That’s a question that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. Do you trust God? After I read Joshua 7, as I thought about how hard it was to read about Achan, I thought about what we see played out today. After Jericho was taken, God told the Israelites to destroy everything in the city. Achan coveted a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath. v. 21. Achan looted. Do we see that today?

Because of Achan’s looting and not trusting what God told them; because Joshua didn’t trust God but decided to send spies to Ai to see how easy or hard it would be to take that city, not only did they not take Ai, but three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water. v. 4-5.

God with them at Jericho. Them without God at Ai. Joshua does what we do so often when things go wrong because of what we do. He fell down on the ground before the Lord and stayed there till evening, presenting all the difficulties they were facing and asked, “What then will you do for your own great name?” And what does God do? “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?” v. 10. He tells them to consecrate themselves and the next day present to God every tribe, every clan, every family, every man and God will show them who sinned and didn’t trust God. Achan and his family and possessions were stoned. Because of one man’s coveting, 36 men died.

That sounds so harsh. Watching looters on TV, hearing about looters from Russia in Ukraine destroying and taking what isn’t theirs is so harsh to watch.

God reminds me that His truth exposes fault lines in me. It’s personal. Don’t look back at the ruin of what was. He is the truth that lights the darkness of lies exposing them to His love. The solid ground of His love never shifts.

Do we trust God to know what is best for us? What does God desire? But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Matthew 9:13. We all sin. Achan died that day as did his family. We will each one of us die. We will each one of us rise to stand before our Creator God and be astounded at His mercy and love. Jesus came to call the sinners and we are they. Thinking about that this morning as I paused to wonder about this chapter, I could envision ground with huge boulders every which way and trying to navigate through; and Jesus taking my hand and giving me a hand up to solid ground where He is. I feel shaken when God’s truth sheds light on what I thought was solid truth; but when I keep my eyes on Him, I can see He has me by my right hand. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17.

Do we trust God?