If our proud heart still rise against the sentence, let us silence every objection with this unanswerable question, " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? "
The execution of it was calculated to produce the best effects —
[It was necessary that, in the commencement of this new scene of things, the people should know what a God they had
e ver. 12, 13, 15. f Deut. xxiv. 16.
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to do with ; and that, whilst they learned from his mercies how greatly he was to be loved, they might learn also from his judgments how greatly he was to be feared. This lesson they were now effectually taught : they could not but see that " God is greatly to be feared, and to be had in reverence by all them that are round about him." To impress this lesson more deeply on their minds, an heap of stones was raised over the ashes of this unhappy family ; that, as a lasting memorial of God's indignation against sin, it might declare to all future generations, that " it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Now if we consider what incalculable benefit was likely to arise, not only to the people then existing, but to all future generations, from that act of severity, and that the good issuing from it would in many instances be, not merely temporal in relation to their bodies, but spiritual also and eternal in rela- tion to their souls, we shall see that severity to them was kind- ness to millions ; and that therefore the punishment inflicted on them comported no less with the goodness of God than with the sterner rights of justice.]
That we may gather yet further instruction from the history, let us behold in it, 1. The deceitfulness of sin —
[Achan at first contemplated only the satisfaction he should feel in possessing the Babylonish garment, and the comforts which the gold and silver would procure for him. The ideas of shame and remorse and misery were hid from him ; or, if they glanced through his mind, they appeared as visionary, and unworthy of any serious attention. But O ! with what different thoughts did he contemplate his gains, when inqui- sition was made to discover the offender! or, if at first he thought that the chances were so much in his favour, as to pre- clude all fear of discovery, how would he begin to tremble when he saw that his own tribe was selected as containing the guilty person ! How would his terror be increased when he saw his own family pointed out ! and what dread would seize hold upon him when the lot fell upon his household! Methinks, when the different members of that household came before the Lord, it might have been seen clearly enough who the guilty person was, by the paleness of his cheeks and the trembling of his limbs. What now becomes of all his expected enjoyments, when once he is detected ? With what different eyes does he view the garment and the money when brought forth before the people, from what he did when first he coveted them in the house of their owner ! how glad would he now be if he could recall the act, which had thus brought him to shame and ruin ! Thus then will it be with all who violate the laws
250.1 achan's guilt and punishment. 579
of God. The seducer, the whoremonger, the adulterer, the thief, thinks of nothing at first but the pleasure he shall receive in the gratification of his lusts ; and congratulates himself on the attainment of his wishes : but he has no sooner attained his object, than he begins to be filled with apprehensions of a discovery : he is carried on perhaps by the impetuosity of Ins passions ; but he is a stranger to peace. Perhaps he silences his convictions, and follows his sinful ways without much com- punction : but it will not be always so : there is a time coming when he will view his gratifications with other eyes ; or if he be so blinded by the devil as to make light of sin unto the last, his illusions will vanish the very instant that his soul is departed from the body. For the most part, that is found true which is spoken of hypocrites in the book of Job ; " Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue ; though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth ; yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within himg." How awfully was this expe- rienced by our first parents ! When tempted to eat of the forbidden tree, they thought of nothing but the delicious flavour of the fruit, and the prospect of being made " wise as gods." But they were soon convinced, by bitter experience, that " to regard lying vanities was to forsake their own mercies." Some indeed, by continuance in sin, are become " past feeling, having their consciences seared as with an hot iron : " but death and judgment will speedily undeceive them, and the wrath of an almighty God shall teach them, that " sin was indeed exceeding sinful."]