HEBREWS 11 (SIXTH READING)
HEBREWS 11 (SIXTH READING)
CAC The detail connected with Moses seems to indicate the steps by which faith finds its way out of the world. It is really by a process of reduction; that is to say, we cannot in any moral sense get out of the world merely by changing out habits and ways.
Ques What is involved in the passover and the sprinkling of blood?
CAC In the passover we seem to come to the root of things; it is like the last step. The first step is refusing greatness in the world and suffering affliction; the second step is valuing the reproach of Christ, not only bearing it; the third step is leaving Egypt. “He persevered, as seeing him who is invisible”: that is a more searching exercise than refusing greatness and valuing reproach. The deepest exercise of all is in the passover and the sprinkling of the blood. These seem to be the steps of Moses’ faith, and steps necessary if we are to be delivered from the world. It is not just a question of changing your manner of life but of inward exercise. Refusing greatness led to outward exercise but in itself it is inward. What is said in this chapter as to Moses leaving Egypt gives us what we have not in the Old Testament. It is more searching for Moses than the first two steps. He had to learn that his own power was of no use at all in delivering the people. He had thought that God by his hand would deliver the people (Acts 7: 25) He had to learn that his power was no use at all; that is a great reduction. We have to learn the same thing too, that though we may desire to help the people of God we can do nothing; that is the greatest reduction of all. In the passover we see that the whole life of flesh is under judgment; that is the root of the whole matter.
Ques Does the word “persevered” cover Moses’ forty years in the wilderness?
CAC Yes, it throws a flood of light on those years. Moses learnt that the power of his hands could do nothing and that only the One who is invisible could deliver. He persevered in faith for forty years and the burning bush was the answer. It is a good thing to persevere for forty years, and perhaps find when you are eighty you are no good and that nothing is done!
We get in these instances of faith the inward exercises. That is what led me to say that we do not get out of the world by changing our habits, but as the result of inward exercise. We find in the Old Testament history that Moses was afraid and fled for his life and also that Isaac was deceived in blessing Jacob. The Old Testament gives us the outward history but in the New Testament the inward [p. 119] faith is magnified. Sometimes there is a strange mixture with us, but God knows how to sift out faith from unbelief. God glorified their faith because their faith glorified Him. Faith is the result of the light of God coming sovereignly into the soul. This chapter should exercise us as to what faith we have. We all have a general knowledge of truth which we would not give up, but this chapter tests us as to what faith we have.
Rem The apostles said, “Give more faith to us”, Luke 17: 5.
CAC When the apostles said that the Lord seemed to doubt that they had any at all, for only one grain of mustard seed is needed! It was as much as to say that they had none. To another He said, “O woman, thy faith is great”. The Lord loves to honour faith. It is the only thing in our souls that has value with God because it honours Him, it makes much of God.
The passover is the absolute setting aside of all that the flesh is; the judgment of God sets it aside. 1 Corinthians goes much with what we are reading. We get the passover in chapter 5, and the crossing of the Red Sea in chapter 10. Being baptised in the cloud and in the sea means the public profession we take up in this world.
Rem The man under judgment is gone in judgment.
CAC Yes, and also the Man who bore the judgment is out of it and is the righteousness of all who believe on Him.
Ques What is the sprinkling?
CAC The thought of sprinkling in Scripture is a greater thought than washing; it is greater to be under the sprinkling of the blood than to be washed by it. The washing calls attention to the effect produced on me — “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51: 7). “They... have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7: 14). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1: 7).
[p. 120] It is the effect produced upon us, but in the sprinkling the soul comes under all the value of what is sprinkled, whether blood, water, or oil. It gives a more extended thought, the sense of coming under all the value of what is sprinkled. The blood of sprinkling speaks of wonderful things.
In the celebration of the passover the thought is the feeding on the Lamb roast with fire; Christ having borne the judgment becomes the food of the soul; it gives constitution. The more we think of Christ bearing the judgment the more we shall be separated inwardly from the life of Egypt — the very life of flesh. So we are not only different in habits and ways but inwardly separated in soul. The sprinkling of the blood is for God; it secured everything on the divine side. “When I see the blood, I will pass over you”. The blood of the Lamb secured everything for God; you cannot add anything to it on the divine side. You are made nigh. My thought is that the sprinkling of the blood brings all that value of the death of Christ before God, and it is the basis on which He can do all. He can bring them out and bring them in, give them His presence and shine upon them. It is the value of the blood that secures everything.
