Why Do I Keep Achan?
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Read Time: 12 min 30 secs
The Lord's command to Israel not to take from Jericho anything that was to be destroyed was not obeyed. A man named Achan disobeyed that order, and so the Lord was furious with the Israelites.
Joshua 7:1 GNT
I hate failing because of others' mistakes. I don’t know if y'all played basketball but there were so many times when the coach would make me run or do extra work in practice because someone else missed their layup or free throw in a drill. Maybe you didn’t play sports but you remember getting bad grades on presentations because someone else didn’t wanna do their part. Maybe you went to college during the COVID-19 pandemic, as I did, and kept wondering why people at your school kept going to parties that would almost always lead to another campus outbreak that would send you all into quarantine. Their actions led to consequences for everyone.
I can imagine that this is how the Israelites felt in Joshua chapter seven. Joshua was just declared their new leader. God has blessed him and promised that this group will be the one to accomplish what their predecessors couldn’t–making it to the destination of promise, the land God had set apart for them. Now they’re coming up to Jericho. This is the first city in the promised land that they came against. This is one of the last major battles between them and their destiny. It's like being one game away from the championship after a long journey of coming up short, and they’re ready for the challenge.
The journey has been long, but as of late it's felt worth it as the momentum continues to build. They’ve been winning battle after battle. It still amazes me that so many armies and countries went out of their way to avoid the Israelites solely based on the legend surrounding them and their victories. That’s how much they were winning. The surrounding kingdoms are hearing stories about them that are causing them to cower in fear and lock their doors in anticipation of an attack. The Israelites aren't just feared across the world; they’re living up to the hype. They aren’t losing. They’re going 17-0 or 82-0 and heading into playoffs depending on what sport you subscribe to for the purpose of this analogy. They’re doing amazingly. They’re undefeated. They're cooking with oil. Call them butter because they're on a roll.
I remember when my family's team, the Kansas City Chiefs, won the Super Bowl after 50 years of drought. My dad was born the year after they last won and jokes that he was likely conceived because of it. He grew up in Kansas City with season tickets. He has countless memories of going to games with his family, but it took him a lifetime to see them win. The excitement was infectious as our entire extended family flew and took road trips to come watch the game together, excited that this could be the win they’ve dreamed of.
This is what the Israelites felt like. After forty years of wilderness, they’re finally seeing a win. A few more steps and they’ve accomplished what forty years of their history couldn't. The Israelites were excited, focused, and confident. God said to be strong and courageous and they were. They had just crossed a river in a similar fashion to the story of their parents and grandparents crossing the Red Sea that had been passed down for generations. Momentum is building. There was evidence that God was moving. God had just used one of the wildest battle plans by telling them to blow trumpets, which symbolized victory for 7 days instead of actually fighting. That means that their battle plan was to thank God in advance. They praised God for a victory in the future and the walls actually fell at the sound of their praise! They had amazing momentum. It was like they couldn’t lose. Everything in this new phase of their lives was going perfectly. They’re moving past one of the biggest obstacles in their history as a people. They’re making it to the promised land. They did it!
After defeating Jericho, the Israelites came against a town named Ai. This was supposed to be an easy battle. It's like the victory parade after the championship. This battle was going to be a piece of cake. They’re used to smoking entire kingdoms. Joshua’s generals actually advised him that they wouldn’t need all their men to defeat this small town. They only sent 3,000 people to fight but the Bible says they were soundly defeated. Just like that, the momentum of their championship run is over, and they're losers again. The Israelites had beaten bigger armies. They had won before, but now they were losing the easy battles because one person had to hold on to baggage from the last one. It was going well, but one guy, Achan, held on to the past.
God gave simple instructions for the battle: destroy everything. Don’t take anything from the battle with you, or not only will you be destroyed, but everyone else will too. God told them not to hold on to anything that would keep Jericho and its valor on their mind. Instead, they were to destroy everything that God couldn't use and give everything valuable back to God so He could renew it. God didn’t want them to bring any of the weight from a battle He had already brought them through into the next phase of the journey.
The Bible says that this one dude named Achan violated God’s instructions. He stole some of the things that were supposed to be dedicated to God and destroyed them, and because of his disobedience/mistake, the Israelites lost a battle that was supposed to be easy. JUST ONE DUDE! This is J.R. Smith ruining the game.
