THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL (9)
[p. 451] THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL (9)
Joshua 4: 1 - 11; 7:13 - 16; 18:1 - 10
JT The first feature to be touched upon is that of the two and one-half tribes who obtained their inheritance on the wilderness side of the Jordan, as coming in first. What is to be noted is that they are subject to Joshua. Although their territory is separated by the Jordan from that of the other tribes, yet for the moment they qualify as fit for the land; so that there is no discrepancy in the twelve stones; all the tribes are there. Whilst we may fall short in our appreciation of God’s thought for us, yet He does not fall short; His mind is the same for all the tribes. They are represented in Gilgal. They went over — 40,000 of them. They served well in the conquest of Canaan, but as returning to their own territory they lost ground; they reared up a “great” altar, which, while not intended as rebellious, indicated a low and confused state of mind; besides, after a long experience of the promised land, they are content with the wilderness side of the Jordan.
They represent people who do well while they are in the assembly under the influence of the Lord, but on returning to their own settings (that is, where their hearts are — in their families and businesses) they immediately lose ground; so that they built an altar which was pretentious and was to be a witness to their claim to the land; but an altar in the land is a poor substitute for themselves being in the land.
AP Apart from the failure of the two and one-half tribes on their side, do you look at the territory on the east side as part of the inheritance?
JT Well, it is not Canaan. It is, however, divine territory but given by Moses; it is in a certain sense Romans and Corinthians, but it is not Ephesians. It [p. 452] is short of the full provision of love for us. Those content with it, have a lower estimate of what is suitable for us than God has.
ANW What is to be learned from the fact that half of the tribe of Manasseh goes over?
JT I think it proves love according to God in the ones that went over. If I leave my natural setting to get into the divine thought for me, I am overcoming the claims of nature; so that part of the tribe was on a higher level; the divine thought governed them more than the natural.
AFM What you said about the epistles to the Romans and Corinthians is helpful. We need those epistles, which suggest our responsibility in the plains of Moab, all the time we are here; but the sad condition of the two and one-half tribes was they had no intention of going on to the land. They settled down short of it.
JT It is divine territory, but short of what the great love of God would do for us later on. Why should not I have the best? Why not let God choose for me? He knows what is best. In the division of the tribes, the ones that settled the other side of Jordan would represent Christians who, while valuing what is of God, prefer natural things.
AP Are not the dangers of the eastern side of Jordan recognised by God Himself when He gave that side an equal number of cities of refuge as those in Canaan?
JT Quite so; there is a balance in that; God comes down to where we are even if we remain on lower ground than the heavenly; only in such a case we certainly need the cities of refuge more than those in Canaan, because the man-slayer is more likely to be there.
WGT Moses was displeased with the request of the two and one-half tribes. It was like the action of the twelve [p. 453] spies.
JT They determined that they would do it. They said, “we will not inherit with them on yonder side the Jordan”. There is no use in urging people, when they are determined not to go any further than a certain point; we must not reject them, however, but make the most of them.
WB-w Barzillai the Gileadite had marks about him that were good; he was loyal to David, but he did not go over Jordan.
JT Quite so; many, like his posterity, lose their priestly status, and have had to wait “till there stood up a priest with Urim and with Thummim”, (Ezra 2:63), to get their position. Showing how sure the government of God is.
JS Does it show that family and business relations may be maintained on natural lines, instead of on spiritual lines?
JT Yes, family life and cattle and all that are right, but they are not to be our living associations; we are to live in Canaan.
WB-w Barzillai would represent a man of wealth.
JT Yes, he could maintain David at Mahanaim, but could not have part with him at Jerusalem; whereas the true blessings of the believer are all there. God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, (Ephesians 1:3). The point is where the blessings are. The book of Joshua has this in view. In chapter 4 twelve men carry over twelve stones out of the bed of Jordan to Gilgal; so that, whatever our inclination or decision may be as to the present time, the mind of God is unaltered. The twelve tribes are in His mind, and they have a place in the land.
AFM The tribes of Reuben and Gad were represented in the taking up of a stone from the midst of Jordan, as confirming God’s mind [p. 454] further.
JS The territory is divinely given. How would you hold it?
