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Partnership With Christ

by T. Austin-Sparks

From "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1936-1937.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Object

Chapter 2 - Men of Faith

Chapter 3 - The Call to the Throne

Chapter 4 - The Attainment of the Goal

Chapter 5 - The Secret and Law of Attaining Unto God's End

Chapter 1 - The Object

Reading: Joshua 1:1-11; Hebrews 3:14-15.

In the first place it is necessary to translate correctly the first part of Hebrews 3:14: "We are become partners with Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end."

We are become partners with Christ, that is the true rendering. The correct understanding and apprehension of what is here is very important, because it is strictly in keeping with the whole object of this letter. The letter has as its object partnership with Christ. The object is intimated at the beginning of the letter by such words as "Son" and "heir" - "God... hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son... whom he appointed heir of all things..." The words "Son" and "heir" are key words to the whole letter.

Follow on from that point, and it will not be long before you find a quotation from the Psalms: "For not unto angels did he subject the inhabited earth to come, whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere testified, saying, What is man, that thou makest mention of him? or the son of man, that thou puttest him in charge? (literally) ...And didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet." As to the complete fulfilment of this the writer of the Hebrews goes on to say, "But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold... Jesus... crowned with glory and honour..." Then follows that wonderful unveiling of the relationship of that exalted Christ to the race, to the redeemed out of the race - "Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same...." And again, "For both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one..." Hence the force of the opening words of chapter 3: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling..." What, then, is the heavenly calling? Partnership with Christ." For we are become partners with Christ if we hold fast..."

So you see that the correct translation here is very important, and much hangs upon it. The whole of the letter is represented in this single phrase, "partnership with Christ," or, to sum up in another word, the fulness of Christ and our coming thereto.

If we want to know what that partnership means when it is fully realized, we must go back to the words of the psalm: "Thou madest him to have dominion" (Psalm 8:6). It is partnership with Christ as exalted, crowned with glory and honour, with all things put in subjection under Him. That is no small thing to contemplate. Into that consideration is packed the whole of this letter.

Associated with that great, consummate object are all these elements of urgency and appeal, expressed in such words as: "Let us" (twelve times repeated in the letter); "Lest" (repeated seven times, and always a word of caution, of warning); "Go on"; "Full growth." What is this full growth to which we are urged to go on, and concerning which we are so steadily and persistently warned of the possibility of falling short? What is the reason of all these earnest pleadings and exhortations? To what do these relate? They relate to this fulness of Christ as the heavenly calling, or, in the words of this phrase, to our being "partners with Christ."

The Correspondence Between the Letter to the Hebrews and the Book of Joshua

There is a close correspondence between the letter to the Hebrews and the book of Joshua, and it is our purpose as the Lord leads to move from the one to the other, to see from the book of Joshua the historic illustration of this spiritual movement that is set forth in the letter to the Hebrews. Three things in the main will occupy us; firstly, the object to which we have just made reference; secondly, the urgency; thirdly, the process, including the principles by which the object is attained.

1. The Object

The object, as we have said, is the fulness of Christ, or partnership with Christ. The fulness of Christ as the governing object is represented by such various figures as the promises, the covenants, the description of the land, the Sabbath rest. Let us consider each of these separately.

(a) The Promises

If you read through the letter to the Hebrews you will find that reference is made to the promises on at least twelve occasions in the letter, and those references will be found to refer you back to the promises which were made by God unto His people. Those promises were bound up for Israel, in the main, with the land, so that the land became known as the land of promise. All the promises were to have their fulfilment historically in the land; they related thereto.

When you realize that the letter to the Hebrews is the spiritual counterpart of the book of Joshua, which was the material or the literal side of things, and that Christ as exalted in the place of fulness is the object in view, it is significant and impressive that there should be so many references in this letter to the promises. Surely that expresses quite clearly what was said by Paul on another occasion, that all the promises of God are in Him, Yea! and in Him, Amen! to the glory of God (2 Corinthians 1:20). So that just as the land was the land embracing all the promises, so now for us Christ is the land in which, in Whom, all the promises have their fulfilment and their realization. Every promise is gathered up in the Lord Jesus, is fulfilled already in Him in glory. It is important to realize that. There are no promises unfulfilled so far as He personally is concerned, though there is much yet to be of a further outworking. There is a sense in which He is yet to come into something. But His position now, as crowned with glory and honour, declares beyond any approach of doubt, or question, or chance, or risk that every promise is fulfilled. His exaltation is a present exaltation far above all rule and authority, principality and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but in that which is to come. He is established on high. So that in Him and in His present position every promise is fulfilled. For us that means that in Christ the fulfilment of every promise is already secured, and that there is such a thing as putting our foot down upon every promise and appropriating it by reason of full fellowship with Christ, of standing in Christ in fulness of faith. "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it..." That land is the land of the promises, which again is Christ.

It is a matter of importance to our faith and to our procedure to recognize that in Christ God has already secured for us the fulfilment of the promises. I believe that is why there is so much said about faith that is unwavering. In our asking, in our praying, we are bidden to have an unwavering faith, and the law which governs us, from the standpoint of the Divine mind, is that God has already in Christ secured everything. It is necessary for you and for me to recognize and fully grasp the fact of the completeness of the Divine work in Christ. Is it not true that a good deal of our failure is due to the fact that we have some doubt, some question, as to the outworking of things; or, to put that in another way, that we have not fully and sufficiently recognized that in the exaltation of the Lord Jesus the complete work of God is accomplished? It is only honouring to God to believe that His work in Christ is perfect, the whole work is done, in Him. There is nothing to be added to the work of God; it is complete, it is final.

There is a sense in which Christ will never be more exalted than He is now. He will be exalted amongst us, He will be exalted by us; but He Himself is already exalted, and in that sense He will never be in a higher position than He is in now. He has reached the highest. That means that God's work is full, complete, utter, final in the Lord Jesus, and, if that be true, the fact, again, proclaims that all the promises are settled in Christ. That is the ground of faith's advance unto possession. It is a question of putting the foot down upon something that God has done. That is the point of view of the book of Joshua - "I have given..."   The Lord never says that He is going to give. It is an accomplished fact with Him before ever He says that they are to advance.   Before the foot was placed in the land He said, "I have given..." "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it..." which, in effect, is to say, Go in and possess. That for us, then, applies to the promises of God.

Those promises are only ours in Christ. This means that a spiritual position, and a position of faith is basic to the realization of the promises. Our difficulty is not, as sometimes we may think it is, to get God to fulfil His promises, but rather to come to the place where we believe sufficiently to take it as a settled thing that the promises are fulfilled in Christ.

What are the promises for? The promises were never intended to be a matter of personal pleasure, either in the case of Israel or in our case. Perhaps that is a realm in which we never do come into the enjoyment of the promises. As the Lord's children we are often found in situations of personal embarrassment, personal difficulty, personal suffering, in a place where things for us are hard. At such times we are apt to take hold of some portion of the Word of God, and take that to the Lord and claim it for our deliverance. That may sometimes be all right, and yet if the motive should ever be definitely a purely personal one, we can take it for granted that the promise will have no fulfilment. How many have found that that is how it works. In a certain situation, by reason of some difficulty, trial, suffering, some adversity, you have gone to the Lord, taking His Word and pleading it before Him for a change of the situation, a deliverance, the bringing to pass or the removing of something, and you have found that you were up against a stone wall. You have discovered that you were knocking yourself to pieces, and you came to a standstill; you could get no further. It seemed that the heaven was closed, that there was no way through, no answering voice, no sense of a listening ear; and with deep heart exercise about the matter you have been tempted to doubt the promise, question the faithfulness of God, raise questions as to the truth of His Word. But in the final issue the Lord has shown you that something needed to be done in you.

You were reaching after some object that you wanted, which you thought was necessary and very important, but somewhere there was a secret personal interest, personal concern - unconscious perhaps, but in God's sight very real - which was making it impossible for you to accept that situation. You have come to see at length that your seeking of the Lord was not altogether because of the Divine interests bound up with the situation, but, at bottom, because of the way in which it affected yourself. The Lord had to bring a crisis in your experience, where you were perfectly willing to accept that trial in the will of God; that if so be the Lord wished it then you gave your full consent, and said: "Well, Lord, if this is Your will for me I accept it wholly and fully. All that I ask is to know that it is Your will, and, given that, then I accept it from my heart." When you reached that point the wall disappeared, and you had a sense that you were now getting through; and very often the thing for which you had been standing before the Lord was granted; deliverance came, a change took place. That is not always so, but it is very often the case.

In such experiences we learn that the promises are not for us as things for our personal interest, but wholly and utterly for the glory of Christ, to bring about a greater measure of the fulness of Christ in us. Thus, once more, through an ordeal, we have come to the place where it is " no longer I, but Christ." That is God's required ground for the fulfilment of His promises.

If you turn to the book of Joshua you will see that it can be interpreted very largely from that standpoint. Whenever personal interest came in there was a check in progress, an arrest upon possession. The promises are all intended to realize God's object, which is the fulness of Christ. When we put our feet down upon the promises with personal detachment and whole-hearted devotion to God's end, we are in the way of the fulfilment of the promises; or, more correctly, we come into the fulfilment that has already taken place in Christ.

So the promises are set forth in the Old Testament in relation to the land as comprising the fulness of Christ, and in the letter to the Hebrews the many references to the promises are brought into that particular relationship. Christ is now in full view: the promises are seen to be fulfilled in Him; and the promises thus secure are held in Him for us.

(b) The Covenants

What is true of the promises is true also of the covenants. Here again in this letter the word "covenant" is of frequent occurrence. At least nine times the word is mentioned, and that has its own significance. We know that these covenants were called the covenants of promise. Go back to the Old Testament again with its covenants, and you will find that they had reference to the land. The covenants made with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, all pointed on to the possessing of the land by their seed. God covenanted with them concerning the land.

In the letter to the Hebrews two covenants are specially mentioned, an old covenant and a new covenant; the covenant made with Israel concerning the land, and now the covenant made with the Church concerning the fulness of Christ. One was a type, an illustration, a foreshadowing of the other. And just as types and illustrations all fall short of the actuality, so the first covenant was but a shadow of the second, the last covenant, the covenant in His blood. The point is that it is covenant!

God covenanted to bring the children of Israel into the land, and here, again, is the ground of faith's strength as to coming to God's end. God from His side has made a covenant with us in the Blood of His Son, and that finds God giving Himself to the utmost; for that is the meaning of a covenant. If you study covenants in the Scriptures you will find that they represent a mutual giving in utterness on the part of those entering into the covenant.

We will not stay to illustrate that, but it can be clearly seen. There are always two sides to a covenant. That is why, in making a covenant, the sacrifice was divided in two. The one entering into the covenant stood by his half, and likewise the other. And in the making of covenants the essence of the declaration was that the parties to the covenant respectively gave themselves and their all to the other for a purpose; they held back nothing.

We have a marked illustration of this in the life of Abraham, in the familiar scene of Genesis 15.   There we see the sacrifice divided in two, each half laid over against the other, and Abraham taking his position by his part of the sacrifice, and the Lord also represented as being present. In effect, God was saying: From My side I swear by Myself, by all that I am and all that I have, that I give Myself to this end! Now Abraham had to take that position on his part and say: As for me, all that ever I have and am is given to God for His end! We read that in the course of time "it came to pass that God did prove Abraham." "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest... and offer him..."

Did you mean your part of the covenant, Abraham? Did you really mean everything, even your very life as bound up with that child if need be? And Abraham stood faithful to his part of the covenant. Then God came in and said further: "By myself have I sworn... that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed... because thou hast obeyed my voice"; "...because thou... hast not withheld thy son..." That is the utterness of a covenant, and God has given Himself by an oath that so far as He is concerned He will leave nothing undone to realize His end. This letter to the Hebrews is a call for an equal utterness on our part, along with the utterness of God in Christ, so that the covenant shall have a full realization.

