Now we are ready to enter the good land. We have enjoyed the passover lamb in Egypt, we have left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, we have enjoyed Christ as the daily manna and as the rock with the flowing stream, and we have experienced Christ as the Ark, the testimony of God. At this stage we are built together as His enlargement and His expression so that we become the tabernacle. We not only have the tabernacle, but we are the tabernacle. We are the expansion, the increase of Christ. We are built together, standing upon the solid basis of His redemption and covered over by the fullness of Christ. We are so strong and solid. We are one in Christ, who is the manifestation of God. Moreover, we know how to enjoy Christ time after time as all kinds of offerings. Therefore, we have the priesthood, and we are the priests. Furthermore, we have been formed under the priesthood to be the army, the divine army to fight the battle for that good land. We are prepared to fight and defeat the enemy. The host of Jehovah has been made ready by enjoying everything of Christ.
Oh, brothers and sisters, after we have passed through all these experiences, there is still something more wonderful ahead of us—the good land, the all-inclusiveness of Christ. We began with the little lamb, and we eventually come to the land of Canaan, the all-inclusive Christ. The land is still before us! We have enjoyed Christ, we have possessed Christ, and we have Christ—there is no doubt about it. And we are still enjoying Christ. Yet ahead of us is more of Christ. A much greater Christ is waiting to be possessed, for the goal God has set before us is the all-inclusive Christ. We must not stop short of the goal.
Suppose, then, we are ready to enter the land. We have been formed into an army, and we are now the glorious, divine, and heavenly host of Jehovah. What shall we do? First of all, we must take the Word of the Lord. The Lord told Joshua, “Now then arise, and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads I have given to you” (Josh. 1:2-3). The Lord has promised it, but we must possess it. He has given it, but we must experience it. It is our portion, but we must take it. We must have the faith; we must have the confidence, the full assurance. It is not presently in our possession, but He will cause us to take it; He will cause us to possess it. We must believe Him and give Him our cooperation. Will we do it? Let us rise up today and go forth to possess the land. Praise the Lord, it is ours! Let us take it—not tomorrow, but today! Never say “tomorrow.” In unbelief, it is always tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. “Tomorrow” belongs to the devil! In faith there is no tomorrow; it is always today. “Today” is ours! Brothers and sisters, we must take it today! This is the first thing we must do. We must stand on the Word of God. We must take the Word of God and go on to possess the land.
Secondly, we who are saved and have been enjoying Christ must realize that we have been crucified on the cross. We are dead, and we have been buried! We have an excellent hymn that expresses this fact:
Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too;
What is there left for me to do?
(Hymns, #483)
We have been buried with Christ; we have been finished! Do you realize how big a word buried is? It would be good to write it in large letters and hang it in your bedroom— BURIED! Hang another in your dining room, another in your living room, and another in your kitchen. Everywhere there is a room—buried, buried, buried! I have been buried! I would really be pleased to see a home decorated in this way. What a rest it is to be buried! Could you have any better rest than this? This is why the people of Israel were brought across the Jordan in such a way. The Jordan was their burial.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they crossed the Red Sea, representing baptism. Now again, at the Jordan, they passed through a body of water. It was a remembrance of the Red Sea. When we received Christ as our Savior, the church baptized us—we were buried. But, regrettably, not very long after, we forgot about it; we came out of the grave. I do not say that we were raised up but that we came out of the grave. Some even went struggling back to Egypt. Now, because we have experienced Christ so much, because we have Christ as the center of God’s testimony and have been built up into the tabernacle as the expression of Christ, because we have the priesthood and the army of God and are ready to take possession of the land, God tells us to make a memorial, reminding us that we have been buried. From this time forth, we must never forget that we have been buried.
The Red Sea and the Jordan represent the same thing— the death of Christ. In the Red Sea the army of Egypt was buried. Everything of this world and all the forces of this world were buried there. Do you realize how many things and how many people were buried with you when you were buried in baptism? In the land from which I come, when a man died and was to be buried, people buried with him all he had. Likewise, in the eyes of the Lord, when we were buried, all the things we loved, all the things that comprised our world, were buried with us. All the worldly army, all the worldly forces, that formerly held us in bondage were buried. That is the reality of the Red Sea. Now here at the river Jordan, God wants to remind us once more. Not only the worldly forces were buried, but we ourselves were buried too. We have been buried!
The crossing of the river Jordan is a beautiful and glorious picture. The Ark with the priesthood entered the river first, and there, in the heart of the river, the Ark with the priesthood stayed. It is very meaningful. The Ark, as we have seen, is the Lord Christ, the testimony of God. Christ with the priesthood went into the very heart of the river of death. Then all the people followed. All the people went down to the bottom of that river and passed that very spot. Then the Lord asked them to choose twelve people, one from every tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel. Each one took a stone from the place at the bottom of the river where the Ark stood and brought it to the other side of the Jordan, that is, to the good land. This signifies the resurrection. All those who entered the land of Canaan were those who were resurrected. They were new ones; they were not the old ones. They were the resurrected ones, not the natural ones. Only resurrected people can enter and possess the all-inclusive Christ; He is not for the natural man. We can enjoy Christ as the all-inclusive One only on the ground of resurrection. Brothers and sisters, we are resurrected! We are buried and raised up! Now we are in Christ!
Then Joshua did something else to remind them of this fact. He took more stones, one for each of the tribes, and planted them at the very spot where the Ark stood. He buried them there as a memorial of the burial of the Israelites themselves. In the eyes of God, all the children of Israel were buried in the river Jordan. This means that in the eyes of God we have all been buried in the death of Christ.
After all this was accomplished, the Ark with the priesthood came out of the Jordan. After we were all put away, Christ emerged from death. Christ entered into death first, and Christ came out of death last; He was the first in and the last out; we were the last in but the first out. Christ completed the death, and this death covers us all. We are all dead! We have all been buried with Christ! We can say, “Hallelujah, we have been buried! Now we are on the ground of resurrection! Now we are in Canaan! Now we are in Christ, the good land!”