THE ANOINTING
[p. 117] THE ANOINTING
Exodus 30:22-33; 2 Corinthians 1:21,22
God seems to be calling attention at the present time to the anointing. The tabernacle was constructed in all its parts according to the commandment of Jehovah, but it had to be anointed before it was hallowed as a vessel of divine service. The first epistle to the Corinthians corresponds with the setting up of the tabernacle; it is spoken of as the Lord’s commandment; but in the second epistle we have the teaching as to the anointing, for we read that God has anointed us. It is a beautiful, hallowing thought, giving completeness, as it were, to what was in the divine mind. The virtue of the anointing is seen in that epistle as exemplified particularly in Paul, but in view of its coming into evidence again among the Corinthians. And it did appear in measure in the saints at Corinth as seen in the second epistle.
The Old Testament expands for us in a typical way the thought of the anointing. Believers sometimes have the idea that the New Testament explains the Old, but in point of fact it is more often that the Old Testament explains and amplifies the New. We should understand very little in detail of the various aspects of the death of Christ, if we had not Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus. The Old Testament opens it out, and we learn much from the typical scriptures that we should never learn from the New Testament alone. So the instructed scribe brings out things new and old. The new comes first, and the old develops the new. Believers generally come intelligently to the understanding of Scripture in the reverse order to how the Scriptures stand in our Bibles. The epistles ground us in the righteousness of God and the truth of the assembly, and then we appreciate the blessed Person portrayed in the gospels — the One who has brought everything to us, and in whom we find fulness of grace and [p. 118] truth. The gospels are, indeed, the supreme part of Scripture. Then we are prepared to go to the Old Testament, and see the hidden wealth of the types, which has been so fully brought out in these last days of the assembly’s history.
When the apostle tells us that the saints of the assembly are anointed, he is sending us to the Old Testament to inquire what this means. God has set up an anointed system of things, and we must see that we understand it according to the teaching of the type. In the tabernacle everything was secured through the exercises and affections of the people of God. God’s work consists in putting the features of Christ in the hearts of the saints, that they may become material for the tabernacle and suitable to the anointing.
The anointing oil was a skilfully compounded preparation “after the work of the perfumer”, and I think we have to distinguish it from the Holy Spirit in relation to other parts of the truth. In the holy anointing oil there was not only olive oil, but the “best spices” were incorporated with it; the oil was the medium in which they were blended. Features were seen typically in the anointing oil which are additional to what is set forth in the olive oil alone. So that we have here in type a more developed and extended thought than the simple fact of having the Spirit. Those who have the Spirit should be concerned about the spiritual blending which is here said to be done “after the work of the perfumer”.
The spices to be blended in the oil are described as the “best” spices, and we are told in Exodus 35: 27 that they were brought by “principal men”. This would connect such products with those who are, in a spiritual sense, wealthy persons. The Spirit has told us of the ointment which Mary brought that it was “very costly”, so that we may conclude that she was a woman of some means. We should be ambitious of spiritual wealth; that is, what God will estimate as such; and this is, indeed, all the product of His own grace and work. The second epistle to the Corinthians is a fine epistle to enrich people, and thus enable them to bring costly things.
Paul says, “Making many rich”. He speaks of the Lord Jesus [p. 119] Christ becoming poor that we, through His poverty, might be made rich. The ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of reconciliation, the truth of new creation are great divine enrichments of the people of God as set in relation to the anointed system of holy things.
