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Joshua Chapter
Five
Joshua 5
Chapter Contents
The Canaanites are afraid, Circumcision renewed. (1-9)
The passover at Gilgal The manna ceases. (10-12) The Captain of the Lord's host
appears to Joshua. (13-15)
Commentary on Joshua 5:1-9
(Read Joshua 5:1-9)
How dreadful is their case, who see the wrath of God
advancing towards them, without being able to turn it aside, or escape it! Such
will be the horrible situation of the wicked; nor can words express the anguish
of their feelings, or the greatness of their terror. Oh that they would now
take warning, and before it be too late, flee for refuge to lay hold upon that
hope set before them in the gospel! God impressed these fears on the
Canaanites, and dispirited them. This gave a short rest to the Israelites, and
circumcision rolled away the reproach of Egypt. They were hereby owned to be
the free-born children of God, having the seal of the covenant. When God
glorifies himself in perfecting the salvation of his people, he not only
silences all enemies, but rolls back their reproaches upon themselves.
Commentary on Joshua 5:10-12
(Read Joshua 5:10-12)
A solemn passover was kept, at the time appointed by the
law, in the plains of Jericho, in defiance of the Canaanites round about them.
It was a performance of the promise, that when they went up to keep the feasts,
their land should be under the special protection of the Divine providence, Exodus 34:24. Notice is taken of the ceasing of
the manna as soon as they had eaten the old corn of the land. For as it came
just when they needed, so it continued as long as they needed it. This teaches
us not to expect supplies by miracles, when they may be had in a common way. The
word and ordinances of God are spiritual manna, with which God nourishes his
people in this wilderness. Though often forfeited, yet they are continued while
we are here; but when we come to the heavenly Canaan, this manna will cease,
for we shall no longer need it.
Commentary on Joshua 5:13-15
(Read Joshua 5:13-15)
We read not of any appearance of God's glory to Joshua
till now. There appeared to him one as a man to be noticed. This Man was the
Son of God, the eternal Word. Joshua gave him Divine honours: he received them,
which a created angel would not have done, and he is called Jehovah, Joshua 6:2. To Abraham he appeared as a
traveller; to Joshua as a man of war. Christ will be to his people what their
faith needs. Christ had his sword drawn, which encouraged Joshua to carry on
the war with vigour. Christ's sword drawn in his hand, denotes how ready he is
for the defence and salvation of his people. His sword turns every way. Joshua
will know whether he is a friend or a foe. The cause between the Israelites and
Canaanites, between Christ and Beelzebub, will not admit of any man's refusing
to take one part or the other, as he may do in worldly contests. Joshua's
inquiry shows an earnest desire to know the will of Christ, and a cheerful
readiness and resolution to do it. All true Christians must fight under
Christ's banner, and they will conquer by his presence and assistance.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Joshua》
Joshua 5
Verse 1
[1] And
it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of
Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea,
heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children
of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was
there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.
Amorites —
These and the Canaanites are mentioned for all the rest, as being the chief of
them for number, and power, and courage.
Westward —
This is added to distinguish them from the other Amorites, eastward from
Jordan, whom Moses had subdued.
Canaanites — So
the proper place of this nation was on both sides of Jordan.
The sea —
The midland sea, all along the coast of it, which was the chief seat of that
people, though divers colonies of them were come into, and settled in other
places.
Jordan —
Which was their bulwark on the east-side, where the Israelites were; for it is
very probable they had taken away all bridges near those parts; and the
Israelites having been so long in that neighbouring country, and yet not making
any attempt upon them, they were grown secure; especially now, when Jordan
swelled beyond its ordinary bounds; and therefore they did not endeavour to
hinder their passage.
Melted —
They lost all their courage, and durst attempt nothing upon the Israelites; not
without God's special providence, that the Israelites might quietly participate
of the two great sacraments of their church, circumcision and the passover, and
thereby be prepared for their high and hard work, and for the possession of the
holy and promised land; which would have been defiled by an uncircumcised
people.
Verse 2
[2] At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and
circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
At that time — As
soon as ever they were come to Gilgal, which was on the tenth day; and so this
might be executed the eleventh day, and that in the morning: on the thirteenth
day they were sore of their wounds, and on the fourteenth day they recovered,
and at the even of that day kept the passover.
Make —
Or, prepare, or make ready, as this word sometimes used. As it was not
necessary for those who had such knives already to make others for that use; so
it is not probable that such were commanded to do so, but only to make them
sharp and fit for that work.
The second time — He
calleth this a second circumcision, not as if these same persons had been
circumcised before, but with respect to the body of the people, where of one
part had been circumcised before, and the other at this time, which is called a
second time, in relation to some former time wherein they were circumcised,
either, in Egypt, when many of the people, who possibly for fear or favour of
the Egyptians, had neglected this duty, were by the command of Moses
circumcised. Or at Sinai, when they received the passover, Numbers 9:5, which no uncircumcised person might
do.
Verse 3
[3] And
Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the
hill of the foreskins.
And circumcised —
That is, he caused this to be done; and, because it was to be done speedily,
the passover approaching, it was necessary to use many hands in it.
Children of Israel —
That is, such of them as were uncircumcised. And, though it be not mentioned,
it is more than probable, that the Israelites beyond Jordan were circumcised at
the same time.
Verse 4
[4] And
this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of
Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the
way, after they came out of Egypt.
Out of Egypt —
This is to be restrained to such as were then above twenty years old, and such
as were guilty of that rebellion, Numbers 14:1-25, as it is expressed below, Joshua 5:6.
Verse 5
[5] Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that
were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them
they had not circumcised.
Them —
Either their parents, or the rulers of Israel, by Divine permission and
indulgence; because they were now on a journey, in which case the passover also
might be neglected, Numbers 9:10,13. Rather, it was a continued
token of God's displeasure against them, for their unbelief and murmuring: a
token that they should never have the benefit of that promise, whereof
circumcision was the seal.
Verse 6
[6] For
the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the
people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because
they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would
not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would
give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
The people —
The Hebrew word commonly signifies the Gentiles; so he calls them, to note that
they were unworthy the name of Israelites.
Shew them —
That is, not give them so much as a sight of it, which he granted to Moses,
much less the possession. V. 7.
Circumcised —
Which God would have done, 1. As a testimony of God's reconciliation to the
people, and that he would not farther impute their parents rebellion to them.
2. Because the great impediment of circumcision was now removed, their
continued travels, and frequent and uncertain removal. 3. To prepare them for
the approaching passover. 4. To distinguish them from the Canaanites, into
whose land they were now come. 5. To ratify the covenant between God and them,
whereof circumcision was a sign and seal, to assure them that God would now
make good his covenant, in giving them this land; and to oblige them to perform
all the duties to which that covenant bound them, as soon as they came into
Canaan, Exodus 12:25; Leviticus 23:10; Numbers 15:2.
Verse 8
[8] And
it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they
abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole.
Whole —
Free from that pain and soreness which circumcision caused, it was indeed an
act of great faith, to expose themselves to so much pain and danger too, in
this place where they were hemmed in by Jordan and their enemies.
Verse 9
[9] And
the LORD said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt
from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
The reproach of Egypt — That is, uncircumcision, was both in truth, and in the opinion of the
Jews, a matter of great reproach, and although this was a reproach common to
most nations of the world, yet it is particularly called the reproach of Egypt,
either, 1. because the other neighbouring nations, being the children of
Abraham by the concubines, are supposed to have been circumcised, which the
Egyptians at this time were not, as may be gathered from Exodus 2:6, where they knew the child to be an
Hebrew by this mark. Or 2. because they came out of Egypt, and were esteemed to
be a sort of Egyptians, Numbers 22:5, which they justly thought a great
reproach; but by their circumcision they were now distinguished from them, and
manifested to be another people. Or 3. because many of them lay under this
reproach in Egypt, having wickedly neglected this duty there for worldly
reasons; and others of them continued in the same shameful condition for many
years in the wilderness.
Gilgal —
That is, rolling.
Verse 10
[10] And
the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth
day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
The passover —
Which was their third passover: the first was in Egypt, Exodus 12:11-24, the second at mount Sinai, Numbers 9:1-5, the third here; for in their
wilderness travels, these and all other sacrifices were neglected, Amos 5:25. While they were in the wilderness,
they were denied the comfort of this ordinance, as a farther token of God's
displeasure. But now God comforted them again, after the time that he had
afflicted them.
Verse 11
[11] And
they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover,
unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
Old corn —
The corn of the last year, which the inhabitants of those parts had left in
their barns, being fled into their strong cities, or other remoter parts.
The morrow —
That is, on the sixteenth day; for the passover was killed between the two
evenings of the fourteenth day, and was eaten in that evening or night, which,
according to the Jewish computation, whereby they begin their days at the
evening, was a part of the fifteenth day, all which was the feast of the
passover; and so the morrow of the sixteenth day, was the morrow after the
passover, when they were obliged to offer unto God the first sheaf, and then
were allowed to eat of the rest.
Parched corn — Of
that year's corn. which was most proper for that use.
Self-same day —
Having an eager desire to enjoy the fruits of the land. And this corn came very
seasonably; for after the passover, they were to keep the feast of unleavened
bread, which they could not do, when they had nothing but manna to live upon.
Verse 12
[12] And
the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the
land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of
the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
The manna ceased —
Which God now withheld, to shew that Manna was not an ordinary production of
nature, but an extraordinary and special gift of God to supply their necessity.
And because God would not be prodigal of his favours, by working miracles where
ordinary means were sufficient.
The morrow —
That is, on the seventeenth day.
Verse 13
[13] And
it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in
his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for
our adversaries?
By Jericho —
Heb. In Jericho, that is, in the territory adjoining to it; whither he went to
view those parts, and discern the fittest places for his attempt upon Jericho.
A man —
One in the appearance of a man.
Drawn — In
readiness to fight, not, as Joshua thought, against him, but for him and his
people.
Verse 14
[14] And
he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua
fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith
my lord unto his servant?
As captain — I
am the chief captain of this people, and will conduct and assist thee and them
in this great undertaking. Now this person is not a created angel, but the son
of God, who went along with the Israelites in this expedition, as their chief
and captain. And this appears, 1. By his acceptance of adoration here, which a
created angel durst not admit of, Revelation 22:8,9. 2. Because the place was made
holy by his presence, Joshua 5:15, which was God's prerogative, Exodus 3:5. 3. Because he is called the Lord,
Heb. Jehovah, Joshua 6:2.
My Lord — I
acknowledge thee for my Lord and captain, and therefore wait for thy commands,
which I am ready to obey.
Verse 15
[15] And
the captain of the LORD's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy
foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
From thy foot — In
token of reverence and subjection.
Holy —
Consecrated by my presence. The very same orders which God gave to Moses at the
bush, when he was sending him to bring Israel out of Egypt, he here gives to
Joshua, for the confirming his faith, that as he had been with Moses, so he
would be with him.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Joshua》
05 Chapter 5
Verse 1
Their heart melted . . . because of the children of Israel.
Divine control over all
Kings and princes, captains and nobles, are most perfectly under
the control of
God; not only their counsels and operations, but their very spirits are subject
to the influence of His secret and all-pervading dominion; they are restrained
by cowardice, or incited by courage; intimidated by fear, or emboldened by
valour, as best may promote the purposes of Providence and the interests of the
Church. More has often been effected by this, wherein has appeared no human
agency, than could have been by all the advantages of physical strength. It has
been seen in the procedure of the Divine government, and opening of the secret
counsels of heaven, that turns the most peculiar and results the most momentous
have proceeded from this invisible working of God. But for this, the condition
of Israel, as frequently appeared in review, would have inspired their
adversaries, and, in the mere opposing of force to force, insured to them
triumph. A spirit of blindness and infatuation has been permitted to seize the
enemies of the Church, and to fall upon the powers of the world, or the Lord’s
people had again and again been swallowed up. The expedients of infinite
wisdom, and resources of almighty power, never fail: they are innumerable, and
always at command; not confined to the common laws of nature, but comprehend
the secret dominion of spirits, and that unlimited range of omnipotence, by
which, in special operations, all things are possible with God, and present to
instant adoption, as the purposes of His love may require, or the counsel of
His will determine. (W. Seaton.)
Verses 2-9
Make thee sharp knives and circumcise.
The circumcising at Gilgal
Even those comparatively unenlightened people must have
realised that there was deep spiritual significance in the administration of
that rite at that juncture. On more than one occasion they had heard Moses
speak of circumcising the heart, and they must have felt that God meant to
teach them the vanity of trusting to their numbers, or prowess, or martial
array. Their strength was nothing to Him. The land was not to be won by their
might, but to be taken from His hand as a gift. Self and the energy of the
flesh must be set aside, that the glory of coming victory might be of God and
not of man. We must be content to be reckoned among the things that are not, if
we are to be used to bring to nought the things that are, “that no flesh should
glory in His presence.” We, too, must have our Gilgal. It is not enough to
acknowledge as a general principle that we are dead and risen with Christ, we
must apply it to our inner and outer life. We have no warrant to say that sin
is dead, or that the principle of sin is eradicated, but that we are dead to it
in our standing, and are dead to it also in the reckoning of faith. But for
this we need the gift of the Blessed Spirit, in His Pentecostal fulness. It was
by the Eternal Spirit that our Lord offered Himself in death upon the Cross,
and it is by Him alone that we can mortify the deeds of the body. For, first,
the spirit of self is so subtle. It is like a taint in the blood, which, stayed
in one place, breaks out in another. Protean in its shapes and ubiquitous in
its hiding-places, it requires omniscience to discover, and omnipresence to expel.
And, secondly, only the Spirit of God has cords strong enough to bind us to the
altar of death; to remind us in the hour of temptation; to enable us to look to
Jesus for His grace; to inspire us with the passion of self-immolation; to keep
us true and steady to the resolves of our holiest moments; to apply the
withering fire of the Cross of Jesus to the growth of our self-conceit and
self-energy--for all these the grace of the Spirit is indispensable. He is the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, therefore He must be the Spirit of death to all
that pertains to the old Adam. There is a sense in which all believers have
been circumcised in Christ; but there is another sense in which it is needful
for them to pass one after another through the circumcision of Christ which is
not made with hands, and which consists in the putting off of the body of the
flesh. To that all who would lead a life of victory and inherit the land of
promise must submit. The process may be sharp, for the knife does not spare
pain. But it is in the hands of Jesus, the lover of souls. Oh, shrink not from
it! (F. B Meyer, B. A.)
Christian character
The more a man learns of God, the more he knows of grace. If we
would apply to ourselves spiritually the lessons of the circumcision in the
land, we must give the grace of God, which led to the circumcision, full place,
and remember that God asks for the devotion of His people, because He has, in
Christ, brought them into perfect favour. Was it by observing God’s ordinances,
or was it through God’s almighty grace that Israel entered the land of promise?
They entered it as a nation in uncircumcision, and therefore exclusively by
God’s sovereign grace. And why did God not seek for circumcision from the
people of Israel, so long as they walk in the wilderness? The wilderness was
the scene of their distrust of God. A distrusting spirit is ignorant of God’s
real character, and consequently is not morally fitted for separation to
Himself; but God, having brought us by His grace to know ourselves to be in the
heavenly places in Christ, seeks separation to Himself, corresponding with the
liberty into which He has brought us. Grace known and realised is the only true
power for heart separation to God. Circumcision with Israel was merely a carnal
ordinance, and, in common with all ordinances, gave neither power for communion
with God, nor for conflict with His enemies. It was a sign that the children of
Israel were God’s earthly family, and a people separated from all the rest of
mankind. The circumcision made without hands, with which the Christian is
circumcised, in Christ, is a separation to God from the whole world. As the
people of Israel, because brought through the Jordan, were enjoined by God to
be circumcised, and their careless wilderness ways were allowed no longer, so
the Christian, because he has died with Christ to the world, and to his old
self, is exhorted to mortify his members, and his worldly ways are no longer
permitted. This mortification is simply self-denial, by the power of the Holy
Spirit. Man naturally loves sin; he loves his own way which is the essence of
sin; but he who lives in Christ is called to die to himself in daily walk and
conduct. There is no way of living to Christ but by dying to self. It was by no
means sufficient to Israel to know that they went across the Jordan, in order
to enjoy the riches of the inheritance; for until circumcision was effected
none of Canaan’s food was spread before them, nor were they called to conflict.
