SUBJECTIVE FEATURES IN THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
[p. 181] SUBJECTIVE FEATURES IN THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
Joshua 2:16,21; Joshua 15:16 - 19; Joshua 17:3,4
In this book that pre-eminently refers to Christ — the book of the inheritance — the women in these three passages may be regarded as forming links in which are set out what we call the subjective feature of the book. And when I say ‘subjective’, I refer to a term that has more currency amongst spiritual people than it has in the world. It is a philosophical term that is rightly and appropriately applied to convey what God effects in us. There is that which He has effected in Christ outside of us — on our behalf — and then there is that which He has effected in us by the Spirit, which latter is usually presented in Scripture in a figurative way on the feminine side, and so it challenges us peculiarly as to what there is in us which reflects what God has effected in Christ. He has set out His ideal in Christ as coming here unsolicited, and has set out under His own eye and under the eyes of angels and men His ideal — what men should be here. He has taken Him up into the heavens as Paul says, speaking of the glad tidings he preached among the Corinthians, “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures”. 1 Corinthians 15:3 - 4 Christ in resurrection is not only God’s ideal as a Man walking here among men, but His ideal for all time and eternity. In resurrection we have a Man after God’s eternal counsels, and it is in that condition, as received up in glory, that He is presented in the gospel. Paul was so taken up with Him and so apprehended the mind of God that he said, “So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but [p. 182] if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new; and all things are of ... God”, 2 Corinthians 5:16 - 18. That is the mind of God set out in Christ, and the ministry of the Spirit — that of the new covenant particularly in 2 Corinthians — is to form us in divine love so that we should be changed, as it says, as beholding the glory of the Lord, into the same image from glory to glory — one thing after another, from glory to glory. That is what is going on and that is what is represented in the types and figures of Scripture under the feminine figure — that there should be in the saints a reflection of Christ, He presenting the divine thought in man, that there should be a reflection of Him in us. And that is the body, that which can be united to Christ; it is what is according to Christ, nothing inferior.
So I have taken up these women or vessels as presenting the feminine or subjective side in the book of Joshua. I refer to Rahab particularly because she presents the initial thing. She was tested by the spies as to what was there in her. I speak of her from the references of the Spirit in the New Testament. James says, “But was not ... Rahab the harlot justified on the principle of works”, showing that she represents what I have been saying, that which is practical and subjective. She was justified by works, he says, and he confirms that by saying that she received the messengers and put them forth by another way.
The writer of the Hebrews says, “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace”. There she represents the saints seen as not perishing with the world. The world is perishing. Jericho represents the overthrow of the world viewed as the stronghold of Satan. We must distinguish between the powers that be - [p. 183] the government of the world and all its machinery — and the world itself in the abstract. We pray for authorities but the world itself in the abstract is essentially wicked; it lies in the wicked one. We have to distinguish the provisional intervention of God in government without which there is no possibility of the testimony here. God intervenes in government to make the testimony possible. We pray for the authorities. But the world itself is essentially wicked and hates Christ and all that belongs to Him. That is what Jericho represents. The king of Jericho in no sense could be regarded as one of the powers that be. He is typically representative of satanic power, so that Rahab was under no moral obligation to him.
She received the messengers, James says, which was a treacherous act from the standpoint of the king of Jericho, as is our position from the standpoint of Satan — not from the standpoint of the king of this realm or of his representatives. Our position is not regarded as treacherous in his eyes, nor should it be; we pray for him. But we have no hesitation in being treacherous to the world as it is viewed as of satanic power and opposition to Christ. So Rahab received the messengers, James says. They were representatives of God — of Joshua. Hebrews says “spies”, that is to say, they represent the secret agencies of God — implying the overthrow of this world. And so James says, she received the messengers and put them forth another way.
Now it is that ‘other way’ that I dwell upon for a moment as applying peculiarly to those that have light from God and are true to it. Many have light and are not true to it. It is as you move with the light that you are true to it. Otherwise you may adorn the world and add to its power of opposition in the testimony. But Rahab was true to the light she had and this showed itself in “another way” - [p. 184] another one. That is what James says, She put forth the messengers another way; that is, she had light from God and that light implied another way. You are converted, it may be, in some recognised religious body governed by worldly principles — the name of Christ being attached to it. Satan has no objection to that so long as you are governed by the elements of the world, but it is degrading to that name to associate it with the elements of this world. Well, it may be, if you are converted in these circumstances, you get light from God and you remain there. That is not “another way”. It is the ‘old way’, the way that everybody takes — the way that seems right to a man, as the wise man says, but the end thereof is the ways of death; Proverbs 14:12. On the other hand “there is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it”, Job 28:7,8. That is the way; that is “another way”. I do not say that Rahab reached that way all at once. The one she had been on was not right. The king’s pursuers went on that way; they knew no other. They pursued, as they thought, the messengers the way they expected they would take, that is, the ordinary way. To have a religious name in this world, to go to church on Sunday, such is the old way, not “another way”. There is “another way”; many of us have found it. It always shows itself where there is light from God and where will is not active, you follow it. If the will comes in you will not follow it; you will say the old is better. Flesh only knows and walks in the old even though it be religious. Rahab learned at once that there was another way, and there is another way — a secret way, indeed, as I have said — one that the vulture’s eye hath not seen. The king’s messengers went the ordinary way, but Rahab knew of another way and she put forth the messengers that way. “Get you to the mountain”, she says. That is not inviting; it was the ‘other way’.
