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| The Story of Israel Crossing Jordan Under Joshua is Typical of Christian Things, and is Written for Our Instruction.
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26. The Story of
Israel Crossing Jordan Under Joshua is Typical of Christian Things, and
is Written for Our Instruction.
Now, it may very well be that some one not versed in the
various aspects of the Saviour may stumble at the interpretation given
above of the Jordan; because John says, “I baptize with water,
but He that cometh after me is stronger than I; He shall baptize you
with the Holy Spirit.” To this we reply that, as the Word
of God in His character as something to be drunk is to one set of men
water, and to another wine, making glad the heart of man, and to others
blood, since it is said,4931
“Except ye
drink My blood, ye have no life in you,” and as in His character
as food He is variously conceived as living bread or as flesh, so also
He, the same person, is baptism of water, and baptism of Holy Spirit
and of fire, and to some, also, of blood. It is of His last
baptism, as some hold, that He speaks in the words,4932
“I have a baptism to be baptized with,
and how am I straitened till it be accomplished?” And it
agrees with this that the disciple John speaks in his Epistle4933
of the Spirit, and the water, and the blood,
as being one. And again He declares Himself to be the way and the
door, but clearly He is not the door to those to whom He is the way,
and He is no longer the way to those to whom He is the door. All
those, then, who are being initiated in the beginning of the oracles of
God, and come to the voice of him who cries in the wilderness,
“Make straight the way of the Lord,” the voice which sounds
beyond Jordan at the house of preparation, let them prepare themselves
so that they may be in a state to receive the spiritual word, brought
home to them by the enlightenment of the Spirit. As we are now,
as our subject requires, bringing together all that relates to the
Jordan, let us look at the “river.” God, by Moses,
carried the people through the Red Sea, making the water a wall for
them on the right hand and on the left, and by Joshua He carried them
through Jordan. Now, Paul deals with this Scripture, and his
warfare is not according to the flesh of it, for he knew that the law
is spiritual in a spiritual sense. And he shows us that he
understood what is said about the passage of the Red Sea; for he says
in his first Epistle to the Corinthians,4934
“I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, how that our fathers
were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all
baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the
same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank
of the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was
Christ.” In the spirit of this passage let us also pray
that we may receive from God to understand the spiritual meaning of
Joshua’s passage through Jordan. Of it, also, Paul would
have said, “I would not, brethren, have you ignorant, that all
our fathers went through Jordan, and were all baptized into Jesus in
the spirit and in the river.” And Joshua, who succeeded
Moses, was a type of Jesus Christ, who succeeds the dispensation
through the law, and replaces it by the preaching of the Gospel.
And even if those Paul speaks of were baptized in the cloud and in the
sea, there is something harsh and salt in their baptism. They are
still in fear of their enemies, and crying to the Lord and to Moses,
saying,4935
“Because
there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou brought us forth to slay us in
the wilderness? Why hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring us
forth out of Egypt?” But the baptism to Joshua, which takes
place in quite sweet and drinkable water, is in many ways superior to
that earlier one, religion having by this time grown clearer and
assuming a becoming order.
For the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God is carried in
procession by the priests and levites, the people following the
ministers of God, it, also, accepting the law of holiness. For
Joshua says to the people,4936
“Sanctify
yourselves against tomorrow; the Lord will do wonders among
you.” And he commands the priests to go before the people
with the ark of the covenant, wherein is plainly showed forth the
mystery of the Father’s economy about the Son, which is highly
exalted by Him who gave the Son this office; “That at the name of
Jesus4937
every knee should bow, of things in heaven
and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” This is pointed out by what we find in the book
called Joshua,4938
“In that day
I will begin to exalt thee before the children of Israel.”
And we hear our Lord Jesus saying to the children of Israel,4939
“Come hither and hear the words of the
Lord your God. Hereby ye shall know that the living God is in
(among) you;” for when we are baptized to Jesus, we know that the
living God is in us. And, in the former case, they kept the
passover in Egypt, and then began their journey, but with Joshua, after
crossing Jordan on the tenth day of the first month they pitched their
camp in Galgala; for a sheep had to be procured before invitations
could be issued to the banquet after Joshua’s baptism. Then
the children of Israel, since the children of those who came out of
Egypt had not received circumcision, were circumcised by Joshua with a
very sharp stone; the Lord declares that He takes away the reproach of
Egypt on the day of Joshua’s baptism, when Joshua purified the
children of Israel. For it is written:4940
“And the Lord said to Joshua,
the son of Nun, This day have I taken away the reproach of Egypt from
off you.” Then the children of Israel kept the passover on
the fourteenth day of the month, with much greater gladness than in
Egypt, for they ate unleavened bread of the corn of the holy land, and
fresh food better than manna. For when they received the land of
promise God did not entertain them with scantier food, nor when such a
one as Joshua was their leader do they get inferior bread. This
will be plain to him who thinks of the true holy land and of the
Jerusalem above. Hence it is written in this same
Gospel:4941
Your fathers
did eat bread in the wilderness, and are dead; he that eateth of this
bread shall live for ever. For the manna, though it was given by
God, yet was bread of travel, bread supplied to those still under
discipline, well fitted for those who were under tutors and
governors. And the new bread Joshua managed to get from corn they
cut in the country, in the land of promise, others having laboured and
his disciples reaping,—that was bread more full of life,
distributed as it was to those who, for their perfection, were able to
receive the inheritance of their fathers. Hence, he who is still
under discipline to that bread may receive death as far as it is
concerned, but he who has attained to the bread that follows that,
eating it, shall live for ever. All this has been added, not, I
conceive, without appropriateness, to our study of the baptism at the
Jordan, administered by John at Bethabara.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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