Bible Commentaries

The Distribution of the Land

Joshua 15:18-19). To whom did she pray? To her father. Have we not a Father to whom we can pray for springs of water? Yes, we have such a Father, and from him we can have the upper springs and the nether springs. The river of God is full of water. It cannot be drained off. It sets a-going all the fountains of creation, and is more at the end than at the beginning—the very fulness of God; a contradiction in words, but a grand reality in experience. The sun lights every lamp, and not a beam the less is his infinite glory. We therefore may have a special portion, a little all our own; yea, a double portion of the Spirit may be ours. Do not let us be content with the general blessing of the Church. That, indeed, is an infinite comfort. But that general blessing is a pledge of particular donations on the part of the Father of lights. Here we can pray without covetousness; here we can be ambitious without selfishness; here we can have great desires, and be enlarged in our generosity by their very operation in the heart. Let each say to the Father, Give me a field; give me a faculty; give me some dear, sweet consciousness of thy nearness and lovingness—something that nobody else can have just as I have it; whisper one word to me that no one in all the universe but myself can hear, and that whisper shall be to me an inspiration, a comfort, a security, a pledge; not that others may not enjoy the same in their own way, but I want something mine own. To that prayer who can measure the reply, if spoken in faith and love and noble unselfishness?

Now another voice is heard. Joshua was not going the right way about the work, in the estimation of some people:—

"And the children of Joseph spake unto Joshua 17:14).

"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" ( Joshua 17:15).

Joshua 17:17-18).

We come now to another set of circumstances. It appears that when all was done up to this point, a good deal still remained to be accomplished. We read of this in chapter Joshua 18:2-7 :—

"And there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance" ( Joshua 18:2).

And has Joshua nothing in all this—the great man himself, so quiet, so gentle? Caleb asked for his portion right boldly, but he asked—as a heroic man should ask—for difficulties. At eighty-five he wanted to prove that he was as young as he was at forty. Joshua might have taken that opportunity of saying, Caleb, I was with you in that matter of the espial of the land; if you want your portion now, I may as well have mine at the same time. Nothing of the kind. Joshua waited until the very last. So we read:—

"When they had made an end of dividing the land for inheritance by their coasts, the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun among them: according to the word of the Lord they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-serah in mount Ephraim: and he built the city, and dwelt therein" ( Joshua 19:49-50).

A very tender word is found in regard to some of the tribes. "Gad, and Reuben, and half the tribe of Joshua 15:19

This was the petition of Achsah, the daughter of Caleb.—The father had given his daughter a portion already in the form of a south land, and now she asks him for something more, namely, "springs of water."—The emphasis of this text would seem to be on the word "also," if we accommodate it to the temper and desire of our own times.—Achsah was not content with the south land; she wanted an addition.—Who ever is content with what he has? Does not one possession suggest another? This suggestion may be base and selfish. It may indicate a spirit of greed or covetousness which can never be satisfied. We have a proverb which says "much wants more." Where such a spirit is manifested the possession already in hand is unworthily held.—Here is the secret of the amazing disparity between class and class, and the explanation of some of the grossest tyrannies of history.—Men should watch their desires in this direction.—All getting should be accompanied by corresponding giving.—Where there is no outlet there will soon be stagnation.—This desire, however, may be one of the noblest aspirations of the human mind.—There is a discontentment which is to be religiously encouraged. Say, for example, in the realm of knowledge: we go on from one advancement to another, earnestly desiring the completion of our study: say, for example, in the region of Christian donation; Paul counted himself not to have apprehended, but he resolved his whole life into one action expressed by the attitude of pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: he urged the Christians of Corinth to "covet earnestly the best gifts:" there is, then, a covetousness which is equivalent to prayer; a desire for more which is a holy aspiration.—It is often difficult to distinguish between the legitimate and the illegitimate in human desire. As a broad rule it may be said that all desire for more material possession or personal gratification is wrong; and all desire for more light, clearer insight into truth, and fuller realisation of duty, is right.—Every man must determine this for himself.—There must be no shrinking from the most penetrating inquiry.—When the soul is really anxious to know what its own desires are in the sight of God, there cannot be the slightest difficulty in obtaining the information.