PRIESTHOOD
PRIESTHOOD
Romans 12: 1 - 5; Leviticus 24: 5 - 9
JT The great number of young brothers and young sisters with us occasions the concern as to whether the truth, as we have had it before us, is being understood and taken in. It might be well to keep this in mind in our remarks so that what is said may not be beyond the intelligence of anyone present.
The phase of our subject this afternoon is somewhat more advanced than those we have had, but it brings it down within the range of all to observe that, as believers are twenty years of age according to Numbers, every believer that confesses the Lord Jesus is viewed as of age; and as having the Holy Spirit, so he is a priest; as belonging to the military, he equally belongs to the priesthood. Therefore, when we speak of priests we are not speaking of a special class of christians, but of all christians.
Ques Why do you turn to Romans for such a subject?
JT Just for this reason, that Romans gives us the initial features of the truth. Whatever side of it we may speak of, Romans gives us the initial idea of it. We have the idea of priestly service in presenting our bodies. We begin to act, or officiate, as priests in presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. That is distinctly a priestly matter. Romans, as I remarked, lays the basis for every truth, even of the church.
Ques How do you regard the “yielding” in Romans 6?
JT Yielding your members as instruments of righteousness, do you mean? That is God’s service, but the yielding is not quite offering. It leads up to it.
Ques Does a young believer, twenty years old and upward, understand the priestly [p. 463] function?
JT That is what we ought to get at in Romans. He obeys from the heart the form of teaching, and the teaching leads him to see that he is to yield himself to God, his “members as instruments of righteousness unto God”, Romans 6: 13. He sees that, and he thinks of the offering of Christ. He sees something in the offering of Christ that lays a foundation in his soul, that He offered Himself without spot to God, to cleanse us from dead works, to purge our conscience that we might serve the living God. That is an initial thought in Hebrews, corresponding with Romans. Serving the living God is really priestly service, as Aaron and his sons were charged with it.
So in Romans we have the idea of the law of God, “I myself serve the law of God”, Romans 7: 25. That is another priestly touch. The priest was the custodian of the law, but before he could be that, he had to value it himself, he serves with the mind the law of God. Moreover in that same chapter, he serves in newness of spirit: it says, “that we should serve in newness of spirit”, Romans 7: 6.
All these are priestly touches and should not be beyond the youngest confessor of Christ, because they are obligatory things that are facing us, if we believe and confess our Lord Jesus. There is another beautiful touch which, although it is a family touch, must be priestly. It is our speaking to God the Father. We speak directly to God by the Holy Spirit. We are actually speaking by the Spirit of God to God. We are speaking to God as revealed, and we are priests, because it is only the priest that had access to God, “through him we have both access by one Spirit to the Father”, Ephesians 2: 18. In this chapter we have the offering of the body which is an intelligent thing. You are coming on to a higher level, you know what you are doing. It is an intelligent matter to offer your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. It is the priest that understands what is holy.
[p. 464] Ques Do you say that chapter 12 is the answer to the first eleven chapters? If I reach the good of the first eleven, I will be intelligent and I will offer my body in an intelligent way. What hinders our christian progress is that, as children of the saints, we have never learned how bad we have been, how low down we have got.
JT Romans is the great study for all young christians because the Lord, in His first announcement of the gospel in Mark, told His hearers not simply to believe the gospel, but to believe in it.
Ques What is the difference?
JT There is quite a difference between believing what a person says and believing in the person; the latter is that you have absolute reliance. When it becomes a thing, if it is the gospel, then I want to explore it. I take it, as it were, on trust in its totality. I believe in the thing, that there is that thing — the most wonderful thing that has come in through Christ, “the gospel of God ... concerning his Son”, Romans 1: 1, 3. It is presented to me as one whole, but involving much, and has to be gone into. It may take me a lifetime to do it, but I believe in it, I believe every part of it. The epistle to the Romans is what every believer should look into carefully because he has already committed himself to it in believing in it. Then he takes it up, and reads and explores it.
