MANHOOD IN EXODUS (3)
[p. 129] MANHOOD IN EXODUS (3)
Exodus 20:1-6; Exodus 21:1-6; Exodus 24:9-11
JT In the early part of chapter 19 we have the statement by Jehovah, “And now, if ye will hearken to my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then shall ye be my own possession out of all the peoples — for all the earth is mine — and ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (verse 5). It is perhaps needful to dwell a little on priesthood, God having in mind that it should apply to all the people.
So as to carry the thoughts relative to our subject forward, priesthood is mentioned here, and later in this chapter there are certain ones in Israel alluded to as priests without naming them. In Exodus 19:22 God says, “And the priests also, who come near to Jehovah, shall hallow themselves, lest Jehovah break forth on them”. That is a collateral thought with what we have had. Priesthood is founded on manhood according to God, but also on sonship as applied fully in the New Testament — the Son is the Priest. God expresses His thoughts for us and carries them forward. The full setting of priesthood is seen in chapters 28 and 29.
It is a feature of the position of God’s people from the beginning. Every one who has the Holy Spirit is a priest; he may not be functioning for the want of intelligence or spiritual energy, but he still is a priest as having the Holy Spirit. What enters into this, I think, is seen in the first passage read, where God speaks of “them that love me”, lovers of God. It is hardly worth naming a priest who does not love God, for he is to serve a God whom he loves — a known God. To know God is to love Him. We have in this passage a statement, “I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”. That [p. 130] is a point I think we might rest on. Are we among the lovers of God? It is an advance feature of manhood. It is said of our days in 2 Timothy 3:2-4 that “men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, ... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. Alas, that is manifest. Yet God here alludes to “thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”. No one can be regarded truly as a lover except as keeping the commandments.
GAT “I love my master” (Exodus 21) — is that the thought?
JT That is the next passage. It is an advanced thought: it is love of a three-fold kind. It goes up to the master, is horizontal to the wife and descends to the children. Love to God is ascending, love to a wife is horizontal, and love to children is descending. We come to an experienced lover in chapter 21, that is, typically, Christ Himself; He is the Bondman who loves.
JD Paul says in Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good to those who love God”.
JT It is a testing passage. We are apt to say loosely, It applies to all the saints. Let us get the actual wording: “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose”. It takes us back to the counsels of God; hence you are comforted that what is transpiring amongst the brethren is for good. Lovers of God come in for good no matter what happens. “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). This chapter is to bring out the victorious character of christianity. It ends triumphantly in each true believer, and as a dispensation, and that is very comforting. Loving God is a great feature of manhood; that is, manhood as in His purpose; manhood implies perfection or full growth.
SMcC In Judges 5:31, Deborah’s song, “Let them that love him be as the rising of the sun in its might”. It is a victorious [p. 131] idea.
JT Very beautiful! It might be connected with Psalm 19:5 where you have the tabernacle for the sun, “And he is as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber; he rejoiceth as a strong man to run the race”.
WGT If we say that we love God, the next thing is, do we keep His commandments?
JT Yes. “He it is that loves me” (John 14:21). Anyone really right has a fear in claiming to love God, unless keeping the commandments.
SP Is this reciprocal in character? In Exodus 19:4 God speaks of bringing them to Himself, but here in chapter 20 it is a movement of love from the people to Him, “them that love me”.
JT I think that is the thought, the beginning of what we call the ten words. God is asserting His rights in chapter 20, and no person can deny that God has rights over His creatures; above all He has rights to their affections. Young people are told, “Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). God’s rights to the affections of His people are the spirit of the law. It refers to God’s rights. The great commandment is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy understanding. ... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39). It is a question of love fulfilling the law.
AB The apostle says, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
JT That fits here; it is a quotation from Isaiah 64:4, and shows what jewels you get out of the prophets. There is in it a suggestion for those of us who try to serve the Lord’s people — as to how to use the prophets; that we not only quote them, but clothe them more richly. Paul changes the words used by the [p. 132] prophet here.
