by B. H. CARROLL
Late President of Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas
J. B. Cranfill
Grand Rapids, Michigan
New and complete edition
Copyright 1948, Broadman Press
Reprinted by Baker Book
House
with permission of
First Printing, September
1973
PHOTOLITHOPRINTED BY GUSHING
- MALLOY, INC.
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA.
I Chronological
Analysis
II Introduction
III From Setting Up of the Tabernacle to the First March
IV From Sinai to Kadesh-Barnea
V Events
at Kadesh-Barnea
VI Aftermath
of the Breach of the Covenant at Kadesh
VII From Kadesh-Barnea to Moab
VIII Balaam: His Important
Prophecies, His Character, and
His Bible History
IX Israel's
Sin and Phinehas' Act of Righteousness, and Other Things
X General
Introduction
XI The
Analysis: Some Objections Answered
XII First and Second Oration, Part I
XIII Second Great Oration, Part II
XIV Third, Forth and Fifth Orations
XV The
Song, Prayer and Benediction of Moses
XVI The Character and Greatness of Moses
XVII The Homiletic Value of Deuteronomy
XVIII Historical Introduction
XIX Jehovahs Charge to Joshua
XX The
Miraculous Passage of the Jordan and Events at Gilgal
XXI The Fall of Jericho, Ai, Ebal, and Gerizirn
XXII Conquest of the Northern Tribes;
Allotment of Territory; Establishment of a Central Place of Worship
XXIII Brief Review; Return of Warriors of the Two and a half
Tribes
XXIV Introduction
XXV Introduction {Continued) and Outline
XXVI Events Preceding the Judges and Some Special
Deliveries
XXVII Deborah and Barak. Deborah's Song
XXVIII Deborah's Song (Concluded) , Midian and Gideon
XXIX The Story of Abimelech, the Usurper, and of Jepththah
XXX Samson
XXXI Micah and the Danites, Outrage of the
Men of Gibeah, and the National War Against Benjamin
THE BOOK OF
RUTH
XXXII The Book of Ruth A Catechism
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
CHRONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
I. The itinerary from Egypt to Sinai, Numbers
33:1-15, connecting with Exodus 12:37 to 19:2.
II. All the events and legislation in chapters
7-9, connect in order of time with Exodus 40 as follows: second year, first month,
first day, the book of Exodus closes with setting up the tabernacle which Moses
could not enter until dedicated.
The Next Twelve Days.
1. The offerings of the princes, Numbers 7:1-86.
2. The dedication, Numbers 7:87-88.
3. Moses now enters and hears the voice, Numbers 7:89.
4. Purification of the tribe of Levi for service, Numbers 8:1-26.
Fourteenth Day.
1. Observance of the Second Passover, Numbers 9:1-5.
2. Occasion of the Provision for the Little Passover, Numbers 9:6-14.
III. The Legislation in Numbers 5-6 connects in
order of time with Leviticus and these two chapters of Numbers with Leviticus
cover all the rest of the first month say
Sixteen Days.
1. Lepers put out of the camp, Numbers 5:1-4.
2. Restitution in case of trespass, Numbers 5:5-10.
3. The trial of Jealousy, Numbers 5:11-31.
4. The law of the Nazarite, Numbers 6:1-21.
5. Form of the high priest's benediction, Numbers 6:22-27.
IV. First Nineteen Days Second Month, devoted to
preparation for first march to Promised Land, Numbers 1-4; 9: 15-23;
10:1-10,14-32.
1. Terminal dates of this section, Numbers 1:1, and 10:11.
2. Numbering the warriors of the twelve secular tribes, 603,550, Numbers
1:1-46.
3. Order of their encampment, Numbers 2.
4. The tribe of Levi exempted from secular and war service and tribal
inheritance and appointed to a religious service because about to be exchanged
for the firstborn of the secular tribes the firstborn being Jehovah's,
chapters 1:47-54, and 3:1-13.
5. Census of male Levites from one month old and upward as basis for proposed
exchange, number 22,000, 3:14-16, 39.
6. Census of firstborn males of the twelve secular tribes as the other basis
for proposed exchange number 22,273, 3:40-43.
7. Redemption price of the secular excess, 273, 3:44-51.
8. Special charge of all Levites, by families, in marching and camping and
their order of encampment, 3:17-38.
9. Second census of male Levites for the hard service of marching and camping
this time from thirty years to fifty number 8,580 and the distribution of
duties by families, chapter 4.
10. Signals of marching and camping:
(1) The pillar of cloud, 9:15-23.
(2) The trumpets, 10:1-10.
(3) The ark, 10:33.
(4) The words of Moses, 10:35-36.
11. Regular order of marching and camping, 10:14-28.
12. The invitation to Hobab his service and the promised blessing, 10:29-32.
(Note the great pulpit theme, 10:29.)
V. Forty-eight Days. From Sinai to Kadesh-barnea,
Numbers 10:11-33, and chapters 11-12; 23:16-18.
1. Distance 150 miles at least.
2. Time of starting 10:11, Time in day marches (Deuteronomy l:2)=== eleven
days. Time in resting at Kibroth (II: 20) = thirty days. Time in resting at
Hazeroth (12:14-15) =seven days. Time total forty-eight days at least, probably
more.
3. Character of the way, Deuteronomy 1:19; 8:15; 32:10.
4. The Itinerary, Numbers 33:16-18.
5. Events by the way: At Taberah, 11:1-3.
(1) This is a mere night encampment at close of first or second day's march.
(2) The sin of murmuring against God, its punishment by fire and the
intercession of Moses. At Kibroth, 11:4-34.
(3) The place in the edge of the wilderness of Paran three days' journey
from Sinai about thirty miles from Sinai, 10:12,33.
(4) Time, thirty days 11:20.
(5) The sin of loathing God's provision and lusting for the food of bondage,
11:4-6.
(6) Description of the manna and how prepared for food, 11:7-9.
(7) Displeasure of Moses and his appeal to Jehovah, 11:10-15.
(8) Jehovah in reply to the appeal of Moses provides and qualifies seventy
executive officers to assist Moses in administration, as he had previously
appointed and qualfied seventy Judges to assist him in judicial matters, II:
16-17,24-25.
(9) The strange case of Eldad and Medad, and its lesson that neglect of some
technical forms does not invalidate God's appointment nor restrain his Spirit,
11:26. Compare 2 Chronicles 33:18-20.
(10) Joshua's mistaken jealousy and the larger spirit of Moses, 11:27-29.
Compare Mark 9:38-40, and Acts 11:17. (Note the great pulpit theme 11:29, but
who is able to preach just right on 11:26-28; 2 Chronicles 33: 18-20; Mark
9:38-40; Acts 11:17?)
(11) Jehovah grants and punishes the wicked lusts of the people,
11:18-20,31-34.
(Note that their sin was rejection of Jehovah, 11:20.)
(Note the origin of the saying, "No man can eat a quail a day for thirty
days consecutively.")
At Hazeroth, 11:35 to 12:15.
(12) No note in the text of how many days' march from Kibroth perhaps four.
(13) The great sin of Miriam and Aaron against Moses and God and its punishment
and healing on the intercession of Moses.
(14) Time at least seven days. (Note the author's explanation of Moses' Cushite
wife.) The March from Hazeroth to Kadesh, 12:16. Time, perhaps four days. No
event recorded.
VI. Events and Legislation at Kadesh-barnea,
chapters 13-19. Time indefinite, Deuteronomy l:46= forty-two days specified.
The place - in northern edge of the Wilderness of Paran (12:16), called also
Rithmah, Numbers 33:18, on the southern border of the Promised Land, 34:4, in
the hill country of the Amorites, Deuteronomy 1:20, west of the Arabah. (See
Kadesh-Barnea, by H. Clay Trumbull, for exact location and description.)
1. The case of. the spies.
(1) Who suggested sending the spies, Deuteronomy 1:22? It would have shown
greater faith to obey God's command immediately and trust to him, Deuteronomy
1:21. Both God and Moses let them have their way, Numbers 13:1.
(2) The spies examine all the Promised Land and find it as Jehovah had reported
it, but in their report ten of them speak evil of the land and magnify the
power of the enemies holding it, and minimize the power of Israel and openly
distrust God, 13:4-33. (Note the great pulpit theme of unbelief and cowardice
in verse 33.)
2. The second great breach of the covenant, God's threat of destruction, the
intercession of Moses, the mixed pardon and penalty, 14:1-35.
3. The fate of the ten cowards and the good destiny of the two faithful ones, 14:36-38.
4. The people's great sin of presumption and its result, 14: 39-45.
5. Prospective legislation which inspires hope of yet reaching the Promised
Land, chapter 15.
6. The sin and punishment of Korah and his company and the memorial thereof, 16:1-40.
7. Continued rebellion of the people, its punishment and atonement by Aaron,
16:41-50.
8. The rod of Aaron and its preservation as a token, and the despair of the
cast-off people, chapter 17.
9. Special charge of the Levites and provision for their support, chapter 18.
10. The red heifer, or the water of purification, chapter 19. (Compare this
typical element of regeneration with Psalm 51:2; Ezekiel 36:25; Zechariah 13:1;
John 3:5; Ephesians, 5:26; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 9:13, and note that regeneration
always consists of two parts: First, cleansing by the Spirit's application of
Christ's blood; and, second, renewing of the heart and mind. See author's
sermon on the "Human Side of Regeneration" in his first volume of
sermons.)
VII. The long silent period of the wanderings,
about thirty-seven years.
1. The itinerary, Numbers 33:19-36.
2. The covenant being broken, circumcision, its token, not observed, Joshua
5:2-9.
3. That generation being outcasts, Jehovah commanded no sacrifices (Jeremiah
7:22) and they offered none but served idols (Amos 5:25, and Acts 7:42-43).
4. Yet for the sake of the coming generations, Jehovah cared for them,
Deuteronomy 2:7; 29:5-6; Nehemiah 9:19-21.
VIII. Events at Kadesh-barnea once more. Several
months, commencing with the first month in the fortieth year, 20:1; 33:38.
1. The reassembling at Kadesh, 20:1.
2. Death of Miriam in the place where she had sinned thirty-seven years before,
20:1.
3. A second rebellion at Kadesh, 20:2-6.
4. The sin of Moses and Aaron in smiting the rock and its chastisement
announced, 20:7-13. (Compare this passage with 20:24; 27:14; Deuteronomy 1:37;
3:26-27; Psalm 106:32-33, and analyze the sin of Moses.)
5. The attack on Israel by the Canaanites and their subsequent doom, 21:1-3.
6. Passage through Edom refused, 20:14-21.
IX. Over thirty days from Kadesh to Mount Hor in
the border of Edom. The death of Aaron and the appointment of Eleazar as high
priest, 20:22-29; 23:37, 39.
X. Time five months exactly. (Compare 33:38;
20:29; Deuteronomy 1:3.) From Mount Hor, around Edom, to the banks of the
Jordan opposite Jericho the events by the way the events and legislation
there:
1. The itinerary, 33:41-49. (Compare Numbers 21:10-35; Deuteronomy 2:1-37.)
2. The Brazen Serpent 21:4-9.
3. Quotations from a lost book, 21:14.
4. The well and the song, 21:16-18.
5. The fall of Sihon and another song, 21:21-32.
6. The fall of Bashan, 21:33-35.
7. The case of Balaam and his prophecies, chapters 22-24. Compare Jude 2; 2
Peter 2:15; Revelation 2:14. (After reading sermons on Balaam by Bishop Butler,
Dr. Arnold, Cardinal Newman, Spurgeon, and the author, noting the several lines
of thought, make your own analysis showing the degree and sources of light, his
spiritual state, his great sin and character then state the messianic element
in his prophecies.
8. (1) Balaam, failing to turn Jehovah against Israel by divination, turns
Israel against Jehovah by a terrible sin, 25:1-3, 6-15.
(2) Hanging the chiefs does not atone, 25:4.
(3) Slaying the guilty does not atone, 25:5.
(4) The sin culminates in an awful act of presumption, 25:6.
(5) Atonement by Phinehas, 25:7-15. (Expound those most remarkable passages in
the Old Testament, Numbers 25:11-13; Psalm 106:30-31, and particularly make
clear this second case of "imputed righteousness" and develop the
atonement idea in the zeal of Phinehas and find its antitype in Christ's
atonement.)
9. The second census, chapter 26.
10. Provision of inheritance for daughters without father or brother, 21:1-11.
11. Joshua set apart as successor to Moses, 27:12-23.
12. The offerings day by day, sabbath by sabbath, moon by moon, year by year,
feast by feast, chapters 28-29. (These chapters could be made into a calendar
for the Jewish Holy Year.)
13. Exceptions to the law of Vows previously given, 33.
14. Holy War against Midian led by Phinehas, who had atoned for the sin of
Israel, 31. (Particularly note the character of this war, as the execution of a
divine sentence, led by a priest with only 12,000 men who suffer no loss, and
the devoted character of the spoils.)
15. The plea of Reuben and Gad for inheritance east of the Jordan and the
conditions under which it will be granted, 32.
16 The itinerary from Egypt to Jordan, whose several parts have already been
noted, 33.
17 The borders of the land, 34:1-12. (Compare the borders here given with
Genesis 15:18-21; Deuteronomy 1:7-8, and other passages.)
18 Half-tribe of Manasseh to receive inheritance with Reuben and Gad, and the
appointment of twelve princes who, with Joshua and Eleazar, shall divide the
land, 34:16-29.
19. Directions for forty-eight Levitical cities, six cities of refuge and laws
defining privileges of refuge, 35.
20. Law for securing to the tribe inheritance already provided for daughters
without father or brother.
INTRODUCTION Numbers 1-4
We now commence the introduction to the book of Numbers. The first thing is the
name. In the Hebrew there are two names. One takes the first word and the other
takes the first most important word. In the Septuagint the name is Arithmoi; in
the Vulgate, Numeri, both meaning the same as our word Numbers. These names are
derived from the numbering recorded in chapter I and the second numbering
thirty-eight years later in chapter 26; the first, prior to the first start on
the great march, and the second, at the second start.
Next is the period of time covered by the book of Numbers. We will notice the
following points: 1:1, "Second year, second month, first day." One
year and one month after leaving Rameses in Egypt, they leave Sinai. You have
another date, viz.: The death of Aaron, 20: 22; 33: 38. Aaron's death is in the
fortieth year, and fifth month, the first day, from the time they left Egypt
and thirty-ninth year from the time they left Sinai.
Next, Deuteronomy I, which commences the fortieth year and the eleventh month,
making exactly six months after Aaron's death before Deuteronomy commences. If
you add these periods together, they make thirty-eight years and nine months.
It takes them a little over a year at Sinai and then nearly thirty-nine years
to close up this book. Deuteronomy occupies not over a month, bringing us to
the death of Moses forty years from the time they left Egypt. I will give you a
brief outline and then a more extended outline of this book. The brief outline
consists of only four points:
1. Preparation for the march, extending from 1:1, to 10:10. The preparation
will include not only the census and some legislation which follows it, but
also some other things necessary to the start.
2. The march from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, close to the border of the Holy Land
10:11 to 14 a brief period of time. They had only three stopping places of any
length, recorded again in Numbers 33. That chapter gives the entire itinerary,
or order of the march, from the day they left Rameses in Egypt to the time they
reached the Jordan River.
3. Period of aimless wandering, chapters 15, 19, the longest part of the book
of Moses as to time, including the wanderings and the legislation during that
time. It covers more space than any other part.
4. From Kadesh-barnea to the camp opposite Jericho and the events on the plains
of Moab chapters 20-36. In this book are some of the most interesting incidents
in the history of the Jewish people, some of the most thrilling themes for the
preacher, new laws of a particular kind, especially concerning those about the
red heifer, which have a deep significance in the New Testament. In this book
you have an account of the sins committed by the people that excluded every
grown man from entering the Promised Land with the exception of two, including
the special sin of Moses and Aaron.
Now follows the more elaborate analysis:
Sec. 1. Preparation for the great march (1-4). In these chapters we have the
first census, the order in which the tribes shall camp and march, the special
numbering of the firstborn and the exchange of the firstborn males of all the
people for the tribe of Levi, the special duties that the Levites are to
perform and their order of march.
Sec. II. Some legislation (5-6), divided into five parts:
(1) The exclusion of the unclean; (2) the law of recompense and of offerings;
(3) the trial of jealousy, a strange and horrible thing (I imagine it would
scare any woman to death to be put to that test) ; (4) the Nazarite vow; (5)
the words that the priest shall use in his benediction, one of the most
beautiful benedictions.
Sec. III. Further preparation for the march (7: I to 10:10), consisting of the
following items: Offerings of the princes at the dedication, the voice in the
sanctuary, the lamps lighted in the tabernacle, the consecration of the
Levites, the second passover and the supplemental passover, the cloud on the
tabernacle, and the silver trumpet for governing the march. So the preparation
consists of two parts between which comes that special legislation, and so
these three sections correspond to the first part of the short outline.
Sec. IV. (Which corresponds to the second in the short outline.) The march from
Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, with the following incidents (10:11 to 14:45): The
start and the order of the march, the invitation to Hobab, the journey, sin and
chastisement at Kibroth, the sedition of Miriam and Aaron and the sending of
the spies and the rejection of the people. That ends that probation. They had
violated the covenant. They have to make a new start. In answer to the prayer
of Moses God gives them another probation, on the condition that every grown
man that left Egypt shall perish and that they must wander until that
generation has died. The period of that wandering is divided into the three
following sections:
Sec. V. Chapter 15 only: Legislation on offerings, firstfruits, trespass
offering, the presumptuous sin, with the incident of the sabbath breaker and
the law of fringes.
Sec. VI. Chapters 16-17. An account of the rebellion of Korah and his
confederates against the Aaronic priesthood, and the memorial that follows.
Sec. VII. Further legislation, charge and emoluments of priest, the law of the
red heifer and the pollution of death 18-19). All of the other sections will
come in the fourth item of the short outline.
Sec. VIII. This includes the water of Menbah, the brazen serpent, the last
marches and the first victories.
Sec. IX. Chapters 22-24. The coming of Balaam and the prophecies of Balaam.
Sec. X. Gives an account of the events that took place on the plains of Moab on
the banks of the Jordan (25-27). Those events were as follows. The second
census of Israel, with a view to allotment of land, the petition of
Zelophehad's daughters and finally the supersession of Moses by Joshua.
Sec. XI. Further legislation. The annual routine of sacrifices chapters 28-29.
The thirtieth chapter tells us about vows like that last section of Leviticus
giving us the exception of vows made by women.
Sec. XII. Further events in the plains of Moab, (31-32) extirpation of Midian
and the settlement of the tribes east of the Jordan.
Sec. XIII. Chapter 33:1-49. The great itinerary, showing every stopping place
of any length from the time they left Egypt to the river Jordan a remarkable
historical document.
Sec. XIV. Chapter 33:50, to the end of the book, Final instruction with a view
to the conquest of Canaan, as follows: Clearance of the Holy Land, boundaries
of the Holy Land, allotment of the Holy Land, reservation of cities for the Levites,
cities of refuge and the law of homicides, law of the marriage of heiresses,
which relates back to Zeiophehad's daughters.
Just here you need to read Trumbull's Kadesh-Barnea. The central place of the
book of Numbers is Kadesh-bamea. This is the great camping place they reached
after they left Sinai and just before they made their attempt to enter the Holy
Land. There occurred the sin of the people, the rejection of the report of the
spies, the condemnation to wander thirty eight years, revolving around
Kadesh-barnea. Hence explorers have tried harder to locate Kadesh-barnea than
any other one place except Sinai.
The census discussed in the first chapter is dated the second year, second
month and first day, after they left Egypt. The second census was with
reference to the allotment, for they expected in a few days to get to the Holy
Land. Of course when they forfeited their right and all those men died of the
first census, they had to take a new census, and that is why the name of the
book is plural. The census applies to eleven of the tribes, Levi not included,
and takes account of the males from twenty years upwards who are able to go to
war. That census amounted to 603,550. They took the census of Levi separately
and took it twice. First, every male in the tribe of Levi, from one month old
up, amounted to 22,000, which was less than any other tribe had from twenty
years old up, showing that the tribe of Levi was by all odds the smallest of
the tribes. When they took the next census of Levi, they took it of the men
from thirty to fifty, to get the men capable of service around the sanctuary.
That census amounted to 8,580 males. It seems to me that if there were 8,580
from thirty to fifty, there ought to have been more than 22,000 from one month
up.
The next item is the order of camp. The enclosure around the tabernacle faced
the east. The whole tribe of Levi, including Moses and Aaron, would occupy the
space around the tabernacle just outside of the enclosure. Then on the east of
them were Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Judah carrying the banner and leading off.
On the west, the tribes descended from Rachel: Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh,
Ephraim carrying the banner. The other six tribes occupied the north and south
sides. Whenever the pillar of cloud would stop, the Levites would advance and
set up the tabernacle just beneath it. I got my first ideas of real
organization from the book of Numbers. Moses was a great general, tactician,
and strategist. He had commanded the armies of Egypt and knew that one could
not move three millions of people without interminable confusion if there was
not organization to the smallest detail. All of these details are set forth in
the second chapter so far as the tribes are concerned.
The only other item apart from the numbering of the Levites, which I have
already given you, is the special direction to number them so that an exchange
could be made. All the males of the firstborn belonged to God. When they took
the list of all the firstborn of the eleven tribes, they amounted to 22,273,
whereas the males from one month old up in Levi, amounted to 22,000. To make
the exchange complete, so as to take the tribe of Levi over instead of the
firstborn of all the tribes, a compensation had to be paid for the surplus.
Levi lacked 273 of coming up to the measure. That compensation was paid to the
children of Levi, five shekels for each one of the 273. That covers the third
and fourth chapters.
QUESTIONS
1. Give origin of the name
"Numbers."
2. What period of time is
covered by the book? (Work out answer from dates given in book.)
3. Give a brief outline of
the book.
4. Give a more elaborate
analysis of the book.
5. What is the central place
of the book of Numbers, and why locate it.
6. Why is the name of the
book plural?
7. Why more than one census?
8. Give result of the first
census of the twelve secular tribes, comparing it with the second census many
years later.
9. Why a separate census of
Levi?
10. Why double census of Levi,
first, from one month old upward, and second, from thirty years old to fifty?
11. How was the exchange of
the firstborn males of Israel for the tribe of Levi made?
12. Describe the order of
the entire encampment. (See your Atlas.)
13. What were the duties of
the Kohathites, Gershonites, and Merarites, respectively?
FROM SETTING UP OF THE TABERNACLE TO THE
FIRST MARCH
In chapter 2, I gave a historical introduction, cited a brief outline and then
a very extensive one. I shall not observe either of these outlines because they
lack chronological exactness, but I shall follow the chronological analysis
given in chapter 1.
In studying the book of Numbers the first item of our outline which we shall
notice is chapter 7 which gives the gifts of the princes of Israel. Those gifts
are presented in twelve successive days) following right after the day in which
the tabernacle was set up, as given in the fortieth chapter of Exodus; the
first day of the first month of the second year. This chapter 7 of Numbers
immediately follows the passage in Exodus 40:35. Exodus, in that connection,
states that when Moses had completed the tabernacle and had set it up, the
cloud came down and filled it so that he was not able to enter it. Chapter 7
tells us how Moses was able to enter and the twelve days follow right after.
When we get through with this chapter, we are at the thirteenth day of the
first month. Therefore, in my outline I say, the twelve days of the gifts of
princes follow Exodus 40:35, where Moses could not enter the tabernacle, which
date was the first day of the first month of the second year, and these
offerings bring us to the thirteenth day set apart to make a gift, and among
their gifts were certain offerings. At the end of this chapter we find that
these offerings for sacrifices were made and closes entered the tabernacle and
listened to the voice of God speaking to him.
The next item of the outline is 9:1-14. The theme is, "The Second
Passover, and the provision for a little passover a little later." This is
on the fourteenth day of the first month. For those who through absence or
ceremonial uncleanness were not permitted to eat the first Passover, a law
provided for their eating a month later.
From the fourteenth to the end of the first month took place all that occurred
in the book of Leviticus plus these chapters in Numbers, the Levitical
legislation, as set forth in chapters 5-6 and 8:1-4. If they were lunar months,
we know how many days were covered fourteen days; but if it was a month
according to our calculation it would cover sixteen days. In order of time that
should be inserted just after the close of Leviticus.
We come to the second month and first day where the census takes place. The
census of the eleven tribes, 1:1-46, amounts to 603,550 males from twenty years
old up. The next item is the order in which the tribes camped, second chapter.
That order was expressed in the introduction. The next item is the first census
of the Levites, from one month upward, and their order of camp 3:14-39, leaving
the first part of the third chapter to be placed elsewhere, the census
amounting to 22,000, elsewhere given as 22,300. And it is a difficult matter
for commentators to explain that difference of 300. It may be done by supposing
that 300 of the Levites were firstborn and, therefore, not included in the
calculations afterwards made. I then showed how the Levites camped on the east.
The next item is the census of the firstborn of Israel, 3:4043, amounting to
22,273. The next item is the exchange of the 22,273 of the firstborn of the
eleven tribes for the 22,000 Levites. A commutation price was paid for the
extra 273 of the firstborn, 3:1-13, and also from 44-51.
The next item is the second census of the Levites from thirty to fifty, and the
chapter tells us exactly how each one had to act before going to march. I shall
bring that out directly.
The next item is the cleansing of the Levites, chapter
8.
The next item is the services to be performed by the pillar of cloud, 9:15-23.
The next item is the service of the trumpets, 10:1-10. That outline is
absolutely accurate, chronologically and analytically, up to that point.
My next item of the outline is to give a digest of the order of the march. In
order to understand this, we must conceive of Israel in camp, each tribe in its
proper place, the tabernacle up and the cloud over the tabernacle, Moses,
Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites in their places. Get that picture in your
mind. Now the morning has come on which they are to march. It tells us which
morning in chapter 10: "And it came to pass in the second year, second
month, twentieth day." The first thing that morning was the morning
sacrifices which were never neglected. As soon as that sacrifice was over,
Aaron steps out and says (6:24-26): "Jehovah bless thee and keep thee;
Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and give thee peace." In that
way Aaron puts the name of Jehovah on the people. They don't know when they are
going to start. Suddenly that cloud that hovered down low over the tabernacle
ascends into the air, the divine signal to get ready to march. Then there was a
human signal, the trumpets blow. When those trumpets blew, the first people
that had anything to do were Aaron and his sons. Aaron goes into the holy of
holies and in the prescribed way covers the Ark of the Covenant so that it will
be hidden from sight and puts the staves through the rings on the sides so that
four men can carry it with those staves resting on their shoulders. Then Aaron
and his sons cover up, in a prescribed way, every one of the holy things.
Next the Gershonites, part of the tribe of Levi, come up and take charge of all
curtains of every kind, always their business. They have wagons with two oxen
each to help carry this vast amount of baggage. Then Eleazar and Ithamar take
charge of the sacred oils and special things of that kind. Then the Merarites
come and take down the heavy parts of the tent and carry them off on four
wagons, each having two oxen. Then the Kohathites come and take every part that
Aaron has covered except the ark. Four take charge of the ark and the rest take
the other things.
Now comes another sight. That cloud that had gone up in the air and was
standing there, just as soon as the Levites have taken down all those things
and loaded them on the wagons, begins to move slowly in the direction they want
to go. As soon as Moses sees that, the four men that have charge of the ark
pick it up and keep right under that cloud. Read that in 10:33: "And they
set forward from the mount of Jehovah three days' journey; and the ark of the
covenant of Jehovah went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting
place for them." So the front things at the head of the column are the
cloud above and the ark below. As that ark moves, Moses says, "Rise up, 0
Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee
before thee." One of the most thrilling psalms written upon that is the
psalm that Cromwell adopted as his psalm, and every time he went into battle,
he made his army kneel and pray, and when the marching order was given, they marched
singing the psalm that paraphrased these words of Moses. Then Moses and Aaron
follow the ark, and the trumpets blow an alarm, and Judah, the vanguard, set
forth with that part encamped on the east, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun with an
army of 186,400 men. As soon as that vast body was in motion, the Gershonites
follow with the curtains of the tent and the Merarites with the heavy fixtures.
Then the trumpets blow a second alarm and those encamped on the south side,
Reuben, Simeon, and Gad, move forward with an army of 151,450 men. Right after
them the Kohathites follow with the holy things, and Eleazar, lthamar, the sons
of Aaron, led. Then follows the third trumpet alarm and the crowd on the west
moves off, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, with a total of 108,600 men. Now,
isn't that organization? Did anybody ever see better organization?
Now I shall tell you how they stop. They never knew when or where they would
stop. They moved as long as the ark moved. God is the captain of this
expedition. Whenever that cloud stops, instantly those men carrying the ark put
it down under the cloud) but the cloud is away up in the air and the ark is
covered. Moses and Aaron stop. Then Judah takes his position to the east and
the Gershonites and Meraritea come up with their curtains and heavy parts of
the tent and immediately lay off the court, put up the poles and hang the
curtains and veil and nobody has ever seen the sacred things. Then there
marches up Reuben's corps and he camps on the south, and with him come the
Kohathites and they walk up and put down the altar of burnt offerings, then the
laver, and going into the holy place put down the altar of incense, the table
of shewbread and the candlestick. Now everything is in its place. Aaron alone
goes into the holy of holies to uncover the ark. Then Dan comes up and goes
into camp on the north, and the tribes descended from Rachel come up and take
their position on the west. Then the cloud comes down and as it settles Moses
says these words: "Return, 0 Jehovah, come into the ten thousands of
thousands of Israel." Now, what follows? The evening sacrifice. That order
applies to every day's march. They are now going to set out on a three days'
journey, stopping only at night. They are going north over a most terrible country,
which Moses calls the great and horrible wilderness.
QUESTIONS
1. Where do you find the
itinerary from Egypt to Sinai?
2. What are the date and
event of the closing of the book of Exodus?
3. What are the events of
the next twelve days?
4. What, then, on the
fourteenth day?
5. What are the next sixteen
days?
6. Give the law of
restitution in the case of trespass.
7. In general terms describe
the trial with jealousy.
8. Give the law of the
Nazarite.
9. Give the high priest's benediction.
10. To what were the first
nineteen days of the second month devoted?
11. What are the terminal
dates of this section?
12. Give particulars and
result of first numbering.
13. Give again the order of
their encampment.
14. Why were the Levites
exempted from secular and war service and tribal inheritance and appointed to
religious service?
15. Explain the difference
of 300 found in the census of Levi.
16. Explain fully the
exchange of the male Levites for the firstborn of Israel.
17. What is the special
charge of all Levites, by families in marching and camping and their order of
encampment?
18. Why a second census of
male Levites? Give particulars.
19. What were the signals
for marching and camping? Describe each.
20. Give a digest of the
order of marching,
21. What General adopted the
psalm based upon Moses' words in Numbers 10:35, as his psalm and what is the
psalm?
22. Give in detail how they
stopped.
23. Hobab, who? His service?
The promised blessing?
24. What great pulpit theme
in this connection? Note. Keep your chronological analysis before you and read
all references.
FROM SINAI TO KADESH-BARNEA Number 11:1 to
12:16
In this chapter we cover only two chapters of Numbers (11-12) the section of
the outline from Sinai to Kadesh-barnea. When they had finished their
preparation, the objective point from Sinai was Kadesh, a distance of 150 or
200 miles, but for such a big crowd, eleven days' journey (Deut. 1:2). But that
eleven days does not cover all the time, since they stopped a long time at two
places at least. We take up, then, the question of time. After three days they
reached Kibroth, where they stopped thirty days. After they left Kibroth, their
next point was Hazeroth, where they stopped seven days. So you have forty days
covered by this section. In order to get that time you have to compare a great
many dates, which I have carefully done. This lesson tells about the first
three marching days to Kibroth but does not give the time from Kibroth to
Hazeroth, but Deuteronomy 1:2, gives us the eleven days, and so the time must
have been eight days. I shall give you the great events that occurred in these
forty-eight days. At the beginning of the next chapter, I shall give you some
special explanations about Kadesh-barnea. In getting to Kadesh-barnea, three
great sins were committed, culminating in a greater sin at Kadesh-barnea, and
the one at Kadesh, which we shall not discuss in this chapter, was the second
breach of the covenant.
The first sin occurs on that three days' march from Sinai through that great
and terrible wilderness. The people murmured, speaking evil in the ears of
Jehovah. It was a complaint against God himself on account of their suffering.
A man by himself would suffer, but moving three millions of people with their
cattle was much more difficult. So they murmured against God and the fire of
Jehovah burned among them and devoured them in the uttermost part of the camp.
Some have supposed that the fire was lightning. But they have very little
lightning in that country. I think it was a fire that went out from the
presence of the Lord. So there is the first sin and the first punishment.
"And the people cried unto Moses and Moses prayed unto Jehovah and the
fire abated." So this punishment was stayed at the intervention of Moses,
their great mediator. What memorial was there of that sin and punishment?
"And the name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of
Jehovah burned among them." That occurred on some one of these three days.
The second sin we find recorded in 11:3-34. It did not commence with the pure
Israelites but with the mixed multitude that followed them from Egypt, not
circumcised and not embodied in the covenant. The sin consisted of lusting
exceedingly, that is, for a change of food. But that sin went over the
Israelites and they wept and said, "Who shall give us flesh to eat? We
remember the fish we had in Egypt," and thus they turned a long look back
to the country from which they had come: "Our soul is dried away and there
is nothing at all save this manna to look up." That was utter distaste for
the food God provided and a rebellious longing for the food of their bondage.
In other words, they would rather have fish out of the Nile and vegetables from
its banks and remain in bondage than to live on manna and go to the Promised
Land. They put their appetites above the relationship with God. You have here a
description of manna which you can read. It looked like coriander seed; they
gathered it and ground it in mills or beat it in mortars and it had the taste
of fresh olive oil. Moses heard the people weeping, every man at the door of
his tent, because of short rations in God's service.
I have been on forced marches with only meal made up with a little salt and
burned at the top and bottom and raw inside and in the beat of the summer it
would sour in two hours, and I have marched and lived on that for three days.
What strange things there are in this world to cry about! Moses said to
Jehovah, "Wherefore hast thou dealt ill with thy servant? and wherefore
have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this
people upon me?" No doubt he was tired of his job. I have known little
children to cry for something to eat. "I am not able to bear all this
people alone. Kill me, I pray thee, and let me not see my wretchedness."
Moses was a very meek and patient man but two or three times he felt like
throwing up his job. The Lord loved Moses and gave a remedy for the trouble,
viz: the distribution of labor.
We had a case like this before when Jethro came to Moses and Moses was acting
as justice of the peace, county judge, district judge and judge of all the
supreme court for all the people. At Jethro's advice there was a division of
the judicial Work, but this is a different thing. This is said to be the
foundation of the Sanhedrin. Seventy men were appointed for administrative work
and notified when to come to be qualified and all of them came but two. When
God sent the qualifying power of the Spirit on those that stayed in the camp,
as well as on those that went up, that stirred up Joshua a little. He was very
jealous for Moses and loved Moses very much. He says, "My lord Moses, here
are these two men that did not come up and they are prophesying in the camp.
They ought to be made to go back and go through the regular order." Moses
replied that he had so many big things that troubled him that little things
like that did not bother him a bit. He wished all God's people could prophesy,
whether formally or informally.
That settled the matter from the standpoint of Moses, but it did not give the
people what they wanted to eat. God tells them to sanctify themselves against
the next day and they shall have flesh. Now comes a doubt in the mind of Moses
and this is a very important scripture (v. 21) : "And Moses said, The
people among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I
will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month." Does that mean
that flocks and herds shall be slain for them or that fish shall be gathered?
But the Lord said, "Is Jehovah's hand waxed short?"
If you preach on that subject of trusting God, there are four or five other
scriptures you should use in connection. These people said, "We take this
long journey, what if our children get sick and our old people feeble?"
God said, "There will not be a sick or feeble one. Shoes wear out, but
these shoes will wear forty years and the clothes, and I will give you a
brilliant illumination by night and a cloud to shelter you in the day
time." The whole thing is a standing miracle. It was just as easy for God
to feed those three million people as it was for Jesus to take five loaves and
two fishes and feed five thousand. Another case in history is the case of
Elisha, the prophet, who said that at a certain hour the best flour should be
sold cheap in a city where the people were besieged and starving. Then Abraham
staggered not in unbelief when he considered that the thing promised was
physically impossible. I never shall forget bow the old moderator of the Waco
association said to his wife when he was dying, "When I am gone you may
have a hard time, but don't you be one of these complaining women." Many a
time have I talked to Mrs. Riddle about that and each time she says she is
trying to live as her husband told her, and she has not joined the whining
column yet.
Now, God gave these people flesh in anger as a punishment for their lack of
faith. He just covered them with quails and told them they should eat that food
for thirty days. "While it is in your mouth, it will make you sick and the
plague shall strike you." The punishment of the second sin was loathsome
satiety and was visited with a plague. On this passage is built the statement
that no man can eat quail a day for thirty days (v. 33). "While the flesh
was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of Jehovah was
kindled against the people, and Jehovah smote the people with a very great
plague. And the name of the place was called Kibrothhattaavah, because there
they buried the people that lusted." The third sin came in a higher
quarter. The sinners were Miriam and Aaron, brother and sister of Moses. You
should read Dr. Wilkinson's poem describing this rebellion as coming on for a
long time through jealousy. The question in their minds was this: "Hath
Jehovah indeed spoken only with Moses? Hath he not also spoken to us?"
Miriam says, "I remember I watched over this fellow when he was in the ark
of the bulrushes. The spirit of prophecy rests on me. Has not the Lord spoken
to us?"
What was the occasion of this sin? The first verse says that Miriam and Aaron
spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. Was this
Cushite woman Zipporah, his first wife, or did he here in the wilderness marry
again? It had been a long time since he and Zipporah married. He was a little
over forty years old and forty years more had passed before he had taken charge
of this people. Many commentators suppose that, as Zipporah was a Midianite and
a descendant of Abraham, she must in this time have died and Moses married a
descendant of Ham. Gush in the Bible means Ethiopia. But Moses had never been
to Ethiopia except when he waged a campaign there, and if he married there that
would make her the first wife and Zipporah the second. But there was a part of
Arabia called Cush and that land of the Cushites included a part of the
territory occupied by the Midianites. So that the Cushite woman was undoubtedly
his wife, Zipporah. There is not a scintilla of evidence that Moses ever
married again. And so Aaron and Miriam had never been satisfied with his
marriage with Zipporah.
Then the question comes up, Was it lawful for a Hebrew to marry a Midianite? It
was, because the Midianites were descendants of Abraham, and Moses married
among his own people, not in the chosen line, but four or five scriptures can
be shown to prove that certain marriages were lawful and Moses was violating no
law. This shows how long some people can carry a grudge before they blow things
up about it. They had been carrying this grudge forty years. But the real
grudge was the supremacy of Moses in the camp and they were trying to put it
upon some pretext.
"And Jehovah heard it." What a text! "Now the man Moses was very
meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth." God
commanded all the parties to appear before him and he gave his decision
squarely in the favor of Moses, and Miriam, who was the instigator, was
punished with leprosy, and Aaron begged Moses to intervene, and he prayed to
God and she was healed, but God demanded that she stay outside the camp for
seven days and that is why they had to stop at that place seven days.
Those are the three sins and the three punishments.
QUESTIONS
1. How far from Sinai to
Kadesh-barnea?
2. How long were the
children of Israel on the way? Give reason for your answer.
3. What was the character of
the way?
4. How many stops on the
way? Name them.
5. What three great sins
were committed on the way, and where?
6. What was the first sin,
its punishment, how stayed and its memorial?
7. The second sin with
whom commenced, consisted of what, and what was their real sin?
8. Give a description of the
manna, and how prepared for food.
9. Describe the displeasure
of Moses and his appeal to Jehovah.
10. What remedy or provision
did Jehovah make for the relief of Moses?
11. Give the case of Eldad
and Medad, and what was the lesson?
12. How did this affect
Joshua, and Moses' reply?
13. What question did Moses
raise concerning their supply of food, and Gods reply?
14 How did God punish this
sin, and what is the origin of the saying, '"No man can eat a quail a day
for thirty days consecutively ?
15. What was the memorial of
this sin?
16 The third sin who were
the sinners, the cause, the occasion, who this Cushite woman, the real sin and
how long developing?
17. Did Moses violate God's
law of marriage in taking this Cushite woman? Give reason for your answer.
18. How was Moses vindicated
and the sinners punished?
19.How long did they stay
here, what was the next objective point in their journey and the time required
to reach it? Note Study your chronological analysis closely, looking up all
references.
EVENTS AT KADESH-BARNEA Numbers 13-15
Kadesh-barnea is the most noted place, except Sinai and in some respects not
even excepting that, during the whole of the forty years from Egypt to the Holy
Land. In Genesis 14 in the account of the march of Chedorlaorner, it is stated
that he passed on the east side of the Jordan and came down nearly to Sinai and
then turned north until he reached Enmishpat, that was Kadesh, and means the
foundation of judgment. Moses, writing much later, gives it the name that it
had acquired from the transactions of this passage. The real name of the place
is Rithmah, as you will find in the enumeration given of the stopping places
later in this book. Generally speaking, it was in the wilderness of Paran.
Specially speaking, it was in the wilderness of Zin. You have the wilderness of
Paran mentioned in this passage, a little later, Kadesh in the wilderness of
Paran, and still later, Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin. All these names refer
to the same place. In the last chapter I told you how they got from Mount Sinai
to the wilderness of Paran, or the wilderness of Zin. See the magnificent
argument on the location of this place, as set forth in Trumbull's
''Kadesh-Barnea." The time of this chapter is the summer of the second
year of the Exodus. The text states that it was the time of the first ripe
grapes, about the first of July. The great transaction that took place here was
the sending out of the spies to view the Promised Land.
The first point in connection with the sending out of these spies is found in
Deuteronomy 1:22, which tells that the original suggestion to send out the
spies came from the people. Numbers tells us that God commanded it to be done.
But the original suggestion came from the people, who did not trust God, and
did not want to move until they knew something about where they were going. So
God permitted them to have their way, and he commands Moses to send out the
spies. That delayed matters for forty days, the time while the spies were gone.
There were twelve spies, one from each tribe. They were prominent men, famous
in the history of the people. They were to go through the south country where
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lived. They were to start right up the mountains
surrounding Kadesh-barnea, which was in a valley, and were to make a straight
march to the north to the old town of Hebron.
What commission was given to these twelve men? "See the land, what it is;
and the people that dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether
they are few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is
good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or
in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there
is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of
the land. Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes" (Num.
13:18-20). How much of the country were they to examine? (v. 21). They were to
go to Hamath, which is the most northern part of the Holy Land. My son, Harvey,
once visited that place and wrote me a very fine description of Hamath. They
were to examine the highlands and the lowlands, and an expedition of that
extent would take forty days. As they came back they stopped at Eshcol. By that
time it was in August and the grapes were full ripe. They brought back one
bunch so large that two men had to carry it on a pole between them. Brother
Penn, in his preaching, tells us that the cluster of grapes from Eshcol brought
back from the Promised Land before they had reached it, has a spiritual signification;
that here on earth, before the Christian gets to the Promised Land, God gives
him an earnest of the inheritance that he ia to receive. Sometimes in a mighty
revival we get a taste of the grapes from Eshcol.
They have fully complied with their duty, and when they come to report, there
is a majority and a minority report. The two reports do not differ on the first
point. All agree that it is a glorious land, flowing with milk and honey, in
every respect what God had promised them. "Howbeit the people that dwell
therein are strong and the cities are fortified and very great." The
people were very much agitated at that part of the report, and that there were
great giants there. "And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said,
Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are able to overcome it." That
is a great text. I heard a missionary take that for a text when I was a boy and
it is a good mission text now. Now we come to the divergence. Ten of these men
squarely dissented: (1) "We are not able to go up against them, for they
are stronger than we are"; (2) An evil report of the land: "It is a
land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof"; (3) "The men are of
great stature, the Nephilim. We were in our own sight and in their sight as
grasshoppers." Now) whenever any man in the world conceives himself to be
a grasshopper, he is whipped inside and out. If you want to take two great
texts and put one against the other, take those divergent opinions about their
ability to possess the land. Now we have come to what is called the second
great breach of the covenant. The first breach was when they worshiped the
golden calf. This is a great rebellion. The people lifted up their voice and
wept that night. Think of two or three million people sitting up all night and
crying! All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron:
"Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in
this wilderness. Wherefore doth Jehovah bring us unto this land to fall by the
sword?" There they murmur against God: "Our women and our little ones
will be & prey." They put it off on the women and children. "We
would be plucky enough if we were by ourselves." Many a time have I heard
that expedient fall from men's lips. I once heard a man say that he did not
want to see a show but that he went to take the women and children.
Now we come to the crowning act: "And they said one to another, Let us
make a captain and return into Egypt." That meant to turn their backs upon
the pillar of fire and the cloud and the tabernacle and all their glorious
history and from the divinely appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron, to renounce
the government of God, and go back into the bondage from which they had been
delivered. When they said that, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces, for they
knew that an awful sin had been committed. While Moses and Aaron are lying on
their faces, see the heroic deed of Joshua and Caleb: "And Joshua, the son
of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, who were of them that spied out the
land, rent their clothes; and they spake unto the children of Israel saying,
The land which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land. If
Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us unto this land) and give it unto
us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not against Jehovah,
neither fear ye the people of the land." There are Moses and Aaron on
their faces, and here are Joshua and Caleb with their clothes rent, in the
presence of the blasphemers, making a final plea before the bolt of divine
judgment falls on them. "But all the congregation bade stone them with
stones." "Kill the men that tell us the truth." Now the cloud
comes down. It was up in the air. The cloud descended upon the ark of the
tabernacle as an indication that the Lord God Almighty was about to speak:
"How long will this people despise me?" You remember the first
oration of Cicero against Catiline: "How long, 0 Catiline, will you abuse
our patience?" "How long will they not believe in me for all the
signs which I have wrought among them? I will smite them with pestilence and
disinherit them." That shows the breach of the covenant. "I will make
of thee a nation greater and mightier than they. I am going to take a nation
into the promised land, but I will blot the whole of them out."
Now comes grace. You will see what Moses says to God. He is the mediator and
type of the Saviour: "And Moses said unto Jehovah, Then the Egyptians will
hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; and they
will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou,
Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; for thou, Jehovah, art seen face to
face, and thy cloud standeth over them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a
pillar of fire by night, and thou goest before them. Now if thou shalt kill
this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will
speak, saying, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land
which he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness. And
now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast
spoken, saying, Jehovah is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness,
forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third
and upon the fourth generation. Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this
people according to the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou
hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." I do know that he
was a great man. God instantly answers that he will do just what Moses asks:
"Now, I will pardon, but I will pardon in accordance with my nature, which
says, I will not acquit the guilty. This sin shall rest on them, but I won't
blot the whole nation out." The women and the little children had nothing
to do with it, but every grown man that participated in it is cut off from the
Promised Land. A year for a day. As it took forty days to view the land, their
pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan shall be forty years. The whole of it could be
made in a rapid journey of a few days. "Every one of them shall die and
their carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and their bones shall whiten. But
I will take care of the children and bring them into the Promised Land. As I
live, saith Jehovah, Surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to
you." He is giving oath. Joshua and Caleb are the only ones allowed to
live. Now the Lord expostulates directly with Moses and Aaron, telling them how
they shall carry out this sentence. Moses announced the sentence, that God
considered the covenant broken, and that they were disinherited, but that
pardon was extended for all under twenty years, but that the rest of them
should perish. They say, "But here we are now and we will go up."
Moses says, "But the cloud won't lead and the ark won't go before you. If
you go, you will go as an uncovenanted people and without God among you."
But they did go and they got an awful drubbing from their enemies.
That is the great rebellion and it commands the careful study of every Bible
student.
Now comes chapter 15 with some hopeful legislation: "When ye come into the
land of your habitation." That precedes every act. "I have just
announced that the men over twenty years old will die. Lest the awful sentence
cause the hearts of the rest of you to despair, I will instantly give you some
legislation that will cheer you and cause you to hope." There is something
in this legislation that I want to call your attention to: "If a person
sin unwittingly, the priest shall make atonement for that soul. But the soul
that doeth aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the
same blasphemeth Jehovah; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
Because he hath despised the word of Jehovah, and hath broken his commandment,
that soul shall be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him." There is the
unpardonable sin. Every man from twenty years old and upward with the exception
of Caleb and Joshua had committed that sin. That is what is meant by sinning
with a high hand.
A man was gathering sticks on the sabbath day. He violated one of the Ten
Commandments and was stoned to death.
Finally they were commanded to make fringes on the border of their garments, so
that when they looked at the blue fringe, they would remember their sin and
God's penalty.
QUESTIONS
1. Kadesh-barnea what
back-reference, its meaning, how came it to be called Kadesh, real name,
definite location and what work commended?
2. The date of this lesson?
3. The spies Who suggested
sending them, how a lack of faith, how long gone, how many, their commission,
how much country to examine, what evidence did they bring as to the fruit of
the land, and its spiritual signification?
4. Their report How
agreed, how disagreed, the majority report, the minority, a missionary text,
fate of the ten cowards and the good destiny of the two faithful ones?
5. The second great breach
of the covenant What the first, this one how against God, how against the
women and children, the crowning act and its meaning, action of Moses and
Aaron, of Joshua and Caleb, of the congregation, of the cloud?
6. What Jehovah's
communication to Moses and what does it show? Moses' reply and prayer?
7. What was Jehovah's oath
and answer to Moses?
8. Upon the announcement of
their fate by Moses what did the people do and the result?
9. What hope does Jehovah
hold out to those now under twenty years of age?
10. Give the reference to
the unpardonable sin here, and who had committed it?
11. What instance of the
violation of one of the Ten Commandments in this connection?
12. What was the law of
fringes?
AFTERMATH OF THE BREACH OF THE COVENANT AT
KADESH-BARNEA Numbers 16-19
In the last chapter I discussed Kadesh-barnea and the great breach of the
covenant that took place there. The section from chapters 16-19 inclusive gives
us the aftermath of that breach, all taking place at Kadesh-barnea before they
set out on their wilderness wanderings for more than thirty-eight years.
The first case that we have before us is the great revolt against God, Moses,
and Aaron. The parties to this revolt are Korah and a number of Levites. The
issue that they made was that they were entitled not only to the honor of being
Levites but to the priesthood which God had said belonged to Aaron's family
alone. They combined with three famous Reubenites whose camp was next to them.
These Reubenites had an entirely different grievance, viz.: That Moses had
taken them out of the land flowing with milk and honey and had not brought them
into a promised land, and when Moses summoned them to appear, they refused positively
to come. The third element of this great triple conspiracy consisted of 250 of
the princes of Israel. These 250 claimed that they had as much right to the
priestly functions as the tribe of Levi and proved themselves with brazen
censers and demanded that they, as heads of tribes, should minister before God.
Now these three elements united and said to Moses and Aaron, "You take too
much to yourselves; all the Lord's people are holy." And Moses proposed a
test that God should determine between them, and commanded the 250 princes who
wanted to exercise the Levitical and priestly functions to fill their censers
with incense and come before the Lord to see what the Lord would do. And he
commanded the people on the next day to separate themselves from Korah, Dathan
and Abiram. When the people had separated themselves from these leaders, he
said, "The test is this: If these men die a natural death, God has not
sent me, but if an earthquake opens its mouth and swallows them up alive in the
sight of all the people, that is proof that God has sent me and not them."
And instantly the earth yawned and in the sight of all the people, they went
down. The test for the 250 princes of Israel was that a fire would go out from
God and destroy them, which it did.
But this, instead of convincing the people, made the rebellion spread all over
the camp. They did not like that thirty-eight years of wandering, and the
entire congregation of Israel charged Moses with killing the people of the
Lord. Immediately Moses commanded Aaron to light a censer and move among the
people, because a plague from God was going out, and by the time Aaron could
make intercession, moving among the stricken people with that censer, over
14,000 of them had died of the plague. Keep before your eyes the elements of
this conspiracy and the three proofs from God.
The result of this was that perfect despair came to the people. It is expressed
at the end of the seventeenth chapter: "And the children of Israel spake
unto Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone. Every
one that cometh near, that cometh near unto the tabernacle of Jehovah, dieth;
shall we perish, all of us?" Moses now determined, upon another sign, and
another tie that would prevent the people from going to pieces in their
despair. He commanded each tribe to bring a rod, and Aaron to bring a rod, and
they put the thirteen rods before the Lord on the ark and let God show them by
an unmistakable miracle who was to retain the leadership of the people as to
the priestly function. The result was that Aaron's rod budded, blossomed and
bore almonds in one night and the others remained as they were. God then
commanded that the rod with those full-grown almonds should be put in the ark
as a lasting memorial of his decision. We do not know how long that rod stayed
there, but when the ark was opened in the days of Solomon, the rod was not
there. It was probably taken out when the ark was captured by the Philistines.
Chapter 18 is devoted to a provision for the Levites. Every word of that
chapter is based upon this idea: The Levites shall have no inheritance in the
land. They belong to God. They shall not depend for their support upon secular
work of any kind. Provision for their food is set forth in certain offerings
here mentioned. Their permanent support was the tithe, one-tenth of all
products being devoted to the Levites.
Chapter 19 closes this incident. Part of it is a new provision for cleansing
away the defilement of sin. You see there is a guilt of sin, a bondage of sin
and there is a defilement of sin. The guilt of sin is the condemnation that
comes upon the sinner because he has sinned. The bondage of sin is the evil
nature that constantly prompts him to sin. The defilement of sin is quite a
different thing from either of the others. To show you the difference, let us
suppose a man to be justified. That would take away the guilt of sin, but if
salvation stops there, he would have in him an evil nature that would prompt
him to sin and he would have the defilement that comes from sin. Suppose that
you not only justify him, but that you also regenerate him. Give him an impulse
that prompts to good and yet the defilement of sin will cling to him, and he
would be in a pitiable condition, like the pure mind of a modest woman,
compelled to live in constant touch with shameful things. It would be hell to
her.
No author has more powerfully set forth that thought than Eugene Sue in his Mysteries
of Paris. The daughter of a great prince of Germany had been stolen
when she was a baby and had been reared in the slums of Paris and all her life
had known only the vile defilement of crime. Her father found her, and not
having been touched with the defilement of sin, she became one of the most
beautiful princesses of Europe, but she died of a broken heart because she
never could forget the scenes through which she had passed as a girl.
Now, chapter 19 is to make a great provision for cleansing from a defilement of
sin. More than once have I told you that in regeneration there are two
constituent elements, one a change of the carnal mind, the imparting of a new
nature; and second, the cleansing of the defilement of sin. And it takes these
two to make regeneration. Here you come to the original, typical provision for
cleansing from defilement. Hence the importance of this chapter. The provision
was that a red heifer should be taken. Not a white hair must be on her. And she
should be taken outside the camp and put to death, and burned with red cedar
wood, the red signifying blood, while this burning went on, threads of scarlet
cloth should be thrown into the fire, scarlet signifying blood. When she was
burned the ashes should be gathered up and put in a clean place so as to
provide permanent cleansing. In order to liquefy these ashes and keep them they
were to be mixed with rain water, making a liquid lye and this was to be kept
on hand all the time. Then a bunch of hyssop, whose wood is red, was to be used
for sprinkling this lye.
When we come to the prophecies, say 36, you have the combination of the
cleansing with the water of purification, typifying blood, combined with a
changing of the nature. There God says, "I will gather you from all
countries where you have been scattered and I will sprinkle the water of
purification upon you and you shall be clean." That typified the
application of the blood of Christ. "Then I will take away your stony
heart and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you."
That is the other part of regeneration. When you come to the symbolic interpretation
of Hebrews 9, we have this language: "If the ashes of the heifer
sanctified to the cleansing of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of
Christ cleanse your conscience from evil works to serve the living God?"
In a debate with a Methodist preacher upon that subject, I gave this challenge:
"In the Bible from Genesis to Revelation no man can find where God ever
commanded a prophet, priest, or preacher to sprinkle, or to pour, just water on
man, beast or thing as a moral, ceremonial, or religious rite." I gave
them a day to find a passage and they popped up all over the house and said
they could find a lot of them. It brought about the greatest amazement that
ever took place in their community. They went to their concordance for
"sprinkle" and "pour." Next day a man came up and said,
"I have found it in Ezekiel 36, 1 will sprinkle clean water upon you and
you shall be clean.' " I replied, First, that sprinkling, whatever it is,
God does it, and he does not command man to do it. Second, that was not just
water, but that was the water of purification which was made out of the ashes
of the red heifer which typified the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which is
applied by the Holy Spirit when a man believes on Jesus Christ. A man is not
only justified when he believes, but he is also cleansed. He is not only
cleansed but he is regenerated." I then traced the thing all through the
Bible. Another man arose and quoted what John has to say, "I indeed
baptize you with water." I said in reply, "Baptize does not mean to
sprinkle or pour." But he said, "It says 'with.' " And I
replied, "But that is not the translation of the Greek word. The Greek
word is en and that means 'in.' " It expresses nothing beyond the means or
instrument when it is translated 'with.' Finally, Baptists baptize with water,
not with oil, not with sand, and they use a great deal more of it than you
do."
Now, don't forget the deep and solemn significance of Numbers 19, that it was a
type of that part of regeneration which accomplished the cleansing away of the
defilement of sin by the application of the blood of Christ to the believer.
Nineteen preachers out of twenty, in discussing regeneration, confine
themselves merely to the change of nature.
That closes up the case entirely at Kadesh-barnea, and the next division of the
book of Numbers covers thirty-eight years, the great period of silence the
scriptural references to which are few and far between: (1) In this book we
have the itinerary only, (33:19-49); (2) They did not circumcise their
children, (Josh. 5:5-6); (3) They did not offer sacrifices at the tent, (Jer.
7:22; Amos 5:25-26); (4) They worshiped idols, (Acts 7:43) ; (5.) All the
generation from 20 years old up died in the wilderness, (I Cor. 10:5). That
period is typical. When Jesus Christ established his church, there was the
glorious missionary period of the apostolic days for more than two centuries
and then the church went into the wilderness. That is what we are told in the
book of Revelation, and no man has been able to put the surveyor's chain over
that period of time in that wilderness.
It baffles all the students of church history. Some of them will tell you that
there was no church during that time. But there was a church then, as there was
a church in the antitype, and it did not perish. To illustrate: Imagine a long,
zigzag river, running into a dark mountain where it is hidden from human sight.
Suppose you drop a chip in the river on the upper side of the mountain, and
after a while down yonder a hundred miles on the other side you see the same
chip come out. You know then that the path of its motion has been continuous.
In speaking about the succession of the church of Jesus Christ during the Dark
Ages, that is my description of it. God in his mercy has hidden the steps of
that period, just as he hides it here.
Chapter 20 is thirty-eight years from the time of chapter 19. They are back at
Kadesh-barnea now, in the first month of the fortieth year. Heretofore all my
discussions on the book of Numbers have been confined to the second year,
commencing with the setting up of the tabernacle on the first day of the first
month. From chapter 20 to the end of Numbers is ten months' time, and
Deuteronomy covers the other two months, necessary to complete the forty years
to the time they step down into the water to cross the Jordan River.
QUESTIONS
1. Give an account of
Korah's revolt against God, Moses, and Aaron, the parties, the issue, who
combined with them, their grievance, Moses' challenge and result, the third
element of the conspiracy, their issue, their demand, the charge of all the
elements combined, Moses' proposed test, the result, and the memorial of this
sin.
2. What effect upon the
congregation of the Children of Israel, the punishment, and how stayed?
3. State clearly the three
elements of this conspiracy and the three proofs from God.
4. Give the incidents of
Aaron's rod, its purpose and history.
5. To what is the 18th
chapter devoted, and upon what idea based?
6. What is the water of
purification, and how prepared?
7. Distinguish between the
guilt of sin, the bondage of sin. and the defilement of sin.
8. Regeneration consists of
what, and what element of regeneration is typified by this water of
purification? Give full explanation, using the following scriptures: Psalm
51:2; Ezekiel 36:25; Zechariah 13:1; John 3:5; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5;
Hebrews 9:13. 9. The long period of silent wandering is typical of what?
FROM KADESH-BARNEA TO MOAB Numbers 20-22,
33:37-49; Deuteronomy 2:1 to 3:11
Historically chapters 21-22 of this book will carry you to the end of the book,
describing the journey from Kadesh to the Jordan. But it leaves out the great
incident about Balaam which occupies several chapters. In connection with
chapters 20-22 of Numbers, study the following scriptures: Numbers 33:37-49 the
itinerary chapter commencing at v. 37 and going to v. 49, Deuteronomy 2:1 to
3:11. In many respects those two chapters give a more intelligent statement
than this section in Numbers.
The great incidents of this section are the assembling at Kadesh in the
fortieth year, the death of Miriam, the sin of Moses that excluded him from the
Promised Land, the fight waged on them by Arad the Canaanite, the death of
Aaron at Mount Hor, the sin of the people where they were punished by fiery
serpents and saved by the brazen serpent, the digging of a well at another
station by the princes of Israel using their sticks, and a most beautiful
spring bubbling up, a song on that water as it bubbled up recorded in the old
book of the Wars of Jehovah which is referred to, and the war with Sihon and
Og.
It is the fortieth year and the first month of that year that they are reassembled
by divine command at Kadesh-barnea. Before I proceed with this discussion, I
want us to take a backward glance at that thirty-eight years of silence. I told
you that in that thirty-eight years they did not keep up the ordinance of
circumcision. In the book of Joshua, as soon as they passed the river Jordan,
the covenant was renewed and Joshua circumcised all of those who had not been
circumcised in the wilderness. From Amos 5 and Acts 7, we learn that all that
thirty-eight years they had made no sacrifices. We learn that in that time they
worshiped idols. They were under the curse of God, and he did not count the
time; there was total suspension of the covenant. But during that time the
Levites stayed around the ark of the covenant and kept up worship. The places
mentioned in Numbers 33 constitute a record of the stopping places of the ark
as they moved it.
The command goes out that since the penalty is nearly paid and we will find
Just where it stops they must reassemble at the place where they broke the
covenant. Miriam, who had lived through that period of thirty-eight years dies
just when she gets back to the place where she had committed her sin. She is
buried and that is the end of Miriam. Those people come back there sore,
although it is a new generation, and the first thing they did was to commit
another sin. The water at Kadesh-barnea was not sufficient for three millions
of people, and striking it at a dry time, they began to make their old
complaints. Moses takes the case to God and God commands him to gather them
together in a great congregation, and in their sight, with staff in hand, the
staff with which he had wrought all the miracles of the past years, to speak to
the rock and the water would flow out and God would begin again to supply the
people. Moses was very mad. He had been a meek and patient man. He had had
charge of that people and had their burden on his shoulders for thirty-nine
years. The description of the sin that he committed is expressed in the
following scriptures: Num. 20:10-11; 27:14; Deut. 1:37; 3:26-27; Psalm 106:33.
One of the questions on Numbers will be for you to analyze the sin of Moses,
and as I am not going to give you that analysis, it is very important that you remember
those passages of Scripture. Now, God told Moses to speak to the rock, but,
instead of speaking, Moses struck the rock. The other time God had commanded
him to strike the rock, which refers, first, to the fact that Christ must be
smitten to supply the needs of his people. But the next time he must not be
smitten. You must speak, and by petition draw the supplies of a Christian. But
Moses struck twice. He was very mad and seemed to attribute the power to
himself. He did not sanctify God in this matter, but sanctified himself. The
psalmist says that the sin of the people brought ill to Moses and caused him to
speak unadvisedly with his lips. Just before his death, recorded in
Deuteronomy, Moses says, "For your sake I was led into this sin which kept
me from entering the Holy Land which you are to enter."
The next question in order of time is to turn to chapter 21 and read three
verses which tell us about the Canaanite king, Arad. This king thought that
they were going to repeat their old experiment of trying to enter the Promised
Land on the south, and he came out and fought them at the very place where they
had been defeated before, but this time he got an awful thrashing. He was
outlawed and that ban of outlawry was fulfilled in the days of Joshua.
While at Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to two nations. He wanted to get around
on the Jordan River side without having to make a long circuit. There were only
two ways, one through the Amorite country and the other by going through the
Edom country. Moses sent a very respectful communication to the king of Edom,
calling him Brother Edom, or Esau, and saying, "Your brother Jacob desires
to pass through your country to get to his own land, and we will promise you to
stick to the highways and not scatter about, and we will take nothing without
paying your own price for it." We learn from Deuteronomy that Moses sent a
similar message to Moab, the descendants of Lot, as he would have to go through
the Mount Seir country first and Moab next. And he said to the Moabites,
"The descendants of Abraham would say to the descendants of Lot, Let your
cousins pass through your country." But as far as Edom was concerned, they
assembled an army to block the way.
What follows next? Kadesh-barnea is Just south of Hebron. The children of
Israel are at Kadesh and they want to get around on the Jordan side through
Edom and Moab, their kinsfolk. If Moab and Edom refuse, they have to make a
long circuit around. Moab and Edom did refuse and God would not permit them to
force their way through by war, because they are kinspeople. So they have to
move south through the Arabah, that great valley through which the Jordan
doubtless used to flow. When they stopped at Mount Hor in the edge of the
country, Aaron dies. The account is very piteous. In the main, he has been a
remarkably good man. He has committed some sins. He joined Moses in the sin
which excluded him from the Promised Land. God commands Moses to take Aaron up
on that bare mountain and to take his sons with him. They strip off the
priestly robes and put them on Eleazar, who is to become high priest. And there
Aaron dies. I have often thought about that lonely grave. There is a tradition
about that mountain now. Almost any guide will volunteer to take you to Aaron's
grave when you go there now.
Then they left Mount Hor and made a day's march or two to a place called
Zaimona, going right down that dry Arabah. The people complained again, and
God's punishment was to send fiery serpents among them. Once a little boy asked
me to tell him a story about snakes. And I said, "Once upon a time there
was a great camp of three million people in their tents in a dry valley, and
they sinned against God, and in the night from every direction over the desert
came snakes, great snakes with red splotches on them and much more deadly than
rattlesnakes. And in the night whoever moved was bitten by the snakes. The
children were crying out all night that they had been bitten by snakes, and the
people died and kept dying, and the snakes kept biting, until finally God told
the leader of that camp that if he would put brass into a furnace and mold a
big snake and put it on a pole, that everybody who looked at it would be
healed, and as the sun shone on that brazen serpent, it made it so very
conspicuous that it could be seen all over that camp. A mother would hear about
that brazen serpent and would say to her dying boy, all twisted with agony and
pain, '0 son, I will turn you over so you can see. Now just look yonder at that
brazen serpent,' and he would shut his eyes and say, I will not look,' and
then die. They would come to where a man was bitten, and find him cursing and
swearing. They would all gather around him and his wife would say to him, '0
husband, here are your brothers and sisters and your friends and one of your
children. They have all been bitten and they looked and lived. Will you not
look and live too?' But he shuts his eyes and dies. 'But it came to pass
whosoever looked was healed.' " And the little fellow was so well pleased
with the story that he asked where I had read it and I told him in the Bible,
the very last place he expected to find a good story.
Now, there was a converted Jew, Joseph Frey, who became a great expounder of
the Old Testament types of Christ. He took this text in John, "As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal
life." Preachers should all get Joseph Frey's Old Testament Types.
Fairbairn has a book on "Typology" but not so good a book as Frey's.
I am going to call your attention to a thought that you will find nowhere else
in the world. You remember that scapegoat on the great day of atonement that
was to be given to Azazel and to pass under the power of the evil spirit. So
Jesus on the cross passed under the power of the evil spirit. Now, that type is
here. This serpent represents Jesus lifted up on the cross and though the
serpent bit him, he crushed the serpent's head.
When they get to Amah, 21:13, here you find the reference to that old book.
"The Wars of Jehovah." "From thence they Journeyed to
Beer." That is a very dry place. When God told Moses to supply the people
with water, the princes digged in the ground with their staves and a fresh spring
bubbled out. They come up now even with the mouth of the Jordan. Moses stands
on the top of Mount Nebo and looks over the Promised Land.
Moses sent a messenger to the Amorites and they despised the messenger and
prepared for war. But they are conquered and their country taken. Then they
come to Bashan. Deuteronomy tells us how big Og, the king of the country, was.
Counting a cubit as a foot and a half, his iron bedstead was thirteen and a
half feet long, and I could easily lie down upon it full-length crosswise.
That finishes this section. What is left of the book is to pick up some
incidents that occurred, particularly the incident of Balaam.
QUESTIONS
1. The period of wandering
How long, their relation to the covenant, their worship, the Levites, God's
mercies to them during this period and why?
2. When did they assemble
back at Kadesh-barnea?
3. What noted person dies
here?
4. What sin was committed
here by the new generation and God's provision for their need?
5. Collate the scriptures on
the sin of Moses and give the character of his sin.
6. Give account of the
attack on Israel by the Canaanites; their doom
7. What effort did Moses
make to go a direct route to the Jordan?
8. Trace their journey from
Kadesh-barnea to Mount Hor. What noted person dies here, and who takes his
place?
9. What is Israel's next
sin? The punishment? What New Testament reference to the Brazen Serpent? In
what particular is the Brazen Serpent a type of Christ?
10. What books commended on
Old Testament types?
11. What lost book is here
quoted from?
12. Recite the incident of
the Well and the Song.
13. Give an account of the
fall of Sihon and another song.
14. Give an account of the
fall of Bashan.
BALAAM: HIS IMPORTANT PROPHECIES, HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS BIBLE HISTORY Numbers 32-24; SI.-8, 16; Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 13:22; 84:9-10; Micah 6:5; Nehemiah 13:2; Jude II; 2 Peter 2:15; Revelation 2:14
These scriptures give you a clue to both Balaam's history and character:
Numbers 22-24; 31:8, and especially 31:16; Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 13:22;
24:9-10; Micah 6:5; Nehemiah 13:2; Jude II; 2 Peter 2:15; and, most important
of all, Revelation 2:14. Anybody who attempts to discuss Balaam ought to be
familiar with every one of these scriptures.
Who was Balaam? He was a descendant of Abraham, as much as the Israelites were.
He was a Midianite and his home was near where the kinsmen of Abraham, Nahor
and Laban, lived. They possessed from the days of Abraham a very considerable
knowledge of the true God. He was not only a descendant of Abraham and
possessed the knowledge of the true God through traditions handed down, as in
the case of Job and Melchizedek, but he was a prophet of Jehovah. That is
confirmed over and over again. Unfortunately he was also a soothsayer and a
diviner, adding that himself to his prophetic office for the purpose of making
money. People always approach soothsayers with fees.
His knowledge of the movements of the children of Israel could easily have been
obtained and the book of Exodus expressly tells that that knowledge was
diffused over the whole country. Such a poem as Jacob's dying blessing on his
children would circulate all over the Semitic tribes, and such an
administration as that of Joseph would become known over all the whole world,
such displays of power as the miracles in Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea
and the giving of the law right contiguous to the territory of Balaam's nation
make it possible for him to learn all these mighty particulars. It is a great
mistake to say that God held communication only with the descendants of
Abraham. We see how he influenced people in Job's time and how he influenced
Melchizedek, and there is one remarkable declaration made in one of the
prophets that I have not time to discuss, though I expect to preach a sermon on
it some day, in which God claims that he not only brought Israel out of Egypt
but the Philistines out of Caphtor and all peoples from the places they
occupied (Amos 9:7). We are apt to get a very narrow view of God's government
of the human race when we attempt to confine it to the Jews only.
Next, we want to consider the sin of Balaam. First, it was from start to finish
a sin against knowledge. He had great knowledge of Jehovah. It was a sin
against revelation and a very vile sin in that it proceeded from his greed for
money, loving the wages of unrighteousness. His sin reached its climax after he
had failed to move Jehovah by divinations, and it was clear that Jehovah was
determined to bless these people, when for a price paid in his hand. be vilely
suggested a means by which the people could be turned from God and brought to
punishment. That was about as iniquitous a thing as the purchase of the ballots
in the late prohibition election in Waco, for the wages of unrighteousness. His
counsel was (31:16) to seduce the people of Israel by bringing the Moabitish
and Midianite evil women to tempt and get them through their lusts to attend
idolatrous feasts.
In getting at the character of this man, we have fortunately some exceedingly
valuable sermon literature. The greatest preachers of modern times have
preached on Balaam, and in the cross lights of their sermons every young
preacher ought to inform himself thoroughly on Balaam. The most famous one for
quite a while was Bishop Butler's sermon. When I was a boy, everybody read that
sermon, and, as I recall it, the object was to show the self-deception which
persuaded Balaam in every case that the sin he committed could be brought
within the rules of conscience and revelation, so that he could say something
at every point to show that he stood right, while all the time he was going
wrong.
Then the great sermon by Cardinal Newman: "The dark shadow cast over a
noble course by standing always on the ladder of advancement and by the
suspense of a worldly ambition never satisfied." He saw in Balaam one of the
most remarkable men of the world, high up on the ladder and the way to the top
perfectly open but shaded by the dark shadow of his sin. Then Dr. Arnold's
sermon on Balaam, as I recall, the substance being the strange combination of
the purest form of religious belief with action immeasurably below it. Next the
great sermon by Spurgeon with seven texts. He takes the words in the Bible,
"I have sinned," and Balaam is one of the seven men he discusses.
Spurgeon preached Balaam as a double-minded man. He could see the right and yet
his lower nature turned him constantly away from it, a struggle between the
lower and higher nature. These four men were the greatest preachers in the
world since Paul. I may modestly call attention to my own sermon on Balaam; that
Balaam was not a double-minded man; that from the beginning this man had but
one real mind, and that was greed and power, and he simply used the religious
light as a stalking horse. No rebuff could stop him long. God might say,
"You shall not go," and he would say, "Lord, hear me again and
let me go." He might start and an angel would meet him and he might hear
the rebuke of the dumb brute but he would still seek a way to bring about evil.
I never saw a man with a mind more single than Balaam.
I want you to read about him in Keble's "Christian Year." Keble
conceives of Balaam as standing on the top of a mountain that looked over all
those countries he is going to prophesy about and used this language:
0 for a
sculptor's hand,
That thou might'st take thy stand
Thy wild hair floating in the eastern breeze,
Thy tranc'd yet open gaze
Fix'd on the desert haze,
As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant aeea.
In outline dim and vast
Their fearful shadows cast
The giant forms of empires on their way
To ruin: one by one
They tower and they are gone,
Yet in the Prophet's soul the dreams of avarice stay.
That is a grand conception. If he just had the marble image of a man of that
kind, before whose eyes, from his lofty mountain pedestal were sweeping the
pageants of mighty empires and yet in whose eyes always stayed the dreams of
avarice. The following has been sculptured on a rock:
No sun or star so bright
In all the world of light
That they should draw to Heaven his downward eye:
He hears th' Almighty's word,
He sees the Angel's sword,
Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.
That comes nearer giving a true picture of Balaam. That shows you a man so
earth bound in his heart's desire, looking at low things and grovelling that no
sun or star could lift his eye toward heaven. Not even God Almighty's word
could make him look up, without coercion of the human will.
Now, you are to understand that the first two prophecies of Balaam came to him
when he was trying to work divinations on God. In those two he obeys as
mechanically as a hypnotized person obeys the will of the hypnotist. He simply
speaks under the coercive power of God. In these first two prophecies God tells
him what to say, as if a mightier hand than his had dipped the pen in ink and
moved his hand to write those lines.
At the end of the second one when he saw no divination could possibly avail
against those people, the other prophecies came from the fact that the Spirit of
the Lord comes on him just like the Spirit came on Saul, the king of Israel,
and he prophesied as a really inspired man. In the first prophecy he shows,
first, a people that God has blessed and will not curse; second, he is made to
say, "Let me die the death of the righteous and let my, last end at
death and judgment be like his." That shows God's revelation to that
people. The second prophecy shows why that is so: "God is not a man that
he should repent." "It is not worth while to work any divination. He
has marked out the future of this nation." Second, why is it that he will
not regard iniquity in Jacob? For the purpose he has in view he will not impute
their trespasses to them. The prophecy stops with this thought, that when you
look at what this people have done and will do, you are not to say, "What
Moses did, nor Joshua did, nor David," but you are to say, "What God
hath wrought!"
The first time I ever heard Dr. Burleson address young preachers, and I was not
even a Christian myself, he took that for his text. He commenced by saying,
"That is a great theme for a preacher. Evidently these Jews had not
accomplished all those things. They were continually rebelling and wanting to
go back, and yet you see them come out of Egypt, cross the Sea, come to Sinai,
organized, fed, clothed, the sun kept off by day and darkness by night,
marvellous victories accomplished and you are to say, 'What God hath wrought!'
"
When the spiritual power comes on him he begins to look beyond anything he has
ever done yet, to messianic days. There are few prophecies in the Bible more
far-reaching than this last prophecy of Balaam. When he says of the Messiah,
"I shall see him but not now," it is a long way off. "My case is
gone, but verily a star" the symbol of the star and sceptre carried out
the thought of the power of the Messiah. So much did that prophecy impress the
world that those Wise Men who came right from Balaam's country when Jesus was
born, remember this prophecy: "We have seen his star in the east and have
come to worship him."
He then looks all around and there are the nations before him from that
mountain top, and he prophesies about Moab and Amalek and passes on beyond,
approaching even to look to nations yet unborn. He looks to the Grecian Empire
arising far away in the future, further than anybody but Daniel. He sees the
ships of the Grecians coming and the destruction of Asshur and the destruction
of Eber, his own people. Then we come to the antitypical references later.
If you want a comparison of this man, take Simon Magus who wanted to purchase
the power of the Holy Spirit so as to make money. That is even better than
Judas, though Judas comes in. Judas had knowledge, was inspired, worked
miracles, and yet Judas never saw the true kingdom of God in the spirit of
holiness, and because he could not bring about the kingdom of which he would be
treasurer for fifteen dollars he sold the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the
principal thoughts I wanted to add.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Balaam?
2. How did he obtain his
knowledge of God?
3. What was the sin of
Balaam?
4. What was the climax of
his sin?
5. What five sermons on
Balaam are referred to? Give the line of thought in each.
6. Give Keble's conception
of Balaam.
7. What was the testimony sculptured
on a rock?
8. Now give your own
estimate of the character of Balaam.
9. How do you account for
the first two prophecies?
10. How do you account for
the other two?
11. In the first prophecy
what does he show, what is he made to say and what does that show?
12. Give a brief analysis of
the second prophecy.
13. Of what does the third
prophecy consist?
14. Give the items of the
fourth prophecy.
15. How did his messianic
prophecy impress the world?
16. When was this prophecy concerning
Amalek fulfilled? Ana. In the days of Saul. (I Sam. 15).
17. Who was Asshur and what
was his relation to the Kenites?
18. What reference here to
the Grecians?
19. Who was Eber?
20. With what two New
Testament characters may we compare?
ISRAEL'S SIN AND PHINEHAS' ACT OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OTHER THINGS Numbers 25-36
The twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers on many accounts is one of the most remarkable
chapters of the Old Testament. In its notable character it is equal to the
chapters on Balaam. Here are the children of the Promised Land with their
pilgrimage ended. They have reached the banks of the Jordan. They are encamped
there just over against Jericho. Nothing to do but go over and possess the land
when God tells them. Just at this time Balak, the king of Moab, brings Balaam
to curse them by divinations. Having failed in that, he makes the horrible
suggestion that the Moabitish and Midianitish women be used as
instrumentalities to cause Israel to sin and go into idolatry. Among the women
mentioned was a princess, daughter of one of the five kings of Midian. They did
what they did under the prompting of their religious instruction and they succeeded.
Very many of the people were seduced from their allegiance to God and not only
sinned in a bodily respect but sinned in idolatrous worship and the heads of
the people did not interfere to stop it. A plague went out from God on account
of it. Moses, discovering the fearful demoralization of the people, gives the
commandment that all the heads of the tribes shall be hanged up, either for
active participation in this matter or for not using their authority to repress
this very great disloyalty to God. It is as when a regiment has rebelled
through connivance of its officers. There is the responsibility of leadership
in a case of this kind and in military matters any officer, no matter bow high
his grade, who would stand idle and see his troops go into rebellion without an
effort to stay it, would be shot by the most summary process of court martial.
So Moses commands the leaders to be killed and hung up in the sight of the
people. Whoever was hanged on a tree was accursed. Having disposed of the chiefs,
he ordered the judges, you remember when two sets of seventy were appointed to
help Moses in administrative and judicial affairs, to put to death every man
who had committed a sin in that way. But the plague did not stop, though the
chiefs of the nation were hanging on a tree, all the judges punishing every man
with death, all the people weeping before the tabernacle. "But drops of
grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe."
Just at this time a son of one of the princes of the tribes comes openly into
the camp with a princess of one of the five kings of Midian, in the sight of
Moses and Eleazar; in sight of the weeping people; in full view of the dead
hanging up and others dying, and brings his irreligious debauchery right into
the very presence of God. Whereupon Phinehas, son of Eleazar, without command
from anyone, without being especially appointed officer, in his holy wrath for
God's sake and bearing in his heart that indignation against sin that God
bears, and God says of him, "Having my zeal," takes a spear and goes
into the tent and thrusts both of them through and kills them.
The most remarkable part of the transaction is in what God says. He uses
language just like he uses when he said Abraham believed in Jehovah and it was
counted to him for righteousness. As Abraham's faith was counted to him for
righteousness, the zeal of Phinehas so perfectly expressed God's wrath against
sin that it is reckoned unto him for eternal righteousness.
But that is not the strangest part of it, but that this display through
Phinehas of the wrath of God against sin made an atonement for his sin. You
strike a use of the word "atonement" there which stalls the
commentators and theological seminary professors. Offhand I am going to give
you my explanation of it. It is the most remarkable scripture in the Bible.
Surely atonement for sin cannot be made which does not placate the wrath of God
against sin.
A good many sentimentalist preachers tell you that the sole object of Christ's
work was to reconcile men to God, that God was already reconciled and did not
have to be placated. This scripture is unquestionably the strongest in the
Bible to show that Christ's sacrifice was both toward God and toward men,
toward God in that the sinner's bodily and spiritual death for sin took place
and otherwise there could have been no atonement. Hence Phinehas, in a very
high sense, is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The everlasting priesthood is
promised to him. The covenant of peace is promised to him.
When we come to the study of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will see an
expression in the casting out of the money-changers from the temple, where
Jesus takes a scourge and scourges out of God's house those who are defiling
that house, whereupon it is stated that the scripture was fulfilled, "The
zeal for thy house shall eat me up." Such a shame against the sanctity of
that house must be punished or it can never be forgiven. There must be a penal
sanction to law. We see it repeated again when he comes to cleanse the temple
the second time, and then when he comes to die that death of the cross, under
the wrath of God, forsaken of the Father, unsaved from the sword of divine
justice, unsaved from the lion, Satan, who goeth about to devour, unsaved from
the bite of the serpent, that is, to placate by expiation the death penalty of
sin. Now, Phinehas could in a typical way represent that.
What was the use for these people to come there and weep before the tabernacle
with such an impious, presumptuous, daring sin committed right in the presence
of God and nobody rebuking it? It wouldn't do simply to hang a few of the
officers. It wouldn't do for the judges to put one or two, here and there, to
death. There had to be some signal, sudden, utter display of divine wrath and
that was furnished by Phinehas. If Phinehas had had a motive that was not
exactly correspondent to God's idea of wrath against sin, he would have been a
murderer.
The only trouble about it is that men began to imagine long afterwards that
they stood in the place of Phinehas and could kill those whom they thought to
be violators of the law, and with inferior motives and without an express
sanction of God, they committed sin. The case of Phinehas in that respect
stands alone. Samuel, when he hacked to pieces the king, David when he said
that the seven sons of Saul must be hanged on a tree to make atonement,
represent somewhat the idea But it is not said with reference to them that it
was imputed to them for righteousness.
In the case of Jesus, instead of striking the sinner that committed the sin,
Jesus let God strike him after the sinner's sins had been put on him.
"Save me from the sword; save me from the lion. If it be possible let this
cup pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. My God! My
God! Why hast thou forsaken me?" There never could have been any
forgiveness of sin that was not based upon a penal sanction. The justice of God
must be vindicated in some way. People will tell you that you are not punished
because you have sinned but to keep other people from sinning. But sin is
demerit and merits death. "The wages of sin is death." And that death
must come to the sinner himself, or it must come to the one upon whom his
transgressions have been laid. See Psalm 106:28-31.
We turn now to chapters 26-27 and include with them chapter 36. In this case
you have the second numbering of the people. They are just ready to enter the
Holy Land, and with the exception of the death of Moses, which came as a result
of another principle, there is fulfilled the death threatened to all the grown
men that came out of Egypt. This great sin committed on the banks of the Jordan
was by the new generation and 24,000 of them perished in the plague. They did
not number quite so many as in the first enumeration; then 603,550, now only
601,730. The only thing worthy of mention you can do for yourself. Take the
numbers for each tribe as given in the two enumerations and put them down
opposite each other. Some you will find have increased. The tribe of Simeon
with others has fearfully decreased. You have the reason, viz.: this tribe
suffered more than any other in this plague.
This enumeration is not merely for war, but the basis of the land allotment.
The tribe which has the most men will get the most land. The daughters of a
certain man who died want to know if their name is to perish in Israel and they
are to be without inheritance. They are to have their father's inheritance, and
in chapter 36 it shows how to safeguard the father's part of the inheritance to
the tribe, by permitting them to marry only in their own tribe.
In this chapter is the announcement to Moses that on account of his sin he is
to die. He asks that a successor be appointed and Joshua is appointed. We come
to the chapters 28-29, which are upon one point unlike any other chapters.
While they refer to a great many things in the previous books of Exodus and
Leviticus, there is nothing like those two chapters anywhere else. They
commence at the beginning of the year and show what offerings are to be made
day by day, week by week, moon by moon, year by year, seventh year by seventh
year, and Jubilee by Jubilee. These chapters constitute the basis of the poem
of Keble, "The Christian Year," as it is called by the Episcopalians,
derived from the Old Testament, a matter that Paul condemns thus in the letter
to the Colossians: "Ye observe months, days, weeks, seasons; touch not,
taste not, handle not." God nailed all that system to the cross of Christ.
The only thought in chapter 30 that needs to be dwelt on is the bringing up of
the vow question again. If a daughter makes a vow before she has attained to
full age, it cannot be exacted of her, if her father does not sanction it. A
wife cannot make a vow without her husband's sanction. This chapter discusses
the principle upon which the exceptions are made, and you can read it.
Chapter 31 is devoted to the war against Midian. God commanded Moses to make a
holy war against Midian, who, acting on the suggestion of Balaam, had through
their chief women brought about this great sin, when Israel had committed no
provocation. This war is unlike other wars because of the number. Only 1,000
men from each tribe, or 12,000, are sent out to conduct the war. A priest, not
a general, commands them. They suffer no loss. The destruction wrought is God's
destruction. God has condemned Midian for their awful sin and they are smitten.
The spoils of the war are devoted to God because it was God's war, not man's.
Everybody that looks at it will say that it was God's war.
As they were encamped by the Jordan and ready to pass over, it was intensely
important that they leave the rear safe. Midian is smitten clear to the
Euphrates. Sihon and Og had been destroyed and Moab and Ammon and Edom are
incapable of war. A vast portion of territory lying on the east of the Jordan
is captured. That brings us to chapter 32. This captured land is the best
pasturage in the whole country; two tribes and a half express the desire that
they be allotted that eastern portion. Moses is very indignant because he
understands that they mean this, that while the whole nation has captured this
territory these tribes propose to stay over here and leave the other tribes to
capture the remainder of the country. But they explain that they simply wanted
to safeguard their women and children and villages and send their army on
across the Jordan to fight with the others. So the allotment is made to Reuben,
Gad, and one-half of the tribe of Manasseh.
In chapter 33 there is only one thing to which your attention needs to be
called. That chapter is devoted to the whole itinerary from Egypt to the
Jordan. God tells Moses to impress one fact upon the minds of the people:
"No terms can be made with these inhabitants of the land, for the
territory was originally yours when the division was made in the days of Peleg,
after the flood. But they took possession of the country." God has not
cast them out because their iniquity was not full. But their iniquity is full
now and they are going to be cast out and "you are the executors of the
divine will and if you leave corners around I give you warning that they will
be thorns in your side forever. When you make war they will rise up in your
rear. When you relax in watchfulness, they will lead you into sin."
I preached a sermon on that once, in which I took the matter spiritually thus:
Take a Christian who is regenerated, but he stops trying to expel the old
inhabitants. He says, "I am all right if I am a Christian. That is
enough." He does not continue his war against the sinful nature. A large
part of him he does not seek to bring under subjection through sanctification.
Then he is going to have a thorn in the flesh. Say you take an occasional
spree. Whenever you quit making a fight on the lower nature, you are going to
be badly fooled. By careful analysis anyone can find out his weak point. Woe to
the man who does not make war on that besetting sin. I do not say he will be
lost in hell, but he will get some hard falls and be badly hurt.
Chapter 34 is devoted to a description of the border. You can take a map and
trace it out. No particular skill is required.
Chapter 35 is devoted to two points well worthy of special study. It is a
provision for the forty-eight Levite cities who were to have no part of the
land for an inheritance, and also for the six cities of refuge; three east of
the Jordan and three west. You ought carefully to note the purpose of these
cities of refuge and how the roads are to be kept open.
QUESTIONS
1. Having failed to turn Jehovah against
Israel by divination, how did Balaam turn Israel against Jehovah?
2. What penalty did Jehovah
visit upon them and how many died?
3. What two efforts were
made to stay the plague and the results?
4. What act of presumption
was committed just at this time, the act of Phinehas and the result?
5. Expound the remarkable
reference to Phinehas and particularly bring out the atonement idea in
connection with his zeal.
6. Give result of second
census. How many tribes had fewer than at first? Why the great difference in
the tribe of Simeon?
7. What question came up
respecting Zelophehad's daughters and how settled?
8. Give the law of
inheritance in Israel.
9. What announcement here
made to Moses and his request?
10. What specially qualified
Joshua for this place?
11. Describe the ceremony of
the appointment and what the signification of the laying on of hands?
12. Try your hand on forming
the calendar for the Jewish Holy Year.
13. What exceptions here to
the law of vows previously given?
14. The war against Midian
the character of it, why made, how unlike other wars and what was done with the
spoils?
15. Give an account of the
settlement of the territory east of the Jordan.
16. What terms were they to
make with the inhabitants of the land?
17. What was the penalty for
violating this command?
18. What right did the
Israelites have thus to deal with the inhabitants?
19. Apply the case of these
people in their new relation to the individual Christian.
20. Bound the Land of Canaan
as promised to Israel. (See Atlas.)
21. What provision was made
for the Levites in the land?
22. How many cities of
refuge? Name and locate them. What was their purpose?
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
In no other book in the Bible can you find such examples and such a model of
religious oratory as in the book of Deuteronomy. The preacher whose heart cannot
be fired by a study of the book of Deuteronomy has no heart to be fired. Our
theme for this study is a general introduction to the book of Deuteronomy. In a
primary sense Deuteronomy is the closing division of the Pentateuch. The
Pentateuch must be considered as one continuous book, artificially divided into
the parts that we now have. Each foregoing division demands all subsequent ones
and each subsequent one presupposes all the foregoing ones. The unity of the
Pentateuch is as marked as the unity of the human body.
In literary form Deuteronomy is distinguished sharply from all preceding
divisions. Genesis is generally narrative; Exodus is narrative and legislation;
Leviticus is legislation; Numbers is generally narrative, but Deuteronomy
consists almost altogether of orations and poems, and is throughout expository
and hortatory. In the other books of the Pentateuch we had the historians and
legislators, but here we have the prophet, the orator and the poet, and this
fact sufficiently accounts for the difference in style and method and largely
governs the interpretation. It is further distinguished from Leviticus in that
Leviticus is restricted to a single tribe and treats of religious service only
in its priests, sacrifices, types, holy days and rituals, but Deuteronomy is
addressed to the nation as a unit, touching civic righteousness and national
life arising from the peculiar relations of the people of Jehovah.
In a good sense Leviticus with Exodus 25-40 may be called the priest's code,
while Deuteronomy with Exodus 19-23 may be called the people's code. But we
would be void of literary and spiritual sense in attempting to deduce from this
fact different authors or widely separated dates of composition for the two
codes. Deuteronomy as well as all subsequent history presupposes the antecedent
Leviticus. Anybody may find it a profitable study to trace in Deuteronomy its
historical dependence upon each one of the foregoing divisions of the
Pentateuch. I certainly found that to be a profitable study. Look through the
book of Deuteronomy to find how much of it is dependent upon the history
contained in Genesis, how much of it is dependent upon the history contained in
Exodus, how much of it is dependent upon the legislation contained in the book
of Numbers. This is one of the best ways to prove the relation of this book to
the other books. Any intelligent student who has a copy of my chronological
analysis of Numbers, which furnishes indissoluble links binding Exodus,
Leviticus and Deuteronomy together, will have an advantage in this line of
study.
Now we come to the title of this book. It has four Jewish titles. First, in the
Hebrew canon, there is the name debarim. In my Jewish Bible this is at the head
of the book of Deuteronomy. It simply means the words, or these be the words.
The second Jewish name is the fifth of the fifths of the law, that is, the
fifth part of the five divisions of the law. Its third Jewish name is the book
of reproofs, because there are so many admonitions in it. The fourth Jewish
name given by certain rabbis is the iteration of the law. These are the four
Jewish names in the book of Deuteronomy.
The Greek the Septuagint and other Greek versions follow the fourth Jewish
title, styling the book Deuteronomion, or the second giving of the Law.
The Latin the Vulgate merely Latinizes the Greek, so that we have
Deuteronomium. The English versions merely Anglicize the Greek and Latin so
that we have Deuteronomy. So the name of this book as we have it now came from the
fourth Jewish name, iteration of the Law. And it is supposed that they got the
name from the phrase, "A copy of this law" (17:18). If they got it
there, they misinterpret the phrase, which simply means and refers to the whole
Pentateuch. Thus from a misunderstanding of the phrase in 17:18, we derive our
name of the book. This name "Deuteronomy" is, in some sense,
misleading, because the book does not recapitulate all preceding law; it leaves
out many important sections, and it enlarges the previous law by necessary
supplementary statutes; hence to call it, a second giving of the Law, is a
misnomer.
The orator, while recognizing all past law and history as a basis for his
exhortations, simply recites so much of that law and history as meets his
purpose and then enacts such additional legislation as was necessary to their
becoming occupants of the Promised Land, all of this to be the basis of
exhortation and prophecy. You will recall that when we were studying what is
called "The Book of the Covenant" (Ex. 19-23), that is) the Covenant
of Sinai) it was clearly explained that this covenant was divided into three
distinct parts: first, the Decalogue, the ten words of the moral law; second,
the civil and criminal statutes necessary for national life; and third, the
altar, or the way of approach to God. All the subsequent part of the Pentateuch
is but a development of that covenant; for instance, the book of Deuteronomy is
simply a development of the first two sections, that is, the Decalogue and the
civil and criminal statutes of national life. The original book of the covenant
as set forth in Exodus 10-23 may be called the constitution and the rest
derivative legislation from the-constitution. Deuteronomy looks back, I say,
mainly to the first two sections, the Decalogue and the civil and criminal
statutes, and it is a development from them. So much for the name.
Now we come to the scene where the discussion took place. I wonder if you could
locate the scene of the book, with the book before you. Would you not be misled
by the first two verses which are retrospective and give the scenes of Numbers?
My answer to the question of the scene is simply this: the plains of Moab, east
of the Jordan, opposite Jericho.
Next is the time covered by the book. What time does the book cover? Note these
scriptures: Deuteronomy 1:3, which says, "And it came to pass in the
fortieth year" (that is of the exodus), "in the eleventh month, on
the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel."
Now, this is the beginning date. Turn to Joshua 4:19. That says they crossed
the Jordan on the tenth day of the new year, so that between the beginning of
Deuteronomy and the crossing of the Jordan, there were two months plus ten
days, or seventy days. You have now two distinct elements that will help you to
fix the time. Your next scripture is Deuteronomy 34:8, which says that thirty
days Israel mourned the death of Moses; thirty from seventy leaves forty. You
have not the date yet. Now, by looking at Joshua 1:11, and 3:2, you will find
that you must subtract three more days, so this leaves for the book of
Deuteronomy just thirty-seven days. You are to understand that, with the
exception of the last chapter, which was written by Joshua after Moses died,
connecting it with the book of Joshua, the thirty-three chapters of Deuteronomy
cover what occurred in the last month of the life of Moses. You may say that in
that last month there were seven speeches to be made and a little history to be
enacted.
We next come to the occasion of the book of Deuteronomy: The first element is,
they had completed their wanderings and had arrived at the very place on the
Jordan where they were to cross over into the Promised Land. You remember that
thirty-eight years before this they had gotten to the edge of the Promised
Land, at Kadesh-barnea, in the southern part of what is now Judea. Now they are
back to the borders of the Promised Land, but at a different place. That is the
first element of the occasion. They are now about to go over into the Promised
Land, and whatever speeches are made and whatever poems are recited are bound
to bear on the occasion. The second element of the occasion is that all
territory of the Promised Land east of the Jordan River, what was later called
Perea, had just been conquered from Sihon, the Amorite king, Og, king of
Bashan, and the Midianites, and divided among two tribes and a half-tribe, so
that part of the Promised Land, all east of the Jordan, is in possession.
The third element is that they are now to install a successor to Moses, their
wonderful leader of the past forty years, who no doubt considered himself as
their deliverer for the last eighty years. The marvelous hero of the past is to
die and not to go with them over into the Promised Land. We are to consider,
then, the speeches and poems of a man who knows that he is to live but one
month. They are, therefore, the farewell words of a dying man.
The next element of the occasion is that before Moses died he wanted them to
renew the covenant with God. You remember the covenant at Sinai had been broken
when they worshiped the golden calf. You remember it had been broken at
Kadesh-barnea and for thirty-eight years had been, in a measure, suspended.
They did not worship God nor circumcise their children, but now as the children
of men who perished in the wilderness, they are about to go into possession of
the Promised Land, it is necessary for them to renew the covenant of the
people, with exhortations based thereon. The last element of the occasion is
that they must be made to understand the covenant. Hence the expository
character of the book.
See if you can group in your mind the elements of the occasion of the book of
Deuteronomy: first, travels completed; second, all east of the Jordan has been
captured and occupied; third, a successor to their leader must be appointed and
Moses must bid farewell; fourth, they are now to cross the last boundary that
intervenes between them and the Promised Land; fifth, it is necessary to renew
the covenant intelligently; sixth, it is necessary to understand it. So I think
that constitutes the occasion of the book.
Now, the purpose of the book you can guess from the occasion. In general, the
purpose is to magnify their relation to Jehovah and to commit the people to
obedience. If ever a speaker on earth had a definite purpose in his mind, it
was Moses in delivering these speeches which we call Deuteronomy.
Next, what is Deuteronomy? This is a great question. I have already shown you
that it is not merely a recapitulation of laws. Rather it is an inspired and
authoritative commentary on past law and history, with exhortations based upon
that law and history. This is the first thing it is. The book of Deuteronomy is
an inspired, authoritative commentary on, or an exposition of, the past laws
and history of the people, with exhortations based thereon. Second, it consists
of prophecies concerning the future, with exhortations thereon. Some of the
most remarkable prophecies in the world are in the book of Deuteronomy. Third,
it consists of rewards promised to obedience and punishments denounced upon
disobedience. Now, that is what Deuteronomy is.
The historical elements of the book of Deuteronomy are merely connecting links
to hold the addresses and poems together. There is very little forward history
in the book, however much he recited past history. This history is to be found
in 1:1-5; 4:44-49; most of chapter 31; 32:44-52; 34. These are the historical
elements of the book.
The Prophetic Elements. "Prophet" in the Old Testament means both
teacher and foreteller, but when I say prophecies of this book, I do not refer
to the teachings, but to the foretellings, where Moses has the veil which hides
the future from view pulled away so that he could look almost to the end of
time. There is one messianic prophecy of tremendous signification in chapter 18
where he says, "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the
midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me . . . and it shall come to pass
that whosoever shall not heed that prophet shall be cut off from his
people." You recall the scene on the Mount of Transfiguration, where Peter
said, "Let us make three tents, one for thee, one for Moses and one for
Elias," with God's reply, "Hear ye him." Whosoever shall not
hear that prophet shall be cut off from his people.
From chapter 28 to the end of the thirty-third, there are most wonderful
prophecies concerning the future of the Jewish people. If he had been present
and an eyewitness of the future destruction of Jerusalem, he could not have
more vividly depicted the fact. Now, Josephus witnessed it and describes a part
of it, but Moses describes it more faithfully than the eyewitness does. Then he
tells of some things not yet fulfilled, viz.: the restoration of the Jews, and
it certainly teaches the ingathering of the Gentiles. So you see what you have
before you in this book.
Now we come to the next question Who is the author of Deuteronomy? To put it
plainly, nobody else but Moses, since Adam was created until now, could have
been the author of the thirty-three chapters. Let the higher critics say what
they please, that man is void of both literary and spiritual sense who makes
any other man the author of this book. He may be a scholar, a bookscholar, but
he is emphatically a fool as to literary and spiritual sense. Deuteronomy, as
it is treated in the "Expositor's Bible" by one of the higher
critics, is both a poison and a shame. The Bible Commentary on the introduction
to Deuteronomy gives this fair sample of the value of radical criticism:
"In truth no more convincing evidence could be afforded that the method of
criticism in question is untrustworthy than the results of its application to
Deuteronomy. The older scholars, Gesenius, de Wette, Ewald, Bleek, etc.,
unhesitatingly-affirm that Deuteronomy was written long after the rest of the
Pentateuch was extant in its present shape. The newer school sees no less
certainty in Deuteronomy the primeval quarry out of which the writers concerned
in the production of the preceding books draw their materials." Some of
the higher critics say it is here, others it is there. Now that finishes my
discussion on the introduction of the book of Deuteronomy.
QUESTIONS
1. For what is the book of Deuteronomy
especially valuable?
2. What it its relation to
the other books of the Pentateuch?
3. Distinguish its literary
form from that of the preceding books.
4. How do you account for
the difference in style and method of Deuteronomy from the other books of the
Pentateuch?
5. How is it further
distinguished from Leviticus?
6. What constitutes the
priest's code? The people's code?
7. Does this fact justify
the claim for different authors and dates for these codes?
8. Trace in Deuteronomy the
historical dependence of the book upon each of the preceding divisions of the
Pentateuch.
9. What the Jewish titles
and how derived?
10. What the Greek title and
how derived?
11. What the Latin title and
how derived?
12. What the English name
and how derived?
13. How does the English
name, Deuteronomy, fit the book and why?
14. Deuteronomy is a
development of what part of the Sinaitic covenant?
15. What the scene of the
book?
16. What the time covered by
the book, and how obtained?
17. What the elements of the
occasion of the book?
18. What its purpose?
19. What is Deuteronomy?
20. Locate its historic,
prophetic and poetic parts.
21. What are some of its
most remarkable prophecies?
22. Who the author, and why?
23. Give a fair sample of the value of radical criticism.
THE ANALYSIS: SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
Deuteronomy 1:1-5
ANALYSIS
I. Introduction, 1:1-5.
1. Retrospective connection with Numbers 1:1-2.
2. Time, place and circumstances of first address, 1:3-5.
3. Text fixing character of the book and meaning of the Law, 1:5.
II. Appointment of three cities of refuge in territory east of Jordan, 4:41-43.
III. First great oration, 1:6 to 4:40.
1. A review of national history from Sinai to Jordan, 1:6 to 3:29.
2. Exhortation thereon, 4:1-40.
IV. Second great oration, 4:44 to 24:19.
Part 1. Chapters 4:44 to 11:32.
(1) Introduction, 4:44-49.
(2) Rehearsal of the Decalogue, 5:1-21.
(3) Comment on the history, exposition and exhortation, 5:22 to 11:32.
Part 2. Chapters 12-26, various statutes and judgments with comment,
exposition, and exhortation.
V. Third great oration, chapters 27-28.
Part 1. Chapter 27, provision for renewal of covenant after entering Canaan.
(1) Record of the law on monumental stones, 27:1-4
(2) Building of an altar after original model in Exodus 20 and ratification by
burnt offerings, 27:5-6.
(3) Peace offerings and joyous communion festivals, 27:7.
(4) Provision for announcement of result at the covenant renewal, 27:9-10.
(5) Solemn and sublime arrangements for committing the whole people to both
blessings and curses of the law, 27:11-26.
Part 2. Chapter 28, exhortations based upon the directions and prophecies of
Part 1.
(1) Blessings of obedience. 28:1-14.
(2) Curses of disobedience. 28:15-68.
VI. Fourth great oration, chapters 29-30.
Part 1. Provision for present renewal of covenant oath, 29: 1-15.
(1) Introduction, historic recital. 29:1-9.
(2) Parties who take the oath. 29:10-15.
Part 2. Comment and exhortation, 29:16 to 30:20.
VII. Fifth great oration, 31:1-13.
1. His words to the people, 31:1-6.
2. His words to Joshua, 31:7-9.
3. Provision for instruction of the people at central place of worship when
established, in all the written law, every seventh year, 31:9-13.
VIII. Moses and Joshua before the Lord, 31:14-29.
1. Moses presents his successor before Jehovah, 31:14-15.
2. Jehovah instructs Moses to write and sing a song, and why, 31:16-22.
3. Jehovah's charge to Joshua, 31:23.
4. The Pentateuch completed and filed for preservation and why, 31:24-29.
IX. The song, or Moses' sixth address, 32:1-47.
1. The invocation, 32:1.
2. Its character, 32:2.
3. Its theme, 32:3-6.
4. Its argument, 32:7-33.
5. Its prophecy, 32:34-43.
6. Its exhortation, 32:44-47.
X. Jehovah's final direction to Moses, 32:48-52.
1. View of the Promised Land, verses 48-49.
2. Prepare to die, verse 50.
3. Why not permitted to enter the Promised Land, verses 51-52.
XI. Prophetic blessings on the tribes, or seventh address of Moses, chapter 33.
1. Introduction, 33:1-5.
2. Each tribe separately, Simeon omitted, why, 33:6-25.
3. The people as a unit, 33:26-29.
XII. Deuteronomy linked to the book of
Joshua, 34.
1. Unique death and burial of Moses, 34:1-7.
2. Israel mourning for her departed hero, 34:8.
3. His successor, 34:9.
4. His place in history, 34:10-12.
Open your Bible and follow me carefully in noting some things upon which the
higher critics base some objections to the integrity of the book. They allege
first that there is a contradiction between the first two verses of Deuteronomy
and the next three verses as to the place, or scene. Now, let us read it:
"These are the words which Moses spake unto all Israel beyond the Jordan
in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel,
and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab." Now these words refer to four or
five different localities. The third commences: "And it came to pass in
the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that
Moses spake unto the children of Israel, . . . " Now, they say that the
first two verses locate the scene in a number of places reaching clear back to
the Red Sea. That the following verses locate it opposite Jericho in the plains
of Moab, and, therefore, there is a contradiction.
Now note my answer. The first two verses in the book of Deuteronomy are
retrospective, merely establishing connection with the book of Numbers, just
the closing of the book of Numbers restated and the true commencement of
Deuteronomy is the third verse. So if you turn to Genesis, you will find that
the last verses are about Jacob and all of his children going into the land of
Egypt. Then, when you look at the beginning of Exodus, he commences by a
restatement of the closing of Genesis. "Now these are the names of the sons
of Israel, . . ." Now turn to 2 Chronicles 36:22: "Now in the first
year of Cyrus, king of Persia." Now turn to Ezra I, the book that follows
it, and you will see it restates the closing of Chronicles. In other words, it
is a habit where these books are related to each other to show that relation by
restating in the beginning of the new book the ending of the preceding.
Therefore there is no contradiction between the first two verses, which are
merely retrospective and form a connecting link with Numbers. The statement in
the three following verses that the scene of the book of Deuteronomy is the
plains of Moab is the first point, and the man that has a studious mind ought
to see that they ought not to make that a ground of invidious criticism of the
Word of God.
The second objection is based on the phrase, "beyond Jordan."
Deuteronomy says, "These are the words that Moses spake unto all Israel
beyond Jordan." They say that expression, "beyond Jordan," means
that a man wrote the book on the west side of the Jordan. Now, in the New
Testament where it speaks of John baptizing beyond the Jordan, that means in
Perea, therefore they say that some man besides Moses wrote this because Moses
didn't get on that side of the Jordan. You see the point clearly.
The reply on this point is that this phrase was a geographical expression
without any reference to position of the writer or speaker fixed before the
time of Moses and describes a section of country like "The South
Country." no matter where the speaker is with reference to the south
country. And "the land toward the great sea" means west of the
Jordan, no matter whether the speaker himself is west of the Jordan or east of
it. It is a geographical expression, precisely so "Beyond Jordan" was
a phrase fixed in history and in geography before Moses wrote. He meant that
section of the country east of the Jordan River. Now, I hate to call your
attention to the little things. I dislike to speak of little things but must if
I speak of anything the higher critics claim.
The next is based on a number of parenthetical clauses in the King James
Version (1:2; 2:10-12, 20-23; 3:9, II) which are claimed to be irrelevant to
the matter in hand. Now you see these parenthetical clauses. On these
parentheses they base an objection. They say they break the connection and
therefore must have been interpolations by a later writer. This is their
allegation.
Now, my reply is that every one of those parenthetical references is intensely
relevant to the matter in hand, and that they very greatly accentuate the
emphasis of the speaker. Suppose we take them up in order. It was only eleven
days' march from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea. Now, the fact that it took them
thirty-seven days for an eleven days' march shows that they committed some sin.
He sharply rebuked that sin, which delayed them. The next time the delay was
thirty-eight years on account of their sin. Now, it is very important for Moses
in making a speech, and a speech which is to close with an exhortation, to call
attention, parenthetically, to these facts, and in the second verse he states
all the places that he wants to emphasize. "You stopped there so long,
here, yonder." You see now if that parenthetical statement is not relevant
to the matter he had in hand, there is no such thing as relevancy.
Now, let us look at the next parenthetical clause (2:10-12, 20-23). Let us see
what that is. The parenthesis reads this way, "The Emim dwelt therein
aforetime, . . ." "the Horites also dwelt in Seir aforetime, but the
children of Esau succeeded them, . . ." Now, they say that this is
evidently an interpolation by a later writer. I reply that the ethnic reference
to those joint nations is of the utmost importance and bearing on the matter in
hand. If those joint races had been expelled from their former holdings by the
Edomites, Amorites, and Moabites, how little should Israel, led by the
Almighty, fear such adversaries. Their history demands just exactly that
reference. And let us notice the next parenthesis (2:9), which reads,
'"which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion and the Amorites called it
Senir." They say that these names are given to Mount Sinai at a much later
date, therefore the man that wrote that must have lived at a much later date
than Moses lived. Now, the names given Mount Hermon are all pertinent, and
express historical facts well in the knowledge of Moses, and helped to identify
the mount. Moses called it Mount Hermon) not Sinai. The Phoenicians gave it the
name of Sirion. Other people called it a different name. All of these names
were given before the time of Moses. They are just mistaken in the fact that
these names were given it at a later period.
Now let us look at the next objection (3:11). It is the description of the
bedstead of Og. This objection is but an expression of unbelief in the veracity
of the historian and results from their own ignorance. Well, little fellows
like higher critics would never need a big bed. You would have to stretch them
and expand them to make them fit. But it is a historical fact that the bones of
a person fitting that bed have been recently dug up near that place. I am
regarded as a pretty tall man and when a friend of mine saw me get off the
train with some giants, he commenced laughing and said, "B. H., I always
thought you were a big man, but you are a dwarf; just look at those
people." Now we know, in history, of people big enough to fill that bed.
The pentateuchal references to giants are supported rather than discredited by
modern discoveries on the scene of the story.
Now let us take up the other, (3:14). It says, "Even unto this day."
Now, they say that whoever wrote that expression must have been a man very
remote from that time, hundreds and hundreds of years must have passed away.
When that writer says, "Even unto this day," therefore, some other
man than Moses must have written the book. Their criticism .is the merest
assumption. The phrase, "even unto this day," does not necessarily
imply a long time, and we will find it used in the book of Joshua to mean a
very short period of time. Moses could say, "Even unto this day,"
since his reason for using that expression is that he sometimes refers to a
place that had changed names, he says that it used to be called a certain name;
that it used to be called Rephaim a long time ago, or at such a time it was
called a certain name. It is still that name "unto this day." The
phrase simply means this, whether it be a long interval or a short interval of
time.
I will give you one more (4:41-43) : "Then Moses set apart three cities on
the side of Jordan toward the sunrising; that the man-slayer might flee
thither." In other words, he there sets apart three cities of refuge
before he crosses the Jordan. Now, the objection to this speech is that Moses
breaks the connection. My reply is that it does not break the connection of the
speech. His speech was ended, and a piece of history comes in before he makes
another speech. Now, you will think these are very small matters, and yet men
covered with medals from the universities of Europe gravely sit down and attack
the Pentateuch on these things.
Every public speaker, whether preacher or politician, may profitably study
Carlyle's "Essay on Stump Speaking," in which he submits
substantially the following conditions of a great oration:
First, there must be a great occasion to call it forth. Now, you know the
difference in getting up in a debating society with nothing involved and having
a case to come up in real life. One is an occasion and the other a
make-believe. There must be a great occasion.
Second, the speaker must be equal to the occasion.
Third, he must daringly seize the opportunity flying by swiftly. If he has not
the capacity to seize that opportunity, he never can be an orator.
Fourth, he must have something to say. Neither froth, nor fancies, nor
oratorical declamation fits a great occasion. There must be matter and body to
his thought.
Fifth (and here is the point upon which I do all my studying on great occasions
when I make speeches), he must so say things that they will stick, lodge, burn
in the mind of the hearer. Now, those are the points by Carlyle on stump
speaking; and I want to apply them to the book of Deuteronomy. In the first
place it has been shown that Moses had a great occasion; second, it has been
shown how he was the one man in all the world equal to the demands of that
occasion; third, it has been shown how, in the last days of his life, he seized
the flying opportunity to utilize the occasion. And now, from the addresses
themselves and subsequent history, we have to determine whether he had
something to say and so said it that it stuck.
Now fix your attention carefully on a phrase, the most important in the whole
book, as determining the character of the book (1:5). Just six words,
"began Moses to declare this law." You must not construe this to mean
that Moses began to enact new laws. "To declare" here means to
unfold, to expound, to dig under, to dig up past law. The book does not tell of
the legislator making the laws, but of an orator expounding law, giving the
sense of it and applying its meaning. This text is a matchless theme for a
sermon when you desire to show how Moses began to take up this law, to expound,
to declare this law, and what the significance. It means that the Bible is not
so much a book for reading, but a book to be studied.
That you must open up its heart. Now, a student can do this. An idiot can read
the Bible, but he cannot dig it out. Now an example: When our Lord met those
two people going to Emmaus he said, "You fools and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets have said concerning me," and then he dug up
and expounded all the meanings of this scripture. "Now, you didn't believe
these things; you simply read them; now I will expound them; I will dig them up
and let you see the real meaning of them." Therefore I say that this gives
us the character of the book. It is an exposition and not legislation. I
repeat, this teaching is a matchless theme when you desire to show the
necessity of Bible study; that the Scriptures are not so much to be read as to
be studied.
Another point is that Moses uses the words, "the law," and he does
not limit them to mere previous legislation, but includes all the historical
setting. The whole of the first address which is called an expounding of the
law is but an exposition of the connecting history. With the Jews later and
with Christ and his Apostles, the Torah, the Law, means all the Pentateuch,
both history and legislation. It has that meaning in the remarkable history
found in 2 Kings 12 and 2 Chronicles 34. The book found is the Pentateuch. The
unity of the Pentateuch cannot ever be overemphasized. Moses in his address of
exposition goes back to the Genesis record of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
even to the first creation of man. He goes back to Exodus, Leviticus, and
Numbers in both history and legislation. And as we shall see at the close of
this book, he finishes the continuous record and deposits it as a witness
forever in the ark in the custody of the priests. You should study Dr. Green of
Princeton in Biblical Introduction on the unity of Genesis, the unity of the
Pentateuch and the unity of the Old Testament.
QUESTIONS
1. Give an analysis of
Deuteronomy.
2. What do the higher
critics allege as to the first two verses and how do you answer it?
3. What the higher critics'
second objection, and the answer?
4. What their third
objection and what the answer?
5. Show the relevancy of
each of these parenthetical clauses.
6. What their fourth
objection and the reply thereto?
7. What the objection based
on the phrase "unto this day," and your reply?
8. What the objection based
on 4:41-43, and your reply thereto?
9. What essay on "Stump
Speaking" is cited? What are the conditions of a great oration as
submitted by this author?
10. Show how the first three
of these conditions apply to Moses.
11. What is the meaning of
1:5 and what the bearing on the character of the book?
12. What line of thought
suggested for a sermon on this text and its application?
FIRST AND SECOND ORATION, PART I
Deuteronomy 1:6-11 :32
FIRST ORATION
The occasion is great and awe inspiring. Death is just
ahead of the speaker, about one month off, and yet the old man stands before us
in the vigor of youth. He does not die from decay of either mental or physical
power but simply because God is going to take him. He has carried these people
in his heart eighty years and has borne them in fact for forty marvelous years
of eventful history; has suffered unspeakably in their behalf, and now is
burdened with the spirit of prophecy which unfolds to his eagle eye their
disastrous future for thousands of years, brightened for a time by the coming
of the Prophet, like himself but infinitely greater, and the prospect of their
final restoration. He starts out with a reference to Horeb where they entered
into covenant relations with God, and where he himself sat, with the chiefs of
the tribes, of thousands, of hundreds, of tens, to hear all minor causes,
appealing to him only in great matters. The qualifications of these judges are
set forth in Exodus 17:21, and "they were able men such as fear God, men
of truth, hating covetousness," and here, as "wise men, well-known
chiefs of the tribes, full of understanding." He rehearses his original
charge to these judges: they must fairly hear all cases, must judge
righteously, must be impartial, must fear no face of man, must remember that
the judgment is Jehovah's. The object of the reference is to show that they
left Sinai thoroughly organized and equipped; left there in numbers more than
the stars shown to Abraham and with their leader praying, "The Lord of
your fathers make you a thousand times as many more as ye are, and bless you as
he hath promised you."
They left there at God's command to go at once to take possession of their long
promised country. But alas, on account of their sins they lost thirty-seven
days in getting to Kadesh-barnea and then with the imperative command ringing
in their ears, the Lord said as before, "Come and take possession";
they again are delayed forty days in order to get a report from spies, and
after that report and an awful breach of the covenant they lost thirty-eight
years more of weary wandering, then when again assembled at Kadesh-barnea
sinned again and caused Moses himself to sin, and so debarred him from the
Promised Land. Then, through unbelief in God, through fear of man, through
presumption toward God, through fleshly lusts, they had utterly failed to enter
in.
Moreover, they had lied in attributing their attitude of rebellion to parental
concern for their children, which God rebuked by showing that he could lead
those helpless children into the Promised Land without the loss of one, while
the bones of the parents whitened in the wilderness. And now, though at
Kadesh-barnea again, when entrance was no more than stepping over a line drawn
in the sand, they must turn down toward the Red Sea, and by a long, weary and
circuitous march approach the country on the other side; a path must compass
Mountain Seir, skirt Edom, Moab, and Ammon and bring them into deadly conflict
with Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the hosts of
Midian. That circuitous march was marked by some great sins and made memorable
by some great deliverances. Aaron died at Mountain Hor. Moses is about to die,
without passing over into the Promised Land.
Now, this oration, having thus briefly reviewed the legislation, makes that
survey the basis of his exhortation by way of application. Learn from this
model, 0 preachers, how to revive the lost art of exhortation. That used to be
the custom for men that were called to exhort who could not preach. They could
not preach a sermon but they could sit down and listen to a preacher preach and
then move people mightily by exhortation. I have heard men, ignorant as they
were in books, give exhortations that would make the stars sparkle.
Dr. Burleson preached a sermon at Huntsville and at the close of the sermon J.
W. D. Creath got up and commenced by slapping his thigh and you could have
heard him a hundred yards. He said, "The spirit of God is here, and the
devil is fighting hard." The people were converted by the hundreds and the
biggest man was Sam Houston. A Negro boy on the outside was convicted of sin
and came to the front, not understanding but feeling the power of God, he knelt
at Sam Houston's feet saying, "Massa Houston, save me." Sam Houston
said to the boy, "Ask the clergy, I am just a poor lost sinner
myself." We bad Deacon Pruitt; he never preached but Judge Baylor never
held a meeting but he got Brother Pruitt to help him. He always wanted him to
exhort after he preached. Moses determined to exhort these people, and in order
to exhort them, he takes up the survery. They keep forgetting the times of his
exhortation. The points are stated thus:
(1) Hearken unto God's word and do it.
(2) Do not add to his law nor diminish it. "Heaven and earth," says
our Lord, "must pass away, but my word shall not pass away."
(3) Be warned by your own history. History teaches lessons and imposes
obligations. Preachers especially should be students of history in order to
understand God's government over nations and the way of his providence.
(4) In view of its impression on other nations obedience will be your highest
wisdom. They will thereby recognize your relations with Jehovah and marvel at
your prosperity and fear your power.
(5) Do not forget. Teach this law diligently to your children.
(6) Remember that you yourselves and your nation alone heard God's own awful
voice pronounce your Decalogue and that you have his autograph copy preserved
as a witness.
(7) Remember that when you heard his voice you saw no likeness of him and
beware that you make no graven image of anything that is in heaven above, nor
earth below; do not fall down and worship it. We should all become iconoclasts,
breakers of images. "Icon," the image; "Iconoclast," the
breaker of images.
(8) Remember that Jehovah is a jealous God and will look upon sin with no
degree of allowance, and be sure that he will find out your sins and be sure
that he will punish your sins. Don't you become so sweetly sentimental that you
will think it impolite to say the word "hell." Let us remember the
awful words of our Lord, greater than Moses, who said, "Fear him that is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell," who said, "Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels." So this is the first exhortation of Moses.
SECOND ORATION,
PART I
The scripture of this part is chapter 4:44, to the end of the eleventh chapter.
Like the first oration, the second has an introduction giving the time, place,
and circumstances of delivery. The closing: paragraph of chapter 4 gives this
introduction in verses 44-49. There is nothing in it calling for additional
comment beyond the fact that it marks an interval of undetermined time between
the two Orations.
This part of the oration consists of a rehearsal of the whole Decalogue, stated
in an offhand, oratorical form, without attempting the exact verbal quotations,
and of an exposition of the first table, that is, the four commandments
embodying our relation to God) and then an earnest exhortation by way of
application. Note the verbal differences between this offhand rehearsal of the
Decalogue by Moses and the Exodus record of it as spoken in the very words of
Jehovah himself, and written by him on tablets of stone. From Revised Version,
read Exodus 20:2-17, and then read the corresponding Commandments in the same
version from Deuteronomy 5:621. You must consider the Exodus form as the true
original, and the Deuteronomy form as a substantial restatement by a public
speaker, and note that Deuteronomy 5:15, is not an attempt to quote the Fourth
Commandment as originally given, but merely a passing exhortation, assigning an
additional motive for remembering the sabbath day. The reader will also note
that Romanists combine the first and the second according to our division, to
make their first, and then divide our tenth to make their ninth and tenth. This
does not affect the matter, only the numbering of the parts.
I asked you to read the Decalogue in Exodus and Deuteronomy alternately because
enemies of the Bible have made so much of the fact that there is not an exact
verbal agreement, and hence they have denied the verbal inspiration of the
Scriptures. The reply to it is that the divine original in God's own
handwriting is the Commandments as they were delivered; second, in this case
there is an inspired substantial restatement of the original in oratorical form
and this restatement is just as much inspired as the original. Remember the
sabbath because God rested on that day and it is prophetic, in an indirect way,
of the New Testament sabbath. As God rested from creation when he had finished
the work and the day commemorated an historical fact, so Jesus, having
accomplished the great redemption (so that the Jewish sabbath is nailed to the
cross of Christ), rested from his work and there remaineth a sabbath-keeping to
the people of God. Jesus entered into this rest, as God did his.
Here I pause to commend, first, the exposition of the Decalogue in the
Catechism of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith. This catechetical exposition
has been taught to more children than perhaps any other in the world. Let us
always commend the Presbyterians for their fidelity in family instruction, and
always confess and lament Baptist delinquency on this line until we repent and
do better. Second, it now gratifies me to be able to commend a Baptist
exposition of the Decalogue, which, in my judgment, is the best in all
literature. Not very long ago, a venerable man, soon to pass away, was helped
upon the platform and introduced at the Southern Baptist Convention, and he
received the Chautauqua salute. It was George Dana Boardman of missionary fame.
He is the author of University Lectures on the Ten Commandments. The lectures
were delivered before the students of Pennsylvania University, and the book was
issued by the American Baptist Publication Society. Study it carefully and
assimilate it into your very life. On the Fourth Commandment, perhaps without
immodesty, I may ask you to read the three sermons on the sabbath in my first
published volume of sermons.
My reason for speaking of these books is that Moses himself is now to devote
eight chapters to an exposition of the Decalogue in the oration under
consideration. You will make special note that Moses emphasizes the fact that
the Decalogue was the only part of the covenant actually voiced by Jehovah, and
that this divine autograph was then filed away in the ark as an eternal
witness. The fact is also emphasized that no other people had even heard God's
voice or possessed his autograph. Thousands of the younger generation now
addressed by Moses were present that awful day when Sinai smoked and trembled
and was crested with fire, and the loud and ever louder trumpet smote their
ears as no other trumpet will smite the ears of men until the great judgment
day. They might well recall their terror when from the fires of Sinai this
awful penetrating voice solemnly pronounced in thunder tones those Commandments
one after another. They themselves could recall how they begged not to hear
that voice any more and implored Moses to hear for them as mediator and to
repeat to them in human voice any other words of God. I have already sought to
impress you that Deuteronomy is an exposition of the law rather than a giving
of the law. The orator and expositor not only shows that these Commandments of
God are exceedingly broad, but he attempts to show their depths and reveal
their heights, yea, to lay bare their very heart and spirit.
This heart and spirit he finds in the word "love." "Hear, 0
Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God
with all thy soul, with all thy might." He compresses the first four
Commandments into "Thou shalt love Jehovah," as later in this book he
compresses the last six into "Love thy neighbour as thyself." When
our Lord answers the question, "Which is the first commandment of the
law?" He quotes Deuteronomy in his answer: "This is the first and
great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all
thy mind, and all thy strength, and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets."
And as the second is impossible without the first, a New Testament writer may
well say, "All the law is fulfilled in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself." And another says, "Love is the fulfilling of the
law." Or as Paul to Timothy declares its widest scope, "Now the end
of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, out of a good conscience, out
of faith unfeigned." In one word then, that grandest thing in the world,
LOVE, Moses expounds the Decalogue. On this matter he founds his exhortation
thus:
(1) "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of
them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when
thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and they shall be as frontlets
between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them on the posts of thine house, and
on thy gates." What a course of family instruction! What a theme of family
conversation! What a safeguard at home, at the gate, at the door, at the
hearth, at the bed! As the Jew awoke in the morning, the Law greeted him; as he
passed the door, it saluted him; as he passed through the gate, it hailed him;
in all his walking beyond the gate it accompanied him. It governed the words of
his tongue; it remained between his eyes to regulate sight; it dwelt in his
heart to regulate emotion; and remained in his mind to prescribe and proscribe
thought, purpose and scheme. Its hand of authority touched the scales and
yardstick and restrained within its bounds all his business. His fruit, his
grain, his flock, and all other treasures acknowledged its supremacy. It
provoked the questions of children by its object lessons and supplied the
answers to the questions.
(2) When prosperity comes with its fulness of blessings) do not forget God,
(6:10-15).
(3) When adversity and trial overtake you do not tempt God as you tempted him
at Massah, saying, "Is God among us?" (6:16). Just here the psalmist
says, "My feet had well nigh slipped, for I was envious of the prosperity
of the wicked and said, In vain have I washed my hands in innocency and
compassed thine altars, 0 Lord of Hosts." How often have we been bitter in
heart and counted God our adversary and ourselves the target of his arrows and
lightning.
(4) "Remember that the destruction of the Canaanites is essential to your
fidelity to this law. They will corrupt you if you spare them. You shall not
pity them, for the measure of their iniquity is full." You are God's
sheriff executing his will, not yours, mercilessly as a pestilence, a cyclone,
an earthquake, or a flood, indiscriminatingly obey his will. Make no covenant
with these doomed and incorrigible nations. Do not intermarry with them. Covet
none of their possessions devoted to God's curse. Ah, if only Achan later had
remembered this and had not brought defeat upon his people and ruin to himself
and house!
(5) Remember the bearing of this law on Self:
(a) When walls crumble before you and the sun and moon stand still to complete
your victory, beware lest you attribute your victories to your own strength.
(b) Or to your numbers.
(c) And especially beware of self-righteousness. All your history avouches you
to be a stiff-necked and rebellious people. There was no good in your origin.
"A Syrian ready to perish was your father." At the Red Sea, at the
waters of Marah, when you thirsted, when you hungered, in all the wilderness,
and at Kadesh-barnea, through the cunning of Balaam even until now you have
sinned and kept sinning, and will continue to sin, existing as monuments of
grace and mercy. Who are you, to be puffed up with conceit and pride of
selfrighteousness?
(6) Consider how reasonable all of Jehovah's commandments are: "And now,
Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee but to fear Jehovah thy God,
to walk in all his ways and to love him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all
thy soul, with all thy heart, to keep the commandments of Jehovah and his
statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" (10:12).
A later prophet shall re-echo the thought: "He hath showed thee, 0 man,
what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee but to do justly and to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God."
(7) Finally, blessings crown your obedience and curses follow your
disobedience. The inexorable alternative is set forth before you. Obey and
live; disobey and die. And ye yourselves, over yonder, shall stand on opposing
mountains while this law is read in a valley between, and those on Gerizirn
shall call out the blessings, and those on Ebal shall pronounce the curses. And
you will in one loud Bounding voice say, "Amen, so let it be."
QUESTIONS
1. What briefly the occasion
of the first oration?
2. What the substance,
appeal and application of the first oration?
3. What lost art here
referred to, and what examples of this art cited?
4. What the several points
of his exhortation?
5. Where do you find
introduction to the second oration and what the time, place and circumstances
of its delivery?
6. Of what does Part 2 of
the second oration consist?
7. What are the verbal
differences between the Exodus form and the Deuteronomy form of the Decalogue
and how account for them?
8. Which is the true,
original form?
9. What of Moses' statement
here of the Fourth Commandment?
10. How do the Romanists
number the commandments?
11. What charge is sometimes
brought against the Bible because of these verbal differences and the reply
thereto?
12. What books on the Ten
Commandments commended?
13. What facts in connection
with the giving of the Ten Commandments especially emphasized by Moses?
14. What was Moses' summary
of the Ten Commandments and what Christ's use of it?
15. Kame the points of his
exhortation.
16. How was the importance
of teaching the law emphasized?
17. What exhortation
relating to prosperity?
18. What one relating to
adversity?
19. What charge concerning
the Canaanites, and why?
20. What the bearing of this
Law on self?
21. How does he show the
reasonableness of God's law?
22. What alternative set
before them, and what prophecy concerning blessings and curses here given by
Moses?
SECOND GREAT ORATION, PART 2 Deuteronomy
12-26
This section is on the second part of the second great oration of Moses, as
embodied in chapters 12-26 inclusive, of the book of Deuteronomy. If you have
carefully read all this section, it will be easier for me to emphasize in the
brief limits of this chapter the most salient points and easier for you to
grasp and retain them. By the grouping of correlated matters under specific
heads, the important distinction between many statutes and the constitutional
principle from which they are logically derived will become manifest. A
constitution is a relatively brief document of great principles, but
legislative enactments developing and enlarging them become a library, which
continually enlarges, as new conditions require new statement and application.
Yet again you must note that while one discussion arranges in order many
statutes, it necessarily leaves out much of the homiletical value of each
special statute. Each one of them may be made a text for a profitable sermon.
Indeed these fifteen chapters constitute a gold mine of texts for the attentive
preacher.
First of all, it should be noted that Moses is speaking here to the whole
people as a national unit and concerning the future national life in the
Promised Land which they are about to occupy. He carefully puts before them the
national ideal of a people belonging to Jehovah separated from other nations
and devoted to a special mission. Because addressing the whole people he
recalls the history and law in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers much more
particularly than the special legislation of Leviticus relating mainly to the
official duties of a single tribe.
Secondly, when he touches the tribe of Levi in Deuteronomy, it is as a part of
the nation rather than about their specific duties as priests and Levites. On
this account Deuteronomy is called the people's code and Leviticus the priest's
code. This fact will help us much to understand tithing in Deuteronomy when
compared with tithing in the preceding books. Note carefully this point.
While it is difficult to classify satisfactorily such a multitude of topics and
laws, we may profitably group the whole section under the following heads:
I.
Unity in the Place of National Worship, 12:5
In their pilgrimage history the cloud and the ark, shifting from place to place
according to the exigency of travel, designated day by day the central place of
worship. But the people are here admonished that when they conquer the land and
become a settled people, God himself will designate one fixed locality as the
center of national unity and one permanent place of national worship. In
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and I Samuel, when we get to those books, we shall find
only a temporary central place, and occasionally, more than one at the same
time, the land not yet all conquered, the people not yet all settled, but in
David's time everything prescribed about the central place of worship is
fulfilled, Jerusalem is the place thenceforward throughout their history until
Jesus, that prophet like unto Moses, comes and says to the woman of Samaria,
"Believe me, the hour cometh when neither in this mountain nor in
Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not; we
worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
Spirit and Truth."
To this place, that is, the central place of worship, three times a year must the
tribes come in national assembly to keep the great festivals of the Passover,
Pentecost, and Tabernacles, and as a nation they must observe the great day of
atonement. In this connection observe particularly that the tithing in
Deuteronomy, to which we have before referred, is not the first tithe of the
other books, which was the Lord's inheritance and devoted to the general
support of the great festivals, in which indeed the Levites share as a part of
the people. Hence the Levites' share of this tithe does not correspond to their
title to the whole of the first tithe, and hence the third year's provision in
Deuteronomy for the poor is unlike any provision of the first tithe. If you
have that point fixed in your minds, you are able to answer one of the gravest
objections ever brought against Deuteronomy, that is, that it contradicts, on
the question of tithes, what had been previously said in other books.
The marvelous effect of this one fixed place of national worship, and of these
great festivals, on national unity, on the preservation of a pure worship,
appears in all their subsequent history and becomes the theme of psalm, song,
and elegy. When we get over into the Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah,
we will see backward references to this central place of worship. It is in the
light of this law that we discover the sin in the later migration of the
Danites and their setting up a new place of worship (Judg. 18, particularly
verses 27-31); the sin of Jeroboam (I Kings 12:26-33); the sin of the Samaritans
later, and the sin of a temple in Egypt. That is the first thought, the unity
in national worship. For an account of the Samaritan Temple see Josephus,
"Antiquities," Book XI, chapter 8, and for the Egyptian Temple see
"Antiquities," Book XIII, chapter 3, misinterpreting Isaiah 21:19.
2. Unity in the Object of Worship
The second thought in this oration is unity in the object of worship, the
exclusive worship of Jehovah. Under this head the section prescribes the death
penalty on the following:
(1) The false prophet, who however attested by signs and wonders, shall seek to
divert the people to the worship of some other god.
(2) Any member of a family, however near and dear the tie of kindred, who
sought to induce the rest of the family to turn away from the worship of
Jehovah to worship another god, that member of the family had to die.
(3) Any city that turned aside as a municipality to other worship, that city
must be placed under the ban and blotted out. If you have been much of a
student of classic literature, you must have noticed how each city stresses the
worship of some particular patron divinity, as Minerva at Athens, Diana in the
City of Ephesus and Venus at Corinth. Now, this law teaches that any city, in
its municipal life, turning aside from the worship of Jehovah to worship a
false god for local advantage shall be blotted off the face of the map. The
underlying principle here is of immense importance in our times. Cities are
tempted continually to sacrifice the paramount spiritual and moral interests of
the community in order to promote material interests. So in their annual fairs
which bring local advantage in commercial affairs, they lose sight of God and
handicap what is commendable in these enterprises by overloading them with poisonous
and corrupting attachments, and count any man an enemy to his home place,
however much he may approve the good, if he protest against the bad. See the
striking examples and illustrations in the cases at Philippi and Ephesus (Acts
16:19).
(4) To show more emphatically that Jehovah alone is God and must be worshiped,
the death penalty was assessed on any necromancer, soothsayer or wizard who
sought by illicit ways to understand and interpret the future. To Jehovah alone
must the people come to know secret things. What he chose to reveal was for
them and their children. What he withheld must remain hidden. All prurient
curiosity into Jehovah's domain of revelation must be rebuked; all seeking unto
the dead, all fortunetelling and divinations were mortal sins and punishable by
death in every case.
(5) All persons guilty of crimes against nature; the nature of the subject
forbids me to specify. They were such outrageous violations of the dignity of
man made in God's image, and indicated such disregard for Jehovah that capital
punishment alone would meet the requirements of the case.
(6) Every breaker of the covenant must be put to death. If any had knowledge
that another had violated the covenant, it became his duty to investigate the
case and bring the attention of the magistrates to it. There is a reference to
that in the letter to the Hebrews, where it is said, "He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer
punishment, think ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot
the Son of God [offense against the Father], and hath counted the blood of the
everlasting covenant an unholy thing [sin against the Son], and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of Grace [sin against the Holy Spirit, and an
unpardonable sin]?" (Heb. 10:28-29).
(7) To impress still more this thought of the exclusive worship of Jehovah:
There must be no borrowing from other religions in bewailing the dead;
Jehovah's law alone was the one exclusive standard. The custom of cutting
themselves, and disfiguring themselves in the days of their mourning as
practiced in other religions, finds here a positive prohibition. I stop to say,
Oh, what a pity that so soon after apostolic times, in the great apostasy which
Paul predicted and which took place in the Roman Catholic development, there
was borrowing old robes of every religion in the world.
3. All Administrations of Law Subject to
Jehovah
Whether ceremonial law, moral or civil and criminal law, all administration of law
was subject to Jehovah. The government was a theocracy pure and simple, no
matter whether it remained a republic or became a kingdom, as it did in the
days of Saul, it was a theocracy, God was the only real King and governed all
officers himself, whether executive, judicial, or religious.
(1) They were representatives of Jehovah and must first of all consider his
honor, justice, and mercy. This fact determined the prescribed character and
qualifications of every prince, ruler, elder, judge, sheriff and scribe. These
officers must be God-fearing men, hating covetousness, impartial and fearing
not the face of any man.
(2) They must in judging hear all evidence fairly.
(3) They must not convict except upon adequate testimony.
(4) It took two good witnesses to prove any point.
(5) They must justify the innocent and condemn the guilty without any regard
for age, sex, social position, or financial position. Even and exact justice
must be administered to all.
(6) Decision when given must be enforced speedily.
(7) If the case was too hard for them, they must appeal to Jehovah and no other
for light. A provision was made by which Jehovah would give the right answer in
every such case of appeal. What a pity we have not that kind of a supreme
court!
(8) The conduct of all their wars must be under the laws prescribed by Jehovah.
War must not be declared against any nation except upon his direction. Their
later history furnishes many examples of referring the declaration of war to
Jehovah, and it furnishes many examples of disaster befalling them when they
went to war in their own wisdom and strength. The regulations touching war
covered all material points, such as sanitary measures in camp, treatment of
prisoners, conducting sieges, and sparing fruit trees when besieging a city.
The boasted progress of modern civilization falls far short of the Mosaic code
in ameliorating the sufferings and horrors of war. A great Federal general of
the War Between the States well said, in view of his own practice in conducting
it, "War is hell!"
(9) On account of this subordination to Jehovah, note the remarkable paragraph
21:1-9, touching civic responsibility in a case of murder where the offender is
unknown. In my prohibition speech in the last prohibition contest in Waco, I
used that paragraph as a principle upon which prohibition is based. If you will
look at the passage in your Bible and mark it, you will notice that the case is
this: A man is found murdered and it is not known who killed him; the nearest
city thereto is determined by measurement and must purge itself of
responsibility for the crime. The municipal officers in that city must come in
the presence of that dead body, hold up their hands before God and swear that
they are innocent of the blood.
In my speech I recalled the case of the County Attorney of Tarrant County who
was shot down on the streets of Fort Worth, his murderer also being killed;
nobody could be held directly responsible for the murder. I said, "Suppose
the mayor, the city council, and all the other city officers had been required
to place their hands on that dead body and swear that no negligence on their
part was resposnible for that murder. They could not have taken the oath. Every
one would have been convicted, because they were responsible for the conditions
that not only made that particular murder possible, but made murder in some
cases certain."
(10) The numerous statutes concerning charities, mercy, and humanity constrain
the people to imitate Jehovah himself in dealing with the poor and with the
unfortunate. Indeed some of the most beautiful and pathetic of these laws
relating to treatment of the lower creatures embody principles capable of
application in a wider range of higher things. They reprobate all cruelty and
the infliction of all unnecessary suffering as hateful to Jehovah, for example:
"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn"; and
"Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk."
Once in Waco a young man whom I had known when he was a little fellow came to
me bringing a letter purporting to be from his father, commending this young
man to me and asking me to help him in any way I could. When he next came and
asked me to endorse a paper for thirty dollars, I endorsed it. When it matured,
I had to pay it. I wrote to the father about it and he replied that his son had
forged that letter, and that is was only one case out of many. That son had
broken him up. The boy was arrested on a similar case at Corsicana and sent to
the penitentiary. When it was suggested that I testify against him, I would
not, because of this scripture, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his
mother's milk." The only way I could help to convict that boy would be to
submit his father's testimony to prove that he was a forger.
(11) In like manner all laws regulating business, such as weights and measures.
Once I called upon a man whose name I will not give, and asked him why, when he
bought goods, he weighed on one scale and when he sold goods he sold by
another. He said. "They are all right." I said, "No, sir, you
have loaded the one you sell by and whoever buys from you does not get full
weight." All laws touching business, such as weights and measures, the
restraints on exacting pledges for debt, the withholding of wages for day laborers
which they have fairly earned, the limitations on usury and the like are but
expressions of divine mercy and justice and tended to build up an honest and
righteous people, not forgetful of mercy.
(12) The social laws concerning marriage, slavery, parental power over
children, while far from the highest expression of God's will, do yet in every
particular prohibit many current evils freely practiced in other nations. Our
Lord himself explains that on account of their hardness of heart and low order
of development imperfect laws were suffered. "The people but recently were
a nation of slaves, with much more of the slave spirit remaining. It cannot be
denied that even the civil and criminal codes on these points were far superior
to the codes of other nations. The sanctity of human life, the sanctity of the
home, and the sanctity of the family are marvelously safeguarded in these laws.
And wherever this code touched an evil custom, it never approved the evil but
limited the power and scope of the evil, as far as the unprepared people were
able to bear it.
(13) Restrictions on entering the covenant, 23:1-7, constitute a paragraph very
few people understand. This applied to proselytes from other nations. The body
politic must not be corrupted by alien additions that could not be easily
assimilated. On that line our own nation is gravely troubled by loose
naturalization laws that permit the scum and offscourings of other nations to
be absorbed into our national life and so fearfully endanger the perpetuity of
free institutions and make our great cities cesspools of iniquity. An orator
once prayed, "0 that an ocean of fire rolled between us and Europe!"
The Pacific Slope seems also praying ,"0 that an ocean of fire rolled
between us and the Orient!"
(14) The governing Jehovah idea appears in an emphatic way in the paragraph
24:1-11, where by an offering of a basket of firstfruits the Israelite must
confess Jehovah's absolute ownership over his products and his own unworthy
derivation. The oration concludes with his general result: "Thou hast
avouched Jehovah this day to be thy God, and that thou wouldest walk in his
ways and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and
hearken unto his voice: and Jehovah hath avouched thee this day to be a people
for his own possession, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep
all his commandments, etc."
QUESTIONS
1. What the importance of
grouping correlated matters under specific needs and what is a constitution?
2. What the homiletic value
of these fifteen chapters?
3. What two things
especially noted concerning the second part of Oration Two?
4. Under what three heads
does the author group all the material of these fifteen chapters?
5. Under the first head,
when was the central place of worship to be established; when, where and by
whom actually established; how long continued?
6. How often and at what
festivals must the nation assemble at this central place of worship?
7. What bearing has this
fact on the tithing question of Deuteronomy?
8. What the marvelous
effects of this one fixed place of national worship?
9. Give examples of the
violation of this law, and what their particular sin?
10. Under the second head,
what cases of violation called for capital punishment?
11. What underlying
principle governing the cities is of great importance in our times? Illustrate.
12. What reference to the
covenant breaker in the New Testament, and what the threefold sin therein
described?
13. Which of these prohibitions
are Romanists most guilty of violating?
14. Under the third head (1)
What must be the qualifications of all officers? (2) What their several duties?
(3) If the case was too hard for them what were they to do? What the provision
for Jehovah's answer? (4) What prescriptions concerning war? (5) How determine
civic responsibility in the case of murder where the murderer was unknown?
Present day application and illustrate. (6) What laws relating to the poor and
to lower animals? (7) What laws regulating business? (8) What social laws? (9)
What the restrictions on entering the covenant and the present day application?
(10) How does the governing Jehovah idea appear emphatically
15. How does the oration
conclude?
THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH ORATIONS
Deuteronomy 27:1 to 31:13
It is customary to classify the words of Moses in Deuteronomy into three
orations, a song and a benediction, but this classification is not exact. His
third address is contained in chapters 27-28. A fourth distinct address with
its introduction is contained in chapters 29-30. A fifth address distinct in
introduction and matter is to be found in chapter 31, covering only thirteen
verses. So that there are at least five distinct addresses, besides the song
and benediction, each with an appropriate historical introduction. We consider
in this discussion the third, fourth, and fifth addresses.
THE THIRD
ORATION
This oration first provided for a most elaborate and impressive renewal and
ratification of the covenant when Israel shall have entered the Promised Land,
and closes with a most earnest exhortation to obedience, including a notable
and far reaching prophecy of the curses that will certainly follow
disobedience. The parts of this third oration are very distinct:
(1) Associating with him the elders of Israel, he directs that on entrance into
the Land of Promise, plastered monumental stones shall be erected on Mount Ebal
and thereon plainly inscribed all the laws of the covenant, as a perpetual
memorial and witness of their possession of the land by Jehovah's power and
grace, conditioned upon their observance of the terms of the covenant. What a
lasting library of stone! What a witness to the grounds of their tenure of the
land!
(2) The erection of an altar after the model given in the original covenant at
Sinai (Ex. 20:24-26) and the sacrifice thereon of burnt offerings as originally
provided, thus renewing the ratification of the covenant.
(3) The sacrifice of peace offerings followed by a Joyful communion feast
showing forth peace with Jehovah (arising from the blood of the covenant) and
their enjoyment of him.
(4) Then associating himself with the priests and Levites, he provides for the
solemn announcement that they are Jehovah's people and must obey him.
