THE LOVE OF GOD KNOWN IN THE WILDERNESS

^[p. 101] THE LOVE OF GOD KNOWN IN THE WILDERNESS

Romans 5: 1 - 21; Romans 8:28; Romans 8:33-39; Numbers 24: 1 - 9

The scriptures read are familiar to us, and I would seek to show from them the manner in which the love of God becomes known by us, and the effect of it. I would direct your thoughts to that side of the believer’s position known in Scripture as the wilderness. I need not say the love of God goes beyond that! it goes into the land. When we come to what the land typifies, we have what we may call the excess of love which would take us to Ephesians: “God ... because of his great love wherewith he loved us”. There we have reference to the love of God as seen in the place He has designed for us. That is the excess of love. I do not dwell upon that tonight, but upon the wilderness position, and the epistle to the Romans is engaged with that point of view. It treats of the manner in which the love of God has been revealed in meeting our need here, and then the manner in which it becomes known subjectively by the Spirit. It is when it becomes known subjectively that the work begins. It was said of Israel, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”, Jeremiah 2: 2. There had been an objective setting forth typically of what God was to Israel in the passover and the Red Sea. Israel thus had an appreciation of Jehovah and what He does with His right hand. God’s right hand is the symbol of His power. God had intervened for them, and had done wonderful things with His right hand. I would say, speaking reverently, that God’s heart moves His right hand, His hand of power. You remember a proverb that says, “A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s at his left”, Ecclesiastes 10: 2. God’s heart ^[p. 102] moves His right hand; it is for faith to see this. I need hardly say that the right hand of God was seen at the resurrection of Christ. The acts of His right hand are in love, and our deliverance is the result. Well, Israel was moved. The first movement of heart in you may be forgotten by you; you may have turned into bypaths; but God remembers the first beat of your heart for Him. “I remember for thee”, He says.

He goes on to say, “Israel was holiness unto Jehovah”. Divine love in the heart is holy love. Then Israel was the first-fruits of God’s increase, I want you to note that. The love of God, that love which is so perfectly set forth at the cross, is shed abroad by the Spirit in the hearts of the saints, the Spirit of God, as it were, touching each individual heart, and there is movement, there is increase. Israel was the first-fruits of His increase, the increase of God’s love. You will find continually in Scripture there is increase. Adam and Eve were to multiply; God said of Abraham, “I ... increased him”. That increase really commenced at the Red Sea. The increase of God is in His love becoming effective in the hearts of His people. The effect of the cross is to widen out, until all the saints become moved to what Christ is to God. Psalm 150 tells me that everything that has breath praises God. Well, Israel was “the first-fruits of his increase”. Let us take care of the principles, and God will take care of the numbers. God will not be behind in numbers. The book of the Revelation helps as to this. It is written for our encouragement, and there is a premium on the understanding of it. You find numbers in the book of the Revelation, “ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands”, that is to say, numbers that are incalculable, divine numbers; God brings them in. When the ark moved Moses said, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered;

^[p. 103] and let them that hate thee flee before thy face”. When the ark rested, “Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”. It is illimitable. I will make thee, He says to Abraham, “a father of a multitude”, of what? “of nations”.

Abraham was called alone. Abraham stood by principles, Enoch also, and he speaks of the Lord coming with His holy myriads; he could not say how many. God called Abraham alone, and blessed him and increased him. He stood by the principles, and God dealt with numbers. God will bring in the results. In Revelation 7 the elect of God come to light and they are taken account of by God, a hundred and forty-four thousand, and after these a great crowd which no one could number. In the next chapter they must have room; the sphere belonging to them in the counsels of God is occupied by others. In regard to the hundred and forty-four thousand in chapter 7, their prayers and the prayers of the “great crowd” are answered by the trumpets, and the trumpets clear the scene; room is made for them. In chapter 14 we have those with the Lamb redeemed from among men. There you have the idea of those whom God regards as His increase. They love the Lamb. Do you love the Lamb, the Holy Sufferer? It is in those who love the Lamb that we see the increase of God.

Psalm 133 says, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” I refer to that to suggest what the increase of God is. There are multitudes and numbers incalculable all actuated by the love of God. The whole scene in result will be actuated by the love of God. Israel was the first-fruits of His increase in the wilderness, and He loved them. That is how God reckons increase. He reckons it by love, love shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit.

