T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

The Living God

Reading: Joshua 3:7,10-11; Ex. 3:12; Rom. 6:5; Col. 1:29; 2:1-3, 8-12.

"As I was with Moses, so I will be with Thee".

"Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you".

The difference between the ministry of Moses and Joshua was this, that mainly Moses was related to the bringing out and the formation of the people of God; Joshua was related to their bringing in and establishment. The Lord assured Joshua of His presence with them, that as He had been with Moses for the bringing out of the people, and their constituting, so He would be with him for their bringing in and for their establishing. The assurance was given directly by the Lord to Joshua. We are not told of any more that the Lord said to him, but we find almost immediately Joshua declaring to the people, not only the fact that the Lord was with them, but how they would know it, the way in which His presence would be known by them. "Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you... behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into Jordan" (Joshua 3:10-11).

If I understand that aright, in spiritual terms it means this. The testimony (it is the ark of the testimony) being brought into the very presence of the active stream of death would arrest and set back that power. Jordan speaks to us of death. In the New Testament we understand union with Christ in death, being planted or united with Him in the likeness of His death, to have had its typical setting forth in Jordan - having been buried with Him in baptism - so that Jordan sets before us the active, energetic stream of death. The ark of the Lord, which is the ark of the testimony, advances straight into that spiritual energy, that active stream of death, and immediately the two come together, as the priests' feet touch the brink of the stream, the waters of Jordan come under arrest, are forced back, made to stand upright, and that activity is checked and held up by the presence of the ark of the testimony.

Let us repeat that in the form in which we first said it. The testimony being brought into the very presence of the active stream of death would arrest and set back that power, and "hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you".

"As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee". That, "as I was with Moses", must, therefore, connect with the power of life over death. If we are to take these statements in Joshua 3 as the connection with the Lord's presence; if the "as" is the link which represents not only the fact of the Lord's presence but the nature in which the Lord was present, then it clearly means that the Lord's presence was a presence in the energy and power of a Life bringing death under arrest, and setting it back and overcoming it.

With Moses it is perfectly clearly seen in the matter of the deliverance of the people. The deliverance and the forming of the people was, from start to finish, a matter of life triumphant over death. The final issue of the exodus from Egypt was life over death; death universal, except in the realm where the testimony is, and unable to function there. At the waters of Marah, again, it was a question of life and death for want of water and Life triumphed over death by the tree. Between these two incidents there was the Red Sea, another great testimony. Death engulfed those who were not in the testimony. Those who were in the testimony sang the song of victory over death. With Amalek, again, the same principle is at work: Life conquering death. Then the same thing is seen in relation to the serpents in the wilderness. And so on to the end.

The one thing which is in evidence all the way through is this matter of the presence of God, meaning the deliverance of the people by the operation of resurrection Life, until that generation itself refused any longer to stand on that principle, and then it had to be given over to the work of death, and that generation died. But even out of that death was born another generation in the power of resurrection, over which death had no authority.

In this sense of the continuous victory of Life among them, the Lord was with Moses, and as He was with Moses, so He said He would be with Joshua. With Joshua the work of this very same thing was unto the inheritance. The inheritance was the result of the energy of Divine Life set against the energy of death.

Here in Joshua 3 there are one or two other little fragments which are illuminating and inspiring. It says that the waters stood up in a heap as far up as Adam. Christ's victory in His Cross, Christ's victory in that great spiritual Jordan, goes right back to the place where death came in with Adam; it goes to the very source of this evil river of death. It goes right back to the beginning of things: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". There is a last Adam, Who has gone right back over all the history of Adam the first, to the point where he laid in death, and has dealt with the open door of death high up there, and has triumphed. "As far up as Adam". That means the victory of Christ goes right back to the place where death entered, the gateway of death.

It comes right on. It says here: "How Jordan overflowed all its banks at the time of harvest", not only the place where it entered, but at its very flood-tide, the full development, the very inundation of death. Christ has entered in in the power of His Cross and met death initially and finally, fully, comprehensively, even to the overflowing of all its banks. His is no partial victory. When God does a thing, He does it thoroughly. If God deals with the gods of the Egyptians, He does it thoroughly and there is nothing left; for when death had spread itself throughout the land it was no mere permission that was granted, but it was an entreaty to depart and a giving of the goods of Egypt as a temptation to accelerate their departure. God does things thoroughly. When He drowned the Egyptians there was no question as to the thoroughness of His work.