or, Thoughts on the Book of Joshua.
1872 119 The book of Joshua is remarkable, mainly, in that the "ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth" is seen passing over before Israel, into Jordan, to prepare a resting place for God and His people. This involved the driving out of the Canaanites by the introduction of "the captain of the Lord's host" with the drawn sword in His hand, before whom Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship. The wars of the Lord follow in quick succession, and the victories of His people — together with the overthrow of the seven nations, and the destruction of their thirty-one kings. The tribes of Israel then took possession of the land of promise, under Joshua and Eleazar the priest, and went up into their inheritance, as distributed to them by lot in Shiloh before the Lord, where the tabernacle of the congregation had been set up. The God who redeemed His people out of Egypt, by the arm of His strength, and dried up the Red Sea from before them till they were all passed over, did the same thing in the depths of Jordan; and swept away the nations of Canaan, in proof that "the God of the whole earth" had risen up out of His place, and was come down to deliver and to establish His people. The song they sang at the Red Sea had come to pass in the promised land; for "the Lord had brought them in, and planted them in the mountain of his inheritance in the sanctuary which his own hands had established." As regards their enemies too, "sorrow had taken hold of the inhabitants of Palestina, the dukes of Edom were amazed, the mighty men of Moab, trembling had taken hold upon them, and all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away." It is not until God has done all that is needful for the glory of His name, and connected Himself thus in grace with the blessing of His people, that their new responsibility begins. Will the earthen vessel be true to the treasure, and use what it has received for the honour and praise of the giver? has been always the question, which such love and goodness must create whether with Israel, or with the church of Christ since.
Joshua, the son of Nun, and Eleazar the priest, glorified the God of their fathers, and served their day and generation well, though not without many a misgiving as to the people (with whom they had travelled forty years) and their ways towards Jehovah. Brought into the land of promise, having rest from war, and dwelling in peace, they settled down contented with the measure of blessing which they enjoyed and which satisfied them, but failed to drive out the Canaanites. Joshua, when old and stricken in age, called for the elders and judges and the heads of Israel, and rehearsed before them the faithfulness of the Lord, and sought to rally them anew, and strengthen their confidence in God, as well as to deepen their mistrust of themselves. Behold, he says, "I am going this day the way of all the earth; and ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people entered into covenant at Shechem, and said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve the Lord:" so they departed every man into his inheritance; and Joshua, the servant of the Lord died, being a hundred and ten years old; and Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron, died, and they were buried, each in the border of his inheritance. Whatever these two men of God may have been and were, in their faithfulness to the Lord, as Moses and Aaron were before them; yet collectively the tribes broke down in their covenanted allegiance to Jehovah; so that the book of Judges takes up the history of their decline and fall, when the angel of the Lord descended from Gilgal to Bochim (the place of weeping). What a contrast! and what a lesson! The earlier scriptures (at the calling out of Abraham) give the bright record of the God of glory breaking in upon the darkness, and hiding nothing from His friend of all He was about to do, walking with one patriarch and another, by covenant and by promise, till at the close Joseph buried his father Jacob, and carried him up from Egypt into Canaan, where Isaac and Abraham were laid before him.
So when another relation was formed between the God of Israel and Moses, as the deliverer and mediator of His people, and further revelations were made known to him, and he saw the land from the top of Pisgah; the Lord took him and buried him in a valley over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. The book of Joshua too (where the Lord of hosts rose up as a man of war to shake the earth, and Jordan fled, and the sun and the moon stood still in the heavens when He fought for His people) like-wise closes with the burial places where they laid the heirs of promise, each in his inheritance. The seed of a yet coming and glorious resurrection was thus cast into the ground, in hope of that day when they shall all come forth to sit down together, "Ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God." These all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promises, but saw them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. It is only as brought thus by divine love into communion with the purposes of the Lord in the final blessing of His people, that either Moses or Joshua, David or the prophets, can stand in the midst of personal and corporate failure as they did, and yet point on the hopes of the godly to a morning without clouds when the Lord Himself shall come, and "He that ruleth over men shall be just, ruling in the fear of God:" for this the nation still waits. Nevertheless Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived him, and which had known all the works of the Lord that He had done for Israel.
Joshua had been called into a remarkable place, as leader and commander of the twelve tribes; and Eleazar into one as distinguished, as the high priest in connection with the ark of the covenant at Jordan, and afterwards with the tabernacle at Shiloh. These two offices, established between God and the people, necessarily created a wide opening for the faith and obedience of others to follow, and obtain a good report. It was into one of these vacant places that Caleb stepped as the claimant of Hebron; according to the oath which Moses sware unto him in Kadesh-Barnea, because "he wholly followed the Lord his God." Caleb, as an heir with the royal tribe of Judah, becomes an example to the co-heirs throughout all the other tribes of Israel to maintain their rights and titles as he did, and to drive out the enemy. He thus becomes as remarkable, in his place, as an heir of promise in taking possession of his inheritance; as Joshua was in leading Israel into the length and breadth of the land of Canaan; or as Eleazar and the priests were who bore the ark of the covenant round the walls of Jericho, as they stood firm in the depths of Jordan till the people had all passed across to Gilgal. However different Joshua, Eleazar, and Caleb were from each other, yet the Lord Himself had trained each up for their respective places into which He led them; and this is a very important fact to realize at any time in reference to the formation of the vessel which God may be about to use.
If we examine this additional point in the light of scripture, as regards each of these servants of the Lord, we shall find much profitable instruction. The first mention of Joshua is when Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim in Exodus 17, and Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill with the rod of God. It was with this enemy that Joshua fought the first of the Lord's battles and prevailed. "The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; and Moses built an altar there and called it Jehovah-nissi." This first lesson in the school of God was followed by another of a very different kind in Exodus 24, when Moses went up, and his minister Joshua, into the mount of God, and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. This future warrior of the Lord had been taught at Rephidim already that it was only as Aaron and Hur upheld the hands of Moses (in intercession) Israel could prevail over Amalek; and now he accompanies Moses up to the mount to learn who and what the God of Israel is in His holiness, under whose feet was as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as the body of heaven in its clearness! Moses' minister, the future Joshua and saviour, is thus called to know God, the Jehovah of Israel; as terrible in His majesty and power at Rephidim against Amalek (with whom He will have war from generation to generation) as He is fearful in praises, doing wonders, and glorious in holiness when revealed to Moses and the nobles of the children of Israel on the top of the mount, where they saw God and did eat and drink. The claims of God in righteousness written upon the tables of stone, and a law and commandments were likewise given out to Moses from the mount Horeb that he might teach them to the people. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Such were the scenes and occupations in the presence of God in holiness, and under the rod of His hand against Amalek in retributive justice, where Joshua's qualifications for serving Jehovah in Canaan were gathered up.
But another and a very different lesson still awaited him in Exodus 32, when the Lord sent Moses down quickly from the mount upon the matter of the golden calf, which Aaron and the people had set up during their absence. By the intercession of Moses the Lord turned from His fierce anger and repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. Now when Joshua heard the tumult as they came near, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp; but the more practised ear and heart of Moses, instructed by the Holy One, could better distinguish between the shout of mastery, the voice of crying, and the noise of them that sing. In effect, the tables, which were the work of God, and the writing which was graven thereon, Moses immediately cast out of his hands and broke; for how could he bring them nearer? The golden calf ground to powder and strawed upon the water which the children of Israel drank, the swords of the sons of Levi by which they consecrated themselves to the Lord and avenged the outrage upon His majesty, are the new and strange lessons which Joshua is learning for himself, and for the glory of God through him in a future day. It was a fine action, and one in unison with the mind of God, when Moses sought to interpose further by atonement and self-sacrifice, so that the sin of the people against God in His holiness, might be blotted out; but a finer one still when he accepted the Lord's rebuke as to its insufficiency. Moses could not make an atonement for their sin (this was a work kept in reserve for a greater than he), but another thing remained open for him to do below for the honour of God and the healing of the people (in withdrawing from the evil) and this thing he did.
