THE ASSEMBLY (7)
[p. 624] THE ASSEMBLY (7)
Exodus 2: 11 - 25; Exodus 3: 1 - 6
JT It is to be noticed that in chapter 2 Moses is seen at a well. The well is also seen in relation to Isaac and Rebecca in Genesis 24. They are among the most outstanding types of Christ and the assembly. The idea of the well is seen very prominently in connection with them and then Jacob, as having come to Padan, in Genesis 29 is seen at a well. And, as has been said, the same thing is seen here. No doubt the well is intended to typify the Spirit. God has been pleased to impress us with the truth of the Holy Spirit in recent times. There can be no doubt that the idea of a well as seen in these cases anticipates what is seen in a believer in John 4. It is said that the water that Christ would give him would be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, which is an allusion to the Spirit undoubtedly. We may well speak of it from that point of view and carry on, in a way, what has been often before us in these readings; that is, that the Spirit is peculiarly prominent in our considerations at the present time. In our allusions to Him we find peculiar support, and it is hoped that it will be so at this time. Moses, the great servant whom we are now considering, wrote the first five books of the Scriptures. How they are lit up with light and instruction for us as to the service of God! In no section of Scripture, perhaps, do we find the service of God more prominent than in the books of Moses. A corresponding thought is in the Psalms, where we also find five books, in which the service of God is constantly before us as we read them. Another thing that may be said, perhaps, to elucidate the subject now in hand, is that in Isaac’s case there was no one who is said to have given Rebecca to him. Jehovah gave Eve to Adam; that is, He brought her to Adam, and Adam named her and gave the reason for the name.
[p. 625] Then, in the case of Jacob, both Leah and Rachel were given to him; then Pharaoh gave Asnath to Joseph; and, so here, Jethro gives Moses his wife. But as regards Isaac and Rebecca, it is a question of the Spirit; the Spirit affording the assembly, as it were, so that Isaac takes her. It is said that Isaac took Rebecca and she became his wife. He led her into his mother’s tent, and he loved her. I think it is important to have before us that the Spirit has a peculiar place in that type, which affords light for us at the present time, operating in our hearts and disclosing to us what we have in the Spirit, and helping us on these occasions, preparing us for presentation to Christ.
ANW Is not the idea of the well enforced here by the Spirit in that Moses sat by the well? The well is defined. He sat by the well; not any well.
JT Yes; the article before it makes it more distinctive. It is not simply a well, although that is said in John 4: “Now a fountain of Jacob’s was there”, but here it is distinctive, it is the well.
CAM Do you have in mind that, because the well is prominent in these passages, as connecting it with the Spirit, we should now be able to discern the feminine side in a positive way?
JT Well; much is made of the woman, not that she was of any great importance in any personal way like Abigail, but still, she is much in the mind of the Spirit, and surely Moses lends background because of his importance.
FHL Is there anything suggestive in the positions in which these wells are found? In the case of Rebecca it was ‘outside the city’; with Rachel it was ‘in the fields’; and here it is ‘in the land of Midian’. Is it that the well was something quite apart from the ordered setting?
JT Well, if we come to the antitype it is infinitude, the Holy Spirit is a divine Person. How can we say too [p. 626] much about Him! And the setting is divine. We cannot say much about the Persons of the Deity before incarnation; but now that incarnation has taken place we can have some idea, because of the declaration: “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1: 18. So that it is a question of the Person and where He is, in the bosom of the Father. That is a wonderful setting. I think that what we get in John 1 about the Lord’s Person is wonderful, and it involves that He is in the bosom of the Father.
FHL Yes; it is all outside of men’s organised system of things. It is outside the city in John 4.
ANW Who can trace the source of a well, even physically?
JT The spring, or course, of it is unseen.
AR As soon as the well comes into view, the feminine side comes forward; the seven daughters of the priest are mentioned: “And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water”, verse 16.
