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Judges Chapter
One
Judges 1
Chapter Contents
Proceedings of the tribes of Judah and Simeon. (1-8)
Hebron and other cities taken. (9-20) The proceedings of other tribes. (21-36)
Commentary on Judges 1:1-8
(Read Judges 1:1-8)
The Israelites were convinced that the war against the
Canaanites was to be continued; but they were in doubt as to the manner in
which it was to be carried on after the death of Joshua. In these respects they
inquired of the Lord. God appoints service according to the strength he has
given. From those who are most able, most work is expected. Judah was first in
dignity, and must be first in duty. Judah's service will not avail unless God
give success; but God will not give the success, unless Judah applies to the
service. Judah was the most considerable of all the tribes, and Simeon the
least; yet Judah begs Simeon's friendship, and prays for aid from him. It
becomes Israelites to help one another against Canaanites; and all Christians,
even those of different tribes, should strengthen one another. Those who thus
help one another in love, have reason to hope that God will graciously help
both. Adoni-bezek was taken prisoner. This prince had been a severe tyrant. The
Israelites, doubtless under the Divine direction, made him suffer what he had
done to others; and his own conscience confessed that he was justly treated as
he had treated others. Thus the righteous God sometimes, in his providence,
makes the punishment answer the sin.
Commentary on Judges 1:9-20
(Read Judges 1:9-20)
The Canaanites had iron chariots; but Israel had God on
their side, whose chariots are thousands of angels, Psalm 68:17. Yet they suffered their fears to
prevail against their faith. About Caleb we read in Joshua 15:16-19. The Kenites had settled in the
land. Israel let them fix where they pleased, being a quiet, contented people.
They that molested none, were molested by none. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth.
Commentary on Judges 1:21-36
(Read Judges 1:21-36)
The people of Israel were very careless of their duty and
interest. Owing to slothfulness and cowardice, they would not be at the pains
to complete their conquests. It was also owing to their covetousness: they were
willing to let the Canaanites live among them, that they might make advantage
of them. They had not the dread and detestation of idolatry they ought to have
had. The same unbelief that kept their fathers forty years out of Canaan, kept
them now out of the full possession of it. Distrust of the power and promise of
God deprived them of advantages, and brought them into troubles. Thus many a
believer who begins well is hindered. His graces languish, his lusts revive,
Satan plies him with suitable temptations, the world recovers its hold; he
brings guilt into his conscience, anguish into his heart, discredit on his
character, and reproach on the gospel. Though he may have sharp rebukes, and be
so recovered that he does not perish, yet he will have deeply to lament his
folly through his remaining days; and upon his dying bed to mourn over the opportunities
of glorifying God and serving the church he has lost. We can have no fellowship
with the enemies of God within us or around us, but to our hurt; therefore our
only wisdom is to maintain unceasing war against them.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Judges》
Judges 1
Verse 1
[1] Now
after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked
the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight
against them?
After the death —
Not long after it; for Othniel, the first judge, lived in Joshua's time.
Asked the Lord —
Being assembled together at Shiloh, they enquired of the high-priest by the
Urim and the Thummim.
Against the Canaanites first — Finding their people multiply exceedingly, and consequently the
necessity of enlarging their quarters, they renew the war. They do not enquire
who shall be captain general to all the tribes; but what tribe shall first
undertake the expedition, that by their success the other tribes may be
encouraged to make the like attempt upon the Canaanites in their several lots.
Verse 2
[2] And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land
into his hand.
Judah —
The tribe of Judah is chosen for the first enterprise, because they were both
most populous, and so most needing enlargement; and withal most valiant, and
therefore most likely to succeed: for God chooseth fit means for the work which
he designs. Moreover the Canaanites were numerous and strong in those parts,
and therefore to be suppressed, before they grew too strong for them.
Verse 3
[3] And
Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may
fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with thee into thy lot. So
Simeon went with him.
To Simeon — As
nearest to him both by relation, being his brother by both parents, and by
habitation.
The Canaanites —
Specially so called, because they are distinguished from the Perizzites, verse 4.
Verse 4
[4] And
Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into
their hand: and they slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men.
In Bezek —
Not in the city, for that was not yet taken, verse 5, but in the territory of it.
Verse 5
[5] And they found Adonibezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they
slew the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Adoni-bezek —
The lord or king of Bezek; as his name signifies.
In Bezek —
Whither he fled when he lost the field.
Against him —
That is, against the city wherein he had encamped himself, and the rest of his
army.
Verse 6
[6] But
Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his
thumbs and his great toes.
Great toes —
And this they did, either by the direction of God, or upon notice of his former
tyranny and cruelty.
Verse 7
[7] And
Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great
toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath
requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
Threescore and ten —
Which is not strange in those times and places. For it is well known, that
anciently each ruler of a city, or great town, was called a king, and had
kingly power in that place; and many such kings we meet with in Canaan: and it
is probable, that some years before, kings were more numerous there, 'till the
greater devoured many of the less.
Under my table — An
act of barbarous inhumanity thus to insult over the miserable, joined with
abominable luxury.
Verse 8
[8] Now
the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and
smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
And took —
Yet some of the inhabitants retired into the castle, and held out there 'till
David's time.
Verse 10
[10] And
Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron
before was Kirjatharba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.
Judah went —
Under the conduct of Caleb, as is recorded, Joshua 15:14, etc., for that relation, and this,
are doubtless one and the same expedition, and it is mentioned there by
anticipation.
Verse 16
[16] And
the children of the Kenite, Moses' father in law, went up out of the city of
palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth
in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.
Moses's father-in-law — That is, of Jethro, so called from the people whom he descended, Numbers 24:21,22. And, whatsoever he did, it is
evident, that his posterity came into Canaan with the Israelites, and were
there seated with them, see chap. 4:11,17 5:24; 1 Samuel 15:6; 1 Chronicles 2:1-54,55.
City of palm-trees —
That is, from Jericho, so called, Deuteronomy 34:3, not the city which was
destroyed, but the territory belonging to it, where it seems they were seated,
in a most pleasant, and fruitful, and safe place, according to the promise made
by Moses to their father, Numbers 10:29-32, and whence they might remove,
either to avoid the neighboring Canaanites; or out of love to the children of
Judah.
South of Arad — In
the southern part of the land of Canaan, where Arad was, Numbers 21:1.
They went —
That is some of them, for others of them dwelt in a contrary quarter, in the
most northern part of the land.
Among the people —
Heb. that people, namely, those children of Judah that lived there.
Verse 17
[17] And
Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they slew the Canaanites that inhabited
Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah.
Judah went with Simeon — According to his promise, verse 3, and the laws of justice and gratitude.
Hormah —
Either, 1. The same place so called, Numbers 21:3, and so what was there vowed, is
here executed: or, 2. Some other place called by the same name upon the like
occasion, which was frequent among the Hebrews. This seems more probable.
Verse 18
[18] Also
Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and
Ekron with the coast thereof.
Judah took — It
is only said, they took the cities, and probably contented themselves with
making them tributary; but it is not said that they slew the people, as they
ought to have done; and as it is said of the other cities here. And the people
being thus spared, did by God's just judgment recover their strength, and expel
the Jews out of their cities. It is farther observable, that Ekron here taken,
was one of Dan's cities, Joshua 19:43, and it was taken here by Judah and
Simeon, partly out of love for their brother Dan, and partly to secure their
new conquests, and other adjoining territories, from such potent neighbours.
Verse 19
[19] And
the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but
could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of
iron.
Could not drive —
Because of their unbelief, whereby they distrusted God's power to destroy those
who had chariots of iron, and so gave way to their own fear and sloth, whereby
God was provoked to withdraw his helping hand.
Verse 22
[22] And
the house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel: and the LORD was with
them.
House of Joseph —
That is, the tribe of Ephraim.
Verse 24
[24] And
the spies saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said unto him, Shew
us, we pray thee, the entrance into the city, and we will shew thee mercy.
The entrance — On
which side it is weakest, that we might best invade and take it.
Verse 25
[25] And
when he shewed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the
edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all his family.
His family —
Together with his estate, as the following verse manifests.
Verse 26
[26] And
the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the
name thereof Luz: which is the name thereof unto this day.
The Hittites —
Where the Hittites seated themselves after they were driven out of Canaan,
which seems to be northward from Canaan, and near upon it.
Verse 27
[27]
Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor
Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the
inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her
towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.
Manasseh —
That is, that half of this tribe which dwelt in Canaan.
Verse 29
[29]
Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the
Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
In Gezer —
Which they possessed 'till Solomon's time, 1 Kings 9:16.
