WELLS AND SPRINGS (9)
[p. 157] WELLS AND SPRINGS (9)
Psalm 84: 5 - 7; Psalm 114: 8; Deuteronomy 6: 10, 11; Deuteronomy 8: 7 - 10
JT The assembly in the wilderness has engaged us during the recent readings. It has been pointed out that the ministry of the assemblies thus viewed, typified in Zipporah, contemplates certain fleshly features that have to be owned, that have marked its history, and still mark it. What will come before us in these four scriptures this evening, will give an opportunity to speak of the other side, namely, the gain of the wilderness experience. The two scriptures from the Psalms are significant as depicting certain experiences in the wilderness, not necessarily the actual wilderness of Sinai, but what has this character; and for the christian, the wilderness always exists. The two in Deuteronomy will show how that in the wilderness, we anticipate the land of promise; that is, heaven as presently realised, where all is of God. Wells have not to be digged there, as in the wilderness. There is plenty of water gushing forth without any toil on our part. These two scriptures, therefore, will help us as to the service of God in the assembly, where we reach a point where all is of God. We are impressed with the bounty of God apart from the product of our own exercises.
Psalm 84 points to what accrued in the wilderness experience; that is, those who passed through the valley of Baca. They make it a well-spring; they make it that. Instead of being overwhelmed by the pressure of the wilderness, they gain in experience, being able to overcome through the well-spring. They are described: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee — they, in whose heart are the highways. Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a well-spring; yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings. They go from strength to strength: each one will appear before God in Zion”, Psalm 84: [p. 158] 5 - 7.
JTJr The title of the psalm is helpful too, is it not? “To the chief Musician. Upon the Gittith”. The note refers to Psalm 8, and says, ‘A musical instrument’. The word is feminine as Psalm 81 and Psalm 84; from a root meaning vat or press. Evidently it suggests pressure.
JT And it is “Of the sons of Korah”, which would allude to the sovereign mercy of God.
ANW The meaning of Baca is weeping.
JT That is very applicable today; there is so much cause for weeping and, indeed, so much weeping. It is not only in the world but among the people of God, too. We have joy, but we have also the sorrow, especially in disrupted families and bereaved persons, and also in some of the young people, and others, too, turning away from the truth. The psalm, therefore, is an encouragement, because it shows that faith, by the Spirit, overcomes.
ABP The altars would appear to be in disuse, if the sparrow had found them as a place for her house.
JT The allusion would be to what is available there, the Lord using the word sparrow as denoting what is apparently insignificant, but yet it does not fall without God. “The sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she layeth her young, thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God” (verse 3). The early verses would point to what is available to outwardly small things. “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found a house” (verses 1 - 3). I thought it would show how liberal the house is in its receptiveness, and what it avails for such as might be represented in the sparrow and the swallow. In this sense the birds would be typical. They avail themselves of what affords them shelter. The swallow can lay her young on the altars of God. Typically, these creatures represent those who [p. 159] do not need to be great outwardly, in order to have a share in the house of God.
RWS Does this psalm represent the secret, victorious side, collateral with the ugly features that are public?
JT That is what I thought. We have enlarged on the ugly features of the assembly in the wilderness, but that is only one side of the picture. We saw that in Corinthians, for instance, but even Corinth itself is not without evidence of the delightful side of the truth. The assembly is viewed as the Christ in Corinthians — the anointed vessel of God, typified in Exodus 40. Abstractly, there is no disparity there. Then, it also says that the saints at Corinth were temple of God, as indwelt by the Holy Spirit. There are many other such expressions in both epistles, but when we come to Ephesians, we have the full thought. We come into the power and gain of the Spirit as in this psalm, and make the wilderness a well-spring. “Yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings” (verse 6). So that the wilderness, according to these two psalms, affords distinct and permanent gain for us, adverse though it be; and that, of course, enhances the assembly in its service.
Psalm 114 speaks about what Israel was when she came out of Egypt: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah was his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw it and fled, the Jordan turned back; the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams? ye hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters”. Faith, in the wilderness; would see these things and understand. They happened in that part of the history when Israel went out of Egypt. So that it was not all sorrow; it was not all [p. 160] complaining. Faith could see more than that, and that is the thing for us now to see, whatever there is of God, small though things be, and sorrowful, too. The book of Ezekiel shows that in one sense it was only sin all the way through, beginning with Egypt, until they entered the land, and also in the land; but then there was another side, and these psalms show that. Joshua and others, who saw things spiritually, grow in the truth all the way through. So that Caleb is as able at the end of that journey, as he was at the beginning.
