EXTRACTS
From our side 2 Timothy and Revelation 2 and 3 come first in view of the breakdown; these scriptures are specially written in view of the breakdown. We get to 2 Timothy by seeing the state in Revelation 2 and 3, which gives us the account of things from the Lord’s point of view, so that we may find our whereabouts, and we look for companions. Being found regulated according to 2 Timothy the next thing is I have the Supper, and that is available, if I have another Christian and myself, or two or three. There the love of Christ is before us, and we are entitled in a simple way to take up assembly ground. Now I hope this will not be misunderstood, because it is essential to see it. In our hearts and minds and affections we are entitled to clothe the saints that are available with assembly thoughts, and so we partake of the Supper, not simply in relation to the two or three with whom we walk, but in relation to the whole assembly, otherwise we would be a sect, and we should drop into a sectarian position. The assembly is here and the Lord loves it, and we take the Supper in the light of it, and come in in that way, I believe, to the assembly’s affection for Christ. The Lord says to Philadelphia, “And shall know that I have loved thee”. He is telling her that He loves her.
J. Taylor (Vol. 12, pp.82, 83)
The mystery of the assembly is to bring in the saints as fully qualified to be the bride, and that is what Ephesians aims at. “Till we arrive”, it says, and that is the great thing. It is to have Christ before us, and then every bit of exercise results in a little more; it may be very tiny, but it is a little bit more of conformity to Christ. That is how one finds it in one’s experience. We may go through very heavy pressure, and we wonder why; but if we are with God in it, we pray; we meditate; we seek to get sustenance; and presently we find a little bit of headway has been made, but the result is that there is some additional conformity to Christ, and nothing else counts. That is the gold out of all the refining.
J. Taylor (Vol. 12, p.171)
God could not go up in the midst of a stiff-necked people, and when the people heard this “they mourned; and no man put on his ornaments”. If God’s people find that He is not with them it is well to mourn. To take the low place is always open to them, and it is the first step to blessing. The way divine light has come in as to what is suitable in the present state of things is through the people of God taking a low place, and putting off their ornaments. All around us christendom is putting on as many ornaments as possible, but the wisdom of faith is to take a low place and put them off. They put off their ornaments at Corinth when they got the first epistle. When we do that He opens up a path for those that love Him.
“And Moses took the tent, and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the Tent of meeting. And it came to pass that every one who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp”. Moses realized that the holiness of God required separation from the camp which had become characterized by what was idolatrous, and that each individual who sought Jehovah must go out to the tent of meeting. It is a striking picture of present-day conditions. There is the “camp” today—the outward and public order of Christianity—but it is marked under the eye of the Lord by men rejoicing in the work of their own hands. The Lord is not in the midst of that, and it is realizing this that moves those that love Him. I doubt whether realizing the evils and departure ever, in itself, moves persons in a spiritual way. But when a heart that loves the Lord realizes that it is in conditions which the Lord cannot countenance, the desire is awakened to be where He can be. “Every one who sought Jehovah went out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp”. It ought to be wonderfully good news to everyone who loves the Lord that we can “go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”, Hebrews 13: 13.
The Lord is awakening the hearts of His people everywhere to seek Him. Nothing but affection will set us in movement. I suppose that every believer on earth is conscious of the evils that have come into the Christian profession, but how many remain in the camp! Moses pitched the tent, but it was the working of affection with each one that made them go out. It raises the question with each one of us individually as to whether we know what this means.
It is not that they saw a nice few together, and joined them, but each one went out because he sought the Lord. It is going out to seek Him whose presence cannot be known or enjoyed in the camp. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Those who find the Lord
will find one another, for Moses called it “the tent of meeting”; it suggests a divine rallying point. One would like to raise the question with every believer, Have you sought the Lord, and found Him, “outside the camp”?
It would appear that there were not many who went out. The majority stood at their tent doors, interested in Moses, and looking after him, and seeing the pillar of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, even worshipping, but not going out! They seem to represent those who have reverence for divine things, and are interested in the truth, but who remain in the camp, God-fearing persons, but not knowing the presence of the Lord in its attractive and satisfying power. There is no satisfaction for the Lord in tent-door worship; it does not go beyond our side of things. He wants us in His tent! “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, John 20: 17. There were face to face communications at the Tent of meeting. It makes one think of John 20, when the Lord came into the midst. Each heart there was seeking Him, for they had been gathered by the message He sent His brethren, and they found Him. Is not such a privilege worth going in for? It is the Lord as having gone through death, and in the character of One ascending to the Father, who was known in the midst of His own. How completely it puts one outside all that is connected with “the camp”!
C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Exodus’, pp.283–285)