So the letter concludes with one of the most glorious declarations and statements as to God having stood by His part of the covenant: "Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of the eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect (complete)..."

God's everlasting covenant could not be ratified if He left Christ in the grave. He has gone all the way, and in the raising of Christ from the dead He has done the utter thing to secure the end that He has in view, for you, for me, for all His own. The covenant concerns the fulness of Christ.

Now, we are made partners if we hold fast (Hebrews 3:14). There is nothing lacking in God. We shall never find that God falls short, and in view of the utterness of God's purpose we should be at pains to come into all that the Lord has designed. So this letter goes on earnestly and persistently to sound its appeal to us in various ways. To cite but one example, we turn to the close of chapter 5: "For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles... Wherefore let us... press on..." The covenant concerns the fulness of Christ in the Church. As Paul expresses it in the letter to the Ephesians, the Church is "the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Ephesians 1:23).

(c) The Description of the Land

As to the third thing very little need be said here. We are speaking of the fulness of Christ as the governing object represented in the Old Testament in these various ways: firstly, by the promises; secondly, by the covenant; thirdly, by the description of the land. You are familiar with the description of the land, and can read it again. It is a goodly land, says the Lord, a land flowing with milk and honey, barley, oil, olives, pomegranates, and with minerals in the hills (Deut. 8). I have been wondering if it is a fact that these resources have been very richly discovered in that particular land, or whether they have never yet been exploited. But here is the word about these various mineral resources in Palestine. The Lord gives a wonderful and glowing description of the land, and we know that the land has been the envy of every nation from the beginning. There is probably no country in this world which has been more the centre of rivalries than this particular country. All the great empires that have been have fought for it or over it. The Lord knew what He was doing when He chose that land. He did not choose Iceland, or Labrador, or some place like that. It would not have been suitable to His thought. He chose this particular land, which geographically is the centre of the world, and is such a land as to make possible tremendous enrichments.

Corresponding to the spiritual thought of God, this land would be an illustration for all time of His Son, the Lord Jesus, in Whom are all the riches of wisdom and knowledge, of Divine grace, the fulness of God. The description of the land is a wonderful revelation of God's thought concerning His Son.

(d) The Sabbath Rest

The letter to the Hebrews carries us back to Joshua. At one point, in the fourth chapter of this letter, referring to the sabbath rest, we read: "If Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God." That clearly indicates that God's thought of the land was that it should be for them the place of His sabbath rest. They never entered into that. For us there is the spiritual counterpart, and in this letter seven times at least the sabbath rest is referred to. Christ in fulness is God's Sabbath rest. He was that personal Sabbath, Who said: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matthew 11:28-29). Christ is the Sabbath rest in the land. The fulness of Christ is the Sabbath rest in experience.

There is a sense in which we find rest immediately we find Christ, in which our restlessness ceases when we come into a living relationship with the Lord Jesus. There is a further sense in which that rest enlarges as we go on with Him. To put that in another way, the more we livingly discover of Christ in an experimental way, the deeper our rest and satisfaction become. We have not yet entered into all that the Sabbath rest of God means, because we have not yet reached all the fulness of Christ. The urge in this letter, even concerning the Sabbath rest, is to believers. It is not occupied with the warning to sinners, lest they fail to come into Christ and initially find Him as their rest, but with believers, lest they fail to come to the fulness of Christ, which means God's Sabbath rest in completeness.

All this is what the Lord is seeking to bring us to. All these things in the Old Testament are gathered up into Christ, and the Lord's great desire is our going on, as set forth in these various and very real ways. What that going on is and means we have yet to consider, and by the grace of God we shall do so presently. For the moment we recognize the first implication of this. The Lord calls us by every urge, every exhortation, every encouragement, and even warning to go on. That going on, as we shall see, will be fraught with conflict, adversity, withstanding. Nevertheless, it all leads to God's end, it all leads to that final fulness. The challenge is as to whether we are willing to go on, in face of a mighty organized resistance and withstanding, an opposition working in various ways, openly and subtly, all to cause us to come to a premature standstill, to yield some ground which ought to be ours. That is the challenge. It comes to us right at the beginning.

There is the need and call for a resounding of this challenge and this exhortation. We are spiritually very much in the position in which these Hebrew believers were, and which gave occasion for this letter. They had just gone so far in abandoning earthly things, earthly religion, for heavenly things, the true spiritual realities, and in so doing they were coming up against a tremendous cost. They were put outside the camp and bitterly reproached for Christ's sake. Their standing, status, reputation, all came under a shadow, a cloud, and they found themselves in very great difficulties, even amongst the religious people, those who would call themselves the people of God, and were brought almost to a standstill. Yes, they had even begun to entertain thoughts of returning to earthly things; not worldly things necessarily, but earthly things, earthly religiousness. Because of the peril, because of what had already set in to stop their going on, this letter was written. It shows the promises, the covenants, God's great full-orbed desire for His people, and then says: Let us! Let us! Let us! Lest! Lest! Lest! Let us go on to full growth! These are the dominating words. Let us hear them in our hearts in a day when we too might sometimes feel that the way is too costly, that we are meeting too much in consequence of the position we have taken.   Let us hear the word: "...we are become partners with Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end..." The Lord help us.

Chapter 2 - Men of Faith

Reading: Joshua 1:1-11; Hebrews 3:14-15.

It is important that we should see that the promises, the covenants, the nature of the land, and the sabbath rest mentioned in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua have their real fulfilment in Christ. Historically, of course, all these promises and covenants related to Israel and the land, and there may still be a relatedness to Israel. It may still be that Israel will have the land in fulness, and the promises and covenants be fulfilled in a literal earthly way. But the fullest and highest realization of all those things is in Christ, in the Church, and it is not until the spiritual meaning of all those things is gathered up and realized in a raptured Church that Israel can have any earthly fulness at all.   When we, as the Church, have been raptured into the fulness that is in Christ, and that fulness has become an actual realization in the Church, then Israel will really begin to possess and come into her inheritance. It is important to see that, because it surely adds to the urge and strength of the appeal, and brings us face to face in a very real way with what the Lord is now seeking, and must have, a people who in a spiritual way come into the good of all this that is set forth.

God and the Men of Faith

The men of faith in the Old Testament were themselves led beyond a possible earthly realization to the heavenly; for although God made promises to them there was no full earthly realization because of continual failure.  Those who were with them, who were fellow-heirs of the promises and the covenants, broke down continually, and therefore it was not possible even for the men of faith to inherit. But in the midst of repeated declensions and failures the latter remained men of faith, who held fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end. You will notice that God came in with the men of faith, and led them away from the earthly to the heavenly, and gave them within their own hearts the assurance that, although they would not themselves realize the full meaning of the promises and the covenants in a literal way on the earth, they would inherit the value of that in a heavenly form. This clearly seems to be the meaning of such a statement as we find in John 8:56: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad." Or again, "...they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." (Heb. 11:16). That is going beyond the earthly. They were lifted beyond that which now became an impossible thing in their day, an earthly realization of the promises and covenants, and were given the assurance of a heavenly country: "For he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb. 11:10). That is not the earthly Jerusalem, it is something more. So men of faith, who held fast the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end, found the promises in a spiritual way translated from the earthlies to the heavenlies. That covers the whole of the letter to the Hebrews. It is faith by which we are lifted away from the earthlies to the heavenlies, and that which becomes an impossible thing here on the earth because of breakdown, and declension, and failure, is secured in an exalted Christ to men of faith, in Him Who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith, to Whom we are called to look off, even Jesus.

All this is gathered up in Christ crowned with glory and honour, and is to be realized in those who are partakers or partners in the heavenly calling; not the earthly now, but the heavenly. It is the heavenly calling, the heavenly vision, for a heavenly people, which is in view in this letter.

Thus it is that Christ governs every promise, every vision, every hope, every covenant. He dominates all: Abraham, whom we have seen before to represent election and promise; Isaac, representing sonship in resurrection; Jacob, chastening and service,  and Joseph in whom all these features are embodied and carried to the throne for the purpose of bringing fulness to the elect; and with Joseph the land comes into view when he gives commandment concerning his bones. So you see that all that is represented by Abraham (election and promise), Isaac (sonship and resurrection), Jacob (chastening in service), and Joseph (embodying all in the throne), is carried over to the land. The land represents it all, and becomes the embodiment of it. And now again you have Christ in the place of the land. It is all gathered up in Him Who embodies all that is signified by the land, and in Christ we come into all that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph mean in relation to the land. Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones, and that was faith's comprehension of the land of promise. The land was in view.

The Purpose of Chastening

It is important, and perhaps of special value, to realize that service comes at the end. Jacob is the third of the Patriarchs with whom the covenant was made. The covenant was never made with Joseph. The recurring word is always, "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," and although Joseph was a much fuller type than any of these it is never said, I am the God of Joseph, simply because Joseph was the embodiment of all the others; he included all the rest. So that Jacob becomes the end of the Divine association, and Jacob represents a disciplined or chastened service.

That is the key to the Lord's present dealings with ourselves, and we are carried to the end of the letter to the Hebrews with a bound; for with what is the concluding part of this letter occupied if not with training? "My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." The last word in that verse should not be rendered "receiveth." That is an unfortunately weak and perhaps misleading translation, because it would seem in a special way to relate the Lord's scourging of lives to the time of their coming into acceptance with Him. That is not the point at all. The more literal and correct translation is, "...and scourgeth every son whom he places." There is all the difference between receiving and placing. Here is something that signifies a graduation, an advanced movement in relation to the Lord. We are now in the course of that chastening, and that represents preparation for service.

What a lot we make of service in this life, as though for us here there were not another thing to compare with its importance. People seem to think that service is the thing above all other things which must dominate and characterize our relationship to the Lord. God forbid that ever we should be negligent in serving the Lord, but rather fervent in spirit serving Him; nevertheless, let us remember that very often the Lord places a great deal more importance upon our being fitted than upon our being used. That is why the Lord very often thinks it worth while to take people right out of work, and to call them aside and purify them through a long extended period of discipline. These are going to be vessels of great honour, great service, afterward.

The company that is to serve in the throne is to be a very chastened company. Only from the Divine point of view can I thus explain the intensity of the suffering of those who go all the way with the Lord, that it represents value to Him in usefulness in the ages to come. It seems to me that the Word clearly touches that.

That is, again, rather afield, but it should be helpful to us to understand why the Lord is dealing with us as He is. The point we are seeking to press is that the land is Christ, and He gathers up into Himself everything in connection with the Divine fulness, all the typical meaning that is found in Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

The Typical Meaning of Moses

Between Joseph and the land comes Moses. Moses occupies a very large place in that section between the command concerning Joseph's bones and the land in relation to which he gave the command. Moses stands for the making known of a condition and order of heavenly life which is God's unalterable and irreducible requirement. It is important to know that, because it sums up Moses. What does Moses stand for? How can you comprehend the significance of Moses? In the way we have named. He stands for the making known of a condition and order of heavenly life which is God's unalterable and irreducible requirement.

Everything that came through Moses was a pattern of heavenly things. The whole government in the wilderness was a government of Israel by heavenly laws; that is, Israel had to learn through Moses how to live on heavenly resources, when all earthly resources were cut off. It was intended to be a revelation of how they could do that, how they could live out from heaven when there was nothing on earth to live on. Everything in Moses was the making known of this heavenly condition and order required in His people by God. How God kept to His ground! If there was the slightest deviation, how the wrath and disfavour of God were manifested! They murmured for water. That was quite a natural thing to do. You and I would do so if we were in a desert and dying of thirst. They murmured for bread, for a change of diet from the manna. That is a very natural thing to do. Yes, that is the trouble. It was natural, and not spiritual. God was trying to teach them that there was sufficiency in Himself in heaven, when all other resources were closed up. It was an effort to make known by every means through Moses a heavenly company with a heavenly order and heavenly resources, and God showed His disapproval, His disfavour, His wrath, whenever there was a failure to recognize that heavenliness which He was seeking to make known to them.

