Lesson four is entitled settling in the land. We're gonna cover a large amount of material here, chapter seven through 21. The bulk of the material is about the allotment of the land and receiving the various inheritance for the tribe, so we'll go over that pretty quickly. But it is nevertheless a large amount of material that we'll have to talk about, as I always say, I know I always say that, but it's true.
So let's just dive straight in. We are at part one, conquering the remainder of the promised land. So we left off in chapter six with a conquest of Jericho, right? So Jericho is destroyed, the whole detergical warfare, spiritual warfare, themes that we talked about.
Now we're moving into chapter seven with the remainder of the land, right? Because Jericho obviously is the most important city that's conquered for all the typological reasons that we discussed in the last lesson, into the world, conquering a predominant fault, all this kind of stuff. But now there's a lot more work to do. So that's what part one is all about.
Chapter seven is the conquest of I. I always laugh every time I say that word, I, no matter what I'm teaching, I always reminds me of Ozzie Osborn crazy train. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't know why, I always think of that, but I do. So it's hard to get out of my brain.
It's the conquest of I is the next city that they have to conquer, but there's a problem. Because when you look at chapter seven, verse one, there's like the speed bump, this like warning strip, you call it whatever you want. During verse one where it says, the sons of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things for Akhen, the son of Karmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerakh, of the tribe of Judah took some of the devoted things and the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. So this is super interesting.
So if you remember in Jericho, the command by God was to destroy all living things. We talked about this, it was the ban, right? It's Harim warfare, Harim warfare. And all of the gold, the silver, the precious metals are going to be consecrated to God, right, for the use of the tabernacle, which obviously God doesn't need these things.
It's really for the purpose of Israel's worship. It's a benefit for Israel rather than for God. But the point is that God is the divine king that leads Israel into victory. So in the ancient years and world, the king would take the first fruit of the tithes of the spoils of war.
And that's really what Jericho was all about. So all the precious stuff was to go to God. But this character, Akhen, who by the way seems to be a very important figure, he has a genealogy, right? So he's supposed to be identified as some sort of like high ranking member of society, a member of the people, maybe an elder, something like that.
He's got a genealogy here. He's from the tribe of Judah. That's a pretty big deal. So he's not just some, you know, low born, I don't know what you wanna call a low born person off in the corner of the camp.
Like he's somebody significant here and he stole plunder effectively from God. So that plunder that spoils from Jericho is supposed to go to God and he took a bunch of it. We'll see later on the chapter exactly what he took. He's stealing from God his divine king.
That is no laughing matter whatsoever. The spoils dedicated to God, he takes it here. And so now there are gonna be consequences because he puts the whole people of Israel into a state of uncleanness, into a state of, I guess animosity with God. They're out of friendship with God, out of harmony with God because of his sins.
That's what's gonna be a big theme that's gonna, I'm gonna unpack here for you. Because it says explicitly, the sons of Israel broke faith because of his sin, right? So, Aqin is a member of the whole people and this is a big deal. The consequences of Aqin's sin is that they are now out of friendship with God and they're gonna be defeated.
So what happens in verse two is, again, Joshua sends spies to the city of A'i and they went in, they said, look, this is gonna be a piece of cake. A'i is smaller, it's easier to conquer. They don't have the fortified walls. In fact, A'i, by the way, means ruin.
So it's probably destroyed or conquered or ruined by some previous conflict of some kind. So the spies come back and say, this is gonna be easy. Just go send about 3000 men up to fight. You're not to send all of our warriors.
Just in 3000, that should take care of it. Fortunately, they're defeated. They're defeated in battle and 36 of them are killed. But I see a little connection here.
I'm still thinking about this, but maybe if you have a thought, you can put it in the comments section. But it's really interesting here how Israel is defeated at I with 3000 warriors. The last time, I like to remember, seeing the number 3000 is with the golden calf. At the golden calf episode, Israel breaks faith with God and 3000 people are destroyed.
