THE ARK OF THE COVENANT (1)
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT (1)
Exodus 25:10 - 22; Romans 1: 1 - 4; Romans 3:24, 25
JT It will be known to most of us that the journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan was sub-divided; each sub-division being marked by an encampment; each encampment being set in a certain light according to God. The great encampment was that before mount Sinai, where most of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and part of Numbers were unfolded.
The light vouchsafed at any given period took account of what had preceded it in the history of the people; so that the Ark coming in here, together with the other features of the tabernacle, supposes certain progress having already been made by them. That is to say, Christ is typically brought in at this juncture as the power of God; but it is Christ as a Man here, for the Ark was to be made of shittim wood. Their attention had already been directed to the significance of wood. After crossing the Red Sea, Moses led them into the wilderness three days’ journey, and they found no water; they came to Marah, but the waters of Marah were bitter, then they murmured against Moses, and Moses cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him wood, which he cast into the waters, and they became sweet — laying the basis for the great truth of the Ark.
TMG The humanity of Christ.
JT Yes; the wood was cast into the water. It was Christ Himself in death. It is really light as to Christ, brought into the soul at this point, so that the bitter waters of death are made sweet.
TMG There is no actual change in the water, but the taste is changed.
JT I think it refers to Christ apprehended [p. 264] as dying for us in love. Viewed as the Victim, the Lamb was detained in the house of each Israelite for four days, from the tenth day of the month until the fourteenth; so that every inmate of the house would take note of the fact that it was a harmless creature; no charge could be laid against it, and so it did not merit death.
TMG The wood here suggests more the aspect of the Lord’s death which we have in His supper; not as dying for our sins, but His love in going into death for us.
JT God would call attention to it, that He died for us in love.
EH Would the four days referred to indicate Christ’s life as a Man down here?
JT I think so; He was before men’s eyes.
PSP You refer to the wood being cast into the water: how does that fit in with the love of Christ in going into death?
JT It is known where you taste the bitter waters; it may be in bereavement, or something that would bring death home to you, then you come to know that the Lord has been in that, and it is the apprehension of the Lord having been in it, that changes it for you. He went into it in love for me. I think it is there that the link of affection begins; thereafter the link is strengthened, so that we can go up from the wilderness leaning on our Beloved.
EM Would what occurred at the Red Sea represent what He has done for us?
JT Yes, in dealing with death, not only for us, but for God; that is to say, the general bearing of death. The Red Sea typified death, as we read, “death reigned from Adam to Moses” Romans 5:14; it is an extended idea, and Christ dealt with it; but then in dealing with it in that general way, He died for each of us. There can be nothing more touching to the heart than that He, in dealing with that which had [p. 265] prevailed over so many, had me in His heart when He died. “He loved me (Paul says), and gave himself for me”, Galatians 2:20. When that comes home to us we begin to learn what He is as the Ark.
RB You get the thought in connection with baptism. “Buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”, Romans 6: 4.
JT That is exactly where it begins; “with him”; and the with goes right on.
RB That conveys more than the actual fact of going into the place; there is sympathy with Him.
JT “Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried”, Ruth 1: 17. In Romans 7 the speaker asks “Who shall deliver me?” ... “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 7:24. So the Deliverer becomes the Husband; and that is a great principle that comes out in the wilderness. There was One who came down to where I was, not simply out of compassion for me, but in love; “He loved me and gave himself for me”.
Ques Would you connect the thought of the wood with Romans 1: 3, 4, “Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead?”
JT Yes; the spirit of holiness leads to the sanctuary; the Ark of God leads to its resting place. So, too, Romans 5 corresponds: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us”.
Rem If we really apprehend what it is to accept death in the light of the truth as to the wood being cast into the water, we should be able to follow the Ark of the covenant.
JT The thought really begins there. The wood [p. 266] in question is remarkable for its qualities; and as the water is made sweet you correspond in some degree, for the point throughout in this respect is correspondence with Christ. I think the epistle to the Romans develops in the saints what corresponds to the acacia; for example, in chapter 5 you accept whatever comes. The apostle says, “we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us”, Romans 5:3 - 5. There you see how the shittim wood can develop in the Christian; he does not give way under pressure; on the contrary, every pressure works in favour of the believer. Then in verse 6 he goes on to say, “For when we were yet without strength” (that is not the shittim wood, it was our condition), “in due time Christ died for the ungodly”. Also in verse 8: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. You begin to develop in the knowledge of the love that brought Christ into death for you, and you experience the gain of it. Tribulation works endurance, and that is one great thought in the wood. All these apparently adverse things in Romans 5 work in your favour severally, and then in chapter 8 they all work together. The apostle groups things together to show how the truth has come about in his soul, and he presents the whole thing so that souls may be attracted.
Ques Is the shittim wood the life of Christ in the Christian?
JT It refers to the kind of humanity seen in Christ here, what He was in meeting things in this world. In the Lord’s death what wonderful strength is seen in Him as Man! The circumstances brought it out; Satan wielding death itself could not overcome Him. God delivered His strength into the hands [p. 267] of the enemy; that was Christ viewed as the Ark.
Ques What is the difference between the cedar and the acacia?
