Joshua’s Prayer Lacks Humility⤒🔗

At Ai, Israel had suffered a terrible defeat. This disaster made a deep impression on the people. Joshua and the elders now understand it: there must be something profoundly wrong in the relationship between the Lord and his people. We can see that this incident gives them cause for deep despair before God’s throne, because they have cast down the ark of the covenant. Clothes are torn and ashes sprinkled on their heads. Now that it has suddenly become so dark for Israel, Joshua becomes an intercessor for his people. While praying, he struggles for illumination. The Lord has not come back from his work of redemption, has he? Surely God has not changed his mind, has he? It cannot be true that he sent his people across the Jordan, just to give them into the power of the Amorites? Joshua points out to God all the consequences of what has happened. When the inhabitants of Canaan hear of this defeat, they will take courage and make short work of defeating Israel. And what will the Lord then do for his glorious name?

At first reading, this appears to be a beautiful prayer. Joshua speaks of God’s work of salvation and puts God’s name at risk. Joshua seems to have listened carefully to the way Moses prayed for God’s people time and again (for example, in Exodus 32:11-13). But the Lord comes with a fierce reaction. Joshua and the elders must stop this display immediately because their questions are not good. There is indeed something profoundly wrong with the relationship between God and his people. But that is not because the Lord has changed. Joshua and the elders should have known this: something must have changed in Israel. For the Lord had said through Moses that if Israel left his covenant, their enemies would overwhelm and destroy them: “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you” (Deuteronomy 28:15). Joshua comes up with wonderful arguments, but his prayer lacks humility. He even brings to the fore the honour of the Lord: “What will you do for your great name?” But Israel’s sin is ignored.

Therefore, his prayer is not good and lacks true humility. Israel has made a big mistake. Joshua comes up with wonderful arguments. He even brings the honour of the Lord to the fore. But Israel’s sin is ignored!

Israel’s Sin Is Exposed←⤒🔗

Joshua receives a shameful lesson from God. God’s words are strong. Joshua may try to ignore the guilt, but the Lord will not ignore it. On the contrary, the Lord says exactly what their sin is: “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them.”

To understand this indictment of the Lord, we must realize what Achan had done. The Lord had expressed a total ban on Jericho. Not every Canaanite city would be affected by such a ban. In other cities, the Israelites would be allowed to take the spoils of war, but not with Jericho. All the city and all its inhabitants had to be destroyed. The gold and silver belonged to the Lord and had to be added to the tabernacle treasure.

If we keep this in mind, we will understand the seriousness of Achan’s sin. He committed a profound breach of God’s covenant by taking things that were dedicated to the Lord. He committed a sacrilege, a tabernacle robbery. He violated the Lord in his right of ownership.

Achan gets the death penalty. He is stoned. That verdict also shows how bad his sin was, because not every sin was punished by death. The sins that violated God’s covenant with his people were punished with death. The law of Moses mentions, for example, adultery, idolatry, and Sabbath desecration. No sacrifices could be made for such sins. They were irreconcilable, because those who were guilty of such sins had fundamentally broken the covenant.

In this light, we must see Achan’s evil. It was not a common theft, but an infraction on God’s covenant. In doing so, Achan had been very deliberate. He did not act on a spontaneous whim. The Lord mentions the whole process: taking away, stealing the devoted things, and laying them with his belongings (verse 11).

Perhaps we are surprised that the Lord blames Israel for breaking his covenant. Was it not only Achan who had broken the ban? Sure, Achan sinned. But he did so as a member of God’s church, belonging to his holy people. Now that such a great sinner lives guiltless among his people, God deems all the people guilty. Israel is a holy people. A notorious sinner cannot have a place within that people. Such a person erodes the sanctity of the people, as it were, drawing the whole church into a national scandal!

God’s fierce indictment teaches us a few things. Not all sin is equal and equally bad. Some sins break the covenant and fundamentally impair the relationship with the Lord. They constitute “an outrageous thing in Israel” (verse 15). They are sins in which one openly shows that he does not respect the Word of the Lord and that Israel does not fear the Lord. When such sins occur in the church, strong action must be taken against them, for then God’s covenant is at stake.

Many who call themselves Christians consider church discipline a terrible thing. They believe that it is merciless to keep one from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And when the church council must move forward with the excommunication from the church, we will quite often see a flare-up of tempers.

But then we pay more attention to people than God. Those who live in sin defile God’s covenant. They pollute the church. They violate the relationship between the Lord and his people. And when the church does not act but allows evil to continue, then they too stand under God’s wrath. Church discipline is there for the sake of the sinner. It is meant to bring the sinner back to repentance. But church discipline is also there for the sake of the congregation. She must free herself from the evil in her midst. It must show that she finds this evil terrible and must preserve the covenant the Lord has made with his people.

Disciplinary Action Required←⤒🔗

In this situation with Achan, everything points to the fact that the Lord takes this very seriously. If Israel does not come to a grip with Achan, they are under God’s wrath. They may move on, but the Lord will not go with them.

It must strike us that the Lord involves the whole people in the disciplinary action with Achan. It is not going to be a case that only Joshua and the elders will perform. Israel must “sanctify themselves.” They must prepare themselves outwardly and inwardly for what is going to happen. Everything testifies to the seriousness with which the case must be dealt.

After God has identified the guilty one, he must be stoned to death and burned with fire with all that belongs to him. The destruction must be carried out in its worst possible form. Achan’s family must die with him. Such a punishment was rarely applied. The law of Moses applied this punishment only in cases of flagrant violation of God’s covenant.

Apparently that is what happens due to Achan’s evil. Therefore, the destruction must be carried out in its worst possible form. Even Achan’s family must die with him!

Joshua and all the people must be active in this. At the end of Joshua 7, we see that all Israel stones the sinner and burns the whole family and their possessions with fire. The congregation of Israel exercises discipline. And in this act, Israel very emphatically sided with the Lord and shows how remorseful they are when God’s covenant is so relentlessly violated.

Disciplinary action is a matter for the church in the Old Testament (for example, Deuteronomy 13:9-10). All people must participate in the execution of the death sentence (the stoning). Time and time again the Lord warns his people, “That is how you will get rid of evil from your midst.”

It is no different in the New Testament. Paul addresses the church of Corinth and says to her, “Purge the evil person from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:13). Lord’s Day 30 of the Heidelberg Catechism states that in the Christian church, all those who make themselves known as unbelievers and ungodly people must be excluded from the church of Christ. Certainly, the office-bearers take the lead in carrying out this charge. The church council, namely the elders, determines the progress of the disciplinary process. But the congregation is fully involved in the public censorship, with their love, admonitions, and prayer.

It is therefore not without reason that the excommunication of one who persists in sin is done with the Form of Excommunication in a meeting with the congregation. All this is in line with what we find in Joshua 7. The church stands up for the Lord’s honour. She frees herself from the evil that has been done in her midst. She shows how distressed she is when God’s covenant is so desecrated.

A church without disciplinary practice loses the right to call itself the church of God. They bring destruction upon themselves when the evil is not removed from their midst. The church should never forget that above the church doors it is written: “Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore” (Psalm 93:5).