Jordan: January 2014
Table of Contents
Jordan
“There are Christians who take their place on this side of Jordan — that is to say, on this side of the power of death and resurrection, applied to the soul by the Spirit of God. The place in which they settle is not Egypt; it is beyond the Red Sea, outside Egypt, but not across the Jordan in Canaan. It is a land they have chosen for their cattle and their possessions; they establish their children and their wives there. It is not Joshua who conquered that land; it is not the place of testimony to the power of the Spirit of God — that Canaan which is beyond Jordan. The power of resurrection life takes all strength from Satan: ‘He who is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.’ In our earthly life, the flesh being in us, we are exposed to the power of the enemy, though Christ’s grace is sufficient for us, His strength made perfect in weakness, but the creature has no strength against Satan. But if death is become our shelter, causing us to die unto all that would give Satan an advantage over us, what can he do? Can he tempt one who is dead, or overcome one who, having died, is alive again? But, if this be true, it is also necessary to realize it practically” (J.N. Darby, adapted). May this issue help each of us to live practically on the Canaan side of the Jordan.
The Red Sea and the Jordan
The Red Sea for the children of Israel was the door of deliverance from the house of bondage, the placing of them forever beyond Pharaoh’s power and setting them in the wilderness as a redeemed people brought to God. It is to us a type of the death and resurrection of Christ, not so much in the Passover aspect of the former, where the blood met the claims of God’s justice as regards the people’s sins, but as that which has annulled Satan’s power, delivered us from it, and brought us to God in perfect peace, so that we can joy in Him whose power has wrought so great a deliverance for us. This line of truth will be found in Romans.
Jordan was the entrance into Canaan. The crossing of it is in nowise a type of the death of the body, nor is Israel’s entering into it a picture of the departure of a believer to be with Christ. It was when the people had crossed Jordan that the wars of Canaan properly began. There will be no fighting in heaven, no Canaanites to be dispossessed when we get there. But the Jordan
must be crossed before Canaan can be reached. Canaan, or rather what answers to it, is our place now, if indeed by faith and the power of the Holy Spirit we enter there. If the passage of the Red Sea is our redemption from Satan’s power, so that henceforth we might walk with God through wilderness scenes, at peace with Him and standing in His favor, He being for us in all His love and unfailing resources, the crossing of the Jordan is our entrance by faith into the blessed fact that we have not only died with Christ, but that we who were dead in sins have also been quickened together with Him, raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Him.
The Red Sea and the Jordan have closed forever our history as men in the flesh, and now we have a new place in Christ before God and are, in spirit, associated with Him where He is now, having been quickened with His life and having the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. And this is the true Christian position, the proper portion of every believer. But let it be remembered that it is one thing for all these things to be true of the believer when viewed as in the place which the grace and power of God has made his, and another for the soul to be consciously standing in possession of it all. It is in Ephesians that our heavenly position and privileges are unfolded, and it is there we learn the need of the whole armor of God to enable us to stand (even when these truths are known) in the present enjoyment of what is infallibly and eternally ours in Christ.
Christian Truth, adapted
The Crossing of the Jordan
Having been delivered from the judgment of God in Egypt, Israel next crossed the Red Sea, and then slowly crossing the desert found themselves on the borders of the land. This they refused to enter, and they were therefore doomed to die in the wilderness, while the next generation was not allowed to enter Canaan otherwise than by passing a second time through the waters of death in the Jordan.
Let us see what meaning all this has for us. We have not only as sinners the judgment of God to face, from which the blood of the Lamb delivers us, but after this we still need deliverance from our three great foes — the world, the flesh and the devil. Nothing now but the death of Christ can deliver us from the power of these, and of this both the Red Sea and the Jordan are remarkable types.
