DEUTERONOMY 15
The increasing wealth of the sons of God, as dwelling in the land and gathering in its fruits, is beautifully brought out in these chapters. There is a continually increasing yield for God and for His people. From the first year there is a tithe for service and for assembly enjoyment. From the third year there is a tithe for the benefit of the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. There is ability to give expression to what God is in grace to those who have need. Then “At the end of seven years thou shalt make a release”. All this indicates in a blessed way increasing formation in the divine nature. The saints are viewed as continuing to be nourished in the good of the land, and as increasing in spiritual wealth. God’s sons are becoming more like Him — more imbued with the spirit of grace. They are getting freed from the spirit of demand. If I am requiring and demanding from my brethren, even if what I require is due to me, I have not lived long in the land. I have not been there “seven years”. I have not learned much of God’s ways of acting.
I may know that I have a righteous claim on my brother for something that is due to me which has not been rendered. In such a case I am in the position of a creditor. We may be in that position sometimes, though I fear we are more often in the position of debtors to our brethren. There are parts of Scripture which apply very distinctly to debtors, and to what is due on their [p. 183] part, and we must have full regard to those scriptures, but this is not a chapter for debtors but for wealthy persons, sons of God, heirs of all God’s wealth. It is a chapter for creditors. “Every creditor shall relax his hand from the loan which he hath lent unto his neighbour; he shall not demand it of his neighbour, or of his brother; for a release to Jehovah hath been proclaimed” (verse 2). This indicates such maturity in the divine nature that God’s sons can act even as He has acted Himself. What an exalted privilege is that! To sing truly, “Oh what a debt we owe” would enable us to take up the creditor’s privilege in the year of “release!”
There are times when our brethren come under obligation to us. A creditor is one who has a righteous claim on his neighbour or his brother for something. It is well to consider whether we have righteous claims that remain unsatisfied. Let us turn over our ledgers and see if we have any entries standing against brothers or sisters! Yes! Brother So and so did not treat me with the respect that was due to me; he did not shew me Christian consideration or courtesy! And another brother took full advantage of my kindness, but expressed no gratitude; he made no return for all the good I have done to him! And a sister spoke unkindly of me; she even said what was not true! And another promised to do a certain thing, but he never did it! All such things as these put us in the place of creditors. Such debts as that go on piling up year after year, and the creditors get soured by thinking so long about the debts that have never been paid! God does not like to see His sons maintaining demands on one another, so He steps in to confer a great privilege on all creditors. The creditor here is the one who gains, for he shines in the glory of correspondence with God. How could you enjoy your sabbatical year if you were thinking all the [p. 184] time of undischarged debts due to you from your brethren! Many local difficulties are the result of old standing accounts. There is a rankling sourness in the heart on account of things said and done years ago, and it is destructive of family affections and spiritual prosperity, These things shew that we have not been “seven years” in the land; we have not yet acquired sufficient wealth to “make a release”. If we keep up personal grievances against our brethren we are missing the creditor’s privilege in the year of release.
How often people say, “But I want righteousness”. They forget that righteousness now consists in acting towards others in the same way that God has acted towards us. See Matthew 18: 21 - 35. Certain things are due on the debtor’s part, and God’s work in him would lead to the acknowledgement of this, but, as we have said before, this particular scripture is not occupied with the debtor, or the relief he gets; it is the setting forth of the creditor’s privilege, and of the gain which accrues to him as he takes it up. It is not even spoken of here as a release to the debtor; it is “a release to Jehovah”. The creditor has an opportunity of showing how he appreciates Jehovah’s gracious favour, and of reflecting it in his conduct towards his poor brother. It is poverty in our brother that has brought him into the place of a debtor. If he had been spiritually wealthy he would never have incurred the debt; he would have undoubtedly discharged all his righteous obligations. But his poverty may furnish me with an opportunity to act as a wealthy son of God, and to make a release.
