THE BREASTPLATE AND THE LOCAL ASSEMBLIES
[p. 423] THE BREASTPLATE AND THE LOCAL ASSEMBLIES
Exodus 28:15-22; Exodus 28:29,30; Numbers 2: 32 - 34
CAC I am sure we have all found comfort and strength in thinking of the affectionate interest which the Lord has in us as individual saints. I suppose we have all experienced His succour and help, and have learnt that it is a precious reality that He lives to make intercession for us. But I have been wondering lately whether we have a sufficient sense of the Lord’s affectionate interest in us as walking together in local assemblies; I am sure the Lord would give us an impression of His profound interest in us in that character.
In making these remarks I am referring to the fact that there were no names of individuals in the breastplate, but of “tribes”, and, as I understand it, each tribe as a type would have its antitype in the local assembly. The Lord would give us a sense of the speciality of the way He thinks of us as on assembly ground in each locality.
Paul is in a particular way the representative of Christ, he is the “called apostle of Jesus Christ”, and what marked him was great interest in local assemblies. No doubt he was interested in the saints in a general way, but his service, as we have it recorded in Scripture, is largely service to local assemblies. His epistles are nearly all addressed to saints in defined localities — Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, etc. In this, I think, he was peculiarly in accord with the heart of Christ, one might say with the stones in the breastplate.
Each assembly is in view as having its own particular character; the tribes as seen in the breastplate were all set together in unity, and they all moved in unity as standing in relation to the tent of meeting — the tabernacle of testimony; but each tribe had its own special place in the breastplate. I believe every local assembly has a distinct place on the heart of Christ. We may gather this from Revelation 2 and 3, where we have seven assemblies (no doubt representing all the assemblies), and each is addressed as having the special attention of the Lord. It would help us to get before us that the Lord has a peculiar and special interest in each local company.
[p. 424] I am not exactly thinking of all believers in a place, for they are not all in assembly order — divine order in relation to the tabernacle of testimony. I am looking at it in the light of the type before us; the type presents to us the people of God as seen in various companies, that is, in “tribes”. If we think of defined companies today it must be the saints viewed in local assemblies; such defined companies are referred to frequently in the New Testament; we read of “the assemblies of the saints”; they are defined companies clearly, but according to the type they are companies all standing in relation to one another in a universal unity, and standing in relation to the tent of meeting, and the tabernacle of testimony. That is clearly the setting of the type; it is not the people of God viewed as every man doing what is right in his own eyes, which is very much the condition of things in the religious world.
In the early part of Numbers things are seen according to divine order, and there is such a thing as an administration according to divine order. It is as having some sense of this that we are walking together; we desire to fall into line with the divine system, to escape from the lawless and disorderly systems which men have brought in, and to find our places locally and generally in the divine system, that system which was typified by the tribes in their ordered and proper places in relation to the tabernacle of testimony. That is the divine idea, and it is with that in view that we are walking together, if we are doing so intelligently and spiritually. We may have come to it in different ways, but that is what we reach if we reach anything at all according to God as to our position.
We do well to take account of this, and to remember that it puts us in a place where we receive peculiar and affectionate support direct from the heart of Christ. It is in that character typically that we are seen in the breastplate. It would help us to see that the teaching of the type does not refer to individual saints, but to the saints viewed tribally; that is, as definitely set together locally. This regards us as being together locally on true assembly ground; it is either that or what we may call ecclesiastical lawlessness; it is either a human system or the divine system.
We may remember that not only did Israel have twelve sons, but Ishmael also had twelve sons — “twelve princes of their peoples” (Genesis 25), representing typically the fact that there would be an administration connected outwardly with Abraham’s house, but which takes character from one who will not own the rights of Christ, but who is a mocker when those rights are practically owned. The character of the administration which prevails in the religious world around us, which we have to face and overcome, is largely Ishmaelitish. There is a whole system which has to be cast out as opposed to Christ — an administration which sets up man in the flesh in his varied features. The twelve princes of Ishmael’s line were prior to the twelve sons of Israel; the natural precedes the spiritual; but the spiritual is to displace the natural.
We are, I trust, learning to walk together locally as of the Israel of God, in divine order and forming part of the divine system. For those who come to that there is special affectionate interest in the heart of Christ; it goes out to them, because they have found in some small way practically their right place in the divine administration. Each stone — each “tribe” — has its distinctive colour and value in the breastplate. Each tribe is a unit, but all the twelve tribes are set together in a universal unity, represented by the stones being fitted together in settings of gold. They are put together so that there is no thought suggested of independency; no local assembly is independent; it is divinely linked with every other assembly, yet each one has its own special place in the breastplate.
Ques Would the sons of Israel and Ishmael be set forth in Philadelphia and Laodicea?
CAC Yes, I think in principle things are headed up there. An administration which is according to the flesh is rejected by God, however pretentious, however it may be able to say, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing”.
Ques Would you say that we are entitled to take account in a special way, as according to the mind of the Spirit, of those who gather on assembly ground?
CAC It is evident that the type does not allow for anything else. Every tribe is to be in its defined place, and in its proper relation to all the other tribes. They all have to encamp and move together; no thought of lawlessness is admitted. We cannot find in the type any justification for what is otherwise. If people are lawless and independent and carrying on divine things in a human and natural way, they are clearly not in the divine system in any practical sense; they do not in any way correspond with the stones in the breastplate.
[p. 426] The place of the tribes as seen in Numbers 2 corresponded with the place they had in the breastplate. There are four rows of stones in the breastplate, and in Numbers 2 there are four camps, each composed of three tribes; it is evident that they were preserved in every way from independency. No one tribe could move without its neighbours; then the four camps all moved together in unity, moving first, second, third, or fourth as divinely ordered, but all moving together. That is the practical side of the working out of assembly truth locally, and it is most important that assembly truth should be worked out locally. The devil is not particularly opposed to what is universal so long at it is left abstract and no attempt made to secure locally what corresponds with it. Many persons are prepared to read books and to enjoy all that is said of the church universally; they believe that the church includes all believers; they take in the universal idea in that sense, but they will not accept that what is universal has to be worked out locally. That is quite another matter because that means a clean break with the Ishmaelitish system, and it means coming in a practical sense into a system that is of God. Every christian would accept, for example, that the Lord Jesus gave His body for all saints, but the test comes when we realise that, in the light of this, we should break bread locally, and take up together the responsibilities that go with the privilege. It is at once felt that difficulties will be encountered which only faith can overcome.
The enemy’s point of attack is the local assembly, see Acts 20: 29, 30. His object is, of course, to assail what is universal; but his point of attack is the local assembly; we ought to realise that; it would preserve us from expecting that we are going to have all plain sailing in our local associations; we must expect to find the enemy operating in respect of the local assembly. The enemy will see to it that all kinds of difficulties are encountered that other people do not have. There are difficulties in the working out of the divine system that would not be met with in the Ishmaelitish system. All sorts of things rise up in the local assemblies, but how precious it is to know that in relation to these difficulties we have the affectionate interest of Christ, and we are borne on the heart of Christ in a peculiar way in relation to those very things. It is most encouraging.
The tabernacle was a wonderful system, and every detail in [p. 427] it represented what was spiritual and of God; but it was the tabernacle of testimony; that is, it speaks of God setting things forth in testimony, not in public power. When God does bring in His system publicly, as He will, it will necessitate the public setting aside of everything adverse to it. But God is not doing that now; He is bringing in His system in the way of testimony; bringing it in in such a way that it has to meet all the hostility of the enemy, and it has to be defended by the twelve tribes standing arrayed for military service. So that the position of the tribes around the tabernacle is a militant position. There are enemies all round, on every side of the square, and the testimony of God involves the maintenance of what is of God in the face of everything that is hostile.
Rem The thought of the testimony is universal, but it needs to be maintained locally.
CAC Yes, that is right; the tabernacle of testimony and the tent of meeting suggest universal thoughts. All the twelve tribes stood in relation to the one tabernacle, so the tabernacle itself represents what is universal. But then everything local, everything tribal, has to stand in relation to it, and our great exercise should be to bring everything local into proper relation to what is universal. The tabernacle, its service, the charge of the sanctuary, are universal things, but things locally have to be brought into right relation to them.
