THE MOVEMENTS OF THE TESTIMONY
J. Mitchell
Numbers 9: 15–23; 10: 1, 2, 5, 6, 11–14, 17, 18, 21, 33–36; 21: 10, 11, 16–20; Joshua 3: 1–6
What is on one’s spirit is to say a word as to the movements of the testimony. It may be that in our day the movements of the testimony have not taken on as distinctive a character as they had in the early part of the century, and we might see that when we come to Numbers 21. The movements there were of a slightly different character, they were not so prominent.
Nevertheless, there have been movements in the testimony all along. The testimony is never stagnant. We might sometimes become stagnant, but God is never fixed in that sense. In the testimony He is always in movement, and perhaps one of the movements of the testimony in our day has been the development of family relations among the saints. As we look back over the years we might see that the Spirit of God has been moving very distinctly. Some might think that He stood still. Some might even say, as one hears in conversation sometimes, that things have gone back. But I assure you that the Spirit of God does not go back. The Spirit of God is moving forward, and not only is He moving forward but, if I might speak reverently, He is carrying the saints in the testimony with Him in His movements. It becomes an exercise for every one of us that we might be with the Spirit and be moving forward with the Spirit and with the saints.
The first thing that we have to learn is the lesson in Numbers 9, that the movements are at divine direction. There is no one here directing the testimony apart from the Spirit of God. He has come in from God at the beginning of the dispensation to take charge of the testimony, and He has the divine right, and He exercises that right in influencing the saints in movements in the testimony. The Spirit’s movements came in very early as can been seen from the book of the Acts. He not only gives the direction but the timing of the movements are at His command. In the early chapters of the Acts there was a great movement away from what was set up initially in Jerusalem towards the heavenly order of things coming in in Paul. What a wonderful movement that was, and yet the Spirit of God is the One who directs the timing of such movement, and the movement does not come in immediately. The Spirit of God lingers over what had gone before in Israel. Stephen saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. The glory was departing, but nevertheless it was slow to depart. God recognises what there had been in the dispensation that had gone before, and it is as though He lingers over that. Then He lingers over the ministry of the twelve, but in His own time He moves.
The next great movement is in Acts 10. The Spirit of God is very gracious with Peter in the way He helps and adjusts him in view of that movement. There are times when we need adjustment for these movements. Then while Peter was speaking in that company with Cornelius, the Spirit of God came personally into the matter. He asserts His own divine authority in the movements of the testimony. Peter had not finished what he was about to say, but the Spirit of God comes in and takes over, as though He is asserting His divine right in the movements of the testimony.
Then in Acts 13 there is another great movement. How wonderful a movement that was! If in chapter 10 Peter needed adjustment, there is no adjustment needed in chapter 13. The word “there” in verse 1 is in brackets, it is “the assembly which was”, that is, there was in Antioch the assembly in concrete formation. What a wonderful thing to think of, and the Spirit of God exercised His right in the selection of certain persons in view of the next great movement of the testimony. There was a readiness to recognise the Spirit’s movement and to answer to it. The result was that Barnabas and Saul were separated in view of the work to which the Spirit had called them.
There is another great movement in Acts 16, in which there is dependence and sensitivity in the persons involved. They were prohibited from speaking the word in Asia. They attempted to go to Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. They were under divine control, and then Paul has a vision of a Macedonian man beseeching him to come over and help them.
They then concluded that, the Lord had called them (see Acts 16: 10). I take it Paul must have discussed what he had seen in the vision with the members of his company and they concluded that the Lord had called them. That was the great invasion of Europe, the gospel coming into Europe. What that must have meant to heaven. Think of heaven’s delight in that movement into Europe; and the testimony has been moving ever since. It never has been stagnant at any time, it has been going on ever since, and in our day it is still going on. I emphasise that we need to have in our minds that it is under divine authority.
