| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Joshua Chapter
Fourteen
Joshua 14
Chapter Contents
The nine tribes and a half to have their inheritance.
(1-5) Caleb obtains Hebron. (6-15)
Commentary on Joshua 14:1-5
(Read Joshua 14:1-5)
The Israelites must occupy the new conquests. Canaan
would have been subdued in vain, if it had not been inhabited. Yet every man
might not go and settle where he pleased. God shall choose our inheritance for
us. Let us survey our heritage of present mercy, our prospect for the land of
promise, eternal in the heavens. Is God any respecter of persons? Is it not better
that our place, as to earthly good or sorrow, should be determined by the
infinite wisdom of our heavenly Father, than by our own ignorance? Should not
those for whom the great mystery of godliness was exhibited, those whose
redemption was purchased by Jesus Christ, thankfully refer their earthly
concerns to his appointment?
Commentary on Joshua 14:6-15
(Read Joshua 14:6-15)
Caleb's request is, "Give me this mountain," or
Hebron, because it was formerly in God's promise to him, and he would let
Israel knows how much he valued the promise. Those who live by faith value that
which is given by God's promise, far above what is given by his providence
only. It was now in the Anakims' possession, and Caleb would let Israel know
how little he feared the enemy, and that he would encourage them to push on
their conquests. Caleb answered to his name, which signifies "all
heart." Hebron was settled on Caleb and his heirs, because he wholly followed
the Lord God of Israel. Happy are we if we follow him. Singular piety shall be
crowned with singular favour.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Joshua》
Joshua 14
Verse 1
[1] And
these are the countries which the children of Israel inherited in the land of
Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of
the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for
inheritance to them.
Eleazar the priest — He
best understood the laws of God by which this division was to be regulated.
Heads of the fathers — Twelve persons, each the head of his tribe, who were appointed and named
by God, Numbers 34:19, and if any of them were now dead,
no doubt Joshua and Eleazar, by God's direction, put others in their stead.
Verse 2
[2] By lot was their inheritance, as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses,
for the nine tribes, and for the half tribe.
By lot —
This course God ordained, partly to prevent discontents, enmities and quarrels
among the tribes, and partly to demonstrate the truth and wisdom of his
providence, by which alone those parts fell to each of them, which Jacob long
since, and Moses lately, foretold; so that as a learned man saith, he must be
more stupid than stupidity, that doth not acknowledge a Divine hand in this
matter. The lot did only determine the several parts to the several tribes, but
did not precisely fix all the bounds of it; these might be either enlarged or
diminished according to the greater or smaller number of the tribes.
Verse 4
[4] For
the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: therefore they
gave no part unto the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with their
suburbs for their cattle and for their substance.
Were two tribes —
That is, had the portion of two tribes, and therefore though Levi was excluded,
there remained nine tribes and a half, to be provided for in Canaan.
Verse 5
[5] As
the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the
land.
They —
That is, the persons named, verse 5, who acted in the name of the children of
Israel, divided it, either now, or presently after.
Verse 6
[6] Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son
of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD
said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadeshbarnea.
Then —
When Joshua and the rest were consulting about the division of the land, though
they did not yet actually divide it. The heads of that tribe who were willing
thus to shew respect to him; and to testify their consent, that he should be
provided for by himself, and that they would not take it as any reflection on
the rest of the tribe.
In Gilgal —
Where the division of the land was designed and begun, though it was executed
and finished at Shiloh.
The Kenezite — Of
the posterity of Kenaz.
The Lord said — In
general, the promise he made us of possessing this land; and for my part, that
which is expressed here, verse 9.
Verse 7
[7]
Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from
Kadeshbarnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in
mine heart.
As it was in mine heart — I spake my opinion sincerely, without flattery and fear, when the other
spies were biased by their own fears, and the dread of the people, to speak
otherwise than in their consciences they believed.
Verse 8
[8]
Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people
melt: but I wholly followed the LORD my God.
I wholly followed the Lord — Which self-commendation is justifiable, because it was necessary, as
being the ground of his petition. Therefore it was not vain glory in him to
speak it: no more than it is for those, who have God's spirit witnessing with
their spirits, that they are the children of God, humbly and thankfully to tell
others, for their encouragement, what God hath done for their souls.
Verse 10
[10] And
now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five
years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of
Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and
five years old.
Forty-five years —
Whereof thirty - eight years were spent in the wilderness, and seven since they
came into Canaan. The longer we live the more sensible we should be, of God's
goodness to us in keeping us alive! Of his care in prolonging our frail lives,
his patience in prolonging our forfeited lives! And shall not the life thus
kept by his providence, be devoted to his praise?
Verse 11
[11] As
yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my
strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to
come in.
For war — Not
only for counsel, but for action; for marching and fighting. And therefore this
gift will not be cast away upon an unprofitable and unserviceable person.
To go out, and to come in — To perform all the duties belonging to my place. Moses had said, that at
eighty years old, even our strength is labour and sorrow. But Caleb was an
exception to this rule: At eighty-five years old, his strength was still ease
and joy. This he got by following the Lord fully.
Verse 12
[12] Now
therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou
heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great
and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive
them out, as the LORD said.
This mountain —
That is, this mountainous country. He names the country rather than the cities,
because the cities were given to the Levites, chap. 21:11,13.
Thou heardest —
Didst understand, both by the reports of others, and by thy own observation.
Hearing, the sense by which we get knowledge, is often put for knowing or
understanding.
If the Lord will be with me — A modest and pious expression, signifying both the absolute necessity of
God's help, and his godly fear, lest God for his sins should deny his
assistance to him; for although he was well assured in general, that God would
crown his people with success in this war, yet he might doubt of his particular
success in this or that enterprize.
To drive them out —
Out of their fastnesses where they yet remain, Caleb desires this difficult
work as a testimony of his own faith, and as a motive to quicken his brethren
to the like attempts.
Verse 13
[13] And
Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an
inheritance.
Blessed him —
Prayed to God to bless and help him according to his own desire.
Verse 15
[15] And
the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba was a great man among the
Anakims. And the land had rest from war.
A great man — In
stature, and strength, and dignity, and authority, as being the progenitor of
Anak, the father of those famous giants called Anakims.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Joshua》
14 Chapter 14
Verses 1-5
By lot was their inheritance.
