GOVERNED BY THE WILL OF GOD
We have spoken about the importance there is in appreciating the will of God and learning to be governed by this will; as also the practical exercises which flow from the fact that we are led in accord with the mind of God in this connection. It seems to me that it is a help if we have the impression that God has in the assembly on the earth at the present time a great system (if I can use this word) where His will directs everything, and it was necessary that it should be so on account of the testimony. This world is characterised by the lack of law and evident disregard of the will of God. But He has placed in the saints the testimony of a day when His will is to be recognised on the earth as it is in the heavens; this must be produced and maintained in the hearts of the saints, and as they move together under divine direction, they are called to represent a sphere where the will of God prevails. We cannot put the world right or establish the will of God publicly on the earth—this awaits the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ—but we can furnish the conditions among us that God can dwell there as being in accord with His will. It is in mind that the sons of Israel filled out these conditions, as Jehovah said to Moses: “And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”. It was a question of the people of God filling out suitable conditions so that He could dwell among them, and, having furnished these conditions, they had to maintain them and carry the testimony through the wilderness.
To this end, God presents to us first of all the centre of the entire system, the ark, and it is called the ark of the testimony. He said to Moses to put in the ark “the testimony that I shall give thee”. It is frequently spoken of in Exodus and Numbers as the ark of the testimony.
I think that we are greatly helped if we have an appreciation of Christ as the One in whose heart the will of God is found in the most absolute way; and He is the Centre of a great system which must draw its character from Him, for it is not only a question of the level which we attain individually, our private exercises having for their end that we should be rendered fit to take the place determined for us in this system. There is a great gain for us if we have the impression that God has in Christ a Man before Him great enough to mark with His own character all those who are held in relation with Him, a Man who was Himself supremely characterised by love of the will of God. Indeed, he says on coming into the world: “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”.
Never before had anyone on earth pronounced such words. What joy for God’s heart to find a Man whose language was such that “to do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”. That I think is the ark of the testimony.
The ark was always covered as far as we can understand. When the tabernacle was stationary, the ark was behind the veil which covered it, and when the tabernacle was taken down it was covered with a covering of rams’ skins and a cloth of blue. We can only conceive of Christ as the ark of the testimony when we are prepared to enter into God’s presence. He cannot be known in this character of the ark in the public testimony. If we are prepared to enter into the holiest of all, ready to be abstracted from ourselves and penetrate as far as the presence of God, we will have an impression of Christ as the ark of the testimony—the blessed Man who had the will of God at heart, going to death so that this will should be fully realised to God’s glory and for the blessing of myriads.
So we see that the ark was the seat of grace. Nothing of what God intended to bring in could operate unless it is on the ground of mercy. But what would be the consequences for Christ in the realisation of all the will of God! We have been told that we can perhaps call it the bitterness of Christ: “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say?” John 12: 27. The Lord Jesus felt profoundly what it would cost Him to accomplish God’s will, and yet this only brought to light the definite purpose of His heart, His love for the divine will, and He would not be turned aside, cost what it would.
I only desire to draw our attention to this thought that God’s will is that which gives its particular character to a great system, and currently this system finds its expression in the assembly. It is by means of the exercises of which we have spoken that we are made fit to occupy our place in the assembly and this is the work of God in us.
This is really the acacia wood manifested in us. As formed after the Man who found His delight in doing God’s will, delivered from the activity of our own will, we become gradually suited to take our place in this wonderful system which is the foundation of the testimony in a lawless world. It is a wonderful testimony, a testimony which will reach its climax at the coming in power and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to establish God’s will universally.
In Numbers we have the ark presented not as the ark of the testimony but as the ark of the covenant, that is to say Christ as the One who is great enough to express and undertake all that is in God’s heart on our behalf. I refer to this passage to show that the Lord would show us that we are also to engage ourselves entirely in the testimony I am going to speak about.
