Joshua and Judges: Introduction. Num 20, Psa 80; 87.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Introduction. Num 20, Psa 80; 87.

 

The history of Israel as a nation may be said to commence with their entrance into their own land. All that was previous to this, from the Passover night in Egypt on which Israel was born as a nation and a people to the overthrow of the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og in the Transjordan, the last who would have barred their way, had all been preparatory and forty years in the making.

 

During the forty years of wandering in the wilderness the people had gone through enough that they came together as a strong people by the hand of Jehovah, and without almost all of the first generation.  

 

But now, when the Lion of Judah couched by the banks of Jordan, Israel was face to face with its grand mission, and the grand task of its national life commenced: to dispossess heathenism in Canaan, and to plant in its stead the kingdom of God in a land flowing with milk and honey.

 

Psa 80:8 Thou didst remove a vine from Egypt;

Thou didst drive out the nations, and didst plant it.

 

Psa 80:9 Thou didst clear the ground before it,

And it took deep root and filled the land.

 

Psa 80:10 The mountains were covered with its shadow;

And the cedars of God with its boughs.

 

Psa 80:11 It was sending out its branches to the sea [Mediterranean], And its shoots to the River [Jordan].

 

Psa 87:1 A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

A Song.

His foundation is in the holy mountains.

 

Psa 87:2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion

More than all the other dwelling places of Jacob.

 

Psa 87:3 Glorious things are spoken of you,

O city of God.

Selah.

 

Psa 87:4 "I shall mention Rahab [Egypt - southern power] and Babylon [northern power] among those who know Me;

Behold, Philistia [war loving] and Tyre [rich and proud] with Ethiopia [powerful]:

'This one was born there [Zion].'"

 

When Messiah reigns on David's throne in Zion, Israel's enemies will be transformed into fellow citizens. If any become saved they can say they were "born-again" there, the city of redemption.

 

All the believing Jews that have been dispersed into these nations shall in that time return there.

 

Isa 60:4

"Lift up your eyes round about, and see;

They all gather together, they come to you.

Your sons will come from afar,

And your daughters will be carried in the arms.

 

Psa 87:5 But of Zion it shall be said, "This one and that one were born in her" [one added to another - a multitude];

And the Most High Himself will establish her.

 

The Hebrew Iysh and w'iysh, "this one and that one," refers to one and another added together and in this case would refer to an innumerable multitude. This was the promise to Abraham and it was partially fulfilled in the Promised Land and will be completely fulfilled at the second coming of Christ.

 

Gen 15:5

And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."

 

Gen 15:18-21

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,

"To your descendants I have given this land,

From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite."

 

Whilst from among foreign peoples more and more are continually acquiring the right of natives in Zion or children of Abraham, and thus are entering into a new national alliance, so that a breach of their original national friendships is taking place. Not that they become racial Jews but children of Zion in that they are redeemed in Christ who gave His life on Moriah or Zion. He Himself, the Most High, will uphold Zion, so that under His protection and blessing it shall become ever greater and more glorious.

 

Psa 48:8

As we have heard, so have we seen

In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God;

God will establish her forever.

 

Psa 87:6 The Lord shall count when He registers the peoples,

"This one was born there."

Selah.

 

No matter how far removed, all of believing Israel will be registered in the book of the living, a book existing from time immemorial.

 

The result of this continued incorporation in Zion, believers in the age of Israel and the coming ages of the Tribulation and Millennium, of those who have been hitherto far removed, Jehovah will write their names down in the book of the living, a book existing from before time was made by Him.  

 

Eze 13:9

"So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord God.

 

In one of David's Messianic psalms the context would be those who rejected the Messiah.

 

Psa 69:28

May they be blotted out of the book of life,

And may they not be recorded with the righteous.

 

Intercalated into the book is the register of the body of Christ in both name, and if overcomers, in "new name."

 

Php 4:3

Indeed, true comrade, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

 

Rev 3:5

'He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.

 

Final judgment is concluded from this registry:

 

Rev 20:15

And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

 

We can picture the book as having two included volumes, the house of Israel and the inserted body of Christ.

 

These all were born there - in Zion.

 

Gal 3:29

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

 

Heb 12:22-24

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

 

Psa 87:6 The Lord shall count when He registers the peoples,

"This one was born there."

Selah.

 

The end of all history is that Zion shall become the metropolis of all nations. When the fullness of the Gentiles is thus come in, then shall all and each one as well singing as dancing say: All my fountains are in you.

 

Psa 87:7 Then those who sing as well as those who play the flutes [Hebrew: dancing] shall say, "All my springs of joy [salvation] are in you."

 

Singing and dancing are those making their festive joy known - all men of all nations incorporated into Zion.

 

Isa 12:2-3

"Behold, God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid;

For the Lord God is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation."

Therefore you will joyously draw water

From the springs of salvation.

 

Israel was destined to strike root and to grow, till, in the fullness of time, it would extend to all nations of the world.