For the other articles in this volume see "Help for those young in the Faith".
Genesis 28:10 -22; Genesis 32:24 - 31; Genesis 33:17 and 20; Genesis 35:1 - 15 and 19 - 21.
I suppose that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob represent three sides of a believer's history, three sides which I should link with the scripture in the Revelation where it tells of the judgment of Babylon, and we know Abraham was called out of Babylon. It says of the kings, "They each shall make war with the Lamb and He will overcome them, for they that are with Him are called chosen and faithful". I believe these three points of history to be connected with the three patriarchs and represent the three phases in our history as believers.
I think the called is connected with Abraham, chosen with Isaac, and faithful with Jacob. These three lines run back in our histories. One is an upward line. The call is a call from earth to heaven. It is a heavenly calling, and the path is an upward one. At the end of his life Paul was pressing on in it to reach "the goal for the prize of the calling on High". On that line we are always going higher, but lay hold of that wonderful prize the place He is giving us there, Who can measure what that place is? -- the height of the Christian calling, should make us a heavenly people. Abraham's history includes the way he went, but Isaac represents another line. While we are pressing on we can also take what is already there in the Counsels of God because Ephesians 1:3, says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame". So that we can view our
position as already cleared and established in Christ before the world was, so that heaven is our right place on the lines of Abraham and we go on an upward way to reach it.
There is another point of view. Although we are going to on attain it, the place is already secured for us. We were chosen to be there before the world began. The thought of being heavenly is that we make heaven's interest on earth our interest. That is where things become real with us.
Jacob was a man who needed much education and patience on the thoughts of God, so that it is encouraging for us. At first sight you would not think of Jacob as faithful. Jacob held on to what had been revealed to him down here in the main. So I would like to link Jacob with the Epistles to Timothy, because while Ephesians gives our place in Heaven and Philippians shows a man pursuing to reach it, Paul writes to Timothy in Ephesus and says that he needs to make his position practical down here.
If you are really heavenly you will be faithful down here. Timothy means "the fear of God" and the more we know God in intimacy, the more we shall fear Him, but we should not allow anything unholy to mar the fear of God. "A faithful man is a fearful man" in that sense. So as I say Timothy means "the fear of God". The answer to the heavenly calling is abiding down here. The order of God's house down here should be suitable to God. So that when he writes to Timothy and says how I ought to behave myself in God's house (1 Timothy 3:15), it really takes in the whole of my life in my house and especially in relation to my brothers and sisters, and whether I behave myself as one who really fears and honours God.
Jacob was a young man leaving home. I want to touch on these important points of Jacob's history. Prior to this he dwelt in tents with Abraham and Isaac. He had been brought up in the light of the
heavenly calling and he loved to be a tent-dweller. I do not believe anyone can readily serve God if he is not morally a tent-dweller, so that he can give his whole time to the house of the Lord. To begin with, Jacob was faithful to his instincts; so at the outset he takes his brother by the heel. Dear young people, it is a menace, if you have to be governed by your instincts. You will early find no end of attractions in the world.
Esau was a very attractive man, but Jacob was a plain man. A homely man does not appeal to a man of this world but he was an ideal man to live with and that is the great thing. God is going to fill heaven with men who are a delight to live with. What one would encourage those who are growing up in the light of the heavenly truth is to be true to your spiritual instincts. Do not give way to the man of the world! Do not give way to that which seems so attractive! Esau did not care to live in tents. He wanted to be out and about, a skilful man and a clever business man, and it mentions in one place that he wore expensive clothes, (Genesis 27:15). It is not of God, and you cannot imagine such a spirit in the house of God. It would disintegrate the whole thing.
A king is not a homely tent dweller. The genealogy of Esau is full of kings and dukes. God is not filling His house with kings and dukes. The saints are such, as made by God (Revelation 1:6), but down here they are mere tent dwellers. Kingdom (or kings) and priests.. I would encourage everyone here to supplant the kind of man in this world. If you do not begin like this you cannot be of any use in the house of the Lord.
Jacob valued the birthright. That is another thing where he was true to his instincts. Although he took advantage of his brother when it came to the question of the blessing, we are not told that he valued the
thought that the blessing involves a personal touch with God. The idea of a birthright is to be cherished spiritually. I would encourage all to go in for a birthright. Esau despised it, but Jacob valued it. Can you imagine anything greater than having your name registered in heaven, far greater than in this world. We need to value our birthright, but we must also value the blessing. His mother valued it and saw that he got it. Jacob had to leave home and he went out from Beersheba. We are always coming to points in our lives where the sun sets with us -- certain phases of our lives come to a definite end -- they will never come again. They are solemn moments in our history. One of the most solemn phases is when a young man has to leave home to start on his own. What are you going to do now? Jacob had been faithful to his instincts and God was faithful to him. The best of anyone being faithful down here is that God is faithful to him. He has called us to be something down here, and He is faithful, otherwise we should be afraid to commit ourselves.
There are faithful sayings recorded in Timothy. You can lean back on them when you leave home. You cannot get worse than the "Chief of Sinners". Jacob was leaving home sore with a great rift between him and his brother. He was fleeing, and that was humbling, but it is good for us to be humbled, and all our circumstances come about because we have not learned to trust in God. We are scheming our own way, and upset things. So Jacob was fleeing from his brother, but God was faithful to him, and if you are faithful to your instincts and value your birthright, you may be sure that when you have to make a fresh move God will be faithful to you. Jacob dreamed a dream; God was honouring his faithfulness. He saw a ladder set up from earth and the top reached to heaven. For a long time I used to think of this ladder as hanging down from heaven, but
God was at the top of it and Angels ascending and descending. What do you see in that? I see that from this standpoint that we are speaking of the centre of God's interest is earth and Christ is set up on the earth.
So God wanted to impress Jacob -- and us -- that the centre of His interest is earth and He had established something which the angels could ascend from without coming down to it. Therefore it must be a heavenly institution set up on earth which is so great that the top of the ladder reaches to heaven. There is direct communication with heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending. The Lord Jesus speaks of angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man (John 1:51). Everything that God delighted in was in Him, and you could understand that when Christ was here He was the point of departure. Now God has established his house down here. We cannot belittle the house of God. It is a question of the Spirit of God being here indwelling the Saints, and it is of the utmost importance that this position should be maintained. God's glory is connected with maintaining glory on the earth. Christ is at the right hand of God. But what is of primary importance to God in this dispensation is that there should be maintained on this earth that which is in accord with Him, something so great that being set up it reaches to heaven. At all costs that must not be allowed to break down. God wants the expression of it here. Now Jacob has the intelligence to name it. "This is none other than the house of God". -- something so great on earth that it reaches to heaven. With man's institution only the sins reach heaven, but here is an institution on earth reaching to heaven in a way which gives God complacency, and the angels of God ascending and descending.
