I’ll ask you to turn, please, to Joshua, chapter 4.
I remember some time ago I was reading through Proverbs, and I read that verse. I didn’t think about locating it until I was just sitting here, and I didn’t know where it was. But it was a verse on hunting, and God looked not with great favor on someone who hunted for fun. He said, you know, those are wicked who do not eat what they take in the kill.
And the way the Holy Spirit applied that to me is: I love to hunt in the Scriptures, for truth. But I wonder if I eat what I take in the kill. I think the Lord would have us not only search out and find wonderful things, but then feed on that truth and appropriate that truth.
As we come again to the study of God’s Word, I remind you, and I remind my own heart, of that indispensable principle: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit; helpless dependence before the Lord.
That does not mean we should not hunt. We should hunt. But it also shows that God rewards spadework, and He delights to show Himself to those who seek after Him.
There is a wonderful verse I would like to begin with. It is not in Joshua; it is in Psalm 43:3-4.
Oh, send out Thy light and Thy truth;
Let them lead me.
Then I will go to the altar of God,
To God, my exceeding joy.
Isn’t that a wonderful thing? When He sends out His light and truth, then we will end up at the altar—and to God, whose altar it is.
So I am going to ask you, brothers, to share with me again in believing prayer as we bow before Him. I do not need to tell you that you do not come into God’s presence when you bow your head. You are already in God’s presence. God was in this room before you got in this room.
And in a special way, when you came in the room, God came in the room because of His presence in you. But we do acknowledge that presence by bowing before Him. Let us do that.
Our Father, we thank You this morning that we can call upon You and wait upon Thy Holy Spirit to unveil again, in a fresh and living way, the dear Son of God to our hearts.
We thank You for every part of the Bible, and in a special way this morning for Joshua 4 and 5. We pray that You would open up our hearts to behold our Lord Jesus. Take us beyond the sacred page. Show Thyself.
Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. Send forth Thy light and Thy truth, we pray. Then we will go to the altar of God, to God our exceeding joy. Draw us this morning, Lord, and we will run after Thee. We ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
I remind you of the prayer that is sort of the key prayer for my heart for the entire weekend, from Psalm 72:6:
May He come down like rain upon the mown grass,
Like showers that water the earth.
And then two verses later it says, “May He rule from sea to sea.” Well, that is our prayer, of course.
We are meditating on a wonderful portion of God’s precious Word together: Israel’s redemptive history. We are looking at Israel from the time when they cross the Jordan River all the way to their victory at Ai. We are looking at Joshua 3 through 8.
Last evening, I suggested to you what I felt was at least the direction of my heart for this weekend. I would like to take four passages, four stories:
These are the four stories that I feel will carry the burden of God’s heart, as I understand it, for this weekend.
It is not so much, as I said yesterday, how to cross Jordan. There are three quarters of a million people who have been redeemed who have not crossed yet, and many of those have special problems. They are a second generation of believers.
That second generation has a harder time than the first generation. I noticed that in our children. They just had a bigger struggle. My firstborn son, in a special way, felt like everything was handed as an heirloom to him. He was getting it from Mom and Dad, and he did not get it from the Lord. How he had to struggle to get it from the Lord himself.
So there is this second generation of believers that need to go in. God often uses the first generation of believers to help the second generation of believers to enter in, and you have that illustrated here.
Of course, when we say “to enter in,” we are talking about, in the picture, the land; in the reality, the Lord. It is Him. All that was pictured in that land was a picture of our Savior.
There is no other purpose to cross Jordan except to get to Him. There is no other purpose to learn the lessons of Gilgal except if it prepares me to enter in and possess a full Savior, a full Christ. That is why we take Jericho. That is why we learn from Ai: to go in and possess a full Christ, and by God’s grace to enable others to go in and possess that same Savior.
In our look at these wonderful stories, we have been looking in a particular way at the instruments God used. To get the people across the Jordan, He used the priests. To get the people to Gilgal, He used the elders. To take the people into Jericho, He used Joshua, the military leader. To continue in the land, He used Joshua and the elders, and the army and the entire body of believers.
If you missed any of that discussion last evening, I do not want to spend the whole time reviewing. But I think there are some tapes that will be available and so on.
