READINGS AND ADDRESSES AT INDIANAPOLIS, 1924 - READING (3)
READINGS AND ADDRESSES AT INDIANAPOLIS, [p. 234] 1924 - READING (3)
JT Chapter 7:27, confirms what we have been remarking: “Blessed be Jehovah, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart to beautify the house of Jehovah, which is at Jerusalem”.
AFM In regard to the sovereignty of God?
JT Yes; Ezra’s thanksgiving refers to what God had done.
BTF You would say the people of God should adorn the house of God today?
JT Well, that is the thing. Chapter 2:64, says, “The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand, three hundred and threescore”, Ezra 2:64; and then it says in verse 68, “And some of the chief of the fathers, when they came to the house of the Lord which is at Jerusalem, offered freely for the house of God to set it up in his place”, Ezra 2:68. The movement was distinctly of God as these results prove.
I think the place prophecy has in the service of God is to indicate the mind of God, so that the saints (those who have faith), know where they are and what to do. In the early days of the revival of the truth of the assembly, prophecy had a great place. It was seen in the inquiries in the earlier meetings. It, so to speak, cleared the ground; it brought out the mind of God as to the different dispensations, and the presence of the Holy Spirit here answering to Christ’s place on high. The truth of the assembly was unfolded, and believers understood their places in it; so that the assembly, as it were, began to function. It is an immense thing to pass from the theoretical side of the light to the concrete or practical side. The features of the assembly soon began to appear in little [p. 235] companies here and there who were walking and acting in the light of it.
RSS You are, of course, speaking of what occurred ninety or a hundred years ago.
JB Would you say that the people of God never come into their own privileges empty handed?
JT They went out of Egypt furnished. God gave His people favour in the eyes of the Egyptians so that they obtained from them utensils of silver and gold, also clothing. The spiritual wealth seen here for the house corresponds. Referring to the late movement, there had been a good deal of preliminary work, so that as the saints came together in the light of the assembly, there was suitable material.
AFM How does what you say fit in with this particular month? It was a remarkable month in their history.
JT It corresponds with what we were saying this morning. It was Ephesian light. The seventh month was a month rich in spiritual thought. It was the month in which the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and feast of tabernacles, were celebrated. It contemplates the end, both spiritually and dispensationally. The feast of trumpets contemplated an awakening which culminated in the tabernacles.
GWW It corresponds with the recovery to the truth of the assembly: the light of Christ as the blessed glorified Man in whom all the counsels of God were centred, and the Spirit coming down in order that there might be affection among the people of God on earth, consistent with that blessed Man. There was thus spiritual wealth. They might be outwardly a very despised people, but they were possessed with the unsearchable riches of Christ. The light of the glorified Man could not be set aside.
JT It is remarkable that Ephesians refers to the “unsearchable riches of the Christ”, Ephesians 3:8. It is in keeping [p. 236] with the teaching of the epistle. The light of the heavenly position of the assembly brings out its endowment. As the truth was unfolded the saints began to see that they had an inheritance, the earnest of which was the Spirit.
HG In this movement there is praise, not only for the wealth contributed by the people of God, but the Gentiles also contributed; God had put it into their hearts to do so.
JT When God acts sovereignly He acts effectively. A further feature is that under Him all is made to work to one end. It is remarkable how the king and his counsellors were sympathetic. Ezra says God had put it into the king’s heart to beautify the house of the Lord; chapter 7:27. In chapter 3 you have the saints coming in in spiritual intelligence; it is not the king and his counsellors; these represented what is governmental, but the saints come in in spiritual intelligence.
HG The movement was not marked exactly by official order; the ark was not there, but all the elements of recovery were there. Would you say that in gathering in from Babylon they were brought to hear one voice? Babylon was confusion.
JT The third chapter brings out the spiritual intelligence that marks the movement. The saints can always reckon on the sovereign action of God for the promotion of His interests, but there is the side of spiritual intelligence in the saints, and I think that the third chapter brings that out. “When the seventh month came” — as if they waited for it.
