The Return of Sin After Salvation
The powers behind every sin you overcame at salvation may try to return through human weakness and frailty, your neighbors’ bad examples, and sinful people among weak believers. If you pitch your tent near Sodom—spending time with old sinful friends or lingering too long with people in the ‘far country’—you will never be victorious. If you are too accessible to sin, fleshly desires, or worldly ambition, you will not fight well unto victory. If after salvation you forget that there’s a warfare going on, you will be defeated before you realize it.
Indolence and Doubt: Tools of the Enemy
To defeat some believers, the devil may try to induce indolence, hindering their ability to fight. He may attack you with doubt, causing you to question God’s Word, misinterpret it, or ignore it altogether. He may also cause you to forget the Word of God that you have heard. He may attack you with spiritual slumber or plant harmful things within you while you sleep physically. He may weaken you and isolate you from the fellowship of believers to ensure you don’t have enough of God’s Word to fight (Matthew 13:19, 24-26).
In times of warfare, the devil uses people, things, and circumstances to resist the faith of believers by all means. He may fight you through the corruption of the human heart, the mind and eye gate, or the influence of an evil companion, a close acquaintance, or people of class and wisdom (Joshua 7:21; Genesis 3:1-6; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Proverbs 22:24-25).
Achan’s Fall: The Opened Eye Gate
The eye gate of Achan was opened by the enemy on the battlefield. Without regard for the rain of bullets and the enemy’s weapons of war, he coveted what he was supposed to destroy. This was a man who had survived many wars and possibly the taskmasters of Egypt under Pharaoh’s supervision. Achan was likely born during the time of Egyptian bondage; attacked but survived the magicians and sorcerers who used enchantments against the children of Israel in Egypt. He may have been present when the Red Sea stood against the Israelites and witnessed the miraculous divine intervention. He must have seen many miracles and eaten manna in the wilderness. He would have known or been told how the Egyptian soldiers were destroyed in the Red Sea (Exodus 14:26-31).
Achan’s Legacy of Victory and Defeat
He must have seen how the power of God healed the bitter water, rained manna in the wilderness, and overcame the great Amalek (Exodus 15:22-23, 25, 26; 16:1-4, 12-18, 21-25, 31-35; 17:1-16). Even if Achan is not among the ten spies sent to spy on Jericho, he knows them by their names. He was around when the wall of Jericho collapsed. He knew what happened to all the first-born males on their last night in Egypt. He was aware of the plagues in Egypt, how hail smote many of them except Goshen, the land where the Israelites occupied (Exodus 12:29, 30; 9:25-26). He was there when God judged and killed Nadab and Abihu, and he knew why He did so. He was a trained soldier who fought valiantly at Rephidim until they prevailed and defeated the Amalekites (Exodus 17:8-16).
Achan was enlisted as one of the great soldiers who fought King Arad and utterly destroyed their cities. He fought the Amorites, struck them with the edge of the sword, and possessed their land from Arnon to Jabbok. He was among the soldiers who fought and defeated Bashan until none were left alive, and they possessed their land (Numbers 21:1-3, 21-32, 33-35; 25:16-18; 31:1-24). With such a record, what ultimately killed him was the opening of his eye gate to the devil. Among the spoils, he spotted a goodly Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold, and he coveted them. He took them but never used them because he was stoned by his fellow soldiers (Acts 1:16-20).