Passover, Red Sea and Jordan: December 2009
Table of Contents
The Lord Is Risen
The Lord is risen: the Red Sea’s
judgment flood
Is passed in Him, who bought us with
His blood;
The Lord is risen: we stand beyond the
doom
Of all our sin, through Jesus’ empty
tomb.
The Lord is risen: with Him we also
rose,
And in His grave see vanquished all
our foes;
The Lord is risen: beyond the judgment
land,
In Him, in resurrection life we stand.
The Lord is risen: redeemed now to
God,
We tread the desert which His feet
have trod;
The Lord is risen: the sanctuary’s our
place,
Where now we dwell before the
Father’s face.
The Lord is risen: the Lord is gone
before;
We long to see Him and to sin no
more;
The Lord is risen: our triumph-shout
shall be,
“Thou hast prevailed! Thy people,
Lord, are free!”
Little Flock Hymnbook, #34
Passover, the Red Sea, and the Jordan
In the Passover, the blood met the claims of God’s justice as regards the people’s sins. At the Red Sea, the children of Israel were delivered from the house of bondage, placed forever beyond Pharaoh’s power, and set in the wilderness as a redeemed people brought to God.
The Red Sea is a type of the death and resurrection of Christ, where Satan’s power was annulled and we, delivered from it, are brought to God in perfect peace, so that we can joy in Him whose power has wrought so great a deliverance for us. This truth is found in the Epistle to the Romans.
The crossing of the Jordan was Israel’s entrance into Canaan. It is a type of 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 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. This is the true Christian position, the proper portion of every believer. Our place is 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 in the present enjoyment of what is infallibly and eternally ours in Christ.
From Christian Truth
The Jordan
From Egypt up to the river Jordan, the deliverance of the people is characterized by two great events, the Passover and the Red Sea, and in order to understand the third great event, that is, the crossing of the Jordan, it is well to get hold of the meaning of the first two. All three are types of the death of Christ, but its aspects are so rich, so various and so infinite that we need all these, and many others, in order to comprehend some of its depth and extent.
The Passover
The Passover shows us the death of Christ as a shelter from the judgment of God. “I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment” (Ex. 12:12). Now Israel themselves could be sheltered only by the blood of the paschal lamb placed between the people as sinners and God as a judge who was against them. The blood stops God, so to speak, keeps Him outside, and places us in safety inside. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Only let us not forget that it is the love of God which provides the sacrifice capable of meeting His own judgment. Love thus spares the people, who could not of themselves escape judgment any more than the Egyptians.
Redemption
At the Red Sea we find a second aspect of the death of Christ, which is redemption: “Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed” (Ex. 15:13). Now if God delivers and redeems us, He is for us instead of being against us; indeed, it says, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (Ex. 14:14). The Passover stopped God Himself as a judge and set Israel in safety; at the Red Sea, God intervenes as a Saviour (Ex. 15:2) in favor of His people, who have nothing to do but to look on at their deliverance: “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord” (Ex. 14:13). In redemption, God acts as if the enemies which were against us were against Him.
The Needed Condition
But return to the Jordan. At the Passover atonement was made; at the Red Sea redemption was accomplished and salvation obtained, but here it is another question. In order to take possession of the land of Canaan, the people must be in a certain condition.
Between the Red Sea and the Jordan, Israel had crossed the desert, and this journey is divided into two distinct parts. In the first part, up to Sinai, it is grace which leads the people—the same grace which had redeemed them from Egypt and by which they experience the resources of Christ in the midst of all their infirmities. In the second part, after Sinai, Israel is under the reign of law, and it is then that they are proved, to know what is in their hearts. The trial only demonstrated that they were “carnal, sold under sin” and that their will was enmity against God, finally showing itself in open rebellion when it was a question of entering into possession of the promises.