Ques Is this the end of the old and the beginning of the new involved in one gospel?
JT That is right. When you discover what you are after the flesh, you are glad he is not more than seventy years of age; three-score and ten is the limit of the life of a man. After that it was labour and sorrow. If you see really what that life is, what it has proved itself to be, you can see why it should be cut down, cut down from nine hundred and sixty-nine in Methuselah to seventy in our time. You can see that that was imperative; man’s life was so displeasing to [p. 465] God that the shorter it was the better. But take the other life, which I believe our brother had not time to go into last evening, Psalm 102. There you have the Lord Jesus contemplating that His life was just seventy years; He was accepting the ordinary limitations because He said to God, “Take me not away in the midst of my days” (Psalm 102: 24), which would be about thirty-five. He accepted the handbreadth, the limitations of man’s life. But the answer in Psalm 102 is that His years should never fail. That is heaven’s answer to Him. Those years, the years of the life of Jesus are so delightful to God, opening up freshly every morning, every one of those days and years. There would be no limitations to that life. “Thy years are throughout all generations”. That is what heaven addressed to Him. That is to say, it is an eternal thing. Jesus, as Man, has come here and in positive moral worth He is eternal. He is that personally, but His moral worth is such that that life must go on. Essentially that life is to all generations; it shall not fail.
Rem A scripture in Peter says, “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it”, 1 Peter 3: 10, 11.
JT Exactly. That would be a life pleasing to God. The lawyer said to the Lord, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The Lord showed him, “This do, and thou shalt live”, Luke 10: 25, 28.
Rem “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing”, 1 Peter 3: 8, 9.
JT That would point to priesthood.
Rem That is, morally, life enjoyed.
[p. 466] Rem It goes on as well, it is eternal, and in Psalm 133 we have the same thought; that life is perpetuated in the saints.
JT It is a life that is pleasing to God, but as to the life of a man in the flesh, the shorter it is the better. The life of Jesus implies priesthood, an eternal priesthood.
Rem In view of the cumulative evil in a life of seventy years, it is possible for us, through the death of Christ, to make life very short by offering it in the days of our youth.
JT You would reduce that life that God had already reduced governmentally, you reduce it by your own hand in the disallowance of the flesh; “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. You bring it down to less than seventy years, down to the time you were converted. God has terminated that life in the death of Jesus; you terminate it practically, and Romans tells you how. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”, Romans 8: 13. That life never comes to an end.
Rem Is there a thought somewhat akin to that in the twelve loaves?
JT That is what we want to come to in Leviticus, those twelve wheaten loaves set up on the table, six in a row with frankincense thereon. That is the life of Jesus, that is, that order of man. That is the kind of man, the order of man, before God for the whole seven days, and then the priests ate it at the end of the seven days. It becomes assimilated in the life of the saints. Exodus is the ‘bread of presence’, that is, what is before God. Here it is the ‘bread of arrangement’, the order of it, in Leviticus.
Ques Is he leading up to “The compassions of God”?
JT The young christians here ought to see this “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. That is the kind of thing which is to be before God.
Ques Do I understand that a life that is pleasing to God is priestly?
JT It is that order of man — pure, wheaten loaves, baked.
Rem I thought that was very understandable. The young christians could get hold of that. They would turn to God through the mercies of God and present themselves in that way. They do not have to try to define the priesthood, nor a priest, but they are acting it.
JT That is right. Young people are growing up in a world which is perhaps the uncleanest world that has ever existed; they are brought into it, and it takes them time to discern how awful it is, how polluted it is. Hence our bodies, that is what the apostle stresses, our bodies a living sacrifice. A person’s body is that in which he speaks, feels, sleeps, eats, and comes in contact with the world; that is something he can present to God.
Ques Does not Romans help us to order our pathway so that it might be agreeable to God?
