DAYS

^[p. 80] DAYS

Acts 1: 1 - 4; Leviticus 23: 9 -17

My exercise in regard of this meeting has been that something might come before its that would lead to a better, and more intelligent, and more spiritual use of our days. I believe that the Lord is about to come, and one is particularly concerned that the time remaining may not be, in any one of us, misspent. So I would call attention to the use of days — days being allotted periods, each day calling for its own work.

We have, I believe, in the expression “Ancient of days”, Daniel 7:9, as applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, a suggestion as to the perfect way in which His days were used and filled up. Moses, by the Spirit of God, alludes to years, giving them a limit, but it is not really the number of years, but the number of days that one spends here which are our concern. The expression, “The ancient of days” would, I apprehend, refer to how the Lord used His. We have in the Old Testament references in regard of days that would indicate that God not only takes account of how years in general are spent, but how days are spent. According to Scripture there is no mourning at the burial of Abraham, for he was a man who is said to have died in a good old age, “old and full of days”. Genesis 25:8. These days were all taken account of by God. And so with Isaac and others, particularly Job, it is said that they were old at their death and full of days. Their lives were not a blank, they yielded something for God daily. In Jacob, as one marked by failure, we have the acknowledgement that the days of the years of his life were not as the days of the years of his father, they were few and they were evil. A humble admission which, alas, many, if not all of us, would be obliged to fully confirm as to ourselves, but then,

^[p. 81] be it so, Jacob made a good finish, and God accepted the finish. He will accept the beginning, as He did when Jacob anointed the pillar, for He said that He would be with him; and God accepted his finish, even although the most part of his life was spent, as he said, evilly.

In the prayer of Moses, the man of God, and it is well to listen to the prayers of a man of God, he says, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” Psalm 90:12. So with a wise heart we see that every day is precious and we use that day rightly, no part of it is to be lost, but we are to be here “redeeming the time”. Ephesians 5:16. The Lord would impress upon us to face things now. Scripture speaks of “from this day forward”. When light comes into the soul the Lord would say, Thou shalt see greater things henceforward, that is, from now on thou shalt see; for day after day involves increased light. “The path of the just shineth more and more”, it says, “unto a perfect day”. Proverbs 4:18. What a prospect there is, what an incentive to resolve to use up our days rightly. If rightly used they will issue in something for God every day, and that something accumulates until at the end there is something of value that God knows how to measure.

In Acts 1 we see how days in this dispensation began; they began with the daily experience of Christ risen. I want you to consider that for a moment. Forty days spent one after another with Christ risen from the dead. Think of the experience they had, beginning with the first day of the week after He rose! Now I would ask you to take note of that, that this dispensation began with the daily experience of Christ risen. In regard of the saints of old, you will remember how God said, “This month shall be unto you a beginning of months” Exodus 12:2. Whatever month it may have been on the calendar of those days, in the civil year, as we speak, it was the first

^[p. 82] month to them. So today each believer knows that whatever month in the civil year he comes to know God in Christ, that that is his first month. Presently he will give it a name, and so in Deuteronomy it is the month Abib, indicating that he has come to a spiritual beginning, he gives it a name. The more you refer to your beginning with God the more definite the first day will become in your mind, and in your heart, you will observe it in relation to God.

So the passover was to be observed in the month Abib on the fifteenth day of that month. They were to take account of the first day of that month, and on the tenth day a lamb for a house was taken from the flock, and for four days abode in the house of each Israelite. Every inmate of the house would live, day by day, for four days with the innocent victim. These are the days in which spiritual history is made. If I do not make spiritual history today, a day is lost and it never occurs again. A lost day is never made up — in the history of time it has gone.

Now after the passover, having come into the land they were to offer a sheaf of firstfruits to God. It refers, beloved, to Christ presented in His own personal perfection to God, as risen from the dead. Many of us know that Christ has been delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification, but this refers to the saints so identified with Christ risen; see Leviticus 23. Wonderful thought! He is before God, presented and waved there, as if to occupy the divine eye. From that day forward they begin to count for fifty days. I see the saints forming the assembly beginning as to their daily experience with Christ risen from the dead. How many of us have spent one day with Christ risen? Romans is not risen with Christ. The Colossian saints are addressed as “risen with Christ by the faith of the operation of God, who raised him from the dead”. Colossians 2:12. You begin with that. One feels that that truth has but little ^[p. 83] place in our experience, yet we are risen with Christ. The beloved apostle said that his great exercise was “to know him and the power of his resurrection”. Philippians 3:10. And he said further, “if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead”. Philippians 3:11. What kind of days, think you, were thus spent? He said also “we henceforth know no one according to flesh”, and then he adds, “if even we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now ye know him thus no longer”. 2 Corinthians 5:16. Think of that! I know no one after the flesh, not even Christ. But to know Him as He is, and where He is, that is the experience essential to our being fitted for what is coming.

