JOSHUA 23
This chapter would answer almost exactly to Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. Paul is our Joshua; he was the faithful leader by the Spirit of the people of God into the inheritance. As long as Paul lived things were preserved; there was no defection in Paul or in any of the apostles. It was not that they did not make blunders, but there was no defection; they were kept in the Father’s name, kept in the unity of the testimony. They led the people into the inheritance, particularly Paul.
The point is reached here when Joshua is stricken in years. The time has come for him to depart, and things have to be transferred now from the spiritual power and energy in Joshua into the responsibility of all Israel. That is very much like Acts 20. Paul sent for the Ephesian elders and recounted to them the nature of his ministry, and not only the ministry in itself, but his own personal character as the minister; he brings all before them and then he speaks of his departure. The time had come for him to go, the spiritual vessel of uncorrupted truth has to go, and he transfers things into the responsibility of the elders of Ephesus, representing the responsible element in the assembly. Things pass out of the hands of the apostles into the hands of the saints generally.
Elements of departure are always in the human heart, and they appeared very quickly in the history of the church. Even before the apostles went, elements of departure were manifest upon all hands. It has pleased God that things should pass into the hands of His people as responsible; they passed out of the hands of the apostles into the hands of the church in responsibility. Now the question is, Has the church been faithful to the deposit? Has she maintained the grounds of the inheritance?
[p. 95] Paul referred to his ministry in the various features of it, but the final touch he gives is, “I have not shrunk from announcing to you the whole counsel of God”. It was given to Paul as a special vessel of ministry to bring out the whole counsel of God — that would cover the inheritance. Paul was privileged to be the vessel of everything that God purposed in love to give His people; he brought it all out. All he has unfolded in the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians, all that is connected with resurrection, being risen with Christ, being raised up together and seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus — that is the inheritance, all that is in the love of God and in the mind of God to bestow on His people. As far as Israel was concerned, the land was in the purpose of God for them, and Joshua tells them that everything spoken by God has been brought to pass; nothing had failed. That answers very much to the epistle to the Ephesians. If we read Ephesians we shall see that nothing has failed that God has brought to pass in the purpose of His love. But then we should always read Ephesians alongside of Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders, where he recalls to them the blessedness and perfection of the ministry, but he warns them of the possibility of defection — “after my departure”. It is a solemn warning.
In this chapter Joshua is recounting to the people all that God had done. If one could chase a thousand, it was because God had done it. If they overcame all their enemies, it was because God had fought for them. Everything that had been done, God had done. We have to take account of that as one of the great divine facts. Whatever is spiritually wrought, God is the doer of it. If Joshua goes, or Paul goes, God does not go. When Paul is going to depart he says, “I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all the sanctified”.
We have always to keep these things before us: the completion of everything on God’s side, but then the solemn possibility of our missing it all. If I do not see the perfection of everything on God’s side in Christ, I shall not be established in grace; if I do not see the possibility of departure, I shall get careless in responsibility. We want the two things rightly balanced in our souls if we are to be preserved. The character of a minister must correspond entirely with his ministry if things are to be maintained. Paul says, “Remember my labour, my ministry, the self-denying character of my service, and my tears, keep all that before you?” Why? Because it is a model of the spirit in which alone the inheritance can be held. We see the extraordinary power of God in Paul. It is wonderful that God preserved a man like Paul in moral suitability to the inheritance right to the end. It shows what God can do; it was God who did it. Paul says, “I commend you to God”. It is the same God. It is a great encouragement to us; what ever was true in Paul was true in him by the power of God, and you and I have the same God and the same power. If Paul was about to depart, Paul’s God would not depart, and Paul says, “I commend you to God”. That is the only way that things are going to be maintained now; they are maintained by the power of the living God. So there is only one thing we need be afraid of, “lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief in turning away from the living God”, Hebrews 3:12.
The word of God’s grace is the testimony of all that God is in grace; it would cover the whole truth of the revelation. God is speaking, not in the way of making demands, but in order to give expression to the immensity of His own grace. Is not that exactly the character of the covenant? The covenant for us lies in the cup of which we drink. The word of the Lord is, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. That is the covenant, it is the presentation to our hearts of all the blessed God is in His love, coming out to us through the death of Christ to bless us infinitely according to His own heart. We are apt to overlook the immense importance of a people being secured through the covenant to love God. I do not know that in the New Testament, in the teaching of the epistles, there is any command to love God, but it is distinctly stated that there are certain persons that love God. In a sense it is a characteristic designation of the saints that they love God.
