Numbers 3:10, 23, 25, 26, 29, 31, 36, 37; Numbers 4:15, 24 - 26, 31 - 33, 49.
G.R.C. I thought we might consider the Service of the Tabernacle, this being the term used in Numbers 3:8 in relation to the charge placed upon the tribe of Levi; and a similar expression occurs towards the end of chapter 1. In considering this, a verse in the end of 1 Corinthians comes to mind, "Be vigilant, stand fast in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be strong. Let all things ye do be done in love". Levitical service is not the only work, and we are called into all the varied work and service of the tabernacle which begins with the military side. From twenty years old and upwards, all the males in Israel (except the tribe of Levi) were numbered for military service. There was no exemption from that service; so that the first thing is to recognise that we are soldiers of Jesus Christ, or as it might read (2 Timothy 2:3) "soldiers of Christ Jesus", the glorified Man; we are His soldiers; and no one serving as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of this life, for he is at the command of the One who has enlisted him as a soldier. That is fundamental. As soldiers we surround the tabernacle, God's habitation, so that God might dwell there, as it were, in peace and restfulness. Then in the nearer circle were the Levites, who encamped round about the tabernacle, according to chapter 1; whilst Moses and the priestly family, Aaron and his sons, encamped before the tabernacle eastward, the service of the priests being the most important service.
So the first verse we read, chapter 3: 10 reads -- and we need to note what it says -- "and Aaron and his sons shalt thou appoint that they may attend to their
priest's office". That is the greatest office, and it was an exacting office, but one, of course, fulfilled in love, as Jehovah said: "Israel is my son, my firstborn ... Let my son go, that he may serve me". So the relationship we are in is that of sons; the office to which we are appointed is that of priests. We need to distinguish between relationship and office. We are sons of God -- firstborn sons -- through faith in Christ Jesus, and therefore it is not an irksome matter to be appointed to office; and God has appointed us to the highest office, that of priests, and we are to attend upon it, to minister to Him. It is a daily matter. As with the priests of old, there were numerous duties of the day and night which fell to the priests, e.g., the morning and evening oblations, and other sacrifices, the morning and evening incense, the lighting of the lamps, the evening to morning dressing of the lamps, and to ensure that they were burning. But then the sons of God have other services, and the Levites were taken instead of the firstborn, and given to the priests, "to do the service of the tabernacle" (chapter 3:8) so that things might be according to God in His own habitation, and that the priestly service might go on unimpaired. Then around all that, as we have said, were the military forces to ensure that no enemy could make any inroad or find a point of attack, so as to hinder the carrying out of those enjoined services connected with the habitation of God. As was said in years past, the early chapters of Numbers give typically the present aspect of the kingdom of God. The King had taken up His residence, His habitation; God Himself had come down to dwell; and the holy nation was encamped around Him, and their lives were regulated relative to God and His habitation. It is a picture of the kingdom of God at the present time -- the divine thought as to it. We are all to be in our position as soldiers -- every king has his soldiers
so long as there is adversary or evil occurrent -- and so we are to be in position as soldiers; and in position as Levites; and we are to attend to the priest's office.
These are just general introductory remarks, but I especially had in mind the work of the Levites, hoping that the Lord will help us to be more intelligent as to it, especially the Gershonite and Merarite sides. We cannot, however, consider those two aspects without thinking of the Kohathite side -- there were the three families of the Levites, the Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites. In chapter 3 the Gershonites are put first and the recital of what they were to do, or to have charge of, and then the Kohathites, and lastly the Merarites. But in chapter 4 the Kohathites are first, in view of carrying, and then the Gershonites are mentioned, and afterwards the Merarites; and I think there is a reason for the change of order, each chapter having its own teaching. At any rate chapter 4 would give the order of importance because the Kohathites had charge of the ark, the table of shewbread, the golden altar, the candlestick, and the brazen altar, and these primarily speak to us of Christ Himself and God shining out in Him, so that must be first. Then the Gershonites had charge of the curtains of the tabernacle and the curtains of the tent over the tabernacle, that is the goats' hair curtains, also the covering of rams' skins dyed red and the covering of badgers' skins, and the hangings around the court, which have reference to what is seen in the saints -- the work of God, Christ characteristically in the saints. And then the Merarites had what constituted the heaviest burdens -- although not the most precious or the most holy -- the boards and the bars, and the pillars, and the pillars of the court (4:31 - 32) and in their case (see end of verse 32) it is stated, "by name ye shall number to them the materials which are their charge to carry".