Making “a release to Jehovah” is not writing it off as a bad debt. It is really transferring the undischarged debts to God’s account, who will certainly see that the creditor loses nothing by reflecting His character and ways. There is no question of the justice of the creditor’s claim, but he is wealthy enough through divine favour [p. 185] to relax his hand and not demand it. He knows that God will give him such wealth that he will be far better off by freeing his brother from all demand than he would have been by insisting on having all that was due. “For Jehovah will greatly bless thee in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, if thou only diligently hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to take heed to do all this commandment which I command thee this day” (verses 4, 5). On this line you will never yourself be a debtor; you will never be a poor man in Israel. I have often seen people on the line of demand, but I have noticed that they are invariably poor in spiritual wealth. When the spirit of demand has been in my own heart I have found it spiritually impoverishing.
“Of the foreigner thou mayest demand it”, shews that the subject here is relations between the people of God; the “release” applies to those within, not without. How many wounds are left smarting year after year because creditors are not rich enough to relax their righteous demands on their neighbour or their brother! God says, I want all my sons to taste the luxury of making a release. One might reverently say that God knows the pleasure of making a release; He has done it Himself; and He wants all His sons to have the same joy — to be wealthy enough to do it ungrudgingly! It is “a release to Jehovah”; that is, it is entirely done to Him for His pleasure.
The year of release would apparently coincide with the sabbatical year. It seems to me it was a necessary accompaniment of that year. It was a year without toil; no tilling of the ground, no agricultural work at all — a year of restful enjoyment. God would have His sons free at such a time from everything that would interfere with complete rest. How could we be in restful enjoyment with a lot of entries in our books against our [p. 186] brethren? How many lose spiritual enjoyment by dwelling on some wrong — real or supposed — that has been done them! I believe the year of release is a benefit to the creditor even more than to the debtor. It is presented in that light in this chapter. The creditor is wealthy enough to make the release without putting any strain on his resources, and he gains immeasurably by doing it. The spirit of demand amongst saints is the fruit of our not knowing how great is the wealth that belongs to the sons and heirs of God. It is a spirit that might suit poor persons, but it does not give the impression of wealthy sons.
The spirit of “release” comes out in such scriptures as, “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any should have a complaint against any; even as the Christ has forgiven you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3: 13). “And be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4: 32). The Lord taught His disciples to pray, “And remit us our sins, for we also remit to everyone indebted to us” (Luke 11: 4). It assumes that those who thus pray have observed the year of release; the Lord would have us to enjoy the privilege of doing so. On the other hand, the consequences of not making a release are very serious. “For if ye forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father also will forgive you yours, but if ye do not forgive men their offences, neither will your Father forgive your offences” (Matthew 6: 14, 15). The children of Israel went into captivity because they had apparently ceased to observe the sabbatical year about the time of David. They had to go into captivity for seventy years to make up for seventy sabbatical years that had not been kept (2 Chronicles 36: 21). Governmentally we may lose all spiritual freedom and enjoyment if we do not “make a release”. If I find my heart indisposed to do it I have to recognise [p. 187] that I am small in the divine nature; it is I who am not acting as a son of God; I am the debtor rather than my poor brother; I must judge myself rather than him. The effect of making a release is that in my spirit I am in the liberty of grace and love towards my debtor. He may not yet be in freedom with me, for that will be dependent upon something on his side. But, as we have already said, this chapter is for creditors, and how they are to act if they are wealthy sons of God.
