Moses is dead but the work goes on: divinely-gifted leaders are never wanting. “After the death of Moses … the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan.… Be strong and of a good courage … for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” Time and again, in his instruction of Joshua, the Lord seemed to impress upon him the great necessity of being of a good courage. He knew that Joshua would have opportunities of exercising his faith, and that trials would be heaped upon him to such an extent that it would require the utmost courage to go through victoriously. However, with all the instruction given to Joshua, and the admonitions to be true to the Lord and courageous, there was always this precious promise: “The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
1. The first command given to Joshua was a trial of his faith. The whole land of Canaan was Israel's by deed of gift. But though this was so, each square mile of it had to be claimed from the hand of the peoples that possessed it. When Israel reached its banks, the Jordan was in flood, and overflowing the low-lying lands on either side of its bed. Across the river stood Jericho, embosomed in palms and tamarisks, in a very paradise of exquisite vegetation, its aromatic shrubs and gardens scenting the air. But as the people beheld it, all their cherished hopes of taking it by their own energy or courage must have been utterly dissipated. To cross a stream in the face of the enemy is a difficult operation, even for modern armies; what must it have been for Joshua and his horde? Not a hint is given him as to the means by which the crossing is to be made possible. He has Jehovah's command to do it, and Jehovah's promise to be with him, and that is to be enough.
The narrative of the crossing of the Jordan has recently received a remarkable illustration from a passage discovered in an MS. Arabic history. This states that in a.d. 1266 a great landslip at Damieh dammed the Jordan at a time when it was in full flood; and below Damieh the river ceased to flow from midnight till about 10 a.m. This Damieh is often identified with the Adam of the Book of Joshua, and is a point about seventeen miles north of Jericho, where the valley of the river contracts to a narrow gorge, which might easily be blocked by a landslip. Thus the Jordan could be crossed by the Israelites at many separate points. We must not, therefore, think of them as marching in one long, continuous procession. A traveller who lived for many years among the Bedouin, describing the great pilgrim caravan from Damascus to Medina and Mecca, writes:
“There go commonly three or four camels abreast and seldom five: the length of the slow-footed multitude of men and cattle is near two miles, and the width some hundred yards in the open plains. The Hajjaj [pilgrims] were this year by their account (which may be above the truth) 6000 persons; of these more than half are serving-men on foot; and 10,000 of all kinds of cattle, the most camels, then mules, hackneys, asses, and a few dromedaries of Arabians returning in security of the great convoy to their own district.” (C. M. Doughty, Travels in Arabia Deserta, i. 7.)
The Israelites were not ordinary travellers but tribes migrating with their families and all their belongings, so that the proportion of cattle and beasts of burden would be larger than in the Mecca caravan. At the lowest estimate this gathering of nomad clans would include a formidable multitude of men and animals, and we may imagine them on the morning of the crossing encamped for miles along the river, each kindred by itself. At dawn the tents were struck, and the scanty belongings of the nomads were packed; and later, perhaps at some concerted signal, the loads were lifted on to the backs of the beasts of burden, and the clans crossed the river to take up new camping grounds in the plains on the west of the Jordan. Again we may compare the account given of the starting of the Damascus caravan for Mecca:
“The day risen, the tents were dismantled, the camels led in ready to their companies, and halted beside their loads. We waited to hear the cannon shot which would open that year's pilgrimage. It was near ten o'clock when we heard the signal gun fired, and then, without any disorder, litters were suddenly heaved and braced upon the bearing beasts, their charges laid upon the kneeling camels, and the thousands of riders, all born in the caravan countries, mounted in silence.”1 [Note: W. H. Bennett, Joshua and the Conquest of Palestine, 38.]
2. Following the narrative, we are informed that three days were allowed, if not for physical, certainly for moral and spiritual preparation for the crossing of the river. Joshua moved his camp to the very brink of the river. Then after appropriate religious ceremonies, he placed the priests with the ark of God in front. The waters as they approached moved to left and right, and this vast multitude, with all their cattle and bearing their belongings, walked over on the dry bed of the river, several hours being consumed in the passage. When the last one of this mighty and consecrated host had set his feet upon the sacred soil, the waters rolled back, and shut them out for ever from their wanderings and bondage; shut them in to a land which was full of trials yet to come, but whose mountains were crested with beauty and whose valleys laughed with abundance.
