Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Realization: the Seven Trumpets of Rams’ Horns.

We have now reached the closing part of our meditations. We turned aside at the end of Joshua 5 to examine the condition of soul unfolded in the “Whole armour of God,” and needed by the Lord’s people in order successfully to face the foe and stand fast in the evil day; we also sought to learn something of those practical conditions, by the observance of which we may expect unbroken success and the Lord’s blessed presence with us, in these spiritual wars (Joshua 1).

The Captain of the Lord’s Host had said to Joshua, “Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.” The place of conflict was holy ground, and “As captain of the host of the Lord” had He “now come.”

We will seek now to learn something of the lessons taught us in Israel’s history, in order to the practical realization of our own things, and that we may be used for the deliverance of others: these two activities characterise the life and warfare of the redeemed. “Now Jericho was straitly shut up;” or, “Did shut up, and was shut up” (marg); not only was this unbroken display of the enemy’s power “shut up” from the Host of the Lord; but in heart and will it was against Him — it “did shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.” But Jericho must fall before the armies of the Lord. Satan must find that no power can defeat the people of God, while walking in obedience and dependence, and God working in them. Rahab was within, and could not get out to those with whom her heart was bound up. Israel was without, and no power of man could break down those walls which reached to heaven. But a power had come into this world which no malice of the enemy, no evil of man could frustrate or defeat: the power of simple obedience. It was by this mighty weapon Jesus bound the strong man; and by the same power reaching “unto death,” He had gone into his last stronghold to set his captives free! Now those delivered ones are about to be used to deliver others from his power by the same mighty energies, and to take possession of and realize their own things.

We may remember that when the Lord would give His people a heavenly place, in type, in their crossing of Jordan into Canaan, or in the fact unfolded in the end of Eph. 1 and commencement of Ephesians 2, that He — the true Ark of the covenant, must go first into the waters of death, and thus make a pathway for His people into the land of promise. But another blessed and precious truth is taught us in the fact that when they are in the land, and about to take possession of all, the ark will follow after the faithful soldiers of the Host of the Lord.

And this is just as it should be. None could enter the waters of death and pass across that flood unscathed, until Jesus entered and dried up these waters. There He must be alone. None but He could bear the wrath — none but He could stand fast in those “swellings of Jordan.” But this being accomplished, the order is reversed, and in the forefront went the “seven priests, bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns,” and “him that (was) armed passed on before the Ark of the Lord” (vv. 4-9). And then the falling walls would prove two things. First, the faithful condition of heart of those who led the way, and next, that the Lord was with those faithful hearts in sure and almighty power.

We find two other occasions where the presence or otherwise of the Ark told its solemn tale. In Numbers 14 when the Lord had pronounced the sentence of forty years’ wanderings for the unbelief of those who would not go up and possess the land, and then had turned back Himself to be a wanderer with them; the people, instead of accepting this discipline as of God, which faith would have done, seek to go up to battle without the “Ark of the Lord” (vv. 40-45). “And they rose up early in the morning, and got them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.”

Twelve men had safely traversed the length and breadth of the land for forty days some little time before; yet the children of Amalek, and the Canaanites were then there; but God was with these men, and faith counted not its own resources, but counted on the Lord. Then, six hundred thousand men with unbelieving fears, in heart turned back to Egypt, and God gave them up to their unbelieving desire — “Would God we had died in the wilderness” (Numbers 14:2) — and said, “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you: your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land” (vv. 27-30).

But they did not bow to this chastisement from His hand. Faith should have counted on God and gone up against the foe at the first; and now faith should have accepted and bowed to this sentence and remained; but instead of this, they rose up early to go to battle without the Lord. He, before whom the children of Anak were nothing, tells them that they must be smitten in their own strength, before those very Amalekites and Canaanites who were there.

But even this word of warning was not “mixed with faith in them that heard it,” any more than the word of glad tidings of Canaan’s rest by the spies. So we read, “But they presumed to go up unto the hill-top; nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.” The result was fatal; they were completely routed before their enemies, even to Hormah (Destruction).

Thus we find the solemn result of an effort to go against the foe without the presence of the Lord.

In 1 Samuel 4 another lesson is “written for our learning.” It was the day of Israel’s failure, and their ruin was now about to be complete. The Philistines — the instruments of Satan’s power which had been allowed — were gathered in battle against Israel. And Israel was smitten. In an unfaithful condition they had ventured to go out against the enemy; the result was what must ever be. But instead of this defeat bringing them, in the sense of their own state, to the dust before God; they seek to identify the Ark with their own unfaithfulness. Do you suppose that God could acknowledge or succour them? Impossible! We read, “Let us fetch the Ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh amongst us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.”

