OBS. 2. for salvation in Christ, which is supported by miracles and prophecy, necessarily leads to the acknowledgment of the genuineness of its most essential portions, for if the Pentateuch is removed, the whole of the subsequent history loses its foundation, and becomes uncertain and inexplicable. That the last chapter of Deuteronomy was not written by Moses, but was furnished by another writer, perhaps by Joshua, for the purpose of completing the whole work, is an obvious fact. The inscription of the ninetieth Psalm represents it as a Prayer of Moses. Even if this inscription proceeds from a later collector of the Psalms, the tradition which it embodies is the less liable to be rejected, as the whole character of the Psalm, and the sentiments and feelings which it expresses, suit none more perfectly than Moses, and correspond to no period more happily than to the one in which the people, rejected by the Lord, died in the wilderness in numbers, falling like the leaves which the autumnal winds pluck from the trees. THIRD PERIOD. JOSHUA, AND THE CONQUEST OF THE PROMISED LAND. § 59. Significance of this Period-Israel's Claims to the Land of Canaan. A REJECTED, unbelieving and ungrateful generation had died in the wilderness; a new generation appeared in their children, who believed and trusted in the Lord. It is no longer Moses who leads the chosen people; he is the representative of the Law, which contains a curse for sinful man (Gal. 3:10), but does not lead him to his rest. The present successful leader is Joshua (whose name is Jesus, according to the Greek pronunciation); he is a mild and gentle man, and, nevertheless, a hero in faith, bold and victorious in the wars of the Lord, filled with the spirit which rested on Moses (Numb. 27: 18-20), and a type of Him who afterwards bore the same name-he conducts the people into the land of promise and of rest. Israel had become a nation in Egypt; in Sinai they received their Law, their public and domestic institutions, their worship and their sanctuary; one pressing want remained, which, if unsupplied, would render an independent na tional existence impossible-they needed a country suited to their character, position and destination. That country is now given to them; it is the land of their fathers, abounding in sacred associations, admonitions and warnings. "The iniquity OBS. 1.- In the age of Abraham, the Lord said: of the Amorites (Canaanites) is not yet full" (Gen. 15:16). To them the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was a solemn warning the Dead Sea daily proclaimed to them the duty of repentance; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had called upon the name of the Lord in their midst, in word and in deed. But they were immersed more and more deeply in their corrupt and idolatrous worship of nature. The measure of their iniquity was now full, and-"wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matt. 24: 28.) The Lord had previously punished by brimstone and fire from heaven; he is now pleased to employ Israel's sword as the executor of his punitive justice. God has employed other nations for similar purposes, without their own knowledge, but in this case he desires the Israelites to understand the nature of their task, and learn from it how greatly Jehovah hates, and how sternly he punishes the sin of idolatry. Moses testified: "If thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish" (Deut. 8: 19, 20).-The Israelites possessed no human right to Canaan; their right of possession depended on the divine donation alone, and their authority to destroy the inhabitants was derived from the divine command, and the duty of obedience. The same divine act dispensed grace to them, and justice to the Amorites. To the latter, God had granted the country at a former period, not unconditionally, but, as he distributes all temporal gifts, conditionally, namely, as to stewards. They were found to be unworthy; he destroys them, and appoints other stewards. OBS. 2.- The source of the history of this period is the book of Joshua, which derives its name from its contents. It was not written by Joshua, for even if the account of his death in ch. 24 was supplied by a later writer, there are events recorded in ch. 19: 40-47, which occurred after his death (see Judges 18: 1, 2, 27-29). But that the author did not live long after the death of Joshua, and composed the book previous to the age of David, is clearly proved by passages like the following: Joshua 9:27; 13: 6; 15: 63; 16: 10; § 60. Joshua. The Passage over the Jordan. 1. Josh. 1:1-9.-Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, was the successor of Moses. He had already attracted attention when he commanded the army of Israel in the contest with the Amalekites (§ 42. 2); on the occasion when he searched the land in company with others (§ 54. 1), he had exhibited courage, intelligence and faith. He had hitherto, even when he led the army, been sustained by the powerful aid of Moses; at present, when he is more than eighty years old, he is called to bear that burden alone, which had sometimes threatened to crush even the mighty Moses. He is aware of the weight of the burden, for he had been the associate of Moses during forty years; and he is conscious of his own want of strength. But the Lord speaks words of comfort and encouragement: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. Be strong, and of a good courage. depart out of thy mouth. thee whithersoever thou goest." 