The christian reader will do well to turn, first of all, to the two chapters named above, and give them a careful reading. They furnish a very striking and impressive record of the double effect of God’s presence with His people. In chapter 6 we are taught that the divine presence ensured victory over the power of the enemy. In chapter 7 we learn that the divine presence demanded judgment upon evil in the bosom of the congregation. The ruins of Jericho demonstrate the one; the great heap of stones in the valley of Achor attests the other.
Now, these two things must never be separated.
We see them vividly illustrated in every page of the history of God’s people, both in the Old and in the New Testament. The self-same presence that secures victory demands holiness. Let us never forget this. Yea, let us keep it ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts. It has an individual, as well as a collective application. If we are to walk with God, or rather if He is to walk with us, we must judge and put away everything inconsistent with His holy presence. He cannot sanction unjudged evil in His people. He can pardon, heal, restore, and bless, but He is intolerant of evil. “Our God is a consuming fire.” “The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.”
Should the thought of this discourage or depress any true-hearted child of God or servant of Christ? Most certainly not. It should neither discourage nor depress, but it should make us very watchful over our hearts, very careful as to our ways, as to our habits of thought, feeling, and conversation. We have nothing whatever to fear so long as God is with us, but He cannot possibly sanction evil in His people, and every true lover of holiness will heartily bless Him for this. Could we possibly desire it to be otherwise? Would we wish the standard of holiness to be lowered the breadth of a hair? God forbid. All those who love His name can give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness. They rejoice in the precious truth that holiness becometh His house forever. “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” It is not by any means on the miserable principle wrapped up in the words, “Stand by thyself; I am holier than thou.” Thank God it is not this. It is not a question of what we are, but of what He is. Our character and conduct are to be formed by the truth of what God is. Marvelous grace! Most precious privilege! No human language can set forth its deep blessedness.
God must have His people like Himself. If they forget this, He will very speedily remind them of it. If He, in infinite grace, links His name and His glory with us, it behooves us, most surely, to look well to our habits and ways, lest we bring any reproach on that name, lest we tarnish the luster of that glory. Is this legal bondage? Nay, it is the very purest, highest, holiest liberty. We may rest perfectly assured of this, that we are never further removed from every trace of legality than when treading that path of true holiness which becomes all those who bear the name of Christ. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
This great truth holds good at all times. We see it in the ruins of Jericho. We read it in the valley of Achor. What was it that caused the frowning walls and towering bulwarks of Jericho to fall down fiat in one moment at the sound of a ram’s horn and the shout of the people? The presence of Jehovah. Yes; and if the whole land of Canaan had been studded with fortifications, from Daniel to Beersheba, they would all have been leveled in like manner before that invincible Presence.
But what means the humiliating defeat before the insignificant city of Ai? How comes it to pass that the hosts of Israel, so recently triumphant at Jericho, have to flee ignominiously before a mere handful of men?
Ah! the answer tells a sorrowful tale. Here it is; let us hearken to it, and ponder it in the deepest depths of our moral being. Let us seek to profit by it. Let us be solemnly warned by it. It has been written for our admonition. The Holy Ghost has taken the pains to record it for our learning. Woe be to the one who turns a deaf ear to the warning voice!
“But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against”—whom? Achan merely? or his household, or his family, or his tribe? Nay, but “against the children of Israel.” The whole assembly was involved in the evil. How was this? The divine presence imparted a unity to the whole assembly; it bound them all together in such a manner as to involve all in the sin of one. It was one assembly, and hence it was impossible for anyone to take independent ground. The sin of each was the sin of all, because God was in their midst, and He could not sanction un-judged evil. The whole congregation was involved, and had to clear itself of the evil ere Jehovah could lead it on to victory. Had He allowed them to triumph at Ai, it would have argued that He was indifferent to the sin of His people, and that He could give the sanction of His presence to “an accursed thing,” which were simply blasphemy against His holy name.
