UNITY

^[p. 171] UNITY

Numbers 7:1-23; Numbers 7:89; Numbers 8: 1 - 4

My thought is to say a word about unity, and what is consequent on it, that is, divine speaking and divine light. You will see that if these two things are set in Scripture as consequent on unity, unity is a very great point to reach and to be maintained.

It has pleased God not only to set Christ in heaven, but to establish a unity on earth in men, and in men who had previously been opposed to each other. Not only were the Jews and gentiles opposed to each other naturally, but the gentiles themselves were “hateful, and hating one another”. Now God’s thought was to bring to pass a unity under these conditions, and having established that, His voice could be heard here, and His light could shine. That is what these passages present to us.

Numbers afford us in type christianity as inaugurated by God in the world viewed as the wilderness. The book, as many know, refers to a date which was one year later than the passage of the Red Sea. It was a year and a month later, that is to say, it contemplates the saints as not only knowing redemption through faith, but as having to do with God experimentally in adverse conditions, and, more, as having received the Holy Spirit. The book records that all the people were numbered from twenty years old and upwards, that is, from the age of what we would ordinarily call manhood. The boyhood state is omitted. The people are regarded as having come to manhood; that is, they have the Spirit. So Numbers, as I said, applies to those who not only know redemption through faith in Christ, but who have been experimentally with God in the wilderness for at least one year, and who have God’s Spirit. If you measure up to these things, you can then take up Numbers as addressed to you. You must never ^[p. 172] conclude that Numbers was written for the children of Israel. It was written after they had passed through the circumstances recorded in it, and they will never be in those circumstances again. It refers, therefore, to christians. I am saying things that are simple, but it is well to be reminded that Numbers is as much for you or me as Romans, just as much.

I should like to point out one or two principles which precede unity. You will remark that the speaking in Numbers is out of the tabernacle in the wilderness, that is how it reads. In Leviticus the speaking is simply out of the tabernacle; that is, the position of the tabernacle is not in view. It is a question of approach in Leviticus, and the ordinances there had reference to the land as well as to the wilderness, but when you come to Numbers, Jehovah speaks to Moses out of the tent in the wilderness, and the point is the relation of the people to it there. It is God taking account of His people in relation to the testimony in the wilderness. In the first chapter the numbering begins with Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob. God takes account of us according to our responsibility. That is a remarkable element. A christian who has not accepted his responsibility is in danger. Such a person as an irresponsible christian is not considered. All are responsible, and taken account of in regard to that responsibility. Do not ever say, They are the cause of it. Shoulder your responsibility. Whenever you speak of difficulties among God’s people, the responsibility belongs to you. Think of David. “These sheep, what have they done?” I have done it all, he said, I am blameworthy. He accepted the principle of responsibility to God. It is a great day, young believer, when you accept your obligations in regard to God and to His testimony down here. Now, if you accept responsibility, the next thing is that God assigns your work. You cannot choose it. So in the next chapter Judah ^[p. 173] comes first. That tests you. If you are thinking only of your prominence in the work you are assigned to, you will be greatly tested if Judah is put before you. Judah stands for the sovereignty of God; so, when the tribes are placed in regard to the tabernacle, Judah comes first.

These are two great principles therefore in Numbers. First there is responsibility for each one of us, secondly, the work you are to do is assigned to you by the Lord. Every true servant accepts these principles. If from his heart he seeks only the good of the testimony, he is not concerned what he does. The Lord knows better than you what you can do, and He assigns your work, “What shall I do, Lord?” There is a great deal to be done. I do not say Saul understood it, but his words summed up the situation. The apostles at Jerusalem had failed. I am not speaking disparagingly of them; they were most honoured men, but they had not carried out their commission. It extended to all nations. Jerusalem did not cover all nations, it was not even the capital of the world — Rome was that — and the apostles could not hope to come in touch with all nations at Jerusalem. Yet the testimony is that they remained there, “What shall I do, Lord?” What a work there was to do, the work of evangelising humanity! What a mighty work is there! But the Lord must decide the work to be done. Who did the work through Paul? It was the grace of Christ in him that accomplished the work. God did the work, and Paul got the credit — and what a credit! What great results accrued from Paul’s labours — what Christ did through him — not merely the evangelisation of the gentile, but the bringing home of a bride. What a mighty work that was! It all begins with the recognition in Saul’s soul that the Lord must appoint his work.