RSS It is remarkable that the first thing they do is to build the altar. I suppose it was the brazen altar.
JT “The people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem”. All this is not accidental, or from the force of circumstances. It was when the seventh month had come, the children of Israel,
[p. 237] being in their cities, that the people gathered together as one man in Jerusalem. There is a state of unity. Then it says, “Then stood up Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel”. We are now in the presence of spiritual intelligence, spiritual activities.
BTF You see that at the end of the second chapter also, for there were priests, Levites, singers and so on.
EHT The people were intelligent as to what was due to God under the existing circumstances.
JT We should observe here that it is what the people did, not what they were told to do that is mentioned. They were acting with spiritual intelligence, and so things obtain their proper settings. In Babylon the things of God have all got misnamed and misplaced, whereas when the Holy Spirit has been teaching the saints they come to use spiritual designations and settings. Thus we have here “the seventh month”, “the altar of the God of Israel”, and burnt offerings — all “As it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God”. These are the settings in which the truth developed.
AFM They go back to the beginning. It is not the God of the Jews, it is “The God of Israel”, and what Moses the man of God had instituted. The same features marked the recovery, the results of which we are now enjoying.
JT It began with the assembly. In the mouths of believers in systems it has lost its meaning, but those taught by the Spirit use the word according to its scriptural meaning; and so with other things.
WCR I suppose it is the effort of the enemy to bring in confusion in this respect and so prevent people from finding their way. Would you say a little about the altar? Why was it first?
JT “They set the altar on its base”. I think it is in keeping with the circumstances that the altar [p. 238] should be set up first, because the altar above all other features recognised the rights of God.
HG It involves sacrifice.
JT Burnt offerings were offered on it; these would especially recognise the rights of God. It is what Christ is for the will of God.
GWW Does not this recognise the use for which the base of the altar had been preserved? That is, they had not put it up anywhere but on the right site in relation to the whole system. It was put up on its base. The altar might have been destroyed itself, but the site was there and they found it.
JT It is not a temporary thing or for convenience. The altar is set up permanently as on its base.
GWW The death of Christ resumed its right and proper place in the affections of God’s people.
JT It suggests the thought in 2 Timothy 2: “The firm foundation of God stands”, 2 Timothy 2:19.
GWW There was no seeking another place, the mind of God was carried out as to the place where it was to be.
JT In setting up the altar “Fear was upon them because of the people of the countries”. This indicates remarkable spiritual intelligence; they did not as yet resort to walls or bulwarks for protection, they recognised what was due to God and counted on Him in this connection. We may be assured that this occasioned pleasure to the heart of God at such a time.
AFM it is striking that the morning and evening burnt offerings were offered. All must have been peculiarly acceptable to God.
JT Yes, it is all very touching and beautiful here; they held the feast of tabernacles, offered “daily burnt offerings”, “the continual burnt offering”, and “those of the new moon”, “and of all the set feasts of Jehovah”. As having set up the altar, they were under Jehovah’s wing and so were free to [p. 239] minister to Him in this way. As recognising the rights of God and ministering to Him, we come in for His protection. When Jacob journeyed to Bethel, the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about him; Genesis 35.
BTF Would you say what the altar is in Christianity?
JT Well, it is the principle on which things are offered to God. I take it to be what came out in the close of the Lord’s life, as recorded in Mark 14 and 15, Matthew 27, Luke 22 and 23, and John 18 and 19. These I think furnish us with the altar; we have to distinguish between the altar and that which was offered on it; it is a state of moral power. You can go through things in the way of accepting them from God without resistance. As in keeping with it, we come in for God’s protection.
WCR In these scriptures you allude to, the altar is Christ?
JT In the moral power that was manifested in the close of His life. It is seen in the spirit that marked Him as He suffered at the hands of men. In the presence of Herod, He answered nothing, but the moral power was there. A spiritual person would discern it. The dignity in which He bore all the shame and sufferings from men is marvellous.
