BROUGHT TO GOD (2)
[p. 158] BROUGHT TO GOD (2)
Exodus 20:1 - 26; Exodus 21:1 - 6
JT Our subject is how we are brought to God. We have looked at chapter 19, where Jehovah Himself states that He has borne the people on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself. And then He makes a proposal to them as to what they would become on the ground of obedience. Then we have Israel taking on the proposal, intimating that they are prepared for the way of obedience, and Moses then brings them out of the camp to meet with God. We dwelt at length on the integrity required in them by God here. It was pointed out, by way of clarification, that Exodus is taken up as typifying the saints, but not in the sense that we are not under law as contrasted with Christianity as in Hebrews 12:18,22, “For ye have not come to the mount that might be touched and was all on fire ... but ye have come to mount Zion”. And so it is clear that these chapters are to be taken up typically, showing how God would have us secured in our profession of relationship with Him. So as brought out of the camp to meet God the people are tested, and in chapter 20 it is formally stated that God brought them out to prove them: “And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not”. That is what this section brings into mind. By the law we have the knowledge of sin. God asserts His rights over man and sin is exposed. We see what sin is in itself, so we must not bring sin into the presence of God. As we go down this chapter, certain other features are introduced. The mediator is viewed as with God, and coming with God to support the people in the presence of God in relation to what is due to Him and His rights.
“[p. 159] And Jehovah said to Moses, Go down, testify to the people that they break not through to Jehovah to gaze, and many of them perish” (Exodus 19:21). It was said that ‘gazing’ alludes to natural ways in the presence of God, disregarding His rights, and also indicates lack of reverence. “Let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear. For also our God is a consuming fire”, Hebrews 12:28,29. These principles run into Christianity; they are what are acceptable to God. A disregard of them is seen in the sin of Korah, also in Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu. It is carrying the flesh into the presence of God. Then it was noticed that God spoke to Moses as to the priests, “And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, shall hallow themselves”, the word ‘priest’ here alluding to the element God brings in in consideration for us to help us, not yet Aaron and his sons. These priests were to hallow themselves lest Jehovah break forth upon them. Where fleshly conditions arise the most spiritual may be affected. No flesh can break through into the presence of God. God sends Moses down again to testify to the people that they are not to break through. Moses, however, has more confidence in the people than God has; Moses expects the people to do what God says, but that still remains to be proven (verse 23). Jehovah knew that they would not abide by His commandments, so He says to Moses, “Go, descend”. And then, “Thou shalt come up, thou, and Aaron with thee”. Aaron was not yet constituted priest; his status was that of a prophet. It is a question of the mind of God, and Aaron knew how to carry out instructions. So Moses and Aaron were to go up. In the last verse of chapter 19 it is said Moses went down to the people and told them.
In chapter 20 the position is clear for God to assert His rights over the people. In this chapter the idea of love is introduced. Then another beautiful [p. 160] feature is in chapter 21, the love of the bondman, a type of Christ. In Romans the love of God is presented first, not our love for God but God’s love for us: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”, Romans 5:5. In Exodus 20 we have the thousands who love God.
HGH In chapter 19 God is brought before us in His greatness in relation to the mount. Chapter 21 speaks of a man who loved. Would that appeal to us on the affection side?
JT Yes. It is love introduced in man in a threefold way. First we have the love of thousands, and then love in one person who has it in a threefold way: he loves his master, his wife and his children. He says plainly, I love. The whole realm, we may say, is filled with love, exemplary love. Typically it is the love of Christ seen as indispensable to the position. That is what chapter 20 requires; a man was to love the Lord his God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself. We get this quoted by the Lord Jesus Himself.
LES Would God’s reference to the thousands of them that love Him be an abstract idea?
JT It speaks of the lovers God has. ‘Thousands’ is a very full thought: thousands of them that love Him. Why should He not have thousands of lovers? Why should He have any other than lovers? In the meantime we get the great example in the bondman, ascending love, horizontal love and descending love. “Be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”, Ephesians 3:18,19. Then, too, the apostle says, “The love of Christ constraineth us”, 2 Corinthians 5:14. So the psalm we had this morning comes in here, how the psalmist’s heart longs for God. He was a lover of God. The psalms serve in that way along with the Pentateuch. We began with the two [p. 161] this morning, the second book of the Pentateuch and the second book of the Psalms. The thought in mind is that we should come into the knowledge of God and corresponding to that the knowledge of sin, and then come into the thought of loving God. David says in Psalm 18:1, “I will love thee, O Jehovah”. It is the resolve to love God.
