Reading: Joshua 1.
"It came to
pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his
eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over
against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua
went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for
our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as prince of the
host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his
face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him,
What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the prince of
the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Put off thy shoe from
off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is
holy. And Joshua did so" (Joshua 5:13-15).
The counterpart of the
book of Joshua is found in the New Testament, especially
from and with the Gospel of John onward. When you come to
the end of the four Gospels, you find yourself at the
self-same place as that which you find just before the
book of Joshua opens. That is, a nation has come to the
border of the Land of Promise - which border is, in this
case, symbolically, the Jordan - and that nation has
turned back and lost everything through unbelief. That is
how it was before this book of Joshua opens. That is
exactly how it was at the end of the Gospels. The nation
to whom all the promises were offered for fulfilment came
to that border land: through unbelief they were turned
back and lost everything: and for the last two thousand
years they have been experiencing a living death in the
wilderness.
But a new nation
springs into being. It is with that that we have to do as
we open this book of Joshua, and it is that with which we
have to do when we pass from John into Acts. A new nation
has arisen out of the death of the old, and is now going
in and on to possess.
The Ark of the Covenant
went its lonely way through the Jordan. You remember that
the Lord commanded that the Ark was to move ahead into
the river, then in flood, and that a space of two
thousand cubits was to be observed between it and the
people. It was taking a lonely way, a way which it alone
could take. We all know that that Ark represents the Lord
Jesus Himself, and its passage through the Jordan
typifies His passage through the Cross. "Ye... shall
leave me alone", He said; "and yet I am not
alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32).
There is a space; He took a lonely way through the Cross.
No one else can go that way as fully as He went; thank
God, it is not necessary. He first met all the
overflowing of Jordan - God's judgment, God's wrath,
God's separation; it was a terribly lonely way. "Why
hast thou forsaken me?" He cried to Heaven (Matt.
17:46). The 'Ark' went that way, to lead the way through
for us, that we might have a dry passage, and might not
be overwhelmed of Jordan.
I do not think that we
really make enough of what He has borne for us, and of
how little we have to bear because of that. If we know
something of the Cross, if we know something of the
fellowship of His sufferings, we know nothing of the
judgment of God that rested upon Him. Nothing that we
know has to do with judgment - not one whit. As the Ark
went its lonely way to lead that people through, so He,
by the Cross, has opened a way - a way into the
inheritance.
Joshua
and Amalek
At that point, Joshua
comes into view in full stature, as representing, or
indicating, the instrument of God for spiritual fulness.
It would be instructive to spend a few minutes on Joshua
in that light. Joshua stands for the mighty life and
energy of the Holy Spirit. When the Captain of Jehovah's
hosts, the Holy Spirit in figure there, joined Himself
with Joshua, and joined Joshua with Himself, all that
issued and proceeded was by the energy of the Holy
Spirit. Everything thenceforth showed the Holy Spirit in
charge and in action. Joshua, then, speaks of the Holy
Spirit uniting Himself with a vessel for the purposes of
the inheritance.
You remember that
Joshua first comes into view in relation to Amalek
(Exodus 17). Amalek is the type of the flesh, coming out
to thwart, to prevent, to straddle the path of Israel,
that they should not come into the inheritance. The flesh
always does that. Satan has a ready ally in the flesh,
and by the energy of the flesh he would always keep the
Lord's people out of the inheritance. Joshua first comes
in then against Amalek. You see already, well in advance,
when he first comes into view, that he signifies that
which is of the Spirit warring against the flesh.
"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh", says the Apostle (Gal.
5:17). Joshua is there, as the energy of the Spirit, to
deal with this obstructing and hindering and thwarting
flesh, with the inheritance always in view. It is
important always to remember that, and to keep it in its
place. Why must we walk in the Spirit? Why must the flesh
be dealt with? Not just for its own sake, but because the
great inheritance in Christ is in view.
Joshua
and the Tent of Meeting
The next occasion on
which he is referred to is in Exodus 33. He is spoken of
here as "a young man" who "departed not
out of the Tent" (v. 11). I think that is a very
beautiful touch, not only in the case of Joshua himself,
but in the whole spiritual background of this story. What
was this Tent? It was, of course, not the Tabernacle,
because the Tabernacle was not in existence at that time.
You have to go back to the occasion when Moses went up
into the mount to receive the Law, and the pattern of the
Tabernacle. He came down, and Israel had 'broken loose'
and had made a calf, and were saying: 'These be thy gods
which brought thee out of Egypt!' (Ex. 32:4). Joshua was
there. But, when Moses came down, and heard and saw, he
stood in the gate of the camp, and cried: 'Who is on the
Lord's side? Let him come over unto me!' Now, from that
time onwards, what Moses did was to take a tent, a 'tent
of meeting', right outside of the camp, and
"everyone which sought the Lord went out unto the
tent of meeting" (Ex. 33:7). That was the Tent in
which Joshua, the young man, abode, and from which he did
not depart.
