DIVINE DWELLING (2)
[p. 18] DIVINE DWELLING (2)
2 Corinthians 3:6 - 18; Exodus 35:1 - 3; Exodus 35:20 - 29; Exodus 40:33 - 35
JT It will be borne in mind that our subject is tabernacle or wilderness conditions for the divine dwelling. We left off yesterday at chapters 24 and 25: It was intimated that we should proceed with the consideration of the new covenant as bearing on this subject. Chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians alludes not to chapter 24 of Exodus but to chapter 34, to the second giving of the law. Moses was called up again to the mount and a most interesting conversation proceeded between Jehovah and him; he had acquired great moral power in the interval between chapters 24 and 34. The golden calf had been made, and Moses shines not only as the mediator but as offering himself, offering to sacrifice himself for Israel, and through his intercession Jehovah went on with the people, but on the ground of separation. The tabernacle was taken outside the camp and pitched afar off, and Moses ascends to the mount, as having thus acquired great power and acceptability to Jehovah. So he stands out in chapter 34 as more definitely a figure of Christ, typical of Christ.
Then a peculiar glory is attached to the second giving of the law, so that his face shone, and that is what is alluded to in 2 Corinthians 3. There was glory attached to this giving of the law, but the Spirit of God proceeds in verses 7 - 16 of this chapter to enlarge on the new covenant and the glory that attaches to it, shines in it, and to compare it with the glory that shone in the giving of the law. The ministry of the Spirit subsists in glory. In fact the Spirit goes on to say, in effect, ‘You could hardly speak of the glory of the first covenant at all because the glory of the second is so transcendent, and so exceeds it’. Attention is called to the richness [p. 19] of glory that enters into the new covenant — that is, what God is as seen in Christ, surrendering Him, giving Him up in love. It is called “the ministry of the Spirit”, which implies that the Spirit has part in it, and the end of the chapter brings out that “the Lord is that Spirit”; that is, the two divine Persons, who have taken a mediatorial place, are merged in order to make this wonderful thing effective in our hearts.
That is what is before us to begin with, so that we might understand the richness there is when we are together in assembly, that is, not yet viewed as in the land. We are not speaking of divine dwelling as seen in the land — that is not our subject. Our subject is the conditions of divine dwelling in a scene of contrariety as seen in Exodus and, indeed, in the Pentateuch as a whole. So that as we link all that up with the verses read in Exodus 35 we can see in the type what richness existed amongst the people. In Exodus it is not the leading ones particularly, the kings and the princes as in the days of David and Solomon, but every man and woman in Israel. Exodus brings out the mutual, yet rich, conditions amongst us; but the riches are disbursed, fully disbursed and equally divided, not all centred in the kings and princes as in Chronicles. And what is particularly worth noticing in a practical way is the allusion to the sabbath in the opening verses. It is said, “And Moses collected all the assembly of the children of Israel, and said to them. These are the things which Jehovah has commanded, to do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to Jehovah: whoever does work on it shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no [p. 24] fire throughout your dwellings upon the sabbath day”. That reminds us of the need of apprehending Christ as the sabbath, and shows how we are to be restful in the enjoyment of the riches that the covenant suggests, so that we are balanced in our part in [p. 20] the assembly.
WJY Is the thought of glory the expression of God?
JT That is the idea of the covenant. It is what God is in this particular setting, the shining out of God in the gift of Jesus.
WJY Why, in chapter 24 and in Hebrews, is so much made of the blood in connection with the covenant?
JT What is to be observed in chapter 24 is the volume of blood. I believe it is to bring out the immensity of the love that enters into it. It is sprinkled on the book and on the people and on the altar. That is, we are all, as it were, enveloped in the volume of blood to bring out the richness of the position from the divine side, so that the ascent is made in that richness. There is no reflection or shining suggested in chapter 24, but we have the amount of blood that was put in basins and employed for different purposes, so that the whole scene is, as it were, enveloped by the testimony of the fulness of love in Christ, so that we should understand the richness of the position in which the people go up to the mount. In the second giving of the law, however, we get the shining because the second is more the spirit of the thing. In the second giving, Jehovah says, “After the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee”, which may be taken to correspond with the spirit of the thing (Exodus 34:27).
EF Would you help as to what is said in Corinthians, “The Lord is the Spirit” and “even as by the Lord the Spirit”. The two Persons seem to be intimately together there.