ANW You were speaking about these principles being found in Christianity, not being set aside. Exodus 20:12, “Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee”, is quoted in Ephesians 6:3. It would be the same principle there.
JT Exactly. It is brought on to the higher level of Christianity. So also in Romans 13:10, “Love therefore is the whole law”.
AB What love is shown in the true Hebrew Bondman over against a Judas whose bowels gushed out!
J.T. What a contrast!
RH Why do we have the thought of mercy introduced in connection with the thousands of lovers of God?
JT Well, I think it is to encourage our hearts to love God: “Showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”. The New Testament opens up in the fullest way the great subject of love. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”(1 John 3:16). What will God not do for His lovers?
AB The end of the apostle’s ministry at Corinth was that they should be lovers of God.
JT That thought would underlie both epistles. The first epistle as bringing out the condition at Corinth runs very close to this section. The Lord says to Paul, “I have much people in this city”(Acts 18:10), but lovers of God were in His mind. Paul said later, “If [p. 162] anyone love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha”, 1 Corinthians 16:22.
LES Does Romans 7 help us in becoming lovers of God constitutionally?
JT Romans 7 refers to the chapters before us. It is the working out in the believer’s experience of the effect of the law as exposing sin in him. “By law is knowledge of sin”. God’s thought is to the end that sin might become exceeding sinful in our eyes, that we should judge it and refuse to serve it. So that the experience described in Romans 7:25 leads the writer to say, “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law”. The Holy Spirit enables him to maintain that. The flesh would serve sin’s law. Exodus typically lays the foundation for drawing near to God.
Rem Sometimes there is a great deal made of love at the expense of keeping the commandments. Keeping the commandments helps to preserve us in the love.
JT That is seen in verse 6: “Shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”. Thus the law is not made void. Love is “the fulness” of law. Paul says, “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14:37. In Exodus God raises the question of this great subject of love. “No one has seen God at any time: if we love one another. God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us”, 1 John 4:12. In Deuteronomy we get, “And take great heed to your souls (for ye saw no form on the day that Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb from the midst of the fire), lest ye corrupt yourselves”, Deuteronomy 4:15,16. We are to learn to know God as presented in Christ. We are to love God whom we have not seen. The keeping of the [p. 163] commandments helps us in this. I know I love God because I keep His commandments.
HGH Why is the thought of judgment brought in here? There is the showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Him, but the judgment comes prior to that.
JT The law is mainly prohibitory, and hence the evil is more prominent. By the law, as we have noted, is the knowledge of sin. Paul says, “I had not known sin, unless by law”(Romans 7:7); and again, “In order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful”(Romans 7:13). The thought is therefore that we should know sin and judge it and be free from its power through the death of Christ. In the New Testament we have the positive side of the law. The first commandment is love for God, and the second love for one’s neighbour. All the law and the prophets hang on these commandments. In giving the law God was there in all that He is, but not yet “in the light”. Indeed it is said here that Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. This marked the moment as compared with Christianity as seen in Hebrews 12. But there was light as in the second giving of the law, Jehovah came down and passed before Moses’ face and proclaimed, “Jehovah, Jehovah God merciful and gracious”(Exodus 34:6). The positive is before the negative there; when Moses came down from the mountain his face shone. But in the first giving of the law there was severity; Paul uses the word, the “severity of God”(Romans 11:22). In connection with the gospel the most terrible severity is revealed, “wrath of God from heaven”, Romans 1:18. In this chapter he speaks of the righteousness of God as also revealed, righteousness of God and wrath of God. The wrath of God revealed from heaven and the righteousness of God in the gospel. God would have us to know Him. We are apt to think wrongly of God. In a great disaster David encouraged himself [p. 164] in the Lord his God and God gave him a great victory; all that was apparently lost was recovered. Scripture says, “And there was nothing missed by them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken: David brought all back”, 1 Samuel 30:19.
ANW The wrath of God is revealed against impiety and unrighteousness. I suppose that would be wherever it was found, even amongst us.
JT Yes. Anathema Maranatha would be the strongest expression of wrath you can get. It means accursed at the coming of the Lord. Regarding the legalists spoken of in Galatians, Paul says, “Let him be accursed”, Galatians 1:8.
Ques Would you say that enters into our care meetings?