WGT As to love, 1 Corinthians 13 stresses it in a remarkable way as greater than faith and hope. Chapter 12 introduces the thought of spiritual manifestation; chapter 13 is love and chapter 14 the prophetic line.
JT In 1 Corinthians 16:22 the apostle says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha”; and in chapter 12:3 he says, “No one, speaking in the power of the Spirit of God, says, Curse on Jesus”. The idea of curse is turned round; such was the dreadful condition among christians at Corinth that there might be such a spirit there as would curse the Lord Jesus. “No one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit”; the Spirit would enable you to say that in the assembly in affection. The Holy Spirit in our hearts would cause all the out-goings to be clothed with love.
JMcK What is the difference between the priests of Exodus 19:6, “ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation”, and Revelation 1:6, “and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father”?
JT In the New Translation the passage in Revelation reads, “and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”: the saints are a kingdom by themselves, and in addition to that they are “priests to his God and Father”. We have a further reference to priesthood in Revelation 20:6, “Blessed and holy he who has part in the first resurrection: ... they shall be priests of God and of the Christ”. There they are definitely marked off as having part in the first resurrection. They are priests of God. We are characteristically that and also “of the Christ”. That is, the saints are an official priesthood; that is of great importance now in regard to what is current; we are not national, but priestly; it is our proper function, it gives the saints more power than any. They are determining victory, “priests of God and of the Christ”.
CT “A holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5), is what we are now. “Priests of God and of the Christ” (Revelation 20:6) is a millennial function.
JT God in Malachi 2:7 called attention to what priesthood really is. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and at his mouth they seek the law; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts”. As we have been saying, love is a great basis; it never fails, as we see in 1 Corinthians 13. Then at the end of the chapter, “And now abide faith, hope, love; ... and the greater of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
WB-w That explains the fact that keeping the covenant precedes the priesthood in this chapter, “if ye will ... keep my covenant, then shall ye be my own possession ... kingdom of priests” — priesthood is on the principle of love.
JT As loving God, we keep His commandments. Thus we are qualified as priests. Christ, in type, saying, I love, in Exodus 21:5, shows how infinitely fitted He was to be High Priest.
EGMcA Would those who love God actively be more conscious of all things working together for good for them, than those who do not love Him actively? With many christians love is not active towards God.
JT I think that is manifestly so. Our exercises just now turn on what is current in the world. How is it affecting us? We find it difficult to see good working out in what seems outwardly so adverse. It would relieve us a great deal if we could see the good working out to those that love God. We should look for it.
JD What is the point in “I ... am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”? How would the first part work today when we are not under law but under grace?
JT That is what God does, or may do, according to His sovereign right. Deuteronomy 24: 16 directs that “fathers shall not be put to death for the sons, neither shall the sons be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin”. This, of course, is the law, which was to govern men. There is no difficulty in the statement, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and to the fourth generation”. This may happen even in this dispensation of grace. It has happened to the Jews. Vengeance may be deferred, and it may not. Those that do not love the Lord Jesus will be cursed, that is, at the Lord’s coming (1 Corinthians 16:22), while Galatians shows that wicked teachers may be cursed now (chapter 1:8,9). There are people that are not to be saved at all. Some do not think of that, but Paul says, “But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3). When they are tested it is found that they hate God. On the other hand, the sons of Korah were saved. Psalms are inscribed to them. The sovereign mercy of God is seen there. God works of Himself and who can question Him in visiting the iniquity of the people that hate Him? On the other hand, who can question Him in exercising His rights in mercy?
GAT “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents” (John 9:2,3).
JT That is to bring out the sovereign work of God, “that the works of God should be manifested in him”. That is a great principle; acting sovereignly, God may convert the son of a very bad man.
WGT A man might influence his children and his grandchildren in a right or a wrong way.
JT A grandson of Moses was an idolatrous priest (Judges 18:30). That is a very solemn thing.