It is full of
significance, is it not? First of all, that Tent out
there implied absolute separation from every taint of
Satan's touch. Satan had captured the gold of the
Sanctuary, and had it made into a calf for his own
worship: Satan had turned the heart of the people from
the Lord to himself, and corrupted everything. If the
inheritance is going to be entered upon and appropriated,
that touch and that taint of the corrupting influence of
the evil one amongst the people of God has got to be
removed, and everything of God has got to be taken out of
its precincts. Joshua, therefore, abiding and not
departing from the Tent; this man of the Spirit, this man
who is to bring into the inheritance by the energy of the
Spirit; the man who abides beyond the taint and the touch
of the powers of evil, says so clearly that he is not in
that world, he is out of that realm altogether. He abides
in the Tent of meeting. I like to think that there was
one man, besides Moses, who was not a priest, but a man
of the people, who was allowed to dwell in the House of
the Lord.
Joshua
as a "Young Man"
But then it says that
Joshua was a 'young man'. Surely this speaks of freshness
- the freshness of youth, with everything before; vision,
purpose, a future; a life of energy in the Spirit; no
touch of time, or old age, here. It is a very blessed
thing. Oh, that we were all characterized by this youth!
Here is where a part of our watchfulness and
prayerfulness must be observed. It is always such a joy
to meet with young Christians, who are reaching out for
everything of the Lord; not satisfied with being just
saved, but really after all that the Lord means for them.
Because there are some of the Lord's people who 'know it
all', and have heard it all for years, so that you can
hardly say a thing, even about the book of Joshua, but
they know all about it - 'Oh, you have gone over that
ground again and again!' They are so stale, and
everything to them is so stale: it is like bread which
has been locked up for years - it has got absolutely dry;
and so you cannot say anything to them; there is no
freshness. But then you find a group of young Christians,
and there is life, there is freshness, and you can give
and give.
That is not a matter of
years: it is a matter of spirit. And it ought to be like
that. If we are going to come into the inheritance, we
must always have an appetite for it. If we are going to
come into the inheritance, there needs always to be this
vigorous spirit, this energy, this reach-out; this
consciousness that, however much we know, we know
nothing. We see so much before us - that 'land of far
distances' that our eyes have seen; and yet, with all
that we know, we know that we are only touching the
fringes. It ought to be like that to the end: the spirit
of youth, and youth's energy, ought to mark us. Sometimes
it is very difficult to give a message amongst people who
'know it all', and have heard it all before: there is a
sense of heaviness and hard going - simply because there
is not this drawing out of a spiritual energy to know, to
apprehend. Joshua, then, was a 'young man, who departed
not from the tent of meeting.'
The
Holy Spirit and the Conflict of Possession
Now, when we come to
this fifth chapter of the book of Joshua, to those three
verses that we read, we come to what is the very heart
and essence of the book of the Acts. With John, the Land
comes into view. With Acts, the Spirit takes over. He
takes over this whole matter of the inheritance, and of
leading the people of God into possession. But it is
along the line of conflict. Yes, He takes over in
relation to the inheritance, but note how immediately it
becomes a matter of conflict. If that Man standing over
against Joshua, declaring Himself to be the Captain of
the Hosts of the Lord, is (in figure, if not in reality)
the Holy Spirit, as we believe He is, note that He has a
sword drawn in His hand - He has not come with an olive
leaf! He has come with a sword, and it is drawn.
There is going to be
not one whit of this inheritance possessed without
conflict. We need to make up our minds to that, for that
is how it is going to be. There is going to be a
withstanding from all quarters. As soon as the matter of
any spiritual increase comes into view, then, strangely,
sometimes mysteriously, a state of conflict arises. It
gets into the very atmosphere, and it comes even from
Christian people. Be satisfied with what is called 'the
simple gospel', and 'simple evangelism', and you meet no
conflict; everybody applauds and accepts, and is on your
side. But - set your heart on the whole purpose
of God, and you find yourself at once in a realm of
terrible conflict. Satan is not going to allow this
Church to reach its determined destiny, if he can prevent
it.
Every step is going to
be challenged. Notice: "Every place that the sole of
your foot shall tread upon" - yes, "to you have
I given it" (1:3) - 'but, there will be a battle
over it; there will be battle over your possessing what I
have given.' Yes, even though God has predestined and
pre-determined it, and it is settled in the foreknowledge
and forecounsels of God, that does not mean that we are
going to come into it willy-nilly! With all the Divine
sovereignty, with all the Divine power, and with all the
Divine wisdom, associated with the purpose, strangely
enough there is a battle over every inch of it. It is
like that.
The
Spirit and the Inheritance in the New Testament
In the Gospel of John,
we read that Jesus said: "When he, the Spirit of
truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the
truth" (16:13). That is Joshua 5:13-15! The Spirit
has come to guide them into all the Truth that is in
Jesus (Eph. 4:21) - that is the book of Joshua. When He
came on the Day of Pentecost, fulfilling the promise and
explanation of the Lord Jesus, He came to guide the
Church right into its inheritance. I cannot be too
emphatic about this, because there are such inadequate,
if not wrong, ideas about the Holy Spirit and Pentecost,
and so on. Let us understand that the Holy Spirit came
for no lesser purpose than to take the Church right on
into all its inheritance in Christ. And if our
ideas of the Holy Spirit are not poised and directed
along this line, we are - if not arresting - at least in
measure subverting the work of the Holy Spirit, and the
purpose of His coming. The Church has to be brought into
that inheritance for which it has been eternally
predestined by God; and the Spirit came - in type in
Joshua, in reality in Acts - for that one purpose. And
this is going to be a conflict which will not end, until
the Lamb has overcome in finality.
In the book of the
Acts, then, the Holy Spirit does take over in the matter
of the inheritance; and He takes over for the conflict of
the inheritance. We do not move far into that book before
we find the conflict is on. In Jerusalem - whether from
Jewish leaders, who kill Stephen; or from the rulers of
the pagan world, who kill James and imprison Peter -
there it is; the conflict is on. But the mighty Spirit is
with the Church in the conflict. He has linked Himself up
with that instrument for the great purpose of God. And,
when you consider the incidents, and what seem like the
tragedies, and look through them, there is a sense in
which it can be said, concerning this union of the Holy
Spirit with a vessel here on this earth, that 'no man
hath been able to stand before it all the days of its
life' (Josh. 1:5). There is a sense in which that is
true. There has been a withstanding from men and from
demons, awful withstanding: but the Church has gone on;
the testimony has never ceased in the earth. Even when
sometimes it seems to have been driven underground, it
comes up and goes on again. Acts, then, sees the Holy
Spirit coming, uniting Himself with the instrument, the
vessel, and the conflict arising.
When you pass over to
the Letter to the Hebrews, you find yourself once more in
this battle. For here it is all about the inheritance,
spiritually. The Spirit is here, urging the Church,
urging the believers to go on, to go on; not to go back,
not to stand still, but to go on. The writer points out
that Joshua did not bring the people into God's rest
(Heb. 4:8). It was type, it was figure, but that final
fulness of Christ was never entered into under Joshua.
But Jesus, and the Holy Spirit - they are going to bring
the Church into the final fulness.
When we come to the
book of the Revelation, we find that the whole issue of
the inheritance has now resolved itself into a matter of
'overcomers'. However we interpret the book of the
Revelation - whether as applying to the whole
dispensation or to the end of the dispensation - the
situation that we find is that the Church as a whole has
not gone on. A very large proportion of the Church has
either declined, fallen back or away, or has stood still
in this matter. Perhaps the conflict has been too fierce,
the cost too great, the world too attractive, sin too
subtle; but there it is. As we find at the end of the
book of Joshua, that the enemy was not finally cast out
(for we have the tragedy of the book of Judges): so, in
the last book of the Bible, in the Revelation, we find
that the enemy has not been fully and finally worsted. He
still has territory amidst the people of God. And so,
there arises the whole question of the 'overcomers'. The
'overcomer' company, or body, is that which will go on
and will satisfy the Lord in the whole matter of His full
thought.
All this, surely,
indicates our own position. For we are in the
dispensation of the counterpart of the book of Joshua: in
the dispensation of the Holy Spirit whose one inclusive
purpose is to bring God's people into fulness - all, that
is, who will be led into that fulness; all who will go
on. Not a 'select', an arbitrarily selected company, but
all who will. Paul's great word as to his own
praying and striving was: "that we may present every
man complete in Christ" (Col. 1:28) - every
man. It is God's thought for us all. Do not say: 'That
applies to some good, large people, who have spiritual
capacity and are of a different make-up from what I am.'
No, 'every man complete in Christ' - that is God's
purpose. If the Holy Spirit gets His way, if He gets His
ground - we have to see perhaps later what that is - He
can do it with every man.
