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JOURNEYING WITH JOSHUA BOOK ONE By Dr. Lawrence Duff-Forbes
Content 1.
THWARTING THE TOMB-ROBBERS
2.
A MAN, A MANUSCRIPT, AND A MESSAGE
3.
A CHRONOLOGICAL CARPET OF CONQUEST
4.
THE MANDATE OF GOD
5.
THE MISSION OF THE SPIES
6.
THE MIRACLE OF JORDAN
7.
THE MEMORIALS OF JORDAN
8.
FEAR AND PHANTOM
9.
HERITAGE AND DESTINY
10.
FORTY YEARS LATER
11.
FOURTH DIMENSIONAL DIET
12.
THE PROVIDENTIAL PRINCE
13.
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERICHO
14.
THE MAN OF WAR
15.
DETERMINATIVE DOCTRINES
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THWARTING THE TOMB-ROBBERS MY DEAR FRIENDS, in the year 1875 an amazing discovery was made which led to another
almost unbelievable disclosure which culminated in a final revelation that made such words as 'fabulous', 'stupendous,' and 'priceless' quite inadequate to describe it. The first discovery, in 1875, was when one Abd-el-Rasul chanced upon a hidden opening in the rocks between the Valley of the Kings and Deir el-Bahri in the mysterious land of Egypt. The following disclosure was that Abd-el-Rasul was a professional tomb-robber dwelling in the village of Kurna, itself the very cradle of an unbroken line of professional tomb-robbers extending in what may be described as a robber dynasty stretching into the thirteenth century. Think of it! A robber dynasty! A regal, kingly dynasty is a conception with which we are all familiar; but a robber dynasty of such magnitude and lineage was an almost unbelievable phenomenon. It is well known that the tombs of the kings of Egypt were veritable treasuries of wealth. Gold in abundance and precious objects in prodigal and lavish plenitude were interred with the mummies of the monarchs. Breaking in and pilfering the buried treasures was a lucrative occupation contemporary with the very Pharaohs themselves. To this ancient profession of theft, preserved in a dynasty of depredation, we owe the final revelation which enriched the world so recently as the third decade of the current century and of which it was said that "starts like Aladdin's miraculous lamp and end like a Greek saga of Nemesis." I refer to the discovery of the tomb and mummy of King Tutankhamen. Describing the wonderful sight, Howard Carter exclaimed, "Surely never before in the whole history of excavation had such an amazing sight been seen..." (C.W. Ceram, Gods, Graves and Scholars, Victor Gollancz Limited, London, 1952) True, the tomb-robbers had been here, also, but they had missed the treasure! My friends, in this series of messages entitled "TREASURES FROM TENACH" we have just completed the excavation of the priceless spiritual treasures of the first five books of Moses – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy – known to us in Hebrew nomenclature as Chumash.
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In our excavations we found many evidences of the presence and activities of the tombrobbers! I refer to the specious, unsubstantial, unsubstantiated, unscientific, unreliable theories of the evolutionary, historico-critical documentary hypotheses. It is subject for sorrow and alarm to observe how many of our Jewish commentaries, encyclopaedias, and reference books are haunted by the gaunt ghost of the so-called "Higher Criticism." This phantom, garbed in the unreal and unsubstantial garments of an alleged scholarship which claims for itself the last word in wisdom, tries to drown the voice of Revealed Truth with its mournful wail of scepticism and unbelief. As with the tomb-robbers, we can trace this dismal dynasty in an unbroken lineage, this time back to the end of the eighteenth century of the Common Era. These sickening and tedious evolutionary hypotheses have entered and plundered the treasure vaults of God's glorious revelation, the Bible, so that vast multitudes of mankind, who would otherwise be made rich by the treasures of God's supreme illumination, are left to sit in the darkness and despair of doubt. Moreover, these wretched spectres which intrude to scare Israel away from his own Holy Scriptures are found to be GENTILE GHOSTS clad in Christian ecclesiastical garments! Astruc (1753) with his spurious theory of composite authorship, DeWette's (1805) so-called clue of the central Deuteronomic sanctuary, Graf's (1866) theory of evolution in the religion of Israel, and these ghostly garments are capped with the hood of Julius Wellhausen. As Joseph Klausner declares – methinks somewhat too sweepingly – "Modern Christian theologians, being as a rule pronounced rationalists..." I regret the necessity of calling attention to the tomb-robbers but, since we have now excavated some of the treasures of Torah and are about the enter a new treasure-chamber, the Book of Joshua, I did want to assure you that the light of archaeological discovery and more modern research is forcing the phantom of so-called "Higher Criticism" to retreat into the black realms of stark unbelief where only the credulity of incredulity will absorb its nugatory emanations. Of course, the ghostly tomb-robbers have been present in the Book of Joshua but, fortunately, I can now ask you to behold a spot where the ghostly robber once haunted, but is now declared spectre-free! Hear this quotation from The Universal Jewish Encyclopaedia:
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"While at one time, Biblical criticism considered the contents of the book to be legendary, present-day scholarship is unanimous in the conclusion that Joshua is of great historical value." (The Universal Jewish Encyclopaedia, Vol. 6, Page 206) But, my friends, we have discovered more than historical value in Holy Scriptures; we have apprehended a spiritual design and the Book of Joshua will be found to be no exception to his sublime feature of spiritual pattern. Affirming the fact of meaning in history, Will Herberg writes, "The prophet is pre-eminently the interpreter of history, in which he finds revealed God's will, judgement and redemptive purpose." (Judaism and Modern Man, Jewish Publishing Society, Philadelphia, 1951, page 194) It is worthy of note that the Book of Joshua, the first of the historical books in the second division of the Hebrew Bible, nevertheless, commences that second division known as the "Former Prophets." Where spiritual pattern pervades there is naturally an interplay between human history and Divinely-inspired prophecy. There is both meaning and goal in history, hence we must grasp the fact that the history recorded in the Tenach, the Old Testament, has a SPIRITUAL PURPOSE; and this spiritual purpose is the supreme factor governing the Divine SELECTION or OMISSION of historic events in the Sacred Record. The Book of Joshua, therefore, purposively hinges Chumash (the Pentateuch) to the purposive, meaningful, historical writings which follow it. These succeeding historical writings, in that English Bible known as the Authorized Version, extend from the Book of Joshua to the Book of Esther. Before unearthing our treasures from the Book of Joshua let us make an informative classification of the riches already excavated from Moses' Five Books: i. ii. iii.
We found that each book possessed a specific spiritual message of eternal value to us all today; We found also that each book is an integral part of, and thus related to, the whole; This led us to observe a progressive unfolding in the resultant spiritual message.
Now, isn't this just what we would expect to find in a Bible which – when freed from the turmoil of the tomb-robbers – declares itself to be REVEALED TRUTH FROM GOD?
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As further preparation for our entrance into Canaan with Joshua, we will be rewarded by a preparatory glance at Israel's annals from the death of Moses (c. 1451 B.C.E.) to the approximate terminus of Old Testament history about 396 B.C.E., a period of some 1055 years. In this space of time we must not fail to observe three distinct forms of government: i.
A THEOCRACY of 355 years extending from the death of Moses to the accession of
ii.
Israel's first humanly-chosen king, King Saul (B.C.E. 1451 to B.C.E. 1096) A MONARCHY of 510 years from King Saul to Tisha B'Av, the destruction of the
iii.
Temple (B.C.E. 1096 to B.C.E. 586) A DEPENDENCY of 190 years from Tisha B'Av to the terminus of Tenach (B.C.E. 586 to B.C.E. 396)
The dates given are, of course, not absolutely final but, of the 1055 years so delineated, the Book of Joshua covers some 25 years of this historic period – i.e. from B.C.E. 1451 to B.C.E. 1426 – and the Book is, therefore, like a GATEWAY OF ANNALS through which we pass into that avenue of Israel's history which brings the entire Old Testament story to a close. Moses brings Israel TO the Promised Land; Joshua, Yehoshua, is now about to bring Israel INTO it. Will you join him in the journey as we follow the fascinating and instructive movement of the Chosen People penetrating the province, paralysing the populace, and possessing the patrimony? I assure you there are rich treasures ahead for us so be sure and keep listening to "TREASURES FROM TENACH."
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A MAN, A MANUSCRIPT AND A MESSAGE MY DEAR FRIENDS, I want to introduce you to a man and to a manuscript bearing the name of
that man; then – as a consequence of your becoming acquainted with both – to a message flowing from that acquaintance. This man began life as a crushed slave, but became a conquering soldier; moreover, thousands of years of time's rolling ages have been unable to obliterate his imperishable fame. His name was originally Hoshea, but the man whom he served and then succeeded changed it to Yehoshua, a designation which is pronounced and becomes instantly familiar in English as Joshua. It is less known that Joshua is also referred to as Yeshua, and as Jesus. However, all these nomenclatural variants derive from the one Hebrew root meaning "to save." Joshua means "The Eternal will save."
The name
Just how much of Joshua's early life was spent as a slave in Egypt it is not easy to say, but he was close to forty years of age when he witnessed God's outpoured wrath upon the idolatrous "gods of Egypt" and subsequently participated in Israel's great Exodus from that land of bondage. Surely, Joshua knew then that "the Eternal will save." This leader in the tribe of Ephraim first appears upon the Biblical scene at a place called Rephadim on the march from Egypt to Sinai (Exodus 17:1-13; 19:2). It was here, you will remember, that Moses commissioned Joshua to do battle with the attacking Amalekites. He is thus introduced to our notice as the military leader of the people by Mosaic appointment and it is interesting to note that the Divine choice of Moses' successor did not fall upon one of the Moses' own sons, but upon this same Joshua. Prior to the death of Moses he acts as Moses' minister. (Exodus 24:13; 33:11; Numbers 11:28) The Hebrew word is "sharet," a term which appears as a proper name belonging to a distinguished figure in the affairs of the present State of Israel. Joshua's devotion and loyalty to Moses were attributes demanding our highest admiration. We do not see Joshua present and participating in the disgraceful incident of the Golden Calf;
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indeed, on the contrary, he accompanied Moses to the foot of the Mount of the Revelation and awaited Moses' descent. During those awe-inspiring occasions when the "pillar of cloud" descended and stood at the door of the "tent of meeting," out of which visible evidence of the Presence the Eternal spoke to Moses "face to face as a man speaks unto his friend," the trustworthy Joshua was not dismissed from the scene but was privileged to remain in the midst of the Tent of Meeting. (Exodus 33:7-11) So devoted was Joshua to the person and ministry of Moses that when it was reported that Eldad and Medad were "prophesying in the camp," Joshua entreated Moses to silence them, saying, "My lord Moses, shut them in." Moses' reaction to the entreaty is indicative of his great spiritual qualities. He replied to Joshua: "Art thou jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of God were prophets, that God would put His Spirit upon them." (Numbers 11:27-30) I have remarked in previous messages that Moses is presented in the Scriptures as a Divine type of the promised Messiah-Redeemer of Israel. It is worth a digression, therefore, to observe the similarity of the reaction of Moses on this occasion to that of Adon Yeshua HaMashiach upon a somewhat similar occasion thousands of years later. Yochanan (John), as close to Messiah as Yehoshua was to Moses, exclaims: "Master, we saw someone expelling demons in your name, but we stopped him because he does not belong to our company". The reply of Adon Yeshua is along the same lines as that of Adon Mosheh: "You did wrong to stop him, for no one who performs miracles in my name can readily revile me. For whoever is not against us is on our side. Whoever refreshes you with a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you truly, he will not lose his reward." (Mark 9:38-41) It would be a sad omission not to mention another encouraging verity arising out of Moses' reaction to the prophesying of Eldad and Medad. Moses' hunger that all the twelve tribes of Israel should be filled with the Holy Spirit of God is a worthy spiritual appetite which the Scriptures declare shall be satisfied in the days of Messiah's prophesied return to this scene of His likewise prophesied rejection. Both the Jewish Old Testament and the Jewish New
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Testament are unanimous in declaring Israel's national return to the Eternal God, and Israel's sincere national acceptance of, and allegiance to, His Messiah. Within the limitations of this message I can give you but one sample from each Testament. Let us select an Old Testament prophet of Israel whose name carries an implication similar to that of Yehoshua. I refer to Hosea, . Here is his prophecy: "For the children of Israel shall sit solitary many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim." That, my friends, has been Israel's condition for two thousand years! But listen to the next verse: "Afterward shall the children of Israel be caused to return and seek the Eternal their God, and David their king; and shall come trembling unto the Eternal and to His goodness in the end of days." (Hosea 3:5, 6) Our Jewish tradition recognizes this "David" as King-Messiah (e.g. Targums). My friends, I am convinced the prophecy of this latter verse will be fulfilled as literally and as surely as that of the former verse. The sample from our Jewish New Testament, which I have chosen for several reasons, is the prophetic vision delineated in the seventh chapter of that book correctly known as The Revelation of Yeshua HaMachiach. Prior to a latter-day judgment of God upon an apostate world, a superhuman being arrests the initiation of the process with this command: "Do not harm ... until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." The record then discloses that those so separated from judgment and branded as the selected servants of the Eternal God are one hundred and forty-four thousand out of all the tribes of Israel, twelve separate tribes being named. If you will refer to the fourth verse of the ninth chapter of Ezekiel you will find reference to a similar Divine command to set a mark upon Israelites seeking God. The Hebrew word for "mark" is the Hebrew letter "Tav," the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Originally it was made in the form of a cross. There is immense symbolically prophetic significance in this spiritual imprint of a cross upon the twelve tribes of Israel.
