THE SERVICE OF GOD SEEN IN EXODUS
[p. 601] THE SERVICE OF GOD SEEN IN EXODUS
Exodus 24: 12 - 14; 1 Corinthians 11: 23 - 34
JT In linking Exodus with the epistle to the Corinthians I desire that we may see how the teaching of Exodus enters into the service of God in the assembly, for the passage in 1 Corinthians contemplates the saints together in assembly, which is the form used in verse 18. The immediate suggestion is that both scriptures contemplate certain instruction furnished but with more to follow. We are furnished with light as we need it, and as we are equal to it; and in receiving it we are to be patient and wait for the promised help, for the instruction is sure to be furnished, as in the Lord’s hands. So that Exodus furnishes much instruction in regard to the service of God in this chapter, but there is more; we are told that “Jehovah said to Moses, Come up to me into the mountain, and be there; and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the commandment that I have written, for their instruction” (verse 12). Then Moses makes provision as going up into the mountain for the elders to wait. He said, “Wait here for us, until we return to you; and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matter, let him come before them”. So that the position is that Israel had much instruction, and experience too, in keeping with the instruction, in regard to this matter. There are other matters also, besides the service of God, of course, but in regard to it, they have to wait and be patient. Moses is called up from them; he had plenty to represent him. Aaron and Hur, two men already tried in the service, associated closely with Moses; so that they are to wait. In like manner the ministry at Corinth was according to the state of the saints. The apostle could not go very far with them, while he was with them,
[p. 602] although he had been there eighteen months teaching the word of God. They had much opportunity to learn; an eighteen months’ course from Paul was a long course; the second longest of any that we have. The position in Rome was hardly this although he was there two years or so; but here he has been eighteen months, and three years at Ephesus. During these eighteen months they had ample opportunity to learn from him what he had from the Lord. But then, he had to deal out to them according to what he had judged they could take in, and that principle enters into these epistles too, with the promise of more. If he were writing to the Ephesians, we could understand there was much more in his mind which he would like to open up to them. The work at Ephesus followed after that at Corinth, and it would seem as if the apostle is able to open up his mind more at Ephesus, for he says to the elders, “I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”, Acts 20: 27. But not so at Corinth; indeed, he tells them he is coming later and he would set in order what was wanting. It indicates there is more to follow, and the second letter, as we know, has much more for them, which we may be able to touch on a little. But I just wish to indicate the immediate thought in mind, that the Lord is helping us and we are to be patient and wait. There may be moral questions to be raised with us; we have light coming in as there was at Corinth, but we may not have availed ourselves of what we have had already. Here the apostle had already delivered this message to them that he had received from the Lord as to the Supper, but evidently they had not profited by it as they should have done, so that we have the idea of deliverance: he delivered it to them. They were defective; that was what I had in mind, and perhaps we might look a little at Exodus from that point of view, that we may gather up thoughts that enter into [p. 603] the service of God initially, for as yet they did not have the truth of the sanctuary. They had much that would fit into the sanctuary later, but they had not the sanctuary yet; they had not the formal thing called the tabernacle.
MWB Do you imply that the previous communications in Exodus would give a groundwork for the further communications relative to the sanctuary?
JT I think that is the thought. These wonderful things ought to have a shrine, a holy place where they would be guarded. Israel proved they were not able to guard them, as the sequel shows, but they are put to the test in the meantime. The mediator is gone up and they are to wait. The sequel is a solemn lesson, because in waiting for adjustment as to the light we have already, we may fail on moral lines. The Lord may become displaced in our hearts. This might be before the truth is confirmed to us.
MWB So that before they actually had further communications, they were in the overruling ways of God permitted to fail, and they had to go through a very searching experience.
JT That is what I thought.
PL Would this arise in regard of Luke’s account subsequent to the Lord’s supper? Instead of proceeding directly to Olivet, as in Matthew and Mark, the Lord enters into a number of moral questions that would need solving before the fresh communications belonging to the sanctuary, and subsequent to the Supper, would be unfolded?
JT The first was that the betrayer was at His hand.
PL There was strife amongst them.
JT That seems to fit.
MWB I was struck with an expression in thanksgiving this morning that this question involves preparation on our part — a matter that is perhaps overlooked a [p. 604] bit.
