We do not know how long the survivors of the conquering army lived in sufficient numbers to leaven opinion and practice. We may, however, roughly calculate that the youngest of these would be about twenty when the war began, and that about fifty years would see the end of the host that had crossed Jordan and stormed Jericho. If Joshua was of about the same age as Caleb, he would be about eighty at the beginning of the conquest, and lived thirty years afterwards, so that about twenty years after his death would be the limit of the elders that outlived Joshua.'
Judges 2:6-9 substantially repeat Joshua 24:28-31, and are here inserted to mark not only the connection with the former book, but to indicate the beginning of a new epoch. The facts narrated in this paragraph are but too sadly in accord with the uniform tendencies of our poor weak nature. As long as some strong personality leads a nation or a church, it keeps true to its early fervor. The first generation which has lived through some great epoch, when God's arm has been made bare, retains the impression of His power, But when the leader falls, it is like withdrawing a magnet, and the heap of iron filings tumbles back to the ground inert. Think of the post-Apostolic age of the Church, of Germany in the generation after Luther, not to come nearer home, and we must see that Israel's experience was an all but universal one. It is hard to keep a community even of professing Christians on the high level. No great cause is ever launched which does not lose way' as it continues. Having begun in the Spirit,' all such are too apt to continue in the flesh.' The original impulses wane, friction begins to tell. Custom clogs the wheels. The fiery lava-stream cools and slackens. So it always has been. Therefore God has to change His instruments, and churches need to be shaken up, and sometimes broken up, lest one good,' when it has degenerated into custom,' should corrupt the world.'
But we shall miss the lesson here taught if we do not apply it to tendencies in ourselves, and humbly recognize that we are in danger of being hindered,' however well' we may have begun to run,' and that our only remedy is to renew continually our first-hand vision of the great works of the Lord,' and our consecration to His service. It is a poor affair if, like Israel, our devotion to God depends on Joshua's life, or, like King Joash, we do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.'
