WHAT GOD REQUIRES AND WHAT HE PROVIDES
[p. 181] WHAT GOD REQUIRES AND WHAT HE PROVIDES
The first part of the chapter read suggests the number that God requires for the accomplishment of His purpose; the second part contemplates unlimitedness as to those who avail themselves of what He provides. I thought we might profitably look at the chapter from these two viewpoints. What He requires is dictated by the demands of His throne; what He provides in a limitless way stands related to the love of His heart, and we go out in the gospel on that line, but what God has in His purpose for administration He necessarily limits. It is not that a hundred and forty-four thousand indicates a limit, but there is such a thing as limitation in the divine scheme — countability.
The divine requirements from the standpoint of sovereign counsel will be met, and I thought we might profitably consider first whether we are ranged under the head of those who are countable, because from the standpoint of administration, divine administration, love is essential in those who have part — those who are to be used — so that they may be employed at the divine pleasure, according to the very great divisibility of the number given.
The company are sealed as bondmen with the seal of the living God. I am not taking it up prophetically, but as in a moral sense applying at any time — that God has His own number, and that He seals them as His bondmen. It says, “Until we shall have sealed the bondmen of our God upon their foreheads”. They are to be marked off with the seal of the living God, in a position where it is readable publicly. The first thing, therefore, is that there are four angels standing upon the four comers of the earth; that is, God is acting providentially to make [p. 182] way for this movement, a principle which runs through Scripture, that in this service, administrative service, He orders things on the earth providentially and universally. For instance, in our own times, we have had the Great War, and now the great financial stringency which exists. Believers should be in the light of God’s actions, knowing that He is in control of these matters with a view to His service. So that the winds — the satanic winds — are not allowed to agitate, as it says, the earth, the sea, or any tree. That is to say, government has been maintained, an ordered condition of things, and the masses that would rise up if they had the opportunity are controlled. And then the trees are persons of distinction, and these are all allowed to stand; the wind of Satan is not allowed to blow upon them. The end is that God might seal His bondmen on their foreheads; that is the point for the moment, that God seeks those whom He can use administratively, and He wishes to put His mark on them. The mark being on the forehead would indicate that in the Lord’s service we are to be marked off, not only privately as we meet together in our meeting-rooms and in our houses, but in our public capacities — that we are to be marked off. It is in contrast to the mark of the beast. It is the seal of the living God, which would imply that we are living spiritually, and that it is apparent in a public way. And then we have an intensified idea of administration. A hundred and forty-four thousand is mentioned first, and then the subdivision, showing that it is an intensified thought. We have to subdivide it afterwards. Instead of giving the tribes first and then the total, we have the total first, showing that God will have His number.
The purpose of administration in regard to God’s activities at the present time is that He might have the means of unfolding His thoughts and administering what He has to administer. That is to say, to [p. 183] apply it to our administration, it is the gospel and the assembly. The countability is very important, because it suggests the order in which God purposes. Whilst He is ready to take us on in service, yet He has got His number, and He will not go beyond His number. So the Levites, you will remember, were numbered before they were able to exercise any choice, that is, at the age of one month. God exercises His right to get His number. It is God’s doing, and from His side He asks no permission, He exercises His sovereign rights. The number is very divisible, too. You can divide this number into a great many parts, and I think that this is to remind us that love is existent in us, so that we can be divided according to the exigencies of divine wisdom. We are at His disposal, so that God has a free hand to send you as He pleases, and to send me, according to the exigencies of His administration, that we are at His disposal. Then God is the God of order. We have the principle in the gospels. “The Lord hath need of him”, in connection with the colt Mark 11:3. We do not know how many others were in the Lord’s mind, but He said He had need of him. It would mean that He had a certain need, and He wishes to have that requirement met. We should have the exercise to be prepared to be taken up, to be able to say, “Here am I; send me”, Isaiah 6:8. When God says, Whom shall I send? you are there. But then He would give you to understand that He has a right to you. It is not voluntary; levitical service is not voluntary, it is on the principle of conscription. What is emphasised is that God has got His number. The total is given before the tribal subdivisions. I think He would remind us that we cannot hold Him to any previous arrangement. You get a variety of arrangements in the tribes. It is remarkable how they are arranged and rearranged, but God would remind us that this is His right, and that He cannot be held [p. 184] to any previous arrangement. The number is to bring out flexibility; there may be a different arrangement from that to which we are accustomed, God may rearrange, He may drop one out and put another in his place, so that we cannot compare the present time with a previous era of administration. God may change the order, but the result will be according to His counsels. And then in connection with the seal, I think it is the way it works out in life. The history of Israel shows without question God’s right to take His people out of Egypt, and there is no question of His right to take any of us out of the world, but then He intends that there should be a witness to that right in us, not only that we are called, but there should be a permanent witness in us to the fact that God has a right to us. I think that “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness” Romans 8:10 is practically the seal of the living God. The seal is the evidence of right of ownership — that we are bought. It is the evidence of redemption, but inasmuch as it is on the forehead, it is for everyone to take account of, that I am the property of Another. “Ye are not your own, for ye have been bought with a price”, 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. Being governed inwardly by divine thoughts, it would be seen outwardly. There is One who has been marked off by God, and “If ye know that he is righteous, know that every one who practises righteousness is begotten of him”, 1 John 2:29. There is evidence that I belong to Another; I belong to God. Christianity implies that no one has a claim on me but God. Of course, there are the natural relationships, the claims of parents, and so on, but I belong to God.
