[AI translation] Dear Brothers and Sisters! In today's sermon, I would like to pick up the explanation of this dark Old Testament story, where we left off a week ago today. Let me once again briefly tell the whole story. The story is briefly that the people of Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, take the fortified city of Jericho in the course of the conquest battles. But God makes it known to the people that all the spoils found there, gold, treasure, precious things, are to be dedicated to the Lord, of which no man can take anything for himself, so that there may be enough to build the temple in Jerusalem later. Yet, one of the warriors, a man named Achan, secretly steals some of this booty, steals from God, and then brings terrible evil upon the whole nation. And the trouble is that in the next battle, at the siege of a much lesser city, Ayn, the people of Israel flee, 36 dead, great shame, great defeat, great indignation, great sadness throughout the camp. Then it is revealed what was the reason for this failure: that they had stolen from God! And by casting lots, we also find out who the culprit was: Achan. He had to suffer terribly for his evil deed, for not only he himself but all his family members were stoned to death with him, burned with all his possessions.Last Sunday, I tried to highlight the parts of this story that show how terrible sin is. What a deadly scourge, what a terrible curse that little three-letter word sin is. What we so easily play with, what we so easily get carried away with, what we so easily joke about, what terrible corruption sin can bring upon man himself, his family, his church, and his whole environment. That, behold, the sin of one Achan drew down the wrath and judgment of God upon all the people of Israel. And this is the most terrible thing about sin - we talked about it last Sunday - that it brings about destruction, shame, defeat, all kinds of trouble and misery, and death! That it breeds death in the life of man, that it carries death within itself.
This is the terrible thing about the nature of sin, that it can destroy a man's health and nervous system, undermine the happiness of family life, corrupt marriage, and hinder the flow of the Spirit in the church. And most of all, it can make an enemy of God! Did you hear what God says to the people through Joshua, "I will be with you no more?" Brothers and sisters, this is the greatest problem! There can be no greater trouble for a man than not to have God with him. And if God is not with a man, it means that God is against him. Now imagine how terrible it must be to live with God against you. And if you steal from God, if you lie to God, if you do what God tells you not to do, and if you do not give God what is God's, on what basis do you dare to hope that God is with you? On what basis then dare you wait and ask God to stand by you and help you and bless you? This is no way to play with God! "I will be with you no more" - that is what God says. But the sentence does not end here, it has a continuation. And so the sentence continues: unless... "I will be with you no more unless..." So there is a glimmer of hope: unless something happens. So what has to happen? God says: "unless you cast out from among you that which is holy to me." The thing that made the trouble. So unless you purge it out from among you.
Brothers and sisters, it's like a doctor telling a patient that there is a very big problem, a fatal disease, but it can be helped by surgery. So this is exactly what it is, that here, good advice does not help, symptomatic treatment does not help, threats do not help, let alone smearing things, no painless cure that we so much want to have our problems solved painlessly, no diet, no lying down cure - nothing! The only thing that helps here is to radically intervene. So he says in another place in the passage he reads, "Cleanse yourselves" - and he adds, "Tomorrow!" So what we're talking about here is the need for very quick surgery. There is no time to delay things now. You can no longer say, "OK, OK - later! There is no "then", we have to act immediately. You have to take the knife out immediately and cut out the tumour or the ulcer or the pus or the curse that has caused the problem, simply cut it out, clean it out, remove it!
I really want you to understand that this is what God is saying today. And this is what God is saying to the church today, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It is precisely to you, who love to listen to sermons and who have listened to many sermons, that God is saying this today. He is telling you that it is not enough to listen to a few sermons with a gentle voice, which almost like a balm to anoint the sore spots of your soul, which so gently pinpoint the trouble, which reveals the disease, which reveals the diagnosis - you have heard this a lot, now you need a knife! What is needed now is that which the Word says: cleanse yourselves! So let each one at last put an end to the sin that God has already thrown at his head many times. Let each one put away what God has shown to be sin in his life, otherwise, dear brother, know that your faith is worthless! Nothing! In fact, I would go so far as to say that otherwise your relationship with God is doomed, because God is not with you, but against you! "I will be with you no more!" - says the Lord, unless you finally have the courage to undergo an operation, an operation. Let us understand, then, that it is not enough to condemn sin in ourselves, it is not enough to be against it - as the President of the State I spoke about last Sunday was against it - and it is not enough to nod our heads in disapproval, saying, 'Yes, we are such wimps, such sinners, we human beings. That is enough! We must be cleansed of him! And if there is something in your life that is blocking this particular channel through which you would receive counsel and strength from God, but you don't because it is blocked; if there is something that has blocked, clogged this channel, if there is something in your life that is hindering the growth of your spiritual life, or that is choking your prayer, or that is making your ministry unproductive, and that is spoiling your environment, it must come out, it must be cast out!
