Jonah 1:11-2:10 

Pr. Sam Choi

Sam Choi

Sam Choi Jonah 1:1-10

Daniel Simmons

Main Point of the Sermon: When we sin, we not only damage ourselves, but also our community and God’s name.  

For many years in my life I shared the popular opinion that my actions were between me and God. As long as I didn’t directly hurt someone else, I thought my sin was perhaps less severe to God and no one else’s business. But I had a rude awakening in my early twenties when I realized that my sin not only caused deep wounds for me, it caused great pain and left many scars on those I loved. 

You see, when you belong to a family, or when you are in covenant with someone, perhaps marriage, every action, both good and bad, affects the relationship. Whether it’s what you do with finances or with your time or your body, our actions either serve and bless the other person or they bring pain and curse to the other. 

The same is true in our relationship with God and his church. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are joined to God in Christ, similar to a marriage. And we’re also joined to one another, to the church, Christ’s body. We are family, which means our behavior is never private. What you do is not between you and God. What we do, both good and bad, has massive effects on both God’s name and our community, which means that your behavior is everybody’s business.

I want to show you from the book of Joshua the communal effects of our sin and remind you of the Good News of Jesus in light of our sin. 

Let me remind you of who Joshua is and where this book fits in the Bible.  Joshua was Moses’s right hand man. And while Moses was forbidden to enter the Promised Land because of his sin, God anointed Joshua to lead them in. So Joshua records Israel entering and occupying the land God promised to them. That promise goes all the way back to Genesis 12, where we meet Abraham, a pagan moon worshiper, whom God chose and took out of Babylon and made a covenant with. In the vows of the covenant, God promised to create a people from him that would be God’s special possession and through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. He also promised to give them land from which they would bless the rest of the world. 

But from Abraham to Joshua is a long history of unbelief, fickleness, and disobedience from Israel yet steadfast love and faithfulness from God. 

After God delivered Israel out of Egypt, he gave the Law through Moses, which were the covenant terms of the relationship. In other words, the Law showed an unholy Israel how to be in relationship with a holy God. 

So after Moses died, Joshua led the people and miraculously crossed the Jordan, and began to destroy the wicked nations who possessed the Promised Land according to the Lord’s command. The first city they were called to destroy because of its great sin, was Jericho, a major city. 

How did they destroy it? Oh… by marching around it seven days in a row and then shouting loudly. You know, like all of us win battles. We just yell at it and it crumbles. The walls miraculously fell down and Israel took the city. God was clearly with his people as he promised. 

But Joshua had given his fighting men important instructions before they took the city: 18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction…lest you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it (Jos 6:18). 

God had instructed Israel to destroy everyone and everything except for Rahab and her family and the precious metals which God preserved for his temple. But one man disobeyed the Lord. Here’s where we pick up in the story. 

Verse 1: But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.

Notice here, right off the bat, that God counts one man’s sin against the entire community. Though Achan is pinpointed as the sinner, we are told that “the people of Israel broke faith” and that “the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.” 

If you are already offended at God and see him as unjust and angry for holding one man’s sin against an entire community, let us consider again who God is and who we are and what’s going on here?

First, who is God? Well, the Bible says that God is the Creator of all things. He not only makes us and everything that exists, but defines the purpose for all that he made. 

God is also holy. We just sang those words together. Holy, holy, holy. When we sing those words, we echo the song of heaven which the angels constantly shout to one another, declaring God’s utter uniqueness, his purity, and perfection in being, character, and actions. 

What about people? People are fundamentally dependent on God. The Bible says we live and move and have our being in God (Ac 17:28). This means that we thrive in a relationship with God and die without him. 

Further, the Bible teaches that all of mankind was separated from God when sin entered the world through Adam, our first father, because of his disobedience. Heaven and earth were once united, but humanity was banished from that place because a holy God cannot dwell with unholy people. Like the son of a wicked king, forever exiled from the kingdom for his father’s behavior, we too were born outside of relationship with God and outside of his presence because of one man’s sin. As they died, we too will justly die for our sin. But God’s holiness drove him to pursue us and rescue us. 

So, what’s really going on here with Israel? Israel is Abraham’s offspring. The nation is like Adam 2.0 and the Promised Land is like the garden of Eden 2.0. God set apart this people to become holy by his Word and his presence. 

Similar to our union with Adam, Israel had union as one people of God. That means if one person obeyed, there were benefits for all, and if one person disobeyed God, there were consequences on all.

We see this clearly laid out in Deuteronomy 28, which says, 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10  However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you….”

