THE WILDERNESS AND CANAAN
THE WILDERNESS AND CANAAN
We are told in Deuteronomy 8: 2 to “remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years”; and their journeys, according to their goings out, are written by Moses (see Numbers 33). They pitched at last by Jordan (verse 49); all the dealings of the way, whether bright or dark, or both, go to teach one great lesson, namely, dependence on God. “Man doth not [p. 86] live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8: 3). This was the word quoted by our Lord when tempted by Satan. He knew nothing but dependence - dependence according to the will of God expressed in His word. But if dependence on God be learnt by the vicissitudes of the way, as soon as full dependence is learnt, Jordan is reached; so that while my heart rests in dependence on God, I am crossing the last barrier between the wilderness and Canaan. I am not only dependent on God for His word and mind about everything; but the self, that which hinders me and bars my entrance into the scene of light and joy in His presence, is at the same time reckoned dead. Jordan is properly my death with Christ. The dealings of God in the wilderness have taught me dependence on God according to His word; but as soon as I have reached the sure and blessed way to go through the wilderness, I find I am in spirit so over Jordan that I am not in the wilderness but in Canaan; that is, when I am perfectly qualified to walk in the wilderness, because of dependence on God, I am out of the wilderness, in spirit I am over Jordan and in the land. When I am entirely fit to travel through the wilderness, I am not sensibly there, but in spirit across the Jordan in heaven. We are not morally prepared to cross the Jordan until we are perfectly fit to walk in the wilderness. I am not able to reckon myself dead until I have learned full and entire confidence in God. One may try to get into Canaan, but the way is through Jordan; and though one might try to die to everything here, yet it would be a poor thing, even if it could be accomplished, without, at the same time, unqualified confidence in God. When I am most fit to stay here I am most fit to go there, and the barrier which self rears up disappears. The water of Jordan is but touched, and all the barrier disappears. For we are dead with Christ, but it must be accepted in faith.
[p. 87] The new thing is planted within us and it is surrounded by a hard shell - our own flesh. Now there are two forces at work to liberate the new being from the dense obdurate shell - the one within, and the other without. The one without, is the circumstances through which we are passing; the one within, is the desire or effort of the new being, or as the apostle terms it, the inner man, to be liberated. The outer things cause the inner man to turn to God and to wait only on Him; and when this turning to Him is complete, deliverance is known, the shell is broken. It is said that it is the young bird that pecks the shell from within in order to gain its liberty; but we know that the mother bird also assists in breaking the shell from the outside. Now, dependence on God is that which gives power to the inner man to burst from its prison; and the trials and dealings by the way are only the occasions for drawing out this dependence. We all, in some way or other, suffer from the shell; but once we know that it is the shell that hampers us, we seek the power that will enable us to break through. Some, like oysters, will not give up their shells till they are penetrated by death; but when we know what the shell is, we are not satisfied until it is fully broken. In this tabernacle we groan, being burdened, and the Lord tries us in one way and another; but there is no bitterness in the trial, once we see that the Lord is only doing from without what is in co-operation with His Spirit within, namely, to free us from the pressure of the shell. Dependence on God enables us to break it from within like the young bird.
May we accept with thankfulness His mercy in breaking it from without; which is really only helping the desires of His own Spirit within us.