“So Y’hoshua got up early in the morning and had Isra’el come forward, one tribe at a time; and the tribe of Y’hudah was taken. He had the families of Y’hudah come forward and took the family of the Zarchi. He had the Zarchi family come forward by household leaders, and Zavdi was taken. He had his household come forward, one person at a time; and ‘Akhan the son of Karmi, the son of Zavdi, the son of Zerach, of the tribe of Y’hudah, was taken.”-Joshua 7:16-18
Concerning the method used to pinpoint that it was Achan who was the criminal who stole God’s holy property, it’s important to point out this was no earthly trial with a human judge and jury involved.
No, this was a divine proceeding in which Hashem Himself was the victim and would also serve as the accuser, the witness and the judge.
During an earthly trial conducted by human judges, jury and witnesses, the goal is to find out the truth through human investigation (usually fraught with error) and through this process nail down whether the accused is guilty or not.
However, in this case here in Joshua Chapter 7, the Lord already knows with 100% certainty who the lawbreaker is.
All He has to do is supernaturally reveal that person via a sifting process whereby He first called forward all of the 12 tribes of Israel from whom Judah was identified.
Next, all the clans within the tribe of Judah were screened until the Zerahite clan was identified.
Then all the families within the Zerahite clan were screened until the Zimri family was identified.
Finally, Joshua had this family come forward man by man until Achan was identified as the one who had secretly stolen God’s holy property.
Although we’re not given specific details, we know this process occurred by drawing lots.
Do you find that unnerving that lots would be drawn to determine whether someone was guilty or innocent of a serious crime?
If you do, understand this was a special situation.
Not only did anyone not know who had committed the crime, but no one was even aware that a crime itself had been committed.
Therefore, divine intervention was an absolutely necessity in this case.
Also, consider that in the Torah, the drawing of lots is NOT prescribed when the crime committed is human upon human.
However, this was a case of a human committing a crime against God.
Achan hadn’t directly harmed anyone, just God.
Hence, the method used to bring the guilty party to justice had to be different than a normal human trial.
Another major difference between a human trial and what is happening here is that the purpose of a human trial is to determine if the accused is guilty or not by presenting evidence and mounting a case in court.
However, these proceedings involving Achan had nothing to do with judging whether he was guilty or not.
The Lord who knows all things already knew He was guilty.
There was no question about that, the only thing that needed to be done at this stage was reveal who the lawbreaker was to the human authorities.
At the risk of beating a dead horse, let me you remind you of this:
A disaster of gargantuan proportions had just occurred.
When Israel attempted to conquer the Canaanite city of AI, they were soundly defeated and 36 men were killed.
Joshua was shocked.
The people were in shock.
And God was angry as hell that someone had trespassed upon His holy property.
The Lord also had to make it clear to Joshua that Israel losing the battle at AI had absolutely nothing to do with poor war strategy or weak execution of the plan in place.
Nope, things had not gone well because a great sin had been committed against God, period.
And that great sin was that a member of God’s holy army had stolen banned property in Jericho.
If you’re looking for a crystal clear and direct correlation concerning why bad things happen in your life, this is it.
You sin against God (as opposed to sinning against another human) and expect all hell to break out in your life.
What would that mean today?
Any person, regime or government of a foreign nation that attempts to harm God’s land or His people are asking for trouble because they are His Holy Property,
Kapish?
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