The Troubler of Israel Text: Joshua 7:16-26
Introduction: The Myth of Private Sin
We live in an age that worships at the altar of the autonomous individual. The high creed of our time is that a man's choices are his own, his business is his own, and his sin, if such a thing is even acknowledged, is most certainly his own. The modern man, and sadly, the modern evangelical, believes his heart is a private castle with a high wall and a deep moat, and what he does in the secret chambers of that castle has no bearing on the village just outside the walls. This is a damnable lie, a fiction we tell ourselves to make our sin more comfortable.
The story of Achan in the valley of Achor is God's definitive refutation of this myth. It is a stark, severe, and to our soft generation, an offensive lesson in covenantal reality. We are not a collection of disconnected individuals who happen to show up at the same building on Sunday. We are a body. We are a camp. We are an army. And when one soldier in the camp of Israel decides to traffic with the enemy, the entire army is weakened. When one part of the body is sick with a secret cancer, the whole body suffers.
After the glorious, miraculous victory at Jericho, Israel is full of confidence. They go up against the little town of Ai, a seemingly simple mopping-up operation, and they are routed. Thirty-six men are killed. The hearts of the people melted and became as water. Why? Because there was sin in the camp. One man's private greed led to a public, humiliating defeat and the death of his brothers in arms. God's lesson here is surgically precise: there is no such thing as a private sin for a covenant people. Your secret sin will find you out, and it will find us out. It introduces a spiritual virus that weakens the whole community. This is the principle of corporate solidarity, a concept our individualistic age despises, but one which is written into the very fabric of God's world.
The events in this passage are not just a historical account of a military blunder. They are a permanent lesson on the nature of sin, the reality of God's judgment, and the absolute necessity of holiness within the people of God. What happened to Achan is a terrifying picture of how God deals with those who trifle with what He has declared holy.
The Text
So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he brought the family of Judah near, and he took the family of the Zerahites; and he brought the family of the Zerahites near man by man, and Zabdi was taken. And he brought his household near man by man; and Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was taken. Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and declare to me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight; then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it. And they took them from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel, and they poured them out before Yahweh. Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day, and Yahweh turned from His burning anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor to this day.
(Joshua 7:16-26 LSB)
The Divine Audit (vv. 16-18)
The process of identifying the culprit is methodical and divinely guided.
"So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. And he brought the family of Judah near, and he took the family of the Zerahites; and he brought the family of the Zerahites near man by man, and Zabdi was taken. And he brought his household near man by man; and Achan... was taken." (Joshua 7:16-18)
Imagine the scene. The entire nation, likely millions of people, is assembled. Joshua, acting on God's instruction, begins a process of elimination, probably by casting lots. First the tribes are brought forward. The lot falls on Judah. Then the clans of Judah. The lot falls on the Zerahites. Then the families of the Zerahites. The lot falls on Zabdi. Finally, the individual men of Zabdi's household. The net tightens, inexorably, until it closes on one man: Achan.
Think of what must have been going through Achan's mind. With each step, his heart must have been pounding harder. He had a chance to confess at any point. He could have stepped forward when Judah was chosen and saved everyone the trouble. But he remained silent, hardened in his sin, hoping against all hope that he could somehow escape the notice of the God who sees all things. This is the foolishness of a guilty conscience. Sin makes you stupid. It makes you think you can hide from Omniscience.
This slow, deliberate process demonstrates two things. First, God's justice is not rash. It is precise and patient. He is not interested in collective punishment without cause; He is identifying the specific source of the corruption. Second, it gives the sinner every opportunity to repent. God gave Achan time. The night before, God told Joshua what He was going to do. The whole morning, as the lots were cast, was a space for confession. But Achan's heart was hard. His confession, when it finally comes, is not born of repentance but of exposure.
A Call to Glorify God (vv. 19-21)
Once identified, Joshua's address to Achan is striking.
"Then Joshua said to Achan, 'My son, I implore you, give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and declare to me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.'" (Joshua 7:19)
Joshua calls him "my son." This is not the language of pure rage; it is the grief of a covenant leader over a wayward member of the family. But the central command is this: "give glory to Yahweh." How does a man caught in grievous sin give glory to God? By telling the truth. By confessing. Confession of sin vindicates God's holiness and justice. It acknowledges that God is right and the sinner is wrong. When we hide our sin, we are, in effect, calling God a liar. When we confess our sin, we are agreeing with God's verdict against us, and in so doing, we glorify His righteousness.
