Joshua 7

It is malorum colluvies, the complication of all evil; it is the spirits of mischief distilled. The Scripture calls it [in non-Latin alphabet] the accursed thing (Joshua 7:13); it is compared to the venom of serpents, the stench of sepulchres. The Apostle uses this expression of…

We indeed suffer justly. He acknowledged he deserved not only crucifixion but damnation (Joshua 7:19). My son, give, I pray you, glory to God, and make confession to him.

God has no mixture of evil in him; sin has no mixture of good; it is the spirits and quintessence of evil; it turns good into evil; it has deflowered the virgin-soul, made it red with guilt, and black with filth. It is called the accursed thing (Joshua 7:11). No wonder, therefor…

I know their works. Achan hid the Babylonian garment in the earth, but God brought it to light (Joshua 7:21). Minerva was drawn in such curious colors, and so lively penciled, that whichever way one turned, Minerva's eye was upon him: so whichever way we turn ourselves, still Go…

Sin which dwells in me. It is a malus genius, an evil spirit that haunts us wherever we go (Joshua 7:12). The Canaanite would dwell in the land.

A man covets more than his own, and this itch of covetousness makes him scratch what he can from another. Achan's covetous humor made him steal the wedge of gold, which wedge did cleave asunder his soul from God (Joshua 7:21). 2. The external cause of theft is Satan's solicitati…

1. Consider, what is there in sin, that you should continue in the practice of it? It is the accursed thing (Joshua 7:11). It is the spirits of mischief distilled.

Covetousness is not only in getting riches unjustly, but in loving them inordinately: This is a key that opens the door to all sin. It causes: 1. Theft: Achan's covetous humor made him steal that wedge of gold which cleft asunder his soul from God (Joshua 7:21). 2. It causes tre…

Wise men may guess when they see probabilities, and foretell that which depends on natural causes; the Devil can many times shrewdly interpret the predictions of the word, but a certain prescience of what is future, and merely in itself contingent, is the prerogative of God (Isa…

Psal. 10. 17. Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. 3. Another seed of hope is, the tender respect God hath to his own glory: This was Joshua's Argument, Josh. 7. 9. What wilt thou do unto thy great Name? If the People of God should be extinct, and th…

Our Church Covenants are with the Lord himself, as was showed before in the description thereof. For watchfulness and duties of edification one towards another, are but branches of the Lord's Covenant, being duties commanded by the law: and so it was with that people of Israel,…

James commands not such a confession. Daniel's, Ezra's, Peter's confession were some other thing (John 1:20; Acts 19:18; Hebrews 11:13; Proverbs 28:13; 1 John 4:2; Mark 3:6; Joshua 7:19; Daniel 9:4; Romans 10:10; 1 Timothy 6:13; Psalm 32:5; James 5:16; Leviticus 5:5; Leviticus 1…

We read of Potiphar's wife she cast her eyes on Joseph (Genesis 39:7). Achan (Joshua 7:21): When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them. First he saw, th…

Thus Ahab troubled Israel (1 Kings 18:18), and the false Apostles trouble Galatia. 2. By wicked example: thus Achan troubled Israel (Joshua 7:25). 3. By force and cruelty: thus tyrants and persecutors trouble the Church.

First, that it is the nature of sin, to set all things out of order. It was the sin of Achan that troubled the Jews (Joshua 7:25). It was the sin of Ahab that troubled Israel (1 Kings 18:18).

The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. And therefore in the greater transgressions of the Law, the people were said to forsake, to break, to profane, to transgress the covenant of God (Leviticus 26:15; Deuteronomy 3:20; Chap. 17:2; Hosea 6:7; Joshua 7:11; 2 Kings 18:…

For these signs ceased with the present occasions of them. 2. This Lamb was to be provided for each household, v. 3, 4, which was the third distribution of that people, the first being into Tribes, and the second into Families, from the twelve Patriarchs and their immediate Sons…

Secondly, [in non-Latin alphabet], families, or [in non-Latin alphabet], houses of fathers, which on many probabilities may be supposed to have been seventy, the number of them who went down with Jacob into Egypt, each of which constituted a particular family. And [in non-Latin…

Many such instances there are among their ancient historians. Secondly, it was used in token of repentance, when sorrows for sin broke forth and multiplied (Joshua 7:6). When Joshua humbled himself upon the defeat, flight and slaughter of the Israelites before Ai, it is said, he…

Next, it is added; indeed, he is altogether lovely: Although she has spent many sweet words (and indeed there has been no straitening in her) in commending Christ, and although all her words be sweet, and especially when she draws near the close, her expressions be the more mass…

And let all this lead you to the fountain of iniquity, to the source or original of all abominations, and make you to confess with David (Psalms 51:5), behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Beware of hiding, excusing, extenuating, falsely denying…

Psalm 79:5. How long Lord, will you be angry, for ever? And especially a gracious heart is saddened most at the outgoings of wrath against prayer (Psalm 80:4), in which the Mediator, and the precious name of God, in a manner, seem to suffer (Psalm 42:3, 10; Psalm 83:1, 2, 3; Isa…

Great was that esteem which Potiphar had of Joseph, when of a bondservant he made him overseer over his house (Genesis 39:4). Why is the title Father given to masters (2 Kings 5:13), and the title Sons to servants (Joshua 7:19 and 1 Samuel 24:16), but to show that servants shoul…

So still the Devil tempts us with a curious eye to take in the object, that it may be a bait and snare to the soul. Achan takes notice of it himself (Joshua 7:21): When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and a wedge of gold, then I coveted them, and took them. I…

Revenge, safety, and your own personal happiness, or God's glory? What will you do, O Lord, to your great name? (Joshua 7:9) Are you pleasing yourselves, with suppositions of your escape and deliverance, and wreaking your wrath upon your adversaries?

