DAILY TRUTH - Why Were Achan’s Children Put To Death For Their Father’s Sin？
Episode Stats
Words per minute
133.44026
Harmful content
Hate speech
8
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, we look at the case of Achanan and his family, and why they should have been put to death for the sins of their father. What does the Bible say about the punishment of a family for a crime committed by their father?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
00:00:04.300
to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more
00:00:10.260
positive reviews, the more the algorithm picks us up, and more people are confronted by the law
00:00:16.360
and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
00:00:23.480
five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks.
00:00:30.000
Jesus said, Man cannot live on bread alone, but from every word that proceeds from the
00:00:42.820
And Joshua said, Why did you bring trouble on us?
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.
00:02:46.580
Well, because in Christian theology, we know that no one ultimately gets away with murder.
00:03:02.520
There is a perfect judge of the living and the dead.
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.