This revelation of the heavenly order and condition was imposed upon them, but there was in their case no position or power to live up to it. The position and the power were lacking, and hence it became a law. When you speak of law you enter into the realm where something is put upon you whether you like it or not, and you have to recognize it. Whether you can keep it or not, it is there. Law never takes account of your condition, nor of your position. The law says a thing, and it remains unalterable whatever your condition and position may be.

From the Outward to the Inward

Now we are ready for the book of Joshua. How does the book of Joshua open? The Lord said unto Joshua, "Moses my servant is dead," and typically this introduces a new order. Jordan, as Paul makes very clear in his letter to the Romans, represents death to the law as an outward form of government. How? Let us remember that there is no such thing as death to the law apart from being alive to Christ. If you are not alive to Christ you are under the law, you are governed by the law. The only deliverance from the law is through the death of Christ unto the resurrection of Christ. It is resurrection that represents deliverance, and there can be no real death to the law in any powerful way, in any effective way, until you know what it is to be alive unto God in resurrection. Do you notice how very particular the Holy Spirit is in making that clear, especially through Paul? Whenever the dynamic for making the meaning of Christ's death a reality is in view, it is the resurrection of Christ that is mentioned. We are saved by His life.

The book of Joshua begins with the statement, "Moses my servant is dead..." What comes in with that? Is it not a new position, and a new power? A new position! They are over Jordan, and no longer under Moses in the wilderness. A new power! There is One Who is the Captain of the hosts of the Lord, to be, indeed, invisible for the rest of the campaign, but marvellously in operation, mighty in energy. Joshua takes up what is represented by the Angel of the Lord, and becomes the representation of the energy of the Holy Ghost operating in a new position. The Epistle to the Ephesians is the counterpart of that. In Ephesians we have the great opening declaration: "...hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ..." That is in the land spiritually, a new position in the heavenlies. Then Ephesians almost immediately goes on to speak of "...the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named..." That is the note of Ephesians, and it is also that of Hebrews: "...we behold Jesus... crowned with glory and honour..." The Ephesian position is in the heavenlies, where we are now blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, Who is the land, and with this position is associated "the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe."

That is the significance of the Lord's statement to Joshua, "Moses my servant is dead..." It makes something more possible, namely, a new position, a new energy, a further development. It is no longer the imposition of something outward upon us as God's irreducible minimum, to which we cannot for a moment stand up, by reason of our weakness, but is now a position in Christ with an energy which is the energy of the Holy Ghost, the exceeding greatness of His power making possible an attaining unto all the revealed fulness of the Divine will.

Before concluding this further meditation on the Object, we first need to face the fact that

God's Will is Clearly Made Known

He desires His people to come to His fulness, and all His highest designs are inseparably connected with that revealed will, that object. All His highest designs are bound up with our going on to God's end, the fulness of Christ, and their full meaning can never be realized by us except as we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. The point is that it is made clear that God's will is that we should go on to the fulness.

Three Courses are Possible

Three courses are possible as seen in the case of Israel.

(a) To Die in the Wilderness

It is possible, although out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness. What does that mean? On the one hand, it is to fail to come into the realm of that fulness of God in Christ which was intended for us. On the other hand, how can we fail? Israel's history tells us quite clearly that we may do so through carnal mindedness, a merely carnal Christianity. It is against that that the Apostle Paul warns so strongly. How often he says, "are ye not carnal!" Saved, out of Egypt, but carnal, the flesh more dominant than the spirit. In that case you die in the wilderness; that is, you fail to reach God's end and to attain unto the realization of God's revealed will.

(b) To Compromise for Present Satisfaction

The second possibility is that which is represented by the two and a half tribes, who said, "Bring us not over this Jordan." They sought their inheritance on the other side of Jordan. You know the nature of that choice. They saw a goodly land, a fruitful patch, something that could be had without all the difficulty and cost of the conflict. They set their hearts upon it. They made a compromise. In a word, they refused to pay the price of utterness.

They speak to us of that kind of life and service which has its fulness in present, seen things, in quick results, quick returns; which is occupied with much activity which is itself the satisfaction, or becomes the satisfaction. So many people think that if they can but keep busy in the Name of the Lord they are getting on splendidly. They find their satisfaction in the fact that they are doing a lot, and not in the ultimate spiritual values. A great many such people eventually wake up to discover that they have been very busy but not very effective. In all their busy-ness and activity, in which they have found so much pleasure, so much personal gratification, there is not a great deal, after all, of that which abides eternally to the satisfaction of God. It is a very dangerous realm to get into. The two and a half tribes made a compromise, in which they sought for the quick return, the immediate satisfaction.

(c) To go on to the Fulness

The third possibility is that of going on unto all the spiritual and heavenly fulness of Christ, which is, nevertheless, a life of sheer faith and intense conflict.

Those three possibilities confront us. We can die in the wilderness; we can compromise for present satisfaction; or we can go on in faith, in the conflict. The latter has ever in it that factor which seems to say that however great the progress there is far more ground yet to be gained. Every bit of gain is as nothing because of the realization that there is so much farther to go. Because of the intensity of the antagonism of the enemy, the severity of the conflict, we are always more conscious of the arduousness of the road than of the attainment of the fulness. Ah, but it is going on all the same. These are the alternatives we have to face.

2. The Urgency

Bear with me for a moment or two while I deal with that which is perhaps the least pleasant side of things.

The Possibility of Failure Through Heart-defection

That fact is hammered out in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Israel's history is employed repeatedly as a basis of urge, and appeal, and warning. In the Psalms and the Epistles you hear this refrain repeatedly: "Harden not your hearts as in the provocation...". That tragic phase is constantly brought up as a ground of urging, appealing, warning.

This possibility of failure has its occasion in a state of heart. This tremendous element of contingency and doubt which seems to run through the Word of God, with reference to believers, is not related to our salvation. When you are dealing with salvation you are dealing with affirmatives, with positives all the time, there is a strong note of confident assurance; but when you are dealing with the full purpose of God, the goal, the prize, all that is meant by the heavenly calling, you find an element all the time of contingency and doubt. It is represented in that long series of "ifs" - "If we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end." "Whose house are we if..." You cannot get over them, and you cannot get round them; they face you as you read through. Paul gathered his whole final energy up under the urgency of a mighty "if" - "If by any means I may attain...."

This precariousness is based upon, or rises out of, a state of heart. In the book of Joshua we find a series of elements which were calculated to bring about this failure again, even over Jordan, calculated to hinder the fulness to which the Lord would bring His people. And each one of these elements was calculated to reveal an appeal to a new state and had its occasion there.

Now this is the word we must consider before we come to the end of this meditation. These elements seen in the book of Joshua were calculated to frustrate the end of God in His people by discovering and securing a certain state of heart as the basis of their success.

Take again the case of the two and a half tribes. Do you notice what was said when they made their bid for that early settlement on the other side of Jordan? "And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel..." (Numbers 32:7). Then in the first place they represented something which would take the energy, the wholehearted devotion, out of the Lord's people. So it is possible for the hearts of the Lord's people to be thus seduced. There was the peril of a state of heart that was not after this kind: God has made it clear that His purpose is so-and-so: whatever other people do, I am going on to that: other people may stop short and seem to have a good time, and have much blessing, but I have seen that God has set something beyond that as His goal, and whatever other people do that is my objective.

"My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,

Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;

'Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His -

At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!"

The state described in the latter half of the verse does not apply to the two and a half tribes, because their heart was not like that, and therefore they became a menace. The Devil knows the state of our hearts, and very subtly can he work to appeal to it.

As to the two and a half tribes themselves, they speak to us of present benefit in relation to the Lord apart from suffering. They represent those who say, It is not necessary to be so utter. Why be so intense? Why be so utter? Sometimes the word fanatical is used. It is not necessary! Why not be just content with trusting and enjoying the Lord, having a nice simple Christian life? Why all this complication of the Christian life? That argument may sound all right, and often Scripture is quoted - "...the simplicity that is in Christ." A Scripture like that is used against what is called the complicated kind of Christian life, represented by these people who are always reaching out for more. Why not enjoy the Lord in a nice, happy, comfortable way? Well, allowing that it is possible to be wrongly intense, and to make a terrific strain of the Christian life (I do not believe the Lord wants that), the whole matter is determined for us by the fact that it is not a question of what I want, of the kind of life I would choose, or whether it should be pleasant or trying, but it is a question of what the Lord wants. What does the Lord want? Has the Lord shown that He wants a people who will reach out for His utmost? Paul, you are so strenuous. Why do you talk like that? Why do you say, "if by any means I may attain?" You are an old man now; surely you can begin to take it easy; you know the Lord in a wonderful way, you have a wonderful history. Paul, do not be so strenuous! Paul would answer: Do you think that, after all, it is merely a matter of my temperament, of my likes or dislikes? If I were to consider myself I would certainly begin to take it easy, but I see that the Lord has set a standard, a position which relates to an eternal purpose of usefulness and glory to Him to which I have not yet attained, and I gather up everything in the last lap and concentrate upon that. Call it intensity if you like, but "leaving the things which are behind... I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

The two and a half tribes were of quite another spirit. They were people who were considering themselves in the Christian life and not the Lord. Had they for one moment sat down and said, What does the Lord want? instead of, What can we have? they would have gone on. The answer was clear and emphatic. There was no doubt that the Lord's revealed will was that they should go over Jordan, and on to the end. They compromised, and their descendants can be heard today saying, Oh, it is not necessary to have this kind of Christian life, where you are always reaching on and never satisfied! Be content! Why? Because it is much easier, and much nicer. Is that all that matters? Is it to be our one concern that things should be pleasant, and nice, and comfortable? Is it that or is it the will of God that is to govern us? The occasion of the enemy is found in a state of heart, to deter, to arrest, to limit.

The Lesson of Achan

Then we pass to the next phase, and here we meet with Achan. What does Achan represent? Another Satanic trick to arrest progress, to hold up, to check, to curtail. Again it is clearly personal interest that comes in. How? A mighty blessing has been given of the Lord, a tremendous victory. There has been a great gain, a coming into possession, a manifesting of the Lord's presence and power at Jericho, and out of the midst of the very blessing of the Lord, Achan takes something for himself. How often that has been the undoing and the arrest of blessing. The very blessings of the Lord are turned to personal account. When the Lord has blessed and prospered, how many people have not themselves become something? Here is a successful movement! Here is my chance! There is a laying hold of that work, and a turning of it to personal account. That is the history of things. The most dangerous time for the work of God is the time of blessing. You will always find people coming in when there is blessing, not because they have God's end in view, but because a realm of blessing means personal good. God gave Jericho into the hands of Israel, and as He did so Achan took something into his own hands; took it for himself, for his own enjoyment, and his own glory, and made the very fruits of blessing personal ends. Oh, the Devil is very subtle. The whole course was at once brought under arrest and disaster.

The Lord is calling us on to the fulness of Christ, and sometimes on the way He may let us see the working of His power, that He is with us. The world may be against us, the Devil may be withstanding, and the Lord lets us see in some little way that He is with us. And then alongside of that there comes the most awful peril, in that we snap our fingers at everything and everybody, and at the Devil himself. We are supported by the Lord in the position we have taken! We are vindicated! That is a perilous position. The Lord may have to say, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven! Do not find any personal gratification in the fact that the demons are subject unto you! It is all in the same realm as glorying in a wrong way in the blessings of the Lord. We have to go on steadily, and take our encouragements when they come, thank the Lord quietly for them, and get on with the main business, not staying to gloat over the fruits of the Lord's blessing in a personal way.

