2. From personal confession —
[The testimony of God would of itself have been sufficient; because he could neither deceive nor be deceived. But, as it was intended that the offender should be made a public monu- ment of divine justice, and be held up as a warning to the whole nation, it was desirable that other proofs of Achan's guilt should be adduced, sufficient to convince the most scrupulous, and
b Deut. xvii. 6. c Ps. cxl. 11.
satisfy the most partial. Behold then, Achan himself supplies a testimony which none could controvert or doubt : he bears witness against himself.
Joshua, assured that God had fixed upon the guilty person, entreats the offender to declare openly wherein he had trans- gressed. And here, we cannot but admire the tenderness of Joshua's address. He insults not over Achan, nor loads him with reproaches; but, as a compassionate father, beseeches him to acknowledge the truth of God's testimony, and to "give glory to him by confessing" his crime. This indeed was known to Joshua, and might have been specified by him ; but it could not be proved ; and therefore he wishes to hear it from Achan's own mouth ; more particularly as a confession of it would ho- nour God in the sight of all ; it would glorify his omniscience in discovering, his holiness in hating, and his justice in punish- ing the iniquity which had been committed.
Achan, convinced that any further attempt to conceal his guilt would be in vain, confessed it, and that too with an in- genuousness and fulness, which would have given us hopes concerning him, if the confession had not been extorted from him by a previous discovery.]
On this testimony, sentence might well have been passed and judgment executed. Nevertheless, that no doubt might remain on any mind, it was further desirable that his guilt should be ascertained also, as it eventually was,
3. From corroborating facts — [It has sometimes been found that persons have unjustly accused themselves : but it was not so in this case : for Achan, in confirmation of his word, told them where they might find the stolen property. A messenger is sent ; the property is found ; the proofs of his guilt are exhibited before the Lord and in the sight of all Israel. To this testimony nothing was wanting, nothing could be added. The truth of God was ma- nifest, and the equity of his judgments was demonstrated: and nothing now remained but to execute on the offender the punishment he had deserved.]
Proceed we now to notice,
II. His punishment —
God had before declared that any person who should take to himself any part of the spoils of Jericho should be accursedd : and, after the trans- gression had been committed, he declared that he would no more be with his people till they should
d Josh. vi. 18, 19.
250.1 achan's guilt and punishment. 577
have destroyed the accursed person, and every thing belonging to him, from among them6. No option therefore remained to Joshua, but to execute the sentence according to God's command.
The sentence, though dreadful, was not too severe — [Achan, with all his children, and his cattle, were stoned to death, and afterwards, with his tent and stolen property and every thing belonging to him, consumed by fire. Now it is true, that God had expressly forbidden that parents or children should be put to death for each other's iniquitiesf : but God is not restrained by the laws which he gives to man ; he may alter or reverse them as he sees good : and in the present instance he was fully justified in the sentence he pronounced. The sin that had been committed, was peculiarly heinous. View it in itself; it was a sacrilegious robbing of God, who had ordered the gold and the silver to be appropriated to his use in the sanctuary. View it in its circumstances ; it was committed immediately after a most solemn surrender of himself to God by circum- cision and at the paschal feast, and at the very instant that God had magnified his power and love in causing the walls of Jericho to fall at the sound of ranis' horns and the people's shout. Had Achan scaled the walls of Jericho and gained the spoils by his own sword at the peril of his life, it would have been some little extenuation of his crime: but God had disarmed his enemies, and made them like sheep for the slaughter : and therefore to rob him of the spoils was the basest ingratitude. In a word, it was direct atheism; for the very idea that he could hide the matter from God was a practical denial of his omnipresence. View it, lastly, in its effects ; what evil it had brought upon the whole nation; what a calamitous defeat, accompanied with the loss of six and thirty Israelites; and what inconceivable misery it would have entailed upon the whole nation, if it had not been duly punished, even the entire loss of God's favour, and the utter destruction of all the people. View the transaction, I say, in this light, and the punishment, awful as it was, will be acknowledged just: he who sought in this manner the destruction of every family in Israel, might well be destroyed together with his own family.