Sabbath School Week

Read for This Week’s Study

1 Pet. 1:4, Joshua 7, Ps. 139:1–16, Ezra 10:11, Luke 12:15, Josh. 8:1–29.

Memory Text:

“ ‘I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds’ ” (Jeremiah 17:10, ESV).

Joshua 7 is the first instance where, through a tragic experience, the people of Israel learned the far-reaching consequences of the covenant and its deep meaning. While obedience to the stipulations of the covenant secured victory, disregarding the terms of the covenant brought defeat. Israel’s military success depended not on their numbers, battle strategy, or clever tactics but on the presence of the Divine Warrior with them.

During the appropriation of the Promised Land, the Israelites had to learn the difficult lesson that their most dangerous enemy was not outside their camp but within their own rank and file. The greatest challenge that stood before them was neither the fortified walls of the Canaanite cities nor their advanced military technology but the obstinate will of individuals within their own camp to ignore the instructions of the Lord.

Waiting for our heavenly inheritance (1 Pet. 1:4, Col. 3:24), we face similar challenges. While we are on the border of the Promised Land, our faithfulness is tested, and we can be victorious only through surrender to Jesus Christ.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, November 8.

Supplemental EGW Notes

God can make the humblest followers of Christ more precious than fine gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir, if they yield themselves to His transforming hand. They should be determined to make the noblest use of every faculty and opportunity. The Word of God should be their study and their guide in deciding what is the highest and best in all cases. The one faultless character, the perfect Pattern set before them in the gospel, should be studied with deepest interest. The one lesson essential to learn is that goodness alone is true greatness. . . .
The weakest follower of Christ has entered into an alliance with Infinite Power. In many cases God can do little with men and women of learning, because they feel no need of leaning upon Him who is the source of all wisdom. . . .
If you trust in your own strength and wisdom, you will surely fail. God calls for complete and entire consecration, and anything short of this He will not accept. The more difficult your position, the more you need Jesus. The love and fear of God kept Joseph pure and untarnished in the king’s court. . . .
It is impossible to stand upon a lofty height without danger. The tempest leaves unharmed the modest flower of the valley, while it wrestles with the lofty tree upon the mountain height. There are many people whom God could have used in poverty—He could have made them useful there, and crowned them with glory ­hereafter—but prosperity ruined them. They were dragged down to the pit, because they forgot to be humble—forgot that God was their strength—and became independent and self-sufficient.—Christ Triumphant, p. 94.
In thus sifting the matter to the bottom, the Lord reveals the fact that He is acquainted with the hidden things of dishonesty, however people may think that they are hidden. In all the transaction, Achan manifested a determination not to acknowledge his sin; but now the Lord fastened his sin upon him. Had Joshua declared Achan’s sin, many might have sympathized with the guilty one as he protested that he was innocent, and they might, in their human judgment, have thought he was misused and maltreated. It is thus that many do today when people are reproved for sin, for they drop God out of their reckoning. This is the reason that Joshua addressed Achan as he did. He said, “My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.”
The Lord had told Joshua just what Achan had done, but so many are led by human sympathy, and the wrongdoer is so often excused, that the Lord meant to give Israel a lesson that should also be of benefit to us in our day. Therefore Joshua entreated the young man to tell him what he had done.—Christ Triumphant, p. 138.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Read Joshua 7. What were the two major causes of Israel’s defeat by the inhabitants of Ai?

It is interesting to observe that the reader knows, from the outset, the reason for Yahweh’s anger as well as the name of the offender. Thus, the suspense of the story of uncovering the trespass of Achan is provided by the tension between the perspective of the reader and that of Joshua and the Israelites. Like many other chapters of the Old Testament, Joshua 7 has a chiastic structure. The central, climactic segment within it answers the question of why the Israelites were not able to conquer Ai on their first attempt.

There were two main reasons for Israel’s defeat by the inhabitants of Ai: Achan’s sin and the Israelites’ overconfidence in their own strength. The latter resulted in their neglecting to consult the will of the Lord before the attack against Ai and their underestimating the force of the enemy.

Based on Joshua 7:1, 11–13, we can see that, although Achan is responsible for the treacherous act of breaking the ban, the whole nation is held responsible and suffers for what he did. God describes the sin of Achan by gradually showing its gravity through the cumulative use, in verse 11, of the adverb “even,” or “also” (Heb. gam). First, the most common term for sin is used: “kḥata'.” Then the act of transgression is described by five more specific sins introduced by the adverb gam: (1) ‘abar, also “to cross over, to transgress,” (2) even taking (laqakḥ) from the things devoted to destruction (kḥerem), (3) also stealing (ganab), (4) also deceiving (kakḥash), and (5) even putting (sim) the stolen kḥerem among their possessions.

The covenant between Yahweh and Israel involved the people at both individual and corporate levels. In the light of the covenant, Israel is treated as an indivisible unity of the chosen nation of God; therefore, the sin of one, or even some, of its members incurs guilt upon the whole covenantal community. As the Lord said, “ ‘Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them’ ” (Josh. 7:11, NKJV).

What are ways whole communities can suffer, and have suffered, from the bad acts of individuals within the community? What examples can you think of, and how was the community impacted?

Supplemental EGW Notes

God was very particular in regard to Jericho, lest the people should be charmed with the things that the inhabitants had worshiped and their hearts be diverted from God. He guarded His people by most positive commands; yet notwithstanding the solemn injunction from God by the mouth of Joshua, Achan ventured to transgress. His covetousness led him to take of the treasures that God had forbidden him to touch because the curse of God was upon them. And because of this man’s sin the Israel of God were as weak as water before their enemies.
Joshua and the elders of Israel were in great affliction. They lay before the ark of God in most abject humility because the Lord was wroth with His people. They prayed and wept before God. The Lord spoke to Joshua: “Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 264.
Those who make a profession of Christianity and yet fail to have true piety are false lights, false signboards pointing in a wrong direction. . . . They fail to bring the principles of the truth they profess to believe into their life practices, and regard their sins and errors as trifl­ing things. When Achan stole the golden wedge and the Babylonish garment, he also thought it was a trifling matter. . . .
Because of this one man’s sin, the presence of the Lord was withdrawn from the armies of Israel. The Lord would not serve with their sins. When the children of Israel went up against Ai, they were defeated. . . .
When they came back in disgrace, overcome by the enemy, “Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?”
You can see by the prayer of Joshua, if you have spiritual discernment, that that which was esteemed by Achan as a very little thing was the cause of great anguish and sorrow to the responsible men of Israel. . . . Achan, the guilty party, did not feel the burden. He took it very coolly.—Christ Triumphant, p. 137.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.