F.G.H. You referred at the outset of your remarks to the thought of sonship. Would all the services and duties you have referred to be carried out in the liberty of sons?
G.R.C. Yes, that is what I had in mind. We serve from the heart, and that is why it says, "Let all things ye do be done in love". "If ye love me, keep my commandments".
D.McI. Could we have a word on the last verse that you referred to? "By name ye shall number to them (the Merarites) the materials which are their charge to carry".
G.R.C. What would your thought be?
D.McI. Well, I don't know; I just thought that it would seem that the Lord has in mind some particular work that He wants us each to do in the service of the tabernacle.
G.R.C. That is what I thought; according to chapter 4:49 everyone has his service and his burden; they are holy burdens but they are called burdens.
H.F.R. Was Christ the great burden-bearer? If we had a sense in our souls of the magnitude of the burdens Christ has borne it would encourage us to take up burdens.
G.R.C. I think it would. As to our taking them up, He says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light". They are real burdens, but to love they are but light. It does not mean that the burdens themselves are not real.
H.P. Would the last verse of 1 Corinthians 15 fit in with that last verse of Numbers 4, "So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord"?
G.R.C. Yes, I think that fits very much because it applied to every brother and every sister at Corinth; he calls them "my beloved brethren".
S.W.H.R. So that however many Levites there are,
each one has a sense of personal commission; is that right?
G.R.C. It is right. Paul says that he was set out as a delineation of those about to believe on the Lord to life eternal; and I think what we can see from the case of Paul himself is that at the outset of our spiritual career God would give us some impression of what He has called us for, in this aspect of things. At the very outset the Lord said to Saul of Tarsus, "Why dost thou persecute me?" and he evidently received a distinct impression that Jesus was the Son of God; hence those two matters, sonship, and the assembly as Christ's body, became the burden of Paul's ministry. He was special as we know, yet in another sense he was an example. So I think the Lord would normally give us an early impression, and Paul tells Agrippa that he had received that. Paul did not tell anyone else at the time; he did not parade the fact that the Lord had given him something to do; he waited and went on patiently and later Barnabas brought him in, and eventually the Holy Spirit said, "Separate me now Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them". So that the Lord giving us an early impression would perhaps correspond with the Levites being first numbered from a month old, the month being related to the first distinctive impression of Christ we receive.
M.P.S. "He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me". Is that Numbers 4 rather than Numbers 3? You referred earlier to the other side, "If ye love me, keep my commandments", but then the Lord also says, "He that has my commandments". We have a responsibility of love have we not, to have the commandments, to find out what they are and to have them?
G.R.C. I am sure that that is so.
V.G. Is it the suggestion that in whatever capacity we serve, whether as soldiers or Levites or priests,
the saints stand in relation to the tabernacle at all times?
G.R.C. Yes, in principle it is a whole-time service; we have our mundane work to do, and may have to give up a good deal of time to such other matters in our responsible life, but in our thoughts it is all with the view of expressing or subserving what we are as soldiers, Levites, and priests. Otherwise we have got things in wrong balance.
L.J.J.W. Is it in your mind that all service, in whatever aspect we look at, is Godward? I was thinking of the whole setting in Numbers, God was dwelling in the midst of His people, and this great system is set up in order that He may be served and worshipped; and do we come into it on that line, that every service is really Godward?
G.R.C. I think that is right; the concern of the soldiers, Levites, and priests, is that God may be rightly served in His habitation and that nothing should disturb that service, or intrude with what is foreign to it. The military side would keep that out, and then the Levites cared for everything so that the priests could serve unhinderedly.
J.L.W. With the impressions that the Lord may give each one of us, would He also impress us distinctly with the preciousness of what we are called upon to maintain?
