THE WORSHIP OF GOD
[p. 440] THE WORSHIP OF GOD
Hebrews 13: 10 - 15; Genesis 8: 20; Exodus 20: 24 - 26; Numbers 16: 36 - 40
I have the worship of God in view, dear brethren, in reading these scriptures, a matter which God has ever had in mind; as our Lord reminds the Samaritan woman, “the Father seeketh such”, that is worshippers who worship “in spirit and in truth”, Having it as a primary thought, God has come back to it in peculiar force in recent times. It had been obscured, if not well-nigh lost, during many centuries; indeed the chapter in Numbers from which I have read contemplates, in type, an uprising in the history of the assembly which was calculated to rob God of His part in the assembly. That is why, I believe, these broad plates were enjoined to be made, so that the uprising should not recur. In the recovery of the worship of God, which the passage intimates, there should be a memorial, a testimony, in the broad copper plates, made from the censers employed by the rebels. Employed under divine direction, these would be a testimony amongst those who have part in the recovery of the worship of God, so that there should not be such a rebellion again. I hope to come back to the chapter, but I mention it now, so that you will understand how the matter stands — that there has been a restoration of that which God had primarily in His mind, that is, His worship, the altar representing this.
You will find also in the chapter I alluded to in Numbers, that the judgment having been executed by God, Moses and Aaron went before the tabernacle; that is, they resumed their places as if the service must and would go on. Now that is how matters stand: there has been a recovery, and there is not to be a recurrence of the rebellion of Korah and his company in any measure amongst those who have part in the recovery or the restoration of the worship of God. So this passage in Hebrews comes in fittingly, conveniently,
[p. 441] as a basis for what I have to say; it comes in at the end of this remarkable letter written to Christians who had grievously fallen back, who had retrograded from a very high level in the service of God. At one time these Christians in Jerusalem and the province of Judaea were models (see 1 Thessalonians 2: 14), but they had seriously retrograded and were returning to what God had exposed and judged. So the writer, by the Spirit, reminds them that Christians characteristically have an altar — “We have an altar ...” Not “ye”, but “we”. It is indeed one of the features, dear brethren, of this epistle, that Christians characteristically have certain things, and among these, an altar that is exclusive. It is in connection with it we have this remarkable allusion to the sin-offering, whose blood was carried inside the veil. There were sin-offerings whose blood was not carried inside; but of the sin-offerings whose blood was carried inside and sprinkled on the mercy seat, the bodies were burnt outside the camp; a very solemn allusion to the unmitigated judgment of God on sin — there was no sparing of it.
God would remind us that, in relation to His worship, there is to be no sparing of sin, whether it be in self or in others. There was no sparing of sin or of sins when the Lord Jesus was on the cross; and God has not changed His mind; we may as well be definite as to that. There can be no change in the divine mind as to anything, and certainly not as to sin. It is unsparingly dealt with, and there can be no worship according to God, aside from the acceptance of this, amongst the people of God, not only in theory but in practice. So that in a general way the service is to go on, according to these verses, to which I hope to come back, but I refer to them now, to clarify the position, so that we might all see what we have in regard to the worship of God. We have an altar, not one of our own device, but such an one as is exclusive, shutting out those that are identified with the current religion of the [p. 442] day. It is a very solemn matter that those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat at this altar. The more we dwell on this subject, the more we shall see how wonderfully good God is to us, to put such an altar into our possession, for that is how it is to be regarded — we have such an altar. We have many things provided of God which, alas, we do not use; but it is imperative that the altar which is provided should be used; it is exclusive.
Now I want to go to the Old Testament, as one always feels encouraged, in serving the saints, to turn to the Old Testament for detail and expansion. There is a certain exhilaration of spirit as one contemplates that what we are speaking about from the New Testament was thought of long before, and a certain setting was laid down in view of these things being brought in by the Spirit of God sent down from heaven. The Lord Jesus came down from heaven of His own volition; the Holy Spirit is said to have been “sent” down from heaven. He is here therefore — wonderful fact! — in entire subjection to the divine will, and provides us with the means of understanding, and gives us these terms that belong to the New Testament; but He also reminds us that He had been speaking about them long before.
The uprising that I allude to is really the great hierarchical uprising of christendom, dating back, I might say, to the second century. One of the most solemn things in Scripture is this great uprising of man in a methodical, systematic rebellion against the authority of the Lord Jesus and against His priesthood, by the assumption that, because men are nominal levites, or servants, because they have gift and because they teach or preach, they must be priests. It is a fallacy; and intended to deny the holy priesthood God has ordained, and which applies to every believer who has the Spirit of God. You can see how far-reaching it is, and how God would bring us back to this exclusive thought, which shuts out all man’s assumption. They have no right to have anything to do with it.
