WELLS AND SPRINGS (7)
[p. 120] WELLS AND SPRINGS (7)
Exodus 2: 15 - 22; Exodus 15: 27; Exodus 17: 1 - 7
JT It is thought that we should go on to Moses at this time in pursuing our subject. Moses typifies Christ in relation to the ministry; that is, the truth. There are other features, of course, such as mediatorship and lordship seen in Moses; but in general, it is the ministry, and the assembly seen in type in Zipporah. She is a type of “the assembly in the wilderness”, and hence we have some rather ugly features brought out. She is typical of Christ’s bride, as are the others that we have considered; that is, Eve, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, and Asnath. God would allow the ugly features, that is, the features of the flesh, that break out in a scene of contrariety, to come into evidence. We have two persons representing the assembly in the wilderness; the first is Zipporah, in this chapter, and then the Cushite woman in Numbers 12. She may come in for consideration later, with several features that are found in Numbers and Deuteronomy. God willing, but our enquiry now will be confined to Exodus. The position is very clearly stated in the simple fact that Moses fled from before Pharaoh and went and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat by the well. This passage really governs the whole subject, for it is a question of how Christ served; and then of those who minister, recognising the Spirit in Its calm, balancing effect; that is, as leading to contentment and quietness until God makes a way for the service.
JHE Prior to this Moses acted in the flesh in seeking to kill the Egyptian; now he is taking refuge in the Spirit?
JT He had learned something from his violence and in acting before the time, not in the power of the Spirit, but in his own power, so that he fled from Pharaoh; the effect of his violence had driven him out [p. 121] of Egypt; but still, it is under God, and Pharaoh is viewed as the enemy. In this section Pharaoh is said to have died. This made way for Moses to return. God makes way for us, according to this passage; so we have to be quietened and balanced, to wait for God and not force ourselves in any service we attempt. Moses had forced himself, but now he has learned not to do so.
Rem A right motive alone is not enough in the service of God.
JT God has pleasure in those who are subject to Christ; who await their opportunities, and in the meanwhile are content in adverse circumstances. Moses certainly was in very different circumstances from those in which he had been. It says, “And Moses consented to remain with the man” as if the way was opened up for him to lodge there; and then he obtained a wife without his seeking. It is all ordered on every side. He is not seeking anything; it is what comes to him, and he accepts these circumstances. It was not his ordinary circumstances. He is content with the wife that is given to him. It is the idea of subjection, which the Spirit of God enables us to maintain in quietness. A great deal of soul history preceded his lowly attitude in Midian.
AR He was sitting by the well. Do you look at the Holy Spirit in this light as an Object of contemplation?
JT He is viewed objectively, although He has to be regarded subjectively, eventually, according to Romans 8, but then, He is to be viewed objectively, that is, as expressed in others. Moses is saying here, in effect, This is for me; this is to be my power henceforth; and that governs the whole chapter.
HGH Moses puts himself in a position where he could receive this refreshment. Would the Holy Spirit come in, in that way, as we are found in conditions where He is available?
[p. 122] JT Yes; in this sense a sitting posture is good. It is not simply a well, but the well. There is only one Spirit: “There is one body and one Spirit”, Ephesians 4: 4.
ABP Do you have in mind that the well suggests the Spirit personally, or the measure in which He can be appropriated by us, or is effectual in us?
JT He is there. Moses is sitting by the well, vowing, in effect, that he is to be governed by this power. A well, ordinarily, is a spring of water. Moses would appropriate it, of course, and the facts of the chapter show that he had done so, typically, and therefore he is quiet; he is balanced, and receives what comes to him under God’s hand — not seeking out things for himself, but accepting what comes to him. He remains in Midian a long time — forty years — in that contented state, consenting, we are told, to stay with the man; with the man. I think this is intended to convey the idea of worth in Jethro. The sequel confirms this.
ABP Does contentment come into the soul as we contemplate the fact that this divine Person, the Holy Spirit, has been pleased to take a place in service, to be available to men in this way?
JT Yes; that marked the Lord’s path and, relatively, marks every true servants path — to be content. Paul says, “as to me I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself”, Philippians 4: 11.
AAT His previous training in Egypt did not help him to be content.
JT It certainly would be a test to him to eliminate it, because he could not bring it into these circumstances. He would be a rough-cornered man if he were to bring his Egyptian experiences into these circumstances of Midian. He would not be a shepherding man at all. He would be complaining; but he is not complaining; typically, he has come to the truth of [p. 123] the Holy Spirit.
ANW Does the comment in Hebrews 11 cover this matter? It says, “for he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible” (verse 27).
JT Yes; God is discerned in his path, and that enters into the facts as to the well. It is in the Spirit that God is with us.
AR Would the ten days from the Lord’s ascension until the Holy Spirit came down, be like this in some sense? They had to wait until they were clothed with power from on high.
JT As in that attitude they were not idling; they were in the upper room, suitably occupied; they gave themselves with one accord to continual prayer, showing that they were equal to the incoming of the Spirit. Moses sitting down here signifies intelligent restfulness in the position reached, by the well. The next thing is action; the need for action is forced on him. He is not seeking a quarrel; he is not seeking work; need existed, and he would help. The passage says, “And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs, to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away” (verses 16, 17). It was a worse state of things than in Syria, where there was no violence; but still the water was denied to the flocks by a stone at the well’s mouth there. Here, they had the water, but the shepherds came and drove them away; this is thus a serious situation. What will he do now? Will he kill one or more of these shepherds as he killed the Egyptian? It does not say he did anything to them, but he rose and helped the daughters of Jethro, and watered their flock. He is occupied, definitely, in helping others, evidently avoiding to attack the violent people. He is on positive lines; you can do things successfully, and yet avoid a quarrel.
JTJr The enemy would get us off the positive line and occupy us with [p. 124] strife.
JT No doubt Satan would seek to draw Moses into strife here, but clearly he had learned his lesson from his previous experience, when he slew a man. Now the enemy is testing Moses out. What will he do with these shepherds? He is going on positively with the Spirit of God. So the Scriptures urge meekness, as seen in the Lord Jesus: “I am meek and lowly in heart”, Matthew 11: 29.
WR Is this meekness of Moses the fruit of the Spirit?
JT Yes; there are nine mentioned in Galatians 5. He is marked by peace; he is a son of peace now; he is not a son of quarrel.
CAM It is remarkable that the feminine thought comes in, in connection with the flock at once.
JT That is the point; we are speaking of Christ and the assembly in relation to wells, springs or running water, and this is an excellent feature of our subject.
ANW If a young brother were to appeal his case before the military, for example, it would not be to force it, but to avail himself of the open door that God has provided through the government.
JT Quite so; and if the way is not recognised by those with whom we have to do at first, it is there, nevertheless, and you would do everything to call attention to it as of God. But then we must also remember the word, “Let your gentleness be known of all men”, Philippians 4: 5.
APT Does this quietness of spirit, and Moses getting a wife, link on with the great need of patience in assembly matters in the wilderness?
JT Yes; the worst side of all of us comes out in the wilderness, because it is a scene of contrariety. God says of Israel, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness”, Hosea 2: 14, as if attraction is necessary; we have to be drawn into it. The circumstances are contrary, but God says, “she shall sing there”; that [p. 125] means she is to be superior to wilderness conditions. You can sing in the midst of contrariety.
ABP Does the fact that Moses was content with the wife that was given him, typify Christ in relation to the assembly? He has continued with her in spite of the awful public conditions.
JT That is the fact. “For a time of about forty years he nursed them in the desert”, Acts 13: 18; or as the Authorised Version reads, “suffered he their manners in the wilderness”. He bears with us, and we must learn to bear with one another. We are to reflect the Spirit of Christ there. It was very contrary in the wilderness, especially the western edge of it, after they left Horeb. It was a terrible desert. It is spoken of in that way in Deuteronomy: “that great and terrible wilderness”; as if God brings us into that to test us; and unless we maintain rigid self-judgment, we may be certain that the ugly side will come out. Moses learns, in this chapter, how to be quiet. When the time comes for the wilderness, then we have a variety of ministry, as we shall see in chapter 15 — twelve wells of water; not one well but twelve; that is, the idea is extended to the apostles or others, so the furnishing is abundant. Here, the ugliness of the flesh is seen at once in Zipporah; she contended with her husband as to the circumcision. The ministry in the epistles to the Corinthians represents what is before us. The Lord said to Paul in the city of Corinth, “Fear not, but speak and be not silent; because I am with thee, and no one shall set upon thee to injure thee”, Acts 18: 9, 10. The Lord knew the situation the apostle had to deal with. The “much people” He had in Corinth must be delivered out of what was in character Egypt. Corinth was a terribly corrupt city, but the Lord had much people there, and Paul was to find them out and deliver them; and so he says, “I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2: 2. He says, further, “... that the surpassingness [p. 126] of the power may be of God, and not from us”, 2 Corinthians 4: 7; that is, he relied on the Spirit of God. He introduced the Spirit at once in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 2). This involved circumcision, which Zipporah did not like for her son. Corinth is the wilderness position, and the well governs it. It is a contrary situation, and we are to go through it together. We must therefore take note of the examples of the working of the flesh in the types. We have been speaking of Zipporah and there are many other examples. We cannot but recall what has happened in the last one hundred years. Almost immediately after the Spirit began to work, division took place. Let us not forget the ugliness of it. We must face that and see how we may now avoid a repetition of it, or of what happened later, and go through to the end of the wilderness, holding fast the truth.
