DIVINE TESTING
[p. 308] DIVINE TESTING
Exodus 14:1-3; Exodus 14:9-14; Joshua 3: 1 - 4; Judges 7: 1 - 7
The thought I have in mind relates to the circumstances ordered of God for our testing, especially as seen in these three scriptures. The circumstances are seen in connection with water: first a sea, then a river, and then a well. Water as a type has a very wide bearing in Scripture. Each mention has to be understood from the context, for we never really understand Scripture save as we look at it thus; particularly in any reference to water, because it may mean the opposite in one to what it means in another. For instance, “the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and whose waters cast up mire and dirt”, Isaiah 57: 20. A remarkable figure; the allusion would be to the incessant action of the masses of men, their unsteadiness and their liability to be affected by various influences. The world as a whole is constantly affected by one influence after another; terrible things are happening and newspapers are spreading it abroad, carrying defilement everywhere.
Then we have water as seen in the gospels, where it is perhaps more applicable to ourselves. For instance, in the passage which speaks of the Lord being in the boat and saying, “Let us go over to the other side”, Mark 4: 35. Such a movement always invites Satan’s attack, “the other side” meaning another position, which the testimony or the development of the truth requires. Christendom, with its cathedrals, which has been stationary for a thousand years, never goes to the other side. It has no idea of making a change to the other side, whereas you find that the Lord is constantly moving from this point to that, not in the sense of unrest and sightseeing, as the word, “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”, Daniel 12: 4. The Lord’s word is, “Let us go over to the other side”; and as the [p. 309] movement began the enemy attacked. It is not here a question of mire and dirt, but agitation, and this may mark the saints. We are capable of being thus affected under these circumstances. Here are the two elements, wind and water — it is the wind that causes waves.
We have to acknowledge that there is scarcely a christian, great as the name of christian is, who is not capable of being affected in this way. The sea became agitated in Matthew. Matthew gives one phraseology, Mark another, and Luke another. Luke says that “they were filled with water, and were in danger”; they were thus affected. If we apply this to ourselves, all agitation, useless talk, recrimination suggests that we are in danger. Sometimes a gust comes up and you scarcely know where it comes from; but it is Satan, who is said to be “the prince of the power of the air”, Ephesians 2: 2. The air moving as wind, agitates; disturbing things are spoken, at first it may not be known by whom, but they are spoken, they are passed on, and agitation ensues. Matthew says, “the ship was covered by the waves”; that was obscured in which Christ was. Mark says the ship was “already filled”, and Luke that “they were filled with water” and that they “were in danger”. There is preservation from all this in manhood according to God, in that maturity and stability that will refuse to be influenced by Satan’s ways.
In the book of Exodus water has a great place, and the Red Sea stands out in this respect. Although inland, the Sea of Galilee corresponds to it in the New Testament; properly it is a lake, but the Red Sea is a sea. I read the passage, not to develop a gospel address out of it, although it is full of gospel matter, but what I have in mind is to bring out this thought of testing.
God as Creator has put all these things here in view of His testimony, and the Red Sea was to be a test to His people. It is a type of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is nothing greater than that;
[p. 310] but before it became so in type, it was a test to the people of God. You will notice that it is stated that they were to “encamp by the sea”, and then we read that they did so.
This test brought out a great deal of complaining, and other things too, of course. There was complaint against Moses — Why did you bring us out of Egypt? They did not say a word about their bitter sufferings there, these are all ignored; it is the irritability of the flesh, and Moses must suffer. The irritability of the flesh without control, vents itself in attacking those who in serving God, serve His people. The christian is enjoined to be under self-control. Things happen over which I have no control, but I should have control over myself, and not cause others to suffer; otherwise Satan will ruffle me to attack those who serve God, and in this way I may sin against Him. That is what the children of Israel were doing here.
They had been wonderfully cared for, Jehovah Himself having come down to deliver them, and what evidence of His presence there was in the plagues, ten of them, one after another! There is no question that God is with them. And then comes the wonderful night of the passover! What a night they had, eating the passover inside, with the blood outside, and no destroyer coming in! We may picture in our minds the parents of a family; the elder boy there as an object of special affection. There he was, sitting at the table enjoying the passover, when elsewhere hundreds of poor Egyptian firstborns were lying dead under the judgment of God. It was known to be so, it was no imaginary thing.