Jacob as much as says "If such a place as that is here on earth, there ought to be a pillar raised", so
he sets up this pillar and pours oil upon it. Applying it to us, one would suggest that this is God revealing to a young soul what He has on earth and that young soul was getting a sense of how necessary it is that there should be a public expression of it and also getting a sense that they can only be in the power of the Spirit, although Jacob got the light of this he had no thought of staying there. I believe that young Christians growing up in the circle of the saints have little idea that God is there. Jacob says "I knew it not". That is he knew that he was not fit to be there. But how gracious it is that God commits Himself to Jacob. "I am unfit for fellowship". I point you again to that just and faithful saying -- "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Timothy 1:15) etc. Jacob was very conscious of being a sinner. We know that he had an awkward brother, but that did not excuse him upsetting his brother. I have no doubt that Jacob was conscious of this sinnership. You may have some such feelings. But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
It may seem a dreadful place at first, because God could not have you there if you had not a sense of what you are. God commits Himself to Jacob. He will be with you everywhere you go and says "I will bring you again to this place and will not leave you until I have accomplished all I have spoken of. I am going to be with you all the way until I have brought you into the good of it". 'If you will be with me in the way that I go and give me bread to eat and garments to wear and bring me again to my Father's house then this pillar shall be God's house'. I would encourage everyone here to make a vow in the light of God's faithfulness. It is not presumption to vow in the light of how faithful God is.
At this point Jacob answers to the truth of Timothy's thoughts and says, 'If you will give me bread and garments ... etc'. Paul says: "But having
sustenance and covering, we will be content with these". (1 Timothy 6:8). He was not asking for great things on earth. As God unfolds what He is here on earth for you, He would encourage you just to ask Him on these lines for food and clothing, and be content with these. So Jacob makes a start with food and raiment.
He was definite. It was his own suggestion. I would desire that we might be more definite, both as to our time and as to our money, and everything in a general way, but to be definite. God will honour that. Jacob goes through discipline but God is with him. But the man who schemed to get spiritual blessing also schemes to get prosperous in business -- the speckled and spotted sheep.
Jacob goes on with this scheming, and for the time being he appears to be diverted. He thinks his success is a result of his scheming, but it was all God's doing. So just as it was his, so it is our scheme; instead of being prepared to let God undertake for us we think we know what would be the best in our business matters, we think we know how to scheme.
God goes to Jacob and tells him to go back to Bethel. He reminds Jacob of the vow, and Jacob sets his tent hard to go back. He realizes that what he is coming back to is a dreadful place to him, but God wants you to be perfectly at home in that place, and the first thing that is to be met is his brother Esau. He must face Esau, and God uses that exercise of facing Esau to bring Jacob to the end of his schemings. It brings Jacob to learn to limp, and one feels that this exercise, to learn entirely to trust in God, is largely got by facing up to the fact that if we are to be here for God we must learn to get on with our brethren.
Edom says later "... lest I come out against thee with a sword", (Numbers 20:18), and they have to go right round his land, as they must show Christ to him, typically. Jacob is to realize that not in any
power of his own can he meet Esau, so he learns to limp on his thigh, and sees God face to face. He had never had personal relations with God until now. A dream is not a personal touch.
Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me". So God blessed him there, and Jacob gave up all his schemings, and limped upon his thigh. It is wonderful to learn that God can do better for us than we can do.
Then comes what I regard as the most sad part of Jacob's history. He is no longer worried about getting a living. God has come in for him. He is very successful in business. Now, what is he going to do? I think that is the most testing part of our lives. Jacob builds him a house. He had not got to Bethel yet, but he settles down; -- he has departed from that simple touch. We need to maintain our beginnings. We see the world in front of us, but the test comes later in life, Are we going to build a house, or are we going on with the Lord? He puts an altar up there, but the result is disorder. His daughter goes into the world. What a warning it is that we should be content with food and clothes!
Many so-called Christians think that the blessing of God is to be successful in business, and to have your altar in your house. They have no idea of the house of God. That is the current level of the ordinary Christian body. God would have you make Him an altar in His house. I need to preserve my beginnings; to be homely and a tent dweller, and to be content with food and raiment.
Jacob comes to Bethel, and he builds the altar. It is not a question of God at the top of the ladder now; it is the impression of one that has not known it in his own soul, and now God is talking with him. Jacob sets up a pillar in the place where He talked with him; and the result of God talking with him is that He called his name Israel. Now Jacob sets up
a pillar again and pours oil upon it, and pours a drink offering upon it. You will notice that in going to it again there is this difference -- that he pours a drink offering upon it. I believe this means that he commits himself to what is of God on this earth. The drink offering had to be poured out in the Sanctuary. It was the holy feelings of a heart subdued, and he says, 'I will devote myself entirely to that'. At the end of Paul's life he says "I am already being poured out". (2 Timothy 4:6).
So God blesses Jacob here, and says, "Kings shall come out of thy loins". In pouring the drink offering on the pillar, all that is natural has to go, and then he gets the full blessing from God, and finally it says that he journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. It means that his service is unselfish. He devoted himself to the service of God on this earth.
May God help us to tread the path that is indicated in these scriptures!
Exodus 4:22 - 23; Exodus 13:1 - 2; Deuteronomy 14:1 - 2; Malachi 1:6,11,14; Malachi 3:16 - 18.
These scriptures bring before us in the first instance God's thought in regard of His people of old. Not that it was ever, or could be, found in people after the flesh. Nevertheless He expressed what was in His mind in redeeming a people and bringing them out of Egypt and that was that He should secure a son, and not only a son but a firstborn son, a son of that kind -- what we might speak of as the most excellent thought of sonship. "Israel is My Son, My firstborn". "Let my son go that he may serve me". That is what God has in mind. Of course, all scripture was written for our learning. It is a most affecting thing that God wrote all these books for you and me. They were not really understood until this dispensation. God carefully recorded all these things for our sakes. He has reached His great thought in the assembly and not until this era was there the true intelligence to understand what was written. So the New Testament opens "Out of Egypt have I called my Son". Christ indeed is the Firstborn; Firstborn in rank in every way; Firstborn of all creation; Firstborn from the dead; Firstborn among many brethren. He, in every way, has the pre-eminence, as He must have on account of Who He is in His Person. The fact that sonship is seen in Christ emphasizes how important it is for God. That such a Person should come into Manhood in order that this thought should be perfectly expressed and upheld in His own Person and then brought about in a vast company, the many
sons that God is bringing to glory! But while in Exodus you have the thought of God set out "Israel is my son, my firstborn", in the last book of the Old Testament we see that in a remnant that thought is secured. In what one might speak of as a special way, the thought of sonship is secured right at the end in "those that feared the Lord", for it is said of them that God would spare them as a man spares his own son, an expression usually linked only with the Lord Jesus Himself. How wonderful that, at the end of the last dispensation, God secured His thought in a peculiarly intimate way amongst those of whose names scripture gives no record. In an obscure way God had what His heart sought. We do not know who they were but from the end of Malachi to Luke, a period of four hundred years, we are justified in thinking that God had in measure, what He sought. There were those who served Him in true affection and a few of them come to light in the beginning of Luke. The thing had been carried through, so that when the Son came there were those answering to the end of Malachi. I want this to encourage us. We are living at the end of the dispensation, and the book of Malachi would indicate that at the end of the dispensation there is peculiar richness.
