Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 2.djvu/66

62 when he was in his grave? Yes, they were, so did Joshua, who was, in his place, as faithful, as Moses in his. He left nothing undone (Heb. he removed nothing) of all that the Lord commanded Moses. They that leave their duty undone, do what they can to remove or make void the command of God, by which they are obliged to it; but Joshua, by performing the precept, confirmed it, as the expression is, Deut 27. 26. Joshua was himself a great commander, and yet nothing was more his praise than his obedience. They that rule others at their will, must themselves be ruled by the divine will, then their power is indeed their honour, and not otherwise. The pious obedience for which Joshua is here commended, respects especially the command to destroy the Canaanites, and to break down their altars, and burn their images, Deut. 7. 2..5. Exod. 23. 24.—34. 13. Joshua, in his zeal for the Lord of hosts, spared neither the idols nor the idolaters. Saul's disobedience, or rather his partial obedience, to the command of God, for the utter destruction of the Amalekites, cost him his kingdom. It should seem, Joshua himself gives this account of his most careful and punctual observance of his orders in the execution of his commission, that in all respects he had done as Moses commanded him; and then it intimates that he had more pleasure and satisfaction in reflecting upon his obedience to the commands of God in all this war, and valued himself more upon that, than upon all the gains and triumphs with which he was enriched and advanced.

2. That all the promises God had given to Moses, relating to this conquest, were accomplished on his part, v. 23. Joshua took the whole land, conquered it, and took possession of it, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses. God had promised to drive out the nations before them, Exod. 33. 2.—34. 11. and to bring them down, Deut. 9. 3. And now it was done. There failed not one word of the promise. Our successes and enjoyments are then doubly sweet and comfortable to us, when we see them flowing to us from the promise; this is according to what the Lord said: as our obedience is then acceptable to God, when it has an eye to the precept. And if we make conscience of our duty, we need not question the performance of the promise.

CHAP. XII. This chapter is a summary of Israel's conguests, I. Their conquests under Moses, on the other side Jordan, (for we now suppose ourselves in Canaan,) eastward, which we had the history of, Numb. 21. 24, &c. And here the abridgment of that history, v. 1..6. II. Their conquests under Joshua, on this side Jordan, westward. 1. The country they reduced, v. 7, 8. 2. The kings they subdued, thirty-one in all, v. 9..24. And this comes in here, not only as a conclusion of the history of the wars of Canaan, (that we might at one view see what they had got) but as a preface to the history of the dividing of Canaan, that all that might be put together, which they were now to make a distribution of.

OW these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan, toward the rising of the sun; from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east: 2. Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon; 3. And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and from the south, under Ashdoth-pisgah: 4. And the coast of Og king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, 5. And reigned in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurites, and the Maachathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon. 6. Them did Moses the servant of the and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

Joshua, or whoever else is the historian, before he comes to sum up the new conquests Israel had made, in these verses recites their former conquests in Moses's time, under whom they became masters of the great and potent kingdoms of Sihon and Og. Note, Fresh mercies must not drown the remembrance of former mercies, nor must the glory of the present instruments of good to the church, be suffered to eclipse and diminish the just honour of those who have gone before them, and who were the blessings and ornaments of their day. Joshua's services and achievements are confessedly great, but let not those under Moses be overlooked and forgotten, since God was the same who wrought both, and both put together, proclaim him the alpha and omega of Israel's great salvation. Here is,

1. A description of this conquered country, the measure and bounds of it in general, v. 1, From the river Arnon in the south, to mount Hermon in the north. In particular, here is a description of the kingdom of Sihon, v. 2, 3. and that of Og, v. 4, 5. Moses had described this country very particularly, Deut. 2. 36.—3. 4, &c. and this description here agrees with his. King Og is said to dwell at Ashtaroth and Edrei, v. 4. probably, because they were both his royal cities, he had palaces in both, and resided sometimes in one, and sometimes in the other; one perhaps was his summer-seat, and the other his winter-seat; but Israel took both from him, and made one grave to serve him, that could not be content with one palace.

2. The distribution of this country; Moses assigned it to the two tribes and a half, at their request, and divided it among them, v. 6. of which we have the story at large, Numb. 32. The dividing of it when it was conquered by Moses, is here mentioned as an example to Joshua, what he must do now that he had conquered the country on this side Jordan. Moses, in his time, gave to one part of Israel a very rich and fruitful country, but it was on the outside of Jordan; Joshua gave to all Israel the holy land, the mountain of God's sanctuary, within Jordan: so the law conferred upon some few of God's spiritual Israel, external temporal blessings, which were earnests of good things to come; but our Lord Jesus, the true Joshua, has provided for all the children of promise spiritual blessings, the privileges of the sanctuary, and the heavenly Canaan. The triumphs and grants of the Law were glorious, but those of the Gospel far exceed in glory.

7. And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel