ²³They took them from the middle of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel, where they poured them out before the Lord.

²⁴Then Joshua took Achan son of Zerah and the silver, the garment, and the wedge of gold, as well as Achan’s sons and his daughters, his ox, his donkey and his flock, and his tent and everything that belonged to him—so all Israel, led by Joshua, brought them up to the Valley of Achor.

²⁵Joshua said, “Why have you brought disaster on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you this day!”

Then all Israel stoned Achan to death. They also burned him and them with fire, and they pelted them with stones. ²⁶They erected a large heap of stones over Achan, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from the heat of his anger. For that reason the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day.

God deals violently with sin.

That is shocking to us. It seems so foreign to our way of thinking. We imagine sins as being those little irritations with our children, or the constant difficulties with our neighbors and co-workers, or the persistent aggravations by our spouse.

We cannot conceive how improper behaviors can give birth to total destruction of a person’s life.

So we delete the search history on our computer – just to avoid embarrassment - believing what we’ve been viewing won’t hurt anyone.

We copy from a classmate’s paper, presuming that it will help our grades in the long-run.

We fudge on our taxes, view social media while at work or get a little tipsy on the weekend, certain that everyone else is doing it.

We want to know everyone’s business and share everyone’s business, all under the guise of being good stewards of information.

Call these seemingly “minor” missteps or “insignificant” indiscretions what they really are – transgressions against a holy and just God.

Sin - even if we consider it small or accidental - is a powerful force. It has the potential to bring self-destruction with it.

Termination from a job. Loss of a scholarship. Audit by the IRS. Jail time. Loss of reputation.

These are possible violent and destructive restults of our sins. It doesn’t matter whether we consider our sins accidental or purposeful, single or habitual. Transgressions against God have disastrous results.

Even though this destruction was brought on by your actions, the devastation can still be felt by your family, your workplace, your church or elsewhere. They are the unwitting and unwilling recipients of your self-destructive behavior.

Just look at the account of Achan.

God had commanded the Israelites to transgress the Jordan River. They were to march around the fortified city of Jericho. God caused Jericho’s walls to collapse (Joshua 6:20). The Israelite army charged in with God’s command to destroy every living thing in the city with the sword. As Israel’s new leader, Joshua gave the people God’s direction: “Keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury” (Joshua 6:18-19).

Israel’s next military target was the small city of Ai. Joshua sent only a small force of three thousand soldiers. This should have been plenty of military manpower. But the Israelites were routed and 36 soldiers were killed. The rest of the army ran for their lives from puny Ai (Joshua 7:4-5). The Israelites were devastated by this defeat. “The hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water” (Joshua 7:5).

With his clothes torn in grief and his face in the dirt in sorrow, Joshua poured out his discouragement and disappointment to the Lord (Joshua 7:6-9). The Lord answered Joshua’s prayer plainly: ^“Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction” (Joshua 7:11-12).

God says that the Israelites “transgressed” his covenant. The Lord uses the same Hebrew word that the Holy Spirit uses to refer to the Israelites “transgressing” or “crossing” the Jordan River. The nation that the Lord caused to cross over the Jordan into the Promised Land had now crossed over and transgressed God’s covenant. They abused God’s grace. They had become “devoted for destruction” until they destroyed the “devoted things.”

Achan is identified as the culprit. He gives his confession. He bares all before Joshua, Israel and the Lord. But it comes too late. He admits his sin was not a momentary weakness. It was calculated. He admits: “I saw … coveted … took” (Joshua 7:21). The hiding made it a continuing act of evil, not a one-time action. Achan details what he stole from the Lord – a beautiful, expensive, imported Babylonian robe; 200 shekels or about 5 pounds of silver (worth $1000 today); a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels or about 1 ¼ pounds (worth $25,000 today).

The very dirt of God’s Promised Land was used for the dirty work of covenant violation and cover-up. It was a tragic twisting of God’s blessings for Achan to use these gifts for evil instead of for God’s glory.

Achan, the troubler, is taken into the valley that would then be known as the Valley of Achor – the Valley of Trouble. God deals violently with the sins. The nation that had been brought trouble and death by Achan hurls stones upon him. Then, he is burned. A large heap of stones is erected over Achan’s corpse. When Israel first entered the Promised Land, two stone memorials were created near the Jordan River as a memorial for God keeping his covenant (Joshua 4:9, 20). The stone memorial in the valley served as a warning about disobeying God’s covenant.