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Incidentally, the claims of some modern-day Gentile sects to identify with and be included in this prophetic select company of Israel are amusing indeed. An uncircumcised Gentile as a member of one of the tribes of Israel is more a theme for Gilbert and Sullivan Comic Opera. But we must return to Joshua. Joshua, you will recall, was one of the twelve sent by Moses to reconnoitre the land of Canaan and he, with Caleb, constituted the feeble minority who opposed the defeatist outlook of the other ten. It is significant that Joshua, Caleb, and Moses were the only survivors of the mature ones of the generation that were delivered out of the bondage of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and in due course Moses' "sharet" became Moses' successor and, since the choice was God's there was no mistake in it. Joshua's whole life is characterized by courage, loyalty, and honour and he died at the age of 110 and was buried at Timnath-serah in land he had himself conquered. (Joshua 24:29, 30) Joshua's whole outlook on life can be summed up by his now famous declaration: " ... as for me and my house, we will serve the Eternal." (Joshua 24: 15b) This is the grand man we are invited to follow, not only in his staunch spiritual attitude, but also in his conquest of Canaan. So, keep listening.
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A CHRONOLOGICAL CARPET OF CONQUEST MY DEAR FRIENDS, I want to spread out before you a chronological carpet of conquest
twenty-five years long! It is a time-strip of ancient history packed with purposed and possessed of pattern. I refer to the Book bearing the illustrious name of Moses' successor, Joshua. Our fascinated scrutiny will scan with profit the quarter-century from 1451 to 1426 before the Common Era, a period which may be said to have inaugurated the history of Israel as a nation. All prior to Israel's entry into Canaan had been preparatory to this great event; from the first Passover in Egypt to the defeat of the heathen kings Sihon and Og, the Chosen People were being poised and prepared by God to overthrow heathenism and kindle the beneficent beams of the Kingdom of God on earth. The Psalmist describes this Divine act in picturesque language: "Thou didst pluck up a vine out of Egypt; Thou didst drive out the nations, and didst plant it. Thou didst clear a place before it, and it took deep root, and filled the land." (Psalm 80:9-10; English tr. 8, 9) In the Hebrew Canon of Scripture the Book of Joshua constitutes the first of four books designated the "Former Prophets," the other three being Judges, Samuel and Kings. This is an appropriate classification, for their contents are prophetic in character. Moses has brought the children of Israel TO the Promised Land; Yehoshua (Joshua) is now about to bring them INTO it. To the expectant Israelites the land of Canaan promised tranquillity, treasure, and triumph. Tranquillity, for had not God promised through His servant Moses: "And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid ..." (Leviticus 26:6) Treasure, for again God had declared: "And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread until ye have enough, and dwell in your land safely." (Leviticus 26:5, cf. Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 33:28, etc.) Triumph, because God had assured Israel; "And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword." (Leviticus 26:7, cf. Deuteronomy 7:1, 2)
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But, my friends, Israel could only possess his possessions through faith in the Divine Promiser. A faith in the Promiser the quality of which would issue in obedience to the Divine will and instruction. A faith in the Promiser the quality of which would extend, if necessary, beyond the limitations imposed by mere human reason or logic. Such a faith was really neither unreasonable nor illogical because it reasonably and logically reposed in the Person and promises of the Promiser, the Eternal God of Israel. Contrast the Book of Yehoshua (Joshua) with, for instance, Bemidbar (the Book of Moses known as Numbers): "BEMIDBAR testifies to the UNFRUITFULNESS OF UNBELIEF. "YEHOSHUA testifies to the FRUITFULNESS OF FAITH. "BEMIDBAR recounts FRUSTRATION, FAILURE, FUTILITY. "YEHOSHUA recounts AIM, ACTION, ACHIEVEMENT." Let this abiding principle of FAITH be ever before us as we follow the movements of the Chosen People. Come! Let us first spy out the Book of Joshua even as he first spied out the Promised Land. Our chronological carpet of conquest is twenty-four chapters in length covering, as I said, a period of twenty-five years. In it we behold three major patterns depicting the children of Israel under Joshua: 1. Penetrating the Province (Chapters 1 to 5) 2. Paralysing the Populace (Chapters 6 to 12) 3. Possessing the Patrimony (Chapters 13 to 24) Have you ever listened with absorbing interest to a friend's recital of a railroad timetable? Well, it is not a very interesting or arresting procedure – unless you want to catch the train! What a difference that makes, doesn't it? Every chronological itemization increases its crescendo of interest until the climax is reached in the announcement of the train you must catch to carry you to your destination. I assure you I have not digressed from the theme of this message nor do infer for a moment that Joshua took the children of Israel into the Promised Land by railroad. All I wanted to do was give you a grasp of the entire contents of the Book of Joshua by itemizing those contents section by section.
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Because I believe you will want to catch the train of thought that will bring you to the destination of the spiritual treasures of the Divine record, I will indeed venture upon such an itemization. Our first section discloses Israel penetrating the promised province against highly agitated enemies. The five chapters comprising this section reveal: Chapter 1. Chapter 2.
The Mandate of God The Mission of the Spies
Chapter 3. Chapter 4.
The Miracle of Jordan The Memorials in and over Jordan
Chapter 5.
The Manifestation of Sar Tzva Adonai
We, too, are going to penetrate this province in succeeding messages and we hope it will also be to the agitation of human speculative theories at present strongly entrenched in the promised land of Israel's spiritual heritage today. I am confident you will discover beyond doubt that the history of Israel in those days of Canaan conquest is typical of priceless spiritual verities of immediate and immense value to us even in this generation. The second section, which I have designated "Paralysing the Populace," extends from chapter six through chapter twelve. Here are the headlines, as our news commentators are prone to say: Chapter 6. Chapter 7.
Destruction of Jericho Defeat BY Ai
Chapter 8.
Detection of Achan Defeat OF Ai
Chapter 9.
Demonstration on Ebal and Gerizim Deception by the Gibeonites
Chapters 10-12. Defeat of Kings Detail of 31 Victories Believe me, there are rich and unexpected treasures in every one of these chapters and I do hope you will be there when they are unearthed in these messages.
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The last section, which I have entitled "Possessing the Patrimony," runs from chapter thirteen to the end of the book and may be itemized as follows: Chapters 13-21. Distribution of Land and Cities Chapter 22. Dispute over altar away from Shiloh Chapters 23-24. Discourses and Death of Yehoshua Having now firmly planted our feet in the Book in necessary preparation for our assimilation of its important contents, let us also plant our feet on the ground where Joshua stood and let us survey the scene as an interesting preparation for our participation in the conquest of Canaan. We stand in a rich and fertile plain bearing a title filled with allurement and which will yield us no disappointment as we venture into the area it designates. The name Abel-Shittim means "the moist place of acacia trees." The prospect of moisture and trees will impress itself the more when it is realized that we stand with Joshua not very far away from the lowest depression in the world, for the Dead Sea is about 1,275 feet below the sea level of the Mediterranean. Jericho, from our present viewpoint just about eight miles westward across the River Jordan, usually swelters in tropical heat. Moisture and trees were indeed features to be desired. But the plain of Shittim was also a place of rare beauty. Eastward, the mountains of Moab adorned the horizon with a blue tint the depth and richness of which I have only seen equalled in the Blue Mountains in Australia. Watered by many little streams and rivulets, Abel-Shittim spreads out a carpet of wildflowers dazzling to behold, whilst the perfumed oleanders bend their flower-laden boughs caressingly over the carpeted blooms and birds in abundance blend their songs and brilliant plumage in a scene where, indeed, "every prospect pleases." It is from this delightful vantage ground that we will follow Joshua across the Jordan into the Promised Land.
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THE MANDATE OF GOD MY DEAR FRIENDS, in my last message I left you standing in the plain of Abel-Shittim
opposite Jericho. It was not unkind of me to leave you there, for you were in good company and in beautiful surroundings. Moses' successor, Joshua, and the new generation of the children of Israel were your companions and the luxuriant wild flowers, scented oleanders, and graceful acacias gave sweet background to the songs of the birds and the rippling melody of the rills and rivulets. This, surely, is an ideal place for us to take our bearings, both spiritually and geographically, ere we cross the Jordan with Joshua and penetrate the Promised Land. Rabbi Adda, the son of Rabbi Hanina, is quoted in the Talmud as having said: "Had not Israel sinned, only the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua would have been given to them, the latter because it records the disposition of the Land of Israel among the tribes." (Ned. 22b) This is a provocatively interesting statement, but its horizons are far too limited to allow for any adequate or accurate assessment of its reliability. You see, this very same Pentateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, known to us Jewish people as Chumash – reveals to us that the gun was heavily loaded against the possibility of Israel's national obedience and integrity even before he entered Canaan. After all, a nation is only an aggregate of individuals and it is the very first book of the Pentateuch – Genesis – that reveals the mystery of sin's entrance into the entire human race, irrespective of nation or colour. Therefore the individuals comprising the Israelitish nation of those days all entered the Promised Land tainted with that strong predisposition to sin which characterizes all people, everywhere, at all times. It is also the Pentateuch – Chumash – that reveals to us the Divine intention to remedy this sad and sorry condition. The Book of Joshua must be viewed, therefore, not so much as the record of the conquests of many peoples by one people, but rather as the directive action of God in pursuit of His Divine beneficent purposes towards the ultimate good and blessing of mankind as a whole. No other perspective will satisfy either the truth or the tribulations through which humanity passes.
