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Joshua Chapter
Twenty-four
Joshua 24
Chapter Contents
God's benefits to their fathers. (1-14) Joshua renews the
covenant between the people and God. (15-28) Joshua's death
Joseph's bones
buried
The state of Israel. (29-33)
Commentary on Joshua 24:1-14
(Read Joshua 24:1-14)
We must never think our work for God done
till our life
is done. If he lengthen out our days beyond what we expected
like those of
Joshua
it is because he has some further service for us to do. He who aims at
the same mind which was in Christ Jesus
will glory in bearing the last
testimony to his Saviour's goodness
and in telling to all around
the
obligations with which the unmerited goodness of God has bound him. The
assembly came together in a solemn religious manner. Joshua spake to them in
God's name
and as from him. His sermon consists of doctrine and application.
The doctrinal part is a history of the great things God had done for his
people
and for their fathers before them. The application of this history of
God's mercies to them
is an exhortation to fear and serve God
in gratitude
for his favour
and that it might be continued.
Commentary on Joshua 24:15-28
(Read Joshua 24:15-28)
It is essential that the service of God's people be
performed with a willing mind. For LOVE is the only genuine principle whence
all acceptable service of God can spring. The Father seeks only such to worship
him
as worship him in spirit and in truth. The carnal mind of man is enmity
against God
therefore
is not capable of such spiritual worship. Hence the
necessity of being born again. But numbers rest in mere forms
as tasks imposed
upon them. Joshua puts them to their choice; but not as if it were indifferent
whether they served God or not. Choose you whom ye will serve
now the matter is
laid plainly before you. He resolves to do this
whatever others did. Those
that are bound for heaven
must be willing to swim against the stream. They
must not do as the most do
but as the best do. And no one can behave himself
as he ought in any station
who does not deeply consider his religious duties
in family relations. The Israelites agree with Joshua
being influenced by the
example of a man who had been so great a blessing to them; We also will serve
the Lord. See how much good great men do
by their influence
if zealous in
religion. Joshua brings them to express full purpose of heart to cleave to the
Lord. They must come off from all confidence in their own sufficiency
else
their purposes would be in vain. The service of God being made their deliberate
choice
Joshua binds them to it by a solemn covenant. He set up a monument of
it. In this affecting manner Joshua took his last leave of them; if they
perished
their blood would be upon their own heads. Though the house of God
the Lord's table
and even the walls and trees before which we have uttered our
solemn purposes of serving him
would bear witness against us if we deny him
yet we may trust in him
that he will put his fear into our hearts
that we
shall not depart from him. God alone can give grace
yet he blesses our
endeavours to engage men to his service.
Commentary on Joshua 24:29-33
(Read Joshua 24:29-33)
Joseph died in Egypt
but gave commandment concerning his
bones
that they should not rest in their grave till Israel had rest in the
land of promise. Notice also the death and burial of Joshua
and of Eleazar the
chief priest. The most useful men
having served their generation
according to
the will of God
one after another
fall asleep and see corruption. But Jesus
having spent and ended his life on earth more effectually than either Joshua or
Joseph
rose from the dead
and saw no corruption. And the redeemed of the Lord
shall inherit the kingdom he prepared for them from the foundation of the
world. They will say in admiration of the grace of Jesus
Unto him that loved
us
and washed us from our sins in his own blood
and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father
to him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Joshua》
Joshua 24
Verse 1
[1] And
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem
and called for the elders
of Israel
and for their heads
and for their judges
and for their officers;
and they presented themselves before God.
All Israel —
Namely
their representatives.
Shechem — To
the city of Shechem
a place convenient for the purpose
not only because it
was a Levitical city
and a city of refuge
and a place near Joshua's city
but
especially for the two main ends for which he summoned them thither. 1. For the
solemn burial of the bones of Joseph
and the rest of the patriarchs
for which
this place was designed. 2. For the solemn renewing of their covenant with God;
which in this place was first made between God and Abraham
Genesis 12:6
7
and afterwards renewed by the
Israelites at their first entrance into the land of Canaan
between the two
mountains of Ebal and Gerizzim
Joshua 8:30
etc. which were very near Shechem:
and therefore this place was most proper
both to remind them of their former
obligations to God
and to engage them to a farther ratification of them.
Before God — As
in God's presence
to hear what Joshua was to speak to them in God's name
and
to receive God's commands from his mouth. He had taken a solemn farewell
before: but as God renewed his strength
he desired to improve it for their
good. We must never think our work for God done
'till our life is done.
Verse 2
[2] And Joshua said unto all the people
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel
Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time
even Terah
the
father of Abraham
and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.
The people — To
the elders
by whom it was to be imparted to all the rest
and to as many of
the people as came thither. He spake to them in God's name
and as from him
in
the language of a prophet
Thus saith the Lord. Jehovah
the great God
and the
God of Israel
whom you are peculiarly engaged to hear.
The flood —
Or
the river
namely
Euphrates
so called by way of eminency.
They served —
That is
Both Abraham and Nahor were no less idolaters than the rest of
mankind. This is said to prevent their vain boasting in their worthy ancestors
and to assure them that whatsoever good was in
or had been done by their
progenitors
was wholly from God's free grace
and not for their own merit or
righteousness.
Verse 3
[3] And
I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood
and led him
throughout all the land of Canaan
and multiplied his seed
and gave him Isaac.
I took — I
snatched him out of that idolatrous place
and took him into acquaintance and covenant
with myself
which was the highest honour and happiness he was capable of.
And led —
That is I brought him after his father's death into Canaan
Genesis 12:1
and I conducted and preserved him
in all his travels through the several parts of Canaan.
And multiplied —
That is
gave him a numerous posterity
not only by Hagar and Keturah
but even
by Sarah and by Isaac.
Gave Isaac — By
my special power and grace to be heir of my covenant
and all my promises
and
the seed in or by which all the nations were to be blessed.
Verse 4
[4] And
I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir
to possess
it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.
Mount Seir —
That he might leave Canaan entire to his brother Jacob and his posterity
Genesis 36:7
8.
Into Egypt —
Where they long lived in grievous bondage; which God having delivered us from
I shall now pass it over.
Verse 7
[7] And when they cried unto the LORD
he put darkness between you and the
Egyptians
and brought the sea upon them
and covered them; and your eyes have
seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.
Your eyes — He
speaketh this to the elders
verse 1
who were so
not only by power and dignity
but many of them by age; and there being now not sixty years past since those
Egyptian plagues
it is very probable that a considerable number of those
present
had seen those things in Egypt
and being not twenty years old
were
exempted from that dreadful sentence passed upon all who were older
Numbers 14:29.
Verse 9
[9] Then
Balak the son of Zippor
king of Moab
arose and warred against Israel
and
sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you:
Balak warred —
Balak warred
tho' not by open force
yet by crafty counsel and warlike
stratagems
by wicked devices.
Verse 10
[10] But
I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered
you out of his hand.
Unto Balaam —
Who hereby appears to have desired of God leave to curse Israel; and therefore
it is not strange
that God who permitted him simply to go
was highly angry
with him for going with so wicked an intent
Numbers 22:20
22
32.
Delivered you —
That is
from Balak's malicious design against you.
Verse 11
[11] And
ye went over Jordan
and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought
against you
the Amorites
and the Perizzites
and the Canaanites
and the
Hittites
and the Girgashites
the Hivites
and the Jebusites; and I delivered
them into your hand.
Deliver them —
Namely
successively; for in these few words he seems to comprise all their
wars
which being so fresh in their memory
he thought it needless particularly
to mention.
Verse 12
[12] And
I sent the hornet before you
which drave them out from before you
even the
two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword
nor with thy bow.
Sent the hornet —
When they were actually engaged in battle with the Canaanites. These dreadful
swarms which first appeared in their war with Sihon and Og
tormented them with
their stings and terrified them with their noise
so that they became an easy
prey to Israel. God had promised to do this for them
Exodus 23:27
28
and here Joshua observes the
fulfilling the promise.
Verse 14
[14] Now
therefore fear the LORD
and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away
the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood
and in
Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
The gods —
Whereby it appears
that although Joshua had doubtless prevented and purged out
all public idolatry
yet there were some of them who practised it in their
private houses and retirements.
Your fathers —
Terah
and Nahor
and Abraham
as verse 2
and other of your ancestors.
In Egypt —
See Ezekiel 23:3
8
19
21
27. Under these
particulars
no doubt he comprehends all other false gods
which were served by
the nations amongst whom they were
but only mentions these
as the idols which
they were in more danger of worshipping than those in Canaan; partly because
those of Canaan had been now lately and palpably disgraced by their inability
to preserve their worshippers from total ruin; and partly
because the other
idols came recommended to them by the venerable name of antiquity
and the
custom of their forefathers.
Verse 15
[15] And
if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD
choose you this day whom ye will
serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side
of the flood
or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land ye dwell: but as for
me and my house
we will serve the LORD.
Seem evil —
Unjust
unreasonable or inconvenient.
Choose ye —
Not that he leaves them to their liberty
whether they would serve God or
idols; for Joshua had no such power himself
nor could give it to any other;
and both he and they were obliged by the law of Moses
to give their worship to
God only
and to forbear all idolatry in themselves
and severely to punish it
in others; but it is a powerful insinuation
whereby he both implies
that the
worship of God is so highly reasonable
necessary and beneficial; and the
service of idols so absurd
and vain
and pernicious
that if it were left free
for all men to take their choice
every man in his right wits must needs chuse
the service of God
before that of idols; and provokes them to bind themselves
faster to God by their own choice.
He will —
But know this
if you should all be so base and brutish
as to prefer senseless
and impotent idols
before the true and living God
it is my firm purpose
that
I will
and my children
and servants (as far as I can influence them) shall be
constant and faithful to the Lord. And that
whatever others do. They that
resolve to serve God
must not start at being singular in it. They that are
bound for heaven must be willing to swim against the stream
and must do
not
as most do
but as the best do.
Verse 19
[19] And
Joshua said unto the people
Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God;
he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
Ye cannot — He
speaks not of an absolute impossibility
(for then both his resolution to serve
God himself
and his exhortation to them had been vain) but of a moral
impossibility
or a very great difficulty
which he alledgeth not to discourage
them from God's service
but to make them more considerate in obliging
themselves; and more resolved in answering their obligations. The meaning is
God's service is not
as you seem to fancy
a slight and easy thing
but it is
a work of great difficulty
and requires great care
and courage and
resolution; and when I consider the infinite purity of God
that he will not be
mocked or abused; and withal your proneness to superstition and idolatry
even
during the life of Moses
and in some of you
while I live
and while the
obligations which God had laid upon you in this land
are fresh in remembrance;
I cannot but fear that after my decease you will think the service of God
burdensome
and therefore will cast it off and revolt from him
if you do not
carefully avoid all occasions of idolatry.
A jealous God — In
the Hebrew
He is the holy Gods
holy Father
holy Son
holy Spirit. He will
not endure a partner in his worship; you can not serve him and idols together.
Will not forgive — If
you who own yourselves his people and servants
shall wilfully transgress his
laws
he will not let this go unpunished in you
as he doth in other nations;
therefore consider what you do
when you take the Lord for your God; weigh your
advantages and inconveniences together; for as if you be sincere and faithful
in God's service
you will have admirable benefits by it; so if you be false to
your professions
and forsake him whom you have so solemnly avouched to be your
God
he will deal more severely with you than with any people in the world.
Verse 20
[20] If
ye forsake the LORD
and serve strange gods
then he will turn and do you hurt
and consume you
after that he hath done you good.
Will turn —
That is
he will alter his course and the manner of his dealing with you
and
will be as severe as ever he was kind and gracious. He will repent of his
former kindnesses
and his goodness abused will be turned into fury.
Verse 21
[21] And
the people said unto Joshua
Nay; but we will serve the LORD.
The Lord —
Namely
him only
and not strange gods.
Verse 22
[22] And
Joshua said unto the people
Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have
chosen you the LORD
to serve him. And they said
We are witnesses.
Against yourselves —
This solemn profession will be a swift witness against you
if hereafter you
apostatize from God.
Verse 23
[23] Now
therefore put away
said he
the strange gods which are among you
and incline
your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
Strange gods —
Those idols which you either brought out of Egypt
or have taken in Canaan
which some of you keep contrary to God's command
whether for the preciousness
of the matter
or rather for some secret inclination to superstition and
idolatry.
Verse 25
[25] So
Joshua made a covenant with the people that day
and set them a statute and an
ordinance in Shechem.
A statute — He
set or established that covenant with them
that is
the people
for a statute
or an ordinance
to bind themselves and their posterity unto God for ever.
Verse 26
[26] And
Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God
and took a great stone
and set it up there under an oak
that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.
These words —
That is
this covenant or agreement of the people with the Lord.
In the book —
That is
in the volume which was kept in the ark
Deuteronomy 31:9
26
whence it was taken and put
into this book of Joshua: this he did for the perpetual remembrance of this
great and solemn action
to lay the greater obligation upon the people to be
true to their engagement; and as a witness for God
against the people
if
afterward he punished them for their defection from God
to whom they had so
solemnly and freely obliged themselves.
Set it up — As
a witness and monument of this great transaction
according to the custom of
those ancient times. Possibly this agreement was written upon this stone
as
was then usual.
By the sanctuary —
That is
near the place where the ark and tabernacle then were; for tho' they
were forbidden to plant a grove of trees near unto the altar
as the Gentiles
did
yet they might for a time set up an altar
or the ark
near a great tree
which had been planted there before.
Verse 27
[27] And
Joshua said unto all the people
Behold
this stone shall be a witness unto us;
for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be
therefore a witness unto you
lest ye deny your God.
It hath heard — It
shall be as sure a witness against you
as if it had heard. This is a common
figure
whereby the sense of hearing is often ascribed to the heavens and the
earth
and other senseless creatures.
Verse 32
[32] And
the bones of Joseph
which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt
buried they in Shechem
in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of
Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the
inheritance of the children of Joseph.
The bones of Joseph —
Joseph died two hundred years before in Egypt
but gave commandment concerning
his bones
that they should not rest in a grave
'till Israel rested in the
land of promise. Now therefore they were deposited in that piece of ground
which his father gave him near Shechem. One reason why Joshua called all Israel
to Shechem
might be to attend Joseph's bones to the grave. So that he now
delivered as it were both Joseph's funeral sermon
and his own farewell sermon.
And if it was in the last year of his life
the occasion might well remind him
of his own death now at hand. For he was just of the same age with his illustrious
ancestor
who died being one hundred and ten years old
Genesis 50:26.
Verse 33
[33] And
Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to
Phinehas his son
which was given him in mount Ephraim.
Given him — By
special favour
and for his better conveniency in attending upon the ark
which
then was
and for a long time was to be in Shiloh
near this place: whereas the
cities which were given to the priests
were in Judah. Benjamin
and Simeon
which were remote from Shiloh
tho' near the place where the ark was to have
its settled abode
namely
at Jerusalem. It is probable Eleazar died about the
same time with Joshua
as Aaron did in the same year with Moses. While Joshua
lived
religion was kept up
under his care and influence
but after he and his
contemporaries were gone
it swiftly went to decay. How well is it for the
gospel church
that Christ
our Joshua
is still with it by his Spirit
and will
be always
even to the end of the world?
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Joshua》
JOSHUA AND
SERVICE.
Joshua
24:13-25.
The
keynote of this Bible reading is the word “serve.” The children of Israel are
reminded whom they did serve (verse 15)
and whom they are to serve. The
expression
“ serve the Lord
” or “serve Him
” occurs nine times (verse
14
15
18
19
21
22 and 24).
Ⅰ.
Salvation is the ground of service. Israel
testifies what the Lord had saved them from
namely
from the bondage and
bitterness of Egyptian tyranny
and from the enemies which surrounded their
path as they were journeying to Canaan (verse 17
18); and as a consequence they
recognize that they ought to serve the Lord. This same principle is emphasized
in relation to the believer in Christ. We do not serve to be saved
but we are
saved to serve (Eph.2:8-10). We are not to do to be forgiven
but we are
forgiven to do.
“
Ah! nothing to do! for the sinner that’s dead
Must needs have another to work in
his stead;
And Jesus
in Calvary’s terrible hour
And the spirit set free that
aforetime was sad.”
Ⅱ.
Separation is the forerunner of service.
The command of Joshua is clear and cutting: “ Put away the gods” (verse
14
23). The vessels which God uses must be clean (Isaiah 66:20)
and all who
are associated with His service (Isaiah 52:11). We also must put away the idols
of the love of the world (1. John 2:15)
the pride of the flesh (111. John 9)
the worship of man (1. Cor.1:12)
the energy of human method for the Lord’s
work (1. Cor.2:13
14)
the love of money (1. Tim.6:10)
the exclusive affection
for earthly friends (Luke 14:26)
and the applause of men ( John 5:44). An idol
is any object that comes in between us and the Lord
to the exclusion of
Himself (1. John 5:21). The Lord cannot and will not use us in His service till
we are wholly separated to Himself.
Ⅲ.
Sincerity and truth are essentials in
service (verse 14). To serve the Lord “ in sincerity and in truth” is to
have two buttresses to the temple of our being
which give strength and beauty
to it. There were two pillars to the Temple of Solomon
which were called
Jachin and Boaz (1. Kings 7:21). The meaning of these names is suggestive.
Jachin signifies “ He will establish
” and Boaz means
“ In Him is strength.”
If we have in our character sincerity and truth
we shall have what these
pillars signify
namely
strength of heart and life
and establishment of soul
(Heb.13:9)
and shall thus be able to resist the onslaughts of evil and error
for we shall be like a house founded on a rock (Matt. 7:24).
Ⅳ.
Singleness of aim the strength of
service. The word of Joshua plays upon this one theme again and again—“
Serve the Lord.” The Lord demands our absolute service. He will not permit us
to divide our actions between Himself and someone else. “ Whatsoever ye do
do
it heartily as to the Lord” (Col.3:23); “ Whatsoever ye do
do all to the glory
of God” (1. Cor.10:31). “ Do all” is the Divine call and claim. This reminds us
that in our several relations we are privileged to serve the Lord
and that all
we do we should do to Himself. The child in the home
in the school
and at
play
the servant in the occupation
the mistress in the house
the master in
the business
and the workman in the shop
are in their several duties to serve
the Lord. How much better things would be done if in everything we did it as
to
and for the Lord Himself !
Ⅴ.
