Achan: The Cost of Hidden Sin

Saw, Coveted, Took, Hid

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Achan's sin did not happen all at once. He told Joshua exactly how it grew: “When I saw… I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth” (Joshua 7:21). Four steps: saw, coveted, took and hid.

Step one: he saw. Seeing the garment, the silver and the gold was not a sin. The trouble began when Achan kept looking and let those things fill his heart.

Step two: he coveted. To covet is to want something so badly that you are willing to sin to get it. The last of the Ten Commandments tells us not to covet anything that belongs to someone else (Exodus 20:17).

Coveting is a kind of worship. Paul calls “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). Idolatry means loving something more than God. Achan loved the gold more than he loved the Lord.

Step three: he took. What fills the heart soon moves the hands. Jesus taught that evil actions come out of the heart (Mark 7:21-23).

Step four: he hid. Sin almost always wants to hide. Adam and Eve hid among the trees after they sinned (Genesis 3:8). Achan dug a hole in the floor of his tent.

An old path. Eve walked the same road in the garden. She saw that the fruit was good, she wanted it, and she took it (Genesis 3:6).

Where it leads. James wrote that desire, when it grows, gives birth to sin, and sin grows up and brings death (James 1:14-15). Achan's path ended in the Valley of Trouble.

The money trap. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Silver is not evil. Loving it more than God is.

The way of escape. “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13). You can stop at step one. Look away, walk away and pray.

A better thing to hide. Achan hid stolen treasure in the ground. The psalmist hid something better: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11).

Content in God. “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). When God is your treasure, you do not need to grab.

Jesus did not grab. When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus answered every time with God's Word (Matthew 4:1-10). Because He never sinned, He can help us when we are tempted (Hebrews 4:15-16).

What to do. This week, pay attention to what your eyes keep coming back to. Tell God about it, and thank Him for what He has already given you.

Achan described his sin with four Hebrew verbs (Joshua 7:21): ra'ah (say: rah-AH), to see; chamad (say: khah-MAHD), to covet; laqach (say: lah-KAHKH), to take; and taman (say: tah-MAHN), to hide.

Genesis 3:6. Eve saw that the tree was good and that it was desirable, a word from the same root as chamad, and she took. Achan repeated the first sin of the human race in the first battle for the Promised Land.

The tenth commandment. Exodus 20:17 and Deuteronomy 5:21 forbid coveting. It is the one commandment that is entirely about the heart. Paul said this command showed him his own sin (Romans 7:7).

Colossians 3:5. Paul names “covetousness, which is idolatry.” Whatever we feel we must have, or else, has become a rival god.

1 Timothy 6:10. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Achan's silver did not make him evil. His love for it led him into evil.

James 1:14-15. James pictures desire conceiving and giving birth to sin, which grows up and brings death. Temptation is a process, and the earliest step is the easiest place to stop.

Shinar (7:21). The Hebrew calls the garment a robe of Shinar, the land where Babel was built (Genesis 11:2). Achan wanted a prize from the world that had built a tower against God.

Hidden in the tent. Achan buried the treasure “in the midst of my tent” (7:21). He brought what God had condemned into the center of his own home.

1 Corinthians 10:6, 13. Israel's failures “became our examples.” In the same passage Paul promises that God always makes “the way of escape.”

Psalm 119:11. The answer to a grasping heart is a heart filled with God's Word: “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

Christ in the wilderness. Jesus answered every temptation with Scripture (Matthew 4:1-10). “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Hebrews 13:5. Contentment rests on a promise. God Himself has said He will never leave us, and the person who has God has enough.

Application. Name the thing your heart keeps grasping for. Bring it to Jesus early, at the seeing stage, before it becomes taking and hiding.

Nothing Is Hidden from God

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Achan's treasure was buried under his own tent, and nobody in the camp knew. But God said, “They have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived” (Joshua 7:11). God knew every detail.

Sin will find you out. Moses had warned, “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Hidden sin does not stay hidden.

God sees. The Bible says nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight (Hebrews 4:13). That can feel scary, but it is good news. The God who sees everything also loves us.

Time to come forward. God chose tribe by tribe, family by family and man by man (7:16-18). Achan had time to speak up, but he waited until he was named.

Covering does not work. “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). To forsake sin means to turn away from it and leave it behind.

What confession is. To confess means to agree with God about your sin. Joshua told Achan, “give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him” (7:19). Confession tells the truth about us and about God.

David's confession. King David once kept quiet about his sin, and he felt weak and miserable inside (Psalm 32:3-4). Then he prayed, “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden” (Psalm 32:5).

Forgiven. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). When we cover sin, it stays. When God covers it, it is gone.

God's promise. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

How far? “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

The Valley of Trouble. Achan's story ended in the Valley of Achor, under a great heap of stones (7:26). Achor means trouble.

A door of hope. Hundreds of years later God promised through the prophet Hosea that He would make the Valley of Achor a door of hope (Hosea 2:15). The place of judgment would become a place of new beginnings.

Jesus is that hope. Jesus took the judgment for our sin on the cross and rose again. Because of Him, our worst failures can become a door into a new life with God.

What to do. If you are hiding something, tell God today. Then tell a parent or another grown-up you trust. You do not have to carry it alone.

From the garden onward, God seeks out hidden sin. He called to Adam when Adam hid (Genesis 3:8-9), and He brought Achan's theft into the open after Ai.

Numbers 32:23. Moses spoke these words to Reuben and Gad about keeping their promise to fight beside their brothers. The principle reaches every sinner: unconfessed sin catches up with us.

Hebrews 4:13. All things are naked and open to the eyes of God, to whom we must give account. But the God who examines is also the High Priest who understands: “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy” (Hebrews 4:16).

The lot (7:14-18). Proverbs 16:33 says the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. The narrowing from tribe to man showed God's patience as well as His justice.

Todah (7:19). Joshua's word for confession, todah (say: toh-DAH), also means thanksgiving and praise. Confession and praise belong together, because both say that God is right.

Proverbs 28:13. Mercy comes with two verbs: confess and forsake. Real confession is more than saying sorry. It turns away from the sin.

Psalm 32. David describes the misery of silence (32:3-4) and the joy of confession: “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden” (32:5). The psalm begins, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered” (32:1).

Covered by God. Achan covered his sin with dirt. God covers sin with forgiveness. Everything depends on who does the covering.

1 John 1:9. God is “faithful and just to forgive.” He is just to forgive because the penalty has already been paid by Jesus.

Achor (7:26). The heap of stones stood “to this day” as a warning. The name Achor (say: ah-KOHR) means trouble, and 1 Chronicles 2:7 later calls Achan by the name Achar, the troubler of Israel.

Hosea 2:15. When Israel later wandered from God, the Lord promised to win her back and to give the Valley of Achor as a door of hope. Isaiah 65:10 adds that Achor would become a resting place for herds.

In Christ. At Achor the troubler bore his own trouble. At the cross Jesus bore trouble that was not His own: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).

Application. Confession is not a door into shame. It is a door into hope. Tell God the truth quickly, and when it helps, tell a mature believer too: “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

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