There is a great deal of ground covered by that. It is often a source of so much gratification if only you can tell people of the success that is coming to you in the work of the Lord, how many people are coming, how many souls are being saved, how you are being used, how the Lord's seal is upon you. All unconsciously we take hold of the honour for our own flesh. The Lord has to hide so much from us, because it is dangerous for us; our flesh makes it dangerous. We shall be tried by blessing as well as by adversity. The keenest fires of trial are often those of success or prosperity. Such tests discover whether our hearts are fixed upon the Lord or upon things.

A Lie in Disguise

Next we come to the Gibeonites. The thing that is said about the Gibeonites, and which sums them up, is this: "They also did work wilily..." (Joshua 9:4).  Lies, and flattery, and sentiment all working together.

Flattery! Oh, we know that you are the Lord's people! We know the Lord is with you! We have heard all about it! We have no doubt whatever that you are specially led of God! You are bound to succeed!

Lies! You are familiar with the lies of the Gibeonites. They are recorded in chapter nine of the book of Joshua.

Sentiment! Though we started out on this long journey with new wineskins, and warm bread from the oven in our bags, see how tired out we are, and how worn out these wineskins are: and all because we believe in you! We know the Lord is with you, and we appeal to your kind-heartedness!

It is very striking that when Paul in chapter 6 of the letter to the Ephesians exhorts believers to take unto them the whole armour of God he does not say, Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fierce onslaughts of the Devil. You would expect him to say that, when he has told of such an equipment; a helmet of salvation, a breastplate of righteousness, a shield of faith, a girdle of truth, and a sword of the Spirit. This surely means that the Devil is coming in with fierce onslaughts. No! The Scripture is, "...that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." All this provision of God is given to that end.

What is the object of the Devil? Arrest! And what are we to say of the alliance with the Gibeonites? Something which ought to have been slain became an institution. That peril is not so far from us as it pretends to be. The Gibeonites said to Joshua: "From a very far country thy servants are come..." when as a matter of fact they were next door neighbours. The peril is much nearer to us than perhaps we realize.

The Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal

What are we to gather from this? What was the nature of the breakdown?

To put it into a sentence it was the wisdom of man seeking to deal with the wit of the Devil. The Gibeonites came to the elders and the princes of Israel, who listened to their tales, heard their arguments and their appeals, became soft under their sentiment, and made a covenant with them. The princes of Israel! A prince is one who is supposed to have judgment and understanding, but here these princes and elders of Israel dealt with the thing by the hearing of their ears, and the sight of their eyes, and the judgment of their own hearts.

Arrest from going to the full end of God, the fulness of Christ, has often been brought about by our trying to counter the works of the enemy with our own human wisdom. Let us have it settled clearly, once for all, that our need in this heavenly realm of warfare is of a spirit of wisdom, understanding, discernment; for the enemy has ways of coming along to bring us into a compromised condition by very plausible presentations to get something established in the midst of us which will be a thorn in our sides. It is easier to let that in than to get it out. Oh, for wisdom that does not fix its gaze upon merely sentimental ground, or on the ground of reason, but wants new creation ground all the time. The one word in the mouth of the Gibeonites was "old." Now Israel is in the new creation, and has nothing to do with old things. The enemy cannot be met on old creation ground of human wisdom; it is necessary for the new creation ground to be occupied, and for us to partake of the mind of Christ.

It would not have been long before the elders of Israel detected the deception had they gone to the Lord about this, and said, Lord, this sounds all right; we cannot see anything wrong with it; the argument is good and the situation for these men seems very desperate; they appear to be very honest, very sincere, and all the evidences seem to support their position; nevertheless, Lord, this situation cannot be settled until we get more light; we are in the realm where we are very capable of being misled. The Lord in faithfulness would have come in and said, Be careful what you do with those men. The Devil has laid a trap for you.

I believe a good deal of that goes on, and we do know something of it. From time to time, in the face of a situation which seems to be perfectly good and right the Lord inwardly says, Be careful! Do not commit yourself to that! You will discover later on what is wrong with it! And so we do. We are in a realm where it is so necessary for us to walk in the Spirit, because only the Spirit can keep us moving on in a clear way to the fulness; for if in a case like that of the two and a half tribes, or Achan, or the Gibeonites, we come down on to the natural ground in our endeavour to deal with heavenly things, with spiritual forces, we are bound to have our course checked, and our progress toward the Divine fulness brought under arrest.

Beware  of any  alliance with the enemy through a lie. Take the helmet of salvation against the wiles of the Devil. Now why should the head be covered against wiles, and why should that covering be salvation? We take it that if the enemy can injure your head you will not stand up very long. What is the thing at which he is constantly aiming which represents the helmet, the head covering? It is the assured fact that in Christ Jesus our salvation is secured. The enemy is always trying to upset that, to cut through that, to strike us down at that point of the certainty of our salvation, the crowning reality that through faith in the Lord Jesus we are saved. This wile of the Devil has ever that object in view. He will never give that up, and it is in the heavenlies that that battle is fought more intensely than anywhere. That is to say, it is when you come on into the fuller ranges of the spiritual life that the intensity of the dispute concerning the fact of our salvation is encountered. It is strange that the most devoted, and perhaps most advanced, child of God is the object of assault as to that very thing. The young Christian never doubts his or her salvation, but lives in the full confidence and assurance of it. Somehow or other it is those who have gone a long way with the Lord who come under this terrific assault as to the security of their salvation after all. It shows that the more you get into the heavenly realm, the sphere of the naked forces of the Devil, the more intense is their assault upon you in the realm of your mind about your salvation. So the head must be covered.

Then the breastplate of righteousness has to be taken against the Devil's wiles. How often the enemy succeeds in getting even experienced believers to try to find some ground of their justification, their acceptance with God, in themselves; something in themselves that they can offer to God, that they can stand upon as a ground of assurance. No! Never! If ever the enemy can get us away from the righteousness of Christ as the ground of our acceptance, he has suspended our course, he has arrested our progress. This wile of the Devil has as its object the moving of us from the basic ground that it is Christ's righteousness that answers to God for us, and not our own.

Then the girdle of truth has to be taken against the wiles of the Devil, and likewise the shield of faith. He stands at nothing. Nothing is sacred with him. Nothing is ever thought to be too settled, too sacred, too assured for his assault. He will try anything, if only he can stop our going on with the Lord.

Take the New Testament with all these letters in it, and what have you? A mass of material which had to do with this abiding and persistent peril of the people of God stopping short in their spiritual life, and to deal with it. It is remarkable that such material so far outweighs the addresses and sermons given to the unsaved. You would think, seeing it was the beginning of things, the evangelization of the world in its first great movement, the great gathering in of the unsaved, that all the wonderful Gospel messages by which these people were saved would be recorded. There is very little of that kind of thing. What you do find is a whole volume of material dealing with this peril that confronts the people of God, the peril of stopping short in their spiritual progress. All this was intended to urge them on, ever on, because the whole force of the powers of darkness was gathered and concentrated upon arresting spiritual growth, upon preventing a coming to the fulness of Christ which was God's intention.

The Fact of Victory Through Heavenly Union

Now what is the final thing? Not that we shall be able to deal with it, but we must close with it in mind. The book of Joshua represents another side of things. There were checks, there were interventions, but there was another side. There was Jericho and its conquest, and there was victory the second time at Ai, there were mighty conquests; all speaking of an ascendency, a dominion, a throne union with the Lord. And if there is but a partial presentation of that truth in the book of Joshua, there is a very full unveiling of it in the New Testament, especially through Paul's letters. There is for us now a spiritual union with Him Who is crowned with glory and honour, a spiritual union with Him in His authority, by which the forces of the enemy can be outwitted, outmanoeuvred and overthrown. Is not that the meaning of the declaration in Ephesians, "in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." It is to that we must come in order to go on. We shall never go right on until we know our heavenly union with Christ, our union with Him as in the throne. It is a real working thing, by which we are made aware of the lies of the Devil, and strengthened with all might by God's Spirit in the inward man to meet his fury.

It is a position and a power to be known now over all the power of the enemy. The Lord lead us into it.

Chapter 3 - The Call to the Throne

Reading: Psalm 78.

God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. (Heb. 1:1-2).

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. (Heb. 2:1).

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus... Wherefore, even as the Holy Spirit saith, Today if ye shall hear his voice... for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. (Heb. 3:1,7,14).

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. (Heb. 4:1).

We have seen that the heavenly calling to partnership with Christ in His exaltation and enthronement is opposed by the enemy with every available resource at his command. This in itself surely constitutes a need for wholehearted abandonment to going on. The very fact that God's full end is so strongly, and persistently, and relentlessly withstood is a strong call to the Lord's people to take heed that on their part there is no reservation in their devotion, their diligence, their application to pressing forward, to answering the call which rings out in this letter, "Let us go on".

The Voice that Calls Related to the Entire Course

The voice that continually appeals to us with regard to the heavenly calling, is not confined only to what is represented by the wilderness position of Israel. It is true that the words are used repeatedly in that connection: "Today, if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation... in the wilderness..." That, of course, would closely correspond with the position at Corinth in the Church dispensation in the New Testament, and it is significant that to the Corinthians that wilderness position was cited as a warning. Read again the tenth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians: "For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, how that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ. Howbeit with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness." It was of these same that God said elsewhere, "They shall not enter into my rest." This was brought up to the Corinthians by way of warning, to awaken them to the fact that such a state as they were now in made it all too possible for Israel's experience to be repeated in them spiritually, and for them to come short of all that the Lord had called them unto.

We were saying that this appeal, or this voice that calls from above, does not refer to what is represented by the wilderness position alone; it refers also to the land. The Psalm to which we have referred is a very full, strong foundation for a meditation like this. There are two main parts of that Psalm. The long section up to verse 53 deals with Egypt and the tragedy of the wilderness. Then up to verse 64 the land is brought into view, and the same things are said about what happened in the land as about what happened in the wilderness. Even when the people had come into the land, and the Lord had subdued their enemies and given them those mighty victories, they did as their fathers had done in the wilderness: they turned aside; they were as a deceitful bow; they did not reach the mark.

A deceitful bow! That is a very suggestive phrase. What is a deceitful bow? Well, you may take a bow, draw it, and let fly the arrow, and, while you have taken direct aim, and are quite sure that you have got direction from the mark, your arrow goes out of the straight, it misses the mark. You look at the bow, and wonder what is the matter with it. It looks all right, as far as you can see it is straight: you adjust it as far as you can; and then you try again, but the same thing happens. What is the matter? Somehow it is just at the instant when the bow is relaxed to let the arrow go that something gives out, something wavers; there is something in the bow that goes out of the straight when the strain is put on it. When it comes to the actual moment of execution there is something in the very substance that throws things out of the straight and the mark is never reached.

So it is in the case before us. While these people claimed and professed to be all right, while they thought all was well, there was something in them that, when it came to the real test, never reached the mark. They were like a deceitful bow; a profession, an appearance, but when it came to execution there was something that gave out every time, something that was not just true. When it came to the test it was discovered that there was something there in the make-up which upset the whole purpose for which God had called them. A deceitful bow means more than that, but that is a simple interpretation which at once suggests itself.

Now all this took place in the land, which corresponds in the New Testament with Ephesians, not Corinthians. This is a very much higher position, and you notice that the voice of entreaty is as much heard here in the land as it was previously heard in the wilderness. There is a need to recognise that this "today" is not just the "today" of the more elementary stages of Christian life, of that realm where in wilderness conditions we have not reached any real point of spiritual maturity, where we have not come into fuller light and blessing. All the way through, even after the heavenly position, the heavenly life has been disclosed to us and we have taken action in relation to that enlargement of our vision, there still sounds in our ear this tremendous, critical "today." The voice will continue in our behalf until we are either no longer able to hear it because we have stifled it, or, on the other hand, if we are of such as give heed, until we reach the glory. There will never be a point in our course here where that voice will cease to be heard by those who are ready to hear. It is a case of going on to God's full end.

