Table of Contents

25. The Call from Jehovah to Incite Israel to Possess

26. The Most Sacred Inheritance

27. A Noble Sample of the True Inheritor

28. How the Mass of the People Inherited

29. Peace and Worship

30. The Last Call to Possess

31. The Cities of Refuge

32. The Cities of the Levites

33. Rest

34. The Return of the Forty Thousand Warriors

35. Joshua's Last Words

36. Jehovah's Final Words by Joshua

H. F. Witherby - The Book of Joshua - The Distribution of the Land

H. Forbes Witherby

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25. The Call from Jehovah to Incite Israel to Possess

The Book of Joshua

25. The Call from Jehovah to Incite Israel to Possess.

Joshua 13.

"There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." — Joshua 13: 1.

The second section of the Book before us commences with the Lord's word to Joshua, "Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." Much, very much, land had to to be seized and subdued, and the weakness of old age had stricken the great leader.

As we open the thirteenth chapter of our Book, we breathe another atmosphere from that in which we found ourselves when reading its first exhortations; we are face to face with new difficulties — not the iron chariots of the Canaanite, not the cities walled to heaven, not the giants of the mountains, but foes harder to overcome, even sloth and ease-seeking in the army of the Lord.

The exhortation of the Lord, at this point in Israel's history, is very different from that with which the Book began, for, after describing "the land that yet remaineth," Jehovah says to His aged servant, "I," emphatically, "I will drive them out." Joshua may lose vigour, great leaders may become infirm, but the Lord remains ever the same. If the saints did but look to God and not to leaders, they would prosper even when deprived of such by death. Not that true leaders should be made light of, for they are God's gifts to His people; but for all that, to God must His saints look. Israel held on to God so long as Joshua, and the elders who outlived him, led them to confide in God; even, as in the early days of Christianity, the saints clung to Christ while Paul and such as he were among them; but Joshuas and Pauls die, and the only confidence for God's people must be God Himself. Therefore, in the divine assurance, "I will drive them out," and in commending ourselves "to God, and to the word of His grace" (Acts 20: 32), is courage found to set up our banner.

The energetic conquering leader, now the aged servant of Jehovah, was bidden divide the land amongst the tribes of Israel. All of it, the portions conquered and unconquered, were assigned to Israel, and described as their inheritance. God had promised, and He would perform. Would Israel fulfil their part, in faith and obedience to Jehovah's word? In passing, it should be observed how well and wisely Joshua in his old age adapts his service to his years. The grand object of his life was victory and when he was too aged to lead the army, he led the whole nation to God's thoughts respecting the lengths and breadths of their inheritance, so that Israel might be stimulated to arise and possess. In Joshua the spirit of the true leader is seen — that spirit which, while urging on God's people in His ways, ever centres their courage and confidence in God Himself.

By no means was all the land of promise inherited. The two and a half tribes — the half of Manasseh and the tribes of Reuben and Gad — inherited their possessions on the other side Jordan; and two and a half more tribes, the other half of Manasseh (Joshua 17), Ephraim (Joshua 16), and Judah (Joshua 15), "inherited in the land of Canaan" (Joshua 14: 1); the remainder of the tribes, seven in number, possessed not, but had their portions according to lot as it was "described by cities into seven parts in a book" (Joshua 18). Thus seven out of the twelve tribes of Israel did not possess their portion; while of those who did possess, whether "this" or on the "other side of Jordan," we read, "they expelled not," "could not drive out," or, "drave not out," the inhabitants who "would dwell" among them. Hence the second part of the Book of Joshua describes a state eminently critical for Israel, and full of suggestive warning for the children of God at large, for it is written, "then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." God had brought Israel into Canaan, and had broken the power of the enemy, but the prosperity of Israel already trembled in the balance; upon themselves had devolved the responsibility of maintaining their position by future conquests, of retaining by a fresh gaining: a principle never to be forgotten, but one too rarely acted upon.

The full force of the Lord's words, "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed," will not be gained save by occupying His standpoint, and looking there. from at the lengths and breadths of the possession. In the things of God, Christians are apt to take the standard of their Christianity from the state of their own village or city, and not from the divine standpoint of all spiritual blessings being ours in Christ. Thus Israel regarded the land of promise from the result of what they had captured thereof, and not from its actual lengths and breadths. But northward and southward, toward the sunrising, and toward the country of the Sidonians, Jehovah saw possessions which He had given to Israel still untrodden, and cities and villages not held nor lived in. Jehovah was not satisfied that His people should lose the enjoyment of their blessings, therefore He again promised them His support, and gave Israel His emphatic "I will drive them out."

Could Israel have seen the lengths and breadths of the promised land as Jehovah saw them, would they have been slothful to possess? But their eyes were off God's view of their blessings, and fixed upon their present enjoyment. Did they believe what those seven portions were that were written in the book, each having peculiar reference to the seven tribes who had not received their inheritance, they must have arisen to further victory. But they arose not. Israel in Canaan is an ensample to Christians in the heavenly places in Christ, and Israel's sloth a warning to Christians to whom it is written, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph. 5: 14.) In the epistle, which of all others most gloriously describes the wealth of the Christian's spiritual possessions according to God the Father's own great counsels in Christ, we have this exhortation to awake and to arise. Even where all spiritual blessings are described as his in Christ, the Christian is found asleep among the dead, his eyes closed to his portion, and his soul in darkness thereto. "Awake, arise, and Christ shall shine upon thee"! are words of the most solemn import. The idea that individuals, or associations of Christians, can retain what they or their fathers won by fighting and endurance, save by fighting and endurance, is utterly vain. If we settle down to enjoy our spiritual portion or position, we have already lost the grip of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; and we shall find, as did Israel, that the idea of remaining stationary in divine things is a delusion, and that the dream of such enjoyments ends in an awakening to discover the loss of what had been gained, and to learn that our souls are in captivity.

26. The Most Sacred Inheritance

The Book of Joshua

26. The Most Sacred Inheritance.

Joshua 13: 14 and 33.

"That I may know Him." — Phil. 3: 10.

The countries which the children of Israel inherited in Canaan were settled by Jehovah by lot, and distributed by the high priest and the leader of Israel, the heads of the tribes conveying the Lord's directions to the people.

Levi's peculiar portion is first to be considered: "Unto the tribe of Levi He gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as He said unto them" (13: 14). The Lord God of Israel was their inheritance (13: 33). Levi was "scattered in Israel," according to the prophecy of Jacob; but Levi's portion was the most sacred and the most precious of all. Wherever the other tribes dwelt, there was Levi; wherever the devout spirits in Israel worshipped the Lord, there Levi had his inheritance. The Lord — not a position — was Levi's lot: "The Lord God of Israel is their inheritance." And so it is that the happiest and wealthiest Christians are they who find in the Lord Himself their portion. Whether dwelling among the two and a half tribes on the other side of Jordan, or among the nine and a half in Canaan, not the special position of the land where their cities were, but Jehovah Himself, and the sacrifices made by fire to him, were Levi's inheritance. "The breadth, and length, and depth, and height" (Eph. 3: 18) are most truly comprehended by those Christians who have most of Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith; by those who, like Levi, have the Lord Himself and the sacrifices as their conscious portion. It is well to fight the giants and to overcome cities; but it is better to sacrifice burnt offerings and to partake of peace offerings, to worship God and to hold communion with Him concerning the Lord Jesus.

Levi's portion, in one sense, could never be assailed either by the dweller in the land or by the foreign foe; for even in the darkest day of Israel's departure, when the people of God had betaken themselves to caves and holes in the earth for fear of the enemy, Levi could look up to the unclouded heavens, and exclaim to Jehovah, "Thou art my portion and the lot of my inheritance." Yet in another sense, Levi would be the first to suffer in the day of Israel's adversity, for the sacrifices of Israel were Levi's portion, and these would fail when the foe held Israel captive. And so it is, those nearest to Christ, while they rejoice in a portion that can never be removed, and which never can vary, are the first to feel, in all its acuteness, the spiritual poverty of saints or their affliction by the enemy.

Israel, responsible to maintain their possession in Canaan, might and did utterly fail; the heathen and the idols might and did obtain the mastery over them; but the unchangeable God was Levi's inheritance, and wherever the spirit of worship to Him arose in any of Israel, and sacrifices by fire were offered to Him, there Levi had his inheritance.

With the material blessings of Israel before our eye — their land flowing with milk and honey, and fed with depths springing out of valleys and hills — it is not difficult to discern the peculiar position occupied by Levi. And, spiritually understood, in the Levites' inheritance is seen the believer's most perfect portion; for, while we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, while we have in Him pleasures bestowed upon us for evermore, we have, beyond all blessings which are conferred upon us through or in Christ, the Lord Himself. Indeed, believers are brought into the blessings of Christianity that they may delight in Christ. God has saved and brought His people to Himself, for no less an end than that of their being like the Lord and knowing Him as they are known. (1 Cor. 13: 12.) God's grace towards us reaches beyond deliverance from wrath and entrance into life. Therefore, while we contemplate His mercy — the forgiveness of sins, redemption of Christ, death and resurrection with Christ — it is for us to reach forth, in order that we may realize and abide in our nearest and highest portion. "That I may know Him" (Phil. 3: 10), is the high aim of the energy of the new life.

When the Lord is seen, by faith, in his excellence, the glory of his light dims everything else. Saul of Tarsus saw His face brighter than the noonday sun, and thenceforth Saul was for heaven. The Lord in the heavens instructed him not only concerning the glory, but opened to him the wonder of His own heart there.

