Joshua 23:11

Jos 23:11 Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God.

Ver. 11. Take heed therefore unto yourselves.] Heb., To your souls, that chief part of yourselves, the welfare whereof lieth upon it.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jos_23:11

Take good heed therefore unto yourselves.

The Christian warfare

The Christian life is a warfare, and there are several common mistakes made thereupon. For example--

I. When it is supposed that the enemies to be fought against are all external foes. This is a very prevalent error. Where conversion is believed to be always a sudden change, and not a matter of growth, there converts are cautioned against dangers that lie without, while left in ignorance of the greater dangers that are still within. There are external foes, but these are not all. There are inward foes, such as--

(1) Evil tempers;

(2) passionate and ungovernable wills;

(3) covetousness;

(4) selfishness;

(5)pride;

(6) anger, &c.

II. It is also a mistake to suppose that the enemies to be fought against are chiefly external ones. With all his warnings against surrounding foes, Joshua was most emphatic in his exhortation to watchfulness over ones own heart, Take good heed therefore unto yourselves. In this sense a mans enemies are they of his own house. The greatest temptations arise from that inner tendency to corruption, but for which the outward influences would be well-nigh powerless. Many a man has been his own tempter (Jam_1:14).

III. It is a great christian duty, therefore, for every man to bring his own heart into subjection.

1. This cannot be done except by the exercise of constant watchfulness.

2. Self-cultivation also is necessary. When will men learn that religion is no dreamy sentimentalism, but a stern and living reality? The grace of God in the heart of man is a tender plant in a strange, unkindly soil, and, therefore, cannot well prosper and grow without much care and pains, and that of a skilful hand. Let us, then, take heed to ourselves. Let us keep the fortress of our own heart. Let us do battle with the foes of our own household. Thus shall we be more than conquerors; for he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city. (Frederic Wagstaff.)

Self-consideration

We can have no aspirations unless we know what we lack, and we cannot properly cultivate our spiritual life unless we recognise the symptoms of its vitality or decay. A gardener would be failing in his duty if he did not notice the withering of a flower, which was only wanting more room in which to spread its roots. A mother would be justly blamed if she was too absorbed in making her childs dress for a coming party to notice the pale face and heavy eyes which fore told an illness demanding instant attention. Far heavier is the responsibility resting on us to consider our own condition. (A. Rowland, B. A.)

Self-judgment

No sane man fails to form some opinion of himself. We cannot help knowing, for example, whether our temper is quick or dull, whether our imagination is vivid or torpid, any more than we can be ignorant of the fact that we are tall or short. But we ought not to leave this self-judgment to transient feelings, or to spasmodic revelations--but should try to shape it by sober thought. Some people tell us that it is best not to think of ourselves at all, but to absorb ourselves in daily duty, leaving ourselves simply in Gods hands, so far as religious life is concerned. No doubt this is partly true: and we must not forget that self-introspection has its dangers as well as its uses. It would, for example, be quite possible to subject our motives to such close and constant scrutiny as to take away all momentum from life: but no sensible man would be so particular about dust on the engine, as to neglect keeping up steam. (A. Rowland, B. A.)

That ye love the Lord.--

Take heed to love God

1. Because if you do not love God, your obedience will be worthless.

2. Because if you do love Him, obedience will be easy.

3. Because there are so many things that compete for your love.

4. Because if you love God, you will love only good things, and those in a proper measure.

5. Because if you love God, you will love what God loves, and especially His Son Jesus Christ. (The Hive.)

God demands our love

I. It is for this very end that national mercies are bestowed.

II. We are in danger of perverting his goodness to a very different purpose. The caution given in the text plainly implies this, and the subsequent history of the Jewish nation as plainly proves that the caution was necessary.

III. To love the Lord our God is not only the return He expects for His benefits, but the return he demands. It is not only just and reasonable in its own nature, but it is likewise absolutely necessary on our part--nay, it is the one thing needful, the withholding of which shall unavoidably be attended with the most fatal consequences. (R. Walker.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jos 23:11. Take good heed — Now it requires more watchfulness and diligence than it did in the wilderness, because your temptations are now stronger, from the examples and insinuations of your bad neighbours, the remainders of this wicked people; and from your own peace and prosperity; and the pride, security, forgetfulness of God, and luxury, which usually attend that condition.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Jos_23:11. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves] Marg., “unto your souls.” “Take heed with all your soul;” so Winer and Ges., quoted by Keil, who adds, The form is used “for the sake of emphasis, to denote that inward vigilance which comes from the soul.”

Jos_23:12. Make marriages with them] The same sense is conveyed by the Heb. in Jos_23:7.

Jos_23:13. Snares … traps … scourges … thorns] cf. passages in margin. The threatenings have a kind of cumulative force. The energy of the warnings here is the measure of the pathos in the entreaty of Jos_23:8-11.

