LIKE JESUS

Morrison Wood

Exodus 25: 10, 11; 27: 1, 2; 26: 15, 17, 29

One of the main things about all these typical scriptures is that again and again the Spirit of God is directing our hearts and minds to Jesus. What is simply on my heart is that, whereas we have been considering the loveliness of the Lord Jesus, in His moral excellence, and every human grace that was there in its highest development, His lowliness, His meekness, His patience, His grace, and His compassion – underneath all that lay the most tremendous strength. There was never weakness. There was remarkable power in the Person of Jesus, enduring strength underneath all that was so attractive and approachable to men. Doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil, reaching out to every soul in need; that was Jesus, but underneath there was what is represented here in the enduring, strong character of the acacia wood. Acacia wood is quite outstanding (in terms of timber) for its strength. So I want to speak about the ark, the altar, and the boards – all made of acacia wood.

The ark of the covenant was quite small; “two cubits and a half the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof”. It was a box which could be carried, and the lid, which was the mercy-seat, was pure gold. The wonderful thing is that that lowly Man, in all His meekness, in all His excellence, was able to sustain in testimony all that God was. Here, true to His Manhood, true to His wonderful lowly humanity, He could sustain all that God was. Do you take that in? I wish I could. How infinitely marvellous!

At the time that Israel crossed the Jordan in Joshua, you get four different titles of the ark – the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth (see Josh 3: 11), then it is described as the ark of the testimony (see Josh 4: 16), then the ark of the covenant of Jehovah (see Josh 4: 7), and also the ark of Jehovah (see Josh 3: 13). Mr. Coates says (Outline of Joshua, p.14) that he thinks these titles correspond with the four gospels, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is Matthew’s gospel, the ark of the testimony, Mark’s gospel, the ark of the covenant of Jehovah is Luke’s gospel and the ark of Jehovah is John’s gospel. Beloved, I commend this to you; the gospels are a sphere of delight. Read them and read them: they always throw up something that you have never noticed before in all the excellence of the character of Jesus. In all His meekness and in all His lowliness, underneath there was tremendous strength. God was there. His enemies tried to harass Him, tried to catch Him at His sayings. They were always holding another council that they might get rid of Him and put Him to death, but watch His wondrous power and authority as He replied to these people and they retired in confusion. The Lord never hurt anybody. He used the wickedness and hypocrisy of these people who tried to catch Him in what He was saying to bring out the most wonderful truth. Follow up some of these things in the gospels where they tempted the Lord, and watch the truth that He brings out. God was there; it was the acacia wood and it was overlaid with gold. It is easily within the compass of our hearts and minds. The ark must have been a beautiful piece of work and we are told here what its dimensions were. To borrow what the Queen of Sheba said when she came, the half had not been told (see 1 Kings 10: 7); and you also will find that as you come more into contact with Jesus.

Take Matthew’s gospel; that time in chapter 21, when the Lord sent for the ass and the colt. The disciples bring them and they put their clothes on them, and then He is going into Jerusalem. The disciples catch the spirit of this and they take off their garments and throw them in the way. The thing is gaining momentum; some others start cutting down branches off the trees and strewing them in the way; it is infectious. Bring Jesus into a situation. A colt, an older person and a younger person: bring something of Jesus into a situation, a city, a meeting, and watch what happens. The thing grew and it developed impetus until the whole city was moved about them, saying, “Who is this?”, Matt 21: 10. The reply was, “This is Jesus the prophet who is from Nazareth of Galilee”. I would love to have been there. Jesus then entered the temple and overthrew the tables of the money-changers. The blind and lame were coming in and the blind were getting their sight; the lame were able to walk, and the children were crying in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David” (v.15). The only unhappy people there were the Pharisees. The blind people were coming in and they were going out with vision. They came to a meeting and they began to see things that they had never seen before. The people who could not walk, were walking about. This is what happens when you bring Jesus into a situation. The children were happy too. The Pharisees were upset and said to the Lord, “Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus says to them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (v.16). The Lord would have been more than master for any of them. The ark was made of acacia wood and it was overlaid with gold, God was there. Solemnly it says, “And leaving them he went forth out of the city to Bethany, and there he passed the night” (v.17).

More recently I have longed and prayed that my local meeting might be a Bethany. I commit the exercise to you; a place where the Lord feels comfortable, where He can come when there is no room for Him in all that is official in Christendom. He can come into a place where He is loved and feels comfortable and He can pass the night, the night of His rejection, among hearts that truly love Him. My Saviour! Oh to provide Him with a greater and greater place!