JT We are on Ephesian ground now. In Deuteronomy 33 the tribes are viewed in relation to what came out in the wilderness; here they are the same people, but their origin is death. That makes a great difference with us; not only the work of God dating back to our conversion, but that we are identified with Christ in death — and that is the beginning of our history. The stones were taken out of Jordan while the ark was there. Ephesians contemplates our being dead in trespasses and sins, and out of that state we are quickened together with Christ. Our history begins there.
WGT Is that why it says there were twelve stones taken out of Jordan and that twelve were put back?
JT Yes, they were put back by Joshua; it was his own doing; but the twelve stones taken out were taken out by twelve men, representing all the saints, and carried over, which was a burden, and set up in Gilgal; so that the book of Joshua would begin with death, and show our quickening out of it; Deuteronomy 33 synchronises, in that every item of the work of God in us from the date of our conversion enters into that.
JS The work of God in us is carried over so that the identity is maintained.
JT Quite so; as in heaven we all have come out of death with Christ. Canaan is not heaven literally, but the entering into our privileges in the assembly at the present time.
AFM In Colossians 2:12 it says, “buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”. That would be parallel with Joshua, but not going as far as [p. 455] Ephesians.
JT Quite, you would need the being “quickened together with him”, (Colossians 2:13).
ANW As to Romans and Corinthians, if the full effect of the teaching of these epistles was there, would not Ephesians follow? I mean, is not the germ of Ephesians in both of them? The one body in Christ, for instance, in Romans 12 would lead one to look for Ephesians.
JT Yes. “One body in Christ” gives you status. I think we want to pay more attention to coming up actually out of death, for these stones do not come out of the wilderness. The assembly comes out of death. It synchronises with Eve as brought to Adam — life out of death; she had no history.
CAM It gives one a very much greater appreciation of the meaning of the death of Christ to see that we come out of that death.
JT That is your beginning. Notice that it was when all the people passed over; they are already on heavenly ground before these stones are taken over, and then we should see that the people themselves are over before the ark. In this sense the saints are seen as the object of the death of Christ. The antitype is the death and resurrection of Christ, and our quickening with Him.
TA The ark remained in the midst of Jordan until all the people passed over. I thought John 20 would correspond with that.
JT It does, only that the ark is not seen in Gilgal. It does not appear until Jericho; that is to say, what is prominent here is the resurrection of the saints; it is the saints that are in view. The ark is there, of course, but it is holding the ground in the bed of Jordan. It says, “When all the people had completely gone over, that the ark of Jehovah went over, and the priests, in the presence of the people”. It is the saints getting a view of Christ holding back the power of death until they get over.
[p. 456] Jordan goes back. It is Christ holding back the forces of death until we get over.
JS Would the appreciation in our souls of the power of Christ as overthrowing death enable us to pass over?
JT Just so. The saints are first over before the stones are taken up; that is, they are now a heavenly people whose origin is His death, and the stones are to represent that.
JS There is a new beginning in the stones.
JT That is where you start; the stones did not come out of the wilderness.
WB-w Is Christ holding back that power during the whole dispensation?
JT Yes; it is for faith. We know by testimony that death is abolished; yet it is still in power outwardly. Death still exists, as Hebrews 2:14 says, “that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil”. Satan has the might of death, but for faith it and he are annulled. The point here is the position we are in as out of death.
CAM Does it not give meaning to those two words in Colossians, “with Christ”?
JT It touches your heart, that you are with Him; but think of the power that was there in the ark, in the bed of Jordan! The mind has to become accustomed to that.
WB-w The point is to see that the ark in Jordan applies not only to Christ on the cross, but to His holding back the power of death, until the assembly is complete.
JT Quite. It is a question of faith; by faith we take resurrection ground and the Spirit sustains us there.
ANW In the last verse of the previous chapter it says, “until all the nation had completely gone over the Jordan”, (chapter 3:17). Is that not worth noting?
JT It is; and then: “And it came to pass when [p. 457] the whole nation had completely gone over the Jordan, that Jehovah spoke to Joshua, saying ... Take up hence out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones”. They are already over; then the stones are taken up and placed in Gilgal. The stones being taken from the place where the priests’ feet who bore the ark stood firm, shows the complete identification with Christ in death.
