The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal. They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho.
Parallel Translations
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The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal. They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho.
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And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
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And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal; and they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
Cross-references (4)
Passages linked to Joshua 5:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 12:6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.
- Numbers 9:1-5 Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, “Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season. On the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.” Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover. They kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.
- Ezekiel 12:3 “Therefore, you son of man, prepare your stuff for moving, and move by day in their sight. You shall move from your place to another place in their sight. It may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house.
- Ezekiel 12:6-16 In their sight you shall bear it on your shoulder, and carry it out in the dark. You shall cover your face, so that you don’t see the land, for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel.” I did so as I was commanded. I brought out my stuff by day, as stuff for moving, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my hand. I brought it out in the dark, and bore it on my shoulder in their sight. In the morning, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, hasn’t the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’ “Say to them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel among whom they are.” ’ “Say, ‘I am your sign. As I have done, so will it be done to them. They will go into exile, into captivity. “ ‘The prince who is among them will bear on his shoulder in the dark, and will go out. They will dig through the wall to carry things out that way. He will cover his face, because he will not see the land with his eyes. I will also spread my net on him, and he will be taken in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, though he will die there. I will scatter toward every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his bands. I will draw out the sword after them. “ ‘They will know that I am Yahweh when I disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries. But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 10. And the children of Israel. kept the Passover,…
10. And the children of Israel. kept the Passover, etc Here it is stated that the Passover was celebrated on the regular day, although there are some who think that the words used imply that the practice was unusual. They hence infer that, like circumcision, it had been interrupted for a period of forty years, as it would have been absurd for persons uncircumcised to take part in a sacred feast. To confirm this view, they observe that we do not read of the Passover having been observed after the beginning of the second year. But it is not probable that that which God had lately ordered to be perpetual, (Exodus 12:42) was suddenly cast aside. For it had been said to them, It is a night to be observed by the children of Israel in all their generations. How inconsistent, then, would it have been had this practice, which was to be observed throughout all ages, become obsolete in the course of two years! And again, how heartless it would have been to bury the memory of a recent favor within so short a period!
But it is said that the want of circumcision must have kept back a large proportion, that the mystery might not be profaned; for at its institution it had been declared, No uncircumcised person shall eat of it. To this I have already answered, that it was an extraordinary privilege; as the children of Israel were freed from the law. For it is certain that they continued to use sacrifices, and to observe the other parts of legal worship, although this was unlawful, unless something of the form prescribed by the law had been remitted by divine authority. It is certain that unclean persons were prohibited from entering the court of the tabernacle, and yet the children of Israel, while uncircumcised, offered sacrifices there, thus doing what was equivalent to the slaying of the Passover. They were therefore permitted, by sufferance, to do that which it was not lawful to do according to the rule of the law.
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The mention made by Moses of the second celebration of the Passover (Numbers 9) is for a different purpose, namely, for the purpose of indirectly censuring the carelessness and sluggishness of the people, who would not have observed the sacred anniversary at the end of the first year if they had not been reminded of it. For although God had proclaimed that they should through all ages annually renew the memory of their deliverance, yet they had grown so oblivious before the end of the year, that they had become remiss in the discharge of the duty. It is not without cause they are urged by a new intimation, as they were not sufficiently attentive of their own accord. That passage, therefore, does not prove that the use of the Passover was afterwards interrupted; on the contrary, it may, with some probability, be inferred from it that it was annually observed; as the Lord, towards the end of the year, anticipates the observance, telling them to make careful provision for it in future, and never deviate from the command which had been given them.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jos 5:10 And the children of Israel encamped in…
Jos 5:10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
Ver. 10. And kept the Passover.] Which it seemeth they had not done for a long time before. See Num 9:1-2. So that they were without the use of those two standing sacraments during their abode in the wilderness; peradventure, saith one, {a} through a profane carelessness of the people, which God punished by suffering them to go on in their sin without admonishing, or reproving them for it.
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{a} Diodorus.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This was their third passover: the first was in…
This was their third passover: the first was in Egypt, Exo 12; the second at Mount Sinai, Num 9; the third here; for in their wilderness travels these and all other sacrifices were neglected, Amo 5:25.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We may well imagine that the people of Canaan…
We may well imagine that the people of Canaan were astonished, and that when they observed the motions of the enemy they could not but think them very strange. When soldiers take the field they are apt to think themselves excused from religious exercises (they have not time nor thought to attend to them), yet Joshua opens the campaign with one act of devotion after another. What was afterwards said to another Joshua might truly be said to this, Hear now, O Joshua! thou and thy fellows that sit before thee are men wondered at (Zac 3:8), and yet indeed he took the right method. that is likely to end well which begins with God. Here is,
I. A solemn passover kept, at the time appointed by the law, the fourteenth day of the first month, and in the same place where they were circumcised, v. 10. While they were wandering in the wilderness they were denied the benefit and comfort of this ordinance, as a further token of God's displeasure; but now, in answer to the prayer of Moses upon the passing of that sentence Psa 90:15, God comforted them again, after the time that he had afflicted them, and therefore now that joyful ordinance is revived again. Now that they had entered into Canaan it was very seasonable to remember those wondrous works of divine power and goodness by which they were brought out of Egypt. The finishing of mercies should bring to mind the beginning of them; and when it is perfect day we must not forget how welcome the morning-light was when we had long waited for it. The solemn passover followed immediately after the solemn circumcision; thus, when those that received the word were baptized, immediately we find them breaking bread, Act 2:41, Act 2:42. They dept this passover in the plains of Jericho, as it were in defiance of the Canaanites that were round about them and enraged against them, and yet could not give them any disturbance. Thus God gave them an early instance of the performance of that promise that when they went up to keep the feasts their land should be taken under the special protection of the divine Providence. Exo 34:24, Neither shall any man desire thy land. He now prepared a table before them in the presence of their enemies, Psa 23:5.
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II. Provision made for their camp of the corn of the land, and the ceasing of the manna thereupon, Jos 5:11, Jos 5:12. Manna was a wonderful mercy to them when they needed it. But it was the mark of a wilderness state; it was the food of children; and therefore, though it was angel's food, and not to be complained of a light bread, yet it would be more acceptable to them to eat of the corn of the land, and this they are now furnished with.
1. The country people, having retired for safety into Jericho, had left their barns and fields, and all that was in them, which served for the subsistence of this great army. And the supply came very seasonably, for, (1.) After the passover they were to keep the feast of unleavened bread, which they could not do according to the appointment when they had nothing but manna to live upon; and perhaps this was one reason why it was intermitted in the wilderness. But now they found old corn enough in the barns of the Canaanites to supply them plentifully for that occasion; thus the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just, and little did those who laid it up think whose all these things should be which they had provided. (2.) On the morrow after the passover-sabbath they were to wave the sheaf of first-fruits before the Lord, Lev 23:10, Lev 23:11. And this they were particularly ordered to do when they came into the land which God would vice them: and they were furnished for this with the fruit of the land that year (Jos 5:12), which was then growing and beginning to be ripe. Thus they were well provided for, both with old and new corn, as good householders. See Mat 13:52. And as soon as ever the fruits of this good land came to their hands they had an opportunity of honouring God with them, and employing them in his service according to his appointment. And thus, behold, all things were clean and comfortable to them. Calvin is of opinion that they had kept the passover every year in its season during their wandering in the wilderness, though it is not mentioned, and that God dispensed with their being uncircumcised, as he did, notwithstanding that, admit them to offer other sacrifices. but some gather from Amo 5:25 that after the sentence passed upon them there were no sacrifices offered till they came to Canaan, and consequently no passover was kept. And it is observable that after that sentence (Num. 14) the law which follows (Num. 15) concerning sacrifices begins thus: "When you shall have come into the land of your habitations" you shall do so and so.
2. Notice is taken of the ceasing of the manna as soon as ever they had eaten the old corn of the land, (1.) To show that it did not come by chance or common providence, as snow or hail does, but by the special designation of divine wisdom and goodness; for, as it came just when they needed it, so it continued as long as they had occasion for it and no longer. (2.) To teach us not to expect extraordinary supplies when supplies may be had in an ordinary way. If God had dealt with Israel according to their deserts, the manna would have ceased when they called it light bread; but as long as they needed it God continued it, though they despised it; and now that they needed it not God withdrew it, though perhaps some of them desired it. He is a wise Father, who knows the necessities of his children, and accommodates his gifts to them, not to their humours. The word and ordinances of God are spiritual manna, with which God nourishes his people in this wilderness, and, though often forfeited, yet they are continued while we are here; but when we come to the heavenly Canaan this manna will cease, for we shall no longer have need of it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal,.... Not…
And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal,.... Not after their circumcision, but before, and where they continued encamped during that, and until the passover had been kept by them; this was little more than a mile from Jericho; see Gill on Jos 4:19,
and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even; exactly as it was ordered to be observed, and was observed when first kept, Exo 12:6,
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in the plains of Jericho: a proper place both for their encampment, and the celebration of the passover, and where very likely they met with lambs enough for their purpose, which belonged to the inhabitants of Jericho; or however being now got into the good land, they needed not, and were under no temptation of sparing their own: historians agree, as Strabo (e), Josephus (f), and others, that Jericho was seated in a plain.
