WELLS AND SPRINGS (8)
[p. 138] WELLS AND SPRINGS (8)
Exodus 17: 1 - 7; Numbers 20: 1 - 13; Numbers 21: 14 - 18
JT The assembly in the wilderness was before us last time, and the wells in that relation; Moses sitting by the well in Midian, and then Zipporah given to him; she is a type of the assembly. The assembly here on earth, in the wilderness, as seen in these types, affords us perhaps the most practical and humbling side of out subject, for in the wilderness the ugliness of the flesh appears. The Spirit of God, in these books, does not ignore the fleshly features that come out and are present always, alas! Hence there is the need of understanding the Spirit in these books as typified in wells or springs, or as coming out of the rock.
The epistles to the Corinthians are especially instructive in this part of our subject: the Lord’s supper, the new covenant, government, etc. These are all features of the assembly in the wilderness, and they come before us in our meetings for prayer. Thus we cannot but see the importance of understanding the Spirit. It comes out in these books, too, in Leviticus 11: 36, that a well of water is immune from defilement when other things are defiled; the well is immune because of the power to throw off evil. “Nevertheless, a spring or a well, a quantity of water, shall be clean”. It is important to take that into account in our care meetings when dealing with wicked features. Without this power to throw off evil, even the care meeting would defile us; young brothers especially. The recognition of the Spirit in us in energy enables us to throw off what might defile us.
AAT Is the woman in John 4 an example?
JT She threw off defilement, manifestly in the sense that she could go and speak to the men. She was no longer under their influence. That is a very important side of the matter; the power by the Spirit [p. 139] to throw off things that would otherwise defile you, and make you unfit for assembly service.
HH You mean that the Spirit, in that way, keeps the saints morally apart from what is unclean?
JT Yes; the Spirit, as active, in the sense of a well, having scope in us, enables us to throw off a thing that would otherwise defile us. How could we touch these defiling things otherwise and not be defiled?
HH There is power; it is a fountain, it is not a mere effort. John 4 refers to “springing up”.
JT Yet you are exercised about it, because the Spirit works in relation to our exercises.
Ques Would the incident in the early part of John 8 be illustrative?
JT The accusers went out one by one; they could not take the matter up; the Lord and the woman alone remain. The whole position was perfectly clear. The light shone and forced out the evil. These considerations are very important. The time was when young brothers were not encouraged to attend the care meeting; some used to say positively that they should not be there. The young brothers are responsible, and as being there they should bear in mind that things may come before us that would damage them unless room is made for the Spirit in them; they are to have power to throw off the thing in self-judgment.
WRas The Lord says in the end of Mark, “in my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink any deadly thing it shall not injure them”, Mark 16: 17, 18. Would that bear on this?
JT Yes; it is power to overcome evil; otherwise, we should be overcome. We are enjoined to overcome evil and not be overcome by it, but we can only overcome it by self-judgment in the power of the Spirit.
Ques Is what you are speaking of supported by Romans 8: 13: “but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live”?
JT Yes; putting them to death. Leviticus 11 contemplates the care of divine things, discerning good and evil, clean and unclean, so that we may be holy, seeing that God is holy (verses 43 - 45). The Lord touched the leper freely, showing that no evil power can damage Him. The same is true of us relatively by the energy of the Spirit.
JTJr Joseph would be a type of that in the house of Potiphar. He was able to withstand evil.
JT That is the thought. You have power to overcome the evil, to flee youthful lusts; that is what he did.
HH His brethren were poor things; ten of them were under the power of a lie some twenty years.
JT No wonder Jacob said, Why do you look on one another? I suppose they were sly looks of collusion. Our calling is not to look on one another. It is, in this sense, in the recognition of the Spirit, to be active in mutual care and in purity and holiness.
ANW Does that explain why the apostle dwells on the Passover in 1 Corinthians 5? The wicked person has to be dealt with. “For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed” (verse 7).
