A Sanctified People

by J.M. Lindsay, Edinburgh, U.K. | Category: Spiritual Lessons From Joshua | May 1985

When the God of the downtrodden Hebrews led His people out of Egypt, He was not only fulfilling a pledge to deliver them from bondage, but starting them on a journey towards a new and potentially glorious future in a land "flowing with milk and honey". Deliverance was only the prelude to something better. The dramatic departure from Egypt, the wilderness tribulations, the hardships, were pointless if there was to be no ultimate rest or inheritance. But God always had in view, and had explicitly promised, a rest and a great inheritance. His desire was for a redeemed and sanctified people, living holy lives in fellowship with Him, occupying their reserved inheritance in joy and satisfaction.

The crossing of Jordan had marked a great watershed in Israel's experience; God had miraculously held back the surging waters of Jordan for them and it's small wonder that Chapter 5 of Joshua opens by telling us that their enemies were completely despondent and "their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them". How could it be otherwise? Paul, some fifteen hundred years later summed that matter up succinctly when he said "If God be for us who can be against us?" (1). This people were assured of victory - If they walked with God and under His direction. That brings us to Gilgal and sanctification.

GILGAL

Gilgal became holy ground for Israel and, throughout the whole campaign to subdue and conquer the land, it was a great focal point. It was the base for military operations and the lines of communication from the battlefield inevitably led back to Gilgal. It was the place for reappraisal and reassessment. It was their starting point. It was the place of remembrance as we noted in the previous article, that's why twelve stones were set up as a memorial on the victory side.

THE WAITING PERIOD

God kept Israel waiting at Gilgal when their natural inclination might have been to push forward. It must have seemed that the timing was right strategically, that it was right to take advantage of their enemies' discomfiture to maintain the momentum whilst the initiative was with them. Waiting is never easy, particularly when there's a feeling of wanting to do something, but God had lessons, important lessons, to teach them before they involved themselves in battle. Someone has said that God's delays are more profitable than man's haste. Sometimes we may find ourselves wanting to DO something for God when what He really wants is for us to BE something for Him first of all.

CIRCUMCISION

Then there was the matter of circumcision. God's command through Abraham, had been - "Every man child among you shall be circumcised "(2). It was the seal of God's covenant with Abraham and part of that covenant was that he and his offspring would possess the great land on whose borders, some 450 years later, they now stood - uncircumcised!! For whatever reason, whether through carelessness, as seems likely, or because there were practical difficulties which were an inhibition, the practice of circumcision appears to have ceased during their wilderness journeyings. There could not be, however, any victory or blessing before the matter was put right and so Gilgal (to roll) received its name. God, significantly, said, "This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you".

THE PASSOVER

It was not by chance that this favoured nation was now encamped in the plains of Jericho in time to keep that memorial of their deliverance from Egypt, the Passover, on the fourteenth day of the first month. As far as the scriptural record tells us, this feast had only been observed twice in forty years; once when the people were preparing to leave Egypt and once at Sinai. It was an occasion for circumcised people only (3). It must have been with joy and satisfaction that this people kept the Passover, for the first time, in this extraordinary land which was theirs if they would only go in by faith and possess it.

CAPTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOST

Joshua, great man of God that he was, then had his encounter with the One who, as a TRAVELLER, had appeared to Abraham the wayfarer and sojourner. As a COMFORTER, He had appeared, on the eve of envisaged conflict with Esau, to Jacob. Now, with many great battles in prospect, not least of all the challenge of how the seemingly impregnable walled city of Jericho can be taken, Joshua is out in the plain before Jericho - could he have been meditating, praying? He raises his eyes to see before him One with a drawn sword in His hand. His challenge is bold and forthright. "Art thou for us or for our adversaries?" The revelation that this is none other than He who is captain of the Lord's host immediately brings Joshua to a posture of prostration. The words of reassurance or advice, if they were spoken, are unrecorded except that selfsame admonition given to Joshua's great predecessor Moses many years before "Loose thy shoe

from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy". And Joshua did so. Note however, if you will, that this experience was his, after the fulfilment of the divine command in the matter of circumcision.

What a comfort, though, it must have been to Joshua to have a visitation from this Commander of a great unseen heavenly host. With such assistance, is it any surprise that the mighty walls of Jericho fell without a battle being fought? The great battles of our lives are not against our fellows or other earthly foes, they are rather against our own fleshly instincts and "against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places"(4). In such a contest our own efforts are futile, only victories in the heavenly places will count. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds"(5).

Joshua was to realize, from bitter experience, the danger of self-confidence which resulted occasionally in defeats rather than victories. We are foolhardy if we fail to recognize the lesson from his experience and from that of others who lived both before and after.

SPIRITUAL CIRCUMCISION

The act of circumcision which God insisted upon at Gilgal was intended to be the outward physical manifestation of hearts which were now covenanted to him (6). They were no longer tainted with the reproach of Egypt which had been rolled away, nor with the apathy and disobedience which had been so evident in the wilderness. Yet they would only know full blessing and complete victory in the measure in which they demonstrated the reality of this in their lives.

Between Christians and the world now stands the cross and the circumcision of the heart. Paul says in writing to the Colossians, "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ"(7). This is spiritual circumcision, a transition from the old to a new nature. It will be expressed fully in our experience as we are daily crucified with Christ, which entails renouncing all in our lives that the Spirit of God reveals to be contrary to the divine will. The flesh with its unworthy inclinations, ambitions and desires must be suppressed - no sin left unconfessed which will tarnish testimony or witness. All too often we shy away from that knife because we know it will be a painful and costly experience.

SANCTIFICATION LEADS TO VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIVING

The whole land was available to this people but they never occupied it all because they never claimed it all. Christ, who is the source of all spiritual blessings, is ours from the moment of salvation, but we only enter into those blessings of His in the measure in which we claim them by faith. Full blessing in Christian life is not bestowed except to eager, hungry people who press on to receive it. God's will is to see us eager for the blessing, reaching out in faith for our inheritance. That calls for circumcized hearts and sanctified lives which are filled by the Spirit and that must surely have been what the Lord had in mind when He said that He came that men might have the opportunity of ABUNDANT LIFE (8). That's life on a higher plane.

THE PROMISED REST

The people of God in Canaan had available to them a great inheritance in which they could experience the reality of divine rest in faith and service to their God. Surely it was the opposite of faith, unbelief, which denied that opportunity to many and inhibited its full enjoyment too for many others.

Today there is a rest for the people of God. "For", says the writer to the Hebrews, "we which have believed do enter into rest"(9). The Greek word here for rest is used only in association with the house of God. This is the house over which Christ is Son, "whose house are we, if we hold fast"(10). So it is a conditional experience, conditional upon obedience, holding fast and "contending earnestly for the faith". It's an experience available to a subject and sanctified people identified with God's house, living in faith and obedience before their God. But it's not something which can be taken for granted, nor is it ever a completed thing. Hebrews says "We do enter" and just as Israel failed to enter into the fulness of that rest in a past day, so too may we today through carelessness and unbelief. The choice is ours.

References (AV).

1. Rom. 8:31

2. Gen. 17:10

3. Ex. 12:48

4. Eph. 6:12

5. 2 Cor. 10:4

6. Rom. 2:28,29

7. Col. 2:11

8. John 10:10

9. Heb. 4:3,9

10. Heb. 3:6.

J.M. Lindsay, Edinburgh, U.K. | May 1985
Spiritual Lessons From Joshua