(e) Geograph. l. 16. p. 525. (f) De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The passover - Which was their third passover: the…
The passover - Which was their third passover: the first was in Egypt, Exod. xii, 11-24, the second at Mount Sinai, Num. ix, 1-5, the third here; for in their wilderness travels, these and all other sacrifices were neglected, Amos v, 25. While they were in the wilderness, they were denied the comfort of this ordinance, as a farther token of God's displeasure. But now God comforted them again, after the time that he had afflicted them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. Kept the passover on the fourteenth day…
Verse 10. Kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month] If the ceremony of circumcision was performed on the eleventh day of the month, as many think; and if the sore was at the worst on the thirteenth, and the passover was celebrated on the fourteenth, the people being then quite recovered; it must have been rather a miraculous than a natural healing. We have already seen from the account of Sir J. Chardin, that it required about three weeks to restore to soundness adults who had submitted to circumcision: if any thing like this took place in the case of the Israelites at Gilgal, they could not have celebrated the passover on the third or fourth day after their circumcision. The apparent impossibility of this led Mr. Harmer to suppose that they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, the preceding time having been employed in the business of the circumcision. See his Observations, vol. iv., p. 427, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jos 5:10. The children of Israel kept the passover…
Jos 5:10. The children of Israel kept the passover — Which was their third passover: the first was in Egypt, Exodus 12.; the second at mount Sinai, Numbers 9.; the third here; for in their wilderness travels, these and several other sacrifices were neglected, Amo 5:25. While they were in the wilderness, they were denied the comfort of this ordinance, as a further token of God’s displeasure. But now God comforted them again, after the time that he had afflicted them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Phase. This was the third. The first was celebrated…
Phase. This was the third. The first was celebrated in Egypt, Exodus xii. The second at Sinai, Numbers ix. (Menochius) --- Afterwards it was disused till the Israelites took possession of Chanaan, as it was chiefly designed for that country, Exodus xii. 25.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the…
kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even--The time fixed by the law (see on Exo 12:17; Lev 23:5; Num 28:16). Thus the national existence was commenced by a solemn act of religious dedication.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE THIRD PASSOVER AND CEASING OF THE MANNA, Jos_5:10-12.
THE THIRD PASSOVER AND CEASING OF THE MANNA, Jos_5:10-12.
10. And kept the passover — This institution was in memory of their deliverance from the plague which had destroyed the firstborn in Egypt, (Exodus 12,) and was the second feast which had been observed since leaving that land of bondage. The first was at Sinai, in the second year of their journey in the desert. Numbers 9. There was no observance of it in the desert subsequent to this, on account of the rejection of Israel from the covenant. See on Jos_5:6 and note introductory to Jos_5:2.
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On the fourteenth day of the month — This was the month Abib, the first month of the Hebrew year. After the captivity it was called Nisan. The fourteenth of this month corresponded with about the middle of our April.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10–12. Celebration of the Passover Cessation of the Manna
10–12. Celebration of the Passover Cessation of the Manna
10. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal] The camp became permanent, and probably in grateful memorial of the many associations connected with the place, the people made it for centuries the great gathering-place of the tribes (Jos_9:6; Jos_10:6; Jos_10:43). The following notices of its subsequent history are deserving of attention. (a) It was the site of the Tabernacle during the continuance of the wars and until its removal to Shiloh; (b) It was one of the three assize towns, where Samuel administered justice (1Sa_7:16); (c) It was here that Samuel and Saul held solemn assemblies, as also David on his return from exile (comp. 1Sa_10:8; 1Sa_11:14; 1Sa_15:12; 2Sa_19:15); (d) after the building of the Temple, it became more and more neglected, but was the site of a school of the prophets, who remained there till a late period (2Ki_2:5).
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and kept the passover] Their “reproach” having been “rolled away,” the people of God would renew the festive remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt.
on the fourteenth day] Comp. Exo_12:6; Exo_12:18; Deu_16:6. As the night of the first Passover was one of terror and judgment to Egypt, so now, while within view of the camp at Gilgal, Israel was keeping the first Passover on the soil of Palestine, “Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel, none went out, and none came in.” (Jos_6:1.)
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) The passover.—This is the third Passover in Israel’s…
(10) The passover.—This is the third Passover in Israel’s history. The first two were kept under Moses—(1) in Egypt, when the Lord delivered them; (2) the second at Sinai, when He had “brought them unto Himself.” (3) The third is on the other side Jordan under Joshua. Two belong to the Exodus, or going out; one to the Eisodus, or coming in. Compare Luk_22:16 : “I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”
Observe the connection between the Passover and circumcision. The law in Exo_12:48 is, “no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.” Hence, while they wandered in the wilderness, this uncircumcised generation could not keep the Passover.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And kept the passover. In reference to the question…
THE PASSOVER AND THE CESSATION OF THE MANNA.
And kept the passover. In reference to the question which has been discussed above, whether the passover was kept after the rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea, Keil notices, as a remarkable fact, that not only no mention of a passover as having been kept is found in the Pentateuch, after Num_9:1, but there is not even any instance given of the law of sacrifice having been observed in the plains of Jericho; see above Jos_4:13. "Vides ergo quia nemo immundus facit pascha, nemo incircumcisus sed quicumque mundus fuerit et circumcisus, sicut et apostolus interpretatur dicens etenim pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Itaque diem festum celebremus non in fermento veteri, sed in azymis sinceritatis et veritatis" (Origen, Horn. 5, on Joshua). "When soldiers take the field, they are apt to think themselves excused from religious exercises (they have not time nor thought to attend to them); yet Joshua opens the campaign with one act of devotion after another" (Matthew Henry).
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Vers. 10-12. The passover and the cessation of manna.
I THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT MUST BE ATTENDED WITH THE OBSERVANCE OF ITS LAWS. When the Christian desires to return and to serve God after a period of disobedience and rebellion, he must prepare himself, by repentance and mortification, to feed on the flesh of the slain Lamb of God in the sacrament which He has ordained. Thus he makes a memorial of the death of Christ, through which alone he has obtained pardon; he feeds on the flesh and blood of the Son of God; he applies to himself all the blessings which come from the Sacrifice of the Cross. And he moreover calls men to witness, by thus joining his brethren in the solemn celebration, of his intention to be henceforth an obedient servant of Christ. Thus he sets his seal to the vow of obedience which he has just made, he invokes the sympathy and assistance of his brethren in his recovery from the snare of Satan; he binds himself to them anew in his renewed participation with them in the new life of the Spirit.
II WHEN THE PROMISED LAND IS ENTERED, ALL EXTRAORDINARY DISPENSATIONS OF GOD"S PROVIDENCE CEASE. This is the case
(1) in the history of the Christian Church,
(2) in that of the individual.
1. In the history of the Church. Nothing is more remarkable than the way in which all the miraculous gifts of God, healing, prophecy, the working of miracles, ceased when Jesus Christ had ascended into heaven. Up to His coming the world had been under tutors and governors, and the Father needed continually to intervene with revelations and portents, and interferences with the ordinary course of nature. After His coming these were gradually withdrawn. The Church passed from the region of the extraordinary dispensations of God"s providence to the ordinary working of His laws. Before those laws were fully matured, there needed perpetual interferences to compensate for their imperfection. His whole counsel once made known in Christ, the laws of the spiritual, like those of the natural world move on in their regular course.
2. In the history of the individual. When man is wandering in the wilderness, an alien from the covenant of God, and out of His favour, he is net under the ordinary dispensations of God"s grace. He is kept alive, so far as he lives at all, by unexpected manifestations of His mercy. Smitings of conscience, restraints of circumstances, checks imposed in unexpected ways to the unrestrained indulgence of his passions, prevent him from dying a miserable death in a land where no bread or water is. But when he returns to the fold of God these extraordinary manifestations are vouchsafed no longer. There are the ordinary supplies of grace to be obtained in God"s Church the treasures of God"s Holy Word, the answers to daily public and private prayer, the uplifting of the heart which follows on the exercise of prayer and praise, the outpouring of Divine life which follows on the devout reception of Holy Communion. And all these have their blessed results in a steady growth in grace. The miraculous manna ceases. In its stead we eat of the old corn of the heavenly Canaan, in which we find ourselves placed by the loving-kindness of the Lord.
III THE PASSOVER MUST NOT BE EATEN BY THE UNCIRCUMCISED. Hence we learn that no one can spiritually feed on Christ who is harbouring unrepented sin. Such a one is not fit to come to the Christian Passover, the Sacrament of Holy Communion. He may "carnally and visibly press the sacrament with Iris teeth, yet is he in nowise partaker of Christ." He who would feed on "Christ our Passover," who "has been sacrificed for us," must do so with the unleavened bread of purity (eilikrineia ) and truth. And finally, none can sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb save he that hath on the wedding garment. Compare the rules for the passover in Exo_12:43-49; and Num_9:10-14.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover.
Jos_5:10-12
Encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover.
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Three successive days
In one of his sonnets, Matthew Arnold tells of an interview he had on a day of fierce August sunshine, in Bethnal Green, with a preacher whom he knew, and who looked ill and overworked. In answer to the inquiry as to how he fared, Bravely! said he; for I of late have been much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the Living Bread. There is a great difference between the strength which may be supplied from without, and that which is assimilated within. To illustrate the first. We tread the cathedral close and examine the mighty buttresses that steady the ancient walls. What though the high embowed roof presses on them with all its weight to make them bulge, they may not stir an inch from the perpendicular so long as those masses of stone, built up without, forbid. To illustrate the second. We must visit the forest glade, where giant oaks withstand the blasts of centuries, because they have incorporated into their hearts the properties of earth and air, becoming robust, and sturdy, and storm-defying. There are many ways in which the holy soul derives strength from without. It is buttressed by remonstrances and appeals, by providences and promises, by the fear of causing grief, and by the incitement of passionate devotion. But if these were all they would be in sufficient. We need to be strengthened from within, to have within ourselves the strong Son of God; to know that the Mightiest is within us, and working through us, so that we, even as He, can do all things. In this old record we may discover without effort the Living Bread under three aspects--the Passover; the corn of the land; the manna. Each of these consumed one of three successive days.