AR From Psalm 84 it would appear as if the service of God goes on uninterruptedly. It says in verse 4, “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be constantly praising thee. Selah”. In spite of the valley of Baca and the sorrow, the service of God goes on.
JT That is very beautiful. “In whose heart are the highways” (verse 5). That is, you apprehend the thing, by faith, in the eyes of the heart. The highways are in the heart. You will not turn aside in the wilderness. You will not fall there. You go right through.
ANW Is that why the first part of that verse is in the singular, challenging each one of us individually? “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee”.
JT I think that is the way the experience is presented, whatever anyone of us may be. You may not be a Caleb, or a Joshua. Jehovah, at Sinai, began by saying, “... showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me”, Exodus 20: 6. It is not the thousands that ought to love Him, but those who do; so that there must have been many in Israel in whose hearts were the highways.
AR Thus, in spite of the pressure that is going on all over the world, it must be very pleasurable to heaven to take account of the week-ends in which the service of God goes on in many places. Through grace we have part in it.
JT That is a great matter. God begins the wilderness journey with the thousands of those who love Him, and if a man of faith heard that, he would say, ‘I must [p. 161] find those thousands. He says there are thousands of those who love Him, and He shows mercy to them. I would like to find them out’. No doubt there were many who did find them, those who loved Him in the camps of Israel, in the booths; for they dwelt in booths as they started. They were near each other in the exchange of love — at least, typically. That is the position today; there are those who take sides with the truth, because they love God. “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me”, John 14: 21. There were the Levites who stood with Moses at the time of the golden calf. They took sides with the truth. Every man slew his brother. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, 2 Timothy 2: 19. That corresponds with what we have been referring to.
FNW The apostle Paul says, “But if any one love God, he is known of him”, 1 Corinthians 8: 3.
JT Yes; “he is known of him”. God has His own way of showing that He knows. There are relatively few; but still, there are thousands, and He knows them and would recognise each one. God recognises His lovers. The highways to Zion, for us, involve the wilderness. There were no roads in the wilderness. The tabernacle and the pillar of fire marked the way.
‘Is the wilderness before thee,
Desert lands where drought abides?
Heavenly springs shall there restore thee,
Fresh from God’s exhaustless tides.
Light divine surrounds thy going,
God Himself shall mark thy way;
Secret blessings, richly flowing,
Lead to everlasting day’. (76:2)
Those lines are beautiful as marking all this; how the way is made for us by the light of God in the tabernacle. Each one was to keep his eye on the tent of meeting; as it moved, he moved. Thus the way was [p. 162] made, but the first movement would be in the heart. “This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isaiah 30: 21. So in the Acts, “the way” is, in a sense, a synonym of christianity; it is the way out of the world into God’s world.
FHL Would Isaiah 35 develop it a little? “And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose” (verse 1).
JT The Scriptures are very full of this, affording a way out of the world; through the world as a wilderness, but out of it into Canaan; the heart is sustained by the well-spring and the rain that fills the pools. The way was marked by the movement of the cloud on the tabernacle. But what comes out is that while the cloud led the people up to the period mentioned in Numbers 21, then you have the well. The princes digged the well. From that point on, it is a question of the Holy Spirit; the way is by the Spirit. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14.
GVD The sons of Korah had been through the experience of being brought low and got the gain of it.
JT I think that is what is meant. The author is not given. It is in relation to the sons of Korah, or for them, but it is definitely called a psalm, meaning an experience that some one had. You want to get in touch with the man who has experience in the ways of God, and that is what this psalm means.
WB-w The well springs up. It is a well-spring, and the early rain covers the earth with blessing. Does that refer to the ministry?
JT The rain is the blessing of heaven, really. The spring is the Spirit in the believer working out through his affections. So that in spite of the pressure there is joyousness and buoyancy. It is what springs up in the inwards. David in Psalm 103 calls upon all that is within him to praise Jehovah; he taxes his affections to praise God.
WB-w How does the early rain fit in with that?
