The perverseness of man is seen more plainly in Israel after they were in the land than while going through the desert. This did not appear at the first, where is an instance of what the energy of faith in one man can do. All the days of Joshua, and indeed all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, the people served the Lord; but when that generation had passed away, another arose which knew not the Lord nor His works, and they did evil. (Judg. 2:77And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel. (Judges 2:7).)
Their entry into the land seemed very promising, and they would have become possessed of it all if disobedience had not stopped the tide of blessing flowing in upon them. God, in His grace, showed what they might count upon if they would be obedient. The passage of the Jordan recalled to mind that the same God who led them through the waters to escape from Egypt was now leading them where the river had rolled into the promised land.
The Red Sea and the Jordan typify important truth. In both the waters are the symbol of death and resurrection of and with Christ. The first is deliverance from the bondage of Satan, from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son (Col. 1:1313Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:13))-a new position. It is the introduction of the believer into the world as a wilderness, where no water is, save that which flows from Christ as the smitten Rock; where, if He be not seen, there will be constant murmuring for water. The Jordan points to a farther truth, that is, that the believer has done with all things here below as objects of desire before his soul. It is the practically realizing the new standing that he has died with Christ, and is risen again with Him. The Red Sea brings us to Christ's resurrection-the result of His work for us. The Jordan is the Holy Spirit making good in our souls, and producing practical holiness suited to the place in which the death and resurrection of Christ has placed us. So the Red Sea introduces us to a desert, the Jordan, into the enjoyment of the heavenly places, its privileges, and also its conflicts. The Jordan is, for faith, the realizing the full results of the Red Sea.
The trial of Israel is no longer a wilderness trial. There they had previously failed; how will they behave in the land of promise? It is the same story, even then growing old in the history of man. There is no condition, however favored, where man responds to the goodness of God. There is no confidence in God, however lavishly His benefits are given. The people have not yet learned what they are themselves, and so they have confidence in themselves-nay, they even boast of their obedience to Moses. “All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee.” (Josh. 1:16, 1716And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go. 17According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so will we hearken unto thee: only the Lord thy God be with thee, as he was with Moses. (Joshua 1:16‑17).) Like all self-righteous men, unconscious of fault, they pronounce readily sentence of death upon the disobedient. Yet their disobedience had been so great, that Moses said; “Ye have been rebellious against Jehovah from the day that I knew you.” (Deut. 9: 24.) Thus it is that the word of God gives in a few brief touches the portrait of man, and without comment leaves it to tell its own tale.
To have no confidence in the flesh is the hardest and, perhaps, the last thing learned by any saint of God, and in most how many the lessons, how severe the discipline-yea, how persevering the patience of God, until the necessary process is completed, and sentence of death pronounced by the believer upon his old self To this point each one must be brought. Flesh shall not boast in God's presence: no glorying there but in the cross of Christ.
Confidence in God, and confidence in the flesh, are nowhere more clearly set forth than in the taking of Jericho and Ai: in the first the miraculous victory accorded to confidence in God and simple obedience to His word; in the second, the miserable failure resulting from going to battle in their own strength; and when God did give them the town of Ai, what contempt He pours upon them as soldiers! The results of confidence in the flesh are always sad, and may sometimes remain even after the cause is judged.
The word speaks much of the endurance of faith, but this is not its only quality. If passive resistance, as “breastplate” intimates, be its most frequent, and indeed now, during the time of the church's calling, the normal aspect of faith, there are times when it is aggressive. Not now against flesh and blood, but when one, in the grace and power of God, ventures into some den of sin to tell of Christ's love to the lost ones there, he is acting in the aggressive power of faith, as well as of love for souls; and the Master knows how to reward the energy of faith now as in Joshua's day. Or, when error, superstition, and infidelity are attacked, this also is the aggressive action of faith; only this last demands special wisdom, and clear and distinct guidance from God. To the church, as a whole, God has given the privilege of maintaining the pilgrim character of faith, and endowed chosen servants with its aggressive power-a power foolish to the natural man, but effectual with God.