Verse 34
[34] And
the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer
them to come down to the valley:
The valley —
That is, into the plain country; which was the occasion of that expedition for
the getting new quarters, of which we read Joshua 19:47,48 and chap. Judges 18:1-31.
Verse 35
[35] But
the Amorites would dwell in mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the
hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries.
House of Joseph —
That is, of the Ephraimites, who helped their brethren the Danites against the
Amorites.
Verse 36
[36] And
the coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and
upward.
Akrabbim —
Which was in the southern part of Canaan, Joshua 15:2,3, from whence it went up towards
the north. This is added to shew the great power and large extent of this
people.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Judges》
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-10
The children of Israel asked the Lord.
Simplicity in prayer
Just that! How we have modernised and complicated and destroyed
prayer! “The children of Israel asked the Lord.” How simple, how direct, how
sensible, how likely to succeed! The altar may have lost its power: no atheist
has pulled down the altar, no outsider has taken away one stone from the holy
pile; the suppliants may have torn down their own altar. We will modernise and
invent and enlarge and embroider the simplicity that would have saved us. “The
children of Israel asked the Lord,” whispered to Him, hailed Him, arrested His
condescending attention by some sign of necessity. They whispered to the Lord,
they told Him plainly the condition in which they were placed, and brought the
whole need under His attention; they wanted leadership and captaincy and
guidance, and they said, “Who shall do this?” The method has not been changed;
Jesus Christ added nothing to this old method. Said He, “Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
“If any man lack wisdom, let him ask.” We have changed all that; we now are in
danger of approaching the Lord as if He were an infinite Shah, and must needs
be approached with long words and logical sequence. Speaking to God elevates
the mind; prayer, however brief and however tremulous, takes the suppliant up to
a higher level than he has ever scaled before. The whole idea of religion is
intellectually elevating; no man can be truly religious and meanly little; to
touch the Divine garment even at its edge is to rise to a new stature and to
breathe a new air. I repeat, therefore, that asking God, talking to God,
communing with God, elevates the mind. It is the spiritual exercise that
elevates the soul; the words themselves may be poor, they may be ungrammatical,
they may be uttered in a very halting and stumbling tone, but the exercise,
spiritually understood, rightly interpreted, lifts the soul world on world a
thousand worlds higher than can ever be occupied by a mere denizen of this
world of dust. We cannot look God in the face without catching something of the
brightness of His smile. Do they take knowledge of us that we have been with
the literature of the day, with the journals of the morning, with the gossip of
the time? or do they take knowledge of us that we have just come from the
altar, that we have just seen the King, that we have not a moment ago been
closeted with Christ, having shut the door, and do we come out of the
presence-chamber new born, newly ordained, just crowned with the approbation of
the Divine love? Talking to God, asking God, laying the whole case before God,
sometimes laying it before Him without words, sometimes simply looking into His
face, sometimes letting our throbbing, aching misery look into the infinite
peace of the Divine tranquillity, will lift a man to a new status and clothe him
with a new influence and enrich him with an abiding benediction. Let your
misery seek the face of the King. Do not keep anything from God; yon know
perfectly well that you cannot keep anything from His omniscience; that is not
the meaning of the exhortation; the meaning rather is, tell God everything as
if He had never heard it; go and tell Jesus. Do not ask the man who never
prayed to tell you what he thinks of prayer. People are tempted to make a great
mistake in that matter. They are going to hear an agnostic lecture on the
subject of prayer! A prayerless man cannot lecture on that theme. Sooner ask a
dead man to tell you his candid opinion of Beethoven than ask a prayerless man
to tell you what he thinks of prayer. Ask the man who never was an inch from
his own fireside what he thinks of the climate of the North Pole or the South.
Consult saintly souls about the value of prayer. “The children of Israel asked
the Lord.” They did not dictate to Him. Prayer is not dictation; prayer is not
always even suggestion, and when prayer is suggestion it is offered with
halting breath and with a most reverent faith, lest a suggestion should be not
only a sophism but an expression of selfishness. Ask God about everything; you
undervalue life if you think there is anything beneath His attention; the very
smallest thing that concerns you concerns Him; He has told us so in many a
beauteous parable. Saith He, “A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without My
notice.” Observe, the people in question were “the children of Israel.”
Character is implied; character is not only implied, it is recognised and held
up as a lesson. They belong to a praying host, to a covenanted ancestry, they
were involved in the baptism of an oath. Do not imagine that a man can leap out
of atheism and begin to pray for some selfish purpose, and have his answer on the spot.
Character determines prayer; the simple heart suggests the right petition; the
sincere spirit, praying at the Cross and in the name of Christ, can alone pray
with lasting and ennobling effect. In this respect there is something in
heredity, there is something in the covenant, something in the eternal decree.
We stand the last members up to this moment of a great ancestry of prayer. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Who shall go up for us
against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?--
Dead leaders and living duties
I. A great leader
dead, and life’s duties as pressing as ever.
1. Let who will and what will pass away, our own work only passes
with our own life.
2. The advancement of God’s purpose is dependent on no life in
particular.
3. Great lives are sometimes removed that other lives may better feel
their responsibility and cultivate their strength.
II. human direction
suddenly failing, and Divine guidance specially sought.
1. Prayer prompted by the removal of long familiar light.
2. Prayer over unfulfilled commandments.
3. Prayer provoked by gathering dangers.
4. Prayer for God’s appointment of our post in life.
5. The realism of prayer to every true-hearted suppliant.
III. An eminently
faithful past demanding a no less vigorous future. Judah had already done well.
He who has done well in the past is under perpetual obligation to do no less
well in the future. God also chooses those for new duties who have best served
in the past.
IV. God specially
choosing some of His servants, but leaving them liberty to seek the help of
others.
1. The benefits of co-operation. What one cannot do, two can. What
one can only do with difficulty, two can do easily.
2. The limits of co-operation. Judah might only seek aid from his own
brethren, not from idolaters.
V. The Lord’s call
to great duties followed by His rich blessing on those who seek faithfully to
perform them. “The Lord delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their
hand.”
1. God calls and sends none of His servants in vain.
2. God’s blessing answers to His own promise of blessing.
3. God’s blessing satisfies His people’s highest hopes. (F. G.
Marchant.)
Dead heroes missed
1. In that this people was now constrained to look about them, and
(now Joshua was dead) to do that themselves for their peace and quiet which he
was wont to do for them, we are taught that when special persons are taken away
then they who were left behind must put forth themselves and take the more pain
than before. The which being so, men should make this use of such changes to
provide and learn to want their good helps and friends beforehand. They should
also acknowledge daily with hearty thanks to God what a benefit they have of
them, while they enjoy them, and do all good that they may by the help of them.
Which they cannot do, but they must of necessity feel the loss of them to be
very great, and see that they must now lay their shoulders to the burden. For
the which purpose
this I add--oh, how sweetly and to their good liking have many lived when they
had others to bear their burdens for them--as husbands, wives, subjects,
children, neighbours: there is no doubt but that (which is the chiefest of all}
they have therewith, that God is their friend also. But seeing many depend only
on them in a carnal manner, and on their living still with them, and rest not
on God, therefore their props fail them, and their desolation cometh upon them
as the enemy upon
an unarmed man.
2. We are taught here by their example, who sought to God in their doubts for counsel
and resolution, that in all our doubtful eases, partly touching our estate
towards God, and partly particular duties and actions if our special callings
and conditions of life, while we remain here on earth we should consult with
and ask counsel of God for our resolution, in such manner as He hath taught us,
and in no wise to conceal and bury our wants and defects that trouble us, or
pass by the sins that cleave to us, or other difficulties in our dealings and
business that oppress us, for so we provide ill for ourselves, even to live in
ignorance and sorrow (with ether inconveniences annexed thereunto) for ever
after. (R. Rogers.)
And the Lord said, Judah
shall go up.
God sovereign over His servants
May we not pause here to allow this oracular response to sink into
the heart? How full it is in its manifold meaning! It asserts the sovereignty
of God in disposing and ordering the work which His servants have to perform.