Achan's confession then lays bare the anatomy of all sin. It follows the same disastrous pattern as Eve's sin in the garden. "I saw... then I coveted... and took them." (v. 21). First, the lust of the eyes ("I saw a beautiful mantle"). Second, the lust of the flesh ("I coveted them"). Third, the pride of life ("I took them"). He saw, he wanted, he took. This is the simple, sordid progression of every temptation we face. And notice the final step: concealment. "Behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent." Sin loves the darkness. It seeks to burrow into the ground, away from the light of God and the sight of men.
The items themselves are significant. A "beautiful mantle from Shinar" (Babylon), a place synonymous with rebellion against God. Silver and gold, the very things God had explicitly consecrated to His treasury. Achan stole from God and imported the idolatry of Babylon into the camp of Israel. His sin was not just greed; it was treason.
Judgment in the Valley (vv. 22-26)
The discovery of the evidence leads to the execution of the sentence. And the sentence is severe and corporate.
"Then Joshua and all Israel with him, took Achan... the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that belonged to him; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor." (Joshua 7:24)
Modern readers recoil at this. His sons and daughters? His livestock? His tent? Why must they all be destroyed? This is where our radical individualism crashes against the rocks of biblical, covenantal reality. In the Old Covenant, the household was a federal unit. The father was the representative head. His actions had direct consequences for his entire household. It is also highly likely that his family were accomplices. It would be difficult to dig a large hole in the middle of the family tent and bury a pile of treasure without anyone noticing. Their silence made them complicit in the crime.
But the principle is deeper. Achan's sin had defiled his entire sphere of influence. The "accursed thing" (herem) was contagious. Everything associated with the rebellion had to be utterly purged from the camp for the camp to be holy again. This was a form of spiritual quarantine. The cancer had to be cut out completely, root and branch, to save the life of the larger body.
Joshua's final words to Achan are haunting. "Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you this day." (v. 25). The name of the place, Achor, means "trouble." Achan, the troubler, is brought to the Valley of Trouble to receive his just reward. He brought trouble on Israel by his sin, and now God brings trouble upon him in judgment. All of Israel participates in the execution, stoning him and his household, then burning the remains and raising a great heap of stones. This was a community act of purification. The people who had been defiled by his sin were now the instruments of God's judgment to remove that defilement.
Only after this decisive act of judgment does the text say, "and Yahweh turned from His burning anger." God's holiness must be satisfied. His covenant cannot be trifled with. The removal of the sin is what restores the fellowship and allows Israel to once again move forward in victory.
The Troubler and the Door of Hope
This is a hard story. It is meant to be. It is meant to instill in us a holy fear of God and a holy hatred of sin. It is meant to remind us that our sin is never just about us. When you entertain lust on your computer, you are not just sinning in private; you are bringing trouble into your home, your marriage, and your church. When you harbor bitterness, you are poisoning the well from which the whole community drinks. We are all connected.
But this is not the last word on the Valley of Achor. Centuries later, the prophet Hosea speaks a word of incredible grace. Speaking of unfaithful Israel, God says, "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope." (Hosea 2:14-15).
The very place of judgment, the valley of trouble, God promises to transform into a doorway of hope and restoration. How is this possible? It is possible because of another Troubler, a greater Achan in reverse. Jesus Christ came and saw our sinful state. But instead of coveting and taking for Himself, He gave of Himself. He entered our camp, and He took all the "accursed things", our sin, our rebellion, our filth, and hid them, not in His tent, but in His own body on the tree.
Like Achan, He was taken outside the camp to be executed. The judgment of God, the burning anger that was turned away from Israel only after Achan was destroyed, was poured out in its full measure upon Jesus Christ. He became the Troubled One so that we, the true troublers, could be spared. He went into the ultimate Valley of Achor, the valley of the shadow of death, and there He endured the full weight of God's holy wrath against sin.
And because He did, that place of judgment has been transformed. For all who are in Christ, the place of trouble is now a door of hope. The cross, a symbol of ultimate curse and trouble, is now our only hope. The judgment we deserved was taken by another. Therefore, when we are confronted with our sin, we should not be like Achan, hiding and hoping to escape notice. We should run to the cross, to our Troubler, and confess freely, knowing that He who was stoned and burned in our place has turned God's burning anger away from us forever. He has taken our valley of trouble and made it a door into the promised land of eternal life.