THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE REST OF GOD
[p. 27] THE HOUSE OF GOD AND THE REST OF GOD
Israel was God’s house but they did not enter into God’s rest. The thought of God’s house carried the thought of God’s rest. Israel was God’s house because He dwelt amongst them. Moses was faithful in Israel. The real builder of God’s house was Christ. The great idea of ‘house’ is God’s dwelling. The tabernacle of God is with men and in that sense the universe becomes the house of God. The tabernacle and all the material for building it were taken from Israel — they became His household (Exodus 25: 8). The tabernacle was identified with the people and they with the tabernacle. Israel always fell short of their privileges. Things would have been very different if Israel had come up to their privileges. It is all moral rather than material. There must be a certain means by which God could dwell among men and that was set forth in the detail of the tabernacle. When the people were out of gear with the temple, the Lord said “But the Most High dwells not in places made with hands”, Acts 7: 48. Christendom has departed very far from the true idea when they think God can be worshipped in temples made with hands. God’s great idea was that He should dwell among His people. “Whose house are we” is moral and conditional. Profession and possession ought to go together. The divine thought in the house is that God is close to us, dwelling among us that He may be known. No one can know God at a distance. If a soul enters into the knowledge of God he enters into the rest of God. You reach the knowledge of God in the house of God. You are the house. Believers compose the house. The house was formed by the descent of the Holy Spirit. The material was [p. 28] there and the stones were there and the Holy Spirit came to form it.
You get the idea of the house in the day of Pentecost at the descent of the Holy Spirit. Christ is Son over the house and that gives character to the house of God. Water baptism brings you into christian profession — professedly into identity with the church. The apostle pressed on the Jews to save themselves from this untoward generation, and they were baptised in order to do this. There is privilege connected with it. The families of believers in the early days of Christianity were brought up in the light of that instead of in the darkness of heathenism. The children of saints have thus a great deal of advantage. They have a recognised place in the epistles. They come under the Lord, they are in the kingdom — “for the kingdom of the heavens is of such”, Matthew 19: 14. But all that is not the idea of the house, it is more in connection with the kingdom. The similitudes of the kingdom shew that both good and bad are in it. The house may be where the kingdom is not. If judgment first begin at us, the ‘us‘ is the house of God. That scripture in Peter is very conclusive as to what the house of God is — for if God is so particular about His own — what will become of the sinner?
Believers have to be led on. We do not come to the good of it (the Living Stone) and realisation of it all at once. The house of God and the holy priesthood are in God’s mind for people — but when people connect Christ with the world it is very certain they have not come to Christ as the “living stone”, disallowed of men. People may be sanctified in an outward way and yet become apostates. The Spirit of God addresses people on the ground which they assume. They take that ground and God takes them up on that ground. This refers to Hebrews 10: 29. The man here esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby he has been sanctified, common ... — he was only a professor. We must have [p. 29] God near to us to know Him. He has come near to us that we may know Him and know how He orders His house. The conduct that suits His house is lowliness, meekness and forbearance. You become companions of Christ in God’s house. He is over God’s house. God is learnt in His house close at hand in a wonderful way in connection with His ways, and His people in discipline and care.
Any man in his own house orders things for himself; and in God’s house He orders things for Himself; and thus He orders things for the blessing of His people. If God’s house is here and God has a supper He has something to put before them. There is the fatness of His house. “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread”, Psalm 132: 15. People are compelled to come into God’s house to God’s supper now. You get the mind of God through being brought into God’s house. We do not get any light as to God’s things until we recognise the presence of God by the Spirit. “I will satisfy her needy ones with bread” is what we get in God’s house.
The divine idea of God’s house is that He would lead us into His rest. It is His thought in regard to us. The marriage supper in Matthew 22 is a similitude of the kingdom, but Luke 14 goes much further. The thought of the rest is very important. The point is, are you complacent in yourself or have you reached God’s point of complacency which is His rest. We are the house, Christ prepares the material but we cannot be said to be of the house until we have received the Spirit. We must get hold of things morally if we want to see the kingdom. It has a great moral effect on us if we see God’s complacency; it takes the self-complacency out of us (see chapter 4: 12). You fall into self-complacency.
On the other hand, if you are labouring to enter into the rest of God, it is a continual exercise — the word of God is continually probing you. It is labour to enter into that rest and for the reason that the word of God is “living and operative”, etc. and dissects everything. God will not allow us to be self-complacent because we are then in danger of falling. The word of God here is the testimony. You are continually coming to Scripture and you find you never come up to the standard. Things are laid down there which are according to the mind of God and we find we are very far below it. It detects us. The thing is, are we going to enter into God’s complacency and if we do we enter into the rest of God but if we become self-complacent we are in danger of falling.
We are put in touch here with the great High Priest — Jesus the Son of God — who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. The word of God is that in which God is expressed. Here it is the moral idea in contrast to the letter. Any book composed of letters would be a very poor expression of God. The word of God brings us into the presence of God Himself. God has seen fit to express Himself and when you come into the presence of that expression you find yourself judged. You are continually brought to the Scriptures. The rest of God now involves a place where God can be complacent and that is found in the ark of the covenant. God set aside all the first order — the order connected with responsibility.
The place of God’s choice was mount Zion. There are thousands of people in the present day who are zealous for the letter of Scripture and yet they ignore the Spirit of truth. The letter kills. The great purpose of God is to bring us to Himself. The reason why all is not plain to us in Scripture is that we are not up to it. There may be a place where we can enter into the rest of God now. It must be through a good deal of exercise — you have to labour to enter into it.
The holiest is the place where all is according to God’s glory and there is no flesh — this is the point to be reached. The hope is along the way — the rest is at the end, though we reach it morally now. The idea of the [p. 31] holiest is that flesh is excluded and there is nothing but what is according to God’s glory. God rests there in Christ — there is no conflict there. We are according to His glory by the work of God. Reconciliation is known and God is complacent. God cannot be complacent where all is not according to His glory. When we enter into this we shall understand Hebrews 4. People get into a self-satisfied, self-complacent state and that is their rest, but God wants to bring you into His rest, and that is only reached through labour and exercise. In regard to the rest of God we must reach Christ; He is God’s rest.
Chapter 4: 1 - 2 is connected with what comes before it. You will not enter into rest without faith. Everything culminates at the end of the third chapter in unbelief! and then God swore that they should not enter into His rest. Neglecting the great salvation proves the absence of faith. Rest now is all a point of reaching Christ where Christ is. There is nothing but labour in our life of responsibility all along the line and all the time of our sojourn here.