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"But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel." (Joshua 7:1)Everything in Jericho belonged to the LORD and was to be brought into the treasury of the LORD (Joshua 6:19). It was the LORD who would give them the victory at Jericho, and through Joshua, their fame would be known throughout the whole country (6:27). Yes, they were to give all to God. But one man, Achan, kept some of the spoils of war and buried it in his tent. He must have thought that no one would ever know the difference.When the Israelites went on to their next battle, they chose a small city named Ai. They sent just 3,000 soldiers, for they thought the size of the city would warrant no more than that. To their surprise, they were defeated and lost 36 men in the process (7:2-5). After such a miraculous victory over a much larger Jericho, what went wrong? Joshua fell on his face and cried out to God (7:6-7). God told him to get up and deal with the sin of Israel (7:10-15).There is a principle here in this account that relates to us today. Because God is holy, He does not bless hidden sin. He cannot overlook rebellion. Achan was just one man, but he brought harm to the whole nation. His actions indirectly caused the death of those 36 men. God said "Israel hath sinned" (7:11). Until Achan's sin was dealt with, God would not bless their actions.Friends, the same is true with you and me. We cannot allow one area in our life to rise up in disobedience and rebellion and still have the blessing of God. We will find that to be true for our families, our churches, our cities, and our nation. We need to allow God to expose our sin, so that we can forsake it, find forgiveness, and be fruitful.