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Joshua Chapter
Twenty-three
Joshua 23
Chapter Contents
Joshua's exhortation before his death. (1-10) Joshua
warns the people of idolatry. (11-16)
Commentary on Joshua 23:1-10
(Read Joshua 23:1-10)
Joshua was old and dying
let them observe what he said
now. He put them in mind of the great things God had done for them in his days.
He exhorted them to be very courageous. Keep with care
do with diligence
and
regard with sincerity what is written. Also
very cautiously to endeavour that
the heathen idolatry may be forgotten
so that it may never be revived. It is
sad that among Christians the names of the heathen gods are so commonly used
and made so familiar as they are. Joshua exhorts them to be very constant.
There might be many things amiss among them
but they had not forsaken the Lord
their God; the way to make people better
is to make the best of them.
Commentary on Joshua 23:11-16
(Read Joshua 23:11-16)
Would we cleave to the Lord
we must always stand upon
our guard
for many a soul is lost through carelessness. Love the Lord your
God
and you will not leave him. Has God been thus true to you? Be not you
false to him. He is faithful that has promised
Hebrews 10:23. The experience of every Christian
witnesses the same truth. Conflicts may have been severe and long
trials great
and many; but at the last he will acknowledge that goodness and mercy followed
him all the days of his life. Joshua states the fatal consequences of going
back; know for a certainty it will be your ruin. The first step would be
friendship with idolaters; the next would be
marrying with them; the end of
that would be
serving their gods. Thus the way of sin is down-hill
and those
who have fellowship with sinners
cannot avoid having fellowship with sin. He
describes the destruction he warns them of. The goodness of the heavenly
Canaan
and the free and sure grant God has made of it
will add to the misery
of those who shall for ever be shut out from it. Nothing will make them see how
wretched they are
so much
as to see how happy they might have been. Let us
watch and pray against temptation. Let us trust in God's faithfulness
love
and power; let us plead his promises
and cleave to his commandments
then we
shall be happy in life
in death
and for ever.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Joshua》
Joshua 23
Verse 1
[1] And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had
given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about
that Joshua waxed
old and stricken in age.
A long time — About fourteen years after it.
Verse 2
[2] And Joshua called for all Israel
and for their elders
and for their heads
and for their judges
and for their officers
and said
unto them
I am old and stricken in age:
Joshua called — Either to his own city
or rather
to Shiloh
the usual place of such assemblies
where his words being uttered
before the Lord
were likely to have the more effect upon them.
All Israel — Not all the people in their own
persons
but in their representatives
by their elders
heads
judges and
officers. Probably he took the opportunity
of one of the three great feasts.
You will not have me long to preach to you; therefore observe what I say
and
lay it up for the time to come.
Verse 3
[3] And ye have seen all that the LORD your God hath done
unto all these nations because of you; for the LORD your God is he that hath
fought for you.
Because of you — For your good
that you might
gain by their losses.
Verse 4
[4] Behold
I have divided unto you by lot these nations
that remain
to be an inheritance for your tribes
from Jordan
with all the
nations that I have cut off
even unto the great sea westward.
That remain — Not yet conquered.
An inheritance — You shall certainly subdue them
and inherit their hand
as you have done the rest
if you be not wanting to
yourselves.
All the nations — That is
with the land of those
nations; the people put for their land
as we have seen before; and as
sometimes on the contrary
the land is put for the people. The great sea -
Where the Philistines
your most formidable adversaries yet survive; but them
also and their land I have given to you
and you shall undoubtedly destroy
them
if you will proceed vigorously in your work.
Verse 6
[6] Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all
that is written in the book of the law of Moses
that ye turn not aside
therefrom to the right hand or to the left;
Very courageous — For it will require great courage
and resolution to execute all the commands of Moses
and particularly
that of
expelling and destroying the residue of the Canaanites.
The right hand or the left — That is
in one kind
or other
by adding to the law
or diminishing from it.
Verse 7
[7] That ye come not among these nations
these that remain
among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods
nor cause to swear
by them
neither serve them
nor bow yourselves unto them:
Come not — That is
avoid all familiar converse and contracts
but especially marriages with them.
Name their gods — To wit
unnecessarily and
familiarly
lest the mention of them breed discourse about them
and so by
degrees bring to the approbation and worship of them.
Nor cause — Nor require nor compel the
Gentiles to swear by them
as they used to do; especially in leagues and
contracts. It is pity
that among Christians
the name of the Heathen God's are
so commonly used
especially in poems. Let those names which have been set up
in rivalship with God
be forever loathed and lost.
Nor bow — Neither give them any inward reverence
or outward
adoration. Here is an observable gradation
whereby he shews what notable
progress sin usually makes
and what need there is to look to the beginnings of
it
forasmuch as a civil and common conversation with their persons was likely
to bring them
and indeed did actually bring them
by insensible steps
to the
worship of their gods. So it is no wonder
if some things not simply and in
themselves evil
be forbidden by God
as here the naming of their gods is
because they are occasions and introductions to evil.
Verse 8
[8] But cleave unto the LORD your God
as ye have done unto
this day.
Cleave to the Lord — By constant
obedience
entire affection
faithful service and worship of him alone.
To this day — To wit
since you came in to
Canaan; since which time the body of the people (for of them he speaks
not of
every particular person) had behaved themselves much better than they did in
the wilderness
and had not been guilty of any gross and general apostacy from
God
or rebellion against him.
Verse 9
[9] For the LORD hath driven out from before you great
nations and strong: but as for you
no man hath been able to stand before you
unto this day.
No man — To wit
whom you have invaded; otherwise some of those
people did yet remain unconquered.
Verse 10
[10] One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your
God
he it is that fighteth for you
as he hath promised you.
He fighteth — Impute not this therefore to your
own valour
as you will be apt to do
but to God's gracious and powerful
assistance.
Verse 11
[11] Take good heed therefore unto yourselves
that ye love
the LORD your God.
Take heed — Now it requires more watchfulness
and diligence than it did in the wilderness
because your temptations are now
stronger; from the examples and insinuations of your bad neighbours
the
remainders of this wicked people; and from your own peace and prosperity: and
the pride
security
forgetfulness of God
and luxury
which usually attend
that condition.
Verse 12
[12] Else if ye do in any wise go back
and cleave unto the
remnant of these nations
even these that remain among you
and shall make
marriages with them
and go in unto them
and they to you:
Go back — From God
and from his worship and service.
Verse 13
[13] Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more
drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and
traps unto you
and scourges in your sides
and thorns in your eyes
until ye
perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
Traps to you — By your converse with them
you
will be drawn by degrees into their errors
and impieties
and brutish lusts.
Thorns in your eyes — When they have
seduced
and thereby weakened you
then they will molest and vex you
no less
than a severe scourge doth a man's sides which are lashed by it
or than a
small thorn doth the eye when it is got within it.
Till ye perish — They shall so persecute you
and
fight against
you with such success
that you shall be forced to quit your own
land
and wander you know not whither; which must needs be very terrible to
them to think of
when they compared this present ease
and plenty and safety
with the pains
and weariness
and hazards
and wants of their former
wanderings.
Verse 14
[14] And
behold
this day I am going the way of all the
earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls
that not one thing
hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning
you; all are come to pass unto you
and not one thing hath failed thereof.