JS Are the saints over Jordan as the subjects of the work of God?
JT It is what preceded, and gives you moral power to take that new position.
JEH Say a word about the two thousand cubits — the distance that had to be maintained between the people and the ark, before they got to the Jordan.
JT It is important as impressing you with the greatness of the Person typified in the ark. The distance stated affords a clear view of Christ as the only One who could annul death and him who has the power of it. The water would have disappeared by the time they got to Jordan!
WB-w The two and one-half tribes go over in a representative way.
JT They were there to maintain the full thought of God. All the tribes were there. The mind of God is unaltered in that the death of Christ has secured a place for all the saints, and is an important thing to apprehend. All the saints go over, but all the time they are going over, the ark is holding back the power of Jordan. The gain for us at the present time is that we might be in the assembly, and so beyond death. But in taking this ground we use the Spirit. The power that wrought in Christ in taking Him out of death works in us.
JS Every tribe would see where the ark stood.
JTJr What would you say about [p. 458] those people,
none of whom came into Canaan except Joshua and Caleb?
JT It emphasises the fact that it is a new generation; that idea comes out in Romans, although we do not get “risen with Christ” in that epistle, but we have the children of God. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”, (Romans 8:16). Jordan is the end of the life of responsibility. As in Canaan, we have come out of death with Christ. The idea of the new generation comes out in the wilderness, but going into Canaan is more than that. It is the end in death of the life in the flesh. This life is by faith of the Son of God; it is not over Jordan, but faith lays hold of Canaan, and it may indeed be enjoyed now in the power of the Spirit. We should note that where the feet of the priests who bore the ark stood, there are twelve stones, “and they are there to this day”, meaning that there is a testimony there that we have been in death.
CAM What we enjoy after the Lord’s supper is a condition of things which really has no past history attaching to it.
JT That is right, but the breaking of bread answers to the covenant. It is the death of Christ, but the death of Christ seen at the foot of Horeb when the blood was in basins. It was there in volume that the love of God, in type, was told out; and then when Moses went up the mount later and came back, his face shone with the reflection of the glory. The Supper is a memorial of Christ and the other great feature is the covenant; but then after the Lord’s supper there is, according to the power we may have unitedly, ability to take up heavenly ground. We are to follow the ark at a certain distance; that is, until death is reached and known to be overthrown. The people were in the land before it. In this respect the point in the ark is power. What you get at Gilgal [p. 459] is not the ark, but the old corn of the land, meaning Christ as indigenous to Canaan — not having been in the wilderness at all. The “old corn” is Christ in heaven; it represents Him as there characteristically.
AP They prepared victuals before going over the Jordan, but they got a new food on the other side.
JT Yes; here it is a heavenly thing; the old corn is of the land; it is not manna, which is Christ as food for the wilderness; the old corn is indigenous to heaven, as already said.
WB-w It is a new thought advanced that we do not follow the ark of the covenant through. That is to say, Christ opens the door for us to go through first.
JT That is right; the ark was made in the wilderness; that is the setting of it. The old corn was never in the wilderness; it is Christ in heaven; the ark is out of view in Joshua 5 to make room for the other type, i.e., the old corn of the land.
AFM That would be the reason, evidently, why the ark is so little brought before us in the book of Joshua after it goes round Jericho.
CAM Would that account for the apostle’s saying, “But if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, (2 Corinthians 5:16).
JT That is right; we know Him as He now is, not as a Man on earth, but the heavenly Man; the old corn would mean that He belongs in that sense to Canaan.
WGT In chapter 3, the people go after the ark as far as Jordan and then they go past it.
JT That is the point; the power of God holding back the power of death until all go over. Of course we are quickened with Him — we come out of death with Him; but the type here calls [p. 460] attention to the personal distinction and power of Christ as abolishing death.
WGT Would chapter 3 represent the energy that is required today to follow the Lord in this regard?
JT Exactly; you follow the ark at a reverential distance, but then you go past it; that is, you recognise, as seen in this type, that death would overwhelm you if it were not for Christ in power holding it back. All this has to be apprehended spiritually.
CAM In connection with the gospel of John, we sometimes speak of chapter 19 as the ark of the covenant going into death. Do you think we should say the ark, in that gospel, is lost sight of?
