Sin, even when seemingly small, can render God's people ineffective and incur His wrath, as demonstrated by the Israelites' defeat at Ai after the victory at Jericho. The narrative highlights Achan's coveting and concealment of the accursed spoils from Jericho, which led to Israel's downfall and required severe judgment. The core lesson is that God sees all sin, and His people must be vigilant in confessing and purging it from their lives, just as Joshua and the elders humbled themselves before God. The message concludes by urging listeners to examine their hearts, ensure their allegiance is to God rather than worldly temptations symbolized by Babylon, and to seek salvation through Christ.
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I'd like you to turn place the book of Joshua again. It would. Book of Joshua and the end of chapter six. Verse twenty-six. And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city, Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn and in his youngest son, shall he set up the gates of it. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was noised throughout all the country. But I want you to notice that word, that the seventh chapter commences with, kind of gives a key to what is coming.
The Lord was with Joshua, but the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Karmai, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zira, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. And Joshua sent men from Jericho to A.I., which is beside Beth Avon. on the each side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai, and make not all the people to labor thither, for they are but few.
So they went up thither, of the people about three thousand men, and they fled before the men of Aeis. And the men of Aeis smote of them about thirty and six men, for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down, wherefore the hearts of the people melted and became as water. And Joshua lent his clothes and fell to the earth, upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the even top. He and the elders of Israel and put dust upon their heads.
And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we have been content and dwelt on the other side Jordan. O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us around and cut up our name from the earth? And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up. Wherefore lieth thou doth upon thy face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant, which I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their stuff. Therefore, The children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before their enemies because they were a curse. Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed thing from among you.
Now, for the sake of time, verse twenty-five. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones and burned him with fire after they had stoned him with stones. They raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger, wherefore the name of that place was called the Valley of Acre unto this day. Now I think that we ought to just look, I think it is the twelfth chapter of Genesis, just for two or three verses there.
Now I think it's chapter fifteen, I'm sorry, chapter fifteen. And verse thirteen, now this is very, very important as we approach the study that we have read in the book of Joshua. Verse thirteen of Genesis fifty. And he said unto Abram, Know of assurity that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge.
And afterward... shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Watch the next verse now. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet forth. Sometimes as we read the Old Testament, maybe in our minds we are inclined to call into question some of the things that we read.
We should never do that, but there are times when we ponder these things in our hearts and we should know just what God's dealings were with the people and why. And we should be knowledgeable concerning these things. Now, we read that after the victory at Jericho, Joshua's fame was noised abroad all over the countryside. He was a mighty victor under God.
And then the writer of the next chapter says, But, and this is the thing that upset the whole calculations of the nation of Israel as they started to go triumphantly into the land. There was a little city called Ai. And its name just simply means a heap of ruins. And they had to go and take AI. They had to go and destroy it. And the reason why they had to do that was the reason that God gave to Abraham and made known to him in Genesis chapter fifteen.
He said that in the fourth generation the nation of Israel would return there because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. Now I have thought in my heart many a time, as God looked down upon the Amorites just exactly how great that iniquity was. And I see it like a seething part I see it boiling over with iniquity that God must judge.
And then I see God bringing His people in the fourth generation. Moses was a fourth generation man. And He's bringing His people back in order that now, after those generations, The iniquity of the Amorites was full now to capacity, unjudged, unforgiven. The nation of Israel was going in now to judge that seizing part of iniquity that was in the city of the Amorites.
Now, do we understand something of the reason why? God has going to use the nation of Israel to judge the iniquity of the Amorites. Now it's a wonderful thing that right there would incite of the city of A.I. was the very place that Abraham built his altar. You remember? He built it with A.I. on one side of the altar. And it was right there that godly Abraham worshipped the Lord. You see, in direct contradiction to the iniquity of the Amorites that was going on in that day that God one day was going upon us.
And so Joshua must have known that. That must have been taught him. He must have been conversant with that truth. And now after his victory at Jericho, he was going after the city of Ai. He said, it's only a small city. It's only a heap of ruins. I'll just send some men up to look it over. And that's exactly what he did. Now you remember that when he took Jericho, he went and viewed the city, and he took off his shoes before the captain of our salvation, before the man with the drawn sword, and he hung himself before God, that God would use him for the victorious capture of the city of Jericho.
But it was different now. It was different. This was only a little thing. I'll just send a few men up to build the city. They came back again and they said, well, it's no use for going up there. Just send a small company of men up there sufficient to take the city. And all the time, hidden in Aiken's tent, was the very thing that was an abomination to God that Israel had been told not to touch.
