BEING KEPT ALIVE

R. Taylor

Numbers 13: 21–25; 14: 6–9; 17: 1–10; 20: 7–9; 21: 10–20

A considerable number of years after the passage of which we have read, Caleb says, “Jehovah has kept me alive” (Joshua 14: 10); that is what I would like to speak about, being kept alive. He had not had an easy life, much more difficult than ours; he had seen far more deaths than we have seen, and more governmental actions of God than we have seen, but he had been kept alive. It is very fine to have a sense of being kept alive. Those that came out of Egypt in type were sheltered by the blood of Christ, but they were not all kept alive. I would like to speak about how we may be kept alive; firstly by laying hold of the purpose of God, secondly by enjoying and knowing the priesthood of Christ, and thirdly by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Much else enters into it that we could speak of, but these things impress me at this time as part of the great reserves of divine grace to keep us alive in the wilderness while all around persons are losing their lives.

Those people had known the shelter of the blood but they were not kept alive, they were not vital in the testimony. When Canaan was presented to them, it did not appeal to their taste. It is like Moab in the book of Jeremiah, it says “his taste hath remained in him” (Jeremiah 48: 11), it was not changed. What was their taste? It was for the leeks and the garlic. If you had put some of Egypt’s food before them they would have enjoyed it but they did not have an appetite for the fruits of Canaan. That is why they were not kept alive. They had forgotten the depth of exercise that night when they cried to the Lord in all their misery, ‘Lord save me’, they had forgotten the agonies of the slavery and bondage of Egypt, and the devil had somehow made it attractive to them. We are in these days, dear brethren, when these things come into our lives and into our histories; I know of them only too well. Satan would put a gloss on things that are corrupt and evil. Indeed the very name of Christ is often attached to things that are obnoxious to God, and there is the danger that they may have a damaging effect upon us too, dulling our sensibilities and taste for heavenly things. That is how Caleb was kept alive; the grapes of Eshcol were far more to him than all the appeal that Egypt may have presented to the people. It is like Moses, of whom it says, “choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”, Hebrews 11: 25. These things test us, not only when we are younger, they test us all through our lives; things that would appeal to us and attract us, and dull our sensibilities and hinder us from enjoying the purpose of God.

Well God saw all that; He sees it in your history and in mine, and He would like to bring in something to bring our souls and our hearts closer to Himself. The burdens of the way are very real, with some of our brethren more than others; things are very difficult and cause depression, but the Lord brings the light of His purpose into these circumstances. It is God who proposes this. God says to Moses, Search out the land. Did He not know the kind of people they were? Did He not know their tendencies to rebellion? He could have come in and tried to rebuke that but the God who knew all that says, “Send thou men, that they may search out the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel”, Numbers 13: 2. You get a touch in your heart in the meetings sometimes, that God is saying something to wean you, to draw you closer to that place where His purpose is and His thoughts about you are to be enjoyed. It is remarkable how easily they got into that land. I have often wondered about it; there they were, twelve men, and nothing opposes them. Friend, if you would like to enjoy the purpose of God it is all open to you. It has been said that you will get as much of Christ as you want, you will get as much of Christ as you go in for. It is all there, there is nothing standing in the way of these spies going into the land. Where were all the powers that were against them? It says they came to Hebron, and the Spirit of God makes a comment about Hebron, “Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt”. That means that even before the workings of sin or the power of the devil had any claim over you God had something in His mind for you, your eternal blessing.

The purpose of God is that believers will be conformed to the image of His Son. For the Israelites it was a geographical position, it was a land that was bountiful. There was another man who speaks about it, who had never been in it, his language is so beautiful; Moses speaks of a land where there are houses that you did not build, there are vineyards that you did not plant, streams that are flowing everywhere. That was a man in the wilderness who knew something of where he was sending them; he knew what they would find, he knew what they would bring back; and you could see Moses longing to see those fruits as they brought them back. He would be longing to hear them say, Let us go up in the power of divine grace to live in it, to enjoy it. That is somewhat like the assemblings of the saints together. May we be encouraged to touch something of the purpose of God in them. While it is touched individually, it is to be enjoyed among the saints. Moses sends these twelve men and it says they “cut down thence a branch with one bunch of grapes, and they bore it between two upon a pole; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. That place was called the valley of Eschol, because of the grapes”. It is an allusion to what God has prepared for them that love Him now. It is already prepared, the purpose of God is all centred in Christ. The purposes of men they find hard to accomplish. The purpose of God was made before the world began. That is the beauty of it; God saw what was going to come in and He purposed and He chose us in Christ before the world began. He knew well what kind of persons we would be, He knew the longings we would have after other things, but the purpose of God found its resource all in Himself, it says that He purposed in Himself. He chose us in Christ; dear believer in Christ, you had no hand in it at all, but God in His own wisdom and the purpose of His love chose us in Christ before the world began. That is the purpose of God; it was there before Zoan in Egypt, it was there before sin came into the world, and the incoming of sin has not changed it one iota.

