TARRYING TOO LONG by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 22, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 12.

TARRYING TOO LONG.

By Editor

JERICHO was a city straitly shut up because of the children of Israel. None came in, nor went out. Joshua 6:1. The fear of God's wrath had fallen upon them, and they hoped to shut it out by walls and barred gates.

GOD, in wisdom, had decreed that Jericho should be the first-fruits of the land of Canaan; and the first-fruits belonged wholly to Him, absolutely devoted to His service. God had devoted Jericho to Himself. The use which should be made of the city depended on its character, the attitude of the people toward God.

THAT attitude had a little while before this been tested. Two of God's servants had been sent to that city, but the people sought to put them to death, and searched diligently that they might do this. Only one soul in all that city received them, namely, Rahab. She entertained them, secreted them from their pursuers, and let them down from the wall, by a crimson cord, to safety and freedom, because from what she had heard, she believed in Jehovah. Thus Rahab the harlot gained a name and a place among God's faithful ones; for "by faith Rahab the harlot perished not with them that were disobedient, having received the spies with peace." Heb. 11:31. More than this, in God's providence she became a link in the chain of the chosen seed, an ancestress of our Lord. Matt. 1:5.

YET God would not leave Jericho. He would give its people opportunity to turn their terror into wholesome fear, fear into reverence, reverence into acceptance of Jehovah. But there were to be no human terrors in that invitation. Not by force or human power was Jericho to be forced to feigned service.

A LITTLE before this Joshua had met a shining warrior, with drawn sword. Joshua demands, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" and the warrior responds, "Nay; but as Prince of the host of Jehovah am I now come." He was there to win devoted Jericho for Israel and for God.

HENCE the method of warfare. No siege guns, no battering rams, were deployed against her strong walls. Tell the host of Israel, the Lord says in effect, to place the men of peace, the priests, at the head, and once every day march around that city. On the seventh day repeat it seven times. Over and above them went the potent invisible army of God. What a mighty influence pervaded the very environment of Jericho. How every atom of atmosphere must have throbbed with the pleadings of God, as the silent armies wended their way in perfect order around the city devoted to God.

FROM Jericho's wall hung the scarlet cord of Rahab's faith. Surely, there must have been hope that it represented the faith of the people of the city, who would in a little while yield up their disobedience, open wide the gates, and cry, "Ye blessed of Jehovah, come in; ye are welcome." Day after day went by; silent and closed the city remained. Some, we presume, laughed; some scoffed at the strange daily march. The crimson cord of faith swung in the breeze, but its message fell upon insensate hearts. The silent, weaponless army, in its march, appealed to them daily. The mighty psychic forces of the army of God appealed to hard hearts, but all these were resisted. Seven times on the seventh day was the city the center of the grand march of the hosts of God, but its gates were still closed. God could not save the

city devoted, the first-fruits of the Goodly Land, to Himself; for they would not be saved. Cumberers of the ground, they must be cut down. One long blast upon the ram-horn trumpets by the priests, a great shout from the host of Israel, and the invisible army of God razed the walls of the self-doomed city, and Jericho is in ruins. Later, impious man attempted its building, but its curse rested upon him. To-day, as our photo-engraving declares, Jericho is a shapeless heap of ruins.

HOW TYPICAL all this is of lives into which God has wished to come, and has endeavored in every true way to find entrance for many years. At last Infinite Mercy has exhausted its resources, apart from forcing the will, which God can not do; and the soul is left to utter ruin. And the ruins stand out as great object lessons all along the way in nations, in cities, in men, and women.

DEAR soul, you are among the devoted ones, blood-bought by Jesus Christ. Whether you will be devoted to the service of God and live, or the service of self and Satan and die, rests wholly in your choice. "As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?"