A Peril of the Way

In our previous meditation we were speaking of the urgency of going on, and of the deterrents and hindrances that are to be met with in the endeavour. Lack of time prevented our dealing with the final one, in which the people are seen to have made such a measure of progress, and to have received so large a portion of the inheritance, that they began to take it easy. There were some heights yet to be scaled, to be captured, still some forces higher up to be dislodged, but they had taken so much territory that they deemed it to be enough and began to settle down. The tragedy of the four hundred years of the Judges is simply the story of stopping too soon, failing to recognise that the voice never ceases until the last fragment of spiritual territory has been possessed. The point is that the voice ("Today, if ye shall hear his voice") related abidingly to God's full end, which is the throne, and all that that means of partnership with Christ. This is clearly borne out by the book of the Revelation. There that which corresponds to His voice in Israel is to be seen in the phrase, "the Spirit saith" - "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith". If you look at the connection of that phrase in the letters to the churches, you will see that it all had to do with deterrents, hindrances, oppositions of the enemy, subtle traps and deceptions, the manifold activity of the enemy to stop those people of God from going on. The Lord warns them of those things, urging them on. Even to those to whom the Lord could say the best things He has to conclude with the words which at least indicate the tendency to stop short and not press on to the goal on the part of some: "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith..."   That is only another way of saying, "Today, if ye shall hear his voice". It is all connected with going on to God's full end, pointing out how dangerous it is at any time to stop or to be stopped before that end is reached.

No doubt your hearts are alive to this situation.   It is not mere theory with you, not so much talk. There is a terrific withstanding of spiritual advance, spiritual progress, spiritual growth. Every desire and every intent to go on further with the Lord is met by powerful counterforces of evil. We are, so to speak, buying our knowledge of the Lord at a great price. We are coming into the greater measures of Christ by intense suffering. Our progress in the spiritual life is fraught with very great conflict.

The voice of the Lord is sounding. The Lord is telling us today that even as there has always been this fierce opposition to progress so it will ever be, and yet more intense. We have to recognise the fact that every inch of ground in the matter of our apprehension of Christ will be contested by the enemy with the utmost intensity of withstanding and resistance; that we shall never make any progress except by girding up our loins, and with this unreserved, wholehearted abandonment, setting ourselves to go on to the end. It is a call to our hearts which is needed anew at this time.

Now, to bring all this to some immediate practical meaning and issue, let us point out, in the first place, that

God's End has Two Phases

There is the end itself, and then there is the progress toward the end. We deal now with the end itself.

The End Itself

God's end, as we have seen, is that which is expressed in these words, "Partners with Christ". The book of the Revelation shows us what that means as a goal: "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and am sat down with my Father in his throne." That is partnership with Christ, but that is not going to be shared and enjoyed by every Christian. Multitudes will fail and come short of that. But that is God's design for His children, that is God's end.

Let us be careful of an inadequate mentality in this respect and not be too literal in our mental pictures of sitting down alongside of Christ upon a throne: for how even a limited number could do so literally immediately becomes a problem, and, of course, that shows the absurdity of interpreting the thought wholly in a literal sense. As we have often sought to point out, its meaning is that a company is to be brought into a union with Christ in His governmental position in relation to all else throughout the coming ages. The end is to be in position with Him in His governmental administration. It is this that is challenged up to the hilt by the enemy, and everything that touches it he immediately seeks to counter.

You may have the life of the two and a half tribes if you so desire, but you will never come into the governmental position, the meaning of the throne. What is more, the former will always prove to have been less than what God purposes, and the knowledge of it must sooner or later find us out. Was it not in that very connection the Lord's servant said, "be sure your sin will find you out." That is not to say, Be sure your sin will be found out. It will find you out. What is the meaning of that? Sometime or other you will come to say: Well, I was a fool! I might have had far more than I have. God intended me to have it. This that I have is proving, after all, to be much less than what God called me unto. You will exclaim, just as Saul exclaimed, I have played the fool! That is your sin finding you out. It is bound to come to that, to the recognition that God purposed much more than we, because of the conflict and the suffering involved, were prepared to accept.

However, the Lord will have a company in governmental fellowship with Himself. He will sift, and sift again, but He will have that company; and it is for us to recognise the fact that He has made that known to us. That is a matter of importance. Just pigeon-hole all the questions and problems that arise about others who have not had it made known to them, and face the fact that He has made it known to us. As Sovereign, God can do as He likes about these matters. He has made known to some (not to us alone) in the earth what is His full end, and the making of it known has constituted His call, His voice. When God has made known to us His mind we are left at once with a great responsibility; but I think, if we did but know it we are even then in a peculiarly blessed position, although it does not always look like it.

It is rather a difficult matter to explain, but when you come to consider it closely you will probably find yourself forming a judgment somewhat like this: Well, I do not know that I asked the Lord to show me this utter way, and by showing it to me involve me in the awful responsibility of refusing or accepting, but evidently the primary fact is that I am the recipient of a great honour from the Lord in that I have heard His call to the throne. I have been slow to recognise the honour because of all that is bound up with it of suffering, but above everything else it is a great honour to be called to the throne. There is in the next place something which is compensatory.   I am conscious of the suffering, I often weaken in the fight, fail the Lord in the way, and feel the total impossibility of going on, but inasmuch as I have responded to His voice, and, given grace, am going on despite the cost, I have learned at length that in the deepest sense the responsibility was not really left with me.

Many have thus felt the responsibility, and have taken it on, and the Lord has constantly come to us in the time that we realised that we could not bear it any longer and shown us that He was bearing it. You and I have not gone on because we have clenched our fists and said, I am going on! There have been times when we have not been able to do that. Our hands have hung limp, and we have been incapable in ourselves of taking another step, yet we have gone on. There is, back of all, a responsibility which is being taken by God on the ground that our faces are in the right direction and our hearts are toward the Lord, and in spite of our ability to do anything, or our inability to do anything, the Lord has kept us going. Many times He has come down to the depths and lifted us up. Mark you, the Lord will see us right through to His end, so long as we do not deliberately close our hearts to His call, His voice, so long as we do not deliberately say, I am not going any further! I am going to give it all up! That is really the state to which Israel came. They hardened their hearts. It is not a question of the ability of our hearts to go on, but of the maintaining of our hearts open toward God, and of His seeing us through. It depends upon the heart direction, and not upon the strength that is in us to go in that direction. The Lord takes responsibility for that to the end.

The end is throne partnership, fellowship, with Christ in His administrative position as universal Lord, King of kings.

Progress Toward the End

The other phase is present progressive knowledge of throne government. We have constantly to keep in mind that the throne is not only something that stands in solitary isolation at a certain point which we shall one day reach. The throne is in practical operation now in a spiritual way, and we have to come progressively into fellowship with that present administration of Christ. Back of everything the Lord is Lord. There are plenty of enemies in the land; strong, walled-up cities; a great deal to encounter, but back of it all the Lord is the Lord. Our course is to come into spiritual fellowship with the Lord in His lordship, in His dominion, in His authority. I think that strikes at the heart of this whole matter. It is the matter of a spiritual position with the Lord in present dominion over the enemy and all his power in a progressive and growing way.

The Lord tried to teach Israel that lesson all the way along from Egypt onward, but that generation failed to learn. The next generation was brought in on that very basis. The one thing that the Lord laid as a foundation to the history of that second generation was at Jericho, the lesson that faith, sheer, naked faith, and sometimes for a long time silent faith, brings  into a fellowship with Him in His dominion, His authority, His government, which eventually issues in the overthrow, symbolically and representatively, of all the power of the enemy; for there were seven nations in the land to be overthrown, and the people had to walk seven times round Jericho. Thus Jericho was in  representation the whole land, and the principle of the conquest of the whole land was established there, namely, faith in God's absolute supremacy. That was to be the principle of every step of  conquest.

That is what the Lord is seeking to bring us progressively into now. He would have spiritual authority and dominion over the power of the enemy to be known of us now in that progressive and ever growing way which eventually emerges, so to speak, in the throne. So that the throne is not viewed as something detached, isolated, something in itself, but as the end and issue of a course. You and I are progressively moving now in relation to the throne, and the ultimate step will be but the consummation of what has  been going on in a spiritual way all the time.

May we not truly believe (oh, that we always remembered it) that every fresh challenge, every fresh difficulty, every fresh adversity which the Lord allows to come in our way here is just the sounding of His voice, some fresh phase of that upward calling, just a fresh opportunity and challenge to take that faith position by which we shall prove that He is more than a match for every challenge. That is perhaps one fresh difficulty, this fresh problem, is a challenge and a call to a new spiritual ascendency, and the whole thing will not be solved, will not be explained, will not really be put under our feet, until we have ceased crying to the Lord for an explanation; ceased pleading with Him to come and handle the situation, and have taken a new position in the Lord in relation to it. "Wherefore criest thou unto me? ...lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand..." (Ex. 14:15-16). To act so is to relate the course of the conflict and all its details continuously to God's end.

God's end, then, has these two phases. Every kind of Satanic pressure and subtlety will be directed to arrest and paralyse spiritual progress. We have said enough about that already, but it is as well to bring it before us as concrete fact. We shall have to recognise more than we have ever done that certain things which are weakening to our progress, weakening to our spiritual position, weakening to the testimony of the Lord, are not merely human elements, not merely natural situations.

Take the matter of fellowship. There are few matters which go to the heart of the Lord's testimony more than the matter of fellowship between the Lord's people, and especially where there is particular responsibility for His testimony. The drive of the enemy and all his subtle and diabolical wit, as well as his pressure and his misrepresentations, will be directed toward destroying that relationship of fellowship. He will seek somehow to divide believers, and get in between. And if you are not careful you will resolve all such matters into merely natural problems and say: Well, it is incompatibility of temper! So-and-so is made this way, and the other person is made that way; you can never blend people who are so different in temperament and outlook! If you allow a conclusion of that kind your testimony is gone; you may as well abandon your position in the Lord and go and scour the world for people who in everything see eye to eye. Does it mean that the Lord's work, as entrusted to two or three or more together in one place, can only continue in so far as these children of His are able at all times to get on with one another on a natural basis? The Lord help His work if that is what is required. We have to look deeper than that. This drive on fellowships and relationships is Satanic. There may be ground, there may be human elements, but those concerned should take this attitude toward one another: The Lord's testimony is bound up with our oneness; the Devil will do everything he can to destroy that, and to strike a blow, therefore, at the testimony! You and I are going to be one in the name of the Lord, and stand our ground against the enemy! There we have something altogether different from the attempt to get on with one another on a natural basis, we have a dynamic for fellowship. We have to get on with one another in the name of the Lord, or else the Lord's testimony is not established. There is something much bigger than a natural or human situation to be dealt with, and when we realise that back of what may truly be natural difficulties there is always something else at work, and that therefore we must keep these natural things in the place of the Cross, and stand together against the enemy, we will get through; but we will never do so by spending a lot of time trying to adjust ourselves to one another, and seeing how far we can work together. Standing shoulder to shoulder against the enemy who is assailing fellowship, we will find the way of triumphant fellowship. Come down on the natural level, and the enemy will soon make terrible havoc of the whole relationship.

Remember, then, that all these things which sometimes seem to be so natural are in principle deeper down, and the activity of the enemy is behind them in his seeking to circumvent that gain, that advance, that increase, that attaining unto dominion, and he must be withstood in these matters.

The Calling is Positive

In every situation and at all times the calling is positive. That heavenly calling is never negative, never neutral, never passive, but always positive. You may not have very much in your daily life to make the calling seem positive. It may be you go to business in the morning and fulfil your daily work, the trivial round, the common task, as we say, with very little variety entering into it. It is the same round day after day, week after week, month after month; the same people, the same surroundings, the same activities very largely. Only on the rarest occasion does something specially interesting come into the daily course. It would be so easy in a situation like that to say: Well, in my sphere of life there is not much of the glamour of a heavenly calling! My work is plain and simple. I have just to get on with it every day, and I see very little else beyond it. Remember that at all times, in all circumstances, the calling is positive.

