THE PASSOVER - THE TENT OF TESTIMONY
[p. 134] THE PASSOVER — THE TENT OF TESTIMONY
Numbers 9:1-5; Numbers 9:15-23; Numbers 10:1-10
It is one of the most comforting and at the same time most establishing effects of the study of the word of God that we learn how unvarying are the ways of God. We get the ways of God presented in the Old Testament largely in types and figures, and opened out plainly in the way of doctrine in the New Testament; but whether in the Old or in the New, one apprehends that the principles of God’s ways are unvarying. What God set forth in His dealings with the children of Israel in type and shadow, we get the reality of when we come to Christians in the New Testament. “These things happened unto them for ensamples”. This is very important, because it gives a sense of the unity of the word of God. There are many parts and many instruments, but perfect unity of purpose, of design, and of subject. We do not get one order of principles in the Old Testament and another in the New; but we discern a little beneath the surface that the principles of the one are the principles of the other.
Just one word in regard to the book of Numbers. It shows us the people of God in the wilderness. Although the children of Israel are taken up and dealt with largely as a people after the flesh, God’s provision and ordering for them present to us the type of His ways with a heavenly people; hence Numbers shows us also the lessons which a heavenly people have to learn in the wilderness. The subject of the previous book, namely, Leviticus, is that of approach to God. Numbers is not that, but the history of the people of God in the wilderness, and that is no doubt the reason why you get the prophecy of Balaam introduced into it. He is used of [p. 135] God to announce what His thoughts are in regard of His elect, redeemed people.
My purpose now is to show you the characteristics and the discipline of the people of God in the wilderness. I do not go on to Canaan — heavenly ground — but limit myself to the wilderness. That is our actual position, and it is a great thing to see what are the marks of the people of God in the wilderness.
The people begin in this scripture to be in movement. Movement is what properly marks people in the wilderness. There is no rest in the wilderness. Israel might have to tarry here and there, but the general principle of the wilderness was not rest but movement, and the reason is simple — they were on their way to the land, and it was not the thought of God about them that they should rest in the wilderness. He might allow them to tarry for a month or a twelvemonth, or only for a night, but the general principle was movement.
I want first to show how it is that a soul begins the journey in the wilderness. No one begins the journey properly until delivered. I speak of deliverance in a limited sense, because there is a deliverance that has to be realised after you are in the wilderness. But there is a deliverance that is realised before you are started in the wilderness at all. In its full extent deliverance was not realised by Israel till they came to the land; the reproach of Egypt was not rolled away till they came to Gilgal. But when they entered the wilderness it is certain that they realised deliverance. An undelivered Christian proves that he does not know God, for the knowledge of God is bound up with the deliverance of His people. God is revealed as a Saviour God. In connection with deliverance there are two qualities of God which must be known by every Christian entering on the wilderness: the one is God’s grace, the other is His power. There [p. 136] never was a soul yet who came into the wilderness according to God but knew God in these two attributes. God reveals His grace in giving us salvation from guilt and sin; and He has revealed His power for our deliverance from Satan’s power. That is the light of God in the heart of the believer. When Israel was brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea into the wilderness they knew the grace of God; they were delivered typically from the judgment of God and from the power of the enemy. The righteousness of God has been vindicated as to the question of sin, and the power of sin is broken by the apprehension of the righteousness of God in the conscience. The two things cannot dominate in the soul, sin can no longer rule when the righteousness of God is apprehended. Further, God has declared His power in bruising the head of the enemy. Death has been annulled: Christ is risen, and the power of the enemy has been broken. I think that no one comes into the wilderness who does not apprehend that God has come out in this way on man’s behalf.
How blessed is the thought of the grace of God in giving deliverance from sin; God putting forth His power to break the spell of the devil under which man was held. Man is naturally the servant of sin, and spell-bound by the god of the world. God delivers him by making that which was most terrible in the eye of man — namely, death — to be the way of His approach to man in grace; and this with the purpose of breaking the spell of the enemy over man, so that man might know the power of God as well as His grace. “He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification”, Romans 4: 25; 5: 1. Christ is risen, and in Christ risen the believer is justified.
But to come now to the true characteristics of the people of God in the wilderness. In regard to this I see two things. The first is the demand for [p. 137] moral cleanness; the next is the need of vigilance — on the one hand the eye, and on the other the ear on the alert. The Passover demands moral cleanness; but as regards going forward, that demands that the eye should be on the alert. Israel had ever to be looking to the tent of the testimony — that could not be apprehended by the ear but by the eye. But in chapter 10 you find that the ear must also be on the alert. These are the proper characteristics of the people in the wilderness according to the mind of God.
It is the experience of God’s grace and power that has brought us there. Man does not naturally like the wilderness; he very much prefers the world and sin. But when you are come into the wilderness the first thing that God looks for is moral suitability, and then alertness both of eye and ear. The one enables you to apprehend divine guidance; the other keeps you alive to any summons on the part of God. This last comes out in connection with the blowing of the trumpets. The priests blew the trumpets, but the ear of the people had to be ready to hear and to discern. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself for the battle?
