_THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE LAND._
JOSHUA xv.-xix.
We come now in earnest to the distribution of the land. The two and a
half tribes have already got their settlements on the other side of
Jordan; but the other side of Jordan, though included in the land of
promise, was outside the part specially consecrated as the theatre of
Divine manifestation and dealing. From Dan to Beersheba and from
Jordan to the sea was _par excellence_ the land of Israel; it was here
the patriarchs had dwelt; it was here that most of the promises had
been given; it was here that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had been
buried; and here also, though in another tomb, that the bones of
Joseph had been laid. This portion was the kernel of the inheritance,
surrounded by a wide penumbra of more feeble light and fewer
privileges. In due time there arose a holy of holies within this
consecrated region, when Jerusalem became the capital, the focus of
blessing and holy influence.
Now that the distribution of this part of the country begins, we must
give special attention to the operation. The narrative looks very
bare, but important principles and lessons underlie it. These lists of
unfamiliar names look like the _débris_ of a quarry--hard,
meaningless, and to us useless. But nothing is inserted in the Bible
without a purpose,--a purpose that in some sense bears on the
edification of the successive generations and the various races of
men. We are not to pass the distribution over because it looks
unpromising, but rather to inquire with all the greater care what the
bearing of it is on ourselves.
Now, in the first place, there is something to be learned from the
maintenance of the distinction of the twelve tribes, and the
distribution of the country into portions corresponding to each. In
some degree this was in accordance with Oriental usage; for the
country had already been occupied by various races, dwelling in a kind
of unity--the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites,
Perizzites, and Girgashites. What was peculiar to Israel was, that
each of the tribes was descended from one of Jacob's sons, and that
their relation to each other was conspicuously maintained, though
their dwelling-places were apart. It was an arrangement capable of
becoming a great benefit under a right spirit, or a great evil under
the opposite. As in the case of the separate states of North America,
or the separate cantons of Switzerland, it provided for variety in
unity; it gave a measure of local freedom and independence, while it
maintained united action; it contributed to the life and vigour of the
commonwealth, without destroying its oneness of character, or
impairing its common purpose and aim. It promoted that picturesque
variety often found in little countries, where each district has a
dialect, or a pronunciation, or traditions, or a character of its own;
as Yorkshire differs from Devon, or Lancashire from Cornwall;
Aberdeenshire from Berwick, or Fife from Ayr. As in a garden, variety
of species enlivens and enriches the effect, so in a community,
variety of type enriches and enlivens the common life. A regiment of
soldiers clothed in the same uniform, measuring the same stature,
marching to the same step, may look very well as a contrast to the
promiscuous crowd; but when a painter would paint a striking picture
it is from the promiscuous crowd in all their variety of costume and
stature and attitude that his figures are drawn. In the case of the
Hebrew commonwealth, the distinction of tribes became smaller as time
went on, and in New Testament times the three great districts Judæa,
Samaria, and Galilee showed only the survival of the fittest. A larger
individuality and a wider variety would undoubtedly have prevailed if
a good spirit had continued to exist among the tribes, and if all of
them had shown the energy and the enterprise of some.
But the wrong spirit came in, and came in with a witness, and mischief
ensued. For distinctions in race and family are apt to breed rivalry
and enmity, and not only to destroy all the good which may come of
variety, but to introduce interminable mischief. For many a long day
the Scottish clans were like Ishmael, their hand against every man,
and every man's hand against them; or at least one clan was at
interminable feud with another, and the country was wretched and
desolate. Among the twelve tribes of Israel the spirit of rivalry soon
showed itself, leading to disastrous consequences. In the time of the
judges, the men of Ephraim exhibited their temper by envying Gideon
when he subdued the Midianites, and Jephthah when he subdued the
Ammonites; and under Jephthah a prodigious slaughter of Ephraimites
resulted from their unreasonable spirit. In the time of the kings, a
permanent schism was caused by the revolt of the ten tribes from the
house of David. Thus it is that the sin of man often perverts
arrangements designed for good, and so perverts them that they become
sources of grievous evil. The family order is a thing of heaven; but
let a bad spirit creep into a family, the result is fearful. Let
husband and wife become alienated; let father and son begin to
quarrel; let brother set himself against brother, and let them begin
to scheme not for mutual benefit but for mutual injury, no limits can
be set to the resulting mischief and misery.
