THE DIVINE WAY
[p. 141] THE DIVINE WAY
Numbers 33: 1, 2; Psalm 107: 1 - 7; Psalm 84: 5 - 7
I want to speak about the Divine way as leading definitely to a certain end which I may speak of later, having in view a word in Hebrews “the new and living way”. I would seek to point out that the saints of this dispensation are called upon to take up that which is wholly unknown to man in the flesh, and to the world; the path which as the word says no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: the lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.”It is new, wholly new, and, although quite clear to those who have faith, it is wholly unknown to those who have not. It is a time when we may have to be reminded of it; crises taking place in the history of God’s people make it imperative that attention has to be called to it, for the enemy is ever seeking to divert us into byways. Deborah spoke of” byways “before her time —” travellers went into byways,”so their attention at that time needed to be specially called to the way and” walk ye in it.”In truth, there is but the one, and the use of the word in the Acts, namely” the way,”suggests that it was almost a synonym of Christianity in its true sense, the gospel and the fellowship that attached to it opening up a way for the people of God, a sure way. So that there is in a way but one way, and the enemy’s effort at all times, especially when a crisis occurs, is to decoy the saints. We may become darkened in heart and mind so that we are uncertain. Hence the Lord, being ever the great Shepherd and the true Shepherd, calls us back to it. He goeth after the sheep and He calls us back to the way, so that, as we see in the case of the man, blind Bartimaeus, we are to follow Jesus in it; he followed Jesus in the way”. The [p. 142] Holy Spirit had His meaning in it. There is a prescribed way and it is for the saints to know it.
As I said, there is, in regard to approach to God, “a new and living way”. I hope I may be able to say a word about that; it is living. But first, I would point out from Numbers how that God graciously takes account of all the movements of our souls, whatever they be, so we have in that record the journeyings of the children of Israel, those who went out of Egypt; “these are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord”. I want to touch it briefly that you may be encouraged by divine interest in your souls, whatever movements you may be making. God does not sympathise with us in the activities of our wills, but He never draws His eyes from us, and He takes note of all the movements of our souls, of our spiritual journey. The path from Egypt to Canaan was divided up in journeys. It was not all one journey as you will notice. The word is “these are the journeys of the children of Israel”. It ought to have been just one journey, an “eleven days’ journey” as it is said “from the Red Sea to Kadesh-barnea by way of mount Seir”. Instead of eleven days’ journey, there were forty years of journeys, and so the word is in the plural, God taking account of the spiritual journeys of His people until they reached the confines of the land, until they reached the Jordan, by Jericho. It is not put as if He directed the journeys. What is presented is their journeys, and so it is constantly repeated “and they journeyed”, and “their journeys”. In that way God assures us of His sympathetic interest in all our soul movements, for Moses did not record them of his own volition, but wrote them “by the commandment of Jehovah”. Does it not appeal [p. 143] to you that God takes account of all your spiritual exercises and journeys, so that they are all recorded?
They went out of Egypt. Mark that; the journeys are journeys of those who went out of Egypt “with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron”; the people in view are those who, typically, have definitely left the world. They have taken up that position in a public way by baptism, and they are under the direction of the Lord to that extent, under the direction of Christ both in His authority over their souls and His sympathy as Priest. These are the people in view, so you can readily determine whether you are one of these. I know most here are those who have taken a position definitely outside of this world, and are under the Lord, as Lord and Priest, under His authority and sympathy, His priestly succour. As taking up that position, you may have been in it for years, or months perhaps, or even only weeks, but all the time you are moving. You have departed from one position and pitched in others, and you have been moved from that again into yet another. You have removed and encamped from one place to another. It is in these encampments we are likely to contract unholy alliances, but, notwithstanding, He watches what happens in the encampments. Thus we journey on till we come to take account of the Holy Spirit, until we are not only guided by the objective truth with Christ as He is in heaven, but when you have come to recognise the Holy Spirit as indwelling you; thus you have a new means of guidance. The narrative proceeds and tells us that Aaron died at a certain point; the one under whose succour they had been, but still they go on in spite of the fact that he died. That is, you come to a position in the soul when you are led by the Spirit of God. Do we understand, dear brethren, that the Holy Spirit in the believer becomes his leader in a spiritual way? For well nigh forty years the children [p. 144] of Israel were guided by the tabernacle. The tabernacle proceeded and the tribes proceeded in their order, but after the Holy Spirit is brought in, typically in the well, the tabernacle is no longer in evidence. They arrive over against Jericho, the secret being the movement is now a spiritual leading. And being led by the Spirit of God we are marked as belonging to Him, a very blessed thought! The saints are viewed now as a company of God’s sons; they are led by the Spirit of God. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God”. The Lord looks on such. It is not now that the brethren are an army and company of camp followers, a mixed multitude, they are the sons of God now. All our journeys, whether we are guided by the tabernacle or the Spirit, are all recorded typically in this wonderful chapter (Numbers 33), to show the interest God takes in His beloved people.
When you come to the Psalms, you come to the estimate of a spiritual man of what is presented elsewhere in a spiritual way. In the psalm we read, we have the appeal “O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good”. You see it is the estimate, as one might say, of a spiritual man of Numbers 33. How he takes account of God’s interest in His people, and so he says, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way”. The Psalmist takes account now of divine leadership, and that leadership implies a right way. Are we in a right way? Many are very [p. 145] certain of their way; we can thank God; for there are those whom we can take as guides. It is a very wise thing for those who are uncertain to follow those whom they have known to be followers of the right way. Indeed it is “fix your eyes on such” in a time of uncertainty; as it says in Hebrews “whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever”. We can only be sure as following in His steps, and His steps are definitely marked in this world. You have to pick them out. One has to pick out the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can only be sure as you do and the Lord has His own way of confirming you as you do. But, as I said, it is a great thing to follow those who are approved of the Lord, as Paul said, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”. He was a devoted follower of Christ. To be assured you want to fix your eye on Christ. “Looking steadfastly on Jesus”; that is the Object of faith.