WB-w The Canaanites were dispossessed of their land. Is that governmental?
JT Yes; but God waited and would have Israel wait until their iniquity was fully developed. “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Genesis 15:16).
[p. 135] Abraham must wait for that. The patience of God is remarkable; He waited long before He struck, though the Canaanites were wicked above all people.
WB-w The Lord says to the Pharisees at the end of John 9, “Your sin remains”. Is that judicial?
JT Yes. “But now ye say, We see, your sin remains.” God in His sovereign work selects whom He will to save. He follows up tribes, peoples, families, fathers, heads of houses: follows them up in a governmental way. It is a serious matter, because in the passage before us the generations of those who hate Him are visited.
EGMcA Are those who hate Him spoken of in Romans 2:8,9? “But to those that are contentious, and are disobedient to the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress, on every soul of man that works evil”.
JT Yes. The wrath of God is revealed against anyone on that line. The apostle puts off the curse until the Lord comes, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha”. Maranatha means when the Lord comes. Then we have in Galatians, as already remarked, an immediate curse threatened. The apostle further says, “I would that they would even cut themselves off who throw you into confusion” (Galatians 5:12).
JD Do you think we see the government of God in the way He addresses Esau in the prophet Obadiah 10,11: “Because of violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away captive his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them”? Government followed Esau and there was no blessing.
JT Yes. “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau” (Malachi 1:3.) This is not said until the last book of the [p. 136] Old Testament. There are people in this world called lost by the Spirit of God.
JD There are those who are characteristically opposed to the children of God.
JT Yes, as Cain. How can a man love God if he does not love his brethren?
TS We are either in one category or the other; those who love the brethren or those who hate them.
JT The Spirit in 1 John speaks in remarkable abstractness, saying, for instance, “Whoever has been begotten of God does not practise sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God” (chapter 3:9). This, however, cannot be made to conflict with the fact stated plainly elsewhere, that believers, viewed in their ordinary or mixed condition while down here, are capable of sinning. The man put away at Corinth was a believer, but fell into gross evil; he was delivered “to Satan for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5). The second epistle shows that he was restored.
TS Men are steadily taking on these anti-christian characteristics you have been speaking of.
JT “Men shall be ... lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2,4). Wrath awaits those who are regarded as “lost”, and who are characterised by the sinful features already mentioned; but discipline in the assembly is usually exercised with a view to recovery, as we have noted. The object is to save those disciplined. In Hebrews 9:19, we read “For every commandment having been spoken according to the law by Moses to all the people; having taken the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people”. The section of Exodus from chapters 20 to 23 contains the words of the book, and the writer of the Hebrews is applying the blood of the covenant to the book as well as the people. These [p. 137] chapters are full of instruction as preparing us for ascension which is the next thing. To be prepared for ascension we begin with Christ in chapter 21. In the type heaven hears a man who says plainly, “I love my master, my wife, and my children”. It is like the word to John, “Come up here” (Revelation 4:1).
WB-w Do you apply the ascension to going up to the mount?
JT Yes. It comes out in Exodus 24:1, “Go up to Jehovah, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship afar off”. Then they went up (verse 9). These chapters are to prepare us to go up; but the basis morally of ascension is that we love God and keep His commandments. This is working out according to the pattern of Christ as presented in Exodus 21, who says plainly, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”; God honours remaining in obedience in the exercise of love. Typically heaven claims Christ here; that is the position of chapter 24.
WGT Are chapters 1 to 3 of Revelation the present dispensation — “the things that are”?
JT Yes. “Write therefore what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these” (Revelation 1:19). It helps us as ministering the truth, to set our subjects in order. What John is to write is set down by the Lord in the order of first, second, third. First, “what thou hast seen”; then “the things that are”; and then “the things that are about to be after these”. That is the order of the subjects in the book of Revelation.
JD How many things are taken in by the expression, “the things that are”?
