I HAVE thought that as the book of Joshua finds its antitype in the application of the truth to us in the epistles to the Colossians and the Ephesians, where we are introduced by the death and resurrection of Christ into present 'heavenly association with Him, Deuteronomy might be found to stand in somewhat the same relation to the epistle to the Philippians, as bringing out the practical condition that flows from our hearts entering by faith upon this heavenly ground, and that alone consists with the abiding enjoyment of it. We are hence not without needed warning as to the dangers that beset the path of the heavenly man on earth.
One point may at least suggest the comparison. It is this: that as the epistle is of all others the epistle of joy, so this same blessed feature largely characterizes the book of Deuteronomy. Here first in the Pentateuch it is found to have any place. Anyone can verify this for himself, but I am not aware of any passage that speaks of joy outside the scenes contemplated in this book (Lev. 23:4040And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. (Leviticus 23:40); Num. 10:9,109And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. 10Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God. (Numbers 10:9‑10)) save one Exod. 18:99And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. (Exodus 18:9)); whereas there are found in it seven occasions on which God enjoins joy on the people whom He would in this blessed way gather round Himself. First, - generally, in chap. 12., when " come to the rest and to. the inheritance which Jehovah your God giveth you," which is assumed in all the cases, two things were to give character to the joy of the people. In the place which Jehovah would" choose to put His name, " thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes, &c., and ye shall rejoice in all that Ye put your hand unto, ye and your household." And secondly; verse 12, "Ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God."
Then follow five special occasions for the joy that is given to be thus generally characteristic of their relationship with Jehovah in the land of their possession.
When the tithe of all the increase of the field; the firstlings of the herd and flock; Were presented before Him-chap. 14:22-27. On the occasion Of the Feast of chap. 16:9-12; and the Feast of Tabernacles, verses 1-15. When the basket of firstfruits Was presented, chap. 26. And, lastly, when on entering the land they were immediately to set up the altar which was to bear the inscription of the law, ever to 'remind them of obedience as the essential condition of their practical enjoyment of their possession—chap. 27:1-11. It Will be Nerved that, chaps. 1.-11. Rehearse the solemn lessons of the wilderness journey in view of the people's entering the land. From chap. 12., which looks at them in possession, God unfolds for the first time His blessed thought, to have them in this holy liberty of joy before Him, as characteristic of their relationship with Him. There is the same essential condition of the joy in each of the cases. The people are assumed to be in possession-able to say, " We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt.... and he brought us out from thence that he might bring us in to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers; " chap. 6:23. See this very strongly marked in chap. 26:1-14, when the basket of first-fruits is presented " And it shall be when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord—thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and. possessest it, and dwellest therein, that thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket.... and thou. shalt set-it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God; and thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee."
Joy then flows from possession. Deliverance, essential as it is to joy and leading into it, does not in itself, suffice for joy. In the wilderness Israel was a delivered people, who, at the opening of their path through it, could sing of all that was against them being gone forever-" sunk as lead in the mighty waters." But joy is not found in the books of the wilderness. The one exception makes this the more striking, for Exod. 18. carries us on in picture to the final result of the ways of God in grace towards the people; it is a millennial scene; and here, in beautiful fitness, the Gentile Jethro it is who " rejoiced for all the goodness Jehovah had done to Israel."
Rom. 5:1-111Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 11And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:1‑11) may seem at first sight to check the application of the principle to us, but it will be found, I think, to confirm it. For it is not deliverance that makes the joy here, though it assumes, as joy ever must, that we are delivered; for how can we be happy with God if we are not? But we rejoice " in hope of the glory of God," and, if in the tribulations of the way that leads there, we have the love that puts us into them shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us; and thus we are brought to joy in God Himself "through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received the reconciliation." Chap, 8. is our deliverance, and is needed for' the joy of chap. 5, where this deeper character of experience flows from what God is being more fully brought out. " For Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." That, if really with God, our hearts will be powerfully affected by a deliverance wrought for us at such infinite cost I need not say; but the difference of experience connected with deliverance is marked in the book before us, and will be observed by comparing the first great gathering of the Jewish year-that of the Passover-with the two others already referred to, as chap. 16. brings them together.
