the will of God to the welfare of her country; Abraham the same will to the life of Isaac. A man is not discovered when God's way and his own lie together. VI. The actions and duties of God's children are usually blemished with some notable defect. Rahab's entertainment was associated with Rahab's lie; Moses smote the rock twice, and with faith mixed anger. Thus we still plough with an ox and an ass in the best duties. VII. God hideth His eyes from the evil that is in our good actions. He that drew Alexander MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 14-21. Perhaps no one knows the value of integrity better than those who abuse it. Just as the great are valued after their death, and just as we prize our mercies when they have departed from us, so they who have forfeited their truthfulness have a keen appreciation of its worth. It is not a little suggestive that this woman who has just told a lie to shield the spies, proceeds immediately to ask an oath from them, wherein she and her family may find some assurance of salvation. Probably the cruelties attendant on the worship of Baal, and the lewd rites connected with the service of Ashtoreth, had so far debased the public conscience of the Canaanites generally, that Rahab had become familiar with both deceit and its consequences in many forms. She proves herself an adept in deceiving others, and then asks a solemn covenant to protect herself from similar deception. This is ever the way where truth is lightly esteemed; they who think that there is little harm in telling lies, ever confess the measure of their wickedness by the suspicions and precautions in which they endeavour to shield themselves from the deceit of others. The distrust of a liar is a sort of habitual confession, "If every one were as wicked as I am, life would have no securities, and would become unbearable." Thus, ever, "out of its own mouth" the judgment of sin is spoken. I. The importance of public integrity. It is a national calamity when a nation is not believed. When the policy of a government is made up of diplomacy and subtlety and acts of small cleverness, the policy is ruinous; it may be dignified by the name of 'statesmanship," but the name can only make the ruin greater by deferring it, through a temporary concealment. A good label will not alter the contents of a poison-bottle, nor can a promising name keep a rotten vessel afloat through a storm. One Machiavel is not only enough to pass a name into a proverb, and to introduce a new set of words into language; he is also enough to curse a country for generations, till some succeeding Garibaldis, through selfdenying and disinterested integrity, shall, notwithstanding mistakes, do a little to restore the public faith. It was a terrible verdict for Crete, when "their own poet," Epimenides, wrote, "Liars and sluggish gluttons, savage beasts, the Cretans are," and when an apostle gave the sentiment the fearful prominence of a Scripture record, in which the nations still read, "The Cretans are alway liars." The commercial world could not go on for a month, if "credit" were not maintained. There are few pulpits where the relation of truth to prosperity is preached as it is "on 'Change." He who does anything to lessen the faith of men in each other, does just so much to ruin them for all prosperity in the things of this life and the next. Probably one or two of our own countrymen in high places, during the last quarter of a century, have done sufficient to lower the tone of the public conscience manifestly and appreciably for a long while to come. When falsehoods are repeatedly told, which depend on a sufficient amount of grave impudence and effrontery in the teller to provoke the laughter of the hearers, it is perfectly well understood that the laughter makes the audience in some measure participators in the untruth, and that rebuke is silenced in its very beginnings. Thus it has got to be known in some quarters, that a great liar need only have an equivalent impudence and gravity, to be heard and received as though he were only a wit, and no liar at all. This flippancy of untruth, practised by anybody, is an incalculable wrong to everybody, and as such it should be resented. II. The culture of the public conscience. 1. These spies were most careful not to make a promise which they could not keep. They held Rahab bound by several conditions. (a) They would not be responsible, unless she bound the sign of the crimson cord in the window. As God Himself had once bidden the Israelites to mark their houses, so that the destroying angel might pass them by, in like manner this woman is to distinguish her house from the abodes of those who were delivered over to destruction. (b) The spies covenanted that they would be guiltless of the blood of any of this family who might be slain out of the house. Any one might say, "I am of Rahab's family;" nothing would avail, but to be in the covenanted dwelling-place. (c) The spies would be blameless, unless Rahab kept the oath a secret. Let her once betray that, and all Jericho might