THE WILDERNESS AND THE LAND
[p. 194] THE WILDERNESS AND THE LAND
Reading, Revised by F.E.R.
Numbers 21: 1 - 18 Numbers is a contrast to Exodus; Exodus presents what God was toward the people, Numbers what the people were for God. We were in Exodus this morning, and hence had redemption, and the covenant, and the sanctuary; all that referred to what God was toward the people, but now in Numbers the point is the state of the people. It is their side.
JSA The teaching we get in Numbers is experimental.
FER Yes, it refers to the state of the people. For instance, the people are twice numbered; that is, they are taken account of, first for the wilderness, and then for the inheritance. Then all the crookedness and perverseness of the flesh come out. Numbers gives us the walk of the people in the wilderness. In this chapter the question is of state, not exactly of what God was toward the people in grace, and it coincides morally with John 3 and Romans 8. Romans 5 shows what God is in grace for us; Romans 8, what we are for God in the Spirit. John’s teaching refers habitually to what is subjective, God’s work in us; hence John 3 and 4 correspond to this chapter. Scripture is perfect, both in the doctrine and in the type. Only it sometimes needs discernment to see it.
WHF What do you say about Romans 6 and 7?
FER They are the continuation and necessary consequence of the light having come in, in chapter 5. They do not (except in the last part of chapter 7) take up the question of state. The latter part of Romans 7 and chapter 8 take up the question of state. It is no longer light, but state.
GR [p. 195] Would you say that the effect of the light is that you want to answer to it, and then you find the trouble with sin and the law?
FER Light makes all manifest, then you cannot go on with sin and law.
GR It has been often said that if any one, after reaching Romans 5, were to die he would not need chapters 6 and 7 at all, so it is clearly not for heaven.
FER No, but it is plain enough that if the righteousness of God is revealed you cannot go on in sin, and again, you cannot go on under law because law is incompatible with love. If people knew love they would not go on with law. People do not put their children under law. It has been done, but it has not answered.
JSA How does the teaching of this chapter come in in relation to the things we had before us this morning?
FER This chapter is the answer to all that went before, that is, the perverseness of the flesh. The flesh has been proved to be unmendable. It has come out in all its perverseness in the wilderness. The great answer to this, on the part of God, is that the whole state has been condemned in the death of Christ, in order that He might communicate a new state to man. This comes out doctrinally in John 3 and Romans 8, but here in type; only John 3 carries you further than Romans 8. Romans does not carry you beyond the wilderness, and hence it says, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. The Spirit does not go there beyond that; but John says, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. John 3 carries you out of the wilderness into the thought of God.
JSA That is you will not perish in the wilderness but will enter into the land, that is the purpose of God.
JA Do you understand the word ‘perish’ to mean perish in the wilderness?
FER Yes, you would not apostatise, like Judas, referred to in John 17, “none of them is lost, but the son of perdition”. So the Lord speaks of His sheep, “they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”. There is another point which comes out here, viz., that what may be called the first chapter of the wilderness is over; the first chapter in the wilderness is the learning of perverseness of the flesh, and the proof of that being over is that in the previous chapter we have the record of Aaron’s death; you come to another chapter of the wilderness, to the wilderness according to God. And this new chapter is that the power of the Spirit is realised, “the Spirit is life because of righteousness”. It is that which opens up now. Not but what the Spirit was there before, but previously it had been the Spirit against the flesh and the flesh lusting against the Spirit. Following on the brazen serpent you get Balaam, and he cannot curse the people, that is, God has found a way of meeting the perverseness of the flesh, which otherwise brought them under the curse; and Balaam cannot now curse them. Numbers is an important book to understand if you want to apprehend the ways of God.
JSA I think it has often been a difficulty that the brazen serpent is not the beginning, but the end of the gospel, so to speak, that is, after the thirty-eight years.
FER But you have the striking fact that Aaron is dead. You are very near the land, and now another chapter of the wilderness comes in; that is, in the power of the Spirit you fulfil the righteous requirements of the law. No doubt in christian experience we go through the two simultaneously; we learn the perverseness of the flesh, and on the other hand, we [p. 197] prove the power of the Spirit. It is not entirely one or the other.