It reminds us that every one is not to attempt everything; for Judah is to
fight the enemy and the other tribes are to remain at home. It promises
victory, not to every ardent soldier who might volunteer to take the field, but
to the tribe whom the Lord shall order to the battle. It disturbs all
rule-of-three calculations of success in proportion to the number of agents men
may induce to go to work; success is for those whom the Lord shall send. It
allows of no objection, no plea of incompetency, no deceitful humility, on the
part of the called soldier: “Judah shall go up”; it is the word of a King. It
hides pride from man, by declaring that although Judah would conquer, it would
be only through Divine ordination and help. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
Adoni-bezek.--
The punishment of Adoni-bezek
I. The instability
and uncertainty of worldly greatness. Look at this man--and behold in what
slippery places God sets the mighty and noble. From the eagerness with which
mankind pursue the distinctions of life, we should conclude, not only that they
were very valuable in themselves, but that no kind of precariousness attached
to them. But let not the strong be secure; let not the honourable be vain; let
not the rich be high-minded. What is all history but a narrative of the
reverses to which all earthly things are liable, however firmly established
they once appeared to be; of the revolutions of empires; the destruction of
cities; of the mighty put down from their seats; of counsellors led away
spoiled, or politicians disgraced, generals banished, and monarchs put to
death!
II. Judgment
overtaking the sinner in this life. Nor does Adoni-bezek stand alone as an
instance of the present punishment of sin. Adam and Eve driven out of paradise;
flood; cities of the plain; Lot’s wife; Gehazi; Ananias and Sapphira, etc.
This, however, is not always the case. The misery of the sinner is principally
reserved for a future world, and we are now in a state of probation. But God
would confirm our faith in His adorable providence. If all sin was punished
here, we should look no further; if no sin, we should not easily believe in the
power, the holiness, the truth of God. We may add that the punishment of sin in
this world is sometimes
unavoidable. If nations are punished at all, they must be punished in time--for
in eternity men exist only as individuals. Nearly the same may be said of a
family. Yea, the present punishment of sin is in some measure natural. For how
frequently do men’s sufferings arise from the very sins they commit!
Extravagance breeds ruin--indolence, poverty--intemperance, disease.
III. Punishment
inflicted after long delay. Behold the career of this sinner! What a lengthened
course of iniquity was here! “So long and so often had I done this, that I
thought God had not seen, or did not remember. But He has found me out; and I
live long enough to be a miserable instance of this awful truth--that however
long punishment may be delayed, it will at last be inflicted--as I have done,
so God hath requited me.”
IV. A
correspondence between sin and suffering: “What I have inflicted upon others,
is now inflicted upon me; and in my very punishment I read my crime--as I have
done, so God hath requited me.”
1. Between sin and punishment there is sometimes a comparative
conformity. This is the case when we suffer things which have some resemblance
to our crimes.
2. Sometimes there is also between them a direct conformity. This is
the case when we suffer in the same way and in the same things in which we sin.
3. But there is a future conformity still mere dreadful (Galatians 6:7).
V. The hand of God
acknowledged, while men are only employed--“God hath requited me.” But who saw
anything of Him? A good man perceives the hand of God in all events, and he
wishes to see it. But it is otherwise with the sinner. His apprehension of God
is forced upon him; he would gladly get rid of the conviction: it is all terror
and dismay to him--for he knows that God is his adversary, and He may now be
coming to lay hold of him; he knows that he has a long account to give, and
this may be the time of reckoning. Hence the bitterness of affliction: it is
regarded not only as a trial, but as a punishment.
Lessons:
1. Abhor cruelty. It is equally disgraceful to religion and humanity.
It renders you unpitied of God and man.
2. Improve the case of examples. If they were not particularly
adapted to do us good, the Word of God would not be so full of them. Lodge them
in your memory. Often reflect upon them. And make use of the dreadful as well
as the pleasing. It is necessary that we should be awakened to flee from the
wrath to come. (W. Jay.)
The story of requital
I. The life of man
cannot escape the judgment of God: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked,” etc.
Man may deny it, may theoretically disregard it, but cannot escape it! At the
heart of things is the spirit of judgment. Human life appears to be confused,
but before the Almighty it has shape, and plan, and purpose.
II. Let no man take
the law into his own hands: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Why have we suffered loss in business? May it not be that we have oppressed the
poor and needy? Why are our schemes delayed and thwarted? Probably because we
have been obstinate and unfriendly towards the schemes of others. Why are we
held in disesteem or neglect? Probably because of the contempt in which we have
held our brethren. So we are to look at the moral working of things, and to see
in the results which are forced upon us, not the petty anger of men, but the
holy and righteous judgment of God.
III. Every good deed
will be honoured with appropriate reward.
1. Good deeds are their own reward.
2. Deeds done merely for the sake of reward cannot be good.
IV. Though justice
be long delayed, yet it will be vindicated eventually. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Adoni-bezek; or, righteous retribution
In the accompaniments of war, not only have the most terrible
injuries been inflicted during the battles, but when over the persons of the
conquered have sometimes been subjected to worse torments than any they could
have endured on the field. These doings have often been defended on the ground
that they were necessary to self-defence and self-preservation. Alas! they are
sometimes only to be explained by the depraved desire in the human heart of
exercising arbitrary and cruel power. The practice referred to in this
chapter--that of excision of the thumbs of captives--comes under this class.
Probably it was to brand men as cowards that Adoni-bezek carried on such a
cruel practice. He had evidently delighted in practising as much cruelty as
possible. If he had thus treated seventy-two kings, it is probable that he had
maltreated, or caused to be tormented, many others of inferior rank. The
victorious Israelites advance, and Adoni-bezek has to fight a battle in which,
instead of being the victor, he is the captive. He was taken and led, a
prisoner, into the presence of another. Never had he anticipated this; much
less that he would have to suffer as others had done through him. With hands
and feet writhing from the recent excision, he makes this acknowledgment: “As I
have done, so God hath requited me.”
1. Adoni-bezek notices the remarkable correspondence between previous
barbarity and present suffering. He takes it in the sense of retribution.
2. The evil which falls upon us may ofttimes be the consequence of
the wrong-doing of others. Sometimes various circumstances connected with
bringing the offender to justice are so remarkable, and seemingly so responsive
to crime, that there arises in the minds of others the belief that it is a
special and divinely-imposed retribution.
3. The recognition of the correspondence between past acts and his
present misfortune leads Adoni-bezek to ascribe it to a Divine hand: “God has
requited me.” He was not an Israelite, had probably been an idolater, and may
have trusted in false gods for a long time, He had heard of God, and what He
had done to other nations; now he finds himself conquered, and is led to
attribute his personal sufferings to the God of the Israelites. God has so
arranged natural law that it works in harmony with eternal justice. There is a
subtle connection between our acts and our sufferings. We may see illustrations
of this every day. A man may act in a certain loose and careless way and
prepare for himself consequences the most terrible and unlooked-for. Another
gives way to fierce, ungoverned passions, and makes himself, thereby, wretched.
Another chooses to spend his time only in the pursuits of pleasure, and to
squander his money on every foolish thing that pleases his eye; he soon finds
himself without the power to enjoy, and without money to procure such
enjoyment. Another gives way to pilfering, and soon finds himself discharged,
characterless. Even if he is not punished by law, he is dishonoured. Or a youth
may have kind parents, and every opportunity of making his way in the world,
but he gives way to dissipated habits, and finally, when character is gone and
friends are dead, is glad to earn the most trifling sum under men whom he once
despised A just retribution in all such cases certainly follows the sin. Like
Adoni-bezek, such must confess that God “hath requited” the wrong-doing.
4. This acknowledgment concerning the just requital of sin is sure to
take place in the other world, if not in this. Pagan mythology taught that the
mean and sly will, in the other world, take the lynx form; the slanderers, that
of the vampire fanning ever to sleep, and sucking the life-blood at the same
time; that the hypocritical will be as crocodiles, crawling in mud and shedding
false tears; and that the narrow and bigoted, fearful of truth and loving
error, may be as owls, hooting amid darkness and ruin, in the forsaken and
desolate regions of the other world. May not the dishonest man there have to
cringe and hide himself still more? May not the drunken man have a constant
craving, a burning thirst, a racking brain? May not the ambitious man have a
constant anxiety to obtain power, and the torment of always being supplanted,
or effectually checked, by others? May not the avaricious man be in a constant
fever of suspicion? May not the ill-tempered man be in a constant whirl of
passion, and make himself more and more wretched? May not the ruthless and
cruel fear the scorn of their victims and clutches of their enemies? May not
the voluptuary have to bear the torment of an inflamed heart and ungratified
lusts? (Fred. Hastings.)
A thrilling life and its lessons
I. The life. Brief
biography. Throned. Successful in war. Cruel. At last a defeated tyrant, Three
scenes.
