Introduction
It is a
mistake to assume that OT types are exact pictures of truths
contained in the NT. Typical teaching is often imperfect. The
crossing of the Red Sea, for example, brought the children of Israel
into the wilderness and they left that wilderness many years later
by crossing the river Jordan into the promised land. In type, the
Christian ought to know something of all these four things—sea,
wilderness, river, and inheritance—but not in the linear succession
or timescale described. Both the Red Sea and the Jordan illustrate
one event (the death of Christ) and as in the benefit of that one
event, the Christian is not only brought into the wilderness, but
also the land. The wilderness pictures my pilgrimage
here on earth as a Christian in dependence upon God, while the
land typifies the “things [that are] above” which are
mine to lay hold of even now, since they are “where the Christ is”
(Col. 3: 1) and I am “in him” (Eph. 1: 4). Thus, while the land and
the wilderness are distinct, they are concurrent.
The Meaning of the Land (or Inheritance)
If the
land is to be experienced practically now, then it follows that the
common idea (reinforced by hymnology) that the Jordan is a picture
of the physical death of the believer, while the land typifies
heaven is incorrect. God had given Israel title to the land of
Canaan (see Deut. 4: 20-22, 37-38 etc.), but it had to be won by
fighting. By contrast, there will be no conflict for us in heaven.
Heaven cannot therefore be the
land—although, of course, we will not lose our heavenly blessings
when we do get to heaven.
As may already be
apparent, in many ways, the book of Joshua finds its NT answer
particularly in the Colossian and Ephesian epistles. The Christian
is not waiting to go over the Jordan, for he is over Jordan
now by virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection. Thus: “ye
have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in
God” (Col. 3: 3, my emphasis), “ye have been also
raised with [him]” (Col. 2: 12, my emphasis) and God “has
quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,) and has
raised [us] up together, and has made [us] sit down
together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2: 6, my
emphasis)—none of these things are presented as future for they are
true now. Being ‘over Jordan’ is an accomplished fact for the
believer. Of course, Christians often do not feel like
they are in the land, but our position
in heavenly places is not a question of what we can see or feel. The
Christian is there because he is in Christ Jesus. Has
Christ been raised up? Yes! Therefore, so has the Christian.
The next question is, ‘But if I am in
the land, what do I know of it?’ On crossing the Jordan, the
children of Israel were in
the land, but they still had to make the land their own:
“Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread have I given
to you” (Josh. 1: 3). In the same way the spiritual blessings in the
heavenlies in Christ (see Eph. 1: 3) need to be laid hold of by the
Christian. Hence the Scripture already quoted: “If therefore ye have
been raised with the Christ, seek the things [which are] above,
where the Christ is, sitting at [the] right hand of God” (Col. 3:
1). To seek the things which are above is no light matter because it
means that I must be prepared to fight. We see this
illustrated in the type, for the book of Joshua is a military
book. Other Scriptures describe the richness and goodness of the
land (see Deut. 8: 7-10 etc.), but Joshua is pre-eminently about its
conquest, describing how every step forward that Israel took in
Canaan required conflict. It is no different for Christians, except
that since our progress is to be spiritual, our struggle is
therefore “not against blood and flesh, but against principalities,
against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness,
against spiritual [power] of wickedness in the heavenlies” (Eph. 6:
12). On hearing this, however, many fall into the trap of
over-dramatizing it in their minds—as if this warfare was something
exceptional that only a few very able believers engage in. The truth
is that if any believer seeks to lay hold of any
of the heavenly blessings that God has given him title to as
“in Christ” (Eph. 1: 3), then he will be resisted by spiritual
powers seeking to frustrate his progress.
Fundamental to the
conquest of the land was the crossing of the Jordan. What then, does
this event signify?
The Meaning of the Jordan
The word Jordan in Hebrew is yarden,
from the verb yarad, to go down. It literally means
The Descender and, in keeping with that, the river ends its
downward course in the Dead Sea, the lowest point on
earth. The association with the idea of death seems inescapable (see
Ps. 115: 17; Prov. 5: 5; 7: 27 etc.). However, while the Red Sea is
mentioned in the epistles (see 1 Cor. 10: 1-2) the Jordan is not. Is
this a problem? No, because the doctrine it pictures is
there, and this has already been touched on in relation to the
land—for the Jordan is introductory to the land. Crossing the river
of death finds its NT answer in that we “have died with
Christ” and “have been raised with the Christ” (Col.
2: 20; 3: 1, my emphasis). Again, as noted previously, we are not
waiting for any of this to take place—we have died, and we have been
raised. The river itself speaks of our death with Christ, while
crossing over speaks of our being quickened with the Christ (see
Eph. 2: 5). Furthermore, this quickening is in view of the heavenly
inheritance. God’s “kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (v7) is not
so much our entrance into the wilderness experience (necessary as
that is) but that we might be sat down “in the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus” (v6). That is where Christ is, and, as ‘in Him’, that too, is
our place!
