_JOSHUA'S OLD AGE--DIVISION FOR THE EASTERN TRIBES._
JOSHUA xiii., xiv. 1-5.
"The Lord said unto Joshua, Thou art old and stricken in years." To
many men and women this would not be a welcome announcement. They do
not like to think that they are old. They do not like to think that
the bright, joyous, playful part of life is over, and that they are
arrived at the sombre years when they must say, "There is no pleasure
in them." Then, again, there are some who really find it hard to
believe that they are old. Life has flown past so swiftly that before
they thought it was well begun it has gone. It seems so short a time
since they were in the full play of their youthful energies, that it
is hardly credible that they are now in the sere and yellow leaf.
Perhaps, too, they have been able to keep their hearts young all the
time, and still retain that buoyant sensation which seems to indicate
the presence of youth. And are there not some who have verified the
psalm--"They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish
in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old
age, they shall be fat and flourishing"?
But however much men may like to be young, and however much some may
retain in old age of the feeling of youth, it is certain that the
period of strength has its limit, and the period of life also. To the
halest and heartiest, if he be not cut off prematurely, the time must
come when God will say to him, "Thou art old." It is a solemn word to
hear from the lips of God. God tells me my life is past; what use have
I made of it? And what does God think of the use I have made of it?
And what account of it shall I be able to give when I stand at His
bar?
Let the young think well of this, before it is too late to learn how
to live.
To Joshua the announcement that he was old and stricken in years does
not appear to have brought any painful or regretful feeling. Perhaps
he had aged somewhat suddenly; his energies may have failed
consciously and rapidly, after his long course of active and anxious
military service. He may have been glad to hear God utter the word; he
may have been feeling it himself, and wondering how he should be able
to go through the campaigns yet necessary to put the children of
Israel in full possession of the land. That word may have fallen on
his ear with the happy feeling--how considerate God is! He will not
burden my old age with a load not suited for it. Though _His_ years
have no end, and He knows nothing of failing strength, "He knoweth
_our_ frame, He remembereth that we are dust." He will not "cast me
off in the time of old age, nor forsake me when my strength faileth."
Happy confidence, especially for the aged poor! It is the want of
trust in the heavenly Father that makes so many miserable in old age.
When you will not believe that He is considerate and kind, you are
left to your own resources, and often to destitution and misery. But
when between Him and you there is the happy relation of father and
child; when through Jesus Christ you realize His fatherly love and
pity, and in real trust cast yourselves on Him who clothes the lilies
and feeds the ravens, your trust is sure to be rewarded, for your
heavenly Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask
them.
So Joshua finds that he is now to be relieved by his considerate
Master of laborious and anxious service. Not of all service, but of
exhausting service, unsuited to his advancing years. Joshua had been a
right faithful servant; few men have ever done their work so well.
From that day when he stood against Amalek from morning to night,
while the rod of Moses was stretched out over him on the hill;
thereafter, during all his companionship with Moses on the mount; next
in that search-expedition when Caleb and he stood so firm, and did not
flinch in the face of the congregation, though every one was for
stoning them; and now, from the siege of Jericho to the victory of
Merom, and all through the trying and perilous sieges of city after
city, year after year, Joshua has proved himself the faithful servant
of God and the devoted friend of Israel. During these last years he
has enjoyed supreme power, apparently without a rival and without a
foe; yet, strange to say, there is no sign of his having been
corrupted by power, or made giddy by elevation. He has led a most
useful and loyal life, which there is some satisfaction in looking
back on. No doubt he is well aware of unnumbered failings: "Who can
understand his errors?" But he has the rare satisfaction--oh! who
would not wish to share it?--of looking back on a well-spent life,
habitually and earnestly regulated amid many infirmities by regard to
the will of God. Neither he, nor St. Paul after him, had any trust in
their own good works, as a basis of salvation; yet Paul could say, and
Joshua might have said it in spirit: "I have fought the good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness."
