“Now Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.’” Joshua 7:19

Early in the morning, Joshua began bringing the tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. Afterwards, he took the family of the Zerahites and brought them near man by man. Zabdi was taken along with his household man by man, until Achan was taken.

Achan knew he was about to face the consequences for his actions against the Lord (Joshua 7:1). Achan’s sin had caused Israel to be accursed (Joshua 6:18-19). They experienced an unexpected defeat at Ai, which caused death, bewilderment, and great sorrow (Joshua 7:5-6).

Achan must have felt the great weight of his sin when he was confronted and undoubtedly recalled what was commanded about the banned things that he had stolen.

​He had to have concluded that the defeat and death at Ai were because he sinned against the Lord and, as a result, Israel was accursed.

As the leader of the Israelites, Joshua was now face-to-face with the one who caused trouble to come to the Israelite camp. 

While confronting Achan, Joshua asked Achan to give glory to the Lord. This was interesting because up to now, Achan’s actions were far from giving glory to God, and it would seem that there was not much he could do to give glory to God. ​

​Consider this, when Ai was defeated, and there was loss of life, Achan said nothing.

​When Joshua, the elders, and the Israelite camp grieved their losses, Achan said nothing.

When Joshua told the Israelites to consecrate themselves and told them that the banned items were in their midst, Achan said nothing.

When Joshua said that Israel would not be able to stand before their enemies until the banned items were removed from them, again, Achan said nothing.

When Joshua told the Israelites that each tribe, family, household, and man whom the Lord chooses would be brought near concerning the banned things, Achan still said nothing.

Even the morning of, as the tribes, families, households, and men were brought near, again Achan still said nothing until he was confronted directly by Joshua. 

You may think at this point, how could Achan do anything to give glory to the Lord because he, and all that belonged to him, would face the judgment God had commanded because God considered the act disgraceful (Joshua 7:15).

Yet, as Joshua spoke to Achan, he said that Achan could give glory to God by confessing what he had done.

This is a lesson for us. Achan had done a disgraceful thing in the eyes of the Lord. His sin affected all of the Israelite camp and caused great loss.

​His sin also revealed that his heart was gripped by the forbidden silver, gold, and articles of bronze and iron that were to go into the treasury of the Lord. 

Rather than initially giving glory to God by keeping himself from the banned things so that he would not covet them, he chose to take the items and hide them (Joshua 6:18-19; 7:1).
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From this passage, we learn that no matter what you’ve done and no matter how disgraceful, you can give glory to God by going to the Lord and confessing your sin and disobedience that hurt Him. 

We see that Achan had so many times to give glory to God before Joshua confronted him. The first was God’s initial warning to stay away from the banned items to avoid yielding to the sin of coveting, and afterwards, with each event that resulted from his sin, and as it affected others.

Like Achan, we are given initial warnings to prevent us from sinning against God, and also given opportunities to confess and repent before consequences escalate and compound. 
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As we see in this passage, Achan’s confession does not remove the punishment for disobedience and sin, but he was able to give glory to God because he confessed his sin even though he delayed his confession and had to be confronted.

Think about how you can relate to Achan regarding a specific sin or sins in your life. 
What has or is God prompting you to confess and repent (turn to God and turn away from)?

What sin or sins have gripped you that you embrace rather than giving glory to God? 

Take the time today to confess and repent so that it does not continue to hinder your intimacy with the Lord, cause defeat in your life, and the lives of others. 

Remember, confession and repentance do not undue the consequences of sin, but the grace and mercy of God will abound in your life, and you will be in the position to give glory to God and put behind the sin that hurts and disrupts your fellowship with Him.
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Make a decision today to always give glory to the Lord.

"In the morning, then you shall come near by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes by lot shall come near by families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come near man by man." Joshua 7:14

God told Joshua to tell the Israelites to consecrate themselves, and in the morning, whoever the Lord would choose to come near, would come by tribes, by families, households, and then man by man.

​Afterwards, the one who took the banned things, as well as all that belonged to him, would be burned with fire because of disobeying God by disregarding His covenant.

​What a night Achan must have had. Before he took the banned things, he knew it was wrong, and he knew the consequences (Joshua 6:17-19) because once he took them, he hid them.

Still, Achan only confessed his sin when he was confronted. It’s unknown if anyone besides the Lord and Achan knew that he’d transgressed the covenant. If they did, they also were placed in a situation that caused them much anguish, guilt, and anxiety.

Even if Achan had confessed before he was confronted, it would not have removed the consequences, but it would have prevented prolonging the inevitable.

​We don’t know, but it may have been possible that Achan hoped that he would not be discovered. In either case, Achan’s actions of stealing the items and concealing them until he was confronted revealed his thoughts and beliefs about God.

Achan behaved as though God did not see him when he sinned, when he hid the items, or did not watch as each tribe, family, household, and man was brought near regarding the banned things.

​This shows us that he truly did not believe that God’s character was holy, righteous, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, nor did he believe all of who God was and showed Himself to be, which is the One who was able to judge him, even though Achan saw the judgment of God so many times among the Israelites and on their behalf.

