In the first moment since the days of the patriarchs, the elect of God, the children of Israel, now touch the land of promise. It was a long interval, more than two hundred years; and that interval had been occupied by them very much to their shame as well as their sorrow. A sunny hour had shone on their path in the time of Joseph; but since then, the brick kilns and taskmasters of Egypt, and then the forty years’ pilgrimage in the wilderness, had told of their sorrows; and their idolatries in the land of their captivity, their unbelief when God rose up for their deliverance, and then their many provocations along the way by which they had now come to Canaan, told of their sins.
And before that course of sin and sorrow had begun, it was their iniquity that separated them from that land at the first, which now they had just regained. They had sinned against Joseph, and thence was their captivity.
In spite, however, of all this, here they now are again. Their feet do now tread the land of their father’s sepulchers, the land of the promise and covenant of their God.
The nations of the land feel the power of the moment. It was like the cry which is still to be heard, “Behold the Bridegroom cometh.”
The Master of the house had now risen up. Israel had crossed the borders, and it was too late to cry, “Lord, Lord, open unto us.” They felt the moment in spite of themselves, and their heart melted.
But the camp is made to feel another thing. The generation which had been born in the wilderness had not been circumcised, for they were in a strange condition. But now they have, as it were, revived or reappeared in proper character, and circumcision becomes a needed thing. Canaan was theirs only as they were Jehovah’s, and they must wear their token of being His. They are circumcised, and thus become a new people. All is left behind, “the reproach of Egypt” as is here said, “the shame of their youth” as Isaiah says (Isa. 54:44Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. (Isaiah 54:4)).
All is concelled. “This day,” says the Lord to Joshua, when the circumcision of the people had taken place, “have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.” He was beginning anew with His people. This was circumcision, as it were, the second time, as though the Lord were now beginning with the nation, as He had in early Abraham days, by the first circumcision, begun with the family (Gen. 17.). And a very fine expression of grace in its rich, abounding glory, this was. Israel may now keep the Passover as in the night of their redemption from Egypt, in Exodus 12—for the Passover belongs to a circumcised people. For, whom God sanctifies, that is, separates to Himself as by election, He redeems, and would have His redeemed know and celebrate their redemption (Ex. 12:4545A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof. (Exodus 12:45)).
And the inheritance then, in due order, follows the redemption, as the redemption follows the sanctification or separation. Accordingly, the land now yields them food, since they have now kept the Passover after their circumcision. As we read here, “they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes and parched corn, the self-same day; and the manna ceased.” And this savors of the inheritance. It was the land which yielded them their cakes and this parched corn. Wilderness-fare, which the manna was, was not needed in the land. It is truly, too precious ever to be forgotten; and therefore an omer of it shall be kept for a memorial in the very ark of God (Ex. 16:3333And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations. (Exodus 16:33)), but still, wilderness-fare is not needed in the land of the inheritance. As, in like spirit, Israel shall make booths in the feast of the tabernacles to remind them of wilderness-life; but booths were not needed in the midst of Israel’s cities and towns and villages in the days of the kingdom. Remembrance of past sorrow does but enhance present joy. The basket of first-fruits recognizes this. That basket was the witness of present fullness, but the confession which accompanied the presentation of it, recalled to mind the day when Israel was but a perishing stranger. So we in spirit now, as the second of Ephesians shows us. We remember that we were Gentiles, as without God and without hope, though now in the liberty of a people consciously brought nigh. And so in glory by-and-by, as now in spirit or by faith. For the harps of the harpers in heaven will be telling of the past condition of sin and ruin.
Here, I might say, the kingdom or the millennium shines out for a short, mystic moment. The Jordan has been passed, the wilderness being left, and the people of God sit down in a fruitful land of promise and of glory.