Day 74 · Part 5: The Promised Land
The Walls of Jericho · Achan and Ai
In the Story
In context
For six days Israel marched around Jericho once a day, with seven priests blowing rams’ horn trumpets before the ark; on the seventh day they went around seven times, the people shouted, and “the wall fell down flat” (Joshua 6:3–5, 14–20; Hebrews 11:30). Rahab and her family were brought out safe, as the spies had sworn (6:22–25).
But Achan had taken “a beautiful Babylonian robe,” about four and a half pounds of silver and a wedge of gold from the things devoted to the Lord, and hidden them in his tent (7:1, 21). After Israel’s defeat at Ai, he was found and confessed (7:2–23). The place was named the valley of Achor, which sounds like the Hebrew for “trouble”: Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us?” (7:25–26). Later he is called Achar, “the troubler of Israel” (1 Chronicles 2:7).
This is a hard reading: Israel killed everyone in Jericho and in Ai (6:21; 8:24–25). Achan was taken to the valley of Achor with his sons, daughters and all he had, and “they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones” (7:24–25). Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal, wrote the law of Moses on stones, and read it all to all Israel, “with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners,” as Moses had commanded (8:30–35; Deuteronomy 27:2–8).
“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Hosea 2:14–15 · Achan’s sin gave the valley of Achor its name; Hosea promises that the Lord will give “the valley of Achor for a door of hope.”
For families
Rahab had asked the spies to save “my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters” (Joshua 2:13). When the wall fell, they brought her out “with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had,” and all her relatives (6:23), and she lived among Israel from then on (6:25).
What do you think Rahab’s family talked about while they waited together in her house on the wall?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Joshua 6
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Joshua 7
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Joshua 8
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A hymn for today
Softly and Tenderly · words by Will L. Thompson
- Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,Calling for you and for me;See, on the portals He's waiting and watching,Watching for you and for me.RefrainCome home, come home,Ye who are weary, come home;Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,Calling, O sinner, come home!
- Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading,Pleading for you and for me?Why should we linger and heed not His mercies,Mercies for you and for me?RefrainCome home, come home,Ye who are weary, come home;Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,Calling, O sinner, come home!
- Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing,Passing from you and from me;Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming,Coming for you and for me.RefrainCome home, come home,Ye who are weary, come home;Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,Calling, O sinner, come home!
- O for the wonderful love He has promised,Promised for you and for me!Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon,Pardon for you and for me.RefrainCome home, come home,Ye who are weary, come home;Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,Calling, O sinner, come home!