JT That is the thing. Our bodies come in contact with all the world offers, all its pollutions (the modern dress and all these things) and the young believer should learn how to hold his body for the Lord so as to present it a living sacrifice.
Rem In coming to the truth of the kingdom in the Spirit, there would normally be spiritual growth in the heart of the young Christian which would lead him to turn his body over to God.
Rem And we could raise the question as to just how much our eyes, lips and ears, which were heretofore [p. 468] used otherwise, are now used in connection with the things of God. The enemy gains a great hold if our bodies are under his control. The world is not outside; the heart is really the citadel of the world.
JT Quite.
Rem You open the book and you find the condition man has got into, not wanting to retain God in his thoughts. Now the Spirit brings him to it that he is able to offer that same body, and it is acceptable to God. When Moses put the blood on the ear, and the finger, and the toe, the whole body was affected.
JT That is the thing; separated in intelligence in his hands and his feet, his work and his walk, separated unto God. Therefore, the question is as to his body, how he dresses and how he uses his members. All this comes up at the very outset of a believer’s history, and this is the thing I have to present to God.
Rem What is the difference between the commandments and the compassions of God?
JT It is in keeping with the dispensation. God appeals to you by His compassions, what He has been to you in Christ, because His compassions refer to the early part of the book, how He has come in in Christ, and now what is His due from me? I have a body. What did Christ do with His body? That is the way it comes out. In Exodus 21 the Hebrew servant devotes his body; he is taken to the door and his ear is pierced, his body is given up. That is the lead the Lord gives us, a body devoted, never to be recalled.
Rem How many aspects of priesthood are there?
JT We are speaking of the initial thought. The primary thought in the taking up of Aaron and his sons was “that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office”, Exodus 28: 1. The priest has access to God; he is the custodian of the law and his lips keep knowledge. The saints are to hear the words [p. 469] of the law at his mouth, so that he has a very wide range of service. While that may require spiritual growth and development, the youngest believer begins by offering his body.
Rem Not a vile body, but a body of humiliation. We have often been taught that this old body did not amount to much, anyway.
JT I think it does. It is a living sacrifice; it is a body of humiliation but it is, by the presence of the Holy Spirit, a living body, a living sacrifice.
Ques Would the woman at the end of Luke 7, and Mary from whom seven demons had gone out, in the beginning of Luke 8, not be examples of what we are talking about? It is the same body.
JT Exactly. She was serving the Lord with her hair (that was part of her body), and with her tears. “Seest thou this woman?” the Lord says. It was a priestly service.
Ques If this offering of the body does not go on, would you say the world would claim that body?
JT It is sure to.
Ques Would you say the offering of the body in the case of Enoch continued for a space of three hundred years?
JT He walked with God in it. He had a true idea of the pollution around because he looked for the Lord with the holy myriads.
Ques Would the eunuch be an example of that at his conversion, one who had never heard the gospel? It says, “Philip ... preached unto him Jesus”, Acts 8: 35. You were remarking about accepting death, and he seemed to accept it very early in his history.
JT Yes, he was baptised at once. Then he went on his way, on his way. It would appear as if he were on the way, as if he were already on the way, because it is “join thyself”. The Holy Spirit says to a man who was indeed a priest, Philip, “join thyself to this chariot”. It was such a chariot that he is to [p. 470] join it. He ran and joined it, and when he got on it he found a man reading the Scriptures. It was in truth a priestly chariot. The Bible was read in it, it was honoured in it. He acknowledged his ignorance, but Philip was able to explain; the priest’s lips kept knowledge for him, so that he unfolded to him the Scriptures, and as he saw water, he says, “What doth hinder me to be baptised?” Philip went down with him and after he is baptised he resumes his way. He went on his way, but how? Rejoicing! But it was his way, and Philip takes another way. Philip is taken by the Spirit and caught away, showing the great increase of spirituality in that a man is capable of being caught away by the Spirit. Like Enoch, he was caught away. That is to say, the Holy Spirit raptured him, caught him away; not up yet, but away for other service.