JT There is, of course, immense light thrown in on the disciples during the Lord’s stay with them, and indications too of the heavenly relationships into which they were to enter; all unordered things, as you might say, have to be set in order. The apostle Paul by the Spirit was to take the truth and put it into order. Much had to intervene in their identification with the Lord in His sufferings; they were in the presence of wonderful truth put together in the gospels later, but not yet. They had to experience something of His sufferings, and alas, they are seen to be very poor, shallow and wanting. He takes them in hand to put them together, put them in right relation to Himself and one another, and make them spiritual. So that when the Spirit came down from heaven they should be equal to what He had to unfold to them. The first great point made is in the converts: “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”. That is, things began to take spiritual shape and order in Acts 2, but there was still more. The Lord in His remarks about the Spirit in John 15 said they should bear witness of Him because they had been with Him from the beginning, and the Spirit should also bear witness, but evidently through others besides them. All that was in prospect, and so it is that things awaited Paul, and as he took up his work in detail the same principle had to be worked out. The Corinthians had to learn to take things in and be left to themselves, to see where they were, and to what extent the work of God had taken form in them. The letter showed there was still more, but then they have to wait, to be patient and judge themselves in the meantime.
MWB Is it for this moral reason that assembly service as ordered necessarily is to begin with the thought of the Lord — the Lord’s supper? We recognise Him as Lord in obedience, and then proceed [p. 605] to the covenant which would touch the heart. Is that the reason of the order?
JT That is a good way to put it, because you feel, however much truth may come, and sometimes it comes in an unordered way, undesirably so from the Lord’s point of view, it tests us as to where we are; so that what is stressed here in 1 Corinthians 11 is just as you say. The Lord’s supper; it is a question of the Lord.
EG Does verse 12 come in in accord with what you say — “I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the commandment that I have written, for their instruction”?
JT That is what I thought we might link on with our scripture in 1 Corinthians, what Jehovah had in His mind for the people; the mediator was to be there. “Come up ... and be there”. That is, he is to be ready to receive the mind of God; in the meanwhile the others have to wait, but they are not left without care. Aaron and Hur are important men; God never leaves us without sufficient. Of course, we know how Aaron broke down. Aaron was a tried man and associated closely with Moses; he and Hur are there, but there are great things above; I believe Ephesus coming in after Corinth is just the heavenly side, the coming in of the light of God in the sanctuary — a heavenly order of things. That is what really is the counterpart of the light received at Corinth, but we have to be very patient, and wait and see. There are moral questions with us, and many are ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth, and even those who have it have not challenged their own hearts as to where they are as to it, so that I think it is designed, that we have to wait.
PL “Whosoever has, to him shall be given”, Mark 4: 25. We have to prove morally that we have what has been given in order to get [p. 606] more.
JT Quite so. Those that have not are like those around; I am not accusing anybody; they are like those around who have nothing in a true sense; whereas there are those who love the truth and have it in that sense. The Spirit has promised to guide us into all truth. It is in services like this the Spirit is here to take up what is said and put it together for us. We must give Him room.
MWB There is an important collateral consideration along with the truth that might be unfolded, were conditions right; that is, a state that is right is required in order that there may be the understanding of the truth for the taking up of the service of God. So that the very start of the service might have to call consideration into our hearts as to whether we are practically there.
JT We are assured in this epistle that all things are ours in the service, however great. Paul, Cephas, everything is ours. So that everything is in our favour, but he insists on self-judgment in this section we have read.
AT Is there a link with “Wait here for us” and “when ye come together to eat, wait for one another”?
JT There is a link there. The principle is to be patient. Moses has gone up; things are in God’s hands. It is all under the direction of Jehovah, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders are there. In the first part of the chapter the point is to go up. It does not say anything about a place, it is the idea; but when we come to Moses, the place is stressed, that is, Christ’s present session. Everything is in the best hands: Christ above. Just wait and He will find ways and means of getting the truth to us, and from the next chapter to the end the book is wonderfully full of heavenly light for us.
MWB So the going up in the first part of the chapter is for us a moral idea, not so much in regard [p. 607] to the place but going up, implying a movement of the soul.
JT That is what I thought it was. The people are led to that point; not all the people, but representatively they are led into the place of elevation where they see God. They ate and drank up there, so they are wonderfully set up so far. But the whole of the immense amount of truth, beginning with chapter 3, has to be set in order and enshrined in the divine dwelling.
