Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 1:2
Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, [even] to the children of Israel.
2. Moses my servant ] Comp. Deu 34:5. The highest possible title under the theocracy. Joshua as yet is but the “attendant” of Moses. The higher title is given him in Jos 24:29.
this Jordan ] one of the most singular rivers in the world, which “has never been navigable, and flows into a sea that has never known a port.” Observe
( a) Its name. It is never called “the river” or “brook,” or by any other name than its own, “the Jordan” = “ the Descender.”
( b) Its sources. Far up in northern Palestine, the fork of the two ranges of Anti-Libanus “is alive with bursting fountains and gushing streams,” every one of which sooner or later finds its way into a swamp between Bnis and Lake Hleh. Two of these streams deserve special attention, (i) one at Bnis, (ii) the other at Tel-el-Kdy. The former is the upper, the latter the lower source of the “River of Palestine.”
( c) Its course, which is marked by three distinct stages:
(i) Enclosed within the ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, which run parallel to the Mediterranean from north to south, its streams for as yet it can hardly be called a single river fall into the lake called of old Merom, then Samaelon (= “ the High Lake ”), now Hleh. “Half morass, half tarn, this lake is surrounded by an almost impenetrable jungle of reeds abounding in wild fowl.”
(ii) Here it might seem destined to end, like the Barada “the river of Damascus” in the wide marshy lake, a day’s journey beyond that city, but “the Descender” is not thus absorbed. Fed, like the lake itself, by innumerable springs in the slopes of Lebanon, and met by a deep depression for its bed, it rushes with increased rapidity three hundred feet downwards into the Lake of Gennesaret, which is about the same length as our own Windermere, but of much greater breadth.
(iii) At the mouth of the Lake it is about 70 feet wide, “a lazy turbid stream, flowing between low alluvial banks” and here again it might seem to have closed its course. But it issues forth once more, now a foaming torrent, and plunges through twenty-seven rapids, with a fall of a thousand feet, on its lowest and final stage, into the Dead Sea.
( d) Its windings. The distance from the Lake el-Hleh to the Sea of Tiberias is nearly 9 miles, that from the Lake to the Dead Sea about 60 miles. But within this latter space the river traverses a distance of at least 200 miles. Darting first to the right, then to the left, then to the right again, “as if sensible of his sad fate,” to use the quaint words of Fuller, “and desirous to deferre what he cannot avoid, he fetcheth many turnings and windings, but all will not avail him from falling into the Dead Sea.” See Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, pp. 282, 283; Thomson’s Land and the Book; Ritter’s Geography of Palestine; Macgregor’s Rob Roy on the Jordan.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 2. Moses my servant] The word, servant, as applied both to Moses and Joshua, is to be understood in a very peculiar sense. It signifies God’s prime minister, the person by whom he issued his orders, and by whom he accomplished all his purposes and designs. No person ever bore this title in the like sense but the Redeemer of mankind, of whom Moses and Joshua were types.
Go over this Jordan The account given by Josephus of this river may not be unacceptable here. “Panium is thought to be the mountain of Jordan, but in reality it is carried thither in an occult manner from the place called Phiala. This place lies on the road to Trachonitis, and is one hundred and twenty furlongs from Caesarea, not far out of the road, on the right hand. It has its name Phiala, (a bowl or basin), very justly, from the roundness of its circumference, being round like a wheel. It is always full, without ever sinking or running over. This origin of the Jordan was not known till the time of Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, who having ordered some chaff to be thrown in at Phiala, it was found at Panium. Jordan’s visible stream arises from this cavern, (Panium), and divides the marshes and fens of the lake Semechon; and when it has run another hundred and twenty furlongs, it first passes by the city Julias, and then passes through the middle of the lake Gennesareth, after which, running a long way over the desert, it empties itself into the lake Asphaltites.” – WAR, book iii. chap. x., sect. 7. See Clarke on Nu 34:12.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This Jordan; this which is now near thee, which is tho only obstacle in thy way to Canaan.