I. The passover How little we understand the way by which each part of our body takes the particular nourishment it requires from the food we eat. But we know that such is the case, and that bones, muscles, and tissues appropriate their sustenance from the common store. So though we may not be able to explain the philosophy of the process, we believe and are sure, that as we hold fellowship with Jesus in quiet hallowed moments, our weakness absorbs His strength, our impatience His long-suffering, our restlessness His calm, our ignorance His wisdom. He is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. His flesh is true meat because it makes us strong to endure and do. His blood is true drink, because it satisfies our thirst, and makes glad our heart. But let it ever be borne in mind that as no uncircumcised person was permitted to partake of the Passover, so none who are living in wilful sin can feed on the flesh and blood which were given for the life of the world. There must be a Gilgal before there can be a Passover in the deepest and fullest sense. This is why you have no zest in prayer, no appetite for your Bible, no enjoyment in the ordinances of the House of God. You have not yet put away all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, you have not yet submitted yourself to the sharp two-edged sword, you have not yet been delivered from the reproach of Egypt, you have not yet purged out the leaven of insincerity and falsehood.
II. The corn of the land. The Paschal Lamb is good, but the corn of the land includes the fruits, and honey, and bread-stuffs that grow on the soil of the Resurrection-life. The ascension of Christ may be considered in many aspects, but in each we seem to stand beneath His outstretched hands of benediction, as they did who saw Him parted from them, and taken up before their adoring gaze. Happy indeed are they who also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell. To do this is to eat of the corn and fruit of the land.
III. The manna. The corn began before the manna ceased. The one overlapped the other as the thatch of a hay-rick or the feathers of a bird. God does not wish that there should be those intervals of apparent desertion, and the failure of supplies of which so many complain. It is quite likely that He may have to withdraw the extraordinary and exceptional, as represented by the manna; but He will wait until we have become accustomed to the ordinary and regular supplies of His grace, as represented by the corn. In the blessings of our outward life, He does sometimes humble us, and suffer us to hunger. The brook Cherith dries before He sends us to Zare-phath. But as to the inward life, He gives without stint. The table is always prepared before us in the presence of our enemies--one form of soul-sustenance is within reach before another form fails; we must have learned to feed ourselves with strong meat before He drops the spoon with which He had been wont to nourish us with milk. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land.
Manna and corn
Various conjectures have been formed regarding the nature of the manna, which every morning whitened like hoar-frost the ground around the encampment of the Israelites in the wilderness. It was indeed a miraculous substance in the sense of its having been provided at the very time when, and in the very circumstances where, it was required. But we have no reason to believe that it was in itself a miraculous substance, a material previously unknown, created specially for the purpose and coming down straight from heaven. God economises the supernatural element in His working, and makes use of ordinary means as far as they will go. He who used the ordinary thorny growth of the desert as the medium of His transcendent revelation when He appeared in the burning bush, and converted the simple shepherds rod in the hand of Moses into a serpent, and made it the instrument of compassing the deliverance of Israel by signs and wonders, would in all likelihood employ on this occasion a substance indigenous to the desert, as the basis of the great miracle which He wrought for the supply of the daily bread of His people. Such a substance might well have been the white hard exudation that drops from the thorns of the tamarisk shrub, and frequently covers the ground to a considerable extent, which is used for food at the present day by the Arabs, and to which they give the name of manna. We cannot expect to trace an exact correspondence, for some of the qualities and conditions of the manna of Scripture were unmistakably supernatural. It is sufficient if the natural object could serve as a mere fulcrum for the miracle, But whatever might have been the nature and origin of the mysterious substance which God made use of, it is evident that the manna was intended to serve a wise and gracious purpose in the religious economy of the Israelites. He who said that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness all other things that we truly need will be given to us, furnished a remarkable illustration of the truth of the promise in the experience of the Israelites. There was no want to those who feared God and did His will; bread was given to them and their water was sure, even if the bread had to come down from heaven and the water had to be produced from the flinty rock by the smiting of the miraculous rod. But this supernatural life was not to last for ever. It was appropriate to the wilderness, Gods special dwelling-place, as it were, where there was nothing but God and nature; but it was not suitable to the promised land, where all the conditions of a natural human life existed, and which was the haunt of man as well as the scene of natures most beneficent operations. Accordingly we read that when the Israelites first tasted of the corn of Canaan at Gilgal, the manna which had been their food for so many years previously ceased at once. The natural, which is always, superseded the supernatural, which is only occasional. The miracle must give place to the common processes of life. The manna ceasing when the Israelites ate of the corn of Canaan teaches us the lesson that Gods help is given, not to supersede our self-help, but to enable us to help ourselves. No one can truly know what it is to find his sufficiency in God but he who puts forth all the strength which he himself possesses. It is exactly in proportion as we strive to do all, and strive in vain, that we can have an experimental consciousness of Gods almighty aid. And thus the believer feels that Gods strength is made perfect in his own weakness. The difference between manna and corn is most suggestive. Manna was a supernatural product provided directly by Divine power. It came to the Israelites in the wilderness without any toil or trouble of their own. No tiller of the ground had wrought for it in the sweat of his face, and therefore it was but little esteemed by the Israelites. They soon lost their relish for it; it became tasteless and insipid, and their souls loathed it in the end. But corn, on the other hand, implies and involves great and continuous labour. A sacrifice is made, a loss sustained in parting with the seed-corn. There is much sweat of the face in preparing the ground for its reception; faith is exercised in entrusting it to the earth; patience and hope in watching its growth and waiting for its ripening; and toil again is required in reaping, storing, and preparing the harvest for bread. And is there not the same wide difference in spiritual things between manna and corn--between what is given to us without any toil or trouble of our own, and what is wrought out for us and in us, as the result of our own toil and, it may be, our own sad experience? No doubt we should prefer manna to corn; we should like to get heavenly blessings straight out of Gods hands. But the rule of the Divine kingdom is no cross, no crown. In no other way would Gods spiritual or natural blessings do us good. Only in this Divine way does the procuring of them act as a heavenly discipline, counteracting the evil tendencies of our nature, enabling us to sympathise with the plans and hopes of God, and fitting us for the enjoyment of His everlasting rest. When the Israelites entered the Holy Land, God gave them at first the corn of their enemies, as He had given them the manna of the wilderness. That was necessary--just as it is necessary for the child to be supported at first by its mothers nourishment, and the young plant by the provision stored up in the seed. But this old corn would last only a little while; it would cease as the manna had ceased. When it was done the Israelites would have to sow and reap their fields in order to get a new supply; they would have to provide for themselves by the toil of their hands. And how significant of the new life which it nourished was the new corn in these circumstances! The Israelites looked forward from the wilderness to the promised land as the place of consummation and rest. But they found that their former discipline in the new circumstances was not ended, but only changed in its character; that amid golden cornfields and rich pastures and luxuriant vineyards they would have to practise in even higher degree the virtues which the wilderness-life called forth. And how symbolical was the new corn of the land--the bread for which they toiled in the sweat of their face--of this life of self-conquest and devotion which it sustained! It might seem that their life in the wilderness, directly supported by God and under His immediate care, was higher and more heavenly than their life in Canaan, sowing and reaping their fields, and providing for their wants by their own labour. But it was not so; for the wilderness-life fed by the manna of heaven was only an introduction to, and a preparation for, the higher life of Canaan fed by the corn of earth. And let us remember this solemn fact when we are tempted to think that life spent in directly religious acts in the sanctuary, at the communion-table, in the closet, a holier and more acceptable life to God than the life spent in the place of business and in our homes, in everyday duties and labours. The incident of the manna of the wilder ness giving place to the corn of Canaan is in entire harmony with all Gods dealings with man. The dispensation that was inaugurated by supernatural manifestations is carried on by common helps, and through the homely experiences of human life. The supernatural life in the visible presence of Jesus must merge into the natural life of faith and hope amid ordinary circumstances. God gives at appropriate times meat to eat which the world knoweth not of--hidden manna, living bread direct from heaven. And when the manna is withdrawn and we are supplied with corn- with human natures daily food--let us seek to profit by what the manna has done for us and taught us. We have received spiritual food that we may have grace and strength to carry on the common duties of life. We have tasted that the Lord is gracious on the Holy Mount that we may follow hard after Him along the beaten paths of life. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Not manna, but old corn
The manna ceased when the people had the old corn of the land. Now the question is--
I. Was the old corn of the land any less wonderful than the bread of the wilderness? If we think of the reproductive energy of nature we are amazed. There are always apples, pears, grapes, melons, cherries, gooseberries, currants; there is always wheat for man, and corn for animals. The year comes, and these things come. But more than recurrence, there is multiplication. One grain of wheat will produce from 20 to 100. This is as inexplicable a wonder as was the manna, and cannot be explained without the recognition of two facts--the Divine power, and the Divine wisdom. Life and growth are in the hands of the Lord. The common mercies of life are direct Divine gifts. But look at another fact--the whole material life of the nation, and of the world, depends upon the harvest. If bread be dear there is less to spend upon other things. The price paid for bread depends upon the abundance or deficiency of the harvest; and that fixes the amount of production which can safely be ventured upon; and that again, the wages that can be paid; and that again, the condition of every poor mans cottage, and of every rich mans mansion throughout the land, and throughout the world. Manna! An international aspect of the question is thus unfolded. The necessities of peoples, and the abrogation of distance, and their separations by steam, have led to a freer exchange of commodities. We have had three or four poor harvests, but bread has not risen as it must otherwise have done! Why? Distant supplies have been available: we are not now dependent only on our own harvest.
