OS 5:13-15{OS 6:1-16{HERE we have a type of the heavenly warfare, and it is important for us to understand, because the child of God is never out of warfare. If you look along the Erie you will see this is the case. There is Pharaoh in Egypt; Amalek in the wilderness; Balaam when you leave the wilderness; and in the land there is the greatest force of the enemy, the seven nations arrayed against the heavenly position.
In the world, Satan is against even a poor sinner. For the apostle says, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world Hath blinded the mind of them which believe not." Pharaoh overcome, you get into the wilderness and find Marah; you drink death, you are sustained by Christ in that place. But then Amalek comes out to fight-to intimidate you-to dispute the fact that you are to take this position. Here you will find two things: one, the intercession of Christ to support you; and the other, if I may use a familiar expression, you show fight. Joshua took men and went out to fight Amalek; and at the same time intercession was the real help.
Let me give you an illustration. The Lord said to Peter: " Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." There was intercession; not for his salvation-he was saved: it was that his faith might not fail. But was Peter ready for the fight? On the contrary, he trusted himself to the high priest's house, and was pleased when there, to find a fire. But the devil was there too: They did not see the devil, but he was there to prevent Peter from being a dependent man. That was not the heavenly battle. Satan seeks by all these snares to keep us from the place of dependence, which is the wilderness.
Now go on to Num. 21 There the people are outside the wilderness; and here you find a great many believers now, really established in grace, knowing what God has done for them and in them, having life in Christ, and the Holy Ghost in them, as in John 3 and iv. The brazen serpent was on the very edge of the wilderness; the people are outside, as to state, and thinking perhaps that all will be plain sailing now, when Sihon king of the Amorites comes against them, and they fight him, and the Lord delivers them. That was a battle, but it was not a heavenly battle. They are now out, of the wilderness and going on to Canaan, and they have this desperate battle on the way. Like a man in Hebrews; he is going on to heaven, but not there yet. A saint soon discovers if he is going to heaven; but there is such a thing as being in heaven and going on to it at the same time. " Ye have not yet resisted unto blood," the apostle says; "striving against sin." That was death-martyrdom; and I have no doubt at all that many devoted men of God, have had their battles this side Jordan. They suffer greatly, but they seek a religious position here; like the two and a half tribes, who wanted a place to settle in on this side of Jordan.
What we discover practically in this is, that we are not to acquire in these battles; though we conquer in the place, we are not to occupy the place. On the other hand, when I come to heavenly battles, all I gain is my possession-my right. To illustrate my meaning, Luther was backed up by the Elector of Saxony, and as a result he had a status here. But that is all wrong. If you establish a religious system in the world you are all wrong. You must not acquire possession where you win the battle, unless it is on the other side of Jordan.
Consequent upon these great battles, another terrible foe arises; that terrible foe is Balaam, and many a strong man has fallen down through him. What is Balaam? Balaam is acting on the susceptibility of your nature. You are invited out to some social party, and you accept it because it suits you naturally, and you are led away. Most of the unsuited marriages result from Balaam. If your natural predilections lead you into a circle, or class of society, where those predilections are gratified, that is the snare of Balaam. I dread the word "social," for I know what a host of mischief lies under that word. First, people are invited out, and that brings them into worldly associations with their attendant follies. Look at children, where do they pick up the notions many of them have? At school, from their companions. It is surprising what things people learn in company with others. If you were across Jordan, a dead man, you would not be invited out, for a dead man would have no interest in the things here. If I have taken the place of being dead, I have got greater happiness on that side Jordan than I can possibly have on this. That is the point. It is not assuming anything, but the things here have no interest' for me.