"Be
Strong"
Now, it is because of
such a tremendous withstanding, all round, of any kind of
real progress towards God's end, that you have this
threefold reiteration to Joshua: "Be strong, and of
a good courage... be strong... be strong..." (vv.
6,7,9). That is our side. And it is just in that
connection, as he is bringing into view the cosmic
forces, 'the principalities and powers', that are set
against the Church and its inheritance, that Paul uses
those words. "Be strong in the Lord" he says
(Eph. 6:10); 'be strong... be strong!'
There must be no
weakening; there must be no letting go. The
discouragements will be many; the heartbreaks will be
many; perhaps the disappointments will be many. The
situation will sometimes seem to be impossible, the
prospect a hopeless one. But you and I have got to heed
this word, for so much hangs upon it. For ourselves, the
inheritance in fulness hangs upon this "Be
strong": no weakening, no letting go, no letting
down. But it may be that those who will be strong can be
a strength to others, and therefore for the sake of
others a responsibility is laid upon us to be strong. It
is not only for ourselves - it is vocational to
be strong.
'I
Am With Thee'
And then: "The
Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest"
(v. 9). Do not take that out of its context. The context
is, that the "whithersoever thou goest" must be
in relation to God's full purpose. He cannot be 'with'
you on any other ground - you cannot count on that
promise otherwise. It will not prove true, unless you are
right on the line of His full purpose. But when it is so,
then He commits Himself: He is with us whithersoever we
go. 'I will be with thee; I am with thee.'
(1)
In Spiritual Leadership
Do you notice that that
is said in this first chapter twice over, in a twofold
connection? Firstly, it is in connection with leading
this people over the responsibility of spiritual
leadership. I emphasize and underline that word
'spiritual'. Do not think of leadership as official.
Leadership is not official: you are not made a leader;
you are not appointed a leader; you are not given a
uniform, or a dress, or a badge with 'Leader' on it!
Either you are a leader, or you are not; it is a matter
of spiritual quality and strength. And spiritual
leadership means that you are exercising an influence on
others, to bring them on, to lead them on, into God's
full intention for His people. The effect of your life is
that others, because of you, are being helped on, drawn
on, led on. If you have accepted that responsibility, and
are seeking to fulfil it for other lives, then this word:
'I am with thee', is yours.
(2)
In Obedience to the Word of God
Then, notice the second
connection in which this word occurs: "This book of
the law shall not depart out of thy mouth" (v. 8).
'Give heed unto it - give heed unto it.' And then: 'I am
with thee'. Your whole life must be based upon and
governed by the Word of God. You must not be above the
Word of God, superior to it; you must not be apart from
it. You must be able to substantiate you position by the
Word of God: 'Now, does the Word of God say this or
that?' Dear friend, the whole question of your
inheritance, and of your influence, depends upon whether
you adhere to that Word. And sometimes it will not be
understanding the Word. But the word is there - it is
said; it is said. Don't argue; don't be superior in
judgment - it is said...
Oh, that there were
more, a good deal more, of this government by the Word of
God. That is why we have got to read it, to consider it,
to give heed to it. "Observe to do according to all
that is written therein", is what it says here.
'Observe to do it.' Are you reading your Bible in order
to find out exactly what the Word does say? If the Word
of God says: "Children, obey your parents", it
says that; don't argue. If the Word of God says:
"Husbands, love your wives" - it just says
that! Don't say: 'Oh, but... oh, but... oh...' It says
that. If the Word of God says: "Wives, be in
subjection unto your own husbands" - it says that,
and no one can take superior ground to that (Eph.
5:22,25; 6:1). You see what I mean; I am taking things
out in order to emphasize this point - 'observe to do'.
You will be blessed if you do; if you don't, you will not
come into the inheritance, and you will have no sphere of
real spiritual ministry. Very big questions are bound up
with this.
But the main thing is
that, when it is like that, the Lord says: 'I am with
thee'. We cannot take that promise - 'I am with thee' -
with any assurance, unless we are seeing to it that this
Word does not depart from us, that we observe
it, to do it. The presence of the Lord, and our entering
into our possessions in Christ, are both governed by this
thing. Do read your Bible to see what it really does say
- not what your interpretation is, but what it says. Of
course there is a great deal fuller meaning in all the
Scripture than we have seen, and we shall get more and
more light upon it. But, first of all - What does it say,
what does it say? Am I in line with that? Big
things hang upon that.
"As I was with
Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor
forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage... This
book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth...
observe to do..."
This is why the Holy
Spirit came. This is the ground upon which the Spirit is
with us. And this is the purpose that the Holy Spirit has
taken up in His coming. He has taken over; and, in all
the conflict, in all the suffering, He is sufficient to
see us through.