DIVINE SPEAKING IN NEARNESS
[p. 346] DIVINE SPEAKING IN NEARNESS
Hebrews 1: 1, 2; Numbers 7: 89; Genesis 35: 13, 14; Genesis 19: 27, 28
I have in mind to speak about divine speaking in nearness. God speaks at a distance sometimes, as at Sinai, but I wish to dwell on His immediate speaking, speaking in nearness. We have come under His good hand, a time in which this speaking is intelligible to us. The book of Revelation is divine speaking, but at a distance. The Lord says that He sent His angel to signify certain things; distance is thus implied. Important speaking indeed is contained in that wonderful book called the Apocalypse; it is the Revelation, or Apocalypse, of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him, and He sent and signified it to His bondman John, who in his turn testified to the assemblies. That book contemplates the great declension in the assembly, when, instead of speaking directly by the Spirit assembly-wise or temple-wise, the Lord was obliged to speak by an angel, somewhat on the ground of the Old Testament communications. But there has been a change. God has wrought and has become attractive to His people, and they have drawn near. The epistle to the Hebrews is intended to save the people of God from such distance as is contemplated in the Apocalypse, and it stresses the privilege that the saints have of drawing near: “Let us draw near”. Some have taken that up; no doubt most of us have drawn near to God. We have boldness of access, as it is said, “by the blood of Jesus”, which places the privilege within the range of every believer, “By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”, Hebrews 10: 19, 20. As having a high priest over the house of God, we are enjoined to “draw near with a true [p. 347] heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water”. Those are the circumstances in which we draw near, for, whilst God wishes us near, it must be on His own terms; and the nearer we get to Him the more we discover those terms are advantageous to us, as well as complying with the exigencies of His nature, His glory and His holiness. So that I wish to speak of divine speaking in nearness, that is, God speaking directly to us without the medium of distance. We are in the days of the light that assures this, and so it is quite in order for me to bring in this side of the truth of divine speaking, that it is in nearness.
I take up Hebrews first, because it opens with those wondrous words that God has spoken unto us “in ... Son”. There is no thought of distance there, no thought of a medium of distance; it is God Himself speaking, but speaking “in ... Son”. It is not exactly in His Son, but “in ... Son”; that is, God Himself is speaking in that relation, as a divine Person, but not as at Sinai when everything denoted distance, but “in ... Son”. That is surely a most attractive title, for it carries with it the affections that are proper to the relation, and the communications take character from the affections seen in One in the unclouded relation of the Son with His Father, but He no less than God, for it is God speaking. His personality is unchangeable, so that the speaking was God’s speaking, but in Son; in One who could clothe every thought expressed with the affections proper to the relation in which He stood. That relation implied, not simply that He was sent, although that is also true, but that it was God Himself; it was God, but God come near. That is the thought, for the relation was well known among men, and God chose to draw near in it, that there might be nothing to terrorise, nothing to abash, nothing to disconcert, but that all [p. 348] the communications should be calculated to draw out confidence and liberty. We think of the scene at Sychar in that well-known incident when the Lord says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”, John 4: 10. And who was it? One clothed in humility, who was nevertheless the Son, nevertheless God, for God was there in Jesus; and yet speaking in the utmost simplicity. One who in no way sought to disguise the fact that He was weary with His journey: He “sat just as he was”, as we read, “at the fountain”, a wearied Man. He opened the conversation, and established confidence in the heart of the woman, laying in her soul an immutable basis for instruction in the knowledge of “Who it is”. She would never forget that: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. It was the Son speaking to her; it was God speaking to her in Son, with the effect of establishing confidence in her, and that a basis might be laid for that after-structure which would eventuate indeed in her becoming a worshipper, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
I commend to you this thought of nearness, God Himself speaking directly “in ... Son”; in One who had taken a bondman’s form, “taking his place” indeed “in the likeness of men”, for that is how the woman at Sychar regarded Him. She said, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?”. He did not deny that He was a Jew; He took His place in that relation. He did not deny He was weary, that He was thirsty; that was common to men, all those things were common to thousands in Judea, and He took His place in the likeness of men, and hence recognised all these things. He was surely a Jew; He took that place; she called [p. 349] Him that and He did not deny it. He says, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship”. You see how lowlily He spoke to her, what a lowly place He took. It was a divine appointment that He should take that place, “taking his place in the likeness of men”, and yet, beloved, He was God. It was God speaking, every word leading on from the previous one to another, building up a structure in her soul that she should become a worshipper of the true God. That is what enters into this passage in Hebrews; the wondrous lowliness of Jesus, how He came near even to the most disreputable, so as to speak, not as an intermediary, but as God. It was God Himself, as the beautiful hymn says
‘Sinner, see thy God beside thee,
In a servant’s form come near,
Sitting, walking, talking with thee!
