THE CONFLICTS OF CANAAN
THE CONFLICTS OF CANAAN
Two things are very evident in this scripture first that the apostle had a great conflict; and second, what that conflict was for. As the servant of God, Paul was answering to the mind of the Master, he was in conflict to meet the mind of the Master about the saints.
It was no easy thing; he would not have great conflict (agony) for a trifle. He was in prison, and His heart went out to them — what for? See verse 2 - that they might have “the full assurance of understanding” in the mystery of God.
Note verse 4 — “This I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words”. There was no safety except in reaching this topmost point — there is no safety save in being where the heart of Christ has set you. In Hebrews you go from earth to heaven; here you go from man to Christ, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. “In vain the net is spread in the sight of anything which hath wings”. If you are in Christ above, you are above the claims of things here that are snares.
Are saints’ hearts comforted (verse 2) practically? They are sure of salvation, but the heart is never comforted until it lays hold of the Person of Christ. In any dispensation, whatever God gave, the great thing was to maintain the top; the highest point was the place of safety, and to forsake it was ruin - Satan always tries to take from us the best bit of truth. Now what are we set for? We have heard of the ruin, but have we lost Christ? Note two or three ways in which failure set in.
In the garden of Eden, what was attacked first? The word.
[p. 2] Abraham: the first failure (Genesis 12: 10) is that he goes out of the land. The land was the very point, it was that which God had given him and into which he was called.
Jacob: Genesis 33 — Shechem and El-elohe-Israel. He is come back to the land, but he is appropriating blessings to himself. Does he go to the point that he had said was the very gate of heaven? He had got the name of Israel and he made Israel the object, but God says, Go to Bethel, and what is the result? He had to clear away all sorts of things. He wanted God to make him the object, instead of his making God the object.
There ought to be progress, always adding, as Peter says (2 Peter 1: 5). People are satisfied to get among the brethren, and yet when there, instead of progress there is declension. At deathbeds, too, I find people resigned, and not a full and abundant entrance.
What brought Israel into captivity? The neglect to keep the sabbatical year (Leviticus 26: 33 - 34; 2 Chronicles 36: 21), the great witness of the care of God for them.
You must get your relationship to Christ as the first thing. In Revelation John shows us the bride, but she went up to heaven to be dressed — a bride adorned for her husband. See, too, the series of Psalm 120 - Psalm 134, verse 2. They are songs of degrees or steps, progressing until we get to standing in the house. God always had a house, but there is another thing — the body of Christ — that must be the ultimate of my heart. In Psalm 120 I get away from the tents of Kedar.
That which is foremost in the mind of God must be the highest point with me — do not let the thought come in that it is too high for you. Where did Daniel look, in spite of the lions’ den? Where God’s eyes [p. 3] and heart were — he opened his window towards Jerusalem. Look, too, at Elijah’s last day’s walk, 30 miles; he went in company with the mind of God, and he did not skip Bethel either. Wherever there is a power, though it may appear dormant, there is always the desire to act on it.
In Luke 2 the Lord, when brought into the temple as a child, is greeted by Simeon and Anna. She was a sample of one who clung to the chief object of God’s interest on earth. In Haggai, it was a right thing for Israel to dwell in ceiled houses, but their hearts were in them and not in the house of God. My interest in Christ and with Christ cannot fail; what we need is devotedness.
In John 20 He is greeted by one who is inconsolable without Him. I connect the affection displayed in her with that word, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. What outlived that dark tempestuous night when the Son of God was crucified? That woman’s love. So you may look at ruins, but there is a bride, and she says, Come! Shall I not aim to be of the mind of Mary Magdalene? And mark the answer she gets; He does not tell her anything for herself, but He speaks to her about Himself and where He is going, and then bids her tell His brethren their relationship.
What though the carved work is broken down, there is a bride. It is not a candlestick coming forth but a bride. “Behold, the Bridegroom” (not “cometh”) — He is there.
You are complete in Him in verses 10, 11 and 12 of Colossians 2 — He disposes of the man. I cannot better explain it than by a colonist, fearing to be deserted by his friends, burning the ship in which they came out — thus man is gone, himself and his status.
The conflicts of the wilderness are about our own
[p. 4] circumstances; the conflicts of Canaan are about God’s circumstances. I fear some are not on God’s battle ground.
Do not forget to go to the top — nothing short of that will do!