The tribes apportioned
As the whole inheritance was the gift of God, so each one’s
share was assigned to him by His appointment. Not even Joshua himself in a
display of the greatest wisdom and impartiality could have yielded satisfaction
in a matter where so many, and all of one family, were concerned. Only the
authority of the Father, who had entailed upon them as His redeemed children
this common patrimony, could decide the portion of each tribe and of each
family. This may yield great satisfaction to the heirs of promise, who are
looking for a share in the heavenly inheritance. There, whatever degree of
station, difference of capacity, or diversity of possession may exist, no one
but will find his inheritance all he could desire and enjoy, and for ever
beyond the possibility of becoming a cause of dissatisfaction to himself or of
envy to others. To animate the hopes of the believer, and quicken his desires
after it, an outline is presented in the descriptions of heavenly promise. Oh,
for a realising faith, that elevation and meekness which characterise the
high-born sons of God, and which by present hopes wean the heart from earthly
bliss and sublimate its affections to highest joys. The portion of inheritance
that fell to the members of this great family was, agreeably to previous
instructions in the wilderness, determined by lot; and was to be viewed not as
the result of
chance, but as the wise and gracious appointment of their heavenly Father. No
one but had reason to be satisfied with his portion, and to consider it
assigned him with the indisputable exactness of last will and testament. What a
sweet thought to the true spiritual Church of God, the heirs of grace and glory,
both with respect to their present condition and their future inheritance! He
who did not overlook one tribe or family in the earthly Canaan, but provided
for them as few or many, now, though the lot is differently determined, as
minutely fixes the bounds of His people’s habitations, and manages all their
affairs. Nor less exact will appear the eternal consummation of His goodness,
in the final results of providence, and completion of His covenant purpose. (W.
Seaton.)
Verses 6-15
Caleb . . . said . . . the Lord hath kept me alive, as He
said.
Caleb’s reflection on the goodness and faithfulness of God to him
I. It is God that
keepeth us alive. The Scriptures often remind us of this, and urge it as a
motive to religious fear, gratitude, and obedience. They teach us “that in Him
we live and move and have our being: that in Him is the breath of every living
thing and the spirit of all mankind”; that He gave it at first and that He
taketh it away. More particularly, God preserveth us from many accidents that
would be fatal to us. “He giveth His angels charge over us, to keep us in all
our ways.”
II. The aged have peculiar reason
to make this acknowledgment. When any arrive at old age, it is proper to do
this, with peculiar seriousness and gratitude; considering that, like Caleb, they have
been wandering all their days in a wilderness. Dangers surround us on every
side. The aged cannot but often reflect upon this; what numbers they have
survived! Their own infirmities render the acknowledgment of God’s preservation
of them almost natural and peculiarly proper.
III. It is a great satisfaction to aged
christians to reflect on their obedience to God, and the accomplishment of his
promises to them. They recollect with gratitude and delight, that grace, which
began, maintained and improved the Divine life in their souls, amidst
innumerable temptations, from without and within; and though they have fallen
into trouble, they have been prevented from making shipwreck of faith and a
good conscience. It is pleasant to them to trace up all these streams to the
fountain; to consider them as the displays of rich and free grace; as the
accomplishment of the promises of God, and proofs of His fidelity. Their
mercies were sweet in the enjoyment, and are sweet in the reflection, when they
consider them as founded on the covenant of grace, made with all true believers
through Christ Jesus.
IV. The experience
which aged saints have had of God’s goodness and faithfulness is a strong
encouragement to them to hope and trust in him. Application:
1. Let us all re, member our constant dependence upon God, and learn
those useful instructions which that is adapted to teach us.
2. What hath been said should be an inducement to young persons to
follow the Lord fully. Instead of “possessing the iniquities of your youth,”
you will have unspeakable pleasure in being able to appeal to God, with
Hezekiah, “that you have walked before Him in truth, and with an upright heart,
and have done that which was good in His sight.”
3. The example of Caleb is worthy the imitation of aged Christians.
When, like Caleb, you are mentioning your age, your contemporaries, or what
happened in the former part of your lives, let it be done with seriousness,
with an humble and thankful acknowledgment of God. Further, let the remainder
of your lives be faithfully devoted to God’s service. One important branch of
this is humbly to relate your own experience for the instruction and consolation
of others. (J. Orton.)
Caleb’s confession
We meet with old men who are continually asking us, with a slight
twinkle in their eye, “How old do you think I am?” and the answer, of course,
is meant to bring out that you never would dream that they were such veterans
in years, they are so fresh, and sprightly, and springy. That is an evil thing,
and would have been evil in Caleb but for this saving clause, “Behold, the Lord
hath kept me alive.” That is the saving clause, my green and vigorous aged friend,
with whom all things have prospered. See to it that boastfulness be not found
in your heart. Let not that “dead fly” spoil your ointment, Do not give to
yourself the credit and glory of your strength and prowess of body, and brain,
and mind. Give all the glory where all is due. “The Lord hath kept me alive.” I
want you to notice this also about Caleb. He says, “I have wholly followed the
Lord my God”; and in the Hebrew that is quite a striking word--more striking
than in the English. It is a pictorial word in the Hebrew, and describes a ship
going out at full sail. Why, that is the very keynote of Caleb from beginning
to end. He was the man he was, from the beginning to the end, because he was
out and out--because there were no limitations and provisions with him. He was
not a man who, as Paul would say, “made provision for the flesh for the lust
thereof”; but having been called by God to His service, he made it his meat and
his drink. He “went in” for God and His cause, like a ship in full sail. He
flung every power of body, and soul, and spirit like a free sheet to the winds
of God’s grace, and God’s Spirit, and God’s Providence. He “let go.” Young
fellow, it is the ruin of you that you are holding back. You will never be a
Caleb; you will never be a Joshua; you will never be a David--never, never--at
this rate of it; hanging back and saving your life, and therefore losing it;
taking so much of the programme because it fits you, and scoring out certain
other items that you do not like. Go in for a full programme, if you would
enjoy Christian life. (John McNeill.)
Joshua’s grateful retrospect
A great Alpine climber was asked about the ascent of a high
mountain, and said, “I was very weary before I got to the top, and found the
best plan was just to follow the guide in front of me. At the summit I turned
round, and when I saw the grand view, and the dangers through which the guide
had brought me, I felt I could have fallen down on my knees to thank him for
having led me to such a wonderful place.” (Our Own Magazine.)
I am as strong this day as
I was.
Caleb--youth in old age
I. A life built on
God’s promise. Five times in his short speech does he refer to the word which
“the Lord spake.” The word of promise to Caleb dealt with two things--his
prolonged life and his possession of the land “whereinto he went” (Numbers 14:24). For five and forty years
he had kept this word “hid in his heart,” and now he puts out a hand,
unweakened by age and long-delayed fulfilment, to grasp the realisation--a
grand example of steady, persistent faith, which waits for the vision, though
it tarry, and buoyantly welcomes it when it comes at last! A life thus filled
with trust in God’s faithful word has ever present instalments of
accomplishment, as brooks by the way, to keep its hope fresh. The prolongation
of Caleb’s life was the pledge to him of the fulfilment of the remoter promise.
Such a life is consciously surrounded with Divine operations, too plain to be ignored,
and when looked at in retrospect, presents one solid and homogeneous mass of
preserving providences, which are all summed up in saying, “Behold, the Lord
hath kept me alive, as He spake . . . while Israel walked in the wilderness.”