JT It is chapters 2 and 3 of the book — what relates to the assemblies. What happens in the world generally follows, beginning with chapter 4. Although the events related under this head are after “the things that are”, this has to be understood also in a moral sense, for much of the third series are historically concurrent with the second. They extend back to Paul’s ministry — “For the mystery of lawlessness already works; only there is he who restrains now until he be gone” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). That all enters into the third sub-division of John’s book, namely Revelation 4 to the end, and in these chapters we have protracted history which includes events extending back to the beginning of christianity. “And there are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes he must remain only a little while” (Revelation 17:10). “One is” refers to the time of writing. Prophetic history as regards the world to some extent has been running concurrently with ecclesiastical history.
JTJr The book of Revelation alludes to bondman. It would link with Exodus 21, John being the apostle who was the expression of love.
JT Yes, the word bondman in this book involves love; that is the underlying thought. I hope we shall see it active in priesthood in Exodus 28 and 29. The word in Isaiah 8:16 is, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law”; this implies priesthood, for the priests were custodians of the law. The Hebrew bondman prefers to remain; and then he is brought to the door, and his ear is bored; resulting from that, “he shall be his bondman for ever” (Exodus 21:6). He has entered into that now. The service is finished and he is free, but instead of taking freedom he accepts this new kind of bond. Death is involved in it. The Lord accepted death to remain a bondman. A wonderful expression of love! He takes it on definitely because of love — threefold love. It is worth while, like Jacob serving for Rachel, the seven years were as single days because of his love for her.
AJ Being brought to the door would be a family allusion — a public testimony, as to how the Lord entered into death [p. 139] for us.
WGT Coming into bondmanship was for a limited period — the six years, he accepted it for that time.
JT That is not an eternal position, but what he enters upon as saying, “I love”, is an eternal position he is ever ready for; anybody that comes in sees that. The Lord Jesus died in love. “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it” (Ephesians 5:25).
CT “I love my master.” His Master is the first thought of.
JT God has that place. Christ’s love in its activity is fully differentiated.
GAT Is this the working out of the Lord’s prayer, “Not my will”?
JT He submits to the will of God, but here in Exodus 21 there is no reluctance, this is entirely a love matter. We cannot say He is restricted to bondmanship, for He never ceases to be who He is, “over all God”. It is a question of how far His love goes.
SMcC “Emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form” (Philippians 2:7). How far would that go?
JT It refers to His becoming Man, an allusion to the attitude of His mind. He became Man to serve. So the Lord would do any service amongst the disciples. It is the attitude of His mind, but we must not restrict Him to that. He lays aside His garments, as seen in John 13, but He puts them on again. He has the liberty of the house. He is the One that built it. He takes the place of house-father in Emmaus, see J.N.D.’s note to Luke 24:30. He is Son in the house; His Person remains unchanged.
JD “Then the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection to him who put all things in subjection to him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Does that apply?
JT That is not exactly bondmanship. It just sets out the position of subjection; that is all; even then [p. 140] we cannot say, He must be that. In this respect, we cannot apply must to Him; His Person remains unchanged, and, as in manhood, He is said to be “the true God” (1 John 5:20).
EC Bondmanship is only required as long as the need is existent.
JT The type here is to show what love in Christ has done. The type also shows the variety of His love — ascending, horizontal and descending.
APf What would horizontal love be?
JT Love for the assembly. “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). Adam recognised Eve’s status as on equality with his. Thus love for his wife was for a person equal to himself. “That the world may know that I love the Father” (John 14:31), is ascending love; all His service is carried on in love. Love is the kernel of everything. Love to God is ascending. Descending love is to the saints viewed as children, and the Lord addresses the disciples as children.
Rem Love existed between divine Persons before incarnation.
JT “Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). That is a wonderful fact. The Father loved the Person now known as the Son before the world was. All Persons of the Deity were on equality, no inferiority of position then.