Supply the incentive to service. If
the “ therefore” of verse 14 is pondered in its context
it will be seen that
the reason why the Lord calls for the service is found in what He had given. “
I have given you
” ＆c.; “therefore fear the
Lord and serve Him.” The gracious love of God in giving Israel the good land
which they did not deserve was the incentive which should compel them to give
themselves in whole-hearted service to the Lord. In like manner God’s love to
us should constrain us to love Him; His faithfulness to us should be the
magnetic force to cause us to be faithful to Him. Christ’s death for us should
be the moulding power to make us die to sin; and His life should be the
elevator to life us to plain of walking as He walked.
── F.E. Marsh《Five Hundred Bible Readings》
24 Chapter 24
Verses 1-33
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem.
Joshua’s last farewell
I. God’s threefold
mercies.
1. Israel’s enlargement (verses 2-4).
2. Israel’s exodus (verses 5-7).
3. Israel’s entrance into Canaan (verses 8-12).
II. Joshua’s
threefold appeal.
1. He exhorts them to fear and serve this great and this good God.
2. To manifest in yet clearer light that the service of God is a
reasonable service
and to show the utter folly of idolatry
Joshua
in the
gravest irony
upholds the alternative for the adoption of the people
and
mocks the apostasy
the latent germs of which he knew too well ware in the
hearts of the great assembly before him.
3. Then
having
both with tender love and with withering scorn
set
forth the two alternatives
he declares his own resolute decision in words
which should be the motto for every ruler
and for every householder. This is
the true order of the growth of piety. First
individual consecration; then
follows family control; and then the third stage in the gradation--namely
public influence--will not be lacking.
III. Israel’s
threefold covenant.
IV. A threefold
affidavit to Israel’s covenant.
1. The first is the memory of the transaction in the minds of the
people themselves.
2. Joshua himself
moreover
puts the whole matter into writing
even as we have it here before us in this last chapter.
3. But there is another testimony that shall witness against Israel
if they apostatise--“a great stone
” which he places beneath the oak in
Shechem
“that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.”
V. A threefold
seal to god’s promises. The Book closes with the mention of three burials. In
the peaceful graves of three of God’s saints we seem to see three seals to the
truth of God’s Word. These holy men once served Him among strange nations
but
now their bones are laid within the borders of the promised land. (G. W.
Butler
M. A.)
Joshua’s last appeal
It was at Shechem that Joshua’s last meeting with the people took
place. There was much to recommend that place. It lay a few miles to the
north-west of Shiloh
and was not only distinguished as Abraham’s first
resting-place in the country
and the scene of the earliest of the promises
given in it to him; but likewise as the place where
between Mount Ebal and
Gerizim
the blessings and curses of the law had been read out soon after
Joshua entered the land
and the solemn assent of the people given to them. And
whereas it is said (verse 26) that the great stone set up as a witness was “by
the sanctuary of the Lord
” this stone may have been placed at Shiloh after the
meeting
because there it would be more fully in the observation of the people
as they came up to the annual festivals (1 Samuel 1:7; 1 Samuel 1:9).
1. In the record of Joshua’s speech contained in the twenty-fourth
chapter
he begins by rehearsing the history of the nation. He has an excellent
reason for beginning with the revered name of Abraham
because Abraham had been
conspicuous for that very grace
loyalty to Jehovah
which he is bent on
impressing on them. We mark in this rehearsal the well-known features of the
national history
as they were always represented; thy frank recognition of the
supernatural
with no indication of myth or legend
with nothing of the mist or
glamour in which the legend is commonly enveloped. And
seeing that God hath
done all this for them
the inference was that He was entitled to their
heartiest loyalty and obedience. Never was a good man more in earnest
or more
thoroughly persuaded that all that made for a nation’s welfare was involved in
the course which he pressed upon them.
2. But Joshua did not urge this merely on the strength of his own
conviction. He must enlist their reason on his side; and for this cause he now
called on them deliberately to weigh the claims of other gods and the
advantages of other modes of worship
and choose that which must be pronounced
the best. There were four claimants to be considered--
Make your choice between these
said Joshua
if you are
dissatisfied With Jehovah. But could there be any reasonable choice between
these gods and Jehovah? It is often useful
when we hesitate as to a course
to
set down the various reasons for and against--it may be the reasons of our
judgment against the reasons of our feelings; for often this course enables us
to see how utterly the one outweighs the other. May it not be useful for us to
do as Joshua urged Israel to do?
3. But Joshua is fully prepared to add example to precept. Whatever
you do in this matter
my mind is made up
my course is clear--“as for me and
my house
we will serve Jehovah.” He was happy in being able to associate his
house with himself as sharing his convictions and his purpose. He owed this
in
all likelihood
to his own firm and intrepid attitude throughout his life. His
house saw how consistently and constantly he recognised the supreme claims of
Jehovah. Not less clearly did they see how constantly he experienced the
blessedness of his choice.
4. Convinced by his arguments
moved by his eloquence
and carried
along by the magnetism of his example
the people respond with enthusiasm. But
Joshua knew something of their fickle temper. He may have called to mind the
extraordinary enthusiasm of their fathers when the tabernacle was in preparation;
the singular readiness with which they had contributed their most valued
treasures
and the grievous change they underwent after the return of the
spies. Even an enthusiastic burst like this is not to be trusted. He must go
deeper; he must try to induce them to think more earnestly of the matter
and
not trust to the feeling of the moment.
5. Hence he draws a somewhat dark picture of Jehovah’s character
lie dwells on those attributes which are least agreeable to the natural
man--His holiness
His jealousy
and His inexorable opposition to sin. “Ye
cannot serve the Lord
” said Joshua; “take care how you undertake what is
beyond your strength.” Perhaps he wished to impress on them the need of Divine
strength for so difficult a duty. Certainly he did not change their purpose
but only drew from them a more resolute expression.
6. And now Joshua comes to a point which had doubtless been in his
mind all the time
but which he had been waiting for a favourable opportunity
to bring forward. He had pledged the people to an absolute and unreserved
service of God
and now he demands a practical proof of their sincerity. He
knows quite well that they have “strange gods” among them. Minor forms of
idolatry
minor recognitions of the gods of the Chaldaeans and the Egyptians
and the Amorites
were prevalent even yet. What a weed sin is
and how it is
for ever reappearing! And reappearing among ourselves too
in a different
variety
but essentially the same. For what honest and earnest heart does not
feel that there are idols and images among ourselves that interfere with God’s
claims and God’s glory as much as the teraphim and the earrings of the
Israelites did?
7. And now comes the closing and the clinching transaction of this
meeting at Shechem. Joshua enters into a formal covenant with the people. When
Joshua got the people bound by a transaction of this sort
he seemed to obtain
a new guarantee for their fidelity; a new barrier was erected against their
lapsing into idolatry. And yet it was but a temporary barrier against a flood
which seemed ever to be gathering strength unseen
and preparing for another
fierce discharge of its disastrous waters.
8. At the least
this meeting secured for Joshua a peaceful sunset
and enabled him to sing his “Nunc dimittis.” The evil which he dreaded most was
not at work as the current of life ebbed away from him; it was his great
privilege to look round him and see his people faithful to their God. It does
not appear that Joshua had any very comprehensive or far-reaching aims with
reference to the moral training and development of the people. His idea of
religion seems to have been a very simple loyalty to Jehovah
in opposition to
the perversions of idolatry. For his absolute and supreme loyalty to his Lord
he is entitled to our highest reverence
This loyalty is a rare virtue
in the
sublime proportions in which it appeared in him. The very rareness
the
eccentricity of the character
secures a respectful homage. And yet who can
deny that it is the true representation of what every man should be who says
“I believe in God the Father almighty
maker of heaven and earth”? (W. G.
Blaikie
D. D.)
Dying charges
The world long remembers Jonathan Edwards’s dying charge to his
family: “Trust in God
and you have nothing to fear”; or the English Samuel
Johnson’s exhortation to his physician
“Doctor
believe a dying man: nothing
but salvation by Christ can comfort you when you come to lie here”; or a
departing President
like Jackson
saying
“Religion is a great reality: the
Bible is true.” These and a thousand other instances testify that a thoughtful
man going the way of all the earth is pretty certain to have his thoughts fixed
on the place to which he is going and the preparation he and those around him
may need for that journey. (W. E. Knox
D. D.)
Verse 4
I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir.
Certain singular subjects
I. History and the
hand of God in it. See: “I gave”; and then again
“I gave.” It is not merely
that Esau and Jacob were born of Isaac and Rebekah
but the Lord says
“I gave
unto Isaac Jacob and Esau.” How plainly doth this declare that the hand of God
is in human history! At first sight history seems a great tangle
a confusion;
but on looking at it more closely we perceive that it is only in appearance a
maze
but in fact a marvellous piece of arrangement
exhibiting perfect
precision and never-failing accuracy.
1. We see the hand of God in history very strikingly in the raising
up of remarkable men at certain special periods. “I gave unto Isaac Jacob and
Esau”: children are the gift of God. This is true not only of Isaac but of all
mortal men. God gave to a worthy couple
George Washington; to another pair
John Howard; and to a third
George Whitefield. Each of these
in his own
special way
was a Divine gift to men. Children are born with different talents
and varied capacities
but all about them which will make them blessings is the
gift of God.
2. So also is the hand of God distinctly to be seen in all great
events. If Esau captures Mount Seir
then the setting up of the Edomite
dominion
bad as it may have been
is from another point of view a matter in
which God’s purpose and design are to be noted
for He says: “I gave Esau mount
Seir.” In everything that happens
be it small or great
the Lord is present
and His will is done. It is so in all the plottings and manoeuvrings of kings
and princes and senates
in the stirs of public opinion
in the marchings of
armies
and in all that transpires among mortal men. Though the iniquity of man
is seen abundantly
yet the overruling power of God is never absent.
3. To us the hand of God is very visible in our own case. Look at
the hand of God that gave to you and to me such parents as we have: I mean
those of us who have the great delight of having descended from Christian men
and women. Had we anything to do with that? And yet the greatest part of man’s
future depends upon the parents of whom he is born. Is not the hand of God in
it?
4. And do we not see the hand of God
again
in our children? Bring
these gifts of God to God
and say
“Here
Lord
are the children which Thou
hast given me. O Lord
let Thy name be named on them
and let Thy grace be
glorified in them.”
5. Observe
further
that the Lord’s hand is in all the prosperity
which He gives to any. He says
“I gave unto Esau mount Seir
to possess it.”
It is by God’s allotment that temporal things fall as they do: even the ungodly
have their portion in this life by Divine grant.
6. And
once more
God’s hand is to be seen in the place in which we
live. If Esau lives in Mount Seir
it is because God appoints him to be there;
and if Israel goes down to Egypt
it is for the selfsame reason. If you and I
remove from one place to another
it is sweet to see the cloud moving before
us
and to know that the Lord directs our way.
II. Birth and its
disappointments. “I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau
” twin children born of
godly parents. In that birth there was joy
but sorrow came by it as well as
joy. Children are certain cares and doubtful comforts. They may bring to their
parents such sorrow that they may be inclined to think the barren happier than
the fruitful. Hence it is well for us to leave our hopes of posterity with God;
and if we reckon that in a childless house we have missed a great joy
we ought
also to reckon that we have missed a mint of trouble by the same fact.
III. Worldlings and
their possessions. Why does God so often give possessions to ungodly men? Why
do they flourish? Why do they have their portion in this life? Is it not
first
because God thinks little of these things
and therefore gives them to
those of whom He thinks little? “Why
” said Luther in his day
“the whole
Turkish empire is but a basket of husks that God gives to the hogs
and
therefore He hands it over to the unbelievers.” Something infinitely better is
reserved for the Lord’s own family. The rich blessing of true grace He reserves
for His children and heirs. Do you wish that ungodly men should have less? For
my part
I am reconciled to their present prosperity
for it is all they ever
will have. Poor souls
let them have as much of it as they may here; they have
nothing hereafter. Let those have the treasures of this present evil world who
have nothing else. Never quarrel with the Lord for saying
“I gave unto Esau
mount Seir
to possess it.” Besides
these comforts may lead them to reflect
upon God’s bounty to them; and at any rate they ought to move them to
repentance.
IV. The chosen of
God and their trials. Esau reigns
but Israel serves; Esau set his nest on
high
but Israel crouched by the reeds of the river. The worldling would read
the Scripture as if it said
“As many as I love
I caress and pamper”; but the
Lord speaketh not so; His word is
“As many as I love
I rebuke and chasten”;
“Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” To carnal reason this seems strange;
faith alone can explain it.
1. Israel and his children went down into Egypt
first
for their
preservation. Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions. The salt and
bitterness of sorrow often preserves men from the gall and bitterness of sin.
2. They went down into Egypt
next
for their improvement. God often
thrusts His people into adversity that He may improve them
arouse them
instruct them
and ennoble them. See to it
that the Lord’s design be fulfilled
in you to the full. May the fire and the file
the crucible and the flame
work
in you a clearance of dross and rust
and make you pure and bright.
3. They also went down into Egypt for their education. The chosen
seed needed teaching; they were getting to be rustic
not to say barbarous
in
their manners; acquirements and knowledge were scant among them. They must go
down into the seat of ancient learning to acquire arts and sciences and
civilisation. For future usefulness it is well that we bear present sorrow
and
like Jacob go down into Egypt.
4. And they went down to Egypt
again
that God might display His
great power in them. It is worth while to go down into Egypt to come out of it
with a high hand and an outstretched arm. Oh
the glory of the Lord in His
redeemed! Oh
the lofty destiny of the tried people of God! Oh
the sublimity
of their lives even now! There is God in them; there is God about them. “Jacob
and his children went down into Egypt.” That is where the story ends
according
to my text; but you know the story does not end there after all; for out of
Jacob and his children came the Star
the Sceptre
and the Throne. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Verse 12
Not with thy sword
nor with thy bow.
Not with sword or bow
A very necessary reminder
applicable to both the hour of conflict
and victory. Both seasons have their own dangers. There is no final conflict or
victory in this life; only when death has finished our course should we be
hopeless or exultant. Each contest is but a single event of a series
and the
one
though leading to others
does not of necessity determine the character of
them all. Defeat to-day does not mean defeat to-morrow
any more than success
to-day means the same in the next encounter with the hidden powers of darkness.
No man is safe on this side the grave. So for each
for all
these words may be
for encouragement and direction. The cause of failure may be discovered
and
the remedy be pointed out
or the way which shall lead to entire possession of
the fulness of God’s blessedness may be known
as each and all shall remember
that “it is not by thy sword or thy bow.”
I. Life’s conflict
must be met by human effort and energy. The promise of the land as an
inheritance to the people of Israel is most distinct. Everywhere God said He
would give it. Was there not some reason
then
in the expectation that they
should have the land without any very special trouble? Is there so much to be wondered at in the
disappointment of the spies when they saw they had to fight? One would have
thought that the people would have walked in at one side while the inhabitants
walked out at the other. God could have done it without the intervention of
human effort at all. But this is not the point. What God did
as we learn from the
history of this period
was
He used the sword and the bow of the people to
secure to them the promise He had given to their fathers. And though no such stipulation is
anywhere directly stated
yet universally we find that the human effort and skill
are needful to the attainment of the gift of God. And it is just so with all
that has to do with God. He has
endowed us with certain powers which He calls upon us to exercise. When
then
on the one hand we sit down quietly and say
“God has promised and will perform--there is
nothing for me to do
” or when we refuse to do anything because of our great
weakness
or when we fail to call upon our powers of mind and heart to rise
against the inroads of our spiritual enemies
or quietly submit when we are
taken captive in the snares of the devil
we are just putting ourselves outside
the pale of the directions which God has given us. So
too
when we ask God to
work for us
and make supplication to Him to remove trouble or give us light
and peace
if we say
“God can and will work
” and we do nothing ourselves
then we are forgetting this part of God’s ways. It is not by longing
wishing
desiring
however ardent
that God fulfils His loving purposes towards us; but
by prayer
girding up our minds
and resolute
undaunted courage
that we must
meet our foe--“with thy sword and with thy bow.” But what is the energy and
activity here indicated? You will observe that God has not endowed man with any
natural modes of offence or defence. The smallest insect is apparently better
equipped for the dangers of its life than we are. But God has given man a
stronger force than all. Will--moral force--the power of doing--are his; so
that though unarmed he is more fully equipped against the multifarious dangers
of his way. Nothing can assault him
but he can adopt such means as shall
protect--such measures as shall totally defeat the foe. He has the sword and
the bow. Moral dangers must be met by moral means
e.g.
conscience must
be kept clear
its voice must be listened to
and when heard the will must
without hesitation obey. Spiritual blessings must be obtained by spiritual effort.
God has promised them
He will give; but you must overcome the obstacles. Will
you have the promise? then adopt the means needful. If you would scale the
mountains
you look for a guide
and take provisions
and put on suitable
dress. “Put on the whole armour of God.” Just as the poor shipwrecked one lays
hold of the floating spar for very life
so you must lay hold of God
and
laying hold of Him
do what He tells you. Cannot! No such word ought to be used. “I can
I will!”
these are your sword and bow
and if you would extract blessing out of
everything it must be by their use
and only thus will you gain the end you
desire. But then it must be “thy” sword and “thy” bow. There is a speciality
here. It is the act of the individual
the perseverance of the man.
II. Life’s conflict
is not won by the human effort and energy. The greatest effort cannot obtain
the victory; the most stupendous energy cannot save from defeat. It is one
thing to meet the foe
it is another thing to win the day. And so our text
tells us that it is not by thy sword nor by thy bow. You must fight
but God
gives the victory. It is not won by your fighting
but by God’s aid. It is not
secured by your prowess
but by God’s strength. It is all God
not you. (H.
W. Butcher.)
Verse 13
And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour.
