The vain confidence of Israel in their own might was seriously rebuked at Ai; and no less was their wisdom found to be folly in the matter of Gibeon when as at Ai they forgot to seek counsel from God. Trusting to themselves, they are deceived by circumstances and make an alliance which is not according to the expressed will of God. They have made it in the name of Jehovah, and it cannot be broken. How easily they were ensnared! Even a little close questioning would have exposed the true character of the Gibeonites. For, if they dwelt in so distant a country as the moldy bread and the rent wine bottles pretended, there was no cause to fear Israel. They had heard what God did in Egypt, to the kings of the Amorites beyond Jordan, and that He would destroy the Canaanites and give the land to Israel. If they were beyond the limits why fear, and hasten to own themselves servants to Israel? Their eagerness to form an alliance would have betrayed them to the wise of the world. But Israel were then in a position where, if they had not wisdom of God, they must sink beneath the world's wisdom. The canning of the Gibeonites was too much for them: they were foolishly deceived. The princes, even Joshua, seemed a little doubtful at first, but the stout assertions of the Gibeonites soon lulled their suspicions to sleep. It is an instance recorded for our admonition how far more easily than others the people of God may be deceived when they attempt to decide any matter without. His counsel and guidance. Let us remember there is no folly so great as a saint depending. upon his own mind, or acting according to the maxims of the world.
That their folly was overruled, and that God made it an occasion for skewing how He would be merciful to those who trembled at His word, even though they were of the accursed race of Canaan, is most blessedly true. Isaiah proclaimed it (66:2); but God here shows it. How far mightier the display of mercy, of grace since the cross! The Gibeonites also give the true position of a soul really penitent, for they bow to the sentence of death; they were sore afraid of their lives, and therefore did that thing. They plead not the alliance, they surrender themselves unconditionally, “behold we are in thine hand; as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.” So true is it that glimpses of richest grace, and of practical righteousness, of the reality of the soul's lost condition before God, are thickly scattered through the pages of God's book, long before the great foundation was laid in the precious blood of Christ. Here on one side is Israel cursing the Gibeonite, on the other the submissive Gibeonite content to be anything that Joshua may determine. Over both is seen the picture of God's mercy to a self-judging sinner.
But we are looking at Israel's failure; before as to their might, now as to their wisdom. If Israel while contending for an earthly kingdom needed to be endowed with power and wisdom from God, how much more we who are receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, a heavenly kingdom, in seeking and receiving which our obedience, and dependence, and wisdom should be as far above that required of Israel as the realities of holiness are above its mere types!
Alas! the church of God very soon followed in the footsteps of Israel. At the beginning the presence of God was as manifestly with the church, as He hid been with Israel. The Holy Spirit came to take His abode in the newly formed body, and attested His presence by a rushing mighty wind and the cloven tongues of fire. He was the promised Comforter come to guide them into all truth, even as the Captain of Jehovah's host appeared to Joshua, and to lead the armies of Israel. And the energy of the Holy Spirit's power was soon felt by the great enemy, and three thousand were added together. What a triumph here of the name of Jesus over the power of Satan who had so blinded the Jew as to reject Him. It was the taking of another Jericho. Not more wonderful the falling down of city walls than the conversion of so many souls on that Pentecostal day. This was to the church, as that was to Israel, the pledge and pattern of victory over every foe had there been faithfulness in each to have continued in the goodness of God. But when did man individually or corporately continue in His goodness? Individuals from the first Adam have not continued, saints have needed and still need restoring grace. And as to man incorporate, there are two notable witnesses. Israel as a nation, and the church (far more intimately incorporated than the nation), both have failed, both like individuals need restoring grace. Nor will God fail in this; for Israel's blessing is nearing, and the glory of the church yet nearer. But the untrustworthiness of man, and of saints must appear. The glory is God's. If the church had learned in the presence of God the lessons that the course of Israel afforded, what shame and sorrow would never have been known.
The apostles had not long departed ere the church forgot God as the source of power. It forgot that it was only in the name of Jesus that the world could be overcome. “In my Name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16). In My Name only. Not using His Name as a mere talisman, as Sceva's sons attempted (Acts 19) but in true faith, and then the wondrous results follow. The church in its name and strength dared to contend with the world, and the world won the victory as easily as the men of Ai over Israel.
When Israel fled, it brought humiliation and crying to God, and this brought to their knowledge that they were defiled, and so they are led to restoration and joy. God gave them victory over the same foe that had so recently triumphed over them. It was a grand sight to see Israel on their faces before the Lord. Did the church as a whole ever take such a place? Nay. Here and there might have been a gathered few, but their numbers were lost in the general mass of profession. The result is far worse for the nominal church than for Israel. Indeed the analogy between Israel and the church lies rather in the principle of the flesh, trying to be independent of God, than in the manner. In the spiritual warfare of the church with the world the words of the Lord have been forgotten, “In my name;” the names of men have been substituted for His Name, and the world gained a victory. The nominal church is now a power of, and in, the world. As such, it is hastening to its doom; it is the nauseous thing that Christ will spue out of His mouth, and then as a mere harlot it will be destroyed by the world (Rev. 17:1616And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. (Revelation 17:16)).
