THE GOING HOME OF THE EASTERN TRIBES
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Joshua 22:1. Then Joshua called] “As the return of the armed men belonging to the two tribes and a half is only described in general terms, by ‘âz,’ as occurring somewhere about the same time as the events related before, it would not be at all at variance with the text to suppose that they were dismissed immediately after the conclusion of the wars. But such an assumption is disproved by Joshua 22:9, where they are said to have been dismissed from Shiloh, to which the Israelites only proceeded during the distribution of the land (chap. Joshua 18:1), by Joshua 22:12, and also by the fact that their presence was necessary when the Levitical cities were selected, for this concerned them as much as the other tribes.” [Keil.]
Joshua 22:4. Get you unto your tents] It is not necessary to suppose that the cities of Eastern Palestine needed rebuilding before the two and a half tribes could exchange their tents for houses. The people had been so long used to dwelling in tents, that very many years elapsed before this phrase was entirely discarded (1 Kings 8:66; 1 Kings 12:16, etc.). The families of these 40,000 men, we are specially told in Numbers 32:10, were to retire to the fenced cities.
Joshua 22:5. The commandment and the law]=“The mitsvah and the torah.” Probably the former referred to special commandments given through Moses, Joshua, and other individual teachers; the latter, to the written law. given for their ordinary religious guidance.
Joshua 22:8. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren] Those who had remained in Eastern Palestine were to share in these riches. This was as God had already ordained (Numbers 31:27), and as David again instructed the people in after years (1 Samuel 30:24).
Joshua 22:9. The land of Canaan … the country of Gilead] Canaan is here put for Canaan proper, in opposition to Gilead, which stands for Gilead and Bashan, inclusively.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Joshua 22:1-9
THE FAITHFUL PAST AND THE IMPORTUNATE FUTURE
The war being substantially over, Joshua proceeded to dismiss the two and a half tribes to their homes. The exact time of this dismissal is not recorded, but it was evidently after the setting up of the tabernacle at Shiloh (cf. Joshua 22:9, chap. Joshua 18:1). Although the Canaanites were subdued, so that they could not stand before the children of Israel, yet they were not conquered entirely. The two and a half tribes had promised Moses that they would not return to their homes on the east of Jordan until their brethren had received “every man his inheritance.” If this promise had not been completely fulfilled, that was not the fault of the eastern tribes, but of their brethren, who were “slack to go to possess the land.” Thus, considering that they had honourably discharged their engagement through Moses, Joshua freely dismissed these forty thousand men to their own inheritance.
This passage brings under our notice the following points of interest:—
I. Arduous service faithfully rendered. These men had striven year after year, keeping “all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded them.”
1. Faithful service given, irrespective of either sphere or time. The sphere was the field of battle. The labour was the toil of war. It was amid perils and carnage and blood that these men continued true. They knew not when they might be free to meet again their fathers and mothers, their wives and children. Campaign followed campaign, and still the grim strife went on. None knew when it would be finished. All of them must often have been weary. Notwithstanding things like these, no one is said to have deserted. Each waited till he was discharged. Men often excuse themselves from the service of the Lord, who might find a rebuke in the conduct of these faithful soldiers. “There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his Master.” The taunt of Nabal, undeserved by David, is often merited by others. Men get disappointed with their sphere. It is not what they expected. They forget that they too stand pledged to a battle-field. Men get wearied with the long term of their service. They think it is high time that their place in the ranks should be filled by others. For such it is written, “Be thou faithful unto death.”