Ques Is there not something peculiar in that the eunuch is not seen in relation to others?
JT I think it is to show how self-contained a christian may be when there are not others. If he needed others, the Holy Spirit would not take Philip away from him. He would not leave him alone if he needed help. You may be sure he got something to keep him in that way.
Rem The eunuch says, “... of whom speaketh the prophet this?” And then it says that he went on his way rejoicing. Was he transformed by the renewing of his mind so that the scripture became light to him?
JT He indicates the way a christian is self-contained; he has all that is necessary for his maintenance and for his joy. This is to bring out that one point, because the Holy Spirit would not leave him alone if he needed a companion. It is to show that he did not need one, that the reception of the gospel renders one self-contained in that relation; not that he is to be independent, but he can get [p. 471] along. He went back to his country a self-contained man; he had christianity in principle in his soul, “he went on his way rejoicing”, Acts 8: 39.
Rem He did not need to go to Jerusalem to worship.
JT Someone might say, What would be better than to send this man to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and the twelve. But no, there was a man by his side that he needed as much as any, and the Holy Spirit catches him away. It is not Philip’s doing, it is the Holy Spirit’s doing. So that there can be no question but that that man is self-contained. His state showed it. That is what a christian is; as set up here he is self-contained so that, if there is only himself in the world, he can get along. That is the power of christianity.
Rem “Who shall declare his generation?” Would he declare another generation now?
JT Indeed he is another generation. The eunuch’s life is taken from the earth, too.
Ques Do you not think this magnifies the scripture, “Kept by the power of God”, 1 Peter 1: 5? We get the power whereby we can be kept as if there is not anyone else.
JT That is the idea exactly, that is, the power to stand alone. It is not that the Lord intended him to be alone, but it is to set out that idea. No doubt others were converted, but that point is established, that one man can go on rejoicing.
Rem That is very encouraging, especially in this country where in so many places just one or two are standing alone. The power of God is able to comfort and keep them.
JT I think so. You take Rahab. As far as we know, she never had the advantage of ministry. She never heard Moses, or Aaron, or the seventy who got the Spirit. She represents the work of God by itself. That is a thing that one would like everybody to get [p. 472] hold of — the idea of the work of God viewed by itself, apart altogether from ministry. For, after all, what goes into heaven is the work of God and nothing else, and what goes into the assembly is the work of God and nothing else. As Israel drew near to the Jordan, they sent over two spies and they found a remarkable work of God in Canaan, in Rahab, without a Moses and without an Aaron. Well, what does all this mean? Rahab has a cord and she lets down the men by a cord, something strong. But the men call it a “line”. It is a line of scarlet thread. What does that word ‘line’ mean? What does the Holy Spirit mean by that word ‘line’? What can He mean but that that is the line, because in Hebrews 11 she is the first person said to have faith after the children of Israel left Egypt. There is not a word about faith in any person. “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace”, Hebrews 11: 30, 31. She had the line and it comes right down to the block of the genealogy of Christ. She is in the life-line.
Rem That is very good. It says that she dwells in Israel to this day.
JT Each time they passed around the city, they would see that line. It was on the wall, it was there and yet, you might say, she never heard a gospel preaching. The point is the work of God.
Rem While she stood there practically alone, yet she was in the truth of all that God had in the company.
JT She knew what God had done, she knew everything. There is not a word said as to her hearing it — she knew. She never met Moses. Who was there to preach except those in Israel? I am not saying the work of God goes on without the preaching, but we are entitled to take account of it [p. 473] by itself, because it is the only thing that will stand. The only thing that we can fall back upon in any place is the work of God.
Ques Do you mean that, in the consciousness of my soul, I have to be brought to God if I am to stand?
JT And to measure myself. So it says, “to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”. I might have a lot of intelligence but, after all, my measure of faith is all that can be reckoned on.
Ques Was the man in John 9 an example of the work of God?
JT He corresponds with Rahab because there is nothing said about any ministry. The Lord opened his eyes and that is all. The point is that the works of God should be manifested in him, and they were manifested in him.
Rem It is all means to an end, and the end is to dwell in Israel.
JT That is it. Do you not think it is important for each of us to see his measure, because it is in that measure he is in the body? No one is in it because he has more intelligence than others; it is the work of God only.
Ques How are you linking this up with the twelve loaves?
JT It is to bring out what is in Romans 12 first, how the believer comes to offer, and to offer what has been got by him, and how he comes to measure himself and sees that we are one body in Christ. That is to say, we are not one body by mutual agreement or by personal preference. We are one body because we are of that kind of humanity, the wheaten bread. One body in Christ means, as I apprehend it, that we are not one body as in the flesh. Romans does not go very far; we are not one body as so many persons in the flesh. The Jews [p. 474] were in unity as of one family, but we are one body in Christ. That is the governing thing — in Christ.
Rem The standard of measure is the standard given by God. Paul says to the Corinthians, “These, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are not intelligent”, 2 Corinthians 10: 12.
JT Quite. “In Christ”, here leads up to the idea of the wheaten loaves in Leviticus. “In Christ” means that I am not in the flesh. We are not one body in that sense. Some organisations are one body in that sense. They are all united on that principle as in the flesh, whereas we are one body in Christ which shuts the flesh out. In 1 Corinthians 10: 17 we have what underlies that: “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”. That all leads up to what we have been speaking of, the wheaten loaves, the pure, even meal, the perfections of the humanity of the Lord Jesus.
Rem The word of God contemplates that which should be reproduced in the saints.
JT That is what I thought. Chapter 12 is the expansion of what is in Christ.
Rem And yet not at the expense of unity.
JT So that, as we said yesterday, the idea of unity is what is before us, but what makes unity valid? What makes any unity valid is these features that we are speaking of. What we are at today is the humanity of Christ. Christ as before God; in Exodus it is what He was before God. You do not get the number twelve referring to the loaves in Exodus, it is the pure table, the table is enlarged, and the bread of presence (which is the shew-bread) is before God. It is the idea of the thing without giving the number. In Leviticus, where it is a question of tribes, we have the number, the saints as a whole.
[p. 475] Rem Any intrusion of the flesh weakens the thought of unity.
JT It comes in in many ways. Romans precludes all in bringing in the thought of the one body in Christ.
Ques Is that the value of the last part of Romans 3?
JT Yes. There you have the wheaten flour.
Ques Would the military service be brought in here, to protect us from all attacks of the flesh?
JT I think so. Romans brings in that side “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus”, Romans 10: 9. That means I am of the military, and I am in keeping with that. It is the armour of light, not the armour of God yet. In the military I have to do more with darkness, not exactly the power of darkness, but the thing itself, and the armour of light makes the way for me. That is the military position, but collateral with that you have the priestly function in the offering of your body.
Ques What does “in all these things we are more than conquerors” mean (Romans 8: 37)?
JT That is victory, “through him that loved us”.
Ques When I present my body a living sacrifice, do I take account of it that it is a corruptible body?
JT It is another word altogether. If I look at my body as mortal, then it is a dying body. If I am presenting it a living sacrifice, I do not look at it as dying, I am thinking of it as in perpetual priesthood. I take account of myself as alive.
Ques Do I present my body in the light that it is the temple of the Holy Spirit?
JT You mean that the Holy Spirit is in it? Quite. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”, Romans 8: 13. The body is changed from a dying thing to a living thing.
Rem There are different measures, but in Leviticus each loaf was of the same [p. 476] measure.