Many arrangements of our modern civilization that conduce to our
comfort when in good order, become sources of unexampled evil when
they go wrong. The drainage of houses conduces much to comfort while
it works smoothly; but let the drains become choked, and send back
into our houses the poisonous gases bred of decomposition, the
consequences are appalling. The sanitary inspector must be on the
alert to detect mischief in its very beginnings, and apply the remedy
before we have well become conscious of the evil. And so a vigilant
eye needs ever to be kept on those arrangements of providence that are
so beneficial when duly carried out, and so pernicious when
thoughtlessly perverted. What a wonderful thing is a little
forbearance at the beginning of a threatened strife! What a priceless
blessing is the soft answer that turneth away wrath! There is a pithy
tract bearing the title "The Oiled Feather." The oiled feather has a
remarkable power of smoothing surfaces that would otherwise grate and
grind upon each other, and so of averting evil. Among Christians it
should be always at hand; for surely, if the forbearance and love that
avert quarrels ought to be found anywhere, it is among those who have
received the fulness of Divine love and grace in Jesus Christ. Surely
among them there should be no perversion of Divine arrangements; in
their homes no quarrels, and in their hearts no rivalry. They ought,
instead, to be the peacemakers of the world, not only because they
have received the peace that passeth understanding, but because their
Master has said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God."
2. Again, in the allocation of the tribes in their various territories
we have an instance of a great natural law, the law of distribution, a
law that, on the whole, operates very beneficially throughout the
world. In society there is both a centripetal and a centrifugal force;
the centripetal chiefly human, the centrifugal chiefly Divine. Men are
prone to cluster together; God promotes dispersion. Through the Divine
law of marriage, a man leaves his father's house and cleaves to his
wife; a new home is established, a new centre of activity, a new
source of population. In the early ages they clustered about the plain
of Shinar; the confusion of tongues scattered them abroad. And
generally, in any fertile and desirable spot, men have been prone to
multiply till food has failed them, and either starvation at home or
emigration abroad becomes inevitable. And so it is that, in spite of
their cohesive tendency, men are now pretty well scattered over the
globe. And when once they are settled in new homes, they acquire
adaptation to their locality, and begin to love it. The Esquimaux is
not only adapted to his icy home, but is fond of it. The naked negro
has no quarrel with the burning sun, but enjoys his sunny life. We of
the temperate zone can hardly endure the heat of the tropics, and we
shiver at the very thought of Lapland. It is a proof of Divine wisdom
that a world that presents such a variety of climates and conditions
has, in all parts of it, inhabitants that enjoy their life.
The same law operates in the vegetable world. Everywhere plants seem
to discover the localities where they thrive best. Even in the same
country you have one flora for the valley and another for the
mountain. The lichen spreads itself along the surface of rocks, or the
hard bark of ancient trees; the fungus tarries in damp, unventilated
corners; the primrose settles on open banks; the fern in shady groves.
There is always a place for the plant, and a plant for the place. And
it is so with animals too. The elephant in the spreading forest, the
rabbit in the sandy down, the beaver beside the stream, the
caterpillar in the leafy garden. If we could explore the ocean we
should find the law of distribution in full activity there. There is
one great order of fishes for fresh water, another for salt; one great
class of insects in hot climates, another in temperate; birds of the
air, from the eagle to the humming-bird, from the ostrich to the bat,
in localities adapted to their habits. We ask not whether this result
was due to creation or to evolution. There it is, and its effect is to
cover the earth. All its localities, desirable and undesirable, are
more or less occupied with inhabitants. Some of the great deserts that
our imagination used to create in Africa or elsewhere do not exist.
Barren spots there are, and "miry places and marshes given to salt,"
but they are not many. The earth has been replenished, and the purpose
of God so far fulfilled.
And then there is a distribution of talents. We are not all created
alike, with equal dividends of the gifts and faculties that minister
in some way to the purposes of our life. We depend more or less on one
another; women on men, and men on women; the young on the old, and
sometimes the old on the young; persons of one talent on those of
another talent, those with strong sinews on those with clear heads,
and those with clear heads on those with strong sinews; in short,
society is so constituted that what each has he has for all, and what
all have they have for each. The principle of the division of labour
is brought in; and in a well-ordered community the general wealth and
well-being of the whole are better promoted by the interchange of
offices, than if each person within himself had a little stock of all
that he required.