JT That is just the point. So “let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (verse 8); that is the continuous thing. So I thought it would be well to bring that passage in Leviticus into our consideration now. At the last reading we considered the twelve wells, and I think we saw it was more from the divine side. It is an administrative thought — the twelve wells and the seventy palm trees — two numbers that are made intelligible to us in the Lord’s use of them; first in regard to the twelve apostles, and then the seventy that were sent out subsequently. Up to Exodus 15 it is all on the divine side in the way of provision for us, so that we have, as of the assembly, a certain allowance of grace; “Ye are saved by grace”, Ephesians 2: 8. The grace side is stressed — God did not [p. 141] take Israel by way of the Philistines lest they might be afraid and go back. He considered for their youthfulness and weakness spiritually, and so in chapter 15 we have the twelve wells of springing water and the seventy palm trees. These are divine provisions among the brethren viewed as the assembly. We come now to a serious state of things; the ugliness of the congregation; the complaining in spite of the fact that they are where God directed them to be; that is, in the wilderness of Sin. It says, “And all the assembly of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, according to their journeys, at the command of Jehovah; and they encamped in Rephidim” (chapter 17: 1). So that they are where God would have them to be. Many are in fellowship nominally, but of a complaining spirit. The passage says, “And the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink!” They are in the right position. They are governed by the word of God, the commandment of Jehovah; but they are complaining. Thus, being in the position that is governed by the word of God is not enough. This matter of complaint has to be met. How can you have bridal conditions; how can you have happy services with the Lord, unless the spirit of complaining is met and judged?
CAM The complaining seems to be directed against the leadership.
JT Quite so. That is what is stated. “And the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink!”. They were looking to the leader instead of to God and were complaining. How can we have assembly features where there is the spirit of complaint or rebellion? God meets it in grace. He does not say anything against the people. Moses says to them, “Why do ye tempt Jehovah?” and then the passage goes on to say, “And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why is it that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our [p. 142] cattle with thirst? And Moses cried to Jehovah, saying, What shall I do with this people? Yet a little, and they will stone me! And Jehovah said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy staff with which thou didst smite the river, take in thy hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink” (verses 3 - 6). God is not taking issue directly with the people, for He is bringing in the death of Christ to meet that; Christ is to be smitten, instead of ourselves. We see therefore, that what is needed, in these circumstances, is a ministry of divine grace to show how the Lord Jesus went down to meet a state that is so abhorrent to God. He has met it effectively in the cross, so that the Spirit comes to us; we have the Spirit through Christ’s sufferings. “Moses cried to Jehovah”. If the brethren have a crisis on hand, let us get to God. The word “cry” is very suggestive here.
HH Does 1 Corinthians show how the complaining man is dealt with? “For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (chapter 2: 2). God had ended him in the death of Christ.
JT They needed that truth in Corinth. The apostle decided in his mind that he would not only minister that, but that he would not know anything more than that; he determined to know nothing “save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. It shows remarkable skill in the minister to conceal all his knowledge and keep to one thing, because it is the thing that is needed.
AR This complaint is out in the open. How would you meet complaints that are not in the open?
JT It is a question of transparency; it is a difficult matter to meet what you cannot prove. You are conscious that it is there, but you have to wait for the time for it to be brought out. God brings things [p. 143] out in time. Prayer is peculiarly needed in such circumstances.
APT In John 12, the Lord meets the complaint of Judas with grace, does He not? He says, “Suffer her” (verse 7). It is only a very short time until he is exposed.
JT It was not long before it came out. He went out — the light at the supper table effected this, John 13: 30.
ABP The question is raised in the last verse of the section, “Is Jehovah among us, or not?” (verse 7). It would hardly be right to say that because the state of a meeting is not good, that the Lord cannot be among us. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, for instance, in the consciousness that the Lord had certain rights there that He would not relinquish. Is it not a leverage in the soul that helps us through lean periods, that we know the Lord has committed Himself to something and that He will bring it through?
JT He gives us assurance; if two of us are agreed, we get things done. “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens”, Matthew 18: 19. If two ask the Father who is in the heavens, the Lord says, it shall be done unto them — unto those two. So it is manifest that God is with them. The thing is secured in their souls; and then the Lord adds, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” (verse 20). That is another thing. The Father answers from heaven, but the Lord is present among us to do the thing; to help us deal with any difficulty.
ABP The results would not depend only upon the faithfulness of the two. It would rather be on account of Christ, would it not? The rock is smitten.
JT That is what touches you in Exodus 17. It is intended to touch us. If we are not touched by this thought of the smiting of Christ, then there is very little hope for [p. 144] us.
HH The complaining would be met by the death of Christ in view of the Spirit being given?
JT That is what is meant. The Spirit is seen here as available. The waters flow as through the death of Christ; through the smiting of Christ. Of course, we must have the resurrection of Christ and the ascension of Christ in order to have the Spirit given, but the point stressed here is the smiting, because Jehovah says, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink” (verse 6). The rod Moses used was his own rod by which he smote the river; so that the rights and authority of God are involved.
