OS 5:10-12{GILGAL follows immediately the crossing of Jordan, the antitype of which is in Eph. 1 By the power of God we were brought over when Christ rose from the dead. Then we all went up with Him. We do not know it perhaps. Born princes, as I have said, are sometimes a long time before they find out what they are. So we are sometimes a long time before we find out that in God's mind we were over when Christ rose.
After Jordan comes Gilgal. First I will notice the difference between Gilgal and Marah. Marah is in Ex. 15:2323And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. (Exodus 15:23). Marah is when you enter the wilderness; Gilgal when you enter Canaan, which is typically the heavenly places. One is in the wilderness and the other in heaven. All turns upon this. Marah is drinking death, the bitter water of the Red Sea. Christ has gone through death for us, and cleared us of everything; we take our place in the wilderness, and now comes suffering in the flesh, clearly not suffering for sin, for Christ has cleared all that away. It is important to understand the difference between Marah and Gilgal. Every Christian knows something of Marah. He could not be a Christian without it.
In 1 Peter 4 we read: " As Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin." That is Marah. The cross is the tree thrown into the waters, and they are sweet because the cross is there. This is the antitype of the passage in Exodus: " Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." For instance, I go into a room, and see something is on the table that I would like to appropriate, but it is not mine, and I do not. I walk out of the room instead. Well, I have ceased from sin. It would be sin to like it, and I did not take it. I suffered in the flesh; I ceased from sin. It was not that there was no sin in me, but I have ceased from it: I have drunk the bitter water made sweet through Christ's death.
Let me however say this: the wilderness to me is a very different thing from what it was to Israel. To them there was nothing in it to allure them. They could only have tempting things before them by thinking of Egypt. But there are plenty of things around me to tempt me, because I am in the same place,' and perhaps doing the same business as before I was converted. Egypt to me yesterday is the wilderness to-day. Yesterday I had the world with its order and rule to depend upon; to-day I have nothing to depend upon for a single moment but God.
I will illustrate the difference. There is a man selling apples at the corner of the street, and some ruffianly man comes and overturns his stall. What does he do? He calls a policeman. That is Egypt. But now he is converted, and he is no longer in Egypt, but in the wilderness, and selling his apples at the corner of the street as before; and the same wicked man comes and knocks down his stall again. Well, what does he do now? Does he call the policeman? No, he commits it to his Father; he says, I must bring in death upon the flesh now instead of gratifying it.
Now this is very different from Israel. In Egypt they could have the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but not in the wilderness; while I have them all around me. Therefore Peter says, " Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul." And it is important to understand this difference. You are perhaps a person of unblemished character, but that does not give you immunity from suffering; you do suffer, but it is from the open attacks of Satan, not the covert ones; that is, you suffer from Amalek, the enemy of the wilderness. Amalek came out and fought against Israel in the wilderness. He is not the enemy of Canaan.
Romans does not take you out of the wilderness. There we read, " we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body."
In Hebrews we are running on to heaven, but not there yet, nor do we get to the ground where we can stand for Christ. It is not that you are not on ground where you can be a real Christian, conduct yourself rightly, and resist evil, but then it is another thing altogether when we come to Canaan. So in the history of Israel. There was Pharaoh the enemy in Egypt, Amalek in the wilderness, Balaam when they left the wilderness. It was after the wars with Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og the king of Bashan, that Balaam appeared. Balaam's object was to draw them into association with the world. Then comes Jordan, and now I am a dead man: man is gone, and I am on the other side. Balaam could not do me any harm in the land; I am dead there through Christ.
We have come now to another ground, and the only ground where we stand for Christ. If you ask, What is the difference between the wilderness and Canaan? I reply, In the wilderness Christ supports me in my circumstances, but in Canaan I stand in His circumstances. Nothing can be clearer. We cannot now know Christ on earth. As the apostle says: " Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." Now we are in heaven, and our first lesson is that we are united to Him there, and like a faithful spouse, bound to represent that blessed One to whom we are united; in the place where He is not. That is the thing we are called to, and every true heart says, That is the very thing I would like.
