NATURAL RELATIONSHIPS UNRELIABLE
[p. 175] NATURAL RELATIONSHIPS UNRELIABLE
Numbers 10: 29 - 32; Numbers 21: 17, 18; Isaiah 8: 18 - 20
The passage in Numbers 10 is in mind because it shows how unreliable natural relations are especially if ‘in-law’. The passage treats of Moses’ father-in-law; the question is as to whether it was his actual father-in-law, or the son of his father-in-law, but we would understand that Jethro, Moses’ actual father-in-law, is in mind. More is said of this relationship in Moses than in anyone; in this relationship he is mentioned as serving his father-in-law well; and in fact the father-in-law is mentioned because he served Moses well; so that one would be measured as to any remarks as to these ‘in-law’ relationships, and as to others, especially mothers-in-law. Take Naomi, she served her daughter-in-law well! But I am speaking of Moses as a son-in-law, and therefore having a father-in-law; and I have in mind to speak, by contrast, of him as the ‘law-giver’. We cannot hope for much from the father-in-law; as we connect the ‘in-law’ position with Christendom and the many Christians there, we need to gauge things rightly. In the beginning of the dispensation Moses refers to persons of natural relation to Israel, namely the children of Esau, in Deuteronomy 2; that such persons were treated well; mercy and grace were shown to them; but later the condition changed because the state of Esau was unmendable, and God says, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau”, Malachi 1: 3. I mention this because we are living in these relationships, too; at the beginning much grace was shown to natural relations, a long time was given to Judaism; but the complete deliverance awaited Paul; and as a matter of consequence there was a gradual breaking-up after the Lord went into heaven, according to Luke 24: 50 - 52, “he led them out as far as Bethany, and having lifted up his hands, he blessed them. And it came to pass as he was blessing them, he was separated from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, having done him homage, returned to Jerusalem with great joy”, not to the mount of Olives, or to the upper room; so that in going to Jerusalem it was all favourable to the condition of the ‘in-law’ position; God’s long suffering was seen in this, and so it was the Lord would have His people go to the temple, and they “were continually in the temple praising and blessing God”, and this will last only as long as the conditions and the expressions belonging to them were taken on, as for instance the covenant never applied to Christianity; it applied to Christianity as the new covenant with the assembly as brought into the Supper; it was the beginning of the fading away of Judaism, though it lasted a long time. We are apt to retain the terms long after the thing has past. The new covenant was never made with the assembly, only in the spirit of it. Judaism has gone; Stephen’s burial was the burial of Judaism, and of any good with it. “Great lamentation” was made over Stephen, but undoubtedly it was what Judaism was in such a man as Paul, who wished to “be a curse from the Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to flesh”, Romans 9: 3. In Colossians and Ephesians we do not get these things. Paul’s judgment was to remit, and not to retain what had been, and to show in the burial of Stephen that all that was to be given up. In the death of Herod it was what was abominable to him, and if we are to have in-laws we must be watchful to keep them in their proper place. It was no accident that it was in Antioch that “the disciples were first called Christians”, and that Christianity was first established there, and should remain with all the lustre that belongs to it.
I pass on to the other thought, as we have in Moses.
[p. 177] He is not retained because of his Judaic associations, but because of what he represents, and the Lord Jesus connects him and parallels him with Himself; He says in John 5: 46, 47, “for if ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye do not believe his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” And so Paul’s and Peter’s words are placed on record as Scripture, and we see how Paul acquires such a place. So the thought of the law-giver is so necessary now; there is so much lawlessness. Moses is the law-giver, but not of the law of Sinai. He took good instructions from his father-in-law, and we may get good thoughts from our ‘in-laws’, but there is much that is spurious among what is so-called Christian. The law-giver is to be understood, and he is to be retained rigorously; all that are Bereans will do this; they will keep the Scriptures, and all with them; they search daily, as for hidden treasure, and to see if words are rightly used. Those who minister have these treasures to serve and to feed the saints; hence we have the word as to feeding, “Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give the measure of corn in season ? Blessed is that bondman whom his lord on coming shall find doing thus; verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he has”, Luke 12: 42 - 44. It means the Lord’s house; He is often spoken of as the house-father, and in Isaiah 9: 6 as the “Father of Eternity”. The thought, a very precious one, has to be retained, and as we sit here the Lord will look upon us and say, “Children, have ye anything to eat?” John 21: 5. We might even paraphrase that and ask whether it is food that the saints are having. Seven of them went fishing, yet not a word of reproof. What seemed so deep-rooted in them, was shallow, and the Lord knew it. The law-giver refers to law, but not in a legal sense; here it means praise, so the language in Numbers 21 is, “Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! sing unto it: Well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the lawgiver, with their staves”. That is it was the word of the law-giver; it is today a question of what can be applied in the service of God in singing. It is “respond to it”. Whatever there is of Christ in the singing is response; it is a beautiful word as it sinks down into the affections of the heart. So it is that law-giving is most necessary at the present time, that response (a rich word!) may be fuller. It enters into the song in Exodus 15 of Moses and the children of Israel; and Miriam and the women had their refrain; it resounded in the wilderness. What God had in that early time! It is the feminine side leading to the assembly. So Miriam went out; she is called “the prophetess”, so early; and so it is we have it in our own Scriptures, laws, as I may call them, the first and second epistles to the Corinthians; the first, as it were, a bare commandment, “the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment” (1 Corinthians 14: 37); the other, full of sympathy and feeling; beautiful feelings in the second epistle, “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ”, 