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THE EARLY WILDERNESS ENCAMPMENTS (1)

The journeys were all recorded in Numbers 33, “Their journeys by the commandment of Jehovah”. What an interest God has in our journeys; He watches over our progress from the outset and each stage is written down; first there is the interest God has in the individual believers; then His interest in the saints viewed collectively is evidenced. He takes note from the beginning of every believer, to the end that He may set them in the assembly. The encampments from Rameses to Sinai refer to what is individual, although the people marched together; they are typical of the believer coming into the knowledge of God in his soul. At the encampment before the mount they listen to what God has to say; that is collective, where God brings out the covenant and the tabernacle, so the next movement is in the light of the divine system of things.

In the first stage we are brought into personal relation with God. Christ died, the Just for the ^[p. 259] unjust, that He might bring us to God; the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; this is individual experience: “I have borne you on eagles’ wings ... to myself”.

The heart of God is revealed in the covenant, and the mind of God in the tabernacle. Love takes precedence, the love first, then the mind; love does not overbalance intelligence. In Ezekiel we have love in two forms: from the loins upward, and from the loins downward; love and intelligence run together; love is applied to the lower affections first; the Spirit becomes a fountain springing up, but entering into the mind of God, it is the breath; the Lord breathed into them. The Spirit comes in as water and breath; water for the lower affections, breath for the upper, intelligence and counsels are unfolded with the breathing side; as in Genesis 1, there are living souls, but Adam receives the breath of God; that constitutes him in the likeness of God. The compassions of God come out in Romans; the covenant comes first, then the tabernacle which is the mind of God; the covenant is the heart of God; the love of God is the beginning of things, the gospel coming out; God desires to be known.

Power comes out first; His love is behind His righteousness and His power. The first thing is breaking the power of the enemy and the subjection of the will; that prepares the way for the love of God to be shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit; so we reach the love of God by the subjection of the will.

The man, the head of the house, goes out to his flock and seizes a lamb on the tenth of the month, and brings it to his house for four days where everyone could see it; every child would notice it and be impressed with the fact that that little creature which was not guilty of anything must die. So Christ is ^[p. 260] before us as the righteousness of God, provided by God. This is the first thing to see as God’s provision for us.

We utterly failed, but the righteous One comes into view on the tenth day; that little lamb was under cognisance of all in the house. Ten days marks the period when man had failed. The divine intervention comes in at the time of our breakdown; ten is the number of testing, then the righteous One comes in, the Man who had “done nothing amiss”. He comes into view that man may be morally affected by the worth and glorious grace of that One; in the gospel we present the worth of that Person who goes to His death as the righteous One; “a lamb without blemish and without spot”, 1 Peter 1: 19.

The four gospels would correspond with the four days. To know the depth of my own guilt, I must know the righteous One; we “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Romans 3: 23. That little creature kept up for four days tells me what Jesus was on earth, before He died. At the end of each gospel we have the death of Christ; every act of His life was in the light of His death and every gospel was in view of His death, as the consummation; the lamb in the house was known to be there to die; it comes to the man’s house. This does not prefigure Christ as in Leviticus 16, where the blood is carried into the tabernacle and put upon the mercy-seat — but it is the man’s house; the lamb is brought near to the family. I am judging myself; this is my beginning: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months”, Exodus 12: 2. This is all individual; how near the lamb is brought to you; so near that every one can take note of it; everyone did not get inside the holiest to see the blood on the mercy seat where the whole universe was in view, but this is for me, the individual. The lamb should be roast with fire and eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

^[p. 261] this represents our state; we are searched by the unsparing judgment of God.

Christ our passover is on our side. It is important to apprehend the foundation of our acceptance; the starting point is Christ our passover. The passover was the greatest of all the feasts; there all are looked on as redeemed.

Four brings in the universality of the testimony; the Lord Jesus is brought under men’s eyes that they may see what righteousness really is, not only in the law, but in a Person. Why should He have to die? He dies near to me; that is the principle of the four days; He came near and was known as the righteous One — it is that One that dies; thus is the knowledge of sin. The glory of God is the great standard and that is Christ.

