URIM AND THUMMIM
... From the time the first reference to “the Urim and the Thummim” appeared, it has been before me to send you a line on the subject ... Please note that nothing dogmatic is here set down. Only what I have enjoyed I recommend.
It appears to me that the word “judgment”, which is connected both with the breastplate and with the Urim and Thummim (Exod 28, &c), has reference to God’s judgment or estimation—that in which His people appear before Him. It has no reference that I can see to the people viewed in their responsibility and failure, as to which God’s judgment and dealing with them come (on other occasions) into view, but not, I think, here. Here the people come into view in the place and relation to Him in which God has set them—on the heart of the High Priest. More than this. (I see no reason for rejecting the interpretation of the Urim and Thummim as lights and perfections, and if so, what lights and what perfections?) Light and perfection are found only in God. Intrinsic light and perfection could not be in His people, but the people may be set in the good of them, and that, I think, is what we have here—both are put upon them—conferred, not intrinsic. I do not think you are carried so far as new creation.
But if that which is intrinsic and absolute in God is conferred upon us (that is, on His people), so that they may be suitable to Him, and if they are viewed as in it, they are thereby set in the affection and relation which He would have them in. It is the affection or love of God to thus array us in divine suitability to Himself.
The names of the people, that is, in as far as it could be, the people themselves, are carried in by the heart of the High Priest, in all the blessed light and perfection which suit the heart of God, for we have the Urim and Thummim also on his heart. “And they [the Urim and Thummim] shall be upon Aaron’s heart when he goeth in before the Lord”. I suppose that the “holy one” in Deut 33: 8 has reference to Levi, as the priestly family: “Let thy [God’s] Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one [Levi], whom [Levi] thou [God] didst prove at Massah”, &c.
Is not this an illustration of the statement of Rom 11, “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”? Israel had failed, but the priestly tribe maintained that which was due to God in view of the relation of light and perfection in which He had set the people, and hence the blessing is to remain. For us it is what God has found in Christ, spite of what we are. J N Darby puts it, “Thy Urim and thy Thummim are for thy godly one”, &c, reading it as a fact stated.
Now it is evident, as has been already said, that replies were given by means of the Urim and Thummim to those that inquired of God, 1 Sam 28: 6. We need not ask how, since this is not recorded—but, what is the signification of this matter to us? I think that there was a meaning in view for us, and it is important, I think, to note, too, that though he inquired, Saul got no reply. “The Lord answered him not”. A most solemn state for him. Now I think all will admit that whatever and however varied at any time the questions and answers might have been, there could not be answers discordant and inconsistent with the “light and perfection” in which God had set His people in their relationship to Himself by means of the high priest. I think the questions might ignore this relation, but the answers, if any, could not. Now His people might forget how they stood before God, and Saul could have had very little idea of it, if any. God, I think, always answers us according to the relation in which He has set us. He never forgets this relation. I can understand His people then (and now) seeking to get questions answered, which, if they were in the consciousness of their relation to God in light and perfection, they would never have thought of asking. I suppose that Saul’s was a downward progress, and along this line all the way.
In Ezra 2: 63 and Neh 7: 65 we find that some who could not trace their pedigree, that is, levitical and priestly relation, were put out of the priesthood, until again the people stood before God in ‘light and perfection’ in the person of the high priest “with Urim and Thummim”.
I think that there are many thus put out of the priesthood today, who will come into the good of it in the light of heaven, because they cannot today trace their descent (relation), and are not in the light and good of it, and oftentimes I think they are seeking to get inconsistent questions answered, but of course in vain since God has respect to the relations in which He has set His people. We are, I think, before God in the person of the High Priest who has “for us entered” (Heb 6: 20), and in all the love and grace of God we are graced in His light divine. God gives answers to everything, I think, which is asked on this line. But we belong to no other, and may now trace our pedigree. Israel has to wait, I think, until Christ comes. I connect with this “asking” such passages as John 14: 13, 14; 16: 23, 24; 1 John 3: 19-22, &c. How we read these answers (I mean how He answers) may be an interesting and further subject. I believe that He does answer, and that he who asks on this line, that is, our relationship line, is not at a loss to read the answer, but I cannot say more than this at the moment, I feel as though more light is at hand.
From Helps for the Poor of the Flock—vol 5, 1900
(from ‘Correspondence and Notes’)