And we may be sure that so long as we walk in the flesh and please ourselves,
there can be no communion--no feeding upon Christ. Neither can there be any
victories for the Lord, unless self is subdued. Satan would beguile the
youthful believer into the misty atmosphere of a Canaan of the imagination, where
the flesh is allowed to work. In this aerial Christianity,
circumcision--self-mortification--is not permitted; the practical result of
being dead with Christ is not allowed to wound the will. But there is no
stability of soul, no solid devotedness. Such a believer is like the insect,
which, well-nigh composed of wings, and possessing scarcely any weight, is
driven from the flower garden by the first storm. Sorrowful as is the result of
letting the imagination carry away the soul, perhaps the effect of accepting
Divine truth in intellectualism is more so. A Christian holding the doctrine of
death with Christ, and resurrection with Christ, in the understanding only,
goes out from the sunlight of God’s presence into a land of deathlike coldness.
If circumcision in its spiritual signification were rightly valued, such abuses
of the truth of God would certainly find no place in the believer’s heart. To
mortify our members is not a painless exercise. Saying, “We are dead,” is not
mortifying; but it is to deny the wishes of our old nature because “we are
dead” (Romans 8:13). The mere fact of the people
of Israel’s entrance into Canaan did not constitute them at liberty before God.
They were brought into the land of promise by the passage of the Jordan, but
were not pronounced free by Jehovah until circumcised. God’s liberty for His
people is that of His own making, and therefore perfect. It is what He
thoroughly approves and delights in. And the means by which, step by step, He
brings His people into the enjoyment of this liberty, is grace. If we are God’s
free men, it is evidently in the land of promise that we have liberty, for only
in the fulness of God’s favour can we experience His rolling away the reproach
of our bondage. (The Gospel in the Book of Joshua.)
Why was circumcision suspended in the wilderness?
Some have said that, owing to the circumstances in which the
people were, it would not have been convenient, perhaps hardly possible, to
administer the rite on the eighth day. Moving as they were from place to place,
the administration of circumcision would often have caused so much pain and
peril to the child, that it is no wonder it was delayed. And once delayed, it
was delayed indefinitely. But this explanation is not sufficient. There were
long, very long periods of rest, during which there could have been no
difficulty. A better explanation, brought forward by Calvin, leads us to
connect the suspension of circumcision with the punishment of the Israelites,
and with the sentence that doomed them to wander forty years in the wilderness.
When the worship of the golden calf took place, the nation was rejected, and
the breaking by Moses of the two tables of stone seemed an appropriate sequel
to the rupture of the covenant which their idolatry had caused. And though they
were soon restored, they were not restored without certain drawbacks--tokens of
the Divine displeasure. Probably the suspension of circumcision was included in
the punishment of their sins. They were not to be allowed to place on their
children the sign and seal of a covenant which in spirit and in reality they
had broken. But it was not an abolition, only a suspension. The time might come
when it would be restored. The natural time for this would be the end of the
forty years of chastisement. These forty years have now come to an end.
Doubtless it would have been a great joy to Moses if it had been given him to
see the restoration of circumcision, but that was not to take place until the
people had set foot on Abraham’s land. We may well think of it as an occasion
of great rejoicing. The visible token of his being one of God’s children was
now borne by every man and boy in the camp. In a sense they now proved
themselves heirs to the covenant made with their fathers, and might thus rest
with firmer trust on the promise--“I will bless them that bless thee, and curse
him that curseth thee.” Two other points demand a word of explanation. The
first is the statement that “all the people that were born in the wilderness .
. . they had not circumcised” (Joshua 5:5). If the view be correct that
the suspension of circumcision was part of the punishment for their sins, the
prohibition would not come into operation for some months, at all events, after
the exodus from Egypt. We think, with Calvin, that for the sake of brevity the
sacred historian makes a general statement without waiting to explain the
exceptions to which it was subject. The other point needing explanation is the
Lord’s statement after the circumcision (Joshua 5:9). The words imply that, owing
to the want of this sacrament, they had lain exposed to a reproach from the
Egyptians, which was now rolled away. What seems the most likely explanation
is, that when the Egyptians heard how God had all but repudiated them in the
wilderness, and had withdrawn from them the sign of His covenant, they
malignantly crowed over them, and denounced them as a worthless race, who had
first rejected their lawful rulers in Egypt under pretext of religion, and,
having shown their hypocrisy, were now scorned and cast off by the very God
whom they had professed themselves so eager to serve. But now the tables are
turned on the Egyptians. The restoration of circumcision stamps this people
once more as the people of God. (G. W. Blaikie, D. D.)
The reproach of Egypt
By this reproach we are to understand all that stigma which clung
to Israel through its relation to Egypt. This stigma had two aspects, an inner
and an outer; an active and a passive. It consisted in that feeling of
humiliation and self-reproach, which must have rested on the heart of every
intelligent and pious Israelite during the wilderness wanderings. And it also
consisted in the feeling of scorn and contempt with which their great
oppressors the Egyptians must have looked upon them during all that period. In
its inward aspect, the reproach of Egypt was caused by spiritual assimilation
to Egypt. Moses had said, “The Lord will put a difference between the Egyptians
and Israel.” This difference was manifested in many striking ways, during the
progress of Israel’s gradual emancipation. But when this rite was in abeyance,
this difference was lost in a measure. Physically, there was no difference
between the children born in Egypt after the Exodus and those born in the
wilderness. Circumcision was, as it were, God’s brand on His people marking
them for His own. Its lack proclaimed that they were “Lo Ammi,” not God’s
people. But there could be no greater outward stigma than this. It was Israel’s
glory to be Jehovah’s peculiar people and to bear in their bodies the seal of
His covenant. From this height of privilege they looked down on all men. For an
Israelite, therefore, to consider his position during the forty years, would be
to acknowledge that there was no difference, so far, between him and an
Egyptian. Jehovah was no longer, in this mode of outward recognition, his God.
But there was a deeper and more potent assimilation, of which the outward and
physical was only the sign. There was on the part of Israel assimilation to
Egypt in spirit. They reproached God for their redemption, saying that He had
brought them from Egypt to destroy them; they actually went the length of
appointing a leader to guide them back to the house of bondage. What could be
more grievous than such sin? what could more plainly show their assimilation in
heart to Egypt? Therefore to a pious and penitent Israelite there was here
cause for the deepest abasement. His cry in self-reproach would be, “My sin is
ever before me.” This also would be implied in the inner aspect of the reproach
of Egypt. But in addition to this inner aspect of the reproach, there is also
the outer to be considered. The reproach of Egypt not only consisted in those
feelings which must have taken possession of a pious Israelite, but also in
those taunts which must have been hurled at them by Egypt. Their haughty taskmasters
would no doubt make their former bondmen a subject of reproach and mocking
scorn. They would look down upon them, and speak of them with unutterable
contempt. They would describe them as a despicable race of worthless runaways.
And they would also find good cause for merriment in the prolonged wanderings
in the wilderness. “Where are all their high hopes?” they might have said.
“They have ended in smoke. A great deal better off they are now than they were
with us, hungering and thirsting in that desert, instead of living on the fat
of the land! A nice wild-goose chase that famous Moses has led them.” Such was
the reproach of Egypt; but here and now it is rolled away. By this act at
Gilgal Israel is no longer assimilated to Egypt in body. The knives of flint
have again put a difference between Israel and Egypt. Each man bears in his
body the mark of Jehovah’s covenant. And seeing the land of Canaan was God’s
gift to them as Abraham’s seed, and to Abraham’s seed as faithful to Jehovah,
i.e., as circumcised, this act was a Divine and formal conveyance of the
land to these men of Israel. Thus at Gilgal the title-deeds of Canaan were
signed, sealed, and delivered; and thus again, the reproach of Egypt was rolled
away. Israel is no longer a homeless wanderer but an heir of God. Also the
assimilation to Egypt in spirit has come to an end. No longer are they
uncircumcised in heart. Never again do they cast a longing, lingering look
behind. Surely this transaction is also recorded for our instruction and reproof.
Gilgal says, “Put off the old man with his affections and lusts; put off all
moral and spiritual assimilation to the world. Crucify the flesh and its
deceitful lusts. Mortify the deeds of the body.” The great need of the present
age is to be brought in spirit to Gilgal, i.e., to learn to the very
centre of our souls the spirit of self-sacrifice. The process may be painful,
like cutting off a right arm or plucking out a right eye; yet it is the
necessary sequel of entrance into God’s inheritance. And as it is the necessary
sequel of entrance, so is it the necessary prelude to worship and to victory.
There can be no true worship of God except our hearts are cleansed from the
filthiness of the flesh. There can be no true victory for God, either within or
without, except our souls are purged from the power of sin. (A. B. Mackay.)
The consecration of the Lord’s host at Gilgal; or, a revival
The need, the tokens, and the blessedness of this revival
are set before us.
I. Let us first
dwell upon the need of Israel’s revival, as seen in the reproach of Egypt.
There are many among us who have indeed left Egypt. To the questions, “Is the
Lord among us, or not?--Are we His people?” they can humbly answer “Yes”; for
He has given them sure pledges of their interest in the everlasting covenant.
And yet, if asked to give a reason of the hope that is in them, they would not
be ready. The answer of faith can
scarce find utterance amid the sins and shortcomings that compass
them round, and testify against them. Their words, their tempers, their works,
their experiences, all seem to give the lie to their Christian profession and
to their hope. The world of unbelievers, too, joins issue against them, and,
discerning their failures and inconsistencies, derides their religion, calls them
hypocrites, and prophesies their doom. This “reproach of Egypt,” lies heavy
upon God’s saints who thus walk in darkness.
II. The narrative
goes on to tell of the tokens of Israel’s revival, as seen in the restoration
of ordinances. As the sacrament of baptism perpetuates and expands the teaching
of the rite of circumcision, so that of the Lord’s Supper repeats the lessons of the
Passover. The Christian ordinance looks back, as the Jewish sacrifice looked
forward, to the death of Jesus as our substitute. Since the fall of Adam, there
has been but this one way of salvation. May we, amid our fuller privileges, and
clearer light, approach the same God whom Israel worshipped, confiding in the
same atonement, and renew our covenant with Him in the breaking of bread, and
the drinking of the cup of blessing. Our feast similarly commemorates the past,
the present, and the future: for we herein shew forth an accomplished
redemption, our own reconciliation thereby, and our participation in our
Saviour’s love at the marriage feast above.
III. It remains for
us now to speak of the blessedness of Israel’s revival, as seen in the return
of favour.
1. First, the Lord expressly declares to Joshua, as the head and
representative of the nation, “This day have I rolled away the reproach of
Egypt from off you.” Blessed assurance!
2. Beside the answer of God to Joshua, a second gracious token was
granted. The enemy was still as a stone. With blanched cheeks and palpitating
hearts, the Canaanites looked on and saw the people all en-camped at Gilgal.
Now, shall not Israel, with soldierly decision, seize on the opportunity, and
ere they have recovered from their panic, strike a decisive blow, and so
possess the land? Such is not the Lord’s order: but until the fourteenth day of
the month the men of war are shut up in their tents; and then, as though in a
land of peace, during a full week the Passover is kept throughout their
families.
3. Was it not providentially ordered by a loving Father that Israel
should be brought into the land at the time of harvest? Thus temporal supplies
shall not fail those whom God accepts and approves: thus, also, spiritual
provision shall never fail God’s people.
4. The close of the chapter presents us with a fourth token of the
return of favour to Israel, in the manifestation to Joshua of the great Angel
of the Covenant, with His drawn sword lifted, not in vengeance against Israel,
but against their foes. This was the promised angel who should go before them,
and lead them to victory. (G. W. Butler, M. A.
Gilgal
I. Attention to
the special services which we owe to God ought to stand before all other
considerations. What is religion? The question seems a simple one; but, indeed,
it is one the true answer to which involves a great deal. The term is a most comprehensive
one, including all that men should believe and all that men should do. A
religious person is one whose heart has been imbued with Christian truth, and
whose affection has laid hold on God as revealed in the Scriptures with a firm
grasp; a person whose life, regulated increasingly by such principles,
manifests more and more of the beauty of holiness. In religion, then, we come
to deal with the doctrine and the practice of the Bible. It tells of what may
alarm, and what may soothe. It shows a reality of wretchedness, want, guilt and
death in which men are by nature; and a reality of joy, perfection,
righteousness and life in which they may be by grace. It appeals to men as
immortal beings, urges on them the consideration of their immortal interests,
and in the words of Him, around whom all true religion circles and to whom it
is intended to lead, charges all thus: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness.” I would ask you, seriously, should not this matter have our
first and most solemn consideration? Is there any matter which ought to engage
us before this?
II. We may repose
implicit confidence in God while walking in his ways and aiming at his glory.
Men are never losers by religion. The man who can style himself servant of
Christ has a Master whose service is the guarantee for every possible good.
Affairs and matters come to be so differently weighed and estimated, when
heavenly wisdom is granted for the test, that it is no wonder to find men
reckoning gains and losses, probabilities and duties, by a standard the reverse
of that which they formerly used. What if we had accosted the leader of the
hosts of Israel when he promulgated the order for observing circumcision and
the Passover at Gilgal? Suppose that we had said, Strike your decisive blow;
push on at once; select your picked men, and leave the rest to fortify your
position, and to take care of the women and children; go straight up to
Jericho. Your rite of circumcision Will render you defenceless, your paschal
feast is hardly fitted to such a critical position and such unusual
circumstances as yours. Suppose that we had argued with Joshua thus. Would not
his reply have been, “We can trust God: we know Him. He has said, ‘I will not
fail you, nor forsake you’”? (C. D. Marston, M. A.)
Time taken for religious duties is not lost
Dr. James Hamilton once related an anecdote which illustrates a
vital question in the Christian life. A writer recounts it as follows: “A
gallant officer was pursued by an overwhelming force, and his followers were
urging him to greater speed, when he discovered that his saddle-girth was
becoming loose. He coolly dismounted, repaired the girth by tightening the
buckle, and then dashed away. The broken buckle would have left him on the
field a prisoner; the wise delay to repair damages sent him on in safety amid
the huzzas of his comrades.” The Christian who is in such haste to get about
his business in the morning that he neglects his Bible and his season of prayer
rides all day with a broken buckle.
Verses 10-12
Encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover.
Three successive days
In one of his sonnets, Matthew Arnold tells of an interview
he had on a day of fierce August sunshine, in Bethnal Green, with a preacher
whom he knew, and who looked ill and overworked. In answer to the inquiry as to
how he fared, “Bravely!” said he; “for I of late have been much cheered
with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread.” There is a great difference between
the strength which may be supplied from without, and that which is assimilated
within. To illustrate the first. We tread the cathedral close and examine the
mighty buttresses that steady the ancient walls. What though the “high embowed
roof” presses on them with all its weight to make them bulge, they may not stir
an inch from the perpendicular so long as those masses of stone, built up
without, forbid. To illustrate the second. We must visit the forest glade,
where giant oaks withstand the blasts of centuries, because they have
incorporated into their hearts the properties of earth and air, becoming
robust, and sturdy, and storm-defying. There are many ways in which the holy
soul derives strength from without. It is buttressed by remonstrances and
appeals, by providences and promises, by the fear of causing grief, and by the
incitement of passionate devotion. But if these were all they would be in
sufficient. We need to be strengthened from within, to have within ourselves
the strong Son of God; to know that the Mightiest is within us, and working
through us, so that we, even as He, can do all things. In this old record we
may discover without effort the Living Bread under three aspects--the Passover;
the corn of the land; the manna. Each of these consumed one of three successive
days.
I. The passover How little we
understand the way by which each part of our body takes the particular
nourishment it requires from the food we eat. But we know that such is the
case, and that bones, muscles, and tissues appropriate their sustenance from
the common store. So though we may not be able to explain the philosophy of the
process, we believe and are sure, that as we hold fellowship with Jesus in
quiet hallowed moments, our weakness absorbs His strength, our impatience His
long-suffering, our restlessness His calm, our ignorance His wisdom. “He is
made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” His flesh is
“true meat” because it makes us strong to endure and do. His blood is “true drink,”
because it satisfies our thirst, and makes glad our heart. But let it ever be
borne in mind that as no uncircumcised person was permitted to partake of the
Passover, so none who are living in wilful sin can feed on the flesh and blood
which were given for the life of the world. There must be a Gilgal before there
can be a Passover in the deepest and fullest sense. This is why you have no
zest in prayer, no appetite for your Bible, no enjoyment in the ordinances of
the House of God. You have not yet put away all filthiness of the flesh and
spirit, you have not yet submitted yourself to the sharp two-edged sword, you
have not yet been delivered from the reproach of Egypt, you have not yet purged
out the leaven of insincerity and falsehood.
II. The corn of the
land. The Paschal Lamb is good, but the corn of the land includes the fruits,
and honey, and bread-stuffs that grow on the soil of the Resurrection-life. The
ascension of Christ may be considered in many aspects, but in each we seem to
stand beneath His outstretched hands of benediction, as they did who saw Him
parted from them, and taken up before their adoring gaze. Happy indeed are they
who also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell. To
do this is to eat of the corn and fruit of the land.
