MOREOVER this new position was owned by God, and taught―for the manna ceased the day after they had crossed, and they did eat of the ripe corn of the land. The Lord also rolled away the reproach of Egypt from them Gilgal. With us, as having the witness and earnest of the Holy Ghost, this is the truth of the Colossian epistle―We are circumcised with the circumcision of Christ, and are one with the heavenly Man in the heavens. The word to us is, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth.” The Ephesian epistle carries us still further in connection with the counsels of God, as bound up in Christ (the Ark of the Covenant), and views us as raised up together, and seated in heavenly places in Christ, as “Head of His body the Church, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” The nature of the conflict is also different, on the other side of Jordan―for we no longer wrestle merely with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, against the rulers al the darkness of this world, and wicked spirits in the heavenlies. As the captain of the hosts of the Lord appeared to Joshua at Gilgal with his sword drawn, so the direction to us in the Ephesians is, “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might and “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
On the other side of Jordan, the Ark of the Covenant and the priests still held the plane of power that they did in the swellings of the river, and mem as distinguished in front of the walls of Jericho, the city of the enemy’s strength (whose walls reached to heaven), as when their feet touched the brim of the water, or stood firm in the midst of the river. Then the waters were cut off by Jehovah’s power (as the Lead of the whole earth), and gathered themselves up into an heap; and now, after compassing the city seven days, the walls of Jericho fell down flat, and every man went up straight before him and took the city―so was it with Christ, for these were the paths He trod; as the great Captain of our salvation. He not only descended first into the lower parts of the earth, but “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.”
The anti-typical Ark of the Covenant has since passed over, and gone up on high, and is now in His place at the right hand of God; and we who are under the anointing, as kings and priest unto God, have now to be “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” that every obstacle may like-wise fall down flat, and each go straight over to his inheritance. On the descent Of the Holy Ghost helm the ascended Lord and Head at Pentecost (when the disciples were endued with power from on high), we may trace, in the Acts of the Apostles, how, as the priests of the Lord, they exercised the same confidence and boldness in God. Across Jordan as they then were (by Gilgal, and the true circumcision, and by union with the risen Christ in heaven) they were confronted, as the new witnesses of God, by the opposing power and rage of the enemy himself. Cities and their captains, Satan and the world, prisons and their keepers, present themselves again as an opposing power; but the bars, the bolts, the iron chains, all fell off, or the prison doors flew open as when Jericho’s walls fell down, The anointed ones preyed and sang praises to God, just as in Joshua’s time the seven priests sounded (under the direction of the captain, with a drawn sword) their rams’ horns before the walls of Jericho, and the people shouted with a great shout. The jailor drew out his sword, and would have killed himself. Whether in Joshua’s day or in Pentecostal times, it is important to remark that the original power introduced by God against Jericho, the city of the enemy’s strength; or in testimony against the world and its prince now, as to sin, and righteousness and judgment; remained in almighty force, till the sin of Achan then, or the sin of Ananias and Sapphire against the Holy Ghost since; turned the order of God’s acting’s in government in the midst of His people. For instance, we lose the priests and the place of prominence given to the “Ark of the Covenant” at Jericho, when Israel attacked the second city, Ai, without asking counsel of God, because it was a smaller one; and instead of the priests bearing the Ark, and the blowing, the rams’ horns on the seventh day, and Israel in possession, Joshua chooses thirty thousand men mighty in velour, for this siege, and there is an ambush laid, &c. In fact, the heavenly mid divine character of the conflict is changed by their neglect of Jehovah and His counsel; as also by the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold, which marked the sin of Achan, and caused all Israel to be humbled. Then the subsequent combats are carried on more, by mighty men of valor, and less by the service of the priests in connection with the Ark and the rams’ horns. Even Joshua himself takes a spear, and drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out his spear over Ai, until it was consumed. The anointed priesthood and the Ark have given place governmentally to what is more human and secondary as to strategy and warlike means, and man gets into a place where his own might and power are allowed to act. Jehovah, as “the Lord of the whole earth,” remained faithful to His people, and justified Joshua not only on the earth, but in the heavens likewise, when “He said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,” so that “there was no claylike that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.” “The eternal Bed is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them!”