The condition of Israel was an absolute obstacle to their entering Canaan. When they come to the end of their experiences in the flesh, they find the Jordan, an overflowing flood, as a barrier to their onward progress. The Red Sea hindered their escape from Egypt, the Jordan prevents their entrance into Canaan, and to attempt to cross it would be their destruction. Here we have a fresh type of death. It is the end of man in the flesh, and, at the same time, the end of Satan’s power. How can we, who are without strength, withstand it? It separates us forever from the enjoyment of the promises. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).
The Ark of the Covenant
But the grace of God has provided for it. The ark goes before the people; it not only makes them know the way by which they should go, but it associates them with itself in the passage. The priests, the representatives of the people, were to take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before Israel. It was indeed the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth (vs. 13) which was to pass on before them across Jordan, but not without them. The ark maintained its preeminence: “There shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure” (vs. 4). But as the eyes of the people were fixed upon it (vs. 3), they beheld at the same time the priests of the tribe of Levi who bore it. As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests rested in the waters of Jordan, the waters were cut off and ceased to flow. A power was there which was victorious over the power of death and which associated Israel with the victory.
If it was thus for Israel, how much more for us! All that we were in the flesh has found its end in the cross of Christ. We can say, I am dead to sin, dead to the law; I am crucified with Christ. My eyes, fixed on the ark—on Christ — see in Him the end of my personality as a child of Adam. But in Him also is a victorious power, now made mine; I am introduced in resurrection life in Him, beyond death, into the full enjoyment of the things which this life possesses: “I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20).
Death itself, of course, is not yet swallowed up: “When the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan . . . the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before” (Josh. 4:18). But when “this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). Then Christ’s place, beyond all that which could hinder us, will be ours, even as to our bodies. But before the fulfillment of these things, we can already say, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
A New Status
We find then in the Jordan, in a special way, death to that which we were in our former status and the beginning of a new status in the power of life with Christ, with whom we are risen. His death and resurrection introduce us now into all the heavenly blessings, and what we have just said explains the reason of our not finding enemies here as at the Red Sea. At the Jordan, the Israelites are not pursued by Pharaoh and his host, but the enemy is in front of them and does not begin to act until they have crossed the river.
Now they enter upon a new series of experiences. In the desert of Sinai the old man has been proved to be sin; then follows, in type, at the Jordan, the knowledge acquired by faith, that we have been taken out of our association with Adam and set in a new association with a dead and risen Christ. Finally, in Canaan, we have the experiences of the new man, though not without weakness and failure if there be a lack of vigilance, but with a power at our disposal, of which we can make constant use in order to be strong and to fight valiantly and resist the subtle wiles of the enemy.
H. L. Rossier, adapted
The Way Into Heavenly Places
The Wilderness
The wilderness is the path of a Christian in which he learns himself. It is the place of a soul who is really at rest before God. There may have been experiences before of slavery and other things, but they were the experiences of a soul in which God has acted, but which is not yet delivered. It is where a soul is who knows he is redeemed. If I only know the blood, I am still in Egypt, but if I have passed through the Red Sea, I know God as a deliverer. I am not in the flesh but in the Spirit (Rom. 8). The prodigal son had experiences before he returned home, but they were the experiences of one who had not yet met the father. There was a work in the man. He found he was perishing. He had repented and set out, but there still remained the question, What will he say to me when I meet him? Will he set me on his right hand, or left? He had his speech already made up, and he had fixed the place he was to take in the house —that of a servant — but he had not yet met the father. He learns what his place was in the house by what the father was to him when he met him, and he says nothing about the place of a servant. He is brought in as a son. He could not say, “Make me as one of thy hired servants,” for his father was on his neck. It was not what he was for God, but what God was for him. He put the best robe on him, not a robe. He met him in his sins, but did not bring him in in his sins. God met him in rags, but he is brought in in Christ.