III. The manna. The
corn began before the manna ceased. The one overlapped the other as the thatch
of a hay-rick or the feathers of a bird. God does not wish that there should be
those intervals of apparent desertion, and the failure of supplies of which so
many complain. It is quite likely that He may have to withdraw the
extraordinary and exceptional, as represented by the manna; but He will wait
until we have become accustomed to the ordinary and regular supplies of His
grace, as represented by the corn. In the blessings of our outward life, He
does sometimes humble us, and suffer us to hunger. The brook Cherith dries
before He sends us to Zare-phath. But as to the inward life, He gives without
stint. The table is always prepared before us in the presence of our
enemies--one form of soul-sustenance is within reach before another form fails;
we must have learned to feed ourselves with strong meat before He drops the
spoon with which He had been wont to nourish us with milk. (F. B. Meyer, B.
A.)
The manna ceased on the
morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land.
Manna and corn
Various conjectures have been formed regarding the nature of the
manna, which every morning whitened like hoar-frost the ground around the
encampment of the Israelites in the wilderness. It was indeed a miraculous
substance in the sense of its having been provided at the very time when, and
in the very circumstances where, it was required. But we have no reason to
believe that it was in itself a miraculous substance, a material previously
unknown, created specially for the purpose and coming down straight from
heaven. God economises the supernatural element in His working, and makes use
of ordinary means as far as they will go. He who used the ordinary thorny growth
of the desert as the medium of His transcendent revelation when He appeared in
the burning bush, and converted the simple shepherd’s rod in the hand of Moses
into a serpent, and made it the instrument of compassing the deliverance of
Israel by signs and wonders, would in all likelihood employ on this occasion a
substance indigenous to the desert, as the basis of the great miracle which He
wrought for the supply of the daily bread of His people. Such a substance might
well have been the white hard exudation that drops from the thorns of the
tamarisk shrub, and frequently covers the ground to a considerable extent,
which is used for food at the present day by the Arabs, and to which they give
the name of manna. We cannot expect to trace an exact correspondence, for some
of the qualities and conditions of the manna of Scripture were unmistakably
supernatural. It is sufficient if the natural object could serve as a mere
fulcrum for the miracle, But whatever might have been the nature and origin of
the mysterious substance which God made use of, it is evident that the manna
was intended to serve a wise and gracious purpose in the religious economy of
the Israelites. He who said that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness all other things that we truly need will be given to us,
furnished a remarkable illustration of the truth of the promise in the
experience of the Israelites. There was no want to those who feared God and did
His will; bread was given to them and their water was sure, even if the bread
had to come down from heaven and the water had to be produced from the flinty
rock by the smiting of the miraculous rod. But this supernatural life was not
to last for ever. It was appropriate to the wilderness, God’s special
dwelling-place, as it were, where there was nothing but God and nature; but it
was not suitable to the promised land, where all the conditions of a natural
human life existed, and which was the haunt of man as well as the scene of
nature’s most beneficent operations. Accordingly we read that when the
Israelites first tasted of the corn of Canaan at Gilgal, the manna which had
been their food for so many years previously ceased at once. The natural, which
is always, superseded the supernatural, which is only occasional. The miracle
must give place to the common processes of life. The manna ceasing when the
Israelites ate of the corn of Canaan teaches us the lesson that God’s help is
given, not to supersede our self-help, but to enable us to help ourselves. No
one can truly know what it is to find his sufficiency in God but he who puts
forth all the strength which he himself possesses. It is exactly in proportion
as we strive to do all, and strive in vain, that we can have an experimental
consciousness of God’s almighty aid. And thus the believer feels that God’s
strength is made perfect in his own weakness. The difference between manna and
corn is most suggestive. Manna was a supernatural product provided directly by
Divine power. It came to the Israelites in the wilderness without any toil or
trouble of their own. No tiller of the ground had wrought for it in the sweat
of his face, and therefore it was but little esteemed by the Israelites. They
soon lost their relish for it; it became tasteless and insipid, and their souls
loathed it in the end. But corn, on the other hand, implies and involves great
and continuous labour. A sacrifice is made, a loss sustained in parting with
the seed-corn. There is much sweat of the face in preparing the ground for its
reception; faith is exercised in entrusting it to the earth; patience and hope
in watching its growth and waiting for its ripening; and toil again is required
in reaping, storing, and preparing the harvest for bread. And is there not the
same wide difference in spiritual things between manna and corn--between what
is given to us without any toil or trouble of our own, and what is wrought out
for us and in us, as the result of our own toil and, it may be, our own sad
experience? No doubt we should prefer manna to corn; we should like to get
heavenly blessings straight out of God’s hands. But the rule of the Divine
kingdom is “no cross, no crown.” In no other way would God’s spiritual or
natural blessings do us good. Only in this Divine way does the procuring of
them act as a heavenly discipline, counteracting the evil tendencies of our
nature, enabling us to sympathise with the plans and hopes of God, and fitting
us for the enjoyment of His everlasting rest. When the Israelites entered the
Holy Land, God gave them at first the corn of their enemies, as He had given
them the manna of the wilderness. That was necessary--just as it is necessary
for the child to be supported at first by its mother’s nourishment, and the
young plant by the provision stored up in the seed. But this old corn would
last only a little while; it would cease as the manna had ceased. When it was
done the Israelites would have to sow and reap their fields in order to get a
new supply; they would have to provide for themselves by the toil of their
hands. And how significant of the new life which it nourished was the new corn
in these circumstances! The Israelites looked forward from the wilderness to
the promised land as the place of consummation and rest. But they found that
their former discipline in the new circumstances was not ended, but only
changed in its character; that amid golden cornfields and rich pastures and
luxuriant vineyards they would have to practise in even higher degree the
virtues which the wilderness-life called forth. And how symbolical was the new
corn of the land--the bread for which they toiled in the sweat of their
face--of this life of self-conquest and devotion which it sustained! It might
seem that their life in the wilderness, directly supported by God and under His
immediate care, was higher and more heavenly than their life in Canaan, sowing
and reaping their fields, and providing for their wants by their own labour.
But it was not so; for the wilderness-life fed by the manna of heaven was only
an introduction to, and a preparation for, the higher life of Canaan fed by the
corn of earth. And let us remember this solemn fact when we are tempted to
think that life spent in directly religious acts in the sanctuary, at the
communion-table, in the closet, a holier and more acceptable life to God than
the life spent in the place of business and in our homes, in everyday duties
and labours. The incident of the manna of the wilder ness giving place to the
corn of Canaan is in entire harmony with all God’s dealings with man. The
dispensation that was inaugurated by supernatural manifestations is carried on
by common helps, and through the homely experiences of human life. The
supernatural life in the visible presence of Jesus must merge into the natural
life of faith and hope amid ordinary circumstances. God gives at appropriate
times meat to eat which the world knoweth not of--hidden manna, living bread
direct from heaven. And when the manna is withdrawn and we are supplied with
corn- with “human nature’s daily food”--let us seek to profit by what the manna
has done for us and taught us. We have received spiritual food that we may have
grace and strength to carry on the common duties of life. We have tasted that
the Lord is gracious on the Holy Mount that we may follow hard after Him along
the beaten paths of life. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Not manna, but old corn
The manna ceased when the people had the old corn of the land. Now
the question is--
I. Was the old
corn of the land any less wonderful than the bread of the wilderness? If we
think of the reproductive energy of nature we are amazed. There are always
apples, pears, grapes, melons, cherries, gooseberries, currants; there is
always wheat for man, and corn for animals. The year comes, and these things
come. But more than recurrence, there is multiplication. One grain of wheat
will produce from 20 to 100. This is as inexplicable a wonder as was the manna,
and cannot be explained without the recognition of two facts--the Divine power,
and the Divine wisdom. Life and growth are in the hands of the Lord. The common
mercies of life are direct Divine gifts. But look at another fact--the whole
material life of the nation, and of the world, depends upon the harvest. If
bread be dear there is less to spend upon other things. The price paid for
bread depends upon the abundance or deficiency of the harvest; and that fixes
the amount of production which can safely be ventured upon; and that again, the
wages that can be paid; and that again, the condition of every poor man’s
cottage, and of every rich man’s mansion throughout the land, and throughout
the world. Manna! An international aspect of the question is thus unfolded. The
necessities of peoples, and the abrogation of distance, and their separations
by steam, have led to a freer exchange of commodities. We have had three or
four poor harvests, but bread has not risen as it must otherwise have done!
Why? Distant supplies have been available: we are not now dependent only on our
own harvest.
II. Consider the
ceasing of the manna in connection with the development of the people’s life.
The gathering of manna from the ground was a short and simple affair, requiring
neither much skill nor wit. In the land miracles ceased, and means had to be
employed. Gifts are not so helpful as labour. To earn a fortune is better than
to inherit one.
III. The ceasing of
the manna suggests the removal of things on which human happiness seems here
wholly to depend.
IV. Canaan was a
type of heaven, and the ceasing of the bread of the wilderness suggests the
contrast between the condition of life here and there. We shall lose much we
here deem essential, but it is far better. What will it be to be there? It is
the harvest-life of earth and time and the redeemed Church. (W. H. Davison.)
Corn for manna
After receiving the title-deeds of an estate, the next step is to
enter into possession. And one of the best evidences that this has been done,
is to take the use of all that the inheritance contains. Thus the Israel of God
acted. First they celebrate the solemn feast of the Passover, and then partake
of the fruits of the land. In this connection two things are coupled together,
the eating of the corn and the: cessation of the manna,
I. This sudden
change would bring to mind God’s power. It is a well-known fact that our ears
may get so accustomed to a sound as to be unconscious of it. In like manner men
may get so accustomed to the wonders of God’s might as to be unmoved by them.
But this sudden stoppage of the manna must have arrested them all. It would be
as if the sun had risen in the west. How strikingly would it teach them that
this was a gift of Almighty power! The manna came not a day sooner than it was
needed, and it did not stay a day later. They beheld the manna no more: but
they saw instead fields white unto the harvest, and the power of Jehovah
matured the one as truly as it sent the other. God has been supplying our wants
of mind, body, and estate during all the past years of our life; and it may be
we have been forgetting that we
owe all to His power; therefore, to rouse us to this consciousness, He cuts off
these supplies. The shock is great. Astonishment fills our hearts. Sorrow lays
hold on us; indeed, we may be tempted to despair. Is this seemly? Nay. If we
are His there is never room for despair. We can never drift beyond His love and
care. He who has provided for the past will provide for the future.
II. The cessation
of the manna would also magnify his grace. Whatever their feelings and thoughts
and deeds, Whatever their spiritual state during these years, His supply never
varied, was never suspended for a single day. And surely in our earthly course
we too have had experience of this goodness of God. Notwithstanding our
forgetfulness, thanklessness, rebellion, He has never cast us off, He has never
left us to ourselves. He who has thus dealt with us in the past, will continue
to do so to the end.
III. This event
would also exalt his liberality. There is a great change in the material
supplied to Israel for its physical wants. But it is a change, not from better
to worse, rather from good to better. For forty years they had been accustomed
to food of the same flavour; now there is great diversity, a supply to suit
every taste. During these past years the supply was measured, there was a fixed
quantity for each; now the store is unlimited. As it was with Israel in regard
to this bodily provision, so it is with the children of God in regard to that
which is spiritual. They receive grace and more grace. They go from strength to
strength. With ever-increasing capacity comes more and more abundant supply.
And this law not only regulates the Christian experience on earth and in time,
it will also hold in heaven and in eternity. Faith, hope, and love are grazes
that abide for ever.
IV. This cessation
of the manna would also serve to display God’s carefulness. God is very
liberal, but with all His liberality there is no wastefulness. God always
appraises His gifts at their true value, and would have us do the same. God
will never be so lavish of His gifts as to allow them to be scorned as superfluous.
When He gives them the abundance of Canaan He takes away the manna. When men
become careless or indifferent concerning His heavenly gifts, we need never be
surprised if He takes them away.
V. This cessation
of the manna also exhibited God’s wisdom. The manna was suited to the state of
the people in the wilderness, it was not so convenient an article of food in
Canaan. Whether or not it was more nourishing, it did not demand the same
punctuality and regularity in gathering, and therefore was more suitable as the
supply of soldiers. Corn would keep for an indefinite time, manna would not;
therefore for those whose time would be so fully occupied, and yet whose hours
of rest and work would be so uncertain, the corn was better. Also to have
continued the supply regularly or intermittently, even for those who were not
fighting, would have bred indolent and luxurious habits. It is good for man to
be busy. As it is with material things so it is with spiritual. As the manna
was taken away, so often spiritual experiences vanish to make room for others.
Anything which does not serve the purpose for which it was first given may well
be taken away. Thus we find as we pass through time that though many gifts,
good, seasonable, necessary, are taken away, there are always compensations
which leave us no losers. (A. B. Mackay.)
Corn in place of manna
This subject leads me, first, to speak of special relief for
special emergency; and, secondly, of the old corn of the Gospel for ordinary
circumstances. If these Israelites crossing the wilderness had not received
bread from the heavenly bakeries, there would, first, have been a long line of
dead children half buried in the sand; then, there would have been a long line
of dead women waiting for the jackals; then, there would have been a long line
of dead men unburied, because there would have been no one to bury them. It
would have been told in the history of the world that a great company of good
people started out from Egypt for Canaan, and were never heard of, as thoroughly
lost in the wilderness of sand as the City of Boston and the President
were lost in the wilderness of waters. What use was it to them that there
was plenty of corn in Canaan, or plenty of corn in Egypt? What they wanted was
something to eat right there, when there was not so much as a grass-blade. In
other words, an especial supply for an especial emergency. That is what some of
you want. The ordinary comfort, the ordinary direction, the ordinary counsel,
do not seem to meet your case. There are those who feel that they must have an
omnipotent and immediate supply, and you shall have it. Is it pain and physical
distress through which you must go? Does not Jesus know all about pain? He has
a mixture of comfort, one drop of which shall cure the worst paroxysm. Is it
approaching sorrow? Have you been calculating your capacity or incapacity to
endure widowhood or childlessness or disbanded home, and cried, “I cannot
endure it”? Oh, worried soul, you will wake up amidst all your troubles, and
find round about you the sweet consolation of the Gospel as thickly strewed as
was the manna round about the Israelitish encampment l Especial solace for
especial distress. Or is it a trouble past, yet present? A silent nursery? A
vacant chair opposite you at the table? Oh, try a little of this wilderness
manna: “I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee.” “Like as a father
pitieth his children,” &c. But after fourteen thousand six hundred
consecutive days of falling manna--Sundays excepted the manna ceased. Some of
them were glad of it. You know they had complained to their leader, and
wondered that they had to eat manna instead of onions. Now the fare is changed.
Those people in that wandering army under forty years of age had never seen a
cornfield, and now, when they hear the leaves rustling and see the tassels
waving, and the billows of green flowing over the plain as the wind touched
them, it must have been a new and lively sensation. “Corn!” cried the old man,
as he opened an ear. “Corn!” cried the children, as they counted the shining
grains. “Corn!” shouted the vanguard of the host, as they burst open the
granaries of the affrighted population, the granaries that had been left in the
possession of the victorious Israelites. Then the fire was kindled, and the ears
of corn were thrust into it, and, fresh and crisp and tender, were devoured of
the hungry victors; and bread was prepared, and many things that can be made
out of flour regaled appetites sharpened by the long march. “And the manna
ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land.” Blessed
be God, we stand in just such a field to-day, the luxuriant grain coming above
the girdle, the air full of the odours of the ripe old corn of the Gospel
Canaan. “Oh!” you say, “the fare is too plain.” Then I remember you will soon
get tired of a fanciful diet. We soon weary of the syrups and the custards and
the whipped foam of fanciful religionists, and we cry, “Give us plain bread
made out of the old corn of the Gospel Canaan.” This is the only food that can
quell the soul’s hunger. Christ is the Bread of Life, and taking Him, you live
and live for ever. But, you say, corn is of but little practical use unless it
is threshed and ground and baked. I answer, this Gospel corn has gone through
that process. When on Calvary all the hoofs of human scorn came down on the
heart of Christ, and all the flails of Satanic fury beat Him long and fast, was
not the corn threshed? When the mills of God’s indignation against sin caught
Christ between the upper and nether rollers, was not the corn ground? Oh, yes!