The great feature here is unity. There is nothing more important than that we should see this, and I ^[p. 174] want to indicate how christian unity comes to pass. It takes a good while to read over those eighty-nine verses; most of them are a repetition. The Spirit could easily have given us the details of the offering of one of the princes and then have added, Each of the twelve offered the same. But He does not do that. He goes over each in detail. What I understand by it is that all these princes had the same appreciation of Christ. Did you ever think of that? How are we brought together? We are each enlightened by the gospel, and the gospel is the presentation of Christ. We all know the apostle’s statement, “God’s glad tidings ... concerning his Son, ... Jesus Christ our Lord”. The light comes to our souls, what is the effect? You appreciate Christ, and I appreciate Christ; thus you and I are united. Your mind is filled with that with which my mind is filled; your heart is filled with that with which my heart is filled, the result is perfect spiritual unity. There is no other unity that will abide. The most baneful principle that could be imbibed is agreement to differ. It may come to that in detail, but never allow it as a principle. What we have been speaking of is the unity of spiritual affection, that is what it is; that unity will abide for ever. What do these chargers and bowls full of fine flour mingled with oil refer to? To Christ in the perfection of His manhood. The silver chargers and silver bowls refer to Christ known in redemption in the perfection of His manhood. It is not the same as at the Red Sea. It was there undoubtedly, but there was not the capacity on the part of the people of God to see it there. This is development. Who brings this offering? A prince. There are twelve princes, and each one is carefully designated as a leader of a tribe; they represented the tribes of Israel. What have they? They have Christ in their souls in the perfection of His manhood, known in redemption. How wonderful to have that ^[p. 175] in your soul, to know the Lord Jesus Christ in all that infinite perfection in manhood, known in redemption! Think of “Jesus Christ come in flesh”. Have we such a Christ in our souls? It is a great thing not to rest merely on statements of Scripture. What is your personal estimate of Christ? Each of those princes had a distinct estimate of Christ as Man, and all were in agreement. What a perfect presentation of unity, all entirely agreed in their estimate! The excellency of Christ eclipsed every other man for them; no possibility of hero-worship, save that of Christ, in men of this type. Paul was one, “We ... boast in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3: 3. That was the Man for him. If you have not arrived at that, some other man will get hold of you; you will bring in some other man besides Christ. A prince has power with God and with men; he has Christ in his heart in the perfection of His manhood, known in redemption. If you look at this chapter in detail, each prince had a perfect estimate of Christ both in regard to His Person, and His qualification in connection with the work of redemption. Ponder that, and read through the chapter, long though it is. Do not get weary of reading it. Bear in mind that the Spirit is telling you that each of them had a full estimate of Christ in this way. It is men such as Paul, Peter, John and Timothy that the Spirit has in mind. God loves to ponder the expressions of these early christians as to what they thought of Christ. John says, of the works of Jesus, “which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written”. That is a prince’s estimation. That man had a true estimate of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says. “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”. He is not content to say, ‘for the knowledge’, but “for the excellency of the knowledge”. The knowledge of Christ was everything to Paul, “Yea”, he says, “I count all things but loss” — he did not want anybody else or anything else. If he thought of gain, Christ was his gain, not means here, nor prosperity. So, too, Peter speaks of excellent glory. “We ... were eye-witnesses of his majesty”, he says. A spiritual prince clothes everything with divine sentiments. He calls the mount “holy”; there is nothing profane or sacrilegious about Peter; he cannot admit of anything of that kind. The mount is holy; the glory is excellent. It is the majesty of Christ that he is talking about. He did not say this on the mount. He was scarcely a prince then; he was asleep in the presence of the glory. There was no manhood in that. That is what marks a minor, asleep in the presence of the glory, that was weakness. He woke up, however, and saw it, but he did not call it excellent then. Now, he says: It was the majesty of Christ I saw there, and I heard a voice. What did it say? “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. All these are the sentiments of a prince in christianity. These were the men christianity began with — princes, and a unity existed which the world had never seen anything like before. It began on the day of Pentecost, and was maintained in the appreciation of Christ. Had you said, Paul, you must agree to differ, in order to get along with your brethren, he would have said, Never, no agreement to differ. Agreement lies in appreciation of Christ. Is it ever to cease? Never! Fellowship is down here, and refers to walls of protection down here. That ceases, but unity ever remains. Never will you lose your appreciation of Christ, and, as I shall not lose mine, and saints in general will not lose theirs, it is an eternal unity, a unity of spiritual affections, never to be lost. God loves that! He loves it down here. He will have it up there unquestionably, but He will have it here where evil is, “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” the psalmist says, and he tells us what it is like. It is something very great, “It is like the precious ointment ... as the dew of Hermon”. In connection with unity I would say that when it is a question of God’s counsels there are “many brethren” spoken of — the Spirit uses a word in the full meaning, but, when describing the goodness and pleasantness of unity, it is simply “brethren”, not a question of many or few. Then, as I said, it is likened to certain things, and the passage closes up with, “There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”. Blessing is connected with it. It is not simply unity of men but of brethren. It is a lovely thing to see men together as brethren.

