FBC Morning Light – April 8, 2023

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're in Joshua chapters 7 and 8, and we will be focusing on Joshua chapter 7 today.

To talk about Joshua chapter 7, you have to talk a little bit about Joshua chapter 6, and in chapter 6 we have the fall of Jericho and this triumphant victory of God for the people of Israel over the city of Jericho, and the walls falling down, and they take all of the goods and livestock, and they're supposed to get rid of it all, except for the gold that was supposed to go to the treasury.

And then chapter 7 has a very ominous tone at the beginning, but the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things.

For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things.

So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. This ominous tone goes on, and they go to the next city and attack the next city, and they are turned back, and 36 people from their army die.

And so they go before the Lord, and what have we done? What is wrong?

And it is revealed that Achan has done this terrible thing.

And in verse 19, Joshua said to Achan, My son,

I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him, and tell me now what you have done.

Do not hide it from me. And in verse 20, and Achan answered Joshua and said,

Indeed, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done. When I saw among the spoils of beautiful Babylonian garment, 200 shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels,

I coveted them and took them, and there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent with the silver under it.

So Joshua sent messengers and found this to be true. They took all of these things,

Achan and his sons and his daughters, and the people of Israel stoned them in the

Valley of Achor. And Joshua says, Why have you troubled us? This is to Achan.

The Lord will trouble you this day. So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones.

Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day.

So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the

Valley of Achor to this day. That means the Valley of Trouble. I had a roommate in college who used to have this thing that he called his box of rocks.

Notice that they piled rocks and stones over this place in the

Valley of Achor, and this is not the only time that this was done in Joshua.

They did this when they crossed over the Jordan, and it was so that when your sons and your sons' sons would ask,

Why are these rocks here? So that they could tell them, right? And so sometimes those rocks were in place for remembrance of God doing a great work for his glory, and sometimes they are there for judgment, for mistakes.

And my roommate Tom used to carry around a box of rocks to remind him of these things, of how the

Lord had worked in his life or worked in his life because he got too busy with something or was distracted.

I do want to point out too also for Achan that Ai was plundered next, right after his death, and they were allowed to take the spoils.

And so often in our lives, don't we neglect the right thing to do because we aren't patient enough to wait for God's timing?

And that can happen in business or even in our personal interactions.

We push for a response when someone's not ready to give a response, or in a dating relationship, we push for physical contact beyond what

God would have us to do, and we're not willing to wait for the right timing of marriage.

All of these things can be a situation where God then brings judgment into our lives for the wrong that we do, for lacking the patience to walk with him and let him have his timing in the matter.

Well, let's ponder these things and let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your

Word. Thank you for this story that you've given to us of Achan and the tragedy of him not being willing to wait for the appropriate time.

But yet, you showed mercy to the people of Israel, and may you be glorified in us as we seek to be patient and walk with you.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.