Christ is ready. His pardon all ready; His peace all ready; everything ready in
Christ. Are you ready for Him? There is another characteristic about bread, and
that is, you never get tired of it. There are people here seventy years of age
who find it just as appropriate for their appetite as they did when, in
boyhood, their mother cut a slice of it clear around the loaf. You have not got
tired of bread, and that is a characteristic of the gospel. I notice, in regard
to this article of food, you take it three times a day. It is on your table
morning, noon, and night; and if it is forgotten, you say, “Where is the
bread?” Just so certainly you need Jesus three times a day. Oh, do not start
out without Him; do not dare to go out of the front door, without having first
communed with Him I Before noon there may be perils that will destroy body,
mind, and soul for ever. You cannot afford to do without Him. You will, during
the day, be amidst sharp hoofs and swift wheels and dangerous scaffoldings
threatening the body, and traps for the soul that have taken some who are more
wily than you. When they launch a ship they break against the side of it a
bottle of wine. That is a sort of superstition among sailors. But oh, on the
launching of every day, that we might strike against it at least one earnest
prayer for Divine protection! Then at the apex of the day, at the tiptop of the
hours, equidistant from morning and night, look three ways. Look backward to
the forenoon; look ahead to the afternoon; look up to that Saviour who presides
over all. Bread at noon! When the evening hour comes, and your head is buzzing
with the day’s engagements, and your whole nature is sore from the abrasion of
rough life, and you see a great many duties you have neglected, then commune
with Christ, asking His pardon, thanking Him for His love. That would be a
queer evening repast at which there was no bread. This is the nutriment and
life of the plain Gospel that I recommended you. But alas for the
famine-struck! Enough corn, yet it seems you have no sickle to cut it, no mill
to grind it, no fire to bake it, no appetite to eat it. Starving to death, when
the plain is golden with a magnificent harvest! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The cessation of the manna
The special supply ceased with the special demand. They were not
to look for extra ordinary relief when, with due diligence on their part, the
ordinary would suffice. This fact suggests some important points with regard to
the government of God.
1. There is no wastefulness in the Divine economy. God does not use
extraordinary means where the ordinary will avail to accomplish His purposes.
We can easily conceive how, out of a prodigality of power, the manna might have
been continued long after the land of Canaan had been reached; it might have
been argued that such a continuance would be very helpful to the Israelites,
supplying them with a perpetual and visible reminder of God’s care for them.
The answer is, that at any rate such a continuance was not granted; and
further, that it is not our Father’s way to permit the repetition of an aid the
absolute necessity for which has departed. He is glorious in giving, but there
is with Him no expenditure which would only tend to produce in the long run a
contempt for His daily, His common, His highest, gifts. This principle is of
widest application. When the Lord Jesus came to establish His kingdom, He
wrought miracles in abundance; but when in the course of time the Church became
firmly established, and the truth of the gospel was made evident by its
renewing power over men, then the miracles gradually ceased, and that not
because the Church had gone backward, but because she had advanced, and her
claims could rest upon proofs of a more spiritual order. This principle
receives a yet further illustration in the fact that, whilst the Lord displays
His power, He yet takes up the work directly only when man is compelled to lay
it down. The manna of the desert did not supplant the sowing and reaping of
Canaan. Christ will raise the little child to life, but her parents must find
her something to eat. Christ will speak the word of power, only possible to
Him, “Lazarus, come forth,” but human hands must roll away the stone, and
unbind the grave-clothes from the man risen from the dead. An angel struck the
fetters from the limbs of Peter, and brought him out of the prison, but after
that the apostle must put forth his own efforts in order to escape the rage of
his persecutors. In all these cases a Divine power might have accomplished the
whole transaction; but it did not, and it does not now. God is pleased in His
mercy to give to us certain powers, all His and yet ours, ours and yet His, and
it is for us diligently to use them. In no impious sense we may say that God
helps those who help themselves. We have seen that there is with God no useless
expenditure. He does what is sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for the
occasion. Now, if that be true, how vast in His eyes must be the needs of
sinners, how heavy the task of saving them, that in order to its accomplishment
it was needful that the Lord Jesus should come to suffer and die. The greatness
of the Redeemer argues the magnitude of the work of redemption.
2. But further, whilst there is no waste in the Divine economy, yet
there are special provisions for special occasions. There is here, if we can
lay hold of it, a truth for us, full of real comfort, instinct with hope. What
was the case of the Israelites? It was this. By no ingenuity, by no conceivable
diligence upon their part, could the necessities of the vast host of men,
women, and children have been supplied in the wilderness, and yet these very
necessities arose because at the command of the Most High the journey from
Egypt to Canaan had been undertaken. That is, it was the path of duty which was
thus beset with difficulty. That being so, the Israelites could rightly look up
to God to have their wants supplied. If the Lord Jesus bids a dozen men supply
five thousand with bread, He Himself multiplies the tiny store until there is
enough and to spare. If He commands a paralytic to take up his bed and walk, He
gives the strength by which the command can be accomplished. The manna given to
the Israelites in the sandy desert is a symbol of the most helpful truth, that
God will not fail us in any difficulty that may come to us in doing His will.
Our principal business is not to perplex ourselves with a thousand questions as
to how we may accomplish this or that; our anxiety should gather about an
earlier point and a simpler--namely, what is the path of duty--have we a right
to enter upon such and such manifest duties and burdens? If the command is
plain, let us obey. If God point the way, then, even if it visibly lead into
perplexing responsibilities, expectant faith is the highest reason, and the
soundest wisdom is hope in Him. Yes, without doubt, we have a right to look for
special supplies for special needs.
3. There remains one more truth necessary for the completion of the
subject before us, namely, that, on the whole, the ordinary conditions are the
highest, the best, the most abiding. Which was really the best state, the
wandering or the settlement, the desert or Canaan? And yet the first condition
was that of manifold miracles, the water from the rock, the pillar of cloud and
of fire, the daily manna; the latter, that in which the people were handed over
to the ordinary conditions of life--they had to sow and till and reap, to buy
and sell, even as we. The new convert has experiences which by and by yield to
firmer principles; his love may deepen and become infinitely stronger in its
influence upon him, and yet some of the peculiar brightness of the early days
may have departed. There are times of great exaltation, of movement, of
excitement, in the history of churches, but it has yet to be proved that these
are indeed, all things considered, the best. I have much faith in quiet,
plodding work in our churches, in the continuous use of such means of grace as
God gives us, the common corn of the land. I have much faith too in the power
of a quiet, steady Christian life, which is regularly fed with the Word of God
and with prayer. The exaltation of the special above the ordinary has even
served to keep men from accepting Jesus Christ, by obscuring the simplicity of
that faith by which we are saved. (E. Medley.)
Divine giving and withholding
I. The
faith-fulness of God to his friends.
II. God will not
work miracles when he can meet his children’s needs by ordinary methods.
III. A temporal
blessing is sometimes removed when it has wrought the desired spiritual end. (W.
Harris.)
The old gospel or the new
In the pulpit of our times we have two different gospels, each
calling itself Christian and each asserting its superior excellence. The one is
satisfied to rest on the testimony of God, to stand by the old landmarks, to
receive the traditions of Scripture as delivered by prophets and apostles, and
with these to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. The
other, or new gospel, sets out from the principle that Christianity, like any
other system of human knowledge, is an evolution and development. There is no
absolute standard of truth back in the past; the only standard is in man
himself--the highly educated man
of the present, the advanced and incomparable man of the future.
Some things are all the better for being new. But religion is not one of them.
In a world of doubt and uncertainty, it is no small proof of the truth and
excellence of the gospel that it is so old, that it has been so long tried and
so fully tested--tried and tested in the crucibles of experiment, in the very
fires of persecution.
1. This is the gospel which first converted the world. It was not
liberalism, but the doctrine of Christ’s atonement for sin and the baptism of
the Holy Ghost, which converted the three thousand sinners of Jerusalem on the
day of Pentecost. Will any one tell us how long it would have taken the
rose-water gospel of our modern dilettante to have done this work?
2. It is this old gospel alone that has sustained the Christian
martyrs of all ages and all lands under their trials and persecutions. Who
cares for science, literature, or art, when racked with pain and passing
through the valley and shadow of death? Talk to us of God, tell us of heaven,
show us the way to God and heaven, is then the high and only demand.
3. It was the preaching of this old gospel that awakened the Church
to new life and produced the great reformation of the sixteenth century. It was
as life from the dead, and Pentecostal baptism from heaven, when God raised up
the great reformers, and by His grace enabled them, with a restored Bible, to
proclaim again from the pulpit and the press the grand distinguishing truths of
the ancient faith.
4. This again is the only gospel that has ever founded and sustained
missions to the heathen. The new gospel of moderatism, of sentiment and art, or
philosophical superiority to all creeds as equally good or indifferent, has
never aspired to the dignity of converting the world to Christ.
5. Other grounds might be added for adherence to the old gospel--as
that it has produced all the greatest characters in history, has founded all
the great institutions of Christendom, has caused all the great revivals of
religion in the Church, has been adorned by all the greatest preachers and
evangelists of all ages--in a word, has accomplished nine-tenths, if not
ninety-nine hundredths, of all the good that has thus far been accomplished in
the world. (Prof. Leroy J. Halsey.)
Miracle and the commonplace
It is a strange thing to read that when at last the long-promised land had
been attained there should be a diminution of the splendour of that Divine
assistance which had attended the chosen people throughout their wanderings in
the wilderness. “The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the old corn
of the land.” That is to say, the experience of the Israelites was one which
swept down from the experience of splendid and wonderful works into that of ordinary,
commonplace operation of the laws of nature. It looks a backward step. We, too,
envy those who lived in the days when manna fell from heaven and the water came forth
from the smitten rock, when the Jordan was cleft in twain, and men, without
striking a blow, felt that the Divine arm was outstretched on their behalf. Or
our thoughts may go back to the life of Him who lived in the world, not merely the
life of beauty, but the life of power, and we may envy those who were
privileged to walk at His side and see His hand stretched forth to touch the
leper and he was healed, to raise the dead to life again. The dawn of early
life has passed
away, and with it the splendour of the morning, and all that we may claim is to live in a
light which has faded down to the mere light of common day. It is a step
downwards, we say, from those days of wondrous power to the days in which we
can trace but little of the Divine in our midst. My purpose is to ask you to
notice that so far from this transition from the extraordinary to the ordinary
being a step downwards in the education of human beings it is distinctly a step
upwards: that the whole story; if we will read it aright, may show us that God
is leading us to far clearer and more constant manifestations of Himself. Your
life and mine is real and strong in proportion as it is filled with a clear
conception of God, in proportion as it is full of spiritual vigour within, and
in proportion as it is energetic towards those whom we meet abroad. In these
three relationships life finds its perfection. It does not find its perfection
in itself alone; it is related by origin with God. And therefore it cannot grow
out in fruition and in perfection of beauty at all except in certain conscious
relationship to Him. It cannot ripen in the mere consciousness of God, because
we are moral beings and we must ripen within ourselves; neither can we ripen
within ourselves without relationship to our fellow-men, for God has put us in
the midst of those men where the very order of things is a social order; and we
grow not merely by the law of our own inward development, but we grow also by
the law of contact and association with our brother men. And if you will look
at this story which tells us of the transition from the marvellous to the
commonplace, I think you will see that whether you regard life from any one of these
three points you are asked to take a step forward and to move higher.
1. First, then, the relation we bear to God. The thought which
underlies our regret when we say that we wish we had lived in the days of more
marked interposition of God is this--that somehow or another wherever there is
a marvellous or miraculous manifestation of God there is an opportunity of
knowing Him which is denied to us. If you will reflect you will see that on the
contrary the demand that underlies our thought is a demand which is destructive
of our conception and consciousness of God sooner or later. What are we saying?
We are saying in effect this: we want to be back in the old days of miracle,
and we want the Divine made known to us through His marvels. What is that but saying;
“O Lord, Thou hast made the world, and Thou hast made the world according to
order, and laws govern that world. Break Thy laws that we may know Thee!” But
surely that is to demand almost an impossibility! It is an admission that we
have but little conception of the Divine working at all. You and I can see
immediately what would be the result. That which happens constantly ceases to
be extraordinary from the nature of the case, and there would be no more reason
for believing in God because of such frequent manifestations of a startling
character, for they would no longer be of the very character which we plead is
their essential power. But you say, “We do not want Him to do this; we do not
want Him to show Himself thus by for ever breaking up His laws, and being for
ever doing the thing which we now deem extraordinary, but we do ask Him to
break the silence and let us see some startling manifestation of His presence.”
And then that means to say that we should only realise Him in proportion as He
came and stood beside us veiled in these splendours. What, then, would be our
inheritance in God? We should have an occasional God, not a permanent one. If
we have any vivid conception of Him, He must be a permanent and a perpetual God
to our lives and our souls. What you and I want is not a God of occasional
work, but the God of a perpetual working in our midst. Therefore, surely we are
enlarging our thoughts of God when we say, “God is not only in the startling
things, but He is in the commonplace things, of life; God is not only in the
cleft rock, He is also in the quiet hill and in the soft meadow; He is not only
in the cloven sea or the Jordan struck asunder, but He is in the little burn
that babbles at our feet.” Surely that gives us a much larger and nobler idea
of the Divine; that brings us into closer relationship with Him. It enlarges
our conceptions; we feel that we live not in a world which now and then is
privileged to behold God as ruler, marching in stately procession through His
universe, but rather as the Father of His children who dwells with them at all
times. He is about our path and our bed; His tender mercies never fail to the
sons of men, but are over all His works.
2. But life is not merely made up thus of the conceptions which we
have of God, but it is made up of our own personal growth. The object which God
has, if I may speak with all reverence, in putting us into this little world
for the three score years and ten is not to secure our happiness nor to startle
us into a kind of hysterical perception of His presence, but to educate us as
His children. And therefore, when we ask that God should make Himself manifest
by these miracles and wonders, we are really making a false conception of our
own powers and capabilities in relation to God. For by what faculty do you
perceive God? For everything that we look at is apprehended by one faculty or
other that we possess. Do I expect to apprehend Him by the physical eye? Do I
imagine that I shall apprehend Him by intellectual effort? Surely those are only
conceptions which belong to past ideas, crude notions of God. I cannot perceive
God by the physical eye. God is a spirit! I cannot perceive God by my
intellectual powers, because the world, by wisdom, knew not God, and if He be
God at all to me He is the Incomprehensible One. Then, of course, the miracle
and the wonder are outside the case, for the marvellous can only speak on the
plane of things physical or appeal to the power of the mind, the intellectual
power within us. Our Lord was constantly teaching that. In His parable of Dives
and Lazarus He uses the very principle. Here the man in his torment imagines
that a wonder will convince his brethren. “Send Lazarus! Let the marvel
appear!” And the only answer is, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead”--in other words,
if they have not the moral capacity to follow the teachings of Moses and the
prophets, if they have no moral affinity and sympathy with the prophets’
teaching, no wonder will give them that capacity. You cannot create a capacity
by a wonder outside a man. You cannot make a blind man see red because he
cannot see pink; you cannot, by intensifying a force outside, give him a
faculty which is lacking in himself. The way in which you can understand God is
by the exercise of your moral faculties. Jesus Christ was the greatest moral
teacher that ever lived, and what is Jesus Christ’s emphatic statement
concerning this? He says there are two faculties by which God can be
apprehended, one is single-mindedness, the other purity of heart. For so, He
said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” That was His
idea, and John, the beloved disciple who laid his head upon the bosom of the
Christ, uttered the same principle when he said that the only way by which God
could be apprehended was by the exercise of a loving disposition. A loving
disposition is indispensable. You cannot perceive Him without it, and you can
understand why. The reason is written down on the very surface. How can you
understand him whose nature is loving if you be not loving also? How can you
understand him whose nature is simple-minded if you too are not simple-minded?
The faculty by which you apprehend God, then, is not the intellectual, not the
physical, but the moral; and hence how will a miracle affect your moral
faculties? How can it appeal to your moral powers? So that when you have asked
that you should have a miracle to show you God, the answer of the thought and
the answer of the principle is the same, you cannot so apprehend God unless you
previously possess the moral faculty to enable you to grasp Him. And if you
will reflect upon it, this is only another way of saying what is true of
everything in the world, that the one condition by which you can understand
anything or anybody is that you shall be in some degree a sharer of their
nature. That is true! Let us picture to ourselves the tourist who hurries
across the Atlantic, and hurries through the towns of Europe in order to see or
“to do” the Continent. Place him down with his erratic mind untrained before
the greatest masterpieces of art; plant him in the chapel at Florence; let him
stand face to face with Michael Angelo’s creations of Night and Morning. His
first impression will be, “These are greatly over-praised; why, the very
anatomy is faulty; I cannot see why people should praise these things.” But now
for a moment imagine that there drops upon that man’s soul as he stands there
some little portion of Michael Angelo’s nature. What a transformation takes
place within his soul in his power of perception at that moment! Then he says
something new; then these “greatly over-praised” figures begin to have a
message for him; they seem to speak into his life now because Michael Angelo is
in his soul, and he can read what Michael Angelo meant. I put it to you in your
homes; measure your acquaintances, tabulate them in your own mind, and see what
the result is. Only where there is that sort of affinity you can really enter
into the capacity of knowing one another in the true friendly sense; and what
is the secret of it all? Your power of knowing and entering into the lives of
these people depends upon your sharing in some degree their nature. It is the
same surely with God. We talk of knowing God. How blind and foolish we are!