This incident takes place when the people leave the mountain of God for the first time. “And it came to pass in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth of the month, that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony. And the children of Israel departed”, v 11. On the first day of the first month of the second year the tabernacle had been set up and anointed. This signifies that the system is there in testimony in the wilderness. And on the first day of the second month of that year, the people are numbered from twenty years and upward, indicating that we have to take on responsibility together, each in his respective place as being engaged in the fellowship that has in view the defence of the testimony of God among His people on earth. The Levites are then numbered so as to specify the charges which they have to fulfil.
And now, the position being thus, on the twentieth day of the second month, they set out in movement.
The system is there among the people of God and it has to be kept going in testimony in an adverse scene, which is intentionally expressed by “three days’ journey”, and “the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey”. It is said first: “And they set forward … and went three days’ journey”, and then, “the ark … went before them in the three days’ journey”. The idea of the three days’ journey is that there is a full experience of what the wilderness is to those who take up the testimony of God in this world. Two days represent the testimony, three days, the complete testimony. There is a complete experience of what belongs to the fact of being collectively committed in the path of the testimony of God in the wilderness.
The normal position of the ark was in the midst of God’s people, but in this circumstance it goes “before”; it leaves its normal position and goes to seek out a resting place for them, as if the Lord would give His people the assurance that if they are committed in His testimony and seek to maintain it in fellowship of heart and mind until the end, they can count not only on His support, but on Himself going to meet every enemy which may face them. How encouraging this is! Thus, when the ark went before, Moses says, “Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies be scattered; And let them that hate thee flee before thy face”. The ark goes before them to seek a resting place. All is not trial, all is not bitterness; there is necessarily the side of sweetness in what is collective relating to the maintenance of the testimony. We know it well, we prove it many times. On the first day of the week, there is the side of the rest and sweetness that the ark obtains for us.
So the ark went before them and when it rested, Moses said, “Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”. The Lord would give us the assurance that, if we are committed entirely in the precious testimony of God on the earth, we will have the necessary means to deal with it. Whatever we may have to face, He has faced it first so as to give us confidence from the beginning, and He affords also to us in the midst of all this, moments of rest where He finds His rest among us, as it is said, “Return, Jehovah, unto the myriads of the thousands of Israel”.
Place and date not given
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, February 1949
THE REST OF OUR TIME
I thought especially of the expression in the second verse, “the rest of our time”; that is to say, the rest of our time, for the Lord is reminding us by certain circumstances and at certain moments, that the rest of our time could well be shorter than we think; this is why it is fitting to take account of what should characterise us during the time that is before us and of which in any case the duration cannot be very long. Indeed in this passage, the Spirit of God says, “the end of all things is drawn nigh”, and He would emphasise this affirmation in the present day, to know that “the end of all things is drawn nigh”. Even individually, this puts us under an obligation to take account of the rest of our time and of which is going to govern us during this little while.
This passage underlines that, whatever may have marked the past, what is to mark the rest of our time is to be entirely subject to the will of God. It is very important to grasp that God’s will must necessarily govern and control each one of us during the rest of our time. First of all, the apostle brings in the thought that Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, and we must keep this fact in our souls as the consideration which will keep us in life the rest of our time from the satisfaction of the flesh in some way or another. Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, and we must arm ourselves with the same mind, in the appreciation of the sufferings that Christ endured for us in the flesh; we have no excuse at all to tolerate what Christ has had to suffer. This necessarily implies suffering for us, the flesh not easily accepting to be put to death. But the acceptance of suffering is what must mark us because Christ has suffered for us in the flesh and this is why not tolerating the flesh is the only just response on our part to the sufferings of Christ in the flesh; besides, the will of God should be the essential thing in our minds. There are two things of which we must take account: one is the will of God, and the other is the circle of the brethren. The faces of the saints can undergo changes, brothers and sisters can change locality or even move, but the circle is the same, and the affections and the consolation, with the support that we receive from it, as well as the reality of spiritual joys that we find; these things abide. This is why if, on the one hand, we have grasped in our minds that what must govern us from now on is the will of God, and that we have been given on the other to find our lot entirely among those who are born of God, we shall be confirmed and changes which may come up in the detail of our circumstances will not affect us.
