JOSHUA COMMANDED TO DIVIDE THE LAND: THE CITIES AND BOUNDARIES OF THE TWO AND A HALF TRIBES
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Joshua 13:1. Old and stricken in years] Heb. = “old and come into days,” or “years.” A common form of expression for advanced age (Genesis 18:11; Genesis 24:1). Repeated of Joshua (chap. Joshua 23:1-2). There are no sufficient data for ascertaining Joshua’s exact age at this time. Josephus (Ant. v. 1. 29) says that Joshua lived twenty-five years after the death of Moses. This would make Joshua eighty-five years of age at the time of Moses’ death, and about ninety-two at the date marked by this verse, according well with his death, about eighteen years later, at the age of one hundred and ten years (chap. Joshua 24:29). If these figures are correct, Joshua was six or seven years older than Caleb (chap. Joshua 14:5).
Joshua 13:2. The borders of the Philistines] Lit. = “the circles,” “the circumference.” The Philistines were not Canaanites, but were descended from Mizraim, through Casluhim (Genesis 10:6; Genesis 10:13-14; 1 Chronicles 1:8; 1 Chronicles 1:11-12). They must therefore be regarded as belonging to the second rather than the fourth branch of the great Hamitic race. In Genesis 21:32; Genesis 21:34; Genesis 26:1; Genesis 26:8, the Philistines are named as already inhabiting the neighbourhood of Gerar, in the extreme south-west of Palestine. In Deuteronomy 2:23, we find them as “the Caphtorim which came forth out of Caphtor,” destroying “the Avim,” and making an encroachment northwards to Azzah (afterwards Gaza), and establishing themselves in what was subsequently known as “the land of the Philistines,” or “the plain of the Philistines.” They are more than once mentioned as Caphtorim by the prophets (Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7). They are sometimes called “Cherethites” (1 Samuel 30:14; Ezekiel 25:15-16; Zephaniah 2:4-6), who are repeatedly named with “the Pelethites” (2 Samuel 8:18; 1 Kings 1:38; 1 Kings 1:44). In view of this interchange of such names as point to the origin of the Philistines, perhaps it is safest to accept the hint given elsewhere by the prophets (Jeremiah 25:20; Jeremiah 25:24; Ezekiel 30:5), and regard them, in common with some other races included in the phrase, as a “mingled people.” This, too, is in part sustained by the probable meaning of the word “Philistines” “Philistæa = prop, ‘the land of wanderers,’ ‘strangers;’ LXX.—’Ἀλλόφυλοι, γῆ Ἀλλοφύλων.” [Gesen.] The language of the Philistines is held to have been Shemitic rather than Hamitic. Perhaps this merely points to a very early contact of these nomadic Casluhim and Caphtorim with some of the Shemitic families; e.g., Abimelech and his people with Abraham and Isaac, as above. Geshuri] Not the same as “the border of the Geshurites,” in chap. Joshua 12:5, but a district south of Philistia, on the way towards Arabia.
Joshua 13:3. Sihor] Or Shichor=“the Black River.” Thought by some to mean here the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. This has been controverted by Raumer and others. Keil says: “The Sihor, which is before (on the east of) Egypt, can be no other than the Nachal Mizraim (brook of Egypt), which is described as being the southern boundary of Canaan towards Egypt, not only in chap. Joshua 15:4; Joshua 15:47, and Numbers 34:5, but also in Isaiah 27:12, 1 Kings 8:65, and 2 Chronicles 7:8. It is the brook which flows into the Red Sea near to Rhinocorura (el Arish). In 1 Chronicles 13:5, this is actually called Shihor of Egypt.” The last passage shews that, in the time of David, the land had been taken as far south as this extreme boundary. To the borders of Ekron northward] Indicating the entire extent of the Philistine territory: although the Philistines were not a part of “the devoted people,” yet their land was “counted to the Canaanites,” i.e., it formed a part of Canaan proper. Ekron, now Akir; in 1Ma. 10:89 it is called Accaron. The city was celebrated for the worship of Baal-zebub, the fly-god (cf. 2 Kings 1:2). Gaza … Ashdoth … Gath] Cf. on chap. Joshua 11:22. Gath was the city of the Gittites. The Eshkalonites] Eshkalon, or Askelon, stood upon the sea coast, south of Ashdod It was taken by Judah (Judges 1:18), but is not named with the other Philistine cities, in chap. Joshua 15:45-47, as in the allotment of this tribe. The Avites] The former occupants of the land (Deuteronomy 2:23), some of whom may have been spared, and suffered to retain a part of the land.