In the waters of the Red Sea the pomp and pride of Egypt were drowned and the strength of Pharaoh was broken, thus answering to the death of Christ which separates us from the world and Satan’s power (Gal. 6:14; Heb. 2:14). But Romans 6 finds no real counterpart here, for although the Israelites should have left their old unbelieving hearts behind, as a matter of fact they did not. This is clearly seen as they were nearing Canaan. If the flesh had been left behind them as truly as Pharaoh and Egypt were, no Jordan would have been needed. But, alas, it appears this was the hardest lesson of all to learn. They refused to leave it behind them, but, on the contrary, betrayed their confidence in it by putting themselves under law. As a result, they all had to perish in the wilderness, that the flesh (in type) might be destroyed; then, at the Jordan, death was again presented to the generation born in the wilderness, only this time special care was taken that they themselves, represented by twelve stones, should be left at the bottom. And this is the way into Canaan. The death of Christ has not only put away the sins of every believer, not only freed him from the world and Satan’s power, but has also put an end to him, so that his old self is crucified and buried with Christ (in type by baptism), out of which he is risen in the power of a new life and brought into the new and heavenly sphere of Canaan.
If, therefore, we put the Red Sea and the Jordan together, they present to us a full picture of the death of Christ: the former especially typifying what it delivers me from, and in the latter, what it brings me into, or, in other words, death and resurrection. To cross the Jordan and enter Canaan is not the privilege of a few, but it is the effect of the death of Christ for every believer, however few may enter into the meaning or power of it.
A. T. Schofield, adapted
Serpent of Brass, Jordan and Gilgal
There is a very precious connection between “the serpent of brass” (Num. 21:1-18) and “the Jordan” (Josh. 5:1-15), for they are two aspects of the death of Christ. Each presents the truth in an entirely different way. In the serpent of brass we have the wonderful truth of how God gets rid of me, for Himself, while in the Jordan we have the truth of how I can get rid of myself, in my own experience.
The purpose of God for Israel was that He would bring them out from Egypt and bring them into the land of Canaan. In spite of all the opposition of Pharaoh, God brought them out of Egypt, and in spite of Israel’s failure in the wilderness, He brought them into Canaan.
First of all comes the truth of the blood on the lintel, by which we are secured from God’s judgment, as sinners. Then we have the passage of the Red Sea — the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ for us and our sins. The power of the enemy is absolutely broken, God’s salvation manifested, and the people brought to rejoice in it. The Red Sea is the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins, and for ourselves also. You touch the same truth in a certain way when you come to the Jordan. It is very striking to notice that you see Israel as a company go into the Red Sea, but you never see them come out. They did come out, but it does not say they did. When you come to the Jordan, you do not read of their going into the Jordan; you see the ark going in, but you see them come out. The fact is this, that the Red Sea and the Jordan coalesce. To bring them out of Egypt and to bring them into Canaan was God’s purpose. The wilderness came in between, but that was not part of the purpose of God. It was in His ways, but His purpose was to bring them out, and bring them in.
The Serpent of Brass
In Numbers 21 we have the story of the serpent of brass. It is very simple, but we do not learn its truth at the beginning of our Christian pathway, for there is something deeper than merely meeting the need of a poor sinner. What comes out here is that the flesh is incurable and incorrigible. They murmured, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and “much people of Israel died” (vs. 6). But when they turned to the Lord and owned their sin, He told Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and when a bitten man looked upon it he lived (vss. 5-9). There, in type, is the wonderful truth that Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin. It is the spring of a totally new life. The first man is incurably bad, cannot be mended, and must go from before God’s eye.
The thing that did the mischief was the fiery serpent, and what cured them was a look at a fiery serpent. Sin brought in death, and only by death is sin put away. Sin in the flesh is incorrigible, incurable and ineradicable. What then can be done with it? God tells us: “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). That is the serpent of brass. What I am, as a man, has been utterly condemned in the cross of Christ and absolutely set aside from before God in death. Until this is learned, there is self-confidence and an attempt to improve the flesh. Very often, we have to learn by very painful and prolonged practical experience and failure what a poor thing man is. When I learn the truth of the serpent of brass, I find that God has got rid of me, in the cross of His Son, and only Christ remains.
