The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 76

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1, 2.--Consolation for bereaved workers. In these words, addressed to Joshua, we ho.ve the most effectual consolation that can be offered to believers, when one has been to.ken away from their midst whose life seemed indispensable to the work and service of God. They a.re words applicable to the family no less tho.n to the Church. Moses had just been taken from the people, from his friends, from Joshua his faithful servant. The great leader of Israel through the wilderness journey, the captain who had gone forth with their hosts to battle, the medium of the highest revelations of Goel to the nation, had vanish eel from among them. Israel would look no more on that noble face which had caught and kept the brightness of the glory of God revealed upon Sinai. The prophetic voice of him who had talked with God as a man talketh with his friend was hushed in lasting silence. He had been struck clown on the very -borders of the land of promise, to which he hacl safely led the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There was a peculiar sadness in the cleath of Moses just at this time. Have we not often felt the same when we have seen the strong man fall at the very moment when he was about to reap the fruit of his patient labours, and to win the hard-fought fight? The words spoken by God Him- self for the consolation of Israel may suggest thoughts helpful to us under similar circumstances. I. Goo's WORK DOES NOT DEPEND ON ANY ONE WORKER, EVEN THE GREATEST. It goes on, uninterrupted by the strokes of death. " Go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel." Thus the cause still advances. Moses may die ; his work cannot. Nay, it is ex- tended, and assumes new developments. Moses has led the people to the verge of Jordan. Joshua will carry them over. Both Moses and Joshua are only instru- ments which may be broken and laid aside; but He who uses them will never be stopped in His work of love. " My Father," says Jesus Christ, "worketh hitherto" (John v. 17). II. As Goo ONLY WORKS BY His SERVANTS, THESE MUST NEVER REST IN AN IDLE RELIANCE ON HIS POWER; THEY MUST TAKE UP .THE WORK JUST WHERE IT IS HANDED OVER TO THEM, EVEN THOUGH THEIR HEARTS MAY BE BROKEN BY SORROW. Thus the Lord says to Joshua : "Arise, go over this Jordan." We may not sit still mourning even over our beloved dead; we are to arise and take up their work. To carry it on is a sweet consolation ; v,e feel ourselves still linked with the departed as we trace their blessed footste)?S, and deepen the furrows they have already macle. It brings us into closer fellowship with them. Joshua, as he took up the charge laid down by Moses, was more th11,n ever brought into oneness of spirit with him. III. Goo, IN SPEAKING. OF MOSES AS His SERVANT, GIVES TO THE SURVIVORS THE SWEET ASSURANCE THAT HE HAS TAKEN HIM TO REST IN HIS OWN PRESENCE. The recognition of his faithful service implies th11,t of his sure reward. Undoubtedly he, like all the sons of men, was an unprofitable servant, but he nevertheless re- ceived from God that grand word of co=endo.tion, "Well done, good 11,nd faithful serv11,nt;" and this is the word which sets before him who receives ii an open heaven. Thus to know tho.t God never leaves His work incomplete, that He gins it to us to can'Y on, and tho.t those who have gone before us have entered into His rest, while we take up their unfinished task-this is the threefold solii.ce of the sor- 1·ows a.like of the Church and of the Christian family. Thus both "he that sowetl:. and they who reap rejoice together" (John iv. 86).-E. DE P. Vere. 2, 8.-God's gift to the Chiirch. The loss of a privilege teaches us how inadequately we have appreciated its worth. The_removo.l of an hon~rnred ser~ant of God often awakens a deeper sense of the blessrng that has been 10 otu· nndst. And sometimes a tendency is thus created to ~well unclt1;1y on t~e past, to become ~1orbid, o.nd to neglect the present, undervalu!ng what still remo.ms to us. Mourn- mg has its proper limits. In the text God rmpr!sses on the people_ t~e duty_ of recognising facts. "Moses is dead." True, you will never look upon his lilre aia1n i 8 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. (en. 1. 1-4.