I am sure I am addressing those who, if invited to partake in some kind of amusement, would find it no amusement at all, and why? Because they have higher pleasures. Like the queen of Sheba, it is the better things which enable me to surrender the things here. It is of no use denouncing them. I have done it myself, but I 'have found it was useless. You may relieve your conscience, but you will free no one from them in that way. Let them get the better things, and the others will drop off like dead leaves. Just as with a child. If you want to take a dangerous thing out of his hand, offer him something bright. That is the superior thing, the eclipsing power. I have said to myself before now, " That is a thing I can never give up;" but it dropped off when I got the better thing, and I did not feel it because I had heavenly joys. Just as in the case of a certain shrub, the old leaf does not fall off until the new one is formed. It is what I call the expulsive power of a new Person. It is not a thing now, but a Person. A person contains much more than any amount of things can contain. There is great variety about a person. And there is endless variety in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we knew Him better, and studied Him more, we should be constantly making fresh discoveries of His worth every day.
We come up, then, into the land, and here is the proper christian conflict, which is really to bring out the heavenly Christ on earth. Do you say, I am not up to that battle? I was never in it, it is quite beyond me? Well, I say, are you set for it, or, would you like only to look at it? A good many people like to see reviews, as they set forth the idea of a battle, and I aril afraid that is too much the way in which the warfare in Ephesians is read; it is only a review to many, not the real conflict.
Well, what is the conflict for? It is to be a heavenly man; we have a heavenly country. Israel contended for the 'land. The crusaders are to me a very interesting people, because they risked their lives in order to get the holy land out of the hands' of the heathen and the Saracen; they died for it, and their wars were called " the holy wars." The idea was good, but it was carried out wrongly. The idea was to get space for Christ upon this earth. What would be the right thing then? The right thing is to get moral space for Christ. They fought to get Palestine for Christ. Our conflict is to stand here as heavenly men for a heavenly Christ.
It is not Christ in humiliation we are to present, but the heavenly Christ.. What does Paul say? " Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." It is the Man in the glory we are to present. It is the corn of the land I am to feed on. Therefore we go to the battle. If I take the antitype, I am to be " strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." That is the corn of the land. I am-to set forth a heavenly man in every circle and relationship here. In the practice of Peter's epistles you get 'nothing about the family, -nor in Romans. Why is this? Because there you are not high enough. You are there a delivered sinner on the earth. In Ephesians you are a heavenly man, so you can come down to the lowest point. It is the height at which you are that enables you to come down, and with the power that belongs to that exalted position. He has passed into the heavens, and not merely into them, but He is higher than the heavens. Hence everything is to be done according to this position. That is the wonderful character of Ephesian practice.
Nothing can be plainer than that the conflict is to bring out a heavenly man, in the several circles in which you are found on earth. I count seven circles in the Ephesians; but no matter how many there are, read Eph. 4 and 5 and you will find there is not a single thing, there that could be carried out but in heavenly power.
Paul says, " That I may know him," that is as He is now. And I ask, would. You not like to know Him as He is now? Do you think it would content a devoted wife or child, to be able to say, I: knew my husband or my father ten years ago, but. I do not know him now? Why, we never heard of such a thing. Yet that is really the way some, think of Christ. They know Him as the Savior who died here, but they do not know Him as He is now-the glorified Man.
But you ask, who is up to it? I go with you there. I know how little I am up to it; but I cannot shrink from what God has called me to; I cannot shrink from Phil. 3 " That I may know him, and the power of his—resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings." Again, "I count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." That was not salvation;' Paul had that. True, He is my Savior, but the grace of God is so large that it would lead you on from that, to know Him as the Head of His body, the church; and when you come to know Him as your Head, oh, what happiness!
And now what you are called upon to do is to display that One upon earth, and therefore there is conflict. Satan urged man to the climax of wickedness-to put that blessed One upon the cross. Man's first sin was to turn his back upon God; for his second, there is no cloak; he turned God's Son out of the earth. I think people are not sensible enough of this. They do not walk about with the sense of it upon them. They admit the first, but not the second. And now what God has done is this; in His wondrous grace, He says: I have chosen you before the foundation of the world that you should be holy, and without blame before me in love. You are members of the body of Christ, and I want you to display Him here upon the earth. What is all the teaching for? What is the point aimed at in ministry? " Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature and fullness of Christ." That is not something hereafter. Speaking to the gifts, Paul says, you are to work on in order to reach this. You answer you will never get people to it. Well, do not stop working on to it. That is the end of all teaching; and if the end of teaching, it is also the end of warfare.