There in the tent of Achan was that which was damning the nation of Israel and making them absolutely impotent. Joshua was the head of the army. It was the army's responsibility to speak to it. that every soldier was cleaned from the abomination and the iniquity of the city of Jericho, but they didn't do it. They didn't do it. You know, sometimes as God's people, we look at the little thing, maybe in our lives, and we think that there is enough strength enough to overcome that.
Now we don't need to be before God. We don't need to stand before him with unshot feet. We're able to do it and we go ahead and we think we can do it without him. And Joshua should have known better. I don't want to be hard from the platform on this wonderful man because I couldn't lace his shoes. But I want us just to draw from this some lessons that God would have us know that we need him so much in the little things as we do in the big things.
Joshua remained behind. Apparently at ease while he sent his deputation ahead of him coming back with the false report that they only needed a few men to take the set. And isn't it something that when they went in, they approached the city of Jericho, they couldn't fight. They were impotent before the men of AI. The men of AI came out and chased them back again. and slew thirty-six men.
Three times twelve. Very, very significant. We haven't time to go into that this morning. But you know, when Samson made light of the direct commandment of God, he wished not that God had left him. and he went toward the Philistines as he ordinarily did, and his strength was gone. Because he didn't honor God in the little thing, as he would have honored him in the great thing.
I learned this lesson. I hope I learned it well. Many, many years ago, with a brother who was an Irish evangelist that was staying with us. And I had a little problem, and it worried me. And I was telling him about it one day. He said to me, did you tell the Lord about it? I said, no. I said, the Lord wouldn't want to be worried or bothered with such a little thing as that. He said, that's where you make the mistake, and I've learned that since, and I learned it now in this chapter. How very well. That I need my blessed Lord in the little things, just as I do in the old things.
Their strength was gone, because there was sin in the camp, unjudged, and it was there for the eye of God to see. Now we notice that the epistle to the Hebrews says, all things are naked and opened before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And just as the searching eye of God searched down into the tent of Acre and underneath the sand, saw that searching eye of God looks down at my heart, he looks down at your heart and he knows it through and through. Now if we're speaking today to somebody that doesn't know the Lord as their own Savior, If I'm speaking to someone with unforgiven sin in their hearts, I want to tell you this, that the all-seeing eye of God sees it and knows it.
But I also want to tell you that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. That should be a message to our heart that we should always remember. When the man returned with a awful message to Joshua, Joshua took and rent his clothes and he fell on his face before the Lord all the rest of that day. You know who the first one was in Scripture to rend his clothes?
It was a symbolic act of desperation that a man had come to the end of his tether. He was completely undone and he took and he rend his clothes. The first man to rend his clothes was Reuben. When he looked into the pet and Joseph was gone, And he rent his clothes. When he took the message back to Jacob, Jacob rent his clothes. So many times in the book of God that has happened. We think of Caiaphas. That despicable high priest as he rent his clothes when the Son of God stood before him and claimed to be God's blessed Son, the very thing that he was.
He rent his clothes and called it a blasphemous statement. There was Joshua, his clothes rent. And he wasn't alone. The elders of Israel were involved. I want you to notice that particularly. The position of the elders. The elders were not responsible for what had happened. In no way. But the elders... were on their face before God and taking the sin of the nation upon themselves. Do you remember when David sought the Lord's intercession after he numbered the people when the Lord told him not to do it?
And how he came to the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. And the destroying angel in Jerusalem was above, with his drawn sword as he destroyed before him. He saw the elders of Israel on their faces before God. And it was that that stayed the hand of the avenging angel. I want you to see this and I want this to be a message to my own heart. The sin of Achan was a sin that involved a nation. And we see not only Joshua on his face, but we see the elders there too.
And if some sin happened to be spoiling the testimony, Here at Park of the Pound, we believe we see the elders on their face before God, making sure that God would hear the prayers of those who took that sin upon themselves, a sin that involved the whole company. Now you notice what Joshua said, and I'm amazed when I read it here. Just amazed. He said, Lord, he said, why have you brought this people over Jordan to destroy them with the sword of the Amorites?
Why have you done this? Oh, Lord, he said, what shall I say when Israel turns their back upon their enemies? Now Joshua took the fault. And he placed it in the heavens when that fault should have been placed right down there in his own camp. And you know how many times coming into our lives, trials and temptations, we look up and say, Lord, why did you let this happen to me? When the fault is not up there, it's down here.
And you know, Joshua speaks about his name. The name of Israel would be belittled in the land of the Canaanites, and then last of all, as though it was an afterthought, he said, Lord, what will you do for your great name? Ah, toward the end of the day, Joshua realized. that it was his great name that he'd been dragged in the dust by the defeat of Israel. And it was at that point when God said to Joshua, Why lieth thou thus upon thy faith?