The result is that though I am in the circumstances of the wilderness, I am above them. I will illustrate this simply. Here is a poor woman with many children, struggling on, and the Lord helping her, and she thanking the Lord every day for His mercies to her, and for His care; her heart bounding with delight in the prospect of the eternal rest that is coming; and while thus traveling on through the wilderness, one of her benefactors comes in one day, and proposes something of a worldly nature to her, something of a worldly advantage. But she replies, No, I cannot accept that. She is thus above her circumstances, she is standing for Christ now. But what is the result? That benefactor has become opposed -perhaps bitterly opposed to her. But she is unmoved. She says, I will stand for my Lord. I am getting through the wilderness because He stands for me, but now I stand for Him. Through Him I am across death, and on the other side, risen with Him.
Now I turn to Col. 3 to explain Gilgal. The Colossians were intelligent and nice Christians. This is clear from what the apostle, says, " We give thanks to God... since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love ye have to all the saints." In chapter 3 he says: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ sitteth."
I do not think we have, properly speaking, the old corn of the land here; there may be allusion to it lower down in the chapter, in " the peace of Christ to which we are called in one body." That is the corporate thing; but here it is individual. I am risen with Christ; but in Eph. 1 am not only over Jordan, but I learn what will fit me for Christ here. I do not get that in Colossians at all. It is what we get in Ephesians. There the almighty power of God carries me over; there is not a word about me; not even my conversion. It does not touch my side at all, except as to my state, dead in sins; it is God's side. Well, now comes, " If ye then be risen with Christ.... Set your affections on things above."
There are only two places for blessing, earth and heaven. Often a person may not be worldly, but he is earthly; then he is not heavenly. " Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead." You do not get that in Romans. There it is, " Reckon yourselves dead." Here man is gone altogether; this man is the practical difficulty in the way of acting for Christ; you 'mist not bring in this man at all.
" The weapons of our warfare are not carnal"-that is, not merely evil, but fleshly.
Now we come to Gilgal, and I will now try to explain what it is. " Ye are dead," says the apostle; then " mortify your members which are upon the earth." It is not merely bringing death upon a thing as it arises, but now the whole thing is rolled off; the reproach of Egypt is rolled away; that is Gilgal. It is not only that you are dead, but you roll off the reproach of Egypt. I not only put off the bad things, but I put off the flesh, the whole thing. I have entirely done with that man: It is a most wonderful thing to you, if you really know it practically.
See what a practical difference there is between Marah and Gilgal. In Marah you do not allow the working of the flesh; and you must continue that in all your christian course, not allowing the flesh to work. But in Gilgal it is more; the whole thing is rolled off. Put off all these-" anger, wrath, malice," Sic. A person carefully educated perhaps would not have these, but he has others. Well, all must be put off, and this on the ground that you are dead with Christ. I am not to have one bit of what belonged to the old man. I am disencumbered of-the whole thing now, and I am occupying new ground.
You may say it is very difficult to understand it. In one sense it is difficult, and you never can understand it in a natural way. Our meetings are often spoiled by trying to bring out natural sentiment; nothing of human sentiment can help a Christian; God does not want man's mind.
If you ask, How am I to know the difference between a natural sentiment and a spiritual thought? Why, in this way. You will find a human, sentiment is exciting in its character; a natural thought or sentiment elates you, while a spiritual thought gives you the impression of the greatness of it. You are subdued with the greatness of it. A human sentiment, on the' contrary, excites you just as in a revival meeting. But there is sure to be depression after it. Whereas the effect of the mighty power of God in the word has the result of making me long to be alone, that I may know the virtue of what my ear has listened to, and my heart has rested on. That is a very different effect.