Which I do give, i.e. am now about to give the actual possession of it, as I formerly gave a right to it by promise.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2-9. now therefore arise, go overthis JordanJoshua’s mission was that of a military leader.This passage records his call to begin the work, and the addresscontains a literal repetition of the promise made to Moses (Deu 11:24;Deu 11:25; Deu 31:6-8;Deu 31:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moses my servant is dead,…. Which was said not for the information of Joshua, but to lead on to, and show the cause and reason of what he was about to say to him:
now therefore arise, go over this Jordan; near to which the whole body of the people of Israel were, and very probably were in sight of it:
thou, and all this people: which were very numerous, six hundred thousand men or more, besides a great number of women and children, and no boats to carry them over, or pontoons to put across the river:
unto the land which I give unto them, [even] to the children of Israel; and therefore it could be no case of conscience with Joshua, to go and take it out of the hands of the present inhabitants, since the Lord, who had a right to dispose of it, gave it to them. As this land was a type of heaven, and eternal life, which is the free gift of God through Christ, passing over the river of Jordan to it may be an emblem of the passage through death to the heavenly state; both of the death of Christ, the antitypical Joshua, who passed through it, as a surety to make satisfaction for sin, and as a forerunner to set an example, to sanctify death, to open a way into the holiest of holies, and prepare a place for his people; and of the death of the saints, which is necessary to their enjoyment of perfect rest and happiness.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As Moses had died without having brought the Israelites to Canaan, Joshua was to arise and go with all the nation over this Jordan (i.e., the river then before him) into the land which the Lord would give them.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
2. Moses my servant, etc A twofold meaning may be extracted — the one, since Moses is dead, the whole burden has now devolved upon thee, take the place of him to whom thou has been appointed successor; the other, although Moses is dead, do not desist, but go forward. I prefer the former, as containing the inference that he should, by right of succession, take up the office which Moses had left vacant. (15) The epithet or surname of servant applied to Moses, has respect to his government of the people and his exploits; for it ought to be accommodated to actual circumstances. (16) The allusion here is not to the Law but to the leadership, which had passed to Joshua by the decease of Moses, and God thus acknowledges his servant, not so much with the view of praising him, as of strengthening the authority of Joshua, who had been substituted in his place. And as the people might not have acquiesced sufficiently in a bare command, he promises, while ordering them to pass the Jordan, to give them peaceable possession of the whole country, and of every spot of it on which they should plant their foot. For as nothing tends more than distrust to make us sluggish and useless, so when God holds forth a happy issue, confidence inspires us with rigor for any attempt.
It may be added, that he does now begin for the first time to give them good hopes, by making a promise of which they had not previously heard, but recalls to their remembrance what Moses had formerly testified. He says, therefore, that the time had now come for exhibiting and performing that which he had promised to Moses. Should any one object that the same thing had been said to Abraham long before Moses was born, nay, that the perpetual covenant deposited with Abraham included everything which was heard by Moses four hundred years after; (17) I answer, that here no notice is taken of the ancient promise which was everywhere known and celebrated, and that Moses is produced as a witness whose memory was more recent, and by whose death the confidence of the people might have been shaken, had not God declared that the accomplishment of all which he had said was at hand.
(15) “Which Moses had left vacant.” Latin, “ Ex qua decesserat Moses.” French, “ De laquelle Moyse estoit sorti ayant fait son temps;” “Which Moses had left, having held his own time of it.” — Ed.
(16) “To actual circumstances.” Latin, “ Ad circumstantiam loci.” French, “ A la circonstance du passage;” “To the circumstance of the passage.” — Ed.
