Joshua 7:13

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow." Jos 7:13

In this sense sanctification was equal to preparation. There should be solemn days of scrutiny in every man's life. We can complete the process of self-scrutiny even where social scrutiny is impossible. The man who judges himself most severely has least to fear from the judgments of others: he can bear their criticism with composure when he knows it to be just; he can treat it with disdain when he knows it to be malicious. All these appointments lead up to the grand assize in which the whole world shall be judged. To live without scrutiny is to live without the enjoyment of many a privilege. Scrutiny is not all on the side of severity. The Old Testament saints were sometimes enabled to plead their integrity under circumstances of persecution as a ground for divine protection. They knew that the enemy had formed a wrong estimate of their character, and, being confident of this, they had also confidence in God. Such scrutiny as is indicated in the text shows that there are circumstances in life which can only be met by severe moral inquest. Penetrating questions must be asked; detailed examination must be conducted. A man must, so to say, retire within himself, and submit every part of himself to scrutiny, as if each part were a separate individuality. The sin may be found lurking in the imagination, the taste, the affections, the understanding, the selfishness or the ignorance of man. The man must not look upon himself as a whole, and ask general questions regarding his conduct, but must regard himself as divided into many attributes and forces, and must seize each, and by severest cross-examination discover which is the Achan, the thief, the idolater, the miser, the blasphemer, the liar; it is easy to talk about a general examination and to pronounce vague judgments; we are called to analysis severe and exhaustive. He does not love himself, but, on the contrary, bitterly hates himself, who is unfaithful in this matter of self-scrutiny.