ADMINISTRATIVE CONDITIONS
[p. 469] ADMINISTRATIVE CONDITIONS
Exodus 24: 3, 4; 1 Kings 18: 30 - 32; Acts 26: 6, 7; Revelation 7: 2 - 4
This wonderful period existing till now, from Pentecost, is called a dispensation; that is an economy, what is house-wise. I had in mind to show that it involves, at least in the attitude of God and those who are with Him, fellow workers with Him, a continuous dispensing of blessing; in a wider sense, administration. Many things that are included could be specified, but I mention just the general fact; having also in mind to call the attention of all to the divine thought that as one freely receives the benefits or any one benefit that is being dispensed, he himself is to become the dispenser of that, in so far as he may.
In John 3: 35 we are told that the Father loves the Son, and that He has given all things to be in His hand. The next chapter proceeds to tell us that the Lord Jesus, at the well of Sychar, conversed with a woman, and opened up to her what was being dispensed, namely, the living water. Immediately, as she understands the Lord’s mind, she becomes part of the administration. She had carried the vessel to draw water which was needed in her household administration, but now she is made acquainted with an infinitely greater thought as to water, and so she leaves her water-pot; her action intimating that she understood the Lord. She grasped in her soul something of what was in His mind. He said to her, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink”. That is to say, He took the attitude of receiving at her hands what she could dispense. He says, If thou knewest who it is that says, “Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him” — Thou wouldest regard Him in the light of [p. 470] an Administrator, a Dispenser — that is the lesson for every man and woman in the world to learn if they will. Those of us who are here have learnt it doubtless, through grace. What have we that we have not received? That is to say, all is on that principle. So the woman left her waterpot, meaning that she was now to dispense something greater than that which the Lord asked from her; she would be a dispenser of the great thing He was dispensing to her. She left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and proceeded to administer, at least in the principle of her service. One has often mentioned that, but it is worth mentioning again, as illustrative of what is in mind, that the Lord is calling those who receive to become givers. “Give, and it shall be given to you” (Luke 6: 38); “ye have received gratuitously, give gratuitously” (Matthew 10: 8).
Now I go back to Genesis, because what is in mind, as you will observe, is the number twelve: the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Jehovah came. Much had preceded Jacob — accumulated wealth. Genesis treats of the wealth that was coming into the family of faith. Abraham was heir of the world: what immense wealth would be at his disposal! His heir was not to be Ishmael, although he, too, had twelve sons; the wealth of Abraham was not to be transmitted through these. Ishmael’s hand was to be against every man’s hand; a quarrelsome man is not the man through whom God would dispense the blessing which comes through faith. It is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5: 6), and that did not characterise Ishmael. Hence Isaac was the heir; the rich inheritance of Abraham came down through Isaac; it was added to by Isaac, and it finally came into the hands of Jacob, the third patriarch. A great principle has been worked out in the three, as is always the case in such circumstances. The exercise is to be [p. 471] completed in the third, and now in all that it means, it is to be diffused in twelve.
You will understand that I am not speaking literally, for the letter kills. We have to grasp the principle, that the great wealth of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is to be dispensed. So immediately Jacob returns from Padan and has his name changed, the word of God came to him. Is there a soul in this audience who does not understand the greatness of the word of God coming to him? It is to enlighten our souls — if it come and be received — as to what is in the mind of God. The first one to whom the word of God is said to have come is Abraham; now it is Jacob. God is unfolding His mind to the patriarchs; they are to be initiated into what is in God’s mind. What wealth there is, dear brethren! — the riches of wisdom, of understanding, of truth, of knowledge: all that is, as it were, untapped; and it is let into the souls of those who have faith.
So the instructed believer, as Jacob evidently was, had in mind the twelve, and so did Rachel, for after the eleventh son is born she said, “Jehovah will add to me another son” (Genesis 30: 24). So right through Genesis the thread runs. As Jacob departs, he speaks to his sons, and he constitutes them blessed. How necessary this is, for who can administer on God’s behalf except one who is blessed, and blessed in all his faculties — in his eyes, his ears, his hands, and his feet? “These are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them; and he blessed them: every one according to his blessing he blessed them” (Genesis 49: 28). So the line runs right through the books of the Pentateuch; indeed, it is worthy of note that the word “and” is the first word in each of the three books after Genesis. These early books begin with and, a small conjunction, meaning that something that preceded is carried down. And so with every one of us; the history of each believer must begin with “and”. Let each look back and see what that “and” means as to his own history.
Exodus takes up the thread and introduces us again to the twelve sons of Israel: “with Jacob had they come”. Spiritually speaking he carried with him all the light of that which is so wonderful and rich, the inheritance of Abraham and Isaac, and now the accumulated wealth of the third patriarch. So the great administrative book immediately follows Genesis, and what I want to show, dear brethren, from the first scripture, is how Moses acted of himself in this matter. If one cannot do anything of himself, in the sense of which I am speaking, he is hardly in liberty of soul. The Lord loves to see us move in liberty. The history of Moses is written in large letters, in the initial part, at least, of the book of Exodus, and it is a history marked by the absorption of divine thoughts; it is not simply that one gets words, but that divine thoughts permeate him. After eighty years of such an experience in one way and another, he is now ready, according to the divine mind, to be affected by a divine appearing. Let us not think the word is too great to use, dear brethren. I think God is as pleased to appear to me, or to any of us, as he is ready for it, as He was to appear to Moses. No one really can represent God except as in some sense he has had an appearing. God would impress us in this way; He takes occasion to do it; He awaits His opportunity, as it were, and never fails when the time arrives; and it did arrive in Moses’ history, as he was about eighty years of age; forty years of which were spent in adverse circumstances, but it says, he was content in them. God loved that.
God had placed Moses in those circumstances in Midian, and Scripture says, “Moses consented to remain with the man” (Exodus 2: 21 ), that is, with his father-in-law. He consented to remain with the man - [p. 473] a different kind of man from what he had been, but still God had put him with this man, and he consented to remain with him. He is not complaining of his circumstances; he is not complaining, as it were, of the material, the personnel, of his local meeting. Where God has placed him, he is content, and God observes it, and says, so to speak, You will be content in more difficult circumstances too — and he had to be. So God appears to him. We have to learn to be content in circumstances not quite to our liking. In all these conditions, dear brethren, God is making the man. He is working thus with every one of us as we let Him; for, indeed, it is a question of what we are made. The idea began with Adam: he was created, but being made is clearly a greater and more precious thought; it involves a personal relationship.
The line of Christ, as the Son of man, going back through Adam, is not through man viewed as created; that is not the thought. Adam is said to be “of God”, in Luke 3: 38; he was formed of God, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; that is to say, there is a link; it is generation, not creation. The generation is greater than the creation. You cannot connect Christ with the creation, but you can with the generation. So that it is a question of our being made and breathed into. Adam was created, but he was made: “Jehovah Elohim formed Man” (Genesis 2: 7). He is the handiwork of God not simply that he was created through the divine fiat, but formed by the hand of God. Think of the preciousness of that, and the link formed between Adam and Jehovah! Immediately, as some of us have often remarked, you get with Adam in that regard the divine name “Jehovah Elohim” — all that God is in covenant relation, as we may say. He had entered into personal relations with Adam. So with Moses. He calls him twice, “Moses, Moses”. Why [p. 474] did He say that, dear brethren? Because Moses was interested in what he saw. I hope everyone hearing what I say is interested. God loves that; when He sees interested persons, then He takes notice of them peculiarly.
So He says, “Moses, Moses”, and now He begins to introduce to him what he needed in his making. “The man Moses” is in mind — one of the most outstanding men. The brethren who have been together here today have been speaking about Joshua; how he said to the sun, “Sun, stand still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon! And the sun stood still, and the moon remained where it was ... . And there was no day like that before it or after it, that Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man” (Joshua 10: 12 - 14). It is a question of a man, dear brethren. “The man Moses” is a term that indicates distinction. We are told that there was no one like him in his day; “the form of Jehovah doth he behold” (Numbers 12: 8). Think what impressions he would receive! Who can tell what Moses saw! — What the form was! It all had in mind his own formation.
We find him, therefore, able to do things of himself. God did not tell him to build these twelve pillars. I want to point out, before going on to the next scripture, that these pillars are built consequent upon the avowed obedience of Israel, as if Moses were to say, Now that the people are ready to obey, we will have something: things will be done. I will not have to do everything myself. His father-in-law instructed him as to that. He had much to learn as to carrying it out; for our understanding often goes ahead of our feet, of our experience. He had to learn later that others could do the work too. The power was not increased, but the number of the workers was. He has in mind here that great things are now possible; for that is the point in Exodus - [p. 475] the possibility of great things, dependent upon obedience.
Without obedience God can do nothing with us — I mean, there can be no formation according to God without obedience. One must be pliable as the clay in the hands of the Potter. So Moses is now virtually saying, There are great things possible if we have an obedient Israel. If God has an obedient number of brethren in this town — the twelve pillars are applicable; rear them at once; something is going to be done! It is no question of material things, but of this great moral element of obedience — obedience to all the Lord said, with no reserves. Moses sees that something can be done now, and he rears up twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. How fitting this is in this chapter, for the next chapter calls for something to be done; typically one of the greatest possible things was to be done, that is, to build a house for the Lord. “Make me a sanctuary”, He says. God had made them obedient, as one might say — they at least professed to be that; now Moses says virtually, We are going to have the administrative idea — meaning that subject brethren will work together. Is the need not great, dear brethren, in every gathering represented here, of these twelve pillars? Of brethren in subjection working together? Working together, not simply sitting down together; there is that, too, but I am speaking now of God’s operations, and of our being fellow-workmen with Him, called into His operations and working together in them. That is what Moses had in mind. It is a question of obedience, and I am speaking now particularly for young people here; for disobedience lurks strongly with young people. I am not accusing them; I know what it is in young people. Old people always have that advantage; as in the psalm David says, “I have been young, and now am old” (Psalm 37: 25). A young [p. 476] person cannot say, I have been old: he has that disadvantage. So that one who has been young knows what youth means.
Now Moses, in this section, immediately calls upon the youths to do the work on hand. Did they do it? Apparently well. They were young men. You know, the hope of Israel, if I might use that phrase, is young men and young women. Where can we look otherwise? We can look to God, of course. God can make stones to do the work of men, even to praise Him, but He is not doing that now. He is using us, though, in one sense, all that hard-heartedness is found with us, but He turns us; He changes us; He makes us to be what He needs in His operations, so that there can be this great thought of holding together; working together, without rivalry, each taking the lead in paying honour to the other. That is the twelve pillars. Moses instinctively understands that if this great people is ready to obey, then he can set up twelve pillars; and he immediately calls on the young men for service; that is to say, the idea is put into operation.
Now I need not remind you how often this thought of “twelve” appears in Exodus, and really it is always a question of the saints — the shew bread, the twelve names on the breastplate of the high priest, and it is all founded on obedience. What pleasure could there be for God in having the loaves, “the bread of the presence”, save as the underlying principle of obedience is there? What place has anyone morally in the breastplate of Jesus, save as the principle of obedience is there? Inside that breastplate, in His heart, is the law of God. He magnified the law, He made it honourable. Can He make it honourable by putting disobedient persons on that breastplate? No, dear brethren, the underlying principle in Exodus is obedience; the number [p. 477] twelve loses its place without obedience. The number twelve has its distinctive place in Exodus.
I wish now to go on to Elijah. You will remember how these two men, Moses and Elijah, appear on the mountain with Jesus. What distinction they have! They are, along with David, the most outstanding men in the Old Testament, in the executive side of God’s service as Paul and John are in the New Testament; so I selected those four men — Moses, Elijah, Paul and John. Bring them together in your mind. Think of them in heaven! God’s best from among men, as I might say. So Elijah follows up the service of Moses. Moses was used of God to assert His rights in obedience: Elijah is used of God to call God’s people back to obedience. It is the same service. Paul says, “our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night” — what a thought he had! How could we have such a thought as Paul’s, without Moses and Elijah? How could we have twelve tribes serving God incessantly day and night without those two ministries?
So Elijah comes in as a praying man; for, oh! what difficulties there are if young people, or the people of God generally, are disobedient! Precepts will not suffice, authority will not suffice; there must be prayer. Elijah prayed. He had in mind something that would bring back what had been lost — Israel — practically lost to God through the influence of Ahab and Jezebel. In Ahab’s reign the high-handed act of Hiel the Bethelite in the rebuilding of Jericho had been perpetrated. What a day of rebellion, of disobedience! And think of our own times! Was there ever a day like ours? What can be done? Well, Elijah is the man: “he prayed with prayer” (James 5: 17); and what that meant was, that there must be severe discipline; there must be severe deprivation, if the desired end is to be reached. This is a word for any disobedient person here, anyone [p. 478] who has rejected divine principles. The Lord says, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me” (John 14: 21). If there be one or more in this audience who is in the class of those who are disobedient, professing to love the Lord Jesus, yet failing to keep His commandments, Elijah, if he were here, would pray. And what would he pray for? A drought. There are Elijahs in that sense — mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, praying to God to bring about subjection. But let us remember, dear brethren, that if we pray for subjection, and discipline is necessary, we have to share in the discipline. If our prayers are to go through, we go through with them. We are not merely onlookers, we are not bystanders, who let God do the matter; no! Elijah has to go through with the discipline — and he does.
Now he comes to the point to be reached, and he calls Israel to come near. How God would speak to some soul tonight! “Come near”, he says: My first prayer about you was three years ago; now there is the sound of abundance of rain; the rain is coming — no doubt about that. If you read his words here you read the words of a man who understands and knows, and has confidence in what he believes. He believes God, as Paul says, “I believe God that thus it shall be, as it has been said to me” (Acts 27: 25). Elijah believed God; his words are firm, marked with certainty; they mark a man who knows, and believes God. He had an insight as to God, that perhaps few had before, or after him. His name would indicate that he had to do with Jah — as we might say, the Absolute — a man who could pray and wait for three years and go through the thing, is a man who knows God and is himself submissive to God. God says in effect to Elijah, I will go through with you and sustain you and maintain you on those lines.
[p. 479] And now the hour is come. He prayed again; he had prayed before, but he prayed again the second prayer, after he built this altar. The people are now in sight: obedience is coming. One often sees it in young people: they come to the meetings under protest sometimes. Presently they come without protest. Maybe they have been sitting at the very back of the room, but presently they begin to move forward: we see obedience coming. Elijah is a man who discerns what is coming: God is working; the drought is about to finish. He has met an Obadiah, a man who is in sympathy with him, the servant of the king. This man Obadiah thinks of the saints. What a comfort to Elijah must Obadiah have been! He hid a hundred men of Jehovah’s prophets by fifty in a cave, he tells Elijah. He is really an assembly man, as one might say. God is giving Elijah inklings of what is coming. Presently, before there is a cloud in the sky, he says, “there is a sound of abundance of rain”. Still he prays a second time. What confidence he would have in praying for that of which already he had heard the sound! And so it is, dear brethren, as we pray for subjection or recovery in our young, or in others. God would give us inklings that something is happening.
Now, he says, that something is happening, and he builds his altar with twelve stones, that is to say, the people were counted according to the twelve tribes — “according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Jehovah came saying, Israel shall be thy name”. What encouragement in view of recovery, that the matter is now going on to what is spiritual! Recovery is of very little value in any one unless what is spiritual is in view, unless it comes about that in due course he surnames himself by “the name of Israel” (Isaiah 44: 5). That being so, there is something to be done. Great things are coming. We must have them dispensed.
[p. 480] The victory is by one man, for it is a question of Elijah; as we read in James, who speaks of him as showing what one man can do; but what one man can do issues in that which benefits thousands — millions indeed. But how is the benefit to reach them? It must be on this principle of administration according to God, not in those who make a trade of the word of God, not in hirelings, not in those instructed in priestcraft! This is a question of the sons of Jacob, whose name is Israel — twelve of them. You see how this great servant Elijah, in conjunction with his fellow-servant Moses, is imbued with this great thought, that the great results of exercise, and of discipline, and of close dealings with God, must be dispensed. The whole assembly must get the benefit of it; it is not for one person, or for one locality, but for the whole assembly. If it be for the whole assembly, then rear up twelve stones for the altar, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of God came.
Now I go on to Paul, but desirous of linking up these four great servants of God — Moses, Elijah, Paul, and John. Paul here is in the presence of Agrippa. He is moved peculiarly. Anyone who reads the account, given by the Spirit, of his experience in the great valley of sorrow, into which he had come as arrested at Jerusalem, anyone who follows the history, would say that here he is full of holy feeling. One of the most important things in a minister is, that he should be a feeling man, one capable of exclamations in dealing with the things of God. It is constant with Paul, but peculiarly so in the remarkable address which is recorded in this chapter. He is speaking to king Agrippa, and he is speaking about the promises, about the hope, as he says, “And now I stand to be judged because of the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night hope to arrive”. He is in the light of the promises, and what wealth is involved in the promises! In taking them up, we become energetic in the service of God. “Having therefore these promises, beloved” (2 Corinthians 7: 1), the apostle says; and “That by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement” (Hebrews 6: 18). God loves us to take up His promises, and the apostle is led to say here, in dealing with this great matter of promise and of hope, “of the promise ... to which our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night hope to arrive”. — “Our whole twelve tribes” — he is enriched in having them.