Sinai’s mount no longer fear’. (112:3)
It disarms all fear, it establishes confidence in the most disreputable where faith is, God come near.
Now, in the passage in Numbers we have the same speaking only in other circumstances. There was no princely offering at Sychar, no dedication of the altar, whereas in Numbers 7 we have an array of circumstances in connection with which God speaks, and which properly follow what I have been saying, that as God draws near to the sinner and sets him free, bringing him into the knowledge of Himself through redemption, setting him up in Christ as risen from the dead and glorified, he thinks of God. The Lord spoke to the woman about worship; this chapter in Numbers is the saints representatively so affected by the testimony that they draw near to recognise the altar, that being the great symbol of worship and our service Godward. It is the dedication of the altar in the day in which it was anointed. Now God on the ground of accomplished redemption has a system of [p. 350] worship, but for its functioning this system depends on His people; they are essential to it. The altar is set up and anointed, and the twelve princes of Israel draw near with their offerings, perfect unity appearing in those offerings; and you will see if you run through the chapter that they are princely offerings; they are offerings of the people of God viewed as possessed typically of the Holy Spirit on the ground of redemption, in which we all have our part. They drew near; each prince had his day, each offered the same exactly both in bowls, and in spoons, and in cattle; and God is so pleased with the aggregate, as you will see, that He comes and He would speak. He is surrounded now with the wealth of His people, His own wealth indeed; as they would say like David, “Of thine own have we given thee”. It was the abundant wealth of His people seen in perfect unity in their offerings.
We have thus the converse of John 4, for the worship is sought there; now it is provided. The very symbol of it, the altar, is dedicated by the lavish offerings in unity of the princes of Israel. It is a wonderful scene, and God would speak to our hearts as taking up this attitude towards Him. He has drawn near, as we see in John 4 and Hebrews 1, to speak to us in nearness in our circumstances, for, mark you, at the well it was in her circumstances; she had come there; it was a circumstance of her daily life that she should go there to draw water, and that is how the Lord meets every one of us, in our circumstances. But now He would intimate to us that He has circumstances of His own, and if you draw near to Him, which He looks for, He would say to you it must be in His circumstances, and the more you enter into those, the more you appreciate them, you would not have others. So it says that “Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him” (verse 89).
It is one thing to speak to God in one’s closet-a most important thing, for no one will ever understand [p. 351] speaking to God in the assembly until he understands speaking to God in his closet. I believe the closet is less understood than the holiest, at least mentally. The first thing is the closet, that is to say, the door shut on all others save God and yourself; you speak to God in secret. No doubt Moses had been accustomed to do that; he could never have become the man he was in the service of God had he not been accustomed to speak to God in secret. His brother Aaron too could never have had the place he had as priest in Israel, save that he had been accustomed to speak to God in secret. God says, as it were, ‘I know him’, one of the finest things that could be said of any of us by God. “If any man love God, the same is known of him”, and we become known to God as we, as it were, knock at His door. As we seek access, He opens it; the door is opened, as I have been saying. As you enter your closet and shut your door and turn to God in the light in which He has drawn near to you in your circumstances, you will soon find the holiest, you will soon find your closet has become the holiest. The holiest is the presence of God, but in Jesus; it is what Jesus is before God. It is as if God would say to you, ‘These are the things that engage Me, and Christ is the centre, and you take a place there’. You are not the centre; Christ is the centre; and the more you draw near, the more you see that all around is holy. Like the holy vessels of the sanctuary, all were anointed and all were in perfect keeping within; they stood in relation to the ark.
