CHAPTER XII
Joshua
The Book of Joshua
Agnes M. Lawson
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to Bible Study
The Colorado College of Divine
Science
Denver, 1920.
While the
Israelites were encamped in the
wilderness of Paran, Moses decided to
send spies into the land of the
Canaanite. These people were farther
advanced in agriculture and the arts of
civilization than were the Israelites at
this time, but their moral and religious
life was so vicious and demoralizing that
affiliation with them was impossible, and
the great Hebrew nation builders
uncompromisingly destroyed them.
The question
asked by the earnest Truth seeker is, Did
God give the order to Moses to send spies
into the country of Canaan that the
Israelites might measure the strength of
the inhabitants against their own, and
thus go forward to exterminate the people
and possess the land? Always bear in mind
that, in the Bible, we are studying the
evolution of the race and the unfoldment
of the concept of God in the
consciousness of man. God is
intelligence, and if we will but take
this intelligence with us as we study, we
can readily see that God already knew the
strength of both the Israelites and the
Canaanites. If He was talking to Moses in
the sense that one man talks to another,
He would give the required information
and there would be no need of sending
spies.
Each
man’s God is his highest concept of
Him. In the history of the race we do not
come to a perfect concept of God until
the revelation of Christianity. Moses
lived thirteen hundred years before
Jesus, and a comparison of his teachings
with Christianity is unfair. To
appreciate the great Law-giver,
comparison must be made with the nations
of his time. Inherent in the universe is
a law called by Darwin “the law of
the survival of the fittest.”
Certainly the Hebrews were more fit to
survive than the nations which they
conquered.
Man must
progress, and he who does not, by
inevitable law, recedes and finally is
annihilated. No power can hold us on
life’s highway except as we unfold
from within our own consciousness.
Evolution is the continuous progressive
unfoldment of power within our own
consciousness. Moses saw natural law and
founded a nation and a religion upon
this. A knowledge of law is absolutely
necessary to its fulfillment; and until
this idea is established in man’s
consciousness we cannot rise into
Christianity, which takes us into the
realm of spiritual Reality which controls
every natural law.
Moses sends
from each of the twelve tribes of Israel
one of their princes, over into Canaan.
Conspicuous among these princes are
two--Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim,
true descendant of Joseph, and Caleb from
the tribe of Judah, “the
lion’s whelp.” The spies go
forward into the land, and return with
the fruits of the country and their
report of it. “We came unto the
land that thou sentest us and surely it
floweth with milk and honey,
nevertheless, the people be strong, and
the cities are walled and very great. And
there we saw giants, the sons of Anak;
and we were in our own sight as
grasshoppers and so were we in
theirs.” But Caleb said: “Let
us go up at once, for we be well able to
overcome it.” Of all the spies sent
out only those who felt their ability to
conquer actually went over into the land
of Promise, Joshua and Caleb. No man ever
yet conquered a condition or a nation who
did not first believe in his own ability
to do it. To depreciate our own power is
to limit God’s power.
Moses had
founded a unique form of government, a
Theocracy. Jehovah was the real Ruler who
spoke to His prophets direct, who in turn
gave those commands to the people. After
the death of Moses the divine command
came to Joshua. “Now therefore
arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all
this people unto the land which I do give
to them, even to the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot
shall tread upon, to you have I given it.
There shall not any man be able to stand
before thee all the days of thy life; as
I was with Moses so will I be with thee;
I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Be strong and of good courage; for thou
shalt cause this people to inherit the
land which I swear unto their fathers to
give them. Only be strong and very
courageous, to observe to do according to
all the law, which Moses my servant
commanded thee; turn not from it to the
right hand nor to the left, that thou
mayest have good success whithersoever
thou goest. This book of the law shall
not depart from thy mouth, but thou shalt
meditate therein day and night, that thou
mayest observe to do all that is written
therein; for then shalt thou make thy way
prosperous, and then shalt thou have good
success. Have I not commanded thee? The
Lord thy God is with thee withersoever
thou goest.”
Joshua is
not great because Jehovah spoke those
words to him; he is great because he
heard them. The infinite God is never
silent, He is speaking those words to the
whole human race all of the time; and the
measure of the stature of each is the
measure of his ability to hear and obey.
Under Moses, Joshua had learned to listen
to the Voice and to obey it
unhesitatingly, and only he who can be
obedient can command. Joshua is the
prototype of Jesus, whose name is the
Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua. What
Joshua did for the Israelites on the
material plane, Jesus does for mankind on
the spiritual plane. In his unswerving
faith; his obedience to the call; in his
definite clear-cut choice between good
and evil; he merits the name bestowed on
him by Moses, Joshua (Salvation).