Here, Israel has broken faith with God because of Aqin's sin. They're out of harmony with God, out of friendship with God. And so the 3000 men are defeated. So it really kind of makes me wonder, I think there's a connection there between the 3000 and the number 3000.
And the fact that Israel is out of harmony with God in both instances. So think about that. It's not in your notes here, but it's just a thing something I've been wondering for a while. So 3000 men are defeated.
And why are they defeated? So Joshua, well, I'll actually point this out. They're defeated because as I've said, Aqin is a member of the people of Israel, the family of God. And sin affects the entire community.
Sin is never merely private or personal. The big theme here, okay? If you go to the New Testament, like 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12, and following Paul goes into this fantastic, beautiful teaching where he says, we're all members of the same body. If you were baptized into Christ, you were baptized into his body.
Right? So I can't say, you know, I'm not part of the body because I'm not an ear and vice versa or I'm a foot and I'm not a head and so et cetera, et cetera. You were all members of the body of Christ. Then he'll say in verse 26, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers.
When one member rejoices, the whole body rejoices. Where that intimately connected with each other, it's powerful, powerful reality here to the mystery of the body of Christ. And if you're baptized in a state of grace, you are members of each other. That's incredible.
So what's happening here is a foreshadowing of the deeper reality of our union with Christ and with each other in the new covenant. Aqin has now brought the entire people of Israel into the state of sin, right? And so I have a real quick quote here for you from the Nature's Catholic Study Bible, which says, the community of Israel is bound together in moral solidarity so that any one violation of the ban triggers a ban of destruction on Israel as a whole. So the lie that what I do in my own room doesn't affect other people is just that.
It's a lie. And that's what we're seeing here. I have another quote for you in the bottom of your page and the footnote, I'll just read it here, that it's from a new var Bible, the same concept. It says, this episode touches on another great lesson taught in the book of Joshua.
The people must be truly united, even though each individual is responsible for his own actions. Evil done by one harms the entire community. Israel needed to be cleansed of the sin of Aqin before the continuous triumphant advance through the promised land. This solidarity of the members of the people, one with another in both evil and good prefigures in some way, the communion that exists among the members, the new people of God as Saint Paul so well explains in his similarly the mystical body.
And he quotes the commentary quotes, 1 Corinthians 12, 26, which I just read to you, right? If one number suffers, all suffer, if one number is honored, all rejoice together, right? So this is commentators have really seen this connection here. So Aqin, sin brings destruction and disaster upon the entire people.
And of course, I'm sure the inhabitants of the city of Aqin are like scratching their heads wondering how in the world do we just defeat Israel after Israel just walked all over Jericho, right? So Joshua has no idea why this happened, why these 3,000 soldiers are defeated in battle and they go running with their tails between their legs so to speak. And so he turns to God in prayer. And this is actually really interesting.
He has a very honest prayer with God, just like Abraham does, just like Moses does, Joshua too, kind of bears his soul as he should to God, wondering how could this possibly happen? Let's go down to verse six. Joshua says, alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would they be content to dwell beyond the Jordan?
O Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? It's a beautiful prayer.
It's very, very reminiscent of many of the things that Moses has said as well. So he turns to God and God says, look, Israel's transgressed my covenant in verses 10 and following. There's their sin in the people of God. I can't be with you.
In fact, verse 12 says explicitly, I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things that are from among you. There's a big deal. God isn't with them while they're in a state of sin. And that teaches us here as well in the new covenant with Christ.
If we commit graves in, God is no longer with us, not because God desired it, but because we chose something other than God and God honors our request. You've got to purify this sin from among you in order for me to go with you again. So Joshua then goes out to find out where's the sin? Who did it?
And so presumably through the casting of Locke's, God by God, they go through one tribe after another, then they zero in on Judah, and they go through all the tribes, and then they zoom in on the families. And then ultimately, it falls on Achan. And I've always found this really beautiful. Joshua says in verse 19, to Achan, my son, that's incredible to me.
