Joshua 7:20-26 (ESV)
20 And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. 23 And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel. And they laid them down before the LORD. 24 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25 And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. 26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the LORD turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.
Covetousness Cost Much
This is the story of Achan and his sin. When Israel attacked Jericho they were to destroy all the people and take all the valuables to give to the entire nation. But, Achan decided to take some of them for himself. He took about 1.2 pounds of gold. In today’s market that would be worth about $1,800.00. Imagine the worth in OT Biblical times. He also took about 4.9 pounds of silver. In today’s market that would be worth about $1,000.00.
Imagine, however, losing your life over a colorful coat and $2,800.00 worth of jewelry (no matter the age). Imagine that your entire family would suffer the consequences of such a decision. We might look at this and think “how harsh” of God. Or, we might look at it (in the way it is meant to teach us), how foolish of Achan. God does not mess around with sin. But, man sure does. Achan disobeyed God’s commands. He coveted something that God told him to not covet. Coveting cost him and his wife and his children their lives. The same is true today. We covent things of much more value than what Achan did (although, accounting for inflation, probably not). Our coveting often keeps us from obeying God. People don’t want to follow Christ because it calls for a life style change. It calls for putting Christ in the center of our lives when in reality we would prefer to have _____________ at the center of our lives (everyone puts something differing on the line). Coveting hurts because it disobeys God’s moral law. We can only be free from coveting as we put Christ on the blank line.
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