Would you eat a bowl of soup from a larger pot of soup which you knew contained a teaspoon of rat poison? I know I would definitely have second thoughts! Yet “spiritual rat poison” resulted from Achan’s sin of looting Jericho’s wealth for personal gain (see Joshua 7).
When the Israelites captured Jericho, God banned them from taking anything for themselves. Jericho’s gold and silver would go into the treasury for God’s glory and ultimately to bless all of Israel, not just one person. To cheat God is to cheat a nation. God meant Jericho’s wealth to bless all, not satisfy one person’s greed.
God warned that to covet Jericho’s wealth would bring Israel under a curse, but Achan did it anyway. Achan’s act added “poison to the soup” and brought defeat at the next battle for the equally wicked city of Ai. Achan’s violation allowed Satan to get his foot into the door to confuse a whole nation.
Just one person can cheat a church, family, community and nation from the blessings of God through forbidden and deliberate acts. Hidden acts forbidden by God, especially by key people, can render everyone else ineffective, or at least less fruitful than they would be otherwise. God never takes such desecrations lightly. God is patient and kind, but even God has His limits.
God isolated Achan as the culprit in at least five separate steps beginning with his tribe down to Achan himself. By this means of exposure, God was giving Achan at least four opportunities to confess his sin and repent before it finally got to him. But he never uttered a word until he was exposed with the goods. He forfeited every chance for confession—and God’s mercy.
Now he had to pay the ultimate price—not only he but his entire family. Some people think this was too harsh. The scriptures do not tell us exactly why God did it this way. Were other members of the family willing accomplices helping to hide the forbidden goods? Proverbs 15:27 tells us that a greedy man brings trouble to his family.
We don’t know for sure his family’s involvement, but this heinous act had to become an example for everyone else. God is good and merciful, but He is also holy and just, not to be trifled with especially when He gives specific commands of what to do or not to do.
That’s something for all of us to remember when we are tempted to get overly casual and familiar with God. We must never rationalize His specific commands into something else to justify what we would rather do.
Without naming names, there are Achans within today’s church who have weakened our witness because they have defied the bans of God. Some of these are in places of leadership and are already being exposed for what they are.
The exposures of the Achans are not over. The Bible tells us that one day, Jesus will present His ekklesia to the Father “without spot or wrinkle.”
We all do well to periodically consecrate ourselves anew, to renew our covenant relationship with Him, to “come clean” with Him. Only then can we become effective members of God’s army to take our Promised Land and join with Him to “crush Satan under our feet.”
Ants are highly organized, hard-working creatures who know nothing about the larger world around them. They work oblivious to planes, barking dogs, passing people. They care only about their little world. But that world can change in a second with the introduction of earth-moving equipment, or gardeners or builders. What means nothing to their world can change their world forever.
From the Desk of Valson Abraham 