Here, you just kind of see the compassion. Don't you? You see the tenderness. Joshua says, my son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and render praise to him, and tell me what you have done, do not hide it from me.
So give glory to God, praise him through your confession of sin. What did you do to not hide anything from me? I always found that interesting, the tenderness with which Joshua approaches Achan. You know, I mean, he could have been brutal and mean.
And he could have done all those things. I see a father figure in that, is what I see. OK? All right, so Achan now has violated the ban on devoted things.
I'm kind of reading it in your next quote in your notes. Warriors who violate the ban on devoted things by taking what has forbidden place themselves under the law of devoted things on our Set-apart Burbijal destruction. And that's what we're going to see here. So now he's confessed his sin, but now he has brought, ironically and tragically, brought the curse of destruction upon himself.
So what is his confession? The verse 20, he answers Joshua of a truth. I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel. And this is what I did.
And note the verbs here, by the way. This is really important. When I saw among the spoiler of beautiful mantle from Shinaar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, and I coveted them, and I took them and behold their hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath. Now as a very honest confession of sin, he doesn't hide anything back to that to his credit.
But what's interesting here is a couple of things. Number one, I told you to pay attention to those verbs. I saw it. I coveted it, and I took it.
Commentaries will point out that these are the same verbs in Eve's rebellion in the Garden of Eden. Eve sees the fruit, covets it, takes it for itself. You can go back to Genesis chapter two, and you'll see that, or rather chapter three. And you'll see that.
That's so interesting, because the parallel is that Israel here is made a new creation by crossing through that Jordan River. I pointed this out a couple of lessons ago, at least I hope I did, right? So Israel, by passing through the Jordan River, is made a new creation of source, really in reality. They're the new people of God.
But just after the original new creation of Adam and Eve, there was a fall from grace. Now you had the same thing going on. They're made a new creation, but through Akhen's disobedience by seeing and coveting and taking things that were forbidden to him, just like the fruit was forbidden to Adam and Eve. Now they have fallen from grace, and they're estranged from God, right?
They're out of friendship and harmony with God. That is really, really interesting here. So this is the story of Israel's fall from grace immediately after being recreated, right? Does that make sense?
OK? One other little connection here. Just kind of speculate on this. But he says in verse 21, I took this beautiful mantle from Shinaar.
Now where is Shinaar? Shinaar, if you go back to Genesis again, is the place where the Tower of Babel was built. The Tower of Babel is this epitome of rebellion against God, right? This Tower they're going to build at the high heavens.
You go back to the Genesis Bible, and we'll talk about that a lot. But it's this Tower that symbolizes rebellion against God and rebellion against God's people as well. And so this mantle taken from Shinaar, the fact that Shinaar is being echoed here, kind of seems to me indicative of the fact that this is Akhen's rebellion, Allah, or in the light of the Tower of Babel. He's taking things for himself.
He's rebelling against God. And he's rebelling against God's people. OK? So something to speculate there.
You're not going to find that in commentaries that I read anyways, but you could ponder it. It's so fascinating. All right, so he makes his confession. Because he has brought that ban upon himself in this tragic reversal, now he's going to be executed.
And what you discover in verse 25, Joshua says, the Lord, OK, why did you bring trouble on us? That's what the Bible means, trouble. The Lord brings trouble on you today. And all Israel stone him, note that another pronoun's here.
They stone him with stones, and they burn them with fire and stone them with stones. And they raise over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. And the Lord turns from his burning anger. OK, so what's going on here with the family?
Because a lot of people will comment, holy moly. So Akhen is clearly guilty. He makes a confession. But is it true that his family is also stone along with him?
What's going on with this? Well, there are three potential options that we could consider. The first is a hint from the Greek Old Testament. It's called the Septuagint.
It was started to be first translated. It'd give or take 200 years before Christ. It started to be the pithik was first translated in the rest of the Bible afterwards. But the Greek Old Testament, that Septuagint, says that only he died, not his family.
