THE ORDERING OF THE CAMP
THE ORDERING OF THE CAMP
JT No book sets out more definitely the assembly in the wilderness than Numbers. The opening words make this very plain. “Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting”. The position is definitely the wilderness, and the tent of meeting is regarded as in it. The original title of this book was, “In the Wilderness”, indicating that in earlier times the position was clearly apprehended. What the book unfolds is the public order of the saints viewed thus. So that we have stress laid on age — twenty years of age, pedigree, then heads of houses — persons of known moral weight amongst the saints. In verse 16 of chapter 1 we read, “These were those summoned of the assembly, princes of the tribes of their fathers, the heads of the thousands of Israel”. Then there is the numbering, showing that everyone is taken account of, and in relation to his father’s house. Each was to encamp by the standard of his father’s house, showing that it is the public order of the saints in their local setting. Thus, it is, in the antitypical setting, the assembly throughout the whole world today, and the order and principles that govern the saints universally. I think we can see the correctness of the order in the place Numbers has in the Pentateuch. Exodus and Leviticus, especially Leviticus, contemplate the inner thing, the place the saints have inside the breastplate; each saint has got a fixed place there. Each saint is especially loved, and in correspondence with this each saint has his own position publicly.
Fl. What would the standard represent today?
JT It alludes to the testimony maintained in any particular locality. The standard would be a military symbol. A locality is indicated, but it refers to the whole testimony, I apprehend. So that my [p. 346] military setting, although local, is universal in its bearing.
Ques Is it to be compared with a flag of victory?
JT It is a military symbol in relation to which we are marshalled, and in relation to which we fight.
K Is the point of responsibility also connected with the standard?
JT Obviously we are to fight in that relation; my position is known in the general military arrangement.
FJr Are these foundation truths?
JT Yes.
B Corinthians, where you have the local thought, is addressed to all that in every place call on the name of the Lord; would not that indicate the banner?
JT Corinthians is the antitype of this book. Thus the position is local. The introduction of Corinthians is: “To the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. The Galatian epistle on the other hand, is addressed to the assemblies which are of Galatia. That is characteristic, but in Corinth it is a locality; that is, the great primary thought is a local assembly in a place, in a city. Then it goes on to say, “With all that in every place”. Universal positions are also in view, so that whilst the assembly in a city has a certain local responsibility, which is left to it, it is not independent; it is “with all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2).
RB Would walking with God in the wilderness, and consequent spiritual intelligence, enable us to raise a standard in the face of the enemy?
JT That is what we come to; walking with God in the wilderness implies this. In this chapter it is a question of whether we are set to walk with God, because it is not only the encampment but the order of [p. 347] the march.
FJr Is that the passage in 2 Timothy 2? “The foundation of God stands ...”.
JT 2 Timothy deals with an abnormal condition. This passage deals with normal conditions. 1 Corinthians is the normal side of things and so is this book. 1 Corinthians and l Timothy run together.
L Things are then in order in this book?
Ques Is there a special colour given to the standard?
JT Each assembly would be distinctive; each would have its own colours, so to speak, but they were not independent; they were correlated.
Sc. In a military setting does the thought of princes being spoken of as heads suggest order and authority, so that we take account of the spiritual judgment amongst the brethren?
JT Yes, they would represent, in the antitype, elderhood. There were to be elders in every city, but there were also to be elders in every assembly, and these are said to be persons known as summoned, as the note says, ‘Those who were habitually called to undertake the matters of the assembly’. They are said to be princes of the tribes of their fathers the heads of the thousands of Israel. They would represent men, not only of official capacity, but of moral qualifications. There were those summoned, meaning that today the Lord would call upon brethren in Mettman, or Sydney, or Cape Town, or New York; He has them under His eye, and He calls upon and uses them according to their ability.
Ques Is Psalm 60:4 in connection with that?
JT Well, that verse shows what a banner means; it is displayed because of the truth. We are dealing here with the elders of the people; we want to get that before us; we want to see that the element of rule amongst the saints is co-ordinated; it is not to be independent.
[p. 348] L What distinction do you make between elders in every city and elders in every assembly?
JT Elders appointed in the city would signify that God was providing against the concentrated evil of the city. It is the provision made where the evil is. The testimony is fortified by elders in that place where evil is concentrated.
FJr Do you include in that all the believers in the town?