1. Celebrating his victories.
2. Feeding royal captives.
3. The defeated tyrant’s unsuccessful flight.
II. The lessons.
Note three--
1. To what depths of cruelty it is possible for some to sink
themselves. How came Adoni to be such a tyrant?
2. Honoured men sometimes fall from palace to prison.
3. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.” (Homiletic Review.)
Punishment delayed
God often forbears and defers His punishments. “As I did long
ago,” saith Adoni-bezek, “yea again and again, seventy times one after
another--so long and so often that I thought God had either not seen or quite
forgotten me; yet now I see He requiteth me.” How true this observation is, is
sufficiently witnessed by their experience who have little less than stumbled
hereat. This made Care, a heathen man, to cry out: “The disposals of Divine
providence are not a little cloudy and dark.” This made David, a man after
God’s own heart, to confess and say: “My feet were almost gone, my steps had
well-nigh slipped.” This made Jeremiah cry out from the bottom of an amazed
soul: “Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I plead with Thee; yet let me talk with
Thee of Thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Why are
they happy that deal very treacherously?” Yea, those martyred saints (Revelation 6:10) are heard to cry from
under the altar, “How long?” etc. Now as these forenamed have stumbled at God’s
delaying His judgments, so others there are who have been quite deceived,
verily believing that with God what was forborne was also forgotten. Such an
one was Adoni-bezek here, who, having escaped so long, thought to have escaped
ever. And such were those whereof David spake (Psalms 10:6). Such an one is the great
whore of Babylon, that sings: “I sit like a queen, and am no widow, and shall
see no sorrow.” Such an one was Pherecydes Syrins, master of Pythagoras, and a
famous philosopher, and one that is said to have been the first philosopher
that taught among the Greeks the soul to be immortal; and yet among all his
knowledge had not learned this one principle: “The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom.” For, as AElian reports, he used among his scholars to
vaunt of his irreligion after this manner, saying that he had never offered
sacrifice to any god in all his life, and yet had lived as long and as merrily
as those who had offered several hecatombs. But he that thus impiously abused
the long-suffering of God came at length to an end as strange as his impiety
was unusual; for so they report of him that he was stricken, like Herod by the
angel of the Lord, with such a disease that serpents bred of the corrupt
humours of his body, which ate and consumed him being yet alive. But that we
may neither distrust the righteous ways of God, nor prevent His unsearchable
counsels with our over-hasty expectation, let us a little consider of the ends
why God oftentimes defers and prolongs His judgments.
1. For the sake of godly ones, for whom God useth to forbear even
multitudes of sinners. So had there been but ten righteous persons in Sodom,
Sodom had never been destroyed: “I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.” So for
good Josiah’s sake God deferred the plagues He had decreed to bring upon that
people (2 Kings 22:20).
2. To give time of repentance and amendment (2 Peter 3:9). This is shown by the
parable of the fig-tree (Luke 13:7). A hundred and twenty years
the old world had given them before the flood came.
3. The opportunity of example by them unto others and of manifesting
His own glory. God is Lord of times; and as He created them, so He alone knows
a fit time for all things under the sun. He, therefore, who knows all
occasions, when He seeth a fit time for His judgments to profit other men by
example, and most of all to set forth His own glory, then He sends them forth
and till then He will defer them.
4. When God, intending some extraordinary judgment, suffers men’s
sins to grow unto a full ripeness that their sin may be as conspicuous unto the
world as His purpose in their punishment shall be. Thus God punished not the
Canaanites in Abraham’s time, but deferred it till Israel’s coming out of
Egypt; and that, as Himself witnesseth (Genesis 15:16): “Because the iniquity of
the Amorites was not yet full.” And therefore is not this last end to be looked
for in all God’s delays; but it seemeth proper to His extraordinary
punishments--when God meaneth, as it were, to get Himself a name amongst men,
then God stays to have the sin full, upon which He will pour a full vial of
wrath and indignation. (Joseph Mede, B. D.)
Adoni-bezek’s confession
I. The suffering
of punishment extorts the confession of sin. The reason whereof is the very
nature of punishment, which always implieth some offence, and therefore is a
good remembrancer of the same. Thus Joseph’s brethren, when they were
distressed in Egypt, cried, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.” Proud
Pharaoh, when he saw the plague of hail and thunder, said: “I have now sinned;
the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.” The proud stomachs of
the Israelites came down when once the fiery serpents stung them, and then they
came to Moses and said: “We have sinned; for we have spoken against the Lord
and against thee.” Manasseh, whom all the threatenings of God’s prophets in
fifty years’ space could never move, yet when he was bound in fetters and
carried prisoner unto Babylon, “then he besought the Lord his God, and humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” Whosoever, therefore, he be
that feels not this fruit and makes not this use of his afflictions is worse
than hard-hearted Pharaoh, worse than cruel Adoni-bezek. But if by this means
we come to see and acknowledge our sin, then may we say with David: “It is good
for me that I was afflicted,” and give praise unto our God, who is able out of
such hard rocks as these to make flow the saving waters of repentance.
II. God’s judgment
for sin is one of the strongest motives to make an atheist confess there is a
God. Those who say, “There is no God,” David accounteth them in the number of
fools (Psalms 53:1). Solomon styleth punishment
the schoolmaster of fools. If for all fools, then also for atheistical fools,
that they, either by their own or by example of God’s plagues upon others, may
be taught to put away their folly. Most certain it is, the not observing of God’s
judgments, or the supposed examples of some who seem to escape the hand of God
in the greatest sins, is a main occasion of atheism. For this cause, therefore,
David, as jealous of God’s honour and knowing what force God’s judgments have
to keep atheism from creeping into the hearts of men, desireth God (Psalms 59:13). Hence it is also that God
often in Ezekiel doth plainly affirm this to be the end of His judgments, that
it might be known that He was the Lord. As in Ezekiel 6:6 thus He threatens Israel:
“Your cities shall be laid waste, and your high places shall be desolate,” etc.
verse 7: “And the slain shall fall in the midst of you; and you shall know that
I am the Lord.” And again, verses 12, 13: “He that is far off shall die by the
pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword. Then shall ye know
that I am the Lord.” And Ezekiel 25:17, concerning the
Philistines: “I will execute great vengeance upon them, saith the Lord, with
furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall lay My
vengeance upon them.” If this, then, be so as ye have heard, let us learn hence
a good preservative against atheism and all the ill motions of the devil and
our flesh drawing thereunto; not lightly, as most men do, to pass over the
judgments of God upon sin, but duly and diligently to observe them; if in
ourselves, then more severely; if in our neighbours, curiously but charitably.
III. As punishment
in general bringeth sin to mind which else would be forgotten, so the fashion
and kind thereof well considered may lead us as it were by the hand, to know
the very sin we are punished for. God’s visible judgments have usually in them
a stamp of conformity with the sin for which they are inflicted; for either we
suffer the same thing ourselves that we have done to others or something resembling
or like unto it, or else are punished about the same thing wherein our sin was,
or, lastly, in the place or time where and when we sinned. I am persuaded there
is no judgment which God sends for any special sin but it hath one of these
marks in it. Come, therefore, to Adoni-bezek, and let us learn of him by God’s
stamp in our punishment to find out what sin He aims at. If we would once use
to read this handwriting of God in our afflictions, what a motive would it be
to make us leave many a sin wherein the devil nuzzles us the greater part of
our life without sense and feeling? For if anything would scare us from sin,
sure this would, to hear word from God Himself what the sin is He plagues us
for and so sharply warns us to amend. Whensoever, therefore, any cross or
calamity befalls us or any of ours, either in body, goods, or name, or in the
success of anything we take in hand, let us not rebel against God with an
impatient heart, or fret at the occasion or author of our misery; but let us
take a just account of our life past, and thus reason with ourselves: “This is
surely none other but the very finger of God; I am punished, therefore have I
sinned. I am punished thus and thus, in this or that sort, in this or that
thing, in this or that place or time; therefore God is angry with me for
something I have done, the same with that I suffer, or something like unto it,
or because I sinned in this thing, or at this time, or in this place, when and
where I am now punished. ‘As I have done, so surely God hath requited me.’
Therefore I will not look any longer upon any other cause or occasion of this
misery, of this cross or calamity, but look unto my sin and give glory unto God
who sent the hand which hath done all this unto me.” (Joseph Mede, B. D.)
The law of retribution
“The fox finds himself at last at the furrier’s,” and his fate is
all the more certain because of the foxy conduct in which he has been engaged.
