THE INHERITANCE DIVIDED AMONG THE TRIBES (2)
THE INHERITANCE DIVIDED AMONG THE TRIBES (2)
JT The object in view in looking into the book of Joshua was mentioned this morning, i.e., that we might see the bearing of the distribution of the inheritance among the tribes in the second half of it, which sets forth not only the heavenly portion of the saints, and how we enter into that, but also the disposition which God makes of His people in the assembly now. And it was thought that it should be noticed also, how the first portion of the book shows a certain reducing process which God puts us through in order to prepare us for our place in the assembly.
SJBC Would you regard the Ephesian conflict as collective (though I suppose we enter into it individually)? In Ephesus was there not a company that for the moment were really in the gain of the inheritance?
JT Yes; Acts 19 and 20 show that there was power attendant upon the ministry of the apostle there, sufficient to overcome the world in all its features, and the saints were brought into that. The position at Ephesus begins with the twelve men, in Acts 19, who received the Spirit of God through the laying on of Paul’s hands. They were thus possessed in an administrative way by the Holy Spirit. So we see they were set up, not only in the light of the counsels of God, but as possessed of the Spirit in this special way.
EM The apostle had himself to go through a reducing process, before he was in the position to unfold the greatness of the assembly.
JT Yes. I think the second letter to the Corinthians [p. 313] helps on the line of reduction, and also on the line of expansion. The chapter which we have read this afternoon presents, I think, the latter side of the truth; heaven is at the command of a man. In writing to the Corinthians the apostle says, “Our mouth is opened to you ... our heart is expanded. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your affections, but for an answering recompense (I speak as to children), let your heart also expand itself”, 2 Corinthians 6:11 - 13. And then he goes on to show them the means of enlargement, indeed he had already shown it to them in opening up the truth of the new covenant and reconciliation. Now in his first letter to the Corinthians he was limited; he could not speak beyond what was suitable for babes, he was labouring under limitation because of what had marked them as a company; leaven was at work, and the principles of the world were being recognised at Corinth, so he could not speak wisdom among them as he could among the perfect; 1 Corinthians 2: 6.
But his first letter had the effect of reduction; it brought about self-judgment, and so he is now able to say in the second epistle, “our mouth is open to you, our heart is expanded ... for an answering recompense let your heart also expand itself. Be not diversely yoked with unbelievers”, 2 Corinthians 6:11 - 14. And he proceeds, until in chapter 12 he arrives at the thought of a man in Christ: “I know a man in Christ”, (2 Corinthians 12:2) he says. That leads to the expansion that he had before him, which corresponds with this chapter. “Such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man ... caught up into Paradise”, 2 Corinthians 12:2 - 4. But before being caught up into Paradise he had been let down by night in a basket through the wall; so that he himself had gone though a most humiliating process. And I think all that accords with what we had in the earlier chapters of this book as regards Joshua being Moses’ attendant, and the bringing in [p. 314] of the people in connection with Rahab, a woman whose public reputation was not good; and then they had to maintain a distance of two thousand cubits behind the Ark; and they had to accept circumcision. We can scarcely go into all the details that came before us this morning, but merely indicate it. What is before us at this time is a man in Christ. Now, if the man in Christ is not understood, Christianity is not understood.
HD'AC I think it was important to add what you said about the taking of Jericho; they did nothing at all only walk round it and shout. There was not very much glory for them in the part they took — the glory was for the Lord.
EM You referred to heaven being at the command of a man, what had you in mind?
JT I think we have to see first of all the prominence given to Gilgal. Now what we had this morning leads up to it. Gilgal has more place in this chapter than in any of the sections before it, and that is of spiritual significance.
SJBC In verse 7 we read they went up from Gilgal. That is very significant. If we want to go up we must go from Gilgal; we cannot go rightly from any other place.
JT The object of the earlier portion of the book is to bring the saints to Gilgal as the camping place.
Ques What is your thought in connection with it, in this chapter?
JT Well, it is where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. The word means “rolling” as the margin gives it. There the reproach of Egypt was rolled away by circumcision. It was the last great encampment of the people, beginning with Exodus 16. To encamp at Gilgal would mean that one would be constantly reminded that any mark of Egypt (the world) is a reproach.
Rem It would be a reproach to bear any of the [p. 315] marks of Egypt in the assembly — in the house of God.