G.R.C. That is what I felt, and that is why we really need to look first at the Kohathite's service, because of the exceeding preciousness of the things they had to carry.
H.F.R. When Peter writes his epistles he speaks of various things that are precious. In his first letter, too, he says, "To you therefore who believe is the preciousness", and in that passage then goes on to speak of the kingly priesthood, and a holy nation, etc.
G.R.C. So he begins with the question whether
we value the precious things. And it is touching to consider the circumstances of God's speaking in Numbers. The book opens with "And Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting;" that is where Jehovah is shown to be, where He has come down to dwell, and He is in the tent of meeting. So the saints are a habitation of God in the Spirit; it is God down here in His own dwelling, and He is speaking, from that aspect, in the tent of meeting; and He as much as says, 'Well now I have come down to dwell with you in love, and I am counting on you to take up these services, so that My habitation and the service in it may be what they should be'. In this book the tabernacle is also called the tabernacle of testimony -- we are to have that view of the assembly, as the tabernacle of testimony, God dwelling here in testimony.
L.J.J.W. Is that the particular object of attack by the enemy, the representation of God here, corresponding with Corinthians, the assembly of God in a place, with the view of God being rightly represented?
G.R.C. So that the Corinthian epistles really give the view of the assembly as the tabernacle of testimony, here in the wilderness in testimony; and all these kinds of service are needed, if the service of God is to be rightly maintained, whether in the unholy conditions of Corinth or any other city of this world; all these services are needed so that the conditions in God's dwelling are suited to Him, in accord with His own specification; there is to be no drop in the level of things; and scripture supposes that what goes out in testimony to men, flows out from conditions which are right within, so that, things being right inside the house, the testimony going out from those conditions is the true representation of God our Saviour.
S.W.H.R. Is that why it says in chapter 4:4 that the
service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting "is most holy"?
G.R.C. Yes "it is most holy". Now I think we need to keep that in mind and I would submit that in our day every Levite -- and we are all called to that -- should engage in all three kinds of Levitical service. You will notice how the word "families" runs through, everything being done on a family footing, suggesting what is tender and loving. There are the families of the Kohathites, and of the Gershonites, and of the Merarites; and while we may see in a brother or sister special features of, say, Merarite or Gershonite service, yet I think that, in some measure, there should and must be with every one of us an appreciation of Kohathite service. The Kohathite has to do with the most holy things, and what is most precious within. Likewise there would be some appreciation of Gershonite service and what the saints are, as typified in the curtains of the tabernacle and, for example, the curtains and coverings of goats' hair, etc., over the tabernacle. And then there must be appreciation -- proper to the Merarite -- of what the saints are and have to meet in their responsible lives, as represented in the boards, and pillars round the court, because without that side being maintained, the whole thing, as you might say, collapses testimonially. So that I would think a true Levite has desires and instincts in all three directions: but unquestionably some are given special ability in one particular line. I feel it is important to look on the brethren that way. Perhaps we could have a word as to the position of their respective encampments.
F.G.H. I was thinking of what our brother said a moment ago, about all being in relation to the centre of the tabernacle. The first one (the Gershonites) in chapter 3 is behind it (westward), and I wondered if it is not a reminder that we have to
look to the tent and curtain carriers -- they are behind it; divine principles are not to be overlooked. And then those (the Merarites) that look after the saints are to the north; cold comes from the north; and then the Kohathites are to the south. Well, we can enjoy the south when the persons and the principles have been safeguarded. I wondered too if it connects with 2 Timothy and the man of God being fully fitted to every good work?
G.R.C. I think it does. As regards those behind, they could oversee the whole thing; and those looking after the curtains I suppose need specially to be able to do that, to be on the lookout over the whole thing, because they are maintaining principles.
F.G.H. For those of us who are young, what answers to the service of the Kohathites today?
