B
On the negative side, Canaan signifies the aerial part, the heavenly part, of the dark kingdom of Satan, the heavenlies that are full of Satan’s forces—Eph. 2:2; 6:12:
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Satan has his authority and his angels, who are his subordinates as principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world; hence, he has his kingdom, the authority of darkness—Acts 26:18; Matt. 12:26; 25:41; Eph. 6:12; Col. 1:13.
２
Satan, the enemy of God, has been doing his utmost to hinder the people of God from enjoying the all-inclusive Christ as the good land; to this day, evil forces are veiling the all-inclusiveness of Christ from God’s people—2:8, 18; 2 Cor. 4:3-4.
３
The book of Ephesians indicates that in the heavenlies there are different layers—1:3; 2:2; 6:12:
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Christ is in the highest layer, the third heaven, to be our everything as our good land—Deut. 8:7-10.
ｂ
There is a lower layer of the heavenlies—the air, where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating the people on earth from contacting God and receiving Christ; this is typified by the Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering into the good land—Eph. 2:2.
４
The Canaanites typify the fallen angels, the rebellious angels who follow Satan, who have become the powers, rulers, and authorities in Satan’s kingdom, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies—Rev. 12:4, 7; Eph. 6:12.
C
The two aspects of the significance of Canaan in typology are spoken of in Ephesians; in this sense, the book of Joshua in the Old Testament is comparable to Ephesians because both books are a record of “Canaan”:
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As soon as the children of Israel entered Canaan, they enjoyed the riches of Christ and engaged in warfare—Josh. 5:12; 6:1-21.
２
Ephesians 3:8 speaks of the riches of Christ, and 1:3; 2:6; and 6:12 speak of the heavenlies; this indicates that in the church we should enjoy the riches of Christ and engage in spiritual warfare.
Morning Nourishment
Eph. 3:8 To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.6:12 For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies.
Chapter 1 of Joshua typifies chapter 1 of Ephesians. Joshua 1 shows us that everything was ready. Israel had been prepared through God’s dealing with them for several hundred years in Egypt and for forty years in the wilderness….They were ready to go on with God as one to take the land of Canaan, which typifies the rich, all-inclusive Christ.
According to Ephesians 1, we have been chosen by God to partake of His holy nature and we have been predestinated by God to have His life in order to become His sons (vv. 4-5). Furthermore, Christ’s redemption has brought us into Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God to be the realm in which and the element by which we can be made God’s inheritance (vv. 7, 11). Having been redeemed and having been put into Christ as the realm and the element, we are daily being reconstituted and transformed by this element to be a treasure for God’s inheritance. As we take Christ and enjoy Him as our inheritance, we become God’s inheritance. In addition, we have the sealing and the pledging of the Spirit (vv. 13-14). The Spirit’s sealing is the Spirit’s soaking and saturating of us in order to transform us. The Spirit’s pledging is the guarantee that God is our inheritance. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 13-14)
Today’s Reading
Ephesians 2 indicates that in the heavenlies there are different layers. Christ is in the highest layer, the third heaven, to be our everything as our good land. But there is a lower layer of the heavenlies—the air, where Satan as the ruler of the authority of the air is frustrating the people on earth from contacting God and from receiving Christ (v. 2). This is typified by the Canaanites, who were frustrating Israel from entering into the good land.Ephesians 2 also tells us that we were once dead persons (vv. 1, 5), but then God made us, the chosen Rahabs, the enjoyers of Christ. In Ephesians 1 we see Joshua, the believers in Christ receiving all the blessings in Christ. But in Ephesians 2 we see Rahab, all the sinners who were wicked, evil, and dead. Nevertheless, God can perform His dynamic salvation through the redemption of Christ to save such sinners, to make such Rahabs the enjoyers of Christ. (Life-study of Joshua, pp. 14-15)
This illegal marriage between fallen angels and the human race produced Nephilim. The “mighty men who were of old, the men of renown” in Genesis 6:4 were a product of the fallen spirits mingled with the human race (cf. Num. 13:33)….They were the product of the mingling of the human race, that is, human blood, with angelic spirits. According to the Bible, the Nephilim were “men of great size” (Num. 13:32). If you were to look at them, they would threaten you, and you would be frightened. That is exactly what happened to ten of the twelve spies sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. They saw the Nephilim and were terrified (Num. 13:33). They told the Israelites, “We should not go into the land, for we saw the Nephilim there.” The Nephilim whom they saw should be again the descendants of the fallen angels that had mingled with the daughters of men. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 366-367)
Because the Nephilim, a mixture of fallen angels and fallen man, dwelt in the land of Canaan, God commanded the children of Israel to take over this land and to destroy every living being there so that the human race could be cleared up (Deut. 7:1-2). (Num. 13:33, footnote 1)
Further Reading: Life-study of Joshua, msg. 3; Life-study of Genesis, msg. 27; Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 63-65