Then there is to be gracious consideration for “a poor man”, “thy poor brother” (see verses 7 - 11). The word “bountifully” occurs three times in these five verses. This is a perpetual obligation, “For the needy shall never cease from within the land”. God will see to it that there will always be opportunity for His bountifulness to be expressed through His sons. Hardened hearts, or shut hands, or things of Belial in the heart, are not suited to sons of God. There is not to be a thought of withholding, or of consideration whether we shall ever get back what we give. It is the spirit of grace in sons toward those marked by poverty, need, lack. How many such there are! There is always to be a bountiful hand open for them; they are to be kept going by the wealth of others. We are not to suppose that any wealth we have is for ourselves alone, or that it is only to be expended in mutual enjoyment amongst those who are as well off as we are! It is to be ministered “bountifully” to the poor and needy; that they are such constitutes their claim, and to care for them is one of love’s luxuries. I am not referring altogether to temporal needs, though surely such a scripture has a definite bearing on them. But I am thinking for the moment of those who are spiritually poor. How many there are who never seem to know spiritual prosperity; they never acquire resources of their own; they never contribute anything; they seem to always need to be [p. 188] supported and kept up by the spiritual wealth of others! Well, they furnish a fine opportunity for bountifulness on the part of those who are spiritually richer than they are. I knew a brother who felt keenly how poor spiritually the saints were amongst whom he lived and served. They never seemed to get on, or to be capable of taking in spiritual thoughts. He got discouraged, and asked the Lord to move him to some place where there would be more interest and appreciation. He told me that the Lord seemed to say to him, Did you want to care for my saints? and he answered, Yes, Lord, I did. Well, there they are; go on caring for and feeding them! And he went on doing so until the Lord called him home.
There is a tendency with us to look for some kind of return, and to shut up our hand if we see no prospect of getting it. But as wealthy sons it is our privilege to support, and to supply the lack of, the spiritually poor without considering whether there will be any return or not. The Lord’s own words were, “Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be sons of the Highest” (Luke 6: 35). If I am only prepared to dispense my spiritual wealth on condition that I should be appreciated, or honoured, or respected, it is “a thing of Belial” in my heart. Paul was a wealthy son, and he said, “Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved” (2 Corinthians 12: 15). He had drunk deeply into the spirit of the scripture we are now considering. We like to be with those who understand us, and who can reciprocate our thoughts and feelings, but this must not be allowed to diminish our bountifulness to those who have need. They are to be valued and ministered to because of what they are to God.
The “Hebrew man” or “Hebrew woman” of the next section (verses 12 - 18) are brought in to complete [p. 189] the picture of the bountifulness which is to mark sons of God. It is no repetition of the ordinance in Exodus 21, where the “Hebrew bondman” is a well-known and precious type of Christ. There the central figure is the bondman, but here it is the bountiful conduct of the master when he sends his servant out free. He is to be sent away furnished — or as the margin reads, adorned — with every good. “Of what Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee with shalt thou give unto him”. It is not the blessed service of Christ here, but the wealth that sends away full one who has been sold for service. The servant here is “thy brother”; there is no such word in Exodus 21. Each scripture is perfect in its own setting. The point here is how we act towards a brother or sister who may have come under obligation to us. It supposes a certain right acquired; the man or woman “have been sold unto thee”. Such a circumstance in Israel would indicate a very reduced state; it would imply poverty and indebtedness and a condition of servitude brought about under the governmental ways of God. But, as Scripture often reminds us, thoughts of grace underlie even the government of God, and we see a striking illustration of it here. There may be circumstances, perhaps undoubtedly the fault of our brother, which give us a hold upon him. But how are we going to use it? Will we get all that we can out of him, or will we remember that we are privileged to let him go free, and to adorn him with good? There is a statute of limitations as to what we may exact from our brother, even when we have a righteous claim upon him in the government of God. He is not to be kept more than “six yeses”, and at the end of the term he is not to be let go empty; he is to be provided with capital to begin afresh free from the poverty which brought him into servitude. He has been under obligation; in the seventh year he is released from it; but the point in this [p. 190] scripture is the style in which he is released; it is to be worthy of “sons of Jehovah”. We are to remember how God released us; we came out from Egyptian bondage enriched with “utensils of silver, and utensils of gold, and clothing” (Exodus 12: 35). There is to be not only a release, but the man or the woman are to be adorned with the best, that we have. It is the spirit which Paul desired to be found in Philemon; his runaway slave was to be received as “a beloved brother”, and Paul counts upon Philemon doing “even more” than he said.
