17) Uncler Joshua the passage of Jorclo.n o.s the road to the Land of PromiAe was freed from difficulty and danger. The river of death by which we must enter into our rest Ima been robbed of its terrors by Christ. (8) The twelve stones taken from the becl of J ordo.n ancl set up as witnesses to the people of their deliverance mo.y represent the twelve living "witnesses of His resurrection," and of our deliverance through His resurrection appointed by Christ. (9) Joshua, when he had completed his work, ascended the mountain of Ephraim, and dwelt in security from his enemies. Jesus, having finished the work which the Father gave Him to do (John xvii. 4), ascended up on high and sat down on the right hand of Goel ; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool (Heh. x. 12, 13). From very early times the extermination of the Canaanite8 in obedience to the command of Goel (" Thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth ; but thou shalt utterly destroy them "-Deut. xx. 16, 17; comp. Num. xxi. 2, 3, 35; xxxiii. 52-54), has been urged as an objection against the morality of the Old Testament. Is such cruel severity in harmony with the Di_vine attributes? This question seems to call for some notice here. The following considerations are of importance in forming a juclgment on it :-(1) The age was one of imperfect knowledge of God, ancl consequent imperfect morality. " Because of the hardness of men's hearts," acts were allowed and even co:r;nmanded under the Law which are discouraged or forbidden under the Gospel. (2) It was also an age in which the iclea of individual rights and individual responsibility was very imperfect. Property belonged to the community, not to the individual Communities were held responsible for the acts of individual members, ancl, conversely, communities exacted retribution for wrongs done to individual members. The punishment of a whole nation was therefore quite in harmony with the prevailing sentiment of justice. (3) It was more important that this strong sentiment of justice should be turned in the right direction, viz., against the worst forms of sin, than that in its exercise it should carefully dis- criminate between a criminal and hie connections. God's revelations are gradual ; and as man could not learn the morality of the Gospel all at once, the most necessary elements were insisted on first. (4) Although it would have been possible to punish the Canaanites, as Sodom and Gomorrha were punished, without employing the sword of Israel, yet this would have been less generally beneficial. The Israelites were the trustees of the morality of the world. If they had lost their sacred deposit in the abominations of Canaan, tile whole hmnan race migllt have sunk to the level of Sodom. Warnings, like the fate of Koro.h and his company, lost their effect in time. Nothing conlcl impress the hatefulness and peril of sin so strongly upon the Israelites as to make them themsel ,es the instruments of God's vengeance on those who persisted in sin. These considera- tions will go fo.r to explain God's command so far as it affected those who had to execute it. With regard to those on wllom it was executed we must remember further: (5) Tbo.t it was a punishment for sins of the most abominable and conta- gious kind. (6) That the Canaanites were not only heinous sinners, but sinners against light: they had had the pure lives ancl pure worship of the patriarchs among them for generations. (7) They had hacl the warning of the fate of the cities of the plain at their very doors, even if the tradition of the floocl had peri.sllecl among them. It remains to say e. few words about the book in which the history of these great types and warnings is contained. Its single and inartificial style leads us to pll1ce it ea1·lier than the lees archaic Books of Kings and Chronicles. The J ewe believed Yiii INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL DOO1{8:
it to be written by Joshua., and this view was followed by the Fathers, and as regards much of the book, at any rate, is still advocated bv some modern critics. It is dear that the accOlmt of Joshua's death, and the -~tatement that "the J ebusites dwelt with the children of Judah at Jerusalem" (eh. xv. 68), point to a. da.te later than Joshua. MoreoYer, the conquests of HGbron by Caleb, of Debir by Othniel, and of Laish by the Danites, were e.lmost certa.inly not completed until after the death of Joshua (comp. Josh. xv. 18-20, and xix. 47 with Judg. i. 10-15, and eh. xYiii. 7). On the other hand, the book seems to be written during the lifetime of Rahab (eh. vi 25), and by one who took part in the campaign (eh. v. 1), and must certainly be earlier than the time of David (eh. xv. 68). The hypothesis that it was written, or at least completed, after Joshua's death by some one who obtained a great deal of material from Joshua himself, seems to harmonize with all these points, and also to account for the great minuteness of detail which characterizes portions of the books. Its contents are alluded to in the Psalms (xliv. 2, 8; lxvii!.. 12-14; h:xnii. 54, 55), in the Prophets (I1i9,. xxviii. 21; Hab. iii. 11-18), and in the New Testament (Acts vii. 45; Heb. iv. 8; xi. 30-81 ; James ii. 25) ; and its canonicity has never been disputed either among Jews or Christiane. It stands in somewhat the same relation to the Pentateuch as the Acts of the Apostles to the Gospels. While the Pentateuch gives the origin and principles of Judaism, and the Gospels those of Clnistianity, in the Books of Joshua and of the Acts of the Apostles we see those principles in action. The two books give us the youth-the one of the Jewish and the other of the Christian Church. In each case we are introduced to the first beginnings of ecclesiastical history. It is important to keep this aspect of the Book of Joshua constantly in view, in order to retain an adequate appreciation of its significance. Neither the Pentateuch nor the Gospels are primarily historical. They are rather the text-books of the Old and New Covenant; and the historical elements which they contain is there not so much as history as in order to explain t.he origin, and illustrate the meaning, of the covenant in each case. The Book of Joshua and the Acts are primarily historical. There object is to show how the promises made to the Church were in the first instance fulfilled, and how provision was made for a still larger fulfilment in the future. If this estimate of the two books is correct, we must at once give up the notion that the Book of Joshua is a mere appendix to the Pentateueh, possibly by the same hand. It would be more reasonable to regard it as a preface to the books that follow. Yet, strictly speaking, it is neither ; it is o. complete whole in itself, a necessary link in the great chain of events by which the Jewish dispensation prepared the ws;y for the Gospel.