BEARING INIQUITY

W.McKay

Numbers 18:1-3, 8-13; Revelation 1: 17, 18; 22: 16, 17

I have an impression, beloved brethren, that I should speak about bearing the iniquity of the sanctuary and bearing the iniquity of the priesthood. How we will come by it I do not know but I have an impression that that is what should occupy us, as the word to Aaron is, "Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood". I believe that God is looking for persons at the present time who are able to do that, who have capacity to take on and bear before Him what has come into the profession in evil and corruption. Think of all that has come in, even in our time; how humbling it is!

This links on with what we have been engaged with already, Jesus as the Holy One of God. If we think of what He has borne, not only in a general way - the sin and the state of the race - but what He has carried in regard to the rebellion of Christendom and all that has come in, all that is attached to the Lord's name in the profession at the present time: Jesus suffered for all that. He took it upon Himself, He bore it. I think this ought to get into our souls, the failure that we have had so much part in, the breakdown; Jesus has suffered for it, He has carried it; He has actually gone down into death to meet it and to remove it from before God. A very interesting point in Psalm 16 is the reference to the Holy One of God: "Neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption" (v 10). That brings out what I believe is in the ministry somewhere, the uniqueness of Christ even as He lay in death. The life of Jesus was unique, absolutely so. The birth of Jesus was unique, the dying of Jesus was unique, but the fact that He lay in death was unique too, and it is said "Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption". The fact that Jesus was in death was a unique matter. There was nothing ever like it in the history of the creation of God, that the Holy One should actually lie in death; but God did not suffer His Holy One to see corruption. God came in in the power of resurrection and took Jesus out of that condition. But as facing suffering and death, dear brethren, He bore the iniquity of the sanctuary.

There are two sides, therefore, to the priesthood. There is the ability - and Christ stands out in His unique glory as the One who is great enough to carry through the service of God for time and for eternity. That is priesthood in its relation towards God; the service of God, all that is for the divine pleasure, is taken on and sustained by that glorious Person, that Man who fills now the presence of God as He will do eternally. But the other side is that the priest and his sons were to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and so it is that Jesus bore before God the failure and rebellion, all that has come in in the way of corruption into the profession of what is of God, Jesus has borne it. This is the other side of priesthood. I suppose the most outstanding type of it is in the book of Ezekiel. You remember that Ezekiel was told to lie on his left side three hundred and ninety days and bear the iniquity of the children of Israel; and then to turn to his right side and bear the iniquity of the children of Judah. Now Ezekiel was a priest; as a matter of fact he is called "the priest", Ezek 1: 3. What a man he was! His name means 'Strength of God'. He was to carry the iniquity of the children of Israel on his left side three hundred and ninety days and not able to turn from one side to the other. Think of a man being able for that! Of course, the only Man that was really equal to it in an absolute way was Christ. Oh! if we did nothing else today but get a fresh and enhanced impression of the glory of Christ our time together will be well worth. The only One who could sustain the whole matter of the iniquity of the sanctuary was the Lord Jesus Himself; and yet Ezekiel was a man of like passions with you and me, and he was great enough to become a type, he lay on one side for three hundred and ninety days, and for forty days on the other side. What a man he was!

What I want to come to, dear brethren, is that God is looking for maturity amongst us, involving moral and spiritual strength. Do not let us be satisfied with going on with things in a timid kind of way, in a loose kind of way. I think the time has come when we should realise that God is looking for maturity. He is looking for men, and women too, who can fill out the truth, and perhaps this particular feature of it, not only the carrying through of the service of God but the bearing of the iniquity of the sanctuary. This chapter 18 of Numbers is one in which the priesthood is recovered. There had been the great breakdown, typical of the rebellion of Christendom, in chapter 16, the Levites laying claim to the priesthood. Oh! dear brethren, we should feel, as I am sure we do feel, the awful state of things that has come in. At the end of that chapter we get Aaron making intercession; he made atonement for the people. Thank God for the atonement that has been made! Thank God for His mercy to us, that He has brought us through! Then in chapter 17 we get the establishment, in Aaron's rod that budded, of priesthood in the power of life. How great that is, dear brethren! It is not a question today of being simply right in doctrine but a question of the power of life. Aaron's rod budded; and there again we get the thought of maturity, because the rod did not only bud, but it blossomed and it ripened almonds. God gets through immediately to a state of maturity and why should we not be aiming at that? And there is not only the thought of maturity attaching to the ripening of the almonds but the thought of beauty, the beauty of life. You think of the buds, and you think of the blossom! Resurrection is a wonderful thing! Think of the beauty of everything that God is bringing up from the realm of death! It is life out of death, but God brings it out in a way that is attractive, in a way that carries the thought of beauty with it. It was the same in Joseph's day. The butler had a dream and saw a vine, and the vine budded and it blossomed and it ripened grapes (Gen 40: 10). Are not these wonderful thoughts, the attractiveness of what God brings up in resurrection? It says of the Lord Jesus that He was "raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father", Romans 6: 4. There could be nothing in the whole universe more attractive than the activities of the glory of the Father, and it was active in relation to Christ as He was brought up out of death.

