It was a very serious trouble, and it's a pretty horrible punishment.
But don't forget that 36 other families mourned their loved one as a consequence of Aiken's failure.
I'm about to talk about anger, and I think I'm wondering if you just turn to one another for two minutes.
So really quickly, not a lot of detail.
Just turn to one other person and share a time when somebody was seriously angry with you and what that felt like.
Move quickly to what it felt like.
Okay.
A few things come to mind for me, some of them funny and some of them not so funny at all.
The unfunny one is getting a hiding from my dad at the same time as he's trying to express regret for having to give a decent son a hiding.
That didn't feel nice at all.
I remember when I was 13 or 14 years old, we lived at Collaroy Platter over on the northern beaches,
and I was allowed with my friends to go canoeing down on Narrabeen Lake.
A couple of my friends had canoes, surf skis, and they had little wheels and trailers to take them down on.
So they towed them down the hill into the lake, and off we went, and we were three hours late.
And parents were out looking for us, and it was in the days when there were no mobile phones.
And probably very oblivious to the time, but I knew we were in trouble,
because as we were coming back up the hill to Collaroy Platter, halfway up a very steep hill,
towing these things behind us, one of my friend's mums came down the hill very slowly in her car,
with her head out the window, and I can tell you she had a really ugly look on her face.
And she was shouting at my friends, saying,
you're going to get the father of a hiding when you get home.
And then she looked at me and she said, and your parents are so filthy angry with you.
And so I had to walk the next probably kilometre home full of fear and dread,
anticipating the wrath of my parents and what that would mean.
What could I do to turn their wrath away?
I think I tried tears.
I'm not sure if it worked on the day or not, but that's what I did.
I've also stood in a very serious place, floor of Sydney, not Sydney Synod, but another diocese.
And I said some things, sort of in innocence, that the bishop really didn't like.
And he left his chair and he took the floor.
And I said them with Steve's old box.
The man who discipled Steve nurtured him when he came to Christ.
The two of us were ministers and we both spoke on this matter.
And the bishop was so incensed, he left his chair, he took the floor of the Synod.
And I said my bit.
And before I could even sit down, he was on the other side of the Synod hall,
snorting, raging, saying that they were the most unfair men and most unfair things
that he had ever heard on the floor of Synod.
So I felt like I'd better stand there and take it.
So I just stood there and eyeballed him rather than sit down.
And when he'd finished tearing us apart, one of my friends who was sitting behind me starts going,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
As funny as it is now, it was a horrible moment.
And going away afterwards, processing somebody's anger
and knowing what it's done to you and what's going on inside you.
But it's not just me.
All of us have had serious...
I imagine all of us have experienced serious anger from other people and what it does to us.
And I guess how we deal with it.
So it might be a parent or a teacher screaming at you in anger.
Or a boss who's ripping you to shreds and humiliating you for the work that you've done or haven't done.
Or it could even be within your family when things get really tough between a husband and wife even.
And things get said in an uncontrolled and deeply hurtful way.
In all those things, there's a question of, what do you do with that?
You may well be the offender.
You may well have caused the anger that's come to you.
You may not have caused it, but you might have caused the anger that's come to you.
And so, how do you deal with it?
What do you do?
How do you turn that anger away?
Joshua 6 finished with a really stunning victory.
It's where we were last week.
I'd love you to have your Bibles open, Joshua 7.
This morning when I preached this, I quoted the text quite a bit more.
And then when I got into the Chinese services, I found it was helpful not to quote it quite as much because it takes too long.
So I'm going to try a little bit differently tonight.
I might not quote as much as I normally do, but I'd like you to be reading and following with me.
Joshua 6 finished with God's stunning victory.
He brought down the walls of Jericho.
He handed the city to Israel.
Rahab was saved.
Joshua 6 was just a good news story.
It was just good all the way through.
And this most stunning victory.
And so when you get into Joshua 7 and you hit the very first verse, you find that God is hot with anger.
And you wonder, why on earth?
And it says something like this.
The Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things.
Achan, the son of Kami, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of them.
So the Lord's anger burned against Israel.
And that's like, whoa, where did that come from?
God's anger burns.
He's furious with his people.
