Although the Bible says in numerous other places that stealing is wrong, I would not make that application from this passage. I would not say that Achan was punished for stealing. He was punished for not following the orders of God, knowing he was not following the orders, and trying to hide his disobedience from his fellow Israelites. What Achan realizes, though, is that one cannot hide ones sins from God. God knows all, even the things that we do in secret. Stealing may be a subset of the order not to possess the banned items, but it is not the main issue in this passage; disobedience is.

[bibleblock]Joshua 7:1-26[/bibleblock]

The main theological significance of the passage is relatively simple – if God says to do something (or more specifically not to do something in this case), do it. If you do not, there may be some very severe consequences. Although these consequences may not involve the death of one’s family by stones and fire, there will be consequences nonetheless. Every sin has a consequence and many sins have physical consequences in addition to the spiritual ones. For example, excess alcohol consumption might involve both the spiritual consequence(s) of sinning and the physical consequence of a damaged liver or even death if one were to get drunk and then get behind the wheel of the car.

God guides us for our own well-being. We must recognize that God is not trying to keep us from any good things as we might feel in the short term (like Achan probably wondering why God was preventing him from being wealthy), but is trying to provide good things for us for the long term (like trying to keep Israel from sin by trying to separate them from both the Canaanites and their possessions). Instead of attempting to think that we know better than God and not following him, we should accept that it is God, and not us, that knows everything and, in this knowledge, is establishing rules for us to keep us from going down the path to spiritual death. Not following the commandments of God can lead to spiritual death or, in the case of Achan, a premature physical death.