DELIVERANCE AND PROGRESS
Joy and Victory
Numbers 21: 4-24; John 3: 14, 15; 4: 14; Romans 8: 1-4
It has been remarked that the doctrine of Christianity cannot be founded on types, but as we get light from God as to the truth of Christianity we can understand the types. These things are for us, for our instruction, and according to our light and understanding these types become very valuable and helpful.
We have first, deliverance; then, progress. What comes in after the brazen serpent is that they “set forward”. You may have had plenty of motion before, but that is not progress. There is much stir to-day—but mere motion is not progress. Progress is moving in a certain direction, with a view to a point to be reached. After the brazen serpent, that is, deliverance, the going round business is over—it is a bee-line, as we say, on the other side. If you know anything about bees, they do not go about in uncertainty: they rise up, get their bearings, and then go straight; there is a bee-line: they set forward.
Then joy in the Holy Ghost;
Then victory.
If you take Romans 8 it corresponds to the order of events in Numbers 21. You start with deliverance: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death”. Then you get the soul going on in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of God does not lead us in a zig-zag course, but straight forward. If we come under His power, He will move us on. Then you will get plenty of joy and be victorious. In the end of Numbers 21 we see they were brought off “more than conquerors”, they actually came into possession of all the cities of the Amorites.
It ought to be a matter of exercise with us to be making progress—entering into the purpose of God. People say sometimes if you speak of the purpose of God, ‘Do not be going over people’s heads’; but God does not speak that way. We ought to lay it to heart that we have such a poor appreciation of God’s purpose. God is sovereign and He works where and how He will. God never asked us anything about our being born again, God is not going round the world asking people’s permission to awaken them, He is sovereign. God did not ask Saul of Tarsus how He should act. If God has a purpose we ought to be exercised about it. It is the privilege of every Christian to understand the purpose of God. If you had come across any of these people in the wilderness, they would have said, ‘We are bound for Canaan’. People put Canaan for heaven, and think it will be all right in the end. If you and I have no appreciation of what God has converted us for, it is not God’s fault. If we do know the purpose of God, we have something to gauge ourselves by. There were thirty-nine years between the exodus and Numbers 21. They sang on the banks of the Red Sea, and then after thirty-nine years had elapsed we get their next song. Thirty-nine years full of the marvellous grace of God to those people. What a story those years could tell of the forbearance, goodness, patience and care of God! But what comes out in the people is the flesh. A sad answer to all the way God had blessed them! Think how He had been moved by their cry and bitter groans, and how He came down to deliver them, just as God has come down to deliver us. You know how God sheltered them by the blood, and then at the sea there were the frowning heights of water on each side, and the enemies in hot pursuit. Moses said, “Be not afraid: stand still, and see the salvation of God!” The blood of the lamb had been under His eye, and He is able consistently to come out and save them from the power of the enemy.
Then if they murmured for water, God said to Moses: “Speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water”, Num 20: 8. With patience and gracious tenderness He dealt with them. You would say, ‘What a grateful people they must be!’ If you think that, you do not know yourself. The flesh is an awful thing. It is a serious matter to learn it in myself.
Again I say, what a tale those thirty-nine years could tell! “The people spake against God, and against Moses”—these people that God had brought out in such a mighty way—these people spoke against God; they said there was “no bread ... no water”. Is not the flesh terrible? Under the power of it a saint of God can lose sight of all the goodness of God and practically deny it! They actually said: “Our soul loatheth this light bread”. That “light bread” was a type of Christ. How solemn! The flesh had come out, and the time had come when there has to be a definite dealing on the part of God. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. What is this? It is learning the flesh, getting a sense of death in yourself. It is easier to learn that death is upon us than to learn that death is in us: the reign of death is over every one. In Romans 7 it is not death over everything, but “I died”: he died inwardly: it was not the death of his body—it is a taste of death. This type delineates a solemn experience of our souls; it is a solemn thing to learn what the flesh is. If you really learn it, you will never forget it. “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), good does not dwell”. You may fail afterwards, but the sense of the sad character of the flesh does not pass away.
I have no doubt these types set forth things on our side, they do not set it forth so much on God’s side. We see that the next point is God’s coming in to deliver: the people come to Moses and say they have sinned, and ask him to “pray to Jehovah that he take away the serpents from us;” and in verses 8, 9 there is God’s way of deliverance for them.
Now in Romans 8: 3 we read, “God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh”, just as the brazen serpent was made in the likeness of the serpents by which the people had been bitten.
You must never read verse 3 without verse 4, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us”. Did God condemn sin in the flesh of His blessed Son? He did it with reference to the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us—“fulfilled in us”.
Romans brings you to the border of the land—it will give you a good finish up of the wilderness. There is the death of Christ with reference to the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit; but when you come to John 3, that is in the land, that is distinctly God’s purpose.
If you get a map and trace the Israelites’ journey from this point, you will see that from this moment it is a straight line, no more wandering about, but straight for Canaan. Isaac Watts, in one of his hymns, speaks of their going, ‘far wandering round’. And so they did; but now it is the wilderness according to God. Sometimes when we break down and make a failure of things, we say that we are having quite a wilderness experience; but that is quite a different thing. To go through the wilderness in the power of the Holy Ghost is a very wonderful experience.
The wilderness experience is in two volumes: one is up to the death of Aaron, chap 20. After chapter 21 their wilderness journeyings are with the view of getting into the land. I believe chapter 22: 1 belongs to chapter 21, “The children of Israel set forward”—they are right on now for the land—the purpose of God is in view.
The brazen serpent does not put them into the land, but it puts them in a fit state to go over the Jordan—they have got to know deliverance. We know so little of real progress as to the purpose of God here and now, and we enjoy it so little because we know so little of deliverance.
They looked and they lived. The people went to Moses (read vv 7, 8), saying they had sinned, and “the Lord said ... every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live”. The next thing is they set forward. Where to? They pitched in Oboth, they were right straight on for the purpose of God. Now let me ask: Have we come under the baneful influence that would put the purpose of God off to the future? It has been said: ‘The devil does not interfere so long as you only regard the future or the past, but what he is set against is the present’. There is no truth that we might not enjoy now.
If you read the apostle’s prayer in Ephesians 3 how vast the view is! It is like climbing up a high mountain. What a view rises before you, height upon height, peak upon peak. Then if some timid, discouraged believer should say, ‘But I am so poor’, it says, He is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”.
Verse 17: “Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well”. It is grand to hear them sing again, it is nearly forty years since they sang before. There is a real singing in the New Testament: “melody in your heart to the Lord”. It has been said the heart is a wonderful instrument, and the Holy Ghost can make wonderful music from it for the ear of God!
Now let us look at the “springing well”. The smitten rock is Christ—the water is the Spirit—the Spirit is like that water that followed the children of Israel. That same Spirit can spring up within us. May we know more of the joy of the Spirit: not only giving us refreshment for the wilderness, but carrying our hearts over into the heavenly relationships, into that wonderful sphere of eternal life—all those holy reciprocal affections subsisting between the Father and the Son!
Then follows “victory”. Of course, with the Israelites it was not possible for them to be in two places at once, but I do not see why we should not reach the Jordan and go over and enjoy the land. If you really get into Romans 7 it will be too uncomfortable for you to stay there, you will soon be in chapter 8. If you reach the purpose of God, you will not rest till you are in the land. Christianity is perfect in every way, and the power is fully adequate for all that is set forth in that Man at the right hand of God. May God lead us on and encourage us!
Date and place not given
From Help for the Poor of the Flock 1902