You find in Ephesians 6.: " And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." That is, not the gospel merely, but the mystery of the gospel. What Paul wanted really, was to give out this truth: Christ, the heavenly Christ; that is the conflict. To me it is affectingly interesting. Do not you see, that when Satan had brought man to the climax of wickedness, to refuse God's Son on this earth, and God had raised Him up to His own right hand, God brought out, that Christ's body was here; and we' members of it, now belonging to the place where He is, are to be the expression of Him down here in the very place where He was refused. Do not you see that all the force of the enemy must be directed against that? Well, that is the conflict.
But God has His object, and He, will support His own in maintaining it. And I am sure it is a great comfort to us to know it is 'God's object to maintain for Christ here, and if I know that, I need not fear any opposition. I say it is no matter who opposes: I have God's object before me, not my own will. But there will be bitter opposition. Yes, what is God's object has always been opposed by Satan. Open your Bibles anywhere you like, and you will find it so. You will find that what is God's object at the moment, is what is most opposed; nothing is more striking. When God sent His Son into the world; who opposed Him most? Why, the Pharisees. Those pious men who stood up for the keeping of the law in its strictest sense; those before whom other men bowed down because of their piety; these were the men who opposed Christ. The Pharisees opposed Him when here, and the Sadducees when He had left the world.
Who would have thought that those who were the sticklers for the law, the strictest and the straitest as to religion, the Jews, should be the ones to oppose the Lord! so much so that when the Lord cures a man on the sabbath day, they declare He is not fit to stay here. Can you understand the inveterate unrelenting character of the opposition against what God's heart is set upon? Paul was left alone; all men forsook him; but the Lord stood by him. And Paul was not a bit baffled. Read what he says to Timothy in his second epistle to him.. He wrote that epistle after being thus forsaken, and you will see he is not discouraged. On the contrary, he tells Timothy to `commit the things which he had heard to faithful men who should be able to teach others also."
Well, this is the conflict, and if you get into it, you may have tough battles to fight while standing for the Lord, or moving on as a heavenly man, for Satan is a relentless foe. If we read Peter or Hebrews, we see that saints there written to had the devil to contend with, but not as here; it was-as " a roaring lion." The desperate character of Satan's opposition in heavenly places is that it is invisible.
Turn now to the chapter before us. The first thing we need is a great power: we are to be " strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." This word is borrowed from Eph. 1. It is the " exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe." Now I have got it, and I am to be strong in it. " There stood a man with a drawn sword in his hand, and Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our enemies? And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Loki am I now come." Joshua is not going to battle by himself. Here One appears to him, who comes to encourage him.
Here is the captain of the host—with a drawn sword in his hand. This is the type of the Holy Ghost. " When the Comforter is come.. he shall testify of me." That is the object of our conflict. This passage refers to Christ in the glory, not when on earth. When He went up to heaven the Holy. Ghost would testify of Him on the earth. What I am dwelling on now is not the conflict, but the support we have in it. The Holy Ghost is come down here, to be with us, in order to maintain Christ's here. How wonderful this is! But the church has failed as a witness, and why? I will tell you. The church very soon joined affinity with the world, and the Holy Ghost would not help it in coalition with the world. He is against this world, for it has rejected Christ. The Holy Ghost is here to maintain the interests of Christ. Of late the truth has been recovered that the Holy Ghost is here for this purpose. And I press on you, beloved friends, that in Christ's service we are to be independent of the world. If the world aid me in preaching the gospel, I should not accept it. Would you? I say, I cannot have it, for I have a greater power, which is against the world.
Well, that is what I start with. I start with this great power that will not co-operate with the world. You might as well expect fire to co-operate with water, as to expect the Holy Ghost to co-operate with the world. The Holy Ghost is here branding the world with sin; how then could He co-operate with it? He convicts the world of sin like a criminal in the dock. The criminal may not own it, but he is nevertheless convicted. I do not want to read the newspaper to know how wicked the world is. What tells me how wicked the world is, is that the Holy Ghost is here. That is enough. His presence here declares the sin of the world. Because Christ has been rejected, the Holy Ghost is here maintaining for Him. So that I see the whole world is a moral desert. I feel that we have lost the sense of this, and that the real cause of all the breakdown is, that the church has lost dependence on the Holy Ghost, that wonderful power with which it started.