The children of Israel stripped themselves likewise of their ornaments by the mount Horeb, that the Lord might know what to do unto them; and Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. The nearness to God in which Moses had been for forty days, led him not merely to act in jealousy for His name where it had been profaned, but also to separate His dwelling place from the abomination of the golden calf. How could He abide there? If Moses broke the tables, he must for the same reason remove the tabernacle. The Lord owned this action, for as Moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door where the Lord talked with him face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend. Two great principles had been introduced, as we have seen, and established: the one was intercession, when the hands of Moses were sustained by Aaron and Hur, in the day of conflict with Amalek; and the other was mediation, founded on the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the day when the people worshipped the calf, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of a four-footed beast. These two principles being recognized between God and Moses, became the acknowledged ground of the people's safety and blessing, and have since found their true and proper place in the perfect ministry of Christ, "who ever liveth in the presence of God to make intercession for us." Moses acting on this new footing turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Rephidim and Jehovah-nissi, mount Horeb and the God of Israel, the broken tables and the action of the sons of Levi, the cloudy pillar and the tabernacle, and the new meeting place between the Lord and Moses, marked out a path and showed Joshua the spot where he could with confidence plant his feet, and there he abode. The minister, Joshua, is no longer seen in the further and secret intimacies with Moses and the God of Israel at the cleft of the rock, or when Moses came down the second time from the mount with the tables that were put into the ark. Like Elisha afterwards, when with his master going the round of Bethel, Jericho, and Jordan, a double portion of Elijah's spirit rested on him; or like Paul in his instructions to Timothy: so Jehovah "the God of the spirits of all flesh "had, by means of Moses, been preparing a man to set over the congregation of the Lord.
It is not till Numbers 13, that Joshua comes forth in his own character, and enters upon his own proper business, though privately, and as one of the twelve rulers, in association with Caleb, who were sent by Moses to spy out the land of Canaan and its cities and its inhabitants. After forty days they returned from searching it, and made their report to Moses and Aaron and all Israel. Those who judged after the flesh, and according to sight and sense, declared that the cities were walled up to heaven, and the men were all of great stature, so that they were in their own sight as grasshoppers. Those who saw by faith, and measured every difficulty and danger by the God with whom there are none, affirmed they were able to go up and possess the land at once. The connection between Joshua and Caleb, as regards the land of promise, is as remarkable in the development of the onward ways of God with Israel, as was his relation to Moses (when his minister) in the unfolding of His counsels to that man of God. The tribes to which these two rulers respectively belonged were brought forward into their rightful prominence by the faith and devotedness which distinguished these chiefs, in contrast with the other spies who brought back an evil report. Caleb was of the royal tribe of Judah, out of which Shiloh should spring, and to whom the gathering of the people is prophetically yet to be. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim, upon whom Jacob laid his right hand and declared his seed should become a multitude of nations. And he blessed the sons of Joseph that day: one by counsel, and one by promise, and by the blessing of their progenitor Jacob they became united in faith and purpose of heart, now that the appointed time is come for the people to go on their way to their inheritance. Moses consistently changed the name Oshea into Joshua (or Jesus), Saviour of the people, in reference to the mind of God and Israel, whilst Caleb, as an heir of promise, bears his own name which means devotedness of heart; and proves it by his readiness to go up and take possession of the whole land. Nor is it without divine significance that "Hebron" is the place now mentioned in connection with the journeyings of their future Saviour, and of Caleb the heir — "they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron, where the children of Anak were." If the unbelief of the ten failed to learn the deep moral lesson which these facts conveyed to the heart of a true Israelite, what would be the yet further appeal which the occupation of Hebron by the giants Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai would make to the faith and feelings of Joshua and Caleb? This Hebron to which their father Abram removed his tent after he had separated himself from Lot, and where the Lord appeared and said, "All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Then Abram came and dwelt in the plains of Mamre, which is Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord. Nor was Hebron remarkable only as "the place of society, or friendship and enchantment" to Abram the friend of God, and the father of the faithful, but it was to be remembered too, as the place where Sarah died (who is the mother of promise, and the free woman) and was buried. There, also, Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham and there Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. Machpelah, in Hebron, became thus the sepulchre of all the patriarchs who had died in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and connected them with the Christ of God and His day, and were glad. Descendants of these fathers, not merely in the flesh, but associated with them by the same faith and hope, they were alive, so to speak, before the eyes of Caleb and Joshua; just as Jesus Himself said of Moses and the bush afterwards, "Now God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to him;" and this is what faith affirms, which calls things that are not as though they were. The promised land was thus a living scene to faith in these two spies, as it had been to Moses when he viewed it from the top of Pisgah. The faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, whether in Abraham or in Moses or in the spies, looked at the land, or walked through the length and breadth thereof with the living God, and in the light of His purposes counted the giants but as bread to eat in the time of the coming conflict. Hebron too, though for a moment in possession of the sons of Anak, asked to be remembered by the heirs of promise as the sepulchre of their fathers, who were sleeping there "in hope of the better country, that is, a heavenly."