JT The word seven is to be noted; Zipporah is a selection from seven. The feminine side is peculiarly pronounced; not even in the case of Rebecca is, it so pronounced. There are seven sisters.
AR As soon as the Spirit is seen, typically, in the well, the feminine side is brought forward.
JT Yes; the feminine side is brought forward as soon as the well is mentioned. The support of the Spirit is required for the feminine side; and of course, Paul says, “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”, 2 Corinthians 11: 2. There was great need for spiritual support there. It was not being availed of fully at Corinth, but the question is as to ourselves. What support, in the spiritual sense, is there for the feminine side? The Lord is helping us as to it.
VCL It says that Moses was afraid after slaying [p. 627] the Egyptian, but after sitting at the well he is no longer afraid of these shepherds, and he delivered the women from the shepherds.
JT Well, it seems to me that the matter spreads out as we speak of it, because it is not a question of sisters, but of the feminine side as seen in the assembly.
AAT Moses sat by the well. In John 4, the Lord was weary with the way He had come and He sat just as He was at the well. Is there any suggestion in that?
JT There is indeed; we are all aiming at one thing, the thought of Christ and the assembly. “I speak”, says Paul, “as to Christ, and as to the assembly”, Ephesians 5: 32. And so it is a question of how much place we are giving this great subject.
WAT Would you say that Moses would find no satisfaction in Midian; it was not God’s end for him, so he sat by the well. Should that not be our attitude?
JT Quite so; and the thought of the well comes into the gentile setting, because this is the gentile setting. It is Midian; Reuel was a Midianite; he was not a son of Jacob; but still, his daughter was suitable for Moses. So that we have to look about and see where the gentile comes into the truth of the assembly, and see how this fits in now; though literally, there are very few Jews amongst those that form the assembly. They are almost entirely gentiles. God has taken them up and sanctified them, as we see in the word to Peter in Acts 10; God has cleansed them. The idea of cleansing comes in so as to remove the Midianitish stain. There are the two ideas of cleansing, the blood and the water; not water only but water and blood.
AI It is said by Paul: “to whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory”, Colossians 1: 27.
ABP Stephen goes into considerable detail in [p. 628] speaking of the feelings amongst the brethren of Moses and his fleeing to Midian, and seems to connect it with resisting the Spirit inasmuch as he concludes his address by saying, “ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, ye also”, Acts 7: 51.
JT The point there is their resistance of the Holy Spirit.
JTJr Moses, in Midian, is in relation to the gentiles, as having left Egypt where Israel sojourned. So that Christ has the assembly first.
JT So that the mind of the Spirit travels toward Christ and the assembly. The Spirit moves in that way.
AAT Is Zipporah a type of the gentile bride?
JT Well, she was a gentile, and as we noted in regard to Asnath, she had certain moral virtues, at least typically, and therefore she was suitable to Moses; and there must be moral virtues in us to make us suitable to Christ.
JHE “I have other sheep which are not of this fold: those also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd”, John 10. That brings in the gentile.
JT Yes; “those also I must bring”. The whole matter is settled through redemption. The gentile stain, if there be one, is settled through redemption. The water and the blood cleanse from every defilement.
CAM Would it be right to say that, if we knew more about this attitude of rest and sitting by the well, we would anticipate something of the fruit of the Spirit, and love, joy and peace would result from it? I was thinking of Moses’ situation. As we count on the Spirit, in that restful way, can we not anticipate God coming in and helping us as to our apprehension of the feminine side? So that God brought about this wonderful attachment of love as a result of his being found in that restful place at the well, which is typical of the Spirit.
JT [p. 629] Quite so; and the selection is made from seven, but Zipporah is the specific one; so that the mind is directed to her; of all the families in the heavens and on the earth, named of the Father, the mind is directed to the assembly as the one suited to Christ.
RWS And though the matter commenced with the well, it was not long before there were greater thoughts. It says, “An Egyptian ... drew water abundantly for us”. That which we apprehend in a small way at first becomes enlarged and greatly magnified as indeed, today, with the ministry as to the Spirit.
