Joshua 1

Before 'entering on the study of the book of Joshua, it is of importance that we should see that it was the purpose of God, even in the land of Egypt, before a step was taken, to bring the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. If we turn to the third of Exodus, we read: " And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey."
Now that mission Moses did not accomplish, and here we see Joshua has to complete it. He is the savior; he accomplishes the work which, Moses being dead, now takes a new turn. Salvation comes out. It is not uncommon in Scripture thus to find the mission of one servant accomplished by another. In this way Elisha fulfills final's, and Paul, Stephen's. Thus Joshua comes in to accomplish that of Moses.
It is part of God's thought about me that I should have heaven. It is not t a thing that I shall become entitled to at some future time; I am now. Joshua only 'really leads me into possession of that which is mine already. It is true I have to possess; but before possession I must have title. So in the first few verses we find God encouraging Joshua as to his title to the land; it is " the land which I do give to them," and "that have I given unto you." However, title is not enough to insure possession.
Canaan is properly, if I may Use such an expression, an earthly heaven. The children of Israel were going on to it through the wilderness. As for us we are now in the Canaan of which theirs was the type, and which we get in Ephesians, where we are " blessed With all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; " and we are going on to the true Canaan. We have now the figures of the true; we are in the antitype of Canaan; of course heaven is not the antitype of it. It is God's kingdom on the earth. The moment I take God's ground on earth I am on heavenly ground. This is just what makes the difference between the wilderness and Canaan-that I am standing for God now; I am taking possession, so to speak, for God. This is Ephesians. In Hebrews the saints are going on through the wilderness, to Canaan; and they wanted to go back and to make earth the religious place. It is to extricate them from that snare that Hebrews was written. You easily get the difference between He-brews and Colossians if you put them together. In Colossians they are trying to make man religious; whilst in Hebrews they are trying to make earth a religious place. The moment you take your place in the race you are a heavenly man. The possession of Canaan to the Jew was, that he had, as his own, " the land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year; " a land in which was everything that satisfied man naturally. So now, that " the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost," I am filled with all that satisfies the spiritual man just as they had everything that satisfied the natural man; and I do not believe any one is satisfied who is not on God's ground. A man may be cared for in the wilderness, but that is not being satisfied.
As to what is sometimes said of our being in the three places-Egypt, the wilderness, and the land-at the same time, I do not believe it. I do not think we are in Egypt at all. I think Egypt becomes the wilderness to me as soon as I am converted; my surroundings, my home, my business, are the same that they were, but they have assumed a different aspect to me from that which they presented when I was unconverted: it is the wilderness to me how, because I do not look to the world as I used for everything, now I look to God for everything; the world yields me nothing, it is the wilderness and nothing more; but when I come to Canaan my heart is delighted.
"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." It is to encourage us to go in to possess. I am entitled to it before I enter upon it at all, just as I have the key of my house in my hand before I go into it. People so often say they wish they could go into the land, and all the time they never have the sense of their title to do so. I should have the unalterable Conviction that it is mime.
" From the wilderness even to the great river, the river Euphrates." It has been remarked that the possession was greater than their enjoyment of it. Their boundary, given by God, was the Euphrates; whereas, as to appropriation of it, they went but very little beyond the Jordan.. The limit of their possession was far wider. Solomon did go out to it: " He reigned over all the kings from the river even unto the land of the Philistines." Verses 5-8.-We must go in obedience. You find a person fail in his enjoyment of God, fail in his enjoyment of the possession; an why? Because, though he may have light and a sense of his title, he is not in moral power. There must be obedience, observing to do " according to all" that is commanded. When a person gets at all into the flesh he gets under the law; man never gets into the flesh that the law does not hit him He has revived the thing that the law deals with. It is well in this present day to insist that a man might keep the law up to his own conscience, and yet be a Christian of very low standing.. You cannot make the law the standard for your Christianity. The new school that has carried so many with it is just this, that you are to attain to a legal righteousness according to your own conscience. But there is no such thing as arriving at perfection down here. Thus in the consecration of the priests the second ram is not presented whole down here; it is divided into four parts, unlike the one that went up whole to God. So I get at parts of it, and say I am not able to carry out the whole; but I know there is a whole thing up there which is to be carried out here.
Verses 9-15.-I find the Lord very jealous here. If he have given me a possession, it is the delight of God that I should possess it. Do you possess it? It is not only that I possess it for my own delight, but that I, as His child, enter into that which He delights to give me. The portion of the two and a half tribes were part of the territory, but they were not inside Jordan. They stayed there for the advantage of their families, but still they had to fight; no person can get any part of the territory without fighting; but these, though they fought, did not enjoy the land in their surroundings. Some people are allowed to take a lower standard; they are carried away by present advantages; but it has always been so-there have always been the two classes in the history of faith: one who would go the whole way and one who would not; as Lot and Abram, and Joshua and Caleb and the children of Israel. I do not deny the saintship of the former of thee, but I deny that they are walking by faith. It is a bad thing to be content with anything less than God gives you; but even this they cannot get without fighting. The tendency always is to lose God's place for us, through beginning to think of ourselves. These two and a half tribes were too hasty they looked for possession before the battle was fought just as people now look for enjoyment when they have had no conflict to gain it; but this enjoyment never has the same character.
It is a fine moment in a soul when it comes to the point, " I am going to set myself for that which my Father has given me." I do not know anything more sad than a person going on quite satisfied never to get it. Our Father would have us in a scene where we can fully enjoy Himself. Many a one is hindered by not being strictly obedient; you must die and then walk in. That is Jordan. The old commentators were right• when they said there was no way into heaven but by death; the only question for us is, Is there any other way of dying besides going into the grave? God is most gracious in teaching us death, by first leading us into death and afterward restoring to life. It was so with Mary of Bethany: she could say to Lazarus, Well I have proved that I-can live without you; the Lord has shown me that I can have such joy in Himself, that I Call do without you; and now, after it all, I have got you back again.
As to crossing Jordan, the first thing is, have you courage? Can you say as some one did to me once, " I have set myself straight for Jordan?"
Ver. 16-18.-The people were all right at any rate. And now in the next chapter we have the sending out of the spies.