What could the blowing of rams' horns effect towards throwing down the walls of Jericho? What could be more unmeaning and ridiculous to the eye of man? Possibly some among Israel thought with contempt of their silent march round the walls of Jericho for six days. The after-conduct of Achan sheaved that he for one had no just sense of the presence of Jehovah among them. But whether few or many like Achan, the energy of Joshua's faith carried them through. It was according to the wisdom and grace of God, who gave lessons of faith then for our learning now. The inhabitants of Jericho, with the exception of one singled out by grace, on the first day might have been amazed, and have trembled for what would follow, and on the sixth day have learned to deride the, to them, foolish procession. The seventh day brought its awful reality-sodden and irretrievable destruction. So it will be with the world, now hardening itself against the warnings of God. In a moment the walls of this world will fall, and judgment be executed upon the scoffers. But our point is the steady adherence of Joshua to Jehovah's command. It is the obedience of faith, which is foolishness to the world. The patience of faith manifested during the six days, the triumph of faith on the seventh, God crowns all by the exhibition of His power, as superior to and independent of man. Faith was the moral means. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.” (Heb. 11:3030By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. (Hebrews 11:30).) And the unmistakable note of the rams' horns was the correlative of faith-"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” (Zech. 4:66Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6).) The obedience of faith always brings the power of God on our side; then victory is sure.
But over this bright scene came a dark cloud. Oh when was there any brightness from God over which man did not cast his own dark shadow? Even in this faith may learn; and the lesson is the sad result of not asking wisdom of God before beginning to act. Joshua, as well as Israel, failed here. Vain-confidence is uppermost. What a gulf between it and true faith! With faith one man may chase a thousand, as Jonathan did. (1 Sam. 14) Here three thousand fly before the men of Ai; and, according to human judgment, they ware well able to take it. But Israel were fighting Jehovah's battles, when the wisdom and resources of man go for nothing, and, however adequate in appearance, always bring disaster. Human prudence suggested the viewing of the city. Human confidence said three thousand were well able to take it. Human energy essayed to do it. The lesson taught in the manner of taking Jericho was forgotten. There was no seeking counsel from God. Public failure followed. Had they sought God's mind first, He would have told them that a hindrance to victory existed in the camp; He would have preserved them from the disgrace of flying before their enemies. Failure before the enemy is always the consequence of some hidden and unjudged sin among those bearing the name of being the people of God. Blessing is withheld so long as sin is unjudged. In grace God uses their defeat as a means to bring the sin out into the light, that they may purge themselves, and vindicate the righteous government of God. They humble themselves before God; it is the first thing to be done. But faith rises above confession and shame, though no true faith is without it. It appeals to God to maintain His own glory, notwithstanding Israel's dishonor, and Joshua touches the right chord when in his lament he says, “What wilt thou do unto thy great name?” This was in one word pleading all the mercies and promises given in their past history; it was the boldness of faith pleading that God had committed His name to them, and what would be thought of His name among the nations if He gave them up to be destroyed by the enemy? It is an appeal to the pledged word of God that He would give them the land. Joshua's thought is now for the honor and glory of God. No saint ever appealed to God to maintain His glory, without an answer of grace and needed wisdom from Him. God tells him there is sin in the camp, and it must be purged out, ere He can fulfill His promise. And now, when a saint, conscious of failure, of sin however great, appeals to the grace of God, he has been led to the first step of restoration. All blessing ever given to man was, and is, for His name's sake. We have a Name to plead that must prevail. The name of Jesus is the glory of God. And God has made Him to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
The evil act of stealing the Babylonish garment, the wedge of gold, and the silver, was not the gravest feature in Achan's trespass. What was it that made the sin of Nadab and Abihu so great? They brought their strange fire into the place where Jehovah had just manifested by fire the glory of His presence. What brought instant death upon Ananias and Sapphira? They were selfish, false and hypocritical where God was displaying the riches of His grace. So here Achan proved insensible to the mighty display of Jehovah's power. The miraculous fall of Jericho's walls, without any pretense of action on Israel's part, was lost upon him. He used and took advantage of the power of God to gratify his covetous desires. It was this that made his sin so heinous, and brought so swift judgment. Jehovah was exalting Israel by proving that He was among them. Achan was dishonoring God in the very moment that God was peculiarly honoring him as an Israelite. To covet and steal in such circumstances made the sin a thousandfold more sinful. His deed was done, so to speak, in the very face of God. There are times when sin is exceeding bold-we might say defiant.
