Joshua 1
Before 'entering on the study of the book of Joshua, it is of importance that we should see that it was the purpose of God, even in the land of Egypt, before a step was taken, to bring the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. If we turn to the third of Exodus, we read: " And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."
Now that mission Moses did not accomplish, and here we see Joshua has to complete it. He is the savior; he accomplishes the work which, Moses being dead, now takes a new turn. Salvation comes out. It is not uncommon in Scripture thus to find the mission of one servant accomplished by another. In this way Elisha fulfills final's, and Paul, Stephen's. Thus Joshua comes in to accomplish that of Moses.
It is part of God's thought about me that I should have heaven. It is not t a thing that I shall become entitled to at some future time; I am now. Joshua only 'really leads me into possession of that which is mine already. It is true I have to possess; but before possession I must have title. So in the first few verses we find God encouraging Joshua as to his title to the land; it is " the land which I do give to them," and "that have I given unto you." However, title is not enough to insure possession.
Canaan is properly, if I may Use such an expression, an earthly heaven. The children of Israel were going on to it through the wilderness. As for us we are now in the Canaan of which theirs was the type, and which we get in Ephesians, where we are " blessed With all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; " and we are going on to the true Canaan. We have now the figures of the true; we are in the antitype of Canaan; of course heaven is not the antitype of it. It is God's kingdom on the earth. The moment I take God's ground on earth I am on heavenly ground. This is just what makes the difference between the wilderness and Canaan-that I am standing for God now; I am taking possession, so to speak, for God. This is Ephesians. In Hebrews the saints are going on through the wilderness, to Canaan; and they wanted to go back and to make earth the religious place. It is to extricate them from that snare that Hebrews was written. You easily get the difference between He-brews and Colossians if you put them together. In Colossians they are trying to make man religious; whilst in Hebrews they are trying to make earth a religious place. The moment you take your place in the race you are a heavenly man. The possession of Canaan to the Jew was, that he had, as his own, " the land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year; " a land in which was everything that satisfied man naturally. So now, that " the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," I am filled with all that satisfies the spiritual man just as they had everything that satisfied the natural man; and I do not believe any one is satisfied who is not on God's ground. A man may be cared for in the wilderness, but that is not being satisfied.
As to what is sometimes said of our being in the three places-Egypt, the wilderness, and the land-at the same time, I do not believe it. I do not think we are in Egypt at all. I think Egypt becomes the wilderness to me as soon as I am converted; my surroundings, my home, my business, are the same that they were, but they have assumed a different aspect to me from that which they presented when I was unconverted: it is the wilderness to me how, because I do not look to the world as I used for everything, now I look to God for everything; the world yields me nothing, it is the wilderness and nothing more; but when I come to Canaan my heart is delighted.
"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." It is to encourage us to go in to possess. I am entitled to it before I enter upon it at all, just as I have the key of my house in my hand before I go into it. People so often say they wish they could go into the land, and all the time they never have the sense of their title to do so. I should have the unalterable Conviction that it is mime.
" From the wilderness even to the great river, the river Euphrates." It has been remarked that the possession was greater than their enjoyment of it. Their boundary, given by God, was the Euphrates; whereas, as to appropriation of it, they went but very little beyond the Jordan.. The limit of their possession was far wider. Solomon did go out to it: " He reigned over all the kings from the river even unto the land of the Philistines." Verses 5-8.-We must go in obedience. You find a person fail in his enjoyment of God, fail in his enjoyment of the possession; an why? Because, though he may have light and a sense of his title, he is not in moral power. There must be obedience, observing to do " according to all" that is commanded. When a person gets at all into the flesh he gets under the law; man never gets into the flesh that the law does not hit him He has revived the thing that the law deals with. It is well in this present day to insist that a man might keep the law up to his own conscience, and yet be a Christian of very low standing.. You cannot make the law the standard for your Christianity. The new school that has carried so many with it is just this, that you are to attain to a legal righteousness according to your own conscience. But there is no such thing as arriving at perfection down here. Thus in the consecration of the priests the second ram is not presented whole down here; it is divided into four parts, unlike the one that went up whole to God. So I get at parts of it, and say I am not able to carry out the whole; but I know there is a whole thing up there which is to be carried out here.
Verses 9-15.-I find the Lord very jealous here. If he have given me a possession, it is the delight of God that I should possess it. Do you possess it? It is not only that I possess it for my own delight, but that I, as His child, enter into that which He delights to give me. The portion of the two and a half tribes were part of the territory, but they were not inside Jordan. They stayed there for the advantage of their families, but still they had to fight; no person can get any part of the territory without fighting; but these, though they fought, did not enjoy the land in their surroundings. Some people are allowed to take a lower standard; they are carried away by present advantages; but it has always been so-there have always been the two classes in the history of faith: one who would go the whole way and one who would not; as Lot and Abram, and Joshua and Caleb and the children of Israel. I do not deny the saintship of the former of thee, but I deny that they are walking by faith. It is a bad thing to be content with anything less than God gives you; but even this they cannot get without fighting. The tendency always is to lose God's place for us, through beginning to think of ourselves. These two and a half tribes were too hasty they looked for possession before the battle was fought just as people now look for enjoyment when they have had no conflict to gain it; but this enjoyment never has the same character.
It is a fine moment in a soul when it comes to the point, " I am going to set myself for that which my Father has given me." I do not know anything more sad than a person going on quite satisfied never to get it. Our Father would have us in a scene where we can fully enjoy Himself. Many a one is hindered by not being strictly obedient; you must die and then walk in. That is Jordan. The old commentators were right• when they said there was no way into heaven but by death; the only question for us is, Is there any other way of dying besides going into the grave? God is most gracious in teaching us death, by first leading us into death and afterward restoring to life. It was so with Mary of Bethany: she could say to Lazarus, Well I have proved that I-can live without you; the Lord has shown me that I can have such joy in Himself, that I Call do without you; and now, after it all, I have got you back again.
As to crossing Jordan, the first thing is, have you courage? Can you say as some one did to me once, " I have set myself straight for Jordan?"
Ver. 16-18.-The people were all right at any rate. And now in the next chapter we have the sending out of the spies.
Joshua 2
Verses 1-21.-It is a very interesting fact that there is a Gentile in heaven. This is what the apostle leads us up to in the epistle to the Hebrews; as soon as he gets to Rahab, he goes no farther; he can only add, " What more shall I say?" God's grace has brought the wretched, outcast into the kingdom, and, he says, I can sad no more. It was in keeping with the apostle of the Gentiles to write thus. The grace of God comes in for a Rahab now, as it did for a Cornelius in another day.
Verses 23,.24.-One feels how dependent one is. Think how often the Lord gives us spies to encourage us! This is how ministry comes in. How often a soul is helped by the faithful ministry of another, who has gone in and seen for himself. The first twelve spies, very different to these, were of man's seeking and of man's appointment, and so, instead of helping the children of Israel, they only promoted their unbelief and distrust of God. He allowed it, as He often does, when people will not have simple faith in His word; but when people look for evidence to support their faith, they will only meet with what will discourage it.
Thus Jericho is about to be destroyed by divine power, and the people are not to take anything out of it; they were to take nothing but Rahab's family-those who were sheltered by the scarlet line.
Joshua 3
VERSES 1-17.-The old idea of this chapter, as we have already noticed, is true, that no one can enter Canaan, but through death-that no one can be in heaven but through the grave; but the question is, Is there any other way* in which we can die? Whilst it remains true that no one can get in but through death, is there any way by which we can morally die? This is, I believe, the teaching of the third of Joshua, or as we get it worded in Colossians, "Dead with Christ."
The great thing then is, how are we to die? Or rather what is the experience of those who have died with Christ?
