THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THINGS ARE TO BE CONTINUED
E. J. Mair
Numbers 12: 1–16; Isaiah 57: 15; 1 Peter 5: 5
I am just impressed, beloved brethren, as to the spirit in which things are to be maintained and continued amongst us. I was thinking of Moses’ spirit in the face of attack, how he does not defend himself, and the Lord comes to His defence. I was thinking of Isaiah, and we could apply it in the midst of the public position, the public body, the spirit that is required when people are assuming much and claiming much, but the Lord says, “I dwell ... with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit”. And then I thought in Peter of the spirit and attitude towards one another, “bind on humility towards one another”.
The Spirit of God, in this first scripture, would focus our minds on the kind of man that Moses was. The issue here was because of what he did, he had taken a Cushite as wife. The formation in Moses comes to light, “the man Moses was very meek”. I thought that in our localities when exercises come, for the history of things has always been exercise and always will be exercise, persons take on responsibility. So Moses took on responsibility. It is not always easy when responsibility has to be accepted and taken on. In these situations the Lord comes in and supports His servant, He stands by His servant, He stands by His testimony.
Matthew shows that the Lord, having accomplished everything in the will of God, having accomplished redemption, does not ascend, He is with His own. He says, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28: 20. He supports His testimony right to the completion of the age. Throughout the whole dispensation the Lord supports His testimony, but He also supports His servants. We have been engaged much with Paul over these two days and he says, “At my first defence no man stood with me ... But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power”, 2 Timothy 4: 16, 17. The Lord honours those who really seek to be set for Him and for His rights. Hence formation comes into a man like Moses.
I think the Spirit of God would focus our minds on Moses, what entered into the formation of manhood in Moses. Stephen in his address goes over the 120 years of Moses’ life which is separated into three periods of forty years. In the first forty years He was brought up in all the wisdom of Egypt, mighty in words and deeds, but there came a point when he made a choice.
We all have to make choices, young ones and old ones, brothers and sisters, there comes a point in life when we have to make a choice. Moses made a choice, he chose “rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”, Hebrews 11: 25. So Moses married, it says that he was given Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter, and she bore a son and “he called his name Gershom; for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”, Exodus 2: 22. That was, we may say, his first experience of the house of God, the first experience of the assembly typically in Moses’ life, that he was given Zipporah. He was given Zipporah, and as you experience the house of God the way Moses did you realise that the assembly is only here for testimony. As strangers and sojourners we begin to realise that the assembly is heavenly, heavenly in origin, heavenly in destiny and heavenly in testimony.
So there was a son born to him and he was a stranger and a sojourner. Then it says, “Moses tended the flock of Jethro his father-in-law” (Exodus 3: 1); he was taking an interest in his father-in-law’s sheep. It says, “he led the flock behind the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God—to Horeb”, that was a fine feature. David, too, was one who had a love for the sheep. In type, it means a love for the people of God, a love for the saints, those whom the Lord has secured. David was able to lead them with shepherd care. It says he led them according to the integrity of his heart. He led them and he fed them.
Moses was the same, and learned in those forty years in the wilderness how to love and care for the sheep. I think all that goes into the formation of the man Moses.
Then there came a time at the burning bush when God spoke to him about His people, about Israel, the way they were under the bondage of Pharaoh, under oppression in Egypt. God said to him, This is My people and I want you to go to Pharaoh and say unto Pharaoh certain things; I want you to take My people and lead them out of Egypt. Moses said, How shall I go unto Pharaoh, how shall I lead this people out of Egypt? God says of Moses, “Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly”. Think of the free happy relations there were between God and Moses. Then he goes through exercises of soul; he had to take the staff that was in his hand and cast it to the ground and it became a serpent. Then he put his hand into his bosom and out it came leprous as snow. Think of all that Moses had to learn that was in him; “in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell”, Romans 7: 18. All these features enter into the formation of a man like this, “the man Moses was very meek”. We can go over the history and think of his leadership as they came through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, the leadership of Moses and the murmurings of the people. They were just over and they murmured for water; they were given water and then they murmured against Moses and Aaron and they were given bread, the manna that was brought down to them from heaven. All these things entered into the formation of a servant like this.
So you find here that he is under attack. Miriam and Aaron spoke against him because of the way he had taken the Cushite. It is the way things are held amongst us. Someone in the locality has to accept responsibility and sometimes it is not very easy going, but the Lord loves to come in and support and strengthen His servants. I suppose this is similar in the New Testament to Paul. Think of the way the Lord supported Paul, having said at his conversion, “Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me” (Acts 9: 15); how much Paul was for the Lord Himself in the way he brought the great truth to the Gentiles of God and His house, of Christ and the assembly. Then especially when he went to Corinth and the way he took on the saints at Corinth; think of the Lord saying to him, “I have much people in this city” (Acts 18: 10) and the way he worked in relation to what was there at Corinth. They were very difficult times. He had to bring up the matter later of divisions amongst them, some saying they were of Paul, some of Cephas and even some of Christ. It was not easy to go there because of the divisions that existed amongst them and the issues that were outstanding, but he wrote to them as the assembly of God in Corinth. There were other places there in Corinth, the Jewish synagogues and the Greek temples, yet he laid hold of the divine thought of the saints in Corinth, even through all their difficulties and exercises.
