NUMBERS 34
This chapter defines “the land of Canaan according to the borders thereof” (verse 2). The people had not yet entered the land, but it was Jehovah’s pleasure that they should know definitely the boundaries of the inheritance which He was about to bring them into. In its application to ourselves we are not viewed here as in the land, but as receiving divine instruction about, it, so that we may know exactly what it is that God proposes that we should take for ourselves as a present inheritance. It is to be feared that in the minds of many believers the inheritance is a somewhat vague term which is supposed to refer to something altogether future. The thought of a portion to be enjoyed amongst the saints now is clearly presented to us in Scripture.
[p. 388] The glorified Saviour spoke to Saul of Tarsus of “inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me” as something which would be received by Gentiles who believed the glad tidings. And Paul gave thanks to the Father, “who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). So that there is undoubtedly a present portion of which the Old Testament type is the land of Canaan, which is to be enjoyed “among them that are sanctified”. This is not heaven after we die, but a portion in Christ which can be enjoyed now by the saints collectively, and which has definite “borders”, so that it is clearly marked off from everything outside those borders. God would have us to understand this even before we enter upon it experimentally, so that this chapter is intended to be helpful to those who are drawing near to the land, but who have not yet passed over Jordan. God would have us to apprehend in a definite way what He has in mind for us. I have no doubt this is what Paul had before him when he prayed for the Colossians that they might be “filled with the full knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9). Epaphras, too, had it in mind when he agonised in prayer for the same saints to the end that they might “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12). With such effectual and fervent prayers behind the epistle to the Colossians we can understand that it would give great intelligence as to the portion of the saints, and as to “borders” which must be accepted if we are to enjoy that portion. It would thus answer very definitely in the New Testament to Numbers 34.
In the first place, we see that “the portion of the saints” is “in light”. It can only be enjoyed by those whom the Father has delivered from the authority of darkness, and it is clearly marked off from everything [p. 389] that has the character of darkness. John’s references to light and darkness are very exercising in this connection (see 1 John 1:5 - 7; 1 John 2:8 - 11). The portion of the saints is filled with the pure and holy light of God revealed in love. There can be no mixture of darkness with this; the “border” between the two is as precise as the boundaries in Numbers 34.
In God’s “wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9) there is great illumination as to Christ. The epistle to the Colossians is well known to all lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ as setting forth His glories in a marvellous way. He is seen to be the Son of the Father’s love, the One in whom we have redemption, and His greatness and glory shine out transcendently. He is presented to us as the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation, the Creator, the One who is before all and by whom all things subsist together, the Head of the body the assembly, the beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, the One in whom all the Fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in order to effect reconciliation. We are told that “in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”, and that we are “complete (or filled full) in him, who is the head of all principality and authority” (Colossians 2:10). In the light of this we can understand the toil of the apostle to announce Him, “admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). And we can also understand that Satan’s object would be to bring in something that was “not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8) to lead the saints away as a prey. The true “portion” of saints is to be filled full in Him, and everything that takes us away from this is outside the divine “borders”, and it is something to beware of. No words can express the pettiness of philosophy, or “the teaching of men” and “the elements of the world”
[p. 390] when compared with that glorious Person in whom the saints are “complete”. It is all really “vain deceit”, however learned and pretentious it may appear to be. To go outside Christ for anything, as of divine value, is to go outside the “borders” of the inheritance.
There are some very definite statements in this epistle which we do well to weigh most carefully. For example, we read, “in whom also ye have been circumcised with circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of the Christ” (Colossians 2:11). The circumcision of the Christ no doubt refers to His death, which was the cutting off as before God of everything connected with “the body of the flesh”. How could Christ be “everything and in all” (Colossians 3:11) if any place were to be left for the flesh? Therefore it has been cut off in its totality in the death of Christ. There were no half-measures in God’s dealing with it; no leaving of the smallest bit unjudged; the whole “body” of it was cut off. But then this requires that believers should be brought in their minds into accord with what has been done in “the circumcision of the Christ”. So that it is definitely stated that in Christ we have been circumcised. This is not an outward thing — “not done by hand” — but it is a great spiritual reality resulting in “the putting off of the body of the flesh”. This involves a work of God in the believer by which he is brought in mind to view the whole “body of the flesh” as a discarded thing. Nothing connected with it has any value, or even any place, in that order of things in which we are to “stand perfect and complete”.
Then we read, further, “buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead” (Colossians 2:12). If believers have been buried with Christ and raised with Him it is evident that, as thus viewed, they are entirely outside life in this world. It [p. 391] is clear that we are not actually dead and risen, but God would have us to receive these statements as light with regard to what is in His mind and will. We have not spiritual understanding of the will of God until we do so. But the next verse carries us a step further, for it speaks of saints as having been “quickened together with him” (Colossians 2:13). There is more in this than an apprehension by faith or spiritual understanding; it makes known that by the mighty power of God saints are caused to live in mind and affection as those who are capable of having a vital part with Christ in the life in which He now lives as the risen One.
