The text giveth an account of what Joshua did and said on this occasion. What he did, in the beginning of the verse, ' He adjured the people at that time ; ' that is, exacted this oath or solemn consent from them, to submit themselves and their posterity to the imprecation or curse denounced by him in the name of the Lord. What he said, in the curse itself, ' Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and huildeth this city Jericho.'
So that in the words you have a terrible denunciation — (1.) Gene- rally propounded ; (2.) Particularly exemplified. _ [1.] Generally expressed, ' Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho.' Where — (1.) The crime, * That riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho ; ' that is, that shall presume and take the boldness to build the walls of this city. (2.) The punishment, ' Cursed be he before the Lord ; ' that is, the Lord
30 SERMON UPON JOSHUA VI. 26.
seeing, ratifying, and appointing this doom and sentence. For it is not a passionate imprecation, but a prophetical prediction, coming not from any private motion, but the inspiration of God ; and therefore it is called ' the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua,' 1 Kings xvi. 34.
But why is such a curse interminated against those that shall build this city?
I answer — Though we are not to render a reason of God's counsels, yet this seemeth to be the cause : it was the first city of all Canaan that was destroyed, and that miraculously ; and God would have the ruins remain as a monument to posterity of his power, justice, and goodness ; for whilst this spectacle, the rubbish of the ruined walls, remained, it encouraged their faith, and upbraided their unthankful- ness to God who had wrought so wonderfully for them ; of his justice on the Canaanites, and his grace and goodness towards his people.
[2.] It is particularly explained, * He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest son he shall set up the gates thereof ; that is, he shall be punished for his presumption in this act by the death of his two sons ; the first in the beginning of the work, the second in the finishing thereof ; the setting up of the gates being the last thing. Others probably understand, he shall be punished with the loss of all his children, from the eldest to the youngest ; so that the curse is, his posterity shall be rooted out.
Now, for a long time none had the boldness to attempt this work upon which so fearful a curse was imposed ; till at length, some hundreds of years afterwards, in Ahab's time, one Hiel the Bethelite audaciously sets upon it ; and accordingly this curse was verified in him, to the utter overthrow of his family : 1 Kings xvi. 34, ' In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho : he laid the foundation thereof in Abirani his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.' Strange that, seeing his first son drop away, he desisted not from that design; but such is the precipice of bad projects and engage- ments, once step in, and seldom stop in the way of wickedness.
This history teacheth us two lessons —
(1.) That it is dangerous to slight God's threatenings. The curse denounced many hundred years before took place. The force and virtue of the prediction was not worn out and antiquated, though the attempt was long after it was first pronounced.
(2.) How dangerous it is to build again what God hath or would have to be ruined and destroyed. This latter lesson I shall insist upon, and observe —
Doct. That to seek to erect what God hath and would have destroyed involveth us in a fearful curse.
In following whicli point, I shall show — (I.) What God hath and would destroy ; (2.) The reasons ; (3.) The use.
First, What it is that God hath and will destroy. The question is large, but I will restrain it to the matter I intend. And because the accommodation of scripture to particular cases needeth to proceed upon good evidence, that right may be done, I shall state it in these propositions —
1. Certain it is that the kingdom which God will erect and establish
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is the kingdom of the Mediator, and the kingdom Tvhich God will destroy is the kingdom of the devil. I put it in this copulate axiom or double proposition, because the one immediately dependeth upon the other, and the one cannot be done without the other. The king- dom of Christ as mediator cannot be set up unless the kingdom of the devil be destroyed.
Now that this is the purpose of God, to erect the one and destroy the other, is evident by scripture : Ps. ex. 1, ' The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy foot- stool.' Christ upon the throne hath enemies, but in due time they shall be his footstool. He shall gain upon opposition, and against opposition, and by opposition. They shall be so far from overturning his throne, that they shall be a step to it, as the footstool is to the throne ; and 1 John iii. 8, ' For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil,' ha Xvcrrj. To unravel all that Satan hath been a-weaving for the captivating and deceiving of the world. Christ having a grant of a kingdom over the nations, his design is to conquer them, and subdue them to himself, and to recover them to himself. This was the meaning of Gen. iii. 15, ' I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'