If things are regarded merely in the universal aspect there may be nothing practical or concrete about it, nothing that can be viewed as substantial. A great many people have a notion of the church universally as composed of all saints, and many preach a great deal of the truth of the church, but at the same time they go on locally with the Ishmaelitish system which recognises the natural and the fleshly. It is when the desire is awakened to work out the truth of the assembly locally that the test comes. That is what the devil is against and what Christ is for; and therefore in a path where we prove the special hostility of Satan it becomes very necessary that we should prove the affectionate support of Christ the Priest.
There is a word in 2 Corinthians 8: 23 that I should like to read: “Whether as regards Titus, he is my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf; or our brethren, they are deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ’s glory”. It would affect us all greatly if we thought of the local assemblies as “Christ’s glory”. It is very touching. I suppose there are at [p. 428] least twelve little companies represented here this afternoon, and Paul would clothe us with divine thoughts; he would give us to understand that locally we are “Christ’s glory”, and this not as individuals, but as walking together locally in assembly conditions we are “Christ’s glory”. In saying this Paul was in accord with the heart of Christ and with the breastplate. It would be from this point of view that he had daily solicitude about “all the assemblies”, 2 Corinthians 11: 28. Christ’s glory is identified with local assemblies. The object of the enemy in all his efforts to produce local eruptions and discords is to assail Christ’s glory, and if we kept that in mind it would steady our spirits, and we should be watchful and prayerful that we be not deflected from the way that we are represented in the breastplate. We might gather, I think, from the breastplate that each local assembly, as answering to the typical “tribe”, is on the heart of Christ as having some distinctive glory. And every local exercise is permitted and designed in order to bring out that glory. It is intended that the local assembly shall correspond with the precious stone that represents it in the breastplate. The intercession of Christ has that in view; it would support us to that end.
Administrative exercises stand connected with our tribal position. The number twelve, as we have often heard, is the number of administration. We have to distinguish between exercises connected with the sanctuary and exercises connected with the tribes. In the service of the sanctuary, and its charge, all is priestly and levitical. The priests were all levites, and Levi was not in the breastplate. Divine service in praise and worship is not really local; the brethren in Exeter and New York all praise on the same universal notes. Ministry is the same, whether in Sydney or London, so that what is ministered in one place holds equally good in every other place; but when we come to local exercises in administration they are not everywhere the same, though, of course, all have to be governed by the same universal principles, and the issue reached would be universally the same if precisely the same conditions had to be met; but questions arise in one place which do not arise in another, hence there is variety in administration. The administrative glory of Christ is so great that it could not all be seen in any one local assembly, but the divine thought is that it shall be seen in all the assemblies, as set together in relation to each other and to the tabernacle of testimony, and all in divine [p. 429] unity, whether seen as encamped, or as represented in the precious stones of the breastplate.
In the assemblies as represented by the twelve tribes there is divine administration, and Christ’s glory seen in it; we could not get what answers to the number twelve in one individual or even in one assembly. The administration of Christ will be seen in its completeness in the heavenly city, but even there it is a diversified glory. The foundations of its wall have in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, but each one seen as having a distinctive glory. Take the three of them best known to us — Matthew, Peter, and John — how distinctive they are! The glories of the Lamb are diversified; the One who suffered and died is so great, He can be viewed in so many different lights, that His glories could not be set forth administratively in less than twelve men. We realise that each had his own place in setting Him forth.
The administration that will be seen in its completeness in the holy city is to be seen now in the local assemblies, viewed as typically set forth in the twelve tribes surrounding the tent of meeting. Christ’s glory is to come into evidence in the way everything is handled, so that a spiritual administration is seen on earth that corresponds with the mind of heaven.
The different questions that arise locally develop Christ’s glory in the assemblies. The direct service of God is one thing; His testimony is another; but the assemblies viewed as typified by the tribes are seen in a different relation. We may be sometimes inclined to wish that we had no other exercises save those connected with approach to God! I believe the most testing exercises are those connected with administration, for in taking them up we come into contact with what is not according to God; the ‘tribes’ have to encamp or move as on ‘military service’. The local assemblies are in presence of the actual trying conditions that are here, need amongst the saints, perplexing questions of right and wrong, questions as to whom we can extend fellowship and from whom we are required to withdraw — all enter into this position.