They say “A bad deed never dies”; and they might further say that its life is
quickened and its sting intensified by the cumulative influence of time. “He
can’t reap wheat that sows hemlock”; the harvest must be to the full as
poisonous as the seed. As we brew, we must drink; so we cannot be too prudent
as to the purity of the materials or too careful of the mixing. “Do well, and
have well; do ill, and look for the like.” “Remember the reckoning” is a
pregnant old saw that might well be suspended in home and office, hearthstone
and wayside; it would often save men a tremendous balance on the contra side of
the ledgers both of money and morals. Sin and punishment are like the body and
the shadow, never very far apart. Who sin for their profit will not profit by
their sin; you may see nothing but well in its commission, you will see nothing
but woe in its conclusion. The law of retribution is as fixed as the law of
gravitation. There is a connecting string between ourselves and our misdeeds.
We tie ourselves by an invisible and enduring thread to every evil deed we do.
There is an Australian missile called the boomerang, which is thrown so as to
describe singular curves, and falls again at the feet of the thrower. Sin is
that boomerang, which goes off into space, but turns again upon its author,
and, with tenfold force, strikes him who launched it. (J. Jackson Wray.)
The retribution of God acknowledged
In saying, “God hath requited me,” it is to be noted that he, an
heathen idolater, could see so far as to ascribe to God his affliction. Whereby
we may see that very bad men do acknowledge God to be the striker and punisher
of them. But where should he learn it? for though it did him no good to
acknowledge it, yet it is that which many who have been baptized do not come
to, but curse and ban, rage and fret, in their afflictions, crying out of their
ill-fortune, as they
call it, so far are they from resting in the justice of God, and to say, “He
hath done righteously.” Also as they ascribe to chance and fortune their
calamities, so do they run for help to witches and sorcerers when they be
oppressed with them, which is greatly to the convicting of them. (R. Rogers.)
Retribution inevitable
Gravitation is not more unerring than retribution. Sin and
punishment have been said by Emerson to “grow out of one stem.” Sin is like the
flower that appears first; but punishment is the fruit lurking and swelling
within, and destined to appear when the flower is blown. (G. A. Sowter, M.
A.)
Kirjath-sepher.
The Book-Town
The name Kirjath-sepher, that is Book-Town, has been supposed to
point to the existence of a semi-popular literature among the pre-Judaean
inhabitants of Canaan. We cannot build with any certainty upon a name, but
there are other facts of some significance. Already the Phoenicians, the
merchants of the age, some of whom no doubt visited Kirjath-sepher on their way
to Arabia or settled in it, had in their dealings with Egypt begun to use that
alphabet to which most languages, from Hebrew and Aramaic on through Greek and
Latin to our own, are indebted for the idea and shapes of letters. And it is
not improbable that an old-world Phoenician library of skins, palm-leaves or
inscribed tablets had given distinction to this town lying away towards the
desert from Hebron. Written words were held in half-superstitious veneration,
and a very few records would greatly impress a district peopled chiefly by
wandering tribes. Nothing is insignificant in the pages of the Bible, nothing
is to be disregarded that throws the least light upon human affairs and Divine
providence; and here we have a suggestion of no slight importance. Doubt has
been east on the existence of a written language among the Hebrews till
centuries after the Exodus. It has been denied that the law could have been
written out by Moses. This difficulty is now seen to be imaginary, like many others that have
been raised. It is certain that the Phcenicians trading in Egypt in the time of
the Hyksos kings had settlements quite contiguous to Goshen. What more likely
than that the Hebrews, who spoke a language akin to the Phoenicians, should
have shared the discovery of letters almost from the first, and practised the
art of writing in the days of their favour with the monarchs of the Nile
valley? The oppression of the following period might prevent the spread of
letters among the people;
but a man like Moses must have seen their value and made himself familiar with
their use. The importance of this indication in the study of Hebrew law and
faith is very plain. Nor should we fail to notice the interesting connection
between the Divine lawgiving of Moses and the practical invention of a worldly
race. There is no exclusiveness in the providence of God. The art of a people,
acute and eager indeed, but without spirituality, is not rejected as profane by
the inspired leader of Israel. Egyptians and Phoenicians have their share in
originating that culture which mingles its stream with sacred revelation and
religion. Letters and religion, culture and faith, must needs go hand in hand.
(R. A. Watson, M. A.)
To him will I give Achsah my daughter.
Difficulties and hardships in life
There was more difficulty and danger in the winning of this city
than others; which teaches us that we must not think it strange if some part of
our life be more encumbered than other parts and times. The husbandman is
hindered sometimes by the rainy weather: but yet so, as he hath his seasons
free from it, to do his business in. The artificer is troubled about putting
away his wares, and the falling of the price, so that he cannot always make his
advantage of them, as ordinarily he doth, for the maintaining of himself and
his charge. But God changeth those times so that they do not always keep at one
stay. In more particular manner I might show the disappointments that all sorts
of people meet with and have. And why do I set down all this about the matter
in hand? but that we may see the wisdom and mercy of God herein, who mixeth
both together, because if all our life should be smoothly carried, and easily
passed, we should be made thereby unfit for our change, especially for great
trials, when they come; and so likewise, if it should be for the most part
tedious and troublesome, there should be nothing but weariness and discomfort.
And therefore all sorts should seek to be in God’s favour, that so they may
also be under His government in both estates. (R. Rogers.)
Thou hast given me a south
land; give me also springs of water.
The blessings given in the gospel
To Achsah Caleb gave a south land--a plot of land with a southern
aspect. It did not face the dark and chilly north; but the midday sun beat full
upon it. But still she has a request to make: the blessing given her is not
enough. The text reminds us of the blessing God has given us in the gospel. “A
south land.” What splendour of light--what a clear revelation of His mind and
will! Never has anything been seen on earth to rival it! Think of this! The
splendour of gospel light--the clear discovery of the way of our salvation--the
vision of a perfect harmony between all God’s attributes, no less than between
the creature’s highest good and the Creator’s highest glory! Ours is a “south
land.” The light does not come to us refracted through an atmosphere of types
and shadows; but falls full, so that our eyes are dazzled and filled with
tears; for it is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” seen “in the
face of Jesus Christ.” What fervour of love! There is light in the wintry
meteor that blazes across the northern sky, but there is no warmth in
it--nothing to stir the dulness of sleeping germs or folded buds, to bring the
blade through the soil or the blossom on the tree. But sun-rays have heat as
well as light in them--they have a quickening as well as an illuminating power.
And so the gospel is as fervent as it is splendid--it brings near to us a God
of light and love. Such is the blessing already given to all who are faithfully
taught the glorious gospel. The text tells us of another blessing yet to be
implored. See the case of Achsah. The mere possession of south land was not
enough for her; the light and heat of the noonday sun were not enough. Her
heritage needed another kind of influence to make it fruitful--that influence
that comes with springs of water. Without this the sun might shine and glow in
vain--nay, worse than in vain: it might soon become a curse rather than a
blessing. When “the heavens are as brass, and the earth is as iron,” that land fares
badly that faces the southern sun, and is without springs of water. How
naturally, then, might Achsah put up the prayer, “Thou hast given me a south
land; give me also springs of water.” See our case. Oh, it is very terrible to
think of, but plainly declared--that the great blessing of the gospel may
become a curse! If it is not “a savour of life unto life,” it will prove “a
savour of death unto death.” If it does not make us fruitful to man’s good and
God’s glory, it will only harden us, wither us, consume us. O dwellers in the
south land, awake! Awake, and cry aloud for “springs of water.” See the work of
the Holy Spirit. That work is very frequently referred to in Holy Scripture
under the figure of rain from heaven: rain, sometimes filling the wells and
watercourses, and sometimes feeding the secret springs. Observe--there is no
antagonism between the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit, any more than
between sun and rain. The one is the supplement to the other; both co-operate
harmoniously together to one blessed end. (F. Tucker, B. A.)
Achsah’s asking a pattern of prayer
I. Her
consideration of the matter before she went to her father.
1. She naturally wished that her husband should find in that estate
all that was convenient and all that might be profitable; and looking it all
over, she saw what was wanted. Before you pray, know what you are needing.
“Oh!” says somebody, “I utter some good words.” Does God want your words? Think
what you are going to ask before you begin to pray, and then pray like business
men.
2. This woman, before she went to her father with her petition, asked
her husband’s help. When she came to her husband “she moved him to ask of her
father a field.” It is often a great help in prayer for two of you to agree
touching the thing that concerns Christ’s kingdom. A cordon of praying souls
around the throne of grace will be sure to prevail.