You do not get the serpent of brass until the close of Israel’s wilderness history. It is a long time before we learn that God has set us aside, as children of Adam. What battles and struggles have souls gone through in trying to get rid of the flesh! I see here, with deep relief and thankfulness, that aspect of the death of Christ in which all that I am, as a man in the flesh, is gone and that I am replaced by the Man of God’s heart, the Lord from heaven. And it is He in the energy and power of the Spirit of God that leads the soul on.
The Jordan
If we turn to Joshua, we see the way in which we are brought into the blessing that is ours, for in order to enter into Canaan, Israel must cross the Jordan. They were simply to follow the ark, and I need not remind ourselves that the ark is Christ. It is Christ who has gone into death, as passing through the judgment of God, really ending man’s history, and overcoming the power of death.
When they went into the Red Sea, it was a narrow path; the waters stood up as crystal walls. But when they came to Jordan, there was not a drop of water to be seen, for Zaretan is some thirty miles up the river. So it is with us; I see that death is annulled by Christ. Jordan is death, not my death, but Christ’s, and mine with Him. It is not only death, but my getting the sense that Christ has gone into death and annulled it and overcome it. There was nothing but dry land in sight, and we read, “The priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan” (Josh. 3:17).
The Twelve Stones
When all the people had passed over Jordan, the Lord told Joshua, “Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night” (Josh. 4:1-3). It was the testimony of where the ark had been; it is like what the Lord’s supper is to us. But further: “Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day” (vs. 9). The putting in of these twelve stones expressed that what we were, so to speak, is all under the waters of death. I learn that in the death of Christ I am free to say good-bye to myself. I have life in a risen Christ, but God would always keep alive in my memory the way in which I have been brought into blessing and association with His Son. Also, they are consciously clean over Jordan. Each one could truly say, in type, I know I am dead and risen. Experimentally? Yes, certainly. The point is, I have deep in my soul the sense that I am in association with Him who is risen.
Gilgal
When Israel reached Gilgal, a new lesson was learned, for it was the place of self-judgment. There they were circumcised (ch. 5:2-9). You cannot cut off the flesh in the energy of the flesh. They were a dead and risen people in figure, before they were circumcised. You will never find a Christian able to walk practically in the power of what this brings out, until he knows that he is before God in the life of another. That is, I am practically to keep all that is of the first man in the place of death. That is our Gilgal. “The Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal [rolling] unto this day.” They set aside that which is the mark of a man who is living for this world. For a heavenly man to be worldly is his reproach; he needs to go again to Gilgal. And you will observe afterward that Israel always had to return to Gilgal; so must we, if we are to progress in the divine life.
May God guide us each to answer to this in the history of our souls. We are to know ourselves risen with Christ; then we feed on Christ and are to be led by Him to victory over all enemies who oppose our acquisition and enjoyment of heavenly life and blessings.
W. T. P. Wolston, adapted
Jordan - Death and Resurrection
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. 3:6-7). 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. 8:32).
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
The Twelve Stones at Gilgal
It is faith in Christ which enables us to apprehend our deliverance from our old estate and introduction into a new one in Christ. Sometimes the experience is as long as the forty years in the wilderness were for Israel! Deliverance is not obtained in a moment, for just as there was no Jordan for Israel before the desert, so, for us, deliverance comes after we have made the discovery of what the flesh is, and not before. Deliverance is not a mere experience, but the result of the standing which faith grasps. It is only experimental in the sense that I see myself in Christ, instead of laying hold of a work accomplished outside of myself as in redemption.
Such for us is the import of the Jordan. But God desires that the memorial of this victory should be continually under our eyes. Instructed by Jehovah, Joshua commands the representatives of the twelve tribes to take twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the feet of the priests stood firm. They were to be for a memorial unto the children of Israel and were to be laid in the place where the people passed their first night in the land of Canaan. The place was Gilgal, but what was the signification of the stones? They represented the twelve tribes, the people, snatched from death by the ark which had stood in the very spot where deliverance was needed and which had stayed the waters of Jordan so that Israel could pass over. They became a monument at the very entrance of Canaan, at Gilgal, a place to which the people had always to return; they were henceforth to be a sign constantly under their eyes and those of their children.
