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The Lord still works in a similar manner to glorify His name by
bringing men to acknowledge His justice. When those who profess
to love Him complain of His providence, despise His promises, and,
yielding to temptation, unite with evil angels to defeat the purposes
of God, the Lord often so overrules circumstances as to bring these
persons where, though they may have no real repentance, they will
be convinced of their sin and will be constrained to acknowledge the
wickedness of their course and the justice and goodness of God in His
dealings with them. It is thus that God sets counteragencies at work
to make manifest the works of darkness. And though the spirit which
prompted to the evil course is not radically changed, confessions are
made that vindicate the honor of God and justify His faithful reprovers,
who have been opposed and misrepresented. Thus it will be when the
wrath of God shall be finally poured out. When “the Lord cometh with
ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all,” He will also
“convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds.”
Jude 14, 15
. Every sinner will be brought to see and acknowledge the
justice of his condemnation.
Regardless of the divine sentence, the Israelites prepared to under-
take the conquest of Canaan. Equipped with armor and weapons of
war, they were, in their own estimation, fully prepared for conflict;
but they were sadly deficient in the sight of God and His sorrowful
servants. When, nearly forty years later, the Lord directed Israel to go
up and take Jericho, He promised to go with them. The ark containing
His law was borne before their armies. His appointed leaders were
to direct their movements, under the divine supervision. With such
guidance, no harm could come to them. But now, contrary to the
command of God and the solemn prohibition of their leaders, without
the ark, and without Moses, they went out to meet the armies of the
enemy.
The trumpet sounded an alarm, and Moses hastened after them
with the warning, “Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment
of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is
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not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the
Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall
by the sword.”
The Canaanites had heard of the mysterious power that seemed to
be guarding this people and of the wonders wrought in their behalf,