ENTERING THE PROMISED
LAND
Charles Faupel
Anyone who
has grown up attending church is very familiar with “the Promised Land.” The problem is, what most of us have been
taught regarding the Promised Land—how we get there, and even what the Promised
Land is—are misconceptions based on a limited understanding of God’s purposes
for His creation. Most commonly,
perhaps, is the notion that the Promised Land is a place of everlasting bliss,
where there are no sorrows or tears.
This is an idea promoted in popular spiritual songs, such as “On
Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand:”
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan's fair and happy land
Where my possessions lie
Refrain
I am bound for the Promised Land,
I am bound for the Promise Land
Oh, who will come and go with me,
I am bound for the Promised Land
Oh, the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises to my sight
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rivers of delight!
O'er all those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day
There God, the Son forever reigns
And scatters night away.
No chilling wind nor poisonous breath
Can reach that healthful shore
Where sickness, sorrow, pain and death
Are felt and feared no more
When shall I see that happy place
And be forever blessed
When shall I see my Father's face
And in His bosom rest
Filled with delight, my raptured soul
Would here no longer stay;
Though Jordan’s waves around me roll,
Fearless, I’d launch away
This representation,
at least as it is understood by the carnal mind, is a false and gross misunderstanding
of the Promised Land, and one that has been promoted by religious systems
today. It basically equates the Promised
Land with a celestial Heaven—a heaven that is attained only after we die. This is also a view that is promoted by many
best-selling books these days on heaven.[1]
In this article, I want to strongly make the
case that the Promised Land is not a celestial playground or resting place that
we enter into when we die (if we have done all the right things while here on
earth of course); the Promised Land is,
rather, a state of being or a spiritual reality that is to be apprehended in this life by those who are prepared
to enter therein. It is, in fact, the Kingdom of Heaven, which Jesus said is
within us (Luke 17:21). As with entering a room, entering into a
career, or entering into marriage, entering the Promised Land in this life is a choice. Entering that
reality, however, requires vision to see it.
It is my prayer that this article will help to clarify our vision to more
fully comprehend and appreciate the Promised Land that is truly the inheritance
that waits for His sons to enter.
In a
previous article (The Wilderness) I pointed out that the experience of the Old Testament Israelites
is a shadow and a type of spiritual realities today, and is instructive for our
own spiritual journey. We continue here
to look at the journey of these ancient sojourners as a picture of the entrance
into our Promised Land, being very
attentive to what the Spirit of God would reveal as to what is in store for us,
should we answer the call to go to His place of promise. I urge
the reader to listen carefully to whatever truths that God would quicken unto
your spirit as we consider some of the significant and relevant features of
Israel’s journey as it applies to our time as spiritual beings having this earthly experience.
A New Generation Must Enter the
Promised Land
The
Israelites had spent forty long years wandering in the wilderness after being
delivered from the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt.
Theirs had been a miraculous deliverance with signs and wonders
accompanying. These miracles included
the dividing of the Red Sea for their safe passage across, only to reunite the
waters to drown the Egyptian warriors pursuing them; providing a cloud by day
and fire by night to guide them through their wilderness journey; and bringing
forth water from a rock when they were thirsty, among many others. Despite these demonstrations of God’s care,
they complained almost continuously.
Then came that decisive hour at Kadesh-barnea,
when the Israelites were presented with the vision of the Promised Land.
They were to go up and possess the land without fear, because the Lord
God would deliver the land into their hands (Deut. 1:20-21). Spies were sent to scout out the land. The spies came back with a good report: that the land was flowing with milk and
honey. The spies also reported that the
people in the land were strong, giants
in fact, and that the cities were fortified.
All of the spies, excepting Joshua and Caleb, were in fear of the
Canaanites, and their report struck fear in the heart of the people, who
refused to go up despite God’s directive to take the land with His promise that
God Himself would go before them.
Because of
this response of fear, none of the Israelites who crossed the Red Sea with
Moses were allowed to enter the Promised Land with the exception of Joshua and
Caleb. Not even Moses! All of them died while wandering yet another
20 years in the desert. Joshua and Caleb
were the only two of that generation that God found faithful during this
wilderness journey. They saw, believed
and entered. Consequently, it would be a
new generation, those who had been
born while on the wilderness journey, who would be the recipients of God’s
Promised Land. This new generation did
not have the experience of being under bondage to an Egyptian pharaoh. Nor did they witness God’s miraculous
intervention at the Red Sea. Most of
them were too young to remember any of the miracles that were performed. What they did
remember, no doubt, was the complaining that they heard from their parents.
