The Red Sea, in type, was the death of Christ for us.  Then came the wilderness, a type of our endurance in a world that can give us no food.  Then followed the Jordan crossing—our realizing we have died with Christ.  And then the warfare in the land.  This, for us, is our present spiritual warfare against wickedness in “heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3, 2:6, 3:10).

For this we need what Gilgal can teach us—the remembrance of our own littleness and that our old life died with Christ on the cross.  Before each battle, when Israel went first to Gilgal (the spiritual meaning is “death to the flesh”), then victory was theirs.

In the wilderness they had manna, a picture for us of Christ Who came down to be our food (John 6:35); but then, in the land, the manna stopped falling and was replaced by the “old corn of the land” (Christ in resurrection)—then the Captain of Jehovah’s host (the Lord) appears (Joshua 5:13) to lead them (and us) to victories.

All this is for our encouragement to “fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:12).  Let’s stand for the truth of God; we CAN do this IF we go first to “Gilgal.”