II. Consider the ceasing of the manna in connection with the development of the peoples life. The gathering of manna from the ground was a short and simple affair, requiring neither much skill nor wit. In the land miracles ceased, and means had to be employed. Gifts are not so helpful as labour. To earn a fortune is better than to inherit one.
III. The ceasing of the manna suggests the removal of things on which human happiness seems here wholly to depend.
IV. Canaan was a type of heaven, and the ceasing of the bread of the wilderness suggests the contrast between the condition of life here and there. We shall lose much we here deem essential, but it is far better. What will it be to be there? It is the harvest-life of earth and time and the redeemed Church. (W. H. Davison.)
Corn for manna
After receiving the title-deeds of an estate, the next step is to enter into possession. And one of the best evidences that this has been done, is to take the use of all that the inheritance contains. Thus the Israel of God acted. First they celebrate the solemn feast of the Passover, and then partake of the fruits of the land. In this connection two things are coupled together, the eating of the corn and the: cessation of the manna,
I. This sudden change would bring to mind Gods power. It is a well-known fact that our ears may get so accustomed to a sound as to be unconscious of it. In like manner men may get so accustomed to the wonders of Gods might as to be unmoved by them. But this sudden stoppage of the manna must have arrested them all. It would be as if the sun had risen in the west. How strikingly would it teach them that this was a gift of Almighty power! The manna came not a day sooner than it was needed, and it did not stay a day later. They beheld the manna no more: but they saw instead fields white unto the harvest, and the power of Jehovah matured the one as truly as it sent the other. God has been supplying our wants of mind, body, and estate during all the past years of our life; and it may be we have been forgetting that we owe all to His power; therefore, to rouse us to this consciousness, He cuts off these supplies. The shock is great. Astonishment fills our hearts. Sorrow lays hold on us; indeed, we may be tempted to despair. Is this seemly? Nay. If we are His there is never room for despair. We can never drift beyond His love and care. He who has provided for the past will provide for the future.
II. The cessation of the manna would also magnify his grace. Whatever their feelings and thoughts and deeds, Whatever their spiritual state during these years, His supply never varied, was never suspended for a single day. And surely in our earthly course we too have had experience of this goodness of God. Notwithstanding our forgetfulness, thanklessness, rebellion, He has never cast us off, He has never left us to ourselves. He who has thus dealt with us in the past, will continue to do so to the end.
III. This event would also exalt his liberality. There is a great change in the material supplied to Israel for its physical wants. But it is a change, not from better to worse, rather from good to better. For forty years they had been accustomed to food of the same flavour; now there is great diversity, a supply to suit every taste. During these past years the supply was measured, there was a fixed quantity for each; now the store is unlimited. As it was with Israel in regard to this bodily provision, so it is with the children of God in regard to that which is spiritual. They receive grace and more grace. They go from strength to strength. With ever-increasing capacity comes more and more abundant supply. And this law not only regulates the Christian experience on earth and in time, it will also hold in heaven and in eternity. Faith, hope, and love are grazes that abide for ever.
IV. This cessation of the manna would also serve to display Gods carefulness. God is very liberal, but with all His liberality there is no wastefulness. God always appraises His gifts at their true value, and would have us do the same. God will never be so lavish of His gifts as to allow them to be scorned as superfluous. When He gives them the abundance of Canaan He takes away the manna. When men become careless or indifferent concerning His heavenly gifts, we need never be surprised if He takes them away.
V. This cessation of the manna also exhibited Gods wisdom. The manna was suited to the state of the people in the wilderness, it was not so convenient an article of food in Canaan. Whether or not it was more nourishing, it did not demand the same punctuality and regularity in gathering, and therefore was more suitable as the supply of soldiers. Corn would keep for an indefinite time, manna would not; therefore for those whose time would be so fully occupied, and yet whose hours of rest and work would be so uncertain, the corn was better. Also to have continued the supply regularly or intermittently, even for those who were not fighting, would have bred indolent and luxurious habits. It is good for man to be busy. As it is with material things so it is with spiritual. As the manna was taken away, so often spiritual experiences vanish to make room for others. Anything which does not serve the purpose for which it was first given may well be taken away. Thus we find as we pass through time that though many gifts, good, seasonable, necessary, are taken away, there are always compensations which leave us no losers. (A. B. Mackay.)
Corn in place of manna
This subject leads me, first, to speak of special relief for special emergency; and, secondly, of the old corn of the Gospel for ordinary circumstances. If these Israelites crossing the wilderness had not received bread from the heavenly bakeries, there would, first, have been a long line of dead children half buried in the sand; then, there would have been a long line of dead women waiting for the jackals; then, there would have been a long line of dead men unburied, because there would have been no one to bury them. It would have been told in the history of the world that a great company of good people started out from Egypt for Canaan, and were never heard of, as thoroughly lost in the wilderness of sand as the City of Boston and the President were lost in the wilderness of waters. What use was it to them that there was plenty of corn in Canaan, or plenty of corn in Egypt? What they wanted was something to eat right there, when there was not so much as a grass-blade. In other words, an especial supply for an especial emergency. That is what some of you want. The ordinary comfort, the ordinary direction, the ordinary counsel, do not seem to meet your case. There are those who feel that they must have an omnipotent and immediate supply, and you shall have it. Is it pain and physical distress through which you must go? Does not Jesus know all about pain? He has a mixture of comfort, one drop of which shall cure the worst paroxysm. Is it approaching sorrow? Have you been calculating your capacity or incapacity to endure widowhood or childlessness or disbanded home, and cried, I cannot endure it? Oh, worried soul, you will wake up amidst all your troubles, and find round about you the sweet consolation of the Gospel as thickly strewed as was the manna round about the Israelitish encampment l Especial solace for especial distress. Or is it a trouble past, yet present? A silent nursery? A vacant chair opposite you at the table? Oh, try a little of this wilderness manna: I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee. Like as a father pitieth his children, &c. But after fourteen thousand six hundred consecutive days of falling manna--Sundays excepted the manna ceased. Some of them were glad of it. You know they had complained to their leader, and wondered that they had to eat manna instead of onions. Now the fare is changed. Those people in that wandering army under forty years of age had never seen a cornfield, and now, when they hear the leaves rustling and see the tassels waving, and the billows of green flowing over the plain as the wind touched them, it must have been a new and lively sensation. Corn! cried the old man, as he opened an ear. Corn! cried the children, as they counted the shining grains. Corn! shouted the vanguard of the host, as they burst open the granaries of the affrighted population, the granaries that had been left in the possession of the victorious Israelites. Then the fire was kindled, and the ears of corn were thrust into it, and, fresh and crisp and tender, were devoured of the hungry victors; and bread was prepared, and many things that can be made out of flour regaled appetites sharpened by the long march. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land. Blessed be God, we stand in just such a field to-day, the luxuriant grain coming above the girdle, the air full of the odours of the ripe old corn of the Gospel Canaan. Oh! you say, the fare is too plain. Then I remember you will soon get tired of a fanciful diet. We soon weary of the syrups and the custards and the whipped foam of fanciful religionists, and we cry, Give us plain bread made out of the old corn of the Gospel Canaan. This is the only food that can quell the souls hunger. Christ is the Bread of Life, and taking Him, you live and live for ever. But, you say, corn is of but little practical use unless it is threshed and ground and baked. I answer, this Gospel corn has gone through that process. When on Calvary all the hoofs of human scorn came down on the heart of Christ, and all the flails of Satanic fury beat Him long and fast, was not the corn threshed? When the mills of Gods indignation against sin caught Christ between the upper and nether rollers, was not the corn ground? Oh, yes! Christ is ready. His pardon all ready; His peace all ready; everything ready in Christ. Are you ready for Him? There is another characteristic about bread, and that is, you never get tired of it. There are people here seventy years of age who find it just as appropriate for their appetite as they did when, in boyhood, their mother cut a slice of it clear around the loaf. You have not got tired of bread, and that is a characteristic of the gospel. I notice, in regard to this article of food, you take it three times a day. It is on your table morning, noon, and night; and if it is forgotten, you say, Where is the bread? Just so certainly you need Jesus three times a day. Oh, do not start out without Him; do not dare to go out of the front door, without having first communed with Him I Before noon there may be perils that will destroy body, mind, and soul for ever. You cannot afford to do without Him. You will, during the day, be amidst sharp hoofs and swift wheels and dangerous scaffoldings threatening the body, and traps for the soul that have taken some who are more wily than you. When they launch a ship they break against the side of it a bottle of wine. That is a sort of superstition among sailors. But oh, on the launching of every day, that we might strike against it at least one earnest prayer for Divine protection! Then at the apex of the day, at the tiptop of the hours, equidistant from morning and night, look three ways. Look backward to the forenoon; look ahead to the afternoon; look up to that Saviour who presides over all. Bread at noon! When the evening hour comes, and your head is buzzing with the days engagements, and your whole nature is sore from the abrasion of rough life, and you see a great many duties you have neglected, then commune with Christ, asking His pardon, thanking Him for His love. That would be a queer evening repast at which there was no bread. This is the nutriment and life of the plain Gospel that I recommended you. But alas for the famine-struck! Enough corn, yet it seems you have no sickle to cut it, no mill to grind it, no fire to bake it, no appetite to eat it. Starving to death, when the plain is golden with a magnificent harvest! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The cessation of the manna
The special supply ceased with the special demand. They were not to look for extra ordinary relief when, with due diligence on their part, the ordinary would suffice. This fact suggests some important points with regard to the government of God.