Scripture speaks about the unchangeableness of His purpose. What a God He is! As He brings out something of His heart, He has not changed His mind about you and me although there is plenty of cause for Him to do it. His purpose remained but there were some who were not kept alive to enjoy it. Caleb was and Joshua was to show us that there is power to effectuate His purposes because there is a Man who has glorified Him on the earth. The unfolding of these purposes has been effectuated in the death or, I should say, the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a Man in glory who died and in His death He brought all within our reach. I am not speaking of His death as the atoning work exactly, I am speaking of His death as glorifying God; that is an aspect of the death of Jesus that has brought these purposes on to our view, because God was glorified in the death of Jesus. Have you ever thought about it? The Man whom men put on a cross, in Him God was glorified and it made way for those promises and purposes to be revealed to us irrespective of what we were as children of Adam’s race. You wonder if God might have chosen angels for His purpose but He passed them by. His purposes were centred in the seed of Adam’s race, and God is able to bring them home to your heart and mine, because that Man who died removed from God’s sight all that attached to us, in order that He may unfold to us something of His purposes of love to have us in His own presence in sonship. The purpose of God involved that we would be in His presence in the full enjoyment of what it is to be like Christ,

‘Like Jesus! Grace supreme!

Like Him before Thy face;

Like Him, to know that glory beam

Unhindered, face to face!’ (Hymn 72)

That is the enjoyment of the purpose of God. God was not taken aback by what came in; He saw it all and devised a plan that He may unfold His purposes, and have them all fulfilled in persons He has kept alive. May it encourage our hearts to embrace them.

There is a chapter, Hebrews 11, which shows persons who embraced the purpose of God. God, to make it easier for us, made promises; His promises are connected with His purposes.

It says, “since he had no greater to swear by, swore by himself”, Hebrews 6: 13. He could not find anything outside of Himself to substantiate His purpose, so He swore by Himself. O the God that He is that He would come down to our way of thinking to encourage our hearts to embrace His purposes. He promised that He would bring to pass all that He purposed in spite of our failings and our infirmities. There were persons in Hebrews 13 of whom it says that they embraced them. They saw them afar off, may I say further away than we are privileged to see them today, and they embraced Him. The beautiful touch about that is God prepared for them a city; that was in His purpose. For Caleb those fruits did not lose their sweetness nor their freshness. There is great variety in the purpose of God, it is all life-giving, and there were two persons there, Caleb and Joshua, ready to receive them into their hearts. That is how they were kept alive; we get weary without the enjoyment of them. We will lose our lives in the testimony unless there is some embracing with us of the purpose of God.

The others did not go on to Canaan’s rest, they were turning back. God was displeased with them; it is one of the great tests of scripture, this incident that we read of. The apostle speaks of it in Hebrews 4, where he says that because they did not receive the report they did not enter in, they lost their lives. There is a great danger, dear brethren, of lowering divine things to our view; saying, Let us just be content with what we have; we may say, Let us just be content that we have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. But really, it is a slight on the work and sufferings of Christ not to have a heart that wants to follow Him. Mary was not satisfied without Him, wherever He might be she wanted to find Him. It is a danger to say, Let us not go too far. Someone once said that to me, he was a Christian, he had been converted, but he thought we were going too far. He had rested on the shelter of the blood, but he knew nothing of tasting the fruits of Canaan’s land, or of these heavenly springs of refreshment day by day, because his life was centred in a world that rejected Christ. These two men enjoyed the land and would encourage others. Is there somebody like that, may I ask, in your local meeting? is it so even through all the sorrows in localities, brethren under pressure, weakness all around us?

But here is Caleb, he stirs the people, he says, “If Jehovah delight in us, he will bring us into this land”. Have you any doubt about God delighting in you? Why would He have given Christ for you if He did not delight in you? Is there somebody enjoying it enough to bring it into the meeting, “If Jehovah delight in us, he will bring us into this land, and give it us, a land that flows with milk and honey”. He did not just say it was a good land but it “is a very, very good land”. How precious it was to him, he was longing to be there although he had to wait maybe thirty-five years but it says he was still alive. He says, “as my strength was then, even so is my strength now”, Joshua 14: 11. What vitality it brings in to have some sense of our place in Christ, a place that is unchanging, something to resort to in these sorrows and pressures of the testimony. I remember a brother who was tested about trade unions, he was losing his job and he went home depressed, then some verse of a hymn came into his heart about the purpose of God and the whole thing was changed in a moment. The presence of God in all that He has purposed is not altered by how I feel, but it is available at all times for our encouragement and for our blessing. It says here, it “is a very, very good land ... a land that flows with milk and honey”.