That brings us this morning to the next phase of helping others possess a full Savior: Joshua 4 and 5, the setting up of the base camp at Gilgal.
According to accepted geography, Gilgal was about five miles from where they crossed the Jordan, and then there were another two or three miles to get to Jericho. In other words, Gilgal was a little more than halfway to their first conflict in Jericho.
I have already noted that God did not bring them directly from the Jordan River straight to Jericho. Certainly, He could have done that, but He did not do that. There is instruction; there are reasons why He did not.
Crossing the Jordan is certainly the first step, but there are preparations needed before we attempt Jericho. God gives this at Gilgal: some things that need to be learned, and need to be learned soundly, before we dare go to Jericho and face the enemy.
It was at Gilgal that the Lord laid down these wonderful principles, where they had to learn the most basic of all Christian truths. I am suggesting that if God is going to use us to help others possess a full Savior, we must not only get them across the river, but by God’s grace we had better carry them to Gilgal as well.
We looked at the priests holding the ark on their shoulders in order to learn how to assist others across the Jordan. In this particular story, it is not the priests holding the ark on their shoulders, but the elders—and they are holding something else on their shoulders.
If you will join with me in Joshua 4, we will begin reading at verse 2:
Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe.
And command them, saying, Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm; and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.
What did these stones represent? Of course, the answer is the whole nation—all the people. Twelve men, one from each tribe; twelve tribes making up the body, the whole nation.
These selected, hand-chosen elders, these leaders, had to each take a stone and put it on his shoulder. That stone represented his tribe, his congregation, his flock. Then the elders carried that which represented the people of God.
The elders shouldered the stones. Do not just read that, “La, la, la, the elders carried the stones.” The elders carried the stones five miles. Picture it: carried to Gilgal, uphill, five miles uphill to this wonderful place at Gilgal.
I do not think, on the level of earth, that is an easy task necessarily. I know they had the power of the Lord to do it. It was a great privilege for those men to be chosen to carry the people of God to this special place where they could learn these precious truths, so they could be prepared to enter in and appropriate a precious Savior. That is what it was all about.
There is a sense, as priests, where our entire ministry is going forth in faith and standing on ground that God has dried up and holding up Christ. That is our whole ministry as priests.
But then there is another sense, as elders, where there is another ministry. It is carrying the people of God to the place where they can learn some of the most basic of all principles. That is what is illustrated, I think, in this story.
Some of God’s dear people will never get to Gilgal if the elders do not carry them there—if the elders do not lug them there.
This morning, I would like to show you the great purpose of Gilgal, as I understand it from the heart of God. What did God accomplish at Gilgal? What were the great truths of Gilgal?
Look, please, at Joshua 5:9:
And the Lord said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
And then Joshua 4:19-20:
Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho.
Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal.
The word Gilgal comes from a word that means circle, or wheel, or rolling. Some people think that when the stones were set up in Gilgal, they were set up in a circle rather than piled as an altar. We do not know.
Usually, the definition that is given of Gilgal comes from Joshua 5:9: “Today I have rolled away the burden, the reproach of Egypt from you.” It is the place where the reproach of Egypt is rolled away. That is what Gilgal is. That is what God does there.
If we are going to help others possess a full Savior, we must help them across the Jordan. But then we must also take them—carry them—to the place where the reproach of Egypt is finally rolled away. That has to precede the taking of Jericho.
Now, whatever that reproach of Egypt is, it has to be rolled away. It cannot be rolled away until you cross Jordan, and it must be rolled away before you get to Jericho.
What is that reproach of Egypt? Here was the situation. God’s redeemed people, redeemed by power and blood from Egypt, had been wandering around in the wilderness. They had been redeemed from what they had not yet been redeemed unto.
There is a redemption from, and there is a redemption unto. They were redeemed from Egypt and all it represents; they had not yet been redeemed unto Canaan and all that it represents—the fullness of the Savior.
Because they were redeemed from but not unto, the reproach of Egypt was still on them. It is sort of like when Lazarus was raised from the dead. He was alive, but he still had his grave clothes on. He was still bound. He had those clothes of death on him, even though he was redeemed.
With these eyes, you could not tell they were redeemed. They were out of Egypt, but the reproach of Egypt was still on them. They were still in bondage.
