There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. Joshua 7:13.
Those who make a profession of Christianity and yet fail to have true piety are false lights, false signboards pointing in a wrong direction.... They fail to bring the principles of the truth they profess to believe into their life practices, and regard their sins and errors as trifling things. When Achan stole the golden wedge and the Babylonish garment, he also thought it was a trifling matter....
Because of this one man's sin, the presence of the Lord was withdrawn from the armies of Israel. The Lord would not serve with their sins. When the children of Israel went up against Ai, they were defeated....
When they came back in disgrace, overcome by the enemy, “Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?”
You can see by the prayer of Joshua, if you have spiritual discernment, that that which was esteemed by Achan as a very little thing was the cause of great anguish and sorrow to the responsible men of Israel.... Achan, the guilty party, did not feel the burden. He took it very coolly....
Before the people had gone to take Jericho, they had been instructed what course to pursue. Joshua had said, “The city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein.” ... Achan had heard all this charge, but he coveted the accursed thing of Jericho, appointed to destruction. He was even ready to steal the gold and silver that were to be consecrated to God and put them into the treasury of his house....
Hear the words from the lips of Jesus Christ, who was enshrouded in the cloudy pillar: “Neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”—Letter 13, 1893 (The Youth's Instructor, January 25, 1894).
From Christ Triumphant - Page 137
Christ Triumphant