Commentary - Joshua 7:10-15

Bird's-eye view

Following the glorious victory at Jericho, Israel is dealt a humiliating and perplexing defeat at the hands of the men of Ai. Joshua, in his distress, falls on his face before the Lord, questioning God's purposes. The passage before us is God's thunderous reply. The problem is not with God's promises, but with Israel's sin. God redirects Joshua from prostrate prayer to active obedience, revealing that the covenant has been breached from within. Achan's secret sin has brought corporate defilement and judgment upon the entire nation. This passage lays bare the interconnectedness of God's people within the covenant, the absolute holiness God demands, and the devastating consequences of treasuring what God has devoted to destruction. God Himself provides the way forward: radical, public, and cleansing judgment.

The Lord's instructions are precise. The sin must be exposed and purged for God's presence to remain and for Israel to once again stand before their enemies. This is not a matter of God being fickle; it is a matter of God being holy. The process of sanctification and judgment He outlines through the casting of lots is designed to reveal the hidden sin, demonstrate His sovereignty over the nation, and restore the covenant relationship that has been violated. The severity of the punishment underscores the gravity of the crime: to steal from God is to commit a "disgraceful thing in Israel" and to invite corporate ruin.

Outline

Context In Joshua

Chapter 7 stands in stark contrast to the triumphant faith of chapter 6. The fall of Jericho was a testimony to God's power and the efficacy of perfect obedience to His commands. This chapter is a testimony to the devastating power of disobedience. The sin of one man, Achan, becomes the sin of "Israel" (v. 11). This principle of corporate solidarity is central to understanding the Old Testament and, indeed, the New. We fell in Adam, one man, and we are saved in Christ, one Man. The defeat at Ai is the first major setback in the conquest of Canaan, and it serves as a critical lesson for the fledgling nation: victory depends entirely on covenant faithfulness, which requires rooting out sin from their midst.

Key Issues

Commentary

v. 10 So Yahweh said to Joshua, “Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face?

God's response to Joshua's prostrate lament is jarring, almost sharp. "Rise up!" or "Get up!" There is a time for sackcloth and ashes, and there is a time for action. Joshua's prayer, while born of genuine distress, was misdirected. He was looking for the cause of their defeat in God's providence, wondering if God had abandoned them. But God tells him the problem is not in Heaven; the problem is in the camp. This is a crucial lesson for the church. When we experience spiritual defeat, impotence, or a lack of God's blessing, our first instinct should not be to question God's faithfulness, but rather to examine our own. God is not telling Joshua that prayer is wrong, but that prayer without obedience is an empty gesture. The time for praying about the problem was over; the time to deal with the problem had come.

v. 11 Israel has sinned, and they have also trespassed against My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things devoted to destruction and have both stolen and dealt falsely. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things.

Here God lays out the indictment, and it is a cascade of covenantal treason. Notice the subject: "Israel has sinned." One man, Achan, committed the physical act, but God holds the entire nation accountable. This is the principle of federal solidarity. Achan acted as a rogue representative, and his sin infected the whole body. The sin is described in five ways, each escalating the offense. First, they "sinned" (chata), a general term for missing the mark. Second, they "trespassed against My covenant." This is the heart of the matter. The commands concerning Jericho were not arbitrary rules; they were stipulations of the covenant relationship. To disobey was to be unfaithful to God Himself. Third, they have "taken some of the things devoted to destruction" (herem). This was not mere pilfering. The herem belonged exclusively to God; it was spoil He had claimed for Himself. To take it was to steal directly from God's treasury. Fourth, they have "stolen and dealt falsely." This points to the deceit and concealment involved. It was a sin of covetousness compounded by lies. Finally, they have "put them among their own things." The holy has been mixed with the common. That which was devoted to God for destruction has been treated as personal property, a profane act that defiles the entire camp.

v. 12 Therefore the sons of Israel cannot rise before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become devoted to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things devoted to destruction from your midst.