It is well to consider our unchangeable God and our unvarying portion in Him before we dwell on the failure of God's people in general, either to lay firm hold of the conquered portions of the land, or to advance and conquer the portions still unpossessed. Let the Lord Himself fill the heart, and the possessions will be obtained, but where possessions are the object and not the Lord, the soul is dry and unprofitable, and the hard and unprofitable soul soon loses conscious grip of its possessions.

27. A Noble Sample of the True Inheritor

The Book of Joshua

27. A Noble Sample of the True Inheritor.

Joshua 14: 5-15.

"In nothing terrified by your adversaries." — Phil. 1: 28.

It is not without purpose that the divinely-inspired historian places on record the bright and brave spirit of the true possessor before detailing the extent and the boundaries of the inheritance of the nine and a half tribes in the land of Canaan. The soul requires fire within, strength and courage in God; and with these we shall make our own what God has given us.

From the fourteenth to the end of the nineteenth chapter we read of the apportioning of Canaan to the nine and a half tribes. The incident of the noble purpose of Caleb to possess Hebron introduces this important history.

These nine and a half tribes had to make their own foothold in their inheritance, though the situation of their possessions was determined by Jehovah Himself; "By lot was their inheritance," but upon themselves, as upon the Christian in spiritual things, depended their foothold of the possession. Israel had reached that stage in their history in Canaan when they stood where the two ways of slothfulness and of earnestness met. At this stage how many would be Calebs? How many would be true possessors who would arise and pursue the path of earnestness to victory?

"As the Lord commanded . . . . the children of Israel did . . . . they divided the land" (ver. 5), and then it was to Joshua, at the camp of Gilgal — Gilgal with its grand associations of Jehovah-given freedom — that the men of Judah came. Caleb stood up before the leader and all Israel, and, in the burning spirit of the true possessor, put in his claim to the mountains of Hebron, and the great and fenced cities thereof.

Caleb's words must have stirred every faithful soul as, addressing Joshua, he said, "Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea." The Lord was the same unchangeable Lord to Caleb, though forty-five years had gone by, and a new dispensation had arisen for Israel; and though Caleb's old associates were dead and gone — buried, because of their unbelief, in the wilderness, for he alone believed in the faithful promise of the Lord. Forty-five years previously, in the dark hour of Israel's rebellion against Jehovah, Caleb had stood firm for his God. When the faint-hearted spies urged the people to unbelief, brave Caleb stayed himself upon God, and, regardless of the favour of his old associates, he answered their mean and unbelieving words by "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it," while, to the wails and despondency of Israel, his firm heart answered, "If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey." (Numbers 14: 8.)

The Lord had said of him in that day: "But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it" (ver. 24). Caleb's faith lifted him out of the murmurs of Israel, their cowardice and their reproaches of the Lord. He trusted in God, held on to Him and left in His hands difficulties and giants; one thing only he sought — the Lord's delight in him.

And Moses sware on that day, and promised Caleb the land whereon his feet had trodden. God grant His people the courage to put down their feet upon His promises, for every one shall be made good.

From that day in Kadesh-barnea Caleb occupied a peculiar position in Israel. In the darkest hours of the wilderness, in the dreariest nights of Israel's wanderings, amid pestilence and divine displeasure, Caleb was sustained by the promise of his God. He had to suffer with the unbelieving host, to be afflicted with them (which principles are as true today as then, for all suffer together, and the unbelief and rebellion of one affects others); but while Israel's warriors might perish, Caleb knew that his feet should stand upon the mountains of Hebron; and while thousands might die at his right hand, Caleb knew that his family should possess the great and fenced cities of the children of Anak, for the Lord had said it.

Caleb is an example to us in our day of weakness and murmuring. In him we behold a sample of the finest qualities of Christian soldiership: whole-heartedness for God, unabated strength through God, and continual dependence on God. Forty-five years of habitual reliance on God had not elated his soul in his old age to self-reliance, nor had forty-five years of God's continued favour in any wise diminished in Caleb the sense that in God alone is our strength, as his words declare: "If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said." How this noble possessor shames the feeble, nerveless soul! To have lived for thirty-eight years in a very chorus of murmurings and yet still to sing "the Lord is my strength and my song," is a miracle indeed, and a miracle it was, as Caleb owned, "And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as He said." "As He said"; three great words, greater than the accumulated murmurings of all Israel for eight and thirty years; "As He said," for Caleb had not dropped down like other men of war and died.

All his wilderness way, and all his soldier life, the Lord's delight in His people was Caleb's source of courage — courage which, when he was eighty-five years of age, impelled him to battle with the families of the giants of Canaan with ardour equal to that which had enabled him, when he was forty years old, withstand greater giants than they, even the murmuring and unbelief of Israel. "Now therefore," said he, "give me this mountain," for "I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in." Few soldiers of Christ can so speak. Too many an aged Christian soldier seems to regard his long term of service as a plea for immunity from that hourly dependence on God, which at the first won him his victories; and "if the Lord be with us" becomes exchanged for the vainglorious and the degenerate, "I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself." (Judges 16: 20.)

Joshua blessed Caleb as he spoke; and a special blessing from Christ, our Leader, rests upon every Caleb-like Christian. The Lord honoured Caleb's dependence on Himself; He drove thence the three sons of Anak and smote Kirjath-arba, and restored to the city its old name of Hebron, which associated the locality with the father of the faithful, and not with the great man among the giants.

Caleb is a name of rude signification, for it means a whelp. Some regard this as an index to his faithfulness, for as the dog follows his master, so did Caleb follow the Lord with true purpose; some regard the name as indicating the special glory of Judah, for, "Judah is a lion's whelp." (Gen. 49: 9.) Be the true significance of his name what it may, Caleb, the faithful man, had his portion in the great inheritance of Judah — "Praise." And thus it is to this day in things spiritual among God's soldiers; faithful men dwell in praise, yes, and "they shall be still praising Thee." His brave spirit arose to its greatness among the murmurs of Israel, and he inherited in the noblest portion of the promised land God, as it were, granting to the man who spoke well of His Name in the place of murmurings a home in the land of Praise.

The Spirit of God wakes a joy-note after recording Caleb's faith and victory, "And the land had rest from war." When a Great-heart rises up in the church of God and smites the giants, there is rest from war.

28. How the Mass of the People Inherited

The Book of Joshua

28. How the Mass of the People Inherited.

Joshua 15, 16, 17.

"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." — 1 Cor. 16: 13.

Joshua 15: 1-15. Judah's lot — the royal tribe, for whom the Lord ordered a royal portion, the noblest and the greatest in Israel — is mentioned first. As it has been observed, Judah's inheritance "was placed on elevated ground, that it might be more conspicuous than the others, until the sceptre should arise from it." Moreover, in Judah's lot was the seat of the future kingdom — Jerusalem; for, in the ways of God, no lot which He orders is determined save with the definite purpose of bringing glory to His Son. Whether in valleys or in mountains, Judah's cities are numerous, and the detailed account of them marks off this part of the inheritance from the rest of the tribes. The abundance and the fruitfulness of the possession, thus described, teach that God's gifts to His people are marked by their munificence.

Joshua 15: 16-19. Caleb's name arising again in the enumeration of Judah's cities, recalls the courage and zeal in possessing in which God delights. Caleb's burning heart for victory fired others. His warrior-soul induced others to great deeds — a grand characteristic, which marks the great overcomers for God in all ages. To Othniel, Caleb's nephew, fell Kirjath-sepher (the City of Books), evidently some seat of learning; and upon its capture Achsah, Caleb's daughter, became the victor's wife. These cousins were worthy descendants of their race; the one maintained the excellence of the home, the other acquired land from the enemy. Where the springs of water in the home, and the sword abroad, are united — where the wisdom that provides the living waters for the flocks, and the courage which conquers the enemy, abide together — the true spirit of possessing is found. Never should the refreshment so necessary for a sunny south land be forgotten. Waters for the high and the low places should not be neglected, the pastures or vineyards should not be left uncared for, the upper springs and the nether springs must be sought; for the true possessor, practically speaking, of divine blessings is he who is as careful to cultivate what he has won as he is brave to conquer what is yet to be possessed. Achsah leaped not from her ass for nothing, requesting gifts of Caleb, her father; and her eager practical spirit, spiritually speaking, is a lesson to all.

Joshua 15: 63 Great as was the lot of Judah, it is melancholy to read at the close of its description "As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day;" and in these words are chronicled the opening of Israel's failure to possess, and the beginning of the history of their loss of liberty. Let spiritual enemies get a stronghold in an individual heart, or amongst a company of Christians, and sooner or later, as the Jebusites did in David's day — man their walls with lame and blind, and taunt the king (2 Sam. 5: 6-10) — so will spiritual enemies defy God's saints.

"They could not drive them out!" The note has been struck, its tone will increase in volume, it will repeat itself again and again, until the sound of victory be swallowed up in the cries of defeat and loss and in the wails of bondage and ruin.

Joshua 16: 1-9. The lot of the children of Joseph came after Judah's, another instance of God's hand so ordering Israel's inheritance that his word to the patriarchs should be fulfilled. The distinctness and the breadth of Judah's lot are absent in the lands and cities portioned to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and also there is an intermingling of their lots, which is difficult to explain. The want of carrying out God's purpose by these tribes is again apparent. "The separate cities . . . of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh," "And Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher."

Joshua 16: 10. The feebleness of the Ephraimites, as that of their brethren of Judah, is noted, "They drave not out the Canaanites . . . but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute."

Joshua 17: 1-6. With the slackness and want of courage now apparent, it is cheering to read of a warrior having a goodly heritage, "because he was a man of war"; for the family of Machir was brave, and so conquests fell to it; thus the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Machir, acquired their portion according to promise.

