CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP IN THE WILDERNESS

CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP IN THE WILDERNESS

Numbers 1:1-4; Numbers 2:1,2; Numbers 2:34; Numbers 5:1-3; Numbers 6:1-12; Numbers 10:33-36

I wish to speak of Christian fellowship in certain features of it as presented typically in these passages I have read. You will notice that the book commences with the first day of the second month in the second year after they were come out of Egypt. On the first day of the first month after they had come out of Egypt, the tabernacle was set up in all its parts and anointed, and the service of God in the tabernacle was commenced. God had said earlier through Moses to the people, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me a heave-offering,” Exodus 25:2. They were to bring certain offerings of gold and silver and brass and byssus and other things, and He said, “they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them,” verse 8. And that sanctuary was completed, it was set up and anointed on the first day of the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt.

All this has an anti-typical meaning, dear brethren, because what God would convey to everyone of us is that if He has delivered us from this world, and I trust everyone here is delivered from the world, for the Lord Jesus gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world, and indeed, as it says in Titus, that he might “purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works,” Titus 2:14. He has no intention of leaving us without an interest. He intends to furnish all His saints with an interest which is to command them the whole time that they are in this world. And that interest is His dwelling place, to be defended and to be maintained and to be carried, and in which He is to be served. I think, if you will give a moment’s consideration to it, you will agree that it is a very great matter that God should look to us, His people, to provide the conditions suitable for Himself to dwell among us and walk among us. Then those conditions having been provided, He looks to us that we should defend the position, because it is sure to be attacked. Nothing that is of God in this world will escape being attacked, as long as we are here, for we are in the presence of hades’ gates, we are in the presence of the power and wisdom of Satan, in opposition to what is of God. So you may rest assured that anything and everything that is of God in this world will be exposed to attack; but in view of that, the saints are called upon, not only to provide the conditions suited to God for Him to dwell among us, but to defend them, to maintain them. Then, further, that in His house, God is to be served according to instructions which are given to us in full in the book of Leviticus, a book which has in view our drawing near to God, and what is to mark those who do draw near to God. And as we shall see, I trust, in a moment, this testimony to God, which consists in His dwelling among His people and being served among them, is to be carried, carried through the world, that is to say, it is to be characterised by movement. Now all this is what the first part of the book of Numbers has in view.

The book of Numbers is divided into three parts; the first ten chapters give us the people of God set together and moving together in the wilderness according to God’s mind; it answers to the first epistle to the Corinthians, “the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours,” chapter 1: 2. That is, the position in view is the people of God here in the presence of men as the assembly of God, and they are to maintain all that is due to God, and pleasing to Him in that position, and the first ten chapters of Numbers give us instruction in view of that position. Then Numbers 11 to 21 give us the exposure in one form or another of the flesh, in its incorrigibleness, in order that we should come to it that what we need is the Spirit of God, and that the only way to be here for the pleasure of God is by availing ourselves of the Spirit of God, and the only way to enter into the land to enjoy the things that God has prepared for them that love Him, is in the power of the Spirit of God. So the second section of the book of Numbers is intended to bring us to feel the need of the Spirit so that we yield ourselves wholly to Him. And then the final section of the book of Numbers, from chapter 21 onwards, has in view the entering into the land.

Well now, this afternoon we are dealing with the first section of the book of Numbers, and as I was saying, on the first day of the first month of the second year the tabernacle was set up in the midst of Israel; it was anointed, and the service of God in it was instituted. That typifies the assembly. We must recognise, dear brethren, that the truth of the assembly as it was set up by the apostles, has been at one time entirely lost, but we are living in days in which God has recovered the truth; He intends that every feature of the truth should be livingly in expression among God’s people, and hence it is for us to pay great attention to the truth of the assembly, because the assembly is the interest which God has provided for His people to be thoroughly committed to, throughout the whole of their life down here. And so one month afterwards (the tabernacle having been established and set up in the midst of the people, they could take account of the position, and that is what God would have us do) God calls upon Moses to take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel; it was the males of twenty years old and upward that were to be numbered. That does not mean that these matters of which we are speaking are limited to brothers, nor does it mean that no brother or sister is to take them up until he or she is literally twenty years of age. Far from it! The males in Scripture represent the side that speaks of responsibility and the readiness to accept responsibility, and the readiness, so to speak, to go to war, for what is contemplated in this chapter is a militant position, it is a question of the defence of the testimony, being ready to stand for it. Hence every sister as well as every brother is contemplated as ready to accept responsibility, to play her part, or play his part in the defence of the testimony; that is, in the maintenance, with the brethren, of conditions suited to God’s dwelling place amongst us, being zealous to preserve it against every obtrusion of evil whatever form it might take. Twenty years old indicates just a certain measure of maturity, but not much so to speak; it is not an infantile age, obviously, nor is it exactly the age of full maturity. It means that God wants us from our earliest years. When we have passed the stage of babyhood, when we have passed the stage of childhood, God contemplates that we should be available to play our part in the defence and maintenance of the testimony here.

