{"id":26489,"date":"2026-05-26T06:02:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T06:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=26489"},"modified":"2025-11-26T10:44:51","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T10:44:51","slug":"sin-discovered-and-punished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2026\/05\/sin-discovered-and-punished\/","title":{"rendered":"Sin Discovered And Punished"},"content":{"rendered":"

“And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done.\u201d\u2014Joshua 7:20<\/strong><\/p>\n

God had done much for Israel. Their wilderness wanderings were at an end. They had crossed the Jordan, entered upon the fair land of promise. They had seen Jericho’s walls fall prostrate before the Ark of God; and now, with full confidence they march on to Ai. But here they meet with a reverse, which humbles their leader, Joshua, and drives him to his God in prayer. God soon reveals the cause, “Israel hath sinned,” therefore their enemies have triumphed over them; there is an Achan in the camp.<\/p>\n

I. One man may bring trouble on a whole community.\u2014Achan hindered all the host of God\u2014one individual. What power there is in the influence of one for good or evil? No life is neutral; we are hinderers or helpers of the cause of God, and the mischief which one or a few bent on wrong-doing can do is tremendous. All must suffer for Achan’s sin, the onward march of all Israel is stopped by him; as in a nation, so in a Church, all feel the retarding influence of those who hinder, even though they work in such a way that these designs are bidden. This makes us feel if progress is stayed. Is there not a cause? Let us follow Joshua’s example; lay the matter before the Lord in prayer, seek His guidance and He will shew us what Israel ought to do, He will discover to us what is wrong.<\/p>\n

II. The cause was pride and covetousness.\u2014Fine clothing, gold and silver had attracted the eye and greed of Achan; and this brought all the trouble. God’s command had been set at nought. Are we clear from these things? Is there not in the professing Church a coveting of the Babylonish garment of Rome? What meaneth all this desire for Ritualism, priestly garments, and sensuous worship? The simplicity of worship is derided as too rigid, obsolete; but God will have a day of reckoning for this. These things will hinder the true march of God’s kingdom. The enemy will gain advantage to retard the conquest of His kingdom, while the true and valiant soldiers of Christ mourn their present reverses; and are we not as a nation guilty? Is there not a greed for gold? A basting to be rich by ill-gotten gains in many instances, grasping after that which God has forbidden, setting aside His direct and plain commands, and will He not shew His displeasure, and cause even our wealthy, prosperous nation, to feel that He is angry with us for our sins, our godlessness, our greed as a nation, after all He has done for us in the past?<\/p>\n

III. That sin wilt be discovered.\u2014Achan had hidden his wrong, but God found him out. It came in a round-about way, but it was brought home at last. Judgment may have leaden feet and travel slowly, but it travels surely, and wrong-doing will bring its own reward sooner or later. God may bear long with a people, but their guilt will be found out eventually; a day of reckoning will come, He will cause them to enquire, “Why are we smitten thus? Why doth God contend with us?” Until the evil be confessed and put away there can be no progress. God will not work with a disobedient people. Israel must clear themselves from all complicity with wrong-doing ere they can be prosperous again. What was true in the past is still the same to-day. Would we have God with us and prosper? Let evil be put far from us.<\/p>\n

IV. That sin will bring punishment on the wrong-doer.\u2014Achan paid, dearly paid for his crime. No one can sin cheaply, there is no escape from its penalty, “The wages of sin is death.” There is only One can save us from that, even a substitute, our Lord Jesus Christ. Achan’s guilt involved many in its punishment; no one can sin and suffer alone. What a mercy that while sin involved our Lord in such a penalty, His death brings life to countless myriads of redeemed souls. It cleared away guilt, secret and open, removed God’s displeasure, gave victory over hell and death, opened the fair land of promise, caused Satan’s ramparts to be laid in rains, fires the hearts of God’s people with confidence to go on in the holy war, tramping down sin, pressing on to victory, glory, and renown.<\/p>\n

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God had done much for Israel. Their wilderness wanderings were at an end. They had crossed the Jordan, entered upon the fair land of promise. They had seen Jericho’s walls fall prostrate before the Ark of God; and now, with full confidence they march on to Ai. But here they meet with a reverse, which humbles their leader, Joshua, and drives him to his God in prayer. God soon reveals the cause, “Israel hath sinned,” therefore their enemies have triumphed over them; there is an Achan in the camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":18681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1417],"tags":[1239],"class_list":["post-26489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-edwin-white","tag-sovereign-grace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26490,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26489\/revisions\/26490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}