JT You mean Anathema Maranatha. Well, the brethren are characteristically like God, they cannot tolerate sin any more than God can. The passages just quoted show that, also passages such as 2 John 9,10 and 2 Corinthians 11:12,15.
LES How does all this enter into the care meeting?
JT Well, righteousness must prevail. But while sin is sin, whether in a Christian or an unbeliever; the Christian as disciplined is regarded as one to be helped by the discipline “that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”. But the apostle speaks of some among the saints at Corinth that were not Christians. There a man is judged for his crime. “For I, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as present, to deliver, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (ye and my spirit being gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ), him that has so wrought this: to deliver him, I say, being such, to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus”, 1 Corinthians 5:3,5. You cannot have [p. 165] anything plainer than that. The man is put under discipline according to his crime, but in order that his spirit may be saved; the flesh is to be destroyed; God uses Satan to that end.
CB “Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh”, Jude 23.
JT You love the person abstractly, but hate his garment as spotted by the flesh.
RH Canticles refers to “flames of Jah”, Song of Songs 8:6.
JT Yes, the only reference to Jah in the whole book. Divine jealousy is in mind.
ANW God speaks of Himself in this chapter as a jealous God; and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2, “I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God”.
JT The epistles to the Corinthians are strongly linked with this chapter in Exodus. God’s commandments are contemplated in both. “On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep”, 1 Corinthians 11:30. Those spoken of are real Christians who failed to judge themselves. Even Ananias and Sapphira would be real Christians, but the flesh in them had to be destroyed.
APr Paul would bring out the spirit of the mediator.
JT Yes, showing the compassion God has for His people. But He has not any compassion on the flesh in them, as we have noted in these epistles. “But if we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world”(1 Corinthians 11:31,32).
APr In verses 18 and 19 the people are afraid of God.
JT Well, their knowledge of God is not completed yet. The passage reads, “And all the people [p. 166] saw the thunderings, and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off, and said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die”. They do not know God yet; God is testing them. Deuteronomy enlarges on all this. Here “Moses said to the people, Fear not”; he knew God. As mediator he is on God’s side and on our side. People were to realise that they were having to say to God. “And Moses said to the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you, that ye sin not”. God is before Israel on the mount in this awe-inspiring and solemnising way to bring about a spirit of judgment of sin in them. The people stood afar off and Moses drew near to the obscurity where God was.
APr David put himself in the hands of God when given a choice as to the judgment that should come upon him at the time he numbered the people. He knew God and thus confided in Him.
JT You are alluding to 1 Chronicles 21:9,13, where Gad, on God’s behalf, offered three alternatives. It brings out the knowledge David had of God. We were speaking this morning of Ziklag. David encouraged himself in the Lord his God, the God he knew, and he obtained a great victory. So in this case David judged rightly, because God relented; He said to the angel, Withdraw thy hand. So what is before us today is that we might know God, and, as knowing Him, prove what sin is in ourselves and how hateful it is to God. Sin is intolerable to God, and as I learn God in this way it is intolerable to me.
HGH It is absolutely necessary that I am divinely taught in this way in order to appreciate this character of holy love.
JT In Romans 5 we have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. That is a great leverage for [p. 167] God in the heart, His love shed abroad by the Spirit. The Spirit is the great power in operation. Romans 8 contemplates that there are those who love God.
AHy Is Daniel a type of lovers of God?
JT Yes, a very fine one. David, too, who said in Psalm 18:1, “I will love thee, O Jehovah”. It is set as a song in the historical account in 2 Samuel, but he prefaces it here with “I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength”. Later he says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting”, Psalm 139:23,24. The Psalms help us greatly as working out the teaching of the Pentateuch in the saints.
LES It would come out in Jeremiah: “Righteous art thou, Jehovah, when I plead with thee; yet will I speak with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they at ease that deal very treacherously? Thou hast planted them, they also have taken root: they advance, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, but far from their reins. But thou, Jehovah, knowest me; thou hast seen me, and proved my heart toward thee”, Jeremiah 12:1,3. What about the prophets in relation to the Pentateuch?
JT Well, they represent God in calling the people back on the one side to the law, announcing judgments on those who disregard His rights. God says He rose up early to send them, a touching word. The large number of them, the divine pains shown in sending and the divine principles and truth set forth by them, coupled with pleadings of love all testify to the wonderful patience of God. Thus, in general, Moses represents the rights of God in His love for His people, the prophets the patience of His love. Hence the immense importance of [p. 168] prophetic ministry.
