LIGHT IN VIEW OF MOVEMENT
[p. 370] LIGHT IN VIEW OF MOVEMENT
Genesis 30: 24, 25; Exodus 2: 5 - 10; Exodus 17: 13, 14; 1 Samuel 16: 12, 13
What is in mind is to speak of light, and I selected these scriptures to speak about this as it comes out in these four persons, having in view that light comes through persons. In the beginning, the light was commanded to shine out of darkness. The wording is significant. No person is mentioned from whence it shone, but the application of the passage in the New Testament connects it with the Lord Jesus. “God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, 2 Corinthians 4: 6. Clearly there it is connected with the Person of Christ and with ourselves as persons.
Having that passage in mind, I wish to make application of the four passages read to the present time, a time of darkness, and indeed a time in which people are sitting in darkness — restful, we might say, in it. Many will not have it pointed out to them that they are sitting in darkness; they are wholly without feeling as to it, for when it comes to moral things, men are without shame, alas, as ignorant, but still the light comes into the darkness. Ordinarily light dispels darkness, but in moral things the darkness remains, although the light shines, as John says, “the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not”, John 1: 5. The darkness remained. Here the light intruded itself from the divine side. Matthew says, quoting Isaiah, “The people sitting in darkness has seen a great light”, Matthew 4: 16. They have seen it. It alludes to Christ, confirming what I am saying, that light is in persons properly. The first chapter of Genesis typically [p. 371] makes that clear. The great lights in the heavens allude typically to persons, and so Matthew says that they who were sitting in darkness had seen a great light.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to live in Capernaum. He had resided in Nazareth. Capernaum was not nearly as desirable a place to live in as was Nazareth. It was lower down, many, many feet below the sea, indeed. The Lord went down there to live, but the light shone in the descent and those who lived in Capernaum had the privilege of seeing it. They sat in darkness. The Lord moved as He heard something. Of course, He knows everything, but as a Servant here, He recognised external facts and information, so He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum after He heard that John had been cast into prison. That was a matter of government. John was cast into prison, and it affected the Lord. Every bit of suffering in His servants affects the Lord, and He moved in relation to His servant, but I am speaking of the move as involving light. Those sitting in darkness saw — not simply that a light shone, but they saw it — they saw a great light. It brings out as I said, the truth that it is a Person. Light is from a substance. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1: 4.
Well, now, having said all that about light, as being substance in persons, I take up Joseph. Jacob represents the believer, who normally is on the alert for the light. He does not wish to miss anything, and so, as Joseph is born, his mother names him, giving the reason that the Lord would add to her another son. The believer takes note of what God will yet do, and acts in the light of it. Jacob was not a characteristic believer while in Padan-aram, though he was a believer. There are believers and believers. John tells us in chapter 2 of his gospel, that as Jesus made the water into wine, “his disciples believed on him”. They were already disciples, but they believed on Him as His glory was manifest, and a characteristic believer will watch for that, for it is the light, and as it shines he is to move according to it. He discerns that it indicates a movement.
Christianity is not a stationary thing. It is movable. John presents this in chapter 10, where he speaks of the flock. A flock is movable. Christendom has become a fold or folds; but they are not movable. Christianity involves a flock and it is moved by light. As the Lord says, “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12. So the believer, characteristically one of the sheep of Christ, follows the shepherd, the Lord tells us through John. They are alert for the light, and they follow a light shining. Otherwise they may miss their way, they may be left behind, as others move on. Now Jacob says immediately when Joseph is born and his mother had named him, “Send me away, that I may go to my place”. He had been with Laban for fourteen years. Why move away? Well, it was not the place for addition. The light coming into his soul involved addition, but that was not the place for addition. You do not want to add to yourself in the circumstances of unbelief. The more you do, the more you will be stationary and you may lose your way. “Woe unto them that add house to house, that join field to field”, says the prophet Isaiah, chapter 5: 8. The ray of light in the birth of that child and what is said about him told Jacob that he must move. Is this a voice to someone here, who is stationary religiously, and perhaps thinking you should be? The truth is that you belong to the flock of Christ, and He moves, and the flock follow Him. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”, John 10: 27.
“[p. 373] They who follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes”, Revelation 14: 4.