Knowing God, the measureless, pure God, the bright and eternal God, the God
whose mercy is over all His works. How can we know Him if we be not righteous?
How can we understand Him if we be not holy? How can we enter into His love if
no love dwells within our soul? It is the moral faculty, it is the possession
of these moral qualities which are power, Hence, when the message comes to you,
“Go forward! rest no longer upon the miracle! Rest now upon the ordinary
manifestations!” it is as if it said--and the message came to the Israelites as
it comes to you and me--“You are no longer in a state of babyhood, dependent
upon these things outside your moral nature.” “You must give moral
co-operation”--that is the meaning of the message. You must give moral
co-operation now in your own education, for only by that moral co-operation can
there be a pure apprehension of the Divine and the real entering into communion
with Him. Thus, then, it is a step upwards, is it not? a step upwards in the moral
education of men. But there is a third aspect of life.
3. Your life and mine is a life of association with others, and so
long as men were in the state in which they were surrounded by the marvellous,
the manna fell just where they could gather it without any exertion, but the
corn needed to be sown, and the corn needed to be gathered in the spot where it
grew, and therefore the children of Israel were now in the position of being
made co-operators in the work of God. And so it is for you and me to understand
that the advantage of its coming in that way is that it draws us into
partnership with the work, and we are promoted to a stage higher when we are
sent into the fields to gather, and when we are made so far co-agents with God
that in the great work of the distribution of His food amongst men we take our
share. (Bp. Boyd Carpenter.)
Old corn
The old corn eaten by the Israelites was to them a verification of
the Divine promise. Abraham was a pilgrim in Canaan, but he could mentally
claim the whole land for his descendants. When Lot left him for the rich plain
of the Jordan, the Lord said to him (Genesis 13:14-16). This was a great
promise for the patriarch; also for his son and grandson, to whom it was in
substance repeated. But what about those Israelites in Egypt whose hands and
faces were smeared with the clay of the brickyards? There were probably times
when they thought the promise was for gotten. But the promise was not forgotten,
and every grain of the old corn eaten by the Israelites was a proof of God’s
fidelity to His word. We are reminded by corn, whether old or new, that God is
an active power in the world. We may talk about germination and the fructifying
influences of dew, rain, and sunshine; but behind all secondary causes there is
the great First Cause. In Tibet there is a sacred tree which is said to bear on
its leaves hymns, litanies, and pictures of Buddha. On grains of corn, if we
look aright, we shall see psalms in praise of God’s truthfulness and pictures
of God’s goodness. He whose finger has yearly given a vitalising touch to the
seed in the ground, and shown His beneficence in a long succession of harvests
has not failed, and will not fail, in either His threatenings or His promises.
The corn eaten by the Israelites was old, and therefore good corn, If it had
been badly harvested it would have sprouted, and when parched or made into
cakes would have lacked the right flavour. It was in prime condition, and so was
a treat to the Israelites after their long diet of manna. In the Bible we have
what may be spoken of as old corn. The truths which God has given for the
nourishment of our souls are not of recent date, but bear the impress of
primitive years. We are not to despise those truths because they are old; if
they are old, they are a glory for modern times. Whenever the Church has risen
to new life, it has been because of a return to biblical beliefs and biblical
methods of activity. When, however, the Church has become little more than a
gorgeously decorated petrifaction, it has been revived by the old corn of
simple doctrine. Novelties in theology may be attractive, but they cannot do
for us what is done by doctrines which are ancient without being antiquated, and
venerable without being enfeebled by years. Much as men have grown in science
and literature, they have not so grown religiously as to be independent of the
atonement. We need the old truths, and we can no more do without them for our
souls than we can do without bread made of sound corn for our bodies. (J.
Marrat.)
The Divine law of economy
A law of economy, we might almost say parsimony, prevails,
side by side with the exercise of unbounded liberality. Jesus multiplies the
loaves and fishes to feed the multitude, but He will not let one fragment be
lost that remains after the feast. A similar law guides the economy of prayer.
We have no right to ask that mercies may come to us through extraordinary
channels when it is in our power to get them by ordinary means. If it is in our
power to procure bread by our labour, we dare not ask it to be sent direct. We
are only too prone to make prayer at the eleventh hour an excuse for want of
diligence or want of courage in what bears on the prosperity of the spiritual
life. It may be that of His great generosity God sometimes blesses us, even
though we have made a very inadequate use Of the ordinary means. But on that we
have no right to presume. We are fond of short and easy methods where the
natural method would be long and laborious. But here certainly we find the
working of natural law in the spiritual world. We cannot look for God’s
blessing without diligent use of God’s appointed means. (W. G. Blaikie, D.
D.)
The loss of one kind of advantage is compensated by the advent of
another
In childhood and early youth we depend for our growth in knowledge
on the instructions of our teachers. What puzzles us we refer to them, and they guide us
through the difficulty. If they are wise teachers they will not tell us everything,
but they will put us on the right method to find out. Still they are there as a
court of appeal, so to speak, and we have always the satisfaction of a last
resort. But the time comes when we bid farewell to teachers. Happily it is the
time when the judgment becomes self-reliant, independent, penetrating. We are
thrown mainly upon our own resources. The manna ceases, and we eat the fruit of
the land. So in family life. The affection that binds parents and children,
brothers and sisters, to one another in the family is both beautiful and
delightful; and it were no wonder if, on the part of some, there were the
desire that their intercourse should suffer no rude break, but go on unchanged
for an indefinite time. But it is seldom God’s will that family life shall
remain unbroken. Often the interruption
comes in the rudest and most terrible form--by the death of the head of the
house. It is often a painful and distressing change. But at least it wakens up
all who can do anything; it rescues them from the temptation of a slumbering,
aimless life, and often draws out useful gifts that turn their lives into a
real blessing. And there are other compensations: As old attachments arc
snapped, new are gradually formed. And even in old age a law of compensation
often comes in: children and children’s children bring new interests and
pleasures, and the green hues of youth modify the grey of age. Then there is
the happy experience by which the advent of spiritual blessings compensates the
loss of temporal. Such instances are not uncommon as that which the Rev.
Charles Simeon gives, in speaking of some blind men from Edinburgh whom nearly
a century ago he found at work in a country house in Scotland: “One of the
blind men, on being interrogated with respect to his knowledge of spiritual
things, answered, ‘I never saw till I was blind; nor did I ever know
contentment while I had my eyesight, as I do now that I have lost it; I can
truly affirm, though few know how to credit me, that I would on no account
change my present situation and circumstances with any that I ever enjoyed
before I was blind.’ He had enjoyed eyesight till twenty-five, and had been
blind now about three years.” Lastly, of all exchanges in room of old
provisions the most striking is that which our Lord thus set forth (John 16:7). Very precious had been the
manna that ceased when
Jesus left. But more nourishing is the new corn with which the Spirit feeds us. Let us prize it
greatly so long as we are in the flesh. We shall know the good of it when we
enter on the next stage of our being. Then, in the fullest sense, the manna
will cease, and we shall eat the corn of the land. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
God considerate
How gracious is the gentle, thoughtful kindness of God, who lets
us see the new
before He quite takes away the old, accustoming us to walk before He removes
the chair on which we had leant so long, careful that we should be able to swim
before He removes the cork. Do not fret if the rhapsodies, and outbursts, and
exuberant manifestations of earlier days have ceased; it is better to live by
the ordinary laws of human life than by the abnormal and miraculous. And after
all there is as much
Divine power in the production of a fig and pomegranate, of oil-olive and
honey, of barley and wheat, as in the descending manna; as much in the
transformation of the moisture of earth and air into the ruddy grape as in the
miracle of Cana; as much in the maintenance of the soul in holiness and righteousness
all its days as in the communication of unspeakable visions and words that may
not be uttered. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Verses 13-15
Nay; but as Captain of the host of the Lord.
The warrior Christian
I. The special
significance of this vision to Joshua. “The Lord’s host” does not primarily
allude to those Israelite armies encamped beside the overflowing waters of the
Jordan, but to other and invisible hosts encamped all around on those heights,
though no ear ever heard the call of the sentries at their posts of duty, or
saw the sheen of their swords
flashing in the sunlight, or beheld their marshalled ranks. Those troops of harnessed
angels were the hosts of which this wondrous Warrior was captain. The story of
the conquest of Canaan is not simply the account of battles fought between
Israel and the Canaanites, but of the results of a conflict yet more mysterious and
far-reaching between the bright squadrons that follow the lead of the captain
of the Lord’s host, and the dark battalions of evil entrenched in the hearts
and strongholds of the enemies of God. Is it, therefore, any cause for wonder
that the walls of Jericho fell down; or that vast armies were scattered without
a blow being struck; or that the land was subdued in a seven years’ campaign?
These achievements were the earthly and visible results of victories won in the
heavenly and spiritual sphere by armies which follow the Word of God upon
‘white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. Those walls fell down
because smitten by the impact of celestial hosts. Those armies fled because the
dark powers with which they were in league had been put to the rout before the
Lord God of Sabaoth.
II. The significance
of this vision to the church. Throughout the world of nature there are signs of
conflict and collision. There is no pool, however tranquil; no forest-glade,
however peaceful; no isle bathed by southern seas, and set gem-like on the
breast of ocean, however enchanting; no scene, however fascinating, which is
not swept by opposing squadrons contending for victory. The swift pursue their
prey, the strong devour the weak, the fittest alone survive in the terrific
strife. So it has been in the history of our race. The books that contain the
records of the past are largely records of wars and decisive battles. Their
pages are wet with tears and blood. The foundations of vast empires have been
laid, like those of African palaces, on the writhing bodies of dying men. For
the student of God’s ways all this leads up to a more tremendous struggle
between darkness and light, evil and good, Satan and our King. And here is the
real importance of the ascension, which was the worthy climax of the wonders of
the first advent, as it will introduce the glories of the second.
III. The
significance of this vision to ourselves. We sometimes feel lonely and
discouraged. The hosts with which we are accustomed to co-operate are resting
quietly in their tents. No one seems able to enter into our anxieties and
plans. Our Jerichos are so formidable--the neglected parish, the empty church,
the hardened congregation, the godless household. How can we ever capture
these, and hand them over to the Lord, like dismantled castles, for Him to
occupy? That problem at first baffles us, and appears insoluble. Then we vow it
shall be untied, and summon all our wit and energy to solve it. We study the
methods of others and copy them; deliver our best addresses and sermons, put
forth herculean exertions. We adopt exciting advertisements and questionable
methods, borrowed from the world. Suppose Israel had taken lessons in scaling
walls and taking fenced cities from the Canaanites! Or that the people had made
an attack on Jericho with might and main, determined to find or make a breach!
Finally, in our hours of disappointment, when we have tried our best in vain,
and have fallen, as the sea
birds who dash themselves against the lighthouse tower fall to the foot with
broken wing, it is well to go forth alone, confessing our helplessness, and
tarrying for the vision,
for we shall then be likeliest to see the Captain of the Lord’s host. He will
undertake our cause, He will marshal His troops and win the day, He will fling
the walls of Jericho to the ground. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The armed angel of the covenant appearing to Joshua
I. Joshua went
forth to be alone with God. The hour, thought of for forty years, had now
arrived; the campaign was about to begin, and everything devolved upon him. No
Moses now to direct him. There was the impregnable fortress before him. A long
siege or a speedy capture alike impossible. A dilemma. He knelt for guidance.
II. The lord came
to be alone with Joshua.
1. To Abram, a wanderer, He appeared as a wayfarer; to Jacob, distressed
at the prospect of a conflict with his brother, He appeared as a wrestler who
allowed himself to be overcome; and now, to the warrior, He showed Himself as a
warrior. This teaches that there is no condition of life in which we shall not
find the Lord Jesus in full sympathy with His people.
2. Joshua’s doubt; whether He was for or against him was soon set at
rest. So will yours, if your heart is right with Him.
3. When Joshua knew who He was, he fell upon his face and
worshipped. We have a like assurance that Joshua had. “All power is given unto
Me.” “Lo, I am with you alway.” But if this be really given to us by the Holy
Ghost, our attitude will be like Joshua’s.
4. The first thing the Lord required--“Loose thy shoe,” &c. So
now, Leave worldly cares, cut off carnal indulgences, and give yourself up
wholly to Me.” “And Joshua did so . . . And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I
have given into thine hand, Jericho,” &c. A similar promise is given to us.
Jericho is a type of the world (John 16:33; Romans 8:31; 1 John 4:4). The promise was definite:
“I have given.” That set Joshua’s mind at rest. Have we not many a promise us
definite? Why should we fear? (see 1 John 5:4).
5. But faith does not mean sitting still and doing nothing. The land
was given to them, but they had to conquer every foot of it. The Christian
conflict is no less a conflict because “a fight of faith.”
In order to conquer in “the good fight of faith,” we want--
1. The readiness of faith, which is found only in our realised
perfect standing in Christ.
2. The prayer of faith.
3. Faith’s recognition of the Divine presence.
4. Faith’s reverential submission to the Divine will.
5. Faith’s energetic obedience to the Divine commands. (W. J.
Chapman, M. A.)
The Captain of the Lord’s host still with us
We see in Joshua an observant man meditating over the plans of the
morrow, and turning in upon his own thoughts and reflections, yet quick to note
the presence of a danger. Every commander of men must have an eye in his head.
He must be quick to note the presence of a foe or to detect danger. He must
watch as well as meditate and pray. Joshua was quick to take in his
surroundings, while he carefully weighed problems which pressed themselves upon
him. What was he to do? It was when face to face with that perplexing question
that Joshua looked up and saw an armed man. Could he let that man go
unchallenged? Nay, he must have the courage to go up to him. That courage was
the necessary condition of the revelation which Joshua was about to receive.
The cowards in the Lord’s army never receive such a vision as this, but the men
who have forgotten themselves in their desire to serve their Lord. Now observe
what Joshua first received. He received a clear revelation that the One to whom
he had spoken was far greater than he had ever imagined Him to be. In other
words, that the Captain of the Lord’s host, who alone could ensure victory, was
nearer to him than he had ever dreamed. Again, notice that the character of
this revelation was adapted to the nature of the circumstances by which Joshua
was surrounded. Now, when God appeared to Moses, He did not reveal Himself in
the form of an armed man. He appeared to him in a flame of fire--a flame which
lit up the bush, but did not consume it. Then God appeared in the mystery of
fire: and that was just the kind of revelation that Moses needed. But now
things were different. Joshua had to pass through experiences through which
even Moses had not to pass. The religion of God had been now established. The
law had been given, even the ceremonial instructions had been supplied; but now
the nation had to find their way into the possession of the promised land, God
had given them Canaan, it is true, but it was only on condition that they
should, in His strength, conquer the inhabitants of Canaan. Thus the revelation
which Joshua needed now was that God would fight for them and with them. He
therefore appeared before Joshua, not as a flame of fire, but an armed man,
with His sword unsheathed. Joshua thus learnt that the result of the conflict
was not dependent upon his wisdom in planning, or upon his courage in
prosecuting the campaign. This was supremely all Joshua needed to know. It is
this that gives courage to all the true servants of the Lord--the assurance
that they have merely to obey the command of their King in detail, leaving all
the rest with Him. Next observe that the conditions of being permitted to
receive any command from the Divine Captain arc reverence and faith. No man can
receive from Him orders for battle until he has learned to take the warrior’s
sandal from off his foot and bow in submissiveness before the great Captain of
his salvation. It was when Joshua had learned the truest reverence, when he had
realised that the very place upon which he stood was holy, that the great
secret was given him how to take Jericho. The Lord bade Joshua order the
priests first of all take the ark, and then command seven priests to blow the
“seven trumpets of ram’s horns” before the ark of the Lord, &c. That was an
extraordinary command, and an extraordinary assurance, and they required very
exceptional faith in God to act upon them. But the possession of that faith was
the condition of victory. So is it still; if we have a similar faith, the
triumph is ours. Now think for a moment of Joshua’s thoughts after all this. He
would soliloquise: “I have mourned over the loss of Moses: I mourn over it
still; but now I see as I never did before that there is One who can make up
for that loss. I have not to look to Moses, but to the Master who gave Moses
his commission: and if obeying His command is all that is necessary for me, I
too can be leader.” The Lord’s cause does not depend upon the life of any hero,
however great he may be, and the prosperity of the gospel the wide world over
shall not be restrained by any loss, but as long as the Church is faithful to
its privileges and ready to obey the Master’s command, we as the Lord’s army
shall go on conquering and to conquer, until at last the shout of victory will
be heard, and every Jericho of worldliness and iniquity will be laid low. (D.