(17) The French here gives the same meaning in a paraphrastic form, “ Ou mesmes qu’a parler proprement, tout ce qui a este dit a Moyse dependoit de l’alliance perpetuelle que Dieu avoit mise en garde entre les mains d’Abraham quatre cens ans auparavant.” “Or even, to speak properly, all that was said to Moses depended on the perpetual covenant which God had deposited in the hands of Abraham four hundred years before.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
2. This Jordan This celebrated river was in full view from the elevation on which the Israelites were encamped. Thus far in Scripture history the Jordan has acquired no special importance. But henceforth, in
Jewish and Christian literature, in sacred song and figurative expression of Christian hope, this humble stream occupies a larger place in the world’s thinking than the broad Amazon or the majestic Mississippi. In the poetic language of Tacitus, “The Lebanon nourishes and pours out the Jordan.” It flows entire through the first and second lake, and is retained by the third. These lakes (each with a triple name) are the Merom of the Old Testament, called Samochonitis in ancient classics, and Huleh in modern geography, the second the Sea of Galilee, or Lake of Gennesaret, called also Tiberias; the third lake is the Dead Sea, called in the Old Testament the Salt Sea and the Sea of the Plain. The river, which in most of its course flows in a deep trench, is at the Dead Sea 1308 feet below the level of the Mediterranean. The general course of its current is to the south, but the river has a number of sharp bends, which deflect the regular flow of its waters. From the rapidity of the flow it may be styled almost a continuous cataract. From the first lake to the second, a distance of less than 9 miles, is a descent of 600 feet; and from the Lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea are 27 great rapids, besides a great many of less magnitude. The average descent through its whole course is nearly twelve feet in a mile, justifying the name of “the Descender.” Its length is about two hundred miles from the roots of Anti-Lebanon, where it bursts forth in all its purity, to the Sea of Salt, where it is lost in a briny, seething caldron. Yet the distance by a straight line between these points is less than ninety miles. There are shallows where it can be forded. It is subject to periodical overflows when the snows of Lebanon melt. At these times it overflows the first of the two terraces which constitute its banks. Within its lowest banks it varies in width from seventy feet, where it enters the Sea of Galilee, to one hundred and eighty yards at the Dead Sea.
All this people Numbering, according to the last census, 601,730, from twenty years old and upwards. See Num 26:51. Migrations on so vast a scale are not without parallel in the East. As late as the last century a whole nomadic people 400,000 Tatars retreated under cover of a single night from the confines of Russia into their native deserts.
The land which I do give to them Canaan, or the Land of Promise; so called because it had been promised to the patriarchs centuries before.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“ Moses, my servant is dead, now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I give to them, to the children of Israel.”
Because of Moses’ prior disobedience God had said that Moses would not be allowed even to enter the land of Canaan (Num 20:12; Num 27:13-14; Deu 1:37; Deu 3:26-27; Deu 32:52; Deu 34:4). Thus until Moses’ death invasion was not possible. There is a warning in this that even a great man can falter and can become a hindrance to the work of God. But now Moses was dead. To the children of Israel the death of Moses was a tragedy. They must have felt deeply bereft. To God it presented them with an opportunity.
“Now therefore arise.” With God every tragedy is an opportunity. An opportunity to rise by His power over it and use it as a stepping stone to better things. There was first sufficient mourning (Deu 34:8). Due respect was paid to Moses. And then God expected Joshua to go forward.
“Go over this Jordan.” Interestingly this is a phrase only found on the lips of YHWH (Deu 3:27; Deu 31:2). The River Jordan lay before them, making its way through the deep Rift Valley (the Arabah). There were no fords at this time for the river was overflowing its banks (Jos 3:15). Thus it appeared a great obstacle, and beyond it lay their destiny. However, the obstacle could be overcome with God’s help, and the destiny achieved. It was a momentous situation. That river, overflowing its banks and difficult to cross, was the stepping stone into their future. We too should remember that whatever equivalent of Jordan we face, even if it overflow its banks, if God go with us we need fear nothing.
“You and all this people.” That was both Joshua’s encouragement and his responsibility. He had strong forces behind him, but he was responsible for their future. They were his strength but they were also his problem. How was he to get so many, with their wives and children and provisions, across the flooded waters of the Jordan?
“Into the land which I give to them, to the children of Israel.” Here was the necessary certainty. YHWH was giving them the land. It was thus theirs to possess. And He was here acknowledging that mixed, multi-racial group as being within His promises, as being now ‘the children of Israel’, those who would receive the inheritance promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). Note that they were not called ‘the children of Jacob’. It was Jacob as the new man Israel, the chosen one, who was seen as their ancestor.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 2. Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, &c. The camp of the Israelites rested at Shittim near Jordan, in sight of the land of Canaan, during all the time they were mourning for Moses. But at length, the funeral solemnities of that great legislator being accomplished, and his death having opened to them an entrance into the promised land, Joshua here receives orders to prepare for that event.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
I beg the Reader to observe with an eye to Jesus, what is said of Joshua, that he was Moses’ minister. Jesus might be said in one sense to minister to the law, because by the influence of the Holy Ghost the law becomes our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And Jesus was made under the law, to redeem us from the law. Gal 4:4 . It is a sweet and reviving thought that, though Moses is dead, Jesus ever liveth: though we are dead to the law yet alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here are the first exercises in the entrance of Canaan. Jordan must be waded through; God orders no bridges, no rafters, to be made to get over by. My soul, is it not so by faith now? How shall I do in the swellings of Jordan? How, but by faith pass over to the everlasting Canaan? Heb 11:29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jos 1:2 Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, [even] to the children of Israel.