So we have, therefore, in this servant Joseph, a transitional thought, and as I said, christianity is transitional as regards its place in this world. Presently, the great arising will take place, dear brethren, and the great operation of Christ’s power will take the saints out of this world. We do not want to be taken out in our sleep. “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night”, 1 Thessalonians 5: 7. “We are not of the night, nor of darkness”. Paul says, “Ye are sons of light and sons of day”. We are to be on the alert for the light, for the coming of Christ, when He will exercise His great power. I love the thought, and to have now some little sense of the power of our translation. Are we aglow as to this, dear brethren? Everything around points to intensified darkness. We are of the day, and are on the alert for it. We are not going out asleep — God forbid! — we are to be fully awake, looking for the day star, as Peter says, “Until the day dawn and the morning star arise in your hearts”, 2 Peter 1: 19. The hearts of christians are the great theatre of divine operations at the present time, and God is stressing that these operations go on, whatever else goes on. The enemy would oppress us by suggesting that they do not go on, but the operations continue in view of the final transitional movement into permanency — into our eternal abode. We are to meet the Lord outside of this world, “to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall be always with the Lord”. What a prospect!
Joseph represents one transitional phase. It is a movement out of Genesis into Exodus. Moses is a movement out of Egypt into the wilderness. Life is seen in the move. Joshua is another move out of wilderness conditions into the inheritance — into [p. 374] our inheritance. David is another further transitional thought into God’s inheritance, and so we have four transitional phases. The first is Joseph. God is going to add, his mother said. Jacob sees this is not the place to add, but yet he stays and buys flocks, dropping from the level of faith, moving away from the shining of the precious light that came into his soul. How often that happens; light comes in and we resolve to move and then something else comes in. The enemy would say, ‘No, stay a while longer’. You may get some temporary advantage, and you listen to the deceiver, whereas the light that shone was intended to move you in a spiritual direction, and it had that effect at the start. So the whole book of Genesis is lightened up with this position. Joseph is the great servant for lifting the people of God out of one position into another position. He says, “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance”, Genesis 45: 7. But they had to come down. He sent up the wagons, and the message to his father and to his brethren was that they should come down into Egypt. It was a complete lift of the people of God from one position to another, and the light governing is in Joseph, he is the substance. He is a young man right through Genesis. The second mention of him in this respect is that his father places him before his mother. It is personal distinction there — not simply the light for movement, but the light of distinctive personality. The next thing is that his father loved him. The transitional procedure is on the line of attraction. He loved him better than all his sons. That love never waned, and Joseph counted on it. He appealed to his brethren, saying, “And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither”, Genesis 45: 13. Joseph counted on his father’s interest to hear of him, and not in vain, so that we have Jacob in Egypt. The first verse of Exodus tells us of the tribes coming into Egypt with Jacob, their father. That is, it is transitional — in perfect order. They do not come down piece-meal, but as a family in relation to their father. The family comes down from the record of Genesis into Exodus, that is, we have the family attracted into Egypt. The people are there now in families. One would seek to awaken interest in any one here who has not light in regard to this great matter — the great family of faith. It is a transitional movement at the present time, in view of our eternal place of fixity where God shall “be all in all”, where the Son, the true Joseph, will be on our side in subjection. Eternal fixity at present is just an expectation.
The next phase is Moses. He has to do with the water. We have to pass over the water for the next move. So Moses is drawn out of the water. His saviour was the daughter of Pharaoh, not without significance. She is more than a mere Egyptian. She had other instincts, for God in His sovereign way establishes links to serve His testimony. There are many phases in His way, but it is really one way in its varied features of transitional movements. Pharaoh’s daughter found something in the river. What a treasure! What would heaven see as that ark of bulrushes was opened up? Not a corpse, certainly! Joseph was put in a coffin in Egypt and carried all the way through the wilderness, for he must be in the movement. He is the first great leader. It is an accumulative thought. Now in this ark is a living babe, “exceedingly lovely”, or ‘fair to God’, we are told, and it is left in the water. Water is a great figure in Scripture. The feature I am now speaking of is baptism. It is morally obligatory, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;
[p. 376] but he that believeth not shall be damned”, Mark 16: 16. No christian should be otherwise than baptised. You discredit this matter I am speaking of, if you are not. Moses is the great baptiser; he is introduced to us as in the water. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10: 2, “All were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”. We are told all! Oh, you say, infants? Certainly, but households is the proper word. It is a great doctrine — household baptism — not to be hidden under the table, but to be laid open on the table to be known and read of all men.
Paul says, “Christ has not sent me to baptise”. Is he belittling baptism? No! He does not say he did not believe in it. He just says that he had not been sent to do it. But he did it, nevertheless. Is he transgressing? No. He did what it was necessary to do, but he says he did not wish to make much of it, lest you might think he was making a party, doing things in his own name. He sums it up, saying, “I thank God that I have baptised none of you, unless Crispus and Gaius, that no one may say that I have baptised unto my own name. Yes, I baptised also the house of Stephanas; for the rest I know not if I have baptised any other. For Christ hath not sent me to baptise, but to preach glad tidings”, 1 Corinthians 1: 14 - 17. He says he did not come to baptise lest you might think he was a party man — a sectarian. You see, he is not ashamed to use the word ‘household’. They are baptised people — in households — and we should be such together. The household of Stephanas had dedicated themselves to minister to the saints. They had moral power in the assembly. Paul says, “Ye should also be subject to such”. You see, dear brethren, that is what is meant by Moses. They are all baptised “in the cloud and in the sea”. Well, that is all I had to say about Moses, but it is most important.
[p. 377] The daughter of Pharaoh came down to use the water, and she became Moses’ saviour — an Egyptian princess — but her name is not given. She came down to wash. Washing is a great thought in the Scriptures. “And such were some of you: but ye are washed”, says the apostle. She finds this precious babe inside the ark. The child was preserved. Satan was endeavouring through Pharaoh to destroy all the males. We cannot have a family without the male. Moses represents the governing element — the male side. Satan would destroy that. Satan would say, Save the girls alive, but destroy the males among the people of God. If we destroy the element of rule, we destroy the whole matter. That is how the thing stood in the first chapter of Exodus.
Now the Israelites were increasing with no ruler. Jacob was gone. Joseph was gone. Another king arose in Egypt who knew not Joseph, and Israel multiplied with no protector. What a moment of darkness, of possible destruction of the people of God; but now five women are brought in to be saviours of the male side; those that Satan would destroy are for salvation. Let us see to it that the male side is maintained — the ruling class, as it were, among the people of God. Little Benjamin, for instance, is a ruler. It is the little ones in that sense. So that God, we are told, dwells between his shoulders — a dwelling place for God. You cannot have that without rule. Moses represents that principle. “Moses indeed was faithful in all his house, as a ministering servant”, Hebrews 3: 5. He is thus a type of Christ. It is the element of rule through baptism. Baptism is morally imperative and without it there is no present salvation. “He that believes and is baptised shall be saved”, Mark 16: 16. So Peter says, “Which figure also now saves you, even baptism, not a putting away of the filth of flesh, but the demand as before God of a good conscience,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”, 1 Peter 3: 21. The doctrine founded on that is separation from the world. We have left the world. It is the second transitional thought under Moses.
The third stage is in Joshua. He is a warrior. Moses brings us into the wilderness. He does not leave it himself. He could not go into the land. In His sovereignty God takes him in later on the mount of transfiguration, but in the type he does not go into the land. Moses takes us into the wilderness. Baptism takes us into the wilderness. The Lord’s supper holds us there, not in the land, but always as out of Egypt. It is food in the wilderness. These are the two great sacraments. I may be speaking to some here who are stationary christians, and who perhaps know little or nothing about what I am saying — of these transitional things. You want to leave the stationary position through baptism — the figure of Christ’s death. The apostle says, “As many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death ... We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life”, Romans 6: 3, 4. You begin the great domain of glory in baptism. The first day of the week recorded in the end of the gospel is a day of glory and the great thought is the glory of the Father. Think of that — baptised unto Him — baptised unto His death — He who was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. We should walk in the newness of life introduced by the ministry of Moses.
Then Joshua takes us on. He runs alongside of Moses from Rephidim in Exodus 17 onwards; he is introduced in relation to Moses, but he goes beyond Moses. He goes into the land and here is a man who has things rehearsed in his ears. We get the idea of the ‘Book of God’ with him. The first mention of the ‘Book of God’ is here. I call it the ‘Book of God’, because God tells Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book”. We need to become acquainted with this book because it is written in view of continuance. There is also the Book of Life. You want to know whether you are written in this book. Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, we are told, was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20: 15). Being in the wilderness position may not ensure your being put into that book. That is a most important matter. You want to get into the book. The things are rehearsed in the ears of Joshua. He typifies Christ, another feature of light in a person — substantial, but it is light shining.
It is a question of a book, and of ears, and then military success, for the enemy is arrayed against us to keep us out of the land of Canaan — to keep us in Egypt, in the world. It is by way of the teaching of baptism that we should come to understand the glory of the Father, even now as in the wilderness, and to make sure that you belong to Canaan, and that you want to be in Canaan. As the light of Joseph came to Jacob, he said, “Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country”. Now, what about ourselves in the wilderness? do we want to move to our own place? — it is in the land; indeed, it is in heaven.
