DEUTERONOMY 5
The knowledge of the covenant must ever be a primary consideration, for it is God who has made it, and Christ, is the Mediator of it, and we see typically in the chapter now before us how the Lord Jesus would recall our hearts to it. Indeed He loves to do so repeatedly, and especially each first day of the week as we receive the cup, of which He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out, for you” (Luke 22: 20). It is most important that we should not forget the covenant, for it gives character to the dispensation; and to all our relations not only with God but with His people.
“Jehovah our God made a covenant with us in Horeb” (verse 2). It was not what man had done, or failed to do, but what Jehovah had done. “And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins” (Romans 11: 27). God is entitled to lay down the terms on which He may be known, and according to which He will go on with His people, and they may go on with Him and serve Him. He says, “I will consummate a new covenant” (Hebrews 8: 8); that is, He establishes all the conditions of the covenant in completeness and finality. His people have simply to receive it as declared to them by the Mediator, and to take it up in faithful affections through that divine teaching which His gracious work effects in them. It is not left to us to determine the conditions of the covenant, we have simply to fall in with what God has ordained, and those who love Him are delighted that it should be so.
The covenant now is consummated by God speaking in infinite grace, making Himself known to His people as merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and as never [p. 44] remembering their sins and their lawlessnesses any more. And along with this there is a divine working in His people which corresponds with what will be wrought in Israel when the new covenant is consummated with them. “And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all their days, for the good of them, and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not draw back from them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their heart, that they may not turn aside from me. And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with my whole heart and with my whole soul” (Jeremiah 32: 38 - 41). So that the covenant now lies in the knowledge of God in the grace of forgiveness, and also as working in His people “both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure” (Philippians 2: 13).
Attention is called in verse 3 to the fact that the covenant was not made “with our fathers ... but with us, even us, those who are here alive all of us this day”. The “fathers” were the generation of unbelief who had been “strewed in the desert”, representing the man after the flesh, but “those who are here alive” represent the generation who are able to go in and possess the land. They represent those who are born of God — a people able to take up the covenant and answer to it because of the way in which they know God. Such have been quickened by the Lord as the Spirit, and therefore are “alive” in relation to God. They have the Spirit of the Lord, and that brings in liberty and power.
A blessed feature of the covenant is that it is mediatorial, and this feature is emphasised in the chapter before us. “I stood between Jehovah and [p. 45] you at that time, to declare to you the word of Jehovah” (verse 5). “Come thou near, and hear all that Jehovah our God will say; and speak thou to us all that Jehovah our God will speak to thee” (verse 27). Jehovah was pleased with what the people said when they felt the need for a mediator. “And Jehovah heard the voice of your words, when ye spoke to me; and Jehovah said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people that have spoken to thee; they have well spoken all that they have spoken” (verse 28). It very definitely suggests the mediatorship of the Lord Jesus; God would have His people to feel the necessity for Christ as the Mediator. He would have them to know that He is God, and that they are men, and that they cannot meet Him “face to face” without a Mediator.
Every right intuition in man cries out for a Mediator. Every one who realises the greatness and majesty of God, as Job did, must feel, as he did, the need for a Mediator. See Job 9. For man is not only a creature, but he is a fallen and sinful creature, and hence it is right for man to be “afraid”. If one has never known this feeling of holy fear he can never have realised his creature condition, or his moral state, in the presence of the greatness and majesty of God, nor will he be at all capable of realising the immensity of the grace in which God makes known His covenant through the Mediator. There must be the learning of what we are, and it is a great pleasure to God when we realise the absolute necessity for the Mediator. The holy fear which leads to this conviction is the moral basis in our souls of all right knowledge or appreciation of the covenant. It is from this point of view that the fear of the people at Horeb is presented in Deuteronomy 5. It is presented as a feeling that is morally right and pleasing to God — such a feeling as could only be found truly with persons born anew.