They were the assembly of God in that place, representative of God Himself. When Paul came under attack at Corinth what the man was shone out very beautifully. He says in 2 Corinthians 10, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ” (2 Corinthians 10: 1). That was the same spirit that came out in Moses. He says, “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”, 2 Corinthians 11: 2. Paul really took on the saints, in Cushite character, accepting responsibility, and he proved the Lord’s help and support in it.
So it says, “the man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. Then Jehovah comes down and supports him, speaking of “my servant Moses—he is faithful in all my house”. It was what the man was to God. Think of God working this way in relation to Miriam and Aaron, asserting His rights and claims. He says, “Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly, and not in riddles; and the form of Jehovah doth he behold”. I was just impressed with the spirit that came out in the man Moses; he was very meek.
Meekness was a feature that was seen in Christ. He said, “learn from me” (Matthew 11: 29), and in the discipline that Moses went through in the house of God he was obviously learning.
He would not have learned it in Egypt, but I think he learned it in the king’s valley. Jesus was “meek and lowly in heart”, and He says, “learn from me”. We are to have the pattern before us, beloved brethren, and to learn from Him. Then it goes on in that section to say, “and ye shall find rest to your souls”. You can see the rest that was with Moses when he was under attack; he was very restful, having learned it in the king’s valley. Moses says nothing in his defence, but he cries to Jehovah to heal Miriam. He says, “O God, heal her, I beseech thee!”
He knew where the healing properties lay; they lay with Jehovah Himself. The priest could not heal; according to Leviticus the priest was a cleanser, but God was the Healer, and Moses cries to God to heal her. They were held up seven days while she was shut up. Seven days and the people did not move until Miriam was received in again, “And afterwards the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran”. Well, may our hearts learn these things so that in the face of persecution, when we come under attack, if it is in any way personal, we can leave the matter with God; He is the One who will come in in our defence.
I thought we could apply the scripture in Isaiah to the public position, because the position here was anything but in keeping with God’s will. They were saying they were keeping the sabbaths and these fasts and so on, and He has to say by the prophet that they were really pleasing themselves. They were not at all pleasing God, they were pleasing themselves, and that is characteristic of the day we are in now, men are lovers of pleasure and lovers of self rather than lovers of God. That is said of professing men. In Romans 1 it is the unregenerate state of man, what the Gentiles were in their state of darkness and alienation from God; but in 2 Timothy 3 it is professing men, what we find around us today; men are lovers of pleasure, lovers of self, rather than lovers of God. We are in Laodicean times when persons are indifferent. That is really what they were here, they were indifferent to Jehovah in His rights and claims over them. We are in the midst of that today and I thought of the importance of the contrite and humble spirit. Things are perishing all around us in the public profession, and in the presence of such decline what is needed is humility. We cannot afford to take high ground, in view of having the Lord’s help and His support and His presence. I think what is needed are the features of humility and contrition.
In Romans 9, 10 and 11, when Paul broke away from the teaching of the gospel to speak about the illustrious place that Israel had in the ways of God, his word to the Gentiles is, “Be not high-minded, but fear—if God indeed has not spared the natural branches; lest it might be he spare not thee either”, Romans 11: 20, 21. I just felt that, in the midst of the current state of things, we need to be humble and contrite in spirit. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy—I dwell in the high and holy place”.
The Lord Jesus is dwelling on high, He ascended up on high. Paul says to the Ephesians, “But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?”, Ephesians 4: 9. He has given gifts to men, “some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints; with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ”, Ephesians 4: 11, 12. That is what He has given in view of our strengthening here. He also says, “I dwell in the high and lofty place, and with him that is of a humble and contrite spirit”. Over against the assumption and the claims that we have in these chapters, if we know the Lord’s presence, I think the result is that we are quickened in our minds and affections. We do not need to claim that the Lord is with us or anything like that, but the point is the Lord dwelling. He dwells with this kind of spirit, and it results in persons who know the Lord’s presence, who know His support, who are quickened in their affections.
I enjoyed the scripture last night regarding those heavenly visitors who came to Abraham, to his tent door, and the result of them coming to Abraham was that he was quickened in his affections (Genesis 18). Abraham said to Sarah in the tent to bake cakes and he went to the herd to get a calf, tender and good, and said to the servant to dress it and so on. We can see the activity there was when these persons came to Abraham. I think that is one evidence of the Lord in a place, in a company, that persons move in relation to the One who comes, move in relation to the One who dwells, and the result is that there is something provided for the Lord Himself. So when Isaac came before Rebecca, it says that she sprang from the camel; she knew the one who was coming, and when he came she sprang from the camel. Let us provide conditions for the Lord to come, so that when He comes there is this great upsurge of movement from our souls in response to Him.