ANW Could a sister serve in a locality, holding the position for God, as you have been speaking of the prophets?
JT I think so. That is how the elect lady stands out. John commends her and her children whom he loved in the truth, “The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth, for the truth’s sake which abides in us and shall be with us to eternity ... . I rejoiced greatly that I have found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received commandment from the Father”. He then goes on, committing the principle of discipline into her hands. He says in verse 7, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, they who do not confess Jesus Christ coming in flesh — this is the deceiver and the antichrist”. Then in verse 10, “If any one come to you and bring not this doctrine” — showing what can come into a locality — “do not receive him into the house, and greet him not; for he who greets him partakes in his wicked works” (2 John 1). See how much is laid upon one person and that a sister, how the truth may be maintained by one in any locality. We see in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, especially Timothy, what a sister may be in God’s service and how she is to be honoured accordingly. She can be put on the list at the age of sixty for temporal care by the assembly.
RH Do you mean to say if there is one such brother or sister in a locality that the position can still be held?
JT Yes. We must not abandon the position because of fewness of numbers or because of conflict. God would not have the position abandoned, He will support assembly qualities. It is a question of the altar. In the book of Ezra they set up the altar in its place because of fear of the people of the countries. It is not [p. 169] a question of numbers, but of the altar. God would protect the altar.
ANW By refusing an entrance to evil teachers the elect lady keeps the way open for the Lord Himself.
JT Yes, maintaining purity and the truth in her house. How useful the house of such a sister would be!
Ques Would there also be a point of recovery in one such person as well as maintenance of the truth?
JT I love to think of the sisters in M — — , who kept the door open for years although there was no brother there. I often refer to them. It is very poor and humbling when the position is given up that integrity and energy could hold.
APr It is a question of knowing God. You will continue as knowing God.
JT Yes, as a lover of God you will stand.
RH Is that why the altar is brought in?
JT The time for it has come. “And Jehovah said to Moses, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: Ye have seen that I have spoken with you from the heavens. Ye shall not make beside me gods of silver, and ye shall not make to you gods of gold”. See how abhorrent the thought of idolatry is to God. “An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice on it thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen: in all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee, and bless thee”. This shows God’s interest in the people. He is not going to be always on mount Sinai; He is going to come to them, “In all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee”. God will accept the offerings of His people on the altar which they make unto Him, where He causes His name to be remembered. He will come to them and bless them.
[p. 170] APr Is this the primary thought of the sanctuary?
JT It is leading up to it. These chapters are the preparation for the service of God. This altar is not yet the altar of the tabernacle or the temple. Abraham made an altar to God; God did not tell him to do that. Now He is telling His people to make Him an altar. Well, what kind of an altar are they to make? — an altar of earth. The altar of earth would have the incarnation in mind. This same God, in truth, here Himself in manhood. A pause is called for here; like the word ‘Selah’ in the psalms.
Then Jehovah goes on, “And if thou make me an altar of stone”. This is a commandment, contingent on their making Him an altar of stone. The altar of stone is progressive, coming from the people but regulated by God. Typically, it is Christ as the Son of God, Christ apprehended as risen.
ANW Would all this indicate our increased knowledge of God? The altar of earth is in connection with where God comes, but further the altar of stone is brought in.
JT Quite so. I think the idea of earth must go back to the creation. God made man of earth. It would prove a very interesting study to pause and look into the use of earth by God, Christ as come in flesh. “And confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit”. Jesus Christ was come in flesh and the Spirit of God justified it. And then it says, “has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory”, 1 Timothy 3:16. The mystery of piety includes all this. John 9 teaches the great truth of the incarnation in a striking and touching [p. 171] way.
AB-m What had you in mind regarding the moistened earth?
JT Well, it is not ordinary earth. “But a mist went up from the earth, and moistened the whole surface of the ground”(Genesis 2:6,7). This is mentioned immediately before the formation of Adam, whose name signifies that he was made of earth. “Dust of the ground” agrees with this, only it is intended to be humiliating in view of man’s sinful history. Moistening alludes typically to an action of the Spirit.
RH Would there be a link with Hebrews 10:20, “The new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh”?
JT Well, I think so. We have to pause and consider this subject, look into it carefully, then we shall find it out. One of the things in the instruction is to pause and look into matters.
