Gilgal

Look at Joshua please, chapter 3, and we'll read at verse 15. We've been hearing about our inheritance and at this point Israel is about to enter into their inheritance in the land of Canaan. Joshua 3.15, And as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water.

For Jordan overflowed all his banks at the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zeratan. And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off, and the people passed over right over against Jericho. And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

Chapter 4, verse 8. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan as the Lord spake unto Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them onto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan in the place where the feet of the priests which bear the ark of the covenant stood, and they are there unto this day. Verse 20.

And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan did Joshua pitch in Gilgal. And that was to be a memorial of that event of crossing the Jordan. Now chapter 5, verse 2. At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, make these sharp knives and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

And Joshua made him sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the four skins. Verse 9. And the Lord said unto Joshua, this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal.

That means rolling onto this day. Now come to the book of Judges please, chapter 3. Judges and chapter 3. Judges 3 verse 16 for sake of time. But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges of a cubit length, and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

And he brought the present, the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. And Eglon was a very fat man. And when he had made an end of offering the present, he sent away the people that buried the present.

But he himself turned again from the quarries. That's what the King James says. Mr. Darby uses the word idols and other translations as well.

So it's graven images is the idea that were by Gilgal. So Ehud is turning back from those idols at Gilgal. And he said to Eglon, I have a secret errand for the old king, who said keep silence.

And all that stood by him went out from him. And Ehud came on to him, and he was sitting in a summer parlor or a cool chamber, likely a roof chamber, which he had by himself alone. And he had said, I have a message from God unto thee.

And he rose up out of a seat, and he had put forth his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the half also went in after the blade, and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out. Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlor upon him, and locked them, and went on to a wider victory as well.

Now over to the New Testament, the book of Colossians, please, in chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1, we read at verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature or of all creation. Now chapter 2, just for a verse, or 2 verse 6, Colossians 2, 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

Notice verse 10. And ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

Now the Lord will bless to us the reading from his word. Some thoughts from the New Testament linking in with Gilgal that we've read about in the Old. Israel has been delivered from the rigors of slavery in Egypt.

They have made their way for 40 years through the the wilderness. And now in Joshua we find Israel is coming into the land of their inheritance that God had for them. The Shekinah glory of God has accompanied them, dwelling in the tabernacle in the wilderness in the Holy of Holies.

But now the blessing of the same God is going to carry the nation into the land that he has for them. And in Joshua chapter 3 verse 9 we find Joshua said to the children of Israel, come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. So Israel is yet on the far side of Jordan.

They are about to cross over the Jordan and Joshua is saying to them, come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. So we learn this, that going forward with God will always be in the strength of his word. So Israel are going to cross over the Jordan.

Verse 10, Joshua said, by this you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fear feel drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hevites, the Perizzites, the Gergesites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. So in other words, the God who has accompanied them through the wilderness now, the living God, would be the one that will give them complete victory and was available to them, enabling them to enter into the land, to put to the edge of the sword all the Canaanites and so on. In other words, to be separate from the world of Canaan and to be a testimony for God in the land.

That's essentially what why God has saved us and delivered us from our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, that we might be separate from the world that is all around. Now the assurance that God was able to do that was given to the people in what followed. We find the priests, they take up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth, and those priests were charged with walking down the bank of Jordan, in at the edge of the river, and as soon as their feet touched the water, the River Jordan began to back up.

At the city of Adam, its power to flow stopped, and then of course the river drained out on down into the Dead Sea, and as a result the people walked over the muddy pathway through the riverbed. Is that right? No, no. God performed another miracle.

The riverbed dried up and they walked through on dry ground through to the other side. Now to commemorate the event, Joshua was given further instructions. He passes it on to the people.

Twelve men were chosen, one man from each tribe, and twelve stones were carried. One by each man were carried from the far side of Jordan down into the riverbed, and they were placed there where the feet of the priests stood. All right? Then those men were to... Twelve men, again, were to take up a stone each from the riverbed, and they were to carry it up out of the river into the land of Canaan, and it was to be placed in the place where they camped that night, and that was at Gilgal.

And there are those twelve stones which had come from the bed of the river. They were to be placed there as a memorial of that event, so that when the children would ask, what do these twelve stones mean, the explanation would be given. So what do we have? We have twelve stones that come from the other side, from the place where they were seen in broad daylight on the other side of Jordan, and those stones are taken and put into the middle of the Jordan, and when the river comes back down again, they're not going to be seen anymore, put out of sight in the Jordan.