Jos_23:14. Behold, this day] A similar use of hayyom, “this day,” occurs in Deu_9:1, where the phrase is also employed to denote, not this day actually, but an early day or time.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_23:11-16

FORCES OF PRESERVATION AND DESTRUCTION

Life, look upon it in what sphere we may, seems to have conflict for its inevitable condition. Sometimes life in one form preys upon life in another form. Everywhere, life has some foes that wait around it to work it harm—some influences by which it is ever being drawn unto death. There are also sustaining and restoring forces which are placed around life in every sphere. These verses present us with a picture of human life as it stands in contact with things that tend both to its preservation and destruction. Socially, nationally, and spiritually, human life is here shewn in possible contact with things which help it, and with things which destroy it.

I. The restraining power of love to God (Jos_23:11). Love to God keeps men from “going back” to the influences which work death. The way of love to God is the way of life in God.

1. Love to God places a man higher in life than any other influence. He who lives in the love of God, lives far above all his fellows who want this love, let them dwell where they may. Love to God leads a man into a healthy region where life is ever strong, and where it takes on its noblest forms. The ideal of the ancient Romans was power. To them, to be mighty was to live. The ideal of the Greeks was beauty and wisdom. The Greek thought he lived most nobly when he dwelt amidst the most beautiful things which art could devise, and there talked philosophy. The modern English ideal seems to be riches. “Give me wealth,” says the Englishman; “it has a vast purchasing power over almost everything: to be rich is to live indeed.” The Bible ideal of life is love. Power may be pleasant, wisdom and beauty may be fascinating, and riches may help the soul, even within a few hours of death, to say, “Take thine ease; thou hast much goods laid up for many years;” yet life is not in these. A greater than these is love.

2. Love to God is life in a positive form, while mere obedience to God is hardly more than keeping from things which work death. Obedience submits to the voice which cries, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me;” Love responds, “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” Before the proclamation, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,” Obedience just refrains from sculpture; but Love rejoins, “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.” Obedience declines to take the name of the Lord God in vain; Love exclaims, “The desire of our soul is to Thy name;” “There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we may be saved.” Obedience refuses to break the Sabbath; Love says, “I call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord, honourable.” Thus it is with the whole of the law. Love is the very soul of the commandments: it is the life thereof. Kept in the letter, they are mere tables of stone—cold, frigid, and unseemly; kept in love, they are a living power, filled with the beauty of the love which animates them.

3. Love to God leads to God who is the source of life. Love of country, even in the traveller, presently turns his steps towards his native land. Love of father and mother quickens the steps of the schoolboy on his way towards home. The man who loves God will seek to come to God.

4. Love to God makes him who loves like God. The man who loves letters gets presently a literary look. The farmer gets an agricultural appearance. Family likeness may be sometimes partly owing to family love. So they who gaze admiringly on God are “changed into His image.” When inspired Jude would have his brethren be found separate from evil-doers, he said, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” So when Joshua would restrain his people from fellowship with idolaters, he says, similarly, “Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.”

II. The destroying power of corrupt society (Jos_23:12-13). If the Israelites entered into close intercourse with the wicked, the wicked would vex them with many forms of pain, and ultimately cause them to perish from off the good land which the Lord their God had given them.

1. Corrupt society is insidious in its attractions. It has “snares and traps.” True, it has also “scourges” for the sides, and “thorns” for the eyes; but as the significant order of the text, so is the ingenious cruelty of the process: the snares and traps are placed first, and not till the victim is secure come the scourges and the thorns. Corrupt men lead the pure away stealthily; they instinctively conceal their worst things, reveal their best, and thus draw their prey onward. The very virtues of the pure sometimes help in the work of destruction. “Charity thinketh no evil,” and the innocent man is tempted to say of his seducers, “These men have been unfairly spoken of; they are better than report stated.” Time, too, is on the side of decay.

2. Corrupt society has, for many, a fascinating influence. It plies them in their weakest places. It consults their peculiar appetites. In its various and bountiful cruelty it holds the cup of water to the thirsty, gives bread to the hungry, has wine for the intemperate, and a feast of fat things for the glutton. With its thousand influences of seductive battery it plies hard every gate of the senses.

3. Corrupt society is hard to escape from. Its “snares” draw very closely into fast knots, and its “traps” lock upon their prey as the jaws spring together.

4. Corrupt society works corruption, and death through corruption. In some forms of disease, the body seems mercifully to die first, and afterwards to decay. In other diseases corruption is a part of the process of dying. The latter is ever the dreadful form in which the soul goes down to its grave. Woful indeed is the cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Happy is he who can add, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sometimes, even amid the wretchedness of this spiritual decay, a man flatters himself that he is still vigorous and healthy. The secret of the mistake may be found in the appropriately loathsome image of Burke, “Corruption breeds new forms of life.” There is in every realm of creation a life that worketh death, and such too is the life in which the corrupt mind finds enough to satisfy it that it is “not dead yet.”