In John 15 the Lord tells us how the world hated Him, and that it would hate us. We may feel, Why should the world hate us? It is a bitter thing when we are trying to do them good, to bring to them the highest kind of benevolence-the riches of Christ-that they should hate us. What is the reason? It is because Satan would not have Him. You cannot account for the enmity unless you understand that the devil's hatred to Christ is at the bottom of it.
Well, what a, wonderful thing it is for Joshua to be able to say, I am not going to war in my own strength! As a great general comes out with his commissariat, his ammunition and his reserves, so Joshua comes out, he is not going to war at his own charges.
So we may say we have the power: "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." Our attitude is, we are not going to give in. We are to be like what is called in war, " the forlorn hope." That gives us the idea, though it is an unhappy name. The forlorn hope is a number of men who venture to make a breach in the fortress, even if it cost them their lives. They take their lives in their hands in order to succeed, and so they are called a forlorn hope. There is no hope for them at all unless they succeed, but they generally do succeed. In our case I do not like the title, but that is really our place; we venture as it were to make the breach, but it is with sure confidence, because we have a power not our own; we know the opposition we are going to meet, still we go cheerfully forward; and we succeed.
Now I turn to what is against us; that is in chapter 9 in type. I have already said how very important it is we should know Paul's doctrine, for if we do not, we cannot understand the type; and the value of the type is, that in your practice you must never be below it. You may say you are not up to the antitype, but the anti-type alone can explain the type, because it is spiritual. The antitype of Jericho is wicked spirits in heavenly places, (Eph. 6) It is not a city. The type is a city, and the idea of a city is a concentration of everything found in this world. Exeter would not be a city, if it had not a cathedral in it. Liverpool was not a city some time since because of this. It did not comprise within itself every organization. When speaking of some countries we speak of the city. We talk of Paris as representing France, because the city is the concentration of the country. So it is here; Jericho is the type of this opposition-this organized resistance. The thing they saw before them was a city walled up; no probability of getting possession. The conflict with us is to represent Christ here; and the force against us is typified by this city; and you cannot, beloved friends, have too great an idea of the character of the opposition that there is against you.
A good general never underrates his foe; and one great cause of failure with us is, that we do not properly estimate the world's opposition. I believe it is a great thing when the soul has the sense of the inveterate character of the opposition to Christ. It is a wonderful help, because it keeps you so on your' guard. You read of battles, and generally, in a case of failure, you will find that the general underrated his foe. I say, do not underrate the world's opposition. I always find that the man who has most of Christ is the one who has the keenest apprehension of Satan. I do not mean common fear, but that he foresees the danger. " We are not ignorant," the apostle says; " of his devices." It is his wiles we have to contend with; and that is the dangerous character of it. If I see a man coming to knock me down I see what he is about. But now it is Satan's wiles; like the spring-guns in former days; a person walking along on the grass touched a secret, hidden spring, and the gun turned round and shot him. That is like the desperate character of the warfare 1 have to contend with. He is an invisible foe; he does not show his face. He is a desperate foe, who knows everything about me, and knows how to touch me in the very point where I am weakest, and it is my weak point he works on, but he does it with his wiles. That is the kind of foe I have to deal with, and his great object is to prevent me from being a representation of Christ.
You may preach justification by faith; that will be tolerated to a great extent; but if you teach about the body of Christ, you are sure to be opposed. Mind, I do not say, do not do it; but if you do, I promise you you will be at war. If a Christian would have an easy path, let him have nothing to do with the church at all. That is what I have heard. If you would have a smooth and easy path, have nothing to do with the church. You may preach the gospel, and have easy times comparatively; but if the church is your interest, you will have many a sorrow.
Now having dwelt on these two things-the power for us and the power against us-I trust you will, beloved friends, work it out like the Israel of that day.