But before dwelling on Malachi, I wish to say a few words as to the earlier history of the children of Israel, to indicate how God operated to secure His end, according to the word "Let my son go that he may serve me". The people were thinking of their burdens, their needs, and that is how we think. We long to be free from the burden of our sins, from the slavery of sin and from the pressure of death, for we labour under these burdens until we are converted and come to know God; we are thinking of that side and we appreciate the death of Christ as that which sets us free. That is how we come into it, but how good it is to think of the way that God was looking at the
matter all the time; what God had in mind even from the past eternity -- "My son, My firstborn". So that in all that He wrought in Christ He had something greater in mind than we could conceive. Not simply the deliverance of sinners but that He should have sons. He was thinking of His son being let go to serve Him. They were thinking of their burdens and how glad they would be to be rid of them.
Now to secure His great end, God sent His son into this world. That is how John's gospel presents it. The Son of God had come and great titles are predicated of Him in the first chapter of John, but when He comes into public testimony, in the first chapter of John, the one who witnessed does not say "The Son of God", he says "The Lamb of God". That is in accord with Exodus. He, the Son of God, had come as the Passover Lamb, to set God's people free that God might have sons. He had come on God's behalf. God would release His people with that end in view and the Son of God came as the Lamb of God. He went into death and met the whole question of our sins for God's glory, so that we might be set free. So immediately after the Passover in the book of Exodus, God says "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn ... it is mine". (Exodus 13:2). That is what God is after. That is why Jesus died, why Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. It was in order that God should secure in us firstborn affection. The righteous ground had been laid in the Passover for God to have what He sought. "The firstborn ... it is mine".
How wonderful it is that every Christian is a firstborn son. We are called the assembly of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:23), an idea which could not exist in an earthly family, where there could be only one firstborn. In God's family every one has that dignity. The Levites were taken in place of the firstborn and every Christian is typically a Levite. It is a wonderful thing that we rank as firstborn. Jesus is the Firstborn,
He is distinct, unique. But there is no family like the family of the firstborn ones, whose names are written in heaven.
Moral questions, however, have to be settled before we can enjoy our place in sonship. We must be liberated, and so we see in the Red Sea the mighty way God met the position as a Man of war. (Exodus 15:3). He met the position from a military point of view to set His sons free. I wonder if we have looked upon the Red Sea sufficiently from the military point of view. We were noticing this afternoon that the enemy's military tactics are poor. They are successful if there is unjudged flesh, for the flesh moves on the same line that Satan is on. The moment there is unjudged flesh in us the enemy has a point of attack and he can overthrow us. But his tactics were bad in approaching the Lord Jesus and saying "If thou be the Son of God". He does not and cannot understand love, for he has never loved. He can understand the power and status of sonship, for power and status are things which he would pride himself, but he does not understand the love of sonship. It was the wrong way to attack one Who was truly Son, Who did always those things that pleased the Father. He could not be tempted to act in any other way than in obedience. It was the very worst way the enemy could attack the Lord Jesus, "If thou be the Son of God" -- challenging those affections. But God's military tactics are perfect. "The Lord is a Man of war, the Lord is His Name" (Exodus 15:3). How has God set us free from the power of the world that would hold us? It is spoken of as "all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen". (Exodus 14:23). What a power! It refers to all the forces that the enemy uses to hold young Christians back, so that they should not respond to God in firstborn affections. He would hold us by any means. We would name some of his horses and chariots, such as the literature
of the world, the amusements, the sports, and the ambitions to get on and become great amongst men. His weapons are numerous but in the sixth chapter of Romans, which deals with this matter, the whole army of Pharoah is summed up in this way "The body of sin". The chapter speaks of sin as a taskmaster and shows us the military tactics that God employed to defeat Satan. It shows how He wrought in Christ "That the body of sin might be annulled" (Romans 6:6) -- Not destroyed. He could sweep the world away in judgment. But that the whole body of sin, while still existing, might yet be annulled, that is brought to nothing in effect, for the Christian is a far greater triumph. Think of the military tactics needed for this! How could it come about? The Lord Jesus went into death and in His death our old man was crucified with Him. All that in us, over which those forces of sin had control, was brought to an end in the cross of Christ and judged there, and for the soul who in faith comes to that judgment, the body of sin is brought to nothing. Jesus bore the judgment and for the soul that comes to that judgment, the body of sin is made of no effect as far as that person is concerned. He reckons himself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus. It is in this way God has wrought to set His people free, so that they might serve Him as sons, instead of serving sin. What a wonderful triumph!
What seems so clear is that God will not get His portion apart from sonship; it can only be as we know and love Him as Father. Take the tithes -- what pleasure has God in tithes unless they come from affection? One of the issues in Malachi was that they had not gone on with the tithes. Tithes speak of dedication and what can bring about real dedication? Only the affections of sonship. As sons we would delight to dedicate ourselves to God. If we think of the heave offerings -- the and very tabernacle was
built from heave offerings -- who can bring heave offerings to God? Only those maintained in affection as sons. Similarly with the first fruits. What son would not delight to bring such to his father? A natural son loves to let his father know and share his joy in any increase he has had. So that all these things require sonship to carry them out and in this dispensation God has secured it. First in Christ, and then in the assembly. Not only have we things in substance but God has them in substance.
But other moral issues have to be faced, as with the people in the wilderness. They had to learn what was in their own hearts, until they came to the brazen serpent, to the full judgment of sin in the flesh, and from then on they are viewed typically as walking in the Spirit. Thus in Deuteronomy Moses could say "Ye are sons of Jehovah your God". They were in the wilderness, typically in sonship, having judged the flesh and having done with it. "Ye are sons of Jehovah your God". I may say in passing at this point that those moral issues involve not only our relations with God but with one another. In Luke 15, one son judges himself, receives the reconciliation and is clothed in the best robe, but the elder son, in refusing to own his own sinnership before God, refused to face moral issues with his brother, and so refused to kiss his brother and refused to clothe his brother. The fullest enjoyment of sonship is with the brethren -- the many sons. If you have got right with God you have got right with your brother. "That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross". If there is the kiss from God to man, the same cross that has made that possible has also broken down enmity between man and man. We are brought to God in all the warmth of one body. We cannot enjoy these things if we are isolated in our minds through self-righteousness or ill feeling. The elder brother persisted in clothing his brother with sins, and in
refusing to kiss his brother he missed the Father's kiss. The last test in Numbers before the brazen serpent and which brought the people to the brazen serpent, was the test of the difficult brother -- Edom.