Faith recognizes God to be a holy God, and Joshua-his self-confidence gone, and roused out of its consequent despondency-acts upon God's word, and searches out the hidden cause of their public disgrace. But, mark, the word that reveals Israel's sin is given after his confession and humiliation. Joshua rent his clothes, and fell on his face before the ark of Jehovah, until eventide. That memorable day began in the pride of fleshly confidence, but it ends with rent garments in the dust before God. It is a merciful provision of grace, for if it ended not there, where else could it end? There restoration begins, and there only. “He and all the elders of Israel put dust upon their heads;” there was corporate confession and humiliation. The same thing is true now; restoration can only be after confession, whether for the saint or the assembly.
The quest begins-first the tribe, then the family, then the household, then the man-and Achan is taken. He is the one who troubled Israel by his folly and sin. Joshua vindicates the holiness and righteous government of God. In this solemn judgment we learn the separation from, and utter condemnation of, the flesh and its lustings, which the holiness of faith demands, the stern resolve, at all cost, to judge the evil. No claim of kindred can be allowed, the voice of nature is hushed, brotherly love is silent in presence of the superior claims of faithfulness to God. Achan, and all that has been defiled with his sin, must die. Such is the judgment after which pattern we are called to put away unsparingly the things of the flesh, however pleasing. Even the things which may have a fair appearance are but hindrances, weights to be laid aside; how else can we run, and win the prize? The Christian has now to contend with the powers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Some in this warfare are, by the Lord's appointment, more prominent than others; but we all have to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. We have to watch against the inroads of Satan, to guard the purity of the Lord's table, to care jealously lest the holiness of His house be impaired, to resist all false doctrine, and the looseness of conduct which follows. This is our warfare as seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Satan is ever trying, in some form or other, to bring in the world or the flesh, and sometimes under the plea of brotherly love to cover evil, that is, not to judge it. Faithfulness to the Lord, true charity, stands first; mere brotherly kindness is but second. If, after warning and rebuke, evil remains unjudged in the assembly, it loses its place as an assembly of God.
The camp is purged, and God promises victory. “I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.” But even after faith resumes its place, God, while giving victory, makes them feel the evil of forgetting Him. They had been lifted up because of their might. God put dishonor upon it at the taking of Ai. Every warrior must go, and an ambush must be laid. What an array of force and stratagem to take a little city! Joshua and the bulk of his army must pretend to flee, and so draw away from the city its “few people.” Thirty-five thousand men to take a town for which three thousand were sufficient! To pretend to fly as at the first was no honor: no heroism in this. It was to their shame as soldiers. This is no instance of the mighty power of faith. God knows how to put shame upon worldly strength and confidence. He allows, nay, commands, its full display, and will not use it. He gives them the city in His own way, and will only use the power of Israel as He pleases. It is plainly saying, I can do without you-proving to them that the strength in which they boasted was in itself a useless thing.
The next scene furnishes a proof that submitting to the righteous judgment of God brings blessings scarcely hoped for; not on the part of the Israelites, but of the Gibeonites, with whom is found that lowest kind of faith which trembles at the word of judgment. God, by the prophet in later days, said He would look to the man that trembled at His word. (Isa. 66:22For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:2).) If there was no contrition, there was trembling. And they submitted to the word of Joshua. “Behold, we are in thine hand; as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.” This is highly instructive; it gives the only true place of a soul that submits unconditionally to the sentence of God. The Gibeonites confessed their deceit, and can only urge their fears as an excuse. But this fear of judgment has its reward, and they get the anticipative place a Gentile will have in presence of Israel owned of God. This servitude of the Gibeonites is a little foreshadowing of the coming time when the Gentile will be exalted in serving the Jew. They are made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar; thus they become Jehovah's servants. And God remembered them; for when Saul oppressed them, He avenged their cause upon his family. But Israel's part, this transaction with Gibeon, when they were so deceived, is only the result of the same confidence in self which had been so seriously rebuked at Ai. They are betrayed into making a covenant with a nation which they were told to destroy. (Josh. 9) God overruled for good; but the point is Israel's failure for the second time through confidence in themselves, and not asking counsel of God.
