The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 70

CHAPTER I. 1--4. quently applied to David. But it Bllite well with the specie.I e.nd peonlilll' mission which JOSHUA'S COMMISSION, - Ver. 1.-Now Moses had above the rest of mankind. He after the death of Moses. The form of was, e.s it were, the household servant of the the Hebrew is the usual historical one for Most High, His steward and representative, the continuation of a narrative before com- ruling over the family of God in His name, menced. The Book of Joshua. is thus and giving to them the directions of which shown to be, and to be intended to be, a they stood in need. Tha.t the Lord spa.kit continuation of the Book of Deuteronomy, unto Joshua. Either by Urim and Thum- which ends with the death of Moses (see mim, which seems at lee.et probable (see Speaker's Commentary in loc.). Thie link Nnm. xxvii. 21, and Josh. ix. 14). But tile of connection is lost in the English version. great majority of co=ente.tore prefer the The question forces itself upon the critic, idea. of an inward revelation, since the words At what time was this consecutive narra- are frequently need in this Book of God's tive-written, a.a is admitted, in various revelations to Joshua. (Josh. iii. 7; iv. 1, 15; styles, in the language of obviously ilietinct v. 2, 9; vi. 2, &c.). The manner of these periods-first composed e.nd pe.lmed off upon inward revelations is e.lso o. matter on which the J ewe as the genuine work of a writer much difference of opinion exists. They, no contemporary, or nearly contemporary, with doubt, were frequently me.de through e. vision the events he describes? The servant of or dream, e.s to Abraham e.t Sodom (Gen. the Lord. Thie term (Keil) is applied to xviii. 1), Ja.cob e.t Bethel, and Joshua him- the heavens and the earth (Pee.. cxix. 91), to self (eh. v. 13). But it is by no means clear the angels (Job iv. 18), to the prophets that they were always so. The voice of (Jer. vii. 25, &c.), to Abraham, Isaac, and God in answer to pmyer is recognised by Jo.cob, to the Jewish people (Exod. xix. 5), Christians in a strong inward persuasion of to Zerubbe.bel (Hag. ii. 23), and even to the desirability or necessity of a particular Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. xxv. ll, &c.), as the course. Of this kind would seem to be the appointed minister of God's wrath, and to answer to St. Paul's prayer in 2 Cor. xii. 0. pious men in general (Gesenius; see Paa. And it is quite possible that in pe.ssngee xxxiv. 23, &c.). It is also applied to the such as Gen. xii. 1, xxii. 1, 2, nothing more Messiah (Zech. iii. 8; comp. the word ,rai~ is meant than that the persuasion, by God's similarly applied in Acts iv. 27). It origin- permission or inspiration, wo.s strongly felt ally implies the position of a slave, whether within. And so it is possible tho.t one so born in the house or bought with money specially and divinely commissioned as (see Levit. xxv. 39 ; and Gen. ix. 25 ; Exod. Joshua iliscemed, in a strong aucl appa- xiii. 3, 14). In all cases it expresses a closer rently irresistible conviction, the voice of and more familiar relation than the term God (cl. Acts xvi. 7; 2 Cori. I?), Joshttct's ministe,· below. Keil says that it is applied name was originally llosltect (like the pro- so frequently to Moses that it has become phet and the Isra.elitish king of that _nnme). almost his "official title" (see Deut. xxxiv. The name origine.lly mcnnt salvatwn, or 6, and the Book of Joshua passim, and cf. deliverance, but it was changed, either when Heb. iii. 6). It is, however, still more fre- he entered into Moses' service, or when he JOSHUA. B 2 THE DOOK- OF JOSHUA. [cH.1-4,