3. Achsah bethought herself of this one thing, that she was going to
present her request to her father. I suppose that she would not have gone to
ask of anybody else; but she said to herself, “Come, Achsah, Caleb is your
father. The boon I am going to ask is not of a stranger, who does not know me,
but of a father, in whose care I have been ever since I was born.” This thought
ought to help us in prayer, and it will help us when we remember that we do not
go to ask of an enemy, nor to plead with a stranger; but we say, “Our Father,
which art in heaven.”
4. She went humbly, yet eagerly. If others will not pray with you, go
alone; and when you go, go very reverently. Thou art on earth, and God is in
heaven; multiply not thy words as though thou wert talking to thine equal.
II. Her
encouragement. “Caleb said unto her, what wilt thou?”
1. You should know what you want. Could some Christians, if God were
to say to them, “What wilt thou?” answer Him? Do you not think that we get into
such an indistinct, indiscriminate kind of a way of praying that we do not
quite know what we do really want? If it is so with you, do not expect to be
heard till you know what you want.
2. Ask for it. God’s way of giving is through our asking. I suppose
that He does that in order that He may give twice over, for a prayer is itself
a blessing as well as the answer to prayer. Perhaps it sometimes does us as
much good to pray for a blessing as to get the blessing.
III. The prayer
itself.
1. A good beginning: “Give me a blessing.” Why, if the Lord shall
hear that prayer from everybody in this place, what a blessed company we shall
be; and we shall go our way to be a blessing to this City of London beyond what
we have ever been before!
2. Notice next, how she mingled gratitude with her petition: “Give me
a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land.” Go back in grateful praise to
God for what He has done for thee in days gone by, and then get a spring for
thy leap for a future blessing or a present blessing. Mingle gratitude with all
thy prayers.
3. There was not only gratitude in this woman’s prayer, but she used
former gifts as a plea for more: “Thou hast given me a south land; give me
also,” etc. Oh, yes, that is a grand argument with God: “Thou hast given me;
therefore give me some more.” Every blessing given contains the eggs of other
blessing within it. Thou must take the blessing, and find the hidden eggs, and
let them be hatched by thine earnestness, and there shall be a whole brood of
blessings springing out of a single blessing. See thou to that.
4. But this woman used this plea in a particular way: she said, “Thou
hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water.” When you ask of
God, ask distinctly: “Give me springs of water.” You may say, “Give me my daily
bread.” You may cry, “Give me a sense of pardoned sin.” You may distinctly ask
for anything which God has promised to give.
IV. Her success
1. Her father gave her what she asked. And God gives us what we ask
for when it is wise to do so. But sometimes we make mistakes.
2. He gave her in large measure. The Lord “is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Some use that passage in prayer,
and misquote it, “above what we can ask or even think.” That is not in the
Bible, because you can ask or even think anything you like; but it is “above
all that we ask or think.” Our asking or our thinking falls short; but God’s
giving never does.
3. He gave her this without a word of upbraiding. Now, may the Lord
grant unto us to ask of Him in wisdom, and may He not have to upbraid us, but
give us all manner of blessings both of the upper and the ‘nether springs, both
of heaven and earth, both of eternity and time, and give them freely, and not
say even a single word by way of upbraiding us! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The upper springs and the nether springs
What is told us about Caleb’s daughter is an illustration of the
life of the soul.
1. Every earnest Christian, realising the seriousness of life, the
meaning of his profession, the destiny which is before him, ought to ask of God
a field; that is, a vocation. God individualises His servants. He has endowed
each one in His own wise way, and He expects each one to exercise His own
particular endowment for the glory of the Master and Lord. At the same time it
is also true that He allows us a great deal of liberty in adapting our
vocations to our lives, or perhaps one should rather say, adapting our lives to
our vocations. One who believes himself called to the ministry may not take up
any other profession, yet may without sin choose whether he will devote himself
to mission work or minister as opportunity may present itself in parish life.
In like manner the less marked commonplace vocations of everyday Christian life
are largely shaped by the earnest disciple himself following the bent of his
own enthusiasm, though it must be always in deference to the will of God, when
that is in any way specially manifested. Even in cases where there seems to be
no possibility of individual choosing, where one’s way seems marked out by
circumstances, and there is nothing to do but to go on in it, there should
still be conscious recognition of the opportunity of a willingly accepted
vocation; there should be the asking for a field on the part of the loyal soul;
that is, the asking for grace to do a true and useful work for God in the
circumstances He has prepared for us.
2. It does not take us long to discover that our fields are in the
land of the south--arid, hard to cultivate, lacking moisture. All true
vocations are hard and trying. The purpose of the existence of the kingdom of
heaven upon earth is the conquest and overthrow of the kingdom of evil; that
means that all who will serve in the Master’s service have to fight. It often
happens that, because vocations are found to be very hard, the disciple comes
to the conclusion that what he thought to be his calling is not truly so, that
he has made a mistake.
3. What then? The undaunted soul betakes itself to prayer. The
vocation is hard, almost unendurable; never mind, light down from off the ass
and pray for a blessing. There is here no thought of surrendering one’s
calling; of saying, “This is too hard a thing for me; take it away, and give me
an easier lot in Thy service.” Caleb’s daughter did not ask her father to
exchange the arid field for a fruitful and better situated one; she asked him
to give her something besides it, however. God loves to have us develop our
vocations by prayer. We must have especial and particular times of prayer set
apart for that purpose, wherein we light down, as it were, from our daily
duties and make our petitions to the Most High.
4. Did Caleb respond to his daughter’s petition? Aye, surely, but no
more surely than God responds to the prayers of His children who are striving
to live loyally in the vocations He has assigned them. She asked for springs of
water, for with springs of water to irrigate it the south land might be made
most fertile and profitable for every sort of good fruit. It is said
significantly that he gave to her both the upper springs and the nether
springs. For the lower springs, that is the wells, supplement the waters of the
upper springs. These last coming down abundantly in torrents from the
mountains, guided by the hand of man through the fields, make them exceeding
fertile, and then the superabundance of their waters is stored, according to
nature’s wise provision, in the lower wells, which do not dry up with the
long-continued heat of the summer, but remain an ever reliable and constant
supply. If God has given to His children hard and arid fields of labour, in
which they are to find their several vocations, we are not to forget that to
those who seek His help in prayer He grants abundantly the upper and the nether
springs.
5. What, then, are these upper springs, the fresh, cooling waters
from the hills, flowing down in copious streams, for man’s use and profit, that
the dry ground may be refreshed by them, and made to blossom as the rose and to
be fruitful with all manner of good things? Evidently these upper springs of
God’s gift are the waters of supernatural, sacramental grace; the waters that
flow down from the delectable mountains, the heavenly provision in overflowing
abundance for earthly spiritual drought. We were never meant to fulfil our
vocations without the help of grace. We think so much of our own energy, gifts, work, money,
as if these things earnestly and heartily applied were to make the arid south
land of God’s calling for us fertile. They are all very well, but do not
anything more valuable than dig the irrigating trenches which shall carry the
sparkling waters of the upper springs down through the dry land, and make it
productive.
6. And the nether springs, the lower wells, what are they in the
Christian life? They are those blessed reservoirs of the sacramental grace
which has been drawn in and assimilated by the correspondence of earnest
disciples, ready for use in the times when the upper springs do not seem to
flow freely, and to make fertile the field of the soul’s labour. They are
living fountains of God-given water, staying us when the special help from on
high seems for the time withdrawn.
Zephath . . . Hormah.
Zephath and Hormah
In the world of thought and feeling there are many Zephaths,
whence quick onset is often made upon the faith and hope of men. We are
pressing towards some end, mastering difficulties, contending with open and
known enemies. Only a little way remains before us. But invisible among the
intricacies of experience is this lurking foe who suddenly falls upon us. It is
a settlement in the faith of God we seek. The onset is of doubts we had not
imagined, doubts of inspiration, of immortality, of the incarnation, truths the
most vital. We are repulsed, broken, disheartened. There remains a new
wilderness journey till we reach by the way of Moab the fords of our Jordan and
the land of our inheritance. Yet there is a way, sure and appointed. The
baffled, wounded soul is never to despair. And when at length the settlement of
faith is won, the Zephath of doubt may be assailed from the other side,
assailed successfully and taken. The experience of some poor victims of what is
oddly called philosophic doubt need dismay no one. For the resolute seeker
after God there is always a victory, which in the end may prove so easy, so
complete, as to amaze him. The captured Zephath is not destroyed nor abandoned,
but is held as a fortress of faith. It becomes Hormah--the consecrated. (R.
