GENERAL SUBJECT
CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF DEUTERONOMY
Message Four
The Goodness of the Land——Its Minerals
Scripture Reading: Deut. 8:7, 9; 1:30; 3:22; 20:3-4; 32:30; Eph. 6:10-13; Deut. 33:25; Jer. 15:12; 1 Pet. 2:4-5; Dan. 10:6d; Rev. 12:5; 1:15a
I. The stones, the iron, the mountains, and the copper are for the building and for the battle——Deut. 8:7, 9; Neh. 4:17:
A. The building and the battle always go together; if we would have the building, we must be prepared to fight——Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16; 6:10-20.
B. For the building we need the materials, and for the battle we need the weapons; these depend upon the stones, the iron, the mountains, and the copper.
II. We need to experience Christ as a land whose stones are iron——Deut. 8:9c; 33:25; 1 Pet. 2:4-5; Jer. 15:12; Psa. 2:9; Rev. 12:5:
A. Christ is a stone for God's building; this means that Christ is the material for God's building and that God's building is entirely of Christ——Acts 4:10-12; 1 Pet. 2:4-5:
1. In the Bible stone is a major item——Gen. 28:18; Zech. 3:9; 1 Pet. 2:4-5:
a. God created a man of clay; hence, the first man was a clay-man——Gen. 2:7.
b. In Christ, God Himself came to be a man, and this man was a stone-man——Acts 4:10-12.
c. At the end of the Bible we have a stone-city——Rev. 21:10-11, 18a, 19-20.
d. The Bible begins with a clay-man, continues with a stone-man, and consummates in a stone-city; this is God's economy.
2. Christ as a stone for God's building is the One in whom we are saved; He is the Stone-Savior——solid, strong, and reliable—— Acts 4:10-12.
3. Both Christ and His believers are stones for God's building—— Matt. 21:42; John 1:42; 1 Pet. 2:4-5:
a. In Christ and through Christ we are becoming living stones to be built up as a spiritual house——v. 5.
b. We are undergoing the process of transformation so that Christ, the living stone, may be constituted into us to make us living stones for God's house——Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18.
B. Iron signifies the authority of Christ——Psa. 2:9; Rev. 12:5; Matt. 28:18:
1. Spiritual authority is always in resurrection; therefore, in order to have authority we must be in the resurrection life of Christ——Rom. 6:4-5:
a. If we walk in the resurrection life of Christ, we will have the right to claim His authority——1 Cor. 5:3-5; 1 Tim. 1:20.
b. When we are stones living in Christ, we automatically share the authority of Christ.
c. The authority of the church is absolutely in resurrection; the authority of the church is where the saints know what it means to be crucified with Christ and to live in resurrection——Matt. 18:18-20; Gal. 2:20.
2. If we are able to exercise the authority of Christ, we will have safety and security——Deut. 33:25.
III. We need to experience Christ as a land from whose mountains we can mine copper——8:9d; Ezek. 34:13; 37:22; 1 Sam. 17:5-6; Dan. 10:6d; Rev. 1:15a:
A. In the Bible mountains signify resurrection and ascension—— Matt. 28:16:
1. The mountains in the good land typify the resurrected and ascended Christ——Ezek. 34:13; 37:22.
2. As the One who has resurrected and ascended on high, Christ is the high mountain——Acts 2:32-33; Eph. 1:19-21; 4:8, 10.
3. In the ascended Christ we may engage in spiritual warfare, for in Christ's ascension there are the peaks of reality (Amana), victory (Senir), and the destruction of the enemy (Hermon)—— 2:6; 6:10-20; S. S. 4:8.
B. Bronze and copper are words used interchangeably for the same materials in the Old Testament.
C. Copper (bronze) signifies the judgment of Christ——Deut. 8:9d; Dan. 10:6d; Rev. 1:15a:
1. Christ's gleam in His work and move is signified by His arms and His feet being like the gleam of polished bronze——Dan. 10:6d:
a. Bronze signifies God's judgment, which makes people bright.
b. Christ was judged and tried by God, and God's trial and judgment made Christ bright like polished bronze.
2. The feet of Christ are like shining bronze, signifying that His perfect and bright walk qualifies Him to exercise divine judgment——Rev. 1:15a.
3. To apply Christ as the copper (bronze) is to realize that He is the perfect One, the shining One, the One who has been tested and proved——Eph. 6:11:
a. Christ, the tested and proved One, the perfect, bright, and shining One, is our covering; the enemy can do nothing with Him—— John 14:30.
b. We need to apply Christ as our covering——Eph. 6:13; cf. 1 Sam. 17:5-6:
1. The breastplate of righteousness covers our conscience and guards us from Satan's accusations; this breastplate is Christ as our righteousness——Eph. 6:14b; 1 Cor. 1:30.