Such a life has hope burning as
a guiding star to the very end. The hopes of age are few and
tremulous, if they be limited to earth. When the feast is near an end, appetite
is dulled, and there is little to do but to get up and go away. But if we set
our hope on God, our hope is immortal. He keeps the good wine till the last.
II. A life which
bears being remembered. We may freely admit that the tone of this retrospect
savours of an earlier stage in the process of revelation than ours, and that,
if this were a complete account given by a man of his life, we should miss in
it the voice of humble penitence, which must always sound through a Christian
autobiography. But still, a life of trust and following Christ, however
imperfectly, does yield calm remembrances, which nothing else does, and for the
lack of which nothing can compensate. If we would lay up for ourselves against
old age the treasure of such calm and humble memories, we must in youth and
manhood choose God for our God, and Lake heed to follow Him, though we may be singular;
and to do it wholly.
“I
backward east mine e’e
On
prospects drear,”
said poor, brilliant Robert Burns, whose youth of riotous pleasure
burnt itself out before he was forty, and had been full of self-reproach and
bitterness long before the end. Many a life which grasps at delight and spurns
the slow-going puritanical ways of God-fearing, sense-coercing Christians,
comes at last to be gnawed by memories sharp and poisonous like a serpent’s
tooth. The only way to secure that at the end we may be able to say, “I have
fought a good fight,” is to become Christ’s soldier. Recruits for His army are
most surely enlisted in youth.
III. A
life-preserving youthful vigour to old age. This “old young man,” as Thomas
Fuller calls him, followed the Lord wholly; therefore he “brought forth fruit
in old age,” and the aged tree was “full of sap and green” in all its gnarled
branches. In a very true sense a man may keep himself young all his days. A
youth and manhood of Christian sobriety and self-restraint, temperate, chaste,
and free from the “sins of youth,” which rot “the bones” and “lie down with”
their victims “in the dust,” is likely to conserve physical vigour, A life of
Christian devotion and faith will keep its spring flowers blowing till late
autumn, and blossom and fruit will hang together. The buoyancy, carelessness,
hopefulness, cheeriness of youth are not far away from the aged heart, which
lives by faith, and therefore dwells at ease, and is glad and secure, though
the shadows of evening be falling.
IV. A life still
eager at last for further enterprise. That is the true temper of the Christian
soldier, seeking the hardest, not the easiest, work, and finding in danger an
attraction. How nobly it has been exemplified in many a mission field, to
which, whenever disease has smitten down one, two have been ready to go! An old
Highland legend tells how his foster-brothers made a ring round the chief in a
battle, and how, as each that shielded him with his own body fell, the
foster-father cried, “Another for Hector,” and another strode into the fatal
empty place. The annals of the Church are full of like incidents. The call for
another to stand in some deadly breach for the sake of the elder brother has
never been sounded in vain; and to-day American and English Christianity is
showing that the old heroic fire burns yet, in the men who, on the Congo and
elsewhere, have hazarded their lives for the name of Jesus, and been drawn to
the field by its very dangers. (A. Maclaren. D. D.)
Caleb’s vigour of mind in old age
was equal to his vigour of body in youth. As his strength was in
the day that Moses sent him, so was his strength then for war, both to go out
and to come in: yea, he had waxed stronger and stronger, and, as is said of the
righteous, “brought forth fruit in old age.” As all other graces, true faith
increases in its exercise, and becomes mightier by conflict. They who are
strong in faith when young, and have the word of God abiding in them, are not
likely to become weak in faith when old. Interesting sight, to behold one grown
old in the service of God, still a veteran in the ranks, with a resolution
never to yield or return his sword, while an enemy remains unsubdued. One had
thought it now time for this old warrior to leave the field, and quietly to
enjoy his earthly portion; and had his mind been affected less with things
future than things present, had he sought rest only in Canaan, and not rest in
heaven, he would have so thought himself. It is a lovely sight, and what must
command admiration from all, to see an old believer to the very last ready to
testify his faith in God and hope of the promise by a sacrifice of ease, and
even at the hazard of life. But they may well be inspired with the fortitude of
unyielding valour, and fight even till they die, who are under the command of
Jehovah and the banner of the Cross; for a crown of life and eternal triumphs
await the slain--they shall rise and reign for ever in the kingdom of glory.
The Christian, whose brightest portion lies beyond this world, must not wonder
if, as age creeps on, new conflicts arise, and if at last, before he take possession of his
eternal settlement, the Anakims, a people tall and great, should still be to be
conquered. They are all an easy conquest through Him that hath loved us, so
that he may say as Caleb (Joshua 14:12). (W. Seaton.)
Give me this mountain.--
Caleb’s choice
1. In this choice we find a
revelation of a sturdy character. There is a powerful individuality about the
man who chooses a mountain as his ideal possession. It means climbing and hard
work. I knew a veteran who, late in life, bought a rugged mountain, built his
house in one of its hollows, cultivated a portion of its slope, and let his
sheep wander for a living over the remaining portion. He was as happy in
breathing the clear mountain air, and in climbing the mountain steeps, as Adam
was in Paradise. There was wonderful congeniality between him and his
surroundings. There was a great deal of rugged grandeur about him. To come into
contact with that man was as bracing as to climb his mountain, and to breathe
the pure inspiring air upon its summit. In Caleb we have a man of similar
robust make--a man who not only chose the mountainous district of Hebron while
others sought the plains, but also chose that mountain while as yet every
crevice in its fastnesses bristled with foes of giant stature. Caleb was
charmed with the thought of a possession which involved most of faith and
heroism in making his own.
2. This choice further reveals to us the continuity of his
character. It is the brave man who stood before Israel and the ten spies who
brought depressing news of the land, and exclaimed, “Let us go up at once and
possess it,” that now, forty years later, claims it as his privilege to drive
the sons of Anak out of their last fastness. He had done enough to wear out
half a dozen ordinary men. There seemed to be endless wear in him. This is the
speech of an old soldier. You trace the same man, and he affirms--and gives
proof of his affirmation subsequently--that he has the same vigour as of old.
Throughout his life we trace one master-feeling, one supreme purpose, one
distinctive personality. This unity running through life is one of the glories
of a great character.
3. Caleb’s choice shows his hopefulness and faith. We are not so
surprised that when forty-five years of age he should have taken such a bright
view of things, as that now in prospect of such a difficult task he should say,
“If so be that the Lord be with me, then”. This is not the “if” of doubt, but
the “if” of great possibilities, of a large hope, and of a mighty faith (R.V.).
“It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive,” &c. He is
willing to risk all upon that “may be.” He bases all upon what the Lord had
promised.
4. This choice shows Caleb’s wisdom. The mountain fastnesses of the
land were the most difficult to win, but having been once won could best be
held, and would finally become the greatest centres of strength. It is a general
rule of life that what is hardest won is worth the winning most, and is the
most lasting good when won. The strength of a life as well as of a country is
in its mountain fastnesses and passes, and not in its broad and luxuriant
plains.