When we come to the book of Malachi, a great deal is said about God's Name. It says a "son honoureth his father and a servant his master". (chapter 1: 6). The book is written to those professing to serve Him (the priests) but really they despised His Name. They said "Behold what a weariness". I wonder whether we ever feel that the round of meetings is a weariness? We have to challenge our relations with God as those who profess to serve Him. Surely it would never be a weariness if we were in His presence as Sons. Far from despising His Name, a son would be jealous as to God's Name and there are features brought in as to God's Name in this book which should bow our hearts in worship as we think that such a God is our Father. He says "from the rising of the sun even unto its setting My Name shall be great among the nations". Yet He is the One we know as our Father. In the world to come His Name will actually be great among the nations but God would have this true in principle today. Actually He is the King of nations, spoken of as such in Revelation, and He says here "For I am a great King, and My Name is to be revered among the nations". (chapter 1: 14). One would desire that we would get an impression of the greatness of God as the great King. I believe the more we know the truth of sonship, the more we shall be concerned about His honour and we shall be concerned that in every place throughout this earth, so far as lies in us, there should be that maintained suitable to His Name. His Name is to be revered among the nations. In approaching the truth of the house of God in its public aspect Paul says "Now to the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, honour and glory to the ages of ages. Amen". (1 Timothy 1:17 N.T.). In
our public relations as to the house of God down here, we need to have before us that we are His household; and that our behaviour to one another, and to those outside, and all that goes up from us to God should be in accord with His greatness, as the incorruptible, invisible only God. Who can rightly give God that place of honour but those who know Him as Father? To think that the One we know as Father is One so great, the One to Whom honour and might are due, and yet we know Him as Father. It would lead us to be greatly concerned as to the honour of God's Name in this world. I want to refer to the incense and the pure oblation (verse 11). Although it puts it in that order I want to speak of it in the reverse order, for the oblation is connected with the brazen altar while the sweet incense was at the golden altar inside. We see the pure oblation in Christ. "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased". "In Whom I am well pleased" speaks to us of the pure oblation, that is the pure Manhood of Christ. Where could God find perfect humanity expressed? Nowhere but in Him. It was absolute perfection in Manhood. But He was God's beloved Son, showing that it is in sonship that God gets His portion from man. God had watched Him for those thirty years and had found perfect delight. He had brought honour to God every moment. How the Lord Jesus honoured God every moment of His sojourn here. His Father was ever the One that the Lord Jesus honoured. How does it apply to us? In Leviticus it says, Out of our dwellings we are to bring a new oblation. (Leviticus 23:16). If we are here in the spirit of sonship, loving God as our Father, we shall be greatly concerned that every detail in our lives should be such that God would approve. He could say of Christ "In Him I am well pleased". Is God pleased with us? Is He pleased with me in my life? Am I walking in a way that befits one who can call this great King, Father? Is my
conduct such as becomes one who invokes as Father the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible and only God? I believe that is what the new oblation sets out, which God asks us to bring from our dwellings. It was two wave loaves baken with leaven. This indicates that there is that in us which would dishonour God. If we are walking in the flesh we shall begin to despise His Name. Baken with leaven means that sin in the flesh is there but it is judged and inactive. As we judge ourselves the Spirit springs up within. As we are led by the Spirit as sons of God we shall, in our measure, be able to bring a new oblation. Think of a company walking in the dignity that their Father is no less than the King of the ages. Upon their conduct and ways depends His glory and Name down here. When we come together we are to bring this oblation with us. If we cannot, what weakness it brings in in the service of God.
On the other hand incense speaks of intimate priestly service Godward. I believe it refers to what is personal. The sweet savour of the burnt offering refers more to the work of Christ in His death and brings out all the excellence of His love and obedience in death, but I think the incense speaks of what went up from Christ to God, continually. (John 17). "He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father". That is incense to God. There is that in us which God delights in as we are in the spirit of sonship before Him, as we cry Abba Father. This incense might be taken to have two forms, for there is what goes up to God both in praise and prayer from our hearts. "As in Thy Name so is Thy praise in all the earth", and the praise the assembly can give is according to God's Name. We know Him as Father and we also know Him as God, expressed in His fulness in Christ. Think of knowing God in that way, how we can praise Him! We can praise Him according to His Name. But there is also the service of prayer, the
prayer that is due to God, due to His great Name, and it is of this I especially desire to speak. After speaking of Him as the King of the Ages, Paul goes on to say "I will first of all that supplication, prayers, intercession and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority". (1 Timothy 2l, 2). I believe that is one of the things that is due to God's great Name, that we should be so in the place of sonship before Him as to be able to appreciate His greatness as the King of nations, and be able to enter into His interests, not only in the assembly I believe he would have us to enter into His interests in the assembly firstly and foremost -- but also in connection with His government among the nations. It becomes us, in the intelligence of sonship, to be able to approach God in connection with His great Name as the King of nations and in this matter I want to refer just briefly to the book of Daniel. Malachi was written after Daniel, and like those referred to in Malachi, we are living under the rule of the Gentile empires. It is in the book of Daniel that God is spoken of as the Most High Who rules in the kingdom of men. The title "Most High" mainly relates to the millennium, but we should understand from Daniel the bearing of it at the moment, for the Most High is still ruling over the kingdom of men and setting over it whom He will, even the basest of men, if it serves His purpose (Daniel 4:17). Then God receives the title "King of heaven" and He does according to His will in the army of heaven (Daniel 4:34 - 37). Think of the One Who controls the army of heaven! I believe we need to cherish these titles of God, although they do not describe our relationship with Him, and that He would have us to understand how to pray for men and kings and those in authority. In that connection I believe we need to understand more of the four ways in which the Gentile empires are viewed, and the
symbols used to describe them in the four visions concerning them in Daniel. In the first vision of Nebuchadnezzar, they are referred to under the figure of an image composed of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay. The four great empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, are depicted there in the image composed of four different kinds of metals. It brings them before us from the standpoint of Romans 13:1, "the powers that be are ordained of God", and we need to understand that aspect of the Gentile powers, that there is that view of them that they are ordained of God. It is brought out very clearly in what Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar "Thou, O king art a king of kings, unto whom the God of the heavens hath given the kingdom, the power and the strength and the glory and wheresoever the children of men, the beasts of the field and the fowl in the heavens dwell ... he hath made thee ruler over them all". The God of heaven had given it to him. So it is the God of heaven, yet the One Whom we know as our Father, Who has put rule in the hands of the Gentile empires", for the punishment of evil doers and the reward of those who do well". We need to pray for the authority, for it is good to be under the rule which God is supporting for the sake of His people. It is far better than anarchy.
