WHAT THE SPIRIT IS TO THE BELIEVER
[p. 314] WHAT THE SPIRIT IS TO THE BELIEVER
Romans 8: 1 - 17; Exodus 17: 2 - 7; Numbers 21: 17, 18
These passages speak of the Spirit of God; those which I have read in the Old Testament typify the things spoken of in the New Testament scripture — Romans 8. My exercise is that we might see how the believer begins to progress by the Spirit. The light first comes to the soul and enables us to see what the world is, and, further, what the flesh is in ourselves. This light tends to movement, but we shall not move very far until we are conscious that we have the Spirit of God, and it is only in the consciousness of the possession of the Spirit that permanent movement takes place. Unless the Spirit is recognised in the believer, and ungrieved, we shall not move on, either individually or collectively. We shall settle down with a certain measure of light, but there can be no progress or growth.
The introduction of the Spirit in John’s gospel (chapter 4) is in the figure of living water, meaning that which brings refreshment and energy: it is the Spirit Himself for deliverance. In John 7 it is the Spirit for testimony. In Exodus 17 we have complaint on the part of the people; the people thirsted for water. Until the young believer receives the Spirit, he is sure to murmur against God and against Christ. He may go on for a time on light, but until he knows that he has the Spirit, he will be disposed to murmur against God and against the brethren; indeed, he may become a persecutor. “Yet a little and they will stone me”. God does not chide the people; He directs Moses to go to Horeb, and says, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it”. Christ must suffer [p. 315] to meet the state of our souls in order that we should have the Spirit.
Many believers do not see that the Spirit is the direct answer to the sufferings of Christ, and that what necessitated the sufferings must be judged in me. They would have stoned Moses, but God forsook the Lord Jesus on the cross. The sufferings there were from the hand of God. Sufferings from man would never have wrought atonement. Christ did suffer from man’s hands, but atonement was effected through sufferings from God’s hand. Atoning sufferings are therefore from God’s hand, and the death of Christ in that aspect was in order that man might receive the Spirit from God. As having received the Spirit, the saints should therefore be free from murmuring. It is a point reached to appreciate the Spirit as the result of the sufferings of Christ.
But then the believer immediately goes into conflict. He had been the aggressor before, but now Satan attacks him, so in the type we have Amalek come to attack Israel in Rephidim. Amalek is Satan working through the flesh, for, as soon as I receive the Spirit, Satan will attack me. Amalek is not the flesh, but Satan working through the flesh. That is where the believer begins conflict, and this conflict continues. The Lord said there should be war with Amalek from generation to generation. The conflict goes on in the believer’s soul. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. Then we have the provision in the intercession of Moses, Aaron the priest introducing the thought of holiness and Hur that of purity. These all combine in the soul — that is, the consciousness of Christ’s intercession, and the elements of holiness and purity. These three combine in the soul of the believer, and he begins to make progress according to God. There is the sense, too, of one’s own helplessness, but you understand that Christ is pleading on high for you, and you have a [p. 316] sense of holiness. Christ was raised according to the Spirit of holiness, and the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. Where you have the word ‘holy’ preceding Spirit — Holy Spirit — there is a reference to what we are, and an indication that there must be no tolerance of the flesh. To get the good of the intercession of Christ, there must be the rigid refusal of the flesh, that is holiness, and there must be purity. I see to it that my motives are pure. Hence there is victory over Satan working through the flesh under these conditions. I thus acquire the habit of victory, which will stand me well in later days, when putting on the whole armour of God and combating with evil powers in heavenly places. The young believer therefore begins to learn victory in his soul; “He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city”.
It would be a good thing for all of us to see if this is our experience. One would like each believer to see that he may be a victor personally. This is the initial idea of spiritual headway. The believer is now beginning to learn war. Earlier in the type, he was sheltered from war; God diverted Israel when they came out of Egypt, so that they should not see war; and at the Red Sea He came in between them and the Egyptians. He becomes a wall between us and our enemies. But this was only at the beginning. We have to learn war, and we learn it when we have power to wage it. As soon as I discover that I have the Spirit, I have the power to wage war. As possessing the Spirit you have the power of combat, although you may not as yet have overcome.
“And it came to pass when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, but when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed”, Exodus 17: 11. It is important that the young believer should learn how to be dependent at the beginning. The battle may sway, but presently the believer gains the victory.
[p. 317] He gets a taste of victory. It comes to him through great exercise. It is well we should see that the thing does not come to us without our anxieties. If Amalek prevails for a moment, I become anxious of it. There can be no weakness in our Moses’ hands; the weakness, therefore, would be in my faith. I believe it is the making of a believer to go through this experience.
