The Anger of the Lord

July 3, 2011

Lesson: Joshua 7:1-13

Key Verse: Joshua 7:1

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Introduction

What does it mean for God to be angry? “Anger” (Aph) refers to the face, specifically to the nostril, revealing the disposition of a person (i.e. toward another) by his intense breathing (the long-suffering of the Lord is also revealed in His anger). The Lord’s wrath also reveals His disposition toward those who transgress His law. Israel was in covenant relationship with God; so when Achan (meaning ‘troubler’) violated the righteousness of the Lord, affecting the whole of Israel. When one person within the Congregation of Christ teaches or practices some form of false doctrine or evil activity, it affects the whole in the practice of their faith.

The acts of ‘looting” Jericho, having been forbidden to do so, resulted in a retreat from Ai, the only defeat Joshua experienced. Joshua confronted Achan with these words, “My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.” Achan answered, “I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.” (Joshua 7:19-21)

The result of this transgression was the taking away of all the goods of Achan’s whole family. And Joshua spoke to him, “Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor (Trouble), unto this day” (Joshua 7:24-26). Israel “were all spectators of it, that they might see and fear. Public executions are public examples. Nay, they were all consenting to his death, and as many as could were active in it, in token of the universal detestation in which they held his sacrilegious attempt, and their dread of God’s displeasure against them” (M. Henry).

Sin breeds trouble –Joshua 7:1-5

The sin of a leader will spoil the whole while encouraging others to follow his way. However, no rationalization that puts blame on the leader for one’s transgressions: “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing.” The greed of one man Achan (7:22) is charged or imputed to the whole of Israel. The people must realize that they are not exempt from the pollution of one that they must bear this burden for transgression is not to be taken lightly. How many times do we continue to vote for leaders who we know have committed some kind of transgression? There must have been those who saw Achan hiding his loot and turned their head away. Calvin wrote that “The reason, however, why God charges a whole people with a secret theft is deeper and more abstruse. He wished by an extraordinary manifestation to remind posterity that they might all be criminated by the act of an individual, and thus induces them to give more diligent heed to the prevention of crimes.” Achan brought trouble upon himself and others: “for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel.”

The result of Achan’s greed brought about the anger of the Lord, a transgression which weakened the people’s resolve to fight. Joshua had sent men to Ai, commanding them: “Go up and view the country.” Traveling from Jericho they viewed Ai, returning with Joshua with this message: “Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labor thither; for they are but few.” Three thousand went up against Ai, and “they fled before the men of Ai.” By the providence of God His people are shown how transgression has weakened them, His anger was shown along with His mercy. “And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.” Calvin wrote: “The true cause was the secret counsel of God, who meant to show a sign of his anger, but allowed the number to be small in order that the loss might be less serious. And it was certainly a rare display of mercy to chastise the people gently and without any great overthrow, with the view of arousing them to seek an instant remedy for the evil.”

Discussion: What are the results of transgressing the law of God?

Joshua repents –Joshua 7:6-13

As God’s chosen shepherd of His sheep, Joshua “rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.” The elders of God’s congregations stand before the Lord representing the people; and if they sin the elders become examples of for the sheep, reminding them of their deliverance from their transgressions through the ransom price paid by Christ their Savior. Joshua prayed for his people upon the hope that God alone is able to deliver them, and that His Name must be glorified: “Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name!” Joshua’s appeal for deliverance is that both the Name of the Lord and that of His people must be glorified.

The Lord answers Joshua, “Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?” Look, Joshua, and carefully hear why Israel would experience defeat: “Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. The people also hid the gold among their goods. “Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed thing among you.” Repentance must come to the people. They must own up to what they have done. For their sin has made them weak from within, that they would not stand up against the enemy. The answer of deliverance is this: “Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow; for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of you, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.” This is the spirit of these words of the beloved apostle, which gives first the condition of the unrepentant heart: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;” and second, the heart that is sanctified in Christ’s righteousness: “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all righteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). Thus, the heart that is right with God is the one who can stand strong in the face of His enemies.

Discussion: What makes the children of God weak before the enemies of righteousness?

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Lessons are based on the International Sunday School Lessons for Christian Teaching, copyright © 2011 by the Committee on the Uniform Series.

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