Now the Jordan does
not just put me into the land, but it puts me there in a
position to conquer. As noted already, the book of Joshua is
a military book, and the crossing of the Jordan must be understood
in that context. How am I placed in a position to conquer? The
answer is counter-intuitive to the reasoning of the natural mind:
by the fact that I have died! My death with Christ is the
death of what I am by nature—my natural strength—and I am then
brought in resurrection power to where Christ is by being raised
with Him. I cannot lay hold of heavenly blessings in my own natural
strength and so that man must go. What conquers the land is
resurrection might. In OT language, it was the power that dried up
the Jordan that conquered the land. Of course, these things have to
be worked out in a practical sense, which is why Paul exhorts us to
“be strong in [the] Lord, and in the might of his strength” (Eph. 6:
10) and describes to us the armour of God (see vs. 13-18)—for while
“walking in flesh” we do not “war according to flesh. For the arms
of our warfare [are] not fleshly, but powerful according to God to
[the] overthrow of strongholds” (2 Cor. 10: 3, 4).
At this juncture,
it may be helpful to retrace our steps a little and see how crossing
the Jordan compares to the passage of the Red Sea:
The Jordan and the Red Sea Compared
Now as pointed out already, the Red Sea also
pictures the death of Christ, and it follows that there will be
points of correspondence between it and Jordan. Joshua himself
alludes to this similarity: “On dry land did Israel come over this
Jordan; because Jehovah your God dried up the waters of the Jordan
from before you, until ye had passed over, as Jehovah your God did
to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had
passed over” (Josh. 4: 22, 23). It is important, however, that we
keep the two types distinct in our minds because God has given them
as two, not one. They refer to the same event but emphasise
different aspects of it—though not excluding features that might be
seen more clearly in the other type. The difference between the Red
Sea and the Jordan is summarised by Josh. 24: “and he put darkness
between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them … And
ye went over the Jordan” (vs. 7, 11). In the one, I am dead to sin
(and the law)—as pictured in the Egyptian bondage (see Rom. 6: 2;
7.4 etc.)—for God “brought the sea upon them”. In the other I am
raised to heavenly blessing: “ye went over the Jordan”. The Jordan
does not free me from bondage—the Red
Sea does that—but instead brings an already liberated
people into the inheritance.
Again, it was the
Jordan not the Red Sea that was preceded by the wilderness. What is
the significance of this? We do not (like Israel) leave the
wilderness for the land, for we are already in the land—already over
Jordan. However, there is a moral order here that is fitting. The
wilderness experience is there to teach me experimentally what I am
taught doctrinally. In the wilderness, the incapacity of the flesh
to enter into God’s inheritance is learned (see Num. 13: 28-14: 4
etc.), and morally, this precedes the laying hold of heavenly
blessing.
The Red Sea, of
course, is introductory to the wilderness, both in the imagery and
in reality. Thus, the believer is to reckon himself “dead to sin and
alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6: 11)—otherwise he would still
be in Egypt (under the bondage of sin). Now the word reckoned
is in the present, imperative, active tense, meaning that it is a
never-ending day-by-day matter throughout our pilgrimage here.
Doctrinally, the truth of deliverance will be arrived at
in the history of a soul at a particular point in time, but
practically, it needs to be constantly maintained. However,
what is taught in Romans 6, important as it is, only brings the
believer into the wilderness, not the land, for while we are said to
“have died with Christ” (v8), we are not taken off the earth. In
Colossians and Ephesians, we are viewed as having been raised
already, but in Romans it is still future: “so also we shall
be of [his] resurrection” (Rom. 6: 5, my emphasis). The
emphasis in Romans is what have been saved from (the
bondage of sin), and so our death with Christ is taught. It has to
be taught, because unless I reckon myself dead to sin (see v11), sin
will still exert its dominion over me. In Colossians and Ephesians,
the emphasis is on what we are saved to (the land) and
so there not only have we died with Christ, but we have been raised
with Christ.
The Power of God
The river Jordan was the divinely appointed route
into the land. Others might seek to come the way of the Philistines
(see Exod. 13: 17; Josh. 13: 2)—which typifies nature bypassing the
death of Christ—but the Jordan is the only way for the believer to
get in. Thus “Jehovah spoke
to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ attendant, saying, Moses my servant
is dead; and now, rise up, go over this Jordan, thou and all this
people, into the land which I give unto them, to the children of
Israel” (Josh. 1: 1, 2). “Go over this Jordan” is inextricably
linked with “into the land”.
Now the powers in the land might seem to be
daunting, and unbelief would conclude (as it did earlier in Israel’s
history) that “We are not able to go up against the people, for they
are stronger than we” (Num. 13: 31).
Faith, however, would “Come Hither, and
hear the words of Jehovah your God” (Josh. 3: 9). What does God tell
the children of Israel? “Hereby shall ye know that the living God is
in your midst, and [that] he will without fail dispossess from
before you the Canaanites … Behold, the ark of the covenant of
the Lord of all the earth is going over before you into
the Jordan
… And it shall come to
pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of
Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters
of Jordan, the waters flowing down from above, shall be cut off, and
shall stand up in a heap” (Josh. 3: 10, 11, 13, my emphasis). The
river might be “full over all its banks throughout the days of
harvest” (v15), but the waters were going to be put clean out of
sight, “very far” and “completely cut off” (v16). The ark is a
picture of Christ, and all the power of death is as nothing before
Him. It was marvellous enough for Christ to be “marked out Son of
God in power … by resurrection of [the] dead” (Rom. 1: 4)—that is,
by raising others from the dead—but He said concerning
His own body, “Destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up” (John 2: 19, my emphasis). This is
the power that accompanies the people of God as gone over Jordan to
possess the heavenly land. God not only tells His people of the
“riches of the glory of his inheritance” but also “the surpassing
greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the
working of the might of his strength, [in] which he wrought in the
Christ [in] raising him from among [the] dead, and he set him down
at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and
authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only
in this age, but also in that to come; and has put all things under
his feet” (Eph. 1: 18-22).
In the light of
these things, how foolish it would be to seek to fight for my
spiritual inheritance in my own natural strength! No, I must drop
myself—drop the weak thing that can never prevail against the
enemy—and rest in divine power. You see this in the type, in that as
having crossed Jordan, Israel immediately submitted to circumcision
(see Josh. 5: 3). There that was a removal of a token
amount of flesh, but in Colossians 2: 11 we
read of “the putting off of the body of flesh, in the
circumcision of the Christ”. Just as the waters “rose up in a heap,
very far, by Adam” (Josh. 3: 16) so all that I am as a child of Adam
is cut off, and all that Christ is, I am before God as being “in
Christ” (Col. 1: 2). The new position is
that if “any one [be] in Christ, [there is] a new creation” (2 Cor.
5: 17) for we are “not in flesh but in Spirit” (Rom. 8: 9). What is
of nature cannot go over and cannot go in.
The Crossing
Israel
crossed through the Red Sea during the night (see Exod. 14: 24).
That crossing was preceded by fear and trembling but ended with
shouts of triumph. By contrast, Israel crossed over the empty bed of
Jordan in the full light of day, and after three days of expectation
and preparation—but we read of no song of victory, no tambours, and
no dances accompanying the passage (comp. Exod. 15: 1, 20). A solemn
stillness pervaded the nation as they watched the ark go down for
them into the flooded Jordan, and then, wonder of wonders, the flood
disappeared! Deliverance from the bondage of sin results in
exultation, but at the passage of the Jordan the believer’s spirit
is overwhelmed into silence at the completeness of the work, and the
thought of the One who has done it. While the people needed to
follow the ark to reach the land, they
were not to “come near it” (Josh. 3: 4) and
two thousand cubits was to be maintained
between it and them. Thus, while there is association with Christ,
Christ is also set apart as distinct, precious, and unfathomable.
“Come hither” (v9) says Joshua, and so we, at a respectful distance,
are directed to look at Christ, see what He has done, and where He
now is. He went down into death, and God has raised Him from among
the dead, and “set Him down at His right hand in the heavenlies” for
“He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all
the heavens, that he might fill all things” (Eph. 1: 20; 4: 10). At
the Red Sea, it was fitting that Moses lifted his staff and
stretched out his hand over the sea (see Exod. 14: 16). In the Red
Sea we get the judgment of sin, and so the staff is there. At the
river, however, there is no staff, and all eyes were to be
upon the ark, because we are blessed “with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph. 1: 3, my
emphasis). Thus Joshua’s instruction was that “When ye see the ark
of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites
bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it … and all
Israel went over on dry ground, until all the nation had completely
gone over the Jordan” (Josh. 3: 3, 17).
There was also
something at the Jordan that was not present at the Red Sea
crossing—a memorial. Thus, twelve stones were taken out of the
Jordan and set up in the land, and another twelve stones were set up
in the midst of the river (see Josh. 4: 8, 9). Now just as “the
priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah stood firm on
dry ground in the midst of the Jordan” until “all Israel went over”
(Josh. 3: 17), so in the antitype, we recall One who went into the
waters and stayed there until all His people (here,
all twelve tribes) had passed through. The twelve stones in the
river speak of death, and the twelve on the bank speak of
resurrection—God would ever have us remember the passage of the ark
that brought us into blessing, the sorrow and the exaltation, the
depth and the height. At the Red Sea, Israel rejoiced to see their
enemies dead on the seashore; but in the Jordan, Christ Himself is
magnified to my soul. It must be so, for as “in Him” (Eph. 1: 4), I
am “where the Christ is, sitting at [the] right hand of God” (Col.
3: 1).
Conclusion
Of course, a lot more could be said, but space is
finite. However, the subject cannot be left without a serious
question: why do we not enter livingly into these truths? Even when
our heavenly character is understood doctrinally, the practical
working out of it seems to be a matter of great difficulty. It
surely must be because we are not really heeding the apostle’s
injunction to “have your mind on the things [that are] above, not on
the things [that are] on the earth” (Col. 3: 2). If we are occupied
with things here, then our interest in the heavenly things will be
correspondingly diminished.
We are heavenly—let us therefore live
accordingly!