The inheritance of the past
The substance of these closing words of the old Hebrew chief
amounted to this: they had had vastly more done for them than they had done or
could have done for themselves. They were not the sole nor the chief architects
of their own fortunes. At this stage in the fortunes of their national life the
prescient eye of Joshua saw the resulting perils from the disposition among
them to forget their past history and to magnify the personal element in their
present gains and security. There is but one step between the temper of
boastfulness and the decadence and demoralisation of a nation’s life. Modesty
simplicity
self-knowledge
and a devout recognition of its profound
indebtedness to the past--these are among the prime elements of national wealth
and prosperity. And Joshua’s was that warning voice whose authority and
experience and disinterested patriotism
as with all similar men in all
countries and times
served as the organ of the national conscience. It served
to remind them that a nation is not the growth of a day
that the highest
blessings of life are unattainable by our own unaided efforts
that manifold are the
forces which are working in the world to produce the life of each one of us
and that it is as inaccurate as it is ungrateful and boastful to impute to
ourselves the chief or the largest share in the production of all the good of
life that we enjoy. “I have given you a land for which ye did not labour.” To
every age and period
as it reviews its successes and takes stock of its gains
and advances
may be addressed these words of Joshua
with deep truth and
significance. The conditions of life amid which we live to-day constitute
veritably the promised land of the many generations of English and Scottish
life that have preceded us. In whatever way we turn we have much to make us
grateful for our progress
and to inspire us with a deep sense of that
providence whose guiding spirit is a fact as real and sacred of British history
as ever it was of Hebrew history. In regard to the political and social
troubles of the present--and they are both many and serious--and in regard to
the conditions of our human life to-day
whose frequent difficulty and
harshness sometimes makes us fretful and discontented
I do not know anything
which better tends to smooth out these wrinkles of impatient discontent
and to
inspire us with a feeling of our large and solid improvement in life
than to
take up
for example
the history of our own country
say some three or four
centuries ago
and fixing your reading and your attention mainly upon the
social condition of the people; upon the state of our commerce and all the
peaceful arts; upon the measure of personal freedom in matters of State or of
religion which was then possessed; upon the character of the public health and
the amount of disease and the averages of mortality in all ranks; upon the
degree of comfort which people had in their dwelling-houses; upon the general
level of morality and decency which the habits of society evinced--to contrast
all this with what requires no special course of reading
the public and
private life of society to-day in our land
its means of intelligence
its
measure of liberty
and all the other distinguishing qualities of our
civilisation to-day. Civilisation
in which word is comprehended art and
science and religion
and refinement of manner and speech
and the increase of
material comfort
and the spread of intelligence
and all things which beautify
or sanctify our human life and character
is no mere production of some one age
or country to which now and then some little measure of improvement is added at
irregular and incalculable intervals
but is the long
unbroken movement of
ascensional life going right back in its origins
into the dim
impenetrable
beginnings of human life and society. What is the utmost that we to-day have
done or can do set against the mighty sum of the world’s historical and
prehistorical life! We find the sense of enormous indebtedness in regard
for
example
to our religious possessions. The text reminds us of how that
thousands of years ago an Eastern people were feeling their way to religious
truths and ideas which
passing subsequently through the higher medium and
expression of Christianity
absolutely rule a vast part of the world’s life
to-day. We are debtors both to the barbarian and the Greek
to the Gentile and
to the Jew. In regard to the more restricted life of our own country and
nation
we are the sum and product of a large variety and infusion of forces.
And in the social order of our life there are few of us who need to be reminded
of how much that controls our lives to-day dates back to the far and
almost-forgotten past. Our constitutional liberties have been things of slow
accretion. And again
m the shape and character of our strictly personal life
it is no less true that we have entered upon possessions for which we did not
labour. There is one inheritance at least which is every man’s birthright
the
accumulated experience of his race and ancestry. The life
the conduct
the
temper
the traditions of our ancestry live in us. When we speak of a man as
coming from a good stock or a bad stock the phrase is significant of how
considerable is that element of character and tendency for which we did not
labour. We are not altogether the children of a day. We have taken a good many
centuries in making. Let me urge upon you the duty which these considerations
bring before us of maintaining an intelligent sympathy with the past
as an
essential condition of rightly understanding and controlling the present. It is
by liberally using the vast stores of accunmlated experience that we have
inherited; it is by tracking our social troubles to their roots in antecedent
conditions; it is by following the line of dogmatic and Church history to the
periods of germination and birth
that we shall be the most effectively armed
to meet the difficulties and to discharge the duties which every generation
has
in God’s name
to manfully overcome or fulfil. Let us not shrink from
them. Again
these considerations suggest to us the virtue and grace of
humility. “I have given you a land for which ye did not labour.” “We are not
our own
” wrote the apostle; “we have been bought with a price.” We are
ourselves but the last link in the interminable procession of the human race.
The true lesson of history and of religion is to make us feel how slight and
insignificant is our best work in comparison with the mighty whole. It is to
inspire us with the salutary and humbling feeling that our life is being guided
by an infinite power and wisdom
who can dispense with any one of us
but who
is indispensable to us. And once more: these considerations should guide us in
our duties as regards that unknown future which is ever lying in front of us.
What we shall be is being determined by what we are to-day. What the national
life will be a century hence is
in no small measure
dependent upon the
quality and policy of the national life to-day. Labour
then
in modest
self-forgetting devotion to the will of God and His abiding truths
so that the
future of the world’s life may be happier and wiser and purer for our lives. Labour
as men who
by the most absolute of necessities
will have to give an account
of their stewardship of life. Finally
take stock of your own lives
of all
that you have passed through
of all the blessings that have crowned your days
of the perils from which you have escaped
of the temptations you have
resisted
of the vast stores of life in which you have found your noblest
nutriment; and say how much of it originated in your own independent resources
and volitions
and how much of it came from sources far above and beyond any
power of yours. (J. Vickery.)
Verses 14-29
Now therefore fear the Lord
and serve Him.
The last days of Joshua
I. The
reasonableness of serving God (verses 14
15). To serve God
to obey Him
to
love Him
to submit heart and life to His control
is only a seemly and
adequate acknowledgment of claims felt to be just. God’s character
His mercy
His grace in the gospel
His promises of pardon
the gift of eternal life
through His Son
create an obligation which
if it be disregarded
makes our
attitude towards God not only sinful
but unreasonable. It is inconsistent with
all in us that is true and noble and manly. This is the paradox of sin: it
makes one conscious of placing an inferior good above the superior
of seeking
for dross and refusing the gold
of plucking a bauble and rejecting the crown.
II. The state of
mind required for the service of God (verses 19
20.) The service of God must
be born of something more than impulse. It must be the result of choice; it
must be the determined purpose of the whole being to enter and continue in a
life of obedience. To every one God is saying
“Choose ye this day whom ye will
serve.” Many desire to be Christians
they wish they were the servants of God
but they are unwilling to “choose” to become such. If for a time they set their
faces heavenward
they soon turn back. When they sink in the Slough of Despond
they struggle to be free on the side nearest the City of Destruction. Such need
to remember that
when the service of God is entered
the will is to be
unalterably set towards Him.
III. The right
attitude for those who propose to serve God. “Joshua wrote these words in the
book of the law of God
” &c. Joshua well understood the benefit arising
from such a formal enactment.
1. It would be a test of the strength of their purpose. Often the
way to disclose the feebleness of one’s Christian aims is to bring them to the
test of an open declaration--to ask
“Are you willing that others should know
that all should know
that you commit yourself unqualifiedly to be the Lord’s?”
2. It would be helpful by bringing to their aid the motive of
consistency. Most men desire to act in harmony with their past record.
IV. The value of a
single life devoted to the service of God. Joshua’s days are now ended. His
work is done
and he is ready for his reward. Few men have lived so worthily.
Men are needed everywhere of like decision
and who are ready to thus openly
declare for God. Will you be one? (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
Joshua
and his zest for the service of the Lord
This was a great event
and we ought to know the secret of its
causes. It was
we see
this old man Joshua’s burning
quenchless zeal for the
service of the Lord
kindled full five and sixty years before. It led to
results worthy to rank with the revival under Ezra
with the Pentecost at
Jerusalem and at Caesarea
with the conversion of Roman emperors and British
islanders to Christianity
with the Reformation and the triumphs of Wesley and
Whitfield.
I. Zeal for the
service of God is born of views which are taken of God. This plainly was the
case with Joshua; this was the case with the people also
and universally this
must be true. We are asked to view God as creation presents Him (Psalms 19:1-14.). This has
at least
the
merit of being poetry of the highest school; it is a thousand pities if it is
not true. Oh
does not this vast fabric suggest a God? Perhaps not; but we have
got the suggestion somehow
and to our anxious inquiries of her all nature
seems to give back a ready affirmative response. We are asked to view God as He
is presented to us in the phenomena of mind. One observes that these mental
phenomena taper away downwards to the tiniest forms of sentient life. One feels
that somehow it must and does
in a corresponding manner
expand in its upward
way
and when we have reached the loftiest heights of the finite we seem to
come in sight of the lowest rays of light from the throne of the Infinite mind.
Then if the Lord our God is one Lord
there will be a concentration of thought
on Him; our love will be undivided
rising to suitable proportions to its
Infinite object. We are asked to see God in His providence. This is a name we
give to a constantly-observed work resulting from an unseen Presence. We notice
the perpetual operation of certain great forces in nature
which say nothing so
distinctly as they say that they are only the expressions of an
all-comprehending and sufficient Power behind them. Can we connect this
governing power with that all-pervading mind
and with the creating power of
which we have spoken? Yes
I am sure of it. There are unattached threads in
all. They evidently find their complements in one another. Then if this is the
“God of my life
throughout my days my grateful powers shall sound His praise
my song shall wake with opening light
and cheer the dark and silent night.”
But all these are summed up and expressed by the Incarnation. You are asked to
view God in Christ. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son
hath declared Him.” It is when we view God thus that our zeal for His service
will rise and abound; will flow forth and overflow. “Were the whole realm of
nature mine
that were an offering far too small
love so amazing
so Divine
”
demands a house of prayer
a noble service
Christian toil
more than we can
give
or think to give.
II. Zeal for God’s
service is nourished by the views which we cherish concerning the character of
that service. Our experience and our observation are faithful witnesses hereto.
Joshua presents a severe but accurate view of God’s holiness
and then urges a
service that shall perfectly accord with it--a service that was pure
and
sincere
and true
and grateful. “Serve the Lord
” said he
“in sincerity and
truth.” “It must
” he meant to say
“be service of the heart rather than of the
hands.” A service which demands the heart nourishes the zeal born of right
conceptions of Jehovah. This is living bread
this is water of life. Our God
searcheth the heart
but we are not afraid
we are the more confident. The
sacrifices He desires are the broken heart
the contrite spirit (Isaiah 66:1-5). But outwardly and visibly
it must be pure
as inwardly it was sincere and true. The oldest forms of God’s
service were wealthy in sacrifice
and prayers
and Divine blessing. David
the
Homer
the Virgil
the Milton of the Hebrews
enriched that service by adding
psalmody and music. Later times added the stated reading of the Scriptures
and
later still we have the sacraments and the proclamation of the gospel. Of our
Christian ritual
then
we boldly say that it supplies us with the green
pastures and still waters of God’s Word. It has the spread table of heaven’s
bounties
if not dainties. It anoints the devout worshipper with a holy oil
and gives him an overflowing cup. It is the expression of the goodness and
mercy which follow every step of the pilgrim
making him glad to dwell in the
house of the Lord for ever.
III. Joshua’s
enthusiasm was perfected by his conviction of the influence which the worship
of God exerts on men. To tell the history of its influence on individuals is to
tell the story of every worthy instance of personal piety. You may seek for
them and you will find them among all ranks and kindreds. You may scan the
calendar of your own history
and its red-letter days are those you have spent
in the service of God. To tell its influence on families would be to write the
history of the best of earth’s households and homes from tent to palace. To
these God has kept covenant and showed mercy to the fourth generation. What a heritage
of mercy! Let us in our families see to it that the legacy never runs out. Let
the men of the fourth generation in this descent remember what they ought to
do. But how shall we tell its historic influence on the nation? It has supplied
the place of navies; invincible armadas have been scattered as forest leaves
before it. It has been better than armies
than revenue
than police. (G.
Woolnough.)
In sincerity and in truth.
Marks of being sincerely religious
Sincerity is the disposition of soul which alone can
recommend us to God
and incline Him to look with an eye of mercy upon the
errors and frailties of our conduct.
I. If we would
know whether we serve God in sincerity
let us look with an attentive eye into
our hearts
in order to trace the true springs or principles of our actions.
II. Another
evidence of our serving God in sincerity is
when we are as careful to preserve
a good conscience as to save appearances
and act with the same integrity in
secret
where God is the sole spectator of our actions
as when they lie open
to the view and observation of the world.
III. Another
evidence of our serving God in sincerity and in truth is
when we pay an equal
regard to the whole law
and mean not
by selecting some favourite duties
to
compensate for the habitual violation or neglect of others that happen not to
fall in with our taste and inclination.
IV. Another
evidence of our serving God in sincerity is
when we resist and overcome
temptations; for to serve God in those instances only where we are not tempted
to disobey is a very defective test of our integrity. The decisive proof is
when we are faithful to our duty in opposition to seducements
and reject every
solicitation that offers to corrupt us.
V. The last
evidence I shall mention of our serving God in sincerity is
if
in cases where
we are doubtful of the obligation or lawfulness of an action
we always incline
to do what appears most conformable to duty
what will best answer the ends of
piety
and be most conducive to the honour of religion. (G. Cart
B. A.)
Put away the gods which
your fathers served.--
An address to image-worshippers
Here is a forcible address to every image-worshipper
and
indeed
every image-possessor: “Put away these gods from you.” What have any who own
the Bible for their guide to do with these vain and worthless toys of sin
these devices of Satan
and degrading productions of ignorance
the very
perversions of reason
as well as the corruptions of revelation? They are
everywhere the contempt and derision of inspired truth. To make them is
directly prohibited
and to destroy them explicitly commanded
so that it may
be matter of wonder how any can plead for their use
under any plausibility or
pretence
as remembrancers only of spiritual and hidden realities. If in the
Church of the Old Testament the very mention of idols
or the keeping any
representations of them
became so offensive in the Divine eye
what shall be
said of any rivalship in the heart in services and worship offered to saints or
angels? Supplications and sacrifices
offered even to holy intelligences
must
be idolatry in its spirit
equally offensive to God and opposed to His Word as
the most degrading rites of the heathen. Oh
what false gods
what spiritual
imagery is formed within the chambers of the heart! Who does not need to put
them away
and to cleanse himself from the filthiness of flesh and spirit! How
easily does carnal affection change the best of things into the worst l There
is nothing but
through the corruption of imagination or sinfulness of
affection
may become an idol of the heart. Whatever denies to God supremacy of
love
and occupies the regards to be paid to spiritual and eternal realities
that is an idol to be put away; and happy are such who can say
“What have I to
do any more with idols?” Choice enters into the very nature of true and sincere
religion
so that none serve the Lord cheerfully
acceptably
and with profit
whose heart is not itself a willing offering. (W. Seaton.)
Verse 15
Choose you this day whom ye will serve.
The Christian’s choice
“Seem evil unto you to serve the Lord!” How can the service of the
Lord seem evil to any one who is not either wholly void of understanding or altogether
hardened against religious impressions? The service of God is exclusive. It
does not admit of interference
or of competition
or of divided homage. It
must have the whole man. He requires your whole heart--with all its principles
and dispositions
and sensibilities. And if your heart be thus surrendered to
Him
the conduct
which is but a demonstration of its influence and actings
will exhibit
in all its departments and in all its bearings a single regard to
His will and glory. Now
apply this test to yourselves. It is no doubt a strict
and searching one. But it is scriptural and true.
I. Choose you whom
you will serve--the Lord
or those idols which an evil heart of unbelief has
substituted in His place. You may allege that it does not seem evil to you to
serve the Lord. And
speculatively
this may be true; but
practically
it is
false. You think
you feel
you act
as if it did seem evil unto you to serve
the Lord. There is a latent repugnance in your minds to His service. There is a
real devotedness to those whom you ought not to serve which is essentially and
irreconcilably inconsistent with a real devotedness to Him whom you ought to
serve. And the idea that you are submitting to His sway
when you are
in fact
their slaves
merely because you reject the atrocious saying
that it is “evil
to serve the Lord
” and are not disinclined to do many things included in that
service
is all a delusion
which
however long it may last in this land of
self-deception and shadows
must inevitably be broken. Now
it is our wish that
this delusion
so sad and so fatal
under which you labour
should be broken
before the day of retribution comes. You have been “halting between two
opinions”; embrace one of them and abide by it. You have been trying to amalgamate
two systems: abandon the one
and cleave to the other.
II. “Choose you
this day whom ye will serve.” Having acknowledged that you have been in
error--grievous
perilous error--why should you delay forsaking it? Is not this
to belie your own professed convictions? “Choose you this day whom ye will
serve”; and instead of hesitating
as if you might still snatch another
pleasure before you renounce your connection with the world
account the time
past as far more than sufficient to have wrought the will of the flesh. Wonder
at the forbearance of God in not making you long since a monument of His
righteous anger against the unholy and impenitent. “Choose you this day whom ye
will serve”; because the sooner that you enter on God’s service
in its full
import
the sooner will you consult the dignity of that rational nature which
He has given you
and which you have been hitherto degrading. “Choose you this
day whom ye will serve”; because to delay the change which a right choice
implies will be the means of rendering it more difficult in the end. “Choose
you this day whom ye will serve”; for if you do not embrace the existing
opportunity of devoting your selves wholly and heartily to God
which is your
reasonable and bounden service
another opportunity may never be afforded. (A.
Thomson
D. D.)
Promptitude of choice recommended
I. The act of
choice.
1. Our choice should be Divine in its object. We should choose the
Lord for our God.
2. Our choice should be rational in its character. Let us wisely
consider what we are doing.
3. Our choice should be decisive in its nature.
4. Our choice should be practical in its operations. Having chosen
God
serve Him--
II. The period of
choice.
1. We should make our choice this day
because of the criminal
neglect of which we have been guilty.
2. From a view of the shortness and uncertainty of our time.
3. Because the present is the only time when God has promised the
aid of His Spirit.
4. Because the difficulty of choosing will increase in proportion to
our neglect of it.
III. The motives for
choice.
1. The capacity which we have for choice is a reason for its
exercise. God gives nothing in vain.
2. The perilous state in which we are without this choice is another
motive.
3. The happiness that results from our choosing God should prompt us
to comply with the requisition in the text. He who has chosen God is in a state
of safety and tranquillity. (Sketches of Sermons.)
Religion voluntary
personal
powerful
I. Religion is
voluntary.
1. The choice
how ever
is not between religion and no religion.
Man is a religious being. Religion is as necessary to his soul as breathing is
to his body. To be religious is a necessity
but the kind of religion adopted
is a matter of choice. In selecting religion
care should be taken to understand
fully the merits of each. The antiquity and popularity of a system
though they
show that such a system ought to be examined
are in themselves no arguments in
favour of its truth. Truth is beautiful though hated and hooted by the majority
of men. The diamond glitters however mean the setting. Like the diamond and the
star
truth is beautiful everywhere and always.