And so it is
that God is preparing a new generation to enter the Promised Land today. Do you see what the experience of these
ancient Israelites is foreshadowing?
None of the old carnality can enter into the Promised Land! God will keep us in the wilderness until we
have truly died to the carnal generation within
us. Only that which has been made
pure by the refining fires of the wilderness will take this land. As we will see, this is exactly what took
place with the under-20 generation Israelites years later when they crossed the
Jordan under the command of Joshua, carrying the ark of the
covenant before them, marching mightily into battle against the
fortified city of Jericho. These
warriors had sanctified themselves, and the ark of the Lord was carried across
the Jordan ahead of them. Before going
into battle with Jericho, these young men were circumcised, made pure by the
cutting away of the foreskin. This is
the very circumcision that we, too, must go through. Ours is a spiritual circumcision of heart
that is taking place, even as the Lord is creating in us a
purity and glory all of His own. This
is discussed more fully below, but I would make the point here that we are
being made a new and pure generation, and we are learning who we are as sons, so
that we can go forward in His strength to co-labor with Him in establishing His
Kingdom, our Promised Land, on earth as it is in Heaven!
In addition
to the generational ties to the old order that God is putting to death within each of His sons, the Promised
Land is reserved for a new generation corporately as well. God has visited a previous generation with
many signs and wonders, just as He did the children of Israel. We have seen the outpouring of His Spirit in
manifold ways. We witnessed it in the
Great Reformation to which Luther’s name has been attached; in the great
revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries; and in the
outpouring in Wales and at Azusa Street.
The Latter Rain Movement of the mid-twentieth century saw mighty signs
and wonders, including supernatural healing.
Yet none of this was the Promised Land.
These were demonstrations of God’s power and His faithfulness to a
people He was calling to the Promised Land.
These were the miracles in the
desert. These manifestations were
squandered, however, as denominations were formed around exclusive doctrinal
positions, as leaders of these movements built great ministries unto
themselves, and as these great moves of God were institutionalized, and even
marketed as businesses, into human organizational efforts to “contain” them. With few exceptions, these leaders were eager
to partake of the grapes and pomegranates that the Promised Land held forth,
but like the remaining ten spies, were dissuaded from entering the Promised
Land because of fear of the giants that had to be overcome there.
Who are the
giants that we face? As we approach this
question, we must keep in mind that Jesus said that the Kingdom of Heaven (the
Promised Land) is within you. Consider
the incredible shift of this spiritual geography: The
Promised Land is WITHIN YOU! Therefore, we
understand that the giants that currently occupy the Promised Land that must be
overcome are, first and foremost, the beast within each of us,
that scriptures variously refer to as the old Adam, the flesh, the
carnal mind, and even the spirit of anti-Christ. This beast manifests as pride, unforgiveness,
self-centeredness, and fear and doubt. We
must die to all of this! Praise God, we will not destroy these giants, but
God Himself goes before us to do this work, just as he promised the children of
Israel that He would do for them. I am
not suggesting that this will be a cakewalk.
The slaying of these giants within us is a fearsome prospect, as the
Lord takes us through His refining fires—the very fires of hell—to accomplish
this noble purpose. We experience these
fires in the context of what we call the cares of life. God
uses all of the circumstances that we
encounter, as the perfect storm He allows for us, to decisively defeat those
giants within by His grace and faith. Are
we willing to move forward, on to the battlefront, to allow the Lord to rout
this enemy of God—our carnal mind, our very flesh—and bring it into submission
to His Kingdom purpose? Will we allow
the Lord to complete that purifying work in us which will bring us into the
perfection of union with Him as sons, being like Him and seeing Him as He is, which will qualify us to enter into and possess the
Kingdom of Heaven, our Promised Land? Or
will we, like the first generation of wilderness wanderers, slink from the
threat that doing battle with these giants poses, and fall short of
experiencing that glorious hope? Stated
differently, are we Joshuas and Calebs,
full of faith that the Lord our God will successfully lead us into battle and
rout the enemy within, or are we one of the ten who are paralyzed by fear at
the thought of this enemy and refuse to enter into our land of promise?