Joshua 17: 7-13. The cities of Manasseh are next enumerated, and once more the refrain is heard, "Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities . . . did not utterly drive them out" (vers. 12, 13). "Yet it came to pass when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute." Their strength exposed the secret of their inability, they "could not," because they "would not" drive them out; they preferred to make a gain of these heathen rather than obey God; and so it happened that, after a time, Israel learned all the abominations of the Canaanites, and served them as a punishment for their sins. The shortsighted principle of making terms with the enemy, in disobedience to God, ended in the tributaries becoming thorns in their eyes and pricks in their sides, and at last their masters. When faith in God, with its arduous life, is exchanged. for compromise with evil and for a course of self-seeking, the reaping day will discover, by its sorrowful fruits, the bitterness of departing from God.

Putting false things under tribute is a common practice in the church of God, but trifling with evil will result in eventual ruin and misery. Spiritual foes placed under tribute will, as did these Canaanites, assert their right to rule. Do not we see in Christendom "the rudiments of the world," "the commandments and traditions of men," "worshipping of angels," "philosophy and vain deceit," under tribute? Do not we see Christian men suffering known iniquity in their communities, and allowing in their midst persons and practices which are enemies to God? Winking at evil, pandering to sin, smoothing over the false doctrines or practice of favourite leaders — is but putting the enemy under tribute. Such disloyalty to the Lord ever ends in the tributaries mastering the people of God and enslaving them.

"The Canaanites would dwell in that land" (ver. 12). Decision and purpose are marked here. The saints may fail in earnestness, but the enemy will not fail herein.

Joshua 17: 14-18. Having given in all its vividness the secret of their failure, the inspired historian next presents the pretension of the children of Joseph. In them the old man-of-war energy was supplanted by inflation, due to historic memories. The faith in God, which, while making a man nothing in his own eyes makes him great in his deeds, was exchanged for the "I-am-a-great-people" doctrine! "Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the Lord has blessed me hitherto." Regarded numerically the Josephites are a "great people" in our own times. We meet with them everywhere. They boast of the holiness and faith of their fathers, or even of their own faith in the bygone "old times"; ancient victories, and a good old history are inscribed upon their banners, and, indeed, so grand and great are they, that their Mount Ephraim "is too narrow for" them. Surely they should be accredited, because of what their fathers and their founders were! But the past is passed, and the assumption of present greatness because of bygone victories, but a bubble. Faith in God is faith in the living God, and faith in God means living this day in overcoming power in His Name. "If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants." "Up, O great people! and prove your words by your deeds; get ye up, O proud boasters in your fathers' faith and deeds, and prove this day your own faith, by deeds of hardship and of courage! Cut down the woods, and cultivate the wastes for God; cut down the giants, and free the land from His enemies. Visit the sick, the dying; preach the gospel to the enemies of God; awake from vainglorious dreaming, and arise to the reality of hardship for the Lord. Behold the most difficult places: let them be your points of attack, and cut down for yourself there! Look to yourselves, to your own ways, be no more men of words, but men of deeds for God."

Then the Josephites said, "The hill is not enough for us." Virgin soil and wooded districts sufficed not for them! they wanted the easy and the prepared, as did the Corinthians in their day. These were great enough in words, and grand enough reigning as kings; but Paul, the apostle, that great cutter down for himself, reminded them that true greatness measures not itself by itself, but toils on and conquers new regions for the Lord. (2 Cor. 10: 12-16.)

These Josephites, so great in words, eschewed the axe and feared the sword, saying, "all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron." However, Joshua allowed them no departure from their first words; "Thou art," says he, "a great people, and hast great power," "the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down." So may we be sure the Lord Jesus Christ takes us up according to our profession. If we are such wonderful people, so great as we profess, then let us "cut down for ourselves;" if we have so much power, that among the tribes there is none like unto Ephraim, then "thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and though they be strong."

"Cut down for thyself!" Former victories are not power today. Nay, boasting of the past is but evidence of weakness in the present. "The Lord hath blessed me hitherto" is no proof of the hand of the Lord being with us for blessing today. If the believer be building on the past, he is building on the blessing, and not on the Lord. Today "cut down for thyself," prove the Lord's might by present faith in Him. The experience of the past is but a motive to encourage ourselves in the Lord today. "Cut down for thyself," "in the land of the giants;" let their names be Deadness, Indifference, Worldliness, Iniquity, Superstition, Atheism, or what they may be. "Cut down for thyself," ye Josephites of this nineteenth century.

God's way for His people to enlarge their borders is by driving out the enemies. Aggressive Christianity, the winning of souls, following on to know the Lord, daily victories of faith, alone leads to true possession. Cut down the woods, and plant in the barren places the truths of the gospel; and, instead of lamenting the smallness of the openings for usefulness in our lot, arise, and in God's strength, by sword and axe cut down the giants and widen the borders.

The Holy Spirit of God has surely for our admonition placed the spirit of Caleb at the beginning, and that of these Josephites at the end, of the record of Israel's inheriting Canaan. Are we like Caleb, or like the Josephites Like the one brave man of war, who stood alone for God amongst his murmuring brethren, or like the multitudes whose name and numbers were their credentials. We may be sure of this, the noble and brave warriors who spend and are spent for Christ, who toil on, day in day out, patiently praying, earnestly working, grasping the word, striving for souls, are those whom our Joshua blesses, while the boasters in their traditions and in the memories of their fathers' deeds, receive from Him but these words, "Thou art a great people," then "cut down for thyself."

29. Peace and Worship

The Book of Joshua

29. Peace and Worship.

Joshua 18: 1.

"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." — John 4: 23.

A new era now arises in Israel's history. Instead of Gilgal, the camp, Shiloh, the place of worship, becomes the centre for the people. It is now no longer the place of God-made liberty, where the reproach of Egypt if rolled off, but the place chosen of God for the tabernacle of the congregation to stand. The camp, with its self-denial and its hardship, is exchanged for peace and worship.

Standing in God-made liberty, and not being slack in self-denial, we go forth to spiritual warfare, and so become possessors practically of our God-bestowed portion in Christ; and this spirit leads to the further step of worship. Shiloh signifies "peace" or "rest"; and Israel, having conquered a large amount of their inheritance, and being at rest (for "the land was subdued before them"), set up the tabernacle of the congregation in that place which the Lord had chosen to put His Name there. (Deut. 12: 11.)

At Gilgal the Lord rolled off the reproach from Israel and made His people His freed men; at Ebal He established His word in the promised land, and laid Israel under obedience to His laws; at Shiloh He established His Name in their midst, and dwelt among them. God makes the peace, and, blessed in the peace He has made, His saints worship Him. His hand produces the rest in which alone His people can dwell with Him, and He among them.

Shiloh was situated nearly in the centre of Israel's inheritance, and, if we regard Shiloh (peace) as a figure to us of Christ, who is our peace, remembering that one of His names is Shiloh (Gen. 49: 10), we find at once the true Centre of all the vast circle of God's saints, in the fulness of their spiritual possessions.

At Shiloh were the one altar and the one tabernacle, Israel's centre; around this divinely-appointed centre the circle of the twelve tribes was drawn. The extent of the circle would be according to the multitude of the children of Israel, the centre itself could never vary. Thither would each faithful heart of the vast congregation turn, as surely as every compass points to the pole. Christ is God's centre for His people, and around Him is the circle of all His redeemed — "Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." (Gen. 49: 10.) Christ alone is the object of each heart's adoration. God has given no other attraction for His saints. Christ will be the centre in the glory; and even now upon the earth, despite all the divisions of language and of race, yes, and of creeds and "isms," Jesus only is the centre for His people.

Israel's tabernacle was the common inheritance of the nation; the chief of the fathers and the humblest of the Israelites alike worshipped there, for Jehovah's one people they were, and He dwelt among them.

There could be no divinely-owned association of the tribes, save where the glory of God was — at Shiloh. Every true association of the saints of God has His presence, and fellowship of heart and purpose in His presence; "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." (1 John 1: 7.) Christ is the only centre of true fellowship among those who are united to Him and to each other, and true fellowship among Christians only exists so far as this is practically recognized. Christians are now God's circle upon the earth, of which Christ is the centre. God has made them, though many, one body by His Spirit, who dwells in them; and so long as Christ is really and truly the practical centre of God's saints, unity amongst themselves, holiness, peace, and the joy of worshipping the Father result. Let Christ be lost sight of as the centre, and, lo! Shiloh becomes but a name, a memory of bygone days. Shiloh now is strewn with stones, one of the waste places on the earth, a solemn remembrance of glory, worship, and peace of departed years.

The tabernacle was Jehovah's tent, or dwelling place; and since Israel was His chosen nation, it was "the tabernacle of the congregation" — the tent of the meeting of the people and God. They were not only established in the place of God's appointment, surrounding Him according to the principles of His word, but they were associated with God and He with them. His Name demanded holiness in them, obedience from them, practical godliness and a national life, such as He could smile upon. Alas, how Israel's history comments upon Israel's disobedience! Jehovah's changeless holiness is written upon the ruins of Shiloh. Its desolation is an eloquent testimony to the divine displeasure against departure from Himself. "Go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel." (Jer. 7: 12.) Yet each of the three hundred and fifty years and more that the ark remained there declares the Lord's great patience with His rebellious people! God will ever keep His truth, but He has made His saints the caretakers thereof; if, then, His people dishonour Him, He will scatter them, and they will lose their place of trust. As we ponder over the suggestive history of Shiloh, let us take heed to the word of our God, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these Is this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have Seen it, saith the Lord." (Jer. 7: 4, 11.)

