BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR JOSH 7CHAPTER VII.Veb. 1. But the children of Israel committed a trespass. — Corporate responsi-bility : — This is here attributed to the whole people, which was really the act of butone man or one family. This is not because of any guilty participation in thistrespass by others ; there is no intimation that any others of the people wereinvolved in a like crime. or is there any implication that others were privy to thecrime of Achan, and by concealment of the fact became its abettors and sharers inits guilt. In ail probability his act was not known or suspected beyond the Hmitsof his own famUy. evertheless, Israel was one people, and it is here dealt withas one corporate body. There was criminality in the midst of them. And it wasnecessary that it should be disavowed and punished, in order that the people mightbe freed from all complicity and connection with it. (W. H. Green, D.D.)Destruction a duty : — Many a thing which is attractive in itself ought to bedestroyed ; and if it ought to be destroyed, it ought not to be preserved. Thecontents of a saloon, or of a gambling-house, books and pictures which are harmfulin themselves, v, }iich are, by their owners or by the public authorities, devoted todestruction, ought to be destroyed. To preserve any portion of them, under suchcircumstances, would be a wrong on the part of him whose duty it was to destroythem. To preserve a private letter which is entrusted to one to destroy is not initself an act of theft, but it is an inexcusable breach of trust ; and if no one else inthe world is ever harmed by it, the one who preserves the letter is the worse for60 doing. The destroying of that which ought to be destroyed is as clearly one'sduty in its place, as the preserving of that which ought to be preserved. (H. C.Trumbull.)Vers. 2-5. They fled hefore the men of Al. — The tnie measure of strength : — In every estimate of work to be done by men, or by money, the moral element oughtto be taken into account as an important factor. apoleon's thought was that" God is on the side of the heaviest battalions." But apoleon did not considerthe relative weight of battalions by God's method of weighing them. One man'sstrength may be as "the strength of ten, because his heart is pure " ; and wheretwo thousand righteous men would be more than sufficient for a work of God,twenty thousand wrong-hearted men may fail. The true measure of the strengthCHAP.vn.] JOSHUA. 135
of any local Church is in the number and power of its godly men and women, not inthe show of its men and women of wealth and intellect and social standing. Onegood teacher in a Sunday-school has more real power there than a score of unworthyones. And it is with money as with men. The need of the Church in both thehome and the foreign field to-day is not so much mere money, but better gifts. Tendollars with a blessing will count for more in God's work than ten thousand doUarswithout a blessing. It is not true that one man's money is as good as another's,nor that money gained by one means is as good as money gained by another. (Ibid.)JoshvM's lesson after the defeat at Ai : — Jericho, according to the Divine promise,had fallen before Israel. It was evident that this remarkable event had happenedthrough the direct interposition of the power of God. It is scarcely to be wonderedat that such a triumph bred self-confidence. And, flushed with their recent andeasily-gained success, the victors were in haste to add to their laurels by theconquestof Ai. Here was an unlooked-for catastrophe. The Lord's chosen people discomfitedand dispersed in their second battle, a ground of insulting and contemptuousrejoicinggiven to the idolatrous Canaanites. And thus the Divine purpose stood, apparently,in danger of disgraceful frustration. Such thoughts were evidently jostling eachother, like a medley crowd, in the mind of Joshua. And, confused beyond thepossibility of cahn reflection by their influence, he casts himself in despair beforethe ark of the Lord. With what wonderful illuminating power must the answerhave come to him, " Get thee up ; wherefore liest thou upon thy face " ! What acall to common-sense action on the lines of faith is here I A little reflection mighthave shown to Joshua that the fault, whatever it was, could not lie at Jehovah'sdoor. In place of useless whimpering over the past, vigorous examination wasneeded to remove the lurking evil. Sanctification, as before Jericho, was urgentlyrequired. And as for the honour of the name of the Lord, it was never in danger.This first defeat would give caution to the warriors of Israel, while, under theimproved conditions about to be set up, it would act as an unfailing lure to thevictors of Ai. ow this leaf out of the life of a good servant of God is well fitted toteach us many useful lessons. I. A lesson as to the right treatment of a DivinbMYSTERY. It is easy to conceive of Joshua as emulating the example of arationaUst,had the prototype of that much-belauded school existed in his time. In that casehe would have called the leaders of his army together, and subjected them to asevere cross-examination. He would have proposed a long list of questions as tothe condition of the arms of the people, the manner of their leadership and itsblunders, the time and apparent causes of the panic. And having exhausted hiscriiical powers in the vain endeavour to discover some adequate cause for iha
catastrophe, he would have proceeded to distribute blame aU round. At the sametime, sapiently shaking his head over the problem, he would decide to " rest and bethankful" without further efforts at the conquest of the country. Or he would sethunself to prove conclusively that after all the success at Jericho was due to acci-dent, or purely natural causes, and that the whole scheme of Canaan conquest wasbased on a mistake. In this he might, not improbably, easily find scientific headsto help him. There would be sages who would invoke the aid of the discoveries of their time to show that the Jordan was divided, and the walls of Jericho fell fromthe operation of ordinary physical laws. The phenomena were special, but notBupernaturally so. Or Joshua might have chosen a third course, and abandonedhimself to surly grumbling or useless repining at the hard lot of a popular leaderunder a so-called " theocracy." Joshua's primitive faith — or, as some would say,simphcity — was far wiser and more useful. And just as, turn the compass as youmay, the needle wiU point to the pole, so, let circumstances be what they might,Joshua's trust always drew him towards God's oracle. The man of the world mightcall it chUdish, fatalistic credulity. At all events the issue proved it to be the right,the wisest thing to do. In like manner our true wisdom hes in taking our diffi-culties to God. Second causes, in the shape of natural law, human ignorance orfrailty, have their sphere in the economy of the Divine government, but God issupreme over all. II. It is not always safe to trust our zeal for the DivineHOOUR. Doubtless Joshua thought with Elijah in later times, "I have been veryzealous for the Lord of hosts," while he was really only fathering Israel's sin uponJehovah. And similar mistakes are not unfrequently made by godly men, andoften with the best intentions. There are some facts which exist, and some whichare threatened, which seem to reflect upon the nature and government of God.And in order, as it is supposed, to conserve Jehovah's honour, infinite effortis expended to cast doubt upon the facts or to qualify the declarations. Could136 THE BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR. [chap. vu.we but touch the bottom of such " zeal for God " we might be surprised todiscover that after all there is more in it which — unconsciously, it is true — tends to conserve human weakness and sin rather than the glory of our DivineBuler. A similar remark applies to very much in our own estimate of thesuccess of the gospel. Often we hear, and perhaps oftener are tempted to indulgein our hearts, doubts as to the power of the glorious gospel. Progress is so slowthat men are quick to discover that the machinery of evangehcal ministry hasbecome obsolete, and its teachings effete. But the lesson ought rather to be earnestinquiry as to our fitness or otherwise for the success we crave. Is the cause in our-selves, or our easily improvable methods ? Or does the hidden mischief lie in those
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