But then again, there are twelve stones that are taken from Jordan, from a place that they were never seen before, and now they're brought out into the light of day, and they're placed at Gilgal for a testimony to what God had done for Israel. And of course, the Ark of God was central to all of that. There's lessons for us here, linking it in with the book of Colossians.

We learn that God has delivered us from the power of darkness. He delivered Israel from the darkness of Egypt. We have been delivered from the power of darkness.

He would bring Israel into the land of Canaan. He has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. That's in chapter 1, Colossians.

And then there follows that wonderful sentence that's all about Christ. Verse 14, in whom. We have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

In whom is speaking to us of the Savior. He's our Savior by redemption. So here's the complete work of God, bringing us out from the power of darkness and bringing us in to the enjoyment of the kingdom of his dear Son.

We have been brought out from what we once were, and we have been brought in to our inheritance in Christ, forgiven of our sins, brought into the heavenlies as we have been hearing. And that would be portrayed to us by the Ark that was in the Holy of Holies. That's where the Lord Jesus is now.

There to appear in the presence of God for us. And those stones that were taken from the other side of Jordan and buried in the waters of Jordan, that would remind us of our identification with the death of Christ. Whereas those that are now found on the West Bank of Jordan are indicating us truth that's linked with our identification with Christ in resurrection.

And so we have now been brought on resurrection ground into the blessings that his death, burial, resurrection have secured. Now there are many links with the book of Colossians, as there would be also with the book of Ephesians, but we find that Colossae was an assembly where there were problems. The city of Colossae was a mixed multitude in that there was a Jewish population and there was also a Gentile population.

And that mixture is also reflected somewhat in the difficulties that affected the assembly. They were afflicted with Jewish legalism and they were affected on the other hand by mysticism. And we just learn the lesson again, don't we, and emphasize it for our learning that what is out there in the world soon finds its way by influence into God's assembly.

So we need to be always on our guard. But we find that Paul brings the antidote to the problems and the errors in Colossae by presenting to them the person of Christ in all his preeminence and in all his sufficiency. Now behind the theology of Colossians there is the golden ark of testimony as a type of Christ.

And just as that ark went into the Jordan, the Lord Jesus is the one who has gone into death for us. And like the ark came up out of Jordan, he's now risen from the dead. Colossians 115, we read that he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

That reminds us of Christ as seen in the ark, doesn't it? The image of the invisible God as we were thinking of today. That is his undiminished deity. That's the gold of the ark.

The gold that covered the ark both outside and inside. The intrinsic glories of Christ, the attributes of deity that he never relinquished, covering the acacia wood, the Shittim wood, reminding us, linking with his perfect humanity, he is the firstborn, the first in rank of all creation. So the components of the ark remind us of the person of Christ.

You could think of the covering of the ark, that was the mercy seat, and that reminds us of the sympathy of Christ. And the sympathy of Christ is seen in the great atoning work that he's accomplished. He reconciled you, verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death.

So there's the mercy seat. The sprinkled blood upon the mercy seat is that which reconciles us and brings us near to God, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. So the mercy seat links with the sympathy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

His ultimate act of sympathy was to take our place in death and to accomplish that great work of atonement, to present us in God's sight as those that are holy and unblameable and unreprovable before him. When you think of the contents of the ark, you think of the sufficiency of Christ. Because in that ark, you remember, there was the golden pot that had manna, and that would speak to us of the sufficient bread that God had supplied to his people for all the journey through.

And God has supplied to us in Christ sufficient to meet our need all the journey through. There were the tables of the condemning law, but the work of Christ has taken care of that so far as we're concerned. Chapter 2, verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of the ordinances.

That was against us and contrary to us, and he took it out of our out of the way, nailing it to his cross. So the law no longer condemns. There was Aaron's rod that budded, you remember? That was also one of the contents of the ark, and that speaks to us of the sufficiency of Christ, the one who is our head priest, who cares for us, so that we are sustained in growth for the journey.

Aaron's rod that budded showed the evidence of growth. The Colossians had lost sight of this. Problem in Colossae was this, they were not holding the head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together increaseth with the increase of God.

So growth in Colossae was hindered by them not holding tightly to the sufficiency of Christ for every need, every spiritual need. So we would be encouraged and exhorted this afternoon, brothers and sisters, as we think of our Lord Jesus to recognize that in him is all that we need for the journey through. Ye are complete in him, who is the head, and every nourishment flows from him for our blessing and for our need.