1. There is no wastefulness in the Divine economy. God does not use extraordinary means where the ordinary will avail to accomplish His purposes. We can easily conceive how, out of a prodigality of power, the manna might have been continued long after the land of Canaan had been reached; it might have been argued that such a continuance would be very helpful to the Israelites, supplying them with a perpetual and visible reminder of Gods care for them. The answer is, that at any rate such a continuance was not granted; and further, that it is not our Fathers way to permit the repetition of an aid the absolute necessity for which has departed. He is glorious in giving, but there is with Him no expenditure which would only tend to produce in the long run a contempt for His daily, His common, His highest, gifts. This principle is of widest application. When the Lord Jesus came to establish His kingdom, He wrought miracles in abundance; but when in the course of time the Church became firmly established, and the truth of the gospel was made evident by its renewing power over men, then the miracles gradually ceased, and that not because the Church had gone backward, but because she had advanced, and her claims could rest upon proofs of a more spiritual order. This principle receives a yet further illustration in the fact that, whilst the Lord displays His power, He yet takes up the work directly only when man is compelled to lay it down. The manna of the desert did not supplant the sowing and reaping of Canaan. Christ will raise the little child to life, but her parents must find her something to eat. Christ will speak the word of power, only possible to Him, Lazarus, come forth, but human hands must roll away the stone, and unbind the grave-clothes from the man risen from the dead. An angel struck the fetters from the limbs of Peter, and brought him out of the prison, but after that the apostle must put forth his own efforts in order to escape the rage of his persecutors. In all these cases a Divine power might have accomplished the whole transaction; but it did not, and it does not now. God is pleased in His mercy to give to us certain powers, all His and yet ours, ours and yet His, and it is for us diligently to use them. In no impious sense we may say that God helps those who help themselves. We have seen that there is with God no useless expenditure. He does what is sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for the occasion. Now, if that be true, how vast in His eyes must be the needs of sinners, how heavy the task of saving them, that in order to its accomplishment it was needful that the Lord Jesus should come to suffer and die. The greatness of the Redeemer argues the magnitude of the work of redemption.
2. But further, whilst there is no waste in the Divine economy, yet there are special provisions for special occasions. There is here, if we can lay hold of it, a truth for us, full of real comfort, instinct with hope. What was the case of the Israelites? It was this. By no ingenuity, by no conceivable diligence upon their part, could the necessities of the vast host of men, women, and children have been supplied in the wilderness, and yet these very necessities arose because at the command of the Most High the journey from Egypt to Canaan had been undertaken. That is, it was the path of duty which was thus beset with difficulty. That being so, the Israelites could rightly look up to God to have their wants supplied. If the Lord Jesus bids a dozen men supply five thousand with bread, He Himself multiplies the tiny store until there is enough and to spare. If He commands a paralytic to take up his bed and walk, He gives the strength by which the command can be accomplished. The manna given to the Israelites in the sandy desert is a symbol of the most helpful truth, that God will not fail us in any difficulty that may come to us in doing His will. Our principal business is not to perplex ourselves with a thousand questions as to how we may accomplish this or that; our anxiety should gather about an earlier point and a simpler--namely, what is the path of duty--have we a right to enter upon such and such manifest duties and burdens? If the command is plain, let us obey. If God point the way, then, even if it visibly lead into perplexing responsibilities, expectant faith is the highest reason, and the soundest wisdom is hope in Him. Yes, without doubt, we have a right to look for special supplies for special needs.
3. There remains one more truth necessary for the completion of the subject before us, namely, that, on the whole, the ordinary conditions are the highest, the best, the most abiding. Which was really the best state, the wandering or the settlement, the desert or Canaan? And yet the first condition was that of manifold miracles, the water from the rock, the pillar of cloud and of fire, the daily manna; the latter, that in which the people were handed over to the ordinary conditions of life--they had to sow and till and reap, to buy and sell, even as we. The new convert has experiences which by and by yield to firmer principles; his love may deepen and become infinitely stronger in its influence upon him, and yet some of the peculiar brightness of the early days may have departed. There are times of great exaltation, of movement, of excitement, in the history of churches, but it has yet to be proved that these are indeed, all things considered, the best. I have much faith in quiet, plodding work in our churches, in the continuous use of such means of grace as God gives us, the common corn of the land. I have much faith too in the power of a quiet, steady Christian life, which is regularly fed with the Word of God and with prayer. The exaltation of the special above the ordinary has even served to keep men from accepting Jesus Christ, by obscuring the simplicity of that faith by which we are saved. (E. Medley.)
Divine giving and withholding
I. The faith-fulness of God to his friends.
II. God will not work miracles when he can meet his childrens needs by ordinary methods.
III. A temporal blessing is sometimes removed when it has wrought the desired spiritual end. (W. Harris.)
The old gospel or the new
In the pulpit of our times we have two different gospels, each calling itself Christian and each asserting its superior excellence. The one is satisfied to rest on the testimony of God, to stand by the old landmarks, to receive the traditions of Scripture as delivered by prophets and apostles, and with these to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. The other, or new gospel, sets out from the principle that Christianity, like any other system of human knowledge, is an evolution and development. There is no absolute standard of truth back in the past; the only standard is in man himself--the highly educated man of the present, the advanced and incomparable man of the future. Some things are all the better for being new. But religion is not one of them. In a world of doubt and uncertainty, it is no small proof of the truth and excellence of the gospel that it is so old, that it has been so long tried and so fully tested--tried and tested in the crucibles of experiment, in the very fires of persecution.
1. This is the gospel which first converted the world. It was not liberalism, but the doctrine of Christs atonement for sin and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which converted the three thousand sinners of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Will any one tell us how long it would have taken the rose-water gospel of our modern dilettante to have done this work?
2. It is this old gospel alone that has sustained the Christian martyrs of all ages and all lands under their trials and persecutions. Who cares for science, literature, or art, when racked with pain and passing through the valley and shadow of death? Talk to us of God, tell us of heaven, show us the way to God and heaven, is then the high and only demand.
3. It was the preaching of this old gospel that awakened the Church to new life and produced the great reformation of the sixteenth century. It was as life from the dead, and Pentecostal baptism from heaven, when God raised up the great reformers, and by His grace enabled them, with a restored Bible, to proclaim again from the pulpit and the press the grand distinguishing truths of the ancient faith.
4. This again is the only gospel that has ever founded and sustained missions to the heathen. The new gospel of moderatism, of sentiment and art, or philosophical superiority to all creeds as equally good or indifferent, has never aspired to the dignity of converting the world to Christ.
5. Other grounds might be added for adherence to the old gospel--as that it has produced all the greatest characters in history, has founded all the great institutions of Christendom, has caused all the great revivals of religion in the Church, has been adorned by all the greatest preachers and evangelists of all ages--in a word, has accomplished nine-tenths, if not ninety-nine hundredths, of all the good that has thus far been accomplished in the world. (Prof. Leroy J. Halsey.)
Miracle and the commonplace
It is a strange thing to read that when at last the long-promised land had been attained there should be a diminution of the splendour of that Divine assistance which had attended the chosen people throughout their wanderings in the wilderness. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the old corn of the land. That is to say, the experience of the Israelites was one which swept down from the experience of splendid and wonderful works into that of ordinary, commonplace operation of the laws of nature. It looks a backward step. We, too, envy those who lived in the days when manna fell from heaven and the water came forth from the smitten rock, when the Jordan was cleft in twain, and men, without striking a blow, felt that the Divine arm was outstretched on their behalf. Or our thoughts may go back to the life of Him who lived in the world, not merely the life of beauty, but the life of power, and we may envy those who were privileged to walk at His side and see His hand stretched forth to touch the leper and he was healed, to raise the dead to life again. The dawn of early life has passed away, and with it the splendour of the morning, and all that we may claim is to live in a light which has faded down to the mere light of common day. It is a step downwards, we say, from those days of wondrous power to the days in which we can trace but little of the Divine in our midst. My purpose is to ask you to notice that so far from this transition from the extraordinary to the ordinary being a step downwards in the education of human beings it is distinctly a step upwards: that the whole story; if we will read it aright, may show us that God is leading us to far clearer and more constant manifestations of Himself. Your life and mine is real and strong in proportion as it is filled with a clear conception of God, in proportion as it is full of spiritual vigour within, and in proportion as it is energetic towards those whom we meet abroad. In these three relationships life finds its perfection. It does not find its perfection in itself alone; it is related by origin with God. And therefore it cannot grow out in fruition and in perfection of beauty at all except in certain conscious relationship to Him. It cannot ripen in the mere consciousness of God, because we are moral beings and we must ripen within ourselves; neither can we ripen within ourselves without relationship to our fellow-men, for God has put us in the midst of those men where the very order of things is a social order; and we grow not merely by the law of our own inward development, but we grow also by the law of contact and association with our brother men. And if you will look at this story which tells us of the transition from the marvellous to the commonplace, I think you will see that whether you regard life from any one of these three points you are asked to take a step forward and to move higher.