You looked at the redeemed people of God and scratched your head and said, “If they are redeemed, why are they wandering around in unbelief? Why are they wandering around the desert? Why are they not content? Why are they grumbling, groaning, and griping? Why are they trudging through the wilderness? Why are their lives so barren? Why is there no fruit? Why do they not have a testimony? Where is their joy? Where is their peace? I thought they were redeemed.”
Yes, they are. But the reproach of Egypt is still on them because they have not been redeemed unto. They have just been redeemed from Egypt.
Thousands of Christians have not been to Gilgal, I fear. The reproach of Egypt is still on them. They are out of Egypt. They are saved. They are delivered. They will tell you about the Passover Lamb. They will tell you about the blood that got them across and so on.
But they are wandering around like the uncircumcised, as they were in the whole wandering. They look just like the uncircumcised. They are living under condemnation and guilt and shame, because the smell of Egypt is still on them: the burden of Egypt, the weariness, the labor, the fear, the frustration, the oppression of the flesh.
God said, “They need to go to Gilgal,” and someone is going to have to carry them there.
The reproach of Egypt was rolled away at Gilgal. This is all final preparation.
There are four pictures I would like us to consider this morning from Joshua 4 and 5—four pictures that contain age-abiding principles, wonderful truths of life.
To those truths, we must carry them, because then the reproach of Egypt rolls away.
In the first principle, illustrated by the two monuments of twelve stones, each tribe had a stone that was taken up out of the dry riverbed—the bed that God had dried up—and carried over to Gilgal, where they would lodge.
Then Joshua 4:9 says:
Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing; and they are there to this day.
So one monument of twelve stones was set up in Gilgal, and the other monument of twelve stones was set up right in the middle of the dry riverbed where the priests stood.
Those two monuments of twelve stones each tell a wonderful story. Those of you who have crossed the Jordan will recognize the story as I unfold it.
Look, please, at Joshua 4:18:
It came about, when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord came up from the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up to the ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all their banks as before.
I want you to try to picture this. The waters went over all the banks as they did before.
I made a point yesterday from Joshua 3:16: when God dried up the Jordan, there was a literal place named Adam, and He rolled it back to Adam. Everything from Adam to death, He dried that up. That is what the River Jordan represents. By His death and resurrection, He has dried that up.
I see it would be a little bit of a puzzle for someone stepping out of the Jordan, walking on dry ground, crossing over the Jordan—and then it is back.
You are telling me that stream from Adam to death is still flowing? I thought it dried up.
There is a lesson here that God’s people need to hear, and the elders have to carry them to that.
It is a puzzle for some to stand on the resurrection side, to have crossed over on dry ground—a river that God had dried up—and then to turn around and, instead of seeing dry ground, see a raging river. Ever been there? A raging river.
One of the most confusing issues in my entire Christian experience was that very thing. How it bothered me, after all the years I had known the Savior, to see that river still raging—all that abiding corruption in my heart, things still flowing from Adam and ending in death. I thought it was dry. How come that river is still there?
It is so frustrating. I am not ready for Jericho unless I understand God’s heart on this. It is important to understand the principle illustrated by the stones. It is important to understand how the Jordan can still rage after it has been dried up.
Many of us have confessed the truths theologically: “God dried up the river. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live; yet Christ lives in me. I am alive in Him. I reckon myself dead to sin.”
Then you get alone and look in the mirror, or you look at your heart, and you have to confess that river is still there. That stuff flowing from Adam all the way to death still flows, and sometimes it rages. In this case, it flowed and flooded; it was overflowing all its banks. How can I be saved and still have that river flood like that?
The first principle addresses this mystery, this enigma, this frustration to the people of God. Why can I stand on the banks of the river and, with this eye, say that it is still flowing, and with this eye, say that it is dried up?
Theologians have a name for it. They call it identification. They call that identification truth.
There is a part of me you can see. Let us go to Gilgal. See, there I am. Look at my stone. You can see that. With these eyes, you can see my actions, my attitudes, my behavior, and what I do.
But there is also a part of me that you cannot see, just like those stones that were buried over with that river: a part that is secret, deep, hidden, and covered over. It is the part that I know is there, and it is reflected by the part you can see. There is a mirror image.