In this day of confusion, if there are those desiring fellowship, we should carry them back to Christ our passover and see how far the fundamental principle is understood. The ‘Good Samaritan’ came where the man was, came within reach of the man; on the cross. Jesus was near to the man beside Him. We must each say, ‘the little lamb died for me’.

The lamb suggests the grace of that kind of man; the ass’s colt had to have its neck broken unless redeemed by a lamb; unless we can abide for the pleasure of God and become the kind of man so delightful to God, we must have our necks broken. He is so gracious as to come near to us, for we must have our necks broken unless redeemed; only one kind of man will do for God.

Political leaders, both past and future, are likened in Scripture to beasts, that is full of ferocity; the more power a man gets the more he discloses his ferocity, but here is the Lamb! John weeps because no one is found worthy to open the book, the title deeds to the earth, for worthiness is moral. The ^[p. 262] Lamb is in relation to the seals where the saints are brought to light; the saints are on His heart; there are a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, and they follow the Lamb.

If the lamb has been at the disposal of the colt, the colt is at the disposal of the lamb; we are here for God.

See a little colt trotting along beside its mother in the freedom and enjoyment of life — we are at once reminded that a lamb had been killed that the ass’s colt might live. Is not a lamb of more value than a colt? That is just the point; we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”, 1 Peter 1: 19. The lamb character symbolises Christ, the impossibility of offence. There was no aggressiveness; a lamb is absolutely helpless; it avoids what is violent and aggressive, so expressive of Him who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners; yet the Lamb overthrew all the beasts.

In connection with the animal creation, it is evident the Creator had in mind that certain animals should have certain characteristics to stand in contrast to Christ, the Lamb.

Adam’s intelligence is tested to see what he would call the animals, and what he called them, that was their name; God did not reverse it. Later on (Leviticus 11) God intervenes and says what may be accepted and what should be refused; what really expresses Christ is for food.

Christ as the last Adam will name every creature in the world to come to show what God has wrought in them for the glory of Christ.

Jesus looked on Peter and named him. John, in keeping with the gospel of life, presents the Lord looking on men to take account of the movements of life in them, and naming them.

^[p. 263] In the world to come the animals will all have the lamb character, the lion will lie down with the lamb, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.

I must come to this “four days” in the history of my soul. I must judge myself in the light of that lamb.

The millennium is already true for us; we all have our ferocious tendencies, but in the light of those four days every soul is judged, bringing to light the lamb kind of man; that character is reproduced in us.

The next thing is eating; that brings about the constitution; without the eating there cannot be the sustained constitution. Eating is expressive of our nature, clean animals will not eat carrion; feeding on Christ is indicative that we have the nature of Christ. Eating exposes us; it reveals that we eat according to our nature; so our reading and conversation expose us.

Various foods are mentioned as representing Christ, the roast lamb, the manna, the shewbread, the old corn. Eating is approbation; we consider the intrinsic value of that Man personally; what He is for God, and what He is for man. Christ is our food.

The passover must be eaten with unleavened bread which I supply; that is the state of soul; sincerity and truth; then there must be the bitter herbs, bitterness is in my soul; I am so guilty and unworthy that He had to die for me. This is the first eating but it has to be kept up; we go back to it.

The manna is Jesus in this world, His life down here. I must get up early to gather the manna.

The shewbread is what sustains me as a priest. God has a tabernacle which must be sustained. The old corn is Christ as heavenly. I am a heavenly man too; I eat the heavenly food, so the four kinds of food are collateral in my soul’s history; I need them all, but each has its own setting. There is no type of ^[p. 264] John 6, the bread of God comes in for life, which is an additional thought. The types shew how we come into life, and are sustained in the light of life by eating what is expressive of Christ.

With the Israelites, movement began the day after the passover; they moved militarily, not ecclesiastically; they moved in a military way, ‘harnessed’; they were already able to walk together in rank; the young believer must learn to walk with his brother; you find your neighbour to eat the lamb with you and this helps in the movement; we can march out together if we eat together. In military rank there is separation from what held you before; it is effective and holds good now as much as then.