In the second vision Nebuchadnezzar saw a great tree reaching to heaven and he saw that the leaves were beautiful and the fruit was abundant and in it was food for all. This shows God's intention in regard to the Gentile empires. They are intended to be beneficial for the whole of mankind. The powers that be are intended to be for the benefit of man. That should govern us in our prayers for all men. That beneficial rule might be maintained. In the third vision Daniel saw the four empires under the figure of four wild beasts, referring to their propensities for evil if Satan gains control of them. They are only weak
men, with the lusts of men and "man that is in honour and understandeth not" (and these men do not usually know God) "is like the beasts that perish", and Satan would act on them and their ambitions, greed and cruelty. Is not that an occasion for our prayers? Surely we need to pray that God would keep His hand over these rulers and restrain evil.
In the fourth vision (chapter 8) two only of the powers are brought in under the figure of domestic animals, the ram and the he-goat. It seems to suggest the way these powers can become serviceable under the hand of God in relation to His people; whether for liberation, as in the case of Persia, or for discipline as in the case of Greece. Persia was used to liberate a remnant to rebuild the house at Jerusalem (and a ram is a suggestive figure in that connection), while that section of the Greek Empire which is later called the King of the North, becomes an age-long instrument in the hand of God for the discipline of His people on account of their sins and of the trend towards apostasy. God reserves this power for His use, as a part from the Roman Confederacy, and thus it appears at the end as the desolator of Daniel 9:27. One feels these visions are intended to enable us to approach God intelligently in prayer for kings and those in authority. Firstly the powers are ordained of God to maintain ordered government, secondly they are intended to be beneficial, thirdly they always tend to come under Satanic influence and to act accordingly to their natural propensities, and, finally, God can use them in a direct way for the liberation or chastisement of His people. How much scope for prayer there is in all this, while ever remembering that the assembly is God's chief interest on earth. We have the ear of God in the most intimate way and can draw near to Him and maintain this priestly service -- the incense and the pure oblation.
Then we have the response to the divine appeal for
it says "Those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those that feared the Lord and that thought upon His Name". There is nothing great outwardly; just a few people who reverence Him and think upon His Name. Do we think upon His Name, in our personal conduct and in our homes? Are our meetings for prayer and praise fitting? God looks for service that will bring honour to His Name and how can such service be rendered apart from the affection and intelligence of sons? And so the word is "I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him".
Genesis 8:20 - 22; Genesis 9:6 - 15; Daniel 4:17, 34, 35, 37; Hebrews 1:1 - 3; Hebrews 13:15 and 16.
I wish, dear brethren, to speak of God, first as a faithful Creator, secondly in His present over-ruling government in this world, and finally as expressed in the Person of the Son; desiring that as a result we might be stabilised in soul and freed from anxiety, helped in our prayers and praise to approach God intelligently and also helped in our testimony.
The present dispensation has always been in the mind of God in a special way and His activities in creation and in government have, from the outset, had it in view. He has operated to provide a framework of stable creatorial and governmental conditions within which to carry out His purposes of grace, none of which can fail to be accomplished.
In being occupied with the spiritual things now revealed, however, we are in danger of failing to give God His due as Creator. The earliest heresies were an attack on this feature of the truth. In 1 Timothy 4:1 - 3, we are told that "some shall apostatise from the faith, giving their mind to deceiving spirits and teachings of demons speaking lies in hypocrisy, cauterised as to their own conscience, forbidding to marry, bidding to abstain from meats, which God has created for receiving with thanksgiving for them who are faithful and know the truth". There is subtlety in the enemy's attack -- hypocritical lying, in fact -- the suggestion being that, because spiritual things are now revealed, created things are to be despised and even regarded as evil. The object is to undermine, in the hearts of christians, the relationship
of creature and Creator; and thus, while professing to direct souls into a path of special spirituality, to rob them of all enjoyment, natural and spiritual -- to rob them indeed of God Himself as truly known -- for if this fundamental relationship is lost, all is lost. Young and earnest souls are especially apt to be caught by these wiles of the devil.
But apart from God's creatorial power and goodness what is spiritual could not be developed. Our very presence here, with health and ability to listen undistractedly to the word, is the fruit of His care as Creator. "In Him we live and move and have our being" -- our very breath is in His hand. It is He who causes the earth to bring forth of its fulness, and who preserves all things in life. "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving". Ineffable goodness marks all His operations. Who can so appreciate Him as Creator as those who know Him as now revealed in Christ? For we are let into the secret of His purpose, the reason why He brought the creation into being, and we know what lies behind His purpose -- the great truth that God is love.
It is interesting that the heart of God, which is rarely referred to in Scripture, is twice mentioned with reference to His feelings about the creation. In Genesis 6 we are told, "it grieved Him in His heart that He had made Man", while in Genesis 8 "Jehovah said in his heart, I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man, for the thought of Man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will no more smite every living thing, as I have done. Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease". It is touching to be told what God said in His heart. His covenant with Noah and the animate creation resulted from it, establishing fixed creatorial conditions in which God's testimony should
be rendered and His work of grace completed. His faithfulness is stressed in connection with this covenant, the bow in the cloud being the witness to it. He will not fail to maintain seed-time and harvest. He enters feelingly into our need of these things. Even this year men have had their fears as to the harvest, but we can confide in a faithful Creator, who will never break His covenant. This should affect our prayers and our praise. Day by day we can thank Him with worshipping hearts for every creature benefit -- sleep, health, food. "Day by day doth He load us with good". (Psalm 68:19). It is He who gives strength for the day, strength for the meetings. If we bring our knowledge of Him as Father into the matter it only hallows it the more. The Lord Jesus in His teaching (Matthew 5 and 6) connects these matters with our Father who is in heaven; and reminds us also of His perfect goodness to all men. "He makes His sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust". His goodness rises above the evil and we are called upon to be like Him, rising in goodness above what is around so as to represent Him here.
We are living in days when, in spite of God's bountiful provision, millions are in want through the wickedness of man. What scope there is for prayer and intercession that God might alleviate the conditions, restraining the wrath of man, so that the physical needs of His creatures, so abundantly supplied from His side, might be met. Spiritual needs are, of course, our greatest concern, but men need the physical, they need to be preserved in life, so that they may hear the Gospel.
The knowledge of God as Creator brings peculiar comfort to the soul in times of persecution. Peter touchingly exhorts those who suffer according to the will of God to commit their souls in well doing to a faithful Creator. Our first fear at such times is in regard to our 'bread and butter', but "the life is
more than food and the body than raiment". Whether we suffer for righteousness' sake or suffer reproach for the name of Christ we can commit our souls (or "lives" as it might be translated) in well-doing to a faithful Creator.