JT So we have the word abundantly; that should be noticed particularly: “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water abundantly”, verse 19. Well now, our minds are to be occupied first with the Bridegroom, because, “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom”, and the Bridegroom affords bountifulness. And so He said, “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”, John 10: 10. In John that is the idea of life.
ANW So that in John 7 the Lord says: “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”.
DP And would the rejection of Moses, as typifying Christ’s rejection by Israel, free the Spirit to come into prominence in a sovereign way among the gentiles?
JT Quite so; and that is the point that comes out through Peter’s visit to Caesarea. The Spirit fell upon them. It was His own action; as we have been saying in regard to Rebecca, because the Spirit is in mind in the way she is brought to Isaac, and the well enters into the setting there. And so at Caesarea the Spirit fell on them as it did on the disciples at Pentecost. And that means that there was the idea of abundance, as it says, “God gives not the Spirit by measure”, John 3: 34. He gives the Spirit abundantly, without measure.
JTJr John’s ministry, therefore, fits in here: “He [p. 630] came to his own and his own received him not”. And then chapter 4 develops the well, the Lord speaking of it extensively there as also in chapters 7 and 14. The Lord opens up great thoughts of the Spirit, peculiarly in John’s gospel.
JT And also the matter of His own reception: “his own received him not”. The negative side affords the basis of righteousness in the Lord separating Himself in the gospel testimony and going among the gentiles. “This salvation of God has been sent to the nations”. But in John 1: 12 it is, “as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”; that is to say, there is a right that affords dignity to the saints. And the well in chapter 4 is to supply the refreshment needed in that position.
FSC Would it be right to say that the Lord was the One who really drew the water in John 4?
JT He says, “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”, John 4: 14. That is magnificent!
CHH Would the abundance be seen in Psalm 78? It says that the “waters gushed out” and “streams overflowed”. The lavish way in which the Holy Spirit is ministered was seen when the rock was struck. “And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers”, Psalm 78: 16.
JT Quite so; “for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them: now the rock was the Christ”, 1 Corinthians 10: 4. That is a remarkable thing; we must connect the Spirit with Christ. Christ and the Spirit are seen acting as one. And if we speak of Christ and the assembly we must have the thought of union in our minds, for it is the great end in view. We have the thought peculiarly set out in the types in Isaac and Rebecca.
SJM So that the women said that Moses drew water abundantly for them and watered [p. 631] the flock.
JT Just so; they discerned how great was the help that Moses afforded them in driving away the shepherds, and in drawing water abundantly.
SW Would the prophet Joel indicate that it was always in the mind of God that there should be this abundance? He says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”.
JT Where that passage is quoted in Acts 2, it goes on to say, “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy”. There is abundance. So that we should not be merely young men and young women, but formed in the greatness of Christ, the Spirit being active in us. “God giveth not the Spirit by measure”. This is true as to the assembly. The assembly gets the Spirit without measure.
RWS At what point in the history of the testimony was the Holy Spirit lost sight of?
JT I think that things began to wane at the time John wrote his last great writing, which is his gospel. I think he wrote the gospel as his last great production and the reason he wrote was that things had begun to wane. He says, “these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”, John 20: 31. But then he says that if all were written, the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. That was the greatness of the ministry.
AI Though Moses drew water and watered the flocks, yet he was left behind by the women?
JT It just shows the paucity of feeling that often marks us, that we are neglectful of the rights of Christ; we are neglectful of Him very often, as they were neglectful of Moses.
DMcD Does the priest of Midian realise that in speaking to his daughters?
JT I think he is a brother to be noticed. He becomes the father-in-law of Moses, and the word [p. 632] father-in-law might detract from him. He was only the father-in-law of Moses, but he was a good man. Chapter 18 shows that he was a man that could rule and teach others to rule, which is a great matter. So here it is said, “But Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat by the well. And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew, water and filled the troughs, to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses rose and helped them, and watered their flock”, Exodus 2: 15 - 17. He watered them abundantly, there was plenty.