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It is, of course, inevitable that at this juncture our restful sojourn upon the fertile plain of Abel-Shittim will be disturbed by the intrusion of the modern evolutionary concepts. I do hope you are as weary of these specious theories as I am. As I said, this is the time and place to get our bearings, so let us spend a moment or two together on the plain. Now, I know that the popular modern theories declare that man began as a speck and evolved into a sage. Somewhere, somehow, he appeared as a primordial protozoan and evolved into a prodigious personality. My friends, frankly, I don't believe it; even though I am forced to admit that whereas there was a time when man could only "bump off" one man at a time with club or arrow, now man can "bump off" a whole city or nation with an H bomb. This is, admittedly, wonderful progress. However, I have scientific grounds for rejecting the various evolutionary hypotheses, particularly the popular modern theory of evolution in religion. It sounds plausible enough but the established ethnological facts are all against it. Dr. Wilhem Schmidt, Professor of Primitive Ethnology and Philology in the University of Vienna, in his exhaustive work of five volumes (Der Ursprung der Gottesides), has given ample evidence that the God-concept of primitive humanity was monotheistic and that it "devolved" into idolatry and polytheism. Suffer a few words from Professor Schmidt because they are so interesting and quite important. "There is a sufficient number of tribes among whom the really monotheistic character of their Supreme Being is clear even to a cursory examination. That is true of the Supreme Being of most Pigmy tribes, so far as we know them; also of the Tierra del Fuegians, the primitive Bushmen, the Kurnai, Kulin and Yuin of south-east Australia, the peoples of the Arctic culture except the Koryaks, and wellnigh all the primitives of North America." (The Origin and Growth of Religion: Facts and Theories. Translated by H.J. Rose. Methuen, 1931) "It is precisely among the three oldest primitive peoples of North America that we find a clear and firmly established belief in a High-god....It is only now that we can produce the final proof that these High-gods, in the oldest form, come before all other elements, be they naturism, fetishism, ghost-worship, animism, totemism or magism." (Dr. Wilhem Schmidt, High-Gods in North America, 1932)
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Now that was a rather long quotation I admit, but if it serves to break the shackles of spurious theories it will have been worth it. Moreover, it is pertinent to our present theme, for the Book of Joshua represents an important phase in the Divinely-initiated struggle of REVEALED TRUTH against HEATHENISM. Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, B.A. Ph.D., observes very truly – and it is a pleasure to quote him. "The Bible is the Book of God's unfolding revelation to man." My friends, I am persuaded that it is as necessary for us today, as it was for Israel in Joshua's day, to realize that heathenism by its very intrinsic nature and outlook is violently antagonistic to the Kingdom of God. The two are fundamentally hostile and incompatible. And heathenism is heathenism, in no matter what form it appears, be it the idolatry of the ignoramus or the naturalistic evolutionary, anti-revelationary theories of the intellectualist. I do hope we have got our bearings in the plain of Shittim, because it will now account adequately for the mandate of God given to Joshua and recorded in the first nine verses of the first chapter of that Book bearing his name. God charges Joshua in these words: "Moses My servant is dead; 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. (v2) From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border." (v4) Those of us who have studied the pagan practices of the seven peoples of Canaan will readily understand the true nature of Joshua's operation. It was indeed an operation. It was Divine surgery. A putrid cancer had developed in the land of Canaan; a malignant growth that threatened the health and welfare of the whole known world of that time. It was utterly incurable. There was no remedy. It had to be surgically removed in its entirety and Joshua and the children of Israel constituted the scalpel in the wise and experienced hand of the Divine Surgeon. In the place of the darkness and debauchery of heathenism the God of Light, Life, and Love was about to rekindle the Light of His Divine Kingdom. I say, deliberately, rekindle because I am convinced that He had granted an adequate illumination on many other occasions prior to the call and commissioning of Israel. Now, however, poised by the banks of the Jordan, Israel was ready to be launched upon his glorious national mission to extinguish the destructive flames of heathenism and, instead, to
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light anew the precious Menorah of Revealed Truth and speed its illuminating and healthful beams into the darkest corners of the world. Inasmuch as the Revealed Truth of God, the Bible, has been and is still available throughout the world and its ages, it cannot be said that Israel failed in his glorious national mission. It is true, however, that Israel himself failed, nationally, to possess his own possessions. Unfortunately and tragically, the Revealed Truth of the Bible has been largely set aside and replaced by Human Tradition. But let not the Gentile peoples be quick to condemn for surely they, too, have made the very same fatal error. However, a glorious rekindling is Divinely pledged for Israel, and, through Israel, for all the world. Let me close with this hopeful prophecy: "Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen ... I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, And My blessing upon thine offspring ..." (Isaiah 44:1-3) May that day speedily come for world.
, for all Israel and for , for all the
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THE MISSION OF THE SPIES My dear friends, it has been my good fortune to have travelled extensively in many countries of the world and naturally this has brought me into numerous large and important cities such as New York, London, Calcutta, Athens, Edinburgh, Rome, Paris, Jerusalem ... Invariably, it has been my pleasure to visit the great art galleries wherein are hung the large and imposing portraits of the great men of history. I recall a visit to the Hotel de Ville in Brussels. There, adorning the walls of a great gallery, suspended side by side in impressive sequence, hung the immortal likenesses of Belgium's notables, their illustrious faces having the appearance of scanning in retrospect the scenes and circumstances which had made them famous. Have you ever thought what a wonderful gallery of illustrious individuals our Jewish Holy Scriptures would provide? Suppose we had a hall of honour wherein hung genuine, authoritative portraits of the notables of the Bible. Adam, Eve, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon ... How we would gaze transfixed with interest into their faces. Just think of it – a Biblical Hall of Honour! My friends, do you know that there really exists just such a Hall of Honour? Yes, indeed, a Biblical Hall of Honour! However, it isn't in a building; it is in a Book. Moreover, the portraits are not painted on canvas and framed in wood; they are painted in words and framed in faith. Indeed, it is faith that has made them famous. Now, you are curious to know who portraits appear! Very well. Shall we walk round the gallery? Why! The very first portrait is that of Abel. Let us read the inscription beneath the picture. Here it is: "In faith Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain ..." How remarkable, not the achievements of force but the attitude of faith secured for Abel the honoured position of being first in this Biblical cavalcade of celebrities. Whose portrait is this displayed alongside that of Abel? My friends, we are looking into a very wonderful face. It is that of Enoch, of whom it is written: "In faith Enoch was translated without experiencing death ..." What a stupendous experience! Just think of it. What power in faith to cheat death of its prey!
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Beneath Enoch's portrait, inscribed by the hand of the Divine Spirit, are these words: "Now without faith it is not possible to please God ..." Well, that's a lesson worth learning, isn't it? Ah! Here are some august individuals more familiar to us! The patriarch Noah; then our father Abraham. Of course, we would expect to find his portrait here for our great teacher Moses declares of Abraham that Abraham believed in the Eternal and the Eternal accounted this faith shown by Abraham as righteousness. (See Rashi and Sforno on that particular theme. Genesis 15:6) The impressive likenesses of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses follow in sublime sequence. Beneath Moses' portrait are these words: "In faith he kept Pesach (Passover) and the daubing of blood ..." (See Exodus 12:22) Ah! This is interesting! Here follows the picture of a woman! I wonder who it could be among this galaxy of the great. Perhaps Deborah or Hannah. Come! Let us identify her. Is it possible? It seems incredible! But there is no mistaking the designation. It is clear and emphatic: "In faith Rahab (did not perish with the disobedient, because she received the spies peaceably." Will you grant me your gracious indulgence to enable me to employ – well – a rather indelicate word? Without the liberty of frankness it would be impossible either to measure the magnitude of this unexpected inclusion or to assess the circumstances giving it warrant. My friends, Rahab was a harlot! Here, included among these honourable ones is Rahab the harlot! A harlot in the Hall of Honour! How did she gain inclusion in such distinguished company and her memory thus honoured in a Scripture volume which has been rightly entitled a "Homily to the Hebrews"? Well, if we are to find out how the harlot got into the hall of honour we must first discover her as she originally was in the house of dishonour about 3500 years ago. You will remember that in my last two messages I had left you standing with Moses' successor Joshua in the plain of Shittim, east of Jordan.
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Joshua, now happily possessed of his Divine mandate, faces toward his first military objective, the city of Jericho, the most important Canaanite fortress commanding the chief approaches to Central Palestine. It had double walls. An inner wall about twelve feet thick, then a space of about twelve feet, then an outer wall about six feet thick and the two walls were intermittently connected by houses built on the top. In one such house dwelt Rahab the harlot, and her house was a house of shame. Archaeological discoveries at Jericho reveal traces of the most revolting heathen practices. In addition, the pagan shrines of Astarte had their retinues of sanctified prostitutes and the fortress-city abounded in women of the courtesan type. Rahab was of this unhallowed company. News of the approach of the Israelites had spread like wildfire and Rahab was well acquainted with their chronicles of conquest even so early as the parting of the Red Sea for the Exodus out of Egypt. It was to this city wherein resided this woman of unenviable reputation that General Yeshua (Joshua), unknown to the people (for such is the meaning of the Hebrew text of Joshua 2:1), dispatched two spies upon a preliminary reconnaissance. It was a very dangerous mission involving a stealthy journey of some eight miles. The setting sun was just splashing the surrounding limestone mountains with daring darts of splendour as the two spies passed through the gates of the city. Wisely, they avoided proceeding to any public hostelry but, disguising their true objective under the cloak of an unworthy purpose that would nevertheless win speedy sympathy and understanding in so degraded a city, they found their way to the house of Rahab the harlot as the gates of the fortress closed behind them. However, their entry into Jericho had not passed undetected, neither had their identity and intention been unsuspected, and counter-spies were soon set upon the spies and they were tracked down to Rahab's domicile of degradation. But a light was beginning to dawn upon the darkened spiritual horizon of this heathen woman. Although safe behind the apparently impregnable walls of perhaps the strongest fortified city in Canaan, and in dire personal peril should she fail to deliver up her two – ah – "guests," she nevertheless made a momentous decision.
Ignoring immediate natural
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appearances apparently so favourable to herself, she decided to take her stand with the servants of the Living God, Whom she had now come to acknowledge. Accordingly, she misdirected the counter-spies and aided the escape of Joshua's two scouts. For this she was promised immunity from destruction, provided she exhibited upon her house the same scarlet cord with which she had let the twain down over the fortress wall. The pledge was kept on both sides and Rahab and her household were saved and her moral faith won her fame where her immoral frailty had once earned her shame. She is not praised for her falsehood but for her faith. And not just faith as a quality, but rather faith in the Eternal God and Yeshua (Joshua), the One whom He sent upon the Divine mission rendered necessary by sin's dark stain. My friends, we would commit a great folly if we did not see the rich symbolism behind this historic event. As I have already indicated Joshua is also named Yeshua, Jesus, and Rahab's visible token of her inward faith was a scarlet cord. Scarlet is the colour of blood, and blood is the token of redemption. Just as surely as God sent Moses' successor, Yeshua, to deal with the sins of Canaan, so surely did God send Moses' greater Successor, Yeshua, to atone for the sins of Israel and all the world. Happy is the Jew or Gentile whose individual faith in the efficacy of Messiah's blood atonement appears in the eyes of Heaven like the crimson cord of mutual pledge granting eternal immunity from Judgement and inclusion in the gallery of honour of Divine grace.
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THE MIRACLE OF JORDAN My dear friends, our Hebrew poet, Nephtali Herz Imber (1856-1909) has written these lines: "Let your spirits' desires For the land of our sires Eternally burn, From the foe to deliver Our own holy river To Jordan return." (Watch on the Jordan) If ever a river has a valid claim to such a classification as "holy" it is the River Jordan, and if ever a people possess a valid claim to ownership of that river it is the people of Israel. A study of the third and fourth chapters of the Biblical book entitled Joshua should establish this thesis. Of course, to those who deny the Divine inspiration of the Bible my authority will make little appeal, I grant you; however, to such I ask leave to tender a word of counsel. At one of our universities the question was asked – "How far can a dog run into a forest?" Very few obtained the required answer yet, really, it lies upon the surface of the question. You see, a dog can only run half-way into a forest; beyond that point it is running out of it! I suggest we might well apply this proposition to the Holy Scriptures. Apart from persons weighted by a mental bias either way, it is my conviction that any incredulity dissipates in proportion to the quantity of Biblical ground covered. It is also far too little realized that the flow of modern scientific and archaeological discovery has found itself anticipated by the Biblical record. But does someone object to the element of miracle in the Scriptures. Why should there be any reluctance to the acknowledgement that God can and has instituted processes and events of a character not within the regular knowledge or experience of mankind? Many are handicapped in their acceptance of the miraculous by the delusion that the so-called "laws of nature" are fixed, unchangeable and eternal and cannot be modified or reversed. But I appeal to these very same "laws of nature" to demonstrate the unreliability of such a concept. As far as our earth is concerned, what more universal "Law of Nature" could we
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have that the Law of Gravitation? But this law of gravitation is not universally obeyed in nature. As a matter of fact, if it were, we would all be poisoned. Let me explain. Carbonic acid gas is injurious to human health and if it obeyed the universal law of gravitation it would form a thick layer all round the globe. To avoid this, what we may well call a miracle has been Divinely provided within the alleged unchangeable laws of nature, for carbonic acid gas and other noxious gases disobey gravitation and rise to the top of the highest mountains. Another miracle within nature is the gas hydrogen which, although twenty-two times lighter than carbonic acid gas, nevertheless descends and can be found in the deepest mines man ever dug into the earth. Perhaps I should speak of what I may call "dormant laws" in nature which only become operative at the instigation of man or through mishap, the probability of which has been intelligently anticipated and provided for in nature. For instance, if a man breaks a limb, a dormant law becomes operative and a greater secretion of phosphate of lime proceeds to the fracture and unites it and in some cases actually creates a ferule of bony matter around it. But for the accident the very existence of this dormant law would have been unsuspected and the first man experiencing the first fracture would declare a miracle had been wrought when this "dormant law" of repair became operative. However, I do not intend this message to resolve itself into a defence of the incident of miracles in Biblical history and revelation; rather do I wish to confront you with a memorable miracle at the River Jordan in the day when Moses' successor, Joshua, led the Children of Israel across the river into the Promised Land. The name "Jordan" means "the descender" given to the river because of its amazingly rapid descent from its source at the foot of Mount Hermon to its terminus in the Dead Sea 1286 feet below sea level. It is unbelievably sinuous in its labyrinthine windings and twisting and it weirdly boasts three banks, the largest being at the water's edge. This bank frequently overflows in the springtime because of the melting of the snow on Hermon. The second and wider bank is a regular jungle of vegetation giving way to a third or upper bank which overhangs the river. In the vicinity of Jericho the Jordan Valley is about fourteen miles wide, and on the east side of the river Joshua and the Children of Israel were camped in the plain of Shittim all ready now to cross over into the Promised Land.