Still I can understand the difficulty; we are but poor creatures, and have all been affected more or less by beautiful sentiments, and we know the exhilarating, effects they have had on us; but we also know that they do not last. It is " like the crackling of thorns under a pot." But the divine has a subduing effect, and yet it lay’s hold of you; and it chews the blessedness of divine teaching. Still we know how difficult it is to keep clear of it. For instance, suppose a meeting in a low state, and some one gives out a hymn of an exciting character to raise the tone of it. There may be a thrill, for a moment, but it is soon over. It is mere excitement. There is no excitement in the divine circle. There is a sense of the divine; a sense that the blessed Lord claims me; it is not the expulsive power of a new affection, but of a new Person. It is a very blessed thing, but I am not a bit elated by it; on the contrary, I am sensible of the weight, of the blessedness of it. In one sense it puts me out in order to take possession.
At Gilgal I am a new man. I am entirely apart from the activities of the natural man, amiable or not; Christ is all. There must be nothing of myself-no human activities at all. Of course there is the vessel still. The vessel is the body, and the body is the Lord's and He can use it. But Christ is everything. This is a very practical thing, and I love the subject; because I believe if the soul gets hold of the difference between Marah and Gilgal, it gets a wonderful lift. I often think what a relief it would have been to me had I known it sooner. I have got rid of the old thing, and now I am coming on to learn what suits Christ.
But you may say, Still the old thing comes back again, and what are we to do with it? John 13 just answers that. In Col. 3 you get standing, in John 13, state. The Lord there says, I will wash your feet, for " if I wash thee not thou hast no part with me." I have gone into heaven, and I cannot have you there with me unless you are clean, for nothing that defileth can enter there. It is not merely forgiveness;- it is removal of defilement. Not forgiveness only, but I am washed-washed and wiped; that there may be no sense of defilement. You cannot be in heaven with the sense of defilement? Peter was very devoted, and had great love for the Lord; but he was not in communion, for if you are in communion there will be no reserve between you and the Lord.
In Hebrews you get into the holiest, but there you feel the perfect One has had to be " rent " to let you, the imperfect one in. But supposing I fail now. Here John 13:88Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. (John 13:8) comes in. The Lord says, I will wash your feet so that there may not be a shadow of reserve on your heart touching that thing in which you failed. The action, perhaps, may be rapid or slow; you will generally find that it is in proportion to the depth of the offense; the deeper the offense, the slower generally the recovery. In Num. 19 we have the ashes of the red heifer, and the running water-the Spirit-for applying them. The ashes are the token that judgment has been here. Has been, not, is; it could not be ashes if it were here now. Ashes are the token of accomplished judgment. And what does it bring to your soul? The knowledge that Christ has borne the judgment of God for that bit of self-gratification in which you indulged. It had disturbed your communion. Would that we were more sensitive as to this!
But let me add one thing: You cannot disturb communion unless you first have it. You may have affection for Christ, and yet may never have joined Him in the new place where He is, and therefore you have not communion with Him. It would have broken the disciples' hearts not to have joined Him where He was going; He had so won their hearts that separation from Him would have been unbearable. They would have said like Ruth, " Entreat me not to leave thee." But I have not to say this, for He tells me He wants me to be with Him, blessed be His name! And yet how loth we are to get into the new place! How contented to have " no part with Him," although not a shadow of sin is left; in the eye of God the root, the whole thing, is judged in the cross. It is not that I am forgiven; that which I deserved He bore, and I am clear, but it is only in the new place that I can " have part " with Him.
I have said so much upon Gilgal because of its importance; it is just this: the old man is left outside. When a man is enlisted, he is brought to the barracks, and once within the gates, he leaves behind all the old things which as a civilian; belonged to him; he is turned into a new kind of person, he drops the dress, and walk, and the tastes he had in former times, and he is brought within the barrack gates, in order to be fitted for the king's army. That is what Gilgal is; we are brought inside the gates.
Let us see then, what the Barracks are. First of all, we are in the new place; the old thing is gone in the death of Christ; it is all left behind., We are dead with Him, and now raised up and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. I am not going to have, in this new place where I am, any of that which I had before.
How is this effected practically? We get an instance in Paul, when he says, " Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." It is not the question whether it is good or bad. People draw distinctions and talk of what is good. What does Paul say of it in Philippians? " But what things were gain tome, those I counted loss for Christ." He not merely gave up his sins, but he gave up his righteousnesses too. He was glad to give them up for the righteousness in Christ. He says, I would be found "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Not my sins, but "my own righteousness;" what was "gain to me;" all that was gain to me as a man; it is gone, and I come out on a new principle, to do everything in the name of Christ. Thus I am qualified.
