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From Eternity Past
... and laid them out before the Lord.”
“Why hast thou troubled us?” said Joshua. “The Lord shall trouble
thee this day.” As the people had been held responsible for Achan’s
sin and had suffered from its consequences, they were to take part in
its punishment. “All Israel stoned him with stones.” In the book of
Chronicles his memorial is written—“Achar, the troubler of Israel.”
1
Chronicles 2:7
.
Achan’s sin was committed in defiance of direct, solemn warnings
and mighty manifestations of God’s power. The fact that divine power
alone had given victory to Israel, that they had not come into possession
of Jericho by their own strength, gave solemn weight to the command
prohibiting them from partaking of the spoils. God had overthown this
stronghold, and to Him alone the city with all that it contained was to
be devoted.
Achan Refuses to Repent
Of the millions of Israel there was but one man who had dared to
transgress the command of God. Achan’s covetousness was excited
by that costly robe of Shinar; even when it had brought him face to
face with death he called it “a goodly Babylonish garment.” And he
appropriated the gold and silver devoted to the treasury of the Lord; he
robbed God of the first fruits of the land of Canaan. How rarely does
the violation of the tenth commandment so much as call forth censure.
The enormity of this sin, and its terrible results, are the lessons of
Achan’s history.
Achan had cherished greed of gain until it became a habit, binding
him in fetters well-nigh impossible to break. He would have been
filled with horror at the thought of bringing disaster upon Israel; but
his perceptions were deadened by sin, and when temptation came, he
fell an easy prey.
We are as directly forbidden to indulge coveteousness as was
Achan to appropriate the spoils of Jericho. We are warned, “Ye cannot
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serve God and mammon.” “Take heed, and beware of coveteousness.”
“Let it not be once named among you.”
Matthew 6:24
;
Luke 12:15
;
Ephesians 5:3
. We have before us the fearful doom of Achan, of Judas,
of Ananias and Sapphira. Back of all these we have Lucifer. Yet,
notwithstanding all these warnings, covetousness abounds.