The first thing I desire to look at in detail is the Passover (chapter 9: 1 - 5). The Passover was the proper beginning of the history of the people with God. The blood of the Passover lamb was for God, but the lamb itself was for the people. The blood was not for the people, save for shelter. The blood was the witness of life having been taken. The judgment of death lay on man through sin; the blood was the witness that it had been met. But inside their tents the people ate the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. In the repetition of this we get what was in the nature of a commemoration. Feasts, which were institutions [p. 138] with Israel, present truths which properly characterise the Christian. They are not typical of institutions for us. I think that we continually keep the feast; it is not commemorative for us. We should always keep in mind that Christ has been subjected for us to the judgment of God. The lamb roast with fire is a different idea from that of the blood sprinkled on the lintel. The remembrance of what Christ has been subjected to on our behalf would have a very great effect upon us. The practical working of it would be that we should not care to allow anything in ourselves inconsistent with it. We should feel the urgency of the demand to keep the Passover with moral cleanness. If the flesh in its contaminating power is allowed, a man is not fit to eat the Passover. Our ways have to be judged in the light of God, for we must be in moral consistency with that on which we feed. If we have the sense of what Christ has suffered, I am certain we shall walk in self-judgment as the servants of righteousness having our fruit unto holiness. There may be a great deal of evil within us, but nothing is sanctioned that is inconsistent with the truth that “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us”.
I almost dread to dwell upon this. It is so solemn to think that Christ has been subjected to the judgment of God on our behalf. I do not allow myself to be contaminated, because I am keeping the feast. The admonition to the Christian is “Let us therefore keep the feast ... with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”.
You can hardly go a step without regard to the fact that God intends the Passover to be a test of our ways. It is our beginning, and I much doubt if you will be marked by the second characteristic if you have not the first.
The next thing is that the eye should be on the alert so that you get divine guidance.
[p. 139] There was no way in the wilderness. There were not roads, it is needless to say. Roads could not be made in a scene of shifting sand. Roads would no sooner be made than they would be obliterated. One mark of a wilderness is that in it there is no way. The children of Israel did not know the way, and, I take it, they had no guides. To make their way through they were entirely cast upon divine guidance. I believe the same is true in principle of us. We are entirely cast upon God for guidance. The Christian who is walking more or less in the ways of the world does not know the way he is taking, nor where it leads to. It may lead to spiritual disaster. If we realise the wilderness, we know that it is a paramount necessity to have divine guidance, or we shall all perish. This last may seem a strange statement; but we shall surely fail of the purpose of God if we are not guided of God. The children of Israel would never have got into the land of promise if they had not been guided of God.
The arrangement of the people, in fact everything about them was subordinated to the tent of the testimony, with which the people, were completely identified. The ordering of the camp was governed by it: the people were in that sense bound up with the testimony. Though the tent of the testimony was constantly moving they were always identified with it.
What do you think that the tent of the testimony represented? It was I judge a foreshadowing of the world to come. It was the pattern of things in the heavens; showing the range and extent of God’s ways in Christ. All was contained there. What was to be fulfilled in the kingdom was foreshadowed in the tent of the testimony. It was the witness of God, and pointed to the revelation of God in Christ, but in connection with God’s purposes in regard to [p. 140] the world to come. There was the most holy, and the holy place, both were contained in the tent of the testimony. It was the shadow and not the substance. That has not come to pass fully yet — except the holiest. We have that fulfilled, but as a whole I do not think that the tent of the testimony has its full anti-type until the establishment of the world to come.
But the point to which I am calling attention is that the arrangement of the people was in connection with the tent of the testimony. They were identified with it, and we have all the light of God’s testimony now. God has illuminated our souls with a great deal more light than Israel had. We have God’s testimony and are bound up with it down here. Christians are in the light as God is in the light. God is fully shown out in Christ; and not only have we the light of Himself, but of all His purposes accomplished in Christ. I venture to say that is our supreme interest. The family is not your supreme interest, nor is the business, but the testimony of God; and everything that you have to do with down here, according to the mind of God, should be subordinated to His testimony.
God will help you in your business, and in taking care of your family, but you must see that your paramount concern is God’s testimony. I go further — If you have to make this or that change in your occupation, or your residence, or what not, let all be subordinated to God’s interests in the assembly. Your supreme interest is the tent of the testimony.
The guidance of God, the pillar of fire and the cloud were not on the tents of the people, but on the tent of the testimony; and if the people were not regarding the tent of the testimony, they were not alive to the guidance, because the cloud and the pillar of fire were there on the tent — the guidance was there; the people were supposed to be identified [p. 141] with the tent, and as so identified they got the blessed guidance of God.
