Reading: Joshua 1:1-11; Hebrews 3:14-15.
It is important that we should see that
the promises, the covenants, the nature of the land, and the sabbath rest
mentioned in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua have their real fulfilment
in Christ. Historically, of course, all these promises and covenants related
to Israel and the land, and there may still be a relatedness to Israel. It may
still be that Israel will have the land in fulness, and the promises and
covenants be fulfilled in a literal earthly way. But the fullest and highest
realization of all those things is in Christ, in the Church, and it is not until
the spiritual meaning of all those things is gathered up and realized in a
raptured Church that Israel can have any earthly fulness at all. When we, as
the Church, have been raptured into the fulness that is in Christ, and that
fulness has become an actual realization in the Church, then Israel will really
begin to possess and come into her inheritance. It is important to see that,
because it surely adds to the urge and strength of the appeal, and brings us
face to face in a very real way with what the Lord is now seeking, and must
have, a people who in a spiritual way come into the good of all this that is set
forth.
God and the Men of Faith
The men of faith in the Old Testament
were themselves led beyond a possible earthly realization to the heavenly; for
although God made promises to them there was no full earthly realization because
of continual failure. Those who were with them, who were fellow-heirs of the
promises and the covenants, broke down continually, and therefore it was not
possible even for the men of faith to inherit. But in the midst of repeated
declensions and failures the latter remained men of faith, who held fast
the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end. You will notice that God
came in with the men of faith, and led them away from the earthly to the
heavenly, and gave them within their own hearts the assurance that, although
they would not themselves realize the full meaning of the promises and the
covenants in a literal way on the earth, they would inherit the value of that in
a heavenly form. This clearly seems to be the meaning of such a statement as we
find in John 8:66: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was
glad." Or again, "...they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." (Heb.
11:16). That is going beyond the earthly. They were lifted beyond that which now
became an impossible thing in their day, an earthly realization of the promises
and covenants, and were given the assurance of a heavenly country: "For he
looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God"
(Heb. 11:10). That is not the earthly Jerusalem, it is something more. So men of
faith, who held fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end, found
the promises in a spiritual way translated from the earthlies to the heavenlies.
That covers the whole of the letter to the Hebrews. It is faith by which we are
lifted away from the earthlies to the heavenlies, and that which becomes an
impossible thing here on the earth because of breakdown, and declension, and
failure, is secured in an exalted Christ to men of faith, in Him Who is the
Author and Perfecter of our faith, to Whom we are called to look off, even
Jesus.
All this is gathered up in Christ crowned with
glory and honour, and is to be realized in those who are partakers or partners
in the heavenly calling; not the earthly now, but the heavenly. It is the
heavenly calling, the heavenly vision, for a heavenly people, which is in view
in this letter.
Thus it is that Christ governs every promise,
every vision, every hope, every covenant. He dominates all: Abraham, whom we
have seen before to represent election and promise; Isaac, representing sonship
in resurrection; Jacob, chastening and service, and Joseph in
whom all these features are embodied and carried to the throne for the
purpose of bringing fulness to the elect; and with Joseph the land comes into
view when he gives commandment concerning his bones. So you see that all that is
represented by Abraham (election and promise), Isaac (sonship and resurrection),
Jacob (chastening in service), and Joseph (embodying all in the throne), is
carried over to the land. The land represents it all, and becomes the embodiment
of it. And now again you have Christ in the place of the land. It is all
gathered up in Him Who embodies all that is signified by the land, and in Christ
we come into all that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph mean in relation to the
land. Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones, and that was faith's
comprehension of the land of promise. The land was in view.
The Purpose of Chastening
It is important, and perhaps of special value,
to realize that service comes at the end. Jacob is the third of the Patriarchs
with whom the covenant was made. The covenant was never made with Joseph. The
recurring word is always, "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," and
although Joseph was a much fuller type than any of these it is never said, I am
the God of Joseph, simply because Joseph was the embodiment of all the others;
he included all the rest. So that Jacob becomes the end of the Divine
association, and Jacob represents a disciplined or chastened service.
