OUR POSITION IN THE WILDERNESS
OUR POSITION IN THE WILDERNESS
JT My thought was that we might see that we are to be here at the disposal of God. It is one thing to see our place in the counsels of God from eternity, another to apprehend our place now as to testimony here. In other words, the wilderness is not simply a place that we get through as quickly as possible, but a sphere in which we are to be for God in connection with His testimony. Instead of being brought to heaven immediately, we are left here in our bodies as we are. The point is, how are we to be at God’s disposal? Romans meets the soul and adjusts it in every relationship; Corinthians shows how God disposes of us. The thought before us is that we are set up here in relation to His testimony. We are brought to God in Romans — the believer is adjusted in his soul and instructed how to be for God. God says to Israel, “Ye have seen ... how I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. Then He would say: ‘Are you going to be at My disposal — for Me?’ I doubt if we all own that we are at God’s disposal. God is pleased to leave us here that we might be.
Rem We are here for the will of God.
JT That is what comes out, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice ... that ye may prove what is the ... perfect will of God”.
Ques How is the body regarded as a living sacrifice?
JT In contrast to dead sacrifices. Israel was accustomed to dead sacrifices. One holds one’s body for God, the Spirit becomes life instead of the will of the flesh. The inwards of the animal, opened up, represented the offerer; of course it is Christ who is represented, because the hidden springs of man are [p. 117] corrupt. The woman in John 4 was exposed, her history was brought into view by the light; then what the Lord introduced set the springs in motion another way by the Spirit, they are set in movement God-ward. Instead of the flesh actuating the body, one’s inner being is actuated by the Spirit; it is moved God-ward.
Rem I suppose chapter 3 gives us the will of the flesh.
JT Very good; you have there the mouth, the tongue, and so forth actuated by the flesh. How different when the inner being is moved by the Spirit! The Lord proposes to give living water to the woman in John 4, that which would become in her a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Ques Is the sacrifice voluntary here?
JT I think so. One always has a sacrifice, God is pleased to leave us our bodies. “The body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”; we are able to regard our bodies as living. We have a sacrifice which is most valuable, the body is more valuable than our means.
Ques Does not sacrifice involve self-denial?
JT Our bodies look for satisfaction, but we deny them; we hold them for God. So, in Corinthians, our bodies are members of Christ. We always have a means of sacrifice while alive in the body. Pharaoh would retain the cattle, that is our possessions, but they are essential for the offerings.
Ques Do you think the cattle are included in “Let my people go” with a view to their serving Him?
JT I think so. Service begins at Horeb, the body is essential to service; it is our “intelligent service”.
Ques This would follow upon chapter 8, the love of God controlling and the Spirit giving [p. 118] power?
JT Yes. The epistle makes much of the love of God; it is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That is one thought; the next thought is the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There, the love of God is viewed in its totality, in chapter 5 it is not so viewed, but as shed abroad in our hearts. In chapter 8 it is in its entirety. At the end of chapter 8 the love of God sustains the Christian in all that he goes through in the body.
Ques In what way is the body redeemed?
JT I think the redemption of the body in chapter 8 refers rather to our being taken out of death. The idea of redemption through death is “Ye have been bought with a price, glorify now then God in your body”; but in Romans 8 we await the adoption, the redemption of our body. It is a great thing for the believer to see that his body is his means of sacrifice; he may have no other possessions but he has a body. If a man has a business he has a means of sacrifice; Moses claimed the cattle for sacrifice, therefore the cattle had to go through the sea. It is well if a man’s business is so used. It was not so with the two and a half tribes; their cattle hindered them from going over Jordan. Our body is always at God’s disposal; God is pleased to accept it as a sacrifice. In the types, the Kohathites had no wagons; they bore their burdens upon their shoulders; they could only use their bodies. They are a type of believers who support the testimony, bearing it in their hearts. There is that which requires wagons. We need temporal means, we must travel or we cannot get to see the saints. “Doing good and communicating” is on that line. The poorest saint has a body; this is the most valuable sacrifice, he can make use of his body in the assembly. It is very important how we use our bodies.
Ques Do you mean that believers render both Kohathite and Merarite service?
JT [p. 119] I do. The Kohathite had the most sacred things to attend to.
Rem J.N.D. used to say that the only value of position was the privilege of giving it up for Christ.
JT If we sacrificed more, we should have more power. You cannot say you have no means; you have the most valuable means. It is to be a living sacrifice — living — as it goes on to say, “your intelligent service”. The inner springs are set in motion by a new power, the Spirit.
Ques Do you bring in the thought of affection and intelligence?
JT Yes. So you have an organism in the wilderness which is living, men put together in affection. If you give to God, He will place you in relation to the saints. After the people were brought into the wilderness they celebrated what God was. His right hand was glorious in power; His heart is at His right hand, therefore it was a test for the people’s affections. He leads them and bears with them; if they murmur He makes no complaint until they come to Sinai; and then He says, “Ye have seen ... how I have borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”; as though He said, ‘It was My power, not yours; now what are you going to do for Me?’ If they would be for Him, there were wonderful privileges for them; they would be His peculiar treasure. Then He calls Moses up into the mount and opens His mind to him. What was in His mind was that the people should provide material for the tabernacle. The material, in Christianity, is in persons who have the Spirit. It took nine months to rear the tabernacle. We should pass over, for the moment, the failure of the people. They gave willingly; the tabernacle is set up, and the Lord is pleased to dwell there. How wonderful! All this is in the wilderness. Then in Leviticus, God speaks out of the tabernacle to Moses and thus to the people, as if to say, ‘I dwell here and I want you to approach’. It is only a figure, but the thoughts are there. In Numbers, He speaks “in the wilderness ... in the tent of meeting”.
Ques What does that signify now?
JT The wilderness position of testimony. The people are to be numbered from twenty years and upwards. Each person is to have a place in relation to the tabernacle; he is to pitch by the standard of his father’s house, to stand for God where God has reached him. If these things are to come to pass here, the believer must be devoted to God in his body. The body is of great interest in that way.
Ques What do you understand by “mortal flesh” in 2 Corinthians?
JT There it is more the fragile character of the body. “earthen vessels”, that is the other side of the truth. God has been pleased to cause the light to shine in our hearts that it might shine forth; but if it is to shine forth, the body must be broken: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body”. I think of the dying of Jesus in this way. He went down from the mount to die — it was His mind to die — they spoke of it on the mount, and He went down to effect it. Is it our mind to go into death? The other side is God’s discipline: “We who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”.
Ques Would you say that, if that path was His, we should have the same mind?
JT You are delivered unto death. The Lord says to Peter, “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself”; that is, he carried out his own mind and will, “But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands” — that is the dying of Jesus — “another shall gird thee” — there is perfect resignation. That is the principle of the dying of Jesus.
Rem It would really mean subjection to His will.
JT Jesus went from the brightest spot to Calvary. We do not look for anything else. He did not try to ward it off; that was the state of His mind.
Ques Sacrifice, as we get it in Romans and Hebrews, is not the same thought as worship. Would you say worship is more connected with the spirit than the body?
JT I think so. Sacrifice is always in the court, not inside the tabernacle.
Ques Would not sacrifice be more individual?
JT Yes; but do not forget your brother when you go to offer: you bring your gift to the altar, but then it says, “and there shouldest remember that thy brother has something against thee”.
Ques Would that imply we cannot go on unless we are right with each other?
JT God will not accept your offering unless you are right with your brother. Sacrifice is in the court of the tabernacle, and there might be ostentation, but God says, ‘What about your brother?’ Then the gift is an individual offering?
JT What we were saying is most important, while you offer as an individual, you recognise the saints; God will raise the question as to what place the brethren have in your heart. He says to Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?”. Cain replies, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”. But God knows about Abel. It is most important that our brethren be on our hearts when we draw near to God. If we draw near, God looks at the breastplate. When the high priest drew near he had the names of the people on the breastplate; this is reflected in believers. If we draw near, we really say, ‘I love You’, to God. God says, ‘Do you love the brethren?’ If love is there you have the means. God institutes that in which the testimony is to be displayed — our bodies. The Spirit and the love of God qualify for God’s system of things. Leviticus shows the means by which the people were gathered; the door of the tabernacle was the gathering point. Then, if gathered out of love to God and to one another, Numbers shows our disposition in reference to the tabernacle. The opening paragraph gives the idea of the book — every family in Israel is disposed of. Moses and the priesthood got their place immediately opposite the door. We should seek our place. God speaks in the tabernacle in the wilderness — the people are to be numbered. There is a representative of each tribe at the numbering; this signifies local responsibility. Each individual is to pitch by the standard of his father’s house; that is, you are to stand for God where God’s light has reached you. The tabernacle gives the thought; how happy for us if we accept it! God supports us in these connections.
Rem That is very encouraging. Some of us have wished to get out of our circumstances.
JT Light has come to you in connection with your father’s house. Stand there!
Ques Why in connection with the father’s house?
JT The father’s house was given a place in each tribe; the tribe was divided into families. The daughters of Zelophehad were not to marry out of the tribe of Manasseh — it would impoverish their own tribe. A young man twenty years of age might prefer another place, but he had no choice; he is to pitch by the standard of his father’s house. He must not assume that any circumstances are too adverse for the power of God. He is able to support us. The circumstances of the woman of Samaria had been most objectionable; had she consulted her own feelings she would have left the city, but she [p. 123] goes straight back to the men. That is the principle, while the Lord sends you to the assembly, the first place in which to get right is your own house.
Ques With regard to love to the brethren, we cannot express the love to those who walk crookedly?
JT No. Like Joseph, you might have to speak roughly to them. As gathered on the ground of righteousness, we can have no fellowship with what is not right. If a man is not doing right, you cannot have fellowship with him. You could make it clear that you are acting in love, yet testimonially it is a question of marking that man and having no company with him. If he deliberately goes on, he will come in for the discipline of the assembly. The principles of gathering began with Moses; there was separation from evil. Moses came down from the mount with all the light of God, but he could not connect it with the camp; the believer has all the light of God; what does he connect it with? It is not in the spirit of “I am holier than thou”. Moses pitched the tent far from the camp and called it “the tent of meeting”, signifying that he knew others would meet God there. All that sought the Lord, came out. If you think more of the people than you do of the light, the light becomes dim; but if you take care of the light, God will take care of the people.
Ques What about being transformed by the renewing of your mind?
JT It is an allusion to the light of another world. That light alters you completely, so that you are not only apart from this world, but you are different from it in the texture of your being; you are not governed by the principles of this world, you are governed by new principles: “transformed by the renewing of your mind”. God gives us the principles of His world; they apply to business and every other relationship.
[p. 124] I would commend the study of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, if you desire to understand the wilderness. It is not a place that we are to get through as quickly as possible; the wilderness is the divinely-ordered sphere where God displays His testimony. His testimony is displayed in our bodies as set in relation to one another. You have here “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”. Everyone is included. As to what we shall be, we shall appear in heavenly bodies; but, for the moment the testimony is displayed in these bodies.
Ques “That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. Is that actual experience?
JT Yes, and you do not suffer by it; you gain. In Colossians and Ephesians, it is what we are in God’s purpose; here it is the Spirit’s work in us.