THE BASKET OF FIRSTFRUITS
[p. 509] THE BASKET OF FIRSTFRUITS
Deuteronomy 1: 5 - 8; Deuteronomy 26:1 - 11
Perhaps one might say that there are few books in the Bible less understood than the book of Deuteronomy; and I think it is because the assembly is not understood; for, I take it, that Deuteronomy contains regulations for the assembly. You will notice in chapter 1:5, that Moses speaks of a second law. He had given the first one in Exodus 20. The first law was largely intended to regulate the people in the wilderness. There were many regulations for the wilderness the force of which, of necessity, ceased after the wilderness journey was over; but what you find in the book of Deuteronomy are instructions for the people, which were to be permanent; laws which applied to them only as in the land.
Now it is to my mind of great importance that that thought should be laid hold of. You will notice that, after speaking of the law given in the land of Moab, the Spirit proceeds to indicate the character of it; “The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them”, Deuteronomy 1:6 - 8.
God took account of the people in the wilderness; He knew perfectly what the wilderness was. It was not a land flowing with milk and honey. The people had been there forty years, and in the kindness of His heart God suggested to them to move on. He [p. 510] said, You have been at the mount long enough. It is true that this had been said at Horeb, but the generation to which the first law was given never answered to it, so here it is set at the beginning of the second law, which is spoken to another generation. I allude to it just for a moment, for one is forced to the conclusion that the people of God are more content in the wilderness than in the land, and, if not in the wilderness strictly, at any rate, in the plains of Moab.
Now there was no law for the plains of Moab; the second law, alluded to here, was given there, but it did not apply to the plains of Moab; it applied to the land of Canaan, and it is most touching that God, through Moses, should proceed to suggest to the people that they move on, opening up to them the entire extent of the promised land. That is what the Spirit of God would seek to do for us. The resurrection and ascension of Christ secures for man at the present moment what answers spiritually to the entire extent of the land of promise, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, including the valleys and the hills; Lebanon and the sea-shore; a land flowing with milk and honey; a land watered with the rain from heaven; a land influenced by heaven itself; that land is opened up to the people of God at the present moment, and it is most touching that Jehovah, in opening up His second law, in giving the regulations for the land, should suggest to them to go in.
Well, I would suggest to all here, that, inasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is ascended as Man, it entitles man to the land of promise. The time will come when God will discriminate; some of His people will remain upon the earth, while others will inhabit heaven. But the Lord Jesus Christ has gone into heaven as a risen Man; He has taken up a place as Man beyond [p. 511] death, and the place He occupies indicates God’s mind for man. There is nothing limited; the whole land, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, is opened up to man. It opens out a wonderful vista. Moses did not put his feet there, but he saw it. It is a wonderful thing to get a glimpse of the land of promise. All these things were spoken in the plains of Moab. Moses saw the land from Moab, but never put his feet there until he appeared with Christ on the mount of transfiguration. That was when Moses got into the land of Canaan.
Now beloved friends, where are we? The plains of Moab is a most desirable place for a certain state of soul in Christians. The Israelite that inhabited the plains of Moab had the Spirit typically, and was an intelligent believer, but he dwelt in the land in which there was no law. Moab was not strictly the wilderness, and the regulations given in relation to the tabernacle did not extend beyond the brazen serpent; and the second law, given subsequently, refers to Canaan. You will get no help from God, no specific directions from God, as dwelling in the plains of Moab. People who dwell there are Christians; they have title to Canaan, but they do not go there, and, inasmuch as they have no regulations from God, they make regulations for themselves, they formulate codes of laws for themselves; these laws are especially fitted for them, but they are not God’s laws. Now God begins His law by directing His people to move into Canaan, and He opens up the entire extent of the land of promise to them.
Now, I was saying that Deuteronomy corresponds with the assembly in a sense. One could easily show that from different passages. I refer to one particularly in chapter 15, in which Jehovah enjoins the people, all the males, to appear before Him three times in the year. Now I take it that when the Spirit of God specifies the males among His people He [p. 512] alludes to the saints viewed as formed in the intelligence of the Spirit, and hence they represent the whole. They were to appear three times in the year. I venture to connect it with the Lord’s request in regard to the Lord’s supper. It may be inquired, Why three times? I believe that three is an adequate testimony, and in the threefold appearance of all the males of Israel in the presence of Jehovah you have an adequate testimony of their affections, affections formed by the Spirit of God, and they are not on the wane. If they only appeared once or twice one might conclude that their affections were declining; but inasmuch as they were to appear three times in the year it indicates how Jehovah would secure for Himself the affections of His people. As often as they responded there was a positive testimony to sustained affections.
Now I think that it is in that way the Lord maintains us. We do not come three times in the year only; we come on the first day of every week in answer to the request of our Lord. Every Christian who neglects the Supper virtually confesses that he has no affection for Christ. It is impossible for one who really has affection for Christ, and who rightly understands the Supper, to neglect it. Therefore the Supper was to be a continual law, so to say. It was to be permanent during the absence of Christ. It was to afford an opportunity for the saints to attest their affection for the Lord. But what I wish specially to call attention to is that in the assembly there is a witness to resurrection.