The new
generation that God is preparing will be a generation of both young people and
old people, chronologically. We know any
number of saints, up in years, even some who were leaders in various religious
denominations and movements, who have abandoned position and the prestige that
comes with it, to pursue Christ, to be identified with Him in His sufferings,
and have put on His
righteousness. Despite their age, these
are among the new generation qualified to enter the Promised Land. On the other hand, there are others for whom
the prospect of God’s purifying fires are too ominous
and they hold on dearly to that which they have always known. They regard their carnal minds as informed by
the Holy Spirit, in many cases not even knowing that their mind is carnal and in need of renewal! The Bible declares that the carnal mind, even
if it is good, is enmity to God
(Romans 8:7). This generation has yet to
subject their minds to the Spirit of God in order to qualify for entrance.
At the other
end of the age spectrum, I have met young people with such a passion for God
that nothing will deter them from pursuing Him with abandon. One young man whom God had snatched from a
life on a downward spiral was filled with gratitude and awe for His Lord when
he told me, “All I want to do is waste my life for the Lord!” He was ready to abandon all, and the last
correspondence that I had with him, he had
abandoned all. This young man is a “new generation” pilgrim who is being made
ready to enter into and take possession of the Kingdom of God! Alas, for every one of these, we have also
known dozens of young ambitious souls who have sold out to the cheap goods that
religion and the world have to offer.
They are looking for affirmation from their careers, their churches and
pastors, and from their success in the world, even and especially the religious
world, as the barometer for their spiritual condition. Despite the fact that they are young in
years, they are part of the “older generation” who are not prepared to enter
the Promised Land.
Friends, regardless
of age, the generation that God is preparing to enter the Promised Land will be
comprised of only those who are not looking back with longing to the Egypt
which enslaved them, but have been willing to leave the lure of that land. They have rejected the bondage of Babylonish religious systems that have sought to control
the Spirit of God and usurp His Headship.
They have no desire to “own” and control the mighty work that God is
about to do. They have valiantly done
battle with the giants in their land, are dead to their flesh and have been
conformed to His death through the sharing of His suffering. Their only desire will be to see the Kingdom
of God advanced—not some ministry that they purport to be the Kingdom of
God. Those of the generation who will
enter are determined and free to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit; they
are totally abandoned and are single-mindedly loyal to only His agenda. They owe their allegiance and have been
attached to Christ as their Head and have learned to submit to the authority of
Christ and respond only to His directives.
Only these with this precise and absolute Kingdom focus and allegiance
are equipped to enter and possess the Promised Land.
Moses and Joshua Represent Two
Different Reigns
It is
worthwhile to note that Moses and Joshua were very different types of
leaders—differences which represented a difference in function and purpose that
God had for their leadership. There are,
of course similarities. Both were strong
leaders. Both had an acute sensitivity
to the voice of God and both had a heart of obedience to that voice. Indeed, Joshua was mentored by Moses and no
doubt learned much from Moses’ leadership.
We must
understand, however, that their respective reigns of leadership were of an
entirely different order. Moses was
called to lead the children of Israel out
of Egypt, out of their place of bondage.
While the Promised Land was their ultimate destination, it was not for
Moses to take them there. He would lead
them into the wilderness. He would lead
them into, and through, a place of suffering.
Here, they would be tested. They
would be winnowed. And there would be
only two—only two—individuals that
left Egypt in that generation, found worthy to enter
into the Promised Land. Moses himself
was not even allowed to enter this place of promise! He was continually confronted with
complaining, rebellion, and ungratefulness.
And you might say that his leadership was a failure—at least as measured
by the standard of taking a generation into the land God had promised to
them. Moses’ leadership was
characterized as much by interceding on behalf of the people, challenging the
Lord to withhold His hand of judgment, as it was in speaking forth the voice of
the Lord and directing the people in obedience.
We might characterize Moses’ leadership as wilderness leadership. Moses’
leadership was one guided and directed by the law that the Lord gave on Mount
Sinai. God had called his people out of
Egypt and commanded them to live a separate life unto Him by keeping these
commandments. They demonstrated that they
could not do it, of course, but it was this very order of the law that Moses
was called to establish and to lead God’s people in throughout their wilderness
journey. Indeed, to this very day, Moses
is the human representation of the law to the Jewish people.