G.R.C. We could not exactly think of the Lord as a Levite, because the things were expressed in Him, but He did the work in perfection. As regards the Lord, I would assume that the Kohathite service was the declaration of God, to begin with, making God known. "Thou that sitteth between the cherubim", it says of God, that is on the mercy-seat; and the Lord came to make known the God who has His seat there. "The only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him". And then we see that the Lord is the Antitype in perfection of those things which the Kohathites carried. He is the Ark; the altars represent Him; similarly the table and the candlestick. The Lord Himself brought the things forward in the first instance, brought them into the sphere of testimony, in His own Person. But then, how wonderfully the Lord took up the other services, in the sense of bringing out the principles and teaching relative to God and what is suited to Him in His house. And how affecting is His shining forth as the true Merarite in service, seen perhaps more particularly
in John's gospel where too we may discern His Kohathite service in the unfolding of the truth as to God in the fulness of revelation, and the relations between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
F.G.H. When you spoke of the Kohathites' service being the most precious, were you referring to verse 31 of chapter 3, where their charge is given as the ark, the table, the candlestick and the altars, and so on?
G.R.C. Yes, that is it; it is enlarged on (although we had not time to read it) in the early part of chapter 4, where, in speaking of the priests covering these things when the camp sets forward, more detail is given as to the ark, the altars, the candlestick and so on.
M.P.S. When the opposition was against the Lord personally He submitted to it, and did not rebut it; but when the opposition bore on the glory of God, He answered it did He not? Was that something of the character of Kohathite service?
G.R.C. Yes, I would think so; but then while we think of the gospel of John as especially Kohathitic, it has often been pointed out that it is peculiarly a Merarite gospel, the Lord dealing with individuals -- the woman at the well, Nicodemus, the blind man, and so on. There is no other gospel that shows, like John does, the Lord's concern about individual persons, as constructive features of God's dwelling place.
M.P.S. Closing with a special mission to Peter to care for the persons.
F.G.P. And in John's record the Lord always brought forward the importance of putting God first. Some of our brethren are apt to be led astray, through not being prepared to put first what is due to God.
G.R.C. In that case they are not walking according to love. "If ye love me, keep my commandments", and "He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me". So that if we do not put the
Lord first, we are not walking according to love, whatever we may say about it. We must go by scripture. Scripture says, "This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments" (2 John 6).
F.G.P. When the Lord spoke to the woman at the well, He spoke to her about worshipping the Father, and worshipping God. Is not the prime object of God taking up persons that He might be served?
G.R.C. Yes, and that should be our prime object in undertaking our part now in the service of the tabernacle, that things should be regulated according to God's own specification of what is due to Him in His house -- not our thoughts, but His -- and that He should be served in a priestly way acceptably to Him.
M.P.S. Would you give the brethren a practical example of daily Kohathite service that anyone of us can put our hand to?
M.P.S. All I had in mind is the need of all our brethren knowing what these things mean practically, and would you not think that engagement in the testimony in evangelising requires to have a Kohathite side to it? It was said of Mr. Raven was it not, that after one of his open-air preachings, a man in the crowd went away saying, 'that man thinks more of God than he does of men'. Was not the preaching that of a Kohathite?
D. Does not service flow out of our appreciation of Christ?
G.R.C. It does, and of God in Christ.
S.A.F. Does not Romans begin with a Kohathite expression in the reference to the Son of God, and end with reference to the boards of the tabernacle?
G.R.C. That is very helpful. That expression in Romans 1 is as you say a Kohathite expression; Paul says, "God's glad tidings ... concerning his Son ...
Jesus Christ our Lord" and then he goes on further. I mean that the presentation of Christ is like the Ark; he was carrying the Ark covered with the cloth of blue. In carrying by the Kohathites the ark was the distinctive thing, because the other things had coverings of badgers' skins, but the ark had the badgers' skins underneath, and over that a cloth wholly of blue. And I think that is like Paul at the beginning of Romans -- "God's glad tidings ... concerning his Son", the heavenly Man, "Jesus Christ our Lord", "come of David's seed according to flesh, marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead". Now that is the Ark going forward. So that the evangelist should be a Kohathite. He needs to be a skilled Merarite too, when he gets a convicted sinner in front of him. But I do not see how anybody can be a true evangelist, unless he is a Kohathite, because the Kohathite carries these holy vessels -- affording an objective view -- of God Himself made known in Christ, objectively presented. And then the saints as before God upon the pure table, again objectively presented, what the saints are in Christ; the position presented that God would bring men into, like the loaves on the pure table before God.
