Scripture Reading: Josh. 1:1-11, 16-18
Ⅰ
Joshua 1:3 indicates that although God had given Israel the good land, Israel still needed to take the land; they needed to cooperate with God by rising up to fulfill God's commission to possess the land.
Ⅱ
Joshua led the children of Israel to enter the promised land and to take it, possess it, and enjoy it—v. 6:
A
Joshua was to be occupied with God's word and let the word occupy him—v. 8.
B
The response of Israel to Joshua implied their willingness, their readiness, and their being in one accord not only with Joshua but also with Jehovah their God as expressed by their blessing Joshua in the name of their God—vv. 16-18.
C
Israel had become a corporate Joshua, chosen, called, redeemed, saved, trained, prepared, and qualified by God, ready to go on with God as one to take the land of Canaan.
D
To gain the all-inclusive Christ, we need to be today's Joshua, fighting the battle, taking the land, and enjoying Christ as our inheritance.
Ⅲ
The children of Israel were buried in the death of Christ, and then they were resurrected in the resurrection of Christ—4:1-11; Rom. 6:3-6:
A
In their old man they could not gain the victory; their old man had to be buried so that they could become a new man—Josh. 4:9.
B
We need to realize that our old man, our natural man, is not qualified to fight the spiritual warfare for gaining the all-inclusive Christ—Rom. 6:6.
Ⅳ
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. 5:2-9, 11-15:
A
The circumcision at Gilgal signifies the application of the Lord's death to our flesh—vv. 2-9; Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24.
B
Israel's keeping the Passover typifies the believers' keeping of the Lord's table to remember the Lord as our Redeemer and Savior—Josh. 5:10; Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 5:7.
C
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.
D
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.
Ⅴ
The victory of Israel over Jericho was 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—6:1-16:
A
In the spiritual warfare the first thing we should do is exalt Christ.
B
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.
C
God did the fighting, and Israel simply shouted, proclaimed, and testified.
D
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.
Ⅵ
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.
Ⅶ
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.
Ⅷ
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.
Ⅸ
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.
Ⅹ
"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).