CRITICAL NOTES.—
Joshua 2:22. Abode there three days] One clear day, and part of two others. The spies were probably sent out on the sixth of Abib; on the evening of the same day as that on which they arrived at Jericho they escaped to the mountain; they waited in hiding there throughout the next day, and through the night and the day and the greater part of the night following, when they returned to Joshua, and made their report.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Joshua 2:22-24
WITH AND “WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD”
I. He who watches and works without God, watches and works in vain. The king of Jericho had sent to take the spies, but they escaped out of his hand; “the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not.” “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain;” so, apparently, out of the rich experience of his life the aged David counselled his son and successor in “The Song of degrees for Solomon.” The children of God, when they are without the presence of their heavenly Father, labour as much in vain as the greatest idolater or infidel. The king of Jericho and his pursuers fail; equally do the Israelites themselves, when a week or two later they go up without God against Ai. Moses well said, “If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.”
II. He who goes out under the care of God is safe from the wrath of man. If Rebekah and Jacob had not lied, the younger son would still have inherited the blessing. The promise of God needed no falsehood of men to make it into a truth. If Rahab had said only the thing which was right, God could with equal ease have secured the safety of these His two servants. Even had it been otherwise, they had been no less safe; they fall well, who fall into their Father’s arms. Where God does not bless our righteous efforts to preserve ourselves, we need not seek safety in sin. Those were noble blushes which rose on the face of Ezra, when he said, “I was ashamed to require of the king a band of men and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way” (cf. Ezra 8:21-23). Paul in his perils; Luther at Worms; Wesley preaching under threats of violence and falling stones.
III. He who reports the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord can never report too confidently or too cheerfully. The ten spies had given the report of fear; these give the report of faith. The giants and the Anakim were probably as huge as they were forty years before, the cities walled up as near to heaven, and the Israelites no larger than they were formerly; but where fear then saw grasshoppers in the presence of giants, faith said now, “Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land.” The message of these two men to Joshua was full of confidence, full of cheerfulness, and full of praise. They thanked God for victories yet to come.
1. He who makes the best of everything which concerns God, serves God and men much better than he who is timid and doubting and depressed. It is quite possible to make too much of the work of men; we cannot well over-report God. Too many modern servants are far more like the ten spies than the two.
2. A bad report of Divine things is not only injurious to others, but most harmful to ourselves. Good Bp. Hall well said, “Our success or discomfiture begins ever at the heart. A man’s inward disposition doth more than presage the event. If Satan sees us once faint, he gives himself the day. There is no way to safety, but that our hearts be the last that shall yield.” We have need to keep our heart with all diligence; for out of it, even in this sense, there are issues of life. The glad confidence in Christ which some constantly manifest carries its own reward; for “the joy of the Lord is their strength,” and hardly less strength to all who are sufficiently with them to catch the enthusiasm of their praise.