J7-15: How Achan’s Crime Was The SAME Crime Ananias And Sapphira Committed In The Book Of Acts

“Y’hoshua, together with all Isra’el, took ‘Akhan, the son of Zerach, with the silver, the robe, the gold wedge, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and everything he had, and brought them up to the Akhor Valley.  Y’hoshua said, ‘Why have you brought trouble on us? Today Adonai will bring trouble on you!’ Then all Isra’el stoned him to death; they burned them to ashes and stoned them.”-Joshua 7:24-25

We last left off at a very terrifying and suspense-filled situation.

Achan had confessed to his crime and he, his family and all of his personal possessions including the items he stole had all been gathered up and placed in a huge valley called ACHOR.

In the original Hebrew, ACHOR is actually a play on words.

Notice Joshua asked Achan “Why did you bring trouble on us?“

In Hebrew, ACHOR means “trouble”.

Hence, because of the ACHOR that Achan brought upon Israel, Joshua pronounces that the punishment will now be ACHOR or “trouble” upon him.

As a result, the name of the valley where this incident occurred was called the Valley of Trouble (Achor).

And indeed, it sure was a day of trouble for both Achan and EVERYTHING associated with him.

Achan and his family members were stoned.

All of his animals were killed.

And then the dead bodies of Achan, his family and his livestock were all burned up to a crisp together with his personal belongings and the holy property he stole.

Finally, a pile of stones was placed over the burned remains.

Why did this happen?

The answer to this question is something I believe very few gentile pastors, preachers or Bible teachers anywhere in the world today can provide because they just don’t understand what’s going on here.

But let me give you the answer.

Because Achan had stolen banned items (meaning holy property devoted to God), he and both his family had themselves become holy property.

That’s right folks.

Since they became holy property, they ended up being treated as holy property.

And how is holy property treated?

The answer is destruction…

…because destruction is the only prescribed method whereby one can give holy property directly to Hashem.

Remember, everything in Jericho was to be under the ban or devoted to the Lord.

After destroying Jericho, the soldiers were to receive zero of the spoils of war.

All of the people of Jericho were killed and then the dead bodies along with the livestock and possessions were burned up and left under the collapsed stone walls.

Hence, it just makes consistent good sense that the same thing that happened at Jericho would also apply to Achan, his family and all of his possessions.

Once Achan decided to steal what was banned, at that instant, he became the Lord’s enemy and put himself under the ban.

The result?

He and his family were stoned, set fire to and burned to a crisp, and then had stones piled up on top of them.

Again, this is EXACTLY what happened at Jericho.

Are you seeing the pattern here?

And I remind you, this is exactly why Ananias and Sapphira suffered destruction when they lied about the money they received for selling their home in the Book of Acts.

Once they devoted their home to God, all of the proceeds they received from selling it became holy property that could no longer be kept back by human beings.

When they decided to keep back some of the money, they committed the exact same crime that Achan had committed when he stole holy property at Jericho.

Go back and read this story in the Book of Acts with this new insight in mind and you’ll see what I mean.

Heck, click right HERE, if you want to read the story about Ananias and Sapphira right this very second.

Again, this is another point that very, very few pastors, preachers and Bible teachers ever properly catch.