JT They are all in the mind of the Lord as belonging to the assembly; but note it is not an elder that is appointed in a city, but elders, so that the idea of a bishop in a city was never in the mind of God; it is bishops or elders. Elders in each assembly is another thought. That enables the assembly to walk. The assembly is to stand on its own feet; each assembly is to be furnished with the means of rule and order, and hence would include assemblies in country districts or small villages. They are all provided for. The Lord had in mind to shut out the hierarchical system; each assembly has to stand on its own feet, and has to be furnished locally. But then the fact that these men could all be summoned at any time means they are co-ordinated.
DrB Why are elders not mentioned in 1 Corinthians?
JT That is a very important enquiry. I think what is in mind in 1 Corinthians is the organisation; while the idea of eldership was supposed in persons of wisdom, yet what is in mind in 1 Corinthians is the organisation, and the organism; that is, all are brought into it. The address is to the assembly, meaning that every member is included in the responsibility, and the inner workings imply an organism, the figure of the human body being used; it is the fundamental thought in church furnishings.
Sc. Would the book of Numbers, opening with the whole assembly, save us from being anything but interdependent? He says, “Take the sum of the whole assembly” before going into detail. Would that suggest that we are very interdependent, each looked at as part of the whole, so that we cannot go on entirely on individual lines; we are part of one another?
JT The whole number is given — six hundred thousand. That is a suggestion of the whole assembly on earth; but the address to Corinth is to the assembly of God in Corinth, and then the whole is addressed as, “With all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”. Hence the address to localities — all are included.
Mm. Do you think the distinction that Mr. Darby makes between the congregation and the assembly has a bearing on what we are saying?
JT There are two words used, according to the note in Exodus 12. The word ‘assembly’ signifies a moral whole, involving responsibility. All may not be immediately available, but the principle attaches to those who are. The word ‘congregation’ means the whole numerically, that is all persons are included, an important matter in regard to what we are saying, because some may exempt themselves from responsibility. Here we have the latter thought because we have the exact number. The number is given in the end of chapter 2 — six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty. Hence what is in mind in Numbers is both ideas: the idea of the assembly in Exodus, and the idea of the congregation. In the idea of the congregation every single person, every christian is responsible; but then, suppose some are absent, not available, can the assembly act? It can, and that is what the word in Exodus 12 means. It is one moral whole that is responsible and can act even though all may not be present: hence it would correspond to what we call an assembly [p. 350] meeting. Some may not be present because of circumstances, but the action is valid without their presence, and it is for them to submit.
RHS Do two or three represent a quorum?
JT Well, exactly. “There am I in the midst” (Matthew 18:20). The Lord is there to support what is done.
JOS Is there anything to be learnt, in that connection, in that all the tribes were not of the same size; some were smaller than others, considerably smaller?
JT That fits in properly with chapter 2 which has in mind sovereignty as to how we are placed. First we have in chapter 1 each tribe numbered, so we have each tribe before us according to its numerical strength; then in chapter 2 these tribes are seen as amenable to being set in relation to others. What is suggested is that there is normal spirituality, involving subjection. Independency is entirely out of the question, so that God takes them up sovereignly. The first tribe mentioned in chapter 1 is Reuben. The first tribe mentioned in chapter 2 is Judah. Now I am in the presence of sovereign arrangement. Am I going to rebel against this? Does it suit me? If I am subject it will suit me, because it is the will of God. Thus, when the Lord cast out the demons from the man according to Luke 5, the man is seen sitting, clothed, and in his right mind at the feet of Jesus. That is the man that can be used in the formation of a local meeting. But he says to the Lord, ‘I would like to go across the lake with You’. The Lord says, ‘My mind is that you stay’, and the man stays there; that is chapter 2; that is: those who are subject to Christ will stay where He places them. So it is a question of the sovereign order of God in the second chapter.
Sc. Is that the great question we have to learn in 1 Corinthians, so that subjection comes in in [p. 351] the end?
JT It is a question of the Lord’s authority, but we learn in this second chapter that according to Romans 12 the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect. It may not seem so at the beginning. It may seem hard. I am placed out at ... Well, it is the Lord’s sovereign will. I should prove that God’s will in that order is good and acceptable and perfect. It may take time for me to find that out, but I shall find it out. Then another thing is I have got to be in Judah’s camp. Judah is given a place here: he is the fourth son of Jacob, but he is given the first place. Well, it says Issachar and Zebulun are to be under his standard, encamping with him. That may test me too. Maybe I do not care so much for Judah, but then it is the will of God, and John says, “He that does the will of God abides for eternity” (1 John 2:17). It is good for me to see that: to abide for ever is a great matter, and I should prove that this arrangement is the very best that can be made.
Ques Why were the Levites not numbered?
