THE LAWGIVER
[p. 202] THE LAWGIVER
Genesis 49:10; Numbers 21:17, 18; 1 Corinthians 14:37
What is to be said tonight centres around the word ‘lawgiver’ found in the first two scriptures, and the thought is in the last scripture, though not the word. It is not the idea of a lawgiver in the sense of arbitrarily asserting the law as a principle, though it is there, but as affording divine principles according to the New Testament. The Old Testament had the thought of the law, but of very inferior character and quality indeed; all the Old Testament, the whole of it, hardly rose to the full thought of the law of God, at least it was inferior to that of the New Testament, and tended to dwarf the people of God; and so we have in Galatians the thought of the children of God, although in the mind of God they had the character of sons. It is mentioned in the Old Testament that the people were sons of God, but not in the full sense; inferiority was stamped on the Old Testament; therefore they were kept under “guardians and stewards” (Galatians 4:2) till the time of the crucifixion. It does not apply to Christ personally, for He was Himself never less than God, but He entered into the period of law and all that attached to it and dignified it according to what He was. It was the period of law, and of sight, “the period fixed by the father”, Galatians 4:2, not God exactly, but a figure of speech, the father having a place in any house, and fixing the period for his children; and the period I am speaking of is the period from the fixing of the law at Sinai; and now we are in the very greatest period ever fixed by God, and it cannot be stressed too much; we are sons of God “by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26);
[p. 203] every one of us belongs to the sons of God, as having the Holy Spirit.
What I read in the Old Testament has a certain inferiority to it, even the reference to the lawgiver in both books, as compared to the last scripture in 1 Corinthians. But here the sceptre is not to depart from Judah; he is not to give it up, and when we come to David, it is greatly increased; it reads in 2 Samuel 23:3, “the ruler among men shall be just, ruling in the fear of God; and he shall be as the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun, a morning without clouds; when from the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth”; so David, in his last words, tells us what a king is to be and Jacob does not tell us that, but that “The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet”; the feet were not of much importance there, but the head and the affections, so that the position of Judah is really inferior; the position of the feet must be taken into account, and we must think of the young, and the older should be more intelligent, so that the younger should keep in touch with the older. Judah had not acquired that yet, the time had to be waited for; Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, Josiah, all coming on to superiority of intelligence, but none had reached the fulness of time; that was when Christ came, the vessel through whom we might receive sonship. It is more than intelligence, we receive it, that thought; and the same thought applies to the Holy Spirit, so it was that certain disciples at Ephesus in Acts 19, when asked, had not heard if the Holy Spirit was come; they were babes really. They had not the full light of Christianity, they were really “under guardians and stewards”. You may say that applies to the Gentiles, but it applies to the Jews, too, as we had this afternoon (the difference between Acts 3 and Acts 14).
The man in Acts 3 may have been able to hobble a [p. 204] little, but you could not say he never walked. The time of walking is the time of the Spirit, so Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 that God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them; not talk, but walk, in these good works “which God has before prepared” for us, and as Christians we should be walking in them. The man in Lystra in Acts 14:8 heard Paul speak, “and he said with a loud voice, Rise up straight upon thy feet: and he sprang up and walked”. The other man was carried there by friendly hands, “whom they placed every day at the gate of the temple called Beautiful, to ask alms” (Acts 3:2), but it is not said that he never walked. It shows how things must be graded to be spiritual and intelligent in every part of the truth. So we have David’s heart poetically, the sweet psalmist of Israel, and in Acts 1 and 2 the citations are all from the Psalms, as if David was honoured as speaking of Christ and His glory. These five books of the Psalms compare with the five books of the Pentateuch; they were clearly compiled by David. Hardly anything is said of Judah but that the lawgiver was from between his feet. We have come to the time of the feet now, of men asserting the feet, laws that tend to bondage, not Christianity. David rose above all this. David had a root in Christ, who is “the root and offspring of David”, Revelation 22:16. We are not suggesting anything derogatory of Christ, for David had no place in Deity, he was always a creature. But the Lord says, “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star”. And then the Spirit and the bride know what to say. It is the full spiritual thought of “the Spirit and the bride”, and then it is as if the Spirit itself says, “And let him that hears say, Come”. And then we have, “And let him that is athirst come; he that will let him take the water of life freely”. There is liberty on God’s side, and taking on ours, so Paul says, “Did [p. 205] ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” (Acts 19:2), and I repeat that now here. Not that you received Him ten years ago, and you have never spoken or sung in the Spirit, but to be sure of it now. There were twelve of the Ephesians, and it seems to show what Paul would secure, and what a structure God would have in that city.
