NOTES OF READINGS ON DEUTERONOMY (3)
NOTES OF READINGS ON DEUTERONOMY (3)
JMcF Is this the expression you were referring to this morning, “Ye are the sons of the Lord your God”? Deuteronomy 14:1.
JT Yes. I thought it would be helpful to see this side of the truth in this book. It is a book of encouragement, and one feature in it is, that it sets before us the greatness of our place and calling. We cannot go over each chapter, but you will notice in chapter 4 how God calls attention to what the nation was, as compared with other nations. In verse 7 we read; “what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day”. Deuteronomy 4:7,8. Connecting that with chapter 14, “Ye are the sons of the Lord your God”, we are reminded of what we are by calling. It is not what we should be here, but what we are; and certain results, or consequences, are expected. In connection with that it might be helpful to point out that we have to distinguish between covenant relationships, and family relationships. There are two lines running through Scripture; the one having to do with God entering into a covenant with man through the Mediator; and the other having to do with God adopting a family. Now this chapter, I think, touches the latter; we are the sons of God; so that our countenances are not to be disfigured.
JM Would you kindly repeat what the covenant relationships are in New Testament lines.
JT Well, I think, that whilst the new covenant is not made with us, yet we come into the benefits of it. At one time in our history we had no relationship [p. 277] with God at all, but God from His own side approached man in the Mediator; and in the death of the Mediator God commends His love to us. It is not His love for His children, but His love for people who at the time He manifested it were aliens, were sinners. That is very important, if it could be laid hold of. It may seem to be a distinction without a difference, but it is not. The two lines run through Scripture, and they are distinct.
WHM His covenant with Abraham was to a thousand generations, it says in Psalm 105:8. Is that the kind of covenant you are speaking of?
JT No doubt there is a similarity in all covenants. But the covenant with Israel, I think, supposes a certain kind of contract, or bond; it was a covenant contracted between two parties. The proposal that the bond should exist came from God; it originated with God. It comes in in our case in the Lord’s supper, because the cup is the new covenant in His blood. It is a different thought from family relationships. The Supper, in that way, has more the covenant in view.
JB Are we under the covenant on account of provisional position?
JT I think it gives stability of soul in view of our position down here. It does not take us off the earth.
WH We would not have liberty in our souls if we had not covenant.
JT Quite so, because we want to be sure of God’s disposition towards us; and God is free not only to manifest His love, but to commend it to us. We should know it; indeed one wonders why it should need to be commended. But before we know it God takes account of the state of our souls, and commends it to us; and the knowledge of it gives stability of soul, in view of the difficulties in which we are here. That is to say, God’s love is no less to [p. 278] me now than it was before I was converted. If He commended it to me in that day, He would commend it to me now. It gives great stability of soul, because of our weakness.
PL Does the mountain suggest stability? The ministry of the covenant was at Horeb.
JT I think it does. It is not a mountain exactly in which you are to live. The sphere of the divine life is in Canaan, the mountain of His inheritance but the mountain in which the covenant was made suggests a place of strength and stability to our souls as having to do with wilderness circumstances.
WHM What does Lebanon typify?
JT I think the goodly mountain would be the mountain of God’s inheritance. “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance”, Exodus 15:17. Moses said that.
JM The covenant relationships on our side would be the acceptance in our souls of the disposition of God towards us, and living in what God has for us.
JT Yes. In Peter’s address to Israel in Acts 2:33, he says: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear”. He sheds abroad in our hearts His love, by the Spirit. The mountain is an objective thought. God commends His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. But in order that we should have means, or ability to answer to the bond, to conform to it, He sheds His love abroad in our hearts by His Spirit. Some of us were occupied with it a little this morning, and it may be helpful to us to review it. God is reaching out to the Gentile with His love, dispensational distance was ignored, so that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, wherever we may be. Christ is “a light for the revelation of the Gentiles” Luke 2:32;
[p. 279] they are brought into view; and wherever there is state for it God sheds abroad His love. It is worldwide. Now, God is answered to in that way here and there in the Gentile world, the righteous requirement of it is fulfilled, but in whom? Not simply the Jew; but in anyone who walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So that there is a people whom God has secured for Himself through the Mediator. “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in its own time” 1 Timothy 2:5,6 to which Paul had been appointed a herald and an apostle, a teacher of the nations in faith and truth. So that the result was that a people are brought in who answer to the heart of God, who at one time were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world”, Ephesians 2:12. That is the connection in which the covenant lies.
Ques Is our boasting in God in that way?
JT Yes. Our position down here is in view. But when you come to the family side, while it begins here, it belongs to heaven. The covenant is not between the Father and His sons or children.
JB Is it through the covenant we triumph over what we are naturally?
JT The love of God shed abroad in our heart becomes a great leverage; the one who has that has a great advantage over other men. Sonship is received as light in the soul. “When the fulness of the time was come” that is now, we are in the period of it. “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under the law, that we might receive sonship”, Galatians 4: 4,5. Now, the expression “receive sonship” is a matter of light received in the soul as to God’s mind about you. Then it says, “Because ye are sons”, not that ye shall be, but because ye are sons, “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father”, Galatians 4: 6.
