SPIRITUAL GREATNESS
[p. 332] SPIRITUAL GREATNESS
Hebrews 11:24 - 26; Exodus 11:3; Numbers 12:3; Deuteronomy 31:30; Deuteronomy 32: 1 - 4
I was thinking, dear brethren, of spiritual greatness; greatness that develops on moral lines, which is seen, as I hope to show in these scriptures, in a man of like passions as ourselves. Of course, greatness in man (I am not now speaking of it as in God, although I hope to refer to that) must be seen in its perfection in Christ. It is as man He is our Leader and Model. So in Luke 1: 32 Gabriel says, “He shall be great”. The “He” is emphatic; the idea of greatness in man was coming. Many aspired to it; indeed, every man naturally does aspire to it. So we have Alexander the Great, Napoleon the Great, etc. We find a man called Simon the Great, who found an entrée among the professed converts of Philip (Acts 8); a warning to all who serve in the field of the gospel.
We are reminded of the possibility of a man coming in and being numbered with the converts, and yet he was Simon the Great all the time. He was a man that advertised. Advertising is a common thing with us. We slip it in sometimes when we are speaking of our humility. Simon advertised himself, that he was a great one, and his greatness was recognised.
It was through magic art. A man is coming who will answer to him, skilled in magic, bringing fire down from heaven, that all may be brought to worship a man; a man who “sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God”, 2 Thessalonians 2: 4.
I speak of Simon as one who slips in among the people of God and carries with him the personality that attached to him in his natural setting. Peter discerned that he was “in the bond of iniquity”, and had “neither part nor lot in this matter” Acts 8:21, 23. He would [p. 333] be greater still if he could be, if possible, buying with money the power to give the Holy Spirit. Think of the assumption!
But, as I said, true greatness can be seen in its perfection in Christ only. So that Gabriel says to Mary, “He shall be great”. Before He is born this is announced. In Himself He is great, but there is also what is conferred and acquired. First, God should give unto Him the throne of His father David. Caesar’s and Napoleon’s do not stand. We read in the book of Revelation that a throne stood in the heavens. This throne stands. It may appear to have gone under; no, beloved brethren, the throne of David exists in the King, the Son of David, and will soon appear as occupied by Him. That greatness would be awaited by faith. It is what He would be when Gabriel spoke; but when the angel spoke to the shepherds (Luke 2) it is what He is: “To-day a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord” Luke 2:11. It is a present thing now. As the prophet says, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9: 6. Set that down alongside all human greatness from Nimrod down! All fades away, but greatness in Christ will never fade. “Father of Eternity”, think of that expression; and it is predicated of a Man, of One born, as it says, “unto us”. You can thus see how enriched the people of God are. He is the “Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of peace”. So that there is the embodiment in Jesus of all human greatness — all divine greatness, too; I am not speaking of that just now. You get the light as to greatness focussed on Christ so that the people of God should turn away their eyes from men. It is remarkable that even among the people of God there should be heroes here and heroes there. It is humbling to note [p. 334] how easily we slip into the thought of a local hero, or a district hero, or even a national hero, among the brethren. So that the Spirit of God would direct our eyes to this glorious Personage in whom greatness is, and shall be for ever and for ever.
Having that clearly in our minds, I will seek to outline the idea in a man like ourselves, because, after all, greatness is intended to attach to the people of God. And I selected Moses because I believe the Holy Spirit has selected him to this very purpose, among many other things. There are several in Scripture of whom we have life-size pictures, particularly Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Peter, and Paul. They are given to us in this way, God intending to set out particular features in each. I am concerned tonight with the thought of greatness.
So I began with Hebrews 11, because it ascribes greatness to Moses at the age of forty (Hebrews 11:24), and what marked him then. He became greater still, beloved, as the records show. Stephen tells us “a period of forty years was fulfilled to him” Acts 7:23, as if God gave him those years. God never lost sight of that young man, He had already secured him, anchoring him safe in giving him such parents as he had. He was fair to Himself, “exceedingly lovely”, says Stephen. Stephen gives us the fulness of things. He was “full of the Spirit”, and divine things glow in the hands of a man who is spiritual. He says there was given to Moses forty years and these were fulfilled. These were eventful years; three months of them in his father’s house hidden, then a while in the ark, as Stephen puts it, “cast out”. Under God this was the salvation of the babe. As in the ark he is weeping. There never was a great man according to God who did not weep. It is recorded of Moses at the outset, evidently as significant, that he wept. He was found there by his saviour, for the daughter of Pharaoh was no less a person for the moment, under [p. 335] God. She drew him out and he was brought back again to the bosom of his mother, and he grew there. That is what the Spirit of God says about him; the man was being made.
