JOSHUA 1 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)
JOSHUA 1 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)
The word to Joshua was “Rise up, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, into the land which I give unto them” (Joshua 1: 2). Going over Jordan does not represent our natural death and going to heaven, as is sometimes thought, but it typifies a spiritual movement. The disciples in the days of Christ’s flesh had the faith of Him as in that condition, but when He was raised from among the dead they had the faith of Him as in a new condition in which no man had ever been before. In Him death was annulled and life and incorruptibility brought to light. This is a blessed reality and actuality in Christ. But we cannot read the epistle to the Colossians without seeing that it is the thought of God for us that we should know what it is to be dead with Christ and raised with Him. This truth was brought out for the assembly in Paul. No other company, so far as I know, will ever pass over the Jordan so as to be in faith and spirit risen with Christ. So that the opening chapters of Joshua are of chief importance to us as bringing out in a typical way how we come to the apprehension of what is in God’s mind for us.
Joshua represents the spiritual lead which God furnishes for His people in view of them entering into his purposes as set forth in Christ risen and ascended. This requires that heed should be taken to all the law which had been given. We should not expect to get light or leading with respect to being risen with Christ from those who disregard the Lord’s commandments with reference to the presence of the Spirit and assembly order as seen in 1 Corinthians. And this has become largely the case in the christian profession. Hence few know what it is to “go over this Jordan”. But spiritual [p. 206] leading was present in the apostles, particularly in Paul, and we can say thankfully that revived attention has been drawn to it in these last days. It is now for us to see that we move with the lead that is given us. This book is intended to greatly help us in doing so.
We must first come into line in our minds with what is before God for us. This is indicated in the command to “Prepare yourselves victuals” (verse 11). We are here regarded as having intelligence as to what is in God’s mind for us, and also as understanding the kind of food that will nourish us inwardly in view of passing over. This food would be what Paul speaks of as “meat” and “solid food”. Something more than light is needed; there must be spiritual vigour derived from suitable food. We must be inwardly nourished in a way which corresponds with the position of being risen with Christ. For it is not merely a question of receiving directions but of assembly movement for which there must be inward strength through feeding. And we are viewed here as being able to prepare that food for ourselves.
The saints as “according to Spirit” and minding “the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8: 5) are capable of preparing food which will enable them to enter upon the portion set forth in the Colossian epistle. It is an intelligent concern of spiritual persons who realise that they not only need manna for the wilderness but they need suitable food in the strength of which they can pass over Jordan. Many believers have not taken up this exercise, but it is set before us typically in the Scriptures that we may take it up. Have our reading, meditation and prayers any reference to passing over Jordan? Do we feel the need of inward support for this assembly movement? We are clearly, according to this type, to prepare ourselves for it and to see that we have “victuals” in the strength of which we can pass over. We are to have before us the promises of God, and we are to be exercised that what we feed upon will strengthen us and build up our spiritual constitution for an order of things which is altogether outside the life of this world. We are to “prepare” such food for ourselves,
[p. 207] not looking that others will do it for us. The substance of it will be Christ as the One with whom we are identified in the mind of God. We feed on Him as the One who determines what our place is, and where our life is, according to divine thoughts. If He is not inwardly formed in our affections there will be no strength to proceed over Jordan. Many delight in Him as their Saviour who have never entertained the thought of being identified with Him in death and in life beyond death, and yet this was brought clearly into view in our baptism, which as referred to in Romans 6 is, in figure, burial with Christ, but in Colossians 2 we see that it also carries with it the thought of our being raised with Him. Every baptised person must admit that this was God’s thought for him, but in preparing victuals the people of God act intelligently to prepare themselves inwardly to take it up in spiritual reality. There is need for being built up in Christ so as to have ability and constitution to “pass over this Jordan”. It is for us to prepare ourselves food which will enable us to pass over. It is well to ask if we know what this means? Have we really provided ourselves with this kind of spiritual food? Are we intelligent as to it? We cannot pass over Jordan unless there is with us some inward correspondence with the movement, brought about by feeding.
It is said of Christ that He was “put to death in flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3: 18). We must seek to apprehend Him as alive out of death, having forever left the condition of flesh and blood and now in a condition in which man never was before, and which is the evidence of the complete disannulling of death and the bringing to light of life and incorruptibility. He is to be apprehended spiritually as in that condition, and we are to understand that as in that condition He is food for us, in view of our passing over spiritually as dead and risen with Him into what God had purposed for us. And it is not simply that He is food for us, but we understand as taught of God how to prepare the food. We can set it in an ordered way before us as God’s mind for us. It is of great importance that believers should have ability to do this. We must use the “three days” rightly in preparing victuals, or we shall not have strength or constitution to pass over.