Of all the earth — That is
of all
flesh
or of all men; the way which all men go; I am about to die
as all men
must. To die is
to go a journey
a journey to our long home. And Joshua
himself
tho' he could so ill be spared
cannot be exempted from this common
lot. He takes notice of it
that they might look on these as his dying words
and regard them accordingly.
Ye know — That is
you know assuredly; your own experience puts
it out of all question.
Verse 15
[15] Therefore it shall come to pass
that as all good things
are come upon you
which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD
bring upon you all evil things
until he have destroyed you from off this good
land which the LORD your God hath given you.
Evil things — The accomplishment of God's
promise is a pledge that he will also fulfil his threatnings; both of them
depending upon the same ground
the faithfulness of God.
Verse 16
[16] When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your
God
which he commanded you
and have gone and served other gods
and bowed
yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you
and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto
you.
It will aggravate their perdition
that the land from
which they shall perish is a good land
and a land which God himself had given
them: and which therefore he would have secured to them
if they had not thrown
themselves out of it. "Thus the goodness of the heavenly Canaan
says Mr.
Henry
and the free and sure grant God has made of it
will aggravate the
misery of those that shall forever be shut out and perish from it. Nothing will
make them see how wretched they are
so much as to see
how happy they might
have been." Might have been! What on the supposition of absolute decrees?
How happy might a person not elected have been? And if he was elected
how
could he be wretched for ever? What art of man can reconcile these things?
Again
shall any of the elect perish for ever? or has God made to any others
a
free and sure grant of the heavenly Canaan? If not
how can the misery of those
that perish be aggravated
by a free and sure grant which they never had any
share in?
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Joshua》
23 Chapter 23
Verses 1-16
I am old and stricken in age: and ye have seen all that the Lord
your God hath done.
Old age
As in the snowy realms of the Alps lovely flowers open their
cheerful petals to the sky
so
notwithstanding the weight of years and cares
many a sweet flower of hope
and trust
and love
and disinterested friendship
and faith may continue to blossom in the aged heart
and to send out an
attractive fragrance for the happiness of others.
Jehovah the champion of Israel
The last two chapters of Joshua are very like each other. Each
professes to be a report of the aged leader’s farewell meeting with the heads
of the people. In our judgment
both reports bear on the same occasion; and if
so
all that needs to be said as to their origin is
that the author of the
book
having obtained two reports from trustworthy sources
did not adopt the
plan of weaving them into one
but gave them separately
just as he had
received them. The circumstance is a proof of the trustworthiness of the
narrative; had the writer put on record merely what Joshua might be supposed to
have said
he would not have adopted this twofold form of narrative. What was
the burden of Joshua’s address? You have it in the words--“The Lord your God is
He that fighteth for you”; therefore “cleave unto the Lord your God.” You owe
everything to the Lord; therefore render to Him all His due. God is expressly
set forth as the champion of Israel
fighting for him against the Canaanites
and driving them out. He is here the God of battles; and the terrible
desolation that followed the track of Israel is here ascribed to the
championship of the Most High. There are some expositors who explain these
sayings in a general sense. There are great laws of conquest
they say
roughly
sanctioned by Providence
whereby one race advances upon another. Nations
enervated through luxury and idleness are usually supplanted by more vigorous
races. We cannot vindicate all the rule of the British in India; greed
insolence
and lust have left behind them many a stain. Still
the result on
the whole has been for good. The English have a higher conception of human life
than the Hindus. They have a higher sense of order
of justice
of family life
of national well-being. There is a vigour about them that will not tolerate the
policy of drifting; that cannot stand still or lie still and see everything
going wrong; that strives to remedy injustice
to reform abuse
to correct what
is vicious and disorderly
and foster organisation and progress. In these
respects British rule has been a benefit to India. There may have been deeds of
oppression and wrong that curdle the blood
or habits of self-indulgence may
have been practised at the expense of the natives that shock our sense of
humanity
as if the inferior race could have no rights against the superior;
but these are but the eddies or by-play of a great beneficent current
and in
the summing up of the long account they hold but an insignificant place. When
you survey the grand result; when you see a great continent like India
peaceable and orderly that used to be distracted on every side by domestic
warfare; when you see justice carefully administered
life and property
protected
education and civilisation advanced
to say nothing of the spirit of
Christianity introduced
you are unable to resist the conclusion that the
influence of its new masters has been a gain to India
and therefore that the
British rule has had the sanction of Heaven. Now
in this case
as in the
conquest of India by Britain
a process went on which was a great benefit on a
large scale. It was not designed to be of benefit to the original inhabitants
as was the British occupation of India
for they were a doomed race
as we shall
immediately see. But the settlement of the people of Israel in Canaan was
designed and was fitted to be a great benefit to the world. Explain it as we
may
Israel had higher ideas of life than the other nations
richer gifts of
head and heart
more capacity of governing
and a far purer religious
sentiment. On the principle that a race like this must necessarily prevail over
such tribes as had occupied Palestine before
the conquest of Joshua might well
be said to have Divine approval. God might truly be said to go forth with the
armies of Israel
and to scatter their enemies as smoke is scattered by the
wind. But this was not all. There was already a judicial sentence against the
seven nations of which Israel was appointed to be the executioner. Loathsome vice consecrated by
the seal of religion; unnatural lust
turning human beings into worse than
beasts; natural affection converted into an instrument of the most horrid
cruelty--could any practices show more powerfully the hopeless degradation of
these nations in a moral and religious sense
or their ripeness for judgment?
Israel was the appointed executioner of God’s justice against them
and in
order that Israel might fulfil that function
God went before him in his
battles and delivered his enemies into his hands. And what Israel did in this
way was done under a solemn sense that he was inflicting Divine retribution. We
cannot suppose that the people uniformly acted with the moderation and
self-restraint becoming God’s executioners. No doubt there were many instances
of unwarrantable and inhuman violence. To charge these on God is not fair. They
were the spots and stains that ever indicate the hand of man
even when doing
the work of God. If it be said that the language of the historian seems
sometimes to ascribe to God what really arose from the passions of the people
it is to be observed that we are not told in what form the Lord communicated
His commands. No doubt the Hebrews were disposed to claim Divine authority for
what they did to the very fullest extent. There may have been times when they
imagined that they were fulfilling the requirements of God
when they were only
giving effect to feelings of their own. And generally they may have been prone
to suppose that modes of slaughter that seemed to them quite proper were well
pleasing in the sight of God. For God often accomplishes His holy purposes by
leaving His instruments to act in their own way. But we have wandered from
Joshua
and the assembly of Israel. What we have been trying is to show the
soundness of Joshua’s fundamental position-that God fought for Israel. The same
thing might be shown by a negative process. If God had not been actively and
supernaturally with Israel
Israel could never have become what he was. Moses
and his bevy of slaves
Joshua and his army of shepherds--what could have made
such soldiers of these men if the Lord had not fought on their side? The
getting possession of Canaan
as Joshua reminded the people
was a threefold
process: God fighting for them had subdued their enemies; Joshua had divided
the land; and now God was prepared to expel the remaining people
but only
through their instrumentality. Emphasis is laid on “expelling” and “driving
out” (verse 5)
from which we gather that further massacre was not to take place
but that the remainder of the Canaanites must seek settlements elsewhere. A
sufficient retribution had fallen on them for their sins
in the virtual
destruction of their people and the loss of their country; the miserable
remnant might have a chance of escape
in some ill-filled country where they
would never rise to influence and where terror would restrain them from their
former wickedness. Joshua was very emphatic in forbidding intermarriage and
friendly social intercourse with Canaanites. He knew that between the realm of
holiness and the realm of sin there is a kind of neutral territory
which
belongs strictly to neither
but which slopes towards the realm of sin
and in
point of fact most commonly furnishes recruits not a few to the army of evil.