You do not get Ephesian walk in Colossians. You get a good deal of what is very nice; but the saint is going- on to, and looking to be prepared for, the walk which you get in Ephesians. Do you say, This is too high for us. The fact is, we have all missed the mind of God, we have been calling low things by high names, assuming Ephesian walk where there is no Ephesian walk at all.
You may be on your way to heaven, as in Hebrews; that is the wilderness walk, but Ephesian walk is standing for Christ here; above my circumstances for Christ, like Stephen. Or like the woman I have already spoken of, not only beautiful in her wilderness character, working her way through it, but when the test comes, proved to be superior to her circumstances, and able to stand for Christ. She got the power for it, by going up to the Christ's place. If Stephen had not gone up, he could not have acted here in the power of Christ. That is the power Paul speaks of when he says," That the power of Christ may rest upon me." I get it by going up; it is mine, but if I do not go up, I have not got it. Hence it is, " Hereby shall ye know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites."
Well, now, we are inside the barrack gates, and the first thing we come to inside is the passover. Here the recruit is to be fitted for service for the Lord, and the first great qualification is, to learn what the love of Christ is in bringing me there.
Do you say, Could I not learn that on earth? No, you could not learn it in the same way. On earth you are surrounded with all the hindrances, like a man at his daily business. It is not in the press of business that he learns what a happy home he has. It is when he comes home, and sits in the circle of his family, that his heart deepens in the sense of his happy home, and what a highly favored man he is to have such circumstances. This was not the thing before him in the pressure of business; it is not there that he can enjoy' the love of his home. Well, now, when do I enjoy Christ's love? When do I learn His heart? When I am there in the scene of unspeakable delight, with the sense " There is not a cloud above, not a spot within." What occupies me there? I dwell on the love that brought me there, and the manner of that love too. There is nobody who knows anything of the heart but can affirm that it is so. When you are at ease in your Circumstances, you enjoy the love of anybody most. Suppose you think of a parent's love to his child; it is when he is in happy circumstances he will have the greatest sense of it. When the child is ill, he is full of interest and anxiety about it, and sympathizes with it to the utmost degree; but, I ask, When does he enjoy that child most? when it is ill? No, when it 'recovers-when it is quite well. And so God says, " He will rest in his love." When? When all is over; when all the work is known; He will then "joy over you with singing." Because there will then be nothing to hinder the heart from going fully out. Thus it is in the passover, in the land, that we get the deepest sense of the love of Christ.
Now turn to Ex. 12 Here we' have the passover in Egypt. I want you to see, the difference between the passover in Egypt and the passover in Canaan. I often adduce this to chew what a difference a place can effect. It is the same feast, and yet they are quite different. There were no bitter herbs in Canaan; in Egypt there were.
The passover in Egypt is, typically, what Paul went through in the three days after his conversion; he was feeding on the death of Christ; tasting in his soul the, sense of what Christ passed through when He bore the judgment due to him. In this passover I am sheltered by the blood, and feeding on the sacrifice. That was what Paul went through in those three days: he learned what Christ went through to set him without a cloud in the brightest glory.
How often at the Lord's table we hear only of our sins having been put away. Well, that ' is the passover in Egypt. The Lord's supper is to call Christ to your remembrance, not your benefits. You cannot lose your benefits; but it is when you are most in the enjoyment of the benefits, that you most dwell on the Benefactor who brought you into the benefits.
