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Scripture Reading: Num. Josh. 1:2-3
In this message we will consider the matter of God's chosen and redeemed people being ready to take possession of the God-promised good land.
The vital sketch of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers first involves God's need for a people to be saved and to go on with Him to enjoy His Christ, to receive His revelation, and to be built up with Him as the processed Triune God that they may be formed into a priestly army to journey with Him and to fight with Him. Second, this sketch shows us that, in addition to enjoying Christ, receiving the revelation, being built up with the Triune God, and being formed into a priestly army, this people also needs to be disciplined. In order to be disciplined, God's people in the Old Testament had to pass through certain difficulties. This is something which we need to realize today. The more difficulties we pass through, the more useful we will be to the Lord. Third, this vital sketch reveals that God's chosen and redeemed people needed to undergo different kinds of frustrations. As a result of all these things, God's people were ready to take possession of the God-promised land.
With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, those who were qualified and ready to take possession of the land were younger ones. They were of the second generation. The older ones, those of the first generation, had passed through many things and had learned many lessons. However, they were not qualified to enter into the land. The lessons learned by the first generation surely became part of the heritage passed on to the second generation. Their children certainly inherited from their parents all the lessons they learned during the forty years in the wilderness. By their birth the younger ones were put into a position to inherit the tradition of their family and all that their parents had experienced.
I believe that the fathers spoke to their children about their experiences in Egypt, in the exodus from Egypt, and in the wilderness. No doubt, the fathers spoke about how they were cruelly treated as slaves in Egypt, about how God in His mercy sent Moses to deliver them from bondage, about how they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month, and about how they marched out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. The fathers must have also explained to their children that they entered into the wilderness without food but that God fed them with manna and supplied them with water from the smitten rock. They might have also explained that although they eventually felt that manna was loathsome, they nevertheless appreciated it. The people did not grow any crops, but for forty years they daily received the heavenly supply of manna. Furthermore, the younger ones learned about Moses and about the great help he rendered to the people of Israel. Moses himself was not allowed to enter into the good land, but he contributed many constructive factors to God's people.
The second generation did not pass through as much as the first generation did, but they received the benefit of what the first generation experienced. I believe that the older generation told the younger generation about all they experienced, enjoyed, and suffered. This speaking was part of the raising up, or the building up, of the second generation. What the first generation experienced was not experienced in vain, for it was passed on to the second generation. What the older ones experienced actually was not effective for them, but it was very effective in building up the younger ones. Therefore, God was able to prepare from the second generation more than six hundred thousand men with a rich inheritance and strong background who were qualified to be formed into an army to fight with Him and for Him.
The principle is the same with us in the Lord's recovery today. The recovery has been in the United States for twenty-seven years and has passed through many things. Do you think that all these things have been in vain? They certainly have not been in vain. These things are being passed on to the younger ones in the Lord's recovery and will be very effective in building them up and preparing them to fight with God and for God. The younger ones in the Lord's recovery have a rich inheritance. Because this inheritance is being passed on to the younger ones and even being constituted into them, I have the full assurance that when a further testing comes, there will be a very positive result.
In the Old Testament, what the second generation received from the first generation made the younger ones ready to take possession of the good land. Let us now consider the things which prepared them and made them ready to enter into the God-promised land.
God's people were made ready to take possession of the God-promised land by being redeemed from God's judgment by the Passover and by being saved from Egypt by the saving power of the Triune God (Exo. 12, 14). After they were redeemed by the Passover, they were saved personally by the Triune God. As Exodus 14 reveals, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all involved in the salvation of the children of Israel. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit were all engaged in rescuing God's people out of the tyranny of Pharaoh. In Exodus 14 the Triune God protected them and fought for them. Without the personal involvement of the Triune God, it would have been impossible for the Israelites to be released from the hand of Pharaoh. God in His divine Trinity was directly and personally engaged in the rescue of His people.
God's chosen and redeemed people enjoyed the heavenly provision and the divine care in their initial journey in the wilderness (Exo. 15—17). In Exodus 15:27 they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, all of which refer to Christ. In Exodus 16 the people enjoyed Christ as the manna, and in Exodus 17 they enjoyed Him as the rock smitten to flow out living water. Furthermore, the children of Israel enjoyed the divine care. In their initial journey in the wilderness, God was to them a nursing mother, feeding, nourishing, and cherishing them. This provision and care made them ready to enter into the good land.
In Exodus 19—40 and Leviticus 1—27 the children of Israel received the divine revelation and training in knowing God, in being built up together with God as His dwelling on earth for His expression and testimony, and in the building up of the priesthood for the divine service. All this took place at the foot of Mount Sinai, where the people were given the law as a portrait of what God is in His attributes. They were built up together with God and they began to function in the divine service. This was a further means of God's making them ready to take possession of the good land.
The book of Numbers records how God's chosen and redeemed people were formed into a priestly army to journey with God and to fight with God for His interest on earth (Num. 1—4, 9:15—10:36; 12:16; 20:1—21:35; 31:1-54; 33:1-49).
The children of Israel were also made ready to take possession of the God-promised land by passing through all the frustrations, trials, and disciplines for their purification. The situation is the same in the church life. Although we do not welcome frustrations, trials, and disciplines, we surely need the purification that comes from our passing through these things. In addition to nourishing and cherishing us, God sometimes disciplines us for our purification. He may purify us through fire, which is a matter of purging, and through water, which is a matter of purifying. This also is an aspect of our being made ready to take possession of the good land.
In Numbers 32 and 33:50—36:13 God's people received the prearrangements for the distribution of the promised good land. This made them ready to take possession of the land.
After all the foregoing, God's chosen and redeemed people were ready to cross the Jordan, enter Canaan, consume the inhabitants thereof, and possess the good land promised by the faithful God (Josh. 1:2-3).
In particular, the people were ready to get settled with God in the good land. For them to be homeless was for God to be homeless. But for them to be settled in the good land was for God to be settled in the land, for they were to settle there with God.
God's people were also ready to be built up with Him in His divine Trinity as the mutual dwelling for God and His redeemed people for the expression and testimony of the Triune God on earth among men. This was the destination of the children of Israel, and it is our destiny today. This is the complete, perfect, and eternal revelation of the divine Person with His economy.