Considering the military aspect, we have to learn to obey; the first principle is obedience, otherwise we have a mob. The king in Jeshurun comes in later; Israel came to love Moses, but first we have to learn to take orders, “What shall I do, Lord?”, Acts 22: 10. That is the man who takes orders. The mob is all about us bearing the name of christendom. If divine light and love have touched us we must be under orders.

John and Peter are great contrasts, but Peter and John are walking together; the unleavened bread has brought them down where they move together for God.

It is difficult to take orders; it tests me; I have to learn to do it. Paul begins with, “What shall I do, Lord? ... Rise up, and go to Damascus, and there it shall be told thee” what to do. He takes orders from the brethren. Acts 9 helps us in taking orders and then falling in sympathetically in what the orders imply. “Saul, brother”; a military officer does not speak like that; a brother recognises him as a private soldier not a high officer. There are colleges now to equip men to give orders. We must learn to take orders; Paul exhibits this principle in his path:

^[p. 265] he joined himself to the brethren and went in and out and preached; then the Lord sent him and he made a circuit and then returned to Antioch where he had been committed to the service; the principle of obedience — taking orders and coming back to the point where he had been committed to God having fulfilled the responsibility.

“Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ”, Ephesians 5: 21. Do not get out of the rank; walk together; this is unity. Those who are setting out in the christian path need to learn to walk in subjection; those who straggle will encounter a rearguard action, for the enemy is close at hand; he catches the hindermost. Keep in the forefront of the battle on the advance line. The young are training for the land. Jehovah graciously kept the Israelites from warfare at first, the point was to teach them how to walk in military array.

What connection is there with the bitter waters of Marah and Romans 6?

It is wise to couple the type with the antitype as this passage, with Romans 6; our baptism places us where the Red Sea placed the children of Israel; Marah is also involved, “We, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death”; it is not mere form, but is meant to be tasted; the thought of Marah was bitterness; death has to be tasted. Marah came at the close of the first definite three days’ journey; the next “three days’ journey” brought them to Numbers 10: 33, death and resurrection. The people are moving forward under Moses here, but in Numbers 10 they move out under the guidance of the ark. In Exodus 15: 22, it is the three days under Moses’ leading, an individual matter; thus far the believer is under the guidance of the Lord. For us, the wilderness should be accepted; the Lord leads us this way. It is a ^[p. 266] happy path in a spiritual sense, but there is nothing in it for the flesh. The Lord leads in the way of testing. Israel went into the wilderness through the Red Sea, not by way of the Philistines; they encamped between Migdol and the sea.

There was an opportunity for faith before Israel crossed the Red Sea; they went out of the Red Sea into the wilderness; they might have gone another way, but God said they must go this way. The Red Sea was before them, the army of Pharaoh behind them; it was Jehovah’s mind that they should learn what death is; it was that they should have this experience that He brought them there before the sea. He puts them through this exercise, “Stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah”, but they stood still too long, so He speaks to the Israelites again through Moses. “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward”; their first exercise was about standing still, and the next that they should go forward, what a step for faith! The sea was in full view on either side, the Egyptians behind them. They were to go out in the sight of all the Egyptians. Egypt was burying its dead at this very time. So at our baptism it is a public matter, death is in sight; our going out of Egypt is not to be private, but of a public character. At the baptism of children, the house is thrown open; it is public. (Entering into privilege is private. So the children of Israel were chased out of Egypt, but drawn over Jordan, the land before them.) So the Lord Jesus went out of the world publicly; He went out through the gate of the city bearing His cross, but He went into heaven privately. It is a humbling thing to the world to have to bury its dead, but the Israelites were being buried also; baptism is burial. The Egyptian burial is so gruesome, so dismal, lightless and hopeless. Jacob and Joseph refused that burial.

^[p. 267] By faith Moses went down into the sea; by faith he saw the thought of God concerning His Son. The people were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; all darkness to them but light to Moses; he had taken the bones of Joseph with him; he was in the light of the burial of faith. Joseph had given commandment and Moses acts upon it. That was a remarkable testimony, carrying about that casket in the wilderness; through all the failure of faith they went through Jordan with the bones of Joseph, and that was a constant rebuke to failing Israel. Their baptism was in the name of Jehovah — to the full light, typically, of the revelation of God, the full light in which God is. In christian baptism also you come under His protection, under the wing of Christ the Lord; death is in view of burial, so death has to be tasted.

