How different to Achsah was her distant cousin Achan. Both were of the tribe of Judah, both were brought up in the wilderness, both crossed the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan, at the same time. Although only a young man, (his grandfather could not have been more than sixty), yet his heart was set —not on the springs and valleys of Carman —but, on a goodly Babylonian garment, and a wedge of gold. (Josh. 7:22And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. (Joshua 7:2)).
What a solemn warning is wrapped up in this first public sin of Israel! How strange that Babylon should be involved! It was the very city that in the end brought ruin and desolation to the land of Judah. The Babylonian garment was to wear. It would be much more stylish, I suppose, than the garments of Canaan: and he had been wearing wilderness garments all his life; garments handed down, probably, from his father and grandfather, those wonderful garments that waxed not old; even we ourselves do not always value things handed-down, be they ever so good, and Achan had no heart to value such clothes, he wanted Babylonian garments.
We will have occasion to refer again to these garments as we near the end of Israel’s dwelling in the land of Canaan. Strangely enough we will find that as Babylonian fashions brought the first downfall, so it was Babylonian fashions that had to do with the last terrible collapse of the Kingdom at the end. (Ezek. 23:12-1712She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. 13Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, 14And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, 15Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: 16And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. 17And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. (Ezekiel 23:12‑17); Zeph. 1:88And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. (Zephaniah 1:8)).
But there was not only the Babylonian garment, there was also the wedge of gold, and two hundred shekels of silver. And, sad to say, there is that in our hearts and there is that in the hearts of your children, that will turn to gold and silver and to a Babylonian garment; a garment after the fashion of the world; and how terrible are some of the Babylonian garments we see today; may the Lord keep your darlings from ever coveting such as these.
There is something peculiarly searching to the heart of a Christian parent in the fact that in a list of 28 things in which a later Babylon trafficked, gold comes first, and the souls of men come last. (Rev. 18:12, 1312The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, 13And cinnamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. (Revelation 18:12‑13)).
May we see to it, that the souls of our children come first, and let gold come last, in our reckoning and trafficking. What sort of examples are we setting to our children? Remember they read us like a book! Do they see that our hearts are set on the springs of Canaan, or on the garments of Babylon? In our traffic, our business, our occupation every day, do they see Gold, or Souls of Men heading the list?
The fate of our children probably depends on the answer to these questions. Remember that Achan, and all his house, perished because of his covetousness. (Josh. 7:2424And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. (Joshua 7:24)).
I suppose the very fact that Achan’s father and grandfather are so clearly pointed out, and identified with him in a sense, would give us a hint that the responsibility for his sin went back even to them.