THE SON—GREATER THAN JOSHUA
"For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For He that is entered into His rest hath Himself also rested from His works, as God did from His."- HEBREWS 4:8-10.
As we study the letter to the Hebrews we are conscious of the panorama of the history of the Hebrew people as background. The time when God spoke through angels is recognized, and the superiority of the Son to angels demonstrated. That covers the Book of Genesis, in which neither prophet nor priest nor king is found. Moving forward, the time when God spoke to the new nation, which was created for the blessing of the world, through Moses, was under review. The superiority of the Son to Moses is shown. That covers the historic movement from Exodus through Deuteronomy.
Now, still moving forward, we come to Joshua, and the period when the people of God entered the land under his leadership, a period of failure, not of Joshua, but of the people. Thus throughout, the writer of this letter is using history for the illustration of great principles, the history of the times when God spoke to men through angels, when He would speak through a nation, and therefore spoke to that nation through Moses. Now we come to the period when He still spoke to the nation through Joshua. We may summarize so far by saying with regard to the history of the nation, that Moses had led them out of slavery, but could not lead them into the lend of possession. The Son came to lead men out of slavery, and into the place of full realization. Now Joshua led them into the land of possession.
The opening words of the Book of Joshua are significant:
"Moses My servant is dead; now therefore arise."
Moses had rendered his service faithfully, and had passed on. The purpose of God must move forward, and the man was found. Joshua then led them in, but was not able to give them rest. This further movement in the historic background is employed to reveal the glory of the Son, Who not only leads out of slavery and into the place of possession, but is able to give perfect rest.
The Greek word used here for rest means quite literally to settle down, and it is found in classical Greek, used to describe colonization. That, of course, is exactly the meaning of the statement, that, whereas Joshua took them into the land, he was not successful ultimately in bringing them into a settled condition. He could not lead them so that they really entered into their possessions. The contrast is intended, and of course is self-evident that our Joshua confronting humanity, said, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." That is to say, He leads out of slavery into the land, and brings to the place of complete realization, which is rest.
Let us examine this by considering first the limitation of Joshua and the unattained Sabbath; and secondly, the victory of Jesus, and the realization of the Sabbath.
The story of Joshua is in itself a fascinating one. He was born in slavery in those bitter final years of Egyptian bondage. There he lived for forty years. Then the Exodus took place. When the boy was born into the midst of brutal oppression, his father and mother gave him a name. They called him Hoshea, which quite simply means Salvation. It was a sigh, may we not say a sob, and yet a song of faith and hope. Quite evidently he was born at about the time when Moses made his own attempt to deliver his people, and had to leave the country, because he had zeal without knowledge. For forty years Moses was lost to sight, and perhaps almost to memory; and then he appeared, and deliverance was wrought for the people. Joshua being then forty years of age, marched with the people from bondage into liberty. It is quite evident that he was a man of power and ability, for Moses quickly discovered him, and he became what we may describe as
Moses' right-hand man. He was with him for the forty years in the wilderness, and he and Caleb were the only two of the adult population who came out of Egypt, eventually to enter the land.
It was revealed to Moses that this man was chosen of God to carry on the work when he should have laid it down. Then he changed his name, taking the name given to him at his birth, Hoshea, and certain of the letters of the Divine name, Yahweh, or Jehovah, and weaving them into one, called him Yehoshua, or Joshua.
This, then, is the man called of God to continue the leadership of the people in fulfillment of the Divine purpose. The words inscribed on Wesley's tablet in Westminster, "God buries His workmen but carries on His work," is of perpetual application. Moses was dead, but Joshua was raised up. He was a warrior, and from the standpoint of strategy and tactics, as military experts today will admit, he was characterized by remarkable skill. From the standpoint of the Divine purpose we see him raised of God to cleanse a land from a degraded and corrupted people, and to plant therein a people governed in righteousness. The surgery of the heavens is sometimes necessary to purify the putrefactions of earth.
He was more, however, than a warrior. He was a great administrator. Using our old English expression, we may say that he compiled the Domesday Book of the people.
As he entered upon his work we have the wonderful story of how he was confronted by One with a drawn sword, evidently a figure in human form, so definitely so that Joshua addressed Him, and asked Him:
"Art Thou for us, or for our adversaries?"
