In the Morning

"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.