LES Would Psalm 8:4, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”, help?
JT Yes, I suppose it would. There are two words for ‘man’ in that verse. The second is man as made out of earth, the first is Enosh which means mortal, weak creature. They bring in two thoughts. What is before us as to the altar of earth would allude to something God uses for His own purposes and now He is directing the saints to use it. It must be understood from its context. It clearly has reference not to “dust of the ground”, but to humanity as in Christ.
LES “What is man?” — that would be feeble man. Then, “And the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and splendour. Thou hast made him to rule over the works of thy hands; thou hast put everything under his feet: sheep and oxen, all of them, and also the beasts of the field; the fowl of the heavens, and the fishes of [p. 172] the sea, whatever passeth through the paths of the seas. Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
JT That is Adam — the word signifying earthy. But it is evidently Adam in the sense of dignity as an order of being. Here it is Christ as Son of man. See what God says about Him; then see what God says to us. “An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice on it thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen: in all places where I shall make my name to be remembered, I will come unto thee, and bless thee”. In other words God would say. They are mine and I am coming to them and will bless them. He is coming, what an incentive! He will not restrict Himself to the mount; He is coming to His people. Lovers of God rejoice in this.
LES “Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
JT That is it. He will have good times with His people and they will have good times with Him.
AB Why the personal pronouns: “Thy sheep and thine oxen”?
JT It conveys the idea of sacrifice. While it was in thine hand, Peter says to Ananias, was it not thine own? He was making out that he had given all, whereas he was holding something back.
AB God takes account of the sacrifice in relation to the offerer.
JT God sees you giving. Are you giving to make a show or are you giving wholeheartedly as a worshipper of God? The worshippers are measured (Revelation 11:1).
CB Would the altar of earth indicate how near God will come to us?
JT It is a familiar thought. God speaks from the mount, but now He comes near to His people; indeed according to chapter 25 He would have a [p. 173] dwelling-place in their midst and He would speak to them there. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth”, John 1:14. The word there is ‘tabernacled’. He was here as dwelling amongst His own.
CB God comes into this position to save man.
JT You can see how it works out in Jesus. “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”. The disciples were around the Lord Jesus in affection. And what did they see? — the Only-begotten with the Father. John 14:21,23 carries this through to the present time.
Ques Would Philippians 2 be any part of the altar of earth?
JT It would. Two important passages link up especially with what we have here: the one just quoted, “The mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit”, and Philippians 2:6,8, “Who, subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. “Taking his place in the likeness of men”. Himself the Creator, takes His place in the likeness of men, amongst men as a Man, at first without special distinction outwardly, ‘Nor yet in triumph passing’(188:4).
Ques The accompanying exaltation would then be in line with the humbling?
JT Exactly, and this would accord with the altar of stone, “And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy sharp tool upon it, thou hast profaned [p. 174] it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon”. Jehovah is now bringing forward certain thoughts as connected with the altar of stone provided by them which is an advance on the altar of earth. The stone would typify Christ risen; no sharp tool was to be lifted upon it.
LES Do you see the two thoughts in Philippians, the altar of earth, and then the altar of stone — God hath highly exalted Him?
JT Yes. As growing in the truth we are able to proceed to another altar. Colossians would correspond. It is a safeguard against “vain deceit”(Colossians 2:8). Colossians is resurrection, not ascension. It is spiritually progressive, believers there are viewed as risen with Christ and quickened with Christ. The Colossians had never seen Paul’s face in the flesh — they had got along well nevertheless. They had got along better than the Corinthians with whom Paul had spent much time. But then something someone says to Paul leads him to see that the Colossians had become exposed to a certain danger. Epaphras combated in prayer for them that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. He was one of them and knew them (Colossians 4:12). Their danger was philosophy and vain deceit. There is the principle of combat in the letter to Colosse. “For I would have you know what combat I have for you”(Colossians 2:1). So the ‘if’ in Exodus 20 regarding this altar suggests that the people might or might not make an altar of stone. Be sure there are no human innovations. God will not have them. He intimates that there is to be great care on this point.
LES What is your thought about the last verse?
JT “Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon”. Well, that is Christendom with its cathedrals and high altars. The Church of England has followed Rome [p. 175] in all this religious show. It is human nakedness exposed in the things of God; God utterly refuses it.
AB The principle underlying the altar is the idea of the offering.