GWW We may connect this with Philadelphia the “opened door”, Revelation 3:8. The saints move on in spiritual confidence; they are not afraid.
JT God protects the saints individually, but He also protects them collectively; the altar is in the latter connection. They set it up, it says, as “Fear was upon them because of the people of those countries”. God would come in for them as owning Him and His rights.
WB-s The altar here is in relation to what is without, and what is within.
JT “We have an altar”; there the thought [p. 240] is exclusive. Here it is not only what is objective in Christ, but what corresponds to that in the saints, and God comes in for us, so that the service of God goes on unmolested. It says — “They offered up burnt offerings on it to Jehovah, the morning and evening burnt offerings. And they held the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required”, and so on. You see, it is Numbers 28 that is alluded to, which chapter treats of God’s rights, “My offerings”. It is very striking that it is thus what is due to God that is emphasised here.
AFM They even keep the feast of tabernacles.
JT It is not now a question of the Lord’s supper once a month, or once in three months as is the custom around us in the systems. Numbers 28 required the daily and weekly offerings, as well as the monthly offerings. The whole year is provided for, and God’s rights are owned every day in the year. In the systems they do not provide for the daily side. What they regard as “communion” is in some of the systems quarterly. Here God’s rights are recognised every day.
JS It is not “modernised” here.
JT You get back to “Moses, the man of God”, and “David, king of Israel”, the two organisers of the service of God. It is according to these two men, so that “modernists” have no place here. The beautiful traits of the remnant are linked on to the intelligence and authority that marked the beginning.
RSS When you think of what the Lord’s supper is — “This do for a remembrance of me” — how utterly foreign to the true thought of it if it is only celebrated once in three months! Some of us have been delivered from that very system, and that very suggestion helped to deliver us.
JT The first great thing is what is due to God.
[p. 241] The modern way of presenting the gospel limits it to the relief of man, but in the recovery they considered for God. It is Numbers 28 that is alluded to in this chapter, which chapter outlines God’s portion from His people. In the same connection Elijah represents the prophetic ministry. He appears on the scene abruptly and he asserts the rights of God. Even the widow to whom he was sent is tested by this the prophet said to her, “Make me thereof a little cake first”, 1 Kings 17:13. That is the test of prophetic ministry. It is in the recognition of the rights of God. The prophet represented God, and hence the full height of the recovery is seen in this book (Ezra), because God’s rights are seen in the highest character in Numbers 28.
GWW So that the feast of tabernacles comes in here before the feast of the passover.
JT The passover was the beginning of months for them, but here we are at the top. It is not Romans but Ephesians. You will observe that Numbers 28 comes in after the Holy Spirit had been (typically) recognised formally; Numbers 21: 16 - 18. “Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, my bread for my offerings by fire of sweet odour to me shall ye take heed to present to me at their set time”, Numbers 28:1,2. This comes in (after all the wonderful dealings of God) at the end of the wilderness; typically, the flesh had been judged and the Holy Spirit had come in and had been recognised. Their inheritance had been allotted to the people and the daughters of Zelophehad had come forward and claimed their inheritance. A subjective state, answering to the presence of the Holy Spirit, existed; hence the divine claims would be acknowledged.
CSP David and Moses were marked by the recognition of the rights of God. David always considered for God. It was in his heart from his [p. 242] youth that the ark should be set in its resting place in Zion. See Psalm 132. And in confession he said, “Against thee, thee only have I sinned”, Psalm 51:4. Also Moses considered for God. Witness his courageous and energetic overthrow of idolatry in the camp; Exodus 32.
AFM Numbers 28:14, says: “This is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year”, Numbers 28:14. So, as you were remarking, the whole year was provided for. Would you say that now it is more a question of weeks?
JT The church’s history is composed of weeks, I think.
WB-s In David we have the singing instituted.
JT Quite; he is called a man of God in this connection; Nehemiah 12: 24.
JB He determined the place for the altar of burnt offering by spiritual intelligence; 1 Chronicles 22: 1.
Ques How would you reconcile what you just said about the first day of the week with what we had yesterday as to the continuous daily sacrifice?