But if Joshua failed at Ai, and with the Gibeonites, the next thing recorded is the most prominent victory of faith ever accomplished. At Joshua's word the sun stood still. No intervention of God on behalf of Israel was more remarkable. But not only this, it was a public witness to all the nations, to the whole world. The effect of such an intervention of the Creator's power over the works of His hands could not have been limited to the locality of the land. It told all that there was a Supreme God, who held the order of nature in His own hand, and controlled it as He pleased. For this thing was not done in a corner. In this act of Joshua we see the dependence, the boldness, and the power of faith. “Then spake Joshua to Jehovah, in the day when Jehovah delivered up the Amorite before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon.” (Josh. 10:12,12Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. (Joshua 10:12) &c.) He spake to Jehovah; here is dependence. Having learned the mind of Jehovah, with boldness he speaks in the presence of Israel; and God, at the word of a man, arrests the sun and the moon in their course. This is the power of faith; that is, God responds to the faith He gives. And not the least instructive point for us is this-that Joshua, before telling the sun and moon to stand still, went first to God; there was prayer and dependence before the power. So it is now. When any occasion would seem to demand greater faith than we had known before, we shall never meet the emergency unless we have been to God about it. God honors Joshua's faith, and Israel reaps the fruits of it. That day was equal to two. It must have raised the wonder, if not the consternation, of the world. The immense fact, that “Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man,” should have eventuated in universal homage to Him whom Joshua served. But this testimony of the one True God was lost upon the world; for even then Satan was the god of it, and knew how to turn every event for the increase of idolatry. And for the nation in whose behalf this miraculous power was displayed, for them to turn to idolatry, made them worse than the nations over whom they triumphed in that day. In Hezekiah's time a similar mark of God's power was given, for the shadow on the sun-dial went fifteen degrees backward. That was not confined to Jerusalem. It brought ambassadors from Babylon, but did not turn them from the worship of Bel. Miracles, however stupendous, never per se convert a soul. “Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did; but Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all.” (John 2:23, 2423Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, (John 2:23‑24).)
The bright shining of faith, as seen in Joshua, was soon eclipsed by the continually darkening cloud of those who came after him. The nearest approach to him is much below him. There was but little of the holiness of faith in any. Gideon comes nearest, for in him there was heart-exercise before he wrought deliverance for the people. This was not seen in the other judges, and Gideon takes pre-eminence after Joshua, and though, as to time, coming after Barak, he stands first as to order. Heb. 11:3232And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: (Hebrews 11:32) gives (with others) four men “who through faith subdued kingdoms.” How different the measure and character of faith in each! In the book of Judges we have the order of time as history: Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson; in the epistle the order is according to the rank of faith-Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah. Is this change of order in the perfect word of God without a purpose? Gideon was a man with an exercised heart and conscience; Barak was so weak in faith that he would not go against the enemy without Deborah, and so lost the honor God presented to him. Yet the weak Barak was not so stained as the strong Samson, whose course was marked by his relationship to the Philistines, and only at the end of his life, when blind and spirit-broken, but humbled before God, accomplishing, at the cost of life, his most wonderful feat. Jephthah is still lower in the scale-he stains his victory with a heathenish vow, and sacrifices his own daughter to his superstition. Others are but recorded as the means by whom God wrought deliverance; they are not named in Heb. 11, and there is no mention of faith working in them. Ehud began his career by an act of treachery-no holiness in that. In his case, as in some others, it was simply the intervention of God, who uses what instrument seems good to Him. Let us not think that God approves such deeds. He can, and does, use both good and bad men for the accomplishment of His purpose. This surely does not imply approval of the evil deed. Ehud said, “I have a message from God unto thee.” In judgment upon Eglon, the oppressor of Israel, it was of God. But Ehud's treachery was of himself, and not from God, though overruled by Him. So also the wife of Heber, when she still more treacherously killed Sisera-a deed which would now be reprobated. But it was God's judgment, upon the enemy. Deborah blessed her, which only shows Deborah's intelligence, not that God owned the manner of the deed. Such an act, per se, is abhorrent to the mind of God. In eastern countries, to eat with another was a pledge of protection. To give milk when he asked for water implied kindness, and led Sisera to trust her, and sleep in her tent. Jehu also was God's instrument of vengeance upon the guilty house of Ahab; Jehu was a bad man, but God is sovereign, and makes man's wickedness fulfill His purpose-man's responsibility remaining the same in all.