2. The choice of religion is limited as to time: “Choose you this
day.” The present time is God’s time and ours: “Now is the acceptable time.” We
know that; but as for to-morrow
as for the future
we know nothing.
II. Religion is
personal. He says
“Choose you.” It cannot be done by proxy. Every man must
come to God himself.
III. Religion is
powerful. Religion is life; life is example; and example is almost omnipotent.
The smallest pebble cast into the quiet pool causes a series of undulations
and the smallest of these leaves its impression
for millions of ages
on the
shore; so does the feeblest soul of man
renewed by grace
make a series of moral
impressions on the world--impressions whose record will be legible throughout
all eternity. (Evan Lewis
B. A.)
On choosing the service of God
It is an act of choice
of preference
to which you are
called; one of the most familiar
every-day acts of the mind. You are called to
change masters; to renounce the world as your portion and to choose God as your
portion; to submit to His authority and control
and henceforth live
not to
your self
but to Him who died for you and rose again. And this act of choice
or preference is of the nature of a supreme
governing purpose of the
mind--such a purpose as gives direction to the current of feeling and desire in
the soul.
1. Is it not right that you should choose God as your portion and
His service as that which should engage your supreme regards? He is in Himself
a being of boundless excellence and glory; your creator
preserver
benefactor
and ruler.
2. The duty in question is enjoined by express command of God.
3. This is a duty which perfectly accords with the nature and
destiny of the intelligent
immortal mind with which the Creator has endued
you.
4. The choice of God
as the being whom you will serve
is the sum
and substance of religion; and you ought all to be religious; friends of God
and followers of the Saviour.
5. Every man must choose either God or the world as his portion; and
according as he chooses the one or the other
so is his character in the sight
of God
and his condition in eternity.
6. There is nothing either within or without you which need prevent
your choosing the service of God. He who knows perfectly your frame
your
intellectual and moral faculties
and all the circumstances of your
condition--He
the God who made and upholds you in being
calls you to enter
into His service
to choose Him as your Lord and portion.
7. The service of God is the highest glory of your nature
the most
perfect freedom of rational moral beings; the surest and most abundant source
of inward comfort and outward prosperity. It exalts those who are devoted to it
to an alliance with the purest and noblest beings in the universe
with
prophets and apostles
and glorified spirits in heaven; with ministering angels
on high
and with God Himself
the supreme good. It sets the soul upon an
endless career of improvement in all that is worthy and good
opens before it
bright visions of heavenly glory
secures God’s presence and favour for its
support and guidance while passing through this world; brings Divine comforts
into the bosom in the hour of death
and finally exalts to everlasting rewards
in heaven. (J. Hawes
D. D.)
Our choice
I. Serve the Lord
because of His goodness.
II. Serve the Lord
because of His wondrous mercy.
III. Serve the Lord
because of His love. Let His love in dying for us cause us to serve the Lord.
IV. Serve Him
because of His providence.
V. Serve the Lord
also because of His salvation. (W. Birch.)
Serving the Lord
I. True religion
is a service to the lord. How well this was understood under the old
dispensation by truly good men! The Lord was set foremost as the aim of all
piety
not man. If you are in another’s service you do not follow your own
wishes
but his; you do not aim to please yourself
but him; your business is
to help him and promote his interests.
II. The beginning
of religion in the heart is with the choice of that service. Shall Christ have
dominion over you or the world? Who has the first right? What says reason? what
says conscience? what says the voice of your immortal interests? Thus
deliberates the soul in the crises of its history. All persons are to be
addressed in this matter as free moral agents.
III. To some persons
it seems an evil thing to choose the Lord’s service.
1. One reason is that which Joshua gives in the lesson: “Ye cannot
serve the Lord
for He is a holy God.” To choose His service is to renounce
sin. This is the secret of many irreligious lives.
2. It seems evil to give up idol worship.
3. There is a mortification of pride in the choice of God’s service
which often seems evil.
IV. Whether it
seems good or evil to choose the Lord’s service
there is a necessity of
choosing
and of choosing now.
1. Those Israelites were to weigh the fact that they did that day
make some choice. That is the serious dilemma of every awakened soul. You are
under the necessity of preferring the service of God or some other.
2. The more important
then
to note that the choice of to-day is
likely to be that of to-morrow and all time to come.
3. Last
but not least of all
your choice will have a controlling
effect on others. “As for me and my house
we will serve the Lord.” What a
lesson to all who are in high places! What an example for men of prominence in
every community! What an admonition to every father of a family! How
wide-reaching is the influence of such persons over the decision of others! (W.
E. Knox
D. D.)
The only alternative
There are few delusions more fatal
and yet more common
than that
of persons labouring to negotiate a treaty betwixt the service of sin and the
service of holiness
striving to reconcile the claims of Christianity with the
claims of the world. In many cases of every-day life
neutrality is not only
lawful
but commendable. But it is far otherwise in matters of religion and in
the high interests of immortality. Here no reserve can be admitted--no demur or
debate sanctioned--no discreet caution allowed.
I. The two sides
of the alternative proposed.
1. The first particularised is the tragical or fatal side. If you
choose this day to give yourselves up to the thrall of your turbulent passions
and to become the slaves of all ungodliness
then drown every rising
conviction
strangle in the birth all boding apprehensions and all gloomy
forecastings of the future.
2. But if you choose an opposite course
if you prefer the service
of Jehovah to the service of Satan
the pleasures of holiness to the pleasures
of unrighteousness
then stand not for a moment in fatal hesitation
but range
yourselves at once under the standard of the Cross and resign yourselves
without reserve and without condition
to the faith and obedience of the
gospel
to the love and service of Christ. Let everything bear attestation to
the fact that you consider you have a work to execute of great difficulty and
of infinite importance
on the issue of which the whole burden of the destinies
of endless ages is staked
and therefore you cannot permit your attention to be
for a moment diverted away from this one grand and all-absorbing business of
your existence
or your faculties to be engrossed by an inferior object.
II. The special
time when this option is to be made and this decision come to: “Choose ye this
day whom ye will serve.” In every relation and condition of human life much
depends on the cultivation of favourable junctures and the improvement of
propitious moments. The greatest revolutions that have taken place
the most
splendid victories that have been won
and the most permanent conquests that
have been achieved
have all depended upon a judicious estimate and critical
application of time. If it be true what a writer has observed
“that it is
possible to live a thousand years in a quarter of an hour
” it holds still
truer
that a few minutes lost or improved may decide the complexion of our
whole destiny for eternity. Seeing
then
that there is equal hazard and
criminality in every moment’s delay
in a business so critical and so momentous
as the restoration of the soul to God’s favour and image
and the insurance of
its eternal well-being
we would with all earnestness press it upon you as your
first
your predominant
and your ultimate interest
to give yourselves to God
now
to give yourselves to God wholly
and to give yourselves to God for ever.
(Joseph Sommerville.)
God’s service as a
choice
“Choose.” God speaks this word to every man amid the thunders of
Sinai and the pleadings of Calvary.
1. Christianity is a religion of reason
intelligence
not of
authority and force; it appeals to motives; it sets right and wrong
life and
death
before every man’s mind and calls upon him to choose between them.
2. The choice is voluntary. No deception is used
and no compulsion
of any kind. God never coerced a creature’s will
and He never will
even to
save him!
3. The choice in all cases is a personal one
in view of motives:
“Choose you
” &c. Each soul will decide his course and destiny
and wilt be
required to give account of himself at the judgment.
4. Every one is at liberty to decline God’s service just the same as
he is to enter it; but to refuse is to choose. Not to serve Christ is to serve
the devil.
5. Hence the entire responsibility of choosing rests on each
individual’s mind. (J. M. Sherwood
D. D.)
Reasons for choosing God’s service
1. Justice and equity
imperiously demand this of us.
2. The claims of gratitude join in enforcing it
3. The mysteries of redemption.
4. Our best interests are necessarily involved in it. (The
Pulpit.)
Joshua’s permission and determination
1. First as to the
permission. There is no leave given--and this we wish to be well observed--for
the renouncing religion altogether
but only of choosing between the true and
the false. Joshua does not say
“Choose whether ye will have the Lord or no
God”; but
“Whether ye will have the Lord or the gods of the idolators.” Rut we
may not suppose that Joshua here distinguishes atheism from idolatry
as though
the people might choose idolatry with a less degree of guiltiness than atheism.
He only assumes a broad principle
which the experience of mankind has all
along verified
namely
that a nation must have some religion
and that they
will worship false gods if they do not worship the true. And then observe
in
respect of this permission
that it does not argue indifference on the part of
Joshua as to the religion which the people might adopt. He leaves them indeed
free to make their election; but still he takes the most effectual made of
recommending truth to their acceptance. His declaration as to the religion
which he himself would uphold was the giving all his influence to the side of
righteousness; and it were not easy to imagine a more dexterous
and at the same
time a more powerful
method of bringing the Israelites to yew allegiance to
God than thus leaving them their choice
whilst he gave the weight of his own
example to the cause which he desired to support. And yet there is more than
this to be advanced with regard to the apparent refusal of Joshua to interfere
otherwise than by example with the national religion. It would be easy to
misrepresent the permission in question--to construe it into an intimation that
in matters of religion rulers should leave a people altogether to themselves;
but if you consider the circumstances of the Jewish nation when Joshua
delivered the address you will perceive that toleration is the only thing
enjoined
and not the non-interference of rulers with religion. The Jews were not
without an established religion when Joshua bade them choose between truth and
error. Their rulers
acting under the immediate direction of God
had woven a
system of worship into all the national institutions
and provided
by every
possible means
for the instruction of the people in the fear of the Lord.
Rulers cannot interfere with conscience
and having established what they know
to be the true religion
and determining to uphold it by their example
toleration
and not persecution
is their business. Therefore “choose you this
day whom ye will serve”; decide whether ye will be worshippers of Jehovah or
idolators with the Amorites. The intrepid leader of Israel’s thousands
resolved
even if deserted or opposed by his countrymen
that he would remain staunch
in his loyalty to Jehovah. He had satisfied himself as to the nature and
demands of true religion; and if none had espoused the same side
his purpose
was fixed--to stand alone in the championship of truth. This was sublime
because moral heroism; and Joshua was not a thousandth part as glorious when
crossing the Jordan as the captain of the Lord’s host
or bidding the sun stand
arrested in the firmament as when
contemplating the possibility of national
apostasy
with the image before him of the tribes whom he had led on to victory
abandoning the God who had fought all their battles
he uttered the permission
and the resolve--“Choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my
house
we will serve the Lord.”
II. Now
we had
intended to speak at length on Joshua’s determination
as we have done on his
permission; but
in handling the one
we have touched on most of the points
suggested by the other. The wisdom
for example
of Joshua’s choice is
demonstrated by the insufficiency of the reasons which were likely to produce a
different choice in the Israelites. Neither the antiquity nor the extent of
idolatry could justify its adoption; and if
therefore
the ranks of idolators
were swelled by accessions from God’s professed people
there would be nothing
to warrant a change of purpose in Joshua; and it would still be his wisdom
though it would ask great courage to act on the principle that the Lord alone
should be worshipped. Hence the wisdom of the determination requires no proof
whilst its boldness may well put us to the blush
when deterred
as we often
are
by a frown or a sneer
from avouching ourselves the resolved servants of
God. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
The evil and danger of fickleness in religion
I. An intimation
of the danger there is that a great part of the world may grow weary of
religion
even whilst it is taught in simplicity and truth.
II. An admonition
that such as are disposed to throw off the bonds of duty to their maker would
think seriously what sort of change they are about to venture upon
and how
they hope to be gainers by it.
III. The resolution
which prudent men will make
whatever others do
to continue in the practice of
it themselves
and preserve a conscientious regard to it amongst all that are
placed under their inspection. (Archbp. Secker.)
National religion
1. It is here supposed that a
nation must be of some religion or other. Joshua does not put this to their
choice
but takes it for granted.
2. That though religion be a matter of choice
yet it is neither a
thing indifferent in itself nor to a good governor
what religion his people
are of.
3. That true religion may have several prejudices and objections
against it: “If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord”; intimating that
upon
some accounts
and to some persons
it may appear so.
4. That the true religion hath those real advantages on its side
that it may safely be referred to any considerate man’s choice.
5. The example of princes and governors hath a very great influence
upon the people in matters of religion. (Archbp. Tillotson.)
Choose God now--a sermon to children
I. Choose. The
melancholy majority of men never did choose their course of life
but have been
content to take it from circumstances
from accident
from teachers
from
outward influences in which they happened to find themselves. And although they
may
step by step
have chosen immediate action for immediate results
what a
host of people there are that never set clearly before them the definite aim
for which they were living. Choose. Standing as you do at the parting of the
ways
get a clear notion of what you are aiming at
and do not let yourselves
be moulded by mere accident; do not let yourselves be mere children of impulse;
do not owe the shape of your lives to the pressure of circumstances; do not let
yourselves be ruled by the moment’s inclination; do not be like the weeds in
the stream
that move only as it flows. Do not be like the jelly-fishes in the
sea
that have no locomotion
or next to none
who are borne along helplessly
in the current. “Be a hammer
and not an anvil.” Choose! Do not let the world
shape you. Exercise your will
your reason
your conscience. Formulate your
purposes
say to yourselves what you mean to be and to do; and say it strongly
for this world is no place for weaklings; and wishes and inclinations and good
intentions are all very well
but they are not enough. Will and choose
and in
the name of God choose the right.
II. Choose God. I
mean choose the God that has come near to you in the Saviour that has loved you
and lived for you and died for you; and give your hearts up to Him to be cared
for
to be blessed
and your spirits to Him to be cleansed
and to be saved;
and then
yielding yourselves to Christ
you will have taken God for your
portion. Contrast for one moment the objects that are set before you for your
love
trust
and service. And opposite: what a rabble of bestial divinities!
Surely there need be no question where a man’s heart may fold its wings
like a
weary dove
and rest for evermore. For not only is there a contrast between the
objects
but there is also a contrast between the results.
III. Choose God now.
It can never be too soon to do what is right and noble; it can never be too
soon to do what is duty and safety. And let me tell you four reasons why I pray
you this. First
the peril of delay. It is not likely that many of you will be
laid in your graves before this day next year; it is certain that some of you
will. And because no hand can point to the one that will
let us
all listen to the beseeching
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Second
because of the rapidly increasing difficulty of making a choice
which is a
change. When the clay is on the potter’s wheel the lightest touch of the finger
can impress it with any form that he desires; when it is taken off and
hardened
nothing will change the shape of the vase but smashing it to
fragments. Thirdly
because of the loss that you sustain by delay. Why
should you be another day without the best blessing that a man can have? Why
should you be another day poorer than you need to be? Fourthly
because of the
bitter fruits which you are laying up for yourselves by delay
if ever you come
to Christ. I would have you “innocent of much transgression.” I would have you
to “grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
” that you may never have
to look back
in the event of a late return to Him
on a life all given to
idols
consumed for self and wasted by sin. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Moral masterhoods
I. All men have
some moral master. The moral monarch of the soul is the
object of its supreme regard; the predominant love evermore sways the soul.
II. The moral
master is always the object of choice. No soul is coerced into the service of
any object.
III. The sooner men
choose their moral master the better.
1. Because a wrong moral master will ruin you.
2. Because there is only one right moral Master--the Supreme One. (Homilist.)
Religion founded on reason and the right of private judgm
ent:--
I. I observe that
religion is a voluntary thing and a matter of choice. For mankind are beings
endued with reason and liberty
and this alone makes them capable of religion
and virtue. Without these powers they would be upon a level with brute
creatures
and it is the right or wrong exercise of them that constitutes the
moral good or evil of actions.
II. We may infer
from the text that no man can re obliged to embrace a religion that is evil
i.e.
contrary to reason and the moral fitness of things; but
on the contrary
is bound to reject it. If any scheme of religion undermines the perfections of
God
which the reason of our minds can demonstrate from certain principles
it
cannot be true. Again
that scheme of religion must necessarily be false
and
ought to be rejected with detestation
which dissolves or weakens the
obligations to universal purity
and tends to licentiousness and vice. And
though religion must be a voluntary thing and a matter of choice
it is
however
our duty
in order to the making this choice
to be diligent and
impartial in our inquiries. For the great Author of our nature hath endued it
with such faculties
as are proper to distinguish betwixt truth and error
and
appear to have been given us for this very purpose. There is also a fixed and
certain standard of truth in the reason of things which
in all cases of
importance and necessary influence upon our happiness
is sufficiently
clear and explicit to well-disposed minds. And again
though we may with safety
reject a religion that is unreasonable
that patronises vice
and is dishonourable
to Almighty God
yet it must be allowed that
in order to our being able to
judge whether it deserves that character or no
we must carefully and calmly
examine it.
III. We should
learn
from Joshua’s example
to re faithful to the cause of God and the
interest of religion and virtue even in times of most general corruption and
depravity. Singularity in things indifferent may generally perhaps be an
argument of weakness and folly
or of unbecoming stiffness and obstinacy;
but men have carried the argument much too far when they have paid so
great a compliment to custom as to urge it against the practice of virtue
itself. For the obligations of virtue are upon no considerations whatsoever to
be dispensed with
much less for a piece of foolish fawning complaisance
and a
man of reason would never consent to do a thing that was really dishonourable
for the sake of avoiding undeserved reproach. Again
to daze to be singularly
good is an argument of great resolution and strength of mind
and of a confirmed
and established virtue: for such must that virtue be which repels the contagion
of ill-examples
and flags not at reproaches and ill-treatment.
IV. I shall
conclude all with observing that the design of Joshua
to
use his utmost credit and influence with his more immediate dependents for the
support and maintenance of religion
was truly noble and generous
and what it
will be highly for the honour of every one of us to imitate. (James Foster.)
Joshua’s proposition and resolution
First
Joshua took it for granted that a nation must have a
religion of one sort or other. His whole address is built upon this principle;
and if there had been a middle way between serving the God of Israel and
serving other gods
his discourse would have been inconclusive. Some have
pretended that a society of atheists might be tolerably good
and regulated by
humane motives
by present rewards and punishments
by shame
disgrace
fear
honour
good-nature
reputation
and self-interest. But this cannot be. Take
away religion
and you take away with it the influence of conscience and the
strongest motives to social duties. Nothing remains on which mutual reliance
can be firmly grounded. All will be done in compliance with external power
and
every law will be disregarded
when it may be done with secrecy or impunity and
with any present pleasure or profit. Religion
then
is a matter of
deliberation and choice. Amidst the diversity of opinions and of worship which
divide the world
to walk at hazard in the first path that lies before us
and
to which birth and education direct us
and to continue boldly in it without
any sort of conviction that it is the right way
this is not the behaviour of
rational agent. God will be loved freely and unconstrainedly
and served by
choice and preference. He requires a reasonable service
and man being a
rational
a free agent
ought to be able to give some account and some reason
for his belief and his actions
and to be afraid to compare truth and
falsehood
God and an idol
and to examine which deserves the preference
is
doing wrong to God and to His truth. A third remark is upon the time when this
is to be done. There is an ago of life
and there are occasions
when every one
should resolve and make his choice. “Choose you this day
” says Joshua. To-day
with every person
is the time when his understanding is mature and
opportunities offer. In a Christian nation everything invites us to remember
our Creator--the voice of conscience
the example of the wise and good
and the
public religion. Here is another thing observable in the text. Joshua supposeth
that the Israelites might be weary of serving God
and think His laws to be an
unsupportable burden. If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord
how can it seem evil to any rational
creature to serve the true and the living Lord? But consult experience and
matter of fact
and you will find that men have often been disgusted at truth
and weary of a reasonable service. Thence the inconstancies
rebellions
idolatries
and apostasies of the Jewish nation. True religion hath its
difficulties and its dark side
and in some respects may be disagreeable. False
religions have in some respects more allurements
are more easy
and more
accommodated to indolent inattention
to carnal and corrupted minds. And yet
notwithstanding these advantages of error
no reasonable person can make it a
doubt which ought to be preferred. Religion hath its difficulties relating both
to faith and to practice
both to the understanding and to the heart. As to
faith
it contains things hard to be received by worldly-minded persons. I
observed before that false religions may in many respects be more agreeable
than the true one to persons of a carnal and sensual temper. Joshua supposed
that the religion of the Chaldeans or of the Canaanites might appear such to
the people of Israel
when he said to them
“If you will not serve the Lord
choose whether you will serve the gods of your forefathers or the gods of the
nations where you now dwell.” Here
then
were two false religions to choose
out of. Both might please them by their antiquity; and as to that of the
inhabitants of Palestine
the Israelites by adopting it might make themselves
acceptable to their neighbours. And both these religions
though they might
have different objects of worship or different names for their gods
agreed in
this
that they taught the worship of many deities and the use of images
and
such ceremonies as amused the senses
and required no integrity and purity of
heart. If you consider all the more remarkable false religions that have been
or are in the world
and all the corrupted systems of true religion
you shall
find that they recommend themselves by one or other of these four privileges
and characters--either antiquity or extent or ceremonious pomp
or an
accommodation to the follies and vices of men. “But as for me and my house
we
will serve the Lord.” If the doctrines of revealed religion concerning the
perfections and the providence of God and the doctrines of revealed religion
taught us in the gospel have in them some obscurity and difficulty
it is no
more than might justly be expected from the sublime subject. All atheistical
and idolatrous systems are
beyond comparison
harder to be admitted by a
reasonable man. The moral part of religion is conformable to our nature; and if
it be contrary to our depraved inclinations
that is our own fault. Religion
hath motives to induce us
examples to direct us
assistances for our
infirmities
and helps in time of distress; and if God be a holy and a jealous
God
He is also a God of mercy
who forgives and receives the penitent. The
boasted advantages and prerogatives of false religions are false and unsound at
the bottom. Having considered the wisdom of Joshua’s choice
let us consider
his person. He was the prince of God’s people
and
like Moses
had the
authority though not the title of king. Princes and rulers of nations are as
much obliged as the meanest of their subjects to serve God. Their example is of
great consequence
and whether they walk in the paths of virtue or of vice they
induce others to walk after them. Observe also that the prince of Israel
answers for himself and for his family. “I and my house will serve the Lord.”
He was a wise and a happy man; happy to be so fully assured of the good disposition
of his household. (J. Jortin
D. D.)
An honourable servitude
There are words which will never be popular--as service
servant
master. They carry the idea of humiliation. Every man seeks independence; all
aim for position to be at least equal to the highest
the best. Yet service is
honourable
if the master is sufficiently honourable. All men are servants of
some master. We are all under authority.
I. The service of
God is the most honourable in the world.
II. The honour is
to be seen in the work the christian is called upon to do.
III. Observe the
treatment received by those who serve God. A servant wishes kind
generous
just treatment. The service of Satan is at first pleasant
then ends in shame
and remorse. Where is the liberty of him who serves appetite
passion? Ask Lord
Byron. Said he
“I have not had ten happy days.” Lord Chesterfield declared
“I
have been the whole round of pleasure
and I am disgusted; and for myself
I
mean to sleep in my carriage for the rest of my journey.” Sinners
you think
you are free; loaded with shackles
yet know it not.
IV. The time will
come when the final settlement will be made. (G. E. Reed.)
Betweenites
I can see where you are
you betweenites. The saints will
be ashamed of you
because you did not join with Christ in the day of battle
and the adversary himself will despise you because you shrank away even from
him. Be one thing or the other. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A fated decision
A young soldier from Glasgow was talking to a comrade. In their
ears was the muffled sound
the “Dead March in Saul
” as a
comrade was carried to his last resting-place; and this Glasgow soldier
converted up there at Maryhill
was talking to his friend
and pleading with
him to come to Christ. The young Highlander there in the funeral march was
terribly impressed
and he said
“Jack
I will be a Christian when I leave the
service.” He had just nine months to put in. He said
“I am determined to be a
Christian when I leave the service.” Ah! that was his decision. Next week there
came orders for the 79th to embark for Egypt. The two friends were in the march
across the sands to the Arab encampment of Tel-el-Kebir
marching side by
side--the one with the acceptance of salvation in his heart
and the other
putting it off till he should leave the service. Softly did they walk across
these sands
silently did they steal through the darkness of midnight to the
camp of the slumbering Arabs; but the sentinels were on the alert
and they saw
a flash of light
and five hundred rifles from the Arab encampment poured their
bullets on the advancing Highlanders; and there
dead and cold
was the body of
the man who put off the acceptance till he should leave the service. Oh
comrade
what a fatal decision! (J. Robertson.)
As for me and my house
we
will serve the Lord.
Joshua’s choice
I. If we attend to
the writings of some
and the manners of more
in the present age
we shall be
led to think that we are not to serve either God or man; in a word
that we are
born free and independent. Why
we should not live six hours after our birth in
such a state. From the first moment in which we see light
we depend
for
preservation and support on the good offices of those around us; they depend on
others
and all on God. Man being thus dependent
it is but reasonable that he
should acknowledge such dependence
and that he should serve.
II. Whom he should
serve. For
as the apostle has remarked
“there are gods many and lords many
”
who
in different ages
have obtained the homage of mankind. The oldest and
first idolaters worshipped the powers of nature instead of the God of nature.
The world
with its fashions and its follies
its principles and its practices
has been proposed in form to Englishmen as the proper object of their attention
and devotion. A late celebrated nobleman has avowed as much with respect to
himself
and by his writings said in effect to it
“Save me
for thou art my
god!” At the close of life
however
his god
he found
was about to forsake
him
and therefore was forsaken by him. “I have run
” says this man of the
world
“the silly rounds of business and pleasure
and have done with them all.
I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world
and
consequently
know their
futility
and do not regret their loss. I think of nothing but killing time the
best I can now he has become mine enemy. It is my resolution to sleep in the
carriage during the remainder of the journey.” When a Christian priest speaks
slightingly of the world he is supposed to do it in the way of his profession
and to decry
through envy
the pleasures he is forbidden to taste. But here
I
think
you have the testimony of a witness every way competent.
III. How we are to
serve God. A concise way of coming at this will be
to reflect upon the
qualifications you require in a good servant
and to see that they be found in
yourselves
considered as the servants of God. These qualifications may all be
reduced to
two--that he be careful to know the will of his master and diligent to do it.
In our inquiries after the will
of God we are often apt to be partial. We inquire after only such parts of it
as may happen to coincide with our circumstances
our situation
our tempers
our constitutions
our interests. But there are no reserves in St. Paul’s
question: “Lord
what wilt Thou have me to do?” Whatever it may be
whatever
the difficulties
whatever the consequences
I am ready. There is yet a
different error in the conduct of men. It is when they employ themselves to
discover the obligations and the failings of others
entirely forgetful of
their own. The last mistake that shall be mentioned
relative to our inquiries
after the will of God
is
when we make those inquiries as matter of
speculation only
as an amusement of the mind. (Bp. Horne.)
Decision for the Lord
I. First
let me
describe it. It means many things
all of which must be wrought in us by Divine
grace
or we shall never possess them
though we may have their counterfeits.
1. Decision implies
first
that all hesitation is gone. You will
make no journey
O traveller
if
now that the sun is in its zenith
you do not
decide which way to walk! Mariner
your voyages will be scant if you much
longer lie at anchor! The season of favourable winds is passing away
and yet
your sail remains unfilled; will you never have solved the problem
“To what
port shall I steer? With what cargo shall I load my ship?” Is our life to end
in a constant repetition of the question
“What shall I be?”
2. This state of heart indicates superiority to the evil influence
of others. Our own understandings should now be exercised
or else why are they
given to us? God waits to guide us
but He would have us cry to Him
and not
follow the trail of our fellows.
3. Right decision for God is deep
calm
clear
fixed
well
grounded
and solemnly made. Joshua does not speak his determination lightly.
He speaks with immovable resolve: his soul is anchored and defies all
storms--“As for me and my house we will
despite crowds and customs
we will
despite temptations and trials
we will
despite idols or devils
to the end of
the chapter serve Jehovah.”
4. That resolve on the part of Joshua was openly avowed. That is
sorry courage which skulks behind the bushes: that is poor loyalty which never
utters the king’s name; that is questionable decision which dares not own itself
to be on the Lord’s side. Are you not ashamed of being ashamed
and afraid to
be any longer afraid?
5. In Joshua’s case his resolve was not only openly avowed
but
earnestly carried out. He was a soldier
and if any one had asked him
“Whose
soldier are you
Joshua?” he would have answered
“I am God’s soldier.” “Whose
battles do you fight?” “I fight the battles of Jehovah.” “And what is your
object in fighting?” “To glorify Jehovah.”
6. Joshua’s decision was adhered to throughout the whole of his life.
He had begun early in the service of God
and he never repented of it. Blessed
are they who have this abiding thoroughness in the cause of the Lord their God.
II. Let me now
praise decision. In religion nothing is more desirable than to be out-and-out in
it.
1. To enjoy religion you must plunge into it. To wade into it up to
the ankles may make you shiver with anxieties
doubts
and questionings
till
you resemble a trembling boy unwillingly entering a bath on a cold morning; but
to plunge into its depths is to secure a glow of holy joy. The central position
iii religion is the sweetest. The nearer to God the sweeter the joy.
2. Decision for God enables a man to direct his way. David prayed
“Lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies
” and the man who has made up
his mind by Divine grace that he will serve the Lord has that prayer fulfilled.
3. This saves many men from temptation. As a giant walks along
unconscious of the cobwebs across his path
so does a thoroughly consecrated
man break through a thousand temptations
which indeed to him are no longer
temptations at all.
4. Thorough-going men wield a mighty influence. Joshua was able to
speak for his house as well as for himself. Many fathers cannot speak for
themselves
and therefore you may guess the reason why they cannot speak for
their families.
III. I close by
demanding this decision for Christ which I have described and praised. Decision
is required because the Lord deserves to have it. He who made us ought not to
be served hesitatingly; He who gave His Son to die for us ought not to be
trifled with. By the splendour of Deity
and the glory of the Cross
I claim
your whole hearts for my Lord. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Joshua’s resolution to serve the Lord
I. The occasion of
these words.
II. What is included
in the resolution?
1. A solemn and exclusive worship of God from the heart.
2. In all the actions of our life to have respect to the will of
God
to seek to please Him
to seek to glorify Him.
3. There are three ingredients in the service of God that may be
considered as giving vitality to it.
III. Some of the
reasons why we should close with the resolution of Joshua.
1. It is our duty to serve the Lord from the relation in which we
stand to Him and the unspeakable benefits we derive from His goodness.
2. The grand distinction of man above the other creatures consists
in such a constitution of our nature as appears to have no other end or object
but that of qualifying us for the end of worshipping God.
3. Consider
next
the great rewards which hereafter necessarily
accompany the service of God.
4. Recollect
again
the impossibility of neutrality and the danger
of delay.
5. Recollect
in a very short time
if you are not employed in the
service of God
you will have no portion
no employment beneficial or dignified
or delightful to all eternity. (R. Hall
M. A.)
Concerning resolution and steadfastness in religion
I. Of the brave
resolution of a good man
that if there were occasion
and things were brought
to that extremity
he would stand alone in the profession and practice of God’s
true religion.
1. The matter of this resolution. Joshua here resolves that
if need
were
he would stand alone in the profession and practice of the true religion.
And this is not a mere supposition of an impossible case
which can never
happen; for it may
and hath really and in fact happened in several ages and
places of the world.
2. The due limits and bounds of this peremptory resolution. In all
matters of faith and practice which are plain and evident
either from natural
reason or from Divine revelation
this resolution seems to be very reasonable;
but in things doubtful
a modest man--and every man hath reason to be so--would
be very apt to be staggered by the judgment of a very wise man; and much more
of many such
and especially by the unanimous judgment of the generality of
men
the general voice and opinion of mankind being next to the voice of God
Himself.
II. To vindicate
the reasonableness of this resolution from the objections to which this
singular and peremptory kind of resolution may seem liable.
1. It may very speciously be said that this does not seem modest for
a man to set up his own private judgment against the general suffrage and vote.
And it is very true that about things indifferent a man should not be stiff and
singular
and in things doubtful and obscure a man should not be over-confident
of his own judgment; but in things that are plain
either from Scripture or
reason
it is neither immodesty nor a culpable singularity for a man to stand
alone in defence of the truth
because in such a case a man does not oppose his
own single and private judgment to the judgment of many
but the common reason
of mankind and the judgment of God plainly declared in His Word.
2. It is pretended that it is more prudent for private persons to
err with the Church than to be so pertinacious in their own opinions. To which
I answer
that it may indeed be pardonable in some cases to be led into mistake
by the authority of those to whose judgment and instruction we ought to pay a
great deference and submission
provided always it be in things which are not
plain and necessary; but surely it can never be prudent to err with any number
how great soever
in matters of religion which are of moment
merely for
numbers’ sake; but to comply with the known errors and corruptions of any
Church whatsoever is certainly damnable.
3. It is pretended yet further
that men shall sooner be excused in
following the Church than any particular man or sect. To this I answer
that it
is very true
if the matter be doubtful
and especially if the probabilities be
equal
or near equal
on both sides; but if the error be gross and palpable
it
will be no excuse to have followed any number of men
or any Church whatsoever.
4. It is objected
that as
on the one hand
there may be danger of
error in following blindly the belief of the Church
so
on the other hand
there is as great a danger of schism in forsaking the communion of the Church
upon pretence of errors and corruptions. Very true; but where great errors and
corruptions are not only pretended
but are real and evident
and where our
compliance with those errors and corruptions is made a necessary condition of
our communion with that Church
in that case the guilt of schism
how great a
crime soever it be
doth not fall upon those who forsake the communion of that
Church
but upon those who drive them out of it by the sinful conditions which
they impose upon them. (Abp. Tillotson.)
Concerning family religion
I. I shall show
wherein the practice of this duty doth consist. The principal parts of it are
these following:--
1. Setting up the constant worship of God in our families.
2. Instructing those committed to our charge in the fundamental
principles and in the careful practice of the necessary duties of religion.
3. I add further
as a considerable part of the duty of parents and
masters of families
if they be desirous to have their children and servants
religious in good earnest
that they do not only allow time and opportunity
but that they do also earnestly charge them to retire every day
but more
especially on the Lord’s day
to pray to God for the forgiveness of their sins;
and for His mercy and blessings upon them
and likewise to praise Him for all
His favours conferred upon them from day to day.
4. One of the most effectual ways to make those who are under our
authority good is to be good our selves
and by our good example to show them
the way to be so. Without this our best instructions will signify but very
little
and the main efficacy of them will be lost.
II. Our obligation
to it.
1. In point of duty. All authority over others is a talent entrusted
with us by God for the benefit and good of others
and for which we are
accountable
if we do not improve it and make use of it to that end.
2. We are hereto likewise obliged in point of interest; because it
is really for our advantage that those that belong to us should serve and fear
God
religion being the surest foundation of the duties of all relations and
the best security for the true performance of them. Would we have dutiful and
obedient children
diligent and faithful servants? Nothing will so effectually
oblige them to be so as the fear of God and the principles of religion firmly
settled in them.
III. The causes of
the so common and shameful neglect of this duty
to the exceeding great decay
of piety among us.
1. This may in good part be ascribed to our civil confusions and
distractions.
2. This great neglect and decay of religious order in families is
chiefly owing to our dissensions and differences in religion
upon occasion
whereof many
under the pretence of conscience
have broke loose into a
boundless liberty.
IV. The very
mischievous and fatal consequences of the neglect of this duty.
1. To the public. Families are the first seminaries of religion
and
if care be not there taken to prepare persons
especially in their tender
years
for public teaching and instruction
it is like to have but very little
effect.
2. To ourselves. We can have no manner of security of the duty and
fidelity of those of our family to us if they have no sense of religion
no
fear of God before their eyes. If children were carefully educated
and
families regularly and religiously ordered
what a happy and delightful place
what a paradise
would this world be in comparison of what now it is? (Abp.
Tillotson.)
Joshua’s resolution
I. True religion
consists in the service of God.
II. They who truly
serve god make his service a matter of choice.
III. If the service
of god is the object of our choice
it is our duty to engage ourselves to it by
open profession and solemn covenant.
