Chapter 4
We learned earlier that the Jordan is a figure, or picture, of death. For man to attempt to pass through it by himself would be to perish. But the ark went before God’s people, Israel, and the ark is a figure of the Lord Jesus. He has gone before to dry up the waters of death for all His own.
He has abolished death, that is, He put an end to it, and broke the power of death by dying on the cross. He has brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel (2 Tim. 1:1010But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel: (2 Timothy 1:10)). The gospel is the good news about the Lord Jesus; that He died and rose again so that every believing child of God might pass out of death into His Father’s house.
The Red Sea is also a type of death, for it is God’s way in the Old Testament to teach us parts of the same thing by many different types. This makes it easier for our minds to understand God’s great thoughts.
The blood of the Passover lamb sprinkled on the doorposts saved the children of Israel from the judgment of God that dark night in Egypt. And the first thing a sinner learns is that Jesus has shed His blood to save him from judgment.
But God’s people must not stay in Egypt, and to get out of Egypt they must pass through the Red Sea. The sinner must learn that the death of Christ has saved him from the world’s judgment and from all that would keep him in this world. So the cross of Christ separates the Christian from the world just as the Red Sea separated the children of Israel from Egypt and from the Egyptians, their oppressors. They saw them sink like lead in the mighty waters, and then they saw them all dead on the sea shore.
In Egypt the Israelites were quite safe from God’s judgment because the blood was on the doorpost, but they were dreadfully afraid for Pharaoh was there, their taskmasters were there, and their burdens were still there too. However, the moment they were on the other side of the Red Sea, their fear was gone, the power of Egypt was broken, and standing, as it were, on redemption ground, they burst forth into that wonderful song of God’s salvation. Just so a saved sinner can look away from the world and its bondage and say, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1).)
After crossing the Red Sea, Israel found themselves in the wilderness. And so it is in our soul’s experience that having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, brought to God and delivered from the world and Satan’s power, the world becomes a wilderness to us-there is nothing here for us and we must find our all in Christ.
But God did not intend that His people should always remain in the wilderness, so He said they must learn something more about death. Not only were they to see their enemies dead on the shore, but they were to go into the place of death themselves, that they might know that the living God was among them. So Israel had to cross over Jordan, type of death, while Canaan, the land of promise, is a figure of those heavenly joys and blessings that God has prepared for those who love Him.
ML-05/08/1977