JOSHUA 4
The Red Sea speaks of the death of Christ as the ground of separation from the world, and the ground of justification, so that as outside the life of Egypt we might know what it is to be justified and stand with God on the ground that Christ has died and been raised for us. But Jordan has in view our having a new place, and that new place is according to His place. There was no ark in the Red Sea, but at the Jordan. The complete power of death was met by the ark.
It is interesting to notice that at the end of the gospels it is not said that God raised Christ; we do not read at the end of any one of the gospels that He was raised. He died and He is risen, we read. It suggests the inherent power that was there in Himself. We have a similar thought in Hebrews 1: He “set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. It is the inherent power of that Person. Within the compass of His Person He could make purification of sins and “set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. It is His own act, because it is His personal greatness that is brought out; He is great enough for that. It is not said here that God set Him there, though we have that lower down in the same chapter — God says, “Sit at my right hand” — but at the beginning of the chapter He sets Himself down. So in the end of the gospels it is said. “He is risen”. It suggests the power that there was in His Person. It is like what the Lord says in John 2, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”, and in John 10, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”. It shows His complete power over death; we see death in its full force overflowing all its banks, but there was power in that Person great enough to cut it all off. He has cut off the full power of death. As God magnifies that Person before our hearts, there will be something set in movement in our souls that will lead us to follow Him: He has marked out the spiritual way for us to go. It is not His taking up need on our side, but He has taken up the thoughts of divine love, and He has been into death in order that every one of those thoughts might come into fruition.
In this chapter the twelve stones taken out of Jordan are the prominent subject. There was to be a perpetual memorial. The stones represented all Israel; there were twelve stones, taken up by twelve men, a man out of each tribe, and, though [p. 22] the twelve stones had been handled by twelve men, yet it said in verse 8, “And the children of Israel did so, as Joshua had commanded” — showing that it was done representatively. The first reference to these stones is connected with Christ personally. “When your children ask hereafter, What mean you by these stones? then ye shall say to them, that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; when it went through the Jordan the waters of the Jordan were cut off. And these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever”, verses 6, 7. That is, it has reference to what has been effected by the ark of the covenant of Jehovah; the waters of Jordan were cut off before it.
This type is of supreme importance. It pleased God that there should be a memorial set up here in the witness of the twelve apostles to the death and resurrection of Christ. There is the abiding witness of the apostles to the death and resurrection of that Person with whom they were so well acquainted. It was the Man with whom they were personally acquainted; they had companied with the ark and learned the value of the ark. They had seen how He could act in every circumstance of human need and weakness. They had followed the ark and had been in His company, not only in the days of His flesh, but in the days of His resurrection until the day He was taken up. They had eaten and drunk with Him in resurrection they could give a powerful witness to His resurrection. He has completely annulled the whole power of death in its overflowing force; He has met it all and cut it all off. The waters of Jordan have been cut off — that is the basis of Christianity.
What comes out in this chapter is the typical instruction of these stones; the people are not exactly a type now, but the stones are. God sets forth the truth of the position in these stones; they are set up in permanent form for the instruction of all Israel, and we are the children so to speak, the persons who have to ask the questions and learn the instructions of the stones. We are not like the first generation who knew all about them. The apostles knew all about them, they are like the fathers; but we come along as the children and have to ask questions and get answers and learn what the stones mean. “What mean these stones?” Things have been set up in a permanent form in the witness of the apostles to Christ; it is a complete change in the apprehension of everything. I feel [p. 23] for myself how little one apprehends the extraordinary change produced by the death and resurrection of Christ! What a change in the thoughts and outlook of the disciples! They had followed Him in the days of His flesh; they had heard His words and seen His works; and they had some kind of idea of the blessedness that was there. Then they had seen Him go into death, and now they find Him in resurrection in a new condition for man altogether, and in an entirely new place. Consider the witness of it! The witness of a Man in a new condition outside the life of flesh and blood, outside life in this world altogether. They are the witnesses of the Christ of God, of the ark in its victory over all the power of death as seen in the Jordan. There is a testimony set up which has its bearing towards all Israel, and towards the whole people of God, and it should affect the people of God profoundly. I do not think that God ever intended that the children of Israel should understand these things; it is written for our learning, that we might understand.
Gilgal was the base of operations. If there is to be any campaign the first thing is to establish a base of operations, where you lodge, where you move out from, and which you return to. This is a military book, we are in a military atmosphere, and Gilgal is the base of operations. The first characteristic of Gilgal is that the twelve stones are set up there; it is the testimony to the victorious power of Christ over death.
Joshua first says in chapter 3: 12, “Take you twelve men”, and then in chapter 4: 4 he calls them. I think it shows the sovereignty of the call into the place of witness. The place the Lord has given to the witness of the apostles is wonderful. He says that the Comforter should be a witness. We can understand that, but right alongside the witness of the Comforter, a divine Person, He says, “And ye too bear witness, because ye are with me from the beginning”, John 15: 27. He puts them in the place of witness alongside the Holy Spirit. That is the fruit of the sovereign call of God. So Peter says in Acts 10, “God ... showed him openly ... unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead”. What a distinguished place the apostles had in their witness: they could say, “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us”, Acts 15: 28. They were men who could put themselves alongside the Holy [p. 24] Spirit. There is the twofold character of witness; the witness of the Holy Spirit and the witness of men.
We learn to love the Lord through the testimony that has been brought to us by men who walked in company with Him. We have the testimony of men who walked with Him, men with whom He came in and went out. If we are influenced by the testimony of the apostles our affections will be bound up with that Person and we should be prepared to follow Him through death to resurrection. If we have gone as far as that with the twelve we are ready for Paul’s ministry. It is not that there is any conflict between the testimony of the twelve and the testimony of Paul, but Paul adds to it. When Joshua sets up the stones he does not refer at all to the ark of the covenant, but he says, “On dry land did Israel come over this Jordan”, verse 22. It is “because Jehovah your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you until ye had passed over”, verse 23. It is not here how the ark cut off the power of death — that was more a direct reference to Christ personally — but Joshua calls attention to the fact that all the people had passed over. I think that corresponds to the Spirit of Christ in Paul.
Paul laboured very much. In writing to the Colossians he was setting up the stones in Gilgal. It is the testimony that all the people had gone over. In writing to the Colossians he tells them of his intensity of labour: “combating according to his working, which works in me in power”, Colossians 1: 29. There was divine power working in Paul towards the saints. He says, “I would have you know what combat I have for you”, and he speaks of the things he agonised for, and the danger of their being diverted from them. He goes on to speak of their being buried with Christ in baptism and their being raised with Him, “through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead”, Colossians 2: 12. Paul was bringing them to see that all the people were to go over as well as Christ. If I accept the testimony of the apostles that Christ has gone over into resurrection, that will prepare me in my affections to understand that all the people must go over. The whole of the Israel of God must go over, not only a part of Israel. What a rebuke it must have been for the two-and-a-half tribes when they saw the twelve stones set up at Gilgal; not nine-and-a-half stones set up, but twelve stones. It is the mind of God that every one of His people should be risen with Christ, and faith does not take any other estimate of the people.
[p. 25] The act of the twelve men represents typically the witness which God set up in men to the death and resurrection of Christ — that is the witness of the twelve. Then the action of Joshua in setting up the stones answers to the ministry of Paul, teaching the saints that according to the mind of God they are risen with Christ. But when we see Joshua putting twelve stones into the bed of Jordan — there was no command for it — it is an action which is supposed to take place in the souls of the people of God as led by the Spirit of Christ; they are led to take the place of having died with Christ. We are never told in any single passage of Scripture that we are to be dead with Christ. We are told, “If ye have died with Christ”, that certain things must follow, but we are never told we are to be dead with Christ. We have to be spiritually prepared to be dead with Christ. Am I prepared to be led by the Spirit of Christ and to put stones into the bed of Jordan? They are to be there to this day — any day when we like to read it. It is an action of spiritual affection; as led by the Spirit of Christ the saints are prepared to take up the ground of being dead with Christ. We are never told to do it, it is an intuitive action of spontaneous affection. If the saints were all regulated by the truth of being risen with Christ, it would have a marvellous effect on every one in this world. The fact is that Satan has taken away the stones so far as he can, and the memorial has not had its proper effect on the people of God. We have to see to it that it has its proper effect on us — complete separation from the world in every aspect. We want the affection that goes in for it.