guilt

I have a problem with the idea of group guilt. I don’t like it when other people have something against me just because my kind – white people, soldiers, bosses – have somehow wronged them in the past. It doesn’t seem fair to me.

This morning, though, that idea is being challenged. I read the story of Achan’s sin and the resulting defeat of the Israelite army at Ai. The nub of the problem is here, in Joshua 7:1 “But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the Lord 's anger burned against Israel.”

The Lord’s anger kept burning until Achan was publicly found out and put to death. Until that time, all of Israel suffered.

So I must be wrong. If God would hold the entire nation accountable for the sin of one man, then there is something to the idea of group guilt. But I still can’t see exactly what.

Part of it probably has to do with accountability. We’re expected to help each other fight sin, and to challenge each other when we seem to compromise God’s values.

In this case, it probably also has to do with the fact that the things Achan took were supposed to be devoted to God. Achan stole God’s stuff. That’s serious; combined with the fact that right beforehand God had told the Israelites what he expected, this becomes an act of defiance that must be addressed.

I still don’t get why so many other Israelites had to die because of Achan’s sin. It’s not like they were in on it, or even knew. All those mourning families and an entire discouraged nation, all because of one man. Nevertheless, God’s anger burned against all of Israel.

One thing is obvious: God’s sense of justice is so absolute and so pure that I won’t always understand it. But that doesn’t mean God is wrong, or in any way unjust; it simply means God’s ways are so far beyond me. It comes once again to trust, trust that God is good and will do what is right. I don’t have to get it to accept it; I just have to trust God.