The Bible Year

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 9, 1916

Assignment for March 12 to 18

March 12: Joshua 11 to 13. March 13: Joshua 14 to 17. March 14: Joshua 18 to 21. March 15: Joshua 22 to 24. March 16: Judges 1 to 5. March 17: Judges 6 to 8. March 18: Judges 9 to 12.

For Supplementary Study

After completing the reading of the book of Joshua, outline it under the following heads: Conquest, Assignment of Lands, Joshua's Farewell.

A large number of cities and towns are mentioned in this book. Make a list of them, and see how many you can locate on the map.

The Bible a Treasure

“The Bible is a treasure. It contains enough to make us rich for time and eternity. It contains the secret of happy living. It contains the key of heaven. It contains the title deeds of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away. It contains the pearl of great price. Nay, in so far as it reveals them, . . . it contains the Saviour and the living God himself.”—James Hamilton.

“The Bible is the treasure of the poor, the solace of the sick, and the support of the dying; and while other books may amuse and instruct in a leisure hour, it is the peculiar triumph of that book to create light in the midst of darkness, to alleviate the sorrow which admits of no other alleviation, to direct a beam of hope to the heart which no other topic of consolation can reach; while guilt, despair, and death vanish at the touch of its holy inspiration.”—Robert Hall.

Joshua—the Man

Joshua, “born a slave in the brick-fields of Egypt,” and chosen by divine appointment to succeed Moses as leader of Israel, was about forty years old at the time of the exodus. By his long and intimate association with Moses, by his faithfulness and loyalty in times of stress and trial, by his courage in war and his wise counsel in peace, and by his implicit confidence in God and obedience to his commands, Joshua was peculiarly fitted to take up the great work to which he was called.

The name Joshua was originally Hoshea, meaning salvation; or Jehoshua, God's salvation. “According to the modifications which Hebrew names underwent in their passage through the Greek language, this took, in later years of the Jewish church, sometimes the form of Jason, but more frequently that of Jesus.”—Stanley.

Joshua was a type of Christ. “Jesus of the Old Testament brought ancient Israel into the typical Land of Promise. Jesus of the New Testament is yet to bring his people into the real Land of Promise, the eternal rest in the kingdom of God.”—Starr.

“God buries his workmen, but carries on his work.” The period of mourning in the plains of Moab was more than a formal matter with Israel. “Never,” says Dean Stanley, “could there have been such a blank in the history of the chosen people as when they became conscious that he who had been their leader, their lawgiver, their oracle, as far back as their memory could reach, was taken from them at the very moment when they seemed most to need him.” Moses was dead; but the real Leader of Israel “ever liveth.” It was his power, not the mantle of the human Moses, that came upon the quiet, loyal, brave-hearted Joshua, and enabled him to lead Israel into Canaan, and leave that land in their possession when his work was ended. Joshua was always ready for service; and “success is readiness for occasions.”

Some traces of the deeds of Joshua are found in the fragments preserved to us in the clay tablets that have come down from that early day, in inscriptions on monuments, etc. One writer mentions a “Phenician inscription found near the city of Tingis, the sense of which is thus given: ‘We are those who fled before the face of Joshua the robber, the son of Nun.’” By a king of Armenia Minor he was called “the murderous wolf,” and by another writer “the evening wolf.” Thus Joshua was called by his enemies. In later years the Jews chose a robber for release rather than Jesus.

The Judges

“Since the departure from Egypt the Israelites had been under the leadership of two remarkable men, Moses and Joshua. The tribes had acted as one army. Common dangers and objects had made their interests one. Now the great leaders are dead. The tribes are scattered over the land; their foes, their interests, their cares, are different. They have no king, no common master. Hence, as occasion requires or danger arises in this or that quarter, a judge is raised up to lead the people until the trouble is over.”—Sell.

“The judges were temporary and special deliverers, sent by God to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors; not supreme magistrates, succeeding to the authority of Moses and Joshua. Their power extended only over portions of the country, and some of them were contemporaneous. Their first work was that of deliverers and leaders in war; they then administered justice to the people, and their authority supplied the want of a regular government.”—Peloubet.

The Book of Judges

This is the second of the historical books, and takes its name from the class of men whose deeds it recounts. The story of thirteen of the fifteen judges of Israel is told in this book; and though the chronology of this period is beset with difficulties, it seems to be agreed that the time covered is about three hundred years. The authorship of the book is uncertain. “Jewish tradition ascribes it to Samuel, although portions belong to earlier times, and a few references must have been incorporated later.” But whoever the author, it is evident that he had a well-defined plan in mind. His object was to show that “the only way to happiness was to shun idolatry and obey the commandments of the Lord.” The sins of the people are plainly set

forth, and no attempt is made to excuse or hide them.

The book is “a series of striking historical pictures, portrayed with a painstaking fidelity. They reveal the condition of the country, the people, and the times. They show the conflicts of the nation with itself and its Canaanitish neighbors, when there was no king in the land. We find here the record of the faithfulness, the righteousness, and the mercy, of God.”—Sell.