Even in the
Land of Promise, there are difficulties
to overcome. There is no plateau in life
on which we shall not have to put forth
effort. To cease to do this is to cease
to progress and life is eternal
progression. After crossing the Jordan a
big work still confronts the Israelites.
Jericho is on the way to all of the
passes of the interior, it must be taken.
As we pass from the mortal to the
spiritual life, do we not find that we in
our interior experience repeat this whole
drama?
The spies
sent into Jericho find but one woman
favorable to them, and she of that class
which the great Master asserted should
enter the kingdom of Heaven before the
self-righteous member of society. Man is
acted upon by Spirit, and everyone who
has accomplished a deed or a work worth
while will readily admit that a Power and
Intelligence beyond that which he knows
as his own possessed him while he did
it.
It is only
as we yield ourselves to the Spirit that
we come into Spiritual power and
knowledge. Jericho, the city of mortal
thought, must it not be encamped around
about by the armies of Israel? Must we
not, with the ark of the covenant, march
around it once each day for six days,
thus gaining strength and enthusiasm to
complete the work on the seventh day;
when, shouting the name of our God and
blowing the trumpet of Truth, the walls
of mortal limitation fall away and give
to us the citadel of our own soul
power?
Must we not
learn too the great lesson of leaving all
belief of mortal life absolutely behind,
and of not taking any of the accursed
things over into our spiritual life? In
the new life there is a new language, a
new scale of values, a learning that sets
at naught all of our boasted earthly
knowledge. Provision has been made for
all of our needs; there can be only
trouble with all that we try to smuggle
over, and in the valley of Achor must we
finally leave it to destruction.
Joshua led
by the “Captain of the host of the
Lord,” is invincible and
irresistible in his march forward. What
besieged city can stand under this
invisible pressure? Have not we, when
working in the great Presence, and
knowing that our work must be finished
before the setting of the sun, have we
not done that which could not be done
except we had invoked the Power?
Sun, stand thou still upon
Gibeon;
And thou, moon in the valley of
Ajalon.
And the sun stood still,
And the moon stayed,
Until the nation avenged themselves
on
their enemies.
The division
of the territory of the Promised Land
among the twelve tribes occupies from the
thirteenth to the twenty-first chapter of
the Book of Joshua; and it consequently
has been called the “Doomsday book
of the Old Testament.” In this
division we find Joshua is more than a
great general, he is an impartial judge,
and the spur of action, “How long
are ye slack to go to possess the land
which the Lord God of your fathers hath
given unto you?” Joshua is
pre-eminently a man of positive
action.
Caleb comes
for his portion of the land; and he asks
characteristically for that part
inhabited by the Anakim (giants), which
he will have for his inheritance. It is
the directed strength of you that makes
the hale old age; and the one who
believes his powers equal to his tasks
who finds that they do not wane.
“Forty years old was I when Moses,
the servant of the Lord, sent me to
Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I
brought him word again as it was in mine
heart, and lo, I am this day four-score
and five years old. As yet I am as strong
this day as I was in the days that Moses
sent me; as my strength was then even so
is my strength now, both to go out and to
come in. Now, therefore, give me this
mountain, whereof the Lord spoke in that
day; for thou hearest in that day how the
Anakim were there, and that the cities
were great and fenced; if so be that the
Lord will be with me, then I shall be
able to drive them out.”
The strong
soul asks not for the easiest
inheritance, he is equipped to meet the
hardest. Then why not leave the easier to
another, and in the strength of Jehovah
take upon himself the greater task? We
shall find at least one blessing as we
assume the greater work as our share of
the inheritance; less competition and
plenty of room. Thus do we come to Shiloh
(tranquility) and set up our tabernacle
there. From this eminence alone can we
found cities of refuge to which the
transgressor may flee and find safety and
redemption.
Joshua, true
son of man, comes conquering and to
conquer; according to the divine promise
made him, there was not any man [who]
could stand before him all the days of
his life. Faithful in service, true in
command, leader of a nation in its march
onward, he reveals the power of Man,
child of infinite Promise, as he comes to
believe in God and himself. To each of us
the Spirit says as it did to Joshua:
“Every place that the sole of your
foot shall tread upon that have I given
you.” All that we understand stands
under us in our consciousness, and what
is rooted there can never be severed from
us.
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