Josh - I tend to agree with Matthew Henry's take on this:
Quote:
God had expressly provided that magistrates should not put the children to death for the fathers'; but he did not intend to bind himself by that law, and in this case he had expressly ordered (v. 15) that the criminal, and all that he had, should be burnt. Perhaps his sons and daughters were aiders and abettors in the villany, had helped to carry off the accursed thing. It is very probable that they assisted in the concealment, and that he could not hide them in the midst of his tent but they must know and keep his counsel, and so they became accessaries ex post facto--after the fact; and, if they were ever so little partakers in the crime, it was son heinous that they were justly sharers in the punishment. However God was hereby glorified, and the judgment executed was thus made the more tremendous.
__________________
Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Are we to, according to the analogy of Scripture, assume that Achan's family was in on the sin?
Would you reconcile this for me?
Perhaps the first quote has to do with eternal death.
__________________
DAVIDIVS DOCTVS VTRIVSQVE LINGVAE
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Currently in the process of transferring membership to an as-yet-undecided church in Chapel Hill
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics
Also, men died at the first battle of Ai, because of Achan's sin, so others besides his family died for his sin.
__________________ The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873 Meg Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR
Josh's question is also interesting in light of Ezekiel 18, an entire chapter given over to explicitly stating that people are punished for their own sins, not someone else's.
Think of about how large the tent would have been -- and how difficult it would be for a man with sons (plural) and daughters (plural) not to mention oxen, donkeys, and sheep to bury something in his tent without somebody realizing what was going on?
__________________ Timotheus, servant of the Lord
[(Timothy Merkel - Ellicott City, MD - Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church)] Ye who are the warriors of God
And of the law of God
Hope in God, believe in God,
And in God you shall ever triumph
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