EG So they make progress; in verse 10, “they saw the God of Israel”, but in verse 11, “they saw God, and ate and drank”.
JT They are accredited with that; they are equal to that.
EG One is “the God of Israel”, and the other “God”.
JT There is progress in that. They are accredited with ability to go up, because in chapter 19 they are just brought to the foot of the mountain and left there. There is no idea of their ascending in chapter 19, but the four chapters that intervene before chapter 24 furnish light as to the land, their being in the land. These have to be taken by themselves, but they are intended to enrich our souls in this position. What a people we are! What an example we are going to have in the Hebrew servant! What kind of an altar we are to have! All that intervenes, and it would seem as if it so qualified the people, so affected the people in the mind of God, that now in this chapter He proposes they should go up, not to a place yet, but as you said, to a moral elevation: it was above the level of the world.
FW Would you say a word as to the relation that the going up in chapter 34 has to the way up in chapter 24? Does that touch more the practical side on our part? That is, the second [p. 608] going up of Moses where he had to hew for himself these two tables of stone.
JT I think it is to enhance the greatness of Christ as the Mediator. Moses is gaining, gaining in all this from the failure of the people, so that we really touch the new covenant, another thought of the covenant, as he comes down. He is not there just to receive the tables of stone and the commandments for the instruction of the people, for Jehovah says to him, “And it shall come to pass, when my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by. And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen”, Exodus 33: 22 - 23. Then as Moses is up there, it says, “Jehovah came down in the cloud, and stood beside him there”. This is an action of Jehovah’s. He “stood beside him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. And Jehovah passed by before his face, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation”, Exodus 34: 5 - 7. That is what you get. Then, after speaking much more, He says to Moses, “Write thee these words; for after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel — And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights” (verses 27, 28). It is really the second covenant in figure, a great addition in the sense of glory, what God is, shining out so that Moses’ face shines; this was not so at the first.
Rem That is more 2 Corinthians, rather than 1 [p. 609] Corinthians.
MWB In that connection you made a remark in conversation that for us the new covenant implies, as in the spirit of it, very much more than it would for Israel in the future. Would you amplify that?
JT I think the allusion to chapter 34 helps in that Jehovah comes out, and He says, “After the tenor of these words” (verse 27). That is more the spirit of things left with the Mediator to amplify; so that 2 Corinthians, I think, has to do with the anti-type. We have the bare allusion to the covenant in the first epistle, the blood of it corresponding with chapter 24, but in the second epistle the question is raised of a letter of commendation, and that leads the apostle to speak about this matter of the new covenant. He says he is a minister of it, a competent minister of it, and then he goes on to say, “not of letter, but of spirit” (2 Corinthians 3: 6), the spirit of the thing. Who but Christ can open up the spirit of it? The letter of it is given in Hebrews, but the spirit of it is in Christ; He is not said to be the spirit of it in Hebrews. He is said to be the Mediator of it there. But in 2 Corinthians He is the spirit of it, and, of course, the spirit of it was reflected in Paul as a competent minister of it. But Paul does not say he is the spirit of it; he says the Lord is, and I think that is Moses coming down the second time with his face shining, when Aaron and the elders were afraid.
FW While giving due place to the Lord as Mediator at the Supper, do you think there is a further thought in “the Lord the Spirit”, the Lord bringing in glory on that occasion?
JT I think there is. I was going to read from further in that chapter which I think is a foreshadowing of the new covenant. It says, “Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him”. It is rather a suggestion of the attitude of the Corinthians towards Paul. There was a distance [p. 610] on their side, not on his side. They were afraid to come near him. “And Moses called to them; and they turned to him — Aaron and all the principal men of the assembly; and Moses talked with them” (verse 31). “And afterwards, all the children of Israel came near: and he gave them in commandment all that Jehovah had spoken with him on mount Sinai. And Moses ended speaking with them; and he had put on his face a veil”. Then it says further, “He came out, and spoke to the children of Israel what he was commanded”. So that it would seem as if happy relations are brought about now between Moses and them; still the mediator, still the Lord in type, still the one with authority, but he speaks with them, and happy relations are restored between him and them. So I think 2 Corinthians 3 gathers all this up. The apostle begins with himself but transfers the whole matter to Christ and says, “The Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”, 2 Corinthians 3: 17.
EG Those words seem to be very touching.
JT Things are left with Moses to hew out the two tables like the first. Deuteronomy would show that he made an ark of wood, so that the humanity of Christ is brought in more.
