Vers. 30-35.-The fruits of victory. "Then Jcshua built an altar unto the Lord. , .. And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses . . . . Ancl he read all the words of the law." There is always danger in the moment after ,vic- tory. We remember how Hannibal lost, amid the enervating luxuries of Capua, the fruit of the battle of Cannre. The most seductive Capua to the people of God is spiritual pride, which seeks to take to itself the glory which belongs to God alone. Woe to those who sleep upon the laurels of spiritual success, or who are intoxicated with self-complacency. "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall (1 Car. x.12). Joshua shows us by his example how the people of God should con• duct themselves after a victory. I. HE GIVES ALL THE GLORY TO GoD. He builds an altar to offer thereon a sacri- fice of thanksgiving. Let us do the same, !Ind render, as he did, all glory to God. If. HE SUMMONED THE PEQPLE TO A YET STRICTER OBEDIENCE TO THE DIVINE LAw by placing it afresh before their eyes. He knows well that never are men more prone to forget the sacred obligation of obedience than in the hour of religious suc- cess. Without obedience sacrifice is but external and vain. The true sacrifice is that of the will. Let every new blessing, every fresh victory only bring our mind and heart into more complete subjection to the will of God I
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER vm. 30-35. this (see Introduction) has lately been dis- THE COPY OF THE LAW.-Ver. 30.-Then carded tor another hypothesis. But we Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of have, if the present passage be genuine, a Israel In Mount Ebal This passage hiis been distinct proof that the Book of Joshua was pronounced to be an interpolation by Meyer, written after the Book of Denteronomy. De Wette, M11urer, Rosenmiiller, Knobel, Deuteronomy is here quoted as the " book and others. The LXX. does not introduce of the law of Moses" (cf. Dent. xxx.i. 9, 24, it here, but after eh. ix 2. For other 26). The grounds on which the genuine- authorities see below. It is very easy to ness of the passage has been denied o.re see why its genuineness has been disputed. these: First, the passage begins with T~ The Book of Joshua has many marks of followed by an imperfect, or future, as do;s having been written not so very long after the interpolated passage in Dent. iv. 41-43. the events described in it. But it has been This is Maurer's theory. But in this case a fovonrite opinion with the school which we must reject every p11ss11ge which begins disputes the authenticity of the books of thus, o.ud certninly we should ,lo so on ihc Bible, tho.t ·Deuteronomy. was a late grounds which, to say the least, nre very revision by Ezra of the law ol Moses, though slender. Next, we are told that Joshua, 140 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA, [ell. vnr. 80-36,