The flow has not stopped, there were many hearts that the flow was not able to get into, but the flow has not stopped. There are still these fruits of blessing to refresh our souls in these difficult times.

Well I only refer to it to encourage our hearts but it is there to keep us alive, and without some touch of it, we will not be kept alive. Our sins will still be forgiven but we will know nothing of the blessings that divine love has purposed to bless us with now. Caleb would try and encourage the brethren, encourage them in faith. That is what the passage in Hebrews brings out that the word of the report did not profit them, nobody could deny the word of the report was true, but it did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those that heard. In other words, they did not have confidence in God. That is what the lack of faith really means that you do not have confidence in the God who has promised. Caleb had that, he knew the God who spoke, saying in Exodus 15, “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance ... The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”, Exodus 15: 17. God had spoken about bringing them in but they had not the heart to go in. You know, on Lord’s day morning, I am sure we all get a touch of what it is to enjoy the purpose of God.

We sing some beautiful hymns and there are beautiful words expressed, thank God for them, but we are tested as to how real it all is to us. That is like Eschol’s grapes and the pomegranates and the figs; Caleb fed on them on Monday, Tuesday, and every day of the week while the people were dying around him. He had to journey with them in all these journeys, he had to see the people in all that they had to suffer, he went through it all with them but he was still kept alive. The difficulties were very great but he was still kept alive as his heart and his mind and his thoughts were dwelling on what God had prepared for them that love Him.

Now as the scripture goes on the people journey onward and what arises then is that there are persons who think they are equal for these things in their own strength. This section we have read is very like today; there are people saying there are other men as good as Christ, that is very close to us. The very churches are embracing that there are other religions, there are other faiths; that is really just this scripture. Has God only spoken through Christ? Yes. Are the blessings only to be enjoyed through Him? Yes. There is only one Man in the presence of God dispensing the blessings of His purposes and that is our Lord Jesus Christ; but there are many arising who are saying that it can be in one man or it can be in another man, and God says, I will show you. Let them do their boastings. Are there any you would put your trust in?

Are there any who could impart forgiveness of sins? Cry as they may! Elijah did that. He said, Invoke your gods and see what they can do. When it came to his turn he said, Even fill the trench with water, pour water everywhere. There was only one God who answered—the God of the heavens (see 1 Kings 18: 39). My friend, to us there is one God, the Father, one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. These tests are coming in and our children are being subjected to them. May we be helped, dear brethren, to enforce there is only one Lord; only one stave blossomed, only one.

The powers of darkness are increasing in this world; men acting in the name of God and other lords, and you see the distress they are bringing in, the lawlessness and the murder that are in men’s hearts as professing allegiance to another lord. I say again, there is only One; see Him here. These men bring the staves and they are laid up but in the morning they are all dry except one. There are gods many and lords many but they will all pass away, but there is a living Man in the presence of God; so it says, “And it came to pass, when on the morrow Moses went into the tent of the testimony, behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and ripened almonds”. O how beautiful. I can see Moses’ face lighting up, there he was vindicated in the trust He put in God. They had mocked him, saying, Has God only spoken by you? Is what you say the only way? There is one Lord and Moses rested his faith on that. I do not think he was troubled that night when those staves were in there, but I see his facing lighting up when he looked on that staff, it says “had budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and ripened almonds”. It is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ in resurrection; there is one Man raised from among the dead. Mr. Gardiner often used to speak of all the heroes that lay in death when Jesus was there, all the great men of history, who were passed by when God raised one Man, and He is alive in the power of that life.

Have you ever seen Jesus in the presence of God? He is there as our great High Priest above. That is what the scripture is really speaking about typically. In Hebrews 4 it speaks of the word of God trying us, dividing between soul and spirit, the exercises that go on and the struggle in our lives, exercises that may even pull us away into other things, the word of God tests us; but a following verse tells us that there is a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God (Hebrews 4: 14). The word of God will test us as long as we are here, but the priesthood of Christ is available to those who accept the word and believe it. He is there in His glory. He is there in His beauty; there is nothing more beautiful I think than these blossoms and ripened almonds. They speak of the sweetness and the preciousness of Christ to God, all available to us in His priesthood to succour and sustain us in the circumstances of the way.

