The Expositor's Bible: The Book of JoshuaBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Joshua
Blaikie, William Garden
Bible. Joshua -- Commentaries
There is no difficulty in perceiving the great lesson for all time to
be derived from this extraordinary transaction, or the great law of
the kingdom of God that was made so conspicuous by it. When we have
clear indications of the Divine mind as to any course of action, we
are to advance to it promptly and without fear, even though the means
at our disposal appear utterly inadequate to the object sought to be
gained. No man goeth a warfare at his own charges in the service of
God. The resources of infinite power avail for that service, and they
are sure to be brought into play if it be undertaken for God's glory,
and in accordance with His will. Who could have supposed that the
fishermen of Galilee would in the end triumph over all the might of
kings and rulers; over all the influence of priesthoods and systems of
worship enshrined in the traditions of centuries; over all the
learning and intellect of the philosopher, and over all the prejudices
and passions of the multitude? The secret lay manifestly in the
promise of Jesus--"Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the
world." Who could have thought that the efforts of a poor German
student in Berlin, on behalf of some neglected children, would expand
into the widespread and well-rooted "Inner Mission" of Wichern? Or
that the concern of a prison chaplain for the welfare of some of the
prisoners after their release would develop into the worldwide work of
Fliedner? Or that the distress of a kind-hearted medical student in
London for a batch of poor boys who "didn't live nowhere," and whose
pale faces, as they lay on a cold night on the roof of a shed, stirred
in him an irrepressible compassion, would give birth to one of the
marvels of London philanthropy,--Dr. Barnardo's twenty institutions,
caring for three to four thousand children, in connection with which
the announcement could be made that no really destitute child was ever
turned from its doors? When Carey on his shoemaker's stool
contemplated the evangelization of India, there was as great a gulf
between the end and the apparent means, as when the priests blew with
their rams' horns round the walls of Jericho. But Carey felt it to be
a Divine command, and Joshua-like set himself to obey it, leaving to
God from whom it came to furnish the power by which the work was to be
done. And wherever there have been found men and women of strong faith
in God, who have looked on His will as recorded in the Scriptures with
as much reverence as if it had been announced personally to
themselves, and who have set themselves to obey that will with a sense
of its reality, and a faith in God's promised help, like that of
Joshua as the priests marched round Jericho, the same result has been
realized; before Zerubbabel the great mountain has become a plain, and
success has been achieved worthy of the acknowledgment--"The Lord hath
done great things for us, whereof we are glad."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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