What a sense they would have of divine care! And lest the thing should fail as to their understanding, Moses referred to the deliverance of ‘our houses‘ in telling them what Jehovah had said to him. He gives in substance what Jehovah told him about the passover; he does not recite everything, he tells some things and leaves out others, according to the principle of ministry;
[p. 311] but in the end he says that they were to tell their children that Jehovah “delivered our houses”; not the firstborn only, but the house; the household is stressed. In many other ways they were cared for most marvellously, and now God tests them. He told them to “encamp by the sea”, and “Pharaoh will say ... They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has hemmed them in”. By this means God would draw out the enemy as by an ambush. Jehovah is a Man of war, He caused Pharaoh to be exposed by placing the people there by the sea, but alas! as in that position, they complained against Moses; they failed in the test. We are enjoined to obey our leaders and to be in subjection; instead of this they complained. The passage reads, “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness”, Exodus 14: 10 - 12.
It is against Moses that they are complaining; later, in Numbers 21, they spoke against God and against Moses, but here it is against Moses. Think of the man against whom they were speaking, what he had been to them! The people of Israel were agitated, the enemy was blowing upon them and the waves of complaint were rising. Moses answers in beautiful grace and is an example to all who are prominent amongst us. He does not call them rebels here; in verse 13 he says, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for [p. 312] ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace”. What a beautiful reply! What a man! What a minister! He allayed their fear. What had they gained by all this agitation? Nothing. There was no cause for it; and what anguish they must have suffered, and that because of their want of formation, they were like children. We are to quit ourselves like men. In the presence of danger, let us face it as those who have grown in the knowledge of God, for He will be with us. If our position does not warrant the assumption that God is with us let us give it up, but if God is with us, there is nothing to fear.
So we read that “the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night”, verses 19, 20. That is God dear brethren. Think of the angel going round from their front to a position behind them! That is divine love, He did not do that because of their murmurings. He did that because of Himself. That is God’s way, He loves us; our agitation, such as appears here, does not turn God away from us. See the way they spoke about Moses! There was no cause for it. They were tested, and by that test they were exposed. It is written for our learning, these things happened as examples, and are recorded for us that we may not fall into the sin of unreasonable complaint. The end in view in all ministry and in every experience is to develop manhood amongst us, that we should be men.
Now in Joshua we have another instance of water. It says in chapter 3, “And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan”. There is no complaining here at all; the people have learned. They are seen here, typically at least, as grown men, and they “lodged”; the word “lodged” is noticeable here. They arrived at Jordan after forty years in the wilderness; Moses is gone, and Joshua is the leader. It is wholly a spiritual matter now: they are about to enter Canaan. Wonderful thought! They are not now coming out of Egypt; they are leaving the wilderness and entering into Canaan, so they leave Shittim and move to Jordan.
I wonder if we all understand this great movement. They came to the Jordan; that is, water in the form of a river overflowing its banks, suggestive of the power of death. Some of us may have to face it in sickness at any time; God may bring us to it physically unless we arrive at it spiritually. It is a great thing to reach it spiritually. Mary and Martha did so in the death of their brother, and when any one near to us is taken it always peculiarly affects us. Martha said to the Lord, “if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”.
So they came to the Jordan, and lodged there for three days. What are we to learn in this test? They are not complaining, they are men, there is not a word against Joshua; even the forty thousand of the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh were all subject to Joshua. We can have no assembly conditions without this; we are enjoined to be subject. All these chapters denote leadership according to God and the principle of subjection in each. Only persons under control themselves are able to give orders; “joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ” says Paul to the Colossians (Colossians 2: 5). Thus he can propound to them the great thoughts of God.
So here there are great things for us to learn. We are to be two thousand cubits behind the ark, and as soon as we see it move we must go after it; we are not to go after this story and that story, but after the ark. Listening to this and that is sure to cause agitation: there is nothing of the kind in this beautiful passage; the great power of God in the ark is to deal with Jordan, symbolising [p. 314] death, and the people are to follow in a respectful way. Two thousand cubits are equal to three thousand feet, and this is no little distance. As the ark was not large, it required good eyesight to see it clearly. So, typically, you get a view of Christ, as exercising the power of God when He entered into death and overthrew it — in Gethsemane, on the cross, and in resurrection — as recorded at the end of each gospel. But I am speaking for the moment of the faith order, and of the subjective spirit that is characteristic of believers seen here typically, and who understand that, through the death and resurrection of Christ, death is abolished.