I want to show you how this altar, representing the worship of God, began, for initial ideas always give the key to the fulness of the thought. Noah was the first to build an altar; and I may say the altars of Genesis were not formally required of, nor were they specified for, by God. God is honouring His own work in the souls of men and women, in those early days; He honours the movements of their hearts towards Him. From the incoming of sin, God began the testimony; and immediately men began to respond towards God: a very beautiful thought appearing from the beginning of Genesis. This response began to increase, but in Noah there is a sort of ending to one course of exercise, and this is seen in the verses I have read. The history of Noah is one of the most interesting from this point of view, because it is a question of manhood, of maturity; the worship of God is connected with maturity, not with an infantile condition. And so what you find in Noah is a man that was perfect in his generations; not only perfect in a potential way in the mind of God, but in his generations. A man who had a family, a man who could do things and could face great matters. Think of the greatness of one man who could face on God’s behalf the state of wickedness in a world which God was about to overwhelm in the deluge. He is called upon to do something that would bring down the ridicule of his fellow men, and he faces that; the building of the ark was a continuous matter for many years, but he undertook it.
It was no small matter, the ark was a great vessel, concerning which God had spoken to him, and of which He had given him the specifications, and so forth, and Noah unhesitatingly undertook the work. What God is looking for is men and women who face matters. Christianity was never intended to be an armchair order of things, it is marked by energy, it is [p. 444] a question of energy and purpose, of facing and overcoming difficulties — and that is seen in Noah. There he was, day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out, for many years, working away at something that must have brought down on him the ridicule of the men of his time during the building of the ark. But he completed it, and went into it. What you find is that all the circumstances connected with the ark suggest maturity, there are no young children or young creatures of any kind, said to be in the ark; the idea is of completeness; things were carried over in maturity, and that is set forth in Noah. He was a long time in the ark, and as he comes out of it he is thinking of God.
These are remarks that have a great deal to do with our worship; they are initial thoughts in regard to worship, that is, in regard to the altar. One of the most important things to notice about Noah is that he had discernment, he could tell between a clean and an unclean animal. There is nothing said about clean or unclean animals at the creation, nor is there any hint that God told him what was clean and what was unclean; the point is, he knew. And apart from this ability to discern between what is clean and what is unclean, there is no possibility of the worship of God. This was the condition into which the Hebrew christians had lapsed, in that they were unable to use their senses for the discerning between good and evil (Hebrews 5: 12 - 14).
In coming out of the ark. Noah took of every clean animal — of every one of them. He had discernment; and then he is whole-hearted in his sacrifices, there was nothing selfish about him; selfishness retards and interferes generally with the worship of God amongst His people; liberal consideration of what is due to God, whatever it may cost us, will always be honoured of Him. We can well understand, as Noah looked out from Ararat — what a vista he had! Naturally, he would say, What a number of cattle are needed, what [p. 445] a number of fowls are needed to replenish the earth! I must reserve them! He did not consider thus, but rather that the rights of God must be observed. Whatever the need of the earth for cattle or fowls, God must be considered first! That is a great point in the worship of God. It says, he “took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl” — he was liberal in his thoughts for God. And he builded an altar — that is to say he sets up the worship of God on a renewed earth; and in connection with that, you have these important thoughts I have mentioned, and the chapter says, “Jehovah smelled the sweet odour”. We can well understand it, it is God paying tribute to the fruit of His own work in a man of faith: the Lord smelled a sweet savour. This is a great thought that comes out afterwards in the service of Levi in the house of Aaron — he puts sweet incense before God’s nostrils. All that follows is just an expansion of what you see here; and, as I said, it requires a continuance of manhood amongst the people of God.
Now, I want to refer to Exodus for a further feature of this subject, that is, in chapter 20. The altars of Genesis, as I said, were voluntary; but in taking His people out of the world, that is, God disposing of us as taking us on to be His people. He would give us to understand that He loves us. He says, “I have borne you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself”. He would impress upon us what He thinks of us; but then He would suggest to us, It is time for you to begin to think of Me; not only that I should be worshipped, but that I should be worshipped according to My mind. That is an immense thought for our days, that God has His own thoughts, and if He is to be worshipped, the worship must be according to these thoughts. Now that is Exodus: so that the first suggestion in these verses is the altar of earth. We do not get God’s terms in Genesis, we get them in Exodus: and when we come to His requirements, the first thing is an altar of earth.
[p. 446] Moses had built an altar before, according to this book, which meant that the Lord was His banner, that he was to carry on warfare with Jehovah as his banner. But now Jehovah says, “An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me”, He gives no dimensions, only just the material, as if He is calling attention generally to the kind of humanity that must underlie the worship of God. He says, “Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar”; this going up by steps is a very subtle thought; it gives you more prominence, you can call attention to the fact that you are worshipping. Every church steeple, every cathedral, every prominent system in christendom illustrates this; men distinguishing themselves humanly in the worship of God. But God has no pleasure in that; men’s nakedness is exposed in it. “An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me ... in all places where I shall make my name to be remembered”. Wherever there is that humble acceptance of what God requires, which is only seen perfectly in Christ as Man, God comes there. How blessed that is! ‘Where I record My name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee’. God thinks nothing of imposing buildings; He thinks of what came out in Jesus, the humanity of Jesus presented in this way, and He records His name in that connection. That is where God’s name is honoured: He says, I will come there, and I will bless you there.
