Every word of this chapter, largely a list of names, is a precious storehouse of meaning for the edification of the people of God. First, we will see how God placed His people in the land. These things happened unto them for types. The type is the chief thing, this means ; and thus it gives the New Testament truth in the Old. The light of the New enables us to search it out. Every type is a prophecy. Thus we have the plainest ground for the assurance of the inspiration of God's word, and it is capable of being made perfectly simple. I trust we shall find in it the truth which sanctifies.

The people of Israel represent the Christian family, and so every tribe illustrates one aspect of the children of God. Judah means "praise." In Genesis 49:all these names are dwelt upon by Jacob, and Judah has a beautiful significance. Judah is the Royal tribe, the law-giver, as the one who was to have the scepter till Shiloh came; and it did. Then they refused Him, and it was taken away. Till then it was the seat of empire, and this will return to it again, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah is the Lamb that was slain.

In that tribe was the capacity for rule. Judah represents believers as a worshiping people, and this is ever the secret of strength. Israel's sweet psalmist and Solomon were of the tribe of Judah. It is the spirit of praise that is the spirit of power. It is also what enables us for the battle-field, and so we
find Jehoshaphat putting the singers in the front of the army, and God gave him the victory when they praised the Lord.

Judah has thus the first place when they come into the land beyond Jordan, and is apportioned its inheritance before any of the other tribes have anything. Judah has nearly all the south of the land (Simeon only certain cities, and Dan also inside Judah). Judah's territory ran from the salt sea to the Mediterranean. What we have to learn in all this is, that God's thoughts about His people find expression in it; nothing is accidental. What is shown in placing this tribe thus is that for rest in the land there must be the spirit of praise; He must have worshipers. In those words of Psalm 22:, " O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel," we see that the praises of His people furnish His dwelling-place. The blessedness, too, of heaven is constant praise. The infidel ridicules this as the monotony of heaven, but it is the expression of the heart filled up to overflow. It is the proof that the heart of man is brought back to God absolutely. It is unprompted praise, as when the Lamb takes the book, in Rev. 5:, the elders fall down at once and worship. It is the necessary outflow of hearts that are full. Is it not this that shows us God for what He is ?

Judah (meaning "praise") is the first to enter the land and the last to leave; and when he does leave, it is a complete break-up.

Joseph next inherits.

In Joseph, which means "adding," two tribes, or a double tribe, take a place in the land. This brings us to 2 Pet. i:"Add to your faith virtue,"-that is, courage, etc. Add is not exactly the thought, as a man in building would add one brick to another. It is rather the kind of addition which a plant or tree makes to itself from air and soil; and so the bud, flower, and fruit come. And so it is in Christianity. The new nature has in itself the nature of God morally, and so of necessity it unfolds in us the likeness of God. We need exhortation, of course. Alas, how much of feebleness of growth, and in many what would seem to be none at all! If a plant throws out branches, there must be the hidden work of spreading roots as well. See Peter's failure. He did progress, and the failure became a necessity for progress ; by it the ground became more plowed up and the roots got better hold, and in due time the fruit came.

In Joseph, then, there is the spirit of progress- courage first added, that the rest may be right. Let me say, if we have faith, the next thing we want is "virtue" (valor). In the midst of a hostile world, you will need to show your courage. And so we find, in Rom. 10:, while with the heart man believes unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Unless a man bears outward testimony to Christ in the world, you cannot credit him with faith; but faith in the believer is invigorated by the act of confession. We have only to have courage, and leave results and consequences to God. Joseph has first to know the pit, as afterward the prison; and if we haven't this courage, how are we to get on to knowledge, which follows it ? How should God give us knowledge, when we have no mind to use and walk by it? "Whereto we have attained, let us walk by it." If we do use it, and walk in it, we shall have to suffer for it; even perhaps as Joseph, who was separated from his brethren.