Every day will provide some opportunity for you to learn spiritual ascendency; some occasion for you to bring in the value of your relationship with the Lord; to put to the test the resources which you have in Christ; to grow in grace; to know victories. How do you know but that in that very uninteresting, perhaps unpromising sphere of life you are on test on some of those great matters, such as faith, patience, or patient endurance. It would be interesting to know exactly what the throne of the Lord is made of. When we come to that throne, I wonder whether we shall find a throne of gold in a literal sense, or whether we shall find it made up of many things? When we come to analyse the throne we may find that it is made up of patience, faith, endurance, and all such moral elements, and that these elements constitute the power by which He governs. It is sharing the patience of Jesus Christ which is sharing the throne. There is something mighty in the ultimate outworking of the patience of Jesus, the faith of Jesus Christ, the endurance. These are the constituents of His throne.

He is working throne elements into us now in the drab, uninteresting life day by day. You may be on test for the throne. There may be bound up with the least interesting course of life some very, very real intention of the Lord. Let us remember that the heavenly calling is always positive, in all circumstances, in all places. We are on test for the throne, as to whether it shall function through us both here and hereafter.

Today!

"Today if ye shall hear his voice..." Today, is while there is progress to be made, and while there is opportunity afforded. Progress can yet be made, therefore it is still "today". When the day ends there is no more progress to be made. There is opportunity today. When opportunity ends it will be no longer "today".

The Lord give us a response in our hearts to the call, to the voice, which is, Today!

Chapter 4 - The Attainment of the Goal

Reading: Heb. 2:5-11.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus... for we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. (Heb. 3:1,14).

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. (Heb. 4:1).

In our study of the correspondence between the book of Joshua and the letter to the Hebrews we now come to deal with the process, including the principles, of the attainment of the goal, the realisation of the object.

The Supreme Issue

The first thing with which we shall deal is the issue of supremacy or dominion. In the second chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, from verse five onward, that is set forth very clearly as the primary issue. In the very creation of man dominion was the object in view: "Thou madest him to have dominion".

The letter to the Hebrews brings that matter before us in several ways; first of all by a negative statement: "Not unto angels did he subject the world to come, whereof we speak..." That is a way of approach. A negative statement so definite surely carries with it the implication of a positive. If we said anything like that to one another we should wait for the completion of the statement. If I said to you: I did not give to So-and-so such-and-such a thing, you would wait for me to say to whom I did give it. It is but half a statement. It is a negative which waits for a positive; it leads on to a positive. "Not unto angels did he subject the world to come..." That introduction of the subject of dominion, that negative statement, requires something more positive. That which is in view, not having been entrusted in a certain direction, must have been entrusted in some other direction. So we move from the negative statement with the implication of the positive to a quotation from Psalm 8, which is the positive statement: "But one hath somewhere testified, saying, What is man that thou makest mention of him, or the son of man that thou puttest him in charge" (Notice the strong contrast between - "not unto angels did he subject the world to come" and "thou makest mention of him" - referring to man in this connection).

That is one of those very illuminating quotations which the Apostle uses in the course of his writings. If you read Psalm 8 by itself you would not arrive at a future fulfilment of that word at all, you would merely be carried back to the creation and read it simply in the light of the beginning. But here the Apostle takes hold of that quotation from the Psalm and gives it a very much wider meaning, and while it retains the backward aspect, in his use of it there is also a future aspect. Thus the passage is shown to include the thought of all that with which we are at this time concerned, and to which we shall come in a moment.

The next point is in connection with his way of interpreting the Psalm. The quotation from the Psalm is continued - "and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet". This is followed by a confession: "But now we see not yet all things subjected to him". It sounds like a contradiction. Surely it does not mean that though things are in subjection, we do not see them to be so. It surely has another meaning. The writer of the letter goes on to say: "But we behold him... even Jesus... because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour...". That brings before us:

Firstly, a dominion vested in man potentially. There is a dominion bound up with man in his creation; it is potential, not actual.

Secondly, a dominion missed, not realised by man.

Thirdly, that dominion falling into the hands of another, the enemy of God and of man.

Fourthly, that dominion wrested from the enemy, by Man for man. The Lord Jesus tasted death in the behalf of every man, and is now crowned with glory and honour.

Fifthly, man called to enter into his dominion recovered in Christ.

That is the drama gathered up in the quotation, and in the Apostle's interpretation of it.

Let us look at that more fully. We have before us (1) A purpose of dominion - "Thou madest him to have dominion". (2) That dominion passing into the hands of the enemy; forfeited by man. (3) That dominion recovered in a Man, the Son of Man. (4) That dominion secured in heaven for man in Christ exalted. (6) That which is represented by this word, "What is man... or the son of man?" Here the Son of Man and man are seen to be partners in this dominion. Is not that the whole message of this letter? It refers to partnership with Christ in dominion: "...for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren"; "Wherefore, holy brethren, partners of a heavenly calling"; "We are made partners with Christ if we hold fast..." Man and the Son of Man are thus presented as being joined in dominion.

The Practical Nature of Dominion

Dominion, forfeited by Adam, regained by Christ, has to be entered into in a practical way by the believer, and that is the matter that is to engage our thoughts. The book of Joshua illustrates this great cosmic conflict. It is a simple, clear, and yet very real illustration of the great cosmic conflict, the issue of which is to be the fulness of Christ in kingly glory. It is wonderful how God has packed the whole course of the ages in miniature into fragments of history. Within the compass of that comparatively small book there is the whole story of this universal conquest, this overthrow of all principalities, and powers, and world rulers of this darkness, and the hosts of wicked spirits. It can be seen how it is done; on what ground it is done; what the issue of it all is; what God's desire is in it. All is packed into that book and for all to read; but, oh, to enter into the real, spiritual meaning.

The letter to the Ephesians sets forth the spiritual nature of this great cosmic conflict; and there are three aspects or constituents. (1) Christ in sovereign headship, (2) the Church in spiritual fellowship, (3) The cosmic forces of evil - principalities and powers, etc. That is the spiritual reality of which the book of Joshua is the illustration. The letter to the Hebrews combines both.

The question that is now before us is the matter of our entering in a practical way into the dominion of this universe through union with the enthroned Christ, in a present, progressive way. That explains everything. It explains why, when people are converted, heaven's fulness does not immediately arrive. It explains why our very coming to the Lord in the first step of faith is the initiation into lifelong conflict. We have been made again. The creation has been commenced anew, and it can be as truly said, and even more truly in this case, concerning the creation: "Thou madest him to have dominion". We talk about being a new creation in Christ Jesus. Change the phrase to conform to Psalm 8 and say we have been made again. Then ask, Why was I created? It is not natural creation now, because that is seen as past, as something that is closed. I am now a new creation, I have been made again! God has made man again in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He has brought a new man into being, a new creation, with exactly the same object as when He made Adam, "to have dominion". Why has the Lord made us again? Why another creation? Why a creation in Christ, and not in Adam now? The answer is, to have dominion. As it was with Adam, that hardly had he realised his being but the adversary assailed with the object of robbing him of the dominion and frustrating its full realisation, so it is with us: no sooner are we made again in Christ Jesus and realise that we are born anew from above than we also realise that the adversary is assailing. He does not cease to assail, but the further we go the more bitter become his assaults. All this antagonism is in respect of dominion.

When we first came to the Lord, what did we expect? What are we still expecting? Are we surprised, bewildered, because the unexpected has happened? Let us settle it once and for all that the Divine purpose embodied in the phrase "Thou madest him to have dominion", will call forth the most bitter, relentless, manifold effort of the enemy to frustrate that dominion. Every movement toward the throne is challenged by the accuser, the devourer, the serpent, the adversary, the devil.

Though I do not suppose that is a great deal of new information to you, it is one thing to be apprised of the fact, and quite another thing to know how to have the dominion, to maintain and press it to its full realisation in Christ. Our particular consideration at this time will be concerning that.

Preparation Necessary Unto Effectual Conflict

There is a preparation necessary unto conflict with the opposing forces if it is to be effectual and result in dominion. That preparation has two sides or two phases, as typically set forth in the book of Joshua.

1. The Values of Wilderness Education

The first of these is the bringing over into the land of the values of a wilderness education. Most of the Lord's people go through a wilderness experience, though I am quite sure that it is no more according to Divine plan and programme than was Israel's forty years in the wilderness. I do not believe that God intended that Israel should have forty years in the wilderness. If He had been able to have His way He would have brought them very quickly through the wilderness, but it became a necessity from their side. The same holds good in our case. The duration of that period of discipline depends entirely upon how quick we are to learn the lessons. There are very few people who leap with one bound from Egypt into Canaan. Certain lessons have to be learned in order to establish a foundation for effectual warfare against the forces of darkness, and the two things which were carried over from the wilderness by the generation that went into the land were these:

(a) The Exposure of the Futility of the Flesh

There had to be an exposure of the futility of the flesh in regard to Divine things. That is patent from a superficial reflection upon Israel's life in the wilderness. What an exposure it was of themselves and of their utter inability in themselves to go on with God, to achieve or attain to anything. If they represent man by nature trying to serve God and reach God's end, then the verdict is very clear and very conclusive; it is failure. That is a lesson to remember, that if we are successfully to attack the enemy, if we would war a mighty warfare with the principalities and powers, we must leave the ground of nature; we must recognise we have no resource of any value in the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not, and cannot be, carnal.

(b) The Need and Availability of Heavenly Resources

The counterpart of that fact is the need and availability of heavenly resources, even where nature is helpless and hopeless. That is as clearly a lesson of the wilderness as was the other.

Those are two mighty things to carry over into the land. They are tremendous things when once established. When you and I are thoroughly settled on those two things we have something by way of preparation with which to carry on our warfare. In the first place we need to be settled upon the fact that "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing"; that there is nothing whatever in us by nature, by natural training and equipment and achievement, or by any other means, that is adequate for this conflict with principalities and powers. They have wisdom far beyond the wisdom of the wisest man; they have power far beyond the power of the strongest man; they have resources altogether surpassing the fullest resources of man in himself. To get that settled in an experiential way is an essential for meeting the enemy. But, on the other hand, we must be equally established in the assurance that not only do we need heavenly resources but they are available to us for this very conflict. It is a tremendous thing to know something of our resources in Christ as a foundation for assured victory.

That is the first stage of education for spiritual warfare unto dominion. Most people find that they go through a wilderness experience, in order to learn those two things.

What has the Lord been trying to teach us these years by all these experiences? On the one hand He is saying with constant emphasis that in this spiritual realm we are up against forces so formidable that we in ourselves, with our own natural ability, cannot stand against them. We should probably be prepared to admit that at once, without any education, and say, I agree to that! But our mental assent to the fact does not carry us far enough. The truth must be wrought in us. We have to be brought there because, although we may have these strong convictions as to truth and doctrine, and be perfectly right and sound, somehow or other we contradict our doctrine again and again. We say we are good for nothing, that there is nothing in us that can achieve Divine purposes, but at the same time we try. Yet we believe with all our might that we can do nothing. That is perfectly true to life. Somehow or other the very people who say these things most strongly are the people who in themselves appear to be most competent.

The Lord has to lay this foundation to secure certain triumph in the battle. Thus it is the people who have had their nothingness made known to them most deeply in a practical way who become the people most gloriously triumphant in the battle. After all, it is "the things which are not" which come out victoriously in the conflict. It is wonderful how the weak things, the foolish, the despised, the things which are not, are the very things with which God is bringing to naught the things which are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Then follows

2. Occupation of the New Ground of a Heavenly Life,

that is being over Jordan, on heavenly ground. Having learned those lessons, having come in a very real way to recognise those two things - the futility of the flesh, and the resources available in Christ - then we are able to occupy the new ground of a heavenly life. On this side of Jordan there is the crystallising of the ground of fitness for warfare. You will find if you turn to the book of Joshua that these people did not immediately launch into the battle. You may say: Surely they are ready now! They have learned the lessons of the wilderness; they have carried over great values from the wilderness training and history; they are over Jordan, and surely they are ready for the battle! But it is not so. The Holy Spirit is governing things here, and there is a wisdom back of a further delay before actual conflict is entered into. The ground of fitness for conquest was crystallised over Jordan, and you have there a series of things.