Now it is just these exercises which impart distinctive colour to each local assembly. As to the testimony, the service of God, the ministry — in a word all that is priestly or levitical — it is universal, and all that is administrative has to be worked out in the light of it. But administrative exercises are local, and [p. 430] have to be worked out locally, and when worked out they give distinctive features of Christ’s glory which answer to the stones in the breastplate. I think the type — taken in conjunction with the distinctive epistles of the New Testament — would warrant us in holding, for our comfort and encouragement, the precious thought that the assemblies are in the affections of Christ in a distinctive way in relation to their special responsibilities in administration. Whatever question or difficulty arises, Christ’s glory is to come out in the way it is met; some particular feature of that glory is to be brought into evidence in each locality according to the occasions that arise locally. In every case, perhaps it might be said, we find ourselves confronted by what is Ishmaelitish; but it has to be met by an administration which suits the Israel of God, which brings Christ’s glory into evidence.
If the enemy knew how these things were going to work out he would leave us alone. Every local exercise and sorrow is divinely intended to work out Christ’s glory in the local assemblies, and I believe the Lord would encourage us — for we all have to touch these things — by the thought that He has a special interest in us in relation to our local exercises, He carries us ever in His breastplate in relation to them.
What a comfort to know that the breastplate was never detached from the ephod. Christ as Priest before God bears all the local assemblies on His heart in relation to those particular features of His glory which local exercises are designed to bring out. All have their place in the universal setting, and go to make up the completeness of the administrative features which belong to the assemblies viewed universally. All are perfectly fitted together, like the stones in the breastplate, so as to be manifestly one complete whole; just as each tribe filled its own place in unity with the other eleven as encamping, or as moving in relation to the tabernacle of testimony. So that while each local assembly has its own exercise, all move together as one whole, and each forms an integral part of the whole. “The breastplate of judgment” would suggest that everything is to be judged from the standpoint of what is in the heart of Christ.
Divine judgment about everything is connected with the place the saints have in the affections of Christ. As to local exercises, there is something on the heart of Christ that He means to work out locally; now we want to get at what is on [p. 431] the heart of Christ — not merely what the brethren think or feel, but what particular phase of Christ’s glory does He mean to bring out in us through the varied local exercises. If we committed ourselves to these things we should learn the love of Christ in a way we have never learnt it before. There is a speciality of nearness to Christ brought about through local assembly exercises that we cannot get in any other way. Then we begin to realise things from the standpoint of Christ’s glory; we are so apt to be governed by what is connected with ourselves; we often pursue, perhaps unconsciously, what stands connected with our own glory. But that is to perish; it belongs to what is Ishmaelitish; when we come to the exercises proper to the Israel of God we begin to think of Christ’s glory. That glory is diversified; I believe that some feature of Christ’s glory can come out locally at Crediton that is diverse from His glory as it comes out at Exmouth. It takes all the local assemblies to bring out this diversified glory of Christ; it comes out in detail in the local assemblies, worked out through their difficulties and exercises, and through the peculiar forms of pressure which they have to meet. Christ’s glory is developed in the face of these things through His intercession. It is very encouraging. I believe the Lord would have us to be more definitely committed to the local assembly as “Christ’s glory” than ever before. In the assemblies viewed according to God there is a setting forth of Christ’s glory that corresponds with the precious stones in the breastplate. One local assembly is never to be detached in our minds from all the others.
There is a danger, on the one hand, that we may be occupied with what is universal without any exercise as to working things out locally, but, on the other hand, when we get the thought of what is local, we are apt to get too localised, and to lose the sense that we have to encamp and move with all the other tribes. But the square breastplate indicates universality; the Lord in Revelation a says, “all the assemblies shall know”; He has “all the assemblies” in view; all were set together round the tabernacle and in the breastplate.
Paul, in writing to the assembly of God in Corinth, is careful to remind them of the universal unity, for he addresses them as linked “with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 1: 2. And he says, “The cup of blessing which we bless ... The bread which we break ...
