Joshua, Judges, Ruth

OS 1-2{Mamma. We have read all through what are called the five Books of Moses, and to-night we begin the Book of Joshua, which is so full of deep and precious meaning to the children of God that I feel almost afraid to try to explain even a very little of it to you.

Sophy. But please tell me the story, even though I may not understand it all, because Jesus will explain it to me Himself some day, by His Holy Spirit. And you know, Mamma, Moses told them to read out God's word before the little children, so I am sure God would like you to tell it all to me.

M. Then I will try. I will read you the first two chapters. Here we learn that after the death of Moses the Lord spoke to Joshua, who had been Moses' servant. And the Lord said, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore, go over Jordan with all this people, into the land. And the Lord greatly encouraged Joshua and said that He would be with him as He had been with Moses, only he was to be strong and very courageous!

S. Did God say He would be with Joshua, to make him courageous?

M. Yes, the fact that God had commanded him was to give him courage: and he was to keep God's word; by it he should make his way prosperous, and by it be would have good success. If he kept God's word he might be sure of God's presence.

S. Had Joshua nothing to do but to obey the word of God?

M. Nothing. God Himself would give them possession if they kept His word. And now Joshua commanded the officers of the people to prepare food; for in three clays they would pass over Jordan. And Joshua spoke to the two tribes and a half who had settled on that side of Jordan and reminded them of the word that Moses had said, about their going over armed, to fight with their brethren, until all had taken their possessions. And they answered Joshua that whatever he commanded them they would do, and as they had hearkened to Moses, so they would hearken to him, and then they took up God's word to him, and said, Only be thou strong and of good courage.

S. Why did God say so much about courage?

M. Because it was fear that had stopped them from going into the land before. They were afraid of the giants, and afraid of the way. It was a new way to them, and there was plenty to terrify them; if they looked at the overflowing river, they might feel afraid of death, but if they were keeping the word of God they could say, But we passed through the Red Sea, and it only drowned our enemies; and we sang the song of redemption on the other side. Again, if they thought of the enemies in the land they might well feel afraid, but if they had God's word in their hearts, they might say, Oh but God destroyed Sihon, and Og that great giant, and He will destroy all our enemies if we only trust in Him. For nothing gives such courage to the heart as keeping the word of God.

S. Does it make cowardly people courageous to keep God's word?

M. I believe it does. A person who keeps God's word is not afraid of going where God's word bids him go, even though it may seem a dangerous road.

And now Joshua sent two men to spy secretly, and they went to a city called Jericho. There was a poor lonely sinner there whose name was Rahab, and they went into her house. And the king of Jericho heard that they were there, and he sent to take them, but Rahab pretended that they were gone away, so the king's messengers went off to look for them, and they locked the gates of the city.

S. Were the spies locked into the city?

M. Yes. Rahab bad taken them up on the roof of her house, where she had a quantity of flax spread out, and she covered them over with the flax, so that the king's men could not find them. But when they were gone, she went up to the spies and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that all the inhabitants faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you, and we have heard what you did to Sihon and Og on the other side of Jordan; and when we heard these things there was no courage in any of us, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. And now, I pray you, promise me, as I have showed kindness to you, that you will show kindness to my father's house; and that you will save alive my father and my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and deliver our lives from death. And they said, We will, if you do not tell of us, and when the Lord has given us the land we will deal kindly and truly with you.

Then Rahab got a scarlet cord and let them down by it from the window. And they said to her, Bind this scarlet cord in your window, that when we come back we may see it; and bring all your family into the house, and whoever is in the house shall be saved, but whoever is not in this house, that has the scarlet line in the window, shall be destroyed.

S. That was like the Israelites, when they were shut in to their own houses, with the blood of the lamb on the doorpost.

M. Yes. This was the sign by which they were to know the house of the poor Gentile sinner who valued the grace of God. She counted upon finding mercy in the one true God, and she was not disappointed. And when the spies were gone she bound the scarlet line in her window, and they returned to Joshua and told him all that had happened. And Joshua said, Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands.

There lies a blessed country

Beyond the swelling river,

And there the people of God shall dwell

Forever and forever.

A land of milk and honey,

That drinks of the rain of heaven—

And to us the Lord by His changeless word

That glorious land has given.

Do you fear the deep dark river?
The river that flows between

The burning sand where now ye stand,

And the pastures cool and green?

Behold the ark of the Lord passed on—

A new and a wondrous road—

And there will it stand till ye reach the land,

The glorious land of God.

You shall see the river of death behind,

And the golden fields before,

You shall eat of the corn of that heavenly land

On the resurrection shore.

They sang a song in the olden days

When the foes lay dead on the strand,

But who lies dead on the shore to-clay

On the shore of the goodly land?

The murmurers of the desert years—

The tempters of the Lord

And a new-born race ye take their place,

To follow Him at His word.

We shall see the walls of Satan fall,

And the hosts of hell shall flee,

For we are the sons of the living God,

The host of the Lord are we.

The first-fruits of that goodly land,

Lord, we would offer now;

We praise Thee for Thy wondrous grace,

Our Savior God art Thou.

The grace that brought us to the land

Where Christ is gone before—

And here, O Lord, we praise Thy name

Forever, evermore.

OS 3{M. Now Joshua rose early in the morning, and came to Jordan with all the children of Israel, and lodged there for three days, as the Lord had said. And the officers went through the host and told the people that when they saw the ark and the Levites bearing it, they were to go after it.

S. I suppose they watched the ark all day to see where it would go.

M. Yes. They were to see it before them, but there was to be a space of two thousand cubits between it and them: they might not go near it, that they might know the way by which they went, for the Lord said, You have not gone this way before. So Joshua commanded the priests to take up the ark and pass over before the people; and he called the children of Israel to Him to hear the words of the Lord, and he said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you; and that He will without fail drive out all your enemies before you.

S. By what were they to know that?

M. By their passing safely through the Jordan. That was the place of death, but God had His purpose in bringing His people that way, so He said, There you shall know that the living God is with you. And the Lord told Joshua to choose twelve men out of all the tribes of Israel, and he did so.

Now the river Jordan was overflowing all its banks, for it was the time of harvest; and the priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth, went on before the people, and the moment their feet touched the brink of the water, the stream which came down the river on one side stood still and rose up into a heap very far off; and the stream on the other side ceased, so the river became dry land! And the priests went on and stood on dry ground in the midst of Jordan until all the people were passed quite over to the other side. Then the Lord said that those twelve men whom Joshua had chosen wore to go and take up twelve stones from the spot where the priests' feet stood; so they each carried a stone upon his shoulder, and laid them down in the place where they were to lodge that night.

S. What were the twelve stones for?

M. For a memorial to the children of Israel forever, that they might teach their children how God dried up the waters of Jordan before the ark of the covenant.

And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan where the priests' feet stood, so that there was a monument of their deliverance in the place of death as well as in the place of victory.

S. Did the ark go over last of all?

M. Yes. It went before them into Jordan, but the priests who bore it stood still in the midst of Jordan until all had gone over and -until all that the Lord had said was done. Also Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh went over armed, as Moses commanded them. Forty thousand people, prepared for war, passed over before the Lord to battle.

S. What a wonderful sight it must have been, mamma!

M. Yes. We can hardly imagine what it was like, the wide river dried up, the priests on before bearing the ark, now standing still in the deepest part, while the thousands of Israel passed by; men, women, and children, with the animals, and cattle, and all the Levites with the parts of the tabernacle, as I described to you when we were reading the Book of Numbers.

S. Were the people frightened when they saw the deep water?

M. No. For the moment the feet of the priests touched the brim of the water it all dried up! When Israel crossed the Red Sea the waters were a wall on the right hand and on the left; but in Jordan there was no water, there was nothing to be afraid of!

And on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel, so that they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life. And at the word of the Lord Joshua commanded the priests to come up out of Jordan, and the moment their feet were lifted up on the dry land, the water flowed back again, flowing over all its banks as it had done before.

S. God did not take away the river then, mamma?

M. No. He left it there as deep in ever, but now it shut the people as to the promised land, the wilderness and Egypt were on the other side, and they encamped in Gilgal; and the stones which they took out of Jordan, Joshua pitched in Gilgal, that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord that it is mighty, and that Israel might fear the Lord their God forever.

MOTHER, I think, if I had been

A little Jewish maid,

I often should have gone and seen

Where Jordan's waves were stayed.

It must have been so very grand

To see the ark borne through

Into the midst, upon dry land,

The people following too.

And while the priests were standing there

Upon the river's bed,

It must have banished all their fear

And made them glad instead.

And after, when they passed that way,

I wonder, did they think

The meaning of those stones that lay

So near the river's brink?

And did the children ask about

The stones in Jordan's bed,

Or why twelve more were taken out

And placed on shore instead?

You said that they were there to show

How God had brought them through,

That even boys and girls might know

What His strong arm could do.

I fear, my child, that few indeed

Who trod that goodly land,

Had hearts, from self and pleasure freed

God's ways to understand.

To us, it speaks of One who went

Through Jordan's deepest tide,
On Jesus all God's wrath was spent.

When for our sins He died.

Alone in that o'erflowing tide

A pathway He could trace;

We follow to the other side,

And find in heaven our place.

The Red Sea saved them from their foes,

From Egypt and its toil;

A type of Him who died and rose

The power of hell to spoil.

The Jordan crossed—in Canaan free,

Death's fetters broken through

In Him who rose from death's dark sea,

To bring us with Him too.

And so those stones to us declare

God's mighty power, and more,

That dead and risen in Christ up there,

Death, judgment, sin are o'er.

Twelve other stones lie hidden deep,

Beneath those waves of death,

The memory of His love to keep

For those who know its worth.

We see Him in the glory bright,

But while we know Him there,

We think of Him in that dark night,

When God forsook Him here.

Mother, if Jesus Christ passed through

That mighty flood for me,

I need not fear to follow too,

For with Him I should be.

“With Him," my child, no words can tell

The sweetness of that thought,

Before His face in joy to dwell,

And know what God has wrought.

OS 3-4{S. Is the story of the Jordan meant to teach us anything?

M. Yes, the Jordan is a figure of death. For man to attempt to pass through it by himself, would be certain destruction.

S. But the ark went before to dry up the water, and you said the ark was a figure of Jesus.

M. You are quite right. Jesus has gone before to dry up the waters of death. The Bible says that He abolished death, that is, He put an end to it, and Jesus broke the power of death by dying on the cross. He brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. Now the gospel is the good news about Jesus; that He died and rose again, in order that every believing child of God might pass out of death, into His Father's house.

S. But you told me that the Red Sea was a figure of the death of Jesus. Why did God teach then the same thing twice?

M. It is God's way in the Old Testament, to teach us parts of the same thing by many different figures. This makes it easier to our little minds to understand God's great thoughts. When the Israelites were in Egypt, they were saved from Egypt's judgment by the blood of the Lamb: it was sprinkled on their doorposts. The first thing a sinner learns, is that Jesus has shed His blood, to save him from judgment; but God's people must not stay in Egypt, and to get out of Egypt they must pass through the Red Sea. The sinner must learn that the death of Christ has saved him from the world's judgment and from all that would keep him in the world—the cross of Christ separates the Christian from the world, just as much as the Red Sea separated the children of Israel from Egypt, and from the Egyptians. They saw them sink like lead in the mighty waters! When they were in Egypt they were quite safe from God's judgment because the blood was on the doorpost, but they were dreadfully afraid, for Pharaoh was there, and their taskmasters were there, and their burdens were there. But the moment they were on the other side of the Red Sea their fear was gone, the power of Egypt was broken, and they sang of God's salvation—as a saved sinner can look away from the world and its bondage and say, "Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

But God did not mean His people always to remain in the wilderness, so He said they must learn something more about death; they were not only to see their enemies dead, but they were to go into the place of death themselves, that they might know that the living God was among them. The Israelites did not really die when they passed through Jordan, but the Jordan is a figure of death, as the promised land is a figure of what God has prepared for those who love Him. The Israelites passed through the place which, but for the ark being there, would have been death to them; and they got into a place of safety and blessing. Suppose a child of God is dying, and he sees how the Lord Jesus has gone down into the grave for Lim, like the ark standing in the midst of Jordan, and he says, There is no fear in death for me, the water is all gone, Jesus has put an end to death, He has broken its power, I have only to look at Him who has risen out of death, for I go up to where He is alive for me. So that what we call death, is, for the Christian, only passing into life.

S. Is that why Christians are not afraid to die?

M. Yes. There is no fear in death to those who know that Jesus destroyed the power of death, and that He went up out of the grave to God's right hand. The child of God follows Him by faith as Israel followed the ark.

S. Oh that is wonderful!

M. It is wonderful indeed, and this is why God said, "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out before you the inhabitants of the land." When the child of God knows that Jesus has risen out of death, he knows that God will without fail give him victory over everything that hinders him from getting into the joys of God's own presence.

S. Was not the living God with them when they crossed the Red Sea?

M. Yes. Jehovah was with them, but they did not know Him as the living God: they found out that He was the living God when He destroyed the power of death; that was, when the ark stood on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. It is God's purpose that we should never forget the death of Christ; and this is the meaning of His telling them to take up twelve stones from the spot where the ark rested; and to put them in the land for a memorial forever.

S. What is the meaning of, On that day the Lord magnified Joshua?

M. On that day the Lord showed them how great Joshua was Joshua is another figure of the Lord Jesus Christ who is called the Captain of our salvation: Jesus leads us into the enjoyment of heavenly things by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is magnified, that is, He is made great to us in His death, for He is the resurrection and the life. When a child of God knows a little about the death of Jesus, Jesus is a little great to him, but when he knows a great deal about it then Jesus is very great to him. We see Jesus greater and greater the more we learn about His death. He is magnified to us because He died and rose again. By faith the child of God has passed from death into life, now in this world; and in Christ we have already crossed the Jordan, and have tasted the joys of heaven.

S. But can anyone taste the joys of heaven while he is on earth?

M. Most surely we can, my child. Is not Jesus there? Is it not a joy of heaven to know Him? Can we not speak to Him, and He to us? Is there not an open way to where He is? It is all by the power of God's Spirit; this is why I told you that it was hard to explain it to you.