Ver. 2. Moses my servant. ] My menial servant, faithful in all my house. This was a higher title than that of king in Jeshurun. Deu 33:5 See Trapp on “ Psa 36:1 “
Now therefore arise, go.
Go over this Jordan.
a Sir Henry Blunt’s Voyage into the Levant, p. 10.
b Mr Fuller’s Holy State, p. 162.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Moses My servant. See note on Num 12:7, Num 12:8.
is dead. Compare Joh 1:17. Rom 7:1-6.
I do give = I, even I, am giving.
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Moses: Jos 1:1, Isa 42:1, Heb 3:5, Heb 3:6, Heb 7:23, Heb 7:24
arise: Num 27:16-21, Deu 3:28, Deu 31:7
Reciprocal: Num 20:12 – ye shall Deu 31:3 – and Joshua Deu 34:5 – died there Jos 7:7 – and dwelt 1Sa 12:8 – made them 1Ki 8:44 – go out to battle 2Ki 2:5 – thy master 1Ch 22:16 – Arise 2Ch 6:34 – thy people Neh 9:15 – go Jer 27:5 – and have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jos 1:2. Now therefore arise Let not the withering of the most useful hands be the weakening of ours. When God has work to do, he will either find or make instruments fit to carry it on. Moses the servant is dead, but God the master is not, he lives for ever. This Jordan Which is now near thee, which is the only obstacle in thy way to Canaan. The land which I give That is, I am now about to give thee actual possession of it, as I formerly gave a right to it by promise.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The nation had mourned Moses’ death for 30 days (Deu 34:8). Now God instructed Joshua to prepare to enter the land. The death of any of His servants never frustrates or limits God, though this causes Him sorrow (Psa 116:15).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER IV.
JOSHUA’S CALL.
Jos 1:2-5.
JOSHUA has heard the Divine voice summoning him to the attitude of activity – “Arise!” Directions follow immediately as to the course which his activity is to take. His first step is to be a very pronounced one – “Go over this Jordan “: enter the land, not by yourself, or with a handful of comrades, as you did forty years ago, but “thou and all this people.” Take the bold step, cross the river; and when you are across the river, take possession of the country which I now give to your people. The time has come for decided action; it is for you to show the way, and summon your people to follow.
It was a very solemn and striking moment, second only in interest to that when, forty years before, their fathers had stood at the edge of the sea, with the host of Pharaoh hurrying on behind. At length the hour has come to take possession of the inheritance! At length the promise made so many hundred years ago to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is ripe for fulfilment! You, children of Israel, have seen that God is in no haste to fulfil His promises, and your hearts may have known much of the sickness of hope deferred. But now you are to see that after all God is faithful. He never forgets. He makes no mistakes. His delays are all designed for good, either to chasten or to try, and thus confirm and bless His people. He will now bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noon-day.
There were two things that might make Joshua and the people hesitate to cross the Jordan. In the first place, the river was in flood; it was the time when the Jordan overflowed its banks (Jos 3:15), and, being a rapid river, crossing it in such circumstances might well seem out of the question. But in the second place, to cross the Jordan was to throw down the gauntlet to the enemy: It was a declaration of war, and a challenge to them to do their worst. It was a signal for them to assemble, fight for their hearths and homes, and strain every nerve to annihilate this invader who made such a bold claim to their possessions. All the children of Anak whom Joshua had seen on his former visit would now range themselves against Israel; all the seven nations would muster their bravest forces, and the contest would not be like Joshua’s battle with Amalek, finished in a single day, but a long succession of battles, in which all the resources of power and skill, of craft and cunning would be brought to bear against Israel. According to appearances, nothing short of this would be the result of comphance with the command, “Go over this Jordan.”
