The Land
The Land of Canaan was the promised inheritance of Israel. They did inhabit it physically until they were dispersed for chronic sinfulness. Prophecies say they will inhabit it during the end times. Some of the descendents of the tribes are there now. Whether they are evicted and return again for the events that are prophesied is a question that some people have. But no matter. They are the rightful heirs of the physical Land of Canaan. (Did you know that the Palestinians of today are the same people as the Philistines of long ago?)
During the church era, many have spiritualized the stories about the Land to a small degree. We have a lot of references to “crossing the Jordan” and “seeing all the saints that are on the other side”. These are mistakes that infer that the entering of the spiritual Land for the Christian is death. Many think going over Jordan is the passing into the heavenly sphere. This idea comes from the reference in Hebrews to “entering into rest”. You often see this phrase on gravestones i.e. “JOHN DOE entered into rest such and such a date”. Many Christians know that there is more to it than that. What I want to summarize here is not original with me. It is what I have read and been taught by many who have lived in the last centuries. It is recovered truth from the time of the Reformation and after.
The foundation for apprehending the significance of entering the Land, to a Christian, is an understanding and acceptance of the subject of the “types.” The word “type” is derived from the word “Tupos” which is translated “examples” in 1 Corinthians 10:6 and also verse 11 where it says that things that happened to Israel were a pattern for us. The “us” there is the church; the Christians. The problems that Israel had in the wilderness and then in the Land were pictures of the struggles of the Christian against the flesh and then against spiritual wickedness.
Also, in the 8th and 9th chapters of Hebrews with particular attention to Heb. 9:9, and all the context, we are instructed as to the connection between the physical things that God gave to Israel and the spiritual things he has given to us. Note particularly how that the tabernacle was a pattern of the site where God’s presence could be accessed, the sacrifices were pictures of Christ’s sacrifice of himself and the Law an example for us of God’s mind and the standard by which he must condemn sin and sinners. I write to people who can read and who have the indwelling Spirit of God. You can, for yourself, scan and focus on the many aspects of this subject and glean a lot of appreciation for the High Priesthood of Christ, the priesthood of believers, the symbolic nature and appearance of the implements and furniture of worship and the description of the Holy One of God by means of physical and visible things.
For example, did you ever think about how the luggage that the Levites carried by hand through the wilderness looked to those who were not a part of Israel? It was all covered with a drab kind of animal skin. It did not attract the eye. But under that skin was the covering of the tabernacle, and all the golden implements of worship. The inside part of the tabernacle covering was embroidered with gold thread. Pictures of heavenly beings. But outsiders never saw this. To them what the Israelites were carrying was just a bunch of junk. Today, people who are outside of Christ think he and his things are just a bunch of junk. This is what Jesus meant when he said "unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
It isn’t a surprise that in Hebrews 4 God continues the teaching of 1 Corinthians 10 along the lines of our position and responsibility as well as his promises. We are admonished to enter into the rest. Enter the position that belongs to people who are in the Land. This position is one where we cease from our own works. And not for justification. This is a companion book to Galatians where those who are addressed are already justified (Galatians 3:3). There is no issue concerning righteousness here. The question is “now that you are saved, are you appropriating what you have been given?”
We have the power of God. We are able to pull down strongholds. We have God fighting for us. We don’t have to work up a sweat. As the Lord drove out the inhabitants of the Land before the Israelites, he uses us as earthen vessels that have no strength. We have no strength in anything but Christ. We rest on him and in his name we go. He drives out the enemy by sending the hornet.
The problems that Israel had in the wilderness were like our problems in the flesh. They lusted. They wanted to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. Back to the onions and garlic. They doubted God and relied on their own strength. In Deuteronomy 8 God says that he brought them all the way through the wilderness to humble them and see if they would obey him as they had promised. This is why he has us here in the wilderness of this world as well. We are here to do some things for him, sure. But more, it is to teach us how weak we are and how much we need him.
One place they had to go before they could enter the Land was Gilgal. Here they were circumcised. This is a picture of cutting off the flesh. They rolled the flesh off and with it the reproach of Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world. Pharaoh who is a type of Satan, had them enslaved in his world serving the priorities of the world just as we were slaves of sin before our salvation.
The Passover, with the blood of the Lamb on the door, was a type of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Along with that, the passage through the Red Sea (death with Christ) was their salvation just as the cross is ours. We died with him there as they figuratively died crossing the floor of the Red Sea on dry ground. They didn’t have to get wet and we don’t have to enter into any of Christ’s suffering for sin. He finished it all Himself.
