תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

1.

REFLECTIONS.

ERE we may learn the evil tendency of sin: what

often suffer for the sins of individuals. We should guard against it in ourselves, and, as much as in us lieth, prevent it in others, and do nothing to be accessary to the guilt of others. Stand in awe, and sin not. We learn,

2. That good governors are greatly affected with the calamity and misery of their people; Joshua's distress was a sign of great generosity and benevolence, of tenderness and compassion. He lays to heart the distresses of the people. It is a good example when princes and magistrates are zealous for the Lord of hosts. They should be concerned for the prosperity of the nation; should lead the way in public humiliations, and every thing that has a tendency to promote reformation and the public happiness. It is not sufficient for them to punish public vices, but they must also labour to reform them.

3. The glory of God ought to be our chief concern and main plea. No matter what becomes of us and our name, if thine be glorified, if thy perfections are seen and adored, and a tribute of praise and homage be paid to thee. It will grieve every good man that God's name is dishonoured. Our great concern should

be, that God in all things should be glorified. It should be the matter of our prayers and endeavours; and we may take encouragement from that regard which God has, and still shows for it.

4. We should consider the omniscience of God as a motive to avoid sin. Achan was ready to think that the Lord could not see; when so much gold was saved for the tabernacle, a little could not be missed. But he was wretchedly mistaken. Thus sinners flatter themselves in their own eyes that God will not know; that their sin will not be discovered; and therefore promise themselves security: but this is great folly. They may be sure their sin will find them out. Among the many thousands of Israelites, God saw the offender, though hid in the tent. He distinguishes between the precious and the vile. The lot was cast into the lap, and separated one out of all the tribes of Israel. Let us reverence this omniscient Being. In him is no darkness at all. Tremble for fear of him; labour to be approved of him; and let our conduct be such, as to have no reason to be ashamed that God or men should know it.

5. Humble confession of sin is giving glory to God. Let us give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him. It gives glory to his justice, and to the holiness of his law, which is broken; it gives him the glory of his omniscience, by which he sees us, and finds us out. In order to this, it is necessary to be VOL. II. Ii

full and circumstantial in our confessions of sin not only to say 'I acknowledge I have sinned;' but add particularly, thus and thus have I done. Reflect with sorrow on the several steps which led us to sin, and own, as Achan here does, all the aggravating circumstances. It was committed against precepts, motives, &c. Achan had no hope of escape, but we have. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; but if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unright

eousness.

6. The love of money is the root of all evil: Achan's covetous mind seduced him. He thought it an easy way of growing rich, and providing for his family; but it ruined him and his family too. Ill gotten gain will prove bitterness in the end. It is very ill husbandry to get rich, if not done by right, honest, and honourable ways. Let us, therefore, keep the world at a proper distance, and moderate our affections to it. The language of this story is, Take heed, and beware of covetousness, which is idolatry.

7. The public execution of notorious offenders, is necessary to the welfare of society. It is necessary, to deter others from sin, to remove offenders out of the way, who are plagues to society; and thereby avert those judgments with which they would be otherwise visited. Wicked men are the troublers of Israel, and bring guilt and ruin upon it. It is the will of God that such should be troubled; he has ordained magistrates to be his ministers of terror to evil doers; and not to bear the sword in vain. All private persons should join to discover and bring to punishment the workers of iniquity. This is the way to have tranquillity lengthened, and calamities removed. According to the beautiful words of the prophet Hosea, ch. ii. 15. in which he alludes to this story, The valley of Achor, or trouble, is a door of hope.

CHAP. VIII.

Israel having put away the accursed thing, God returns unto them in mercy. We have here the method to be used for taking the city Ai; the success of the stratagem; and the solemn reading of the law, and writing it on stones, according to the words of Moses, Deut. xxvii. 5.