S. But God gives little children faith, and I do believe that Jesus who died on the cross is gone up to God.

M. Our bodies are not in heaven yet, they will be when they are made like His glorious body, but our hearts can follow the One we love, to where He is. We can go to heaven now by faith, we can be with Jesus there in spirit; the Bible says that children of God are seated together in heavenly places in Christ now; when we take possession of our place in heaven; and when we enjoy Christ there, this is tasting the joys of heaven, and the way to do so is, to know that we have died with Christ.

S. But how can a person die while he is alive, mamma?

M. By faith. The Israelites really saw the water of the Red Sea drown their enemies, and they saw themselves safe on the other side. We know by faith that our sins are washed away in Jesus' blood. They really saw the ark in the midst of Jordan; we know by faith that Jesus went down into the grave for us. They saw that the water was all gone; we know by faith that Jesus has abolished death, and now God connects all who believe, with Him, and says, "Old things are passed away, all things are become new." And now, like Joshua, when he put the twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, the child of God can look back to the death of Christ and say, There is the memorial of all my blessing. The cross is the spot where Jesus is magnified to me. When we know that our sins are put away we can sing of God's "great work." But when we follow Jesus into death, we know how great a Person He is! Jesus is magnified to us. The water of Jordan might flow over all its banks as it did before, but Joshua was magnified in the sight of all Israel: their fears were all gone, and their doubts were gone; they believed that he was able to conquer the land.

S. Why did the water flow back as soon as the priests' feet were lifted up on dry land?

M. Because as soon as the ark was gone, the power of death was as great as ever. So it is now, the tide of death and judgment flows on as terrible as ever; it is only those who are in Christ that find that there is no power in death for them, because Jesus has abolished death, and He has brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel.

OS 5-6{M. In this fifth chapter of Joshua we read, that the kings of the people of the land were greatly frightened when they heard what the Lord had done for Israel. Then the Lord told Joshua to circumcise all the children of Israel; for none of the people that were born in the wilderness were circumcised, and you know that those men who came out of Egypt died in the wilderness, because of their unbelief.

This was to show that they must not think anything of themselves. It was God who had brought them there, they had nothing to be proud of. Do you remember when circumcision began?

S. When God told Abraham to put God's mark upon his son.

M. Yes. Circumcision was the sign that they had given up their own will. The place where Joshua circumcised the people was called Gilgal, which means a rolling away, because the Lord said, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Gilgal was a blessed place, it was their first possession in the promised land; and it was there they laid the stones that they took out of Jordan, so that Gilgal kept up the, remembrance of Jordan; and there, God wiped away the disgrace of Egypt, for it was a great disgrace for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to have been bond slaves in Egypt.

In this happy place they encamped, and there they kept the Passover. God had set them free from the service of sin, free from the trials of the wilderness, and free from their own selfish wills.

There they ate of the lamb roast with fire, and on the day after the Passover they ate of the old corn of the land, and unleavened cakes and parched corn.

S. How delightful! Was that why the manna did not come any more?

M. Yes. Every day for forty years the manna had not ceased to fall around their dwellings; but on the day after they tasted of the old corn of the land the manna did not come; for they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. But it was in Gilgal they tasted it first.

S. Did they keep the Passover to remember the night that they came out of Egypt?

M. Exactly. When they ate the lamb in Egypt it was the beginning of their journey, they ate it in haste, because they were going to fly from the power of Pharaoh; but when they ate the Passover on the other side of Jordan, they had come to the end of their journey, and they could look back in peace, and remember all that God had done for them.

He had in His mercy brought forth His people whom He had redeemed, He had guided them in His strength to His holy habitation. God had brought them in to the promised land and there they kept the Passover again, for it was a night to be much remembered forever.

S. Will the people in heaven remember that Jesus died on the cross?

M. Yes, that will never be forgotten. In heaven we shall have Jesus Himself. The One who is God's Lamb, and who, is also the manna, the Bread which came down from heaven; and also the old Corn of the land; for all these are figures to teach us the different ways in which Jesus is known and enjoyed by His heavenly people.

S. What is the difference between the manna, and the corn of the land?

M. The manna came down to where they were and lay all round them in the wilderness; but the corn only grew in the land, they must be in Canaan to get it. When we speak of feeding upon Jesus as the manna, we mean that we enjoy Him as the humbled Man down here, when He took the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death. Every word He spoke down here and everything He did, was like the small coriander seed which the children of Israel gathered; and the Holy Spirit shows us how to gather, to admire, and to delight in the ways and manners of this heavenly Man, and to feed upon Him in our hearts. But when we speak of feeding upon Him as the old corn of the land, we mean that we are enjoying Him as the risen Man who is gone up to glory. The same Jesus still, but risen from the dead and set down at God's right hand in heaven. All power is His, and all glory is His, and we who believe are one with Him where He is.

S. I am afraid I do not understand that, mamma.

M. God alone can teach it to you, my child.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho he looked up, and he saw a man standing before him, with a sword drawn out of its sheath in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said, Are you for us or for our enemies? And he said, As Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. Then Joshua fell on his face and worshipped him and said, What says my lord to his servant? And the Captain of the Lord's host said, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy; and Joshua did so.

S. That is what God said to Moses at the, burning bush.

M. Yes. It was the same God, and His servant must always be as one who stands on holy ground. The Lord was Captain of His own host, and His sword was drawn for His people.

Now Jericho was closely shut up and no one went in or out, for fear of the children of Israel.

S. Do you think Rahab was watching for the spies to come back?

M. She certainly expected them to return, for she hung the scarlet line in her window. Perhaps she could see the children of Israel in their camps outside, for her house was built on the wall of the city; in that country they used to put great walls round their cities, and they built houses on the top of the walls. And the Lord said to Joshua, See I have given into your hand, Jericho, and the king, and the mighty men. Then the Lord told him how he was to take Jericho. So Joshua called the priests—he did not call the armed men first—and he said to the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the Lord. And Joshua told the armed men to go on before the ark, and to march all round the city; they were to do it once every day for six days, and on the seventh day they were to march round the city seven times, and then the Lord would give them the city.

S. Were they not to fight a battle?

M. No. Obedience to God's word was to give them victory.

God was with them, He was the Captain of His own host, His Spirit was not yet grieved by evil in their midst and He used His great power for His people. They had to obey in patience. They were to go on for a whole Week doing what God told them to do; they might have said, What a foolish thing to march round a city, and to blow with trumpets; how could that make those great walls fall down? But God had said it, and every time they marched round the city; it was like telling the people inside that judgment was coming on them. When Joshua had spoken, the seven priests took their trumpets, and the armed men went first, then the priests, blowing with their trumpets, and then the ark. And Joshua said, You must not shout or speak at all until the day I tell you to shout. So the ark of the Lord went round the city once and they came back to the camp and rested there. And the next day Joshua got up early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark, and they all went round the city as before, and then went back to the camp. And they did this every day for six days. But on the seventh day they got up very early at the dawning of the day; and they all marched round the city seven times; and at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said, Shout! for the Lord, has given you the city! And they gave a great shout, and the wall of the city fell down flat!

S. Oh what a crash it must have been! I wonder if they were frightened?

M. It was a terrible moment for those inside, for the people rushed in at every part, and they destroyed every living creature in the city, but one solitary house was saved.

S. That was Rahab's!

M. Yes. Joshua had desired the two spies to go to Rahab's house and to bring her out, and also all that were with her in the house; and they did so. Rahab had thoroughly believed that God's judgment was coming, and she believed that He would save her and her house, for she had gathered all who belonged to her into her house: her father was there, and her mother, and her brothers, and all her family. And the spies brought them out every one, and left them outside the camp of Israel. Then they burned the city with fire. But the gold, and the silver, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

OS 6{S. What was the meaning of taking the city in that strange way?

M. The taking of Jericho is a figure of the Christian's victory over the world. God made the beautiful earth, but the world is that which man has made, and Satan is the prince of it. All the laws of the world are made by man, and all its thoughts are man's thoughts, and its plans are man's plans; and God's thoughts, and God's ways are all forgotten in the world. Therefore the people of the world are always enemies to the people of God, and Satan uses the world to keep the children of God from taking possession of the joys of heaven. Jesus has overcome the world and the Christian has to do so too. The Christian is not armed with a sword as the children of Israel were, his sword is the word of God, his shield is the shield of faith; and truth and righteousness are parts of the Christian's armor.

S. What is the meaning of the priests blowing the trumpets?

M. It was calling upon God. They were prepared to fight, yet they called on God, and waited for Him to give them victory. They did not talk about it, they did not boast that the walls would soon fall down, but silently, patiently, round and round they went there was nothing to be heard but the sound of the trumpets, and God was listening to that sound. No doubt the people inside heard it too, but to them it was the sound of coming judgment.

S. Why did they go round the city seven times on the last day?

M. To show that they were not getting tired or unbelieving about it, they had even more patience and determination at the end than at the beginning. The Lord says, they that wait on Him shall renew their strength; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

S. But how does a Christian overcome the world?

M. By faith in the Son of God: this is the victory that over, cometh the world, even our faith, because faith believes that Jesus has overcome the world. Who is He that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? If a child of God has learned that Jesus is the Son of God, he feels that this world is like a great walled city, full of enemies, but he knows that Jesus is gone up to God's right hand in heaven, and this makes the Christian able to overcome, and when he comes to the world like an armed man and like a priest, the walls are no walls at all, and the enemies are only like dead people, they can do him no harm, because God is for him; who can be against him?

S. How does a Christian show that he has overcome the world?

M. By keeping himself from the things that are in the world. This was Joshua's warning to the children of Israel; he said, The city is accursed, and all that is in it, and now take care that you keep yourselves from the accursed thing, for if you take of it you will make the camp of Israel cursed and you will trouble it. They were not to take anything in Jericho for themselves.

Just so God's children now are told, to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is of the world is not of the Father but is of the world. It is very sad when a child of God does not keep himself from the things in the world, because it shows that he loves the world better than he loves the Father. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him. And Joshua said, Cursed is the man who builds this city Jericho; he shall lay the foundation of it in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

Cain began the world, he was Adam's oldest son; and we shall learn by-and-by what the end of the world will be, God has revealed it to us in His word.

S. What do you mean by "revealed"?

M. To reveal is to tell a thing that is hidden. God reveals what man could not know in any other way. Every word in this book is given by revelation of God. We could not know it unless God had revealed it to us. We know a great many things that are not revealed to us; we know that it is right to eat and drink, but we should not know that it is right to love our neighbor as ourselves if it were not revealed to us. God reveals things to us that we could not know in any other way. This is why it is so important to know what God has revealed, and a little child who knows something that God has revealed, is wiser than the most learned man that ever lived would be without God's revelation. And the Lord was with Joshua and he became very famous in the country.

OS 7-8{M. This is a very sorrowful chapter, for the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing. A man named Achan took some things and hid them in his tent, and the Lord was much displeased. But Joshua sent men to look at Ai. Ai was the next city they were going to conquer, and they came back and said to Joshua that it was quite a little place, a few people could take it, so Joshua sent them to fight against Ai. They seemed to forget that the Lord was captain of His host, for they, did not ask Him what they should do; they did not wait for Him to tell them how to conquer Ai, they thought it was easy because it was a smaller place than Jericho; so Joshua sent three thousand men to take the city, and they fled before the men of Ai, and many of them were killed. But Joshua was greatly grieved, and he fell on his face before the ark of the Lord, and he and all the elders of Israel mourned before the Lord, and Joshua said, O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turn their backs before their enemies!.... and what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name?

But the Lord answered Joshua and said, Get up: why do you lie upon your face? Israel has sinned! For they have taken of the accursed thing, and they have stolen and they have hidden it, and they have put it with their own stuff.

S. Did that make the camp accursed, as Joshua said?

M. Yes. The whole camp was unclean in God's sight, and God said He would not be with them any more until they had destroyed the accursed from among them. It was no use for Joshua to lie on his face and cry to God: he must get up and put away the evil thing. So Joshua rose up early in the morning to sanctify the people; and he brought them by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken, and he tried all the families of Judah and the household of Zabdi was taken, and he brought his household man by man, and Achan was taken. And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give, I pray you, glory to the God of Israel and make confession to Him and tell me what you have done. And Achan said, I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, for I saw a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold, and I took them and they are hid in the earth, in the midst of my tent. Unhappy man! He did not think that the Holy God was looking at him as he hid it there? He did not feel what it was to belong to the Holy God, or he could not have hidden an unholy thing with his own stuff. He touched what was accursed and be made himself accursed for it. Then Joshua sent to his tent and found it as he said. So they took Achan, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons and his daughters, his oxen, his asses, his sheep, his tent and all that he had, and brought them to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why halt thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. Then all Israel stoned him with stones, and burnt them all with fire, sorrowful act! But God's law was broken and there was no help for a man under law, he must die. What was, unclean must be destroyed. Then the anger of the Lord was turned away from Israel, but they raised a great heap of stones over the spot where Achan perished, and the place was called the valley of Achor, that is, the valley of trouble, which still tells of Israel's first failure in the promised land. They let the word of God slip from them, and they got careless because the way seemed easy.

S. But it was not easy when God did not fight for them, for some of them were killed.

M. True, and so God showed them, that though He would give them His favor again, yet He would not put honor upon them, as He had done when they went forth in His power; yet His grace to Joshua is very beautiful. He said to him, Fear not, take all the people of war with you and go up to Ai, I have given it into your hands; and God told Joshua how to take Ai. So Joshua went up to Ai, and he made some of the people go by night and hide behind the city, and in the morning Joshua attacked the city, and the king of Ai, and all his people came out to fight against Joshua; then Joshua pretended to fly from them, so they all pursued after Israel and left the city open. Then the Lord told Joshua to stretch out the spear that was in his hand towards Ai, and as soon as he did so the Israelites that were hiding behind the city rose up, and went into the, city and took it and set it on fire. And when the men of Ai looked toward their city they saw the smoke of it going up to the sky, and they did not know which way to go to fly from Israel, so they were all destroyed, but the cattle God said they might take for themselves.

