SPIRITUALITY (6)
[p. 85] SPIRITUALITY (6)
Deuteronomy 1:1-5; Deuteronomy 1:35-38; Deuteronomy 31:1-8; Deuteronomy 31:14-19; Deuteronomy 34:9
AEM We would be glad of a word as to how the generative principle, which involves our being of God, stands related to the idea of adoption which is through Jesus Christ to Himself.
JT The generative thought, as far as I understand it, stands related to the saints as children. Adoption, or sonship, is conferred. We are said to be “God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, in Galatians 3:26; and in Galatians 4:5,6 we are said to receive it, “that we might receive sonship. But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father”, The generative idea is seen in our being born of God. It is constitutional and underlies our sonship. We are said to be “born of the Spirit” and “born of water and of Spirit”, in John 3:5. Birth by the Spirit involves what is substantive spiritually, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. It is something, as it were, substantive, and hence basic as to our family relations with God. Then we are said to be born of incorruptible seed, the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever: this affecting us as to our intelligence; and finally we are said to be born of God, from whom we take on the family characteristics, which are developed in John’s first epistle. The generative thought is obviously connected with what has been before us; for in the types we have considered, there are numerous children, not exactly children of God, but typical of them as a new generation; the principle being there, involving nature and ability to take in and to enjoy what is of God.
AEM Is the thought of children on the same level as sonship?
JT As to family status. Yes. Only sonship is greater,
[p. 86] as that in which Christ has part, and it is the final or eternal family relationship. Sonship is the relation in which we are viewed as capable of sharing the divine thoughts and purposes. In this relation we are viewed as able to share with Christ the affections of the Father, and to respond to them. The relation of children corresponds and refers to us as we are down here, and in which we represent God in a moral way as partaking of His characteristics. We are of God.
AEM Does that allow for development?
JT It does. There are several words used in the original for the word “children” in English; some diminutive and one covering the whole family, old and young.
AEM I was going to ask if the way in which adoption is brought forward in Ephesians is to make room for the superior position of Christ in relation to it. Fatherhood in God and sonship in Christ were existing perfectly before we were brought into the family.
JT Christ is never viewed as a child in the sense in which we are children of God. In sonship He is spoken of as a child in a physical sense, “the child Jesus”, but never in the sense in which the term applies to us spiritually. It is always sonship with Him; it is in Him that the full thought is seen. We are brought into what He had already inaugurated as a Son, that is as incarnate. We are brought into that, not born into it.
AMH God having secured through birth what was entirely suitable to Himself and for Himself, adoption is added, to take us and place us in sonship in God’s sight.
JT The same persons in another position. It is not bringing many children to glory, but sons to glory. The full family thought is that we are equal to entering into the divine counsels corresponding with the term “brethren of Christ”.
HH Will the idea of the family be eternal, [p. 87] although you say the thought of children applies to us down here?
JT The family thought goes through. The word “children” seems to be applied to us as derived of God generically, fitting in down here in the scene of adversity; we are according to His mind, the Spirit being the link, and witnessing with our spirit that we are children of God, so that we are now the children of God. Sonship for us properly refers to heaven, although we have received it and are sons; but really it is a faith state of things now, the Spirit, as the Spirit of adoption, making it a reality to us; but as to our actual condition now, we are not fully equal to it, hence it is said “we await adoption”; in other words, we await sonship, “that is, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23)”. That is not said of us as children.
SEE Is the equality of the two positions in our relation to the inheritance seen in the two passages, Romans 8:17, “And if children, heirs also: heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him”, and Galatians 4:7, “So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God”.
JT These passages show that the two terms are equal in that sense. “Heirship” belongs to us in both relations.
