the Jordan; of the prophetic words of blessing poured in turn on each of the Tribes of Israel encamped below on the plains of Moab, and, finally, of his holy and mysterious death.
One is forcibly carried forward to another age, when He of whom Moses was only a figure and precursor was to tread these same plains, and to prepare the way for the foundation of another kingdom, and then, after having tasted of the bitterness of the most awful death, to appear before His own with His person all transformed by the glories of a heavenly existence, with His transpierced heart all aglow with divinest charity, to ascend to Heaven while blessing them and filling their souls with undying faith and all-embracing love.
II. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS.
THE BOOK OF JOSUE.—The title of this book is derived both from its being most generally believed to have been written by the great man whose name it bears, and from its containing a faithful record of his government of God’s people.
The name itself (Hebrew, Jehoshuah, i. e., “God the Saviour”) is identical with the adorable Name of our Lord. Hence, in the Septuagint Greek and in the early Latin version, this book is called “the Book of Jesus the Son of Navé.”
The blameless man chosen to be the successor of Moses, to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, to defeat the combined armies of the heathen Canaanites, to divide the national territory thus conquered among the Twelve Tribes, and to leave them in secure possession of their independence, was a fit type of the Redeemer to come, who could alone reconquer for all our race the forfeited inheritance of eternity, who alone could introduce us into His Kingdom, and share its glories with us. And the personal character of the man could sustain the burthen of the Name which is above all names, so that the virtues of the great leader, as well as his achievements, made him worthy to bear the name and the figure of Jesus.
Called at first “Osea,” or, rather, Hosea the Son of Nun, his name was changed into Jehoshuah or Jesus by Moses, when the latter chose him as one of the explorers of the land of Chanaan—most probably the leader of the exploring expedition. It was a most befitting occasion for the change. The exploration was but a prelude to the conquest. In this Josue was to be the chief actor. The prophetic change of name is presently justified by Josue’s heroic courage and truthfulness. When the explorers return and give the most discouraging accounts of the Chanaanites, who are to be dispossessed, of their giant stature and impregnable strongholds, the people revolt against Moses and murmur openly against the Lord Himself. Caleb and Josue, on the contrary, oppose the popular clamor and flatly contradict the exaggerations of their associates. “Be not rebellious against the Lord!” they say to the craven multitude. . . . “And fear ye not the people of this land . . . All aid is gone from them. The Lord is with us; fear ye not!” The two heroic leaders would have been stoned on the spot had not God then and there saved them by a miracle.
Well worthy, therefore, of the attentive and devout perusal of all Christian families