JT I think the first day of the week brings out the result of the previous week. The wealth acquired in the previous week necessarily enters into the first day of each week, so that you do not come up on each successive Lord’s day as if you had acquired no wealth in the meanwhile. One should come up, according to the word, “They shall not appear before Jehovah empty”, Deuteronomy 16:16.
WCR “Thou shalt buy diligently with this money, bullocks”, and so on.
JT Numbers 28 contemplated that there should be a daily offering, the morning and evening sacrifice. Now, I was reading the other day the statement of a man who evidently knew what he was saying, that there are fifty millions of people in this country who receive no religious instruction at home or in the so called Sunday schools and churches, and the question came up in my mind as to how much instruction [p. 243] there is in the households of the saints, how much there is acquired through private readings and family readings. You see there was a special offering on the sabbath, besides the daily offerings. There was to be no diminution on the sabbath. The question arises as to how much of the daily offerings there is amongst the people of God? How much is for God in the households of the Lord’s people? The weekly is the collective thing, but if we do not have the daily exercise, we shall not have much on the first day of the week.
HG In regard to headship, is it that Christ as Head should give you impressions at the moment, or would He gather up the spoil which you yourself have been getting in private and use that in addressing God?
JT The basis is your daily exercise, but then you make room for what comes from the Head. Everyone should make room for that. The daily exercises, I think, form a basis; the Lord takes that up, but then He gives fresh impressions. “Whosoever has, to him shall be given”, Mark 4:25.
LDT In standing up to speak to the Lord, the basis is what you have been going through. You do not stand up, because there is an opportunity, but because you have been going through something.
JT And that is the basis of things, but then, in speaking to the Lord, things come to you. All really comes from the Head.
GWW If there is no daily exercise, there is nothing for the Head to develop in our souls.
JT It is an immense thing to be in a state, in functioning in the assembly, that the Lord can approve and take up.
BTF Those with families may say there is a great deal of time taken up. It is not necessary to have long prayers, you can read a great deal in eight [p. 244] minutes; so that as we adhere to family reading and prayer, blessing ensues.
JT Living in the suburbs greatly hinders this, because you have to catch the trains.
“From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord, but the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid. They gave money also unto the masons and to the carpenters, and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia”. They had means. That is what God looks for among His people, spiritual means. Well, then in the eighth verse, you come to the second year. The passage shows that in the time elapsed the high level on which they began was maintained by the people. In the feast of tabernacles, according to Numbers 29, there is a continual drop from fourteen down to seven, meaning that there is greater spiritual energy in the beginning than at the end, but here it says, “In the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem, and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord”. Here we have not only what is due to God, but the order of the Levites. There is a full recognition of levitical service among the saints.
AFM According to David evidently, because the years are twenty instead of twenty five; 1 Chronicles 23:24 - 27.
HG The reference to the Zidonians and Tyrians (verse 7) suggests a gospel touch.
JT That is the order where the rights of God [p. 245] are owned, there is a reaching out for material for the house, through gospel testimony. The Lord is blessing the households of His people, but He would lay upon us the responsibility of reaching out for others. In deliverance from the system, the true levitical service is recognised. Levitical service really became lost, in the true idea of it, through human organisation in the church.
HG You would distinguish between the relieving officer and the recruiting officer?
GWW Quite. All true levitical work emanates from the divine dwelling place. Andrew finds Peter, and brings him to the Lord. This indicates how the service of the gospel is carried on.
JT This second year shows that spiritual energy was maintained in the movement; there is progress. There is not only the reestablishment of levitical service, but actual building begins (verse 10); and then there is great extension of levitical activity.
JB “According to the directions of David, king of Israel”. I notice there are seven months intervening. Is there anything in that, the complete period?
JT I suppose it would make room for the exercises that would flow out of the first movement. What I think we may see is that there is no diminution of energy; the movement is continued on a high level.