That is the key to the Lord's present dealings
with ourselves, and we are carried to the end of the letter to the Hebrews with
a bound; for with what is the concluding part of this letter occupied if not
with training? "My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art reproved of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." The last word in that verse should
not be rendered "receiveth." That is an unfortunately weak and perhaps misleading
translation, because it would seem in a special way to relate the Lord's
scourging of lives to the time of their coming into acceptance with Him. That is
not the point at all. The more literal and correct translation is, "...and
scourgeth every son whom he places." There is all the difference between
receiving and placing. Here is something that signifies a graduation, an
advanced movement in relation to the Lord. We are now in the course of that
chastening, and that represents preparation for service.
What a lot we make of service in this life, as
though for us here there were not another thing to compare with its importance.
People seem to think that service is the thing above all other things which must
dominate and characterize our relationship to the Lord. God forbid that ever we
should be negligent in serving the Lord, but rather fervent in spirit serving
Him; nevertheless, let us remember that very often the Lord places a great deal
more importance upon our being fitted than upon our being used. That is why the
Lord very often thinks it worth while to take people right out of work, and to
call them aside and purify them through a long extended period of discipline.
These are going to be vessels of great honour, great service, afterward.
The company that is to serve in the throne is
to be a very chastened company. Only from the Divine point of view can I thus
explain the intensity of the suffering of those who go all the way with the
Lord, that it represents value to Him in usefulness in the ages to come. It
seems to me that the Word clearly touches that.
That is, again, rather afield, but it should be
helpful to us to understand why the Lord is dealing with us as He is. The point
we are seeking to press is that the land is Christ, and He gathers up into
Himself everything in connection with the Divine fulness, all the typical
meaning that is found in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
The Typical Meaning of Moses
Between Joseph and the land comes Moses. Moses
occupies a very large place in that section between the command concerning
Joseph's bones and the land in relation to which he gave the command. Moses
stands for the making known of a condition and order of heavenly life which is
God's unalterable and irreducible requirement. It is important to know that,
because it sums up Moses. What does Moses stand for? How can you comprehend the
significance of Moses? In the way we have named. He stands for the making known
of a condition and order of heavenly life which is God's unalterable and
irreducible requirement.
Everything that came through Moses was a
pattern of heavenly things. The whole government in the wilderness was a
government of Israel by heavenly laws; that is, Israel had to learn through
Moses how to live on heavenly resources, when all earthly resources were cut
off. It was intended to be a revelation of how they could do that, how they
could live out from heaven when there was nothing on earth to live on.
Everything in Moses was the making known of this heavenly condition and order
required in His people by God. How God kept to His ground! If there was the
slightest deviation, how the wrath and disfavour of God were manifested! They
murmured for water. That was quite a natural thing to do. You and I would do so
if we were in a desert and dying of thirst. They murmured for bread, for a
change of diet from the manna. That is a very natural thing to do. Yes, that is
the trouble. It was natural, and not spiritual. God was trying to teach them
that there was sufficiency in Himself in heaven, when all other resources were
closed up. It was an effort to make known by every means through Moses a
heavenly company with a heavenly order and heavenly resources, and God showed
His disapproval, His disfavour, His wrath, whenever there was a failure to
recognize that heavenliness which He was seeking to make known to them.
This revelation of the heavenly order and
condition was imposed upon them, but there was in their case no position or
power to live up to it. The position and the power were lacking, and hence it
became a law. When you speak of law you enter into the realm where something is
put upon you whether you like it or not, and you have to recognize it. Whether
you can keep it or not, it is there. Law never takes account of your condition,
nor of your position. The law says a thing, and it remains unalterable whatever
your condition and position may be.
From the Outward to the
Inward
Now we are ready for the book of Joshua. How
does the book of Joshua open? The Lord said unto Joshua, "Moses my servant is
dead," and typically this introduces a new order. Jordan, as Paul makes very
clear in his letter to the Romans, represents death to the law as an outward form
of government. How? Let us remember that there is no such thing as death to the
law apart from being alive to Christ. If you are not alive to Christ you are
under the law, you are governed by the law. The only deliverance from the law is
through the death of Christ unto the resurrection of Christ. It is resurrection
that represents deliverance, and there can be no real death to the law in any
powerful way, in any effective way, until you know what it is to be alive unto
God in resurrection. Do you notice how very particular the Holy Spirit is in
making that clear, especially through Paul? Whenever the dynamic for making the
meaning of Christ's death a reality is in view, it is the resurrection of Christ
that is mentioned. We are saved by His life.
The book of Joshua begins with the statement,
"Moses my servant is dead..." What comes in with that? Is it not a new position,
and a new power? A new position! They are over Jordan, and no longer under Moses
in the wilderness. A new power! There is One Who is the Captain of the hosts of
the Lord, to be, indeed, invisible for the rest of the campaign, but
marvellously in operation, mighty in energy. Joshua takes up what is represented
by the Angel of the Lord, and becomes the representation of the energy of the
Holy Ghost operating in a new position. The Epistle to the Ephesians is the
counterpart of that. In Ephesians we have the great opening declaration:
"...hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in
Christ..." That is in the land spiritually, a new position in the heavenlies.
Then Ephesians almost immediately goes on to speak of "...the exceeding
greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to that working of the
strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the
dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenlies, far above all
rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named..."
That is the note of Ephesians, and it is also that of Hebrews: "...we behold
Jesus... crowned with glory and honour..." The Ephesian position is in the
heavenlies, where we are now blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, Who
is the land, and with this position is associated "the exceeding greatness of
his power to usward who believe."
That is the significance of the Lord's
statement to Joshua, "Moses my servant is dead..." It makes something more
possible, namely, a new position, a new energy, a further development. It is no
longer the imposition of something outward upon us as God's irreducible minimum,
to which we cannot for a moment stand up, by reason of our weakness, but is now
a position in Christ with an energy which is the energy of the Holy Ghost, the
exceeding greatness of His power making possible an attaining unto all the
revealed fulness of the Divine will.
Before concluding this further meditation on
the Object, we first need to face the fact that
God's Will is Clearly Made
Known
He desires His people to come to His fulness,
and all His highest designs are inseparably connected with that revealed will,
that object. All His highest designs are bound up with our going on to God's
end, the fulness of Christ, and their full meaning can never be realized by us
except as we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. The
point is that it is made clear that God's will is that we should go on to the
fulness.
Three Courses are Possible
Three courses are possible as seen in the case
of Israel.
(a) To Die in the Wilderness
It is possible, although out of Egypt, to die
in the wilderness. What does that mean? On the one hand, it is to fail to come
into the realm of that fulness of God in Christ which was intended for us. On
the other hand, how can we fail? Israel's history tells us quite clearly that we
may do so through carnal mindedness, a merely carnal Christianity. It is against
that that the Apostle Paul warns so strongly. How often he says, "are ye not
carnal!" Saved, out of Egypt, but carnal, the flesh more dominant than the
spirit. In that case you die in the wilderness; that is, you fail to reach God's
end and to attain unto the realization of God's revealed will.
(b) To Compromise for Present
Satisfaction
The second possibility is that which is
represented by the two and a half tribes, who said, "Bring us not over this
Jordan." They sought their inheritance on the other side of Jordan. You know the
nature of that choice. They saw a goodly land, a fruitful patch, something that
could be had without all the difficulty and cost of the conflict. They set their
hearts upon it. They made a compromise. In a word, they refused to pay the price
of utterness.
They speak to us of that kind of life and
service which has its fulness in present, seen things, in quick results, quick
returns; which is occupied with much activity which is itself the satisfaction,
or becomes the satisfaction. So many people think that if they can but keep busy
in the Name of the Lord they are getting on splendidly. They find their
satisfaction in the fact that they are doing a lot, and not in the ultimate
spiritual values. A great many such people eventually wake up to discover that
they have been very busy but not very effective. In all their busy-ness and
activity, in which they have found so much pleasure, so much personal
gratification, there is not a great deal, after all, of that which abides
eternally to the satisfaction of God. It is a very dangerous realm to get into.
The two and a half tribes made a compromise, in which they sought for the quick
return, the immediate satisfaction.
(c) To go on to the Fulness
The third possibility is that of going on unto
all the spiritual and heavenly fulness of Christ, which is, nevertheless, a life
of sheer faith and intense conflict.
Those three possibilities confront us. We can
die in the wilderness; we can compromise for present satisfaction; or we can go
on in faith, in the conflict. The latter has ever in it that factor which seems
to say that however great the progress there is far more ground yet to be
gained. Every bit of gain is as nothing because of the realization that there is
so much farther to go. Because of the intensity of the antagonism of the enemy,
the severity of the conflict, we are always more conscious of the arduousness of
the road than of the attainment of the fulness. Ah, but it is going on all the
same. These are the alternatives we have to face.
2. The Urgency
Bear with me for a moment or two while I deal
with that which is perhaps the least pleasant side of things.
The Possibility of Failure
Through Heart-defection
That fact is hammered out in both the Old
Testament and the New Testament. Israel's history is employed repeatedly as a
basis of urge, and appeal, and warning. In the Psalms and the Epistles you hear
this refrain repeatedly: "Harden not your hearts as in the provocation...". That
tragic phase is constantly brought up as a ground of urging, appealing,
warning.
This possibility of failure has its occasion in
a state of heart. This tremendous element of contingency and doubt which seems
to run through the Word of God, with reference to believers, is not related to
our salvation. When you are dealing with salvation you are dealing with
affirmatives, with positives all the time, there is a strong note of confident
assurance; but when you are dealing with the full purpose of God, the goal, the
prize, all that is meant by the heavenly calling, you find an element all the
time of contingency and doubt. It is represented in that long series of "ifs"-"If
we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end." "Whose
house are we if..." You cannot get over them, and you cannot get round
them; they face you as you read through. Paul gathered his whole final energy up
under the urgency of a mighty "if"-"If by any means I may attain...."
This precariousness is based upon, or rises out
of, a state of heart. In the book of Joshua we find a series of elements which
were calculated to bring about this failure again, even over Jordan, calculated
to hinder the fulness to which the Lord would bring His people. And each one of
these elements was calculated to reveal an appeal to a new state and had its
occasion there.
Now this is the word we must consider before we
come to the end of this meditation. These elements seen in the book of Joshua
were calculated to frustrate the end of God in His people by discovering and
securing a certain state of heart as the basis of their success.
Take again the case of the two and a half
tribes. Do you notice what was said when they made their bid for that early
settlement on the other side of Jordan? "And wherefore discourage ye the heart
of the children of Israel..." (Numbers 32:7). Then in the first place they
represented something which would take the energy, the wholehearted devotion,
out of the Lord's people. So it is possible for the hearts of the Lord's people
to be thus seduced. There was the peril of a state of heart that was not after
this kind: God has made it clear that His purpose is so-and-so: whatever other
people do, I am going on to that: other people may stop short and seem to have a
good time, and have much blessing, but I have seen that God has set something
beyond that as His goal, and whatever other people do that is my objective.
"My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
'Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His-
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!"
The state described in the latter half of the
verse does not apply to the two and a half tribes, because their heart was not
like that, and therefore they became a menace. The Devil knows the state of our
hearts, and very subtly can he work to appeal to it.
As to the two and a half tribes themselves,
they speak to us of present benefit in relation to the Lord apart from
suffering. They represent those who say, It is not necessary to be so utter. Why
be so intense? Why be so utter? Sometimes the word fanatical is used. It is not
necessary! Why not be just content with trusting and enjoying the Lord, having a
nice simple Christian life? Why all this complication of the Christian life?
That argument may sound all right, and often Scripture is quoted-"...the
simplicity that is in Christ." A Scripture like that is used against what is
called the complicated kind of Christian life, represented by these people who
are always reaching out for more. Why not enjoy the Lord in a nice, happy,
comfortable way? Well, allowing that it is possible to be wrongly intense, and
to make a terrific strain of the Christian life (I do not believe the Lord wants
that), the whole matter is determined for us by the fact that it is not a
question of what I want, of the kind of life I would choose, or whether it
should be pleasant or trying, but it is a question of what the Lord wants. What
does the Lord want? Has the Lord shown that He wants a people who will reach out
for His utmost? Paul, you are so strenuous. Why do you talk like that? Why do
you say, "if by any means I may attain?" You are an old man now; surely
you can begin to take it easy; you know the Lord in a wonderful way, you have a
wonderful history. Paul, do not be so strenuous! Paul would answer: Do you think
that, after all, it is merely a matter of my temperament, of my likes or
dislikes? If I were to consider myself I would certainly begin to take it easy,
but I see that the Lord has set a standard, a position which relates to an
eternal purpose of usefulness and glory to Him to which I have not yet attained,
and I gather up everything in the last lap and concentrate upon that. Call it
intensity if you like, but "leaving the things which are behind... I press on
toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
The two and a half tribes were of quite another
spirit. They were people who were considering themselves in the Christian life
and not the Lord. Had they for one moment sat down and said, What does the Lord
want? instead of, What can we have? they would have gone on. The answer was
clear and emphatic. There was no doubt that the Lord's revealed will was that
they should go over Jordan, and on to the end. They compromised, and their
descendants can be heard today saying, Oh, it is not necessary to have this kind
of Christian life, where you are always reaching on and never satisfied! Be
content! Why? Because it is much easier, and much nicer. Is that all that
matters? Is it to be our one concern that things should be pleasant, and nice,
and comfortable? Is it that or is it the will of God that is to govern us? The
occasion of the enemy is found in a state of heart, to deter, to arrest, to
limit.
The Lesson of Achan
Then we pass to the next phase, and here we
meet with Achan. What does Achan represent? Another Satanic trick to arrest
progress, to hold up, to check, to curtail. Again it is clearly personal
interest that comes in. How? A mighty blessing has been given of the Lord, a
tremendous victory. There has been a great gain, a coming into possession, a
manifesting of the Lord's presence and power at Jericho, and out of the midst of
the very blessing of the Lord, Achan takes something for himself. How often that
has been the undoing and the arrest of blessing. The very blessings of the Lord
are turned to personal account. When the Lord has blessed and prospered, how
many people have not themselves become something? Here is a successful
movement! Here is my chance! There is a laying hold of that work, and a turning
of it to personal account. That is the history of things. The most dangerous
time for the work of God is the time of blessing. You will always find people
coming in when there is blessing, not because they have God's end in view, but
because a realm of blessing means personal good. God gave Jericho into the hands
of Israel, and as He did so Achan took something into his own hands; took it
for himself, for his own enjoyment, and his own glory, and made the very fruits of blessing personal ends.
Oh, the Devil is very subtle. The whole course was at once brought under arrest
and disaster.
The Lord is calling us on to the fulness of
Christ, and sometimes on the way He may let us see the working of His power,
that He is with us. The world may be against us, the Devil may be withstanding,
and the Lord lets us see in some little way that He is with us. And then
alongside of that there comes the most awful peril, in that we snap our fingers
at everything and everybody, and at the Devil himself. We are supported by the
Lord in the position we have taken! We are vindicated! That is a perilous
position. The Lord may have to say, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven!
Do not find any personal gratification in the fact that the demons are subject
unto you! It is all in the same realm as glorying in a wrong way in the
blessings of the Lord. We have to go on steadily, and take our encouragements
when they come, thank the Lord quietly for them, and get on with the main
business, not staying to gloat over the fruits of the Lord's blessing in a
personal way.
There is a great deal of ground covered by
that. It is often a source of so much gratification if only you can tell people
of the success that is coming to you in the work of the Lord, how many people
are coming, how many souls are being saved, how you are being used, how the
Lord's seal is upon you. All unconsciously we take hold of the honour for our
own flesh. The Lord has to hide so much from us, because it is dangerous for us;
our flesh makes it dangerous. We shall be tried by blessing as well as by
adversity. The keenest fires of trial are often those of success or prosperity.
Such tests discover whether our hearts are fixed upon the Lord or upon things.
A Lie in Disguise
Next we come to the Gibeonites. The thing that
is said about the Gibeonites, and which sums them up, is this: "They also did
work wilily..." (Joshua 9:4). Lies, and
flattery, and sentiment all working together.
Flattery! Oh, we know that you are the Lord's
people! We know the Lord is with you! We have heard all about it! We have no
doubt whatever that you are specially led of God! You are bound to succeed!
Lies! You are familiar with the lies of the Gibeonites. They are recorded in chapter nine
of the book of Joshua.
Sentiment! Though we started out on this long
journey with new wineskins, and warm bread from the oven in our bags, see how
tired out we are, and how worn out these wineskins are: and all because we
believe in you! We know the Lord is with you, and we appeal to your
kind-heartedness!
It is very striking that when Paul in chapter
6 of the letter to the Ephesians exhorts believers to take unto them the whole armour of God he does not say, Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the
fierce onslaughts of the Devil. You would expect him to say that, when he has
told of such an equipment; a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of
righteousness, a shield of faith, a girdle of truth, and a sword of the Spirit.
This surely means that the Devil is coming in with fierce onslaughts. No! The
Scripture is, "...that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil." All this provision of God is given to that end.
What is the object of the Devil? Arrest! And
what are we to say of the alliance with the Gibeonites? Something which ought
to have been slain became an institution. That peril is not so far from us as it
pretends to be. The Gibeonites said to Joshua: "From a very far country thy servants are come..." when
as a matter of fact they were next door neighbours. The
peril is much nearer to us than perhaps we realize.
The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal
What are we to gather from this? What was the
nature of the breakdown?
To put it into a sentence it was the wisdom of
man seeking to deal with the wit of the Devil. The Gibeonites came to the elders
and the princes of Israel, who listened to their tales, heard their arguments
and their appeals, became soft under their sentiment, and made a covenant with
them. The princes of Israel! A prince is one who is supposed to have judgment
and understanding, but here these princes and elders of Israel dealt with the
thing by the hearing of their ears, and the sight of their eyes, and the
judgment of their own hearts.
Arrest from going to the full end of God, the
fulness of Christ, has often been brought about by our trying to counter the
works of the enemy with our own human wisdom. Let us have it settled clearly,
once for all, that our need in this heavenly realm of warfare is of a
spirit of wisdom, understanding, discernment; for the enemy has ways of coming
along to bring us into a compromised condition by very plausible presentations to get something established in the midst of us which will be a thorn in our sides. It is easier to
let that in than to get it out. Oh, for wisdom that does not fix its gaze upon
merely sentimental ground, or on the ground of reason, but wants new creation
ground all the time. The one word in the mouth of the Gibeonites was "old." Now
Israel is in the new creation, and has nothing to do with old things. The enemy
cannot be met on old creation ground of human wisdom; it is necessary for the
new creation ground to be occupied, and for us to partake of the mind of
Christ.
It would not have been long before the elders
of Israel detected the deception had they gone to the Lord about this, and said,
Lord, this sounds all right; we cannot see anything wrong with it; the argument
is good and the situation for these men seems very desperate; they appear to be
very honest, very sincere, and all the evidences seem to support their position;
nevertheless, Lord, this situation cannot be settled until we get more light; we
are in the realm where we are very capable of being misled. The Lord in
faithfulness would have come in and said, Be careful what you do with those
men. The Devil has laid a trap for you.
I believe a good deal of that goes on, and we
do know something of it. From time to time, in the face of a situation which
seems to be perfectly good and right the Lord inwardly says, Be careful! Do not
commit yourself to that! You will discover later on what is wrong with it! And
so we do. We are in a realm where it is so necessary for us to walk in the
Spirit, because only the Spirit can keep us moving on in a clear way to the
fulness; for if in a case like that of the two and a half tribes, or Achan, or
the Gibeonites, we come down on to the natural ground in our endeavour to deal
with heavenly things, with spiritual forces, we are bound to have our course
checked, and our progress toward the Divine fulness brought under arrest.
