The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 239

the fo1·ms in which the Creator might, if He pleased, array the powers of nature ~gainst sinful men I His long-suffering beneficence is their only safeguard. " It 18 of the Lord's merc10s that we are not consumed " (Lam. iii. 22). (3) The crea,ted universe a,tta,ins its consummation only in the final spiritual triumph of the Redeemer. The groaning creation waits for the "manifestation of the sons of God." The glorious presence of the Lord will be" the restitution of all things." There will be " nothing to hurt or to destroy" in the " new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." II. THA'l: MAN IS AN EFFICIENT INSTRUMENT IN SERVING THE CAU3E OF RIGHT· EOUSNESS JUST SO FAR AS HE HAS FAITH TO LAY HOLD ON THE SOVEREIGN' POWER OF GoD. "There was no day like that before it or after it," not because there was anything singular, unparalleled, in God's " hearkening to the voice of a man." This was simply a conspicuous and noteworthy example of a universal law. " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man " has always "availed much." The resources of heaven wait upon it. Such prayer is " A breath that fleets beyond this iron worl<l, And touches Him that made it." (1) Let the Church "stir itself up to lay hold on God." Its strength lies in faith and prayer. The Lord will never fail to "fight for Israel " when she is true to her high calling. The weapons of her warfare are mighty through Him. " God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early " (Paa. xlvi. 5). This pledge of Divine protection and deliverance is given, not to ecclesiastical systems, which may have much that is of man rather than of God in their constitution, but ti, that Church which Christ has redeemed and chosen out of every land and nation to represent His own cause of trutli and righteousness. When the Church goes forth in the energy of faith and prayer, its enemies flee before it. (2) Let the individual Christian recognise the true source of moral power. No emergency of life need be overwhelming to one who casts himself un- reservedly on God. " If God be for us, who can be against us? " Move on steadily in the path of duty and fear not. In all conceivable times of cli.ffi.culty an,l danger, of temptation and sorrow, Christ's answer to the cry of His faithful ones iD the same-" My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weak• ness."-vV. Vera. 24, 25.-The conquered kings. The fate of those kings has its moral analogies. We may regard them as typical of the principles and powers of spiritual evil, and their end as suggestive of the certain issue of God's conflict with those evil powers. Observe- r. THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. It deludes the transgressor, ancl leads him blind- fold to ruiu. It moves men to seek false refuges, inspires them witli a vain hope. They think to hide themselves, but God's laws and retributions always find them out. Jonah would fain " flee from the presence of the Lord," but Gocl's " strong wind" was swifter than his flight, and the sea, by which he thought to escape, only brought him face to face with his Judge. The subterfuges to which men resort in any guilty way often become the very weans of their detection aml punish- ment. The kings ilream of safety in their cave; it turns out to be the very thing that shuts them up hopelessly to J oslrna's veng.iance. As Matthew Henry puts it: "That which they thought would have been their shelter, was made tlieir prison firs!, ancl then their grave." So do sinful purposes often defeat themselves. "The wioked is suarecl in tlie work of his own hands" (Psa. ix. 16). II. THE HUMILIATION THAT, SOONER OR LATER, BEFALLS A PROUD DEFIANCE OF DIVINE AUTHORITY. See here au illustration of high-hanclecl rebellion against Goel. Its overthrow in the end is sure. " The wheel of fortune turns and lowers the prou<l." Kings a,re a,s helplesslJ'. subject to tl~e Divine power by ~hicli t_lil\t wheel revolves as other men (Psa. lxxv1. 12; Isa. xh. 25). Into what abJect nusery lrnve they sometimes fallen, under the mighty hand of Goel, who once, in the Cl\reer of their ambition, set all Divine and human law at defiance, aml mtule tlie eartli to 182 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. (cu. x. 1--48.