WR Does the Lord exemplify that in Matthew 4? He “was carried up into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil” (verse 1).
JT Yes. Luke connects specially with our subject. He says, “Jesus ... was led by the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, tempted of the devil”, Luke 4: 1. He was led in the wilderness; not into, but in; He went through the thing, by the Spirit. That is the point. Mark says, “The Spirit drives him out into the wilderness”, Mark 1: 12.
CAM The way the Corinthians treated the apostle was part of their bad manners. Is this suggestion seen in verse 20 of our chapter, in that Jethro’s daughters did not really appreciate Moses?
JT Certainly some at Corinth did not care for Paul. They said that his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible. People who talk like that about those whom the Lord is using are dangerous.
FNW The appropriation of Jesus Christ crucified would produce this state of [p. 127] contentment.
JT Thus you are not ministering to yourself; you are not overmuch concerned about your present circumstances. You must, of course, make a living for yourself and family, but to improve one’s circumstances according to man is not the christian’s thought; that is the point that enters into chapter 2. Moses was accepting circumstances very inferior to what he had been accustomed, and he was content in them. There is a danger in one who serves the Lord, capitalising what he has, including the service; but that will never add to spiritual power. A better house, or better car, or anything like that will not add to spiritual power at all. It is a question of what God puts on His servants. We may be sure that if God is going to use a man, He will put things on him governmentally that he will not like naturally. That is the point in this chapter; Moses was content to dwell with the man; he made no objection to the daughter he gave him as wife. It is just what God gave him; God is with a man on those lines.
JS Do you think the taking up of the work of the shepherd was evidence of his spirit of subjection?
JT Quite; that is the point, passing through the wilderness; what God puts upon you is from His own side. I should not seek anything in a natural sense. I am to take my place there by the well. “Here am I”, Isaiah says. Things will come upon you governmentally, that do not add to you at all, in this world, but in accepting them you increase in spiritual power.
CAM The fact of being connected with the Midianites in this way, would be a governmental matter to Moses.
JT It would. This is evident by Numbers 25: 16, 17, and Numbers 31: 1, 2.
AR What would you say about Zipporah calling Moses a bloody husband?
JT That brings out the ugly side of our position. The assembly is often marked in that way; how much [p. 128] complaint there is against the Lord! It may be indirect; but nevertheless it is against the Lord.
AR Is that what you had in mind when you referred to those who spoke disparagingly about Paul at Corinth?
JT Yes; they were attacking the minister; so that Paul says, “I think that God has set us the apostles for the last, as appointed to death. For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men”, 1 Corinthians 4: 9, and again, “we are become as the offscouring of the world, the refuse of all” (verse 13). They did not seek that; God put it on them and they accepted it.
JTJr We should not be vindictive; that is a feature of the flesh when one is attacked or criticised.
JT Just so; it comes up immediately when you are injured. So the point is, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall no way fulfil flesh’s lust”, Galatians 5: 16. It is the positive side of things here in the well.
He was slow to take up the way of the Spirit; Ananias had to say to Paul, “Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name”, Acts 22: 16. We are not to be slow in removing what would hinder our coming into the blessing of the Spirit.
ABP Would the agility of Moses, in drawing water abundantly, show that whilst accepting the circumstances, he was whole-hearted in them? It reminds us of the activities of Rebecca.
JT It is also true for us; there is plenty in the Spirit, as it were, for anyone who wishes to appropriate it or apply it.
ABP In small-meeting conditions there is no need for holding things back because there are but a few. Pouring out of the best would be proper, would it?
