“Israel has sinned; they have broken My covenant that I made with them; they have taken some of the things set apart for destruction, stolen them, lied about them, and hidden them among their own possessions. That is why the people of Israel cannot stand up to their enemies; they will turn their backs before their enemies, for they are marked for destruction;

I will no longer be with you unless you remove what is set apart for destruction from among you. Get up, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘There is something devoted to destruction in your midst, O Israel; you will not be able to stand against your enemies until you remove the thing devoted to destruction from your midst. Come forward tomorrow morning by your tribes; and the tribe that the Lord designates by lot shall come forward by clans, and the clan that the Lord designates by lot shall come forward by households, and the household that the Lord designates by lot shall come forward by individuals. Whoever is chosen by lot as having taken any of the devoted things shall be burned with fire, along with all that belongs to him, because he has broken the covenant of the Lord and committed a wicked act in Israel.”^[1]

The Lord God had commanded Joshua when he entered Canaan that the people should keep away from what was set apart for destruction—that is, from sin. If we want to reach heaven, we must do the same. Everything that is sin must be eradicated from a person’s life, for without sanctification no one will see God.^[2] Joshua had received this command from the Lord for himself and for the people—to keep away from everything that was to be devoted to destruction—because otherwise the camp of Israel would be guilty of sin. Achan first brought ruin upon himself, for the punishment for his sin was death, and then he brought ruin upon everyone in his household as well.

Sin is a deliberate disobedience of God’s command. A person does exactly what the Lord says not to do. This is what happened in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had received a single command from God, and they disobeyed it. When we willfully resist God’s command, we sin, and this sin will lead to our destruction. The punishment for sin is death, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (hell, whose fire will never be quenched).

There are no words to describe either the wonders of heaven or the horrors of hell. All those who hide sins in their lives and do not bring them to light end up in hell. In verses 20 and 21, we find the mechanism by which the devil has been destroying humanity through sin for thousands of years. The devil has a method for destroying humanity, and this is his ultimate goal.

The first element of this mechanism is “I saw.” This is the temptation. The second step is “I desired them.” What our hearts desire. The third step is “I took them,” and the fourth is “I hid them.” Sin is always hidden. When a person steals something or deceives someone, they hide. Righteousness is done in the light, while sin is done in secret. The same thing that happened to Achan—“I saw among the plunder a beautiful robe from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a gold bar weighing fifty shekels; I coveted them and took them; behold, they are hidden in the ground in the middle of my tent, and the silver is placed beneath them”^[3], also happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. “The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. So she took of its fruit and ate; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it too. Then the eyes of both of them were opened; they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.Then they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day; and the man and his wife hid from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”^[4]

God sees what is hidden; therefore, no one who sins can hide from His holy eyes. When Adam and Eve realized they had disobeyed God’s command, they fled from His presence to hide. We must, however, be aware that nothing and no one is hidden from God. “The things that are hidden belong to the Lord our God.”^[5] If Achan had confessed the sin he had committed, he would not have died. Joshua had asked him to confess his sin, but Achan waited for the Lord to bring his sin to light. God, in His goodness, would have forgiven his sin as long as he had confessed it and repented of it. Sins cannot be hidden for long; at some point, they will come to light.

We must be careful about what we look at, what our eyes behold. If our eyes look at impure things, we must be aware that we will sin. If our gaze turns to things that God calls sins, we will be tempted to make the same mistake that Achan made—and not just him, but many others as well. Everything we read in the Bible about people who have sinned should serve as a warning to us so that we do not do what they did. Sin will always be pleasing to the eye and will not reveal the ugliness that lies behind it. The devil will not reveal to anyone that sin results in the death penalty. Although Adam and Eve were very intelligent, sin had blinded them to such an extent that they hid from God behind a tree. They, who knew that God had created all things and that He was omnipresent, believed they could hide their sin from God. Everything we do is laid bare before the Lord, who sees into the depths of our hearts. Sins are committed in secret, and this is man’s natural tendency to hide his sins. Even if we hide from people, we cannot do so before God.

Another example of a man who fell into sin in the same way as Eve and Achan is David. He saw Bathsheba, desired her, took her, and concealed his wicked deed. To keep his sin hidden—because Bathsheba was pregnant—he ordered that her husband be placed on the front lines of battle so that he would be killed. David ended up committing murder because he lusted after another man’s wife. Nathan, the prophet of the Lord, came to him and revealed the sin that God had seen, and David was punished for it. Fortunately, David repented of his sin.

Another example of a man who sinned very gravely is Judas Iscariot, who, even though he had spent three and a half years with the Lord Jesus and had seen that the Lord Jesus knew people’s hearts, took the money bag that was meant to be used for the poor and stole from it, believing he could hide this sin from the Lord. Because he did not guard his heart, Satan entered him, and his sin led him to betray the Lord Jesus. When he realized the horror of his sin, he hanged himself because he had betrayed innocent blood. We must not cover up our sins, for we will end up in perdition. Sins must be confessed and brought to light so that we may receive forgiveness through repentance. This is the nature of sin that all people experience. God does not leave us without a solution. The first step is to acknowledge that there is nothing we can hide from God. “For God sees everyone’s conduct; He observes everyone’s steps. There is neither darkness nor the shadow of death where those who do wrong can hide. God does not need to watch for long before bringing a person to judgment before Him,”^[6] “for My eyes are watchful over all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, and their iniquity is not concealed from My sight.”^[7] “No creature is hidden from Him, but everything is naked and exposed before the eyes of the One with whom we have to do.”^[8] “For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing secret that will not be made known.”^[9] When David confessed his sins, he was delivered from all the suffering caused by them. “Then I confessed my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and You forgave the guilt of my sin.”^[10] If we bring our sin to light, God will forgive us.  “Whoever conceals their transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.”^[11]

The second step is to confess our sins, and the third is to turn away from them. God gives us strength against every sin, but we must run to Him to receive deliverance. God wants to restore our happiness and grant us eternal life with Him in heaven. He will cleanse us and wipe away all our sins if we confess them and turn away from them. Anyone who chooses to continue living a secret life full of sin will not be able to receive the Lord’s forgiveness. He will not override our will but will leave us to the will of our own minds. “Woe to those who hide their plans from the Lord, who carry out their deeds in the dark and say, ‘Who sees us, and who knows us?’”^[12] “Behold, this is what you have done, and I have remained silent. You imagined that I am like you. But I will rebuke you and lay everything bare before your eyes!”^[13]

No deals can be made with God; rather, He will judge every one of our deeds according to His righteousness and holiness, and those who have done good will rise to life, and those who have done evil will rise to judgment.

^[1] Joshua 7:11–15.

^[2] Hebrews 12:14.

^[3] Joshua 7:21.

^[4] Genesis 3:6–8.

^[5] Deuteronomy 29:29.

^[6] Job 34:21–23.

^[7] Jeremiah 16:17.

^[8] Hebrews 4:13.

^[9] Matthew 10:26.

^[10] Psalm 32:5.

^[11] Proverbs 28:13.

^[12] Isaiah 29:15.

^[13] Psalm 50:21.