JT I think there is a combining, speaking reverently, of the two divine Persons that have become mediatorial. The Lord Jesus has taken a humble place in manhood, but the Spirit has also taken a humble place, not in manhood, but yet in men. He is here in the lowliest conceivable attitude, and They merge in this peculiar service of making this great thing, the love of God, effective in the saints. They [p. 21] combine (it seems by the word used) to make this great thought effective in us; so that it should not be merely a theory or doctrine, but a known thing. There should be great wealth amongst us in the effectuation of this great thought, the new covenant; there is the idea of authority — “the Lord is the Spirit”, but there is the Spirit too; and in fact, in the parenthesis, we are told that the ministry of the Spirit subsists in glory. The Spirit is there alluded to by Himself without the idea of authority, but in verse 17 we have the two thoughts merged. In verse 6 we have, “Not of letter, but of spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens”, and in verse 17 it says “the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. I think we should get the thought of wealth. We have it in 2 Chronicles in regard to the temple and in Exodus in regard to the tabernacle. The thought is that in the service of God we are to be consciously possessed of wealth and to use it, as in Exodus, under the direction of Moses and with the greatest skill. So that the conditions of the divine dwelling are not incongruous in any way; each is in his place in the assembly and the part he takes is under orders, under control.
WJY Would the expression, “The Lord is that Spirit” refer to Him where He is now?
JT Yes. He is made Lord and Christ up there. He gave the Spirit so that He is identified with the operations of the Spirit down here. The operations of the Spirit are carried on in authority.
WJY What was before me was that the value of the new covenant is not only to be found in His death but in His present position. Is that so?
JT Well, it could not be made effective without the Spirit and you could not have the Spirit until Christ is glorified. The effectuation of it awaited the full establishment of the divine system. What is needed in our service, among many other things, is the thought of [p. 22] the sabbath.
HW Why does that come in first in connection with the manna?
JT It is to call attention to the presence of Christ here — that God found His rest there. The manna stands related to the sabbath, it is the first mention we have of it formally. The relation between the sabbath and the manna is significant because it is Christ, as we read in the hymn, “once humbled here”, it is the Lord Jesus here as man in ordinary circumstances. That is to say, Philippians 2:7 says He “emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form, taking his place in the likeness of men”, outwardly an ordinary man, sin apart, as you would see in Palestine at that time in everyday circumstances. Whatever men may have thought of Him, God says ‘I have found my delight in Him’. God rests in that.
HW Is the thought that the One who has provided a rest for God becomes food for man?
JT They synchronise, but the sabbath is carried forward. After the first forty days on the mount Jehovah refers to the sabbath again. In the closing verses of chapter 31 you find a great deal said about the sabbath and something said about it that is not said anywhere else, that God rested on it and was refreshed, meaning that He had been unfolding the glories of Christ to Moses during the forty days. God had a great time of it, speaking reverently, a much better time than Moses had. He was unfolding Christ to him and at the end of the giving of instructions about the tabernacle He refers to the sabbath and enjoins it in the strongest terms, saying that He rested on that day and was refreshed. That is what He had on the sabbath, and I think this chapter begins with this thought in the same sense, that God would bring us into the spirit of restfulness, for we are apt to be very active, even in the assembly.
HW Are you connecting that with the thought of the wealth that is found amongst the people of God?
JT [p. 23] Yes, there may be a show of wealth in a flow of language and hymns, but there is not much in that. It is the skilful use of wealth, and for that there must be calm contemplation and restfulness as to what God sets out in Christ.
HW Are you connecting the thought of the sabbath with the wealth that is found amongst the people?
JT The sabbath enables us rightly to distribute it and regulate it wherever it is found. It is not simply the leaders as in Chronicles; it is in every man and woman; it is the mutual state of things amongst the saints.
WH Is that anticipating the world to come?
JT Of course there will be great display of official power in the world to come, especially centred in the heavenly city, but the state of things in the wilderness as described in the Pentateuch is to establish mutual feeling amongst the saints, but mutuality in wealth, not a democratic spirit, but in spiritual wealth, in ability to be quiet and to calmly weigh what is presented in the enjoyment of the wealth, and to know how to use it.
WM You would say that the more we enter into the spirit of the new covenant the more we enjoy sabbath rest?
JT They run together. We sit down in assembly. The idea is that we sit down; it is not a time of activity necessarily but a time of quietude because it is a question of what is presented to us for contemplation.
WH It would preserve us from gathering a few sticks or doing that which we could do during the week.
JT I think that is good. The man who gathers sticks is put to death, and it is prohibited here in the strongest terms. It says, “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to Jehovah: whoever does work on it shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings upon the sabbath day”. That is to say, there is to be no promotion of heat in any way. It is calm restfulness that is required if we are to be in assembly according to God, the entire absence of the natural.