JS Is the christian always in the wilderness?
FER Yes, as long as he is here. The only way in which you escape from the wilderness is in your own house. I do not think one’s own house is exactly the wilderness, for it is a circle which God owns. The moment you are outside of your own house, you are in the wilderness.
GR Is it not a fact that in the first part of Numbers it is the difficulties of the way that bring out what the flesh is?
FER I think God allowed it.
GR But in the second part it is not the difficulties of the way, but the opposition of the enemy.
FER It is not exactly the opposition, but the temptations of the enemy; it is what may be called the social element that brings out the flesh. People are liable to be upset by that, by association. That is quite different from the first part.
WE Then we are never out of danger.
FER No, you get it in the case of the Corinthians, they were in danger of the social element, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”. It was the source of weakness to them, like the daughters of Moab to Israel. They were kindred. People get enticed by that kind of thing.
GR I have heard it said that in the responsible path there is no security; you must go on to the end.
FER That is the principle of the responsible path of the wilderness.
GR But when you reach the counsel of God then you find security.
FER Yes, responsibility connects itself with the wilderness to the end. Therefore you are in a sense happy when you bury a christian.
WE It is the end of his [p. 198] trouble.
GR Would you say the brazen serpent does not answer here to sins being put away?
FER That is not the point of it. It is the divine answer to the perverseness of the flesh; there is no hope in the flesh, hence it is that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in the one who walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
GR Does the brazen serpent answer to Romans 8: 3?
FER Quite so. After that the apostle goes on to say what the flesh is. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Then he adds, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness”.
GR So that typically God could not have said before Numbers 21, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel”?
FER No, previous to that, Balaam might in a sense have cursed them, but it is beautiful to see that he comes in a day too late. There is no curse, the curse has been anticipated in the brazen serpent.
JS Is that the force of “They shall never perish”?
FER Quite so.
JSA And I suppose that although a person might be out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and brought to God in that sense, he cannot enter into the purpose of God unless he apprehends the brazen serpent.
FER No, the Spirit is the real beginning of life for God in the believer, “The Spirit is life”. Everything flows out of that now, and I do not think that you get fully into the virtue of the Spirit until you have learned the perverseness of the flesh. I do not say that [p. 199] you have not got the Spirit, but you have not come to know the power of the Spirit.
LWB Was there any improvement in Israel in the thirty-eight years?
FER Not a bit, none save Caleb and Joshua came into the land. In Psalm 95 God says, “I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest”.
AEH Does the brazen serpent represent the Spirit?
FER No, what comes afterwards represents the Spirit, “Spring up, O well!” The brazen serpent represents Christ lifted up. That is, His being made sin. God goes back to Adam and the serpent, and sin is condemned in the flesh in the sacrifice of Christ, in order that God might impart the Spirit as life to man. You get the Lord’s own expression of this in John 3.
GR It is the condemnation of our sinful state and not the removal of our sins. I suppose the sins question was settled in Exodus 12 when God remits His claim on Israel.
FER Yes.
JB Is it a sin-offering in Romans 8, “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”?
FER I think so. The flesh of the sin-offering was burned outside the camp. This prefigured sin condemned in the flesh; it is that side of the offering. Wherever you get a sin-offering of which the blood was carried into the sanctuary the carcass was burned outside the camp. On the day of atonement the blood was carried into the holiest.
GR And so in Hebrews 13, “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate”.
FER He took the place of reproach, but it was that God might communicate the Spirit to the believer.
WHF Would you say in Romans 8 the Spirit is on our side, and in Romans 5 on God’s side?
[p. 200] FER Yes, Romans 5 is what God is towards us, it is the terms of the covenant; Romans 8 is our side, what we are for God. Hence you get the expression, “The Spirit is life”. So the apostle says in verse 2, “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”.
WHF Is it not a great point to realise the Spirit on the believer’s side?
FER Yes, because the practical effect is that you get life brought in in the wilderness. You have not yet got to eternal life, but it is life God-ward in the wilderness; that is, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness”.
GR That is really for the life here.