JTJr It would seem that Reuel appreciated the man coming into view here. The man Moses was coming on to the horizon. There were seven daughters but no sons, evidently.
JT I think he is a greater man here in effect than he was later. In the book of Numbers he would not go with Moses to be eyes to Israel. He was not great enough for that, but he was great here. And we do well to take notice of a man when he is great and give him full credit.
CHH Would these shepherds in any way set forth a hindering element that may at any time keep the saints from the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit? I thought that they correspond somewhat to the Philistines who stopped the wells that Abraham dug, and wondered if we may expect that kind of thing; that as the ministry of the Spirit is available there will be that which will seek to negate it.
JT There is something of that at the present time; but thank God it is diminishing continually. The truth is making headway, which you would expect when the Spirit has liberty. When the Spirit of God brings forward a man like Reuel with seven daughters, and Moses providing an abundance of water, we see that something is being done, and what is being done will [p. 633] reflect Christ — Christ and the assembly are in the forefront. It is not so in the so-called denominations. But it is so where the Scriptures have their full place.
CMcL Did Reuel discern the greatness of the man Moses?
JT Well, he no doubt did, to some extent, and, of course, he did later, too, but as we have said, he did not do too well afterwards. But there was really no other like Moses, in his writings and in his lawgiving. He was the lawgiver!
SJM There is a word which says, “There is a river the streams whereof make glad the city of God”, Psalm 46: 4. That would strengthen your remark in relation to the Spirit. He makes way for Himself against all opposition.
JT He makes a way for Himself, but I think that the idea in Moses is that a way is made for the Spirit. He brings in the truth and the principles. The principles make way for the Spirit.
JTJr It comes out in a very striking way in Numbers 21 in relation to the well, because it says, “that is the well of which Jehovah spoke to Moses”.
JT And the well was dug at the direction of the lawgiver. The lawgiver was Moses; a very remarkable thing.
JTJr And I was thinking that first of all Jehovah had spoken about it to Moses. It says, “that is the well of which Jehovah spoke to Moses, Assemble the people, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! sing unto it: Well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. The lawgiver gave the directions for it.
JT That is the passage which the Lord has used to bring out this whole truth with which we are now engaged. It was a question of Jehovah speaking to Moses; and then Moses, being the lawgiver, would give [p. 634] laws governing the position; and then, finally, the singing, the service of God, with which we are engaged each Lord’s day. That is the time for the singing. “I will sing with the spirit”, the apostle says, 1 Corinthians 14: 15.
FNW Does not the Lord Jesus, in John 4, pursue divine principles to reach the service of God? He speaks of the water becoming a fountain in the believer, involving a subjective result in the woman; then He calls her Woman, and then, finally, He speaks of worshipping in spirit and truth.
JT That chapter is the parting of the ways, you might say, in the gospel of John, in the way that the service of God is brought in. “Neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem”, and then, “the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers”.
CHH Would the last words of Moses indicate the spiritual character of his doctrine? He says, “My doctrine shall drop as rain, my speech flow down as dew, as small rain upon the tender herb, and as showers on the grass”, Deuteronomy 32: 2. The speech there is feminine.
JT Very good; that is at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, the last of the five books of Moses. He has not lost ground; he has maintained his freshness, which is a great thing in ministry.
JTJr So that his ministry was, in that sense, almost identical with the well. What he ministered was really from God. The reference to the well at the beginning of this great minister’s life of service is remarkable. He sat by the well.
JT And the rain and the dew that he refers to in the passage quoted from Deuteronomy imply that his ministry was fresh. It is a question of freshness, I believe; that in ministering we keep our freshness; we do not grow dry.
GH The remark has been made that you cannot [p. 635] trace the source of a well. Would that suggest the inscrutability of the Person of the Spirit?
