The Romance of Conquest The great conquest of the Promised Land by the Children of Israel is a heart-warming picture of the spiritual victory for us in Jesus Christ I t is a well recognized fact that the first few books of the Bible have their counterpart in cer tain New Testament books. The every step is retraced, and all lessons are retold before the people enter into their promised possessions. The book of the Revelation is the counterpart to that in the New Testament. Furthermore, they go together at all times; for the measure of one depends upon the degree of the other. This is what we hope to illustrate as we meditate upon the heart of the book of Joshua.
reason for this is that while in the New Testament books we have the direct spiritual teaching of the doc trine, in the Old Testament books we have types and illustrations of these doctrines. Hence a comparison of the two is helpful in a thorough under standing of the will of God as it is revealed for us in the New Testament. In Genesis we have the book of be ginnings. Here God is seen as the Source of all. This corresponds with the gospels with which our New Testament opens. In Exodus we have the book of re demption. Here the Son of God is seen in effecting the release of the captives. The book of Romans is the New Testament counterpart of this; its teaching can be traced almost step by step in the book of Exodus. In Leviticus we have the book of sanctification. Here the Holy Spirit is seen fitting and preparing the peo ple of God for spiritual worship in His immediate presence. The New Testament counterpart of that is found in the book of Hebrews. Weakness in a Wilderness In Numbers we have the book of wilderness experience. Here we see the walk of a redeemed people; char acterized by much failure and weak ness on their part, but by much pow er and faithfulness on Jehovah’s part. The Epistles of Peter answer to this in the New Testament; for there we have the experience described of those who are “ pilgrims and strang ers” in this world below. In Deuteronomy we have the book of review and rehearsal. Here every thing is seen from God’s viewpoint;
In Joshua we have the book of possessing the land. All has been leading up to this, all has been pre paratory to this and now we find Israel in actual possession of the land of promise. The children of Israel were told to conquer both the land and the people who lived there. This commission is an illustration of the great commission given by Christ to the Church which contains two New Testament truths: 1) The Church’s evangelization of the whole world by the preaching of the gospel. This is what we have in the Book of Acts. 2) The Christian’s appropriation of all the spiritual blessings which are in Christ: This is what we have in the Epistle to the Ephesians. Needless to say, these two truths are, by any means of reckoning, the most important in the entire New Testament. Wherever and whenever God’s people meet for conference and fellowship, here are the two most im portant things to talk about: The sal vation of the lost, and the life that is pleasing to God!
The conquest of the land of Canaan is the principle theme of the book of Joshua. A simple analysis will bear this out: 1) The land procured: 1:1- 5:12; 2) The land possessed: 5:13- 12:24; 3) The land partitioned: 13:1- 24:33. Promise and Provision Under Joshua This land was Israel’s by divine promise and provision and under the leadership of Joshua the people now possessed it. It was accomplished, as we are told in the center section of the book (5:13-12:24), by three distinct campaigns: 1) The Central Campaign (6:1-9:27); Jericho, Ai, Gibeon. 2) The Southern Campaign (10:1-43); Five Kings, Series of Sieges. 3) The Northern Campaign (11:1-23); Kings and cities destroyed, all land taken, the Anakim cut off. In chapter 12:1-24 the conquest is reviewed. This is a picture of the evangeliza tion of the world by the preaching of the gospel thru the ministry of the Christian church, such as our Lord had in mind when He commissioned His disciples (Matt. 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15) and when He further instruct ed them concerning the enterprise in Acts 1:8. If we take Acts 1:8 as a key, ob serve the following similarities: In the Book of Joshua the persons to accomplish the conquest of the land were designated: “ . . . go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people” (Josh. 1:2). In the book of Acts we have the persons who were to ac- CONTINUED
BY PETER HOOGENDAM Pastor, Philpott Tabernacle Hamilton, Ont., Canada
JULY, 1955
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