John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 3

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: June 3

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Government

Judges 2

Attention has more than once, in the course of these papers, been called to the fact, that before the time of Moses the Hebrew tribes had been severally governed patriarchally by their own chiefs, and under them by the heads of the great families or clans into which the tribes were divided; and then, again, by the heads of houses. This internal organization appears to have been regarded as sufficient for all common purposes of government, for it still existed under Moses and Joshua, and in the times of the judges and the kings. There are exact parallels to it still subsisting among the Arabian and Tartar tribes. The alteration made by the law did not consist in the abrogation of this institution, but in the establishment of a general government over all, and through which the tribes might be bound more effectually together as one nation. This general government centered in the person of Jehovah himself, who condescended to become, in a special sense, their sovereign, and dwelt among them in a sensible and living presence in the tabernacle. To him, through his high priest, they were to refer in all high matters that concerned the interests of religion and the welfare of the nation—in all, in fact, that lay beyond the scope of those functions which the tribal chiefs exercised. To him, while they sacrificed to him as their God, they rendered tribute as to their king, as a rent to the sovereign proprietor of the land which he alone had given to them, and which belonged to them only in grant from him; and to maintain the vitality of their allegiance, they were bound to repair three times in the year to render suit and service to him as their king in the place where he sat on his throne “between the cherubim,” and held his court in the tabernacle.

Under the government thus established, the functions of Moses, and after him of Joshua, were extraordinary, and altogether temporary. Moses was to bring the nation forth out of the house of bondage, and to organize its institutions in the wilderness; Joshua was to conduct them into the land of Canaan, and to give it to them for a possession. To fulfill such special missions these men were invested with extraordinary powers, which gave them a sort of place between the heads of tribes on the one hand, and the Divine King, whose commissioned servants they were, and for whom they acted, on the other. They were themselves most anxious to keep before the minds of the people this character of their office, and this truth of their position, by taking no step of the least consequence without reference to the Lord’s will, and by acting on all occasions as the ministers of the will thus ascertained.

It will, therefore, appear that those who marvel that Joshua did not, like Moses, appoint a successor, and who are disposed to ascribe to that omission the disorders that ensued in the commonwealth, do utterly misconceive the true nature of the case. Moses did not appoint Joshua to succeed him, or rather to carry out the work he had left unfinished, of his own mere will, but by the Divine command. If any successor to Joshua had been needed, he would have been commanded to appoint one, and without such a command, this was not to be expected from him. The truth is, that the functions of Moses, and after him of Joshua, formed one grand initiatory operation—which was completed by the latter, and the completion of which left the Hebrew state on its proper and permanent foundations—a theocracy, with the Lord at its head, as the Divine King, abiding among them in his tabernacle; with the high-priest as the medium of intercourse with him, and the official interpreter of his will; and with the heads of tribes, of families, and of houses, as the instruments of local government. It is by our losing sight of the presence of this latter feature of the constitution that all the difficulty arises. But its importance and general sufficiency may, in some degree, be illustrated from our own municipal institutions, which are found to be sufficient, under the general operation of the laws, for all local purposes throughout the land, leaving but little occasion for reference to the general government, except when something goes seriously wrong—when some calamity has occurred—or when some large improvements are contemplated.

The object of this institution obviously was, to keep the nation in a state of direct dependence upon the providence and care of the Divine King, who had condescended to become, in this special manner, their sovereign, and the head of their polity. The intervention of any vicegerent under whatever name, would materially have impaired, if not destroyed, the directness and essential purposes of this government; for it is in man’s nature, and especially was it in the Hebrew nature, to look from the unseen to the seen; and with a visible and human vicegerent, invested with the external attributes of power and government, the invisible King would have soon become, as to the practical recognition of his government, a mere abstraction, a name, a ceremony.

We are not to inquire whether this was in itself the most perfect form of political government. It was a special and peculiar government, adapted to a peculiar people, and framed for the accomplishment of peculiar ends; and being chosen by God himself as adapted to that people, and suited to these ends, it was the most perfect to them, without being necessarily on that account the best for, or indeed possible to, any other people. But it may be, and it has been, asked —If this were the best government for the Hebrews, how comes it to pass that they did not thrive under it? The answer is plain—The proper operation, which would have led them to prosperity and power, was frustrated by their own disloyalty and disobedience. They allowed themselves to be seduced into the very connections with the remaining Canaanites, which had been most solemnly interdicted; they mixed with them in marriage, in traffic, in social intercourse and eventually in the solemnities of worship and superstition. They then became, alienated from their Divine King, and forgot or neglected the invaluable privileges to which they were entitled under his government. How then was that government to be carried on? Were the terrors of the Divine power to be incessantly manifested, to restrain them forcibly from yielding to their vicious and idolatrous propensities? Such is not the method of the Divine government; and it would, indeed, have been contrary to the very idea and use of a moral governor. Was he, then, to abandon them altogether to the influence of their own corrupt tendencies, which would soon have plunged them into remediless idolatry, and thus have defeated, so to speak, all the purposes for which they had been set apart among the nations? If neither of these courses could be taken, there only remains that course which the Lord’s providence actually took in dealing with this people. When any portion of the nation—any section of the tribes—became so far gone in idolatry as to adopt the public worship of other gods, the Lord withdrew his protection from them. Then, forsaken of their strength, they soon fell under subjection to some neighboring state, and had to endure exactions and oppressions of intensity proportioned to their offences. This position, so grievous to a conquering people, generally brought them in time to their senses. They humbled themselves before their offended Sovereign; and, mindful of his old deliverances, they implored him to appear once more in their behalf. And he heard them. The fit man was found and appointed to act as the Lord’s vicegerent for the occasion. Under his conduct the deliverance was effected, and the Lord’s providence and sovereignty magnified. The deliverer, after he had, in the Lord’s might, broken the foreign yoke from their necks, continued to act upon the commission he had received, and exercised such authority over that portion of the nation which had needed his services, as enabled him to maintain them in their allegiance to Jehovah during his lifetime: nor did the influence of his exertions always disappear with his own existence and that of the generation to whom this experience of judgment and mercy had been given. The Lord enforced the authority of his law, by thus visibly controlling the nation, and proportioning their prosperity and adversity to the degree of obedience which they yielded to it; and they were hence led to look immediately to him for protection, without interposing any permanent human authority, on which they might be apt too exclusively to depend, and thus forget their God.

Although it must be admitted that the Israelites did not, during the period under notice, maintain the position which belonged to them, had they proved worthy of it—yet it may appear that the impression of their prevalent misconduct and unfaithfulness during that period—or, as some view it, of the insufficiency of the government under which they were placed—goes considerably beyond the facts of the case. By a superficial observer, as Dr. Graves well remarks, Note: Lectures on the Pentateuch. “the whole period under the judges may easily be mistaken for an unbroken series of idolatries and crimes, from his not observing that the lapses which incurred punishment, and the Divine deliverances which attended repentance, are related so fully as to occupy almost the whole narrative; while periods when, under the government of the judges, the people followed God, and the land enjoyed peace, are passed over in a single verse, as productive of no event which required a particular detail.” This writer enters into a calculation by which it appears that out of the 450 years under the judges (without including the forty years’ government of Eli), there were not less than 377 years, during which the authority of the law of Moses was acknowledged in Israel. Of the state of things which existed during this period, a charming picture, incomparable in the hearty piety, and the pure and simple manners which it exhibits, is to be found in the book of Ruth, on which we forbear to expatiate only because its indications must soon engage our full attention.