A. Watson, M. A.)
Judah . . . could not drive out the inhabitants
of the valley.
What hinders the gospel
Infinite Intelligence has a plan by which He does all things. He
never works by impulse or caprice.
1. God frequently makes human agency the condition of His own action.
2. So entirely does the Almighty abide by this plan, that if the
required human agency is not put forth, He will not work. These “chariots of
iron” so discouraged and terrified the Israelites that they would not do the
part which God designed them to do; and because God would not violate His own
plan, He “could not” drive them out. God’s plan is the best, and He cannot
deviate from the best. Now, the plan by which He promotes the circulation of
the gospel amongst men is most clearly revealed in the Bible; and it is this--a
proper human representation of it. The Divine idea is to be reflected on man
through man. Why the great Author of the gospel should proceed on such a plan
is a question which, if proper, it is not necessary to determine. We may as
well ask why He has left the life of the world, vegetable and animal, to depend upon the solar
beams and the fertile showers. It is enough for me to know, as the reasons of His procedure in any
case, that as His nature is love, the ultimate reason of every act is some
benevolent idea. Love is the planning genius of the universe: it frames and
fashions all. Nor is it difficult to see love in the plan in question. What an
honour does it confer on human nature to make it the reflector and exponent of
Divine ideas! What benign power, too, is there in the arrangements to stimulate the devout to
benevolent effort, and to unite the human family in the bonds of gratitude and
compassion! Three general remarks may suffice to show that there has been
sufficient mal-representation to account for its present limited influence.
I. That the gospel
regards the ceremonial as subordinate to the doctrinal. Though the Old
Testament had many rites, the New has only two--baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
But the rites of both the Old and the New were intended to answer the same
functions in the economy of revelation, namely, to adumbrate doctrines.
II. That the gospel
regards the doctrinal as subservient to the ethical. And if this is so, a mere
theological manifestation is a mal-representation. Christianity consists mainly
of two elements--doctrines and precepts: subjects for faith and rules for
life--theology and morality. Doctrines and precepts are rays from the same
eternal sun of truth; the former, however, throwing their radiance
upwards--revealing the vast heavens that encircle us, and impressing us with
ideas of infinitude; the latter flowing down upon our earthly path, and guiding
our feet in the way of life. Of what use would the sun be to us if all its rays
streamed upwards, unfolding the boundless blue, and none reached our earthly
sphere, to show us how to act? The theology of the Bible is useless to a man
unless it changes his heart and moulds his life anew. The doctrines of Christ
are not learnt like the doctrines of Newton or Euclid, by mere intellectual
study; they are learnt by the heart and the life. Action alone translates
Christian doctrines into meaning.
III. That the gospel
regards the true ethical as embodied in the life of Christ. And if this is so,
a mere dry legal manifestation of it is a mal-representation. Where are the
ethical elements whose illustration, enforcement, and promotion, all doctrines
are to subserve, to be found? Are they to be found in the statutes of
governments, the rubrics of Churches, or the practices of religious sects? No!
Men have often made sound doctrine subservient to the corrupt ethics drawn from
such sources; but the ethics to which all sound theology should ever minister
are embodied in the life of one Being--Christ. Our whole duty is summed up in
His command, “Follow Me.” Assimilation to Christ is the perfection of man.
Another train of thought may further serve to illustrate the various forms of
the mal-representation, and to sum up our observations upon this truly
momentous theme.
1. The ceremonies of the gospel being only intended as the symbols of
its doctrines, a mere ritualistic ministry of it is a mal-representation.
2. The doctrines of the gospel being coincident with human reason,
any irrational manifestation of it is a mal-representation.
3. The meaning of the gospel being only truly reached by experience,
a mere professional manifestation of it is a mal-representation. Christianity is
only thoroughly understood by the heart.
4. The genius of the gospel being that of benevolence, any unloving
manifestation of it is a mal-representation. Does the Church represent love?
warm, self-denying, world-wide love? If not, it does not represent the gospel.
5. The provisions of the gospel being for universal man, any
restricted offer of them is a mal-representation. Let the narrow-minded bigot
preach that the sun was lit up for a class; or that the ocean was poured forth
for a class; or that the sea of air, whose every wave is life, rolls through
the world for a class; and his sermons will be as true to nature as those
sermons are to the gospel, that proclaim that God’s mercy is only for a
“favourite few.” My conclusion is, that the first thing to be done in order to
convert the world is to reform the Church. You may have your missionary
societies, you may send forth your emissaries, you may stud the globe with your
missionary stations; but unless the Church will give the Christianity of Christ
in His own spirit of love, it will be labour lost. (Homilist.)
Chariots of iron.--
Chariots of iron
I. The Lord’s
power was trusted and magnified: “The Lord was with Judah.”
1. Great victories.
2. Numerous victories.
3. Brotherly action (Judges 1:3).
4. God gave great proofs of His presence and power by raising up,
here and there, a man in their midst who performed heroic deeds. Caleb shall be
gathered to his fathers, but Othniel shall follow him, who shall be as brave as
he.
5. The reason why the
men of Judah were successful was because they had full confidence
in God. The Lord
will not fall short of the measure: let us not make the measure short.
II. The Lord’s
power restrained because distrusted. The men of Judah could drive out the
inhabitants of the mountain, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of
the valley, because they had chariots of iron. As far as their faith went, so
far God kept touch with them, and they could do anything and everything; but
when they despondingly thought that they could not drive out the inhabitants of
the wide valleys, then they failed utterly.
1. They retained too much confidence in themselves. If their
confidence had been in God alone, these chariots of iron would have been
ciphers in the calculation, The bare arm of God is the source of all power.
2. They believed one promise of God and did not believe another.
Beware of being pickers and choosers of God’s promises.
3. There was a further reason for failure arising out of this
imperfection of their faith: they could not conquer the chariots of iron,
because, first, they did not try. The Hebrew does not say that they could not
drive them out. What the Hebrew says is that they did not drive them out. Some
things we cannot do because we never make the attempt. I wish we had among
Christian workers the spirit of the Suffolk lad who was brought up in court to
be examined by an overbearing lawyer. The lawyer roughly said to him, “Hodge,
can you read Greek? . . . I don’t know, sir,” said he. “Well, fetch a Greek
book,” said the lawyer, and showing the lad a passage he said to him, “Can you
read that?” “No.” “Then why did you not say that you could not?” “Because I
never say I cannot do a thing till I have tried it.” If that spirit were in
Christian people we should achieve great things; but we set down such and such
a thing as manifestly beyond our power, and, silently, we whisper to ourselves,
“therefore beyond God’s power,” and so we let it alone. No chariots of iron
will be driven out if we dare not make the attempt.
4. Next, I suspect that they did not drive them out because they were
idle. If cavalry were to be dealt with, Judah must bestir himself. If chariots
of iron were to be defeated they must enter upon an arduous campaign; and so,
taking counsel of their fears and their idleness, they said, “Let us not
venture on the conflict.” There are many things that Christ’s Church is unable
to do because it is too lazy.
5. Then, again, they were not at all anxious to meet the men who
manned those chariots, for they were afraid. These men of Judah were cowards in
the presence of chariots of iron, and what can a coward do? He is great at
running away. They say that he “may live to fight another day.” Not he: he will
live, but he will not live to fight, depend upon it, any more another day than
he does to-day.
6. There was no excuse for this on the part of Judah, as there is
really no excuse for us when we think any part of God’s work to be too
difficult for us--for, recollect, there was a special promise made about this
very case holy (Deuteronomy 20:1).
III. The Lord’s
power vindicated. I could tell you of women, sick and infirm, scarcely able to leave
their beds, who are doing work which, to some strong Christians, seems too hard
to attempt. Have I not seen old men doing for the Lord in their feebleness that
which young men have declined? Could I not tell you of some with one talent who
are bringing in a splendid revenue of glory to their Lord and Master, while you
fine young fellows with ten talents have wrapped them all in a napkin and hid
them in the earth? I wish that I could shame myself, and shame every worker
here, into enterprises that would astonish unbelievers. God help us to do that
which seems impossible. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The house of Joseph . . . went up against Bethel; and the Lord
was with them.
Success in carrying out God’s commands
This work of the house of Joseph which they went about, namely, to
take this city Bethel, as God had injoined them, doth lively set before our
eyes the duty of all God’s people, that is to say, readily to go about and set
upon the work that God hath appointed them, yea, and this is to be done,
whatsoever discouragements may stand up in the way to hinder them. For hath not
He commanded them? And is not He able to remove those impediments, rather than they
shall hinder His work in the hands of His servants? For otherwise, if we look
not to God by faith, but what let is in the way, and be hindered thereby, we
shall cast the commandment of God behind our back, and do as they who observe
the wind, and therefore sow not; and look too much to the clouds, and therefore
reap not; and so for fear of inconveniences we shall let pass necessary duties.