To pass on to the question of government, in covenanting to maintain stable creatorial conditions, God had no intention that the world should relapse into the state of anarchy existent before the flood. He, therefore, introduced magisterial government, giving authority for the execution of capital punishment. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God He hath made man" (Genesis 9:6). This is an immense mercy from God. Why do not conditions relapse into the corruption and violence prevalent before the flood? Because God has set up and supports magisterial government for the punishment of the evil-doer and the reward of them that do well, so that His testimony might go forward. The maintenance of such government in a world of lawlessness is a miracle; and it is our privilege to pray continually for its maintenance in every land, and to give thanks to God for it; praying feelingly at the same time for those who are in the positions of authority and responsibility.
Later, in order to limit man's pride and check the working of organised sin, God divided the race into nations; again looking on to the present day when the blessing of Abraham should come to the nations in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:14); and later still, after the breakdown of Israel, to prevent national barriers, a mercy in themselves, proving disadvantageous to the testimony, He placed imperial government in the hands of Gentile rulers. These rulers have often been marked by great pride, attributing their greatness to themselves. Nebuchadnezzar, the first of them, became lifted up in heart and said, "Behold this Babylon which I have builded". But he had to learn
that it was not he, but God, who had established his empire; "that the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men". (Daniel 4:17). God has set up Gentile empires to serve His own purposes; and one way in which He has used them is in opening up world-wide highways and communications so that the Gospel might have free course.
The Book of Daniel helps us much as to our attitude to these authorities and would help us also to pray intelligently in regard to them. If it is God who changed times and seasons; if it is He who deposes kings and sets up kings (Daniel 2:21) then we can be sure that, whatever feature of rule appears, it can only serve His purpose. Each of the metals in the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream represents a feature of rule that appeared specifically in the empire to which it relates, but which has remained in measure ever since, and will remain to the end (see Daniel 2:35) Thus, the silver for instance, represents the feature of rule that is favourable to God's people and recognises, in some degree, His rights over them. This characterised the Persian Empire but it also represents the attitude of government over a large part of the earth today; and we continually thank God for it. On the other hand, the brass represents rule of a profane and ruthless character, seen in the Grecian Empire, and very evident in Europe today. God uses such rule to administer necessary chastisement to His people, and to the nations, and will do so to the end, for the King of the North is an instrument of this kind.
How wonderful it is to know that in all these matters the Most High is ruling. He never gives up His control. The creation is His and He never surrenders His rights. He rules in it, though, at present, in an indirect and unseen way. And His every act is in view of ultimate blessing. A consideration of these things will bow our hearts in
worship before the Blessed and only Ruler, the King of those that reign and the Lord of those that exercise lordship (1 Timothy 6:15). Daniel (Daniel 2:20 - 23) Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:34 - 37) and Paul all ascribe honour and might to Him. As in the presence of the might of Gentile empires here, how good it is to be preserved in the assurance that all might belongs to God.
To turn now to the passages in Hebrews, God's activities in creation and government are all to make way for the full expression of Himself in the Son. The speaking in Son does not set aside previous disclosures, but rather fills out all that has gone before. The One who spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets now speaks in the Son, and the One in whom He speaks is the One by whom He made the worlds, which takes our minds right back to the beginning, as do John 1 and Colossians 1 also. He is the effulgence of God's glory; all God's attributes -- mercy, grace, righteousness, holiness -- shine forth in Him. But He is also the expression of His substance. What God is in His essential Being is expressed in Him, and we now know that God is love. Love, and nothing but love, has been the motive of all His operations from the very beginning. How wonderfully the "expression of His substance" fills out all the names by which He was previously known! "Almighty" now means, for us, Almighty Love: Jehovah means, for us, Unchanging Love. Similarly fulness is given to the titles Creator and Most High.
The expression of His substance also involves the revelation of His name as Father; for His purposes of love and grace centre in the Son. These purposes, both present and future, throw light backward and as we enter into them we understand the reason for creation and the reason for His ways in government. What a blessed end He has ever had in view -- to be known by the saints in this day according to what He
is in Himself, that we might be filled to all the fulness of God! He has created all things, we are told, "in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known, through the assembly, the all-various wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him". (Ephesians 3:9 - 12). As the saints are held and formed by the expression of God in the Son, love's way, which is wisdom's way, is expressed in their movements down here toward God and toward one another; and thus God's present purpose, for which He created all things, is reached. How blessed, too, to be in the secret of His future purpose -- now so near accomplishment. "His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself for the administration of the fulness of times; to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth" (Ephesians 1:9 and 10).
As we enter into these things we shall desire to render to God His due, in praise and worship, as Creator, as the Blessed and Only Ruler, and as revealed in the fulness of His love; and we shall desire to do this continually. Worship should never be absent when we address God, whether privately, householdly, or in a meeting. There may be a tendency to limit it unduly to the Lord's Day morning meeting. While the Lord's supper is the great occasion for worship, and cannot be valued too highly, priestly service is not limited to it; it is to go on continually. Of old there was the continual burnt offering and the continual incense.
How worthy God is of our praise in every character in which He is known! Truly we can say "Great and wonderful are thy works, Lord God Almighty, righteous and true are thy ways, O King of nations", and above all we can praise Him as now revealed in
the Son. May our considerations at this time stimulate our prayers and praise and help us in our testimony!
Leviticus 23:4 - 6, 9 - 11, 15 - 17, 23 - 27, 33 - 36, 39 - 41
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak of the acceptable year of the Lord, a term which applies in a special way to this dispensation. Other types, such as the year of jubilee, and the year of release, enter into this matter, but they really relate to the setting right of certain abnormal conditions, whereas the normal year, with its fixed times or set feasts, as set out in Leviticus 23, shows in a positive way, what God has in mind in His acceptable year; and, of course, what is ultimately in view, as must be the case in any year, is the harvest. The harvest is a prominent feature of this chapter, and in what God is doing at the present time, He has a great harvest in view. But whatever God has in view as to ultimate accomplishment, everything is present with Him, so that He can speak of His purposes as though they were already accomplished, and by the Spirit He would bring us, in our measure, into that, so that this year, even in its complete fulfilment should not be altogether a future matter with us, God would have us enter into it now, entering in spirit into what the full harvest will be.
What we had before us last week bears on this acceptable year. We saw then that God, in all His ways as a faithful Creator, and in all His ways in government, from the very outset had this period especially in mind, establishing suitable creatorial and governmental conditions in which to carry out now what He purposed before time began. In a peculiar way God's thoughts have centred on this dispensation, and it is a great privilege to live in it. The types look on to it. These passages we have read, have a primary
application to Israel, but as applied to the church period they take on a fulness which no application to Israel could ever give them. In having this period before Him, God also had before Him what flows from it -- the world to come and eternity. In this period He is achieving the crowning feature of His work. Every dispensation has its yield for God but the present dispensation is having a peculiar yield, which is especially delightful to His heart and to the heart of Christ.