CSS Would that be suggested in God resting in His love? (Zephaniah 3:17).
JT That shows how it is in God. He rested in Christ here, according to Exodus 16. He rested in Him in His ordinary circumstances here on earth, in which He was doing what other men did. He would do anything that other men might do legitimately, sin apart, and at the end of thirty years the Father’s voice is heard, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight” (Matthew 17:5). He is resting there. The beginning of everything really in the new order of things is that we are to be brought into that rest.
HJM Why does it say in Chapter 34, “After the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel” (Exodus 34:27)?
JT Moses is, I think, brought into more prominence because of what had transpired. He became more and more a type of Christ.
GMcK Connected with what we were saying as to the sabbath, what do you understand by “None shall appear before me empty”? Exodus 34:20. Is that connected with the service of God as here?
JT Quite so; it calls attention to the wealth that He looks for in us. I should like it very much if people would pay attention to the idea of wealth, and how it is seen in Exodus, compared with the way it is seen in 1 Chronicles. The immensity of the wealth in 1 Chronicles is largely from the king and from the princes, but in Exodus it is every man and woman in Israel, bringing all the saints into it, brothers and sisters. Indeed they are all in it, in the tabernacle, in the silver supplied for each one, half a shekel for each one. Each saint is set up and has a status in [p. 25] the system.
RST Is it instructive for us that there is no lack of wealth amongst the saints? Of every article needed there was abundant supply.
JT That is what comes out under these circumstances. There is abundance of wealth, and what the book culminates in is not singing as in Chronicles, not music, but the completion of the work by Moses. That is, that all the saints, viewed as in assembly, are under the hand of the Lord in His authority. Each will is subdued; there is no room for the exercise of any will, because each has his niche to fill and is in that position. Moses has put him there. It is a question of the authority of the Lord.
WJY Does wealth suggest the work of God in each soul?
JT Quite so. It involves the Spirit in us.
CSS This wealth was not found in the wilderness. God had taken care that His people would be provided with it. Is the thought that it might lie dormant?
JT I think it began in Egypt, which would refer to the exercises that the saints have in getting out of the world; if one does not come out of the world with wealth, he is not really out of it. The idea is that I come out of the world through exercise; I have had to suffer, and it is in that that I acquire spiritual wealth. They “spoiled the Egyptians”, it says; they demanded of the Egyptians. It is a matter of right, we are not leaving anything that is of God behind. The principle in coming out of the world is that we are carrying with us all that belongs to God and spoiling the world; the world is ready to adopt things that belong to God, but the Christian in effect says ‘They are not yours at all, and we are taking them all with us’.
HW Is that why confessing the name of the Lord helps us?
JT That is where it begins, I think. That brings out opposition.
[p. 26] P It is not so much the thought of individual wealth as accumulative wealth?
JT It is individual wealth first — every man and woman, but it becomes accumulative through each contributing, meaning, in a practical way, that brothers and sisters alike are supposed to contribute to the assembly. The actual use made has to be left. All is in the hands of Moses.
PD Does the principle come out in the beginning of the Acts where each one brought their contribution to the apostles’ feet?
JT That is the thought. No one who had possessions called anything his own. It was a community, but stress is laid here on every man and woman whose heart prompted them. God is looking at the state of our hearts.
HW It is spoken of as a heave-offering. What is going to promote that feeling with us that the wealth shall be made available?
JT I think the stirring up of the affections. There are two ideas in the offering, one the heaving, the other the waving. A heave-offering is something raised up, the outgoings of the heart towards God; the wave-offering refers more to Christ. He is kept constantly and strikingly before the eyes of God. It is the heave-offering here because it is a question of the saints.
WM The wealth had been previously used in the service of the devil, but now it is brought into the service of God.
JT That is right. That shows the terrible breakdown. The exercise in connection with it had increased the wealth of the saints.
EE How can I distinguish wealth in my soul? What would wealth be in the way you are speaking of it?
JT It is the movement covered in the word “heave”. Romans 8 brings out that the Spirit searches the hearts, or rather God does. “He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit”,(Romans 8:27).
[p. 27] God searches the hearts, and it is in the consciousness of the movement of the heart Godward; and another great test is whether I love the brethren, whether in relation with the brethren my heart is moved.
AJD Would the call to the fellowship of God’s Son have this movement in view?