JT The acacia wood is said to have more inherent power than any other wood. There is no question of stateliness introduced in connection with it; its durability however is well known. It refers to Christ as doing God’s will here, and as He came under man’s eye. In Isaiah 53 we read, He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. But it also says, He grew up before Jehovah as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; that was another thing. Men, however, did not see anything about Him that was stately; but when they brought pressure to bear on Him, then His power of endurance was discovered.
Ques. What is the cedar?
JT The cedar is what He is in relation to divine purpose. It comes out in resurrection. I think the cedar is typical of “a man in Christ”, 2 Corinthians 12:2. Paul’s letters and ministry to the Corinthians help greatly to the understanding of the shittim wood. In those letters he gives an account of himself; wonderful endurance under pressure came out in him. Endurance begins with the apprehension of the love of Christ. He says to His disciples, “Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations”, Luke 22: 28. In that connection they were acquiring ability to bear things.
WHM We are exhorted to consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest we be weary and faint in our minds.
JT You run the race with patience. The whole testimony of God rested on Christ as a Man down here; and He was capable of sustaining it.
Ques Is there any significance in the measurements which are given of the Ark?
JT They are unique. They mark out Christ [p. 268] as pre-eminent. The mercy seat was the same size as the Ark, omitting its depth. It is a question of what God is towards man, as we have it in Romans 3. But then the Ark is underneath the mercy seat. It was really the lid of the Ark.
Rem The mercy seat was the throne of God.
JT Yes, but it was the throne of God in mercy; and in the first few verses in the epistle to the Romans it is pointed out that God has now One in whom He can set that forth.
Ques Is the mercy seat Christ in resurrection?
JT Yes, but then the blood is there, as we read, “Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for the showing forth of his righteousness”, Romans 3: 25. The righteousness of God is established in Christ in heaven. God has reached His thought in regard to righteousness, because in Christ it is set forth sacrificially. He loved righteousness. He justified God here, before He died. And that is the idea of the Ark underlying the mercy-seat. There must be the solution of good and evil in a Man here in life, before you could have the sacrificial idea.
TMG And Christ proved Himself to be the One who could do that.
JT Yes, He loved righteousness, and hated lawlessness. He answered perfectly in His life here to God’s claim on man, and then He went into death. The righteousness of God, the apostle says, is to all, and upon all that believe. So the idea of the Ark, and the shittim wood that formed it, underlies the mercy-seat.
EH God is justified before the universe.
JT He must be, in order to be just and the Justifier: “for the showing forth of his righteousness in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before”. These must be settled so that no one could raise a question as to His [p. 269] righteousness.
RB The shittim wood was covered with gold, showing that this Person in manhood was capable of supporting all that was of God. In that way His death was the climax of all that He was here.
JT I suppose the idea of the shittim wood is suggested in the passage in Romans 1. It is very beautiful to see that when the Lord comes to Jordan where John was baptising, John saw Him coming, and he said, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world”, John 1: 29. Now that was a thought, no doubt, produced in John’s mind by the fact that the Lord came to him. John was administering the symbol of death, and the Lord came to him to be baptised. John says, “I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me?” And Jesus answering, said unto him, “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”, Matthew 3: 15, 16. There, it may be said, He is taking on the gold, because it is a question of what is of God; the righteousness of God has to be met; and then He goes down into the water and comes up, and as we have it recorded in the gospel by Luke, “the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him; and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”, Luke 3: 22. So henceforth it is a question of the testimony of God; and He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord”, Luke 4: 18, 19.
EH Do you connect the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s anointing with the gold?
JT Quite so; and it was after that He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the [p. 270] devil. He was tested there, and the test demonstrated His perfection as Man. The shittim wood was seen there.
Rem It has been said that the wood set forth the humanity of Christ, and the gold, His deity; but what you have been saying rather alters that idea.
JT That would hardly do, because the gold was also put on the boards; it is more what was put on in the way of testimony. There is ample evidence of His deity.
EH The boards for the tabernacle stood upon two silver sockets; I suppose that is the sense in each of us of redemption.
JT There is no silver in connection with the Ark. The boards stand up in silver sockets, as we stand up on the ground of redemption; we receive the Spirit, so that Pentecost corresponds. He sat upon each of them.
JM Christ sustained all the will of God, and we, in our measure, are supposed to sustain something for God here.
JT Romans in that way develops the boards. We have the Ark in the third chapter; that is to say, the mercy seat was the lid of it, and then the boards are developed in the saints; as the apostle says in chapter 6, “Ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness”. The heart is where it is made manifest. And then in chapter 12, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God”.
EM Righteousness is in the saints individually.
JT Yes; and then it is shown how they stand together. The principle of unity is set out in that [p. 271] chapter, and it is really the overcoming of evil with good.
RB It is important to notice that the boards stand upright separately before they are put together.
JT Yes, that is to say, I have been constituted righteous, and the Holy Spirit makes me to stand up in power. The Spirit is life, on account of righteousness. You have correspondence with that in Luke’s gospel in the way we learn Christ. I doubt if any one can be really righteous who is not gracious; grace must be learned from Christ. The woman in Luke 7 came into Simon’s house; she needed grace to be present. I think she is a typical believer in connection with the learning of grace. She brought with her an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at the feet of the Lord, behind Him, weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with ointment. Those blessed feet had carried grace to her, and that was what she had so greatly needed. She was profoundly affected by what she saw in Him. I am sure she would henceforth be a gracious sister.
RB A righteous brother would surely be a gracious brother.