These last only had their place when the people were in possession of the land, and answer for us respectively to Pentecost, and (as far as the Feast of Tabernacles has as yet any antitype) to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost as now come from Jesus glorified to put the power of the glory into our hearts before the day for the manifestation of it. Both were to be scenes of joy; the Feast of Weeks, characterized by a free-will offering unto the Lord according to the measure of appreciation of the blessing, " and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God; " the Feast of Tabernacles, by the fullness of the blessing itself, harvest and vintage over, " thou shalt rejoice in thy feast; " because of the Lord's blessing in all their increase and in all the works of their hands, "therefore thou shalt surely rejoice."
But in the feast that accompanied the Passover, which brings out specially our deliverance, and the ground of it in the infinite sorrow and death of the Son of God, it is not joy that becomes us, but " the unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction," in the solemn judgment of ourselves: " Thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou earnest forth out of Egypt, and thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt turn in the morning and go unto thy tent."
In full keeping with what has been before us will be found the place that joy has in the epistle to the Philippians. Deliverance is not the subject: Neither sins, nor the flesh of sin, come into view to be delivered from. If religious flesh be looked at for a moment, it is only as an utterly valueless thing, long since 'cast aside. The full delivered place of the man in Christ is assumed, and the epistle presents the experience that flows from it, the Holy Ghost expressing it in power in the apostle. It is Christ as life in us on earth, the practical answer to our place as united to Him in-heaven. " Our conversation (and all else that the word implies) is in heaven," while we are walking on the earth. It is possession, heavenly possession thus far, that brings us to the spring of joy. Not the heaven of the future, With its rest and glory come and our responsible path over; but there is the sense of present association with Christ, who is there, and thus the power of heaven as a present revealed scene possessing and forming the- heart of the Christian. It is Christ, as the opened eye of faith is upon Him in glory, known as the power and joy of going on day by day for Him here, till we reach }Tim actually there.
Can it be wondered at, then, that, if this be the experience of the Christian, joy should be so largely developed in the epistle that has this experience for its main subject? Nor is it merely joy as enjoined upon us, if there be still room for earnest exhortation to it (Phil. 3:1; 4:41Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. (Philippians 3:1)
4Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)), but as now produced and flowing out in worship by the Spirit of God (Phil. 3:33For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)), so as to become characteristic of the Christian.
But here the book of Deuteronomy supplies a warning. The principle of it is this: that, while deliverance will not in itself suffice for joy, but that there must be the conscious possession by faith of our heavenly place in Christ, yet this can never be safely dissociated from the deliverance that was needed to bring us into it. Possession without the sense of this, such are our poor hearts, only tends to ruin; and the richer the possession the greater the danger. There must be maintained in the soul the sense of how, and from what depths, we have been delivered. The light of the place we have been brought into is shed back on what we have been brought out of, and thus enhances for us the preciousness of the grace that has done it, while there is deepened the knowledge of ourselves that humbles and keeps us lowly before God.
It will be found in chap. 8:10-16: " Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his commandments.... lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein.... then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage,.... who led thee through this great and terrible wilderness.... that he might humble thee and prove thee." Nor was the remembrance of their deliverance therefore to be found wanting on the principal occasions of their gladness. See chap. 26.; and so it is also ordered in the Feast of Weeks: " thou shalt remember that thou vast a bondman in Egypt," chap. 16:12; and most markedly of all in the Feast of Tabernacles. During this feast, that was the fullest expression of their having come into their counseled place -and blessing, they were to dwell in booths seven days, " that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt."
But the warning was unheeded by Israel. Resting in possession, they forgot their deliverance, their hearts were lifted up, and they came under the hand of God in judgment. A subsequent page of their history, in a time of revival for a remnant restored to the land, reveals that from Joshua to Nehemiah they had not dwelt in booths in the feast of the seventh month; Neh. 8:14-1714And they found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: 15And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. 16So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. 17And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. (Nehemiah 8:14‑17).