Then He says further, “if thou make me an altar of stone”. The “if” makes a difference there, meaning that christians may go forward in their worship; that it is not only a question of the humanity of Christ, what He was here on earth, for it is said He was “in the form of God”, and “thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”, Philippians 2: 6, 7. That is, He was an ordinary man outwardly, making no claim to distinction; “taking his place in the likeness”, not of man, but “of men” — such is the humility of Christ; such is the descent which the Lord made. He took His place “in the likeness of men”. Well, that is the idea in the altars of earth, I apprehend; we value, we treasure, the thought of the humanity of Christ. But then Jehovah says, “if thou make me an altar of stone” — that is a matter left to us. God will not cease to come to us if we fail of it, but He values the going forward in His thoughts. The altar of stone is, I apprehend, more Christ according to what He is abidingly. The idea in a stone is that it is permanent, and Christ’s permanent condition is declared in resurrection; He is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead”, Romans 1: 4. See what opens up to the soul of the believer in Christ’s resurrection! And surely if we love Him, we want to follow Him there, to follow Him on to that platform; yea, further, to apprehend Him as He is in heaven. But an altar of stone is Christ in His permanent condition, and that is attested in resurrection; so that we apprehend Him there, and we go forward. We should not stop short of that, it is what I may call the second part in our worship: it is put with an “if”, that is, if you are equal to it. It is not a matter of giving out a hymn, but a matter of the apprehension of Christ risen from the dead, marked out thus as Son of God.
Well now, you see how all these things enter into the altar which we have. It is not an altar by itself, it is an altar that carries with it all the divine thoughts entering into the divine worship; we must not leave one out. And I would urge this in the worship, the thought of if you make an altar of stone; if you do it, do not add anything to it, do not use a sharp tool upon it. It alludes to the soul being brought into the apprehension of Christ as He is, man could never make Him anything. It is Christ as He is. We do not want Him otherwise. We are told in the gospels they took Jesus “as He was” in the ship; you do not want to add to Him,
[p. 448] and certainly not to subtract from Him! The Colossian christians were in danger of attempting to add, whereas the truth was that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. We want Him as He is, without additions! The more you come to know Jesus, the more you abominate the thought of anything different, you would not have anything different; it must be Jesus, as He is. Think of Him in resurrection! Think of Him on the first day of the week as He moved among the saints! It was Jesus as He was; not the condition He had been in, but a condition He has entered upon, which becomes more and more glorious the more you apprehend Him. If you go to the mount of transfiguration, you will see it, and if you go to heaven — as we shall — you will see it, the transcending glory of Jesus as He is! That is the idea, there is to be no tool lifted up on this altar of stone. How miserable are our tools, as attempting to detract from or add to the Lord Jesus!
It is a very wide and great subject, but I am confining myself to certain initial features, that must of necessity enter into the exclusive altar we have. God has recovered everything for Himself in principle; and Moses and Aaron going into the tabernacle, the service is to be continuous. Before passing on to Numbers 16, I would remark on the further specifications as to the altar in Exodus. For, as we come to chapter 24, we have an opening up of the covenant; I mean we have it opened up in volume — the volume of God’s love is presented to us in the blood in the basins. It is on the ground of that we have the remaining part of the book. The book of Exodus, after chapter 24, is practically occupied with the tabernacle; except the chapters which relate to the golden calf, the whole book is a question of God speaking to the people of their giving, and how He would have them build a house for Him, and how He would like to dwell with them. In the specifications that He gives, He tells them He wants an altar, and [p. 449] that this altar is to be made, of acacia-wood. This is a greater thought — if I may make a comparison — than the altar of earth. The altar of earth is humility, lowliness; but the altar of acacia, or shittim wood, suggests strength or bearing power. And it is a humanity of its own kind, there is no other like it. Then the altar is to be five cubits square — a large thought — and three cubits high, and it is to be overlaid with brass.
You can see, in the measure in which you apprehend these symbols, how it points to Jesus, not merely now in His lowly humanity, but in the strength of it. The acacia is a very strong kind of wood. So the mind is led on to Jesus in His power of endurance, and oh, how Gethsemane and the cross present that! How it draws out our hearts to Him, as we think of Him facing alone all that was involved, without any comforters — forsaken of God — what moral power was there! Then it was three cubits high, denoting death and resurrection; the power of resurrection was in it. Then, another thing we should bear in mind in our worship is, that the brazen altar was anointed with the other utensils of the tabernacle; but in addition to that, it is said that it was sprinkled with the anointing oil seven times. Now, if we follow these thoughts, and hold them in our souls by the Spirit as we sit down in the presence of God, we shall profit by them, and we shall be more powerful in our worship, more reverential and more holy.
