THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 65
of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand.
"There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord
had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass" (Josh.
21:43-45).
Here is a carefully worded record, manifestly designed
to arrest the attention and impress itself upon
the minds of the readers of God's Word ;
which record
declares in the most emphatic terms that God had, despite
all the provocation, contumacy and rebellion of
that people, fulfilled completely "all" He had promised
and sworn to their fathers to do for them; insomuch
that of all the good things He had spoken concerning
the house of Israel, "there failed not ought."
But that is not all; for Joshua, when about to die,
assembled all Israel, with their elders, their heads,
their judges and their officers (23:2), and after rehearsing
briefly what Jehovah had done for them, he
earnestly exhorted them to be "Very courageous to
keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the
law of Moses" ;
to shun the idolatries of the Canaanites,
not even so much as to make mention of the names of
their gods; but to cleave stedfastly to Jehovah their
God, as they had done during the period of his leadership
(vv. 6-8).
And then, with the utmost solemnity and impressiveness,
he warned them that, if they should "in anywise
go back, and cleave unto the remnant of those nations
. . . and make marriages with them, then they were to
"know for a certainty that the Lord" would no more
drive out those enemies ; but would make them the instruments
of His judgment upon the apostate people,
"until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord
your God hath given you" (11-13) .