But Shiloh foretells a brighter day to come. It speaks of the gathering together of the scattered tribes of Israel to the Christ they now reject. It has also its encouragement for the Christian believer. We find, declared in the seventeenth of St. John's Gospel, the union of the family of God's children. First, the apostolic unity, which nothing did sever; secondly, the general unity of grace; thirdly, the unity of glory. Practical union, displayed upon the earth, is a testimony to the world, and to this responsibility attaches itself; but there shall be union displayed in the glory when this day of divisions is no more. In the coming day of peace and rest, the one undivided company of the family of God shall behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, which the Father has given Him. Then all hearts shall be united eternally; then all desires shall be fixed undistractedly upon Christ; then the saints "shall all see eye to eye." Then the whole of God's rich blessings shall be the portion of the whole of God's people. Then rest from war shall be the portion of all, and, in the sunshine of cloudless peace, in the glory of God, shall our Shiloh be. The tabernacle of God shall be with men! (See Rev. 21.)

30. The Last Call to Possess

The Book of Joshua

30. The Last Call to Possess.

Joshua 18, 19.

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." — 2 Tim. 2: 3.

The peace God had given Israel enabled them to assemble at His call in Shiloh, and from Shiloh arose Joshua's last exhortation to the nation to possess what God had given them — "How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the Lord God of your fathers hath given you?" God had said, "I will not fail thee;" but Israel had relaxed in energy, lost grasp of the promise, and had become slothful. Warnings as to the consequences of slackness were subsequently given, but never again such an exhortation to possess. The "last call had come. Let the believer take warning lest, he sink slowly down into spiritual inertness; lest call upon call to him to awake and arise be neglected, and at length the last appeal be made in vain, and his career of victory end.

"There remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance." (Joshua 18: 2.) Out of the twelve, merely two and a half tribes inherited in Canaan, and two and a half had their possessions on the other side Jordan; hence, despite mighty victories, the feebleness of the mass is apparent.

Joshua 28: 4. Joshua bade three men from each tribe go forth from Shiloh, walk through the land, and describe it. "Ye shall therefore describe the land into seven parts, and bring the description hither to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord our God" (ver. 6). So the land was surveyed, and the result recorded in a book, and laid before Jehovah in Shiloh. There were lots cast before the Lord for them (ver. 10); His purpose, as He had promised the fathers, for His people was proved, the land was divided "unto the children of Israel according to their divisions." These divisions are enumerated (see Joshua 18: 11 to end of Joshua 19: 48). Speaking generally, Israel's portion was stored up in the book before the Lord; the seven tribes did not make their inheritance their own, according to the spirit of the exhortation in which Canaan was entered.

While this fact declares loudly the inertness and unbelief of the nation, it finds its echo in the slackness of soul of those of God's saints who are content to know that their portion is in "the book," and, satisfied that it is recorded for them, are too slow of soul "to go to possess." Israel knew exactly what belonged to them, for the unpossessed land was minutely set out, and the districts so described were divided among the tribes; but it is one thing to know our portion, another to dwell in it. Even in Israel's palmiest days — the time of Solomon — the land was not entirely occupied.

In things spiritual, there is all the difference between knowing and possessing. Possessing means practically driving out the enemy, and dwelling in the power of what is known. Great was the difference between Israel's hearing the cities of their inheritance detailed to them at Shiloh, and dwelling in them.

To be "slack to go to possess" our spiritual inheritance, the wonders of which are in some measure known to us, is slighting the favours of God.

Every day was a day lost in which Israel allowed the enemy to continue in his strongholds, or return from his hiding-places and re-establish himself in the land; and each such day rendered more difficult the going "to possess" which was incumbent upon them. And while every step in true devotedness to God is real positive gain, every day spent in spiritual idleness is a fresh difficulty to be overcome. The Christian should address himself to steady, persistent energy of soul; he should cultivate habitual earnestness, and that spirit which turns to heavenly things without effort.

How have those soldiers of Christ whom we know as His mighty men of valour, and see acting in the vigour of His Spirit, attained their spiritual strength? The young men, who had overcome the wicked one, (1 John 2: 13) were once "babes"; they did not learn to "endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ," without training. St. Paul tells us that he kept under his body, and brought it into subjection (1 Cor. 9: 26, 27), and, even in him, greater spiritual strength is observable towards the end of his course than at the beginning. The inertness of our nature, its utter inaptitude to divine things, nay, its contrariety of tastes and desires, added to the attractions to our senses of the exterior world, are used by the adversary to dwarf our growth "in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," and to conduce to our "slackness." But as a soldier may invigorate his companions, so may the soldier of Christ help his comrades; and we are told to exhort one another daily, and so much the more as we see the day approaching. "Add to your faith virtue," i.e., courage, valour! (2 Peter 1: 5.)

Let the example of Paul, the apostle, appeal to us. He was determined to know nothing amongst the contentious Corinthians but Christ and Him crucified; men were as nothing in his estimation, when he faced the enemy who was leading captive the Galatian Christians; Christ's glories were all to him when he warned the Colossians of the foe; and he shunned not, to be solitary in Asia for Christ's sake. Nothing was allowed to move him, his soldier-spirit was ever firm, and true to Christ.

We speak of Israel's possessing their land flowing with milk and honey, but that land gives a feeble idea of the heavenly places, and of their spiritual abundance. The Canaanitish foes resemble the Christian's spiritual enemies only in measure. The natural type is insufficient to convey the spiritual reality to the mind; language fails to express the deep feelings of the heart, for it is the Spirit only who searches the deep things of God, and that Spirit only who reveals them to us. (1 Cor. 2: 10.) But Israel is an ensample and warning, to which the Christian is bidden take heed. (1 Cor. 10: 11.) The land having been made over to Israel, and divided to each tribe according to the order the Lord saw well, the people "gave an inheritance to Joshua, the son of Nun, among them," and thus ended the apportioning of the inheritance.

31. The Cities of Refuge

The Book of Joshua

31. The Cities of Refuge.

Joshua 20.

"We might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." — Heb. 6: 18.

The land being subdued under Israel (Joshua 12), the worship of Jehovah established in its centre (Joshua 18: 1), and all the tribes having their inheritance apportioned to them, the Lord ordered that provision should be made to maintain His land guiltless of innocent blood. Cities of refuge were appointed, to which he who slew a man through ignorance and without intention might flee from the avenger of blood, who, according to the habit of the East, would pursue and kill the manslayer.

These cities, which were six in number, offered a gracious provision for him who had slain his neighbour without intention. Six characterizes human imperfection, falling short of the well-known Bible sign of perfection — seven. And as they stood, three in number, (Deut. 19: 2), on either side of the Jordan (Joshua 20: 7, 8), on both sides of the river was established full testimony by God to His mercy. Look which way we will we can but see our own utter sin and imperfection, yet where sin abounds grace much more abounds, and the mercy of God extends to all.

In the land of promise these cities stood, each on a hill, for all eyes to see, and with high roads leading to them, so laid out that there could be no difficulty in finding the way. The gates of the cities of refuge were always open, that "Every slayer may flee thither." (Deut. 19: 3.)

When the slayer found the. shelter of the city of refuge, the judges were to hear his cause in the acknowledged place of administering justice — the gate; and if it were shown that he smote not his neighbour wittingly, nor hated him before time, then the slayer found an asylum within the walls. However, while the manslayer's life was thus secured his inheritance was forfeited so long as he dwelt within the city of refuge. He was but a refugee under protection. Upon "the death of the high priest that shall be in those days" his position was entirely changed; for, with the succession of another high priest, the slayer received full forgiveness for his deed of blood, absolute freedom, and restoration to his inheritance. He might "return, and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, unto the city from whence he fled."

Why is it that upon the whole land being distributed amongst the tribes, and the Name of the Lord in His tabernacle being the established centre for His people, mention is made of these cities of refuge, and the gracious provision for the manslayer? In the principles of righteousness that God demands at the hands of His people, and in His care that the land should not be defiled by blood, we can find an answer; but beyond this there is the typical teaching of these cities, and the death of the high priest, which cannot fail also to command our attention.

Eighteen hundred years ago the manslayer lifted up his hand, innocent blood was shed, and from that day the land of Canaan has been defiled by the blood of Jesus. The manslayer has lost his inheritance, he has fled from his own city; the Jews are banished from their land. Strangers dwell in the lots which Jehovah apportioned to the tribes; the possession is forfeited, and, to appearance, lost. But within the veil, in the heavenly sanctuary, the High Priest dwells. The Lord has passed through the heavens, and though unknown to the nation, who with wicked hands slew Him, He lives above. So long as He abides thus, Israel will remain without their inheritance. But He will come forth, the heavenly High Priest, and then Israel shall receive full forgiveness, and shall once more inherit every man his dwelling place. On that day, in millennial glory, shall the Name of the Lord and His presence be the centre, the true Shiloh, the Peace of the promised possession on earth.

The words "the Lord also spake unto Joshua, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Appoint out for you cities of refuge," occurring immediately after the statement "so they made an end of dividing the country," point to God's gracious provision for Israel. Having lost the land which Jehovah gave them, and being driven out of the possession because of their guilt, they are, nevertheless, most mercifully sustained by God, until the day shall come when they shall again enter upon their inheritance. Therefore, though Israel understood it not, their cities of refuge, each one from the eminence on which it stood, and with the highways running towards its gates, proclaimed the grace of God to them in the dark and terrible day of their crime in slaying His Son.