JT That is the thing; freely ye have received, freely give. Do not hold it back for a bigger meeting; you can use it at a bigger meeting, but you can use it better if you use it at once. Moses drew water for the daughters of Jethro. The attitude of the shepherds there would be a good reason to draw water sparingly, but he drew in [p. 129] abundance. I am sure that is what is needed in small meetings.
CN The name he gave his son — Gershom — would indicate that he must have profited from his experience.
JT Yes; meaning, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”. That is an experience we all need.
WR It seems, from Hebrews 11, that Moses’ greatness stood over against nature. It says that when he had become great, he refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
JT Yes, if he were pursuing his natural course as a worldly man — as an Egyptian — he would wish to blot Midian out of his memory. It was a period of humiliation. No; he is to remember it always, as it were; thus, similarly, in Deuteronomy, the offerer of the first fruits says, “A perishing Aramaean was my father” (chapter 26: 5). Even in view of the land, they were enjoined to remember that; it is to balance us. It does not mean when we are in heaven literally; it is when we are in heavenly places, through faith by the Spirit, we do not forget these experiences. They really make men out of us — these wilderness experiences. That is what Moses meant in naming his son Gershom. “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”. In his house, Gershom would represent that Moses had been in humble circumstances in Midian for forty years.
CAM It is remarkable; it would affect his manner towards strangers, would it not?
JT Yes; such experiences make us sympathetic with others. A sensible man will say to one in distress, I have been through what you are going through, and I sympathise with you. It is said that the Lord Jesus was afflicted in all our afflictions.
ABP Is that why He styled Himself a Samaritan in the parable of Luke 10?
JT Just so. He did not tell the woman of Samaria that He was a Samaritan; He told her He was a Jew;
[p. 130] but in the parable, He was a Samaritan; it implied that He had no status at all with the religious leaders. I think it is one of the greatest lessons for those of us who are in the ministry in any way, to be content with our circumstances, and not aim at improvement in worldly things, accepting everything from God. God gives us temporal things to hold in relation to Himself and His service; not to augment our personal position in the ministry.
JS Would you regard the shepherds here as hirelings, as mentioned in John 10?
JT They were unsympathetic and violent. These daughters of Jethro were wanting in gratitude and hospitality to Moses. Jethro said, Where is he? It is remarkable that there is so much indifference. It doubtless alludes, typically, to wilderness features in those who form the assembly. Why are we often so indifferent to Christ? We accept benefits. Why should we be so indifferent? What about the man? says Jethro. Contrary to what might be expected, the women did not evince interest or gratitude. It is a type of those who form the assembly. We accept benefits, but neglect Him from whom they come, not considering for Him. It is remarkable that one of these is given to him as a wife. You may say, he would never choose one so thoughtless, but God gives her to him; at least, that is what the type indicates. In these circumstances, God is not thinking of our natural requirements, but of what works out His own ways in view of His service. Discipline enters much into these matters in the wilderness. There is most important instruction as to marriage in 1 Corinthians; but we are speaking of Christ and of the assembly.
GH Do you mean I should not seek to improve myself in my circumstances but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and these things will be added to me?
JT That is [p. 131] the principle.
AR If the things were not adverse, he certainly would never have called his son Gershom; and if the wilderness circumstances are not adverse, we are liable to remain there, instead of going through.
JT Moses did not settle down. Joseph settled down in Egypt, forgetting his father’s house. Typically, that is Christ among the gentiles, as over against His Jewish relation. Here, Moses does not typify that; he is ever a sojourner in a foreign land. He just went through the experience as God put it upon him. He looks on his wife in that way, evidently, as causing him discipline. Why did not those women consider for this young man? They were indifferent. It is to record, undoubtedly, the indifference of many christians to Christ; they accept the benefits and ignore His needs. Did not Moses need shelter? Did not he need food? There are thousands of God’s people who accept the benefits and just ignore the needs of the Lord in the testimony. Yet Moses has one of these women as his wife. You may say, He will have difficulties, and that is exactly what he had, and that is what Christ has in the assembly in all its wilderness experience. I am far from saying that wifely affection and other qualities were not there. They certainly exist in the antitype, as in Corinth; but we are remarking on the feature that is more stressed.
AAT At Corinth they left the Lord out.
JT They left Paul out too. When they left Paul out, they left Christ out. That is what is meant.