We did everything right.
We were on a roll.
And you couldn’t follow one basic instruction.
If I was an Israelite, I’d be so mad and confused. Why are we losing?! We are the Israelites!?! We are used to slicing through small cities like Ai with ease. But this one dude had to mess it up. I’d be mad at Achan. Why couldn’t he just move forward? Why couldn’t he give the spoils of the victory to God? Why couldn’t he just move on?
Just one dude ruined the entire community's victory, but in the same way, just one hidden or held-on-to sin that God has called you to let go of can ruin the victory He wants to perform in your life. Achan likely thought it wasn’t that deep. He had done so much for God before. Surely God would let him slide for a little thing like spoils in a battle? He deserved to let loose and receive a reward for his hard work, right? But Achan deciding to hold on to what God told him to let go of led to destruction for him and the others around him. Could it be that we too are like Achan at times?
We are just like Achan
We would be mad at Achan but I’m here to argue that we would likely do the same thing he did.
Let me explain. God wanted Achan to move forward into something better, but Achan wanted to hold on to some of the benefits of the thing he was leaving. We've all felt it. You want to be free from the temper that led to so many fights and issues in your past, but you liked how people looked at you when they were afraid, so you hold on to some of the intimidation tactics. You asked God for a wife, but now you miss the attention of multiple women, so you keep a few DMs open. You stopped scamming, but now you miss the quick cash. You tell God you want to be free from porn but keep some Instagram models and suggestive TV shows on the side. You ask God to save you from the toxic relationship but keep their number for when you need company or a quick release. You ask God to sustain your health after a scare but still keep the same snacks in your pantry for comfort eating. It's not that bad, you tell yourself, but are you carrying some of the things you asked God to destroy into the next season with you?
We often ask God to get us through things or win battles for us and He does, but we hold on to those very things that used to hurt us, bringing them and their destruction right into our next phase of life. We too hold on to the remnants of our past battles and wonder why the same destruction is coming into the next phase of our life. We ask God to destroy the poison, but we opt to hold on to it. Achan held on to things that were declared dead and brought death into his future with him.
Sometimes we ask God to destroy the pain in our life but hold on to the things causing it and wonder why the pain is still there. We ask God to take away negative influences but hold on to the people He is trying to take away from us. We ask God to lift us up but hold on to the things that were holding us down in the first place. We ask God to destroy a stronghold, but we bring the triggers with us and wonder why the issue keeps springing back up. It's like leaving a little bit of mold because you’ll miss it if it's all gone. Instead of cleaning the whole space, we hold on to the things we try to destroy and wonder why they keep growing and spreading. Achan was being blocked from a blessing because he wanted souvenirs from that battle.
It's crazy cause we hate the people like Achan who stop us from moving forward, but we all have similar symptoms. Have you ever half-listened when God gives you instructions to move forward? We know she isn’t good for us so we break up, but we still hook up on the side and wonder why the pain is still following us. We know we need to give ourselves time to heal but we keep the things and people that are causing pain close to us because we are afraid of life without them. We are so used to our pain that we don't want to face the discomfort of life without it. We don't truly believe God's plan for us is better than the pain we are used to enduring, so we hold on to it as a safety blanket. We ask God to bring us out of so much but still hang on to the remnants of it. That has to stop. Like Achan, God is trying to free us but we are holding on to the chains.
We’ve all had times where we wanted to move forward but for whatever reason, we held on to the past. I don’t wanna keep doing this cycle of asking God to bring me out of things and then holding on to what He brought me out of.
Alexander the Great was famous for instructing his men to burn their boats after landing at a new place they planned to conquer. It was a way of saying they were all in. It was a way of forcing them to move forward with boldness because they had no backup plan. They couldn’t go back. We too have to stop holding on to the past that keeps us poisoned.
Stop Blaming
So how do we move forward? How can we move into the next phases of life God has for us without bringing the burdens from the past? Let’s head back to the story. We gotta learn from Achan’s mistakes.
