THE BRAZEN SERPENT AND THE SPRINGING WELL
THE BRAZEN SERPENT AND THE SPRINGING WELL
I think it is clear that what comes out till the end of Numbers 20 has reference to the wilderness position and the tabernacle. Aaron was essential to that order of things, and his death indicates that it had terminated. What is in view from this chapter onward is life, to the end that there should be a people suitable to Canaan. The inhabitants of that land were not only to be justified; they were to be a living people.
In this chapter we have fully proved that the man after the flesh is hostile to God; essentially and utterly incorrigible. “The people spake against God, and against Moses”. Numbers 21:5. God did not need this proof, but it is recorded for our learning. He “needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man”. John 2:25. Numbers records the believer’s experience; that is, after a certain period he discovers that the flesh in him is opposed to God, and this becomes of great concern to him. This discovery by the believer is answered by the teachings of this chapter. There are two main parts in the gospel, namely, righteousness and life. The first is in Leviticus 16. God vindicates Himself in the mercy seat (the blood being there) in respect of the justification of man. The second is seen in Numbers 21. The serpent of brass was lifted up, so that man might look thereon and live. Life, like justification, is obtained on the principle of faith, but it is faith in Christ as bearing the condemnation of sin in the flesh. The serpent of brass is in view both in John 3 and Romans 8. In the former, eternal life is the result for the believer; but in the latter, life in the sense of power to live is contemplated. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness”. Romans 8:10. This is life subjectively in the wilderness.
[p. 25] Righteousness does not settle the question of state: it speaks of God’s attitude towards all men, as we see in Romans 3, but man needs power subjectively, and this is also announced in the gospel. Then there is the blessing which God purposed for man; this is eternal life. This is God’s act of favour in Christ. In order that God should have that response which He looks for in His creatures, there must be a vital principle introduced. The Lord is a quickening Spirit, and so has power to introduce the spirit of life into the creation, and it is in this that God will be glorified. God is praised by those who live Hezekiah says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee”. Isaiah 38:19. Eternal life is spoken of in Romans 5 and 6, but chapter 8 presents the subjective side; life in the Spirit in the believer as enabling him to fulfil righteousness in the wilderness. The law is now fulfilled where, so to speak, it fell to the ground as in the hands of the first man. “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. Romans 8:4.
Romans 3 sets forth the righteousness of God. In Christ — the mercy seat — God addresses Himself to all men as the Justifier of him that believeth on Jesus. This is for the conscience, but in order that there should be fruit for God the vital principle must be introduced. Revelation 4 speaks of living creatures: God is glorified in a sphere of life. The created sphere will become instinct with life, and hence there will be a universal response to God. The declaration of God’s righteousness does not in itself produce this: there must be the introduction of life in a subjective way. Righteousness and eternal life are objective, and the Spirit forms the believer subjectively. What we have to see is that God in the mercy seat puts Himself in touch with the whole created sphere; but He would have a response, and this depends on the Spirit as life. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”. Psalm 150:6. Christ, as the last Adam, breathes the breath of life into all, and in virtue of this there will be universal praise.
Numbers 21 foreshadows the conditions, under which the believer discovers the terrible character of the flesh. “The people spake against God, and against Moses”. Numbers 21:5. We find experimentally that the flesh is opposed to God and His authority in Christ, and this discovery baffles many a soul. There is the consciousness of hard thoughts against God, and, for want of light, we regard these thoughts as our own, instead of seeing that they spring from the flesh, which is ever at enmity with God. Thus Satan gets the advantage, and suggests to us that we have never been converted at all! It is here that the light of Christ, as typified in the serpent of brass, comes in for the relief of the believer. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh”. Romans 8:3. God, knowing the flesh perfectly, has condemned it and set it aside judicially in the death of Christ, and He does not any longer regard it as the state of the believer. So far this affords precious relief; but man must have a state or source of thought and affection. God affords us this in the gift of the Spirit. “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”. Romans 8:9. “Beer” — the well that sprang up, denotes this side of the truth. “Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it”. Numbers 21:17. The Christian is now happily clear of that which troubled him, being independent of it in the new and energetic source of affection and thought which he has in the Spirit. The sense of rebellion is displaced by a happy liberty before God in the realisation of His complacency in us as in Christ, and of that spring within which enables us to respond to this.
“The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver with their staves” Numbers 21:18. Neither the rod of authority, that of Moses, nor the rod of priesthood, that of Aaron, are the features here; it is what the people themselves do as represented in the leaders. The “lawgiver” for us would, I suppose, refer to the authority of Christ, which is always characteristic of the wilderness position, but what is prominent in the digging of the well and the singing, is the energy of the Spirit in the saints, as distinct from the official help of Christ, as having discovered this wonderful spring which we have in the Spirit dwelling within.
In John 4 eternal life is objective: the well springs up into it. John’s epistle deals with eternal life as realised practically here among the saints. The Spirit forms the saints in a collective way so as to produce the conditions which constitute the sphere of eternal life. In Numbers and Romans 8 we have life viewed subjectively as in the individual but this has eternal life in prospect. In the main, life in Scripture is power to live. “The Spirit is life because of righteousness”. Romans 8:10. This refers to the wilderness. Eternal life is blessing and is always in Canaan.
Romans 8 is what the Spirit is to the individual. We have to discover in detail what the Spirit is to us, and thus we set forward. You first receive, as a matter of light, what we have been speaking of as to the brazen serpent; then you receive the Spirit and give Him His place. You ignore the flesh, and turn to the Spirit. There is a point where the Spirit becomes in a way an object, not of course as Christ is, but according to what we get here — the song is to the Spirit. “Spring up, O well!” In Romans 5 the Spirit comes through Christ, but in chapter 8 He is spoken of as characterising the state of the believer, and also as making intercession for us according to God. The Spirit is a subject of testimony, concerning which the believer has to be enlightened. It is most [p. 28] essential that he should become instructed as to the blessed Spirit of God who indwells him.
John 4:10 shows that God was on the line of giving, and what He gives is living water. If you knew God as a Giver, you would ask. I have great belief in encouraging people to pray. People suffer dreadfully from want of light, but they suffer, too, from want of confidence in God. I would say to any one who has not the Spirit, If you ask you will get Him, Luke 11:13.
Ques In Ephesians 1:13 it says, “In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise”.
JT “After” may involve a day or a week or a month. Those who primarily composed the assembly at Ephesus did not get the Spirit immediately on believing; see Acts 19. It is true that they had not heard a full gospel, but even after Paul’s instruction they received the Spirit only through the laying on of the apostle’s hands. The Samaritans also had believed some time before they got the Spirit, Acts 8. Then on the other hand, Cornelius and his company received the Spirit before they were baptised, or had made any profession of faith. He fell upon them while Peter was speaking. There is, no doubt, special dispensational teaching in these cases, but they show, at any rate, that there is no uniform rule as to how and when the believer receives the Holy Spirit. The fact that the Spirit may be received in answer to prayer in no way trenches on God’s sovereignty in giving Him. All that God has for man is on the principle of sovereign gift, and yet, though He gives freely, He encourages us to pray for things. He does give freely, He gives above all we can ask or think. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32. The Holy Spirit had been promised in the Old Testament. He would be given [p. 29] consequent on Jesus being glorified, yet the Lord says, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter”. John 14:16. Indeed, we may say, that all that the Lord prays for in John 17 the Father would of Himself do of necessity. Christ is a life-giving Spirit, and yet He asks life of God: “He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever”. Psalm 21:4. Further, the Lord is Heir of all things, and yet we get, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession”. Psalm 2:8. All this serves to show the immense importance of prayer, that while God gives freely to His people, yet He delights to hear us ask for things.
Ques What is the difference between the giving of the Spirit in John 20 and in Acts 2?
JT In John 20 the Lord is seen as the last Adam; He is breathing the breath of life into man. What is prominent in John’s gospel is the Person of Christ. Chapter 20 presents Him in His greatness as a life-giving Spirit. He infuses life into the creation of God. Acts 2 speaks of Christ according to what He is officially; He is made Lord and Christ. Thus He receives the Spirit from the Father and sheds Him forth. It is one thing to dwell on the Person of Christ, and it is another thing to dwell on what He gives. What He gives is more prominent in Acts 2. In Acts 2 the Spirit comes personally and forms the house of God here on earth. It is the baptism of the Spirit once for all; the definite act of Christ. There is no such thing as a double pouring out of the Spirit. Acts 10: 44 does not say that He fell from heaven; it is the active force of the Spirit taking possession of the Gentiles that is implied.
Ques What is the meaning of Romans 8:9?
JT It is a very solemn scripture. Persons might be in the assembly at Rome and not have the Spirit of Christ. Of course, the Spirit of God and the Spirit [p. 30] of Christ refer to the Holy Ghost, but it is noticeable that the expression changes. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of that Man: the Spirit that characterised Him here on earth. Devoid of this a man is not a Christian, whatever his profession. Colossians gives us the traits of Christ, and these are now to be produced in the saints. We need to refer to the gospels to see fully what the Spirit of Christ is, and that is the Spirit that is to obtain. It is for us to see that it obtains in us. The Lord never sought promotion. Satan would have given it to Him, and the Jews would have made Him King, John 6:15. Promotion in God’s world involves going down in this world. The Lord said, “I am among you as he that serveth”. Luke 22:27. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9) is a solemn word for all who are numbered among Christians.
Strong enemies come into view in Numbers 21; but they are all easily overcome. When we give the Spirit His place our march becomes victorious: “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us”. Romans 8:37. Strictly speaking, the wilderness was over; the people of Israel were already taking possession of divinely given territory, although it was not Canaan. Canaan was God’s place for them, They were not to stop short of the promised land, but, as dwelling there, they were to control and enjoy all the territory promised to Abraham. The Christian is not to stop short of enjoying his heavenly portion, and it is as realising this that he is enabled to value rightly, and take advantage of, every other spiritual blessing.