S. Pretending to fly was not so grand as seeing the walls fall down before them.

M. No. God never made much of them in that way again. It is just like what the children of God have done since Jesus went back to heaven. They have not kept themselves from the things in the world, they have grieved God's Holy Spirit by having unholy things mixed up with their own things, and so God does not honor us now as He honored His servants Paul and Peter, and John, who faithfully kept themselves unspotted from the world. And Joshua burnt Ai, and he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and as soon as the sun had set he commanded the body to be taken down.

S. Why must it not be there in the evening?

M. Because the Lord had said, as we read in the book of the law, that the body of one who was hanged should not remain all night upon the tree, because the land which God had given them must not be defiled; it showed that Joshua felt it was God's land, when he forbade the body to be left there all night. Then Joshua did another thing that God had told Moses about, for he built an altar in Mount Ebal, and there they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.

S. Was that the mountain where they were to read out all the curses?

M. Yes. Joshua wrote upon all the stones of the altar a copy of the law of Moses. And all Israel stood with the priests and the Levites on each side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, with the strangers that dwelt among them, while Joshua read out all the words of the law, the blessing and the curses as Moses commanded, and the women and the little ones were listening too.

Moses had said, on the day that they went over Jordan, they were to set up that altar, but Joshua had not done so at once.

OS 9-11{M. Now when the kings of the people of the land heard all that Joshua had done, and of his building the altar, and taking possession of the land, they all joined together to fight against Joshua. But the inhabitants of Gibeon thought they would try and make friends with Israel, and they did it in a very cunning way. They put on very old clothes, and tattered shoes, and they took bread which was quite old and moldy, to pretend that they had come a very long journey. And they came to, the camp to Gilgal, and said, We are come from a very far country, will you make friends with us? But the princes of the congregation said, Perhaps you live quite near us. And Joshua asked them who they were, but they said they had come a long way and they showed their food and their clothes, and said, This food was quite fresh when we left home, and our clothes were quite new and now they are worn out by the long journey. So the men looked at their things, but did not ask the Lord.

S. Oh why did they not remember Ai?

M. Even Joshua was deceived by their cunning, for he made peace with them, and the princes swore to them that they should be friends. But after three days they found out that they were their neighbors, and the people were very angry with the princes and they wanted to destroy the Gibeonites. But the princes said, We have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel so we must not destroy them, we will make them our servants. Then Joshua called the Gibeonites and said to them, Why have you deceived us? Now you are cursed, and you shall always be our bondmen and you shall cut wood and draw water for the house of my God. But they said, We heard all that God had done for you, and we were afraid of our lives and now we are in your hands, do to us whatever you think right. So Joshua made them hewers of wood, and drawers of water to the children of Israel.

S. Was it very wrong to make friends with them?

M. Yes. They were enemies; and we shall read by-and-by that they brought only sorrow and disgrace to Israel. It is often Satan's way; when he cannot overcome the people of God, he tries to deceive them. He likes to get the children of God to keep company with the people of the world, because then he can make them forget God, and be content to go on as the world goes on. God had said, Every spot where your feet shall tread shall be yours; and Satan was very glad that they lost the cities of the Gibeonites. Their feet did not tread there, and their enemies were allowed to live.

S. Did God show Joshua that He was displeased?

M. No. God let them feel what they lost by want of faithfulness to Him, but they were earnest and true, so He went on with them still, and fought for them still. The other people of the land were very angry with the Gibeonites, and five kings and their armies came to fight against Gibeon. But they sent to Joshua to Gilgal and said, Come quickly to save us and help us. And Joshua did so. And the Lord said to him, Fear not: I have delivered them into your hand. So Joshua and the armed men went up from Gilgal all night; and the Lord gave them a great victory. And the Lord rained hailstones from heaven upon them which killed still more than Israel killed. Then Joshua spoke to the Lord that day; and in the sight of Israel He said, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

There never was a day like that day, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man, for the sun shone brightly all day upon Gibeon, and the moon shed its light over Ajalon, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. For the Lord fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him to the camp to Gilgal.

S. Why did they always go back to Gilgal?

M. Because it was the place of circumcision, and there the camp rested while they were conquering the land. None but circumcised people, that is those who had God's mark on them, could be warriors: warriors are people who have no will of their own, they have only to obey the word of command; and warriors are people who have given up their selfishness, whose fears have been all lost in Jordan: they do not think of suffering, or of danger, they know that God has all power, and they go straight on where His word tells them to go; and after every victory they went back to, Gilgal, and there they saw the, twelve stones which they took out of Jordan, and there they were reminded of how Joshua their captain was magnified to them, on the day when they knew that the living God was among them.

S. Have Christians any Gilgal, mamma?

M. The death and resurrection of Jesus is our Gilgal. When we really learn what that is, we give up our own will, and in His death we get cut off from our selfishness, and we bear the mark of it, that is, we show in our ways that our evil will is gone, and all our pride and boasting. The children of Israel, if they had stayed at Gibeon, might have said, Well, we have had a grand victory to-day! and they might have felt proud of it; but, when they got back to Gilgal, and saw the twelve stones there where God had wiped away the reproach of Egypt, they could not have any proud feelings. They must have felt, God has done wonderful things, we will be glad and rejoice in Him. For Gilgal is a place of praise.

Now it was told Joshua, that the five kings were hidden in a cave; so Joshua went to the cave, and he made the captains of war put their feet upon the necks of the kings, to show that they had conquered them. And Joshua said to them, Fear not, be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight. And Joshua hanged the five kings on five trees, until the evening, and then he commanded their bodies to be taken down and buried in the cave. And Joshua went on from place to place, taking every one, and he took Hebron, which used to be Abraham's burying place, and where Caleb and Joshua found the grapes. And he took Goshen and all the countries round to Gibeon, then they went back as usual to Gilgal.

S. I should like to have been the one who had Hebron in his possession?

M. We shall hear more about Hebron by-and-by. When the other kings heard of Joshua's victories, they joined together in one place, to fight against Israel. But the Lord said He would give them all into the hands of Israel, and that they should destroy all their chariots and horses, and He did so, and Joshua burnt down their capital city. It was all the easier to destroy them because they were gathered together. God let them come together against Israel that He might destroy them all. Joshua made peace with no other country but Gibeon; and he destroyed the Anakims—those were the giants that frightened the spies; but all that the Lord commanded Moses, that Joshua did: and Joshua took the whole land, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war.

S. Oh I am so glad! Now you can tell me about bringing the wives and children to live in the beautiful country.

OS 12-17{M. This chapter tells us all the kings that were killed, and the land that was possessed by the children of Israel—some was taken by Moses the servant of the Lord, on the other side of Jordan, and more by Joshua on this side of Jordan: there were thirty-one kings altogether. Joshua was an old man at this time, and the Lord said to him, You are old and there is yet very much land to be possessed, and the country of the Philistines; now, therefore, divide the land among the nine tribes and a half; for two tribes and a half got their inheritance from Moses. Then the Lord told Joshua exactly what he was to give to each tribe. God meant each tribe to take possession of its own inheritance, but none took all that God gave them, and alas! many of their enemies were allowed to live among them. But among those who were killed was the wicked prophet Balaam who caused Israel to sin. The tribe of Levi had no inheritance among the tribes because the Lord God of Israel was their inheritance, and all the offerings of the Lord made by fire belonged to them. But they gave them cities to dwell in, and land for their cattle.

S. Did Joshua divide the countries that were not yet conquered?

M. Yes. Joshua, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of all the tribes divided the land, as the Lord had told Moses. God told Moses exactly what He meant them to have, that last day when He took Moses up to the top of Mount Pisgah. There God showed Moses the land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Moses might not go into it because he had grieved God at Meribah. And when Joshua had divided the land, Caleb, who was of the tribe of Judah came to him, and said, You know what Moses the servant of the Lord said about you and me in Kadesh-barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me to spy out the land, and I brought him word as it was in my heart. But my brethren, who went up with me, frightened the people, yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. Then Moses said that the land where my feet had trodden should be my inheritance, and now the Lord has kept me alive these forty-five years, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and to-day I am eighty-five years old,; and yet I am as strong this day as I was that day for war, to go out, or to come in. Now, therefore, give me this mountain: you know there are giants there, and great and fenced cities; if the Lord is with me I shall be able to drive them out.

S. Were those the giants that made the other spies afraid to go up?

M. Yes. The unbelieving ones were frightened, but Caleb was strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. It is very beautiful the way this old man boasted of the power of God, and he fully trusted to it. So Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron: it was a great city where four giants lived, but Caleb drove them all out, and Hebron became an inheritance to him, and to his children, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.

And the land had rest from war. But the tribe of Judah had a great deal besides Caleb's inheritance, and in their country was the city of Jerusalem.

Now when Caleb had conquered the giants, he said that there was a place near, and if any man conquered it he should have his daughter for his wife. So Othniel, Caleb's own nephew, took it, and Caleb let him marry his daughter Achsah. Achsah must have been like her father Caleb, for she liked to have possessions in the good land too. For as she came to him, she got down off her ass, and Caleb asked her what she would like, and she answered, Give me a blessing; you have given me a south land, give me also springs of water. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

S. I am very glad Caleb was rewarded for believing in God all those forty years when they were in the wilderness.

M. Yes, he belonged to the tribe of Judah, the one that Jacob blessed with the best blessing among all his sons, when he said, Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; but even the tribe of Judah did not take full possession of their inheritance, for some of the Jebusites were allowed to live in Jerusalem, and they never could drive them out.

S. Did all that Jacob said of his sons when he was going to die come true?

M. Yes, God's part came true, because He did all that He said He would do, but the people failed in every way to come up to God's purpose for them. God did make Joseph like a fruitful bough whose branches run over the wall; for the Lord had blessed them greatly. They came to Joshua and said that they were a great people, and Joshua said, If you are a great people, go up to the wood country and cut down for yourselves in the land of the giants; but they said, The hill is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites have iron chariots; so Joshua said, You are a great people and the mountain shall be yours, and the country round shall be yours, and you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they are strong and though they have iron chariots. Still the children of Joseph did not drive out all the Canaanites, but they made them pay tribute.

Jacob's blessing to his sons will not be perfectly fulfilled until the Lord Jesus comes back to this earth to reign over it. Then the kingdoms of the earth will become the kingdoms of the Lord. All enemies will be put under His feet, and the children of Israel will inherit this very land and it will be their own forever. I explained this to you when we talked about the year of Jubilee.

OS 18-19{M. In this chapter we read that all the children of Israel assembled at Shiloh, and there they set up the tabernacle. The ark returned to its rest, for the land was subdued before them.

S. That is like what Moses said when the ark went on before to find a resting place.

M. So it is; the Lord had scattered their enemies, and now He returned unto the many thousands of Israel. He brought His people into rest, and the cloud of glory rested upon them. Now the tabernacle was set up at Shiloh—the meaning of Shiloh is peace—the land was subdued; but seven of the tribes had not yet taken possession of their lands, so Joshua said to them, How long will you be slow to possess the land which the Lord has given you? Give me three men out of each tribe, and I will send them to divide it into seven parts, and I will cast lots for you here before the Lord. But Judah and the children of Joseph shall remain in their possessions. And they did so. They divided it into seven parts and wrote it in a book, and they came back to Joshua at Shiloh. Then Joshua drew lots; and the first lot came to Benjamin; the second lot came to Simeon; the third to Zebulun; the fourth to Issachar; the fifth to Asher; the sixth to Naphtali; the seventh to Dan. Judah, and the children of Joseph had theirs already, and Reuben and Gad had theirs on the other side of Jordan. I will show it to you on the map that you may remember—the Jordan runs between; the two tribes and a half wore east of the Jordan, and the other nine tribes and a half were west of it, and their possessions reached to the Mediterranean sea, or, as the Lord called it, the sea of the, Philistines.

S. Have Christians any inheritance?

M. In heaven every Christian has, but none on earth: the children of Israel will always have an inheritance on earth. But God has given us who believe now the same inheritance that He has given Jesus. God calls us heirs with Him, because all that God has given Him, His people will share with Him: when Jesus takes His inheritance we shall get ours.

S. Will each one have his own inheritance?

M. Yes, every child of God has his own place in heaven now, and no one else will ever have it but himself. It is an inheritance which does not fade away, but is kept in heaven for us; and some will have a larger reward than others. Suppose I tell my children that I have a box of treasures, and that some day I will divide them, and that the child who valued them most, will get the largest share. They all know that they are my children and that I will keep my word. At first they are all delighted, but soon some of them begin to forget the box of treasures, and they get toys and are quite content. But one of my children seems never to care for anything else; if I give him a toy, he says, "I don't care for that, it is only a toy, I want something out of the box," he never forgets that he is to have it. If you take anything from him, he says, "You may have it, I am going to have treasures!" and he tries to please me in every possible way; he does not mind what trouble he takes to please me, because I am going to give him treasures. At last the dividing comes, and who do you think ought to get the most?

S. Oh, the one who always tried to please you.

M. Just so it is with God's inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ is greatly exalted, because, as a man, He glorified God on earth. He did always those things which pleased God. God has made us who believe heirs along with Jesus, and some will have more, and some will have less than others, according to the way we have glorified God on earth. Paul gave up everything he cared for in the world, that he might have nothing but Christ to make him happy—and Paul always glorified God in his body; and God will give him a place of greater honor in the glory, than a man who did not do so. I will tell you a story that Jesus told His disciples, which will explain it to you.

A great lord was going away, and he gave each of his servants a pound, and he told them to make good use of it till he came back. And when he came back he called them to him; and one came, and said that he had made ten pounds out of his pound. And his master was pleased, and he praised that servant, and said he should rule over ten cities; then another came and said, that he had gained five pounds, so his master gave him five cities; and another came, and brought back his master's pound, and said he had done nothing with it, and his master was displeased with him, and took away his pound, and gave it to the servant that had ten pounds, because he said that the one who had used his master's gift the best deserved it most. So God's children will get rewards by-and-by, when our Lord comes back.

We cannot do anything to put away our sins—Jesus has clone that for us—but we can show the day long, that it is our business to please God, who has chosen us for an inheritance with Himself in glory.

S. One little hymn you gave me says, "O how God delights in giving”.

M. So He does. To the children of Israel He gave earthly blessings, but to those who believe in His Son, now while He is gone back to heaven, God gives heavenly blessings. Every child of God has his own lot now, but very few are enjoying it or possessing it as, they might. And when Eleazar and Joshua and the heads of the tribes had divided the land, standing at the door of the tabernacle, they gave Joshua an inheritance among them, in Mount Ephraim, a place which he chose himself, and he built a city, and lived there.