III. The stimulating power of grateful recollections (Jos_23:14).

1. The Israelites were to remember the good example of a faithful man. Joshua had led them in patience, and wisdom, and courage, and holiness. He was now going the way of all the earth; but he, being dead, might yet be found speaking helpfully.

2. They were to remember that God had fulfilled every good word of His promises. Not one promise had failed. They knew that in their own souls; they might know it also in their many possessions. God ever encourages His people by the faithfulness of some of their fellows, and always by His own faithfulness.

IV. The fatal power of Divine anger (Jos_23:16). Before that, said Joshua, “Ye shall perish quickly.” As the beauty of God’s love, so is the terribleness of God’s anger.

1. The anger of God in no way reflects upon His holiness. All government supposes the punishment of evil-doers. Divine anger is not an impulsive passion, but the calm exercise of justice upon transgressors for the sake of all men.

2. The anger of God is not inconsistent with His mercy. There are instances in which righteousness demands anger. Thus it is said that “one of the late Dr. Spencer’s parishioners in Brooklyn met him hurriedly urging his way down the street one day; his lip was set, and there was something strange in that gray eye. ‘How are you to-day, doctor?’ asked the parishioner, pleasantly. He waked as from a dream, and replied soberly, ‘I am mad!’ It was a new word for a mild, true-hearted Christian; but he waited, and with a deep earnest voice went on, ‘I found a widow standing by her goods which were thrown into the street; she could not pay the month’s rent; the landlord turned her out; and one of her children is going to die; and that man is a member of the Church. I told her to take her things back again. I am on my way to see him.’ ” So mercy and anger dwelt together in the heart of Him who drove the traders out of the temple with a scourge of small cords, and wept over the city in its guilt and coming doom.

3. The anger of God is necessary to His mercy. If the anger could not be righteous, the mercy could not be real. If God’s anger towards the wicked were not right, He would be bound to pardon everybody. When pardon is compulsory, it is no longer mercy. If the idea of mercy is true, the possibility of anger must be true also. Mercy is a beautiful flower growing up from the very soil of righteous anger, and you cannot take away the ground in which the flower grows without removing the flower too. Mercy is a glorious picture, painted by the love of Christ upon the groundwork of justice in the punishment of sin, and he who destroys the canvas must not murmur when he finds that the picture has vanished.

4. The anger of God is real, and terrible in its results. When it is kindled against men, they quickly perish from off the good land where mercy loved to see them dwell. That is always the spirit of the Scripture representation.

OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Jos_23:11.—A MAN’S COMMAND OF HIS OWN HEART.

Some persons regard love as entirely spontaneous. Admitting that a wrong affection may be held in check, they assume also that love cannot be created, and that it is free from the control of the will. If that were true, while it might be sinful to love wrong objects, it would no longer be sinful to fail to love right objects. This is not the teaching of the Bible: that not only says, ‘Love not the world;’ it also bids us love God with all our hearts, love one another, and further says to us, ‘Set your affections on things above.’ Any metaphysical difficulty in obeying these commands will ever disappear before practical and earnest piety. He who guards himself from all love that is wrong, will find little difficulty in obeying the Scripture admonition to love that which is right. This verse suggests the following considerations:—

I. Men are commanded to watch their affections. ‘Take good heed,’ etc.

II. Men are commanded to control their affections. They are to set them on right objects.

III. Men are commanded to set their affections upon God. ‘Love the Lord your God.’ These commands are given in view of the fact that God ever helps the man who sincerely seeks the way of righteousness.

Jos_23:12-13.—THE POWER OF EVIL ASSOCIATIONS.

Every healthy mind seeks other minds with which it can have fellowship. It is only the morbid disposition that cries often for ‘a lodge in some vast wilderness.’ Companions are a necessity. God’s word recognises the necessity, but bids us choose our associates carefully.

I. Wicked companions make a man satisfied with a heart of unbelief. It would be very difficult for any Israelite to worship idols, if every one around him worshipped God. It would be very hard work for any wicked man to continue an unbeliever in Jesus Christ now, if he were the only unbeliever. A man should sometimes ask himself, “How should I feel if I were the only unbeliever in my family?—in my town or parish?—in England?—in the world?” Robinson Crusoe’s lot provokes pity. This spiritual isolation would be far more pitiable, and far more unendurable. There are probably few, even of the boldest infidels, who could bear to be the only infidel in the world. Yet it is not difficult to think of a man as able to endure the thought of cleaving to Christ with a holy joy, even though every one else rejected Christ. Every unbelieving man is responsible for the countenance which his example is giving to others. The fellowship of holy men is a great power for good; the fellowship of the wicked is no less a power for evil.