And so in chapter 17 of Numbers we get Aaron's rod that budded. You think of those twelve princes coming forward, every man claiming his rod and every man finding that his rod was just a dead staff, completely dead, until we come to Aaron's rod and this is a beautiful thing. It has budded, and blossomed, and ripened almonds! How lovely that is - the re-establishment of the priesthood in the power of life! Oh, dear brethren, let us take in these things! We are not together simply because we agree in regard to certain doctrine. The doctrine is important and we need to hold to it; but we are together, if we are together according to God, in the power of life, and that is what God is looking for; and He is looking for maturity which has in mind that we are able to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. How many of us are able for it? I believe the Lord would encourage us to get into His presence and to speak to Him about the breakdown, carry it in our spirits. What an effect it would have upon us! Ezekiel's name is 'Strength of God', and I believe God would encourage us with strength in view of His service; but strength too in view of the carrying of the iniquity of the sanctuary and the iniquity of the priesthood. I think He is looking for it, scanning the whole area of Christendom at the present time, finding one or two here, and one or two somewhere else, bearing the iniquity of the sanctuary. Is that not something to God? I believe it is, men and women who are in full accord with God about His judgment in regard to what has come into Christendom. That is what we need.

Now in chapter 18 we come to the recovery of the priesthood. Chapter 16 is the breakdown, chapter 17 the priesthood established in the power of life and chapter 18 the functioning of the priesthood in the recovery; and that is where we desire to be. If we are anything at all we are in the recovery by the mercy of God. The mercy of God has brought us into it. The chapter goes on to speak of the Levites uniting with the priest. What a wonderful thing this is! What is challenged first of all is the intimacy of our links with the Lord Jesus. It says, "Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring near with thee, that they may unite with thee, and minister unto thee; but thou and thy sons with thee shall serve before the tent of the testimony. And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of the whole tent: only they shall not come near". This matter of uniting with the priest: a most important thing, I suppose, at the present time is the intimacy and the strength of our relations with Christ. If the priesthood is going to function we need to know the One who is the Priest and we are to unite with Him. Think of that! We are to unite with Christ. If we are to bear the iniquity of the sanctuary we need to be in touch with Christ in this intimate way. Then the other thing is that we must be personally free from the iniquity. We get free from the iniquity by departing from it. We need to be personally free before we can bear it. Then the other thing is that we need to have part in the positive line of the service of God. He says, "I have given thee the charge of my heave-offerings", given them to you as a gift. Think of what God has given to us as a gift, dear brethren, our part in the service of God. You think of what we have every Lord's day morning, the part that we have! God says, I have given you that as a gift. It is not that we have done anything that deserves it. We might think that we have done something that others have not done but God says, I have given it to you, on the principle of gift. Let us understand that, and let us appreciate our privileges. Then He says, "The hallowed things of the children of Israel; to thee have I given them". The priests had the best of everything. It says in verse 12, "All the best of the oil, and all the best of the new wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they give to Jehovah, have I given thee. The first ripe of every thing". What food the priesthood has! You see, dear brethren, how God, I was going to say is anxious, but God is particular about building up the priestly constitution of the saints. We are not priests because we say we are; but think of the food that we have to feed upon! As the saints bring their offerings the priests get the very best. I think this is the kind of priesthood that we need to attend to. There is our part in the service of God in the sanctuary, but there is besides the part of the priesthood in facing the evil that has come into the position and being with God about it.

Now I just want to refer to Revelation where we get John. We could have referred to others. I believe in Abigail (1 Sam 25) we get a touch as to bearing the iniquity. She says, "Upon me let the iniquity be" (v 24). Let it be upon me. She was clean; she was free from it personally and yet she says, "Upon me let the iniquity be". And David says something similar at a later date and Paul took on the sorrow of the church; how he carried it! When we come to Revelation, how John carries it! He saw the Lord in His judicial garments and was thoroughly with Christ in His judgment of all that had come into the professing church. It is a very great thing that we be thoroughly with the Lord in His judgment of all that has come in that is dishonouring to God. Think of how the Lord in manhood was in absolute accord with God's judgment as to sin. I remember Mr Parker telling us that even on the cross, when Christ was suffering for sin, there was not a hair's breadth of divergence between God's judgment of the evil and Christ's judgment of it. He was in absolute accord with God in His judgment of evil, even when He was suffering for it. And here John is in accord with the Lord's judgment of the sin that had come in and he fell at His feet as dead. We are to be affected by these things, the Lord would help us to be affected by them; it is a function of priesthood. Then the Lord lays His right hand upon him to strengthen him. I believe that John was in absolute accord with the Lord in regard to His judgment of what had come into the church and in regard of everything else in the whole scene, Babylon and all that that stands for; and we need to be that. We are living in an evil day and we need to be with God in regard to the evil with which we are surrounded, but particularly the iniquity of the sanctuary. John was in accord with the Lord in regard to the whole matter.

Then, when we come to the end of the book, he is also fully in accord with the Lord in regard to the Spirit and the bride, what was for Christ in the bride. I think, if we are with God in His judgment of evil, He will give us to see what the assembly is to the heart of Christ. This is what we get through to in the book of Revelation and is what I leave with us today, that the Lord has something infinitely precious to His

own heart. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". They say, Come, to Jesus, and we are nearing the time when the Lord will come. Oh! what it is to he with the Lord, to be united with Him, not only in His judgment of the evil but in the expression of His appreciation of what is specially for His own heart, that is the bride. The features of the bride, dear brethren, coming to light are what He is delighting in at the present time. May the Lord bless the word.

London

19th May 1973