And so Moses was told to number them, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; it is a question of the defence of the testimony, and when I say the defence of the testimony, all that it really involves is maintaining what is due to the name of the Lord Jesus, what is pleasing to Him. If Satan gets in, if he seeks in some way to corrupt or mar the testimony, he does it by introducing among the saints something that is not according to the truth. It may be some false teaching, it may be some evil practice; but at any rate, it is something which is out of keeping with what is due to God, or what is due to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And hence the defence of the testimony is not to be regarded by those who are young amongst us as something that they cannot have part in. The Lord contemplates that they are to have part in it. He looks to them to have part in it. It is simply a question of being in divine things vitally, and being concerned that by the grace of God we will maintain, and with the brethren, what is due to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, if you read the first part of the first chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, you will find constant references to “our Lord Jesus Christ.” It says, “God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,” verse 9. This position that the first chapter of Numbers contemplates is a fellowship, because all the children of Israel were to be drawn to have their part in it; one common interest was to command them all. And therefore it suggests the idea of fellowship, a fellowship, you might say, over which Moses presided. The fellowship to which we are called, beloved brethren, is a much more distinguished fellowship, it is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, a fellowship over which no less an One than the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, presides. His name is called upon it, His name gives character to it, it is a question of what is due to Him that is to be maintained by us. And hence the wonderful distinction and privilege of having part in true Christian fellowship, when we see that it is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now, they were to be numbered, it says, after their families. It is important to notice that, dear brethren, because the thought of families brings in love. The family side of matters is to predominate in all connected with the Christian fellowship. And so at the end of the first epistle to the Corinthians, an epistle which deals with what we call administrative matters; the apostle says, “Let all things ye do be done in love,” 1 Corinthians 16: 14. The saints as set together in fellowship are intended to be together, truly together, in bonds of love. We are taught of God to love one another; it is innate in us to love one another as born of God, but then we are to be active in it. We are to abound in it more and more. There is nothing so calculated to exclude evil, as to be found going on together, united together in love. And the apostle was concerned about that in writing to the Corinthians. You might have thought that in speaking to them, he would have spoken at once of the terrible evil that was existent in their midst, but he does not. The first thing he addresses himself to is the state of disunity that existed amongst them, because if a state of disunity exists amongst the saints it is disruptive of fellowship and provides the easiest possible conditions for Satan to get in. Hence the family side of the matter is brought in first, that is to be in mind. Then, as I said, we are taught of God to love one another, but we are to be concerned to abound in it more and more. Then it says, “by the number of the names, every male, according to their polls,” verse 2. Now I can understand that as the children of Israel came forward, one by one, to be numbered, God would say, There is another one upon whom I can rely; they would come personally under the eye of Jehovah as those upon whom He could rely to play their part in the maintenance and defence of the testimony. Is that not something for us to look to, dear brethren? If there are those who belong to the Lord Jesus and have the Holy Spirit, it is a question of being available to the Lord as one among many upon whom He relies to defend all that is due to His name in a world of evil. The opportunity for it will soon be gone. The truth of the assembly has been recovered to us, it has taken form in many places; it is here in expression in Melbourne and in many other places in a similar way. It is a great privilege to come forward and have part in the maintenance of what is due to God and due to the truth; it is a universal fellowship, it is a question of yielding oneself to it, and taking up one’s part, in this grand fellowship, the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