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The great and prophesied day had arrived! The Eternal God Who had first granted the promise declared to Joshua: "This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, ye shall stand still in the Jordan." (Joshua 3:7, 8) There was both rhythm and reason in the miracle to follow. It was "the tenth day of the first month" (Joshua 4:19). On that day, forty years earlier, Israel had taken the lamb for the Pesach sacrifice before the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:3). As Rabbi Levi said, "Their taking the paschal lamb in Egypt stood them in good stead at the Jordan." (Pesikta) Doubtless the significance of this anniversary day would be impressed upon the consciousness of the host of Israel as they advanced towards their objective. The tribes who were to have their allotments west of Jordan were reinforced by forty thousand selected soldiers from Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, which would leave some 70,580 from these three tribes to guard the eastern territory. (Numbers 26:7, 18, 34) The Ark of the Covenant containing the Decalogue was usually located in the centre of the camp (cf. Numbers 2:17) but now, proudly borne by the priests, it led the hosts of Israel westward. A reverent distance of some 2000 cubits, equal to about 1000 yards, separated Israel's army from the ark. This interval was equal to the extent of the permitted Sabbath day's journey. To those Israelites to whom the desert had so recently been their sandy surroundings, the river, silver-gleaming in the sunshine, and with banks overflowing, was itself a miracle. But a greater miracle was immediately to follow. From the separating distance of about half a mile, the Israelites looked down and behold! When the feet of those that bore "the ark of the Eternal, the Lord of all the Earth" (Joshua 3:11, 13) came to rest in the river, the Jordan split in two! "The waters coming from upstream stood still, forming a single solid mass, reaching northward from Adamah, as far as the fortress of Zarethan. And the waters going downstream to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho. Whereupon the priests that carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Eternal stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry land, until the entire people had crossed over Jordan." (Joshua 3:16, 17)
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The famous archaeologist, Dr. Nelson Glueck, B.A., LL.D, Ph.D., has declared that Joshua 3:16 was meant to be taken literally. (The River Jordan, Jewish Publication Society, 1946) Personally, I am very content indeed to acknowledge Divine interposition in this incident for, as I said, there was both rhythm and reason in it. The generation of Israel at Jericho, you will remember, had not been sufficiently mature in age to have seen the miraculous parting of the waters of the Red Sea by the uplifted road of Moses. Of course, Caleb and Joshua had seen it (I use "seen" in the sense of understanding), but this generation needed the attestation and encouragement for the "going in" as much as the earlier generation had needed similar Divine evidence for the "going out." There was a big task ahead for Israel to accomplish. The battle against heathenism was impending. Now just a final word for any who might imagine that the task of suddenly cutting off the waters of Jordan during a flood time was a task too big for the Almighty Omnipotent God of Creation. Will it come as a shock to learn that this same thing has happened to this same river on at least three separate occasions in history since the days of Joshua? The Arab historian Nuwairi records that on December 8 in the year 1267 of the Common Era, the entire riverbed, right opposite Jericho, became dry owing to a landslip higher up. For sixteen hours the flow of water down the riverbed was stopped. A similar occurrence is recorded in 1906, whilst so recently as July 1927, at the very locality of Adamah mentioned in the Scripture verse quoted earlier; an earthquake caused a great landslide which blocked the river for twenty-one hours. (cf. Joshua-Judges of J. Garstang, 1931, pp. 136-138) View it as a Providential concatenation of time, place, and circumstance; or as a Providential direct interposition, the crossing of Jordan was a miracle. No wonder the poet calls Jordan "our own holy river."
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THE MEMORIALS OF JORDAN MY DEAR FRIENDS, history is a mother hungry for more children. She stretches her encircling
arms out into the future and clasps unborn generations to her bosom, pre-feeding them with the milk of her own being so that when born they bear her likeness. Particularly is this so where Israel is concerned, for there is no history comparable to Israel's history. It bears upon it the very impress of God and for that reason it has changed the course of the world and is destined to stretch its formative fingers yet farther into the unborn generations not only of the Jewish people but also of all peoples of the earth. It began by Divine initiation; it has been sustained by Divine preservation; it will be climaxed by Divine consummation. It is the miracle of history and the history of miracle. The history of Israel as a people began on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan when the sacrificial blood of the paschal lamb was daubed on their domiciles in Egypt three thousand five hundred years ago. The history of Israel as a nation began on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan forty years later, when the new generation under Joshua, by Divine command, commemorated Passover, in the Promised Land.
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The Red Sea had parted miraculously for their exodus from Egypt. The River Jordan had parted miraculously for their entry into Canaan. No wonder memorials were commanded upon a people and a nation with such an historical inauguration! In the Hebrew language the word "memorial" is an interesting one and its initial employment in the Hebrew Bible is arresting an instructive. The word is (Zichron), sometimes (Zikkaron). It comes from a primary root meaning "to pierce, to penetrate." Hence a memorial is something intended to pierce to penetrate the mind and thus be established in perpetual remembrance. And now, here is a rare treasure from Tenach for you. In our Hebrew Scriptures this word "memorial" makes it first appearance under circumstances incomparably impressive. The word falls from the lips of God Himself and is Divinely associated with His August Name, the Sacred Tetragrammaton.
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Our great teacher, Moses, had turned aside to behold the wonder of the thorn bush that burned with fire but was not consumed, when Deity addressed him from its midst. In the ensuing audience Moses inquired what designation of reference he should employ of God. This is the thrilling reply he received:
15 "And God(s) said moreover unto Moses: 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: The Eternal, the God(s) of your fathers, the God(s) of Abraham, the God(s) of Isaac, and the God(s) of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations." (Exodus 3:15) This verse of Scripture, found at Exodus 3:15 possesses some remarkable features and – frankly – challenges sober thought. In every place where you heard me use the English word "God," the noun is in the plural form and, when applied in that form to idols, is correctly translated "gods" – the plural. In the same verse when I used the English word "Eternal," the word was the Sacred Tetragrammaton. Now here are phenomena that simply cry out for explanation to any whose mind is bent on enjoying the fullest depths and delights of Divine revelation. Consider our first phenomenon. Why did I not pronounce the Tetragrammaton – the Four Lettered Name? Why did I substitute the word "Eternal" in the English and the word Adonai in the Hebrew? For the simple reason that I am not sure how it is pronounced, nor is anyone else. Certainly it is not pronounced "Jehovah." I employ the word "Eternal" because, as Sforno suggests, the Tetragrammaton implies the beginningless existence and eternity of God. That Israel once knew how to pronounce the Sacred Name is a foregone conclusion, for Moses declared it unto them and it was upon the lips of the priests, prophets and psalmists down the ages until towards the latter period of the Second Temple, when it was uttered only the High Priest on Yom Kippur, and then in such low tones that it could not be heard. I humbly suggest that this gradual loss of the sound of the Sacred Name has been most unfortunate and has been due to a misunderstanding or misapplication of the commandment, "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Eternal thy God in vain" (Exodus 20:7), the basic meaning of which I believe to be a prohibition against taking or lifting up the name of God in
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worthlessness, or false report, or false oath. I cannot believe that a name given by God to Israel for a memorial, a remembrance, was ever Divinely intended to be buried in oblivion. Moreover, I regard as mere sophistry the traditional suggestion that in Exodus 3:15 the Hebrew word "leolam" is written defectively, omitting the "vav," so that it could read "leallem" meaning "to conceal," and so trying to justify the much later practice of concealing the true pronunciation and substituting another title for it. The second phenomenon is the presence of the plurals to which I have referred. To conceal the one and ignore the other has resulted in a conception and appreciation of the Eternal God of Israel quite other than that afforded by the revelation of the Bible. Maybe the loss of the name was prophetic! Yet a knowledge of the Great Possessor of the Name can be recaptured if we have the courage to abandon mere human tradition where it conflicts with Divine revelation. I cover this important ground more fully in my book OUT OF THE CLOUDS. The Name of God, then, is our first Biblical memorial. The second Biblical memorial is equally suggestive (Exodus 12:14). It is the day the blood of the lamb was applied in Egypt. It is most impressive that, following the revelation of Name of God, the next memorial for Israel points to the Redemption He provides. Therefore and henceforth the clasping arms of Israel's history are encircled with bright bracelets of Divinely-prescribed memorials so that the unborn generations may behold, inquire, and become integrated and participants in a process that has for its goal the redemption of mankind. It is to be expected, therefore, that at the miraculous crossing of the River Jordan under General Yeshua (Joshua) we meet with another memorial. The waters had parted at the presence of the Ark of the Covenant borne by the priests, who stood in the midst of the riverbed until the people of Israel had passed over into the Promised Land. Then twelve previously commissioned men, one man from each tribe, took up twelve large stones from the riverbed where the priests had stood. These twelve stone, one stone for each tribe, were carried over into the Promised Land and set up there as a memorial tribute to the power and faithfulness of the God that had pledged the land to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Joshua 3:12; 4:1-8)
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In addition, and apparently acting upon his own impulse, as far as I can see, Joshua "also set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests that bore the Ark of the Covenant stood." (Joshua 4:9) The memorials having been established, the priests that bore the Ark of the Covenant came up out of the midst of the Jordan and, "as soon as the soles of the priests' feet were drawn up unto the dry ground.....the waters of the Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all its banks as before. And the people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho." (Joshua 4:18, 19) Would God that the waters of uninspired human tradition would part asunder to allow Israel to cross over into and inherit the spiritual Promised Land where the basic memorials of God, and God's redemption from sin through the Blood of the Lamb, still stand in Scripture to recall him back to the God of Israel and the Messiah-Joshua Whom the General Joshua met face to face just across the Jordan. (Joshua 5:13-15)
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FEAR AND PHANTOM MY DEAR FRIENDS, the Spanish philosopher and poet (1085-1140) Yehuda Halevi has
declared: "Our religion has three elements: fear, love, and joy, by each of which one can draw near to God" (Cuzari, 2.50) Which observation reminds me of the following passage from the Book of Job in the Tenach: "Now it fell upon a day, that the sons of God came to present themselves before the Eternal, and Satan came also among them." (Job 1:6) I dare say some of you, my friends, are thinking, "What a strange association of ideas! What bridge of thought can possibly exist to connect the one quotation to the other!" Well, it is perfectly true that fear, love and joy each stretch out their hand and draw us near to God. With that concept I have no quarrel. But what is Fear doing in the company of Love and Joy? Love and Joy are the sons of God; but Fear is manifestly a child of Satan. Granted, too, that God used Satan to draw Job closer to Him; but let us be on our guard to distinguish between the pedigrees. As I said, Fear is a child of Satan; it has no place among the sons of God by family relationship. If I could borrow Job's garments but for a moment, I would prefer to dress Yehuda Halevi's statement in them and re-introduce his thought to you as follows: "Now it fell upon a day, that Love and Joy came to present themselves before the Eternal, and Fear came also among them." Fear is a very terrible and painful emotion. Its brother and sisters have unpleasant names, well earned. Dread, fright, terror, apprehension, panic, are among its closest relatives. A nasty bunch. What is fear? The customary definition that fear is the feeling or condition of being afraid is about as satisfying to our spiritual and psychological appetites as a carefully filleted caraway seed would be. Fear is a monster that we cannot slay with a definition. Whence comes this son of Satan? Well, there is only one place to which I feel I can turn for a reliable answer to this question – our Holy Scriptures.
