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where the wadys, descending from Ai, take "their final plunge" eastwards. Viewed in
any light, the event was terribly ominous. It had been Israel's first fight west of the
Jordan - and their first defeat. The immediate danger likely to accrue was a combination
of all their enemies round about, and the utter destruction of a host which had become
dispirited. But there was even a more serious aspect than this. Had God's pledged
promises now failed? or, if this could not even for a moment be entertained, had the
Lord given up His gracious purpose, His covenant with Israel, and the manifestation of
His "Name" among all nations, connected therewith?^82
Feelings like these found expression in Joshua's appeal to God, when, with rent clothes
and ashes upon their heads, he and the elders of Israel lay the livelong day, in
humiliation and prayer, before the Lord, while in the camp "the hearts of the people"
had "melted and became as water." We require to keep in view this contrast between the
impotent terror of the people and the praying attitude of their leaders, to realize the
circumstances of the case; the perplexity, the anxiety, and the difficulties of Joshua,
before we judge of the language which he used. It fell indeed far short of the calm
confidence of a Moses; yet, in its inquiry into the reason of God's dealings, which were
acknowledged, faith, so to speak, wrestled with doubt (Joshua 7:7), while rising fear
was confronted by trust in God's promises (ver. 9). Best of all, the inward contest found
expression in prayer. It was therefore, after all, a contest of faith, and faith is "the
victory over the world."
Strange, that amidst this universal agitation, one should have remained unmoved, who,
all the time, knew that he was the cause of Israel's disaster and of the mourning around.
Yet his conscience must have told him that, so long as it remained, the curse of his sin
would follow his brethren, and smite them with impotence. It is this hardness of
impenitence - itself the consequence of sin - which, when properly considered,
vindicates, or rather demonstrates, the rightness of the Divine sentence afterwards
executed upon Achan.^83 His sin was of no ordinary character. It had not only been a
violation of God's express command, but daring sacrilege and profanation. And this
under circumstances of the most aggravated character. Besides, Joshua had, just before
the fall of Jericho, warned the people of the danger to themselves and to all Israel of
taking "of the accursed thing" (Joshua 6:18). So emphatic had been the ban pronounced
upon the doomed city, that it was extended to all time, and even over the whole family
of any who should presume to restore Jericho as a fortress (6:26).^84
And, in face of all this, Achan had allowed himself to be tempted! He had yielded to the
lowest passion. One of those Babylonish garments, curiously woven with figures and
pictures (such as classical writers describe), a massive golden ornament, in the shape of
a tongue, and a sum of silver, amounting to about 25l in a city the walls of which had
just miraculously fallen before the Lord, had induced him to commit this daring sin!
(^)