JTJr Paul’s experience at Philippi would be the contrast to this. Lydia says, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there”, Acts 16: 15. Is the wifely side seen in Lydia?
JT She is a beautiful type of the assembly basically — all believing women in the Acts point in that direction.
AR Pharaoh was instructing the people to destroy all the male children as they were born. God, it seems, was making the circumstances of Moses adverse to fit [p. 132] him for the great service of taking the people out of Egypt.
JT Yes. The whole history in Egypt and the wilderness is on this line. We are now looking at “the assembly in the wilderness”, and we shall have to pursue it until we get to Deuteronomy to get the full instruction out of it. Every time you see these ugly things coming out, you will say, That is just what has often marked me. I believe every one of us here will have to admit that. And yet the foundation exists, as is said of Corinth; also the temple of God, and the body of Christ; and they were unleavened, and regarded as intelligent persons. So that while there was so much to cause pain in Corinth, the assembly was there.
AAT Is that one reason why you read Exodus 15: 27 — to bring in the twelve wells, the ministry?
JT Yes, the authority of the ministry to meet this condition, and the palm trees to provide shelter; a divine provision for us in the wilderness. Spiritual meetings all effect that; you get relief in them from wilderness conditions. The second chapter, as I might say, is Moses himself; how he starts out, content with the circumstances that he finds, choosing the Spirit. “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall no way fulfil flesh’s lust”, Galatians 5: 16.
ABP There is often quite an exercise in regard to fitting children for their place in business. Is it right to encourage a child in its natural propensities, or should there be rather the waiting upon God to open up a way which, in His wisdom, may even cut directly across the natural ability of the child? What would you suggest?
JT Proverbs says, “Train up the child according to the tenor of his way” (chapter 22: 6). It would be the bent of his mind in what is right. “The tenor of his way”, is what is according to God. But as to natural matters, if he is qualified for a certain thing, let him go in for that. Generally speaking, what we are saying [p. 133] enters into this. As going into business, young people are going into contrariety; instruct them about that; warn them about it. If they are looking for an easy way to build themselves up in this world, they are going contrary to the instruction of Scripture. Accepting wilderness conditions, they get contrariety right away, if they are at all loyal to the truth; they get it at school and in the office, and it is wisdom to accept it. God is putting it on them. The worldly man will revile; if he is a superior he may say insulting things when a stand is taken in confessing Christ; they are thus tested, and if walking in the Spirit they will submit, waiting for God to make a way out. I can say with certainty that those who take up this attitude will prosper in every way.
JTJr Moses had been forty years amongst the Egyptians, and was instructed in all their arts; yet, at the end of that time he thought of his brethren — having no help from his mother and father in doing so.
JT Moses was brought up in the most dangerous circumstances, and God took him out of them. That is the incentive to keep on praying. He was not wilfully there, of course, but it brings out what God can do.
FSC It is said in Acts 7: “he thought that his brethren would understand that God by his hand was giving them deliverance” (verse 25).
JT Evidently Moses had light from God about that. He went out to look on his brethren; he would not have done that apart from light from God. God can give His children light to govern them even in the most adverse circumstances. Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. We may say that if a young man goes into one of the universities, he is in the greatest possible danger, and it is true; but here is a man whom God put there; he had all the Egyptians’ advantages; but God worked in him and took him out of it. That is what God can do for our children. At the same time faithful parents will strive to keep their children [p. 134] out of damaging surroundings. Moses did get light from God in Egypt, though he was out of the way of the influence of his parents. He not only got light but God placed him in circumstances in Midian to make him a competent minister.
JS Is that where, typically, he came into fellowship?
JT It would be when he identified himself with the Hebrews, “esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt”, Hebrews 11: 26. He identified himself with the despised race. After forty years he goes back. Pharaoh is removed: “It came to pass during those many days, that the king of Egypt died”, Exodus 2: 23. God has taken him away. Moses goes back now to become the leader of the people; he is subject and God is opening up the way for him. Then it says, “Moses tended the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock behind the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God — to Horeb”, Exodus 3: 1. He is moving now into a spiritual region; but he is still keeping an eye on the flock. He gets his commission at Horeb. He has matured; he has developed to that, and now God takes him on, in chapter 3.
Ques Is that not comforting to us today? There arose a Pharaoh that knew not Joseph; and then that king died. Will there not be an end to all those who oppress the people of God?