MWB As illustrating what you are saying as to the new covenant applying more in the spirit of it, would it be seen in Hebrews that the question of forgiveness is emphasised, whereas in Corinthians it is righteousness and change “from glory to glory”. That takes on more elevation.
JT Quite so.
FW You were stressing the importance of sight. I was wondering whether that came in here in connection with the mediator, what we have in connection with the Lord the Spirit; it is the glory as appreciated by spiritual sight.
JT Just so. “We all ... beholding”.
[p. 611] Rem Then the glory at the end of chapter 34 surely affects us on the line of worship.
JT Quite so. The second letter to the Corinthians, I think, is to make men out of us; the first is, you have just to wait, ‘I have given you sufficient’, the apostle is implying. ‘I have already given it to you’, he would say, ‘but give it to you again, the same thing, and you are to wait’. Then in the second letter it would seem as if he himself were affected more; something happened that was intended to affect him, and he is himself greater. It is an all-round matter; we are all together in the school of God, that we might take up our privileges intelligently; if we are all together in the school of God, everyone is gaining.
EG So you are glad when the leader is getting on.
JT The first thing is to see Moses has gone up and the matter is in the best possible hands; he is looking after our affairs. Aaron and Hur are down here. When we come to the second letter, which corresponds pretty much with Exodus 34, we have formation, great formation all round, so that there is confidence in one another, even the distance between them and Paul is gone. A great change had come about; that is the thing to look for. Titus came and told him their zeal about him. Then the apostle says, “I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago” (2 Corinthians 12: 2), as much as to say, ‘During all this time I have been with you and elsewhere, I have had a wonderful thing in mind’. So what may we not expect now?
FS What are you referring to in this matter of waiting?
JT The verse read, “Wait here for us, until we return to you; and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you”. The Corinthians were saying that the apostle said he was coming and he did not come, imputing [p. 612] prevarication to him. He says, It is on your account I am not with you; make the most you have got and become men — “quit yourselves like men”. That is the first letter, but in the second letter he has got help himself, and he is now bringing in this thing. They are questioning him as to whether he needed a letter of commendation, and the whole matter of commendation comes up.
PL Do you think they must recognise Aaron and Hur before this coming down? “I rejoice in the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus; because they have supplied what was lacking on your part”, 1 Corinthians 16: 17. Do they have to recognise not only what was on high but what was left in their midst which they had disregarded? Their attention must be drawn to men amongst them.
JT That is a very encouraging element in this chapter. It contemplates one far ahead of others. Stephanas had a great place. There were those who understood Paul, Stephanas and the house of Chloe, and were concerned about the whole position; that is another thing to bear in mind. But in a general way the two letters contemplate the apostle as away but the truth amongst them; there is more to follow, but the truth is amongst them, and what are they doing with it?
MWB Might the actual entering on the truth, therefore, the distinctive heavenly side of the assembly experience, necessarily have to be delayed because of the state of the saints in a locality?
JT I am sure that is what Scripture contemplates. A well-known passage which bears on that is Psalm 15, “Jehovah, who shall sojourn in thy tent? who shall dwell in the hill of thy holiness? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth from his heart ...” And again in Psalm 24: “Who shall ascend into the mount of Jehovah? and who shall stand in his holy [p. 613] place? He that hath blameless hands and a pure heart ... This is the generation ... that seek thy face, O Jacob”, as if the whole thing would be in Jacob, what Jacob is in the mind of God. And so the passage in Exodus, I think, would test all Israel. This man had gone up. They had seen the God of Israel. Well, can everyone say that? What is the use in my being taught as to heavenly truth, as to what is in the sanctuary of God, which is the figurative representation of things in the heavens, or what is the logical force of my wanting to know this heavenly truth if there is a moral reason why I cannot go up?
AMH Is your object in referring to the Psalms to further the thought of preparation which is to go on with us continually, the Lord being absent and discipline coming out in chapter 11?
JT That is what I was thinking. You may take up light mentally, but the question comes, Am I equal to it morally? Thus the elevation of chapter 24 is already reached by some, but now what is going to happen? Are all equal to it? You are to stay and wait until Moses comes back. It may be you will be equal to it then, but the sequel here shows that they were not.
JH Does that necessitate having to say to the Lord personally, as we have in Luke? He says, “Handle me and see”, and He shows His hands and His feet, not His side, as if it would adjust them in their walk.