Now, dear brethren, I would just encourage us to rest our souls on the wonder of the Man whom God has exalted, the Man whom God has installed in office; He is living that we may be kept alive.

We would never be kept alive without the priesthood of Christ. He is there to sympathise, that is true, but you know the great service of the Priest is to bring us into God. As you make way for God’s purpose in your soul it may test you but the priest is there to join His help to our weakness and to draw us in to enjoy the purpose of God, to see that scene of glory and blessing and to see that we have a place there through divine grace. May we be encouraged as I am sure Caleb, Moses and Joshua were encouraged to see that staff in all its radiancy, and God says, I cannot let that pass, so it says, “And Jehovah said to Moses, Bring Aaron’s staff again before the testimony, to be kept as a token”. We read of it in Hebrews, it was inside the ark. That was the only place to put it. Where else could they have put it? There it is, inside the ark, and as Caleb looked on that ark with that rod, he saw the graces of Christ there available to sustain him in all the wilderness circumstances.

Well as we go on to Numbers 20, you will notice in all these circumstances that we have read of the people are murmuring. O the grace of God. There is a passage in Acts 13 in the Authorised Version where it says that He suffered their manners (Acts13: 18). I think that is a very touching word, He suffered their manners. That is what He has done to you and to me, He has suffered our bad manners. I should say He has suffered them because He has His reserves in Christ, and in spite of our bad manners the rivers of divine grace are flowing that we may be sustained and kept alive. So in spite of their complainings, despite their murmurings, God answers them in His grace. He brings the light of His purposes and the priesthood of Christ to us in His ways, also we have the Spirit of God to be in us and with us; these are all experienced in God’s ways that the purpose of God may be kept real and fresh in our hearts. So the answer to the murmurings in God’s grace was that he gave them water to drink. First of all, there is the serpent lifted up upon a pole, alluding in type to the sufferings of Jesus in the way that He bore our sins, as He identified Himself with those people of old and all their bad manners; Christ identified Himself with what we were and what we are. But there He is lifted up upon a pole; He stands there as One who was able to bear the judgment of God. The passage in Romans 8: 3, the antitype of this, is what the law could not do, “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin”. He took that condition, sin apart. He was in the likeness of those serpents, and if anyone was bitten, and that was them all, we are all bitten and the only way to alleviate that bite, indeed the only way to get it out of our system as far as we can is by looking at Him.

But God said to Moses; Bring the staff, bring it into the murmurings, into the local meeting in the sorrows and exercises, bring the staff, it is laid up, it is there ready to be taken at any time, and He says, “speak ye unto the rock”. That is an allusion to Christ in His suffering love, grace upon grace, and that grace is also in the Holy Spirit of God, He has come here to be valued. That is what they had come to in this section. In Exodus God speaks about the angel going before them, which is an allusion to the Spirit of God. Here it is not valued and appreciated but God says “speak ye unto the rock”, and the rock gave forth its water and from that point the people of God take on another character. The death of Christ not only was for our sins, it was to remove the man who had sinned, and that is what happened in the death of Jesus. Not only did He take away my sins, but He removed from before God’s sight the man who had sinned, and by looking on that serpent He was to remove it from before my sight in seeing Christ lifted up. And what happens is they become alive. As I said already Caleb had been kept alive; there are persons here in this chapter that become alive through drinking of that water.

The geography is most interesting; if you care to spend time looking at it, but it says here that they encamped toward the sun-rising. Another day had dawned; as the Spirit of God springs up in you, another day dawns for you. For that woman in John 4, another day dawned, “Come, see a man ... is not he the Christ?” Another day was dawning for the people here; they were facing another way, encamped towards the sun-rising. They were looking towards the purpose of God, they were seeing Him who had promised and was able to bring them in. The section is full of living water, not only flowing down, but springing up. As the Lord Jesus said of the believer, “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”, John 4: 14. That is another kind of life, springing up into eternal life. That is what keeps us alive, the enjoyment of eternal life. It means the enjoyment of that heavenly land in the very circumstances that we are in. May our hearts be encouraged to be set, dear brethren, to be kept alive. We need food, we need faith to be kept alive, and these things all draw our hearts to the God who has purposed, and who is able to do all that He purposed. May our faith be strengthened that we may all be kept alive, our steps quickened, and be able to bring into the local meeting the fruits of that heavenly land. May it be increasingly dear to us, dear brethren, for Christ’s name sake.

Address at Dundee
26 June 2004