The Land and Its Boundaries

In verse 2, the Jordan is mentioned, a barrier between the people and the promised land which they must cross under the guidance of Joshua to enter Canaan. Their inheritance was a pure gift of the grace of God: " The land which I do give to the children of Israel." They were entitled to it by God, but it was a question for the people not only of possession, but of entering into possession: " Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you." (Ver. 3.) So it is with us spiritually: we have all these things, but we cannot enter into them, except as having passed through death with Christ, and entering by the power of His Spirit where He is. In short, it is as we occupy ourselves with these things, and enter into them diligently and personally, that we lay hold of each one-of our blessings, and prove their heavenly reality. In one word, the Christian must himself appropriate them by faith in order to enjoy them otherwise he would be like a poor king, ill and living abroad, who had never traveled in his own kingdom..
In verse 5, we find another important feature which characterizes the land; the enemy is there, obstacles are there, wherever we put our foot an adversary arises. We see here clearly, as has often been remarked, that Canaan is not heaven( in the sense in which we shall reach it by actual physical death, but heaven in which the enemy is found, heaven the scene of present warfare for the Christian. But, precious promise: " There-shall not any man be able to stand before thee,"' said the Lord to Joshua, " all the days of thy life;" that is to say, until he should have established the people definitely in possession of the land. And what security there was for the-people in this promise. Scarcely, says God, will you have encountered the enemy on your path, ere he shall be dispersed. The people might have shouted: Victory! Satan cannot stand before us!-Poor Israel, you will soon see it before Ai; you are but a toy in the hands of Satan, you have no strength to resist him, but the power is in Christ. " There shall not any man be able to stand before thee," said the Lord to Joshua; whilst the promise to the people was (ver. 3): I have given unto you."
We may notice another point in verse 4. God -gives them an exact description of the boundaries of Canaan. What are they? In their full extent they were never reached by the people, but will be given to them in millennial glory. Likewise for us, the heavenly places are our present conquest wherever we place our foot, but shall we ever measure the extent of our inheritance? Now we " know in part," but the day is at hand when that which is perfect shall have come, and that which is in part shall be done away; "then shall I know even as also I am known."
The boundaries of the land were a great desert, a great 'mountain, a great river, and a great sea. That is what was to be found outside this fertile country, that on which the people could not or ought not to tread. Do we not find here the world with all its moral characteristics: its aridity, its power, its prosperity, and its agitation? As to its aridity, Israel had gone through it, only to prove that it had no resource for them, and that the bread from heaven alone could feed them in these solitudes. Such, beloved, is the character of the things which are not ours. But Canaan-heaven, is ours; Canaan with its warfare no doubt, but its victories; Canaan with the peaceful enjoyment of infinite possessions, resuming themselves in, and concentrating themselves around the person of a risen Christ seated in the glory.