COMMITTAL
[p. 155] COMMITTAL
The reference to this chapter in Hebrews 9 says, “For every commandment having been spoken according to the law by Moses to all the people; having taken the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant”. We reach the highest point here — it is a chapter of elevation; it comes in at the end of a series of ordinances, beginning with the love of the Hebrew servant (chapter 21), that is, it begins with one who says “I love”, and the end in this chapter is what God will do, in the way of elevation. The idea of committal on our part runs through the chapter, “every commandment having been spoken”, they say, “All the words that Jehovah has said will we do”.
In Deuteronomy we are told that commandments are a heritage; they are not a burden but a heritage. This enables us to see the full force of this chapter of Exodus. In the Hebrew servant you have love in a threefold way: I love my master — that is ascending; I love my children — that is descending; I love my wife — that is horizontal love, as we may say. It is “the breadth and length and depth and height”. It ensures an answer; love goes through the most difficult emergencies. It is a question of love working out here for the will of God in the most difficult circumstances, as suggested in chapters 21 to 23, which is a sure guarantee for every circumstance.
“They saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were work of transparent sapphire”. They saw Him, and what was under His feet — all transparent. The first thing is that we should commit [p. 156] ourselves unreservedly to the commandments of the Lord. As soon as the people say, “All the words that Jehovah has said we will do”, what follows is that Moses wrote all the words of Jehovah, and rose up very early in the morning and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars.
Chapters 21 to 23 show our circumstances down here, but this chapter is the going up; it challenges our hearts as to whether we are prepared to go up In going through difficulties here we will be tested; we have to deal with all these things, but it will not always be so, nor is it always so now; there is an exit from that, but it all has to be faced. Love in the Hebrew servant faces all such difficulties — love in one that has had the ear bored and could have gone out free can face all difficulties. The committal in regard of the difficulties is more connected with the position in Romans — it is the adjusting; everything is adjusted here before we can think of offering. The whole of Psalm 119 is the experience of a man devoted to the commandments of the Lord; and then in Psalm 120 and onwards there are those who will ascend! We may as well face these matters if we are to ascend — all moral affairs have to be adjusted. Obeying from the heart, as in Romans 6. is in regard to the difficulties which have to be faced down here. It is obeying from the heart; there must be committal to what God proposes. The chapter is full of God’s proposals, and the committal, on the ground of adjustment here, enables us to take it on. God is free to take us on, on that ground, too.
So the people committed themselves, and Moses writes the words as if their value is increased by the people’s committal. Then it says he rose up and built an altar and twelve pillars; and then he sent the youths of the children of Israel and they offered up burnt-offerings and sacrificed sacrifices of peace-offerings of bullocks to Jehovah. It should be noted [p. 157] that this all follows the committal of the people. The words are made more valuable in that they can be written now that the people have committed themselves to them. The altar would imply that things are on the line of sacrifice, and the twelve pillars that there is unity; and then the youths would indicate that they are to be on the ground of freshness. The idea of committal is seen in the New Testament, leading up to what we get in 2 Corinthians 3, “looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face”, and in Hebrews, the covenant in relation to the Minister of the sanctuary, so that we can draw near to God.
It is a question of whether we face these things. This chapter shows that Moses acts on their action. He declared the words and now what will they do? There is the committal. So he writes the words down as if they are now valid. Then he seals the signature, so to speak, so that the covenant is valid — it must be accepted on both sides.
Unity in connection with the twelve pillars is an important side of the position, obviously. It comes in after the altar. Unity follows the acceptance of the covenant because it involves the love of God in our hearts, and where that exists we have the basis of unity, not simply unity as in Romans 12 where we are one body in Christ but unity in affection. One body in Christ is simply to show that we are not a body in the sense of freemasonry or Rechabitism, but that we are one body in Christ, and what underlies that is that we all have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.
These difficulties referred to in chapters 21 to 23 would be in relation to us as together, not exactly as individuals. But we are not always dealing with those things; it is a poor thing if we are. There is adjustment for entering into assembly privileges, therefore there is the idea of coming together in assembly.
[p. 158] Corinthians is the fellowship. The covenant is that God has unfolded His love to us, but fellowship is that we are committed to one another. Corinthians is the working out of chapters 21 to 23; Paul refers to the “commandments of the Lord” in 1 Corinthians 14.
Well then, there are the burnt-offerings and the peace-offerings; the first refer to God, sacrifice Godward; the peace-offering refers to what He is as known in our relations one with another. There seems to be a large appreciation (suggested in the bullocks) of our links with one another here. The peace-offerings were bullocks. The greater our spiritual appreciation of one another as being in Christ, the more we shall be ready for this elevation. There are the burnt-offerings and the peace-offerings here, not sin-offerings; that is to say, they love God, we are in love’s circle; the altar and the pillars denote that.