[p. 46] It is the One who could say, “Jehovah was angry with me on your account”, who also says, “I stood between Jehovah and you”. The Sin-bearer is the One who alone can be the Mediator. The glory of the Lord as Mediator rests on the basis of His having borne the judgment of sin on behalf of men. God is now speaking to men in a Man, making known all that He is in grace on the ground that sin has been judged in that Man. It is right that we should fear, having regard to what we are, and having regard to the holiness of God; but then those who thus fear God learn how Christ has taken up on their account what was due to the sinful creature, so that all that God is can now shine forth in perfect grace to men. A glorious Person who knew no sin has been made sin sacrificially on our account, and He is now the Mediator of the new covenant. He has maintained divine glory in the fullest way as the Sin-bearer, so that now God can speak out all that is in His heart man-ward through the Mediator. God is not now obstructed by the sin of man; He has dealt with that according to His own majesty and holiness, and now He speaks by One who has “made by himself the purification of sins” (Hebrews 1: 3). We know God through the Mediator as One merciful to our unrighteousnesses, and who never remembers our sins and our lawlessnesses any more. Christ has been, in infinite grace, in our place before God as the Sin-bearer, and now as the Mediator He is on God’s part to us-ward, to make known to us all that is in the heart of God. All that God is in grace and love is told out in a Man; the glory of God is in the face of Jesus; the glory of the Christ is that He is the Image of God. But certain exercises are needed on our part to prepare us to appreciate the Mediator and what is spoken through Him, and this chapter views the people as having such exercises. They express their consciousness [p. 47] of the need of a mediator, and Jehovah approved of what they said. God would have us to realise the necessity for Christ; if we want to please God we must have hearts to appreciate Christ as the Mediator.
What we see here, typically, is a people alive in the presence of Christ, being instructed by Him in the covenant of God, and being reminded by Him that all that lies in that covenant came to them mediatorially through Him. All has in view their entrance into the land and the prolongation of their days therein. The land can only be possessed or enjoyed in a spirit of fidelity to the covenant, and there is the possibility with us, as there was with Israel, of being unfaithful to the covenant bond. To know God according to His covenant, and to be His people according to His covenant, raises the question of faithfulness. The marriage relationship is used repeatedly as a figure of the covenant bond, but it is a relationship of which the conditions have to be faithfully maintained. Those conditions are set out in the terms of the covenant, and in the spirit of them. For we have not to do with the letter merely, but with the spirit. If we read the old covenant in the letter of it, we shall find it a ministry of death and condemnation. The veil will remain unremoved from our hearts; we shall not fix our eyes on “the end” which it had in view. But if we see that Christ is the Spirit of what Moses wrote, and that He quickens so that the spirit of the covenant may be livingly in the people of God, we shall get clear spiritual vision. The spirit of the old covenant is secured in the people of God by their coming under the effective ministry of the spirit of the new covenant.
Take the first word of the covenant! “I am Jehovah thy God who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. Does not this appeal to us [p. 48] in a very touching way? It is our Saviour-God, whom we know as having delivered us from this present evil world, and from every form of legal bondage, who brings Himself before our hearts. At what a cost did He bring us out! The gift and death of His beloved Son, the mighty operations of His Spirit, the making manifest that He was “for us” — the Source for us of infinite and everlasting good! What a gracious word that He should say, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”! He would not have anything to displace Him in our thoughts or hearts. He would always be to us the blessed God whom we have learned to know in delivering grace.
There is no command to love God in the “ten words”, (though there is in verse 5 of the next chapter) but there is an intimation that He has “thousands” who do so. Such are undoubtedly begotten of God, and they come out in marked contrast to the seed of the serpent who “hate” Him. His children are to have no other thought of Him than what He has revealed of Himself in His beloved Son. Do we want any other God? Every one begotten of Him would say, No, I do not want to have another — I do not want to entertain any thought of God save what He has made known in His Son. But, alas! our souls may decline in their appreciation of the God whom they have known, and then the door is open for things to come in which practically displace Him in our affections. So long as we are here faithfulness is tested, and there is ever the danger of idolatry. But His children are, characteristically, “those who love God” (Romans 8: 28).