Now we come to just two sets of influences: that is the influence of the love of God known in the bond of the covenant by His people; and then another set of influences represented by the nations of Canaan, the effect of which would be to entirely counteract the divine influence. We are tested by the kind of influences we allow our spirits to come under. Joshua says, in verse 7, “that ye enter not among these nations, that remain among you”, and in verse 12 we find a cleaving to the residue of these nations and making marriages with them — there is progression in it. Spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies operates through persons, and therefore it is of the greatest [p. 97] importance that we should perceive our associations. Evil principles are not like things that float about in the air; they are moral influences that operate through persons, and very nice persons too. Joshua speaks about cleaving to them and making marriages with them; it suggests that these nations were rather attractive persons that we might not only cleave to but form relationships with. It is the nice people that we have to beware of. They were idolaters. There may be very nice people who are governed by what is natural, and not by God and by what is spiritual; and if we keep company with persons of that kind the subtle influence of what governs them will insidiously and unconsciously operate on us all the time. That is the serious thing of associations with those who as to their governing principles are of the world and not of God. Their gods are not to be mentioned or bowed down to. If we never mentioned them we should not bow down to them. We are apt to forget the power of evil, which as regards Christians operates chiefly, not through drunkards, thieves, corrupt immoral persons, but through nice people who are not at all governed by what is spiritual. Their thoughts, feelings, sensibilities and affections are governed by the natural, and all the time we spend with such people we come unconsciously under the influence of that kind of thing. It is impossible to maintain love to God under those conditions.
“The residue” suggests that the ground is not cleared. Canaan was never secure from hostile powers until the days of Solomon. In Solomon’s day there was no adversary occurrent, but we do not find that in Joshua, and the land today is not secure from hostile powers; they have to be resisted. We shall never enjoy the inheritance unless we learn to resist the hostile powers, and they chiefly operate through nice people whom we might cleave to and make marriages with. If such are not judged, the affections of the saints get corrupted. There are many such, professing Christians too, who are not governed by the Spirit. They are in the same land; they have their place in the sphere of divine blessing. Paul says, “Of your own selves shall men arise”. Think of that! A man who was made overseer by the Holy Spirit of God may become the source of corrupt influence and speak perverse things, drawing disciples after him. That shows the subtle character of it. Nothing will do for us but to be set in our affections for what is of God, for what is spiritual, and to keep ourselves [p. 98] most carefully from associations with persons who are governed by other principles. However attractive they may be naturally, they can never help us in relation to God; they can only become, as this chapter says, a snare and a trap, and ultimately they will become a scourge and thorns in our eyes.
We must be careful also of their books. Books emanate from persons; a book is an extended influence of a person. When I read a book I put myself under the influence of the person who wrote it. What is his mind? What governs him? If he is spiritual, he loves God, and the Lord Jesus Christ is supreme with him, if he is walking in the Spirit, that man will help me. But if he is a man of the world, if he is a vessel of influences that are not of God, however attractive he may be, however nice his book may be, it will only be a trap and a snare to me. The nicer the book is, the more a trap it is.
There is nothing more encouraging to me than that the divine proposal is to love God with my whole mind and heart. J.N.D. said he thought he could say that he loved God with his whole heart, but he was not sure that he could say he loved Him with his whole mind. I know J.N.D. was a long way beyond me, but I am encouraged by the divine proposal that we are to love God with all our hearts and all our souls, all our minds and all our strength. That is the divine proposal, and God does not propose an impossibility which cannot come to pass. It is not possible to human nature, but God has given His Holy Spirit in order that what is impossible might become possible. I believe that if I loved God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength I should be as supremely happy now as I shall be in heaven, it is the supreme happiness of the creature. We think that God is demanding what we cannot give, but He is proposing the necessities of His own love; He is proposing a thought of supreme blessedness. Is it possible? Of course it is, if the Holy Spirit has come into the heart of the saints and is allowed to have His way, and to form those divine affections which have their spring and object in God. It is a possibility. Some said that John 4 was a splendid impossibility, but J.B.S. said it was a splendid possibility.
These last two chapters of Joshua come in as a very solemn test to us. It is all very well to read about the enemies being all overthrown and the land possessed, but we have to face the test of it. Is it true? Are we living in the inheritance and enjoying it, loving God and enjoying all that His love gives,
[p. 99] or have we some link with the nations, some underground passage which keeps up the connection with the influences of the world that are all contrary to God?
Joshua represents the spiritual leadership of Christ among His people. He does not represent Christ personally but the spiritual leading of Christ, such as is seen in Paul. We find Paul going straight on to the end; all he wanted was to finish his course, though bonds and imprisonment awaited him. It was not an easy path, but he wanted to finish his course. Six years later he wrote in 2 Timothy, “I have finished my course”. He had done all he wanted to do; he went straight through and was never diverted from the inheritance. We could not say that Paul did not give us a proper lead into the inheritance, but he has gone now and the question is, What are we to do? We have the privilege of considering the ministry, service and character of Paul, and that is the kind of person who gets the inheritance and enjoys it, and stands fast in it. Are we to follow Paul so that we may enjoy the inheritance, or are we to come under the influence of the nations? In principle there are only two things; it is either Paul or the nations.
It is touching that Paul should speak to the Ephesian elders about “the assembly of God which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. Think what it was to God to have you and me. He was prepared to pay that price; He purchased us with the blood of His own, and it is a matter of righteousness that He should have the affections of His people. He is always seeking their affections through the Supper. People say, I break bread because the Lord desired me to do it. Is that all? Are you not going deeper than that? There is a great deal more in it. Why did He desire it? What was His object? He thought of the effect of it on our spirits, the effect of His own love, so that that love might be impressed more deeply every first day of the week in indelible characters on our affections, so that we might love the Lord Jesus Christ and God, and thus enjoy the inheritance.