IV. If we have
devoted ourselves to the service of god it is our duty to use every means to
engage others in it. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
Historical and family religion
The valedictory charge of Joshua clearly shows that the Jewish
religion was built upon a definite historical experience; was founded on the
rocks of impregnable fact. Never in the whole course of their history had the
Israelites found God unfaithful to His promises or forgetful of His
threatenings; and as God had been from the beginning
so (said Joshua) will He
continue to the end. What God has been He will ever be
what tie has done He
ever will do--therefore “choose ye
” said Joshua
“this day whom you will
serve.” If history proves that the Lord Jehovah is God
then follow Him and
faithfully obey His voice. This
then
is what we mean by an historical
religion. An historical religion is an appeal to the witness of the past as a
groundwork and reason for present allegiance to God. And as the Jewish religion
was an historical religion
so also is the Christian religion. The Christian
religion is not a doctrine of ideas
an untested philosophical theory: it is
founded on the life of an historical Person
for Christ is no less historic
than Divine. And as Jewish leaders and prophets appealed to the witness of
history
so likewise have Christian guides and teachers
from the earliest
times
made history a principal reason for faith. All true religion
however
and most notably the religion of the Bible
is much more than an historic
faith. Its foundations lie deep and strong in history; but its superstructure
is continuously and essentially practical. Historic religion
like historic
knowledge
is useless unless it serves as the guide and inspiration of daily
conduct. The use of history chiefly consists in its application of the
experiences of the past to the circumstances and resolutions of the present. It
was this use to which Joshua applied the striking historical survey of his
great valedictory charge. Upon the ground of their historical experiences he
based his fervid appeal to the Jewish people to make choice of Jehovah as their
national Deity
and to remain consistently faithful in their allegiance to Him.
Whatever became of the national religion
his own family religion at least
should be settled and unwavering in its loyalty to Jehovah. Family religion is
the best beginning for all religious life. The Church in the house is the best
temple for the education of righteousness and true holiness. As the sun is the
centre of the earth’s light and heat
so from the family radiates throughout
the world the heat and light of religion. When families are religious
nations
are religious; when families are religious
individuals also are religious.
Even the very structure of the Bible seems to lend authority to the conviction
of the primary importance of family religion. The three great divisions of the
Old Testament--the law
the prophets
the psalms or hagiographa--broadly
represent the three great spheres in which religion ought to work. The book of
the law
the foundation of all revelation
was written during the patriarchal
period. It describes the origin
the management
the sacred functions
of the
family. In the New Testament
also
great stress is laid upon family religion.
As nature makes families into little kingdoms
so Christianity makes families
into little Churches. It was in the devotion of family life that Jesus nursed
His faculty for worship and His character for holiness. It is impossible to
conceive any institution hedged round with more firm and higher walls than the
institution of the family. The New Testament regards the family as a Divine
institution
and its relationships as sacred
heavenly
relationships. It
cannot but be that an institution with an origin and sanctions so Divine
should be intended to work out great blessings for humanity. And all experience
proves that family love and family religion are more fruitful of happiness and
holiness than any other single source; and that family discords and family
irreligion are the cause of endless miseries and countless iniquities. (Canon
Diggle.)
The cloister of grapes; or
family prayer
Man
we all know
is not made to live alone. None of us could do
so
even if we wished it. As no man can come into the world without a father or
mother to bring him into it--as no child
when it has received the gift of
life
could keep that gift for much more than a single round of the clock
without some one to tend and feed it--in like manner
after we are grown up
and have gained strength to stand alone
we still need the help of our brethren
in a thousand ways. Every worthy and reasonable and honourable work which man
is permitted to perform can only be performed by him so far as he lives in
union and communion with his brethren. Thus too is it with the highest and most
precious of all the gifts which God has bestowed on mankind
the religion of
Christ. This also is a gift which cannot be received alone
which cannot be
enjoyed alone
which cannot be turned to any use alone. In giving it to man God
did not give it to him as standing alone
but as living in communion with his
brethren. He purposes that in spiritual things
as well as in temporal things
we should help and feed each other
that we should nourish each other with the
bread of life
as well as with the bread that perishes. You remember our Lord’s
beautiful parable in which He compares Himself to the vine and His disciples to
the branches. All the members of the same family
all the members of the same
parish
should draw their spiritual life from the heavenly Vine
not singly
but together
joining heart and soul in the exercises and offices of devotion
and keeping in mind that it is when two or three are gathered together that our
Lord has promised to be in the midst of them. “As for me and my house
we will
serve the Lord.” This should be the plain
the avowed
the steadfast resolution
of every one who bears rule in a house
of every master of a household
of
every father
of every mother of a family. When God ordains that every one
should be the master or the mistress of a household
He likewise ordains that
they should take care of those who are under their authority
and should look
upon them as committed to their special charge. In like manner when He is
pleased to grant any one the blessing of being a father or a mother He links
this blessing with the duty of taking care of the children
of bringing them
up
of providing for them. We shall have to give account
not only for our own
souls
but also
more or less
for the souls of those whom God has committed to
our charge. Let this then be your watchword
“As for me and my house
we
will serve the Lord.” It is not enough for you to say
“As for me
I will serve
the Lord.” A grape never stands alone: it is always part of a cluster. In truth
no one can feel any hearty desire to serve the Lord himself
without being at
the same time anxious that others also
that his friends and neighbours
above
all
that the members of his own household
should bear their part in thin
godly service. And one of the ways in which it behoves you to provide that your
house shall serve the Lord is by setting up His worship in your house
by
taking care that you and your whole house join day by day in serving Him with
prayer and thanksgiving and praise. Most important
too
is it that every
family should be perpetually reminded that
as a family
it is a Christian
family--that the Church is not God’s only house in the parish
but that every
house in the parish ought to be a house of God. We have been led by our Lord’s
parable to liken a Christian family and a Christian congregation to a cluster
of grapes. Such are they
if they hang from the true Vine
if the life which
springs from the true Vine be ever flowing into them through prayer--through
prayer offered up in brotherly communion one beside the other. And what can
give a more beautiful image of the love
the neighbourly kindness
the peace
which ought to prevail in a brotherhood of Christians
than a cluster of
grapes? None of them seems to have any desire of thrusting itself forward
before the others
or of pushing them into the background
or of showing itself
off at their cost. On the contrary each seems contented to stand just peeping
out of its cell
half hidden by its neighbours
retiring behind them
and
almost
as it were
in honour preferring them. Such are the grapes of the true
Vine. Such are the families in the living Church of Christ. They hang from Him.
Their love flows into them from Him; and therefore they love each other. (J.
C. Hare
M. A.)
The Christian household
The household is not an accident of nature
but an
ordinance of God. The household is a representation
on a small scale as
regards numbers
but not as regards the interests concerned
of the great
family in heaven and earth. The father of a household stands most immediately
in God’s place. Of all the influences which can be brought to bear on man
paternal influence may be made the strongest and most salutary
and whether so
made or not is ever of immense weight one way or the other. For remember that
paternal influence is not that which the father strives to exert merely
but
that which in matter of fact he does exert. None so keen to see into a man’s
religion as his own household. He may deceive others without
he may deceive
himself
he can hardly long succeed in deceiving them. But if
on the other
hand
his religion is really a thing in his heart; if he moves about day by day
as seeing One invisible; if the love of Christ is really warming the springs of
his inner life
then
however inadequately this is shown in matter or in
manner
it will be sure to be known and thoroughly appreciated by those who are
ever living their lives around him. But in treating of a household ruled in the
fear of God another most important influence comes to be considered--one which
without holding so paramount a place as the first
yet ever lies closer to the
hearts of children
and is more wound about all their schemes and plans. From
the very necessities of life the father is kept ordinarily at a distance from
his family during a great portion of his time. He is that one of the household
who goes forth into the external world and savours of it; and thus not only in
continuity
but in character also
his influence is in some measure broken;
lying at some little distance
not employed on the thoughts and schemes of his
children till they have acquired some degree of consistency; not called in to
mould and cherish their first openings of intention and desire. This necessary
deficiency is
however
amply and most graciously supplied by the mother of a
household. She is ever the ministering angel to her children; with the same
hand guiding their infant steps
and smoothing the fevered pillow of
after-life; with the same voice teaching them their infant prayers
and with
quiet and loving admonition tempering the waywardness of the rising spirits of
youth. And thus while she shares in many of the feelings of reverence and affection
due to the father
she yet has a narrower circle of her own. To her is
committed by God the training and forming of each individual character among
her children; in her bosom will take root those finer fibres of personal
feeling from which
after all
our strongest emotions are fed. Oh that every
Christian mother were living and moving in her household in the full
consciousness of this power and this responsibility! Much might be said on a
mother’s share in the after-training of her children
even when other help is
requisite and necessary; but it is only one very short and simple thing which
need be said on their earliest training--it is a matter to which a mother alone
is competent
a sacred duty which she can never neglect
and ought never to delegate.
(Dean Afford.)
The charities of the Christian household
I wish now to speak of the good works of the Christian
household
its religious standing and progress within
and its beneficent
employments without
for the good of man and the glory of God. Now we must lay the
foundation of all such external duties in the religion of the household. Let
the well-spring of the religion of the family be in the closet and by the
bedside of the father and mother. And not only this
but let the children
let
the servants see that it is so
and learn to take not precept only
but pattern
from them. And if the foundation be thus laid
let us go on to inquire what
and how raised
must be the building. First of all
it must be real
consistent
with itself; raised for a dwelling
and not for a show. In a man’s own religion
reality is the first and most constant requisite; but where influence is to be
exerted over others it is even doubly necessary. Hearts are not won by words
nor will knees ever so often bended prompt one syllable of prayer. And here is
often a fault in Christian heads of families. Their own religion is real--felt
in their hearts
and shown in their lives. But their way of putting it forth is
unreal. They are perhaps the bondsmen of a rigid system
or they fall into the
opposite extreme
and leave that on which they themselves feel so deeply to
take its chance among those whom God has given them to train for Him. In the
one case
that of rigid adherence to system
the force of their own example is
marred
the attraction of their own faith and love disturbed; in the other they
are bearing indeed good seed
but sow it not
letting human nature
which ever
wants help from above and from around
get its good as it best may. How often
do we see heads of families
whom we know to be earnest and genuine Christian
men and women
yet attempting to guide their households by the merest and
emptiest commonplaces
which never had
and never can have
life or power in
them. Oh that we knew and remembered this--that nought unreal will ever stand
God’s test of time and trial. You may teach the child his theological lesson
ever so well; he may be apt to distinguish
apt to retain
ready to profess;
yet meantime
if you have not preoccupied it
the heart
which really guides the
life
will have been learning from things themselves another and a surer
lesson
and you will find
when the voyage of life begins
that voyage which
you had expected would be so straight and so sure
that another hand than yours
is on the helm. In promoting family religion let parents study the hearts of
their children. Let them see what those cords really are which
according as
they are drawn one way or the other
turn the course of life itself. Let them
remember what it was in their own case which really influenced them for good
and reflect that their children are like themselves. Win the heart
and the
victory is yours. Lose that
and you have lost all. Before I pass to the
outward acts and fruits of family religion let me exemplify these remarks in two
departments of the inner life of the household: in their use of the Bible and
in family prayer. The Bibles of a household
if they could testify
would be no
bad witnesses respecting its religion. And I fear their testimony would be
often of a sad and a startling kind. The Bible in the chamber
how often is it
taken down for genuine use? The contents of that Bible
how much is known of
them? I do not believe there ever was an age when the Bible has been so much
printed and so little read as in our own. And this is the book which is to be a
light to our feet and a lamp to our paths. And therefore one of the very first
cares in a Christian and Protestant household ought to be that the Bible may be
known by all its members: known
I mean
by familiarity with its contents
and
a habit of thinking and speaking intelligently on them
and a habit also--for
this should never be forgotten--of their devotional use. It is plain that this
subject might be pursued much further
but we must drop it now
to mention another
nearly connected with it--I mean that of family prayer. Family prayer is an
absolute necessity of the Christian household. It is indeed an affecting and
solemn sight; and it might be a vast opportunity for good. Here is a priest of
whose power we can never speak too highly
a teacher standing in the place of
God Himself. But what are
for the most part
his ministrations--what his
instructions? To judge from the books which have been printed for use at such
times
for the most part
I fear
formal
disconnected
lifeless; or if earnest
and fervent
then passing perhaps into another fault equally fatal to
usefulness-lengthy and tedious. The effect of this must be mischievous. You
cannot expect children
you cannot expect servants
to love and consult and study
a work which you have accustomed them to loathe and to be weary over. Nor
to
recur back to the other fault again
can you expect them really to feel wants
which have been so long lifelessly and formally expressed; uttered perhaps in
words far above their comprehension
and in a strain to which their simple
minds never attained. Of all united acts of the family this one should most
bear the impress of life and reality. Read no more than the ear
no more than
the mind can retain--and that little with earnestness and solemnity. If
explanation is given let it be short and to the point--neither dilating nor
diluting. And with regard to prayer
the rule should be of the same kind. The
simpler the better. And I may also say
without fear of being misunderstood
the shorter the better. But from these counsels respecting the inner life of
the family we must pass now to its outward fruits of its religion. And here at
once let me say that such fruits ought always to be found. There never ought to
be such a thing as a hidden family religion in any sense
and least of all in
the sense of being without visible and sensible fruit for good. And in family
charity
as in all other family duties
the spring must ever be found in the
heads of the household. Let them be known by their children and dependents to
be engaged in works of charity and mercy. And in their places and proportions
let each
even the humblest member
be encouraged
as soon as self-control and
responsibility begin
to bear a part in such works. And I cannot impress it too
strongly on young persons that this duty is binding on them from the moment
that they can call money or time their own. Whatever is allowed you by your
parents for ordinary purposes
all of it belongs to God
and you are but His
steward. On the beneficence due from every Christian household to the poor and
needy around it I will not at present enlarge; it is a wide subject
and comes
before us in the course of our teaching in various ways. I will only say no
household can escape its claims or venture
from any excuse
to set them aside.
But I would especially now speak of that other department of a Christian
family’s benevolence which should be spent in their work as disciples of Him
who commanded us to enlighten all nations with the word of His truth. Every
Christian is described in Scripture as holding forth the word of truth
shining
as a light in the world. Every Christian is a missionary
and ought to be
employed in the work of one--either in personal labour and influence
or by contribution
to institutions established for the purpose. And as a family duty this
possesses peculiar interest. In Christ are all families of the earth blessed. (Dean
Alford.)
The mutual duties of the family
From the tone of these words we see that they are not the voice of
one man only. There is about them a concerted determination
they bear evidence
of deliberation having been had
and a combined resolution come to. There is
something even of triumphant union about them
something of a challenge to
Israel to look and see whether they of whom they are said did not fulfil them
by serving the Lord. Every member of a household
whether among children or
domestics
has a place assigned by God and a solemn account to render to Him. I
will touch on this portion of our subject--the duties of the members of a
household
and their reflection on those who are set at the head of it. If I
were to ask what is the first duty of a child to a parent the answer would be
one and uniform. All would say
obedience. Yet is this quite understood? At all
events
is it generally acted on? What I understand by obedience being the
first duty of young persons to their parents is this--that
irrespective of all
concurrence of their own individual approval with what is ordered
there is a sacredness
about a parent’s word
because it is so
which ensures prompt and ready
compliance. I would say
then
to my young friends
guard carefully and with
all diligence this your chief jewel and treasure--constant and scrupulous
obedience. It is the bloom of your whole character. Nothing becomes you so
well--nothing contains so great promise for your future days. It is a link
which
between a loving and wise parent and a Christian child
is never
dissolved; and I know of no sight so pleasing as to see men and women
moving
in life and filling important posts which God has assigned them
and yet with
reverence and affection retaining the pious habits of childhood and
youth--observing the wishes and ruling themselves by the guidance of an aged
parent. I am sure I need not remind ourselves who are parents how very solemn
is the position of one who is thus to be obeyed--how necessary the wisdom which
is from above to guide us in guiding them. I need not say how much love
how
much consistency
how much temper is required to lead up and train this sacred
principle of obedience
so that it be not relaxed on the one hand nor
overstrained on the other. Before I pass on to the other great division of the
members of a family
let me say a word to young persons as to the direct
subject of the resolution in our text--the service of the Lord. You will some
day know and feel
on looking back over these first years of life
that it is
the memory of the service of God which constitutes the real charm of your
recollections of home. And if it is but fitting to say something of those
others who dwell under the roof of a household to minister to their wants
I
would say to the servants in our households
Your gracious Father in heaven has
called you out of your own country and from your own father’s house
and He has
caused you to be adopted into other families
of a rank and situation in life
different from your own. If you are His servants your position is one full of
interest
and full of honour. He has put you in reach of many blessings
both temporal and spiritual
to which others of your family have not access.
And more especially is this so ii your lot is cast in a household where God is
feared and served. But as the servant’s life is one of much and undoubted
privilege for good
so is it one of enormous temptation to evil. There is no
class of persons in our days the contemplation of whom more fills the Christian
mind with sadness
or suggests more forcibly the frightful account which the
votaries of fashion and pleasure will one day have to give. How many souls have
the ungodly heads of a household helped to ruin
or been the means of ruining
altogether? God sent to them
to be kept and influenced for Him
dependents
whose souls were as valuable as their own; whose account before Him will be as
solemn
their condemnation or justification as final
as theirs. They came
to them from the Sunday school and the village pastor’s instructions; they came
with the Bible which was to be the guide of their lives
with the prayer which
had been the practice of their childhood
with the resolution which the last
communion prompted and the mother’s parting words urged forward. Where are
those Bibles now? What is become of that daily prayer? Where
but under your
roof
and with your sanction
was that resolution laughed to scorn? Who made it
impossible for them to keep up those monthly communions? If you have in your
family and before your dependents denied Christ
He also will deny you. And let
servants themselves remember that no circumstances can excuse them in
unfaithfulness to Him whom they have once learned to know and to serve; that on
themselves the ultimate burden must rest
and the final condemnation come
if
they allow themselves to be laughed or tempted out of Christian habits of life.
I would willingly think
too
that I am speaking to some of this class whose
lot God has mercifully east in families such as that in our text
where their
souls are cared for
and their moral and spiritual welfare attended to. Then I
say to you
Blessed indeed is your lot
and great in proportion will be your
accountableness. (Dean Alford.)
Hindrances to home religion
I. The want of a
vivid sense of God
as personal and present.
II. The loose
manner in which the present home life is conducted.
III. The diminished
regard for the Sabbath.
IV. The overlaying
of the Bible and the family altar by the newspapers
and especially the Sunday
papers.
V. The dispersion
of families among Churches having different views of Divine things.