JT It would be ministry; there was the early and the latter rain. It refers to the seasons; what, as given [p. 163] suitably, promotes growth. The early rain was at the time of sowing; that is, at the beginning of sowing the rains would cause refreshment to the soil.
AAT The assembly at Smyrna (Revelation 2), went through much pressure. The word to it is, “I know thy tribulation and thy poverty; but thou art rich; and the railing of those who say that they themselves are Jews, and are not, but a synagogue of Satan. Fear nothing of what thou art about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days” (verses 9, 10). The valley of Baca.
JT Yes; the Lord was pointing out how long it would be; that Satan can go just so far. There would be ten days of suffering. The comfort is that it can only go so far. The devil has not a free hand. Many of them came into the valley of Baca and made it a well-spring. In the history of the assembly we have many illustrations of this very thing. How glorious were the real martyrs, in their testimony and in their enjoyment too!
WFK Would this well-spring be special ministry?
JT It would be rather what you make it yourself. They make it; that is, the weeping gives place to joy. Our sorrow is turned into joy. The Lord told the disciples that would happen. “Your grief shall be turned to joy”, John 16: 20. “In the world ye have tribulation; but be of good courage: I have overcome the world” (verse 33).
AR Perhaps one of the best examples is in Acts 16. It was certainly the valley of weeping for Paul and Silas, but they were praising and blessing God.
JT The rain is additional. The well-spring is what you call upon in yourself. John 4 points to that, springing up into eternal life; but then there is an additional thing in ministry that comes to us, and you sit down and enjoy it. It carries blessing with it; that is, the [p. 164] seed sown develops and grows through it. God’s testing discipline goes on in the wilderness through the experience there; the hard experiences that we have. And as you accept it, according to Hebrews 12, enduring chastening, there is a good result — partakers of God’s holiness. The believer is tested by the experiences of the wilderness, and you will find that you overcome by what is within — the springing up of the well — and then the rain is objective ministry that comes to you. You sit down and enjoy it. It brings blessing, for it is the early rain, which affects the sowing. Therefore, you will have a harvest. “Have patience, therefore, brethren, till the coming of the Lord. Behold, the labourer awaits the precious fruit of the earth, having patience for it until it receive the early and the latter rain”, James 5: 7.
ABP Going to the meeting at night and getting refreshed is not all. There would be more for God if there were overcoming in the trying circumstances of the day. Then the meeting at night would be like the rain.
JT Just so. Many of us know the care and pressure in the households, and elsewhere, but it is a matter of making it a well-spring. It is the Spirit within. What you receive in the assembly is additional. The latter rain would allude to what would be necessary as the growing time continues. It is not any less in value than the early rain.
WFK It would be like Romans 7 and 8; the eighth chapter being the operation of the Spirit.
JT That is how it works out. Romans 5 is the acceptance of wilderness conditions. “Knowing that tribulation works endurance; and endurance, experience; and experience, hope; and hope does not make ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (verses 3 - 5). That is the secret of the well-spring. Chapter 8 brings out the well-spring because it definitely [p. 165] treats of the Spirit within us, and what it issues forth in.
AAT Do you connect verse 7 with the service of God?
JT “They go from strength to strength; each one will appear before God in Zion”. Strength to strength here is something like glory to glory in 2 Corinthians 3: 18. The next thing is appearing before God in Zion. That is, we do not fail to be at the meetings. We do not stop short of the full thought of God to appear before Him. The way into the holiest is open to us, so that, “Let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water”, Hebrews 10: 22. We appear before God in Zion. He loves Zion.
Romans 7 is what goes on inside the believer in view of the Spirit, so that He may have scope. Chapter 6 is the wilderness, where you are baptised. Baptism brings you into the wilderness publicly, preparatory to the experiences that you have to go through there. Chapter 7 is to develop and to clarify the inwards. Chapter 5 states that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”. Well then, make room for Him there. The heart is one organ. Some of us were saying lately of the two on the way to Emmaus, that their heart burned, but their other organs did not react to that. They did not go back to Jerusalem because their heart burned. That was only one organ. Romans 7 shows how all the organs are brought into action. Things are cleared away by self-judgment so that there is deliverance. That makes way for chapter 8 where you get the full result of the Spirit operating in the believer.