So in the assembly we are brought into a deathless state of things; death does not belong to it, and this instruction is necessary if we are to understand it rightly. It is not here a question of the ‘babe condition’ as set forth in Corinthians, but a state like that spoken of in the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians; not persons carried about with every wind, but men who know how to discriminate. They were told to keep their eye on the ark and they did so, and the ark remained in the Jordan until they all passed over. Those passing over into Canaan are men: we are not to be in heaven as babes but as full-grown men, spoken of in Ephesians.
The passage in Judges brings us to a well, a small subdivision of water. There is a remarkable correspondence in the movements of the people here with those at Jordan. They rise early and pitch “beside the well of Harod”; their position is beside the well. They numbered thirty-two thousand, quite an army, and it may be that Gideon was pleased with the number. It would be gratifying to any leader to be able to call forth so many; but God says, ‘They may suit you, but they do not suit Me — there are too many of them’. “Bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there”. He does not tell Gideon how He will do it.
Sometimes we have special meetings, and maybe a [p. 315] week beforehand the brethren decide what they should consider. It is not always wise. God did not tell Gideon what He would do: generally we should leave it with Him. That is an important matter, even in regard to ministry and to subjects for consideration at readings; we should make room for God. The first test here is that those who are timid and afraid should be allowed to go home, and the number of twenty-two thousand cowardly souls took advantage of this: sorrowful indeed! They were not men, a spiritual man will not go back, he will not turn his back to the enemy; but these did so, they went home. It was God who tested them, and how distressing it would be to Gideon to see these men marching off! However, there were ten thousand who were not cowards, they were ready to go forth against the enemy. Are they going to fight with spiritual weapons? The point is — spirituality, that everything in assembly service must be spiritual if it is to please God.
Now Jehovah says, “The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there”: the final test is to be at the water. It is drinking water, not the sea nor the water of Jordan, it is a spring. In a spiritual meeting there may be ministry from the Lord which is refreshing, but how do I take it in? How do I appropriate it? Do I sit like a scholar listening to a lecture? If I do, I am ruled out. Here there were nine thousand seven hundred of them rejected, as unable to answer to the divine test. How distressing! They are, as I said, like persons who sit and listen as if they were in school, they do not appropriate spiritually what is presented. Jehovah says to Ezekiel “thou art unto them as a lovely song, a pleasant voice, ... and they hear thy words, but they do them not”, chapter 33: 32. So these nine thousand seven hundred men took the water just naturally, as ordinary men with natural thirst would do, for they bowed down on their knees to drink, but here the allusion to dogs is intended [p. 316] to convey what God looks for in His warriors. Elsewhere we are told to “beware of dogs”, here we have a trait that suggests spirituality and what is to be imitated. It would convey that I should not be in the things of God in any selfish way; I should be in God’s things spiritually and hence unselfishly.
Jehovah says to Gideon, “that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go”, Thus the whole matter is to be settled at the water by Jehovah Himself. The test was there. In this striking incident God teaches us — for it is recorded for us — how carefully He watches over us as ostensibly in His service, so that the flesh in us should be disallowed and that it should be replaced by the Spirit and what the Spirit forms in us. There are nine thousand seven hundred men rejected. How humiliating! God has rejected them, as He rejected king Saul; He says, “I have rejected him”. Paul says, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway”, 1 Corinthians 9: 27.
God is looking for reality and spirituality in us; they go together. Possessing them I know how to appropriate, according to Him, the things He provides in mercy. What a great thing it is to be amongst Gideon’s three hundred! They stand out in a unique way. God is calling for such that they may have part in the spiritual army — and what glory awaits this army! The Midianitish hordes are routed by three hundred men! In an earlier battle there had been selected a thousand out of every tribe, but here there are only three hundred in all, to bring out the great thought of spiritual character, the thought of manhood not governed by natural feelings and selfish desires, but by thinking for God and for His interests, “Arise”, says the Lord, “get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand”.