Jeremiah 14:9. And in prayer let us use Joshua's argument, Josh. 7:9. What will you do to your great name?

It may relate (1.) to the plenty of his tears, as the word is used in Scripture (Job 16:20): My friends scorn me: but my eye pours out tears to God, or drops to God — the same word; so it notes his deep sorrow and sense of his condition. The like allusion is in Joshua 7:5: The h…

There the mischief began, she pleased herself with looking on the Hebrew servant. So Achan, (Joshua 7:21) when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight: then I coveted them and took them, e…

And this it does to cross and thwart God and his design, who and which is set upon the happiness of his people. 7. Sin is contrary to, and set against the glory of God, and all that should and would give glory to him, or has any tendency to that end: Confession of sin and repent…

'Tis their sin, and greatly aggravated (Revelation 16:9), that they repented not to give him glory. Sin dishonors, but repentance gives glory to God; and therefore Joshua said to Achan (Joshua 7:19), confess your sin and give glory to God. Oh, may we rejoice the heart and glorif…

So (James 3:5-6) the tongue is a little member, but as a little spark of fire, but it being kindled (becomes a world of iniquity, and) defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the whole course of nature; a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and sometimes one sin begets many m…

Joseph's mistress cast her eyes upon him, and then her ungodly heart was inflamed with wicked desires (Genesis 39:7). When Achan saw a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, then he coveted them (Joshua 7:21). Covetous desires after si…

Whereas the sinner that is yet riveted in the wretched distempers of his own soul, the Lord when he has him upon the rack of conscience, may perhaps wrest a confession from him; but it is by a constraining hand, and against the grain wholly, he would be eased of his plagues, not…

- 1 The objects or arguments offered and propounded, infuse no power into the will which it had not, but only stirs up, and calls out that which was there before implanted, to put forth itself into action. - 2 When these persuasions are offered, there is still left an indifferen…

This was typified in the passage of the children of Israel towards the promised land; they must come into, and go through a vast and a roaring wilderness, where they must be bruised with many pressures, humbled under many overbearing difficulties, they were to meet with before t…

Second, covetousness is the root of theft. Achan's covetous desire made him steal that wedge of gold which served to cleave asunder his soul from God (Joshua 7:21). Third, covetousness is the root of treason.

The civil use of lots is when they are used for the ending of controversies: the dividing of lands and inheritances: the disposition of offices among many that are equally fit, the trying of the right in doubtful things, or lastly the discovery of a malefactor hid among many sus…

That we may make a free and ingenuous confession of sin, let us consider, Holy confession gives glory to God, (Joshua 7:19). My Son, give I pray you glory to God,the God of Israel, and make confession to him.

That is, take the contrary course. This is the counsel God gave to Joshua in Joshua 7:8: when he was humbling himself and praying, God said: 'Get up. Take away the accursed thing from among you.'

First; Such as are occasioned by outward Objects and Opportunities. So it was with Achan; Josh. 7:21. When, saith he, I saw among the Spoyls a goodly Babylonish Garment, and two hundred Shekels of Silver, and a Wedge of Gold, then I coveted them.

The means at least whereby men come to have eyes full of Adultery; Pet. 2:14. or live in constant Contemplation of the Pleasures of Sin. (2.) They arise and are occasioned by renewed Representations of the Object of Sin. And this is twofold; (1.) That which is real, as Achan saw…

As the people of Israel, when they were worsted in battle, searched the cause, and at last found out the Achan that troubled them, and stoned him to death. Joshua 7:18. So let us search out that Achan which has troubled us.

Declaration does work compunction; confession of sin, is but the causing of sin to recoyle on the conscience; which causs blushing and shame of face, and grief of heart. Reason 5 A fifth Reason why justified persons must confess sin to God, is, because their secret confession of…

And oftentimes the outward sight of the eyes is the occasion of these imaginations. So Achan declares how sin prevailed with him (Joshua 7:21). First he saw the wedge of gold, and Babylonish garment, and then he coveted them.

He will speak to her heart piercing and sinking words, and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope (Hosea 2:14-15). That was the valley where Achan was stoned to death (Joshua 7:24, 27) — it signifies trouble; so that even the valley of trouble, when God speaks trou…

Ezra had spent the whole ninth chapter, in supplication for the Church, and then some came to him, and said, Arise, the matter belongs to you, there is hope it may be done. So Joshua, when he had fasted and prayed (Joshua 7:10-16), then Arise, Israel has committed an execrable s…

Now that first day being the beginning of the three weeks, and the Angel coming at the end of the three weeks, it is likely he continued his extraordinary prayers so long. David indefinitely says, that he cried till he was weary, till his throat was dry, till his eyes failed (Ge…

But in nothing is this more evident, than in the ancient casting of lots, a thing as casual and accidental as can be imagined, huddled in the cap at a venture; yet God overrules them to the declaring of his purpose, freeing truth from doubts, and manifestation of his power (Prov…

Ought he who scandalizes his brother, or the Church of Christ, to be willing, by a private, or public confession, and sorrow for his sin, to declare his repentance to those who are offended? Yes. (James 5:16; Luke 17:3-4; Joshua 7:19; Psalm 51 throughout; 2 Corinthians 2:8.) Wel…

So that when the thing is brought from the Thesis to the Hypothesis, there is very much to be trusted to the prudence, circumspection, and observation of those who are in authority, to set apart those for punishment who resist Reformation, as Jannes and Jambres did resist Moses…