FHL Psalm 78 speaks of the cleavage of the rock and the great abundance that flows out.
JT “Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed”, Psalm 78: 20. This is the incident we are dealing with. The plural, “rocks”, in verse 15, is more general. It says, “He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the depths, abundantly; and he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers”.
JTJr Psalm 81 has a reference to Meribah, which is one of the names given in our passage: Meribah and Massah. “Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah” (verse 7). Is there an allusion there to the way God met the evil through Moses’ cry?
JT That seems to be the thought. You have a further allusion to it in Numbers 20. “These are the waters of Meribah, where the children of Israel contended with Jehovah” (verse 13). Massah means ‘temptation’, Meribah means ‘contention’. They are together a land-mark reminding us of the ugliness of the flesh working in the assembly in the wilderness.
ANW Moses says: “Why do ye dispute with me?” and “Why do ye tempt Jehovah?” (verse 2).
JT Contention is a terrible element among the people of God. “But if any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom”, 1 Corinthians 11: 16. Contention is very wrong. The school of Tyrannus (Acts 19) would not admit of that. Learning involves subjection to the truth and to the brethren.
AAT Did the saints have the Spirit, in type, in chapter 17?
JT Well, they are not said to have drunk, but the inference is that they did. The psalm would show that they did, only here it is left vague, because things are shallow, and you cannot always be sure about such people, whether they have the Holy Spirit or not. What Jehovah said was, “And thou shalt strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink” (verse 6). That they may do it. The water is there to drink. In Numbers 20, it is said, “And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, ye rebels: shall we bring forth to you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his staff smote the rock twice, and much water came out, and the assembly drank, and their beasts” (verses 10 - 11). They did drink there. Certain elements may hinder you, but God gives you the Spirit in spite of them. The clerical element really interferes with the Spirit, hampers the operation of the Spirit; but God shows, in the second type, that He rises above that and gives plenty of water and the people actually did drink. Exodus 17 brings out the shallowness of the position, and although the water is there for them, it does not say expressly that they drank. That is a challenge to each of us. Have I taken up what it cost Christ so much to procure for me? The Psalms help us because they are experimental as to these historical matters, so that you learn from them that they must have drunk. If the water was there, you may be sure [p. 146] they did, but the Spirit of God is not saying it in Exodus, because it is for me to challenge myself as to whether I have done it. The Lord says, “Come to me and drink”, John 7: 37. Have I done that?
FSC Psalm 106 says, “they provoked his spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips” (verse 33).
JT Yes; the people are blamed there, but in our chapter. Moses represents those who are responsible as ministers, and he is blamed.
WR Paul says to the Corinthians, “For also in the power of one Spirit we ... have all been given to drink of one Spirit”, 1 Corinthians 12: 13.
JT That is to promote unity and satisfaction; that we are together in satisfaction, all having one thing in common, as the Lord says, “Drink ye all of it”, Matthew 26: 27. That is all the persons — all drink of the one thing. One of the greatest things is that we have the Spirit as involving unity; that we think the same thing; not only speak it, but think it, and thus learn together, holding the same truth. Why should we be disunited in any matter? The Spirit of God gives us the same thoughts and the same words.
ABP At some care meetings there is a most definite sense that the conclusion reached is right, particularly when a scripture is brought forward which bears on the situation and gives divine authority for what is brought forward. Is that the kind of thing you have in mind in speaking of having the Spirit in view of unity?
JT Yes. Sometimes you wonder how things will go, but the Lord usually comes in and gives something that settles the matter, and you count on that.
HH You get that in Acts 15. A scripture was referred to, which settled the matter. “With this agree the words of the prophets”, Acts 15: 15.
JT Turning to Numbers 20, the sufferings of Christ are not in view. The people had spoken against Moses and Aaron again, and had contended with Moses. And then verse 7 says, “And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Take the staff”; it is not the one with which he smote the river, but the staff, as if there was only this one now. “Take the staff, and gather the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give its water” (verse 8). Now, it is speaking to the rock. There is to be no smiting; instead of that, Moses smites it twice, as if to bring out the disobedience in the nominal christian ministers; that is, in the history of the public assembly, where, in general, men do as they wish. Instead of speaking only in relation to the rod, which is the rod that budded, that is, Aaron’s rod — the only one now that was of any real value — Moses uses his own rod and smites the rock twice and calls the people rebels, and intimates that he is giving them water. The allusion is to the clerical element that interferes with the action of the Spirit and, in effect, hinders the people getting it. In spite of that, they get it and get it abundantly. God overruling the opposition. Otherwise, where would we be now? Because the recognised religious leaders would not let us go on with a meeting like this were it not for God’s over-ruling hand.
