Achan’s Sin Revealed
When after the defeat at Ai Joshua appealed to God for help, that help was given him, as always. God declared that there was among the Israelites one man who had disobeyed even the most direct of the divine commands, one who had coveted the riches of Jericho and had rescued and secreted for his own use some of those spoils which had been intended as a “burnt offering” to be sacrificed to God in the flames of Jericho. For the sin of this one fallen soul, covetous, treacherous and disobedient, and also, it may be, for the recklessness and vainglory of the nation, all Israel was being punished.
The next morning Joshua sought to detect the guilty man, appealing to the Lord for help. The entire nation was bidden to march before Joshua; whereon the lot, or whatever method was employed, indicated that the tribe of Judah contained the guilty man. Then the tribe of Judah was divided into families, and then into single households, and so at last the lot was narrowed down until the man Achan stood alone before Joshua. He confessed himself the guilty one.
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