A

ND the LORD said unto Joshua, who had been greatly discouraged and discomposed by what had happened, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: thus God assures him of complete victory, and then directs him 2 what to do: And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou

didst unto Jericho and her king; the city must be destroyed, lest the Canaanites should take possession of it, or the Israelites should confide in fortified places; and to encourage them, he gives them the spoil: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an 3 ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua arose, and all the people of war to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them away 4 by night, to lie in ambush behind the city. And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, [even] five thousand of you, behind the city: go not very far 5 from the city, but be ye all ready: And I, and all the people that [are] with me, will approach unto the city and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, 6 that we will flee before them, (For they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first therefore we will flee be7 fore them. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city for the LORD your God will deliver it 8 into your hand. And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, [that] ye shall set the city on fire according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do. See, I have commanded 9 you. Joshua therefore sent them forth, that is, the five thou sand and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people, the twenty five thousand remain10 ing. And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, to prove that no lives were lost, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai; the elders went up to be witnesses of the action, as a council of war, and to 11 assist in dividing the spoil. And all the people, [even the people] of war that [were] with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: 12 now [there was] a valley between them and Ai. And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush be13 tween Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

14

And

when they had set the people, [even] all the host that [was] on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua, and a small company with him, went that night into the midst of the valley.

And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw [it,] that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that [there were] liers in ambush against him behind the city; which is very

Probably there were two ambushes, one to surprise the enemy in front, and the other to take the city behind: while the main body might be stationed behind an htu, where the enemy could not see them,

probable, considering the city was close shut up to prevent spies 15 coming in, or deserters going out. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way 16 of the wilderness, toward the main body of the army. And all the people that [were] in Ai were called together to pursue after them and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city, suspecting no danger from the west part, and so 17 left the city unguarded. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel; which shows that some from the neighbouring city had joined the garrison at Ai 18 and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel. And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that [is] in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that [he had] in his hand 19 toward the city, as a signal to the liers in wait. And the am: bush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire, some of 20 the outer parts of it. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way and the people that fled to the wilderness turned 21 back upon the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel, the rest of the army that was with him, who seemed to fly away before, saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew 22 the men of Ai. And the other, the ambush that had taken the city, issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. 23 And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. 24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where in they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it, that is, the men unable to bear arms, and women and children, with the edge of the 25 sword. And [so] it was, [that] all that fell that day, both of men and women, [were] twelve thousand, [even] all the men 26 of Ai and Bethel. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai; but still led them on, and continu-, 27 ed to fight till all were destroyed. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, which was distributed in due proportion, according unto the word of 28 the LORD which he commanded Joshua. And Joshua burnt

Ai, and made it an heap for ever,* [even] a desolation unto 29 this day. And the king of Ai, who was the greatest offender, as a bad governor, and a wicked king, he hanged on a tree until eventide and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, where he had used to sit in judgment, and had probably been guilty of great injustice and cruelty, and to raise thereon a great heap of stones [that remaineth] unto this day.

30

Then, after the taking of Ai, Joshua built an altar unto the 31 Lord God of Israel in mount Ebal.f As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up [any] iron; and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace 32 offerings, in token of their covenant with God. And he wrote there upon the stones, prepared for that purpose, and perhaps placed over the altar, a copy of the law of Moses, at least the ten commandments, or rather, the blessings and curses contained in the twenty seventh and twenty eighth chapters of Deuteronomy, which he wrote in the presence of the children 33 of Israel. And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark, and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless 34 the people of Israel. And afterward he read, or caused the Levites to read, after the sacrifices were over, all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is 85 written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them; the members of their families, and the strangers the proselytes to their religion, were all present at this solemn service.

1.

"WE

REFLECTIONS.

E see that God is ready to return to his people when they put away their sin. When that is removed, he returns graciously; he is disposed to renew the friendship and union; and then also we may expect to receive direction, en couragement, and assistance from him. This is an encourage

For ever, means only a long time; there was no prospect of its being rebuilt when this book was written. But we find in Nehem. xi. 31. that it was built again, and both this and Bethel were inhabited by Benjamin.

This was at a considerable distance from Ai; but he took advantage of the terror that was struck into the Canaanites, to perform this act of religion.

« הקודםהמשך »