Davies.)
Timely aid; or, a vision of the Captain of the Lord’s host
I. The time of his
appearance.
1. After attending to “religious duties,” “circumcision” and the
“Passover.” Joshua knew what kind of beginning was likely to end well; unlike a
number of modern Christians.
2. While pursuing his appointed work. “By Jericho.” Probably alone,
yet fearless of danger. “By Jericho” for some important purpose. God visits the
working man. Moses, Gideon, David, Elisha, sons of Zebedee. The covetous and
idle are rarely called by God to great work.
II. The manner of
his appearance.
1. As supreme in command: “Captain of the Lord’s host.” Captain over
Joshua. Whatever be our abilities, our titles, or our claims to office, we must
yield them all up to the “Captain of the Lord’s host.”
2. As the very friend Joshua needed--in the character and dress of a
soldier.
3. As justifying the war in which he was about to engage. There are
wars in which God will engage--against sin and the devil. The victories of the
Church are bloodless.
4. As encouraging him to wage it valiantly. “Drawn sword.” Ready to
take the defensive or the offensive. To Abraham He said, “I am thy shield.” To
the disciple He said, “Follow Me.”
III. Our duty in
relation to such an appearance.
1. To be found evincing an interest in Israel. “Joshua was by
Jericho.”
2. To be ready to lay ourselves at Jesus’ feet, saying, “What saith
my Lord unto His servant.” Say anything, Lord, and I will do it. Appoint me any
work, and I am ready to perform it. (W. H. Matthews.)
The Captain of the Lord’s host
“Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” There is a great deal in
this bold challenge which commends itself to our admiration. Joshua knew of no
neutrality in the warfare of God. The stranger must be friend or enemy. Joshua
was not like so many Christian soldiers of to-day, who, before declaring their
principles, wait to find out their company, trimming themselves to the breeze,
very pious with the pious, indifferent with the indifferent, and openly
irreligious with the irreligious. But there is something amiss with the
question, for it is rebuked. Joshua made the mistake of thinking of the warfare
in which he was engaged as having the two sides--“our side” and “the other
side.” Whoever approached the host must come to aid “us” or oppose “us.” And
this view was all wrong. It was just like the Homeric idea of the gods
descending to earth as partisans in human strifes, Apollo patronising the
diligent offerer of hecatombs, Venus favouring this or that one of her mortal
kindred. It was like the Romans expecting Castor and Pollux in their van to
spread dismay in the opposing hosts. It was an idea of God which the Jews got
in a certain stage of their national history, an idea of God as a patron deity,
a national divinity, just as Chemosh was the national divinity of Moab. In due
time, when the exclusive national spirit had done its work, this idea was
destined to be swept away. The vision rebukes it now. “Nay,” he says, “not for
you, nor yet for your adversaries, am I come, but--as Captain of the Lord’s
host am I now come.” “Not as a partisan,” he would say, “but as a Prince am I
come. Not such as you deem me am I, a welcome ally or a hated foe, come to
mingle in the clash and din of earthly warfare, but as captain of an army in
which Israel forms but one tiny battalion, I am come to take my place and give
my intructions.” What a struggle must have taken place in the mind of Joshua!
Was not he the captain, divinely chosen by God, and consecrated by the laying
on of the hands of Moses? Did not this matter touch the dignity of his office?
At any rate, we may be sure--for Joshua was a man--that it touched his pride.
Just as he was so full of plans, perhaps had got everything ready for the
attack on Jericho, had seen exactly how this wall was to be scaled, how that
apparently impregnable tower was to be battered down, how the troops were to be
disposed with the certainty of victory--an unknown One comes to him, levels all
his plans to the ground with a word, and proclaims Himself the Captain of the
host. Longfellow tells the story of the same conflict in “King Robert of
Sicily,” but there is a difference. King Robert requires years of humiliation
and discipline to bring him to the confession all must make before the Captain;
Joshua wins his battle on the spot--a battle which showed his fitness for
leadership more than when he fought with Amalek at Rephidim. And he won it, as
many of the great battles in the world’s history--although they have not
scarred the fair fields of earth--have been won--on his knees. No longer
looking up, he falls with his face to the earth. Oh, what bitter pain and
self-abasement were there in that moment when the strong soldier of Israel
bowed himself to the dust! Who can say how hard the struggle was? We are only
told that the battle was won. “What saith my Lord unto His servant?” Then the
Captain of the Lord’s host gives His orders, tells of His plan--not at all like
the plans of Joshua--how Jericho is to be taken, not by might or Strength of
armed men, but by the blast of the Spirit of God toppling down the stupendous
walls in which the heathen Canaanites put their trust.
1. Oh, that we imitated Joshua in his vigilance! We, too, are in the
promised land. But Canaan, for us, as for Israel, is a battle-field. Enemies
prowl around, mighty fortresses of evil frown before us, and it is only our
blindness which prevents us from seeing the momentous issues which depend upon
our wakefulness. Do we ponder much and often upon the charge laid upon us? Do
we often rise from slumber, leave the host of sleepers, and go out alone to
survey the field of the approaching battle? Let us not shrink from challenging
the unknown influences which at such times touch our lives. “Try the spirits,”
says St. John; good or evil, they must be challenged, for God has made us
creatures of choice, and He has willed that by choice (and not by instinct) we
must obey Him. This is the mark of our manhood, the mark which distinguishes us
from the beasts.
2. But let us avoid Joshua’s error. There is no “our side” in the
matter. There is God’s side, and the side against God. The Persian poet,
Jellaladeen, tells us that, “One knocked at the Beloved’s door, and a voice
asked from within, ‘Who is there? ‘ and he answered, ‘It is I.’ Then the voice
said, ‘This house will not hold me and thee’; and the door was not opened. Then
went the lover into the desert and fasted and prayed in solitude, and after a
year he returned and knocked again at the door; and again the voice asked, ‘Who
is there?’ and he said, ‘It is thyself’; and the door opened to him.” All true
Christian warriors have, with Joshua, learned this utter renunciation of self.
The Jehu spirit, “Come and see my zeal for the Lord,” is banished, and the
spirit of Paul takes its place, “yet not I, but Christ that dwelleth in me.” (H.
H. Gowen.)
The heavenly Captain of the Lord’s host; or, the vision at Jericho
I. The time of the
vision.
1. It was immediately after God had been publicly honoured and
sought in His ordinances. Christian, wouldst thou see Jesus? Then consecrate
thyself anew to the service of thy God, and seek Him in the employment of the
means of grace. Especially exercise faith in the Lamb of God, and feed upon the
paschal sacrifice in thy heart by faith. Honour thy God by thy devotion, and He
shall honour thee by revelations of His glory and His grace.
2. It was immediately before the mighty campaign with the
Canaanites. This is often the method of God’s procedure. When a great trial is
at hand, great revelations of His glory; transporting experiences of His
presence are given in anticipation. It was thus with our Divine Master Himself.
Before His temptation, the heavens were opened to His view; the Spirit
descended upon Him in bodily shape; the audible voice of the Father declared
that Father’s love, relationship, and approval of Him. It was thus, again, that
the disciples were strengthened to bear the trial to their faith in the
betrayal, suffering, and death of Jesus.
II. The aspect of
the vision. Joshua’s question is not the utterance of doubt and distrust, but
rather of a hope and an expectation that crave a fuller confirmation. It is
like the prayer of David, “Say unto my soul, ‘I am thy salvation.’” Oh, it is a
solemn thing to see the naked sword in the hand of the destroying angel
standing over against us: a petition for a reassuring word from Him who wields
that sword is no disgrace to a believer. A humble soul that is taught of God to
know what sin is must ofttimes be conscious of sin and guilt enough to justify
a prayer for a renewal of assurance, and to prompt the anxious question, “Art
Thou for us, or for our adversaries?”
III. The
communication of the vision. Lessons:
1. Let unsaved sinners read here a lesson of terror and alarm, and
heed the call to repentance. His sword is in His hand. But still, still His
long-suffering mercy defers the stroke of judgment. Wilt thou not repent and
believe the gospel?
2. To those who have accepted His offer of grace, and who plead His
precious blood as their title to pardon, there is nothing to dread in the
person of their Saviour. Do you belong to the Lord’s host? Then bow your heads
and worship, for as Captain of the Lord’s host is He now come. Say, can you
trust this heavenly Guardian? Will you follow this heavenly Guide? He claims
these of us all--full confidence, entire obedience.
3. Note that while God’s people are reassured and delivered from the
fear that hath torment, there is a reverence and godly fear, from which they
are not excused, but with which it is their duty to approach their Saviour.
This is the symbolism of the loosing of the shoe. (G. W. Butler, M. A.)
Captain of the Lord’s host
I. The relation
here indicated between Christ and his people. Ruler, Defender, and Leader of
the Church on earth.
1. This He is by virtue of the sufferings and conquests of Calvary.
2. By the free choice of His people.
II. The character
and office in which jesus here manifests himself. Warrior with drawn sword (Revelation 1:16).
III. The position
and duty devolving upon Christians in consequence of this relation to Christ,
The true ideal of the Christian is not that of the shepherd with crook and pipe
on sunny hillside; or even that of the pilgrim slowly toiling on, and leaning
on his stall’; but rather that of the soldier, with shield and helmet,
fighting his way against doubts that agitate his mind, against fears that even
disturb the serenity of hope, against fiery passions that threaten to
overmaster his patience, against the flesh in all its varied forms of
opposition to the Spirit, against the world and its allurements, against
invisible enemies, &c. Over and above these single-handed conflicts with
our foes, we are called upon as soldiers of the Cross to march forward with the
host against envy, and wickedness, and sin; to fight for the overthrow of
Satan’s stronghold, at home and abroad.
IV. Christ’s
relation to the church involves the assurance of all needed grace and power for
the warfare. We have His word to direct us, His Spirit to give strength and
guidance, His love to inspire us with zeal, His promise to assure us that the
conflict shall end in victory. (A London Clergyman.)
Joshua’s vision
I. Realise the fact
of the divine presence. Jesus Himself comes to this holy war. Joshua saw a man
clad in armour, equipped for war. Cannot the eyes of your faith see the same?
There He stands, Jesus, God over all, blessed for ever, yet a man. Not
carnally, but still in real truth, Jesus is where His people meet together.
Joshua saw Him with His sword in His hand. Oh, that Christ might come in our
midst with the sword of the Spirit in His hand; come to effect deeds of love
but yet deeds of power; come with His two-edged sword to smite our sins, to cut
to the heart His adversaries, to slay their unbelief, to lay their iniquities
dead before Him. The sword is drawn, not scabbarded, as alas! it has been so
long in many Churches, but made bare for present active use. It is in His hand,
not in the minister’s hand, not even in an angel’s hand, but the sword drawn is
in His hand. Oh, what power there is in the gospel when Jesus holds the hilt,
and what gashes it makes into hearts that were hard as adamant when Jesus cuts
right and left at the hearts and consciences of men! The glorious man whom
Joshua saw was on his side. In the midst of His Church, Christ carries a sword
only for the purposes of love to His people. The Divine presence, there, is
what we desire, and if we have it faith at once is encouraged. It was
enough for the army of Cromwell to know that He was there, the ever victorious,
the irresistible, to lead on his Ironsides to the fray. Many a time the
presence of an old Roman general was equal to another legion; as soon as the
cohorts perceived that he was come whose eagle eye watched every motion of the
enemy, and whose practised hand led his battalions upon the most salient points
of attack, each man’s blood leaped within him, and he grasped his sword and
rushed forward secure of success. Our King is in the midst of us, and our faith
should be in active exercise. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” When
the King is with His people, then hope is greatly encouraged, for saith she,
“Who can stand against the Lord of hosts?” Where Jesus is, love becomes
inflamed, for oh I of all the things in the world that can set the heart burning, there
is nothing like the presence of Jesus. A glimpse of Him will overcome us, so
that we shall be almost ready to say, “Turn away Thine eyes from me, for they
have overcome me.” Suppose that Christ is here. His presence will be most
clearly ascertained by those who are most like Him. Joshua was favoured with
this sight because he alone had eyes that could bear it. I would that all of
you were Joshuas; but if not, if but some shall perceive Him, we shall still
receive a blessing. I am sure this presence of Christ will be needed by us all.
Go not to warfare at your own charges, but wait upon your Master, tarrying at
Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. But Jesus Christ’s
presence may be had. Do not despond and say that in the olden times the Master
revealed Himself, but He will not do so now. He will, He will. His promise is
as good as ever.
II. Understand the
Lord’s position in the midst of his people. “As Captain of the host of the Lord
am I now come.” What a relief this must have been for Joshua. Perhaps he
thought himself the captain; but now the responsibility was taken from him; he
was to be the lieutenant, but the King Himself would marshal His hosts.
Wherever Christ is, we must recollect that He is Commander-in-chief to us all.
We must never tolerate in the Church any great man to domineer over us: we must
have no one to be Lord and Master save Jesus. Down with thee, self, down with
thee! Carnal judgment and foolish reason, lie still! Let the Word of God be
paramount within the soul, all opposition being hushed. If we do not act with
the Captain, disappointment will be sure to follow. One action brought defeat
upon Israel.
III. Our third rule
is, worship him who is present with us. Joshua, it is said, fell on his face to
the earth. Worship is the highest elevation of the spirit, and yet the lowliest
prostration of the soul, Worship the Son of God! Then, when you have so done,
give up yourself to His command: say to Him, “What saith my Lord unto His
servant?” When you have done this, I want you to imitate Joshua in the third
thing, namely, put off your shoes from off your feet. Joshua, perhaps, had not
felt what a solemn thing it was to fight for God, to fight as God’s executioner
against condemned men. He must put his shoes off, therefore. We never can
expect a blessing if we go about God’s work flippantly.
IV. To conclude,
let us now advance to action, according to the Master’s command. Unconverted
men and women, you are our Jericho, we wish to conquer you for Christ. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
The Captain of the Lord’s host
I. A transient
revelation of an eternal truth. You will observe that there run throughout the
whole of the Old Testament notices of the occasional manifestation of a
mysterious person who is named “the Angel,” “the Angel of the Lord,” and who,
in a remarkable manner, is distinguished from the created hosts of angel
beings, and also is distinguished from, and yet in name, attributes, and
worship all but identified with, the Lord Himself. If we turn to the New
Testament, we find that there under another image the same strain of thought is
presented. The Word of God, who from everlasting “was with God, and was God,” is
represented as being the Agent of Creation, the source of all human
illumination, the director of Providence, the Lord of the Universe. “By Him
were all things, and in Him all things consist.” So, surely, these two halves
make a whole; and the Angel of the Lord, separate and yet so strangely
identified with Jehovah, who at the crises of the nation’s history, and stages
of the development of the process of revelation, is manifested, and the Eternal
Word of God, whom the New Testament reveals to us, are one and the same. The
eternal order of the universe is before us here. It only remains to say a word
in reference to the sweep of the command which our vision assigns to the Angel
of the Lord. “Captain of the Lord’s host” means a great deal more than the true
General of Israel’s little army. It does mean that, or the words and the vision
would cease to have relevance and bearing on the moment’s circumstances and
need. But it includes also, as the usage of Scripture would sufficiently show,
if it were needful to adduce instances of it, all the ordered ranks of loftier
intelligent beings, and all the powers and forces of the universe. These are
conceived of as an embattled host, comparable to an army in the strictness of
their discipline and their obedience to a single will. It is the modern thought
that the universe is a Cosmos and not a Chaos, an ordered unit, with the
addition of the truth beyond the reach and range of science, that its unity is
the expression of a personal will. That is the truth which was flashed from the
unknown like a vanishing meteor in the midnight before the face of Joshua and
which stands like the noonday sun, unsetting and irradiating for us who live
under the gospel.