VI. The division of
families on the line of Christian discipleship. VII. The lack in some homes of
an expressive and impressive piety in such as do profess to be believers
such
as will quietly control and at last convert the household. (J. L. Withrow
D. D.)
We should think about the religions welfare of others
A poor woman came into a village one dark night and asked
her way to the house of a friend. It was three miles off yet
and the road was
strange to her
and it was so dark. “If you make haste
” some one said to her
“you will overtake the doctor. He has just gone down the road to go to the same
place
and he carries a lantern.” This was glad news to the timid woman
and
off she started looking eagerly ahead in the hope of catching some glimmer of
the lantern’s light
but never a flash of it could she see. At length
after a
weary trudge
she reached the house of her friend
and there she found the
doctor newly arrived. “Oh
sir!” she said
“I have had such a weary run after
you. They told me you had a lantern
but I saw nothing of its light.” “Very
true
” said the doctor
showing a dark lantern fastened to his belt; “I had a
lantern
but I did not think of drawing the slide so as to let the light shine
for I know the road very well myself.” Now there are people in the world very
like this doctor. They know the right way themselves
and don’t trouble about
others who may not know it. Make it very clear to others that you not only know
the right road yourself
but that you have also a heart to think of them and
influence them for good. (W. Francis.)
Decision for God
“I was the guest of Colonel--
a leading man in his county
Master
of the Hounds for two counties
keeping the hounds at a cost of $20
000 a year.
He was a man of passionate character
and
when excited
very profane. He
attended the meetings every evening. But he complained that he had a headache
the next morning. One morning at breakfast he said
‘ I don’t think I shall go
to the meetings any longer. My head aches with the bad air
and then I do not
think you are quite fair. You make everybody out as no better than heathen.
That may be true of the common people; but you will drive all the gentry away.’
I said
‘Colonel
I am your guest
and I did not introduce this subject. But
let me ask you
Are you a Christian?’ ‘What do you mean? I support a Church and
two or three ministers.’ I said
‘ Unless you will take a stand as a Christian
as plainly as you do as Master of the Hounds
I do not think you have any claim
to be called a Christian.’ To my surprise
he was in church that night
with
his wife
who was a Christian. I preached on the Pharisee and the Publican. At
the close I said
‘If there is any man or woman who is ready
with the
publican
to say
“God be merciful to me a sinner
” I invite him to rise.’ To
my surprise
up rose the Colonel
and folded his arms
and his wife by his
side. I thought
‘Will it do to call the Colonel up here and ask him to go on
his knees? ‘I did so. The Colonel moved right forward with his wife. And the
next that came was the Irish servant
and he kneeled down by his master. Next
morning
as I opened the Bible for prayers
the Colonel rose and said
‘Before
the Doctor reads
I want to say that last night I went forward and took God as
my Saviour. I ask you
my friends
to pray for me.’ This in the presence of all
the servants.” (Dr. Pentecost.)
Who will volunteer?
One night
in the army on the banks of the Potomac
the colonel
came for volunteers to cross over the river in flat boats. “Who’ll volunteer? I
want so many men.” “I’ll go!” “I’ll go! “Their decision made up the number; the
colonel’s heart was rejoiced. They went
and returned with 150 or 200
contrabands and other trophies of war. That was the result of decision. They
took their lives in their hands and went on reckless of consequences. In order
to spiritual success we need decision. How long would it take the Lord Jesus to
do His part if you make the decision? There are a hundred strings whereby you
are holding on to the interests of the world. You cut a string here and a knot
there
but there are more left than you have cut off; come right to the central
point where they all come to a focus
then you can cut them all at once. The
work is all in a nutshell. Some are converted by piecemeal. The better way is
to take it in a lump. How long does it take to give away a house and land? Only
while you sign your name
that is all. When we go forth
a troop of decided
souls
we can take the world for Christ. Take Christ fully
completely
that
will give us inward power.
Verses 19-28
Ye cannot serve the Lord: for He is an holy God.
The covenant renewed
I. The difficulty
of serving God. “Ye cannot serve the Lord.” It was a staggering admonition. It
embodied what theologians have called the doctrine of “moral inability.” The
seat of the disorder is in the will. There is the conflict. Till that is
established in the choice of holiness it will still be true
as in the case
before us
that one can not serve God. “Ye cannot” should still read for many
loath to abandon practices and ideas and hopes which He condemns
“Ye will
not.”
II. The conscious
ability to serve God. With much vehemence the people asserted that they would
and therefore could
be true to their promise. They realised that no more was
demanded of them than was within the range of their powers to do. Their tribute
to the righteousness of their Maker is the universal testimony as well. From
the shrine of the most besotted savage to the latest Christian altar we see the
multiplying tokens that each and all might have heeded and wrought that full
measure of righteousness which their God prescribed. Everywhere
on all the
recognised possibilities of a human soul
is plainly imprinted
and none can
honestly exclaim against it
“This is your reasonable service.”
III. The solemn
promise to serve God. The transfer of estates
the giving in marriage
the
parting with a child--these chief acts of our lives are trivial and ordinary
compared with that in which a heart yields itself for ever unto Him who has
sought it from its first conscious moment. It is serious business we transact
with Him. He hears
too
each voice among the myriads as though it were the
only one
and receives each uplifted spirit as though no other had come.
IV. The abiding
witnesses of the pledge to serve God. As our memorials and statues are eloquent
of former scenes and persons
to those who will pause a little to listen
so
this column in the spot of sanctuary told to children’s children that their
fathers were given here and for ever to the Lord. Every individual
too
that
stood near any who there uttered his “credo” had stamped upon his memory his
neighbour’s act
to be made to glow as secret tracings when heat is applied.
But are men aware of the numerous objects which have heard and may testify to
their former promises to do the will of God? It was in some severe sickness
when the spectre of death seemed to draw nigh
when
begging for reprieve
you
said: “If I am spared I will dedicate myself to Him.” And the walls of your
chamber listened
and now and then repeat it in the stillness of the night.
They who watched heard it
and are wondering yet if you have forgotten. Or it
was when some sudden horror of doom flashed on you
and you proffered all you
had for your life
while billows or tempest or hurrying car or roadside fences
heard your cry and occasionally remind you of the pledge! Or
as you sat under
the moving influences of the Spirit
and you were sure the acceptable time for
turning to God had come
did you not say: “When I have made my fortune
or
gained this office
or reached that age
I will”? And now the fortune is yours
the office has been held
the age has been passed
but your heart is not yet in
the Lord’s keeping. It is easy to mortgage the future
so unknown
so full of
plausible chances and opportunities. Be as fair
friend
with the Lord as with
your neighbour
whom you are proud always to have satisfied
for He has waited
longer
till you shall pay your vows to the full. (De Witt S. Clark.)
The difficulty of serving God
I. Some of their
difficulty would be found on the side of God. “He is an holy God; He is a
jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins” so as to
fail to punish them. “He will turn
and do you hurt
and consume you
after
that He hath done you good.”
1. If Jehovah is to be served at all
He must be served alone. There
can be no possible rivalry between Him and any other claimants to be gods. We
may think of three things that are ever pressing in our day to be gods with
God--the luxury of wealth; self-seeking pleasure; mere mind knowledge.
2. If God is served at all He must be served in righteousness. God
will search through and through every form of service offered to Him
and it
must be sincere
it must be “clean every whit
” or it cannot be acceptable to
Him. The service of a holy God must be the service of intention and resolve
not of mere accident. It should be thought about
resolved upon
prayed about
made the most earnest thing in the whole life.
II. Some of the
difficulties were found on the side of Israel. “Ye cannot.” “Ye are too frail.
Ye are too much exposed to the power of temptation. Ye have too serious
inclinations to evil. You do not know yourselves
or you would not promise too
readily. You do not fully estimate the influences of the past
or you would
fear for your future.” They who know themselves learn to pray
“Hold Thou me
up
and I shall be safe
and I shall have respect unto Thy commandments.” (The
Weekly Pulpit.)
The holy character of God
I. Although the
lord is full of compassion and mercy
he is yet a holy and a jealous God. We
must beware of attributing to our God any qualities which are inconsistent with
those by which He is known to be guided.
II. As a necessary
consequence of the holy jealousy of God towards wilful sinners there are
certain conditions of mind in which he will not forgive your transgressions nor
your sins
and in which
therefore
ye cannot serve the Lord. The impenitent
the unbelieving
the careless
the presumptuous will be excluded from the
blessing. The fact is
that one thing is indispensable to your acceptable
service of God; and that is
that you should be in earnest.
III. Ask yourselves
the question
are you desirous to serve the lord your God? (E. G. Marshall
M. A.)
God declining first offers of service
If there be any one thing true in the Bible
it is that God
welcomes the first approach which man makes to Him. Yet here Joshua offers a
repulse to men who wish to avow themselves on the side of God. Are we to
conclude
then
that the people were insincere? We have no evidence of this
but the reverse
in their subsequent conduct. There must be some reason for the
manner in which they are met
and we shall try to discover it.
1. First
however
we shall seek to show that this procedure on the
part of God is not so unusual. You may recollect how the band of Gideon was
chosen. When the wise men from the East came seeking Christ the star seemed to
desert them
and they met with disappointment and perplexity from all their
inquiries in Jerusalem. When the Jews
stirred up to expect the coming Messiah
sent messengers to John
in the hope that they had found their desire
“he
confessed and denied not
but confessed
I am not the Christ.” We cannot forget
the strange treatment of the woman of Canaan by the Lord Himself; how she cried
after Him
and was not answered
and met at length what appeared a contemptuous
rejection. In the same way He acted to the scribe who came to Him with such an
unconditional offer of discipleship
“Master
I will follow Thee whithersoever
Thou goest.” “This is no common pleasure-walk
” was the reply; “the foxes have
holes
and the birds of the air have nests
but the Son of Man hath not where
to lay His head.” There is another way of finding the same result in the Bible.
Consider
for example
the view that is given of the character of God. He is
presented to us not only as good
and ready to forgive
but as just and
righteous--a God who cannot look on sin without displeasure. There are many
terrible threatenings
many dreadful judgments against sin and sinners
which
have all this language in them: “Ye cannot serve the Lord
for He is an holy
God.” When we leave Bible representations
and come to the experience of
individuals
we meet with many similar illustrations. In regard to the general
evidence of the divinity of the Bible
we can see that God has not constructed
it on the plan of overpowering the conviction of any man at first sight. And
even when a man has come to the entire conviction that the gospel is Divine
that there is “none other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved but
the name of Jesus Christ
” he is not assured thereby of perfect peace.
2. Having sought to show that this procedure
on the part of God
is
not so unusual
we may now attempt to find some reasons for it.
Moral inability
I. The certainty
of the truth that unrenewed men cannot serve God.
1. The nature of God renders perfect service impossible to depraved
men.
2. The best they could render as unrenewed men would lack heart and
intent
and therefore must be unacceptable.
3. The law of God is perfect
comprehensive
spiritual
far-reaching: who can hope to fulfil it?
4. The carnal mind is inclined to self-will
self-seeking
lust
enmity
pride
and all other evils.
5. Let men try to be perfectly obedient. They will not try it. They
argue for their ability
but they are loth enough to exert it.
II. The
discouragement which arises from this truth.
1. It discourages men from an impossible task.
2. It discourages from a ruinous course.
3. It discourages reliance upon ceremonies or any other outward
religiousness
by assuring men that these cannot suffice.
4. It discourages from every other way of self-salvation
and thus
shuts men up to faith in the Lord Jesus. Nothing better can befall them (Galatians 2:22-23).
III. The necessities
of which we are reminded by this truth.
1. Unregenerate men
before you can serve God you need--
2. If you cannot serve God as you are
yet trust Him as He manifests
Himself in Christ Jesus; and do this just as you are.
3. This will enable you to serve Him on better principles.
4. This change of your nature will be effected by the Holy Spirit
who will come and dwell in you.
5. This will fit you for heaven
where “His servants shall serve
Him.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Moral inability
Their inability was wholly of the moral kind. They could not do it
because they were not disposed to do it
just as it is said of Joseph’s
brethren (Genesis 37:4) that they “could not speak
peaceably unto him
” so strong was their personal dislike to him. But an
inability arising from this source was obviously inexcusable
on the same
grounds that a drunkard’s inability to master his propensity for strong drink
is inexcusable. In like manner the “cannot” of the impenitent sinner
in regard
to the performance of his duty
is equally inexcusable. (George Bush.)
Entire change needed
A man deeply exercised about his soul was conversing with a friend
on the subject
when the friend said
“Come at once to Jesus
for He will take
away all your sins from your back.” “Yes
I am aware of that”; said the other;
“but what about my back? “I find I have not only sins to take away
but there
is myself; what is to be done with that? And there is not only my back
but
hands and feet
and head and heart are such a mass of iniquity that it’s myself
I want to get rid of before I can get peace. (British Evangelist.)
Discouragement useful
Discouragements
rightly put
encourage. The best way to deepen
and confirm good resolutions which have been too swiftly and inconsiderately
formed is to state very plainly all the difficulty of keeping them. The hand
that seems to repel often most powerfully attracts. There is no better way of
turning a somewhat careless “we will” into a persistent “nay
but we will
”
than to interpose a “ye cannot.” Many a boy has been made a sailor by the
stories of hardships which his parents have meant as dissuasives. Joshua here
is doing exactly what Jesus Christ did often. He refused glib vows because He
desired whole hearts. “Master
I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest!”
was answered by no recognition of the speaker’s enthusiasm
and by no word of
pleasure or invitation
but by the apparently cold repulse: “Foxes have holes
birds of the air roosting-places; but the Son of Man has not where to lay His
head. That is what you are offering to share. Do you stand to your words?” He
will have no soldiers enlisted under false pretences. They shall know the full
difficulties and trials which they must meet; and if
knowing these
they still
are willing to take His yoke upon them
then how exuberant and warm the welcome
which He gives 1 There is a real danger that this side of the evangelist’s work
should be overlooked in the earnestness with which the other side is done. (A.
Maclaren
D. D.)
Reasons why man will not serve God
Dr. Tucker
Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa
said: “In our
journey we came to the country of Taita. The people of Taita are not a very
interesting people
and are adverse to Christianity. I visited a chief there
and asked him why they were so unwilling for Christian people to settle in
their midst
and I said
‘If I sent you a couple of missionaries would you not
be glad to have them?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why?’ I asked. The chief replied
‘ If they come
and settle among us they tell us that stealing cattle and fighting are not
right.’ ‘Yes! ‘I replied. ‘Well
that would never do; for we are very fond of
stealing cattle
and also of fighting.’ It was a most straightforward reason
and I think if many of the heathen at home would be as honest in giving the
reasons why they will not come to Christ they would say much the same. ‘If I
came to Christ I should require to quit getting drunk
and I am very fond of
getting drunk
’” &c.
Verse 20
If ye forsake the Lord . . . He will turn
Mercies abused
the precursors of wrath
I.
The
reasonableness of expecting that abused mercies must lead to more aggravated
punishment. We see this clearly in the history of Israel. Their career as a
nation was marked by perfidy and ingratitude; at almost every step of their
progress we find them in rebellion against the Most High--“forsaking the Lord
and serving strange gods.” And how did God deal with them when they thus acted?
Is it not the case that He scourged them
and caused them to suffer punishment?
Look at the plagues that befel them in the desert; look at the slaughters which
God permitted them to experience in warfare with their enemies. And who can
survey the subsequent history of the Jews
and not read a fulfilment of the
threatening contained in our text? And what we are desirous you should gather
from the foregoing observations is mainly this
that no experience of good at
the hands of the Almighty affords warrant to expect that future disobedience
will not be visited with righteous severity. “If ye forsake the Lord and serve
strange gods
then He will turn and do you hurt and consume you
after that He
hath done you good.”
II. The justice of
the dealing which is referred to in the threatening before us. Now it will be
admitted that every reason was given Israel to expect the continuance of the
Divine favour and protection. We think it easily to be perceived that one main
purpose of the Almighty in the calling of Israel as a nation was to maintain
upon earth
through means of that race
the pure knowledge of Himself; to
afford a witness to the unity of Jehovah
and against idolatry; to secure glory
to Himself by the exhibition
on the part of this people
of a consistent
obedience. Surely
then
if this purpose was
through the nation’s profligacy
and disobedience
altogether thwarted
if all the resources which God gave them
of national strength were abused and corrupted
indeed it were strange not to
perceive that their conduct in this respect released every presumed obligation
“to do them good
” and in short vindicates to the letter the justice of the
warning
“If ye forsake the Lord
and serve strange gods
then He will turn and
do you hurt
and consume you
after that He hath done you good.” And now
to take
a more comprehensive range
from looking at the case of the Jewish people let
us turn to that of mankind in general. Does it appear that God can be just in
the apportionment of unmitigated wrath to mankind
notwithstanding all the
manifestations of His determination to do them good? There are two grand
exhibitions to be met with of God’s merciful intention towards mankind at
large
to do them good. The first of these is furnished by creation
and the
second by redemption. Our object of inquiry is simply this: whether the display
of God’s love in creating or redeeming mankind offers any reason to conclude
that
in harmony with His justice
He cannot “turn and do them hurt
and
consume them.” To begin with creation: no man can doubt that his creation is the
proof of a purpose on God’s part to “do him good.” Beyond all question this
purpose was man’s happiness
but then his happiness was to consist in
assimilation to the Godhead; and if upon man devolve the guilt of having
voluntarily destroyed and renounced that similitude
where is the inconsistency
of the dealing
should God “turn and do him hurt
and consume him”? The nobler
the faculties wherewith he was endowed the brighter the evidence of God’s
purpose to “do him good
” the stronger then seem to me the reasons wherefore
wrath should be executed upon those by whom the faculties are abused and the
evidence slighted. We turn
lastly
to the manifestation of God’s goodness as
displayed in redemption. There have been those who have argued--redemption is
the evidence of a love so surpassing
they can never believe God will sentence
to destruction those whom He has redeemed at such cost. “The method of our
atonement involves an expenditure of such wisdom and mercy
that how can we
conceive of the Almighty as permitting its objects finally to perish?” Mast to
reason thus is equally
as in the former instances we have adduced
to overlook
one main purpose of God in the scheme of human redemption. Is it not strange
that men who have been made the objects of a sacrifice so costly should regard
it so lightly and requite it so coldly? We may wonder that redeemed sinners
should perish
but is it not more wonderful that redeemed sinners should refuse
to be saved? Again
let us revert to the purpose of God in redemption. Indeed
it was to bless the whole earth; it was to ransom humanity from the bondage of
evil
and to exalt it to transcendent felicity. But after all
throughout every
dealing of God with His intelligent creatures
we may discover the purpose to
treat them as responsible beings
free to reject the overtures of His mercy.