The manner of the church's failure is rather in contrast with Israel's at Ai and with Gibeon. Israel attempted no compromise with Ai. The mistake was in not seeking counsel from God, and in attempting to fight Jehovah's battles in their own strength; they did not try to enlist the enemy, and swell their ranks with aliens. But this is what the church did, and spared no pains to win whole masses of men to the profession of the fundamental dogmas of Christianity. And when the priest was turned out of the temple where stood his idol, the so-called Christian priest took possession of the temple and changed the name of the idol to the name of the virgin, or of a “saint.” And this was called conversion! It was the birds of the air lodging in the branches of the great tree. Naturally when such an element came into the professing church, it needed the powers of the world to preserve order, which however did not succeed, as ecclesiastical history abundantly testifies, the strong arm of the law in not a few instances being appealed to. And what a pitiful groping after wisdom we see in the early ages of the church, which are more marked by squabblings than by unanimity! It could not be otherwise. It was an unholy alliance between the church and the world, and was deliberately entered into. Distinctive grace and truth were lost.
Israel's alliance with Gibeon was a greater sin than their proud contempt of Ai, though it was not apparently so disastrous. True, Israel was betrayed into it through unwatchfulness; but after the previous experience of the consequences of not asking counsel of God, their neglect in this case is still more inexcusable. And to make alliance with the world, even though unwittingly, brings in its wake the greatest evils. Israel's league with Gibeon was more dishonoring to God than their attempt apart from Him to take Ai. How could Israel be a witness for God against the wickedness of Canaan, and at the same time in league with one of the nations? Gibeon's submission was not for their consideration. And the union of church and world has surely destroyed in this day corporate testimony for God, such as the whole church was and is called to hear. Israel did it ignorantly, the nominal church knowingly. The church is more guilty than Israel. To know the Lord's will and to do it not will bring the “many stripes” upon Christendom.
Many associations of professing Christians have taken the sword and thus endeavored to fight against the world. But the men of Ai have invariably overcome them. The true soldiers of Christ remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, and that they who take the sword shall perish with the sword. But union with the world is fatal, and the church as a whole has lost its character. The true and living church—only known to God—is but a remnant among the mass of professors.
Gibeon was no help to Israel; they became the occasion for the combination of the remaining kings of Canaan who sought to wreak their vengeance upon the city which in their eyes had proved traitorous. Gibbon, now the servants of Israel, call upon their masters. for protection. This alliance brings immediate war. Satan resents the submission of Gibeon to the word of God, and to the people of God; he gathers his forces against them, but only to manifest more gloriously the presence of the great Captain of the hosts of Israel.
Israel might have been slow to prosecute the war. God overrules all, and uses their failure to carry out His purpose. The time of rest was not yet come. And now armed with a direct promise they prepare to meet the confederate kings. “Fear them not; for I have delivered them into thine hand, there shall not a man of them stand before thee.” Jehovah says, “into thine hand,” yet did the hailstones destroy more than the sword of Israel. This may not have been so strikingly supernatural as the falling of the walls of Jericho, but faith sees the same band in both. The former event was contrary to the common law of nature the latter was the power of God using nature beyond its ordinary limit: In each there was a direct intervention of nature's God.
What a glorious day for Israel. The combined forces flee, Joshua wields his sword with might from Jehovah. The “Captain of the host” is with him. And that is but enough, for Jehovah Himself appears apart from human instrumentality and thus completes the victory. The Lord of creation commands and nature obeys, and the hailstones smite not Israel, but the flying foe. Each stone with its own special message discriminates between Israelites and Canaanite. The sword of Israel and the great stones of Jehovah are both guided by the same mighty and unerring Hand. Once before there was a similar intervention of God for His people; then the hail was mingled with fire (Ex. 9:2424So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. (Exodus 9:24)). Then the people were bond slaves, now they are conquerors “for Jehovah fought for Israel” (Josh. 10:1414And 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. (Joshua 10:14)).
Joshua at the sight rises in faith and power, and bids the sun stand still upon Gibeon and the moot in the valley of Ajalon, that the triumph of Jehovah and of Israel may be complete. In the sight of all Israel, he speaks and God hearkens to the voice of a man.
How one witness after another comes crowding up before the idolatrous world of His eternal power and Godhead! The hailstones, and the long day of twice the usual length, assert in unmistakeable language even to the degraded Canaanite, that God was the one God in the earth as in the heaven. They are without excuse. They still worshipped the false gods of their own making. But when we remember that oven the highly favored nation of Israel, even the people on whose behalf these astonishing displays of power were made, did themselves soon sink into the lowest depths of idolatry, and became worse than the nations whose land was now given them, whose sin was the cause of their extermination, we have a strong—if not the strongest—proof that no display of divine power, of goodness short of the grace that comes through the cross, can wean the heart of man from the love of evil.
In this most renowned battle of Joshua is seen the double thing—the energy of God in man, and the same energy apart from man: the power that clothed all Israel; and the faith that is prominent in Joshua. Faith truly proves itself to be the gift of God by its own power; for to command the sun to stand still is greater than the confidence of victory. But the energy of divine power apart from and above man is now manifest. Israel had the privilege to prove their valor, then Jehovah appears and crowns their victory. Thereafter it is a record of victory; the kings and their armies may gather, but city after city is taken until the people find rest. No further tale of sin or failure follows while Joshua lived.
In the church of God not only we may see the energy of faith in individuals, but there is undoubtedly the action of the Spirit of God who controls the power of the adversary and leads the servants of God to victory. Israel under Joshua in the land is a mirror wherein we see the reflected image of the church, though so many centuries before the church was called. All were warnings, admonitions, and ensamples. Alas! where is our profit?