JT We have that stated; it is carefully stated that they were selected for a special purpose: in other words, the will of God will work out that if I accept what God does I shall come into the Levitical tribe, because what is meant by the Levitical tribe in this respect is that they are select. In truth they are taken instead of the firstborn of all the tribes, so that the same believers that are seen encamping as numbered in the second chapter are spiritually also Levites, and indeed they are also priests; that is, it is a question of quality. When you bring in the Levites and the priests you come to the line of quality.
JOS Is that seen with Timothy: he was commended by the local brethren, and then Paul takes him and brings him in a practical way, into the Levitical family, and later he says, “I have no man like-minded” (Philippians 2:20) — would that be [p. 352] quality?
JT That is a good scripture to bring forward; it shows how there is promotion and refinement proceeding as we accept the will of God.
Mm. Vessels fitted for the Master’s use, is that the same idea?
JT I think so, we become refined as we accept the will of God. The order of the camp publicly is a very great study, because as we are speaking of it now it works out in our entrance into the most exalted relations. Here is the great thought, the tabernacle is there in the centre, the divine dwelling. The great thought of every lover of God is that you want to be there. God is there in the holiest of all. Someone has access there. It seems as if Moses could go in there at any time. Well, is that not available to me? If I have that in my mind I will submit to the order of God in my public position. My public position may mean more discipline than others have, but that discipline is in order that I might be a partaker of God’s holiness; I am a priest in the true sense. Without holiness no one shall see the Lord, but with it I have access within. But all this shows the wisdom on our part of submitting to the divine ordering of our circumstances, and not finding them irksome and seeking to have them altered, because they are the very best that God can order for us. The tabernacle is in the centre of all the tribes. Judah, and the two tribes with him, are in the east. He has a fine position; he is toward the sunrising. Reuben is down here with two other tribes. He has a good position too, facing towards the south; and Ephraim is behind the tabernacle, he is looking toward the west. That is apt to be depressing; and Ephraim has got to be prepared for that. Dan is toward the north; he gets the cold winds of the north; he has got to be prepared for that. All these positions are divinely ordered. And there is the tabernacle, the divine dwelling. God is shining out on all these [p. 353] positions. The high priest has access within before God; and he has the name of every person in all those positions on his breast. Need I think I will be forgotten? No, I will not be forgotten, my name is there before God; He knows the north winds, so He provides for me. Intercession is made for me according to that. Hence the development; growth is all in that setting and all to perfect us and to refine us so that we might have part in the divine service.
B Titus is directed to labour in a most difficult quarter, in Crete, but he works in the light of the glory.
JT Yes, that is the thing. What you see is the glory of God in the face of Jesus shining in our hearts.
Fl. Why does it say at the end of Deuteronomy, “Let Reuben live, and not die; and let his men be few”?
JT I think he has refinement in mind. I think it means that as living persons we are countable. I do not belong to the mass that cannot be counted. Living persons are distinguishable; they are taken account of one by one, like John’s one hundred and fifty-three great fishes. They are better than a net full of small ones.
Sp. In 1 Corinthians 12:18 it says, “God has set the members, each one of them in the body, according as it has pleased him”.
JT That is the thought.
W “Awake north wind, and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow forth” (Song of Songs 4:16).
JT That shows that in any position I invite the will of God. It will help us that in Romans 5:3 - 5 the apostle says, “We also boast in tribulations”, also “tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope; and hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed [p. 354] abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. The wilderness position implies that we are walking together. God says, “I taught Ephraim to walk”, so that we have the thought expressed in this chapter, first of encampment, then walking. There is encampment and decampment, meaning the assembly is set up and we have our privileges, then it is taken down, and we move on throughout the week, but all in relation to the one thing. The encampment is the great thought, it is privilege, and this governs the whole wilderness journey with its responsibility and toil. The book will open up, as most of us know, wonderful things in regard to the ark, but the general thoughts are in this section. The encampments imply the weekly feature of christianity. We may speak of the saints coming together in assembly on the first day of the week as an encampment. All is in relation to the tabernacle where God is.
Ques You do not look upon a fresh movement as a result of fresh light?
JT Not necessarily, but fresh light may come in as we are together in assembly and this will determine further movements. But normally the saints coming together in assembly implies an encampment, and there is a corresponding decampment when the assembly meeting is over. The fresh light and impressions received will necessarily affect the ensuing journey.
Ques Doing the will of God is spiritually exhilarating — He who does it abides for ever. Will it bring us into that scene where everything that hath breath will praise the Lord?
JT It leads on to the great end, where God is all in all. “Of him, and through him, and for him are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).