FER Quite so; it is for the wilderness. The law is God’s mind for man down here; it was so with Israel, and the law will be written hereafter in the heart of Israel. It will be life for them, and they will love God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves. It is the mind of God for man on earth and is fulfilled in the christian who walks after the Spirit. Romans 8 does not go much beyond that.
JSA Do you think “Spring up, O well” is at all analogous to John 4?
FER I think so, following on the brazen serpent.
JSA And then, “The princes digged the well”, etc., as if they were removing the hindrances so that it might flow out.
FER But the people said, “Spring up”. The Lord said in John 4, “the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.
FC In John 3: 16, is it perishing eternally?
FER Would there be any advantage to have it mean not perishing eternally?
FC We have always supposed it was.
FER [p. 201] That is not any comfort to me; the comfort to me is that I shall be kept here.
JA You do not perish in the wilderness but go on to what God’s end is.
FER God’s mind is the antithesis. You go on to God’s mind instead of perishing in the wilderness.
JS That is certainly a great deal more comfort than the other.
FER Who is going to pluck us out of His hand hereafter?
JA We have used John 10 in the sense in which our brother speaks of.
FER That is not just, because “they shall never perish” precedes, “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand”.
JSA Somebody has said it seems an easier matter going to heaven than living here for God.
FER So it is, because going to heaven is a pure question of grace.
FC “I give unto them eternal life”, what does that mean?
FER It is the gift of God. Christ speaks on the part of God and says, “I give unto them eternal life”. He is presenting the mind of God as God.
JB John 17 says, “As thou hast given him power over, all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him”.
FER He is now put in the position of last Adam to carry out the Father’s counsel, and that is to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given to the Son.
AG Is that the highest aspect of the gift of God?
FER I think so. We go beyond the thought of life here, for evidently the people did not reach the land in Numbers. It is not a question of the promised land, but of the wilderness, whether it be the first or second part of the book. I think the first part of Numbers is the great wilderness question, learning the [p. 202] perversity of the flesh, and the second part is the wilderness according to God. You get the wilderness typically, sin condemned in the flesh, and the Spirit communicated; now you get the people numbered for the inheritance, and they are out of the reach of curse, but still it is the wilderness.
JS What do you think is set forth in the death of Aaron?
FER The order of things in which they came out of the land of Egypt, pure responsibility, etc., is changed. Another order of things came in with another high priest.
WE The trouble up to Numbers 21 appears to have been from the flesh; what is the trouble after that?
FER I think it is getting entangled in evil associations from outside. One of the greatest difficulties I have had to contend with was from people who wanted from kindness to be civil to me. When people are opposed it is simple, but a time comes when they will be agreeable, and try to entangle you in social life. That is the daughters of Moab; it is a difficult thing to meet this. People desire to patronise you — would do anything for you if you would only be agreeable.
JA I suppose natural relationships, too.
FER Yes, it is that kind of thing.
JS Do you call that overcoming?
FER I think you have to overcome, because if you submit they lead you into an acknowledgement of the god of this world.
AG Would you say overcoming is similar to Israel planting their foot on every place?
FER That is the land. We are only speaking of the wilderness.
JB Does Moab represent the world?
FER Yes, the social element. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”.
JSA Then you must be an overcomer if you are going to enter the land.
FER You have to be set for it. Balaam could not overcome the people by cursing, but he was more successful by social temptations.
JLBH That is the thought you have in 1 John 5, overcoming the world.
FER Quite so.
GR All that supposes the Holy Spirit springing up to eternal life.
FER Hence you can understand the exhortation of the apostle to the young men in 1 John 5: 15 - 17, “Love not the world”, etc. It is a warning that they are to beware of the temptations and allurements of the world.
GR I think the enemy often gets hold of us in that way through our children. We like a little bit of the world for our children that we do not want for ourselves.
FER Very often.
GR It says in this chapter, the children of Israel set forward. If we get a start forward for heavenly things we must expect the enemy to try and trip us up, and that is the second part of Numbers.
FER I think so. The civility of people is a great difficulty.