The myrrh and cassia are in double the quantities of the other spices. They represent, I believe, features of the Spirit of Christ which can only be fully appreciated by divine Persons. Myrrh speaks of suffering according to the will of God. This is a feature that can only be rightly or fully estimated by God. It is an essential constituent of the anointing oil; therefore none of us can suppose that we are in the virtue of the anointing unless there is with us preparedness to suffer for the will of God. We may see this fully in the Lord Himself, and it was also developed in great measure in his faithful servant Paul. All through the second epistle to the Corinthians there is a vein of suffering. God has peculiar pleasure in a people prepared to suffer for His will. The assembly in Smyrna was marked out as a suffering assembly. Smyrna means myrrh. They were a rich people spiritually; the Lord said to them, “Thou art rich”; they could furnish myrrh in abundance. We often become impoverished spiritually because we yield to the natural tendency to avoid suffering when it comes in the way of doing God’s will. Still the saints are suffering at this moment in many ways, and in some parts of the world in a special degree. There is a good deal of evidence, even today, that the assembly is a suffering company. And the readiness to suffer is one proof that the anointing is upon the saints. It is good to know that there are boys and girls at school prepared to suffer for the name of Christ; it is the virtue of the anointing.
I understand that cassia is supposed by some to be a fragrant root known in the east, and, if so, I think it may be regarded symbolically as expressive of that depth of feeling which will ever be found accompanying the Spirit of Christ. The world is marked today by very little depth of feeling, and this is to be observed in the religious part of it as much as [p. 120] anywhere else. But lack of feeling is abhorrent to God. He loves men like David and Jeremiah, Paul and Timothy — men whose inward feelings were in a marked way expressive of the Spirit of Christ. Cassia is a large ingredient of the holy anointing oil. Paul had to write a letter to correct a sad state of things at Corinth, but he tells us that he wrote it “out of much tribulation and distress of heart ... with many tears”. He speaks of having no rest in his spirit; his whole soul was moved in an agony of concern. Such depth of feeling pertains to the anointing; it can only be acquired in nearness to Christ, and by the supply of His Spirit. The natural tendency is to become like the world and not feel things. The Psalms show us that David was a man of deep feeling; no doubt this was one thing that made him a man after God’s heart; he was in a peculiar way a vessel of the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the anointing; His own deep feelings are a precious and holy mystery which will never perhaps be fully unveiled to us, but there is enough made known to show how intense they were. Never was such feeling! Then Paul and Timothy were men of tears; this was one way in which the virtue of the anointing was expressed in them.
The cinnamon and the sweet myrtle represent what is more external, for cinnamon is the bark of a tree, and it is the flowers and berries of the myrtle which are fragrant. So that if the myrrh and the cassia represent inward features which God alone can fully appreciate, the cinnamon and sweet myrtle typify, I think, features of the Spirit of Christ which the brethren can appreciate. The fragrance of the Spirit of Christ coming out in the saints is intended to be appreciated by the brethren, and it is part of the virtue of the anointing that it should be so. God will not be content to have things right merely in a doctrinal or legal way; He would have them right in the grace of the anointing. Colossians 3: 12 - 15 may be taken as a sample of the cinnamon and sweet myrtle of the anointing. Such features are to mark us in our relations as brethren. Let us not be content with the assurance that we [p. 121] have the Spirit, but let us see to it that as the result of the activities of the Holy Spirit there are in evidence these precious fragrant features of the Spirit of Christ. So that we are not only able to say precious things to God, but the grace of the anointing in which we serve God is upon us in all our relations with our brethren.
The fragrant graces of the Spirit of Christ are not acquired in a practical way apart from exercise, and that blending which is described typically as being “after the work of the perfumer”. In result there is a holy anointing oil which becomes a hallowing of all the vessels of service. The service of God cannot go on apart from this hallowing. And when we think of the service of God it is important to remember its greatness and universality. The service of God is really what pertains to the whole assembly as anointed. It does not pertain to the saints as a small company, but as a great and hallowed company. Even if there are only two or three actually together in a locality they are privileged to voice the praises proper to the whole assembly, and thus to represent it in character for the present pleasure of divine Persons.
We may be assured that saints in the power of the anointing will be preserved in a sense of spiritual realities in their true divine greatness. Such will not drop down to a human level. If in the virtue of the anointing, we shall refuse to recognise that anything is suitable to the service of God that is not in accord with His mind. In the holy service of God not a word should be uttered that would be unsuitable on the lips of the whole assembly on earth. May we all know more what it is to be in the grace and power of the anointing!