The second “word” is a warning against making “any graven image, any form”, and them. “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers”. That is the privilege side, but along with it the Lord insists on the moral necessity and obligation of spiritual worship. “God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth” (John 4: 23, 24). We must ever remember this. But spiritual worship necessitates spiritual worshippers. How could a natural man worship in spirit? Or even a carnal believer? An unspiritual man can only introduce unspiritual elements; what is of the creature will appear in it rather than what is of God. It may be the product of laborious skill, like a “graven image”, but it will not really correspond with the divine speaking. Great pains are often taken to make what is called the service of God attractive or impressive — beautiful music, intonations, religious vestments, and so on — but who is impressed by these things? Who is served by them? God or man? They please the eye and ear of the creature; nothing but what is “in spirit and truth” will do for God.
We may, through great mercy, be delivered from much that is material and formal — that has “graven image” character under God’s eye — but we need to remember that even beautiful and scriptural expressions which others have used in the Spirit, or which we ourselves have used at some time in the Spirit, may be used formally, and without having the true spirit of them in our hearts. The service of God can only be sustained in spiritual character as we give place to the Holy Spirit, and walk in self-judgment; that is, as we ourselves are truly spiritual.
A “graven image” could never be a true expression of God; it could never express a living God. It would always be the product of man’s mind or imagination, perhaps helped by Satan. It would be man’s thought of God, or how Satan would have man to think of God, and not the blessed revelation which He has [p. 50] made of Himself in His Son. Christendom today is well-nigh full of thoughts of God which are as alien to the revelation He has made as any “graven image” could be. It is well for us to see that we have not before our hearts any thought of God other than what He has made known of Himself in Christ. The epistle to the Galatians shews how soon even true believers may entertain a thought of God which is not at all according to what He has revealed of Himself in grace. We see how it provoked the holy jealousy of Paul, and his zeal was the expression of the jealousy of God.
“For I, Jehovah thy God, am a jealous God”. God is not jealous in relation to unconverted people. Jealousy supposes a definite engagement or committal; it supposes that we have known the love of God, and recognised that He is entitled to our affections, and we have given them to Him. Jehovah could say seven hundred years afterwards, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness” (Jeremiah 2: 2). Has there been a day of espousal in our history? Have we ever given God our affections? If so, He never forgets it, and if there is departure on our side it awakens His holy jealousy. If “love is strong as death” it has its counterpart in a jealousy which is “cruel as Sheol: the flashes thereof are flashes of fire, flames of Jah” (Song of Songs 8: 6). It speaks of the intensity of divine love; God cannot bear not to have the responsive affections of His people. Human jealousy has all kinds of mixed feelings and motives in it, but the jealousy of God is the jealousy of an unquenchable love. Hence we get the judgment of the Lord in immediate relation to His supper. That supper speaks sweetly and touchingly of His love, but if we come to the supper in an unjudged state we must expect that the fire of jealousy will burn.
Hence Paul says, “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?” There must be fidelity to the bond we have entered into; otherwise the fire of His jealousy will burn amongst us.
The blessed God has delivered us from the power of Satan and from this present evil world; He has given us His Spirit; He has fed us with manna; He has nursed us in the desert; He has borne us on eagle’s wings; He has cared for us in ten thousand details of wilderness need; He has made known to us His covenant. Has He not won our love? What a solemn thing if, after the love of espousals has had its place, there should come a time when God has to say, I remember when your heart was on fire towards me, but it is cold today!
There are only two characters contemplated in verses 9, 10 — haters and lovers. If we turn away from what is spiritual, we are moving towards those who hate God. Iniquity is found on that line, and sad results for ourselves and our sons; in principle it would apply to all who come under our influence. How important that we should be found promoting what is spiritual! We shall then come in for the “mercy” which is shewn to the “thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments”. Such prove the blessed consideration and help of God. See 2 Corinthians 4: 1.
Then, “Thou shalt not idly (or, for an untruth) utter the name of Jehovah thy God”. The Name of the Lord is on no account to be connected with what is untrue. It is the seal of God’s firm foundation, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2: 19). The Lord’s Name is not to be linked with what is unholy or untrue. That is an important part of the covenant.