It's really surprising.
And at this stage in the story, even Joshua doesn't know anything's wrong.
Now, God had warned them in chapter 6 and Joshua had warned them in chapter 6 about how to treat the spoils of war from Jericho.
You're not to keep them.
Everything, people, animals, precious metals, everything is to be devoted to the Lord.
That means living things killed and burned.
And all the precious stuff in terms of metal and jewels and stuff into the treasury, the Lord's treasury.
And I said last week, Jericho was God's judgment on the Amorite inhabitants of the land.
And it was also his victory on behalf of his people.
And what you get is this picture of to the victor go the spoils, winner take all.
And in this case, in this victory, all glory to God who won this victory.
So he gets the lot, everything.
And then you hit this Joshua 7, 1, and it's like this enormous hiccup, but worse than a hiccup.
And it's also an explanation because before we read the whole of this chapter, we're being told in verse 1 what the problem is.
One man, Achan, acted unfaithfully with regard to the devoted things.
One man does something wrong.
God is angry with the whole nation.
Achan's sin is secret, it's hidden, but it impacts the entire community.
So he set the ground.
Verse 1 tells the story behind what is about to be seen as we go through chapter 7.
So moving into verse 2, they've won their first victory.
They're now ready for the second.
They suss out the city of Ai.
They take a force of 3,000 men, quite a few less than before.
And they are routed by the men of Ai who kill 36 Israelites.
And 36 families lose their men, and they are in mourning that night.
And Joshua and the leaders are devastated.
And Joshua is flat on his face before God.
He's grieved, and he says, why did you allow this to happen to us?
They'll surround us.
They'll wipe out our name.
And if they wipe out our name, what's going to happen to yours?
He's perplexed.
He's confused.
He trusts God, but he can't see or understand what God is doing,
and he's really fearful of what's going to happen.
And now they take this enormous confidence as a nation.
They know what God has been doing for them,
and now they take this enormous hit.
And they really don't know where they stand with God.
And in this moment, it is like relationship with God
is just too hot to handle.
Who are you, God, that you would do this to us?
Humanly speaking, it seems unfair.
It's like keeping the whole class in,
waiting for someone to own up when money got pinched
from the teacher's handbag.
Only one person offends,
but a whole lot of people are affected by the offence.
Something similar happens in Acts chapter 5.
The early church has been growing by thousands
since the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Acts 4 finishes with the wonderful description of believers
being of one heart and mind and sharing their possessions
and quite extraordinary acts of giving.
So Barnabas, who will be heard a lot of later,
but Barnabas, named by the apostles as the son of encouragement,
sells a field and brings the proceeds in to bless the whole community
and they're providing for one another's basic needs.
This is a wonderful new experience of being the people of God.
And then one verse later,
you come to the story of Ananias and Sapphira.
They fake their Christianity.
They fake their generosity.
And God strikes them dead.
And it says,
Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.
In some ways, the consequence for the church,
for all of God's people,
was quite healthy.
Because even though they hadn't done anything wrong,
they did receive,
they did experience a terrible reminder that God is God.
He doesn't play favourites.
He calls the shots.
We don't.
And the sin of one couple
had an impact on the entire community.
Joshua was on his face before God.
And God answers Joshua pretty abruptly.
Stand up.
What are you doing down on your face?
Israel sinned.
They violated my covenant,
which I commanded them to keep.
They've taken some of the devoted things.
They've stolen.
They've lied.
They've put them with their own possessions.
That's why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.
They turn their back and run
because they've been made liable to destruction.
Oh.
But have some sympathy for Joshua
because this is the first time he's even told by God
that something's wrong and what it is.
God brings what is hidden into the light
so that it can be dealt with.
There's sin in the camp.
He uses the plural to say
the whole nation is being held accountable
for what has happened.
They have sinned.
They have taken devoted things.
They have stolen.
They have lied.
Can you imagine being back in school
and somebody pinches stuff
and we've got the thing in front of the teacher
and she's trying to find out who's stolen from a handbag
and the principal comes in
and he says the whole class has stolen,
the whole class has lied,
the whole class has taken some of the stuff
from the teacher's handbag.
You'd be...