Again, when we thrive and have good success, we bless God, and are merry; but
if we be crossed, we curse ourselves with impatience. Whereas it ought to be
enough to us, that God hath brought it to pass either thus, or otherwise. And
beside the authority He hath over us, His bountiful rewarding of us in His
service, ought to encourage us to address ourselves to all such work; and not
only so, but further, seeing He commandeth and would have us do it, as it may
be most for our own ease, that is, willingly, readily, cheerfully; for the Lord
loveth that, in all His service, as He loveth a cheerful giver. And we know
(for our own parts) that men go untowardly about that work which they take in
hand unwillingly. But I would that even they who are so, did go about that
which they do by God’s commandment cheerfully, and with delight for the Lord’s
sake; then should there many excrements be cut off from the infinite actions
which are done in our lives, and with so much sin removed; many plagues and
annoyances should be avoided from men’s lives also. (R. Rogers.)
The spies saw a man come
forth.
The spies and the man of Bethel
In this verse, where it is said that the spies met this man coming
out of the city, somewhat is to be noted by occasion of the man and somewhat
from the spies. By the man first, going in his simplicity out of the city
(whether to save his life or upon some other necessary occasion), meeting with
these spies, and falling into such a fright thereby, that either he must lose
his life or betray the city (for the spies said to him, “Show us the way into
the city and we will show thee mercy”). We may see what straits and
difficulties we meet with in this life; for that peril which we neither fear
nor once think of, may befall us, even to the hazarding of our lives, much more
of our undoing, or the loss of the best of God’s blessings that we enjoy, as
wife, children, goods, dec. The Shunammite’s child went into the field in the
morning well, but died at noon. This we have to learn by occasion of the man.
Now of the spies. The spies offered him kindness, if he would show them the way
into the city; in that they dealt kindly with him, rather than roughly and
cruelly, seeking such a matter at his hands, they did as became them. But he
being one of the cursed nations, how could they promise him mercy? For though
they did so to Rahab before, yet she turned to their religion; and so did the
Gibeonites serve them as bondmen, and embraced their religion also. But no such
thing can be said of this man, for he went unto the Hittites, out of the seven
cursed nations, and dwelt there. I answer, we must interpret the laws of God
against the Canaanites, and concerning the rooting them out, by mitigating them
with this equity, that if they made peace with Israel, they should not root
them out. And this appears by that which is written in Joshua, that these
nations were rooted out, seeing none of them save the Gibeonites, made peace
with the Hebrews. And this being so, teacheth all men to deal even with the bad
kindly, and to be harmless toward them. And again, oh that we could deal
pitifully, kindly, and lovingly with the miserable and the afflicted; and that
all the gentlest means were used to reclaim offenders, of whom there is hope,
such as are as this man of Bethel was, in great distress, which is not done but
very rarely, and therefore is there much hardness of heart in those to whom it
is neglected, and wilfulness, that carrieth them to all profaneness and
impenitency. (R. Rogers.)
Neither did Manasseh drive out.
Forsaking the Lord’s work
Manasseh and Ephraim, and the rest of these tribes, did not fail
in completing their warfare because they had begun imprudently, but because
they did not continue believingly. The tower of conquest was unfinished, not
because they had not counted the cost at the beginning, but because they forgot
their infinite resources in the help of Jehovah.
I. Men forsaking a
work which had been begun after long preparation. The plagues of Egypt, the
miracles of the wilderness, the gifts of the manna and other supplies, and the
long period of discipline in the desert, were all designed to lead up to the
full inheritance of the land.
II. Men forsaking a
work which had already seen prosecuted with great energy and at great cost. The
Church has thrown away not a little energy for want of just a little more.
III. Men forsaking a
work about which they had cherished ardent hopes. The whole way up from Egypt
had been a long path of expectation. We see here brilliant hopes blasted for
ever for want of a little more faith and a little more service. How many of our
once cherished visions have fled for the same reason!
IV. Men forsaking a
work in which they had already won splendid triumphs. The path of their past
prowess was almost vocal against this sinful inaction and unbelief.
V. men forsaking a
work to which God had commanded them, in which God had marvellously helped the,
and in which He no less waited to help them still. They did not “remember the
years of the right hand of the Most High.” “They forgat His works.” No less did
they forget His absolute commands, and His unbroken promises. (F. G.
Marchant.)
A good work forsaken
We here learn how ready men are to leave and forsake a good
course, although they have hardly, and with much ado, been brought to embrace
and fasten upon it; which much concerneth us to mark. For we are easily
deceived about this, and think both of ourselves and others, that if we begin
to dislike and turn away from some gross and common faults that we were wont to
commit, then the worst is past with us, and that we ought justly to be reckoned
among the godly; whereas it is nothing so, but we be yet, for all that, far
off. For a far greater matter is required to the endeavour effectual calling to
repentance may be approved of God, and be sound indeed, how we ought to try and
search into ourselves, and cannot now stand about it. But although we were
truly turned to God, and had, as these, obeyed God for a time with a good
heart, yet ought we to fear danger, in respect of our own frailty, and
according to the present occasion, when we see to what point these tribes came,
for all they had followed the Lord commendably for a time, in beginning to cast
out the nations as they were commanded. And the reason of this, to wit, that we
should thus carefully look to ourselves, is this, that we are reformed but in
part, and that in small part; in which respect yet, because we have received
some grace, we are able thereby to desire and go about to do God some service,
and specially at some time, namely, while we be watchful to hold under our
rebellious passions, assisted by grace; but what then? For we having a sea of
corruption ever flowing in us, and our own concupiscence beside outward objects
enticing us a contrary way; it must be drained and purged out daily, by little
and little, and not be let alone in us, lest it should choke and drown the
grace that we have received; which if it be, we become impotent by and by, so
that we do not only cease to obey, but we are carried rather as with a stream
to any evil that we be tempted to; and namely, to this one here mentioned that
overtook these tribes; that is, to be weary of well doing; and so much the
rather, seeing there are so many allurements and occasions in every place to
provoke us and set us forward. And although we are not without hope, nor naked
in the midst of all these storms, yet if we know not these things, yea, and if
also we do not resist carefully such evil as I have mentioned, neither strive
to nourish such sparkles of grace as are kindled in us, our hearts being set
wholly hereupon, as the weightiest thing that we have to deal in; what marvel
is it, though we fall from the goodness that was wrought and begun in us, and
so become others than we were before? (R. Rogers.)
Attitude of the world towards the Church
“The Canaanites would dwell in that land,” says the historian,
repeating the words used in reference to the same tribe and the same places
elsewhere (Joshua 17:12). The Hebrew word rendered
“would dwell,” intimates that the Canaanites wished to arrange the matter
agreeably; that they made friendly overtures to the men of Manasseh to be
permitted to remain--a permission which was granted them on condition of their
paying tribute. Such is the attitude which, in these latter days, the world
frequently assumes towards the Church of Christ in Christian countries. It is
willing enough to pay tribute, both in gold and outward forms of deference, if
only the Church will allow it a peaceable lodging and refrain from using
against it the sword of the Spirit. Too often has the Church, like the men of
Manasseh, consented to accept tribute money, whether of the State or of private
individuals, as the price of permitting the world to remain unmolested within
its borders; and how often has she found, in her bitter experience, the
degrading and enslaving effect of such compromises--verifying to the letter the
prediction of Joshua in regard to such unhallowed connections (Joshua 23:13). (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)
The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain.
A neglect of duty injurious to others
So that we see that the negligence of the other tribes in
suffering the forbidden nations to remain and wax strong caused these their
brethren to be wronged, and to go without their due which God had allotted
them. For if they had kept their enemies out they might have been able now to
help this tribe of Dan: who, if the house of Joseph had not done more than the
rest, they had
been left almost without habitation. And by this way we may see that men’s sins do not
only redound to their own hurt, but also to the hurt of others. Whereas none are hurt, neither
themselves, by those that fear to offend God, and be careful to do their
duties, but they may receive great benefit thereby. But the other hurt many as well as
themselves. As we see bad parents, what woe they hoard up for their unhappy
children, as Ahab and the like. As also, how many souls doth an ignorant, idle, or
scandalous minister destroy
and cause to perish. (R. Rogers.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》