GR But if you had not heavenly things before you you would not see that. I think the way John 3 and 4 correspond to this is beautiful. Hence they set forward to Canaan and would not be stopped.
FER You can very well understand that the Spirit of God in the believer will never stop until you are landed literally in resurrection, and morally so now.
JB You look at eternal life there as being in resurrection.
FER There can be no eternal life outside of the ground of resurrection when the wages of sin is death.
AG Does resurrection answer to the land?
FER Morally, yes.
GAD I suppose what comes out in the previous part of Numbers indicates the hindrances.
FER It indicates the perverseness of the flesh. You get it on occasion after occasion in the early part of Numbers.
I do not know if we are disposed now to go to the question of eternal life, or prefer to leave ourselves in the wilderness. Very few people care to go beyond the wilderness; they like the idea of life in the wilderness, and I quite admit you get much in it. The two and a half tribes typically had life, but not in the land. The righteous requirement of the law was fulfilled in them, and they occupied a divinely-given territory.
GAD I suppose what really is brought out is that the flesh does not desire the land.
FER The flesh is indisposed to enter.
GAD That is why the thirty-eight years come in?
FER It is a period of testing like the man at the pool of Bethesda; John 5. Thirty-eight years is just short of perfect testing.
JSA If one is correct in taking the land as in any sense representing entering into eternal life, it is quite clear that although these people lived they did not get into it.
FER If you want to go on to eternal life, you must take up a verse or two in Joshua 5: 8 - 15. Here you get the idea of eternal life, I mean figuratively, of course. The people have eaten of the old corn of the land, manna has ceased. They do not want grace any longer for the wilderness. That was manna. The two overlap of course in our spiritual history; but at the same time the manna ceased, and the people ate the old corn of the land. They ate the fruit of Canaan, they had come to eternal life now.
JSA There was no old corn in the wilderness.
FER No, they ate what [p. 205] was proper to the land.
JLBH That which grew in the land.
FER Yes, no longer manna coming down from heaven, as they had had in the wilderness. Figuratively they are looked upon now as risen with Christ. They had been into death, that is, Jordan, and are now risen. What answers to that is Colossians 3: 1 - 4. In the previous chapter the apostle says, “Ye are risen”. All hangs on the “risen with him”, you are outside of death, and that is where you find eternal life.
JA Passed out of death into life.
FER Yes, where eternal life came out for us in Christ was in resurrection. I do not doubt morally it was manifested before, but it really came out for us in resurrection. “Which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life”. I suppose that refers to resurrection. They saw in Christ a Man in life out of death. Morally there was no change in Him, but He was out of death, and they handled Him. Now we have not got to literal resurrection, though it is in literal resurrection that we come to eternal life. “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you”. You are compelled to be quickened as to your mortal body, because of His Spirit that dwells in you, and that lands you in eternal life; but you anticipate that according to the thought and mind of God, because “ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”. Now the apostle says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above”, you are in touch with the scene above.
WE And resurrection does not take you off the earth.
FER No, it brings you into what is heavenly on the earth. When Christ was risen, during the forty [p. 206] days He was on earth, He was never seen by the world; He waited on earth, but He waited on the point of going up.
GR Then Gilgal preceded the eating of the old corn, and so circumcision in Colossians.
FER Circumcision comes in to prove that you have come back to your baptism in truth.
GR That is the practical acceptance of death.
FER In baptism you are buried, but very few people are then practically buried; you take a long time to come to it. You do not bury yourself; somebody else buried you, but then your own mind has to come to it, that is, that you are buried with Him in baptism. But you go a point further, and that is that you are risen with Him through faith of the operation of God that raised Him from the dead.
EH What was the reproach of Egypt?
FER I think the people were going back continually in mind to Egypt, and the flesh will always do that. You get Egyptian desires and reminiscences. I am sorry for young people that have had much to do with Egypt, because you never get rid of reminiscences.
JA That is, young people brought up in worldly associations.
FER Quite so, because they had had so much to do with Egypt that they carry reminiscences.
JB You cannot remember what you have not experienced.
FER But what you have experienced many a year afterwards will all come out.
JSA And very particularly when you do not want it.
GR So it is really our privilege and duty to shield our children from the world.