Whatever obligation a brother may have come under he is to be treated in a brotherly way, and with a bounty that is worthy of God. If he comes into permanent obligation it must be entirely in the freedom of love. There is nothing said here about his wife or children; it is the personal relation of one who has found a brother that he is well with, and he loves him and his house so much that he does not wish to be free from him, That is the impression that a wealthy son of God would make on one who came under his hand. When the bondman is entirely freed from any claim he devotes himself “for love’s sake” to serve his brother forever. Both the master and the bondman are thus seen to be true “sons of Jehovah”, acting in a spirit of love, and bound together in that spirit. What a contrast to the selfish and exacting spirit that marks man after the flesh!
A new section begins with verse 19, and it, brings before us important instruction as to certain things which have to be done “in the place which Jehovah will choose to cause his name to dwell there”. We have learned from chapter 12 that this “place” has typical reference to conditions which are common to all the people of God in their approach to Him. It speaks of divine assembly conditions which are the same for all [p. 191] saints — a gathering centre by which the unity of God’s people in approach to Him is secured, and to which His people universally are to come.
Now we learn from this section (Chapter 15: 19 - 16: 17) the character of certain prescribed privileges which were to be taken up in this place. It is not here voluntary offerings or “choice vows” prompted by the devoted affections of Jehovah’s people richly blessed by Him. The things enjoined here were obligatory on every Israelite as the ordered service “year by year”; so they are evidently typical of great spiritual features which are to characterise the saints as coming together before God in assembly conditions. His pleasure in His saints will be secured as these things are taken up, and the thought of this makes them intensely interesting and attractive to those who love Him.
“Every firstling” — it is the word usually translated “firstborn” — was to be hallowed, and eaten before Jehovah in the place which He would choose. Judgment came on the firstborn of Egypt, but a hallowed firstborn was a memorial of how Jehovah had secured His “firstborn” for Himself. It represented the distinctive place and relationship which God had predetermined to bestow upon His loved people. The thought of “firstborn” originated in the purpose of God. Before He had said anything of the passover He made known to Pharaoh the peculiar place that Israel had in the purpose of His love. “Thus saith Jehovah: Israel is my son, my firstborn” (Exodus 4: 22). In sovereign love He gave them that place for His own pleasure. Paul in Romans 9 mentions sonship as the first distinction of Israel. “Whose is the adoption (sonship)”; that was their primary distinction; Paul puts it before the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises. It is true of us also that sonship is our chief glory, conferred upon us by God’s sovereign love for His own delight.
[p. 192] On the natural line the firstborn in Scripture very often loses the pre-eminent place, as in the case of Cain, Ishmael, Esau, Reuben, Manasseh. The firstborn as the chief of man’s strength was set aside, but God’s firstborn never loses the place accorded to him, for it is by the gift and calling of God, which are “not subject to repentance” (Romans 11: 29).
It is interesting to see that God declared the sonship of Israel, and their firstborn character, to the enemy and oppressor; it was purely a question of what they were in the thought of God’s own heart. I do not know that it was ever said to the people that they were sons until the end of the wilderness; but God said it to Pharaoh. God let out to him the great thought of His love about His people. The first announcement of Christ was made to the serpent. It was to Balak that Jehovah declared His estimate of His people in all its blessedness. Some of the most precious utterances of the Lord about His saints were spoken to unbelievers and adversaries. When God is speaking to His people He is sometimes hindered by their state from communicating all that is in His heart. The Corinthians were in such a state that they were not prepared to hear the great thoughts of God. But when God is speaking to the adversary He can tell out all that is in His heart concerning His people.