JD When a person loves like this, God says, Come up to Me into the mountain and be there (Exodus 24:12). Is that the thought in ascension?
JT That is the teaching in these chapters; first, thousands of those that love God, and then a special One that loves Him — Christ, as a Man among men, comes into the scene of love here below. John says, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). Love is fully attested, so that we might know it. It underlies all these chapters until we come to chapter 24, then you get ascension; not only the ascension of Christ, seen in Moses, but [p. 141] also that of the people. The people with one voice accept the words of Jehovah, and thus, in type, they are fit to ascend.
WB-w Are the thousands of those who love characteristic of the assembly?
JT The principle is that love is there; but now, chapter 21, in the typical allusion to Christ love is fully attested in the death of the Lord Jesus. He would remain a Bondman because of love, and testified to this by death.
WB-w The ear is bored through with an awl; why the ear?
JT The ear refers to the intelligence, power to take in things. It refers to the Lord’s position in humanity. “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed” (Isaiah 50:4). It is the greatness of love that is before us. “Who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2).
AB “Even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2).
JT That enters into this passage very manifestly.
EGMcA Does this passage indicate the readiness to accept bondmanship?
JT Yes. We are “to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19). Paul says, “For the love of the Christ constrains us” (2 Corinthians 5:14) — that kind of love.
Rem The bondman here says distinctly, “I love”.
JT It refers to the Lord’s attitude towards the Father and towards the saints. He leaves no room for question as to His love; it is manifest.
WB-w This love fits in with the Lord’s supper, His body given for us, not as bearing the wrath of God on the cross. It is love in Man in the house.
JT Yes. The door would allude to the family circle, where the family is; the master is there and the [p. 142] wife and the children, and the door is the public position, where there is going in and out.
WB-w The door-post is mentioned too.
JT Israel in Egypt knew what that meant, the blood of Christ kept the destroyer out, inside was the realm of love.
APf How does the love of God enter into this?
JT That is not here at all. It is love in a Man. The love of God is descending love, but that is another matter. The great fact of love here is introduced in a Man. It brings out the greatness of the love of Christ. I want to know the love of Christ, and to take it as an example. I want to learn how to love.
JD “For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died” (2 Corinthians 5:14). This was the incentive in Paul’s service.
JT It is stressed at Corinth, because of those who were not lovers of Christ in the true sense. Every Lord’s day the Supper brings it before us. The Lord’s supper, given in this epistle, implies that we love Him and love Him continually.
AB Paul says, “If any one love God, he is known of him” (1 Corinthians 8:3).
JT That is another point, loving God.
Ques “He that loves God love also his brother” (1 John 4:21). Is the latter horizontal love?
JT Yes, the brother is my equal.
WB-w Paul as constrained by the love of Christ has got to the centre, and he would deal with persons who were not in accord with it.
JT Yes; and he prays elsewhere “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, ... to know the love of the Christ” (Ephesians 3:17,19).
EGMcA In Romans 8:35 he enquires, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ”; and then goes on to show that nothing can separate us from it, or from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our [p. 143] Lord. As Christ remains a Man, there is that love which we are brought into, and a link between Him and us for ever.
JT We are inseparable from it.
EGMcA “We more than conquer through him” (Romans 8:37).
SP In Revelation 3:9 He says to Philadelphia, they “shall know that I have loved thee”.
JT Others are to know of His love for the assembly.
JTJr In Exodus 21 to 23, sin coming out is contemplated in relation to man; “he that striketh a man” and “he that stealeth a man”, etc. It alludes to sin working in us. The Lord Jesus is a great model as we have seen, but, alas! sin works on our side.
JT Prominence is given to the word “man”, and sin against him. Of course we know that in the history of the assembly that is what has happened; man has not been rightly valued or protected. The Lord says Himself, “How much better then is a man than a sheep” (Matthew 12:12).
WB-w Each of these things is in contrast to manhood in Christ.
JT Typically manhood in Christ is in view all through.