The will of God is to have a number so under His hand that He can use it in love; He can use it for Himself. I believe that is the idea. The number that God has in view is divisible because love is there.
[p. 185] If love is not there, we are not divisible, we will go our own way like Jonah. God is putting in His claim to His people. He is asserting His rights, and there should be the evidence of His ownership over us in a practical way. And so the winds are held up, although there may be great pressure — until the hundred and forty-four thousand are sealed. God is doing something. God is operating and administering. Men are doing much, but God is doing much, and His administrative service continues to the end of the dispensation. It is something on the line of “Him has the Father sealed, even God”, John 6:27. The Father made it perfectly evident who that blessed One was, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!” Isaiah 42:1, and He knows how to make it perfectly evident who these bondmen are. The rights of God have a universal bearing, but in those that are sealed those rights are maintained in testimony.
The four angels standing upon the four comers of the earth, holding the four winds, show that God has right to the whole area, the whole earth. It is His universal claim on the elements or material things, and the number sealed corresponds with that in persons; a hundred and forty-four thousand corresponds with that. It is a universal thought. He has got a number that He can send anywhere; He has got the whole domain under His hand, and the angels are holding back the winds, and God has this number available to use at His pleasure. He cannot use us at His pleasure unless we love, not only loving Him, but loving one another, because the number is divisible, for He can take out any two or three, or any six or twelve, or any one. He can divide up in that way; He can divide up into a remarkable number of divisions. If He wants twelve, well, He can take out twelve. You are entirely at His disposal. If you look at your brother you feel: ‘I do not want [p. 186] to leave him behind, I do not want to go off by myself to get rid of him, I would like to have him with me’. I am exercised by love in any thing I do, so that I am like God in service. I would refer to Peter in John 21. He says, “I go to fish” John 21:3, that is what Peter said. That was not number twelve. And others went with him. How many went off? Seven, which is not an administrative number at all. But they came under the Lord’s direction before they cast the net. In Luke 5 the Lord said, “Draw out into the deep water and let down your nets for a haul” John 21:4, but in John 21:6, it is “Cast the net at the right side of the ship and ye will find”. John 21:6 And they caught a hundred and fifty-three great fishes. It is the size, the quality of the fishes, that John takes account of. The boat was not sinking; there was not the vastness of the numbers. The Lord says, “Bring of the fishes which ye have now taken” John 21:10 — that is those that could be used. But this movement of Peter and the others in Tiberias stands over against what we have been saying. “I go to fish”, John 21:3 that is what I am doing, and I need others with me. This is what underlies all the religious denominations which exist now. One man goes off, and others go with him, and I have no doubt that numbers in that would indicate what is evil. Here you have seven going off by themselves. The Lord, of course, saves them, but it indicates the kind of thing that is current, party or sectarian movements. It was a good thing they “took nothing” before the Lord comes to them; it was their salvation, so to speak.
In Acts 1 we see Peter standing up in the midst of the brethren, and there were only eleven apostles, there was one short. They leave the selection of the twelfth to God, and so when Peter stood up to preach there were twelve of them. We could take Philip as a good illustration of divisibility. The angel directs him to go down into the desert, and he goes,
[p. 187] but the sequel shows how honoured he was. The Spirit takes him on, and he gets a wonderful result, and then it says that the Spirit of the Lord caught him away! It is one of the most remarkable things accorded to a servant, meaning that he was so delightful in his service that the Holy Spirit took charge of him entirely. He must have had a remarkable time when he was raptured; the Spirit of the Lord caught him away! The Holy Spirit carries him to a known position. Everything is perfectly ordered in God’s working. It says, “And Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through he announced the glad tidings to all the cities till he came to Caesarea”, Acts 8:40. It is not recorded that he does any work in Caesarea, for that was reserved for Peter, but he went as far as that place which, I think, bears out what we are saying. The man that God had in mind for that work was Peter, and they had to wait for him (Acts 10:24). From the time government has been set up on the earth, it has been a problem with man to know how to carry on, and I am sure there has never been a time when it was more difficult than now. Authority is so weakened among the nations, that it is evident on every hand that it is with great difficulty that they carry on. Of course, we pray for them so that they may carry on, but in the presence of that weakness, we have the witness to God’s administrative number by which God carries on. God is carrying on, and He is restraining the winds. It is good to remember that there is such a thing as angelic service, and that God answers the prayers of His people. God will answer us and modify things for us. If God has said that He will do certain things for us, we can base our prayers on that. “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial”, Revelation 3:10. We are entitled to make that a basis of prayer, and that there should be a way made for the testimony, too. In Genesis 10 we have Shem’s posterity [p. 188] given in relation to the other two sons of Noah. That is the posterity in which the testimony is vested. Shem was placed specially. Then we have the building of Babel, and God coming down to see it, to see what men did, and then the scattering of men. Shem’s posterity or line is then again taken up, as if God were to say to us: Now I have removed what Satan would use to hinder the testimony, so that we can go on again. And the line runs right on to Abraham, and down.