II. Wicked companions make others partakers of their wickedness. Idolatrous Canaanites would make idolatrous Israelites.

1. There is the law of assimilation. Where life is the stronger force, it builds itself up into yet more strength by feeding on surrounding matter, and by making that a part of itself. But often disease and decay overcome life, and assimilate it to their condition. Infection and contagion are parts of the process of assimilation. So a man becomes like his companions, the weaker man succumbing to the stronger. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.” A man may say, “I do not believe that it will be so in my case.” But his belief does not matter; the operation of the law is no more affected by the man’s opinion of the law, than yeast is affected by a man’s faith or unbelief in its power to leaven the whole lump into which it is put. This law works on silently and slowly, but surely; and, like other laws, it takes small heed of a man’s opinion about its power. With fools, means like fools, whether a man believes it or not. With idolaters, means idolatry.

2. There is also to be taken into account the habit of imitation. Men everywhere practise it unconsciously. More than this; such imitators usually copy the worst features most strongly. “Paint me as I am, blotches and all,” said Oliver Cromwell to his artist. Thus, in unconscious imitation, men continually reproduce others, and, so far from omitting the blotches, they usually magnify them in the process.

3. The influence of food should not be forgotten in its bearing upon this subject. In a measure, a man’s physical nature is made by what he eats and drinks. Companions are the food of a man’s social nature, and, to some extent, here also, as the food so the man. In his book on “The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Mankind,” Sir John Lubbock gives several curious illustrations of the ludicrous beliefs which the natives of some countries have in respect to food. “The Malays at Singapore give a large price for the flesh of a tiger, not because they like it, but because they believe that the man who eats tiger acquires the sagacity as well as the courage of that animal.” Thus, too, the Dyaks of Borneo are said to shun the flesh of the deer, lest they should become timid; the Caribs reject the flesh of pigs and tortoises, that they may not have small eyes; and the Arabs ascribe the passionate and revengeful character of their countrymen to the use of camel’s flesh. It is further said that “the New Zealanders, after baptizing an infant, used to make it swallow pebbles, so that its heart might be hard and incapable of pity.” All this proceeds on the assumption that a man’s physical food affects his moral qualities, which, while true in some aspects, is absurd in the manner stated. A man’s moral food, however, will certainly affect his moral nature. He who socially feeds on idolatry will become an idolater. He who walks in the counsels of the ungodly will presently occupy the seat of the scorner, as one belonging to himself.

4. All history confirms the truth of these observations. Different nations are marked by distinct traits of character. The names of Greece and Rome represent literature. Turks are known as idle and cruel, Russians as ambitious and cruel, the Spanish as proud, the French as polite, and the Scotch as patriotic. One man in a nation has influenced another, some features have become predominant, and thus a distinctive character has been given to the world’s separated tribes and peoples. Thus, too, there have been distinctive ages: an age of painting, an age of letters, an age of religious persecution, and ages when these things were out of fashion, and something else was more popular. It is worth while, also, to note how many Calvinists have Calvinistic children, and how many Arminians find their offspring holding Arminian views. The children of Episcopalians attach themselves, for the most part, to the Church of their fathers; while in the families of Wesleyans, Baptists, Presbyterians, and the like, the sect also descends from the father to the child. Creeds are hereditary, not so much because of the character of the creed, but because a man becomes like those who are about him to form his character. With so much history to teach him, no man can afford to neglect the warning given in these verses. He who would not become an idolater must shun idolaters.

III. Wicked companions destroy all that remains of a man’s better feelings and desires.

1. Good things are neglected, and neglect works death. A limb unused would soon become useless. An unexercised faculty dies out. So it is in a man’s soul: “From him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

2. Men get used to evil things, and the evil things destroy the good. It is said that a prisoner who had been confined for many years in the Bastile, when liberated, cried like a child to be taken back again to the old solitude and darkness with which he had become familiar. Men may get used to strange things. The idolater presently finds his idolatry far more agreeable than the worship of God. A man may get used to no prayer, no Bible, no story of the cross, and no Saviour. It is terrible to think that it is possible to be “without hope and without God in the world,” and to be so reconciled to that dreadful condition as to wish for no alteration.

Jos_23:14 a—THE WAY OF ALL THE EARTH.

I. Death in its certainty. This is a universal way. The exceptions of Enoch and Elijah do but lay emphasis on the rule.

II. Death in its variety. Death has many ministers and forms. It is met in various moods. It has vastly different issues.

III. Death in its conscious nearness. “This day I am going,” etc. That is to say, “I am going soon: I feel it.” The hour of departure is often known to be at hand.

Jos_23:14 b.—THE UNFAILING WORDS OF THE LORD.

I. The words of the Lord are good words. “All the good things which the Lord your God spake.”

II. The words of the Lord are wrought cut gradually. The war itself had taken several years. Many years had elapsed since the first promises were made to Abraham.

