I received these questions recently. Though they involve God’s Old Testament covenant with the Jews, they are still relevant to the church today.
- “If a person is to bear the responsibility for their own sinful action, why did God also swallow up Korah’s family by the earth?”
God did indeed give a commandment that family members are not to bear the sins of the father (Deuteronomy 24:16). This is the rule He gave to the judges of the land when they went to court. The human courts were to use this guide so they would judge fairly.
But God reserves for Himself to judge as He wills and do what is right. Look again at the story of Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16. In vv. 20-31, Moses at the command of God told the people to get away from the wicked people, those who were rebelling against Moses, God’s prophet. Moses told them that if Korah and the others died a natural death, then “the Lord has not sent me.” The people made a choice. Some stood with Korah against Moses. They died. So God killed two birds with one stone–He stopped the rebellion cold, and vindicated Moses as His chosen servant. What followed in the next chapter revealed the pervasive sin in our hearts, and how slow of heart we are to learn spiritual lessons.
- “Why was Achan’s family killed along with him when it was only Achan that sinned?”
When Achan took the cursed things out of Jericho, he disobeyed the command in Joshua 6:18, “And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.” They were to destroy all things in Jericho, keeping only things of silver, gold, bronze, and iron, vv. 19.
As a result of Achan’s action, you see the story at the beginning of the next chapter. The men went against Ai and ended up fleeing, Joshua 7:1-5. God had promised to help them defeat every enemy they faced. That is why they sought God in prayer, in Joshua 7:6-15. Did God break His promise to lead them to victory? No; because one man sinned, the whole company was endangered. God did not break His promise. If they did not keep His commandments, they would not be blessed.
The lesson here is that personal sin can have national consequences. If one person can sin and get away with it, many others will go along with it. God is holy, and wants a holy people to represent Him to the peoples around. Achan and his family needed to be removed to show the seriousness of living a holy life at that point in time. God intended for the force to move forward, and it needed obedience and trust in God to do so.
These stories are not surprising. God previously said that this kind of punishment will come as a result of sin. What is surprising is that God chose to apply punishment selectively and sparingly. These above stories are promoted far more than the abundant historical occasions where He is merciful and lets sin take its course.
Both of these stories are object lessons to us in the church. In 1 Corinthians and other churches in the NT letters, Paul shows us how a little sin in a few members gets the whole church carried away. “A little leaven leavens a whole lump” (Galatians 5:9). In the letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3, we learn that God will bless the few who overcome the sin mentioned in those churches, and will punish the rest.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The punishment due for sinning is our deaths. In the end, the Son of God stepped into our history as a human being of flesh and blood to die on our behalf. God stepped in, not to wipe us out, but that all would be saved through His Son. God is not using the old covenant with the Jews against us. He desires that all come to salvation through Jesus by faith. Trying to obtain righteousness through good deeds doesn’t work, as the Jewish history proves.
God is holy, so we must be holy to represent Him well. The people cannot see God, but they can see us who bear His image. Do we wish to be image-bears of God and show the world that He lives? Let’s commit ourselves to His truth and be the light of the world, showing that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. Jesus broke the power of sin in our personal lives, and when we turn from sin and yield to God to follow Him and not the gods around us, God blesses our life and the life of the local church. When we walk in faith, keeping His commandments with His power by a Spirit-led life, we will prevail as Joshua did as he conquered the good land by the leading of God.
Near the end of his life, after overcoming many foes, Joshua challenged the people of God to choose whom they will serve. The words of Joshua still ring in our homes today, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
