Joshua 11:15

God's commandment and man's faithfulness.

I. GOD 'S COMMANDMENT IS ENDURING . The commandment to Moses is transmitted to Joshua. God's will is changeless. What is right is right eternally. We must not regard God's laws as obsolete when they are ancient. The precepts of the Bible are not the less binding upon us because they are old ( Psalms 119:160 ; Isaiah 40:8 ). Nevertheless

(a) what God commands relative to certain circumstances will be modified if those circumstances are changed;

(b) a larger commandment coming later exonerates from the observance of the details of a smaller commandment when these are by their nature preparatory to the larger. Thus the larger Christian law of love frees us from the narrower preparatory law of ordinances ( Romans 13:10 ).

II. FAITHFULNESS TO GOD CONSISTS IN SERVING GOD IN OBEDIENCE TO ALL HE COMMANDS US .