What is sin? [Disobeying God, missing the target of living like he wants us to.] Sin often hurts other people. Can you think of a time when someone’s sin hurt you? [Being called names, having something stolen, etc.] Can you think of a time when you have hurt others?
You know what God said when Joshua was down on the ground praying? God said, “Stand up!” He then told Joshua someone had sinned by stealing in Jericho. God had told the Israelites not to take anything out of Jericho, but someone did. God led Joshua to Achan.
Because of Achan’s hidden sin, thirty-six people died. Hidden sin hurts those around us. If Achan had turned his behavior around and admitted—or confessed—his sin, he would have been forgiven. God always forgives those who confess their sins. However, Achan hid his sin instead. It wasn’t until Joshua caught Achan and confronted him with his sin that Achan admitted he had stolen. That’s not confessing your sin; that’s just being caught.
Where did Achan put the stuff he stole? He put it in the dark; he hid it under his tent. What he didn’t realize is God can see in the dark! God is light, and he saw that sin as if it was sitting on the dining room table.
Because of his sin, Achan died the same day Joshua caught him. The Bible says, “You may be sure that your sin will find you out . . . the wages of sin is death” (Num. 32:23; Rom. 6:23). Achan tried to hide his sin, and he died for it. If we believe in Jesus and confess our sins to him, he will wash them away. He can do that because he already died for our sin in our place. Only we cannot try to hide it. We must admit [confess] our sin to him. The rest of Romans 6:23 says, “the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Achan tried to take care of his sin by hiding it. That never works. It only hurts others and us. God says to take care of our sin by admitting it! Give it to Jesus, and his light will wash it away.
Joshua and his army went back to Ai. This time they won the war! The first time they had been outnumbered by the sin of one bad guy. He wasn’t bad because he sinned [we’ve all done that]; he was bad because he covered it rather than admitting it.
Remember: You’ve Got His Word on It
Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. Acts 16:31
God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8–9
He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5
Scripture Passage: Joshua 20–21
So What? Jesus is our refuge!
For Parents: [Anything in brackets]
In the Bible there are places called “cities of refuge.” Do you know what the word refuge means? [It means “a place of safety.”] Knowing that, what do you think the cities of refuge were?
The cities of refuge were places of safety. After the Israelites entered the Promised Land with Joshua, they needed to get things organized. They needed a fire department, doctors, hospitals, police officers, and jails. This was a lot to do, and Joshua didn’t have much time to do it.
So, instead of having a police department and jails, God had Joshua set up cities of refuge.
What do you think would happen in our town if all the police left? What might happen if all the jails closed down and the prisoners escaped?
The Bible says we are all sinners. That means all of us have disobeyed God. Sometimes when people sin, when they disobey God, they are disobeying the government as well. That makes them criminals. Our governments punish criminals in order for the rest of us to be safe. Our city wouldn’t be safe if there were no police department. The police help keep us safe by catching people who are doing evil things to others. With the criminals in jail, the rest of us are safe.
Who would keep us safe if there were no police? We would have to keep each other safe. That’s how they did things in Joshua’s time. If someone snuck into your house and stole all your favorite toys, you would have to find the criminal. You would get your friends together, catch the person, and take him or her to court. There the elders and judges of the city would decide what they should do with the accused criminal. You and your friends would be your own police department!
Being your own police department could be a dangerous way to live. This was especially true when someone died. Sometimes people died because they were murdered. Other times people died because an animal killed them or they were in a farming accident. If someone in your family was murdered, it would be up to your family to find the murderer. You would again need to get all your friends together and hunt down the person you believed to be the murderer. Then, according to the law, it was okay for you to—now get this; you won’t believe it—it was okay for you to kill the murderer! Wow, when you were your own police, you really had a lot of power! You were like the police, the judge, and the jury all at once!
[Western movies illustrate how the Old Testament system worked. The bank robbers would ride out of town, and the sheriff would get the “posse” together. The posse protecting its town is similar to the O.T. system of the larger family and their friends protecting their own.]
What do you think could go wrong if you were your own police department? If you broke your mother’s favorite lamp by accident, what might happen to you? If you smashed that same lamp on purpose, what might happen to you? Why is there a difference?
One problem with being your own police department is that you can make mistakes! Wouldn’t it be awful if you killed someone for being a murderer and he was the wrong person? Then someone would hunt you down and kill you for killing the wrong person. What a mess!
Another problem was accidental killings. What would happen if someone died in a farming accident, but the family thought you killed the person on purpose? The law said they could hunt you down and kill you, because you killed their family member. It was a farming accident—you didn’t want to kill anybody. But they don’t know that, and now they’re coming for you! It isn’t an easy world without police!
It was because of these possible errors that God had Joshua build cities of refuge. The purpose of the cities was to give you a safe place to run to if a family was chasing you. Let’s pretend you and a friend were putting hay up in a barn. You drop your pitchfork and it hits your friend down below! You feel terrible. You run down the steps and see that your friend has already died. Just then, his brother comes running up and yells, “You killed him; you killed him! I’m going to get my family; we’re going to kill you!” What could you do? You could run to a city of refuge.
Joshua built six of these cities. He built them up high on hills so the people could see them from far away. He put pastors [O.T. Levites who had rotating jobs in the Tabernacle]