[p. 52] The hallowing of the sabbath day is not connected here as in Exodus 20 with God’s work in creation, but with deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The sabbath in Exodus looks on to the end of God’s work when He will rest, and men will share His rest. But in Deuteronomy the sabbath is kept in remembrance of a complete past deliverance, and it is to be kept in a spirit of grace towards others. “That thy bondman and thy handmaid may rest as well as thou” is added here; it is one of the beautiful touches we find in this book. In Exodus the sabbath speaks of communion with God in His rest; but what is emphasised here is the enjoyment of a rest which is the fruit of His deliverance — through grace from every kind of bondage, so that it leads to gracious consideration for others. The Lord’s deliverances wrought on the sabbath day were Deuteronomic in character. He liberated persons from terrible infirmities that they might know divine favour and power in that way. Could any of them ever forget what a sabbath the day of their deliverance became? Would not every heart rightly affected by such a deliverance be kindly disposed towards others? It is the rest brought to us through grace that is remembered in Deuteronomy; in Exodus it is rather how God secures what is restful to Himself.
It is important to see that the covenant has to do, not only with God’s relations to us and ours to Him, but also with our relations with His people. The first thing requisite in a child is that it should recognise parental care and honour it. Speaking naturally, no one has such a genuine and unselfish care for our welfare as our parents. It is good when children recognise this, and honour their parents. God has used both father and mother as expressive of His own parental love, and He would set up what corresponds with His own care in every Christian household. “The household of God” is where His parental care is known, and every Christian [p. 53] household should be expressive of features which characterise God’s household.
The first principle of the covenant in its application to our relations with the people of God is that we have to recognise that we are under parental care. The Lord spoke more than once to His disciples as “children”, and John, who had drunk into His spirit, habitually says, “children”. It speaks of parental affection. Spiritual care is surely not less than natural care. Paul’s letters breathe the spirit of parental care. To the Thessalonians he says, “But have been gentle in the midst of you, as a nurse would cherish her own children ... ye know how, as a father his own children, we used to exhort each one of you, and comfort and testify”, etc. (1 Thessalonians 2: 7, 11). To the Corinthians he says, “As my beloved children I admonish you. For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the glad tidings. I entreat you therefore, be my imitators” (1 Corinthians 4: 14 - 16). We may gather from this that to be a mere instructor, even in Christ, is not to be compared with parental affection.
We are not only immediately under God’s parental care, but mediately as finding that care amongst His saints. I doubt whether we know really what it is to be of the household of God if we have not recognised parental care amongst the saints. The Thessalonians had recognised it in Paul, and he had imitators at Thessalonica, for he begged them to know those who laboured among them, and took the lead among them in the Lord, and admonished them. All admonishing and exhorting is to be in parental care and affection. The schoolmaster and the policeman have no place in the household of God.
One of the earliest features of taking up covenant relations is to recognise and honour the parental care [p. 54] that is to be found amongst the people of God. If young believers do not start that way they will miss a good deal that would qualify them to be truly helpful in the household of God. I think it will be found that if hardness and harshness characterise believers they have not had much experience of the warmth and tenderness of parental care. They have not recognised or honoured the parental care that is found in the household of God. They are like children who have been thrust out to earn their own living while they should have been still nourished and cared for in parental affection. It is a great thing to prove in one’s early days what the household of God is by experiencing the parental care that is there. That care is to be recognised and honoured; there is great blessing attached to doing so. It secures that days will be prolonged, and it will be well with us in the land which God gives us. If we do not start by appreciating, and responding to, the parental care and interest that is to be found in the household of God we shall never grow up rightly in that household. If we are independent and self confident, and not prepared to be admonished, we cannot have spiritual prosperity. At the present day children soon want to act independently of their parents, but it does not make for happiness, and if that spirit is in young believers they will not prosper in the household of God. It is very blessed to think of being here for a prolonged period for the pleasure of God, and of His people, in His household. We ought to consider whether we are conducting ourselves in such a way as to make it pleasing to God to retain us here for a long time. If I have begun rightly in the household of God I am conscious how I have been fed and nurtured and cared for and warmed. I owe so much to the parental care of the saints that I could never speak evil of them; they will always be estimable and honourable in my sight because I have [p. 55] proved what a benefit they have been to me. Parental interest and care amongst the people of God is the direct product of His love.