The two greatest types of the death of Christ are the passover and the sin offering on the day of atonement, because both are on God’s side. On the people’s side there are other types: first, the smiting of the rock, then the brazen serpent meeting all on the people’s side, but nothing can be added to the blood of the Lamb and the blood on the mercy-seat.
Rem The wilderness is a place of testing.
CAC Faith is the subject here; the Spirit of God is not thinking of the testing of the people here; He is dwelling on what is substance in souls, what is divinely wrought in souls. It is the working out of, “the just shall live by faith”.
[p. 121] Can we live by faith like Abel, Noah, Enoch and so on? How much can we live by faith? What are we up to?
Ques What is the difference between the passover here and over Jordan?
CAC The difference lies in the standpoint from which you regard it. The position of the people changed, but the passover did not change. The position, we are in makes all the difference.
We can trace a difference in the passover in the wilderness. God says, ‘It is My feast’; that was a great advance on Egypt. And in the land He says, ‘You must eat it in the place where I set My Name’. I am thankful if the Lord’s supper becomes more to us than it was.
Ques Might we get back to having it more than once a week?
CAC The Lord would have us to observe weeks, not days, months, or years. The week is built into the divine system; assembly history is by the week. We begin afresh once a week; it is a new start. When we wake up on Lord’s Day morning, we ought to think, ‘Now this is a new beginning, the first day of the week, and we are to have what we never had before’.
Ques Does the Supper sustain us here as eating it?
CAC I believe that. We eat our food to sustain life and in eating the Supper we are spiritually nourished and built up in a spiritual constitution. I covet this much; it is the only thing that will keep us out of formality. Formality is doing the same thing; my thought is beginning afresh and we should begin each week with a fresh exercise of having done with ourselves. There should be a self-review, a thorough overhauling before partaking of the Supper. No one is supposed to come to the Supper in any other way.
In the passover you come down to the root of the thing. There are four steps in reduction: (1) Refusing greatness; (2) Valuing reproach; (3) Giving up all confidence in [p. 122] anything of your own; (4) The very life of the flesh must go in judgment. There is no way of getting out of this world but by a process of self-reduction. All this leads on to passing through the Red Sea.
Ques Why does it now say “They”, it was in the singular before?
CAC It is the collective idea, the public position is collective. The inward exercises of faith are individual. You move in the steps of your own faith, and faith in one would not conflict with faith in another, but when you come to the public position it is they pass through the Red Sea.
Ques When do exercises of faith come in after the Red Sea?
CAC No doubt there was faith in Moses in the wilderness, but the Spirit of God drops that out. Faith is concerned in getting out of this world and into the divine inheritance. The ways of God in the wilderness are humbling and instructive, but God’s thought is bringing them out and bringing them in.
The walls of Jericho falling shew the collapse of every spiritual power of wickedness which would hinder the enjoyment of the inheritance. It was spiritual power against Jericho, no blow was struck. The public position can be imitated, as we see by the Egyptians following. Israel went out to serve God, for God had said, “Let my son go”. There is nothing connected with the service of God that the flesh cannot take up, but it will be disastrous. We find that a mixed multitude followed Israel; they had not faith, but the Israel of God had faith. A lot of people went through the Red Sea who had not faith. It says in 1 Corinthians 10 they were all baptised in the cloud and in the sea — that was the public position — but God was not pleased with those who had no faith. A man in the flesh can ask for fellowship and we may receive him but the end [p. 123] is disaster; flesh can follow the public position and take it up. Baptism is what answers to the Red Sea. Christendom has taken up baptism; they are baptised and confirmed and take the sacrament; they take up the outward position, but we have to see to it that we take it up in faith.
Ques What are the steps into the inheritance?
CAC Walking around Jericho seven days in the presence of what is wholly spiritual. The priests and the trumpets and the armed men and the ark of Jehovah all convey a spiritual idea and not a fleshly movement. They moved round every day for six days and seven times on the last day. Did anyone ever hear of such a mode of reducing a fortress? Spiritual power alone can break down spiritual opposition. That is what hinders us; the atmosphere of the world is full of spiritual opposition.
Luke 22 indicates that there are certain moral links between the Lord’s supper and the passover. It is a mistake to put them in contrast. The Lord linked on His Supper with the passover so there is a moral suitability in connecting them. The passover is important specially as taking it up on the divine side. In the passover there is the thought of a generation secured for God and that was the generation that walked round Jericho.
We see in Rahab how entirely it is all of grace. God takes up a poor gentile of disreputable character and gives her a place in the inheritance. She is put into the genealogy of Christ.