• First-- The Gift of the land. ''Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.'' [Josh 1:3]
• Second-- The Command. ''Arise and go... Have not I commanded thee?'' [v.2,9]
• Third-- The Promise of His presence. ''As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee.'' [v.5]

• It is a land of Rest from the wanderings of the wilderness life. A land with ''great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not'' (Deu 6:10,11).
• It is a land of Plenty. ''A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass'' (Deu 8:8,9).
• It is a land of Living Water. ''A land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills'' (Deu 8:7).
• It is a land of Promised Victory. ''There shall no man be able to stand before you'' (Deu 11:25).

• It is He who can give such rest to our souls that we are able to say, ''We which have believed do enter into rest'' [Heb 4:3].
• He who did not spare His own Son has promised with Him to ''freely give us all things'' [Rom 8:32].
• Christ has promised to give the Living Water, the Holy Spirit, to those who come to Him and drink [John 7:38,39].
• And He has promised continual victory to those who commit themselves to His leadership. A victorious life, full of the Holy Ghost and of power, is God's purpose for every Christian, and is experienced through continual abiding in Christ. He promises us-- not absence of tribulation, but in Him peace [Joh 16:33]; not freedom from temptation and conflict, but through Him victory [1Joh 5:4,5]; not immunity from toil, but in Him rest [Mat 11:28-30]. ''Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it'' (Heb 4:1).

Israel's enemies are a type of ours. Egypt was a type of the world. In the Amalekites in the wilderness-- those descendants of Esau who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, a people near of kin to Israel-- we have a picture of the flesh, or self. But in the Canaanites, we have a picture of a still more deadly foe. From contemporary records, as well as from Scripture, these nations seem to have been the very personification of evil. Highly civilized, versed in arts and full of intellectual culture, they were nevertheless hopelessly corrupt. In God's command to Israel, to destroy them utterly (Deu 20:16-18), we recognize at once His plan of dealing in judgment with nations after having given them full time to repent (see Gen 15:16), and we have also His care for the moral well-being of His people. ''God has a right to choose, without being questioned, the best method of chastening a guilty people, whether by flood, fire, brimstone, earthquake, famine, pestilence, or war. Study carefully these 'Acts of God' in the Bible and in our own time'' (H.S. Richardson).

''They overcame him (the Devil)

(1) by the blood of the Lamb,

(2) by the word of their testimony,

(3) by not loving their lives unto the death,'' ie., by taking their place on the Cross as crucified with Christ.

The two crossings are coupled together in Psalm 114:5: ''What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?'' There is a close connection between them. Going down, into the bed of the sea and into the bed of the river, alike, signified death. Both show our participation in the death of Christ. The Red Sea crossing includes it all, in God's purpose, though not always so in our experience. There are some Christians, who, like Paul, enter into the deep meaning of Christ's death and receive the baptism of the Spirit almost immediately after their conversion. It was Israel's wandering that made the second crossing necessary.

And so it often is with Christians now. Through want of clear teaching, it may be, about God's purposes of blessing, or through personal unfaithfulness, how many wander in a wilderness experience for years after their conversion, and need some definite act, like the crossing of Jordan, to bring them into ''the Lord's delightsome land'' of peace and rest and victory! They have seen Christ crucified for them as the ground of their salvation, but they need to see themselves crucified with Christ. The history of the Israelites crossing Jordan makes this so beautifully simple that it cannot fail to be a help to any soul seeking to know the fuller meaning of Christ's death.

The channel of the river has several sets of banks, cut out by the stream in its varying fulness, and at this time it was overflowing all its banks [Josh 3:15]. For a great multitude-- including women and children and cattle-- to have crossed it, at such a time, was an absolute impossibility. But as soon as the feet of the Priests, bearing the Ark of the Covenant, touched the brimming flood, the waters divided, and the priests stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan until all the people were clean passed over. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, where the feet of the priests stood, and he commanded a man from each tribe to take a stone out of the midst of Jordan, twelve stones, and he set them up in Gilgal on the other side of Jordan as a memorial, ''that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty; that ye might fear the Lord our God for ever'' (Josh 4:24).

This is only the beginning of a new life of victory, the acceptance of our position, as risen with Christ, which makes victory possible. It is what Paul meant when he said: ''I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me'' (Gal 2:20).