The sixth “word” is, “Thou shalt not kill”. Matthew 5: 21, 22 would indicate that being angry with one’s brother may have something of the spirit of killing him in it. It is right sometimes to be angry, but we must beware of our spirits. John puts it very strongly, “Every one that hates his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3: 15). Cain was of the wicked one and slew his brother. The spirit of the covenant would put that away from us; John brings it before the family of God as a needful warning. Even if there has to be discipline it is for the life of the person, not to kill him. The most terrible of all discipline is to be delivered to Satan, but even this is “for destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5: 5). It is really for the person’s life. So if you see a brother sinning a sin not unto death, you ask and God gives him life (1 John 5: 16). And James says, “My brethren, if anyone among you err from the truth, and one bring him back, let him know that he that brings back a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5: 19, 20). We should not like to burn a man at the stake, but it is quite possible to be found acting in the same kind of spirit that would do it, and such a spirit is altogether out of keeping with the covenant.
“Neither shalt thou commit adultery”. Scripture contains many references to adultery in a spiritual sense. There is nothing more important than to maintain fidelity in our affections. Adultery in a spiritual sense is the corrupting of the affections of God’s people so that [p. 56] they are unfaithful to Him. Jezebel is the great adulteress in the assembly period; she calls herself prophetess, and teaches and leads astray the Lord’s servants. The Lord’s present ministry is very largely directed to the end that all corrupting influences may be displaced from the hearts of His people so that they may be marked by purity and fidelity in their affections towards Him, and towards one another.
“Neither shalt thou steal”. There is great possibility of our appropriating things in an unlawful way. “Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his neighbour” (Jeremiah 23: 36). Even the words of the Lord may be stolen goods, not honestly come by. The thought of this would make us careful about taking up the words of others, and using them as if they were our own, when we have not bought them by facing the exercise which they involve so as to make them our own in a godly way. According to Ephesians the stealer is to become a giver (Ephesians 4: 28); through honest toil he is to acquire that which he may distribute. To contribute to the brethren is very different from stealing from them. Under the new covenant there is a serving out of things — a ministry of righteousness and of the Spirit — and this becomes characteristic of the mutual activities of the people of God. Each becomes a channel of supply rather than a thief, or one who makes demands. If there is a lack, let us see to it that we serve out to the brethren the thing that is lacking.
“Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour”. Many wrong impressions are made, and personal feelings created which hinder confidence, by statements which are not true. There is often failure to exercise godly care in this matter, and the enemy gets an advantage. It is not always that there is an evil motive, but things are passed on too readily from [p. 57] one to another that are not definitely known to be true.
“Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, nor his bondman, nor his handmaid, his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s”. It is interesting to see that under grace desires run the other way; instead of there being a wish to deprive one’s neighbour there is desire to enrich and add to him. There is desire to be contributory. Hence we get such scriptures as “Desire earnestly the greater gifts” (1 Corinthians 12: 31); “I desire to speak five words with my understanding that I may instruct others also” (1 Corinthians 14: 19); “Seek that ye may abound for the edification of the assembly” (1 Corinthians 14: 12); “So that, brethren, desire to prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14: 39); “Thus, yearning over you, we had found our delight in having imparted to you not only the glad tidings of God, but our own lives also, because ye had become beloved of us” (1 Thessalonians 2: 8); “I have coveted the silver or gold or clothing of no one ... I have shewed you all things, that thus labouring we ought to come in aid of the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20: 33 - 35).
The thought of the covenant is sometimes limited in the mind to our relations with God, but it includes also our relations with one another. The covenant, known in spiritual grace and power, would adjust our relations with the brethren, If God makes a covenant it shews how willing He is to engage Himself to men, and to have men conscious of it so that they engage themselves to Him. He says, “I ... have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage”. I have been for you; now you are to be for me in the attitude of your heart towards me, and towards one another. There comes a moment in the history of souls when [p. 58] exercises are raised as to how the pleasure of God is to be brought into effect in regard to them. In the section of this chapter from verse 22 - 33 Moses calls attention to the fact that they had realised the necessity for a mediator, and Jehovah was pleased that they did so. “I have heard the voice of the words of this people that have spoken to thee: they have well spoken all that they have spoken” (verse 28). If the covenant is to be effectuated it must be through Christ as the Mediator. Indeed it is He who is given “for a covenant of the people” (Isaiah 42: 6; Isaiah 49: 8), and He is the Mediator of it (Hebrews 8: 6; Hebrews 12: 24), and the Spirit of it (2 Corinthians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17,18). Everything is made good now through the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “mediator” is not used in Romans 5, but the whole of that chapter is a presentation of what comes to us from God through the Lord Jesus Christ; there are seven things particularly mentioned. Then He is a quickening Spirit, so that those who believe on Him are caused to live in liberty in the knowledge of God and in response to Him. Matthew 5: 17 tells us that He did not come to make void the law or the prophets, but to give the fulness of them, and He does this in those who are quickened by Him.