While to the eye of man those days when Israel dwelt in Canaan are but a bygone scene of national glory, to the eye of faith the return of the nation to the promised land depends upon the coming forth of the High Priest who is now in heaven. Had the Jews repented when the Holy Ghost, through the apostle at Pentecost, testified of Christ's death and resurrection and ascension on high, the inheritance would have fallen to Israel, for we read, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come (see R.V.) seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God. hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." (Acts 3: 19-21.) They did not repent, and the promised times of restitution have not yet come; but the sure promise remains, it is "impossible for God to lie" (Heb. 6: 18), and the word sworn to the fathers shall yet be made good.

In this our Christian era the priest is hidden within the veil, Jesus is in heaven, ministering there in the presence of God. A priest indeed of heavenly, not earthly, type, and occupied with the hourly needs of His people, leading them each one home to heaven; but none the less will He bring His scattered nation, Israel, into their promised possession, when the heavens, which now conceal Him, shall open, and when He shall come forth. That day draws near. "Even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne." (Zech. 6: 13.) In His double glory of Priest and King He shall bring Israel into their inheritance, every tribe shall have its lot, the temple and the throne shall be exalted, and old and young shall rejoice in the Lord whose words can never fail. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof." (Zech. 8: 4, 5.)

In the days ensuing upon the death of Christ, the Spirit of God, speaking through the apostle, said to Israel: "Ye killed the Prince of Life," and also, "Now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3: 15 and 17); for, in His grace, God accepted that those who had been the murderers of Jesus had sinned through ignorance. Indeed, God speaks in a somewhat similar strain of Gentiles, saying of the wisdom of God, "Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." (1 Cor. 2: 8.) The wilful, predetermined murder of the Lord, as the Sent One of God, would have been a sin beyond forgiveness.

The Lord Jesus is now both City of Refuge and Priest, and not for Jews only but also for Gentiles; our security and inheritance are both bound up with Him. We "have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." (Heb. 6: 18, 19.) The solemn consideration that the guilt of man having shed the blood of Christ rests on the world should ever weigh on the Christian's mind, while the sinner, who repents of his sins, finds the City of Refuge day and night ready to receive him.

Jewish tradition declares that the highways leading to the cities of refuge were kept in constant repair; that at the cross-roads, posts having "Refuge! Refuge!" inscribed upon them, were erected, which pointed out the way and that runners, who were learned in the law of God, were stationed to guide the fugitive to security. Most suggestive to the lovers of souls are these traditions, and a most happy combination do these runners present of the evangelist, whose feet should be swift to lead and help souls to Christ, and whose lips should be filled with the truths of God's holy word.

The blood of Christ has, in mercy, magnified the claims of divine justice, and the gates of salvation are flung wide open to receive the transgressor. God declares His name of love, and by His servants, His Levites, who expound His word, invites sinners to enter in and partake of His grace. Love now cries aloud from the throne of the majesty on high — the Lord Jesus in heaven is proclaimed as assuring the life of those who are of the guilty race that slew Him. And not only is security theirs who have fled to Christ for refuge, but being saved in hope — in hope of coming glory — a glorious inheritance is theirs in anticipation.

32. The Cities of the Levites

The Book of Joshua

32. The Cities of the Levites.

Joshua 21.

"He . . . gave gifts unto men, .. . and some . . . teachers." — Eph. 4: 8-11.

The Levites had no lands nor lot in Canaan as had the other tribes and, upon the cities of refuge being provided by the Lord, they came to the high priest, Eleazar, and to Joshua at Shiloh, and laid claim to the cities and the suburbs, which Moses had commanded should be apportioned to them by the tribes out of their inheritance.

The lots for the families of Levi fell in such a way that the children of Aaron, the priest, obtained their cities out of Judah's portion, in which also Simeon possessed, and out of that of Benjamin. Thus the hand of Jehovah ordered that the families of the priests should be settled in the districts surrounding the royal city, Jerusalem. A design marks every detail of the possession of Israel's inheritance, and divine order and beauty are stamped upon the whole of the nation's portion.

The number of cities that fell to the Levites "within the possession of the children of Israel" — "forty and eight cities," twelve, four times told, has also a divine purpose in it. The number twelve recurs frequently in God's ways with Israel, and signifies administration in His kingdom; the number four runs all through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and as a mark of completeness. Hence these cities, apportioned to the Levites and distributed over Israel's inheritance, indicate that everything was filially ordered in the land, and that God had provided for the complete administration of His word in the possession He had made Israel's.

To the Levites fell the solemn responsibility and high privilege of teaching Israel the law of the Lord. "They shall teach Jacob Thy judgments, and Israel Thy law." (Deut. 33: 10.) In the day of Messing to Israel which is yet to come, the prophet declares of Levi, "They shall teach My people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to My judgments." (Ezek. 44: 23, 24.) For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, and He will carry out His great purpose of promise to the fathers, and will yet establish His word in the Land of Canaan.

The Levites were set apart from the rest of Israel for the service of the sanctuary and the contemplation of God's word; and, as they went up in their courses to attend the worship of God and returned to the cities from their sacred office, the whole of Israel would be kept in mind of the Lord, whose cloud overshadowed the tabernacle at Shiloh.

Thus, in the final ordering of the possessions in the promised land, Jehovah provided for the maintenance of the knowledge of His word amongst His people; without this their prosperity must inevitably cease, for without obedience to the word of God their privileges would be forfeited.

At Ebal and Gerizim the Lord established Israel in the land, in obedience to the solemn words of His law; on that day Israel formally entered into possession of their inheritance; and now, the whole land being apportioned among them, the crowning act is the distribution amongst the nation of the Levites, to whom was entrusted the upholding of the word of God in Israel. The first and the last great acts, in connection with the possession: of the land, are, therefore, connected with the law, the Levites being entrusted with teaching Israel the word of Jehovah. Israel's prosperity from first to last depended upon their obedience to that word. The responsible position of the Levites is most marked, and in like manner is that of the ministers of God, whom He has appointed to be the instructors of His people.

33. Rest

The Book of Joshua

33. Rest.

Joshua 21: 43-45.

"If Joshua had given them rest, then would he [David] not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." — Heb. 4: 8, 9.

All Jehovah's promises were fulfilled, and the land was distributed amongst Israel, according to His word.

"And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers.

"And they possessed it, and dwelt therein.

"And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that He sware unto their fathers.

"And there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

"There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass."

Jehovah had been unwearied in bringing Israel into the possession of the land promised to the fathers. He had now fulfilled His own sure word. He had come down into Egypt, the land of Israel's bonds; He had been afflicted there in their afflictions; He had ransomed them from captivity, and, having given them the spirit of pilgrims, had guided them as a flock through the wilderness, where He fed them daily, went before them, and was their rearward; He had healed their wilderness backslidings, and forgiven their unbelief in His grace; He had brought them through the river into the promised land, fought for them, given them victory over all their enemies, and had made the promised inheritance their possession. All that Jehovah had given them to anticipate was fulfilled. Israel was at rest — rest in the midst of fulfilled promises, in the midst of possessed blessings.

In one sense Israel entered Canaan at rest — at rest from the judgment of Egypt, from the pursuit of the destroyer, and from the wilderness. All their hopes concerning deliverance from the place of bondage and Pharaoh, and of reaching the land of promise, were then fully realized. Thus they beg their light in Canaan as God's men of war, and in the power of His liberty; and, having waged Jehovah's wars for seven years, as it is generally understood — a perfect period — "the land rested." (Joshua 11: 23.) Conquest produced rest from warfare but as this was obtained by conquest, it could only be sustained by incessant watchfulness, being lost to them should they fail to exterminate the enemy. The rest was not absolute.

But the rest mentioned in verse 44 of the chapter before us is complete, at least so far as Israel was concerned.

Every character of rest which Israel enjoyed resulted from divine faithfulness. That here described, being a fulfilment of promise, is one which, when entered, leads the devout heart to exclaim, Behold, what hath God wrought! It anticipates a day when, every foe of God's people being subdued, all the blessings which are promised them in Christ shall be realized.

What follows in the book of Joshua, morally considered, is hardly a development of the history of Israel. With rest we have reached the desired end. The remainder of the book is a warning to such as, having a promise given them of entering into rest, seem to come short of it (Joshua 22), and an exhortation to those which have in spirit entered into rest, to abide in the power of it (Joshua 23 and 24).

The Christian, as the result of Christ's victory, enjoys through faith present rest over sin, the world, and Satan, even while warring with these foes. It is his portion, by faith, to know full deliverance from the judgment of the world through the precious blood of Christ, his passover; to know that Christ, being risen from among the dead, has broken the power of death and Satan; from both of which He has delivered His redeemed people. The Christian knows, too, that Christ is in the heavenly places, and that he is seated in Him there; that he is God's freed man, and in the power of this liberty and rest, and, in his Lord's might, he fights against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. The Christian enjoys the peace of his Shiloh, worships the Father in spirit and in truth in the true tabernacle, where the glory-cloud ever abides. But while all these blessings are his to enjoy and to dwell in, yet there is a rest which he is anticipating, a rest which he has not at present entered, even the rest of God.

The Christian is a man of expectation; he is saved in hope — in hope of coming glory. Did he not enjoy complete peace with God, and rest for his conscience through the finished work of the Lord Jesus, he could not hope for the glory. His salvation is absolute, but the longings of the new nature render him a man of expectation. "Hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why cloth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." (Rom. 8: 24, 25.)

