Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Apr 1959

The book of Joshua is a book of victory, save in the defeat sustained at the city of Ai. This defeat was brought about by the disobedience of Achan the troubler, whose covetousness led him to take the Babylonish garment, the two hundred shekels of silver and the wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, from the accursed city of Jericho. The LORD'S message to Joshua was, "Israel hath sinned" (Joshua 7.11). We see in this a solemn truth, how that the sin of one man may bring sin upon all the people with whom he is associated, and the responsibility of that people is to deal with the man and his sin, if they are to continue to be a people pleasing to the Lord. Such was the case of the sinning brother in 1 Corinthians 5. The church in Corinth had to put the man away from among themselves. In Achan's case, he and his family with all that he had were stoned and burnt with fire in the valley of Achor, and over him they raised a great heap of stones as a memorial to the visitation of the LORD'S wrath upon a man who disobeyed the word of the Loan in the vital matter of the destruction of Jericho, wherein all was accursed of God.

In the time of the coming of the Son of Man in judgement, when He shall gather out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire (Matthew 13. 41, 42), then shall the valley of Achor he a door of hope. Of that good day for the redeemed of Israel it is said,

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall make answer there, Os in the days of her youth; and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shall call Me Ishi (my Husband); and shalt call Me no more Boali (my Master)" (Hosea 2.14-16).

This alluring of the elect remnant of Israel into tile wilderness is seen in Isaiah 35.3-10, Matthew 24.15-22 and Revelation 12. 6, 13-17, when the obedient will flee from the idolatry of the worship of the beast and his image and from the fearful tribulation which he and the serpent, the devil, shall bring upon all who refuse to bow to this infernal system and worship.

Why is the book of Joshua a record of victory? The answer is contained in the LORD'S command to Joshua when he took over the leadership of Israel at the death of Moses:

"This book of the law (known to us as the five books of Moses) shall not depart out of thy mouth, hut thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not success. affrighted, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Joshua 1.8, 9).

Herein was the source of Joshua's strength and success as the leader of Israel, in his close adherence to the law of God. Leaders of God's people in any age will find this ever the sure road to real and abiding success. They may have but few followers, even as the Lord Himself had at the end of His days on earth, and as Paul had ; for he wrote to Timothy in his last epistle, "This thou knowest, that all that are in Asia turned away from me" (2 Timothy 1.15). Later on he exhorted Timothy to preach the word, for," said he, tile time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts ; and will turn away their ears from the truth" (4.2-4). It was not that the time may come, but "the time will come." The apostasy came and swept over the work of God which He had wrought, in particular, through Paul, and by the end of the first century little was left that bore any resemblance to the truth taught by Paul in every church, when the churches of God were united in doctrine and practice. Little by little the devil filched from God's saints the truth to which they should have held fast, for it was more precious to them and those that followed after than life itself. The wise words of the proverb were, alas, forgotten, Buy the truth, and sell it not " (Proverbs 23. 23).

Whoso despiseth the word bringeth destruction on himself:

But he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded"

(Proverbs 13.13).

Such is one of the wise sayings of Solomon. How often these words have been fulfilled in the experiences of men We have them exemplified in the last chapter of 1 Chronicles and in the last chapter of 2 Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles 29 we have David handing over to his son Solomon the vast treasure, with his own personal fortune, which he had accumulated with all his might to build for God, the King of Israel, a palace in which He might dwell in the midst of His people. Few men have set their affection to the house of God as David did. His longing to be found dwelling in God's house was with him in youth (Psalm 27.4), and was unabated in his old age. His words, as he praised God in the joy of his heart as he saw his people joined with himself in offering willingly for the building of God's house, are some of the most beautiful to be found in the Scriptures (1 Chronicles 29.9-20). Here was the end of the reign of David, whose obedience to the LORD was ever to be a measuring rod by which the kings of his house who followed after him would be measured in their adherence or otherwise to God's word. His sun went down as gloriously as it shone upon him in the dawn of his kingship, when as Israel's anointed king in the place of Saul he descended into the vale of Elah to enter into deadly combat with the Philistine champion. Then he was dealing with the enemy without, to the glory of the God of Israel, but at the end of his reign, with enemies without, crushed and gone, he is found in quietness and peace resting from his labours, and giving to God what lie regarded as His due, "for," said he, "all things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee" (1 Chronicles 29.14). So David "died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour" (verse 28).

It was far otherwise in the last chapter of 2 Chronicles. What David laboured to gather, ins sons who came after him laboured to scatter. There were a few good kings in Judah, such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah, but they were not without grievous faults, especially the first three. Between Hezekiah and Josiah came Manasseh and Amon, two of the very worst, and, alas, Josiah's son Jehoiakim and his sons, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah (the last of Judah's kings), were all men who did evil in the sight of tile Lord. In Zedekiah's reign of eleven years it says that "he stiffened his neck, and hardened ins heart from turning unto the Lord, the God of Israel." The sad state of the people in general is depicted in the following words

Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the heathen; and they polluted the house of the Loan which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Loan, the God of their fathers, sent to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Loan arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeons, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or ancient : He gave them all into his hand" (2 Chronicles 36.14-17).

The Chaldeans burnt God's house and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They carried away the most of the people who lived through those terrible days to Babylon with the vessels of God's house. All this devastation was caused by the disobedience of God's people to His word. Truly the word of the proverb was abundantly fulfilled : "Whoso despiseth the word bringeth destruction on himself," and as true also was the other part fulfilled in David's case, "But he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded."

Zedekiah the king on whose shoulders rested much of the responsibility for the fearful state of things in Judah was to taste the bitter fruit of his evil doing. The Chaldean army pursued after Zedekiah and his army and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and the sad story is found in 2 Kings 25.6, 7.

The last sight that Zedekiah saw on earth was the slaughter of his sons. Such was the recompense of sin on earth, but that does not end the tale of evil. Let us hear and fear !

J. Miller | Apr 1959
Jottings