JT Quite so. We were noticing this morning, as perhaps you remember, that in Luke the Lord just stands. It does not say He came. The service of God is going on and there is urgency. They have begun already and the Lord just stands in their midst, and of course, conditions were not very suitable, so He puts them right. That is one side of the position, and the other side is that He can come in,
[p. 614] as in John 20, in relation to what we are as the subjects of the work of God, and by His gracious influence shut out all else. In John 20 they had already shut the doors; Luke does not record that they had done that.
— T. Will you say a little as to Joshua’s position? He is linked with Moses.
JT We have the plural. Moses uses the word “us”, but Joshua involves an accessory thought. It is really the idea of Christ going up and our being tested by His absence.
FS What I gather in relation to this matter of waiting is that we should take home individually the concern as to moral conditions, recognising that the Lord has gone and that everything in relation to God in regard of the covenant is in good hands, and that if we attend to the moral conditions He will see we come into it.
JT That is what I have in mind in regard of this meeting. It is a challenge to each of our hearts. Even Paul got gain in the waiting, but they were saying he was using lightness, prevaricating. There was a very bad state among them that had to be settled, and he says in 2 Corinthians 12 that he not only had heavenly light but he had been there fourteen years before, so why were they not getting the good of all this?
MWB It is striking that he should have been at Ephesus when so hampered in writing to Corinth!
JT I think that helps. Ephesus is his next great work. He saluted the assembly at Jerusalem, that is in his mind; he salutes the assembly and came back to Ephesus, and there was a wonderful work there, exceeding all others, as he says in Acts 20: “For I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God”. Why not at Corinth?
FW Was it because they were carnal, as he says in 1 [p. 615] Corinthians 3?
JT That is what he says.
FW So would this waiting period discover just where we are, and we would not go beyond our measure for the moment?
JT If I do not see a thing and cannot put the truth in order, the Lord will give me understanding: that is the principle. The Lord will give me understanding in all things, but it may be, there is something which darkens my vision.
Ques How does the Supper come in to adjust one on these lines?
JT As has been pointed out, it is the Lord’s supper: it is the beginning of the matter. “When ye come together to eat, wait for one another”. Paul would say, Regard the saints rightly, and then remember what I said to you. I said it to you, and now I have written it to you, but proceed now on these lines. Proceed with the saints, and proceed with the instruction. To spare you, he says, I did not come, but I will come in due course.
EG Is there any link between what you are saying and what Hur was to be with Aaron? Then in chapter 32, you get those who come out on the Lord’s side; God is not going to lose everything.
JT There were those in the camp who were faithful, and so there were at Corinth, but the waiting attitude brings out the true state of things. So that the word, I believe, would be for us to go along together; and I believe all the great troubles the brethren have had over so many years arise from the inability to move on together and wait for one another. Take full account of what all have got and go on with that.
MWB So that one of his reasons for delay in the matter of bringing the truth before them was the fact that he wished to carry the saints in his service, as you pointed out. It is no good ministering if the [p. 616] saints are a long way behind what you are talking about.
JT Quite so, and the second letter shows he is bringing them along.
PL He would make them appreciate what they have before things were increased. We must be true to our charge and make the most of it before the Lord will add to it.
JT The apostle shows in chapter 1 that they had plenty even in the way of ability, but were they using it aright? So the thing is to go on. I am not with you yet, he would say, I am coming. Some think I am prevaricating, but it is not so. He is in accord with God. Every promise of God is Yea and Amen in Christ, and so it was with him too. So that he will come, but they had plenty to go on with and they were to make the most of it. They were making partisan use of their leaders.
FS Would the early part of chapter 24 help in that regard — the way in which these twelve pillars are put up, as you have been reminding us, what there is to be gone on with as moving on and working things out together, and the effect of the sprinkling, the love of God touching us in that very setting?
JT The chapter is wonderfully rich in that way. Take the youths: why do we need anything official? Let the young brothers take part and make the most of them! There is really nothing official according to God outside the Spirit of God. That was a great point made by Mr. Raven many years ago. Any other officialdom is useless, and worse; so the thing is the youths, and they are doing their work well, they offer the sacrifices.
PL Would the introduction of Timothy at the end of 1 Corinthians draw attention to what there was available in the youths?
JT Quite so — and Titus, too.