Joshua, by
contrast, exercised a Promised Land
leadership. The complainers, the
rebels, and the rogue stiff-necked people had already been eliminated, dying in
the barren wasteland of the wilderness by the time Joshua took the helm. Those in his charge were a new and fresh
generation. But while they did not have
the guilt of rebellion, neither did they have the living memory of the passing
over of the Lord, seeing their eldest sons and brothers spared from the
ultimate judgment of the Lord on Egypt.
Nor did they have the opportunity to witness the parting of the Red Sea,
the miraculous provision of food, or the gushing forth of sweet water from a
mammoth rock. To put it simply, Joshua
inherited a people who had not personally been part of the mighty moves of God. He was charged to infuse this new generation
with a fresh vision of the Promised Land and of the Lord’s purpose therein. Joshua was called as a warrior leader, to lead
His people to victory over the enemies that would seek to prevent their entry
into and possession of the Promised Land. Joshua’s task was not to establish God’s people as a separate people through the Law,
but to establish His purpose by possessing the land of Canaan that they
understood as the Promised Land.
Moses and
Joshua are certainly types that represent the massive shift in the purposes of
God among His people. Moses was called
to lead a separatist movement, separating the people of God from those cultures
around them, including Egypt. They were
to remain a separate people. They were not
to intermarry with other peoples. They
were also given a code of conduct which would distinguish them from all other
cultures around them. Moses was called
to lead a people into separation and holiness unto the Lord. Joshua’s leadership was of a different
order. Indeed, God’s first word to
Joshua after he had assumed the position of leadership was, “Moses my servant is dead, now therefore
arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do
give to them, even to the children of Israel” (Joshua 1:2). Moses
my servant is dead, now therefore...
The old order is passed away!
A new purpose of God is now being instituted,
that being to cross over the Jordan and enter into the Promised Land. Joshua’s ascendancy to leadership is a
heralding of the coming of Christ and the Promised Land of the ancient
Israelites a foreshadowing of the
Kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish.
Indeed, the name Jesus is the
Greek rendering of the Hebrew Joshua. Joshua came to bring to pass the ultimate
intentions of God for His people Israel by taking and occupying the Promised
Land; so it is that Jesus came to take
His separated people to a place of victory over the principalities and powers
of this world which currently occupy the land, and through these people, to
establish His Kingdom throughout the earth.
This new
generation under the direction of Jesus through the precious Holy Spirit—our
Joshua—is, however, a different kind of people than religion has understood
them to be throughout the last 2000 years.
They have opened their eyes to the fact that the religious systems which
have represented themselves as the “church” have, for the most part, looked to Moses and
his contemporary representatives to lead them.
As a result many of those whom God would separate unto Himself remain in
the wilderness (if not still in Egypt). Religion,
with all of its institutional infrastructure, still
represents the old order of the law and has fine-tuned the law to such an
extent that not even Moses would recognize it!
It doesn’t matter if this is in the Roman expression or the many varied
Protestant expressions: religion represents the law—not the victory of Christ over the prince of
this world. Oh yes, it makes
much of the truth that we are saved by grace, through no good works of our
own. A careful observation of what
happens after one comes into a salvation experience, however, betrays the bent
of religious orders toward the order represented by Moses, namely the law. Very quickly, the new convert is expected to
“join the church” with all of the requirements that this entails for any
particular religious body. They are
further expected to become involved in the activities of the local church. There are also doctrinal tenets to which the
new believer is expected to affirm, along with a host of behavioral standards
to which one must conform, regardless of whether or not these are matters of
personal conviction issuing forth from a vital relationship with the Holy Spirit.
I remember
so clearly coming back to the Lord after wandering for some 25 years as a
prodigal in the far-away land. Oh how
glorious that was! I recognized that God
had delivered me from a stronghold in my life that I had been powerless to
overcome all of those years. I
recognized that something had changed within me that only He could have
done. He had done this awesome thing!
There was an intimacy with Him and how wonderful it was to commune with
Him, spirit to spirit on a daily basis. I
was moved to share my testimony, and to speak of the power of God to deliver
from the bondage of sin and addiction. I
brought my enthusiasm for the Lord to every church meeting I attended, honestly
believing that God had powerful and wonderful things in store for those who
would hear and receive. While I now
recognize, of course, that my zeal had not yet been purified by the refining
fires of the Lord, I believe to this day that this was my obedient response to
the Lord. I would soon discover that not
everyone shared my enthusiasm. The
religious crowd was amused at best and offended at worst. Within weeks, I found
myself confronted with expectations for how I was now to conduct myself. I was discouraged from speaking so boldly
about what God had done in my life. There were also the usual expectations to
get more involved in the life of the church, to pay tithes, eventually to teach
a Sunday school class, and sing in the choir.