HG “The Levite ... with cymbals”. The book of Psalms would come in here. “The sons of Asaph” are mentioned. Their father had a great place in the service of song under David. They would value the third book of Psalms, many of which are ascribed to Asaph.
AFM And they sing.
JT “They sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because He is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel”, and so on.
[p. 246] That was the note struck by David, so that we are at the very top here. “All the people shouted with a great shout to the praise of Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid”.
RSS In principle the ark is established in mount Zion.
JT We may now touch on chapter 7. The intervening chapters record the effort of the enemy to frustrate this great divine movement, and God’s further intervention to maintain it and carry it through to its final result. The enemy was successful in the beginning, but a prophetic ministry was raised up (chapter 5) and then God intervened though Darius (chapter 6). Thus the elders of the Jews built and the house was finished, “According to the commandment of the God of Israel”, Ezra 6:14 Then the service of God was established, the house being dedicated, “As it is written in the book of Moses”, Ezra 6:18. After these things Ezra arrives (chapter 7). His genealogy goes back to Levi through Phinehas, the man to whom an everlasting priesthood was given. We are here in the presence of a remarkable spiritual production. Ezra’s ministry was brought in when needed. He represents a peculiar spiritual movement, and I have no doubt that in our own time a similar ministry was furnished for the people of God. It appeared specially during the last two decades of the last century; it had a subjective character, insisting on the work of the Spirit in the saints. It was used of God to lead His people to a better understanding of the revival that had come about through a previous ministry.
GWW Ezra does not come upon the scene for the building, but for the beautifying of the house of God at Jerusalem.
JT The ministry I referred to had that result.
GWW A man that helps under such conditions must be a man that knows his [p. 247] genealogy.
JT He must be a spiritual man, a man of spiritual energy, and with such a ministry there is the insistence not only of sound doctrine, but of the spiritual state and conduct suitable to it. Ezra speaks of “The chief fathers and their genealogy”, Ezra 8:1.
GWW Some were put on one side because they could not produce their genealogy.
JT Ezra will not let us have any one without a genealogy.
GWW We must produce our genealogy.
JT A certain evangelical ministry is likely to bring in a lot of extraneous matter. If a man is a good orator, he is likely to sway people, and I have no doubt a good deal has been brought in in that way. But Ezra will test all that. He would not have any one without a genealogy. We are obliged to show that we are of Christ and this is by the fruits of the Spirit.
AFM A man of genealogy refuses everything that does not emanate from Christ.
JT That is what comes from Ezra’s ministry; the genealogy must be there.
GWW There is to be no sanctioning of what is extraneous; when it is sanctioned, there is a very serious state of things.
JT Ezra’s is a reducing ministry; he is not looking for great show, he insists on what is spiritual. If you tested out every professing believer, you would find that the genealogy is not so clear. There must be that. God will have it with us. Ezra, through his prayer and confession to God, brought about the expulsion of the foreign wives and their offspring from among the people; chapters 9 and 10.
AFM He was an accomplished scribe of the law of the God of the heavens.
JT And then he had a mandate. It says, “Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe [p. 248] of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel”, chapter 7:11.
HG “And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment” (verse 26). Those who refused the ministry we have referred to suffered spiritually under the government of God.
WCR How does that work out now?
JT If God specially sanctifies a man for His service, He gives him a mandate. Nobody can set it aside.
RSS There is moral power accompanying it. He speaks as one having authority.
JT Ezra represents what is peculiarly spiritual in ministry. Elsewhere we are told that on the first of the seventh month he read the book of the law before “the open place that was before the water gate” (Nehemiah 8:1) to all the people. When opening the book he “blessed Jehovah, the great God, and all the people answered, Amen, Amen! with lifting up of their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshipped Jehovah with their faces to the ground”, Nehemiah 8:5,6. The Scriptures were thus raised to their proper place in the minds and hearts of the people, indeed, the worship of Jehovah was induced by the service and example of this great man. Others with him also “read in the law of God distinctly, out of the book, and gave the sense”, Nehemiah 8:8. We may be assured that in this there was the avoidance of all fanciful interpretations.