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I first find fear where felicity once flourished – in the garden in Eden; but it made its ugly appearance after the Fall of Man. God, seeking the companionship of the man He had created in His own image and after His own likeness, now found that image and likeness marred and distorted by the introduction of something totally foreign to the image and likeness of Deity. That foreign element was fear. Cries Adam: "I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, ..." (Genesis 3:10) Here, indeed is the Fall of Man! To be terror-stricken and to dread the Divine Presence is a condition and the enormity of which it would be beyond imagination to compute. Although fear is a foreigner, it is nonetheless a fact; and it is equally a fact that dread of the Divine Presence is an experience and condition so universal in mankind that it points to a universal cause. Fear is but a symptom. But of what is it a symptom? Beyond doubt dread of the Divine Presence is a symptom of sin. Equally beyond doubt the Divine Presence is bent upon the removal of this anomaly. Within the Divine economy sin is a singularity, albeit a substantial singularity. Within the Human economy, fear, sin's symptom, is both freak and phantom. A freak is unpleasantly substantial; a phantom is unpleasantly unsubstantial. Perhaps I should enlarge upon this. Fear is a freak. Man was created to love and enjoy the Divine Presence, not to fear Him. Yet man's fear, though thus freakish, is justified. It is substantial. For darkness must ever retreat at the approach of Light. And God and all His works are Light, whereas the same could never be said of Man. But fear is also a phantom, and a phantom is unsubstantial. Much of man's fear is unjustified because it has no substantial or objective cause to give it validity. These are the innumerable instances in man's experience where the only thing to be feared is fear. This is when the phantom haunts the man. Only the fear is real, not the phantom. Now, I believe God is using fear, both freak and phantom, to destroy fear. In the personality of each man God has set up His own representative, the faculty of Conscience which drives man, whether instinctively or reflectively, to measure his state and actions. This measurement invariably accuses, giving rise to a sense of guilt and breeding fear of the Divine Presence. "Thus Conscience," says Shakespeare, "does make cowards of us all...." (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1)
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Collective cowardice, Divinely ordained, became a shield against molestation for our father Jacob. The incident is recorded in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth chapters of Genesis. The unworthy conduct of Simeon and Levi caused Jacob to fear. He exclaimed: "Ye have troubled me, to make me odious unto the inhabitants of the land, even unto the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house." (Genesis 34:30) Jacob's fear was substantial and justified, but the danger was greater than superficial thought would indicate. Jacob and his household was the Divinely-appointed vehicle for carrying forward the sublime Messianic pledges of redemption first uttered to Adam in Eden (Genesis 3:15), then projected through Abraham (Genesis 12:1-4) and vested in Jacob, whose name, you will remember, was Divinely changed to Israel (Genesis 32:29 and 35:10). God could not allow the folly of Simeon and Levi to place in jeopardy the spiritual welfare of all Israel and all mankind, so He paralysed the populace with a phantom fear, for we read of Jacob and his household that as they journeyed, "a terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob." (Genesis 35:5) Fear was again a factor favourable to the Divine beneficent purposes on the memorable occasion of the crossing of the Jordan. In the fifth chapter of the Book of Joshua we read of the terror which overcame the native kings of Canaan when they heard how the Eternal had dried up the waters of the Jordan until the children of Israel had passed over: "their heart melted neither was there spirit in them any more ..." (Joshua 5:1) Indeed, Fear is not one of God's children, though He uses it. To God's family belong Love and Joy. God Himself is Love and one who had experienced God's grace in a supreme measure was able to declare: "There is no such thing as fear in love. Rather does utter love expel fear ..." (1 John 4:18) These words were capable of utterance because of association with the Messiah-Redeemer of Israel Who Himself declared: "I have spoken unto you thus, that I may have joy in you, and that your joy may be complete." (John 15:11) Joy is something deeper than Happiness. Happiness can only laugh, but Joy can also weep. Weep for those who have not yet tested and tasted the Love of God and the Joy of experiencing the great salvation He has already provided in the One Whom He sent to Israel and to all the world.
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But there is a third child of God before whom Fear must fade. That child is Faith. Faith – of course – placed where God directs it: Faith in the Messiah to Whom the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, the entire Tenach, all bear united testimony. Through that Messiah the whole nation of Israel will yet experience Isaiah's joyful prophecy: "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; Wall and bulwarks doth He appoint for salvation. Open ye the gates, That the righteous nation that keepeth faithfulness may enter in." (Isaiah 26: 1-2) Through that Messiah the individual Jew or Gentile may even now experience Isaiah's joyful prophecy: "The mind stayed on Thee Thou keepest in perfect peace; Because it trusteth in Thee." (Isaiah 26:3) For such a happy individual, when Fear knocks at the door, Faith opens it and finds no one there!
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HERITAGE AND DESTINY MY DEAR FRIENDS, I came across a most arresting statement recently. Here it is:
"The road to tomorrow leads through yesterday." This affirmation is weighty, weighty with truth where the nation of Israel is concerned. Israel's heritage should be, must be, shall be, the determinative factor in Israel's future destiny. Israel can only look ahead by looking backward. Indeed, this backward look is a Divine injunction, and it comes clearly and unmistakably from the lips of a prince of prophecy, the great Isaiah. Here is his exhortation to Israel, as valid today as in the day he uttered it: "Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness, Ye that seek the Eternal; Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, And to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bore you; ..." (Isaiah 51: 1, 2) Yes, indeed, look back to Abraham and Sarah, O Israel, and behold your future destiny. Look back to Abraham, the rock from which were hewn the twelve tribes of Israel; look back to Sarah whose maternal womb was the fountain from which Isaac and the whole House of Jacob proceeded. Look back! Look back! Back to Abraham who, on the sole basis that he believed God, was accounted righteous in the Divine reckoning. To Abraham who, whilst yet uncircumcised, received the precious Messianic promises that make Messianic Judaism the most ancient Judaism and the most trustworthy Judaism in all Israel's glorious heritage. Look back to Sarah whose inability to bear children was twofold by virtue of age and by virtue of barrenness yet who, by the grace and power of God, was the subject of Divine biological miracle and gave birth to Isaac, from whom came Jacob and Judah the Messianic line of promise. Ahead was Destiny – the Land, the Lord of the Land, and the Messianic Kingdom of God on earth! What a priceless patrimony! Its eightfold bounty has been summed up as follows: "... they have the right of Sonship and the Shekinah-glory, and the Covenants; to them the Law was given and the Order of ceremonial worship, and the Promises; the Patriarchs were their ancestors, and from them Messiah took His flesh – Messiah the Over-Lord of all, God blessed throughout the ages." (Romans 9:4-5)
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Towering into the spiritual skyline like twin Matterhorns, and dominating the potential of earth's bliss and blessing, are the heritage and destiny of Israel, the Jewish people. But between these mountain peaks of Divine promise and purpose there lies a perilous valley, a valley so dense with the overgrowth of the immediate that the skyline becomes obscured and only faith can preserve in the eye of the soul the image of the twin peaks of heritage and destiny. I call this corpse-clad valley the Valley of Vanishing View and I cannot pretend that Israel, as a national entity, has not frequently succumbed in its viewless canyons. Faithful to the Divine promise and purpose, the Eternal raised up Moses to deliver Israel out of Egypt, and Malach Adonai, the Angel of the Eternal, the Messianic Being, was their Divine Escort. Nevertheless, that generation, lacking the faith of their father Abraham, lost their lives in that terrible Valley of Vanishing View. But God hadn't finished with the nation then, any more than He has finished with the nation today. Raising up Joshua to succeed Moses, the Eternal led the new generation, with Caleb across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. On that very occasion the backward look forward was necessary and we of Israel today will also look forward if we, too, look backward to the significance of those events and note some striking parallels. Just as our father Abraham entered into God's grace and promise whilst yet uncircumcised, so the new generation of Israel under Joshua entered into the Land of Promise whilst yet uncircumcised. There is an invaluable spiritual lesson for us all here and we just mustn't miss it. Of Abraham it is recorded in the Torah – "And he believed in the Eternal; Who accounted it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6) Grasp the spiritual sequence. First the Reciprocity, then the Ratification. Abraham bestowed upon God a faith and belief that the integrity of God fully merited; in gracious reciprocity, God bestowed upon Abraham a righteousness which the faith of Abraham fully merited.
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Be careful to observe that it was Abraham's faith – not his own personal merits or good works – that opened the door to this rich reciprocity. God imputed righteousness to Abraham on the basis of Abraham's faith. Then, following the Reciprocity came the Ratification, the outward and visible sign, in this instance, circumcision (Genesis 17). I have already indicated that the Scriptures speak of two circumcisions, a spiritual circumcision and a physical circumcision, and the latter is merely the outward symbol of the former; moreover, without the former, the latter remains merely a symbol and neither God nor man can find satisfaction in a symbol which has no actuality to justify its existence. The spiritual circumcision is called the circumcision of the heart (e.g. Deuteronomy 10:16, 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4, 9:24 – English tr. 9:25, 26) and it is obvious that our father Abraham had experienced the spiritual prior to submitting to the physical. When, however, we turn our eyes from the father of the nation to the nation itself, we discern the same Divine principles operative but there are important distinctions illuminating both the heritage and destiny of Israel nationally. Israel entered into Canaan uncircumcised; however, once Israel was over Jordan, the Divine command came to "circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." Tradition affirms a collective circumcision before the Exodus from Egypt. The circumcision over Jordan at Gilgal, if tradition be trustworthy, would therefore be the second collective circumcision. With Abraham the individual, the sequence was as it ever must be with an individual – first the Reciprocity then the Ratification. With Israel, the nation, an aggregate of individuals, the sequence is reversed because Israel's enjoyment of the heritage (as apart from the heritage itself) was by means of obedience to the Covenant (Genesis 17:7-10. See Rashi). Israel's history, written by himself, is a sad commentary on his failure to obey and enjoy. But the Eternal, blessed be He, foreknew and foresaw Israel's failure and, through Jeremiah more particularly, promised the twelve tribes of Israel a New Testament, a New Covenant. This fact is so little known and understood by Israel today. You will find the remarkable Scripture in the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah:
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31 32 33 34 31. "Behold, the days come, saith the Eternal, that I will make a new covenant (a new testament) with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; 32. "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as the broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them saith the Eternal. 33. "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Eternal, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall by My people; 34. "And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the Eternal'; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Eternal; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more." Down the ages and even to this very day, innumerable Jewish individuals have escaped from the Valley of Vanishing View and have recaptured their heritage and will fulfil their blessed destiny. This great company of Jewish individuals is a happy foretaste of the predicted day when Israel nationally will emerge from the spiritual gloom of that valley where human tradition obscures and where an "it" – the Torah – has taken the place of "Him" – the God of the Torah.
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In my book Peril from the North, now available, I have traced Israel's impending journey through the last midnight in his history to the day when, surely, for Israel as a nation, the mountain peaks of Heritage and Destiny will burst into rapturous view in the blazing glory of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness ... with healing in its wings. (Malachi 3:20; English tr. 4:2)
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FORTY YEARS LATER My dear friends, it is a very ancient belief that numbers have meaning quite apart from their employment to denote quantity. Within my limited opportunities I am inclined to the belief that there really is a symbolic or mystic meaning attachable to certain numbers, particularly Biblical numbers. One of these days I may have more to say upon the subject, but just for the moment let us take a side glance at that figure FORTY. As an actual word and standing alone in its numerical connotation, the cardinal numeral "forty" first appears in our Hebrew Scriptures as Genesis, chapter seven, verse four, where of the Great Deluge we read God's declaration: "For, seven days hence, I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights and I will extirpate every living substance that I have made, from off the face of the earth." This, then, is our Biblical introduction to the numeral "forty" and if its employment in the Scripture highlights be examined, it appears to be a number associated with a period of waiting or testing preparatory to the inauguration of any event or epoch. Because I feel you will be reluctant to let me leave so soon a group of ideas so fascinating, I will add that Moses was in the Mount of Revelation forty days and forty nights (Exodus 34:28); moreover, Jewish tradition divides his life into three epoch-producing periods of forty years. He died at age 120. The giant Goliath defied Israel forty days. The New Testament, an essentially Jewish book, carries the same suggestiveness in its pages. The Messiah, the Servant of the Eternal, is associated with the number forty in the Temptation (Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13; Mark 1:12, 13). It is particularly interesting to note that the Greek word (eutheos) denoting speed or celerity appears exactly forty times in the Gospel of Mark, which is essentially the Gospel of the Servant. It is also arresting to note that the cardinal numeral "forty," so far as my apparatus and time grant me accuracy, appears exactly forty times in the Book of Moses (the Pentateuch), the other great Servant of the Eternal. Of course, as I have been speaking, may of you will have remarked mentally the period of forty years during which Israel waited in the wilderness after leaving Egypt and prior to
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entering Canaan. If my conjecture is correct then your thoughts are a fitting carpet spread out before us all and upon which we can all tread together without getting our feet soiled by the dust of digression. Suppose we stand with Joshua across the Jordan at Gilgal on the fourteenth day of that first month. If we do, the very date, if not the activity, will stab our minds awake. It is Passover! And we are at Gilgal in the Promised Land! After forty years! The waiting, testing, period is over. Forty years of fruitlessness, futility, and frustration. Forty years to reach a destination and a destiny that should have occupied only eleven days. But now it is Passover! Our minds seize the years and harnessing forty of them to the chariot of our imaginations, we speed back to the night in Egypt when the paschal lamb was slain and the blood applied in the form of a cross upon the doorposts and lintels of the houses where we waited for the Divine deliverance. That was forty years away from Gilgal. And now it is Passover in the Promised Land. As it was in Egypt, so here, too, at Gilgal there was terror in the hearts of Israel's enemies. Just within view, across the way, stands Jericho and "Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in." (Joshua 6:1) Words are colourful and musical, but I would need them to be both colour and music to convey to you something of the circumstances at Gilgal. The second collective circumcision had just been performed, for of course no person uncircumcised could eat Passover; all in Gilgal who were thirty-eight years old and upwards had, of course, been circumcised and these must have numbered about 280,000. But those who had been under twenty years of age at the time the Divine sentence was imposed at Kadesh (Numbers 14:29) must have numbered about 720,000. Those already circumcised would have been adequate to prepare the paschal lambs and, if necessary, to defend the camp at Gilgal. How thrilling and awe-inspiring must have been both the activity and the account of it. Forty years ago to the very day the first Passover had been observed in Egypt on the eve of the Exodus. Beyond doubt the great deliverance and the sacrificial nature of that first Passover would need explaining and expounding, for it had been thirty-eight years since Israel had enjoyed
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the privilege of this sacred festival; surely, it would not have been observed by the nation in an uncircumcised condition (Exodus 12:44, 48). This, then, was probably the third national Passover, the last having been celebrated in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year following the coming out of Egypt. (Numbers 9: 1, 2) The whole nation of Israel, as a national entity, is thus reminded that they were delivered from bondage in Egypt by virtue of the Divinely ordained sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb; they are also reminded that they stand in the Promised Land by virtue of that same sacrificial blood. I began this message by a reference to the significance of Biblical numbers.
In past
messages, I have already spoken on the subject of "The Significance of Seven," seven being the number denoting completion or spiritual perfection. Allow me to mention one other number, the number eight. Eight is the number of a new beginning. This is so, not only in Biblical signification, but also in the physical universe. If occasion demands I might devote a whole message to this frankly astounding phenomenon. In the meantime, please just take my word for it. Now, dear friends, I feel I would be less than your friend and certainly less than a faithful expositor if I failed to reveal to you a most remarkable feature of Biblical record involving those figures, forty, the number of waiting, of testing; seven, the number of completion, of spiritual perfection; and eight, the number of a new beginning. You will recall that the Passover at Gilgal was the third Biblically recorded Passover. Obviously, this third recorded Passover was the second anniversary of the original one held in Egypt. Now, what do you make of the interesting fact that Scripture records just seven anniversary celebrations of historic importance. Naturally, you will wish me to itemize them for you, hence I must do so. Here they are. Remember I am speaking of recorded anniversary celebrations. The first in the wilderness of Sinai (Numbers 9:1, 2); the second at Gilgal (Joshua 5:10); the third by Solomon (II Chronicles 8:13); the fourth by Hezekiah at the time when he restored the national worship (II Chronicles 30:15);the fifth under King Josiah in the eighteenth year
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of his reign (II Chronicles 35; II King 23:21); the sixth under Ezra after the return from Babylon (Ezra 6:19). And the seventh Biblically recorded Passover celebration? Where is that found to seal the thought of completion, of spiritual perfection? My friends, it is found in a Jewish book which is, I am convinced, as much an integral part of our Jewish heritage and revelation as any other of our Sacred Scriptures. The seventh celebration is found in the New Testament celebrated with and by One Who claimed to be the Messiah of Israel and Who was introduced, in Jerusalem to the Jewish people by Jewish announcers, as the "Lamb of God," a title which was not repudiated by the One to Whom it was referred. Already you will have added these seven recorded anniversaries the original Passover in Egypt to make a total of eight and, as I said, eight is the number of a new beginning. This same New Testament declares that if anyone – Jew or Gentile – becomes identified with Messiah through faith in the atoning efficacy of His Blood shed for the sins of humanity, that believer, whether Jew or Gentile, becomes a new creature. You will recall that the blood of the paschal lamb in Egypt was applied in such a manner that the physical actions described a cross. Well, we have observed the association of seven and eight in relation to the Paschal Lamb and its sacrifice; now, what of the forty? Well, it was just forty years after the sacrifice of Messiah, the Lamb of God, that the Eternal, blessed be He, permitted the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 of the Common Era, thus sweeping away the sacrificial shadows. Was it because the Substance had come and the time of waiting, of testing was over?
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FOURTH DIMENSIONAL DIET MY DEAR FRIENDS, I approach today's subject with zest and gusto, for it is a theme vibrant
with animation and will therefore ride, like a symmetrical surfboard, on a wave of popular interest. Today, I speak of diet! Now you know why I am confident of your rapt attention. After all reduced to the irreducible minimum, there are only three themes capable of commanding current concentration – atoms, parking, and calories. I need no assurance, therefore that you are already in breathless anticipation. However, since the diet to which I am about to introduce you is of a most unusual character and possesses some really revolutionary properties, you just must permit me a moment to usher it in. Let me illustrate. Until the year 1887 the cosmic dietary formularies of the great Isaac Newton remained unchallenged and unquestioned where space and time were concerned. "Absolute space, in its own nature, without relation to anything external, remains always similar and immovable." "Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equally without relation to anything external." This, my friends, was the Newtonian foundation as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. However, that's just how solid it really was, if you know what I mean, atomically speaking; for, in 1887 Professor A.A. Michelson, an American physicist, conducted a simple experiment in order to compare light velocities in directions perpendicular to each other. The outcome of that experiment was as contrary to all expectations as would be the situation if the taxation authorities suddenly announced the abolition of all taxes and, instead, every citizen would be paid taxes by the government! That would be viewing the situation insideout, wouldn't it? Anyway, that illustrates the situation to which Michelson's experiment ultimately led: an inside-out view of the universe, the Einstein theory of relativity, and the conception of time as a fourth dimension. Admittedly, the subject is exceedingly interesting, but it is only my illustration to lead you into my present theme of a fourth-dimension diet! Ah! That's modern enough for you, isn't it? A fourth-dimension diet!
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By a happy coincidence, it is just after Passover and my diet has been unleavened bread. This feature harmoniously invites attention to our dietary subject in the three dimensions to which we are normally accustomed to view it: namely, space, matter, and time. The locality in space is just over the River Jordan in the Promised Land of Israel; the matter is described accurately in the words of our Holy Scriptures which I quote from the fifth chapter of Joshua: "And they did eat of the produce of the land on the morrow after the Passover, matzoth (unleavened bread) and qalui (parched corn), in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow, after they had eaten of the produce of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year." (Joshua 5:11, 12) So much for the factors of space and matter. The time, my friends, was the occasion of the entrance into Canaan of the children of Israel under General Yeshua somewhere in the middle of the fifteenth century before the Common Era. Whilst we are still in the area of three dimensions, it is well to notice that the Scripture gives us a view of Israel in three perspectives – in Egypt, in the Wilderness, and in Canaan. Now, we have Scriptural authority for asserting that Israel's literal history had a typical significance. Egypt speaks of fear; the Wilderness of futility; Canaan of fruitfulness. There, already, you see, you are getting a peep into a fourth dimension! Before we enter into this new and wonderful realm, however, let me utter a word of caution; a fourth dimension doesn't vitiate the validity of the other three. The bondage in Egypt was painfully real; the wilderness wandering was tragically historical; the conquest of Canaan convincingly factual. But just as Einstein rendered relative Newton's absolute and introduced a new perspective valid and demonstrable, so, too, there is another perspective in which these historical events can be viewed and I suggest the new perspective is equally valid and demonstrable. That other perspective, new – unfortunately – to so many, is the Divine or spiritual perspective.
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Humanly, Egypt speaks of the rigors of bondage under despotic power; in the spiritual perspective, however, Egypt speaks of the redemption by blood under Divine power. Do you see the added viewpoint? Be assured both are valid. What of the Wilderness? Humanly, the Wilderness reveals mankind's presumption and provocation; viewed "inside-out" it reveals God's patience and perseverance. What is the spiritual fourth dimension of Canaan? Well, humanly, it shows us a people, already redeemed and brought into indissoluble covenant relationship with God, having been granted a foot-hold on the inheritance they already owned and now being invited to possess and enjoy it. To disclose adequately the arresting wonders of the spiritual perspective, I regret I must turn aside very briefly to explode some erroneous human concepts. To cross the waters of Jordan into Canaan, they say, is the pass safely through physical death and enter into heaven! That sounds all right, provided we do not think about it too much! Personally, I do not expect to enter heaven with drawn sword and there to fight against God's enemies! Now, can we proceed with a more valid spiritual perspective of Canaan? Assuredly, Canaan speaks of possessing our possessions. The spiritual inheritance already belongs not only to all Jewish people, but also to every Gentile who cares to cross over with Israel, for included in the laws Divinely bestowed upon Israel is full provision for the nonIsraelite. Yes, the inheritance is God's gift; it is our already. But the possession and enjoyment of that gift is relative to the extent of it we make our own. There's your spiritual Law of Relativity! And the fourth-dimensional diet? Why, the old corn of the land, of course. Stronger food than the manna. As entrance is made into the Promised Land of Faith and Belief in God's redemption through the Blood of the Lamb-Messiah of Israel, so, too, the Land has entered into us who believe and its fruits are sweet to the taste. Notice the dietary contrast and progress. The manna came down; the corn came up. A striking fourth-dimensional perspective is here for those with a taste for spiritual food. The manna was bread which descended from heaven in a wilderness; the corn was food that came up from the earth in the land of promise.
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My friends, the Messiah-Redeemer employs both manna and corn to illustrate Israel's inheritance in Himself and the great atonement He made. He declared: "I tell you for a positive fact, whosoever believes in Me will have Eternal Life....Your fathers at the manna in the wilderness and died. The bread that comes down from heaven is otherwise, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that has come down from heaven...." (Yochanan – John 6:47-51) In this way did the Messiah speak of His Incarnation. But He also referred to Himself as the corn. Here is His affirmation: "I tell you for a positive fact, unless the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies it will remain solitary; but if it dies it will yield much fruit." (Yochanan – John 12:24) In this way did Messiah speak of His death and resurrection. The Messiah Yeshua is God's Supreme Gift to Israel. May we Jewish people speedily possess our possessions! This may be strong diet for many, but it is healthful and life-giving fare.
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THE PROVIDENTIAL PRINCE MY DEAR FRIENDS, in crossing Jordan and entering the Promised Land, the children of Israel
were penetrating a domain with which they were not familiar. They probably had their ideas about it, but it would have been unwise and doubtless perilous to have carried with them any prejudices or preconceptions. Since the territory was strange to them the only wise course to adopt was to arrange and assess their facts and experiences as they encountered them. May I suggest we adopt the same wise course, because I propose to lead you into ground which will be quite strange and with which you may be unfamiliar. Although the children of Israel were setting foot upon Canaan's soil for the first time, it was not so with General Yeshua. Moses' successor had spied out the land previously; yet he, too, as soon as he had led Israel over Jordan, was confronted with an experience with which he was not familiar. Since the Scripture account is not unduly long, let me quote it to you from Joshua, chapter five: "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand; and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him: 'Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?' And he said: 'Nay, but I am Prince of the Host of the Eternal; I am now come.' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said unto him: 'What saith my lord unto his servant?' And the Prince of the Host of the Eternal said unto Joshua: 'Put off they shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.' And Joshua did so." (Joshua 5:13-15) Who is this strange Being Who issues a command to Joshua in terms almost identical with the command that Moses had received from the burning bush? (Exodus 3:5) Was it, perchance, the same Being? If Joshua's actions are any indication it would appear that he so identified this unusual warrior. Let us seek the identity of this Providential Prince. In many lands and ages, sterility in married females was regarded as a great reproach and a custom anciently obtained, and incidentally does still obtain, that a barren wife will raise up children to her husband by another woman. Thus it was with Sarah, Abraham's wife, who gave her dark Egyptian slave, Hagar , to Abraham with the desired result.