Often people think that something has to be settled by their own death, but if so, it is clear that Christ's death has not been sufficient. His death has set me perfectly free. Whilst saints think that their own death has something to do with it, they never can get the sense that they are as dead in God's sight now as ever they will be. Death will not put me one bit more satisfactorily in the sight of God than I am now. In the Red Sea, everything is cleared away between me and God, but to see this accomplished in myself is an immense relief; and this is Jordan; the first is Christ's death; the second mine-my entering into His. So the old commentators were literally correct. I must lose. Man is morally dead, and I say, I have done with man-with the weak thing; it is gone. Thus, a person on a death-bed is perfectly happy; he is going to a new scene, and he has so entered into it, that he is morally superior to everything in this one; as to circumstances, he is in death; but, as to life, he has already resurrection life.
Literally, the Red Sea is the death of your enemies, and the Jordan the death of yourself. In the former, the Egyptian-all that is hostile-is gone. But, when the people come to Jordan, they cannot go up to possess the land; there is the water to be passed through. Thus, says God, you must drop that weak thing, and, if you do, you will be found in divine power.
We cannot get righteousness apart from resurrection. That is the Red Sea.
However, it is the greatest comfort to the believer to be able to say, Well, I have got them all, whatever my experience may be; for there is only one death of Christ, whatever the different aspects in which it may be presented to us. There are these three aspects of that one death, the lamb slain in Egypt, the Red Sea, and. the Jordan; but if, you have His death, you have them all as to fact; as to experience, we have it parceled out, so to say, into three, as we often find in the Old Testament.
To enter into death, then, without entering into the grave, can only be effected by my contemplating Christ in His death. I am to see the ark of the covenant go down into Jordan. And what do I see in this death? I see two things: I see Christ, the One who was everything That was lovely in this world, gone in death; but I also see that in death He was the One who was everything that was pleasing to God. So I have seen the end of everything that is beautiful on earth, and also of that which is perfectly well-pleasing to God. Let any one lose in death one much loved, and see what an effect it will have on him; the nearer the dead was to you, the more you enter into that death.
Christ's death is not merely the end of man; but when you see that in it everything that was lovely on earth, in the eye of God, is gone, why it is the end of everything humanly. At the same time it is everything that is lovely to God; it is the ark of the covenant going down into the waters. And, as you see it, you are made sensible that death is gone for you, and that you are occupied with the One who has met the eye of God in that scene where you were lost. I see Him there. I might find out that I am set in perfect righteousness in the presence of God, and yet discover that I am not dead, as in the Red Sea; but in Jordan it is more what you have to travel through yourself in order to find yourself in Canaan. And, having done it, I find that the weak thing is gone-the thing that Satan could—lay hold of. A monk tries to do this himself; he tries to die-tries to be happy, by getting rid of everything that is most annoying to him in the flesh; but do what you will, after all your efforts you will find you are still uncommonly alive.
In the Lord's supper, I contemplate His death when He is alive. I am in association with Him as the living One, so I can contemplate Him as the dead One. I have fellowship with the blood of Christ-I have fellowship with the death of Christ. The Corinthians were allowing their flesh to run riot in every way, so he says to them: You have not contemplated the death of Christ at all.
Think what the death of Christ was to the disciples! The Lord "gave thanks." He was entitled to everything as man, and He says, As I break the bread I can give thanks. And now we can echo His thanks and say, I, too, have nothing here.
I do not think that souls get the sense of this -this contemplation of Christ's death showing them, on the one hand, that everything beautiful is gone; a. sense of death upon everything, as when a dear friend is gone. And, on the other hand, even in this. sense, we are rescued from everything; so that not only are hopes gone, but fears are gone too. I ask you, Have you any prospects? You answer, No, I have none. Well then, have you any fears? Oh, I have fears enough! Then you are not quite dead yet.
However, everything is satisfactory on the side of God, though my experience of it may be small; and the thing that is before me is not death, but the One who has accomplished all for me. I know all is clear; that He has entered into the whole thing, and that there is no water. In the Red Sea the waters rose to their highest: " They were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left; " so the old commentators say they went through in single file; each one felt the water on either side of him. But at the Jordan it was five miles broad, from the city Adam right down to the Dead Sea " the waters failed and were cut off," and the old writers say they all went across abreast. So in actual death of the body, Stephen could say, " I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God," and, in the power of that glory, rise above all the circumstances in which he was found. And a step still farther we get in Paul, who says, I am longing to depart; to be with Christ is "far better." I am in the joy of the One who has met all that was against me, and He opens out to me all the riches of light and glory.
Hence, it can be said to Joshua, " This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel." There is no place where you get such a sense of the greatness of what Christ is to you as in your death; you get Christ's victory in the Red Sea, all your enemies dead on the sea shore; but in Jordan, in my own death, I get, Christ magnified to my soul. I have to do with the accomplishment in the one; in the other, with the One who accomplished it. In the latter, it is occupation with Christ personally, and souls are not occupied with Christ personally until they have got to deal with Him in their own death. First, I have, in the Red Sea, to learn the death of judgment, like Jonah in the whale's belly; but then when he came up again he had to learn Jordan-that everything is dead: the gourd goes. Paul learned it in Jerusalem. Every one has to learn it some way; generally the way God connects you with death is by touching something very dear to you. Just as with Abraham, it was Isaac that had to be offered, and he must say, It is all gone. So with Jacob, Joseph goes. It is not simply looking at it as a monk or nun might do, but it is standing amidst the death of all here entirely to the satisfaction of God. And this makes heavenly life much more absolute.
I do not think any, person really enjoying God's presence thinks at that moment of anything that suits himself humanly. When you are in His presence you have sufficient. It is not that you lose things, but that you do not think anything necessary to be added to Christ, Now in the body, of course, we know there are certain things that are necessary to us, and it is said, "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things;" but when I cross the Jordan I. do not think of any of these things. So the Lord says to His disciples, "Lacked ye anything 2" Do you know when those words were said first? from whom they were quoted by Him? They were said by Solomon in all his glory; so, that, when the Lord had nothing, He had as much as Solomon had when he had everything. And this lack of nothing in His presence makes you all the more dependent on Him when you come out. It is not that God will take things away from you. You may say in the fullness of your heart, I do not want anything; but He says, I know you better than you know yourself. I might, for instance, in a moment of devotedness say, I should like to go to China to serve the Lord. And He says, You are fit to go to the north of Scotland; you may go there. So He sends Me there, and answers thus my prayer to be allowed to serve Him.
If I do not know what God's power can do in my weakest point, how can I be assured of what He will do against my enemies? My weakest point is death, and I can say, From my weakest point He " raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
Just look at the way in which it is put in the Ephesians; it may be a help to us; chap.1:18-20. There is where the power works. It comes down to the weakest point; " He raised him from the dead." In chapter 3: 20, we find this same power is that which works in us. And lastly, in ch. 11:10, the very words of the first chapter are repeated in connection with our working it out. I know the power that worked to raise me. And what now? I have it in me. ' And what now? I am to use it against the enemy.
I do not find any bitterness of death in this chapter. I do not think any one is sorry for dying here. There is no bereavement in this; it is a death entered into without bereavement: I would call it painless death. It is a positive real thing; you are carried into a new sphere where weakness gives place to death.. In the Red Sea they were all afraid; there it was, " Stand still " in tremor and fear; but here it is, Come up and see it is all done.
I doubt not the Lord's supper is the place for us to learn it in, there where for us there is not a single cloud nor a single bitterness, and where the One who wrought for me becomes more intensely known- to my heart. According as there is death there is power. Canaan is a place. of more conflict and of more power than' the wilderness; but difficulties are nothing where there is power to meet them. And there is ever joy connected with service. It is always interesting to me that I do not find joy connected with John 14; there it is the service of Christ for me, and it gives me " peace; " but, in chapter xv. my service for Christ gives me "joy."
There are a great many marks that show when you are in Canaan. The first great mark, but we have not come to it yet, is that you are circumcised. There is a scene in which I am now set that is not an earthly scene, one in which God delights to have me; and the way into that place is through death, and no other way. Death comes in and helps me. The same death that shuts me out from everything here, confines me exclusively to all there. One thing is very plain, that man is over: I am connected with a heavenly scene, and nothing can sustain me in that scene but the Holy Ghost. You will find that if the heavenly standing begins to decline in a soul, the Holy Ghost's power will also decline in it. Nothing proves this to me more than the way in which people now take up dispensational truth; it used to bring those who held it out of the world, but now any one may hold it and yet stay mixed up with the religiousness of it.