The Red Sea
If I have got through the Red Sea, God is a deliverer and not a judge, in virtue of the full, blessed work of Christ. I am not in the flesh. It is not merely that my sins are forgiven, but I am in the second Man, in Christ, before God. The first practical effect is, I am brought into the wilderness. A person has a great deal to learn after he is redeemed. I am out of the flesh and have my place in and with Christ, but the learning of the flesh in me is a humbling process. “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee.” “Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years” (Deut. 8). God was thinking about their very clothes and their feet, but He gave them all the discipline and correction needed to show them themselves. And when through their unbelief they refuse to enter the land of Canaan, being unwilling to go up and fight the Amorites, He in His grace turns around in unfailing love and patience and dwells with them all the forty years of their wilderness journey.
God Dwelling With Us
What characterizes the Christian is the presence of the Holy Spirit, God dwelling in him in virtue of redemption. He does not dwell with man in innocence; He never dwelt in Eden. The dwelling of God with man was always consequent on redemption, whether in the cloud with Israel, or in the church by the Holy Spirit. He had walked with Adam in the garden, dined with Abraham, so to speak, but He never dwelt with them. But as soon as He gets a people redeemed, He dwells with them and talks of holiness. He adapts Himself to their circumstances. When they were in bondage in Egypt, He came to them as deliverer; when they were in the wilderness dwelling in tents, He pitched His tent among them and led them through. When they arrived at Canaan, He met them, sword in hand, as their captain, to lead them in conflict, and when at length they were all settled down, He built a beautiful house and dwelt in their midst. So it is with His people now. He dwells with us by the Holy Spirit: first in us as individuals (“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost”); second, in the church collectively (“In whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit”). It is not merely that they are born of God, but they have the blood on them, and there the Holy Spirit dwells. “After that ye believed. . . . ” “This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” “He which stablisheth us . . . is God.” He quickens unbelievers and dwells in believers. The presence of the Holy Spirit is what forms the distinctive character of the Christian and of the church. The leper was washed, sprinkled and anointed —the blood placed upon his ear, his hand and his foot, and then the oil upon the blood. It was most holy; nothing must pass into the ear or be done by the hand that would defile, nor must they do anything that would defile the feet in walk. The anointing — that is, the presence of the Holy Spirit in us — is the seal of the value of the blood. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 5:5). The Holy Spirit is the earnest, not of the love of God (for we have this), but of the inheritance for which we wait.
Dead and Risen With Christ
In the wilderness God is humbling us, proving us, and making all work together for good. Circumcision is not practicable in the wilderness. Israel comes to Jordan and crosses it. Here we have a figure, not of Christ dying for me, but of my dying and rising with Him. It is not simply that Christ died for me, but I am crucified with Christ. I reckon myself dead and have received Christ as my life. I am dead, risen and seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I am out of the wilderness altogether. I was dead in sins, and Christ came down and died for sins, and now I am quickened, raised up and seated in Christ. That is the new place altogether. This is the doctrine taught in Ephesians. I am no longer looked at as alive in the flesh at all. I have got into heavenly places. And the moment I have got there, all is mine —“all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.” But then it is only as I set my foot on my blessing that I make it practically my own. And then I find that there is another foot there — the enemy is in possession — so that I have need of the whole armor of God. The place we have to pass through is the world as a wilderness, but, as to my position, I am in the heavenly places, and I must walk accordingly. If I am living in the world as a man in the flesh, I meet my neighbors and I may find them kind and obliging, but as soon as I begin to talk of heavenly things, I find them opposed.
Well, I have to show forth Christ in living relationships. If it is true that I am in Christ, it is true also that Christ is in me. “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). The standard is not a man running on toward heaven, but it is showing out the Christ that is in me. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Cor. 4:10) — that and nothing else. “Death worketh in us, but life in you.” Paul is dead. It was Christ acting through Paul. If we fail, that is wilderness work. If Christ is in me, I must never let a bit of anything but Christ be seen. Now you have Christ in you, which is positive power and nothing else; now you see that that is seen and nothing else. Joshua says, Set your foot on it. It is yours. I have got into Canaan and I get conflict directly. I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ. It is all mine, and now I am seeking to get hold of the things that I have a right to. He says, “As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” We get testing in the wilderness; we get conflict in Canaan. When I am in Canaan, I have spiritual intelligence and activity in that which belongs to me. “Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” — how much have we each realized of the spiritual blessings which are ours?