Yet Joshua was not to complete that work to which he had contributed
so much: "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." At one
time, no doubt, he thought otherwise, and he desired otherwise. When
the tide of victory was setting in for him so steadily, and region
after region of the land was falling into his hands, it was natural to
expect that before he ended he would sweep all the enemies of Israel
before him, and open every door for them throughout the land, even to
its utmost borders. Why not make hay when the sun shone? When God had
found so apt an instrument for His great design, why did He not employ
him to the end? If the natural term of Joshua's strength had come, why
did not that God who had supernaturally lengthened out the day for
completing the victory of Bethhoron, lengthen out Joshua's day that
the whole land of Canaan might be secured?
Here comes in a great mystery of Providence. Instead of lengthening
out the period of Joshua's strength, God seems to have cut it short.
We can easily understand the lesson for Joshua himself. It is the
lesson which so many of God's servants have had to learn. They start
with the idea they are to do everything; they are to reform every
abuse, overthrow every stronghold of evil, reduce chaos to order and
beauty; as if each were
"the only man on earth
Responsible for all the thistles blown
And tigers couchant, struggling in amaze
Against disease and winter, snarling on
For ever, that the world's not paradise."
Sooner or later they find that they must be satisfied with a much
humbler _rôle_. They must learn to
"be content in work,
To do the thing we can, and not presume
To fret because it's little. 'Twill employ
Seven men, they say, to make a perfect pin, ...
Seven men to a pin, and not a man too much!
Seven generations, haply to this world,
To right it visibly a finger's breadth,
And mend its rents a little."
Joshua must be made to feel--perhaps he needs this--that this
enterprise is not his, but God's. And God is not limited to one
instrument, or to one age, or to one plan. Never does Providence
appear to us so strange, as when a noble worker is cut down in the
very midst of his work. A young missionary has just shown his splendid
capacity for service, when fever strikes him low, and in a few days
all that remains of him is rotting in the ground. What can God mean?
we sometimes ask impatiently. Does He not know the rare value and the
extreme scarcity of such men, that He sets them up apparently just to
throw them down? But "God reigneth, let the people tremble." All that
bears on the Christian good of the world is in God's plan, and it is
very dear to God, and "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of His saints." But He is not limited to single agents. When Stephen
died, He raised up Saul. For Wicliffe He gave Luther. When George
Wishart was burnt He raised up John Knox. Kings, it is said, die, but
the king never. The herald that announces "The king is dead,"
proclaims in the same breath, "God save the king!" God's workers die,
but His work goes on. Joshua is superannuated, so far as the work of
conquest is concerned, and that work for a time is suspended. But the
reason is that, at the present moment, God desires to develop the
courage and energy of each particular tribe. And when the time comes
to extend still farther the dominion of Israel, an agent will be found
well equipped for the service. From the hills of Bethlehem, a godly
youth of dauntless bearing will one day emerge, under whom every foe
to Israel shall be brought low, and from the river of Egypt to the
great river, the river Euphrates, the entire Promised Land shall come
under Israel's dominion. And the conquests of David will shine with a
brighter lustre than Joshua's, and will be set, as it were, to music
of a higher strain. Associated with David's holy songs and holy
experience, and with his early life of sadness and humiliation,
crowned at last with glory and honour, they will more fitly symbolize
the work of the great Joshua, and there will then be diffused over the
world a more holy aroma than that of Joshua's conquests,--a fragrance
sweet and refreshing to souls innumerable, and fostering the hope of
glory,--the rest that remaineth for the people of God, the inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
So Joshua must be content to have done his part, and done it well,
although he did not conquer all the land, and there yet remained much
to be possessed. Without entering in detail into all the geographical
notices of this chapter, it will be well to note briefly what parts of
the country were still unsubdued.
First, there were all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri;
the five lords of the Philistines, dwelling in Gaza, Ashdod, Ascalon,
Gath, and Ekron; and also the Avites. This well defined country
consisted mainly of a plain "remarkable in all ages for the extreme
riches of its soil; its fields of standing corn, its vineyards and
oliveyards, are incidentally mentioned in Scripture (Judg. xv. 5); and
in the time of famine the land of the Philistines was the hope of
Palestine (2 Kings viii. 2).... It was also adapted to the growth of
military power; for while the plain itself permitted the use of war
chariots, which were the chief arm of offence, the occasional
elevations which rise out of it offered secure sites for towns and
strongholds. It was, moreover, a commercial country; the great
thoroughfare between Phœnicia and Syria on the north and Egypt and
Arabia on the south. Ashdod and Gaza were the keys of Egypt, and
commanded the transit trade, and the stores of frankincense and myrrh
which Alexander captured in the latter place prove it to have been a
depôt of Arabian produce."[14]
[14] Smith's "Bible Dictionary."