Well, Romans 5 corresponds with Exodus 15,

^[p. 104] and the end of Romans 8 with Numbers 24. We have thus what is at the beginning of the wilderness, and then what is at the end. I would like to show how the affections develop. At the end of Exodus 15 there are trees and water, seventy palm-trees and twelve wells of water. In other words, God would nurture any little affection that is in us. Is that how we take account of the ministry of those who care for us? It is the provision of God’s love. When you take your place amongst the saints, you come to twelve wells and seventy palm-trees, which would refer to the apostolic ministry. God thus nurtures the affection that has begun to move in your heart. Do not allow it to be weakened. God remembers it. He has it in His mind. You need not be discouraged because the wilderness journey is before you. Exodus 15 indicates that God brought them out, and He means to bring them in, bring them to the sanctuary. That is His thought. But the wilderness is there; and we see from Numbers 24 that there are trees and water at the end of the wilderness as well as at the beginning. What a triumph! Balaam saw things under the influence of the Spirit! His face was “toward the wilderness”, and he saw the people in their tents in the order of their tribes. It is a type. The order of the tribes is not seen at the banks of the Red Sea. The order of the tribes comes into view in connection with the tabernacle. The saints are put into order by the tabernacle in the wilderness. There are several views of the wilderness in Scripture; one is that it refers to the progress of the believer’s soul. Another is that it is a sphere in which God puts His people into order. Confusion marks the saints of God today because the tabernacle is despised and disregarded. The tabernacle is the great guide in the wilderness up to Numbers 21. After that, the Spirit is the guide; the tabernacle is no more prominent. The early part of Numbers ^[p. 105] tells us how the people are put into order. The tabernacle is reared up, and each man pitched by the standard of his father’s house. He was to pitch in relation to his father, and every family was to pitch according to his tribe, and every tribe had its position in relation to the tabernacle. That is what Balaam saw. The position today is marked by disorder, and the secret of disorder is disregard for the divinely appointed system of which the tabernacle is a type. The Spirit of God comes upon Balaam and he takes account of the people as of God. That is to say, they have passed the brazen serpent on Numbers 21 which typifies the setting aside of the natural man who never recognises divine order, the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God; so those that are in the flesh cannot please God. But of those who have the Spirit it says, “Ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God’s Spirit dwell in you”. We are in Spirit; that is there is now a state in us — “in Spirit” — answering to the outward position of the tabernacle. You enter into the position, in your soul, by the Spirit. What we see now is, that at the end of the wilderness period the people are trees. First there is the order of the people; God loves order in the assembly. God’s thought is for our time, that there should be local companies, and that in these local companies there should be order. God is the God of order and peace, and that in the assemblies. All the local companies on earth are to be governed by the same principles. Hence the prophet sees the people in the wilderness, that is where they are seen in perfect order according to the tribes. God loves the idea of tribes. You will find that the Scriptures enlarge on the thought of the tribes. God will never give Israel up until He brings them back to their tribes. It is lovely to see the tribes, to see the order of the tents in the wilderness, so the people are seen in the vision as “cedars beside the waters”. Planted by the hand of God, rooted and grounded in love. Waters are divinely-appointed means of producing growth, “How goodly are thy tents, Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel! Like valleys are they spread forth, like gardens by the river side, like aloe-trees which Jehovah hath planted, like cedars beside the waters”. At the beginning the people were sheltered by palms and were refreshed by the wells. Now, they are themselves trees beside the waters. That is by the work of God in them, divine cultivation, divine nourishing. What a triumph in the wilderness! How one cherishes the thought of belonging to such a company as that. That is the great result of the work of God by the Spirit. Numbers 24 is a continual strain of exaltation. “His king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted”. God has brought them out of Egypt and the whole of Balaam’s vision indicates the great result of the work of God in His people in the wilderness. Such is the great triumph of God in us here. After this, we are ready for Canaan. The book of Deuteronomy treats the people as God’s elect, and Canaan their dwelling place. That book is to educate them for Canaan. God opens up His heart to your heart in Romans 5, He makes it known to you subjectively by the Spirit. Thus the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit. Romans 8 is the result of that. The Spirit shows us the place we have in God’s heart. The result is that God acquires a place in our hearts, “All things work together for good to those who love God”. It is a wonderful thing to have the love of God in you. Nothing else is of any account to God but that. Hence He sheds it abroad — I love that thought — in our hearts by the Spirit. It is shed abroad effectually, and the result is the Spirit keeps working in the soul where there is a place in the soul for God. Do you love God? “Thou ^[p. 107] shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ... and thy neighbour as thyself”. Now Romans 8 shows us the result. The saints love God, and they come to see the full strength of His love. Hence nothing in the whole universe can sever them from it. The love of God is in Christ in its totality. Nothing, he says, can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. We see its fulness there. The love of God, whether in regard to us, or Israel, or any other family coming into blessing, is all seen in Christ Jesus. We are free to view it in all its entirety in Christ, and nothing can touch it. That mighty love will fill the whole universe. Nothing can separate us from it. One might go on to suggest Ephesians; it is just a step out of Romans to Ephesians. In Romans, those whom God calls He justifies, and whom He justifies He glorifies. Ephesians opens up the glorifying; but in Romans at the end we have a doxology in regard to God’s purpose. Paul speaks of the mystery; he could not open it up to the Romans, but to the Ephesians he is free to open up this great divine thought. Our places are heavenly places. The assembly is nothing less than the body of Christ, the fulness of Him, who is given to be Head over all things, the fulness that shall fill all in all. That is what was in the apostle’s heart. The right appreciation of the epistle to the Romans prepares us for the epistle to the Ephesians; and in the Ephesians we have the excess of love. It is His great love wherewith He loved us. May the Lord bless the word to His people.