The faith of Joshua and that of Gideon are given fully, and stand out as exponents of the difference of the circumstances of the one from the other. The triumphant energy of Joshua's faith, notwithstanding his slips at Ai and with Gibeon, would have been not in keeping with the times of Gideon, when Israel was groaning under Midian. Faith in Gideon wrought marvelously, as it did in Joshua; but there was not the brilliancy in Gideon's victory over the Midianites as when, at Joshua's word, the sun and moon stood still. Such a display of God's power with Gideon would have had the appearance of condemning their sin. God will deliver them, but, as it were, by secret means-a dream in the enemy's camp, which, while it strengthens Gideon, upon Midian brings dismay, and the terror of God turns their swords against each other. It was in the darkness of night that they fled; not in the light of day, when, if one day be too short, two are rolled into one. In Joshua we see the courage of faith; in Gideon, the fear and trembling resulting from the weakness of faith. Yet we have in Gideon a lesson for faith which Joshua does not afford-the tender patience of God with a weak servant. And we should have lost much if we had not the story of Gideon-in some points not to his honor, but then so much the more to God's glory. The angel of Jehovah appeared to both at the first, and the different bearing of Joshua and Gideon then gives an index to their after conduct. Neither knew who the divine Person was. Joshua, confident in Jehovah's leading, asks, “Art thou for us, or for our enemies?” “Nay, but as captain of Jehovah's host am I come.” And Joshua falls on his face and worships. It was the word which revealed who He was, just as when the Lord Jesus said to the man who had been born blind, “I am he,” and the once blind man sees and worships. No fear of dying troubles Joshua, but, like a faithful soldier, he says, “What saith my lord unto his servant?” He puts himself at once under the command of the captain of Jehovah's host. But when Gideon perceived in whose presence he was, he said, “Alas! O Lord God, for because I have seen an angel of Jehovah face to face.” God gives him the assurance that he shall not die. Perhaps Gideon had misapprehended, as Manoah (chap. 13: 22) the word” There shall no man see my face and live.”
Still, the mark of true living faith is seen in Gideon, though he is yet unable to take in the full meaning of the words, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.” How true it is that God sees not as man sees! for Gideon was threshing wheat by the wine-press, to hide it from the Midianites. Gideon had the positive command to throw down the altar of Baal, and notwithstanding the promise that Jehovah would be with him, he did it by night, through fear of his father's household and the men of the city. His faith in God was too weak to overcome his fear of man, yet God said, “Thou mighty man of valor.” God gave him that title in view of what He would make him, not according to present appearances. But it is his faith we would consider, how suited in its actings in him to the circumstances of the times. His first act shows the genuineness of it; he confesses sin and departure from God; they were lying under judgment because they had done evil. Thus faith is ever accompanied by self-judgment. God's answer to it is simply wonderful— “Go in this thy might.” His might was in humbly bowing to the righteous dealing of God. Naturally he was a timid man, loth to trust the word of God without some special sign for the moment. How the great and pitying condescension of God meets him at every point, answering every expression of diffidence without upbraiding! “Let the fleece be wet, and the ground dry;” and again, “Let the fleece be dry, and the ground wet.” And God answers according to his prayer. If faith in Joshua brought out the magnificent power of God, no less did faith's weakness in Gideon manifest the rich grace of God. At the head of his thousands he now goes forth against the Midianites. But God will assert Himself, and will give victory in His own way, a way that shall preclude Israel from boasting. Only three hundred men are permitted to go. This reduction of his army seems to have reawakened Gideon's fears. God's grace and pity meet him again, and send him to the enemy, to get, as it were, from their lips the assurance of victory he hesitated to receive from God's word; and if he is afraid to go alone, to take Phurah, his servant, with him. And God deigned to confirm His word by the dream of a Midianitish soldier. Surely, after so many previous proofs from God of His will, it was not to Gideon's praise to fear at the last moment. But how grace shines all through this narrative! And Gideon's faith rises and responds to this last appeal God made to it. The little band of three hundred shout, and the enemy is terrified. Panic-struck, they slay each other, and fly. So truly it was God that saved Israel-it was His power and terror that routed the enemy, not Israel that conquered Midian; they were a routed rabble when Gideon's sword overtook them.
