HOW WE MAY ENJOY THE INHERITANCE
[p. 113] HOW WE MAY ENJOY THE INHERITANCE
Joshua 2: 8 - 11; Joshua 15: 18, 19; Joshua 17: 3 - 6
Some of us have recently noticed how the instruction in certain books of the Bible is illustrated by the women who are mentioned in these books. In the scriptures which we have read we find also certain women: Rahab, Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, and the five daughters of Zelophehad all mentioned by name. In Rahab we find one of the features which illustrates the truth that specially comes out in this book. She shows us the result which God would attain in each one of us as those who believe in Christ.
The Old Testament was written for our instruction. Peter tells us that it was revealed to the prophets “that not to themselves but to you they ministered those things, which have now been announced to you”. As regards Rahab, I think that we may consider her history with a view to the instruction that we may get through what the scripture says about her. She is mentioned three times in the New Testament, and what is said of her there is of great help to understand what is written of her in the book of Joshua. In Hebrews 11 it says: “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with the unbelieving, having received the spies in peace”. She sent them off “by another way”; it was not the usual way. In Hebrews she is viewed as one who is saved on the principle of faith, and in James’s epistle we find that she put forth the spies “by another way”. Many believers are justified by faith, and on account of being believers they cannot be lost, but it is not always true that they follow “another way”; they rather continue in the same way as they went before, a more or less worldly way, and they walk like men do. In this they do not resemble Rahab, they have not taken up “another way”.
[p. 114] When Rahab is mentioned in Scripture she is nearly always called Rahab the harlot; she appears as a sinner, and she represents a soul that has gone astray and who needs to be set right. Mary of Magdala in the New Testament is also such a one; it says that “from whom seven demons had gone out”. The woman of Luke 7 was also one such, and Saul of Tarsus was the chief of sinners. We may also mention the woman at the well of Sychar. The Spirit of God makes mention of all these in order to show us what grace can effect. The woman at the well of Sychar had sunk very deep, and she needed to be set right. The Lord Jesus laid bare her life when He said: “Go, call thy husband, and come here”. All that marked her past life as well as what she was now, was thus exposed; marriage was not kept in honour by her, and that bond was very little esteemed. This woman was to call her husband. This shows us what import God gives to the marriage bond. In 1 Corinthians 7: 16 it says: “For what knowest thou, O wife, if thou shalt save thy husband? or what knowest thou, O husband, if thou shalt save thy wife?”
As I have said before, Rahab is named in the New Testament both in Hebrews and in James as Rahab the harlot. But we find also that she got a very honoured place, her name being in the genealogy of Christ, and this confirms what was said of her in the book of Joshua, chapter 6. After being saved out of Jericho we are told that she dwelt in the midst of Israel, to this day. She is the type of a soul who has been saved from perishing along with the unbelieving. But she is also a type of a believer who takes another way. We ought to take another way than the one we were in before we were converted. One can doubt if a person really is a christian if he does not follow another way. Rahab is also the type of a christian who dwells among the people of God.
[p. 115] She continued to dwell amongst the people of Israel, and she got a place in the genealogy of Christ.
When she hid the spies we are told that she had stalks of flax which were laid out upon the roof of her house; they were a token that she sought to follow what was right. Flax in Scripture generally has to do with holiness, at least what would help us to holiness. She had this flax laid out upon the roof, which shows that when the two spies came to her house, she was already, so to speak, converted. She had also comprehended something about the power of God. In the book of Joshua it is a question of taking possession of the land, the inheritance. We cannot, dear brethren, take possession of our inheritance without the power and help of God, for the enemy is there; but God has given us power. It says in 2 Timothy, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion”. Rahab is also the type of a christian who knows something of the power of the Spirit of God. She says to the spies: “For we have heard that Jehovah dried up the waters of the Red sea before you”. She had also heard what they had done to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og. She had in type apprehended what God did through the death and resurrection of Christ, and even what saints can do in the power of the Spirit of God. We see, dear brethren, that she is in pattern a believer who enters upon and takes possession of the inheritance which God has given us in His love.
