when the life itself is removed, they who have seen it continually perpetuate it in others. III. The good fruits of a holy life are through a natural growth, but by the grace of God. 1. There is growth through processes that are natural. The effect of example. Men's love of realness. The influence of a strong will, made strong by the sense of right, on men of less faith and fervour. 2. The great cause of growth is in the grace of God. The men were influenced, not merely by what Joshua was, but by "all the works of the Lord" which Joshua had done. Joshua's holy life would have done little, but for the memory of God's presence, as at Jordan, and Jericho, and Ai, and Beth-horon. See how much human reasoning and human creeds are at the mercy of a good and God-honoured life. There must have been in Israel many men quite as able as those who in the following generation professed to doubt God, and turned to idols. The lives of men like Whitfield, the Wesleys, Henry Martyn, Bishop Patteson, or even the lives of pious soldiers like Col. Gardiner, Hedley Vicars, and Henry Havelock, are sufficient to upset the reasonings of hosts of men who, but for such lives, would presently say that Scripture "'evidences were not good enough to satisfy what they would then call their "intelligence." There is no argument against goodness and unselfishness and love, such as were seen in Joshua. Verse 32.-THE HONOUR WHICH GOD PUTS UPON FAITH. In order to gather the true force of its teaching, this verse must be read in its connection with the dying utterances of Joseph (Gen. 1. 24, 25). Taken in this connection, it suggests the following considerations : I. The faith of a man who had very little help from sight. When Joseph said, "God will surely bring you out of this land," there was very little in the appearances of things to encourage his trust. 1. Faith that has once taken hold on the living God can bear very ruch thwarting in things which are visible. (a) Joseph had believed in God when a mere lad. His two dreams. These were told in such simple trust, that even his fond father was offended. His brethren saw that he believed, and they called him "this dreamer." (b) But Joseph's early faith had a severe shock. How about his trust in God when his brethren gathered to kill him? How did he feel about the truth of his dreams when he was in the pit? How did his faith hold out when he found himself sold now to the Ishmeelites, and now to the Egyptian captain, as a slave? How about his faith in the benefits of integrity, when for being true to himself, true to his master, and true to his God, he was cast into prison? What had become of his dreams, when for the space of two years, or, as some think, seven or eight, he lay in custody, burdened with his bondage, and troubled still more with conflicting thoughts? "Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him." How could he believe this other promise, and give "commandment concerning his bones," when there seemed so little prospect of its fulfilment? Just because, all his life long, God had been training His servant to trust, "not in the things which are seen, but in the things which are not seen." Joseph had lived to see his dreams come true. His father and his brethren had bowed down to him, though it had often seemed that he could never look upon them again. God had trained His servant to trust, not because of appearances, but in spite of them. 2. True faith contemplates life and death with equal calmness. Joseph said, “I die ;" and the knowledge of approaching death brought no trouble, and wrought no disturbance to his faith. 3. Faith reckons the promise of God to be of infinitely more value than earthly possessions. Joseph had said, "Ye shall carry up my bones from hence." He shews us in that single commandment what he really thought of all his glory in Egypt. He had won his honours in Egypt. His grave would be revered there. His children, apparently, might look for good positions in the land for which their father had wrought so much. All this, compared with God's promise 66 of Canaan, was nothing to Joseph. He persisted in feeling only a stranger and a sojourner in the land, Nothing therein he "called is own." His great heritage was in God's covenant. Carry up my bones," said the dying man; Carry them up to the place where God will dwell with His people. 4. Firm faith in death is the outcome of a true heart in life. Joseph had been faithful, and held fast his integrity. Joseph had shewn a spirit of gracious forgiveness towards his brethren. This was the man who could trust God in death. 5. Such faith gathers something of its strength from the faithful who have gone before. The trust of dying Joseph was very like the trust of dying Jacob. Joseph's father had preceded him in this very matter in which the son afterwards followed. The faith of the son reads almost like a reflection of the bright faith of the father (cf. Gen. xlvii. 29, 30; xlviii. 21, 22; xlix.; 1. 24, 25). We who believe now, owe much to the faith of those who believed before us. As is the faith of the fathers, so, at least sometimes, is the faith of the children. And II. The faith of a man who honoured God honoured by God. "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem." In the very place where Jacob had bought ground of the children of Hamor, and where he had built an altar, calling it, "God, the God of Israel," there did God enable Joseph's descendants to lay their believing ancestor's bones. 1. Our faith should rest, not in appearances, but in the living God. He endures well who endures "6 as seeing Him who is invisible." such faith God ever honours. The honour may be long in coming. It was two hundred years after Joseph had so believed, that God thus magnified his trust. But the recognition came at last. God's "visions," given to a believing soul, are all "for an appointed time." 2. We should be more ready to look on the fulfilments of the Divine word than on what seem its failures. We know when God's word does come to pass; we only think when we conclude it has failed. The promise of Canaan was given first to Abraham. But Stephen tells us, "God gave him none inheritance in it, no, no not so much as to set his foot on " (Acts vii. 5). To Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, also, the promise may at times have seemed to have failed. Yet, here it is, all fulfilled. We know little about failures. We only see a little way. All time is God's. What men hastily deem God's failures to fulfil His promise, are often the very beginnings of its fulfilment. (a) It had been so in Joseph's life. It was at the pit of Dothan that God began to fulfil Joseph's dream that his father and brethren should render him obeisance. Precisely at the point where Joseph might have been tempted to say, "My dream has all come to nought," there God began to fulfil the dream. It was by the prison that so "tried Joseph, that God put His servant close to the throne of Pharaoh. Just where Joseph would be most cast down, God was lifting him up. Every step of his life which might tempt him to think of failure, was one more advance of God towards fulfilment. (b) It was no less so in Joseph's death. The Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph " could not arise till Joseph was gone. Then the oppression made way for the liberation. The "bitter bondage" was God's pathway to full liberty. When we say, with Tennyson, "What am I? An infant crying in the night, we too often forget that the very night out of which we cry is necessary to the morning. God ever makes His darkness precede His light. Not the morning and evening, but "the evening and the morning were the first day;" and such has it been with all days since. III. The honour which God puts upon the faith of the dead, an encouragement gladly noted by the faithful living. Believing chroniclers saw that their forefathers had believed not in vain, and so they wrote down here this record of the burial of Joseph's bones. The believing love not only to say, "He that believeth shall not be confounded," but presently to bear their testimony that such have not been confounded. To mark God's fulfilment of His faithful word, strengthens our own faith; it strengthens, no less, the faith of others. THE TIME OF THE BURIAL Of Joseph's BONES. "This burying of the bones of Joseph probably took place when the conquest of the land was completed, and each tribe had received its inheritance; for it is not likely that this was deferred till after the death of Joshua."-[Dr. A. Clarke.] Verse 32.-THREE GENERATIONS OF HIGH PRIESTS. "After the fathers shall come up the children; so, after the fathers do the children go down also to the grave. The men who had seen God's mighty works in the wilderness gave place to men who would have to walk more by faith, and less by sight. At the very close of these records of Joshua-one of the persons who most significantly, of all the Old Testament characters, prefigures the coming Christ -we have this statement, in a single and final verse, about three generations of high priests. Two of these generations had already passed away; the remaining one waited for a season to These usher in yet other successors. also, though by contrast tell us of Him who is a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedee; who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” "For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath which was since the law maketh the Son high priest, who is consecrated for evermore." 328, 329 279, 280 (1) Although the way seem plain; 2. Successful: (1) Israel encouraged; (2) We, even more. 3. Sufficiency of Divine guidance 192, 193 The power of wicked companions to- 2. Make others partakers of their sin: (1) Law of assimilation; (2) Habit of imitation; (3) Influence of food; (4) Confirmations of history. (2) Familiarity with evil Avenger of blood, the ... ... 338-340 B Balaam: shews us- PAGE 1. A weak man tempted where weakest. (1) Comes where men can least re- (2) Is according to the state of the (3) No man stronger than his 2. A tempted man restrained by God. (3) Marvellous interposition; (4) An influence all-powerful to a 3. A restrained man sinning while ap- (1) Religion that is only negative; 4. A man sinning while simulating (1) Sin in the heart will come out in (2) God will not always warn 241-245 Rattle, the Symbolical. Life's conflicts: trust in promises. Promises: the faithful life- (1) Most desires them; (2) Can best value them; PAGE 3. Manliness going with unselfishness 4. Gratitude connected with fidelity. (1) Men reward worth; (3) The great reward is through 2. Favoured portion. He had a life- (2) Long and vigorous; (3) Of honour among brethren; ... Campaign, the true. It- ... 257, 258 Canaanites; the destruction of the. 1. The grounds of this: (1) God's right to human life; 2. The lesson. God shews- (1) His determination to punish sin; (4) That His warnings are to be (5) The awful meaning of His own ... Changelessness of God, and muta- 1. Apparent changes in God: (1) Because we have got where we (2) Where God seems against men, 2. Mutability of human life: Prospects of a man's life may be (1) By himself; (2) By others. 3. Unswerving influence of sin : (1) Sin ever tends towards defeat; (2) Defeat invariably works fear 134, 135 Childhood through fatherhood ... Children taught of the Lord. 1. God's method of teaching; 2. The subjects He selects; ... 342 3. The ends which He would secure 66, 67 |