Then the youths would allude to freshness, that heartiness, that spirit, amongst those who love God. It makes the thing attractive, full of freshness and heart! Then they proceed to offer bullocks, showing intelligent, hearty appreciation of Christ. Youthful ness denotes energy, and freshness, and heart. Then the peace-offerings show that peace is there, and freedom from personal feeling, and that we join heartily in what Christ is to God, and what He is to us. Then the blood is put into basons; blood is repugnant to the natural mind. But the blood of the covenant is very full; it implies death, not as anything repulsive to us, but as denoting love, testimony in love. Death is the full testimony of His love: there is abundance of testimony in love. His love covers the whole scene; descending love, ascending love, and horizontal love; to understand the length and breadth and depth and height, and to know the love of the Christ (Ephesians 3). The covenant brings us [p. 159] to a knowledge of God, and makes us responsive in affection.
It is a challenge to our hearts: is it worth our while to take on these commandments? Yes! “All that Jehovah has said will we do”. Moses writes them, so that they have taken on a new value, they are written, they are worth writing. God’s writings must be effective on the subjective side; He does not need to utter them for His own sake, but for our sakes — unfolding His mind and will that we should know them. All that He says we will do, so in that way we commit ourselves. All that has come out in Christ would be a dead letter on earth but for the subjective side in us. God wrote on tables of stone, but that was not what was in His heart and mind; stone is hard material to write on, but what He had in His mind was the writing on the fleshy tables of the heart. So the New Testament brings out the kind of writing material that God has in mind; it is writing on the fleshy tables of the heart. The overcomer in Revelation has writing on him; it is mentioned in connection with Philadelphia, showing that they had understood the covenant, they had understood love, so there is writing material there, and on the overcomer is written “the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God ... and my new name”.
A wonderful thing! And what is the unfolding of His mind for unless for that? Unless there is some response in us, it must all become a dead letter.
So Moses writes down the words after they have committed themselves; and then he built an altar and twelve pillars, and sent youths who offered sacrifices, etc. He must make it as attractive as possible. So here are these youths offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. What is written is that it may remain, and be made valid; the whole scene is made valid, typically it is final on the principle of the death and resurrection of Christ. There is plenty [p. 160] of testimony of love in death; it is the fulness of blood, not simply put on the lintel and the door-post; but in basons — it is the fulness of the thing. There is no fleshly boast in this committal, it is a type, and has a full answer in the saints now; it is all leading up to the idea of elevation. So all this leads up to verse 9, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up”. These are the noblemen. Although there was consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of the children of Israel, yet that is not stressed here. The love of God was known, and there are the lovers of God. The “thousands of them that love me” (Exodus 20: 6) are the nobles, they belong to the nobility! So we see how the nobility went up and saw the God of Israel, and they saw what was under His feet, “as it were work of transparent sapphire, and as it were the form of heaven for clearness ... they saw God, and ate and drank”.
Then verse 12 onwards is what transpired in the six days: “the glory of Jehovah abode on mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud ... . And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and ascended the mountain”. It is a wonderful scene, and I think it suggests the mediator going in, the full thought of ascension. We do not ascend as Moses went up; we go up together, but he went up by himself. Moses going up here alone is more a figure of Christ. The six days denotes what marked the Lord before He ascended. The going up in verses 9 - 11 is before us that we might have ability to ascend, according to the mind of God, in the assembly. It is a question of ascension, that is the great feature of this chapter; there are other things, but all are subservient to the ascending. The cloud covered the mount six days, and on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud;
[p. 161] they see him before he disappears, then the cloud covered him; he went into the midst of the cloud and ascended. That is a glory peculiar to Christ — in all things He must have the pre-eminence, even in going up. In Ephesians He is gone “far above all heavens”, that would be an uncreated sphere; it would denote His deity. In Hebrews He is “passed through the heavens” (Hebrews 4: 14) and “become higher than the heavens”, Hebrews 7: 26. But Ephesians is stronger than that because it says He is ascended far above all heavens. I do not think this in Exodus 24 so much denotes His deity, but He goes up in a unique way; we go up together. He went beyond where they went. But they went up and saw the God of Israel, and “there was under his feet as it were work of transparent sapphire, and as it were the form of heaven for clearness”, literally the ‘body’ of heaven. In verse 12 the Lord says to Moses, “Come up to me into the mountain, and be there”, and then in verse 15, “Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain”, and then again in verse 18 he “ascended the mountain”, so you can see, typically, He goes beyond the saints. The highest elevation we can reach is the third heaven, but He goes up above all heavens! Psalm 24 links with this. But this passage foreshadows the position of the saints, but the saints see the God of Israel, which means that He comes down; and they see the body of heaven under His feet; but Moses goes beyond that — that is, Christ figuratively goes beyond that. In Ephesians 2 we are raised up together and made to sit down together; that is what we are together. But in chapter 4 He ascends, there is power in Him, inherent power, but that is not so with us; we have not that power in ourselves. He descended first into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended above all the heavens. In John 20 He said, “I ascend to my Father and your Father,
[p. 162] and to my God and your God”. He does not say, You are to ascend; it is His unique position. With the saints it is not inherent power; we shall be taken up, we shall be “caught up”, it says. It is an important distinction, because it maintains the pre-eminence of Christ, and we must maintain that in every relation.
The elders suggest experience. But there is our going up, and then the mediator goes further. In the six days Christ is typically in full view, and then goes in on the seventh day. In the opening of the chapter, Jehovah says, “Go up”, but in verse 12 He says, “Come up”. Verse 9 shows that they accepted it, they “went up”.
The privilege indicated in verses 9 - 11 we touch after the Supper normally. The covenant sets your heart free. There is plenty of evidence of love in the basons, the fulness of love. The Supper is the committal in that way, the covenant is accepted. So that the Lord says, ‘It is the new covenant in My blood’; it would touch our hearts. And then the cup — not in the sense of blessing altogether, but to eulogise — we praise what is in it. Matthew and Mark only give the eating, “Take, eat; this is my body. And having taken the cup and given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many”. Not ‘for you’, not in the sense of the church, but for many persons. The meaning is that in Matthew and Mark; it is not simply that we remember the Lord — they do mention what Luke does not mention, that is the going to the mount of Olives, and that corresponds with this movement in verse 9 of our chapter; it requires strength of heart to make that movement. They sang an hymn and went to the mount of Olives. Matthew and Mark mention the eating and the drinking as furnishing the strength and support in our souls.
There is no limit to Christ’s ascending; He is gone far beyond all heavens; we do not know how far He has gone. But we shall never lose sight of Him, in a general way, though we cannot limit Him. It is important to accept things as Scripture presents them. I cannot say that I can see Him there if He goes far beyond all heavens! In relation to the mediatorial system we shall ever have Christ in view. But liberty belongs to divine Persons; He was not always in the view of His own while down here, neither was He when He rose from the dead — He came in and went out among them, it says. You cannot limit a divine Person, but that does not alter the general fact that God is ever present even now amongst the saints. Eternity will be that we will be filled unto all the fulness of God, but we cannot limit divine Persons. We will ever be finite, but we are brought into an environment of infinitude. When He went into the house of the two that were going to Emmaus, He vanished out of their sight; He never came in through closed doors when He was here in the days of His flesh, yet He always reserved His own liberty — He went out early in the morning, He went out at night, He went to the mount of Olives — He was not always with His own. We should understand that He can do things by speaking, as well as with His hands. What will it be in eternity when we are in the environment of infinity, and we finite! We will never be anything else; things will pass before us, but we will be in fixity, filled unto all the fulness of God.
Moses as the mediator, going up alone, is a striking figure of Christ in this chapter; but he is going up in relation to the people, that is the idea of a mediator — He is going up in relation to us. He holds us in relation to a divine system; He holds everything.
The thought of the nobles is to bring out the dignity of the saints; the term is used when they are on the mountain. In verse 1 when they are called to go up [p. 164] the mountain, it is simply the names and the seventy elders, but when they are up there they are called “nobles” (verse 11). It is like Hebrews, “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”, Hebrews 3: 1.
Then it says there was work of transparent sapphire under His feet, indicating that God was above. There is transparency. This chapter is the end of divine overtures; it shows what He has in His mind for us. What follows in this book relates to the building down here, which is to be in accord with what is seen on the mount. The assembly is to be a heavenly institution.
The eating and drinking is suggestive of enjoyment, and they had liberty to do it. There was enjoyment there, in liberty. “On the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand”, that is, they were immune from judgment — “They saw God, and ate and drank”. Seeing God involves the Mediator; it is only in Christ that we can see God. “Man shall not see me, and live”, He says in another place. How can we define what they saw? They saw what was intelligible to them. All this bears on Christ becoming Man, so He says, “He that has seen me has seen the Father”. This was not on a special occasion, but all the time He was with them: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” He says.
As seeing Moses, typically, go up in this unique way, our hearts would be impressed with the greatness of that Person. There is a sense in which He has companions who would like to make a place for Him; but the One who has companions is ever unique in His own Person, and can go where they cannot — that is what comes out in the Acts, “the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight. We will go in another way, He comes for us. He [p. 165] ascended (verse 18) but we go up (verse 9). These are the words in the New Testament.
We are in the environment of infinitude, and that keeps us in our place, and makes us watchful. God has come into my view — I am ever a man, but “filled even to all the fulness of God”. I am in fixity.