JT Very good; I would say that.
ANW In John 4, the woman spoke of the well, but there is a difference between the well and the fountain. The Lord spoke of the fountain.
JT Just so; “a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. The woman spoke of the well being deep, but the depth of this well is not of very great moment. “Every one who drinks of this water shall thirst again”. It is a question of the power of the spring, or fountain, that springs up into everlasting life. In the type which we may later see in Achsah we have the upper and the nether springs.
DP Would the importance of the well in Midian be recognised as the centre of attraction on which the life of the flocks would depend?
JT Well; that would be typical of the Spirit. There is plenty of water. Moses drew of it abundantly. The idea is plenitude, and of course as we come to these meetings we become enlarged, so that there is not only increase of numbers, but there is also enlargement of persons, and the Spirit is the power of that enlargement.
TEH The elders of Ephesus came over to Miletus, and were instructed by the beloved apostle. One of the things he said to them was, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers”, Acts 20: 28. There must be constant recognition of the well, both in myself and in relation to service.
JT Well, just so; and then oversight; things are maintained on the principle of order. They were elders, you know, and they were called over to Paul, and what Paul had in his mind was that there should be order in what they were ministering. The Holy Spirit had made them ministers and overseers. The Holy Spirit had done [p. 636] that, showing how He takes care of things, because the word Paraclete means that He takes care of things; and He was doing it there in bringing those elders to see Paul.
JTJr The well really brings Moses into prominence and leads on to what we have about him in the next chapter.
JT Just so; the well is the very source of enlargement; and enlargement is seen in Moses.
RWS Reuel inquired of his daughters, “why then have ye left the man behind?” Did the operation of the creed leave the Man behind? Ministry which came out twenty years ago bore on the sonship of Christ and has been enjoyed by the brethren. Now there is ministry bearing on another divine Person. Is there something in that, do you think?
JT Tell us more of what is in your mind.
RWS Well, I think it is remarkable that adjustment came in first as to the sonship of Christ, showing us that the creed has bound us up and that we really had not appreciated the true greatness of Christ. In that way the Man had been left behind. Now, attention is being called to the Spirit, at a time when we need to know the love of the Spirit and the communion of the Spirit; indeed, all the present help of the Spirit.
JT A dear brother in New Zealand wrote to me about a month or six weeks ago about that very thing, the order in which the truth has come out; and that the ministry of the Spirit has come in at the present time as needed, in proper order. And it means enlargement. If we make room for the Spirit. He will enlarge us.
JTJr Reuel asks, “Why are ye come so soon, today?” verse 18. We might apply that in the sense that we have been helped all this time and we have not really recognised who it is that helped us.
JT Quite so; very good.
CHH Would enlargement and progression be seen [p. 637] in the five sisters, the daughters of Zelophehad? After the response to the Spirit in chapter 21 you get those five sisters who were concerned about their inheritance; they appreciated their inheritance.
JT That is a good connection; I think it is excellent; the five sisters, daughters of Zelophehad, and the seven sisters, daughters of Reuel. Jehovah said to Moses concerning the five, that they spoke right. It is a fine thing to get five sisters speaking aright. You do not see it much in ordinary things. There were five of them, the daughters of Zelophehad, and Jehovah said that they said the right thing; they wanted the inheritance.
SJM There is also the suggestion in Acts of Philip’s four daughters who prophesied.
JT That is a good wholesome number. They prophesied. That is the way they spoke. They spoke prophetically — a wonderful thing! No doubt their prophecy came in at that time, as needed; it would be a prophetic word.
WAT And I suppose we could refer also to Job and his three daughters. It says, “And he called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch”, Job 42: 14.
JT Very good. I had not thought of the suggestion before of those three women, and the four women, and the five women, and the seven women. I think the references are excellent for us to think over and consider what they mean.
ANW The passage in job goes on to say, “in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren”.