In speaking of this chapter I trust we shall be able to see how God's acceptable year developed in the early days of Christianity, and also how it enters into our soul experience, and in a certain measure into the Lord's supper. In the early days of Christianity, these set feasts or fixed times had a remarkable fulfilment, beginning with the passover, typically the precious death of Christ, which is the basis of everything. In this chapter the passover is not related to the wilderness but to the land and the harvest, so it says, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest ...". Leviticus 23:10. There is such a thing as wilderness experience, but it is a blessed thing to view the death of Christ in relation to the land, and the harvest. When Christ rose from the dead the land came into view -- life in a risen Christ. As typified by the wave sheaf, He is firstfruits of the harvest. How precious the death of Christ is, viewed as that from which the whole harvest for God, which will fill heaven and earth, is come. It is instructive that the passover was in the month Abib. We are told in a note in Exodus 12, it was the month in which the corn ripens. The Lord Jesus Himself bore the winter. This chapter has not the winter in mind. These feasts occupied the summer period. The Lord Jesus Himself bore the winter, and we know what a winter that was. It was He who cried, "My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" We can never measure the depth of winter which Christ bore, either at the hand of man or God, but the moment His death is an accomplished fact, the harvest is in view. In fact before He died the Lord said, "Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest". (John 4:35), so that the setting of the death of Christ in this connection is in the month when the corn ripens. His very death brought to the stage of ripening the work that God was doing. Of course, we have winter times in soul history, and meetings may have, but the Lord Jesus alone has passed through winter in the full sense. The month Abib is when the corn ripens. Has not the corn begun to ripen when we come to know the Lord Jesus? -- a conversion suggests the ripening of the corn. "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months", (Exodus 12:2). So that speaking in the main, the Lord Jesus bore the winter, and our beginnings are in that month when the corn ripens.
"On the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it". Verse 11. It is remarkable we should have an allusion in the Old Testament to the first day of the week. The wave sheaf is to be waved before the Lord. It refers to the resurrection of Christ -- the first-fruits of the harvest. "Christ the first-fruits", 1 Corinthians 15:23. Wonderful time when Christ rose from the dead and appeared to His own! Following the waving of the sheaf they were to count fifty days and seven weeks, the same period counted in two different ways to reach the feast of weeks. In the early days this period was passed through by the early Christians until at the end of the fifty days, in the upper room, the one hundred and twenty were gathered together with one accord in one place. What had transpired in those fifty days? They had seen the Lord a number of times and through exercise and prayer there was correspondence now between those one hundred
and twenty in the upper room and the Lord Jesus Himself. He, of course, is ever unique; but after those fifty days, it speaks of the two wave loaves as first-fruits and as a new meat offering. Think of what the church was to God as the new oblation. The word first-fruits there, is a different word from the first-fruits as attached to Christ in connection with the wave sheaf. He is unique. But in the upper room God secured a company in whom there was correspondence with Christ, as typified in the two wave loaves. It came through individual exercise as suggested in the fifty days and collective exercise as suggested in the seven weeks, so that they were together with one accord. Leaven was there but it was baken. They, as we, were by nature and practice, sinners, but sin had been judged and was inactive, and the features of Christ were there so delightfully that the Holy Spirit came down, not indeed as a dove, as He did upon the Lord, but as cloven tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit as fire helps the saints to maintain self-judgment, but at the same time there was that in that company which was delightful to God, and the Holy Spirit came down on that which was delightful. The ground of His coming is that Jesus has been glorified, yet how could He come unless there were those on earth who were in accord with Christ? There was a company at Pentecost corresponding with Christ and they received the Holy Spirit.
There is a measured time between the wave sheaf and Pentecost, but after that a long period elapses without a feast, until the first day of the seventh month. I suppose it was roughly four months during which the harvest was being gathered in. I think we see how this developed in the Acts of the Apostles. There was the Pentecostal church marked in its public bearing by an evangelical spirit and activity as suggested in verse 22, where they were to leave the gleanings for the poor and the stranger. But it was
a provisional state of affairs, whereas the seventh month suggests completion. With the nation of Israel there has been a gap ever since. Viewed in one sense the church at Pentecost was remnant of Israel, and this gap goes on until there will be a ministry which will awaken Israel and they will come into their feast of tabernacles. But applied to the present day I believe the feast of the blowing of trumpets is Paul's ministry, the complete sounding out of the testimony as it is at the present time. Israel will yet have their blowing of trumpets and a testimony rendered which will fully unfold their portion, but in Paul's ministry we have a testimony which fully unfolds the church's portion. We must have Paul's ministry to really understand the church's portion and inheritance. I am not belittling the earlier state in Acts, but if souls do not go on to Paul's ministry -- and many do not -- they will lose the practical joy of what they have. The transitional position could not be held indefinitely.
The feast of the blowing of trumpets, one judges, refers to Paul announcing the whole counsel of God. Then we have the day of atonement. Paul, I suppose, is the only New Testament writer who fully opens up what that wonderful day means. It speaks of the bearing of the work of Christ on all things in heaven and on earth. It says, "Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" Colossians 1:20. Both Colossians and Hebrews bring out the wide and universal scope of the precious death of Christ. We have our part in that in a special way as Aaron's house, but it is a great thing to give heed to Paul's ministry in that respect and understand the extensive, far-reaching effect of the work of Christ upon the cross. We shall never reach the full thought of harvest in our souls unless we understand that, because before heaven and earth can be filled there must be
the reconciling, the cleansing; and the precious work of Christ has done that; reconciled all things to the Godhead, things in heaven and on earth. But the reconciling of all things by the blood of His cross has in view that He should fill all things. The reconciliation brings the creation, which was tarnished by sin, into view for God's pleasure, in order that it might now be filled with what is of Christ, that harvest, of which He sowed the seed in His precious death.
The final feast, the feast of tabernacles, speaks of the whole harvest gathered in, when they were to rejoice before God. Paul in his ministry at Ephesus, and in the Ephesians epistle, brings us to what, for us, is the feast of tabernacles. By the Spirit he brings before us, and puts in terms which suggest a present reality -- the world to come, when all things in heaven and on earth are headed up in, and filled by, Christ. He shows us in our place in that wonderful dispensation of the fulness of times, seated in heavenly places, and he bows in worship before the God who brings it all to pass. He speaks of Him as "The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named" suggesting heaven and earth filled with families which are the fruit of the precious death of Christ. It is the harvest gathered in and God would have us arrive at that now.
