Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 2.djvu/44

40 the first and largest lot in Canaan, the more inexcusable is one of that tribe, if, not content to wait for his own share, he break in upon God's property. The Jews' tradition is, that when the tribe of Judah was taken, the valiant men of that tribe drew their swords, and professed they would not sheathe them again till they saw the criminal punished, and themselves cleared who knew their own innocency. 2. That the guilty person was at length fastened upon, and the language of the lot was, Thou art the man, v. 18. It was strange that Achan, being conscious to himself of guilt, when he saw the lot come nearer and nearer to him, had not either the wit to make an escape, or the grace to make a confession; but his heart was hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and it proved to be to his own destruction. We may well imagine how his countenance changed, and what horror and confusion seized him when he was singled out as the delinquent, when the eyes of all Israel were fastened upon him, and every one was ready to say, Have we found thee, O our enemy? See here, (1.) The folly of those that promise themselves secrecy in sin; the righteous God has many ways of bringing to light the hidden works of darkness, and so bringing to shame and ruin those that continue their fellowship with those unfruitful works. A bird of the air, when God pleases, shall carry the voice, Eccl. 10. 20. See Ps. 94. 7, &c. (2.) How much it is our concern, when God is contending with us, to find out what the cause of action is, what the particular sin is, that, like Achan, troubles our camp. We must thus examine ourselves and carefully review the records of conscience, that we may find out the accursed thing, and pray earnestly with holy Job, Lord, show me wherefore thou contendest with me. Discover the traitor, and he shall no longer be harboured.

II. His arraignment and examination, v. 19. Joshua sits judge, and though abundantly satisfied of his guilt by the determination of the lot, yet urges him to make a penitent confession, that his soul might be saved by it in the other world, though he could not give him any encouragement to hope that he should save his life by it. Observe, 1. How he accosts him, with the greatest mildness and tenderness that could be, like a true disciple of Moses. He might justly have called him "thief," and "rebel," "Raca,"and "thou fool," but he calls him "son;" he might have adjured him to confess, as the High Priest did our blessed Saviour, or threatened him with the torture to extort a confession, but for love's sake he rather beseeches him, I pray thee, make confession. This is an example to all, not to insult over those that are in misery, though they have brought themselves into it by their own wickedness, but to treat even offenders with the spirit of meekness, not knowing what we ourselves should have been and done, if God had put us into the hand of our own counsels. It is likewise an example to magistrates, in executing justice, to govern their own passions with a strict and prudent hand, and never suffer themselves to be transported by them into any indecencies of behaviour or language, no, not towards those that have given the greatest provocations. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Let them remember the judgment is God's, who is Lord of his anger. This is the likeliest method of bringing offenders to repentance. 2. What he wishes him to do; to confess the fact, to confess it to God, the party offended by the crime; Joshua was to him in God's stead, so that in confessing to him, he confessed to God. Hereby he would satisfy Joshua and the congregation concerning that which was laid to his charge; his confession would also be an evidence of his repentance, and a warning to others to take heed of sinning after the similitude of his transgression: but that which Joshua aims at herein, is, that God might be honoured by it as the Lord, the God of infinite knowledge and power, from whom no secrets are hid; and as the God of Israel, who as he does particularly resent affronts given to his Israel, so he does the affronts given him by Israel. Note, In confessing sin, as we take shame to ourselves, so we give glory to God, as a righteous God, owning him justly displeased with us, and as a good God who will not improve our confessions as evidences against us, but is faithful and just to forgive, when we are brought to own that he would be faithful and just if he should punish. By sin we have injured God in his honour; Christ by his death has made satisfaction for the injury: but it is required, that we by repentance show our good-will to his honour, and, as far as in us lies, give glory to him. Bishop Patrick quotes the Samaritan chronicle, making Joshua to say here to Achan, Lift up thine eyes to the King of heaven and earth, and acknowledge that nothing can be hid from him who knoweth the greatest secrets.

III. His confession, which, now at last, when he saw it was to no purpose to conceal his crime, was free and ingenuous enough, v. 20, 21. Here is,

1. A penitent acknowledgment of the fault. "Indeed I have sinned, what I am charged with is too true to be denied, and too bad to be excused. I own it, I lament it; the Lord is righteous in bringing it to light, for indeed I have sinned." This is the language of a penitent that is sick of his sin, and whose conscience is loaded with it. "I have nothing to accuse any one else of, but a great deal to say against myself; it is with me that the accursed thing is found, I am the man who have perverted that which was right, and it profited me not." And that wherewith he aggravates the sin, is, that it was committed against the Lord God of Israel. He was himself an Israelite, a sharer with the rest of that exalted nation in their privileges, so that, in offending the God of Israel, he offended his own God, which laid him under the guilt of the basest treachery and ingratitude imaginable.

2. A particular narrative of the fact, Thus and thus have I done. God had told Joshua in general, that a part of the devoted things was alienated, but leaves it to him to draw from Achan an account of the particulars; for, one way or other, God will make sinners' own tongues to fall upon themselves, (Ps. 64. 8.) if ever he bring them to repentance, they will be their own accusers, and their awakened consciences will be instead of a thousand witnesses. Note, It becomes penitents, in the confession of their sin to God, to be very particular; not only, "I have sinned," but, "In this and that instance I have sinned;" reflecting with regret upon all the steps that led to the sin, and all the circumstances that aggravated it and made it exceeding sinful; thus and thus have I done. He confesses (1.) To the things taken. In plundering a house in Jericho he found a goodly Babylonish garment; the word signifies a robe, such as princes wore when they appeared in state, probably it belonged to the king of Jericho; it was far-fetched, if fetched, as we translate it, from Babylon. A garment of divers colours, so some render it; whatever it was, in his eyes it made a glorious show; "A thousand pities" (thinks Achan) "that it should be burnt, then it will do nobody any good, if I take it for myself, it will serve me many a year for my best garment." Under these pretences, he makes bold with this first, and thinks it no harm to save it from the fire; but his hand being thus in, he proceeds to take a bag of money, two hundred shekels, that is, one hundred ounces of silver, and a wedge of gold