AR How would you work out this psalm? It says, “Jehovah, God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah. Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed” (verses 8, 9). Then the psalmist says, “Jehovah Elohim is a sun and shield: Jehovah will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (verse 11). The use of divine names here is remarkable.
JT It is a wonderful psalm, one of the most remarkable of them. Finally it says, “Jehovah of hosts, blessed is the man that confideth in thee!” (verse 12). That is the finish; the blessedness of the man that confides in Jehovah. The psalm depicts that blessedness. It is well worth taking to heart, and being one of those men.
WB-w One of the characteristic features of this third book of Psalms is the sanctuary. Does that fit here?
JT It does. Asaph is the main writer in the book; most of these psalms are his. Who is he? He is a leading singer. He is a man to follow. He was distressed, according to Psalm 73, but he says, “Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I their end” (verse 17). All now is clear to him. Hence these psalms are so full of encouragement to the believer. David, in Psalm 72, contemplates Solomon in dominance. “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended” (verse 20). All is well above. Everything is secured in Christ; everything of God is yea and amen in Him. Our own state of soul is the difficulty. Asaph is troubled with his inward difficulties, but he gets them clarified when he enters into the sanctuaries of God.
WB-w Psalm 72 ends the second book, and Psalm 73 begins with the sanctuaries. Is that the thought?
JT That is right. The third book is mainly Asaph’s book and he gives a good lead, because he shows how you get things clear by entering the sanctuaries of God.
JTJr Paul was greatly pressed also. He speaks about combats without and fears within, and yet he says that when Titus came he had great joy. The tide was turned; Titus came from Corinth where he had [p. 167] been greatly refreshed through what he found there. Is that not the way things work? Localities are judging themselves and thus the position is changed and affords refreshment.
JT Exactly. Those who go about seeking to serve the saints have opportunity to see what goes on and are refreshed. They carry tidings back and spread it abroad so that others are refreshed. That is how the work is going on; the joy and the sorrow are mingled. Let us not fail to make the most of the joy!
WB-w Does Psalm 113 suggest power?
JT That is the point. First, what Israel was to God. “Judah was his sanctuary” (verse 2). I suppose Judah would represent the full thought of the service of God in David — David and Solomon are outstanding in the service of God, and that is how the matter stood; although it was not in Judah at first, it was in Levi. It was Moses and Aaron, originally, but ultimately it was David and Solomon. That is the highest part of God’s service. It would seem that was in view. “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, the place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling, the Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”, Exodus 15: 17. All that runs on to David. That is how the matter stood; great power marked Israel from this standpoint. The psalm depicts this, ending with God: “Who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters”, Psalm 114: 8. It is the power of God.
WB-w I was wondering why he ends up with the rock. He speaks of power at the Red Sea, power at the Jordan, and then he comes back to this rock.
JT I suppose Exodus 17 is in mind. The allusion here is more to the hardness of it — the flint. In spite of that. God turned it into a fountain of waters. That is what God can do for us.
ABP Does not that verse suggest the complete journey? The sea was at the beginning and the Jordan [p. 168] at the end; also the rock is mentioned twice; at the beginning and at the end of the journey.
JT That is the idea, I think. It is really wilderness experience; although the psalm would be written in a later day, he is alluding to the wilderness experiences. It is what anyone who had faith could have entered into during the wilderness experience. It is to stimulate us by being reminded of what others realised in the wilderness. Why should I not realise it, too? The last verse would show that God can overcome the hardness: “Who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters”; that is, He changed the very hardness, making it yield refreshment.
ANW In Psalm 84, it is what we should do. “They make it a well-spring”. In this psalm it is the power of God turning the rock into the means of refreshment.
Ques What is the suggestion in the statement that Israel is His dominion and Judah is His sanctuary?
JT The idea of the sanctuary is in Judah. The dominion was in Israel. It contemplates an undivided Israel. Division took place later. This is the full thought of God; it is nothing less than Israel, and the sanctuary in Judah. I would take it to represent David and Solomon. They had the sanctuary in Judah, but Israel was the dominion. The full divine thought was there. Dominion alludes to kingship.
WB-w There were two rocks in the wilderness, one at the beginning and one at the end. Does this refer to the first rock?
JT There are two things to look at; one is that the Rock was Christ who followed them. From that point of view, the two ideas merge; it is one Christ, in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 — the Rock which followed them. But here the allusion is rather to the hardness of that from which God caused the water to flow.