I dwell on the word ‘other’ as the initial idea and I refer for a moment to the red heifer. You all remember the type in Numbers 19. It was a sin-offering, but the colour of the heifer is the point. You get it nowhere else. It means that it is distinguished — marked off. The heifer was marked off from all other heifers. It is a type of Christ as meeting the low state of things in the people of God — a state of things in which we are marked by the world; in which although our meeting rooms may not become a church and our services are different, yet there is no spiritual distinction. It is a low state of things marking many of the meetings of the people of God. The secret is that we do not maintain the difference — the ‘other way’. In our business we like the ordinary; in our houses we like the ordinary; in our domestic affairs we like our parties, our dress suits, and so forth. That is the ordinary, and it is most deadening; the very life of things ebbs out spiritually where these things obtain. It is simply the ordinary, and so the injunction to Moses is to take a red heifer. She is different from all other heifers, so to say, she is distinct and marked off. Then she is slain. You see Christ was different from all others — whatever the circumstances, always different — never like other people. He died as different.. And so the ashes of the heifer are kept in a clean place so as to be available to every christian, so to say, every Israelite that became defiled, not by coming into open sin, but by touching a dead body and the like — by association with what is dead. The person who was thus defiled and who refused to use the water and the ashes was to be cut off. It is the continuance of the thing, the living in it that is the evil — the refusal to use the ashes and the running water for cleansing. The Lord will have us different; He wants us like [p. 186] Himself, and that is different. The mind is to be renewed. Rahab began with this; she put the messengers forth another way. That was a spiritual touch. She accepted their proposal as to the scarlet line, and she says, According to your word, so be it. Then she put them forth. She is a fine example for young christians. We have no record of her earlier; she is introduced here living on the wall of Jericho, but presently we find that self — judgment has taken effect in her. She has stalks of flax spread out on the roof — a sure evidence of the element of purity already set in — and with these she hides the spies, that is to say, the secrecy by which divine things are maintained as in purity — the element of purity. The flax was not yet spun; it is simply flax in the raw, but it is being prepared. It was sufficient for the purpose. Then as you are converted, you begin to witness. She goes up to the spies and makes a speech. “I know”, she says, “that the Lord hath given you the land”. She recognised the mind of God, those who were to have the land. “The meek shall inherit the earth”. Matthew 5:5 Has it ever occurred to you the kind of people God intends to inherit the land, not the Jerichoites, not that kind, but the Israelites — the people of God? ‘We have heard’, she says, ‘what God did at the Red Sea’. That is to say, she is in the light of the resurrection of Christ; she understood that God had raised Him from the dead. She was a typical christian as in the initial stage, as beginning. Then she says, ‘We know what you have done to Sihon and Og’.
She understood that the people of God had power — sufficient power — in them to overthrow the greatest of men — such a man as Og. Hence it is that she understood the resurrection of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the people of God. You see, this is what the people of God are; what God has done for them in Christ and by the Spirit; what we do by the [p. 187] Spirit. They overthrew Og. That is a type of the power of the Spirit as in the believer. She understood these things and thus was spiritual, so that she saw there was “another way”. And now, I will challenge you young people about this ‘other way’. You have been converted, but are you content to go on in the old way? You may think you have a through ticket, but the old way does not lead you at all to the destination on your ticket. Your ticket leads you to a certain destination, but you have got to take the way to that destination. Are you prepared to take the wrong way — the ordinary way that men take, or ‘the other’? You say, How does it come about? Well, you begin to recognise the saints — what God did at the Red Sea. He delivered Christ for us and raised Him for us. God did that. You begin to see that the people of God are the objects of the love of God, and that He acts for them. You begin to see what God has wrought in them, that they themselves can do things, too; and what God has wrought by the saints. The mighty power of the Spirit of God is in them. You say, It is of interest to me that there is such a people. As Ruth says, Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God. What about that? Rahab was taking that way; she was recognising the people of God — what God had done for them and what they could do. The people of God can do much. You get a lot of christians together recognising the Lord and the Spirit, and the flesh and the world are not there. They have overcome the world; they have overcome the flesh. They have done that by the power of the Spirit. There are none like them; in all the universe there are none like them. They do exploits. Rahab saw what God did and what they did, and that moreover God had already given them the land. This world is to be cleared of all that is contrary to God and the meek shall inherit the earth. Rahab began to see this and so sent forth the messengers [p. 188] another way. What about taking that way? Do not stay in the old way — the ordinary way, the way that men take generally. It may seem right to you, but the end thereof? It is a question of where it leads. The apostle says, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world”, 1 Corinthians 11:30 - 32. If you stay on that old way, judgment applies.
