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Josua 2

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1 Und Josua, der Sohn Nuns, sandte von Sittim heimlich zwei Männer als Kundschafter aus und sprach: Gehet, besehet das Land und Jericho. Und sie gingen hin und kamen in das Haus einer Hure, namens Rahab; und sie legten sich daselbst nieder.

2 Und es wurde dem König von Jericho berichtet und gesagt: Siehe, es sind in dieser Nacht Männer von den Kindern Israel hierhergekommen, um das Land zu erforschen.

3 Da sandte der König von Jericho zu Rahab und ließ ihr sagen: Führe die Männer heraus, die zu dir gekommen, die in dein Haus eingekehrt sind; denn sie sind gekommen, um das ganze Land zu erforschen.

4 Das Weib aber nahm die zwei Männer und verbarg sie. Und sie sprach: Allerdings sind die Männer zu mir gekommen, aber ich wußte nicht, woher sie waren;

5 und als das Tor beim Dunkelwerden geschlossen werden sollte, da gingen die Männer hinaus; ich weiß nicht, wohin die Männer gegangen sind. Jaget ihnen eilends nach, denn ihr werdet sie erreichen.

6 Sie hatte sie aber auf das Dach hinaufgeführt und unter Flachsstengel versteckt, die sie sich auf dem Dache aufgeschichtet hatte.

7 Und die Männer jagten ihnen nach, des Weges zum Jordan, nach den Furten hin; und man schloß das Tor, sobald die, welche ihnen nachjagten, hinaus waren.

8 Und ehe sie sich niederlegten, stieg sie zu ihnen auf das Dach hinauf

9 und sprach zu den Männern: Ich weiß, daß Jehova euch das Land gegeben hat, und daß euer Schrecken auf uns gefallen ist, und daß alle Bewohner des Landes vor euch verzagt sind.

10 Denn wir haben gehört, daß Jehova die Wasser des Schilfmeeres vor euch ausgetrocknet hat, als ihr aus Ägypten zoget, und was ihr den beiden Königen der Amoriter getan, die jenseit des Jordan waren, dem Sihon und dem Og, die ihr verbannt habt.

11 Und wir hörten es, und unser Herz zerschmolz, und es blieb kein Mut mehr vor euch in irgend einem Menschen; denn Jehova, euer Gott, ist Gott im Himmel oben und auf der Erde unten.

12 Und nun schwöret mir doch bei Jehova, weil ich Güte an euch erwiesen habe, daß auch ihr an meines Vaters Hause Güte erweisen werdet; und gebet mir ein zuverlässiges Zeichen,

13 und lasset meinen Vater und meine Mutter und meine Brüder und meine Schwestern und alle ihre Angehörigen am Leben und errettet unsere Seelen vom Tode!

14 Und die Männer sprachen zu ihr: Unsere Seele soll an eurer Statt sterben, wenn ihr diese unsere Sache nicht verratet; und es soll geschehen, wenn Jehova uns das Land gibt, so werden wir Güte und Treue an dir erweisen.

15 Da ließ sie sie an einem Seile durch das Fenster hinunter; denn ihr Haus war in der Stadtmauer, und sie wohnte in der Stadtmauer.

16 Und sie sprach zu ihnen: Gehet in das Gebirge, damit die Nachjagenden euch nicht treffen; und verberget euch daselbst drei Tage, bis die Nachjagenden zurückgekehrt sind, und danach gehet eures Weges.

17 Und die Männer sprachen zu ihr: Wir werden dieses deines Eides ledig sein, den du uns hast schwören lassen:

18 Siehe, wenn wir in das Land kommen, so sollst du diese Schnur von Karmesinfaden in das Fenster binden, durch welches du uns heruntergelassen hast, und sollst deinen Vater und deine Mutter und deine Brüder und das ganze Haus deines Vaters zu dir ins Haus versammeln;

19 und es soll geschehen, wer irgend aus der Tür deines Hauses auf die Straße gehen wird, dessen Blut sei auf seinem Haupte, und wir werden unseres Eides ledig sein. Jeder aber, der bei dir im Hause sein wird, dessen Blut sei auf unserem Haupte, wenn Hand an ihn gelegt wird.

20 Und wenn du diese unsere Sache verrätst, so werden wir deines Eides ledig sein, den du uns hast schwören lassen.

21 Und sie sprach: Nach euren Worten, also sei es! Und sie entließ sie, und sie gingen weg. Und sie band die Karmesinschnur ins Fenster.

22 Und sie gingen weg und kamen in das Gebirge und blieben daselbst drei Tage, bis die Nachjagenden zurückgekehrt waren. Und die Nachjagenden suchten sie auf dem ganzen Wege und fanden sie nicht.

23 Und die beiden Männer kehrten zurück und stiegen von dem Gebirge herab, und sie gingen hinüber und kamen zu Josua, dem Sohne Nuns; und sie erzählten ihm alles, was ihnen begegnet war.

24 Und sie sprachen zu Josua: Jehova hat das ganze Land in unsere Hand gegeben, und auch sind alle Bewohner des Landes vor uns verzagt.

   

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Why God Can Appear Vengeful

Napsal(a) Bill Woofenden

"With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward." Psalm 18:25-26

Additional readings: Joshua 2:14-24, Matthew 7:1-20, Psalm 87, Psalm 88

The Lord says in His sermon on the mount "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:7-8). All the blessings pronounced in that sermon involve the same principle. We read also, "Give, and it shall be given unto you" (Luke 6:38), and "With the same measure that ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Matthew 7:2, Mark 4:24).

There are many other passages of the same import, all implying that in order to receive good we must do good. And it is a fact that in a marvelous way under the Divine Providence what we wish for others in the end becomes our own lot. If we wish good for others and work to that end, good will be our final lot; if we wish evil and failure for others, our life will end in disaster.

From the letter of our text the appearance is that the Lord is merciful only to those who are merciful and that He rewards evil for evil as well as good for good. Yet God is no "respecter of persons." He loves the good and happiness of all equally. He is in fact mercy itself and goodness itself. He therefore can do only good, and that continually. God cannot be unmerciful nor can He withhold mercy where it can be received.

To understand our text we need to know the true nature of man and his relation to the Lord. That we may have a true sense of the importance of this knowledge and that we may see how true even the literal sense of our text is it may be helpful to consider briefly what has resulted from the want of such knowledge.

The Word is the same in its letter to everyone who reads it. Yet people derive exactly opposite doctrines from the same passages. This cannot be said of other writings. Why is it? The cause is not in the Lord, nor is it in the Word. It is in man. Many false systems of religious faith have been drawn from the Bible because men have not understood the principle according to which the Bible is written and have read into it their own desires.

Throughout the Scriptures God shows Himself as bestowing favors and as meeting out punishments just as an arbitrary earthly monarch might do, and as doing this "for His own glory." But this is because He has to reach mankind who, even at their very best, are selfish and perverse.

Everyone when left in freedom will incline to that idea of God and to those religious doctrines which are most in harmony with his own nature. It is true every day that to the impure the Lord appears Impure, to the revengeful He appears revengeful, to the unforgiving He appears unforgiving unless His forgiveness is purchased by penance. This is the real reason

for the great diversities in religious faith. If a man believes Christ to be a mere man or if he believes that Christ in undergoing death on the Cross expiated the sins of the world, he so believes not from rational conviction but because such teachings are in harmony with his own character. It is only as man becomes regenerated that the Lord can show Himself to him as He really is. A selfish man cannot conceive that anyone can do a really unselfish deed. The impure think that all are impure.

Man is a recipient of life from the Lord and is related to Him as a branch to the vine. And life is not given him once for all: he is a constant recipient of life. It flows into him from moment to moment. This is true also in the realm of nature. Plants receive the same heat and light from the sun and grow in the same earth. Yet they are innumerable in their varieties. But man differs from them in that he is not, as they are, a passive recipient. He chooses what he will receive.

A diseased or defective eye does not see things as does a perfect eye, though the object and. the light is the same. The principle is this: if we are good and true, we are open to the reception of goodness and truth. If we are evil, truth and goodness do not appeal to us as virtues and we do not want them. Even on the natural plane what is sweet to one may not be pleasant to another; it depends on the condition of his body.

This law works on the spiritual plane as well as on the natural because the natural and physical are only the lower effects of the same spiritual laws operating on the plane of nature. In the spiritual world the influx of heavenly life causes pain to the wicked and they cannot endure it and flee to their own abode.

Life goes forth from the Lord to all, but this life is not to be appropriated by man and used for selfish purposes if it is to retain its original quality. It is to go forth and produce good works. If shut up within one's self, it is like pure water which, when not flowing, becomes stagnant and breeds corruption. A selfish man absorbs life and does not give it forth. To receive life from the Lord into ourselves for the sake of ourselves is to gather it into dead and stagnant pools in which hideous things are bred. These seem to us then to be from God, but they are actually the offspring of our own perverted life, the creations of our own diseased vision. What a man receives from the Lord is changed to partake of his own internal nature, and consequently it and the source of it appear to him like himself, of his own quality and disposition.

Whatever is received from the Lord should be an ever-living and overflowing stream, with no stagnant pools, never stopping in its work but always going forth to bless. Life is life, love is love, mercy is mercy only as the recipient of it is a free and active medium through which it may pass on to others continually by the active cooperation of the recipient.

Thus in proportion as one is merciful the Lord appears, or shows Himself merciful; as he is pure and upright, the Lord shows Himself upright; but as he is froward, the Lord shows Himself froward. This is the great cardinal principle which characterizes all revelation.

Such is the general teaching of the text. As a man is in himself, so he judges God to be, for so God appears to him.

This doctrine explains many passages of Scripture. It enables us to understand why God is sometimes represented as being angry and as possessing other human infirmities. To reach men and meet their needs the Word must be embodied in ideas and clothed in language adapted to their states and capacities. Because men were selfish the Lord had to appear to Moses and the prophets as a vengeful God, a God delighting in sacrifices and burnt offerings, a God like themselves who, when offended, needed to be appeased. It was better for them to have such a God than to have no God, no being who could exercise any restraint over them. It was better for them even to worship the sun and moon than to acknowledge nothing higher than themselves.

In the wise providence of the Lord He appears to men in such a character as the best good of their state is capable of receiving. When man's state is such that he cannot see the light, it is in mercy provided that darkness shall appear as light to him.

There is a lesson in this for us. If we would see God as He is, a being of pure unchanging love and wisdom, the only way we can find Him is to learn and do His will. This enables Him to form us into His own image and likeness. It is when we receive His qualities in ourselves by exercising them that we really see Him and we make ourselves living receptacles of His qualities by doing what He would have us do.

"Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, 'Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?' Jesus answered and said unto him, 'If a man loves me; he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:22).