Rem It is true of all the family.
JT Yes, it is for all believers of this dispensation to lay hold of as a matter of light; that is the status; but the gift of the Spirit of God’s Son gives you the state. Now, there you are on family ground, which is eternal; whereas the idea of the covenant will necessarily terminate, because we shall not need that any longer; the idea of a bond between God and man is not needed there. Certain consequences flow from the relationship here, namely, that you should not disfigure your face for the dead.
E.M. What does that mean?
JT I think our countenances should reflect God, because we are God’s sons.
EM How are our faces disfigured?
JT You can understand in regard to them, that the disfiguration would connect and link them with an idolatrous system, and in that way mar the reflection of God in them.
JMcF It was an idolatrous practice.
JT Then he goes on to say: “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth”. Deuteronomy 14:2.
PL You come to what He has chosen here. The thought of family affections brings in the sovereignty of divine love.
JT I would like to know whether the brethren agree as to the distinction to be made between covenant relationships, and family relationships.
JMcF You were saying this morning that you get the one in Luke’s gospel, and the other in John’s gospel.
JT I think that is right, in the main. Luke sets out how God has approached man in the Mediator;
[p. 281] so you will find in the opening chapters that He takes every possible pains to set man at ease. God, I think, in approaching man in the Mediator took all possible pains so that everything should be removed that might hinder men in availing themselves of the divine proposal.
JM It is the same people that are in covenant relationship who are also in the family at the present time.
JT Yes; and so the importance of the gospel of Luke in seeing how God has drawn near to man in the Mediator; it was an overture on God’s part.
JB “The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”, Titus 2:11, 12.
JT I think what we all need to begin with is the knowledge of God. I do not mean as our Father, that is further on, although the two lines run together, but to know Him as the God who came out in the Mediator when there was nothing in us at all to commend us to Him.
WH You say that the gospel of John is largely the family side; it is that which will abide.
JT Yes. So we have “The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. John 1:18.
RL God must come out in Man, before man can go in.
JT I think that is what Luke presents to us; his gospel is a priestly gospel. So Christ goes into heaven as Priest. Man goes in as Priest making way for others. But in John’s gospel it is “I ascend to my Father and your Father”. John 20:17. That is the family side.
RL In Luke 15, God went out before the prodigal could come in.
JM In Exodus 19, Moses was to speak to [p. 282] the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: What is the difference in the expressions?
JT A man’s house suggests one idea, and his children another. Christ is to rule over the house of Jacob. You can understand that a man’s house is one idea; it includes all the persons in it, your wife, as well as your children; your children stand by themselves; and they have a peculiar place in your heart, but your house is the greater thought. The people to whom Moses was to speak were Jacob’s house, and they were Israel’s children, and God proposes to enter into covenant with them. In order to do that He commends Himself to them, saying, virtually, I want you to decide as to whether it is worth your while; you know what I have done for you, how I have borne you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself; and then He shows them what they should be if they did indeed obey His voice, and keep His covenant; they should be a peculiar treasure unto Him above all people, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. The priesthood side is connected with the covenant. He does not say as yet that they shall be His sons. Then they take that up; Moses comes from Jehovah to them, and then they send Moses back to Jehovah with their answer, saying, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do”. Exodus 19:8. There the bond was formed. What answers to that in our history is outlined in Romans 5, which gives us the divine side; and shows how God comes out and commends His love to us. Now, what are you going to do? I think chapter 6 shows what the believer really does; that is, he accepts baptism; and, we may say, the Lord’s supper follows upon that. That is something that you formally commit yourself to; so that there is outwardly a bond formed.
JB Had the passover anything to do with [p. 283] the covenant?
JT The passover came in before it. God commends His love to us, and then He sheds it abroad in our hearts.
JM I should like you to say a word now upon the “family” side.
JT The family side is taken up in Romans 8. You have there, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. Romans 8:14. They are marked off in that way. Not only are they now viewed as in covenant with God, but they are His sons, because they are led by His Spirit. And then He says, “Ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear, but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father”. Romans 8:15.
Ques Would you not say that all believers are sons?
JT Yes, but you might be outwardly in fellowship, and your will not subdued. It is a great thing to be led by the Spirit of God. We have been dwelling on the territory of Moab; it supposes the recognition of the Spirit, instead of the flesh in the believer; and one who is thus marked off is a Deuteronomy Christian. Now, it is a very remarkable thing that the Lord Jesus cited Deuteronomy only, in the wilderness; and that signifies that Deuteronomy is for a people who are marked as being led by the Spirit. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. If you are not led by the Spirit, you are not fit for Deuteronomy.
WH Being led of the Spirit is characteristic of a Christian.