And then in the numbering of the people, Aaron was identified with Moses, and also a chief father of each tribe, “And with you there shall be a man for every tribe, a man who is the head of his father’s house,” verse 4. All that is intended to encourage us, to make us realise that we shall find support as we yield ourselves to the claims of the Lord in these matters. Moses represents the lordship of Christ. There is the authority of the Lord over us, that must not be despised, it is a serious matter to despise the authority of the Lord. It says, “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” 1 Corinthians 10: 22. The authority of the Lord is asserted for our salvation and our preservation. The commandments of the Lord are intended for our preservation, they are not to be disregarded. Sometimes we hear of persons abstaining from breaking bread; why do they do that? There is no authority for it; they may think that they prefer to be free, to do as they like. Is not that a matter to take account of seriously, is that proper to Christianity? Is any Christian free to do as he likes? Has the authority of the Lord no place with us? The Lord Jesus is established as Lord over us, so that we can be delivered from every form of self-will, from every form of lawlessness, and be held here for the pleasure of the blessed God. And so there is the authority of the Lord, and it says, “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread and drink of the cup,” 1 Corinthians 11: 28. There must be no looseness about these matters, dear brethren, for we are dealing with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He is Son over God’s own house, and He is jealous for the pleasure of God; He is jealous for the holiness of God’s house, and we must not provoke the Lord to jealousy; we are not stronger than He. We owe a debt to the Lord Jesus that can never be repaid, and the least thing we can do is to yield ourselves to the rights and authority of the Lord Jesus, and to be found here in the path that He calls His own saints into. But if Moses represents the authority of the Lord, Aaron represents the priestly support of Christ; he brings in the side of sympathy, grace and support. Both of these we shall find in the Lord Jesus, so that there is in that way abundant provision for every one to yield himself to the claims of the Lord, that we should have our part in the defence of the testimony of God in this scene. And then there is the head of every tribe. That is to say it brings in the element of sympathy and interest in the local company, and also the example, for those who are elders are intended to be examples to those who are younger. It is a matter for every brother, every sister, who is getting older in point of years, to face this matter, that the older ones among us are intended to be an example to the younger, and an encouragement to them, too. If we are not, we should get to God about it, because we are intended to be an example and an encouragement to those who are younger. And so all these things are provided in connection with this great matter of numbering.

Well then, in chapter 2 we find the divine ordering in relation to the fellowship; it says, “The children of Israel shall encamp every one by his standard, with the ensign of their father’s house; round about the tent of meeting, afar off, opposite to it shall they encamp.” And as you read down the chapter you find the twelve tribes all allotted their place in relation to the tabernacle, and they are set in their places by God in four camps of three tribes each. But each tribe is allotted his own place, that is to say, to put it simply, beloved brethren, the saints in Melbourne have their place in the testimony, the saints in London have their place in the testimony, the saints in New York have their place in the testimony, and the saints in the smallest country place where there is the truth of the assembly in living expression, the saints there have their place in the testimony. It is a universal testimony, but at the same time each one has his own allotted place in it, and hence fellowship is universal, but the responsibilities apply particularly to a locality in which we are set. We cannot disclaim responsibility in regard of anything that happens in any part of the world, the fellowship is one, the truth is one, and therefore if there is an attack on the truth in any part of the world, all the saints ought to be concerned about it; they may not be able to do much about it if they are far from it, but they can go to God about it in prayer, they can take up the burdens of the testimony in that way. Paul said that the burden of all the assemblies came upon him every day. Every day, as he gave himself to prayer, he would go round the different assemblies in his thoughts, and the particular conditions that were found in each, and the particular exercises that they were facing, and he would take them all up before God in prayer. I do not say that we are all equal to that; I doubt if any of us is equal to it in the same measure the apostle Paul was, only it shows what is open to us, and Paul in being marked by that kind of exercise was just the reflection of our Lord Jesus Christ on high, for our great High Priest on high bears on the breastplate all the local companies before God, in relation to the exercises that they are carrying. You remember it says that on the breastplate of the high priest there were four rows of three stones in each row, and the names of the tribes on the stones. I have no doubt it is an allusion to the four camps of three in which the tribes of Israel were set in relation to the tabernacle, and that speaks of the local companies, as identified with the universal testimony, and the Lord is bearing them all before God unceasingly, on the breastplate of judgment. That is, He has a judgment about the conditions that prevail in any locality. It may be we are not concerned about it; the Lord has a judgment about it, He would be concerned to bring us into accord with His own judgment about it. He is bearing the matter feelingly before God; but He looks to us to see that the conditions in the particular place where we are set in the sovereignty of God are in accordance with the truth. And as we set our faces in that direction, we shall find that the power and grace and support of the Lord will be realised by us. The second chapter shows that each one was to take up his responsibility in the particular place that God had allotted to him. But as I say, it is a responsibility attaching to that place, but it is all part of the universal fellowship. So that the epistle to the Corinthians, which deals with matters connected with fellowship, is not only addressed to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, that particular place, but it says also, “with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours.” That is, the principles laid down for the saints at Corinth are the principles that are to govern the saints in every place.

