NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
(November 25.—Josh. 24:19-28.)
THE time of the events recorded in these verses was B. C. 1426, or sixty-five years after the making of the covenant and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The covenant made at Sinai was an agreement between the Lord and the people relative to the law of God. The children of Israel had come into the wilderness of Sinai and the Lord called unto Moses from the mount, saying:— “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.” “And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” See Ex. 19:4-8. THIS was the covenant; but at this time the people had not yet heard the law; they had promised to keep a law of which they had as yet only an imperfect knowledge. Three days later, however, the Lord spoke his law in the audience of all the people, and again the people promised that they would obey. See Ex. 24:3. “And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord” and the promise of the people in a book and read it to the whole congregation, and after the people had again promised to obey (verse 7) “he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people” (Heb. 9:19.), “and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.” Ex. 24:8. Thus was the first covenant ratified; the people had repeatedly promised to keep the law of God, and God had promised that if they did so he would make them a peculiar treasure unto himself above all people. BUT the people did not keep this solemn covenant. Their history during all these years was little but a history of backsliding; and now after they had entered upon the possession of the land promised unto their fathers, Joshua calls upon them to put away their strange gods and serve the Lord. “And,” said Joshua, “if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; . . . therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God.” Josh. 24:15-18. “AND Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” “And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord.” WE are not to suppose that Joshua intended to discourage the people and deter them from the service of the true God, but he did nevertheless state the truth when he said, “Ye cannot serve the Lord;” that is, they could not keep the covenant which they had made at Sinai. That covenant was an unconditional agreement on the part of the people to keep the law of God, but the people did not live up to their agreement; and it will be readily seen that when they broke the covenant, as they did almost immediately when they worshiped the golden calf, they had no more claim on the Lord, according to the covenant which they had entered into with him. They could not go on under that covenant, for no matter how perfectly they might abide by its terms in the future, the fact would remain that they had once broken it, and that was sufficient to forfeit all the blessings which God had promised. In fact, the old covenant was no longer of any service to them; they could repent of their sins and receive pardon, but not by virtue of the covenant made at Sinai; for forgiveness of sins they must look to Christ, or we might say to the second covenant, which, though called the “second” because it was ratified after the covenant at Sinai, was in point of fact the first covenant, for it was made with Abraham (Gal. 3:19), and was the covenant under which Abraham’s faith was counted unto him for righteousness. Gen. 15:6. THIS Abrahamic covenant is the one “established upon better promises” (Heb. 8:6); and chief among these “better promises” is the promise of the forgiveness of sins. It was in respect of the promises that the first covenant was faulty. If the first covenant had not been thus faulty, there would have been no place for the second. There was in the first covenant no provision for forgiveness of sins. It was ratified by the blood of beasts, which could never take away sin. But the second or Abrahamic covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ, which “taketh away the sins of the world;” and though not ratified for nearly 1,500 years after the covenant at Sinai, it was “confirmed of God in Christ” to Abraham by an oath. See Heb. 6:13-18. This covenant is made concerning the same law; but if people break it, they may by repentance obtain pardon, and so still remain in covenant relation with God. This is a wonderful exhibition of the mercy and love of God. First, he consents to make a contract with the people concerning that which it is their duty to do; and then he provides pardon for them when they have not only failed to do their duty, but have also violated their agreement to do their duty. Surely love could go no further. BUT some may wonder if God did not know that the people would break that first covenant. We reply, Yes; he not only knew that they would not keep it, but he knew that they could not keep it. In fact, they had broken the commandments, concerning which the covenant was made, before the covenant was made. It was utterly impossible for the people to keep the commandments by their own unaided efforts, yet that is what they promised to do. Then why did the Lord lead them to make such a promise? For the purpose of showing them their own weakness, and of directing their minds to the second or Abrahamic covenant, which already existed. This covenant was a covenant concerning Christ, and provided forgiveness for transgression of the law concerning which the covenant was made, and also help to keep the law. And so, when the Lord made a new covenant with Israel, he was simply directing their attention to the covenant made long before with Abraham. And the proof of this is the fact that all who are heirs of the promises are children of Abraham. THUS it appears that the words of Joshua were strictly true; they could not serve the Lord in the sense of keeping the covenant made at Sinai; they could serve him only by availing themselves of the help promised in the second covenant, and becoming not only in name but in fact “children of Abraham,” by faith in Christ, the promised seed of Abraham. Gal. 3:7. WE would not be understood as teaching that it was impossible to serve God just as well in the days of Joshua as it is now, but that it was impossible to serve him without the aid of divine grace, and that while that grace was not promised in the covenant made at Sinai, it was given to Abraham and to his spiritual seed both before and after the making of what is called the first or old covenant, and that it was always to be obtained through faith in the promised Saviour. God’s promise to Abraham that he should be a great nation and that in his Seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, was a promise of Christ; and Abraham so understood it, and it was that faith that was counted unto him for righteousness, and no man has ever been accounted righteous in any other way. THE idea that under the first covenant people were saved by keeping the law, and that now they are saved by faith without obedience, is contrary alike to reason and scripture. God has provided but one Saviour and but one plan of redemption, and in every age the conditions of salvation have been faith and obedience. Abraham was a man of faith, but his faith did not excuse him from obedience. Said the Lord to him: “I am the almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly.” Gen. 17:1, 2. And in describing the people of God down in the last days, the seer of Patmos says: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. As the conditions for covenant relation with God are the same as in the past, so the reasons for serving him to-day are identical with the reasons for choosing his service in the days of Joshua. No doubt the people had a deep realization of their obligations to God as they renewed their vows of loyalty to him. The remembrance of his long-suffering and tender mercy toward them, his care that had borne them as an eagle beareth her697young, his solicitude, his manifest providences in leading them, in subduing their enemies, in bringing them into the land flowing with milk and honey, in making them the repository of his law, and in revealing himself to them as the covenant-keeping God, the living God who could do exceeding abundantly above what they were able to ask or think,—all this must have given fervency to their response in choosing him who had only wrought them good. Perhaps, too, the thought of their backsliding, their indifference, their frequent rebellion and transgression, served to arouse them to a more intense determination to walk in the commandments of the Lord. JOSHUA presented before them the awful consequences of forsaking Jehovah. To forsake him and serve other gods means only despair and loss, both now and forever. The Lord describes the condition of those who leave his service in the pathetic words of the prophet, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” And again he cries, “Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?” “O that thou hadst harkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” WE were created to serve God, not from constraint, but willingly. No service but that which springs from love is fulfilling the purpose of our creation. Nothing but this can be accounted as service. John writes, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” But it can be no pleasure to him whose nature is love, to have the unwilling, grudging offering that is sometimes designated as service to God. IN all the service of Christ to his Father his language was, “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” And this condition of true service is provided for in the new covenant. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.” “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love to God and love to fellow-men measures the infinite scope of the law that is exceeding broad, and that discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart. In seeing something of the depth of the commandment, we behold our own utter inability to keep it without divine aid; but our weakness has been provided for. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.” WHILE sin has brought us helpless and condemned before God, yet his grace, through the merits of the Lamb of God, and through the might of his spirit, has availed to cleanse and strengthen us, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit;” for under the provision of the new covenant, the law is written in our minds and affections. The truly consecrated heart can say, his yoke is easy, and his burden is light; for Christ, abiding in the soul, brings every thought into subjection, and the language of the Christian is like his. “I delight to do thy will, O my God.”