James Nisbet Commentary - Joshua 23:11 - 23:15

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James Nisbet Commentary - Joshua 23:11 - 23:15


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

‘
TAKE GOOD HEED!’

‘Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God,’ etc.

Jos_23:11-15

I. In this speech Joshua once more pressed upon the people their true character as the chosen people of the Lord God.—He is able now to appeal to facts in evidence of the truth which had once been matters of faith; he is able now to point to what God has done, to call the people themselves to witness that all the promises of God have come to pass, and that not one good thing hath failed of all those which the Lord their God had promised them.

II. Joshua found in his old age nothing to retract of what he had said in former times concerning God and the people, and the relation of the one to the other.—He next implores the people to guard against backsliding. He says: Go on as you have begun, and God will bless you; your shame, and misery, and damnation will be if you turn back from following the Lord.

III. Once more, looking forward to the future, Joshua declares that, in case of the Israelites going back from their high position as God’s people, God would punish them as severely as hitherto He had blessed them bounteously.—The possession of the land had been the reward of obedience; the loss of the same would be the punishment of disobedience.

All the points in Joshua’s speech might be applied by a Christian minister to a Christian congregation. Consider: (1) whether you are sufficiently alive to your high calling, and profession, and privileges; (2) whether you are guarding against backsliding in your religious course; (3) whether you think sufficiently of the danger of offending God, and of the awfulness of that judgment-seat before which the living and the dead must alike one day stand.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Once having chosen, we cannot escape the results of our choice. Here, even for us, “an inevitable must” comes in. We are kings in the realm of choice; we are slaves in the realm of the results of our choice. We cannot escape the consequences of our decisions, any more than the Israelites could serve other gods, and yet receive the rewards of serving Jehovah.’

(2)      ‘Though the mills of God grind slowly,

Yet they grind exceeding small;

Though with patience He stands waiting,

With exactness grinds He all.’

So glorious and yet so solemn is the responsibility of choice. Joshua’s appeal rings across the centuries, and the urgency of its appeal to us is all the greater because our light is so much clearer than his. Life is a service; who shall be our master?’

(3) ‘Rev. David Sandeman, the devoted missionary to China, delighting, as he did, in vigorous exercise, one day in a walk with two companions, joined for a few minutes in the amusement of leaping over a stile. While his companions failed he cleared the stile so easily and gracefully as to draw forth the admiration of a dragoon who stood by. When about to walk on Mr. Sandeman turned to the soldier, got him into conversation, and spoke of the perils and honours of a life like his. Then, suddenly drawing himself up to his full height, he exclaimed, with deep feeling, “There is something far better yet. It is to be a soldier of Jesus Christ. Are you that?” The dragoon looked with wonder on the man of muscle and sinew, who could thus speak to his soul, and shook hands at parting deeply impressed and interested.’