OS 20-24{M. Here the Lord reminded Joshua about the cities of refuge, and Hebron became a city of refuge, and they appointed them in all their tribes. Then they appointed the cities for the Levites to live in, and Hebron was given to the children of Aaron to live in by the tribe of Judah, but it belonged to Caleb, and the fields and villages of it were his possession. And the Lord gave them rest round about as He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He did all the good things that He had spoken of.

And as soon as the Lord had given them rest, Joshua called the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh to him, and said, that they had obeyed Moses and had done all that he had commanded, and now they were to go back to their tents and their possessions, which Moses had given them on the other side of Jordan. But Joshua said, Take diligent heed that you do the commandments and the law which Moses gave you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to serve Him with all your heart, and with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away, and he told them to take much riches back with them. And they went away, but when they came to the borders of Jordan, they felt that they were going to leave the land of Canaan, so they built a great altar for a witness.

S. Was that to show that they belonged to Canaan still?

M. Yes. They were leaving Canaan, because they had preferred a place for their cattle, and now they felt that they wanted some proof which could be seen, to show that they belonged to Canaan. It is like a person trying to look heavenly who is not heavenly, and he only makes mistakes.

S. Was it wrong to build an altar to be seen?

M. The children of Israel thought so, for they were very angry when they heard it, and they all came together to Shiloh, to go to war with the two tribes and a half. But first they sent Phinehas with ten princes, to ask them why they had done so. And they answered very humbly, and said, the Lord knew whether they did it in rebellion or not; that they had only done it because they were afraid that when their Children grew up, those who lived in Canaan would say to those who lived on the other side of Jordan, What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? and they thought the altar would be a witness between them. It was a thought of their own, but it was not faith. And when Phinehas and the priests heard what they said, they were satisfied, and they went back and told the children of, Israel; and they blessed God that the two and a half tribes had not sinned. So they called their altar, A Witness that the Lord was their God.

S. Had all the tribes got their own land then?

M. Yes. And a long time after the Lord had given them rest, Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders and judges, and he said to them, I am very old, and you have seen all that God did for you, and now be very courageous to keep all that is written in the law of Moses; do not go among the wicked nations, and do not even say the names of their idols, but love the Lord your God and cleave to Him; for if you go back and make marriages with the nations, know surely that the Lord will not drive them out, but they shall be traps to catch you, and thorns to hurt you, until you perish out of this good land that God has given you. And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem; and all the heads of the people presented themselves before God. Then Joshua told them all their history. How the people of the earth had served idols, and then God called out Abraham; how God gave him Isaac, who was the child of promise; and Joshua reminded them of all that God did for them in Egypt; and in the wilderness; and in Canaan; and how He had given them a land for which they did not labor; and cities which they did not build; and vineyards which they did not plant. And he told them to fear the Lord, and to serve Him, and to put away all false gods from among them. And the people answered, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods: the Lord is our God, for He has brought us up out of Egypt, and He has done great signs in our sight, and He has kept us safely all the way we came. We will serve the Lord. So Joshua said, Now you have chosen the Lord. And they said, The Lord our God we will serve, and His voice we will obey. Then Joshua made a covenant with them, and he wrote the words that they said in the book of the law of God, and he took a great stone and set it up under an oak tree, and he told the people that the stone was for a witness of all that they had said; so they all went home to their inheritance.

S. Did Joshua go back to his city?

M. Yes. And there he died; he was one hundred and ten years old, and they buried him in the border of his own inheritance: and Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who lived longer than Joshua; that is those who knew all that the Lord had done for Israel; as long as their leaders were faithful to God, the people were faithful. Joshua was a blessed servant of the Lord; he first sheaved his faithfulness by fighting against Amalek, and he was the one the Lord chose to lead His people over Jordan, and to give them possession of the promised land.

S. Shall we not hear any more about Joshua?

M. No. This is the end of the book of Joshua. But there is one thing God would not have left out, because it showed how He remembered for hundreds of years the faith of His servant Joseph, and what he said when he was dying.

S. Oh yes, he asked them to bury him in the good land; and they put his body in a coffin in Egypt; but did they carry it about all the time they were in the wilderness?

M. They did indeed! And if they looked at it they must have remembered what he said, God will surely bring you up. And Joseph's faith was answered, for they buried his bones in Shechem, in the very spot which his father Jacob had bought for a possession for a hundred pieces of silver, and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

And Eleazar, the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that belonged to his son Phinehas.

Children, do you know the Treasure

There is hid for you in Jesus?

Have your little hearts a pleasure

In a love that never ceases?

Jesus is the mighty Savior

Who came down from heaven above,

By His own divine behavior

He declared that God is love.

No joys did Jesus find down here,

His Father's thoughts His one delight;

And all this earth was dark and drear

To Him who knew that home so bright.

His little ones He now invites

To have their joys where He had His,

To give up all their earthly rights

Because in Christ their treasure is.

And soon His blessed face they'll see,

One look His endless love will tell:

“Come, little children, come to Me,
In My blest presence you shall dwell.”

Oh, happy thought to be so near,

By Him so loved, so welcome there;

How small the loss of all things here

Love's great inheritance to share!

UD 1-2{M. We have read the book of Joshua; and the next book in the Bible is called Judges, because it tells how God sent men to judge His people, after Joshua died.

The book of Joshua is like the sun rising, it gets brighter and brighter till it is full daylight; so the story of God's goodness to Israel gets grander and grander, till His purpose was fulfilled, and the children of Israel were in possession of the promised land. He led them over Jordan, then He led them to victory, and He gave them possession of the land; and, at the end of the book, we see the people enjoying the promises; and feeding on the fruit of Canaan. The tabernacle was set up in Shiloh, the place God had chosen; all the tribes were in their own inheritance; the Levites were in their inheritance and the cities of refuge were set apart.

S. Did God do all that He promised Abraham He would do?

M. Yes. This very land of Canaan, where Abraham had been a stranger, was now the possession of Abraham's children. God told him he should be a father of many nations, and so he was. Abraham had been dead hundreds of years ago, but God kept His word to Abraham; and God brought Abraham's children out of the land of bondage, into the promised land; it was a land flowing with milk and honey—a land the Lord God cared for—and His eyes were always upon it. And the people brought their first-fruits to God, and laid down their baskets before the priest, and confessed that God had brought them there.

S. Did they do all that Moses told them to do when they came into the land?

M. As long as Joshua lived they served the. Lord. But as soon as Joshua died, and when all the elders who lived in the time of Joshua died, they forgot God, and sin came like a dark shadow over the land of promise, and, like a cloud, it hid out the sunshine of God's goodness. So that if I call Joshua the book of sunshine, I must call Judges a book of dark clouds, with only a few flashes of light every now and then.

S. But why did the people forget God who loved them so much?

M. Because they were rich and comfortable, and they did not feel that they wanted God now; and they tried to go on without Him; until some enemy, whom they had let live in their land, came upon them; then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them out of their distresses.

S. Did God always deliver them when they cried to Him?

M. Always. No one ever cried to God yet that He did not answer; and Moses had told them when they were in trouble, always to cry to God and He would hear.

S. What did they do after Joshua died?

M. They asked the Lord who should go up to fight against the Canaanites. And the Lord said, Judah shall go up, for I have delivered the land into his hand. Then Judah asked Simeon to come and help him, and the Lord gave them a victory over the Canaanites; and they caught the king, whose name was Adoni-besek, and they cut off his thumbs, and his great toes.

S. Why were they so cruel?

M. Adoni-besek knew why God allowed it to be done to him, for he said, I have cut off the thumbs, and the great toes of seventy kings, and I have made them gather the crumbs under my table; and now God has done to me what I have done to them.

Then the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem and set the city on fire: And the Lord helped Judah to drive out the people that were in the mountains; but Judah could not drive out the people of the valley because they had iron chariots.

S. Why did he not ask God to break the chariots?

M. Because Judah was content with what he had gained, and none of the tribes possessed all that God gave them.

S. Why does God tell all about Caleb and Achsah again, mamma?

M. To remind us what the man of faith was able to do. It seems to me that the Spirit of God who taught these words to His servants to write, is glad to remember that, there was one man who wholly followed the Lord his God at a time when all forgot Him; and it is very encouraging to us, to see how just believing what God says, makes a man stronger than giants; Caleb was able to kill three giants, though they had cities with great walls; they were the very same giants who frightened the other spies; and Caleb got the best possession in the whole of the promised land.

Now the house of Joseph went up against Bethel. Can you tell me anything about Bethel?

S. Bethel is the name that Jacob called the place where he saw the ladder that reached up to heaven, and the angels going up and down on it; Jacob said it was the house of God and so he called it Bethel; because Bethel means the house of God.

M. And it was at Bethel that God gave him again the name of Israel, and there God told Jacob that his children would possess that land; and Jacob set up a pillar in the spot where God spoke to him. And the Lord was pleased with the children of Joseph for wishing to have Bethel. But there were many wicked people left still. The children of Israel did not drive them out, but when they were strong they made them pay tribute.

Israel ought not to have made any league with the people of the land. A league is an agreement to let them live there. The Lord was displeased at their doing so, for His angel went away from Gilgal, and came to Bochim, and He said, I brought you out of Egypt, and I said, I will never break my covenant with you; you must not make a league with the people of the land. But you have disobeyed my voice, therefore I will not drive out the people before you, they shall be like thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. When the angel of the Lord said this, the children of Israel cried aloud, so the place was called Bochim, which Means Weeping, because there the people wept.

S. Why did the angel go away from Gilgal?

M. Because Gilgal was the place of power and victory; and now God was not going to give them victory, because they had made a league with the people of the land. They were content to let them live in their land. But it was God's land, and it was a dishonor to Him. The story of Joshua began at Gilgal, where God rolled away the reproach of Egypt. The Lord was at Gilgal, and He was the captain of His host there. When the armed men came from Gilgal they were strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. But in the story of Judges the angel went away from Gilgal and He stopped at the place of a dry; because the only thing they could do then was to cry to God. But God came to Bochim, He did not give up His people. He stayed at Bochim listening for a cry! When Joshua died, and when all the old people who lived in the time of Joshua died, then the children of Israel forgot God and they worshipped the idols of Canaan.

S. Why did God bear with them still?

M. Because He would keep His covenant that He gave to Abraham; Israel was still God's people, and it was of His own goodness that He left His people in their land; but He punished them for their evil ways. God allowed the people of the land to afflict them, so that they were greatly distressed, then they cried to Him, and He sent a judge to deliver them; and God was with the judge; and God gave their enemies into the hands of the judge, but as soon as he died they went back to their wicked ways, and they got further and further away from God.

S. I am so sorry! I thought when they got into the promised land they would be always good.

UG 3-5{M. When the Lord was displeased with the children of Israel He said, Because they have transgressed my covenant, I will not drive out any more of the nations for them. So the Lord left those nations to prove Israel, to try whether they would keep His commandments or no; and also that the people might learn what war was, because those who were born in the land had not seen the wars of Joshua.

S. Why was it good for them to learn what war was?

M. To cast them upon God for strength to overcome. When their enemies were quiet they got idle, and forgot God. They thought they could do without God while they were safely enjoying His mercies; but God does not choose His people to enjoy His mercies, and forget Himself; so He allowed their enemies to afflict them, and He let one king rule over them for eight years. But when they cried to the. Lord, He sent a man to save them, and that was Othniel, Caleb's nephew. So he was the first of the judges.

S. That was the man who married Achsah, Caleb's daughter.

M. Yes; he was a man of faith, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and he went out to war, and the Lord delivered the wicked king into his hands, so that the land had rest for forty years till Othniel died.

But the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, and the king of Moab joined with Ammon and Amalek and came against Israel; so they served the king of Moab eighteen years. This was a sad disgrace to Israel, for they ought not to have had anything to do with these people. God had said a Moabite should not come into His congregation, and He also said that He would fight against Amalek forever; at last they cried to God, and He raised up a man of the tribe of Benjamin, whose name was Ehud. He was not a grand deliverer, for he was left-handed, that means, that he could not use his right hand. God would not put honor upon His people while they were dishonoring Him, for He says, He that honors me I will honor. But Israel had forgotten God, and served idols.

S. It was wonderful that God answered them when they cried.

M. The reason was that He loved His people. But He is a jealous God, and He was grieved at their idolatry. This man Ehud killed the king of Moab, and his army destroyed a great many of The Moabites; so that the land had rest for eighty years. And after him a man named Shamgar killed six hundred Philistines, and he also delivered Israel. But they did evil in the sight of the Lord again, and He allowed the king of Canaan to oppress them for twenty years. He had nine hundred iron chariots, and a great captain whose name was Sisera. And the children of Israel cried to the Lord the third time, and this time He sent a woman. She was a prophetess, her name was Deborah, and she judged Israel at that time.

S. What is a prophetess?

M. I explained to you before what a prophet is—one who sees things that God, reveals to him, and one who is able by the power of God's Spirit to tell people what he sees—this is called prophesying; and when a woman prophesies she is called a prophetess.

S. Why did God make a woman judge the people?

M. To show how weak and poor the people were, when there was not a man to be found to do it. It showed that there was not a faithful man in Israel. But there was this faithful woman, and she sat under her own palm-tree, and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

S. Why did she sit under her own palm-tree?

M. Because there she was at home; the judges ought to sit in the gate of the city, that was the place of power. But this woman stayed at home, in her own proper place; but all the people knew that God was with her, so they came to her for judgment. And when Israel cried to God, she sent for a man named Barak and she told him what the Lord had said to her. She said, Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go to Mount Tabor and take ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and Zebulun, and I will deliver Sisera and his chariots into your hand? And Barak answered her, If you go with me I will go, but if not I will not go. For Barak did not know the power of God. She answered, I will surely go with you, but the journey shall not be for your honor, for the, Lord will give Sisera into the hands of a woman. So they went to battle and the Lord gave them victory and Sisera got down from his chariot and ran away. And as he fled, he came to the tent of Jael, and she asked him to come in to hide; then she covered him with her cloak, and when he asked her for a drink of water, she gave him a bottle of milk. So Sisera thought himself quite safe, and he fell fast asleep. But Jael took a nail and a hammer in her hand, and she went softly up to him, and she hammered the nail into his temples, and it went through into the ground. So he died.