There was also a “spiritual” language that I was now expected to use,
and there were certainly places I could not go and things I could no longer do,
even though I had no personal conviction about these things. I do not want the reader to misunderstand me
here. All of these are good things if they are motivated by the life of the
Holy Spirit within….BUT…when these deeds are driven by a need to stay in good
standing with one’s church or fellow church members, they are nothing more than
religious legalism. Oh, the legal requirements that are placed upon those who
submit themselves to the authority of the institutional church today! With deep regret, I must report that I
succumbed to the yoke of these religious expectations for many years until God
called my wife and me out of that system many years ago. He continues to call
out others who are listening with attentive spiritual ears.[2]
God is indeed
raising up a Joshua-people in our day! This is a people who recognize that the
law—all of it, in whatever insidious form that it may take—has been completely
fulfilled in Christ, our Joshua. They
know that “Moses my servant is now dead.
Now therefore…” This is a people
who are gripped by another law, the Law of the Spirit. They have learned to listen to the still
small voice of the Spirit in the midst of the clamor of those voices coming
from the halls of religious institutions.
These called out ones—the true ecclesia of God—are heeding the voice of their One True Shepherd. It is His
voice—not the voice of the “false heads”[3]
—that lead those who are so destined into the Promised Land.
All of Israel Did Not Enter the
Promised Land
It is most
worthy at this point that we consider the fact that not all of Israel
ultimately entered into the Promised Land to possess it. The tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half
tribe of Manasseh made the decision to settle east of the Jordan River in the
land of Gilead. They had many cattle,
and they saw that this land was good for raising livestock. They made the request of Moses to remain and
settle east of the Jordan River (Numbers 32:1-5). Moses was clearly not excited about this
request for he knows that without the men of this tribe going to war along with
their fellow Israelites, the enemies in the land of Canaan would represent a
much more formidable challenge. Moses
does, however, ultimately concede to their request on the condition that their
fighting men accompany their brethren in the quest to take possession of the
Promised Land. They were allowed to
build cities in Gilead and settle their wives and children there before going
off to war.
This is
almost a side note in the annals of Jewish history, but it is most significant
for our understanding of what it means to enter and possess the Promised
Land. Because we have the mistaken idea
that the Promised Land is some blissful existence in a place called heaven
where we go after we die, many of us do not have a paradigm for the fact that
not all who proclaim the name of Christ will enter into the Promised Land. I am not referring here to those who have not
come to a saving knowledge of Christ, and whom much of Christianity today has
condemned to an eternal hell. God, in
His omniscience and mercy, has His plans even for these (and it is not to an
eternal place of torment), but this is not what I am addressing here. I refer, rather, to those who love God,
acknowledge Jesus as their savior, but who, because of lack of vision and fear
of leaving what they know, do not to go on to enter into the land of promise. These many-numbered believers, represented
here by the tribes of Gad, Reuben and half-tribe of Manasseh, are satisfied to
remain outside of God’s best that He has prepared for them. They are satisfied because the cost of going
on in to Canaan is very great, and once they get there, the battles will be
fierce. They remain on the other side of
Jordan because they are comfortable where they are and are satisfied to live
off the fat of the circumstances they currently find themselves in. They prefer to stay in the comfort of that
which they can see. They have no spiritual eyes to see the
greater good that waits for them in the Promised Land or to behold the greater
thing that God has for those who will trust Him with their very lives. These
are those who walk by sight, and not
by faith.
This does not mean that God loves them any less! Just as God loved the tribes of Gad and
Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and provided for them in the land of
Gilead, so does He love those who make the decision to remain in spiritual Gilead. But let’s be
clear: these do not taste of the bitter gall that comes with taking up one’s
cross, daily, having submitted to their own death to
be conformed to His. They do not
understand the agony that Promised Land-bound saints experience in their lives,
and indeed, often make very unspiritual judgments about them. Because they are unwilling to partake in the
Lord’s suffering, they will never share in His glory. While God loves these and blesses them, they
will never taste of the Promised Land as victors who are destined to rule and
reign in that land.