2 Corinthians 11: 2. That is all we get in that epistle of the bride, but very full, as a root; how it is needed, that root! These epistles of law, or principles, in which the apostle says so much of women; one marvels that there was so much in these women; we have the suggestion that they prophesied in those days; we have in Acts 21: 9, “Now this man had four virgin daughters who prophesied”; but do they prophesy today? I do not know where to put it; but if it is a void, it wants to be remedied. I refer to this scripture because law-giving promotes song, spiritual melody for God and for Christ. Christ has priests on His own account, and God has, too, “they shall be priests of God and of the Christ”, Revelation 20: 6. It means that Christ has a means of carrying on, on His own account, and we need to see how to conform to it; so here the law-giver directs the song. It is the suggestion of a word that is exercised in authority in singing, “Then Israel sang this song, Rise up, well! Respond unto it: Well which princes digged, which the nobles of the people hollowed out at the word of the law-giver”; thus we are in the presence of nobility. I venture to compare it with the two letters to the Corinthians, where it says, “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment” (1 Corinthians 14: 37), and the Lord’s supper comes into those epistles, and the Lord is said to be the Person who gives the commandment. Before Gethsemane He disposed of what He had; His lovers were not strong enough to retain Him; their love was so weak, and yet He knew the depth of the roots He had laid; it would fill the whole earth; we go “from glory to glory” as we have it in 2 Corinthians 3: 18. We each should be imbued with it, and know how to carry it through. The epistles are full of comfort, and God is the “God of all encouragement”, 2 Corinthians 1: 3. The lawgiver raises the question of the authority of the Lord, His authority in the Supper; let no one challenge it! The epistles are full of what belongs to Christ, and it is a question of His rights, and the right He has to time, and what use He can make of us. We are espoused to Christ, to be used for His pleasure, to be used for Him, and how essential in our time to see this; there is so much that is lawless. Take the translation of the Scriptures by the Roman Catholics; we find lawlessness in it; so we need the law-giver, and we need the one, whoever he be, who keeps to the Scripture. The Supper, these meetings which we have week after week, are that we might learn in one language; it was at the beginning, not [p. 180] as at Babel, but it was the Spirit here; the gift of tongues is not needed now, but subjection to the Scriptures; let us learn what is there, and learn to speak the same things, and think eye to eye. Paul says he heard there were divisions among them, and he partly believed it (1 Corinthians 11: 18); it was not the terrible thing spoken of in chapter 5, but it is a pernicious thing that slips in so easily. In Numbers 21 they spoke in unity, hence the song.
Now in Isaiah, he was the most feeling prophet, and he includes the most musical king, Hezekiah, who had been down to the gates of death. He says, “The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness”, this is what we are hopeful of in such as Eutychus (Acts 20: 9), in recovery in the assembly; and this is what Hezekiah said, “I said, In the meridian of my days I shall go to the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the rest of my years. I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land of the living. With those who dwell where all has ceased to be, I shall behold man no more. Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent. I have cut off like a weaver my life. He separateth me from the thrum: — from day to night thou wilt make an end of me. I kept still until the morning; ... as a lion, so doth he break all my bones. From day to night thou wilt make an end of me”. This is the way he thought of God. “Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter; I mourned as a dove; mine eyes failed [with looking] upward: Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. Lord, by these things [men] live”. This is what I want to come to, to be in such a time, as we need resurrection life in the assembly. I will read on, “and in all these things is the life of my spirit; and thou hast recovered me,
[p. 181] and made me to live. Behold, instead of peace I had bitterness upon bitterness; but thou hast in love delivered my soul from the pit of destruction; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For not Sheol shall praise thee, nor death celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit do not hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day”, Isaiah 38: 9 - 19. This is my effort to bring something to the dear brethren as to the service of God; that we have right hymns and words. The law-giver means the intensification of the thought of right words, and that we all learn to be of one mind, and more, to think the same thing. In the Philippian epistle the Lord Jesus is the greatest model for us, He made Himself of no reputation, and Hezekiah came into the spirit of it, and put it into song, and became one of the great promoters of song in the Old Testament.
Now turn back to chapter 8: 18, “Behold, I and [p. 182] the children that Jehovah hath given me”, it is the Lord Jesus speaking in the Spirit,”are for signs and for wonders in Israel, from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto the necromancers and unto the soothsayers, who chirp and who mutter, say, Shall not a people seek unto their God? Will they go for the living unto the dead? To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, for them there is no daybreak”. These are the things we have to face; they are ‘in-laws’; yes, but worse apostasy is next door to us; it calls for sobriety; no giving in or dying; it is the great position for us to hold fast; and so here it is, “To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, for them there is no daybreak”, so we are to feel that in the ‘in-law’ position we may be related to these darkened people. John says, “the darkness is passing and the true light already shines”, 1 John 2: 8. “Behold, I and the children that Jehovah hath given me”, it is the Lord’s gracious place of Father; not the Father, He never takes that; it is a question of moral greatness; and Who has a greater place today? It is a question of what the saints are being fed on; is it real spiritual food — the best possible? The Lord said in John 21: 12, “Come and dine”; it is the best food, not the poorest, and it is for everyone who is serving to give the best; it must be accurate, and that there should be no need of a Berean to challenge what has been said. We as brethren should all speak the same thing, and then as we proceed, the Lord’s supper and the service of God would be better.