(a) Gilgal and Circumcision

What does this say? Gilgal with its circumcising is a re-affirming, right in the face of the enemy and the conflict, that there must be no confidence in the flesh. As Paul puts it in the letter to the Colossians, it is "the putting away of the whole body of the flesh". But I think it speaks of the positive side more than the negative. The negative side has surely been set forth in the death in Jordan, where, being buried with Him in baptism, we have put away the body of the flesh. But circumcision at Gilgal has the positive side; resurrection-deliverance from the flesh. There is a negative and a positive side to the matter of dealing with the flesh. The one is its condemnation and cutting off in judgement.   That is one side of the Cross, death-union with Christ, and is represented by Jordan. But now there is the other side, the fact that, risen with Christ, we are delivered from the bondage of the flesh which would cripple us in the warfare. It is the resurrection-deliverance of circumcision, and Gilgal speaks of liberation from the crippling, hindering, frustrating power of the flesh, a liberation which is ours in resurrection-union with Christ.

That is preparation for warfare, and is essential. If you and I do not know what it is to be delivered from all that domination of the flesh, what it is to be free from this harassment by, and constant occupation with the flesh, we are no good for battle. One who is always occupied with his own wretched, miserable self, which is supposed to have been put under judgment of the Cross of Christ; who is still in his mind dominated, obsessed, and going round and round himself all the time, occupied with his old dead carcass, is no good for the fight. The enemy will soon get the advantage over him. He must come to Gilgal and realise that there is a deliverance from the obsession of the old man, in order that he might be effective against the enemy. That is preparation for conflict - a very necessary thing. We sometimes sing:

"O to be saved from myself, dear Lord,

O to be lost in Thee,

O that it may be no more I,

But Christ that lives in me."

That is the positive side of Gilgal, deliverance from self into Christ. He who is delivered into Christ, for whom it is "no longer I" in that obsessing, wearying, harassing way, but for whom Christ triumphant is the object of hope, of confidence and assurance, he it is that can launch out against the enemy without fear, with assurance of victory. Such a ground of assurance is necessary.

(b) The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread

Then you notice after Gilgal and the circumcision they kept the passover and the feast of unleavened bread. Why must this be before the battle? Why is this needed as a part of preparation for the warfare? Again it is establishment in the completeness of the work of Christ in His Cross. This keeping of the passover, the completeness of redemption in the Cross, what we call the finished work of Christ, is the being established before entering upon the fight, the being doubly sure of the ground. It is very necessary, even for believers over Jordan, to have accepted that objective side of the Cross that is represented there at Jordan in the stones gathered out. It is very necessary for believers to be established in their hearts in the completeness of the work of the Lord Jesus before they can enter into the conflict.

You and I must have a perfect assurance about the absoluteness of Christ's atoning work for us. If you and I have any questions, any doubts whatsoever lurking in our hearts and in our minds as to the perfection of the work of salvation in regard to our sin, we are disqualified from the battle. We shall never, never stand up against the enemy if the sin question for us is not a settled matter so far as atonement is concerned. If we ever go back in our minds; if we accept the slightest suggestion that our sins have not been fully and finally dealt with in the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we dare not go forward against the enemy. That is why the enemy takes the fighting force out of so many by keeping them occupied still with the sin question. For this reason they kept the passover.

They also kept the feast of unleavened bread. That is the other side. If we have any doubt whatever that Christ, in the perfection of His humanity and the sinlessness of His nature, has satisfied God for us, the enemy has the ground that he wants for defeating us when we launch into the battle. We have to be settled about this matter of Christ's sinlessness availing for the believer before God. The feast of unleavened bread and the passover mean much more than this, but I am simply touching a vital point in their significance.

(c) Eating of the Old Corn of the Land - Christ in Resurrection

"And they did eat of the old corn of the land... And the manna ceased..." These things are in the right order. First, we must get rid of the curse of ourselves and be established in the completeness of Christ's atoning and redemptive work before God, and when that has been done we are ready to feed upon Christ in heaven. "The manna ceased" - that is the wilderness side of things. Now it is the old corn of the land; Christ in resurrection. How necessary it is to feed upon the old corn of the land in preparation for the battle.

I wonder if you are able to follow all this symbolism. If we bring it all into terms of that which ought to be our experience, and which is the experience of some, it simply means this, that the Lord has taken us through experiences in which, on the one hand, He has made it very necessary, and on the other hand, He has made it very forcibly true, that by His Cross we can be delivered from ourselves; He has settled for us the sin question by His offering of Himself without spot unto God, and He has settled for us the righteousness question. It means further that He has taught us something of what living on Himself in heaven means.

It is a wonderful thing to know the secret heavenly resources in Christ for the believer on earth. Every resource He had in the Father that made His life here one of victory is available to us in the same way in Himself. Do you know anything about that blessed truth? These are glorious realities, that here we can live out from a risen and ascended Christ, drawing upon His life. We have to learn to do that, and unless we do we are no good for the battle. This is preparation for the warfare. We cannot really launch out in a direct way against the powers of darkness unless these things are true of us. The people who do will soon be broken. So the Lord takes pains to give us this education in this practical preparation for warfare.

Let us go over it again in a simple way. There must be deliverance from the obsession of the old man; self, self occupation, the problem of ourselves, the interminable endeavour to solve the problem of ourselves. Do you know how the Lord solved that problem? He took us into a grave; to bury it is the only way to dis-entangle it. You may take it that we are an unsolvable problem in ourselves, and the only way of dealing with the problem of ourselves is to die. That is the conclusion men very often come to in a literal way. They find themselves in such ruin that they cannot find any way out for themselves, and they seek to end things that way. Death is the only solution, the only way out. But the Lord has a better way than that: through death to be delivered from ourselves into Christ. Thank God for the fulness and the finality of His handling of our sin question. When the Lord buries a thing it is beyond finding. When the Lord says that He has put our sins behind His back and blotted them out as a thick cloud, they will take a long time to find. Many people are still trying to find them. The Lord says: Do not touch them; I have put them away! Oh, to come into the rest of that! You will be able to fight when you come there. As to any righteousness that God requires in us, He provided it in His Son, in the sinlessness of that One typified in the unleavened bread. Let us be settled regarding that. It is a factor for victory.

It is when we come to that settled place that we know how to live here as out from Christ in heaven. Of course we shall never live out from Christ in heaven, upon our heavenly resources in Him, His heavenly life, if all the time we are looking around in this old thing. I need life. I have not that life in myself, but it is in Christ for me every day. I have only to live one day at a time, but each day I can live on the life which is out from Christ. There is life for today from above. There is strength for today. There is wisdom for today. There is resource which will result in my getting through today without being submerged and swamped. It means much more than that, of course. Sometimes the situations are very acute. We are conscious not only of being weak, but are in despair; we are conscious of the thing pressing upon us in such a way that we realise our utter helplessness. The Lord teaches us wonderful things in such times, and it is true that there we may know the wonders of the Lord. It is a wonderful thing to be really able to say out of your own heart, without any fear of anything or anyone giving the lie to what you say: I know what it is to live by the risen life of the Lord Jesus, to be delivered again and again by that risen life from death and the powers of death. It is a great thing to be in that position.

Now that is all ground for warfare, and given that ground we can come to Jericho, and go on from Jericho, right on victoriously.

Now let us gather that all up in one direct word of application, especially to those who may be led of the Lord into places where in a special way they stand to represent the Lord and His testimony and His interests against the forces of evil which have so much at their command. I am thinking of the younger brethren and sisters who may perhaps be going abroad into other lands, where the Devil has so much in his hands. Very acute will the issue become as to who is to have the dominion - Christ as represented by you there, or the Devil. And then the forces of evil will concentrate with one determination to quench, break, destroy your testimony there, and to clear you out or to leave you in ruin, their desire being to gloat over the downfall of the Lord Jesus in that place, the dishonouring of His Name. It will be like that, and you need something more than simply to take the Gospel to the heathen. I do not say that lightly, but you need something more. You will find that you will not be there very long before you need to know a position of dominion over the powers of darkness back of the heathen, and sometimes in the heathen, and in everything that circles around and presses upon you nakedly from the forces of darkness, of death, of iniquity; terrific powers. They are all intended to crush you, press you right out, and make your going on impossible. You will need to know something of dominion over the powers of darkness. And for that knowledge you need something more than a Bible course; you need a deep, deep training in the school of God, where you have been poured out in all your own natural resource and brought to an end, in order that you might discover your resources in God; where you have, in a very deep and terrific way, been brought to the place where if Christ has not settled the sin question, then the situation is hopeless; if Christ has not settled the righteousness question, then it is no use going on; if Christ has not settled the self question, then there is no prospect. You will need to be brought to the place where you know with certainty that those things are settled, and you know something of living upon Christ in heaven. That kind of training is not obtained in a day or a week or a month. There is something more required than merely to know the terms of the Gospel, to announce them to lost souls. You must know how to meet all that lies behind those lost souls, for your wrestling will be "...not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers..."

Our present need is greater than ever it was, the need to know the secrets of dominion, of taking the kingdom; the need of knowing how we may, in Christ, wrest dominion from the enemy. That is the deepest thing that you and I have to know, and I feel that it is perhaps the most vital word of all that we have said at this time, a word more needed than anything else. I urge upon you to recognise that again; recognise what the enemy has been trying to do; the meaning from his point of view of what you have been going through; and then recognise to what God has been trying to bring you, and that every fresh position of well-nigh despair has as its way out a fresh standing up on your feet in the name of the Lord against the forces which are seeking to press you out. You will need to come to such a stand. I can speak from a fair experience in this matter, and have known again and again what it is to be brought to the place where it seemed that another step was totally impossible by reason of the sheer, deadly, devilish pressing of the enemy to a standstill, and the consciousness of facing the most serious situations. It is made perfectly clear that the only way out and through, if you are not going under is to stand up in the name of the Lord and directly meet the enemy behind all this; to stop thinking in terms of adverse circumstances; to cease all that mental going round the thing, and recognise that the Devil is behind it all, and it is he who is seeking to crush you out, and your only way is to stand up to him in the name of the Lord. Perhaps you have been that way, but if not I assure you it is true. Sometimes we prolong the agony because we do not remember how it has been before, but then the Lord brings it to us suddenly, and He says: You will have to get on your feet, and stand up to the enemy, and in My name resist and definitely command the Devil off the ground. I have many, many times found that attitude to be the breaking of the whole situation, and the way through and on instead of under.

Remember that it is not mere circumstances, not mere flesh and blood that are against you. There is something more, and it is unto this dominion that we are called in partnership with Christ. The saints have to enter into it in a practical way. It is not theory; it is a practical thing. Oh, for the grace to recognise the issues. We must either quit the battle, or go on. That is becoming more and more definitely the issue without any other alternatives. It is either under, or it is over; and the issue will be successfully decided not by our calling upon the Lord to deliver and help us, but by our standing up on both feet and in the name of the Lord resisting the Devil.

If you do not understand that do not worry about it. Let it lodge in your heart, and the Lord will call it up in a time of need. Some of us know quite well what it means. The Lord lead us into His full dominion.

Chapter 5 - The Secret and Law of Attaining Unto God's End

Reading: Josh. 1:1-11.

For we are become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end. (Heb. 3:14).

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it... Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Heb. 4:1,11).

For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. (Heb. 5:1).

