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There is another remarkable circumstance about Joshua. The conquest and division of
the land seem to have been his sole work. He does not appear to have even ruled as a
judge over Israel. But so far also as the conquest and division of the land were
concerned, his work was not complete, nor, indeed, intended to be complete. And this is
characteristic of the whole Old Testament dispensation, that no period in its history sees
its work completed, but only begun and pointing forward to another yet future,^169 till at
last all becomes complete in the "fullness of time" in Christ Jesus. Thus viewed, a fresh
light is cast upon the name and history of Joshua. Assuredly Joshua did not give "rest"
even to his own generation, far less to Israel as a nation. It was rest begun, but not
completed - a rest which even in its temporal aspect left so much unrest; and as such it
pointed to Christ. What the one Joshua could only begin, not really achieve, even in its
outward typical aspect, pointed to, and called for the other Joshua, the Lord Jesus
Christ,^170 in Whom and by Whom all is reality, and all is perfect, and all is rest for ever.
And so also it was only after many years that Oshea became Joshua, while the name
Joshua was given to our Lord by the angel before His birth (Matthew 1:21). The first
became, the second was Joshua. And so the name and the work of Joshua pointed
forward to the fullness in Christ, alike by what it was and by what it was not, and this in
entire accordance with the whole character and object of the Old Testament.
(^)