The same law of distribution prevails in the Church of Christ. It was
exemplified in an interesting way in the case of our Lord's apostles.
No one of these was a duplicate of another. Four of them, taking in
Paul, were types of varieties which have been found in all ages of the
Church. In a remarkable paper in the _Contemporary Review_, Professor
Godet of Neuchâtel, after delineating the characteristics of Peter,
James, John, and Paul, remarked what an interesting thing it was, that
four men of such various temperaments should all have found supreme
satisfaction in Jesus of Nazareth, and should have yielded up to Him
the homage and service of their lives. And throughout the history of
the Church, the distribution of gifts has been equally marked.
Chrysostom and Augustine, Jerome and Ambrose, Bernard and Anselm, were
all of the same stock, but not of the same type. At the Reformation
men of marked individuality were provided for every country. Germany
had Luther and Melancthon; France, Calvin and Coligny; Switzerland,
Zwingle and Farel, Viret and Œcolampadius; Poland, À-Lasco;
Scotland, Knox; England, Cranmer, Latimer, and Hooper. The missionary
field has in like manner been provided for. India has had her
Schwartz, her Carey, her Duff, and a host of others; China her
Morrison, Burmah her Judson, Polynesia her Williams, Africa her
Livingstone. The most unattractive and inhospitable spots have been
supplied. Greenland was not too cold for the Moravians, nor the
leper-stricken communities of India or Africa too repulsive. And never
were Christian men more disposed than to-day to honour that great
Christian law of distribution--"Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature."
It was a great providential law, therefore, that was recognised in the
partition of the land of Canaan among the tribes. Provision was thus
made for so scattering the people that they should occupy the whole
country, and become adapted to the places where they settled, and to
the pursuits proper to them. Even where there seems to us to have been
a mere random distribution of places, there may have been underlying
adaptations for them, or possibilities of adaptation known only to
God; at all events the law of adaptation would take effect, by which a
man becomes adapted and attached to the place that not only gives him
a home but the means of living, and by which, too, he becomes a
greater adept in the methods of work which ensure success.
3. Still further, in the allocation of the tribes in their various
territories we have an instance of the way in which God designed the
earth to minister most effectually to the wants of man. We do not say
that the method now adopted in Canaan was the only plan of
distributing land that God ever sanctioned; very probably it was the
same method as had prevailed among the Canaanites; but it is beyond
doubt that, such as it was, it was sanctioned by God for His chosen
people.
It was a system of peasant proprietorship. The whole landed property
of the country was divided among the citizens. Each freeborn Israelite
was a landowner, possessing his estate by a tenure, which, so long as
the constitution was observed, rendered its permanent alienation from
his family impossible. At the fiftieth year, the year of jubilee,
every inheritance returned, free of all encumbrance, to the
representatives of the original proprietor. The arrangement was
equally opposed to the accumulation of overgrown properties in the
hands of the few, and to the loss of all property on the part of the
many. The extremes of wealth and poverty were alike checked and
discouraged, and the lot eulogised by Agur--a moderate competency,
neither poverty nor riches, became the general condition of the
citizens.
It is difficult to tell what extent of land fell to each family. The
portion of the land divided by Joshua has been computed at twenty-five
million acres.[17] Dividing this by 600,000, the probable number of
_families_ at the time of the settlement, we get forty-two acres as
the average size of each property. For a Roman citizen, seven acres
was counted enough to yield a moderate maintenance, so that even in a
country of ordinary productiveness the extent of the Hebrew farms
would, before further subdivision became necessary, have been ample.
When the population increased the inheritance would of course have to
be subdivided. But for several generations this, so far from an
inconvenience, would be a positive benefit. It would bring about a
more complete development of the resources of the soil. The great rule
of the Divine economy was thus honoured--nothing was lost.
[17] See Wines on the "Laws of the Ancient Hebrews," p. 388.