Now we, like Israel, stand as trophies of the victory achieved over the raging waters of the river. Christ went into death because we were there. “If one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14). But it was in order to deliver us out of death and bring us into a new life in His own resurrection. “When we were dead in sins He hath quickened us together with Christ ... and hath raised us up together” (Eph. 2:5-6).
The Monument
But the monument of this memorable work is permanently established on the other side of Jordan to serve for the maintenance of Israel’s faith, a monument to be recognized at all times by the people at the entrance of Canaan. For us it is Christ, the object of our faith, risen and entered into the heavenly places, but a Christ who represents us there, associating us with Himself, even as He associated Himself with us in death.
The twelve stones at Gilgal, then, are not merely our death and resurrection with Christ (the Jordan typified that), but the memorial of this death and resurrection as seen in a risen and glorified Christ. This monument reminds us of what we are henceforth to be. In the Jordan God declares us to be dead, and it is the portion of all the people. Every Christian is dead and risen with Christ; in Gilgal we have the moral realization of this. All had crossed the Jordan, but many among them perhaps cared but little to inquire the meaning of the monument in Gilgal, those stones which seemed to say in living accents to the people, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).
If the twelve stones in Gilgal spoke to Israel’s conscience, there was another monument set up in the midst of Jordan which spoke seriously to their hearts. Who could see the stones which the overflowing waters had covered? They could be known only to faith. They were not typical of a resurrection life which had passed through death and bore its impress and character; they were essentially the sign of death. The stones in Gilgal are the monument of our introduction by Christ into our privileges, into which we enter only after having passed through death with Him. But when we think of the stones in Jordan, our hearts are in communion with Him in death.
My Place at Gilgal
I return to sit, so to speak, on the banks of the river of death, and I say, “That is my place; it is there that I was; it is there that He has been for me. He has delivered me from my old man; He has left it with all that belonged to it in the depths of Jordan. I am buried beneath its waters in the Person of Christ.” What led Him to take this place? He alone could claim exemption from it, and having laid down His life, He alone had the power to take it again. But it was His love to us which led Him down to death; no other motive, save the glory of God which I had dishonored, could have led Him there. He not only fought the fight alone and victoriously stayed the waters of Jordan “until everything was finished that the Lord commanded” (Josh. 4:10), but those waters themselves passed over Him. I see in this monument what death was for His holy soul; I recognize the memorial of the exquisite bitterness of the cup which He drank.
The twelve stones “are there unto this day” (Josh. 4:9). The monument remains; the cross remains — eternal witness of a love I have there learned to know and the testimony of the only place where God could put all that belonged to my old man.
The Waters Return
In connection with these things, notice also what we find in Joshua 4:18: “It came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.” The sentence is executed, the old man is condemned, and the judgment is passed. Death is conquered, but death remains. What was formerly an obstacle to entrance, an obstacle removed by the ark which opened the pathway for us, separates us when we are once across, not only from Egypt and the desert of Sinai, but also from ourselves. If it were otherwise, we could have no lasting enjoyment in the land of Canaan.
The two and a half tribes (Josh. 4:12-13) truly crossed the Jordan with their brethren, armed for war and prepared to fight, but there were two things of which they remained in ignorance: the value of the land of Canaan and the value of death. The river did not arrest them when they turned to rejoin their wives, their little ones, and their cattle, who were awaiting them on the opposite shore. The country “on this side” had its attractions for them, while the people, who were peacefully in the enjoyment of Canaan, saw with joy that the Jordan was a barrier to separate them from all that which formerly was of any value to them.
Joshua Magnified
“On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life” (Josh. 4:14). It is thus with Christ. He is highly exalted as Saviour by the glory of the Father before our eyes, in virtue of His finished work, and, as the result of this work, the saints are introduced with Him into the present enjoyment and future possession of the glory. This will be to His everlasting glory and honor.
Finally, it is said in Philippians 2:9-10, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” All will bow before Him who humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross.
H. L. Rossier, adapted
Gilgal - the Place of Power
Joshua 5:9
Gilgal, which signifies “rolling” or “rolling away,” is Israel’s center of strength all through the conflicts recorded in the Book of Joshua. They returned to Gilgal, whether after victory or defeat, and from Gilgal they went forth to battle.
At their circumcision “the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of this place is called Gilgal [rolling away] unto this day.” It might have been expected that God would have declared Israel free from the reproach of Egypt after He had cast their enemies into the depths of the sea or immediately upon His bringing them over Jordan into Canaan, but no, He required them to be circumcised first.
At Gilgal Jehovah Himself rolled the reproach away, and Israel stood before Him in the blessing wherewith He had blessed them. Pharaoh had said that if they got out of Egypt, they would be shut in the wilderness, and truly it had seemed as if they would wander and die there. At Gilgal in Canaan they were before Jehovah as His army, His nation on the earth, according to His accomplished purpose. They were His purchased people situated in His promised land, and marked out by Him for Himself from the nations surrounding them.
Christian Position
Here we see a picture of what God has wrought with Christians today; we are established in His grace, which is in itself the prime element of our strength. God has accomplished His purpose toward His redeemed in Christ and has planted them who were of the land of bondage in the heavenly places in Christ. Through Christ He has removed from them every single thing His eye saw in them that was contrary to His own mind, for His people are seen as dead with Christ. He has made them in Christ exactly in accordance with His mind, for they are risen with Christ, seated in Christ on high, and Gilgal is our place of strength. In whatever way the world may be viewed or in whatever way the flesh as the principle of evil is regarded, in Christ (who is risen from the dead and has gone up on high) the reproach is rolled off God’s redeemed people by God Himself. He Himself pronounces them free, for it was not what Israel said of themselves, but what Jehovah declared respecting them, that rendered Gilgal their center of power.
The Memorial
It was at Gilgal the twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan were pitched for the memorial, which declared not only the divine power which had arrested the river, but which also reminded Israel of the depths where the ark of the covenant had stood for them. And here it is in spirit that the true practical spirit of circumcision is carried out by God’s saints; true mortification of self is found where there is true heart-dwelling in the memory of Jesus’ death. As Israel beheld these memorial stones, they would, of necessity, consider the place where the ark had been for them. And abiding in the memory of Christ’s death for us, we, being risen with Christ, are, practically speaking, in the place of power, for we cannot overcome the foe for God unless we ourselves are in subjection to Him.
Members Mortified
The believer knows well enough that though he is seated in the heavenly places in Christ, yet unless he mortifies his members which are on the earth, he has no practical power for his daily life. The knowledge of our death with Christ and our mortifying of our desires cannot be dissociated in practical life. We are not in the Jordan; we are taken out of it, but the memory of Christ’s death for us needs to be ever in our hearts if we would live truly for Him. A saint may know his position in Christ from the Scriptures, yet be living a very untoward life as a Christian. But such would not be the case if his heart was occupied with Christ’s death for him, by which his sins were put away and in whom he is raised to the new life. The Apostle says, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). The memory of Jesus’ dying love was always before his soul. As our hearts gaze, as it were, upon the memorial stones, we say to ourselves, He went into death for us; we died with Him, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to put to death our pride and our ways which once we loved.
Two Great Witnesses
Two great witnesses mark the camp of Gilgal: the twelve stones taken from the bed of Jordan, the memorial of God’s work in bringing them into the promised possession, and circumcision, the witness that nationally they were absolutely Jehovah’s own people. The teachings of these two figures give precisely the two great elements of Christian blessing and strength. First, in Christ ascended, the Christian is brought into all the privileges of all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places; second, by identification with Christ in His death he is, as a fallen child of Adam, dead and buried out of sight before God.
From the stronghold of divine grace the Christian soldier needs to be continually going forth and returning; the twelve stones and the circumcision made without hands (Col. 2:11) must ever be before his soul; he needs to be again and again strengthened for his warfare by the faith of the truth of his being a member of the body of Christ and by the faith of the truth that he has been crucified with Christ.