Sonship is the place of relationship and dignity which has been brought to light in Christ; there could not be anything greater than that. If we come into it, we come in through Christ and in Him, and in the value of redemption, but redemption has sonship in view (see Galatians 4: 5). The truth that Israel was God’s son, His firstborn, underlies the Passover. We see in Ephesians that God marked us out for sonship before the foundation of the world, and it was to Himself; that is, it was for the pleasure of His love. That underlies the coming in of Christ for the accomplishment of redemption. Behind [p. 193] it was the precious thought of divine love that God would have sons. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption (sonship) through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved”. It is in view of this that redemption has come in, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1: 3 - 7). When God takes sons for His own pleasure, He righteously clears them of everything that attached to them in their sinful state; He clears them by redemption. The passover is God’s way of clearing His people so that He may have a son to take out of Egypt. The prophetic word was, “When Israel was a child then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11: 1). As we know, the Spirit of God in the New Testament quotes that as having direct reference to Christ. The Spirit of God identifies sonship as in Israel with sonship as in Christ. This is divine instruction for us; it was not understood by them, nor could be. The Passover was God’s righteous way of taking His son out of Egypt; He settled in the value of redemption every righteous liability attaching to His people. He covered His people in the power of redemption so that He might take them out of Egypt according to His own thought in the grace and dignity of sonship. Redemption is the righteous title of God to carry out the pleasure of His love in regard of those who have been sinful. It is interesting to see that the one other passage in Scripture except Exodus 12 where we get the word “passing over” is in Isaiah 31: 6. “As birds with [p. 194] outstretched wings so will Jehovah of hosts cover Jerusalem; covering, he will also deliver, passing over, he will rescue it”. This gives us the true thought of the Passover; it is God passing the wing of His protecting love in the power of redemption over His people as a covering so that the destroyer is not suffered to enter; His people’s houses are delivered.
There are two firstborns referred to in Exodus 4. “The firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham” (Psalm 78: 51), represent everything that is excellent in dignity and strength with men, and the judgment of God is on it, and we have to learn this. But there is a firstborn for God, and He secures His firstborn through death. God has brought in Christ and His death as an entirely new starting point — a “beginning of months”. He has secured something which has excellence and dignity, firstborn character, for the pleasure of His own love. It is good to get the divine thought of firstborn.
“By faith he (Moses) celebrated the passover and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them”. Moses, I think we might say, represented Christ who has celebrated the true passover; He has become the passover for all His people, so that, not only is the destroyer unable to touch them, but they are secured as objects of pleasure in dignity and strength, for the delight of the heart of God. We learn typically in Exodus 12 that God brings in Christ and His death as a new starting point from which He moves to give effect to all that is in His own heart. If God moves from that point, who can tell the immensity or the blessedness of the result which He will secure? Who can measure it? The result is that God will have many sons, according to His eternal purpose, and not only sons but firstborn sons. In a natural family it would be impossible for all the sons to be firstborn, but it is [p. 195] possible with God. All His sons are firstborn, for they all take character from Christ; they are all distinguished. The kind of sonship which they have is patterned after His, and they are all enregistered in heaven; they are sons after a heavenly order (Hebrews 12: 23).
The “firstborn” is the distinguished son; he has pre-eminence in the family; and the thought of being “firstborn” attaches in a special way to Christ; He is spoken of repeatedly as the Firstborn. God says of Him, “I will make him firstborn” (Psalm 89: 27); and in the New Testament we are told that God is going to bring Him as the Firstborn into the habitable world, and when He does all the angels are to worship Him (Hebrews 1: 6). Then He is the Firstborn from among the dead, the Firstborn of all creation, and the Firstborn of many brethren. Those titles and honours shew the distinguished place that Christ holds pre-eminently. How gladly do our hearts accord Him that place! But then, as we have seen, God spoke of Israel also as His firstborn, shewing that in His mind something of the distinction of Christ was to be theirs also. Israel was to be not only a son, but a distinguished son as firstborn, and in that way peculiarly for God’s delight. And saints of the assembly, too, have firstborn character; they have it in a higher way than Israel, for they are “enregistered in heaven”.
