Between the
Jordan and Jericho
So Moses is dead (representing how Law
and its edicts are dead too in the sense of their external dictating way) and
Joshua (representing Jesus Christ, the personification of Law obeyed entirely,
eternally, and internally) is about to cross the Jordan (about to descend to
the bottom of despair and sorrow and redeem mankind from the depths of hell)
and restore paradise (obtain for them their Promised Land, flowing with milk
[contentment, peace] and honey [sweetness, joy]).
When the Israelites crossed the Jordan
River the waters gathered up into a heap and rolled all the way back to a city
called “Adam.” Their stream of descent
unto death, their polluted lineage stream, was parted and brought all the way
back to its origin for a healing all the way back to the root; they crossed
over on dry land at the point of this division.
A distinction is made between that which is cursed and that which is
blessed; the battle for Jericho, which only happened after a second
circumcision, a circumcision of a whole new generation, is symbolic of that
circumcision made without hands, a circumscribing away of the natural man
(Adam) from the spiritual man (Jesus).
Securing Jericho is the first and
foundational victory of the new creation man, but it is only secured based on
the work of Christ (as symbolically prefigured in some noteworthy things which
happened first, just prior to the taking of Jericho). After the sign and wonder which occurred at
the Jordan (like as God performed at the Red Sea) there were more signs and
wonders which all prefigured aspects of salvation and the salvation processes.
The Red Sea crossing, for instance,
was symbolic of the Passover feast of being born-again, being removed from the
kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of light; the Jordan crossing
was symbolic of the Pentecost feast of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, being
empowered to obey the Law not by external fiat, but by internal
governance. The wilderness experience,
the divine provision there (manna from heaven and no clothing wearing out while
wandering) is a proving ground and a graveyard for carnality. The heat, the travel, the barely enough water
to sustain life, and the minimally acceptable tasting and monotonous-like
quality of eating manna every day, was all designed to develop their
spirituality (humbling their souls with fastings and hardships) prefiguring the
trials and tribulations one must overcome before entering into the kingdom of
God (or the Promised Land).
Though a generation just prior to
these Israelites actually left Egypt, it was to these Israelites that God said
(after their circumcisions healed): “Today I have rolled away the reproach of
Egypt from you” (Joshua 5:9).
Consequently, they named the spot where God spoke to them, the spot they
were circumcised at, and the spot where they remained until healed up,
“Gilgal,” which means “liberty” or “rolling away”; perhaps this prefigures the
stone which would one day be rolled away from the tomb (to first reveal
emptiness), and then that which materialized later in various ways: a live
forevermore risen Christ.
Liberty at first is shocking and near
unbelievable in what it suggests; likewise, the born-again creature is often
like Ephraim who didn’t even realize the freedom which God provided for him
when He removed the yoke of bondage from his shoulders and healed him of all
his diseases.
Then, while still in Gilgal, the sons
of Israel observed the Passover; then the following day, they “ate some of the
produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain” (Joshua 5:11). Then
the day after that, the manna ceased.
Then still later, Joshua sees a man with a drawn sword, and discovers he
is either an angel or a theophany; he tells Joshua to remove his sandals
because the place where he is standing is holy.
When Joshua asked whether he was for them or his adversaries, the angel
or the preincarnate manifestation of Christ, said: “No, rather I indeed come
now as captain of the host of the
Lord” (Joshua 5:14).
This Passover is the third Passover in
Israelite history; the first was in Egypt, the second at Sinai, and now here in
the Promised Land. Thus God’s favor is
shown by having the death angel pass them by while in three different
vulnerable states, while they were dead and in the world, under the Law with
its demands punishable by death, and just after they became dead to themselves
as they entered paradise. The divine
provision of manna ceased to be gathered because the uncursed ground of heaven
produces its own food. The manifestation
of Christ is not particular to anyone (God so loved the world that He sent His
only begotten Son to anyone who would); The Captain of the Hosts of the Lord
fights for anyone who agrees or joins Him, for Joshua and Rahab both.