It's very, very clear, which makes a lot of sense. He's guilty, so he alone is the one to suffer the consequences. It's very much like Koral. If you remember back in Numbers, Koral rebels against Moses and Aaron.
He kind of wants the priesthood for himself. He's a Levite, and he covers the priesthood. And ultimately ends up happening, as the earth opens up and swallows him in 250 rebels along with him. But his sons, known as the Sons of Koral, they survive and they actually become later on in salvation history, musical geniuses for the worship of God and the temple.
So they're actually mentioned in the Psalms. So just like Koral's son didn't suffer for Koral's rebellion, the argument here that you can kind of see in the Greek Old Testament is that only achundized, but his family wouldn't. And that makes sense. However, if his family were stoned with him, it would seem to be because they knew of his crime and they helped him.
He says that it's buried underneath his tent. It's very unlikely he was able to do that alone without anybody noticing. So perhaps if his family is stoned, it's because they're guilty as well. And so therefore they must suffer as well.
And related to that, there's this third little option here to keep in mind is that in the ancient world, families receive immersing and punishment due to the actions of one person. So for example, Rahab. Rahab petitions mercy from the spies and from Israel, not just for herself, but for the rest of her family. She converts to the one true God, but we know nothing about the attitudes or the beliefs of the rest of her family, but nevertheless they're saved in the same way here awk and sins and brings punishment on his whole family, which teaches us that we can often throw our own actions harm other people than the people that we love, right?
So these are three options, pulling from your commentary here. I got the footnote for you, you can reference that for for more. But if the family was stoned with awk and it's probably because they were guilty as well, okay? Now that's really interesting, we're just talking about Rahab.
So it's a perfect segue to my next point here. So here you got Rahab who is this gentile, this woman that's hardly, she obeys and saved, but awk and who is in Israel, and probably a well-born Israel, like I mentioned, he's disobeys and he's killed. Oh, I would also add with their families, right? So Rahab is obeys and is saved with her family, and awk and disobeys and is killed along with his family if you're gonna take that position.
That is an interesting parallel, there's much to consider about the contrast between these two people, Rahab and awk him. And I got a little quote here from another book, you can find the reference here in your notes, in your footnote, but it says, the stony of awk and the salvation of the harlot Rahab already point from here at the beginning of sacred history of redemption to the great revolution that the charity of Christ will bring about at the end. When the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown out into utter darkness, while the prostitutes and tax collectors will be accepted, in quote. That is so interesting.
If you go to the New Testament, you read the Gospels, you read the Epistles of Paul, actually apostles, it's so interesting how so many people, not all Israelites, not all Pharisees, and Sadducees, reject Christ, many do, not all of them, but many do, whereas the Gentiles just come in and droves, and that's exactly kind of what you're seeing here between Rahab, who's a Gentile, and awk in, who is this high-born figure among of Israel in the tribe of Judah. So there's this interesting contrast here. In fact, if you look at the story of Rahab and Jericho, and what happens with awk in both instances, you have Joshua sending spies, right? Joshua sends spies out to spy out the land in both cases.
So spies go out and Rahab has a confession of faith, whereas by contrast, awk in has a confession of guilt and of sin, Rahab is remembered as this great hero who saves Israel, okay, versus awk in, who's remembered now is a traitor who brought destruction upon Israel. So you got this quintessential Canaanite, Rahab, who is a Gentile woman, a sinner, a prostitute, who for all these reasons, for her free choice, she comes into the people of God, versus awk in, who kind of sees the quintessential Israelites, who disobeys and is rejected from God's people, right? It's so interesting to reflect upon this, happens all throughout the Old Testament, and the New Testament here, how just because you are a son of Abraham does not necessarily mean that you're going to be incorporated into the body of Abraham, or in our case, the body of Christ, okay? Very interesting.
Now that everything has been taken care of, awk in and his presumably guilty family are executed, the sin has been purged from the people, now they can go conquer the city of I, very, very easily.