Alas
how true is this still! Marriages between believers and unbelievers;
friendly social fellowship
on equal terms
between the Church and the world;
partnership in business between the godly and the ungodly--who does not know
the usual result? In a few solitary cases
it may be
the child of the world is
brought into the kingdom; but in how many instances do we find the buds of
Christian promise nipped
and lukewarmness and backsliding
if not apostasy
coming in their room! (W. G. Blaikie
D. D.)
Verse 4
I have divided unto you by lot these nations.
Joshua the colonist
Great colonists as we are
and greater as
with the growth of our
wealth and therefore of our population
we are likely to be
it may prove
instructive and also interesting to look at Joshua in the character of a
colonist--the leader of the largest band that ever left their old in search of
a new home. I remark
then
that the colonisation of Canaan under Joshua was
conducted in an orderly manner
on a large scale
and in a way eminently
favourable to the happiness of the emigrants and the interests of virtue and
religion. It presents us with a model we would do well to copy. The children of
Israel entered Canaan to be settled within allotted borders; by families and by
tribes. In their case emigration was thus less a change of persons than a
change
and a happy change
of place. No broad seas rolled between tile severed
members of the same family; there were no bitter partings of parents and the
children they feared never more to see: nor did the emigrants
with sad faces
and swimming eyes
stand crowded on the ship’s stern to watch the blue
mountains of their dear native land as they sank beneath the wave. A still more
important lesson than that taught by the orderly
just
humane
and happy
arrangements of this Hebrew colony is taught us by the care Joshua took of its
religious interests. These
the greatest
yet considered apparently the least
of all interests
are sadly neglected in many of our foreign stations; and I
have often wondered to see with what little reluctance Christian parents could
send their children away to lands where more lost their religion than made
their fortune. Whatever we do with our religion
the Hebrews did not leave the
ark of God behind them. Regarding it as at once their glory and defence
they
followed it into the bed of Jordan
and
passing the flood on foot
bore it
with them into the adopted land. Wherever they pitched their tents
they set up
the altar and tabernacle of their God. Priests and teachers formed part of
their train; and making ample provision for the regular ministration of word
and ordinance
they laid in holy and pious institutions the foundations of their
future commonwealth. Such are some of the points in which Joshua is to be
admired
and imitated
as a model colonist. Alas! while neglecting his example
in things worthy of imitation
we have followed it but too closely in the one
thing where it affords us no precedent to follow. I refer to the fire and sword
he carried into the land of Canaan
and his extermination of its original
inhabitants. We have too faithfully followed him in this--with no warrant
human or Divine
to do so. In his bloodiest work Joshua was acting under
commission. His orders were clear
however terrible they read. God undertakes
the whole responsibility. And be it observed that the children of Israel were
blamed not because they did
but because they did not
exterminate the Canaanites--slaying
them with the sword or driving them out of the land. The duty was painful and
stern; but they lived to find
as God had warned them would happen to them
and
as happens to us when we spare the sins of which these heathen were the type
that mercy to the Canaanites was cruelty to themselves. But
admitting that the
responsibility is shifted from Joshua to God
how
it may be asked
are the
sufferings of the Canaanites
their expulsion and bloody extermination from the
land
to be reconciled with the character of God
as just and good and
righteous? This is like many other of His acts. On attempting to scrutinise
them
mystery meets us on the threshold. No wonder!--when we feel constrained
to exclaim over a flake of snow
the spore of a fern
the leaf of a tree
the
change of a base grub into a winged and painted butterfly
“Who can by
searching find out God? who can find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is
higher than heaven
what can we do? deeper than hell
what can we know? the
measure thereof is longer than the earth and-broader than the sea.” Dark as the
judgment on Canaan seems
a little consideration will show that it is no
greater
nor so great
a mystery as many others in the providence of God. The
land of Canaan was His--“The earth is the Lord’s
and the fulness thereof.” And
I ask in turn
is the Sovereign Proprietor of all to be denied the right that
ordinary proprietors claim--the right to remove one set of tenants and replace
them by another? Besides
the inhabitants of Canaan were not only
so to speak
“tenants at will
” but tenants of the worst description. Let it be remarked
also
that the Canaanites not only deserved
but chose their fate. The fame of
what God had done for the tribes of Israel had preceded their arrival in the
land of Canaan. Thus its guilty tenants were early warned; got “notice to
quit”; might be considered as summoned out. They refused to go. They chose the
chances of resistance rather than quiet removal; and so--for be it observed
that the Israelites in the first instance were only ordered to cast them
out--they brought destruction on themselves: with their own hands pulling down
the house that buried them and their children in its ruins. But the children?
the unoffending infants? There is a mystery
I admit
an awful mystery in their
destruction; but no new or greater mystery here than meets us everywhere else.
The mystery of offspring who suffer through their parent’s sins is repeated
daily in our own streets. It does not alter the case one whir to say that
children who die of disease
for instance
die by the laws of nature
while
those in Canaan were put to death by the command of God. This is a distinction
without a difference; for what are the laws of nature but the ordinances and
will of God? Nor is the cloud which here surrounds God’s throne
dark as it
seems
without a silver lining. The sword of the Hebrew opens to the babes of
Canaan a happy escape from misery and sin--a sharp but short passage to a
better and purer world. Thus
and otherwise
we can justify the sternest deeds
of which Joshua has been accused. He held a commission from God to enter Canaan
and cast out its guilty inhabitants
and
like a woodman who enters the forest
axe in hand
to cut them down if they clung like trees to its soil. His conduct
admits of the fullest vindication; and though it did not
we should be the last
to accuse him. Ours are not the hands to cast a stone at Joshua. A more painful
and shameful history than the history of some at least of our colonies was
never written. Talk of the extermination of the Canaanites! Where are the
Indian tribes our settlers found roaming
in plumed and painted freedom
the
forests of the new world? Not more fatal to the Canaanites the irruption of the
Hebrews than our arrival in almost every colony to its native population! We
have seized their lands; and in a way less honourable
and even merciful
than
the swords of Israel
have given them in return nothing but a grave. Professed
followers of Him who came not to destroy but to save the world
we have entered
the territories of the heathen with fire and sword
and adding murder to
robbery
have spoiled the unoffending natives of their lives as well as of
their lands. Had we any commission to exterminate? Divine as Joshua’s
our
commission was as opposite to his as opposing poles to each other. These are
its blessed terms
“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature
baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the
Holy Ghost.” Can our country and its Churches read that without a blush of
shame and a sense of guilt? Let us repent the errors of the past. Not so much
to aggrandise our island
as to Christianise the world by our colonies
is the
noble enterprise to which Providence calls us. “Go ye in to possess the
land”--these
if I may say so
were the marching orders under which Joshua and
Israel entered Canaan; and however unable they appeared
in point of numbers
and ordinary resources
to cope with those who held the soil
and were prepared
to fight like men that had their homes and hearths
their wives and children
to defend
yet then
as still
the measure of man’s ability is God’s command.