JT I think he is speaking now of the saints. When you come to different measures, it is more in view of the exercise of gift, but the priesthood in Leviticus is mutual, the same measure, two-tenths, which would bring everyone in on the same basis as establishing mutual feeling. Here, you see, the word is to Moses really. It might seem as if it were Aaron’s responsibility, but the word is to Moses to see to this. It is not left to anybody, it is imperative that the thing should be done. You get in Sarah an illustration. Abraham tells her to take three seahs of wheat and bake cakes. The Holy Spirit does not say a word as to whether she did it or not. It does not say one word as to whether these cakes were ever presented to God; meaning that, if it is left to us we may never do it. We should, of course. But the word here is to Moses. The thing is imperative; God will have it, and He has had it in the life of Jesus, the Bread of Presence, that holy life of Jesus, the Bread of God come down. That was there, you see. The whole of John 6, you might say, is to emphasise that the thing was actually there.
Ques In connection with what has been said, would there be a suggestion as to an opening into wider service? It speaks of the different members of the body. Would it involve the desire to be fit for the Master’s use?
JT You are on that line. God may take you up and use you in any way. You have presented your body. That would be a question of His sovereignty, differing a little from the thought of members of the body.
Rem Whether gifted in serving in any specific way or not, there is a function which we, as members, would perform.
JT The two-tenths in each loaf brings in the mutual side. We are all on the same basis.
[p. 477] Rem That brings in unity, too, in the twelve loaves in that way.
JT That is where unity is taught us. There are twelve, and they are divided into two rows with six in a row. That is the way they are arranged.
Ques What would the two rows set forth?
JT I would connect the two rows with the shoulder pieces, the tribes divided equally. The Lord has a right to manipulate us at His pleasure. The number twelve is perhaps the most divisible of any number; it can be divided by twelve, by six, by four, by three and by two. So that it sets out a most remarkable means of manipulation, for the Lord has in us, as we are formed in this holy nature of His, the holy, wheaten flour, which renders us entirely subject to His will. I have no other thought than His will — I am entirely at His disposal.
Rem The bread of arrangement, it was arranged according to His mind and will.
JT I think that is the point in this book. In Exodus it is the bread of presence, which means, what is before God. Here it is the bread of arrangement.
Rem That is interesting about the arrangement, it takes it out of our hands.
JT It is God’s arrangement, and when I look up into the heavens I see God can arrange things much better than I can. “When I consider thy heavens”, what an arrangement it is! (Psalm 8: 3).
Rem Scripture brings out the God of measure and the God of order.
JT The God of order is the idea. You have in Corinthians the directions that Paul gave when he was there first, and then the directions he gave in the letter, and then he says, “the rest will I set in order when I come”, 1 Corinthians 11: 34. This shows how much the idea of arrangement, or order, is emphasised in the assembly. First it was what he did when he [p. 478] was among them, then what he wrote, and then whatever remained he would put in order when he came. Nothing is left out.
Rem I was going to call attention to the beautiful arrangement in the celestial sphere, and we see in the moral system that it is not left to human will at all. It is all His own perfect arrangement set forth, and that is to be the standard before us to which the gracious work of God would seek to bring us.
Rem When I offer my body as a living sacrifice, then I place myself in the hands of God for His setting me wherever He may please.
JT That is the idea, and this chapter in Leviticus fits in, where we are set. Then they are to be there for a whole week, which is a period spiritually, the whole dispensation. But now there is the idea of what is before God in freshness because, according to 1 Samuel 21: 6, they were set in there when they were hot, fresh out of the oven, in freshness for seven days before God; then the priests ate them. When David asked for the loaves, they were there. I suppose, up to that time, there never was a greater priest than David when he took the five loaves. He was then, you see, fleeing from Saul’s murderous attitude towards him, maintaining the testimony of God.
Rem He was feeding upon what God had brought to light in his soul regarding Christ.
JT Quite. Who needed those loaves more than David at that time when he was standing alone for the testimony of God?
Rem The second circle is the teaching we have this afternoon. You took up the tribes as being four, and then next as being three, and next as being one. Our initial teaching yesterday was possibly in the setting of them. Now today we come to the initial idea of the priestly circle and the initial teaching in connection with the body.