5. The whole incident reveals the sacredness which Caleb and Joshua
attached to a promise given by Moses forty years previously. Moses was dead,
but the promise lived. Caleb repeated it, and Joshua honoured it.
6. Observe how the name of a comparatively unknown father is
connected with the choice now made by a noble son. Caleb is usually designated
as the “son of Jephunneh.” Jephunneh seems to have belonged to an Edomite
tribe, the Kenezites, but all that we know of him besides is that he was the
father of Caleb. All that we know, too, of Nun is that he was the father of
Joshua. These were two noble sons who made their fathers famous. Young men,
take note of that I How largely the father’s reputation is in the hands of his
son! “A wise son maketh a glad father.” (D. Davies.)
Hebron therefore became
the inheritance of Caleb . . . because that he wholly followed the Lord.--
God rewards His faithful followers
I. What is implied
in” Caleb’s following the Lord wholly. Though this may imply a great deal, yet
it cannot imply absolute perfection.
1. It implies that his heart was renewed. He had a filial, dutiful,
submissive spirit, which the Scripture calls a perfect heart.
2. It implies that he paid an external respect to all the
intimations of His will. If he had allowed himself in one sin, or habitually
offended in one point, he would have been guilty of all. It is essential to the
character of a good man to follow the Lord in all His precepts and
appointments. “This is the love of God that we keep His commandments; and His commandments
are not grievous.”
3. This amiable character implies that he persevered in obedience
under every trial and temptation. Such a sincere, uniform, and constant course
of obedience, for forty or fifty years, fully verified the Divine declaration
that “he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.” But this is not all. God not
only approved, but rewarded his obedience.
II. Why the Lord
rewarded him for following him wholly.
1. Because his wholly following the Lord was a strong expression of
his supreme love to Him. Obedience is the natural expression of love. “Ye are
My friends,” says Christ, “if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Neither the
hosts of Pharaoh, nor the absence of Moses, nor the defection of Aaron, nor the
giants of Canaan, could cool his zeal or warp his resolution. He determined to
endure unto the end; and unto the end he endured. He loved God sincerely and
supremely, and he meant to express his love to Him, by uniform obedience, under
the most trying circumstances. This God saw, approved, and rewarded, agreeably
to His own declaration, “I love them that love Me; and those that seek Me early
shall find Me.”
2. Caleb greatly promoted the glory of God and the good of His
people, by his uniform and persevering obedience. This rendered him one of the
principal instruments in the hand of God of conducting His people to Canaan,
and of executing His wise and gracious purposes respecting them. By walking
with God, and observing His wise and holy providence, he became a man of great
experimental and practical knowledge, which enabled him to be very useful in
guiding and instructing an ignorant and refractory people. It is natural to
suppose that he had a principal hand in forming the lives and manners of that
generation, which was educated in the wilderness, and eventually prepared for
the promised inheritance. And his great and extensive usefulness was a good
reason why the Lord God of Israel should reward his signal services, agreeably
to His own maxim, “Them that honour Me, I will honour.”
3. There was something very distinguishing in Caleb’s conduct. None
but he and Joshua persevered in their allegiance to God. This singularity of
his obedience not only displayed, but really enhanced, the worth of his virtue
and piety, and laid a proper foundation for God to reward him with peculiar
marks of His favour.
Reflections:
1. What great encouragement have all true saints to persevere in the
ways of well-doing!
2. What great benefit may those, who follow the Lord wholly, derive
from the evils and burdens of their wearisome pilgrimage! Caleb acquired a
beautiful character, and a distinguished reward, by properly improving a series
of great and complicated trials. He learned obedience by the things which he
suffered.
3. How will saints hereafter admire the distinguishing grace of God
by which they were conducted to heaven!
4. Does God speak respectfully of those who follow Him wholly, and
graciously reward their faithful labours? Then we must justly conclude that we
ought to honour those whom He delights to honour. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Following the Lord
I. What is
included in the expression, “wholly following the Lord”? It is impossible to
take the words in their strictly literal sense. There are so many slips, so
many wanderings, so many shortcomings, that the strict perfection of obedience
is unattainable by any of the children of Adam. But the expression is one
which, nevertheless, can be applied to those who honestly and simply give
themselves up through Divine grace to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
1. A realisation that the will of God is paramount.
2. A resting upon the Word of God as clear and authoritative.
3. A laying hold of the promises of God as sure.
II. The
circumstances under which it is said of Caleb that he wholly followed God.
1. Caleb wholly followed God, though others who were in the same
position of influence with himself deserted the side of God and of His truth.
2. Caleb wholly followed God, though the whole congregation feared
to walk in the right way.
3. Caleb wholly followed the Lord in spite of opposition. The
current of excited feeling set dead against him, and threatened to bear him
down. And you will observe that it was not the mere opposition of abuse,
insult, and prejudice; it assumed a far more dangerous form (Numbers 14:10). His life was perilled.
Yet no degree of violence, however determined, could drive him from the
position which he had been enabled to take up. Oh, what encouragement there is
here for those who find themselves in the midst of difficulties and trial for
the sake of the Gospel! Caleb was a man of like passions with ourselves.
Naturally he had the same aversion to the will of God that others have; but in
his case grace was strong, faith triumphed. And what a glorious sight it is to
see, when you behold one thus meeting any storm of indignation, coldness, or
scorn from man, rather than forsake the way and truth of the Lord Jesus! (C.
D. Marston, M. A.)
Caleb the soldier
I. Caleb’s
fidelity. Fidelity is one of the first properties of a soldier; and it were
well that every good cause, and especially that of Christ, could boast of such
fidelity as gallant men have often shown in the ranks of war. Mere boys have
bravely carried the colours of their regiment into battle; and to save them
from falling into the hands of the enemy they have been known, when they
themselves fell, to wrap them around their bodies and die within their
encrimsoned folds. An incident more heroic still occurred on one of those fields
where Austria lately suffered disastrous defeat. When the bloody fight was
over, and the victors were removing the wounded, they came on a young Austrian
stretched on the ground, whose life was pouring out in the red streams of a
ghastly wound. To their astonishment he declined their kind services.
Recommending others to be removed, he implored them, though he might still have
been saved, to let him alone. On returning sometime afterwards they found him
dead--all his battles o’er. But the mystery was explained. They raised the body
to give it burial; and there, below him, lay the colours of his regiment. He
had sworn not to part with them; and though he clung to life, and tenderly
thought of a mother and sisters in their distant home, he would not purchase
recovery at the price of his oath and the expense of a soldier’s honour--“he
was faithful unto death.” The property of a good soldier was eminently
illustrated by Caleb.
