JOSHUA 11 AND 12
We have noticed before that three parts of the conflict recorded in this book are brought before us in detail; that is, Jericho, Ai and Gibeon. All the rest of the conflict is not dwelt on in detail; it is simply recorded that Joshua and all Israel with him moved from one city to another in a course of victory, until it can be said at the end of chapter 11 that the land rested from war. There were details still to be dealt with, but practically the conflict is over. The different victories now recorded have the character of overcoming which is to mark the saints; they are to be marked by overcoming and victorious power. Many times it is said, “Joshua and all Israel” — the whole company moves together. At Ai they moved sectionally and there was disaster, but after that they moved altogether.
The character of overcoming that belongs to the assembly is typified here; we do not see individual overcoming. In Ephesians the conflict is assembly conflict, but in Revelation we have ruin and departure and the overcoming becomes individual. But we are in the light of Ephesians, and every part of the truth is vital in the estimation of all the saints; that is, it is so normally. If there is conflict in regard of dispossessing the enemy and breaking his power, it is a matter of personal interest to every saint on earth. Certain things are normal to the whole assembly and each one of us has to come to them individually; but these things belong to the assembly, not to any individual.
[p. 59] This answers to the thought of overcoming in John’s writings; it would help us if we took account of these chapters in that light. I believe that overcoming in John’s writings is distinctly the warfare of the land, not wilderness warfare. We have the latter in Romans and Galatians, but in John it is warfare in the land, both in the gospel and in the epistle. In the gospel of John the Lord Himself is the great Overcomer. We begin by looking at the ark of Jehovah; we see the will of God brought in in a divine Person in manhood. We see the Son of God come in flesh; He is the great Overcomer and nothing can stand before Him. “I have overcome the world” — that is almost His last word. He is the great Overcomer, and it is in keeping Him before us that we get power. I never get power by thinking of the man who cannot overcome, and I may get despondent over it; I shall never get power that way, but weakness. Power comes in considering the One who says, “I have overcome”. In John’s gospel we see the ark of Jehovah, not exactly the ark of the covenant that secures all for man — that is Luke, but it is the ark of Jehovah, God’s will absolutely secured in a Man, His own beloved Son, and nothing can touch that.
In John’s gospel we find not only the ark of Jehovah, One who can say, “The ruler of this world comes and has nothing in me”, but He does not leave this world until He has secured a generation that is no more of the world than He is. That is the great truth of John’s gospel. The ark of Jehovah is the Son of God. The man in John 9 is a typical overcomer; he goes step by step in the path of light until he comes into the full light of the Son of God. In John we have the religious world, not the profane world.
In believing that Jesus is the Son of God we should get light as to all that the world is. In John’s gospel everything is really the opposite to what it appears. It appeared as if the Son of God was judged when He was condemned to death, but really the world was judged on the part of the Son of God. The public judgment of the cross was that He was a criminal, a malefactor not fit to live; but, looking at it rightly, the world is judged — “Now is the judgment of this world”. The whole system of this world that rejected Him is judged. What kind of a world could it be that could not tolerate the Son of God! The rulers and princes of this world cast Him out publicly — it was the Son of God they cast out! What did [p. 60] Peter, John and all the rest think of the religious world in the light of the faith of the Son of God? What did they think of the gorgeous ritual of the temple? It all fell to the ground with a crash. It had rejected the Son of God — what was it after that to them? The world to them was a judged thing — not the world of newspapers, theatres, and novels, but the religious world, the Jewish world where the Lord was during all His life, the professed people of God — that is what we have to overcome today. It is that which is more hateful to God than the lusts of men. The lusts of men are bad enough, but the religious pride of man is more hateful to God. Babylon indicates that. Look at the woman in John 8 — there was more room in her for the light of God than there was in the Pharisees; there was no room in their hearts for the light of God. It is a solemn thing for us to face the fact that we have to judge every element in the world, and particularly the elements that take a religious form. The world had a religious form when the Lord was here, it was full of elements that came from beneath. The Lord says in John 8, “Ye are of the things beneath, I am of the things above”. Satan holds men more by religious influences than anything else.
We have to estimate things according to the demonstration of the Spirit. Those begotten of God are able to receive the Spirit’s demonstration about the world in every aspect. There were thirty-one kings mentioned here, which shows how many different forms the power of evil may take; but we can judge it all by the demonstration of the spirit. The Spirit brings demonstration to the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The demonstration is effective in the affections of the saints. The saints say, Everything here is marked by sin, because they do not believe on the Son of God. There is no righteousness in the world system because it has rejected Him, and He has gone to the Father. The conviction is in the souls of the saints, not in the unconverted man. “When he is come, he shall bring demonstration”. He brings demonstration that everything of the religious world system is marked by sin and the absence of righteousness. All is under the rule of Satan, but Satan’s rule will be fully exposed and judged.
The man in John 9 was cast out because they could not fit him in; there was no place in the synagogue for a man like that, and if people confess the Son of God according to their [p. 61] measure of light they will find that they are cast out; they will not be put to the trouble of going out. The Lord was putting forth His own sheep. The two words are the same; “they cast him out” is the same word as the Lord uses when He puts forth His own sheep. The man who was cast out was the man whom the Lord put forth as one of His sheep. If we have faith in the Son of God, if we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and move on the line of being begotten of God, we shall be preserved from every one of the thirty-one kings. There is not one of them that we shall want to spare; they have all to be slain. The world takes many forms; John in his epistle says that there are many antichrists. He does not speak about the personal antichrist, but he wants us to think of the many; they have all to be overcome.
There is a great power residing in the saints, so we find that whatever Jehovah said to Moses and Moses said to Joshua comes to pass; there is not a single foe left in these chapters that can stand up against Joshua and all Israel with him. There is a unity about it that baffles Satan. The Lord’s last word to the church viewed in responsibility is to remind the church that He is the great Overcomer. It is the only reference to what He was personally that we have in any of His addresses to the seven churches: His last word is, “Even as I also overcame and am set down with my father in his throne”. He is the great Overcomer.
There is a moment reached when the fighting is over and Joshua and Eleazar could proceed to allot the inheritance. Fighting is dealing with the opposing powers, but these powers are dealt with in view of the inheritance being enjoyed. We find, as a matter of fact, that every enemy was not destroyed; even giants are left, and Philistines and Sidonians and Jebusites and other people. That is how it is practically; the enemies are not all destroyed, so there is still some fighting left for us to do. People have an idea that we are to stand still and see everything done for us. That is true if you are at the Red Sea; but in the land you are not to stand still and see everything done for you; you have to buckle on your armour and fight. I remember a brother once went to a place where an evangelist had been labouring for some months, and he said to the people, ‘Mr. —— has been telling you how easy it is to be saved, but I am come to tell you how hard it is to be saved!’ Both things are true.
[p. 62] The Lord provides rest; it is not all fighting. When we come together on Lord’s day morning we do not come to fight; the Lord is pleased to give His people a resting-place. The ark went three days journey to seek out a resting-place. The Lord delights to seek out a resting-place for His people. It is not all conflict; the inheritance is enjoyed.