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However, Hagar's attitude to Sarah caused the former's banishment and the sixteenth chapter of Genesis contains the record of Hagar being found near a well and interviewed by a Supernal Being described as Messenger of Deity. This Being, in commanding Hagar to return to her mistress, then announces that He Himself will greatly multiply Hagar's posterity. He thus ascribes to Himself a realm of power and authority obviously within the prerogative of Deity. Now let me quote verses eleven, thirteen, and fourteen in the Hebrew. Rabbi D.A. DeSola declares that verse thirteen – and here I quote him – "it must be owned, is one of the most difficult and obscure." But I suggest that most of the difficulty – if not all of it – lies in trying to fit the Scripture into a preconceived theology; and much of the obscurity is due to failure to recognize and to pronounce the Ineffable Name, the Sacred Tetragrammaton, where Divine revelation and the interests of humanity's spiritual welfare demand that it be so recognized and uttered. To serve these greater interests, therefore, I shall be obliged respectfully to set aside a habit merely human, and pronounce the Ineffable Name as YaHaVeH. Here are the verses and I follow with a literal translation:
11 13 14 "And the Messenger of YaHaVeH said to her, Behold you are pregnant and shall bear a son and you shall call his name Yishmael, because YaHaVeH heard your affliction. And she (Hagar) called the Name of YaHaVeH that spoke to her, Thou are God visible unto me, because, she said: 'Have I even seen Him Who saw me?' Wherefore the well was called 'The well of the living sight.' (Genesis 16:11, 13, 14) Whatever may be our estimate of Hagar's Visitant, it is clear that she regards Him as Deity. She had seen God manifest before her in human form and speech.
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But there is even a greater depth of evidence in Hagar's words. It was an ancient belief that no human being could behold God and live. (cf. Exodus 33:20) Her words express amazement – "Do I here see after my seeing?" "In this very place where I saw God, do I still continue living, and thus continue seeing?" Hence the well near where this remarkable incident occurred is called "The well of the living sight," as indicative of the spot where a human being had seen God and lived after it. (cf. Isaiah 6 and Genesis 21:17, 18: Malach Elohim) Our father Abraham encountered the Messenger of YaHaVeH upon the occasion of the offering of Isaac and Who commended the patriarch in these arresting words: "... For now I know that thou art a God-fearing man, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me." (Genesis 22:11, 12) Those words "from Me" demonstrate that the Messenger of YaHaVeH – Malach Adonai – speaks as Deity. Our father Jacob likewise had an experience with a Supernal being in human form the account of which may be read in the thirty-second chapter of Genesis, and the outcome of which caused Jacob to declare – "... I have seen God face to face, and my life has been preserved." Jacob therefore named the place of this encounter Peniel, the Face of God. Later, when blessing his sons, Jacob makes reference to the Divine Source of his blessings as the God of his fathers, the God of his sustenance, and his Messenger-Redeemer. (Genesis 48:15, 16) This is now a sufficient background against which to view this fascinating theme as it relates to Moses and the burning bush and as it serves to interpret the nature and person of the Being with Whom Joshua was confronted just over Jordan. The third chapter of Exodus is the setting into which, like some sparkling precious stone, is embedded the jewel of revelation granted Moses: The Messenger of YaHaVeH in the flame of a fiery thorn-bush! Moses approaches to behold the phenomenon, upon which we read that "YaHaVeH saw that he (Moses) drew near to look, and Elohim called to him out of the thorn-bush." Thus the record refers to the Messenger of YaHaVeH, to YaHaVeH, and to Elohim, but apart from distinction in designation, we are left with the impression of a mysterious unity which,
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though undoubtedly unity, yet calls upon us to recognize some strange and baffling distinction. The Messenger of YaHaVeH is subtly distinguished from YaHaVeH yet is, beyond question, YaHaVeH. Indeed, this Messenger of YaHaVeH (in vv 6, 14-16) calls Himself the Eternal Being; assumes to Himself all the attributes of Deity; describes Himself as the God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and promises to redeem Israel from the hands of Pharaoh. The word Elohim is the mysterious plural noun for God used with a singular verb in the very opening words of Genesis – "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." If we allow the light from these Scripture revelations to fall upon our souls sensitized by the emulsion of honesty and sincerity, they will leave a spiritual photograph of Deity which will find no likeness in modern rabbinic Unitarian concepts; nor will any likeness be found to some tritheistic ideas. God is not three in the sense of there being three "Gods." God is not one in the sense of mathematical solitariness. God is not , solitary. God is , unity. Moses at least can recite the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) with intelligence, for he had stood shoeless on holy ground and had declared his fear to look upon God (v 6). The Sar Hatzava
, Prince of the Host, is mentioned in the Book of Daniel (8:11)
and, in his scholarly commentary, Rabbi Dr. Judah H. Slotski, M.A., Ph.D., does not hesitate to apply the term to "God Himself." Neither did Joshua just across Jordan. (Joshua 6:2) I have by no means exhausted this amazing subject, but I can at least leave you with my own personal convictions that the Wonderful Being, called variously the Messenger of YaHaVeH, the Messenger of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1), the Messenger-Redeemer, the Prince of the Host, Who stood before Joshua, was the Messianic Being Who, though Deity, became truly human two thousand years ago and by His death, burial, and resurrection, made full atonement for the sins of the world – Jew and Gentile. May the benediction I am about to utter possess for you a richer depth of meaning from henceforth.
24 25 26
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"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, And give thee peace. Shalom.
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THE DESTRUCTION OF JERICHO MY DEAR FRIENDS, it may come as a surprise to many to learn that originally I chose a
military career as my life's vocation, and I first stepped into uniform at the tender age of fourteen! My military studies were intensive and I was granted commissioned rank so young as age seventeen. World War I accelerated my ambitions and my opportunities and, indeed, I was still actively engaged in military pursuits when the God of Israel graciously granted me enlistment in the army of the King of Kings. I have given you this peep into my personal background for a very good reason. During my military career I had the privilege of qualification at a Military College where, among numerous other warlike subjects, I studied the art of military strategy. The element of surprise is a very important feature in martial tactics, and I recall the successful exploitation of this element by that great Australian Jewish military genius, General Sir John Monash, whose Australian Corps, on 8th August 1918, launched the great sixty-day counteroffensive which hastened the enemy's ultimate capitulation. The most surprising military plan of campaign, however, extant in human history is to be found, I believe, in the sixth chapter of the Book of Joshua. Moreover, it originated from the most unlooked-for source and possessed objectives of far greater moment than would be suggested by the local and immediate. It is these last two factors that account for the unusual character of the first. The source of the strategy is not to be traced to the mind of General Joshua, but to the mysterious Being Who confronted him just over Jordan. My last message was wholly devoted to a reverent inquiry into the nature and person of this Being Who is referred to variously as the Prince of the Host of YaHaVeH and also as YaHaVeH, the Ineffable Name. (E.g. Cf. Joshua 5:14; 6:2. Verse 6:1 is parenthetical and so agrees Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman.) The source of the strategy, then, is to be found in the counsel of Deity. The ultimate objectives were spiritual in character and coterminous with human destiny in extent so that their urgency and importance cannot be exaggerated. The strangeness of the strategy, then, is to be explained by the fact that it was saturated in symbolism. We must carry these determinative factors with us as we now accompany General Joshua in the attack and conquest of Jericho (Joshua 5:13 – 6:27).
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We are indebted to modern archaeology for material evidence – for those who feel they need it, of course – of the accuracy of the Holy Scriptures. The archaeological excavation of Jericho began in 1908, was resumed by Professor John Garstang in 1929, and its debris probed to a depth of some eighty feet penetrating through seventeen settlements. Jericho was a fortress city and part of an elaborate defence system maintained throughout the land. Situated on a commanding elevation the stronghold of Jericho was circular in shape, its formidable walls enclosing some seven and one-half acres. The walls were double, the inner wall was twelve feet thick and, as if to make assurance doubly sure, at an interval of some five yards there was a screen wall six feet thick. Moreover, these walls were carefully situated on the brink of the ground's natural steep slopes. Corner bastions, twenty feet in thickness, added to the problem of prospective attackers. The two walls were connected in parts by houses built on the top. The name Jericho ( from ) means "Place of Fragrance" but the moral condition of its Canaanite inhabitants was far from fragrant, even though its physical environment fully justified the appellation (Genesis 13:10). The Canaanites were Hamitic in origin and more nearly related to the Egyptians than to the Semitic Hebrews. They worshipped a lunar deity. So much for the first of these formidable fortresses that had to be subjugated by Joshua. Now for the remarkable plan of campaign. Instead of battering rams the Israelites' amazing armament was the Ark! The Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Eternal God of Israel, the first precisely described piece of furniture for the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. (Exodus 25) It was an oblong chest containing the two tablets of the Law and was also probably a reliquary for the pot of manna and Aaron's rod. It was the visible reminder of God's invisible Presence and Power, a Presence and Power entrusted to the Messianic Being Who had earlier appeared to Joshua and assured him of victory if obedient to the plan of campaign vouchsafed him. Not only the Jericho strategy, but the direction of the entire Tenach (Old Testament) economy I believe to have been conducted by Messiah. Now let us leave Joshua and his hosts and stand upon the walls of Jericho in an attempt to absorb something of the condition of the Canaanites as they first beheld Joshua's advance. Already the terror of the Eternal had seized them and the massive gates were fast shut (Joshua 6:1). What if the waters of Jordan had split asunder for Israel; the walls of Jericho were more solid than the waters of Jordan!
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Ah! Stand by! Here they come towards the fortress! Make sure the archers are ready with their hail of arrows! Take heed that the boiling oil is mobile to hurl upon the heads of the bearers of the battering rams! Now the advance guard of the armed men of Israel can be clearly seen (Joshua 6:9). It would appear that they only have one battering ram for there is a central group bearing some instrument with them, followed by an impressive rearguard. Yet how silent they are! But, hold! There is a strange sound, now growing increasingly loud. It comes from the small central group. They are blowing on large horns (Exodus 19:16, 19; 20:15, English tr. 20:18; Leviticus 23:24; 25:9) and apart from the tramp of feet no other sound can be heard. How weird; how unlike the many other attacks that had been made upon this fortress. Now this central horn-blowing group is clearly visible. They are priests, and are seven in number and instead of a mighty battering ram they bear a box of some kind. A box they esteem and value, and its gold can be seen glistening in the sunlight. What new weapon is this? They are beginning to encircle the fortress, the tramp of their feet can be heard even over the maddeningly loud sound of the horns. But have they no tongues? It is peculiar beyond anything experienced. See! The fortress is now encircled. The attack is imminent. Be ready! But what is this? Having encircled the city, this strange army, still in solemn procession, is returning to its camp! The notes of the horns fade out gradually. The hosts have gone. Not an offensive finger lifted. Can we now relax? I'm not so sure; the very strangeness of the proceeding leaves us tense and nerve-wracked. Six times on six successive days this weird spectacle was witnessed. Was it drama; or was it comedy? The answer came on the seventh day. At an earlier hour "about the dawning of the day," and in exactly the same strange sequence, came the hosts of Israel, but this time they encompassed the city seven times. Suddenly, upon the completion of that seventh day seven-fold encirclement, a people hitherto mute, at the command of their God-appointed leader, uttered a great shout, with a result as singular as the proceedings that preceded it. The wall at Jericho collapsed!
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That a miracle had occurred is obvious, and I do not propose to join the ranks of those who rush to rationalize, for I believe the reasons for the miracle are equally obvious. Professor Garstang himself declares: "The power that could dislodge hundreds of tons of masonry in the way described must have been superhuman." (John and J.B.E. Garstang, The Story of Jericho, London, 1940, p. 135) I have already spoken on the significance of seven and here we have an unmistakable spiritual key-signature. Seven horns, seven priests, seven days, seven times on the seventh day. Thirteen encirclements. Just a seven is the number of spiritual perfection so thirteen is the number of sin and rebellion. The thirteen encirclements of the sinful city and its capitulation before the Ark of the Eternal under unseen Messianic leadership accompanied by the blast of the jubilee-horns, ever the Scripture herald sounding the promise of God's kingdom on earth (cf. New Testament, I Corinthians 15:52; I Thessalonians 4:16: Revelation of Yeshua HaMashiach 20 and 21), was a symbolism too significant to escape the attention of the spiritually alert. One further great lesson. Joshua's command to his hosts was "Shout; for the Eternal hath given you the city." Without risk or adverse consequence and quite apart from their own humanly-devised plan and effort, God gave ... It is ever so. The ultimate victory over sin's citadel in the soul is entirely the planning and work of God Who bestows upon His people the free gift of salvation through the Divinely-appointed leadership and atonement of the Messianic Being, the King-Messiah-Redeemer of Israel.
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THE MAN OF WAR MY DEAR FRIENDS, let me quote you some lines from the Hebrew poet, Zalman Shneor (b.