It is well to note the words, “and he added no more” (verse 22). The covenant was complete, and did not require any additions. When we come to the covenant as we know it, expressed in Christ, we see how complete it is. The full presentation of God in grace, the perfect answer to it in a Man, and divine quickening power brought in to make it effectual in men.
The people representatively and officially — “ye came near to me all the heads of your tribes, and your elders” — express their deep sense of the need for a mediator. I think it may be regarded as typical of the heart of Israel turning to the Lord, for Jehovah approved of it. It sets forth, typically, that they realised how indispensable [p. 59] Christ was in Mediatorship. The solemn accompaniments of cloud, obscurity, and darkness brought this home to them. For us there is a greater solemnity at Calvary than was known at Horeb. “There was darkness over the whole land” (Matthew 27: 46). The cry of the holy but forsaken One brings home to us what God is in His purity and majesty in far greater intensity than the thunderings and trumpet soundings of Sinai. Infinite love is there indeed, but infinite holiness too, and it is not well that the sense of this should be feeble in our souls. We are creatures, and we have been sinful creatures, and God is God and He is holy. He would have us to fear Him; it is most wholesome to do so; there could be no true knowledge of His love otherwise — no true valuation in our hearts of Christ as the Mediator. We must learn what we are in the presence of the greatness and holiness of God. This was Job’s lesson. He had long known that man could only be accepted with God on the ground of the burnt offering (see Job 1: 5) but he did not realise what he himself was, in presence of the greatness and purity of God, until he saw and heard God for himself. He had to learn the need of Christ, as Ransom, Redeemer, Mediator, Interpreter. Every exercise that leads us to value Christ is of incalculable advantage and benefit.
There was spiritual intelligence in what the people said when they asked that Moses might be the mediator between God and them. If the pleasure of God is to be effectuated in us it must be through Christ as the Mediator, and through His being the Spirit of the covenant to quicken us. In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul enlarges on this. He says that “the Spirit quickens” (verse 6) and then, passing over the parenthesis to verse 17, he says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are [p. 60] transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”.
Moses was not only a type of Christ; but he was a remarkable vessel of the Spirit of Christ. If Moses could have imparted to the people his own spirit the covenant might have been blessedly effectuated. How delightful it must have been to God to have a man with whom He could speak face to face! “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, and not in riddles” (Numbers 12: 6 - 8). If it had been possible for Moses to quicken the people, and to give them his spirit, how different all would have been! But we have come to One who can do what Moses could not do, great as he was personally and as a type. Our Moses is not only the Mediator to bring to us the knowledge of God in holy love, but He is a quickening Spirit to make us to live in the appreciation of God as He has made Him known, and He gives His Spirit so that we may respond in the liberty of holy affections to God, and move in holy affections, too, towards His people.
“Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments continually, that it might be well with them and with their sons for ever!” (verse 29). Such are the breathings of the heart of God, and through the Mediator He has provided all the conditions by which His desires can be realised in His people. This scripture suggests that as under the mediatorship all the conditions suitable to the inheritance would be brought about. God is now putting, the Spirit of the Lord — the Spirit of Him who is the Mediator — into millions of hearts, that they may know God in His love, and be able to answer to the pleasure of His love [p. 61] concerning them, and to do so in perfect liberty of heart. God as known through the Mediator is the infinite Source of supply; He supplies all that His heart requires, so that all that pertains to the covenant, and that is suited to the inheritance, may have its place with us for His pleasure.