Well now, I pass on to Numbers 5, in order to speak very briefly of a most important matter, and that is that evil is not to be tolerated in the house of God, it is not to be tolerated in the local assembly. The word to Moses was, “Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by a dead person: both male and female shall ye put out; outside the camp shall ye put them, that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell.” I have no intention, dear brethren, of going into detail, I am just calling attention to the principle that evil is not to be allowed in the assembly of God, and the reason given for it is this, “in the midst whereof I dwell”. God says, That is an important matter, that God dwells among His people, that is why evil is not to be allowed, because God dwells there. And hence, dear brethren, if evil asserts itself among the people of God, and has to be dealt with, it has to be dealt with in the fear of God. The conscience of every brother or sister should be exercised in relation to it, and it should result in self-judgment, not only in the judgment of the evil in another, but in the recognition, in the presence of God, that one’s own heart is capable of it, and it may be that the particular thing finds an answer in one’s own heart, and hence the very presence of evil in our midst, and it having to be dealt with, assembly-wise, has in view that we should all be brought into the presence of God. And as facing the matter before God, and only as judging ourselves in relation to it, is there any power in the true sense, to exclude the evil from our midst.

I am not overlooking that in these days of brokenness, we have to move on the line of withdrawing from evil, as authorised by 2 Timothy 2: 19, rather than of putting away from our midst as indicated in 1 Corinthians 5, because 1 Corinthians 5 contemplates that the whole assembly is available for that, and that public power and authority remain as at the beginning. While, thank God, there may be saints moving together in a place as governed by the light of the assembly, we have to recognise that the state of things in Christendom is so complex, is so broken, that it would be assumption for any company to claim to be the assembly, although we may be fully assured in our own minds that the ground upon which we are is the ground of the assembly, and the only ground on which the saints ought to be. We may be fully assured of that, and there is no assumption in saying so, because we ought not to be on any other ground than the ground on which all saints ought to be. But at the same time (as recognising, alas, that many of the saints of God are not available, are not walking in that path) we do not claim to be the assembly in that place; we have sorrowfully to admit that the assembly is not there, that the assembly, so to speak, cannot act judicially as the assembly, as they could at Corinth. Therefore, if evil asserts itself among us, while having in our souls the light of 1 Corinthians 5, and recognising that the person concerned ought to be dealt with on the line of 1 Corinthians 5, yet publicly we move according to 2 Timothy 2, and withdraw from evil, as befits the public position in which we find ourselves. The fact is that we retain both Scriptures in our minds. In the principle of it, we act according to 1 Corinthians 5, but in the public statement of what we are doing we move according to 2 Timothy 2. But then what I was saying is, dear brethren, that if evil arises, it is intended that the conscience of every brother and sister in the company should be specially exercised before God in relation to it. When Achan took of the forbidden spoils, and hid it, and the matter had to come up, you remember that God did not at once signify that it was Achan who was guilty. What he called upon Joshua to do was to bring all the tribes before God, and God was going to indicate by lot where the guilt lay, and so every tribe and every person in it had to feel the seriousness of being before God. God was going to indicate where the evil was.