(5) He then charges the whole people that on this great day they must take
their places in two great divisions, six tribes on Gerizirn and six on Ebal,
prepared to repeat after the Levites the responsive blessings and curses of the
law.
He directs that on this great day the Levites shall stand in the valley between
the two mountains and solemnly pronounce alternatively twelve blessings and
twelve curses, the first eleven of each special statutes as specimens of the
whole, and the twelfth of each touching the whole law as a unit. That as each
course on disobedience is pronounced by the Levites, the six tribes on Ebal
shall repeat it, and as the alternate blessing on obedience is pronounced, the
other six tribes on Gerizirn shall repeat it, and when the twelfth blessing and
curse touching the whole covenant are repeated, then all the tribes on both
mountains in one loud, blended chorus shall say, "Amen." We shall
find in Joshua all these directions becoming history. The history of the world
furnishes no parallel in solemnity and sublimity to this great transaction in
conception here, and in fulfilment later.
Chapter 28 is devoted to exhortation based upon these directions and
prophecies. It is difficult to summarize this awful exhortation, but we may
profitably emphasize the following points of the exhortation:
(1) If you keep this covenant you shall be blessed in national position and
with God. Jehovah shall be your God and ye shall be the head and not the tail;
shall be above and not below. Jehovah shall smite all your enemies. Coming
against you in one way, they shall flee in seven ways. All other nations shall
see that you are called by Jehovah's name and shall be afraid. Jehovah will establish
you as a holy people unto himself.
If ye keep this covenant ye shall be blessed in all places: in the city, in the
field, in the home, in the barn, and in the kitchen.
Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, in vineyards,
in the seasons, and in business (lending to others but not borrowing), in
health, in your outgoings and incomings, and especially in peace of mind and
joy of heart.
(2) But if you disobey this covenant and break it, all these groups of
blessings shall be reversed into their opposites: Ye shall lose your exalted
position among the nations, and with God. Ye shall be outcasts from God; ye
shall be the tail of all nations and not the head. Ye shall be beaten in wars;
ye shall flee in all battles; ye shall be dispersed seven ways where you went
out one. Now you see this curse is national, just like the corresponding
blessing was national. Ye shall be cursed in all places: in the city, in the
home, in the field, in the barn, in the kitchen, and in all lands of
dispersion.
Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, vineyards,
wars, outgoings, incomings, and especially shall ye be cursed in your mind and
heart. Ye shall have neither peace of mind nor joy of heart. Here is the curse
of mind and heart; it is as awful a thing as I ever read in my life:
And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest
for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart,
and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt
before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of
thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even I And at even thou
shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt
fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see" (Deut.
28:65-67). Note particularly the awful picture of their disaster when besieged
by enemies, as set forth in verses 49-57, so literally fulfilled when Jerusalem
was taken by Titus in A.D. 70, and so fearfully depicted by Josephus. The
prophecy closes with a reversal of their deliverance from Egypt since as
captives they again shall be transported back in ships to become once more a
nation of slaves in Egypt. This going into Egyptian bondage we shall find
verified in the closing days of Jeremiah. His book of Lamentations furnishes
the commentary on a part of this fearful prophecy. Poor man! he himself was
carried there, and died there at the downfall of the Jewish monarchy.
FOURTH ORATION
The fourth address is contained in chapters 29-30, according to our chapter
divisions. The occasion of this address as set forth in the introductory verse
is a special present renewing of the Sinaitic covenant by oath, but it is not
followed by ratification by sacrifices. The address recites again their
miraculous deliverance from Egypt by Jehovah with signs and wonders, his
merciful providence in miraculously supplying all their needs throughout their
wanderings even though they had not eyes to see nor heart to appreciate. These
blessings were light by night and shade by day, guidance in travel, water from
the rock, bread from heaven, clothing and shoes that did not wax old or wear
out, oracles for perplexities, forgiveness of sin through faith in the antitype
of sacrifices, healing when poisoned, health so miraculous that there was not a
feeble one in all the host, deliverance in battle. And now after reciting the
Egyptian deliverance and the providential miracles while wandering, he tells them
that they all stand before Jehovah to renew the oath of the covenant.
Particularly note how comprehensive the statement of the human parties to the
covenant:
"Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your
tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little
ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the
hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou mayest enter into the
covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh
with thee this day; that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a
people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he
sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you
only do I make this covenant and this oath, etc."
Elders, tribes, officers, men, women, children, sojourners, and slaves and
their children to the latest posterity, and as a national unit, and all
touching every individual are bound by this covenant. Now later after that
statement of the case he commences his exhortation:
(1) He warns against the arising of any root or germ of bitterness (v. 18). How
radical the law! It does not wait to condemn the stem, or branches, or flowers,
or fruit, but strikes at the root hidden from sight. So our Saviour interprets
the law condemning the heart fountain from which flow all the streams of
blasphemy, murder, adultery, and other overt actions. And so the wise man:
"Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of
life." And so the letter to the Hebrews quotes this very passage (12:15)
warning them "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and
thereby the many be defiled."
(2) The second point in his exhortation is that he warns them against the vain
confidence of security, even though the law be broken. He describes a man or a
woman in confidence saying to the heart: "I am all right if I did break
the law," that vain confidence of feeling secure with the law broken, and
then he goes on to show that nothing under the heavens is so certain as that
Jehovah saw that breach of the covenant and will punish it.
(3) He foretells that other nations in future days, seeing the awful desolation
of their once beautiful land, shall count it a land accursed of God on account
of the sins of Israel. That is just exactly what you would say if you were to
go there and look at the country. You would be astonished that such a land was
ever described as flowing with milk and honey; you would not be able to
understand how such a land ever was so beautiful and fruitful as described. You
would see it under a curse.
(4) He warns them that while some things are hidden, inscrutable, the property
of God, the revealed things touching both blessing and curse belong to them and
to their children. Whatever God reveals, that is worthy of study; whatever he
hides, let it alone.
(5) Then he graciously unfolds this special mercy of God, that if when smitten
and scattered and oppressed by all other nations they will in far-off lands of
exile and dispersion repent and turn to God, he will forgive and restore them.
It was this promise of restoration that prompted the notable paragraph in
Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple (I Kings 8:33-40), and encouraged
the later prophets, like Zechariah, Ezekiel and Daniel in days of exile, and
still later the Apostles, like Paul in his discussion, Romans II, concerning
the restoration of the Jews.
(6) He then assures them that obedience to this law is neither too hard nor too
far off, but very nigh to them. Alas, it was both too far off and too hard to
be obeyed by unrenewed and unbelieving hearts without faith in Christ. It
remained for Paul, a later Jew, and the only other man in all show how by faith
alone this salvation was both nigh and easy. (See Rom. 10.)
He closes with a most touching invocation to both heaven and earth to bear
witness that he that very day set before them these awful, inexorable
alternatives: Life and good go together; death and evil are indissoluble.
FIFTH
ORATION
This, the last and shortest address, is contained in 31:1-13. The first part,
verses 1-8, touchingly refers to his age, "I am now one hundred and twenty
years old," and to the vacation of his office. The great leader can no
more go out and come in before them. But they need neither despair nor fear on
that account. God's cause does not die with its great advocates. Moses indeed
will be gone, but Jehovah himself will remain their guide and protector. And
even a human successor, Joshua, has already been trained to be their captain.
The second part of this last oration directs that every seventh year, the year
of release, the great Land Sabbath, a sabbath a year long, the whole people
must be assembled, men, women and children, and that very year in which they
have to do no work because the land lies idle, is to be devoted to studying and
understanding the entire Pentateuch. I am sometimes blamed for devoting so much
time to the Pentateuch. Here is my warrant. The year of the Land Sabbath was to
be so devoted. It calls for a year. Happy the man who can master it in one
year. What a Sunday school is here, men, women and children devoting a year to
the study of the Law! Let us here find the original Sunday school idea; that it
is not a school for only little children. The Sunday school idea is that men,
women, and children shall come together and hear and be made to understand that
Word of God. For example of fulfilment, see the remarkable history in Nehemiah
8:1-8. Illustrations may be given of the tremendous power of even a month's
concentration of mind on one study, viz.: the case of a thirty days' school in
geography, arithmetic, writing or mathematics. I would suggest the trial of one
summer month devoted to the Pentateuch, the Gospels, Paul's Letters,
Eschatology, the Prophets) the Poetical Books, or the Monarchy.
QUESTIONS
1. What chapters contain the
third oration and of what does it consist?
2. Itemize the provisions
for a renewal of the covenant after entrance into the Promised Land.
3. Of what does the
twenty-eighth chapter consist?
4. Give a summary of the
exhortation based on the required renewal of the covenant.
5. What the blessings
promised for obedience?
6. What the curses
threatened for disobedience?
7. What chapters contain the
fourth oration?
8. What its occasion?
9. In what does it consist?
10. Wherein does this
retaking of the oath of the covenant in Oration Four, before they cross the
Jordan, differ from the full renewal of the covenant required after they cross
the Jordan, aa set forth in Oration Three?
11. What blessings recited
here?
12. Who were the human
parties to the covenant?
13. Give a summary of the
exhortation of the Fourth Oration.
14. How does he close this
oration?
15. Where do we find the
Fifth Oration?
16. In what does it consist?
17. Did they ever, apart
from the one case cited in Nehemiah, attempt even to keep any part of this Land
Sabbath, or its culmination, the Year of Jubilee?
18. What exact and awful
judgment in their later history became the penalty for disregarding the seventh
year, or Land Sabbath, and its accompanying year-study of the Law?
19. Cite the scriptures that
prove the enforcement of the penalty for not keeping it.
THE SONG, PRAYER, AND BENEDICTION OF MOSES Deuteronomy 31:14 to 33:29; Psalm 90
This section has its scope from chapter 31:14 to 33:29, and in connection with
it we study the ninetieth Psalm. The theme of this section is the Song of
Moses, Prayer of Moses, and Benediction of Moses.
The introduction gives the origin, reason and purpose of the song. The origin
is God; God commanded it and God inspired it. The reason is that he foresaw the
apostasy of Israel. The purpose was that the song should be a witness.
The poetic and prophetic form of this inspired piece of writing was well
adapted to secure the object that God had in view. The songs of the people were
memorized by the people. I suppose that every Israelite child learned that song
by heart, so that from the lips of any child in the nation there could be a
recitation that would witness against the people if they did apostasize from Jehovah.
It is not my purpose to discuss here the prayer of Moses, but merely tell you
that Psalm 90, ascribed to Moses and rightly so, was composed about this time.
It contrasts the eternity of Jehovah with the transitory life of man, and it accounts
for the transitory life of man by his sin. Sin made his life short. The Psalm
concludes with a prayer that God would so teach us the number of the few days
here so as to apply our hearts unto wisdom, and that he would establish the
work of our hands upon us. It is a masterly production. The benediction is also
poetic and prophetic. It softens the hard parts of the song. It is more hopeful
but does not reach 80 far into the future.
Before concluding these introductory remarks, it is necessary to compare the
song, the ninetieth Psalm and the benediction with a previous song of Moses
which you will find in the book of Exodus, and which we considered when we went
over that book, and with the book of Job, which this author ascribes to Moses.
The Exodus song Moses wrote to commemorate the deliverance of the children of
Israel from Pharaoh and Pharaoh's destruction in the Red Sea. In Revelation 15
we have this reference to this first song of Moses: "And I saw as it were
a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that come off victorious from the
beast, and from his image, and from the number of his name, standing by the sea
of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of
God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, 0
Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the
ages."
The sea of glass mingled with fire was the Red Sea in a type. The Red Sea
divided, standing up in frozen walls, Israel passed through that grave like canyon,
and the pillar of fire being the lid of it, the light of the pillar of fire
shone on the icy walls and was reflected back and forth, so that it looked like
a sea of glass mingled with fire. They were baptized in that sea and that
cloud, and escaping in that way Moses writes the song of deliverance. Now, in
the book of Revelation John uses that passage through those icy walls mingled
with fire and the song that commemorated it to typify the deliverance of the
saints in resisting the oppressions by an apostate church. So we have this
clear assurance that Moses is the author of a song that will be sung in heaven.
It is a great thing to be the author of the ballads of a nation here on earth;
it is a greater thing to be the author of songs that we shall sing in the land
of everlasting deliverance. Now, these matchless hymns all show clearly a
common author; the Exodus song of deliverance, the song that we are now about
to study, the ninetieth Psalm composed about the same time, and the
benediction. These poetic and prophetic hymns of Moses are not to be surpassed
in the poetry of the world. He was great in prose, he was great in history, he
was as great as any man upon whom the afflatus rested as a writer of poetry.
The next thing in our introduction is that Moses is described as having
finished the Pentateuch, including the song, and filing the book with the
priests, and having it placed inside the ark of the covenant, so that
throughout their future it should be a witness. When we come to study 2 Kings we
learn that the finding of the lost Pentateuch in the days of Josiah and the
reading of it brought about a great reformation among the people of Judah.
After that monarchy fell, after Judah went into captivity, and on their return
from captivity, through the decrees of the Persian king in the days of Ezra and
Nehemiah, the same Pentateuch, a copy of which Ezra brought back with him, is
read in the hearing of all the people, causing them to reestablish the
commonwealth of Israel. A song is not so susceptible of analysis as a logical
argument, hence all attempts at an analytical summary of this song fail to
satisfy, but I am sure that we can agree on these things:
The song commences with invoking heaven and earth as auditors. All heaven might
well listen, all earth might well listen, should listen to this song, so sweet
that it might be compared to the falling rain in the time of a drought, or the
distilling dew upon the parched ground. The theme of the song is evident:
Jehovah's fidelity and Israel's infidelity. It not only commences with a
statement of that fact, but it goes on to develop in the thought just what
Jehovah did to prove that he was faithful and just what Israel did to prove
that he was unfaithful.
There are two illustrations in that song that need to be studied by a public
speaker. Nine times in the song Jehovah is compared to a rock, indicating
stability, his being the place of refuge. Then the eagle upon the mountaintop,
wishing to brain her young, will scatter the sticks of her nest and push the
young birds over the precipice, and they shrieking seem about to fall to
destruction, but she swoops down under them and carries them on her wings and
soars away; then she gets far under them and lets them fall again. After a
while they learn to fly and are very proud of themselves. This illustration is
to show how Jehovah has borne this ever falling people on his wings. Both of
these illustrations are very beautiful. This song sets forth the character of
Jehovah in his sovereignty, in his holiness, in his justice, in his fidelity,
and in his mercy. The song also sets forth the character of the people as
foolish, perverse, ungrateful, wicked, and rebellious. The song then submits
evidence to prove these affirmations of distinction between the character of
Jehovah and the character of his people. It tells us what Jehovah did and what
they did. Jehovah, when he divided the nations, away back yonder soon after the
days of Noah, as we learned when we passed over Genesis, at the time when he
divided the nations of the earth, he allotted Palestine, which we call the Holy
Land, to his foreseen people. He intended at that time that they should have
this territory. They were not yet in existence except in their ancestors, and
their direct ancestor, Abraham, had not yet been born, but even then God, who
owned all the land, selected that strategic, eastern shore of the Mediterranean
Sea connecting Mesopotamia and its great cities, Babylon and Nineveh, with
Egypt. It was a passageway between nations north and south as well as of
commerce and caravans east and west. It was the best place in the world to
plant a people that should become the religious teacher of all nations.
The song tells how he found them, referring to their history in Exodus, Numbers
and Deuteronomy; they were a desolate people in the howling wilderness, utterly
helpless, and as an eagle bears up her young, he bore them up and brought them
safely to the point where this song is now being sung. Then he made that nation
his inheritance, Jacob being God's portion. He selected a particular line from
Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve sons all the way
down, and he said, "These people shall be my lot, my inheritance, and I
will use them in carrying out my purposes for the salvation of the world."
He regarded this nation as the very apple of his eye. He was just as sensitive
with reference to them as the eye is sensitive to an unfriendly touch. Finally,
this song, which is prophetic and regards the future as if it were present, states
that he put them in possession of the land and blessed them beyond the power of
words to express. Now, the song tells us what they did:
"When Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked." A very expressive proverb. You
may see a poor, gaunt hack horse that you may safely approach and lead by the
mane, without a bridle. But when you feed him and care for him, and curry him,
and he becomes sleek, the first thing that you know he kicks. The bounding life
within him abhors restraint. This illustration shows what the people did. Their
prosperity under good treatment becomes the occasion of their revolt. They
sacrificed to idols, things that were nothing, and they sacrificed to demons
who were the authors of this idolatry. Now, having contrasted what he did with
what they did, the song, still looking far ahead into the future, tells what he
will do; inasmuch as they have provoked him to jealousy by selecting a people
that have hitherto been no people. In other words, here is a plain intimation
of the things fulfilled in the New Testament days, viz.: The kingdom of heaven
is taken away from the Jews and given to a people that will bring forth fruits
of righteousness.
The song tells us that he will make expiation for the land, foretelling the
time when the Antitype of their sacrifices in the person of the true Lamb of
God shall make the great expiation for sin. The song tells further that they,
on account of their sin, referring, of course, to their sin against this
expiation, will be dispersed among all nations and there have an awful time for
an awful length of time.
Having thus shown what he would do, he now discloses through the song what his
mercy will be in the last day; that there is coming a time when he will look
with pity upon this poor downtrodden, oppressed people, and have compassion and
pour out upon them the grace of supplication, and when in their penitence they
look to him whom they have pierced, he will forgive them.
The last great thought of the song is similar to the thought of Paul in Romans
II, viz.: that if the casting off of the children of Israel be life to the
Gentile world, what shall their restoration be but life from the dead? If their
downfall brought Joy to other nations, how much more shall their restoration
bring joy to other nations? And so this song calls upon all people to rejoice
when his people are forgiven and restored. Benediction, Deuteronomy 33. Here
you must compare our text with Genesis 49 and also Revelation 7. In Genesis 49,
Jacob, the old dying patriarch, summoned his children before him and pronounced
a benediction upon each of them. And in Revelation 7 there is an account of the
144,000 redeemed by the power of the gospel out of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now, when we look at these lists as given in Genesis 49, Deuteronomy 33 and Revelation
7, we find that the order in which the names come is not the same in any two
accounts. In Genesis, Jacob blesses them in this order: Reuben, Simeon, Levi,
Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph and Benjamin. Moses
blesses them in this order: Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Zebulun,
Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali and Asher. He leaves out Simeon. In Revelation the
order is this: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi,
Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph (which is Ephraim) and Benjamin, leaving out Dan.
Why does Moses leave out Simeon? You will remember that in submitting to the
seductive counsels of Balaam, Zimri of the tribe of Simeon committed the
presumptuous sin punished by Phinehas. It may be that all of the 24,000 people
that perished in that plague were of the tribe of Simeon, which in turn may
account for the fact that this tribe, according to the first census numbering
59,300, is found by the second census, immediately following, to be only
22,000. Now, I say that the sin of Zimri may have prompted Moses to leave out
Simeon.
But I will give you a reason much more probable. In the allotment of the tribes
Simeon got no special territory, and as Moses is thinking of the tribes as they
occupy the land, we can see how he might leave out Simeon, since Simeon's
territory is included in Judah's. When we come to Revelation, it is hard to
tell why Dan is left out. It may be because that after going over to the
Promised Land Dan left his territory by a migration which you will discover in
Judges, went outside of the Promised Land and captured a home and there set up
an alien worship. It may be that on this account he is left out. I do not
dogmatize on that. Jewish Christians say that Dan was left out because of the
character of the tribe as described by Jacob: "A serpent in the way, an
adder in the path." When we were going over Genesis, I called your
attention to that awful secret band among the Mormons called the
"Danites," based upon the prophetic character of Dan in Genesis, and
the song of Joaquin Miller, which utterly wiped them off the face of the earth.
The next thought arising from a comparison of these lists is that some who in
Jacob's blessing had a dark prospect ahead of them found a brighter prospect in
the case of their descendants in Moses' time. For instance, read what is said
about Reuben in Genesis 49 and immediately following with what Moses predicts
concerning him. Reuben's prospects brighten in the Mosaic account, and so with
some other. Levi, in the prophecy of his father Jacob, in Genesis 49, has a
dark prospect before him, but in the Mosaic blessing his prospects are
intensely brightened. In this case the children are doing better than the
fathers.
Without going over it all, it is my suggestion that the reader take Genesis 49
and Deuteronomy 33 and compare tribe by tribe, and see what. the variations are
in this lapse of time. The lesson to be learned from this is that a family
through its head may start out bad and give taint to all the descendants of
that man, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third
and fourth generations, but after a while some of the children will establish
themselves in righteousness and bring honor to that name. And likewise a family
may start out with a distinguished head and for quite a long time the
descendants of this man will share in his fame and glory, but if they do
nothing themselves to keep up his reputation, then they become more exposed in
their worthlessness by the very fact that they had an illustrious sire.
I can illustrate: There was once a canvass going on in McLennan County for
County Attorney, one of the candidates was accustomed in opening his speeches
to refer to his progenitors; that as far back as records went they were
illustrious people. The opposing candidate got up and said: "Fellow
citizens, I know but little about my progenitors. If they were good men they
ought to have held office in their time, but on account of their goodness I
should not hold office now; so, replying to all that my very well-descended
opponent has said in favor of his candidacy, I will just make this remark: I
would rather be a horse without a pedigree than a pedigree without a
horse." He was elected.
QUESTIONS
1. What the literary form of
the sixth and seventh addresses of does the introduction to the sixth address
contain?
2. What does the
introduction to the sixth address contain?
3. What the origin, reason
and purpose of this song?
4. Why was the poetic and prophetic
form of this address well adapted to secure its object?
5. What the subject of Psalm
90, how does it account for the transitory life of man and whose exposition of
it was commended?
6. What the form of the
benediction, and how does it compare with certain parts of the song?
7. With what preceding song
of Moses should the sixth address be compared?
8. What other book besides
the Pentateuch does the author ascribe to Moses and what the similarity of the
problem in this book with the problem of his own people when he wrote it?
9. Expound the allusion to
this preceding song in Revelation 15:2-4.
10. What can you say of
Moses as a poet?
11. How was the Pentateuch,
when finished, preserved and when do we hear of it again?
12. Give an analysis of this
song as follows: (1) The invocation. (2) The theme. (3) The illustrations. (4)
The characters set forth. (5) The strategic position of God'8 people. (6) God's
care for his people. (7) The prophecies.
13. With what other scripture
must the benediction be compared? the prophecies concerning the names?
14. In comparing the tribe
lists in these three scriptures, what variations do you find as to the order of
names, omission of names and the prophecies concerning the names?
15. What lessons on heredity
and individuality may be learned from the fact that in the Mosaic benediction
when compared with the benediction of Jacob, the prospect brightens for some
tribes and darkens for others? What illustration given by the author?
16. Why did Moses leave out
Simeon, and Revelation omit Dan?
THE CHARACTER AND GREATNESS OF MOSES
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Deuteronomy 34 consists of the following parts:
1. The vision of the Promised Land accorded to Moses from the summit of Pisgah;
his eyes enabled him to see all the land that God originally promised to
Abraham.
2. The unique death and burial of Moses. No other man in human history died
this way or was buried this way. He was not sick, though one hundred and twenty
years old, his eye not dim, his strength unabated. He died not from any natural
causes. In Geikie's Hours with the Bible there are several very touching
legends, mythical of course, concerning the death of Aaron and Moses, and the
one concerning Moses is that after he was stretched out on the place where God
told him to lie down, Jehovah called to the soul to come out of the body, but
the soul would not come. He spake to the soul again, but the soul would not
leave the body. Then God leaned over and kissed him and the soul went up to
heaven on the wings of that kiss. It was God who buried him, and no man was
ever able to find the place, the reason of which is obvious, viz.: the
Israelites would have deified the sepulchre of Moses; would have made
pilgrimages to it and made it a shrine of worship. The New Testament gives us
an additional particular concerning the body of Moses, that you do not find anywhere
in the Old Testament, concerning a contest over that body between the Devil and
Michael. The interpretation of that remarkable New Testament passage we must
reserve until we come to study the book in which it is given.
The next thing set forth in this chapter is the
mourning for thirty days, then after a reference to Joshua comes this encomium
which is our text: "There hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like
unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which
Jehovah sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his
servants, and to all his land, and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great
terror, which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel." That places Moses
in a unique position. Special stress is laid upon his miracle-working power. In
fact, in teaching the Bible I do not so much discuss miracles when I come to
them in the life of Christ as I discuss them in the life of Moses. The miracles
by Moses constitute the first great group and are surpassed in wonder by no
miracles ever wrought on the face of the earth by anybody, Christ and the
apostles not excepted. In studying the Bible this is the place to study
miracles as they are set forth in the life of Moses.
Now from the text, "There hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like
unto Moses," I want to discuss his character and his greatness. In our
studies in Exodus we considered the materials for the life of Moses; biblical,
Jewish, Mohammedan, heathen, modern, archaeological, and legendary.
We found the biblical material gathered mainly from the Pentateuch, but
somewhat from the other Old Testament books, and somewhat from the New
Testament references, to be really the only reliable historical material,
except that the results of modern archaeological research, fairly interpreted,
confirm the Mosaic history. This is one of the most important contributions of
archaeology. For quite a while it was claimed that the Mosaic period was a
period of ignorance, that the people could neither read nor write, but what a
revelation archaeology has flashed upon that false contention, showing that it
was an intensely literary period, and demonstrating that Moses made no such
mistakes as the higher critics a long time ago were accustomed to attribute to
him. So that with this amount of material it is not difficult to construct a
connected history of this, the greatest man from Adam to the New Testament
time. No other man in all that vast period of time has left such an impress on
the human race. The most illustrious heroes of antiquity in profane stories
are, when compared to Moses, as the stars in the solar system to the sun.
He was the youngest child of Arnram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi. His
sister Miriam and his brother Aaron became illustrious through association with
him. He was born during the period of Egyptian bondage during the oppression of
the Israelites under the dynasty that "knew not Joseph." We find a
gracious providence protecting his infancy, and your attention in studying
Exodus was called to the following elements of preparation, which account for
his greatness. I have been compelled on suitable occasions to remark that only
prepared men ever accomplished great things. The elements of his preparation
were as follows:
1. The faith of his parents trained his early years so effectually that he
never in the marvellous vicissitudes of after life forgot that he was a child
of Abraham and bore on his body the mark of the covenant which isolated him
from all other nations.
2. His training in the Egyptian court. This is a very great element of his
preparation for his life work, for according to Stephen he became learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and deeds. So far,
therefore, as this court training and opportunity could afford, he was an
expert in literature, war, agriculture, legislation, jurisprudence, medicine,
organization, and comparative religions.
3. The third element of his preparation consisted of the crisis that came in
his life when forty years old, through a revelation that was made to him by
Jehovah that he was destined to deliver his people from bondage. The fact of
such a revelation is evident form Stephen's speech in Acts 7:23-25. The
entrance into his heart of a desire to visit his brethren and to defend them
from oppression, and the supposition on his part that they would know that God
by his hand was giving deliverance to Israel, all abundantly show that God had
appeared unto him and commissioned him. It was this revelation that necessitated
the great life decision recorded in Hebrews 11:24-26: "By faith Moses,
when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked unto the recompense of
reward." But as faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,
there must have been a revelation to him which, coupled with his training in
the promises and prophecies vouchsafed to his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, impelled him to the decisive step which he took. Revelation touching
both time and eternity is the basis of his faith. He made no mistake in his
call to be a deliverer, nor in the choice following the call. But he did make a
mistake in not leaving it to God to determine the time of the deliverance and
its method for accomplishment. When he was forty years old, he presumptuously
and rashly "butted in," as one might say, Pharaoh not ready, not
sufficiently prepared, his people not ready and Canaan not ready to be
occupied. In rashness and presumption he struck too soon. So we find the next
element of his preparation:
4. Forty years of retirement and meditation in Midian. Forty years more of
preparation were needed all around. The meekness and patience of subsequent
years could not fruit from his prosperity in Egypt. "Tribulation worketh
patience, patience experience, and experience hope." There must be in
preparation for great things a time for meditation and reflection, when the
mind turns over and assimilates the knowledge acquired. Christ was retired
until thirty, John the Baptist until thirty and Paul for three years in Arabia.
We are so busy in modern times and want to rush out so speedily into life that
we are not willing to take time to reflect or meditate. Moses needed a greater
knowledge of that Sinaitic peninsula to be the scene of another forty years of
activity. In the quiet pastoral life in Midian it is very probable that Moses
wrote first the book of Job. When we come to that book, I think I can give you
an unanswerable argument in proof that Moses was its author and that it was the
first book of the Bible written, and that it was suggested by the undeserved
affliction of his people over in Egypt. Job's case was another burning bush
case. And it is almost certain, indeed it is morally certain, that he wrote the
book of Genesis in that period of retirement, because when we commence to read
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, there is always a presupposition
that the people are familiar with the facts of Genesis.
5. The last element of his preparation comes with the miracle of the burning
bush and all the attendant history.
Now, as we have just finished our study of the Pentateuch written by Moses, let
us fix our minds upon the forces from which character resulted and the elements
of his greatness. Character is not an accident. Character cannot be improvised.
Character is a result, a crystallization of preceding causes. We find that the
great character of Moses is the result,
1. Of faithful family training. Oliver Wendell Holmes, as I have told you
before, when asked when you should commence the education of a child, said,
"Commence with its grandmother," and in another instance says that
"man is an omnibus in which all of his ancestors ride." The reason
why so many men of genius are never great is the lack of family training.
2. It was the result of personal faith in God and a sense of personal
responsibility to God. "What a man thinks, that he is." There can be
no greater mistake than the hasty, ill-considered statement, "It makes no
difference what a man believes." His character was the result of his
faith.
3. It was the result of his conviction concerning the future life. It is a
slander upon the Old Testament to say that it discovers nothing of future life.
To Moses' mind the world to come was as clear as it is to your mind, and he had
"respect unto the recompense of reward." No man could deliberately
turn from earthly power, position, honor, riches, pleasures, and take the
position which he took of reproach and toil and poverty unless prompted by a
thought of the life to come.
4. His character was the result of marvelous secular education. Our Lord has
not made great learning a condition of the ministerial office, but it is a fact
that the wider your range of general information, the more you are acquainted
with affairs, the more your mind is disciplined in the study of the things
taught in colleges and universities, certainly the greater your power will be
as a preacher. Moses had a secular education ahead of any other man of his
time.
5. It was the result of great personal trials and long continued discipline.
Character comes out of a furnace and no man can lay any very loud claims to
character who has not been tried. He does not know what he will be when he
passes through the fire.
6. It was the result of long continued service and labor. Moses was a worker,
and the man who works develops character. How can an idle person have
character? 7. It was the result of profound meditation and reflection. We may
know a lot, just keep on knowing, knowing and knowing, but if we do not
assimilate that knowledge, the mind becomes an old garret full of odds and ends
and scraps, none available when needed. It is not the quantity you eat but what
you digest that builds up your body, and you cannot assimilate mind food
without meditation. The Duchess DeBerri once said, "If associating with
the twelve apostles kept me from solitary meditative thoughts of God, and
prayer, I would give up the company of the twelve apostles."
8. His character was the result of great opportunities and high positions
carefully utilized.
Now, looking at the result of such forces, what do we discover in Moses?
1. He was a man of piety. Nothing on earth can make up for the lack of personal
piety. Gifts cannot do it.
2. A man of wisdom. Somebody and a schoolteacher recently asked me to give
a synopsis of a lecture delivered before his school on the distinction between
wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. "Knowledge
comes but wisdom lingers."
3. He was a man of decision, as is evident by the choice he made. Many a poor
fellow spends his life astraddle of the fence, like Mr. Lincoln's ox that
jumped half-way over the fence and then could not butt the dogs that were
baying him in front nor kick the dogs that were biting him behind.
4. He was a man of great organizing capacity, or great administrative ability.
5. A faithful man in all offices of trust. That is one of the tributes borne to
him in the letter to the Hebrews.
6. He was a man of surpassing meekness and patience. He did fly off the handle
one time, but some of us stay off the handle.
7. He was a man of sublime courage. And what a high quality of courage!
8. He was an intensely patriotic man: "If thou wilt not forgive their sin;
blot my name out of thy book."
9. He was an intensely unselfish man. I remember once when I was a boy being
much impressed with this: A newly elected representative of Drew County,
Arkansas, was approached to know if he was going to obey what his constituents
would tell him to do. He said, "First, I am God's man. I will do nothing
that violates my idea of personal responsibility to God. Second, I am my
nation's man. I will do nothing that will tend to disrupt the whole country.
Third,. I am my State's man. I will do nothing for this particular county that
is prejudicial to the interests of the whole State. Fourth, I am my own man. I
will do nothing that will destroy my own individuality. And now, if a man who
is God's man, his Nation's man, his State's man, and his own man, is allowed to
represent your people, I will represent you." It made a very great
impression on my mind.
Now, having such a character, in what phases did his greatness display itself?
First of all, as a historian. Common custom calls Herodotus the father of
history) but what is Herodotus compared to Moses? Moses gives us the only
history of a third part of the time so far allotted to this world.
He was a great legislator. All civilization to-day is bottomed on the Mosaic
legislation. He was a great jurist; the principles of law and equity are better
set forth by Moses than in all the publications of the chancellors of England
and the Supreme Court of the United States.
He was a great poet, as we have found in considering the song of the Red Sea,
the song just before he passed away, Psalm 90, written in his old age, the
benediction which he pronounced upon his people, and his high thought in the
book of Job, illustrative of the great problem, the undeserved afflictions of
his people.
He was a great orator. Whoever can read and study Deuteronomy intelligently and
then deny that Moses was a master orator) is not intelligent, if you will
permit such a statement. He was a great prophet. Take the prophecies of his
Levitical legislation, the types. Who can understand Christ who has not
understood the paschal Lamb, the two goats on the day of atonement, the red
heifer, the brazen serpent, and multitudinous others? Then the prophecy
concerning Christ and his great prophecies in Deuteronomy concerning his people
that have been fulfilling ever since his time, and some yet to be fulfilled. In
every land on the earth today there stand living monuments to attest the
accuracy of the forecasts of his prophetic mind.
He was a great mediator between God and man. God selected him to mediate, and
the people selected him to mediate. In a sense, with one hand he touched
divinity and with the other he touched humanity.
He was a type of Christ. He represents the people before God and represents God
before the people, and in a most remarkable way. His mediation appears in his
powerful intercession when the people sin; he would come to God, state the sin,
then plead for its pardon.
Now let us look at his faults. Ingersoll was accustomed to speak of the
mistakes of Moses. The first one that we are able to discover comes after God
said to him, "You shall deliver Israel." He rushed at it, not leaving
to God to determine when and how, and started a plan of his own by killing that
Egyptian, and that fault, as is usually the case, became the father of the next
fault. You know when a man "butts in" prematurely and gets
"sawed off," his pride is so wounded that the next time he will
"sulk in his tent."
When God came to him at the burning bush, he was still so sore that God almost
had to drag him by the hair of his head to make him try again. That was his
second fault.
The third fault was neglecting to circumcise his children, and he came within
an inch of losing his life by it. His wife was the cause of this, but a man
must not let his wife keep him from obeying God.
The fourth sin that he committed was when he spoke ill-advisedly with his lips
at Kadesh, and forgetting that the rock must be smitten but once, and
forgetting that the waters flowed afterwards by petition and not by smiting, he
violated God's word and struck the rock. For 120 years he had carried this
burden, like Atlas holding the world on his shoulders; he had been nagged, he
had been misunderstood, slandered and misrepresented, and just then his superb
patience gave away. When I look at it, I feel that I want to lift my hat to the
man whose patience gave way just one time.
QUESTIONS
1. Who probably wrote
Deuteronomy 34?
2. State the items of its
contents.
3. What constitutes the
death of Moses the most unique death of history?
4. Give a legend concerning
his death.
5. What additional
particular concerning Moses' body found in the New Testament?
6. What his encomium in this
chapter?
7. Upon what is special
stress laid in the life of Moses, and why?
8. What the materials for a
life of Moses?
9. What his impress on the
ages, and how does he compare with the men of profane history?
10. What the circumstances
of his birth and childhood, his parentage and the other members of his family?
11. What the elements of
preparation for his life work?
12. What three great periods
of his life?
13. What did the faith of
his parents do for him?
14. Of what did his learning
at the Egyptian court consist?
15. What the great crisis of
his life, and what mistake did he make relative to it?
16. Why the forty years in
Midian and what other Bible examples?
17. What the last element of
his preparation?
18. What the forces which
contributed to the formation of his character?
19. What does Oliver Wendell
Holmes say of family training?
20. What the relation of his
faith to his character?
21. Did Moses know of the
future life? What the evidence?
22. What the importance of
secular education?
23. What the importance of
trials in relation to character?
24. What the relation of
labor to character?
25. What the importance of
meditation and reflection in relation to character?
26. What the importance of
utilizing opportunities in relation to character?
27. What the resultant
character?
28. In what phases did his
greatness display itself?
29. What his antitype?
30. What his faults?
THE HOMILETIC VALUE OF DEUTERONOMY
The book of Deuteronomy, like the letters to the Romans and to the Hebrews, is
expository, abounding in both single texts and topics. It is a mine from which
a preacher or platform speaker digs the richest themes. So our Saviour and his
apostles found it and used it more than they did, perhaps, any other book in
the Old Testament. You have followed these discussions and have done what
studying you have done to very little purpose if you have not filled your
quiver with feathered, sharp, and polished arrows.
On account of the homiletical value of the book arising from its expository
nature, I have thought it well to devote this last section to calling your
attention to some of the many great pulpit themes in the book.
When I was a young preacher, I studied this book a solid month and then
carefully wrote out a list of 250 special sermon outlines from texts selected
from the book. Of course I am not going to inflict any 250 on you in this
discussion. The first time I ever read Deuteronomy, I felt as if I had gotten
into a rich mine from which a good miner could dig tons and tons of preaching
material.
TEXTS FOR SERMONS
1. 1:5: "Moses began to declare [expound] this law." I take that
first because it marks the character of the book; to declare, to dig up, to get
under, to expound, not to enact or proclaim.
2. 1:9-18) a topical theme: Israel's Judicial System. In discussing that I have
four divisions: (1) Its graded courts or a division of labor, judges over tens,
fifties, hundreds, thousands and so on up, its appellate court being the oracle
of God. This judicial system brings before our minds the first system of graded
courts. (2) The character and qualifications of the judges. (3) The methods of
trial and hearing evidence. (4) Verdict and penalty. These are the four
divisions of the theme, Israel's Judicial System.
3. 1:2: "It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir
unto Kadesh-barnea." On account of sin they lost thirty-seven days in
getting there the first time, and thirty-eight years in getting there the
second time, so that the theme for that text is, "Sin makes a short way
very long."
4. 1:39: "The excuse about children." Men never quit making it. How
many times do parents justify wrongdoing by attributing it to their concern for
the little folks?
5. 1:41-45, theme: "They who will not war with Jehovah as leader better
not war without him." They would not go with him as leader and afterwards
presumptuously went and he would not go with them.
6. Based upon the parenthetical statements in the second and third chapters.
This refers to the giants, Emims, Rephims, Zamzummins, etc. Theme: "Giants
are not invincible." Moses brings in the history of these giants to show
that if giants could be overcome by the Edomites, by a people who were not
Jehovah's people, why on earth should his people tremble because there were
giants in the way? Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress tells how a whole
host of Christian people being come together at the house of Gaius and one said
that it was not right for that many of God's people to be together and do
nothing for the cause, saying, "Let's go out and kill a giant," which
they proceeded to do. I oftentimes quote that at Associations and Conventions
where the brethren come together to resolve, resolve, and adjourn. God's people
should kill giants when they assemble.
7. 4:15: "Ye saw no manner of form," no similitude or like-ness of
God.
8. 4:32: "The days that are past" or Memory's use of history.
9. 6:4: "Love the fulfilling of the law."
10. 6:7: "Family instruction."
11. 7:2-3: "Beware of entangling alliances." I am quoting the theme from
Washington's farewell address, "Beware of entangling alliances with other
nations."
12. "Man doth not live by bread alone." This was used by our Saviour
and with it he turned the devil down in the temptation. In the early days of my
pastorate, I was walking down the street one day and saw a man who, just as
soon as he saw me, tried to hide his face. I went into his house and saw that
he was one of my members who had not been to church for a good while. He was
running a little retail dram shop. I never said a word, just looked at him.
"A man must make a living somehow," he said; "a man must make a
living somehow," repeating just that over and over. "Not
necessarily," I said: "you are not bound to live. It certainly is
necessary for you to obey God and you are not doing it." "Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
Jehovah."
13. The greater part of chapter 9 is on "Beware of
selfrighteousness." This is one of the finest chapters in the Bible. Do
not attribute your spiritual prosperity to your own righteousness.
14. 9:25, presents to us the intercession of Moses, that mighty man of prayer.
15. 10:12, gives us the summary of duty, showing that God's commandments are
reasonable commandments.
16. 10:16, gives us the spiritual meaning of circumcision, showing what is its
true antitype, not baptism, but circumcision of the heart; in other words,
regeneration is the antitype of circumcision.
17. A topical subject without specifying a particular place. The Deuteronomy
tithe as compared with the Levitical tithe. In other words, the second tithe of
the Law and what it is for.
18. 13:1-3: "No sign can attest a false prophet or false doctrine."
19. 18:15-19, the greatest text in the book: That prophet like unto Moses.
20. Now we come to another topical theme, national instruction as based on
chapter 16, giving an account of the feasts, and in a later chapter which tells
how the whole nation, men, women and children, shall come together and be
instructed for a whole year in the Law. National instruction.
21. 17:14-20: The king and the book.
22. 19:1-11: Purpose of the cities of refuge.
23. Chapter 20: Laws of war.
24. 21:1-9: Civic responsibility for crime.
25. 21:22: Cursed is every man that hangeth upon a tree. You can carry that
over into the New Testament.
26. 24:16: Personal responsibility.
27. 26:1-11: Acknowledgment of Jehovah's ownership.
28. 29:5: Jehovah's providence.
29. 30:1: Jehovah's mercy for the penitent.
30. 30:11: Now I come to one that I put next to the greatest one. I called the
one in 18:18, the greatest. The Law not hard nor far off, the one that Paul
explains in Romans 10, and to which Christ refers when he says, "My yoke
is easy and my burden is light."
31. 30:19: Indissoluble pairs; life and good, death and evil.
32. 31:2-3: The cause does not die with its advocates. Moses dies, Jehovah
remains, and Joshua succeeds.
33. 31:8: Comfort and power of Jehovah's guidance.
34. I leave you to find the expression, but the next theme is "God is a
consuming fire." It is just as essential to preach God as a consuming fire
as "God is love." For instance, some of you are married and have
children. Now that love is not merely manifested in feeding them, clothing
them, and petting them. What if you saw a rattlesnake just about to strike your
child? What if you saw a wolf come into your tent and just about to grab one of
your children? What would love do? What if you saw that child about to be
ruined by. association with incorrigible, awful children, would you separate
them? Now you can see how love digs hell.
35. Here is a text that I used to preach from a great deal, "Write it
plain."
36. 29:18: "A root of bitterness." That is a fine text for showing
how the Law goes to the bottom and does not wait until it comes out into overt
acts.
37. 28:56: "The delicate lady." When you get over in the New
Testament, if you look at the Greek of a certain expression of Paul, it means
"little women," not small in stature or youthful in age as Miss
Alcott's Little Women, but little in a moral sense.
38. Now, another one of the very greatest texts in the book. If you ever want
to be transcendently eloquent and impressive in a revival sermon, and your
heart is in it, take this theme: 28:65-67, "The mental torture of the
lost," "A scorpion circled with fire," as one writer calls it.
One of the most remarkable illustrations on account of sin is found in
Tiberius, the great Roman Emperor. He had become such a tyrant; he had sinned
so much that all power of discrimination between right and wrong had been lost.
The assembled Senate was waiting to receive his message to guide deliberation
on important matters. This was his message: "What to write you, Conscript
Fathers, or how to write or what not to write, may all the gods and goddesses
destroy me more than I feel they are daily destroying me, if I know."
Shakespeare more than any other author portrays this despair in Richard III,
Macbeth, and other dramas.
39. 27:26: "Amen." Now, how would you discuss it? The word means let
it be so. God, by putting half the people on Ebal and half on Gerizirn,
committed them to the repetition of every curse and every blessing, and when
they got through with all the curses and blessings he made every one say,
"Amen," "Let it be just that way." The greatest triumph of
our Lord is set forth in one of Paul's letters where he says, "Every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess." That when he comes to judge the
world and brings the lost from hell, and the saved from heaven, not one of whom
has fully understood all of the reasons why he is saved or lost, so clearly
will everything be brought out that even the lost when they turn away to enter
hell forever will say, "Amen." They will have to testify that what
has been done has been done well.
40. 29:29: "Hidden and revealed things." Hidden things belong to God,
but revealed things we are to teach to our children. The purpose and limits of
revelation.
41. Here is a great topical theme: "God's provision for the record,
preservation, and publication of his Law." The first central part of the
Law God spoke to Moses, and then wrote an autograph copy and filed it as a
witness. Every seventh year had to be devoted to going over the entire Law and
the exposition of it. You can carry the idea out into the whole of the Old
Testament written in Hebrew, then translated into Greek, then into Latin, then
into English, and a thousand other languages.
42. 32:31: "Their rock is not our rock, even our enemies themselves being
judges." A fine theme.
43. 33:32: "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom."
44. The last one that I have: "There hath not arisen a prophet like unto
Moses." These are some of the greatest preaching themes in the book. I
could give you a thousand just as well as the forty-odd that I have given you.
It is the richest mine for a preacher, it seems to me, in the whole Bible.
QUESTIONS
1. What the nature of the
book of Deuteronomy?
2. Mark each text pointed out
and be able to give the line of thought and application suggested.
3. The Sinaitic covenant is
a development of what preceding covenant?
4. What chapters in Exodus
contain the Sinaitic covenant in germ, or its constitution, and what its three
elements?
5. Of which of these three
elements is Leviticus a development, and of which are Numbers and Deuteronomy a
development?
6. In chapter 31:24-26, does
"this book of the Law" which Moses finished writing mean Deuteronomy
only, or does it include the whole Pentateuch? Answer the same question
concerning the "Book of the Law" found in Josiah's time, (2 Kings 22)
and the "Book of the Law" from which Ezra read, (Neh. 8:1).
7. Were the social laws
touching marriage, divorce, slavery, parental power over children, perfect like
the moral law, and if not, why not, and did they regulate these things in a way
to improve them as practised by the heathen nations?
8. What is the best book on
Old Testament ethics?
9. What five New Testament
uses of the words of Moses most emphasize the value of his books?
10. What New Testament
appearance and consociation of persons best illustrates his position in
Revelation?
11. What one word best
accounts for Moses?
XVIII
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
1. What is the relation of this book to the Old Testament?
Ans. (1) On the face of it, it is a sequel to the Pentateuch, whose history
it continues without a break, 1:2.
(2) It is the first book of the series called "The Earlier Prophets,"
which comprises Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, the whole series
being the first part of the grand division called "The Prophets."
(3) Its history underlies all subsequent history of the Jewish people and its
most marvelous events are cited as history in the Psalms, Psalm 44:23; 78:55;
Isaiah 28:21; Habakkuk 3:11.
2. What is the testimony of the New Testament to its events as history?
Ans. Stephen in Acts 7:45; James in 2:25; Paul in Hebrews 4:8; 11:30-31, all
cite its most miraculous events as plain history.
3. What, therefore, is its right to a place in the canon of the Old Testament?
Ans. It has never been disputed by Jew or Gentile.
4. In his very able work on The Bible; Its Structure and Purpose, what
remarkable fact is cited by John Urquhart as bearing upon the grouping of the
historical books of the Old Testament?
Ans. That very many of these books of the Old Testament commence with the
conjunction "and," the rendering of a small Hebrew letter, which
enables us to divide all the historical books into four groups, indicating the
most intelligent purpose as to structure.
5. State these four groups and show how the conjunction "and" plays
its part in the groupings.
Ans. (1) Israel outside the Land. Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers all commence
with "and" continuing the story of the leading book, Genesis.
(2) Israel in the Land. Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1
and 2 Kings. Deuteronomy, being prospective or introductory to entering the
land, is the leading book with all the others in order, commencing with the
conjunction "and" and so continuing the story of the leading book.
(3) Israel returning to the Land after the Babylonian Captivity. 1 and 2
Chronicles and Ezra. Here 1 Chronicles is the leading book, making an entirely
new start in history, commencing with Adam, and the other two books commencing
with the conjunction "and" carry on the story of the leading book.
(4) Israel that never returned, or the Dispersion. Nehemiah himself, while
twice visiting Jerusalem, lived and died a Babylonian Jew at the Persian Court.
Therefore we find that Joshua commences with "and" and that it
carries on the story started by Deuteronomy, and "and" will go on
until we get to the second book of Kings. This "and," just a stroke,
next to the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, determines the structural
form of all the historical books of the Old Testament.