Geshuri lay between Philistia and the desert, and the Avites were
probably some remainder of the Avims, from whom the Philistines
conquered the land (Deut. ii. 23).
In many respects it would have been a great boon for the Israelites if
Joshua had conquered a people that were so troublesome to them as the
Philistines were for many a day. What Joshua left undone, Saul began,
but failed to achieve, and at last David accomplished. The Geshurites
were subdued with the Amalekites while he was dwelling at Ziklag as an
ally of the Philistines (1 Sam. xxvii. 8), and the Philistines
themselves were brought into subjection, and had to yield to Israel
many of their cities (1 Sam. vii. 14; 2 Sam. viii. 1, 12).
Another important section of the country unsubdued was the
Phœnician territory--the land of the Sidonians (vv. 4, 6). Also the
hilly country across Lebanon, embracing the valley of Cœle-Syria,
and apparently the region of Mount Carmel ("from Lebanon unto
Misrephothmaim," ver. 6, and comp. chap. xi. 8). No doubt much of this
district was recovered in the time of the Judges, and still more in
the time of David; but David made peace with the King of Tyre, who
still retained the rocky strip of territory that was so useful to a
commercial nation, but would have been almost useless to an
agricultural people like the Israelites.
Joshua was not called on to conquer these territories in the sense of
driving out all the old inhabitants; but he was instructed to divide
the whole land among his people--a task involving, no doubt, its own
difficulties, but not the physical labour which war entailed. And in
this division he was called first to recognise what had already been
done by Moses with the part of the country east of the Jordan. That
part had been allotted to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh;
and the allotment was still to hold good.
It is remarkable with what fulness the places are described. First, we
have the boundaries of that part of the country generally (vv. 9-12);
then of the allotments of each of the two and a half tribes (vv.
15-31). With regard to the district as a whole, the conquest under
Moses was manifestly complete, from the river Arnon on the south, to
the borders of the Geshurites and Maachathites on the north. The only
part not subdued were the territories of these Geshurites and
Maachathites. The Geshurites here are not to be confounded with the
people of the same name mentioned in ver. 2, who were at the opposite
extreme--the south-west instead of, as here, the north-east of the
land. But no doubt the Syrian Geshurites and Maachathites were brought
into subjection by David, with all the other tribes in that region, in
his great Syrian war, "when he went to recover his border at the river
Euphrates" (2 Sam. viii. 3). But instead of expelling or exterminating
them, David seems to have allowed them to remain in a tributary
condition, for Geshur had its king in the days of Absalom (2 Sam.
xiii. 37), to whom that prince fled after the murder of Amnon. With
the Maachathites also David had a family connection (2 Sam. iii. 3).
But though the subjugation and occupation of the eastern part of the
land was thus tolerably complete (with the exceptions just mentioned),
it remained in the undisturbed possession of Israel for the shortest
time of any. From Moabites and Ammonites on the south, Canaanites and
Syrians on the north and the east, as well as the Midianites,
Amalekites, and other tribes of the desert, it was subject to
continual invasions. In fact, it was the least settled and least
comfortable part of all the country; and doubtless it became soon
apparent that though the two tribes and a half had seemed to be very
fortunate in having their wish granted to settle in this rich and
beautiful region, yet on the whole they had been penny-wise and
pound-foolish. Not only were they incessantly assailed and worried by
their neighbours, but they were the first to be carried into
captivity, when the King of Assyria directed his eyes to Palestine.
They had shown somewhat of the spirit of Lot, and they suffered
somewhat of his punishment. It is worthy of remark that even at this
day this eastern province is the most disturbed part of Palestine. The
Bedouins are ever liable to make their attacks wherever there are
crops or cattle to tempt their avarice. People will not sow where they
have no chance of reaping; and thus it is that much of that productive
region lies waste. The moral is not far to seek: in securing wealth,
look not merely at the apparent productiveness of the investment, but
give heed to its security, its stability. It is not all gold that
glitters either on the stock-exchange or anywhere else. And even that
which is real gold partakes of the current instability. We must come
back to our Saviour's advice to investors, if we would really be safe:
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust do
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt,
and where thieves do not break through nor steal."