Supposing God said, Thou art the man. Everyone would feel that. So the lot was cast and one tribe was taken, and the same process had to be gone through again, and they had to come family by family and then house by house, and then the household comes person by person and the man is taken. You can see that the divine intention is that when evil is found among the people of God all the saints should be before God in exercise as to it so that if that same principle of evil is in the heart of anyone it may be judged in the presence of God and thus the saints become morally clear of it.

The latter part of Numbers 5, which I did not read, indicates the position in Christendom. That is to say, there is that in Christendom around us which professes to stand related to the name of the Lord Jesus. We are not Jews, we are not Mohammedans, we are not heathen, we are nominally Christians, I am speaking now of so called Christian countries. There is a vast profession of which we ourselves form part which claims to stand related to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; we are Christians, the name of the Lord Jesus is called upon us. In Numbers 5 what is contemplated is that a man is taken with a spirit of jealousy; he believes his wife is unfaithful and the test is applied and it may prove that she is unfaithful. The test has been applied in Christendom, Paul’s doctrine has been applied in Christendom and the test has proved that in the main Christendom is unfaithful to Christ. The vast professing body is exposed as utterly unfaithful, and alas it has in it many of those who truly belong to the Lord but who still remain identified with that which is unfaithful to His name. That is what the latter part of Numbers 5 has in view. You remember how Paul at the end of 1 Corinthians says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha,” 1 Corinthians 16: 22; that is, let him be accursed at the coming of the Lord; and the day is near when all that is mere profession will be accursed. Laodicea will be spued out of His mouth as utterly distasteful, utterly abhorrent to Him.

Well, that being the position in which we find ourselves publicly, on what line is the truth to be maintained? I believe that is what Numbers 6 raises. We have been speaking of the defence of the testimony, but in the conditions which prevail in the religious world around us, on what line is the testimony to be maintained and defended? I believe the answer to it is found in Numbers 6. It says, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If a man or a woman have vowed the special vow of a Nazarite, to consecrate themselves to Jehovah.” It is a question now of every brother and every sister taking up in his or her own soul that his position is one of separation to the Lord. Some people do not like the word separation, they think it is too narrow, they think it stands for a hard legal principle, but separation to the Lord is the principle, dear brethren, and that makes all the difference. You bring in the Lord, and what is pleasing to the Lord, it is that which is to govern us in our actions and movements, and that alone is the principle upon which the truth of God will be maintained and carried through inviolate to the end. That is vowing a vow, so to speak, of separation to the Lord.

In 2 Timothy 2, to which I have already alluded, it says, “the firm foundation of God stands.” Whatever confusion there is in the world around us, the religious world especially, the foundation of God stands sure; what is of God will never be moved; “the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are his,” verse 19. That is His side of the matter. Our side of the matter is this, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. That is, if the name of the Lord is named by us then it is due to the Lord that we should not connect that name with anything iniquitous. We see the religious systems around us are in principle iniquitous; for instance, they proceed on the lines that the epistle to the Corinthians is not authoritative, they are not entirely governed by it. Although Scripture says it is the commandment of the Lord, it is disregarded, and the Spirit of God in His supremacy in the assembly is disregarded. If the one who is to minister is determined by man’s choice and chosen according to his education and so on, that is entirely setting aside the sovereignty of the Spirit of God, and any principle that sets aside the sovereignty of the Spirit of God is iniquitous; it is the setting up of the will of man in the holy things of God. And hence you can easily see it is not a question of detail, but in the very principle of the system they are exposed as iniquitous because they do not recognise the authority of the Lord as given us in the epistles, and they do not submit to or recognise the sovereignty of the Spirit of God. And so everyone who names the name of the Lord is to withdraw from iniquity, and as having withdrawn from it he is to follow righteousness; that is, what is right in the sight of God. That is the governing principle, you follow what is right - “follow righteousness, faith”. You must be prepared for a path of faith. Peter said, “Lord, if it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters. And he said, Come.” Matthew 14: 28, 29, and Peter stepped out and walked on the water; it is a path of faith “Righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.” That determines the lines upon which we may move in these days, and as moving with those who are calling on the Lord out of a pure heart we must govern ourselves by the truth of the assembly because if you have more than one going on together you have a company, and we are not righteous if we do not regulate ourselves by the truth of the assembly. It is thus on these lines of 2 Timothy 2 that the truth of the assembly has been recovered.