Now
redemption is offered upon certain terms; man is required to repent and to
believe in order to be saved. It is no part of redemption to offer him an
entrance into heaven irrespective of a moral fitness
to render him meet for
heaven’s enjoyments; and in the acquisition of this moral fitness man is
required to co-operate with the Divine Spirit. He can refuse to profit by what
God hath done for him
and thus prove himself a despiser of the love which is
so unsearchably great. He can resolutely withstand the design of the Almighty
in redemption
namely
that he should glorify God
both in his body and soul;
and
I ask
if it be possible for Him to act thus
is there not justice in the
sentence which awards him to suffer in spite of all the declared willingness of
God to do him good? (Bp. R. Bickersteth.)
Christians solemnly reminded of their obligations
I. That we are
under obligations to serve the lord from our own choice
or voluntary engagements.
Here I would premise that though voluntary obligations
taken upon ourselves by
our own act
have something of a peculiar force in them
yet they are not the
only obligations we are under to serve the Lord. We are bound to be His
servants whether we will or not. His character as our creator
our preserver
and benefactor
and as a being of supreme excellency
give Him the most firm
and indisputable right to our obedience. But though we are all under
obligations to God
independent upon
and prior to
our own consent
yet there
are a class of obligations which we have personally
and by our own act
taken
upon ourselves; and in the breach of these we are guilty of more direct and
aggravated perjury.
II. To inquire how
and when
or in what respects
and at what periods of time
we are witnesses
against ourselves that we have chosen the Lord to serve him.
1. You yourselves are witnesses against yourselves that you have
chosen the Lord to be your God. You know and confess that you have been
dedicated to God in baptism; and some of you know it was your own act and deed
when capable of choosing for yourselves. You also know in your own consciences
that you are often present at the table of the Lord
and there you renew your
covenant with God afresh.
2. You are witnesses against one another that you have chosen the
Lord to serve Him. You have seen the transactions that have passed between God
and you in His house; you have seen some baptized themselves
some presenting
their children to baptism
and so renewing their own covenant with God; some
sealing their religious engagements at the Lord’s table. (President Davies.)
Verse 25
Joshua made a covenant.
The covenant of Joshua
“That day” was a very notable day in the annals of the children of
Israel; its transactions might well be recorded in the volume of the book and
engraven on the monumental stone. All the favours which God had promised to
their fathers while yet they languished in bondage in Egypt had been now
fulfilled; the promised land was theirs. God had given them rest in all their
borders. In the meantime their captain
who had so often led them to victory
waxed helpless and old; he felt that there gathered around him the mists and
crept over him the shadow of the coming change. He summoned the tribes of
Israel
therefore
to meet him in Shechem; and they muster largely
for they
feel it to be a great day
and suspect they are about to listen to their
leader’s parting charge. He recounts God’s providential dealings with them
and
seeks by the memory of the past to inspire their vows of fidelity and
allegiance. The warrior heart is still in the old man eloquent
but he wars not
now against advancing hosts
but against rebellious minds. There is yet fire in
his battle-cry
but it summons to self-conquest. There is glory yet upon his
brow
but it is not the lustre of his former achievements
but the radiance
of the nearing heaven already gathering to crown its hero. He has often led the
people to victory; he will confirm them in piety now
that he may but briefly
precede them into the recompense of the reward. He knew full well that their
only danger sprang from themselves
that there was no danger to them
if they
were but obedient and faithful
from the shock even of an embattled world; and
with earnest love to God
and with deep knowledge of the human heart
he
delivers his final and his impressive appeal. He warns them to count the cost
in order that there may be a more solemn and decided consecration of themselves
to God. Then
receiving their reiterated vows
he makes a covenant with them
and stamps it with a sacramental and with an authoritative value
and sets it
up for a statute and for an ordinance in Shechem. This seems to have been the
last public act of his life
and then
weary for the rest of which Canaan was
but the significant shadow
he went serenely into heaven. First
as to the
nature of this covenant. I need not remind you that the Israelites were the chosen
people of God--chosen to be the recipients of His bounty--chosen to be the
witnesses of His unity--chosen to enter solemn protests against the abominable
idolatries of the nations around. For the fulfilment of these ends Jehovah had
interposed for His Israel in many signal deliverances and blessings. They were
not a people
and tie had given them a great name; lie had broken for them the
yoke of the oppressor; He had made them heir to an inheritance which they knew
not
neither did their fathers know; He made the ocean a pavement for them
the
heavens a storehouse
and the rock a fountain of waters; He had successively
overthrown all their enemies in their sight
and by many a convincing
illustration had stamped the seal of faithfulness upon every promise He had
made. And yet they had very frequently rebelled. When trials came they turned
recreant from faith and hope; when they were summoned to hazardous duty they
shrank
like cowards
from its discharge; and they even formed unholy leagues
with the people whom they were sent to overthrow
and adopted their idolatries
with an enthusiasm the more reckless because of its perversion from a purer
faith and worship. There was need
therefore
that they should be reminded of
their duty
and that they should be urged
by all the solemnity of statute and
of ordinance
to give themselves afresh unto God. Are not their circumstances
yours? The burden of the summons which Joshua made unto the people was that
they should serve the Lord. This was also the essence of the covenant
that
they should serve the Lord. And
allowing for the differences of mission and
local circumstances
there is an identity in the covenant which I want to make
with you to-day. I just mention two points. In the first place
then
Joshua
could not have served the Lord if he had neglected the Divinely-appointed
institution of sacrifice. Although the Mosaic and the Christian economy differ
in many things
they are alike in this
that the foundation of each of them is
a recognition of sin. The only other part of the covenant which it is necessary
for me to bring before you is that Joshua could not have served the Lord
nor
any Israelite in the camp
if he had not strictly obeyed the ten commandments
of the law. The great principles of morality are the same in every age
and
these precepts of the former time
with a new spirit put into them by the
exposition of Jesus on the mount
are binding on our consciences to-day. In
entire union with Christ I have obtained power to obey--that is the first thing.
We cannot obey until we have got a new heart put into us; we have no strength
in human nature’s old heart to obey the commandments of God; but having by our
union with Christ obtained power to obey
that obedience should be sincerely
and heartily rendered. A sincere seeker after the will of God will not choose
among the commandments
will not obey them just so far as they chime in with
corrupt desire and contravene no darling and yet vicious inclination of the
soul; he will seek to obey them in the universality of their behests
in the
breadth and grandeur of their deep design. I do not think it necessary to go
further. If these points of the covenant are granted me
that is all I ask.
Come to Christ
and keep His law
and you will be Christians fit for earth
and
Christians fit for heaven. I cannot at large mention the arguments by which
this covenant was commended. I rather
therefore
prefer to confine my thoughts
to the faculty to which the minister makes his appeal. Joshua evidently
regarded every man among the Israelites around him as invested with the royal
attribute of personal freedom. Beneath each kindling eye and swarthy brow he
sees an active reason and a manly soul. He speaks not to those who are of
necessity impelled--who are circumscribed by a despotism of surroundings--from
whose shackles there is no liberation; he speaks to men
to freemen
to freemen
with power to choose the right--with power to prefer the wrong: “Choose you
this day.” You can choose your service. Oh! I would remind you of the many
blessings which God has heaped upon you from the beginning--how your life has
sparkled in the light of His loving-kindness. It was He who kindled for you all
the endearments of affection and lit up all the joyfulness of home; it was He
that warded off peril and environed you with the restraints that have preserved
you from the grosser vices and inspired you with the impulse of every good
desire. His Son died to redeem you
and fives to intercede that the benefits of
His redemption may be yours. His Spirit fans the faint impression and kindles
the holy desire
and takes of the precious things of Christ--those precious
those holy motives
and inspiring hopes--and shows them unto you. There is not
a temporal mercy
there is not an intellectual enjoyment
there is not a
spiritual mercy
for which you are not indebted to Him. And even now He comes
not forcing you to love Him
but inviting
entreating
imploring
adjuring
“My
son
My daughter
give Me thy heart.” (W. M. Punshon
D. D.)
Verse 26-27
Joshua . . . took a great stone
and set it up there under an oak
that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
The devout soul and nature
Solemnity of occasion. Joshua
dying
calls upon the nation to
“choose whom you will serve.” Here we have--
1. A wise effort to impress and perpetuate religious resolutions.
2. A fine impersonation of material nature.
I. the importance
of religious resolutions. They are worthy of perpetual remembrance. The world
has monuments of earthquakes
wars
deaths; but how few of devout resolutions!
II. The highest use
of material objects. Without actually setting up material objects
nature might
be appropriated in her different manifestations as types of God’s character
and as mementos of events in the religious history of an individual or a
family.
III. The most solemn
aspects of nature. Who dares to say that nature cannot hear or speak? Who shall
say
at the last
what nature
after her long silence
shall reveal? Take heed
what you do and say: stones may hear without a Joshua’s invocation. (Homilist.)
The Christian use of churches
We can easily conceive the association of thought with which
Joshua and Israel contemplated the stone which they set up in Shechem. However
rough it might be and shapeless
it had for them a solemn character; it had
something approaching to personality and the power of testimony. “It
” said
Joshua
“hath heard all the words of the Lord which He spake unto us”; not
of
course
literally
but in the minds and recollections of those who regarded it
as a pledge and token of the vow and covenant made betwixt them and God. And we
may well conceive that such a silent
unchangeable witness retained for years
and perhaps for generations
its effect on the people of Israel
even in their
downward course which
we too well know
shortly followed. To it the servants
of God
struggling against the idolatry and pollution of their age
would bring
their little ones
and teach them the words which it heard
and of which it was
a testimony
and repeat each for himself their dying captain’s confession
“As
for me and my house
we will serve the Lord.” Many a tender hand
laid on its
cool surface
may have throbbed with generous emotion and holy zeal; many a
thoughtful youth and maiden of Israel may have heard from it a sermon
which
issued in holy endurance and heroic resolve. And we
have not we too set up our
stone of testimony? have not these walls
dead materials gathered from the
slime of the earth and the bosom of the rock
within these few days assumed for
us a solemnity of which
in the laws of our thought
they can never be
divested? Have they not heard all the words which the Lord our God hath spoken
to us
and all that we have spoken to Him? Have we not begun a new course
entered on a fresh iteration of our covenant with God
of which these stones
are a witness
a silent but ineffaceable witness--a witness through the ages of
time--a witness at the solemn day of judgment? If this pillar of testimony
set
up in the midst of our homes
raised with so much self-denying effort
inaugurated with so many tears of joy
is to witness only cold hearts and
feeble hands
and formal Sundays
and ungodly weeks
oh shame unto us
henceforward--nay
woe unto us
for God will look upon it and judge; and as we
have received
so will He at last require of us. These latter words--as
a note of passage--lead me on to speak of not only the similarity
but the
difference also
between Joshua’s stone of witness and ours. I deeply feel that
this your church is
as the stone in Shechem was
a witness between you and
God. But it is so in a far more solemn sense
in far wider and deeper meaning
than that could ever be. That stone was a mere passive witness; by standing
where it did
it gave a permanence to the fact of the covenant there made. It
was merely
as our Nelson’s pillar or our Wellington statues
a memorial. And
this our church is likewise; a memorial of His great mercies and of our feeble
gratitude; a memorial that a Christian congregation has in it anew entered into
covenant with Him. But it is also far more than this. It is an active witness
between you and God. The sermons which it preaches are not merely those which
associations of thought might suggest; they are active
positive
spoken
declarations of God’s will
ever renewed and energising. Its testimony is not
only that of a memorial of the past; it is an ever-welling fountain of Divine
knowledge
telling of Christ and His salvation. Thus considered
then
what is
the use
what is the office
of this our Church? Briefly (but how much is
contained in these words) to provide those who dwell in this thickly-peopled
neighbourhood with the public means of grace. Undoubtedly
the first means of
grace are
prayer and praise. But there are others
standing in the very first
rank of importance
viz.
the Word and the Sacraments. Nor should I omit
in
speaking of our new church as a witness for God
the important testimony which
is borne by every church in the succession of her services throughout the
Christian year. Here you will each year accompany our blessed Lord “from His
poor cradle to His bitter cross”; here you will witness His burial
and His
glorious resurrection and ascension
and the fulfilment of the promise of the
Father in the descent of the Spirit
and will adore with holy joy on that
crowning festival of Trinity the whole Three Persons in the One Godhead
covenanted in the work of our salvation. Such are some few of the blessings
which you may expect from your church; such some few of the testimonies which
it will lift up among you for God and His work. Can I pass on without a word of
exhortation to you that you thwart not such blessings--that you let not such
testimonies be given against yourselves? Oh
love your church! Throng its
aisles from week to week
as to-day. (Dean Alford.)
Verses 29-33
Joshua . . . died.
The burials of distinguished saints
Within the compass of the five last verses of this book three
deaths are recorded and three burial-places signalised by the deposited remains
of the most distinguished saints. After all we have seen in Canaan
let us
visit the sepulchre of Joshua. The short record given may be viewed as a
simple
unvarnished memento
or monumental inscription (verses 29
30). The
place of his interment was in the lot of his inheritance
and may remind us how
soon the seat of life becomes the repository of death. Short had been the date
of his settlement: an hundred years before he obtained rest
and then but ten
before he must lie down in his grave
not again to rise till the heavens be no
more. What can be a greater or more convincing proof of still higher and nobler
ends of Providence than any contained within the limits of this life
when even
the most distinguished of God’s family
the most exemplary and useful of His
children
are not suffered to continue by reason of death
but are early
removed from the happiest scenes on earth! It bespeaks the greatness of man
and the more exalted provisions of glory the infinite goodness of God has
secured in another world. The designs of His grace are too exalted
and the
displays of His power too wondrous
to centre in any earthly lot
though equal
in beauty and richness to Eden
when as yet the seat of innocence
perfection
and love. Timnath-serah was still the portion of his lot
even in death. Where
he lived in possession
there he lay in possession
nor left any commandment
as Jacob and Joseph
for removal. It is remarkable how much this was the desire
of the faithful
and of what moment
though not in itself
yet in its typical
regards
they viewed a burying-place in the promised land. It was as if they
thought upon the interests of their sleeping dust as well as the felicity of
their undying spirits
and in still retaining their inheritance
even in a
state of death
would claim for their bodies a share in the life to come; for
He who had so richly provided for the one as well as for the other
in an
inheritance entirely typical
would not have so essential a part of our
redeemed nature for ever the prey of worms. Where the believer now rests
in
what bed matters little
for Jesus is the resurrection and the life of all His
people. A short inscription
which
as a plain monumental record of his
character and age
claims in the solemn reflections here excited a moment’s
pause: “Servant of the Lord died
being an hundred and ten years old.” What an
important connection of age and dignity! What an honour to lie down at last
under this character! This is the highest style of man. What he had done
and
all which this book recorded of the mighty conquests achieved
was not here to
be named; for in everything he had been but a servant
and only the willing
instrument of Omnipotence. The title was all that need appear
or that any who
know their own insignificance would desire. It is enough that “they rest from
their labours
and their works do follow.” Joshua and all the saints
from infancy
to age
through the long lapse of time
shall retain the record of truth
and
in the character in which they died rise the servants of God. As now in the end
of life it is said
“The servant of the Lord died
being an hundred and ten
years old
” so then shall commence the history of eternity. The servant of the
Lord arose the beginning
the first day
of immortality. From the tomb of
Joshua let us go to the burying-place of Joseph: it is in the same inheritance
and not far distant. It is remarkable in the connected record of these burials
that Joshua should have lived just the same number of years as this his
distinguished ancestor
and that though not buried in the same spot
yet in the same inheritance
and not
far distant from the same period. Never was there so singular a funeral: two hundred years
dead before interment. Many
we may think
crowded to see it
and if the Church
in heaven could have been witnesses
the sight must have yielded pleasure; for
it was the burial of faith. And did it reach the glorified saint
the spirit
long made perfect
or could he have looked down upon the purchased spot of his
father
the desired resting-place of his bones
he would have known the
fidelity of his brethren
and have rejoiced in the end of his faith. It became
the inheritance of the children of Joseph
though he had stood a stranger in
the land
when
in obedience to the dying request of his father
he buried him
in the grave which himself was said to have digged (Genesis 50:5). How remarkable that the
place where Joseph obtained interment
and where at length he was gathered to
his fathers
should turn out the inheritance of his sons; and that
though
separated many years from his father in life
he should
as he
rest in Canaan
and find a grave even in his own inheritance. Oh! it was a sweet privilege to
be entombed in his own inheritance
and to hold a place with both his sons and
his fathers in what bespoke the common hope and claim of all the faithful. It
was a choice spot
and where any saint would have wished to have been laid
and
there to have rested in the hope of all that was
in the perfection of the
Church and close of time
to open in the grandeur of the resurrection
when
as
the heirs of promise
and the sons of immortality
they would rise to claim a
fairer
brighter
and more lasting inheritance above the skies. The ground was
a purchase (Genesis 23:16-17). And now the purchase
of Jacob became the burying-place of Joseph. The heavenly land is spoken of as
a purchased possession
and that in no part ever to become a burying-place
but
the seat of endless life and felicity to the whole Church of God. But
oh! what
has been the purchase
what paid for it
by the eternal Son of God! One more
burying-place within this inheritance is pointed out: “And Eleazar the son of
Aaron died
” &c. As situated near Shiloh
this was
probably for its
convenience
assigned as the residence of the high priest. We see the
inheritances of Israel fast changing into the burying-places of the dead. It
was not the land of immortality
not that state of being of which it is said
“There shall be no more death
” &c. In Canaan all must die
as well
princes
priests
and rulers
as others; but in heaven none die: there natural
evils and moral pollutions are for ever removed. (W. Seaton.)
Israel served the Lord.
Faithful adherence to engagements
The men of that generation remained faithful to their engagements.
These men
who had themselves “known all the works of the Lord that He had done
for Israel
” in bringing them into Canaan and in subduing the hostile nations
never forsook His worship for the worship of the idols of the laud
of whose
boasted power they had witnessed so signal a discomfiture. The character and
admonitions of Joshua were not forgotten. His disinterestedness
his energy
his singleness of purpose
his faith
had left a track of glory behind
as the
sun
after he has sunk below the horizon
flings glorious hues and golden light
over all the western sky. The men who had themselves seen the conquests of
Joshua would have been doubly inexcusable if they had forsaken the worship of
Jehovah. Like the disciple Thomas
because they had seen they had believed.
How
indeed
could it have been otherwise? How could they
standing there in
Shechem
--the site of Abraham’s altar
of Jacob’s well
of Joseph’s tomb
of
Joshua’s victories--refuse to believe in the Divine calling of the people
Israel? (L. H. Wiseman
M. A.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》