JT When Christ comes into the midst of His own, it is more the old corn. The disciples looked into the sepulchre, but He was not there. Well then, that means that death is abolished. When He came into the company, it was as the One that ascends. “I ascend to my Father and your Father”, (John 20:17). It was that heavenly One that came in among the disciples.
ANW What you say confirms that the land is not heaven literally.
JT It is the ascending or heavenly Man that comes into the assembly.
AFM What is the New Testament antitype of the old corn of the land?
JT In a general way, it is John 20, that is, Christ in His own sphere. Although here on earth in testimony, He was the Son of Man in heaven; (John 3:13).
HSD Would the risen One be emphasised in Colossians?
JT Colossians does not go beyond that for us, but in Ephesians we are raised up together and are made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ. In Colossians our hope is laid up in the heavens, Christ being there; but we are not there — as risen [p. 461] with Christ, we are to set our minds on things above.
RWS Speaking of the twelve stones, Joshua says to Israel that when their children should ask what these stones mean, they should give an accurate answer. Has that a bearing today?
JT Indeed, you can hardly give an accurate answer now unless the children see that you are a heavenly man; that you have come up out of death. Ephesians 2 includes the work of God in its entirety. All that is contrary to it is left behind in death, and it is in quickening I begin; but as once dead.
AR The death of Christ, in one aspect of it, clears me as guilty; but it also brings me forth in His life, with no past history of shame attaching to me.
RDG Why did they not take any memorial out of the Red Sea?
JT There were no stones set up in the Red Sea or taken out of it. The Red Sea does not set forth the end of our responsible history; it is continued in the wilderness. The Red Sea and Jordan come together in Colossians. When you are over Jordan, there is complete adjustment for the heavenly position in circumcision and the passover; and the old corn comes into mind; that is, Christ in heaven in the history given, and it is a new thing altogether.
JM Do I understand that the serpent lifted up in the wilderness means that man after the flesh is gone?
JT The brazen serpent is judicial; it is the condemnation of sin in the flesh; it answers to Romans, not Colossians. Jordan is the end of our condition of flesh and blood altogether; so that henceforth know we no man after the flesh. We clothe each other with the risen, heavenly condition. The Lord would teach us what all this means, that “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, (1 Corinthians 15:48). As this is definitely reached the believer’s whole outlook is changed. Our being brought to it [p. 462] literally and finally is only a matter of time. In the power of the Spirit it is realised in the assembly. Paul says, “I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I know not”, (2 Corinthians 12:3). It is an immense thing to take heavenly ground in association with Christ in the assembly.
TH “Wherein there is not ... bondman, freeman, but Christ is everything and in all”, (Colossians 3:11).
JT Quite; “there is no male and female”. Galatians 3:28 shows you what the thing is; but in 1 Corinthians the sisters are recognised in the assembly, for in that epistle we are viewed as on the wilderness side of the Jordan.
JTJr Is Canaan the sphere of eternal life?
JT Well, eternal life enters into it, for it begins at Gilgal. Another thing comes in here, that is, a lodging place.
JS What is involved in that?
JT Well, these chapters do not give you the final thought. In principle, we have to wait for David and Solomon. If we could delete a few hundred years and bring them in here, we would have the full thought; but we can do that spiritually. In David we come under Christ typically as head.
RDG There is no song when they come up out of Jordan. Does it suggest the idea of ‘Yet deeper if a calmer joy?’ (178:6)
JT You have to wait for David to get the singing. That is what I was remarking as to spiritual ability, so that time does not affect us at all. The types fit as spiritually apprehended. Joshua even does not present headship; David does; in him we have typically the service of the assembly Godward. You get very little about the service of God in this book. The great thing is to apprehend the new position and the power by which it is secured, i.e., the ark in the midst of the Jordan. Then room is made later for David and Solomon as types of [p. 463] Christ.
FN In Colossians 3:1 it says, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above”. What are the things referred to there?
JT The “things above” allude to the great system of things connected with Christ in heaven. Our minds are to be on these, not on the things on the earth. We are not viewed in heaven in Colossians, and yet not in the wilderness exactly. The earth is not our place; we are over Jordan, but in a lodging-place, to which Colossians corresponds.