Then finally, this uprising of Korah introduced the wrong thought, typically, that the priesthood of God should be in the hands of certain men; there was Korah and his band, the word “band” is used, having its own significance. There were two hundred and fifty men “of the children of Israel, princes of the assembly”, “men of renown”: typically men who in the later history of the assembly acquired great reputation in its councils, men noted in church history. Now these men arrogated to themselves the priesthood, they [p. 450] arrogated to themselves the authority of Christ — and all this remains, it is all around us today, the effect of this same character of uprising. So these men were to have these censers — God ordered it, a remarkable testimony brought in! And they were to present themselves, but instead of doing it, they gathered together the whole assembly against Moses and Aaron; instead of humbly bowing to the testimony, and accepting the exposure and humbling themselves, and judging themselves and returning to the truth, they gathered the whole assembly against Moses at the door of the tabernacle.
In answer to all this “the glory of Jehovah appeared” — there was nothing else for it. Moses could not cope with it — the glory met this wicked uprising. Terrible judgment was meted out on these men, and then it says, as I have already remarked, “Moses and Aaron went before the tent of meeting”, the way is opened for the resumption of the worship of God. And moreover it says, “the cloud covered it, and the glory of Jehovah appeared” — as if God were to say, in the presence of all this, I have Myself taken charge of the testimony today; I have taken charge of the whole of it. It is not a partisan matter, it is a question of the tabernacle of testimony. Then Moses and Aaron came before the tent of meeting, so that the service goes on. And these sinners who forfeited their lives are for ever after to be a testimony to the sin of man in the flesh in assuming the priesthood; and so these broad plates are to cover the altar. I mention them because they are worthy of careful attention in our meetings, for this uprising of Korah finds an answer in every one of our hearts; it is not in these men only, it is in the natural, religious heart: if I allow my natural proclivities, if I allow myself to aspire to a position amongst the brethren, this is what in principle ensues: I want to take priestly things over because I have gift, because I have ability, and these broad plates are to testify against that. They [p. 451] should be on all the altars of the saints, it is continuous testimony against this uprising, they are a testimony that the authority of Christ and the priesthood of Christ must remain untouched; and that the priests are the true sons of Aaron, that is, those who have the Spirit of God.
Now I want for a moment to bring all that forward into the passage in the New Testament in Hebrews 13 — “We have an altar”; among many things we are said to have in Hebrews is the altar. It may be there are some here who have never taken up their privilege at the altar, it may be there are some here who have to do with the tabernacle, that is, with the current system of worship I have spoken of; but, if you are a christian, it belongs to you, the “we” in Hebrews is the “we” of real christians: “We have an altar of which they have no right to eat ...” — it is an exclusive one. And then we have, as I was remarking, the solemn allusion to the day of atonement particularly, when our Lord Jesus was seen typically as made sin for us. The sin-offering offered, the blood was taken into the holiest and put upon the mercy-seat, the carcase was burnt “outside the camp”. What a solemn, touching allusion, dear brethren, to the atoning sufferings of Christ! God would remind us that there can be no toleration of sin, no quarter for it, in the assembly; that it must not be permitted in relation to His service. And so a new thing comes in — “let us go forth to him without the camp” — He “suffered without the gate”. One would follow Him as He wended His way with His cross through those streets of Jerusalem.
What a spectacle for heaven! What a spectacle for faith! He went outside the gate. He suffered outside the gate: it was no accident. God intended to base a great principle on it, as we have it here, so that our worship should be outside the camp. If there is one here who has not done it, the appeal is to you — “let us go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach”.
[p. 452] What did He bear? His cross — that is the allusion: “he went out bearing his cross”. Another was privileged to bear it for Him. One who came out of the country had the privilege of bearing that cross on which Jesus was crucified; it is your privilege and mine to bear it now — “bearing his reproach”. So, outside the whole system of the accredited religion of this world, we have part in the service of God. “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God”. How much of it is carried on in our households? The households of believers are, I may say, hallowed, they are certainly “clean” places; and the service is to go on continually, not merely once a week, “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually” — and shall we not do it? “Bearing his reproach” — the very thought endears Him to our heart. As bearing His reproach you are standing by the cross with those devoted women of whom John writes, and the sacrifice of praise is to go up continually; as it says, of the disciples, they “were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God”, Luke 24: 53.
There is, of course, much more that could be said as to the worship of God, but I confine myself to the altar as representing it, and to the main features that should be present in all our meetings for this purpose.