II. The leader of
all the warfare against the world’s evil. “The Captain of the Lord’s host.” He
Himself takes part in the fight. He is not like a general who, on some safe
knoll behind the army, sends his soldiers to death, and keeps his own skin
whole. But He has fought, and He is fighting. Do you remember that wonderful picture
in two halves, at the end of one of the Gospels, “The Lord went up into
heaven,” &c “they went forth everywhere preaching the Word”? Strange
contrast between the repose of the seated Christ and the toils of His
peripatetic servants! Yes. Strange contrast; but the next words harmonise the
two halves of it: “The Lord also working,” &c. The leader does not so rest
as that he does not fight; and the servants do not need so to fight as that
they cannot rest. Thus the old legends of many a land and tongue have a
glorious truth in them to the eye of faith, and at the head of all the armies
that are charging against any form of the world’s misery and sin there moves
the form of the Son of Man, whose aid we have to invoke, even from His crowned
repose at the right hand of God. If this, then, be for us, as truly as for
Joshua and his host, a revelation of who is our true leader, surely all of us
in our various degrees, and especially any of us who have any “Quixotic
crusade” for the world’s good on our consciences and on our hands, may take the
lessons and the encouragements that are here. Own your leader. That is one
plain duty. And recognise this fact, that by no other power than by His, and
with no other weapons than those which He puts into our hands, in His Cross and
meekness, can a world’s evils be overcome, and the victory be won for the right
and the truth. We may have, we shall have, in all enterprises for God and man
that are worth doing, need of patience, just as the army of Israel had to
parade for six weary days round Jericho blowing their useless trumpets, whilst
the impregnable walls stood firm, and the defenders flouted and jeered their
aimless procession. But the seventh day will come, and at the trumpet blast
down will go the loftiest ramparts of the cities that are walled up to heaven,
with a rush and a crash, and through the dust and over the ruined rubbish
Christ’s soldiers will march and take possession. Do not make Joshua’s mistake.
“Art thou for us?” Nay! “Thou art for Me.” That is a very different thing.
There is a great deal that calls itself, after Jehu’s fashion, “my zeal for the
Lord,” which is nothing better than zeal for my own notions and their
preponderance. Therefore we must strip ourselves of all that, and not fancy
that the cause is ours, and then graciously admit Christ to help us, but
recognise that it is His, and lowly submit ourselves to His direction, and what
we do, do, and when we fight, fight, in His name, and for His sake.
III. The ally in all
our warfare with ourselves. That is the worst fight. Far worse than all
external foes are the foes that each man carries about in his own heart. In
that slow hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot struggle I do not believe that there is
any conquering power available for a man that can for a moment be compared with
the power that comes through submission to Christ’s command and acceptance of
Christ’s help. He has fought every foot of the ground before us.
IV. The power which
it is madness to resist. Think of this vision. Think of the deep truths,
partially shadowed and symbolised by it. Think of Christ, what He is, and what
resources He has at His back, of what are His claims for our service, and
loyal, militant obedience. Think of the certain victory of all who follow Him
amongst the armies of heaven, clad in fine linen, clean and white. Think of the
crown and the throne for him that overcomes. Remember the destructive powers
that sleep in Him; the drawn sword in His hand; the two-edged sword out of His
mouth; the wrath of the Lamb. Think of the ultimate certain defeat of all
antagonisms; of that last campaign when He goes forth with the name written on
His vesture and on His thigh, “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Think of how
He strikes through kings in the day of His wrath, and fills the place with the
bodies of the dead; and how His enemies become His footstool. Ponder His own
solemn Word, “He that is not with Me is against Me.” There is no neutrality in
this warfare. Either we are for Him or we are for His adversary. (A.
Maclaren, D. D.)
A strengthening vision
(a Sermon to Soldiers):--The vision described in the text was
God’s way of teaching Joshua. It revealed to him the important truth, it showed
him that the secret source of all splendid achievements was in the strength
that comes from the realised union between God and man. When and where did this
vision come to Joshua? It was on the eve of an expected battle. At any moment
the first blood might be shed. Uncertainty was in every heart. Men recounted to
each other as they
walked silently about the camp the wonderful doings of Jehovah, their God.
These Israelitish soldiers gathered hope from the past for the future, and so
stood erect for expected duty. But it was a moment of supreme anxiety, for an
untried matter lay before them. It was a moment of supreme anxiety, and
heart-sickening suspense to every soldier who stood before that first
stronghold they had to attack. What must it be to Joshua the
commander-in-chief? Earnest thoughts about his duty, about his responsibility,
would surely rise up within him at such a moment, and his heart must well-nigh
faint at the difficulties and the dangers. Did ever soldier meet greater
encouragement? At that moment, then, when Joshua for the first time was face to
face with the difficulties and the dangers of that unexpected campaign, at this
place with the grim fortifications frowning round him, this vision of the text
appeared. It was an answer to that which was going on within him. It was a
striking vision; the appearance of a soldier ready for battle to a soldier. But
what did this man with the drawn sword in his hand mean? Joshua knew a conflict
was certain, that there was a long and severe campaign before him, but what was
it, victory or defeat? What about the issue? The vision leaves Joshua still in
uncertainty and doubt, and so with a soldier-like promptness and courage he
goes up to the man, and the thought that is in his heart appears at the very
abruptness of the question: “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” That was
what Joshua wanted to know. But no direct answer was given; instead came the
majestic words: “Nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” I am thy
fellow-soldier, but I belong to another army. I was with Moses as a guiding
angel; I will be with thee as a soldier, the commander, the orderer of the
battle. Thou needst not fear; to thy army there is a reserve of which thou
knowest nothing. The Lord of hosts is with thee, the God of Abraham, of Isaac,
and of Jacob is on thy side. He arranges all this battlefield: thou needst not
fear; thou art safe under His protection. So God spoke to Joshua, and the watchful soldier
understood the message that was given to him, he recognised the reviving vision
and bowed before the Divine presence. Faith in God is a great inducement to a
good heroic life; the enthusiasm of faith is strength: “All things are possible
to him that believeth.” But what does this vision of the man with the drawn
sword in his band reveal to us? Surely, first of all we are able to recognise
this truth, that a soldier’s life ought to be, must be, may be, looked upon as
a vocation from God. The essence of an ideal soldier’s life is self-sacrifice.
To do your work because you must, to do it as slavery, to do as little of it as
possible, to get away from it as soon as you can, and then to find your
amusement or your pleasure in some wild form of self-indulgence, that is
unsoldierlike and wrong. The Cross of Christ is the true symbol of a soldier’s
life. Self-sacrifice should mark it; duty to God and duty to man is that which
lies hidden in its uniform. And again, surely the vision teaches us this, that
in like emergencies English soldiers and English commanders may expect the same
Divine revelation, a man with a drawn sword in his hand to appear to them. “I
never knew,” said a cultured Christian officer to me, “I never knew the delight
of God’s presence, I never realised it so thoroughly, as when in the darkness
of the night we were crossing the deserts of Egypt to the unknown dangers of
Tel-el-Kebir.” And surely in these days of newness, when not only is a new
England rising up about us, but a new army with new weapons, and with new modes
of warfare and unexplored campaigns in the distance, it behoves us to believe
that whenever war comes, if it be undertaken for the good of men and the glory
of God, this vision of the man with the drawn sword in his hand will lead our
army and inspire our officers and soldiers to noble deeds. This vision came to
Joshua, but Joshua had a prepared heart. A man can only see that which he is
prepared to see. Such a vision would not come to unprepared souls. Joshua had
learned the lessons of fighting successful battles long ago. Years before this
the first battle that Israel had ever fought, that at Rephidim, had been gained
when Joshua was the leader, the chosen selected leader. An able, young, and
capable leader he was then, and the army was made up of picked men. He was
brave and enduring, and everything seemed to be on the side of the Israelites,
but yet the final force was not with the fighting men, but up on the
mountain-side. The final force was in the uplifting of hoary men’s hands to
God. Moses and Aaron and Hur, old men, stood on the mountain side and
supplicated God while the young men fought. How goes the battle, do you want to
know? You must watch the hands of Moses. When the hands of Moses are uplifted
the children of Israel march grandly on, and when they drop down in their
weakness the Amalakites spring forward, and neither good generalship nor hard
fighting can keep them back. The secret of all true power is with God. We, men,
cannot wipe off evil in our own strength or might, but God will drive it out.
Not by a miracle, but He will work through willing men, and do His work
thoroughly and well. We know there are difficulties and dangers in a soldier’s
life, but amid the difficulties and dangers we see deliverance; amid sin we see
salvation; with the Cross of Christ before us we will never despair of men. We
will never despair, for the Word tells us that Christ came into the world, not
to condemn it, but to save it. Then, again, there are surely special times in a
soldier’s life when he needs special encouragement. There is war with its many
horrors, mangled forms, vast heaps of dying and wounded; and at such a moment,
in such a crisis, the memory of the Church at home, the hymns sung, the prayers
offered, the teaching received, comes back and lightens up the darkest hour of
a soldier’s life. It tells him of hope in unexplored dangers, and in the last
great danger of all, death. I have listened with tearful eyes from all sorts of
men’s lips of such strength being given them in hours of danger from hymns they
have sung. Some thought comes, some stray thought, as it seems, which the Holy
Spirit brings into their minds, that in the garrison towns of England prayers
are being offered up for them. This thought comes in and gives the man a new
gleam of hope, new thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven. There is a touching
incident in one of the books which Mrs. Ewing wrote about soldiers. She could
enter into their tenderest feelings better than most people. She knew, too, by
constant experience with soldiers, what religious associations could do for
them, and what a power the Church of Christ, with its hymns, prayers,
sacraments, and ministrations, could be to them. Jackanapes lay dying on the
battlefield. He had given his life for another, as many a soldier has done.
There stood by him his old major. Jackanapes said, “Say a prayer for me, a
Church prayer. A Church prayer on parade service, you know.” But the old major
was not used to prayer and praise, and he could only say, “Jaconite, God
forgive me, I am afraid I am very different to what some of you young fellows
are.” And there was a moment of silence, deep silence and terrible pain, and
then the old major said with that charming simplicity which we so often find,
“I can only repeat the little one at the end.” Impressed with the conviction
that what he could do, it was his duty to do, the old major knelt down and
unbated his head and said by the dying boy reverently, loudly, and clearly,
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God”--and then Jackanapes
died, and how could he die better! God’s love came before him at the last
supreme moment. Oh, there is many a word heard in the church, heard again and
again, falling upon unheeding ears, but which God hears, and which comes up
again at God’s appointed time. When an English soldier like Joshua has to face
unexplored dangers, such words as the soldier hears in the church speaking of
the love of God are so valuable. When the soul needs them most, when the man is
about to fall into the hands of God, whose character he longs to know, then to
recall thoughts of the love of God, it is to such gracious memories as we trust
the services in the church will have that he looks. (J. C. Edgehill, D. D.)
Jesus our Captain
I. Our leader
inspires confidence. He has never been defeated. In one of the Napoleonic
battles on the Peninsula a corps of British troops were sorely pressed and
began to waver. Just then the Duke of Wellington rode in among them. A veteran
soldier cried out, “Here comes the Duke, God bless him! the sight of him is
worth a whole brigade.” So to the equipped warrior, under the ensign of the
Cross, a sight of Jesus, our Leader, is a new inspiration.
II. Jesus is able
to assure the victory to every redeemed soul who is loyal to him. What a
bugle-blast that is which sounded from the lips of the heroic apostle (Romans 8:37). To be a conqueror is to
vanquish our enemies. But to “more than conquer” is to reap a positive,
spiritual good from the battle itself. If life had no encounters we would
acquire no spiritual sinews.
III. Each one of us
has a personal conflict to wage. No other human being can fight it for us. Some
have to contend with a powerful passion, some with a besetting sin, some with a
temptation from without; others with infernal doubts and abominable suggestions
by the adversary.
IV. Jesus met and
overcame the devil. He is able to “destroy his works.”
1. Jesus gives us the only armour which can protect us, and with it
He gives the strength to wield the weapons.
2. Jesus makes intercession for us when the battle waxes hot.
3. These conflicts bring us into closer, sweeter sympathy with
Jesus.
4. He flies to the relief of every redeemed follower who is ready to
perish. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)
Christ the Captain of salvation
I. It is important
to contemplate the Lord Jesus Christ in the source of his authority.
1. The authority of the Saviour is founded upon His essential
Divinity.
2. While the authority of the Saviour, as the Captain of all the
hosts of the Lord, is founded upon His essential Divinity, it is also to be
taken as founded upon His mediatorial office. The special charge which He had
of the hosts of the Lord, or the tribes of Israel, in another form of
manifestation, must be regarded evidently and distinctly as the symbol of that
covenant relationship which He holds, throughout all ages of time, to those who
constitute the spiritual Israel and God’s covenant people, out of every nation,
tribe, and tongue.
II. The glory of
his objects.
1. These objects are glorious on account of their intrinsic
importance. The literal object had in view by the Saviour, in the manifestation
of Himself to Joshua, was one of much magnitude--the leading of the tribes Of
Israel to conquest and to the promised land, so that the promise might be
fulfilled to these people, upon which they had been looking now for a long succession
of ages. But the Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed as the great Leader of
“the sacramental hosts of God’s elect”; and it should be observed that this
possesses an importance far beyond what, by any human being, hath been
conceived, and demands all that can be rendered of the adoration and praise of
the universe.
2. These objects are glorious by their extended influence. We are
all aware of the influence of extent, either in increasing the evil of what is
pernicious or in increasing the value of what is beneficial. According to the
number of persons affected by a curse, we assign the magnitude of that curse;
and according to the number of persons affected by a blessing, we assign the
magnitude of that blessing. Let this principle be applied to the theme on which
we now are meditating, and new honour will be found to be given to those
objects which are proposed by the great Captain and Leader of the hosts of the
Lord.
III. The certainty
of his triumph.
1. The grounds of this.
2. We must also recollect that the certainty of this triumph must
also be connected with the exercise of certain influences over those minds who
are interested in it. And if the triumph we anticipate in connection with our
own salvation be secure, one influence to be inspired is that of--
The Captain of the Lord’s host
I. That before
undertaking any difficult enterprise, indeed in all our trials and distresses,
in all our ways, we should direct our thoughts to heaven. Joshua “lifted up his
eyes” to heaven, from whence he knew that his help would in due time come. So
should our eyes not be lowered to the “earthly, sensual, devilish,” but be
lifted up to the noble, holy, pure.
II. That the help
of God is not merely to be passively received, but is to be actively sought
for. Joshua not only lifted up his eyes: he also “looked.” God helps those that
help themselves. Men should all be, not merely idle waiters on God’s bounty,
but really “workers together with Him.”
III. That Christ is
ever ready to help those that look to him for succour. The Captain of the
Lord’s host “stood over against Joshua with His sword drawn in His
hand”--typical of Christ, prepared to afford His omnipotent aid to all who are
fighting manfully under His banner, and striving by His grace to continue
faithful.
IV. That when faith
has made known to us heavenly truths, reason must disclose to us the exact bearing of those
truths. “Art thou for us or for our adversaries?” Bringest thou with thee airs
from heaven or blasts from hell? Be thy intents wicked or charitable? Many a
noble human soul, like stately galley, has been lured to destruction by
“phantom ships” in “the spirit land.”
V. That in the
light of eternity
earthly conflicts are paltry and unimportant. Sectarianism must cease when
Christianity reigns.
VI. That honour
should be given where honour is due. Joshua “fell on his knees,” &c.
VII. That obedience
is not the least of the christian virtues. When commanded by the Captain of the
Lord’s host to “loose his shoes,” &c., he at once “did so.” Obedience is a
sign, not of servitude, but of intelligence. (R. Young, M. A.)
The true campaign
I. That in the
true campaign God has committed to man a great work.
1. An onerous work. We live in a world of evil. Corrupt principles,
the mighty “powers of darkness,” possess the world. They crowd our sphere of
action; and, alas! they are encamped within us. The work to which we are called
is their entire extermination, both from within and without.
2. A righteous work. The man who consecrates his energies to the
downfall of evil, whose life is one earnest struggle against the principalities
and powers of darkness, is acting evermore in accordance with the eternal law
of rectitude. He is “fighting the good fight of faith,” and if he is faithful
he shall receive “a Crown of glory that fadeth not away.”
3. An indispensable work. Never will you possess the Canaan of
spiritual harmony, moral approbation, self-control, uplifting thoughts,
heavenly affections, ever-brightening hopes, and free and blessed intercourse
with the Infinite Father of spirits, without the expulsion of all evil from
your soul.
II. That in the
true campaign god blesses man with a great leader. “The Captain of the Lord’s
host”--Jesus Christ, “the Captain of our salvation.”
