The Two Witnesses (6)

Next in Joshua we see a prophetic signpost concerning “the third day.”  In the first few chapters of Joshua this third day is mentioned no less than five times, in verses 1:11, 2:16, 2:22, 3:2, and 3:4.

Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, Pass through the host, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days ye shall pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the LORD your God giveth you to possess it. (Joshua 1:10-11 KJV)

In reading Scripture one must understand that in God’s prophetic purposes the seventh and the third days represent the same day.  This will become more clear as you read on, but take time now to read the law of the red heifer in Numbers 19 to see the similarities in the day.  Cleansing comes on the third and seventh days.

And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.  (Joshua 3:1-4 KJV) 

This passage is especially interesting because it also indicates the number of years men must wait after the prophetic Joshua, Jesus Christ, first appears in human form.  The particular verse says,

Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.  (Joshua 3:4 KJV)

The word translated “heretofore” here means “triplet,” “trebly,” or “three days” and is the fifth time (five is the number of grace) that God alerts us to the third day in these opening passages of Joshua.  More than that, verse four, I believe, prophesies exactly when the prophetic third day will occur.   The ark of the covenant here represents two distinct ideas in the Scripture.  The first is the perfection of Jesus himself.  The second is the coming perfection of God’s overcomers.  The verse tells us that the overcomers follow behind Jesus’ perfection by two thousand years.  Jesus was born at the end of the fourth day (fourth thousand year period of history) and died at the beginning of the fifth day.  Two thousand years later brings us to the end of the sixth day and beginning of the seventh day.  I and many others believe we have now entered the seventh day (seventh thousand year period after creation).  This means that we have also entered into the third day after Jesus.  And, as Joshua says, we have not passed this way before.  No, God is about to do an entirely new thing in the earth.

This reveals the prophetic implication of the third day in the Scripture and particularly in the first three chapters of Joshua.  Brethren, we now stand at the place prophesied by Joshua, exactly two thousand cubits behind (two thousand years after) Jesus.  The two witnesses (the corporate body of overcomers) are about to be revealed.  Their first job will be to tear down the walls of Jericho (Babylon).  And, this city will never be rebuilt for we build on an entirely different foundation, the Law and the Prophets.  Yet, before they do their work, they will have already come to rest and peace concerning it.  This is our seventh revelation concerning the two witnesses.