the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders ; neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy GOD thrice in the year. So that in obeying this command, the Israelites were three times a year to expose themselves contrary to all rules of good policy, in confidence of a marvellous protection of Gop, who had promised to prevent any enemies taking advantage of their so doing. In like manner, Moses answers the objection which would be made to observing the law for the seventh or Sabbatical year. If ye shall say, says he to them in the name and words of God, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase: then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years; a most extraordinary produce was promised all over the land, at all times, the year before they were to begin their neglect of harvest and tillage. Now can any one imagine that Moses could ever have thought of obliging the s Exod. xxxiv. 24. t The meaning of the expression for three years is explained by what follows, Levit. xxv. 22. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of the old fruit until the ninth year; until the fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old store. The promise did not mean that the sixth year's produce should last the term of three complete years; but that it should suffice for the seventh year, for the eighth year, and for a part of the ninth year, namely, until the harvest, in the beginning of the ninth year, should bring in the fruits of the eighth year's tillage. Israelites to such laws as these; if GOD had not really given a particular command about them? Or would the Israelites have been so weak, as to obey such per nicious injunctions; if they had not had a sufficient evidence, that the commands were of Gob, and that he would indeed protect them in their observance of them? Or had they been so romantic, as to have gone into an obedience to keep such institutions as these; if they had not been of Gon, and without an especial providence to protect and preserve them from the consequences which would naturally arise from them; would not a few years trial have brought home to them a dear bought experience of so great a folly? Their enemies would unquestionably have many times taken advantage of the opportunities they gave them, to enter their country. And a sixth year's crop, no better than ordinary, must have perpetually convinced them that the observance of the Sabbatical year was a mere idle fancy, not supported by such a blessing from GoD as they had been told was annexed to it. The Israelites fell indeed into a great neglect of observing their Sabbatical years some centuries before their captivity. But it is remarkable, that they thought they had so little colour for this breach of their duty, from any failure of God's promise to them; that they looked upon the number of years which their land was to be desolate, when they were carried to Babylon, was a particular judgment upon them, designed by GoD to answer to the number of the Sabbatical years, which "Prideaux' Pref. to Connect. part i. they had not observed," After the captivity, the Jews were more observant of this injunction; as we find them keeping their Sabbath years in the times of Alexander the Great; for upon account of their not tilling their lands in those years, they petitioned him for a remission of every seventh year's tribute. As to the command for appearing three times in the year before the LORD, we find it practised by the Jews to their very latest times. When Cestius the Roman came against Lydda, he found no men in the city; for they were all gone to Jerusalem, to the feast of tabernacles; and afterwards, when Titus laid siege to Jerusalem, he shut up in it, as it were, the whole Jewish nation; for they were then assembled there to the keep feast of unleavened bread: Josephus, indeed, remarks, that the keeping this feast at the time when Titus came to besiege Jerusalem, greatly conduced to conclude the fate of his country; but we should observe, that this did not happen until after our Saviour's time; until the Jews were given up by GoD, and their city and polity were to be trodden down of the Gentiles.. Upon the death of Moses, A. M. 2554, at the be ginning of the year, Joshua took the command of the Israelites; and when the days of mourning for Moses v 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. x Joseph. Antiq. lib. xi. c. 8. Thus they kept their Sabbatical years in the times of the Maccabees, 1 Mac. vi. 49, 53. y Joseph. de Bello Judaic. lib. 2. c. 19. f were over, he prepared, according to directions which GOD had given him, to remove the camp, and enter Canaan. But before he began to march, he sent two spies to Jericho, a city over against the camp, on the other side the river Jordan. The spies, when they came to Jericho, went to the house of a woman named Rahab, and lodged there. She concealed them from the search which the king of Jericho made for them, and after three days they came back to Joshua, and reported what terror the inhabitants of Canaan were in upon account of the Israelites. The behaviour of Rahab to the spies was indeed extraordinary, and must at first sight appear liable to objections; for upon what principle could she receive into her house the known enemies of her country, conceal them from the searchers, and dismiss them in safety, contrary to her duty to the public, and allegiance to the king of Jericho ? We are told, that she professed herself to know, that the GoD of the Israelites was God in heaven above, and in earth beneath," and that the LORD had given them the land. But we are not informed by the writer of the book of Joshua, whether she collected these things only from having heard, what she mentioned to the spies, how the waters of the Red sea were dried up, and the kings of the Amorites on the other side of Jordan were conquered and destroyed; or whether GoD had been pleased to give her any h Josh, i. d Id. ii. 1. Numb. xxii. 1. 'Ver. 2-24. Ver. 11. Josh. ii. 1. Ver. 9. ¡Ver. 10. special direction to entertain the spies, in obeying which she was to save her family from ruin. However, the book of Joshua is but a short account of what the Israelites did, and of what happened to them whilst they were under the command of their leader of that name; and we may suppose, that many circumstances, attending some facts recorded in it, were perhaps registered by some other hands, and afterwards related more at large in other books which are now lost. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says of Rahab, that, By faith she perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.' And if we compare what she did with the actions of other persons mentioned with her by the sacred writer, as influenced by a like faith, we must judge of her, that she had received some command from Gon, and that she acted in obedience to it. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear," prepard an ark to the saving of his house." He received an express revelation, that the world was to perish by water, and was instructed by GoD how he might save himself and family. He believed what God revealed to him, made an ark in obedience to the orders which were given him, and by thus believing, and acting according to his belief, he saved himself and family from *Joshua x. 13. Ver. 7. The word is vandas. 1 Heb. xi. 31. " Ibid. |