CRITICAL NOTES.—
Joshua 24:30. Timnath-serah] For the site of this place, see note on chap. Joshua 19:50.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Joshua 24:29-31
THE CHARACTER AND INFLUENCE OF JOSHUA
Many of the noblest lives have an obscure origin and a lowly beginning. Joshua was born a slave. He was born about the time that Moses fled out of Egypt to Jethro. His name first occurs in the history when he was upwards of forty years of age (Exodus 17:9). Eminent or obscure, every life must come to an end. No amount of greatness can confer physical immortality, and no depth of obscurity is sufficient to hide from infirmity, disease, and death. The pages of the Bible are portioned out in sections; on a few of those pages we meet with the Dame of Noah; on a few, that of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, or some other prominent man; then, when we have passed its section, the particular name, for the most part, occurs no more. Only the name of the Eternal belongs to the Bible throughout. The noblest of men appear only for a time, and then pass away, to make room for others. The Bible is a portrait of human life, and this feature of brevity is also a part of the picture. At this point of the great Scripture story, the name of Joshua begins to give place to those of the succeeding Judges.
I. Joshua’s great life and character.
1. His life was full of trying events. Moses selected him to lead the Israelites to their first battle. He was chosen, as a strong and wise and good man, to fill one of the most important positions among his people, and from the time of that choice to this time of his death the events of the national life were severely testing the manhood of the man, the capacity of the warrior and the statesman, and the piety of the servant of the Lord. After the trial on the battle-field of Rephidim, Joshua was proved in the matter of patience. For nearly six weeks he seems to have waited in a mysterious solitude, while Moses was upon the mount with God (cf. Exodus 24:13; Exodus 32:17). During that period the patience of Aaron and Hur and the elders had failed; they turned to idolatry, and the people with them. Yet Joshua took no part in the sin of the people, and was even ignorant that the calf had been made, attributing the idolatrous shouts of the multitude to “a noise of war in the camp.” God had tried the bravery of the soldier; He would no less severely prove the faith and patience of the servant. After the trial in solitude, Joshua was tempted in company. Ten of the spies became so many tempters of the remaining two to murmuring and unbelief. The hosts of Israel joined in the temptation. The loud vox populi was urgent and almost unanimous against the silent vox Dei which Joshua heard by faith in his own heart. But Joshua and Caleb were firm; they rent their clothes, and remonstrated together against the rebellious multitude. After the death of Moses, the life of this great man was simply full of events calculated to tax his faith and patience to the utmost. Jordan, Jericho, Ai, Bethhoron, and Merom are but a few of the more prominent names representing, not only Joshua’s conflicts with great difficulties and strong enemies, but, probably, severe conflicts with himself. Every crisis in the history of the invasion, every battle field, every day in the long and arduous work of dividing the land, must have brought to Joshua strong temptations to, in some way, forget or dishonour God. Joshua’s life was a prolonged excitement in the midst of great events, and each event was a new ordeal.
2. His character was as great as his life was eventful. If every day dawned ushering in for Joshua, in his personal life, some new battle, every night seems to have brought him some fresh victory. No word of direct blame is recorded against him throughout his whole history. Only once—when the elders took of the victuals of the Gibeonites, “and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord,” and “Joshua made peace” with these deceivers—does there seem to be even a reflection upon his pious faithfulness to God. Among many other things in which this Joshua of the Old Testament seems to prefigure the greater JOSHUA of the New, so far as a sinful man could do so at all, his life beautifully points us to Him “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” Even the beautiful life of Moses is grievously darkened by two transgressions—his murder of the Egyptian, and his unfaithfulness at Meribah; but no similar cloud throws its shadows over the character of Joshua. For absence of self-seeking, and love of his people; for bravery beautified by tenderness; for a strength of will so powerful to control the multitude, and yet a will so docile before the known will and mind of God; for unquestioning obedience in the execution of Divine commands, naturally and severely trying to his humanity and kindness; for a calm and even mind amidst great daily provocations and inducements to go astray; for purity of thought and feeling; for self-continence in the hours of great victories, and in the months and years that followed them; for quiet and continuous zeal for God’s glory and his country’s good; for real greatness in its union with deep and true humility: for all these things, and others, taken as a combination dwelling in a single character, the world has known few lives so noble as this life, perhaps none nobler, excepting the all-transcending life of Christ. So far as the history of his life is recorded, there seems nothing in which Joshua is open to the blame of men, and nothing in which he becomes subject to the reproof of God.
II. Joshua’s honourable death and burial.
1. Just before his death we come to what appear to have been the intensest moments of his whole life. Nothing can be more earnest and beautiful than his appeal to the elders, recorded in chapter 23, and the wonderful mingling of dignity, intensity, and love shewn in this chapter, in his pleading with the people. The two addresses shew us conclusively, that Joshua’s “long time” of comparative rest in his old age (chap. Joshua 23:1) had in no way served to diminish, but rather to increase, his pious concern for himself and his people before God. The two addresses shew that, right up to the end, his life was a growth, not a decay. The death of such a man must of necessity be honourable and beautiful. Our life should be a growth as long as it lasts. There are too many who grow old and cold at the same time.