Although the weakness of Gideon's faith is personal, and the tender mercy of God to strengthen it individual blessing, yet we see how the aspect of his faith is in keeping with the low state of Israel. God's chosen instrument of deliverance was a man who thirst not move without a constant recurring sign from God; as if the grief of departure from God was so intense that it needed extraordinary means to keep faith in action. On the other hand, how marked the intervention of God all through, up to the victory which brought deliverance! Gideon was the only one of his family that confessed the nation's sin. It was his father's idol that he threw down, and when the whole city came to avenge it, God made Joash say, in contempt of his own idol, “If he be a god, let him plead for himself.” But while we linger over these precious lessons for faith, the moral process goes on with Israel-with man-which was bringing out in ineffaceable lines the incurable depravity of man, and his utter incapability of serving God in true obedience, spite of never-failing mercy and grace in Him.
When Israel sinned, and cried out in their distress, “We have sinned,” there was no true judgment of themselves. They bewailed their misery, not their sin. Hence, after every deliverance they sinned again, and worse than before. They forgot the mercy that delivered them, they heeded not the rebuke, for their sin, and were deaf to the calling of grace. Such is man.
God gives a glimpse of the domestic and private life of the people, and it tells the same tale as their public history. The core was rotten. The account of Abimelech tells of civil war and murder, that of Jephthah of heathenish vow and superstition, and, in Samson, of intercourse with the Philistine. And this in Samson, one specially raised up to deliver Israel, was more flagrant than in another not called as he was. He was a child of promise, ordained to be a Nazarite from his birth, and who in the power of God did such great things. What an evidence of the strength of the flesh, even in a Nazarite
His marriage with the woman of Timnath was of God (Judg. 14; 4): that is, God used it as an occasion against the Philistines, but the thing itself was contrary to the expressed command of God; it is an index of their condition. How very different from Gideon is Samson If in fear and trembling, yet Gideon did pray, and sought God, not for his personal wants, but for confidence in God against his enemies. Samson prayed twice; first because he was thirsty, and then, at the last, that he might be avenged on the Philistines for his two eyes. Samson is as much below Gideon in the ranks of faith, as Gideon is below Joshua. It is worthy of note that there are three men prominently brought out in these books-Joshua and Judges-as there are also in Genesis; and in both cases illustrative of the power of subjective faith, or the lack of it: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the one; Joshua, Gideon, and Samson in the other. The energy of pilgrim faith in Abraham, that of subduing enemies and possessing the land in Joshua. But given as examples for us who have to pass through the world as not having any inheritance, and also as those who contend with spiritual foes in order to realize heavenly blessings. Neither in Isaac nor in Gideon is the energy of their predecessors seen; while in Jacob, as in Samson, the evil of the flesh is manifest. Jacob did rise, and his end was bright. Samson dies a blinded captive, crushed in the effect of his own vengeance.
How the testimony for God, in whatever way required, Seems to degenerate! If God puts a man in a place of testimony, either for special truth or peculiar privilege, though he be found comparatively faithful, yet in general the next one to occupy the position is less able. So, looking at the line of successive witnesses, the corporate character is, “some hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold.” Who filled the place of Paul (not as an apostle) as to faithfulness? Who since John has shown such love and devotedness?
In the latest chapters of Judges their social condition is depicted. The evil that caused judgment upon the nation had its root in the family. The man, Micah, began life with stealing from his mother. The restored money is made partly into an idol; and this is by the mother called dedicating the money to Jehovah! (Judg. 17:33And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee. (Judges 17:3).) Then comes a Levite, ambitious to be a priest, and he would be priest to an idol rather than keep his place as a Levite, and be true to his calling. A guilty ambition ruled his conduct, for he soon proved what he was, in leaving Micah to accompany the Danites. It was a higher position to be chief priest to a tribe, than to be chaplain to a single family. But not content with leaving Micah, he, with the Danites, robs the man who had at least treated him with respect and kindness. What a sad picture of the chosen nation!
