And Achan answered Joshua and said, Indeed I have sinned against Jehovah the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done.
The lot has singled Achan out, and Joshua asks him to give God glory by telling the truth. Achan answers that he has sinned against the LORD Himself. Two hard questions follow: what makes a confession real, and why this one did not spare him.
Joshua's plea sets the terms of Achan's answer. Everything here turns on the honour of the LORD.
Here is the all-important matter. "Give glory to Jehovah, God of Israel." All hinges upon this. The Lord's glory is the one perfect standard for judging everything. It is the perfect gauge for measuring everything. It is the perfect test for trying everything. In every age, and in every period of God's dealings, the one great question for the people of God is this: What suits the glory of God? In comparison with this, all other questions are less than secondary. It is not a question of what is suitable to us, or what we can tolerate or agree with.
Achan does not volunteer his confession. The sifting of tribes, families and households ends at one man, and only then does he speak.
When men honestly want to clear themselves from iniquity, God will help them sift until they find the seeds of the sin. When He begins, He will make an end. And more, the force of God's presence draws out from man the confession of sin. If the root of bitterness stays hidden, the reason is that God is holding back His hand because His people are in a carnal state. Wherever sin lies unconfessed, God is far off in our thoughts. You cannot stand before God and be anything but truthful, right down to the deepest depths of the soul.
Achan's "this is what I did" opens up the whole inner history of the act. He tells it step by step, in his own words.
Here the dark, defiling stream is traced up to its source in the heart of this unhappy man. How little he thought about whose eye was resting on him through this whole sad and disastrous affair! He thought of only one thing: satisfying his covetousness. He saw, he coveted, he took, he hid; and there, no doubt, he thought the matter would end. He would have his treasure, and no one would be the wiser.
The words Achan says are the right words. The problem is when he says them — after the whole nation already knows.
Achan confessed too late. After the lot had exposed him to his brothers, he said, "Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and this is what I did." He stood convicted in front of his brothers, and he could do no less than admit his guilt. If he had confessed earlier, he would have been forgiven and cleansed. Now his confession could not shield him from the judgment of the Lord. If he had judged himself in his tent, he would not have been judged in the valley of Achor.
Commentators weigh Achan's failure differently. One points to the timing. Another looks at a wider pattern in Scripture, and at what was missing from the heart.
Here is something very remarkable. Many men in Scripture take the place of saying, "I have sinned," yet not all of them get cleansing. David, Nehemiah, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Micah, the prodigal son, and the thief on the cross all took the place of sinners. They all got cleansing or blessing. But look at Pharaoh, Balaam, Achan, Saul, Shimei, and Judas. These all confess they have sinned, yet they perish... There was no hatred of the sin. There was no desire to turn from it and give it up. There was no true repentance.
God had given Achan time to speak before the lot fell on him. That delay carries a warning about a later and far more public exposure.
Achan had plenty of time to confess his guilt, but he clearly hoped right to the end that he would not be exposed. How foolish is the unbelief of greed! If people will not confess their guilt before God while He waits patiently, how humiliating the exposure of their guilt will be at the Great White Throne! (Rev. 20:11-12).
- Hidden. Achan's own words trace the path: he saw, he coveted, he took, he hid — and assumed the matter ended there.
- Exposed. God's presence draws the truth out. Hidden sin gets sifted until it comes to light.
- Owned. Real confession gives God glory. It measures the whole affair by His honour, not by what we can live with.
- Late. The same words in his tent would have brought cleansing. In the valley of Achor they could not shield him from judgment.
- Hollow. Many in Scripture say "I have sinned" and are cleansed. Others say it and still perish, because they never hated the sin or turned from it.
I saw among the spoils a beautiful mantle of Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a golden bar of fifty shekels weight, and 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.
Here Achan tells his own sin from the inside. He names each step in order — he looked, he wanted, he took, he hid — and commentators read those four verbs as the path any sin takes into a life.
One writer sets the first step beside the first sin in Eden.
This man had followed his natural inclinations; he began where we all begin, where the first man began. "I saw." "When the woman saw" is said in Genesis 3:6. He had eyes that knew how to pick out the good things among the spoil. His eyes were the road into his heart, but there was no sentry on watch, no challenge sounded in case of attack. It is through the eyes that the accursed thing takes possession of the heart and stirs it to lust: "I coveted them." "Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin": "I took them."
Each item already had a place fixed by God, and none of them was Achan's tent. One writer weighs the haul and names where each part should have gone.
The silver would be about eight pounds in weight, the gold two pounds, and the value of these would be great. The Babylonian garment stands for idolatrous luxury, and it was marked for destruction. The silver and gold belonged in the treasury of the Lord.
The cloak from Shinar, which the writers call Babylonian, is the first thing named. Achan had to keep it buried, and one writer names the desire behind it.
Longings for the fine robe of Babylon are common enough. We want to glorify ourselves, and so rob God of His glory. Too many soldiers of the Lord in heaven have this buried in their tents. "How important I am!" is the secret name of this robe. In the tent, in the inner life, in the home circle, the truth about our desires comes out. And God sees us as we really are. Achan never wore the garment for all Israel to admire. Perhaps his friends praised its splendour. Perhaps he never once threw it over his shoulders. It made no difference before God, who saw the sin plainly.
The theft was private, but the whole nation lost. One writer traces this to how God sees His people.
Notice how the sin of one man has to do with all Israel: "But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things... and the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel." The people might have said: does that concern us? How could we have known about a hidden thing, and not knowing it, how are we responsible? To all that we reply that God always has the unity of His people before His eyes. He sees each person as part of one whole, and responsible for the others. The suffering and sin of one is the suffering and sin of all.
The practical lesson drawn from the hiding place is stated as a rule with two halves.
Let us take heed to these solemn examples, and beware of hidden sin. Sin concealed in the tent means blessing withheld in the camp. But sin confessed and judged before the Lord means victory throughout the tribes.
One writer sets the worth of the haul against what Achan already had.
Suppose we could have all the garments ever made in Babylon. Suppose we had all the gold and silver that ever came out of the mines of Peru, California and Australia. Suppose we had every pearl and diamond that ever glittered on the kings, princes and nobles of this world. Could they give us one hour's true happiness? ... How well it would have been for Achan if he had rested content with what the God of Israel had given him! How happy he might have been with the furniture of his tent, the smile of the LORD, and the answer of a good conscience!
- Saw — his eyes were the road into his heart, and no sentry stood at the gate; his story begins where Eve's began.
- Coveted — the wanting came before the hand moved, so judge the desire and not only the deed.
- Took — a robe marked for destruction and metal marked for the Lord's treasury; he served himself at God's expense.
- Hid — no one can wear a buried garment, yet God saw the sin plainly; He sees us as we really are.
- Troubled — one man's tent cost a whole nation its victory, because God counts His people as one.