Joshua and Caleb who walked thus with God through the land made a good report of it, and carried a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol and brought of the pomegranates and the figs as proofs of what grew there. The action of Caleb was in keeping with this report when he stilled the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it." His confidence was in the right hand of God's power, which had just destroyed Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and would further display itself in driving out the Canaanites on the other side of Jordan, if there was but faith on the part of Israel to follow Him. Instead of this the congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, and said one to another, "Let us make a captain and return into Egypt." Then Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces, and Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes, saying, "If the Lord delight in us, he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey; only rebel not ye against the Lord."
This identification with God and His purposes and ways on the part of Moses and Aaron, and this twofold testimony on the part of Caleb and Joshua to the strength of His arm, and the delight of His heart in His people to bring them into the land, though adequate for faith, were insufficient to quell the rebellion. Separated as these four leaders were from all the congregation, and united in their confession of the one living and true God, He vindicated His witnesses; when the people bade stone them with stones, the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle, and He threatened them with pestilence, and to disinherit them. The intercession of Moses again prevailed against their sin, and they were sentenced to wander forty years in the wilderness and to fall there. Moreover, the evil spies died of the plague and the unbelieving generation was cut off. The confidence and repose of faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which characterized Joshua and Caleb as spies when they searched the good land, equally distinguished them as pilgrims in the wilderness throughout the forty years of their wanderings. Faith, which has to do with God alone, is not concerned about places and circumstances; it has simply to follow Him where He leads: the consequences are His care. The forty years' pilgrimage inflicted upon the evil generation became a school-time for the fuller qualifications of Joshua and Caleb when the set time should come for the crossing over Jordan, and for the settlement of the tribes in their inheritances. Moses and Aaron died in the wilderness, the high priest's garments were transferred and placed upon Eleazar as the successor of Aaron. Moreover, the Lord had given some of His spirit to Joshua, and Moses had laid his hands on him and put some of his honour upon him in the sight of all the congregation of Israel, that they might be obedient to him. Further, Joshua was to stand before Eleazar the priest, who was to ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim and Thummim before the Lord. "At his word shall they go out, and at his word shall they come in," and Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and he took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the high priest, and gave him a charge.