Joshua 13:4. From the south] The Masoretic division of this verse is confusing, and is generally held to be incorrect. Groser’s remark seems to furnish the correct meaning: “The words ‘from the south’ have caused some difficulty, which disappears by reading them (as in the LXX. version) as a proper name,—‘from Teman,’ the former southern limits of the Avites’ territory. ‘All the land of the Canaanites’ seems to sum up what has gone before, and should be followed by a full stop. From ‘Mearah’ on the north-west, between Tyre and Sidon, to one of the Apheks on the east, bordering the old Amorite territory of Bashan.” [Joshua and his Successors]
Joshua 13:5. The Giblites] Probably the inhabitants of Gebal. The LXX. have “Biblians;,” the Vulg. “Giblians.” Gebal was apparently on the coast of Phœnicia, near to Sidon (cf. Ezekiel 27:9; Psalms 83:7; see also Marg. 1 Kings 5:18). Lebanon toward the sunrising] = The eastern range, i.e., Anti-Lebanon. The entering into Hamath] The valley of the Orontes, between the two ranges of Lebanon, and leading into Upper Syria, towards its chief city Hamath.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Joshua 13:1-7
GOD’S OUTLOOK UPON MAN’S LIFE, AND WORK, AND HOPES
The Lord, who had called His people to this war (chap. 1.), is here seen bidding them to rest from war. For nearly seven years they had been toiling and striving on the battle-fields of Canaan. Without this special commandment to rest, Joshua would probably have felt it to be his duty to go on with the conflict till every city was won, and there remained no more of the land to be possessed. The Divine command, while it may have wrought some anxiety of mind, must have been very welcome to Joshua personally. The aged warrior needed rest, and must have longed with deep desire to see the hosts of his people settled, each in their portion. This is given as a principal reason for the command to cease from war and proceed to the division of the land.
I. The outlook of God on a human life. “Thou art old and stricken in years.… now therefore divide this land.”
1. God has regard to the failure of our lives. We do not grow feeble unobserved. The gathering infirmities of the aged are watched, not merely by loving hearts on earth, they are seen also from heaven. God marks our failing strength. “He knoweth our frame.” “Few people know how to be old,” said La Rochefoucauld; and Madame de Stael, “It is difficult to grow old gracefully.” Vast numbers prove the sayings only too true. Joshua had been a noble exception. Ever since he went with Caleb and the other ten spies to search out the land, he had been putting on with each increasing year something more of the fear of God; and now, as an old man of well nigh a hundred years, he was full of wise kindness and gentleness towards his fellows, and of love to Him who had given him strength in so many marches, and victory in so many battles. And Jehovah had respect unto His servant, (a) God sees the failure of men who are conscious that they are failing. (b) God marks the failure of men who are careless of their infirmities, or who seek to hide them. Young has told us that old age should
“Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore
Of that vast Ocean it must sail so soon;”
but whether men heed their nearness to eternity or hide it, God daily watches their failing powers. Many years later He looked down upon the children of some of these very people whom Joshua led into the land, and said of Ephraim, “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.”
2. God thinks with sympathy on the hopes and disappointments of our lives. Joshua could not but have hoped to see the people settled in their lots. When Moses had to go up Mount Nebo and die, without leading the people into Canaan, it was regarded as a punishment. It was in mitigation of that punishment that he was permitted to see the land. So, doubtless, Joshua would have been disappointed had he been called away ere the people had received their inheritance. God had sympathy with the hopes of His servant. No less does our heavenly Father sympathise with our hopes, when they have regard to His glory and to His people’s joy.
3. God remembers the promises by which our hopes have been inspired and animated. Joshua had repeatedly received the promise that he should cause the people to inherit. It had been given through Moses (Deuteronomy 1:38; Deuteronomy 3:28; Deuteronomy 31:7; Deuteronomy 31:23). It had been given by God to Joshua directly (chap. Joshua 1:2-15). When God Himself has inspired our hopes and kept them alive, He will not suffer them to fail because of our weakness.