It is most interesting to see a man in the divine making, and that is why the lives of the men I mentioned are given in full. Moses grew in his mother’s house; Exodus 2:10. There was no better soil for the growth of a future great personage in the service of God at that time than in the house of Moses’ parents. Samuel grew in still better soil — the house of God. Samuel grew in the house of God, a great man, too; Moses grew in the house of his parents, and the Holy Spirit dwells on those parents in the Old and New Testaments. Then he was in the house of Pharaoh’s daughter, and there he grew, but the first growth is the telling one. The first growth is the one that counts with God, so that it is when he became great; not simply when he grew to be forty, but in growing to be forty he grew to be great. How is that proved? He [p. 336] refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Think of what that means, not simply to be in the relationship, but to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter! That implied his known or public status. Society in Egypt in those days would not think much of such a movement of that notable young man of the court of Pharaoh. ‘Court items’ would not flatter him for that. But what about the notes in heaven? After all, it is the records in heaven that count, and Moses began definitely to make history in heaven as he came to that decision. You may be assured, dear young people here tonight, that heaven takes notice of you when you come to a decision like that. You are now assuredly great in heaven’s reckoning. Hundreds of years after Moses’ action the Holy Spirit comments on it. Accurate records are there, beloved, of the great ones of God. Moses had become great, and he became greater still as he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; “choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”. That was the theme that heaven would be interested in, true greatness showing itself.
How one would seek to enrol young people in that, in heavenly greatness. But it means going down here, losing position, losing title, losing all as far as this world goes, but we become great according to God for time and eternity.
You may inquire how Moses esteemed “the reproach of the Christ”. The Holy Spirit refers to the Hebrew that was being smitten by the Egyptian. He was one of Moses’ brethren. ‘Hebrew’ signified, in that setting, the reproach of Christ, and Moses esteemed that as greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. He was not ignorant of these treasures, for recent discoveries show that they must have been great. But Moses gave them up in identifying himself with that Hebrew. He was one of his brethren. Surely he is a great man at the age of forty!
He is to graduate further, and I want to come to the passage in Exodus 11 because it shows how this initial greatness develops. One has to go on, it is either going forward or going backward, and Moses went forward. His life is divided into three parts by the Spirit of God, and he shines in every part; he shines brightly in the last third of his life, yes, the last year, as I hope to show. But in Egypt, where he esteemed the reproach of Christ, his greatness was to shine. So that the “man Moses” (the Holy Spirit loves to dwell on the man) “was very great”. You say, Among the Hebrews? No, it does not say that here. He acquired greatness among the Hebrews, but he acquired greatness among the Egyptians. In the place of his degradation he became “very great”. Does that not speak a word to all of us in the service of God? We speak of the man who can preach well,
[p. 337] speak well, has a fund of knowledge, what can he not do and say? But what about the man? You see here it is not the mediator Moses that is said to be great, it is the man Moses. God is looking at the man. If God were interested in fine oratory He would listen to an angel. What God is looking for is what He cannot find in an angel; He finds it in a man; it is “good pleasure in men”.
It is the man Moses, and God is very jealous about this man; He would have all possible pleasure out of him. And so as he is on his way back to Egypt, we are told that God sought to slay him in the inn. Why should that be? Circumcision was lacking, and in these circumstances an inn is a dangerous place. Travellers who stay in inns, in hotels, are greatly exposed. We may be careless there, behaving as ordinary guests; it is only for a night. But God is concerned about you every night. Where Israel lodged after crossing the Jordan the twelve stones out of its bed were there. God seeks to have us, but as in the acceptance of circumcision. God will not lose one moment of such a life. Think of what the life of Jesus was to God! God would not lose a moment of that life, one day of that life was as a thousand years to God. How full it was! And so, relatively, God will not be without any part of our lives, He wants all, even the day or night in an hotel. He will have it, and if He does not have it He will discipline us. It is not feigned. Moses discerned that things were not right and Zipporah had to come to it. He became a bloody husband to Zipporah. Circumcision was accepted in his house. God was making a man out of him. God would make men answering to His mind of us all; for there must be subjection and circumcision. God walks with us as circumcised; that is to say, the flesh is disallowed in the power of the Spirit of God. “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast [p. 338] in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”, Philippians 3:3.
As thus disciplined by God, Moses in due course, in the sphere of his degradation, became honoured. Where you have been dishonoured, whether in the workshop or office, God will honour you, and your greatness will shine. I never knew it to fail. If you accept reproach, God will honour you in the place of reproach. He will make you morally great, and the honour that He puts upon you cannot be supplied by this world; it is greatness according to God. So that the man Moses was very great in the eyes of Pharaoh’s bondmen and in the eyes of the people.
Now I pass on to the passage I read in Numbers. It is a question of one’s relations with one’s brothers and sisters. Aaron and Miriam, envying Moses, say, “Has Jehovah indeed spoken only to Moses?” You can hear that piped out by Miriam in her jealousy of her brother. She was evidently older than Moses. In true service we are sure to be envied. If God has given us any little bit of work, it is as sure as possible that we shall be envied, and sometimes by persons from whom we might least expect it. What comes out is Moses’ meekness, and that is true greatness. The Holy Spirit loves to dwell upon it. He says, “The man Moses was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. What a distinction! It is a foreshadowing of “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:1. You see how the greatness shone in the midst of rivalry, of jealousy, which is “cruel as the grave” Song of Songs 8:6. Who can stand before it? What a voice this has for us as in service! It is a meek man that can stand before it. Moses said nothing, but God said much. God is sure to defend meekness — it is great in His eyes. It is a trait of Christ, who was “meek and lowly in heart” Matthew 11:29. That is what Moses was in the midst of his brethren and in his service.