Spying Out Jericho
Before even
crossing the Jordan, Joshua sent out two spies into the city of Jericho. Jericho was a walled city, sitting virtually
on the banks of the Jordan. It would
have to be conquered before the Israelites would ever be able to occupy the
Promised Land. Jericho and its walls
represented a formidable challenge to the children of Israel. Its walls prevented them from seeing into the
city, to assess the strength of its people or to even size up the physical
challenges that would present themselves to the Israelites as they marched in
to take over the city. Hence, it was
necessary to spy out this city.
I believe
that the spies that Joshua chose were carefully selected as trustworthy men who
would give a true report. Any
experienced military man knows that true and accurate intelligence is critical
to success in war. The scripture is not
clear as to Joshua’s specific motive in sending the spies. The land of Canaan had already been spied upon
some 20 years earlier, and from this foray, the Israelites generally knew what
was before them. Possibly Joshua was
merely wanting to get a report on the physical layout of the city of Jericho;
or maybe he wanted to know something about the people of the city. Scripture is silent as to his motive. But the scripture would seem to suggest that God’s purpose was to provide a basis for
confidence that they would be victorious over this enemy. The spies snuck into the city and were given
succor by the prostitute Rahab. She gave
them protection when the men of Jericho learned that they had breached the wall
of the city. The significant thing that
these spies learned, however, is that the city of Jericho was in terror of the
Israelites. This was invaluable
information because it was a confirmation that the Lord was going before them,
even to the point of striking fear in the hearts of their enemies. What a confidence God was now building in His
people in preparation for their first assault on the enemy currently in
possession of the land that was promised to them.
So it is,
that as God is readying us to take possession of that land that He has prepared
for us, He has given us forerunners (spies) who have gone before and have seen
and tasted of what lies ahead for us.
Those to whom we look for a true and accurate report of what lies ahead
must be faithful witnesses of that which God has in store. We must not be lulled into a false sense of material
well-being peddled by the merchants of prosperity that consume so much of
Christian television and takes up so much shelf space at Christian bookstores;
neither must we be horrified or discouraged at the messages of doom and gloom
prophets who fill up the other end of Christian bookstore shelves and who are
preying upon the fears of a generation who simply cannot see the sovereignty of
God in all that is taking place in our world today. The reality is that yes, there is indeed an
enemy that inhabits this land of promise that Jesus boldly called the Kingdom
of heaven. This land does not belong to
that enemy, however; it belongs to God and His sons. The enemy is no match for that bold and
fearless army that God has prepared throughout its wilderness journey by
emptying each member of all self-confidence and establishing Himself as their
source of confidence. The true report of
the spies, those faithful forerunners who have blazed the trail before us, is
that we can go forth in the full confidence that God is going before us and
that every enemy will be defeated!
Crossing the Jordan
Israel was
encamped on the east bank of the Jordan River at a place called Shittim as they were preparing to cross the Jordan into the
Promised Land. Shittim
is significant in the life of Israel, as it was here, years earlier, that the
Hebrew men committed whoredom with the Moabite women, in direct disobedience to
the Lord’s command. It was also here
that Israel joined itself with Baal-peor which
greatly kindled the anger of the Lord against them (Numbers 25:1-3). It is, therefore, significant that Shittim would be the launching site for Israel’s entrance
into the Promised Land. The Lord God of
Israel would redeem even Israel’s disobedience for His ultimate purpose. Nothing is wasted with God—not even our disobedience!
And His punishment is always
for His redemptive purpose of bringing His people to the ultimate place of
promise that He has prepared for them.
The day
finally arrived when the children of Israel would pass over the Jordan River. They were commanded to wait until they saw
the Ark of the Covenant, the very presence of the Lord, carried by the priests,
before they began to move. The
Israelites had been trained in the wilderness to wait for the cloud by day and
fire by night—also the tangible presence of the Lord—before they moved. If that cloud (or fire) did not move, they were not to move. These trans-Jordan migrants were told to keep
a distance of at least two thousand cubits between themselves and the Ark of
the Covenant so that they could behold clearly the presence of the Lord. This place across the Jordan was a place that
they had never been before. They could
not depend upon their own senses or abilities to tell them where to go. It was of critical importance that they keep
the Ark (presence of the Lord) clearly before them as they crossed.
