It is faith in Christ which enables us to apprehend our deliverance from our old estate and introduction into a new one in Christ. Sometimes the experience is as long as the forty years in the wilderness were for Israel! Deliverance is not obtained in a moment, for just as there was no Jordan for Israel before the desert, so, for us, deliverance comes after we have made the discovery of what the flesh is, and not before. Deliverance is not a mere experience, but the result of the standing which faith grasps. It is only experimental in the sense that I see myself in Christ, instead of laying hold of a work accomplished outside of myself as in redemption.
Such for us is the import of the Jordan. But God desires that the memorial of this victory should be continually under our eyes. Instructed by Jehovah, Joshua commands the representatives of the twelve tribes to take twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the feet of the priests stood firm. They were to be for a memorial unto the children of Israel and were to be laid in the place where the people passed their first night in the land of Canaan. The place was Gilgal, but what was the signification of the stones? They represented the twelve tribes, the people, snatched from death by the ark which had stood in the very spot where deliverance was needed and which had stayed the waters of Jordan so that Israel could pass over. They became a monument at the very entrance of Canaan, at Gilgal, a place to which the people had always to return; they were henceforth to be a sign constantly under their eyes and those of their children.
Now we, like Israel, stand as trophies of the victory achieved over the raging waters of the river. Christ went into death because we were there. “If one died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14). But it was in order to deliver us out of death and bring us into a new life in His own resurrection. “When we were dead in sins He hath quickened us together with Christ ... and hath raised us up together” (Eph. 2:5-65Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2:5‑6)).
The Monument
But the monument of this memorable work is permanently established on the other side of Jordan to serve for the maintenance of Israel’s faith, a monument to be recognized at all times by the people at the entrance of Canaan. For us it is Christ, the object of our faith, risen and entered into the heavenly places, but a Christ who represents us there, associating us with Himself, even as He associated Himself with us in death.
The twelve stones at Gilgal, then, are not merely our death and resurrection with Christ (the Jordan typified that), but the memorial of this death and resurrection as seen in a risen and glorified Christ. This monument reminds us of what we are henceforth to be. In the Jordan God declares us to be dead, and it is the portion of all the people. Every Christian is dead and risen with Christ; in Gilgal we have the moral realization of this. All had crossed the Jordan, but many among them perhaps cared but little to inquire the meaning of the monument in Gilgal, those stones which seemed to say in living accents to the people, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:1111Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11)).
If the twelve stones in Gilgal spoke to Israel’s conscience, there was another monument set up in the midst of Jordan which spoke seriously to their hearts. Who could see the stones which the overflowing waters had covered? They could be known only to faith. They were not typical of a resurrection life which had passed through death and bore its impress and character; they were essentially the sign of death. The stones in Gilgal are the monument of our introduction by Christ into our privileges, into which we enter only after having passed through death with Him. But when we think of the stones in Jordan, our hearts are in communion with Him in death.
My Place at Gilgal
I return to sit, so to speak, on the banks of the river of death, and I say, “That is my place; it is there that I was; it is there that He has been for me. He has delivered me from my old man; He has left it with all that belonged to it in the depths of Jordan. I am buried beneath its waters in the Person of Christ.” What led Him to take this place? He alone could claim exemption from it, and having laid down His life, He alone had the power to take it again. But it was His love to us which led Him down to death; no other motive, save the glory of God which I had dishonored, could have led Him there. He not only fought the fight alone and victoriously stayed the waters of Jordan “until everything was finished that the Lord commanded” (Josh. 4:1010For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until every thing was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hasted and passed over. (Joshua 4:10)), but those waters themselves passed over Him. I see in this monument what death was for His holy soul; I recognize the memorial of the exquisite bitterness of the cup which He drank.
The twelve stones “are there unto this day” (Josh. 4:99And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day. (Joshua 4:9)). The monument remains; the cross remains — eternal witness of a love I have there learned to know and the testimony of the only place where God could put all that belonged to my old man.
The Waters Return
In connection with these things, notice also what we find in Joshua 4:1818And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before. (Joshua 4:18): “It came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.” The sentence is executed, the old man is condemned, and the judgment is passed. Death is conquered, but death remains. What was formerly an obstacle to entrance, an obstacle removed by the ark which opened the pathway for us, separates us when we are once across, not only from Egypt and the desert of Sinai, but also from ourselves. If it were otherwise, we could have no lasting enjoyment in the land of Canaan.
The two and a half tribes (Josh. 4:12-1312And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them: 13About forty thousand prepared for war passed over before the Lord unto battle, to the plains of Jericho. (Joshua 4:12‑13)) truly crossed the Jordan with their brethren, armed for war and prepared to fight, but there were two things of which they remained in ignorance: the value of the land of Canaan and the value of death. The river did not arrest them when they turned to rejoin their wives, their little ones, and their cattle, who were awaiting them on the opposite shore. The country “on this side” had its attractions for them, while the people, who were peacefully in the enjoyment of Canaan, saw with joy that the Jordan was a barrier to separate them from all that which formerly was of any value to them.
Joshua Magnified
“On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life” (Josh. 4:1414On that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. (Joshua 4:14)). It is thus with Christ. He is highly exalted as Saviour by the glory of the Father before our eyes, in virtue of His finished work, and, as the result of this work, the saints are introduced with Him into the present enjoyment and future possession of the glory. This will be to His everlasting glory and honor.
Finally, it is said in Philippians 2:9-109Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Philippians 2:9‑10), “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” All will bow before Him who humbled Himself even unto the death of the cross.
H. L. Rossier, adapted