At the passover in Canaan we are on heavenly ground. It is like Deut. 26 I am brought up to the place; I am put on a new level; not on the level of Adam, but on the level of Christ. What am I thinking about now? I am thinking of the love of His heart in bringing me to this wonderful position, and calling me to remember what He did for me, and to sit at His table in remembrance of Him. Nowhere should we get such a sense of the love of Christ as at the Lord's supper, when we see how that love led Him to go through death for us. Paul could say, His work has cleared away everything, and now I can, go up alongside of Him. I know what He went through for me, and now I want to be where He is; and I believe, beloved friends, the more deeply I get acquainted with that realm of glory where He is, the more my heart will revert to what that blessed One went through to bring me to that blessed position. See what they do when they are there with Him in the Revelation: "And when those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power." And again, "for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation." Crowns are not pieces of metal; they are the sense that I have reached the summit, and that there I can fall down before Him and say, I owe all this to Thy death. Hence you get in Ephesians, " That ye may know the love of Christ' that passeth knowledge." That can be only known by a person in heaven; I am there, and I am remembering how I got there. He went down to death for me, and "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." "But God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"-sinners, mark! not friends. And the further I go on, and the more I know of the place where that love has brought me, the greater will be the sense I have of it.
My knowledge of His love grows the way in which a tree grows, higher and deeper; the higher the tree grows, the bigger the trunk becomes, so that the trunk is always the thickest part of the tree. And so the first acquaintance I have had with the love of Christ always has the largest and deepest place in my soul. That is what He did for me, and that is first love. The farther you advance, the more that deepens. Look at a tree; which part is the thickest? That which grew first. Thus the first thing I was acquainted with as a believer was the love which led Christ to go, down to death for me. Can I get any lesson now better fitted to qualify me than that? No. Well, what shall I do? I will stand for Him here. It is love for Him that makes me stand for Him. I am made a soldier in a moment. I say, you have touched my object, and I am sensitive to a degree. It is not a question of who has done it, but that you have touched Christ. I sometimes illustrate it by showing how a hen acts with her brood. She is one of the most timid of animals, but let a dog approach her brood; she is a soldier in a moment, and no dog will face her. She is transformed in a moment, by simple affection, into the most valiant of beings for the object of her affection; if you ever saw it, you would never forget it. Thus if I have a heart for Christ, I must stand for Him, and I cannot do anything unbecoming His name. I could not do a thing that would in any way compromise Him.
The second thing we find after Gilgal, inside the barrack gate is, that the manna ceased, and they ate the old corn of the land. I am not going to say much on that, though it is a subject of much interest. The old corn was not till Christ " sat down." It began when the Holy Ghost came down uniting us to Christ, and thus connecting us with the old corn of the land; but we have manna all the way up. This is the comfort for a person who touches manna at all. As a poor sinner he has had the pardon of his sins, and he feeds on Christ's death, and now he has the manna all the way; and this is true of every believer.
The old corn of the land is another thing; it is not what Christ was upon the earth, but what He is in glory. Would you not like to feed on Him thus? Would you not like to know what He is now? I feel humbled when I think how little I know of what Christ is at this moment. If I did, I should be sure to do the right thing in the place where I am.
The simple exposition of the two is this. Manna is what He was; the old corn of the land is what He is. Surely every true heart that has known what He was, must long to know Him as He is. Thus the apostle speaks in Philippians, " That I may know him "-that is, as He is -" and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." That I may know Him where He is, and then come down here to suffer for Him. You may say, this is vastly beyond us. Well, if you admit that, it is humbling, and you cannot boast. A child may say, I have finished that book; but, the teacher says, you have not got to the end yet; you have to learn much more. So we: we often think we have learned all, when we are only at the beginning. In one way there is nothing actually new to learn, because what we have to learn is what we already possess. We have to grow in it, and to learn on, and if we do not, we are not enjoying it.
Any person who knows anything about history, knows that many of those who were born princes, were a long time before they found out what it was to be princes; and often called themselves princes before they knew what it meant. I often think that is the way with us. We talk of our position and of being here for Christ-like an army in review. Where do you get the right idea of it? I must learn it in His presence where He is. That is the only way to learn it. And you come out having fed on the old corn of the land, your heart impressed with a fresh sense of His love, and of His power also. You must know union before you can have power, and you can only know it in the place where He is.
To stand for Christ is what we are called to do; and thus it is that we are prepared and qualified for it.
(J. B. S.)