V.G. Would it be normal for these various aspects of service to blend, and be balanced in us by the work of the Spirit, as seen in Paul, who could say, "Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ"? The features of Christ Himself to be seen, in measure.
G.R.C. Yes, I think so; and that would bear out what has been said about being all-round as it were, having our part in each form of service. I do not see how a true evangelist could be other than a Kohathite. I wish that there were more of them; I do not know of many if any, at the present time; there is only one in the true sense, called that in Acts. To begin with, he would have no proper gospel
without it. These holy things are to be brought out to men -- the revelation of God in Christ, the ark, the candlestick, and what the saints are before God on the pure table.
M.P.S. A man without God as his centre has nothing.
F.G.H. In regard of the earlier question as to daily Kohathite service, would it be right to say that, as we rise in the morning with thoughts in our hearts of what Christ is to God, and draw near to Him in the appreciation of Christ, that would be a kind of Kohathite service? And then carrying throughout the day our appreciation of Christ in relation to God?
G.R.C. Well, I think it is the carrying that is more the Kohathite service. The other is, perhaps, more on the priestly side, because we must remember that in Christianity proper, everyone is a priest; whichever levitical service you are doing, what is governing you is priestliness. So Paul says in Romans 1 "God ... whom I serve"(that is priestly service) "in my spirit in the glad tidings of his Son". That is the priest, with Christ as the Ark of God filling his vision, and he is serving God in relation to that, in his own spirit, even though he is serving as a Levite; and he carries on, he says, "as a sacrificial service the message of glad tidings of God in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit". Thus, you see how the gospel preacher has, properly speaking, to be a priest in the first instance, a Kohathite in what he is carrying, and too a Gershonite and a Merarite because the offering up of the nations was to be acceptable; that is that they were not only to be converted but were to continue in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, as the Gershonites would teach them to do. And then, as Merarite, the evangelist should be able to help in all their soul exercises as set out in
Romans, bringing them through Romans. How many people have we helped through Romans 7 in that sense? -- That is where the Merarite's service comes in. You know what souls are going through, you have been through it yourself, and you can help them just where they are, so that, as was said earlier, at the end of Romans they are seen as full scale boards, standing up 10 cubits high.
H.P. We may well ask how many we have helped to get through it, because one feels for oneself that we know very little about Romans 6 and 7.
G.R.C. There are two basic things on the positive line in Romans 7, one is "I delight in the law of God according to the inward man;" and the other is "I myself with the mind serve God's law" -- whatever other people do, I myself with the mind serve the law of God. So that on the positive line a person who gets through Romans 7 is a person governed by the law of God and delighting in it.
H.P. He would never be a trouble to anybody.
G.R.C. He will never be a trouble but he will fit into the habitation of God in the Spirit, and never bring anything foreign into it.
P.H. There should be plenty of time between a month old and thirty years to let the Spirit continue with one and deepen the impressions that one began with. The Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward. I wondered whether we could encourage ourselves and our dear young people as to what the Spirit is doing now, since our first apprehension of these things, bringing us to maturity at thirty years as it were.
G.R.C. It seems to me that the month old would suggest a converted soul who has got free of his initial troubles and has grasped what has been presented. It is a month old; he is like Paul coming out of his blindness. What had been presented to him initially was "Why persecutest thou me;" that
involves the church as Christ's body; and then Jesus as the Son of God. As Saul of Tarsus came out of his blindness and received the Holy Spirit he would be like a soul a month old. Those matters were there in his soul and were going to govern his career. Well, with every young soul here that has had dealings with the Lord, there should be something of that character with them. There are certain circles which would get hold of such a young soul and get him at work straight away. That is not true levitical thought. He may have got an impression of Christ and the truth but if you get him to work and to be occupied with work, too quickly, you will only damage that impression. You may of course put him up to give his testimony and so on. Paul gave his testimony; he gave it, as you might say, spontaneously; straightway he preached in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. He did if from impulse, spiritual impulse, and as increasing the more in power he confounded the Jews; it says, proving that Jesus is the Christ. That is the other line of truth, as to Christ and His body. So what was in his soul began to come out spontaneously; then he is content to go to his own city Tarsus, and we do not know what he did there; he is in obscurity, till Barnabas brings him forward, realising that he is a man that can help them at Antioch; but even so, he is last on the list of those named at Antioch. He waits till the Holy Spirit says, "Separate me now Barnabas and Saul" -- thus he reached full maturity as a Levite, he is fully in the service.
