7:13
“Go and consecrate the people.” The people were to be dedicated to God, for God was going to lead them through a process to determine who the guilty person was. It was essential that the sin was rooted out. God’s people can only function as God’s people if there is no sin. That is why some parts of the Law seem to us to be unduly harsh (and another part of the reason is that we do not take sin seriously enough). Of course, the people could never live perfectly, they could not keep the Law. It is also why Jesus had to die on the cross for our sins, and why a vital part of the gospel is our being sanctified, and our being transformed at the resurrection.
7:14,15
God now gives Joshua instructions for how the guilty person was to be identified. First they were to present themselves tribe by tribe, then clan by clan, finally family by family, and then the man would be identified. The guilty person would be destroyed by fire. Extreme action was required, because sin is our mortal enemy. Now one might ask why go through all this rigmarole, for God knew who the person was without any of it? The process was not for God’s benefit, but so that the people would see who the person was, it would also put fear into the heart of the guilty person.
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