The specification of the allotments need not detain us long. Reuben's
was the farthest south. His southern and eastern flanks were covered
by the Moabites, who greatly annoyed him. "Unstable as water, he did
not excel." Gad settled north of Reuben. In his lot was the southern
part of Gilead; Mahanaim, and Peniel, celebrated in the history of
Jacob, and Ramoth-gilead, conspicuous in after times. East of Gad were
the Ammonites, who proved as troublesome to that tribe as Moab did to
Reuben. To the half-tribe of Manasseh the kingdom of Og fell, and the
northern half of Gilead. Jabesh-gilead, where Saul routed the
Ammonites, was in this tribe (1 Sam. xi.). Here also were some of the
places on the lake of Galilee mentioned in the gospel history; here
the "desert place" across the sea to which our Lord used to retire for
rest; here He fed the multitude; here He cured the demoniac; and here
were some of the mountains where He would spend the night in prayer.
In our Lord's time this portion of Palestine was called Perea. Under
the dominion of the Romans, it was comparatively tranquil, and our
Lord would sometimes select it, on account of its quiet, as his route
to Jerusalem. And many of His gifts of love and mercy were doubtless
scattered over its surface.
Two statements are introduced parenthetically in this chapter which
hardly belong to the substance of it. One of these, occurring twice,
respects the inheritance of the Levites (vv. 14, 33). No territorial
possessions were allotted to them corresponding to those of the other
tribes. In the one place it is said that "the sacrifices of the Lord
God of Israel made by fire were their inheritance"; in the other, that
"the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance." We shall afterwards
find the arrangements for the Levites more fully detailed (chaps. xx.,
xxi.). This early allusion to the subject, even before the allotments
in Western Palestine begin to be described, shows that their case had
been carefully considered, and that it was not by oversight but
deliberately that the country was divided without any section being
reserved for them.
The other parenthetical statement respects the death of Balaam.
"Balaam also, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the
sword among them that were slain by them" (ver. 22). It appears from
Numb. xxxi. 8 that the slaughter of Balaam took place in the days of
Moses, by the hands of the expedition sent by him to chastise the
Midianites for drawing the Israelites into idolatry. That the fact
should be again noticed here is probably due to the circumstance that
the death of Balaam occurred at the place which had just been
noted--the boundary line between Reuben and Gad. It was a fact well
worthy of being again noted. It was a fact never to be forgotten that
the man who had been sent for to curse was constrained to bless. As
far as Balaam's public conduct was concerned, he behaved well to
Israel. He emphasized their Divine election and their glorious
privileges. He laid especial stress upon the fact that they were not a
Bedouin horde, rushing about in search of plunder, but a sacramental
host, executing the judgments of a righteous God--"The Lord his God is
with him, and the shout of a king is among them." This was a valuable
testimony, for which Israel might well be grateful. It was when Balaam
took part in that disgraceful plot to entice Israel into sensuality
and idolatry that he came out in his real colours. It seemed to him
very clever, no doubt, to obey the Divine command in the letter by
absolutely refusing to curse Israel, while at the same time he
accomplished the object he was sent for by seducing them into sins
which brought down on them the judgments of God. Nevertheless, he
reckoned without his host. Possibly he gained his reward, but he did
not live to enjoy it; and "what shall a man be profited if he gain the
whole world and forfeit his own life?" (Matt. xvi. 26, R.V.).
The two and a half tribes were well taught by the fate of Balaam that,
in the end, however cunningly a man may act, his sin will find him
out. They were emphatically reminded that the sins of sensuality and
idolatry are exceedingly hateful in the sight of God, and certain to
be punished. They were assured by the testimony of Balaam, that
Israel, if only faithful, would never cease to enjoy the Divine
protection and blessing. But they were reminded that God is not
mocked: that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Balaam
had sown to the flesh; of the flesh it behoved him to reap corruption.
And so must it ever be; however ingeniously you may disguise sin,
however you may conceal it from yourself, and persuade yourself to
believe that you are not doing wrong, sin must show itself ultimately
in its true colours, and your ingenious disguises will not shield it
from its doom:--"The wages of sin is DEATH."