May we not use the same words, because the number twelve as applying to the tribes is a question of a principle; that is to say, the saints serving together, and serving instantly; not in any tardy or perfunctory way, but “serving incessantly day and night”? You might say, Could they be found? Well, I do not think the apostle would say this were it otherwise. There was much more at the beginning of this dispensation than is recorded. Think of the five hundred brethren to whom the Lord appeared at one time! What a movement of heart there would be towards Him as He appeared to them! How could we fail to serve such a Saviour? How could we fail to be energetic on the side of such a glorious Head as He? Think of the impression made on their souls by this appearing! And the apostle says, “of whom the most remain until now” (1 Corinthians 15: 6). I suppose they were known as a class; it would be said, That is one of the five hundred. Possibly the apostle could pick out twelve of those. You say, Well, the ten tribes are lost — the Spirit of God does not speak thus, and He knows better than we. There is no such thing in Scripture as the lost ten tribes. No! that is human thought; faith does not speak thus.
Faith says, “Our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night hope to arrive”.
There are those who deal in prophecy and yet are linked with the world, if not in a bad sense, as we say, certainly they are in a religious sense. They are dealing with prophecy academically, as a subject for the mind; but the twelve tribes of Israel can only be apprehended by faith; they have promises and they have hope. If I believe God, I accept His promises; they will never fail. They are a strong consolation, and I am full of hope. James says, If you talk about your faith and your hope, I want to see your works; and the word he uses as to Abraham is, that Abraham was justified by works, and so was Rahab — a remarkable pair to be put together, both justified by works! Abraham was isolated in his day and so was Rahab, but she was justified by works, even as was Abraham; and so are “our whole twelve tribes”, as the apostle says. He does not say, the number of the sons of Jacob; he says, “our whole twelve tribes”. Let us look round, dear brethren, and see if we do not know some of them. They are justified by works, full of faith and hope, but serving God incessantly day and night, and to God’s promise they hope to arrive. They are like Anna, who, we are told, departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day, speaking of the Lord to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
Finally, just a word about John, the beloved apostle, now the beloved prophet. In a way, one wonders in which role he is most interesting. Is he more lovable as an apostle than as a prophet? Or perhaps I should add, as a brother? I believe he is more lovable as a brother than as in any other relation. “Your brother”, he says, “and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus” (Revelation 1: 9). What a brother he was! And [p. 483] who can be an apostle or a prophet in the true sense, unless he is a brother? No one. Think of “five hundred brethren at once”! One of the finest words in the divine vocabulary is the word “brethren” — not in the hackneyed sense in which it is used around us, but in the divine sense.
I am not saying John acted of himself here: he is telling something he saw. I think it is incumbent upon one to mention him now, because he brings in the number twelve more than any. This remarkable book, the Apocalypse, is replete with the idea, especially in relation to that of which we all form part. I hope there is no one here who does not form part of the assembly, which is about to be revealed as the heavenly city! We must understand this number twelve; it is everywhere in the heavenly city, both in regard to the measurements and to the persons; the most precious things are all governed by this number twelve, and what is it, dear brethren, but the excess of love? The beloved disciple understands it, and he puts into this record, which he gives us in the last book, the intensification of the idea. Who knew love better than John? He says, “Hereby we have known love” (1 John 3: 16). He knew it. Where did he learn it? Where only it can be learnt, dear brethren, in the bosom of Jesus; that is where love is; all divine love is there; and really there is no love otherwise. The meaning of the love was not known until Jesus made it manifest; and John has it in a first-hand way; he has it, and he learned it in the bosom of Jesus. There is the objective attestation of love, as he says, “he has laid down his life for us”. Every christian can say that, but not every christian can say, I know love as having learnt it in the bosom of Jesus.
John in Revelation enlarges on this great thought of twelve, or its multiple, whether here, in chapter 7, in the one hundred and forty-four thousand, or in [p. 484] the many references to it in the heavenly city. I only touch on that at the finish so that you may have the greatness of it in mind. How wonderful will be the dispensation to come! At least as far as the heavenly city has part in it. It is all a question of perfect love, not a shade of rivalry or personal feeling — all will be perfect love, and in so far as it is reached, there is what is final; for perfect love refers to what is final. What a wonderful time is ahead of us, in having part in that which is marked by perfect love in activity! Is it not incumbent upon us to look into this matter, and see whether the little we have received is being handled properly — enjoyed in our souls and then handed on to others?
The youngest believer is called to have part in this great matter, and to learn how to do things without partiality, without hypocrisy, without thought of personal distinction, but in perfect love “faith working through love”.
May God bless these thoughts to all of us.