Sermon for Quinquagesima, February 15, 2026
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Amen.
Joshua 7:20-26 20Achan answered Joshua, “It is true. I am the one who has sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21Among the plunder I saw an expensive Mesopotamian robe, a fine one, and two hundred shekels of silver and one wedge of gold—it weighed fifty shekels. I coveted them and I took them. Now they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, and the silver is underneath it.” 22So Joshua sent agents. They ran to the tent, and there it was! The robe was hidden in his tent, and the silver was underneath it! 23They took them from the middle of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the people of Israel, where they poured them out before the Lord. 24Then Joshua took Achan son of Zerah and the silver, the garment, and the wedge of gold, as well as Achan’s sons and his daughters, his ox, his donkey and his flock, and his tent and everything that belonged to him—so all Israel, led by Joshua, brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25Joshua said, “Why have you brought disaster on us? The Lord will bring disaster on you this day!” Then all Israel stoned Achan to death. They also burned him and them with fire, and they pelted them with stones. 26They erected a large heap of stones over Achan, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from the heat of his anger. For that reason the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor to this day. (EHV)
God’s righteousness requires harsh justice.
Dear redeemed of the living God,
To modern ears, this account might sound unnecessarily harsh or cruel. All around us, we hear people complain about the harshness of many forms of penalty being carried out on offenders. Some places even refuse to prosecute unless the crime reaches an established level of seriousness, perhaps a high dollar amount before theft is prosecuted for stealing. Even more so, the breaking of certain commandments is considered minor in the grand scheme of things. Adultery is bad if you cheat on your spouse, but we can legally dispose of a marriage partner for any reason, or none at all. Protesting law enforcement is considered good, but who cares how many young people are shot down in the streets or raped in the shadows?
In God’s kingdom, this is never the case. To stand in God’s presence in eternity requires perfect holiness and nothing less will do. In other words, God’s righteousness requires harsh justice.
For a little background in the case before us, this account takes place after the fall of Jericho. That powerful city, with its skilled warriors and impressive defensive walls, was conquered with barely any effort on Israel’s part. Yet, a short while later, Israel’s forces were routed by a small contingent of fighters from the little city of Ai. Israel was stunned and embarrassed. Why would God abandon His people so soon after promising to lead them in triumph over the land? The truth was exposed as Joshua pleaded with the Lord for an answer.
Before entering the Promised Land, and before they were given victory over Jericho, the Lord God of heaven and earth commanded Israel that “The city and everything in it will be devoted to the Lord.” (Joshua 6:17) The entire city was to be burned to destruction and the silver, gold, bronze, and iron “are sacred to the Lord. They must go into the treasury of the Lord.” (Joshua 6:19) The metals which are not easily destroyed by fire were to be kept as sacred to the Lord for the use of His house. This was God’s command to the Israelites.
However, this is also where greed and covetousness entered the picture. While fully understanding the Lord’s command, a man named Achan was unable to resist his desire for a few precious items. In the grand scheme of things, it really didn’t seem like that much. I am sure most people of our world would say “What did it matter?” Yet, here we see what it means when God says, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) To minds so steeped in the guilty nature, such a tiny flaw seems excusable. However, to our Holy Almighty God, no sin of any kind is acceptable.
This morning, we review God’s commandments against coveting. The Ninth Commandment says: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. What does this mean? Our catechism answers, “We should fear and love God, so that we do not craftily seek to gain our neighbor’s inheritance or home, nor get it by a show of right, but help and serve him in keeping it.” The Tenth Commandment is like unto the Ninth except that it protects our relationships instead of property, for the Lord knows that we need both kinds of blessings to sustain us in this life.