Manasseh means "forgetting"; Ephraim, "fruit-fulness." We must know how to forget old experiences. A man busy with what is before him is not occupied with what is behind. So Paul, " forgetting the things that are behind, I press toward the mark, for the Prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus;" he presses on to that which is before, viz., Christ-in glory. Alas, how little of this Christians really show.!

Ephraim and Manasseh represent the practical side of Christian life-what the world looks for. It does not trouble much about worship, but it insists upon your being a good man. You must have good fruit. We have, then, in Ephraim on the north, and Judah in the south, the two sides of Christian character which (strangely) tend to fall apart – on the one hand, those who are strong for doctrine; and on the other, the mass who think very little about that. They love Christ, and are all for service, but care little about doctrine. The Bible, for them, has far too much in it. Even as to the Lord's coining, etc., they think there is no need of these things. The falling apart in Israel began rather in Ephraim than Judah, though there was fault in Judah. These things, then, have significance.

Judah lay to the south; east of it the Salt sea, the Sea, of Judgment, and Jordan running into it. Jordan, the river of death, runs down from beginning to end without watering anything, and falling at last into the deep pit of 1,300 feet below the Mediterranean ; and it never returns out of it-from it there is no escape. Yet it is but a "lake." And so God does not speak of Eternal Judgment as a sea – as a boisterous element, but as a "lake of fire," subdued under His hand. There is no mutter of blasphemy, no indulgence in sin there. Judah rises up from the lake right up to where the Temple of God and the voice of praise are; and it will be forever so.

Judah, then, to the south; Ephraim to the north, between them an interval, as if already ready to fall apart. They are apart:are they to remain so ? God has two tribes to put between to hold them fast. On the Jordan side, Benjamin:what does Benjamin mean? Jacob means "heel-catcher;" he was always grasping-grasping-often after what God wanted him to have ; but his methods were any thing but right. As with the birth-right, so all through. Never waiting quietly upon God; never trusting Him; full of restlessness, which, alas ! characterizes so many, and which is so often mistaken for spirituality. At Peniel he is crippled in this human strength, learns to cling to God instead of wrestling with Him ; and at Bethel that the secret of power is subjection to Him who is El-bethel, "God of His own house." On the way to Hebron, Benjamin is born. Rachel disappears, and Benjamin takes her place. Son of my sorrow, she says; son of my right hand, says Jacob. Benjamin is the type of Christ in us,-Christ as power on earth, as in Galatians:"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." What does this mean ? It is not conversion, or life merely. He has looked into the face of Christ, and seen it dimmed with the agony of death for him. He has looked into heaven, and seen the glory shine out of that face ; and now the cross is the end of Paul.

Christ is in the glory. He is the One to glory in. God has accepted Him for you; but He is also to be accepted by you for yourself. . . So Benjamin beautifully links these two-worship and fruitfulness-together. Be you sure this is the true and real holdfast. It is as Christ is before us, as we abide in the sunshine of His glory, that we find what holds these things together in the Christian, and among Christians. It is now no more self, good self or bad self, but Christ that lives in me:and so will the heart well up in praise and worship, as well as overflow in fruit-fulness.

The praise and worship are thus maintained on the one hand (Judah) with fruitfulness on the other (Ephraim). Benjamin holds both fast in power. Can we then say, beloved, " this one thing I do "?

It is easier to make Christ a whole object than half an object; we like, alas! better our own way, and have at last to meet God, not displayed as the true friend He is, but, Jacob-like, in opposition. We might have all the joy without the sorrow, all the gain without the loss. How much better it would all look to us when we look back in eternity, and we shall look back. Beloved, Christ is all. How blessed to let Christ clasp together for us our praises and worship, doctrine, and fruitfulness and activities in service.

And if there be a want in your soul unmet, then listen to those blessed words, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and then rivers of living water will flow out of you. How ? Drink! Nothing else ? Nothing ! As surely as you drink, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water! F. W. G.