men cannot endure the works which declare His presence. 2. Fear as intensified by sin. Sinful Adam heard the voice of God, and, for the first time, so far as we know, he was afraid. When guilty Herod heard of the fame of Jesus, he said, "John the Baptist is risen from the dead." Conscience, as Trench has pointed out, is, in its very structure, a solemn word. "It is from 'con' and scire.' But what does that 'con' intend? Conscience is not merely that which I know, but that which I know with some one else. . . . . That other knower whom the word implies is God." So, when we transgress, we have only to be brought by some of His works into the consciousness of the Lord's presence, and sin intensifies fear at once. We feel that the guilt which we know, He knows also. And from this law none escape: "What art thou, thou tremendous Power, Who dost inhabit us without our leave; .... And treat the monarch frankly as the slave?"-Young. 3. Fear as a Divine provision and ordinance. God had determined and appointed this very melting of heart which the Amorites now suffered. Forty years previously God had said to Moses, about this very trepidation, "I will send my fear before thee." The fear of the wicked is no less God's ordinance now than it was of old. III. The fear thus wrought by God is seen becoming helpful to speedy salvation, or accessory to sudden destruction. Rahab feared, and believed, and sought deliverance, and was saved; the Canaanites feared, and resisted, and were destroyed. Montaigne said, "Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the ground, and fetters them from moving." Happy is he in whom the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Where this is not so, fear is often immediately preliminary to overthrow. It is the awful gloom of coming destruction which is seen overshadowing those whom it hardly waits longer to involve, and the very fear of the coming calamity hastens the end which it so solemnly predicts. OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES, an Verse 1.-RELIGIOUS CONVICTION. I. The essence of true religious conviction is conviction of the presence of God. For want of that, these men had turned idolaters. Had they always felt the God of Israel as near as they felt Him now, the worship of their idols would have been impossibility. When we get and continue to know and feel that God is round about us, all else in religious life will follow. 1. Assured of God's presence, we shall immediately feel the reality and guilt of sin. Job said, "Now mine eye seeth Thee, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Isaiah in his vision saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and cried, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Peter, beholding the Deity of Christ through His mighty working, And felt how awful goodness is." So must unforgiven men ever feel troubled by the presence of God. When Peter first saw the Deity of the Saviour, he had no peace in that holy and to him awful presence; after he had been a long time with Jesus, and had learned of Him, and when he was in the rapture of a diviner mood, he cried as he beheld the glory of the transfigured Son of God, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles." It is only when we have learned the love and forgiveness of the Saviour, and come ourselves somewhat into the mind of Christ, that we are able to endure His presence. Then that presence is no longer our keenest pain, but becomes our deepest peace. 3. A growing sense of God's presence is the essential accompaniment of a religious life. When Nathanael came to Christ, he came sceptically, nor did he care to conceal his doubts. With that frank guilelessness on which he seems to have prided himself, and which, as far as it was good, even Christ admired, he bluntly told out his unbelief in the question, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" How did the Saviour convict this man of the Divine presence? Christ told him his secrets; He looked into his heart, and exposed this conceit of an open and transparent nature, on which this guileless Jew prided himself, as being so unlike many of his nation. "Behold," says the Saviour, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." Nor was this all; Christ told the honest Jew how he had been praying under that secluded fig-tree, as pious Jews were wont to withdraw for prayer-praying but a short time before, and praying, it may be, about this very matter of the coming Messiah, to which the thoughts of his more godly countrymen were at this time so earnestly directed. It was enough: Nathanael felt that God was there. Very much under the influence which, in a similar case, had made the Samaritan woman exclaim, "He told me all things that ever I did," Nathanael cried out, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." Did the Saviour intimate that this conviction was sufficient, and that the matter of this man's new-found faith might rest there? Quite the contrary. Belief was to go on. Christ Himself might withdraw; but to this, as to every truly religious soul, conviction of the Divine presence was to become a growing thing. When Christ as manifest in the flesh was far away, when no one was near, this belief should go on till he could say with his great countryman, "Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou hast beset me behind and before." Conviction of a present God was to be a growing thing; so Christ says, "Your faith now is only the beginning of the faith of the future; you shall see greater things than these. Through my mediatorial work you shall see heaven and earth united. Hereafter ye—you and such as believe with you-shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." Thus conviction first feels God near through some extraordinary manifestation; and, given that God's mercy spares, and His grace still plies the convicted one, the religious life goes on to all its future developments in the consciousness that God is round about it. The first feeling arising from a sense of that Presence is fear, the after feelings are love and joy, while the culmination is peace, even in the grim presence of death: "I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." These Canaanites only knew that sense of God's presence which precedes judgment and destruction: every living man, in the one way or the other, must awake to a sense of that presence sooner or later. II. The medium of this conviction of God's presence is God's working. The Canaanites heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan, and forthwith they believed in a “God nigh at hand." (Cf. instances in previous outline.) Jacob beheld the wonders of God in his dream, and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not." The centurion at the cross, and the jailor of Philippi, looked each on supernatural things, and each at once told out his faith. The chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death, because "by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus." The present attempts which are being made in the name of Science to banish God's working from the faith of men, touch the question of religion in a point most vital and important. Where "the arm of the Lord is not revealed," God's servants still have to ask, "Who hath believed name our report?" Give the of "eternal laws" or "evolution " to account for the works of God; get men to believe that which the terms imply, and then there is no need for God at all. How much we lose, if the arm of the Lord is not revealed to us! Think of Belshazzar and his lords, when they held high carnival in Babylon. It may be that some among the thousand courtiers at the feast only saw the writing on the wall, and not the hand that wrote. But "the king saw the part of the hand that wrote: then the king's countenance was changed." To him the words would have an awful meaning. It makes all the difference, in our reading of life around us, whether the arm of the Lord which does the writing is hidden or revealed. In view of the somewhat lofty tone of some modern scientists it may be allowable to ask, How much right have these who speak most dogmatically to speak on this question at all? It may be remarked: 1. Every man is born with the faculty, or capacity, of spiritual perception. We each come into the world with powers which, if cultivated, will presently enable us to see God. Men are born with capacities for seeing mathematics, poetry, and music; yet the work of a senior wrangler, of Tennyson, or Beethoven, would be utterly incomprehensible to an ordinary farm labourer. 2. Of all human powers of perception, the God-seeing sense is the most refined. Other faculties must be trained by a suitable experience, but this most of all. Let a man live forty or fifty years as if there were no such things as arithmetic, poetry, or music, and, practically, there will be no such things. May it not be so in the matter of these spiritual perceptions? taught men cannot look over and read a music score of a dozen staves like Costa and Barnby, or Stainer and Best. Can a man who ignores God year after year be in a position to see God? 3. If not, how utterly incompetent unspiritual men are to pronounce on spiritual things! Some men act as if mental and spiritual insight are identical; why should they be identical, any more than physical and mental perception? Each kind of eye Un is only good for its own sphere. Some men seem to think that scientific culture and spiritual culture are one and the same thing. They have mistaken spectrum analysis for spiritual vision. It is like using the microscope to find out if there is any music in the Old Hundredth or the Twelfth Mass. It is much the same as climbing to the top of the Matterhorn, where there is a wide outlook, in order to see through a mathematical problem. It is as though a man should take a telescope to try and perceive if his friend loved him, or seize on an opera glass to discover the exquisite pathos of the twenty-third Psalm. The philosophers appear to have forgotten what they of all men should remember, the eye and the world must fit; the power of perception, and the sphere in which it is exercised, must be appropriate. Meanwhile we may feel thankful that men who have given a lifetime to find out God do not pronounce against His existence. We might be alarmed if Abraham and Moses and Isaiah, if John and Peter and Paul, if Luther and Baxter and Wesley, if Newton and Simpson and Farraday joined to say, "We have thought on this question reverently and devoutly for many years, we have tried to live in that spiritual purity which is said to be, and which, from the nature of the case, must be necessary in order to see God, and we come to the conclusion that while there may be a God, or may not be, we have no data by which to form any conclusion." Without judging others, it is a matter for devout gladness that in all the pages of history we have no names of men who, having followed after God throughout life in that reverence which alone becomes such a pursuit, and which alone could hope to succeed in finding Him, have turned round at the close of life, and pronounced their faith mistaken. It is at least significant that history as well as Scripture always shews the path of such as one that "shineth more and more." This world has tempted many to deny the faith; we cannot recollect that the grave has so tempted one. as a noise; the eye of the Lord works upon a good soul, as well as His hand; and a godly man is as much affected with the consideration, Thou God seest me,' as with The Lord strikes me.'" [Dr. Donne.] "Fear is entirely based on a consideration of some possible personal evil consequence coming down upon me from that clear sky above me. Love is based upon the forgetfulness of self altogether. The very essence of love is that it looks away from itself and to another." "Fill the heart with love, and there is an end to the dominion of fear. The love of God entering into a man's heart, destroys all tormenting fear of Him. All the attributes of God come to be on our side. He that loves has the whole Godhead for Him." [MacLaren.] MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.