Now in this chapter in Numbers, after the unity in Israel is fully indicated and that in the most tangible way, for the Levites are provided for with waggons and oxen, then the altar is taken account of, and then in verse 89 you find God is speaking. It is as if He said. ‘You all love Christ; now I want to speak to you through Christ’. Is not that attractive? It says, “Moses ... heard the voice speaking to him from off the mercy-seat”. The mercy-seat is Christ. God would say: ‘You all love Christ; you have shown it plainly in your gifts, and I want to speak to you through Christ’. Could anything be more desirable than to have a word from such a One, whom we love? Divine communications come to us through One whom we love. How enhanced they are in this way! We love to hear things from one who is an object of affection, so where there is the demonstration of love to Christ, God speaks. Hence we get a word, and the word is through Christ, but has reference to the testimony. We all love the testimony; we love to hear of it through Christ; so God speaks to us about it through Him.

We may depend upon it that, when there is divine speaking, the testimony will be opened up, for the ^[p. 178] testimony was below the mercy-seat. Hence there is the opening up of the mind of God. Then in the next chapter the candlestick comes into evidence — the assembly has its place. If Christ has the first place in your heart, you need not be afraid to speak of the assembly. There were seven lamps, and all had to be lighted; that is, the light is to be sevenfold. It is in the power of the Spirit, and it is supported by the candlestick. What is that? What but that which we see in the previous chapter? What would support the light of Christ but what loves Christ? The Spirit of God here lights the candlestick that we all may see it. And what do we see? Something all of gold, beaten work, the work of God, it is that which supports the light. What a picture! “He lighted the lamps thereof over against the candlestick, ... And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold, unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers thereof, was beaten work, according unto the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses”. But what is the pattern? Mark, it is not ‘patterns’; it is always in the singular, “the pattern which the Lord had shewed Moses”. It is the pattern that Moses saw on the mount, and that was Christ. Christ was the pattern, of the altar, of the table, of everything, so here the candlestick was “according unto the pattern”. What is the assembly to be here on earth? What was Christ in the gospels? Read them, and then measure yourself by them, and see the discrepancy. It leads to exercise, and exercise gives place to the Spirit of God, and then you have the “beaten work”. The light was to be “over against the candlestick”. What will the assembly be in the future? All measured and according to the pattern. It comes down and it is measured (there are measurements in Ezekiel and then again in Revelation), and its measurement is perfect; there is not a discrepancy; all is according to the pattern, the workmanship of God. There will be no work going on then; it is now ^[p. 179] the work is going on. Look at the Lord’s people. How do you regard them? I regard them as those in whom this work is going on day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, and then we see the result in the Revelation.

Paul laid the foundation according to the pattern, and he says. “Let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon”. He says, Go by the pattern. If not, you bring in material which will come under judgment. No other foundation is laid than Christ, and the whole structure must be Christ, from the foundation to the top-stone. And it is Christ, and will be Christ, and will come out of heaven according to Christ.

May God give us to be according to it at the present time!