Hope and possession are woven together in his soul. He is not yet transformed into the image of Christ, though he is now a child of God; what he shall be is not yet manifested, but he is blessed in Him with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. He is not yet morally like the Lord, but by beholding His glory he is, day by day, changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3: 18.) He is compassed about with infirmity, and with the whole groaning and travailing creation, groans within himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body (Rom. 8: 21-23); yet he has the Spirit of God within him, the earnest of the promised possession. (Eph. 1: 13, 14.) Hope and security are both his, "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15: 49); "we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Phil. 3: 20, 21), yet even now "all things" are ours. (1 Cor. 3: 21.) In the sympathies of Christ, the Christian anticipates the day of his Redeemer's glory, and longs to behold that glory, as the Lord prayed the Father (John 17: 24); in the "patience of" Christ he awaits the day when the Lord's foes shall be made His footstool. (Rev. 1: 9.)

It is further the Christian's privilege to look forward, desiring the honour of Jesus, to the time when Israel's twelve tribes shall own their now rejected Messiah, when north and south shall give up the people who are now nationally dead, when their land shall once more flow with milk and honey, and shine with God's favour, and when Israel shall sing to Jehovah "and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him;" when the Kingdom of God shall be established, and the name of Jesus be confessed by every tongue, and every knee bow to Him and own Him Lord, to the glory of God the Father. In a word, the Christian is expecting all that shall accrue to Christ's glory, which His precious death has purchased, and for which He Himself waits, for "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." (Isa. 53: 11.)

In order to enjoy rest in our present spiritual blessings ceaseless vigilance is necessary, for the foe is still active. But fightings without and fears within will cease before long; idols and their names will shortly come no more in remembrance. The strivings of sin and the buffetings of Satan have an end for God's people; it shall be said of all the saints, even of the weakest, "The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand." The day will dawn, ushered in by the Morning Star shining in the sky; and then this world and the lusts thereof shall pass away; and it shall be proved that the word of the Lord endureth for ever. Then, resting in God's rest, heart shall respond to heart with joyful praise, "There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken . . . all is come to pass."

34. The Return of the Forty Thousand Warriors

The Book of Joshua

34. The Return of the Forty Thousand Warriors.

Joshua 22.

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." — Gal. 6: 7.

In considering the story of the return of the forty thousand warriors belonging to the two and a half tribes, the Lord's first exhortation to Israel, "Arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them," must be borne in mind. It must also be remembered that on "this side" Jordan were the twelve memorial stones of the passage of the river, the strength of Gilgal, the camp, the prostrate walls of Jericho, the stones whereon the law was written at Ebal, the tabernacle, and the cloud.

"Bring us not over Jordan" had been the settled determination of the two and a half tribes, whom God had so greatly enriched upon their way to the promised land. They preferred sitting down and enjoying their riches to pressing forward to the inheritance. Expediency rather than faith guided them. The cities of Gilead had greater attractions for them than the soldiers' tents over Jordan. Settling down, let it assume what form it may, is a sorrowful thing. Faith inherits "yonder and forwards," in nearness to God.

"Bring us not over Jordan" had been the cry of these tribes; "we will not inherit with them" — i.e., with the mass of Israel, their determination; hence the sorrowful day came for the backward journey of their warriors. However much the zeal of the forty thousand, who for their brethren's sake fought on the Lord's side of Jordan, may be admired — and surely they had their reward — it cannot be denied that the two and a half tribes sent them "forwards" to fight the Lord's battles, in order to compromise matters. "We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side of Jordan may be ours."

The Lord having now given rest to Israel, as He had promised, Joshua said to these warriors "Return ye." He commended their faithfulness and obedience, and earnestly enjoined upon them wholeheartedness for the Lord. He entreated them to love the Lord, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to cleave to Him, and to serve Him with all the heart and all the soul; and he blessed them, and sent them away. "Return with much riches unto your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren." There is a blessing for any child of God who follows the Lord with a true heart, even if he do so only for one day, and there is ever spoil for such to divide with those who stay at home and keep the stuff; but "Return ye" is a solemn sentence.

"Return ye" from the scene of hardship and of victory to the pastoral tent! "Return ye" from Canaan to Gilead! "Return ye" from the promised possession to the inheritance of your choice! Departure from any degree of zeal for God, or nearness to God, is grievous; and this the forty thousand discovered returning from the battlefields and forsaking Shiloh, the place of worship. In a sense, it may be, the Lord accepted them in the position which they had chosen (see end of ver. 9), for He acts towards His people according to His own standard of faithfulness, even when they are in a false position. "He remaineth faithful."

As these men of war, who had fought and endured hardness with their brethren, journeyed to their inheritance, they came to Jordan, and there they made a halt and questioned among themselves. The sight of the river recalled grand memories of God's ways for Israel. They had entered Canaan by the dry bed of the stream which they were about to ford on their homeward way; they had helped to erect the memorial in Gilgal of the passage of the river by all Israel. Were they then indeed going to leave the promised land? Were their own feet about to put the river between them and the twelve stones of Gilgal and the tabernacle of Shiloh Their hearts smote them. In that crisis did faith suggest, or did compromise reason? They did not adopt the course which the nine and a half tribes afterwards proposed — "Pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the Lord, wherein the Lord's tabernacle dwelleth"! No! "They built a great altar."

Their great altar was not the Lord's altar — it was a memorial, a remembrance merely. Its chief value consisted in its evidencing that they who erected it had been once at Shiloh! Such a necessity demonstrated the untenableness of the position on the "other side of Jordan."

What a poor thing was their altar of Ed! It was not for worship; they did not mean that "burnt-offering, or meat-offering, or peace-offering," should ever be placed upon it. No sweet savour was to arise from it, nor were gladdened hearts to surround it. What then was this great altar for? "To see to!" To see to — to recall the brilliant past! To witness that, in days gone by, those who had built it were soldiers in Canaan and worshippers at Shiloh! Alas! how often the Christian builds his altar of Ed; altars of "witness," altars to see to are in many hearts and in many associations, where once there was real devotedness to Christ. "Great" altars are these. Great our hands like to build them, but the altar of the Lord is never said to be great. People talk of what they used to be, how they served God, how they enjoyed seasons of heartfelt worship, and by the sign of the past, would prove the soundness of their present condition. Traditions and memories, not the living energy of the present, possess such souls. No man on afield of battle builds his monument; monuments are built when the soldiers have returned home. The twelve stones at Gilgal were a monument to what God had wrought for Israel; the altar of the forty thousand was a monument to the memory of what they themselves had been; our conflict must not end until life be spent; let our daily life, not an altar to see, witness for us. In Canaan, across the Jordan, was the place God had ordained for Israel's home, there was Israel's place of blessing. In Christ in the heavenly places, is our only true position as the soldiers of our Joshua; may our souls never return from that place of blessing to one of our own choice.

The deceitfulness of sin, and the treachery of our hearts harden the soul. There is no real prosperity save in nearness to God, and in living in the blessings wherewith He has blessed us in Christ. The spirit of expediency is utterly contrary to God; yet who has not listened to his heart bidding him choose some easy place, and to excuses for abiding where he ought not to be? We have to learn that we must go up to the position of faith, whatever it may be, which God sets before us, and to refuse the invitations of our own lusts, which bid us endeavour to bring God into our self-chosen land of sight. The Christian must ever be "on the alert"; the moment he turns his back upon faith's battlefield he fails, and is in danger of falling.

They could not have "the Lord's tabernacle," except by going over into "the land of the possession of the Lord"; but their affections, their wives and little ones, and their riches were on the other side Jordan, and thither they returned.

They reasoned thus — Perhaps in time to come the children of the nine and a half tribes may say, "What have ye to do with the Lord God of Israel? For the Lord hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the Lord so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the Lord." Certainly Jordan was a border. It was plain to them that crossing it appeared like leaving the Lord, with His holy tabernacle and its blessings, and that their doing so was fraught with danger; upon considering this danger, most unworthily did they place the burden of their children's forsaking the Lord upon those who remained near His tabernacle.

Their brethren had never suggested divisions among the Israel of Jehovah, nor that the Jordan was a separation between them, nor that their children should cease fearing the Lord; but so it is: the believer who leaves his more devoted companions for some worldly association invariably lays the blame of the consequences upon those who abide with God. Blaming godly people is a common salve for an uneasy conscience; finding fault with one's brother is a universal remedy for covering one's own shame.

When the tidings of the altar of Ed reached Israel, the whole congregation assembled itself at Shiloh, at the one altar of Jehovah. They beheld in the erection of a second altar nothing less than rebellion against the Lord of the twelve tribes. The zeal of Israel was stirred, and when the heart is zealous for God in the contemplation of the failings of others, it remembers with a chastened spirit its own sins; so "the iniquity of Peor," "the trespass of Achan," with all those bitter fruits, were present before them. Israel, moreover, judged themselves before attempting to judge the wrong-doers; they felt that the seeds of the very evils they mourned over in the two and a half tribes, and which they were assembled to root out, were among themselves. Such is the spirit in which the believer, when in communion with God, laments the desertion of his fellow-soldier, and deals with evil. Judgment must begin at home, and who is guiltless And where the sin is a controversy, as was this in the mind of Israel, between Jehovah and their brethren, great will be the contrition and brokenness of spirit in those who have grace given to them, to be zealous for God's glory. Any other spirit is but the zeal of mere nature.

The sword of human vengeance may be drawn in the name of holiness, and pharisees and scribes may stone the offender, and yet because of their own hardness of heart be more guilty than those they judge. But from Rome downwards the fire has been a common cure for disorder in the church.

The nine and a half tribes acknowledged the sin of the two and a half tribes as transgression involving all Israel. "Ye rebel today against the Lord . . . tomorrow He will be wrath with the whole congregation." How little do Christians realize the solemn truth of the sin of one affecting the prosperity of the whole (see ver. 20). There would be less indifference one to another, and less desire to heap up blame one on another were this truth realized. The Christian is not a mere unit, he is one with all saints; his behaviour affects others, and the behaviour of others affects him. The rebellion, the self-will, say, of a company of God's saints tells its painful tale in the displeasure of God falling upon His people. This argument of the nine and a half tribes was most powerful to the hearts of the two and a half tribes, as well as a most emphatic warning based upon the principles of the government of God.