JT That is, I think, what it means; and the prominence given to it in this chapter explains the great power indicated in the chapter. It is not now so much what was at Jericho, i.e., the ark going round with them to remind the people that God was fighting for them; it is more the prowess of Joshua that is prominent here, the great military exploits of Joshua. And the power is commensurate with the position in Gilgal.
Rem And that is to be maintained in freshness in the soul.
JT Yes, it is. This chapter indicates that the position in Gilgal is to be maintained.
Rem It would show that they had learned the lesson intended by God in the great process that He had put them through.
ENH Verses 15 and 43 indicate that the thing had been accepted as a principle.
JT Yes. A good deal had come in, in their history, and one feels the importance of dwelling on this reducing process, for aside from it, we cannot hope to enter on the inheritance. You see, after Jericho there was a lamentable breakdown; so what follows from the sixth chapter, one might say, really governs our own position. Whatever we are enjoying today is the result of recovery. It is not the era following the establishment of the truth that we are in, but that which follows the recovery of the truth after the breakdown. And that point we should ever keep before us. Joshua had to fall on his face and rend his garment because all Israel had sinned. It was a collective thing. There had been a complete breakdown.
SJBC Joshua had sent men from Jericho to Ai, they did not go from Gilgal.
ENH They apparently did not go back to Gilgal after the victory at [p. 316] Jericho.
JT And that would be the secret of the breakdown. But now chapter 10 shows that they had learned their lesson. Unless we learn that lesson there is nothing before us but disaster, individually and collectively.
Rem Joshua was in great power here, although he had been deceived by the Gibeonites previously.
JT Still I think his failure in the matter of the Gibeonites was in not seeking counsel of the Lord, and as a result they are committed to a situation that is incongruous; it would not be so grave as the sin of Achan, but it is a covenant, and if we enter into a covenant we have to abide by it.
SJBC I would like to be clear about Gilgal; referring to what was suggested this morning, and the passage quoted in Colossians 2, “Ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ”, Colossians 2:11. That seems to be a thing done once and for all? Then in chapter 3:5 we read “Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth”, Colossians 3:5. Would that be more the return to Gilgal?
JT That is the maintenance of it. I think circumcision in Colossians 2 is what you might call positional; but the third chapter is the thing maintained; and I think it agrees with this chapter.
FI Would the reduction which is set forth in the first nine chapters of Joshua be brought about outside themselves; and then in chapter 10 each is maintained in the measure in which they are in the good of Gilgal?
JT Yes. And it seems to me as if Gilgal is maintained in this chapter; it is not simply that they were there positionally — they were in keeping with it. Being baptised and having received the Spirit, and partaking of the Lord’s supper, all these things may be true of us, and yet we may not be in [p. 317] keeping with them, and therefore they do not save us. The important thing is to maintain what is in keeping with the position I have taken up.
Ques How do we judge the sin of Achan?
JT Chapter 7 shows how it is to be judged. God helps us in regard to such a matter. What arrests one’s attention in this chapter is the gracious way in which God helps to bring about the discovery of the sin, and the judgment of the sinner. Whilst Israel had sinned, and God deals with the sin, yet He shows them how to do it. That is very encouraging for us. He teaches us the way to deal with any sin that may occur in our midst.
ENH It would remind one in a measure of the sin in Corinth, but the contrast there is seen between the systems of law and grace; judgment is executed on Achan by his being stoned, but in the other case, while the sin is judged, the recovery of the man is aimed at.
JT In helping them to deal with the sin in chapter 7 God says, “Israel hath sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant ... I will be no more with you except ye destroy the accursed thing from your midst ... . And it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath; because he hath transgressed the covenant of Jehovah, and because he hath wrought wickedness in Israel”, Joshua 7:11 - 15. Now there, God is helping them to deal with the matter. But during the process every man, woman and child would be under exercise. That is how God deals with things. Not one is to escape the shame. It is as when the Lord said to His disciples, “one of you shall betray me”, Matthew 26:21; that set each one of them thinking beforehand “Is it I?” Matthew 26:22. It is thus that God deals with sin, however hidden it may be; He puts it on every conscience, so that all get the good of the exercise.
HD'AC And everyone had to take up [p. 318] a stone;
all Israel stoned Achan with stones. That is very suggestive.