The effective soldier of Christ is girded about with divine realities, he is braced up in heart by God’s Word as to what real blessing is, and his energy for warfare lies in being in the Spirit as to the truth. The powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places are the foes, and by dwelling in heart in the faith of being blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, we fight the enemy in the field he occupies. To slacken the girdle of truth is to give Satan an advantage. Do not give up a single truth God has given us, for if we fail in practically putting our own desires to death, we surrender our spiritual strength, and our courage will fail.
H. F. Witherby, adapted
The Reproach of Egypt or the Reproach of Christ?
As we have seen elsewhere in this issue, the typical teaching of the crossing of the Jordan is our death with Christ — our practical realization that we are dead and risen with Him. However, when we consider the history of Israel, we find that there were those who did not want to cross the Jordan into Canaan. As the forty years of their wandering in the desert drew to an end, the people were on the east side of Jordan, ready to enter the land. Some of them addressed Moses as follows:
“The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan” (Num. 32:2-5).
The land in question had already been conquered by the children of Israel, having originally belonged to Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan — see Numbers 21. No doubt it seemed very expedient for them to settle there, for, after all, had not God given them the victory over Sihon and Og? When Moses raised an objection to this step, they were adamant in their decision, but they assured Moses that they would certainly pass over Jordan and help their brethren conquer the land of Canaan. With the pledge that they would not return to their houses “until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance,” Moses acceded to their wishes and gave them their inheritance on the east of Jordan. During this time it seems that half the tribe of Manasseh also wished to take their inheritance east of Jordan, and they too were given their portion.
Later, when Joshua and the nine and half tribes crossed the Jordan to conquer Canaan, those on the east of Jordan were true to their word, and “about forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle” (Josh. 4:13). When the land was subdued before them, Joshua sent those men back across Jordan, commending them for what they had done. However, it seems that he had some misgivings, for he charged them to “take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law” and to “serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Josh. 22:5). Almost immediately another problem arose, for in their uneasiness, the two and a half tribes built there by Jordan “an altar of grand appearance” (Josh. 22:10 JND). Once again, this act caused great consternation among the nine and a half tribes, and it almost resulted in war. When challenged about this undertaking, Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh protested that it was not intended as an altar of sacrifice, but only as a witness and a reminder that they were still part of Israel and that they had not cut themselves off from the main body of the congregation. Again, the nine and a half tribes were satisfied with this explanation, and the princes of the congregation, led by Phinehas the priest, accepted the “great altar” and its significance.
There are, however, two things that are worth noticing. First of all, it is recorded that “about forty thousand” men came from the east of Jordan to join with the nine and a half tribes in conquering Canaan. But if we apply the numbers from the census taken at the end of their wilderness journey, “all that are able to go to war in Israel” (Num. 26), we find that those from Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh numbered 136,930 men. In spite of their agreement with Moses’ command that all of them should go over Jordan, fewer than one-third of them actually came over to the war, as they had promised! No doubt the comfort and ease they had at home, compared with the prospect of war, influenced many to decide not to exert themselves and help their brethren.
Second, and later on, when Israel had failed, we find that those east of Jordan were among the first to fall prey to the enemy and to be carried into captivity (see 2 Kings 15:29).
Self Ambition
I would suggest that all this has real significance for us as Christians today. To renounce self and all of its ambitions and to identify ourselves fully with the death and resurrection of Christ is not easy for the flesh. To turn our backs on this world and enjoy heavenly things involves effort and conflict, just as Israel found warfare in Canaan, if they were to possess the land. Again, our natural hearts find it much easier to avoid crossing the Jordan and to enjoy that which seems delightful to the natural man. Surely there was nothing wrong with Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh having cattle or wanting good pasture for them. But if our natural desires hinder our spiritual warfare and the possession of heavenly things, then we must be willing to let those natural things go. Had they crossed the Jordan, surely the Lord was well able to give them what they needed for their cattle.