So that it was no new thing for Moses to speak to God, he was accustomed to do it. Nor can anyone serve God or be honoured of God save one who speaks to Him, one who makes everything a matter of speaking to God. But now he enters surrounded by all this wealth, the dedication gift of the altar. It is one idea, supplied by twelve princes, each on his day, and Moses enters in the midst of all that wealth to speak to God,
[p. 352] a very fine moment, for God says, as it were, Moses, I want to speak to you, let Me speak to you first. How beautiful it is to be detained there, beloved, just to wait for a moment to see what God would say. David went in and sat before the Lord, but there was no sitting place in the tabernacle, no seat at all; it is in the temple we have the idea of sitting before the Lord.
But I want to show how the speaking, although in nearness, contemplates the system of things which God has set up to provide for His own majesty, that hearts should be made reverential before Him, that we should have a sense that we have to do with God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things and yet the One who has found a way of speaking directly to our hearts. It is in nearness, but according to God’s terms, for it is obvious that whilst He calls upon us to draw near, He will provide for the exigencies of His own holy nature, His own attributes-His own deity, in a word. How perfectly this came out in Jesus as the gospels present Him! Wherever He is, whatever He is saying, in whatever circumstances, He provides for the rights and the majesty of God. A young man runs into the way and says, “Good Master”, kneeling down. The Lord says, ‘No, that will not do; there is no one good but God’. Was the Lord denying His own deity? Not at all, He was setting that young man right. The Lord would always do that. There is nothing in a way more wonderful than to see how the Lord provided for God and how He would adjust everyone that came near to Him in regard of God. So here, God would speak to Moses, but how? “From off the mercy-seat which was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubim”. Now you see, God is speaking in His own circumstances, in circumstances that are in keeping with Himself. How wonderful it is that He admits of us being there, yea invites us to be there, so that it says Moses “heard the voice speaking to him”, then as a result, “he spoke to Him”. Whilst God in His own sphere maintains His own rights and glory, He sets His people in perfect liberty before Him. Indeed, “Perfect love casts out fear”, and where is perfect love? In the presence of God, and perfect love casts out fear, that is in one who disallows the flesh. There is no room for it there, beloved; let us not attempt to draw near other than according to the divine requirements, for “Our God is a consuming fire”, Hebrews 12: 29. The very epistle from which I have read says that, and not simply “God is a consuming fire”, but “our God”, the God of those who understand what it is to enter the holiest and who know Him there.
Well now, I want to show from the passages in Genesis first how the believer is made to feel in God’s house that God is pleased with him. Genesis 35 records the results of God’s dealings with a disciplined man, and no one is of any account save a disciplined man. Discipline is the order of the day, beloved, while we are down here in flesh. The discipline of Jacob began early, but in that discipline God assured him that He would never leave him. It is well worth while to accept discipline in such company. God disciplines us as in company with us, in nearness to us, and then He loves to depict in His own way the result of the discipline. The result with Jacob was that he arrived at Bethel where God met him and made known to him that his name was to be changed, that he was a prince with God, and, moreover, that God had a name too, that of Almighty God, and that Jacob was to know Him in His house. That is really the only place where we get a right view of God, in His house. I have been speaking of the attributes of God and the cherubim in the book of Numbers, but then the thought of the house, although it applies in both Exodus and Numbers, has a peculiar kind of meaning in Genesis. In Genesis the principle is that things get their names from persons who experience what they are. The name “house of God” arose out of an experience of Jacob. This is a matter well worthy of attention, that names arise very largely out of the experience of God’s people; they name things as they experience them. What did Jacob experience? He experienced that God had an interest in him, that He had gone to the pains of setting up a ladder from the earth to heaven, and that angels were ascending and descending upon that ladder in relation to Jacob. They began with Jacob; according to the passage, they did not begin with heaven; the angels are always down here. You say, I thought they were always in heaven, but it does not say so. They are heavenly, but they are “sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation”, Hebrews 1: 14. They are here, and they were there at Luz, and they began with Jacob; they were ready at hand. What a wonderful flood of light there is as that enters the soul; they were ready at hand, watching over him while he was asleep. He alludes to the Angel of God’s presence later, but there they were, a testimony to God’s interest in him, and he says, “This is none other but the house of God”. He had said it was a dreadful place, but he had better thoughts, like many young people; they come to the meetings and things are not just as they wish, but as they think over them they have better thoughts and they begin to see that God is there, and that is their salvation. Those better thoughts in time overcome the wretched thoughts that call the meeting, the assembly where God is, a dreadful place. Jacob had better thoughts and they asserted themselves; they led him to say, “This is ... the house of God”, and that is the first mention of it that we have, and the Spirit of God never loses sight of it from that naming.