I have spoken of the early days of Christianity, but Paul's ministry has in view all the saints arriving at this in their spirits even now. No doubt for a time the saints at Ephesus were in the gain of it. They had reached this seventh month in their apprehension, and in their measure they could worship God in the light of the fulfilment of His purpose. Numbers 29 shows that in this particular feast, God's portion was far in excess of that which He had in any other. On the first day there were thirteen bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs with their oblations and drink
offerings. There is nothing like that in any other feast; and, while this feast applies to the world to come, it also goes on to eternity. There is an eighth day, for all that God secures and is displayed in the world to come, passes into eternity. While this came out, under God's hand, in the early days of Christianity, we have to go over this ground time and again in our souls experience, just as we pass through year after year of our experiences down here -- not that the two periods tally, for one is a spiritual matter. One would raise the challenge as to how far we have entered into the meaning of these feasts in our personal relations with God; not shutting out, of course, our relations with the brethren, because the feasts necessarily involve our collective relations. But just being physically and outwardly in the collective setting does not mean anything. The passover was the beginning of assembly and personal history. Exodus 12 speaks of all the assembly taking the lamb, showing that it is the beginning of collective relations. Then it says, "The whole congregation of the assembly of Israel shall kill it". That means every person who composes the assembly -- the personnel -- congregation is used in its right sense there. It implies that every person composing the assembly must have a personal history with God and face what the passover means. So that in our responsible life here we keep the feast of unleavened bread, the whole seven days. In our homes and business life, do we allow leaven, do we allow anything that makes much of the flesh? Keeping the feast, one judges, means that we reject utterly what God has rejected in the death of Christ and that makes way for this experience connected with the land, our appreciation of a risen Christ, and it makes way for the feast of Pentecost. We need to take up the fifty days and seven weeks -- what they mean, spiritually exercised, that there should be positive correspondence with Christ in our individual
and in our local collective settings, that which God can delight in. We are to bring from our dwellings the two wave loaves. This is the beginning of the harvest, the first-fruits. The seventh month -- Paul's ministry, is the full fruition of things . I wonder how many of us are concerned about Paul's ministry. How little we pray about it and yet he ends his epistles by asking the saints to pray for him. You say, we cannot pray for Paul now. But you can pray that his ministry might be known in power amongst all saints. There is no question about it, if we do not go on to Paul's ministry, or if we try to accept lower ground, even to remain on Pentecostal ground, we shall lose everything gradually. We must go on to the full thought to be sustained.
I desire to refer briefly to the fact that has already been suggested in ministry, that in spirit we cover this ground in our measure at the Lord's Supper. We only have one fixed time or set feast and one desires for myself and my brethren that, at the Lord's supper, we may not miss reaching the full thought of the harvest gathered in. If we do not reach it we come away without our longings being fully met. I think that we shall all admit that the passover is the basis of things, even as to enjoyment at the supper. It was as they were eating the passover that the Lord instituted the supper. So that normally we gather together as those who are eating the passover and keeping the feast of unleavened bread. The feast of unleavened bread implies that we have examined ourselves and thus eat of the bread and drink of the cup; that principle came to light when the Lord instituted the supper. He said, "One of you shall betray me". Matthew 26:21. Let everyone examine himself. Am I going to hinder the occasion? The Lord says, "one of you shall betray me" and each one said, "is it I?". How necessary it is to come to the supper as self-examined, concerned there should
be no leaven in my heart. Christ should be my only object, my only motive, my only trust as I sit down there.
At the supper Christ also comes before us as the Living One, the sheaf of the first-fruits. We contemplate His preciousness as the first-born from the dead. "Who is the beginning, first-born from among the dead, that he might have the first place in all things". Colossians 1:18. We go on from that to a sense of what the church is to Christ and to God. "We being many, are one loaf, one body". 1 Corinthians 10:17. That is like the feast of Pentecost -- a company on the earth corresponding to Christ, and made to drink into One Spirit. Our hearts expand to take in all the saints on earth, and we feel the oneness of the body.
It may be that this pause, this gap, between the feast of Pentecost and the feast of the blowing of trumpets has a bearing at the supper. Surely it would give time for the development of worship to Christ personally, for reciprocal affections between Himself and the assembly, time to make much of Christ. At Pentecost there was a company corresponding to Christ, and the Spirit came from a glorified Christ to bear witness to Christ, to what He is in glorious Manhood. The Lord said of the Spirit, "He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you". John 16:14. Should we not make room for that? the Spirit so magnifying Christ in the hearts of His own that we bow in worship as we realise that the church has such a Head. All that would prepare us for moving on to the full counsel of God. Our relations with Christ have in view that God should have His portion. That is the final thing, and I think the seventh month has that in view; that we should be able to respond to God as made known in connection with His counsels. It was a long pause in the feasts -- nearly four months elapsed, but it is a great thing to hear the sound of the trumpets drawing
our attention to the whole scope of divine purpose and counsel, Christ's death on the cross having reconciled all things in heaven and on earth in order that heaven and earth might be filled for God's pleasure.
We are thus able to pass on to finality. We pass on in spirit into a sense of the blessedness of "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named"; and, with Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, we look out on the universe as filled for God's pleasure. The harvest is now gathered in -- every family in their place, so that by the Spirit, who is the earnest of our inheritance we enjoy harvest home -- enjoy it with God. It has not yet actually taken place, actually it is still future, but with the blessed God everything is present. He anticipates that day, and He would have us anticipate it with Him. If we fail to do so, we miss the crown of the year. Psalm 65:11, says, "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness". The harvest is the crown of the year, and we should be concerned not to miss it. We want to reach the harvest with God and be wholly joyful before Him and be able to respond in the way which is suggested in connection with the feast of tabernacles -- a note of worship which exceeds anything which ascended at any other time. I think Ephesians brings God before us as the One who commands worship in this full measure. Ephesians 1, speaks of Him as, "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory", and Paul is praying that he might open the eyes of our hearts to see the realm of glory which is before Him. That He may "give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; ... the fulness of him that filleth all in all". Think of our hearts being thus illuminated so that, in our measure, we have God's own outlook. How it would bow our hearts in worship to Him. It is in that connection that Paul speaks of the full knowledge
of Him. We cannot have the full knowledge of God unless we apprehend His counsels. The knowledge of God in relation to His counsels crowns every other way in which God has made Himself known. It is only as we understand His counsels that we can fully appreciate Him as Creator for we then know the reason for creation. If we think of the Possessor of heaven and earth, it is His counsels that reveal the way in which He will take possession, by filling heaven and earth with those families which Christ has secured. As to His name, Almighty, all His counsels are carried out by almighty power. Death lay across the path of the fulfilment of every thought of God and this means that everything God achieves through Christ must be through the exercise of power. "The working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead". Jehovah means the eternally unchanging One, and how His counsels prove this, for His purpose before the world began, is now secured in Christ. How wonderful He becomes to our hearts -- the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory -- in the full knowledge of Him, we enter into and enjoy His counsels by the Spirit's power. Who can worship God like those who have such an experience?
May God help us in this matter, that we may not fail to reach the full harvest, the crown of the year, both in our personal experience and collective enjoyment at the supper so that God may increasingly receive the present portion that He is looking for from our hearts. For His name's sake!
CALLED, CHOSEN, FAITHFUL
THE MOST EXCELLENT THOUGHT OF SONSHIP
GOD - A FAITHFUL CREATOR
THE ACCEPTABLE YEAR OF THE LORD