“When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.” (Joshua 7:21)
After the amazing victory at Jericho when the walls came tumbling down by the power of God, Joshua didn’t take the small city of Ai very seriously. He sent out some spies to examine the city and evaluate it (which worked well in Jericho). Joshua thought the city was small enough that they could easily take it with taking only 3,000 men, but they got whopped. Why? Ultimately, we find it was because of the sin of Achan. However, there is also a lesson from Joshua here as well. It doesn’t appear he really sought the Lord in how to approach the battle with Ai. He made the logical decision to spy it out, and the logical decision to not take all his whole army since they appeared small and with a weak miliary. He leaned to his own understanding, instead of seeking the Lord’s will. (Prov. 3:5-6) It might be you should defeat them with trumpets and a shout; or it could be by tricking them to run out of the city to pursue you (Josh. 8), which happened after they dealt with the issue of Achan. We should never assume the apparent logical, easy path is the Lord’s will. It might be, but we have to seek and pray for God to guide us, instead of leaning unto our own understanding.
Our text is the statement of Achan explaining why he took of the accursed thing out of Jericho. Notice the root cause of everything that happened. When he saw the spoils, a good looking Babylonian garment, silver and gold, “I coveted them”. The root cause of all that happened was covetousness. To covet means “to desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a bad sense.” They had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Achan had probably never seen that much silver and gold because all they had was used in the tabernacle. He saw things that tickled his flesh, that stimulated his lust, and he wanted them. He coveted them. He coveted things of Babylon (always a picture of the fallen world system in opposition to God). He coveted the fancy clothes and wealth of Babylon, ie the world. His covetous thought was not wrangled and brought into captivity (2 Cor. 10:5). His covetous thought and lust led him to action. “I coveted them, and I took them.”
Notice the wildfire of destruction that spreads in his own life and in the whole nation of Israel because one man acted on his lust of covetousness. Because he coveted and took of the accursed thing, the entire 3,000 person army was ransacked by an inferior military, and 36 soldiers died because of him. As a judgment for his sin, not only was he stoned, and then his body burned, but his sons and daughters, all his livestock, his tent, and all that he had was burned (Josh. 7:24-25). This shows how our whole family, our whole life is destroyed with unrepentant and uncontrolled sin. How many families and lives have we seen destroyed by the wildfire of adultery burning up families? How many people’s career and livelihood and families have been burned up because someone was enticed to embezzle money from their employer? The wildfire of sin is so destructive that can destroy entire families and lives such a brief moment.
Another important lesson with Achan is that the whole nation was judged for one man’s sin. There were over 600,000 military age men when they entered Canaan (Num. 26:51), so the assumption would be the entire population would be at least 2 million, maybe 3 million. The entire nation of millions of people were judged because of the sin of one man. This teaches us the New Testament principle of the absolute necessity of purity in the church, as a little leaven will leaven the whole lump (1 Cor. 5). Unrepentant public sin must be deal with swiftly and promptly, otherwise the whole church will be damaged and judged. Church discipline is hard and sad, but we must protect the integrity and purity of the Lord’s church if someone refuses to repent of their egregious public sin.
Covetousness is a sin that could easily be overlooked, but look at what happened when Achan’s thoughts turned into action. A whole nation was judged, 36 soldiers and his whole family died, and all his livestock and possessions destroyed from him acting on his lust of covetousness. Thou shalt not covet is the tenth commandment given in Exod. 20:17. The rich young ruler in Mark 10, thought he had obeyed all the law from his youth, but when the Lord told him to sell all he had, it revealed that he didn’t realize how much he was disobeying the tenth and final commandment to not covet. Thus, he went away sorrowful because his heart was too covetous at that moment in his life to give up his riches to follow Christ in faithful discipleship. He is a real-life example of 1 Tim. 6:9-10: “[9] But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. [10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” There is nothing inherently sinful about money. It is neutral and just a fact of life, no different than food or housing. However, when any of those things becomes an obsession, they lead to sin. Eating to excess is gluttony and sin. Idolizing your home instead of being thankful for what God has provided for you to be a steward of, is a sin. In like manner, those that desire to be rich, and guided by the love of money (covetousness), have led many men to err from the faith, pierce themselves through with many sorrows, fall into temptation and snare, and drown in destruction and perdition. This is speaking of temporal judgment for men in this world, not of people being cast into hell. However, the language is very harsh and alarming to show the severity of the judgment upon anyone (both elect and non-elect) that allows covetousness to control and dictate the priorities of their life.
When someone came to Jesus to try to get him to settle a family estate/probate dispute, Jesus told him to be very cautious to avoid covetousness. “And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. [14] And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? [15] And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” (Luke 12:13-15) We don’t need to be overly concerned about the abundance of things we possess, because as the old saying goes: there is no hearse with a U-Haul attached to it. We can’t take anything with us when we leave this world, so don’t focus excessively on that, because even tonight your soul might be required of thee, which Jesus taught in the very next parable (Luke 12:16-21).
Thus, we see that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Tim. 6:6) Contentment is a learned trait. “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (Phil. 4:11). We have to learn to be content because our flesh desires to covet by nature, and the world does everything it can to simulate our covetous lust and get us to act on it. We have to learn to put away those covetous urges and be content with the things that we have. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Heb. 13:5) Ultimately, one secure, bedrock fact that we should be content in is a confidence that God will never leave us or forsake us. Let us learn from the demise and destruction upon himself, his family, all that he had, and even the nation by the covetousness of Achan, and forsake those desires for more than our measure and be content with what the Lord has graciously provided us.