The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 39

riorating influence it has exerted on mind and heart. A time may come for the man (as Er), or for the nation (as Sodom), when remedial agencies cease to be of avail and then they can but be "cut down." Illustrate from Pharaoh, with the hardened heart •rom King Saul, and from the expression used in Hosea (iv. 17) "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone." ' . ~II. ER'~ SIN BROUGHT uroN mYSELF _DIVINE ~UDGMENT. This is briefly but forcibly mtlmated m the words, "and he slew him." His early and sudden and violent death, was no disease and no accident. It was direct Divine judument. God deals with the individual exactly as with the hopelessly corrupted world and the utterly de!!:raded Sodom. Life on earth is forfeited if it is so shamefully abused. Discuss the qtestion how far we may rec_ognize calamities reaching individuals as Divine judgment on their personal transgress10ns. In every age there are open and notorious cases, e.g. Ananias and _Sapphira, ~ e may say that it is quite possible for any accident to be a judgment ; but 1t may be a Judgment on a bad system, and the sufferer may not be the direct cause. Impress God's constant inspection of individual conduct and character.-R. T. Ver. 7.-Sinners are troublers. .A.char is but a modernized form of the familiar .Achan (Josh. vii. 25). The story of this man is given so fully in the early records, and is here so definitely recalled, that we may be sure some important and permanent lessons were taught by it, and it may be still for" our instruction, on whom the ends of the world are come." The narrative should be fully detailed. Bring out that Acban's sin was at once self-will, disobedience, covetousness, and sacrilege, Explain that the one condition of Divine blessing for Israel was entire and unquestioning loyalty to the Divine will. And there is no other condition of blessing now. 'l'hat will might oppose seemingly right feelings; and this brings us the more subtle and anxious testings of our loyalty, e.g. Abraham's offering Isaac. That will would necessarily oppose all covetous feeling. The man who wants to get for self will ever find it hard to accept God's will and way for him. But the covetous man who is a. member of a community not only brings trouble on himself, but on others who may be related to him. I. THIS SINNER'S SIN. Set out its public character, in view of Joshua's public pro- clamation. Show its aggravations, as committed directly against the known will of God. II. THIS SINNER'S BIN BROUGHT TROUBLE ON HIMSELF, As sin always must do. Here the sorrow of feeling himself to be the cause of national disaster; the penalty of his own forfeited life; and the misery of knowiag that bis family must suffer for his sin, and bis very name be blotted out of the national records. As is ever the case with the covetous, Achan might glory over what he had gained, until it could be revealed to him what he bad lost; then the gain could only appear to be utterly worthless and hopelessly ruinous, a millstone huag round his neck to drown him in the sea, Com- pare what Judas Iscariot gained-thirty pieces of silver; and what he lost-life and hope and Christ,-his all But the point which is specially called up to our remem- brance is that-- Ill. THIS SINNER'S BIN BROUGHT TROUBLE ON OTHERS. So he is known as the "troubler of Israel" Set out the trouble that came upon Israel. They were griev- ously smitten before their foes. Also the trouble that came upon Joshua. He was humbled in the dust, filled with fears, and driven to God in agonizin~ intercessioas. But even more terribly Achan's sin brought trouble upon his own family, just as the drunkard and the licentious and the dishonest now drag down into their ruin those they profess to love. "Not Acban alone is called forth to death, but all his family, all his substance. The actor alone does not smart with sacrilege; all that concerns him is enwrapped in the judgment. God's first revenges are so much the more fearful because they must be exemplary." On the penalty of a man's wrong-doing covering and including those related to him, Archbishop Whitgift has this figure: "The eagle that stole a coal from the altar thereby set her nest on fire, which consumed both her young eagles and herself that stole it." We recognize that, if men are linked together in family and social life, it is well that, in God's providence, they should bear one another's burdens, share one another's disabilities, and suffer one another's woes. In such a case as Achan's we have but God doing, by direct command, what he is always doing in the  OJI, IL 1-55.] THE FIRST IlOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 29