CRITICAL NOTES.—
Joshua 23:7. That ye come not among these nations] They were not to form with the Canaanites any civil or social alliances. The word rendered “come” indicates close and familiar intercourse. Neither make mention, etc.] “Four different expressions are used to describe idolatry.
(1.) Hiz’ kîr v’shçm elohim, to make mention of the name of their gods, in such a manner that he who mentions them gives himself up to them, approaches them with love, i.e., to mention them with admiration. Hiz’ kîr does not mean to praise, as is evident from Exodus 23:13; see also Psalms 20:8 (Joshua 23:7, E.V.), and Hengstenberg’s notes on that passage.
(2.) Lo thash’biu, not to cause to swear by the gods of the Canaanites. Swearing and causing to swear by a god were in ordinary life the most frequent evidence of belief in that god, and therefore the law was enforced, that the name of Jehovah was to be the only one by which they swore (Deuteronomy 6:13; Deuteronomy 10:20).
(3.) ’Avad, to serve them, colors; and
(4.) hish’tach’veh, to worship, are distinguished from each other in this way: the former expresses rather the external worship by sacrifice; the latter, calling upon God from the heart. The two words are frequently connected together. They are so in the original passage, Exodus 20:5; see also Exodus 23:24; Deuteronomy 4:19; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy 30:17, etc.” [Keil.]
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Joshua 23:6-10
FROM COURAGE, THROUGH HOLINESS, TO VICTORY
Joshua, who had so often personally led the Israelites to victory, here shews them how they may attain like triumphs after he is gone. The aged general, who is about to go the way of all the earth, tells out the secret of his many triumphs ere he departs. This secret of victory holds good on every field where men can be found fighting for truth and for God.
Taking Joshua’s words in the order given, the leading thoughts which they contain may be thus stated:
I. There can be no holiness without courage. “Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written.” Unless they were courageous they would fail both in keeping and in doing. Nor would an ordinary courage suffice; they must be very courageous.
1. Men need to be very courageous to constantly resist temptation. A little courage will do to keep some of the things that are written. Ordinary fortitude will do for easy occasions. There are multitudes who can keep ever so many things on Sunday, when in God’s house, and among God’s people; and yet, at other times, they utterly fail.
2. Men need to be very courageous to steadily confess their love to God. Some people treat confession as a thing to be attended to once in a lifetime. They confess their love to Christ when they join His Church, and then they seem to suppose that they have done with this matter of confession altogether. Some think confession a matter for the grand occasions of life. They admire the firmness which led Daniel to the lions’ den, and readily applaud the fidelity of the three Hebrews on the plain of Dura. They believe thoroughly in the heroism recorded in the history of the martyrs. And yet these same admirers of the martyrs fail to be faithful in the small matters of their own daily temptations. We are not to think such men hypocritical and dishonest. Probably many of them would have had courage enough for martyrdom themselves. The simple truth is this: for many temperaments, it needs a better courage to acknowledge Christ daily, than to die for Christ in martyrdom.
3. Men need to be very courageous to do the things of God with an even and a holy mind. Many persons are spasmodic in their zeal. At times they have all the boldness of Peter before the Sanhedrim; at other times they are as weak as Peter before the servants of the high priest. What God asks of us is a boldness which is calm enough to ignore parade and to forget shame.
4. Did men but see things as they are, it would need far more courage to sin than to be holy. These words do but address themselves to the common feeling of men. It is the transgressor who most needs to be very courageous. Holiness is man’s act of sheltering himself behind an arm which can never fail; sin is man’s act of fleeing before the scoff of his weak fellow to defy the Omnipotent.
II. There can be no cleaving to God without holiness. “Turn not aside … come not among these nations … but cleave unto the Lord your God.” A man cannot turn aside and at the same time cleave to God. No man can commune with his idols and also with Jehovah. It is said of some that “they feared the Lord and served their own gods;” that is possible, but it is not possible for any one to cleave to the Lord and serve his own gods. There is all the difference in the world between that “fearing” and this “cleaving.”
1. Every man may cleave to God. These are words addressed to all Israel. There was no man in the host who might not have this high honour and this perpetual joy. It is very marvellous to read in the Gospels of the Son of God, “And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town.” What a picture is that! It is omnipotence leading infirmity! It is perfect purity conducting embodied sin! It is God in His veiled glory, hand in hand with man in his manifest wretchedness! That is no exceptional representation of Divine condescension. Here are words which are addressed to a nation, and through that nation to a world in all its succeeding generations, and these words put before us all the possibility of this exalted union. They say to every man, You too may cleave unto the Lord your God.
2. No man can cleave unto God and also unto sin. When Jesus leads the blind, it is that they may be blind no longer. When God bids us cleave unto Himself, it is that we may let go all things which are not according to His will.
3. He who would cleave unto God well, should think much on God’s abundant mercy and help (Joshua 23:9). The faithful man always has a faithful God. Joshua was able to commend the people in their past relation to God (Joshua 23:8); that being so, it followed, as a matter of course, that he could speak with joy of God’s past relation to His people. He who has endeavoured faithfully to do his little things for God will never want occasion to sing, “The Lord hath done great things for me, whereof I am glad.” And then, God’s gracious past helps the faithful man’s future. “Because Thou hast been my help, therefore under the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.” A holy life ever becomes full of encouragements to holiness. It is sin that makes such facilities for sinning. The iniquity of a man’s heels “compasses him about;” the piety of a man compasses him about no less.