S. Was not that very cruel?

M. It was a shocking act, but it was right of Jael to kill Sisera, he was the enemy of God's people; and Jael is praised for what she did.

S. But why did she do it in that dreadful way?

M. I think the Spirit of God is showing us, in the book of Judges, how unlovely our nature is, so that even in doing a right thing the person is made little of; everything in Israel was all wrong, because God was forgotten; there were no fighting men to be found like Joshua or Caleb, so the Lord praised a woman for doing what the captains of Israel ought to have done. But how different to the time when they set out from Gilgal to march round Jericho! How beautiful the way God gave them victory then! They had only to pray and praise, while God made the walls fall down! But now the people had forgotten God, and He was proving them, to see if there were any that did seek God. God tried man's heart by everything He gave him—God tried man by goodness in the garden of Eden, and he thought for himself and disobeyed God; He tried man on a new earth after the flood and they built the tower of Babel to do without God; then they all worshipped idols, and God called out a man from among them, and He showed Abram what a happy thing it is to walk by faith in Him, God tried Abram and He found that he had faith, so He chose the children of Abraham to be His people. He led them about, He instructed them, He kept them as the apple of His eye—He carried them from Egypt to Canaan. He tried them by law, and He tried them by manna; and then He put them into the good land, to try if they would keep His commandments there.

S. Was God more grieved with them in Canaan than in the wilderness?

M. Yes. In the wilderness they murmured against God, but in Canaan they forgot Him; they said, We are rich, we have plenty of good, we do not want God. And when they were careless about their own true God, they did not keep themselves separate from the people of the land, they worshipped idols, so God allowed the people of the land to oppress them, that they might cry to Him in their distress; and when they cried He delivered them. But it shows how weak they were, when in all the hosts of Israel there was not found one than who was able to command the people, and a woman led the army to battle. And God gave Deborah a great victory, and she and Barak sang a song of triumph, and said, Praise ye the Lord, for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. And the land had rest for forty years.

UG 6-7{M. Again we find the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and He allowed the Midianites to oppress them for seven years. When they sowed corn in their fields the Midianites came up and destroyed it, and they took all their sheep, and their oxen and asses, and they made the children of Israel quite poor. At last they cried unto the Lord, and He sent a prophet with a message to them; and he said, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the Egyptians, and. out of the hands of all who oppressed you, and I gave you this land; and I said, I am the Lord your God: do not worship the gods of the people of the land. But you have not obeyed my voice.

S. Was God displeased when He sent that message to them?

M. Yes. But He did more than send a prophet, for an angel came and sat under an oak tree that belonged to Joash, and his son Gideon was threshing his wheat to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel said to Gideon, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor. And Gideon said, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us why is all this befallen us? Our fathers have told is how He brought us up out of Egypt, but now the Lord has forsaken us, and given us into the hands of the Midianites. But the Lord looked upon Gideon and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And Gideon said, With what can I save Israel? my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house,.

Then the Lord promised to be with him, and Gideon asked for a sign, that He talked with him; and Gideon ran to fetch a present and he came again with a kid and with unleavened cakes, and he brought them to the oak and presented his offering. The Angel had graciously waited while Gideon prepared it. And He said, Take the flesh and the cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth; and Gideon did so. And the Angel of the Lord touched it with his staff, and fire came out of the rock, and burnt the flesh and the unleavened cakes; then He vanished out of Gideon's sight.

S. Was it a burnt offering and a meat offering together?

M. Yes. And the fire showed that the Lord accepted it, and when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the Lord he said, Alas, O Lord God! I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. But the Lord said, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die. Then Gideon built an altar there, unto the Lord, and he called it Jehovah Shalom, which means, The Lord is Peace. For the Lord had made peace in Gideon's heart, before He made him His servant to bring peace to Israel. And the same night the Lord told Gideon to take his father's young bullock, and to go to the place where his father had an altar to a false god called Baal, and to throw down the altar and cut down the trees that were round it, and Gideon was to burn the trees and to offer a burnt offering to the Lord.

S. Was the young bullock for the burnt offering?

M. Yes, and the trees that Gideon was told to cut down were to make the fire. God had told them not to plant trees round their altars. Then Gideon took ten of his servants, and because he was afraid to do it by day he did it in the night. And in the morning when the men of the city saw it, they were very angry, and they told Gideon's father to bring him out to them that he might die. But his father said, Who will take Baal's part? If he be a god let him take his own part, because some one has thrown down his altar. So his father called him Jerubbaal, which means, Let Baal plead; because he threw down the altar of Baal.

S. Why was Gideon to throw down the altar of Baal?

M. Because Baal was a false god. God's servant must put away the evil thing before, he could set anything right. The worship of Baal was the real cause of all their sorrow; that must be the first thing put away.

Then all the enemies of Israel gathered together in the valley of Jezreel, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet to gather the people to him; he also sent messengers to some of the tribes. Then Gideon asked God to give him a sign that He would save Israel by his hand. So Gideon put a fleece of wool on the ground, and he asked God to let there be dew on the fleece, and to let all the earth near it be dry. And the Lord. gave him this sign, for in the morning he squeezed a bowl full of water out of the fleece, and all the ground was dry. But Gideon asked for one more sign; he said, Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground. And God did so that night.

S. Was it wrong of Gideon to ask God to give him a sign?

M. It showed how weak his faith was. He was not like Abraham, who believed what God said, when there was no sign to be seen that what God said would come true.

But Gideon rose up early in, the morning, and took all his men to a place near the valley where the Midianites were. And the Lord said to him, The people you have with you are too many; Israel will boast and say, My own hand has saved me. So go and tell all the people who are afraid, to go home. And Gideon did so, and twenty-two thousand went to their homes, and there were still ten thousand. And the Lord said, There are still too many, bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there. So Gideon brought his army to the water to drink; and the Lord told him to watch how every man drank the water, and those who took up the water in their hands and lapped it he put on one side, and those who went down on their knees to drink he put by themselves; and only three hundred men lapped up the water in their hands, but all the rest went down on their knees to drink. Then the Lord said, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and all the rest may go home.

S. Why did God like the three hundred men better than the rest?

M. Because they were thinking more of following Gideon than of their own enjoyment. They wished to hurry on, and not stop, to drink more than they could catch up in their hands as they passed; but the others stopped to have a good drink. So Gideon kept the three hundred, and they had their food and their trumpets in their hands; and he let the rest go home. And the host of Midian lay beneath them in the valley. What a little army these three hundred men must have looked in comparison to them And the Lord said to Gideon, If you are afraid, go down with your servant into the host, and hear what the Midianites are saying. And Gideon did so: the Midianites looked like grasshoppers there were so many, and their camels were like the sand on the sea-shore. And when Gideon went down he heard a man telling a dream to another man, and he said, I dreamed that a cake of barley bread fell into the host of Midian, and it fell upon a tent and upset it! And the other man said, That is nothing else but the sword of Gideon, for God has given all the Midianites into his hands. And when Gideon heard the dream, and heard the way the other man explained it, he worshipped; and he came back to the three hundred, and said, Arise, for the Lord has given them into your hands. At last Gideon believed, and he divided his men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man's hand, and an empty pitcher, with a lamp inside the pitcher. And he said to them all, Look on me, and do what I do.

When I blow with a trumpet, then you must blow with a trumpet, and say, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.

S. Why did Gideon tell them to look at him?

M. Because it was a day of man's weakness, and of the power of God. So their only strength was to watch, and see what God would do, that they might be able to follow. So in the middle of the night they went down into the camp of the Midianites, and when they got quite close to it they all blew their trumpets together, and they broke their pitchers which hid their lamps, and the bright light shone around the dark tents of the sleeping Midianites, who ran, and cried, and fled, and they took up their swords and killed one another in their fright, while Gideon's three hundred men stood round the camp, blowing with their trumpets, and shouting, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon. And the men of Israel followed those who fled, and Gideon sent messengers to mount Ephraim, and the men of Ephraim caught the two princes of Midian, and killed them. So God gave Gideon a great victory.

UG 8-10{M. In this chapter we read that the men of Ephraim were displeased with Gideon for not asking them to go and fight against the Midianites; but Gideon said, You have done a greater thing, for God has given the two princes into your hands. And Gideon chased the Midianites, and he and his men were quite faint, and he asked the people of Succoth to give them some bread, but they refused; so Gideon said he would not stop then, but by-and-by he would punish them. And he asked the men of Penuel, and they also refused. Now the two kings were at rest with their armies, and Gideon came upon them and took them, and destroyed their army. And on his way back he took some thorns and briers of the wilderness, and with them he beat the men of Succoth, to teach them not to refuse bread to the people of God. He also threw down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

S. What did he do to the two kings of Midian?

M. He said to them, what kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor? And they said, They were like you, just like the children of a king. Then Gideon said, They were my brothers, and if you had saved them alive, I would not have killed you. So Gideon killed those two kings and took away the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels. Now the men of Israel wanted to make Gideon their king, but he refused. He said, The Lord shall rule over you.

S. Was it right of Gideon to refuse to be made king?

M. Yes, Gideon was quite right in that, but he did something else which was very wrong; for he asked the people to give him the gold earrings that they took from their enemies; so they spread a garment on the ground, and every one threw into it all the ornaments of gold, and the gold chains that were round the camels' necks. And Gideon made an ephod of the gold, and he put it in his city Ophrah, and all Israel came to look at it, so that it became a snare to Gideon and to his house.

S. Why was it wrong for Gideon to make an ephod?

M. Because it was something to be seen; it was not faith, he had no word from God to make an ephod. It was setting up a thing for man to see; faith is content with what God sees. But God did not let the Midianites annoy the children of Israel any more. And the country was quiet for forty years, while Gideon lived. He had seventy sons, and he died when he was an old man, and he was buried in Ophrah. But the children of Israel went after false gods again, and they forgot the Lord who had put down their enemies on every side of them.

They were also unkind to Gideon's family.

S. Were any of Gideon's sons like him?

M. No. One of his sons, whose name was Abimelech, spoke to some of the people, and asked them whether they thought it better to have one person to rule over them, or to have seventy people. And they all agreed to have only one, and they were inclined to follow Abimelech, so they gave him some money, and he paid some foolish and wicked men to go with him; and he went to his father's house where all his brothers were, and he killed them every one except the youngest, who hid himself. Then all the men of Shechem made Abimelech king.

But Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, went up to the top of Mount Gerizim, and spoke in a loud voice to the men of Shechem. And Jotham told them a story or parable, for he said, Once upon a time the trees went out to make a king, and they said to the olive tree, Reign over us! But the olive tree said, Shall I leave my fatness to reign over the trees? So the olive tree would not be king. Then they said to the fig-tree, Come and reign over us; but the fig-tree said, Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit to reign over the trees? Then they asked the vine: but the vine said, Stall I leave my wine to reign over the trees? So when all the trees refused, they asked the bramble; and the bramble said, If you really mean to make me king, come and sit under my shadow; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and destroy the cedars of Lebanon.

S. What did that parable mean?

M. It meant that they had chosen a man who was no better than a bramble, to be their king: trees could not sit under the shadow of a bramble, and no more could such a man as Abimelech be any protection or comfort to them. So it proved, for, when he had been king only three years, the men of Shechem turned against him, and God allowed them to punish him for his cruelty to his brothers; and they were also punished, for having made him king, for he went to war with them, and killed a great many. At last while he was trying to take a tower, a woman threw down a stone upon his head to kill him: and he said to his armor-bearer, Draw thy sword and kill me, I do not wish them to say, A woman killed him.

After Abimelech, a man named Tola judged Israel for twenty-three years. And after him came a man called Jair, who judged Israel for twenty-two years. Jair had thirty sons, who used to ride on thirty young asses, and they had thirty cities.

But the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord, for they served the gods of the Gentiles and forsook the Lord. And the Lord was very angry and He allowed the Philistines and the children of Ammon to oppress them: for eighteen years they oppressed the two tribes and a half that were on the other side of Jordan; and then they passed over Jordan to fight against the other tribes.

S. Did the two tribes and a half suffer for being on the other side of Jordan?

M. Yes. They were suffering already for making their homes so near the enemies' country. Their rich fields were not much good to them while the Amorites oppressed them. At last they cried to the Lord and confessed their sin. They said, We have sinned, for we have forsaken our God, and we have served false gods. But the Lord answered, Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from all these people? God wanted them to see why it was that they oppressed them and He said, You have forsaken me and served other gods, so now I will deliver you no more: go and cry to the false gods you have chosen and see if they will deliver you. When they heard this they were sorry for their sin; and they said to the Lord, We have sinned; do what you like to us, only deliver us, we pray thee: and they put away the strange gods and served the Lord. Then He was grieved when He saw the misery of Israel.

And the children of Ammon came against Israel; and the children of Israel encamped at Mizpeh, and waited for the Lord to send them a leader, and they said, Whoever will begin to fight against the children of Ammon, shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

UG 11-12{S. Did the Lord send the children of Israel a Deliverer?

M. Yes. There was a man named Jephthah, who was sent away from his home, and his brothers were very unkind to him; but he was a mighty man, and a good soldier; so they sent to ask him to come and be their captain. And he said, Do you not hate me? You have sent me away from my father's house, and why do you come to me now, when you are in distress? And Jephthah made them promise that if the Lord delivered their enemies into his hand, they would make him their ruler. And they promised him at Mizpeh.

S. Mizpeh was the name that Jacob called his pillar, where he made a covenant with Laban.

M. Yes, it meant that the Lord was Judge between them. The first thing Jephthah did was to send messengers to the children of Ammon. And they said, Why do you come to fight against me in my land? And the king sent a message back to him, and said, Because Israel took away my land, when they came out of Egypt: now give me back those lands. Then Jephthah reminded him, that the Lord would not let Israel take their lands, nor the land of the children of Moab; and how they had asked Sihon king of the Amorites to let them pass through his land, but he would not; and how he came, and fought against Israel; and how the Lord delivered Sihon king of the Amorites and all his people into the hands of the children of Israel, as we read in the Book of Numbers. (Num. 21) And Jephthah said, You may go and possess the lands that your god Chemosh gives you, but what the Lord our God gives us we will possess.

