When Problems Come

Text Joshua 7 Time 12 07 20 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)

We are looking at the Book of Joshua and we come this week to Joshua 7. If Joshua 6 is one of the high points in the book and indeed in the Old Testament then the chapter that follows is one of the low points. The opening verse sums up the chapter But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD's anger burned against Israel.

Right from the beginning then the writer tells us what this chapter is about. It is about the LORD's anger. In fact, there is evidence to say that the writer has carefully constructed these verses so that he not only begins with the LORD's wrath but ends with it too - in verse 26 we read that it was Then (after Achan's death) that the LORD turned from his fierce anger. At the heart of the narrative is the LORD's statement (12b) I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. Before that comes a poor show, perplexity and a problem revealed and after an explanation, exposure and execution.

One of the rules for the conquest of Jericho was that all the plunder was devoted to God. In one way or another - by fire or by being devoted to the temple - everything had to be given to the Lord. That would not be required in every battle they fought but in this first one, it was. Generally speaking, the Israelites had done what was required. However, there was an exception - it was the case of Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah.

There is a saying or proverb “one bad apple spoils the barrel”. It is true - one bad, overripe or mouldy apple can cause all the other apples around it to spoil. The culprit is apparently ethylene gas - a naturally occurring gas that causes fruit to ripen. Riper pieces of fruit emit more ethylene than unripe fruits, leading to an over-concentration of the gas and signalling all the fruit around it to over-ripen as well. The same is true for mould. One mouldy apple can lead to a bunch of mouldy apples, because the mould will spread, looking for a new food source. So if you see a bad apple in your fruit basket, get rid of it asap! Save your other apples from a much-too-early end.

God has built this feature into his creation to teach us something. It is a lesson useful in all sorts of areas. Many years a go I spent a year training to be a school teacher. I remember being given a sheet on the subject of dealing with children who misbehave. It was a step by step list of escalating discipline measures. It began with what was called proximity control. Many kids in school, once a teacher comes near will stop doing what they are doing that is wrong. Much further down the list was what was called antiseptic bouncing. Do you know what that is? That is making the child stand outside the classroom where they can no longer cause problems. There are many other areas where the principle can be applied. In a nutshell this is what happens here - a bad apple is removed; some antiseptic bouncing goes on.

1. When you are seeking to serve the Lord you may find that a problem arises

I don't know if Manny Pacquiao is a name you know. He was a professional boxer and is a Filipino senator. It was when I was in The Philippines that I first heard his name. The local people were telling me how when he fought Ricky Hatton in 2009, Matt Gamston who was there with GBM had been quite confident Hatton would win but he didn't. Pacquiao won it. In fact he has rarely lost and has won most of his fights (39) by knockout. He is left-handed and has been called the greatest southpaw fighter of all time and even the best boxer of all time. Very unusually he has world titles in eight weight divisions and 12 major world titles all told.

Yet in 2017 when he faced the Australian fighter Jeff Horn in Brisbane, he lost his WBO welterweight world title in what was described as "a stunning, unanimous points decision". They say "The 11-time world champion entered the fight at Suncorp Stadium as a hot favourite but got more than he bargained for against the 29-year-old former schoolteacher, who had most of the 51,000 fans on his side and won at least three of the first five rounds on all three of the judge's scorecards. Still, Pacquiao appeared to dominate most of the rounds from the eighth. Pacquiao was close to finishing it in the 9th when he pounded Horn and had him wobbling - to the point where referee Mark Nelson asked the 29-year-old Australian's camp before the 10th if he could continue. But no, Pacquiao was defeated even after the fight was re-judged. Unexpected defeats happen.

We are told here in verses 2, 3 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, "Go up and spy out the region." So the men went up and spied out Ai. When they returned to Joshua, they said, "Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there."

Knowing what we know, it sounds rather arrogant but it really was a matter of proceeding in the way they thought best.

So what happened (4, 5) was that about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water.

Suddenly all arrogance, indeed all self-confidence good or bad, is gone. Verse 7 Joshua himself we are told tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads.

We have the words of Joshua in prayer. Going from hero to zero, he says "Alas, Sovereign LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan! This is not what we would expect from Joshua. But it is more despair than unbelief. Pardon your servant, Lord he says (8, 9) sort of recollecting himself What can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies? The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name? This last bit is better.

What a mess then. They have been routed. People have died. Joshua is not speaking or thinking straight. Sometimes suddenly problems hit us and we don't know why or what to do.

2. When such problems arise you need to do something about it

The next thing we read is (10) that The LORD said to Joshua, "Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? Another surprise then. Here is Joshua praying. He is genuinely sorry. The problem is not a lack of prayer, however. God says stop praying, get on your feet. Sometimes simply praying is not enough. We need to act.

So God says (11, 12) Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; 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.

The message is very clear. There is a problem because there has been a sin, a violation of the covenant. There has been stealing, lying of some sort. This is why they have been defeated at Ai. Further, God will not be with them any more until this is sorted.

So they are told what to do. 13-15 Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them. 'In the morning, present yourselves tribe by tribe. The tribe the LORD chooses shall come forward clan by clan; the clan the LORD chooses shall come forward family by family; and the family the LORD chooses shall come forward man by man. Whoever is caught with the devoted things shall be destroyed by fire, along with all that belongs to him. He has violated the covenant of the LORD and has done an outrageous thing in Israel!'

