THE BELIEVER'S HOUSE
THE BELIEVER’S HOUSE
JT In the passage read, our attention is directed to what is to be brought out of our houses or dwellings. It says in verse 17, “Out of your dwellings shall ye bring two wave-loaves, of two tenths of fine flour; with leaven shall they be baken; as first-fruits to Jehovah”. At the outset, when God set Israel free from Egypt, the houses stood in the forefront. In Exodus we read of the midwives who feared God and did not do according to the command of the king: “It came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses” (Exodus 1:21). That is a very important verse for us, because the houses of these midwives are a pattern for the houses which God builds for us in this Egyptian world. We should surely have been glad to see one of those houses. You would indeed scarcely come across such a house in the street Unter den Linden here in Berlin, because it does not belong there. The builders of Egypt must surely have wondered when they considered those houses, and asked from whence that peculiar style of architecture came. The same applies also to the tabernacle. No builder of this world ever designed such a plan. God had completed the plan for it and as far as the Holy Scripture informs us about it, Moses alone had seen this plan. God showed him the pattern of the tabernacle, but not on the earth, but above upon the mountain and said to him, “See that thou make them according to their pattern, which hath been shewn to thee in the mountain” (Exodus 25:40). The tabernacle was not made after the plan of a modern architect, but according to a pattern which no man except Moses had ever seen. Paul writes to the assembly of God in Corinth that he as a wise master builder had laid [p. 238] the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10). That shows that Paul knew the divine plan and also went and built accordingly.
Even as God has now designed a pattern or plan for His assembly, so He has also a plan for the houses of those who believe in Him, and the houses which God built for those Hebrew midwives brought the divine pattern to light.
In the second chapter of Exodus we have the house of a believer, which, however, carries more the characteristics of a family. Amram, a grandson of Levi, married a daughter of Levi, Jochebed, and she bore Miriam, Aaron and Moses. Amram’s house was more than a dwelling; it was also a place for the bringing up of the children. It says in Acts 7:20, “In which time Moses was born, and was exceedingly lovely, who was nourished three months in the house of his father”. The new-born babes were at that time looked after in the houses of the midwives, but the little Moses was brought up in the house of his father. In Exodus 2, we see how we are to bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). God gives us houses and families to this end.
In Exodus 12, a passover lamb had then to be for four days in every house. Then it was slain and its blood protected all who were in the house and who ate of the lamb. The manna also was gathered every morning by the house-father for his household, “an omer a poll, according to the number of your persons: ye shall take every man for those that are in his tent” (Exodus 16:16). In that way it was specially a matter of the measure of the eating, an omer was reckoned for each individual in the tent. It was thus not a question of age, it was the same measure for children as for adults, an omer. If an Israelite had ten children, then he had to gather twelve omers of manna, one for himself, one for his wife and one for [p. 239] each child, whether infant or bigger. We should perhaps have asked why the children were then to have just as much as the parents, but the answer is very simple, it is, God has only one measure for us all, and that is Christ. He is the food for the youngest as also for the oldest. In Ephesians 4:13 we have the omer, the measure for us all, it is “the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. An omer of manna was also preserved in the golden pot in the ark of the covenant (Exodus 16:33). In Exodus we find the architecture of our houses and that which is brought into them as food, that is, the passover lamb and manna, but in Leviticus and Numbers we also find what is to come out of our houses. If always something is only brought in, but never anything brought out, then our houses are in a poor state.
Ques Does the passover lamb present the Lord in His suffering and the manna the Lord in His humiliation?
JT Yes. The passover lamb had to be four days in the house before it was slain (Exodus 12:3,6). Then it was not only slain, but also roast with fire (verse 8). That presents the sufferings of Christ. The glory of God required that Christ must suffer. After His sufferings, when He came as the risen One into the company of the disciples in Luke 24, they had there the broiled fish ready. That shows that they all had fully experienced with Him His sufferings in deepest self-judgment. That should also be found today in our houses, as the result of self-judgment, that is, the eating of the suffering passover Lamb. In Leviticus 23, the celebration of the passover and of the feast of unleavened bread come first (verses 5 - 8), then it says, “When ye come into the land that I give unto you, and ye reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf [p. 240] before Jehovah, to be accepted for you” (verses 10,11). The sheaf is the risen Christ. After the priest has waved Him before God, you begin to count. “Ye shall count from the morning after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven weeks; they shall be complete”. First of all in continual self-judgment we are to have the sufferings of the passover Lamb before us, then to bring the risen Christ before God, and then after a complete spiritual period, seven full weeks, we can bring something out of these houses. “Out of your dwellings shall ye bring two wave-loaves ... as first-fruits to Jehovah”. The food offering out of their houses was a first-fruit, just as also the wave-sheaf. Out of our houses something is to come forth which is like the risen Christ, the Firstborn from the dead.