So just to summarize, as those who are linked with Christ by redemption, we have been brought forth from the deadness of our past, forgiven of our sins, we have been brought into living union with a risen head. And so you and I should be seen like those stones that came from the middle of Jordan and were set as a memorial in the light of day in the land of inheritance. You and I should be seen as linked with Christ in testimony in this world, as those who are alive from the dead, and we have an inheritance that's incorruptible and undefiled, and that fate is not a way reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God.

And living in the enjoyment of that, you and I will also be a testimony in this world with character that is somehow otherworldly, so far as this world goes. That godly character that we were hearing about will be reflected then in us and will be seen as a testimony for God in this world. So testimony as linked with Gilgal.

But I'm thinking of something else. There is the teaching of Gilgal, and that is linked with the circumcision that they had failed to carry out, and that would remind us of the great truth that you and I also have been cut off from our standing before God in the flesh, and we have been brought into new relationship with him. Christ, by his death, has cut us off from our standing before God in the flesh, and now we are found standing in Christ.

Time would fail to develop that. I want to come to the last scripture we read from Judges chapter 3, because not only was there that testimony linked with Gilgal, and there was that teaching linked with Gilgal that is reflected in our baptism, incidentally, but there's also the turning at Gilgal, and that's where Ehud now comes in. Ehud was the second judge that we read about in the book of Judges.

Israel have turned away from God. They're committing evil, and as a result, God allows the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Amalekites to oppress the people of Israel for 18 years. The king of Moab was a big man, and he seems to be the chief protagonist here, and Ehud, raised up of God, deals with him.

He brings a tribute to the king of Moab, and evidently has come with a party, and when the tribute has been delivered, then Ehud sends the party on, and he comes as far as Gilgal. And I take it that he likely saw the graven images there at Gilgal, and that was, as it were for him, the last straw. I'm using my sanctified imagination at that point, but at any rate, we know this.

He turned back at Gilgal. He turned from the graven images that were by Gilgal, Darby, and so he goes back to Eglon, and he says he has a message for him. As he draws nearer to the king, he reaches in with his left hand.

He was a man left-handed, and he drew out that dagger from his right thigh, and he brings that sword and applies it so skillfully to the abdomen of Eglon, the king of Moab, a very fat man. So large was he that the dagger went all the way in, including the handle, until Ehud couldn't pull it out, and he left it there, and we read that the dirt came out. Now here's a picture of the flesh, defiling flesh, oppressing the people of God, but what's the answer? The answer is the sword applied to the flesh.

Ehud escaped, locked the door. We need to lock the door in the flesh, too, and off he escaped, and the king's entourage, they wondered what's going on with the king. He's not coming out.

They waited, and they waited until they were embarrassed and couldn't wait anymore, and eventually somebody brought a key, and they opened up the room, and there was a king all sprawled out, very dead. His large flesh would never again be fed. He was put in the place of death.

You know, sadly, you and I are still in the body, and we still have a nature within us that the Bible speaks of as being the flesh. It's evil. It's inherently corrupt, but thank God God does not look upon us as standing in the flesh.

Our standing as believers is in Christ, and though the flesh may plague us, you and I need to adjust our thinking. You and I need to come to the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit, and apply it to our minds and to our very thinking, and recognize that God is finished with my standing in the flesh. I should be finished with it, too.

The turning of Gilgal, turning at Gilgal, reminds us of the need for you and I to turn away from the appeal that the flesh would make upon us. Put it under siege. Kill it.

Starve it. Mortify it. Put it in the place of death.

Say no! It doesn't matter how nice that appeal might be to us. Ehud went on, blew a trumpet, and gathered the men of Ephraim. They come down to the ford of Jordan, and they slew of Moab's army ten thousand men at the fords of Jordan.

They were all able-bodied men of war, flesh at its best. And he suffered not a man to cross over. There was no quarter given, but ruthlessly the enemy was dealt with and silenced and put to death.

And that's what you and I need to do as well in our lives. And not only that may come across as negative, but you and I have been brought onto a ground where we have a new relationship to enjoy, and that is in Christ. Israel went on to enjoy something of the presence of God again, a renewed relationship with God under the judge.

And so it is for us as well. Christianity is relational. It is for us to interreact with our Savior, with our Master, with our friend, with our Lord.

To listen to his voice to us through his word, to speak to him in turn in prayer, so that as we interreact with him from day to day.