We will now go on to the characteristics of the warrior. There are two; and you get them both in the type and in the antitype. In Joshua the first was the armed men; and the second, the trumpeters. So in Eph. 6 we find armor and prayer: armor for Satan and prayer for God. Armor against Satan alone succeeds. Prayer is, I am always depending on God, never independent of Him. Independence is when a man does a thing for God of his own will. Uzzah was independent when he put his hand to the ark. Who told him to do that? You say he did it for God. But it was contrary to the word of God. He was independent. Independency is a worse sin than what is called carnality. The latter is a disgrace to you, but in the former case you have attempted to do something for God, called it by a fine name perhaps, and did the very thing that God did not want you to do.
I will now just touch on the armor. I am not going through it, although it is very interesting, and Satan wants to spoil it if he can. First, be girt about with truth; next the breastplate of righteousness; be honest and upright. But that is not all. You may have these, and now, Satan may say, I will work you up and make you lose your temper if can. Now you have spoiled it all, you have lost your temper. Your feet should have been shod with the preparation of the gospel], of peace We have often witnessed this.
Beloved friends, it is sad to a degree, that the..man who may be most right is often most intemperate, because he is so indignant with wrong. But " the wrath of man worketh not the praise of God." You may be indignant, but not on your own account. You get chafed with evil, and then you lose your temper because there is a point not armed; you are not " shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Then there is the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. There are several different parts in the armor, and none are aggressive, but all protective excepting the last. The last is " the sword of the Spirit, which, is the word of God."
We find an interesting thing in Peter: a woman can win her husband without the word; that is, by the effect of the word upon herself. Even that would not be aggressive; it would be what she is through the word. I would press on you the importance of having the armor on. There is nothing perhaps in which we fail so much, even in our families, as in being without the armor.. There is no place where we are found out so quickly as in our own families, because they know our weak points well. The great thing is to be armed. If invulnerable, I am invincible.
Take an illustration. If I were a child, or a wife in a worldly family, I would be in complete subjection to the father or husband. That is, I would surrender my liberty to any extent, but my conscience to no extent. If he said, You are not to go out of this house any Sunday, I could say, Very well, you shall be implicitly obeyed; but if he said, You must go to such-and-such a place on the Lord's day-one which would compromise my allegiance to Christ, I reply, No, that involves my conscience, and that is for God; that you cannot govern. You can have the right over me to any extent, but over my conscience, never. I could not go there. You can surrender your liberty to any extent, but your conscience to no extent. For instance: you should never join in their amusements. You lose power the moment that you do. I know it is not easy, it goes against the grain, I have learned that, even in talking in the train; I used to do it, but I never do it now, I sit in silence. They may think me a stupid sort of man, but I cannot help that. By-and-by I get my opportunity, and I can have my say for Christ. But you must thus keep armed; if drawn away, you cannot present the gospel to your company. There will be no ring-in it; no divine power.
If you are a child in a worldly family, do not join in their social gatherings; but be ready to carry a message, do anything you can for them, be the most ready to serve in the house-the man-of-all-work if you like. Your place up there above is a divine, heavenly one, and yet, you are to be down here in the character of Christ, really meeting them in all their requirements.
That is the way the Lord was here. He never went anywhere to please Himself, but to do -others a service. I am speaking now of the heavenly walk; that is beyond the wilderness walk. The difference between the heavenly walk here, and the walk in the wilderness, is that, in the heavenly, you are always superior to your circumstances.
My former illustration of the poor woman whose benefactor became her enemy through her faithfulness will apply here. You could not Account for the enmity, unless you saw that it was against Christ; and the more distinctly she is for Christ, the more distinct is the opposition. You cannot account for it in any other way.
The second characteristic is the habit of dependence upon God, and there, as in Ephesians, the climax is reached. "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me."