Then another figure is here, and that is Joshua. I get a sight of Joshua in conflict. He is a type of Christ — not officially but spiritually. Joshua is not represented as having any official place; hitherto he was simply Moses’ minister, but now his military capacity is tested. This is an element that will increase later, until we see it in all its development in the armies of the Lord. I here get a glimpse of Christ as the military leader of the host of God. We do not see Joshua again in this capacity for forty years, but we have this glimpse of him, and we see what he is and what he will be. For the moment, the point is my personal victory. Joshua broke the power of Amalek (verse 13). Then this was to be written for a memorial, for it was to be referred to later. A memorial is to be carried along. The doctrine of this we find in the end of Romans 7, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me ... ? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”. I come to victory, and the door is thus opened for chapter 8. I now see that I am not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. I have reached a definite point in my soul. But it is a point reached through conflict, and the Holy Spirit in me maintains me in that conflict.
But before we go on, there is the altar. Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi — the Lord my banner. Now I have an altar, which involves a banner. I have gained this great victory through the Lord. This altar is my public testimony. As soon as I have an altar, I have set up a public testimony. I am not going to persecute [p. 318] the saints now; I am not going to be a murmurer and a complainer; the saints can say now, ‘He is an asset’. Last year he was a complainer, now he is a help. An altar means that I am publicly in relation with God; the banner is the public testimony, and you fight under it. “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”; that is the banner; so that Romans 8 is under that banner. It is God who has gained the victory; “by my God have I leaped over a wall”. Here we are at the beginning of the wilderness. Numbers takes account of the people from this standpoint, and they are all set up in a military way, qualified for military service. Each one is numbered; each one has his place in relation to the tabernacle of witness.
Now when you come to Numbers 21, we have the people speaking against God and against Moses, and God sent fiery serpents among them, and they bit them. God is now occupied with sin in its source. I have not only to learn what sin is in man, but what it is in Satan. The introduction of the serpent here takes your mind back to Genesis 3, so that the believer should see what sin is, and whence it is. “By the law is the knowledge of sin”, and Romans 7 shows how that works out in me. But I have to know its origin, and so the Lord, in John’s writings, goes back to the origin. Satan is a liar, and the father of lies; the devil sins from the beginning. Before there was sin in Eden, he had sinned, so that in Numbers 21 we are dealing with deeper things. We are now to be with God in regard to the whole question of sin, not only its working in man, but in Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ had to deal with it in all those respects. So that on the cross it is the serpent lifted up. God was dealing in the death of Christ with sin at its source, so that it can never again rise against God. The thing has been settled in its source. God has done with it.
[p. 319] Now we have to come to see that Satan is against us, and that he has been against God. The serpent bit the people, and we have to come to feel that, and the only escape from that was to look at the lifted-up serpent. There, in type, God was dealing with the thing righteously. He that looked lived. In having learnt that, I live in the sense of the complete judgment of sin in its source. I see sin overcome, not only in man, but in Satan. I can joy in the light of that victory. So now the believer lives, and he moves on. And so the children of Israel journeyed, until they came to the well, when Jehovah said, “I will give them water” (verse 16). Now the people can move on. Hence we have the people not only moving on, but smiting their enemies, and living in their cities. The nobles who digged the well by the direction of the lawgiver were men of spiritual power — to wit, the apostles. The lawgiver would be Christ. The staves with which they digged the well would be symbols of experience. If they be symbols of power or rule, it would be that which belongs to a brother who has moral power. The apostles had moral authority; whatever authority they had was based on what they were morally. So now the saints drink as the result of those who have had experience.
When Israel sang, there was a definite recognition of the Spirit. When Amalek is discomfited and the altar built, signifying the Lord our banner, then we are conscious of a power in us greater than the power in the world. Now the people moved forward and overcame the Amorite (verses 24, 25), typifying the believer moving forward and taking possession. We are dealing now with conquered territory, and we read Israel dwelt in the cities of the Amorites. Dwelling is an important word. There is reference, too, to the book of the wars of the Lord, and also to what the poets say (verse 27). These are spiritual references. We are now on military lines and at the [p. 320] same time we are not discouraged; we sing. There is nothing doleful; what the poets say is a triumph. Here we begin, as it were, to start our hymn-book. These facts recorded are put in in divine wisdom; they are not insignificant. The war is on full; we are dwelling in the land of our enemies, but we sing. So it is, “Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war”. It is the military position; the war is on, but we are dwelling.
Now all that we have said connects itself with Romans 8. In Romans it is a question of victory. We have not yet come to Joshua. It is more the question of spiritual power that is in view, not yet the leader leading us onwards. We get Joshua formally selected in Numbers 27: 18. Moses asked the Lord to set a man over the congregation to lead them out and bring them in, and God answers Moses through Joshua, a man who has the Spirit. That is the thought running right through, connected with Joshua — the man with the Spirit. From Numbers 21 it is the people viewed spiritually; in Balaam’s prophecies they are viewed as in power — they have the strength of a unicorn, and the shout of a king is among them. Numbers deals with a people who have the Spirit; it is what Israel does. When we come to the book of Joshua, it is Christ as captain of Jehovah’s host. The whole point in Romans 8 is what the Spirit is to the believer. The youngest believer awakes to the fact that he has this great power in himself, so that he has a living part in all that God is doing.