"THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF THE ANCIENT MOUNTAINS"
“[p. 50] THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF THE ANCIENT MOUNTAINS”
1 Peter 2:4 1 Peter 2:6,7; Deuteronomy 33:13 - 16
You will observe the occurrence of the word ‘precious’ in these scriptures, and I have that word in mind as denoting, in these settings, what is peculiarly valuable as attached to Christ’s Person, and the things that come to Him as Man; The first scripture from the apostle Peter is characteristic of one who led in the way of appraisement of Christ, giving us a lead in this connection. The apostles are intended to lead us in regard to valuation or appraisement of what is more excellent. There are the great general foundational truths, the knowledge of which is required for the deliverance, peace and blessing of our souls. These truths acquired in their true relations, both in regard of God and ourselves, set us free for exploration and appraisement of what is more excellent. As we progress on this line we become ranged in regard of quality, for there are persons and persons. The heavenly city contains only one street according to the Scriptures, suggesting equality in dignity of all of us, yet there are gradations of quality and development. These gradations are reached now, but remain and mark us for ever.
That being so we do well to pay attention to the lead given to us by the apostles, and particularly Peter, although Paul is not behind in his ability to appraise, and attached to this appraisement is spiritual feeling, a quality that is rare but much to be sought after, for spiritual feeling marked the apostles. Amongst the twelve Peter is first in this as in other things. Paul stands by himself and carries out among the gentiles all that the twelve had, and I would venture to say adding to what they had, as to feeling [p. 51] and affection. I believe Paul stands without a peer in all these respects. He thus freely speaks of himself as an example for us, so that we are to follow his epistles, noting his superlatives and comparatives, that we may become accustomed to comparison and appraisement, and be able to name what is more excellent, as we see it and come into contact with it. Peter, as I said, leading the twelve or being first amongst them in this and in other respects, had great opportunities of proving what he speaks of as precious. He uses the word in his epistles characteristically, and shows in this quotation which he cites from Isaiah 28:16 that his appreciation of Christ in this respect was according to the spirit of prophecy. It is a great thing to see that things are cumulative in the course of God’s ways and testimony, so that the spirit of prophecy extending back and looking forward had the same feature of appreciation of Christ; what was more excellent. Peter had peculiar advantages, and was impressed by the opportunities that he had of observing what Christ was. His first interviews and contact with the Lord impressed him in a way at the outset that remained and entered into his ministry, for the divine intent is not only that one is to be a minister but he is to exemplify and adorn what he ministers. Peter is not behind in that. It was the beaten work of which we have read today, the beaten gold of the candlestick. In referring to the gold one might note that it stands in Scripture for what is excellent. You will recall that what came out in the recovery in Nehemiah’s time was the prominence of goldsmiths. They were engaged in rather rough, but most important work, that is the building of the wall, which refers to fellowship, and which occasions the greatest and bitterest opposition. There were those in Nehemiah’s time who would oppose; that is they were opposers characteristically. They would oppose by their flattering words and invitations to [p. 52] meet in the plains of Ono, and they would oppose by direct attacks against the brethren. These are not wanting today, beloved, but we are not to be deterred from the building of the wall, nor is a refined workman like a goldsmith to let his hands hang down, even if gold be not the material that he is called upon to use. The refined workmanship amongst the people of God will not be damaged, nor degenerate in the building of the wall — the goldsmiths retained their cunning — and as soon as the time came for the use of gold they would not be wanting in skill. They were there, and they would be amongst those who would appraise and who understood values. This is most important, for the principle of generalisation is a damaging principle in the things of God; we must learn to exercise the power of discrimination and to put up the separating veil when it comes to the Person of Christ. Unless we guard against generalisation we are likely, in our minds at least if not in our words, to reduce the Lord to the level of man.