1. First, then, the relation we bear to God. The thought which underlies our regret when we say that we wish we had lived in the days of more marked interposition of God is this--that somehow or another wherever there is a marvellous or miraculous manifestation of God there is an opportunity of knowing Him which is denied to us. If you will reflect you will see that on the contrary the demand that underlies our thought is a demand which is destructive of our conception and consciousness of God sooner or later. What are we saying? We are saying in effect this: we want to be back in the old days of miracle, and we want the Divine made known to us through His marvels. What is that but saying; O Lord, Thou hast made the world, and Thou hast made the world according to order, and laws govern that world. Break Thy laws that we may know Thee! But surely that is to demand almost an impossibility! It is an admission that we have but little conception of the Divine working at all. You and I can see immediately what would be the result. That which happens constantly ceases to be extraordinary from the nature of the case, and there would be no more reason for believing in God because of such frequent manifestations of a startling character, for they would no longer be of the very character which we plead is their essential power. But you say, We do not want Him to do this; we do not want Him to show Himself thus by for ever breaking up His laws, and being for ever doing the thing which we now deem extraordinary, but we do ask Him to break the silence and let us see some startling manifestation of His presence. And then that means to say that we should only realise Him in proportion as He came and stood beside us veiled in these splendours. What, then, would be our inheritance in God? We should have an occasional God, not a permanent one. If we have any vivid conception of Him, He must be a permanent and a perpetual God to our lives and our souls. What you and I want is not a God of occasional work, but the God of a perpetual working in our midst. Therefore, surely we are enlarging our thoughts of God when we say, God is not only in the startling things, but He is in the commonplace things, of life; God is not only in the cleft rock, He is also in the quiet hill and in the soft meadow; He is not only in the cloven sea or the Jordan struck asunder, but He is in the little burn that babbles at our feet. Surely that gives us a much larger and nobler idea of the Divine; that brings us into closer relationship with Him. It enlarges our conceptions; we feel that we live not in a world which now and then is privileged to behold God as ruler, marching in stately procession through His universe, but rather as the Father of His children who dwells with them at all times. He is about our path and our bed; His tender mercies never fail to the sons of men, but are over all His works.
2. But life is not merely made up thus of the conceptions which we have of God, but it is made up of our own personal growth. The object which God has, if I may speak with all reverence, in putting us into this little world for the three score years and ten is not to secure our happiness nor to startle us into a kind of hysterical perception of His presence, but to educate us as His children. And therefore, when we ask that God should make Himself manifest by these miracles and wonders, we are really making a false conception of our own powers and capabilities in relation to God. For by what faculty do you perceive God? For everything that we look at is apprehended by one faculty or other that we possess. Do I expect to apprehend Him by the physical eye? Do I imagine that I shall apprehend Him by intellectual effort? Surely those are only conceptions which belong to past ideas, crude notions of God. I cannot perceive God by the physical eye. God is a spirit! I cannot perceive God by my intellectual powers, because the world, by wisdom, knew not God, and if He be God at all to me He is the Incomprehensible One. Then, of course, the miracle and the wonder are outside the case, for the marvellous can only speak on the plane of things physical or appeal to the power of the mind, the intellectual power within us. Our Lord was constantly teaching that. In His parable of Dives and Lazarus He uses the very principle. Here the man in his torment imagines that a wonder will convince his brethren. Send Lazarus! Let the marvel appear! And the only answer is, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead--in other words, if they have not the moral capacity to follow the teachings of Moses and the prophets, if they have no moral affinity and sympathy with the prophets teaching, no wonder will give them that capacity. You cannot create a capacity by a wonder outside a man. You cannot make a blind man see red because he cannot see pink; you cannot, by intensifying a force outside, give him a faculty which is lacking in himself. The way in which you can understand God is by the exercise of your moral faculties. Jesus Christ was the greatest moral teacher that ever lived, and what is Jesus Christs emphatic statement concerning this? He says there are two faculties by which God can be apprehended, one is single-mindedness, the other purity of heart. For so, He said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That was His idea, and John, the beloved disciple who laid his head upon the bosom of the Christ, uttered the same principle when he said that the only way by which God could be apprehended was by the exercise of a loving disposition. A loving disposition is indispensable. You cannot perceive Him without it, and you can understand why. The reason is written down on the very surface. How can you understand him whose nature is loving if you be not loving also? How can you understand him whose nature is simple-minded if you too are not simple-minded? The faculty by which you apprehend God, then, is not the intellectual, not the physical, but the moral; and hence how will a miracle affect your moral faculties? How can it appeal to your moral powers? So that when you have asked that you should have a miracle to show you God, the answer of the thought and the answer of the principle is the same, you cannot so apprehend God unless you previously possess the moral faculty to enable you to grasp Him. And if you will reflect upon it, this is only another way of saying what is true of everything in the world, that the one condition by which you can understand anything or anybody is that you shall be in some degree a sharer of their nature. That is true! Let us picture to ourselves the tourist who hurries across the Atlantic, and hurries through the towns of Europe in order to see or to do the Continent. Place him down with his erratic mind untrained before the greatest masterpieces of art; plant him in the chapel at Florence; let him stand face to face with Michael Angelos creations of Night and Morning. His first impression will be, These are greatly over-praised; why, the very anatomy is faulty; I cannot see why people should praise these things. But now for a moment imagine that there drops upon that mans soul as he stands there some little portion of Michael Angelos nature. What a transformation takes place within his soul in his power of perception at that moment! Then he says something new; then these greatly over-praised figures begin to have a message for him; they seem to speak into his life now because Michael Angelo is in his soul, and he can read what Michael Angelo meant. I put it to you in your homes; measure your acquaintances, tabulate them in your own mind, and see what the result is. Only where there is that sort of affinity you can really enter into the capacity of knowing one another in the true friendly sense; and what is the secret of it all? Your power of knowing and entering into the lives of these people depends upon your sharing in some degree their nature. It is the same surely with God. We talk of knowing God. How blind and foolish we are! Knowing God, the measureless, pure God, the bright and eternal God, the God whose mercy is over all His works. How can we know Him if we be not righteous? How can we understand Him if we be not holy? How can we enter into His love if no love dwells within our soul? It is the moral faculty, it is the possession of these moral qualities which are power, Hence, when the message comes to you, Go forward! rest no longer upon the miracle! Rest now upon the ordinary manifestations! it is as if it said--and the message came to the Israelites as it comes to you and me--You are no longer in a state of babyhood, dependent upon these things outside your moral nature. You must give moral co-operation--that is the meaning of the message. You must give moral co-operation now in your own education, for only by that moral co-operation can there be a pure apprehension of the Divine and the real entering into communion with Him. Thus, then, it is a step upwards, is it not? a step upwards in the moral education of men. But there is a third aspect of life.
3. Your life and mine is a life of association with others, and so long as men were in the state in which they were surrounded by the marvellous, the manna fell just where they could gather it without any exertion, but the corn needed to be sown, and the corn needed to be gathered in the spot where it grew, and therefore the children of Israel were now in the position of being made co-operators in the work of God. And so it is for you and me to understand that the advantage of its coming in that way is that it draws us into partnership with the work, and we are promoted to a stage higher when we are sent into the fields to gather, and when we are made so far co-agents with God that in the great work of the distribution of His food amongst men we take our share. (Bp. Boyd Carpenter.)
Old corn
The old corn eaten by the Israelites was to them a verification of the Divine promise. Abraham was a pilgrim in Canaan, but he could mentally claim the whole land for his descendants. When Lot left him for the rich plain of the Jordan, the Lord said to him (Gen_13:14-16). This was a great promise for the patriarch; also for his son and grandson, to whom it was in substance repeated. But what about those Israelites in Egypt whose hands and faces were smeared with the clay of the brickyards? There were probably times when they thought the promise was for gotten. But the promise was not forgotten, and every grain of the old corn eaten by the Israelites was a proof of Gods fidelity to His word. We are reminded by corn, whether old or new, that God is an active power in the world. We may talk about germination and the fructifying influences of dew, rain, and sunshine; but behind all secondary causes there is the great First Cause. In Tibet there is a sacred tree which is said to bear on its leaves hymns, litanies, and pictures of Buddha. On grains of corn, if we look aright, we shall see psalms in praise of Gods truthfulness and pictures of Gods goodness. He whose finger has yearly given a vitalising touch to the seed in the ground, and shown His beneficence in a long succession of harvests has not failed, and will not fail, in either His threatenings or His promises. The corn eaten by the Israelites was old, and therefore good corn, If it had been badly harvested it would have sprouted, and when parched or made into cakes would have lacked the right flavour. It was in prime condition, and so was a treat to the Israelites after their long diet of manna. In the Bible we have what may be spoken of as old corn. The truths which God has given for the nourishment of our souls are not of recent date, but bear the impress of primitive years. We are not to despise those truths because they are old; if they are old, they are a glory for modern times. Whenever the Church has risen to new life, it has been because of a return to biblical beliefs and biblical methods of activity. When, however, the Church has become little more than a gorgeously decorated petrifaction, it has been revived by the old corn of simple doctrine. Novelties in theology may be attractive, but they cannot do for us what is done by doctrines which are ancient without being antiquated, and venerable without being enfeebled by years. Much as men have grown in science and literature, they have not so grown religiously as to be independent of the atonement. We need the old truths, and we can no more do without them for our souls than we can do without bread made of sound corn for our bodies. (J. Marrat.)