The original leaders of the people did not continue by reason of death; each one died governmentally for his own sin, committed at the waters of Meribah, where they failed to glorify God; and these have now given place to Joshua and Eleazar. Moses and the rod of Jehovah's power stretched out over land and sea in Egypt for the redemption of Israel form the bright record of God's actings in the book of Exodus, as does the rod of priestly grace in Numbers, by which Aaron put away their murmurings. When the wars of the Lord begin on the other side of Jordan, these rods are superseded by the captain of the Lord's host with His drawn sword, and by Joshua and his spear, and now that "the God of the whole earth" passes over before His people to put them into Canaan, Eleazar and the priests come into prominence. The ark of the covenant (in which was laid up the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant — each to come out another day, and be manifested in the person of Christ and His offices in their perfectness,) was to precede the people in their journeyings, and be the one object before their souls. "When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests and Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place and go after it." The faith of an individual like Caleb is no longer distinguished when confidence and courage mark the whole company of this new-born generation, led forward by the Lord of all the earth in connection with the ark of the covenant, borne by Eleazar the high priest and the Levites, under the leadership of Joshua; so that Jordan itself fled away from before the feet of the priests, when they were dipped in the brim of its waters. The great city Jericho too fell down flat, and its giant walls before the ark after it had compassed the city about seven days. In their onward progress, Jerusalem and its king, Adonizedek, with the other crowned heads were all overcome and hung upon five trees until the going down of the sun. Joshua is as great in his conflicts and victories against the enemies of God, as Moses was distinguished for his patience and meekness amongst the people of God. His jealousy for the Lord, in removing the tabernacle away from the camp, when the idolatry of the golden calf was in question, sanctioned as it was by the glory of the God of Israel, which appeared to him at the tent door, and talked with him, was a day of remarkable moral character and beauty.
Perfect in its season as this act of Moses was, yet Joshua is equally distinguished in the day of Jerusalem's capture by the hosts of Israel. Joshua spake to the Lord, and said, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon," until the people avenge themselves upon their enemies; "and there was no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel." The whole power of the enemy is broken up, after one more battle. "Now when Jabin the king of Hazor heard of these things, he gathered round himself the confederated nations of the north, south, east, and west, and came down like the sand which is upon the seashore for multitude against Israel," like the Gog and Magog nations of a yet future day (in Ezekiel). These wars and their victories clear the way for peace. Though in Joshua 11. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings, "yet finally he took the whole land according to all that the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes; and the land rested from war. In Joshua 18, "the whole congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle there," and the land was subdued before them. Now Joshua was old and stricken in years, and he and Eleazar the priest cast lots at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in Shiloh, and distributed to the tribes their inheritances — so they made an end of dividing the country — God had thus overcome the enemy and established His people in the promised land, who were commanded to make no terms with the stragglers, but utterly to drive them out. Moreover God had planted His tabernacle in Shiloh, and surrounded Himself with the thousands and tens of thousands of Israel, the seed of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Joshua lastly exhorts them to cleave unto the Lord, and the people finally bind themselves with an oath to serve the Lord and to obey His voice.
Besides these public and prominent services of Joshua the leader and commander of the people, and Eleazar the high priest who was appointed to ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord, there remain two important histories of personal faith, each perfect in itself which the book of Joshua records: the first is that of Rahab, and the second that of Caleb. In truth we may say the records of Israel would not be complete without these, as not else coming up to the mark of what God is, or giving the examples of the outflowing and overflowing of His goodness and grace, wherever there was faith that could in defiance of every let or hindrance reckon upon this goodness, and cast itself upon the riches of His love! Rahab, who was not one of the people, but on the contrary an alien and of the accursed race, threw herself upon the boundlessness of this grace, that could not be confined to the limits of Israel but must illustrate itself by overleaping all bounds, and saving a Rahab, even when dwelling in Jericho; yea, the conquests of the people of God in Canaan must give precedence to her. The scarlet line from her window, witness of her faith, and pledge of her identification in heart and soul with the hopes and interests of the Israel of God, was also a token to them and to her of the deliverance for which she waited. The scarlet line had saved the spies, when she let them down from her house by its means, and it was to save her and all her family in the coming hour of Jericho's overthrow — and this is what faith is, whether then or now — from her window, or at the cross. The young men that were hidden by Rahab in the stalks of flax went in at the bidding of Joshua, and fetched her out and all that she had, first, as they swore unto her: and then burned the city with fire.