JT The tabernacle is not in view after Numbers 21; that is, because it is a question of the Spirit in the believer actuating him. After the brazen serpent and the springing well Og goes down before you; there is nothing able to withstand you; and that is why, I think, the Lord comes in in the New Testament on that platform. He comes in on the Deuteronomy [p. 284] side of the wilderness; there was no need in His case, of a forty years test; He came in on the plains of Moab you might say. He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness, and He was entirely subject to the Spirit. In Luke 3 He receives the Spirit in the form of a dove; and in chapter 4, He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness; and then we read, he “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee”. Luke 4:14.
JMcF Do we get in this scripture how the sons are marked off?
JT That is what I thought. They were not to be disfigured for the dead: they were a holy people unto the Lord. Then you see the kind of food they are to eat, only what is clean. When you come to feeding, you come into actual touch with people, and you are capable of discerning. You get a good deal here in the way of instruction as to the kind of people we are to have to do with; first the beasts of the earth, who are actually on the earth, and cannot get off it; and then the birds that fly in the air.
Ques What do they set forth?
JT Birds are independent creatures; they represent people who have this world’s means, on the one hand, or else they have got spiritual means. Those who are independent as regards this world’s means, they are unclean. It is very striking, if you have noticed a bird flying, how independent it is; it mounts over every obstacle. A bird represents either a worldly person with means; or a spiritual person, who has power to mount up to heaven. No list of the clean birds is given. “Of all clean birds ye shall eat” Deuteronomy 14:11; and then again: “Of all clean fowls ye may eat”. Deuteronomy 14:20. But then it goes on “These are they of which ye shall not eat”. Deuteronomy 14:12. You are to find out the clean [p. 285] ones once the unclean ones are named.
WH The unclean ones would defile.
JT Yes. The constitution you have will depend on the food you eat.
JMcF Would the unclean birds represent those who are under spiritual influences of a bad character while the clean would be those who are under the influences of heaven?
JT Yes. Why are people high and lifted up; for instance, like Nebuchadnezzar? His influence reached the heavens, Daniel 4: 22. That was because of earthly means; it was not divine. But how does the believer rise? He rises with spiritual power “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint”, Isaiah 40: 31. Those are the people that are clean.
PL They have the spirit of the ascending Man. He breathes upon them.
JT I think so. You have title to go to heaven, according to God’s purpose; and then you have power to go in the Spirit.
WK I think it is very interesting about the food. It is striking with regard to the birds. Taking it in general, I think you will find it is those that are mixed in their breed; they do two things; they walk or creep and they fly; they are not pure. The fish that are pure have something to resist the elements in which they live; that is, they have scales, and they have something to push them along, they have fins; so we need both. But I notice you seem to look at it more in the light of those with whom we have intercourse.
JT Yes, I thought so.
WK That would lead to our being very careful in regard to those with whom we have intercourse; otherwise we would get contaminated.
JMcF I think if we were awake to the [p. 286] dignity of sonship, we would be very careful as to our associations.
WK You did not say anything with regard to the animals that walk upon the earth. They must have the cloven hoof. It must be divided in two. The expression is stronger than that in Leviticus. And then, they are to chew the cud.
JT I think chewing the cud is that in receiving the testimony, the word, you assimilate it, and it works out in a becoming walk.
WK You do not mix with the unclean. I hope we may all take that to heart, for it is a serious thing for Christians to walk harmoniously with the world.
JMcF The way to take it to heart is to wake up to the dignity of our position as sons.
JT You often see persons evidently listening, and enjoying the things of the Lord, but when they go out it is different. I am sure you have seen it there are numbers of people who seem to enjoy the things of God while among the saints, while in their associations outside they are mixed up with all sorts of things.
EM Is not the religious world a great snare?
JT Birds are liable to be unclean religiously.
PL They lodge in the mustard tree.
JT Yes; and so Babylon has become the cage of every unclean and hateful bird; Revelation 18: 2.
JM Would you say a word as to verse 21?
JT Well, that shows that the Lord Jesus is the only right food for us. He died sacrificially. I mean it is food through His sacrificial death. “Dieth of itself” Deuteronomy 14:21 is in contrast with life taken.
JM His flesh is meat; we eat of His flesh, and drink of His blood.
JT Yes. You will find that what flows from all this, the right kind of food is, that God has His portion, as you will see in the end of the chapter.
WK That is, the tithes.
JT Yes; and then you share “within thy gates” with the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless and the widow. Deuteronomy 14:29.
JF I suppose our meditation over this scripture would emphasise the fact that God wants sons, and we should delight to respond to His desire.
JT He intends to have men around Him; that is, to have men in that relationship, as sons.
WK There is a point in verse 23: “Thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God”. Deuteronomy 14:23. If that were done, I think we should be careful as to food.
PL Thou shalt eat “in the place where he shall choose to place his name there”. Deuteronomy 14:24.
JT I think when you come to place, God’s rights are in view, and He is entitled to select the place and, making it practical, it refers to where His principles are held and recognised now. God never gave that up; and we shall see in a later chapter that He prescribed that all the males should appear there before Him three times in the year.
WK And they were not to come empty.
JT There is such a thing as your own gates, but they come after the divine place.