6. Who is the author of the book of Joshua?
Ans. The only direct testimony is in 24:26, where the writing of the farewell
addresses, at least, is expressly ascribed to Joshua. In the making of a final
record for a witness, he but follows the example of Moses. No other was so well
qualified to describe events in which he, by divine appointment, acted a
leading part. Hence, except the account of his own death, as in a similar case
of Moses, the Jews and the early Christian fathers ascribed the book to Joshua,
from whom in any event the material of the history must have been obtained. The
style indicates an eyewitness as the author, and a participant. But what is
mainly to the purpose is the fact that not even a historical book could get
into the Hebrew canon that was not written by an inspired prophet. And it is
recognized by the Prophets and recognized, in that respect, by our Lord as
inspired.
7. What objections are urged against Joshua's authorship?
Ans. (1) The book tells in chapter 15 of the capture of Hebron by Caleb, and
the capture of Debir by Othniel, Joshua 15:13-20, which it is alleged occurred
in the period of Judges, Judges 1:10-15.
(2) The remark that the "Jebusites dwelt with the children of Judah at
Jerusalem," Joshua 15:63, when the capture of Jerusalem also occurred in
the period of the Judges, Judges 1:8.
(3) The capture of Laish by the warriors of Dan, Joshua 19:47, which event also
belongs to the period of the Judges, Judges 28:7.
8. What is the reply to these objections?
Ans. There is nothing in any of these three events to prove clearly that they
occurred after Joshua's death. Long before his death he had retired from the
position of active leadership to his own estate. He had executed all his
commissions and only just before his death reappeared to deliver his farewell
address. What is briefly referred to in the book of Joshua is restated and
elaborated in the book of Judges, i.e., so far as these three events are
concerned. We know that in Joshua's lifetime he threw upon the tribes the
responsibility of completing the conquest of the territory assigned to them, as
appears from his reply to the complaints of the sons of Joseph, 17:14-18.
9. What the period of time covered by the book of Joshua?
Ans. We are told that Joshua was 110 years old when he died, and that he was
a young man, perhaps forty years old, at the exodus from Egypt, and as the
pilgrimage lasted forty years, there remains a period of about thirty years for
the book of Joshua.
10. What the purpose of the book?
Ans. (1) To show how faithfully Jehovah fulfilled all his promises in putting
them in possession of the Promised Land, and in giving victory over all their
enemies.
(2) To show Jehovah's government of the nations, bringing about judgment upon
the nations that forget God and become incorrigible in their wickedness.
11. What the great moral problem in this book and how do you solve it?
Ans. Now I will tell you the problem, the destruction of the Canaanites root
and branch, men, women and children, everything that breathes. On that account
in every age of the world people, some good people, and some "goody"
people have questioned the morals of the book and of the Old Testament, i.e.,
on account of the cruelty, the awful cruelty of such indiscriminate wholesale
slaughter of thirty-odd nations. Now, how do you solve it? I will give some
general remarks on the solution. Wm. Paley answers that question. (You may find
his book among some of the old-time books presented to the Library.) W. A.
Jarrell, in his book on Old Testament Ethics Vindicated, gives
his solution of that problem. In the third place, Oehier, the noted German
theologian, discusses it; quite a number of the Baptist authorities and the
commentaries all discuss it. What is the best explanation of this
indiscriminate destruction of many nations, none of them, not even the children
left alive, men, women and children? That is a fact. Now the question is about
the morality of the fact. Josephus also gives an account of it and he gives his
philosophy of it.
The substance of all this is that Israel, God's chosen
people, had a religious mission to fill. They were to bring the Messiah to the
world and they had to be a separate people in order to do that. They could not
amalgamate with other peoples and keep a pure Jewish blood which was necessary
to accomplish the result. Besides this, the cup of their iniquity was full and
the day of their execution was at hand. As to the infants, they were a thousand
times better off to die in infancy. So it was really an act of mercy to them.
12. Give an account of the life and character of Joshua up to the time that
book commences.
Ans. He appears first in battle with Amalek (Ex. 17); then at Mount Sinai
with Moses on the Mount, (Ex. 24) ; next, coming down from the mountain, (Ex.
32) ; next he appears in the story of Eldad and Medad, (Num. II); then we find
him sent out by Moses as a spy, (Num. 13) ; his ordination (Num. 27) ; in
Deuteronomy 31 we have the record of his charge from Jehovah; in the same
chapter we find him called Hoshea and he heard Moses' song; then in Deuteronomy
34 we have him succeeding Moses. He was of the tribe of Ephraim, held the
office of General and was Minister to Moses.
13. Of whom was Joshua a type?
Ans. Christ. See page 169 for fuller answer.
14. Finally comes the analysis of the book.
Ans. Now, it is very seldom that I am willing to accept any analysis of a
book other than my own, but I have accepted the "Cambridge Bible"
analysis. It is fine, only I would like to suggest some improvements. Indeed
the whole of the commentary on Joshua is good. When I was a young man, I heard
William Carey Crane, President of Baylor University at Independence, preach a
funeral oration on the death of Sam Houston. He took an expression in the book
of Joshua as his text and his sermon was the comparison of Joshua, the great
soldier and statesman, with Sam Houston, the great soldier and statesman, and
strange to say that very thing was done when Lord Wellington died and his
funeral was preached. The comparison was not only between Wellington and
Joshua, but the great English poem is quoted as bearing upon the deep
signification of this book.
I will say this much about the character of the man. He had the highest
qualifications of a soldier, viz.: to obey orders implicitly. He never turned
to the right hand nor to the left hand; what God gave him to do, he never
questioned, he just did it. Just exactly what God said do. He, as a general,
exacted that kind of obedience from all the soldiers that fought under him.
Now, it is remarkable that this man so great in war, when the war was over and
he had never lost a battle, when he had conquered thirty-two kingdoms, took
nothing for himself and when the land was divided asked only a little, modest
place, that the people granted to him, where he might have a little estate with
his tribe. That shows that he was without covetousness. His farewell address is
always to be studied in connection with the farewell address of Moses, the
farewell address of Samuel, the farewell address of Paul to the Elders at
Miletus and Washington's farewell address. What a pity that more of us, when we
come to die, cannot look back over the entire life, a well-regulated life, a
well-regulated life with no stain on it, no lie spoken, no fraud practiced;
uprightness, absolute integrity of conduct.
I asked you a question a while ago which I now answer in part. Joshua was
pre-eminently a type of Jesus. The names Jesus and Joshua are the same originally.
His name was Hoshea but by putting the Jehovah prefix it means the God of
Salvation. He was a type of Jesus. He was commissioned to conquer the Promised
Land and to give the people rest in that Promised Land, and so the Captain of
our salvation, greater than Joshua, was to conquer a promised land (the whole
world) and give rest to the people of God.
ANALYSIS OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
PART I. THE
CONQUEST OF CANAAN, 1-12
Section 1. The Preparation.
1. The Summons of the War.
(1) The command of God to Joshua, 1:1-9.
(2) The command of Joshua to the people, 1:10-18.
2. The Mission of the Spies to Jericho.
(1) The sending of the spies, 2:1-7.
(2) Their reception by Rahab, 2:8-21.
(3) Their return to Joshua, 2:22-24.
Section II. The Passage of the Jordan.
1. The Divine Guidance.
(1) The preparation of Joshua, 3:1-13.
(2) Jordan turned backward, 3:14-17.
(3) Completion of the passage, 4:1-18.
(4) The memorial at Gilgal, 4:19-24.
2. The Consecration of the Holy War.
(1) Renewal of the rite of circumcision, 5:1-9.
(2) Celebration of the Passover, 5:10-12.
(3) Appearance of the Prince of Jehovah's Host, 5:13-15.
(4) Instruction as to the capture of Jericho, 6:1-5.
Section III. The Conquest of Central and Southern Canaan.
1. The Capture of Jericho.
(1) The preparations, 6:6-14.
(2) The capture and destruction of the city, 6:15-27.
2. First Advance Against Ai.
(1) The sin of Achan, 7:1.
(2) The repulse from Ai, 7:2-5.
(3) Joshua's prayer, 7:6-15.
(4) Detection and punishment of Achan, 7:16-26.
3. Second Advance Against Ai.
(1) Stratagem of Joshua, 8:1-13.
(2) Capture and destruction of the city, 8:14-29.
(3) Renewal of the covenant at Ebal, 8:30-35.
4. The Battle of Beth-horon.
(1) League of the Canaanite kings against Israel, 9:1-2.
(2) The fraud of the Gibeonites, 9:3-15.
(3) The league with Gibeon, 9:16-27.
(4) Investment of Gibeon by the Five Kings, 10:1-15.
(5) Flight and destruction of the Five Kings, 10:16-43.
Section IV. The Conquest of Northern Canaan.
1. The Northern League.
(1) The gathering of the kings, 11:1-5.
(2) The battle of the waters of Merom, 11:6-9.
(3) The defeat of Jabin, 11:10.
(4) Subjugation of the north, 11:11-23.
2. Review of the Conquest. Catalogue of the Conquered Kings.
(1) Of eastern Palestine, 12:1-6.
PART 2. THE
DIVISION OF CANAAN, 13-21
Section 1. The Partition of Eastern Canaan.
1. The Mosaic Settlement.
(1) The divine command to divide the land, 13:1-7.
(2) Provision for the tribe of Levi, 13:8-14.
(3) Possessions of the tribe of Reuben, 13:15-23.
(4) Possessions of the tribe of Gad, 13:24-28.
(5) Possessions of the half-tribe of Manasseh, 13:29-33.
2. Commencement of the distribution, 14:1-5.
3. The possessions of Caleb, 14:6-15.
Section II. Division of Western Palestine.
1. Territory of the Tribe of Judah.
(1) Its boundaries, 15:1-12.
(2) Petition of Achsah, 15:13-20.
(3) Cities in the south, 15:21-32.
(4) Cities in the lowlands, 15:33-47.
(5) Cities in the mountains, 15:48-60.
(6) Cities in the wilderness, 15:61-63.
2. Territory of the Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
(1) Boundaries of the territory, 16:1-4.
(2) Territory of the tribe of Ephraim, 16:5-10.
(3) Territory of the tribe of Manasseh, 17:1-13.
(4) Complaint of the sons of Joseph, 17:14-16.
(5) Reply of Joshua, 17:17-19.
3. Territory of the Seven Remaining Tribes.
(1) The tabernacle set up at Shiloh, 18:1-10.
(2) Territory of Benjamin, 18:11-28.
(3) Territory of Simeon, 10:1-9.
(4) Territory of the tribe of Zebulun, 19:10-16.
(5) Territory of the tribe of Issachar, 19:17-23.
(6) Territory of the tribe of Asher, 19:24-31.
(7) Territory of the tribe of Naphtali, 19:32-39.
(8) Territory of the tribe of Dan, 19:40-48.
(9) Joshua's possession, 19:49-51.
Section III. Appointment of the Cities of Refuge.
1. The Divine Command, 20:1-3.
(1) Choice of the cities, 30:4-6.
(2) Three east of the Jordan, 20:7.
(3) Three west of the Jordan, 20:8-9.
Section IV. Appointment of the Priestly and Levitical Cities.
1. The Demand of the Levites, 21:1-3.
(1) The Compliance, 21:4-8.
(2) Cities of the Kohathites.
(a) The sons of Aaron, 21:9-19.
(b) The Other Kohathites, 21:20-26.
(3) Cities of the Gershonites, 21:27-33.
(4) Cities of Merarites, 21:34-42.
(5) Conclusion, 21:43-45.
PART 3. JOSHUA'S
FAREWELL, 22-24
Section 1. Release of the Two Tribes and
a Half.
1. The Departure.
(1) The exhortation of Joshua, 22:1-8.
(2) Return of the tribes, 22:9.
2. The disagreement.
(1) Erection of the altar, 22:10.
(2) Embassy of Israel, 22:11-20.
(3) The explanation, 22:21-31.
(4) Return of the embassy, 22:32-34.
Section II. The Parting of Joshua.
1. The First Address.
(1) Exhortations to fidelity, 23:1-11.
(2) Warnings against apostasy, 23:12-16.
2. The Second Address.
(1) The last counsels, 24:1-15.
(2) Renewal of the Covenant, 24:16-28.
(3) Death of Joshua, 24:29-31.
(4) Burial of the bones of Joseph, 24:32.
(5) Death of Eleazar, 24:33.
JEHOVAH'S CHARGE TO JOSHUA Joshua 1:1-9
Our discussion commences in Joshua I, and I shall present it in the form of
questions and answers.
1. Where was Israel at this time?
Ans. Israel was camped in what is called the "Meadow of the
Acacias," near the upper part of the Dead Sea and opposite the river
Jordan.
2. What time?
Ans. It is forty years after leaving Egypt in the spring of the year, in the
month of Abib. Later that month is called Nisan, and it comes nearer to
answering to our April than any other time. The Jews had lunar months and we
have calendar months; hence every one of our months covers a part of two of
their months.
3. What incidental evidences from the text of the time of the year?
Ans. One is that the harlot Rahab had on the top of her house spread out the
stalks of flax. That was an April harvest. Flax stalks are dried out and the
fibrous covering of the stalk is used to make thread and other things. Another
circumstance is that it is stated that after they got over into the Promised
Land they ate the new corn. Our text says old corn, but it doesn't mean old
corn. It means the produce of the fields, which was barley. The barley harvest
and the flax came in the spring of the year, in April.
4. What are the circumstances of the people of Israel at this time?
Ans. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam are all dead. The entire generation of grown
men that set out from Egypt except two are dead. It is a new generation. But
while Moses is gone, God is still present, and under a new leader they are to
proceed with their history, and they have already conquered all the territory
east of the Jordan River, Moab and Gilead, and have settled there two tribes
and a half, Reuben is the land of Moab, Gad in the land of Ammon, and the
half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead further up. Their organization is compact,
they have just sworn to renew the covenant. These arc the circumstances.
5. The book commences in English with the word "now," it really means
"and," and it is a connective. The question is, What is the force of
the connective?
Ans. That has been explained several times before. It shows that it succeeds
regularly the preceding book. Genesis, the first of the first group, is
followed by Exodus, Leviticus, and then Numbers; then Deuteronomy, the first of
the second group, is followed by Joshua, which commences with "and,"
and so on until we get through 2 Kings. I have explained before about the force
of that connective.
6. What thoughts on succession suggested by the first verse, "After the
death of Moses Jehovah spake unto Joshua"?
Ans. The thoughts are these: Human leaders die, God lives. As one human
leader drops out, God has prepared another to take his place. If Elijah's time
has expired, Elisha is ready to take his place; and so it is with reference to
the church. There has been a succession of the churches from the day that
Christ said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it," and a
succession of preachers. Paul dies, but before he dies he appoints faithful men
to come after him to take up the work and carry it on.
7. Cite passages showing how Joshua has been prepared, appointed, qualified,
and charged for this work.
Ans. Now, here are the passages: Numbers 27:15-23, Deuteronomy 31:7-8, 14-15;
Deuteronomy 34:9. These passages show that a provision was made while Moses was
yet well and the leader, to designate a successor, to appoint that successor,
qualify that successor, to deliver solemn charges from both God and Moses to
that successor. Read very carefully every one of these passages.
8. Moses is called the "servant of the Lord" and Joshua is called
"the minister of Moses": "Jehovah after the death of Moses, the
servant of the Lord, spoke unto Joshua, Moses' minister." My question is,
Distinguish between the meaning of "servant" and
"minister," and show which one is the higher term, and show when the
higher term became Joshua's.
Ans. To call one "the servant of Jehovah" is the highest title you
can confer on him. "Minister" means attendant. It is a different word
in the Hebrew. It means Moses' attendant. In other words, just as the apostles
were attendants of Christ (they were about with him while he prepared them to
take his place after he is gone), so Joshua was Moses' attendant or minister.
"Servant" was applied to Joshua in Joshua 24:29.
9. Analyze Jehovah's command to Joshua, its imperative conditions, its
promises, its exhortations, and the meaning of "this book of the
law."
Ans. The analysis is: It is very imperative, very peremptory: "Go over
this river and take this land that I promised to Israel." And the
exhortation is "be strong; don't be a weakling; be courageous; don't get
rattled and scared." And the promises are (1) "I will be to you as I
was to Moses." (2) "I will never forsake you," and (3) "I
will put high honour on you." Those are the promises. Those promises are
to you and to any Christian preacher. Now, the conditions were, "You take
this book of the Law." That shows that the Pentateuch had been written,
that everything was recorded at that time, that the Pentateuch was the constitution
of Israel and its statute book as well. "You take this book of the Law and
meditate on it night and day and observe to do exactly as it says. Don't you go
to the right hand or to the left hand; plumb the track; keep in the middle of
the road." These are the conditions. "Now, if you will rigidly obey
orders I will never leave you nor forsake you; never under any circumstances
shall enemies be able to stand up before you."
It is said that preachers are the most disobedient of all Christians; that they
understand less than any other class of Christians the principles of rigid
obedience. One man asked Wellington concerning a certain mission, "What
are we to do about it in view of that difficulty?" Wellington said,
"What are your marching orders?" And they turned to the commission
and read it and he said, "There is nothing to ask questions about. Do what
you are told to do. Don't stop to consider the difficulties." I have just
been reading of the education of Frederick the Great, and there isn't a preacher
in Texas that could have stood it three days; what he had to go through with
from the time he was five years old until he became a grown man. Now I will
give you one of the rules, and his whole life had to be according to rule. At
six o'clock he had to be waked up, and if it was a week day, had just fifteen
minutes in which to say his prayers, bathe, and dress and eat his breakfast,
while the servant dressed his hair just fifteen minutes) not a second over;
as soon as the servant touched him to wake him up, he must bounce out of bed
and say prayers and bathe, dress, and eat his breakfast while they were
dressing his hair. Then for every half-hour there was a duty: "You take up
grammar there, mathematics here, etc." After a while in the day would come
a rest spell, but there was no vacation, year in and year out.
Now, Joshua was a soldier like Wellington. When God gave him this command,
"Go across the Jordan; keep this book in your hand; meditate on it day and
night, just obey! obey! obey!" from the day that he was commended until he
died he never swerved. This is one of the most remarkable cases of implicit
obedience of which we have any record. The meaning of "this book of the
Law" is the Pentateuch.
10. What three famous rivers are mentioned in God's command to Joshua?
Ans. The Nile, the Jordan, and the Euphrates.
11. What is the meaning of "Jordan"?
Ans. It means the Descender. And that is what it strictly is. It is a sharp
inclined plane from its spring in Lebanon to its entrance into the Dead Sea. It
certainly does descend more than any other river in the world. There is no
other river on the map of the world of such a length that descends as much in
that distance; therefore, of course, it is not navigable.
12. What is the peculiarity of the usage of this name "Jordan"?
Ans. The Cambridge Bible says on that, "It is never called 'The River
Jordan' or 'Brook Jordan.' It is always 'Jordan.'" The Cambridge Bible is
mistaken. The word "Jordan" is used 189 times in the Bible; fifty
times by Moses, sixty-two times in Joshua, fifty-seven times in the other Old
Testament books and a number of times in the New Testament; 189 times in all,
but one time it is called "the river Jordan," and that is in Mark's
Gospel, 1:5: "They were baptized of him in the river Jordan." But
that is a remarkable peculiarity. You apply the word "river" to the
Nile, the Euphrates and every other river in the world, but when you come to
the Jordan, you don't say "river." I got so interested in that that I
finally got down my facsimile of the old manuscripts to see if this was in them
and it is in all of them, i.e., this one mistake in the Cambridge Bible. That
is the peculiarity of the usage of the name.
13. Describe it.
Ans. Now, we are going to have so much to do with the Jordan in Bible history
that you ought to be able to describe this river. Take it as it winds (and it
winds very much), it is 240 miles long from its springs to the Dead Sea into
which it flows or empties. A straight line from the Dead Sea to its springs
would be one hundred and twenty miles. So it goes twice the distance going that
way. Its general course is straight; it does not go off; it goes in a straight
line, like the firing of a rifle ball from a gun. It has two heads, one of them
in near Caesarea at Philippi, and those big springs come down and form a lake,
called Lake Merom, and it looks like those springs are going to be swallowed
up, but they come out of that lake into another lake, the Sea of Galilee; then
it comes out of that lake about 70 feet wide and over a great many descents it
goes deeper, down and down until it gets to the Dead Sea. Even the Sea of
Galilee is five hundred feet lower than the sea level and the Dead Sea is over
1,200 feet lower than the sea level. So you see that river starts and runs into
the earth and goes away down. It would be impossible for the Dead Sea to have
an outlet; it would have to flow uphill to get out of the hole it is in.
Now, this is a very famous river. Once I preached a sermon, making the river
Jordan a string and on it I strung the beads of history, and there was a
cluster of beads at the Sea of Galilee and on down, down, down to the Dead Sea,
taking the striking events of its history. Then I preached another sermon using
the Dead Sea for an illustration of a man who receives and never gives out. The
historic Jordan flows into it. Christ's miracles, walking on the water,
Christ's passage and Joshua's passage, and yet the Dead Sea swallows all that
water up and never gives out anything. Its water is so salty that a fish cannot
live in it, and even the apples on trees along the banks) when you touch them,
crumble and go up into dust. Now, that is the man that continually takes in
from every side and never dispenses anything. You ought always to have in your
mind a picture of that Descender, that river Jordan.
14. The command says to go over and take possession of the land which "I
have given the children of Israel, which I promised to their fathers, which I
repromised to Moses, and now concerning the allotment of that particular piece
of land, to the children of Israel." On this I give a number of
subquestions :
(1) What is the principle of this giving?
Ans. Turn to Acts 17:26: "I made of one every nation of men to dwell on
all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons,"
that is, when a nation shall arise, when it shall fall, "and the bounds of
their habitation that they shall seek God." That shows that the location
of nations is of divine direction, and that the boundaries of nations are of
divine direction, as a general principle.
(2) When was the division of the earth made among the several nations?
Ans. You will find the answer to that question in Genesis 10:25. Concerning
Peleg, the son of Shem, it is said, "In his day the earth was
divided," allotted among the nations. That is what Peleg means, and not at
the Tower of Babel after the tongues were confused. The order was for each
nation to go where it had been allotted.
(3) What was the reason of that division which allots the Holy Land to Israel?
Ans. Turn to Deuteronomy 32:8. Now, God does not always tell us his reasons;
he had a reason, and when he allotted that particular section of the country to
the people that were to be his chosen people, with a view to their influence
over other people, he gave them a strategical position with reference to the
countries of the world. He located them in the right place, showing how
far-reaching is God's plan; that he had picked out that section and allotted
that section. This has a good deal of bearing on the question of the
disposition of the Canaanites.
(4) The descendants of what son of Noah ignored the allotment?
Ans. Children of Ham. When they went from Babel, they took possession of the
country that was to be Shem's. So these Hamites took possession of that
country.
(5) Our lesson says that God is giving them this land he promised their
fathers. Now, prove that he had made that promise to the fathers.
Ans. Read Genesis 15:18-21: "In that day Jehovah made a covenant with
Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt
unto the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and
the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the
Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite." That is
the first promise to the fathers, which was four hundred years before this
crowd of people stood on the bank of the river Jordan.
Our section says, "as I spake unto Moses." Now, I want to see where
he said it to Moses. Turn to Deuteronomy 11:24, and Numbers 34:1. Now, what was
promised to Abram was restated to Moses: "And I will set thy border from
the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines) and from the wilderness unto
the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and
thou shalt drive them out before thee," (Ex. 23:31). "And the Lord
spake unto Moses saying, etc.," (Num. 34:1-12). "Every place whereon
the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and
Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the hinder sea shall be
your border" (Deut. 11:24).
15. What the boundaries of the land?
Ans. Numbers 34:3: "Your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of
Zin along by the side of Edom, and your south border shall be from the end of
the Salt Sea eastward; and your border shall turn about southward of the ascent
of Akrabbim, and pass along to Zin; and the goings out thereof shall be
southward of Kadesh-barnea; . . . unto the brook of Egypt [that is a bad
translation; it is river, i.e., "river of Egypt"] and the goings out
thereof shall be at the Sea." Notice that these translators are not
willing that the Nile shall be one of the boundaries. They changed the word
"river" to brook of Egypt, which is as dry as a powder house. So
instead of brook, I shall read river. "Now for the western border, ye
shall have the great sea [Mediterranean] and the border thereof; this shall be
your west border. And this shall be your north border: from the great sea ye
shall mark out for you Mount Hor; from Mount Hor ye shall mark out unto the
entrance of Hamath;... and the border shall go forth to Ziphron; . . .this
shall be the north border. And ye shall mark out your east border from
Hazar-enan to Shepham; . . . and the border shall go down to the Jordan, and
the goings out thereof shall be at the Salt Sea. [That is the Dead Sea.] This
shall be your land according to the borders thereof round about." Now, I
have been thus particular in giving you the Genesis account of the boundaries
of the countries and the Mosaic accounts and that leads to the next question.
16. Can you take a map and show the boundaries?
Ans. 1 never saw anyone yet that could do it. I have tried it, I suppose, on
100 Doctors of Divinity. Now, here are some sub-questions:
(1) What the difficulty in determining the boundaries?
Ans. What is meant by the river of Egypt? The translators translate it
"brook," being unwilling to think that it touched the Nile, which is
called the river of Egypt.
(2) What bearing has the name, Shihor, in determining what is the river of
Egypt?
Ans. Here are the scriptures: Joshua 13:3; I Chronicles 13:5; Isaiah 23:3;
Jeremiah 2:18. These passages show that the "river of Egypt" means
the Nile. That is where Shihor comes in in all those passages and is what is
called the east fork of the Nile, the Pelusium fork. You see when the Nile gets
low down it divides itself into a great many channels forming a delta, all of
which run into the Mediterranean Sea. The most eastern is called the Pelusium.
Now, this is where the Promised Land commenced. It was to be that Nile and
follow the fork of the Nile down until it struck the Mediterranean Sea.
(3) What is the southwest starting point in getting this boundary?
Ans. On the Mediterranean where the eastern branch of the Nile comes into the
Mediterranean Sea. There you get your start.
(4) Now give the western line.
Ans. You follow the Mediterranean Sea up until you get to what is called the
entering in of Hamath.
(5) Northern line?
Ans. I had my son to explore that line for me. He was then studying for his
Ph.D. degree in Berlin and he and two other boys explored the boundaries of the
Promised Land. And his letter was particularly interesting in which he told of
the entering of Hamath. It went above Damascus and beyond Damascus until it
struck the Euphrates River. So from the entering in of Hamath is the northern
line.
(6) Eastern line?
Ans. Now when it left the Euphrates to get the eastern line it came down the
wilderness of Arabia, leaving Gilead, Moab, and the Jordan River, and strikes
the lower side of the Dead Sea.
Now, the hardest of all borders is the southern. Moses tells exactly the line
to follow in that Numbers passage. You start at the southern extremity of the
Dead Sea and go to Kadesh-barnea, going just south of it, and go across to that
eastern branch of the Nile. It is an oblique line, Just like the northern line
is an oblique one.
(7) What things must determine the southern line?
Ans. The following things must determine: First, it must commence at the
southern part of the Dead Sea; second, it must not take in any of Edom: that is
Esau's country; they are expressly forbidden to enter that. Therefore it must
not go west from there but it must go northwest, leaving Kadesh-barnea to the
left, and go across the desert until it strikes the Pelusium, that eastern
branch of the Nile
(8) When were these boundaries realized?
Ans. Certainly not in Joshua's time, but they were in David and Solomon's
time. All the countries described in the Genesis 15, Numbers 34, and
Deuteronomy 11, that entire country, embraced the kingdom of David and Solomon.
17. (1) Who the people in the land, and how located?
Ans. These people, as I told you, were the descendants of Ham, who had
usurped the country that was never allotted to them. The list of the nations,
the great division of the nations, is given three times. I shall give one of
them. This list includes seven, though there were many subdivisions: First, the
Canaanites. Were these descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham? Some of them were
the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. But the word "Canaanites"
simply means lowlanders. The Canaanites dwelt in the low places. Second, the
Amorites, that means highlanders. They lived in the mountains. Third, the
Hittites. Hittites means descendants of Heth. You remember that Abraham bought
Machpelah from the children of Heth. The fourth, the Jebusites, and these
people occupied the whole country which included Jerusalem. From Jebus came the
name Jerusalem. Now, there were subdivisions until they made thirty-two in all.
Joshua tells us that he conquered thirty-two kings in taking possession of this
land. (For the location of all these and also the Hivites, the Perizzites and
the Girgashites see Bible Atlas.)
(2) What three nations besides these seven are very famous?
Ans. First, the Philistines. They were on the Mediterranean coast. Second,
the Amalekites. The Amalekites dwelt in the wilderness of Arabia south of the
Holy Land. Third, the Phoenicians. The chief cities of the Phoenicians are Tyre
and Sidon.
18. Describe their character.
Ans. Some of them were very learned, but their habits were very bestial.
Their religion in its worship was the worst form of prostitution. In other
words, the Bible describes their sin as so low down and beastly that the land
was ready to spew them out of its mouth.
THE MIRACULOUS PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN AND
EVENTS AT GILGAL Joshua 1:10 to 5:15
This section commences at Joshua 1:10 and extends to chapter 5. We will make more
rapid progress in the book, having gotten through with the preliminaries. The
theme is, miraculous passage of the Jordan and the marvelous events that
occurred at Gilgal after they passed the Jordan.
1. Analyze Joshua's commandment to the people.
Ana. (1) He commanded them to get ready to cross the Jordan in three days.
(2) He commanded that the armed men of the two tribes located east of the
Jordan, the Reubenites, Gadites and the rest of the tribes help to conquer the
lands on the east side.
2. What word is repeatedly stressed by Joshua in this command to the two and a
half tribes? What use previously made of this word by Moses and will be made of
it by the writers of both Old and New Testaments?
Ans. The word "rest." We find that Moses uses that word in
Deuteronomy 25:19, 19th verse where he says, "When you have been
established in Canaan and God has given you rest." We find the same word
employed in Psalm 95, where there is a reference to those who did not enter
into the rest because of their disobedience. They died by the wayside. And in
Hebrews 3:7, and 4:13, there is a continuous discussion of that
"rest" as applied to Joshua the type of Jesus Christ. It will be very
interesting for you to study that in Hebrews particularly, because in it lies
the cream of the discussion of the New Testament sabbath.
3. What condition was prescribed by Moses in allotting territory east of the
Jordan to the two and a half tribes, and what solemn promises had they made?
Ans. If you will turn to Numbers 32:20-24, you will find that Moses, when
these people asked to have the east part as their part, told them that the only
condition upon which it would be granted was that when the Jordan was crossed
they should send these tribes and help to conquer the other land, and they made
a solemn promise to Moses that when the time came they would do that very thing
4. How did they respond to that promise, and what the later evidence of a fair
fulfilment of it?
Ans. You learn from your lesson 1:16-18, that they readily recalled what they
had promised to Moses and promptly announced their Willingness to do what they
said they would do. If you turn to Joshua 22:1-8, you will find that at the end
of the conquest Joshua gives them a receipt in full of having kept their
promise to the letter.
5. How long were they thus away from
their own homes, wives and children and property, that is, the men of the
Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and what comment do you
make on this fidelity?
Ans. Generally, I will say that they were away from their wives and children
and property seven years. And the comment is that there is no parallel to this
in the history of the world. All the able-bodied men leaving their homes, wives
and children and property and going away armed to engage in a terrible war that
was to be prosecuted west of the river, fulfilling their engagement to the
letter before they ever go back and enjoy their rest as the other tribes were now
prepared to do.
6. What event preceded the passage of the Jordan, and what the salient points
of the story?
Ans. This event was the sending out of the two spies by Joshua to find out
the condition of the country and report back to Joshua. The salient points of
the story are: (1) When these two men went into Jericho they were received at
this lodging-house of a harlot. Why? Probably if they had gone to one of the
regular inns or caravansaries they would have been apprehended by the officers
of the king. But the true reason was that this woman, because she believed in
Jehovah, invited them to come to her house. (2) What the evidences of her
faith? These evidences are as follows:
(a) What she did. She received, lodged, sheltered, and protected the messengers
of God's people because they were God's people. That was her motive,
illustrating the words of our Lord in his address to his apostles, "When I
send you into the city, you go to a house, and if there be a son of peace in
that house, let your peace rest on that house" (Matt. 10). And where he
further says, "Whosoever receiveth you receiveth me, and whosoever
receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's
reward." Now, this woman did so receive these people.
(b) What she said. Read exactly what she said, chapter 2:8-11: "And before
they were laid down she came up unto them upon the roof; and she said unto the
men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is
fallen upon us. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red
Sea for you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of
the Amorites, that were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye
utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our hearts did melt
because of you; 'for the Lord your God he is in heaven above and in earth
beneath." Now, that is what she said. Then notice further (c) what she did
as an evidence of her faith.
She asked that as she had sheltered them as messengers of God's people, when
they came to take possession of Jericho, they would exempt her and her family
from the doom that would fall upon the city. And they gave her a duty to
perform as a token. First, that she would bring her kindred into her house and
stay there. The walls of Jericho would fall in the other parts of the city but
not in that part. Second, that she was to hang a scarlet cord out of the window
through which she had let down the spies to enable them to escape over the
wall. The binding of the scarlet thread in the window was the token.
(d) The fourth evidence is found in Hebrews 11:31, and James 2:25. Another
salient point in connection with the story of the spies is that this woman
married an Israelite and became an ancestress of Boaz, David, and our Lord. We
read about that when we come to Ruth and when we read the genealogy in the New
Testament. The next incident is the great sermon preached by Spurgeon on the
text, "And she bound the scarlet thread in the window." He puts a
good deal of stress on the "scarlet" as referring to the blood of
salvation. The last point is, the spies returned and reported to Joshua that
their enemies were panic stricken.
7. What the arrangement or program of crossing the Jordan?
Ans. (1) They must sanctify themselves. That means that they were to perform
the ablutions that are required in that kind of setting apart to the service of
God, and offer the sacrifice
(2) That the ark must precede the marching by a sabbath day's journey, 2,000
cubits.
(3) That God himself would that day magnify Joshua in the eyes of the people as
he had magnified Moses at the passage of the Red Sea.
(4) That God's presence would be manifested in marvelous power.
(5) The cutting off of the waters of the Jordan, not dividing them as the Red Sea
was divided, but cutting them off.
(6) That Israel should pass over safely.
(7) That a memorial should be erected of that passage.
8. Describe the execution of this program and the effect on their enemies,
Joshua 5:1.
Ans. It is of thrilling interest that just as at the passage of the Red Sea
they were to stand still and see the power of the Lord, so here. That was
something which God would do, not they themselves. Just as soon as the priests,
carrying the ark (a sabbath day's journey), touched the edge of the swollen
waters of the Jordan, that very moment, as if a knife had been let down from
heaven, the Jordan was cut in two, and all the waters below flowed on to the
Dead Sea and all the waters coming down from above, that mighty rush of the "Descender,"
were stayed there and massed up and the backwater extended for over thirty
miles. By the breath of the Almighty, that turbulent tide in the day of its
flood, flowing over that down grade, stopped right there, damned up, not by a
wall, but by the Word of God, and there stood the priests in silence, carrying
the ark of God. As soon as the way was open, the priests standing still, the
whole of that mighty host of 3,000,000 people with all of their animals and
goods passed over that empty bed of the river.
Joshua commanded one representative of each tribe to take a rock out of the bed
of the river and right where the priests had been standing in the bed of the
river, each one of the men should take a rock on his shoulder, and they should
carry those stones, and they did just that way. Here came twelve
representatives and took up twelve huge rocks and carried them ahead of the
column and never put them down until they got to the place where they were
going to lodge, and there those stones were placed together as an everlasting
memorial of that deliverance. The effect upon the enemy was that it intensified
their panic. God said that those Canaanite inhabitants should know that he was
God and the story of that divine presence and the display of his power is
circled around the world through all the succeeding ages.
9. How do you reconcile Joshua 4:9, with Joshua 4:20?
Ans. Joshua 4:9, says that Joshua took stones and set up a column right where
the priests had stood in the bed of the river, and 4:20, says that they took
the stones across the river and a memorial was erected at the place where they
stopped. There are only two ways of reconciling those two statements. One is
that the pillar that was erected by Joshua where the priests stood was done not
by the command of God, but appropriately done to mark the spot where the
priests stood. It is not said that they used the twelve memorial stones carried
by the representatives of the tribes, to build that structure. A good many
commentaries say there were two monuments erected, one in the bed of the river
and another in the camp where they remained a long while, even years. Now, that
is one explanation and the more probable one. Another explanation is, that in
reading Joshua 4:9, you read it this way, "and Joshua set up the twelve
stones taken from the midst of the Jordan where the feet of the priests had
stood who bare the Ark of the Covenant." That is a simple statement of
what is going to be more elaborately stated in verse 20 and provides for only
one monument The first is a brief statement and the second a more elaborate
statement. I will leave you to wrestle with the apparent contradiction.
10. What evidences in the later prophets that Israel misused this memorial of Gilgal
by making it a place of idolatry? Give a similar case.
Ans. (1) You will find in Hosea 4:15; 9:15, and Amos 4:4-5.
(2) The similar case was the case of the brazen serpent. The brazen serpent
that had been lifted up in the wilderness was kept as a memorial, but in
Hezekiah's time the people began to burn incense to it and Hezekiah broke it to
pieces, saying, "Nehushtan," it is only a piece of brass.
11. What the educational uses of this memorial and what similar use of a
preceding memorial?
Ans. This section tells us in 4:21-24, that when the children asked,
"Why do you bring these rocks from the river? Why do you set them up
here?" they should diligently teach their children that it commemorated
the great power of God in cutting off the waters of the Jordan, that his people
might pass over in safety. What similar use of a preceding memorial? You will
find it in Exodus 12:26-27. They were to eat the first Passover standing with
their loins girt about them. Now, after that in their later history the first
thing little children will say, "This is a strange dinner, being bitter
herbs, roasted lambs, and eating it standing." Then you may say to your
children, "This is the Lord's Passover." I think these two incidents
about the educational use of the memorials contains a very fine lesson showing
the duty of parents whenever a child asks, "Why these monuments?" The
first time I ever noticed the Fourth of July, I asked, "Why, what does
this mean?" A child naturally asks "why" about Christmas. And a
stranger looking at Bunker Hill Monument will ask, "Why this
monument?" In Austin, near the Capitol, there is a monument that
commemorates the Alamo. On the battlefield of San Jacinto is one, and on my
pocketbook is inscribed what is written on the sides of that monument.
12. What the name of the place where the memorial was erected, its location,
and how long did that place remain headquarters of the nation?
Ans. The place derived its name from an event that took place there, viz.:
circumcision. Gilgal was in the upper part of Judea and not a great way, only a
few miles, from Jericho, and for years the Ark rested there, and it was the
place of assembly for the nation. It remained until we come to Joshua 18;
there, after the conquest, Shiloh is selected as the headquarters until the ark
was captured by the Philistines. Later that ark was brought to Jerusalem, as
their headquarters throughout the rest of their history.
13. What great events happened in that first camp?
Ans. (1) The males of the younger generation were circumcised. They had not
circumcised any children during the thirty-eight years of wanderings. The old
generation had passed away and everybody born in the thirty-eight years, of
course, was uncircumcised. Now at that place they were circumcised.
(2) The second great event that took place was that their manna ceased. For
forty years that manna had been coming down from heaven) but now they were
eating of the new harvest of the Promised Land, and the temporary provision for
their food ceased when it was no longer necessary; the cessation of the manna
which was a standing miracle for forty years.
(3) The third great event was that there they kept the Passover. No Passover
had been kept since they left Mount Sinai.
(4) The most important event that happened there was the appearance to Joshua
of a pre-manifestation of Christ, a man with a drawn sword, the captain of the
hosts of the Lord. In other words, Joshua, the type, meets face to face, in
pre-manifestation, Christ, the antitype.
14. In the meantime what the state of Jericho, and why was the enemy idle while
Joshua was remaining so long at Gilgal?
Ans. See Joshua 5:11; 6:1. We learn from these passages of scripture, why.
The first says the people of Jericho were under an awful fear of the people
whose God could open that river, and the second reason is that they had shut
their gates; that Jericho was sealed up because the Israelites were lying so
near.
15. Describe and explain the meeting of Joshua, the type, with the pre-manifestation
of Christ, the antitype.
Ans. Now, that explanation is given in 5:13-15. Joshua going his rounds meets
a man standing with a drawn sword, who approached him and said, "Are you
for us or against us?" The man said, "I am the captain of the host of
Jehovah." Later it says the Lord spoke to Joshua, but it means Jehovah.
The object of the meeting of the captain on earth with the captain in heaven
was to arrange the program for the capture of Jericho. As for the things that
would follow that in overcoming the enemy, the people were to do nothing
active. Jericho was to be taken by the Almighty and everything in it was
devoted, put under ban, consecrated to Jehovah; the inhabitants to die, the
property to go to the service of the sanctuary. This is he who later becomes
captain of our salvation, who is known in the New Testament as the rider of the
white horse, going forth, having written on his thigh, "King of kings and
Lord of lords." This pre-manifestation of Christ outlines Joshua's campaign,
establishes them, God opening the way.
16. Now here is a question. It says, 5:9, "This day I have rolled away the
reproach of Egypt from off you." Now, what was this rolling away of the
reproach of Egypt?
Ans. "The reproach of Egypt" was the charge they made that Jehovah
Was not able to deliver Israel into the Promised Land. Now, since he has
delivered them, he has "rolled away the reproach of Egypt" from off
them. (Ex. 32:12; Num. 14:13-16; Deut. 9:28).
THE FALL OF JERICHO, AI, EBAL, AND GERIZIM
Joshua 6:1 to 10:43
This section commences with Josh. 6:1 and the first item of the discussion is
the capture of Jericho. The method of the capture of Jericho was intensely
spectacular. The dramatic feature of it was cumulative; it got more intense
every day. We have only to read two or three verses to see just what was done,
and such a thing as was never done before or since, but done in the taking of
the city. No sword was unsheathed, no man struck a blow in the capture of that
place. The priests with the jubilee trumpets, not the ordinary trumpets, led
the procession, seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days round that city. They
would blow and the people were silent, not a word in the ranks. Once a day for
six days they marched all around the high walls of Jericho and on the seventh
day they went round it seven times, and at the close of the seventh time the
trumpets sounded and the people shouted and the walls of Jericho fell, and each
one in his position in their circuit, marched over the fallen walls and
captured the city. It was God's work throughout. You will notice that this
capture was discriminative; that place in the wall where the house of Rahab
stood did not fall; every other place fell.
The next thought in the capture of this city is that it was devoted. Learn the
meaning of that word "devoted." That means, when it applies to man,
that death occurs; when it applies to materials as spoils, that it belongs to
Jehovah. The Israelites had nothing to do with the capture of the city. It was
entirely God's. And the strongest prohibition was issued, that no man must rob
God by appropriating to himself any part of the spoils which had been set apart
for Jehovah's own use.
Now, we come to another feature of the capture, and that is a curse was
pronounced on any man that ever attempted to rebuild the walls of Jericho, not
Jericho the city, for that still existed, but the fortified part of the city,
where the arms were kept. It must never be rebuilt. Turn to I Kings 16:34, and
read that verse: "In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho; he
laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up
the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the
word of Jehovah which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun." That is many
hundred years after Joshua spoke that word, and there you come to a great text
and a very appropriate one, if you are going to make a prohibition address. One
of the great arguments for the continuance of the sale of ardent spirits in a
city is that it promotes the interests of the city; that the grass would grow
in the streets of a city if you did not allow it. The statement is erroneous,
but if it were true, men ought not to lay the foundation of the city in the
souls of men.
You will notice that the next says that Joshua, whom they had supported as
leader in this, acquired great fame by the fall of Jericho throughout all the
Promised Land; among the enemies the fame and dread of Joshua spread.
It is in connection with the capture of this city that we come across the sin
of Achan, and that is the second thought for us to discuss. The text says,
"Israel's sin," and the context shows that on Israel fell the
punishment The real sinner was one person, Achan. Now, the question comes up,
With what propriety can the action of a man with which the others had nothing
to do, be called the sin of Israel and the Israelites be punished for the sin?
You recall a passage in Corinthians, recently studied, where Paul accuses the
church of sin in that it had retained one man and covered up the sin of that
man that took his father's wife, and he went on to say that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump. So when you look at the solidarity of the people,
their unity, or the solidarity of the church, a sin committed by one member
that passes unrebuked will become the sin of the entire organization, and the
whole body must suffer the penalty for what one does, because they being many
constitute one body.
That is why this is called Israel's sin.
I ask you to notice again the cause of this sin; it was covetousness. He knew
about the prohibition; that he didn't capture Jericho but God captured it, and
that its spoils were devoted by the word of God, but he saw some gold and a
goodly Babylonish garment and he took them and hid them in his tent. The people
knew nothing about this sin. So far as they were concerned, it was a covered
sin, and it doesn't keep a ship from sinking when a leak is there, be it
unknown to the captain of the crew. So that a covered sin is even more
dangerous than a sin that is in the open. A fire that is merely smouldering,
sending forth no blaze and no smoke, is more dangerous than a fire that
advertises itself with its illumination and its roar, because in that case you
can hedge against its spreading, but if it is unseen it spreads beyond control.
We now come to the nature of his offence. It was not ordinary stealing. It was
not ordinary dishonesty. It was that blasphemy which robs God. You will recall
in the New Testament that when the church had just started on its progress and
donations were being given, people would sell their land and come and say,
"It is all the price of the land," Ananias and his wife conspired
together to keep back a portion of the price and thus lied not to man, but unto
God, and if that sin had not at the beginning been punished by instant death,
the church never would have retained its power. Just as in this new nation
coming among enemies with a world of conquest just ahead of them, their sole
dependence was keeping in favor with God. Whoever then lost them the favor of
God practically would bring about their destruction; therefore, it was not a
case for mercy. Now, we find Israel paying the penalty of that sin. A
detachment of men was sent out to Ai, their next stronghold, and to their own
surprise they became panic stricken and fled and a number of them lost their
lives. You can see the significance of their defeat. The enemy had been panic
stricken and the only way to succeed was to keep up their prestige. This defeat
took away from the enemy their fear of Israel, and unless that sin had been
discovered and speedily punished, Israel would have been beaten back across the
Jordan or enslaved in a very short time. But one of the most remarkable things
in connection with the sin of Achan is God's omniscient method of ascertaining
and exposing it. Dr. Burleson preached all over Texas from this text. "Be
sure your sin will find you out.". And a great sermon of Jonathan Edwards
that spread over a quarter of the nation and resulted in the conversion of
250,000 people was from this text, "Their feet shall slide in due
time." "Sinners in the hands of an angry God"; there is no
escape from the omniscient eye of God. There is no getting away from his
presence, there is no evasion of his omnipotence. A man who has committed a sin
is like a horse staked out on the prairie; the stake rope may be long but yet
it is not long enough to enable him to be free. He can go only to the end of
his tether, and every time the horse walks around the stake pin, shortens his
tether, and after a time it brings his nose right up to the stake pin. So is
any sinner in the hands of God.
When God maketh an inquisition for sin, he remembers, he doesn't forget, he
knows where to go to look for it. It has chanced that three times I have
preached from the text, "Be sure your sin will find you out," at ten
years' interval, and each time I preached some one came and made me a confession
that I never told, but the confessions of the strangest and most awful sin, and
one of them was a young preacher. I have never been so puzzled as I have been
puzzled by these three confessions. In two of these cases I was able not only
to suggest a remedy, but to put the remedy into effect. The third case was not
in any power of mine. Now, God's plan was this: The whole camp, 3,000,000 of
them, were drawn up and they were ordered to march by Jehovah, that is, where
his presence was, at the tabernacle, and God would say which tribe, and he took
one of the twelve tribes, Judah, and they were required to march by again and
God designated which clan of Judah (the Zarhites) held the criminal, and that
clan was required to pass by and God designated the head of the family, and the
family was required to pass by and God designated the man. It is a remarkable
exhibition of sin by divine Providence. When exposed, Achan confessed his sin
and the Israelites, by purging themselves, regained the power over their
enemies which they had lost. Following this detection and punishment of Achan's
sin, Ai easily falls before Joshua, as our chapter tells us and I need not
repeat.
Now, with the conquest of Ai the children of Israel were established in an
exceedingly strong strategical position. They struck a country sideways, about
the center; they camped in the mountainous part that held the open ways to the
south, and the open ways to the north, and the open ways to the west. Therefore
we have an account of the first league. The nations around saw that no one
nation could stand before Israel, and that as Israel was coming against all of
them, it behooved them to make a defensive league. All the Amorites who held
mountain country entered into that league except one nation, the Gibeonites,
who held four cities in the mountains and controlled certain mountain passes.
These Gibeonites came before Joshua disguised in apparel and in every way, and
they told Joshua that they had heard of him and of Israel and that they came in
peace. Now, Israel was allowed to make a league with other nations than the
Canaanites, the enemies that inhabited the territory of Israel, therefore it
was necessary to make treaty with these people. The only error of which they
were guilty was in not asking God before they made it. It was found out that
the Gibeonites' territory lay in that path just ahead of them, but the covenant
had been made and it was agreed that their lives should be spared, but they
should become hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Israelites. This gave
Joshua control of the crest of the land.
This brings us to consider the binding power of a nation's obligation to God.