The further history of Rahab, and the dealings of God in grace with her, are as remarkable as the beginning. In chapter 7, "she gets a dwelling-place in Israel, as it is said unto this day," and in process of time is married to Salmon, one of its princes, and becomes a link in that illustrious genealogy through which the Messiah Himself was introduced to this world. In Matthew 1:5, "in the book of the generation of Jesus Christ," we read "Salmon begat Booz of Rachab," nor is this all, for she passes on from this genealogy to take her place in another, and got her record among the celebrities of Hebrews 11, of whom the world was not worthy. Another record still awaits her — and a yet further example of her faith remains for the apostle James to publish, where she stands side by side with Abraham, the head of the whole family of faith, and the friend of God. Likewise also he asks, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. The chain is complete and as perfect as the grace of God always makes whatever it takes in hand — whether the pattern be "a Syrian ready to perish" — a Rahab out of Jericho — a thief upon the cross — or a Saul of Tarsus — or one of ourselves in this day of grace and of the coming glory.
In Joshua 14 it is, that we are introduced to Caleb again; and in this chapter he comes before us in the double character of an heir of Judah, when that tribe was settled in its inheritance; and also as the claimant of that Hebron, which had so won his eye and heart in the living associations which it recalled. Distinguished in the early days of faith and promise, when Abraham walked with God and still more so in the light of prophecy, when the king David of Jehovah's appointment should take his crown and kingdom from Hebron, it became the spot of all others which was dear to faith. Joshua's calling and work as leader of Israel was well-nigh finished, and he had become old and stricken in years, and was going the way of all the earth, as he said, when Caleb's path as an heir of promise was only opening itself out. He steps forth from the children of Judah at Gilgal, and makes good his claim by reminding Joshua of what the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning them at Kadesh-barnea. He comes out as young and as fresh at fourscore and five years of age, as he was at forty, when sent with Joshua to spy out the land; and he becomes in his place an example and pattern to every individual in every tribe of the whole heartedness before God which was the source of his unfailing strength and courage. How different would have been the history of Israel, had each heir of promise been as Caleb and driven out the enemies from their inheritance, as he did from Hebron! The language of faith has always the same character of confidence and calmness, whether it be in Caleb's assurance to Joshua that he would drive out the Anakims; or in David's account of himself to Saul, touching the lion and the bear; and his bold avowal that so it should be with Goliath and the army of the Philistines. "I wholly followed the Lord my God," reveals the secret of faith's strength, either in first viewing the land and gleaning the grapes of Eshcol, or in wandering with the rebellious people in the wilderness for forty years, or as here in claiming the promise of Hebron from Joshua.
"Now therefore give me this mountain, of which the Lord spake in that day: if so be the Lord shall be with me, then I shall be able to drive the giants out, as the Lord said; and Joshua blessed him." Here we get a man of the right sort, with a faith in God that does not give way before either giants or mountains, but declares "as yet I am as strong this day as I was forty years ago; in the day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, to go out and to come in." It is a faith indeed that cannot be measured by days or weeks, or months or years; and even as to Caleb's history it is to be remarked, that we get no notice of his death. The Spirit's mind takes a different turn, and is marking out to us that he neither got old, nor waxed feeble, nor became stricken in years; but wholly followed the Lord God of Israel, and was always young and strong, Such was Caleb the claimant. So Joshua gave to him Kirjath-arba, according to the commandment of the Lord, which city is Hebron; and Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai; and he went up thence to the inhabitants of Debir. The faith of the whole-hearted Caleb, which followed the Lord fully and knew neither ups nor downs, stamps its character also upon his house and family; and this is very beautiful. He would only give his daughter Achsah to the man of like faith, who could distinguish himself at Kirjath-sepher, as Caleb had done at Kirjath-arba; and Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb took it, and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife. Nor is this all; for the faith that wholly follows the Lord God of Israel (who is in these days, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ) is not only consciously blessed in itself, but delights, and can make another as happy as itself, as Caleb did Othniel. Even further, it rejoiced to bestow a blessing upon Achsah, when she lighted off her ass, and, in the character of a claimant, asked her father for the upper and the nether springs.