This is
possibly the most important principle that must be learned by those who are of
the Joshua Company, those who move and live by the Spirit of God. This company, does not have the luxury
(bondage, really) of depending upon the written law or religious traditions to
be their guide. They are trained to listen
with spiritual ears and see with spiritual eyes what the Spirit is saying and
doing, and only then do they move. God
is faithful, in every generation to
demonstrate His faithfulness. He is
taking us to places and realms that we have never been before. Our God knows exactly what we need to equip
us with an overcoming faith to follow the Ark of the presence of the Lord
wherever He is leading us. Praise His name!
A Stone Monument
The crossing
of the Jordan River represented the entrance into the Promised Land. It is not insignificant that the Israelites
crossed the Jordan at the time of year when it was at its highest level. The Lord God of Israel had another miracle to
perform for this second generation of Israelites, just as He did for the first
generation at the Red Sea some 40 years earlier. This generation was born in the wilderness
and did not see the miracle-working hand of God. It was necessary that they did see it,
however, because there would be many battles to come that would require that
they would trust in the Lord their God for the victory. Indeed, such a battle was just ahead at Jericho. And so it was that God held back the waters
of the Jordan so that His people could march across on dry land.
It would be
critically important that the people would remember God’s faithfulness to them
at the Jordan. There were giants in the
land, and the enemy would often seem overwhelming. God would require things of them that they
would not always understand, such as marching around Jericho seven times and
then on the seventh time, blowing their trumpets. What kind of warfare is that? But trust in God they must. So a stone monument was ordered so that they
would never forget God’s faithfulness to them (Joshua 4).
This was not
the first time, of course, that God ordered such a remembrance. Such monuments were erected frequently
throughout the Old Testament. These
remembrances were instituted to establish trust through many difficult days
ahead. God is still intervening in the
life of His people today. Individually
and corporately, if we have eyes to see, the hand of God is dramatically
evident in the challenges that we have faced.
There are occasions when we, too, are instructed to erect monuments as a
remembrance of what God has done. These
are not stone monuments located on the geographical site of a physical battle
or event that has taken place. God has a
way of ordering the building of remembrances nevertheless. It may be that, like Israel (Jacob) of old,
we are left with physical conditions that remind us of God’s faithful dealings
with us. There may be material objects
that remind us of God’s provision through impossible circumstances. Often, as is the case with me, it is a memory
indelibly etched in our consciousness, and reinforced by many opportunities
that the Lord gives us to share this experience with others. In all of the many ways that God erects the
monuments in our lives, it is for the purpose of remembering and establishing the history of His faithfulness,
and thereby giving us faith and courage to persevere through difficult
situations and battles ahead.[4]
Circumcision
at Gilgal
Israel has
now entered the Promised Land, but there is one final act of preparation that
must take place before the people of God are positioned to take possession of
that Land. The men must be
circumcised. All of the men coming out
of Egypt had been circumcised, in keeping with God’s covenant with
Abraham. During the 40 years in the
wilderness, however, the rite of circumcision had not been practiced, and so
those born during the years of wandering had not yet had the knife taken to
their foreskin.
This painful
ordeal was necessary for, by covenant between God and Abraham, this was what
set Abraham’s seed apart from those cultures around them. God’s people were a distinctive and peculiar
people, and this act of circumcision signified their election as God’s chosen
ones. It was, of course, a painful rite,
and would require a time of respite until they were whole enough to engage the
battles ahead.
That which
took place at Gilgal is also a shadow and type of what must take place amongst
the people of God today. This is not a
physical circumcision, of course, nor is this circumcision restricted to those
who are born into male bodies. Indeed,
Paul declares to believers in Galatia that
…in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working
through love (Gal
5:6; NKJV).
Paul has, in
fact, just urged the Galatian believers not
to allow themselves to be circumcised!
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ
has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed
I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you
nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a
debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you
have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:1-4; NKJV).
Circumcision
had become a matter of merely keeping the law, and Paul was loudly declaring
that if the Galatians allowed themselves to be circumcised, they were indebted
to keep the entire law—a feat that no one could accomplish in Paul’s day or in
ours. The need for such was abolished at
the cross, and to insist on the necessity of keeping this regulation, or any
other, is to make a mockery of the
cross.