CAM You spoke of government in connection with Moses’ staff; this would be an undue infliction of it.
JT Yes; the clerical idea is an assumption to authority; whereas priesthood is the thing that is needed now, and speaking instead of smiting.
FHL Aaron is not mentioned in this connection in Exodus 17. The attack in Numbers 20 began against Moses and Aaron.
JT It comes in after Aaron’s rod had budded; meaning that grace and life, in the priesthood, had come into evidence. Life goes along with the priesthood. The testimony is that our Priest ever liveth, and He is able to save to the uttermost. You cannot save people by smiting them. It is grace that saves. “For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this is not of yourselves; it is God’s gift”, Ephesians 2: 8. That is the point here. God is speaking to the people and giving plenty of water in spite of Moses.
HH Moses could never have used Aaron’s rod that budded to smite the rock. There was enough evidence to show that he was on the wrong course, was there not?
JT He smote it twice. That is remarkable, showing how God exposes man’s will, when at work in His things; we see here the length it will go. He did not smite the rock twice in Exodus 17, and he was told only to speak to it here, but he smites it twice. It is to bring out the innate disobedience in us, unless we judge ourselves.
JTJr The people had made him irritable. Evidently he is not seen in spiritual energy and the grace that marks it. “And Moses took the staff from before Jehovah, as he had commanded him”, but then verse 11 says, “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his staff smote the rock twice”. Do you think he changed the staves?
JT Yes; at least, he took his own as well, as if to say, I will not give up my authority; you are rebels. That is what the people were in his eyes; what a change had come over the great servant, for he was the meekest man in all the earth. It is the antitype that is in the mind of the Spirit.
TW In chapter 27: 14 Jehovah tells him that he rebelled.
AAT Paul in writing the first letter to the Corinthians did not use the rod, did he?
JT He said, “What will ye? that I come to you with a rod?” 1 Corinthians 4: 21. He did not want to go with a rod, nor did he. He says, “I have sent to you Timotheus who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord” (he was not a rod man) “who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ”. It shows the remarkable skill of Paul as over against what we get here. The [p. 149] local men would smite you; get your money out of you, 2 Corinthians 11: 20. These things have largely marked clericalism. Paul was not thus among the Corinthians, but the opposite.
HH Constantly having to do with difficulties among the saints may embitter the spirit of one serving, so that this is a plain word for us. We are to take heed how we speak of the saints; they belong to God.
AR This chapter brings in the priesthood of Christ as He is on high.
JT That is it; involving speaking. So the Lord speaks of the Holy Spirit from this point of view: “How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11: 13. It is speaking, not smiting. It is christianity. Christ is glorified in heaven and the Spirit is available to us here.
ANW In Exodus 17 Moses is told to take the elders with him. Would that not have helped him in authority? He does not do that in Numbers 20.
JT No. Here it is “Take the staff ... and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock”. It is priesthood.
ABP Was there not a much deeper thing than irritability? Jehovah says to Moses and to Aaron, “Because ye believed me not” (verse 12). It was unbelief, evidently.
JT Unbelief was there — for the time, at least. Thus, I think, this is intended to be a type of a much deeper thing which was not characteristic of Moses and Aaron. Thus they, in a way, had to suffer, so that the type should be clearly seen. It refers to the history of christendom, the long course of disregard for the word of God and limiting the Holy Spirit. If it were not for the over-abounding and over-ruling grace of God, there would be no water at all for us today. The commandment was given to speak to the rock, and use a certain rod or staff, and Moses did neither. So that it was out-and-out [p. 150] rebellion on the part of the ministers, and that is why God says at the end, “Because ye believed me not, to hallow me before the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land that I have given them” (verse 12). So they are shut out. It is the antitype we have to deal with here and it is most solemn, for the full bearing of the type is towards what is around us today; and this fact, of course, interferes with the freshness and vigour of the assembly, which is in mind in these readings. The Spirit is speaking. I think it is one of the greatest things, that God has given the Holy Spirit in spite of the clerical element. Take Rome, which is the very essence of that element; it says that nothing can come to you except through that system. It is the height of rebellion, and what God is saying to us now here is that He has overcome that, and that we can come together in the recognition of the Spirit of God. These men would not let us be here if they had it in their power. Let no one forget it; if the devil gets his way in what is current today, the effort will be to rob the saints of their liberty. The antitype is in mind in Numbers 20; what has happened in the history of christendom, as seen in the leaders.
