JOSHUA 5
The kings of the Amorites would no doubt represent those powers that Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6; he describes them as great dignitaries: “Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies”. This first verse tells us that, when they “heard that Jehovah had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until they had passed over, that their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel”. Rahab could speak of all He had done at the Red Sea — typically what God [p. 26] had done in the death and resurrection of Christ for His people. And she could speak of Sihon and Og, representing the victory over the flesh gained in the power of the Spirit in the saints. Now we have something further: there is a power operating to place the people of God in figure on the other side of death altogether.
Even on the shore of the Red Sea the children of Israel could sing of complete redemption. When they spoke of the inhabitants of Canaan, they spoke in a past tense: “All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away”, Exodus 15:15. The language of faith is according to the language of God; God calls things that be not as though they were, and faith does the same. If God takes a thing in hand in the Man of His right hand, whom He has made strong for Himself, it is all absolutely assured from the outset, and we shall not need to wait for it to be actually accomplished.
The greatest power that the devil has is the might of death; and, if that is annulled, and annulled in such a way that the people of God can pass over to the other side, and actually live as risen with Christ beyond death, that is the sure pledge that every power of evil will be overthrown. These powers know it too; they know that they are about to be overthrown. How wonderful is the mighty power of God in raising Christ, and in raising His people with Christ! That is the great exhibition of divine power. “Jehovah will do wonders among you”. “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you”. It is the greatest operation of divine power. If we look at Christ, there is no question at all but that death has been annulled. You may say, Death is not annulled, for people are dying every day, but if we look at Christ we see that death is absolutely annulled. It expended its power, it overflowed all its banks against Christ, and there was not a drop of water left. He is a risen Man and death is annulled; it will never touch Him any more.
He has “annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Timothy 1: 10. Paul was speaking of Christ; it is the glad tidings and they tell about Christ, about a Person who has been in death and annulled all its power, so that I might have part in all His victory. It is not only that He died for us; that is the Red Sea. But in Jordan He has gone into death and annulled its power so that we might be with Him, dead with Him and risen with Him.
[p. 27] It is in view of association with Christ, and all the powers of evil can do nothing; they are powerless against a people risen with Christ, and they know it. The only hope they have is that some element of failure may be introduced among the people of God to rob them of their power, and that is what they are working for. They could not touch us as risen with Christ; they are powerless, so they try to introduce some element of failure to take away our true power and leave us exposed to their attacks. If we stand on the ground where God has put us, and where faith has put us, there is not a power of evil but would melt away. It is wonderful to have such a Person who is absolutely victorious.
He is the Captain of Jehovah’s army; He comes with a drawn sword in warlike character to be Captain of Jehovah’s army. But He must have a suitable army, so this chapter is like the drilling of the army. The first thing is that they all have to be circumcised. It is the preparation of the people of God as being now on heavenly ground. This chapter is like the training for the conflict. Circumcision has a very important place. I suppose here it is circumcision in the Colossian aspect. The man that the enemy can handle has to be got rid of, not only in his bad features but in his good features; that is, what appear to be good features.
Paul speaks of this to the Philippians: “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”, Philippians 3: 3. He goes on to tell us his good points. “If any have cause to trust in the flesh I more — circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law a Pharisee” — it was all what a good man he was. But Paul was a truly circumcised man.
It is striking that Jehovah says, “Circumcise again the children of Israel the second time”. He calls attention to the fact that it had not been done as it ought to have been done the first time. Circumcision should come properly early in Christian life; that is the normal aspect, but if neglected early it has to be done a second time, abnormally if not normally. We often have to do things again. Paul says to the Galatians, “My children, of whom I travail in birth again”. It is a serious thing when anything of God has to be done again. It is striking that they had not done it, and God does not seem to have raised the question in the wilderness; it suggests that [p. 28] in the wilderness it was not an urgent question. It shows how far we may go, and how much evidence we may have of God’s delivering power, His salvation, His gracious care over us, and His giving us power to overcome our enemies. There may be a great deal and yet something vital neglected. Sometimes the goodness and favour of God makes His people careless. They had neglected circumcision all through the wilderness, and it was vital because it was a sign of the covenant. They had no title to consider themselves the people of God apart from circumcision. When it comes to be a question of the land and of overcoming the powers there, circumcision becomes of primary, vital importance.
The apostle addresses the Colossians: “See that there be no one who shall lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority, in whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ”, Colossians 2: 8 - 11. Circumcision there is from the standpoint of being complete or filled full in Christ. If we apprehended that we are filled full in Christ, we should not want the good man any more than the bad man. We should not want the philosopher, or the man of high moral standing, or the man of ordinances. We do not want him because he is not Christ, and we are filled full in Christ.
From the standpoint of being filled full in Christ we do not want a contribution from the man after the flesh; that is the first lesson in the land. The flesh must be cut off as a source of contribution. It is not only the bad flesh; everyone can see how desirable it is to get rid of bad flesh. Everyone in the world could appreciate the abolition of drunkenness, the reform of the criminal classes, teaching men to have refined tastes and to follow refined pleasures. To create a high standard of moral conduct is the teaching of men, and we have to be delivered from it by circumcision. It is a sharp knife to cut off the man in the flesh in his best aspect. It is not the man who gratifies the lust of his flesh, the lawless man, the man who is dominated by what is evil, vile lusts, and self-gratification of a dreadful character — that is Romans — and any one can see that man will [p. 29] not do. But what about this absolutely perfect man to whom everyone looks up as a model of high moral standard, who is religious, who carries out obediently all God’s ordinances — what about that man? The cross settles it all. It is astonishing how long we can go on and yet retain some value for the man after the flesh on the good side. That man must be cut off; otherwise there will be an element of the world about us, and an element of the world is the reproach of Egypt.