JT Yes. So that I suppose our present position is the result of this. God has brought about a sense of the guilt, like in the trial of jealousy in the book of Numbers. It is in the acknowledgment of the manifest guilt that recovery lies. And all we have today is the result of that.
SJBC They stoned them in the valley, and not on the mountain.
JT The valley of Achor becomes a door of hope in the prophets; Hosea 2:15. The Lord has been into death. He was made a curse for us. There could be no recovery apart from that. It endears the Lord to us. The guilt is such as to bring in the curse; and I have no doubt there is a reference to the sin of the assembly in taking on the Babylonish garment. The whole system, one might say, is enveloped in the garment, while the silver and the gold, I suppose, would be the means by which it is all kept going. Recovery can only be in the acceptance of the guilt, and the valley of Achor becomes a door of hope. We cannot deal with the assembly’s sin as Achan was dealt with; but as naming the name of the Lord, we withdraw from iniquity; 2 Timothy 2:19.
ENH Was there any difference in the Babylonish garment and the gold? because we know the gold and silver of Jericho were devoted to the Lord.
JT I think the gold and the Babylonish garment go together from the standpoint of Achan’s sin. He would associate the tinsel and maintain the vain glory of Babylon with the gold. Gold is the means by which the world is kept going. It is true that these precious metals were put into the treasury of God, but they would thus represent what is of God, and so would be the spoil of victory. There are things which the world makes use of that really belong to God.
[p. 319] ENH One might say that the world has really stolen things that belong to God.
JT Yes, but the garment and the gold were taken up by Achan in a Babylonish way. Babylon in Revelation has features that belong to the assembly, but she has not got them rightly. The question is whether things are taken up in faith and connected with the house of God, or whether they are taken up in unbelief and used to enhance and build up a worldly religious system.
TMG We have to go back to Gilgal collectively, as well as individually.
JT Oh, yes; and I think we have to pay special attention to the humiliating lesson of chapter 7 — the guilt of the assembly in taking on what belongs to the world, the accursed thing; and dealing with that thoroughly, everyone taking the guilt of it home to himself. Because no one can be with the Lord unless he has judged the whole sin of the assembly from beginning to end; he thinks of it all, not of a part only; and the more you are with Him the more you discern that. Now, chapter 9, as we were remarking, brings out the state of things that results from not seeking counsel from the Lord; we are permitting something that in the government of the Lord has to stand, something you cannot alter. It was humiliating that there should be Gibeonites amongst them, and that they had entered into a covenant with them.
PSP Is it the result of the exercise of man’s wisdom that there are hewers of wood and drawers of water?
JT Well, I think the Gibeonites are useful enough. As we submit to the government of God, the hewers of wood and drawers of water are profitable, and they come under His wing, as a later event brings out; 2 Samuel 21.
[p. 320] Ques Why do the princes of the people make this covenant with them?
JT It would indicate that leaders very often do not see as clearly as many of the saints, and we should not attach too much importance to their judgment, which often makes for clericalism. The truth of the house of God is that every one in it is responsible, and when any matter comes up each one should expect that he has to judge it for himself. The leaders in this case really made a mistake.
HD'AC Some of the trials that we are enduring are due to the fact that large numbers of people trusted to leaders, and left the deciding of matters to them.
JT In the early days Paul and Barnabas laid the matter disputed at Antioch before the apostles and elders; and the apostles and elders deliberated upon it; but before they committed themselves to any course the whole assembly is brought into it, because that is where God makes His mind known; ratification is in the assembly. This question of leaders deciding matters ought to be given attention to.
SJBC Do you not think we ought to pray more for our leaders? They are specially referred to in the epistle to Hebrews. There must be leaders amongst us.
HD'AC How are we to know them?
SJBC Well, I think Mr. Stoney used to say that the true leader in the assembly of God is one who is morally in advance of the others.
HD'AC We may suppose a man to be in the front rank, when in reality he is behind. I think we need to be near the Lord to know them.
JT A leader is one who follows the Lord, one who can go down; that is the principle of leading; the Lord led that way, as we have it in Mark, and His path led to the cross. “Jesus was going on before them”, Mark 10:[p. 321] 32.
JM What you say about all accepting responsibility is important. The Lord would exercise each one.
JT Yes; one has often referred to Isaiah 44:3 - 5. God said, “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the water-courses”, Isaiah 44:3,4. That is how the young come up. But then one says, “I am Jehovah’s and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob”, Isaiah 44:5. But directly he calls himself by the name of Jacob he accepts responsibility, and he is responsible in Israel; and then one calls himself Jehovah’s, and surnames himself by the name of Israel. This involves that he has the Spirit. He is ennobled by the possession of the Spirit, so that he can carry out things according to God. Now that is what is required, and that is what is missing here; the princes decided the matter, and the people murmured afterwards, but it was too late. The word is to the “angel” of each assembly in Revelation; to the one who accepts responsibility.
Rem Then we have the thought of confidence being restored in the leaders, for Joshua had committed himself to these men. Are we not sometimes a long while in expressing our confidence in one who may have made a mistake and admitted it? Ought we not to be more in accord with chapter 10 in acknowledging and accepting such an one, when manifesting in power today that God is with him?
ENH I was going to read the seventh and seventeenth verses of Hebrews 13 in connection with what has been said about leaders. Those are the people to get counsel from.
Ques Is it not a right principle for leaders to decide among themselves?
JT No, I think not. When the apostles and [p. 322] elders considered the matter they brought the whole assembly into it; Acts 15. Everyone is responsible. The assembly is strictly the vessel of the Lord’s authority in this world. The elders ought to deliberate, but ratification is by the assembly. Of course the apostles had authority by themselves, but they are gone.
Rem I think what you say is important, because one has heard of the judgment of certain brethren in deciding matters that have never really been before the assembly.
JT Well now, I think we should go on with this chapter, because it really brings out the man in Christ.
ENH Please tell us how?
JT We begin with the king of Jerusalem and his allies. We have a formidable array of power here; Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem; Hoham, king of Hebron; Piram, king of Jarmuth; Japhia, king of Lachish; Debir, king of Eglon. Now, these five kings represent the power of the enemy, as one might say, in heavenly places, and Joshua is called to meet it. The men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, “Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us”. Notice, it is the whole power of the Amorites that dwelt in the mountains, i.e., the spiritual powers in the heavenlies we are dealing with. Well now, over against that you have Joshua — “Joshua went up from Gilgal all night”.
Now we are in the presence of unfettered spiritual power. The lessons of the earlier chapters have all been learned, and Joshua goes up all night from Gilgal, he does not wait till the morning. It reminds us of the Lord. He spent all night in prayer before He nominated His apostles. And that really links on [p. 323] the position that He occupies in heaven now, for the gifts have come down; and the power that has come down here is what we have to lay hold of. It is a power that has come out from Christ, to contend with all this opposition.
Ques Does the man in Christ suggest a new order of men?
JT It does. I do not think we know Christianity until we know the man in Christ. That is really what God is leading up to. It is not a babe in Christ. The Corinthians were babes in Christ; they were really Christians, but the great thing the apostle had before him in his two letters to them was to lead on to the thought of a man in Christ.
SJBC The Lord hearkened to the voice of a man — a heavenly man — is that your thought about a man controlling things?
JT That is what comes out; heaven is now under the control of a Man.
SJBC Would that be Christ characteristically coming out in a man here? It would not be Christ personally.
JT He is in control in heaven. The ordinances of heaven are now under the control of the Lord; we are brought into this as men in Christ.
Ques Would there also be the thought of a new condition as well as a new order?
JT The apostle says: “I know a man in Christ”, 2 Corinthians 12:2. We must get hold of the idea of a man in Christ. Paul says, I do not know whether he was in the body or out of it. Sometimes one is lost, if you begin to think of the universe, what is behind that? You are finite, and you just stop. But the apostle says, If do not know whether in the body or out of it; that is a secret; God knows. That is to say, you are filled unto all the fulness of God, you are not harassed by anything, and you rest in the sense that God knows. The apostle knew such an one as that. And [p. 324] I think this chapter corresponds; it is the climax of the teaching, when you come to a point where heaven is at the bidding of a man. There was no day like that before it, or after it. The man in Christ goes to the third heaven.
FI So we get the thought of extension in connection with the man in Christ?
JT I think so; there are no limitations. We read: “It came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, they were at the descent of Beth-horon — that Jehovah cast down great stones from heaven upon them up to Azekah, and they died: They were more who died with the hailstones than they whom the children of Israel had slain with the sword”. It is now action from heaven.
Ques What is the point in the five kings attacking the Gibeonites, and why did Joshua go to help them? They did not attack the Israelites.