So, when we see God’s anger burning against the people of Israel for Achan’s sin, it is because God’s people, called to be holy and to dwell with God in his holy place, are no longer holy and able to be in relationship with God because of the stolen things in the camp. If one man is unholy, it is as if the whole community is unholy. It is as if they have all cheated on him and the covenant is broken. 

Israel had become as impure and unclean as Jericho and all the nations of the earth because of this one act of disobedience. So, God’s wrath was towards them and his presence no longer went with them. That’s what we’ll see in the next point.  

In verse 2 we’re told that Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai to spy out the land and prepare for the next conquest. At the spies request, Joshua sent a small army to Ai because it was a small city. Israel, having just conquered a massive city went with confidence that God was stronger than any of their enemies. But verse 4 says that “they fled before the men of Ai… 36 of their men [were killed]… and the hearts of the people melted and became as water.” 

Verse 6 tells us that Joshua and the elders of Israel tore their clothes and fell to their faces before God until evening, crying out, why would you send us here to destroy us? What will come of your great name?” 

There’s something beautiful about this scene. Joshua and the elders take responsibility for the people. They go before the Lord for an entire day seeking to understand what went wrong. They are concerned also that the name of Yahweh will be blasphemed. 

But listen to the response of the Lord in verse 10: “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? 11 Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them;

God’s response to Joshua gives the impression that Joshua was in the wrong. It seems that Joshua is quick to question God’s faithfulness and slow to recognize their unfaithfulness. 

How many times do we find ourselves questioning God’s faithfulness when we are met with trials and pain that is unexpected? How quick we are to judge God as unfaithful and how slow we are to check our own hearts for unfaithfulness.

Nonetheless, God answers Joshua and mercifully explains why this happened and how to remedy the situation. In verse 12, God says, because the people had stolen and lied and broken covenant with God, “…the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.

When God was with Israel, when he blessed them, they could do all things. But Israel’s unholiness hindered God’s presence from going with them. Without God they would have no strength and would even have God against them as their enemy. They would perish apart from God as God would hand them over for destruction. This is exactly what he meant when he promised curses for disobedience.  

Friends, we don’t want God to be against us. We need him to be with us and for us. But sin destroys the relationship with God and necessitates his justice. God was just to turn his wrath towards Israel. He cannot have a double standard and accept Israel who was committing the same acts as the wicked cities for which they were being destroyed.

I need you to see that one man’s sin had consequences for 36 families who lost husbands and fathers. Further, one man’s sin brought God’s wrath, his curses, upon the people. “I will be with you no more.” What a horrifying and deadly thought? Does the thought of God not being with you terrify you? It should. 

Even more, one man’s sin crushed the momentum of the people. The people’s hearts melted within them. Rather than being filled with confidence in their God and his promises, they thought they were toast. Who would want to go fight after that? 

So what was the solution? God told Joshua in verse 12, “I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.” 

So God told Joshua to consecrate the people the next day, that is purify or make holy. Here again is the theme of holiness. God is telling his people that in order for him, a holy God, to be present with them, they must become holy again by purging the sin from them. 

Verse 16 tells us that Joshua rose early to bring the people before the Lord tribe by tribe, family by family, and man by man.

One by one Joshua cast lots before the Lord to determine who had committed the sin. He essentially threw dice to see who God would pinpoint as the sinner. Can you imagine this scene? The entire community of Israel, a couple million strong, all standing together before the ark of the covenant where God’s presence dwelled. It would be a terrifying and unforgettable moment. 

It is clear from this story that God knows precisely who committed the sin, but in trying the entire community before the Lord, the people would have come to fear the Lord and remember this moment as an example of God’s righteous and all-knowing judgment. 

We’re told that, first, Judah was taken, or better translated “were caught or captured” by the Lord. Then, the clan of the Zerahites. Then Zabdi. And finally Achan was caught by the Lord. Achan must have been shaking and sweating uncontrollably at this point. God had just pinpointed him out of a couple million people and identified him through the casting of dice. 

Don’t you know that God sees your sin? We pretend that God doesn’t see, that he doesn’t know, that there are no consequences for our sin. But friends, God sees every single one. He keeps record of every single sin we commit against him. There is nothing hidden from God. We live our lives daily before the face of God. 

Achan too thought he could hide just as Adam and Eve did when they had sinned against God. And he hid until he was caught. Notice the similarities of the description of Adam and Eve’s sin in Achan’s response to Joshua:

“Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: 21 when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath” (Genesis 3:6). 

Adam (and Eve) and Achan saw something good and beautiful, coveted it, or desired it for themselves, though it was forbidden; they took it; they hid; and ultimately they died. 