So it has a peculiar place in Genesis, and in chapter 35 God dwells upon it and says, ‘I will disclose My name to Jacob in it’. Is it not worth while, dear [p. 355] young people, to get an insight into the house of God, and see what God is there? I am not now speaking of the cherubim, but of what God is Himself in His own house, for it is a place of love. It is a family thought, and what comes out in this passage is that Jacob finally discovered that in the house he was actually pleasing to God, so pleasing that God came down Himself and spoke to him there. He had before stood above the top of the ladder, but now He is by him, standing by Jacob. What a wonderful time Jacob must have had! and he never forgot that spot. It is a question of God speaking in nearness, and you get that nearness uniquely in the house, for it is His own abode. So that Jacob sets up a pillar, not simply the stone that he had for a pillow as in the earlier account, but a stone pillar (chapter 35: 14). It is the material of the pillar now; it has got more dignity; and, moreover, he poured a drink-offering upon it, meaning that he was conscious that God was pleased with him. What an experience is that, dear brethren, the sense that God is pleased with you in the house! Why should you stay away? Why not come into it? Why should you miss the knowledge that God is pleased with you in His own abode? So Jacob, as I said, poured a drink-offering on the pillar that he reared up, and anointed it, meaning that I am not only to the pleasure of God now, but I am dignified. The anointing is dignity, and it qualifies me to have part in the house, for it is only as I am anointed that I can move in the house. I move in the dignity of the house. It is not now how to behave myself in the house; it is the Spirit; for “He that ... has anointed us, is God” (2 Corinthians 1: 21), and He has anointed us that we might move in dignity before Him.
Now the final thought is that Abraham had the honour of conversing with Jehovah, and that conversation had to do with the world. God deigned to speak to him about the government of this world and about [p. 356] the judgment of this world. What can be greater, in a way, than that God should call us aside and tell us what is going to happen, should take us into His secrets? “Shall I hide from Abraham”, He says, “that thing which I do ... ?”. And then He tells us why. The preceding chapters are full of the deepest interest in this respect. In chapter 17, God occupied him with the death of Christ in type, occupied him with circumcision, and having unfolded that to him, it says that He broke off the conversation, as if to intimate to Abraham that He would resume it later. It is a beautiful conception, the holy confidence that belongs to us as the friends of God, for that is what Abraham represents; he is called the “friend of God”. Friendship implies that I am qualified and competent to enter into the affairs of him who regards me as his friend. So God spoke to him about circumcision, and He broke off the conversation, and went up from him. The simplicity of the divine communications in the book of Genesis is beautiful.
Then Abraham circumcised his house; he carried out every command of God, and then “sat at the tent-door in the heat of the day” in the plains of Mamre, “And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, three men standing near him”. That is, God is drawing near to him in company. I have no doubt the Trinity is hidden in the statement; it is God Himself. Two angels, of course, were there, but the Old Testament has its own way of conveying the truth. God came in company, and in such a way as to lay Himself open to be invited to be entertained.
Oh, the greatness of entertaining God! Think of it, beloved! God placing Himself so near you that you might do it. He does not ask you to do it, but He places Himself so that you might do it. And Abraham is equal to it. It is now Abraham the believer. How nobly he acts! I need not enter into the detail; you are all conversant with the chapter; if not, you should [p. 357] become so. It is a wonderful chapter in this sense. Think of God waiting under a tree for Abraham to bring Him cakes! Think of the simplicity of it! Infidels may sneer at it, but faith exults in it; it is God drawing near. After the refreshment, there they wait under the terebinth for this honoured man and his wife. His servants are all brought into it, and He makes communications to Abraham about the son he is to have, Isaac. He makes communications to him about Christ, but then He is going to make communications to him about the world. God has been making communications to us about Christ; wonderful thoughts have come to us, and the Holy Spirit would open our hearts to let them in.