II. Caleb’s
courage. Courage, which has in all ages won the praise of poets and admiration
of mankind, is a property for which our seamen and soldiers have been long and
eminently distinguished. Descended from ancestors who met the Romans on the
sea-beach, and those brave Norsemen who ploughed the stormiest oceans with
their warlike prows, our countrymen have proved themselves worthy of their
sires; and the repute of a courage which has been tested in many a hard-fought
field has proved, under God, the strongest bulwark of our island-home. It is
remarkable, and highly creditable to the resolution and bravery of our
soldiers, that, notwithstanding all the wars in which they have engaged, no
foreign nation flaunts a flag of ours as the trophy of its victory, and of our
defeat. No British banner, so far as I know, hangs drooping in dusty folds from
the walls of foreign castle or cathedral to make us blush; nor in that proud
pillar the great Napoleon raised, whose bronze, formed of the cannon taken by
him in battle, commemorates his victories, is there an ounce of metal that
belonged to a British gun. I have heard indeed how cowards, probably drawn from
the scum of the people, hung back when the bugler in the trenches sounded a new
assault, and refused to cross ground so strewed with their fallen comrades as
to resemble a field carpeted with scarlet cloth. Yet, whatever may be their
defects, our soldiers have been commonly as much distinguished for their
courage when the battle raged as for their clemency when the victory was won.
For that courage, true, calm courage, which does not lie in insensibility to
danger, nor in the violent animal passion which may bear a coward forward as a
whirlwind does the dust, or a wave the seaweed on its foaming crest, Caleb
presents the very model of a soldier. How bravely he bears himself when the
other spies prove traitors! The source of Caleb’s courage, of a bravery so
admirable and dauntless, is not far to seek. In him, as in those noble
Christian soldiers whom I have mentioned, and in others also who have
maintained their religion in the camp, courage, if it did not spring from, was
sustained by piety. He had faith in God. Therefore he did not fear the face of
man, though that man were a giant, nor of death itself. From the same lofty
source, and none other, the soldier of the Cross, he who fights with foes more formidable
than giants--the devil, the world, and the flesh, that trinity of evil--is to
draw his courage. More of it may be needed to face the jeers of an ungodly
world than a blazing battery of cannon. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Caleb’s history--piety portrayed and piety promoted
I. Piety
portrayed: Caleb “wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.”
1. Genuine piety is the sublimest of all pursuits.
2. Genuine piety accords with the constitutional cravings and powers
of the human soul.
II. Piety promoted:
“Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb.” (Homilist.)
The inheritance of Caleb
Caleb is one of those men whom we meet with seldom in Bible
history, but whenever we do meet them we are the better for the meeting. Bright
and brave, strong, modest, and cheerful, there is honesty in his face, courage
and decision in the very pose of his body, and the calm confidence of faith in
his very look and attitude. It is singular that there should be cause to doubt
whether his family were originally of the promised seed. On the whole, the preponderance of
evidence is in favour of the opinion that Caleb’s family were originally
outside the covenant, but had become proselytes like Hobab, Rahab, Ruth, and
Heber. Their faith was pre-eminently the fruit of conviction, and not the accident
of heredity. It had a timer basis than that of most Israelites. It was woven
more closely into the texture of their being, and swayed their lives more
powerfully. It is pleasing to think that there may have been many such
proselytes; that the promise to Abraham may have attracted souls from the east,
and the west, and the north, and the south; that even beyond the limits of the
twelve tribes many hearts may have been cheered, and many lives elevated and
purified by the promise to him, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the families
of the earth be blessed.” Caleb and Joshua had believed and acted alike, in
opposition to the other ten spies; but Caleb occupies the more prominent place
in the story of their heroism and faith. Caleb was evidently the man who led
the opposition to the ten, not only asserting the course of duty, but
manifesting the spirit of contempt and defiance toward the faithless cowards
that forgot that God was with them. In his inward heart Joshua was quite of his
mind, but probably he wanted the energetic manner, the ringing voice, the
fearless attitude of his more demonstrative companion. Certain it is that Caleb
reaped the chief honour of that day. It is beautiful to see that there was no
rivalry between them. Not only did Caleb interpose no remonstrance when Joshua
was called to succeed Moses, but he seems all through the wars to have yielded
to him the most loyal and hearty submission. His affectionate and cordial
bearing on the present occasion seems to show that not even in the corner of
his heart did there linger a trace of jealousy toward the old friend and
companion whom on that occasion he had surpassed, but who had been set so much
higher than himself. He came to him as the recognised leader of the people--as
the man whose voice was to decide the question he now submitted, as the judge
and arbiter in a matter which very closely concerned him and his house. And yet
there are indications of tact on the part of Caleb, of a thorough understanding
of the character of Joshua, and of the sort of considerations by which he might
be expected to be swayed. “Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses
the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.” “Moses the man of
God.” Why does Caleb select that remarkable epithet? Why add anything to the
usual name, Moses? The use of the epithet was honouring to all three. That
which constituted the highest glory of Moses was that he was so much at one
with God. God’s will was ever his law, and he was in such close sympathy with
God that whatever instructions he gave on any subject might be assumed to be in
accordance with God’s will. Moreover, in calling him “the man of God” when
addressing Joshua, Caleb assumed that Joshua would be impressed by this
consideration, and would be disposed to agree to a request which was not only
sanctioned by the will of Moses, but by that higher will which Moses constantly
recognised. Having fortified his plea with this strong reference at once to
Moses and to God, Caleb proceeds to rehearse the service which had led to the
promise of Moses. “Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord
sent me,” &c. Why does Caleb put the matter in this way? Why does he not
couple Joshua with himself as having been faithful on that
never-to-be-forgotten occasion? The only explanation that seems feasible is,
that from the pre-eminent position of Joshua this was unnecessary, perhaps it
might have appeared even unbecoming. A soldier making a request of the Duke of
Wellington, and recalling some service he had done at the battle of Waterloo,
would hardly think it necessary, or even becoming, to say how the Duke, too,
had been there, and what surpassing service he had rendered on that day. “I
brought him word again, as it was in my heart.” The statement is made in no boasting
spirit, and yet what a rare virtue it denotes! Caleb, as we now say, had the
courage of his convictions. To break away from your own set, from the comrades
of your campaign, to upset their plans, and counsel those in power to a course
diametrically opposed to theirs, is one of the most difficult of social duties.
The men that have the courage of their convictions are often social martyrs,
shut out from the fellowship of their brethren, shut out from every berth of
honour or emolument, and yet, for their courage and honesty, worthy of
infinitely higher regard than whole hundreds of the time-servers that “get on”
in the world by humouring its errors and its follies. Nevertheless, though most
of us show ourselves miserably weak by not speaking out all that is “in our
hearts,” especially when the honour of our Lord and Master is concerned, we are
able to appreciate and cannot fail to admire the noble exhibitions of courage
that we sometimes meet with. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” Caleb
believed, and therefore he was patient. Five-and-forty long years had elapsed
since Moses, the man of God, speaking in the Spirit of God, had promised him a
particular inheritance in the land. It was a long time for faith to live on a
promise, but, like a tree in the face of a cliff that seems to grow out of the
solid rock, it derived nourishment from unseen sources. It was a long time to
be looking forward; but Caleb, though he did not receive the promise during all
that time, was persuaded of it and embraced it, and believed that at last it
would come true. It seems that when acting as one of the twelve spies, Caleb
had in some emphatic way taken his stand on Hebron. “The land on which thy foot
hath trodden will be an inheritance to thee.” Perhaps the spies were too
terrified to approach Hebron, for the sons of the Anakim were there, and, in
the confidence of faith, Caleb, or Caleb and Joshua, had gone into it alone.