S. Was Chemosh the name of an idol?

M. Yes. This was a famous idol; the people of Moab also worshipped Chemosh. And Jephthah said, The Lord shall be judge to-day between us; and he reminded them of how Balak king of Moab tried to conquer Israel, and how the Lord took care of them. But they did not mind what Jephthah said.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed over to the children of Ammon. Then Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, for he said, Whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I come back in peace, I will offer it a sacrifice to the Lord. So he went on to the battle, and the Lord gave him a great victory. Now he had one daughter, and she was his only child, when she saw her father coming she went to meet him, in great delight, with timbrels and with dances. And when her father saw her, he said Alas! my daughter, you have brought me very low to-day, for I have made a vow to the Lord, and I cannot change it.

Her answer is beautiful: she said, My father, if you have promised anything to the Lord, do to me as you have promised, because the Lord has taken vengeance on your enemies. Poor Jephthah, he did not know the blessed nature of God, that He delights in giving. God did not want Jephthah to make a vow. And his daughter asked him to let her go up to the mountains for two months, that she might mourn about it. And he said, Go. So she went with her companions and they mourned with her.

S. Was it right of Jephthah to make that vow?

M. No, God had not told him to offer anything. It would have been better to be like Abraham, who trusted God's goodness and was ready to offer up his only son when God told him to do so. It became a custom in Israel, that the daughters of Israel used to go there every year to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah.

S. Was Jephthah a good ruler?

M. He was not so gentle as Gideon; for the men of Ephraim were very angry with him for not calling them to the battle, and Jephthah did not treat them as gently as Gideon did; for he said, You saw that there was great fighting between us and the children of Ammon, and you did not come to help us; and he called all his people together to fight against Ephraim, and they took all the fords of Jordan, so that the Ephraimites could not pass over; and when any of them asked to be let go over they said, Say Shibboleth; but they could only say Sibboleth; and if they did not say it right, they killed them.

Jephthah judged Israel six years. After him Ibzan judged Israel for seven years; he had thirty sons and thirty daughters. After him Elon judged Israel for ten years. After him Abdon was judge for eight years; he had forty sons, and thirty nephews, and they had seventy asses to ride.

S. The story of the Judges is not like the story of Abraham, or of Isaac and Jacob, or of Moses and Joshua: I liked them much better.

M. You are right, it is quite different. The stories you liked so much were about God's people getting into all the good things that God promised to give them; but the story of the Judges tells us of Israel's sin, and of how they lost God's presence among them, because they, forgot God and worshipped idols. They went with the people of the land, and learned their ways.

S. But why does God tell us about it?

M. For two reasons. One reason is, that God wishes to teach us what is in our own hearts, because our hearts are just like the children of Israel's; their hearts were deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and so are ours. God wrote down all about their wickedness in His Book, on purpose to prove to them how bad they were, that not even His good gifts kept them faithful to Him. They took His mercies and forgot, the God who gave them, because their hearts cared for other things more than they cared for God.

S. Is caring for other things more than God, as bad as worshipping idols?

M. Yes, because an idol is only something put instead of God: even a toy might be an idol, if it made you content to do without God.

S. But God is greater than a toy and greater than an idol!

M. Happy is the child who knows how much greater He is; and how much better it is to have the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, than all the beautiful things of this world.

S. What is the other reason why God wishes us to know about the children of Israel's sin?

M. That we may know Him, and His holiness. It would be a dreadful thing only to know how wicked we are, if we did not also know how good and holy God is. God wishes us to know ourselves and to know Him. The book of Judges teaches us how God loved His people: He was grieved at their forgetfulness of Him, but He did ' not forget them, and He never turned away from the poorest child who cried to Him. It teaches us how little we are, but it shows how great and how holy God is.

UG 13{S. When God sent a good judge did the people get good again?

M. No. They never got back to where they were at first. They turned quickly out of the way their fathers walked in, they forgot the Lord, and worshipped idols; yet when they cried to the Lord, He sent deliverers, and God was with the deliverer; but the people were not changed, and as soon as each deliverer was dead they worshipped idols again, and each time they got worse and worse.

S. Is this story of the people's sin like anything now?

M. Yes. The Book of Judges has a great lesson for Christians. When Jesus went back to heaven, He sent down the Holy Spirit to teach His people, that now they were to belong to heaven and not to earth; they were to have their possessions in heaven, because He was there, and they were to have their joys in heaven, because He was there; they were to be like a strange people in this world, like people who had so much in heaven, that they did not want the things that the people of the world cared for.

But I am sorry to tell you that after Peter, and Paul, and John died, Christians began to forget this, and they forgot how badly the people of the world had treated their Lord Jesus, and they forgot that He Was waiting for them in heaven. And so Christians were content to make a league with the people of the world and went with them, and learned their ways. Now and again God sent good men to remind His people of Himself, and some listened to them and they gave up what was wrong, but a great many did not care. Yet God loves His people still, and Jesus waits in heaven for them still, and soon, very soon now, Jesus Will come and He will take all His own away out of this careless wicked world, to His own presence, where nothing unholy can enter.

S. Are there any people now like those men who went with Gideon?

M. Yes. There are thousands of people who are afraid to confess the name of Jesus, and there are thousands more who like the pleasant things of the earth better than the toil and danger of serving the Lord. But Jesus has a few in this world too, who have heard His voice, for He calls His own sheep by name, and says to them, Follow me, and they gladly give up the pleasures of a moment to do what pleases Him.

S. What do you mean by serving the Lord?

M. To be the Lord's servant is to obey Him; as a servant obeys his master, all day long, and every moment of the day. Gideon said, Look on me. And the servant of Jesus has to look on Him, by faith always, and He guides His servants, by His Holy Spirit, how to serve Him; pleasing Him is serving Him. It need not be some great thing; it was a small thing to carry a lamp, or to blow with a trumpet, but God made it a great service, because it was exactly what He wished them to do.

S. What kind of people does God make servants of?

M. Devoted people; God's servants need not be great, or learned or wise, but they must be devoted to Him, and this is beautifully shown in a time of failure when His people are careless and forgetful of Him, the greatest servant is the one who is most devoted. So it was with Israel, they had done evil again and God had let the Philistines rule over them for forty years, a longer time than they had ever been oppressed before. And this time God said that a Nazarite should be the one to deliver them.

S. You told me that a Nazarite, was one who wished to separate himself to God, and he did not drink any wine, and he let his hair grow.

M. You are, quite right. A Nazarite was a devoted person. All God's people ought to have kept themselves separate to Him, but they did not, they joined with the Gentiles, and worshipped their idols. Then God chose a Nazarite to do His will; the man who was entirely separate to Him, was the only one that God would use.

We do not hear that the people ever cried to be delivered from the Philistines. But there was a man and his wife who loved the Lord, and they had no child. And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, You have no child, but you shall have a son; and now you must not drink any wine, or eat anything unclean; and your son that shall be born, must not drink wine, and you must never cut his hair; for he shall be a Nazarite to God from the moment he is born, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

S. Did she believe what the angel said?

M. Yes. For she went and told her husband, whose name was Manoah; she said, A man of God came to me, and His countenance was like an angel of God, very terrible; and she told her husband all that the angel said. Then Manoah prayed to God to send the angel again, to teach them what they ought to do to the child, that should be born.

And when the woman was sitting alone in the field the angel came again, and she ran for her husband, and he talked to the angel. Then Manoah asked him to wait till he brought a kid, and he did so, but the angel would not eat; he said, If you offer a burnt offering offer it to the Lord. And Manoah asked him his name, but he said, It is secret. Then Manoah put the kid with a meat offering on a rock, and he and his wife looked on, and a flame went up to heaven from the rock, and the angel of the Lord went up in the flame. And when they saw it they fell on their faces to the ground. And Manoah said, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said, If the Lord meant to kill us, He would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering from our hands, and He would not have told us all these things.

The Lord gave her a son, and she called him Samson; and he grew up, and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord led him to go down and look at the camp of the Philistines, for he longed to fight against them.

UG 13:7{

Can it be a child as I am

Should to God be set apart!

All for Him, my soul, my body—

All for Him, my inmost heart?

Set apart because He bought me

With His Son's most precious blood;

Set apart because He loved me,

Even I am dear to God.

Chosen out from sin and sorrow

To a holy place of joy—

In His house, a child beloved,

Serving Him, my sweet employ.

Lord, I thank Thee, that Thou givest

Such a wondrous place to me;

In the bosom of the Father,

Separated unto Thee.

As the sweetness of the lily

Growing up 'midst briers wild,

So, amidst earth's sin and folly,

Is to God His ransomed child.

Whiter than the snow untrodden

Is the garment that I wear;

Washed in blood the Lord beholds me;

Pure and spotless sweet and fair.

Blessed thought, when sin would tempt me

From the straight and narrow road,

I am His, and His forever,

I am set apart for God.

Only here to spew His glory,

Only here to tell His love,

And forever to be with Him

In the Father's house above.

UG 14-16{M. In this chapter we read that Samson went clown to the Philistines, and he saw a woman there who pleased him, so he asked his father to get her for a wife for him; but his father and mother were not pleased, for they knew that it would be very wrong for a child of Israel to marry a Philistine, and it was still more wrong for a Nazarite to do so. But though it was wrong of Samson to wish it, the Lord had a purpose in it, as you will hear. One day when he was going to visit this woman, a young lion roared against him, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he killed it, as if it had been a kid, and he had nothing in his hands. Another day when he was going there again, he turned to look at the dead body of the lion, and he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the dead body of the lion, and he took some in his hand, and went on eating it; and he gave his father and mother some to taste, but he did not tell them where he got it. Now he went to fetch his wife, and he made great feast, and they invited thirty young men of the Philistines, for companions to Samson; so he said to them, I will give you a riddle, and if you tell me the meaning of it before the end of the feast, I will give you thirty sheets and thirty dresses; but if you cannot tell me, then you must give me thirty sheets, and thirty dresses. His riddle was this, Out of the eater came meat, and out of the strong, sweetness.

S. I can guess what that was He was thinking of the sweet honey that he found in the dead body of the lion.

M. Yes. He found sweet food in the body of the strong lion that might have eaten him. But the Philistines could not find it out, so they came to Samson's wife and said, We will burn you and your father's house if you do not find out the answer for us. Then she wept before Samson, and said he did not love her, because he would not tell her; and at last she teased him so, that he told her the riddle, and she told the Philistines., And they said to Samson, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle; for he knew that they had made his wife find it out for them.

S. Did Samson give them what he premised?

M. Yes. But where do you think he got the thirty, dresses? He went down to the camp of the Philistines; and killed thirty of them, and gave their things to the men who answered the riddle! And Samson was very angry and he went back to his father's house, and his wife was given away to his companion. So the Lord did not let Samson marry her. But Samson did not know this, and one day he went to see her, and her father would not let him see her, and he told Samson that she had married his companion. Then Samson was more angry than before, and he went out and caught three hundred foxes and he tied their tails together, by two and two, and he put a blazing stick between their tails, and then he let go the frightened creatures, into the corn fields and vineyards; and they rushed about, burning everything that they came near. The Philistines said, Who has done this? And when they heard about Samson they went up and burned the woman and her father to death. So the Lord allowed the very thing to happen to her that she feared. And Samson fought against the Philistines and killed a great many of them. And he went and lived in a high rock where no one could get near him. But none of the children of Israel helped him, they did not even like him to vex the Philistines, and some of the tribe of Judah went to take him prisoner, that they might give him up to the Philistines; three thousand men of Judah came up to the rock to take Samson, and he would not give himself up to them, till they promised that they would not kill him. And when he gave himself up, they bound him with two new cords, and brought him down from the rock. And the Philistines shouted against but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he broke the cords as if they were only thread. And he picked up a bone of a dead ass and he killed a thousand men with it! And he went on, singing as he went, and saying, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And he threw away the bone. And by-and-by he was very thirsty and he called on the Lord and said, Thou hast given me a great deliverance, and now shall I die of thirst? But God made a hole in the bone and water came out of it, and when Samson drank some of the water he revived, and he called the place, Enhakkore, which means, The well of him that called; because he called on God, and God gave him water there.

Samson judged Israel for twenty years.

S. Did Samson do anything else but fight against the Philistines?

M. We are not told of any other great act of his. His one desire seems to have been to destroy these enemies of the Lord. The next chapter relates a very sad story about him: he went down to a city of the Philistines, and when the people of the city heard that he was there, they shut the gates and said they would kill him in the morning; but in the middle of the night Samson got up and carried off the gates of the city on his shoulders, posts and all! and he carried them up to the top of the hill in Hebron.

S. What a strong man he must have been!

M. Samson was remarkable for his strength while he walked as a Nazarite, because God was with him; he went forth alone, without even a sword in his hand, and he did more magnificent things than any other man we read of. There was not one single thing to help him—his own people were against him—but he never lost an opportunity of destroying a Philistine. He knew that God was near him, and would give him strength at the moment; and God never disappointed him. We read, The Spirit of the Lord came upon him. God gave him power at the moment. But I said it was a sad story, and, like every story of man, it teaches us that man's heart is not to be trusted, because the best of men are weak, and there is no power to do good but the power of God. Samson loved, a woman whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came to her, and they told her that they would give her a great deal of money if she would find out the secret of why Samson was so strong.

S. Was the secret that he was a Nazarite?

M. Yes. Separation is the secret of strength; but it is a secret that the world never can find out. It was a secret between Samson's own heart, and God—he had never told it to anybody. And he tried hard not to tell it to Delilah; for he said, If they bind me with green rods, I shall be weak like any other man. And she did so, and she had men hiding in her room; then she said to Samson, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson! But he broke the rods as if they were only thread; so his secret was not found out this time. But Delilah begged him still, and he told her to bind him with new ropes; but as soon as she called out, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson! he broke them off his arms like a thread. Then Delilah entreated him again, and he told her to weave his beautiful long hair in a weaver's machine, and she did so, and this time he awoke, and carried away machine and all!

S. Was Delilah very angry?

M. Yes. She said, You are only mocking Me, and why do you pretend to love me, when you will not tell me what makes you so strong; and day after day she pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death; and he told her all his heart.