JT That is right; it is what God does. You just wait on God and suffer in the meantime. So Moses has these forty years of training, and God says, Pharaoh is out of the way; and Moses is commissioned to go back from Horeb into Egypt. He had been to Horeb and now he is to lead the people out of Egypt and the covenant is to be made at Horeb.
AR God appears to him now as “I AM” and “Jehovah” which must have affected his service.
JT Think of the wonderful time he had, as recorded in chapter 3! The time he had at the bush — a mile-stone,
never forgotten; there is “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush”, Deuteronomy 33: 16. Moses did not forget that. He is being impressed with the knowledge of God in that position; that God Himself is in the bush, in keeping with where Moses would be later; a solemn lesson. There he is instructed in Jehovah’s new Name; then the glories of Jah, the spiritual mysterious name of God that Moses came into later. Jehovah says, “If there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak to him in a dream. Not so my servant Moses: he is faithful in all my house. Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly”, Numbers 12: 6 - 8, showing that Moses was distinctly honoured. All this, in principle, comes into each of our histories in the measure in which we take up this attitude.
Ques The prophet Isaiah says, “Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him, his glorious arm leading them by the right hand of Moses?” Isaiah 63: 11, 12. Is that the prophetic view of Moses’ position by the well in Exodus 2?
JT Just so. Hosea says, “by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved” (chapter 12: 13). Moses was that prophet.
Now we should go on to chapter 15. It is a question of the people being in the wilderness, and the provision that is made for them: “And they came to Elim; and twelve springs of water were there, and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters” (verse 27). That is, they were appropriating all this variety. God would thus come before them in a touching way. He is considering for them very fully. They had been drinking the bitter waters, but now there is fresh water in abundance. The assembly in the wilderness is now before us, and the point here is the liberal consideration of God for it at this juncture, and how the people appropriate it. It says, “And they encamped there by the waters”. That is an enlargement from Moses sitting [p. 136] by the well; here they are encamping. This is one of the many encampments recorded in Numbers 33.
CAM The previous sentence records the name of Jehovah — God’s special name, “I am Jehovah who healeth thee” (verse 26).
JT Yes; the brackish waters and the wood are mentioned earlier; “And he cried to Jehovah; and Jehovah showed him wood, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet” (verse 25). God is now showing how He provides. A real difficulty came up, but God showed him wood, which, as cast into the waters, made them sweet. And the next thing is, “There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he tested them”. Typically, we are now being formed, you might say, in the fibre of our constitution, by coming under the statute: it is a fixed principle. “And he said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and do what is right in his eyes, and incline thine ears to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the complaints upon thee that I have put upon the Egyptians; for I am Jehovah who healeth thee” (verse 26). It is God in His consideration for us in wilderness circumstances, but on the principle of subjection, keeping all His commandments; and then there is this wonderful provision of twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. The one is the variety of the Spirits ministry, and the other is experience seen in personality. The seventy palm trees would suggest persons of spiritual distinction, whose influence affords protection.
JTJr It is not a divided ministry. Twelve suggests that the ministry, though varied, is not divided. We have divisions in christendom; various denominations; but this would suggest that the ministry is all one, and what one minister says agrees with another; there is no divergence. Peter stood up with the eleven.
JT Yes. The ministries of the twelve apostles were in agreement. We only hear of two or three of them in [p. 137] the Acts of the Apostles as actually serving, but we can be sure they all worked according to the disposition of divine wisdom, and that they were united in their teaching and service generally. Their names are on the foundations of the wall of the heavenly city. Victorious persons of experience with God are in view, I believe, in the palm trees; you can safely come under the shelter of a brother who is himself victorious.
RWS Would they be like Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus who preached the “Son of God, Jesus Christ”, at Corinth?
JT That is right; Paul, Silvanus and Timotheus would be characteristically victorious, for they believed on the Son of God. “Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God”, 1 John 5: 5. In Luke, the seventy whom the Lord sent out were specifically stated to be additional to the twelve. They were to go before the face of the Lord into every city and place where He was about to come. Local assembly formation is in mind, I believe. They were marked as possessing peace, according it to every house they entered — a son of peace being found there. Peace is founded on righteous victory.
WR I suppose you see what is before us in the Lord’s appointment of the twelve, giving them power over all demons and to heal diseases in Luke 9, and then He sends out seventy others also in Luke 10.
JT That is right; the seventy others are additional. There are twelve in chapter 9, and seventy in chapter 10.