FER It is a great mercy where they are shielded. They often hanker after it, but they are really only making a rod for their own backs.
GR I remember a young man making a remark,
‘[p. 207] I used to think my father was too strict with me; I do not think so now’. I think our children are apt to think so at the moment.
WHF What is the meaning of coming in contact with the man with the drawn sword?
FER It brings this to you, that though you have come into the land, and eaten of the old corn of the land, you are not going to have peaceful times, because now you have to fight, not your own battles, but God’s battles.
JSA That makes it clear that eternal life is not exactly heaven, for there was the enemy in the land.
JS How do you understand the expression in Colossians, “seek those things which are above”?
FER I think the things above are the things of life which originate in Christ at the right hand of God. They may refer to what the Lord spoke of in John 16, “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you”. The Father’s things which are centred in the Son; it is that which constitutes the things above. They are for those risen with Christ.
Another thought comes out in connection with risen with Christ; that is, your having put off the old man and put on the new, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, ... but Christ is all and in all. You cannot touch that except on the ground of resurrection.
AG Is that where you enjoy eternal life?
FER Yes, Christ is all and in all, and every other man has disappeared. How can you overleap the distinctions of flesh except in the assembly? “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free”. All these distinctions exist in the wilderness and go on to death, and are ended by death. But in the christian circle you pass beyond them all in the things above.
GR There you are all saints.
FER All one in Christ [p. 208] Jesus.
GR Do you not get the thought of blessing, as in Psalm 137; they ate the old corn, they crossed the Jordan at the time of harvest, but they ate the corn of the old harvest; there was not only blessing, but plenty of it?
JLBH Is the conflict individual?
FER I think you stand together in a way; I do not think there could be any entering now into eternal life except in connection with the christian circle. It is only in that way. There is life morally in our individual path, but it is only in connection with the assembly that we realise that we are risen together with Christ.
JB Would you say a few words on the christian circle?
FER It is our all being one in Christ, where “Christ is all and in all”. I think it is the power of spiritual affections in the believer that carries him above all distinctions of flesh. You get it illustrated in this way: supposing I had a slave, he is my slave as to his individual path and in the house; but in the christian circle it is totally different. If things are right, spiritual affections carry you above distinctions of the flesh. You must distinguish between the assembly and the individual path, else you get into confusion at every step.
AG Is there any reason to expect that all the members of the assembly will be brought to this enjoyment of affection?
FER It is for all. I used to think that risen together with Christ was experimental, but I do not think so now; it is faith. There is no special class of christians in the thought of God. But you need to be built up for the apprehension of it.
JB Is not the failure to enter into it spoken of as unbelief?
FER It is a question not only of entering into [p. 209] it,
but of being built up for it; not a question of attainment, but of growth.
AG But you cannot expect the babes to be built up into it?
FER I think they should be built up unto it. “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro ... but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ”. It takes time, but it is natural for the babes to be built up.
JSA It is what Christ has given gifts for, for the perfecting of the saints, that is individual.
FER Yes, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”.
JSA And though we do find stages practically, yet the idea is it is God’s mind for all.
GR And in that way it is important for those who are older in the truth to be an example of the truth to the younger ones.
FER Certainly, because you have no power in the truth beyond where you yourself are.
JSA It is not what you know, but what you are.
GR So that a man might help his brethren very much without saying anything.
FER Yes, by the very fact of the way in which he goes on.
JA I suppose you would say a sister in the same way.
FER Many sisters are patterns to the brothers. The woman has to keep her place, but it is wonderful how conspicuously women shine out for their faith and devotedness to Christ.
AG Some of our sweetest hymns were composed by sisters.
GR I have often thought of the spies, who brought back the report of what was in their heart, not what was in their eyes. The land of promise got into [p. 210] their hearts from the outset, and they never lost it. It is a great thing to get it into our hearts. It got into their hearts and they urged the people continually to go into it.
GAD If it gets into our hearts we can speak something about it.