Sonship properly belongs to the land; in the wilderness God acted towards Israel as a father, but on their side, they were not addressed as sons until Deuteronomy 14, when Moses said, “Ye are sons of Jehovah your God”. The only man, perhaps, in the wilderness who had an appreciation of sonship was Caleb, and he had been in the land. He said, “If Jehovah delight in us”. That is a beautiful expression of the spirit of sonship; Caleb had a sense of the delight of God in His sons. We need a greater consciousness of the place which has been [p. 196] accorded to us in the sovereignty of divine love, through redemption. We have a distinguished place of dignity with God as part of a company of firstborn ones. The light which God has vouchsafed to us is the light of sonship. God’s thought is to place His sons as heirs in the inheritance so that they may enjoy all the wealth of it in the blessed consciousness of their place of dignity with God as sons for His delight. We have to take up these scriptures in their typical import. It was impossible that Israel could enter into them; these things were written primarily for us, His called ones of the present time.
I trust we can now see something of the force of “Hallow unto me every firstborn ... it is mine”. And again, “Thou shalt offer (literally, transfer) unto Jehovah ... every firstling” (Exodus 13: 2, 12). And again, “For every firstborn is mine. On the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both of man and beast; mine shall they be; I am Jehovah” (Numbers 3: 13). God did not think of the firstborn in Israel according to flesh; the slain lamb had met all that for Him, and as having eaten the lamb they were personally identified with it, and it with them.
It has pleased God to mark us out for sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself. He has favoured us in this wonderful way. Christ is the Beloved; it is what He is to His God and Father, and what He is to His God and Father we are as in Him. God delights to have it so; it is what He has proposed for the satisfaction of His love. Redemption through blood came in to take us righteously out of all we were involved in, but God took us out by redemption — even as He did Israel — with sonship in His heart. He would have sons, and it was with that in view that His beloved Son was here as Man for His delight. I have often thought of how the Lord spoke of Himself as “him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world” (John 10: 36). He was set apart in a unique way for the Father’s pleasure, and something of a similar thought is suggested in “Every firstling ... thou shalt hallow to Jehovah thy God”. Every firstling was typical of what is set apart for God — for His pleasure. Hence, “Thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy kine nor shear the firstling of thy sheep”. This is not like the corn and new wine and oil which we spoke of before as given to men; the firstlings are hallowed to God; they are typical of what is for Him.
The firstborn among kine and sheep would be typical of that character of sonship which has been seen in Christ, and which is now conferred in sovereign love upon the many sons His brethren, and which is for the delight of God. We may be well assured that the Spirit of God’s Son sent out into our hearts would be continually giving us increase in the form of “firstlings”. God would give us, as prospering in the land, fresh apprehensions of sonship in that excellent character which is so pleasurable to Him.
But those apprehensions are intended to bring us together “in the place which Jehovah will choose, thou and thy household”. Every Israelite with a firstling had to bring it to a meeting place common to all Israel, and to eat it there. What a blessed communion is here suggested! All eating before Jehovah that which speaks of the delight which He has found in His Firstborn, and in all those on whom he has conferred sonship, and who have the character of firstborn ones before Him! All appropriating inwardly, and in common joy, the delight which it is to the heart of God to have an assembly of firstborn sons to share “The portion of the Firstborn Son, The full delight of heaven”,
[p. 198] What is brought out in the type before us is not offering to God, but eating together before Him. It is the communion of His saints together in feeding on the precious thoughts of His love as brought out in connection with what has the character of firstborn. We are thinking of what He has got for His own possession and for His love’s satisfaction. And we cannot have the communion of this in our gates. It must be, and can only be, in the place which He chooses. The communion of sonship is found in the assembly. But that communion is dependent upon our bringing “firstlings”. There must be the acquisition of God’s thought, the apprehension of it in Christ, and as being true for all God’s called ones. But we cannot hold it, or have the communion of it, without the truth of the assembly being recognised in a practical way. We must bring our “firstling” to the place where all Israel are bringing theirs! We are divinely taught that what is for the delight of God embraces all His sons. We must be where other sons are to enjoy the communion of sonship.