But there is another thing in 2 Timothy 2; we are not only authorised to separate from systems or anything that is iniquitous, but we are also authorised to separate from persons. It says, “But in a great house here are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour,” verse 20. In the great house, which is Christendom, there are vessels to dishonour, but on the other hand there is the possibility of being a vessel unto honour and so it says, “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these,” (that is, from vessels to dishonour) “in separating himself from them he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work,” verse 21. That answers to this vow of the Nazarite. It is a question of each brother and each sister taking up the ground in his own soul that by the grace of God he will be separated to the Lord to be serviceable to the Master and prepared for every good work. In order for that you must be separated from everything which in principle is iniquitous and you must also be prepared to separate yourself from persons who are vessels to dishonour.

So it says here that the Nazarite is to separate himself from wine and strong drink and so on, that is he is to guard against anything that would excite the flesh, natural excitement and all that kind of thing. It says in Ephesians 5: 18, “be not drunk with wine, in which is debauchery” (referring to what naturally tends to excite) “but be filled with the Spirit.” In Numbers 6: 5 it says, “All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head;” that means that you surrender, you are prepared to surrender. I appeal to the young brothers here; it means we are prepared to surrender what men would regard as manliness, that is to say, in separation to the Lord we do not go in for the things of the world; we may be thought very strange, we may be thought poor in spirit, we may be thought to be not good mixers as people say. You are just prepared to accept the reproach of not being a man of the world, you are prepared to take on feminine features, you let your hair grow long so to speak. Instead of being self-assertive, you are characterised by subjection; you really take on a feminine attitude. You hold Christ in your heart as the One from whom you want to derive and to whom you desire to live, and in that way you take on what in the eyes of the world may seem to be weak feminine features, but it is precious in the sight of God. You remember how when David danced before Jehovah, he danced before the ark, how scathingly Michal Saul’s daughter spoke to him. David said, “It was before Jehovah”. She said he was making himself vile, and he said, “I will make myself yet more vile than thus,” 2 Samuel 6: 22; “It was before Jehovah,” verse 21. And that is what this involves; the testimony can only be maintained in the spirit of Nazariteship, of separation to the Lord and that involves that we are prepared to surrender all the world regards as manliness and all that kind of thing. We are prepared to take up an attitude that bespeaks that we are subject to Christ and our one desire is to take character from Him. I need not pursue that. At the end of this sixth chapter of Numbers it says, “On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel: saying unto them, Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee; Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.” That is,

these are the lines on which the blessing of God known as a present thing and identified with the testimony, is secured.

But I ought, before leaving this chapter, to call attention to the second part of it, not to go into the detail of it, but it suggests there is the possibility of a breakdown on the part of any one of us, not that I am in any way making allowance for it or putting it at a premium or anything of that sort. If there is a breakdown, are we to give up the position? In no wise! That is not contemplated for a moment. The position is not to be given up. If there is a breakdown, there is a way to meet the matter. We can bring a sin offering and we can bring a burnt offering; we can acknowledge before God where we have broken down, and as we acknowledge it the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin, and the value of the burnt offering remains. Our acceptance with God is unchanged. The only thing that is needed is that we should acknowledge the breakdown and then understand that we are to start again. Under no circumstances is the position to be given up. There may, alas, be the breakdown, but if there has been there is the provision for it and we must avail ourselves of the provision for it; bring the sin offering, bring the burnt offering, and we will realise afresh that we stand in the unchanging favour of God in acceptance with Him in the value of Christ and His death, and the blood of Jesus Christ avails to cleanse from all sin. And then the person was to shave his head. The days that are before may be lost, but he is to start afresh: what is contemplated is that it is going to be carried through, “he shall again consecrate to Jehovah the days of his separation.”