We can so easily see ourselves in Achan.

God has told us what is holy. We desire what is off-limits. God tells us “no.” We say, “yes.” He commands us to stay away from something. We transgress his commands to go directly toward that something. We want only what we want and ignore what God wants. We are supposed to be battling temptation, but we don’t even put up a fight!

We believe the delusion that we can cover up our pet behaviors, our accidental indiscretions, and our willful disobedience. Rather than praying that we don’t commit the sins, how often don’t we pray that our sins remain covered?!

And when they are uncovered and everything is laid bare, how do we react? We cry out to God that it is unfair that our lives have self-destructed!

Before we find ourselves in the valley of trouble, let us turn to Jesus. He was no stranger to temptation. He battled, yet was without sin. Christ is with us fighting temptation so we want what he wants.

We are guilty of transgressing God’s commandments. For our transgressions, Jesus transgressed the line between divinity and humaity. He transgressed the line of covering his holiness with our sinfulness. He transgressed the line that should not be crossed – the God of the living died!

Then the God who died returned to life again! He transgressed that line when he victoriously rose from the tomb. He gives that resurrection life to us as we fight the devil’s temptation to keep leading us into the valley of death. The open tomb remains a stone memorial of Christ keeping God’s covenant promise to humanity.

God held the entire nation of Israel accountable for Achan’s sin. “The Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devastated things” (Joshua 7:1). The sin of one man, Achan, resulted in defeat and death for the Israelites at Ai. The sin of one man, Adam, resulted in death spreading to all people and defeat overcoming all creation (Romans 5:12). But one Man, Jesus Christ, has brought eternal life and glorious victory to all people through his death and resurrection.

Achan’s sin was so offensive to the Lord because of one Hebrew word – cherem. It means “something totally devoted to the Lord and no one else.” It’s bad enough when you take what belongs to someone else. Achan sinned by taking what belonged to the Lord.

No wonder God was so violently angry!

When we do not raise our children in God’s Word and church, but devote our time to other pursuits, we have stolen their time from God.

When we spend our money on our pleasures, instead of devoting our offerings to the Lord for his ministry, then we have stolen money from God.

When we indulge our eyes or bodies in unclean sex, instead of devoting our bodies as temples to the Lord, then we have stolen our bodies from God.

No wonder God is so violently angry!

This is why Jesus’ whole life was cherem. Jesus knew every fiber of his existence was totally devoted to God. He knew that if he fell for even the slightest of Satan’s temptations, he would be stealing from his heavenly Father.

In the desert, throughout his ministry, during his trials, beating and crucifixion, Jesus remained totally devoted to God. He achieved complete victory over sin, death and Satan through his complete cherem.

Jesus was devoted to taking our sins and giving us his righteousness in return.

Jesus took the rich robes of our pompous pride. He gave us the white robes of his holiness in return.

Jesus took our silver-tongued alibis. He gave us tongues to praise our God in return.

Jesus took the fool’s gold of our phony holiness. He gave us our names written in the Book of Life in return.

Jesus took all our sinful treasures and buried them deep in his body and soul. Then he stood before God’s law as a guilty sinner. God’s law buried Jesus, not under a pile of stones, but under the mountain of divine wrath.

God deals violently with sin.

God could not overlook and ignore Achan’s sin. So, Achan was stoned in the valley. His was a violent death.

God could not and does not overlook or ignore our sins. Though we may consider our sins inconsequential or insignificant, puny or pet – God considers them as breaking his covenant with us. So Jesus was crucified on the hill. His was a violent death.

Achan’s sin had robbed the entire nation of purity and holiness. God removed the curse on the Israelites after Achan’s death in the Valley of Achor. Adam’s sin in the Garden robbed all humanity of purity and holiness. God removed the curse after his Son’s death on Calvary’s hill. More than that, God has given his Son’s purity and holiness to the entirety of humanity.

Jesus’ violent, bloody death gives his obedience to those he came to save. He allows us to be the undeserving and privileged recipients of his sacrifice.

God deals violently with sin. Being the recipients of the Son of God’s obedient life and violent death is striking. It strengthens our resolve because the Son of God is helping us fight temptations. The Son of God gives his strength to us to traverse in the other direction rather than transgress God’s commands. He empowers us to say “No,” even when no one else is looking. He enables us to want what God wants. Amen.