LESSON XV.

THE LOT OF JUDAH.

JOSHUA xiv. 6—14; xv. 14—19.

B.C. 1444.-Joshua, with the Ark, the priests, and the camp, still abode at Gilgal as their head-quarters. The two great battles had given the land to Israel, but it still remained for them to possess it, to take the towns and villages into their own hands, and to begin to sow corn, train vineyards, and live a settled life. Probably this was not a welcome change to men who had been used to rove freely with their tents, and who now seem to have levied contributions on the conquered country; besides, there was many a danger in the way. But a brave volunteer came forward to set the example.

Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the LORD said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.

Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt but I wholly followed the LORD my God.

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And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God. And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me and five years, even since the LORD spake this children of Israel wandered in the wilderness fourscore and five years old.

alive, as he said, these forty word unto Moses, while the and now, lo, I am this day

As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me : as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.

Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.

And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.

Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.

And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak,

And he went up thence to the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher.*

And Caleb said, He that smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.

And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.

And it came to pass, as she came unto him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wouldest thou?

Who answered, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether+ springs.

COMMENT.--The man who was most ready to carry out the will of God, and show how the land was to be possessed, was the oldest man in the camp except Joshua himself—namely, Caleb. When the time had come for some one to make a move, he came before Joshua and reminded him of the time, forty-five years before, when they two had, with the other ten spies, so long since dead, first seen the vale of Hebron, and brought home the huge grapes of Eshcol. Then, when they alone stood faithful and undaunted, Moses had sworn that the land they had trodden should be theirs, and Caleb now came to entreat the fulfilment of that promise. It was the sacred city of Hebron, the oak of Mamre, the favourite resting-place of Abraham, and the tomb of the patriarchs, that he asked for-a precious inheritance indeed; and moreover, brave old man, another recommendation was that it must be wrested from the Anakim-the giants, twice the ordinary height of men, and the great dread of more cowardly hearts. As for himself, he was as strong as when, forty-five years before, he had been sent forth on the expedition. Such had been God's blessing on faithfulness. No wonder Joshua blessed him and granted his brave request. And not only did Caleb conquer his own lot out of the hands of the giants, but his tribe was inspirited by his example, and settled themselves in the rough and hilly but fertile land that lay between Hebron and the Dead Sea. The coast of the Mediterranean was still occupied by the Philistines, who were not sentenced like the seven nations of Canaan ; but the fertile valleys and the terraced slopes trained with fruitful vines became the home The City of Books.

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of Judah, which was thus the first settled of the tribes to the west of Jordan, and in a place which, if not so rich and lovely as other portions, was the best for brave and industrious men. Moreover, to encourage the spirit of conquest, Caleb promised his daughter to the man who should take Kirjath-sepher, "the City of Books," or perhaps of the oracles. This brave deed was achieved by his own nephew, Othniel, one of the most valiant men of Judah. It seems that the portion of Othniel and his bride, Achsah, lay to the south, and was therefore hot and dry, and Achsah therefore came to her father with a petition for a better watered piece of land. So he gave her the upper and the lower springs, at Debir and at Hebron. He conquered not for gain, but to do God's will.

[So Caleb is the pattern of the Christian-brave to go forth conquering and to conquer in the strength of his Lord, casting out the might of evil without fear or shrinking. And Achsah, as she kneels and prays for the springs of water, reminds us that none who thirst shall ask in vain for the Water of Life, the grace of the Holy Spirit.]

It was also fit that the lion tribe of Judah, the tribe that had the birthright, should be the first to win the settlement in the land, and should obtain the one portion of ground that had belonged to Abraham and to Isaac, the oak of Mamre, and the cave of Machpelah.

A few years later Judah and Simeon united, fought a great battle with the Canaanites and Perizzites (Judges i.), and made prisoner the Jebusite king Adonibezek, or "Lord of Lightning.” His thumbs and toes were cut off, and he confessed that no less than seventy chiefs or kings grovelled for their food under his table in the same maimed state. He was treated as he had treated others. In those days the captive was either killed, enslaved, or maimed for his safe keeping. Nothing but Christianity has softened the lot of the prisoner of war. The lower part of his city was taken by Judah, and there he died; but the strength of the upper city of Jebus, or Jerusalem, was too great for them. To win Jerusalem was reserved for another great and holy typical hero-the Shepherd King.

LESSON XVI.

THE LOT OF JOSEPH.

B.C. 1444.-JOSH. xvi. 1—4; xvii. 13–18; xviii. 1 ; xxiv. 32.

And the lot of the children of Joseph fell from Jordan by Jericho, unto the water of Jericho on the east, to the wilderness that goeth up from Jericho throughout mount Beth-el,

And goeth out from Beth-el to Luz, and passeth along unto the borders of Archi to Ataroth,

And goeth down westward to the coast of Japhleti, unto the coast of Beth-horon the nether, and to Gezer: and the goings out thereof are at the sea.

So the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.

Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out.

And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua, saying, Why hast thou given me but one lot and one portion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch as the LORD hath blessed me hitherto?

And Joshua answered them, If thou be a great people, then get thee up to the wood country, and cut down for thyself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, if mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee.

And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Beth-shean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel.

And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only:

But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.

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And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.

And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamore father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

COMMENT.-Just as the lot of Judah was fixed partly by inheritance from Abraham, partly by Caleb's ap eal to the promise, so the lot of Joseph was marked out by the legacy of Jacob of his

field at Shechem, and by Joseph's own desire there to be buried. Probably Joshua, who was an Ephraimite himself, urged the settlement of his own kindred as Caleb had done that of Judah, though as ruler he forbore to ask any inheritance for himself. The mountain bull of Joseph, with the two horns of Ephraim and Manasseh, was to own the two long ranges of hill, of Ebal and Gerizim, where the Law was freshly written on the plastered precipice side, the hill called Mount Ephraim, bordering the Jordan and full of fine forests, and the grand open country to the north, so rich and fertile in corn, the choicest in all the land of Canaan, bordering the Jordan. Their border came down to Jericho; and with Ephraim settled to the south, and Manasseh to the north, their double inheritance was the widest and choicest that could be bestowed. Nevertheless they were not contented. They preferred dwelling in Mount Ephraim, leading the idle life of taking tribute from the Canaanites-namely, receiving a portion of their produce as their masters-to driving them out and working for themselves, and then they came to Joshua to complain that they had not enough land for such a great people.

To this Joshua answered, that all they had to do was to come down from Mount Ephraim, cut down the forest, and drive out the Perizzites and the giants. Of course they could. The same strength would be with them as had been with gallant old Caleb when he drove Arba the giant out of Hebron, and they had nothing to fear in making the broad vale of Jezreel their own. The iron chariots with their scythes need be nothing to them, for the Canaanites would come against them in vain. But, alas! the 78th Psalm, written long after, tells of their shame :—

The children of Ephraim, armed, and carrying bows,
Turned themselves back in the day of battle.

They never thoroughly purified their land of the old idolaters, and, by leaving the Canaanite fortresses unstormed, kept open a pathway from the fords of Jordan by which the enemy, many and, many a time, carried destruction into the Israelitish dwellings. It is very wonderful to see how the future courses of Judah and Ephraim, the chief tribes, and those belonging to the two faithful spies, were prepared by the conduct of these first conquerors.