Moses had promised him Hebron, and now he came to claim it under circumstances
that would have induced most men to let it alone. The driving out of the Anakim
was a formidable duty, and the task might have seemed more suitable for one who
had the strength and enthusiasm of youth on his side. But Caleb, though
eighty-five, was yet young. Age is not best measured by years. He was a
remarkable instance of prolonged vigour and youthful energy. “As yet I am as
strong,” &c. As one reads these words of Caleb, one recalls the saying of a
well-known physician, Dr. Richardson, that the human frame might last for a
hundred years if it were only treated aright. There is something singularly
touching in Caleb’s asking as a favour what was really a most hazardous but important
service to the nation. Rough though these Hebrew soldiers were, they were
capable of the most gentlemanly and chivalrous acts. There can be no higher act
of courtesy than to treat as a favour to yourself what is really a great
service to another. Well done, Caleb! In the spiritual war fare, too, we do not
want instances of the same spirit. We recall Captain Allan Gardiner choosing
Tierra del Fuego as his mission sphere just because the people were so
ferocious, the climate so repulsive, and the work so difficult that no one else
was likely to take it up. We think of the second band who went out after
Gardiner and his companions had been starved to death; and still more, after
these were massacred by the natives, of the third detachment who were moved
simply by the consideration that the case was seemingly so desperate. Or we
think of Living stone begging the directors of the London Missionary Society,
wherever they sent him, to be sure that it was “Forward”; turning aside from
all previous missionary stations, and the comparative ease they afforded, to
grapple with the barbarian where he had never begun to be tamed; his eyes
thirsting for unknown scenes and untried dangers, because he scorned to build
on the foundation of others, and thirsted for “fresh woods and pastures new.”
We think of him persevering in his task from year to year in the same lofty
spirit; disregarding the misery of protracted pain, the intense longings of his
weary heart for home. A crowd of noble names comes to our
recollection--Williams, and Judson, and Morrison, and Burns, and Patteson, and
Keith-Falconer, and Hannington, and Mackay--men for whom even the Anakim had no
terrors, but rather an attraction; but who, serving under another Joshua,
differed from Caleb in this, that what they desired was not to destroy these
ferocious Anakim, but to conquer them by love, and to demonstrate the power of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change the vilest reprobates into sons of God. (W.
G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Caleb the Kenezite
I. In all
probability Caleb was a proselyte. In Genesis 36:42, Kenaz is named as one of
the Edomite “dukes.” In 1 Chronicles 2:50, Caleb is called
“son of Hur.” Many critics assume that this indicates that he was adopted into
the family of Hur. This foreigner had the true faith of an Israelite. Sometimes
those whose early years have been spent in heathenism, home or foreign, become
noted in Christian circles for their moral virtues and foremost in every good
work.
II. Caleb had the
courage to be in a minority of two (Numbers 14:1-10). The secret of this
courage was--
1. His faith in God’s promise.
2. That the Lord put His fear upon their enemies (Numbers 14:9).
3. His sense of the Divine presence.
III. Caleb’s whole
conduct was consistent. “I wholly followed” may mean--
1. The full measure of his days.
2. The whole-heartedness of his life.
IV. At the end of
his career he receives his reward.
1. A happy old age.
2. An unfailing faith in God.
3. The people acknowledge his faithful service.
4. The seed of Caleb received the benefit resulting from the
father’s fidelity. (Henry Smith.)
Caleb’s inheritance
I. An old man’s
inheritance. Old age has its benedictions, its redeemed pledges, its
inheritance. The faithful, tireless servant of God has his portion, though he
has not gathered, sold, and joined field to field. Caleb had been seeking for a
country, not scattering an estate.
II. An old man’s
request. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”; but
the life approaching the grave with a weight of honourable service is alike
cherished by the Lord. It must have been so with Caleb, His strength was as
great for war as when he received his commission. The old man does not ask for
land he may cultivate, on which to raise choice varieties of those grapes whose
single clusters weary two men to bear them on a staff. He has led the life of a
soldier His service for the Lord he thinks still lies in that direction. Those
giants who frightened his comrades forty years ago have been on his mind ever
since. The Israelites are not likely to become more warlike in this rich
country where they can till the soil. He therefore proposes to take care of
those enemies of God himself. When Herod the Great wished to rid the cliffs of
Arbela of robbers, he caused Roman soldiers to be let down in cages to fight
the outlaws in the mouths of their caves. Caleb did not ask for a Hebrew
regiment to help him manage those sons of Anak. Hebron, that ancient city built
seven years before Zoan in Egypt, ought not to remain longer in the hand of the
infidel. Alien born or Hebrew, he cannot bear that God’s people should be
defied in their inheritance. In after-years, when crusading knights took this
city, it was not with more righteous purpose than that which stirred the heart
of this ancient servant of Jehovah.
III. An old man’s
request. Caleb’s first work was to purify his inheritance. He got the iniquity
out of it. He did not levy tribute on the brigands and live luxuriously on the
income of robbery. This veteran was not a man of compromises. The enemies of
God and righteousness could get no terms with him. His hands were not soiled
with the revenue or the rents of a nefarious business. They did not close
around the rewards of iniquity. Something of the spirit which in after-years
stirred the heart of the Master as He drove the money-changers from the temple
now rested on this old man. The spirit of reform was strong in him, and it had
fuel to keep it burning, for it was fed by the Spirit of God and of
righteousness. That mountain was not first cleared of timber, and lawns, parks,
and terraces laid out and built on its slopes. There was perhaps no
summer-house commanding a view of the distant Mediterranean, but there was some
honourable estate to pass onward. There was a remainder which, according to
Divine promise, would go to his descendants. It was cleared of the enemies of
God. Whoever received it would get an inheritance without any bill of attainder
against it for treason. Such a man as Caleb does not impoverish his estate,
though he lessen it in behalf of righteousness. The bare mountain was to him a
better property than a large rent-roll of criminal tenants. (W. R. Campbell.)