There are two monuments. One is established in the land, but that is just a picture. It is established in Gilgal, but that is just a picture. It is established in Christ. That is what it is a picture of.
It is important for me to know, when I look at that river, that my stone is in Christ. It is important for you to know, when you look at the river, where your stone is. It is in Christ. It is established in the land. It is established in Gilgal.
It is important to know that God has done something that nobody else can see. They look at your life and see this raging river, and they say, “You are no different.” I say, “I am different. There is something down there. There is a monument down there that you may not see, but it is there.”
The people of God need to know it. They need to know where their stone is. They need to know it is established in the land, two thousand years ago, in the person of Christ.
I crossed the Jordan River in 1965 when I believed. I crossed two thousand years ago. I crossed again.
I can picture a child coming up to his father or grandfather—his mother—and saying, “Explain to me, Dad. What do these strange stones mean? Why do we have these stones here?”
The father, grandfather, mother, or whoever it is, says, “Son, child, let me tell you a story. We have to go for a walk. Let us go for about five miles. I want to show you something.”
They go down to the banks of the Jordan River, and the saint says, “Son, this is going to be hard for you to believe. Remember that pile of rocks you saw up there in Gilgal? There is another pile like that right out there in the middle of the Jordan River. You cannot see it, but it is there.”
“How can it be there?”
“Let me tell you a story of how God dried that up one day. Let me tell you how the water stood in a heap one day. Let me tell you how the priests held the ark, and how the ark of God dried it up.”
Then the parents would tell their children the story of where their stone is, and how there is a mirror, and how it does not look like it, but it is still there nevertheless.
As my son Stephen and I studied this together, he reminded me to remind you that the stones were only a picture of the people of God. That represents us.
In our day, my son has never come to me and said, “What do those strange stones mean?” But they have come and said, “You are strange. What are you all about? How come you run in that circle with others that look just like you?”
It is your life that they see. Then you explain to them these great truths of identification with Christ.
When I studied this, I puzzled over why they set up twelve stones at Gilgal. If I had written the Bible—and I speak as a fool—I would have set up nine and a half stones at Gilgal. You know why? Because those two and a half tribes that never got over—the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh—they said, “We do not want to go over.”
I would say, “Well, they do not deserve to have their stone over there. Put two and a half stones over there.”
God said, “No, they are the people of God. I do not care what the river looks like. Your stone is in the land. I do not care where you pitch your tent. Your stone is in the land.”
They need to hear that. The elders need to carry the people of God to the place where they can learn these identification truths: God sees you in Christ, and God sees you in the land. Even though the river rages, and even though you might camp on the other side and be in the wilderness, your stone is in Christ.
Brothers, are you thankful this morning that your stone is in Christ? Sometimes you look at that river. Sometimes you look at where you are pictured, and you wonder. We are just made of clay. We are so stupid, how we rebel against the Lord. God keeps reminding us that our stone, nevertheless, is in the land. Our stone is in Christ Jesus.
There is a second principle they must learn, and we must carry them to that truth. Joshua 5:2-8 describes the renewal of circumcision at Gilgal.
At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make for yourselves flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.
And so Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel.
When they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.
This is the principle of circumcision illustrated by these flint knives. As you know, this is the covenant that God had instituted with Abraham in Genesis 17:10-27, the sign that was to be the symbol of the everlasting covenant that God’s people belong to Him.
I told you there is a separation from, and there is a separation unto; a redemption from, and a redemption unto. In circumcision, you have both pictures.
In circumcision, as you know, a little piece of literal flesh is removed from the body. The flesh is separated from the body. That becomes a picture in the Word of God: separation from, separation unto.
God said, “I am doing this because we have a special union and you belong to Me.”
Most teachings, or many teachings, on separation only emphasize separation from. Christians should not do this, should not go there, should not be involved in this, and should be separated from that kind of thing.
But the main point of separation is not separation from; it is separation unto. Separation unto the Lord, unto union with Him, unto a relationship with Him.
I am so glad God put these two things piggyback in the Bible. First, I look over my shoulder and see that river raging. I say, “I know it is dry, but it does not look dry.” I look at my heart, and it looks like everything from Adam to death continues to flow.
God says, “Now let Me tell you about circumcision: separation from the flesh.” Both are true. It keeps flowing, but then God begins to do this marvelous work at Gilgal. He renewed this circumcision.
Of course, every picture breaks down. God is so wise. For God to select a piece of flesh taken from the source of life itself, and to separate that flesh from the body—He could not give the full picture.
Listen to the full picture, Colossians 2:11:
In Him ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.
In other words, if God had given the picture to show the reality, it would not be a little foreskin removed. You would have to have your whole flesh taken off—the whole body of the flesh—to picture the reality: the circumcision not made with hands.
For forty years, God’s people had neglected this rite, this sign that they belonged to the Lord, that they were separated unto Him. They had neglected that for forty years, and so they walked around uncircumcised. They looked just like the unsaved.
Now, since they have crossed the Jordan, God says there has to be a difference. “I want you to know, first of all, that you are identified with Christ. I want you to know, secondly, that by the covenant of God, in a circumcision not made with hands, you are separated unto the Lord.”
They need to know that before they go to Jericho: that they are separated unto the Lord.
When God instituted the rite of circumcision, Genesis 17:12, He said every male who was eight days old shall be circumcised. That is an amazing picture.
They had to become like little children, eight days old, again. They were about to enter a seven-year war. They were about to go into conflict with all of these “ites.” They were going to face thirty-one different kings, each region with its own king and army.
You would say, “I am going in to take the land. It is time to be tough, strong, alert, trained, ready. It is time to be a soldier. It is time to go forward as men.”
God puts the fighting forces, every one of them, in the position of a baby eight days old. God circumcised the fighting forces, made children out of all of them, and weakened them on purpose.
He said, “You are My people, and you are separated unto Me.” Who takes the land? Children take the land. It is all by covenant. They need to hear that. They need to know that.
They need to know that their stone is in Christ, and they need to know that they are God’s people by His everlasting covenant. The separation He requires does not depend on them. He will do it. The babies are going to conquer the land and thresh the field.
The third principle they need is a very basic truth. Joshua 5:10-12 says:
While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal, they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho.
On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land.
Go back, if you would, to Joshua 4:19:
Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.
Why would the Holy Spirit be so specific to tell us exactly the day that they came up out of the Jordan River, the tenth day of the first month? The answer is found in Exodus 12:1-6.
When they got out of Egypt at Passover, God said, “On the tenth day—and no day but the tenth day—you select a lamb. You choose a sacrificial lamb to take your place.”
Forty years to the day, they stepped out of the Jordan, and the first thing they had to do was select a lamb. As soon as they got up, they had to select the lamb and celebrate this Passover.
I believe God was saying at least three things by this wonderful reinstitution of the Passover. They had neglected it throughout the years.
First, I think He was saying: the way in is exactly the way you got out. How do I get out of Egypt? Through the blood of the Lamb. How am I going to get into Canaan? Through the blood of the Passover Lamb. The same way you got out is the way you get in.
I have heard people say, “Well, I have had faith to get saved, but I do not have the faith to appropriate life in Christ.” It is the same faith.
How did they get out? They walked on dry ground. How did they get in? They walked on dry ground. How did they get out? The Passover Lamb. How are they going to get in? The Passover Lamb.
As you have received Christ, so walk in Him. You continue the way you have begun.
You were never more surrendered to the Lord than that first moment you gave yourself to Him. You might talk later about, “I accepted Him as Savior, and then later I accepted Him as Lord.” That is not true. That is theological bunk.
When you accepted the Lord, you accepted Him as a person. He is Savior, and He is Lord, and He is Priest, and He is everything. When you came to Christ, you took Him as He was, and He was everything.
Now, you may have departed from that and need to come back to that. You can talk about a second blessing, a third blessing, and a hundredth blessing, but it boils down to rediscovering the first blessing. It is coming back to what you got in the first place.
They need to know they are in Christ. They need to know they are separated unto God and belong to Him by covenant. They need to know it is all because of the blood of the Passover Lamb.
Every good thing God has ever done for you has been because of the blood of Jesus. Every good thing God has ever done for me has been because of the blood of Jesus. It is just as easy to get in as it was to get out of Egypt.
The second thing I think God teaches us by reinstituting this Passover at this time is that they did not deserve to go into Canaan.