Deuteronomy is perhaps the least understood of Moses’ books, but it is the book that testifies peculiarly [p. 339] to his greatness, and inasmuch as it gives us the close of his life, it is interesting from this point of view. And I wish to show how in his greatness he draws Joshua, who is to succeed him, to his side. God says to him, “Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge”. How God honours Moses! Joshua gets his charge, not by himself, but in the shadow of Moses, in the presence of spiritual greatness. Jehovah says, “write ye this song” Deuteronomy 31:19. That is very interesting in view of present exercises in regard of the hymnbook. Here is an order for a song. I am very doubtful of anyone writing a hymn to order in the ordinary sense, but here is a song ordered by God. Human words have been likened to a counter. But if I have not the thoughts, what good is the counter? “Not in wisdom of word” 1 Corinthians 1:17; it is a question of substance, and Moses had the substance. Moses, one hundred and nineteen years old, “wrote this song the same day”! Jehovah says, “write ye this song”. It is to embody many thoughts, which were to be carried down by Israel. A poetic production is that which can be committed to memory and retained in the mind better than anything else, and God put down thoughts sorely needed by the people in this song. Joshua is connected with Moses as writing it, although, as far as Scripture tells us, Moses composed it. God would merge the greatness of the old with the young, so that the testimony should go on. The idea is not that one’s greatness dies with him, it is in a sense to be carried down by the Spirit. God would merge the old and the young in a perfect blend that nothing should be lost. Moses writes this song, finishing it. One important trait in a workman is that he finishes a thing.
I wish now to show how the greatness of Moses shines as he is about to die. He has been told by [p. 340] God that he is about to die, he is going up to die. Notable honour! He is about to be buried by God too. So he calls the congregation together, officers and all, and spoke to them the words of this ‘song’. He might have asked Joshua to read it, but he did not.
I wish you to note the opening verses of this song. “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain”. Is this an old brother? He is old in years, but young in spirit and energy. He is full of sap, like the trees of the Lord: “His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” Deuteronomy 34:7. He is not going to die from old age. He is going to die in measure like the Lord Jesus — he is going to die by the will of God. In truth, that is the way of a believer’s death. It is a matter of the will of God, whether we be old or young. We cannot go by age; it is a question of the will of God and many young people are taken away by the will of God. The Lord Himself says, in beautiful piety, “Take me not away in the midst of my days” (Psalm 102:24); but He accepted the Father’s will. And Moses is dying by the will of God. He goes up to die and he is buried by God. A unique honour!
So, dear brethren, God would set before us the idea of spiritual greatness; it is strikingly expressed in the life of Moses, as one here for the will of God. Morally it is the greatest thing to be here entirely for the will of God; and thus to leave the scene of service by the will of God. So Moses is going by the will of God, and he is speaking now to the people in beautiful freshness, saying, “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb”. We see how he takes account of the young in this, “the tender herb”. It is one of the features of the ministry of which spirituality should never rob us, nor should [p. 341] intelligence ever rob us of ability to touch and help the youngest of God’s heritage. The first shoots of life are taken notice of in “the small rain upon the tender herb”. The Lord Jesus took infants in His arms.
I do commend to you the variety of refreshment coming from this great servant as about to fall asleep; the greatness of the man. There is here consideration for the coming generation, a feature which runs right through Scripture. The tender herb is to be cared for and nurtured. Moses says further, “Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God”. There is the secret of it all. That is what I finish with. This great servant, whom God has made and cultured so that greatness shines in him up to his last moment, is now ascribing greatness to God. Where else can it reside or come from? Who on earth can give true greatness? No one. God is the source of all, and greatness can only come from Him. That is the secret of true greatness, our ascribing it to God instead of to ourselves.
And then he goes on to extol God: “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he”. So that we are left with God. Greatness in man ascribes greatness to God, and not to himself. “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:3. “He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord” 1 Corinthians 1:31.
In the last chapter of this book the Holy Spirit returns to the subject of greatness, and He tells us how Moses was honoured, how he was allowed to look into the land, and how there was nobody like him — no prophet arose like him. But in the midst of that the Holy Spirit tells us that Joshua was acquiring greatness, he was advancing in greatness. God’s idea is that there should not be great gaps;
[p. 342] greatness in His servants is to go right on. We have come into a heritage of greatness, descending from God through Christ, and it is for us to live in it. Joshua was living in it, so that he carries the thing on. Moses having laid his hands on him, Joshua was “filled with the spirit of wisdom” Exodus 28:3. Moses had no thought of a gap between himself and Joshua. And so today, the Holy Spirit is here, and He brings forward whom He will; if Moses goes, Joshua is there, already great; the testimony is therefore maintained according to God in greatness that God can own. So that in Israel’s entrance into the land “Jehovah magnified Joshua” in their eyes; “and they feared him, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life”, Joshua 4:14. The greatness that God puts upon us is not only on our own account, but because of His testimony.