From Jos_3:7; Jos_10:1-43 we learn that the purpose of this miracle was twofold. It was intended to stamp the seal of God's approbation on Joshua, and to hearten the people by the assurance of God's fighting for them. The leader was thereby put on the level of Moses, the people on that of the generation before whom the Red Sea had been divided.
If I had to single out any one chapter in the Bible which I am conscious of having influenced me most, I should say the first of Joshua, with its oft-repeated exhortation to be strong and to be very courageous; and if I had to single out any particular verses it would be those which were taught me when a boy and which I long afterwards saw on the wall in General Gordon's room in Southampton: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”2 [Note: W. T. Stead, in Books which have Influenced me.]
3. Intelligence of this marvellous event reached the ears not only of the Amorite mountain-chiefs, but also of the Canaanite lowlanders on the sea-coast, and filled them with the utmost alarm; “their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more.” No attack, therefore, was made upon the Israelites, who were left in quiet possession of their advanced post on the western side of Jordan. Here the rite of circumcision, so long neglected during their desert wanderings, was performed, and in memory of this removal of the reproach of their uncircumcised state, the rising ground of their encampment was called Gilgal. They were now also in a condition to keep the passover, which was duly celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month at even on the plains of Jericho, and the unleavened cakes prescribed for this festival were made of the old corn of the land, and not of the manna, which on the next day entirely ceased, and thus proved that their desert life was really over.
While the manna continued to descend, it was the staple article of food; but when the manna was withdrawn, the old corn and other fruits of the country took its place. In other words, the miracle was not continued when it ceased to be necessary. The manna had been a provision for the wilderness, where ordinary food in sufficient quantity could not be obtained; but now that they were in a land of fields and orchards and vineyards the manna was withdrawn. No sanction is given in the Bible to the idea of a lavish and needless expenditure of supernatural power. A law of economy, we might almost say parsimony, prevails side by side with the exercise of unbounded liberality. Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude, but He will not let one fragment be lost that remains after the feast. A similar law guides the economy of prayer. We have no right to ask that mercies may come to us through extraordinary channels, when it is in our power to get them by ordinary means. If it is in our power to procure bread by our labour, we dare not ask it to be sent direct. We are only too prone to make prayer at the eleventh hour an excuse for want of diligence or want of courage in what bears on the prosperity of the spiritual life. It may be that of His great generosity, God sometimes blesses us, even though we have made a very inadequate use of the ordinary means. But on that we have no right to presume. We are fond of short and easy methods where the natural method would be long and laborious. But here certainly we find the working of natural law in the spiritual world. We cannot look for God's blessing without diligent use of God's appointed means.1 [Note: W. G. Blaikie, The Book of Joshua, 123.]
4. Gilgal, the first encampment, seems to have been the resting-place of the ark and probably of the non-combatants, during the conquest, and to have derived thence a sacredness which long clung to it, and finally led, singularly enough, to its becoming a centre of idolatrous worship. The rude circle of unhewn stones without inscription was, no doubt, exactly like the many prehistoric monuments found all over the world, which forgotten races have raised to keep in everlasting remembrance forgotten fights and heroes. These grey stones preached at once the duty of remembering, and the danger of forgetting, the past mercies of God.
A few months before the death of Robert Louis Stevenson, certain Samoan chiefs whom he had befriended while they were under imprisonment for political causes, and whose release he had been instrumental in effecting, testified their gratitude by building an important piece of road leading to Mr. Stevenson's Samoan country house, Vailima. At a corner of the road there was erected a notice, prepared by the chiefs and bearing their names, which reads:
“
The Road of the Loving Heart.
‘Remembering the great love of his highness, Tusitala, and his loving care when we were in prison and sore distressed, we have prepared him an enduring present, this road which we have dug to last for ever.' ”1 [Note: M‘Clure's Magazine, July, 1895.]