2. Joshua’s burial has a brief record, but one that befits his life (Joshua 24:29). There is about it nothing ostentatious—nothing pretentious. “They buried him,” says the historian. Who are meant by this word “they”? The quiet pronoun reads as though it might stand for half the nation: like Joshua himself, it says so little, and yet seems to represent so much. “They buried him in the border of his inheritance.” That inheritance itself was one of Joshua’s noblest tributes. This dead man had become great in winning so much, and greater still in taking so little. It was meet that the great dead conqueror should be buried in the borders of his own meagre inheritance. Joshua could have no nobler memorial than to be buried in the borders of that comparatively poor estate in Timnath-Serah. Many men defeat their own greatest victories by their manner of disposing of the spoil. To thousands of “Christians,” every new conquest and every fresh success in life means as much more estate for themselves as is possible, and as much from their neighbour’s as can be conveniently added to their own.
III. Joshua’s holy and abiding influence. “And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua.” Being dead, Joshua yet spake. His unselfish and holy life became an abiding power to hold all who had known him steadfast in the faith. The Hindoos have a beautiful epigram, which runs on this wise:
“Naked on parent’s knees, a new-born child
Thou sat’st and wept, while all around thee smiled:
So live, that sinking to thy last long sleep,
Thou then may’st smile, while all around thee weep.”
To Joshua himself, his end was, doubtless, peace; to all Israel, it must have been a season of deep and sincere sorrow. And yet, to the mighty host who had known this great man as their leader, these days of gloom and heaviness had a brightness that was slow to fade away. In the eloquent words of the late Bishop Wilberforce, “As on the dark sky, when some flashing meteor has swept across it with a path of fire, there remains still after that glory has departed, a lingering line of light; so was it with this mighty man, glorious in life, and leaving even after he was gone the record of his abundant faithfulness still to hold for a season heavenward the too wandering eyes of Israel.” Thus ever does a good and holy man outlive himself.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Joshua 24:29-30.—“SUNSET ON MOUNT EPHRAIM.”
“Here is a glorious orb in the old world sinking peacefully to rest behind the pastoral hills of Ephraim. Joshua was in every sense of the word a great character, a saintly hero,—the man not only of his age, but of many ages. If his name does not shine so conspicuously amid the galaxy of patriarchs and ancient worthies, it is very much because, as has been said of him, ‘the man himself is eclipsed by the brilliancy of his deeds:’ like the sun in a gorgeous western sky, when the pile of amber clouds—the golden linings and drapery with which he is surrounded—pale the lustre of the great luminary.
“Four elements of strength appear to stand out conspicuously in Joshua’s character, and which distinguish him pre-eminently in the Old Testament as ‘the warrior saint.’
“
I. Zeal for God’s honour. This seemed to have been his paramount aim and motive through life. Examples: It was so at the passage of the Jordan; in the interview with the Captain of the Lord’s host; in the rearing of the altar at Ebal; in the addresses at Shiloh and Shechem.
“
II. Deference to God’s law. Like every true and loyal soldier, he acted up to the orders of his superior: the reading of the Law at Ebal; the commemorative ‘altar of whole stones;’ the counsel offered in chap. Joshua 23:6, and the urgent words in chap. Joshua 24:27.… Amid the duties and difficulties, the cares and perplexities of life, how many a pang and tear would it save us if we went with chastened and inquiring spirits to these sacred oracles! This antiquated volume is still the ‘Book of books,’ the oracle of oracles, the beacon of beacons; the poor man’s treasury; the child’s companion; the sick man’s health; the dying man’s life; shallows for the infant to walk in, depths for giant intellect to explore and adore.
“
III. Dependence on God’s strength. ‘Certainly I will be with thee,’ was the guarantee with which he accepted his onerous responsibilities as leader of the many thousands of Israel. In this spirit Joshua cast himself upon God at the time of his defeat at Ai, and in the battle with the five kings of the South at Beth-horon—the Marathon of ancient Canaan.
“
IV. Trust in God’s faithfulness. When Joshua first undertook to lead the armies of Israel, this was the warrant and encouragement on which he set out: ‘I the Lord am with thee whithersoever thou goest.’ … When the land had been partitioned to the various tribes, Joshua records this emphatic attestation, ‘There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel: all came to pass’ (chap. Joshua 21:45).… As surely as Joshua’s zeal and trust and fortitude crowned his arms with victory, so surely, if we, in the noble gospel sense, ‘quit us like men, and be strong,’ God will give us the rest He promises—the rest which remains for His people.”—[J. R. Mac Duff.]
JOSHUA’S HUMILITY AND SELF-FORGETFULNESS.