GAT A brother lays down his life for the brethren.
JT That is a great thought. John has that in mind. The Lord Jesus set the example, which we are to follow.
WGT Man may fail, but there is always the point of recovery. Following the directions of these chapters we get adjusted with the brethren. “Quit yourselves like men” (1 Corinthians 16:13).
WB-w What is the difference in the book of the covenant in Exodus and Deuteronomy?
JT Deuteronomy is a second covenant as we learn in chapter 29: “These are the words of the covenant that Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides [p. 144] the covenant that he made with them in Horeb.” The words of the first covenant are used as a text for Moses to speak, as we would use Scripture in ministering. He took up the first covenant as it was and used it to bring out the second covenant — “besides the covenant that he made with them in Horeb” (Deuteronomy 29:1). What is in mind is that he takes up the first, and amplifies it with increased love in his heart for the saints, so that it becomes another. In Deuteronomy Moses is enlarged as a lover of Israel and lover of God. He is greater in Deuteronomy than in the earlier books. Speaking brings out what the ministry really is amongst us today. Scripture is the basis of all ministry; but we are to minister Christ. John 21:25 says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”. The first covenant is opened up so as to make another. It is a question of Moses’ love for the people.
As to skill in ministry, Moses in seven verses of Exodus 12 gives the gist of all Jehovah said to him about the passover, and he adds to the details when he speaks to the people. Verses 21 to 27 are Moses’ own words, as if he were to say, I am going to give you a word about the passover; and he gives in seven verses what he received in twenty verses. This brings in the way to minister, that it should be according to what is needed for the moment; reducing rather than extending. He brings it into their range, and adds new thoughts too — the hyssop and the bason. That brings out the levitical principle and shows how to use Scripture; clothing it with thoughts God has given you. The book of Deuteronomy is like that.
GAT The Lord spoke to the two going to Emmaus about “the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).
JT The Lord went over the ground we have been taking up these last two days, and we do not want to be saying anything different from what He would say.
WB-[p. 145] w The power for condensation is in the minister.
JT That is the idea — the ability to condense or amplify as the circumstances may require.
AEH In facing difficulties among the brethren, Deuteronomy affords peculiar help.
JT That is a good way to look at it.
WB-w You would not read a whole chapter in beginning to speak a word to the saints.
JT It is not good to bring in much scripture. Scripture is basic, and you can enlarge on it. Two or three short scriptures ought to be enough; three is good testimony.
SMcC You might only have one. The Lord “found the place where it was written” (Luke 4:17).
JT To the two going to Emmaus, “he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”. In the assembly it is “the law of Moses and prophets and psalms” (Luke 24:44). In these instances the Lord was unfolding the truth as to Himself in its fulness, and hence should not be taken as models for us in giving addresses. The same is true of Paul’s long discourse at Troas.
CT “They were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with authority” (Luke 4:32). It was what He said, not so much what He read.
JT The eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, and Philip began there and preached Jesus to him.
Returning to our book, in Exodus 24 we read verses 9 to 11, which relate the fact that Moses and the others mentioned went up. This alludes to what is possible in assembly service. It does not say they went up to the mountain, but that Moses was to go up (verse 12) — Christ alone.
JD What was there, according to chapter 21 — love to the master, wife and children — would give impetus to the service; spiritual power for ascension.
[p. 146] JT Love is regulated; its objects specified — “I love my master, my wife, and my children” (Exodus 21:5). Love is active in the Lord’s heart as He comes in. In assembly it is love first for Christ, answering to His love for us, that should be in action; when we go on farther it is love to the Father, or to God, that should be in action. It is a time of love; differentiated love. The kind of love applicable at any particular time is to be understood.
WB-w The seventy elders, or nobles set out developed manhood in those who go up.
JT Yes. First — “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu”. We would say Nadab and Abihu should not be brought in, but they are, and they fit in here. Later they died under God’s judgment (Leviticus 10:2), but here it is not Eleazar and Ithamar, but the elder sons, the chief of them, and then “seventy of the elders of Israel”, so that you have a very august company going up. Love underlies it.