Of course we are sons individually, but the thought of sonship in Scripture is that it is collective; we belong to an assembly which is composed of sons all having firstborn character. Scripture gives the thought of “many sons”; in Romans we read “for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. The sons of God are going to be revealed — the whole company of them. They will be seen as perfected into one according to John 17 — in the unity proper to a company of sons. So in Galatians and Ephesians the thought is collective: “Ye are all God’s sons ... in Christ Jesus ... ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3: 26, 28). In Ephesians 1: 5 the “us” is the whole company of many sons. The Son of God is “Firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8: 29).
So that if I get a “firstling” — if I get by the Spirit a thought of God’s delight in Christ as His Firstborn, and of His delight in that assembly of sons which has firstborn character as being of Christ through redemption — I am under obligation to find the place where I can meet other sons in the way of God’s ordering so that we may eat together before God in the communion of sons. I would ask any Christian, Have you found such a place as that? It is one thing to say that we believe in the communion of saints, and another to enjoy it. The pleasure of God is found in His people being together before Him in the communion of sonship. I am sure we need to entertain a more exalted idea of the communion of saints. Every apprehension that we get by the Spirit of our association with Christ as sons is like a firstling. It is a spiritual apprehension of what is in the mind of God concerning all His saints, and it is given to us in order to minister to the unity and communion of the saints as coming together in the place where He causes His Name to dwell.
This will make it clear why nothing that was defective could be thus sacrificed and eaten before God. It would not be suitable as a type of what was in the mind of God concerning His people. Our place as sons before God in Christ Jesus does not admit of any thought of defect. So that a firstling with a defect does not set forth what is suitable to the assembly. The thought of defect could not apply to Christ personally, but it might apply to my apprehension of Him in relation to the place which the saints have with God. The firstling with a defect, which might be eaten “in thy gates”, but which was not to be brought to the place which Jehovah would choose, would raise an exercise in our souls as to whether our apprehensions of Christ in relation to our place with God are such as to be suitable to God’s assembly viewed as in the land. There may be thoughts of Christ which have value so far as they go, but in which there is an element of “defect”. They do not identify Him with the saints, or the saints with Him, according to the perfection of the divine thought. There may be food in them which can be partaken of in our gates, but they are unsuited to the assembly in the aspect of it which we are now considering. In the assembly thus viewed, there should be nothing of the nature of defect in what is offered and eaten. It was said in the preface to a well-known hymn book, “The great principle in selecting and correcting has been that there should be nothing in the hymns for the assembly but what was the expression of, or at least consistent with, the Christian’s conscious place in Christ before the Father”. Many hymns marked by affection and piety have “defects”. They do not really identify the saints with Christ’s perfectness before the Father. They are not suited to God’s assembly as typified by the place in the land where He has set His Name, though they may have a place privately, and some spiritual value. But the thought of Christ as Firstborn, and of the saints as sons with Him who is above, hallowed for the pleasure of God, is a very precious one to God, and He would exercise us to be possessed of it without any defect. It is the purpose of His love, and He would have it to form the substance of our communion together before Him. We ought not to be content with such fellowship as may be known and enjoyed in the wilderness. To minister rightly to the pleasure of God we must move on to take up the fellowship of saints as it may be known in the land.
“Because ye are sons”; that is what we are; we must never let that go; we have a most exalted and dignified place with God; every saint has that place; it is according to the place that Christ has as Man with God. “But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4: 6). The Spirit of God’s Son will never deviate from what [p. 201] is suitable to the relationship which divine love has given us. As in the hearts of the saints He will always promote those emotions and affections which are proper to sonship. Let us yield ourselves to be thus intelligently formed in a spirit of sonship. Assembly communion is to take character from eating the “firstlings”. All the precious thoughts of God connected with the “firstborn” are to form the substance of our communion and the nourishment of our souls before Him. What an exalted character does this give to the communion of saints!