The vic
tory over the city of Jericho was no small undertaking. Just prior to entering the Promised Land a census was taken of all the Israelite men able to bear arms. The exact number came to 601,730. But all those men were not used at the battle of Jericho. Joshua records that “about forty thousand armed for battle crossed over before the Lord to the plains of Jericho for war” (Joshua 4:13). However, before defeating and entering Jericho, each of those 40,000 men were instructed to “keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction. . . . All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury” (6:18,19).
After the tremendous victory at Jericho, it was time to move on to the city of Ai. Spies had gone on ahead to scout out the Canaanite town. They said to Joshua, “Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there” (7:3). Ai was an easy target for Joshua’s army. However, “[the men of Ai] chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes” (7:5). It was a devastating blow for Joshua’s army. What could possibly have gone wrong?
God knew the answer. Of the 40,000 soldiers at Jericho, 39,999 obeyed God’s command not to take devoted things. One did not! How would that man be found? God had a plan. He methodically narrowed down the field in search of the guilty party. First, the people presented to God the 12 tribes; God chose Judah. Then the clans of Judah came forward; the Zerahites were picked. Then the families of Zerah were presented before the Lord; Zimri’s family was chosen. Man by man from that family came forward; Achan was the man! Can you imagine the torture Achan went through as he saw the search slowly closing in on him?
Achan saw, coveted, and took, much like Eve and David. That sin seems to follow an identical pattern. And like Eve and David, Achan paid dearly. Joshua took Achan plus “the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. . . . Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them” (7:24,25). It was a day of infamy that would not quickly be forgotten.
But the story doesn’t end there. Achor is another spelling of Achan. That valley was named Achor, or “trouble,” after the man who was disgraced there. It was that very same valley that Hosea wrote about, but his message was vastly different from the story of Achan. Hosea wrote, “I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (Hosea 2:15). Isn’t that just like our loving Father? He took a forbidden place and turned it into a place of hope. Does that sound like another place in Scripture? At the entrance to a forbidden Garden, God also gave us hope, the hope of a Savior.
In fact, isn’t that much like the lives of God’s people? God has taken each of us from the trouble of our own sins and given us hope in the death and resurrection of Jesus. That’s the beauty of God’s grace, especially when we realize that each of us is made of the same flesh and blood as Achan. Each of us deserves equal punishment for the sins we have committed. Each of us deserves the finger-pointing that Achan received. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Thank you, Lord, for turning the hope of salvation into a reality. Amen.
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