They did so; they shouted too, “with a great shout so that the earth rang again.” But God would not answer. He knew how to take care of His own honour, even if His Ark were to be found in Dagon’s house (chapter 5); but own them He will not.

But at Jericho we find the normal state of the warfare of the Lord’s Host. The complete number of the priests were to go in the forefront blowing seven trumpets of rams’ horns. Here I find an exceedingly beautiful thought; one which will commend itself to the Christian reader’s heart and conscience; giving him to feel consciously and increasingly the conviction that there is not one word of God but which has its divine lesson for us. This, thank God, is the growing conviction of the writer. That he and all the Lord’s people may have grace increasingly to appreciate His word, is his prayer!

Seven is the well-known symbol of completeness or perfection in spiritual things; and the Trumpet is that which carries simply with it to the heart and understanding the thought of testimony rendered actively (Numbers 10, etc.). The Ram is always the victim of consecration (Leviticus 8:22, etc.). The Horn is used as the symbol of power. To put all that this lovely type conveys together, it would mean, the testimony of the power of complete consecration to God! How lovely! A delivered — redeemed people, in full consciousness of all their privileges; armed at all points with the whole armour of God, obedient in heart and practice; the Lord’s presence amongst them in living and victorious power, and in the forefront of this Host of the Lord, the testimony of the power of complete consecration to God! O, if the church of God — if the Host of the Lord, had maintained this wondrously blessed place of consecration and power, would it not have led indeed to the fulfilment of the prayer of the Son to the Father, “That they all may be one, that the world may believe”? (John 17).

But another striking thought comes in here also. When the sound of these trumpets was heard, the people were to shout with a great shout. In Psalm 89:15, we find exactly the same word, in the original language, translated joyful sound.” “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.” And here we find this shout of victory — the fitting accompaniment of all the surroundings in this scene. They walked in “the light of the countenance” of Him who was pre-figured in the ark, and knew the “joyful sound” — the joyful shout of conquerors through obedience to Him, and through His victorious power.

Forth sallied this little cavalcade day after day; contemptible, doubtless, in the eyes of the proud city of Jericho; but the Lord was there, and obedience in patience gave character to the little host, as they waited the time that the shout would be answered by the falling walls, and the deliverance of those on the Lord’s side who were within.

But one day, or two, or three, was not sufficient to accomplish this victory. Seven days must be completely fulfilled; perfect patience must be tried and proved; but it was the patience of God! And while exercising this perfect patience, each day the little army returned to the true place of strength and self-judgment — to Gilgal. It seemed a foolish thing to those who may have seen it from the proud walls of Jericho; but those in the secret of the Lord could afford to bear this reproach of Christ and contempt of the enemy: they had faith in Him whose Ark they bore on their shoulders, and whose unseen presence ordered all!

And the seventh day came. On that day they were to encompass the city seven times. “And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.” His victorious power was working through their obedience; and “So the people shouted when (the priests) blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet; and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.” The Lord had given it to them in right and title, but they had thus to realize the possession and dislodge the enemy.

But more; those who were captives to the enemy’s power were to be delivered. Rahab (with her “house”) had been a “prisoner of hope” since the day she had “received the spies in peace, and sent them out another way.” She had identified herself in faith with the Lord’s people when they had not an inch of their possessions; a host of wandering pilgrims. But her faith saw beyond all this and could say, “I know that the Lord hath given you the land” (Joshua 2:9). She looked for a “true token,” by the faith which wrought by love, in that it sought the safety of her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and sisters, and “all that they had.” In the obedience of faith she bound the scarlet line to the window — the “true token” — which these witnesses of the Lord had given her. Not only did she “believe with the heart” their testimony; but “confessed (it) with the mouth,” in binding the line to the window of her house on the wall.

The day came when Joshua redeemed the pledge these men had given, as the Lord Jesus will own every true pledge which the soldiers of Christ now make in His name. When the walls of Jericho fell down flat, the only thing which remained was Rahab’s house on the wall! She might say with us, “We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved;” all will move by judgment some day, unless that which stands on the propitiation wrought by Jesus, and is reconciled. “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace,” testifies one divine witness (Hebrews 11). And another adds, “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she received the messengers, and had sent them out another way” (James 2). Her faith, like that of the woman of Samaria in another day, had wrought by love, and “many had believed because of the word of the woman.” Her father, mother, brethren, and all that she had; all her kindred were saved and delivered on that day; and this through the obedience of the victorious hosts of Israel. More still: she was not merely delivered, and then left to her own resources; but she was brought out to the camp of the Host of the Lord, and eventually had a place of deepest honour in the ancestry of the Lord of glory (Ruth 4:21; Matthew 1:5).