And so in Numbers 9 the movement is determined by the cloud. It says, “And if it were so that the cloud was there from the evening until the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed; or a day and a night, and the cloud was taken up, they journeyed; or two days, or a month, or many days, when the cloud was long upon the tabernacle, dwelling upon it, the children of Israel remained encamped”. You see the need of being under divine direction in relation to the movements of the testimony. There is no point in going before. If you went before, the cloud would not be there. Moses said, “If thy presence do not go, bring us not up hence”, Exodus 33: 15. I would be afraid of anyone who sought to go before the cloud. We need to be subject and move with the cloud. I would be afraid, too, if anyone refused, or was slow to move with the
cloud. At least, if you are slow, you would be met by the rock that followed them which was the Christ (see 1 Corinthians 9: 4). That is a very beautiful reference to the service and love of Jesus. It has been spoken of as the Water Carrier. You think of the Lord Jesus taking on such a menial service to His saints, so that if anyone is left behind after the movement of the cloud and the people, or if anyone seeks to go away the rock would be there to meet them. It is a last appeal in love to persons who might be tardy in response to divine movements, or who might seek to fall away. Many fell away, sad to say, but it is affecting to me that the rock that followed them was the Christ. So the need is to move with the saints, to move with the Spirit. Let every one of us move on the divine command. Let us not go before, let us not think that we can direct the testimony, that we can arrange things, that we can force things so that the divine mind may be achieved. It never will. The divine mind is achieved as we are subject to what God is doing and subject to His timing and to His movements.
Now when you come to Numbers 10 it is the same movements, but there is something added there, it says, “Make thee two trumpets of silver; of beaten work shalt thou make them; and they shall serve for the calling together of the assembly”. What comes out in chapter 10 is the glory of divine love; how wonderful it is! There is love on God’s part in the silver trumpets; love on the saints’ part in the way that they move; love at the end of the chapter on the part of the Lord Jesus typified in the way in which the ark acts. The making of the two trumpets of silver of beaten work is to illustrate the patience of God and the love of God in His consideration for His saints. The movement of the cloud comes into this chapter as we read in verse 11, but what really stimulates the saints to movement is the sound of these silver trumpets. The trumpets were not sounded by the Levites, but by the priests, and they were sounded with divine feeling. I think it is the feelings of God coming into expression, perhaps through ministry, but nevertheless coming into expression, that stimulates movement, particularly movement of affection among His people. God is seeking the affections of His own. He is seeking movement in our hearts. Movement in the mind alone is not very much.
I remember, if I might just use an illustration, those of us who were younger at the time of that great movement of the testimony regarding the public worship of the Spirit, caught it pretty quickly, and we noticed that some of the older brethren were a little slower; but after a month or two it became clear that the older brethren had it substantially, they had it in their hearts. We might have rushed at it with our minds, but the great thing is, I believe, that the movement is to be in the affections of the saints. That is what the silver trumpets are for.
They speak, of course, of God’s right in redemption, God’s rights in love. He is exercising His rights in love. The trumpet does not give an uncertain note. It sounds a certain note and it sounds a note for movement, but it sounds a note in love. How wonderful it is that God is sounding a note in ministry in love. I wonder what you think of ministry? Sometimes it is a good question to ask. Maybe you think that Mr So-and-so came along and said this, or said that, and that was Mr So-and-so. But in true ministry, God is sounding His note in love.
He is making His appeal in love to His saints, and in this chapter the people answered to it. It says that, “The standard of the camp of the children of Judah set forward first”. That was according to the divine order. Those who dwelt in the east, that is, in relation to the incoming of Christ, those who had hope in their hearts, they are the ones who move first. We need to move not reluctantly nor sorrowfully nor in any sense depressively; we need to move joyfully in hope. I believe that is what the Spirit of God is looking for, that there should be a joyful movement forward together in hope, in hope of the coming in of Christ. What is finally in mind is our gathering together to Him. That is the last great movement, our gathering together to Him. How wonderful it is to think that gathering together will include all the saints. At present in our gatherings we are confined to those with whom we can walk, but think of that wonderful day when there will be the gathering together to Him. So the silver trumpets are sounded and the camp of the children of Judah, it says, “set forward first according to their hosts”. The footnote speaks of ‘their marching order’, that is, the saints are moving together. They are moving in hope, they are moving in brightness of spirit. It also says in verse 17, “the tabernacle was taken down—and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward bearing the tabernacle”. That is a very remarkable thing. It shows love on the part of the saints. The divine ordering in Numbers 2 is that those eastward were to set forward first and then those on the southward side were to set forward second.
Then the tent of meeting was to set forward with the camp of the Levites, and then after them came the other two camps. That is, the Levites with the ark and the tabernacle are there in the middle, in a protective place in love. But here it says, “the tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward bearing the tabernacle”. They set forward with “the standard of the camp of ... Judah”. It tells us in the next section that “the Kohathites set forward bearing the sanctuary”, that was after the camp of Reuben, after the second camp, and “the others set up the tabernacle whilst they came”. That is love in the saints considering for the sanctuary. The Gershonites and the Merarites would say, ‘Well the divine ordering, which we must go by, is that we go after the camp of Reuben, but this time we will go before in order that we can have the camp set up, and have it ready in view of Christ typically coming into His place’. How wonderful the consideration of love is. The outflow of love among the Levites cannot be prescribed exactly, and they move forward with the camp of Judah, in view of setting up the tabernacle and everything being ready, as it says, they “set up the tabernacle whilst they came”. So that while the Kohathites were coming with the camp of Reuben (and that has its own significance, Reuben was on the southward side, the side of privilege) bearing the ark, that the Gershonites and the Merarites were setting up the tabernacle, in order that there might be a place ready typically for Christ. How beautiful that is.
These Gershonites would speak of men that would attend to the principles, and it is necessary that we attend to these if there is to be a place for Christ. But then the Merarites look after the saints. It will be remembered that Mr Taylor Snr. said (and I would not wish to weaken it), ‘look after the principles and God will take care of the persons’, but I came across a reference in the ministry where someone quoted that to him, and he said, ‘Ah yes, but Christianity involves persons’. We need the Merarites, we need to look after the persons as well as looking after the principles. That is something that we need to think about. If we presume to stand for the rights of God without family affections, what is going to result is legality, it is going to result in disaster. The Gershonites and the Merarites move together, both are needed.
There is no use the Merarites going without the Gershonites, that would not do; there is no use the Gershonites going without the Merarites, that equally would not do. We need to keep things in divine balance. May the Lord help us in relation to that.
Then at the end of the chapter when “they set forward from the mountain of Jehovah and went three days’ journey; and the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them”. Love in the saints cannot be prescribed, but this is love in Christ. Again the divine ordering was that the ark should be there between the camps, two camps going forward first, and then the ark and the tabernacle coming next, and then the two remaining camps coming after that. In the testimony
everything is done for the protection of Christ, and how much that is needed at the present time when so much is being said publicly denying the virgin birth, denying His resurrection; denying the Person of Christ. Let it be not only in word, but in our lives let us live Christ, so that there might be a right testimony and that He might be rightly protected testimonially. It is incumbent upon us to do that.
But here love in Him typically is so great that the ark rises out of that position and goes before the saints. In all the movements in the testimony Christ has gone before. He has borne the force of all that comes against the saints. It says there that they “went three days’
journey”; that is very significant. I do not need to go into that. I speak to intelligent persons who know what the three days’ journey involves. But it says that “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them”.
I believe the more we know about the love of the Christ, the more we appreciate what He has been to the saints all through the dispensation, and what He is to us at the present time, and I believe the more we will appreciate the holy actions of His love in the way in which He is searching out a resting-place. In this setting He is not searching out an area of conflict, He has taken the burden of the conflict in going before them in the three days. What He would do is to search out a resting-place. May we be encouraged in that and may we be sobered in it too that the Lord is searching out a resting-place for the saints. Let none of us, in any of our actions, disturb that resting-place. He is searching it out for them, He is considering for them, and it says, “the cloud ... was over them ...”, but “when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered”. We were considering in the reading about the children of God scattered abroad (see John 11: 52). Here the enemies are scattered.
There is no cohesion, they are scattered. It is easy to deal with a scattered enemy, it is more difficult when there is cohesion. The gates of hades represent organised evil, and power is needed to deal with that.
He says, “let thine enemies be scattered; And let them that hate thee flee before thy face. And when it rested, he said, Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”. May we appreciate more God’s dwelling-place among the saints. That is a wonderful concept to think of.
We come now to chapter 21. The intervening chapters bring out a good deal that .is sorrowful. The true state of the people comes out. The first ten chapters set out divine order.
From chapter 11 onward you have murmuring and rebellion, but, I repeat, the rock that followed them was the Christ. That rock never changed, His love was not changed. In chapter 21 you come to judgment of sin in the flesh in the brazen serpent, and then there is movement. As I said at the beginning, perhaps the movements in days gone past have been more easily seen; perhaps they are a little more hidden in this day, but these latter movements are short and quick. It is remarkable that there is no mention of the cloud after chapter 21. In chapter 20 there is reference firstly to the death of Miriam, and then to the death of Aaron, and the death of Moses is anticipated. Moses had not died but he was not to bring the people into the land. That shows that leaders are not so prominent, and I think those are the days in which we are, when leaders are not done away with—Moses is still alive. We still need it and will need it right on to the end, but then it is not so prominent.
What is prominent, I believe, is the leadership of the Spirit among the saints. That is where this movement comes in, and it is extraordinarily rapid movement. It says they “encamped in Oboth. And they removed from Oboth, and encamped at Ijim-Abarim ... toward the sun-rising. From thence they removed, and encamped at the torrent Zered. From thence they removed, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon”. You see how rapid the movements are. They may not be quite so outstanding. Therefore there is a great need of the Spirit that we might discern the movements of the testimony in our day. They might have been much more easily discerned in the old days. Maybe persons did not see the cloud moving, maybe they did not even hear the silver trumpets, but at least they would have seen the camp moving. But these movements are a little more difficult to discern; they are more rapid, and the saints are moving on rapidly. Is there anyone here who thinks that there is no movement of the testimony? The testimony is moving on extraordinarily rapidly at the close of the dispensation, and it is moving on because of the inward leading of the Spirit. I feel very exercised about that. How much we are dependent on what is external. I say that for myself. What do the brethren think about things? and that is valuable. What does the ministry say about things? Far be it from me to despise the ministry, what a wealth is in it, but, something comes and you go to the bookshelf—what does the ministry say about it? What does the Spirit say inwardly about matters? That is an exercise. What does He say in persons, persons like you and me? Have I been able to discern the inward movements of the Spirit, the inward leading of the Spirit? I believe we are in that day, and I would seek for exercise with myself and with my brethren that we might be able to discern the inward leading of the Spirit, and that we might rely more and more upon it. The cloud is not in sight here; we are thankful for the cloud but it is external. I am not saying the cloud was not here, but from this point on it is not even mentioned, and leaders are not prominent. What is prominent is what is in the saints, and I believe we are in those days, when we need to make room for what the Spirit is doing in the saints in inward leadership. And, as I say, the movements are not so easily discerned but much more rapid. There is no hindrance here.
Then it says in verse 10 that they journeyed. Before that they had wandered a good deal, but now they journey. Are you on the journey, beloved brother. beloved sister? Are you with the saints in the journey in which the Spirit is leading? They came into “the wilderness that is before Moab, toward the sun-rising”. That is another thing, they have their faces now in the right direction. They can now go straight forward. Are our faces in the right direction? Where is your face towards, dear brother, dear sister? You might well ask me the question, Where is my face towards? I trust it is towards Christ on high. Here they were in the plains of Moab.
They are not yet over the Jordan, they are just on the borders of the land, but their affections are over on the other side. That is where their outlook is. They came “to the top of Pisgah, which looks over the surface of the waste”. The surface of the waste is all behind them. What is ahead, typically, is Christ where He is. So they sing to this well. Let us make more room for the Holy Spirit of God in our midst, and let each one of us make room for the Holy Spirit of God in our personal exercises in the way in which we do things. Let us give Him scope that He might lead us, “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14. That is like the plains of Moab; the inheritance is now in view.
When you come to Joshua it is the leadership of the ark. It is not quite the final movement. The movement here is into our inheritance. There is another movement under David when you have God’s inheritance among the saints. When they came out of Egypt, Moses and the children of Israel sang to Jehovah that He would bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance in the place that Jehovah made His dwelling (see Exodus 15: 17).
But He had to wait for David and Solomon. You think of the patience of God as He waited for Solomon to build the house and the ark to come into its place. That was the divine thought when they came out of Egypt. He went all through the wilderness with them in His grace, was with them when they went over the Jordan, and all that time in the land,
but the ark had no place of its own. It needed David, with exercise as it says, “we heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood”, Psalm 132: 6. It needed a man like David to be awakened in his affections as to the place that was due to Christ in type. Oh beloved brethren, can we not awaken the affections of one another? The most important thing at the present time is the place that is for Christ in our midst.
I just refer to Joshua. It says here, “When ye see the ark of the covenant of Jehovah your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then remove from your place, and go after it”. Are you prepared to go after it, dear brother, dear sister? The Spirit of God would lead us. His leadership as typified in Numbers 21 would lead us to Christ. The Spirit will always do that.
He would lead us to Christ as the One who has done wonderfully. The priests and the ark together are a type of Christ. You cannot separate them, and as the priests’ feet stood in the Jordan, the waters stood back. Think of the wonder of it that a way might be made over for us that we might enjoy our inheritance. I believe the Lord would attract us over. May we be prepared to move, may we be prepared to go with Him! May we have our sights set in the right direction! May there be nothing to hinder our attraction to Him, and may we follow Him, as they followed the ark over the Jordan! It stood there and made a way through, and the people went over, they went over into their inheritance. May that be our portion for His name’s sake.
Address at Barnet
22 February 1992