JT Joshua was committed to the Gibeonites. There are now new divine methods. There was action from heaven.
SJBC God was fighting; stones came down from heaven. Have we not a reference to that in Deborah’s song: “The stars from their courses fought with Sisera”, Judges 5:20?
JT Yes. And so Joshua, discerning the spirit of the moment, “spoke to Jehovah in the day when Jehovah gave up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon! And the sun stood still, and the moon remained where it was, until the nation had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher [the upright]? And the sun remained standing in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a full day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man; for Jehovah fought for Israel”, Joshua 10:12 - 14. That is the thing you get hold of — a man altering the course of heaven so as to fulfil the will of God upon earth.
JM And it was not only what came down from heaven on their enemies, but the same power working amongst the Israelites.
EM Would the sun standing still and the moon being stayed describe the present position?
JT I think so. God has come in: Christ is in heaven, and so it is what Man effects. We were noticing the ordinances of heaven in the book of Job now these are under the control of a Man. It is wonderful to think that a Man has the control. God hearkens to the voice of a Man; it indicates the place that man has in heaven. The second epistle to Corinthians begins with the thought of the apostle brought down to the gates of death; but, he says, God who raises the dead has delivered us from it. And as having gone up from that point he writes that epistle which ends in a man in Christ.
SJBC You were referring some time ago to the book of Jasher, where does it come in here?
JT It would refer to the product of the previous exercise. It is what we are brought to; any element of inflation is contrary to uprightness.
EM What is indicated by the sun standing still?
JT I think it would suggest the present time as a figure. The more we are with God in the light of Ephesians, the more we desire this day to continue; there was never a day like it before, nor shall there be one like it again. It is all due to the place Christ has on high. And we ought to have that in mind when speaking to God in prayer. God hearkens to the voice of a man. The apostle in his first epistle to Timothy says, “I will therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up pious hands, without wrath or reasoning”, 1 Timothy 2:8. That, I think, is according to the book of Jasher — uprightness.
Rem We get the same thought in Psalm 118:24. “This is the day that Jehovah hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”, Psalm 118:24. And that is connected with: “The stone which the builders cast away as worthless, this is become head of the corner”, 1 Peter 2:7. That is, Christ has got His proper place.
JT So that the ordinances of heaven are now regulated by Christ; and hence a great change has been brought about, the world is in favour; Romans 11:15. In this chapter it is judgment, of course; but we are now speaking with reference to Christianity, and the world is in favour; there has never been a day like this before.
HD'AC These ordinances are now in the hands of Christ, and are regulated by Christ.
Ques Where does the man in Christ come in?
JT I am endeavouring to show that Paul’s ministry would bring the saints to lay hold of the truth of Christ as He is gone into heaven and our place in Him, and this induces the prayer in 1 Timothy 2, to which we referred. That prayer has the whole race in view, even kings and all that are in dignity. His first letter to Timothy synchronises with the epistle to the Ephesians, where our place as men in Christ is set forth.
Ques And is the whole support of heaven available to the man in Christ? In John 17, Jesus lifts up His eyes to heaven and speaks to His Father, and He does this in connection with the authority that has been given to Him over all flesh.
JT Well, there you see it fully. In that chapter the Man is standing on earth, and he is looking up to heaven and asks from the Father. Now it is in the apprehension of that, that you get the prayer in the first epistle to Timothy. Men are to pray in every place, lifting up pious hands without wrath or [p. 327] reasoning; and the blessing comes down, and the dispensation is maintained in that way. It shows what the present moment is, and what there is available to prayer.
EM You emphasise men; do you connect them with the thought of stature?
JT It is the full divine thought. In 1 Timothy 2 they are in contrast with women. They are to lift up pious hands. They thus belong to “the book of Jasher”.
Ques Would Paul be another Joshua?
JT Well, I was thinking that Christ is the true Joshua. He lifts up His eyes to heaven, and He speaks to the Father. His prayers have been answered, and they involve the present time; but then there is in the saints a correspondence to that; and I think 1 Timothy is to bring that about in us.
Ques Does this day in Joshua correspond with the present moment?
JT It does. There is no day like it, and you do not want it terminated.
Rem The day of Christianity started at Pentecost and lasts until the coming of the Lord.
EF Is not this day twice as long as the millennial day?
JT Well, so it appears.