Now to resume our subject, it is needful that we should revert to the second part of Numbers 27, beginning at verse 12; having already enlarged on the daughters of Zelophehad, and what is conveyed in them spiritually, also Caleb’s daughter and her husband; these showing the generative side, that is, those in the relation of children or seed. In Numbers the necessity for the new leader appears, as the “statute of right” is established, arising from the exercises of these women. We have the new leadership introduced immediately and by Jehovah Himself. Moses mentions it, but Jehovah says to Moses, “Get thee up into this mount Abarim, and see the land that I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy peoples, as Aaron thy brother was gathered, because ye rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, ... And Moses spoke to Jehovah, saying. Let Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the assembly, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the assembly of Jehovah be not as sheep that have no shepherd”, Numbers 27:12 - 17. We have the judicial pronouncement as to Moses again alluded to here that he should not go in because of rebellion against God’s word. Others had been precluded for the same reason. They fell in the wilderness. Moses is to go up to die and to be buried by Jehovah Himself, according to another scripture, but he is wholly clear in his spirit. He is thoroughly with God as in the discipline, and suggests of himself that there should be another leader, and alludes to God’s knowledge of the spirits of all flesh — “Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh,(Numbers 27:16)” the God of the spirits. So that Joshua is evidently in Moses’ mind as a spiritual leader. Moses’ service was that of apostleship, or authority, but now it is a question of spirits, and so Jehovah speaks about Joshua, having the Spirit, not “another spirit”, but “a man in whom is the Spirit”(Numbers 27:18). So that I think we are coming here to the climax of the thought entering into our subject. Christ viewed in this way as having the Spirit. He is divine, of course, and gives the Spirit. Acts shows that He charged the apostles by the Spirit, Acts 1:2. Indeed, He went about doing good in the power of the Spirit. We read about Him casting out demons by the Spirit of God. So that we have Christ in type here, Joshua being a man who had the Spirit, characteristically. It is he who is to lead the people into [p. 89] the inheritance.
LDM Does the readiness of the children to enter the inheritance make way for leadership by the man in whom is the Spirit? I was thinking of the daughters of Zelophehad.
JT Yes. It is very significant that Jehovah in answer to Moses says, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit”(Numbers 27:18). Moses had spoken to Jehovah, calling Him “the God of the spirits of all flesh,(Numbers 27:16)” He would therefore know the spirit of Joshua; He would know the spirit of the one needed to lead; in fact. He was God over them. God Himself is a spirit. The Lord says to the woman of Samaria, “God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth(John 4:24)”. Here He is the God of the spirits of all flesh, so that the matter is peculiarly spiritual now.
FJF Does that show that leadership is dependent upon what God knows of the leader?
JT Just so. The whole matter now is between God and the leader who has the Spirit, and believers who are spiritual, for the daughters of Zelophehad had showed that they were spiritual, as also Achsah. So that entering into the inheritance implies that the Spirit is here. Those who form the assembly are basically, at least, spiritual, although Paul had to say that the Corinthians were not this characteristically, though their status was that. They were in Christ and the Holy Spirit was in them.
The book of Deuteronomy further develops our subject. Moses in the closing period of his life was able to say so much about it; as under discipline, not in spirit under it, but clear of it, yet it still attached to him in the government of God. Moses was not going into the land, but he is able to say much about what is there; and what is needed in those who go in. Hence it is thought well to suggest these Scriptures in Deuteronomy because the aim of the book is that we might go in spiritually and suitably. Moses merges, we may say,
[p. 90] in Joshua. It is a gradual matter, but finally they are both together at the door of the tent, and the Lord comes down and they are spoken to as together, and later, according to the last chapter, Moses dies, and Joshua is said to be filled “with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses”. So that Moses merges, as it were, with Joshua. That is, they represent two features of Christ: the one authoritative, but more, because in Deuteronomy Moses’ position borders on headship. It is what Moses says himself, and finally he emerges, as we said, in Joshua, who represents henceforth the leadership that is needed to take the people into the land.
JD “Because ye rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation”, Numbers 27:14. Would anything like that happen today to one who had been a leader?
JT Leaders may fall out of the ranks. We remarked yesterday that Moses had to suffer personally. He rises above all this, but nevertheless he has to suffer. So that we should take heed to ourselves. Disregard of the commandment of God on the one hand, and disrespect for the saints on the other, disqualifies a man for the leadership. That is what the apostle had in mind in the first letter to Corinth, and the second, too, “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14:37. There were those at Corinth who were aiming at leadership, but were evidently disqualified. We know in the history of the testimony many have fallen out, who had a very definite place in the testimony, so that I believe the records of Moses’ failure are to warn us. In Deuteronomy it is generally more that he suffered vicariously, that is, instead of the people; that in truth the state of the [p. 91] people required the rebuke — required that he should suffer. He says, “Jehovah was angry with me on your account” Deuteronomy 1:37.
AEM What is the position in relation to priesthood? Eleazar seems to be prominent in connection with Joshua, as though the two are linked up.
JT I think Eleazar represents the spiritual side of priesthood and hence qualified to be linked with Joshua, so that it is again two persons representing Christ, but spirituality stressed in both. Eleazar is said to be “the prince of princes of the Levites,(Numbers 3:32)” a peculiar place he had even before his father died, but now he is in the true position of priesthood. I think, therefore, we have to look at Joshua and Eleazar together as entering into our subject. The priestly side is usually official, but in Eleazar it would take on what is peculiarly spiritual, not only authoritative. It says, “And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him, by the judgment of the Urim before Jehovah: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him, even the whole assembly. And Moses did as Jehovah had commanded him; and he took Joshua and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before the whole assembly, and he laid his hands upon him, and gave him commandment, as Jehovah had said through Moses”, Numbers 27:21 - 23. The thought of the Urim is introduced. We are now in the presence of peculiar spirituality and stability. What a vista of glory and blessedness opens up as we see all this functioning in Christ, and our having part in it! Joshua is installed before Eleazar and the whole assembly here.