It is just as important as that of individuals. If the United States makes a
treaty with another nation, the national honor is involved in due observance of
that treaty. Therefore this treaty with the Gibeonites, having been made, had
to stand. Later we will see that Saul violated that covenant and his sons were
hanged to pay for the violation of the covenant that was made with the
Gibeonites. There are some people who say that one generation cannot bind
another generation. Mr. Jefferson, in his works, goes dangerously near if not
altogether right up to the thought that involves the very destruction of the
idea of national responsibility, viz.: that every generation should be bound
only by the obligations that that generation assumed. That would not have
worked and did not work in the Achan case, and no statesman ought to stand in
office who advises the people to disregard a national obligation. We have to
meet it; we have to pay it. Suppose England should repudiate its national debt
because this generation did not contract that debt, she would destroy all modem
civilization. If the British debt was repudiated, the foundation of both
continents would be destroyed.
Now, having obtained this strategical position, we come to Ebal and Gerizim.
They are the two mountains that face each other. In Deuteronomy Moses commanded
that when they got over into the land they must place half of the people on
Mount Ebal and half on Mount Gerizirn and the priests with the ark in between,
and the law should be read. When you come to the curses, the six tribes on
Mount Ebal shall cry out "Amen"; and when you come to the blessings
the six tribes on Mount Gerizirn shall cry out "Amen"; and when you
come to the end of the law, all of the twelve tribes shall cry out
"Amen." It was a scene earth never witnessed before, mountaintop
speaking to mountaintop. The voice of the people aligning themselves with the
decrees of God and pronouncing themselves to be cursed if they disobeyed and to
be blessed if they obeyed.
The next item in our history is that five mountain kings, Adoni-zedek, king of
Jerusalem, and Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, and Japhia, king
of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon, were to make war on the Gibeonites (Jebus
means City of Judah, finally called Jerusalem), because they had practically
surrendered to Joshua and it behooved these nations to stand together and to
punish the traitor. This is what they thought. Notice that Adonizedek is king
of Jerusalem, that her king is no longer Melchidedek. You will find in your
Hurlbut's Atlas many maps that show Jerusalem, and you will have to study about
Jerusalem all through the Bible, and when you get up to heaven to the New
Jerusalem, you will still study about it. This is the first time you come to
it.
This brings us to the great decisive battle of Beth-horon. When the Gibeonites
found themselves invaded by these five allied kings, they sent a rapid
messenger to Joshua at Gilgal, after he had gotten through the Ebal and
Gerizirn matter. It is a very urgent appeal, "Come quick!" And Joshua
marches all night and makes a certain attack and that brings about the decisive
battle of Beth-horon. There are three stages: The first stage, Joshua attacks
and discomfits them; they begin to retreat and seem to be about to get away.
That brings us to the second stage, when God intervenes with an electric storm,
an awful storm of hailstones, and more of that allied army perish by hailstones
than by the sword of Joshua's people. Hailstones are very large sometimes. If
you take your encyclopaedia, you will find that a hailstone once fell that
passed through a battleship and sank it, and another hailstone fell on land
that buried itself, that weighed several tons, being as big as a house. You
remember the remarkable account of the plague in Egypt and its awful
destructive power, and if you ever have a chance to go to see the moving
picture show of the life of Moses, you will see that hailstorm just as vividly
as if you were standing looking on it, and you will see it kill cattle and
people. In the third stage of the battle, the allies had been defeated, then
they had been discomfited by the hailstorm. Joshua saw that a great deal
depended on keeping the ranks together and so with sublime audacity he said,
"Stand still," to the sun, and "Thou moon," that is, let
the day be prolonged, and the record says that the sun did stand still and the
moon, and that the day was so prolonged that there was no day like it before in
the history of the world and none after it An infidel once said to me, "Do
you know what Joshua ought to have done? He ought to have said, 'Stand still, 0
earth.' " I said, "You are very smart in your knowledge of science.
You could not stop the earth if you don't stop the sun." The earth is a
satellite and the moon is a satellite, and the earth's motion is of two kinds,
centripetal and centrifugal, those forces combined make a circular motion that
carries the earth around the sun. Just like a mechanic with a complicated piece
of machinery in order to stop the outlying wheels, all he has to do is to stop
the main wheel. If you want to talk about the language of science Joshua said
exactly the right thing.
Now comes up the question about that miracle. It is perfectly foolish for
people to waste time in the discussion of the credibility of miracles, the
supernatural. All you have to do is just admit one thing God. Now, if there
be a God, he can just as well control that which is above nature as nature
itself. According to Horace in his Art of Poetry, "Never introduce a god
unless there is a necessity for a god." Well, it certainly was necessary.
Upon that battle hinged all the southern part of the Promised Land. That battle
would have been no more than a skirmish if these nations had gotten away and
gotten into their walled cities. What was necessary was to have time, daylight
enough to prosecute the work So the God that intervened at the passage of the
Red Sea and at the Jordan, and in shaking down the walls of Jericho, intervened
here. Now, it is the object of the miracle to accredit, to attest. Joshua
needed to be accredited; there must be the most overwhelming evidence that he
stood for God. If he stood in heat of battle and commanded the sun to stand
still and the sun stood still, and the moon, and God heard him, then he stood
accredited before the people, before the nations of the earth.
This brings us to the book called Jasher. What is the book of Jasher? "Is
not this written in the book of Jasher?" Now notice the full quotation:
"Is not this written in the book of Jasher? so the sun stood still in the
midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no
day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of
a man; for the Lord fought for Israel. And Joshua returned and all Israel with
him, unto the camp to Gilgal." That last sentence is a part of the
quotation, for Joshua had not returned yet, but after the event, it was written
in the book of Jasher. That was the poem that was said to have been written in
that book of Jasher. It was a book of poems that selected the great events in
Jewish history. Twice it is referred to in the Old Testament. David's song was
written in it and this poem on the battle of Beth-horon was put in it.
Still going back to the battle, they pursued the enemy until the five kings
took refuge in a cave and Joshua sealed the mouth of the cave with a stone and
still pursued until the destruction of the enemy was complete, and the result
of the battle was that while there were few enemies left in the city, he kept
marching on, taking one town after another until we come to this description,
that his conquest extended from Goshen to Gath; from Goshen to Kadesh, Negeb,
Hebron, to the Dead Sea. Here comes up a question about Joshua, and some of
these people that can believe half things, but are utterly at a loss to believe
all things. Some believe that Goshen was not a border of Israel. We will take
the definition of the Bible. Don't look at your commentaries, look at the
Bible. It shows that by this one battle Joshua captured all the country upon
the Mediterranean coast to Gath and from Gath to Jerusalem, and from there to
Hebron, and from there to the lower edge of the Dead Sea, and extending up on a
line with Goshen. One battle practically gave him the whole of the south
country. I will add this, that the five kings were executed and then hanged on
a tree, for "cursed is every man that is hanged on a tree."
I have one other remark to make. Later on in the book and even in the book of
Judges you will find references to the conquest of certain places in this
southern country that only Joshua took, but when you look at the details it
mentions the junior officers that took it. From instance, Kirby Smith attacked
the Federal outposts on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg and all on one
day, and yet it was General McCullough, one of his subordinate officers, that
attacked one point, and General Young that attacked another point. Now, if I
should see in the life of Kirby Smith that he accomplished all that, and later
if I take up the life of General McCullough and find that he took certain
points, I would know which one was there. I do know, for I was there in it.
Now, just so with these later accounts that some people use to indicate that
the book of Joshua was not written until after the book of Judges. There is no
evidence to show that any of these events occurred after the book of Judges,
but they are generally stated here, and later, in putting the events of
Joshua's life, they will be specifically considered as when we come to the
tribe of Dan.
QUESTIONS
1. Describe the capture of
Jericho.
2. What discrimination in
this capture?
3. What is the meaning of
"devoted," & what prohibition was issued?
4. What curse was pronounced
on the rebuilder of Jericho, its fulfilment and a present day application of
the text?
5. What exaltation of Joshua
as the result, & the effect on his enemies?
6. Why called Israel's sin
and why Israel's punishment? Give New Testament explanation.
7. What its cause?
8. Its nature?
9. Its effect?
10. Effect of social sin?
11. Its result?
12. Significance of defeat
of Ai?
13. What its method of
exposure?
14. Its confession and
punishment? Give New Testament example.
15. What was the first
league?
16. Give the case of the
Gibeonites.
17. What of the covenant
made with them and who violated it and the result?
18. What the application to
modern nations?
19. What command did Moses
give concerning this transaction?
20. Describe its fulfilment.
21. Describe the confederacy
against the Gibeonites, and why its necessity?
22. Describe the great
decisive battle that followed, giving its 3 stages.
23. What the book of Jasher?
What other reference to it?
24. What the result of the
campaign? Outline the South Country.
CONQUEST OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES; ALLOTMENT
OF TERRITORY; ESTABLISHMENT OF A CENTRAL PLACE OF WORSHIP. Joshua 11-2l
This section commences with Joshua II and closes with chapter 21. That is to
say, we must cover in this discussion eleven chapters,, and the matter is of
such a nature that one cannot make an oration on it, nor can one give a very
interesting discussion on it. It would be perfect folly for me to take up the
chapters verse by verse, when all you have to do is to look on your map in the
Biblical Atlas and glance at any commentary and get the meaning and locality of
each town mentioned. All of the matters that require comment will be commented
on in these eleven chapters.
The first theme is the conquest of the tribes in the northern part of the Holy
Land, just as the preceding chapter considered the central and southern part of
the land. You know I told you that Joshua, by entering the country at Jericho
and then capturing Ai, occupied a strategical position, the mountains on the
right hand and the left hand and they forced a passway by which he could go in
any direction. We found that all the southern part of the country, after the
capture at Jericho and Ai, was practically brought about by one decisive
battle, the battle of Beth-horon, where the Almighty thundered and sent his
hailstones and where the sun stood still. Now, the northern conquest was
brought about by one decisive battle, all of the details that it is necessary
for me to give are these: When the northern tribes learned of the subjugation
of the southern tribes they saw that it was a life and death matter.
From this viewpoint they would be conquered in detail. As Benjamin Franklin
said in a speech at the Continental Congress, "Gentlemen, we cannot evade
this issue; we must either hang together or hang separately, every one of us if
we don't unite will be hanged." Now, that was in the minds of those
northern kings. We have had the account of Adonizedek, the king of Jebus. Hazor
was a well-known place in the history of the countries. We will have it up
again in the book of Judges. It was not very far from Caesarea Philippi, where
Peter made his great confession in the time of our Lord.
I will not enumerate the tribes and the names of the several kings that were brought
into this second league It not only included the central and northern tribes,
but they sent an invitation to the remnant of the tribes that had been
conquered. The place of rendezvous, or assemblage, for all of these armies of
these several kings was Lake Merom. You will recall that in describing the
Jordan, rising in the mountains, after running a while, it spreads out into
Lake Merom, and lower down it spreads into the Sea of Galilee. Well, now around
that Merom Lake the ground is level, very favorable for calvary and war
chariots. For the first time the war chariot was introduced. The war chariot
was more, in general, the shape of a dray than anything else two wheels,
steps behind that one could go down, and one chieftain and two or three captains
stood up and drove two or three horses, and they always drove the horses
abreast, no matter how many. The men who drove were very skillful but unless
they were very lucky they would fall to the ground. In the time of Cyrus the
Great, he built one with blades that went out from the sides, so that it not
only crippled those he ran over but the scythes on each side would mow them
down.
Joshua learned of this combination of tribes and, under the direction of the
Almighty, he smote them before they could organize. He was a Stonewall Jackson
kind of a man and struck quick and hard. He pressed and pursued them and led
his army up the valley of the Jordan by swift marches and instantly attacked
the enemy when he got upon the ground and before they were prepared. Their
defeat was the most overwhelming in history. All of the leaders were captured
and slain; they dispersed in three directions specified in the text, and he
pursued them in all three directions. He gave them no time to rally, and when
they had been thoroughly discomfited, he took the towns. That battle was
practically the end of the war of conquest. We may say the whole thing was
decided in this battle; there were some details of conquest later, but this is
Joshua's part of it. I must call attention specifically to this fact,
overlooked by many commentaries, that the general statement of the conquest is
given in the book of Joshua and the details of some of these general statements
are given more elaborately, indeed the last great item, the migration of Dan,
in the book of Judges. All that happened before Joshua died. Therefore the book
of Judges and the book of Joshua overlap as to time. And for this reason, that
as soon as Joshua got through with his conquest, and the distribution of
territory, he retired from leadership, living years afterward. The instant the
war was over, Joshua surrendered the general leadership.
Just here I wish to answer another question. While the record notes that Joshua
conquered all the land that Jehovah had originally promised to those people,
yet the book of Joshua also states that there remained certain portions of the
land that had not been conquered. The backbone of the opposition was broken by
these two battles and by the cities that he captured after these battles, but
the enemy would come back and occupy their old position and some of the walled
towns were not taken.
I once heard the question asked a Sunday school, Why did God permit the
remnants that you will find described later on in this section, the parts not
subjugated, to remain? Nobody in the Sunday school could answer. Now, you will
find the answer to the question in Num. 33:55; Josh. 23:13; Judges 2:3. Moses
says, "If you do not utterly destroy these people leaving none, then God
will permit those remnants that you spare to become thorns in your side, and
whenever you are weak they will rise against you; whenever you are disobedient
to God they will triumph over you." It is stated here that the number of
the kings of the separate tribes overcome by Joshua was thirty-one Part of this
section says that Joshua waged war a long time with these kings. While this
battle was fought and became decisive of the general results, the going out and
capturing the different towns, completing the different details, required a
long time.
Now we come to the next theme of our lesson, viz.: The distribution of the
land, or allotment of specific parts of the territory to the tribes. We have
already found in the books of Moses just how the eastern side of the Jordan was
conquered and the allotment made to Reuben just above Moab, and to Gad just
above Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh way up in Gilead. This is on the
east side of the Jordan, and the Biblical Atlas will show you at the first
glance where they are. So that is the first distribution: Reuben, Gad and the
half-tribe of Manasseh.
The next distribution takes place under the commandment of God. Joshua is old,
well stricken in years and wants the land divided while he lives because he
knows it will be divided right, and this, too, is the land allotted to Judah
and the land allotted to Joseph, or Ephraim, and the half tribe of Manasseh. So
we have two and one-half tribes receiving their portion on the west side of the
Jordan. That leaves seven tribes who have not yet received their land. In
giving Judah his part three interesting events occurred, all of which were in
connection with Caleb. Caleb is one of the original twelve men sent out by
Moses to spy out the land, and because of his fidelity God promised that he should
have Hebron, Abraham's old home, which is not far from the Dead Sea. It has
always been a noted place and is yet. Before this division took place, Caleb
presented himself and asked for the fulfilment of the promise by Moses, that
his particular part should be Hebron and when that was done, Caleb's daughter,
Achsah, steps forward and asks of her father springs of water, and he gave her
the upper and nether springs.
The third fact is related at length in Judges, but it occurs at this time.
Caleb having the certain portion, Kiriathsepher, the enemy of Hebron, he said
that whoever should go over into that city first and capture it, he should have
his daughter for a wife, and a very brave fellow, a nephew of Caleb, determined
to try it and he took that city and got the girl. Now, that was a deed of
daring, and like it was in the Middle Ages where a knight went forth and sought
adventures that would entitle him to be his lady's husband. All young fellows
feel that they would surmount any difficulty to win a girl. I have felt that
way. I felt that way when I was seven years old and about a certain young lady.
There isn't anything too dangerous or too great a sacrifice for a man to make
in a case of that kind.
I told you when Judah received his part that Joseph's tribe received theirs.
Now we come to an interesting episode; the tribe of Joseph, and particularly
the tribe of Ephraim, was always a tough proposition. You will find that all
the way through the Old Testament and even when you come to the New Testament.
Ephraim came up and when the allotment was made he said, "We are not
satisfied." Did you ever hear of people who were not satisfied about a
division of land? Joshua said, "What is the trouble?" "Well,
they said, "we are a big tribe, many men of war, and we are cooped up too
much. We cannot go far west for there are the mountains, and then all around
are woods." Now, what did Joshua say to them? He said, "Well, you are
indeed a big tribe and you have many men of war; now go up and cut down those woods
and expand'" He determined to rest some responsibility upon the tribes
after the allotment had been made. It is a fine piece of sarcasm. So Ephraim
had to take to the woods.
Now before any other division takes place a very notable event occurred affecting
the future history of the nation, and that was the establishment of a central
place of worship, finding a home for the tabernacle. The tabernacle was
established at Shiloh, and this brings us to another general question. How long
did that tabernacle stay at Shiloh? How long did the ark stay, and when it left
there, where did it go, and where was the ark finally brought? Trace the
history of the ark from Shiloh to where it was set up in the tent, and then I
want you to tell what became of the tent and tell how long it stayed there and
what became of it. What became of the tabernacle? Some of the most interesting
things in history and song are found in the answer to those questions.
I here propound another question. Which tribe had no inheritance, no section of
the country allotted to it, and why? This tribe that had no particular section
allotted to it was scattered over the whole nation and that leads to the next
question that you are to answer. Where do you find the prophecy in the
Pentateuch, in which book, and where, that this tribe and another one, Simeon,
should be scattered over Israel? Where does Moses prophesy just what comes to
pass? If not Moses, then somebody else, and you are to find out who did and
when and where. The next general remark that I have to make is that this
section tells us that Dan was shut up in a pretty tight place. Three strong
tribes, Judah, Benjamin and Ephraim held them on one side and the Philistines
on the other side, but Dan didn't come to Joshua. Perhaps he thought it but
took the question into his own hands. I suppose that he was afraid that as
Joshua told Ephraim to go to the woods, he would tell Dan to capture those
Philistine cities, and so Dan sent out some spies and found a good place to
settle, and the story of the emigration of Dan is told at great length in the
book of Judges. Some of it is told in the book of Joshua; that he took Laish
and called it Dan and that became its name. So we say, "from Dan to
Beersheba." We will see all about how Dan improved it when we get to the
book of Judges. I am showing you that it occurred, but when you get to the book
of Judges you will have a detailed account of it.
The next thought in these eleven chapters is that Joshua, having ended his
wars, obeyed God with singular fidelity. (I don't believe I explained that
after they came to Shiloh where he set the ark, the other tribes received their
portion by lots. Now your map will show you where Shiloh was and Ephraim and
Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and all the others. All you have to do is
to look on your map and see their location.) He, having finished the wars,
asked a small inheritance for himself, a little bit of a place. How that does
shine in comparison with the other great conquerors! When they come to the division,
they take the lion's share. Joshua took a very modest little place in his own
tribe. His retiring from public life devolved the work upon the tribes
themselves, and to their own judgment. He remained in seclusion until he comes
out to be considered in the next section.
This leaves for consideration only two other thoughts in the distribution of
the territory, and I shall embody these thoughts in questions for you to
answer. Look at the six cities of refuge established, three east of the Jordan
and three west of the Jordan. You can find them on a good map, and as you look
at them on the map, you are struck with the wisdom of their locality when you
consider the purpose of these cities of refuge. And now what was the intent of
these cities of refuge? A thousand preachers have preached sermons on the
cities of refuge Spurgeon has one remarkable sermon. The allusions to them are
very frequent, so that every one of you ought to have in your heart and on your
brain a clear conception of what is meant by the cities of refuge. I am going
to give you a brief answer, but you can work this answer out and make it
bigger.
Under the Mosaic law there was no sheriff in cases of homicide, the killing of
a man. In our cities the police go after the murderer, and the sheriff in the
country, but under the Mosaic law the next of kin was made the "avenger of
blood." If I, living at that day, had been slain, without raising a
question as to how it was done, my brother, J. M. Carroll, or my son, B. H.
Carroll, Jr., under the law would be the sheriff, and his injunction would be
to start as soon as he heard of the killing and to kill the killer on sight.
Well, for us in that kind of a sheriff-law this difficulty would arise: Suppose
in the assumed case Just now that, while I had been killed, it had been
accidental; that we were all out hunting and a man with me accidentally
discharged his gun and it killed me. Or suppose that, as Moses described it,
two men were chopping and one went to make a big lick with an axe and the axe flew
off and hit the other one and killed him, yet that law says that life was a
sacred thing. Now, as there are several cases of manslaughter, of innocent men
with no purpose to kill them, so there must be a distinction made between
accidental homicide and willful murder.
The object of the cities of refuge, distributed as you see over the country,
was to provide a place where one who had killed another, not intending to
commit murder, might find a place of shelter until the matter could be
investigated, and so, just as soon as a man killed another, he turned and
commenced running. The avenger of blood, as soon as he heard of it, went after
him and it was a race for life and death, to see which could get there first.
Therefore the roads were kept in splendid condition, no rocks were left that
the man fleeing for his life should stumble and be slain. The rabbis say they
would not allow a straw to be left on the road lest they should stumble and
fall.
Now, I close with just this question. I told you that one tribe had no
inheritance, no lot of land all together and they had to go somewhere. So for
that tribe certain cities with their suburbs were set apart. Now, on your map
look for the cities of this tribe that had no inheritance.
QUESTIONS
1. Describe the strategical
position of Jericho and Ai.
2. By what battle was the
south country practically conquered?
3. What decisive battle
brought about the northern conquest? Describe it. With whom is Joshua as a
general compared?
4. What the connection
between the book of Joshua and the book of Judges?
5. How do you harmonize the
statements that Joshua conquered all the land that Jehovah had promised them
and that there remained certain portions of the land that had not been
conquered?
6. Why did God permit the
remnants not subjugated to remain in the land? Where in the Pentateuch do you
find the answer?
7. Explain the expression,
"Joshua waged war a long time with these kings."
8. Locate the tribes on the
east of the Jordan.
9. What the second
distribution, and to whom?
10. What 3 interesting
events in connection with giving Judah his portion?
11. What complaint was made
by Ephraim, and Joshua's reply?
12. Where was the central
place of worship located? How long did the ark stay there? When it left where
did it go? Where finally brought? How long did the tent, or tabernacle, stay
there? What finally became of it?
13. What tribe had no
inheritance & why? Where do you find the prophecy in the Pentateuch that
this tribe & Simeon should be scattered over Israel?
14. How does Joshua's spirit
compare with the spirit of the other great conquerors?
15. How did Dan get out of
his straits?
16. Name and locate the
cities of refuge. What the intent of these cities?
17. Locate the cities of the
tribe that had no inheritance.
BRIEF REVIEW; RETURN OF WARRIORS OF THE
TWO AND A HALF TRIBES Joshua 22-24
We commence this discussion at Joshua 22, and there are several things that I
wish to discuss in this section. First Theme: Brief review Joshua 13-21, enough
to make it clear what part of the territory was yet unoccupied, as well as one
or two other little things.
Second Theme: The return of the warriors of the two and a half tribes whose
territory lay east of the Jordan.
Third Theme: Joshua's first address.
Fourth Theme: Joshua's final address, 24:1-28.
Fifth Theme: The renewal of the covenant and its witness.
Sixth Theme: Completing the records, as was done in the Pentateuch by Moses.
Seventh Theme: The death and burial of Joshua, the burial of the bones of
Joseph and the death and burial of Eleazar. That part of chapter 24, just as a
part of Deuteronomy as a connecting link, was inserted by the later historians,
and you will see that not only here but it reopens in the next book. Now those
are the several themes that I shall discuss. In the preceding section on the
division of the land, chapters 13-21 inclusive, you will notice that on account
of Joshua's age the Almighty instructed him to divide the land on the west side
of the Jordan as it had been divided on the east side of the Jordan, and yet
the record states that much land yet remained to be possessed.
Now, in the part of the territory where they had not been fully subjugated,
their enemies were the Geshuri, very different from the Geshurites that we
shall learn about directly. They occupied the Arabian desert from the river of
Egypt where it went into the Mediterranean Sea clear on up almost to
Kadesh-barnea, until it touched the Philistine country. Now, that tribe of the
Canaanites west of the Jordan inhabiting that territory, while it had been
divided, had not been brought into complete subjugation. Their territory came
up to the narrow strip on the Mediterranean Sea, the five towns of the
Philistines that were not completely occupied, then going further up by the
Mediterranean Sea were the Phoenicians, the chief towns of which were Tyre and
Sidon, and they were not completely conquered. So that what remained to be
conquered on the west were the Phoenicians and the Philistines.
Now, when it comes to the northern border, a strip of country commencing in the
mountains of Lebanon and including the entrance into Hamath, a stretch clear
across into the mountains of Gilead, where was the half tribe of Manasseh, that
strip had not been completely subjugated. So that on three sides, the Geshuri
on the south; on the west, the Philistines and Phoenicians; on the north, the
strip including a number of small kingdoms, particularly the kingdom of Maachi,
and one other that the half tribe of Manasseh had not overcome were not
subjugated. Now, without going into an elaborate detail, I determined to give
you an idea of the country, so that you could see that on the three borders,
south, west, and stretching clear across the north, there was unpossessed
territory.
The next thing to explain in that section is that the section closes in
21:43-45, by stating that every promise that God had made to them had been
literally fulfilled and that they had been put in possession of the land and
that no enemy was able to stand before them and that they had rest. The point
is, to reconcile that with those facts that I have just stated, that on the
north, on the west and on the south are portions of territory that have not
been occupied. How, then, is the conclusion of that section true? You will find
by carefully noting Exodus 23:29-30, and Deuteronomy 7:22, that God had
forewarned them that he would not put them in possession of all this territory
in one year. It would have been a destruction of the population before any
other population could move in and keep the land from going to waste,
therefore, in making the promise to put them in possession that promise was
modified. "I will not drive out the enemy the first year, lest the land
should go to waste, but I will drive them out little by little, year after
year." That explains the apparent discrepancy between the two statements.
The next thought that I wish to bring out is that in the beginning God had
appointed Joshua to make the general conquest of the land where it required all
Israel to be held together in one army, the main battles to be fought and the
enemy to be defeated, so that they would not take the open field. Then Joshua's
part must end, and the details of driving out the remnants of the people
devolved upon each tribe, which God clearly foretold, as you will see in
Numbers 33:55, and Joshua restates it in chapter 23:11-13. God designedly left
a portion of the inhabitants for each tribe, in its tribal capacity, to grapple
with and assured them that if they were sluggish in completing that, then he
would preserve these remnants alive to be a thorn in their flesh; as a test of
their character. So that they understood that these remnants would rise in
punishment, as you will see illustrated when you come to the book of Judges. So
all of the statements have been taken together and scripture compared with
scripture. Some of the greatest sermons that have ever been published are on
those remnants of nations, God permitting them to remain to try the tribes.
Generally the sermons preached on that make this scriptural application, viz.:
that after regeneration there remain remnants of the fleshly nature to be
overcome by sanctification, and if a man does not cultivate sanctification
these remnants will rise up and conquer him and bring him into temporary
captivity at least. It is a fine spiritual application.
The second theme is the return of the warriors of the two and a half tribes
whose territory lay east of the Jordan. That proves that the conquest of Joshua
was over, and the army broken up. Joshua assembled these tribes and passed on
them the highest commendations that a general ever gave to soldiers. He said
that they had not failed in any particular in doing what Moses required and
what they had promised. There was not a blot on their record. Following that
commendation, which is as superb as anything I know of in literature, he then
exhorts them that on their return to their old home they be as faithful in the
future as they had been in the past. Then he gives them a benediction and a
blessing is pronounced on them, and in that benediction he says, "You go
home; you go with great spoils and many riches, your part of the conquest which
has taken place." And so they are dismissed, and this is the first item of
the return of the tribes. The next thought is that when these armies got to the
river Jordan they erected on the mountains near the Jordan a very great and
very conspicuous altar, an altar to be seen, as your text says. You can even
see it now, at least the site of it and the ruins of it, and you see it a long
way off.
Now, when the nine and a half tribes heard of the erection of that altar, they
misconstrued its intent and came rushing together to make war on the two and a
half tribes. But before they declared war, somebody had sense enough to suggest
the sending of an ambassador to find out about this, and so they selected a
high priest and a deputation from the nine and a half tribes, and they went
over and interviewed the two and a half tribes, and interviewed them very
sternly. They thought that the altar was the altar for burnt offerings and that
it was intended to be a line of separation between the two and a half tribes
and the nine and a half tribes, and that the two and a half tribes would
worship idols there and not the true God; that it meant revolt from the central
place of worship and the high priest makes an accusation.
The two and a half tribes turn them down very easily. They say, "Brethren,
this is not an altar of burnt offerings. This is an altar of witness and the
meaning is that, as long as that hill stands and that altar stands, it is a
pledge that the tribes east of the Jordan are bound up with the tribes west of
the Jordan in unity of worship, and the unity of the tribes is to be
preserved." I imagine that that deputation looked foolish. Just before you
go to war on people, read David Crockett, who said: "Be sure you are
right, and then go ahead." Stop long enough to be sure you have heard the
right of it. If we consider the truth of a thing, it will from much dissension
free us. So I think that the two and a half tribes came out way ahead of that
high priest as well as upon the fidelity of their service. The two and a half
tribes made the name of that altar "Ed." That means witness, not
burnt offerings, "witness," like Jacob's Mizpah, the meaning of which
is the same thing: "The Lord witness between me and thee." Somehow I
was always charmed with that incident, viz.: the going home of those tribes and
their fidelity to the unity of Israel and the true worship of God.
Now we come to the third theme. It is presented in Joshua 23. Joshua calls the
people together, it doesn't say where, but presumably at Shiloh, and delivers
them an address bearing upon this point, viz.: The duty that devolved upon them
in their several tribal capacities to conquer the remnants: "Now while I
was your general, I represented the whole nation; I commanded the army of the
whole nation. You will bear witness that God stood by me; that he gave us
victory every time; that no nation was able to stand before us. Now that public
general part is ended, and your particular part remains to be done." It is
in that connection that he tells us that if they are sluggish about driving out
these remnants, God would retain them and preserve them as thorns in their
sides In that connection he reminds them of the reason that God commanded the
extirpation of the Canaanites, viz.: they were idolaters, they were outrageous
sinners. Now says Joshua, "If you do as they did, God will do to you as he
did to them. If you turn away from the true God and you lapse into the
idolatrous ways of these nations, and that can be brought about by your
intermarriage and your treaties with them, if you do that, he will sponge you
off the map as he sponged them off the map for a like offense, and you will go
into captivity." Now, you can see that presumably it was at Shiloh, and
the purpose of this assembly is quite distinct from the purpose of the one next
to be considered.
So now we come to chapter 24, the last part. Now he commands all Israel to come
together again and the place this time is Shechem, not Shiloh. Why should it be
Shechem? Considering the objects that he had in view in calling them together,
why was Shechem the appropriate place?
First, Shechem was the place where Abraham halted when he got to this land, and
he built an altar and received from God the promises of the land; it was to be
given to him and his children. When God sent him out, he went, not knowing
whither he went, but here at Shechem God outlines to him that this very
territory is to belong to him and his children. That was the first altar and
the first promise considering the possession of the land.
The second thing is that when Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, he stopped at
Shechem and built an altar and there was a renewal of the promises to him, and
he there freed his family from idolatry. You remember that .one of his wives
carried away the teraphim of Laban and Jacob made his wife bury these things
under an old tree.
Right there Jacob bought a particular section of land, setting a price, and
that land he was to deed to Joseph, and the descendants of Joseph, Ephraim, and
Manasseh, and right at that place, as we learn later in this book, the bones of
Joseph were buried. In the last chapter of Genesis Joseph tells them that he
will die and he says, "Take my bones," and Moses took the bones of
Joseph with him and we learn here that the bones of Joseph were buried -there,
and so we learn from Stephen's speech in Acts. There you have three reasons.
Let us see if we. cannot find another. When Joshua first brought the people
over into the Promised Land after they had been circumcised and he kept the
feast of the Passover, it was to this place that he brought them with Mount
Ebal on one side and Mount Gerizirn on the other. He renewed the covenant there
and there he built an altar of stone, and on the stones recorded the Pentateuch
as a witness. Then we learn next from Ebal and Gerizirn were enunciated in turn
a curse and a blessing of the covenant, and yet further we learn that there
this copy of the covenant, prepared by Joshua, was set up so that the
Pentateuch stood there and the altar of the renewal of the covenant stood there
and the echoes of the blessings and curses, and the bones of Joseph were there,
and the altar of Abraham was there, and the altar of Jacob was there. "So
it was intensely appropriate that in his farewell address he should gather them
where they had renewed the covenant on their first entrance into the Promised
Land.
Now we come to the final address as it reviews their history. He reminded them
that beyond the flood, that is, the Euphrates River (that is the meaning of
Euphrates, the flood), in Ur of the Chaldees, their ancestor was Terah, an
idolater, and that from that idolatrous country God called their immediate
ancestor, Abraham, and brought him to this place and made him that promise. He
then shows their history under Moses when God leads them out of Egypt and
establishes with them his covenant at Mount Sinai, their wandering in the
wilderness and that God conquered for them the tribes east of the Jordan, and God
conquered for them the tribes west of the Jordan.
Now, upon these historical facts he makes an exhortation that is very
thrilling. He shows if ever a nation in the world was under obligations to keep
the covenant given at Sinai and renewed at Ebal and Gerizirn, that this people
was under obligations to do it. And he urges them to be faithful, in all
things, to their God and their religion. Having finished his exhortation, the
people reply, and they say that they will do what he tells them to do. Then he
said that they need not think, and you and I need not think, that it is an easy
thing to live right in the sight of a jealous God. If you make a vow to do
anything, you had better thoughtfully consider it. He having then cautioned
them, they renewed their promise. Then he said, "Now we will renew the
covenant itself." While the book doesn't give the details of how the
covenant was renewed, they renewed it just as before. There they built an
altar; there were certain burnt offerings, certain sanctification and setting
apart. Then there was the taking upon themselves the vows of the covenant. Now
that having been done, Joshua makes that altar witness of the covenant. Then he
completes the records just as Moses finished up the records of the Pentateuch
and put them in the ark to be preserved. Joshua completes the record of this
time and takes the Pentateuch out of the ark and slips his record inside of
the holy ark of the covenant of God, and all the history in connection with it
as a witness.
Then follows an account, doubtless by Phinehas, the high priest. As Joshua had
finished the last part of Deuteronomy, so here a record is made of Joshua's
death and his burial. There is a singular thing in the Alexandrian version of
the Septuagint, which says that the knives with which the people had been
circumcised were buried with Joshua. It may have been, I don't know. Then
follows the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, and that closes up the book.
Now, this is a very brief discussion but it is sufficient, and in our next
discussion we will take the period of the Judges, bearing in mind that a
considerable part of the book of Judges overlaps the book of Joshua; that
several things occurred before he died and before his final address was
delivered.
QUESTIONS
1. Why was the land now
divided?
2. What land yet in the
hands of the enemy?
3. How was God's promise
literally fulfilled?
4. What was Joshua's part in
the conquest of the land?
5. What each tribe's part
after the general conquest?
6. If they proved sluggish
in this then what?
7. What commendation
pronounced upon them by Joshua?
8. What exhortation to them?
9. The benediction on them?
10. The altar on the Jordan:
(1) Describe it.
(2) How construed by the nine and one-half tribes, and why?
(3) What steps did they take?
(4) What the response?
(5) What the effect on the nine and one-half tribes?
(6) What name did they give the altar and what its meaning?
(7) What the value of embassy before war?
III. Joshua's First Address
about the Completion of the Conquest
11. Where assembled?
12. What duty does he point
out to them?
13. What the penalty for
their failure?
14. Where?
15. Why there? (Give seven
reasons.)
16. Give brief analysis of
this address of Joshua, and their reply.
17. Give an account of the
renewal of the covenant.
18. What the witness?
19. Tell how Joshua
completed the records.
20. Who wrote the account of
Joshua's death and burial?
21. The fulfilment of what
prophecy made by Joseph recorded here?
22. What other death
recorded here?
INTRODUCTION
This discussion is an introduction to the book of Judges, and I present it in
prepared words.
CONTEMPORANEOUS
JEWISH LITERATURE
There is abundant evidence that apart from the sacred biblical books there was
a contemporaneous secular Israelite or Jewish literature, both national and
tribal, extending over all the periods from the time of the writing of Genesis
to the last Old Testament record. Many of the Old Testament books refer to this
extant, contemporaneous literature which covered broad grounds of genealogy,
history, poetry, and other matters.
Inspiration moved Old Testament writers not in the direction of a complete,
consecutive, scientific history of Israel, but in the selection and
preservation of such facts as were contributory to its unique purpose of
showing the development of the kingdom of God in one people that it might, in
later days, reach all peoples. The book of Judges is no exception to this
general rule.
PERIOD OF THE
JUDGES
This period really extends from a time after Joshua's death, and the death of
the elders contemporaneous with him, to the establishment of the monarchy under
Saul. The event which marks the beginning of the period is the general apostasy
of the people from Jehovah worship to the worship of idols and their consequent
fall before the heathen nations whom they have failed to destroy. This fact is
clearly set forth in Judges 2:6-15, which is the real introduction to the
period:
Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every
man unto his inheritance to possess the land. And the people served Jehovah all
the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had
seen all the great work of Jehovah that he had wrought for Israel. And Joshua
the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, being a hundred and ten years
old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in
the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. And also
all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another
generation after them, that knew not Jehovah, nor yet the work which he had
wrought for Israel.
"And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah,
and served the Baalim [Baalim is the plural of Baal, the Hebrew plural]; and
they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the
land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were
round about them, and bowed themselves down unto them: and they provoked
Jehovah to anger. And they forsook Jehovah, and served Baal and Ashtaroth
[Ashtaroth is the female form of Baal, as you would say the moon is the female
form of the sun]. And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he
delivered them into the hands of spoilers that despoiled them; and he sold them
into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer
stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of Jehovah
was against them for evil, as Jehovah had spoken, and as Jehovah had sworn unto
them: and they were sore distressed." That is the real introduction to the
period and tells why he raised up special deliverers.
THE KEY SENTENCE
OF THE PERIOD
This sentence oft appears as a sad refrain and is the closing sentence of this
book: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which
was right in his own eyes." Commentators have inconsiderately interpreted
this sentence as referring to human kings, as if what the people needed as a
remedy was an earthly monarchy instead of a theocracy. Our sentence refers to
their forfeiture of allegiance to Jehovah-king. "There was a king,"
and they turned away from him. When the monarchy came there came a further
revolt and was the culminating act in rejecting Jehovah, as is evident from I
Samuel 8:7-9:
"And Jehovah said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all
that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected
me, that I should not be king over them. According to all the works which they
have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day,
in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto
thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit thou shalt protest
solemnly unto them, and shalt show them the manner of the king that shall reign
over them."
And further, "And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall
reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them unto him, for his
chariots, and to be his horsemen: and they shall run before his chariots; and
he will appoint them unto him for captains of thousands, and captains of
fifties; and he will set some to plough his ground, and to reap his harvest,
and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. And he
will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even
the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of
your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his
servants. And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your
goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the
tenth of your flocks: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in
that day because of your king whom ye shall have chosen you; and Jehovah will
not answer you in that day."
Get that clear as to what is the meaning of the key sentence of the book,
"In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was
right in his own eyes." This doesn't have any reference to the human king
subsequently appointed. Their clamor for an earthly king was merely for a
change from "every man doing what was right in his own eyes" to every
man doing what was right in the eyes of other men, as is evident from I Samuel
8:9-18. The purpose of the book is to show their general failure as a preparation
for the messianic kingdom: (1) In turning from the central place of worship, as
in the case of Gideon and Abimelech. (2) The failure of their priesthood, as in
the case of the grandson of Moses setting up an image worship for the migration
part of Dan at Laish, and still later in the case of Eli. (3) Their consequent
loss of national unity, as in the case of a number of the tribes from selfish
considerations refusing to help Deborah and Barak. As they failed under Moses
in the wilderness, and after Joshua's conquest, so they failed in the period of
Judges (Judg. 2:17-19) and will fail under the monarchy, and after the return
from exile. And all these failures, under the several transitory dispensations,
will complete the preparation for the setting up of the spiritual kingdom, that
will endure forever.
DISTINCTIONS
BETWEEN JOSHUA AND THE JUDGES
Joshua was divinely appointed national leader charged with the specific duties
(1) of conquest in its national bearings with a national army; (2) of the
allotment of territory to nine and a half tribes; (3) of the renewal of the
covenant; (4) of the establishment of a central place of worship, with
provision for priests and Levites, and cities of refuge. The judges were
special deliverers of particular tribal sections when. on account of their
sins, they were brought into bondage.
The date of the composition of the book. It was certainly written before the
first book of Samuel, as that book repeatedly and particularly quotes from it.
It is more amusing than edifying to note the radical critics quoting the phrase
"there was no king in Israel," cited and explained above, to prove
that it must have been written in or after days when Israel had human kings.
The author's name is not given, but many scriptures show that all Old Testament
books were written by prophets, and this book is the second of the earlier
prophets, Joshua being the first.
CHRONOLOGY
There are perhaps some difficulties in dating details because the book is more
concerned to give the facts than the dates. Moreover it is evident that some of
the judges may have been contemporaneous, seeing that they represent different
sections and tribes and contended against different enemies. Hence the order of
some events may not be consecutive but simultaneous, though other events are
consecutive, as is evident from Deborah's song, citing by name preceding events
and persons. But it is a mistake to conclude that the Jews were careless in
matters of chronology. No other people on earth were more careful and
painstaking on this point.
The difficulties in determining the chronology of the period as a whole and its
great events are more fanciful than real. It is idle to seek to establish
definitely the chronology from the many genealogies of the period cited in both
Old Testament and New Testament, since they themselves are indeterminate on one
point, namely, giving every name. But we do have chronological data every way
reliable and sufficiently determinate in substance to establish every material
point. In round numbers from the call of Abraham to the establishment in Canaan
was 490 years; from the establishment in Canaan to the establishment of the
monarchy was 490 years; from the establishment of the monarchy till its
downfall was 490 years; from the downfall of the monarchy to the coming of the
Messiah was 490 years. The date in Acts 13:20, makes it 450 years from the
settlement of Canaan until Samuel the prophet.. Add forty years for Samuel's
rule before the establishment of the monarchy and we have the full period of the
judges, 490 years. Every date given in the book of Judges can be harmonized
with this date of the full period.
These are:
1. The story of Micah and the migration of the Danites, chapters 27-28.
2. The story of the war of the other tribes against the tribe of Benjamin, and
how that tribe was perpetuated after being almost annihilated, chapters 19-21.
To that period, not the book, belong also the story of Ruth, the story of Eli,
the story of Samuel up to the beginnings of the monarchy.
The charge that this book and indeed the period is silent on the matter of a
central place of worship and general priesthood, coming from the radical
critics and other infidels (I use that expression advisedly) in order to
discredit the Pentateuch which they call the priest code and give it a
post-exile date, is without foundation. There never was a more gratuitous
charge. The radical critics didn't originate it. Infidels originated it, and
the radical critics adopted it. When I was an infidel and had never heard of a
radical critic I used to discuss it. I got it from my infidel library. I will
show you why this charge is without foundation by just citing a few points in
the book. First, the book of Joshua clearly shows that he did establish the
central place of worship and with the priesthood and giving the names of the
high priests and the duties, and that he did provide for the priesthood and the
Levites, as we have just learned in the book of Joshua. Now, the book of Judges
commences by stating that as long as Joshua lived and as long as the elders
lived who were contemporaries with Joshua; as long as that leader lived they
served Jehovah faithfully and that faith included keeping up that central place
of worship, just as Joshua had commenced.
Now, the second point is that the first thing we have in the book of Judges is
the reference to the oracle of God in the place of worship. This is the first
time it is mentioned in the book, and the last time in the book is concerning
the Benjaminites, and shows that the Benjaminites got their wives by attending
the festivals at Shiloh, the central place of worship, and going in and
capturing a woman apiece. So the book commences and so the book ends.
Then, if we look somewhat toward the central part of the book, we find that
when these Benjaminites upheld the iniquity of a certain member of their tribe
the whole nation came together, meeting at their central place of worship.
Now, I cite these facts and could cite others, but those are sufficient to show
that the infidel charge is false. The radical critics endorse it because they
want to discredit what Moses said about the tabernacle and the central place of
worship. In other words, the radical critics affirm that all that part of
Exodus and the entire book of Leviticus and certain portions of Numbers
constitute what they call the priest's code, and Moses never wrote any of it,
and it was written in the time of Ezekiel in post-exile times, and they use the
general silence of the book of Judges about that central place of worship to
prove it. Now it is the purpose of Judges to show that in the going from that
place of worship they commit a sin, and when they set up images and bow down
before them, that is an offense against God, an offense also against the unity
of the nation.
That is sufficient on the introduction of the book of Judges.
QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the
contemporaneous Jewish literature. Period of the Judges
2. What the extent of time?
3. What event marks the
beginning of the period?
4. Where do you find this,
and what its relation to the book? The Key-Sentence of the Period
5. What is it?
6. What misinterpretation of
this sentence?
7. What was the result when
the monarchy came? The Purpose of the Book
8. What is it?
9. How does it show such
failure? Distinction Between Joshua and the Judges
10. State clearly these
differences. Date and Composition of the Book
11. When written? Reason for
your answer.
12. What the higher critics'
position?
13. Who the author? Chronology
14. What the difficulties?
15. Give limits of four
great Jewish periods. The Episodes in the Book
16. Name them.
17. Name some in the period
but not in the book.
18. What the charge of the
radical critics, and why?
19. Give a summary of the
answer to this charge.
INTRODUCTION (Continued) AND OUTLINE
FURTHER REMARKS ON THE INTRODUCTION
In the preceding discussion we considered somewhat the subject of chronology,
in which stress was laid on Acts 13: 19-20, as an important factor in
determining the time extent of the period. In citing this passage we designedly
followed the rendering of the common version, to wit: "And when he had
destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by
lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of 450 years,
until Samuel the prophet." The Standard Revised Version of these verses,
though based on high manuscript authority, makes utter nonsense, to wit:
"And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave
them their land for an inheritance, for about 450 years; and after these things
he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet." The manufactured punctuation
of this rendering violates whole classes of scriptural facts and absurdly makes
the distribution of inheritance by Joshua last 450 years and leaves a gap of
equal length of time between Joshua and Judges . It is of a piece with the
nonsensical butchering punctuation of Daniel 9:25-26, by the Canterbury
Revision, happily in that case not followed by the Standard, which there
coincides with the common version. In this criticism of the Standard Revision
of a single passage, understand that I do not retract my commendation of its
general superiority over all other English versions.
I understand Paul to affirm that the period of the judges until Samuel the
prophet was 450 years. And, as was said in the preceding discussion, this
harmonizes with every date given in the book of Judges. particularly the
express statement of Jephthah to the Ammonites, that up to his time Israel had
dwelt at Heshbon, Aroer and by the side of the river Ainon for 300 years,
Judges 11:26. It also harmonizes with the crucial date given in I Kings 6:1,
that the building of Solomon's temple commenced in the four hundred and
eightieth year after the Exodus from Egypt and was completed in seven years.
ONE
OTHER INTRODUCTORY REMARK
The book of Joshua 14:6-15, not only recites the story of Caleb's allotment by
Joshua himself, but also records its conquest by Caleb, together with the
exploit of Othniel and the story of Achsah, Joshua 15:13-19, all of which is
repeated in Judges 1:12-15, 20. It also records in brief, general terms Dan's
conquest of Laish, Joshua 19:47, which event is elaborated at length in Judges
17 and 18. Nor are these two events the only ones recorded in the book of
Joshua and repeated in the book of Judges. We must understand, therefore, that
in several particulars the books overlap. And inasmuch as Joshua's leadership
expired with the allotment of territory, after which for some years he lived in
retirement before his farewell addresses, Joshua 23-24, it becomes a question
somewhat difficult to determine with satisfaction how many of the events in
Judges 1:8 to 3:6, 20-21, occurred in Joshua's lifetime. All of them, we are
sure, preceded the period of the Judges, which commences, Judges 3:7, with
Othniel who achieved the first deliverance. There was a period after Joshua's
death, i.e., during that generation of the contemporaneous elders who survived
him, in which Israel, in the main, continued faithful to Jehovah.
OUTLINE OF THE
BOOK OF JUDGES
Really, if you have mastered the outline you have mastered the book.
I. The Events Preceding the Judges
1. A short period of fidelity, after Joshua died. Judges
1:6-10.
2. The history showing how each one in order of the nine and a half tribes west
of the Jordan failed in executing Jehovah's ordinance to destroy the remnants
of the Canaanite tribes, and in some fashion made terms with these nations as
follows:
(a) Judah and Simeon, how they failed, 1:19.
(b) Benjamin, how he failed, Judges 1:21; 19-21.
(c) Ephraim after doing well, failed, Judges 1:20-25,
29.
(d) Manasseh failed, that is, Manasseh west of the
Jordan, 1:27.
(e) Zebulun failed, Judges 1:30.
(f) Asher, 1:31-32.
(g) Naphtali, 1:33.
(h) Dan. 1:34; 17-18.
3. The third great event that precedes the period of the judges, that is yet
recorded in the book of Judges, is the coming of the angel of Jehovah from
Gilgal where Joshua had seen him, to rebuke the unfaithful tribes, and their
temporary penitence, 2:1-6.
4. Their general apostasy, including the two and a half tribes east of Jordan,
which brought them under the power.