Gilgal, the Place of Self-Judgment
In the stones taken out of Jordan, we find that the believer takes with him the character of death. The ark went down. We died to sin. The world and Satan’s power is all gone. We belonged to death once; now death belongs to us. Now I am bound to say, Reckon yourself dead. We are never told to die to sin, but we “are dead.” The first thing is that we have passed through Jordan dry, and that is our title to reckon ourselves dead. Circumcision is the practical application of this. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3). If I see a man impatient, I do not deny he is dead, but I say, You need a little of Gilgal. If I see a man looking at nonsense in the town, I do not deny he is dead, but I say, You need to be circumcised. That is the practical application of the death of Christ to our souls, actually realizing it. Most strikingly in Joshua we get Ai taken, then conquest after conquest, but we find Gilgal, the place of circumcision, was always the place to which the camp returned after their victories. No matter what success you have, you must go back to Gilgal. The Book of Joshua is the history of successful energy; the Book of Judges, of failure, with God coming in and removing it from time to time.
Gilgal, the place of self-judgment, is the place of practical, divine power. We find even victories dangerous unless we return to the judgment of the flesh. After preaching the gospel, the most blessed work that can be, we must go back to Gilgal. Israel began well at Jericho; what were the high walls to faith? The higher the walls, the more they tumble when they come down. But instead of returning to Gilgal, they get self-confident and send up a few to take Ai. But there we have failure. They have to return to Gilgal and judge the flesh. In Judges, the angel of the Lord goes up from Gilgal to meet them at Bochim: that is, from the place of power to the place of tears. They had left the place of power for the place of sorrow. They sacrifice there, but it is in tears.
The Passover
After the passage of the Jordan, the first thing we saw was the setting up of the twelve stones; second, circumcision; third, the Passover. They can now look back at the foundation of everything in redemption. They keep it now, not as guilty and protected by it — that they had been in Egypt — but as celebrating the truth that the death of the blessed Son of God is the foundation of all blessing. The Lord’s supper is nothing less than celebrating that which is the foundation of God’s giving of everything. The more we look at it, the more we find the cross holding a place that nothing else has, except Him who died on it. “As is the heavenly . . . ” and “as He is, so are we.” The cross is even a deeper thing than the glory. The glory has been obtained by it, but the cross is where the moral nature of God, His holiness and His love, have been glorified. Here we see the circumcised believer in Canaan feeding upon the lamb, the remembrance of the death of Christ.
The Old Corn of the Land
The fourth thing seen is that they feed on the “old corn of the land,” and the manna ceases. The old corn is a type of the heavenly Christ. The manna suited the wilderness —Christ come down from heaven. In the midst of all the circumstances down here, He meets us on the journey, and we feed on Him. It is the same Christ — only in another character—that we see in the old corn of the land. We have not only a humbled and glorified Christ for the food of our souls — His life down here — but what we find in 2 Corinthians 3: “We all, with open [unveiled] face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” It is the fruit of the land — a humbled Christ who is now in the Canaan to which we belong. They had not yet taken a city, but they sit down at the table which God has spread for them in the presence of their enemies. All is mine before a single victory. I sit down in the presence of my enemies. He has spread a table for me. God’s delight is my delight. Before I draw my sword in conflict, I sit down and know that everything is mine.
The Man With the Drawn Sword
Last, we have the man with the drawn sword come to take his place as captain of the Lord’s host. In heavenly things it is all conflict. Mark the word here. It is a question of, “Art Thou for us, or for our adversaries?” There is no middle place, but a complete split. If you are for the world, you are against Christ. The moment it becomes a question of Christ, it must be either for or against. The world has crucified Christ, and He has said, “He that is not with Me is against Me,” and “He that is not against us is on our part.” I know that the meaning of these two statements has been questioned and thought difficult to reconcile, but it is very simple. If we are for Christ, we must be against the world, and if we are not against Him, the opposition of the world to Him is so strong that it will not have us. “Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” and there can be no uniting of the two. The world never accepts faithfulness to Christ. The human heart is enmity to Christ. Satan’s great object is that Christians should suit their Christianity to the world. You will never get the world to take God as its portion. “As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.” Of course, it was the Lord Himself.