The clean and the unclean (see ver. 19), regarding the land where they dwelt, were determined by the presence of the Tabernacle among them; not by human notions, or questions, but by the cloud of glory and the ark. Well might they invite their brethren to such a holy centre. Only where God is, can His people dwell in purity and peace. Were Christ Himself more truly the centre of His people, His holy presence would rebuke sin and chase away bitterness and pride.

Nothing proves the true godly spirit of the nine and a half tribes more forcibly than their patience in listening to the arguments of the forty thousand warriors, or rather of the two and a half tribes (Joshua 22: 21). These were accepted by their brethren, and peace was maintained. Their words were good in the eyes of Israel, and they rejoiced that the Lord was among them, keeping them from open departure from Him, and saving them from the consuming hand of His judgment, and from the bitter necessity of fighting against their brethren. The act of the forty thousand looked as dark as Israel feared, but God, who knows the motives of our hearts, gave Israel grace to learn by patient enquiry what the motive of the act really was, and so saved the nation from destruction, a principle which, if observed by Christians in controversy, might often save them from division and bitterness, which is, to say the least, as keen if not as deadly as the edge of the sword.

After the lapse of some years the prosperity of Israel was changed for Bochim (weeping). (Judges 2: 1.) The sorrowful time of national declension came. Jehovah, filled with pity, raised up judges to deliver His erring people; and at that time we read of a day of testing. (Judges 5.) Where were the two and a half tribes then? Did the great altar of sight inspire them to devote their lives to the cause of the promised land "Gilead abode beyond Jordan," remained at home at ease. "For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings:" thoughts of heart — great resolutions were made by the men of war, but nothing was done! "Why abodest thou among the sheep-folds to hear the bleating of the flocks?" Because the piping of the shepherds was preferred to the trumpet of war? Hard, indeed, must be the necessity which rouses an ease-seeking. believer into action. Daily nearness to Christ alone preserves the soul from spiritual declension. Zeal, riches, spoils, blessings of former days, having once trodden the land of the Lord's inheritance, will not avail.

In a time when many turn aside, thrice happy are they who inherit "forwards," and who endure hardness, as good soldiers of Christ.

Later in Israel's history we find the two and a half tribes in captivity, and the land of Gilead lost beyond recovery. (1 Kings 22.)

35. Joshua's Last Words

The Book of Joshua

35. Joshua's Last Words.

Joshua 23.

"Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of." — 2 Tim. 3: 14.

Like all last words addressed by the noblest of God's servants to those who have the battle on earth still to fight, Joshua's are tinged with sadness. The great warrior, who for some time past had been feeble in body, was "going the way of all the earth," and feeling this, he gathered Israel around him — elders, heads, judges, and officers — so that, once for all, he might pour out afresh in their ears his fervent words. As has been already recorded (Joshua 13), the Lord had said to Joshua, "Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed"; the work was yet incomplete, and the leader's might was decaying. With lengths and breadths of Canaan still untrodden by the people, and himself about to leave them, he commended Israel to their ever-abiding Strength — to Jehovah, who is ever the same, and whose years do not fail. "I am old and stricken in age," said he, "and ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done for you; for the Lord your God is He that hath fought for you . . . the Lord your God, He shall expel . . . as the Lord your God hath promised unto you. . . . Cleave unto the Lord your God. . . The Lord your God is He it is that fighteth for you." In like manner it was that the apostle Paul, in the prospect of his departure, commended the saints he loved to God, and to the word of His grace (Acts 20).

"I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain," said Joshua. "These nations" were the chief anxiety of his heart. The land needed cultivating which had belonged to those nations he had cut off; but, for Israel's very preservation, the nations that remained called for fresh determination in war. Either they must be expelled and driven out of sight, and their land possessed, or Israel would forfeit liberty, and maybe life, through them. The true warrior spirit burned in Joshua in his old age, even as in his days of strength. Old age turns usually rather to past victories than to victories to be won, but the zeal of his first energy still inflamed Joshua's soul. To inherit, Israel had, as at the first, to disinherit the Canaanite; to possess, they had still to drive out the nations. There was no middle course; go on they must in their first energy, or fail altogether. Though in possession in Canaan, they were precisely in the same position for success as at their first entrance into the land. And this he enforced upon them with all his zeal.

Because of this they were to be, as at the first, very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law, even as they had been exhorted when possessing nothing. Established though they were in the land, they were to have that courage which turns not aside from the word of God to the right hand or to the left, even as they had been exhorted before the wars in Canaan commenced. How hard it is for the believer to lay hold of the fact that always and at all times, solely in obedience to God's word can he conquer! How difficult for him it is to practise daily unwavering dependence on God! And in no stage of his career is this more difficult than when he has attained a position, when, like Israel, he has reached to a great point of success. The young Christian soldier, with all to win before his soul, feels that God must be his strength, or that failure is inevitable; while he who has many victories to recount is in danger of saying with Samson, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself." Further, when a child of God begins his active Christian life, the world is the world to him, the dividing lines are clear and distinct. in his soul; but, after his Christianity is acknowledged (as in our day it so often is), there is the great danger of allowing the amiability of the world to become a snare to him, and of his falling into an alliance with it.

The nations that remained among Israel (ver. 7), weary of constant opposition, had accepted the fact of conquest, and thus were more dangerous to Israel's prosperity than they had been in their days of open war. The smile of the world is more deadly than its frown. Its right hand, outstretched in fellowship, is more fatal to Christian prosperity than its right hand outstretched with the sword. "The friendship of the world is enmity with God." (James 4: 4.) For Israel to "cleave unto the Lord (their) God," and also "to cleave unto these nations that remained" among them was an impossibility. No new path of prosperity and success could open before them, for there was but the one for them, the only path of success for God's people — obedience to His word. It is a delusion and a snare to think the world has changed because Christianity is tolerated, or to suppose that the word of God is of different application to the Christian after years of hardship for Christ from what it was on that first day when the Lord called him to be a soldier. And in view of the present-day spirit of trifling with infidelity, and of feebleness in decision to obey the Scriptures, these last words of Joshua should be laid to heart.

The path of prosperity and that of destruction for Israel were laid down clearly — the old rugged path, trodden on their entrance into the land; the new and tempting one of ease and of alliance with the nations, now that the land was conquered. "If ye do in anywise go back," by cleaving to the nations that remained, then Israel's case was desperate. "Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you." Most terrible words, and most terribly fulfilled. Israel went back, abandoned the true place of separation to God from the heathen, made marriages with them, and worshipped their gods; then His strength forsook them, and Israel became the miserable slaves of the peoples they had once conquered. Alas! what backsliding does the Christian witness! How many have gone back from those truths of justification by faith for which their forefathers willingly died, and thus find themselves the prey of the very superstitions their forefathers vanquished! The nations that remain lift up their heads, infidelity arises in giant-like strength, and binds "in affliction and iron" hundreds of souls. "We wrestle . . . against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places," says the Scripture. Incessant conflict, with all that is not of Christ, is our only safety. Alas! for such Christians, nominal or real, who make alliance with infidelity and superstition, or who neglect the plain precepts of the word of God!

The path of prosperity and that of destruction are, we say, laid down clearly. The good shall not fail; neither shall the evil. Israel knew in all their hearts, and in all their souls, that not one good thing the Lord had promised had failed; they were warned also that not one word of the Lord concerning evil would fall to the ground. Did they serve other gods, they would arouse Jehovah's anger, and perish "quickly from off the good land which He had given unto them."

It is true that in God's dealings with His individual children He will surely bring each one safe to His home above, but none the less is it true that what a man sows he shall reap. It is well to be silent as to individuals; but, in the histories of communities and of God's people at large, we see His dealings according to corporate responsibility. The evils, allowed in their midst, become at last scourges in their sides and thorns in their eyes, and the good things, which once they richly enjoyed, perish from among them. Alas! we see the very people, who once were so joyful in God, lamenting their lack of peace and prosperity!

36. Jehovah's Final Words by Joshua

The Book of Joshua

36. Jehovah's Final Words by Joshua.

Joshua 24.

"I am the Lord, I change not." — Mal. 3: 6.

The words spoken by Joshua at Shechem differ from those recorded in the last chapter, being a special message from Jehovah to the people. The nation — elders, heads, judges, officers — presented itself before God; and to this assembly, called together at Joshua's bidding, the last words which Jehovah uttered through that leader's lips were delivered.

In choosing Shechem for this solemn gathering of all Israel, God would remind His people of the beginning of His ways with them, and of their disposition of heart to Himself. To Shechem the nation had come at the commencement of the wars in Canaan; there, wives and little ones, warriors and old men, had all assembled; there, when the inhabitants of the land were in force about them, in the very midst of their enemies, the nation had reared their altar to the Lord God of Israel; and there, the Levites had read aloud the law of God, and all Israel had consented by responsive Amens to its requirements. In the narrow valley between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, where Israel now again assembled, the plaister-covered stones, inscribed with the words of the law, stood as witnesses before their eyes, and the sound of the Amens of the first great assembly were still ringing in the ears of many.