In Achan’s sin of coveting, we see a reflection of the coveting that brought sin into the world. Most people assume that Adam and Eve’s first sin was eating the fruit of the tree, but their true first sin was an evil desire for something the devil deceitfully promised them. The serpent told Eve that in the eating of that forbidden fruit, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) Then, desiring what God had not promised, Eve ate and Adam ate with her. Their desire led to further sin. The same here with Achan. He desired those bits of riches, and he stole them from the Lord. The result, in the end, was the same. Because Adam and Eve coveted what God had not promised, they sinned, and death entered the world. For all mankind, God’s righteousness requires harsh justice.
The punishment for Achan might shock us. For that little bit of theft, that small desire to get some riches for his family, he, and perhaps his whole family and livestock, were stoned, and the bodies and all his possessions burned in fire. Stones were then piled over the ashes as a permanent reminder to the people of Israel of what happens to those who defy God.
Now, some people might accuse God of overreacting or being harsh or judgmental. However, such views expose the sinful nature, and don’t understand God’s holiness. God is holiness defined. He is righteous in everything He says and does. His nature allows nothing less. His authority as Creator of all that is makes God automatically right. God’s prophets who were given a glimpse into heaven heard the angels declare, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3) Therefore, since God is perfectly holy and right, no sin will ever be allowed into His presence. The account of Achan therefore becomes a warning and a promise for us. God must punish sin with death if He would uphold His righteousness.
The story of Achan is indeed shocking and sad. Still, that judgment pales in comparison to the condemnation in hell which is what all sinners have earned with their guilt. You and I would face certain destruction if God had not intervened on our behalf. Therefore, the punishment put on Achan is also a foreshadowing of what God would do for us. By giving His own Son into destruction and death, God kept His righteousness intact while punishing our sin with death.
Achan was led before his judges along with the evidence of his guilt. Likewise, Jesus was led before His judges bearing, not any fault of His own, but our sins and the sins of the world. No mercy was granted. Achan and his family were destroyed. Likewise, the prophet would speak of Jesus’s death, “Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was taken away without a fair trial and without justice, and of his generation, who even cared? So, he was cut off from the land of the living. He was struck because of the rebellion of my people.” (Isaiah 53:7-8)
This is where we see God’s love for sinners like you and me. We deserved nothing but divine retribution. From our births we were steeped in sin, desiring things that didn’t belong to us, and sometimes taking them as well. No, we most likely haven’t been caught stealing gold or silver from God’s house, but every sin against any commandment breaks them all. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. James wrote, “In fact, whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10) Therefore, on our own, we are just like Achan with nowhere to hide from God’s righteous justice. Yet, that is where the similarity ends, because do not need to stand before God’s righteous anger alone; we are given a hiding place in Jesus so that no judgment will fall on us, and no condemnation awaits those who walk with Him by faith.
In his psalm, King David pleaded with the Lord, “Hide me in the shadow of Your wings, from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.” ((Psalm 17:8-9, NIV 1984) In David’s plea, we are reminded of the defense we have in Jesus. Jesus took all our guilt, all the sins of the world, and He paid the price of death for each of us, so that the eternal death, that is separation from God in hell, will never touch us.
In His Revelation to St. John, Jesus declared, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.” (Revelation 2:10-11) Our victory comes through Jesus. His life and death is our righteousness granted to us by faith. We are shielded from God’s wrath for sin as the righteousness of Jesus was put over us in Baptism and kept there through faith that is nurtured by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel shared in the Christian Church.
Because Jesus came into this world to live and die on our behalf, the devil can no longer accuse us of any sin. All our guilt was washed away as the Lord God of Creation adopted us into His family of grace at our baptisms. That never allows us to sin freely. Rather, it is Christ covering us and living in us that empowers us to be content with whatever our loving God provides for us.
Through the faith the Holy Spirit worked in St. Paul, that man suffering in prison could boldly say, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, while being full or hungry, while having plenty or not enough … through Christ, who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:12-13)
God grant through the work of His Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, that He keep us content in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, so that because Jesus took the required harsh justice, we may be eternally covered in Christ’s perfection to enjoy God’s righteousness forever. Amen.
God will fully supply your every need, according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever! Amen.