III. The words of the Lord are every one fulfilled. “Not one thing hath failed of all the good things.”

IV. The words of the Lord are fulfilled to the satisfying of the heart and soul. “Ye know in all your hearts,” etc. It is much to satisfy a man’s mind, and to prevent all occasion of actual complaint. It is far more to satisfy the heart. The heart in its sanguine hopefulness ever puts large meanings to words of promise. God meets our highest hopes. He not only silences objections; “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”

Jos_23:15.—GOD’S FULFILMENT OF HIS PROMISES A GUARANTEE OF HIS FULFILMENT OF HIS THREATENINGS.

I. The certainty of Divine promises is to be taken as an assurance of the certainty of Divine threatenings. The argument is: “As all good things, so all evil things.”

1. Fidelity to words sometimes fails from want of power to fulfil words. Men promise to-day, and to-morrow their power to discharge their promise is taken from them by unforeseen circumstances. Men threaten, it may be quite righteously, but become unable to fulfil their threat. This cannot be so with God.

2. Fidelity to words sometimes fails because of short-sightedness in the use of words. Men use words of which they do not see all the meanings. This can never be so with God.

3. Fidelity to words sometimes fails from a conscientious change of mind. What Saul might have promised the high priest when he desired of him letters to Damascus, he might have felt it wicked to fulfil after that eventful journoy had been taken. God can never change His mind about the righteousness of either His threats or His promises.

4. Absolute fidelity to words is irrespective of the nature of the words. Man’s weakness, or short-sightedness, or his changed views, might afford him some excuse for not keeping his words; but, for all that, an unkept word is a broken word. It is no part of the question of fidelity that words be about “good things” or “evil things”—that they be promises or threatenings. Hence this same argument is sometimes used in an inverted form (cf. Jer_31:28; Jer_32:42). God may choose to pardon, if He will, just as any father might withdraw his word and forgive an offending child; but, as a rule, it is here asserted that as God is true to His promises of good things, so He is true in His promises of evil things.

II. The bearing of this truth on our religious faith and life.

1. No present prosperity should be taken as an essential earnest of permanent prosperity. God tries men with His good things to see how they will use them. If they are abused, He will take them away. The riches of Dives here, can give no security against the poverty of Dives hereafter. Purple and fine linen may be only for a time. Sumptuous fare to-day is no pledge that there may not be agony for a drop of water presently.

2. The dark side of the Bible is as true as the bright side. The faith of many people has in it real promises and empty threatenings, a real heaven and a fabulous hell, real redeemed and scarecrow lost, real angels and more than spectral fiends, a real Christ and a mythical devil. God Himself is held to be real on the side of mercy and gentleness and love, and unreal on the side of every sterner quality. If all this be so indeed, the half of the Bible that is untrue renders the half that is true too poor for either respect or hope.

3. Every fulfilled promise of God should become to us a warning. The good things in which He has faithfully kept His word should preach to us of the evil things in which He will also be true. These are very gentle lips which thus solemnly proclaim “wrath to come” against the ungodly. The very tenderness of the tones ought to have, to every unbelieving man, the solemn emphasis of truth. When a mother threatens a child sotto voce, while tears of love stream down her face, it is time for the child to repent. So when God sets mercy to preach wrath, and bids His “good things” assure the wicked of His “evil things,” it is time to believe indeed.

4. The measure of man’s hope should become, also, the measure of his fear. There are many who are not Christians who admire the faith and enthusiasm of the Church. The hymns of the Church are not seldom the admiration of many who make no claim whatever of belonging unto Christ. All the joy in which men legitimately hope for heaven as the home of the righteous is preaching the certainty of the sorrow which awaits the ungodly.

Jos_23:14-16.—CHILDHOOD THROUGH FATHERHOOD.

God was seeking to make the Israelites into a nation which should be separate from all the nations of the earth. He would fashion these children of Abraham into children of God. Mark the process. God assumes that His people will be faithful. He does not prove them before He blesses them. He treats them as a peculiar people already, in order to make them peculiar. He foresees their coming unfaithfulness, but He does not, even on that account, withhold His good gifts. He still gives the good land, with all its accompanying mercies, and does but warn His people that the gifts are conditional. In view of this spirit, the following thoughts may be expanded and illustrated:

I. God proposes to make men His children by treating them as His children.

II. God the Father gives to men abundantly in the present, that He may prepare them to enjoy the still more abundant mercy of the future.

III. To repudiate God’s fatherhood, and to ignore the purpose of His fatherly gifts, is to be cut off from the joys of childhood altogether.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