Take Mark’s gospel, when they are in the boat and a storm gets up. You see the waves beating into the ship and they were in danger, and Jesus is asleep on the cushion (see Mark 4: 37,38). The disciples were distressed and said, “Teacher, dost thou not care that we are perishing?” and Jesus rose up and “rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Silence; be mute”. He did not raise His voice. In the raging of the storm, would He rage at the storm? No. The power, the lowliness of the Man Jesus, asleep; He was a simple, Man in His precious humanity, tired. There are times in the testimony when hearts get anxious and you feel things are not right, and you are not carried in your conscience by this or that, and certain other activities; you say, what is the Lord doing? Is He asleep? Beloved, He is not asleep, He may would appear to human eyes not to be interested and not caring, but beloved, He is more than interested and He is more than caring. The Creator was there; the ark of God was there; of acacia wood and overlaid with gold.

Then you come to Luke’s gospel. There was that time when He was in the house of the Pharisee when there was a woman, greatly burdened about her sins, and she was weeping, and she had to get to Jesus. She knew that He could help but she was not at all sure about whether there would be forgiveness for her; but the Lord takes the opportunity to tell Simon the Pharisee a story which is the very essence of the gospel. The story of a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty, and He sums up the whole problem of man on this earth in the sight of God; man under debt. It did not matter whether it was a vast amount or a small amount. The fact was none of them had the means to pay any of it (see Luke 7: 36-50). It is a marvellous story. It gives you the essential ingredients of the glad tidings, and God was there. He said to the woman, “Thy sins are forgiven”. Then there is a clamour about that. Only God can forgive sins, which is quite right. God was there with forgiveness; the ark was there, the acacia wood overlaid with gold. How precious! God had come down in love in the lowliness of Jesus. Man was heavily in debt and Jesus had come to demand the debt? No. To collect the debt? No. He came to pay the debt and He paid it in full; my Saviour. Only He could pay that price. What a price it was! Beloved, He paid it and He paid it in full. Oh the clearance, the sweet consciousness of standing before God without a charge. Someone else has stepped in to take my place, cleared my debt, to meet the judgment that I so richly deserved; my Saviour. God was there, but in lowly, humble manhood. What strength! Underneath all the loveliness that we see in an external way in Jesus, what was there? There was this tremendous enduring strength. What a study He is! There is nobody like Him.

When you come to John’s gospel you find a lowly humble Man. He must needs go through Samaria. It was a wearisome way and He was tired and He sat just as He was at the well. God was there, in Jesus, in His simple humanity, weary with the way that He had come. The woman was a bit baffled. First that He spoke to her at all. The disciples could not believe it; they were astonished that He spoke with a woman, apart from the fact that she was a Samaritan. It was not done. But He spoke in all the kindness of His grace and says to her, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee” (John 4: 10). That is the question. In Matthew it is “Who is this?”, and in the storm in the boat, in Mark the disciples ask, “Who is this?”. She went out to tell the men of the city, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?” (v.29). She was going there too. Her testimony was so effective because she had been in the presence of the ark of Jehovah. Her testimony was powerful and effective. The men came out of the city and the blessing extends.

Could I urge you, not with analytical minds, but with adoring hearts to read the gospels and see shining through every incident that was there. As Mr. Darby put it:

We see the Godhead glory

Shine through that human veil,

And, willing, hear the story

Of love that’s come to heal.      (Hymn 188)

How wonderful!