2. Faithful service maintained in view of that which was fair and right. The western tribes had helped to win the inheritance of the eastern tribes (cf. Numbers 21:21-35). Thus this service which the eastern tribes had been rendering to their brethren of the west was the discharge of a debt. The debt was fairly due; it was just and right that it should be paid. How much do we owe to others? How much of the estate which we enjoy to-day has been won for us by men who have gone before us, and by men who are about us now? (a) Think of our inheritance of property and position. Much of that which most men possess has come from others. The position in which men are able to earn their livelihood is generally owing very much to the labour and endurance of predecessors. No man has any right to spend all his money on himself. Much is owing to men. (b) Think of our inheritance as citizens. Our liberties are born of the labours, and imprisonments, and bereavements, and death of many who have gone before. Others are toiling now, that we may inherit and enjoy our privileges as citizens. Some Christian people look on political activity as almost sinful. The true state of the case is exactly the opposite; it is sinful not to render such political service as we can. It is a debt we owe. God has given us no more right to be selfish and idle here than elsewhere. (c) Think of our inheritance in social life. Our family mercies, and our privileges in our own circle of friends are, in many instances, so much that has been won for us and preserved to us by our fellows. Something is owing to men here. (d) Think of our inheritance in the world of literature and science and art. “Other men have laboured,” etc. Our joy in this great realm represents so much toil and brain, so much weariness and pain and disease in the lives of our brethren. Something is owing from us to those who are ignorant. Where we can pay a little of this great debt back, there our service is due. (e) Think, above all, of our inheritance in the realm of religion. Every conscientious man should sometimes have visions of the suffering servants of Christ who have preceded him in the conflicts of this glorious kingdom. What a panorama of smitten and wounded men might well pass before us all! Bunyan in his prison; Milton deprived of office and comforts; Knox confronting his sovereign; Luther journeying wearily, but with tremendous energy, to Worms; the generations of ardent workers and patient sufferers; the imprisoned fugitives of the catacombs; the gory forms, torn of beasts, or smitten with swords, bleeding for us in the amphitheatre; the noble army of martyrs, fighting for our inheritance; and then, back of all this, the cross of Jesus. “O Lord God, truly I am Thy servant!” “We are not our own; we are bought with a price.” The two and a half tribes fought to pay a debt; our debt is far greater than theirs.
3. Faithful service continued in view of a promise which had been given. These men had pledged themselves to this conflict (Numbers 32:16-19; Numbers 32:25-27). That pledge they had faithfully kept. “Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day.” Time should make no difference to promises. Unexpected toil should make no difference. Neither many years nor sore conflicts should ever wear our promises threadbare.
4. Faithful service rendered not for personal gain, but for the welfare of brethren The inheritance of the two and a half tribes was won already, at the time of crossing the Jordan. Every march they made was for the inheritance of others. Every blow they struck was for a brother. Every victory they helped to win was a victory to add to the possessions of some one else. There is no more honourable service in the whole record of the seven years’ war in Canaan, than this which speaks of the steady faithfulness of these eastern tribes. Our conflicts for our own inheritance are necessary; it is our strife for the inheritance of our brethren which is noble.
5. Faithful service given in view of what was expected by God. It was not simply that they had promised Moses, or that duty to their brethren imposed upon them this arduous task. God also required of these men that they should be found faithful. Not to help their brethren would be sinful. “If ye will not do so, behold ye have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Thus did these forty thousand helpers of the brethren go on with their patient task. Not only did men deserve this service; God expected it. Gratitude to Him would allow of nothing less. How much do we owe to God? What is God expecting from us? How far, in the past, have we fallen short of that which God required at our hands?
II. Faithful service gratefully acknowledged. When men serve their fellows, they not seldom are left to reflect on the unthankfulness of their fellows; when men serve God, they are never left to feel that they have served in vain. The true servant of God manifests the spirit of God.
1. Joshua acknowledges the services of these men in words of sincere commendation. He praised them for having obeyed Moses, obeyed himself, for having been steadfast to their brethren, and for having kept faithfully the commandments of the Lord (Joshua 22:2-3).
2. Joshua acknowledges their services by generous gifts (Joshua 22:8). The two and a half tribes seem to have had allotted to them a fair share of the spoil. It was so abundant that even these forty thousand warriors might share it with their brethren. They who serve the Lord’s true servants will not be suffered to serve in vain; much more will they who serve the Lord Himself be abundantly repaid. Even the cup of cold water, given in the name of Christ, shall “in no wise lose its reward.” “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love.”
III. Indebtedness to the future arising out of the faithful past.
1. The past gave new obligations to watchfulness. “Take diligent heed” (Joshua 22:5). They who had been so careful not to fail were to feel more constrained to watchfulness than ever.
