Fall of Jericho
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by the might of His own word, had overthrown this stronghold; the
conquest was His, and to Him alone the city with all that it contained
was to be devoted.
Of the millions of Israel there was but one man who, in that solemn
hour of triumph and of judgment, had dared to transgress the command
of God. Achan’s covetousness was excited by the sight of that costly
robe of Shinar; even when it had brought him face to face with death
he called it “a goodly Babylonish garment.” One sin had led to another,
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.
The deadly sin that led to Achan’s ruin had its root in covetousness,
of all sins one of the most common and the most lightly regarded.
While other offenses meet with detection and punishment, 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.
Covetousness is an evil of gradual development. Achan had cher-
ished greed of gain until it became a habit, binding him in fetters
well-nigh impossible to break. While fostering this evil, 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.
Are not similar sins still committed, in the face of warnings as
solemn and explicit? We are as directly forbidden to indulge cov-
etousness as was Achan to appropriate the spoils of Jericho. God has
declared it to be idolatry. We are warned, “Ye cannot serve God and
mammon.”
Matthew 6:24
. “Take heed, and beware of covetousness.”
Luke 12:15
. “Let it not be once named among you.”
Ephesians 5:3
.
We have before us the fearful doom of Achan, of Judas, of Ananias
and Sapphira. Back of all these we have that of Lucifer, the “son
of the morning,” who, coveting a higher state, forfeited forever the
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brightness and bliss of heaven. And yet, notwithstanding all these
warnings, covetousness abounds.
Everywhere its slimy track is seen. It creates discontent and dis-
sension in families; it excites envy and hatred in the poor against the
rich; it prompts the grinding oppression of the rich toward the poor.
And this evil exists not in the world alone, but in the church. How
common even here to find selfishness, avarice, overreaching, neglect of