1. As a moral commander He is ever present when needed.
2. As a moral commander He is always ready.
3. As a moral commander He is all-sufficient.
III. That in the
true campaign God requires a great spirit. Joshua here displays--
1. A spirit of indomitable valour.
2. A spirit of reverent inquiry.
3. A spirit of solemn obedience. (Homilist.)
The Captain of the Lord’s host
Joshua’s question, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” was
a perfectly natural one for him to ask, at the sight of an armed man in an
enemy’s country; we can scarcely say he did wrong to ask it; but it seems as
though the Lord met the question with something like a rebuke. “He said, Nay.”
It seemed to Joshua that there were two sides, his own and the enemy’s, between
which the battle was to be fought out: he had to learn that it was not for him
nor for Israel to gain the victory, but for the Lord their God. To teach him
and all Israel this more plainly, the Lord gave him special commands as to the
way the first victory was to be gained, in the taking of Jericho; this was to
be done, entirely and plainly, by God and not by man; and for all the war that
followed, though more was to depend upon human prudence and courage, they were
still to know that they were fighting, not for themselves, but for their Lord;
that they were not at liberty to act as they pleased, but were to act in entire
obedience to Him. Is not this a lesson which we require to learn in the war we
have to fight against the power of sin within and about us? The recognition of
this would do something to calm and soothe the bitterness of men’s minds about
the questions of party that are so fiercely and frequently argued in our days.
And as in public and party questions, so the same fault of selfwill comes into
men’s efforts after goodness in other matters also. Most people sometimes feel
it would be easier for them to be good if they were in a different state of
life from what they are, if they lived in a different society or neighbourhood,
if their family circumstances were different; if they had different business or
employment in life, and the like; and they often set down their own faults, as
far as they are aware of them, to the blame of their neighbours or of the
circumstances that they think are the great hindrances to their curing them.
This is nothing but claiming to ourselves the right to command the Lord’s host,
instead of fighting in it as simple soldiers, whose duty only is to obey
orders. Are we to expect the Lord to be “for us,” not only so that He means and
wishes us to get the victory, but so that He shall take every means that we
choose to secure it, shall serve under our command, and make bridges over all
the steep valleys and roads through all the different passes, and give us the
chance of fighting the enemy just on our own ground, when we choose and where we
choose? There is one source of difficulty in the way of duty of which it is
especially wrong to complain or to want to have it altered so as to suit us,
though it is perhaps the commonest of all--I mean the difficulties we find to
our own right conduct from the conduct of other people. Here, if we ask whether
the Lord is “for us or for our adversaries,” the only possible answer is, “For
both.” He loves both equally. God gave Joshua and the Israelites the victory
over the Canaanites only “by little and little,” for this reason among
others--that He desired to spare the Canaanites themselves as much as possible, and to give
them time to repent if they would. Much more is it wrong and selfish for us to
want any of our fellow-Christians swept out of our way--to think of them as
mere spiritual enemies, or expect God to deal with them as mere temptations to
ourselves, and hindrances to our own goodness. Patience and sub mission to
God’s will are the foundation of all excellence in the Christian character;
just as discipline, and ready and unquestioning obedience are the most
important of all qualities in an army of this world. It is when things are
against you that your mind is tried and trained; you have to make the best of
them, but you are not tempted to “seek great things for yourself”; if you
escape disaster you will be satisfied, and that is hard enough. Now it cannot
be useless for us to remember in our spiritual war, if we find things are
against us, and that the operations in which we are engaged are unsuccessful,
that it was under these conditions that the Captain of the Lord’s host Himself
fought out His great battle on earth. Judging it in a natural way, His life was
a failure, His ministry a failure. He had fought the world for God, and had
lost the battle. But His faith and obedience did not fail--rather it was
perfected by His defeat. He still went on fearlessly until He had finished the
work God gave Him to do: then He said, “It is finished!” and bowed His head and
gave up the ghost. And then He had conquered. Let us, then, not be discouraged
if we find that He gives us work to do that we do not like, or in which we do
not see our way to success. It may be only that He means us so to win glory
like His own--such as is won by the highest faith in Him, the faith that
removes mountains. But whether that be so or not, we have to accept His orders
and obey them. Do your duty patiently, and trust God for its having a good
event. (W. H. Simcox, M. A.)
The vision for the great campaign
See the British fleet lying anchored at Spithead. It is in
commission for an important expedition. Every ship has orders to be ready to
sail at a moment’s notice. Accordingly all are ready. Every officer, every man,
every boy is aboard. The captains are assured that every preparation is
completed; that all stores of every description are laid in; that steam is up,
and that in a moment their ships can be under weigh. Why, then, do they not
hurry seaward? Is not this delay a waste of precious time? No, for the admiral
is not yet on board the flagship. The supreme, responsible, directing mind, on
whose energy and ability the whole nation is depending, is not yet at his post.
See, here he comes. Every ship acknowledges the little craft that bears his
flag; he steps on the quarter-deck of the vessel he commands, the signal for
departure is hoisted; all are off. Such an event as that will give some idea of
the meaning of this part of the sacred narrative. Israel has received orders to
enter on this momentous campaign. All things are ready for a beginning. They
have crossed the river; they have been circumcised; they have kept the feast;
they have partaken of the corn of the land; why, then, this pause? Because they
wait for Him who is their Captain. Here on the plains of Jericho the typical
Saviour and the true Joshua and Jesus, stand face to face. Yea, Joshua’s work
at that time was the work of Jesus; was the work of Jesus so peculiarly and
definitely that Joshua must wait on Him for instructions. He who came the lowly
Lamb comes here the mighty warrior, with a sword of judgment drawn and gleaming
in His awful hand. He who came to save comes to destroy. This vision makes very
emphatic what was clearly revealed before, viz., that this campaign is under
the Divine sanction and direction. Divine skill plans the work. Divine power
carries it forward.
I. Behold our
captain. We have a Leader in this great war. We are not left to fight alone;
herein lies our comfort. “He goeth before.” We go not a warfare at our own
charges. If Joshua was unfit for that conquest of Canaan by himself, how much
more are we unfit for the fight against principalities and powers and spiritual
wickedness in high places. For Joshua, Jesus came, “The Captain of the Lord’s
host.” For us Jesus comes “the Captain of salvation.” And it is a comfort to
think that this Leader of the people is one of the people Himself. In any war,
which is the captain whom the soldiers love to follow? He who shares their lot
most closely--he who, like Skobeleff in the Turkish war, knows all their hardships
and privations. He who sleeps with them in the trenches, eats the same coarse
and scanty rations, and leads them into the thickest of the fight. Now, this
great Captain of whom we speak acts in this very fashion, tie has shared our
lot in every particular, however hard, sin excepted. Also, like the warrior
that appeared to Joshua, our Leader is thoroughly equipped for His work. His
hand is drawn ready to smite. The word of truth is the royal weapon He wields
in this war of grace and salvation; quick, powerful, sharp, effectual. He puts
it in the hands of every faithful follower and bids him use it well. Again,
Jesus is our Leader in virtue of Divine appointment: “The government shall be
upon His shoulders.” “To Him shall the gathering of the people be.” Moreover,
He is Captain in virtue of His own purchase. Jesus has the right to lead God’s
people, because He has died for them. He is made perfect, as the Captain of
salvation, through suffering. Also He is our leader because of His own
resources. These are infinite. Lastly, we would say, He is Leader because of
His qualities. He is an able Leader, thoroughly fit to command God’s army, a
true King of men, always present, always ready. He is faithful to His word;
wise in His plans; glorious in His achievements; ravishing in His perfections.
II. See here also
the faithful follower. We know that Joshua stands prepared to follow this great
Captain, because we remember his past obedience. By doing whatever duty comes
to hand, under the eye of the great Leader, we prepare for higher achievements.
Joshua’s heart is also in his work. He is not slothful and indifferent. He is
not careless and unconcerned. He is not fearful and oppressed, with no stomach
for the fight. Thus the follower of Jesus should be a willing worker, full of
energy and watchfulness, ever on the alert to do whatever in him lies to extend
the Saviour’s kingdom. Joshua is also brave. When this warrior started up
before him, though he was startled he was not unmanned. Without moral courage
there can be no nobility of character, no strength of soul, no effective work.
And this brave man is also humble. He fell on his face before this majestic
Presence. He was deeply conscious of the superiority of his Leader and of his
own nothingness. Therefore his heart is also filled with reverence. He
worshipped before Him. He took the shoes off his feet, for the place was holy.
Men who have done anything great for God, men who have followed the Lord fully,
have been always marked by a spirit of deepest reverence. The gravity, the
solemnity of the work in which they are engaged, the consciousness of the
Divine presence before which they walk, fills them with awe. Joshua was also
docile and obedient. He put the question, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” And
when he got the answer he did as he was commanded. Unquestioning, prompt
obedience is due to Him who commands us with such unerring wisdom, who leads us
with such invincible might. (A. B. Mackay.)
An inspiring vision
Constantine, with his young, enthusiastic heart, was setting out
on his war campaigns, when, they tell us, the appearance of the sky arrested
his attention. As the eyes of the conqueror looked up into the heavens, behold,
there seemed shaped to his vision a cross of fire, and beneath it, in letters of
flame, were inscribed the Latin words, “In hoc signo vinces” (“In this
sign thou wilt conquer”). It may have been a dream--it very likely was; but oh,
there is truth in it! If you can see the Cross, you have got the vision that
ennobles and enlivens, and brings conquering power to you in this life. “Where
there is no vision, the people perish”; but when there is a vision--the vision
of Calvary, the vision of the Lord Jesus--there is life, there is joy, there is
peace, there is blessing. (J. Robertson.)
Joshua’s vision
There are moments when we see without seeking, what at other times
does not appear to us, and will not appear. An inward eye that had been closed
seems to open, and we stand suddenly in the presence of hitherto invisible
things. Midnight, solitude, sorrow, a felt crisis in our lives, what revealings
they have brought with them; and it was as though a veil had been rent in
twain, as though a flash of lightning had illumined the darkness. We all have
our occasional transient visions of something higher, grander, or more solemn
than we are ordinarily sensible of. Joshua has now to begin afresh, in fresh
scenes; another period of toil and endurance is opening before him. So we stand
to-day upon the threshold of another year, waiting, after we have finished, to
commence again. And, as he waited, gravely meditative, with earnest thoughts
stirring in him concerning his duties and responsibilities, there came upon him
the vision of the
text; for, unless he had been meditative and earnest, he would not have beheld
what he beheld, we may be sure. It was the shining answer to what was taking
place within him. One sees only that which one is tuned and prepared to see;
and, to catch inspiring glimpses, one must be aspiring. All things must be met
by us half-way. For none but those whose hearts are kindling, does the bush
burn with fire. May ours be the inner temper of mind to-day, to which angels of
God shall be able to show themselves. But notice first the agitation of
uncertainty in the breast of the son of Nun. “Art thou for us, or for our
adversaries?” wondering anxiously what the apparition meant. You see, this was
the form in which the future in the strange country appeared--a mighty man with
a drawn sword in his hand. Yes, of course the future would be filled with the
clash of war. Nothing but conflict could be expected; conflict perhaps, severe
and prolonged; but what of the issue? with whom would the victory lie? with
Israel or the enemy? Ah, if he could but tell. Mystic form of the Future, wilt
thou reveal it to me? And it is with like uncertainty that we front now the new
year. We have most of us lived long enough--we most of us know enough of life
to discern, as we lift our eyes, a man with a drawn sword in his hand. That
there will be more or less of disagreeable and trying encounter, is sure. We
shall have difficulties to grapple with, in the sweat of our face. Temptations
will assail us; vexations and annoyances will have to be borne. But will it be,
upon the whole, one of our happy and prosperous years? Shall we get through it,
however threatened or assaulted, untitled and unharmed, without being sore
wounded or overthrown in the way. The character of past years has varied. Some,
notwithstanding many little rufflings and unpleasantnesses experienced in them,
we have looked back upon with satisfaction and thankfulness, and have called
them good years. Ah, we did well in them. They were marked by much sunshine.
Our enterprises prospered; our friendships yielded only sweetness. Other years,
perhaps, we were glad to have done with. They are remembered as black years, in
which the sun shone only at rare intervals, and for a brief space, between
ever-returning clouds. The years have varied with us. In some, if we have had
to fight, we have conquered. In others, the tide of battle has rolled against
us, leaving us broken and mauled. “New year coming on apace, what hast thou to
give me? Comest thou promising peace and brightness, or big with thunder and
gloom?” We ask in vain, as Joshua did when he cried, “Art thou for us, or for
our adversaries?” For observe, that question of his was not replied to. “Nay,”
said the armed angel, “I am no token, no prophecy of that, one way or the
other.” But what does he say to the wistfully inquiring man? “As the captain of
the host of the Lord I am now come.” Here, then, was what Joshua saw,
presently, in looking forward to the future. Not what was going to happen--not
the victory or the defeat to which he was destined in marching against the
Canaanites; but, that it would not be himself alone at the head of the Hebrew
army; that One would be there, superintending and disposing, ordering and
commanding, whom the people beheld not, even the very same angel of Jehovah’s
presence. He saw himself divinely overlooked and attended; planning,
manoeuvring, fighting to the best of his ability, as the chosen general, under
the constant eye and control of an unseen Generalissimo, who had His purposes,
whose purposes were good and right, and would be always fulfilling themselves
in and through all. It was thus that the Future answered his appeal, “What hast
thou hidden for us in thy thick darkness?” It answered, “God is here--caring,
managing, ruling to the end; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.” An
inspiring vision, to have been borne in upon him as he stood alone in the
plain, with the grim fortifications of Jericho frowning down on him, and
thought of the work to be done, with its difficulties and dangers.
Better, surely, than any glimpse or foreshadowing of coming events would have
been. And if we be able to receive it, what can be more inspiring for us in our
entrance upon the unknown laud of a new year than the vision, not merely of an
existence in the universe over and above all phenomena, and producing and
sustaining them; but of a living Being, transcendent in wisdom and goodness,
whose purpose is our education and the education of the world, and who is
working evermore, in whatever happens, in whatever chances and changes may
befall, to forward it; of One who is not only with us in our doings and
sufferings, our aspirations and struggles, our mistakes and stumblings, but in
them with continuous tuitional intent; under whom we are pursuing our ends, by
whom, in all paths, we are led, in whose kingdom we are from morn to eve, let
it be with us as it may. Many earnest souls around us are starting afresh
to-day, as they have come through the year that is gone, with no such vision.
Joshua’s angel does not manifest itself to them. Lifting their eyes, they
behold nothing but the walls of Jericho and the encampment of Israel, and over
all, an empty sky. Nor are they the less ready for the battle, or the less
patient and strong, hopeful and brave, in essaying to conquer. And we may be
sure too, that guidance and help from above, is theirs; for the presence and
energy of the Captain of the Lord’s host does not depend upon men’s seeing Him.
He is not absent or inoperative because they are unable to discern Him.
Nevertheless, happy are they to whom He is visible. Let us be thankful then, if
to-day, as we are girding our loins anew for the work of life, and for whatever
life may bring--let us be thankful if we can behold with Joshua the angel of
Jehovah’s presence, and, in setting out, pause a little to entertain and foster
the strengthening vision. “But what saith my Lord to His servant?” cried the
son of Nun when he felt the august Presence about him, and bowed himself to the
ground before it. “What saith my Lord to His servant? Ah! now that I have Thee
here; now that Thou art revealed to me in the way, speak to me; tell me
something. Surely, I shall hear some great thing from Thy lips--surely, some
great secret will be whispered to me. With the Invisible Power thus consciously
nigh me, I may expect wondrous words, important disclosures.” We can understand
and sympathise with the expectation, can we not? What might not God Almighty
tell, we are apt to think, if He were once found speaking. So thought Joshua,
waiting in awed anticipation with his face to the earth. And from the mystic
Presence overshadowing him, what syllables fell? What was it that he heard to
whom it grew vocal? “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon
thou standest is holy.” Was that all? That was all. No declaring of things that
had been kept hidden, no weighty revealings. Only a plain and familiar
admonition, to cherish and preserve within him a right temper of mind, a right
spirit--to see to it that he walked reverently, and cultivated purity, as one
who dwelt in a temple. That was all the heavens told him, when they leaned
toward him with a word. “Take heed to yourself, to your character and conduct;
be dutiful, be loyal to the vision that is yours. Recognise and answer the
claim on you to be holy.” And should we be disappointed, were the silent sky,
in sending on a sound, to drop upon our ear no more than such an admonition as
Joshua heard? What, however, do we need so much, for all present and future
benediction, as to be taught a truer, finer ordering of ourselves? and what
better, richer, more brightly fruitful new year’s gift could we have from above
than a deepened sense of duty and a fresh impulse toward reverent and noble
living? Yes, oh yes, “Blessed are the lowly in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are the pure in heart; they shall see God.” (S. A. Tipple.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》