Since it is so
what a noble career and rapid conquest were before the children
of Israel! Sweeping over Canaan like a resistless flood
they might have
carried all before them. What difficulties could prove too great for those who
had God to aid them? What need had they of bridge or boats
before whose feet
the waters of Jordan fled? of engines of war whose shout
borne on the air
smote the ramparts of Jericho to the ground with an earthquake’s reeling shock?
of allies
who had Heaven on their side
to hurl down death from the skies on
their panic-stricken enemies? How could they lose the fruits of victory over
the retreat of whose foes night refused to throw her mantle
while the sun held
the sky
nor sunk in darkness till their bloody work was done? (T.
Guthrie
D. D.)
Verse 6
Be ye therefore very courageous.
On Christian courage
In the first place
in your relation with your fellow-creatures
in your intercourse with the world
it requires much courage and resolution to
be sturdily upright and just. When your interest
your feelings
your wants
nay
even your future independence
are on one side
and the plain dictates of
duty and religion on the other
then it is that you must “be very courageous”;
and not turn aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left. Here is the
trial: to prefer the praise of God and the approval of the conscience
with
loss
with disgrace or derision
and even poverty for life
to the mean and
dishonest acquirement of every worldly good. Courage is requisite even in doing
good. Our good actions may cost us much trouble and even expense
much
opposition
much vexation
and much misrepresentation; for our good may not
only be evil spoken of
but it may be to ourselves a positive evil in a worldly
and temporal point of view. On some occasions we may have to encounter the
resistance of the indolent and the selfish; the thwarting malignity of envy
that will never either co-operate or commend; the sneers of the niggardly
who
revenge an extorted charity by slandering the man that shamed them to it; and
the unkind constructions of the worldly
who never attribute disinterested
motives to a prominence in well-doing. On other occasions
we may be induced to
benefit others
even against their will; to succour the worthless and
ungrateful; to weary ourselves in long
and perhaps for the time fruitless
attempts to soften the obstinate
persuade the wilful
reform the profligate.
In all these cases we want also a bold and patient decision of character.
Again
it requires courage to forgive injuries and endure wrongs
as well as
on the other hand
to ask for forgiveness and to make reparation. Yet the
Christian must do both when necessary. Courage is required
again
in
maintaining truth and sincerity. I do not mean by this merely avoiding flagrant
falsehood and equivocation; but acquiring habits of open and frank avowal of
our minds
except where we may give needless pain or offence. No deference to
rank or circumstances
no indolent aversion to differ from others
no ill-timed
timidity
or desire to ingratiate
must prevent our bold and determined
reprobation of what is decidedly wrong
however glossed by fine language or
supported by sophistry and cunning. Courage is very necessary also in setting a
good example. We are “neither to love the praise of men more than the praise of
God
” nor to “follow a multitude to do evil.” The real Christian may want
resolution to maintain a Christian example; he may shrink from singularity; he
may fear a laugh
an obnoxious name
or misrepresentation; he may think it too
precise and severe to protest and strive against received customs and opinions
though plainly at variance with the Word of God; or
lastly
he may distrust
his own steadfastness and perseverance. Yet all he wants is courage--courage
not to go about setting the whole world right
not to put on a garb of
austerity and intolerance that does not belong to him or his religion; not to
declare war against practices and amusements which sweeten the busy occupations
of life and are decidedly innocent; but to be “steadfast and immovable” in the
plain
straightforward course of Christian duties of every kind. Again
courage
is most requisite in striving against all the inward corruption of our fallen
nature. In the first place
the Christian has to contend with wicked thoughts
and tendencies
or inclinations. When allowed to grow to maturity they become
headstrong passions
lusts
and appetites
whose power is generally in
proportion to the time they have been indulged. At that fearful period
the
courage required is
as it were
that of plucking out an eye
or cutting off a
limb! for habit has by that time made the indulgence quite necessary to the
sinner’s happiness
and even comfortable existence. Courage is again necessary
under this head
in getting the better of our natural selfishness. Pride and
vanity and pretension are also vices that need no common courage and resolution
to master them. They are
however
most unchristian tempers
and must be
subdued. But
lastly
it is in perfecting holiness in the heart--by purity
vigilance
discipline
and perseverance-that the Christian warrior has most
need of courage and resolution. His enemies are so strong and numerous
and the
fort he holds so easily surprised and taken
that he has need of “the whole
armour of God
” that he may “have victory
and triumph against the devil
the
world
and the flesh.” (A. B. Evans
D. D.)
To keep and to do all that
is written in the book of the law of Moses.--
The supreme excellence of Holy Scripture
I. The book
commended: “All that is written in the book of the law of Moses.”
1. Observe it was to the written law alone that Joshua directed
them.
2. From that day to this the will of God has been made known to us
in writing.
3. The evidence of the Divine authority of the New Testament is of the
same description.
4. Oh
let the written Word of God
infallible truth
be elevated
far
far above the writings of men
however excellent.
II. The exhortation
respecting it: “Be ye therefore very courageous
” &c.
1. “Keep it”--treasure it up in your hearts; lodge it in your
memories; inscribe it on the tablet of your mind.
2. “Do it.” We are not to keep the Holy Scripture as a curiosity in
a cabinet; not to hide or bury it
but to practise it. If the Scriptures do not
exercise a practical influence over us
they will only increase our
condemnation.
3. Observe the universality of the injunction
“All that is written
in the book.” There is to be no reservation nor exception--no selection of
favourite doctrines or of agreeable duties
but “all that is written” is to be
read
believed
obeyed I
4. There must be no deviation from the narrow way--“that ye turn not
aside therefrom
to the right hand or to the left.” This is the chart--be
careful to steer by it! This is your map
your guide
your lamp; beware of the
smallest deviation! (Isaiah 30:21).
5. “Be ye Very courageous to keep and to do all this!” He had said
in the previous verse that God would drive out their enemies before them; and
now he says
“Be ye very courageous”--but not to fight with sword and spear
but with spiritual weapons--moral courage: be bold for God--much courage is
needed: for want of it Peter denied his Lord. “Be not ashamed of
Christ”--“confess Him before men.”
III. The
consequences of obedience or disobedience to this exhortation may be learned
from scripture and experience. Wherever God’s written Word was known and read
and honoured
religion has flourished; and where that Word has been neglected
religion has decayed. (Dean Close.)
Turn . . . not aside therefrom to the right hand
or to the left.--
Obedience
1. What motive has the Christian to obedience? Looking to be saved
only through the righteousness of another
what is there to induce him to walk
righteously before God Himself?
2. But what kind of obedience is necessary
or rather what do we
learn from our text
will obedience require or call for?
Verse 8-9
Cleave unto the Lord your God
as ye have done unto this day.
The necessity of every one’s cleaving to God who wishes well to
the support of his country
I. Sin has
naturally in itself a tendency to the ruin of any nation. We may easily see
that when a people grow regardless of the laws of God they want the greatest
obligations of obedience to the laws of men.
II. Sin makes god
an enemy. God presides with a peculiar providence over societies and
communities of men. We may learn from the history of all past ages and the frequent
smart of our own that the government of God is ever administered according to
the nature of men’s actions; that He dispenses His favour to a people
or
withdraws it from them
as virtue or vice
religion or impiety
respectively
prevail among them. But perhaps it may be said by some who are ready to impute
all successes to themselves
“What need we to call in Providence in all
difficulties?” Now this
give me leave to prove more particularly
by
considering those three main props on which the weight of states and empires
may seem to them
who look not far into things and their causes
wholly to
rely; that is
worldly providence
or policy in contriving; courage and force
in executing great designs; and a wise improvement of both these
by firm and well-grounded
confederacies. But alas! in these
barely considered
there can be no safety
because no human foresight can reach those many accidents
the least of which
may alter the best-laid counsels; nor any human courage
though never so well
seconded
be sure to execute them
since the very execution of them is attended
with so many circumstances as may produce effects quite different from what
they proposed.