They carried the bones of Joseph through the wilderness; we carry the bones of the true Joseph in the breaking of bread; this One has died with all the thoughts and purposes of God in His heart. We carry the bones of Joseph all the time.

There is more in baptism than death; Israel came out of the Red Sea into the wilderness. The song is that which fills the minds of the saints, what the Lord has done in bringing them through. There is Miriam’s refrain; they all share in it; now we enjoy the light as believers, and rejoice in God’s work as in Romans 6. The Lord is the Leader. He takes our hand and says we must come this way. “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound?”. The Lord says through Paul, ‘Now come with Me, as many as were baptised to Me, were baptised to My death!’. Unless we come that way, it is hopeless. Miriam’s refrain is the subjective side.

Then they went three days’ journey into the wilderness, and found no water.

(^[p. 268] A question was asked about the different scriptures on baptism. Matthew 28: 19; Acts 2: 38; Acts 8: 16.)

We are baptised to Him; the children of Israel were baptised to Moses as the leader, and this is the way he led them. The scripture in Matthew brings them into the kingdom; the “to” in Acts 8: 16 means that I am committed to the Lord. In Matthew I am under God’s wing, and He will defend me from all enemies; I enjoy His protection; we are baptised to the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “To the name of”, because it is the revelation of the “name”; this is a wonderful thing, that we are brought out of darkness into His marvellous light, under His wing. The Godhead signifies the divine pleasure in that the Son of God has come, and all is committed to Him.

Now the test comes for the Israelites, in that there is no water: “They could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter”. I must say, for myself, this is what I have tasted in all its bitterness: “We are become identified with him in the likeness of his death”. Moses must bring them that way and there is no other way for us.

Moses led in the song; they could not go to Marah before that song. There is the song of triumph that the Lord leads in, then He says, ‘Come the way that I have been’; it is a privilege to enter into the bitterness of death that the Lord went through, but He gives us to enter into the triumph before we taste the death. That song on the shores of the Red Sea was one of glorious triumph, in which they all joined, now they are prepared to take up death in all its bitterness. Think of the greatness of that song, the grandest song ever sung, they even danced on the sand of the sea shore; if we are not in the good of that song, we are not free to taste of Marah.

The next point is the wood — what you are baptised “to”, the “Name”. The wood is Christ personally;

^[p. 269] the Lord has brought you to taste death and you do not like it; it is a mixed condition, an analysis has to be made. Your feelings and affections are mixed, there is that in you which revolts against the water of death. The Lord says, ‘I have been into this for you, for love of you; come this way after Me’.

Moses was shown the wood; there are many spiritual things lying around that we do not see; there is fresh light about Christ for us; we come to appreciate that He actually died for me. “Who has loved me and given himself for me”; He had me in His heart; this is wonderful, if received. Moses cried unto Jehovah when the people murmured because of their thirst, “and Jehovah shewed him wood”. It is where death has come in. The Lord loves me, because I am related to Him, but He loved me long before I came into relation to Him; it was a tree, but cut down, for Christ who was living has died.

You see Christ in His personal love for you. Moses represents the Lord Jesus as acting for God; “Death reigned from Adam until Moses”; death disputed God’s rights; death must give way. Christ is presented sacrificially first, but the wood implies His personal love for me, a link until I go up out of the wilderness leaning upon my Beloved. It is not atonement here, but He loved me; it is the Christ that died, but died for me.

Now a new history begins; it is not Colossians, but Romans 6. Now, I start out with Christ; I am prepared to go on in correspondence with Christ.

The many ‘withs’ of Romans 6 are linked on to the Colossian ‘withs’; the links have grown stronger; you are now in movement with Christ. The young believer has certain relief, but Christ is not yet an object for his affection. You must have affection for Christ to get you through the wilderness. We should have recoiled from the experience of death, but the ^[p. 270] Lord brings us to it, tribulation comes, “ten days”; He limits the time according to our strength.