The next step for the Children of Israel was the renewing, at Gilgal, of the Covenant with God, by the neglected rite of circumcision, separating themselves unto the Lord [Josh 5]. God's separated people were then immediately called to keep the neglected Feast of the Passover [v.10]. And they ate of the old corn of the land, the manna ceasing from that time [v.11,12]. In the slain Lamb and the Bread of Life, we have another picture of Christ.

The Burning Bush was a picture of the Incarnation, but how much more vivid was this foreshadowing in the form of a man. God says, ''I have given Him for a Leader and Commander to the people'' [Isa 55:4]. Oft times today some servant of the Lord is hard pressed with responsibility at the thought of some great undertaking, when if he would but lift up his eyes and look, he would see One mighty to save, who has come to take entire control.

''By faith Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies in peace'' [Heb 11:31]. The token for her salvation was the scarlet cord, with which she had let down the spies, tied in her window [Josh 2:18; 6:21-25]. It was like the token of the blood on the door-posts in the Passover. In former days, in the [British] Royal Navy every rope and cord was marked with a scarlet thread running right through its entire length, so that wherever you cut the rope, you found the scarlet cord. The scarlet line of redemption, through the precious blood of Christ, runs through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

The defeat before Ai was caused by hidden sin. There is a very solemn lesson here-- that sin always means defeat. All may look right outwardly, but God is not deceived. Absolute obedience is the condition of victory in the land. ''If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God'' [Col 3:1,2]. After the sin of Achan had been judged, the Lord said, ''Fear not; take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai'' [Joshua 8]. After sin has been confessed and put away, God gives victory. We may have had some great victory, like Jericho, and then fail in some little ''Ai'' of daily life. He will give victory in the very place where we have been shamefully defeated. But we need all the power of God for every battle, and our position is one of absolute dependence on Him.

Then follows the stratagem of the Gibeonites, who with their moldy loaves and ragged garments led the Children of Israel to believe they had come from a far country, and therefore entered into a covenant with them [Joshua 9]. It was because Israel asked not counsel of the Lord, but took of their victuals, that they fell into the snare. Here again, we are taught the need of absolute dependence upon the Lord in the life of faith. He is willing to guide us in every detail of our lives, but we must seek to know His will, and not judge by the sight of our eyes, or lean upon our own understanding [Prov 3:5,6].

Having entered into league with the Gibeonites, Israel was bound to respond to their appeal for help when five other nations rose up against them [Joshua 10]. God overruled this circumstance to deliver the five kings into the hands of His people. As these nations worshipped the sun and moon, there was a special reason for the miracle which God wrought on that day in showing them His power in controlling the hosts of heaven. We do not know how that miracle was wrought, it is enough for us to believe that He who made the universe could control its action. The ancient annals of Greece, Egypt, and China each confirm the record of a certain ''long day'' such as God's Book tells us of.

Then follows an account of the division of the land [Joshua 13-21]. The inheritance of the two-and-a-half tribes beyond Jordan, and the inheritance of Caleb [Joshua 14:6-15]. That old warrior claimed the mountain of the Anakims, with its cities great and fenced, which God had promised him forty years before. He said: ''As my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war... if so be that the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said.'' Caleb promised his daughter, Achsah, to whomsoever would take the city of Kirjath-sepher. Othniel his nephew took it and won the prize. Achsah said to her father, ''Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a South land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.'' Our Heavenly Father waits to bless us in like manner, and ''to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him'' [Luke 11:13].

When we come to study the Book of Judges, we shall see what trouble came through Israel not obeying God's [command to drive] out the Canaanites. The process of degeneration had begun even in the time of Joshua. Though the children of Joseph failed, they were also ambitious, and came to Joshua with the plea that they were a great people and their lot was not enough for them. Then Joshua [instructed them to] go up into the wood country and take the land of the giants. But the children of Joseph feared to go because the inhabitants had chariots of iron. Joshua's answer was a wise one: he [encouraged them to] prove their greatness by driving out the Canaanites, which they were well able to do ''though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.''

Then we read of the Tabernacle being set up at Shiloh, and the congregation of Israel was assembled there, as the central place of sacrifice [18:1]. Then the seven remaining tribes received their portion, and Joshua his own special portion, and the six Cities of Refuge were fixed [ie., established]. The Levites held their cities upon a different tenure from the other tribes, for the Lord Himself was the portion of their inheritance [ch. 18-21].

Our Joshua never dies. It is He who brings us into the good land, and it is only as we abide under His leadership that we shall possess it and overcome all our enemies.