There is one remaining emphasis, one note which I feel the Lord wishes to be sounded ere we pass on from this time, and it has to do with the secret and law of attaining unto God's end, the secret of spiritual progress, of growth in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, of increase in His fulness. This secret and law is

Action in Faith

"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it..." (Josh. 1:3).

There are two or three things about that statement which need to be recognised. While it is true that the Lord has secured everything in Christ for the believer, and the Lord Jesus has not Himself to secure anything, but stands already possessed of all, and that not for Himself but for His own, yet this word makes it perfectly clear that with reference to the believer's realisation of this inheritance a step of faith is demanded in respect of every fragment of it. That is the Divine declaration: "Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it..." We never know what the Lord has given us until we put our foot on it, that is, until we act in faith. Although it is ours in the Divine intent and purpose, and design, it never becomes ours in reality, until we act in relation to it. All that Divine inheritance which has been placed to our account is of no practical value to us until we do this.

With regard to the many things which the Lord has promised, offered, declared, or of which He has given assurance, His question as to whether we will believe has never back of it primarily the thought of our consent or agreement, as though He said to us: If that is your attitude you will come into possession; if you will assent to what I have said you will have it. While believing is so much associated with possessing, from the Divine standpoint it is always an active thing, never a passive thing; it means taking action in faith. It can never be merely a matter of our agreement with the Lord, our assent to the Lord's offers, promises, or propositions. Possession can only be on this basis: "If any man will do his will, he shall know..." (John 7:17). That is an abiding secret, an abiding and unalterable law of progress, of growth, of increase, of reaching God's end. Not one fragment, not one foothold, is ever possible apart from action in faith.

There is all the difference in the world between a geographer and a traveller. Of course, a geographer may be a traveller, but not necessarily so. He may study the subject theoretically, and make maps, and give you all the longitude and the latitude, and yet may never have been outside his door. It is quite easy for us to be geographers in that sense with regard to spiritual territory. There are a lot of people who talk of what is in Christ, of the fulness of Christ, who have all the doctrine, and can map it out beautifully, but they have never taken action in relation to it. When it comes to real value they are a contradiction. They have seen it in the Word, and have mapped it out; they could give you all the details concerning it, and speak much of what is for us in Christ, but when it comes to the practical test they are undone, they know nothing about it. They are geographers, but not travellers. In other words, there is a great deal of difference between seeing the land and putting your foot down in it. These people might have had the account of the land, and might have had a certain vantage point from whence to see it, but there is a great difference between seeing, and talking about what you see, and really putting your foot upon it in faith. The Lord bounds everything with the latter. He bounds everything with the putting down of the foot.

See what a thorough working out of that principle the Lord required right at the commencement of Israel's possession of the land. How was the fall of Jericho brought about? Certainly not by preaching nor theorising about possession. As one man Israel "put their foot down" as they went round Jericho in faith, and they came into possession of it. It was a very thorough working out of the principle.

Thus the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says,"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down..." But faith was action. Believe me, that is a law of progress all the way along. It does not matter what else we may possess or know, we may take it for granted that we never make genuine progress apart from the action of faith. We may think that we are making progress because there is an increase in our store of knowledge, but real, genuine progress is measured by what we possess, by what to us is a working basis, not by mere knowledge; we never progress an inch apart from action in faith.

The Peril of Being a Hearer Only

Along with this fact we do well to note that there is an infinite peril in hearing and not acting. What results from that? We become dull of hearing. That was the trouble with these Hebrews. Concerning his desire to unveil the deeper truths about Melchizedek the writer of the Hebrews has to say, "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard of interpretation, seeing ye are become dull of hearing" (Heb. 5:11). Evidently Melchizedek held something very rich for the spiritually mature. It required an advanced position, a state of spiritual maturity, to understand all the fulness of Melchizedek.

The point is that they had heard but had not acted in relation to what they had heard; they had become dull of hearing. So that what the Apostle desired to say would have fallen upon ears that were dull, and there would have been no glorying in the truth, no joyful, glad response, no bounding of heart toward it. He might have said the most wonderful things, and it would have made very little difference to them. That is an infinite peril. Let me ask whether haply that is taking place with you. When the fulness of Christ is being spoken about, our inheritance, the vast glories in Christ, can you sit without any stirring of heart? Does the message come to you merely as words, phrases, ideas, more or less intelligible? You attend the meeting, hear what has been said, and go away, and within you there is no stir, no movement, no glorying in it. That is a test for us. Making allowances for all human imperfections in the channel through which the ministry comes; perhaps making allowances for a tremendous amount of words, nevertheless in the midst of it all there must be something of the Lord. Is there at any point at all some leap of your heart to it, some rejoicing in the truth? If not, you may be dangerously near this position: "Ye have become dull of hearing". You do not discern, detect, recognise the real meaning and value of the things which are being said. How is it you have become like that?  How is that possible? Because somewhere, somehow, sometime in relation to something that the Lord has said, you have not taken action; you have not in an active way come into co-operation with the Lord in the purpose that was bound up with the thing which He said. The result is you have become dull of hearing, and what is further said will signify but little. The most glorious things may be said about Christ, but to you it will seem merely as another address. The Lord deliver us all from such a state and keep us glorying in the truth.

The Principle Applied

The law and the secret, then, is that we must come into action in relation to every fragment of truth, put our foot down upon everything that is presented to us as our inheritance in Christ. That will begin with the forgiveness of sins. The very first point of our inheritance in fellowship with Christ is the forgiveness of sins. Put your foot down upon that; it is yours. God has secured it in Christ for you. You have not to plead with God to forgive you. You have not to wrestle with God for the forgiveness of sin. If you have come to the place where you recognise the need of forgiveness, the consciousness that you are a sinner, there is no need to plead with God to forgive you. God has in Christ forgiven you all your sins - "having forgiven us all our trespasses" (Col. 2:13). God has done it in Christ, but the enjoyment of it requires the putting of your foot down upon it in faith, and saying: Lord, I honour you in this matter; You have said that forgiveness of sins is secured for me in Christ; I believe that and take it. By faith you put your foot down upon it. Then do not from that point go away and wonder if you are forgiven. Go on as being forgiven, and refuse every retaliation of the enemy to say that it is not true.

Justification by faith is yours in Christ, but to enjoy it you have to put your foot upon it. Now we launch out upon a mighty ocean, and in that ocean the elements of our inheritance are far, far too numerous for any man, or any company of men or angels, to describe or enumerate. "God... hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ"; "My God shall supply every need of yours, according to his riches in glory..." Can you comprehend that? That is in Christ Jesus for us.

We shall not stay to enumerate such blessings, but the point is that you and I know our need. What is your particular need? I do not mean that which you need for your personal enjoyment and satisfaction, but that which relates to the glory and honour of the Lord Jesus in your life. What is your particular form of need in relation to that? It is secured for you. What will you do about it? Will you plead with the Lord to supply it; cry and groan and wrestle about it? The Lord's simple and very definite way is that you should put your foot down on it in faith. You have to act in relation to it thus: That is my need! That need is supplied in Christ! For that supply to become a practical thing in my life I have to take action in faith! It does not matter how great may be our need as we advance we shall never get beyond the place where God in Christ has provided for such need. "My God shall supply all your need...", every need of yours! That provision is not according to our standards, so let us not begin to put the Divine resources, provisions and beneficence into the narrow limits of our own ideas as to how far God can or will go with us, and say: Well, I have got to a place now where I doubt whether the Lord can help me! I think I have got beyond things now! No! Never! Never beyond God! His provision is not according to the measure of our mind but according to His riches in glory. If we can get beyond that, then of course we have made God bankrupt; but we shall never exhaust those heavenly resources. In the deepest need the action of faith will prove there is a provision which God has made. This is the putting of the foot down upon all that is ours in fellowship with Christ as joint-heirs, as called to be partners with Christ.

The Trial of Faith

There is this always to be borne in mind, that when the foot has been put down the Lord very often tests us as to whether we will take it up again. That is, of course, speaking figuratively. Sometimes after having put our foot down, we are all too ready to take it back again, because we do not at once see the result as we hoped. Jericho did not immediately fall when Israel "put their foot down" on their first march round, nor did it fall at the second time, nor the third; they had to go on and maintain the position that they had taken. God tested their faith. God tested them upon their action.

That has always been the case. The words, "Harden not your heart as in the provocation..." may be literally rendered "...as in the embitterment in the wilderness". They had taken a step of faith out with God. God tested them upon their step, and because the result which they expected was not instantly forthcoming, but there was a test as to the position, they became embittered. That is only undoing the step. They hardened their hearts in embitterment, because of the test of faith.

It is as well for us to recognise that the Lord will very often call upon us to take a position and to hold it through a time of testing, before all that is bound up therewith becomes ours in experience; not to withdraw the foot, but to say: I have put my foot down on this; it is mine in Christ; I do not take my foot up, but stand my ground. Associated with the fall of Jericho and the putting down of the foot was the call for one or two practical things which are a part of true faith.

Persistence! It was persistence in the position which they had taken which was demanded. The first day passed without any apparent result. The second day was a repetition of the first. The next day, and throughout the week they had to maintain their position. There had to be a persistence in faith.

Patience! "Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have, done the will of God, ye might receive the promise" (Heb. 10:36). Patience is a part of faith.

Joyfulness! Trumpets may mean several things, but there is no doubt that they express joyfulness. As the children of Israel went round, putting their feet down in persistence and patience, the trumpets sounded a joyful note. I think faith, when it is true, must have a note of joyfulness in it, even under testing. I am not sure that it is not a note of certain victory. The victory of faith is in the joyfulness of faith.

Some of us know of a dear brother who went through a long tunnel of trial; of trial within and trial without; of darkness and suffering. Though he maintained a dogged attitude of trust in the Lord he lost his triumphant joyfulness, and after being for several years in that condition he came to a point where he could go on no longer, and set out to find help. On his journey the Lord met him through a servant of His, and in the course of conversation, when this dear brother was unburdening his heart, this servant of the Lord was led to put the finger upon the very point, and said: Are you praising the Lord in the fire? It came to the one in need like a blow, with a startling effect. He saw that he had lost his note of praise because of trial and went to the Lord about it. He sought to get right through to a place where, without any alteration of the conditions, he  could rejoice. He got through, and no sooner had he gained the victory there than he found himself altogether renewed. He did not pursue his journey, but went back, and from that day he has been triumphant, and the Lord has been doing mighty things. There had been a kind of dogged, persistent, bulldog faith, but without joyfulness.

Many people have found that deliverance has come when, in spite of everything, they have struck up a joyful note before the Lord. The trumpets seem at least to break through the awful, drab monotony with a joyful note as the children of Israel marched round Jericho. True faith which is to lead to possession must have a note like that in it. Persistence? Yes. Patience? Yes. But these can be very dead, very dull, very hard, and not altogether beautiful. The Apostle exhorts to patience with joyfulness (Col. 1:11). That is faith which results in possession, enlargement, enrichment. It is that kind of action that accompanies enlargement. Let us try it, not as an experiment on God, but because it is His way, and we believe Him. Do not let us approach these things in that experimental mood which makes trial of God to see if He really is what He says He is. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is (not come to see if He is, but believe that He is), and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6).

Now, we have said many things in these meditations concerning the fulness of Christ. How is it to become real? How are we to know in a living way every fragment of that fulness, every bit of that progress, that dominion? By taking action. We shall never know except as we take action, not in experimental mood but in faith; not saying, I am going to see whether it is so! but, I believe it is so, and I take it as being so, because God has said it! It is for you to go and see at what point such action is necessary; to see what the need is, and there, in relation to that, put down your foot; not with a view to trying it out, but to prove that it is so. Let us go on to full growth.

If there is one fragment of the Scriptures that we have been using, which I would like to be the last sounding word at this time, it would be this: "Firm unto the end." "For we are become partners with Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end". The Lord enable us unto it.