The NXR Podcast - DAILY TRUTH - Why Were Achan’s Children Put To Death For Their Father’s Sin？

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00:00:30.000 Jesus said, Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the

00:00:34.480 mouth of God.

00:00:35.600 You're listening to Daily Truth.

00:00:39.760 Verses 25 and 26.

00:00:42.820 And Joshua said, Why did you bring trouble on us?

00:00:46.680 The Lord brings trouble on you today.

00:00:49.720 And all Israel stoned him with stones. 0.64

00:00:52.560 They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. 0.77

00:00:57.540 and they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned

00:01:03.960 from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of

00:01:10.940 Achor. In your notes, I've written the following. Some biblical scholars and theologians think that

00:01:16.460 Achan's sons and daughters were simply brought out, which is what the text says, but only to be

00:01:22.480 spectators of their father's punishment. However, the vast majority conclude that they were also

00:01:29.920 put to death along with their father, which is my conclusion as well for the record.

00:01:35.580 God commanded that magistrates should not put the children to death for the sins of the fathers.

00:01:42.400 However, God did not intend to bind himself by this law. Therefore, God could justly command

00:01:50.280 the execution of a whole household by divine decree. What does that mean? Pausing there for

00:01:57.660 a moment. It means that a civil magistrate at any time, in any place, cannot punish the children

00:02:04.500 for the sins of a father. We must stick to the script. We don't work by a dream or a vision or

00:02:13.640 some interpersonal divine revelation from God. Well, God told me that this person is guilty.

00:02:19.200 Well, do you have two or three eyewitnesses?

00:02:21.200 No, but I just know it.

00:02:23.460 Tough.

00:02:25.380 Tough.

00:02:28.820 In biblical law, 1.00

00:02:30.720 better for ten men 1.00

00:02:34.040 who are objectively guilty of a crime

00:02:37.680 to get away with murder

00:02:40.160 than to condemn one truly innocent man.

00:02:45.820 Why?

00:02:46.580 Well, because in Christian theology, we know that no one ultimately gets away with murder.

00:02:56.880 There is a higher court.

00:02:59.560 There is a life to come.

00:03:02.520 There is a perfect judge of the living and the dead.

00:03:05.840 And he will eventually do that which is right.

00:03:09.240 so we would rather exonerate 10 guilty men than wrongfully condemn one innocent man and so when

00:03:18.660 it comes to executing justice for the civil magistrate whether it be in israel or in the

00:03:23.780 united states of america today we must stick to that which is written eye for eye that is justice

00:03:31.220 is proportional. Tooth for tooth, life for life. Also, justice must be swift. Also, justice must

00:03:39.680 be impartial. It doesn't matter the color of your skin. And also, justice, it must be fair.

00:03:50.940 It must be legitimate. It must be evidenced. Two or three eyewitnesses.

00:03:58.120 that's the way that we operate today and that is the way that we should operate

00:04:04.500 by what god has revealed in his word but in the case of israel there is an exception

00:04:12.260 the exception is that god was verbally speaking to israel namely to israel's commander-in-chief

00:04:21.600 joshua that as we saw in joshua chapter 5 the lord had already physically appeared to joshua

00:04:29.620 and so when the lord appears and speaks you do what he says and for any who would say well the

00:04:38.640 lord appeared to me and spoke to me and said something that directly contradicts the bible

00:04:43.440 our response should be uh-uh i believe joshua i don't believe you so it's written in the scripture

00:04:55.520 plainly that the children should not be put to death for the sin of the father but god is binding

00:05:03.780 his people to this law, not himself. Which means in justice, God by divine decree could say

00:05:13.500 in this particular instance, the whole family shall be put to death. That's the disclaimer.

00:05:21.420 Now here's the point. The point is, although God could justly do this, everything I've just

00:05:28.000 articulated, I don't actually think that that's what was going on. I think that more likely the

00:05:34.940 reason why Achan's whole household is put to death is because his whole household participated in the 0.97

00:05:40.920 sin. That his children were actually complicit, grown children in this instance, and that they 0.87

00:05:48.620 helped their father to hide the devoted things in Jericho. And that the Lord knew this, and that this

00:05:56.000 is precisely why, in divine decree, that he commanded the whole house to be put to death 1.00

00:06:02.760 and not just Achan, because all of them were involved. I believe that although this is not 1.00

00:06:08.940 explicit in the text, that this is a good and plausible inference.

The NXR Podcast - July 31, 2023

DAILY TRUTH - Why Were Achan’s Children Put To Death For Their Father’s Sin？

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