Daily Reading: Joshua 7–9
Click here to listen to Alexander Scourby reading the King James Bible.
Text: Joshua 7:1
“But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing…” (Joshua 7:1). That’s how God opens Joshua 7. Not “Achan committed a trespass,” even though he did. God hangs it on the whole crowd: “the children of Israel.” One man’s sin in one tent, and God writes the charge on the nation. That’s how seriously the Lord takes “sin in the camp,” and that’s exactly how He looks at sin in a local church.
Israel had just watched Jericho fall flat (Joshua 6). Next stop: Ai. Small place, easy target. They don’t even bother to send everybody (Joshua 7:3–4). But there’s a problem nobody sees: Achan’s buried loot—silver, gold, and a Babylonish garment—hidden under his tent. God had said it was accursed (Joshua 6:18–19; 7:11). Achan said, “I saw… I coveted… I took… I hid” (Joshua 7:21). That’s how sin always walks: see, covet, take, hide. And while the man smiles in the camp, men die on the field. Thirty‑six Israelites are killed, and “the hearts of the people melted, and became as water” (Joshua 7:5). Victory died where sin lived.
Then the Lord gives Joshua a word the modern church hates: “Sanctify yourselves” (Joshua 7:13). God will not move forward with a dirty camp. “Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow” (Joshua 7:13). Sanctification there is separation—set apart to God by dealing with what He calls unclean. He says, “thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you” (Joshua 7:13). No sanctification, no standing. We talk about “spiritual warfare” while we sleep with what God cursed, then we complain when our prayers fall flat and our witness is powerless.
In the Old Testament, God exposed Achan by casting lots—tribe, family, household, man (Joshua 7:14–18). They lined up and were “taken” one group at a time till Achan stood there with his secret life pinned to his chest. Today, God doesn’t march your church family past a casting line to pick who’s guilty. He uses something sharper: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword… and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). He shines the light with preaching, teaching, and personal Bible reading. The Spirit takes that Book and nails the exact spot under your tent. No lottery, no line‑up—just Scripture and conviction.
“Sanctify yourselves” is not just an Old Testament word; it’s the New Testament life. The same Lord who told Israel to cleanse the camp tells the church, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump” (1 Corinthians 5:7). He says, “put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Corinthians 5:13). Church discipline isn’t a power trip; it’s obedience. In Joshua 7, the camp had to deal with the sin or live with the defeat. In the church age, we don’t drag a man outside the city and stone him, but we are commanded to judge open, unrepentant sin and remove it from the fellowship when a brother refuses to repent (1 Corinthians 5:1–5, 11–13). That’s God’s way of keeping the lump from rotting.
Make no mistake: the penalty line is different, but the holiness standard isn’t. Under the Law, Achan and all that he had were stoned and then burned (Joshua 7:24–26). Judgment was immediate, physical, and final in this life. In the church, we “purge” and put away, not to destroy a man’s soul, but to turn him over to God’s dealings—“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5). Discipline now, judgment later. And when God grants repentance, we don’t keep kicking the man; we restore him. Paul wrote back to Corinth and told them to “forgive him, and comfort him… lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow” (2 Corinthians 2:7). Galatians tells us how to do it: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). We separate to protect the body; we restore to honor the Head.
So how does God “find the Achan” in a local church in this age? Not by Joshua drawing lots, but by the Book being opened. Straight preaching that doesn’t dodge sin (2 Timothy 4:2). Teaching that names what God names. Private Bible reading that gets under your skin (James 1:22–25). The Spirit of God takes the Word of God and starts pointing under your tent: “There. That. Dig that up.” You don’t need a public lottery to be “taken”; you’ve already been taken every time that verse won’t leave you alone. The only question is whether you confess and forsake, or keep digging deeper holes under the floor.
“If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). If God wrote “Israel hath sinned” (Joshua 7:11) over a whole nation because of one man’s buried stash, what would He write over your church? If the Lord started at your pew with Joshua 7:13 in hand—“Sanctify yourselves”—would you be the one He stopped in front of? And if the only tools He used were preaching, Scripture, and the quiet pressure of the Holy Ghost, would that be enough to expose the “accursed thing” under your tent—or are you still telling yourself that your sin is “personal” and has nothing to do with the health of the body (1 Corinthians 12:25–27)?
Keep reading because tomorrow we’re going to see the Lord take Israel from defeat back to victory, once the camp is clean, and watch Him stretch the battle out across the land in Joshua 10–11.
Until tomorrow, stay in the Book. 📖
Brother Tony