But a more terrible one follows, equaling in cruelty and depravity most in the annals of paganism. Benjamin would screen the evil-doers, the other tribes would avenge the wrong done. They ask God, not if they may, but who is to go up against Benjamin. There was no humiliation, rather the assumption that they were righteous. In judgment upon them all, God permits the war, and Benjamin has a temporary triumph. But the triumph of wickedness is short-lived, and is only preparatory to a fiercer judgment. The other tribes are humbled through defeat, and then they asked of God what they should have done at first. “Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease?” They would remain under the humiliation of defeat if God told them not to go. In acknowledging Benjamin to be their brother, they hold themselves as deserving of judgment as he; not separating themselves in the pride of self-righteousness. Then God bids them go, and judges the evil of Benjamin. Mention is made of Phinehas. If these events took place in his lifetime, it must have been soon after the death of Joshua, not as following after Samson's death. And then it shows how quickly they fell into idolatry. It was a generation that knew not God. Evidently the priest was unable to stem the torrent of iniquity. But he was the connecting link between Jehovah and Israel. Through his failure that link was soon to be broken. But he failed at the very beginning, for Aaron it was who made the calf. Why was forbearance for so many years shown? The great reason was, that to be a type of Christ such a position was necessary, and God kept him at the head of the nation that he might be a fitting type of Christ, who will be as enthroned Priest the true link between God and that nation. But now the priests in the land are powerless as witnesses for Jehovah, and others are raised up as instruments of mercy. Had priest and people been faithful, there would have been no need for the intervention of judges. Eli was the last to occupy the original position of the priest. He failed in his family grievously. His two sons were not trained in the fear of God. (1 Sam. 3:1313For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. (1 Samuel 3:13).) When they were called to perform the priestly function, instead of being the channel for the people's approach to God, they were the means of a further departure.
A heavier judgment than any yet takes place, and the priest-link is broken. Hophni and Phinehas, the guilty sons of Eli, are slain in battle, and the too-indulgent father falls back at the fatal news, and dies. Yet, failing as he was, it is not the bereavement of his sons that most touched him. His heart was still true to God. Whatever his grief at their untimely death, the fatal announcement is that the ark of Jehovah was taken. If the ark was gone, so was his function as a priest, and the visible link connecting Jehovah with His people being in the hands of the Philistines, caused his death. “The word of Jehovah was precious [scarce, or rare] in those days. There was no open vision.” But God preserved for himself a small and feeble remnant all through these dark times.
In a separate book from the history of their inveterate sin, in so persistently going after other gods, the Holy Spirit records the touching history of Ruth. It is another glimpse of domestic life. The story of Micah (as I judge) is that of the general condition of the people, and is given in the same book as the general history. But Elimelech and his family are marked off as distinct from the mass. Yet how feeble his faith! The land of promise had ceased to be such for him. Sin had brought judgment in the shape of famine, and he goes into the country of Moab for bread. But this affords another instance of the overruling wisdom and grace of God, who would have another Gentile (see Tamar and Rahab) brought into the ancestral line of the promised Messiah. The Lord Jesus, even in the Jewish line from Abraham, was connected with the Gentiles who will come in for their part in millennial blessing, when the King of Israel reigns supreme. The genealogy in Luke shows the Lord Jesus made in the likeness of man, but it was marvelous grace to the Gentiles that the Lord, even in His Jewish ancestry, should have a Gentile element. Ruth's personal faith, and desire to be numbered with the people whom God had called and blessed, is refreshing amid the general departure. “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God.” (See Ruth 1 V. 17.) Orpah kissed Naomi, and left her; Ruth slave unto her, and she has the distinguished honor of a place in the royal line of David, and of David's King. (Matt. 1)
God in grace had been preparing for the sad condition of Israel. Samuel the prophet appears. His position is abnormal; the original (human) link is gone. The priest is slain, and the ark taken. Certainly, to raise up a prophet is a blessed intimation of the long-suffering of God; but the presence of such is equally a witness of the sin of the people. The function of a prophet is not so much to maintain relationship with God, as to awaken conscience, and prepare the way to restoration of those who have broken the bond between God and themselves. Samuel, prepared of God, stands in the gap; type of Him, the great Prophet, who stands in the breach now, while Israel is broken and scattered to the four winds. There is neither ark nor priest for them now, and their true King is not yet come in power. They are now such as was symbolically foreshadowed when Eli died, when Ichabod was born, and the glory departed.