[p. 432] we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”, 1 Corinthians 10: 16, 17. The ‘we’ here is evidently the universal ‘we’; the communion (or fellowship) is universal; all who partake of the one loaf “are one loaf, one body”. This absolutely rules out the idea of independent assemblies. And he says further, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 13. This is clearly universal; the saints in Corinth were “Christ’s body” (1 Corinthians 12: 27), and therefore they could not be regarded as independent of saints in other places who were also “Christ’s body”. This is not a voluntary association, or a union of independent assemblies, but an organic unity which, like the settings of gold which enclosed the stones of the breastplate, embraces all saints, in however many local assemblies they may be found. One could not, in the light of this, think that independent assemblies are of God any more than one could think that it was God’s mind that the twelve tribes in Israel should be independent units. The saints are one body, and are called by God to one holy fellowship. So that the thought of independent local fellowship, or of any assembly action which can be limited in its bearing to the particular locality where it was taken, is entirely out of accord with the truth. No doubt “the assembly” in 1 Corinthians is generally the local assembly, but the assembly in its universal unity is also fully recognised; see chapter 10: 32; 12: 28; 15: 9.
Ques Why was Levi not in the breastplate?
CAC The tribe of Levi was not numbered for military service; their place was the charge and service of the tabernacle, and to carry it as the tabernacle of testimony through the wilderness; they are not included in the particular type which we are considering. Some of us think, perhaps, that it would be very nice if we had nothing to do but to come together to sing and praise and listen to precious ministry, without difficulties or local exercises; no complicated questions of right or wrong to solve! But it is the exercises connected with administration that are the making of local assemblies, for they come in in view of the divine system being worked out practically in a concrete form, and that involves conflict and difficulty and the solution of perplexing questions. But that is just what makes the breastplate so precious, because it is “the breastplate of judgment” and the Urim and Thummim are there. How good it is to consider that in our local difficulties there is an opportunity for enquiry. There is no hope of the local company that thinks it is competent to deal with its local exercises without enquiring of the Lord; such a company will soon be on the rocks; there is always necessity for enquiring. The wisest man does not know, of his own wisdom, how to act in cases of difficulty in the local assembly; it is very rarely that there is an exact precedent that we can safely follow. There must be a resorting to the Urim and Thummim, and to the breastplate of judgment, to the very heart of Christ; as we truly resort to Him, Christ’s glory will be developed in a wonderful way in the local companies; it is worth going in for. There is a divine and spiritual administration, and nothing is of any value locally but that. Things are not to be settled by consent or agreement, but in the light of the breastplate; then things will be done according to God, and the administration of the world to come will be anticipated in the assembly. Whatever judgment is reached will be a divine judgment; the way it is reached will be on spiritual lines through the local company enquiring of the Urim and Thummim.
Those who get the gain of local exercises are the ones who carry locally “Christ’s glory”. Such may sometimes be a small remnant. In the addresses to the seven assemblies the Lord refers in a particular way to the overcomer. Things are reached in spiritual power by overcoming; the church position is secured by overcomers; those who are not overcomers may be outwardly with the testimony, but they will never be an integral part of it. I believe the principles we have been considering, and the affectionate interest of the heart of Christ as set forth in the breastplate, are divine, and therefore indestructible and permanent. Let us flee from everything that is of an Ishmaelitish character and get into the true exercises of the Israel of God.
When the saints were exercised about the gentiles in Acts 15, how Christ’s glory came out in Jerusalem! Perhaps everyone there was naturally prejudiced the other way, and would have brought the gentiles into legal bondage, but to impose a legal system on the gentiles would not have been “Christ’s glory”. When all arrived at a common judgment that the work of God among the gentiles should be left in spiritual liberty, then Christ’s glory came out, that is how it should be in the [p. 434] assemblies; the fruit of every local exercise is that Christ’s glory is seen in the saints locally and administratively. A care for poor and needy saints is part of the administration; 2 Corinthians 8. If we have to care for the poor it should be done in such a way that Christ’s glory appears in it.
I believe these Old Testament scriptures have been held in reserve by the Spirit of God for the last days; their import is now brought out by the Spirit to be light and encouragement for those who are in difficult times. Many precious treasures have been locked up in the Scriptures, like the epistles to the seven assemblies, which were never understood in their prophetic character until the time arrived when it was needful that they should be understood. Many things in Scripture have been held in reserve; the typical teaching of the Old Testament is among the reserve stores of divine wisdom and love kept to encourage us in our exercises today. In the sense of this may we seek to answer locally to what the tribes are as seen in the breastplate!