There is a problem and it has been caused by one man. He needs to be discovered and then he needs to be dealt with as God directs.

For Israel it has been relatively straightforward as God has directly spoken to them, told them the sort of problem they have and told them what to do about it.

It is not quite so easy for us today. We need, however, to see that sometimes when there is a problem, praying about it is not enough. Something needs to be done to put it right - to discover the problem and to excise it.

When we hit problems as individuals we recognise there can be various reasons for such things but we ought to ask - is it me? Has God sent me this problem because I am guilty of a serious case of stealing or lying or covenant breaking of some other sort.

Similarly, at a family, church or state level we need to ask whether there is some sin present that has led to the defeat or other disaster that has come. Here, however, we need to be particularly careful. It would be very easy in a church or a community to hit problems and start thinking someone has done something wrong and then start looking around for a scapegoat.

You've heard of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, New England in 1692 and 1693. What happened there was that various people were accused of being witches and put on trial. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty were found guilty and 19 (14 women and five men) were killed by hanging. (One man was also pressed to death refusing to plead, and at least five died while in jail).

(It was the deadliest witch hunt in the history of colonial North America. Only 14 other women and two men were executed in Massachusetts and Connecticut in the 17th century.) It is a notorious case of mass hysteria and has been used ever since to warn against isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations and lapses in due process. It also warns against the dangers of deciding - this problem must be someone else's fault. I don't think this is what this passage encourages. Rather, in these New Testament days when there are problems, we should engage in self-examination, realising that how we live can have an effect on others. If Achan had thought things through, he would have realised that his actions could have a deleterious affect on his fellow Israelites but he simply didn't think it through.

If you watch crime dramas on TV you will notice that often the story is of someone otherwise quite honest who thinks that they can make money by selling drugs or some other nefarious activity. You find yourself thinking but did they not think of the harm they were doing by engaging in such activity. Sadly, part of our nature is a certain selfishness where we fail to think of the consequences that our actions may have for others.

We have quoted before I am sure that poem by John Donne

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

We could say too "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind". Especially as believers in Christ we are brothers and sisters and how we live will have an effect on others. If you can't resist temptation for your own sake, at least do it for the sake of others.

There is a man I new, a Christian minister. This month he is on trial accused of 40 crimes in Wales, here in London and elsewhere. It is a tragedy - not just for him but for his family and for every evangelical Christian. How easy for someone to say "that's what they're like."

3. When such a problem arises you need to discover what is the root of it and deal with it

Joshua has to find the culprit. It is a situation sometimes faced. You know it is someone in the room.

I remember my dad telling me a story from when he was a boy in school. Somebody had done something wrong the day before but it was not clear who it was. So the teacher said to them that he wanted someone to come to him at break and confess or there would be no football that afternoon. As soon as break came round my father went straight to the teacher to confess - the last thing he wanted was football to be cancelled. As soon as he started to confess the teacher said to him "Go away Brady, you weren't here yesterday!"

When someone is guilty you would think they were so eager to get it off their conscience they would confess straight away but they do not so often. Achan did not. He was found out, however, by means of lot the next morning. First it became clear it was someone from the tribe of Judah then from The clans of Judah ... the Zerahites were chosen and from the Zerahites ... Zimri was chosen. And so they knew it was someone from Zimri's family and so they went through them one by one until it became clear that the culprit was Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah

19, 20 Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and honour him. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me." Achan replied, "It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. Then and only then did Achan confess. How foolish to think he could keep such a thing hidden.

He then described how during the invasion of Jericho he had seen in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I coveted them he says - sin so often begins in the heart - and took them. Once he had stolen them he could not enjoy them. He had to hide them. He hid them in the ground inside his tent, very vividly he describes how he buried the things with the silver underneath. The family clearly knew but they were no doubt sworn to secrecy.

When Joshua sent messengers to Achan's tents they found everything just as he had described. 22 ... there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. The things were brought to Joshua and they spread them out before the LORD.

Achan had to be punished. These are the people of God and Achan has confessed to trying to cheat his brothers and sisters and to cheat God. There is nothing for it but that he and all that belonged to him should be destroyed.

24-26 Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. Joshua said, "Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today." Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them. Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day.

Only Then did the LORD turn(ed) from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since. Achor both sounds a little like Achan and means trouble. In English we might say Achan was killed in the Valley of aching.

The lesson is clearly the need to take sin seriously. It does matter whether we obey the Lord or not. We need to examine our own lives to see where sin lurks. If we are living in disobedience it is no wonder that we have problems. Sin has to be confessed and renounced if we are ever to expect God to bless us.

Where sin is discovered in a church it cannot be merely ignored. It has to be dealt with. It has to be confessed and renounced. Sin has to be dealt with. We are not under the old covenant where a man has to die but we are under the New Testament where people are to be expelled from the church for serious sins. We see that spelled out in Matthew 18 (the whole chapter) and in 2 Corinthians 5 there is a reference to a serious case of sin that Paul encourages the Corinthians to deal with by expelling the sinful church member. There has to be repentance if the person is going to be brought back into membership.

So it's a very sobering chapter, To think that such things happened at the very beginning

I don't want to end on a down note but on an upnote. Some of you know that in Hosea although there are the usual judgements, in Hosea 2:14-17 God says "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.' I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.

It is looking forward to that New Testament time in which we live when the valley of trouble is turned into a door of hope. The end of idolatry and the time of turning to the Lord.