JT I think so. We are called into it, and we ought to be able to discern the movements of our hearts. There are in a man or in a beast automatic self-acting organs, these are what are alluded to in this movement called “heave”. The Lord alludes to it too in saying, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). Surely one is conscious of that movement. It is not the action of one’s will; it is a movement by itself; it is the effect of God being brought before the affections.
CD What would cover each would be the fact that this contribution was toward God’s dwelling place, would it not?
JT What a great thought it is! God seeks to dwell amongst us. Everyone who loves God would be alive and ready to contribute to that.
HW I think we need help really to discover and discern the value of this wealth that is found amongst the saints and to use it rightly and hold it available.
JT You get initial thoughts in Exodus. There it is all a question of what Moses did. Aaron is there, but Moses and the anointing are the two great thoughts; every item in the tabernacle, meaning every brother and every sister, is in place, but not the place which he has taken, but the place which he is given. He is given his place. Moses set up the tabernacle and set every item in its place, and as there it is functioning, acting, doing what it should do. That is the idea, so it is a question of the authority of Christ exercised, but in the anointing. The Spirit is there too.
[p. 28] CD So that it is the hand of Moses that unifies the whole thing.
JT Moses finished the work and the next thing is that God says in effect, ‘That is all suitable to Me’. It is not yet the varied woods of the temple and the other metals and the like in the temple, but just the tabernacle here — just the saints in their wilderness setting, where contrariety is. God can say, ‘That pleases Me’. There is nothing more satisfying than the sense spiritually that you are just where God would have you and that He is pleased with you there. There is not an incongruous thing in it; there is no more need for Moses to say, ‘Do this or do that’. We are all perfectly restful in our position.
PD Is it not interesting to see that it is God that proposes the materials suitable for His dwelling?
JT It must be. All is on divine terms, but then everything that He requires is provided. There is plenty of it too.
CSS The words ‘found’ and ‘brought’ seem to be repeated in the chapter. Does it suggest this volume of movement? Where are they brought from?
JT Are you speaking of chapter 35? It says in the opening verses that Moses collected or gathered all the assembly. That is, they are all there and under the hand of Moses. He is gathering, and after speaking of the sabbath, he gives a list of the things that are needed — and then we are told in verse 20 that “all the assembly of the children of Israel departed from before Moses”. That is, they are not under his influence. They departed from the presence of Moses and that raises the whole question as to fellowship, that is, what we do when we are not formally in the presence of the Lord, or in the presence of each other. We have gone back to the places of our individual settings. Shall we forget what is needed? Will our hearts be occupied with other things? Very often at a meeting we are full of a thing that is presented to us in power, but as we go back to [p. 29] our individual settings it loses its force. But what comes out here is that it did not lose its force with them (see Exodus 35:20 - 29). All that takes place as the people departed from Moses; they are no longer under his influence, but act as honest men and women. Whatever these utensils had been used for before, that is now abandoned and they are brought to make a dwelling place for God. God is before the assembly. It is a wonderful picture of the normal result of the Spirit of God working in the saints as of the assembly.
WJY Carrying assembly exercises back to our homes?
JT That is the idea. You may go back from the meeting and forget what you heard, and you turn to your own things. When you get back other things affect you, but the point here is that they were not forgetful or affected adversely; they carried out the desire of Moses.
CSS I was thinking that they brought these things out of their homes, would that be right?
JT Yes, it was sacrifice. People had nose-rings and earrings, and bracelets; it was sacrifice to give these up. And the women had looking-glasses, and they have them today; this book contemplates that these are given up too. All that sort of thing is given up for the sake of a dwelling-place for God.
TP In 4:2, which was written by a sister, we have, “Now with this treasure our spirits are freighted”. Is that the acquisition of wealth in that sense?
JT Very good illustration of it. The word ‘freighted’ was well debated before it was put into that hymn, it is a good word.
TP I was thinking of the first part of the verse. It indicates that we have come from conditions where we have been, as it were, away from Moses.
JT That is the thought. We go back to our houses after a meeting like this. We may get a touch, but shall [p. 30] I carry it back to my house? shall I forget it? It may require sacrifice, and I say, ‘Well, that is not needed’. It may be I stay home from the next meeting. Or on the other hand I may resolve ‘I will not miss one meeting, I will be like Anna’. Will you carry that through? God looks to you to carry it through.
JP What would help us as to willing-heartedness?
JT I think that is the covenant. The covenant is the heart of God. That is, God’s heart is towards you, and now what is your heart towards God? That is what these verses mean. The covenant is in chapter 34. That is the second giving of the law; this chapter is the response to it.
H Is that where the glory is seen, in the expression of all these things in the assembly?
JT That is the idea, I think.