Beware of any alliance with the enemy through
a lie. Take the helmet of salvation against the wiles of the Devil. Now
why should the head be covered against wiles, and why should that covering be
salvation? We take it that if the enemy can injure your head you
will not stand up very long. What is the thing at which he is constantly aiming
which represents the helmet, the head covering? It is the assured fact that in
Christ Jesus our salvation is secured. The enemy is always trying to upset that,
to cut through that, to strike us down at that point of the certainty of our
salvation, the crowning reality that through faith in the Lord Jesus we are
saved. This wile of the Devil has ever that object in view. He will never give
that up, and it is in the heavenlies that that battle is fought more intensely
than anywhere. That is to say, it is when you come on into the fuller ranges of
the spiritual life that the intensity of the dispute concerning the fact of our
salvation is encountered. It is strange that the most devoted, and perhaps most
advanced, child of God is the object of assault as to that very thing. The young
Christian never doubts his or her salvation, but lives in the full confidence
and assurance of it. Somehow or other it is those who have gone a long way with
the Lord who come under this terrific assault as to the security of their
salvation after all. It shows that the more you get into the heavenly realm, the
sphere of the naked forces of the Devil, the more intense is their assault upon
you in the realm of your mind about your salvation. So the head must be covered.
Then the breastplate of righteousness has to be
taken against the Devil's wiles. How often the enemy succeeds in getting even
experienced believers to try to find some ground of their justification, their
acceptance with God, in themselves; something in themselves that they can offer
to God, that they can stand upon as a ground of assurance. No! Never! If ever
the enemy can get us away from the righteousness of Christ as the ground of our
acceptance, he has suspended our course, he has arrested our progress. This wile
of the Devil has as its object the moving of us from the basic ground that it is
Christ's righteousness that answers to God for us, and not our own.
Then the girdle of truth has to be taken
against the wiles of the Devil, and likewise the shield of faith. He stands at
nothing. Nothing is sacred with him. Nothing is ever thought to be too settled,
too sacred, too assured for his assault. He will try anything, if only he can
stop our going on with the Lord.
Take the New Testament with all these letters in it, and what have you? A mass of
material which had to do with this abiding and persistent peril of the people of
God stopping short in their spiritual life, and to deal with it. It is
remarkable that such material so far outweighs the addresses and sermons given
to the unsaved. You would think, seeing it was the beginning of things, the
evangelization of the world in its first great movement, the great gathering in
of the unsaved, that all the wonderful Gospel messages by which these people
were saved would be recorded. There is very little of that kind of thing. What
you do find is a whole volume of material dealing with this peril that confronts
the people of God, the peril of stopping short in their spiritual progress. All
this was intended to urge them on, ever on, because the whole force of the
powers of darkness was gathered and concentrated upon arresting spiritual
growth, upon preventing a coming to the fulness of Christ which was God's
intention.
The Fact of Victory Through Heavenly Union
Now
what is the final thing? Not that we shall be able to deal with it, but we must
close with it in mind. The book of Joshua represents another side of things.
There were checks, there were interventions, but there was another side. There
was Jericho and its conquest, and there was victory the second time at Ai, there
were mighty conquests; all speaking of an ascendency, a dominion, a throne
union with the Lord. And if there is but a partial presentation of that truth in
the book of Joshua, there is a very full unveiling of it in the New Testament,
especially through Paul's letters. There is for us now a spiritual union with
Him Who is crowned with glory and honour, a spiritual union with Him in His
authority, by which the forces of the enemy can be outwitted, outmanoeuvred and
overthrown. Is not that the meaning of the declaration in Ephesians, "in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." It is to that we must come in order to go on. We
shall never go right on until we know our heavenly union with Christ, our union
with Him as in the throne. It is a real working thing, by which we are made
aware of the lies of the Devil, and strengthened with all might by God's Spirit
in the inward man to meet his fury.
It is a position and a power to be known now
over all the power of the enemy. The Lord lead us into it.