One thing more I must say is, that the greatest thing to mark you is patience. We all know how we 'need this when we are opposed. When there is great opposition, then is the time we especially need patience, and here, too often, we fail. Patience is a wonderful thing. We see it here. For seven days they went round the city, and it must have been a very irksome thing for them; not a shout is heard till the seventh day. What a wonderful sense they must have had of the word of God and dependence upon Him! Like a child in a worldly family, they were depending on God. They go round the city seven days, and on the last day seven times. Patience, wonderful patience. Nothing keeps a man in confidence in God like patience. We see nothing like this in our day. I believe we do not trust God enough. I believe the incident given in Samuel at the close of that period is an encouragement to us. God came in, in thunder, at the very close. Joshua was in the beginning. God brought out Samuel in the very close. And we have the same God. It is said, God thundered, and there was a great discomfiture.
I close with one remark on another scripture, and that is in Acts 16 Here we get an instance showing all the principles brought out, and I commend it to your attention. It was the first time Paul came into Europe, and I believe the Spirit of God sets forth here what was specially needful in Europe. In Europe the church first accepted the countenance of the world. But the Book of the Acts is a book of principles by which we have to travel every day. In Joshua we see the route we travel and the principles brought out.
Paul is called in a vision to go down into Macedonia to help them, and he goes, and does not meet a man, This was number one nonplus. Patience was needed. He expected a man, for a man appeared to him, not an angel. Then he goes to a place where women were accustomed to pray, and here he has to wait, and at length a woman, who did not belong to the place at all, but to Thyatira, her heart being opened, attended to the things Paul said, and being baptized with her household, she says to Paul, " If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there." There is nothing about a Macedonian yet; but he goes into her house and stays there; and Satan seeing him in this apparent dilemma, sends him one of his instruments, a woman possessing a spirit of divination, and she says, I will give you countenance. Accordingly she follows them about many days, and cried saying, " These men be the servants of the most high God who show unto us the way of salvation."
Look at the patience of Paul; for many days he bears this, but at length he will stand it no longer, and commands the spirit to come out of her. He refused to be countenanced by Satan, and what was the consequence? There was not a power in the place which was not down upon him, and the most striking and the most awful thing about it is, that the very Satan who a few hours ago was proclaiming him the servant of the most high God, is the one that now rouses the people to destroy him. The whole town is roused against him, populace, magistrates, lictors, police, to put Paul in prison, and Satan seems to win the day. Satan might have been exulting perhaps, but it was done in the most illegal way, to use no stronger term. It was the most unjust thing ever done to a man who had done no wrong to put him in prison, and then to make his feet fast in the stocks. But he did not lose his courage or energy. On the contrary, at midnight he is praying and giving thanks to God, quite as content as if he were at home. What would you have thought if you had passed by that prison? I often think if we had patience to walk about in simple confidence in God, how He would interfere for us and deliver us. What a wonderful thing to have that confidence! Little Paul knew, shut up in prison at the silent hour of midnight, when everything was quiet, how God would interfere for him. That a great earthquake would come and shake off all their chains, and throw every door open. The jailer who had retired to rest in his indifference, is at last awakened up, and springing in calls for a light, brings out his prisoners, and falling at their feet says, " What must I do to be saved?" I take it that he was the man Paul was sent for. He is the first man of Macedonia we read of. What a change,! How the populace must have felt next morning when they heard that Paul and Silas were the guests of the jailer!
I believe that even now if we really stood for the Lord, He would bring something remarkable out in the spot where we had stood for Him. I could tell you of spots where He did. God prepares a table for us in the wilderness in the presence of our enemies. Do not you think He gives us manifold more in this present world? I believe it most implicitly. Why do not we know it? We do not believe in it. We do not walk on in simple, blessed patience, waiting, in confidence in God. He will make a table for us in the presence of our enemies, and what a wonderful table was here! Why, the tables are turned completely. Why? Because they believed God; they knew He would support His own Object, and that He would stand by them as long as they stood in simple confidence in Him.
Well, I trust each one of our hearts will be moved into more faithfulness to Him. Some here are young; you have not entered the battlefield yet. Well, it is everything for a person's heart to be led out in simple affection for the Lord. If it is, he will soon be found in the conflict for Him, maintaining for' a heavenly Christ, in the very spot where He has been rejected.
(T. B. S.)