I mentioned David especially and we must stretch from him to Christ. He is a type of Christ, and has a great place in Revelation, a book that came in late, after most of Paul’s ministry, and affords much instruction and many promises to be in our hearts. So to Philadelphia the Lord says, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial” (Revelation 3:10); it was not to those of pentecostal times, but to Philadelphia, the sixth of the seven assemblies; they were to be kept from the tribulation “which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”; let us be afraid of earth — dwelling, even in what God has given us, for we may become worldly, as it says, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world”, 1 John 2:15. The one to whom John speaks may not be a minister, but it may be his wife; she may colour him and spoil him; I speak of what is possible and probable in most of us. So the word comes, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial”; the terrible thing that is coming; kept from this is the word. It is the Holy Spirit that keeps us from the world, in the midst of it, yet kept from it, and to know Him that is from the beginning. It says, “Love not the world”, for we may turn back and love it again; but we are to go on, to hold on, to go on, and then “he that is holy, let him be sanctified still” (Revelation 22:11), and you will not be captured by the world.
Now as to Numbers 21, and the development in the truth seen in the scripture, verse 17 reads, “Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! sing unto it:
[p. 206] well which princes digged, which the nobles of the! people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. You may say to me, There is something in Genesis! There is, and poetry, too! And there is more in mind in the song of Genesis 49; but here we have a song, and the Holy Spirit typically had come. It is now the place the lawgiver has, now not between anyone’s feet, but he is free to give directions; a believer who has the Spirit is free to direct someone, and the first person he should direct is himself! So in Romans 7:24 we get, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” He is not delivered yet, but then his mind gets the thought of it, and so it reads, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord”. It shows how quickly a thing can happen in a believer’s soul. He thanks God, and that is where the deliverance lies. Many do not thank God, even in public places for food; of the Lord it is said that “having given thanks” He broke the bread and fishes; Matthew 15:36. How can anyone refrain from giving thanks in the light of that scripture? One feels how often it is forgotten by many who are believers; it is piety to do it! Paul here puts things in the future instead of the past, for he knows how to use the right terms: “So then” (the conclusion he arrives at) “I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law”,Romans 7: 5. I have read this that the dear brethren may know that one with the Spirit has power to direct and give orders. Paul learnt here to give them, and in so doing he got deliverance, and his own self (”I myself“) comes into evidence in his soul, and that is what I am speaking of. Young people, as having the Spirit, can generally give orders, but to begin with one’s self is the first thing, so that you have power over your own mind and you will never partake of the Lord’s supper till you have power over your own mind; it is ‘for the calling of
me to mind‘ (1 Corinthians 11:24, note i); you begin to be a man spiritually as commanding your mind, as determined to be in control of yourself, and that is the great point in chapter 8, and there we have the true idea of the lawgiver; it is the Spirit of God really, and so in Romans 8 a great change comes over the believer when this can be said of him, far greater than Sinai. Paul speaks of himself more than any other because God ordered it. Paul would never think of doing or saying such things unless commanded or told to do so.
So in Numbers 21:17,18 it reads, “Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! sing unto it: well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver” (the lawgiver implies the word) “with their staves”. It is a development from Genesis 49; here in Numbers 21 the lawgiver is directly telling the people how to do things, to dig a hole for things to flow into; so the type comes into our minds and become antitypes in the New Testament, for instance in Romans 7 as has been said. We do not want to be in such ignorance, but to be in liberty, the liberty of the Spirit, set free “from the law of sin and of death”, Romans 8:2.
Now as to the last scripture, 1 Corinthians 14:37 is equivalent to the thought of the lawgiver, and it is a question of what one thinks in his mind, whether he is a spiritual man or a prophet, let him take heed to what Paul says in all that he does for the Lord, “let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”; the thought of the lawgiver especially enters into the first and second epistles to Corinth; Paul is the last word in everything. Paul is in the offing in Acts 9, but not until chapter 11 do we get him serving. The voice of the Lord said to him (Acts 9:4), “Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? ... I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest” He was then told to go into the [p. 208] city, to take a low place, and learn from Ananias in Damascus. We have to learn in order to be taught, and so it was with the first believers, “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles” (Acts 2:42); that is the thought that is so needed. Paul had sat at the feet of Gamaliel, but now it is Jesus, and then the disciple Ananias, and so Paul was compelled to go into the city and learn what is needed, not in the colleges or the seminary. Then the Lord very graciously went and told Ananias what he was to say to Saul, and so when he came to Saul he heard the word, “Saul, brother”; the first word is the greatest, to learn what the brethren are! ‘Plymouth brethren’, men say derisively, and we must accept the reproach. We are not that at all, really; we are brethren of one another, brethren of Christ, and sons of God; we should hold to it and the dignity of it. So Paul says, “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is [the] Lord’s commandment”. It covers the whole of the first letter, at any rate, one great commandment of the lawgiver, to walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh.