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In order to possess the good land, we need to deal with the flesh, enjoy the Lord’s table, enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the produce of the good land, and see a vision of Christ as our Captain—Josh. 5:2-15:
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The circumcision at Gilgal signifies the application of the Lord’s death to our flesh—vv. 2-9; Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24.
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Israel’s keeping the Passover typifies the believers’ keeping of the Lord’s table to remember the Lord as their Redeemer and Savior—Josh. 5:10; Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 5:7.
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The produce of the good land typifies Christ as the consummated God-given food to the believers, requiring their labor on Him—Josh. 5:11-12.
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Joshua saw a vision in which Christ was unveiled as the Captain of Jehovah’s army; whereas Joshua was the visible captain, Christ was the invisible Captain of God’s army—vv. 13-15.
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The victory of Israel over Jericho was won not by their fighting but by their blowing the trumpets and exalting Christ by bearing the Ark, through their faith in God’s word of instruction—6:1-27:
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In the spiritual warfare the first thing we should do is exalt Christ.
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The silence of the people signifies being one with the Lord to carry out the matter in the Lord’s way without the expression of any thought, opinion, or feeling—v. 10.
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God did the fighting, and Israel simply shouted, proclaimed, and testified.
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Israel marched around the city with the Ark, a type of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, on the shoulders of the priests; the spiritual significance of this scene is that it is a picture of the corporate God-man—God and man, man and God, walking together as one person.
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The children of Israel were defeated at Ai because they were not one with God but cared only for themselves; the account of their defeat should teach us to be one with God in whatever we do—7:1-5.
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The children of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites because they were like a wife who forgot her husband; what they did in Joshua 9 was exactly the same as what Eve did in Genesis 3.
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The record in Joshua 22:10-34 about the building of another altar shows us that we must avoid division and that to experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ we must be one people, one Body, one universal church—1 Cor. 12:12-13.
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We cannot enjoy Christ as the good land without the Body; we must be one with the Body to fight for the land, to possess the land, and to share our portion of the land—Num. 32:1-32; Josh. 22:1-9.
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“We all need to know what the recovery is, where the recovery is, and what kind of persons can take the recovery on. We all need to see that in the Lord’s recovery today we are on a battlefield. We should be today’s Joshua and Caleb, fighting against Satan’s aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth. It is not adequate for us simply to be spiritual and holy. We need to learn of Joshua and Caleb to represent God’s interest in this age to fight down the enemies that Christ can be gained by people and that Christ can be increased by His pursuers” (Life-study of Joshua, p. 61).
Morning Nourishment
Josh. 5:13-14 …There was a man standing opposite him, and His sword was drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, Are You for us or for our adversaries? And He said, Neither, but as the Captain of Jehovah’s army have I now come. Then Joshua fell to the ground upon his face and worshipped. And he said to Him, What does my Lord speak to His servant?To prepare to possess the good land,…we need to deal with the flesh, enjoy the Lord’s table, enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the produce of the good land, and see a vision of Christ, the embodiment of God, as our Captain.
Israel’s keeping of the Passover typifies the believers’ keeping of the Lord’s table to remember the Lord’s redemption and salvation (Matt. 26:26-28). The Lord Jesus established His table with the bread and the cup to replace the Feast of the Passover. He has fulfilled the type, and now He is the real Passover to us (1 Cor. 5:7).
The produce of the promised land was the God-given food in their fighting in Canaan. This produce typifies Christ as the consummated God-given food to the believers, requiring them to labor on Him.
Whereas Joshua was the visible captain of Jehovah’s army, Christ was the invisible Captain of Jehovah’s army. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 26-29)
Today’s Reading
In order for the children of Israel to gain the good land, they had to defeat the enemy and drive out the evil forces….When they crossed the Jordan, God did everything. In the same principle, God’s people did not need to do anything to destroy Jericho. They only needed to believe and trust in God, to listen to the instruction from the Captain of the army of Israel, and to exalt Christ by bearing the Ark. From this we see that in the spiritual warfare the first thing we should do is exalt Christ.We may apply this account of the destruction of Jericho to the matter of preaching the gospel. As we take up the burden to visit sinners, we need to realize that every sinner is a “fortified city” that has been cursed. In dealing with such a fortified city, we must exercise patience, considering when we should be silent and when we should speak. This means that we should follow the Lord’s leading. At the right time, the proper declaration will be very effective, and there will be a Sabbath day in which we can shout, “Praise the Lord! Jesus is Lord! Christ is Victor!” The “wall” will fall, and we will be able to defeat all the demons and possess that sinner for Christ.
The victory over Jericho in Israel’s first battle after crossing the Jordan was won not by Israel’s fighting but by their blowing of the trumpets and shouting, by their testifying and proclaiming of God with His Ark, through their faith in God’s word of instruction (Josh. 6:2-5). These were the vital factors that enabled them to win the victory.
God can do everything without man, but according to the record of the book of Joshua, He wants man to be one with Him. In keeping with the principle of incarnation, God wants to do everything through man, with man, and even in man. At Jericho Israel marched around the city with the Ark, a type of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, on the shoulders of the priests. The spiritual significance of this scene is that it is a picture of a corporate God-man, God and man, man and God, walking together as one person. This was the way the children of Israel crossed the river Jordan…[and destroyed] Jericho. God and Israel were fighting together. Actually, however, God did the fighting, and Israel simply shouted, proclaimed, and testified and then occupied the city.
We all are God-men….[Thus] we must realize that whatever we do, wherever we go, and whatever we are should not be by ourselves. We should not act, behave, or do things by ourselves but with God. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 39-40, 43, 45-47)
Further Reading: Life-study of Joshua, msgs. 6-9, 14; CWWN, vol. 44, ch. 105