“And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai”—more easily said than done—“and make not all the people to labor thither, for they are but few”—yet quite too many for Israel with an Achan in the camp. “So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men; and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men; for they chased them from before the gate, even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down; wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.”
Here was a strange and unlooked-for experience! “And Joshua said, Alas! Ο Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! Ο Lord, what shall I say when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites, and all the inhabitants of the land, shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth; and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?”
Joshua, that beloved and honored servant of God, did not see, did not understand, that it was the very glory of that “great name” which necessitated the defeat at Ai, just as it had achieved the victory at Jericho. But there were other elements in that glory beside power. There was holiness, and that holiness rendered it impossible for Him to lend the sanction of His presence where there was unjudged evil. Joshua should have concluded that there was something wrong in the condition of the people. He ought to have known that the hindrance was with Israel, and not with Jehovah. The same grace that had given them victory at Jericho would have given it at Ai, if things were right. But, alas! they were not right; and hence defeat, and not victory, was the order of the day. How could there be victory with an accursed thing in the camp? Impossible! Israel must judge the evil, or Jehovah must judge Israel. To have given them a victory at Ai would have been a reproach and a dishonor to the One whose name was called upon them. The Divine Presence absolutely demanded judgment upon the evil; and unless that was immediately executed, further progress in the conquest of Canaan was wholly out of the question. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” “Holiness becometh thy house, Ο Lord, forever.”
“And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up: wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned”—not merely Achan— “and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed; neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.”
This is peculiarly solemn. The whole congregation is held responsible for the evil. “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.” Unbelief may inquire how all are involved in the sin of one; but the word of God definitively settles the question. “Israel hath sinned”—“they have taken”—“they have stolen”—“they have dissembled.” The assembly was one; one in privilege, one in responsibility. The sin of one was the sin of all, and all were called upon to clear themselves thoroughly by putting away the accursed thing from among them. There was not a single member of that large congregation who was not affected by Achan’s sin. This may seem strange to mere nature, but such is the solemn and weighty truth of God. It was true in the assembly of Israel of old, and assuredly it is not less true in the church of God now. No one could take independent ground in the assembly of Israel; how much less can he take it in the church of God! There were over six hundred thousand people who, to speak after the manner of men, were wholly ignorant of what Achan had done; and yet God’s word to Joshua was, “Israel hath sinned.” All were involved; all were affected; all were defiled, and all had to clear themselves, ere Jehovah could again lead them on to victory. The presence of God in the midst of the assembly formed the unity of all; and the presence of the Holy Ghost in the church of God, the body of Christ now on the earth, binds all up in one divine indissoluble unity. Hence, to talk of independency is to deny the very foundation truth of the church of God, and to prove, beyond all question, that we understand neither its nature nor its unity, as set forth on the page of inspiration.
But if evil creeps into an assembly, how is it to be met? Here it is: “Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow; for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, Ο Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.” Were they one in privilege? Were they one in the enjoyment of the glory and strength which the Divine Presence secured? Were they one in the splendid triumph at Jericho? Who would deny all this? Who would wish to? Why, then, seek to question their oneness in responsibility—their oneness in respect to the evil in their midst, and all its humbling consequences? Surely, if there was unity in anything, there was unity in everything. If Jehovah was the God of Israel, He was the God of all, the God of each; and this grand and glorious fact was the solid basis both of their high privileges, and their holy responsibilities. How could evil exist in such an assembly, and a single member be unaffected by it? How could there be an accursed thing in their very midst, and a single member not be defiled? Impossible. We may reason and argue about it until the tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth, but all the reasoning and argument in the world cannot touch the truth of God, and that truth declares that “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
But how is the evil to be discovered? The presence of God reveals it. The selfsame power that had leveled the walls of Jericho, detected, revealed, and judged the sin of Achan. It was the double effect of the same Blessed Presence, and Israel was called to share in the one as well as in the other. To attempt to separate the two is folly, ignorance, or wickedness. It cannot be done, and ought not to be attempted.
(To be continued, if the Lord will)