Caleb’s reward
Caleb’s reward illustrates the immense difference between a full
and a partial following of God. It is the difference between the river and the
sea. Both are water, and the river is all well in its way and is useful to man
and beast in small services. The sea is something more than mere water, for it
is infinite; and as we gaze upon it a sense of its immeasurableness comes over
us as never is the case when we behold the largest lake or the Mississippi
river. You cannot measure a wholly following servant of the living God, and you
can too easily take the dimensions of a half-and-half Christian. You come to
form an idea of about how much money he will give to a needy enterprise, about
how much time to a pressing work, how long he will stay to push a fresh project
in the kingdom, and what pleasures and business engagements he will surrender
to help revival efforts. We get tired of these easy measurements. But take a
Caleb, and you cannot tell what Divine energies are locked up within him to
come forth when needed..
I. One with
Caleb’s spirit sees clearly the good things which God has promised. He has
sight and insight. Twelve good men go over the same country, but on the whole
they see differently, and so report what they see. Ten, with a common-sense
vision of the greatness of the foes, and making no allowance for hidden and
supernatural factors, did not see things as they were. On the other hand, Caleb
saw all that they did, but he had a power of seeing Him who is invisible, and
so of seeing truly. The man who followed fully had a clear eye, a single eye,
and his whole body was full of light. In this way he perceived the essential
weakness and rottenness of confederated evil. All achieving men have the same
vision, and so they persist and wait and return to the same attack until they
win the day, and the people that once bade stone them bring out garlands for
their graves.
II. Men of Caleb’s
spirit, wholly following the Lord, have the power of standing alone. The mass
move with the stream. The few stand like a rock. No one knows who has not tried
it what it costs the soul of self-searching, fear, doubt, sorrowful parting
with loved friends, and the crushing weight of popular disapproval. In one of
his noblest odes Horace speaks in admiration of him who can resist the heated
demands of citizens who call for evil things,
III. Those who are
like Caleb have the patience of faith. It was a long and wearisome time before
the word of God to His trusty servant was fulfilled--more than a whole
generation. No doubt sometimes, for he was human, he wondered when God would
arise and His enemies be scattered. Have you seen some new possession in the
things of the Spirit? Repeat the promise. Though it tarry, wait for it; it will
surely come; it will not tarry. We get tired and run away from our own prayers,
so that when the answer comes some one else lives where we did when we prayed.
Oh, let us seek the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ!
IV. Men of Caleb’s
spirit have to fight the good fight of faith. Hebron was beautifully situated
upon the hills to the south of Jerusalem, where even to-day there is a
luxuriant vegetation and the grapes as of Eschol are gathered. From it one looks over a wide expanse
of country, eastward, westward, northward, southward, towards Edom. There David
was crowned and reigned seven years. It was a splendid reward after forty-three
years’ delay. Perhaps on the great expedition with the spies Caleb marked the
place and made a vow that, if the people entered in, he would have that abode,
and the picture may have dwelt in his memory to cheer him in long years, just
as the heavenly hills glow before the eye of Christian faith. But even at last
the prize did not drop into his hands like a ripe apple. No; he must draw his
sword and expel the sons of Anak who were in possession, for they also loved
the high places. It costs to get the best, but it is wise economy to be
satisfied with nothing less. Faith, the patience of faith, the fight of faith,
the reward of faith--these come before us in this ancient story with the
freshness of the Word of God. And now it remains to be said that there is a
peculiar need of Calebs to-day, when great things are offered us in the
providences of God and we have not far to go to enter into them. Make it
personal. Sometimes the Spirit shows you while you are praying or reading or
listening to others an attainment beyond all you have ever reached. It is your
Hebron. No matter what the precise form of the blessing, if you have had it
clearly set before you, it is a call to possess it by faith, just as Caleb went
up to his reward among the hills of Palestine. All that your feet press is
yours. Saints are more to blame for not walking upon the high places as
children of the heavenly King than sinners are for not turning to God in
penitence. Saints have great promises made to them and great helps offered
them. Make it more general. Before the whole Church to-day there is a promised
world to be won for Christ by prayer and toil. Our charter gives it to us for a
possession, and the doors are wide for our entrance therein. Another field for
faith is the deeper Christianising of the already Christian nations of the
earth. Dr. Herren says in his little book, “The Larger Christ”: “The
realisation of heaven upon earth is more than a mystic ideal. It is the
crowning fact of history. It is the solid reality with which God is displacing
the insubstantial materialism underlying the rude social structures of human
selfishness. It is the Divine errand upon which white-souled prophets have
walked serene through a world ablaze with scorn. The pledge of God is behind
it, and the victorious forces of the universe are allied in its behalf. The
Bible is its written warrant and the Cross its seal which none can break. It
may take us with violence, but it advances to conquer. And the saints shall
judge the world!” (Edward N. Packard.)
.
Introduction
to chaps. 15-19
The law of distribution
We come now in earnest to the distribution of the land. The
narrative looks very bare, but important principles and lessons underlie it.
These lists of unfamiliar names look like the debris of a quarry--hard,
meaningless, and to us useless. But nothing is inserted in the Bible without a
purpose--a purpose that in some sense bears on the edification of the
successive generations and the various races of men.
1. There is something to be learned from the maintenance of the
distinction of the twelve tribes and the distribution of the country into
portions corresponding to each. In some degree this was in accordance with
Oriental usage; for the country had already been occupied by various races,
dwelling in a kind of unity--the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Hivites,
Jebusites, Perizzites, and Girgashites. What was peculiar to Israel was that
each of the tribes was descended from one of Jacob’s sons, and that their
relation to each other was conspicuously maintained, though their
dwelling-places were apart. As in the case of the separate states of North America,
or the separate cantons of Switzerland, it provided for variety in unity; it
gave a measure of local freedom and independence, while it maintained united
action; it contributed to the life and vigour of the commonwealth without
destroying its oneness of character or impairing its common purpose and aim. It
promoted that picturesque variety often found in little countries, where each
district has a dialect, or a pronunciation, or traditions, or a character of
its own; as Yorkshire differs from Devon, or Lancashire from Cornwall;
Aberdeenshire from Berwick, or Fife from Ayr. As in a garden variety of species
enlivens and enriches the effect, so in a community variety of type enriches
and enlivens the common life. In the case of the Hebrew commonwealth the
distinction of tribes became smaller as time went on, and in New Testament
times the three great districts Judaea, Samaria, and Galilee showed only the
survival of the fittest. A larger individuality and a wider variety would
undoubtedly have prevailed if a good spirit had continued to exist among the
tribes, and if all of them had shown the energy and the enterprise of some. But
the wrong spirit came in, and came in with a witness, and mischief ensued. For
distinctions in race and family are apt to breed rivalry and enmity, and not
only to destroy all the good which may come of variety, but to introduce
interminable mischief. For many a long day the Scottish clans were like
Ishmael, their hand against every man and every man’s hand against them; or at
least one clan was at interminable feud with another, and the country was
wretched and desolate. Among the twelve tribes of Israel the spirit of rivalry
soon showed itself, leading to disastrous consequences. Many arrangements of
our modern civilisation that conduce to our comfort when in good order become
sources of unexampled evil when they go wrong. The drainage of houses conduces
much to comfort while it works smoothly; but let the drains become choked, and
send back into our houses the poisonous gases bred of decomposition, the
consequences are appalling. The sanitary inspector must be on the alert to
detect mischief in its very beginnings, and apply the remedy before we have
well become conscious of the evil. And so a vigilant eye needs ever to be kept on
those arrangements of Providence that are so beneficial when duly carried out,
and so pernicious when thoughtlessly perverted. What a wonderful thing is a
little forbearance at the beginning of a threatened strife! What a priceless
blessing is the soft answer that turneth away wrath!