That all this has a very practical bearing is evident from the question which Paul asks in Colossians 2:20. “If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world, why as if alive in the world do ye subject yourselves to ordinances?” Ordinances apply to men as “alive in the world”, but the truth is that God’s saints have died with Christ from the elements of the world. How this alters the setting of everything! And the apostle says further, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth; for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1 - 3).
Our “borders” are thus clearly defined. The portion of the saints is really in the things above; they are the things which it is our true privilege and joy to share together. Our mind is to be on those things, not on the things that are on the earth. How the apprehension of this would deliver us from systematised Christianity, and from a thousand things which we must admit are not things above; for example, politics and world improvement. What is “on the earth” is outside the “borders” of the inheritance which is the [p. 392] present portion of the sanctified. Such things can only now be a diversion from our true position as heirs of God.
The clear marking off of our “borders” is a matter of vital moment. Nothing has led to greater corruption of the truth than ignorance of the divinely appointed “borders”. Christianity has been made publicly a system of earthly things with magnificent buildings and in which there is no provision for the enjoyment together by the saints of their present heavenly portion entirely outside the life of this world. Christians should give great attention to the epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to the Ephesians, if they would understand the “borders” in a spiritual way.
Israel, as an earthly people, will have a “border” in a coming day when they inherit the land of Canaan, as we learn from Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel 48, but their “border” will never have the amazing significance that ours has as marking off the portion of a heavenly people. It is ours to know the circumcision of the Christ in a deeper and fuller way than they will ever know it. If we are raised with Him, and quickened together with Him as risen, this frees our minds for engagement with the things above, and detaches us from the things that are on the earth. Indeed the whole teaching of Colossians 2, Colossians 3 is a fixing of spiritual “borders” — a marking off of where we have our portion and life as having received the Christ and walking in Him. It is for us to see that, on our part, we clearly mark them out (Numbers 34:7,8; Numbers 34:10), and keep within them in a spiritual sense. If we live as in the world, under ordinances, or if we allow ourselves to be drawn into the mental world of philosophy, or into the superstitious world where men would worship angels or saints, and pry into what is unseen and unrevealed, we are violating the divinely appointed “borders”. Then as to politics, it is very [p. 393] clear in the light of Scripture that our interests, objects, hopes and affections are to be heavenly not earthly.
Divine sovereignty appears, not only as to the portion allotted to each tribe in the land, but as regards certain persons appointed to divide the land. “And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, These are the names of the men who shall divide the land unto you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun. And ye shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land” (verses 16,17). The general ordering of this matter was committed to Eleazar and Joshua, but there was also to be “one prince of every tribe” “to distribute to the children of Israel their inheritance in the land of Canaan” (verses 18,29). This shows that there is a divinely appointed arrangement for the distribution of the inheritance, and it will only be rightly taken up as that arrangement becomes operative. Eleazar and Joshua are typical of Christ in the exercise of priestly and shepherd activities which have as their end the enjoyment of the inheritance by the people of God. Priestly and shepherd activities on the part of Christ ought not to be limited in our thoughts, as they sometimes are, to the wilderness side of things; they are carried on also in relation to the apportionment of the land. We do well to consider this particular service of Christ. In great part it is rendered mediately through those whom He has appointed to communicate the mind of God to His people. One has especially the apostles in mind in saying this, though all the gifts of the ascended Christ have their part in this service.
It is to be noticed that Eleazar the priest is mentioned first (as also in Joshua 14:1; Joshua 19:51; Joshua 21:1), intimating that what is spiritual, and what considers in a priestly way for God, must ever have the first place. Even Joshua, as we saw in Numbers 27:21, was to “stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall [p. 394] enquire for him, by the judgment of the Urim before Jehovah”. When what is priestly leads in the service of ministry shepherd care will not be lacking, and the tribes will be brought into possession of the inheritance. Eleazar and Joshua represent the distribution from the divine side, as under the hand of Christ, and made effective by the service of His gifts. While the princes represent, I think, the element of leadership in taking up what is given. Both sides are requisite. If the inheritance is to be possessed and enjoyed there must be the setting forth in spiritual power of what is in the mind of God to give us, and this in the Christian economy is by means of gifts who serve universally, and are not intended to be localised. But there must also be competency and spiritual energy on the part of the saints to take up their allotted part in the inheritance. And the divine thought seems to be that in each locality there shall be a definite lead in regard to this — each tribe having its “prince”. The “prince” representing, not any one individual — though one spiritual brother or sister supported by the Lord can give a lead in this matter — but the element of spiritual leading as regards taking up the inheritance. This would be found in those, whether they be few or many, who are definitely set to take up what is given, and to encourage others to take it up. The overcomer in each local assembly would be the “prince” for that “tribe”, moving energetically to take up the inheritance, and thus encouraging others to do likewise.