Ques Why were they to bring two wave loaves?
JT “Two” speaks of testimony, there should be a suitable testimony to Christ found in our houses, and that in spite of the sin which is in us, for the two wave-loaves were baked with leaven. In baking, the fire does not operate directly as with roasting. By the baking, the working of the leaven comes to a standstill. The fire operates upon the bread till the leaven is no longer active. With the wave-sheaf the baking is not needed, for it speaks of our Lord Jesus as dead and risen. When the corn is cut down, then the sheaves are formed. The reaping refers to Christ’s death, and the waving of the sheaf before God, to His resurrection. Christ personally is infinitely holy; the process of baking and kneading does not require to be undertaken with Him. If we carefully read through Luke 24, we see there the great difference between the risen Lord and the disciples. Sin was in them, but through the baking it was made inoperative and they became first-fruits similar to Him. It is very important for us [p. 241] to weigh that over. We should know what is in our houses and what comes forth out of them for God. God only accepts what resembles the risen Christ, the First-fruits.
Ques What application has the baking for us?
JT It is self-judgment in the power of the Holy Spirit. Seven full weeks and a day are fifty days, but the Lord was only forty days with His own after His resurrection and then He went up to heaven (Acts 1:3). After ten days more the Holy Spirit came down and parted tongues as of fire sat upon each individual disciple (Acts 2:3). We can only rightly judge ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 7 I learn that continual self-judgment is necessary with me, but in Romans 8 I learn the proper exercise of self-judgment by the Spirit. “If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). Then out of our houses we can bring to God the two wave-loaves for which He is looking. If we are always only taking and receiving what we get in our readings and at the same time are bringing forth nothing for God out of our houses, then something is not right with us. The food which we take gives us natural strength and power and God the Creator is in that way glorified. So also by spiritual nourishment which we take, something must come forth for God out of our houses. On the first day of the week we then present that in the assembly.
Ques Did the early christians bring their wave-loaves in Acts 4:24 - 30, as they lifted up their voice to God with one accord?
JT Yes, they said, “Lord, thou art the God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them”. They lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and in verse 31 we read, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”. We also read the same of those who were together in one place at Pentecost, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). Then after the new converts brought their wave-loaves to God by their praying with one accord (Acts 4:24 - 30) the place where they were assembled shook and they also, as it were, experienced their Pentecost; they all became filled with the Holy Spirit. The first great act of faith in Hebrews 11 is to offer to God, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain”. God values in a special way the offerings in Genesis, because at that time He did not yet ask for any but nevertheless He already received some. When we compare the little bit of light that Abel had with the light which we have, we may well be deeply ashamed. Abel was in a certain way a pioneer, a champion of faith. God bore “testimony to his gifts”. The offering seemed with him to have been a continuous thing for he presented several gifts and God bore witness to them. What an honour for us if God speaks of what we do, as the Lord also says of that poor widow, that she had put in more than all (Luke 21:3). There was no request or demand made upon her, but she just did it. The waving of the wave offering takes place before God. We move the sheaf of the first-fruits or the two loaves forwards and backwards before God, so that God alone sees it. Simeon did that when he took the child Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:28). It demands a priestly state with us, for in Leviticus 23 it says of the sheaf and of the loaves that the priest is to wave them before Jehovah (verses 11,20).
Ques In Romans 7:25 do we begin to wave something in a priestly way before God?
JT Yes. By Romans 7 we arrive at priestly service, “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. We bring the wave-loaves in Romans 12:1,
“[p. 243] I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. That is our priestly service.