In this passage, as in a similar one in chapter 12 of the epistle to the Romans, we are exhorted not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind so as to discern what the will of God is, good and agreeable and perfect; the thought of God’s will is nothing less than absolute; it is in complete contrast with our own will and it is this will of God which must come before everything else with us. In the measure in which we advance, we will find that this is indeed a vast subject, very extended and with various aspects, but above all we have to recognise that having been redeemed, our normal point of view is that we must be here for God’s will, whatever that will is for us. This principle being accepted, we will be kept from all iniquity (walking without curb or law). This is the only answer on our part, I say again, to the fact that we have been redeemed. A capital point for each of us and for the young especially is to accept the principle that we are here for God’s will. The Lord Himself is, without doubt, the great and perfect Model, for in coming into the world, a body having been prepared for Him, He says, “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”. And thus He is the anti-type of the ark of the testimony, that is to say that Christ, with God’s will preciously enshrined in His heart, becomes the Centre of the system of testimony that God is maintaining in this world, a testimony to the fact that He is soon going to establish His will, in the fullest sense of the word, in the whole universe. But He introduces this thought in view of the saints, as redeemed by Christ and as having received the Spirit, being able to assume the same character, that is to say that the will of God, whatever it may signify for us, should be cherished in our hearts and accepted as what is going to regulate them, having before us what the Lord said in Gethsemane, “Nevertheless, not what I will, but as thou wilt”, Luke 22: 42. It is not that the Lord’s will had been in opposition to God’s will, it could not be thus, but in the presence of the supreme trial, the Lord established the principle so that in whatever test may arise in the history of our souls and our lives, the same principle might regulate our point of view—that the will of God should be done and not ours.
So we see that in the history of God’s people, when they had been saved from Egypt in view of being from then on for God’s will, they came to Marah and found bitter waters there. That is to say that God’s will for us in certain details of our life can, at certain times, be found bitter, but God so ordains these things so that we should be formed in view of an appreciation of Christ, for it is to this end that God works. Christ is the ark of the testimony and we have to be led to be in full accord with Him. So Moses cried to Jehovah and He showed Him wood, which made the waters sweet when he cast them in. No doubt this is an allusion to Jesus in the path that He followed down here in His humanity, having introduced the entirely new principle of being governed unreservedly in His life by God’s will. The Lord has been down here in every circumstance governed by this will, finding His delight in accomplishing it. While we might say He was put to the test by the rejection of the cities where He had worked in power: “Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight”. If we consider Christ in the details of His private life during thirty years, hidden at His birth in a manger, living in Nazareth and working in a carpenter’s workshop, or when we follow Him through about three years of His public service, we find that He was entirely governed in everything by God’s will, and I say yet again, finding His delight in doing it; He judged that God had ordained it thus and that was enough for Him. The more we contemplate Christ in this light, beloved, the more we will find that He moderates circumstances for us which otherwise would seem very trying, because they become an occasion for us to be developed in the submission of Jesus Christ and to be able to present to God this feature which, seen perfectly in Him, is to be perpetuated in us now.
The manna was given to the end that we should be instructed as to the principle of living day after day, and to be satisfied with what is small and humble, to be formed in obedience and developed in individual dependence. The manna being our food, we are strengthened by it in view of pursuing our course in the path of God’s will. Accepting God’s will as that which governs us in relation to the details of each of our circumstances will help us to develop in a manhood in accord with that of Jesus, a manhood able to have a part in God’s testimony. Being fed on the manna will produce the character of “shittim wood”. The shittim wood of which the ark was made, as well as the most part of the furnishings of the tabernacle, typifies the order of manhood seen in Jesus down here, the only order of manhood to which God is able without reserve to confide His testimony. It is clear that if God confides His testimony to a man who does his own will and seeks his own glory, He will be immediately dishonoured. This is why, if God’s testimony is to be maintained in the world, it is necessary that it should be in persons whose manhood is formed after the manhood of Jesus Christ, and the exercises which we are sent are in view of regulating our lives according to God’s will, being fed on the manna, having the end in view of developing in us a manhood according to the manhood of Christ.