JT Quite. The priests, as we had it, were on [p. 479] the east side, keeping the charge at the door. What we are at today takes us a little further than that. It takes us inside; we are occupied with the loaves. They are inside on the table in the holy place. We are inside now and every young christian ought to say, I should like to get inside. Why should I be outside? Why should I be an onlooker? Well, He would love to have you inside, and He would show you the beautiful bread that is inside; it is the bread of God. The wicked woman has her bread, too, in Proverbs. But this is what Wisdom would show you inside.
Rem There is the beautiful fragrance from the loaves in that way.
JT How delightfully attractive it is! And why should any young believer not say to himself, I should like to get in there? What is in there? The bread of God, sustained on the pure table. Exodus tells about that table. It was two cubits by one by one and a half. It was an oblong, but it was only a cubit and a half high. It is within reach, it is not beyond our heads. Sometimes we say that what was said was quite beyond our heads. That table is not beyond your head. It is one and a half cubits high and it is a very small man or woman that is not taller than that, about twenty-seven inches high. That ought not to be beyond anyone. If anyone is smaller than that, I would question if he were a christian at all. You can see how graciously God brings the thing down. It is only one and one half cubits high, and there are all kinds of drinking vessels on it. It is a set table, cups and goblets and things to pour out with. The altar of incense was a square, but it was two cubits high. It went higher, which it should. This is more to be available to me.
Rem Why should I not be inside when God has made all this provision? Why should I not be there?
JT Quite, it is there for you.
[p. 480] Rem That thought of arrangement is very helpful. We sometimes are not there because it is not according to our own arrangement. However small things might look in the world, it is remarkable that they are in two rows. You would not think anything was arranged in the book of Acts.
JT And yet unity is stamped on the whole book. You are impressed with the delicacy of the food and the arrangement of it, the pure material with which it was made and the frankincense on it. The priests ate it, and as they ate it, it is called the most holy of God’s offerings. Verse 9 is very striking, as you will observe.
Rem Pure frankincense was put upon each row, not on each loaf.
JT The idea would be that each six would be a sort of unit, but the two together would be a testimony to the full thought of food.
Rem So that, while there are individual loaves in each row of six, there is a corporate idea involved when the frankincense is put on. They all gave forth the same fragrance. This is the food of the priests, and every time they ate it they would be reminded of unity. The very constitution of the priest is built upon unity.
Ques What would you say about sober judgment?
JT It is in keeping with these wheaten cakes. Sobriety is the leading element in a christian. The man out of whom the legion of demons was cast was said to be found sitting, clothed, and in his right mind at the feet of Jesus. He represents, from the intelligence side, the material that forms the assembly. A man like that would not plague his brethren with a long address without any substance. He was a man that was most trustworthy. The eunuch went on his way rejoicing; this man is left in Decapolis by himself. He is the only man in the place, as far as we can see, that got blessing. Think of the Lord [p. 481] leaving a man like that alone! What does that mean? It means that the Lord knew what the man was capable of, he could stand it. Why could he? Because he was sitting and clothed at the feet of Jesus, and he wanted to be with Jesus. The man that wants to be with Jesus is the man to leave where Jesus is not.
Ques Is the idea of the kingdom of God conveyed in him?
JT That man could be trusted. The Lord could trust him to stay there; He leaves him there. He has the power and love, and a sound mind.
Ques Would you say that is the point, that God has a place in which to fit each one?
JT Even if you are isolated, if the Lord has set you in isolation, you can stand. There is no reason why you should give way. These men indicate how a christian is self-contained in independence of the world but not of other christians.
Ques Is that why Naaman was told to go in peace when he was perturbed about going into the house of Rimmon?
JT Quite so.
Ques As to divine arrangement in connection with isolation is it your thought that the great thing to keep in mind is the divine idea, not what physically separates me? The twelve loaves are there still.