II. God’s contemplation of our life’s work. “There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” Very much of what Joshua had been wont to consider as his assigned labour would have to be left undone. Consider the following features in the Lord’s thought of us as engaged in His work:
1. He is self-contained and patient in view of our slowness. There is no word of reproach to Joshua. God takes time for His own work. The length of the geological periods. The quiet and steady succession of the seasons. The silent and gradual growth of animal and vegetable life. God can allow His servants time for their work. He who hastens not Himself, is not dependent on the haste of men. No purpose of His will fail because human hands are but weak. God is willing to allow His servants all time that is necessary. He measures our work, not by what we have done, but by how we have done.
2. He is very compassionate towards us in our weakness and weariness. Looking back on our past, He sees where we have left our strength. Beneath His considerate eye, every act which we have done from a right heart becomes the visible embodiment of so much of our departed power. In the Jerichoes and Beth-horons and Meroms which lie in the rear of His children’s march, He is pleased to behold monuments reared to His own name, each one being built out of so much of their freely offered might. Their work, at places, may be rough and poor, and may stand for little of good to men or of glory to Himself; there may be Ais in it, as well as Jerichoes; it is enough for Him that His people have been trying to serve Him, and that the process has exhausted them. When He comes to the place where He has to say, “Thou art old and stricken in years,” that is also the place where He loves to think of their long-cherished hopes, and to add, “Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance.” God sees where our strength has been poured out. He pities us in our weakness, and if we have been spending our might in His service, His compassion will not come to us empty-handed. He still loves to connect His pity with our rest, and with some inheritance. Jesus also says to His weary disciples, “Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile;” and the desert, like the sea immediately after, witnesses to new wonders both of His love and power (cf. Mark 6:31-51).
3. His compassion does not leave us to idleness, but merely leads Him to change our work, Joshua might cease from war, but he must proceed to divide the land. So with the disciples just referred to: the rest of the desert was but a change of work, and the rest of the sea came only in the peace which followed the storm. The “rest of faith” should not be inactivity. The rest of heaven will not be inactivity. Here or hereafter, the Lord does not make a heaven for us out of idleness within us.
III. The stateliness of God’s words and purposes. Bring together yet again the words of the opening and closing verses of the paragraph: “There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.… Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance.” The land which was not taken was apportioned with the same calmness as the land already conquered. (Compare chap. Joshua 13:2-4 a, with Joshua 15:45-47; also Joshua 13:4Joshua 13:4Joshua 13:4, with Joshua 19:24-48.) Had Israel been faithful, all would have been equally inherited.
Here, then, as we survey this calm assignment of the land of unconquered nations, we feel constrained to adoringly acknowledge that we are in a Presence far above our own. Like admiring David, when Divine mercy had spoken of his house “for a great while to come,” we can only say, This is not “the manner of man, O Lord God” (cf. also Isaiah 55:8-9). These are ways and thoughts which, in their combination of calmness and majesty, are “stamped with their own divinity.”
1. This lofty manner gives us a glimpse of the sublime repose of God in His own consciousness of infinitude. (a) Touching His enemies, He rests in His felt might. No word is spoken to assert the sufficiency of the might. Nothing so much as looks in that direction. There are no disturbing thoughts whatever. The power is so great, that the question of sufficiency does not even occur. (b) Touching His people, God rests in His love (cf. Zephaniah 3:17). For the present, God said to assure Joshua, “Them will I drive out.” These are words, however, the Israelites well knew must depend on their faithfulness, and must be remembered together with some other words to which they had often listened, and which were yet to be repeated (cf. Exodus 23:20-24; Numbers 33:52-56; chap, Joshua 23:11-13).