All sin is just a  of these stories. When Achan stole the gold and silver and the cloak, he was ultimately stealing what belonged to God. He considered his happiness as more important than God and the welfare of his people. When we sin, we too steal from God. We determine that something is more desirable than God, more important than God. When we take something that God has forbidden we are saying to God, this is my god, this is more precious to me than relationship with you. 

All sin is idolatry. Sin is about allegiance. When we sin, we are rejecting allegiance to God and pledging allegiance to self and other things. So we steal from the glory and worship that only God deserves every time we sin. 

Notice in verse 22 how the community gets behind dealing with the sin. Joshua sends messengers who discover the hidden things in Achan’s tent. Then in verse 24, were told that Joshua with all Israel took Achan, the stolen items, and all of his family and possessions outside the camp, saying, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him and his entire family with stones. And burned them with fire, covering them with a heap of stones. 

This is a tragic moment but one that would have reminded every person who threw a stone of God’s just and holy anger and the death that would come on them if they followed the same path. 

This story is a warning and charge for us to be holy. 

It’s a warning. This story was recorded for remembrance. Even as the heap of stones in the Valley of Achor (trouble) would remind the people for generations to come that sin brings trouble on all, this story is a warning to everyone who reads it.

Friends, our God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The God of the New Testament is the same God as the old. God is still a holy God who will not put up with sin. He does and will punish those who walk in unrepentant sin. 

And the church, the New Covenant people of God are still charged to be a people holy unto the Lord. We don’t have a pass to sin sometimes because of Jesus’s work on the cross. No! God still expects full obedience from us. Jesus raised the bar for us, didn’t lessen it. He said if your hand or eye cause you to sin, cut it off, gouge it out!

This story shows us that partial obedience is still disobedience. Achan fought valiantly in the battle of Jericho, following the commands of the Lord up until this moment of compromise. He probably destroyed many things in obedience to God. Maybe he even piled up many pieces of gold and silver. But it did not matter. Partial obedience is still disobedience to the Lord.

I’m afraid that many of us act like we are our own judges. Rather than working from the standard of God’s holiness and perfection, we compare ourselves to others: I’m not as bad as that person. I never hurt anyone. Or, I’ve done all this for you God, so shouldn’t I be allowed to have this? We compromise with the Lord and don’t surrender all to him because we have convinced ourselves that we are better judges than God and that he has withheld from us so we must take matters into our own hands. 

We’re really not much different than Achan at all. Maybe his family was struggling financially. But he didn’t trust God to provide for him. Maybe you are lonely. But instead of trusting God, you surrender to the embrace of someone outside of marriage. We’re tired, so instead of going to Jesus for rest, we cling to other forms of entertainment or food or alcohol or other substances for relief and comfort. I could go on and on with examples. 

And how do all these little compromises affect the church today? Let me answer in the words of Paul from 1 Corinthians 12. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (v. 26-27). 

Through faith in Jesus we become united to Christ as one body. Every individual becomes like a different member of a single body. And Paul says, when one of those members suffers, all suffer together. You understand this well. If your back is jacked up, everything in your body is thrown off. You can’t hardly move. You don’t hardly want to talk. You just want to lay on your back and sleep. 

In the same way, if one member is honored, or thrives, the whole body rejoices together, like we did a couple weeks ago when Eric, Jonny, and Nolan were baptized in our presence. 

What this means is that when you are thriving in this community and bearing fruit for this community, it is credited to the entire community and Christ looks beautiful to the world. But when one member of this body is given to sin, the entire body is affected. 

Not only is Christ made to look ugly before others because of your behavior, but the whole body loses out on the gifts that you bring. Not only does sin hinder you from serving and loving others in your full capacity because of shame or foolish living, it drags down the body in severe ways. 

Friends, when you walk in unrepentant sin, it demands others time, emotional capacity, and energy. It’s not just you who are being hindered by your sin, but the entire community experiences the pain of coming around a wounded member to try to nurture it back to health. Rather than being on mission, your community is forced to pursue you and fight for your soul and call you to repentance. Rather than moving to new levels of maturity and fruitfulness and knowledge of God, we keep dealing with the same basics. 

Sin kills momentum. We wonder why people aren’t coming to faith. Part of the reason is because we just keep cleaning up the same sin messes in the church. 

Further, God’s church is blasphemed because of unrepentance and hypocrisy of God’s people. Jesus is a byword. I heard someone last week mock the church as a place where abuse is safe and unquestioned. It made me sick to my stomach. And a close family member just shared with me this weekend that she left the church at a young age because of the hypocrisy of her pastor. 