66 This book of the law shall not The Lord thy God is with And even the people said: According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee. Only be strong, and of a good courage;" the issue proved that at least, on this occasion, such words did not contain an empty promise. 2. Josh. 1: 10-5: 12. — Joshua commences by sending spies to Jericho, the key of the country. They enter the house of Rahab, who (in faith, Heb. 11: 31), acknowledges the hand of the Lord. She conceals the spies for whom the king of Jericho institutes a search, and saves herself and her house. At a later period she even marries Salmon, of the tribe of Judah, and thus becomes an ancestress of David and Christ. (Matt. 1: 5.) The spies return with the tidings that all the inhabitants are overcome by fear. The ark of the covenant opens an easy and dry path across the bed of the Jordan, precisely at the time when the melting of the snow in Lebanon had caused it to overflow all its banks. Joshua set up twelve memorial-stones in the midst of Jordan, where the priests who carried the ark had stood, and as many others on the right bank, taken from the midst of Jordan. The people encamp in Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho, eat of the corn of the land, and the manna ceases. All the people are now circumcised, as the rite had been omitted during their wanderings in the wilderness (for the covenant, of which it was the sign, had been suspended), and, afterwards the festival of the passover is kept the third time. § 61. The Conquest of the west-Jordanic territory. - (Jericho and Ai.) 1. Josh. ch. 6. —Not far from Jericho, the Captain of the host of the Lord appears to Joshua. It is Jehovah who commands him to pass around the walls of the city once on each of six successive days, and seven times on the seventh day, with all the men of war and the priests, the latter bearing the trumpets of the jubilee; the promise is given that at the last blast of the trumpet, when the people shout, the walls shall fall down. The promise was fulfilled; "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down." (Heb. 11: 30.) The city and all that it contains, is devoted to destruction, and Joshua pronounces a curse on him who shall at any future time rebuild it (which afterwards takes effect, 1 Kings 16:34). OBS. 1.The Captain of the host of the Lord is the same who appeared to the patriarchs as the Angel of the Lord. ( 26. 2, OBS.) He presents here a martial appearance, and bears a martial name, as the conqueror of all the enemies of God, and the executor of the divine judgments. As Jehovah is himself the invisible King of Israel, so too, he is the invisible chief Commander and Leader of Israel in every theocratical war. OBS. 2.—It is a remarkable circumstance, in various aspects, that Jericho, the first and the strongest city of the land, is taken in this peculiar manner, without a single stroke of the sword. This result was intended, on the one hand, to furnish the faith of the Israelites with unquestionable evidence of the success of their future warlike movements, which now commenced, and, on the other hand, to secure them in advance, from a carnal reliance on their own strength, and from all vainglorious tendencies to ascribe their success to their own courage, their own intelligence, and their own power. 2. Josh. ch. 7, 8. -The inhabitants of the apparently inconsiderable city of Ai defeat three thousand of the children of Israel, because "an accursed thing" was in the midst of the congregation, stolen and concealed by one of their number. It is made known by the lot that Achan is the guilty man; he and his whole family, who were doubtless privy to the transaction, are stoned with stones by all Israel. The city may now be taken; but, for the purpose of rebuking the carnal contempt with which Israel had previously regarded Ai, all the people of war are now commanded to go up against it. The simulated flight of Joshua induces the inhabitants to pursue him; in the mean time, others, who were lying in wait behind the city, rise up, seize, and burn it. OBS.-The circumstance that Achan's sin was visited upon the whole congregation of Israel (ch. 8: 35), is explained, partly by the fact that the people were a strictly organized and corporate society, the members of which, in their combination, were regarded as a complete whole-and partly, by the nature of this particular sin. The command which had been transgressed, referred to the congregation as one congregation or body, and the whole body was accountable for the manner in which it was obeyed. The sin of the individual was evidence of the temporary feebleness of the moral spirit of the whole body, and, in so far, the guilt of the individual was the guilt of all, and produced a pressure on the whole body, which could not be removed until the moral vital power of the latter had extirpated the degenerate member. 3. Joshua, 8:30-35.-Joshua then builds an altar in mount Ebal, offers sacrifices, and causes a copy of the Law to be written on large stones; he stations half of the people on mount Ebal, and the other half on Gerizim, the opposite mount, and reads aloud the blessings and curses of the Law, as Moses had previously commanded (Deut. ch. 27). OBS. Both mounts belong to the range of Mount Ephraim; the elevated valley of Shechem lies between them. The transaction probably took place in the following manner. Six tribes occupied each mount; the priests, standing below in the valley with the ark of the covenant in their midst, turned towards mount Gerizim as they solemnly pronounced the words of blessing, and then, looking towards mount Ebal, repeated the words of cursing; all the people responded |