WE are prone to stop at the division of the land by Joshua, instead of remembering, Paul’s account of the ways of God, by which He brings in the right man, too! “And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave unto them judges till Samuel the prophet.” But neither the judges nor Samuel fulfilled all Jehovah’s will to Israel; “and afterwards they desired a king, so God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, by the space of forty years,” who also failed. The judge, and the prophet, and the king were removed, that the promise and purpose of God might take effect according to His own counsel So “He raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also He gave testimony, and, said, I have found David, the son, of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.” Thus we reach the one whom God hath made strong for Himself, “For this man’s seed hath God, according to His promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour―Jesus,” who shall fulfill all His will.
The rod of Moses, or the power of God, has done its work in pointing to Christ as the power and wisdom of God. The rod of priestly intercession by Aaron has given place to the Son of God passed through the heavens, Whoever lives to make intercession for us. The Ark of the Covenant, with its deposits of the manna, and the golden pot, and the two tables of the testimony, have been embodied in the Incarnate Christ, and in the glorified Son of Man at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The spear of Joshua, and the drawn sword of the mysterious captain of the Lord’s host, are plainly revealed to us in Him who is to come forth on the white horse, clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, whose name is called “the Word of God.” The order and patterns of the tabernacle, and the more costly and magnificent ones of the temple of Solomon, have all given place to what the heavens have received back again, and since displayed in “the Minister of the Sanctuary, and of the trite tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man.”
God hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. The throne; the scepter, and the kingdom are likewise Christ’s, who was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His person, who also created all things, and by whom all things consist. Such is our blessed Lord when viewed in the light of promise and prophecy, types and shadows, relations and offices, which have come in and passed before us in the wonderful records of the Old Testament, the things as Jesus said after His resurrection, which were written in Moses and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me. “The sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow,” revealed the new path to the disciples, which Jesus took when He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. They thought it had been He which should have redeemed Israel by power at that time, and established the nation’s blessing upon the earth, according to millennial prophecies and promises; but their redemption by blood, and. Christ’s resurrection to the right hand of God, were the appointed pathway for “the sure mercies of David.” All this has been accomplished, for Christ has entered into the holiest, having obtained eternal redemption, and to them that look for Him shall He come a second time without sin unto salvation. In the meanwhile, the heavens have received Him till the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His prophets since the world began. Israel is thus shut up to the bright expectation of her national millennium at the second coming of the Messiah, and the outpouring of the Spirit, when, in all readiness of heart, they will say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” “Jerusalem shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” “Them shalt no more be termed, Forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate.... for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married... thy God shall rejoice over thee.” “The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new mane, which the mouth of the Lord shall name:” Moreover, “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit, and great shall be the peace of His people, for all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest.” Witnesses and earnests will have been all thus fulfilled to Israel, and the name of the city from that day shall be, Jehovah, Shammah―the Lord is there!
It need scarcely be said, we are not now considering the Church of God, or its calling and portion above the heavens, with Christ its Head, who is already seated these; but Israel and its place on earth, in connection with “the kingdom under the whole heaven” in ultimate and established blessing.
“Israel then shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain, of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.”
J. E. B.