No doubt you have seen people wandering about, and not getting guidance from God as to the path. Business or something has diverted them. The secret is that they have not had their eye on the tent of the testimony. If your eye were on the alert, and the testimony of God in view, you would have guidance in reference to the testimony. No doubt it wants faith, and courage, and it may be a little self-denial, to subordinate everything to the testimony of God. Few would like things pleasant down here more than myself, but it is not a safe path. You will remember in Psalm 32 the expression, “I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee”; but this is all in connection with the tent of the testimony.
What I would desire to press upon every soul is that we are identified with the testimony of God down here. And God makes way for His testimony. As long as the tent of the testimony is in the wilderness the pillar of fire and of cloud will be on it, for God will guard and support His testimony. Hence the importance of our eye being on the alert in regard to the testimony.
There is another point on which I wish to dwell. The impression that verses 19 to 28 give is that of the tent being commonly on the move; but you could not tell when it would move. It might rest for a month or for a twelvemonth; for a considerable time or only for a night. There was never any alteration in the order or arrangement of the tent, but there was very much change as to its location. So there is no alteration in the truth or testimony of God; but there is a great deal of difference in the position, so to speak, in which the truth of God is placed at various times. The testimony of God can meet every form or condition of things, but what [p. 142] has to be met is continually changing. What had to be met fifty years ago is not what has to be met today. Circumstances have changed; forms of evil are varying, and you need to be continually with the testimony to learn the applicability of the testimony to any particular moment. A particular truth may be prominent for a time, but circumstances change. The tent of the testimony moves; and the great point for us is to know when it moves, and to be ready to move with it.
Imagine, if you can, a tent in Israel stationary — a family that would not move when the tent of testimony moved — what would have been the result? They must have perished. I think that I have seen it so with Christians. People have dropped away from the testimony because they did not see that though the testimony does not change, the place of the tent of the testimony does, and they have dropped out of view.
You will see the importance of the eye of the Christian being on the alert to follow the tent of the testimony in its movements. We are all of us identified with the tent of the testimony, and God guides as to that rather than as to us. If you are watching it you will move too.
You might ask what I mean by your eye being continually on the alert. It is that you take care that nothing obscures your spiritual vision. The keeping of the Passover will have something to do with this. If you are morally clean I think that you will see. Even in natural things your sight often depends upon your body being in good health. If you are morally clean, your vision will be good, and your eye will be on the testimony of God. It is a point of great moment to see that guidance has to do with the tent of the testimony. There is guidance for the people of God through the wilderness, but in connection with the tent of the testimony.
[p. 143] We come to the third point in chapter 10: 1 - 3, and here I remark that the first blowing of the trumpets is not the sounding of an alarm. When the priests sounded an alarm the whole camp was to be in movement. You get the moving of the camp in detail lower down in the chapter.
I will point out the necessity of the Christian having the ear on the alert. There are two things that deeply concern us in connection with the assembly: one is the normal gathering of the assembly; the other is the sounding of an alarm. The latter is not the normal gathering of the assembly. It is a painful thing to have an alarm blown. The whole camp has to be in movement, and the occasion is extraordinary. There may be something in the assembly, known to the spiritual, which is not according to God; an alarm is sounded and every one has to be on the alert; it is a summons from God. It is to be noticed that only the priests could blow with the trumpets. They typify those who are near to God, who enjoy access to Him. It is only such who can properly sound an alarm. Our ear has to be on the alert lest an alarm should be sounded. If there is something to trouble the assembly, then we must come together and purge out the leaven.
But there is the normal gathering of the assembly. I should speak of the Lord’s supper in this way. The rallying point of the assembly is the Lord’s supper. We do not want the blowing of the trumpets in regard of that, but we have to be vigilant about it. The assembly is brought together on the first day of the week by the testimony of the Lord’s supper.
The only proper summons of the assembly is, I judge, the Lord’s supper. That is on the first day of the week. The assembly is thus convened — that is the idea. If the assembly should have to be [p. 144] brought together to take account of leaven at work in it, the trumpet is blown as for an alarm.
Well, the Christian needs to be vigilant both as to his ear and his eye; and the first necessity is to keep the Passover, and in this to be regardful of moral cleanness, taking care that we are not contaminated, walking in self-judgment that we may be undefiled by the unclean things that we come in contact with down here. Do you think that you can go through the wilderness without coming in contact with what is unclean, a dead bone or something of that sort? Many dead things lie unburied there, and I am sure that it is a very difficult thing to go through the world uncontaminated. We have to keep the Passover in moral cleanness, and to have the eye on the alert, as being identified with God’s testimony, and because the guidance is there; and the ear on the alert in case of the blowing of the trumpet to call the congregation together.
And I would add that the burden of the congregation rests on all. You must not think that it rests only on the elders. I have sometimes said to young people who are wishing to come into fellowship: You have had an easy time so far, and no responsibility; now if you break bread things become much more serious, because you put yourself under the burden of the assembly. Each one does so, and thus you need to be vigilant.
May God make us more alive to it in His grace!