The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 75

passnire <langerous; in fact, for the whole multitude, in the fnce of the enemy, unpossible. Yet the hand of God was stretched out, the river dried up, cmd wlmt wonl,l hnw heen a task of the greatest peril to themse!Yes w1ts instead a, source of !<'nor to their adYersaries. So at the outset of great spiritual underte,king'I! we arc often confronted with difficulties far beyond our 11ower to o,·ercome. But " God showeth his Yoice," and they "melt away." G. The 1·esu.ll. possession of the promised land. The land promised to the Israelites was a limited space, but the spiritual Israel has the promise of the whole enrth (see Gen. xii. 3; Pse.. ii. 8; Isa. xi, 9; Dan. ii. 85, &c.), 11. ,T OSHUA AS THE TYPE OF CHRIST. 1. After the death of Moses. The law could never give us our inheritance (Heb. >"ii. 19); therefore Moses must die and Joshua arise. Again: the law was crn<"ifiecl together with Clu;st (Rom. ,-i.. 6, 10; vii. 4; Ge.I. ii. 19; v. 24; Eph. ii. 15, 16; Col. ii. 14 ; also 2 Cor. iii. 14 in the Greek). As long as the law existed, man could only dwell in the wilderness, be dead in trespasses and sins, wander about without power to enter the promised le.nd. He we.s continually confronted with a standard of holiness utterly beyond his strength to reach. But when Moses -i.e., the law-is dead, the true Jesus arises and leads His people into their inherit- ance, gi,-i.ng them the power to fulfil a law which He has written within. 2. Joshua was Moses' minister. So Christ was "made under the law" (Gal. fr. 41, and was bound, by Bis Fathe1's will, to keep it. By His obedience alone was His sacrifice made acceptable to His Father. The law could but condemn us for being " weak through the flesh " (Rom. viii 8) ; we could not fulfil its precepts. But Christ condemned sin (1) by His perfect fulfilment of God's law, and (2) by suLmitting to death, as the " wages" of that sin which mankind, whom He repre- sented, had so fully deserved. Thus did He gain the right to be our leader into the inheritance God had promised us. . 3. Jordan must be crossed; i.e., Jesus must die. As ow· representative, He dies once for all to sin, and His death translates us into a new life. Henceforth, by nrtue of His atonement, "sin has no more dominion over us," and we are, under His leadership, to destroy its empire for ever. And we must follow Him through J ordau ; that is, we too must die to sin and rise again unto righteousness. The riYer which din.des our old condition from the new, which separates the wilderness from the promised laud, is an eternal boundary between our condition by nature and our condition by grace. The waters of Jordan are likened by some to the waters of baptism, whereby we are " baptized into Christ's dee.th ; " and by others to the moment of conversion, when, by the power of God alone, we are changed from wanderers and outcasts into the covenant people of God. 4. The land must be conquered. It was a wicked laud ; a land the sins of wl.tose inl.taLitants contaminated it by their example; a land which called for condign chastisement from on high. The land with which Christians ha:ve_ to do is either (1) the whole world, or (2) the human heart. In the first case 1t 1s the duty of the Church, in the second of the individual, in each case under Christ as a leader, to wage unceasing warfare against evil, in whatever forms it may be found. The character of that warfare will be indicated later. At present it will be sufficient to remark that the nature of the warfare itself is not changed, though its conditions are. The servants of God are eternally pledged to root out evil without com- promise, and without mercy. 5. It was a land flowing with milk and honey. Every blessing was to be oLtained there. Not only food, but delights. It is called emphatically "the good land" (Deut. iii. 25; iv. 22). It contained every good thing man could desire (Deut. viii. 7-9). So the steadrast determination to follow"Christ, to him who is resolved to do so, insures us every blessing we need-the supply of o~r wants, means of defence against our enemies, and the means, moreover, _of happmess a~d enjoyment-provided always that we do not cease the combat until all our eneillles !,e destroyed. CII, I. 1-4,] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 7