P.H. We do not want to discourage any of our dear younger brethren as to this precious service in its threefold character, Kohathites, Gershonites, Merarites, yet there is need to ponder soberly what is involved. It calls for a measure of maturity and if we make room for the Holy Spirit to develop the work of God in us He will be with us with that in
view, do you not think we should consider this?
G.R.C. I think so. I think we need to distinguish between what is spontaneous, like Paul preaching at once, and what speaks of maturity. There is no harm in a young soul preaching at once, but it is on the line of spontaneity, and not as being pushed forward by anybody. The woman in John 4 got on with her testimony straight away. But for a person to come into any definite service having a burden committed to him -- a person reliable enough for that -- that must be waited for, yet not waited for too long. We may reach spiritually the age of thirty before we are actually thirty. The idea of thirty years is that all your faculties are developed; you still have to get experience, you are not an elder yet, but every spiritual faculty in a man is normally developed at the spiritual age of thirty years. He is fit for anything at thirty in that way. David was fit to be king at thirty; Joseph was fit to rule Egypt at thirty. If we give God His place He will see that our faculties are developed -- we shall have attained spiritually the age of thirty years. Paul spent three years in Arabia, in obscurity.
S.W.H.R. Does what you have said connect with 2 Timothy 3 -- "fully fitted"? I was only thinking that we have had a number of years, longer than some of us realise, in which we have been apt to have our attention drawn away from the scriptures, and we must get back to them, must we not?
G.R.C. I think that 2 Timothy 3 is as you say an important word stressing the scriptures and the word of God; chapter 2 is the sanctified vessel, but chapter 3 brings in the fully fitted vessel, fitted for service; chapter 2 is the question of being sanctified and meet for the Master's use.
D.McI. Have we to be concerned to be quick learners? God does not wish to put things off for us. We do not want to discourage some by saying
that they will have to wait thirty years before they can participate in levitical service. If we are on the line of spiritual perseverance shall we not the more quickly qualify?
A.L.O. How old were John's babes?
G.R.C. I thought, and I say it subject to correction, that the babes of John, or the little children, belong to the priestly family, they have the unction, the anointing, the Holy One. You see there are no age limits for priests. The sons of Aaron were priests by birth, there was no question of a month old or any other age. And I thought too that the young men of John's epistle would be Levites in full vigour. "Ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one". I thought God would bring us all to that point.
H.P. Would the epistles to the Thessalonians answer the question? They were young converts but are spoken of as "in God the Father" in the first epistle, and "in God our Father" in the second. John's little children are said to "have known the Father".
I.H.R. You referred earlier to Saul returning to his own city, Tarsus; and I wondered whether it is worth mentioning this matter of returning to our own city where, you might say, we get the best kind of education for whatever work it may be. Is it not good for those that the Lord may use, in that way to return to their own city and get their impressions among their local brethren, where they are set, would you say?
G.R.C. I am sure that is right. Paul later returned to Antioch did he not? that, in a way, became his local city after he went there; and he returned there after his service and related what God had done. But then, too, there is the other side of growing up out of your place. Saul had earlier been sent away
to Tarsus; by the brethren; it says of the Lord Jesus that He shall grow up from His own place, Nazareth.
V.G. Is it important that whatever the service taken up or put upon anyone, the basic motive of the person serving should be Godward? I was thinking of the earlier reference to that point. If power in service is to be sought, the motive must be right.
G.R.C. I am sure that is so. 'Our God the centre is;' that is the idea in the beginning of Numbers, and that should be our thought now, that God's habitation is here, His habitation in the Spirit, and that He should be the centre of our lives. So we are encamped around His habitation that everything might be in accord with His will and pleasure, in that habitation. Hence the Levites were given to the priests. It was all in view of priestly service, God having His portion through the priests.