And so they began to count the first day after this sheaf of firstfruits was presented to Jehovah. What a day it was, beloved, that first day! How much spiritual history entered into that day! I do not suppose that any of them failed to mark the fortieth day, which Luke calls “That day in the which he was taken up”. Acts 1:2. What a day that was to them. For the first day was full of spiritual history — not public history, spiritual history. The affairs of Jerusalem doubtless went on as before; men bought and sold, as they always did, on that first day of the week in the city of Jerusalem. The occurrence of a few days before was a matter of past history, probably what they would call legal history, criminal history. There can be no doubt that in the criminal annals at Jerusalem it was recorded that a certain man was crucified on that day. And things went on as before, the matter had passed away. But, beloved, in the circle of those who knew Christ and loved Christ, that day was full of spiritual history, history that shall remain when the annals of this world are for ever gone. The Lord was up early on that day and a certain woman was up early. They were starting the day well. In the Old Testament we read of persons who undertook to do great things rising early to do ^[p. 84] them. Abraham rose up early to go to Mount Moriah with Isaac. God Himself said that He rose early to send the prophets.

So here the Lord came out of His tomb early like the hind of the morning, for He was to be seen by His loved ones “skipping upon the hills” on that day; Song of Songs 3:2. No more in the limitations of the grave into which He had been. He is now outside of all these limitations and He is beginning the day in wonderful activity. He sees one and another, He sees them collectively and speaks to them. That was His day. His heart was free now, He had His own with Him clear of death and the enemy’s power, He had been heard “from the horns of the unicorn”. Psalm 22:21. What a day it was for Him! What a day for His own! I dwell on the first day, we can easily add in all the others, for the first gives the initial idea. It was full of experience; indelible impressions were being stamped on those that were to form the assembly. So it is as we live in the light of a risen Christ, as we walk with Him, as we talk with Him, as we know Him where He is, risen, we receive these same impressions. It is as receiving these impressions that we become fitted for Him, so that we should be prepared for the great day that is now so near.

I was noticing today in Matthew that expression, “they that were ready went in with him”. Matthew 25:10. How many of us are ready? This is a real thing, beloved, that the Lord would put before us. How am I to be ready to be with Him, suitable to Him, unless I know beforehand what is becoming for that scene? Unless I know by companionship with Christ as He is risen, knowing that I am risen with Him by faith, how shall I be ready, how shall I enter? In Colossians we have the thought of entrance — not exactly possession of the land — but entrance, and the education of our souls is in view of association with Christ,

^[p. 85] in view of preparation for the event that is now so near. “Giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”. Colossians 1:12. The Father is operating to that end, that we should be meet for sharing the portion of the saints in light. The point is to bring us into correspondence with Him as risen. So we are said to be circumcised with Him in His circumcision by “the putting off of the body of the flesh ... buried with him in baptism, in which ye have also been raised with him through faith of the working of God, who raised him from among the dead”. Romans 6:4. Then, too, we are quickened with Him, the quickening is a real thing, a very present reality and it is by virtue of it that one can fill up his days in association with Christ risen. You will remember how it is said of Elisha that he walked and talked with Elijah after they had crossed the Jordan — that is the experience that we want, beloved.

Now at the end of fifty days they were to bring out of their dwellings two wave loaves: they had presented the sheaf, but now they were to bring out of their dwellings two wave loaves and present them to God as a new meat offering. It refers to the experience one has gained by companionship with Christ risen; it is said in Acts 1:3, “He was seen of them during forty days”.

I see two people entering their house; the Lord had walked with them a considerable distance on the first day, He had spoken to them on the way, He had caused their hearts to burn. That is a fine experience if Christ causes your heart to burn. “Did not our heart burn within us as he talked with us by the way?” Luke 24:32.

It was a remarkable experience, although they did not yet know Him. No ordinary traveller, however dignified or versatile, could have caused their hearts to burn in talking with them, but Jesus did. And then they walked along and they invited Him into the house, into the ordinary meal room — doubtless a ^[p. 86] lowly one — and the Lord went in and sat down as the House-father, and He gave thanks. What an experience for one’s house! What an experience for the head of the house to see the Lord of glory, now risen, performing the function of the House-father, for that is what He did. That was an experience, beloved, well fitted to qualify the head of that house to behave becomingly ever after at a family meal. Indeed, there would be an indelible impression produced on that occasion in that household, whoever may have been there. One of the most important things is to know how to be in one’s house according to God, for if I am to be there according to God I have to learn how to be there with Christ, I must learn everything from Christ.

They returned to Jerusalem, sixty furlongs off; their impressions must have deepened with every step, until they arrived at the company and related what had happened to them in the way, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread. And while they yet spake “Jesus himself stood in their midst”. Luke 24:36. What an experience! Not now for them alone, but for them all. And then the Lord proceeds, in His own gracious way, according to Luke’s account, to put them at ease in His presence. “It is I myself”, He said Luke 24: 39, and He showed to them His hands and His feet, and He eats before them. What an impression that must have produced on them ever afterwards. I can understand one of these brethren on a later occasion, when someone may have been perturbed for some cause, how he would act like Jesus quietening his or her spirit, how he would convey to them that he was touched with the feelings of the perturbed one. And there are many other things to be learnt, as apprehending Him risen, in our daily experience.

As John presents it, we see the doors closed on that same day, and someone comes in without the doors ^[p. 87] being opened. What an event! What a wonderful thing it is, Jesus Himself stood in the midst and says to them, Peace be unto you. They would never forget that. Yet it is not far away from us, beloved, as we apprehend Christ risen and touch Him and see Him spiritually. We may know something of these experiences, and I verily believe that these are the very experiences that will cause the saints to be prepared for the presentation; so that when the time arrives we may not feel strange or awkward or uncouth in the presence of the Lord. “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”. Revelation 19:7. She knew Him before, and she has made herself ready. She has had that place all along, and when the time comes she is equal for it, “she hath made herself ready”.

Well, the fortieth day arrives, and Luke says, “That is the day in the which he was received up”. Acts 1:3. What a memorable day that was for them! The Holy Spirit stops to give us an account of it later on in the chapter, and then following upon that we have the ten days. He was received up from Olivet, and from Olivet to Jerusalem was a sabbath day’s journey. How they would, in every step that they trod on the way, down into the valley across the ravine and up into the city, how they would be impressed with what they had seen. They saw Him go up! Well, now, they come to the city and go to the upper room. Luke shows us the disciples going into the temple; that is the grace of God. God would, as it were, make such a wonderful contribution of grace to the temple, so as to attract the people. Luke does not tell us that in writing to Theophilus the second time, but says, “They went into the upper room”, Acts 1:13, because he is on the line of preparing us for the assembly. The two wave-loaves suggest that. Out of that habitation issued forth, as we may say, the two wave-loaves. They bring out of their dwellings two wave-loaves ^[p. 88] baken with leaven. Sin was rendered inactive in them, they were in correspondence with Christ and they were presented to God. That was the great result of these fifty days with Christ. Peter and James and John, the hundred and twenty, every one of them was distinguished, each of them had a name, and that name indicated some particular feature of Christ — they brought out of their habitation two wave-loaves and presented them to God. God will have the bread, because the bread refers to the humanity of Christ. One may give much, one may sacrifice much, but God will have the bread of His offerings; He insists on that, whatever I sacrifice I must see to it that my motive is pure.

Well, dear brethren, the days are short, and the Lord would put it upon us that in every one of us in association with Christ, there should be a reproduction of Christ, so that there should be something for God and for Christ at the end. That is what I had in view for all of us to teach us to number our days. Job said that his days were swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, What a lot of days were lost — broken threads. What kind of web is produced of broken threads? For when you begin to weave knowing what you are putting in with every move of the shuttle, neither the warp nor the woof is to have a thread of leprosy. It is a remarkable thing that the type contemplates leprosy in the warp and not in the woof and in the woof and not in the warp. How can that be? I apprehend that if I lay down right principles in my days, in the light of Christ risen I see what becomes me to weave, the whole thing is laid down rightly, the weaving is in my own hands, and the woof and the warp must be the same. They must both be free of leprosy. And so that corresponds with the loaves, they were baken with leaven, but the leaven was rendered inactive, sin was not there. The principle of the weaving is most important, it is ^[p. 89] a very practical thing, as to what kind of woof one is putting in. God calls for self-judgment every moment of the day, and to take up one’s cross daily. The apostle could say, “I protest by your rejoicing, I die daily” 1 Corinthians 15:31 — “Christ the firstfruits afterward, they that are Christ’s at his coming”. 1 Corinthians 15:23. There is the afterward, but in the meanwhile the experiences come in between Christ the firstfruits and those that are Christ’s at His coming. There is experience day by day. How did He die? He died in the power of life; one cannot die otherwise according to God. The dying of Jesus is a wonderful thing. Jesus did not die from exhaustion, He died in the power of life, He died in life. So Paul would be bearing about in his body the dying of Jesus. And that is all the outcome of daily experience with Christ risen.