The thoughtful amongst the people would not merely recall Israel's first altar in Canaan, for at Shechem Jacob, their father, had built his altar, calling it El-elohe-Israel, connecting with God's great name the princely title his God had given him. The Lord's great name, and His favour to him, in that day, had aroused Jacob to purge his household, who there "gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem." (Gen. 33: 18-20, and Gen. 35: 2-5.) Jacob built his altar in Shechem, and "the terror of God was upon the cities" which were about his tents, when he there buried the idols. In like manner the nation assembled first in Shechem, and the surrounding cities had held their peace; and now, at this their last great assembly in Joshua's day, they were bid "put away the strange gods" that were among them. The great Name of Jehovah, and His great acts of favour for Israel, were Joshua's argument to the people, for the purging of themselves. He made a covenant with them, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem, wrote the words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone of witness and set it up there under an oak. (Joshua 24: 25, 26.)

Shechem then, with its stones and its oak grove, was a sanctuary of hallowed memories and associations. The recalling of their past by the Lord, in that familiar spot, forced upon the nation the consideration that Jehovah's ways never change, and the practical issue that obedience to His word is the paramount duty of His people, and that in this alone can prosperity be their portion. As the Lord required thoroughness from Jacob in the day when He had saved his household by the strength of His arm, so He now required thoroughness of the children of Israel, for whom His grace and His strength had been wonderfully exercised. They, like their father Jacob, had to cleanse themselves, and to put away their idols — that is, if they would prosper and possess their land.

These last words from Jehovah to Israel through the lips of Joshua demand, therefore, the most earnest attention. From first to last (vers. 2-13) they recount Jehovah's sovereignty, power, and grace. His sovereignty in bringing their fathers out from idolatry; His power in delivering the people from their enemies; His grace in establishing them in their possessions. And, as we consider the sovereign favour, power, and grace of our God and Father, our response should be the purging ourselves from the evil thing which He hates.

"I have done this," is the burden of the words of the Lord to Israel. His people are blessed, solely because He will bless. The beginning of Israel's history was idolatry, — "they served other gods"; and when far off from God, He found them, even as He finds sinners today, afar from Him, dead in trespasses and sins. "I took," the Lord continues, "Abraham" out of the far-off land of idolatry, "and led him throughout all the land of Canaan;" and God takes His own out of their state of death in sin, and puts them in Christ in the heavenly places. For Abraham, as for God's saints now, there was no going back to "the other side of the flood," no return to the old state and home; he trod the land of promise; we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. God's ways of grace are absolute, they know no change, no variableness.

The Lord further declares, "I gave unto Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. I gave unto Esau Mount Seir." He writes afresh upon the heart of His people, so wonderfully brought into and blessed in the land, His own absolute will of grace, and teaches them to say, "What hath God wrought?" for of Him as, well as "through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." (Rom. 11: 36.)

Then comes a lesson with which the saints, generally, are made familiar, since it is one wrought out in their histories. Esau entered into his possession; but when Edom's armed men held their strongholds, "Jacob and his children went down into Egypt." There for centuries they possessed but God's promise, for as a nation they were buried in the bondage of Egypt. This is a familiar experience of God's children, who have to learn to trust in God's word, and to walk by faith, and to wait in patience. But God's arm fails not, in due time the deliverance came. "I sent Moses also and Aaron, . . . I brought your fathers out of Egypt." The Lord "sent," and the Lord "brought out." All was of Him.

"When He makes bare His arm, who shall withstand His might?" The chariots and the horsemen of Egypt, and the waters of the Red Sea, were as nothing to the Lord. He "brought the sea upon them, and covered them." "Your eyes," said the Lord, "have seen what I have done in Egypt." Yes, cries the Christian, and our eye of faith has seen His power and His grace in delivering us from the present evil world, under the bondage of which we once sighed, almost despairing of freedom.

"Ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season," adds the Lord. And there they had seen His delivering arm, even as the Christian proves the strong arm of his God in bringing him on, stage by stage, through this wilderness world. "I brought you into the land of the Amorites," "I gave them into your hand," "I destroyed them from before you," the Lord further declares. And when weapons failed and the king hired the prophet to curse the nation, he adds, "I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand." Whether opposed by force or by cunning, whether by open enmity in the battlefield on earth, or by accusations presented on high, in all these things "we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

In Canaan, in the promised land, still the same great story is told. Did the men of Jericho or the forces of the seven nations, each greater and mightier than Israel, come against them; Jehovah says, "I delivered them into your hands." Did Israel take the aggressive? it was not by sword or bow they won the day, but because "I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you." In wars, defensive or offensive, in onslaughts of foes or onslaughts on foes, always, and alone, the Lord wrought the victory. Can the Christian fail to rejoice in like grace, yea, to make his boast in his God, who is the God of all grace and of all might Such a portion of the word as the latter part of the 8 of Romans recounts God's ways for us, as does this last chapter of the book of Joshua tell Jehovah's ways for Israel.

Wars having ceased, and the blessings of peace being enjoyed, the sacred soil of Canaan being their portion, still the story but unfolds the goodness of their God. "I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat." We, too, who are seated in the heavenly places in Christ, and are eating of the trees we planted not, and enjoying the fruits pf His grace, rejoice to own that all is of God. Every spiritual blessing, and the appetite also for its enjoyment, is of Him.

Now, therefore, says Joshua, having recounted the wonderful ways of the Lord to and for His people. "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." Departure from God and idolatry are sins that are a very part of man's fallen nature; and occupation of a position, though the most favoured, will not keep departure from God and idolatry out of the heart. It is vain to argue that no hidden household gods were in the houses of Israel, because the nation was in Canaan, and surrounding the tabernacle at Shiloh with its glory-cloud. The call to purge themselves was of God, who knew where the idols were hidden.

Then, as Jacob of old was aroused to vigorous action by God's grace and mercy, so Joshua declared, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Leader as he was, he could but appeal to others to follow his example and to be sincere, true, and thorough for God; for each man, and each house, must at all times deal separately with God. Joshua could but answer for himself and his own house, and this he did. Let us test ourselves, and try our ways by his words.

The people understood well that they were in Canaan solely by the will and work of Jehovah; He had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, He had wrought His great signs in their sight, He had preserved them in all the way they had gone in the wilderness, and He had driven out their enemies in Canaan, and therefore they said, "We will serve Jehovah, for He is our God." But Joshua, with an insight into their hearts, reminded them that it is no light thing to serve a holy and jealous God. Surely old memories and the history of the past added intensity to his warning! Self-confidence makes but a poor figure when arrayed before failures, and sin, and departure from God; but in spite of their history Israel replied "Nay; but we will serve the Lord."

Yet not one word did they utter as to the strange gods which they had been bidden put away from their midst. It is ever easier to say "We will serve the Lord" than it is to purge ourselves from idols; it is easier to resolve to serve the Lord, than to bury our household gods under some oak of Shechem. But God bids us first bury our idols, and then serve Him. Such is the order of His exhortation to us, as He says "Cease to do evil; learn to do well." (Isaiah 1: 16, 17.)

Joshua told the people they were witnesses to their own promise as to serving the Lord, and they replied, "We are witnesses." Again he reminded them that first the idols must go, and that afterwards their hearts should be inclined to the Lord, saying, "Now, therefore, put away the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel."

Did they put away their idols? There is no answer, but Judges 2: 19 would lead to the conviction that they did not do so. "And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and His voice will we obey."

The solemn service completed, Joshua set up a stone of memorial under an oak, to witness to the people what they had said and done; and he wrote the words of that day in the Book of the Law of God, so that the record might stand for ever before Him.

"So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance," and upon Israel devolved the responsibility of maintaining their position in that inheritance by obedience to God. We can only read and read again the solemn words of this last day of Joshua's appeal to Israel, and consider the fact that they evaded the point of his exhortation — the putting away of their idols. As we apply the exhortation to ourselves, we may open the book of Judges and trace there the result of disobedience.

"And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old." He was buried in the border of his inheritance in Mount Ephraim, where his dust rests until Jesus, of whom he is so striking a type, shall raise him from the dead.

So long as Joshua's personal influence prevailed, Israel served the Lord, and, indeed, while his spirit, still influenced the elders, who had been his companions, and who had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel; but no longer, as the book of Judges demonstrates. And thus it is in all days and times, for men serve the Lord so long as the power of God in His servants turns their hearts to Himself, whether these be Judges or Kings — Moses, Joshua, or David. They serve the Lord while the light of His grace, through an inspired Paul, or an upraised Luther, shines upon them. The leader gone, the mass relapses into departure from the living God.

It is an utterly vain thing to dream that the letter of Christian truth will retain men's souls in God's presence. Even the letter of the Bible itself may become a dead letter in human hands. The doctrine of justification by faith may become but an article of a creed; the most sacred principles of the divine word may become but dead theories. The letter is retained and may be fought over, but the practice is gone — the living result in the soul is lacking. Outward formalism is characteristic of our day: therefore we do well to remember that "the word of God is quick" — "living," and that when truly believed, it produces living results.

It is impossible for saints to continue the heavenly course in the impetus of the faith of men who are now at rest with Christ. The true helpers of God's people are they who know practically in their own souls all the works of the Lord, who live out what they believe, who have not only the principles or the doctrines of Scripture in their minds, but who have also the power of the Spirit of God filling their hearts.

With the closing of the book of Joshua, the Spirit of God mentions the death and burial of Eleazar, the high priest, in the borders of Ephraim, and the fulfilment of Joseph's faith in the burial of his bones in Shechem. His sepulchre fell within the "inheritance of the children of Joseph." His dust reposes not in that Egypt which saw his glory, but in God's promised land, though weakness and failure are written upon its holy fields. Man's short history on earth is traced to the grave; but in a little while Christ will reward the faith of all who put their trust in Him. He is coming; He will cause the dead to awake and to arise; and Joshua, Eleazar, Joseph, together with the weakest and the least believer of His saints, shall obtain their everlasting portion in resurrection glory.