JT Yes. God is helping us in all these beautiful suggestions in connection with altars, causing His name to be remembered. He says, I will come there. No human suggestions can be allowed. The altar must be made as God prescribes it; God’s service depends upon this.
AB-m Would the nakedness here be linked with the nakedness of Laodicea in Revelation?
JT Yes. She says, “I am rich, and increased with goods”(Revelation 3:17). The Lord counsels her to buy from Him white garments so as to be clothed that the shame of her nakedness should not appear.
CB The Romish church is marked by fleshly refinement in regard of its services.
JT Yes, and what is required must be provided. Look at Babylon in Revelation 18! See the might of her luxury! See how the commercial world is linked up with her! Note the fine things that enrich her! Those who represent her everywhere seek to have the best, including the real estate sites.
RH Do you think what you have said regarding the altar of stone should be a challenge to us in regard to the service of God? We must not have things pre-arranged in our mind, otherwise there may be great heights reached but without power.
JT Yes. Taking quickening and resurrection as objective truths only illustrates this. Paul says, “Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us go on to what belongs to full growth”(Hebrews 6:1). We must have a spiritual state corresponding with the truths we bring into our services in the assembly. “Quickened with Christ” is a present reality; and Paul sought to attain to the resurrection from among [p. 176] the dead, and pressed forward for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.
Rem Let us have something now about the Hebrew bondman.
JT That thought is needed to finish our subject for this reading. It is in type a perfect expression of love, and is set here in relation to the teaching of Exodus. It is the testimony of love, ascending love, and horizontal love and descending love; the whole sphere is, as it were, filled with love. It is tested love, too, in that the bondman says plainly, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. It says, “But if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free; then his master shall bring him before the judges, and shall bring him to the door, or to the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall be his bondman for ever”. We have not had any lover of God like this one yet. Typically it is Christ, as we all know. We have had the altar of earth, but this is Jesus as the Bondman. His love is now definitely before us; we are “to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge”(Ephesians 3:19). The whole house of God is filled with this thought; it leads up to priesthood. Aaron is called to priesthood in chapter 28. Love must underline priesthood. Aaron was Moses’ brother and he and his sons were appointed to minister to Jehovah in the priest’s office. The habiliments mentioned refer to the thoughts of God about them.
Rem You mean that, God having secured love in this perfect way, priesthood is intelligible.
JT Yes. We have had priests in chapter 19, but now we have the glorious Person (typically Christ) in chapter 28, and his sons. As we have seen, Aaron had the status of prophet, but now he is priest. Christ was Prophet, as seen in the gospels, and also Priest; He is “a great priest over the house of God”, Hebrews 10:21.
Ques Have you any thought as to why it says, “If thou buy a Hebrew bondman”? Is it a part of the fixed ordinances?
JT Yes. The law as to the Hebrew servant begins this section, chapters 21 - 23. Typically it covers Christianity, the laws applicable to our own dispensation. It is the purity of love thus expressed; Christ loves and serves for ever. It leads to the section which we may look at tomorrow. We are now on the footing of love, seen in a morally great Person. Aaron is the official side; he is said to be Moses’ brother in chapter 28, which means there is a family link between them. Christ is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Hebrews tells us. Everything is in His hands and He loves in every direction, Master, wife and children. In chapter 28 He is clothed with the habiliments that denote what He is and the thoughts of God about Him. What a Person He is! He has a family. He loves His children; He loves His wife — there is a touch of the assembly there. Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar are to be clothed with priestly garments, too, as of the priestly family.
LES Love leads in the way of surpassing excellence.
JT It is a question of divine thoughts, of serving God acceptably in love. The Bondman, the great Lover, has offered that one sacrifice, He has laid down His life because He loves. Love in Christ is one of the greatest thoughts you can get. “To know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”, Ephesians 3:19.
HGH The greatness of it impresses you, He says distinctly, I love.
JT There is no doubt about it — He loves.
CB Why is it said, “His master shall bring him before the judges”?
JT These are officials having to do with moral things, so that the position is legally established. As we have seen, this comes under the head of “judgments”.
Ques Is there any link with the love in John 13? “Having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”, John 13:1.
JT Quite so.
Rem It is wonderful to see the Master gets love, the wife gets love and the children get love from this bondmanship.
JT What a heart is the heart of Christ! “And to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”. “The love of Christ constraineth us”(2 Corinthians 5:14).
ANW The point to see here is that this is voluntary love.