Beginning of the End - Ellen G. White

Early in the morning, Joshua gathered the people together, and
the solemn and impressive ceremony began. Step by step the
investigation went on. Closer and closer came the fearful test. First
the tribe, then the family, then the household, then the man was
selected, and the finger of God pointed out Achan the son of Carmi,
of the tribe of Judah, as the troubler of Israel.
After Joshua solemnly commanded Achan to admit the truth,
the wretched man made full confession of his crime: "Indeed I have
sinned against the Lord God of Israel. ... When I saw among the
spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of
silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them
and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst
of my tent." Messengers removed the earth at the specified place,
and "there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver under it. And
they ... brought them to Joshua, ... and laid them out before the
Lord."
"Why have you troubled us?" demanded Joshua. "The Lord
will trouble you this day." Because the people had been held
responsible for Achan's sin and had suffered from its consequences,
they were to take part in its punishment. "All Israel stoned him with
stones." In the book of Chronicles his memorial is written--"Achar,
the troubler of Israel." 1 Chronicles 2:7.
Achan committed his sin in defiance of direct, serious warnings
and mighty displays of God's power. The fact that divine power
alone had given victory to Israel, and that they had not taken Jericho
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