Now as to the first part, there is one thing that is prominent in it. There is much, as we saw, that is very suggestive, but the one prominent thought is that they did not answer to God's mind for them, they did not go on to possess what He had put into their hands. Here was their inheritance, and there were enemies who occupied the inheritance, who prevented them, literally speaking, from enjoying it. Their work was, in the energy of faith, and implicit obedience to God, to cast out the enemy, and everything was ready to their hand. Houses which they had not built, vineyards which they had not planted, wells which they had not dug, everything was ready to their hand, to go in to enjoy it.
What have you done, or I, brethren, in connection with our inheritance? You enter into it, that is all. That is one of our favorite expressions, we enter into things. It is very real, too, and describes the act exactly—we simply enter into that which was made ready to our hand; not a house to build, not a vineyard to plant, not a well to dig; all is there, and everything that is needed is simply in the obedience of faith to withstand the enemy who would keep us out of it. No matter what form he may take, it is the thing that keeps us out of the practical enjoyment of our inheritance, as given to us in the word of God, as revealed to us there; this enemy is to be cast out by faith and obedience, and everything is ready for us to enjoy.
Now you get in that first part,-beginning with a measure of success, which surely was encouraging, but as a general thing you get-the failure of the people to occupy the land. There is failure to do what God told them to do, and without which they would be absolutely exposed to the fresh assaults of the enemy. For, let me tell you, brethren, as you know by experience, that an enemy half conquered is an enemy unconquered, and unless there is a complete overthrow of the power of evil which would keep you from one corner of your inheritance, you will find that enemy come up again. Though you may bring him into subjection for a time, make him tributary, secondary, as it were, as people sometimes speak of the flesh as a sort of a secondary thing that they have got a certain measure of control over; still, if the enemy is not really a conquered enemy, he will conquer us one day, rest assured of that. That is what is emphasized in this first division.
Judah begins well, goes on with brilliant success, and if he had continued in that, and in absolute obedience to God, he would have gained entire control of the part that was to be his. As a matter of fact, no tribe got so full possession of what was entrusted to them as did the tribe of Judah; it stands first. This tribe speaks of the grasp of truth which produces the spirit of praise amongst the people of God. You might say he represents the apprehension of Christ as His people's portion.
But after Judah you have, in sad uniformity, one instance after another of the various tribes coming short of doing what God had put before them. Benjamin fails to get possession of Jerusalem, and you have Benjamites and Jebusites living together. What a mixture! Benjamin, as we saw the other night, became so tainted by their surroundings that they have to be treated as heathen, treated as the enemies of God, and are well nigh annihilated. May we not trace the final results with Benjamin to this initial failure to take possession of Jerusalem?
The great strong tribes of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh likewise fail to drive out the enemy in their territory, and the enemies live in one city and they in another. And so it goes on, one after another, these various tribes fail to take possession of what God had given them.
It is easy simply to talk about it; it is easy to say that Manasseh, who should have been pressing forward, stands still, and as a result does not drive out those who dwell in his portion; that Ephraim fails in the same way, and Zebulon and Asher, and Naphtali and Dan,—that these all, one after the other, each fails in his place. But how about ourselves? In a practical way how is it with each of us individually? How much of what is ours do we own? How much do we share, as I might say, with the enemy himself? Are you enjoying your boundaries? Are you enjoying all that God has given you? If not, then your name and mine can be added to these; "neither did we drive out the enemy that occupied our portion, and as a result they are living there with us.”
We may make them, as I said, tributary, and apparently have them under our power; but a tributary enemy is more dangerous than one in the field, for the simple reason that you have links with them, just as you find Israel had. They intermarried with the people of the land, and then with intermarriage comes, of course, the sadder and more dreadful result of adopting their gods; and, as a natural consequence, you have them brought into bondage to their enemies.
Look at the order, and see the necessary progress of evil: first, there is the failure to drive out the enemy; secondly, they bring them into servitude and make them tributary; thirdly, there is intermarriage, linking themselves with them; fourthly, there is the adoption of their false gods, and the departure from God; and lastly, there can be but one result, God hands them over to an enemy to make them taste what an evil and bitter thing it is to depart from Him.
Now have we really translated that into our everyday life? Have we really made these things practical truths for our consciences today, so that we know what it is to come short and to make things tributary to us, as it were? To have them under our power? Do we know what that means? Do you know what it means to have evil, an evil principle, tributary to you, and yet not to have driven it out, to have expelled it completely?
How can people make use of principles which are evil in themselves? How can they make them tributary and expect to keep clear of them? If I make use of an evil thing I am going to be linked with evil. It is absolutely necessary that if I am linked with evil I am going to be brought into bondage to it, and I will be brought, alas, into that idolatry of which we have been seeing instances from time to time. For idolatry means the setting up of our own thoughts, instead of bowing to what God has put before us as His will.
Now that is the first part of this book, the first division. That, I believe, is the lesson that is pressed home in all the wisdom and in all the goodness of God, as He has put it before us with instance after instance. The lesson that is pressed upon us is, if you do not go forward, you will go backward; if you are not making progress, you are going behind; if you are not entering upon what God has given you in His Word, you are losing what you already have; or, as you have it in the New Testament, "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." Surely, thanks be to the grace of God, not absolutely and finally, but, as to our enjoyment of it, we are deprived of our own. Do you not think of illustrations of it? Can you not take portions of your own history for confirmation of this;—when you have not been pressing forward, have you not been going backward? In your own heart's history, each day of your life you re-enact the history of Israel's progress or decline.
Then another thought. I have been speaking of our blessings, and I want to make that not vague in the least, but perfectly distinct and clear. You will remember in Ephesians we are told that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Every blessing we have is in Him and connected with Him, and it is an utter impossibility for saints to enjoy their blessings without enjoying Christ. It is an utter impossibility for us to have the truths of God as food for our souls unless they bring us into personal contact and fellowship with the blessed Son of God Himself. So when we look at this failure of Israel to enter upon their portion, we must remember that spiritually it means our failure, the failure of the Church of God at large, not only to grasp certain truths, but to apprehend Christ in anything of His fullness which there is for us to apprehend.
Ah, every blessing that is in the Word of God gets its life, its beauty and its preciousness, because it is in Christ. If you could conceive of such a thing as God giving us every promise in His Word, everything that is there set before us,-if He could open heaven itself for us with all its ineffable beauty, and you would find not Christ, beloved brethren, there would be no blessing, there would be no inheritance. What would forgiveness be, if it were not a forgiveness through Christ? What would peace with God be? You could not even think of it except through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we know, everything that He has put in His Word for us of spiritual blessing finds it preciousness in Christ, and in Him alone.
Therefore, how solemn it is to remember if His people have failed to go on and possess their portion, they have failed to apprehend Christ. And so you find Paul in the third chapter of the Philippians, where he was going on to apprehend that for which he was apprehended of Christ Jesus, says, summing it all up in one word, "that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." The fathers are marked by their knowledge of Him that is from the beginning; and to know Christ, to go on to know Him better, to know Him in the way that He is revealed and set before us in the Word of God, that is what is meant by going on to know your inheritance and your blessings that are in Him.