JT However far from the brethren, I am in that unity, if I am living on that food, the priest’s food, then I am linked up in unity, because the loaves represented the whole nation.
Rem In connection with the flour, you referred at the beginning to the evenness of it and I wondered if, in connection with feeding on it, it would produce the character that is set forth in Romans 12: 3, “to think so as to be wise”.
JT That is the thing.
[p. 482] Ques The cups and things on the table were made out of gold. Gold means that which is divine. What would the cups be in that sense?
JT All is of God inside there, all is gold. It shows you that you are in the realm where all things are of God, all is of God. You would like to have a peep into where all is of God to see how things are served there. We entertain the saints, think how God entertains His people! The nearer you get to Him, the more at home you are. If you get a peep, you would be apt to stay.
Ques In connection with the man who was left in Decapolis, do you think he was intelligent so as to be wise in the place where the Lord put him?
JT He was.
Rem Referring to the thought of arrangement, the apostle in speaking to the Corinthians in the midst of the deplorable conditions that existed there, speaks of the Supper as that which “I have received of the Lord”, the divine Arranger!
JT That is really what has been lost sight of in christendom, the divine arrangement. They have their own arrangements.
Ques Is it not a fact that those who are in isolation among us are generally very weak?
JT It may be that they are not set there. Many of us go into it for selfish reasons, but we see here that the believer rightly in isolation is able to stand. The Lord would never place us there unless we can stand, and we may be sure we will not be left long alone.
Ques Why is this an offering by fire? Where does the fire come in?
JT In the baking; it signifies going through death. John 6 helps as to it, the Lord emphasising the idea of bread and how He goes into death. Sarah was directed to provide the loaves, but the Holy Spirit does not mention that she did it. You might be remiss in answering to the requirement. Sarah [p. 483] rather misses it in that sense. She laughs, but Abraham shines in that chapter. Sarah shines later. When it is a question of casting out the bondwoman and her son. Sarah is ahead of Abraham.
Ques Would you say I should be particular as to where I allow my body to go, and what I use it in connection with?
JT Quite. To be simple and frank, what you get at the beaches and all that sort of thing is something you cannot connect your body with. People go into these places and become defiled by them.
Rem A lot of other things, too, newspapers, novels, radios, to make it very practical.
Rem And coming back into the company of the brethren, you really offer diseased offerings, corrupt and polluted.
JT Speaking of our bodies and the idea of arrangement. Luke is the inspired writer that especially stresses the divine arrangement. It says, the Lord placed Himself at table. I have to consider how my body is to do that, as sitting with the brethren in that holy circle; my body is devoted, holy and acceptable, which is my intelligent service.
Rem Luke is priestly, too.
JT When you come to the priest in Luke it is a question of order, and then garments. There is nothing exposed — the priestly garments cover him right over, the body is covered. All that has its own voice, so that the Lord in Luke says, “but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”, Luke 24: 49. And also the man from whom the demons went out is said to be “sitting, clothed”, Luke 8: 35.
Ques Will you give us a word on Leviticus 24: 9?
JT It shows the holiness of the thing; that is brought in in connection with the eating of it. It says, “And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy unto him of Jehovah’s offerings by fire: it is an everlasting statute”. That is, when we are eating it, so that the bread is taken off the table and eaten and new replaced, and yet it is most holy. It is to bring about a holy state in the saints.
Ques You referred to John 6 in connection with this. Is that the most holy offering ever on the earth?
JT Quite. As you are eating it and being reminded that it is most holy unto Him, you are judging yourself all the time and the partaking of it is making you holy, building up a holy constitution. There is the idea of image and likeness, you get the nature of Christ. There are two thoughts, ‘image’ is that you are representative of God but that must be being like God, like Him in nature. Adam was not really like Him in nature. Christ is the “image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1: 15), but He was like God. The Lord Jesus really is the thing Himself.