II. A General Statement concerning Jehovah's intervention of their enemies, Judges 2:11-15, 20-23; 3:1-2, by special deliverers called judges and the relapse after the death of each judge.
This is a prospective review of the whole period of
the judges down to Samuel, showing that as they failed in the wilderness under
Moses, and failed after the settlement under Joshua, so will they fail under
the judges, 2:16-19.
III. The third grand division of the book is The Story of the Several Special Deliverers.
1. Othniel, 3:7-11. There had been an oppression for seven years, but there was
a rest of forty years. Period forty-seven years. The oppressors in this case
were the Mesopotamians under their king living between the Tigris and the
Euphrates. You see their eastern boundary touched the Euphrates River, and on
account of the failure of the tribes God let these people oppress them. The
Mesopotamians came from the east, swept over the two and a half tribes east of
the Jordan and struck the center about Jericho. Othniel, of the tribe of Judah,
was raised up to beat back that tribe of invaders.
2. The second judge was Ehud, 3:12-30. Here the oppression lasted eighteen
years and the rest that followed the deliverance, eighty years. Period,
ninety-eight years. The oppressor in this case was the king of Moab, assisted
by Ammon and the Amalekites. They also came from the east, or rather from the
southeast.
3. The third judge was Shamgar, 3:31. The history is simply a single exploit.
The oppressor was the Philistines, no time period given at all.
4. Deborah and Barak, chapters 4-5. Oppression, twenty years. The rest
following the deliverance lasted forty years. Period, sixty years. The
oppressor was Jabin, king of Hazor, who came from the north and united with the
northern Canaanite tribes.
Now, I wonder if you recall the location of the countries around the Promised
Land, where they had failed to drive out the inhabitants. Right around from
these comes the oppression.
5. Gideon, 6-8. The oppression in this case lasted seven years, the rest after
the deliverance, forty years. Period, forty-seven years. This is followed by
the story of Abimelech, Gideon's natural son, who is discussed in chapter 9; the
time period, three years. I don't count him among the judges.
6. Tola is the sixth judge, 10:1-2. No oppressor cited. The time given is
twenty-three years. (You will have a use for all these periods of time
directly.)
7. The seventh Judge is Jair, 10:3-5. Time given, twenty-two years.
8. The eighth judge is Jephthah, 10:6, to 12:7. Here the oppression lasted
eighteen years and Jephthah judged six years, so that period is twenty-four
years. The oppressor in this case is Ammon and the Philistines. Here the
oppression comes from the southeast and southwest following the stripline.
9. Ibzan, 12:8-10. Not a thing is said about him, but the time is seven years.
10. Elon, 12:11-12. Time ten years. That is all about him.
11. Abdon, 12:13-15. Time eight years.
I have something funny to say about those judges, that is, it seems funny to me
whenever I read it. It is about as big as the sarcastic history of Franklin
Pierce when he was running for President. It said, "F. Pierce was born. He
is running for President."
12. Samson, 13-16. The oppression in this case was forty years and Samson's
judging twenty years; period, sixty years. The oppressors are the Philistines
again from the southwest.
Now, that is the outline of the book of Judges. Now we come to some remarks on
the outline. We will take up the items of history in the next discussion.
REMARKS ON THE
OUTLINE
1. The sum of years cited in the book is 409.
2. The 300 cited by Jephthah, 11:26, up to the Ammonite oppression plus the years
cited in the book after that event make 409 years. If to the sum of the dates
in the book we add Eli's forty years, I Samuel 4:18, we have 449 years, coming
within one year of Paul's 450 years up to Samuel. And if we add Samuel's time
of judging to Eli's and then add them to the Jephthah calculation, we have 490
years from the settlement to the monarchy.
3. Of the 409 years only a little over one-fourth, i.e., 110 years, were they
oppressed. As usual, the periods of rest and righteousness have no history.
Turbulence and wickedness make history, according to the saying, "Blessed
is the nation which has no history." I always stand for Paul; Paul said
the period of the judges lasted 450 years, and I am for Paul.
4. The only fact cited concerning two of these judges relates to the number of
their children. It says of one, "And he had thirty sons and thirty
daughters; he sent abroad to get other people's sons and brought back thirty
daughters from other people for his thirty sons." I smile every time I read
it. Now, God smiles more in an approving way on history of that kind than if
his boys had killed other people and his daughters had gone to the bad. Then
the other: "Abdon had forty sons and thirty son's sons, that rode on
seventy asses' colts." Now, that must have been a wonderful procession all
in a row. That is all the history there is about it. Now, in times of war the
boys go out and are killed and grandsons don't come on and live while the old
grandfather is living. They go out and get killed. That is my fourth remark.
5. Ehud, Shamgar, and Samson are renowned for individual exploits.
6. Othniel, Deborah (with Barak), Gideon, and Jephthah lead armies.
7. The oppressions came on the cast from the Euphrates; on the southeast from
Ammon, Moab and Amalek; on the north from Hazor, and on the southwest from
Philistia.
8. The parts of the book that are of special interest:
(1) The failure of the tribes one by one, chapter 1.
(2) The coming of the angel and their transitory penitence, 2-1-5.
(3) The prospective review of the failure of the people during the whole
period, 2:11-23.
(4) The stories of Deborah, Gideon (and his son), Jephthah, and Samson.
(5) The migration of Dan.
(6) The war with Benjamin.
I shall take you out of the book into general literature several times to show
you how some of the finest things in literature originated in the book of
Judges.
9. My last remark on the outline is a request that you note and specify the
tribe of each judge to see what tribes were represented by these inspired men
whom God raised up as special deliverers. For instance, Othniel is of the tribe
of Judah, that commences the Judges. But you know Samson didn't belong to the
tribe of Judah, nor did Jephthah, nor Deborah.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the fault in the
punctuation of Acts 13:19-20, of the Standard Revised Version?
2. Give the events of the
book of Joshua repeated in the book of Judges. What is, therefore, proved with
reference to the 2 books?
3. Give main divisions of the
outline of the book.
4. Remarks on the outline.
(1) What the sum of years cited in the book?
(2) How may this number be obtained in another way?
What the time from the settlement to the monarchy and how obtained?
(3) What part of the period was oppression? The bearing of this fact on the
history of the book?
(4) What singular fact with reference to two of the judges?
(5) Which ones are renowned for individual exploits?
(6) Which were leaders of armies?
(7) Whence came the oppressions?
(8) What parts of the book are of special interest?
(9) Note and specify the tribe of each judge.
EVENTS PRECEDING THE JUDGES AND SOME
SPECIAL DELIVERERS Judges 1:1 to 3:31
We have had the introduction to the book of Judges and the analysis, and with
that analysis before you, we shall now take up the book itself, covering the
first three chapters. That takes in a brief account of three of the judges and
brings us to the great discussion of Deborah and Barak, to which we must give
an entire section, as we shall give a section to Gideon and one to Jephthah,
one to Samson, and one to the migration of Dan and the tribe of Benjamin. So
there will be five sections after this one on the book of Judges. According to
the chronological analysis submitted, we take up in order the matters
antecedent to Jehovah's call of special deliverers called judges.
1. The first period is a brief period of fidelity to Jehovah after the death of
Joshua, (Judg. 2:6-10). As in Exodus, a change towards Israel came when there
arose a king that knew not Joseph, so here toward Jehovah Israel changed when a
new generation arose who had not personally known the great exploits of Joshua,
nor participated in the solemn covenant renewals.
The historical lesson is of great signification, that neither the experience
nor the piety of the fathers can be educationally transmitted to their
children. There cannot be a more decisive proof of the inherent depravity of the
race, of the necessity of the spirit's work in every generation. The wise man
sadly said, "There is no remembrance of former things," and the
prophet with equal sadness enquired, Our fathers! Where are they? And the
prophets, do they live forever?" There is no such thing as hereditary
grace. The whole fight for salvation must be fought over from start to finish
with each incoming soul and with each generation. Even the glories of the
millennium are followed by an outbreak of Satan, the most formidable of all,
with a new and unconverted generation.
2. The second period is the exploits of Judah alone before Joshua's death,
1:8-15. You are to understand that all the particulars of this section preceded
the death of Joshua, 1: 8-15, 20. Tribal responsibility commenced when the land
was allotted and the general or national army was dismissed, Joshua 21:43 to
22:6. The book of Judges in describing tribal responsibility goes back to this
period and includes with matters transpiring after Joshua's death tribal events
preceding. Therefore, in time order the second paragraph precedes the first.
The capture of Jerusalem, 1:8, preceded the campaign against Adoni-bezek and
was not a sequel to it as your Revised Version would indicate.
The King James Version is better here and at Genesis 12:1: "God had said
to Abraham," rightly using the "had fought" and "had
said" instead of the past tense "said" and "fought"
which accords with the facts and doesn't violate the grammar of the language.
In Hebrew there is no pluperfect tense and the context must always determine
whether to put the past tense or the pluperfect tense, a fact which your
Revised Version ignores more than once. Now, if you will put the word
"had" there at the beginning of verse 8 and then include the paragraph
in quotation marks, you will not get confused. It is an outright quotation from
Joshua, and the use of the pluperfect "had" would save a great many
perplexities of mind. More than once in the book of Judges this remark will
apply. In other words you need quotation marks because the matter is quoted
from Joshua and you need the word "had" instead of the imperfect.
This explains the puzzle to most commentators, of the first sentence in the
book, "And it came to pass after the death of Joshua," and then seems
to relate things that had happened in Joshua's time.
A prominent lawyer said he would have to quit teaching Sunday school if he
could not account for the apparent discrepancies (and they are only apparent)
between Joshua and Judges and between this and another part of Judges. He sent
me a letter, a remarkably well-written one, showing thoughtful study. He is
evidently troubled with difficulties that he doesn't know how to solve, and it
illustrates the necessity of a theological seminary. It shows that the unaided,
untrained mind of the average preacher with few books cannot grapple with some
of the apparently most serious difficulties in the book. Now, it used to bother
me no little and I determined to get at the end of it one way or another, but
it is now plain sailing in my mind.
When I read the first chapter of Judges I read the first seven verses and at
the next verse, which tells about the Jerusalem campaign, I stick up quotation
marks and use the word "had" and carry that on to the end of verse 16.
Now, with that passage in parenthesis your first seven verses will harmonize
with verses 17-19. So that in considering the history of the tribal
responsibility of Judah we commence with verse 8, which describes matters in
Joshua's lifetime. In that you will notice, if you look carefully, that Judah
alone fought the Jerusalem and Hebron campaign down to the end of verse 15. In
the preceding verses, (1:1-7) and the following, (17-19) it is Judah and Simeon
who fought the campaign. Very distinct as to the object, very distinct as to
the parties conducting it and very distinct in the time. The beautiful. story
of Caleb, Othniel, and Achsah, the daughter of the one and the wife of the
other, belongs, therefore, to the earlier date. We have already considered this
in the book of Joshua. Just now I wish to put only one library question. In
what romance written by Sir Walter Scott is a maiden's hand in marriage, as
here in this story, offered for a prize, open to all contestants, to the hero
who would perform a certain exploit? That is what Caleb does, offers his
daughter's hand to whoever would capture a certain town. There is an analogous
story to that one in one of the Waverley novels. Answer that question and
briefly outline the story. Note how the thrifty girl secures her dowry. I don't
blame her. She is disposed of in marriage very acceptably to herself, but she
thinks that her father, out of his big possessions, should wish, himself, to
help her. I have always admired this girl for making that request of her
father.
The reference here and elsewhere to the capture of Jerusalem with the later
reference to it as being yet in the hands of the Jebusites after it had been
captured twice, gives trouble to some minds and calls for some explanation. It
will be recalled that Joshua himself, with a united army, captured the country
in a general way by defeating all organized armies and dissipating all open
opposition. But the people did not occupy and settle the conquered provinces
until years afterward. So the remnants of the defeated people would return and
occupy their old territory. So with the tribal victories. That part of
Jerusalem lying in Judah's territory was captured, but as the fortified citadel
in the upper town lay in Benjamin's territory, it is expressly said they were
not dispossessed by Benjamin and so would measurably control the whole city.
Indeed they were not finally expelled from the upper town (Jerusalem) until
David's day. The line between Judah and Benjamin passed through the city.
In the same way Joshua disrupted the northern confederacy, centering at Hazor,
and slew Jabin (Jabin being the name of a dynasty as Pharaoh, Caesar, or
Abimelech), and inasmuch as the tribes to which this conquered territory
belonged did not actually settle it till years afterwards, another Jabin is
reoccupying the old territory and city. This applies to territory east of the
Jordan. It is twice repeated that it was not the purpose of God to expel them
utterly at once, but little by little to prevent the unoccupied land going to
waste, and to prove the fidelity of the tribes when responsibility passed to
them in their several capacities. All that God promised to accomplish through
Joshua was literally fulfilled, and whether the tribes followed up his
victories, dispossessing the remnants and actually settling the lands, depended
upon themselves and was expressly so stated.
3. We now come to the history, after the death of Joshua, of the seven and a half
tribes west of the Jordan, and in a very orderly way the book of Judges tells
how each of these tribes succeeded or failed. And all of that is told in the
following parts of the first chapter, 1:1-7, then it skips to verse 17 and goes
on to the end of the chapter. Now, we have not come to the judges yet, but we
have come to the tribal responsibility after Joshua's death. Now, this period
opens with proof that the assembled tribes rightly appealed to Jehovah to
designate which tribe should commence the campaign. This appeal was doubtless
made at Shiloh, the central place of worship, and answered by the high priest
through Urim and Thummirn, according to the Mosaic law and precedent. The
answer assigned the initiative to Judah, who associated himself with Simeon
since the territories were not only contiguous but co-mingled. We cannot but be
impressed with the fidelity of the assembled tribes to Jehovah though now
without any leader but Phinehas, the high priest. Without their great lawgiver,
Moses, and the great general, Joshua, both extraordinary officers for special
emergencies which passed, the nation is on trial through its regular officers.
The high priest and Shiloh represent the national unity. The princes and elders
represent the regular tribal authority. The high priest transmits Jehovah's
voice to them, tribe by tribe, in order. And the remnants of the first chapter
tell the story of the experiment, tribe by tribe.
Judah and Simeon, leading off, conduct the campaign described in 1:1-7, 17-19.
That leaves the intervening paragraph that was quoted from Joshua of what Judah
alone had previously done. The sum of this campaign is that they first capture
Bezek, which is not very far from Jerusalem and Hebron, the three places
forming the angles of a triangle. And they inflicted on Adonibezek the
mutilation he had inflicted on seventy petty kings conquered by him. The
tragedy in a few words is told by himself. The lex talionis found him.
What is the lex talionis? Moses gives it: "An eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth." In this case the lex talionis comes, "A
thumb for a thumb, and a toe for a toe." This man tells the tragedy of the
story himself. It comes from God through man. It seems to me that his head
ought to have been cut off, as he had been so cruel and made the chieftains
take the place of dogs. His heels ought to have been cut off right back of his
neck. The record says that they brought him to the Judah part of Jerusalem,
gained in a campaign in Joshua's time. The Judah and Simeon story is continued
in verses 17-19. They captured Zephath, Hormah and three of the five Philistine
cities and captured the hill country throughout their territory. But they
failed in these particulars:
(1) They did not conquer two of the five Philistine cities.
(2) They had not faith in Jehovah to face the war chariots in the plains and
the chariots of the north.
(3) They did not settle up as they conquered. Now, the record disposes of
Benjamin's case in verse 21, but there is a big appendix that we have to study
and I cannot incorporate it here because it will have to be in a section by
itself. Benjamin's failing is the key to the whole territory west of the
Jordan. The record says that he not only did not dispossess them but he made a
treaty with them contrary to the law.
We pass on, then, to the word "Joseph." When the word
"Joseph" is used, it means both Ephraim and Manasseh. While they are
together, they capture one city; somewhat questionable strategy, but they got
it. Having discussed their success, he will discuss their failure. Verses 27-29
will tell you wherein they failed and what places they did not take. He left
them there and the verses following will tell you where each failed. You know
when the land was divided that Joshua required Ephraim to go and take the
woods. Well, Ephraim didn't go up and take the woods in the mountains.
There is no need for me to take them up tribe by tribe. In a few words it is
clearly shown. I will make a remark on the failure Dan made. He made the
biggest failure of all. The enemies that he was to conquer almost ran him out
of the country and that led to the migration of Dan to Laish, way up in the
northern part of the territory, and we will find when we come to discuss the
migration of Dan, only hinted at in the book of Joshua, the extent of Dan's
failure. It was a fearful failure; they captured the town of Laish and set up
that image with Gershon, the grandson of Moses, as officiating priest. That is
the failure of Dan. Tribe by tribe they failed. There is nothing said about the
tribes east of the Jordan, but they failed also.
4. We now come to an exceedingly important event in the beginning of chapter 2:
"The angel of Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim." They all had
broken the covenant and the angel announces to them that these enemies that
they had spared should not be driven out before them; that they should remain
as thorns in their sides. It looks like a very promising revival when the angel
got through with his remonstrance. You see they all assembled there and they
wept and offered sacrifices to Jehovah, and it looked as if a reformation had
begun.
Now we take verse II (we have already considered w. 6-10): "The children
of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah." Now we are
going to find out what evil. That beats any evil yet. Heretofore they had made
treaties with them but now, "they did evil in the sight of Jehovah and
served the Baalim and bowed down before them Please notice the names of these
deities. Baalim, that is the plural, as cherubim is the plural of cherub.
"Baal, Baalim," that means that Baal, the sun-god, in different
places went by different names. I confess that if you have to worship anything
like that, that the sun is a big, bright thing to worship, a most life-giving
thing. If I were going to adopt idolatrous worship, I had rather take the sun
than anything else. The ancient Peruvians and the ancient Persians worshiped
the sun. Many nations have worshiped the sun. The other name, Ashtareth, is the
female deity corresponding to the male deity, Baal. Literally it means the
moon, called among the Greeks the Goddess Astarte, who drove the moon chariot,
as they believed. There the female deity corresponds to the sun deity, but as
there were many Baalim, so there was not only Ashtareth but Ashtoroth.
When we come to chapter 3, verse 7, we find a new name to look at. The Revised
Version reads this way: "The children of Israel did that which was evil in
the sight of Jehovah . . . served Baalim and Asheroth." That is not
"Asheroth" in the King James Version. There it reads
"groves," as where it says, "and Gideon cut down a grove."
That puzzled me at one time, but if you will follow that word, you will see
that it does not mean trees; it is wooden images. Asheroth is a wooden image.
Now, Baal is an image made out of stone, but when" ever you come to
Asheroth images they were made out of wood and stood up in groups, and often
they were cut down and burned. This was their culminating sin. The record then
tells us when they got to that climax and withdrew from God, that they were not
able to stand before their enemies. If they farmed, an enemy would come and eat
up the crop. If they went to battle in one way they would flee in seven ways.
With God against them they could do nothing.
5. Now, that brings us to what is called the period of the judges, and from
2:16 to 3:6, gives a prospective review of Judges, the whole period. The author
is not going into the details of the book of Judges, but the object of that
paragraph is to give a prospective review; how, when they left Jehovah and he
sent an oppressor, they would cry unto him for mercy. Then he would hear them
and send them a deliverer. Then when that special deliverer left them they
would be faithful for a time. So that paragraph is simply what you would call
the heading of all the book of Judges. If it were put into one chapter, that
would be the contents. It gives a review of the book without mentioning special
names.
6. That brings us to the Judges proper, and the first judge is Othniel. It had
probably been many years since he got that girl. He was a plucky fellow, of the
tribe of Judah and the first judge. We are also informed who was the first
oppressor. The first oppressor was Cushan-richathaim king of Mesopotamia. He
was a son of Ham and occupied the territory between the Tigris and the
Euphrates Rivers, that great mother of nations. In all the subsequent history
of those nations whenever a stream pours out from between the Tigris and
Euphrates you are going to see trouble. That is where Abraham came from, but
lower down. It is unnecessary to go into any details of this campaign. The
record simply states that this king of Mesopotamia came from between the rivers
and, of course, he conquered first the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan
and then crossed the Jordan and struck the territory of the tribes of Judah.
And he oppressed the land for years, then the Lord put into the heart of
Othniel to lead Israel. The record states that he did it handsomely. He
defeated this king and brought a long rest to the people.
Now, the next judge was Ehud, the left-handed fellow. And a blow from a
left-handed fellow is the hardest to dodge. Jehovah uses various methods to
accomplish his purpose; sometimes he uses the devil. Now here is Moab. You go
back to Genesis and read that Abraham's nephew, Lot, was called out of Sodom
and Gomorrah and his daughters, thinking the world had come to an end and that
they and their father were all that was left, made their father drunk and so
became mothers of Moab and Ammon. Moab comes over and oppresses the people,
following right in the track of Cushan. You notice the oppression so far is
coming from the east, showing that the two and a half tribes were the first
decadent tribes. The deliverer was Ehud, and I need not tell you he killed
Eglon, the fat old king of Moab. The other thing is concerning Shamgar. There
is only one verse about him and he fought only one fight. He fought that with
an oxgoad, that is, a long, heavy pole sharp at one end and heavy at the other.
It makes a formidable weapon. This finishes chapter 3.
QUESTIONS
1. What parallel between
Exodus and Joshua?
2. What the historic lesson?
3. What the time of the
events of this section?
4. What difficulty of translation
here? Explain fully.
5. In what romance by Sir
Walter Scott is a maiden's hand in marriage as here in this story, offered as a
prize to the man who would perform a certain exploit? Give brief outline of the
story.
6. Explain the reference to
Jerusalem's being in the hands of the Jebusites. In like manner the reference
to Jabin.
7. How did they determine
which tribe should commence the campaign of subduing the remnants?
8. Which was to take the
initiative?
9. What is the lex tationis
and what example here?
10. In what did Judah and
Simeon fail?
11. What advance did
Benjamin make in violating the law?
12. What Joseph's success
and failure?
13. Give briefly Dan's
failure.
14. What the purpose and
effect of his coming?
15. What advance did they
make now in violating the law? Name their gods.
16. What the result of this
culminating sin?
17. Explain in general terms
this prospective review.
18. Who the first judge? The
first oppressor?
19. Who the second judge?
The second oppressor?
20. Who the third judge? The
third oppressor (3:31)?
21. Whence came the first
two oppressors and what does this show? Whence the third oppressor?
DEBORAH AND BARAK, DEBORAH'S SONG Judges
4-5
The oppression that we are to consider in this section came from Jabin, another
king of Hazor. You have learned in the book of Joshua that a king of the same
name and over the same city was defeated and slain and the city taken. Some
people are troubled about his reappearance at a later date. I have explained to
you that Jabin is the name of a dynasty like Pharaoh of Egypt, and that when
Israel did not occupy conquered territory, in the lapse of time the inhabitants
would take possession; so that accounts for this king, Jabin, and in the same
place, Hazor.
The oppression in this case lasted twenty years and his power came from his
having 900 chariots of iron, which Israel dreaded to meet on any open plain.
They had a general, Sisera, who seems to have had complete management of all of
the martial affairs of his kingdom.
Our lesson introduces us to another one of those crises when no man rose up to
meet it and where God put power in the heart of a woman. I am always glad when
men fail that some good woman comes to the front. And instead of criticizing
her, I lift my hat to her, and we ought to take shame to ourselves that no man
could be found to stand in the breach and meet the exigencies of the occasion.
Of what tribe was Deborah? Locate the tribe of each one of the judges. She was
a prophetess, an inspired woman and it is easy enough to tell where her habitat
was at the time this story commences. The record states that she dwelt under
the palm tree between Ramah and Bethel. She was in the territory of Ephraim,
but don't be too sure that she belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. It may have
been that the oppression under Jabin drove her, as it did others, from the
tribe where she belonged and that she came down to a safe place in the
territory of Ephraim and there judged Israel.
There is no question but that many of the people of the tribes being in the
dark, having no prophet during the entire horrible oppression, would come to
this woman upon whom God's inspiration rested, to know what to do. The pitiable
condition of the nation I shall let her describe later in her magnificent song.
Anyhow, there was one woman whose heart was not cowed, that believed in God.
She believed that if her people would come together and ask God for help that
they would receive it, and she sent orders to Barak and commanded him to take
10,000 men out of the two tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, and take possession
of Mount Tabor. Mount Tabor was not a big mountain, but as it was in a level
plain it was a very conspicuous mountain and it commanded the plain where this
battle was to be fought. She sent word to him through the inspiration of God
resting upon her. He hesitated. He was not inspired and he wanted somebody
along who was inspired and he said, "If you will go with me I will
go." She had not intended to accompany the army, but if he would not go
without her she would go. So she went. A number of the tribes did furnish
contingent troops; so she gathered a considerable army. In the battle which
followed, Sisera's army was completely defeated, his chariots of iron availed
him nothing, and he himself turned aside from the crowd and fled in order to
escape death.
The record states that Heber, the Kenite, the brother-in-law of Moses) had
separated from the rest of the Kenites who had gone away down in the south;
that particular one had withdrawn from the rest of Hobab's children and had
taken his station on the northern plains, Kedesh, not Kadesh-barnea. It is a
fact that this Heber had had an agreement with the oppressor by which he did
not bother them and they did not bother him. Bear in mind what Moses said to
his brother-in-law. He said, "Come thou and go with us, for we are going
to a place which God has promised to give us and we will do thee good."
How often I have heard a country Baptist preacher preach from this text:
"We are going to the place that God has promised us." Well, anyhow,
they went and God did bless them.
Now, this particular one of these descendants separated from the others and
went up into this northern section of the country. When this fleeing king
turned eastward, he went to the house of this Kenite, Heber, and the man was
not at home but the woman was, Jael, and she invited him to come in and gave
him refreshment and covered him up, and while he slept she took a tent pin and
a hammer and drove the pin through his head and pinned him to the ground. So
that was the last of the great Sisera.
We will discuss the morality of that when we come to the song. I am just giving
you an historical outline. But what about the morality of the act of Jael in
driving a tent-pin through the head of a man that she invited into her tent and
who accepted her hospitality, and she slew him while he slept? In one of Sir
Walter Scott's novels, The Talisman, Saladin, the Sultan of the Mohammedans,
says to King Richard of England, "If my worst enemy were received in my
tent under the law of Arabian hospitality he would be as safe from any harm as
if he were in his own castle." That is their ethical theory of
hospitality. If you take salt with him, then you are safe as long as you are in
his tent. Now, Jael invited this man in the misfortune that was on him, if we
may call it that, and slew him while he trusted her hospitality. So what about
the morality of that act? But the victory was complete and the oppression
ceased.
Now we come to chapter 5, which is the interesting part of this section. I
suppose one hundred times in my life I have read over this triumphal song of
Deborah and compared it with the triumphal song of Miriam and the triumphal
song of Mary and other great songs that are mentioned in the Bible as coming
from the lips of women. And many times in my life I have compared the act of
Jael with that incident in the apocryphal Old Testament, where Judith slew
Holofernes under similar circumstances and became the deliverer of the nation.
During the war, in Kechi, Louisiana, the ladies of that city, who were very
patriotic, gave a number of tableaux in order to raise money for the soldiers.
I happened to be there, wounded but able to be carried in a hack, and I
attended, and one of the most striking scenes was Judith and Holofernes, Judith
cutting off the head of Holofernes while he was asleep. A young lady friend of
mine entered into controversy with me as to the morality of her action, and I
put this controversy on to you with reference to the action of Jael.
Now we look at this song. Nearly all of the Old Testament poetry is lyric poetry,
yet it is intensely lively. The first part commences with praise to God for
avenging Israel, and it is filled with doctrines that you can use now as well
as she did then. The second line gives the doctrine, "Praise ye the Lord
for avenging Israel, When the people willingly offered themselves." The
Lord will deliver his people every time if the people will offer themselves.
An one of Aesop's fables we find this story: "A countryman's wagon stuck
in the mud and he kneeled down and prayed to Hercules to help (Hercules being
the god of strength) and Hercules replied, 'When I see you put your own
shoulder to the wheel yourself, I will help you.' " The thought is the
same. Jehovah will avenge his people when the people offer themselves. We have
no right to call on God to get us out of our troubles and just sit still and do
nothing ourselves. The thought is expressed by a proverb that I will ask you to
tell who said: "Trust in the Lord but tie your camel." Don't just
turn your beast out and trust in the Lord to have him hanging around in the
morning. Who said, "Trust in the Lord but keep your powder dry"? The
thought is the same. The Lord avenges Israel whenever Israel offers himself.
A great meeting was held in Waco conducted by a Yankee evangelist of some note
and the first sermon that he preached was on what Martha said to Mary:
"The master is come and calleth for thee." And he commenced with his
peculiar Yankee nasal twang by saying, "The Lord had come to help that
family but that Mary sot thar, not goin' to do narthin'." He made a great
sermon out of it. He said, "I have come to help you in the meetin'; now
are you goin' to set thar and do narthin'?" In all of these things that I
am telling you is a great thought. If you ever hold a meeting, it will be a
good thing to take that text, "Praise ye the Lord when the people
willingly offer themselves." Brother Truett has preached some wonderful
sermons on consecration, and he shows that the grace of Jehovah grew out of the
fact that the people offered themselves willingly.
The American Revised Version changes the thought. Now, the change of thought is
this, that you may shout praise to God when leaders will rise up and people
offer themselves willingly. It is a fact, though, that no leaders rose up until
this woman stirred them up, and she was very glad that somebody, when she gave
out the word, did rise up. That only shows that what is necessary to success is
a leader, some man of God, somebody that has the courage of his convictions,
somebody that will blow the trumpet and unfurl the flag, and the people will
rally around a true leader. To illustrate: When we were retreating before the
oncoming of General Banks coming up Red River, and knowing that another army
was coming from Little Rock, Arkansas, and the two armies converging where all
the war supplies were, at Shreveport, Louisiana, when we were falling back
before Banks' army without cavalry, and the Federal cavalry enclosing us and
shooting into the column, I stepped out and said, One blast of Tom Green's
horn is worth 1,000 men." He was our great cavalry general in the West,
but was absent at the time; a few days later he joined us and at Mansfield,
Louisiana, captured their train and while our infantry went into Arkansas to
defeat Steele, he kept Banks retreating herded around their gunboats in Red
River. Every man felt that what we needed was a competent man, a leader on that
rear guard.
In the next paragraph of her song Deborah develops this thought, a thought that
she commands even kings and princes to hear, that is, that the same Jehovah
that went out of Seir, that shook the mountaintop of Sinai, that delivered the
people in the days of Moses was just as ready to come to the aid of his people
as he was then. Every now and then they would figure what God had done for them
in their behalf. The victors knew about it, but the next generation didn't know
about it, and they would think that God would not intervene now as he had in
the past. I tell you he will always intervene in behalf of his people if the
people will trust him, and if the leader blows the trumpet and unfurls the
flag, the deliverance will be just as signal now as it ever was in the heroic
days of the Israelites. This is poetry of a very high order, lyric: "Thou
wentest forth out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the
earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, yea, the clouds also dropped water.
The mountains melted from before the Lord. Even you Sinai from before the Lord
God of Israel." When you get over into the Psalms you will find that they
almost quote that language referring to the same experience. It served to keep
the minds of the nation about the tremendous power of Jehovah; over and over
again you will find that cited in the Psalms and a number of times in the New
Testament.
Now, in the next paragraph you come to the condition of the people, and you
also come to the fact that Shamgar, the hero, and Jael, the heroine, were
contemporaries. There was DO note of time when we discussed Shamgar; it was the
same commander but a different country; it was in Judah. In the days of Jael
the highways were unoccupied and the deliverer walked through byways. Now, the
country was in a terrible state when even the rich were silent, when those who
are troubled take to the brush, slip around in the bypaths. How shameful that
God's people, knowing Jehovah as they should have known him, were afraid even
to walk in the big road! This is the first point that indicates the condition
of the people. Now we come to the second indication of their condition:
"The rulers ceased in Israel." No hero, no captain, no man to take
the lead. And for twenty years this state of affairs was going on until Deborah
arose: "Until that I arose a mother in Israel."
Now, the third condition is, "they chose new gods." That accounts for
their condition, they turned away from Jehovah and worshiped these gods, then
they had no leader, then the highways were unoccupied. The fourth item of their
condition is, "There was war in the gates." Then we come to the next
condition: "Was there a shield or spear seen among the 40,000 in
Israel?" That is susceptible of two interpretations. That may mean either
that out of 40,000 men there were no arms to be found, or it may mean that out
of 40,000 men not one was willing to take a shield in his hand or a spear. My
idea is that the first one is right. I think it shows the condition of the
disarmed people; that among 40,000 men there would not be one spear. You come
to something like that in another period where even the means of husbandry were
taken away.
Look at the conditions: First, the highways were unoccupied; second, no
leaders; third, they chose new gods; fourth, there was war in the gates; fifth,
no means of making war, they were disarmed. Out of 40,000 there was not a
spear. Now we come to an expression that indicates this woman's gratitude. She
says, My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves
willingly among the people; Bless ye the Lord." I know what that means. In
1887 I was made chairman of the Prohibition Committee and I saw the necessity
of leaders. I issued an appeal that was published in every paper of any
prominence in the state, an appeal for young men, an appeal for men who would
look at the dreadful situation wrought in the homes and country by the saloon
business, and who would put themselves at the head of the people in their
section and take a stand. I don't suppose I ever wrote a more fiery article,
and I mailed with my own hands hundreds of copies to men that I picked out, and
U. S. senators, Congressmen, Texas legislators and hundreds of others
responded, and my heart was filled with joy and gratitude to God that they
responded to my appeal.
Now she says, "My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered
themselves willingly among the people; Bless ye the Lord." She then
anticipates the response of the people, and we will see who the people were
that did respond. Her heart is affected with the news that such people did
come. The dignitaries rode not on horses but on white asses, the most
comfortable animal of travel that there is in the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
rode such an animal. She says, "Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye
that sit in judgment and walk by the way. They that are delivered from the noise
of archers in the places of drawing water. They shall rehearse the righteous
acts of the Lord. . . . Then the people of the Lord went down to the
gates." Before, there was war in the gates. The gate was a place for a man
to get into the city and whoever saw him would invite him to his house. Job
refers to that, and the same is in Genesis in the account of Sodom and
Gomorrah. For a gate or portal of a city to be unfrequented was considered a
terrible condition of the people. Now, the richest, most prominent will come
together and discuss the marvelous achievements of Jehovah.
Now, here she stirs up herself and Barak; "Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake,
awake, utter a song: Arise, Barak, and lead away thy captives, thou son of
Abinoam." That sounds just like the blast of a trumpet where she rouses
herself, where she rouses the leader Barak. Now we come (v. 13) to the result
of the appeal: "Then came a remnant of the nobles and the people."
The remnant, who were they? I want to know how general was the response when the
inspired prophetess called them to fall into line of battle. "Out of
Ephraim, came down they whose root is in Amaiek; After thee, Benjamin, among
thy peoples; Out of Machir came down governors, And out of Zebulun they that
handled the marshal's staff. The princes of Issachar were with Deborah,"
and also Barak. Now, there are four tribes specified under her appeal: Ephraim,
Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar, and "Into the valley they rushed forth at his
feet."
Now you come to a trouble well known in Texas. It is a fine sarcasm: "By
the watercourses of Reuben there were great resolves of heart. Why sattest thou
among the sheepfolds, To hear the pipings for the flocks?" "By the
watercourses of Reuben there were great resolves of heart," but that is
all. I read that in an association once that had occupied years in making
resolutions. They resolved in their hearts and then "did narthin'."
They resolved but they never did turn. What is the use of finding out the wrong
if they do not turn to the right way? They looked into themselves; they passed
resolutions; they put themselves in line; then they listened to the bleatings
of the flock. Not a man went from the tribe of Reuben.
Let us see the men above Reuben. "Gilead abode beyond the Jordan."
Let us see that half-tribe of Manasseh. This war was on the western side of the
Jordan. So Gilead sent no response. Let us take Dan. Dan was quartered on the
Mediterranean Sea and he was very busy with his commerce. He had his goods of
export to send out and his goods import to receive. Dan was busy in ships. No
Danites came. Let us try Asher. They were going to sit still and "do
narthin'." Asher crept up to the forks of the creek and went into the
brush. Well, now what about Zebulun? "Zebulun was a people that jeoparded
their lives unto the death, and Naphtali upon the high places of the
field." Those tribes responded. Well, if one lone woman can rouse up that
many tribes it certainly is a great thing.
Now she tells what the enemy did: "The kings came and fought; then fought
the kings of Canaan. The stars from their courses fought against Sisera."
A few tribes, but all heaven was on the side of the righteous. As the sun and
the moon conspired to help Joshua in the battle of Beth-horon, so here the
stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Now, whenever you get that
thought into men's minds, the thought that Patrick Henry has fired every
schoolboy's heart with, "Besides, sir, we shall not be fighting alone;
there is a God of battles and He will fight for us," they will respond.
Whenever you can get a man to feel that the power of heaven will come down, he
will say one is a majority if God is with him. Well, that is what heaven did.
Let us see what earth did. "The river of Kishon swept them away. . . . 0
my soul, march on with strength." That Kishon River at times was as dry as
a powder house, but Deborah selected the battlefield right where she did for
the reason that the water spout, if it came, would beat all the chariots in the
world. I have seen on the plains of Texas a dry basin of a river and a wall of
water sweep down, twenty-five feet high and a mile wide, in thirty minutes.
Here nature on the earth and nature in the stars was helping God's people. It
is real poetry. "Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of prancings,
the prancings of their mighty ones." What would a chariot do against
Kishon when Kishon came down? It was like the sea, and swept over the enemy
until they perished in the water.
Now we come to the theme of many sermons, "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel
of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not
to the help of the Lord." Heretofore we considered the tribes but here is
a particular city that failed to come to the help of God. The stars came, the
earth came, and a woman went forth and led in the battle, but this city, this
city upon which, by the voice of the angel of Jehovah himself, a curse came,
didn't take hold. The sin of omission under certain circumstances is as fearful
as the sin of commission. I have not preached less than twenty sermons myself
on that.
QUESTIONS
1. Explain the reappearance
of Jabin. How long his oppression? Who his general?
2. Who the deliverer? Of
what tribe? Where did she dwell? Why there? Who led the army with her?
3. Give an account of the
battle that followed and of Siaera's death.
4. With what should one
compare Deborah's song for study?
5. Quote the text with which
this song opens, and illustrate its application.
6. What does she invoke
kings and princes to hear?
7. What were the conditions
of the people as portrayed in this song?
8. What expression indicates
the gratitude of Deborah? and illustrate.
9. Contrast the former
condition with this.
10. Quote her appeal and
give the tribes that responded; also the ones that did not and why.
11. Describe the effort of
the enemy and the battle in general.
12. What. city is cursed and
why? Quote the text here.
DEBORAH'S SONG (Concluded); MIDIAN AND
GIDEON Judges 5:23 to 8:35 DEBOBAH'S SONG Concluded
In verse 23 a curse is denounced on Meroz and in verse 24 a blessing pronounced
on Jael. Now, is this imprecation on the one hand or this benediction on the
other hand merely an expression of Deborah's personal enthusiasm and aroused
patriotism, or must we attribute it to the inspiration of God?
Ans. The whole context shows that she is not only speaking as a prophet under
inspiration (compare 4:9, "Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a
woman"), but quoting the very words of Jehovah, 5:23.
2. Then would you approve the morality of Jael's apparent violation of the laws
of hospitality held so sacred in the Orient, and of what seems on its face to
be assassination?
Ans. Yes, what Jehovah himself commands and blesses is not to be judged by
man according to human standards. The avenger of blood was not an assassin but
commissioned as a sheriff. So the case of Ehud. So the destruction of the
Canaanites. So the flood. So the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3. But may not Jehovah in a governmental sense avail himself of wicked
instruments overruling the evil but not approving it, as in the case of
Joseph's brethren, Genesis 42:21; 45:5, of the remarkable case of the Assyrian,
Isaiah 10:5-15, and in the case of the betrayers and crucifiers of Christ, Acts
2:23?
Ans. This is all true but cannot under a fair construction of our text apply
in the case of the inspired curse on Meroz and the inspired blessing on Jael,
especially since it was "the angel of Jehovah" who curses and blesses
and Deborah only quotes Judges 5:23. Compare the blessing on Jael with the
blessings on Mary, the mother of our Lord, Luke 1:41-42, by Elisabeth and
Mary's own saying, verse 48.
4. But is not the doctrine dangerous in the hands of fanatics as in the
assassination of William of Orange and Henry of Navarre?
Ans. All doctrines are dangerous in the hands of fanatics and are liable to fearful
abuse. To assume, without warrant, to act in Jehovah's name in either blessing
or cursing or to cloak private revenge under religious sanction is a
blasphemous usurpation of divine prerogative. See Romans 12:19. God only can
bless or curse. See specially the case of Balaam, Numbers 22:5-6,. and 23:7-8,
11-12, 20; 24:10-12. It devolves upon him who assumes to bless or curse or slay
in God's name to give miraculous proofs as signs of his credentials.
5. But is it ever true that an individual or a people may dispense with
ordinary forms of law?
Ans. It is true that under extraordinary conditions in which ordinary forms
of law are not available the law of self-preservation may justify a father in
protecting his family from burglary, assassination, and dishonor, and there
have been extraordinary cases where there was no law to protect life or
property, the right to social government inhering in the people justified
extraordinary means of social protection, until ordinary forms of legal
protection should be created. This doctrine also is liable to terrific abuses,
but it is a true doctrine under the real conditions which demand it.
6. What can you say of the morality of Deborah's exultation over the hopeless
waiting of Sisera's mother for the return of her son?
Ans. It is of a piece with the rest. A mother watching through the lattice
for the return of a son who for twenty years has ground an oppressed people to
powder, and who is delighting herself with the expectation of a robber's spoils
and of captive maidens to be devoted to bondage and dishonor, cannot reasonably
hope that the delivered people will condole with her disappointment. Nor can it
be evil to rejoice at that disappointment. See Revelation 19:1-8. The joy of
Deborah was a righteous joy. The sentimental deprecation of some commentators
on this point is sickly, namby-pamby, goody-goody gush, very far from piety. It
is such a weakness as would weep over the ultimate downfall of the poor devil!
MIDIAN AND
GIDEON CHAPTERS 6-8
7. What the occasion of the next oppression of Israel, how long the oppression,
who the oppressor and where his territory?
Ans. See 6:1, and map.
8. Trace the origin of the Midianites and show their kinship to Israel and the
past connection of Joseph and Moses with them and what part of them was
associated with Israel in travel and settlement in Canaan.
Ans. Examine Genesis 25:2; Exodus 3:1; 18:1-27; Numbers 10:29-32; 12:1;
22:4-7; 31:1-12; Judges 1:16; 4:11-17, 24, and then make your own reply.
9. Why are Midianites used synonymously with Ishmaelites both here (Judg. 8:24)
and in Genesis 37:25,28?
Ans. They were close akin, occupied the same territory and had the same
customs of desert life, were intermingled as one people.
10. What other tribes or nations were associated with Midian in this invasion
of Israel?
Ans. Consult 6:3, and 8:24, and reply.
11. What characteristics show them to be the true children of the East?
Ans. (1) Their methods of travel and making war, 6:5.
(2) Their ornaments, 8:24-26.
12. What the sweep of the invasion and the extent of the desolation wrought?
Ans. Consult 6:2-6 and answer.
13. To whom did Israel cry for help and the method of response?
Ans. Consult 7:7-10, and reply.
14. After the rebuke of Israel's sin through a prophet how docs Jehovah
intervene?
Ans. He comes to call and qualify a human deliverer, 6:11.
15. Comparing 6:11, with Genesis 15:1; 18:2; 21:17; Exodus 3:2; 23:20, 23;
33:2; Joshua 5:13; Judges 13:3-7, what are these appearances of the
"angel, or Word of Jehovah"?
Ans. They were real Theophanies or pre-manifestations of our Lord. Compare
John 8:5-6 and Hebrews 9:26-27.
16. State the circumstances of Gideon's call, its miraculous sign, its commemoration,
the meaning of Jehovah-Shalom and cite other significant combinations of
"Jehovah" with a modifying word and the meaning of each.
Ans. For all but the last item see 6:11-24. For the last item see Genesis
22:14; Exodus 17:15; Jeremiah 23:6. On the last item: Jehovah-Jireh The Lord
Will Provide, Genesis 22:14. Jehovah-Nissi The Lord our Banner, Exodus 17:15.
Jehovah-Shalom The Lord our Peace, Judges 6:24. Jehovah-Tsidkenu The Lord
Our Righteousness, Jeremiah 3:6.
17. How does the New Testament comment on Genesis 18: 1-8, and Judges 6:18-19?
Ans. Hebrews 13:2.
18. Compare in the following cases the different ways in which men receive
God's call to service.
(1) Moses, Exodus 3:10-11; 4:10-13.
(2) Gideon, Judges 6:15.
(3) Samuel, I Samuel 3:4-10
(4) Saul, I Samuel 10:22.
(5) Jonah, Jonah 1:3, and 3:2-3.
(6) Isaiah, Isaiah, 4:8.
(7) Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1:6.
(8) Amos 7:14-16.
(9) Paul, Acts 26:19; Galatians 1:15-16.
19. How was Gideon directed to make a square issue and fulfil it?
Ans. 6:25-27.
20. Explain different renderings in common and revised versions of "cut
down the grove," "cut down the Asherah" in verse 25.
Ans. Form your own answer.
21. Wherein the great courage of Gideon in this act?
Ans. It was against his own family and city.
22. What the reply of Gideon's father to the demand of the city that Gideon be
delivered up to die?
Ans. 6:31.
23. What new name was given to Gideon and of what was it a standing memorial?
Ans. The name of Jerubbaal and it is a standing memorial of the fact that
throughout his life Gideon was against Baal and that if Baal could not defend
himself he was no god.
24. Compare this case with the remarkable case in I Kings 18:17-20.
Ans. Form your own answer.
25. How did both sides respond to Gideon's issue?
Ans. 6:33-35.
26. What the two confirmatory signs of victory given to Gideon?
Ans. 6:36-40.
27. What and why the two eliminations of Gideon's army?
Ans. 7:2-8. The first elimination was this: God said, "These 32,000 you
have here are too many. The battle must be the Lord's battle and you have too
many men." The first elimination was to send home every man that was
afraid. You know men get scared when they jam right up against a formidable
army. The first elimination was that every one of the 32,000 that was scared
might fall out, and 22,000 fell out. God looked at the 10,000 and said,
"There are still too many. Now bring the 10,000 down to the creek and let
me see them drink water," and every one but 300 when they got there laid
down their equipments and kneeled down and deliberately took a drink. But the
300 waded in and lapped up the water as they marched through, and never stopped
walking. God said that the 300 that lapped the water like a dog were his crowd.
Why? They had before them, after the battle, a march that would try the souls
of men. Gideon will never let up pursuing them, across the Jordan and way out
into Midian, and soldiers that have to lay aside their equipments and lie down
and grunt, they never will overtake a fleeing enemy, and he needed people that
wouldn't lose time. I once heard an infidel say that that was the sorriest test
he ever heard of. I always thought it a remarkable test. It was precisely the
kind of a test that was made by an old Indian fighter. He said, "I am
going to pursue the Indians into the mountains; whoever cannot load your gun as
you go must drop out; you must be able to load your gun as you go."
28. What additional sign of victory?
Ans. 7:9-14. Gideon and one man marched up and took a close look at the enemy
and heard one of them say, "I have dreamed. I dreamed that we would be
destroyed by the sword of Gideon." There is the mighty spirit of God
sending a dream to a man as he sent a dream to Pharaoh.
29. What the arms of Gideon's 300, his method of battle, the war cry and the
result?
Ans. 7:16-23. Army trumpets, lamps, and pitchers. The trumpets to blow, the
pitchers to hide the light until the time came. They put the light down deep in
the pitchers so they could slip up to the enemy, then at a signal they broke
the pitchers and the 300 trumpets blew and the war cry came from three
directions, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." You see he divided
his men into three companies; let a big crowd of men wake up in the night with
100 lights burning on the right, 100 on the left and 100 behind and three
divisions shouting, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," it would
scare them nearly to death. The result was that they just ran until they
dropped. That great big army, a multitude, running away before trumpets, lamps,
and pitchers and the war cry.
30. What great sermon by great men have been preached from two texts in this
paragraph?
Ans. I will give you two and let you think of a dozen more. Spurgeon has a
sermon, indeed a series, on "Lamps and Pitchers." Then John A.
Broadus preached at the convention at Atlanta on "The Sword of the Lord
and of Gideon."
31. What other cases can you cite of using insignificant weapons to achieve
great victories?
Ans. I will tell you of a few and you must think of some more. The ox-goad in
the hands of Shamgar, the jawbone of an ass in the hands of Samson, and the
sling and pebble in the hands of David.
32. What precautions of Gideon to cut off the retreat of the enemy?
Ans. He sent a rapid messenger to the tribe of Ephraim and they fell into
line and captured two of the kings and killed a great multitude of the people.
33. Considering the case of Ephraim in dealing with Joshua, Gideon, and
Jephthah, what the description of that tribe by a later prophet, and what the
meaning of the metaphor?
Ans. Hosea 7:8: "Ephraim is a cake not turned." You read those
three passages about Ephraim and you will think of that prophets metaphor. He
was just cooked on one side. Did you ever eat a piece of bread that was cooked
on one side and raw on the other? That is the description of Ephraim.
