448
Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name
from the earth: and what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name?”
[492]
The answer of the Lord to Joshua was: “Get thee up; wherefore
liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath 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 own stuff.” Achan had
stolen that which was to be reserved for God and placed in His treasury;
he had also dissembled in that when he saw the camp of Israel troubled
he did not confess his guilt, for he knew that Joshua had repeated the
words of the Lord to the people, that if they should appropriate to
themselves that which God had reserved, the camp of Israel would be
troubled.
While he is rejoicing in his ill-gotten gain, his security is broken
in upon; he hears that an investigation is to be made. This makes him
uneasy. He repeats over and over to himself: What does it concern
them? I am accountable for my acts. He apparently puts on a brave
face and in the most demonstrative manner condemns the one guilty.
If he had confessed he might have been saved; but sin hardens the
heart, and he continues to assert his innocence. Amid so large a crowd
he thinks he will escape detection. Lots are cast to search out the
offender; the lot falls upon the tribe of Judah. Achan’s heart now
begins to throb with guilty fear, for he is one of that tribe; but still
he flatters himself that he will escape. The lot is again cast, and the
family to which he belongs is taken. Now in his pallid face his guilt is
read by Joshua. The lot cast again singles out the unhappy man. There
he stands, pointed out by the finger of God as the guilty one who has
caused all this trouble.
If when Achan yielded to temptation he had been asked if he
wished to bring defeat and death into the camp of Israel, he would
have answered: “No, no! is thy servant a dog that he should do this
great wickedness?” But he lingered over the temptation to gratify his
own covetousness; and when the opportunity was presented, he went
further than he had purposed in his heart. It is exactly in this way that
individual members of the church are imperceptibly led on to grieve
[493]
the Spirit of God, to defraud their neighbors, and to bring the frown
of God upon the church. No man lives to himself. Shame, defeat,
and death were brought upon Israel by one man’s sin. That protection