26
THE KING’S BUSINESS The International Lesson
JANUARY 3, 1915.
LESSON I
G od ’ s P atience with I srael .
Judges 2:7-19. (Commit vs; 11, 13.) G olden T e x t : I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. —Hos. 14:4. EXPOSITION AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.
them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). We then have a faith that not only governs our own lives, but exercises an influence over the lives of others as well. v. 8. “And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died.” Joshua’s faith fulness did not keep him from coming at last to the end divinely appointed to man (Heb. 9:27). However faithful we are, we must bear it in mind that our work here on earth will not go on forever. If our Lord tarries, it will soon be written, of each one of us “he died.” So while it is still allotted to us to live we must work to the utmost of our ability, knowing that the night hurries on when no man can work (John 9:4). The Holy Spirit sums up Joshua’s-wonderful life in one expressive phrase “the servant of the LORD.” Happy the man upon whose tombstone it can be honestly engraved when he is dead “A servant of the LORD.” But high as was the praise the Holy Spirit bestowed upon Joshua by those describing him, a still higher honor is bestowed upon each true believer in Christ (John 15:15; 1 John 3:1). Joshua’s life was a long and honorable one, but he died, and was buried, and soon forgotten. It is startling how-soon the Church and the world passes on and forgets the greatest men, and it is humbling to our pride to find out how well and how easily God gets on without the greatest of us. The writer knew -the exact spot where Joshua was buried and describes it with minute care (v. 9). This is one of the many indications that the record comes from the hand of one living at the time, and intimately acquainted with all the facts. v. 10/ “And, also, all that generation were gathered unto their fathers.” How fast the world hurries on! The life of an entire generation is but a passing show, and soon it will be true of the present generation
v. 7. "And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua.” It is a significant indication of the strength of Joshua’s char acter, and the genuineness of his devotion to Jehovah, that he was able to keep a people so prone to backsliding as Israel faithful to Jehovah all his days. Time and again in the history of the Church God has raised up men whose dominating in fluence has kept the Church true during their lifetime and for a short time after their decease. The Church always needs a their demise. The Church always needs a Joshua, but after all, a devotion to God that depends upon the life and presence of some man, is not to be depended upon, and when he is gone the Church will revert to its old backsliding; for it has not been brought to know God Himself, and to be faithful to God because of its own devotion to Him, and not because of the devotion of some human leader (Ps. 62:5; Phil. 2:12). It is a sad commentary on the character of the Church as a whole to see how quickly when a godly minister dies the Church reverts to its old low level of compromise, defeat and error. “And all the days of the elders that out lived Joshua, and had seen all the great works of ithe LORD.” Joshua did not stand alone in his devotion to Jehovah. The eld ers who had been eye-witnesses of all the great works of Jehovah helped to keep the people in line after Joshua’s death, it was their own personal experience of the “great works of the LORD,”—that is, of the mani festation of God’s grace and wisdom and power, that made them loyal to Him. There is no other school so good to train one in the knowledge of God as the school of ex perience. It is when we actually see His works for ourselves that we truly believe that “He is, and that He is a rewarder of
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs