“THINKING ONE THING”
Numbers 7:1-17; Philippians 2:1,2
Our brother has been speaking about the God who swore that He would bless His people and bring them in and plant them in the land that He had in mind for them. It is a wonderful thing to know the God who has purposed you for blessing, and know Him as your God who will certainly do this.
These persons in Numbers had been taken out of Egypt by God. In coming out, they had turned at the banks of the Red Sea when Moses had said “stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah” (Exod.14:13); these persons had seen that salvation. They had seen the water, the Red Sea, parted and as a wall on the right hand and on the left (v.22). They had seen the water standing and the dry ground appear where before it would have been mud, and yet at the moment that the waters were divided, the ground became dry to hasten their escape. They knew the God who did that. They knew the God who had prepared them for the wilderness way, in that they were given gifts by the Egyptians so that they came out a rich people, with things suitable to be used in the setting up of the tabernacle; these people had seen all this and knew the God who had done it. They were sure of their God, they were sure that they had been chosen, they were sure that they were God’s people. We were reminded on Lord’s day in relation to the plagues that had come upon the Egyptians, that up to a certain point the children of Israel went through them also, but then there came a time when they were kept from them because God separated them. That was the God they knew.
When we come to Numbers 7, the tabernacle had been set up, and as Moses had received the instruction in the previous chapters, all the families had been named, the order of service had been established and instruction given as to how the ark was going to move. All of that had been made known, and instruction given as to the Nazarite order. But in the midst of all that instruction and history, in the midst of all that the people were doing as they moved forward, we get this chapter which is not a chapter of instruction but rather a chapter that relates to persons who have been moved in heart by the God they knew to bring something by impulse for God and for the service of God. This chapter tells of how the princes acted and what they brought in relation to the tabernacle, and how they regulated themselves. Like the instruction to Timothy, these persons had in principle learned how to conduct themselves in God’s house. It is one thing to know that God is going to bring you in, and it is a wonderful thing to have the certainty that God has set Himself in relation to your salvation, and your blessing, but it is a wonderful thing too to have something that you can offer to God.
It is very interesting to see the dignity with which these persons in Numbers 7 are described. Firstly, it says “And it came to pass on the day that Moses had completed the setting up of the tabernacle, and had anointed it”. Everything was in order, everything was right according to God. We may say that everything was externally right. The priests had been anointed, all the vessels had been made, everything had been put in its place, the incense had been beaten and the oil had been made. When all of that had been done, it refers to “the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers’ houses, the princes of the tribes”. What dignity belonged to these persons because God had made them princes, God had chosen them, and had set them up. These persons were moving in the light of a God that they knew. The first thing these princes brought was what was going to be for the levitical service. The wagons and the oxen which they brought were to help the testimony forward practically as it was going through the wilderness. These princes were practical people – men of God, yes, but practical people – and, beloved brethren, if you are a son of God then you will want to look after the things of God in a practical way. Christianity is a most practical thing because it covers everything that a man or a woman or a child does.
These persons were looking after the things needed in relation to the moving forward of the testimony. It goes on to say that “the princes presented the dedication-gift of the altar on the day that it was anointed”. It is very interesting; this is in a certain sense what the Supper is like. When we come to the Lord’s supper, we take part as those who are forgiven persons, and the Man before you is Christ in all that He is for God. You do not come as a person who is conscious of having been a failure, you come in the light of all that Christ is for God. What a glorious thing that is! What are you going to present to God? You are going to present Christ to God. That is in principle what these princes, the heads of their families, did, and the first thing that they offered was not a burnt-offering, nor was it a peace-offering, nor was it a sin-offering. The first thing that was offered was an oblation, and it was offered in these vessels of silver. They offered what was special for God. They had the spiritual intuition to understand what would please God; that is how these offerings begin. There was no instruction as to what these princes were to bring. There was no instruction that they were to bring wagons, or oxen, or the oblation, or the vessels which they brought. These persons were in tune with the heart of the God whom they knew. What a glorious thing that is, beloved brethren! O to be more in tune with the Lord who saved us. O to be more in tune with the Man of God’s choice. If we were, we would be more like those princes. We would not need instruction, we would not need the bit and bridle spoken about in Psalm 32:9; we would be governed by the glory of the Man of God’s choice.
The princes brought all these things as a “dedication-gift”. The things were precious to them; they were giving something to their God. You can read through all that these twelve persons brought, and they all brought exactly the same things. They all had the same mind because they all knew the same God who had saved them all in the same way. Their dedication-gift was brought after the anointing of the altar, and it was brought because everything was right before God. It could not have been offered until everything was right, but when it was so, then they had the liberty to offer these things.
This is like what Paul wrote to the Philippians. In Philippians 2, he says, “If there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing”. That was set out in those twelve princes. They thought the same thing; nobody instructed them. How did they arrive at it? By the contemplation of the God who had brought them to it.
Beloved brethren, how are we going to arrive at it? We arrive at it by contemplation of Christ. We will only be moving as one as we are occupied with Christ. God has shown that everything He is ever going to take pleasure in is in that Man. If we do not look at Him, we will never reach what Paul wrote, “that ye may think the same thing”. This all happens while we are in the testimony. Then he goes on from that, “having the same love”. It is very interesting that at the end of John 17, the Lord Jesus says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them” (v.26). It is not just that that love is towards us; it is that we have some understanding of what the Father’s love is for Christ. When it says here “having the same love”, it is that you become occupied solely with, and love, the Man whom God loves. That is why Christ says, “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. That is the whole purpose of it, not that you know that you are loved – indeed you do know that you are loved because you are in that Man – but you understand what God has in that Man. Christ had in mind that we would understand how God loved Him and why God loved Him.
Then “that ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul”. This was seen typically in the offerings that were brought by these princes. What an intimate thing that is, to be joined in soul. The only way that you are ever going to be joined in soul is as you are joined with someone else who loves Christ like you do. It is when you have the same Object and think the same way that you become joined in soul. Why? Because your attachment is to a Man who fills heaven’s sphere. That is a real thing. We would have much calmer times if we really knew what it was to be joined in soul, because we would be joined in a Man.
Then it goes on to say, “thinking one thing”. We speak a lot, and rightly so, about unity, but we will never have true unity until we have oneness. You cannot get oneness by unity, but you will get true unity by oneness. You will get it when the characteristics seen in you and the characteristics seen in me are in accord with the Man of God’s choice. Then we will think one thing, not just the same thing. That is why all those princes in Numbers brought exactly the same things in the same vessels and in the same quantities. They did not just think the same thing, they thought one thing. It was in type Christ for God. What an encouragement that is. We began our time with a hymn to the Spirit, and by the Spirit we can take account of Christ as God sees Him. That is what characterises the service of God.
One of the most wonderful things you can have part in is to serve God, and one of the most blessed things is that you serve God in the light of the way that He has been pleased to reveal Himself in Christ. You can bring something to God, and have something for the saints, because that is what it goes on to in Numbers. It goes on to the burnt-offerings and the sin-offerings, and then it goes on to the peace-offerings, which were the largest in quantity as far as the animals go of all those offerings that were brought. In type, the princes brought something to set the saints forward in relation to the Man of God’s choice. Beloved brethren, may that be us. May we be occupied so much with Christ that we turn aside from everything else so that the service of God goes forward for God’s pleasure and brings all the saints with it according to Christ.
May it be so for His name’s sake.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
6 February 2018
T.W. Lock