And are we more safe if we disregard the tears of the apostle, who weeps over the walk of those within the circle of Christian profession who are enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:1818(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: (Philippians 3:18))? Not the glory of Christ is our safety against the flesh or the world, but the cross that gives us God's estimate and judgment of both. What savored things that be of men in Peter did not rise up to resent the glory, but the cross of Christ; Matt. 16:16-2416And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 20Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. 21From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 22Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:16‑24). Its solemn sentence upon self and everything here is the only true answer to the knowledge of Christ in heavenly glory.
There was another essential condition of Israel's enjoyment of their possession, it was obedience; see chap. vi., and indeed everywhere in Deuteronomy. Similarly does Philippians urge it upon us who have been brought by faith to know our union with Christ on high. Obedience (when the apostle was yet with Christians, but much more in his absence) was the path in which to work out our own salvation now from the whole power of the enemy, " For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure; " chap. 2:12, 13.
But this is not all; we have seen that Christian life according to the epistle is simply Christ: "To me to live is Christ." The path of this life is consequently the producing again in us by the Spirit's power of what Christ was here; see chap. 2:15, 16. It is thus He gave us His own path, with obedience as the necessary condition of its joy, in John 15:9-119As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:9‑11). So it is fully here, chap. 2:5: " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." And then He is presented to us in the path of His humiliation: " Obedient unto death, even the death of the. cross." Now it is the book of Deuteronomy that furnished Him, In the place He had taken in grace as man, with the suited and perfect word of God for man, by simply keeping which He baffles the whole power of the enemy; compare Matt. 4:1-111Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (Matthew 4:1‑11) with Deut. 8:33And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. (Deuteronomy 8:3), and vi. 13-16. And the word that thus found perfect and blessed expression in Him is now given to form and direct the life we have in Him, in the same path of his obedience,: " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." How different was such obedience in the principle of it to that of the law. The law supposed a will antagonistic to God in forbidding it. Christ had none such to be forbidden; He lived by the word out Of the mouth of God; it not merely guided His path, but was the spring and origin of all that found place in His inmost heart and life.. And we are sanctified to the obedience of Christ.
Another principle abidingly true for the saint, whatever the dispensation, is not without illustration in Deuteronomy and Philippians. It is this, that we can never walk according to the level of our position while we have only this position to sustain us. We must have an object above our path to enable us to walk in it. Thus it was that Abraham " sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles "-"for he looked for a city which hath foundations; " Heb. 11:9,109By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:9‑10).. So with Israel in the land, if any under the law walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, it was only as their eye was outside their position upon the Messiah. He is presented to their expectation in Deut. 18. Our epistle gives the principle its full expression as to the Christian. If the path that belongs to our position is to "walk as he walked," the only power to form and keep us in it is to have our hearts above upon Christ in glory as our one object; Phil. 3:8-168Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, 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: 10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. 16Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. (Philippians 3:8‑16).
One more word of solemn import and warning for us Will be found in Deuteronomy. It is the only other mention of joy in the book; I refer to chap. 28:47, 48: " Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in the want of ' all things." Failing in joy, there is practical loss of the possession. Is there not danger for us? Not all who are Christ's may have come to know heaven as the present revealed scene, where Christ has given us our home, interests, objects, and joys, now therefore to form and give its character to our Christian walk in the world. But what about these who have in any measure? May not heavenly things lose their power over our hearts? Are we not conscious of the tendency of everything around, us to drag us down to the level of the world in which we walk? What need of diligent watchful keeping of the heart against the first enfeebling of- joy! For this indicates that decline has begun, and the descent is easy and rapid when once the heart begins to go. Two things, then, mark the state: heaven, lost in present power, is put off to the future; and the Christian, become worldly, instead of knowing the fellowship of His sufferings is accredited by the world.
May the excellency of the knowledge of a glorified Christ keep us! May His presence in glory so attract our hearts there, that we may practically " possess " and " dwell in " the bright scene He opens to us! Then will our life on earth be bright, for it will be but the reflex of His-a life of heavenly joy, whatever the circumstances of the path. He Himself shines before us as the end of it, the one glorious object to be reached, giving earnestness in pressing on through everything here, to be perfectly like Him, and with Him. J. A. T.