There is a point of further interest to be noticed respecting Caleb and Hebron, which comes out in the book of Judges and travels on to its completion in the records of Samuel and the Chronicles; for the faith which has to do with God must connect itself with His interests, and all that He does. The personal faith, which made Caleb illustrious as an heir and a claimant, likewise gave its character to his relations and his family. He gathered those round himself like Othniel upon the one and the same principle of confidence in the God of Israel, which had been the secret of Caleb's unfailing strength and whole heartedness. Upon this pathway it was that he introduced Othniel at Kirjath-sepher, and as was the father, so was the son-in-law; for after the like term of forty years in the school of God, and in the midst of the declension of the tribes, this Othniel became the first of their deliverers, and of their judges. He was (as his name implies) "the hour of God" to them in their distress; for the Lord had sold them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia for eight years, because they had forgotten Him, and served Baalim and the groves. But when the children of Israel cried unto Him, the Lord raised up a saviour for them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel and went out to war. Moreover his hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim: so the land had rest forty years, and this rest might have been perpetual, which Othniel had recovered, but for the subsequent idolatry of the tribes; and Othniel died. Deeper corruptions set in, and other deliverers were raised up till, after the times of the judges, came the reign of the kings.
In the end of 1 Samuel 30 the introduction of David and his men, and their faith in God lights up again the darkened page of Israel's royal history, and Hebron is mentioned as among the places where David and his men were wont to haunt, when by Saul's jealousy and persecution he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains. After the death of Saul and Jonathan by the hands of the Philistines, and David's lamentation over them upon Gilboa, he enquired of the Lord whether he should go up to any of the cities of Judah, and the Lord said to him, Go up; and David said, Whither shall I go up? and he said, Unto Hebron. Caleb the heir in Judah, and the claimant of Hebron, four hundred years before, had given place to Othniel as their judge, and the deliverer of Israel from the oppression of the king of Mesopotamia. As we know, the prophet Samuel took the precedence, when the Aaronic priesthood had been corrupted by the profligacy of Eli's sons. David, the man after God's own heart, had been anointed as king from out of the midst of Jesse's sons: so David and his wives, and the men that were with him went up with their households, and dwelt in the cities of Hebron. The men of Judah thus take up the purposes of God and the blessing pronounced on this tribe by Jacob, and in their turn carry them out by anointing David king over the house of Judah. "The sceptre and the law-giver" are thus united; and kingship is now established upon Hebron, the bright answer to the faith of those who, in expectation of the day, gave commandment concerning their bones, and lay buried there in the caves of Machpelah. So David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul became weaker and weaker, and unto David were born sons in Hebron; and the time that he reigned over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. The man to whom God gave testimony, this son of Jesse who should fulfil all His will, schooled as he had been in the sheepfolds of the wilderness, was now to be invested with the entire majesty and royalty of the throne, and as the shepherd of Israel.
Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and said, Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh; and the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and shalt be a captain over them. So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and king David made a covenant with them there before the Lord, and they anointed David king over all Israel; and David went on and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. One object of the Lord in raising up David is stated in chapter 3:18, "by the hand of my servant David I will save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines," and out of the oppression of all their enemies. As the anointed king, his first exploit was to gain Jerusalem out of the hand of the Jebusites; for it was to be the city of the great king; and the appointed earthly centre for the manifestation of His kingdom and the glory of the throne of Israel. The inhabitants of Jebus said to him, "thou shalt not come up hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David, and said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first, shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah [like another Othniel] went first up, and became chief, and David dwelt in the castle." Travelling days and the journeyings of the children of Israel are well-nigh accomplished. God had brought them into Immanuel's land, and to the city of Jerusalem, and to Mount Zion: moreover David was there, and in their midst as the anointed king. The tabernacle in the wilderness was about to give place to the temple and the glory; and the next great business of David was to bring up the ark of the covenant from the house of Obed-edom. "And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, and said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren that ye may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it; for because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order." Unless the sense of God and His grace keep the heart in the enjoyment of His favour as better than life, the knowledge of Him is soon lost, and Israelites become identified with Canaanites, as the book of Judges declares, and reduce themselves to the same level. Baal had his altar in the house of Joash, the father of Gideon; nor could this mighty man of valour do the deeds of one against the hosts of the Midianites, with his three hundred and their lamps and pitchers, till he had thrown down this altar, and first put himself right with God, as a worshipper. The Lord will not give His glory to another. Until Baal and his altar were thrown down by Gideon, there was confusion in Israel; for God and the idol were both there!