Ques Is the word turning important — the way God turns things for us? Sometimes things are very difficult, and they are just turned the opposite way.
JT God “turned the rock”; it is not simply that there were springs in the wilderness, but the thing itself is turned; the hardness is turned into refreshment. The flint, which is an extremely hard substance, was turned into a fountain of water. That is a very great comfort in hard circumstances. Every one of us must have them, but God is ready to change them for us.
Let us now look at the passage in Deuteronomy. It is still the ministry of Moses in the wilderness, but at the end of it. He is talking in the wilderness about what is in the land. He is not going in, but he knows what is there. So it is what we have anticipatively in the service of God; the encouragement as to what we are coming into. “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”, 1 Corinthians 2: 9, 10. That is in the wilderness epistle, but it is there to encourage us as to what is beyond. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us”, Romans 8: 18. We should have great encouragement in these verses in Deuteronomy 6. Moses is telling Israel that God “bringeth thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee: great and good cities which thou buildedst not, and houses full of everything good which thou filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and oliveyards which thou plantedst not, and thou shalt have eaten and shalt be full” (verses 10, 11). It is not now that the princes digged the well in the wilderness. That refers to self-judgment in us, under authority; but here it is what we find; what is in the land. Everything is provided. It is our destiny; and it is mentioned here to encourage us not to stop short of going across the Jordan into the land. Moses is telling them what is there. God honoured him by showing him [p. 170] the land; he did not enter it, but he told Israel about it, according to this book.
ABP Did J.N.D. touch on this in the hymn, ‘By the Spirit all pervading’ (14:5), and also when he wrote,
And see! the Spirits power
Has ope’d the heavenly door,
Has brought us to that favoured hour
When toil shall all be o’er. (74:5)
JT Quite so. His hymns are full of these great thoughts. We have light brought back to us as to it, and it is to encourage us to go in — not to stop short of going in. Moses said to his father-in-law, “Come with us, and we will do thee good; for Jehovah has spoken good concerning Israel”, Numbers 10: 29. The whole book of Deuteronomy stresses the good, showing the great and glorious things God is bringing us into. Let us go on and not stop short! Let us not fall in the wilderness! Thus we shall answer to what the assembly is in the wilderness, according to God.
Ques Paul is ahead of Moses, is he not, in the outshining of the truth? He went up as far as the third heaven. He got into it himself; he was in the land.
JT That is right. He could speak of what he heard there. He says that he was “caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter”, 2 Corinthians 12: 4.
AR Perhaps the book of Hebrews would correspond with it. The Hebrew saints were inclined to be earthly-minded, and Paul says a great deal about Christ in heaven, encouraging the brethren to go in.
JT That is the thing. “Let us also therefore ... run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking steadfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”, Hebrews 12: 1, 2.
ANW Can we be rightly in the wilderness, without this view before [p. 171] us?
JT We shall not be there buoyantly. We shall not be saying, ‘Come with us and we will do thee good, for God has spoken good concerning Israel’.
DP Would Moses on the mount of transfiguration come into the full gain of the land?
JT We may say he was in the land. He was in the land talking with Jesus; he and Elias. Still, these great men represent the testimony there. They do not share the full place of the assembly.
AAT Do these verses anticipate the land, and connect with the service of God?
JT Yes. Typically, Moses is telling us of what is there. Anyone who has been there in any measure can speak of the place, according to that measure. No one of us can assume to have gone up like Paul, but still there is something that can be said, as already quoted from 74:1. That is something you may understand, and if you have tasted it you can tell others about it. It is a wholly spiritual matter. We encourage one another by what we have experienced, and that is what the Psalms largely signify; telling others about our experiences.
AAT You are speaking of individual experience. Is this not an assembly position?
JT It is; but each one of us, according to the work of God in himself, may reach into this. We are not all of the same stature. A person who is just converted can say very little, experimentally; whereas a man who has been on the way for years has experienced things, and the psalms indicate that he can tell you something about them; and it is to encourage you to go on to the same things, because it is open to you. The twelve spies went up to search out the land, and they brought back tidings of it, and that is the idea; you can bring back tidings of what is there if you have enjoyed anything of it.
Ques How do you regard the resources of chapter 6 — “oliveyards which thou plantedst not”, and so [p. 172] on?
