The more deeply we consider the typical instruction presented in the river Jordan, the more clearly we must see that the whole Christian position is involved in the standpoint from which we view it. Jordan means death, but, for the believer, a death that is past — the death we have gone through as identified with Christ, and which, through resurrection, has brought us on the other side, where He is now. He, typified by the ark, has passed over before us into Jordan to make it a dry path for our feet, so that we might pass clean over into our heavenly inheritance. The Prince of life has made death itself the very means by which we reach, even now, in spirit and by faith, the true heavenly Canaan.
Let us see how all this is unfolded in our type. Notice the commandment given by the officers of the host. “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” The ark, a type of Christ, must go first, for who can stand before the king of terrors? Who can face death and judgment, except the ark go first?
Poor Peter thought he could, but he was sadly mistaken. He said to Jesus, “Lord, whither goest Thou? Jesus answered him, “Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.” Peter knew nothing of that terrible pathway which his blessed Master was about to enter upon. How little did he imagine that the very sound of death’s dark river, heard even in the distance, would be sufficient so to terrify him as to make him curse and swear that he did not know his Master!
The Space Between
the Ark and Israel
“Yet there shall be a space between you and it.” Truly there was a space between Peter and his Lord. Jesus had to go before; He had to meet death in its most terrific form. He had to tread that rough path in profound solitude, for who could accompany Him? Blessed Master! He would not suffer His feeble servant to enter upon that terrible path until He Himself had gone before and so entirely changed its character that the pathway of death should be lighted up with the beams of life and the light of God’s face. Our Jesus has “annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings” (2 Tim. 1:10 JND).
Thus death is no longer death to the believer, for Jesus met it as the power which Satan wields over the soul of man. He met it as the penalty due to sin and as the just judgment of God against sin — against us. There was not a single feature which could possibly render death formidable which did not enter into the death of Christ. He met all, and we are accounted as having gone through all in and by Him. We died in Him, so that death has no further claim upon us or power over us. The whole scene is cleared completely of death and filled with life and incorruptibility.
What a glorious change! How it magnifies the cross, or rather the One who hung on it! So completely has death been robbed of its sting, that instead of shrinking from it with terror, we can meet it, if it does come, and go through it with a song of victory. Instead of its being to us the wages of sin, it is a means by which we can glorify God, as Peter did later in his life. All praise to Him who has so wrought for us! May our hearts adore Him! May we appreciate the grace and lay hold of the inheritance!
Over Jordan
But we must proceed with our type. “Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee” (Josh. 3:6-76And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people. 7And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. (Joshua 3:6‑7)). Joshua stands before us as a type of the risen Christ, leading His people in the power of the Holy Spirit into their heavenly inheritance. The priests bearing the ark into the midst of Jordan typify Christ going down into death for us and completely destroying its power. “He passed through death’s dark raging flood, to make our rest secure,” and not only to make it secure, but to lead us into it in association with Himself now, in spirit and by faith.
The passage of the ark into Jordan proved two things: namely, the presence of the living God in the midst of His people, and that He would most surely drive out all their enemies from before them. The death of Christ is the basis and the guarantee of everything to faith. God is with us and God is for us. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)).
Facing the Enemies
Israel might wonder how all the hosts of Canaan could ever be expelled from before them; let them gaze on the ark in the midst of Jordan and cease to doubt. The less is included in the greater. And hence we can say, What may we not expect, seeing that Christ has died for us? There is nothing too good, nothing too great, nothing too glorious for God to do for us and in us and with us, seeing He has not spared His only begotten Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Everything is secured for us by the precious death of Christ. It has opened up the everlasting floodgates of the love of God, so that its rich streams might flow down into the very depths of our souls. It fills us with the sweetest assurance that the One who could bruise His only begotten Son on the cursed tree for us will meet our every need, carry us through all our difficulties, and lead us into the full possession and enjoyment of all that His eternal purpose of grace has in store for us.
Having given us such a proof of His love, even when we were yet sinners, what may we not expect at His hands now that He views us in association with that blessed One who glorified Him in death — the death that He died for us? When Israel saw the ark in the midst of Jordan, they were entitled to consider that all was secured. As our Lord also said to His disciples before leaving them, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” and in view of His cross He could say, “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” True, Israel had, as we know, to take possession; they had to plant their feet upon the inheritance. But the power that could stem death’s dark waters could also drive out every foe from before them and put them in peaceful possession of all that God had promised.
C. H. Mackintosh, adapted