Here we may observe, that in the history of the Judges no mention is made of the high priest, or any other priest, or even a Levite, either for counsel or for action in any public way, from the time of Phinehas the son of Eleazar down to Eli. The knowledge of God was lost, and the relations in which He had stood with His people by the ark of the covenant violated and forgotten. When David sought to bring up the ark into the hill of Zion, after its capture by the Philistines, so unacquainted was the sweet psalmist with the ways of God respecting it, that a new cart and the two milch kine did as well for him as the shoulders of the Levites.
Priesthood and the priests, through the breach upon Uzza, come out brightly once more with king David, in the persons of Zadok and Abiathar; and it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings, and David danced before the Lord with all his might, and he was girded with a linen ephod. It is after God is thus owned by David and all Israel, that the Lord makes a covenant with him concerning Solomon, saying, "he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever; I will be his father, and he shall be my son," etc. It is along this glorious pathway of God's purposes and counsels, as to the throne and kingdom, the people of Israel, and the land of promise, the temple and Mount Zion, the city of Jerusalem and the yet coming Messiah, that God has ever led the faith and expectations of those whom He called out to walk with Him. Abraham, Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, Othniel and the judges, David and Solomon, and all that family of faith, looked for a city whose builder and maker is God, and desired a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.
The faith that follows God fully becomes acquainted with Himself and His sufficiency to care for His own glory, and the final blessing of His people, whether in Caleb or Abraham or David. This faith in things unseen and eternal enabled the first of these to look through Hebron, and see a future sceptre and Shiloh; or another, through Mount Moriah and the son Isaac, to see a dead and risen Christ; or a third through Mount Zion and a Solomon (after the flesh) to see a glorified Lord at the right hand of God, and a heavenly Jerusalem. These and further revelations from the Father's love concerning His well beloved Son, by the Holy Ghost through the apostles of the New Testament, are the highways and bypaths by which we also are called out into the fellowship with the Father and the Son.
In the epistle to the believing Hebrews, we join them upon the heavenly calling, as the Spirit by Paul guides their faith along this line of their ancestors; only adding this, "but ye are come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and to the church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel." The summing up of this epistle may very properly close these remarks on the ways of God with His people. This cloud of witnesses (some of whom have been noticed) are here brought forward into their new place, in association with our Lord; and though dead yet speak, claiming their heirship and blessing through the Seed of Abraham and of David, which is the Christ of God; and wait for His second coming. Jesus is also presented as the Author and Finisher of faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. By His death and resurrection, He has made the mercies of Jehovah's covenanted grace sure to Abraham and to David, as their Son and Lord, and secured the promises as Son of God, and made them "yea and Amen, to the glory of God by us." The mystery of the church, as the body and bride of the Lamb — the mystic Eve — is now being formed by the Holy Ghost. God is calling out from Jews and Gentiles, the quickened members of the body, into union in life and righteousness with a rejected Christ, hidden in the heavens; for whose shout we wait, to catch us up to meet Him in the air, and to be changed into His likeness. Creation, likewise which groaneth under the bondage of corruption, waits in hope of its deliverance into the liberty of this glory; when the manifestation of the sons of God is come to pass. The last few touches only remain to perfect the mystery of God, and the Lord will rise up from His place and quit the Father's throne to sit as Son of man upon His own throne in His own glory, and the glory of all the holy angels. Israel redeemed, and brought into this scene of blessing, under Christ and the bride (the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God), will then understand its own mystery — "that God had provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." How gladly will they sing in that day, "for of him, and to him, and through him are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen." J. E. Batten.