Our lesson is found in what happens next. God makes Joshua aware of what’s happening. God shows Joshua where the issue is by narrowing his attention down to Achan. God shows Joshua first that the problem is in Achan’s extended family, and then he singles out his house, then finally points out Achan as the culprit. But what's interesting is that they don’t just go to punish Achan. Joshua says, “My son, give glory to God by telling the truth.”
They could’ve just gotten rid of Achan and called it a done deal, but no, Achan is given a chance to be honest. Not only that, it's suggested in Joshua’s reply that telling the truth would give God glory. Honesty would be a way to honor God.
This is big because oh so often we miss out on liberation from things because we aren’t honest enough to admit that we did wrong. Did you catch that? This is a common thread that keeps being pushed throughout Scripture. We miss out on liberation because we won’t admit we need it! We miss out on freedom because we aren't able to admit that we are slaves. We can’t move forward because we can't admit that we’re going the wrong way.
Yet it goes deeper than that. Why did God single out the family and tribe before pointing out Achan? In Genesis 3, we see that the first reaction to sin is blaming others. God points out the sin, and Adam’s first response is to blame God and his wife. Many of us do the same thing. When God points out something wrong with us, our first instinct is to say it's someone else's fault. Joshua takes this opportunity to give Achan an opportunity to step forward and confess, but narrows it down, taking away Achan’s opportunity to blame others as he stays quiet. God is doing the same with many of us. He is giving you an opportunity to step forward while taking away your ability to blame others for the reality you need to be honest enough to admit.
I’m not saying that other people’s negative choices don't impact or have an effect, but you must understand that the choices of others don't determine your destiny. Adam didn't have to eat the fruit. Eve could've died, and God could've made a better woman for him. But Adam gave all the control of his life to another person's choices. We have to stop doing this.
Many of us have a victim mindset that keeps us bound to mediocrity. We won't move forward in relationships because we keep blaming all of the divorce on her. We can't get ahead because we keep blaming our poverty on them. We can't excel because we’re blaming our fear, laziness, and lack of work ethic and vision on our boss.
I get that your dad left. I get that your mom wasn't the best. I understand how the government did this and that. I hear you talking about how others got this, and you didn't, but what about you? What are you going to do? Your family may have loaded the gun, but your decisions pulled the trigger. Others may have contributed to the conditions, but your choices queued the action. Joshua stops Achan from being able to dodge accountability by walking down the entire crowd and determining whose fault it wasn't before giving Achan a chance to come clean about whose fault it was. Y’all get me?
Create Distance
Admitting our responsibility is one thing, but leaving our perverted past is a totally different challenge. It's hard. Some of the things God is asking you to leave bring comfort, familiarity, and status.
Achan didn't hold on to something ugly; he held on to something he deemed valuable. Everything that God is asking you to let go of won't be obviously detrimental to you. It'll be what you're used to because of how much time you've spent below the level God wants you to rise to.
You may have to let go of some of the cultural norms you grew up with in order to move into the space God wants you. You may have to let go of some of the comforts. You may have to let go of some of the people. If God wants you to have wealth and your family is constantly under mountains of debt because they're chasing the approval and affirmation of people who don't know or like them, you may have to let some of their traditions die with you. If pride or promiscuity runs rampant in the community you grew up in, you may not be able to hold on to some of the same things that reinforce those perverted values. If the divorce rate in your family is higher than Shaq’s shot percentage under the rim, you may have to let go of the practices and mindsets you grew up seeing. Holding on to the lifestyles of broke people will keep you broke. Holding on to the lifestyles of sick people will keep you sick.
Ask God to open your eyes to the things that you may think are valuable or beneficial that are actually destroying you. Maybe it’s a relationship. Maybe it’s a family practice. Maybe it’s a mindset. Maybe it is something you've grown dependent on. If you want more, you have to be bold enough to move forward into greater things.
All this goes to say that we need to take some initiative and be honest enough to realize that sometimes we are the ones bringing death with us into the future. We have to stop holding on to things God has already matured us out of, and this starts when we are honest enough to stop making stupid excuses. What are you holding on to that is stopping you from moving forward? What lame excuses are you using to slow yourself down?
Questions to Consider:
What is God asking you to let go of?
How can honesty and accountability help you admit and let go of the things and people that may be holding you back?
What does the future you need from the present you in order to be ready for their purpose?