The Divine law of economy
A law of economy, we might almost say parsimony, prevails, side by side with the exercise of unbounded liberality. Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to feed the multitude, but He will not let one fragment be lost that remains after the feast. A similar law guides the economy of prayer. We have no right to ask that mercies may come to us through extraordinary channels when it is in our power to get them by ordinary means. If it is in our power to procure bread by our labour, we dare not ask it to be sent direct. We are only too prone to make prayer at the eleventh hour an excuse for want of diligence or want of courage in what bears on the prosperity of the spiritual life. It may be that of His great generosity God sometimes blesses us, even though we have made a very inadequate use Of the ordinary means. But on that we have no right to presume. We are fond of short and easy methods where the natural method would be long and laborious. But here certainly we find the working of natural law in the spiritual world. We cannot look for Gods blessing without diligent use of Gods appointed means. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
The loss of one kind of advantage is compensated by the advent of another
In childhood and early youth we depend for our growth in knowledge on the instructions of our teachers. What puzzles us we refer to them, and they guide us through the difficulty. If they are wise teachers they will not tell us everything, but they will put us on the right method to find out. Still they are there as a court of appeal, so to speak, and we have always the satisfaction of a last resort. But the time comes when we bid farewell to teachers. Happily it is the time when the judgment becomes self-reliant, independent, penetrating. We are thrown mainly upon our own resources. The manna ceases, and we eat the fruit of the land. So in family life. The affection that binds parents and children, brothers and sisters, to one another in the family is both beautiful and delightful; and it were no wonder if, on the part of some, there were the desire that their intercourse should suffer no rude break, but go on unchanged for an indefinite time. But it is seldom Gods will that family life shall remain unbroken. Often the interruption comes in the rudest and most terrible form--by the death of the head of the house. It is often a painful and distressing change. But at least it wakens up all who can do anything; it rescues them from the temptation of a slumbering, aimless life, and often draws out useful gifts that turn their lives into a real blessing. And there are other compensations: As old attachments arc snapped, new are gradually formed. And even in old age a law of compensation often comes in: children and childrens children bring new interests and pleasures, and the green hues of youth modify the grey of age. Then there is the happy experience by which the advent of spiritual blessings compensates the loss of temporal. Such instances are not uncommon as that which the Rev. Charles Simeon gives, in speaking of some blind men from Edinburgh whom nearly a century ago he found at work in a country house in Scotland: One of the blind men, on being interrogated with respect to his knowledge of spiritual things, answered, I never saw till I was blind; nor did I ever know contentment while I had my eyesight, as I do now that I have lost it; I can truly affirm, though few know how to credit me, that I would on no account change my present situation and circumstances with any that I ever enjoyed before I was blind. He had enjoyed eyesight till twenty-five, and had been blind now about three years. Lastly, of all exchanges in room of old provisions the most striking is that which our Lord thus set forth (Joh_16:7). Very precious had been the manna that ceased when Jesus left. But more nourishing is the new corn with which the Spirit feeds us. Let us prize it greatly so long as we are in the flesh. We shall know the good of it when we enter on the next stage of our being. Then, in the fullest sense, the manna will cease, and we shall eat the corn of the land. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
God considerate
How gracious is the gentle, thoughtful kindness of God, who lets us see the new before He quite takes away the old, accustoming us to walk before He removes the chair on which we had leant so long, careful that we should be able to swim before He removes the cork. Do not fret if the rhapsodies, and outbursts, and exuberant manifestations of earlier days have ceased; it is better to live by the ordinary laws of human life than by the abnormal and miraculous. And after all there is as much Divine power in the production of a fig and pomegranate, of oil-olive and honey, of barley and wheat, as in the descending manna; as much in the transformation of the moisture of earth and air into the ruddy grape as in the miracle of Cana; as much in the maintenance of the soul in holiness and righteousness all its days as in the communication of unspeakable visions and words that may not be uttered. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Jos_5:10. Kept the passover] This was the third passover…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Jos_5:10. Kept the passover] This was the third passover feast; the first was kept in Egypt, the second at Sinai (Num_9:5). The feast of the covenant could not be observed while the covenant itself was broken.
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_5:10-12
THE FIRST PASSOVER IN THE PROMISED LAND
Several events of deep interest are recorded in these three verses; probably there were others which happened about the same period, of scarcely less significance, of which no mention is made. Somewhere about this time the pillar of cloud must have disappeared. It seems natural to suppose that, having accompanied the people all through the wilderness, it remained with them during the passage of the Jordan; perhaps it departed from them here in Gilgal. Hero, also, the tabernacle would be for the first time set up in the land. Here the ark would be deposited in its place; the altar of burnt offering, for the morning and evening sacrifice, would probably be erected; and the fire which “came out from before the Lord,” and which was never to be suffered to go out, would consume its first victims in Canaan, offered as the morning and evening sacrifices. The first of a long series of observances, to be perpetuated through many years, were, it is likely, even now beginning to be celebrated. Conspicuous above all these was the keeping of the third paschal festival mentioned in these verses.
I. The time at which this passover took place.
1. It was immediately after the renewal of the covenant. During what Jehovah called His “breach of promise” (Num_14:34), it was deemed unallowable to perform the rite of the covenant, and not less so to keep the feast of the covenant. Both circumcision and the passover seem to have been discontinued on account of the sin at Kadesh-barnea. God will have no service from us which is untrue, unreal, and insincere. Acts of worship are nothing in themselves; the heart must go with the act. The soul tied to an untrue and dead service might cry with the apostle, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” A service which had ceased to have any meaning, and which represented an untruth, must needs be corrupting in its influence; man should not have it, and God would not. With what care should we, who live in the greater light of these latter days, celebrate the rites and services of the New Covenant! Surely a meaningless baptism, which represents things which have no existence in fact; or a Lord’s Supper, which commemorates the putting away of sin, observed by any who have never sought forgiveness; or worship offered outwardly, when the heart is still in rebellion, must be offensive to God.
2. The passover was celebrated after a long interval of cessation. Thirty-eight years had fled since the Israelites rejoiced together at Sinai in their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. This must needs be a time of gladness. It must have been like the joy of the people, after a similar interval of cessation, at the passovers of Hezekiah and Josiah (cf. 2Ch_30:21; 2Ch_30:23; 2Ch_30:26; 2Ch_35:18). They who have been long kept from the service of the house of the Lord may well cry, “How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!”
3. This passover was celebrated when the exodus was complete. The people were not only out of Egypt, but in Canaan. In the first passover they celebrated the beginning of the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham; the second found them far advanced through the wilderness; this was eaten when they were really in the land. The feast of “Christ our Passover” will be ever fresh and precious, and the fulfilment of His promised deliverance of us will be ever seen advancing, as we continually bring our new experiences to aid us in expounding the meaning of the service. The feast may be ever the same; he will find in it no monotony, who eats and drinks in the light of past journeyings, past trials and mercies and victories, new camping grounds, fresh spiritual scenery and surroundings, and who marks that each commemoration finds him one stage nearer being “for ever with the Lord.”
4. This passover was celebrated preparatory to fresh conflicts. Our feastings here are only to make way for our successful fightings. The Saviour Himself went from the baptism to the wilderness, and from the passover, which He had so desired, to Gethsemane and Calvary. “It is not meet that the servant should be above his Lord.”
II. The place where this passover was celebrated. It was “in the plains of Jericho;” in the very front and presence of their foes. God can make us a feast anywhere; He can fill us with contentment and gladness even in our direst necessities. He fed Elijah by the brook during a famine, and refreshed him under the juniper tree when despairing in the wilderness. He gave Daniel peace even in the presence of the lions. He enabled Peter to sleep when in prison, and bound fast with chains, though he might soon be led out to a death like that already suffered by James. He helped Paul to say, when chained to a Prætorian guard as a prisoner of the monster Nero, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” He who bade Israel eat the passover on the plains before Jericho, has been shewing, through all the history of His Church, that He can make a feast for His people, irrespective of their surroundings (cf. succeeding outline on Jos_5:10).
III. The events by which this passover was followed.
1. The corn of the land became henceforth their food. God had fulfilled His promise, and led them into “a good land.” The well-stored granaries of the Canaanites, who had fled into Jericho, and the roasted ears from the cornfields of Gilgal, enabled the Israelites to find a sufficiency of pleasant food.
2. When they had eaten of the corn of the land, the manna ceased. The cessation of the manna just then would serve to assure them afresh that it had been always given miraculously. They would also see the necessity of at once going on to conquer the country, now that they were dependent on their own efforts for their temporal supplies. God works no miracles where natural supplies are sufficient. We must not expect Divine help to furnish what is within the reach of our own powers.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_5:10.—THE FEAST OF THE BATTLE FIELD.
God has literally anticipated here, in the plains of Jericho, the song which David sang some four centuries later—“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” What the Israelites at Jericho, and David afterwards thus realized, is still and ever true in the history of the Church of Christ.
I. There is the satisfaction which God provides in the presence of enemies who SURROUND US.
1. Take the case of the scorner. Scorn is loftier to-day than it used to be. A recent writer in the North American Review, speaking of frauds in New York, said, “The cunning civilization of the nineteenth century is but a hypocritical mask spread over the more honest brutality of the twelfth.” Perhaps that is not far from the truth. Formerly people who wished to commit robbery became highwaymen, and used for their instruments fleet horses and deadly weapons; now they study stock exchanges, banking methods, and practise all kinds of handwriting. Similarly the religious scorner has changed his weapons, and altered his bearing. Men no longer hear or use the coarse invective of the past generation of atheists and deists; the seat of the scorner has been removed to the halls of learning and science, and, excepting in occasional instances, the language of the scorner is that of a scholar, and his manners are the manners of a gentleman. And this makes scorn so much the harder for some to endure. Many young men who would be able to laugh at the ribald vulgarities of fifty or a hundred years ago, are concerned to find the atheism of to-day guilty of only decent manners, and to hear it speaking with the reservations of a well-bred courtesy. Perhaps it is only the young and the undecided on whom even this polished scorn makes any considerable impression. Those who have sat at the Lord’s table, and have feasted indeed on the provisions of His love, little care whether the antipathies of infidelity are written down in coarse epigrams, or penned in the politer periods of a better bred animosity. The evidence of the truth of the Gospel is so sufficient, and its pleasant food is so sweet, that the enemies are often almost forgotten, saving in the wish that they could sit at the table too. What would it matter to the hungry labourer, in the presence of good food, in what language or spirit an author might write against genuine bread and healthy meat? classical or rude, he would still feast. So it is with those who really rejoice in the Lord. The character of the Saviour is so strong and lofty and beautiful, that probably no one ever yet felt the beginning of shame because of Him. His doctrines are so lofty, their influences so pure, and the hopes which spring from them so exalted, that the people may still feast joyously, even when fronted by their foes. His name is indeed a strong tower, into which His children may run, and be, not only safe, but glad.