There were then, we see, twelve stones to be taken up out of the midst of Jordan and placed in the land. As you know what Christ is to you in your death, you can judge of what His power can do for you in other ways. If His power could raise me up to Himself in heaven from thence,-if it did that-I say it can do anything. He has turned what was most against me into my greatest blessing. And then there are the twelve left in the Jordan. My soul, as I look at them, enters into what His sorrow was when all the waves and the billows went over the One who was entirely well-pleasing to God. Supposing you saw every beautiful thing on earth dead, what sort of feeling would it give you? When you see all that is beautiful thus gone in Christ, you say, Well now I have nothing whatever to hold me here. Those twelve I have to carry me into the remembrance of the One who accomplished all for me; they lie there in the depth for a memorial to my heart.
We were seeing yesterday that we have to keep the law to get into Canaan. You never can get in if you do not keep it. It is the ground on which you get in. And how can you keep it without being a dead man? So " the righteousness of the law " must be " fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit,". God having " condemned sin in the flesh." This righteousness could not come out in the flesh. " 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." So I die in this way; I die according to the eighth of Rom. 1 die here in contemplating Christ's death. I, do not know anything more melancholy than contemplating one's own death, but here I see the One who has gone into it for me, who has raised me out of it by His own power, and I get the sense of that power in myself like to stand on the banks of Jordan and contemplate Him thus: and that is the Lord's supper. No one ever became heavenly by merely wishing to be heavenly.
Joshua 4
VERSES 1-3.-As we have seen already there are twelve stones left in the bed of the river, and twelve placed where they lodged that night-their first lodging place in the land. The number takes up the number of the tribes of Israel. There was a difference between the twelve in Jordan and the twelve in the first place of halting, the first place of rest. I think the twelve on the bank were more the memorial of the accomplishment of the thing; they were in the land; whilst the twelve in the bed of the river are where you contemplate-where you go back to revive to your heart-the spot where Christ was for you. You recall to yourself that you are-over it. If I carry it out in the Lord's supper it is not simply memorial, it is fellowship.
Cor. 10. and 11., give us an illustration of it. You have to get into association with His death; you have to stand on the bank and say, He was there for me. You stand and look at it now from the other side, from the heavenly side. Nothing, perhaps, fills the soul with a deeper sense of what Christ is, than my contemplating Him where He was for my sake. In Revelation they cast their crowns before Him and say, We ascribe it all to the Lamb slain.
What God had promised to Moses in Exod. was not accomplished till now; but now they can speak of the fact; the twelve stones are in the land. I have got into fellowship now as I look at Him where He was-as I contemplate all that He wrought for me in that place. A person who eats the Lord's supper only looking for the means of grace in it, has never got to this. In Ex. 12, though feeding on the Lamb, they are not across; neither is it remembrance. With all due respect, I do not believe that any in the Establishment get farther than this; they remember how God has freed them from the judgment, and that is in Egypt; you only get the sprinkled blood there, and you do not get that anywhere else. As to brethren, they, as a whole, are very much in the wilderness; they just remember the Lord's death in connection with victory. But when we get to the twelve stones in Jordan we commemorate the consummation of the work, and we then eat the old corn of the land. Morally, with the saint, the first day across the Red Sea ought to be your first day in Canaan.
It is a wonderful moment for the soul when it gets to these twelve stones. Everything collective is individual, because you must enjoy things individually. This, of course, belongs to our standing; there is no mistaking the sense of it. But people so often allow the standing-say you must accept it; but as to fact you never really get possession of the standing without enjoying it. A person perhaps might not be able to speak very distinctly of what he was enjoying in the land, but I tell you what he will know; he will know in coming back to this scene, that it is a wonderful contrast to what he knows in that. Like Moses who " Wist not," but all the time " his face shone."
Verses 6, 7.-" A memorial " you see. And it is very interesting to mark that it is where they lodge. Your first stand upon the ground is the memorial. In Corinthians the Lord makes it the center for everything. It is only one loaf with us, twelve stones with them, because it is unity with us. They were one nation one people; but we are the body—of Christ " members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," nourished and cherished by Him. So every command is now " If ye love me," and this does not make a command one bit less binding. Where there is much affection subsisting between any two, there the command is inoperative.
I feel that when the sufferings of Christ are brought prominently forward, souls lose the 'weight of what the Lord's supper is. It is not His sufferings; it is not what He went through; it is not what the atonement was; it is that He is dead. This would not be without His sufferings; but the great thing before our mind would be, that He had gone down to the very lowest place on earth. If you have not already got redemption through His sufferings, you have no right to look at Him there; but, having redemption through His -work, you are contemplating that which He was, in order that you may see the depth and the fullness of His love, and in order that you may be too in the very place that He was in. If you are only occupied with Him in order to get deliverance for yourself, you are not looking at Him from the heavenly side at all.
I do not think any of us have an idea of -what it was for the One who was entitled to everything on the earth-to every bright and beautiful thing that God had here-to say, I give it all up for you. As I look upon Him dead I say, I am shut out here from everything... human, if you like. Every believer knows something about the blood, but very few know anything about the " new and living way." This is not simply Christ's sacrifice, the shedding of His blood, but it is the " new and living way through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." It means that you have left everything connected with man in the flesh outside. It is not Adam dead; every one admits that Adam is dead, but do you admit that Christ is dead? Every one says, I admit that He died for my sins; but I do not mean that; I mean the fact that He Himself is dead. I am not occupied with the sacrifice, I am not occupied with the benefits that God has conferred upon me when I am at the Lord's table; but I am in the benefits, I am in light and glory, and, knowing Him in light and glory, I look at him where He was when He was gaining it all for me.
The wonderful thing is that He gave up everything for me. I do not mean that you can lose sight of the fact that He suffered; but what is before our mind is the love that brought Him there. I do not mean that you will lose sight of His atoning sufferings; but this I do say, that, if you are occupied with them alone, you will soon bring the table to that low state which eventually brought it down to the Mass. And it is not that; it is not that I am seeking to remember something which will quiet my soul. I hold that a person is not really at the Lord's table until he can remember the Lord. It is possible to look at Him to relieve the soul without remembering Him. The believer, surely, has everything in the death of Christ, but he cannot enjoy the Lord's supper unless he be on Canaan ground.
You ask, Then would you not admit a person until he is on Canaan ground? Not at all. Every soul that has got hold of Christ has all the benefits of His- death, and I can receive all such; but I say, that when a soul recurs only to the sufferings of Christ, he is more occupied with His sacrificial work than with the love that brought Him into it. And more: I find a person can be occupied with the sacrificial sufferings of Christ, and still go on with the world; but if he once sees that Christ is dead, he cannot possibly go on with it. I defy you to do it. Nothing ever weakens your hold on this world like- seeing that Christ died to every beautiful thing in it. When you see Him dead, is it not an easy thing for you to say: "This world is a wilderness wide, I have nothing to seek or to choose; I've no thought in the waste to abide; I've naught to regret nor to lose."
This is the practical experience that ought to ow from the Lord's supper. I think it is quite possible to speak of the sufferings of Christ and not to lose sight of His death; but the point is not to limit them to the sacrificial sufferings; you must carry them beyond the twelfth of Exodus.
Joshua 5
VERSES 1-7.-Properly this is the first day in the land.,Verses 8, 9.-Here we get the reproach of Egypt rolled away. Circumcision takes place in the land. A man can now drop himself in every form; as we get it in Colossians: " Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth;" and this you cannot do until you are upon heavenly ground.
What a wonderful thing it is for a soul to be able to say, I have no will of my own! This is circumcision-the wonderful sense of having no will here.
Gilgal is properly speaking the robbing room. Here you are putting on your clothes. You have crossed the Jordan, you have got to the memorial, and now you are getting on your clothes. You are a circumcised person, which means that you are keeping the knife to your flesh. It is the heavenly man getting himself into condition for battle.
