(34) In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.
It was about 500 years before this period when, at the destruction of Jericho, Joshua pronounced a curse on the man that should rise up to build it again. But in the impious reign of Ahab, one of his subjects, more daring in impiety than the rest, calling to mind perhaps this prophecy, as if to make a jest both of God and his servant, undertook it; and the event exactly corresponded to the prediction. See Joshua 6:26. Who hath hardened himself against God, and hath prospered? Job 9:4
REFLECTIONS
PAUSE, my soul, over the reading of this chapter, and carefully mark the dreadful end of all the workers of iniquity! and what doth the history of all ungodly men furnish, whatever rank or situation they move in, but sad examples of the same. Under what striking images and similitudes doth the word of God represent them. They are said to be captives and slaves, the servants of sin, and that cannot cease from sin. And how do their lives give evidence, to the reality of such figures! For what is the wretched effect of carnal pursuit in the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life, but the hire, the wages, the sure reward, in the sorrow that must follow? And are not all characters of this description, however diversified in their different occupations and pursuits, treasuring up unto themselves sure misery, here in this life not unfrequently recompensed to them, and endless sorrow in that which is to come; and are not these like the covenanted wages of the hireling and the servant, which he expects and hath a right to, in the termination of his labour?
Blessed Jesus! how refreshing is the thought to thy people, that thou hast brought them out of the service of Satan, and made them free in thy service. Thou graciously didst search for them in their haunts of sin, when, like others, they were children of wrath, and were wandering far from thee, on the same mountains of iniquity, and vanity, and worldly enjoyments. And now, having brought them, by the illumination and conviction of thine Holy Spirit, into the bond of the covenant, thou preservest them from falling into those depths of sin which swallow up the ungodly. Dearest Jesus! be thou my Guide, my Counsellor, my Keeper, and my supreme joy; then sin shall not have dominion over me, nor the vanities of the world draw me into perdition. Having put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, I shall put on the new man, which after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.