2. This lofty manner also belongs to the ministry of Jesus Christ. (a) It is manifest in all His miracles. He says, “Fill the water-pots with water;” “Give ye them to eat;” “Take ye away the stone.” The beginning of every miracle gives a pledge of the end, and the pledge is given in a manner peculiar to Christ Himself. Moses at the sea, or before the rock at Horeb, makes you feel his excitement. Elijah, standing on Carmel, or stretched on the body of the dead child at Sarepta, trembles in the consciousness of a mere humanity which is about to become the vehicle of a power so utterly beyond his own. Paul with dead Eutychus, and Peter with dead Dorcas, are ever so unlike Christ with the dead son of the widow, the dead daughter of the ruler, or dead Lazarus of Bethany. There is always this “manner of men” even when men in an unquestioning faith know they are to be aided to work the works of God; their manner is not the manner of Jesus Christ, (b) This feature is still more marvellously manifest in many of the Saviour’s promises and invitations. Examples: “If I be lifted up,” etc.; “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” “I am the bread of life; he that cometh to me,” etc.; “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” etc. (c) There is the same assuredness of outlook in the Saviour’s words of doom over the wicked. His prophetic denunciations over particular cities sometimes embrace a considerable amount of detail; and however full the detail, nothing is left contingent or ambiguous. His utterances have in them nothing of the ancient oracles; they provide but one meaning, and never so much as glance at the possibility of that meaning remaining unfulfilled. This is so in His dealing with Chorazin and Beth-saida, and the same calm realism pervades the words which announce the fall of Capernaum. He seems to speak from within His own unerring consciousness, looking with quiet sadness at the clear map of the inevitable future lying unfolded there, rather than in indignation against the offending cities themselves. Thus above Jerusalem, which would not be gathered to Him, He beholds the hovering eagles of Rome, around it He sees the trench of Titus, while within it He marks the would-be fugitives who are hastening from point to point, only to learn in an increasing terror that they ought to have escaped to the mountains yesterday. All this, and more, is seen in a calmness disturbed only by His tears, and proclaimed as unavoidable just because the people will have the sin which not even He can separate from the doom. In the same august knowledge and power He still waits upon His throne. He must reign. There may be much more land which, as yet, His people have not possessed. He treats it already as His own. Meanwhile, in a great and calm anticipation which has not even a thought that it can be otherwise, He sitteth in the heavens, “from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.
LESSONS.—
1. Touching our inheritance, how peaceful should be the rest of our faith!
2. How realistic and bright should be our hope!
3. How inevitable, to themselves, should seem the destruction of all the enemies of Christ!
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Joshua 13:1. OLD AGE IN ITS RELATION TO WORK.
“The words, ‘old and stricken in years,’ do not contain a tautology, but accurately express the period of life according to a division which was long familiar to the Jews, and may not have been unknown to them even at this early period. According to this division, old age consisted of three stages, the first extending from the sixtieth to the seventieth year, constituting the commencement of old age properly so called; the second extending from the seventieth to the eightieth year, and constituting what was called hoary, or hoary-headed age; and the third extending from the eightieth year to the end of life, and constituting what was called advanced age, and caused the person who had reached it to be described as one stricken in years. At this closing stage Joshua had now arrived.” [Ed. of Calvin, in loc.]
In this verse several important practical considerations are suggested. Read in connection with the history, we have brought under our notice—
I. A good man helped very much by God, but subject no less than others to the laws of nature. Joshua grew old. It was proper to say of him also that he was “stricken in years.” God’s love does not exempt any man from God’s laws. The holiest of men, in common with the wickedest, have ever been subject to “the wear and tear of life.” A poet said admiringly of the ocean,
‘Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow;”
but however much Time may spare the face of the ocean, it spares no man. Abraham was “the friend of God;” but of him also it is written, he “was old and well stricken in age.” David is spoken of as the man after God’s own heart; he had to write of himself, nevertheless, “I have been young, and now am old.” John was wont to speak of himself as “that disciple whom Jesus loved;” he, too, drifted presently into that consciousness of many years, which made it seem to him quite appropriate to address men around him as “little children.” Paul knew much, and wrote much, of the love and fellowship of Christ; it did not keep him from coming to that sense of years out of which he wrote of himself to Philemon, “being such an one as Paul the aged.” God’s love to us will give us no immunity from God’s laws. Why should it? His laws are not to be set over against Himself, as though He were on one side, and they were on another. His laws are the outcome of His love, and not something working contrary to His love. Not a few have learned that this law of physical decay is also a law of love. Many besides Job have looked gratefully at even the issues of decay, and have said in their turn also, “I would not live alway.” Yet in the stately march of time there seems something of unfeelingness. We measure the flight of time by our clocks, and how ruthlessly each individual clock seems to tick! A clock seems the embodiment of a living thing with absolutely no heart. Are we in joy? no pulse of the clock beats any faster. Are we in sorrow? the length of the tick is exactly the same. The thing has no sympathy—no bowels, as these ancient Hebrews would have said. Are we ill? nothing seems so unaffected by it as the clock. Are we strong in health, buoyant in spirits, cheered by some great victory, or made very glad by some of God’s good mercies? the clock seems absolutely indifferent. Are many lives depending for their rescue on two or three more minutes ere a tide flows or a train is due? the clock will not vary a single second for them all; it will not oven go faster; it has no delight in the deaths, and no concern in the lives; it is so aggravatingly itself. An heir is born to a throne; a city is moved with joy, and a whole kingdom is excited with gladness; even the iron cannon that greet the new life seem to put on an unusual loudness; but the clock puts on simply nothing, and puts off nothing. It is the same when people die. However great they may have been, however good, it makes no difference; through the long hours of the night in which loving watchers wait around the bed of the sufferer; amidst the interruption of the dying man’s groans, and over the silence of his exhaustion; while friends anxiously stoop to see if the breathing has ceased, and when it has ceased; as if in contempt of the first bursts of passionate grief in the bereaved, and of indifference to the mute despair by which the passion may be followed: always, and everywhere, that eternal tick of the clock remains the same. With movement enough and rhythm enough to seem sentient, a clock is as impassible as a mass of cast iron which has been lying for ages in the same place; it is as indifferent as the Pyramids themselves.