Once safely over the Red Sea, Israel could have gone straight into the Land that was promised to them. They insisted on sending in spies, though, and the report was that this Land would eat them up! Only Joshua and Caleb said that actually the inhabitants would be food for Israel, this being a type of the development that we can experience in growth when we are walking in and with the Lord. So, God denied that generation the privilege of going in and it is this to which he refers in Hebrews 4. We are admonished to not make the same mistake. It is scary in the Land. We have to depend on Christ. There is no more depending on our own devices. There is no more depending on the friendship of the world. We do not know what awaits us. Some Christians feel it is exciting to live the eternal life.
The enemies in the Land are spiritual enemies. They are the ones referred to in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. They are “imaginations” or the thoughts that dominate the world as in the end of 1 Corinthians 1 and part of chapter 2. “Philosophies and vain deceit” as it says in Colossians 2:8 and the enemies that are discussed in that chapter are the same ones of 2 Cor. 10. These enemies are ideas. They are developed systems of thought like religions and philosophies. Islam and Existentialism come to mind. They can even be forms of Christianity that are not true, like Roman Catholicism or the cults that call themselves Christian. They occupy the spiritual ground in history. They say they are the ones who can speak authoritatively for matters of values and normality.
Fighting against them involves using spiritual means. This can take only the forms which are described in the Bible. For example, in Ephesians 6 the Christian is told what he needs to fight such battles. The only aggressive weapon is the Bible. And the Bible has two edges. One for the enemy and one to be used on ourselves. Always judging ourselves even as we contend for the faith. We take back the spiritual ground that materialism and humanism and all the other trends have occupied by intruding there with God’s word, speaking the truth with boldness. The ground is won at the rate of one person at a time. But the trials of fighting other ideologies increase us and nourish us. They are truly “food for us”. As such, we are able to bring a portion of the victory to the worship to be offered as the spoils of the victories the Israelites had were offered. There, at the worship, others can “eat” within the gates and be nourished. This is a picture of testimony to each other building up each other in the faith.
It has been the experience of many that they are not always on the “leading edge” of warfare for God but seems sometimes to be back in the wilderness yielding to self or even indulging in the world of Egypt. This is possible. Since this is a spiritual experience, and we are liable to walk in the flesh as well as walk in the spirit, we often elect to walk in the flesh and in that condition we are of no use to the Lord at all.
“Let us labor (endeavor) to enter that rest.”
During the church era, many have spiritualized the stories about the Land to a small degree. We have a lot of references to “crossing the Jordan” and “seeing all the saints that are on the other side”. These are mistakes that infer that the entering of the spiritual Land for the Christian is death. Many think going over Jordan is the passing into the heavenly sphere. This idea comes from the reference in Hebrews to “entering into rest”. You often see this phrase on gravestones i.e. “JOHN DOE entered into rest such and such a date”. Many Christians know that there is more to it than that. What I want to summarize here is not original with me. It is what I have read and been taught by many who have lived in the last centuries. It is recovered truth from the time of the Reformation and after.
The foundation for apprehending the significance of entering the Land, to a Christian, is an understanding and acceptance of the subject of the “types.” The word “type” is derived from the word “Tupos” which is translated “examples” in 1 Corinthians 10:6 and also verse 11 where it says that things that happened to Israel were a pattern for us. The “us” there is the church; the Christians. The problems that Israel had in the wilderness and then in the Land were pictures of the struggles of the Christian against the flesh and then against spiritual wickedness.
Also, in the 8th and 9th chapters of Hebrews with particular attention to Heb. 9:9, and all the context, we are instructed as to the connection between the physical things that God gave to Israel and the spiritual things he has given to us. Note particularly how that the tabernacle was a pattern of the site where God’s presence could be accessed, the sacrifices were pictures of Christ’s sacrifice of himself and the Law an example for us of God’s mind and the standard by which he must condemn sin and sinners. I write to people who can read and who have the indwelling Spirit of God. You can, for yourself, scan and focus on the many aspects of this subject and glean a lot of appreciation for the High Priesthood of Christ, the priesthood of believers, the symbolic nature and appearance of the implements and furniture of worship and the description of the Holy One of God by means of physical and visible things.
For example, did you ever think about how the luggage that the Levites carried by hand through the wilderness looked to those who were not a part of Israel? It was all covered with a drab kind of animal skin. It did not attract the eye. But under that skin was the covering of the tabernacle, and all the golden implements of worship. The inside part of the tabernacle covering was embroidered with gold thread. Pictures of heavenly beings. But outsiders never saw this. To them what the Israelites were carrying was just a bunch of junk. Today, people who are outside of Christ think he and his things are just a bunch of junk. This is what Jesus meant when he said "unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
It isn’t a surprise that in Hebrews 4 God continues the teaching of 1 Corinthians 10 along the lines of our position and responsibility as well as his promises. We are admonished to enter into the rest. Enter the position that belongs to people who are in the Land. This position is one where we cease from our own works. And not for justification. This is a companion book to Galatians where those who are addressed are already justified (Galatians 3:3). There is no issue concerning righteousness here. The question is “now that you are saved, are you appropriating what you have been given?”
We have the power of God. We are able to pull down strongholds. We have God fighting for us. We don’t have to work up a sweat. As the Lord drove out the inhabitants of the Land before the Israelites, he uses us as earthen vessels that have no strength. We have no strength in anything but Christ. We rest on him and in his name we go. He drives out the enemy by sending the hornet.
The problems that Israel had in the wilderness were like our problems in the flesh. They lusted. They wanted to go back to the fleshpots of Egypt. Back to the onions and garlic. They doubted God and relied on their own strength. In Deuteronomy 8 God says that he brought them all the way through the wilderness to humble them and see if they would obey him as they had promised. This is why he has us here in the wilderness of this world as well. We are here to do some things for him, sure. But more, it is to teach us how weak we are and how much we need him.
One place they had to go before they could enter the Land was Gilgal. Here they were circumcised. This is a picture of cutting off the flesh. They rolled the flesh off and with it the reproach of Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world. Pharaoh who is a type of Satan, had them enslaved in his world serving the priorities of the world just as we were slaves of sin before our salvation.
The Passover, with the blood of the Lamb on the door, was a type of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Along with that, the passage through the Red Sea (death with Christ) was their salvation just as the cross is ours. We died with him there as they figuratively died crossing the floor of the Red Sea on dry ground. They didn’t have to get wet and we don’t have to enter into any of Christ’s suffering for sin. He finished it all Himself.
Once safely over the Red Sea, Israel could have gone straight into the Land that was promised to them. They insisted on sending in spies, though, and the report was that this Land would eat them up! Only Joshua and Caleb said that actually the inhabitants would be food for Israel, this being a type of the development that we can experience in growth when we are walking in and with the Lord. So, God denied that generation the privilege of going in and it is this to which he refers in Hebrews 4. We are admonished to not make the same mistake. It is scary in the Land. We have to depend on Christ. There is no more depending on our own devices. There is no more depending on the friendship of the world. We do not know what awaits us. Some Christians feel it is exciting to live the eternal life.
The enemies in the Land are spiritual enemies. They are the ones referred to in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. They are “imaginations” or the thoughts that dominate the world as in the end of 1 Corinthians 1 and part of chapter 2. “Philosophies and vain deceit” as it says in Colossians 2:8 and the enemies that are discussed in that chapter are the same ones of 2 Cor. 10. These enemies are ideas. They are developed systems of thought like religions and philosophies. Islam and Existentialism come to mind. They can even be forms of Christianity that are not true, like Roman Catholicism or the cults that call themselves Christian. They occupy the spiritual ground in history. They say they are the ones who can speak authoritatively for matters of values and normality.
Fighting against them involves using spiritual means. This can take only the forms which are described in the Bible. For example, in Ephesians 6 the Christian is told what he needs to fight such battles. The only aggressive weapon is the Bible. And the Bible has two edges. One for the enemy and one to be used on ourselves. Always judging ourselves even as we contend for the faith. We take back the spiritual ground that materialism and humanism and all the other trends have occupied by intruding there with God’s word, speaking the truth with boldness. The ground is won at the rate of one person at a time. But the trials of fighting other ideologies increase us and nourish us. They are truly “food for us”. As such, we are able to bring a portion of the victory to the worship to be offered as the spoils of the victories the Israelites had were offered. There, at the worship, others can “eat” within the gates and be nourished. This is a picture of testimony to each other building up each other in the faith.
It has been the experience of many that they are not always on the “leading edge” of warfare for God but seems sometimes to be back in the wilderness yielding to self or even indulging in the world of Egypt. This is possible. Since this is a spiritual experience, and we are liable to walk in the flesh as well as walk in the spirit, we often elect to walk in the flesh and in that condition we are of no use to the Lord at all.
“Let us labor (endeavor) to enter that rest.”
posted by Biblical Christianity at 6:45 AM
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