Adam When?

    The question should logically be asked, “Why does the Bible record ‘the land had rest … years’ in these¹ four passages in the Book of Judges?” One would think that this phrase would not apply to a period of war as serious as that of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan. The word for “rest” used in these phrases is the Hebrew word shaqat. It is used about thirty times in the Old Testament and is almost always translated “quiet.” It is used twice in the Book of Joshua and in both cases it is used in circumstances similar to those in the Book of Judges.

    The passages in Joshua are Joshua 11:23:

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war.

    Joshua 14:13:

And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance ….

    Joshua 14:15:

And the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.

    The time described was the end of the initial conquest of Canaan. These statements in Joshua were made about seven years after the entrance into Canaan. The occasion was the giving of the inheritance of the land to the Israelites even though al the enemy had not been defeated.

    Warfare would still continue as implied by such statements as Joshua 11:22:

There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained.

    We read in Joshua 14:12:

Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.

    And in Joshua 17:17-18:

And Joshua spake unto the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, Thou art a great people, and hast great power: thou shalt not have one lot only: But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut if down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, thought they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.

    Yet the first two passages in this appendix emphasize that the land had rest from war. This could be understood as “rest from the major conflict” with the future wars against the enemy to be considered as “mopping up” operations. Or it could mean that a period of time was to pass during which the division of the land between the tribes would take place and during this time the whole idea of conquest would be set aside.

    Another possibility suggests itself, however. In both verses that mention “the land had rest from war,” the accompanying information indicates that an inheritance was received. In the fist, Israel received the whole land as their inheritance (Joshua 14:13). If we realize that Canaan was the promised land, the land that prefigures salvation and heaven, we can begin to see why God chose this particular language. In these passages God is pointing to the rest that the believer receives when he is saved and the rest that is brought to fullest fruition when the believer inherits the new heaven and earth. Hebrews 3 and 4, of course, presents Canaan as an Old Testament type, prefiguring the rest the believer receives in Jesus Christ.

    The giving of Hebron as an inheritance to Caleb further strengthens this concept. The only land that Abraham ever purchased was located in Hebron (Genesis 23:19). He purchased this land as a burial ground. It was an act of faith that indicated his complete trust that God would some day give the world to the believers as an everlasting inheritance (Romans 4:13). When the world is given to the believers as an everlasting inheritance, it will be as the new earth

where righteousness dwells (II Peter 3:13). The historical type in Joshua must then include the statement “the land had rest from war” (Joshua 11:23) for that is the condition of heaven or the new heavens and the new earth. The meek shall inherit the earth when Satan has been destroyed from the earth.

    In the next book, Judges, however, the notices which contain the word shaqat do not make reference to the fact that there was no war (Judges 3:11, 3:30, 5:31, 8:28). Nor do they speak of the land as an inheritance for Israel or any individuals or tribes. Rather, Israel lived in the presence of enemies as part of God’s expressed will for them.

    We read in Judges 2:23-3:1:

Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all t he wars of Canaan.

    We immediately see in this arrangement a similar figure to the verses we looked at in Joshua. Whereas in Joshua the type was of heaven and the new earth where all of Satan’s activities have come to an end, in the references in the Book of Judges, the figure is that of salvation. When we are saved, we have come to the land of rest but the warfare has not come to an end. It has ended as far as our relationship to God is concerned (we are at peace with Him), but it is not ended as far as our relationship to Satan is concerned. God has assured us that Satan cannot make us sin. He has assured us that we can be victorious over sin; He has assured us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But we must fight the good fight. We must crucify the flesh with its desires. We must strive for holiness.

    In other words, we have arrived in the land of rest, but the war is not over. It is over in principle because of Christ’s victory on the cross over Satan. It is over in principle because the believer has been freed from bondage to Satan, but Satan still attacks, and in this sense the warfare continues. For a time, Satan can appear to be victorious (witness David’s sin of adultery and murder), even as Israel was in bondage for a time to the enemy, but in this bondage the Christian does not again become a citizen of Satan’s kingdom. He never leaves the land of rest which is salvation through Christ. Israel, too, continues in the land of rest even though they suffered affliction by the enemy when they took their eyes off God. This affliction was brought against

them by Cushanrishathaim, Eglon, Jabin, and Midian, during the first 200 years in the land of rest. It is surely more than coincidental that the same word shaqat is used in other prophetic passages which anticipate salvation (see Jeremiah 30:10, 46:27, Ezekiel 38:11).

    Therefore, in these four historical chronological notices of Judges, God is giving more than just historical information. He is using these figures or types of salvation and heaven even as Canaan and Israel are great types of heaven and the believers who enter heaven. It becomes quite logical then that the periods during which the land had rest would contain within them conquest and bondage.


    ¹See Judges 3:11, 3:30, 5:31; 8:28.