As I was saying, the Holy Spirit never leaves you altogether; but, if you allow the flesh to take an undue place, you will find, when you get into a difficulty, that He will say, I will not help you now; you must find out your helplessness. " He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." The Spirit must be attended to and respected. The moral character of the saint must be kept up; whatever God claimed of man must be rendered; the law must be kept. I am subject to the government of Christ, though He has been rejected in this world; I am in millennial favor though not in millennial circumstances. He is not. in 'office yet, so to speak, but I give Him His rights; I acknowledge Him as Lord over my house and over God's house, though I am afraid of the word " Lord " too much, because He is not Lord over the church. But suppose He were on the throne now, would you and I go on differently in our houses and in our business? I think the saints often feel about Him as a child does during its father's absence; it says, " He is not here so I will just do as I like"; whereas, the fact is, Christ is just as near to me, and is to rule me just as really, as if He were on His throne. The great snare of the church has been anticipating the millennium before it has come; but in one way we ought to see to it that Christ rules now in our houses just as much as He would do were He here in millennial power, otherwise we have joined the rebels. I might walk up to a man in the street, and say to him with truth, You are a rebel because you have never bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King. And you cannot have a king without a kingdom, The only thing Christ possesses thoroughly are the bodies of the saints; " all flesh " is given unto Him, but He takes possession through His saints. The two spheres therefore where He rules are your houses and God's house.
The first thing, then, is circumcision; and it is an immense thing before a man takes the ground of testimony, he must come out in a moral condition suitable to it. Hebron tells us the sane story. The great moral connected with Hebron is, that where there is a grave there is a throne.
Verses 10, 11.-Now we have the passover and, the day after the passover was eaten, the manna ceased. You are brought into the land, and set up in divine strength in it, both in one day. It marks our peculiar position.
Verses 12-15.-It is very interesting to see how the Lord presents Himself in a particular aspect to His servant, in order to make that servant up to the work which He commits to him This is very much to my mind what a gift is now. He presents Himself to His servants in the aspect which will sustain them in the particular line of service He has marked out for them, so that they can reckon upon Him to support them." Moses could always fall back upon the blessing " of him that dwells in the bush," no matter what the failure of the people. The manifestation of the Lord to His servant determines very much the character of His gift. For instance, Jeremiah sees an almond rod-that is power; and a seething pot-that is judgment on Jerusalem; and these two things were the character of his work. The Lord gives the soul that particular communication from Himself that gives the needed knowledge of Himself. To Paul the word was " a witness of those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear to thee." No doubt he increased in gift. It is very interesting to see that the Lord will give you a particular support in that line of things to which He has called you. He says, This is what I have called you to, and I will give you an -apprehension of myself that you can always derive from and fall back upon in your service. Joshua could always say, I have the One with the drawn sword; so he could only go on to victory. He may have learned to hold out His spear at Ai from this very thing.
This, then, is the rise of the heavenly man; you have him now ready for warfare-ready for testimony. People give up the testimony, though they do not want to give up the position; and so we shall find it in Joshua. The people give up pushing forward, and leave the very ones in the land who, Joshua warns them, would vex them.
At first Joshua does not know who this man with the drawn sword is; he asks, " Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? " And then the Lord introduces him into a scene entirely outside of man, so he is to take off his shoes; he is in a place where flesh cannot get a footing. The Lord always wishes to get us near to Himself, and, to do that, flesh must be set aside.
Joshua 6
HERE we get two things brought out into distinctness: the world and the power that overcomes it. It is a great matter to get distinctness. Joshua says, " Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? " There is nothing between; there can be no mistake about it. There is nothing visible for us. It is a great thing to start upon heavenly ground with the knowledge that there is nothing visible for you. The visible is against you; the invisible is for you. " We see him that is invisible." So it is "faith that overcometh the world."
I think Jericho is the system of the world; a city is properly a centralization. When Eve looked away from God she took the world. What she took was good in itself; it was the taking it apart from God that made it bad. The world in itself is not bad-not what we call the kosmos. But it says, " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world; " it necessarily becomes attractive to a man, and, though in itself not bad, yet, if you let yourself be occupied by it, you lose the power that- is to keep you through it; you make the visible thing the thing that you rely on. Any one with practical experience at all, knows what a difficult thing it is to get rid of the visible-to go on as if it were not there, knowing all the time that it is. The one who only is able to overcome it, is " he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God." I have to do with the Person who has overcome it, and with the dignity of that Person: He is " the Son of God." Any believer knows that He is the Son of man-the Christ; but how much do you know Him as the Sou of God? If you believe that God sent some one into the world to deliver you from the consequences of your sin, then you are a converted man. I think a very little thing saves a soul-the smallest sight of Christ; it is the happiness of God to do it, as we read, " the gospel of the happy God; " but it takes a Very great thing to make a soul walk like Christ.
Now the mode of contending with the world is very important. What is the mode of warfare? It is a well-known thing that everyone looks to the general for the order of battle. The order with Nelson was, Do not wait for any particular thing, but hit the enemy whenever you, can. Now the order we find here is most interesting; you are not to attack the enemy, but he cannot touch you. This brings us to the practical value of keeping the law. You must be a righteous man or you will not be able to stand- the enemy; that is the armor. You cannot enter the land but by keeping the law, and, to overcome in the warfare, you must be free from the aspersions of Satan. There may be plenty of reproach, but that will not hinder so long as there is righteousness and so on.
"Ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war. It is an honorable position to be a man of war; it is a great thing to be one. Our fighting ships. are called men of war.
And they were to go round about the city once, a day for six days. What is that, now? suppose it means that it is to be a continued-thing; there is to be put no limit to it. You are to go on the whole time; it is the six days of work, and we work until the day of rest comes. Then do we never get the advantage of the world until the end? We do; but we do not get the full victory until the end; we have victory all the time, but the wall does not fall down until the end. We start with the knowledge that we are not to put our armor off till then.. " Let not him that girdeth on his harness boast him self as he that putteth it off." Your purpose is to go on the whole time; and the great principle is that the enemy cannot touch you; you are invulnerable, and if you are invulnerable you are invincible. A man can move about among his worldly friends, or; worse still, relatives, and say, You cannot touch me, I am encased in armor. But a child in a. worldly family, if it, go in for playing croquet and so on, it is lost. Then would you never enter into any amusement? Yes; I would play chess with a child that was sick, for instance; but I would not play with my equal, for that would be for my own amusement. It is remarkable, however great may be the reproach, that in times of pressure the pious one in a family is always the one who will be turned to by the others. As we are told of John Newton in his unconverted days, there was a pious coxswain on board, and, a storm coming on, there was no safe place in all the ship for John to sit in but alongside the pious coxswain.
The heavenly man is himself personally weak; he has no strength to show. The natural desire in us is to wish to show our ability, but we can only take the place of helplessness; and that is the place of power. We must always carry with us the remembrance that we are across Jordan-that we are dead men, and therefore perfectly helpless in a human point of view. It was what you would call a very ridiculous thing-this marching round Jericho; there they were, all these aimed men, and seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns: the armor was character, and the trumpets dependence. There they went-armed men, priests, and trumpets-and I do not see any power that you have. No, you do not; you may not see it, but you will feel it some day.
I think God often lets us get into such a place as this, that we may just feel our dependence before He brings in His power. Just as in the shipwreck in Paul's day; all looked very hopeless at first, but every one was saved in the end, though it was on broken pieces of the ship. If 'man has rejected Christ, and has been the instrument of His rejection, God, if he ever use him again, must do so where nothing can come out of man. It must be walking on the water, now, where man is nothing. Man, except as a vessel, is entirely set aside by God; even Paul was not able to use his natural abilities; he first tried by prayer to have the thorn removed, but he ends by accepting it, as he says " that the power of Christ may rest upon me;" and therefore his letters were better than his speaking, taking them as merely human works.
What is the force of the tenth verse? I always connect it with a saying of dear Mr. Bellett's, That the time was not come yet for us to sing aloud-to shout; you cannot call upon every one to praise the Lord; it is not the day of victory -it is not the universal hymn yet: " The words of wise men are heard in quiet." It is very remarkable, in every department, the quietness with which a man issues his orders if he is sure of power, The not shouting here is, I think, that you are not to anticipate-not even in a certain way, to speak of your expectations-not to tell the world what will be done some day.