AAT Were the Nicolaitanes a clerical element?
JT It is generally so understood. It is the clerical element coming in. So we have what was against the father in Pergamos: “Antipas my faithful witness was, who was slain among you”, Revelation 2: 13. He was evidently against the fatherhood that was then dominant in the christian profession. His name would indicate that. If it were not that God acted sovereignly when the clerical idea took root in christianity it would soon have become wholly apostate, but God acted sovereignly and gave the water in spite of it; hence the continuance of vitality in the saints, eventuating in the remnant, and the revival of assembly liberty and the service of God. If He has His people here. He will stand by them and [p. 151] develop in them what is in His mind, however few and feeble they may be. If men rebel against Him, He will show He is greater than they.
FSC Does this, occurring at the end of the forty years, make it more applicable to us at the present time?
JT We are drawing near to the land now and God is saying, It is grace that is needed; it is life; it is priesthood; you will never get into the land by the rod. You must get in by the priesthood. That is the point here; it was the priestly rod they were to use, and to speak to the rock. Let us speak to God and not fail in the recognition of the Holy Spirit. Have I direct access to God, which clericalism would deny me? The assembly requires this. There can be no true service God-ward without the Holy Spirit.
CAM It makes what we have very real at the present time. The end of the journey is near, and unbelief will keep us out of the land; this officialism also keeps us out.
EMcK Is Paul in Acts 19 the opposite of Moses and Aaron here, as to the certain disciples he found at Ephesus?
JT Just so. “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” Acts 19: 2. It is not “as” but “when ye had believed”. That is, the Spirit comes in after we believe. He had to announce the gospel to them, as the passage says, and then he laid his hands on them, and they received the Spirit. In Acts 8, it is said that Peter and John prayed for the Samaritans that they might receive the Spirit; that is how the Spirit comes. It is on the principle of speaking.
Numbers 20 brings out the idea of the collective ministry. God led Israel by Moses and Aaron and Miriam. It is a remarkable thing that Miriam has part in the ministry. Her death is recorded in the beginning of the chapter, and later Aaron dies; that is, the ministry is disappearing, and what is stressed is the priestly rod.
[p. 152] It is only by a living priesthood that we go into Canaan, for this brings in the power of the Spirit of God, which we shall see in the next scripture we read — chapter 21: “And from thence to Beer: that is the well of which Jehovah spoke to Moses, Assemble the people, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! sing unto it: Well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves” (verses 16 - 18). That is the thing. This is the manner of going into Canaan. It is the springing well; that is the power by which you go into Canaan; not by the rod of Moses; not by ministerial leadership or ministry, but by the Spirit of God.
‘And see! the Spirit’s power
Has ope’d the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o’er’. (74:5)
It is the Spirit of God that takes us into heaven now; that is, in the sense of present experience. Christ will come for us and take us there literally.
JTJr Eleazar takes part with Joshua as leading the people into Canaan. In some respects he took precedence of Joshua. Is that in line with your thought of the Spirit?
JT Yes; it is the priesthood in a purely spiritual sense. We have before us now how to get into the land. It is by the springing well. The lawgiver is still there, because the principle of rule must always be present. His name is not mentioned; it is the lawgiver. The singing is not to him, but to the well — the Spirit of God. It was said a moment ago that while in our present condition, we go into heaven by the Spirit, but that means in spiritual power. We will go into heaven physically by and by when the Lord comes for us.
AR Is that why Paul says, “I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the understanding”, 1 Corinthians 14: 15? That helps you get [p. 153] inside.
JT That is right; so that our hymn singing is very important in assembly service, as helping us in the service to move into the presence of God.
HH There is a note in connection with, “Rise up, well! sing unto it”. It is response.
JT The idea of alternate singing. Miriam represented that as a sort of ministerial side, but she dies; her voice is now silent. It is another voice now — sing to the Spirit. She sang to the Lord, she and the women of Israel, but she is dead, so it is not objective singing that is in mind here. It involves power in our souls. “I will sing with the spirit”. Not by light only, but also with the spirit and with the understanding; that is, in the power of what is known in us.