2. The past gave new obligations to obedience. “Take heed to do the commandment,” etc. No child of God is allowed to take relaxation in sin. He who has been faithful for long must never say, “I will now rest awhile.” A good past must never be a motive to an indifferent present. Instead of this, it is ever written, in some way or other, “Hold fast that which thou hast.”
3. The past gave new obligations to love God. “Love the Lord your God.” Love never remits any of her claims. If we have loved God, His love can suffer no diminution in ours. True love has an infinity of room for increase, but no mind for decrease. God desires that we love Him more; He is never willing that we should love Him to-day any less than we loved Him yesterday.
4. The past gave new obligations to be generous to men (Joshua 22:9). “Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.” The men who had given generous service were to go on and crown the edifice of an exalted character by bestowing generous gifts.
The man who has a good past stands committed to goodness through all eternity. Every good day of life makes the obligations of to-morrow so much more onerous. Character is so much moral stock, and he who recklessly throws away a fortune is poor indeed. Spiritual life is so much spiritual property, and he who rushes from such riches to bankruptcy must know an agony of loss, of which a poorer man could have no conception. The gipsy might burn his ragged tent, and walk on, thinking himself not much the poorer; the owner of a mansion, with many perishable treasures within, could not leave the ruins of his similarly destroyed abode saving with a heavy heart. The thief of many years commits one more theft, and seems to add but little to his pain; but woe to the man convicted of stealing, who has behind him a long and honest life. It goes hard with obedient Moses when he once turns rebel, and the ardent and loving Peter cannot deny Christ with as little cost in tears and anguish as can Caiaphas or Herod. God proposes to forget our sins. He never proposes to forget our faithfulness and love, and we never can forget them either. We may get cold for a season, forgetting the claims of bygone prayers and ardent worship, of former earnest service and fervent love. No man can do that with impunity. He who has been true will presently discover that his falseness is so much terrible sorrow. He too will find himself saying:
“Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord?”
He who begins to serve his brethren is beginning that which, while strength and opportunities continue, he can never leave off. The man who begins to serve God is beginning that which in eternity itself he can never lay aside. This is no bondage, saving the bondage of love. The path of the just “shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” He who fights the battles of the Lord can know nothing of retreats. He may change the field; he must go on with the conflict. Canaan or Gilead, it matters not which; the very faithfulness that has been calls urgently, “Be diligent.” The noble past ever cries importunately for a still nobler future.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Joshua 22:2.—OBEDIENCE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR TRIUMPH. Our conflicts with the enemies of our life are God’s opportunities, in which He would see us triumph over ourselves.
GOD’S LIBERAL CONSTRUCTION OF OUR OBEDIENCE. He who says of our sin, “He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all,” says no less of even our feeble and broken services, when they are rendered from loving and true hearts, “Ye have kept all that was commanded you.”
OBEDIENCE AS A DUTY.—“Brethren, what eber de good God tell me in dis blessed book to do, dat I’m gwine to do. If I see in it dat I must jump troo a stone wall, I’m gwine to jump at it. Goin’ troo it belongs to God, jumpin’ at it belongs to me.”—[Negro Preacher.]
OBEDIENCE IN ALL THINGS.—“To obey God in some things of religion, and not in others, shews an unsound heart. Childlike obedience moves towards every command of God, as the needle points in that direction from which the loadstone draws.”—[Watson.]
“A soul sincerely obedient will not pick and choose what commands to obey, and what to reject, as hypocrites do. An obedient soul is like a crystal glass with a light in the midst, which shines forth through every part thereof. A man sincerely obedient lays such a charge upon his whole man as Mary the mother of Christ did upon all the servants at the feast in Cana: ‘Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.’ ”—[Brooks.]
THE BENEFITS OF OBEDIENCE.—“In evil times it fares best with them who are most careful about duty, and least about safety.—[Hammond.]
Joshua 22:3.—FIDELITY AND ITS RESULTS.
