Joshua 7:15-24

Was God just in punishing Achan’s family along with him?

PROBLEM: When Achan committed a capital crime against God, the Bible says the children were stoned along with their parents, and then “they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones” (v. 25). Yet the Scriptures insist that God does not punish the children for the sins of their parent (Ezekiel 18:20), nor destroy the righteous with the wicked (Genesis 18:23).

SOLUTION: There are two responses to this problem.

Third, stoning Achan’s family for his crime would be a clear violation of the OT law which says emphatically that “the son shall not bear the guilt of the father” (Ezekiel 18:20).

Third, God had the right to take life, since it is He who gave it (Deuteronomy 32:39). Job rightly declared: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

Fourth, there is no reference to small children in the family, but even if there were, God has the sovereign right to take them and sometimes does in sickness without implying their guilt. Further, if the parents were killed, then there would be no parents to care for them. It would be more merciful for God to take them into His direct care. This is so because children who die before the age of accountability are saved (see comments on 2 Samuel 12:23); there is no problem about their eternal destiny.