I can picture some of the Jews who might have been tempted to be proud and say, “God is going to use us as executioners. Those sinful Canaanites deserve what they are going to get. We are going in to annihilate them in the name of the Lord, and they deserve to be annihilated. They are sinners. They are wicked, and they do not deserve to live.”
By God reinstituting the Passover at Gilgal, He made them realize again that the only reason they were going to escape judgment was because of the substitute Lamb.
They did not deserve to get out of Egypt, and they did not deserve to go into Canaan. They deserved everything the Canaanites were going to get, except the Passover Lamb took it in their place as their substitute.
God used this Passover as a great humbling agent in order to bring them low.
The third thing accomplished by reinstituting the Passover was the end of the Passover: feeding on the Lamb. They had to eat the Lamb.
It is right at this point, as they are feeding on the Lamb, that the Holy Spirit breaks into the record. God says, “Now the manna has stopped, and they started to eat the goodness of the land.” The land is Christ, and they begin to feed on the land.
Do not take these people to Jericho until they have been to Gilgal. They need to know about identification: that they are in Christ Jesus. They need to know that they are separated unto God in holiness, and God has done it. Their holiness does not depend on them; it depends on Him.
They need to know it is all because of the blood. They need to know how to feed on Jesus before they get to Jericho.
You say, “Well, we need to know the wiles of the enemy and how to fight Satan.” Do not fight Satan before you feed on Jesus. Learn how to feed on Him first, and you would be amazed how those walls will come down.
People get hurt at Jericho because they have not been to Gilgal. It is tough taking some Christians to learn these truths. Yes, they are heavy sometimes. Do not give up. Saints, carry them there.
Tell them about their identification with Christ. Teach them. Show them where their stone is. When they get frustrated with the river, when they get frustrated where they are camping, show them where their stone is. Show them what circumcision is and how it relates to Him. It is Christ.
One last picture, and we will be done. Joshua 5:13-15. We are going to pick this up this evening. I am only going to give one point from this story now, and then tonight we will begin here, because this is a very strategic part of taking Jericho.
It came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand.
Joshua went up to Him and said to Him, Art Thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And He said, Nay; but as Prince of the host of the Lord am I now come.
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said to Him, What saith my Lord unto His servant?
And the Prince of the Lord’s host said unto Joshua, Put off thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
There is a whole lot in these five verses, and we will discuss much of that this evening, Lord willing. But the point I want to make now is this: He is the One that got me over Jordan by drying up the Jordan, and He is the One that is going to have to get me into the land.
I can show you from the Scriptures that the taking of the land of Canaan took approximately seven years. It was a seven-year war.
As you go through the book of Joshua, many swords are going to be drawn in this book for that seven-year war. But what is the first sword that is drawn in the book of Joshua?
It is not in the hand of Joshua. It is not in the hand of any soldier. The first sword drawn in this book is in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of the host of armies of heaven and earth—the Lord Jesus Himself.
Among the many things He is saying here, He is saying 2 Chronicles 20:15:
The battle is not yours, but God’s.
The battle is not yours, but God’s.
You know why Gilgal is so important? Some of the greatest truths you will ever learn in your Christian life take place there.
If you are going to help others to appropriate a full Savior, and to know what it is to enter into the land and live in abundance, they had better learn what identification means: identification with Jesus; separation unto Jesus; feeding on Jesus; the battle belongs to Jesus.
Those are things you need to learn at Gilgal.
You know what happens when you learn them? The reproach of Egypt rolls away. The reproach of Egypt rolls away, and we are ready to go forward and take the land.
May God help us as priests to go forth in faith, stand on ground God has dried up, hold high the Lord Jesus Christ, and live under His lordship, that they might pass over.
And as elders, may the Lord grace us to pick up the whole body of Christ—our particular group that we represent and burden—carry that burden, and carry it however many miles you need to carry it until they learn those great and indispensable truths without which they are not going to possess the land.
Oh, may God help us. We want to go in. We want to help them in. I am suggesting that what they learned at Gilgal, those four great truths, are so necessary before we dare stand up against Jericho.
Father, thank You not for what I think these things mean, but for everything You have inspired them to mean. Will You work those things in our hearts?
And Lord, thank You for the privilege we have to carry Your people to these precious truths. Precious indeed they are. Work them in our hearts, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.