There is,
however, a circumcision of the heart that is foreshadowed by the covenant of
circumcision that God established with His people Israel.
For he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, nor is circumcision
that which is outward in the
flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit,
not in the letter; whose praise is
not from men but from God (Romans 2:28-29; NKJV).
God is preparing a people with circumcised hearts, to storm
the gates of hell and take down every stronghold against the Kingdom of God in
our day! Like the circumcision of the
flesh, this is a painful process, as God exchanges our hearts of stone for
hearts of flesh. This requires that He strip
away all of the strongholds within us that would hinder our communion with Him. This is how He separates us unto Himself as a
special and peculiar people. Through
this painful process, God is re-creating a people in His very image, who have
surrendered every other loyalty, and who look unto Christ alone as the Head of His
body! Those who have come this far as to
cross the Jordan only came to this point by going through the wilderness. Indeed, it is the wilderness experience, as
we persevere through it, that accomplishes this
circumcision process within each of us.
As we have come through that experience with our hearts circumcised, we
have been set aside for the work of partnering with Jesus our elder brother to bring
the Kingdom of Heaven—our Promised Land—here on earth. What an incredible and awesome privilege that
is ours!
On to Possess the Promised Land
The Israelites have crossed the Jordan and they have entered
into the Promised Land. All is now peace
and rest, perhaps playing harps and walking on streets of gold, right? Hardly!
There would be many battles ahead as enemy forces were entrenched
throughout Israel’s Promised Land. There
would be many tests of obedience that Israel would face, and some of these
tests they would not pass with flying colors.
Entering the Promised Land
merely positioned the children of
Israel to take possession of it. They
could see it now, close up; they could taste of the fruit of that land. If they were going to take possession of it
and claim it as their own, however, they must conquer the enemy that currently occupied
and held control. Successfully
conquering the enemy would require a level of obedience to the Lord and to
their commander Joshua beyond the faithfulness of their fathers in the
wilderness. It would require a
singleness of vision and total commitment to the vision birthed some 400 years
earlier in the covenant between God and Abraham. These Israelites would, each one, lay down
their very lives as they partnered with the Lord their God to take possession
of this land of promise.
Our Promised Land will require no less of us. Religious leaders and their various media of
communication in our day have promulgated the idea that if we will only accept
and trust in Jesus as savior, and serve Him as diligently as we can while
living a moral lifestyle, we will then be rewarded with eternal bliss in our
Promised Land that we call heaven. I
find nothing in scripture that supports such a view.
Jesus had many things to say about the kingdom of
heaven. None of what He had to say even
remotely resembled the depictions that are propagated from so many pulpits
throughout America and elsewhere of flitting about on cumulous clouds, playing
harps, sitting around huge banquet tables eating Kentucky Fried Chicken or any
of the other popular portrayals of heaven as a gathering place of saints after
they die. Let us be very clear—Jesus suggested otherwise:
·
the
kingdom of heaven does not come by observation, but is within you (Luke 17:21);
·
the
kingdom of heaven is at hand (not
where we go when we die) (Matt. 4:17);
·
the
kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are persecuted (Matt. 5:10);
·
there
would be some standing beside him who would not taste death until they saw the
kingdom of God present with power (Mark 9:1);
·
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force
(Matt. 11:12).
Those who
would enter, and eventually possess the Promised Land are those who are being
prepared to rule and reign with Christ.
They are part of that great royal priesthood spoken of in the letter to
the Hebrews.[5] It is not a fanciful pie in the sky after we
die. Heavens no! It is, rather, the government of God
established by Him within those who realize that His Kingdom that Jesus
declared is “within” and “at hand” upon the earth right NOW! This Kingdom is taken by force by passionate
men and women who have counted the cost, crossed the
Jordan, carried their cross faithfully, and have not stained their garments by
“settling.” They are prepared to inherit and possess their Promised Land. It is for us, as it was for the Israelites of
old, a possession that must be fought for, apprehended, and possessed. Furthermore, it is one thing to enter the kingdom of heaven, whereby we
can see and taste the good things that God has prepared for those who serve
Him; it is quite another to take possession
of this land of promise. Taking
possession requires doing battle with and defeating the enemy that occupies
this reality that has been promised to us.
Life is not all peace and bliss after we enter the Promised Land. The battle still lies before us!
ENDNOTES