III. There can be no victory without cleaving to God. “One man of you shall chase a thousand; for the Lord your God, He it is that fighteth for you, as He hath promised you.” The help of God is for the man who cleaves to God. Without God, no man can prevail. His very victories become defeats. No matter how few or weak the foes, or what may be the field, he who fights without God must fail. With God one man may chase a thousand. Elisha led the army of the king of Syria whithersoever he would (2 Kings 6:8-23). Peter, with God’s angel to help, was more than the four quarternions of soldiers who sought to keep him. Paul and Silas, with their feet made fast in the stocks, sang till their bondage melted into liberty, and they presently found their oppressors turned into suppliants. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Joshua 23:6.—MAN’S RELATION TO THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN.
I. Every man should be acquainted with that which is written. The Bible claims the attention of every living man who has heard of it. Any man who wilfully neglects to make himself acquainted with it is entitled to small respect from his fellow-men.
1. The Scriptures are the greatest moral and social force that the world has ever known.
2. The influence of the Scriptures, while so mighty, has ever been for good.
3. The intrinsic character of the Scriptures is another claim on our attention which should not be resisted. For these and other reasons of a similar character, every one should at least acquaint himself thoroughly with the Bible. Some of the most notorious infidels of the last generation acknowledge that they had hardly read the Bible at all. A man’s self-respect has its claims, and this acquaintance with the Scriptures is a very important claim, even in this direction.
II. No man should act partially with that which is written. Men stand in an important relation to all that is written in the book. Many people deal with the Bible as they would with the multiplied dishes of a sumptuous dinner; they choose what they prefer, and leave the rest. They think themselves under no kind of obligation to take aught but what is agreeable.
1. Men choose promises, and leave the precepts.
2. Men choose among the precepts themselves.
3. Men choose as to the traits of the revealed character of God.
4. Men choose among Scripture doctrines. The Bible stands or falls as a whole. No man can pick and choose among the laws of his country. No man has liberty to leave some laws unkept, and to say: “I make an exception in the matter of theft, in the matter of impurity, or on the question of murder.” A man must be either a citizen or an outlaw. Law is binding all round. He who looks for law to keep himself and his family is a debtor to do the whole law of his country. So the things written in the book of the law of God are all obligatory. Heaven is very merciful to pardon sin, but not to permit determinate rebellion in anything. Heaven also says: “You must be outlaw or citizen.”
III. All men need courage before that which is written.
1. It needs courage to keep that which is written. Courage before scoffers. Courage as to conventional proprieties and customs. Courage under disappointments.
2. It needs courage to do that which is written. Courage to be faithful in times of great importance. Courage to be faithful in that which is least.
3. It needs courage to keep straight on. We are to turn neither to the right hand nor to the left. The things which are written ask for progress. They ask, also, for undeviating progress.
4. It needs most courage of all to reject that which is written. Men are only able to reject what is written by ceasing to think on the things with which the writings deal. Few people would be able to sin much and at the same time think carefully. A man who turns from God has need to make himself both blind and deaf to some things.
Joshua 23:7.—FELLOWSHIP WITH THE UNGODLY.
“Have no civil or social contracts with them (see Joshua 23:12), as these will infallibly lead to spiritual affinities, in consequence of which you will make honourable mention of the name of their gods, swear by them as the judges of your motives and actions, serve them in their abominable rites, and bow yourselves unto them as your creators and preservers; thus giving the whole worship of God to idols: and all this will follow from simply coming among them. He who walks in the counsel of the ungodly will soon stand in the way of sinners, and shortly sit in the seat of the scornful. ‘No man rises to the highest stages of iniquity but by degrees.’ Nero himself, under the instructions of Seneca was a promising youth.”—[A. Clarke, LL.D.]
“Bad men will be as the heathen were for the Israelites, a trap and a snare, and a scourge in the sides, and thorns in the eyes for those who live in intercourse with them.”—[Fay.]
Joshua 23:8-10.—REASONS FOR CLEAVING UNTO GOD.
I. Cleave unto God because you have long done so already (Joshua 23:8).
1. The obligation arising from known liberty and possibility. All the past says that you may so cleave. The past says that you can cleave to God. It is no speculation. There is no excuse on the side of fear as to acceptance. There is no excuse in the direction of insufficient strength.
2. The obligation of continued necessity. All the old reasons for cleaving to Him are still in force. New reasons have been continually added.
3. The obligation of consistency. No man should lightly make his life into a series of grave contradictions.
4. The obligation of not hindering others. The past days of cleaving to God may have led others to God. Turning back would hinder them.
II. Cleave unto God because you have not cleaved to Him in vain (Joshua 23:9).
1. God has given His help irrespective of personal merit. “The Lord hath driven out from before you.” You who sinned so often in the wilderness. You who had an Achan among you. You who have been so slow to go up and possess the land.
2. God has helped notwithstanding mighty enemies. He hath driven out from before you “great nations and strong.”
3. God’s help has never yet, ailed you. “No man hath been able to stand before you unto this day.”
III. Cleave unto God because you will yet need God.
1. A man’s enemies may yet be against him as a thousand to one. No man can predict his future. No man knows the relation of others to him in the future.
2. God’s help is equal to any emergencies. If necessary, cleaving to Him, “one man shall chase a thousand.” We do not know the future; let it be enough that we know the power and love of God.
3. God’s help is promised. There is no question about the sufficiency of that help; neither is there any question about its being given to the man who cleaves unto the Lord. History guarantees the sufficiency of Divine power; the everlasting covenant, added to history, pledges the constancy of Divine love.