On the one hand, therefore, compliance was physically impossible, and on the other, even if possible, it would have been fearfully perilous. But it is never God’s method to give impossible commands. The very fact of His commanding anything is a proof of His readiness to make it possible, nay, to make it easy and simple to those who have faith to attempt it. ”Stretch out thy hand,” said Christ to the man with the withered hand.
“Stretch out my hand?” the man might have said in astonishment, – “why, it is the very thing I am unable to do.” “Rise up and walk,” said Peter to the lame man at the Beautiful gate. “How can I do that?” he might have replied; “don’t you see that I have no use of my limbs?” But in these cases the helpless men had faith in those who bade them exert themselves; they believed that if they tried they would be helped, and helped accordingly they were. So too in the present case. Joshua knew that he and the host could not have crossed the Jordan as it then was by any contrivance in his power; but he knew that it was God’s command, and he was sure that He would provide the means. He felt as if God and the people were in partnership, each equally interested in the result, and equally desirous to bring it about. Whatever it was necessary for God to do he was assured would be done, provided he and the people entered into the Divine plan, and threw all their energies into the work. Not a word of remonstrance did Joshua offer, not a word of explanation of the Divine plan did he ask; he acted as a servant should;
“His not to make reply, His not to reason why; ”
his only to trust and obey.
This faith in Divine power qualifying feeble mortals for the hardest tasks has originated some of the noblest enterprises in the history of the world. It was a Divine voice Columbus seemed to hear bidding him cross the wild Atlantic, for he desired to bring the natives of the distant shores beyond it into the pale of the Church; and it was his faith that sustained him when his crew became mutinous and his life was not safe for an hour. It was a Divine voice Livingstone seemed to hear bidding him cross Africa, strike up into the heart of the continent, examine its structure, and throw it open from shore to shore; and never was there a faith stronger or steadier than that which bore him on through fever and famine, through pain and sickness, through disappointment and anguish, and, even when the cold hand of death was on him, would not let him rest until his work was done.
Often in the spiritual warfare it is useful to apply this principle. Are we called to believe? Are we called to make ourselves a new heart and a new spirit? Are we summoned to fight, to wrestle, to overcome? Certainly we are. But is not this to tantalize us by ordering us to do what we cannot do? Is not this like telling a sick man to get well, or a decrepit old creature to skip and frisk like a child? It would be so if the principle of partnership between God and us did not come into play. Faith says, God is my partner in this matter. Partners even in an ordinary business put their resources together, each doing what his special abilities fit him for. In the partnership which faith establishes between God and you, the resources of the infinite Partner become available for the needs of the finite. It is God’s part to give orders, it is your part to execute them, and it is God’s part to strengthen you so to do. It is this that makes the command reasonable, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Faith rejoices in the partnership, and goes forward in the confidence that the strength of the Almighty will help its weakness, not by one sudden leap, but by that steady growth in grace that makes the path of the just like the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
It was a great thing for God to announce that He was now in the act of turning His old, old promise into reality, – that the land pledged to Abraham centuries ago was now at length to become the possession of his descendants. But the gift could be of no avail unless it was actually appropriated. God gave the people the right to the land; but their own energy, made effectual through His grace, could alone secure the possession. In a remarkable way they were made to feel that, while the land was God’s gift, the appropriation and enjoyment of the gift must come through their own exertions. Just as in a higher sphere we know that our salvation is wholly the gift of God; and yet the getting hold of this gift, the getting linked to Christ, the entrance as it were into the marriage covenant with Him involves the active exertion of our own will and energy, and the gift never can be ours if we fail thus to appropriate it.
As soon as God mentions the land, He expatiates on its amplitude and its boundaries. It was designed to be both a comfortable and an ample possession. In point of extent it was a spacious region, – ”from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, towards the going down of the sun.” And it was not merely bits or corners of this land that were to be theirs, they were not designed to share it with other occupants, but ”every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it, as I spake unto Moses.” It was in no meagre or stingy spirit that God was now to fulfil His ancient promise, but in a way corresponding to the essential bountifulness of His nature. For it is a delightful truth that God’s heart is large and liberal, and that He delights in large and bountiful gifts. Has He not made this plain to all in the arrangements of nature? What more lavish than the gift of light, ever streaming from the sun in silver showers? What more abundant than the fresh air that, like an inexhaustible ocean, encompasses our globe, or the rivers that carry their fresh and fertilizing treasures unweariedly through every meadow? What more productive than the vegetable soil that under favourable conditions teems with fruits and flowers and the elements of food for the use and enjoyment of man?