bind its windows with crimson cord. 2. These two spies were representative men, and it was therefore most important that the promise should be made carefully. (a) Joshua was held bound by the word of these men. They were his servants. (b) All Israel was bound by their word. The men represented the nation. (c) Even God graciously condescended to recognise the promise of the spies as His own bond. While almost all of the wall of the city seems to have fallen, the part on which Rahab's house stood was safely preserved (chap. vi. 22, 23). Had this one promise to a Canaanite been broken, the good faith of Israel would have been despised among the idolaters, wherever it had become known; added to this, the Israelites themselves would have been harmed. These men who were sent to spy out the land cultivate a conscience void of offence, Joshua and Israel support them, and the Divine seal is set to this care of a truthful spirit. The Divine teaching of the O. T. in these early times is most emphatic in the stress which it lays on truthfulness. No one can carefully read of the solemn tokens which God gives with His own covenants, and the solemn charges which are given in connection with vows, oaths, and all forms of promise made by men, without being made to feel that all lying and deceit are hateful to God. Promises were, in every case, to be made with the utmost care, and when once given, to be most sacredly kept. SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES. Verse 14.-THE SELF-PRODUCING POWER OF PIETY. In the record given of the creation we read of the tree "whose seed was in itself." All life tends to spontaneous increase. It is ever thus with the life of God in a human heart. Of each grace it may be said, "Its seed is within itself." I. Mercy begets mercy. "Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy." Rahab had risked her life for the spies, and now they readily respond, "Our life for yours,' or literally, "Let our soul be to die instead of you." II. Faith stimulates faith. Rabab had said, “I know that the Lord hath given you the land." Under her influence the spies have insensibly and more than ever come to regard this as a truth; thus they answer, "When the Lord hath given us the land." III. Kindness and truth reproduce themselves in kind. "We will deal," etc. Rahab, though false to some, had been kind and true to them, and nothing of her good words falls to the ground. Verse 18. It seems necessary to bear in mind, when reading this verse, that fanciful interpretations of Scripture may be no part of the teaching of God. Any quantity of imaginative nonsense has been written on the incidents of this chapter, and particularly of this red cord. Thus Lyra, who is followed by Mayer, and partly by some others, found here, that "by Rahab is meant the church of the Gentiles; by the two spies, the sending forth of the apostles two and two; by Jericho, the mutable moon; by the king of Jericho, the devil; by the scarlet red cord there is figured out the blood of Christ,” etc., and ad lib. Can it be seriously thought that God ever meant to teach this, or anything like it? Ought we not to ask with some anxiety if we can teach as Divine truth things of this character, without grave harm to many who hear us? The maxim of Cecil is a good rule for us all "The meaning of Scripture is the word of God." Nothing else ever was, ever is, or ever will be. MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 22-24. I. He who watches and works without God, watches and works in vain. The king of Jericho had sent to take the spies, but they escaped out of his hand ; the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not." "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain;" so, apparently, out of the rich experience of his life the aged David counselled his son and successor in "The Song of degrees for Solomon." The children of God, when they are without the presence of their heavenly Father, labour as much in vain as the greatest idolater or infidel. The king of Jericho and his pursuers fail; equally do the Israelites themselves, when a week or two later they go up without God against Ai. Moses well said, "If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence. II. He who goes out under the care of God is safe from the wrath of man. If Rebekah and Jacob had not lied, the younger son would still have inherited the blessing. The promise of God needed no falsehood of men to make it into a truth. If Rahab had said only the thing which was right, God could with equal ease have secured the safety of these His two servants. Even had it been otherwise, they had been no less safe; they fall well, who fall into their Father's arms. Where God does not bless our righteous efforts to preserve ourselves, we need not seek safety in sin. Those were noble blushes which rose on the face of Ezra, when he said, "I was ashamed to require of the king a band of men and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way" (cf. Ezra viii. 21-23). Paul in his perils; Luther at Worms; Wesley preaching under