The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 400

be pertnaneut. The be•t teBt of sincerity is This remark presnpposes the miraculous not rtlways the open hostility of foes, for passage of the Red Sea and the ,Jorrlan, and this very often braces up the energies to the other great miracles recorder! in the combat, while o.t the so.me time it makes books of MoRes and Joshna. And among the path of duty clear. Still less is it the ell the people through whom we passed. hour of triumph over our foes, for then The Hebrew is stronger, 11 through tlw mid.'1t there is no temptation to rebel. The rce.l of whom." As the destruction of the test of our faithfulness to God is in most Amorites is mentioned afterwards, this cases our power to continue stead£astly in must refer to the sale passage of the one course of conduct when the excitement Israelites, not only among the wandering of conflict is removed, and the enemies with bands of Ishmaelites in the wilderness, but which we have to contend are the insidious along the borders of king Aracl the Canaanite, allurements of ease or custom amid the of Edom, and of Moab (Num. xx.-xxv.). common-place duHes of life. Thus the This close, yet incidental, agreement on the Israelites who, amid many murmurings and part of the writers of two separate books backslidings, kept faithful to the guidance serves to establish the trustworthiness of of Moses in the wilderness, and who followed the writers. with unwavering fidelity the banner of Ver. 18.-Therefore wU1 we also serve Joshua in Palestine, succumbed fatally to the Lord. There is an ambiguity in· our the temptations of a life of peace and quiet- version which does not exist in the Hebrew. ness after his death. So too often does the There is no " therefore," which only serves young Christian, who sets out on his to obscure the sense, and which is borrowed heavenward path with earnest desires and from the Vnlge.te. The LXX., which has high aspirations, who resists successfully aXXa Kai, gives the true sense. After the the temptations of youth to unbelief or enumeration of the great things God open immorality, fall a victim to the more Jehovah he.a done for them, the Israelites insidious snares of compromise with a cor- break off, e.nd, referring to the declaration rupt society, and instead of maintaining a of Joshua in ver. 15, "but as for me and perpetual warfare with the world, rejecting my house, we will serve Jehovah," reply, its principles and despising its precepts, " we too will serve Jehovah, for He is our sinks down into a life of ignoble ease and God." self-indulgence, .in the place of a life of Ver. 19.-A:nd Joshua sa.1d unto the devotion to the service of God. He does people, Ye cannot serve the Lord. Calvin not cast off God's service, he does not thinks that Joshua said this to rouse the reject Him openly, but .mixes up insensibly sluggish heart ol the people. to some sense with His worship the worship of idols which of theix duty. But this is quite contra.ry to He hates. Such persons halt between two the fact, for the heart of the people, e.s we opinions, they strive to serve two masters, have seen (eh. xxii.), was not slnggish. As and the end, like that of Israel, is open little can we accept the explanation of apostasy and ruin. For " God forbid " see Michaelis, who paraphrases, "Ye will not be eh. xxii. 29. able, from merely hnman resolutions, to Ver. 17.-For the Lord our God. Rather, serve God." Joshua was stating nothing Jo,· Jehovah ou,· God (see note on ver. 2). but a plain fact, which his own higher con- The Israelites, we may observe, were no ception of the law had taught him, that the sceptics, nor ever became such. Their sin law we.s too "holy, just, and good" for it was not open rebellion, but the attempt to to be possible that Israel should keep it. engraft upon God's servioe conduct incom- He had forebodings of coming failure, when patible with it, which led in pre,ctice to the he looked on one side at the law with its same result-a final antagonism to God. stem mora.lity and rigorous provisions, and But they believed in Jehovah ; they ho.d the undisciplined, untamed people that he no doubt of the miracles He had worked, saw around him. True and faithful to nor of the fa.et that His protecting hand the last, he set before them the law in e.11 had delivered them from all their perils, its majesty and fulness, the nature of its and had achieved for them o.ll their vic- requirements, and the unsuspected dangers tories. Nor do we find, amid all their sins, that lay in their weak and wayward hearts. that they ever committed themselves to a No doubt he had a dim presentiment of the form<1l denioJ of His existence and authority. truth, to teach which, to St. Paul, requirecl a To this, in tho worst times, the prophets miro.cle o.nd three years' wrestling in Arabia, appeal, o.nd though Isrll.elitish obstinacy that by the deeds of the law " shall no contested their conclusions, it never disputed flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the their premises. Did those great signs. law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. iii. 20). Here the people, in their answer, imply the As yet the Spirit of God had barely begun ciroumstao~es which Joshua had omitted. io unveil the figure of the Deliverer who 302 THE BOOR OF JOSHUA [cu. xxrv. 1-28,