That is the first part of chapter 18, but in connection with the second part, are we friends enough for God to tell us about what is coming upon the world? to be let into His secrets about the world, what this poor world is coming to? One thing after another is happening to remind us of the end, of what is depicted in the book of Revelation, but then, God would have us not only to read and understand the book of Revelation, but to be in spirit with Himself to get His own thoughts about these things. Will He not communicate to us? Will He not convey things to us? He will, but it is contingent upon certain conditions. “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do ... ?”. God, as it were, challenged Himself as to His own mind, as to whether He would do it to a man. Will He not take the same attitude with us? “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment”. What a challenge that is to us as to our houses! not only as to our immediate children,
[p. 358] but our posterity, for every true father has his posterity in mind. The book of Genesis is patriarchal. It is a question of looking forward in the testimony, and in so far as it lies with you, of providing for it. That is the kind of man God honours, and that is the man that stands and listens to God: “Abraham stood yet before the Lord”. He allowed the two angels to go off to Sodom, but He stood before this man and spoke to him. I am going down to see Sodom, He said to Abraham. Think of God saying that to an actual man today: I am going out to see what is going on in England, in the world, to see what France is doing, what Italy is doing, or America. Is that not what God says? It is exactly. God is concerned about all those matters. The two angels turned thence and went towards Sodom; God looked towards Sodom and He was going that way. Now He says, I will tell Abraham about it. Well, I pray to God regularly to tell me about these things. God is concerned about international conditions. He has set up the gentile monarchies, and they are running their course. Has God forgotten the book of Daniel? No, beloved. The book of Daniel and what is recorded in it still stands. The monster that God showed Nebuchadnezzar is still there, and the monarchies described in that book are running their course-they are nearing their end in the way God foretold that they should, and God would take us into His confidence as to what all those things mean. It is most important that we should be with God about those things, to be instructed about them. So God says, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do ... ?”, and He spoke to him about Sodom; and then it says that “Abraham drew near”-how beautiful that is!-and said to God, If there are fifty righteous in the city will You spare it? Yes, I will, God said. What a wonderful conversation that was, Abraham interceding for the world, with a view, of course, to his brother [p. 359] Lot in it. Should we not intercede for the world, with a view to our brethren in it, our Lots that are in it, that they might be rescued out of it? Well, God said, I will spare it for fifty. Will You not spare it for forty-five? Yes, for forty-five. For forty? Yes, for forty. For thirty? Yes, for thirty. For twenty?
Yes, for twenty. For ten? Yes, for ten. That is God, beloved, speaking to His friend. Abraham does not venture to go below ten, and so God left Abraham, the conversation was ended. That is how it stands; He did not break it off this time; it is a finished matter now. That is, we are drawing near to the close when the communications are about to stop. God went on, and “Abraham returned to his place”, and presently the smoke of Sodom arose like the smoke of a furnace. True enough the word of God was the word of God. There is no doubt about it; the world is doomed; we may as well accept it, but what I am at is this, that Abraham went to the very spot where God spoke to him, that is to say, the suggestion of the nearness of God-of the dignity too-of God’s recognition of Abraham in speaking to him about it, and Abraham recognising the spot. I have no doubt he would often think of that spot, the very spot where Jehovah had spoken to him. It is well to keep in mind where Jehovah speaks. Where does He speak today? He speaks in the assembly, in the church. That is where His communications are made, in the temple. “Know ye not”, says Paul, “that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3: 16). That is where God speaks.
Well, that is the place to go. Abraham went there and he saw the destruction of Sodom from that point. I do not believe we see anything aright save from that point. We see things as God sees them, and Abraham saw the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. That is all I had to say, just to stress the thought of speaking in nearness, and then speaking in [p. 360] a certain place where circumstances are according to the majesty and dignity that befit God; that we should have recourse to that place so as to be in the mind of God and so get the good of the speaking.