IT is interesting to compare the main circumstances of the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the crossing of the Jordan.
1. At the passover God was outside, kept outside as a Judge by that blood which told of all His claims righteously met. The people inside fed in peace upon the lamb.
2. At the crossing of the Red Sea God was with the people in the pillar of cloud. The cloud divided the Israelites from the Egyptians; to the Israelites it was a light of fire all the night, but to the Egyptians it was a cloud and darkness.
3. At the crossing of the Jordan the priests bearing the ark entered the river first, and the ark remained in the bed of the river all the time that the people were passing over.
First, in the Passover, comes the foundation of everything — the blood of the Lamb. That blood is the proof and witness that God has been glorified at the cross. It is the blood of a perfectly holy Victim who has borne God’s judgment in all its fullness against sin. God is satisfied by that which His own love gave, and in righteousness passes over the sinner who is under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb.
Now God, instead of being against us, is for us. This is what comes out at the Red Sea. His character was made good in judgment against sin, now He will be glorified in Pharaoh and all his host, and redeem His people to Himself. The ground of all God’s acting in power on behalf of His people is the blood of the Lamb. This has always to be remembered.
So we see God’s glory in the Red Sea, and the consequences for the believer of the death of Christ.
Not only has God been glorified at the cross about sin, but Christ has borne death, the wages of sin in this world, and has completely broken the power of Satan by dying. Thus death, the penalty of sin by God’s just government on earth, becomes through the death of Christ the very means of my deliverance from the whole power of Satan and from the world as the place where he rules, for that is Egypt.
So everything that was against me, the rod, the cloud, the fire, the waters of death itself, all become the means of my deliverance because God is for me.
So it is not a question here of my learning practically what the death of Christ means for me, but God’s way of setting forth what Christ’s death and resurrection have actually done for me; the actual results of the death and resurrection of Christ for the believer. God’s power has wrought “to usward who believe” in raising Christ from the dead and putting Him in glory. So I see that—
1. The blood of Christ has forever settled every question of sin between my conscience and a holy God.
2. The death of Christ has broken Satan’s power over me forever, and revealed God acting in power for me.
3. The resurrection of Christ has brought me to God. Henceforth, although it is a wilderness journey, the whole character of it is that I have to do with God and no one else. The result is experience of myself as well as of God. The need, learned through this bringing out of what I am, is met at Jordan, where there are no enemies pressing behind at all. Instead there is the ark, Christ in all the perfection of His person and work, seen entering into Jordan, and remaining there while all the people pass over. There is no haste, all is calm and peaceful. Twelve stones, representing those twelve rebellious tribes who had been so fully proved in the wilderness, are left in the bed of Jordan where the ark rested, while twelve new stones which had never seen the light of day before are brought up from the same spot and placed on the farther side of Jordan. Then the ark too comes out of Jordan, and the waters roll back over the twelve stones left in the bed of the river.
So in Jordan, instead of deliverance from the world and the power of Satan, we have deliverance from what has been proved by forty years’ trial in the wilderness to be hopelessly bad. Once more putting the broad results side by side we see that—
1. In the passover there is deliverance from the judgment of God against us as sinners, by the blood of the Lamb. But God is outside, and we are seen still in Egypt, although at peace, sheltered, feeding on the Lamb, and ready to go out.
2. In the crossing of the Red Sea there is deliverance by the death and resurrection of Christ from the world as the place of bondage and Satan’s kingdom, from death as the power of Satan and the penalty of sin, and from the whole power of Satan himself. In whatever form Satan may present himself again to attack, beguile, or accuse us, he can never again assert his power over us as his slaves. Then God is for us, His glory and His power are displayed in the resurrection of Christ, and we are brought to God in the wilderness. Christ personally is not so much seen in the Red Sea as the full results of His work for us.
3. In the crossing of the Jordan there is deliverance from “the old man,” that “I” in whom we learn by experience that no good dwells. It is not a question of joy at deliverance from the terrible pressure of the enemies’ power, but of steady passing over to the position which was always in God’s mind for us, of appropriating for ourselves by faith the consequences of Christ’s death and resurrection. We cease to be occupied with ourselves in the way of looking for improvement, and accept God’s judgment of the old man in the death of Christ. This brings us into Canaan, the heavenly places, into our true position in Christ as those who have the right to be there, because Christ is there.
Thus in Jordan Christ personally is more brought before us. We see what death and resurrection mean for Him. He has died to sin once for all, and now lives to God. We, too, identified with Him by faith, learn that this is true of us because it is true of Him, and not because we experience it. In Gilgal, afterward, there is the application of the death of Christ to the flesh, and this is a very real experience; but the moment it is a question of experience we have “bearing about the dying,” or “putting to death of Jesus”; that is, it depends on what has already been learned by faith.
The apostle says to the Ephesians, “But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus; (namely) your having put off... the old man... and your having put on the new man,” &c. (Eph. 4:20-2420But ye have not so learned Christ; 21If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:20‑24), New Trans.). The truth of having put off the old man, and of having put on the new, and all the happy and blessed consequences, are thus only learned in Him. It is only truth in Him, and was accomplished at the cross when He died, and by His death ended the trial of man in flesh. When He died, I died.
Thus the Red Sea and Jordan are both Christ’s work at the cross, but seen in two different aspects which are not learned at the same time, although the work was all done there, and is never a matter of attainment. Jordan does not mean progress or advance on the Red Sea, not for a moment. All is perfect when we are brought to God, but much has to go on in our own souls. What we learn in type at the Jordan is only another aspect of that blessed work which brought us to God according to His own glory and perfectly.
Subject for August — Exodus 15 — “The Song of Redemption.” Younger students will find it interesting to trace out the connection of “singing” in the Old Testament, especially the various places where we have “a new song.”
Older students can seek to trace out the thought of God brought out in this song, concerning His dwelling with His people, and His kingdom, both mentioned here for the first time.
B. S. En.