He said, I have been a Nazarite to God from the moment I was, born; and if my hair is cut off, I shall be weak, and like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent for the lords of the Philistines again, and they came with money in their hands. And when Samson was asleep she made a man shave off his hair; then she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson! and he awoke and said, I will go out and shake myself as at other times; but Samson did not know that the Lord was gone away from him. Poor Samson! how terrible his condition! alone, without strength, and the Philistines upon him. He told his secret and he lost it! Now God was leaving him alone; and the Philistines took him, and they put out his eyes, so that he was quite blind, and they made him grind corn in the prison.

S. Did God give him up?

M. No. Samson's hair began to grow again. And one day the Philistines made a great sacrifice to their idol, because the foolish people said that it had given Samson into their hands. And they brought Samson in to amuse them; and he came, with a boy holding his hand, because he was blind. And he said to the boy, Let me lean against the pillars, for the house stood upon pillars, and it was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there. And Samson leaned against the pillars and called unto the Lord and said, Oh Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me this once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. And the Lord remembered Samson and answered his prayer, and gave him greater strength than ever; and he put his right arm round one pillar and his left arm round another pillar, and said, Let me die with the Philistines. Then he bowed down with all his might and pulled down the whole house; and many people that were on the roof and all that were inside were killed, thousands and thousands of Philistines; so that he killed more at his death than he did in his life. And his family came and took up his body, and buried it in his father's burying-place.

=============================

WHEN God looked down from heaven,

and saw

That all had sinned and strayed,

That none were loving, serving Him,

Of all the men He made;

When God looked down from heaven,

and saw

That all were filled with sin,

That men and women, children too,

Had wicked hearts within;

What did that God so holy say?

That Just and Righteous One?

“I have one Son, my Well-beloved,
And I will send my Son.

“My Son shall die for wicked men,
Shall bring them back to God,
And I will wash their sins away
In His most precious blood.”

The tender Shepherd seeks His lambs,

How far se'er they be;

My Son shall seek those wandering

ones,

And bring them back to Me.

So Christ, the Lord, is seeking still,

Says, " Little children, come,
And I will bear you in my arms
To God, my Father's home.”

UG 17-21{S. Was it the Spirit of the Lord that made Samson so strong?

M. Yes. When the Lord departed from him, he was more helpless than anyone else; he did not even try to defend himself, he had no sword, and no spear, he was accustomed to trust to his strength, and when that was gone he had nothing.

S. But you said a Nazarite might begin over again?

M. Yes, he did. When his hair began to grow, his strength returned, Samson's heart was true to God, he had real faith in God, and God cared for His servant, but He allowed him to suffer for staying with Delilah. Samson was quite right to try to drive away the Philistines, but he was quite wrong to join himself to them; he ought not to have wished to marry a Philistine woman at first, and he ought not to have loved Delilah. He ought to have loved his secret better than that which pleased his own nature. Samson in Delilah's house was like a Christina in the world; he knew she would do him harm if she could, and he knew she was trying to take his secret from him, and yet he stayed on with her till she made him blind, and a prisoner. Just so being with the people of the world makes a Christian weak, and not able to see; because the secret of a Christian's strength is separation to God.

S. Ought God's people to be more like Nazarites when everybody else is very wicked?

M. Yes, if they really value His secret and His love. Suppose you loved me very much indeed, and suppose all the other children did not care about me, but the more kind and loving I was to them, the more naughty and careless they were; would not you wish to be quite different to them?

S. Oh yes, I should be afraid: even to be with them, for fear I should get like them!

M. I think when you were with them you would be always trying to show them how much you valued me. This is what those who love Jesus feel when they are with people who do not care for Him; they know that He has separated them to Himself, by His own blood, and they like to keep themselves separate; and to show if other people do not care for Him, that they value Him more and more. This is what God calls being devoted to Him.

S. Is it love that makes people devoted?

M. Yes. Nothing makes one person devoted to another but love. We love God because He first loved us, and when a Christian is devoted to God, it shows that he has found out that God loves him very much. Some Christians do not know how much God loves them; and so they are not devoted to Him.

The story of Samson is the end of the story of the Judges. And the next five chapters tell us how fearfully wicked the children of Israel were; they had forgotten God and they forgot that they were God's people.

In those days there was no king in Israel and every one did what he liked. One man named Micah had a house full of idols, and he made his son priest. And a young Levite was traveling that way, and Micah persuaded him to go and live with him, and then he made him priest to his idols, because he was a Levite. This was both foolish and wicked. And some of the tribe of Dan went to conquer a country that they wished to live in, and they stole away Micah's idols and his priest, and set them up in their own land, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.

And in those days, when there was no king in Israel, the Gibeahites came one night and killed a poor woman, and her husband was very angry; and he sent messages to all the tribes of Israel, to ask them to come and punish the Gibeahites.

Then the children of Israel gathered together before the Lord at Mizpeh, and they agreed that they would go and punish the Gibeahites; and they sent a message to the tribe of Benjamin, and asked them to give up the men who had been so wicked, because they wished, to put away evil from Israel. But the tribe of Benjamin would not listen to the message; they did not care to put away the evil, and they went out to battle against their brethren. They had seven hundred soldiers who were left handed, and the only way they could fight was by throwing stones. And the children of Israel went up to the house of God to ask Him who should go out to fight against Benjamin. And the Lord said, Judah should go first. But the children of Benjamin conquered them that day, and they went up and wept before the Lord and. said, Shall I go to battle against Benjamin my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him. But Benjamin gained the battle also on the second day. So the children of Israel and all the people went up to the house of God, and they wept before the Lord, and they fasted, and offered sacrifices.

S. Why did God let the people who were wrong get the victory?

M. To prove the faith of those who were right; and to make them dependent upon God about it. Faith trusted in God and was not discouraged because those who were wrong had their way at first. And God was with the few who clung to Him in spite of discouragements. They clung to the truth that God loved holiness, and in the end He sheaved that He was with them, And Phinehas the priest stood before the ark, and he asked counsel of the Lord, and the Lord said, Go up, for to-morrow I will give them into your hand. And they went to battle on the third day, and the Lord smote Benjamin, and they fled before the children of Israel. And some fled to the wilderness and hid themselves in the rock Rimmon. I dare say they thought themselves quite safe, but they were not in the promised land S. Was, it right of the children of Israel to fight against one of their own tribes?

M. Yes, because the tribe of Benjamin would not put away the evil. It was better that one tribe should be destroyed, than that the whole nation should be guilty. It was a dreadful thing to see God's people going against one another, but it was more dreadful that His people did not care to judge the evil that was done in their midst; it showed that they did not care for holiness, and they did not care for God.

Phinehas, the priest, quite understood why the children of Israel must be at war with Benjamin. It was Phinehas who turned away the anger of the Lord in the time of their sin with the Moabites, and God gave him His covenant of peace; because he was zealous for his God among the children of Israel. That was the first time we heard of Phinehas, and now, at the end of his long life, he is again seen, careful of God's honor, and of the holiness of God's people.

S. Were they sorry to have to punish Benjamin?

M. We find in the next chapter that all who were right were very sorry, for they had agreed that they would have nothing to do with the tribe of Benjamin. They would not even let their daughters marry any of them. And they went to the house of God, and they wept before the Lord, and said, Oh Lord God, why is this come to pass that there is one tribe lacking in Israel? And they offered sacrifices to the Lord. But some of the people from the other side of Jordan had not come up to Mizpeh, so they sent to punish them for not coming, and they carried away all their young women and gave them to the Benjamites for wives. And when they made a feast in Shiloh, some of the Benjamites hid in the vineyards, and when the girls came out to dance they caught them, and took them home to be their wives; for in those clays there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes.

GOD, in mercy, sent His Son

To a world by sin undone;

Jesus Christ was crucified;

'Twas for sinners Jesus died.

Oh! the glory of the grace

Shining in the Savior's face,

Telling sinners from above

“God is light" and "God is love.”

Sin and death no more shall reign,

Jesus died and rose again!

In the glory's highest height

See Him, God's supreme delight.

All who in His name believe,

Everlasting life receive;

Lord of all is Jesus now:

Every knee to Him shall bow.

Christ the Lord will come again;

He who suffered once, will reign;

Every tongue at last shall own,

“Worthy is the Lamb alone!”

UT 1-2{S. Did God send any one else to take care of the children of Israel after Samson died?

M. No, they were left for a time, to do what was right in their own eyes, and we have seen how low and weak they were. But the Spirit of God has kept account for us of a touching little story of two faithful women, who lived in the time of the judges. There was a famine in the land, S. Oh, mamma, could there be a famine in the land of Canaan?

M. It was God's judgment, because His people had forsaken Him. Moses had told them that it would be so. It was a land which overflowed with every good thing—a land the Lord their God cared for, and His eyes were always upon it from the beginning of the year to the end. He sent the rain and the sunshine at the right time, that they might gather in their corn, and their wine, and their oil; but He said, if they went after other gods, that He would shut up the heavens that it might not rain, and the land should not yield its fruit. Instead of being blessed in their field, and blessed in their store house, they should be cursed, because they had forsaken their God, their own Jehovah, who sent them every good.

S. Was there always some one who loved God?

M. Yes, God never left this sinful world without one single witness of His love, and of His mercy to poor sinners. When there was not a man to care for His Name, He chose a woman. When there was not an Israelite, He chose A Gentile! When the famine was in the land of Canaan, a man named Elimelech went to the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons. But he soon died and left Naomi, his wife, with her sons alone in that strange country. And her sons married women of Moab. One was called Orpah and the other was Ruth. But very soon the sons died too, and these three poor women were left alone. What could they do?

S. Did they ask God to give them food?

M. Naomi remembered the God of Israel, and she remembered that she had heard that He had taken away the famine in the land of Canaan, so she said she would go back to her own land; and she set out with her daughters-in-law to go to the land of Judah. But as they were going, she said she thought it would be better for Orpah and Ruth to go home to their mothers, and that perhaps they would get husbands in their own country who would take care of them, and she kissed them, and they all cried, and said they would go on with her. But she said they had much better not; for Naomi was greatly grieved that God had made them widows. At last Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and went home to her people; but Ruth stayed with her, and when Naomi wanted her to go too, she said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for where thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God: where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. So Naomi said no more, because Ruth was determined to stay with her forever.

S. I suppose she loved Naomi better than any one else in the world?

M. Naomi was all that belonged to what she had lost; her husband was dead. Ruth was a lonely widow, and she was a Gentile. Her own people worshipped idols. Naomi was poor too, but she knew the God of Israel and she belonged to the land of blessing, and so Ruth chose the good part when she followed Naomi. Orpah went back to the Moabites, but Ruth went with Naomi to Bethlehem—the house of bread. And the people there knew Naomi, and they came out to see her; but she said to them, Do not call me Naomi any more, call me Mara. Naomi meant my delight or my pleasures, but Mara meant 'bitterness,' for she said, The 'Lord has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and came back empty. And it was the time of barley harvest when they came to Bethlehem. Now there was a very rich man there, whose name was Boaz, and he was a relation of Naomi's husband. And Ruth asked Naomi to let her go and glean in the fields, and by chance she went into a field that belonged to Boaz. And he came to see his reapers, and he said to them, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee.

S. How nice that was! Did Boaz love God?

M. Boaz served the God of Israel; and when he saw Ruth he said to his steward who was minding the reapers, Whose girl is this? And he said, She has come back with Naomi from the country of Moab. Then Ruth asked him to let her glean after the reapers; and he spoke very kindly to her, and told her not to go into any other field but his, and that when she was thirsty she might go and drink out of his vessels. When Ruth heard this she bowed down to the ground and said, Why are you so kind, to me, I am only a stranger? But Boaz said that he had heard of how she had left her own country and her own people to be with Naomi. And Boaz prayed that a full reward might be given her of the Lord God, of Israel, under whose wings she had come to trust. He also spoke kindly to her, and told her to come at meal time and eat with his reapers, and Boaz himself handed her something to eat. And he said to his young men, Let fall some handfuls on purpose for her, that she may pick them up.

S. That reminds me of what. Moses said: that they were always to leave some corn in their fields for the poor people to pick up.

M. God is the Rewarder of those who seek Him; and no one ever put his trust in Him and was disappointed. Ruth hack put her trust in the God of Israel, and, like Abraham; she got an exceeding great reward. Ruth had given up everything in this world to follow Naomi; her own country, her own people, and her father's house, everything that she could hope for in this world she had left behind. When Ruth beat the grains of corn out of the ears she took it home to Naomi, and she was astonished at all she had gleaned. But when she told her all that Boaz had said to her, Naomi said, Blessed be he of the Lord, because he has shown kindness to the living as well as to the dead, for he was a relation of Naomi's husband. And Boaz told Ruth to glean in his fields every day until his harvest was gathered in.

THERE is an eye that's ever bending

O'er the objects of His care,

Care, more fixed than if were tending

Hosts of guardian angels there;

There is a Heart that's ever beating

With a pulse of love intense,

Love, that knows no change or fleeting,

Fixed and full, profound, immense.

Hast thou known the rapturous feeling

To be loved with Such a love?

Heard the Spirit's voice revealing
Of that Heart enthroned above?

Listening to that voice disclosing

Love divine which conquered sin?

Hast thou felt 'a deep reposing

Fill the weary hearty within?

Jesus! Name all names excelling,

How can such as we declare

What the choir of Heaven swelling

Scarce can fully sound forth there?

Yet, for us this name was taken

By the glorious lowly babe,

When Jehovah had partaken

Flesh and blood, our souls to save.

UT 3-4{M. Now Naomi said to Ruth, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee? Then she told her that Boaz was going to winnow his barley that night, and that she must go down and stay with him, so Ruth did its Naomi told her. He lay down to sleep in his barn and Ruth went in very quietly and lay down too. And in the middle of the night he felt afraid and he called out, and, Ruth answered him. And he was pleased with Ruth for staying with him, and he told her that there was one man who was a nearer relation to her husband than he was, and that in the morning he would go and see him. And When Ruth got up to go away he made her hold her vail while he filled it full of corn to take home to Naomi.

S. Why did Boaz want to see the other man?

M. Because it was one of the laws of Moses, that if any man died, and did not leave any child to take his inheritance, the nearest relation should buy back his land, and also marry his widow. Boaz wished to do this but there was another man who had more right to do it than he. But Boaz went up to the gate of the city, and he sat down there, and when the relation of Naomi's husband passed by, Boaz called to him to come and sit down; then Boaz called ten men of the city who were elders, and they all sat down. And Boaz told how Naomi had come back, and he said, There is a piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech, and now will you buy it? And he said he would. And Boaz said; Will you also marry Ruth, who was the wife of one of Elimelech's sons? But he Said he could not do that because he had a wife and children of his own. Then he pulled off his shoe and gave it to Boaz.

S. Why did he pull off his shoe?

M. It was a custom in Israel to do so, as a sign that they had agreed about a thing gave Boaz the right of buying the land that belonged to his brother. Then Boaz said to the elders, You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that belonged to Elimelech and his two sons, and I have bought Ruth to be my wife. And they said, We are witnesses, and the Lord make her like Rachel and like Leah which did build the house of Israel.

Who were Rachel and Leah?

S. Jacob's two wives.

M. Yes, they were the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel. And they wished that God night bless Ruth as He had blessed Rachel and Leah. And they said to Boaz, Do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife; and the Lord gave her a son, which was great joy to Naomi. And the women said to her, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you without a relation that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be strength to, you in your old age. For the meaning of Boaz is, him is strength. And Naomi took the little child and laid it in her bosom, and she became its nurse.

S. I am sure she loved it very much.

M. Naomi was no longer the lonely one, in bitterness, as she said. The Lord had blessed her. And Ruth, the Gentile widow, was rewarded, for choosing to dwell with the people of God. They called the child Obed, he had afterward a son called Jesse, who was the father of David. I shall have many beautiful things to read to you of David, for he was a man after God's own heart.

S. Does the story of Ruth teach us anything?

M. Yes, a great deal, because Ruth is an example of one who had those two beautiful things, faith and love. To the eye of nature Naomi was only Mara, bitterness and sorrow. But, to the eye of faith, she was still pleasure and delight. Ruth had faith, so she believed that God cared for Naomi; she also loved Naomi and she went with her, to trust under the wings of Israel's God.

S. What right had a Gentile to trust to the God of Israel?

M. She had no right; that is what is so beautiful in this story —the one with no right gets a blessing, at a time when those who had a right did not value the blessing. It is beautiful because it shows us the grace of God. He would not turn any one away.

Boaz might have said, I will not have that Moabite girl in my field. But here he is a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, who never sent any one empty away. Boaz pitied Naomi, and he had heard of the faith of Ruth, how she had loved Naomi, and how she had chosen Naomi's God to be her God. And when Jesus comes back to this world, He will be the Redeemer of His people Israel. He will find the nation poor and desolate, and like a widow, because they have forsaken their God.

The Spirit of God brings, in this story just when the people had forsaken God; as though God was saying, I will bless any one who seeks me. And he tells us that Obed was the grandfather of David to show us that God thought then of His own beloved Son; who would come to do His will. For Mary the mother of Jesus was of the family of David.

S. Do you mean that Ruth's little son was related to Jesus' mother?

M. Yes; that babe that Naomi laid in her bosom was needed to fulfill God's holy counsel. You will understand this better by and by. I only wish you now to see, how God thought of Jesus in those sorrowful days when there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes.

S. It is beautiful to hear about God's thoughts, I should like to know more about Him.

M. We have yet much to learn in this blessed book, which I told you was so full that we should never get to the end of it. Yet I hope to go on with our story. It is a story, without end, because it is a story of the love and mercy and holiness of God.

THERE'S a home of light and glory,

Fairer far than Canaan's land,

Where the spoiler cannot enter,

Undisturbed by man's rude hand.

Canaan flowed with milk and honey,

God looked down on it with love,

But He lives, and loves forever,

In that happy land above.

God to Canaan brought His people,

Thro' the flood and thro' the sea,

Jesus ope'd the way to heaven,

Through the floods of death for me.

He has pass'd from death's dark river,

Up on high to God's right hand,

Now the way is cleared forever,

Nothing bars me from that land.

There, in pleasures never ceasing,

All God's children have a part,

For the place where Jesus brings them

Is His Father's house and heart.

And e'en now they taste those pleasures,

Though they wait to join Him there,

For their hearts are there already,

While His Father's love they share.

Jesus likes His lambs to follow

Close to Him, like faithful Ruth

Trusting in Him, and believing

All His love and grace and truth.

There they learn in joy and gladness

All it is to be His own,

Where HE lives, to live forever,

Where He died, to have no home.

Chapter 1

1. What did God give Joshua to do?

2. What token of possession did God give the children of Israel in every place?

3. By what was Joshua to ensure success?

Chapter 2

1. How did Rahab know anything about God?

2. What token did the spies give her?

3. Whom did they promise to save?

Chapter 3

1. Who went into Jordan first?

2. Why must the people not come quite near the ark?

3. What was "the wonder" the Lord did?

4. How were they to know that the living God was among them?

5. If the living God was among them, what else would they know?

6. What were the twelve men chosen for?

7. Where was the water of Jordan?

8. Where did the priests who bore the ark stand?

Chapter 4

1. What were the twelve stones a memorial of?

2. Where did Joshua set up twelve stones?

3. How long, did the priests stand in the midst of Jordan?

4. What did the Lord do to Joshua on the other side of Jordan?

5. What happened as soon as the priests were come up out of Jordan?

6. Where did they setup the twelve stones?

7. Describe the difference between Israel passing through the Red Sea, and Israel passing over Jordan?

8. Can you explain the three figures of the death of Christ, the Passover, the Red Sea, and Jordan?

Chapter 5

1. What did the Israelites do on the shore of the Red Sea?

2. What were they told to do at Gilgal?

3. What was the meaning of circumcision?

4. What is the meaning of Gilgal?

5. What else did they do in Gilgal?

6. What day did the manna cease?

7. Who met Joshua by Jericho?'

8. What did He come to teach Joshua?

Chapter 6

1. How did the Lord tell Joshua to take Jericho?

2. What were the armed men to do?

3. What were the priests to do?

4. Describe all that happened on the. seventh day?

5. What solemn warning did Joshua give the people?

6. How did Rahab save her friends?

7. What did Joshua say abort the city of Jericho?

Chapter 7

1. Why did not the Lord go with them against Ai?

2. When Joshua prayed what rebuke did God give him?

3. What were the people to do to themselves in order that God might show the guilty one?

4. What did Joshua say to Achan?

5. Why was it wrong to have a Babylonish garment with his own stuff?

6. Where did they carry Achan and all that he had?

7. Who stoned Achan?

8. Why was the place called the valley of "Achor?”

Chapter 8

1. How did the Lord encourage Joshua?

2. How did they take Ai?

3. How did Joshua show that he felt the land belonged to the Lord?

4. What commandment of Moses did Joshua obey?

Chapter 9

1. What did the inhabitants of Gibeon do?

2. How were the princes of Israel deceived?

3. What was the wrong thing Joshua did?

4. What did Joshua make the Gibeonites?

Chapter 10

1. Where was the camp of Israel?

2. What was the fate of those who gathered against Gibeon?

3. How did the Lord hearken to the voice of a man?

4. Why did Joshua always go back to. Gilgal?

5. What was done to 'the five kings?

Chapter 11

1. What did the Lord do to the nations who gathered together?

2. Why did Joshua burn Hazor?

3. Who were the only people that remained in the land?

Chapter 12

1. How many kings did Moses destroy?

2. How many kings did Joshua destroy?

Chapter 13

1. When Joshua was old what did he do?

2. Why did Levi get no inheritance?

3. On what man did God's just judgment fall?

Chapter 14

1. How did Joshua and Eleazar divide the land?

2. What is remarkable about Caleb's inheritance?

3. When had Caleb's feet trodden on Hebron?

4. What Made Caleb feel so strong?

Chapter 15

1. What were the names of the four giants who lived, at Hebron, and who frightened the spies?

2. What reward did Caleb give to Othniel?

3. What did Caleb give Achsah?

4. To whom did Jerusalem belong?

Chapter 16

1. What lot fell to the children of Joseph?

Chapter 17

1. What did Joshua say to the children of Joseph?

Chapter 18

1. Where was the tabernacle set up?

2. Where did Joshua cast lots for them?

Chapter 19

1. Who divided the land by lot?

2. Where did the people stand while dividing the lots?

Chapter 20

1. Why were cities of refuge appointed?

2. Who lived in the cities of refuge?

Chapter 21

1. How many cities did they give to the Levites?

2. To whom was the city of refuge belonging to Hebron. given?

3. How much came to pass of all the good that God had spoken of?

Chapter 22

1. What did Joshua say to the two and a half tribes?'

2. What did. these tribes do when they got to the other side of Jordan?

3. What did the other tribes feel about it?

Chapter 23

1. When Joshua was old whom did he send for?

2. What advice did Joshua give?

3. What warning did Joshua give?

Chapter 24

1. Of what did Joshua remind them in this chapter?

2. What did their history prove about God?

3. What response did Joshua's praise draw forth from the rest?

4. What did the people choose?

5. What was the covenant that Joshua made with them?

6. What did Joshua say about the stone?

7. How long did Israel serve the Lord?

8. What interesting rite did they perform at Shechem?

9. Whose death is recorded, and who succeeded him?

10. What have you learned about God in the Book of Joshua?

Chapter 1

1. What did Judah do to the Canaanites?

2. Tell me about Caleb's daughter?

3. Who took Bethel?

Chapter 2

1. Why did The angel go from Gilgal to Bochim?

2. What wrong thing had the people done?

3. What did the children of Israel do after the death of Joshua?

4. How did the Lord treat them?

5. By whom did the Lord help them?

6. When Israel transgressed His covenant, what did the Lord say?

Chapter 3

1. Why did the Lord leave some of the wicked people in the land?

2. Why did they serve false gods?

3. What deliverer did God send?

4. How long did Israel serve the king of Moab?

5. How long had the land rest?

Chapter 4

1. How long did the Canaanites oppress Israel?

2. Who was Deborah?

3. How was Sisera killed?

Chapter 5

1. How do you know that Joel's act was a right one?

2. What did they praise the. Lord for?

3. How long did the land rest after this victory?

Chapter 6

1. How long was the next captivity of Israel?

2. When did the Lord send a prophet to Israel?

3. What did the prophet say?

4. Whom else did the Lord send?

5. What kind of man was Gideon?

6. What did the Lord say He sent Gideon to do?

7. What did Gideon want a sign for?

8. What sign did God give Gideon?

9. Why did Gideon call his altar Jehovah Shalom?

10. What did the Lord say to Gideon in the night?

11. Why was the destruction of Baal the first thing Gideon must do?

12. What new power did Gideon receive from God?

13. What sign did Gideon ask for?

Chapter 7

1. Why did the Lord say that the people were too many?

2. Why did the twenty-two thousand go back?

3. How did God prove who was fit to go with Gideon?

4. Why were the three hundred more fit than the rest?

5. What did they carry to battle?

6. How did God confirm Gideon's faith?

7. What was Gideon's word of command?

8. How did they overcome the Midianites?

9. How did the Ephraimites help?

Chapter 8

1. How did the men of Succoth offend the servant of the Lord?

2. What was their punishment?

3. Why did he punish the men of Penuel?

4. Why did Gideon refuse to be made king?

5. Why was Gideon's ephod a snare to him?

6. How long had the land rest?

7. How did the children of Israel treat Gideon's family?

Chapter 9

1. What was the meaning of Abimelech's parable?

2. How were the men of Shechem punished?

3. How was Abimelech punished?

Chapter 10

1. How long wore the children of Israel oppressed this time?

2. What sad confession did Israel make?

3. What answer did God give them?

4. How did the Lord feel about Israel?

Chapter 11

1. What sort of man was Jephthah?

2. What excuse did the children of Ammon give for going to fight with, Israel?

3. What answer did Jephthah give them?

4. What sad mistake did Jephthah make?

5. What was the difference between Jephthah's act, and that of Abraham when he offered up his only son?

Chapter 12

1. How did Jephthah treat the Ephraimites?

Chapter 13

1. How long did the Philistines oppress Israel?

2. What was remarkable about the deliverer that God raised up this time?

3. Why did God make Samson a Nazarite?

4. How did Manoah's wife chew that she believed in God's favor?

5. Where did the Spirit of the' Lord lead Samson?

Chapter 14

1. How did Samson grieve his parents?

2. What purpose had the Lord in it?

3. What was Samson's riddle?

4. How did Samson pay what he had promised?

5. What became of the woman he was going to marry?

Chapter 15

1. How did Samson take revenge?

2. What punishment did the woman get?

3. Who went against Samson?

4. But who was with him?

5. What act of power did he perform?

Chapter 16

1. What wonderful thing did Samson do in the middle of the night?

2. What snare did the Philistines set for Samson?

3. Why did it not succeed?

4. What was Samson's secret?

5. Why ought he not to tell Delilah?

6. What terrible discovery did Samson make as soon as he had told his secret?

7. What else did they take from him besides his hair?

8. What did Samson ask the Lord to do?

9. What is said about those he slew at his death?

10. How long did he judge Israel?

Chapter 17

1. How is the State of Israel described in this chapter?

Chapter 20

1. How did they want to "put away evil from Israel?”

2. Who did not wish to put away the evil?

3. Why did God allow those who were right to be discouraged?

4. Who was the priest in those days?

5. How did the children of Israel get clear of the evil?

Chapter 21

1. What was the cause of their sorrow?

2. What does the Book of Judges teach you about God?

Chapter 1

1. Why did Elimelech and Naomi leave their own land?

2. What difficulties did Naomi suffer there?

3. Where did these widowed women think of going to?

4. What was the difference between Orpah and Ruth?

5. What was remarkable about Ruth's devotedness?

Chapter 2

1. Who was kind to Ruth?

2. What did Boaz say that Ruth had come to Israel's land for?

3. What did Naomi say was the reason of the kindness of Boaz?

Chapter’s 3, 4

1. How did Boaz prove' himself a kinsman?

2. Describe the scene at the gate of the city?

3. What blessing did the people pronounce upon Boaz and Ruth?

4. What comfort did the Lord give to Naomi?

5. Who was this little child the father of?

6. What does this beautiful story teach you about God?

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