GILGAL
[p. 6] GILGAL
I believe that this truth of Joshua 5 is the most difficult stage in the history of a christian. It is important to understand that Israel was here over Jordan, but not yet in possession of Canaan. All the trouble about themselves is over. Now the question I would ask is, Do you know, and are you in the enjoyment of the new place? Are you in possession? I do not say, Do you know your title to the new place? Title and possession are not the same thing. If you are not sure of your title, you are legal. If you are sure of your title and do not possess, you are worldly, for something has come in instead. What are you set for? Are you bound for enjoying possession now in the place where you are blessed? The joys of the Father’s house are not to be had anywhere but in the house.
In this chapter the people were out of Egypt and had reached Canaan; they had passed over Jordan. They had kept the passover, and got through the Red Sea; that is, in figure, Christ has died for you. Each heart can say, I am sure of that; but there are really four stages in the history of the christian. There are four aspects of the death of Christ. 1, The Passover. 2, The Red Sea (Christ died for me). 3, The brazen serpent. 4, Jordan (I died with Christ). The first stage is comparatively easy. It is more difficult as you get near to Canaan, because the enemy’s opposition increases as you approach the land, and it culminates in greatest force when you get into the land. More than six hundred thousand men started out of Egypt. How many got into the land? Two! Why? Was there any lack of power to carry them in? No; the same power that gets me out carries me in.
[p. 7] It is all one work; God brought Israel out that He might bring them in. In christendom thousands are saved who never enjoy possession. The thief on the cross knew Gilgal, though he did not know any wilderness experience. Everything was rolled off for him on the cross, where he learned the most wonderful expression of divine grace. There was no wilderness for him, he was brought through all the road at once. He had to travel the whole distance of man’s depravity and distance from God in company with his Saviour. He knew Gilgal perfectly.
In Romans 6 we get “newness of life”, and that implies newness of place. You must be of a new order, you cannot have the new place without the new order. You were of the man that was driven out of paradise; where are you now? How could a man driven out of paradise get into heaven? If you have a place with God, you cannot be of the order of man that was driven out. You are a new order of man, and you are fit for the new place. You have to get assured of the simple fact that you died with Him, and that you are in His life. In Romans we are “dead to sin”, but in Colossians we have died out of the place, we are “dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world”. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God”. What I want to exercise your hearts about is having to do with One who is out of this scene. Any believer who can say, I know what it is to be over Jordan, I am clear of this place through the death of Christ, must now “lay hold on eternal life”. You are to enjoy life in the sphere that belongs to you.
But being clear of this place through the death of Christ is not possession, it is qualification for possession. In Joshua 5 the people are not in possession, but they are over Jordan; they have the twelve stones taken from the bed of the river. Gilgal is rolling off the old thing, you part company with the thing that cannot get in; that is what is meant by verse 9.
[p. 8] Circumcision is parting company with the old thing, it could not take place in the wilderness. It is not Marah, dying to this and that; Gilgal is mortifying my members, for I have left the old place. I am risen with Christ. Gilgal is the manner of preparation for possession: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth”.
Now I want you to be exercised about possession. Is there to be no progress? The great lack amongst us is that so few are set for progress. At Gilgal you come to the place where no quarter is given to the old thing. Marah is different, I refuse something that I would like to have; but in Gilgal the old thing is rolled off; “put off the old”. The failure of Israel was that they did not keep to Gilgal. We often speak of being blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. How can you talk of your blessings if you are not in spirit in the place of blessing? I have no doubt that we have not known the separating and abounding nature of the enjoyment, the exuberance of the delight; as the apostle says, “Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God”, 2 Corinthians 5: 13. If you are in a scene of unspeakable delight, are you sorry that you have put off the old? It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. What I want you to get hold of is this third stage, where there is “rolling off”. There will never be a time here when there will not be something to renounce. The moment you stop renouncing you stop progressing. But your renunciation is not that of a monk or a nun, shutting yourself out of the way of the world; you have got into a new scene. It is more like a recruit brought to the barracks. He drops the civilian there and wears uniform. He is a metamorphosed person, nothing is left of the old. So with us. It is, “Not I, but Christ”. We are of Christ’s order, we belong to Him. We “have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”.
[p. 9] The question I want to lay on every heart is, Am I at Gilgal? If not, why not? If you have not been at Gilgal, you certainly do not know what possession is, and you cannot talk of the place where your blessing is; you cannot get the joys of the Father’s house anywhere but in the house. People fail to accept Gilgal. If Barnabas had been at Gilgal, he would not have had that difference with Paul; Acts 15: 37. He would not part with his relation. Natural relationships hinder; there is great danger of being influenced by natural ties. I have rolled that off, if I have been at Gilgal. I am not influenced by them there, because I am in a new order of things.
If you turn to 2 Timothy 1, you find the trouble that is in the church to this day. All in Asia had turned away from Paul, not from the gospel, but from the heavenly side of truth. The heart that is true will not turn away; but how do you account for it that with all the light and knowledge we have we are not more characterised by entering into possession, having present power, and present consciousness of the mind of the Lord? That is the old corn of the land. The manna ceased, and then they get the old corn of the land. The manna is Christ as support, help, priesthood; the old corn of the land is power. It is the corn of the land in Philippians 3, “One thing I do”. We cannot do without help, but help is not power. Power is that I am in Him and He in me.
I believe there are two reasons why we do not understand Gilgal. The first is that all turns upon heart for Christ. First love is gone, we do not feel His absence. The second reason is that we do not long for His company, to be where He is. These are, I believe, the two defects. You cannot be in possession unless you are over Jordan, nor can you have communion without union. A great deal of work that is done is not according to the Lord’s mind, because it is not done in communion. How could you, if you [p. 10] do not know His mind, be according to His pleasure? In 2 Kings 2 Elijah is gone, and Elisha is very sensible of what this place would be without him. Elisha says, I cannot get on here without you unless I have a double portion of your spirit. So you will find that the Holy Spirit is the only One who can make up to you for the absence of Christ. He only can comfort you: “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. Why do we not look for the comfort of the Holy Spirit during Christ’s absence? We do not enjoy possession, because we do not use the Holy Spirit.
Now turn to another passage, Matthew 14. Peter says, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water”. The blessing is to be got where He is, and the defect is that you are not longing to be where He is. It was affection that drew Peter to Him. In the ship he was in humanly secure circumstances, but Peter says, as it were, I would change my present circumstances, I would drop everything that would suit me humanly in order to be near You. “If it be thou, bid me come” - I would undertake the most perilous journey to be near You. People ask the Lord for guidance. If He told you to go by a most perilous way, would you go? People may be sure enough about getting to heaven, but they want to travel there by the easiest way possible. Peter says, I would like to be where You are, and the Lord says, “Come”. Peter had the affection, but not the power. You have the power - why do you not go to Him? Because you have not the affection. If I have the affection to go to Him, I shall find out that I have the power. The Lord grant that we may find what a blessed thing it is to reach Him in spirit; if we understood Gilgal better we should know more what that blessedness is. May we each look to the Lord that our hearts may desire it.