Joshua 7:10

"And Jehovah said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore art thou fallen upon thy face? Israel hath sinned; yea, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: yea, they have even taken of the devoted thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also; and they have even put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, because they are become accursed: I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the devoted thing from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel, There is a devoted thing in the midst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the devoted thing from among you. In the morning therefore ye shall be brought near by your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe that Jehovah taketh shall come near by families; and the family which Jehovah shall take shall come near by households; and the household which Jehovah shall take shall come near man by man. And it shall be that he that is taken with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath; because he hath transgressed the covenant of Jehovah, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel."

Whatever the extent of God's displeasure with Joshua, the Lord ordered him to get up! It appears that Joshua should have been able, apart from Divine revelation, to have figured out what was wrong. Could he not have remembered the defeat at Kadesh-Barnea? In any event, the Lord gave specific instructions for overcoming the disaster. A large part of this chapter is taken up with instructions for the casting of lots to determine where the guilt lay, and this is a good place to glance at the large number of instances in the Bible when the Lord's people, acting upon heavenly instructions, had resort to that manner of making decisions.

Here is a list of occasions:

The division of Canaan among the twelve tribes (Numbers 26:55).

The choice of the Levitical cities (Joshua 21:4ff).

Regarding spoil or captives in war (Joel 3:3).

To determine guilt in the case of Achan (here in Joshua 7).

To determine guilt in the case of Jonathan (1 Samuel 14:42). ... and in the case of Jonah (Jonah 1:7).

To choose men for a mission (Judges 20:10).

To make appointments (Acts 1:26).

By Haman to choose "the day" (Esther 3:7).[9]

There was the utmost confidence among ancient peoples as to the efficacy of such a method, especially, as here, when God Himself had instructed the use of the device. "The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of Jehovah" (Proverbs 16:33).

Although Joshua 7:15 mentions only burning with fire, the execution of Achan also involved "stoning." See in Joshua 7:25. The reason for the stoning, which probably came before the burning was that all of Israel might participate in the execution.