CAM Speaking of the Spirit in connection with our going to heaven, I was thinking about John in the last book of the Bible; he heard “as of a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here”, Revelation 4: 1. Immediately, he became in the Spirit. His body, of course, was here on earth, was it not?
JT Quite so. It shows how we enter into heavenly places now. We do not go into heaven bodily. Paul may have, of course. He says “I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows); such a one caught up to the third heaven”, 2 Corinthians 12: 2. We may assume that when John says, “I became in the Spirit”, it was an inward matter. The idea of singing is very important. We talk much about this because our meetings are often marred by the giving out of certain hymns at the wrong time. Many of our hymns are mixed so that it needs discrimination to use them aright. Therefore, the knowledge of the hymn book is important. I may give out a part of a certain hymn, whereas if I give out the entire hymn I may confuse the brethren.
FNW “Then Israel sang this song”, Numbers 21: [p. 154] 17.
JT This is the one — not another. The very words are given. “Rise up, well! sing unto it: well which princes digged”. Clearly the well is the objective in the words that are given — “... which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. The staves would mean experience. The hymnbook is pretty much that. There is ability, of course, in the authors, but experience as well. The book of the Psalms is an experimental working out of the truth, the Pentateuch having a prominent place. We get confirmation of the Pentateuch in the Psalms.
CAM Singing to the well as an objective would not suggest exactly singing to the Spirit, would it?
J.T.
‘Praises for the Holy Ghost,
Sent from heav’n at Pentecost;
’Tis through Him that now we live’. (191:3)
You feel you cannot say, No, to that. And yet you would seek to be governed by scriptural example. This, however, is sparing. At the same time Scripture is most definite as to the Spirit’s equality in the Godhead, and this warrants His being honoured as the Father and the Son are; but, as remarked, we should be governed by the teaching of Scripture and the examples it affords. In Hebrews 10 we read of those who have insulted the Spirit of grace. He has taken a low place in grace to maintain the truth of the divine economy, and we must be extremely careful not to trench on His deity.
HH The recognition of that in our meetings is most important.
AR Giving out a hymn should be done in a priestly way. It says here that the princes digged the well and the nobles of the people hollowed it out. That is, it is princely people making room for the Spirit of God.
JT That is right. Many of our hymns were written before our time, and we come into the gain of them. “At the word of the lawgiver” would mean that I recognise the will of God in the thing. I am to be always [p. 155] governed by Him. The staves would probably allude to the princes’ experience: “which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. The book of Exodus stresses the idea of a staff. Jehovah says to Moses, “What is that in thy hand? And he said, A staff”, Exodus 4: 2. That is the point. What experience have you had so far? God says, I can use that, if it is experience with Me; and that is what Moses’ rod represented; he had experience with God; this is basic as to authority — in Moses’ case he was divinely clothed with authority. God appeared to him in the bush, but Moses asserting that the people would not hear him, God inquired, “What is that in thy hand?” Moses answered, “A staff”. God could use that. Later it is called the staff of God. It thus became the symbol of divine authority committed to Moses.
Ques When David delivered the psalm to be sung through Asaph and his brethren, he made a selection from several psalms, making them one (1 Chronicles 16: 7 - 36). Is that the way we should operate?
JT It is a divinely given example for us in the use of hymns. Many of our hymns are mixed and they cannot always be rightly sung throughout in the service of God. In such a case only the portion suited to the moment should be announced. Disregard of this often causes confusion.
ABP Do the addresses to the seven churches indicate it is the mind of heaven there should be equal response to the Spirit’s voice all down the church’s history?
JT I think so. The Spirit is referred to in each address; it is what He says to the assemblies. He is there and active all the time. Let us have an ear to hear what He says.
Now, Israel is going out of the wilderness in Numbers 21: 19; the Spirit typically having been responded to: “And from the wilderness they went to [p. 156] Mattanah; and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth; and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the fields of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks over the surface of the waste”. That is, there is definite movement in the right direction. That is what God is calling to our attention now as to Christ and the assembly; the assembly is viewed in the wilderness, and we are to go on until we move out of it into heavenly places.
RWS There are two allusions in the Song of Songs to coming out of the wilderness. Would they fit in?
JT Yes; in chapters 3 and 8.
AR In Matthew and Mark, it is said that after they had sung a hymn they went out to the mount of Olives.
JT Jerusalem, at that time, was indeed a wilderness; everything was against Christ. Going to the mount of Olives refers to the spiritual and heavenly side of the service of God now.