1887): "Moloch comes riding, With uplifted sword, And all men acclaim him, Their chosen lord. So join in the shouting Like fools and slaves And let him thrust you Into your graves ("War Comes," LCP, 114) Truly, the sword-thrust and the grave are not prospects that please but they are abundantly more to be desired than the fate of those upon whom Moloch casts his grim and appalling shadow. By comparison, the sword is an instrument of mercy and the grave a refuge. Horror – stark, grisly, and frightful beyond endurance – is to be associated with the name of Moloch! Moloch! A name to make the flesh creep. Of all the hideous pagan deities Moloch was among the most ghastly. Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver has well said – "When God is dethroned, His throne does not remain empty for long. Some false god, some Wotan, Moloch, Mammon or Mars soon occupies it." (World Crisis, 1941, p.80) Primitive man had been Divinely vouchsafed an adequate revelation of the true and only God but sin, unquestionably to be regarded as running on from generation to generation among the nations of the earth, had dethroned God. So, inevitably, from the rank and slimy mire of human depravity and superstition, there emerged the foul and fearful Moloch, who preferred his food tender – and cooked! The immolation, the sacrifice, of human beings to propitiate the dark and sanguinary gods of heathenism was a revolting ritual common to many early nations; but sacrifice to Moloch was nauseatingly hideous. Moloch demanded the tenderest children roasted alive! Among most nations of antiquity, parental power was absolute, even to life and death; and woe to the child parentally devoted to Moloch! Its screams of anticipative terror would only be equalled by the pangs of realized agony as the flames of Moloch distributed their avid lickings over the tender flesh.
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This horrid crime of heathenism was rife and rampant among the nations of Canaan; and even though it is true that the children were themselves depraved and contaminated beyond remedy, yet the menace of Moloch which constantly overshadowed them was something which called for a merciful deliverance, even if that deliverance were by sword-thrust and grave! Moreover, such a deliverance would be far-reaching, in its merciful extent; for if any such children escaped Moloch they would, themselves, grow up into an ultimate parenthood pregnant with peril for their own progeny. Sword and grave would cheat the fiery Moloch of unborn generations and diminish, if not extinguish, the blood curdling and heart-rending cries of nightmare-ridden childhood. This terrible circumstance of Canaan must ever be the background against which we must survey the Divine command to Joshua to exterminate utterly the inhabitants of certain cities. The conquest of Canaan by the armies of Israel was no mere human warfare; let's get this idea out of our heads. It was a Divine warfare against the spiritual darkness, the moral depravity, and the physical and psychological bestiality and unutterable cruelty of heathenism. If true values are to be grasped, in the human action of Israel overcoming Canaan, we must discern the Divine action of God as a Warrior against sin. In Exodus chapter fifteen and verse three we read: "The Eternal is a Man of War." Let it be clearly understood that it was because of the INIQUITY of the inhabitants of Canaan – not because of the INTEGRITY of the Chosen People – that the "Man of War" visited the Promised Land. The Divine command to slay utterly men, women – yea, and even children – was in the final analysis an imperative of righteousness and mercy, even though the immediate prospect was not a pleasant one to contemplate. Dr. Moorehead is undoubtedly correct when he says: "It was terrible surgery this; but it was surgery and not murder – the excision of the cancer that the healthy part might remain." The revelation of God as a Warrior is one that pervades the entire range of our Holy Scriptures, both throughout the Tenach (Old Testament) and throughout our Jewish New Testament.
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The God of Love – because He is a God of Love – stands constantly with unsheathed sword against sin, mankind's greatest destroyer. God is a Destroyer; but a Destroyer of destruction, a Warrior against wickedness; a God of battles, but His battles, though battles, are salutary and remedial even though punitive. The Shepherd of Psalm 23 is the same Being mighty in battle of Psalm 24. He that "maketh me to lie down in green pastures" and "leadeth me beside the still waters" (Psalm 23) is the King of Glory, "strong and mighty, ... mighty in battle." (Psalm 24) He that "restoreth my soul" and "guideth me in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake" (Psalm 23) is the same Being Who will not hesitate to blaze those paths with the glittering blade that the way may be cleared for me to "ascend into the mountain of God with clean hands and a pure heart." (Psalm 24) The moral character of the campaign confronting Israel had been clearly emphasized in express statement: "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you: and the land is defiled: therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited out her inhabitants." (VayikraLeviticus – 18:24, 25) Luminous language this! The land is the wholesome stomach into which something loathsome and putrid has passed. Violent rejection by vomiting is the outcome. Better that the stomach should vomit that the whole body be poisoned unto death! The moral character of the campaign confronting Israel had also been clearly emphasized in the actual activity of the conquest of the very first city attacked; for of Jericho Joshua had declared: .... 17
"And the city shall be devoted, even it and all that is therein, to the Eternal." (Joshua 6:17a) Herem is an interesting word. It comes from a root meaning "to be mutilated" and it makes its first Biblical appearance in passive participial form at Leviticus 21:18 in reference to the Aaronic priesthood regarding who none "harum" English translation of "harum" is "maimed."
were to offer the bread of God.
The
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As a noun "herem"
first appears in Leviticus 27:21 and refers to a field "devoted" as
holy unto God for possession of the priests at the jubilee. Hence arose the primary concept of setting apart for sacred use, or being "devoted" to the Eternal and, by a still further expansion, the idea of being devoted to God for destruction gave rise to the Greek and Latin "anathema." Hence Jericho was "devoted" to God for destruction, and according to Leviticus 27:28, 29 (cf. Deuteronomy 13:16) no redemption was possible. All must be destroyed, "only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and iron" were preserved and "put into the treasury of the house of the Eternal." (Joshua 6:24; cf. Numbers 31:22, 23, 50-54) Israel was thus speedily instructed that the true and righteous motivation for the conquest of Canaan was not the devouring of plunder, but the "devoting" of paganism, in order to clear the way for the implanting of the kingdom of heaven and prepare the ground out of which did sprout (Isaiah 53:2) the Promised Messiah-Redeemer of Israel and of all mankind. May God bless these thoughts to your hearts today on this occasion, wherever you may be, that we may have better comprehension and understanding of the motivation behind the precious act of God in the conquest of Canaan under Joshua.
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DETERMINATIVE DOCTRINES MY DEAR FRIENDS, "A man on a boat began to bore a hole under his own seat. His fellow
passengers protested: 'Unfortunately, when the water enters, the whole boat sinks.'" This apt illustration of the whole being affected by the one is attributed to Simeon ben Yohai. (Lev. R., 4.6) May I call the doctrine he illustrates the Doctrine of Imposed Participation? Human experience is replete with apt illustrations drawn from historical incident.
So
frequently the impotent majority is involved adversely in the actions and outlook of the potent minority. Happily the reverse is also true, and many a majority has benefited from the actions and outlook of a God-fearing potent minority or even individual. The Doctrine of Imposed Participation is indeed a determinative doctrine and compels us all to realize that man does not live unto himself alone. There is another determinative doctrine closely related to the Doctrine of Imposed Participation. This second doctrine has been referred to as the Doctrine of Collective Responsibility. It is a doctrine so abundantly illustrated in human history that it scarcely needs corroboration here. One power-drunk man, clothed with a little brief authority, can so involve his whole nation as to plunge it into years of bloody war and impose upon it the bearing and sharing of the direst responsibilities. Again, happily, of course, the reverse is also true. The responsible action in power of a single godly individual can determine a beneficent collective responsibility blessed indeed to share. The principles of Imposed Participation and of Collective Responsibility are principles not only forced upon our recognition by history and experience but, it is interesting to observe, are determinative doctrines implemented by the Eternal God Himself in His dealings with humanity at large.
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Perhaps there is no clearer illustration of the Doctrine of Collective Responsibility than that found in the Biblical record in the Book of Joshua, a book we are currently studying together. Israel had been Divinely commissioned, you will remember, to conquer Canaan. This was in pursuit of the Divine gracious purpose to replace the darkness of heathenism by the light of Revealed Religion. Perhaps this is the place to observe that these conflicts in Canaan were no mere series of desultory battles. On the contrary, they were planned features in a carefully organized military campaign, the aim of which was to drive a wedge into the centre of the territory, and thus prevent any possible union between Israel's foes in the south and those in the north (Joshua 6-9). Thus separated, Israel first subdued the south (Joshua 10); and then turned his attention to the north (Joshua 11). In each of these three areas of operation, as would be imagined, there were critical battles to be fought. In the central wedge area were Jericho and Ai (Joshua 6-8); in the second manoeuvre, Gibeon and Beth-horon (Joshua 10) and in the final strategical stage were operations at the waters of Merom (Joshua 11). Now, as I was careful to point out in my last message, since Israel's mission was a Divine one, underlying the military strategy and, indeed, of more consequence than it, was the spiritual strategy. In the conquest of Jericho Israel had seen that plunder was not the purpose of the invasion. Israel had seen also the truth expressed later by the Divinely-inspired prophet, Zechariah, that it is not by the might of military power nor the strength of human effort, but by the Spirit of God (Zechariah 4:6) that victory comes, for Jericho had fallen to the presence of the Ark of the Covenant rather than to the power of the army of conquest. Moreover, Jericho had been "herem," , "devoted," to the Eternal for destruction, and Israel's implicit obedience to the undoubtedly remarkable and hence unexpected Divine instructions had consigned that fortress to the flames. Archaeological excavations have proved the historicity of the record and I cannot forbear mentioning that my own very hands have actually handled segments from the walls of Jericho and grains of fire-charred wheat taken from the excavated city. (cf. Joshua 6:24)
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About ten miles west of Jericho by direct measurement, but twice as far on foot, perched up upon a conical hill, was the town of Ai. During 1933 and 1934 this ancient town also yielded its secrets to the archaeologist Madame Judith Marquet-Krause. Although a smaller city than Jericho, numbering only 12,000 inhabitants (Joshua 8:25), it was strategically important inasmuch as it commanded the southward road to Jerusalem, the northward approach into Samaria, and, indeed, the destiny of its near neighbour city, Bethel. Flushed from the supernatural victory at Jericho which faith, obedience, and courage had given them, the Israelites under Joshua now turned to Ai. A preliminary reconnaissance satisfied Joshua that Ai was of less formidability than Jericho and so a smaller army of some, well, 3,000 men was launched into the assault. But, staggeringly, Israel suffered an ignominious defeat! To Joshua, wisely interpreting events in spiritual terms, this spelt abandonment by the God of Israel; and abandonment by the God of Israel spelt guilt! Prostrating himself in inquiry before God, Joshua hears the Divine pronouncement: "Israel has sinned ..." (Joshua 7:11a) Rigorous investigation uncovers the offense and the offender. One individual man was the cause of Israel's defeat and discomfiture. One individual man had placed in jeopardy, before the eyes of heathenism, the glory and honour of the Sacred Name of the God of the Universe. One individual man had rendered his potent nation impotent. That man was Achan. He had yielded to covetousness and secretly taken as plunder the forbidden thing, "the accursed thing." (Joshua 6:18) There is an ancient Rabbinic maxim which declares – "All Israel is surety for one another" (Sifra, 112a; to Lev. 26.37. Talmud:Shevuot, 39a) and, as Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman, B.A., Ph.D., correctly observes, and here I quote him: "Though only one man sinned, the trespass is ascribed to the whole people, in accordance with the doctrine of collective responsibility." We shall indeed be wise if we learn that God deals with man not only as individuals, but also collectively as families and as nations. The doctrines of Imposed Participation and Collective Responsibility are doctrines which have been greatly determinative throughout Israel's vivid history and perhaps never more so
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than when related to a climacteric event described, rather brutally as I think, in a book I recently read written by a Gentile. Here are his words "... Peter preached repentance to the Jews and acceptance of the Messiah of Whom they were the murderers." That this half-truth does indeed equate itself to the doctrines of Imposed Participation and Collective Responsibility, I do not deny. But that it is a half-truth, I certainly must affirm; for was it not also the Jews who also first repented and also first accepted the Messiah? Was not the very preacher quoted by this author, Peter, himself a Jew? As I said, these principles can observed working in two directions, not one; and if the central Jewish core of Messianic rejection – as represented by the corrupt Jewish hierarchy of the day – brought upon Israel collectively a Divine displeasure, can it not be said with equal confidence that the central Jewish core of Messianic acceptance – as represented by Peter and the thousands of believing Jews of the day – has brought and will yet bring upon Israel collectively the Divine pleasure? Was it not a believing Jew, Rabbi Saul of Tarsus, who declared by Divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God had not cast off His people Israel? And was it not the Messiah Himself Who prayed, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do"? The Achans in Israel will never block the Divine grace and redemptive purposes of God towards His people Israel. Ai will surely fall.