I have two characteristics: I am an armed man defying the world, and I am praying to God because I have no strength. If I look at Satan I am not a bit afraid; I can stand in armor against Satan. But with God I am only dependent; the armor is not a bit of use Godward. People often turn it just the other way round, and think that, if 'they are behaving well, they will get what they want out of God; and they meanwhile pray against Satan. In that way I object to people saying, Let us pray about a thing, unless they act according to their light at the same time. People just pray to ease their consciences; they are often like Balaam: they know what they ought to do, but they do not like it, and so they pray to relieve their consciences for their negligence: The great, thing in prayer is, not so much that I am going to God about anything, as that I have learned from Him how to act. The day is come when our mouths should be opened with all boldness. That verse in Ephesians is a very remarkable 'one; chapter 6:19. The apostle is in prison, at the time; and his desire is "that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly." It does not appear that he ever got the desired opportunity himself; so that the answer to that prayer we ought to be. Philippians would be the answer to it: " Many waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."
It is remarkable that one of these seven days must have been the Sabbath. If they began to go round on the first day of the week, this seventh day would be it.
Verses 17-19.-It was all belonging to God, but yet they were not to touch it. It is a very bright opening to their story in the land, showing us with distinctness the power of God. And yet at this very moment Achan comes in and lays hold of two things which corrupt the whole of society-money and dress.
As to what Jericho is in itself, I think it is, " The world will hate you." It is the world as against Christ. It is not merely that you can take it or leave it as you like; it is antagonistic. They were encroaching on it, 'and this it would not stand. In Revelation you get " The synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews and are not; " they are the very ones who interfere and hinder. There is no place to which Paul goes where the Jews are not his opponents. I question whether a person comes in conflict with this if he be not on heavenly ground. Many a saint is in conflict with his own temper, evil tastes, and so on, and has never got to standing against the world for Christ. It is the world against Christ that Jericho is. If a man be turned out of his employment for Christ, shunned because he is standing faithfully for Him, I say that is Jericho.
And I have seen most remarkable instances of the walls falling. down just as they did here. I remember a father who said to his daughter, " You must not go to any meetings except the morning meeting, and you may not visit any one." I said, on being asked as to this, " Do just what you are told." And in a very short time afterward, he said, "Why do you not go to see some of your, friends, or ask some of them here? " The walls fell down. I say, Never give up your conscience, but submit to the limitation of your liberty. God has to do with my conscience, though man may have to do with my liberty as a human being. But where saints fail is in asserting their rights, and then they become refractory. It is grievous: when the ordinance of God and Christ's service clash. This is what Satan is always aiming at-seeking " to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." The principles that God lays down in Scripture are the ones we are to act upon. We all have different difficulties-a different world to meet-but it is everything to walk with God in obedience to Him. A wife who goes to the Establishment now and then with her husband to conciliate him, has lost all power. But, if she be thoroughly faithful to her light, she will yet see the walls fall down.
Verse 23.-All her house! What a wonderful thing! How God delights to include all that our hearts are set upon in the blessing! The wonderful bountifulness of God! He loves to do everything in a magnificent way; there is no smallness in His acts.
Verses 24-27.- Who do you think was the youngest son My impression is that it is Antichrist. Jericho, this world-city, was begun, in Adam, the eldest son; and it will be ended in Antichrist, the last man. " Now is the prince of this world judged."
Joshua 7
WHAT a most remarkable victory was this conquest of Jericho! It was distinctly the hand of God; there were no visible means. And now at a small place, Israel flees before the enemy, which discomfits them utterly. This is a very singular change, and a very sudden one, and has to be accounted for. You get in the first verse an intimation of what is the matter, though the people did not know it. But, as we have noticed already, as soon as they began to act they found their power was gone.
Certainly the Lord would never desert His people. His command to them was to take possession; and in the conquest of Jericho He had given them a most singular instance of His presence with them: He had shown them how He, without any human means, could cause the enemy to be overcome; and now, in the case of a very small city, the contrary occurs.
The reason of it all is, that one man-not the majority of the army, but one man-" took of the accursed thing," and implicated the whole army in his act; and God would not go up with the people in consequence.
It is the history of Christendom. The order to the church was to overcome the world-to bring the Rahabs out of it; but for many a century the church has not been able to overcome it. It is not that there have not been true and faithful men in it; but there is no single denomination that stands forth as a light in the world, as a witness in the midst of it. The church has lost its candlestick for many a long day. The people of God now are not able to take a heavenly standing. Where is the church that has kept it? God may go on in grace with His people, but He will show them where the defect has come in. One man took; it was a sample of the leaven that was at work, and the whole of Israel was implicated.
The word accursed," which we find in the preceding chapter and here, is the same as "devoted; " it means that it is all the Lord's.; you are not to touch it.
There cannot be walk in faith and power unless there be self-judgment. The overcomers of the Church decay in Rev. 2 and 3., are those who overcome that which has brought in that decay.
Well, this is how the thing occurred historically; but now you cannot turn out the Achans; all you can do is to purge yourself. " If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work." When first I awake to the state of things in which I am, I am miserable because of that state, and my only way of action is to purge myself from it. But when I have done this I cannot, as people often fancy they can, relieve myself from the pressure of the condition in which the church is; I cannot escape from it. As a great man once said in a fine house, "I am looking for a quiet corner of the house in which I can pray; " so all we can do is to get up into the attic by ourselves: we cannot get out of the house.
In this chapter, Joshua is tremendously discouraged by the fact that the people flee before their enemies; he falls to the earth upon his face before the ark. But God says, " Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face 2 " You must find out the evil. The abominable rationalism of the day is that God is love and not holiness; and I say this is dreadful.
But, you say,- who is the person, who can get clear of everything? I answer, No one can; but it is a great thing that I do not tolerate it. Non-toleration is our principle. The flesh is in me. Yes, but do you tolerate it? No. Then that is a great step. And next the church question: Do you tolerate church evil? No; I do not tolerate it. If you allow evil you have a bad conscience. So I say, I come to this principle in my church association, that I do not tolerate evil. God is maintaining us, not simply as a saved people, but as a heavenly people; and if He be not maintaining us there is something wrong. " The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work."
The question is, What is God's purpose for His people? When a man goes to war he knows what he has to reckon on I reckon on the power of God to support me against all odds down here, unless I am coquetting with evil; and then He says, I cannot support you, because you are connected with this. He cares for His people wherever they are: He blessed Isaac a hundredfold when he was in the land of the Philistines. It is no evidence of His presence that He cares for His children; but it is that He keeps you from evil.
Here the evil affected the children of Israel only circumstantially. It did not soil the conscience individually, but it affected them in their proprietorship and nationally. Any godly one amongst them would not feel hindered if he were looking to God for his own comfort and blessing that day. But now, because 'of the unity of the Spirit, I believe A saint may be under a depression through going on right in his own heart and ways, because of what is allowed by others. I believe you may be in this condition when there is nothing traceable to yourself; for just as Israel was represented by the twelve loaves, are we by the one. Each one is not bound to find out the evil, but each one is responsible to wait on God to discover it. I do not think it is happy work to go seeking out evil. I think you may feel that something is wrong, and judge yourself, and wait on God to show it, None of the disciples knew that Judas was a traitor; but the Lord shows John in answer to prayer: " He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it."
I do not think undiscovered evil prevents His coming into the midst of His people when they are gathered together in His name; He loves to come amongst them; but this I will say, though I do not wish to offend any one, that He will not come there where there is a rule-a predetermined course. If there be a rule He cannot come in; for if He 'did He would have either to abrogate it or be less than it. If many saints were gathered with a rule He could not come in. If they were ignorant, and were willing to be shown the truth, of course they would soon be taught; but people often call willfulness ignorance. It is possible to have a great deal of personal enjoyment of the Lord, and yet not at all know what it is to enjoy His presence. I do not believe any soul, the most excellent, the most godly, in a man-made system, knows Christ as He reveals Himself in the midst of His people-knows what is His presence in its true sense. It is not that you and I as individuals, enjoy the Lord's presence; it is that we are gathered round His person; all of us having the same title to be there, all of us children of the one Father, from the least to the greatest. I take Scripture as it speaks: " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst."
He comes into the midst of His saints gathered; and it is as the One risen from the dead, and leading them into all the moral elevation of His own position. And they have the sense of His presence with them. But to thus know Him you cannot be mixed up with what is wrong-with ecclesiastical rules; His eyes would then be " as a flame of fire."
His presence in the midst of His people is not at all the same thing as manifestation of Himself to an individual soul. It is a Person taking His place in the midst; not a Person coming in grace to a lonely one. A person may stay away from the table and say they are very happy in their own room, and they may be very happy, but they have not got at all the same thing as they would have if in the midst of those gathered to His name.
People who are not gathered to His name are not responsible for the ground, for they are not on it; but they are responsible to find it. " His, name " means that when you are thus gathered, all is as He would have it. People say, If you do this you will have all sorts of confusion; but facts are against this.
What shows the church's power, is its being able to maintain its position as a heavenly people on the earth. I defy any person to say that the church has done this. On the contrary, it has mixed itself up with the world. Can anyone show me anything on earth like 1 Cor. 12? At the best we are only trying to creep out of the ruins. I am sure God helps the saints to do this, but they must, as He says to Joshua, get rid of the evil; there must be a clear riddance of it. Some one remarked that Hosea is the second book of Joshua; and it is very remarkable that the valley where Achan was stoned should be made the " door of hope " for the people to return to the land by.
We see thus that God cannot go on with evil it is not the fact, as people so often say, that simple prayer settles everything. The object of prayer is to learn the mind and get the help of God; and God can have nothing to do with you until you have got rid of evil. Hearing this forty years ago, delivered me from systems: " God will not hear you till you are clear of evil." I did not know what to do or where to go, but I saw that God's great principle is, first get clear of evil: " Cease to do evil."
Another thing that is a great comfort in all this is, that when I set my mind to discover the evil, God will show it to me. They were to judge themselves-to separate themselves from everything that they knew to be evil. And then we see that, when God's finger is laid upon Achan, he confesses. He will be the first to confess when God has touched him. But the finger of God was laid upon Achan before he confessed; if he had come forward before this and had told of himself, it would have been an evidence of repentance; but now it was too late. Thus a great many things that are brought out, if they had been confessed before, might never have been known by the assembly at all. Whether a matter should be made known or not depends on the pastor. Deliberation belongs to the pastors; and adjudication to the assembly.
Joshua 8
VERSES 1, 2.-Here we get God's power acting, but not signalizing the people. This is where the Irvingites went wrong; they expected to be signalized. I do not expect the same amount of manifestation now as in the early days of the church, though I believe the Holy Ghost is just as powerful in this room as ever He was, but He does not manifest His power in the same way that He did then.
I believe we get a great deal of instruction from Ai. When Joshua stretched out his spear it was not a preconcerted signal; it was really God's word to him: " Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai, for I will give it into thy hand." The city was apparently taken by ambush, by cleverness, by military stratagem, but, as to fact, it was God gave it into their hand.
Wherein we have failed. God does not ever signalize us. The same power was still with them, but not the same manifestation. It is not in reference to service; it is in reference to position. If it were in reference to service, it would be a great argument for the use of means. You never saw a self-confident man yet that he did not come down. Peter would never have gone into the high priest's house if he had not under-estimated his foe. The armor and the trumpet is our true place; it is heavenly position. I do not believe Ephesians is for service as such; it is holding our ground.
I think it is More Ai that is 'going on now; there is very little of Jericho. There is not magnificence or display now, though the same divine power; and there is a great deal more means used-more toil—perhaps waiting on God in prayer to get this standing, whereas before, souls were in it without any effort. Now you never see a man get on to heavenly ground that there is not more or less of self-sacrificing toil; everyone sees the struggle going on. There is now nothing 'of the 'singular way in which God planted them in the land at first.
It is a wonderful thing to study the ways of God with His people.. In the worst days Paul says to his pupil: Be of good courage; " God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Do not be discouraged; it may not be so easy to get possession as it was at first, but press on, and you will certainly get it. Joshua did give them the land; and 'though it is no effort to get title, it is always labor to possess; practically, you have to take possession.
Well, it is a very comforting thing to think that the Lord is our God, and, in the midst of all the weakness, to See what he would do for us if we, with cheerfulness and courage go on.
Verses 25-29.-When Ai is at last taken by another signal victory, God teaches us a fresh lesson, and that is, that He uses His power to make us a heavenly people, and that on earth-not in heaven. There is really no promise given to us of heaven when we die, though of course we shall be in heaven then. It is a great thing for the soul to get hold of the fact that God ministers His power in the present day to set us as heavenly men on the earth. Christ being rejected was the condemnation of the world, but it has turned to richest blessing for the saints; for God has given us heaven instead of earth in consequence of it, and ministers His power, enabling us in the face of all that is here, to be heavenly -men.
The higher thing would be to turn to Jericho and say, I do not want the earthly things; but in Ai we see that we are allowed to have some of the spoil. It is not as it was in the early chapters of the Acts, where no one said "that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common," and where any who had " lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices, and laid them down at the apostles', feet." By-and-bye we find this was not the case; it was, " every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea." And still later' on the 'apostle charges' " them that are rich in this world."
It is not now a question of giving all up, but of consecration to the Lord. Still, a man might imperil everything here for the sake of the testimony; like Abram who went out by night with all his servants to rescue " his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people." No doubt Jericho is the brighter light, but with no less doubt is there just as much of divine power in the subjugation of Ai as of Jericho.
It has been remarked that the way in which Joshua treated the king-not allowing his dead body to stay hanging all night-showed that he acknowledged the land to be already the Lord's. "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, that thy land be not defiled." We are to treat even our enemies in a heavenly way. Though Joshua had not possession of it, yet he treats the land as his and as Jehovah's.
Verses 30, 31.-Then he establishes the law in it: it was to be read upon two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim-the mountain of curse, and the mountain of blessing. It is an old and very interesting remark, that where the curse was, there was an alter; where the blessing was there was none; just as in Exodus 20., you get all the terrors of the law, and then the altar to meet them. They never reached to the blessings.
Verses 32-35.-They were all brought unto the one standing. It was a wonderful sight! There they were, the whole company, the congregation of Israel, and the little ones, and the strangers, brought together to hear this recital-to hear what God was, and claimed respecting them on this new ground. All were thus formally introduced on to it.
Joshua 9
Now we come to a very different kind of thing-man failing. And man always fails first in the direction of self-confidence. The thirteenth of John gives us a parallel to this. That chapter is really a history of the church, it shows 'us all the grace of Christ, and the cause of all the disorder and distraction in the church ever since. If you want an epitome, an internal history of the church, I give you John 13 In taking heavenly ground the odds are against us-ourselves, and everything; and if God be not for us we shall surely fail. There was self-confidence where Satan was, and so they were not able to meet him. It is a very remarkable thing in connection with morals, that you cannot predicate what will be the result of a certain evil; I mean the offspring cannot be foreknown from the parent.
For instance, take the Corinthians. They did not judge the evil that was within, and the consequence was, they went themselves to be judged by those that were without. This comes out plainly if you look at chapters 5. and 6., in connection with each other; before quite disposing of the subject in the fifth, he turns to tell them of their failure in going to law before the unbelievers, and then ends with " Flee fornication." Just in this way Bethesda people say there is no connection between their course now and that which happened years before in Plymouth. We are often deceived by the fruit, and do not see the root that it springs from.
So the people are deceived by the Gibeonites. In their case self-confidence was the fruit of unpurged sin in the assembly. It is another thing quite that now deceives them; it is wiles: "The men took of the victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord."
I think that the. Gibeonites give us in figure the world getting into the church, and making terms with it. It is the old story-Balaam's proposition: you cannot kill God's people, but you can entertain them, make up with them, intermarry with them, and thus morally overcome them.
They were not near them; they were a great way off; they could not do them any harm from there Just as people say now: We are very far removed from laxity. But if the devil be at the end of the chain it does not signify how long it is.
He was there with these men of Gibeon just to prevent the people extirpating them. It is a figure of course; you cannot now destroy men; but you must be superior to them.
It was the elders who were at fault: " the princes of the congregation." The point of mischief was making a league with them whether they were far off or near. If they were far off, let them stay there; why should they make a league at all in that case? But the league being made, when Saul thought to break it, he got into trouble. ".After vows " you cannot " make inquiry." If a man marries an unconverted woman it is too late to make inquiries after. The thing was not to make the league; if they were far off so much the better; but they were near whilst they pretended to be a great way off. That was their wile.
Verse 27.-" Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation,. and for the altar of the Lord." They afterward got the name of Nethinims. The two things that -remained with Israel were the Nethinims and the porters. The church has in a way been served by the adoption of Christianity by the world; it renders a kind of external service to us.
Still it is remarkable how the heavenly position is thwarted on every side. The object of Satan is to thwart it. The moment all were introduced—the very mothers with their babes in their arms-that moment the hallowed circle is broken into by their making this league with the Gibeonites.. Yet the world itself does not like their league with God's people; they turn upon them, and thus Gibeon becomes a trap for its destruction. I believe Gibeon represents false ones-hypocrites, if you like. The great thing in the beginning of Acts was that " no man durst join himself to them; " they were afraid of them. In another light Gibeon represents the flesh that does not like the heavenly exaction. The leaders-" princes"-are those who addict themselves to the Care' of the assembly, and who, if evil comes in, are, in a certain sense chargeable: " They watch for your souls, as they that must give account."
The point is to be extremely careful of any mixture that is not of God. It does not matter how far off you may be from a thing; the question is, is it of God? Immediately after all had taken their place come these strangers from very far off, and want wilily to take that place too. The people ought to have said: You are not one of this company that stood round about Mount Ebal, and we cannot have anything to do with you. They had distinctly taken possession of the land for God; nothing was to withstand them; they were to be exclusively the people of God upon earth, they had just avowed it down to the smallest of their details, their children and their strangers; and they ought to have said: No; we are God's people, and we must stand separate.
Possession is the grand point here. In the book of Deuteronomy we find that dwelling, not possession, is the time for worship. When they brought the basket of first fruits they were dwelling; it was no more conflict. The idea was, that you took the first ripe thing that you saw, put it into your basket, and went up to Jerusalem saying, " I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us."
Joshua 10
VERSES 1-3.-It is remarkable now that the king of Jerusalem is awakened-the central place. It is not now the nations waiting for the people to subdue them, but it is opposition; they provoke them to battle.
Verse 4.-See how the people are connected with Gibeon now.
Verses 6-8.-It is interesting to mark the purpose of God, and to see how He delights to succor. Of course this must not be read as a book of war, but as a, moral thing; it is possession of heaven. I have failed now, but this failure is turned to blessing. God says, Do not be afraid; I will give it all into your hand. For the possession of heaven we must have a heavenly man. And a heavenly man is a man sustained by God, supported by heavenly streams, heavenly things; even the manna came down from heaven: " Man did eat angel's food; " a man who is superior to all the varieties of things down here. " The Son of man who is in heaven;" He never lost His heavenly character though He was on earth.
Verses 13, 14.-You see God was determined to destroy them: the day is not to close until possession is obtained. What a wonderful thing! Gibeon was a trap for the rest of the inhabitants now. And it was from Jerusalem the opposition emanated; it was from the head. It was one great effort of the enemy in connection with Gibeon.
It is a grand day when you are a perfectly heavenly man! God says, I-will not let the sun go down until it happens. It is the greatest day in one's life when one is put in divine power superior to everything here. People say, I do not set up for being heavenly, making this an excuse for not being so. But I say, you are heavenly; it is what you are called to. The character of the heavenly man is that he is superior to every man who is not for God; he is to treat them all as dead; and if he be dead himself no one can hurt him.
The thing is, Are you set for being a heavenly man? It, is a great difference as to whether you are trying to get out of the world or trying to get on in it. That is the question to decide. It Makes a wonderful difference to a man which he is doing. Associations grow upon you; you often cannot tell why- you do a thing. People generally give two excuses for themselves in worldliness; one is that they are used to certain things; the other, that they can afford them.
I think it is a very good thing for a person to be honest, and to say: I take the ground of a heavenly man. I may have exposed myself to the sneers of people for making a profession I so little maintain, but still I do make this profession, and I do seek to maintain it. " Hold fast the profession of your hope without wavering." It is your calling. You cannot go back from it, and try to evade the responsibility of it by refusing to accept it. Lot might say he was not a pilgrim nor a stranger; but he came out on that ground, and in the end he was reduced to it, and miserably too. I am sure that in the long run the one who is set upon heaven gets on the best here; and even if I were in prison, I should have the Lord with me.
Joshua 11
THEY had to return to Gilgal, as we see in the last chapter; how else could they start from it? They always had to return to the place where they had rolled off the reproach of Egypt. When you return to Gilgal you return to all that the cross accomplished. People often return to the cross to get rid of their sins; but the right way is to return to the cross to get rid of yourself. There are these three things: First, I am cleared from everything that God had against me. Second, I am united in glory to the One who has cleared me: Third, I return to the cross to get rid of everything in me that hinders the practical shining out of the life of the One to whom I am united. The first you never can do. The second is only done once by the Spirit. The third you are doing every day.- it is circumcision; going about always with the knife in your hand.
Now it is possible for a person to aim at the third, and never to have got the second; then he would be legal; and it is possible for a person to. have the second and never go on to the third, and then he would be worldly-the sad state in which the Corinthians were. And so Paul shows them the cross that they may there get rid of themselves. Often a saint, after a very happy meeting or private time, will have a fall just because he is trusting to himself and not to Christ; he has not gone back to Gilgal.
Verses 1-5.-This is the last great battle; it is a desperate struggle, and you must bear in mind that the army has been successful until this; but no amount of success without complete' subjugation will ever silence the foe, or cause him to abandon his position. There had been victories enough to make them all quail—to make them all surrender; but now they make one violent effort from all sides, north, south, east, and west. The enemy in the wilderness Amalek-was a direct enemy to yourself; but in the land. the effort of the enemy is to prevent your getting possession of it. There he is determined not to let you pass; here he will prevent your being a heavenly man in the land that you have reached. There he will not let you travel, will not let you get to the land; so you meet him at the beginning of the journey-at Rephidim. It is sad to see how often saints are stopped at their beginning. Amalek is more than the flesh, for God says He will " utterly put out the remembrance of it from under heaven; " it is the terrible spirit that acts against God. When you get out into the wilderness you find that nothing helps you; there is no bread, no water, and up comes the enemy to dispute your passage. That is the wilderness for you.
Any one who reads this history in Exodus reads his own. All the difficulties he will have to encounter, and also the divine way in which, to meet them. Indeed the Old Testament is very like what is now called a surveying ship, which is a ship that goes about to mark out the true path for vessels, and to point out where the rocks and shoals are; to mark how a quicksand lies here and another there. In my knowledge of brethren nothing has hindered progress more than people thinking that they have done enough-thinking they have made a very good sweep of the world, Stripped off so much, made such renunciation at the start that there is nothing more left to be done; instead of which there is no change of circumstances that does not bring a new battle with it. Everyone knows that what does not seem worldly this year may next. You must wait until things come before you say there is nothing to give up.
- Verses 6-8.-All so many battles to oppose your being a heavenly man. " Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life," is more the Amalek battle. The thing here is that God does give possession, and He will support you in taking it. It is not that there will not be opposition, but that you will surmount it-all.
Verses 10-13.-Why did Joshua burn Hazer? Because it was the seat of power-the leader. This is very different to what was done by Christians when they made Rome their chief city; they took Pagan eminence and sought thereby eminence for Christianity. They ought to have said, We cannot allow any connection with earthly eminence; we must destroy it.
Verses 15-20.—A natural man reading this says it is a terrible thing to be killing people off in this way-taking possession of a land and driving the inhabitants out of it; lie does not see that it is God setting aside earthly people who had rebelled against Him, and using Israel as His sword to do it. It was governmental judgment.
Verses 21-23.-Well, possession was an established thing. I think there is a moment in the history of a soul when it knows that it has possession. But, if you think that there are no more enemies to be overcome, you are mistaken, for there are. It is something like what we get in Peter: " After ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." It is a great thing to get a soul settled. But at the same time it will not do to rest on your oars, and think there is nothing more to be done. However, there was no more fighting; this is the end of it; the neck of the enemy was broken; there was no more avowed opposition; "the land rested from war." There must be two antagonistic parties to have a war. Israel were owned to be the masters of the land, though they had not carried out their rights to the proper limits.
Joshua 12
THERE were thirty-one kings conquered by Joshua on this side of Jordan (without counting those whom " Moses, the servant of the Lord and the children of Israel did smite "); those who understand numbers may perhaps make something of that.
Joshua 13
FROM this chapter out a new thing comes before us. Having traced the rise and progress of the heavenly man, we now come to the story of his failures, with, however, a bright witness to the contrary in the fourteenth chapter.
The five lords of the Philistines, who gave the people immense trouble afterward, are the first mentioned as amongst the nations still unsubdued. But a very important principle comes out in connection with them. The Lord says to Joshua: " Divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance." Conquered or not conquered they are to divide it. It needs the fourteenth of John to explain it: " I go to prepare a place for you." It is not a question of whether you have entered into it, or whether you enjoy it; there is the place, the heavenly portion for you, and you ought to enjoy it. John never puts you in heaven as Paul does; but he wants you to get a certain comfort from the fact that you have a place there.
There is a warning in Deut. 11, as to being careless in the possession of the land; and I notice in people who are careless as to their heavenly calling, that they are worse off than if they had never left Egypt; there they had the water of the river; in the land they have nothing; the rain is stayed from them, and the earth yields not its fruit. A Christian is sometimes less happy than a worldly man; he is not worse off as to the future, but he is as to the present, for he has neither the world nor the Lord, and this simply because he is not faithful.
God allowed the Philistines to remain, but still you will find that decline came in through their being there, It is an old remark that people are often more careful as to their walk when they are just coming out of Egypt than they are when they are established. This is very specious. A person may be very happy in what he possesses, and yet all the time be allowing something, which he ought to destroy, to remain and be tributary to him. I say you are losing ground if you do; you would have subdued this thing once, but now you do not because it is tributary to you.
We find the tribe of Levi here without any inheritance; they were in the land, enjoying all the fruits of it, though not owning it themselves.
And this is very much the place that we shall hold in the millennium: we shall have the enjoyment of all the holy things of God, but we shall not be on the earth.
It is an immense thing for the soul to get hold of the simple fact that God delights in our having possession. God commands us to go in and possess; and there is an enjoyment connected with it-an enjoyment that eye has not seen nor ear heard.
Joshua 14
THE two and a half tribes. get heaven; they suffer for heaven; but they never enjoy heaven. They are within the inheritance-the Euphrates -but they have not crossed the Jordan. All the fighting men had to suffer, but these never knew what it was to take a direct heavenly position.
But now we get in Caleb the character of the man, and the privileges and advantages of the man who walks in simple faith towards God. There is such a thing as general blessing and particular blessing. For instance, in John 20, " peace " is a general blessing; but He teaches Mary Magdalene individually; He says to her, "Go to my brethren and say unto them;" she has got this before they have it. The faithful one always gets the advantage; there is no such thing as any one losing in this world for Christ; he loses temporarily, but on the whole he does not, because " Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith;" there is manifold more even in this present time, So here Caleb. He was faithful all through; he was sent to spy out the land, and the very spot that discouraged the other spies was the one that fell to his share. He gives us a picture of the privileged position of one who does not decline. God always gives us a sample in His word of what a man can be.
I look upon Hebron as a contrast to Gilgal You start to fight from Gilgal; but Hebron is the place of rest. It is the place of rest, the place of rendezvous, and the place of the throne. Abraham was the heavenly man, traveling a pilgrim and a stranger through the earth, and there he finds a grave; it is there Sarah dies and is buried. For the heavenly man on earth there is only a grave.
But what is very remarkable is that Hebron also was the city that frightened all Israel and prevented their going up to possess the promised land. And it was " built seven years before Zoan in Egypt;" it was a very old city. Looked at in connection with Satan it is the -place of fear-of " wicked spirits in heavenly places," as Ephesians tells us. And this gives us a wonderful moral lesson: the place of the greatest difficulty becomes' the place of the greatest victory; the place that was the stronghold of the enemy becomes the 'place the most distinguished by the power of Christ: " O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" I die at Hebron as a natural man; it is the only way I can- get rid of the enemy; and there where the grave was, is for the saints the rendezvous after battle; there faith triumphs. Where I die there I get the victory.
And not only this, but, if I overcome there, I shall also reign there. Hebron is, lastly, the throne; David was crowned there.
Thus we get these two things in Hebron: there is the heavenly man walking on earth by faith, and to him there is a burying place here; I am a man on earth with heavenly hopes going on to heaven. But I am also a king and a priest, and I know what a wonderful thing it is to be superior to everything here that opposes my possession of that place that is given me in heaven. Every saint ought to be both an Abraham and a Caleb. Stephen is both: he finds a burying place here, and he goes to glory; in him also it comes out that the hope of Israel is over-that Sarah is buried.
But in connection with the law of the battle there is a point that we may do well to notice. You will find it in Num. 31. The blessing at first sight appears to be general, but there is really a difference between those who took an active part in the battle and those who did not, though it says that those who stayed at home and those who went to war were to share and share alike. If they went to war and brought back as spoil a thousand head of cattle, they divided with those who remained at home, five hundred to each. But has the man who went to war then no advantage? Yes, he has. He gives only one out of his five hundred, and that, too, direct to the Lord; it is the priest's portion. But the others had to give one out of every fifty, and that to the Levites.
I believe this explains what abounds in the church now; people holding truth which they have never fought for themselves. " The sixpence you make, wears like steel." It is a very solemn thing if the truth you have gained has not brought you nearer to God. I do not object to Levitical service, but I say, Do we know anything of priestly? What you have won in battle brings you into communion with God in a way that non-fighters never know. No person is able to maintain the truth who is not a living example of it; you cannot put any one higher than you are yourself. And I think it is a very low condition of things when people will suffer for service and not for truth. I ought to feel that I have Satan to do with, and that I mean to get this place which our Father's counsel has for me.
I see four things leading me on to the highest point: first, the Father's counsel; second, the Son has accomplished it for me; third, the Holy Ghost is working it in me; and fourth, the servant's duty is to lead me to it. So we are all set for the top; and I believe Satan is determinately set against any one who is determined to reach it; -he will bring all his forces to bear upon that one. It is the place where you are assailed most, but it is the path of power. Whenever Satan sees a person going on well, he always lays a Snare for him, and a snare is a thing that it is easy to get into, and difficult to get out of. When you have been going on well is just the time for him; as we have been seeing, it was after the victory of Jericho came the defeat. -If you set yourself for possession, I doubt not you will get plenty., of trouble; but I would sooner- have power on my side and plenty of enemies, than I would have no enemies and no power.
So Caleb; this faithful man, if you ask what advantage he got over the rest, I answer, he got the great stronghold Hebron. We might think that one who did not go through so much was quite as well off; but he was not. The point is to see what a much better thing it is to folio the Lord fully.
There is a very beautiful thing in 1 Sam. 30, in connection with this, as to whether we are sit for it. Here David's men were quite ready to go with him; they set out to go, but David would not hear of it: "they were so faint that they could not follow." And when they returned with the spoil he made all " part alike." His men were worn out, they were faint; it was not a matter of indifference with them as to whether they went with him or not. And thus it is a very comforting passage to us, for some may not be able to proceed, still they have purpose of heart, and this will not be forgotten.