After all, these clocks are only our obedient servants. They are the faithful registrars of time. It is Time which is so ruthless—so sternly indifferent. And yet this sternness of Time is God’s kindness through Time. Like the good surgeon, who cannot afford to weep with his patient while he uses his knife, but who uses it unflinchingly as the only possible way of using it beneficially, so Time deals with his subjects. Thus it comes to pass that the man loved much of his God fails even as others. It is only our mistake when we cry, as we are all apt to cry, and that with little more variation than the two sisters of Bethany, “Lord, if THOU hadst been here, my brother had not died.” God was with Joshua in the triumphs of Jordan, of Jericho, of Ai, of Beth-horon, and of Hazor; for all that, Joshua’s end was coming fast. God would have His people inherit a better Canaan than any down here, and the way into that also lies through a wilderness and across a river—the wilderness of decay and the Jordan of death.
II. An old man taught by God to regard his age as a motive for diligence. There was yet another great work for Joshua to do; he was to divide the entire land of Canaan among the people, and God virtually reminded His servant that if this were to be done at all it must be done at once. Many Christians seem to think it quite enough to have been active in early life, and quite becoming to do almost nothing when a ripened experience and a maturer wisdom might enable them to render to the Church a more valuable service than ever. It is recorded of John Wesley, that preaching one evening at Lowestoft, when he was exceedingly old and infirm, he was attended, and almost supported, in the pulpit by a young minister on each side. “The chapel was crowded to suffocation. In the course of the sermon he repeated, though with an application of his own, the lines from Anacreon:
‘Oft am I by woman told,
Poor Anacreon! thou grow’st old;
See, thine hairs are falling all;
Poor Anacreon! how they fall!
Whether I grow old or no,
By these signs I do not know;
By this I need not be told
’Tis time TO LIVE, if I grow old.’ ”
Perhaps no better example of diligence in old age has ever been given to men than that set by Wesley. Other aged men might think it “time to die,” or, at least, “time to be idle,” when burdened with the weight of many years; he found in his passing strength a renewed call to Christian earnestness. The aged, also, have their duties. They should hear in their infirmities the reiteration of their Lord’s word: “The night cometh when no man can work.” God teaches aged Joshua that he can yet serve his fellows by dividing the land.
III. A diligent man, who had been diligent all his life, having to feel that he must leave much of his work to others. Joshua had been led to regard the work of driving out the Canaanites as peculiarly his own. Now it had become evident that he must leave the work incomplete. No doubt God intended this. He had wise purposes yet to fulfil through the people who were unsubdued. To Joshua, however, it must have seemed, at times, as though his own special work had to be left in an unfinished state. Thus, too, was Moses called away. He had been called by God to lead the Israelites into Canaan; he was summoned away while they were yet in the wilderness. There are thousands who seem called to some great life-work, and who, when only well into the midst of it, have to retire from it, saying like Job, “My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.”
1. Men should set themselves no work in life in which they would not be overtaken by infirmity and death. Failure of strength comes irrespective of the task in which men spend their strength. The most miserable outlook which this life can unfold to any man is at that point of infirm helplessness in the present from which not a few have to look backwards on many years which have been worse than useless, and forwards to an eternity which is utterly hopeless.
2. Life, and history, and Scripture, alike join in saying to every man, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” The young are apt to think that whatever else they may want, they have plenty of time; the aged get to feel that there is nothing which they need so much.
“Youth is not rich in time, it may be poor:
Part with it as with money, sparing; pay
No moment, but in purchase of its worth:
And what its worth, ask death-beds, they can tell.”
Young.
He who would not feel bankrupt in the possession of time when standing on the margin of eternity, should learn to change each available moment, as it passes, into the imperishable wealth of something done for his fellows, and thus for his God. That is the only wealth of ours which can be ferried to the other side, and that alone will have any kind of currency with the Lord of Life who awaits us there; for while our entrance into His presence will be all of His work, and not at all of our own, yet has he been pleased to announce His readiness to read our faith in Himself through true service rendered to His people, and to greet each believing worker with the welcome, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
IV. A man with his life nearly done and his labour unfinished able to rest in the love of God both for himself and his work. Whatever frailty might have overtaken Joshua physically, and whatever of incompleteness might be manifest in the great task of his life, everything was rendered beautiful by his relation to God. After speaking of the appearance of some of our English ruins which he had been visiting, and of the delight which they had given him even in their decay, Nathaniel Hawthorne exclaims: “Oh that we could have ivy in America! What is there to beautify us when our time of ruin comes?” That which is outward may bear marks of decay; yet it may be even more beautiful in its ruins than it has ever been in its strength. “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.” Beautiful as is Joshua’s life in its strength, it is nowhere more beautiful than in the integrity and faith attending this closing work of his life (e.g. Chapter s Joshua 22:1-6; Joshua 23; Joshua 24). He who walks always in the obedience of faith and the joy of love will be ever moving into a life more peaceful to himself, and more beautiful to those by whom he is surrounded.
Joshua 13:2-6.—THE LORD’S INTEREST IN THE UNFINISHED LABOURS OF HIS SERVANTS.
The verses suggest for consideration the following thoughts:—
I. The items of our unfulfilled labour as being all observed and counted by God. Philistia, Phœnicia, and the region of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon were not yet subdued. God saw all that had been conquered, and all that was unconquered. The very boundaries describing the uncompleted labour are carefully defined. It is well that our prayers should also have regard to the “things which we have left undone.”
II. Our unfulfilled labour as being met by the promised help of God. “Them will I drive out,” etc. (Joshua 13:6). God is not unconcerned about that which His servants have done. He also, as well as they, regards with interest the work which they have been unable to finish. He meets His servants’ desires touching their unfinished work both with sympathy and with promises.
III. The promises of God as being only fulfilled to His servants when they walk with God. Some parts of this territory never were subdued by the Israelites. Occasionally they lost some land which had been conquered. This was in strict accordance with God’s word, which had repeatedly declared that all the people should not be driven out if the Israelites transgressed.
IV. The promises of God, where they are unfulfilled through His servants’ sins, becoming the very ground on which His servants sufferings are most severe. Some of these very people whose defeat was covenanted to Israel by this promise, became the source of Israel’s greatest pain and shame in the future (cf. Numbers 33:55; Judges 2:1-5; Judges 10:6-9; Judges 13:1; 1 Samuel 4). When Balaam went to curse the Israelites, he could only bless them. With God for them, the false-hearted prophet could only cry, “How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?” With God for us, there can be no curse against us; with God against us, our very blessings may become the sorest curse of all (Malachi 2:2). An unfulfilled promise should be a cause of fear. Something must be wrong when the word of the faithful God is found returning void.
“God orders the whole inheritance to be divided into tribes, and the whole line of the Mediterranean coast which was possessed by the enemy to be put into the lot. A division of this kind might indeed seem absurd and ludicrous, nay, a complete mockery, seeing they were dealing among themselves with the property of others just as if it had been their own. But the Lord so appointed for the best of reasons.
“First. They might have cast away the hope of the promise, and been contented with their present state. Nay, although after the lot was cast they had security in full for all that God had promised, they by their own cowardice, as far as in them lay, destroyed the credit of His words. Nor was it owing to any merit of theirs that His veracity did not lie curtailed and mutilated. The allocation by lot must therefore have been to them an earnest of certain possession so as to keep them always in readiness for it.
“Secondly. Those who happened to have their portion assigned in an enemy’s country, inasmuch as they were living in the meanwhile as strangers on precarious hospitality beyond their own inheritance, must have acted like a kind of taskmasters spurring on the others. And it surely implied excessive stupor to neglect and abandon what had been divinely assigned to them.
“Thirdly. It was also necessary that the seat of each tribe should be allocated while Joshua was alive, because after his death the Israelites would have been less inclined to obedience; for none of his successors possessed authority sufficient for the execution of so difficult a task.” [Calvin.]