The Historical Scriptures [pp. 484-504]

Old Testament History.
Between these distant points of time, however, there is, as
we have seen before, a kind of water-shed, or central height, to
which the system travels up from Moses and then down to the
Messiah. This is the reign of David, between which and the
Mosaic legislation, there may still be traced upon the surface
of the history distinguishable boundaries, or limits, marking off
distinct conditions of the chosen people. Such, for instance, is
the Mission of the Spies from Kadesh, and the consequent refusal of the people to go up and take possession of the land.
Beyond that fatal limit lies the Mysterious Error in the Wilderness, to the elder race a condign punishment of exquisite
severity, but to their sons a wise and merciful provision for their
gradual deliverance from parental influence, and for their moral
education under the direct control of Moses, or, to speak more
properly, of God himself. The condition of the people during
these memorable forty years, has no analogy in earlier or later
history, and may, therefore, properly be made the basis of a
distinct period.
The next dividiig line is that presented by the Conquest of
the Promised Land, begun by Moses and continued under his
successor, Joshua, the son of Nun, with the efficient aid of the
contemporary race, whose frequently commended faithfulness
and zeal may, no doubt, be ascribed in a great measure to their
training in the wilderness, already mentioned. The culpable
remissness of the next generation, in waging an exterminating
war against the Canaanites, imparts a very different character
and aspect to the period of the Judges, during which the people
were again and again judicially abandoned to the very enemies
whom they had, with a false compassion, spared, and to a multitude of others like them, who continued to oppress them until
they repented and returned to God, who then restored them by
the agency of military chieftains, or dictators, known in history
as Judges. Though the social evils of this period have by some
been most unduly magnified, the whole condition of the people
was peculiar, and entitles this part of the history to separate
consideration.
Towards the close of this long and eventful period, a premonition of some new change is afforded by the gradual translation of the dictatorial or judicial power from the hands of mili
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