And when we turn to God’s provision in grace we find glorious proofs of the same abundance and generosity. We see this symbolized by the activity and generosity of our Lord, as He went about ”preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” We understand the spiritual reality of which this was the symbol, when we call to mind the Divine generosity that receives the vilest sinners; the efficacy of the blood that cleanses from all sin; the power of the Spirit that sanctifies soul, body, and spirit; the wisdom of the providence that makes all things work together for good; the glory of the love that makes us now “sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” And once more it appears in the glory and amplitude of the inheritance, of which the land of Canaan was but the type, prepared of God’s infinite bounty for all who are His children by faith. Our Father’s house is both large and well furnished; it is a house of many mansions; and the inheritance which He has promised is incorruptible and undefiled and fadeth not away.
It is a grand truth, of which we never can make too much, this bountifulness of God, and the delight which He has in being bountiful. It is emphatically a truth for faith to apprehend and enjoy, because appearances are so often against it. Appearances were fearfully against it while the Israelites were groaning in their Egyptian bondage, and hardly less so, despite the manna and the water from the rock, during the forty years’ wandering in the desert. But that was a period of correction and of training, and in such circumstances lavish bounty was out of the question.
The most bountiful man on earth could not pour out all the liberality of his heart on the inmates of a hospital for the sick; he may give all that sick men need, but he must wait till they are well before he can give full scope to his generosity. While we are in the body we are like patients in a hospital, and the kindest feelings from God toward us must often take the form of bitter medicines, painful operations, close restraint, stinted diet, and it may be silence and darkness. But wait till we are well, and then we shall see what God hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him! Wait till we go over Jordan and take possession of the land! Two things will be seen in the clearest light – the supreme bountifulness of God, and the sinfulness of that impatient and suspicious spirit to which we are so prone. What a humiliation, if humiliation be possible in heaven, to discover that all the time when we were fretting and grumbling, God was working out His plans of supreme beneficence and love, waiting only till we should come of age to make us heirs of the universe!
It is natural to ask why, if the boundaries of the promised land were so extensive, if they reached so far on the north-east as the Euphrates, and if they extended from Lebanon on the north to the confines of Egypt on the south, there should have been any difficulty about the two and a half tribes occupying the land east of the Jordan, where only by a special permission they obtained their settlement. For it is plain from the narrative that it was contrary to God’s first intention, so to speak, that they should settle there, and that the land west of the Jordan was that to which the promise was held specially to apply. It will hardly do to say, as some have said, that the extension of the land to the Euphrates was a figure of speech, a poetical fringe or ornament as it were, intended to show that places adjacent to the land of Israel would share in some degree the radiance of its light and the influence of the Divine presence among its people. For the promise of God was really of the nature of a charter, and figures of poetry are not suitable in charters. It is rather to be understood that, in the final purpose of God, the possession included the whole of the ample domain contained within the specified boundaries, but that at first it would be confined within a narrower space. If the people should prove faithful to the covenant, the wider dominion would one day be conferred on them; but they were to start and get consolidated in a narrower territory. And the narrower space was that which had already been consecrated by the residence of the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The country west of Jordan was the land of their pilgrimage; and even when Lot and Abraham had to separate, it was not proposed that either should cross the river. The little strip lying between the Jordan and the sea was judged most suitable for the preparatory stage of Israel’s history; but had the nation served God with fidelity, their country would have been extended – as in the days of David and Solomon it really was – to the dimensions of an empire. The rule afterwards announced was to be virtually brought into operation – “To him that hath shall be given.” Hence the view taken of the settlement of the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan. It was not illegitimate; it was not inconsistent with the covenant made with the fathers; but it was for the time inexpedient, seeing that it exposed them to risks, both material and spiritual, which it would have been better for them to avoid.
One geographical expression, in the delimitation of the country, demands a brief explanation. While the country is defined as embracing the whole territory from Lebanon to the Euphrates, it is also defined as consisting in that direction of ”all the land of the Hittites.” But were not the Hittites one of the seven nations whose land was promised to Abraham and the fathers, and not even the first in the enumeration of these? Why should this great north-eastern section of the promised domain be designated ”the land of the Hittites”?