threats of violence and falling stones. III. He who reports the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord can never report too confidently or too cheerfully. The ten spies had given the report of fear; these give the report of faith. The giants and the Anakim were probably as huge as they were forty years before, the cities walled up as near to heaven, and the Israelites no larger than they were formerly; but where fear then saw grasshoppers in the presence of giants, faith said now, "Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land." The message of these two men to Joshua was full of confidence, full of cheerfulness, and full of praise. They thanked God for victories yet to come. 1. He who makes the best of everything which concerns God, serves God and men much better than he who is timid and doubting and depressed. It is quite possible to make too much of the work of men; we cannot well over-report God. Too many modern servants are far more like the ten spies than the two. 2. A bad report of Divine things is not only injurious to others, but most harmful to ourselves. Good Bp. Hall well said, "Our success or discomfiture begins ever at the heart. A man's inward disposition doth more than presage the event. If Satan sees us once faint, he gives himself the day. There is no way to safety, but that our hearts be the last that shall yield." We have need to keep our heart with all diligence; for out of it, even in this sense, there are issues of life. The glad confidence in Christ which some constantly manifest carries its own reward; for "the joy of the Lord is their strength," and hardly less strength to all who are sufficiently with them to catch the enthusiasm of their praise. CHAPTER III. THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN. CRITICAL NOTES.-1. In the morning] The morning after the addresses and reply recorded in chap. i. 10–18. From Shittim to Jordan] Josephus (Antiq. v. 1. 1) gives the distance as sixty stadia, or furlongs, being nearly eight English miles. Lodged there] i.e., rested there till the return of the spies, and till the completion of the time named in chap. i. 11. There is nothing in the verse which requires the misleading conjecture that they lodged here only one night. 2. After three days] According to chap. iv. 19, the people crossed the Jordan on the tenth of Abib, which it may be well to remember is not called "Nisan in the Scriptures till more than nine hundred years later (cf. Esther iii. 7). "Three days" before crossing the river, i. c., on the seventh of Abib, the time of the passage was foretold (chap. i. 11). Early on the morning of the eighth, the preparations began for the movement of the camp from Shittim (chap. iii. 1), the raising of the tents, the march of the vast host for eight miles, and their temporary re-encampment before Jordan, probably occupying them till the close of the eighth (Hebrew) day of the month. On the evening which introduced the ninth of Abib they would begin to lodge before Jordan, resting there over the following day, and throughout the night which commenced the tenth of the month. The spending of two nights and one clear day before Jordan seems in no way contradictory to chap. iii. 1. The spies probably left Shittim in the morning, or as early as mid-day on the sixth of Abib, walked eight miles to the Jordan, and about seven more from Jordan to Jericho, reaching the latter place considerably before sunset (chap. ii. 5). Reckoning inclusively, they would be in the mountains "three days," i. e., on nearly all the seventh, the whole of the eighth, and from sundown till say four o'clock on the morning of the ninth, when two hours' walk in the darkness would bring them to the Jordan, swimming the overflowing waters of which they would rejoin the camp now pitched on the eastern side of the river. Thus understood, the spies left Shittim one day before the army; this agrees with the margin, "had sent," of chap. ii. 1, coincides with each of the four verses given in the three chapters, and is in harmony with the view of Josephus. 3. The Priests the Levites bearing it] The duty of bearing the ark on ordinary occasions belonged to the sons of Kohath, who were Levites, but not priests (cf. Numb. iv. 15); on solemn occasions it was customary for priests to undertake this duty. 4. Come not nea unto it] The distance of about one thousand yards was probably to be observed, not only in the short march to the river, but also when crossing; the people were to pass the Jordan at this distance below the ark. 5. Sanctify yourselves] There seems no sufficient reason for the very general supposition that the formal rites of sanctification were dispensed with for want of time. The phrase "for to-morrow" shews that there would be as much time for washing the garments, etc., as in the instance given in chap. vii. 13. 10. Drive out] "One of several incidential confirmations of the view that many of the Canaanites were expelled, and not slain" (Groser). 