There is no reason to suppose that the peasant proprietorship of the
Israelites induced a stationary and stagnant condition of society, or
reduced it to one uniform level--a mere conglomeration of men of
uniform wealth, resources, and influence. Though the land was divided
equally at first, it could not remain so divided long. In the course
of providence, when the direct heirs failed, or when a man married a
female proprietor, two or more properties would belong to a single
family. Increased capital, skill and industry, or unusual success in
driving out the remaining Canaanites, would tend further to the
enlargement of properties. Accordingly we meet with "men of great
possessions," like Jair the Gileadite, Boaz of Bethlehem, Nabal of
Carmel, or Barzillai the Gileadite, even in the earlier periods of
Jewish history.[18] There was a sufficient number of men of wealth to
give a pleasing variety and healthful impulse to society, without
producing the evils of enormous accumulation on the one hand, or
frightful indigence on the other.[19]
[18] Judg. x. 4; Ruth ii. 1; 1 Sam. xxv. 2; 2 Sam. xvii. 27.
[19] See the author's essay "An Old Key to our Social Problems" in
"Counsel and Cheer for the Battle of Life."
We in this country, after reaching the extreme on the opposite side,
are now trying to get back in the direction of this ancient system.
All parties seem now agreed that something of the nature of peasant
proprietorship is necessary to solve the agrarian problem in Ireland
and in Great Britain too. It is only the fact that in Britain
commercial enterprise and emigration afford so many outlets for the
energies of our landless countrymen that has tolerated the abuses of
property so long among us, the laws of entail and primogeniture, the
accumulation of property far beyond the power of the proprietor to
oversee or to manage, the employment of land agents acting solely for
the proprietor, and without that sense of responsibility or that
interest in the welfare of the people which is natural to the
proprietor himself. It is little wonder that theories of
land-possession have risen up which are as impracticable in fact as
they are wild and lawless in principle. Such desperate imaginations
are the fruit of despair--absolute hopelessness of getting back in any
other way to a true land law,--to a state of things in which the land
would yield the greatest benefit to the whole nation. Not only ought
it to supply food and promote health, but also a familiarity with
nature, and a sense of freedom, and thus produce contentment and
happiness, and a more kindly feeling among all classes. It seems to us
one of the most interesting features of the land law recently brought
in for Ireland that it tends towards an arrangement of the land in the
direction of God's early designs regarding it. If it be feasible for
Ireland, why not have it for England and Scotland? Some may scout such
matters as purely secular, and not only unworthy of the interference
of religious men, but when advocated by them as fitted to prejudice
spiritual religion. It is a narrow view. All that is right is
religious; all that is according to the will of God is spiritual.
Whatever tends to realize the prayer of Agur is good for rich and poor
alike: "Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food
convenient for me."
4. Lastly, in the arrangements for the distribution of the land among
the twelve tribes we may note a proof of God's interest in the
temporal comfort and prosperity of men. It is not God that has created
the antithesis of secular and spiritual, as if the two interests were
like a see-saw, so that whenever the one went up the other must go
down. Things in this world are made to be enjoyed, and the enjoyment
of them is agreeable to the will of God, provided we use them as not
abusing them. If Scripture condemns indulgence in the pleasures of
life, it is when these pleasures are preferred to the higher joys of
the Spirit, or when they are allowed to stand in the way of a nobler
life and a higher reward. In ordinary circumstances God intends men to
be fairly comfortable; He does not desire life to be a perpetual
struggle, or a dismal march to the grave. The very words in which
Christ counsels us to consider the lilies and the ravens, instead of
worrying ourselves about food and clothing, show this; for, under the
Divine plan, the ravens are comfortably fed, and the lilies are
handsomely clothed.
This is the Divine plan; and if those who enjoy a large share of the
comforts of life are often selfish and worldly, it is only another
proof how much a wrong spirit may pervert the gifts of God and turn
them to evil. The characteristic of a good man, when he enjoys a share
of worldly prosperity, is, that he does not let the world become his
idol,--it is his servant, it is under his feet; he jealously guards
against its becoming his master. His effort is to make a friend of the
mammon of unrighteousness, and to turn every portion of it with which
he may be entrusted to such a use for the good of others, that when at
last he gives in his account, as steward to his Divine Master, he may
do so with joy, and not with grief.