We see in the second part of Revelation 7 how victory is there — a great multitude which no man could number who hold themselves as for God. It is what men do, how the divine provision is availed of, and it is “a great crowd”. “After these things I saw, and lo, a great crowd, which no one could number, out of every nation and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palm branches in their hands. And they cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb” Revelation 7:9,10. And then in verse 13 one of the elders says to him, “These who are clothed with white robes, who are they, and whence came they?” and he goes on to say, “These are they who come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. That is, they are people who have availed themselves of what God provides. There is nothing said about preaching, or any agency employed to help them. It is what they themselves have done, they have washed their robes themselves. Earlier we have, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood” Revelation 1:5; that is what we say. The Lord has done it for us. But the point here is that they do it themselves. How did they do it? The passage does not tell us, the point is that they did it. As I was remarking, there [p. 189] is nothing said about any preaching or service or help in this connection. It is, I think, to remind us that God provides, and we avail ourselves of what He provides, and then He honours us for that. The robes would be dignified garments. Here it is in the blood of the Lamb they have washed them and made them white. They were not content to have a partial washing; they have made them white; and then they had victory, they had palms, showing that on our side we avail ourselves to the full measure of what is provided. The robes would indicate personal dignity, and being made white, they would bear witness to the efficacy of the blood of the Lamb.
I think that perhaps Peter corresponds with the first part of the chapter, and John’s line with the latter part, persons who can do things in spiritual instinct. “Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night”. They correspond with the bondmen in the first part, but they come in on the line of having done things themselves. The two sides go together, sovereign election and then our doing things ourselves to correspond with that and to have part in the service. No one would use the blood of the Lamb save God had wrought in him. They did it themselves, and came in for this great dignity. All the angels and the elders and the four living creatures are round about them. God has great pleasure in people who avail themselves of what He provides, those who do things themselves and are not looking for others to do it for them.
In chapter 22 it says, “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city” Revelation 22:14. Here it is they that wash (present tense) their robes; they do it. It is characteristic, not that they have done it, but they do it. It does not say in this passage that they do it by the blood. They wash their robes to have right to enter the gates of the city. That is to say,
[p. 190] you come into fellowship on the ground that you wash your robes and no one has any right to question you because you have a right to come in. In the latter part of chapter 7 they have gone through the great tribulation; they have done the thing themselves, and they have got palms! Then the interest of heaven in them is very remarkable. It says, “And all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and fell before the throne upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and strength, to our God, to the ages of ages. Amen” Revelation 7:11,12, and that shows what heaven thinks of believers who do things themselves, and who do not pay others to do things for them. This sets aside every element of priestcraft where others do things for you. You are to do them yourself, and heaven is delighted. And then it says in verse 15, “And he that sits upon the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them”. Revelation 7:15 So that they are brought into the most honoured position. “They shall not hunger any more, neither shall they thirst any more, nor shall the sun at all fall on them, nor any burning heat; because the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes” Revelation 7:16,17. That is very fine! That is for people who do things for themselves, who avail themselves of what God provides, and avail themselves of it to the full. Spreading His tabernacle over them would mean the way in which He brings them into very great nearness. Peter says to the man in Acts 9:34, “Rise up, and make thy couch for thyself”. That is the line. God has great delight in people who do that, who make their beds for themselves. No one can say, by way of excuse, I am not among the number sealed, but I have to regard the number that God employs, and then, as availing myself of what [p. 191] God provides, He intimates that there is no limit, a company that no one can number.
In announcing the gospel we do not limit the number. There is no movement of exultation recorded in regard to the hundred and forty-four thousand, but it is the people who do things themselves that call forth movement in heaven. It is the brother or sister who takes what God provides and does things that brings about the movement in heaven. This should be a great help, I think, to people who expect others to do the work. What are you doing? There is something available to you, and what are you doing with it? The person who uses what is available draws out the delight of heaven! Think of all the angels coming out to you to show their approval of what you are doing! Making use yourself of what is available, you come into this, for God would intimate to every person on earth that this is available to him. He has no limitations on that line and the result is that it all fits in with His counsels.