But the effect of all this is
that they have been made liable to destruction
and they are only as strong as their weakest link
and their weakest link is Achan
and he has brought repercussions for the whole body
and so there is crisis for the whole nation.
Now let me tell you,
when I read some of the commentaries
about this passage in preparation,
they do all sorts of contrary things.
One of the things they say is,
oh well this time Joshua didn't pray to God properly
with the leaders,
they're a bit too self-consistent,
they only took out 3,000 men,
they should have taken a lot more,
they didn't seek his...
So the commentator would be saying to me tonight
that I should be preaching a message to you
about being more reliant on God
and relying on his empowering
and have made sure I prayed enough before I did it.
I don't think that's what it's about.
And one of the other commentators very helpfully said,
but you could actually look at this another way
and say something huge has gone on
amongst the people of God
and by his grace only 36 people died.
He could have been a lot more severe on the nation.
So take your pick
and I'd say choose neither.
But God doesn't just explain the problem,
he tells Joshua the solution.
And the solution is terrible.
Sin needs to be removed from among them
and the offender must be destroyed.
God meant what he said in chapter 6
when he said keep away, verse 18,
keep away from the devoted things
so that you will not bring about your own destruction
by taking any of them.
And that's what happens the next day.
The whole nation presents themselves before God.
We're not told how the selection occurs.
Did they draw a lot?
Who knows?
But Judah's chosen from the tribes,
the Zerahites from the clans,
the Zimri from the families.
They're narrowing it down
and finally Achan from the men of Zimri.
And Joshua just looks him in the eye and says,
fess up, give glory to God,
tell the truth and he does.
Full confession.
Verse 20,
it's true, I've sinned against the Lord,
the God of Israel.
This is what I've done.
When I saw in the plunder
a beautiful robe from Babylonia,
200 shekels of silver,
a wedge of gold weighing 50 shekels,
I coveted them.
I coveted them and I took them.
And they are hidden in the ground inside my tent
with the silver underneath.
Those 36 men who died last night
died because of me.
I coveted them.
I took these things.
And Joshua sends people to check it out.
And then they take him
and they take his family
and they take his animals
and they stone them to death
and they burn their corpses in the dust.
And Joshua doesn't argue with God.
He takes him at his word.
He does what he commands.
It's shocking.
It's particularly hard for us,
I think,
because Achan does a good thing
when he's confronted.
He confesses.
He owns his behaviour.
And then he dies.
And there's no national soul searching
over applying the death penalty.
They do what God tells them to do.
And it must have struck fear
into the hearts of everyone in Israel.
God is to be honoured.
He is the Lord God Almighty
and when he says something,
he means it.
And clearly that may raise
all sorts of moral issues for us,
like how is it fair to kill Achan's family
for what his dad, their dad, did?
And I come to a passage like this
and in the end,
I don't think I can answer a question like that,
even though I've raised it,
except that everything that happens here
happens at the absolute command
of the Lord.
And this is his word
and these are his orders.
But the consequences
are wonderfully dramatic.
Verse 26,
very last verse,
the Lord turned from his fierce anger.
The Lord turned from his fierce anger.
The chapter began with God burning with anger
and it finishes with him
turning from that same anger.
Relationship is restored
and peace is re-established.
And I think if I stop my message here,
we would be left with a picture
of a holy God
who will not tolerate
one single offence
against his words and commands.
Achan and his family died for his sin.
The severity of God
would leave us in a relationship
of absolute fear.
We would spend our lives living in fear.
We would,
it's almost like we would be waiting
for God to pounce
and blot me out
with every single failure and offence.
I could not feel secure
in this world
and in this life.
And we would end up
in a relationship
where we fear,
of fear,
where we link,
we're always linking
our behaviour
to our performance,
to our acceptance of God
and we can never,
ever,
ever be good enough for him.
But he's made a better way.
He's made a better way.
This is a story
about the deserved anger
of God being satisfied
and turned away.
Atonement is made
for this offence
against God.
God was angry.
He was ready to be divorced
from his people.
He had one foot out the door,
bags packed,
and his people
responded to his word
and Achan died for his sin
and God turned from his anger.