JT The viewpoint is rather what God does. The things were all there before them, as they went in. They are typical of what God has for us. He says, in principle, You did not build them — “Good cities which thou buildedst not, and houses full of everything good which thou filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and oliveyards which thou plantedst not”. Literally, men did it, but that is not the point. It is what the believer finds. It is what the pilgrim here finds when he gets into the land of promise. God has it all for him. So that our chapter says, “For Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of water-brooks, of springs, and of deep waters, that gush forth in the valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness”, Deuteronomy 8: 7 - 9. That is what you find in the land. This is a much fuller statement than that in chapter 6, especially as to water; and, of course, this is our subject. It is a “land of water-brooks, of springs, and of deep waters, that gush forth in the valleys and hills”. It is most expressive of what is in the land for us.
DP Is this the ministry of the new covenant?
JT This is not the new covenant. It is the land of promise, of which God had spoken to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is what is in mind here, as you will observe in chapter 6: “God bringeth thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee” (verse 10). It is a question of the land of promise which was spoken of before there was any covenant with Israel at all. It was a promise to Abraham, and now Israel is going into it. The twelve spies went up and saw these things, and hid them in their hearts; at least Joshua and Caleb did; and now they are going into them. Caleb and Joshua correspond to the Holy Spirit, of whom the Lord says, “The Spirit of truth who goes forth from with the Father, he shall bear witness concerning me”, John 15: 26, and, “He will announce to you what is coming” (chapter 16: 13). He would tell them of heavenly things. The apostles could tell of the path of Jesus here below because they had been with Him, but the Holy Spirit brings out tidings of the heavenly land, and that is the ministry of Paul, the heavenly side of the truth. That is what Moses is speaking about here. It imparts a heavenly character to the saints as of the assembly, in view of our translation to heaven.
AR When Paul said to the Corinthians, in his wilderness epistle, “I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago”, it would be to stimulate them to go in, would it not?
JT It is like the testimony of the twelve spies. Paul was there and could tell them what was there. No doubt there was much more than was written about that visit by Paul to heaven. No doubt there were things of which he would have spoken in detail to encourage the saints to go in for the heavenly side of the truth.
Ques Would you link on the thought of the water-brooks with the epistle to the Ephesians?
JT Yes; it is what is gushing forth. Psalm 104 as an analogy helps. It refers to the earth, but it is what God did creatively. “He sendeth the springs into the valleys: they run among the mountains” (verse 10). The heavenly land also comes from the hand of God for the saints. Think of the wonderfulness of it — that “eye hath not seen nor ear heard!” Of course, we have been saying that, typically, the spies brought tidings of it down; but it is really the Holy Spirit that brings it down; no natural eye has seen it. The Holy Spirit reveals it to us, for He “searches ... the depths of God”. As we make room for Him, He will bring heavenly things to us so that we may go in for them.
RWS Does the contemplation and enjoyment of this furnish material in the heart for the service of God?
JT [p. 174] Clearly; you become a heavenly man. You take part in it in heavenly power. That is the idea in Ephesians; “And has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (chapter 2: 6). The house of God down here is a counterpart of that. “Ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God” (verse 19). That involves the heavenly part of the service of God; we come into what is entirely of God, what He has prepared for us; what we enter into by the Spirit’s power.
Rem In Hebrews, Christ is said to be bringing many sons to glory. Here it is “Jehovah thy God bringeth thee” (verse 7). It is what God has in His mind for us.
JT Quite so. He brings us there. In the wilderness, it is, “I have brought you to myself”. That was at Mount Horeb; but this is the inheritance in the place “that thy” (Jehovah’s) “hands have prepared”. That is the idea. Moses would say that with great feeling.
Ques What would the stones of iron suggest?
JT Richness; what is so much spoken of today; resources, such as oil, rubber, iron, and everything that man needs, in abundance. That is what you get in certain places on earth, but heaven yields everything that divine love can devise for its objects, and that is what we are to come into. The Holy Spirit is the Earnest of this inheritance, so we have it already, in this sense. Any yield to God is the result of the saints entering into these things. Our service in the assembly requires that we should enter on the heavenly side, so that we should be strong enough to take part in the whole service of God — “In order that he may give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be fully able [p. 175] to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”, Ephesians 3: 16 - 19.