JOSHUA 15
These incidents which are dealt on in detail are no doubt of very great importance as giving us the principles and the power in which the inheritance can be possessed and enjoyed. We have considered Caleb in chapter 14, and have seen in him, not simply faith, but the energy of love in which he wholly followed Jehovah. It is love that can truly take account of the purposes and pleasure of God in regard to the inheritance. Caleb’s heart was commanded by Jehovah, so, if Jehovah had purposed to give the land, it was to Caleb a very good land. His affections were centred in Jehovah; he really had the spirit of sonship. He said, “If Jehovah delight in us, he will give us the land”; that is, he looked at it from the standpoint of Jehovah’s delight in His people. I think that it is only love that can enter into God’s delight in blessing His people. Caleb [p. 69] wholly followed Jehovah; whatever was before Jehovah was before Caleb. Timothy, in the New Testament, corresponds with Caleb as one who fully followed up what Paul had set forth in regard to the purpose of God, the delight of God in His purposes of love; he was one who wholly followed. That is the kind of person who can possess the inheritance, and who can set aside “the great man” as Caleb did. “Now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-Arba; the great man among the Anakim”. It is a great thing to dispossess the great man. Caleb dispossessed the great man and his three sons, and what has been the city of the great man becomes Hebron, which means company, the place where the companionship of the children of God can be enjoyed. It is the first city to be really possessed in the land; we read of victories over cities before, but the first city to become an inheritance is Hebron. It seems to indicate that fellowship with one another which John speaks of. I do not think that there is any fellowship, any divine companionship as long as the great man has a place. It is not only the great man but his mind that has to go. It is wonderful what is connected with Hebron; it becomes a city of refuge and a special portion of the children of Aaron, the chief priestly city in Israel.
Now I think we see in Achsah the product of the energy of love in Caleb. He had a daughter and she was marked by earnestness as to springs of water. This comes in consequent upon the introduction of Othniel, and the taking of Kirjath-sepher, which means The city of the book. In connection with the second city to be possessed, it is a question of the mind of man as stored up in books; it covers the whole literature of the world. It is possible to see that the man after the flesh, however great he is, is of no account with God and must be judged (that is, Kirjath-Arba), and yet there may be a respect for the products of his mind, that man can write interesting books. What sort of books were written in Canaan? They may have had many interesting books, but we may be quite sure there was not a single book in Kirjath-sepher that was honouring to Jehovah or a help to His people. We do not need the books that can be found in Kirjath-sepher. Christianity has been used to decorate the wrong man, even the name of Christ has been brought in and used to decorate and beautify the wrong man, so that the world is beautified and adorned by it. The finest buildings in the world are Christian buildings;
[p. 70] the world is adorned by them; it is the wrong system and the wrong man adorned. You cannot connect Christ with this world at all. He is disallowed and cast out as worthless; that is the real judgment of Christ by the world. The stone is rejected by the builders.
It is very interesting to see that Othniel comes to light as being able to take that city. It suggests a continuation of things which would correspond with Paul’s words to Timothy. Paul has in mind the continuation of things; he passes things on to Timothy, and tells him to pass them on to faithful men, able to teach others also. We see things passing on, the conflict passing on to other hands; it passes on to the hands of Othniel and he is marked by his power to capture the city of the book. I think the man who can completely overthrow in his spirit the influence of the literature of the world can be trusted with Caleb’s daughter. Caleb’s daughter represents, not the energy that can get victory, but the state of soul that is intensely interested in springs of water. She represents the subjective state which is the product of spiritual energy. If there is the energy of love, the spiritual state seen in Achsah will result.
The world’s literature has increasingly a spiritual character in an evil scene. The books most highly esteemed in the world and which appear to be educational have a vein of positive infidelity running through them all. You cannot take up a popular encyclopaedia that has not a spiritual element in it of infidelity and the setting aside of the holy Scriptures as being inspired of God. There is a terrible working of the power of evil in the literature of the world, and it is becoming increasingly so today. We could not expect to find springs of water where people are reading habitually the literature of the world. A great deal of spiritual vitality is sapped by the kind of reading that Christians indulge in habitually. The springs of water come in when Kirjath-Sepher is taken and the name changed. In Acts 19 we read they had a fine bonfire and burnt the worth in books of fifty thousand pieces of silver. When I was converted I had a bonfire and I never regretted it. It is much better to burn such books than to take them to the bookstall to poison someone else.
If we give ourselves to books which contain a description of the land we shall find quite as much entertainment as we need. We are not without books, but not books written by Canaanitish hands. We have princes in Israel who have written books;
[p. 71] it is a fine thing to read books written by princes in Israel. Then we shall find that there are springs of water.
It is interesting to see that the city of the book becomes characterised by a divine speaking. Debir means Speaker, so we have something which is far superior to anything that is the product of man’s mind; we have the mind of God spoken forth for the instruction of His people. What a happy exchange that is! When that gets place with us, we can begin to understand the southern land and, the more we see what a southern land we have, the more exercised we shall be about the springs of water. Achsah had a southern land, everything was most favourable, but then it required springs of water. We all understand that we have a southern land; God has acted in a most favourable way towards us. He has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ”. All is most favourable, but the more we enter into the favourableness of it, the more we shall feel the need of springs of water. In a natural sense, the sunnier the land is, the more need there is for springs of water; it dries up more quickly. Achsah was exercised about springs. It is a great exercise for us that we should not be content with the knowledge of the great favour of God to us objectively, but that we should have an intense desire for springs of water.
Briefly and simply I should say that the upper springs refer to what we have in God the Father and in His Son Jesus Christ; and the lower springs refer to the comfort and refreshment which we find in the brethren. In Ephesians we have a wonderful presentation to us of God the Father, and in Colossians we have a wonderful presentation of Christ. Now the refreshment of that, the spiritual power of it in the souls of the saints, I take to be what answers to the upper springs. But then there are the lower springs; there is great comfort and refreshment to be found in the company of the brethren. John speaks about the Father and the Son, but he also speaks about the brethren. The springs speak of real refreshment, not things held merely as a doctrine. One might be perfectly sound on the New Testament doctrine of the Spirit and be dry for want of springs.
Achsah went to Caleb, to her father, here a type of God. We only get springs through prayer; knowing the doctrine of things will not give it to us. I have given addresses on the Spirit and His activities, and have gone home to say, “Give me springs of water”. The springs are the activities, the flowings; it is not simply that one has the Spirit. Every saint in Christ has the Spirit, but it is another thing to have the springs, the activity of spiritual affections in the power of the Spirit. That is found in divine Persons first — the upper springs; and then in the brethren, something living and fresh. We can only enjoy the inheritance as there are springs of water.