The consequence directly matches the crime. Because Israel has embraced what was devoted to destruction, they themselves have become devoted to destruction. The logic is inescapable. You cannot fight for God while harboring contraband from His enemies. The strength of Israel was never in their military might, but in the presence of Yahweh. And now, that presence is conditioned. "I will not be with you anymore unless..." This is one of the most terrifying statements in Scripture. God's presence, the very source of their life and victory, will be withdrawn if the sin is not dealt with. Holiness is not an optional extra for the people of God; it is the very atmosphere in which He dwells. The choice is stark: either Israel purges the sin, or God purges His presence from Israel. This is not God being petty. A holy God cannot and will not abide with unholiness.

v. 13 Rise up! Set the people apart as holy and say, ‘Set yourselves apart as holy for tomorrow, for thus Yahweh, the God of Israel, has said, “There are things devoted to destruction in your midst, O Israel. You cannot rise before your enemies until you have removed the things devoted to destruction from your midst.”’

The command to "Rise up!" is repeated, this time with a specific task: consecrate the people. Before the sin can be dealt with, the people must be ritually set apart. This corporate act of consecration was a preparation for a holy encounter with a holy God. It was a way of saying, "We recognize that we are unclean, and we are preparing to meet with the one who alone can make us clean." God then gives Joshua the message to deliver. The problem is stated plainly: there is accursed stuff in the camp. The consequence is repeated for emphasis: you will remain defeated until it is removed. There is no ambiguity. The path to victory is through repentance and purification. The entire nation must participate in this, because the entire nation has been affected.

v. 14 In the morning then you shall come near by your tribes. And it will be that the tribe which Yahweh takes by lot shall come near by families, and the family which Yahweh takes shall come near by households, and the household which Yahweh takes shall come near man by man.

God now outlines the method for exposing the guilty party. It will be a process of divine elimination, conducted publicly through the casting of lots. This was not a game of chance. Proverbs tells us that "The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord" (Prov. 16:33). This process would systematically narrow the focus from the whole nation down to one man, demonstrating God's sovereign knowledge. No sin, however secret, is hidden from His sight. The public nature of this process was essential. It was not enough for Achan to be punished; the whole nation needed to see the sin exposed and judged by God Himself, reinforcing the gravity of the offense and the reality of divine oversight.

v. 15 And it will be that the one who is taken with the things devoted to destruction shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has trespassed against the covenant of Yahweh, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.’

The sentence is pronounced before the culprit is even identified. The punishment is total: the man, all that belongs to him, and the stolen goods are to be utterly destroyed by fire. This mirrors the law of herem. Just as the polluted things of Jericho were to be destroyed, so now the one who brought that pollution into the camp must be destroyed. The rationale is twofold. First, he "trespassed against the covenant of Yahweh." This was a high crime against the King of Heaven. Second, he "committed a disgraceful thing in Israel." The word for disgraceful (nebalah) refers to a scandalous, foolish, and wicked act that violates the moral and spiritual order of the community. His private sin had public consequences, bringing shame and defilement upon the entire nation. The judgment had to be as public and as total as the defilement he had caused.

Application

We are not Israel under the Old Covenant, and the church does not stone its members. But the principles here are abiding and eternal. Achan's sin is a type of all sin that we might treasure in the camp of the church. We are tempted to believe that our secret sins, covetousness, lust, bitterness, pride, are private matters. This passage screams otherwise. One man's sin brought defeat and death to the whole nation. When a church is spiritually stagnant, failing in its mission, and defeated by the world, the leadership should first get on its face like Joshua, but then it must get up and ask, "What is the accursed thing in the camp?"

The accursed thing is anything we love more than God, anything we take for ourselves that belongs to Him. It is the Babylonian garment of worldliness, the silver of greed, the gold bar of idolatry. The New Testament equivalent of this purging is church discipline. A church that refuses to deal with public, unrepentant sin is a church that has made itself vulnerable to its enemies. It has become, in the words of this text, "devoted to destruction." God will not bless a compromised people.

But the ultimate fulfillment of this story is in the gospel. We are all Achans. We have all stolen what belongs to God and trespassed His covenant. We have all become devoted to destruction. But God, in His mercy, did not destroy us. Instead, He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, who became the "accursed thing" for us. On the cross, He who knew no sin was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). He was devoted to destruction in our place, burned in the fire of God's wrath, so that we might be cleansed and God's presence might dwell with us forever. Because of Christ's sacrifice, we can now ruthlessly put to death the sin in our own lives, knowing that the final judgment for it has already fallen upon Him.