WGT What is the thought in “transparent sapphire”?
JT That we are to leave all envy or other adverse feelings behind, in assembly service. Do not go up in the murkiness of natural feelings; all is transparency there.
SMcC We might be inclined to think Nadab and Abihu should not have been there.
JT They fit in here. We might say Jethro should not take the place he took earlier. Nadab and Abihu are Aaron’s sons here. Judas was really an apostle, and was owned as such until he went out. We have many instances of persons being used of God who afterwards came under His judgment.
JD Those who went up, “saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were work of transparent sapphire, and as it were the form of heaven for clearness”. Does this involve intelligence [p. 147] in us? Is it the knowledge of God needed for His service?
JT It is the realm of spiritual privilege, which can hardly be defined, you could not give an account of it. As in the enjoyment of our own peculiar place with God, we are made to feel that we are in the presence of infinite things. It makes you small, but you are in holy liberty, filled, as the apostle would speak of it “even to all the fulness of God”, (Ephesians 3:19).
JD In our chapter in Exodus we have the expression “as it were the form of heaven for clearness”. The term “as it were” seems to suggest something indescribable in mere words, similar to the expression in 2 Corinthians 5:20, where the footnote in the New Translation is helpful.
JT This wonderful realm of things cannot be exactly defined, you are in the presence of infinitude. What can you say?
NB All this results from the Lord Jesus taking a bondman’s form (Philippians 2:7)).
JT Yes — “his name is called Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6). What transpired before Manoah and his wife was wonderful (Judges 13). Manoah was not equal to his wife; for as the angel did wondrously he was not able to take it in. His wife could, however, having spiritual instincts and exercises. The saints are to understand mysteries.
GAT “They saw the God of Israel” (Exodus 24:10), but in chapter 20:22 “Jehovah said to Moses”, why is the title changed?
JT It is God in verse 11, but it is qualified by “of Israel” in verse 10, and thus is specially relative here. We are in the realm of God. God is the great End of all things. In such glorious circumstances we are filled even to all the fulness of God. My spiritual vision is tested. Can I describe it as beholding it? Following this great scene, as it is to be understood now, it means “that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).
EGMcA It is a remarkable word, “they saw God, and ate and drank”; it is a most august occasion.
JT God includes all that relates to Deity; “Father” is more limited. The Father judges no one (John 5:22).
SMcC “They saw the God of Israel”, it says, and “they saw God and ate and drank”. There are various thoughts linked with the God of Israel, but “they saw God” stands by itself.
JT As already remarked, as we bring the thought into christianity, it may be connected with 1 Corinthians 15:28. We are putting christian thoughts into it, which is right.
WB-w In assembly service the covenant God comes after the Supper.
JT I doubt that God should be formally brought into the Lord’s supper. Jesus is spoken of as the Mediator of the new covenant in Hebrews 12:24. The Supper is the Lord’s supper, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25). It stands directly related to Christ in His supper. It is wise to keep the words conveying the Lord’s supper in 1 Corinthians 11 steadily before us as partaking of it. Much that is stated in the gospels is left out there. The Lord in giving the wording of His supper to Paul, says of the cup, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me”. He is stressing the memorial aspect in what He gave to Paul, and this refers to Christ, not to God.
JD What is the thought as to God being all in all?
JT What is behind the divine economy is inscrutable. “No one knows the Son but the Father” (Matthew 11:27). We are dealing with the economy which goes right through.
JD “Then the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection to him” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Does that engage us with the Lord’s Person in the [p. 149] economy?
JT Yes, but you cannot see all that enters into that from the divine side. There is that which we do not, and cannot know. When thinking of His subject position, I have to bear in mind that He is “over all, God blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5). The general position is in mind in 1 Corinthians 15:28, “God ... all in all”.