I do not think the reproach of Egypt means reproach before men, but it means what is reproach before God. It is a reproach on His people before God if there is a single element left that is of the world, “the teaching of men” or “the elements of the world”. When people talk of the world, they think of theatres, picture palaces and all that kind of thing, but the world in Colossians is the religious world, the world of ordinances where you will be regulated to a nicety — what you do, what you touch, what you handle — that is the world. Any element of that kind is a reproach on God’s people; God wants it rolled away, and He does it at Gilgal. If you see a person well brought up and that has everything that is nice about him, it is something to learn that it is all worthless. “Man at his best estate is vanity”, because he is not Christ. If that man could be allowed, you would have man in the flesh occupying a place which only Christ can fill for the pleasure of God. The saints are filled full in Christ — if we are, we do not want any other contribution.
When circumcision has taken place we should be able to hold the passover with quite a new apprehension of what is involved in it. The passover was the starting point, showing that God takes up His people from the very outset in the value of the death of Christ. It widens out before us as we go on; we get a deeper and a wider sense of the value of the death of Christ. We are not given any detail of this passover, only that they held it. We do not leave the passover in Egypt, nor yet in the wilderness, but it is carried on to the land. As we go on we have a fuller sense of the death of Christ as that which was before God from the very beginning. Peter dwells on the preciousness of the blood; it is a question of the value of redemption. “Knowing that ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your vain conversation handed down from your fathers, but by precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of [p. 30] Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”, 1 Peter 1:18. Peter carries them back to God’s purpose. When God instituted the passover in Exodus 12, He told them that they should keep it in the land, showing that in the passover God had the land in view. He had a ground on which He could preserve His people from judgment, and carry them through the wilderness and put them in the land. The death of Christ in passover aspect has freed God to carry His purpose through to the finish.
The passover comes before they ate of the old corn of the land, and gives a sense of the cost at which God had taken His people to Himself. Paul emphasises it: he speaks of “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”, Acts 20:28. We have to think of what the passover was to God; it was “the blood of his own”. It was God coming out to secure His people for Himself; it is all from H is side, even in Exodus 12. The moral order here is very instructive: circumcision first, then the passover, then unleavened bread and the old corn of the land. Unleavened bread is connected with the Passover; it would be in relation to the scene of inflation and corruption. There is the perfect contrast to it in Christ. The old corn of the land views Him in relation to purpose.
The thought in “roasted” is that everything has been fully tested. It suggests that Christ as known in the condition of purpose — the fruit of the purpose of God, grown in the land and harvested in the land — is not to be separated in the heart from the thought of how fully He has been tested in every possible way. There has been the action of fire. The unleavened bread would preserve freedom from all that inflation which marks man. Keeping the feast of unleavened bread according to 1 Corinthians 5 is an elementary exercise; It is what the saints should be prepared to take up from the beginning. If we have something which has the character of meal, and elements are brought in which corrupt it and give it inflation and make room for the flesh, it is very dreadful in the sight of God.
The manna ceasing shows what an entirely new sphere of life is contemplated. The manna goes over Jordan; they had been living on it at the time they were circumcised, and at the time they kept the passover. The manna did not cease on the wilderness side of Jordan; it went over Jordan, which is [p. 31] striking, and shows that circumcision and the passover in the land are taken up in the power of the grace that comes down from heaven. Manna suits certain exercises up to a certain point, but then it ceases. When we come to what is connected with purpose, we are outside that sphere. We see the purpose of God which is outside all the wilderness needs; there are no needs there. The thoughts of God all come to fruition; all have been harvested in a risen and glorified Man. We are privileged to feed on that — the old corn — and apprehend God’s purpose of love and His own delight in a Man in a new place and condition. The conflict of the land can only be taken up by those who eat the produce of the land — they ate the produce of the land that year.
The thought of conflict is introduced with the man who appears with a drawn sword. Joshua is a soldier himself, so he does not entertain any thought of neutrality: “Art thou for us or for our enemies”? When we come to the conflicts of the land it is impossible to be neutral. Neutrality is a base expedient; and the Spirit of Christ as leading the saints would never entertain any thought of neutrality — it is one thing or another. When it is a question of the pleasure of God in regard to His people, and of the overthrow of all that is opposing, we cannot think of a neutral position. In principle everything is either favourable to the people of God, or it is hindering them.
“As captain of the army of Jehovah am I now come”. It is the people viewed as Jehovah’s army. It is to bring out the kind of spirit that is suitable for the conflict. Joshua had to take the sandals from off his feet. The place is holy, and spiritual conflict can only be taken up by those who have unshod feet. It is a lesson we need to take to heart. We shall never put our shoes on in that sense if we have not known first what it is to take them off according to this chapter. It is the effect in the soul of the apprehension of holiness — a great lesson to learn.