Now I wish to refer to the passage in chapter 10, for it is a most encouraging passage and in connection with it I would refer to the last verse of chapter 2 which I have not yet spoken of. I read that verse because it shows that there are two positions in connection with the maintenance of the testimony in the wilderness, one is that of pitching by their standards, there is the stationary position; and the other is of movement; “so they encamped according to their standards, and so they journeyed”. It is an important thing to see that the testimony of God is characteristically in movement. There are times when it is stationary; that has in mind the consolidation of the truth, but characteristically it is in movement. They moved when the cloud moved; the cloud signifies the presence of God with His people, the presence of the Spirit of God. From time to time there is a movement of the cloud, that takes form in the Lord presenting some fresh aspect of the truth. Some fresh aspect of the truth is brought forward authoritatively in ministry and when that takes place, the whole of the saints are called upon to move in relation to it. When the cloud moved, the whole of the tabernacle had to be taken down, every bit of it had to be taken down, and then it had to be carried until the cloud stopped, and then when the cloud stopped the whole thing had to be set up again. It was the same tabernacle and had to be set up again in the same way, but it was in a new setting. So it is, dear brethren, that as the Lord gives fresh accession of light, drawing attention to some feature of the truth which previously had not been apprehended, the intention is that all the saints have their spiritual ears open to it and should be prepared to adjust their thoughts in relation to it. It has a bearing on the truth of the assembly and the truth has to be taken up and if one may so say, rearranged in the light of the new position that has come about by the movement of the testimony. I trust, dear brethren, you will weigh this because there is nothing so sorrowful than to go to a place and find that the brethren there have not in any sense been moved by the ministry which the Lord may be giving. It is a most sorrowful matter, because if the cloud is in movement God intends that all the saints should move with it. The Lord will help us to understand the truth if we get to Him about it, and to understand how it affects the assembly position. All this is a matter of exercise and the Lord intends that we should be in exercise and the Lord intends, dear brethren, that we should show our fidelity to Him by our being committed to the testimony to which we are called.

Now I must close and refer briefly to the passage in Numbers 10 because this refers to the time when the testimony started in movement. It was the first journey from the mount of Sinai: they were just about to set forward in movement, that is to say, now the wilderness is coming into view as a place in which the testimony of God was to be carried notwithstanding any opposition they might encounter. It says “they set forward from the mountain of Jehovah and went three days’ journey.” I think that means it is a full testimony to what the wilderness is. Two days would be witness to the fact, three days is complete witness to the fact; that is to say as committed to the testimony of God it is a proving of what the wilderness is. It says, “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them,” The ark moved of its own accord. If you read the earlier chapters of Numbers you will see that the normal position of the ark was not before the people, but in the midst of them. When the people moved, the normal position of the ark was to be in the midst of the people. The camp of Judah was to move first, and then the camp of Reuben and then the ark and then the camp of Ephraim and then the camp of Dan: that was the order; but here the ark moved forward of itself and went before the people. I believe it is to assure us that the Lord will go before and undertake everything that is necessary for His people as they on their part are prepared to commit themselves to God’s testimony in this world. I have linked it in my own mind with what it says in John 13 where the Lord was contemplating leaving His own. “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end,” verse 1. He was going to depart out of the world; that is, the world would now become a wilderness. In the absence of Christ the world is a wilderness, and the Lord knows what the character of it is, and He knows that the saints, as committed to God’s testimony in the world will be subject to all kinds of testing and opposition. That is inevitable. But now with that position in view, it says He loved them right through to the end, as though He deliberately set Himself to love the saints. Whatever arises, one thing can be relied upon and that is the love of Christ, and I believe that is what this incident is intended to set before us that, as the wilderness position begins to open out before us, as committed to the testimony, the Lord would say, You can rely upon My love.

The ark went before them to search out a resting place for them and as it set forward Moses said, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thy face. And when it rested, he said, Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel.” I believe we often prove this on Lord’s day morning. We come together to break bread in a wilderness setting and we find that, though we are still in the wilderness and have not reached our permanent resting place, the Lord has provided a resting place for us; it may be for a brief hour or an hour and a half, but there is a resting place which the Lord has provided in the midst of the wilderness. It is to strengthen us in our position in the testimony in the wilderness, that He has provided a resting place for us, and He has provided it in the power of a love that has met everything that stood in the way. So we are to be encouraged to commit ourselves to this position. The young and old alike can afford to commit themselves thoroughly to it, because one thing we can rely upon is that the love of Christ goes right through to the end.