Now it was one thing to lie on his face before the Lord, but it was another thing to lie thus upon his face before the Lord. You see the difference? Joshua had put the blame up yonder with God when the blame was down here. God said, don't lie dust upon your face. Israel has been. It was then that the Lord came in to show them the reason why that awful defeat had driven the nation of Israel away from the city of A.I.
Now Joshua as a commander was responsible for that. It was one of his princes that had done it, a can with a prince of Israel. But his commanding chief was responsible, not the elders. The elders were before God on their faces. And God was going to show them that sin was in the camp and it had to be judged. What did they can do? Joshua had gone through the whole host. with a distinct message when they took the city of Jericho that they must not touch the accursed thing.
They must not in any way touch the devoted thing. It should be distraught. You notice in Luke's Gospel chapter nineteen a very interesting thing. When the Lord Jesus Christ was there, it just simply said in verse one, Jesus ended and passed through Jericho. And that was the end of it. That was all he had to say to the city of Jericho. He thought back on those awful days of Achan and what he had done. Achan had taken three things.
He'd taken a goodly Babylonian garment. He'd taken a wedge of silver and a wedge of gold, or so much gold and so much silver, those three. He coveted them, and he put them down in his tent. Now, when God equipped the nation of Israel to go through the wilderness and go into the promised land to fight. He equipped them with everything that they needed. Their garments waxed not old. And their shoes didn't wear out. They had all that they needed.
But he craved something else, something that he didn't need. Now, you know, many times I thought about that. I thought about that Babylonish garment. And listen, it was only till very recently I began to understand exactly what Achan had done when he took that garment. It says it was a goodly Babylonish garment. It came from the plain of Shinar. And it had in it all the embodiment of the sins of Babylon. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it had woven into it the tower of Babel and all that it stood for and in all the disgrace that God came down and confounded the language and the tower that reached up to heaven, the name that they were going to make themselves It wouldn't surprise me in the least that those things were
woven into that garment, and that's the reason why he wanted it. Why? Because his heart was toward Babylon, and God knew it. His heart was not with the people of God. When he saw the Babylonian garment, it craved it. And in doing so, he became partaker of the sins of the plain of China. I can see clearly now what an abomination this was to God. I think of the silver and the gold.
All the gold speaks to the deity of Christ. the silver speech of his redemptive work than always did in the Old Testament. And Aiken with all he knew about these things was making the travesty of the whole thing. Oh, it wasn't just that he was caught in a moment of temptation. The world would say today, oh, well, you know, he made a mistake. You're allowed one mistake, some kind. It wasn't that he made a mistake. It was that his heart was in it, and God knew it. And that's why the punishment was so severe.
God said, they've not only stolen, but they have dissembled also. Not only was it a sin for him to steal that, but it was a greater sin for him to try to conceal it from his commander-in-chief, from the people round about him, and from God himself. He dissembled also. It seemed to be that that was the last straw with God. We think in the Acts of the Apostle, I think it's chapter seven, when Ananias and Sapphire did the same thing before the Holy Spirit, And God brought them into judgment, and they were taken away.
And the judgment came upon Achan. And they took him out, and they stoned him with stones, that put away forever the diabolical sin of a man whose heart was indabilant and not in Israel. We might ask ourselves the question today, where is our heart? Babylon is a type of world with all its glitter, with all its tinsel. Where's my heart today? Where's your heart? Is it in the world?
Babylon will be destroyed. The world with all its tinsel and glitter its pomp and its glory will be destroyed. That the things of God will abide for all eternity. Oh, I beg you this morning, if you are outside of Christ, if you have your eye on the Babylonian garment, if you have your eye on the silver and the gold of this world, I say to you today, What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Oh, it's a challenge. In our first meeting this morning, we were remembering the sorrows of the cross of Calvary, the agony of our blessed Savior as he was impaled there upon a Roman shepherd. of the darkness that he went into when he bore my sins, when he bore your sins in his body on the cross. I ask you this morning, where's your heart? Is it on the things of God? Oh, I was glad that this young man, when I was able to give my heart unreservedly to the Lord Jesus Christ, and see my own sins under the blood of a cross.
But I trust today there will be no one who will go out of the door of this building that isn't sure about the Lord and their own personal Savior and their sins eternally forgiven. We'd like to talk with you if there are any that would like to talk with us. As many are one in the audience today, that would love to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Shall we pray together? Our gracious Father, we think of the solemn message this morning and how it strikes our heart and how it makes us know something of the righteousness of God and the judgment of God against sin.
and how God will judge things. But, O our Father, we thank thee that he judges our sin in the person of our substitute Savior. And we thank thee for it this morning. We pray for everyone gathered here that thou wilt bless every heart. And should there be any that doesn't know him in a definite personal way, we pray that they might do what they need to do. and just bow head and heart in the feet where they sit, and own the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
So we give thee thanks for thy care over us, and the help given in the ministry of the Word, in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.