Lest you think that this is just a saying or wish of the hard-headed Old Testament. Jesus says exactly the same thing: "If thine eye offend thee, or thine hand offend thee, gou shalt gouge it out, cut it out, and cast it away from thee." Not literally, of course, not in the sense of self-mutilation, but in the sense of not tolerating sin in yourself. Do not tolerate it in yourself! Because look, Brothers, you must not leave a rotten apple in the basket, because it will spoil the whole load. And it's not enough to find the festering lump in the body, it must be cleaned out, however painful it may be. It is not enough to know that somewhere in your home or in the cellar or under the bed there is a bomb that could explode at any moment, but it must be removed as soon as possible, and thrown out very quickly, before it does some great harm! That is why God's word now says to us, "Purify yourselves for tomorrow - and by tomorrow I mean today, so that you do not delay - you cannot stand before your enemies," says the Word, "until you have cast out from among you that which is holy to me." That particular curse, that thing that made the trouble.
One is almost amazed: is the trouble so great? Is surgery inevitable? One is reluctant to face one's own troubles. How many times is it that when the patient goes to the doctor, who seriously tells him what is wrong, the patient turns around and continues to act as if he does not know what is wrong. Because we do not like to hear such harsh words as terminal illness, or sin, or operation, but we prefer to hear such euphemisms, such milder words as weakness, or a little mistake, a little eclipse, a little error, or an unfortunate turn of circumstances. That is why we never have the operation, that is why we can never afford the operation. God says, "I will not be with you unless you cast out from among you that which is consecrated to me." Cleanse yourselves! So it's surgery - or death! I say this very seriously, Brothers and Sisters! Don't take it as a rhetorical catch, I don't want to, I can't rant. God says so: Either surgery - or death! Understand! Either surgery or death!
And so the story goes on, "Joshua woke up in the morning..." It's the right thing, you see! To begin immediately, to obey immediately, as Joshua did. If someone has a difficult task to do, it is best to start right away. Because the longer you delay, the harder it is. Especially with his sins, if a man really wants to be reckoned with, he should do it at once. Because the later you do it, the harder it becomes, and the less likely you are to succeed. So obey immediately, as God says. Imagine, then, what a terrible night it must have been for Achan, the one that is spoken of here, "good morning". For he knew that something was not right, that something was going on. And he saw Joshua's upset face, and how he was there before the Lord from morning till evening, and he tore his clothes, and came out before the Lord, and the whole camp was in a frenzy. And only Achan knew that it was all because of him. That he alone was to blame, that he alone had brought this terrible evil upon the whole camp. It must have been a terrible night for the man. For one never sleeps peacefully on the devil's pillow, Brothers! When a man has to fear that something he is hiding will come out, when a man knows that there could be great trouble from what he has done, he does not sleep soundly. He is not usually a peaceful sleeper. And it's well to note that behind a lot of insomnia is this: some specific sin lurking in one's heart or thoughts or life somewhere. It's a terrible thing when someone has something to hide. From God or from your spouse or from your children or from anyone. When someone has something in their life that can't stand the publicity. I don't wonder if Achan couldn't sleep. He can't! When you have judgment hanging over your head at every moment! Sin is a terrible thing, sin is a terrible thing! I can imagine that Achan now feels very much that it was a pity, that it was not worth doing what he did. For it's only a bad thing, a terrible, terrible bad thing!