“Two things are very characteristic of Joshua’s great virtue of modesty:
“
1. His humility and unselfishness in regard to any possessions or advantages for himself or his family. He appropriated nothing forcibly as his own. No claim is put forward to any reward for his long and faithful service. No boastful allusion is made either to his courage or to his patience.
“
2. His remarkable forgetfulness of self in his most solemn concluding addresses to the assembled people. It is very striking to observe how his own credit is not accounted of at all. It is still, in fact, as if even now he were standing before Moses, as his minister and servant.”—[Dean Howson.]
THE EFFECT OF JOSHUA’S VICTORIES
“We who live in these later days can see that the whole history of man hung upon the issue of those battles in the plain of Jericho and on the hills of Beth-horon. What other conflicts have ever decided so much for humanity? Joshua stood on those fields of blood the very world-hero, bearing with him all its destinies. If Israel had been subdued by the Canaanites, if the separated seed had been mingled with the heathen, if it had learned their ways, if the worship of Moab and Chemosh and Moloch and Astarte had superseded the worship of Jehovah, how had all the grand designs of redemption been frustrated in their development! The cry of Joshua after the flight at Ai would have been the despairing utterance of the race of men: ‘And what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name?’ ”
“More almost in Joshua’s history than anywhere besides may the troubled soul—perplexed and harassed by the sight, on this sin-defiled earth, of wars, battles, slaughters, pestilences, earthquakes, miseries, and treasons—rest itself, though it be with the deep sob of a present broken-heartedness, in the conviction that God has a plan for this world; that in the end it does prevail; that the Baalim of heathen power must fall before Him, and that His kingdom shall stand for ever and ever in its truth and righteousness and love.”—[Bp. Wilberforce.]
JOSHUA A TYPE OF CHRIST
“In more various points, and with a closer similarity of outline than belongs, perhaps, to any other figure in the Old Testament, is Joshua the type of Christ. His very name begins the great intimation. Changed by Moses—doubtless at the mouth of the Lord—from Oshea, ‘welfare,’ to Jehoshua, or Jesus, ‘God the Saviour;’ it pointed him out as the figure in the earthly of the heavenly deliverer. Joshua is pre-eminently one of the people whom he delivers; he has worked with them in the brick-kilns of Egypt, he knows their hearts; in all their afflictions he has been afflicted.
“When Joshua has entered on his leadership, prophetic acts, full of typical significance, begin with a wonderful minuteness to repeat themselves. He, and not the great lawgiver, is to bring the people into Canaan: Moses must depart to secure his every word of promise being fulfilled to Israel, as the law must pass away and be fulfilled before the spiritual Israel could enter on that kingdom. At the river Jordan Joshua is shewn by God to Israel as their appointed leader; there God began to magnify him. As Jesus comes up from the river Jordan, the heavens open, the Holy Ghost descends, and the voice of God declares, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ From Jordan’s bed Joshua took twelve stones to be for evermore a witness to the people of their great deliverance; from His baptism in Jordan Jesus began to call His twelve apostles, the foundation stones of that church which witnesses to every generation of the redemption of the sons of Abraham by Christ. Twelve stones Joshua buried under the returning waters of Jordan; and over the first twelve Jesus let the stream of death flow as over others.…
“Before Joshua departed, he called to him on that mountain of Timnath-Serah, which he was about to leave, all the heads of the tribes, and with the chant of a prophetic voice set before them all the grand future, which, if they clave steadfastly to God, should certainly be theirs; and so before He ascended into the heavens did the great Captain of God’s spiritual army appoint to meet upon a mountain top in Galilee the heads of all the tribes into which His church should multiply; and there, looking with them over the far outstretched dominions of the earth, utter to them, Joshua-like, the words of wonder which rang for ever in their ears, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth: go ye therefore, and evangelize all nations.’
“Yea, and yet again, after a higher sort than belongs to this present world, was Joshua but the type of Jesus. For it is He who, for each one who follows Him, the true High Priest, divides the cold waters of death, setting against their utmost flood, even when that Jordan overfloweth his banks, as he doth all the harvest time, the ark of the body which He took of us, and in which God dwelleth evermore; so making a way for His ransomed to pass over. It is He who hath gone before to prepare amongst the many mansions of His Father’s house the place which the golden lot marks out for us. It is He who hath trodden down all our enemies. It is He who hath built the golden city upon the ‘twelve foundation-stones which bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.’ It is He at whose trumpet sound, when the seven days of the great week are accomplished, the walls of Babylon shall fall. It is He who goeth forth conquering and to conquer, until all His enemies are put under His feet; and so the last type of this life of wonders shall be fulfilled, and the true Joshua, from the exceeding high mountain of His Timnath-Serah, shall look around Him on the tribes of God, and see them all at peace; the prayer-promise which was breathed in time fulfilled in eternity: ‘Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which I had with Thee before the world was.’ ”—[Bp. Wilberforce.]