It was only at Gilgal, on the further bank of Jordan, that circumcision was renewed and that the “reproach of Egypt” was “rolled away” (Josh. 5:9). Until that point they were still able, we might say, to return to Egypt. In the wilderness they had repeatedly spoken of what they enjoyed in Egypt, and indeed they had wanted to make a captain and return there, at one point. Although physically out of Egypt in the wilderness, their hearts were still there, and it was not until they had crossed the Jordan that they were completely free of it. It is the same for us, for it is only after spiritually crossing the Jordan that “the reproach of Christ” is felt. The world will accept a carnal Christian and give him a certain amount of respect, but one who renounces this world and declares his interest in heavenly things will soon feel its scorn and hatred.
Mixed Principles
To be sure, those wanting to settle on the east of Jordan were earnest in their desire to be identified with Israel and in no way wanted to rebel against either the Lord or the leadership He had provided in the persons of Moses and Joshua. But as we have noted, they were very forceful in their insistence that they be given their inheritance “on this side Jordan eastward.” So it is apt to be with us today. We may very much want to be identified with the name of Christ and to be counted by more faithful believers as true Christians. However, we may just as forcefully wish to live, as another has said, with “mixed principles”; we may lack the faith to accept death and resurrection with Christ and refuse to take the place of reproach that is part of this position. We may want to enjoy the truth from a risen Christ in glory, but shrink back from taking the despised position to which this truth would lead us.
When we are somewhat unfaithful as Christians and want to mix Christ with the world, it makes us uneasy and apprehensive, especially in the company of those who are more faithful. Then, like the two and a half tribes, we too are likely to erect “an altar of grand appearance.” We must prove to other believers that we are indeed one with them, and since we too want to be recognized as being faithful, we may initiate all kinds of actions that appear to us as “great works.” Is it going too far to suggest that Christendom today is full of altars “of grand appearance” — works that may be well-intentioned and very good in themselves, but which may be done to salve a troubled conscience, rather than being motivated by simple love for Christ? We trust that we say this in humility, realizing that the tendency is in all of our hearts. Is it not so, that when our consciences are not at ease before the Lord, we are very apt to talk a great deal about what we are doing for Him?
As we have already noted, Phinehas and the other leaders in Israel accepted the explanation of the two and a half tribes, as to the significance of this “great altar,” and today the Lord in His sovereignty accepts, and often blesses, the service rendered to Him because of conscience, even if the motive is flawed. But it does not change the fact that our hearts are not at ease, either in the Lord’s presence or in the presence of more faithful believers, if we are seeking to enjoy a bit of the world and have Christ at the same time.
It is a little like the salt, to which the Lord Jesus Himself compared faithful believers. But if the salt has “lost his savor,” it is “neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill” (Luke 14:34-35). An unfaithful believer is not comfortable anywhere. If he seeks to move among faithful Christians, he is uncomfortable, for his conscience bothers him. If he seeks to associate with the world, again he is uncomfortable, for he has a new life in Christ that cannot be at home in the world; he does not fit anywhere. How much better to be willing to give up this world, identify with a dead and risen Christ, seek heavenly things, and enjoy the “spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”!
W. J. Prost
Worldliness
Worldliness is the reproach of Egypt: We are “dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world” (Col. 2:20). If the world sticks to a Christian, he is going on as one who is not dead. It was a reproach for Israel to be in Egypt; he ought to be in Canaan. Until a person is dead and risen with Christ, he does not get out of Egypt. If I see worldly dress, money loving, and so forth, I see Egypt in people. There are plenty of other things, of course. I cannot bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, unless I reckon myself dead. Through Jesus, I have died with Him and am in Canaan, and then comes the practice.
The Remembrancer
New Life
Oh, how I wish to walk through life
As pleasing to my Lord;
I struggle, stumble, battle strife
Uphill against a horde.
Temptation ever present — how
I fight and fall and sigh;
I would be like Him even now;
“Lord, help me” is my cry.
He takes my hand and turns me round
To view what He has done;
He died, and dead upon the ground
Am I, a victory won.
My death with him — I’ve died to sin!
The corpse of sinful self
Is seen as dead as I begin
A life anew in Him.
With upward look, I put my trust,
My hope, in Conqueror’s power;
To have His peace I really must
Grasp resurrection’s hour.
No longer need I walk alone —
My heart beats with His heart;
Not only did His work atone,
But life and power impart.
cph