This leads us to see the subject of God’s will in a more extended aspect. In the epistles to the Corinthians, we find that Paul speaks of himself as apostle of Jesus Christ, “by God’s will”, as also in the epistles to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, and the second epistle to Timothy, showing by that that the truth presented in these epistles is on the line of God’s will. God’s will is in effect set out for us in its whole extent. One point to remember as to this will is the assembly in its public aspect, the assembly of God which is in Corinth. This is something very much greater than God’s will regulating us in our individual path. It is a great privilege to recognise that there is what has been pre-determined, to which we should be positively devoted, that is to say, God’s testimony in this world, implying the truth of the assembly as it is set out in the epistles to the Corinthians. When we come to the epistle to the Ephesians, God’s will takes the character of a very vast thought, which extends from before the foundation of the world as far as the day of eternity, and which embraces the infinite thought of the assembly in Christ Jesus, as the vessel which will contain the glory of God throughout all generations to the age of ages.
What a vast horizon begins to spread out before us, beloved, when once we have fully accepted the will of God. This is what we should do that the rest of our time should be entirely devoted to the will of God.
And finally, to show indeed the urgency of such a position, Peter speaks of Him who is ready to judge living and dead; and he adds, “For to this end were the glad tidings preached to the dead also, that they might be judged, as regards men, after the flesh, but live, as regards God, after the Spirit”, 1 Pet 4: 6. According to this passage, we see how important the Holy Spirit is and I believe that the measure in which we enter into the truth, we discover that our relations with the Holy Spirit are more and more intimate. The will of God can only really be fulfilled in the power of the Spirit of God; this is why our attention is more and more drawn to the fact that we must be dependent upon the Spirit, and exercised in view of gaining the knowledge of the Spirit, appreciating the fact that He dwells in us and that he is with us until the end, available to give us support. The main point, beloved is to live according to God, after the Spirit.
The apostle then adds: “But the end of all things is drawn nigh: be sober therefore, and be watchful unto prayers”. Then he also introduces the Christian circle, saying, “but before all things having fervent love among yourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins”. If there is fervent love among us, the griefs and wrongs of little importance that could be produced will be covered, the little things which can offend will be easily pardoned and not appear any longer. Love will cover them, love does not reveal more than necessary of such things. If there is going to be glory to God and to His rights in the assembly, it may be essential that facts should be known, but otherwise, love does not expose. Let us not forget the example that we have in the sons of Noah when their father was uncovered in the midst of his tent and Ham, the youngest, came to tell his two brothers; those who had at heart to cover him with their cloak. We have the right to act like this, beloved, in the light of the death of Christ. God has forgiven us in Christ, this is why we have the right to move in this spirit ourselves; love in active exercise in our midst has the effect of covering a multitude of sins, so that the things which could remain on the spirits and in the hearts from not having been covered by the activities of love are covered and are no longer taken into account, because grace and the spirit of forgiveness in the saints have covered them in the light of the death of Christ.
We have then, “hospitable one to another, without murmuring”. All this expresses fully the value and support of the Christian circle, affirming the links of love between us. The final thought is that whoever has the gift of grace, received in word or in any other way, every service should be done in the power that God supplied. “If any one speak—as oracles of God”. Let there not be in him the thought of drawing attention to himself through his word; it is a matter only of what God desires to communicate to the saints by this means.
So, beloved, I think that if the will of God is accepted us in all simplicity, being firstly exercised as to this in our individual lives, learning this will and how vast and blessed it is, we will have by this what is enough to occupy us during the rest of our time and this will be a help to confirm us in not being overcome by circumstances beyond what is fitting, because in all and through every circumstance, there is the will of God. We can be assured that the will of God will be accomplished, it must be so, and if we are devoted entirely to this will we will be able to persevere with it, having as consolation and support the provision made for the circle of the saints; the essential point in this circle being to see that God in all things is glorified.
Place and date not given
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, April 1949
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