I speak about the altar, I have noticed that the dimensions of the altar are exactly double those of the ark. The altar was made of acacia wood and it was overlaid with copper. Not only was Jesus able, as represented in the ark, to sustain in Manhood all that God was and therefore sustain the glory that is His in Manhood in the presence of God, but down here He was the altar and that altar came under tremendous pressure. The altar had to sustain the sacrifice that would meet the majesty, the holiness, the glory of God, His justice; all that God was. A sacrifice that would meet all that, that God might be glorified. It was made of acacia wood but overlaid with copper, which represented what was due to God and His holiness in regard of sin. Sacrifice must take place. Think of the Lord in times of immense pressure when He began to be deeply sorrowful in spirit. There was pressure on His soul in that time in Gethsemane. Matthew’s account tells us that He fell on His face, “praying and saying, My Father”, 26: 39. In Mark it says, “he fell upon the earth; and he prayed” (14: 35), in Luke it says, “having knelt down he prayed” (22: 41). Thinking of the altar, humanly speaking. You get a bullock weighing about ten hundredweight, and by the time that is cut in pieces you are going to need a very large fire to burn that. The pressure was on all the time, the fire never went and there was the continual burnt-offering, the morning and evening sacrifices. There were all the sacrifices and it needed someone great enough to sustain that before God. It is affecting to sit and read of just what pressure was on Him. He did not give way. The enemy had returned in all his power and the Lord Jesus, in all His sinless, perfect, holy humanity was there, knowing what the will of God required; He would be that sacrifice to meet the judgment of God in regard of sin. To settle matters to God’s glory and bring in a universe for the pleasure of God, and bring about our blessing. What a Saviour! The altar was there, it was made of acacia wood and it was overlaid with copper.

Finally, I wish to talk about you. We come to the boards of the tabernacle. It is interesting that it says, “And the boards for the tabernacle thou shalt make of acacia-wood, standing up”. They had never had a dimension like this. We have the curtains in their colours, their greatness, their dimensions, but then what was going to support this tabernacle system? This was God’s dwelling. The boards of the tabernacle represent you and they are overlaid with gold. Do you know how lovely you are in the divine sight? Have you thought about it? They were made of the same material as the ark, acacia wood and overlaid with gold, speaking of Jesus. Think about it. Part of this system where God could come and God could dwell. That is why the gospel secured you. That is why Jesus has reached in His grace to bring you to Himself that you may have part in this system where God is served. The boards of the tabernacle were ten cubits and they were on bases of silver. That redemption that Jesus secured for you is an eternal redemption to which you have contributed nothing. It is all His work, it is all divine grace; it is all from the divine side, and what peace and rest it brings in to your soul when you realise, I am standing on a work which is perfect and God is infinitely satisfied with it. They were upright but overlaid with gold. You may think, the acacia wood was enduring, but I am afraid I do not think I have very much endurance. Beloved, from the divine side this is how you are viewed. Grace has not only taken you up in your need and your lost and ruined condition, but has set you up in the place of divine favour which is exactly the place that Jesus has. His place is ours, can you take that in? Believe it. Take this in by faith. It is wonderful; and this is how you are viewed from the divine side. In the wilderness, as you struggle through, do not forget that the wilderness exercises develop in you practically and morally what answers to the acacia wood. Read Romans 5, “not only that, but we also boast in tribulation, knowing that tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope” (vv. 3,4). There is something working in your soul history. Do you know what tribulation is? I had the privilege to be a number of times in this meeting when saints were going through very real pressure and exercises. Today with joy, I am seeing the development of it. I see stature, I see the acacia wood, and I see it in the faces of the saints. Not only in this locality, but I am looking in the faces of brethren from other meetings who have come under very great pressure. Your tribulation is working endurance; there is becoming an increasing answer to what Jesus was like, acacia wood overlaid with gold. You are not going to break down. You have kept going although the pressures have been great. The localities that are represented here have come through very great pressure and stress. The tribulation is actually working. You are not working at it, but the tribulation is working something in your souls which is endurance, which I think is the acacia wood. Sometimes the enemy works for the testimony. After the persecution of Stephen, after Stephen’s death, what happened? The saints were scattered. So was the gospel, and the work of God went on and these simple brothers and sisters who had been persecuted and had to flee and go to other places told people about Jesus, and they did the very thing which the apostles had been told to do but did not. Take courage, take comfort, the Lord is watching and there is something developing in your soul which is just like Jesus. It is not all just happy meetings, and thank God we have some precious times, but along with the tribulation, the wilderness pathway, the slog that you feel it becomes at times being a Christian, there is something working that is likeness to Jesus. Do you know how lovely you are to God?

When it is all dismantled and the testimony moves on, the boards of the tabernacle are set up again and you are not concerned who you are with. You might be set up in the area surrounding the holy of holies, or you might find yourself just at the entrance. You might find yourself up on the other side overlooking the altar and any other piece, but you are content. Grace has brought you to be part of this wonderful divine system and you want to be a true board of the tabernacle, made of acacia and like Jesus overlaid with gold.

These thoughts are simple and I feel that I have not done justice to them. I commend them to you for your prayerful, thoughtful and affectionate consideration. May the Lord bless the word.

 

GRIMSBY

7 February 2004