III. The obligation
which lies on everybody who loves his country to do his duty to god
from which
such universal virtue and piety will result
as will most certainly engage god
on our sloe.
1. That all national favours flow purely from God
I will presume
has been sufficiently proved
as being beyond the single or united force of
human policy
courage
or the firmest alliances: if so
what is it more than
our bounden duty
and justice
to acknowledge unfeignedly the gift to God
who
desires no more for the giving it? He is not bettered by our thanksgivings
yet
is pleased with the gratitude.
2. We ought to break off the course of those sins which will
estrange God from us
and deprive us hereafter of all such extraordinary
successes. (Bp. Trelawney.)
Religious stability enforced
I. THE duty the
text recommends. Cleaving unto the Lord evidently implies--
1. Previous union with Him.
2. Faithful adherence to Him. Our religion must be uniform and
constant; we must not only come to the Lord as humble penitents
but also
adhere to Him as His indefatigable servants.
II. The importance
the text involves. This evidently appears
both from the solemnity of the
occasion on which it was delivered
and the fervency of the manner in which it
was urged on the tribes of Israel.
1. This duty is reasonable (John 6:67-69; Romans 12:1-2).
2. This duty is honourable. Instability in religion is peculiarly
disgraceful (2 Peter 2:20-22). It is extremely
weak and childish
and should be carefully avoided
as displeasing to God
and
dishonourable to our holy profession (Ephesians 4:14).
3. This duty is profitable. It is only by cleaving unto the Lord
that we can maintain personal piety
overcome our enemies
encounter
difficulties
rejoice evermore
triumph over death
and “lay hold on eternal
life” (Deuteronomy 4:3-4; Psalms 57:7; 2 Timothy 4:7-8).
4. This duty is indispensable. Final perseverance is necessary to
final salvation. He only that “endures to the end shall be saved” (1 Corinthians 15:2; Romans 2:7; 2 Peter 1:10-11).
III. The motives to
this duty. (Sketches Four Hundred Sermons.)
Verse 11
Take good heed therefore unto yourselves.
The Christian warfare
The Christian life is a warfare
and there are several common
mistakes made thereupon. For example--
I. When it is
supposed that the enemies to be fought against are all external foes. This is a
very prevalent error. Where conversion is believed to be always a sudden
change
and not a matter of growth
there converts are cautioned against
dangers that lie without
while left in ignorance of the greater dangers that
are still within. There are external foes
but these are not all. There are
inward foes
such as--
II. It is also a
mistake to suppose that the enemies to be fought against are chiefly external
ones. With all his warnings against surrounding foes
Joshua was most emphatic
in his exhortation to watchfulness over one’s own heart
“Take good heed
therefore unto yourselves.” In this sense a man’s enemies are they of his own
house. The greatest temptations arise from that inner tendency to corruption
but for which the outward influences would be well-nigh powerless. Many a man
has been his own tempter (James 1:14).
III. It is a great
christian duty
therefore
for every man to bring his own heart into
subjection.
1. This cannot be done except by the exercise of constant
watchfulness.
2. Self-cultivation also is necessary. When will men learn that
religion is no dreamy sentimentalism
but a stern and living reality? “The
grace of God in the heart of man is a tender plant in a strange
unkindly soil
and
therefore
cannot well prosper and grow without much care and pains
and
that of a skilful hand.” Let us
then
“take heed to ourselves.” Let us keep
the fortress of our own heart. Let us do battle with the foes of our own
household. Thus shall we be “more than conquerors”; for “he that ruleth his own
spirit is better than he that taketh a city.” (Frederic Wagstaff.)
Self-consideration
We can have no aspirations unless we know what we lack
and
we cannot properly cultivate our spiritual life unless we recognise the
symptoms of its vitality or decay. A gardener would be failing in his duty if
he did not notice the withering of a flower
which was only wanting more room
in which to spread its roots. A mother would be justly blamed if she was too
absorbed in making her child’s dress for a coming party to notice the pale face
and heavy eyes which fore told an illness demanding instant attention. Far
heavier is the responsibility resting on us to consider our own condition. (A.
Rowland
B. A.)
Self-judgment
No sane man fails to form some opinion of himself. We
cannot help knowing
for example
whether our temper is quick or dull
whether
our imagination is vivid or torpid
any more than we can be ignorant of the
fact that we are tall or short. But we ought not to leave this self-judgment to
transient feelings
or to spasmodic revelations--but should try to shape it by
sober thought. Some people tell us that it is best not to think of ourselves at
all
but to absorb ourselves in daily duty
leaving ourselves simply in God’s
hands
so far as religious life is concerned. No doubt this is partly true: and
we must not forget that self-introspection has its dangers as well as its uses.
It would
for example
be quite possible to subject our motives to such close
and constant scrutiny as to take away all momentum from life: but no sensible
man would be so particular about dust on the engine
as to neglect keeping up
steam. (A. Rowland
B. A.)
That ye love the Lord.--
Take heed to love God
1. Because if you do not love God
your obedience will be worthless.
2. Because if you do love Him
obedience will be easy.
3. Because there are so many things that compete for your love.
4. Because if you love God
you will love only good things
and
those in a proper measure.
5. Because if you love God
you will love what God loves
and
especially His Son Jesus Christ. (The Hive.)
God demands our love
I. It is for this
very end that national mercies are bestowed.
II. We are in
danger of perverting his goodness to a very different purpose. The caution
given in the text plainly implies this
and the subsequent history of the
Jewish nation as plainly proves that the caution was necessary.
III. To love the
Lord our God is not only the return He expects for His benefits
but the return
he demands. It is not only just and reasonable in its own nature
but it is
likewise absolutely necessary on our part--nay
it is the one thing needful
the withholding of which shall unavoidably be attended with the most fatal
consequences. (R. Walker.)
Verse 14
And behold this day I am going the way of all the earth.
Death common to all
Death is so dim-sighted and so blundering-footed that he staggers
across Axminster tapestry as though it were a bare floor
and sees no
difference between the fluttering rags of a tatterdemalion and a conqueror’s
gonfalon. Side by side we must all come down. No first class
second class
or
third class in death or the grave. Death goes into the house at Gad’s Hill
and
he says
“I want that novelist.” Death goes into Windsor Castle
and he says
“I want Victoria’s consort.” Death goes into Ford’s Theatre
at Washington
and
says
“I want that President.” Death goes on the Zulu battlefield
and says
“I
want that French Prince Imperial.” Death goes into the marble palace at Madrid
and says “Give me Queen Mercedes.” Death goes into the almshouse
and says
“Give me that pauper.” Death comes to the Tay Bridge
and says
“Discharge into
my cold bosom all those passengers.” (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Premonitions of death
The first symptom of approaching death with some
is the strong
presentiment that they are about to die. Oganan
the mathematician
while in
apparent health
rejected pupils from the feeling that he was on the eve of
resting from his labours; and he expired soon after of an apoplectic stroke.
Fletcher
the divine
had a dream which shadowed out his impending dissolution
and believing it to be the merciful warning of Heaven
he sent for a sculptor
and ordered his tomb. “Begin your work forthwith
” he said at parting; “there
is no time to lose.” And unless the artist had obeyed the admonition
death
would have proved the quicker workman of the two. Mozart wrote his Requiem
under the conviction that the monument he was raising to his genius would
by
the power of association
prove a universal monument to his remains. When life
was fleeting very fast
he called for the score
and musing over it
said
“Did
I not tell you truly that it was for myself that I composed this death chant?”
Not one thing hath failed
of all the good things which the Lord . . . spake.
Joshua’s dying testimony to the faithfulness of God
I. Death is a way.
It leads the believer from the means and streams of religious ordinances to the fountain-head of
living waters; from the society of earthly
and at best imperfect connections
to the company of triumphant saints
&c.
II. Death is a way
that all must go. Some journeys may be deferred and postponed a week
a month
a year
and perhaps be wholly declined. But this cannot be put off or avoided.
III. Death is a way
which we may soon be required to take. (Isaac Bachus
D. D.)
Joshua’s last confession
With Joshua as with Simeon
at eventide it was light
the hues of
a golden sunset coloured with the tints of the rainbow
which St. John beheld
before the throne. The words that I have read to you contain a retrospect and a
prospect. He looks behind for them; he looks forward for himself.
1. We
too
have a retrospect like his
and we too have a prospect.
Let us look back at life
each from our own standing-point
each colouring with
the hues of his own experience the common outline. Begin at the beginning
and
look back at childhood. I do not think childhood the happiest time of life
and
therefore I will not say it is. And yet in the spring of our life
though it
had its biting winds and its cold nights
lest our characters should bud too
fast and in an atmosphere too genial we should grow unequally and develop too
rapidly
there were gleams of bright sunshine
showers dropping with
fruitfulness
in which our minds expanded and our souls grew. Some of us it may
be were brought to the feet of Jesus
to hear His Word. As children we knew the
Holy Scriptures
and our infant lips were tutored in prayer. But manhood is the
time of man’s glory
when we partake of the full joys of home life
when
opinions mature and cultivation grows
and experience mellows
and noble duties
open out before us
and grow into the full liberty of the sons of God
and by
faith we overcome the wicked one. Oh
how full manhood may be of pure and
generous happiness
if lived unto God
if we will but look up to Him as a
reconciled Father
and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost follow the Lamb
whithersoever He went on earth! Sorrow there must be
but there is strength to
bear it; losses
but there is time to redeem them; sin
but the blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin; imperfectness
but then we are complete in Him. And
then
as to old age
in one view of it that is the best of all. The aged man
if he is a Christian
is nearly at home. His activities may be diminished
but
his wisdom is augmented. If not strong in action
he is great in counsel. He looks
back over a past of unbroken
unvarying love
and his song is
“Surely
goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life; I will dwell in
the house of the Lord for ever.” Oh
I pray you
wherever in life you be
whatever in life you have
gather up your mercies and count them; see how the
Lord’s faithfulness has given you every one of the good things that He has
promised to His people. Where you wandered
it was through your own wilfulness
and He brought you back. When you fell He lifted you up. When you wept your
tears came to you with a message from God. You may indeed be forgetting Him;
that I know not
but this I do know
that He has been love to you
trying to
embrace you with the arms of His mercy
willing to draw you with the cords of
love.
2. There is also a prospect. “Behold
this day I am going the way of
all the earth.” “It is appointed unto men once to die
and after that the
judgment.” My brethren
this way is a universal way
and a sorrowful way
and a
cloudy way. (Bp. Thorold.)
Joshua intimating his own departure
and the favour of God toward
Israel
I. The
circumstances in which joshua here represents himself as placed. Time has
gathered death’s memorials on that form; and warned
perhaps
by some
communication from the world invisible
or feeling
it may be
in the pain
the
weakness
or the gathering wrinkles
that his closing hour is near
he thus
addresses the multitude around: “Behold
this day I am going the way of all the
earth.” What was dying Joshua but just the representative of dying man? and
what is Joshua dead but an instance
from the midst of ten thousand times ten
thousand of the human form
erect and strong
and animated once
consigned to
mournful silence
and the human spirit vanished from the scenes of enterprise
and life
where it thought so loftily or toiled so zealously of old? And if we
commit ourselves to the pages of recorded history
and find them full
throughout with the alternations of life and death
or mark the common course
of society and providence around us
how many an illustration may be found of
what to us is specially momentous in the idea afforded by the words
“the way
of all the earth” I
II. The appeal
which joshua makes to the people he addresses.
1. Joshua’s appeal may suggest the idea of a pious and active old
age. To earlier years and robuster vigour may belong the more stirring and
laborious forms of Christian enterprise and zeal; but age has the same
principles of duty to regard
and the same animating motives to cherish in the
heart. In the apparent proximity of death it has a consideration in some degree
peculiar
to urge it on to zealous and devoted services for God; and
oh! how
powerfully ought that consideration and many a motive else to animate the minds
of those who
“old and stricken in age
” are ready
like Joshua
to say
“I am
going the way of all the earth”! If you have given your more vigorous years to
sin
why should you delay with contrite and devout heart to give the close of
your continuance here to Christ
and piety
and God? And if you have
in some
degree
like Joshua
given your earlier life to the cause of righteousness
oh
I have you not found
in your experience of its dignity
anti blessedness
and
worth
a motive strong to keep you steadfast to the end?
2. Not only is the appeal of Joshua in the text representative of a
pious and zealous old age
but it expresses an important fact presented by the
providence of God: “Ye know
” says he
“in all your hearts
and in all your
souls
that not one thing hath failed
” &c. Of all men Christian believers
perhaps will be the readiest to perceive
and the most willing to acknowledge
the absolute faithfulness and the gracious liberality of God; and how can they
but know that
sad as the outward condition of God’s chosen may sometimes be
and sadder still as may be the general aspect of the earth
to neither can the
Almighty’s pledge be broken
to neither can His promise fail? (Alex. S.
Patterson.)
A man dying
I. A man dying in
philosophic calmness: “I am going the way of all the earth.”
1. It is not a strange road. All that have ever been
have gone
through it; and all that ever will be
must.
2. It is not an avoidable road. To complain is useless.
II. A man dying
fully satisfied with god: “Not one thing hath failed
” &c.
1. That God had promised “good things.”
2. That all the “good things” promised had come.
III. A man dying
with spiritual interest in survivors: “Ye know
” &c. He wished his
contemporaries and survivors to cherish confidence in God when he was gone. (Homilist.)
The solicitude and testimony of a dying man
I. The solicitude
of a noble veteran. Joshua was solicitous that the Israelites
II. The testimony
of an aged pilgrim: “And behold this
” &c. We learn here
III. The calmness of
a dying saint. What a peaceful
glowing sunset! (W. Fry.)
Joshua’s retrospect
There are certain occasions in life when it is irresistibly
natural to look back. After climbing a difficult ascent
or concluding a
tedious negotiation
or even winding up a long and troublesome letter
we like
to take a final view of the whole. Joshua had now arrived at the culminating
point of his mission.