The psalmist here says, “He led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation”. You have in the verse what Jehovah did, but it is that they might go to a city of habitation. He led them the right way. Where did that lead? To a city of habitation. Let no one assume that he is to be on an individual line. The right way, beloved brethren, leads to a place of habitation where others live, and love would have it so. Love would have company and God will always supply what love desires. Hence “He led them forth by a right way that they might go to a city of habitation”. So one might inquire ‘Have we gone to that city?’ It is for you to do it “that they might go to a city of habitation”. Is there anyone here who is satisfied with his own company, who is just content to be alone? It is right to be alone if you have to be in the world; for separation is right in connection with this world,
as Jeremiah said, “I sat alone”. And so the remnant said, “How can we sing songs of Zion in a strange land?” Isolation is right there, but if you think of the saints of God isolation is not right; isolation is wrong. They are the company God has given you. You shall share with them in heaven, for it is said that God “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”.
So the apostle says, “Be followers together of me”. We are to follow together. We are to follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, “with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. So that there is the principle, ever before us in following, of others and a city of habitation. We do not want to be goats in regard to them, we want to be sheep. The type changes. It is well to be a goat in regard to this world, to be rigidly isolated. “Israel shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations”. Love desires others, hence you go, as set on a right way, to a city of habitation. You want to be with others.
Now in Psalm 84 it says “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee”. We need strength in the way. You know those who fall behind are always exposed to Amalek. He slew the ones behind. Hence, dear brethren, the need for strength. And so the word here is “Blessed is he whose strength is in thee”; and then it adds, “in whose heart are the ways”. Now you have come to lean on God Himself in the path. There are helps. Thank God for every help, but the word here is “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee”; that is, in God, “and in whose heart are the highways”. You see in what I have been reading, the Psalm is speaking of what is in the heart of a man. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways”; the highways really to Zion. What a man is contemplated here! A man who has learnt to rely absolutely on [p. 147] God. He is not baffled if his brother fails him; he is not leaning on his brother; his strength is in Jehovah — in God — and then the highways are in his heart, the ways are in his heart — He loves them. Sometimes we see charts of the divine way, charts hanging on the walls, but the highways are to be in our hearts. “Faith cometh by hearing”, not by seeing, “and hearing by the word of God”. It is a question of listening to the Lord, and the highways are in your heart, the highways to Zion. One loves to think of the Lord’s people as one looks at them, for one knows in a general way they love the divine ways. And they follow on to know this way, and this way leads on to Zion, to God’s chief interest here on earth; but according to Philippians it is heaven, and the apostle says, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the calling on high in Christ Jesus”. What an aim he had before him! “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark”. And so he begs the brethren to take account of him and his ways, and says, “as you have us for a model”. “Be followers together of me”; that is, we are not stragglers but following together. May God grant that it may be so! When your face is towards heaven then it is seen that you are the sons of God; “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”.
“Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well”. It does lead through bitter circumstances at times. And those who have had no tears know little of the joys. Those who seek to be for God, they have their sorrows, and all their tears are put into God’s bottles. That is a precious thought. So the apostle remembered Timothy’s tears. “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy”. The way in that respect is a way of sorrow. Our Lord was a Man of sorrows. “In all their affliction he was afflicted”. Jehovah [p. 148] was with Him in all the way as the Lord is with us. It is truly a valley of “weeping”. They turn it into a well-spring. I would say a word about that. If we have not a well-spring, we shall grow old in the wilderness. A well-spring keeps us in freshness and vigour in spite of the circumstances. Although no servant had sorrow like Paul, yet I am sure no servant had so much joy. The well-spring is what you have in yourself, and then heaven fills the pools, so that one is kept in constant freshness. The way is living; it is a new and living way. It is a way in which there is a continual freshness, rain from the Lord. So it says “they go from strength to strength”; from one strength to another; and then further it says, “every one of them appears in Zion before God”. That is the great end. You appear in Zion, but it is before God. How do you appear there? You do not appear jaded. Here maybe you do. The Lord sat on the well weary, but He spoke of the well-spring, which indeed He was Himself. You do not arrive in Zion jaded and fagged. You go from strength to strength. Think of the sources of supply we have in the Holy Spirit as walking in this way!
I often think of Nehemiah. He went out at night to survey the city. What a sight it gave to his eye! “There was no place for the beast that was under him to pass. Neither was there any other beast with him than the beast that carried him”. I have no doubt it refers typically to what the Lord found as coming into this world. There was only one beast. He moved about in the power of the Spirit of God. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. For He was a true man in every way. So there was always that power. After the forty days He returned in the power of the Spirit of God. He did that. But He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee in vigour and strength, and so with us in our measure. “They go from strength to strength”. There is no weakness at all in that sense. “Everyone appears in Zion”. God looks not for weary and jaded people, but people in freshness and vigour. There is the well of strength, and the rain, and so we go from strength to strength, and so every one of us appears in Zion before God, and that is what God would have. He is looking for us, but He looks for us to come up in vigour, and that vigour can only be as we recognise the Holy Spirit, and, it may be, as we continue to appropriate every bit of ministry which the Lord is pleased to give us, and the rain is that, and we need it all. But the well-spring in the soul keeps it in freshness and vigour. So we go from strength to strength and appear in Zion before God.
May God bless the word!