2. Again, in the allocation of the tribes in their various
territories we have an instance of a great natural law, the law of
distribution, a law that, on the whole, operates very beneficially throughout
the world. In society there is both a centripetal and a centrifugal force; the
centripetal chiefly human, the centrifugal chiefly Divine. Men are prone to
cluster together; God promotes dispersion. In the early ages they clustered
about the plain of Shinar; the confusion of tongues scattered them abroad. And
generally, in any fertile and desirable spot, men have been prone to multiply
till food has failed them, and either starvation at home or emigration abroad
becomes inevitable. And so it is that, in spite of their cohesive tendency, men
are now pretty well scattered over the globe. And when once they are settled in
new homes, they require adaptation to their locality, and begin to love it. It
is a proof of Divine wisdom that a world that presents such a variety of
climates and conditions has, in all parts of it, inhabitants that enjoy their
life. The same law operates in the vegetable world. Everywhere plants seem to
discover the localities where they thrive best. There is always a place for the
plant, and a plant for the place. And it is so with animals, too. The elephant
in the spreading forest, the rabbit in the sandy down, the beaver beside the
stream, the caterpillar in the leafy garden. Some of the great deserts that our
imagination used to create in Africa or elsewhere do not exist. Barren spots
there are, and “miry places and marshes given to salt,” but they are not many.
The earth has been replenished, and the purpose of God so far fulfilled. And
then there is a distribution of talents. We are not all created alike, with
equal dividends of the gifts and faculties that minister in some way to the
purposes of our life. We depend more or less on one another; women on men, and
men on women; the young on the old, and sometimes the old on the young; persons
of one talent on those of another talent, those with strong sinews on those
with clear heads, and those with clear heads on those with strong sinews; in
short, society is so constituted that what each has he has for all, and what
all have they have for each. The principle of the division of labour is brought
in; and in a well-ordered community the general wealth and well-being of the
whole are better promoted by the interchange of offices than if each person
within himself had a little stock of all that he required. The same law of
distribution prevails in the Church of Christ. It was exemplified in an
interesting way in the case of our Lord’s apostles. No one of these was a
duplicate of another. And throughout the history of the Church the distribution
of gifts has been equally marked. Chrysostom and Augustine, Jerome and Ambrose,
Bernard and Anselm, were all of the same stock, but not of the same type. At
the Reformation men of marked individuality were provided for every country.
The missionary field has in like manner been provided for. India has had her
Schwartz, her Carey, her Duff, and a host of others; China her Morrison, Burmah
her Judson, Polynesia her Williams, Africa her Livingstone. The most
unattractive and inhospitable spots have been supplied. Greenland was not too
cold for the Moravians, nor the leper-stricken communities of India or Africa
too repulsive. And never were Christian men more disposed than to-day to honour
that great Christian law of distribution--“Go ye into all the world and preach
the Gospel to every creature,” It was a great providential law, therefore, that
was recognised in the partition of the land of Canaan among the tribes.
Provision was thus made for so scattering the people that they should occupy
the whole country, and become adapted to the places where they settled and to
the pursuits proper to them.
3. Still further, in the allocation of the tribes in their various
territories we have an instance of the way in which God designed the earth to
minister most effectually to the wants of man. We do not say that the method
now adopted in Canaan was the only plan of distributing land that God ever
sanctioned; very probably it was the same method as had prevailed among the
Canaanites; but it is beyond doubt that, such as it was, it was sanctioned by
God for His chosen people. It was a system of peasant proprietorship. The whole
landed property of the country was divided among the citizens. The extremes of
wealth and poverty were alike checked and discouraged, and the lot eulogised by
Agur--a moderate competency, neither poverty nor riches--became the general
condition of the citizens. It is difficult to tell what extent of land fell to
each family. The portion of the land divided by Joshua has been computed at
twenty-five million acres. Dividing this by 600,000, the probable number of
families at the time of the settlement, we get forty-two acres as the average
size of each property. For a Roman citizen, seven acres was counted enough to
yield a moderate maintenance, so that even in a country of ordinary
productiveness the extent of the Hebrew farms would, before further subdivision
became necessary, have been ample. When the population increased the
inheritance would of course have to be subdivided. But for several generations
this, so far from an inconvenience, would be a positive benefit. It would bring
about a more complete development of the resources of the soil. The great rule
of the Divine economy was thus honoured--nothing was lost. We in this country,
after reaching the extreme on the opposite side, are now trying to get back in
the direction of this ancient system. All parties seem now agreed that
something of the nature of peasant proprietorship is necessary to solve the
agrarian problem in Ireland and in Great Britain too. It is only the fact that
in Britain commercial enterprise and emigration afford so many outlets for the
energies of our landless countrymen that has tolerated the abuses of property
so long among us--the laws of entail and primogeniture, the accumulation of
property far beyond the power of the proprietor to oversee or to manage, the
employment of land agents acting solely for the proprietor, and without that
sense of responsibility or that interest in the welfare of the people which is
natural to the proprietor himself. It is little wonder that theories of
land-possession have risen up which are as impracticable in fact as they are
wild and lawless in principle. Such desperate imaginations are the fruit of
despair--absolute hopelessness of getting back in any other way to a true land
law--to a state of things in which the land would yield the greatest benefit to
the whole nation.
4. In the arrangements for the distribution of the land among the
twelve tribes we may note a proof of God’s interest in the temporal comfort and
prosperity of men. It is not God that has created the antithesis of secular and
spiritual, as if the two interests were like a see-saw, so that whenever the
one went up the other must go down. Things in this world are made to be
enjoyed, and the enjoyment of them is agreeable to the will of God, provided we
use them as not abusing them. In ordinary circumstances God intends men to be
fairly comfortable; He does not desire life to be a perpetual struggle, or a
dismal march to the grave. The very words in which Christ counsels us to
consider the lilies and the ravens, instead of worrying ourselves about food
and clothing, show this; for, under the Divine plan, the ravens are comfortably
fed and the lilies are handsomely clothed. The characteristic of a good man,
when he enjoys a share of worldly prosperity, is, that he does not let the
world become his idol--it is his servant, it is under his feet; he jealously
guards against its becoming his master. His effort is to make a friend of the
mammon of unrighteousness, and to turn every portion of it with which he may be
entrusted to such a use for the good of others that when at last he gives in
his account, as steward to his Divine Master, he may do so with joy, and not
with grief. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》