I do not say, for the moment, that the assembly itself is that, although that is also true, but what I see in Deuteronomy 26 is that, as the Lord’s people appear before God they do not appear in their own nakedness; they appear with that in evidence which is an obvious testimony to Christ in resurrection, the basket of firstfruits. That is what I had specially [p. 513] before my mind, but I would like to encourage you first of all in regard to the assembly. As the resurrection of Christ is realised and laid hold of in the soul one is led to the assembly, and once there, you are under the law that is to regulate the assembly. I would impress you with that, because we are living in a most lawless age; and I would point out again that the law that is to regulate you in your individual conduct is not the law that is to regulate you in the assembly. There are regulations for the assembly that have no reference to the wilderness; and there are regulations for the wilderness which have no reference to the assembly.
It is most important, if we are to walk together, and if we are to maintain the order that belongs to God, and to God’s house, that we should recognise that there is a code of laws, so to speak, which regulate the assembly. Those laws are of a unique character; as I have already pointed out, they begin with directing the saints to go in, and that in itself suggests a great deal. They are of a unique character; in truth, because it is the law of new creation. Who can tell anything about the law of new creation? Certainly none but those who are created anew. The apostle says, “neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them, and mercy”, Galatians 6:16. Is that your rule? It is a rule that is altogether outside of the ken of man in the flesh. He may know something of the law given at Sinai, but the law of new creation is outside of him. The law that rules in God’s world is altogether and absolutely outside of the knowledge of man in the flesh for “neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision”,
Now that is what the assembly presents under the eye of God. It is a company of people here upon the earth risen with Christ, morally outside the present [p. 514] order of things; a people to which the laws of the present world have no application; it is ruled by the law of new creation; in that people there is what is for God, and it is because of that I delight in the book of Deuteronomy. It is the family book. The priest and the Levite officially have little place there. The priest is recognised in chapter 26, but when the man comes and sets his basket of firstfruits before God (verse 10) he is the most conspicuous person; not that he was conspicuous personally, but the basket of firstfruits was conspicuous. You may ask where he got it. We must not be too abstract in dealing with divine things. If that man came in with his basket of firstfruits they cost him something; they were placed down by the altar; they were a sacrifice. You remember David positively declined to offer to God anything that he did not pay for; and the man who can come up on the first day of the week with a basket of firstfruits brings what has cost him something; they may cost him a good deal of self-denial, and a good deal of sacrifice. They are the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his affections; they are the fruit of the Holy Spirit forming a man after Christ; so that, instead of the Syrian, instead of a poor dying, perishing Syrian, you have a man living; for, remember, the man himself is the basket and the firstfruits are in the man; they are not separated from the man, they are in him. The man is formed after Christ by the power of the Spirit of God. That man appears in the presence of God in all the character of Christ risen from the dead. It is the firstfruits. He got them out of the land; he came up to Jehovah with something he had got in the land.
As risen with Christ, “raised with him through faith of the working of God”, Colossians 2:12, the Holy Spirit has His way with the believer, and the Syrian is not there; the man himself is the basket; the fruit is in the basket, and the man appears in the presence of [p. 515] God. He does not forget what his father was, “a Syrian ready to perish”, (Deuteronomy 26:5) but he is not ready to perish. Viewed as risen with Christ we are not ready to perish; we are living; we are made to live by the power of the Spirit, and we appear before God in all that Christ is. It is not simply Christ objectively, for, I repeat, that the basket was full of firstfruits, and that the basket is the man; it is the affections of the man. The firstfruits are in the man. We appear before God as formed by the Spirit so that what God sees is Christ. He does not see the Syrian; He sees Christ. The assembly is not composed of Syrians ready to perish. It is composed of men risen with Christ, and those men are not only risen with Christ as an objective truth, they are also quickened subjectively, Colossians 2.
The basket is placed down there at the altar of God by the priest, and the man worships. And the Scripture goes on to say, “And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me”, Deuteronomy 26:11. The man is in the land, and he recognises that God has brought him there and given it to him, and he says, I have brought the firstfruits; he had brought them to God. It is a great thing for God to find in us the gracious fruit of the Spirit formed in our affections, so that morally Christ appears and not the Syrian. The word says “And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God”. Deuteronomy 26:10. Now it seems to me that all these things are found today in the assembly.
Then, “And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you”, Deuteronomy 26:11. There is the side of things that God indicates for His people. God receives His portion from us, and there is joy, there is abundance, and there is joy, not only for [p. 516] ourselves, but also for the Levite and the stranger. The Lord’s servant is not neglected, neither is the stranger.
Such, beloved friends, is the order of things that God has inaugurated here upon the earth in connection with Christ risen from the dead. His beloved people are formed by the Spirit, and thus all those things come to pass in the assembly.