The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-24


said, Nag, but as captain marginal,
prince) of the host of the Lord am aaoao
come. Ard Joshua fell on his face to
the earth, and did acorship and said un-
to him. What saith mig lord unto has
servdntsg And the Captain of the
Lords host said unto Joshua, Put off
ting shoe from tsg foot: for the place
schereon thou stosdest is holy. What is
the probable purport of this obscure
statement? Who was this imam with
his sword drawn in his hand" who de-
cIared himself to be the captain or the
prince of the Lords host? Peloubet,
following the commentaries, says: "He
was doubtless the angel of Gods pres
ence, who had guided their wanderings
hitherto. the eternal Word of God, who
fifteen hundredyears later was manifest
cd in the flesh" This assumption, with
due Difference to Bro. Peloubet, is surely
not so self-evidept as to be beyond
doubt. An angel with a drawn sword
is surely debatable creature of the
imagination. And that Christ, before
his birth, could have been there present,
with drawn sword in his spiritual
hand,-the same hand which, when
made flesh, never, so far as we are told
even once held swords more than a
sane Christian ought to be asked to try
to believe.
It appears to us that the intent Of the
narrative is to suggest, rather than plain
ly declare, an entirely different state Of
facts. The mystical IMAM" was one in
authority in Jericho. He purposed to
betray his people and surrender the city
into the hands of it's assailants. He was
one of Rahab's party; he hoped to share
with her immunity from punishment
and future reward. He consulted with
Joshua as to the method by which the
wall could be undermined and leveled.
While Jos hua by keeping up the panic,
and attracting the attention Of the hor-
rified inhabitants to an ever threatening
external assault, he could have his min
ers at work under the wall; and at the
appointed time the wall could be cast
down.
Does this seem improbablef But his
tory is full of substantiated facts which
are as improbable. BY strategy scarcely
more creditable Ethan Allen gained &C.
cess to Fort Ticonderoga; he demanded
the surrender of the fortress with a
pistol pointed at the head of its COM
mander when the astounded and pros
trate commander was just wakened from
sleep. Ethan Allen was not. we recall.
disgraced for such strategy in American
eyes. The traitor to Jericho was by the
standard of barbaric war iustifable.
He was no more blameworthy in his
treason, to say the least, than Rahab,
and che was afterward adopted into the
family of Israel and raised through her
posterity even to royalty.
That this man" who assumed to be
the adviser and commander of Joshua
may have been worshipper of Jehovah,
within or without the wall, and that the
place where Joshua met him was &C.
tually consecrated ground, is not i'm
probable. That there should be in that
place remnant of Jehovah worship
from Jacobs day, or that there should
be such independent worship of the One
God in Jericho as Melchizedec had
maintained before Abraham in Jebus,
which was afterward Jerusalem, is not a
very wild conjecture.
What was agreed upon between the
mystic imam with the drawn sword" and
Joshua, as to the method of the siege
and assault, will appear in the continu-
alton of the story.
2. The OminOus Marching
About the Wall.-vs. 1916.
If it was designed, as it must have
been to intensity the panic of the be-
holding people in the city,-the panic
which the spies (2:24) had described in
the suggestive phrasing. All the iahabi
tants of the land do melt aacay before
us,-the plan agreed upon by Joshua
and his mysterious adviser was won
drously adapted to promote that object.
What could the guard on the wall
think of the procession which. for six
days, encircled the city? The seven
priests with their symbolic trumpets.
preceding the ark of the covenant. and
the great host preceding and following;
the whole six hundred thousand soldiers
silent when noise is peculiarly the &C.
compartment of every eastern army. the
blare of the seven symbolic trumpets
only breaking the silence.-what must
the mystified and Mortified people have
thought of this unique spectacle? The
very strangeness of this silent process
sion would unnerve the people. Its
seeming foolishpess is no argument
against its expediency.
Six days repetition of this procession
must have robbed the besieged people of
sleep, and distracted them to insanity.
3. The City Captured and
Destroyed We 1920.
The statement which Josephus makes,
that the seige began on the first day of
the passover and was continued through
the week of the feast, fits the circum-