F.G.H. Several times this afternoon reference has been made to carrying things. Is the idea of carrying a thing that it is in our hearts, Christ dwelling in the heart through faith? I know that is Ephesians and thus well on, but is not that the principle? All of us, young and old, as sealed, have capacity to carry some appreciation of Christ, in the various ways set out here.
G.R.C. I would think that. "Keep by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted". So that we keep these things in our minds and hearts.
M.P.S. But we have to do something as well, have we not? I suppose you would be with God in prayer about the matter you are carrying and then, as with God about it, you would know what to do when you have to do with men, whether your brethren or others.
G.R.C. Well, that was one thing I was wanting help on, as to Gershonite and Merarite service particularly. I do not want to get things unbalanced,
but there has been a favourite saying amongst the brethren that if we look after the principles, God will look after the persons. There is a good measure of truth in that statement because you must put principles first. But God does not say that all you need are Gershonites, and I will do the Merarite work for you. The Kohathite service is first; that is the outshining of God Himself, and all that relates to God Himself. The second thing is that if you are to enjoy what has come out as to God Himself, you must have Gershonite surroundings; you will only know God in reality and enjoy His presence where the law of His house is maintained. There are the curtains, and the goats' hair over that -- separation; and the rams' skins over that -- devotion; and the badgers' skins over that -- vigilant holiness. That is Gershonite service. So that although the Kohathites come first you will never develop in that, nor will God get His portion that He should have, relative to the way He has come out, unless the Gershonite side is attended to, and the principles of fellowship, as we speak, and the law of God's house, are maintained. But then while all that must have priority, you must have persons, though they may be few in number. It would not be any good just having a set of doctrines or principles without the persons. You must have persons established in the truth of Romans, prepared to support the curtains, which the boards did -- carried things. So that it seems to me that Gershonite and Merarite service can both exercise us a lot, in the practical working out of things that you are speaking of, that we have a responsibility both as to principles and persons. We cannot just say, look after the principles and God will look after the persons; we want both, but we must have the principles first; we cannot let those go in order to have the persons. But the skill of the Merarite would be to secure persons prepared, like
the boards, to shoulder the principles. The boards supported the whole system.
V.G. Would you say that persons become vessels of testimony in that way?
I.H.R. Would you say that a true Levite would love God's principles in such a way that he would be able to impart them, and the love of them, to his converts?
G.R.C. Yes, we have to see how scripture defines love. "Hereby know we that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments". That is, if you dropped out the Gershonite side it would show that you had not got real love; because how you know you love the children of God is that you love God and keep His commandments. You will not help the children of God or yourself by doing anything else. So that has to be maintained. But then there is the hard work connected with Merarite service -- you have to get persons in the gain of Romans, prepared to shoulder the truth of Corinthians, as you might say, and Colossians, and Ephesians. You have got to work at it, the work of the Merarites was hard.
S.A.F. Is the Merarite activity visualised in the gospel written by Levi (Matthew) especially in his concern that no person should be offended or if anything comes in between the personnel of the assembly every effort must be made to be free of it.
G.R.C. Yes. The aim is to secure the persons.
S.A.F. Does the Lord show His disciples in Matthew's gospel how they were to avoid offending one another, and if offence does come in it is to be put right in the proper way. That would hold the persons would it not?
G.R.C. Yes, to maintain principles aright is the best way to hold the persons, the only effective way.
S.A.F. And also above all to avoid having persons
before us -- that is apt to lead to loss of the persons.
G.R.C. If personalities govern us the Kohathite side has gone wrong. You could not have mere men before you if you are engaged with the Ark of the God who dwells between the cherubim, and with the other furnishings of the sanctuary.
Ques. If as Kohathites we were engrossed in the glory of the Lord, the principles then would be held in love; but otherwise we may hold principles simply as such in a legal kind of way and there is no love in it at all. If everything is held in relation to Christ, what is done will be done in love, will it not?
G.R.C. Quite. Love must be the beginning; we love God and keep His commandments; that proves your love for the children of God. So that you love God and you love His children.