2. The helmet of salvation for covering our mind is the saving Christ we experience in our daily life——Eph. 6:17a; 1 Thes. 5:8; John 16:33.
IV. If we would experience Christ as stone, iron, and copper, we must have some degree of spiritual maturity; wherever there is a matured life in Christians, the building of God's house will take place, and the battles of spiritual warfare will be fought——Heb. 5:14; 6:1; 1 Cor. 14:20; Eph. 4:13:
A. Joshua 1:3 indicates that although God had given Israel the good land, Israel still needed to take the land; they needed to cooperate with God by rising up to fulfill God's commission to possess the land.
B. If we would possess Christ as the good land, we still need to fight the spiritual warfare by faith in the Lord and in the principle of the Body; we also need to realize that we are not the ones fighting, for God goes with us and fights for us——Deut. 1:30; 3:22; 20:3-4; 32:30; Eph. 6:10-13.
C. Joshua led the children of Israel to enter the promised land and to take it, possess it, and enjoy it—— Josh. 1:6:
1. Joshua was to be occupied with God's word and let the word occupy him——v. 8.
2. The response of Israel to Joshua implied their willingness, their readiness, and their being in one accord not only with Joshua but also with Jehovah their God, as expressed by their blessing Joshua in the name of their God——vv. 16-18.
3. Israel had become a corporate Joshua, chosen, called, redeemed, saved, trained, prepared, and qualified by God, ready to go on with God as one to take the land of Canaan.
4. To gain the all-inclusive Christ, we need to be today's Joshua, fighting the battle, taking the land, and enjoying Christ as our inheritance.
D. The children of Israel were buried in the death of Christ, and then they were resurrected in the resurrection of Christ——4:1-11; Rom. 6:3-6:
1. In their old man they could not gain the victory; their old man had to be buried so that they could become a new man—— Josh. 4:9.
2. We need to realize that our old man, our natural man, is not qualified to fight the spiritual warfare for gaining the all-inclusive Christ——Rom. 6:6.
E. In order to possess the good land, we need to deal with the flesh, enjoy the Lord's table, enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the produce of the good land, and see a vision of Christ as our Captain—— Josh. 5:2-15:
1. The circumcision at Gilgal signifies the application of the Lord's death to our flesh——vv. 2-9; Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24.
2. Israel's keeping the Passover typifies the believers' keeping of the Lord's table to remember the Lord as their Redeemer and Savior—— Josh. 5:10; Matt. 26:26-28; 1 Cor. 5:7.
3. The produce of the good land typifies Christ as the consummated God-given food to the believers, requiring their labor on Him—— Josh. 5:11-12.
4. Joshua saw a vision in which Christ was unveiled as the Captain of Jehovah's army; whereas Joshua was the visible captain, Christ was the invisible Captain of God's army—— vv. 13-15.
F. The victory of Israel over Jericho was won not by their fighting but by their blowing the trumpets and exalting Christ by bearing the Ark, through their faith in God's word of instruction—— 6:1-27:
1. In the spiritual warfare the first thing we should do is exalt Christ.
2. The silence of the people signifies being one with the Lord to carry out the matter in the Lord's way without the expression of any thought, opinion, or feeling——v. 10.
3. God did the fighting, and Israel simply shouted, proclaimed, and testified.
4. Israel marched around the city with the Ark, a type of Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, on the shoulders of the priests; the spiritual significance of this scene is that it is a picture of the corporate God-man——God and man, man and God, walking together as one person.
G. The children of Israel were defeated at Ai because they were not one with God but cared only for themselves; the account of their defeat should teach us to be one with God in whatever we do—— 7:1-5.
H. The children of Israel were deceived by the Gibeonites because they were like a wife who forgot her husband; what they did in Joshua 9 was exactly the same as what Eve did in Genesis 3.
I. The record in Joshua 22:10-34 about the building of another altar shows us that we must avoid division and that to experience and enjoy the all-inclusive Christ we must be one people, one Body, one universal church——1 Cor. 12:12-13.
J. We cannot enjoy Christ as the good land without the Body; we must be one with the Body to fight for the land, to possess the land, and to share our portion of the land——Num. 32:1-32; Josh. 22:1-9.
K. "We all need to know what the recovery is, where the recovery is, and what kind of persons can take the recovery on. We all need to see that in the Lord's recovery today we are on a battlefield. We should be today's Joshua and Caleb, fighting against Satan's aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth. It is not adequate for us simply to be spiritual and holy. We need to learn of Joshua and Caleb to represent God's interest in this age to fight down the enemies that Christ can be gained by people and that Christ can be increased by His pursuers" (Life-study of Joshua, p. 61).