I. Fidelity to brethren provoking the gratitude of brethren.
II. Fidelity to God eliciting the commendation of God’s servant.
III. Fidelity to men and God the only true fidelity to self.
Joshua 22:4.—ENTERING INTO REST.
I. Rest according to the purpose and promise of God. “The Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as He promised them.” This is ever the secret of all true rest. Rest begins in God. Rest is wrought out by God. Rest is completed and given by God. Our efforts are but the channels through which His purposes and promises run into the ocean of accomplishment. The fighting of all the thousands of Israel had still left the land to be obviously and most manifestly a Divine gift. The seven years’ toil of men could hardly so much as begin to obscure the centuries of the mercy of Jehovah. Many promises, steady persistence, and mighty miracles on the part of God, had left no room for a single Israelite to be tempted to say, “We won the land by our gigantic efforts and brilliant strategy and persevering toil.” Probably there was not an Israelite who did not see that this “rest” had in it far more of God’s giving than of man’s getting. It is not less so in that higher rest towards which God’s children are pressing now. The Lord may do His part of the work more hiddenly than of old; His working is none the less actual. The centuries of His preparing mercy can never be shorn of their glory by the few years of our feeble and broken struggles. The secret of true rest is ever in God’s gift.
II. Rest through the service of our fellow-men. “Now therefore return ye.” That is to say, though the rest was God’s gift, He had bestowed it through men.
1. The gift of God comes through human efforts. These forty thousand men had been some of His instruments. Now that the rest was won, they might go home. God left room for these eastern tribes to feel that they had helped to bring about this good issue. God gave occasion for the western tribes to feel that, in part, they were indebted for rest to their brethren. As a father, leaning over the shoulder of his little child, leaves the child some ground to suppose that it is carrying the heavy burden, which is really borne by the strength of the parent; so, in bearing the burdens of life, God leaves us room to suppose that we are doing much ourselves, and that we can do much to help each other. However much we may seem to be lifting, and however many of our fellows may grasp the burden to help us, God’s hand ever reaches over from behind us, and bears the bulk of the load. The child of God who is spiritually sagacious, will sometimes, at least, glance upward, and detecting the heavenly Father’s hand, feel glad to sing, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee.”
2. The efforts of others are made a necessary help to our own. Who can look on the dividing of the Jordan, the overthrow of Jericho, or the miracle at Beth-horon, and not feel how readily God could have dispensed with any services which could be rendered by these eastern soldiers? Yet God would have them to help also. It is God’s way: He loves to make us feel that we can aid our brother: He loves to make our brethren feel that they cannot do without our assistance.
“Needful auxiliars are our friends, to give
To social man true knowledge of himself.
Full on ourselves, descending in a line,
Pleasure’s bright beam is feeble in delight:
Delight intense is taken by rebound;
Reverberated pleasures fire the breast.”
Young.
Thus does God work out our rest by His personal love and might, command our own patient and energetic efforts ere we can enter in, and make us no less dependent on the service of our brethren for a really glad inheritance.
III. Rest won for others, and thereby obtained and established for ourselves. “Therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession.” And these men of the eastern tribes would go home all the more gladly because of the help which they had been able to give to their brethren.
1. Their inheritance would be richer. They would have the joy of a good conscience superadded to the possession of a rich estate.
2. Their inheritance would be more secure. If the western land had not been as fully conquered as it was, the eastern possessions could not have been so safe. In helping to drive out Canaanites from the land west of the Jordan, they had been freeing the eastern territory from powerful foes.
3. Their inheritance would be more complete. The tabernacle was in the western land. The only place of worship was there. Without a well-conquered west, no full religious service could be enjoyed by the east. The eastern contingent had been making provision for the richest portion of their estate. They, too, wanted a “part in Jehovah” (cf. Joshua 22:24-25; Joshua 22:27). Thus the rest which these men had helped to win for others was so much more rest added to themselves. By serving others, they had secured an estate in safety, an estate in a good conscience, and an estate in the worship of Jehovah. God ever makes us thus dependent on others. To help others is a necessity to ourselves. No man can afford to live without helping some one else. Even of the realm of thought and mental activity, Emerson wrote: “We have social strengths. Our affection towards others creates a sort of vantage or purchase which nothing will supply. I can do that by another, which I cannot do alone. I can say to you what I cannot first say to myself. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.” It is ever “more blessed to give than to receive.” He who imparts possesses. He who helps others much continually enriches his own inheritance. Nowhere is this so true as in spiritual service. To lead many into the rest of Christ, is to be very rich in the peace which passeth all understanding.
LIVING FOR OTHERS
Life is nowhere so beautiful as where it is unselfish. The fairest thing in the world is that which is all and altogether for others,—the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In one sense it is true that “No man liveth unto himself;” in another aspect, men are often profoundly selfish. These men, who formed what has been called “the auxiliary force” in this war, spent seven years of their lives for their brethren. They were in the army on behalf of their brethren, and instead of their brethren. They may represent to us several phases of vicarious life.
I. Vicarious conflicts. They were fighting in the place of their brethren left on the east of Jordan. They were fighting on behalf of all Israel. Life has many vicarious conflicts. Every soldier who fights for his country, fights in the stead of others. Every true soldier of Jesus is fighting the Lord’s battles against sin on behalf of all mankind.
II. Vicarious service. All the work of these men was not on the battle-field. Incidentally, during those seven years. they would have helped their brethren in many other ways. In addition to outward services, they were cheering their brethren by their assistance, and setting an example of self-denial to all. And these were the men whose service stands commended as among the noblest offered during the war. He who lives for others now, will find his name no less honourably commended by Jesus Christ. To him, also, it shall presently be said: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
III. Vicarious suffering. These forty thousand men were suffering self-denial. They were kept from their wives and families. They had to suffer the weariness of arduous marchings and countermarchings. They had to undergo all the privations common to an army actively engaged. They had to risk the dangers of battle, and probably to suffer the pain of wounds, and of disease brought on by exposure. Partly by their sufferings Israel entered into rest. He who suffers for others enters into the peace of Him “who loved us and gave Himself for us.” The Saviour gives us His own glory most fully, when we most completely follow His own example (cf. John 17:22). Not as an arbitrary arrangement, but as the outcome of a spiritual law, he who humbly and patiently bears a heavy cross presently possesses a glorious crown.
WAR EXCHANGED FOR PEACE.—There can be nothing more sad than to thoughtfully contemplate an army newly mobilised for war. It is terrible to think of strong men, trained to this grim business, coming together with the deliberate intention of killing as many as they can of other strong men. It is proportionately beautiful to think of an army being disbanded;—thousands of men, marching every one to his home, to keep, and to cultivate, and to enjoy God’s good gift of peace. Among the finest fancies of Nathaniel Hawthorne, none is more beautiful than that rich conception of peace which he has embodied in half a line: “Cannon transformed into church bells.” One is led to think of the very metal, so lately bellowing thunder and pouring death, as taking an almost sentient share in the holy gladness of peace.
Joshua 22:5.—REASONABLE SERVICE.
This verse may have special reference to what is known as the “Second Law,” beginning in Deuteronomy 5. It succinctly repeats some of the very phrases of Moses.
God had long fought for the Israelites, and had now given them peace. Joshua pleads with them, very much as Paul pleads with us: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” God’s gift of rest was to be answered by their tribute of obedience.
I. The duty to be done. “Do the commandment and the law.” “Walk in His ways.”
II. The concern to be manifested. “Take diligent heed to do,” etc.
1. Anxious watchfulness.
2. Holy activity.
III. The spirit and power of performance. “Love the Lord your God.” Love would help them to discern the law. Love would quicken their activity in doing the law. Love would make them delight in the law.
IV. The disposition to be cultivated.
1. Dependence and constancy. “Cleave unto Him.” Keeping very near to Him, you will less wish to depart from Him. The force of attraction diminishes with the distance of separation.
2. Humility and fidelity. “Serve Him.” Do not object to serve. Serve Him only.
V. The honour to be rendered.
1. Service with undivided affection. “Serve Him with all your heart.” Love was to render an allegiance wanting nothing in delight and joy.