In John 12, Jesus came to Bethany, and what was the result? “They made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those at table with him” (John 12: 1, 2). Think of the activity because the Lord came to where Lazarus had been raised from among the dead. The Lord Jesus came to Bethany, it was one of the pleasant places of which it says, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”, Psalm16: 6. How much the pleasant slopes of the mount of Olives meant to the Lord as He was here. Then when He came to Bethany they were quickened in their affections. Colossians speaks about being dead with Him and buried with Him and raised with Him, then we are quickened in our affections so that there is an appreciation of the way the Lord presents Himself. So it says, “I dwell ... with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to
revive the heart of the contrite ones”. Paul wrote to Timothy in the darkening state of the assembly to bring in revival, to rekindle what was drooping. That is the kind of day we are in, dear brethren, in the darkening state of the assembly publicly. Paul felt the need in Timothy, a young man “to rekindle the gift of God which is in thee”, 2 Timothy 1: 6. Well these days are really for rekindling in all our souls, for reviving in our souls and in our affections. We break bread week by week, and every Lord’s day is a great rallying point for our minds and affections as we gather together unannounced. The Lord’s supper is unannounced, but persons gather in love for Him, feeling His absence; we rally in our minds and affections, rally in response to that blessed One, we are revived in our affections for Him.
Well, just to finish with the scripture in Peter, it is our spirit towards one another, “bind on humility towards one another”. It has been said if a thing is bound on it does not fall off.
Certain things are to be put on as the elect of God, and if things are bound on, it is to become characteristic of us. The footnote at the beginning of the chapter is, ‘to acquire that character by doing it’. By doing certain things they become characteristic of the persons. I was thinking of Peter in John 21 when the Lord gave him the commission to feed His lambs, to shepherd His sheep and to feed His sheep. Here he says, “shepherd the flock of God”. Then he says, “Likewise ye younger, be subject to the elder, and all of you bind on humility towards one another”. In the believer certain things are bound on. In Proverbs it says, “Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother; for they shall be a garland of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck”, Proverbs 1: 8, 9. The believer, early in his life, learns to be ornamental, things are bound on and as he goes on he progresses.
The epistle to the Romans is how the believer progresses, how priesthood develops in the believer. The teaching of the mother relates to baptism in Romans 6 and the way you have “your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”, Romans 6: 22. It goes on in chapter 12 to presenting your body, putting your body on the altar, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service” (Romans 12: 1). It brings in the renewing of the mind. It is an important feature of the priesthood, you begin to think differently. There were certain characteristics of the priesthood in Exodus 28, and one thing that was bound on was the high cap, that relates to our minds, our minds are renewed in the way we think. The Lord’s supper is certainly something that affects our minds; it is for a calling of Him to mind. We are not as the world as they view things, we are renewed in the mind so that the high cap is bound on, and we can see how the believer progresses.
Then there is this binding on of “humility towards one another; for God sets himself against the proud”. Earlier Peter wrote about the sisters “whose adorning let it not be that outward one of tressing of hair, and wearing gold, or putting on apparel; but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit”, 1 Peter 3: 3, 4. Think of how the sisters can have the adornment of that incorruptible ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. That is because of the hidden man of the heart; it is because of the place the Lord has been given in the heart. Then this here is what is ornamental of us all, the young and the old, “all of you bind on humility towards one another”. That is how things work out in the spirit of humility. In John 13, before the Lord went to the Father, He adjusted His own in relation to one another. The feet washing was the adjustment in relation to one another. Here Peter is about to put off his tabernacle and he is concerned that we are right in relation to one another in this spirit. You think of how the Lord took the water and the wash-hand basin and washed the feet of the disciples. No wonder Mr. Darby says, ‘O lowliness, how feebly known’ (Hymn 138). What a great way to serve the saints! Think of what has been set out in the Lord Himself in the way He adjusted His own ere He left this scene. “God sets himself against the proud”; there was never any pride in Jesus. He had a love for God and a love for His Father; He did the will of His God and Father, nothing could deter that.
King Nebuchadnezzar was one who was very proud; he said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built” (Daniel 4: 30), but God came in with discipline. The very same hour, Nebuchadnezzar was given to eat the grass of the field like the cattle; that was discipline and the result of the discipline was that his heart was secured. The man was converted and he could praise and extol the God who ruled over heaven and earth. It shows how God was set against his pride and the way he had built up his system. We can thank God that Nebuchadnezzar was secured through discipline. There was no discipline for Belshazzar, there was judgment for him; but for Nebuchadnezzar there was discipline, and the result was that he was secured for the praise of God. Today, all around us is Babylon, saying, “I sit a queen, and I am not a widow” (Revelation 18: 7), not feeling the absence of Christ. But I think we have come together as feeling the absence of Christ from this scene. One very fine way to experience the Lord amongst us is that we feel His absence from this scene. Babylon around us has no feeling. They know the Lord has gone; it says in Proverbs, “the husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey; he hath taken the money-bag with him”, Proverbs 7: 19, 20. Men will admit that the Lord has gone; but the Lord is coming for His own and He is coming to take up His rights. I trust the Lord may encourage us to be maintained in the spirit of these scriptures until He comes. For His name’s sake.
Address at Denton, Texas
25 May 2002