BY S. RIDOUT

He historical books, of which the Judges is the second, form the largest group in the Old Testament. In the Pentateuch the counsels of God are the prominent thought. If we were asked, What is the prominent feature in the Pentateuch? we would say, It is God's will and authority. I do not mean that human will does not come in, but still the thought running throughout the entire five books of Moses is that God has control.

Unquestionably God has control throughout the whole history of man; but in a special way His will is supreme in the Pentateuch; and therefore we rightly call them the Books of the Law, that is, the books which emphasize and bring out God's will.

In the second division of the Old Testament, The Historical Books, the prominent person is not God but man. I need hardly say that God is not set aside, but that in these historical books He has put the government of things, the responsibility for it, into man's hands to carry out what His will is. They are therefore rightly termed the books of Covenant-history, or the development of what is the expressed will of God in the Pentateuch.

In these historical books, we find that while they all have in common that which I have spoken of, yet they each have their distinctive marks, each their special object. We are going to dwell particularly upon the book of Judges, and I might say it is the one that gives character to the whole division of the Historical Books. It is the book of man's history, a history of his progress and development; and I need hardly say what the results of that must be. The history of man is ever a history of declension, of departure from God; a history of disintegration rather than unity, of weakness rather than strength, and of the need of God's interposition to deliver. Now while that is the characteristic of all these historical books from Joshua to Esther, yet it is particularly that of the book of Judges.

But let us first of all see how Judges stands in relation to the book of Joshua, for we get much important instruction just there. The book of Joshua is the first one of the historical books, and there are certain features which connect it very strikingly at either end. It is connected at its beginning with the Pentateuch, and at its close with the book of Judges. Take for instance the close of the Pentateuch; Moses about to die, names his successor, giving him his authority from God, and Joshua the successor, God's chosen leader, carries on the work which Moses had begun. Now, when you follow the book all the way through to the close, you find in the same way connections with the book of Judges. Joshua calls the people together, and sets before them the history of God's ways and mercy in the past. Then he warns them as to the danger of apostasy, of departure from God.

It was surely prophetic in Joshua, dear brethren, in view of the history of the Judges, to warn the people as he did; to tell them not merely of the danger that threatened, but of that which would certainly come to pass unless they took the warning. Thus Judges gives us God's power and the man of faith, and also, in figure, the Divine Leader. Typically speaking, Joshua, the successor of Moses, would represent to us the Holy Spirit, making Christ practically our leader into our inheritance.

Canaan, the inheritance of Israel, is a type of our inheritance in Christ in the heavenly places; and as we are told in Ephesians that God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ in the heavenly places, so in Joshua we are told that everything belongs to God's people ; God has given it to them; and it is for them to take possession of their inheritance in the energy of faith.

But they must have a God-appointed leader to take possession of this their portion, and that is what Joshua is appointed to do. I want you to notice that he is the divinely appointed leader for the whole people, and throughout the entire book you get the one leader. Now Joshua, as has often been said, is a type of Christ–Christ the leader, in resurrection, just as Moses was a type of Christ, the leader of His people when He was upon earth. That is why typically it was necessary for Moses, the earthly leader, to die, in order that the people might pass into their heavenly inheritance; so it was necessary for Christ to die in order that He might, as risen from the dead, lead His people into the enjoyment of their heavenly inheritance.

But there is more than that. Joshua is a type of Christ risen, but still the actual leader of His people in the conflict in taking possession of what is theirs. Therefore it is Christ as He dwells in our hearts by the Holy Ghost; it is Christ in us, by the Holy Spirit, leading us with divine energy to take hold of all that is given to us. It is ours, and yet has to be taken hold of, the foot has to be planted upon it, as we are told-it is to be practically ours. It is by the Holy Spirit's power that we enter into the enjoyment of what is ours. You take a company of Christians for instance:how different is the measure of their enjoyment. They all have one common source of it; they all are Christ's, and all that is Christ's is theirs. Every one of us alike has the same possession; and yet, as I said, how different the measure of our enjoyment. Our inheritance is in Christ, but our enjoyment of that inheritance is by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, who leads us to take possession of that which is ours. That is Joshua.

In the first part of the book you see the people brought into the land and gaining their victories from Jericho unto Hazor, till the last king is subdued, and the whole land lies quietly under their hand; it is all theirs. Then, in the second part of the book, you have the land divided among the various tribes, each of them getting that portion which God allotted to them. It is very instructive and refreshing to see that where God is supreme, and the Spirit of God in charge and leading the people, everything depends upon Him and the faith that follows His leading.

Another thought I wish to lay before you is that the book of Joshua represents the history of the apostolic Church being led into possession of its inheritance, under the energy of the Holy Ghost, through inspired men, the apostles, who do not continue in the Church-save in their writings. It is important to note that in the book of Judges it is the opposite. There is no divinely appointed leader as Joshua in the book of Judges ; but leaders are raised simply to meet the emergency for a special work, and then pass out of sight. It is important to see this. If the believer in apostolic succession would but take the spiritual meaning of the books of Joshua and of Judges and compare them, he would see that while we have apostles introducing the saints into the truth of the Church and into their heavenly inheritance, we have not apostles to maintain them in that position. That is the history of the book of Judges.

Look at the close of Joshua's history, and you find the aged leader looking, we may surely believe, into his heavenly inheritance with a full assurance of what is before him. I have often been struck with that.

People say there is no revelation of immortality in the Old Testament; and in a certain sense that is true. But did you ever think of Moses and of Joshua, as they stood facing death, relinquishing everything which they held dear here in this world, without a quiver of uncertainty? Without a fear, without a single doubting question, they give their directions to those they are leaving behind, and pass on-where ? Who can doubt with such revelation as that regarding Abraham, that " he looked for a city that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God?" Who can doubt that Moses and Joshua were conscious as to where they would pass when they left this world, that they were going home to the blessed God whom they had seen and served by faith, now were to enter His actual presence ? That is very important, and it suggests a most interesting line of study-the intimations of immortality running throughout the Old Testament. I believe we would get rich profit for our souls in taking up such a line of study. But I simply mention it.

The aged leader gathers the people about him, and warns them of what was in their own hearts; for by the Spirit of God he knew what was there. He tells them of the danger of apostasy. He goes further and says, " Put away the strange gods that are among you." Already those gods had a place in their midst; and already the seeds of destruction and alienation from God were planted in the bosom of the people. I want you to notice a New Testament passage which is in keeping with what I have been saying. Paul gathers the Ephesian elders together. He is the representative in that way of the apostleship, as it were, of all the apostles. He gathers them together and speaks of what is going to come in after his departure. " I know that after my departure"-what do we come to? Other successors to the apostles ? Ah, no; but, just like Joshua, he says, " After my departure shall grievous
wolves enter in, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." This is the close of the apostolic Joshua, just as you have the close of the literal Joshua. It is a warning as to the alienation and the departure that comes in when the inspired leaders have been removed.

Now that brings us to the book of Judges itself. I have dwelt upon this because it is very important for us to get the setting of the book correctly, if we are to get into the current of the Spirit's thoughts regarding it. Joshua gives us the possession of what is ours, and Judges gives us the history of what should have been progress, but instead we see failure increasing to the end. All through Joshua we are reminded that " there remaineth very much land to be possessed." It was simply conquering the land as a whole, not conquering it in detail. Various boundary lines were marked out for the tribes, and yet as a matter of fact there were large numbers of the enemy still in possession of cities and strongholds in the midst of the tribes. The key thought of the book of Judges, one of the important thoughts in the whole book, is this-the failure to make progress. The book of Judges should have been a history of progress, but the literal and actual history of Judges is of failure to make progress. Why, you say, is that such a very serious thing ? Ah, beloved, let me assure you that failure in God's people to make progress is the root of all the failure and departure from God. We who are familiar with this book of Judges know well how full it is of bitter, shameful failure; and as the history, as it goes on developing, brings out not more brightness but more darkness, until we turn the last leaf of the book with a sigh and confession that if that is the history of man, if that is the history of the professed Church of Christ, yea, if that is the history of ourselves, nothing but shame and confusion of face becomes us. Is it not so ?

Failure to go on! Dear fellow-believer, let me press it. Where are you? Are you standing still ? Are you satisfied with talking about your being in Him in the heaven-lies and blessed with all spiritual blessings, and everything of that kind ? Is that sufficient for you ? Are you just resting upon what Christ has done-just so far ? For salvation we cannot rest too absolutely upon what Christ, has done, but for possession, dear friends, for enjoyment, for practical ownership of what is ours we cannot rest upon what Christ has done; nay, we must carry on the blessed work in the energy and power of the Holy Spirit.

Let me press this thought. Let us turn it over and look at it personally, and corporately in relation to the whole Church of Christ. If we have been standing still individually, we have been drifting away from God. If there is declension in your heart or mine to-night, if there is a sense of distance from God, a breach with Him, let me tell you the root of it is simply that you have stood still after you were saved and had been brought to Christ. After you realized the fulness of your blessing in Him, instead of pressing on to get more and more of the enjoyment of that place, you let your hands hang down; and the moment Satan saw that you were willing to let him preoccupy that which you were not occupying, that moment, dear friend, Satan gained the advantage, gained an entrance into your heart, and planted there the seeds of whatever present alienation there may be from God. Nay, the seeds even of future alienation. Oh, who can tell what will happen within a year for a Christian who is away from God in his soul ? Standing still instead of going forward ! You might write that at the head of the book of Judges. And the result of that was the whole subsequent failure, individually and corporately as well. Here is the Church of Christ as it came from the apostles' hands. Ah, before even the apostles had left the earth, before Paul was taken home to glory, he not only prophesied of what would take place if they did not go on and hold fast, but that declension had already begun. He writes even in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, " the mystery of iniquity already worketh," and in the second epistle to Timothy, "All they that are in Asia have turned away from me." The apostle John writes in his first epistle, "Already there are many Antichrists." And that was in the bosom of the professing Church ! It only shows us how the Church at the very start failed to gain practical possession of the inheritance that was hers, and therefore was exposed to the power of Satan. In all these satanic false doctrines and attacks upon the Church of Christ, which have stood out on the pages of its history from the beginning, we see Satan making use of that which the Church has failed to make use of. That is the history of declension and departure from God.

Now that is looking at the whole subject. You see it is one of intense personal and corporate importance. I believe that in this book of Judges we have God's voice to us at the present time. Surely if we look about there can be no question of failure having come in. If we look at our own history we need have no question as to individual failure. Then let us hearken to what the Spirit of God would say to His people who have failed lamentably and repeatedly, and alas, who are ready to fail again, unless they learn the lesson that God would write upon the very tables of our hearts.

(See Correspondence, page 190.)