2. Service with all the strength of the life. “And with all your soul.” (The word used is nephesh, “the breath,” “that by which the body lives;” also, “the mind.” Compare Gr. ψυχή as opposed to πνεῦμα.) Life was to render an allegiance wanting nothing in mind, nothing in will, and nothing in energy.
MORE LIBERTY, AND FRESH OBLIGATIONS TO SERVICE.—“Joshua thus releases and frees them from temporary service, that he may bind them for ever to the authority of the one true God. He therefore permits them to return home, but on the condition that wherever they may be they are to be the soldiers of Jehovah; and he at the same time prescribes the mode, namely, the observance of His law.”—[Calvin.]
Joshua 22:6.—BLESSING A MULTITUDE.
I. In this life men are often blessed in the mass, and seemingly are all blessed alike. Some of these soldiers merited every good word that was spoken. Probably some deserved no blessing at all. There may have been those in the host who were idle, and careless, and cowardly; who, although they were formally present, sought not to serve men nor to glorify God. It is not possible that equal merit should have prevailed throughout the multitude. Yet all these men were blessed with the same words. The indifferent were blessed in the same words as the earnest; the brave, in the same words as the cowardly. Blessing must needs be unevenly administered in this life. Men cannot judge each other accurately, nor administer favours impartially. Even God blesses men in this same manner. Were everybody to be blessed according to a set scale of merit, goodness would become artificial.
1. God blesses all men, omitting none. Over all the vast multitude of the sons of men does He pour the mercies of the day, the mercies of the seasons, and the mercies of revolving years.
“Yon sun,
Lights it the great alone? You silver beams,
Sleep they less sweetly on the cottage thatch
Than on the dome of kings? Is mother earth
A step-dame to her numerous sons, who earn
Her unshared gifts with unremitting toil;
A mother only to those puling babes
Who, nursed in ease and luxury, make men
The playthings of their babyhood, and mar,
In self-important childishness, that peace
Which men alone appreciate?
Spirit of Nature! No.”
Such, too, is the teaching of the holy Saviour, who tells us of the Father: “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
2. In blessing the multitude, God chooses to bless the wicked man too much rather than the faithful man too little. The words of Joshua 22:2-3, may have been far above the meed of many individual men of these forty thousand. Joshua, however, does not stint the praise of the deserving, lest he should say too much of the undeserving. He blesses the bad bountifully, rather than the good sparingly. God blesses bad men, and good also, far beyond their merits. God never suffers His words of love, or His works of goodness, to fall below our deserts. He ever deals with us in excess of all that we could expect.
II. The blessings of life, which seem uneven in their distribution, regulate themselves in the act of appropriation. He who had served with sloth and cowardice would not be able to take into his heart the gladness of Joshua’s words. Only he who had been faithful would much care for these words of praise; only he would be well able to appropriate them. Here, again, it is only the pure in heart who are blessed; only they see God. The sun may rise on the evil and the good, but the good find most gladness in its light. The stars mean more to the godly man than to the “undevout astronomer.” The fruitful fields of the wicked never yield so much as even the thinly cropped acres of the righteous. The poverty of God’s true servants has more wealth than the riches of the ungodly. A spiritual mind will find more joy in sickness than a sinful man can ever know in health. “Things are not what they seem.” God’s blessings, scatter them how He will, have a way of righting themselves. It is only by the pious man that they can ever be really gathered.
Joshua 22:7.—THE DIVERGENT WAYS OF LIFE.
I. Life’s separations.
1. As a matter of history. Here was one half of the children of Manasseh going east of the Jordan, and one half staying west. Part of the people were henceforth to be in one country, and part in another. Life is full of similar examples. (a) Separated tribes. (b) Separated families. (c) Separated brethren and companions.
2. As a matter of necessity. Numerous families must be forced asunder. The penalty of multiplication is division. Sooner or later, to be many is to be scattered. This is well. Men need that old views and habits should be crossed. New necessities make new minds. New companions form new men. New countries beget new races. The world that makes all her various children needs them all. In their variety they can better help each other.