Now the apostle Peter was a skilled workman. He was a servant who could retain things for months and years, it may be, without speaking of them, and he would retain their quality, which would not diminish but rather become enhanced. You recall for instance that the Lord recognised him because of the revelation he received from the Father about Himself; the Lord recognised him as material, for he had in his soul an understanding of the Lord’s Person. He understood something about the ark of the covenant; he would put the covering veil upon it. Notice his first great address at Jerusalem, how beautifully, how respectfully, how reverentially he speaks of Christ. Perhaps in no address do you find the covering veil so beautifully spread over the ark; but then he knows what to say, he does not say everything he knows; it is a great mistake in ministry to say everything one knows. If Peter were to say everything [p. 53] he knew he would tell his audience about Christ as the Son of God, but he did not. We have not a word, or reference to the sonship of Christ in his ordinary oral ministry as recorded in the Acts, and yet he had it in his soul. No doubt it would give body to what he was saying, his hearers would be impressed with the fact that there was more behind than what was spoken; but it was unspoken. In service, beloved, let us gather up all possible, let us fill our souls with the precious truth about Christ, about the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the whole range of truth, but see to it that what is spoken is from the Lord. The Lord did not say to Peter that he should announce him as the Son of God; but God revealed His Son in Paul that he might announce Him as Son of God, and he did not fail to do so. Let us therefore be careful that what we say we have authority for saying, for after all, the ministry is Christ’s. The levites are all given to Him for the work is His and it is for the levites to get their orders from Him. The apostle Paul immediately “in the synagogues ... preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”, Acts 9:20. He had authority for that, but then Peter knew and held the thing in his soul, and as he was about to put off his tabernacle he would stir up the pure minds of the saints, and he refers to the mount of transfiguration in the most beautiful, powerful and holy language. “Such a voice being uttered to him by the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight; and this voice we heard uttered from heaven, being with him on the holy mountain”, 2 Peter 1:17,18. With what feeling he would write that. How the scene would come back to his soul as he referred to the holy mount when he was with Jesus, when Jesus was transfigured and when a voice out of the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son; hear him”. Mark 9:7, Luke 9:7. You see from all this how evidently these jewels that are found in these verses fit in in Peter’s [p. 54] ministry. He reminds us that Jesus was a living Stone. What memories that would recall to his heart, as he himself had said to the Lord, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Matthew 16:16. How all that would come back to him as he wrote, and then he says, “chosen of God, and precious”. Can we not see the feelings, the holy sentiments of the apostle entering into this word ‘precious’ as he wrote of the preciousness of Jesus. The Holy Spirit would bring this up, beloved, as to what Jesus is to us. The preciousness of Jesus, elect of God, and precious. Then he goes on to say, quoting from Isaiah, that God had laid in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious. Then further, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”, 1 Peter 2:7. All that which was so in his soul, was intended as it were to extend toward us, to cover us, to bring us in that respect into accord with Jesus, so that divine pleasure rests upon us. As was said at the beginning at the baptism of our Lord, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight” Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5 — not ‘all my delight’ — because there is room made for us to come in, that divine complacency should rest on all.
We now come to Deuteronomy, where Christ appears typically in Joseph. We are to learn what He is by the covering veil, the separating veil, that is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens” Hebrews 7:26 as Man. There is no one like Him in that sense, He is unique, “higher than the heavens”, but then He shines among His brethren. How beautiful the thought! How it should enlist our deepest interest as we think of what Jesus is among the brethren! This fairly well-known chapter is the blessing of Moses the man of God, wherewith he blessed the children of Israel before he died. The blessing is not like that of Jacob which was almost entirely prophetic, the good and the bad mentioned. Moses is engaged with the good here. He is engaged [p. 55] with it as the man of God, and the man of God will think for God, and if he speaks of the saints in this abstract way, as having spent forty years with them in the most contrary circumstances, he is speaking of the work of God; he is speaking of what he had observed as the work of God; a matter of the deepest and greatest importance for us, that we should look at the saints, however contrary or wanting they may be, and seek to see something of the work of God in them. If I can see something of the work of God in a man or woman, that man or woman is potential material not only for the assembly, but for eternity. God has taken that person up for a place in His own scheme. The number in the counsels of God is known to God, and there will not be one more nor one less, and everyone will be a subject of divine workmanship so that even Balaam has to say, “What hath God wrought!” Numbers 23:23. That is really the safest way in dealing with the Lord’s people; that is the safest enquiry, ‘what has God wrought?’ for what God has done is done for ever, and there can be no possibility of the destruction of it. It gives great leverage in dealing with the people of God to know as a certainty, as Moses did, that God had wrought in the tribes, that God had wrought in this one or that one; that is what comes out in this chapter. It is a chapter of twelve features of the people of God, wonderful features rising up to Christ, for however you look at the people of God you must see Christ towering up, whether it be a question of His deity, or of His moral worth or beauty, He must tower up above all, and so when Moses comes to Joseph he has the occasion by the Spirit of God to bring out what I have been speaking of, the precious features that attached to Christ. “Of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven”. It is His land — ours to be sure in due course, but it is His first. Applying it to Christ, He was the old corn of [p. 56] the land. When Israel entered the land the ark was not in view, they were in before it, really what is in view is Christ in another way, that is as indigenous to heaven; that is a word we have to understand, that His very humanity is heavenly, that the Son of man has come from heaven, that the Son of man while here upon earth was in heaven, and that He is not in it as having gone into it merely. The preposition in John 3:13 does not mean that, it means that He was there, He belonged to the place. It is not new to Him; He ascended up far above all heavens, but in entering in, it is not at all new. He is there, the Son of man; so that as Israel crosses Jordan what comes into evidence is Christ in that relation, He is the old corn, or the store corn, of the land of Canaan. So that you can understand how Moses would speak thus by the Spirit, for these words have more significance than even Moses could understand personally. Let us remember that, that the things they minister, they minister to us: “Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify ... . Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister”, 1 Peter 1:11,12. It is for us to understand, “Blessed of the Lord be his land”. Oh, you say, ‘I shall have a share in that!’ Yes, but it is His. He would say to you, if you have gift and you have been used of the Lord in conversions and other things, He would say to you, ‘Glory not in this, it may give you distinction among the brethren’; but He says, “rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” Luke 10:20 — that you have a status there, your names are written there. In truth we are the levites of God, not as we had it today in Numbers, but as it is in Joshua; that is, our part is heavenly, not on the earth. Seeing that our names are written in heaven, and that is our place, how important, beloved, to become acquainted with the place. Ephesians gives you the gospel of the land — it [p. 57] is the gospel of place. We have another place, raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ; so that the testimony of the Holy Spirit of what Christ is in heaven is to be mixed with faith; if we mix it with faith then we shall understand and become accustomed to another place.
Then there are “the precious things of heaven”, that is to say, the refreshing influences of heaven and “the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath”, “the precious fruits brought forth by the sun and for the precious things put forth by the moon”. It would take many addresses to open up what the precious things are, and the features in relation to all these. It is a matter for enquiry as to what they are, for they are precious things. Looking into it the soul will be nourished as it traces what is meant by the heavens and by the sun, and by the moon or months, by the dew and the deep that coucheth beneath. As we trace what these things mean, what precious results accrue; and how all come to pass in Christ and attach to Him. Then there is the blessing for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the everlasting hills. Think of the stretch of mind back to the ancient mountains and forward to the everlasting hills, and the precious things of them, all coming on the head of Christ, on the “top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren”. If we take these verses up and follow them we shall have to read the Scriptures from the beginning to the end with this in view. We shall become wonderfully enriched, because our minds stretch backwards and then forwards, learning that all that accrues of the precious fruits of these things is to come on Christ, and (insomuch as this is a tribal chapter) it is Christ in relation to the saints. It presents His greatness towering above us, but nevertheless in relation to us, so that we share in all these things and learn how to value them, and see their [p. 58] working out. Take, for instance, the ancient mountains, who can tell what was alluded to? You may say that must be Ararat; that must be the mountain of Jehovah. Genesis is full of the idea from chapter 7 onwards, of a mountain or mountains in a literal sense; but the significance is spiritual; however far back you go in the ways and testimony of God there were outstanding features from God that stood the test of time and weather and Satan’s power; and they stand now. It would be a fruitful examination, beloved, if I may commend it to you, to examine what these ancient mountains are. Take one of the literal mountains, take Ararat; what lessons there are to be learned, spiritually. The tops of all the mountains, we are told, were covered by the flood, God let nothing escape, but the mountains reappeared, they went through; they reappeared, and the ark rested, we are told, on Ararat. What lessons were to be learned on that mountain, the beginning of another world, as if God were to say from the very outset, ‘man spoiled this world, that I made with such detail and skill, thorns have come up on it on account of sin, but there is another world’. Those words, I might say, are written right down Scripture, ‘there is another world’ — a world that goes through death, and all that is living in it carried through in a vessel; so that God smells a sweet savour as Noah comes out of the ark on Ararat; worship begins, as you might say, for he built an altar. Are there not precious things to be gathered up in these chapters in Genesis, the great thought of something outstanding that goes through, standing against time and weather and Satan’s power, yielding to God the precious savour of Christ; and all that returning upon the “head of him that was separated from his brethren”?
I just refer to two other mountains, to illustrate — the mountain in Genesis 22, upon which Isaac was offered up. It is an ancient one, but containing the [p. 59] most precious thoughts. It is the mountain of God, it refers to His resources, His provision, to the death and resurrection of Christ, yielding the most precious thoughts by which Scripture is filled; they have all reverted back, glorifying Him, resting upon His head as a diadem, on the top of the head of Him that was separated from His brethren.
So, too, Moses comes to the mountain of God; Moses led the flock to Horeb the mountain of God, and God sends Aaron and meets him there, and he is glad in his heart. What is it, beloved, but the love of the brethren at that ancient mountain? And Moses unfolds all the thoughts of God on it, and all that comes down on the top of the head of Him that was separated from His brethren.
Then there are the mountains running into eternity, the everlasting hills. Think of the sweet savour and preciousness that comes on the head of Christ, accruing from Him, and all must revert back to Him, coming upon the top of the head of Him who was separated from His brethren.
I might remark, dear brethren, as to the wonderful link of these mountains with the mount of transfiguration; we have the writer of the Pentateuch, and the representative of the prophets, carrying down all the ancient things that spoke of Christ, every precious thing would be in their minds, how they would speak of Christ; they spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. We can understand that aside from that decease at Jerusalem there could be no precious things, no ancient mountains of value, yielding such precious thoughts of glory and dignity; all is based on that wonderful act of Christ, the laying down of His life at Jerusalem. Then the stretch forward from that mount as Peter speaks of it. He does not refer to it as an ancient mountain, but as a holy mountain; its sides were beaten by the blessed footsteps of Jesus, its top was [p. 60] trodden by Him, it was holy. It was enshrined in holiness, the feet of the heavenly saints were there, and the feet of the earthly saints were there, linked up with them; and the cloud was there, and the voice out of the cloud was there, denoting the Father’s voice, stretching on into an eternal state of things where Christ will be all and in all, and where we shall be like Him. Dear brethren, that was what I was thinking of, that the saints might be led on to the better things, to the excellent things, to the precious things, and to see how they are toward us and how God clothes us with them, that we might be fit companions with Christ in all these relations. May God bless the word to us!