CSS Would it work out as a result of obedience? When we get a man that is filled with the Spirit, it is said that they may “obey him”, Numbers 27:20.
JT Obedience and being helped by the Lord into the inheritance go together. In the antitype it is the [p. 92] Spirit being the earnest of the inheritance that enables us to possess. We value the thought of the inheritance, as having already acquired spiritual instincts through the generative work of God, the Spirit taking all that up and developing sonship in us intelligently. We see how God Himself, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, is bringing many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:10. And in doing so He has made the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings. That is, Christ has reached a point of perfection, meaning a condition answering to the purpose of God; and we, too, are brought into that condition, the relation of sonship attaching to it; and then in the acquirement of the purchased possession completed in the redemption of our bodies, we shall be in it as He is in it. So that divine Persons are all helping to bring us in. Hence the importance of what we had this morning of the intelligent desire to be there.
Ques Is that the idea when Moses said, Jehovah “will go over before thee”, and then of Joshua, “he shall go over before thee”?
JT And further, as we already noticed, Moses specifies that the new leader should go out before them, and come in before them, and lead them out and bring them in, all this having an answer in Christ as amongst His own. It is said in Acts 1:21, that the needed apostle should be one who had assembled with the brethren “all the time in which the Lord Jesus came in and went out amongst us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day in which he was taken up”. His movements were spiritual movements. The two men at the ascension had this in mind: “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”, Acts 1:11. It is a question of manner of movement, how the Lord went into heaven. He went up in their sight. So He was transfigured [p. 93] before them. There are peculiar touches which were to react in the disciples. All this, as a type, enters into Joshua’s position here, who would lead the people out and in. Moses says, “who may lead them out, and who may bring them in” — they must not be left outside.
CAI Does this not involve the intelligent apprehension of the mystery, and our being able to function intelligently in the body under the headship of Christ?
JT We are coming to that. Spirituality is essential to it. Of the spiritual man it is said, as already remarked, he himself is discerned of no one. Persons who are not spiritual are in a practical sense outside the range of the mystery.
LDM Paul laid his glad tidings before those conspicuous at Jerusalem, as we see in Galatians 2. Is that the recognition by them of his measure in spiritual things?
JT They gave him the right hand of fellowship. The apostles there were capable of discerning the grace given to him. Peter understood Paul. His closing words about him showed how thoroughly he understood the apostle Paul. Others did not. As to discernment, Paul gives a peculiar touch in Acts 14. He looked on the man who was lame, and discerned that he had faith. He discerned that the man had faith to be healed, that is the power of discernment in a spiritual man. The lame man heard Paul speaking. Evidently he was affected by it — that kind of speaking. Paul, on the other hand, discerned that he had faith, and so said to him with a loud voice, “Rise up straight upon thy feet”,(Acts 14:10) and he did so. He had never walked. The man represents the kind of material needed for the assembly The Lord says to Peter, “thou art Peter”. Peter had in mind in his ministry to bring out that kind of material, so he calls the saints living stones and a spiritual house. Paul directs Timothy, in his second letter, to commit what he had heard of him in the presence of many witnesses, to “faithful men”, 2 Timothy 2:2. Timothy would thus be obligated to find them, to discern them. There is thus to be discernment in these administrative matters. The spiritual discerneth all things.
JD Would this be on Paul’s mind after he had left Troas on the way up to Jerusalem? He sends for the elders of Ephesus and says that he has not shunned to declare to them the whole counsel of God. Would the continued service of God by the saints as entering into His counsel be on his mind?
JT The counsel of God came out in his service at Ephesus peculiarly. His letter to that assembly further confirms this. It was highly spiritual, and hence it begins with the inquiry, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit?” Acts 19:2. A spiritual structure was in view. His enquiry was prophetic, that is, the work should take on great spiritual proportions; the assembly would grow into a holy temple in the Lord.