Where now should the victorious Host have gone? To carry on this brilliant warfare, says some one, still into the enemy’s power. Nay; they should have returned to Gilgal — the place of the secret of power, and renewal of the strength of the Lord! But a day of victory is a trying day, and, instead of this, even Joshua fails. (Blessed that the true Joshua never fails!) He “sent men from Jericho to Ai” (Joshua 7:2). Alas! they had not returned to Gilgal; for the victory had led to negligence and confidence in their own resources. But I pass on.

Now the end of Ephesians 1 pointed out Christ — the true Ark — in the waters of death, and the people passing over dry-shod, as quickened together with Christ, raised up together, and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This was before us in type in the third chapter of Joshua, when the Ark was borne on the priests’ shoulders in the river of death. But there, we remarked, when it was a question of sovereign grace, the Ark went first into the waters, as the Lord Jesus into the death where we lay (Ephesians 1:19). But in Joshua 6 we saw, as it was a question of faithfulness and spiritual conflict, the Ark came on behind.

Just the same analogy as Joshua 3 bears to Joshua 6, in this way, such analogy, may we not say, lies between the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1:15-22, and his prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. The Lord is first in death and resurrection, and then the people pass over — quickened together with Him, and so are seen in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. May we not safely give to the prayer of Ephesians 1:15-22 the characteristic name of the prayer of Possession? The apostle desires that they may know what they possess — the calling of God into the Father’s house (vv. 3-6): the inheritance of God — that is, the universal possession of all created things set under Christ and the church as joint heirs with Him (vv. 9-11); and the power to usward who believe, which was wrought in Christ when God raised Him as Man from the dead and set Him on high; this same power had wrought in quickening and raising them.

But when we come to the prayer of Ephesians 3, which may we not characterise as the apostle’s desire (that we should not only know what we possess and are brought into as in Ephesians 1, but) that we might realize and take possession of by faith, all that is ours in Christ? Is it not then the prayer of Realization? This being so, he prays that we may be strengthened with might by the Spirit of the Father, in the inner man; thus we are put first, and then it is to the end that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. He has been set on high — the Son of the Father — the centre of all the wondrous counsels and purposes of glory and He desires that we may realize what we are before Him, in the consciousness of our souls, in order that Christ, who is this centre, may dwell in the heart’s affections. Not merely that the “eyes of our heart, see note,” may be enlightened to see (objectively) this prospect of our possessions into which Christ as man had entered, and which were ours in Him, as in Ephesians 1; but that in our hearts Christ might dwell; He who is the centre of all the glory. Then looking out from this centre, and being rooted and grounded in love, He desires that we may be able to comprehend (subjectively) with all saints, this boundless scene of glory — “What is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;” an ocean without a shore. To be with the heart of Him who is the centre of it all — to have Him who is its centre dwelling in our hearts by faith; thus we must take in what His heart does, and all those whom His heart embraces, even “all saints.” They are the closest and nearest circle in the affections of Christ. We may not be able to go with all of them in their ways here below, if they are walking in disobedience to the truth; but we shall, if near the heart of Jesus, bear them upon ours, and have communion with the thoughts that Jesus thinks of them on high.

{Note: “Eyes of your heart” is the correct reading of Ephesians 1:17. End of note.}

But boundless and wondrous as are these fields of glory, they do not fix the affections; they do not engross the heart. And so he goes on, “And to know the love of Christ” — this makes the heart feel at home. If, as one has remarked, I were unused to the courts of kings, and I found myself there, they might dazzle me with their splendour, and the like; but splendour presents nothing on which the affections may rest. But suppose I found the dearest friend I had there, and the chief person there? At once I am at home. Thus from the glory (which, though unnamed, is implied), he passes on to recall the heart to Jesus, and to give it to feel at home in the scene, “the love of Christ” — the very love which now I know, and which I have learned here below in the sorrows and joys and needs of the way. But even if it sets the heart restful and at home, he adds that it too “passeth knowledge.” Thus we are “filled into all the fulness of God.”

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (so He is, most surely) but, “according to the power that worketh in us.” Not merely a power working for us, blessed as that is, and has been; but “in us,” enabling us to realise and possess consciously this glory, in Him who is its centre — to overcome what hinders — to take these things of Christ out of the enemy’s hand (as Israel, by the power that wrought in them in taking Jericho), and thus bring Him that glory even now, which He will have “in the Church throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”