NEHEMIAH 8 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)
NEHEMIAH 8 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)
Nehemiah 8: 1 - 18; Nehemiah 10: 1 - 39
We see in Nehemiah how the exercise of the remnant deepens. The building of the wall was only a beginning. It is a great thing to set up in a practical way the principles which mark off the city of God from the world. This present evil world is that sphere where the will of man operates, whichever form it may take. It is a primary exercise to commit ourselves to the true character of the assembly as the city. It must be exclusive of the will of man. But that is only a [p. 270] beginning. Chapter 8 is a great advance when Ezra and the Levites have their place. Then chapter 10 is a moral advance on chapter 8 for it is an adjustment of the spirit of the people in the light of all that Scripture presented to them. So that they come to it that there must be a definite commitment to the will of God, and this by sealing. This thought of sealing has a great place in Scripture. He that came received His testimony (see John 3). We cannot go from it. Then God seals us. No person professing to believe should be content until he ensures that God has sealed him. But the sealing in Nehemiah 9: 38 is typical of another sealing on our part. It is the intelligent commitment on the part of a separated and intelligent people (see chapter 10: 28) to walk in the will of God. It is well known in heaven how many have been sealed in this sense, so that we could not be persuaded to deviate from the will of God in any way. We will not form any link that is inconsistent with the testimony, and we will not allow anything to intrude upon what is due to the Lord, and we are prepared to maintain what is due to God even at some loss to ourselves as in the seventh year, such as servants who take less wages so as to serve the Lord. He approves of a man who shuts up his garage on the Lord’s Day. Did you ever go to a meeting when it cost something, without getting a blessing?
Then they charged themselves with the service of the house: He looks for this. I believe the third part of a shekel was fixed to bring even the poorest into it. Do we all feel that we charge ourselves with it? The bread was to be set in rows, and the continual oblation with it. We ought all to feel that our contribution is in it.
But for the wood-offering it is a question of casting lots: why is this? The wood-offering was a matter of sovereign selection. It was special to remnant times as far as Scripture speaks. It is a provision for the burning on the altar: there could be no burnt-offering without it: but it is what we can provide. It is a feature of the burnt-offering which comes into prominence in remnant times, what may be sovereignly given in the assembly to promote worship. The wood as laid upon [p. 271] Isaac would represent that Christ understood all that was involved in the burnt-offering. There was an order of man in Christ in which God could be glorified. I feel I want more light as to “the wood”. It is not exactly the sacrifice but what makes the sacrifice possible. “The holy thing”. Satan could not touch Him. It was humanity wholly for God. This is not exactly His person, for that must include His deity, but it is His greatness as Man.
In Leviticus it is the priests who have to do with the wood, not the offerer. It is a priestly apprehension of Christ. The offering is Christ, the offerer’s measure of appreciation of Christ, but then it must be brought into connection with a priestly apprehension of Him before it goes up as sweet odour. A Man equal to the glory of heaven morally.