34. What kings commanded the Midianites, and their fate?
Ans. Zabah and Zaimunna, who were slain by Gideon.
35. State the case of the cities of Succoth and Penuel and give your judgment
of Gideon's punishment of them.
Ans. When Gideon's men came with their tongues out from thirst, having come
all the way from the battlefield east of the Jordan, they said, "We are
soldiers of Gideon and dying of hunger and thirst; feed us," and those
cities from financial and prudential reasons thought maybe the other side was
going to capture them, so they went against the starving army and refused them
bread and drink. Gideon said that when he came back he was going to make
scourges out of the bushes with thorns and punish them and plough up their
foundation. Later he did exactly what he said he was going to do.
36. What great sin did Gideon commit?
Ans. I wish that he had stopped without committing that sin. He commanded
that the earrings, raiment, and the chains that were about their camels' necks
(as is characteristic of desert people) should all be poured into a sack and
out of that he would make an ephod. What is an ephod? It is a garment like a
Mexican blanket with a hole in it to put down over the head. The one for the
high priest, on the breast, had a plate and two jewels, one on each side, and
it was worn when the priest went to consult the oracles; whenever a question
came up the high priest put on this robe and the oracle would answer. And the
record says, "All Israel went a whoring after the ephod of Gideon."
37. How long did peace last from this deliverance?
Ans. Forty years; it was just a day or two that that fight lasted and forty
years of peace followed one brief fight.
THE STORY OF ABIMELECH, THE USURPER, AND
OF JEPHTHAH Judges 9-12
1. Who was Abimelech, and was he one of Israel's judges sent out by the Lord?
Ans. Abimelech was the natural son of Gideon, not the legal son, and
evidently a godless case. He was not sent of the Lord to be a judge. Whatever
rule he obtained he obtained by murder, unsurpation, and conspiracy. So we
don't count him at all in the list of the judges, but his history only as an
episode in the period of the judges.
2. How was his usurpation effected?
Ans. By conspiracy with the city of Shechem, and by the murder and
assassination of all his father's legal children except one, the youngest,
Jotham, who escaped.
3. Analyze the sin of Abimelech and Shechem.
Ans. (1) The sin consisted in the attempt to establish a monarchy while God
was the ruler of the theocracy. (2) It consisted of murder in order that no
competition might arise between the real, legal children of their great leader,
Gideon.
4. Through whom and how came a protest against the sin?
Ans. The protest came from Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon. He took his
position on top of Mount Gerizirn, and from the top of that mountain all the
valley could hear him and all on the highest mountains, so he occupied a high
pulpit. He stated his case in the form of a parable, or in the strictest sense
of fable. He said that the trees of the field called upon the fig tree to be
their king, and it had better things to attend to than to be king; they called
on the olive tree, and the olive tree had better things to do than to be king;
so finally they applied to the bramble, and it agreed that it would be king if
they would rest under its shadow. Now the briar doesn't make much of a shadow,
but they agreed to it.
5. Was Jotham's illustration a fable or a parable, and what the distinction
between them?
Ans. Parable is a broader word and includes fable. A fable is a parable of
this kind: It attributes intelligent action to either inanimate creation or
brute creation. Numerous cases you have of them in Aesop's Fables. But a
parable supposes real people and presents them acting as one would naturally do
under the circumstances. But inasmuch as a parable etymologically means,
according to the strict Greek word parabola, the putting of one thing down
against another for the purpose of contrast, therefore a fable may come within
the definition of a parable.
6. What fable of Aesop's somewhat similar?
Ans. The fable of the frogs who implored Jupiter to send them a king. He
dropped a log into the pond and it made a great splash and ripples but later
when they found that they could jump upon that log they had no regard for their
king and implored Jupiter to send another. Whereupon Jupiter sent a long-necked
stork, or crane. And he gobbled up quite a number of his subjects every morning
and they much regretted swapping King Log for King Stork.
7. What are the great lessons of Jotham's fable?
(1) The best and most ambitious men are not ambitious to rule over people. See
our Lord's lesson in the Gospel: "The kings of the Gentiles exercise
lordship over them; it shall not be so with you." There is something
greater than to be king and whoever ministers to others is greater than any
king that ever sat on the throne.
(2) The second lesson of the fable is that when the ambitious in their selfishness
seek to rule and the people are gullible enough to give them rule, then it
means mutual destruction both to the self-seeking ambitious one and the
gullible people who put him in power.
8. How did Jotham apply his fable?
Ans. In this way: "Now if you have done the right thing to Gideon in the
murder of his children and in the election of this self-seeking assassin, then
have joy in him and let him have joy in you; but if you are wrong in that may
the fire come out of him that will burn you up and may a fire come out of you
that will burn him up."
9. Cite proof that the fable was inspired.
Ans. The proof is found at the close of this lesson where it is said,
"according to the word of Jotham," and that is exactly what happened.
The first time a row came up between him and the people he wiped them off the
face of the map, and soon after a remnant in fighting against him killed him; a
woman dropped a millstone down on his bead. What an inglorious death! So he
perished and they perished, and the record says that it was done according to
the word of Jotham.
10. What use does Dr. Broadus make of Jotham in his History of Preaching?
Ans. In citing cases of real pulpit eloquence he mentions Jotham and his high
pulpit he stood on, his use of illustrations and his sensational sermon, and
then that having created a sensation, he ran away from it. That is about the
substance, but you had better read what Dr. Broadus says in his History of
Preaching.
11. What Old Testament parables precede Jotham's fable?
Ans. None; for another fable, see 2 Kings 14: Off.
12. Cite the names and tribes of the next two judges after Gideon and their
respective periods of judging.
Ans. Tolar of the tribe of Issachar, who judged twenty-three years, and Jair
of the tribe of Manasseh, who judged twenty-two years.
13. After Tolar and Jair how did Israel increase its idolatries and what the
deities?
Ans. Read 10:6. Here is what he says: "And the children of Israel did
evil again in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth [both of
these are plural], and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon [Sidon is a
part of Phoenicia], and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of
Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines." They took in more gods this time
than ever before.
14. Find the names of the gods of the Philistines, of Ammon, of Moab, and of
Sidon in addition to Baalim and Ashtaroth.
Ans. One god of the Philistines was Dagon; another was Baal-zebub; Milcom, or
Moloch of Ammon; Chemosh of Moab; Gerakles and Melkar of Phoenicia.
15. What evidence of their repentance when trouble came?
Ans. (1) The confession of sin 10:10-15. (2) Putting themselves in God's
hands to be punished at his will, 10:15. (3) Putting away the strange gods. That
is good proof of repentance.
We now come to consider the case of JEPHTHAH
16. Cite the story of Jephthah up to the call of the people to make him leader.
Where is Tob, what his life there and what the similarity with the case of
Abimelech?
Ans. Jephthah, as I have stated, was the son of Gilead, by a harlot, and his
brethren or his half-brothers, the legal children of Gilead, denied him the
right to any part of the inheritance, and the city of Shechem coincided with
them. So he had to leave, and he retired to a great rich country in Syria. The
name of the place was Tob, and there, being a valorous man, he gathered about
him a company of men, pretty lawless fellows; some of them, regular
free-lances. The similarity of his case and Abimelech's is that he and
Abimelech were both natural sons.
17. Considering Genesis 21:10, the case of Hagar; the case of Tamar, Genesis
38:12-26; and Deuteronomy 21:15-17, was it lawful to deny Jephthah a part of
his father's inheritance, and if so wherein does this case differ from others
cited?
Ans. Hagar was really the wife under the law and Tamar's action was strictly
within the law, though Judah did not suppose it at the time. And in the case
cited in Deuteronomy there were the children of two wives but they were both
wives. So none of them applies to this case. Jephthah was the son of a harlot
born utterly out of wedlock, and therefore, it was lawful to deprive him of any
inheritance, but it was a mean thing to do.
18. What condition did Jephthah exact of Gilead before he would accept their
appeal and how did he certify it?
Ans. He made them enter into a claim covenant at Mizpah that if he came in
their extremity and delivered them from this bondage that had come upon them,
then he was to be their prince, and he had the word spoken before the Lord at
Mizpah. The student of history will remember how Rome pleaded with Coriolanus,
whom she expelled, not to destroy Rome, and sent his mother to beg him not to
do it. He said, "Mother, you have saved Rome but you have lost your
son."
19. State Jephthah's negotiation with Ammon, and its results.
Ans. He sent a very able statement to the king of Ammon, who was leading this
invasion of Israel, and he put the case this way: "We obtained this
territory 300 years ago under Moses; God put it into our hands. Why have you
been silent 300 years? We will not surrender what God has put into our hands
and which we have held for that long." They disregarded his negotiation.
20. What the first proof that Jehovah had any part in the leadership of
Jephthah?
Ans. Now, heretofore everything that is said in the record shows that it was
the plan of the people to go and stand for Jephthah as leader, and the first
sign is in 11:29, showing that after he took the position of leader the Spirit
of the Lord came upon him.
21. What the vow of Jephthah and wherein its rashness?
Ans. When they refused to negotiate, he vowed if God would give him the
victory over them that whoever was the first to come out of his house to meet
him on his return from battle) he would offer as a burnt offering to Jehovah.
The rashness of it was, as all the context goes to show, that he meant persons
and Jehovah's law was against offering people as burnt offerings.
22. State two theories of what became of Jephthah's daughter, which the older,
which best supported by the context and history, and if you say the first, how,
then, did the second originate?
Ans. The first theory is that Jephthah said he would offer the one meeting
him as a burnt offering and the text shows that just what he vowed, that he did
unequivocally. That theory held the fort until 1,200 years after Christ, i.e.,
from Jephthah's time until 1,200 years after Christ; all commentaries, Jewish
and Christian, stated that Jephthah did sacrifice his daughter as a burnt
offering to Jehovah, but about 1,200 years after Christ a Jewish rabbi
questioned it and then a few of the sentimental Christians, among them Grotius,
the distinguished theologian of Holland, followed by Hengstenberg, a German,
and a few English people, Adam Clarke for one, and their theory was that
Jephthah vowed to the Lord that if something that could be offered as a burnt
offering met him it should be burned, but if it were not it was still to be
consecrated to God, and what took place was not the death on the altar of
sacrifice, but the daughter was shut up to perpetual virginity. The
overwhelming majority of the commentaries, and men who have respect for what
the Word says, hold to the first theory, but if you want to see both theories
stated and your question demands that, you look in Appendix 4 to the
"Cambridge Bible," Book of Judges. Now, that second theory being more
and more in fashion was originated by early nunneries, women taking the vow of
perpetual virginity for Christian service, and yet the majority of the
Catholics do not believe that. They believe that she was put up as a burnt
offering.
23. Why, in your judgment, did not Jephthah appeal to Leviticus 27:2-8, for
commutation of his vow? That is, if one made a vow, a scale of compensation was
provided and by paying that compensation in money he could be released from the
vow. The question now is why did not Jephthah appeal to the Levitical law?
Ans. A great many people say that Jephthah was ignorant of this law, but that
history took place at Mizpah where the high priest lived, and the high priest
knew of that law if Jephthah didn't. He did not appeal to that because the
Levitical law did not apply as it does to other kinds of vows.
24. From the context was the vow inspired?
Ans. Judges 11:29-30, shows that the Spirit of the Lord rested on him, and
inasmuch as in Hebrews 11:32, Jephthah is commended as one of the heroes of
faith, my answer is that the vow was not inspired and an entirely new subject
on the vow question was introduced after the statement that the Spirit of the
Lord came on Jephthah. Hebrews 11:32 has nothing to do with it from the fact
that a man may have faith and do many mean things and wrong things, as David
did.
25. Is it better to break a vow that involves sin than to keep it?
Ans. Before you answer, compare Psalm 15:4, Ecclesiastes 5:4, with Matthew
14:6-11, where Herod vowed with an oath that he would give the dancing girl
anything she asked for, and she asked for the head of John the Baptist. Take
the three passages and make out your answer. Let those first two cases refer to
cases that are not sin. I heard a man once swear that he would eat the devil in
flames and I have always excused him from eating the devil particularly as hot
as that.
26. What proverb of English classics applies to Jephthah's vow?
Ans. This proverb, "This promise is better in the breach than in the
observance of it."
27. Cite the case of Jephthah's contention with Ephraim, and what use has been
made of "Shibboleth"?
Ans. Ephraim as usual (you know, I quoted the prophet who said that Ephraim
is a cake not turned), when Jephthah gained that victory, drew out his army and
demanded why he did not call on him. Jephthah did not give him a soft answer.
He said, "I did call on you and you refused to come and when you refused I
wrought the deliverance, and now if you want to fight let us fight." And
he gave him a good beating. In other words, when he got through the cake was
cooked on both sides. Now, this "Shibboleth," that was the word that
the enemy had to pronounce. They could not pronounce the sh; they said
Sibboleth, and as they were running away and Jephthah's men found them, they
were asked to say "Shibboleth," and if they said
"Sibboleth," they were known to be the enemy and were killed right
there. It has become since that day popular with those who think that others
are requiring too hard doctrines. They say, "Well, I don't pretend to be
able to pronounce 'Shibboleth,' but you need not want to kill me just because I
can't sound every letter just like you."
28. What three judges succeeded Jephthah, from what tribes, and the notes of
time?
Ans. That is expressed in two or three verses, as follows: Ibzan of the tribe
of Zebulon, judged seven years; Elon of the tribe of Zebulon, judged ten years;
Abdon of the tribe of Ephraim, judged eight years.
SAMSON Judges 13-16
Contrast the history of Samson with that of the other judges.
Ans. (1) It is every way more minute and circumstantial in its details and
more extensive.
(2) It resembles the cases of Ehud and Shamgar as a record of individual
exploits, but seems to have even less national significance.
(3) Othniel, Barak, Gideon, and Jephthah led armies, fought pitched battles,
conducted great campaigns and achieved results of national and lasting
importance. They were men differing, indeed, in character from one another, but
all men of a high order of intelligence and administrative capacity, but Samson
not only manifests no such intelligence and capacity in a general way, but is
weak in judgment and weak in character. He is merely an individual champion in
the direction of physical strength, and like the prize fighters of all ages,
susceptible to temptations which appeal to flesh passions.
(4) Unlike all others he was a Nazarite.
(5) Unlike the others his history commences with his father and mother and,
like Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptist, his very birth was the result of a
miraculous power.
(6) His history is a history of miracles and prodigies, more than all the
others.
2. What legendary hero of the classics most resembles Samson, indeed whose
mystical story is supposed by some to be a heathen outgrowth of the Bible
story?
Ans. Hercules.
3. How do you account for the marvelous hold of Samson
upon the imagination of all succeeding ages?
Ans. The personal hero, the man of individual exploits, always impresses the
popular mind more than the ripest statesmanship or the greatest generalship.
More of the common people have ever gone to witness the feats of a gladiator, a
bullfighter, or a prizefighter than would assemble to hear an orator, poet, statesman,
scholar, or inventor. With the exception of the orator perhaps, the fame of the
others will most likely be posthumous instead of contemporaneous.
4. In the case of men like Moses, Samuel, and John the Baptist it is easy to
account for the Spirit's circumstantial record of their birth and youth, so
largely do their lives and influence affect all succeeding generations, but how
do you account for the minute prologue concerning Samson all of chapter 13
and the relative extent and circumstantial detail of his history?
Ans. We may not be able to philosophize profitably concerning the matter, but
we suggest:
(1) The infinite variety of the Scriptures as a whole is designed to present something
circumstantial about all phases of individual life. We need the circumstantial
record of Moses the law-giver, Samuel the founder of the school of the
prophets, David the psalmist, Job the patient, Jonah the reluctant foreign
missionary, Peter the impulsive, John the meditative theologian, Paul the world
moulder in doctrine and aggressive propagandism, and so we need one
circumstantial record, the power of physical prowess, as a special gift of God.
A child's mind easily takes hold of the simple catechism: Who was the first
man, the oldest man, the meekest man, the strongest man, the wisest man, etc.?
(2) There are lessons to be learned from the history of Samson of invaluable
use to all ages, lessons far more significant than his exploits in themselves
considered, and this is the governing thought in the fulness and variety of the
Holy Scriptures. (See 2 Tim. 3:16-17.)
5. According to Oliver Wendell Holmes, where does the education of a child
commence?
Ans. "With his grandmother," Timothy's grandmother a case in point.
(2 Tim. 1:5; 3-15.)
6. In this case show how Samson's education commences with his mother.
Ans. "Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink no wine nor strong
drink, and eat not any unclean thing: for lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a
son; and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child shall be a Nazarite
unto God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of
Philistines." "And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass; what
shall be the ordering of the child and how shall we do unto him? And the angel
of Jehovah said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware.
She may not eat of anything that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine
or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her
observe," (13:4-5,12-14).
7. What is a Nazarite, and the token of one?
Ans. (1) The law of the voluntary Nazarite is found in Numbers 6:1-21. The
dominant idea is consecration or devotedness to Jehovah for a limited period or
for life. The token is the unshaved hair. The requirements are total abstinence
from intoxicating liquors and even the fruit of the vine and from contact with
any defilement, and holiness of life.
(2) But in the case of some either the parents or God himself decreed them
Nazarites for life from the womb, as Samson (Judges 16:17), Samuel (I Sam.
1:11), John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), and the Rechabites (Jer. 35).
(3) A passage in Lamentations 4:4, shows the requirements of holiness and the
beneficial effect of an abstemious life.
8. In what other scriptures is abstinence from intoxicating drink required of
consecrated men?
Ans. "It is not for kings, 0 Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine;
nor for princes to say, Where is strong drink? Lest they drink and forget the
law, and pervert the justice due to any that is afflicted," Proverbs
31:4-5, and in I Timothy pastors and deacons should be "not given to much
wine."
9. Unto what nation was Israel subject in the days of Samson?
Ans. See 14:4ωThe Philistines.
10. From whom do all Samson's troubles come?
Ans. From two Philistine women 14:15-17; 16:20.
11. Did these women entice him to evil of their own thought or were they used
as tools by the Philistines?
Ans. In both cases the Philistines brought pressure to bear on the women.
12. Distinguish between the pressure on the one who was his wife and the one
who was a harlot.
Ans. On the wife by a threat of burning her and her father's family, on the
harlot by bribery.
13. Did the wife and her father escape the burning by her yielding to the
threat?
Ans. No.
14. Describe the character and power of the temptation in each case.
Ans. See 14:16-17; 16:15-16. It was in both cases persistent from day to day;
in both cases they asked the secret as a proof of love. In the first case with
persistent tears, in the second case with accusation of mocking and lies,
nagging, nagging until his soul was vexed unto death; a woman's seven days'
weeping; a woman's seven days' nagging; tears and nagging.
15. What proverbial question have the French when a man goes to the bad?
Ans. "Who was the woman?"
16. What secrets should a man withhold from his wife?
Ans. That depends on the nature of the case, and the disposition of the wife.
17. Who, perhaps, was the only man known to history that fully and fairly
answered all the hard questions put to him by a woman?
Ans. Solomon.
18. What infamous and notorious chief of police used a woman to trap men, and
what great novelist devoted a section of a romance to a description of the
method?
Ans. Fouche, the chief of the Parisian police, and Balzac is the romance
writer in that book of his, Les Chouans. Now, he has a section of that book
headed with these words: "The Notion of Fouche," showing how he
wanted to get hold of the enemy that he could not capture on the field.
19. What chapter of the Bible is devoted to warning against women like Delilah,
and quote its last two verses. Cite another passage to prove that the author of
this chapter had ample experimental qualifications for the warning.
Ans. Proverbs 7. See verses 26 and 27. I Kings 11:1-8 proves that Solomon,
the author of Proverbs 7, had the experimental qualifications for this warning.
20. Cite in order the exploits of Samson.
Ans. (1) Slaying the lion, 14:5-6.
(2) Slaying the thirty Philistines, 14:19, to get the changes of raiment to pay
his wager.
(3) The use of foxes in burning the harvest fields of the Philistines for
giving his wife to another, 15:4-5.
(4) The great slaughter to avenge the burning, 15:7-8.
(5) The slaying of a thousand with the jawbone of an ass, 15:14-15.
(6) Carrying off the gates of Gaza, 16:1-3.
(7) The breaking of the seven green withes, of a new rope, and the carrying
away of the pin and web in which his hair had been woven, 16:7-14.
(8) The pulling down of the Philistine temple and his consequent destruction,
16:29-31.
21. In what power were all these achievements wrought?
Ans. "The Spirit of the Lord came upon him."
22. In a noted book, Types of Mankind, by Drs. Nott and Gliddon of Mobile, what
different rendering is given of 15: 4-5, and what do you say of the merits of
their rendering?
Ans. Turn to 15:4-5. This is the way they translate this passage: "And
Samson went and took three hundred sheaves of grain and took firebrands and
turned them end to end and put a firebrand in the midst between the two ends.
And when he had set the brands on fire, he threw them into the standing grain
of the Philistines, . . ." What is the merit of this translation? I say,
none at all. It is just one of those ways by which men try to evade the
marvelous features of scripture.
23. Hitherto we have considered Samson as only an embodiment of physical
strength, but what proof in the record of his much higher endowments?
Ans. The feats of physical strength make the most vivid impressions on the
mind, but there is evidence sufficient in history to show his higher
endowments. It is said, without giving details, "he judged Israel twenty
years." The exercise of this function called for knowledge, judgment, and
fidelity to God's law.
His propounding a riddle shows training in Oriental wisdom and his proverbial
reply to his enemies who treacherously found its solution shows not only quick
discernment but racy humor. His readiness to locate the source of all the
hidden assaults upon him indicates a shrewd knowledge of human nature.
We may not assume his inability to lead armies and conduct great campaigns
because through the abject spirit of his people there were not only no armies
to lead, but there was even that despicable meanness on the part of the people
to surrender their own deliverer in bonds to the enemy at their demand. There
was no material for an army in a people who thought it necessary to take 3,000
men to arrest one man, and then were afraid to arrest him without his consent.
The national cowardice of both Israel and Philistia forms the dark outline of
his sublime and solitary courage.
He seems to have been the only brave, absolutely fearless man in the two
nations, and stalks among them like a Titan among quail bugging the covert or
ready to take flight at the mere sight of him. His life deserves its prologue
to which reference has been made. His sin of going unto harlots was the sin of
his age characterizing great men of his nation before and after him. He never
led Israel into sin like Gideon, nor offered human burnt offerings like Jephthah.
He never went into idolatry. It is true that like other and even greater men he
could not withstand the persistent tears or continual nagging of a woman, yet
he never himself wronged a woman.
His sense of the stern justice of the lex talionis taught in his law and his
logical mind are both evident in his reply to his own abject countrymen who
rebuked his heavy strokes against the common enemy: "As they did unto me,
so I have done unto them."
For his one great sin against Jehovah he patiently bore the penalty, and, in
penitence and prayer, found forgiveness. He wag truly a great man, deserving no
help from contemporaries and stands like a solitary mountain on the dead level
of a plain.
This, with the pathetic tragedy of his death, gives him his place in human
memory and appeals to the imagination of succeeding ages. A mere gladiator or
prizefighter would never have awakened the muse of Milton. Therefore we greatly
misjudge him if we count him simply a prodigy of physical strength. He stands
in the New Testament roll of the heroes of Old Testament faith.
That he was a man of prayer as well as of faith appears from 15:18, and 16:28.
His celebration of his great victory, 15:16, his riddle, 14:14, and his poem
16:18, show him a poet, and his reticence about killing a lion with his naked
hands show that he was no braggart even in his own family. You may contrast
this with the publicity given to Roosevelt's lion killing, armed with weapons
so deadly that at a distance the lions had no chance.
24. What Old Testament riddles precede Samson's?
Ans. None.
25. Was Samson a wilful violator of the Mosaic law of marriage in insisting on
taking a Philistine wife against the protest of his father and mother, 14:3?
Ans. No, God can make his own exceptions, and this marriage was of the Lord
to furnish occasion for smiting the enemy under their own provocation, 14:4.
26. What do you learn of the methods and customs of courtship and marriage at
that time from 14: 1-18?
Ans. (1) The son selects the wife "she pleased his sight."
(2) The father and mother conduct negotiations.
(3) The son docs his own courting "she pleased him in
conversation."
(4) The prospective bridegroom gives a seven-days' feast in the bride's city to
which her family invites thirty young men.
(5) At the entertainment there is the feast of reason and flow of soul in which
riddles are propounded, wagers made, and racy humor employed.
27. What the great sin of Samson?
Ans. In yielding through weariness to the nagging of a bad woman in the
disclosure of the secret of his strength after she had thrice demonstrated her
purpose of using it to his destruction, and then putting himself in her power.
It was telling the Lord's secret to a harlot, fulfilling the words of Jeremiah:
"Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets:
Their skin cleave to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a
stick." (Lam. 4:7-8.)
28. Did Samson's strength reside in his hair?
Ans. No, but in keeping his Nazarite vow, of which the unshaved head was the
token.
29. What the pathetic elements of the tragedy which followed?
Ans. (1) "He wist not that the Lord had departed from him," and
that he was as any other man. This time, though he shook himself as before, he
could not break the bonds.
(2) The enemy took him and put out his eyes.
(3) Bound him in fetters of brass.
(4) Made him grind in the prison house.
(5) On the day of their sacrifice claimed him as the captive of their gods.
(6) Caused him to be exhibited in sport.
30. What indication of God's mercy appeared in prison?
Ans. His hair began to grow.
31. Cite his possible reflections.
Ans. I preached a sermon on that once, a sermon to backsliders, that Spirit
power is given for the good of others, for the deliverance of others, and this
man through sin had lost the Spirit power, lost spiritual sight. He was
becoming a slave to the enemies of God. While he is grinding in the mill, he
hears coming from the valley the cry of a young woman as the Philistines
snatched her and she cries out, "0 Samson, appointed of God to deliver
Israel, help me." And Samson is blind, powerless. Another story comes from
the mountains from an old gray-haired woman, a grandmother, whose old age is
put to shame. In a quivering voice she cries, "0 Samson, appointed of God
as our deliverer, come, help us." I draw this picture for you as his
possible reflection and the way any preacher will feel who loses hi? Spirit
power and becomes like other men.
32. What proof of his penitence?
Ans. His humble prayer to God.
33. What evidence of his unselfishness?
Ans. "Let me die with the Philistines; I don't ask to live and be tried
again; I have proven myself unworthy. Just forgive me and deliver these people
who have put out my eyes to vengeance and let me die with them."
34. How may he illustrate the backslider and the final preservation of the
saints?
Ans. That is exactly what he was, a backslider. You have to kill them
sometimes to bring them back. They get so far off that they grow indifferent
and have to be killed to be brought back.
35. Cite Milton's words in his great poem "Samson Agoites,"
illustrating the answer to his last prayer.
Ans. After Samson's prayer, Milton says in his poem this:
This uttered,
straining all his nerves he bowed:
As with the force of winds and waters pent,
When mountains tremble, those two massy pillars'
With horrible convulsion to and fro.
Now you are prepared to understand the place of Samson with the other judges.
It is the object of this chapter to show that he was a great man and a good
man; that he was a man of intelligence; that he was a poet; and on wonder the
whole world from that time until now thinks about Samson.
MICAH AND THE DANITES, OUTRAGE OF THE MEN
OF GIBEAH, AND THE NATIONAL WAR AGAINST BENJAMIN Judges 17-21
What can you say of this whole section?
Ans. (1) It, like the book of Ruth, is an appendix to the book of Judges
without regard to time order as to preceding events.
(2) While there are four distinct episodes, namely (a) the case of Micah, (b)
the Danite migration, (c) the outrage at Gibeah, (d) the war of the other
tribes against Benjamin, yet they go in pairs; the story of Micah is merged
into the Danite migration and the outrage of Gibeah results in the war against
Benjamin.
2. Show how one expression characterizes all four of the episodes and would
serve for a text illustrated by each of the four stories in historical order.
Ans. The text is, "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man
did that which was right in his own eyes." First episode, 17:6; second
episode, 18:1; third episode, 19:1; fourth episode, 21:25.
3. What the bearing of this text on a late date of the composition of the book?
Ans. If the reference be to an earthly king, as usually supposed, it would
only indicate that the book was compiled from tribal and national documents and
edited by Samuel after the establishment of the monarchy, which theory is
supported by many identical passages in parts of Joshua, Judges, and I Samuel.
But if the reference be to Jehovah as King, then it proves nothing as to later
authorship.
4. What the probability of its reference to Jehovah as King?
Ans. (1) The whole book is written to show a series of rejections of the
theocracy that they might follow their own bent, some one way and some another
(2:11).
(2) Every one of the four instances of its use is introduced in a connection to
emphasize a forsaking of Jehovah as a King, plainly marking insubordination
against his royal authority. Its first use immediately follows and expounds
Micah's establishing an independent "house of gods" with an
independent ephod and images and priesthood, 17:5-6. Its second use introduces
the rebellion of Dan in leaving the lot assigned to him by Jehovah and setting
up at Laish a rival house of worship with images and independent priesthood,
18:1. Its third use introduces a story of wickedness against Jehovah equaling
the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, 19: 1, 22-26. Its fourth use does not occur in
20:1-18, 26-28, where the people seek Jehovah for counsel, but is reserved as a
comment on the irreligious dancing of Shiloh's daughters and the crafty
expedient of supplying wives to the male remnants of Benjamin without appeal to
Jehovah 21:16-25.
(3) This series of the rejections of Jehovah as King culminated in demanding an
earthly king, I Samuel 8:1-7.
(4) When they did get an earthly king there was no tendency to check them in
doing what was right in their own eyes, instead of in Jehovah's eyes, but only
increased it. See case of Solomon, I Kings 11:1-4; Jeroboam, I Kings 12:26-33;
Ahab, I Kings 16:30-34, and many others. Hence there would be no relevancy in saying,
"every man did that which was right in his own sight," because there
was no earthly king in Israel. The "doing what was right in his own
sight" does not apply to everything but is limited in its four contextual
uses to sins of rebellion against Jehovah's kingly authority, and what earthly
kings promoted rather than checked.
5. But is not late authorship clearly established by the declaration that Dan's
rival house of worship was continued by Jonathan and his sons as priests
"until the day of the captivity of the land"?
Ans. It entirely depends upon what captivity is meant. It could not mean the
Babylonian captivity of Judah, for long before that event the ten tribes,
including Dan, had been led into captivity so perpetual they are called the lost
tribes. It could not mean the captivity of the ten tribes by Sennacherib, for
long before that event Jeroboam, the founder of the northern kingdom, had
established at Dan a different worship. It could not have persisted during the
times of David and Solomon when all recognized the central place of worship at
Jerusalem. It could not have referred to any date beyond the period of the
judges, because the duration of this rival Danite worship is limited in the
very verse following the time the house of God was at Shiloh, 18:31. So that
"the captivity" referred to must have been the Philistian captivity
in the days of Elithe judge, when the ark was captured, I Samuel 4:3-18, and
quite to the point the Hebrew text of I Samuel 4:21-22, replaces the phrase
"captivity of the land" by "captivity of the glory of the
Lord."
6. What the first episode?
Ans. The sin of Micah in establishing in his family a "house of
gods," with image worship and an independent priesthood.
7. State the case in detail to show Jehovah was not recognized as King in
Israel.
Ans. (1) A son stole 1,100 shekels of silver from his mother, violating
Jehovah's Fifth and Eighth Commandments, afterwards confessing and restoring.
(2) The mother (a) usurped Jehovah's prerogative in cursing the unknown thief;
(b) she either lied in saying she had "wholly dedicated it to
Jehovah" or) like Ananias and Sapphira, robbed God in keeping back more
than four-fifths; (c) she violated the Second Commandment in making images for
worship; (d) the son established in his family a rival house to Shiloh; (e) he
first violated the law of the priesthood by setting apart his own sons as
priests; (f) he substituted a stray Levite, out of a job, and not of the house
of Aaron.
8. What the second episode?
Ana. The Danites, through cowardice failing to capture from strong enemies
the land allotted them by Jehovah, sent out spies to find good land where the
inhabitants were weak and peaceful. The spies on their way discover Micah's
private "house of God" and inquire of its false priest rather than of
Jehovah at Shiloh, whether they will prosper in their intent. The subservient
priest assures them it will come out all right. They come to a part of the
territory allotted to another tribe and find a quiet, unwarlike community
remote from the capital and power of their nation. The spies return with a
glowing report of the good land, the helplessness of the inhabitants, and the
little prospect of interference from their nation. An army is dispatched
forthwith, which on the way over bids Micah for his recreant priest who,
preferring to represent a tribe rather than a family, not only breaks his
contract by slipping away, but helps to steal all Micah's gods and
paraphernalia of worship. Then the bereft Micah follows with his piteous
remonstrance: "Ye have taken away my gods which I have made, and the
priest, and gone away, and what have I more! And then mock me by saying, What
aileth thee?" The grim response of the Danites reminds me of the
ungrateful wolf's reply to the crane in Aesop's fable: "Count it reward
enough that you have safely withdrawn your neck from a wolf's throat." So
Micah returned empty-handed to reflect on the rewards of hospitality, the
sanctity of contracts, the wisdom of investing good shekels in the manufacture
of gods, and the ingratitude of God's people in forsaking their Maker. But the
imperturbable Danites, like Gallio, caring for none of these things, went
marching on, and like a stealthy band of Comanches, swooped down upon the
unsuspecting community, blotted it off the map and set up their rival to the
house of God in Shiloh and went into tribal idolatry.
9. How does the incident prove ancestor Jacob a prophet?
Ans. "Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path, that
biteth the horse's heels so that his rider falleth backward."
10. Wherein did the Mormons show their appreciation of the prophecy and its
fulfilment?
Ans. By naming their terrible secret organization which perpetrated the
Mountain Meadows Massacre, "the Danites."
11. Who was this shabby, subservient Levite and how did later Jews seek to hide
his identity?
Ans. His name was Jonathan, a grandson of Moses. See Standard Revision of
18:30, and compare with common version "Manasseh" instead of Moses.
The Jews in the Targum and Septuagint changed Moses to Manasseh, unwilling to
tarnish the name of the great ancestor. But Manasseh had no son named Gershom
while Moses did, as the genealogies show. It is not unusual for even sons of
great men, much less grandsons, to degenerate and "peter out."
12. What prophecy of Moses is also fulfilled in the incident ?
Ans. "And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp, that leapeth forth from
Bashan." And it was from the mountains of Bashan that this "cub
lion" leaped upon the hapless village of Laish in the valley below.
13. Why is the tribe of Dan omitted in the catalogue of tribes in Revelation
7:4-8?
Ans. Probably because Dan migrated to Laish and there set up a rival worship.
13a. What event introduces the episode of the Benjaminites?
Ans. The horrible outrage perpetrated by the men of Gibeah, a city of
Benjamin, Chapter 19.
14. What do you gather from the first of this story?
Ans. (1) That the relation between a man and his concubine was a legal one
counted here as marriage.
(2) It was the woman who sinned and the man who forgave.
(3) The instant reconciliation when he went after her and the insistent
hospitality and welcome of the father-in-law.
(4) The Levite's loyalty to Israel in refusing to lodge in the city of the
Jebusites when by a little more travel he could reach a city of his own nation.
(5) The inhospitality of the men of Gibeah who would have suffered one of their
nation to remain in the street all night, contrasted with the generous welcome
to strangers extended by the sojourning Ephraimite.
15. What the moral condition of the city as disclosed by the horrible outrage?
Ans. It was as Sodom in the days of Lot. Compare Genesis 19:1-11, with Judges
19:22-27.
16. The Common Version and the Vulgate (Latin) make a certain Hebrew word of
verse 22, and other Old Testament passages, a proper name, as, "certain
sons of Belial," which the Canterbury Revision renders "certain base
fellows" which is right?
Ans. The author is much inclined to favor the Common Version here and in I
Samuel 2:12. It is true that the Hebrew word etymologically means "base,
reckless, lawless." And it is also true that the Hebrew idiom "son
of," "daughter of," "man of" does not imply a person
when associated with "Belial." Yet the atrocious and unnatural crime
against Jehovah here and in some other cases implies a devilish origin.
Particularly is this true when associated with idolatrous worship. It is
certainly so interpreted in the New Testament, I Corinthians 10:27, 20-22, and
2 Corinthians 6:15-18. It was on account of these awful associations, being a
part and practice of the religious worship of the Canaanite gods, as later of
Greek and Roman gods, that idolatry was made a capital offense under the
theocracy. When Milton, therefore, in Paradise Lost, makes Belial a person, a
demon, it is not a case of poetic personification, but is the expression of a
profound philosophical truth as well as scriptural truth in both Testaments.
The ghastly, beastly, obscene, and loathsome debaucheries of heathen worship
would never have been counted religion except under the promptings of the
devil.
17. What steps did the wronged and horrified Levite take to make this local
crime a national affair?
Ans. He divided the murdered woman's body into twelve parts and sent one part
to each tribe with the story of the wrong.
18. What impression was made by this horrible method of accusation?
Ans. "And it was so that all that saw it said, There was no such deed
done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land
of Egypt unto this day. Consider it, take counsel and speak," 19:30.
19. Was he justified in making it a national affair?
Ans. Yes, otherwise the whole nation would have perished. Compare the
judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Compare the solemn declarations of Jehovah that
on account of such abominations the measure of the iniquity of the Canaanites
was so full that that very "land was ready to spew them out of its
mouth." Read carefully the solemn charge to the nation in Deuteronomy
13:12-18, and the awful judgment of God on Eli because he merely admonished but
did not restrain his sons for so corrupting Jehovah's worship, I Samuel 2:12,
17, 22-25; 3:11-14.
20. What the result of the Levite's ghastly method of accusation?
Ans. The whole nation was at once aroused. The public conscience was
quickened and they assembled before the Lord at Mizpah to learn and do his
will, and they strictly followed the direction of his oracle. Four hundred
thousand warriors assembled as executors of God's judgment.
21. Show how this was no mob action stirred by an impulse of sudden passion.
Ans. (1) They assembled under all the forms of law.
(2) They carefully examined the simple testimony of the Levite (20:4-9), its
very simplicity constituting its power.
(3) They deliberated gravely.
(4) They submitted every step proposed to God's oracle.
(5) They sent messengers through all the tribe of Benjamin, giving notification
of the crime, and giving opportunity for the tribe to clear itself by
surrendering the criminals to justice according to the law of Jehovah.
22. What awful comment on the moral condition of Benjamin?
Ans. The whole tribe deliberately sided with the adulterous murderers and
determined to protect them.
23. How was Israel taught the awful solemnity of acting as executors of
Jehovah's will?
Ans. They were humiliated by two disastrous defeats, losing 40,000 men in two
battles, 14,000 more than Benjamin's whole army. After each defeat they carried
the case again to the Lord, with fastings, weeping, and sacrifices, which
indicated their consciousness of their own sins.
24. What the result of the third battle?
Ans. The tribe of Benjamin was almost blotted out. They were surrounded,
driven hither and thither with relentless pursuit and desperate battle. First
18,000, then 5,000, then 2,000, i.e., 25,000 out of Benjamin's veterans
perished on the battlefield and still Israel pursued, devoting to sweeping
destruction city after city, men, women, children and cattle, until only 600
fugitives remained, who sheltered in the rocks of the wilderness four months.
25. What evidence that Israel fought not with malice against Benjamin?
Ans. (1) Their weeping cry before Jehovah: "Shall I go up again to
battle against the children of Benjamin, my brother?" (2) After the
victory they come again before the Lord in tears: "0 Lord God of Israel,
why is this come to pass that there should be today one tribe lacking in
Israel?" There is no exultation. They mourn more over fallen Benjamin than
over the thousands of their own dead. 26. As this was a national assembly to
accomplish a purgation by which alone the nation could be saved, what oaths had
been sworn before Jehovah?
Ans. (1) That no man of the eleven tribes should give his daughter as a wife
to a man of Benjamin.
(2) That whosoever would not come up before the Lord in the crusade for
national salvation should be put to death.
27. What was their dilemma in view of the first oath and how were they
preserved from it by the second oath?
Ans. By the first oath the 600 fugitives were barred from marriage and the
tribe would have utterly perished, but by investigation they found that the
city of Jabesh-Gilead had refused to obey the national oath and in virtue of
the second oath was doomed. A detachment of 12,000 men smote it to destruction,
reserving 400 virgins to be the wives of the two-thirds of the 600.
28. What expedient was adopted to provide wives for the remaining two hundred?
Ans. In 21:19-23, the expedient is set forth by which, without technical
violation of the oath, the 200 managed, at the suggestion of the elders, to
capture a wife apiece from the dancing daughters of Shiloh.
29. What legend of early Rome is something similar?
Ans. The Romans captured the Sabine women at a festival. See Roman
History, by Myers, pp. 58-59.
30. How is it alluded to in Scott's lvanhoe?
Ans. DeBracy plots to carry off Rowena. Fitzurse said, "What on earth
dost thou purpose by this absurd disguise at a moment so urgent?"
DeBracy replied: "To get me a wife after the manner of the tribe of
Benjamin."
31. Why is one left-handed called a Benjaminite?
Ans. Because the men of the tribe of Benjamin were left-handed.
32. What prophecy by Jacob fits the Benjaminites of this story?
Ans. "Benjamin is wolf that raveneth: In the morning he shall devour the
prey. And at even he shall divide the spoil." Gen. 49:27.
33. Who was the high priest through whom Jehovah makes known his will in the
story of Benjamin, and what .proof does the fact afford that the two stories of
Dan and Benjamin occurred in the early period of the judges?
Ans. Phinehas was high priest (Judges 20:28) who is referred to in Numbers
25:7 and Joshua 22:13, 30. These last passages refer to an early period of the
judges.
A CATECHISM
To what time in the history of Israel does the story of Ruth belong?
Ans. 1:1, to the period of the Judges.
2. What the relations of this book to the book of Judges, and its place in the
Old Testament canon?
Ans. (1) It is an appendix to the book of Judges and the two were counted as
one book in the early Jewish enumeration. It is an episode of the general story
of the judges like the migration of the DANAIDES and the war with Benjamin in
the latter part of that book.
(2) Its natural place of order is just after Judges, and it 80 appears in the
Septuagint, Vulgate, and English Versions.
3. What its place in the Hebrew Bible, and why?
Ans. All the known Hebrew manuscripts are modern. The later Jews, for
liturgical purposes, arranged their scripture into three grand divisions, to
wit: The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, or other writings. In the
synagogues on their various sabbaths and on their great days appointed sections
from these grand divisions were read, so that every Jew would know beforehand
the scriptural lesson. Now, in this Hebrew Bible so arranged, Ruth was the
fifth book of the third division, coming between the Song of Songs and
Lamentations. (See Isaac Leeser's English Version.) The date of this
arrangement was after the Septuagint version was made but before the coming of
our Lord, as there appear to be references to it in Luke 4:16-17, and 24:44,
and Acts 15:21.
4. What passages in the book itself bear on the date of the composition?
Ans. The most important are 1:1; 4:7-8, and 4:18-22. The first passage in
verse I seems to imply that the period of the judges had passed before the book
was written. In 4:7-8, it seems that the custom of taking off a shoe as a token
of relinquishing a kinsman's right to redeem had passed away when the book was
written, and in 4:18-22, the last paragraph of the book, the genealogy is
carried to David's time and stops with David, which seems to imply that the
book was written in the time of David, but not later than David's time.
5. On what grounds do the radical critics place the date of the composition to
the time of the Exile, after the downfall of the Monarchy and even later?
Ans. Their principal argument, as usual, is based on philology, that is, the
use of certain expressions or words that they claim must belong to a later
date. It is enough for me to say that their argument is so very feeble and
inconclusive it is hardly worth a dignified reply.
6. Who probably was the author?
Ans. The book itself does not say, only we know that every Old Testament book
was written by some prophet. The probable author of the whole book was Samuel,
who lived to anoint David as king.
7. The scene of the story?
Ans. There are two scenes, the Land of Moab and Bethlehem of Judah.
8. What the purpose of the book?
Ans. On the face of it the body of the book is to give a picture of domestic
life in the period of the judges, and to show how faith and piety are rewarded
even in this life and to trace the line of the coming Messiah.
9. What the literary characteristics of the book?
Ans. It is a true story of domestic life, both historical and biographical.
The principal personages in the story were the ancestors of David, showing the
Moabitish link not only in David's genealogy but in the genealogy of our Lord.
On account of this relation to the fields it is sometimes called a pastoral and
is certainly a gem of literature.
10. Analyze the story.
Ans. This story is dramatic and consists of three acts and several scenes,
thus:
ACT I At Bethlehem.
Scene 1 A Happy Family
Scene 2 A Sore Famine
Scene 3 A Fortunate Transition
ACT II In Moab
Scene 1 Arrival and Settlement
Scene 2 Marriage and death of sons
Scene 3 Departure for Judah
ACT III At Bethlehem Again
Scene 1 Visit of all Bethlehem to Naomi
Scene 2 Gleaning in the Field
Scene 3 Naomi the Matchmaker
Scene 4 Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing-floor
Scene 5 A Court in the Gate
Scene 6 A Man-Child is Born
EPILOGUE: The Messianic Line.
11. What the more important contrasts of the story?
Ans. (1) With wars and deeds of violence to which the book of Judges is
mostly given. A writer has said, "Blessed is the nation which has no
history," because history mostly is made of wars and commotions. One would
get from the repetition of the bloody wars in the book of Judges that the whole
life of the nation was violent, but this book on domestic life shows us the
contrast in the home with the exceptional phases of national strife.
(2) The second contrast is between Ruth and Orpah, the two daughters-in-law of
Naomi, both of whom have the opportunity to become incorporated with God's
people and remain in connection with them, but Orpah when put to the test
returns to her own people and their worship of idols. Ruth, through faith,
clings to Jehovah and his worship and becomes the ancestress of the Messiah.
(3) The third contrast is between Boaz and the other kinsman mentioned, who stood
nearer in blood ties to Naomi than Boaz did. The one for fear of endangering
his own inheritance surrendered the privilege of the kinsman, the other availed
himself of the surrendered privilege and becomes known throughout the world as
the ancestor of the Messiah.
12. What are the special lessons of this book?
Ans. (1) The lesson on the levirate marriage, that is where a man after
marriage dies without children the closest male kin under the Mosaic law takes
the widow as his wife with the view to raise up seed in the name of the dead
husband and who inherited his part of the land.
(2) The second lesson is the messianic picture. All through the history of
Israel is an ever increasing prophetic light pointing to the coming of Christ
and especially showing that among the ancestors of Christ were Gentile women,
as Rahab the harlot and Ruth the Moabitess.
(3) The third lesson is to note how famine and pestilence cause shifting of
population. It was a famine that took Abraham to Egypt and the whole family of
Jacob.
(4) The fourth special lesson is the exquisite gem of Ruth's reply to Naomi. It
is poetic, pathetic, manifesting a high order of faith and steadfastness. I
will give it in its poetic form: Insist not on me forsaking thee, To return from following
after thee; For whither thou goest, I will go, And wheresoever thou lodgest, I
will lodge, Thy people is my people, And thy God my God. Wheresoever thou
diest, I will die And there will I be buried. So may Jehovah do to me, And
still more, If aught but death part me and thee.
(5) The fifth special lesson is the significance of names.
"Elimelech" means, God is King, "Naomi" means, God is
sweetness; and these names were bestowed as expressions of faith of their
parents. You will see in the book that Naomi refers to the meaning of her name,
on her return from Moab, when she says, "Call me no more Naomi, meaning
sweetness, but Marah, meaning bitterness." meaning the opposite of
sweetness, which shows how pessimistic she had become; that instead of God being
sweet to her he had become bitterness to her. It is like the pessimistic
passage in the book of Job in the culmination of his affliction and in one of
the Psalms.
13. What the probable bearing of this story on David's exile in Moab as
described in I Samuel 22:3-4?
Ans. David's ancestors on one side were Moabites and this may account for his
carrying his father and mother to Moab for a time during his outlaw life.
SPECIAL QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
1. Point out an oath in this book.
2. Point out a benediction.
3. Point out at least three names of God in this book.
4. Mention at least three texts from which good
sermons could be preached.
5. Where do you find the Mosaic law allowing the
privileges of gleaning after reapers in the harvest fields?
6. In 2:12, Boaz says to Ruth, "Jehovah
recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of Jehovah, the God of
Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge." Cite a passage in
the Psalms about sheltering under the wings of God, and our Lord's reference in
Matthew 23 to sheltering under wings, and the hymn of which this appears as a
part: All my trust on Thee is stayed, All my help from Thee I bring; Cover my
defenseless head With the shadow of Thy wing.
7. Was the marriage of the Jew and Moabite lawful?
Compare Deuteronomy and Nehemiah and then answer.
8. Cite a passage from Thomson's Land and the Book, p.
647, bearing on 2:17.
9. In 1:22, Naomi says, "I went out full and
Jehovah hath brought me home again empty"; did she refer to property or
husband and sons?
10. See Josephus on the handing over of the shoe.
11. Read carefully 4:3-5, and answer whether Naomi
still possessed landed property. If she sold this property allowing the nearest
kinsman the option of purchase, would the sale be absolute or would it be
merely a lease until the Year of Jubilee?
12. Meaning of Ephrathite?