“The waters became sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance; and there he tested them”. The Lord Jesus has gone into death for you; it is unto His obedience that you are sanctified (1 Peter 1: 2); that is the obedience, and that is the ordinance. Then the statute; the testing-point is, ‘Am I prepared for this?’. “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and do what is right in his eyes, and incline thine ears to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the complaints upon thee that I have put upon the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah who healeth thee”. You see what His statute and His ordinance signify, and the result from it. Young believers have diseases; they have to be healed. The Lord will put no more of these diseases upon them. The young like strong things, like garlic and onions, but that sort of disease has to be healed.

The world is compounded of elements apart from the life of God. God proposes to heal the diseases that make the world an unclean and unwholesome place.

Why is the world put in contrast to the Father? Because young men are in question; the Father is set over against the world. Christ says, “Righteous Father”; the Lord’s holy soul felt the Father’s name to be an antidote to the world. The heart has got an object in Christ; now the test comes in the statute; love is always tested. We are sanctified to the obedience of Jesus Christ. His kind of obedience; we are in correspondence with Him; it is the obedience of Christ; it is specified; it has been shown out in Christ, the mind is formed by that; the first movement in the soul is obedience. That is the thing that stands out in a newly converted soul; he begins to obey and to love; it is One you love and love wishes ^[p. 271] to be in correspondence with its object. Every thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We would rather die than surrender a divine principle. There is nothing sweeter than being in moral correspondence with the Lord Jesus; it is great sweetness to be with the Lord in every position, to pass along a scene like this and look up into heaven and say, ‘I am in moral accord with a Man like this’; this forms true christian character.

We have not only “become identified with him in the likeness of his death” (Romans 6: 5), but also “we shall be of his resurrection”; that is an incentive for the heart to carry us through. The statute and ordinance are set alongside. The statute is that if I love the Lord, I want to be in correspondence with Him, and that lifts the believer’s path into the Lord’s path. We are raised with Christ; now the water is becoming sweet, we have here a long wilderness path, tested every day by our wilderness circumstances, a test for love. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” brings me into correspondence with Christ because I love Him. Then there is the reckoning of Romans 6: 11, then Colossians 2: 6, “As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him”. I have received Him in His love for me. We do not belong to the world that put Him out, but to the One that was put out. This is death tasted because of the love of Christ. Then we come to the wells and palm trees: “They came to Elim; and twelve springs of water were there, and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters”. The believer is the Elim the Lord provides for me; the palm trees are the fathers who have known Christ from the beginning, they are the recompense for the bitterness of Marah; they are outside of me, but God’s provision for me; they use the things they have gained for those that love God; these meetings ^[p. 272] involve the seventy palm trees and the twelve wells of water; what the Lord has provided for those that love Him. “Twelve” speaks of administration, we are in an encampment now; this is a definite point reached where I can sit down and enjoy what God has furnished for His people. The palm tree denotes victory; someone has been in the conflict and gained the victory, and the Lord is now using them for the young believer; for the moment the young believer is resting at Elim, he is being taken care of. Paul was a notable palm tree; he said to the Corinthians, “All things are yours”. Paul was content to be the filth and offscouring, but the believer was in his mind; all he had was for the benefit of the young believer; how well off he is! It is not yet the assembly but the Lord’s provision for his rest and refreshment; the whole idea is gladness, satisfaction, peace — so different from the bitter waters. The next move from Marah is Elim; it is God’s compensation. Marah is accepted in love to Christ and now we are free to take the best he has to give; He provides food, shade and refreshment.

How the palm trees came there is another matter; Paul could say, “All things are yours”, but of himself he said, “God has set us the apostles for the last ... a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men”, 1 Corinthians 4: 9. What masterpieces the apostles were! These men were seventy, seven times ten, more than the apostles; the twelve springs indicate the definite administrative number: seventy is a more elastic number; it is what passes through the whole administrative period, in others beside the apostles. The seventy palm trees are brought about by the acceptance of responsibility together with the Holy Spirit; if you accept responsibility you have all the power of the Holy Spirit behind you; Timothy and men of like mind who know Paul’s doctrine and manner of life, “Death works in us, but life in you”, 2 Corinthians 4: 12.

^[p. 273] We accept responsibility when we see a need and say ‘I would like to meet it’; the Holy Spirit will be there to help us.

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