Now I go on to Achsah. I think she may be taken to represent the next stage; she comes in at a remarkable period. A certain feature of the world was broken down, that is, the feature represented in books — Kirjath-sepher. Caleb took other cities, but this one evidently was peculiarly strong. It is a city of books. It is peculiarly fortified, and Caleb, knew it. I appeal to you young people, as to what books you are reading. The books of this world do not belong to the other way. You are taking the ordinary one. Men talk about novels, histories, plays, races, and all that goes on in the world, and you are reading those books. That is the ordinary way; you are not taking the other one. The other one brings you under reproach, but it is the way of life. “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath”, Proverbs 15:24. It is a question of the way you take, and Kirjath-sepher is the great centre of food for the unregenerate of this world. Books, newspapers, magazines, novels, all kinds of stories — the world is kept going by these things. Well, Kirjath-sepher was well fortified and Caleb understood the power of the thing. He says, He that takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife. And Othniel takes it. He must have been a remarkable young man. Judges develops him and tells us much about him. He was the first judge in Israel and [p. 189] was entitled to it. He overcame wicked literature. It is not that God has not got literature; He has, but God never goes in for volume. With Him it is reduction — how much can be said by the fewest possible words. As John says, If all the things which Jesus did were written, one by one, even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Hence this book (the Bible) is very small relatively, but it is enough. It is all that we need. God has foreseen in this book everything the saints need, but the volumes turned out by the printing presses of the world to keep the world going are uncountable! And they have got a powerful influence on young minds, so that you are kept in the ordinary way, and not on the other one. Now you see, Caleb understood and promises his daughter to him who should take it. So Othniel takes it and she became his wife, and as she came to him, she moved him to ask of her father a field. Now you have got someone who is not occupied with the books of Kirjath-sepher, but with her father’s blessing, that is to say, the blessing of God. You want that, and you want every possible means of getting it. You must not neglect any means which God has devised in order that you may get the blessing. It is worth something. Achsah moved Othniel to ask of her father a field, and as she approached her father she is reverential. She sprang from her ass. Then the south land which she is given is an objective thought; it is the favourableness of it. The present is a well-accepted time, a day of salvation, but we want more than that; we want the Spirit. She says virtually, to keep this going, I shall need the Spirit — the life of faith is by the Spirit. So she says, “Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water”. She has no small thought; she understood what is necessary, and he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
[p. 190] How she would regard them is an interesting matter; how she would utilise them! I have no doubt the nether springs refer to the Spirit in the way in which it sets aside the flesh and springs up. The upper springs refer to heaven. So that the believer has a wide range; he has freshness, the springs of God. Think of having the spring in you. As the Lord says, “thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water”. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”, John 4:10, 14, so that one should never thirst again for ever. Think of that, and then of the refreshing springs of heaven. The depths of Ephesians are available to us — the heavenly springs — what is brought about into our souls from that land by the Spirit. You can see what a wife Achsah was to her husband Othniel, what a help this woman would be to him — a type of the church as maintained in heavenly vigour by the Spirit.
Now the other word is in regard of the daughters of Zelophehad. Now they had no brothers. They were the only daughters so that they pre — eminently represent the subjective side, and what they lay claim to is the inheritance. It is not only the springs of water, but you want all that God has in His heart for you. If God has thought out things for us — foreknown us before the world; He has known us before and planned out an inheritance — is it not worth our while to see the extent of it, and to claim it where He has placed it? You want it just where He has placed it. It is placed among the brethren. These daughters wished to have the inheritance among the brethren. I am speaking for young ones here tonight. What about having an inheritance among the brethren; that is where it is. God is pleased to place it where it is enhanced. What I have among the [p. 191] brethren is enhanced by that very fact. Hence I seek to be among them. Think of all that Scripture predicates of the brethren — what unity among them is like, as an example. You never saw such a thing in the world as it is depicted in Psalm 133. The point is what it is like. It is like the oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments. Think of the beauty and dignity of Christ. The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove upon Him and the influence went out — to the skirts of His garments. That is what unity amongst the brethren is like. “As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”, Psalm 133:3. That is another picture of it. These are wonderful things to see. You get nothing like them in the world. The inheritance of God is there, and these women, we are told, demanded this. It was their right. They were descendants of Manasseh, and he, we are told, was the eldest son of Joseph, whose was the birthright. It is an inheritance coming down from Christ, and it is obtained among the brethren. May God bless these thoughts to us.