SERVICE IN THE WILDERNESS
[p. 255] SERVICE IN THE WILDERNESS
Luke 1:74,75; 1 Thessalonians 1:9,10; Hebrews 9:14
JT We might consider the service of God — the purpose for which we are called out of the world.
These scriptures indicate the subject. They show, I think, the effect of the gospel rightly received; that is, that those who receive it are here for God’s service. It is a great thing to see that we are called out of the world for a definite end; to put us into heaven, it is true, but God has an end in view on earth; hence in giving Moses his commission God said that the people were to serve Him in mount Horeb, not immediately in Canaan, but in the wilderness. So in Hebrews the service is viewed as carried on now down here. The first economy had ordinances of divine service and a sanctuary, and we are to take the place of that. We are called to a new system in order that we might serve in connection with it. Luke 1 is on the same line, “that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him, without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life”. So in Thessalonians, “ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God”. It refers to the whole period of your life down here, pending the coming of the Lord.
Ques Is not the true thought of service that it is rendered by sons?
JT Yes, you get that in the message to Pharaoh. It requires that we should be in liberty. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1), but the “son” was to serve God at mount Horeb.
Ques Why connect the service of God with mount Horeb, what is the significance of [p. 256] it?
JT It begins with the covenant. The covenant constitutes us fit for God’s service. It implies His love in our hearts.
Ques Does Luke 1 give us its character: “in holiness and righteousness”?
JT Yes, “without fear”, that involves the covenant. You are in the light and good of that, and it casts out fear. At mount Horeb Moses received the light. God said to him, “When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain”, (Exodus 3:12).
Ques What is the significance of the burning bush?
JT It is God coming into lowly circumstances in His love for His people. The discipline of the people in the wilderness is also in view. The people would be under the discipline of God and not consumed. They would survive. Moses got this impression there. Gift is an impression that remains with a man, and gives character to his ministry. Moses’ ministry came out in the wilderness. It undoubtedly flowed from impressions received at the bush. Though the people were to be under the discipline of God so that all that was contrary might be consumed, yet they were to remain.
The fact that there was to be no fear supposes that the love of God had full effect on the heart. The burning bush also signifies God’s dealings with Moses himself. Moses went through the experiences of the wilderness before he led the people through. He is a type of Christ. The bride in the Song of Songs is seen coming up out of the wilderness leaning on her Beloved. Moses had been that way before. He is the most interesting minister in the Old Testament. He was not “consumed”. He remained in all his vigour at the end of the wilderness journey. The history of Moses is given great place in Scripture. All the circumstances connected with his birth and manhood [p. 257] were prepared, so that Moses might be qualified as a vessel to be the great minister, which he became. One important feature is that he was baptised by his parents. He was committed to the Nile by his mother. She could not hide him any longer; she committed him to death, and God intervened and took care of him. When he came to years he decided for himself and came into fellowship. I say all this to show how a minister is formed and fitted by God for the service He intends him to render.
Ques What do you mean by saying that Moses came into fellowship?
JT He committed himself definitely to the people of God, as in reproach; that is not simply coming to a meeting. He deliberately chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. He did not choose them as affording worldly advantage but the opposite.
HB It saved him from disappointment.
JT It saves us from many a sorrow, if we take things as they are. Then he goes further, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Hebrews 11:26); that is Moses when he came to years. It is the Spirit’s comment on what he did. Another point is, he would deliver the people; he thought they would understand that he was the deliverer; but he undertook to deliver them as ignoring the fact that the judgment of God rested on himself as one of them. He slew the Egyptian; he took the place of the destroyer which did not belong to him, as death rested on himself. After forty years he learned that death was on the Israelite as well as on the Egyptian, so that no Israelite had any right to take the place of the destroyer. No one could be that unless immune from death. So we are told later that Moses kept the passover, that is, he had learned that the only escape lay in the death of Another; hence they had to be sheltered by the blood.
GN [p. 258] When did Moses answer to the faith of his parents?
JT When he came into fellowship. God will not take a man up for service until he comes into fellowship. God will take him up then and make a servant of him.
HB Do you mean a servant to deliver God’s people — not evangelical?
JT A servant in a general way. You must commit yourself to the interests of Christ here before you can be used. There is, of course, a good deal to learn after that.
DD Do you attach importance to the thought of the people being under reproach?
JT Yes, we are under “the reproach of Christ”; this and the power of the Spirit go together, because the acceptance of the reproach of Christ is the admission that there is no strength in the flesh. The world does not object to the name of Christ, so long as you resort to their principles. That is what they do, they connect Christ’s name with human principles. The world has no particular objection to the christian religion, they say it deserves a place as well as mohammedanism or any other religion. It is when the reproach of Christ is accepted that christianity is abused.
Ques You thus refuse worldly principles?
JT We identify ourselves with Christ while in rejection. You do not admit of any worldly methods, nor accept worldly support; the world disdains that. People have no special difficulty about our being christians, if we do not disallow worldly methods and support. Moses chose “to suffer affliction with the people of God ... esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt”, there was separation. You see there what is involved in coming into fellowship. He deliberately refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. All that enters into the idea of the reproach of Christ. You [p. 259] save yourself from many a disappointment if you accept it. The building of the ark incurred reproach. It does not say so formally; but Noah was doing that for which there was no obvious reason; hence he would be regarded as ridiculous. So now, we are regarded in that light.
Rem “By the which he condemned the world” (Hebrews 11:7). It is an element the world does not like.
JT Yes, it was a testimony against the world.
GN The position you take up arouses the opposition, as well as what you say.
Ques Is that taking up your cross?
JT Well, “your cross” is what is special to yourself; whatever it is, you accept it and take it up. The other is more the Lord’s cross. He went outside — bearing His cross.
DD When we see how it takes form in Moses we can understand it.
JT That part of the Scriptures which treats of the wilderness position answers to Moses’ ministry. In Moses you get set forth the truth of baptism and christian fellowship; they are set forth in him personally.
JS Moses did not lead the people into the land.
JT No. The service of God began at Horeb. They were to go three days’ journey into the wilderness. Pharaoh agreed, provided only the men went. Then he agreed, provided they only took their children. Moses refused unless children, cattle and all went; so that we see that all that we have stands subservient to the service of God. Moses celebrated the passover, “lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them” (Hebrews 11:28). He did it for others, because he discerned that judgment rested on the people, that they were amenable to the judgment of the destroyer as well as the Egyptians. What answers to that is that they had faith. “By faith they passed through the Red Sea” (verse 29). That is significant of baptism, as we [p. 260] learn from the New Testament. They were “all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:2). The fact stands out prominently that they accepted the thing. The passage of the Red Sea is the counterpart of the passover; in other words, Christ died for us and we accept it. Baptised as a child, you cannot understand baptism, and with many it is left so, but the child should be instructed in due course. Household baptism is included in the gospel, “thou shalt be saved, and thy house”; the second part is often left out in presenting the gospel. God includes a man’s house, and the jailor in Acts 16 was equal to the message; he embraced all that was preached, and the proof of it was that he was baptised, and “rejoiced with all his house, having believed in God” (verse 34). “House” here is an adverb meaning the kind of faith and rejoicing that the man had. Some say his house believed, but that is not the way it is put.
Rem He believed “householdly”.
JT Yes, God set up the race in families, and God takes that into account in the gospel. So the apostle says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”, and the jailor was equal to it.
To go back to Moses, we read that God was going to slay him. After all these years under the discipline of God, now He is going to kill him, because he forgot circumcision in regard to his child. In Romans 6, where baptism is treated of, you have immediately following that your body is to be for the service of God.
GM It is important to see that true service is consequent on the position you take up in reference to the people of God.
JT I think so. Those who serve must come into fellowship, and this involves the reproach of Christ.
Ques Does discipline qualify for [p. 261] service?
JT Yes; as delivered from your enemies you require to be formed and instructed, and the covenant enters into that. Romans 6 shows how the body is to be held for God. Chapter 7 shows that we are to serve in newness of spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. In Exodus 19:4 God says, “Ye have seen what I have done ... borne you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”; but in order to be for God, they have to be formed, hence He propounds the covenant. Being brought to God does not take us beyond the wilderness; we are to be brought into the land, but in the wilderness you are brought to God, and there He proposes that we are to be for His service. This, as in the wilderness, had reference to the tabernacle, but the whole of the people are called to serve. They are divided into three classes: priests, levites, and the general congregation. But I would like this to be clearly understood, that in order to be servants we must understand the covenant. This is to qualify us. There are certain preliminary movements on God’s part, but when He opens up His heart to us, that is the new covenant. It is what He is to us in Christ, not exactly the place we have in His counsels, but His love, His disposition towards us. It is expressed in the death of Christ. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20).
Ques What is the difference between the gospel and the covenant?
JT The former goes beyond the covenant. To be brought to God means that you are first constituted righteous, you get a good conscience, you see the penalty borne by Another; and you get the Spirit, which answers to “eagles’ wings”, but it does not follow that you know God’s heart. When you know what is in God’s heart, you are prepared for service. Exodus 19 answers to that. As we answer to the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit,
[p. 262] we are free for God, to serve Him. “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth” (Isaiah 42:1).
GN Paul was an able minister of the new covenant.
JT The Lord was the Spirit of the covenant — Paul learnt it from Christ. The Supper presents the idea to us. 1 Corinthians gives us that which signifies the terms of the covenant; 2 Corinthians presents the spirit of it; hence this epistle opens up the idea of ministry.
GFM Service would be on the line of response.
JT Yes, and in that connection, God opens up the idea of the tabernacle. The first tabernacle had ordinances of divine service, which were typical. Through them we are helped to see what the house of God is. The difficulties as to divine service arise from not understanding the covenant. It is that which forms those who serve. That which produces the servants and the law that governs them is the house of God. 1 Corinthians 14:37 gives you the law of the house. “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord”. If one assumes to be spiritual, the test is to recognize the law of the house. If it had been observed, the recent conflict would have been avoided, and the saints would have been kept together. It was not observed, it was disregarded, and hence a stand had to be taken, so that the truth should remain with us.
We must recognize the authority of the Lord. Corinthians, whilst a local epistle, is also a catholic epistle. The conditions at Corinth served to unfold the law which was to govern the whole house of God on earth. “With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours” (1 Corinthians 1:2) — you get the two ideas, what is local and [p. 263] what is universal. The idea of a commandment was indicated in the first covenant. It is a question of God’s authority; that has not been surrendered. God maintains His authority in His house. When you come to detail, you find priests, levites, and members of the congregation. As a member of the congregation you minister to that in yourself which represents levitical and priestly service. In carrying out your daily employment, you are increasing your spiritual power. Some may think you decrease it, but you are really increasing it. If each member is with God, he has more priestly power in the assembly, and more levitical power. In carrying out your daily toil, however menial and trying, if you are with God in it, you will find that the exercises flowing from it increase your spiritual power, and you will be a greater priest and a better levite. You will go among the saints, and take care of them, and bear their burdens. The most menial and common-place things are made to serve you spiritually.
Ques What is meant by a common person?
JT The expression is not of frequent occurrence; it is just one of the people of the land; that is, an ordinary Israelite, one of the congregation. It refers to us in our responsible life as taking care of our families, business, etc. No one needs to shirk ordinary daily toil, as it adds to his spiritual power, if he is with God in it.