23:11 be very careful to love: Love is a function of will and intention. Emotion and attraction are the results, not the essence, of love. Because love is (or is not) willed, love can be commanded but not coerced.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, souls.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Take good heed, therefore, that ye love the Lord your God--The sum of his exhortation is comprised in the love of God, which is the end or fulfilment of the law (Deu 6:5; Deu 6:11:13; Mat 22:37).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. Take good heed - unto yourselves that ye love the Lord] לנפשתיכם lenaphshotheychem, Take heed TO YOUR SOULS, literally; but נפש nephesh and [Arabic] nefs, both in Hebrew and Arabic, signify the whole self, as well as soul and life; both soul and body must be joined in this work, for it is written, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Take good heed therefore unto yourselves,.... To be upon their guard, and to be watchful, were very necessary to them, that they might not be ensnared by the Canaanites, and drawn aside by them into idolatry, and so apostatize from the Lord and his worship, since their temptations would be many:

that ye love the Lord your God; which would the most strongly influence and engage them to serve and worship the Lord, and obey his commands, and be the best preservative against idolatry and false worship.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Now it requires more watchfulness and diligence than it did in the wilderness, because your temptations are now more and stronger; partly from the examples and insinuations of your bad neighbours, the remainders of this wicked people; and partly from your own peace and prosperity, and the pride, security, forgetfulness of God, and luxury which usually attend upon that condition, as God had warned them, Deu 6:10-12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Take good heed — This is the condition of the foregoing promise. “Such is the slothfulness of the flesh that it always needs to be stimulated by threats.” — Calvin. The depravity of men compels a resort to fear when an appeal to hope has been ineffectual.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Take good heed to yourselves. This is quoted from Deu_4:15, word for word. The Hebrew is, take heed exceedingly to your souls; but the meaning is either "as you value your lives" (Gesenius), or "with all your soul" (Keil). The former appears preferable. A third interpretation, however, "guard your souls diligently," is suggested by a comparison of Deu_4:9, Deu_4:15.

Love to God.

We are called to love God. It is not enough that we discharge our duty to our neighbour; we have a distinct duty to God, (Mal_1:6) This duty is not fulfilled by the most scrupulous devotion to external service alone. God claims the affection of our hearts.

I THE NATURE OF LOVE TO GOD.

(1) It has all the qualities of genuine love.

(a) It is personal. We love God in loving goodness and all things Godlike; but the perfect love of God implies a personal relation between our soul and His. We love Him as our Father.

(b) It is seen in the delight we have in God, the attraction He is to us, our desire to be in His presence, and the greater brightness of our lives as we grow nearer to Him. True love finds its greatest joy in loving. The love which is merely benevolent, which wishes well without feeling delight, is cold and faint.

(c) It is proved by sacrifice. Love sacrifices itself to death, and prefers the person loved to its own joy. So our love to God must lead to self devotion and willingness to suffer loss for His sake.

(2) It has special features of its own. There are different kinds of love, determined by the different relations of men, as friends, brothers, parents and children, husbands and wives. Our relation to God is unlike any other relation, and the love which flows from this must have a peculiar character. God stands to us in the ideal of all relations, as the friend, the father, the husband of His people, and our love to God should be the perfection and ideal of all love. Still God needs no help from us; therefore the element of pity which characterises the love of the strong to the weak does not belong to this love. God is unseen and spiritual; therefore our love to Him does not naturally take the form of sensuous rapture, but rather that of calm and rational devotion. God is infinitely above us; therefore our love to Him must be inspired with reverence and humility. In its perfection it must become an all-absorbing devotion. Yet even then it will be characterised by strength and depth rather than by passion and visible emotion.

II THE SOURCES OF LOVE TO GOD. We are to "take good heed an admonition which implies that it rests with us to cultivate our own love to God.

(1) Consider the grounds we have for loving God:

(a) In His love to us, seeing that He has loved us before seeking for our love, and has proved His love by His goodness in creation, providence, and redemption;

(b) in His nature, He attracts by the "beauty of holiness;" He is love; the more we know of God the more do we see of His goodness.

(2) Realise the presence of God. Love is strengthened by communion. Contemplation of God with faith in His personal presence will draw the soul near to Him, and deepen the feeling of affection to Him as a real being Father and not as the mere abstraction of perfect attributes which is all that the name of God suggests to some men.

(3) Live in His spirit. As we love what God loves, as we grow like Him, as we approach Him in sympathy, we shall learn to love God.

III THE EFFECTS OF LOVE TO GOD.

(1) Obedience. We shall desire to serve and please Him, and shall do this more heartily than from fear, self interest, or a cold conviction of duty. (Rom_13:10)

(2) Likeness to God. Love naturally assimilates by the influence of

(a) admiration and

(b) sympathy.

(3) Love to man. This is a direct fruit of love to God, because

(a) it pleases Him,

(b) it is Godlike,

(c) love to God must flow out in all forms of unselfishness and benevolence. (1Jn_4:20)

(4) The highest blessedness. Heaven consists in the enjoyment of God through love. He secures, on earth, peace and satisfaction to the deepest yearnings of the soul. W.F.A.

HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE Ver. 11. A needed caution.