I. The largeness
of God’s promises. To bring Israel out of the prison-land of Egypt
through the
death-land of the wilderness
into triumphant possession of the fortress-land
of Canaan
was what God undertook. If some great leader had undertaken
some
years back
to emancipate the negroes of the Southern States of America
to
conduct them over the broad Atlantic
and make them owners and masters of
military and imperial France
he would scarcely have promised any more
allowing for the difference of the times. All God’s promises are “exceeding
great and precious.”
II. The steadiness
of God’s purposes. Just when the promise appeared utterly forgotten
its final
fulfilment was being planned. Just when the good seed appeared altogether
perished
the labourers who were to gather in the harvest were being engaged.
The rest of the history to which Joshua looked back furnished other instances
of like kind.
III. The completeness
of God’s work. God had wrought all that He had promised. I apply the subject to
the earnest expectations of the humble believer in Christ. You too are looking
forward to the end of your wanderings
to the enjoyment of absolute rest
to
perfection of spiritual condition
to the subjugation of every enemy
in a
word
to complete conformity to your Lord. Be assured that the time is
approaching when you shall look back in triumph upon all. (Homilist.)
The last words of Joshua
You can hardly overdraw the character of the patriarch warrior who
is about to surrender his command. He is one of the rare men of either economy
of whom inspiration
always faithful
has preserved no record of blemish. And
if you ask wherein lay the main charm of his character
we find it in the fact
that he himself is so much concealed behind the grandeur of his own exploits.
That is the highest order of excellence--to be self-concealed by the glory of
events whereof we are the authors. “I have sent for you
” said a great man of modern
days
from his death-bed to a youth who stood beside him
“that you may see how
a Christian can die.” Let us see how a “servant of the Lord” can die who only
saw the day of Christ from a distance. We might dwell
for a warrant in favour
of repetition
on the fact that Joshua spends his last breath in telling
something to the children of Israel which he himself admits they know already
“in all their hearts and in all their souls.” Old-fashioned doctrines never
look so new
never so precious
as when seen from the edge of the grave. But
what absorbs the interest of this spectacle is not so much the triteness of the
discussion as the motive Chat moved to its delivery. If Joshua does not say
he
implies
that because the chills of death are at the very moment creeping round
his heart and the tongue will not serve him much longer
on that very account
he stirs them up to remembrance that “the Lord has not been slack concerning
His promise.” Oh
surely
this is something new in the treatment of an old
doctrine! The last faculties of the mind before it ceases to act and move
amongst the living
turned upon the character and the honour of the great God
and that not so much towards the man himself
but towards the other men
addressed. That a human being should be so able to forget himself
if not in
the very struggles
in the nearest prospect
of mortality
as to busy himself
entirely with the credit and the character of his Creator
that he should
gather around him the thousands who will survive him
for nothing but to wring
from them the acknowledgment that God is true--oh! you may fairly enough
conclude that the speaker is not far off the world where God will be all in
all. There is no test of a man’s chief good like death. The miser will ask for
his old strong-box to be placed beside him on the bed that he may see the last
of the deity he has worshipped whilst he lived. The husband will turn his
latest
fondest look
amongst all bystanders
towards the one sad face that
belongs to her who has weathered with him so many a storm
and proved her love
through evil and through good report. The statesman wanders in his last
delirium on the future of the country
the helm of whose affairs he is quitting
for ever. The scholar
too
seems reluctant to die till that one great work
the study of years
has received its finishing touch; and the mechanician
or
the chemist
or the astronomer
is startled by the grim summons from the busy
calculation
or the tiresome experiment
or the sweeping survey of the stars.
And if each of these were to leave a witness from the death-bed
that witness
would turn for a topic to the favourite and the darling of the life that is
leaving him. Joshua does the same. “What will they think of my God when I am
gathered to the grave? I know Him
but do they? They do; but will they remember
what they know? Will they serve my God as if they recollected that He has never
failed them? It is not certain hearts that know forget: souls that have learned
love their own lessons. Therefore will I make this work
the honour of Jehovah
at least as perfect as I can make it by hallowing in its behalf the faltering
of the dying lip and the clouding of the dying brain.” “I must
” says the dying
hero
“spend the last sands in the glass in putting the glory of the Divine
administration beyond all reach of reproach. Are my warriors and myself at one
upon the doctrine that the whole of an inheritance promised is as good
to
faith
as the whole of it conferred? Are we going to part agreed that Palestine
is already as truly the property of the sons of Abraham as Timnath-Serah
in
Mount Ephraim
belongs to me?” And so the good man could not rest in his grave
till he had exchanged with his brethren in arms a new vow of allegiance to Him
who has not
even in our day
with absolutely literal truth
accomplished the
fulness of what is here taken as done. Here is faith for you The captain of the
army will not die till he has overleapt centuries by a faith of his own
and
carried all his squadrons with him in the leap. One of our great warriors
ordered his ships into action with the shout of “Victory
or Westminster
Abbey!” But what should we have thought had the cry been “Victory and Westminster
Abbey!” Joshua foresaw that his own death
and the death of whole generations
of soldiers
would make no difference to the conquest of Canaan. Millenniums
are shorter than moments to “him that believeth.” This then was Joshua’s
judgment of the right business for a dying day. Beautiful ministry for last
moments
to strengthen bystanders in their trust upon God’s word. It was to
Israel almost as if a spectre spoke. You contract heavy responsibilities--you
who stand
from time to time
in the chambers of dying believers. Next to
hearing voices from heaven comes the hearing of voices from those who are just
stepping from earth. Books are nothing to the last whispers-even the last
smiles--of warriors laying down their swords
and of pilgrims sinking into
rest. I pray that we may all die leaving some witness to the faithfulness of
Christ. (H. Christopherson.)
Joshua’s farewell charge
Notice
first
that in parting he says nothing of himself. He
recalls to their minds only the source of all the power that was theirs in the
past
and all the power that could be theirs in the future. His one thought in leaving
them is to remind them of the character of God. That should ever be the thought
of the pastor who is parting with his people--that he should say nothing of
himself
or what he has done
or what
known only to himself and God perhaps
he has utterly failed to do
but that he should be exceeding anxious and
exceeding jealous as to the character of God. The question which he seems to
ask himself as he is about to leave them is not
“What will the people think
about me when I am gone from them?” but
“What will this people think about
God? Will they serve Him as if they really believed in their heart and in their
soul that God can never tail them? Will they feel that they may
and that they
must
because of all that they know of God in the past
trust Him absolutely
and utterly for the future?” It is just possible he imagined that they might
not
and so his endeavour is in parting to make this great truth of the
absolute fidelity of God
which must be the foundation of all true religion
as
strong in them as it could be. It is easy to say
of course
that God is true
and faithful; but is there a man or woman here to-day who believes that every
premise that God
in His written Word
or in revelation to their inmost and
deepest spiritual nature
has made is actually fulfilled? What a changed world
it would be if every baptized man and woman believed in their heart and soul
as a child believes the assurance of his father
that not one promise of God
has ever failed! Joshua called them to witness that day that not one single
promise that God had made them had failed; and yet there were the tribes that
He had promised to drive out still occupying many places in the land; there was
the Star unrisen yet that had been promised to come out of Jacob; there was the
sceptre as yet unwielded by Israel; there were many things
if you read the
history literally
that God had promised
and that
as far as mere human eye
could see
were not accomplished; nay
the approach of their fulfilment was not
discernible. And
nevertheless
he called on these men
who longed for these
things
to whom these things had been promised and had not yet come
he calls
them to bear witness that day that not one promise of the Lord their God had
failed them. To his heart of faith and to his eye of faith
because God hath
promised them
they were come to pass already; and he could not part from his
people without endeavouring to make them as deeply persuaded of that truth as
he was himself. And that
amid all the flux of time
that
amid all the great
social
political
and economic changes that have swept over the world
that is
the one foundation-truth still for nations and for men. In our national life it
is the truth we mostly need. In our national life forces are being developed
to-day into activity
of which none can at present forecast the issue. Beneath
the smooth surface of our modern life fires are seething which reveal
themselves now and again
as it were
in tongues of lurid flame that leap
through the thin film of our civilisation. Now amid all this how can we look
with anything like manly confidence to the remote
or even to the immediate
future? We must sink
as it seems to me
into despair
if we can only think of
the schemes of rival politicians
or the impotence of social nostrums
or if we
can only hear
as words of hope
the flabby platitudes of the feeble
philanthropist. Our confidence and our hope must be based upon faith in the
faithfulness of God
in Him as the eternal I Am
who sitteth above the
water-floods
be the earth never
so unquiet. Our cardinal faith must be that the Lord
who was God in all
history
is God in history still
that He holds in His hands to-day all the
strength and all the weakness of the nation and of man. He is not the God of
the dead but of the living; and
if we will learn the lesson which He wilt be
teaching us somehow
by prosperity or by disaster
even now
as we look around
us on all the portents of the time
we may do so in the absolute confidence and
in the faith and hope which we ought to possess as we say: “No one good thing
which the Lord our God hath promised has ever failed us.” (Canon T. T.
Shore.)
What made Joshua the man he was
Joshua
when he spoke those words
was one of God’s grand old
friends. He and Caleb were the oldest men in that company. He tells them his
experience of life. It is worth while to ask what made old Joshua the man he was. It was
his character. If I met a man on the Manchester Exchange
and he told me he was building a new mill
fitting it
up with the newest machinery
and that he would shortly turn out the finest yarn in the country
well
I
would say to him:
“You’ve got your work cut out
bur we shall see.” So I walk round that way
and
look at the new mill
with its fine machinery; see the manager--one who knows
his business--and I say
“That’s all right.” Then I walk down to the mill gate
to see what kind of raw material comes in. If the raw material is inferior
then the fine mill
with its machines
all goes for nothing--it won’t do. The
yarn won’t wear. Now
make a man up of poor material
and he’ll not wear. What
character has a man; what is he made of? That is a great question. There are
two things about Joshua’s character to be noticed.
I. Joshua became
the man he was because he kept company with one older and better than himself.
He was Moses’ servant. Watching Moses and hearing his words moulded Joshua’s
character. My advice to young people is to keep company with folks older and
better than yourselves. Why does God let people live to a long age
if not to give
the younger generation their experience? Don’t leave home in a hurry. If father
and mother are people that pray
don’t hurry to leave them. It is the same with
old books: those used to be bound in sheepskin; nothing to look at outside
but
all inside. Nowadays they put it all outside
and the bookbinder does what the
author should have done. It is a responsibility which older people should
consider
that they ought to live so as to attract the young. This is one of
the wants of the age. Live so that your young people may say when they go out
into life
“I leave my best friends behind.” I never had such a fine compliment
paid me before as I had from my boy the other day. It was in class
and when I
came to my son Charlie
he said: “Well
father
I am only getting my eyes
opened to see what a privilege mine has been to live with such people as you
and mother are.” I wouldn’t give that away for £20
000.
II. Joshua became
the man he was because he had the courage of his convictions. There were twelve
of them sent to spy Canaan
tea of them said
“It’s no use. The country is good
enough
but it is full of giants.” “Yes
we shall go up
” said Joshua and
Caleb. Joshua was willing to be out-voted. It was ten to two
but the ten had
their coffins made before the two. Have the courage to vote for the right. One
man and God makes a strong party. Joshua’s experience was that God had been as
good as His word. There are no crises but what God can surmount them. Go and
ask George Muller. A man thought that he would give a thankoffering for his
life being spared to fifty years. He intended to give £50
and he thought he
would send the Bristol Orphanage £10. He was so haunted by this thought that he
could not wait for his birthday
but got an envelope and despatched a cheque for
£10. He got the usual receipt
and there was no more of it until the yearly
report of the Orphanage appeared. He thought he would just turn up the date and
see if his money were there. There at the very date he saw George Muller’s
words
“No money and no bread to-day
but cheque has arrived for £10.” Friends
believe in a prayer-hearing God. Don’t be afraid to leave your case in His
hands if you are doing right. Some of these days you will have to say with
Joshua
“I go the way of all the earth.” You will have to give up going to
business and to lie in bed. Everything is growing dim
and the loved voices
seem miles away. Will some of those loved ones
writing to the son in
Australia
have to say
“Father’s last words were these: ‘Not one thing hath
failed of all the good things which the Lord spake’”? (T. Champness.)
An elevation that explains the whole of life
The traveller who has reached the highest attainable summit of the
Andes
and stands in the pure and cloudless atmosphere around them
can
expatiate over a wide and almost boundless horizon; while another who remains
in the valley below
amidst the haze of mist and vapour
must be satisfied with
a comparatively poor and trifling view of the magnificence and beauty that
surround him. It is thus with the Christian militant
in the war fare of his
earthly state
and after his release to join the armies of the blessed in the
rest of God. Here dimness and obscurity may in part intercept or much distort
the prospect of Divine mercy
and all the rich consolations of a Saviour’s
love. But when his liberated soul shall attain the felicities of heaven
he
will stand upon an elevation commanding the boundless extent of Divine
operation in the walk and world of providence and grace. His eye will be
strengthened to behold
and his comprehension will be enlarged to understand
them with knowledge
love
and wonder
increasing throughout eternity. No cloud
will be seen throughout the universe of blessedness to intercept his vision.
Every dispensation by which the Saviour visited and helped him
however
misunderstood in the days of earthly darkness and ignorance
will then be fully
explained
every difficulty solved
and every apparent contradiction harmonised
for ever. (R. P. Buddicom
M. A.)
The promise of God has its season
As the herbs and flowers which sleep all winter in their roots
underground
when the time of spring approacheth presently start forth of their beds
where they had lain so long unperceived
thus will the waits for the appointed
time
and then comes. Every promise is dated
but with a mysterious character;
and for want of skill in God’s chronology we are prone to think that God
forgets us
when indeed we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time
of our own
and in being angry that He comes not just then to us.
Confidence in God’s faithfulness
Your boy comes to you and asks you to buy him a fishing-rod
and
he says
“I saw one to-day in a window
which was just what I want. Can’t I go
down now and buy it?” And you say
“No
not to-day
wait a little.” A week
passes
and the lad begins to say to himself
“I wonder if father has forgotten
all about it?” Then you put into his hands a better rod than he has ever seen
before
and the boy is overwhelmed with surprise and pleasure. And yet the main
thing in all this is not that your son received what he wanted
but the gift
won
through delay
has given him a new view of his father’s wisdom
and a new
confidence in his affection
which makes him say
“Hereafter
when I want
anything of this kind
I will leave it all to father.” And so the main thing
that a man gains
when God at last answers his prayer
is not the gift
but the
clearer consciousness that God is better than His gifts
that he has all in
God. (R. Vincent.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》