Now as regards Deuteronomy, in chapter 1 we have fine spiritual touches, first as to the distance to the land. “These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel”, conveying spiritual thoughts, “on this side the Jordan, in the wilderness”. Then we are told of the environment, and the names are given. “There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea”. There were evidently yet certain brotherly feelings in Edom. This book recognises them, but they were affected by rivalry. Then we are told that it was “in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Jehovah had given him in command to them; after he had smitten Sihon the king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who dwelt in Ashtaroth and at Edrei”. All this is spiritual, and it is affecting that a man of a hundred and nineteen years and eleven months should furnish us with such a book as this. Whatever [p. 95] the discipline he had gone through, being prohibited from entering the land, he is now at the height of spiritual power and understanding. He is to see the land. He is to see it, as fully appreciating it, but not yet to enter it. Dispensationally he is representative of law and authority, and hence could not enter, but personally he is equal to it. He is able to accept the governmental dealing of God upon him. He knows at once that discipline and authority can never by themselves take the people of God into the land of Canaan. There is more than that needed. That is, we must apprehend Christ in the Joshua character; but we are told in effect here, and it is a spiritual touch, that you may get to Canaan in eleven days instead of forty years. It is for us to see how that could be.
CSS Is the opening of this book in contrast to the opening of Leviticus?
JT Yes, the latter is approach to God, as in the tabernacle; the former is instruction for the land. We have the thought at the end of the passage read, that he had unfolded this law, that is, the opening up of what was in his mind. Moses began to unfold or expound to them. It is the spiritually instructive side rather than authority.
WJH You base your reference to Paul travelling quickly to the line of the purpose of God, on the fact that in Damascus he preached that Jesus was the Son of God?
JT The Lord says to him, “why persecutest thou me?” Acts 9:4. It was a spiritual word, involving the assembly, for the saints are alluded to as Himself. Paul would appreciate it later. It is a spiritual touch at the very outset, and then he immediately “preached Jesus that he is the Son of God (Acts 9:20)”.
I thought we might now look at the second passage read in chapter 1:35 - 38. The exclusion of the evil generation from the land is alluded to. Then it is said, “except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, he shall see it,
[p. 96] and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed Jehovah”. And then, “Joshua the son of Nun, who standeth before thee, he shall go in thither; strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it”. Caleb goes in and occupies the land that his feet trod on. Joshua goes in, too, but he goes in in order to cause the people to inherit; Jehovah says, “strengthen him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it”. Christ has gone into heaven; He is there in order to cause us to inherit it. Moses then says, “I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that Jehovah your God hath done to these two kings: so will Jehovah do to all the kingdoms to which thou shalt go. Ye shall not fear them; for Jehovah your God, he will fight for you”. Deuteronomy 3:21. Stress is laid in this section on the destruction of Sihon and Og; they represent some great obstacle to our entering into the inheritance. It was after he had smitten Sihon and Og that Moses began to write the book of Deuteronomy. I think it is tantamount to saying, that we have to look to ourselves if we are to understand Deuteronomy; are these two kings really overthrown in the antitypical sense? They allude to our bigness according to our natural valuation of ourselves. So long as I retain a sense of my own importance, I am hindered, in fact I can hardly understand Deuteronomy. It is not a question of authority. So long as I am occupied with myself in any way, I need authority over me. In that sense I need Moses. Paul says, in effect. Shall I come unto you with the rod or in love? (1 Corinthians 4:21). This great man Og has to go down. He seems to stand athwart the path of Israel into Canaan; but Moses overcame him. It is after that, we get Deuteronomy, and I believe it is to direct our view to this matter as to whether I have any personal motive as active in the things of God, any thought of personal prominence, to be big, something more than I am now.
[p. 97] If so, I shall never understand the book of Deuteronomy, nor enter Canaan in the history of my soul. These two men were overthrown, and Joshua is told that he would overcome all the others in the same way. The crucial point is to overcome these two men. “Thine eyes have seen all that Jehovah your God hath done to these two kings: so will Jehovah do to all the kingdoms to which thou shalt go (Deuteronomy 3:21)”.
HW Does that agree with the apostle Paul in connection with his intelligence in the mystery? He says, “To me, less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given”, (Ephesians 3:8).
JT That enters into the overthrow of these two kings. I have often wondered, and have spoken of it to others, how he could say that he was less than the least of all the saints, and yet he does, and significantly in the epistle to the Ephesians. It corresponds with the overthrow of Sihon and Og — the latter shown in Deuteronomy to have been a very big man. If in the attitude of my soul I am less than the least of all the saints, I am able to respect the brethren.
WJH The Psalm referring to the removal of these two men, Sihon and Og, says, “for his mercy endureth for ever”, Psalm 136:19,20.
JHF Did Rahab enter into the spirit of this when she referred to these two men on the occasion when she spoke to the spies?