E.S. May I enquire about chapter 7 where the princes give a lead; they offer the waggons for the service to Jehovah first, they do not give them direct to the Merarites and Gershonites. Does that support your thought?
G.R.C. That is good. You mean that they put God first.
E.S. In that chapter they presented them before the tabernacle, and Jehovah said to Moses, "Fake it of them and they shall be for the performance of the service of the tent of meeting and thou shalt give them unto the Levites". Is that the right kind of lead?
G.R.C. I think so, and what about the proportion in which they were distributed?
E.S. Was it not the apportionment of love? The greatest help was given to those that needed it most, that had the heaviest things to carry.
G.R.C. That is the principle we need to be governed by, giving the greatest help to those who need it most; it is the need of the service you think about. If you only thought of the quality of the service, you would
give everything to what you considered to be the Kohathites, and that may have governed giving to some extent, in the past. But the Kohathites' service did not call for this practical help and it is important to note that you do not give practical help where there is no practical call for it. What would be the point of it? Would it serve God or help anybody? Moreover the Kohathites were to bear what they carried upon the shoulder.
F.G.H. In what way do we work at this last named service -- of Merarites -- that you rightly seem to stress?
G.R.C. Well I suppose especially by means of pastors and teachers, is not that so?
F.G.H. There appears to be a great lack amongst us of shepherding. Having lost some there should be a concern with us as to what we are doing practically as to them; and there are also the brethren we are walking with. Do you think that visiting and shepherding is a real practical need amongst us at the present time?
G.R.C. I think it always has been. Peter was an evangelist, a fisher of men, but then he was given a further commission, "Feed my lambs ... Shepherd my sheep ... Feed my sheep". So we are not to be specialists. Peter was essentially a fisher of men at Pentecost, but his final commission was to Merarite service I would say.
F.G.P. In Galatians 6, Paul says, "Bear one another's burdens and thus fulfil the law of the Christ;" but further on he says "For each shall bear his own burden". Is that where the test of Merarite service came in, in addition to the priestly service; that he was prepared not only to bear his own burden but help in love to carry someone else's?
G.R.C. Quite so. So the end in Merarite service, I would say, having in mind that the boards were 10 cubits high, is to get souls into the gain of Romans.
If, however, persons will not accept the exercises of Romans, it is difficult to do anything. But on our side there should not be any lack, and our aim should be that the boards should be according to specification, and suited to form the structure and carry the weight of the tabernacle.
F.G.P. In Romans 16 sisters have a prominent part.
G.R.C. I would like to know what the brethren have to say about these forms of service. We do not want to get unbalanced, and I can see this, that normally the order is Kohathite, Gershonite, and Merarite; first you must have the presentation of God in Christ, then next you must have the principles. I take it that the inner curtains would involve the truth of the one body, in Colossians and Ephesians, and the truth of the new man; there is one new man, there is one body, and we must hold to these things and not weaken them; so that Gershonite service is essential. But then to support all this in practice and in testimony in the world you need the boards 10 cubits high; you need to be in the gain of Romans, to take the other truths on and to support them.
Ques. Do you find this with Peter and John in Acts 3; and they secured a board, did they not, for the tabernacle?
Rem. If we had in mind that it is the service of the tabernacle we would remember that each form of service is vital; it is not complete without the burden-bearing of Merarite, Gershonite and Kohathite.
G.R.C. That is good. We want the complete thought before us.
M.P.S. If we take care of the principles God will show us how to take care of His assembly.
G.R.C. Taking care of the assembly of God is a scriptural expression.
D.W. Do we see this working out practically in
Timothy? He stood by principles and never gave one up, and he also helped the persons, caring with genuine feeling how the saints got on.
G.R.C. That is very good; Timothy is the exemplification of this kind of thing; he could be sent to Ephesus, and to Corinth, and to Philippi. He was fitted for every good work, whatever kind of meeting he went into; and he certainly did not give up principles, but acted in the best possible way to save the persons.
Ques. Is he linked up with Paul in his approach to the Thessalonians?
Rem. When we have served all day and done all things that have been ordered us we are still unprofitable bondmen until we have ministered to our Master.
G.R.C. It is always well to bear that in mind.