The Ottawa free trader., 1888-10-06
JOSHUA'S CHARGE.
International Sunday-School Les
son for October z, 1888.
Tho Children of Israel Given New Lead
or Joshua, His Commission, and Code
Promises to Him-I'reparing to
Enter the Promised Land.


LESSON TEXT-Josh. l:l0.
GOLDEN TEXT-Stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth, and hav-
ing on the breastplate Of Righteousness
Eph. 6:l4
CENTRAL TRUTu-Trust in God, courage
and obedience, according TO His Word, are
the conditions Of a truly successful life.
TIME-B. C.. li5l. About the first OF
April
PLACE-The krdeliies rere encdmpsd on the
plains of Moab, in the valley of Jordan, near
its mouth, opposite Jericho, on the eastern
side of the river and between the river and
Mt. Pisgah.
The Book OF JosHUA-l. It's author:
Joshua himself, the book being completed by
some OF the elders that survived him. =
Date. Written not far from B. c. l427, the
year Of Joshua's death. 3. Time; The
events extended over twenty-five years.
THE LIFE OF JosHCA-l. His name: orig
inally Oshea, or Hoshea (help). Moses
changed it TO Jehoshua (the help or Sdludtton
Of JshOpdh). In Greek his name became
Jesus. 3. HIS dncestry he was Of the tribe OF
Ephraim, the eighteenth generation. His
fathers name was Nun, and his grand
father was Elishama, the head Of the tribe
B. His birth: He was born in Goshen in
Egypt, about B. &. 1884, so that he was
about cighty-threc or eighty-four years old
at this time. T. His history: he was proba-
bly, born a slave to Pharaoh. He was about
forty-three years old ut the time Of the Ex-
odus Moses made him a general Of the
army, and his prime minister or chief aid.
He died after the conquest at the age of one
hundred and ten. 5. His character: he was
distinguished % for courage; (2) for his
generalship-kcen observation and quick
movements; (3) for his faith in God; az for
his humility
CmcUMsTANCEs-Moses had brought tho
children of Israel to the borders Of the
promised land There he died on Mount
Pisgah, which rose behind the encampment,
about the last of February, las Is. c., aged
one hundred and twenty. For thirty days
the people mourned him. Then God called
Joshua TO 90 forward and possess the prom
ised land
HELPS OVER HARD PLACEs.-2. Go ouer
this Jorddn which lay before them. It's
name means descend r, from its rapid cur
rent. Usually it was about so to l5O feet
wide, and 3 to 10 feet deep. Now it was
swollen by the spring rains, and was LOO
feet wide and quite deep. 4. The wilderne's:
the desert of Arabia Petrea on the south;
Lebanon the high mountains, on the north,
10000 feet high the Euphrdtss: 1,1OO miles
long, on the east. The land of the Htttttes'
descendants of Heth, the second son OF
Canaan. At one time they were great ma
ton, extending over this region The great
sea: the Mediterranean, their western bor-
der This region was about l40 miles from
M, 70 uuH from aua n Iypgt
Only in the time of David and Solomon did
they possess it all. But they might have
held it all the time The promised land is
type Of heaven, and of holy, happy, restful
life here. Z. Al the ,dp: contained in the
five books Of Moses. s. This book: he was
CD to teach it; (2) to study IT; (3) to obey it;
~ the result would be prosperity.
CoMMENTs-As the people saw Moses go
ing up into the mountain to die, they must
have felt as though their best earthly friend
had left them. They could better have
spared one thousand Of their most valiant
soldiers than have parted with Moses. But
there was no help for it, and they had to
say farewell to their great leader. With
their leader gone, there was danger that
they would become discouraged, and say,
Let us go back again to the land whence
we came" For if they were 80 easily dis
couraged while Moses was alive, how much
more easily would they now lose hear
when he was gone The natural heart
would say, Moses is dead; now, there
fore, all Is lost" Men have become dis
couraged with far less reason than this,
and have given up all effort. But just as
this danger was before them God speaks TO
their leader, and enheartens him most
grandly. "Moses my servant is dead, now
therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou
and all this people, unto the land which do
give to them, even to the children Of Israel"
This word was calculated to cheer them
all, and to make them feel that
God can not forsake them, in spite of ap-
pearances.
After God had thus encouraged Joshua
and the people, and had renewed His
promises to them as fully as He had ever
made them to Moses, He gave some very
curious directions to Joshua, as to how he
should conduct himself in order to win that
land. These commands, if given to mod
ern army, would sound very strange; for
they were not at all commands as to how to
set the battle IN array against the enemy,
nor how many regiments he was to organ
ize, and how they were to be drilled. Not
word was said about any of these things.
Joshua was enjoined to be very courageous,
and this injunction was many times re-
peated; but there was not word said
about courage in battle. What, then,
was he to be courageous abouts
Read verse Z, and you will see the
answer to this question. "Be thou strong
and very courageous, that thou mayest OBJ
serve to do according to all the law which
Moses my servant commanded thee; turn
thou not from it to the right hand or to the
left, that thou mayest prosper whittier
soever thou goest." Surely there never
were stranger marching orders given to
any commander in the world. And to i'm
press 1t deeply upon the mind Of Joshua,
this command is repeated more than once.
Why did God thus instruct His servantl
Because He knew that the foundations OF
the prosperity of the nation lay, not in its
army or in its navy, but in its moral charac-
ter; and that If it obeyed the voice Of the
Lord its God, no people would be able to pre-
vailagainstit. This was the deep reason that
called forth the injunctions to Joshua. And
the future history Of Israel showed that
God was right in what He affirmed. For
never while they oboyed the voice Of the
Lord their God were the enemies Of Israel
able to overcome them. 1t was only when
they rebelled against Him that they suffered
defeat We shall see this illustrated re-
peatedly as we 90 on to study the story of