Whilst the words of the youthful sometimes claim our attention, none can forbear to give earnest heed to the advice of him whoso head is whitened with the snows of many winters. Respect is due to the aged, and never more so than when lessons taught them by a long and varied experience drop from their venerable lips. Let us bend our ears to listen to the counsel of Joshua, "old and stricken in age." The period at which it was delivered was one of peculiar interest. The honoured leader of the Israelites felt the time to be drawing near when he must pass away from the people whom he regarded as a father does his children. Knowing how soon they would be deprived of his presence and control, he assembled the people, as Moses had previously done, and like Samuel and David afterwards, and addressed them in words of solemn exhortation, which may be summarised in the language of the text, "Take good heed," etc. The purpose of most addresses is to strike a note of warning, to put men on the alert to guard against some danger. Our sleepy senses get so steeped in forgetfulness that there is constant need of the pealing alarm, "Take heed!

I THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CAUTION.

(1) It directs attention to the centre and substance of religion. Our Saviour endorsed "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God" as "the first and great commandment." His condemnation of the Jews was expressed," I know you that ye have not the love of God in you." The first sin consisted in a turning away from God in consequence of the tempter"s insinuation that want of love was the motive of the seemingly harsh prohibition. Hence the incarnation and crucifixion were the stupendous exhibition of Divine love intended to regain the love of man. Affection alone can secure ready and earnest and constant obedience "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Love becomes "the fulfilling of the law." It is the mainspring of a godly life, the fountain whence flow streams of holy activity. Striking is it to observe how love is demanded and insisted on even under the old dispensation. The law giver knew that the sternest threats and severest penalties could not ensure compliance with the commands of the Almighty, unless love were enthroned in the heart as the ruling passion of the life. All the attributes of God require correspending recognition on the part of His creatures; and love as His chief, all-embracing excellence challenges our love in response, and we are guilty if we withhold it.

(2) It is highly necessary on account of man"s nature and surroundings. He is engrossed by the senses and their gratifications, and is averse to what is spiritual. To worship God requires an effort of the mind, an abstraction from things carnal. The spirituality of the Divine nature was a source of difficulty to the Israelites. Even though they had seen the cloud, the fire, the Shechinah, they wanted to set up idols, visible images ever present. And as many of the miraculous elements had disappeared, there was the greater tendency to forgetfulness of Jehovah. Today men urge, "How can we love a Being whom we have never seen?" His laws appear in many instances stringent, and to obey is painful. Evidences of thoughtful, loving design seem rebutted by contrary appearances of disharmony and wrath. It is acknowledged to be difficult to hush the voice of passion, and to hear the "still small voice" that betokens the presence of God. The difficulty is increased by our surroundings. If Israel had been alone upon the earth, it might have maintained intact the worship of the true God. But, encircled by idolatrous tribes and abominable practices, there was constant liability to mix with the evil and catch its infection (see vers. 7, 8). Our position is strictly analogous. We are "in the world," and daily brought into contact with those who make self their aim and treat pure religion with contempt. Easily may the contagion spread. The smoke of the city obscures the heavens, and amidst its din the tones of the angels fall but faintly on the ear. If this applies to believers who know and serve God, how mighty the barriers that interpose between Him and His "prodigal" sons! What dire need of sounding aloud the caution that they may speedily "come to themselves," and return to their Father!

(3) History confirms the necessity of attending to the caution. Joshua well knew how frequently the Israelites had already become estranged from God. Many were the mementos of rebellion left in the wilderness, many the stones which bore the traces of their stumbling. Thus reasoning had its conclusions verified by experience. And which of us has not memorials of folly? If a pillar marked each scene where was displayed absence of regard for our Maker, how thronged with such tokens would be the route by which we have travelled. Call up the remembrance of the acts of childhood and youth and manhood. Each sin was a step upon the path of enmity against God, for it evinced a liking for that which is displeasing to Him. His mercy checked us from utter aberration. The warning of Joshua was proved necessary by the actual event. Standing on the mountain top, he thence surveyed both the past and the future. In spite of the special covenant recorded in the following chapter, the Israelites ceased to love the Lord, and lapsed into idolatry and licentiousness. Would that no similar case could be pointed to amongst those who have been professing Christians! Of how many may it be said, "Ye did run well"? Let history shed its beacon light athwart the waves, reminding us of the rocks, and bidding us remain in the calm open sea of the love of God.

(4) Consider the risk incurred in neglecting the advice of the text. Folly is in proportion to the hazard which neglect involves. Scripture wisely employs every legitimate motive to urge men to adopt its plans. Threats are mentioned as well as promises, and punishments as well as rewards. Joshua declared that the spurning of his counsel would result in the withdrawal of God"s aid in battle (ver. 13), and in their visitation with all manner of evil until destruction ensued (vers. 15, 16). Who shall estimate the peril of encountering the wrath of God? Even with His smile resting upon us the trials of life are hard to bear, but what if we have departed from Him and trials partake of the nature of judgments? True, believers are "kept by the power of God." Nevertheless, declension may cause the serious inquiry whether we have been really classed with believers. Hence the hypothetical statements and warnings of Holy Writ. It is not wise to swim on the verge of a whirlpool. Nor need we try how close to the edge of the cliff we can walk, lest we fall and there be no overhanging bough of Providence to arrest our awful descent.

