«　WEEK 2　DAY 1　»

　　Eph. 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

　　2:6 And raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

　　The first of the types [in the book of Joshua] related to Christ is Israel’s possessing and enjoying the promised land. This typifies the believers’ practical experience of the riches of the blessings in Christ as revealed in the book of Ephesians. Israel’s crossing of the river Jordan typifies the believers’ experience of the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4a; Col. 2:20), not the believers’ physical death. Israel’s entering into the good land typifies the believers’ experience of taking over the heavenlies, where Satan and his power of darkness are (Eph. 2:6; 6:12), not the believers’ going to heaven after their death. This is all related to Israel’s possessing and enjoying the good land. (Life-study of Joshua, p. 5)

　　In order to understand the significance of the Israelites entering Canaan and the warfare in Canaan, we must first know what Canaan typifies…. If we are careful in our reading, we will conclude that Canaan cannot be a type of heaven. It is a type of our heavenly position. It is the equivalent of the heavenlies spoken of in Ephesians. On the one hand, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. On the other hand, we wrestle against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12). In studying this typology, we must not stop with the book of Joshua; we must also study Ephesians. In fact, Joshua must be read not only with Ephesians but with Hebrews as well. The entrance into Canaan in the book of Joshua typifies two things: spiritual warfare (in Ephesians) and rest (in Hebrews). The rest here clearly refers to the kingdom…. Not everyone who passed under the blood of the lamb or ate of the passover lamb entered Canaan; only two entered. The rest died in the wilderness. Many are called but few are chosen. Hence, Canaan is a type of the kingdom. The entrance into Canaan typifies our reigning in the kingdom. Once we are clear about this fundamental point, we will see which part of Joshua is a type of a Christian’s position in the heavenlies today and which part is a type of his reward in the future. (CWWN, vol. 54, “How to Study the Bible,” p. 105)

　　In the typology of the Old Testament, Canaan has two aspects: on the positive side, Canaan, a land of riches (Deut. 8:7-10)…, typifies the all-inclusive Christ with His unsearchable riches (Col. 1:12; Eph. 3:8), and on the negative side, it signifies the aerial part, the heavenly part, of the dark kingdom of Satan. As the ruler of this world (John 12:31) and as the ruler of the authority of the air (Eph. 2:2), Satan has his authority (Acts 26:18) and his angels (Matt. 25:41), who are his subordinates as principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12). Hence, he has his kingdom (Matt. 12:26), the authority of darkness (Col. 1:13). The Canaanites typify the fallen angels, the rebellious angels who follow Satan (Rev. 12:4, 7), who have become the powers, rulers, and authorities in Satan’s kingdom (cf. Dan. 10:13, 20). The fighting of the children of Israel against the Canaanites that they might possess and enjoy the good land typifies the spiritual warfare of the church as a whole, including all the members, against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies” (Eph. 6:12) that the saints may enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive land. The church must be such a corporate warrior, fighting against Satan’s aerial forces so that God’s people may gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, establishing and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth. (Num. 21:1, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Joshua, msgs. 1, 5-6; CWWN, vol. 54, “How to Study the Bible,” ch. 5; CWWL, 1961-1962, vol. 4, “The All-inclusive Christ,” ch. 1