“In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes. And the tribe that the Lord takes by lot shall come near by clans. And the clan that the Lord takes shall come near by households. And the household that the Lord takes shall come near man by man.”
Joshua 7:14 ESV
We freely admit our imperfection. We readily admit that we make a lot of mistakes. However, even though this is true, we have a tendency to cover up or to hide our sins.
We seem to think that, as long as no one knows about our sin, it’s no big deal. As long as it remains hidden, it doesn’t matter. And as long as no one finds out, our guilt is inconsequential.
We fail to recall, however, that God is all-knowing. We seem to forget that he is everywhere present. And we fail to recognize that nothing can be hidden from him.
What I’m saying is that, even if our sins are unknown to any other, they are known by God. Even if it seems we’ve gotten away with it, our guilt remains. And even if it seems we’ve escaped the penalty we deserve, we are deluding ourselves.
We see this in the passage above. God had commanded that, as he gave the city of Jericho to the people of Israel, no plunder was to be taken. Everything and everyone in the city was devoted to destruction.
This meant that every man, woman, and child was to die. It meant that every animal was to be killed. It meant that every material object was to be burned. And it meant that whatever could not be burned, such as gold and silver, was to be put into the treasury of the Lord.
A man named Achan, however, took some of the spoils. He took some of it and buried it in his tent. And it seemed that he’d gotten away with it.
The Lord revealed to Joshua, however, that this sin had been committed. And he instructed Joshua as to how the guilty person would be revealed. We see these instructions in the passage above.
As they walked through this process, Achan was singled out. And, at this point, he admitted what he’d done. The items he’d taken were found right where he said they’d be.
Achan, then, suffered the penalty of his sin. He was given the penalty of death. And he was stoned by the people.
Again, even if it seems that we’ve gotten away with our sin, it’s not unknown to God. Even if it seems that no one knows, and that we’re in the clear, it is not hidden from God. And even if we escape the consequence of our guilt in this life, we cannot escape it when we stand before God.
The only thing we can do is confess our sin. The only thing we can do is throw ourselves onto the mercy of God. The only thing we can do is trust in Christ, who bore our sin and died in our place, that we might live.
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