The answer was that the Person thus addressed was "Captain of the host of the Lord." Here, unquestionably, we have one of the Christophanies of the Old Testament. From that moment all the activity of Joshua became in a very real sense a spiritual adventure.
The account of his success as a warrior and administrator is a very remarkable one, but nevertheless it is self-evident that he was unable to bring the people to the place of rest. The Book of Joshua is followed by the Book of Judges, throughout which the restlessness of the people is evident. The lowering of their moral conceptions prevented them finding rest. The story of that book may be summarized by repeating three words seven times over: disobedience, discipline, deliverance. God is seen ruling; the people disobeying, as a result being disciplined, and then delivered. It is a history of constant restlessness. Joshua could not give them rest.
Looking back at these facts, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews reveals the reason of this continued lack of rest. These people had heard the message of God, the good tidings that told of the possibility of rest. They knew, moreover, that the secret of rest was that of abiding under the government of God. Nevertheless they were persistently disobedient. In that connection the writer makes a significant declaration which reads in the text:
"They were not united by faith with them that heard."
The Revisers in the margin suggest an alternative reading: "It was not united by faith with them that heard."
Unquestionably that more accurately conveys the sense of the passage. They heard the good tidings, but they did not, unite it—the message thus heard—by faith with themselves. The good tidings proclaimed revealed the secrets of rest in the land and in the economy and Kingdom of God. They heard, and in all probability intellectually accepted, but they did not link it with conduct by the act of faith. Here, in passing, we may note that we have an interpretation of the real meaning of faith. It is more than an intellectual apprehension, including always the principle of volition which conforms in conduct to the thing heard. That is where these people failed, and all the subsequent history of them was characterized by restlessness, because of this failure.
That survey of the background leads at once to a consideration of the foreground. That foreground is concerned with Jesus as the Son of God, and two things are revealed concerning Him; first, that of His personal victory; and secondly, that of His way of securing relative victory.
When the writer here declares:
"He that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His,"
In the text these pronouns are all printed with small letters. As a matter of fact they should all be printed with capital letters, for the references throughout are to Christ or God. Christ has entered into rest, as God entered into rest. God entered into His rest as Genesis reveals, when His creative work was accomplished. Jesus entered into His rest when His work of redemption was accomplished. That records His personal victory.
That personal victory has issued in relative victory, the rest into which He entered followed His sharing of the restlessness caused by sin. In the days of His flesh, passing through the porches of Bethesda, He had healed a man, and in defending His action against the criticism of the rulers, He had declared:
"My Father worketh even unto now, and I work."
This work was continued and consummated, and it consisted in the activity which made possible the leading of others into the place of rest.
This being so, the writer makes his appeal:
"Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience";
And in that connection immediately makes the declaration that "The Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart."
This great statement we constantly employ as referring to the Bible, to the Word of God in that sense. That may be perfectly permissible, but the reference of the writer was not first to the Bible, but to the Son Who is the Word of God. It is of Him he says:
"The Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing."
That the reference is to the Person is proven by that which immediately follows:
"There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do."
Completing the statement, then, in this way we have a contrast between the speech of God through the Son and everything which had preceded it. The Word of God is not a document merely, but a Person, living and dealing with personality, distinguishing between mind and spirit, and thus figuratively dividing between joints and marrow, that is, points of articulation and essence of being. The Word then discerns the thoughts, that is the conceptions, and the intentions as well as the purposes of the heart:
"There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do."
In this way the Son deals with the causes of unrest in human personality and so deals with them so that perfect rest results, when His authority is completely submitted to. He enters into personality, distinguishing between spirit and mind, laying bare the deepest desire and intention of life. If it be true that complexes are at the root of all restlessness, He disentangles them, and brings them into proper relationship. When Jesus, the Son of God, the living and eternal Word, deals with a man, He invades the whole region of his personality, separates, divides, disentangles, loosens up, brings into true inter-relationship, and so produces rest.
If Joshua could have given these people rest
"He would not have spoken . . . of another day."
That day has dawned. The Greater than Joshua has come. Once again the writer uses the word "Today," which here also our translators have helpfully rendered by printing with a capital letter. We are living in that day, and the Son, the living Word, is still saying, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest."
Here, therefore, the continued history reveals the abiding superiority of the Son. He leads out; He leads in; He gives perfect rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment