JOSHUA 7:12b “. . . 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.”
JOS 7:13 "Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, `Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.”
I figured Achan would receive a lot of attention and I really wanted to pursue something else, but I kept coming back to these verses and the kherem. We will remember in 6:17, 18, and 21 that Jericho and all its items therein were to be ‘devoted’ to the Lord, lest they would bring destruction upon themselves (“the camp” in 6:18). Joshua made it explicitly clear that those ‘devoted things’ (kharam and kherem) would bring destruction. Those things were to be considered as impure, and as such, needed to be purified by fire and burned (6:24). The city was to be an offering to the Lord (cf. 6:17, “For the Lord has given you the city!”), and to take anything away would be robbing God. This dedication was to further show the Israelites that God was in control and that this victory belongs to God’s work, not human work. A curse is then placed on the city after it is burned (6:26). The actions of Achan, then, are a clear indictment against him. He has disobeyed (rebelled), he has become ‘impure,’ he has robbed God, not to mention his greed and placing himself above his community. In effect, he has become accursed.
This setting brings us to 7:12 where the Israelites have become “liable to destruction.” The kherem has become kherem for the Israelites. They have become contaminated by the impurity. The destruction of the ‘devoted things’ has become the destruction of the people. This is the reason for God’s words to Joshua that he “will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction” or “. . . destroy the accursed from among you.” This ‘accursed’ would have to include not only those items themselves, but also the perpetrator who has become accursed with them. This word from the Lord is a direct contradiction to the frequent use of the promise “as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.” For this kherem to continue in the camp of the Israelites, Joshua will not enjoy the same fellowship with the Lord.
What is the antidote to impurity, contamination, rebellion, and sin? Holiness – consecration to the Lord is the solution. I think it may be important to think about possible reasons that God would command the Israelites to “sanctify yourselves.” I’m speculating, but in 3:5 the Lord gives the same command to “Consecrate yourselves….”and then in 5:2 they are to be circumcised, which are both ritual purity rites. Given the communal nature of the sin contamination (it was applied to “the camp” in 6:18), it seems to me that God demands the corporate purity and holiness of his people to accomplish his plans. These times of purification put God in his proper place as Almighty and his people in their place of humility (as in being humble). It affirms to us that the Lord is at work, not us. “[We] cannot stand against [our] enemies until [we] remove [sin].”
I have been pondering some thoughts lately as I look at the influence of Christianity in North America (or lack thereof). I don’t want to get off topic, but I wonder about those things within our own camps that may prevent God from fully working in our midst. In what ways do we (or should we) be calling our people to “Consecrate themselves?” (Rhetorical question, and I am in full alliance with Dr. Coleson’s note that while God does the sanctifying, sometimes people are called do sanctify themselves, Joshua 7, pg. 5). There is assuredly sin in our congregations (as I am sure there were other sins in the Israelite camp). However, there is an exceptional (extraordinary) nature to the ‘devoted things’ that must be purified and purged from our midst lest we be “liable to destruction.” The kherem we tolerate or perpetuate in our congregations will become, for us, kherem – our own self-destruction.
[APPENDED]
In response to a thread discussing the sin of Achan as it relates to how the sins of fathers are passed on to the family (either by sin nature or by nurture).
I did some study on this with my post this week as well. In 6:18, there is a clear command from Joshua to “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.” So, Achan went into his rebellion/disobedience with full knowledge of the community-destructive nature of such an action. This community, unfortunately, includes his own family. Then, in 6:26 there is a curse pronounced over the city (and, as I believe, whatever had not been consecrated to the Lord). So those items that Achan took, became a cursed possession (either literally or, at least, figuratively). At any rate, “all the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD” and to take any of these items is to rob God (cf. Malachi 3:8-10) and to violate the covenant. So those things that were to be devoted to destruction became destruction for Israel.
I wonder if, when the Lord commands, “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, `Consecrate yourselves…,” the household of Achan did not (or could not) consecrate themselves for whatever speculative reasons. Just a thought. Or, I wonder if by hiding them under the tent, Achan, by his actions, implicates his family unknowingly. Thus, the sins of the father effect (and affect) the children.
There is another interesting thing I thought of. It may have no correlation or significance, but I thought about the way sin is confronted here versus how it is confronted in Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:15-17. In the Joshua passage, the tribe is brought forward first, then the clan, and then the family, and finally the individual. In Matthew 18, we are to seek out the individual first, then take the individual before two or three others, and then before the community. To put it this way, in Joshua there is an A-B-C equation. In Matthew, there is almost a C-B-A process (though not a perfect or direct correlation).
I’m not sure what to do with this, if anything. I guess it’s just more of an observation. One thing we can be sure of is that individual sin effects (and affects) the community. So, to preserve and protect the community, we must make sin-dealing a process that is God-inspired and God-directed.
MATT 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that `every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”