FER The only one who can speak about eternal life is the person who knows something of the sweetness of the christian circle; to be outside of the scene and sphere of flesh, and in the circle where Christ is all in all, there it is you realise being risen with Christ, outside of every order of man. Very few, comparatively, enter into that. It is only spiritual affection that will support you there, for when you come back to your own individual path you have to come back to distinctions. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”.
JA These distinctions in our individual path are of God.
FER Yes, they go on as long as you are down here. If you set God’s providential order aside you only bring in confusion and mischief. I think myself it is a point of great moment to distinguish between life in the wilderness in connection with the Spirit, where the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, and eternal life which is connected with the ground of resurrection and the land of promise.
GR And we can only understand the exhortation “lay hold”, when seen in that light.
JSA I have been struck by what it says in Ephesians, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened”. This is in connection with our brother R.’s remark about the spies.
FER Then you get the prayer in chapter 3, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, ... that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”. That is the circle.
HL Would you say “My sheep hear my voice,
[p. 211] and I know them, and they follow me”, refers to all believers?
FER Yes, it is what is characteristic of the sheep; Mary heard the Lord’s voice when He spoke to her, she was a sheep; and then the Lord says, “I give unto them eternal life: and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one”.
WE We have come as far as resurrection; how about seated in the heavenly places in Christ?
FER That is another matter. You go into heaven by God’s calling; God’s eternal purpose, before ever death came in, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”.
WE Is that entered into now?
FER I think so.
WHF It is really sonship that takes us in.
FER Yes, according to His eternal purpose.
JA Does Ephesians 6 answer to the man with the drawn sword?
FER Yes, it has been often said, if you are to come out from God you must first have gone in to God; that is Ephesians. The heavenly city must have gone in, in order to come out from God as the heavenly city. The point in Ephesians is you come out from God to find the power of the enemy here.
JA I suppose it would only be there that you get a sense of what is according to God.
FER The point in Colossians is affection; the point in Ephesians is power.
GR So in Joshua it is power, a man with a drawn sword.
FER Yes, we are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. “That ye may know what is ... the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe”. Power comes out in Ephesians in three places; in chapter 1, it is us-ward; in chapter 3, it is power in us; in chapter 6, it is power from us.
JB We must lack power until we get it that way.
FER We need power to be for God in this world, to meet the machinations of the enemy. It takes a good deal of power in the present day to stand against the evil influences of infidelity, superstition, etc. To stand against them in testimony is no small matter.
JA You were speaking of the deceits the other day that are not so easily seen.
FER Yes, rationalism, infidelity, superstition, etc.
WB You think these are the wiles of the devil in this day?
FER Yes.
WE It is not so much the roar of the lion?
FER No; Satan is too crafty for that, when he persecuted the church it flourished. It is now subtle influences that are at work, like you get with Paul in the Acts, a kind of patronage — “These men are the servants of the most high God” — an effort to introduce into christianity what is satanic in order to corrupt christianity. That is the work of the devil.
WE Is that the birds of the air?
FER No, I think there the kingdom has become a shelter for the fowls of the air, a kind of protection for the kings of the earth.
GAD I suppose what the Israelites met in the land was different from what they met after the brazen serpent.
FER Entirely, they met the Canaanite in the land who wanted to keep them out of possession.
JSA I think it is exceedingly interesting to see how all these things are presented consecutively in their true moral order in the type, and we have got a good deal of help in seeing them in the proper order.
FER It is a remarkable testimony to Scripture [p. 213] that the history of a people in the flesh being carried on locally from Egypt to Canaan should present typically and with fidelity the history of the christian; it is extraordinary.
JLBH Would you go over the points from the beginning again?
FER Things have to be worked out in this order experimentally; first, you apprehend what God has established, that is, the kingdom, and when eventually you come to fight the enemy you stand for the kingdom, and are supported by Christ. Then you enter into the thought of the house of God, that is, the Spirit being here, there is a habitation; then you get the good of the covenant, that is, you are divinely taught by the Spirit, and led into acquaintance with the love of God; then you apprehend the true place of Christ in connection with this, that He has removed all that came in by the first man, and He Himself subsists, and is Head; then it is you are in the love of Christ and are come into the purpose of God, which is eternal life. I think in a general way that is the line of progress.