How can we tell someone we are a Christian and then behave dishonestly or arrogantly? 

How can we call ourselves Christians and go sleep around during the week? 

How can we call ourselves Christians and live for our own selfish motives while ignoring the poor and the lost. 

Church, this must not be.

Joshua’s job, as the chosen leader over Israel, was to exhort the people to obey God’s Law and also to punish those who disobeyed. My job as an appointed shepherd of your souls is to exhort you to obey the Lord completely, to be wholly devoted to the Lord and also to rebuke you and correct you when you walk in sin. But it’s not just my job because I’m just one part of this body. We’re all in this together. We need each other. 

Friends, this is why we take church discipline so seriously. When sin is left undealt within our community, the whole community is tainted and affected. Slowly, those seeds of unholiness seep into the community until we are all desensitized by sin. But when someone is disciplined before the community for unrepentant sin, we see and fear the consequences of our sin and fight to remain holy unto the Lord. It is our duty to deal with sin in our community. This is why we have DNA groups that deal with the nitty gritty details of our temptation and sin. 

But Church, consider Ananias and Sapphira, two of the earliest members of the church, who dropped dead before Peter for lying to the Holy Spirit and to the church about an offering that they had given to the Lord. (Ac 5:1-11). Or consider the church of Corinth, who Paul says had members who had died or were sick because of their irreverent and unholy behavior around the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:30). 

Paul refers to these individuals as belonging to the church and warns them as Christians to repent of their sin. 

God still disciplines his children. Sometimes that comes in the form of a challenging circumstance so that we learn to wait on the Lord and grow more mature in an area, and sometimes that discipline is a merciful wakeup call that hits in major or minor physical ways or financial ways or otherwise. I could give you many personal examples and examples of close family and friends who have experienced this reality. Please do not hear me saying that your suffering is certainly a result of some sin you committed. Scripture will not allow us to believe that. I’m only saying that God sometimes uses suffering to shake us out of something more deadly, out of eternal separation apart from God because we choose our sin.

I need you to understand the difference in the fatherly discipline of the Lord, even though sometimes severe, and the wrath of God. 

While discipline is always for our benefit and a warning to us to repent of sin, God’s wrath is full and final. It is punishment that not only kills, but also condemns to eternal separation from God in hell. 

While all Christians should expect the discipline of the Lord, we do not have to fear the wrath of God unless you prove yourself not to be a Christian by living in unconfessed and unrepentant sin (c.f. Hebrews 10:26-31). 

Here’s why we don’t have to fear God’s wrath. It says in verse 26: “The Lord turned from his burning anger.”

God’s wrath can be appeased. This is where the Gospel of Jesus comes in. 

God doesn’t wish to destroy you or any sinner! His love drove him to give his only Son as our substitute, so that we wouldn’t have to perish like Achan. Romans 6: 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!10 

God’s wrath has been appeased by the blood of Jesus, who willingly died in our place on the cross. He took the curse we deserve that we might have the blessings that he alone deserved. This is true for everyone who puts faith in Jesus. 

So, while there are still clear effects of sin on the entire church family when someone sins, I don’t believe that God holds the sin of one Christian against the entire church in the same way because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

1)   We are under a different covenant with God and one another, not by virtue of our race, or adherence to the Law, or anything else, but only by faith in Jesus.

2)   That means that God’s wrath has been appeased by the blood of Jesus and his righteousness has been counted to you and I so that when he looks at his us he sees Jesus’s righteousness, not our sin.  

Think of what incredible mercy has been poured out on you, that when you and I deserved the fate of Achan, we enjoy this place of peace with God. In light of that mercy, I want to exhort you today with Peter’s words. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[a17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.

It's right to fear God. It’s right to fear the consequences of sin. But fear cannot be our chief motivator. We must be motivated by the incredible love of the Father that wanted us and rescued us while we were still sinners.

Church, I believe that as we turn from sin and pursue greater levels of holiness as a community, we will see an outpouring of the Spirit like we haven't seen before. We will see more prayer, more baptisms, greater levels of worship, of unity and love. 

So, we’ve seen that choosing sin not only damages you and your relationship with God, it damages the church, and God’s name in the world. 

God takes sin seriously. It put Jesus to the cross for us, and it will put all who reject him to death and hell. So I plead with you, if you don’t know Jesus or are walking in unconfessed and unrepentant sin, repent today. Come and talk with me or someone else here right now and get right with God and find joy in God’s forgiveness and mercy in Jesus. 

Scott Hubbard

Scott Hubbard Exodus 20:8-11

Sam Choi

Pastor Sam preaches on Luke 24:36-53.

Sam Choi