II PRACTICAL METHODS OF CULTIVATING THE HOLY AFFECTION ENJOINED. A preliminary objection may be raised respecting the inoperativeness of a command relating to the affections. Give an order with regard to the physical powers and it can be obeyed; the intellect will answer a call; but love is a spontaneous product, of internal not external origin, and cannot rise at will. Such an objection overlooks the fact that affection can be influenced, if not absolutely forced, by fixing its attention upon an object, by noting the qualities in it deserving of esteem and regard. Point one man to another whom he sees casually, and no emotion is excited. But describe the man, picture him as a loving friend, generous, noble, and true, and there will be created a desire to know more of him, and acquaintance will ripen curiosity into love. Accordingly we recommend

(1) Frequent meditation upon the character of God. He is the embodiment of every perfection. He is life, light, and love. If, when we observe traits of goodness in our fellow creatures, our hearts go out to them in loving sympathy, what must be the fervency of affection produced by contemplating the fount of goodness as it resides in the Almighty. In men it is but a shallow stream, often dry when most we need it, subject to widest fluctuations and to all changes of temperature, but in God it is an exhaustless perennial flood of all-powerful holiness and benevolence. We cannot let our minds dwell too much on the measureless perfections of the Deity. Let us stand upon the mount with Moses while God passes by, revealing His glory in His excellent name. To shut out the world for a season, and ascend in contemplation to the glorious temple, "where dwells eternal love," will be like exchanging the murky atmosphere of the city for the pure, bracing, inspiring Alpine mountains. We shall return strengthened for work and warfare, less enchanted by the world"s allurements. And yet does the Almighty seem far removed from our ken, and do we need an assurance that He is one whom doubting finite minds can think of with delight? He has provided us with a clear portrait of Himself, His only-begotten son, "the brightness of His glory," the lustre of Deity shaded, that our weak eyes may gaze uninjured, living amongst men, and displaying all the qualities that can command our highest, deepest reverence and love.

(2) A constant passing in review of favours bestowed. Joshua reminded the people that every promise had been fulfilled (vers. 14, 15). The Lord had vanquished the enemy (ver. 3), the land was partitioned, each tribe was enjoying its inheritance. If they adhered to God, memory would be prophetic. Surely gratitude would constrain them to yield loving service unto Him who had done and would do great things for them. And each has but to survey his present position, to let the eye light on many a proof of love Divine. Temporal prosperity, true-hearted friends, the delights of honest labour and rest, health and strength, knowledge and taste, for some of these or a hundred other blessings has every one to thank the author of "every good and perfect gift." Be it noted that mercies augment love, since they teach us plainly the goodness of the Giver. They are to us the revelation of His character, and it must needs be that when we are brought into personal contact with Him, made personally the recipients of His bounty, then we understand Him better, appreciate more the warmth of heavenly rays than when we hear the testimony of others, or behold the sunlight flashing upon them from the throne of God. But what shall we say of God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ as the Father of our spirits, the forgiving God, who by His spirit hath quickened us from the death of sin, and is fitting us for the enjoyment of His immediate presence? And when we call to mind His providential care exercised over us, and the seasons in which He prevented the billows from overwhelming us in despair, and the fires of temptation from scorching us, what joy must it be to comply with the precepts of the text, to "arise and seek Him whom the soul loveth.

(3) Watchfulness against sin. The "expulsive power of a new affection "is a two-edged sword that fights both for good and for evil. The tendency of sin is to blind the judgment, pervert the imagination, and to deaden spiritual emotion. If it were one and uniform we should know how to attack it, but it is insidious and wraps itself in disguises, and encroaches on every side, hence we must be ready to act on the defensive. Joshua cautioned the Israelites against mingling with the degraded inhabitants of the land (vers. 12, 13). This is an entanglement to many a youthful Christian. First, on speaking terms, then follows familiarity, and lastly, participation in the very practices condemned. Not all at once did he rush into flagrant transgression, but gradually walked into the snare, until the love of God was stifled in his breast. Bodily sight depends on the state of the health, and the eye of the soul is dimmed through the indulgence of fleshly lusts. A traitor is admitted into the camp, and the true friend is ousted from his seat of honour. Guard, then, against sin; say not, "it is a little one;" cherish not a viper in your bosom, it will mar your peace, pollute your dwelling, and leave a sting which no palliative shall be able to soothe. But if you are now repenting of sin, be assured of God"s willingness to pardon, "believe in Him that raised up Jesus from the dead; who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification." Then say, "I love Him because He first loved me. A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Take heed - Now it requires more watchfulness and diligence than it did in the wilderness, because your temptations are now stronger; from the examples and insinuations of your bad neighbours, the remainders of this wicked people; and from your own peace and prosperity: and the pride, security, forgetfulness of God, and luxury, which usually attend that condition.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.