2. Take the case of the patronising enemies. There are men who profess sincerely to pity Christians. Those who keep festival at the table of Christ care not even to reject such pity; it is not worth the trouble, so they simply sit and feast. They have a gospel eighteen centuries old, and never more suitable to the world than now; a Master whose life and words never raised a blush, and “a hope that maketh not ashamed.”
3. Take the case of the seemingly triumphant enemy. There are times when, to the superficial observer, the world seems to have the best of the battle. “The wicked flourish,” and the righteous are “an afflicted and poor people.” It is forgotten that they “trust in the name of the Lord,” and how much of prosperity and satisfaction are contained in that. Paul and Silas in prison; Paul before Felix and Agrippa; Paul at Rome.
4. Take the case of the worldly enemy. There are many foes who are encamped on what Bunyan has called the “Enchanted Ground.” The fascinations of the world. Too many, alas, fall here; but for the man who would really resist there are not only weapons, there are better provisions and richer songs:—
“I need not go abroad for joys;
I have a feast at home.”
So in the presence of all His people’s surrounding foes the Lord enables them to keep the feast.
II. The satisfaction which God provides in the presence of enemies which may be said to be UPON US. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” These touch his very flesh; they come both upon himself and those of his family. Pain and disease and death are the lot of all. What kind of feast does the Lord provide in the front of foes like these?
1. There is Divine forewarning to set over against suddenness and surprise. Christ has “told us before it come to pass,” “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” Sorrows come unannounced by any lips of men, and they often come in rapid succession. Like the vultures, in the song of Hiawatha, which follow one another
“From the invisible ether,
First a speck, and then a vulture,
Till the air is dark with pinions.
So disasters come not singly;
But as if they watched and waited,
Scanning one another’s motions.
When the first descends, the others
Follow, follow, gathering flockwise
Round their victim, sick and wounded,
First a shadow, then a sorrow,
Till the air is dark with anguish.”
[Longfellow.]
Thus sufferings came successively to Job; he was able to say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Thus, too, Paul writes of having “sorrow upon sorrow;” he does but “reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” The Lord has so prepared the minds of His people for suffering, that they can meet it, even when it comes thus heavily, without counting that “some strange thing has happened” unto them.
2. There is Divine sympathy to set over against seeming severity. The love of God, and the sympathy of Him who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” have been made too manifest to allow of any place for doubt.
3. There are Divine promises to set over against human fears. Every one is “Yea and Amen,” and the number and variety are so great, that no man ever stood where he had to feel there was no promise of God for him.
4. There is the Divine example to set over against the worst sorrows possible. Stand where we may, and “consider Him who endured” for us, He will always be found in front.
5. There are the rod and staff of the Divine Presence to set over against death. Even before the Saviour came to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage, faith could look up and say, “I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” Christian history continually shews that when face to face with the “last enemy,” the people whom the Lord leads are wont to hold festival.
III. The satisfaction which God provides in the presence of enemies WITHIN US. Our sins are the worst foes of all; but, even here, Christ bids us keep the feast.
1. There is an army of sins in the rear. Can we be forgiven? The Lord provides “patterns for them who should hereafter believe.” David; Peter; the penitent thief; the sinful woman who loved much; Saul of Tarsus, who says, “Sinners, of whom I am chief.” Even Judas is wooed by the love of Christ, and seems to go “to his own place” only because he can find no place for repentance.
2. There is an army of temptations in front, and the best of men feel that they carry terribly correspondent weaknesses within. The habits of half a lifetime are not easily forgotten; the tenacious vitality of the nature, which is always having to be crucified to make it die, cannot but be felt and feared. Even here Divine provision is bountiful and sufficient. Those who testify to His power to save from sin are “a cloud of witnesses,” and He Himself says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
Christ our Passover is given:—
I. In view of sin’s bondage and burden. He came to give liberty to the captive.
II. In view of the sinner’s gladness and purification. “Therefore let us keep the feast;” yet “not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness.”
III. In view of sin’s judgment and penalty. The warnings which precede the sinner’s overthrow, and the power and grace in which God delivers those who harden not their hearts, tell at once of the love which would “have all men to be saved,” and of the holiness which “will by no means clear the guilty.”
“The first passover on the soil of Canaan:
(1) A feast of thankful remembrance;
(2) a feast of blessed hope. The bread of the land, although not manna, yet also bread from heaven.” [Lange.]
“The passover would assure them that He who had been with them in the exodus would sustain and protect them now. The circumcision would remind them of God’s promise, the passover would remind them of His power to deliver them, and the two together would lead them to encourage themselves in the Lord their God.” [Dr. Wm. Taylor.]
“
1. In whatever circumstances we are placed, religion should be our first concern. If ever there were circumstances which would seem to justify the postponement of religious duties, one would think they were those of Joshua on this occasion.
2. In whatever circumstances we are placed, we should put the most implicit confidence in God. These religious services were in an enemy’s land.” [Bush.]
Jos_5:12.
“God is everything to His people. In the wilderness they had no pathway; but He led them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. They were in danger; but He was their defence. They had no water; but He gave them streams in the desert. They had no provision; but He rained down manna around their tents. So what Nature refused, Providence furnished; and what could not be derived from the ground came from the clouds.… At length the manna ceased, and wisely too. What was necessary before, became needless now; and what want would have endeared, abundance would have despised. This teaches us not to look for extraordinary supplies when relief is to be had in an ordinary way. He who sustained Israel is as almighty as ever, but we must plough, and sow, and gather into barns. He who fed Elijah by ravens, commands us to labour, working with our hand the thing that is good. If a man neglects the means of subsistence, he is not trusting Providence, but tempting it, and is likely to be reminded by something more than Scripture, that if any man will not work, neither shall he eat. Even in miraculous achievements, what human agency could do, was not done supernaturally. When Peter was in prison, the angel of the Lord opened the door, and broke off his fetters, for this Peter could not have done; but he did not take him up in his arms and carry him out, but said unto him, ‘Bind on thy sandals, and follow me.’ Miracles were never needlessly employed.… The manna was typical. ‘I am,’ said Jesus, ‘that bread of life.’ As the manna came down from heaven, and preserved the Israelites from famine, ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ And the Saviour surpasses the emblem. The manna was for the body: He saves the soul. The manna could not preserve from death always: but they who partake of Him live for ever. The manna was confined to one people: He gave His flesh for the life of the world. He therefore is the true bread.
“Shall this Bread cease? Far from it. You shall live by Him, as well as with Him, for ever. But many things now necessary will then be done away. Conjecture, opinion, reasoning, will give place to knowledge.… We are now glad when they say unto us, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord;’ but says John, ‘I saw no temple therein; but the glory of God and of the Lamb was the light thereof.’ When that which is perfect is come, that which is in part will be done away. The fare of the wilderness will be superseded by the produce of Canaan.” [Jay.]
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Passover Celebrated
The Passover Celebrated
v. 10. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, having once more been accepted into the full covenant relation with Jehovah, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
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v. 11. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, on the fifteenth of Nisan, Lev 23:5-6, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day, roasted harvest ears or kernels of grain roasted at the fire, for it was not lawful to eat of the new crop until after the offering of the first sheaves on the sixteenth of Nisan, Lev 23:10-11.
v. 12. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land, that is, on the sixteenth of Abib, or Nisan, neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. The people had now arrived in Canaan and no longer needed the bread of the wilderness. It should be noted here once more: "The feeding of the Israelites with manna remains a miracle of God which has, indeed, in nature, a faint analog, but can never be explained on natural principles. " (Keil. )
v. 13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, while the children of Israel were in camp at Gilgal, Joshua, apparently, being engaged in deep meditation and prayer to Jehovah, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with His sword drawn in His hand, taken from the scabbard and ready for slaughter. That was the Prince of the host of angels, the great Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the Covenant, of one essence with the Lord Himself, who had accompanied Israel from Egypt and from Sinai. And Joshua went unto Him and said unto Him, Art Thou for us or for our adversaries? It was a question natural in the circumstances and appropriate for the general of the forces of Israel.
v. 14. And He said, Nay, He belonged neither to the one nor to the other, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I now come, Prince of the innumerable angelic armies. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, in the attitude of abject submission and entreaty, and did worship, recognizing this Prince as a higher being, though not yet sure of His identity, and said unto Him, What saith my Lord unto His servant?
v. 15. And the Captain of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, as Moses did in the presence of the burning bush, Exo 3:5; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. This undoubtedly reminded Joshua of the experience of Moses, and proved to him that this Prince of the heavenly host was He who had manifested Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Joshua did so. It is then that we may expect manifestations of Christ’s divine grace and mercy, when we use the means of grace instituted by Him and are found in the way of our duty. Then it is also that He encamps round about us with the host of His angels and wages war for His Church against the world and the devil.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 the fourteenth day of the month
the fourteenth day of the month
This is near the end of March on Western calendars. AT: "the fourteenth day of the first month" (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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translationWords
Israel
Gilgal
Passover
day
Jericho
unleavened bread
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:10 The Passover lamb was slain on the evening…
5:10 The Passover lamb was slain on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month. Just as the Passover in Egypt marked the exodus from slavery, the celebration of this Passover in Canaan marked the attainment of the goal God had been leading the Israelites toward. This Passover also anticipated God’s promised rest for his people in their new land. • This was apparently the first Passover Israel had celebrated since they had been encamped at Sinai (Num 9:1-5). For the younger Israelites, it was their first Passover ever; for the older ones, their first since childhood. Celebrating the Passover after such a long lapse, particularly on the eve of the campaign to take the Promised Land, heightened both the joy and the solemnity of the occasion.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.