JT She did. She would see that the spies were not like these two men, they were different.
AMH The first chapter speaks of God having gained these victories, and in the third chapter it is we. Does that correspond to Colossians — to using the circumcision of Christ, first arriving at it in Christ in the soul and then mortifying our members?
JT Just so. That is the way to victory over them, mortifying the flesh. “Have your mind on the things that are above”, (Colossians 3:2). That is a great point as to [p. 98] entering. We follow our minds, and then the passage says, “for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)”. When Christ comes out we shall appear with Him in glory. All these are great thoughts on the way to the inheritance; and then, “mortify therefore”: that is the line of overcoming these two men, and of maintaining the victory in our souls.
Then going on to chapter 31 — Moses now is saying, that he is a hundred and twenty years old. He says “I can no more go out and come in; and Jehovah hath said unto me. Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. Jehovah thy God, he will go over before thee, he will destroy these nations from before thee, that thou mayest take possession of them”. Moses, although so old, continues in faith and spiritual power, and at the closing moment of his life he is able to write this remarkable song, Joshua associated with him, evidently, and he completes it. So that Moses now is completely identified with Joshua — merges in him, you might say, so that as he dies, “Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses”. So that I think in these verses we are in the presence of Christ, as it were, disappearing as in authority, but in full view as leading us into the spiritual inheritance of God for us.
AD Do we get that in Solomon, when he asked God for wisdom that he might go out and come in and judge “a great people”?
JT Yes. David and Solomon are a continuation of Joshua in the types. Joshua is Christ bringing us in in spiritual power. It is, in a sense, a hidden matter, expressive of what goes on in the souls of the saints, but shown in their upward way and manner and service. David and Solomon take up the service of God which is linked with the book of Joshua.
[p. 99] Ques Would you say that Joshua influenced the people rather than used authority?
JT That is the idea; the spiritual power needed peculiarly in the assembly; there we need also the wealth of inheritance. He brings us into that wealth, but then, as typified in David and Solomon, Christ orders the service of God, the praises of God. It is another side of our position.
HDT So that what has been before us in spirituality would suggest a state capable of being influenced by what is in Christ.
JT That is what is so needed in assembly service. We thus discern the Lord, for instance, as He comes in a spiritual way. It is not His presence in a corporeal sense. He comes in a spiritual way and the spiritual understand, they know that He is there. They discern Him and say, “It is the Lord”.
SEE Would this form of spiritual leadership be expressed in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God”?
JT That is more general, not exactly assembly service, but links with the song before us. This song is ordered by God, and Joshua is evidently brought into it; Moses completed and spoke it to Israel. And then we have the blessing of the tribes in the next chapter. These two chapters furnish a magnificent finish to the book; we are introduced into the land, at least into the confines of the land. It is a matter of rich spiritual feelings, and calculated to promote joy and festivity. So that we are entering in gladness of soul into the divine territory. We are received there, too, as equal to it.
Ques Do feelings according to God constitute substance?
JT They do. There is a certain richness in divinely [p. 100] formed and developed feelings. One under control in the assembly knows what feelings there should be at a given time. Priestly intelligence in the believer enables him to know what to do in the assembly.
SEE We are used to various forms of admonition — does this in Colossians 3 need to be taken account of more, “admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs”?
JT You are not likely to provoke resentment if you admonish in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. It conveys good feeling, and yet it may convey the truth. We have had it elsewhere; singers in Israel such as Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were prophets as well, so that prophecy may come to us in spiritual hymns. Many of our hymns are prophetic, bringing God to us.
ESW Would it be right to say that the service of God in its highest sense can only be rightly taken up by persons who are in the enjoyment of the land? We can only serve as we have traversed the way you have indicated as following and being with Joshua; having spiritual substance formed in us?
JT I am sure that is right, so that worship in Deuteronomy is through the wealth that you acquire in the land; you bring the fruit in a basket. It is the wealth of the land that comes into the higher features of worship.
JD Would it connect with 2 Chronicles 5?
JT That is the full thought of it in the types.
Ques Would the land represent the breaking of bread?
JT The breaking of bread is in the wilderness, but when Christ comes in we move on to the land. The land is where we are in association with Him.
JWH In the last chapter we are told “the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses”. Would that be the great result of what is cumulative in regard to the great thought of [p. 101] spirituality, worked out as we are found together in the assembly?
JT Yes. The Lord takes up headship in the assembly, involving lead and influence rather than direct authority. Authority is there, however, so that we are as reverential at the end, in the family setting, as in the beginning in the dominical setting. We do not take any advantage of the Lord as coming to our side, taking His place with us as His brethren. We are always reverential.