We have the same words here as at the burning bush to Moses, “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” In the spiritual conflict we have to carry on, holiness is as much a question as redemption, and when we come to have conflict, we must be as holy as we shall be when we are with Him. Thank God, redemption has done this. You will have the Lord with you. The One who carries on the warfare is the Holy One who has redeemed us, and the Lord’s own strength is with us.
How far have we the testimony? Can we say, I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3)? Is your thought and purpose to be at Gilgal or at Bochim? Is it your thought to go on in the knowledge of perfect redemption? Is it to have everything of the flesh judged? and to have the Lord’s strength with you for successful conflict?
“Prove all things.” By what standard? My own comprehension, or God’s revealed Word? “Hold fast that which is good.”
J. N. Darby
Keeping the Passover
The keeping of the Passover was central to Israel’s relationship with God and served as an annual remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt. So it is with the church, for we read that “even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). However, it was “upon the first day of the week” that “the disciples came together to break bread” (Acts 20:7), and also Paul could say, “As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup” (1 Cor. 11:26), for we need the constant and regular reminder of what our Saviour suffered for us.
In Israel, however, we find that the Passover was kept in three different places — in Egypt, in the wilderness and in the land. Each of these has a spiritual significance for us, in connection with our remembrance of the Lord.
In Egypt
The Passover was first kept in Egypt, where they were in imminent danger of judgment. God could not pass over the Israelites while killing all the firstborn in Egypt, for the Israelites were sinners just as much as the Egyptians. The blood-sheltered house kept those inside from God’s judgment, while they feasted on the roast lamb, a picture of Christ. There are several things to be noted in connection with keeping the Passover in Egypt.
First of all, it was in view of sheltering them from God’s judgment, for the blood kept God from judging those in the house. The fear was the fear of God’s judgment, for God could not pass over sin in His people while judging the Egyptians. Second, it was eaten privately, within their houses, simply as families. It was not done as a collective or public act. Third, it was in view of their immediate departure from Egypt, and thus they were told to eat it “with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste” (Ex. 12:11). Finally, it was to be followed directly by the feast of unleavened bread.
All of this speaks, in New Testament terms, of a simple understanding of the work of Christ. We may well remember the Lord with a sense of having been delivered, with a plain understanding and yet a heartfelt appreciation of Christ and His work, and how we are delivered from judgment by His sacrifice on the cross. We may have perhaps very little understanding of the collective aspect of the truth of the one body, yet have a true understanding of our being delivered from the enemy’s power, as Israel was at the Red Sea. There may also be a true heart for Christ and a wish to separate from sin in our lives, as well as from the world, typified by the feast of unleavened bread and the departure from Egypt. In such cases we do not know fully what our old sinful self is capable of, yet our hearts well up in thanksgiving and praise for what Christ has done for us. Thanksgiving is the keynote of our hearts and voices.
In the Wilderness
However, we find in Numbers 9:2, in the first month of the second year after the children of Israel had left Egypt, that the Lord reminded them through Moses, “Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at His appointed season.” Accordingly, it is recorded that “they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai” (Num. 9:5). There are certain things connected with keeping the Passover in the wilderness. First of all, it was kept with a sense that the Lord was for them, rather than being against them. They were now a redeemed people, having nothing more to fear, either from God’s judgment as to sin or from Pharaoh’s power. In Egypt the Lord was against them, and His grace provided the blood so that He could pass over them. At the Red Sea, Satan, in the person of Pharaoh, was against them, and God judged him and his hosts there. Thus, in the wilderness, there was deliverance and a settled peace, which gave to this Passover a quality that could not be present in Egypt.
Second, however, their joy was not complete, for it was the place where they learned, among other things, what their own hearts were. Thus we find, for example, permission given to keep the Passover in the second month, for those who were unclean. Likewise, we find a solemn penalty mentioned for one who was clean, yet who refused to keep the Passover (Num. 9:13). If they had been sheltered from God’s judgment in Egypt by the blood, they now had to learn what was in their hearts. On the other hand, they learned, too, what God was and what His heart was in spite of their failure.
Again, we may remember the Lord in this way, with a full understanding of our deliverance, not only from God’s wrath, but also from Satan’s power, as shown in Pharaoh. Our appreciation of Christ is increased, although sorrow is present, because we are learning ourselves as we walk through the wilderness. We realize more and more what we have been saved from, and our praise and thanksgiving increase as we see the fullness of the deliverance Christ has wrought for us.
In the Land
Finally, in Joshua 5:10-12 we read that “the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”
Again, we find here typically a further spiritual advance — an increased understanding and appreciation of Christ and His work. First of all, the keeping of this Passover in the land was preceded by circumcision—something that had not taken place in the wilderness. Having learned what they were by sad experience in the wilderness, they now have no confidence in the flesh, but are willing to have done with it. Along with this, the “reproach of Egypt” is rolled away, and every connection with it is completely severed. Their spending forty years in the wilderness was occasioned by their wanting to return to Egypt instead of going up into Canaan, and in the wilderness they had constantly recalled to mind the things of Egypt, instead of trusting the Lord. There is no more of this in Canaan.
Connected with the Passover in the land was also the eating of the old corn of the land, instead of feeding on manna. Christ in manhood (typified by the manna) is now replaced by Christ in glory (typified by the old corn of the land), for now that they have crossed the Jordan (bringing before us our death with Christ), conflict is in view, in order to possess the land and dwell in it. The Lord appears to Joshua as “captain of the Lord’s host,” who leads His people into the full enjoyment of the land. In being identified with a risen Christ in glory and in having Him as our object, we are done with the world, with Satan, and with self. Of course, the believer never ceases to enjoy Christ in manhood, and he will, at times, be in the wilderness again, as to his experience. But once he has entered the land, the things that characterize the wilderness are past. In seeing Christ in glory, who has passed through death and everything connected with it, the believer is free to look back at the cross, and this is perhaps brought before us by the stones put into the midst of Jordan. There were stones placed there in Gilgal as a reminder to Israel of their deliverance in crossing the Jordan, but Joshua himself (a type of Christ) placed twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, perhaps the unseen reminder of the death of Christ that makes it possible for us to be dead and risen with Him. Faith sees these stones put there by Joshua while enjoying the blessings of the land. More than this, the collective aspect of the Passover is introduced in the land. No longer was it to be eaten simply as families in their homes, but it must be eaten “in the place which the Lord shall choose” (Deut. 12:14) and connected with “a holy convocation” (Lev. 23:7). No doubt this has its New Testament counterpart in the truth of the one body, and in the fact that those who remember the Lord should do so in recognition that “we being many are one bread, and one body” (1 Cor. 10:17).
Eating the Passover in the land thus represents the fullest appreciation of Christ and His work, for the one who eats it in the land does so as being dead and risen with Christ, while enjoying all that is his as a heavenly man and having a risen Christ in glory as an object. But the Lord appreciates whatever apprehension of Christ that we have, as typified in the various burnt offerings. Whether a bullock, sheep, or only a pigeon, the Spirit of God says of each one that it was “a sweet savor unto the Lord” (Lev. 1:9,13,17). He values any appreciation of Christ, yet wants us to “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
W. J. Prost
The Leader’s Memorial and Glory
Jehovah wrought “wonders” for Israel at the Jordan, both in the actual work performed and in the hidden meaning of the work. Hence, in the type before us, great things of God’s mind are to be found.
“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.” When the record was written, the swelling of Jordan had not swept away the leader’s own memorial of the passage of the river’s bed. Israel’s memorial set up in Canaan was for all in the land of promise to see — “a memorial unto the children of Israel forever.” Joshua’s, reared in the bed of the river, was for no eye to behold when the waters were at their flood, but nonetheless a memorial for the leader himself. In the river, we may justly say, his deepest feelings would center; there, where the priests stood, the whole burden of Israel’s security was borne, and there the secret power of all Israel’s blessing in entering Canaan lay.
The Waters of Judgment
Joshua in Canaan being a type of Christ, we have in this action a significant teaching. Our Lord never forgets the deep waters through which He passed — those sufferings in and unto death, by which He vanquished him that had the power of death, the devil, and by which He opened to His people their heavenly inheritance. From the throne on high He remembers the travail of His soul, His cross, its shame and agony. Jesus, whose work has brought the people of God into heavenly places, ever remembers the swellings of Jordan, the flood of deep waters, where He, blessed be His name, stood firm for us to bring us to His God and Father.
God’s people are much occupied with their blessings and, indeed, of moral necessity, these must at first fill the heart, for until, by grace, it be known how the saints are blessed in the heavenly places in Christ, it is not possible to meditate upon the way our Lord has brought us into our blessings. Our stones of memorial tell us of Jordan’s depths and what Christ suffered for our sakes and of our blessings, but let not His memorial be forgotten! His holy person in glory still bears the marks of the wounds of Calvary, and from heaven Jesus, speaking of His death, says to His people, “Remember Me.”
The sacred memory of the place where His feet stood firm when the billows of God’s wrath rolled over Him should be present to the heart. True, He is no longer the sufferer; His sorrows are forever passed; He is the ascended Son of Man, triumphant in His victory over death, but forever shall memories of His death fill the hearts of His people; eternally shall it be said of the Lord’s stones of “witness,” “They are there unto this day.”
The Leader Magnified
Jehovah magnified Joshua by the passage of the Jordan, and thereby obtained for him the leadership in Israel’s eyes. “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.” The present exaltation and place of the Lord Jesus as man is of His God and Father, and His glories and exaltation are the blessed answer to His sufferings and humiliation. “Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Eph. 4:9-10). The Lord Jesus, the Son of Man, who went down to the lowest depths, occupies the highest height in heaven, and there He bears in His person the solemn witness to Calvary. Because of His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name (Phil. 2). He has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and God the Father has set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come (Eph. 1). As this exaltation of the Lord is apprehended, He becomes indeed the Leader of His people and is magnified by them.
The Lord is not fully honored by His people until His present glory is recognized. In the light of His present exaltation as a man, on the life side of death, His glory as the Lord who died is seen. He, the risen and ascended Christ, is the firstborn from among the dead, the Head over all things, the Head of His body, the church, and the more the heart apprehends Him thus, the more all that He did in dying for us is remembered.
The heavenly Leader is before His people in the teachings of the portion before us. Even in earthly matters, a leader’s influence over his followers is proportionate to the honor in which they hold him. Now Christ is in heaven and in glory, and as His greatness and majesty, His strength and power, are apprehended by faith, a mighty influence is exercised over the souls and lives of His people. His position in glory and His victory determine the blessing of the redeemed; the fullness of the blessing of the members is determined by the glory of the Head. His honor and their blessing are not to be separated. Our heavenly position in Christ is exclusively of divine grace, but it is ours in Christ on high. Now indeed it is a subject for faith, but soon it will be displayed in glory, and that display will be seen to be to the honor of our exalted Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord.
H. F. Witherby
The Wilderness and God’s Counsels
The path in the wilderness formed no part of the counsels, but only of the ways of God; as to redemption, it may be dropped, but then Jordan and the Red Sea coalesce. The Red Sea is Christ’s death and resurrection for us; Jordan, our death and resurrection with Him.
J. N. Darby
In at the Red Sea and Out at 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. I think the reason is this, that when you come to the Jordan, you do not read of them going into the Jordan; you see the ark going in, but you see them come out. The fact is this: The Red Sea and the Jordan coalesce. To bring them out of Egypt and to bring them into Canaan was God’s purpose.
W. T. P. Wolston
Redemption
“Redemption” is a large and blessed word in the New Testament and in the Old Testament too. Redemption takes the redeemed one out of one position and state and brings him into another.
The subject of Exodus is redemption. In chapter 3 we find the blessed God come down in the burning bush and saying to Moses, “I am come down to deliver.” “I have surely seen . . . and have heard,” and “I am come down.” Go to the end of the book, chapter 40 and verse 33. There we have God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people, pitching His habitation among them.
The Blood
In Exodus 12 we get the way in which He did it. The first thing was to shelter that people from judgment. That could only be done by the blood of the lamb. The first thing God gives a soul to know, when really exercised, is security from judgment under the blood of Christ, but we must not stop there. In Ephesians 1, speaking of Christ as the Beloved, the Word says, “In whom we have redemption” (vs. 7). How far does that go? “Even the forgiveness of sins.” Now read chapter 2, verses 12-13: “Without Christ . . . and without God in the world.” “Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” The redemption we have in Christ through His blood brings with it the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. It gives something else too; it takes me out of the old condition and gives me a new place of nearness to God Himself. So we must not stop with being secured from judgment.
The blood on the two side posts and the lintel told that death had come in. It told that the stroke had fallen on a victim — a life had been given. There are those who have faith in the Lord Jesus who do not know much about the blood — about being covered.
The Redeemed
Near the Redeemer
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” To whom was that day the beginning of months? It was for the redeemed of Israel — nobody else knew anything about it throughout the whole world. It was a particular day — the day of redemption.
In chapter 3 God had come down, and what brought Him down was the bondage, misery, groaning and oppression of His people. There He appears in the midst of the burning bush. “God called unto him [Moses] out of the midst of the bush.” By way of comparison, notice the first of Leviticus. “The Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation.” What a contrast! That gives the character to these two books. God comes down to deliver; then after He delivers, He sets His habitation in the midst of His people. Out of the midst of that habitation He appears and tells them how to approach Him.
The subject of Exodus is redemption; the subject of Leviticus is the redeemed drawing near to God, the Redeemer. There is more order in the Word of God than many realize. It is not brought together at random.
Numbers gives us the wilderness journey. It is a redeemed people, and they are not in Egypt nor in Canaan, but in the wilderness, journeying on to Canaan.
Deuteronomy answers to the judgment seat of Christ. We learn all the way God has led us since He brought us out of Egypt. For the Israelites it must have been very humbling as Moses called their attention to all their ways. But as it humbled them, it magnified the grace and goodness of God, and that is what our Deuteronomy will do too.
W. Potter
The Twelve Stones
“It came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man; and command ye them, saying, 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. 4:13). It was the testimony of where the ark had been. I do not doubt that the twelve stones are the memorial. 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” (Josh. 4:9). The putting in of these twelve stones expressed the whole of the company. 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 am a person dead and risen, and 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. To this end, I think we are greatly helped in the Lord’s Supper. “Those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal” (Josh. 4:20). They remained as the eternal witness of a finished work, just as the Lord’s Supper speaks to us.
W. T. P. Wolston
Passover and the Red Sea
It is well to distinguish the difference between the Passover and the Red Sea. A person may hear the gospel and receive it with joy, and be rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins; he may see the loveliness of Christ and have his affections drawn out towards Himself. But if full redemption is not known, as typified by the Red Sea, if he does not know himself to be risen with Christ on the other side of death and judgment, he is almost sure to lose his joy when temptation comes and he feels his own weakness. The joy of Exodus 15 is that God has absolutely redeemed them out of Egypt and brought them in His strength to His holy habitation. It is a very different thing from the joy of the Passover — being delivered from just and deserved judgment. The Passover delivered them from His judgment; the Red Sea, from their enemies.
J. N. Darby