See “The Empire of the Hittites.” By William Wright, D.D., F.R.G.S. London, 1886.
The time was when it was a charge against the accuracy of the Scripture record that it ascribed to the Hittites this extensive dominion. That time has passed away, inasmuch as, within quite recent years, the discovery has been made that in those distant times a great Hittite empire did exist in the very region specified, between Lebanon and the Euphrates. The discovery is based on twofold data: references in the Egyptian and other monuments to a powerful people, called the Khita (Hittites), with whom even the great kings of Egypt had long and bloody wars; and inscriptions in the Hittite language found in Hamah, Aleppo, and other places in Syria. There is still much obscurity resting on the history of this people. That the Hittites proper prevailed so extensively has been doubted by some; a Hittite confederacy has been supposed, and sometimes a Hittite aristocracy exercising control over a great empire. The only point which it is necessary to dwell on here is, that in representing the tract between Lebanon and Euphrates as equivalent to “all the land of the Hittites,” the author of the Book of Joshua made a statement which has been abundantly verified by recent research.
To encourage and animate Joshua to undertake the work and position of Moses it is very graciously promised – ”There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” The invariable success promised was a greater boon than the greatest conquerors had been able to secure. Uniform success is a thing hardly known to captains of great expeditions, even though in the end they may prevail. But the promise to Joshua is, that all his enemies shall flee before him. None of his battles shall be even neutral, his opponents must always give way. No son of Anak shall be able to oppose his onward march; no giant, like Og King of Bashan, shall terrify either him or his troops. He will “onward still to victory go,” – the Lord of hosts ever with him, the God of Jacob ever his defence.
The promise is not inconsistent with the fact that Joshua’s troops were defeated by the men of Ai. In such promises there is an implied condition of steadfast regard to God’s will on the part of those who receive them, and this condition was violated at Ai, not by Joshua, indeed, but by one of his people.
And this was no vague, indefinite assurance. It was sharply defined by a well-known example in the immediate past – ”As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.” In what a remarkable variety of dangers and trials God was with Moses! Now he had to confront the grandest monarch on earth, supported by the strongest armies, and upheld by what claimed to be the mightest gods. Again he had to deal with an apostate people, mad upon idols, and afterwards with an excited mob, ready to stone him. Anon he had to overcome the forces of nature and bend them to his purposes; to call water from the rock, to sweeten the bitter fountain, to heal the fiery bite, to cure his sister’s leprous body, to bring down bread from heaven, and people the air with flocks of birds. Moreover, he had to be the messenger of the covenant between God and Israel, to unfold God’s law in its length and breadth and in all its variety of application, and to obtain from the people a hearty compliance – ” All that the Lord hath said unto us, that will we do.” What a marvellous work Moses did! What a testimony his life presented to the reality of the Divine presence and guidance, and what a solid and indefeasible ground of trust God gave to Joshua when He said, ”As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee.”
And this is crowned with the further assurance, “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee,” – an assurance which is extended in the Epistle to the Hebrews to all who believe. We are so apt to view these promises as just beautiful expressions that we need to pause and think what they really mean. A promise of Divine presence, Divine protection and guidance and blessing all the days of our life, is surely a treasure of inexpressible value. It is no slight matter to realize that this is in God’s heart – that He has a constant, unvarying feeling of love toward us, and readiness to help; but we must believe this in order to get the benefit of it; and, moreover. He must be left to determine the time, the manner, and the form in which His help is to come. Alas for the unbelief, the suspicion, the fear that is so prone to eat out the spirit of trust, and in our trials and difficulties make us tremble as if we were alone! What a profound peace, what calm enjoyment and blessed hope fall to the lot of those who can believe in a God ever near, and in His unfailing faithfulness and love! Was it not the secret alike of David’s calmness, of our Lord’s serenity, and of the cheerful composure of many a martyr and many a common man and woman who have gone through life undisturbed and happy, that they could say – ”I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved”? God grant us all that, like Abraham, we may “stagger not at the promise of God through unbelief, but that being strong in faith we may give glory to God, and believe that what He hath promised He is able also to perform.”