The divorce was off,
relationship was restored
and his anger
was atoned for.
Friends,
God is rightly offended
by sin.
He takes it personally.
We ignore him,
we run our own lives,
we make our own decisions,
we behave as though
he doesn't exist.
Don't think that doesn't matter
to him,
it does.
We place ourselves
under his justifiable anger,
we put ourselves
in a very precarious predicament.
We don't think it,
but in God's economy,
we deserve death.
From God's point of view,
that's our default condition
for our rebellion
against him.
And yet some of us,
and me included,
are just as greedy
as Achan.
We'll put a bit aside
for a rainy day,
we'll stumble.
He stumbled on some cool loot
that fell off the back
of a truck
and thought nobody
had noticed,
easy money.
There wasn't a living soul
left in Jericho
who needed it anymore.
He didn't think
that he would be seen
and yet God knew
his offence
was against God
and not against
the people of Jericho.
And Achan,
gave his life
for his offence.
And God's anger
wasn't satisfied
until the offence
had been paid for.
Our offences
are against God.
Something needs
to happen
to turn his deserved
anger and attention
away from us.
Romans 3
speaks about our sin
and Jesus
when it says
God presented him
as a sacrifice
of atonement
through faith
in his blood.
And he did this
to demonstrate
his justice
because in his forbearance
he had left
the sins committed
beforehand unpunished.
And he did it
to demonstrate
his justice
at the present time
so as to be just
and the one
who justifies
those who have
faith in Jesus.
God presented
Jesus as an atonement
through faith
in his blood.
When you come
to the person
of Jesus Christ
you find that
God takes
personal action
to turn his
deserved anger
from us.
God has acted
to turn away
his anger.
We couldn't do it
but God did.
And this is huge
and it means
I can stand here
tonight
and I can say it
to me
but I can say it
to you
that if your
heart tonight
accuses you
of anything
or if there's
another person
who holds
an offence
against you
or perhaps
there's things
in your life
that really
only God
knows about
I want you
to hear
that God
has acted
in Christ
to forgive
them
and he is
able to
in Christ
to turn
away
from any
anger
he might have
towards you
because of them.
Achan didn't
do anything
much worse
than things
that we do
all the time
and then he did
he confessed
his sin
when he was
confronted
by God
and he died
he had to
face the music
and pay the
penalty
for his own
sin
and his life
in a way
became the
answer to
his own
sin
he was
the atonement
that his
sin
required
his death
turned
God
away
from his
burning
anger
and I
think it's
fantastic
that I can
stand here
tonight
and I can
tell you
it's something
that's lived
out in my
own life
sometimes
when I
go into
a hole
and I've
gone into
behaviours
that I
deeply
regret
or I
don't
want to
be part
of my
life
and I
want to
be at
peace
with God
again
I do
not get
back
into
relationship
with him
by beating
myself
up
even though
I sometimes
do beat
myself up
I cannot
self-atone
but we
come before
a holy
God and
we confess
our sins
because he
has already
made it
safe for us
to do
that
our confession
doesn't
save us
Christ himself
has stood
in our
place
and died
for our
sins
to make
us
safe
he saves
us
and so
God
himself
takes
the most
drastic
action
to make
it safe
for us
to come
near him
he makes
atonement
for his
own anger
he acts
to turn
his deserved
anger away
and do you
know why
it's really
simple
it's because
he loves
us
and you
see that
in 1
John
chapter 2
he is the
atoning
sacrifice
for our
sins
and not
only for
ours
but also
for the
sins
of the
whole
world
and in
1
John
chapter 4
Lord
this is
love
not that
we love
God
but that
he loved
us
and sent
his son
as an
atoning
sacrifice
for our
sins
what an
extraordinary
God
who loves
us
who allows
us to
live
who has
turned
his deserved
anger
his fury
he has
taken it
upon himself
and he has
turned it
away from
us
I've
said all
day
when you
go from
here
to
night
I hope
that you
go with a
really big
smile on
your face
and a
really big
smile on
your heart
because of
how great
Christ's love
for us
is
and I
also hope
that you
go from
here knowing
it's a
very healthy
thing
to fear
and to
respect
Christ
for who
he really
is
Amen