The next woman we find in chapter 15; that is Achsah. She is very unlike Rahab, for she belonged to the family of faith. Rahab came into the family of believers, but Achsah was born in a believing family. Her father was Caleb, a man, who forty years before this was characterised by faith. It was he who, along with eleven other messengers, went up from Kadesh to spy out the land, and who spoke [p. 116] well about it and even sought to persuade the people of God that they were well able to take possession of the land of Canaan. Achsah foreshadows here those of us who have been born amongst the people of God. What a great privilege this woman had to have had such a father! She seemed to have followed his faith and his desires. I think this is something for the young ones to think of, these who have believing parents, that they might not be behind them, but turn to their own account what their parents possess. An inheritance of faith has come to them through their parents. What we find in this woman is very beautiful. She desired these springs from her father. She dwelt in the midst of the inheritance. I speak to young men and women here. You come to the meetings and you listen to much that is presented from the word of God, not only about salvation, but even about God’s purposes of love. How do you think you can be preserved in this precious light? It can only be through what corresponds to the springs of water. This woman desired springs from her father. She says: “Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a southern land; give me also springs of water”. Even we, who are older in faith, can only be preserved in freshness and enjoyment of our inheritance in the measure in which we make room for the Spirit of God. We have our usual weekly meetings, but what room do we there make for the Spirit of God? A token of the Spirit of God being free is the mutual conditions of love that are found among the saints; each one ought to know his own responsibility as one who possesses the Spirit of God.
I would challenge my own heart: how much am I of help at the meetings? It is easy to be occupied with mistakes and complain of weakness, but the question is, Can I be of any help? If I have received the Spirit of God and make room for Him, I ought to be one who contributes. If everyone of us took up [p. 117] our responsibility, we should together be able to enjoy the inheritance; the meetings would then be neither tiresome nor dry, but refreshing. It says in Psalm 104, “The trees of Jehovah are satisfied”. We are in this way liberated from being dependent on the service of a single man, and place should be given for any little gift which might be found amongst us, and we should enjoy the upper and lower springs. In this way we should all make progress in our souls and enjoy peace and joy and be able to praise and worship God. Even a sister who is to be silent can, if the Spirit of God is not grieved in her, contribute to make the meetings fresh and the saints edified. We see how beautiful this woman’s conduct was when she came to her father. It says she sprang down from the ass. When the Holy Spirit is not grieved in us, there is life and energy. “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”. It was a question here of life and energy. She did not alight in ease from the ass on which she was riding, but she sprang down. We find what reverence she had for her father.
The women which we will speak of last are the five daughters of Zelophehad. We read of them in Numbers. They came to Moses and Eleazar at the tent of meeting and said to them, “Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the band of them that banded themselves together against Jehovah in the band of Korah; but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons”. They recognise that he died for his own sin, but he was no rebel like those in the band of Korah, and these women now claim an inheritance amongst their father’s brethren. The sisters must not be without the inheritance. Sometimes sisters think they are wholly dependent on the brothers, but in these five women we find urgency to get the inheritance. They first came to [p. 118] Moses in the wilderness, and now when they had come into the land they came to Joshua and Eleazar. According to divine command Moses had complied with their desire to have their father’s inheritance. This commandment of Moses corresponds for us to the truth of the epistle to the Romans. Romans shows us we have right to the inheritance, and many are satisfied with that, but these women were not satisfied with it. They came to Joshua, and this corresponds in a spiritual meaning with Colossians and Ephesians. We ought not to be contented with having a right to the inheritance; we need also to enter into it. Thus we find, dear brethren, how they a second time went to claim their lot. We are told that they got what they desired and obtained an inheritance amongst their brethren. Perhaps you say, I live far away from the meeting, or, I have so much to do, or, I have poor health. But these women would have answered you: You must be among your brethren. The inheritance is yours, but you can only enjoy it among your brethren.
What I have said shows something of what the book of Joshua teaches us. Firstly how we may come into righteousness, like Rahab did. We cannot enjoy our inheritance if every question of our sins and our daily life has not been settled; we must stand in a right position God-ward. Then we get a place among the people of God, an honoured place, like the one Rahab got. “She dwelt in the midst of Israel to this day”. Then further it will be a question of life and freshness, that is to say, the Spirit of God gets His place in us, and at last, that the inheritance I have received, can only be enjoyed amongst my brethren. From Numbers 36 we see that these women, Zelophehad’s daughters, were not to marry outside their tribe. We ought not to be connected with anything outside the christian family. All these [p. 119] women married within the tribe of Joseph. This is a very important matter for me to ponder, that every connection which I may take up outside the Lord’s authority is a hindrance to the enjoyment of the inheritance.