In the morning, Achan would come to know, truly come to know God’s righteous judgment. Achan would subsequently understand how God, due to His infinite grace and mercy, had kept Israel from being completely destroyed based on what he was about to experience.

Achan is a great example for us. We have our “in the morning” that we wrestle with when we know we sinned against God, ran, hid, and broke our fellowship with Him.

Yet, like Achan, we sometimes don’t immediately run to God, confess, repent, and express godly sorrow, meaning we acknowledge we hurt God, truly grieve over our sin, and repent.

​Yes, we may express worldly sorrow, the kind that will only express sorrow and apologize because we’ve been confronted, exposed, caught, or if we’ve received an ultimatum. 

Take a brief moment to think about your “in the morning” that keeps you up at night, restless, anxious, and heavy with guilt.

You have an opportunity to confess to God and repent. You can walk in the mercy of God, as He withholds what you deserve, and walk in the grace of God, which gives you peace with God and the peace of God that you do not deserve, but for the finished work of Christ, who paid the penalty for your sins.

“Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, “There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.” Joshua 7:13

Joshua, aware of the reason for the defeat at Ai, received his next steps to address the sin in the camp of Israel.

The Lord told Joshua to tell and to have the Israelites to consecrate themselves, which meant they were to purify themselves of anything considered by the Lord to be unclean.
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Joshua was to also tell them that the Lord said there were things that were banned in their midst, and they would not be able to stand before their enemies until these things were removed.

​Think about your life. Have you ever experienced defeat, possibly repetitive defeat with the same issue or different issues, and wondered why?

Do you have known sin in your life that the Lord has convicted you of, or you have godly sorrow about, but yet you have not confessed, repented, turned from, or walked away from these things?

God is calling for you to consecrate yourself today by starting with confession and agreement with God about the very thing that causes Him grief.

After you’ve acknowledged the sin(s), repent by turning from the sin. This means that you are giving up the sin by walking away from it, even if it causes you sorrow to turn from it and abandon it. 

This is a way of consecrating yourself before the Lord, because Jesus already paid for the penalty, which would be the deserved wrath and judgment of God. You need only to restore your fellowship with the Lord if you are already a child of God.

​Once the sin is forsaken and fellowship is restored, seek God and ask Him for His direction about your consistent defeat before your enemies and how you are to proceed so that He is glorified.
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Standing victorious before your enemies is only possible with clean hands and a pure heart. 

God is merciful and kind.

When we turn from Him and embrace what He considers sinful, we experience defeat that can be used to bring us back to Him so that we do not plunge further into sin and farther away from Him.
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If you do not know the Lord, you can learn more about what it means to become a child of God here.

After Joshua grieved the defeat at Ai, the Lord commanded Joshua to “rise up” and told him about Israel’s sin and transgression because they had taken some of the things under the ban and put them with their own belongings. By doing so, they had stolen and deceived. 

In particular, Achan had committed the act of sin by taking the accursed items. You may wonder why Achan’s sin affected the entire camp of Israel.
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This was not a surprise, because in Joshua 6:18-19, the Lord commanded the Israelites to abstain from these items because the items (silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron) were all consecrated to the Lord and were for the treasury of the Lord. Everyone knew that if the items were taken, they were to be accursed, as well as the camp of Israel, and trouble would come to the camp.

When Achan sinned against the Lord, he caused trouble for the entire camp, and they were accursed.

The most important and disheartening statement the Lord made to Joshua was that Israel had sinned and transgressed His covenant. 

This should cause us to think of when we sin.

When we think of sin, we often associate it against a person. While that is true, we must not stop there. When we sin, we see that God says we have sinned and transgressed His covenant. 
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Sin is to miss the mark, and to transgress is to disregard.  So, we not only sin against each other, but we first and foremost sin against the Lord and disregard His commands.

We read how this grieves and angers the Lord. In this passage, the Lord made a specific remark about His covenant, and we can relate that to the covenant that was made with Israel through Moses. 

This is why the Israelites were defeated at Ai, and why they could not stand before their enemies. The Israelites violated the covenant and were no longer victorious because they did not have the Lord with them in battles, which would have made them victorious.
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We know this passage refers to a specific event and time for the Israelites; however, we can learn from their sin, the sin of Achan, and transgression as well.

Reflect on your life today. Think of recent and past events when you faced defeat. Was it because you sinned against the Lord, disregarded His direction, His Scriptures, and you subsequently violated His word? Did you notice that you no longer had peace, or things just didn’t seem right or not like they used to be?

​From this passage, we can begin to see sin and transgression for what they really are: a disregard for what the Lord has said in His Word for what you should do or not do, and recognize that your actions follow and also reflect what you believe about God.

You can go before the Lord, and turn from your sin and disregard for Him, by embracing Him and His word. Begin by confessing, turning from, and forsaking the very thoughts, attitudes, and actions that led to your disobedience.