15. Jordan overfloweth] Owing to the melting of the snow on the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains. "The swellings of Jordan" seems to have driven the wild beasts from their usual lairs (cf. Jer. xlix. 19). 16. The City Adam] The site is unknown; probably it was several miles to the north; the back-flow of the accumulated waters was apparent as far up the river as this city. 17. All the people] All excepting the women and children of the two and a half tribes, with the 70,000 armed men left to guard them (chap. iv. 12, 13). MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 1-6. THE PRESENCE OF GOD. Joshua had received the evening before, through their officers, the reply of the people to the charge which he had given (chap. i. 16-18). Their unanimous and ardent fealty must have filled this fine-spirited man with thankfulness to God, and given him good hope in the people: "And Joshua rose early in the morning." 1. God gives us encouragements, not merely for our joy, but for action. The Lord loves the praise of His people; He loves it best when the songs of their lips are set to harmony with the tread of feet that run in the way of His commandments, and with the noise of labour made by hands which hasten to do His will. Mere praise is like a tune in one part; it is only a theme, pleasant for the moment as a solo, but poor and thin and insufficient, unless followed by these harmonies of labour. 2. God gives His servants the confidence of men, that they may use it promptly for the good of men. Nothing sooner loses its beauty and fades than the Thus the first two verses of this paragraph lead up to the important subject of the Divine presence, on which much stress is laid in the four verses that follow. I. The sign for the special movement of God's people is God's presence going before them. 1. It is noteworthy that in both the Old and New Testaments this is repeatedly made the sign for going forward. This was the case during the marches of the wilderness; the pillar of fire and cloud preceded the host. David at Baal-perazim was to know that the Lord went out before him when he heard "the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees;" not till then was he to go forward to the battle. What else was the waiting for Pentecost by the men who were to tarry in the city of Jerusalem for this preceding presence of God? It was of no avail for even apostles to go, till God went before them. They were men of good ordinary ability, they had recollections of the Saviour's example to guide them, and glorious memories of His love to inspire them; yet they were to tarry, as though they were helpless as children, waiting for the promise of the Father. The Saviour's words, "Without me ye can do nothing," are written not simply in the Gospel of John, but throughout the Bible. 2. The Pillar of Fire and Cloud, and the Ark of the Covenant, were the two and only visible guides, indicating God's presence, that the Israelites had to accompany them in their journeys. There is one feature which is common to them both in times of rest they were with the people, in times of marching the Cloud always and the Ark Resting, the Cloud stood over the camp; marchsometimes went before them. ing, it went before the people. The Ark, too, was set up in the middle of the camp, and in ordinary marches was carried in the midst of the Israelites; but in a Surely all this is significant, and great emergency like this the Ark leads the way. intended not merely for the Jews; read in the light of the tarrying for Pentecost, God's presence with us should does it not seem "written for our admonition"? however, solemn seasons in always lead to praise, worship, and work; there are, the history of the Church when God seems manifestly to go before His people, and then both Testaments teach that His people must follow. There must be no resting then, nor are ordinary methods of worship and work sufficient for periods like these. Does not this comprehend all great revival movements in the history of the Church, not excepting that which has recently excited so much attention throughout England, and is now stirring the multitudes of London to new thought and Are men being saved, and helped to intense feeling? Is God with this work? turn to holiness? If so, energy of this kind does not come from beneath, neither is this the manner of man. There cannot be the least doubt that ordinary methods of teaching and training are good for ordinary times; but ought we not to be prepared for God to sometimes go altogether before us? And if it be God who goes before, we must follow,-follow gladly, heartily, and earnestly. The Ark of His presence may get quite out of the usual track, it may wander even into the bed of the river; timid Israelites may fear lest it should be swept away in the flood; yet, if it be His presence, they will do well to follow, for even this unusual way leads to a rich inheritance for the teeming thousands of the people, who till it is trodden only experience the bitterness of a grievous bondage, and the Holy fear and holy caution may be well, and none possession of a barren desert. 35 |