II. Life’s separations arising imperceptibly. Where did this division in the family of Manasseh begin? What determined it? On what day was it first noted down, that the one family was henceforth to be known in the nation as consisting of these two halves? What was the first diverting cause? Was it a difference of tastes, as between shepherd life and military life? or what was it which began to turn half the family life in one direction and half in another? Between what members of the family was the line of separation drawn? and what determined the precise bearings through the family in which that line was eventually laid down? All these things are more or less hidden. The things which divide families spring up secretly, and work secretly. Peculiar tastes, particular temptations, distinctive habits, strong prejudices; these, and many other things, are causes of separation. The persecution of the Puritans accounts largely for the America of to-day. The persecution of the French Huguenots has been an immense factor in determining the industrial occupation of Englishmen, and the commercial value of their manufactures. The roving habits of the earlier races that settled in Britain, and the ambition of a Norman duke, laid the foundations of our national life and history.
III. Life’s separations in their importance. If small causes are influential in determining the separation of families, the separation itself is often of more consequence still. Thus these eastern Manassites prospered and multiplied exceedingly, and, having turned to idolatry, were, with Reuben and Gad, the first to suffer the penalty of captivity (1 Chronicles 5:18-26). How responsible is life everywhere! The small thing may be pregnant with mighty issues. He resolves wisely who cries, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel.” “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
IV. Life’s separations in relation to life’s blessings. Only the western half of the family dwelt in the Land of Promise. Yet is it written of the eastern half: “When Joshua sent them away also to their tents, then he blessed them.” The blessing was not limited by the river. God’s blessing is not a mere matter of geography. The members of the family that go, and those that stay, may alike live beneath His smile. There is no place where the Scriptures may not be the power of God unto salvation. There is no country where “the same Lord is not rich unto all that call upon Him.” There is no land yet discovered where believing men may not adoringly say, “The precious blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
Joshua 22:8.—THE DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE’S GAINS.
I. The firstfruits of the war commanded to be offered to the Lord. This was made imperative at the fall of Jericho (chap. Joshua 6:17-19). God says, “My soul desired the first ripe fruit” (cf. Micah 7:1; Exodus 22:29; Deuteronomy 18:4, etc.). This requisition of the Lord is not to enrich Him, but us. He would increase the wealth of our reverence and love and joy in Himself.
II. The chief spoils of the war permitted to be kept by the people. Since the fall of Jericho, and the devoting of its spoil, the Israelites had been allowed to retain that which they took. Even the share of these eastern soldiers enabled them to return with much riches, with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much raiment.” God has joy in all the possessions that we can hold rightly. He does but demand a little in order to teach us how to retain the abundance which He loves to leave in our possession.
III. The spoils kept by men to be used in cultivating a spirit well pleasing to God. “Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brethren.”
1. A spirit of self-sacrifice.
2. A spirit of generosity.
3. A spirit of pleasure in the joy of others. Life’s gains should be made up of spiritual gettings, spiritual possessions, and spiritual disbursements. The man who so lives can enjoy his capital, not only when he has it, but before it is realized, and after it is paid away.
THE ETHICS OF WAR-SPOIL.—“As it was formerly seen that the greater part of the two tribes were left in their territories beyond Jordan, when the others passed over to carry on the war, it was fair that, as they had lived in ease with their families, or been only occupied with domestic concerns, they should be contented with their own livelihood and the produce of their own labour. And they certainly could not, without dishonesty, have demanded that any part of the booty and spoil should be distributed among them, when they had taken no share in all the toil and the danger. Joshua, however, does not insist on the strictly legal view, but exhorts the soldiers to deal liberally with their countrymen by sharing the prey with them. Here some one may unseasonably raise the question, Whether or not the booty was common? For Joshua does not decide absolutely that it is their duty to do as he enjoins; he admonishes them that, after they have been enriched by the Divine blessing, it would betray a want of proper feeling not to be liberal and kind towards their brethren, especially as it was not their fault that they did not take part in the same expedition. Moreover, when he bids them divide, he does not demand an equal partition, such as that which is usual among partners and equals, but only to bestow something that may suffice to remove all cause of envy and hatred.”—[Calvin.]