So the people of Israel are lined up before the Lord. The casting of lots begins, apparently by putting white cubes in a bowl and a black cube between the snow-white cubes. Probably in this way. But that is not the important thing. It's that the one who drew the black die, the one on whom the casting of lots fell, was as if God were pointing to him as the sinner. So that black die or that destiny was the finger of the eternal Judge. That's why you heard me read it, that's not the way he announces the result of the casting of lots, that the lot fell on this or that, but that he was declared guilty by the Lord. The Lord has pointed out to me, "Pray, this is the sinner! So all Israel is standing before God, before Joshua, in Joshua's hand is the cup full of dice. 12 tribes, 12 large groups, all men, strong, hard fighting men, and the lot is drawn. They all draw. White, white - then suddenly black. The tribe of Judah is the guilty one. It rolls through the whole camp: it's Judah, the foremost tribe of the pasture! The one that is most respected! Truly, dear Brothers and Sisters, even in the best of families, sin, wickedness, enters. Let no man be deceived, for neither nobility, nor reputation, nor the memory of illustrious or faithful ancestors, can protect against sin. Even the best family may be disgraced. But imagine the heart of Achan! How he must have throbbed when the finger of the Lord stopped at the tribe of Judah! And when the members of the eleven tribes, many hundreds of thousands of men, were all gone from there, for they were saved, and only one tribe remained, the tribe of Judah, to which Achan belonged. Because, you know, it's kind of like that, as long as a crowd is declared to be sinners in general, a man can somehow manage it, because in the crowd the sinner feels safe and he feels covered by the others. Of course, we are all sinners, and we all confess, we can safely accept that. That's what we say, that yes, yes, we are all guilty... It is only when the sinner becomes more and more alone, more and more isolated from the rest, when the guidance of God becomes more and more personal, and the finger of God comes closer and closer to the sinner himself, that things begin to get serious. We too, as long as God's finger is pointing all over the church that you are sinners - well, we can only feel safe that yes, we are sinners! And even if we have some outstanding, painful, great sin, each one of us can hide behind the others, each one feels covered in the crowd. But then when God's finger is pointed in a certain direction, that's when Achan starts to feel really bad. And now it's the turn of the men of Judah, family by family. Again the drawing of lots begins. White, white - black... Zera's family has drawn the black one. Akán would like to sink, terrible is this dice... it's like a bloodhound already on the trail, there's no escaping it. The circle is tightening, the noose of Achan's life is tightening. Then now the men of Zéra are being drawn, and the house of Zabdi - the grandfather of Achan Zabdi - is found guilty, Achan is among them.
Oh, how his soul must be troubled now! Perhaps his conscience tells him: Achan, now, now why don't you confess everything, maybe we could help, maybe we could save the situation! Now, now fall down! The mills of God are grinding slowly but surely. How patient, how merciful God is! Look, Brothers and Sisters: three, four times in a row, how many opportunities, how many chances God would give this wretched Achan to finally confess his wickedness, to finally fall down before God and say: I will no longer hide, I will no longer hide, but here I am telling you everything. I am the guilty one, I did it! - Yes, how much time there is for repentance, how unheard of God's mercy! - Don't play with God's patience, Brothers, for it will run out one day! - And Achan stands there, petrified. And then the house of Zabdi appears. All handsome, strong, hard-fighting men, and Achan walks among them. A deadly silence, now we're about to find out who's guilty. Joshua shakes the dice in the cup, the eldest brother reaches in, draws - white, the other - white. And so on. Then it's Achan's turn, he also reaches in: black! "Guilty as charged, Achan!" Achan stands before Joshua with the black cube in his hand. The finger pointed. The finger of God.
Brothers and sisters, it is unbearable when God points to someone like this: you are the sinner, you! Not your spouse, as you always said and complained, not your child, or your mother, or your father, or your neighbour, not your co-worker, and not your circumstances, but you are the sinner, you! There is no excuse here. There can be no more explanations. God knows everything, you are the guilty one. And then, look how with unheard of great, tender love Joshua comes to Achan and says, "My son, give glory, I pray thee, to the Lord God of Israel, and confess to him, and make known to me, I pray thee, what thou hast done, and hide it not from me." Yes, now all that was needed was for Achan to come all the way to God. Now the only door open to Achan, and to every sinner God exposes, is the one door. Achan, throw yourself into the arms of God, Achan, fall into the hands of God! Open your soul and tell all. Pour out your whole heart before him, hide nothing from him, nothing!
This is what every Achan must do. I know how hard it is to do this. That's what's hard, to get this far. It's the hardest thing, to accept that black stone and not hide the fact that it has nothing to do with you. To give God the truth and not say it's not me! To bow before the finger of God that points, to fall down and say, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner! That's what Achan did, he broke at last. The boil burst open, and all the pus, all the filth, all the infection poured out on him. He confessed everything. Here's how this part of the story ends, "And Achan answered Joshua and said, Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and have done this and this."
My brothers and sisters, when a person comes to this point, it means that the wound has been opened, the operation has already begun, and the patient, however sick he may have been, can now look to the future with the best hope, because the rest is no longer up to him. The blessed doctor into whose hands a man thus surrenders himself continues the operation with a steady hand. He will most certainly save the patient for life. How? I would like to talk about that next Sunday.
For now, dear brothers and sisters, almost a New Testament version of this very dark story from the Bacchae is told by Jesus: 'Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood still and prayed to himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, like devils, false, unrighteous, harlots, or like this publican. I fast twice a week; I give alms of all that I get. And the publican, standing afar off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I say unto you, He shall come down to his house justified, rather than he: for whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbled himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18:10-14)
God, have mercy on me, a sinner! Whoever goes out of the temple now with this will go out justified. For it is written, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Amen.
Date: 10 February 1963.