-Verses 1-9. Probably there is nothing throughout the entire book of Joshua which appeals to us more solemnly and more graciously than this most significant resumption of covenant rites at this particular period. The account of the giving of this covenant is contained in Gen. xv. At that time Abraham had no children, and the covenant was sealed on the side of God only, the vision of the burning lamp being its sign. Some fourteen or fifteen years later, when Ishmael was thirteen years old, the covenant was renewed, or rather completed, the seal on the human side being circumcision. The covenant was, that Abraham should have a numerous seed to inherit the land of Canaan, or, as it was sometimes called, the Promised Land. Here, then, at the very time of entering into the land, the rite is renewed. The land can only be taken possession of under the covenant. Not an enemy shall fall, not a town capitulate, not an acre shall be really their own, till that covenant is recognised by all Israel. I. The relation between God's covenant and His people's transgression. The rite of circumcision had been faithfully observed in Egypt; the rite had not been observed in the wilderness (verses 4, 5). This neglect during the wilderness life was, almost certainly, not because of any difficulties of journeying, for the people sometimes encamped for an entire year in one place. The reason for the cessation of circumcision lay in the fact that the people had ignored the covenant itself. They had said with almost one voice, "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." They deliberately rejected the covenant then and there. At the same time God rejected them. For the time the covenant was suspended. The sixth verse, therefore, connects the cessation of circumcision with the Lord's counter-oath. God would not have the people guilty of a solemn farce. Every act of circumcision in the wilderness would ignore this later oath of Jehovah. As confirmatory of this, it should be remembered that the passover was probably not observed in the wilderness any more than circumcision. Israel had been told to keep the passover "as an ordinance for ever." At the end of the first year, before the rebellion, they did keep it at Sinai (cf. Numb. ix. 1-5). Apparently they did not observe it afterwards till the occasion mentioned in this chapter. Here, then, is a most significant break. There is no feast of the Exodus, for the Exodus had been ignored; there is no rite of the covenant, for the covenant had been foresworn. What bearing has all this on us? 1. See what God thinks of services that are unreal. God would have no feast of the Exodus from the people who said, "Let us return unto Egypt;" God would have no covenant rite from the people who thought indifferently of the covenant. Both feast and rite would be hollow and false, and a mockery. How this old sermon of the desert comes preaching itself on to us, across all the centuries which roll between us and these ancient servants of Jehovah. Think of it in connection with all the worship in which we fail to worship Him. Think of it in connection with many of the hymns which we join in singing, the prayers which we offer, and the heartless service which some are tempted to render. Think of the Lord's Supper-the feast of the new covenant—if there be no real covenant between us and God. God would have no service from us rather than a service which is unreal. He seeks the heart. Sham adoration is no pleasure to Him (cf. Isa. i. 11-15). 2. See how solemn and sacred is God's view of His own promises. All the time the covenant was in force the covenant rite was to be observed. The bondage of Egypt made no difference. Unlike men, God does not think His promises something to take notice of in proportion as they look promising. Difficulties and bonds and slavery made no difference whatever in the sight of God. In Egypt's darkest days they were still to circumcise their children. But they were not to celebrate that rite a day after the rebellion. God would not have two sets of promises in force at the same time, one of which contradicted the other. Oh, how sacred to Him is His holy word! It is all yea, and all amen. It is said that Sir William Napier one day met a poor child crying bitterly because she had broken a bowl which she had been carrying along the road towards her home. Having no money with him, he promised to meet her at the same place and hour on the next day, and to give her money to buy another. On reaching his home, he found an invitation to dine out with a gentleman whom he particularly wished to see. As it would interfere with his pre-engagement with the child, he declined it, saying, "I could not disappoint her, she trusted mo so implicitly." God loves our implicit trust, too; but, excepting where He has made it thus conditional, the fulfilment of His word does not depend on our confidence. Each promise stands fast in His own eternal truthfulness. 3. This history suggests the question, Does God, when we sin, regard His covenant with us in Christ as broken? The history indicates the answer as clearly as it prompts the inquiry. It was not for every sin that God looked on the covenant as violated; it was only for this deliberate rejection of the covenant. The people often sinned, but it was only when they proposed to return to Egypt, and voted the covenant of no account, that God took them at their thought and word. So he who looks on Christ as" without form or comeliness," and thus carelessly neglects and ignores the Saviour for the pleasures of sin, puts himself in a similar position, and where God has no covenant with him personally. No transgression is so fatal as unbelief. 4. Salvation is not in the covenant, but in the grace and love of God. It is very blessed to be able to feel that even when God regarded the covenant as solemnly broken by the people, His mercy was sufficient for all the way of the wilderness. Think of it, a broken covenant, and manna every morning; a broken covenant, and water from the rock; a broken covenant, and the man who wanted to curse, crying successively, "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?” "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob; How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!" Think of it, no covenant, and the ark built prospectively, in view of its renewal; no covenant, and the pillar in which the Lord abode going with them all the way; no covenant, and the trespass of Baal-peor forgiven; no covenant, and mercies that should make way for the song, "What ailed thee, O Jordan, that thou wast driven back?" God loves us enough to bless and help and save us, if there were not a single promise in the Bible. He does not propose to go on with our salvation because He has become entangled in His words; the promises are but given to still our fears and encourage us by hope and assurance. As for our salvation, that is ever in the grace and love of God. II. The relation between a renewed covenant and fresh acts of faith and submission. The covenant was to be renewed by a rite which would, for some days, disable the greater part of the army in the very presence of their enemies (cf. Gen. xxxiv. 25). Too much stress, however, must not be laid on this. There would still be about a quarter of a million men between forty and sixty years of age, who were circumcised in Egypt, left to guard the camp. Still, man |