Moses’ father-in-law would not leave; he would not go into the land — he preferred the wilderness. Many of us are children of the wilderness. We like it. We have worldly links. We are born of christian parents, and yet love the world. Maybe we would not go to the theatre, but we are worldlings in the sense in which we prefer the wilderness, and do not want to leave it, because, after all, the world goes alongside the wilderness. It is what the [p. 380] world becomes to us as we are affected by Christ’s love in going into death, and as love wanes with us the separation is apt to lose its force with us. Moses has to do with this kind of thing, the revival of love of the world — they wanted to return to Egypt. There is great opposition to us who would go on to Canaan. God brought them out that He might bring them in. Exodus 15 is not only the outgoing from Egypt, but the ingoing into the land. Are we ready for that? Joshua is the servant in whom light shines for us on this point, on our exodus from the wilderness into the land of Canaan — our own land.
Maybe I am speaking to some who might be classified as children of the wilderness. You were born of christian parents who came out of Egypt — and they are going on to Canaan, but you are not. It is a most pathetic thing to contemplate, a non-movement of children born in the wilderness and of christian parents. The parents are not going back into Egypt, to the world, but they intend to finish in Canaan, indeed in heaven, with Christ. If there is one here, I would appeal to you. Move along with people of God. Get acquainted with the Lord Jesus. He is equal to every opposing power, He never lost a battle, He will see you through in victory into glory.
Joshua is a victorious leader, he leads out of the wilderness into the land of Canaan. God says later, “I lifted up my hand unto them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them”, Ezekiel 20: 6. It is as though He would say, ‘I looked at that land and liked it and I want you to look at it and like it, too’. Of all the lands that His eyes rested upon, that is the land for His people — not God’s inheritance, but His people’s inheritance, a land espied for you. He wants you to go there, and He has appointed Joshua to take you there. It is Christ’s place. Are you despising that pleasant land, some of you christians here? The [p. 381] people, we are told, despised the pleasant land. God says ‘They will never see it’. Most solemn! Some day, if you keep on despising, God will say to you, ‘You will never see it’. Take notice of it! You will never see it. You will be strewn in the wilderness. Caleb and Joshua were not prepared to stay in the wilderness; they went in to Canaan. You will understand that these are figurative things. They were in the wilderness, but they did not wish to stay in the wilderness. They are numbered to go into the land of Canaan. Will you not come? “Come with us, and we will do thee good”, as Moses said to Hobab; but he said, ‘No! I am not going with you’. God forbid that that should be the language of any christian here tonight. Come along to share the inheritance on the other side of the Jordan. Do not remain in the wilderness.
Finally, David is the fourth transitional leader. He paid great attention to the service of God. He was a king, but his kingship was subservient to a greater thing; that was the service of God. The service of God is the greatest thing. We are to serve Him all the days of our life. It is a final thought. David, typical of Christ, is the leader in that, and we are to be brought into our own inheritance now. David would say to us that God must have His inheritance too. “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the Mighty One of Jacob”, Psalm 132: 4, 5. He invites God to come into his inheritance. What a man he was, and what a man he is typically. All these men represent Christ in His various phases of ministry. David, being what he is, as I said, the leader in the service of God, is a beautiful, attractive person. You get a little touch of that in Joseph, though it was not the main thought. David is introduced to us in the most propitious circumstances, and he is ruddy. He appears in the [p. 382] company of his brethren, a desirable environment, a place of affection. He is anointed in the midst of them. The Spirit of God came upon him. He is an attractive man; he is ruddy and of beautiful countenance. The eye is included in this and has so much to do with beauty; it has intelligence and affection in expression. It is a wonderful organ for expression. It is to present Christ to us in the sense of attractiveness. It is not that He leads us in by authority. He draws us in. It is affection — it is personal attractiveness. “Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty”, Isaiah 33: 17. The Lord would present Himself in this last phase of the movement as we are about to be transferred literally by His power into His heavenly places. I am speaking of Ephesians now and how He attracts us into heavenly places spiritually. We will remain there as accepted in the beloved. He is presented to us as David in Ephesians. David means ‘beloved’. That is exactly what Christ is in the heavenly places. It is not resurrection although it will include that. We shall yet experience the operation of His power here, taking us up, but in the meantime He has our hearts there, moved by the Spirit’s power, but by Christ as the attractive and absorbing object of our hearts.
We are not going away from home when we go to heaven. If we lose a relative, he has gone away from the home here, yet he has gone to home. It is God’s home. We do not want him back. God would draw us to the place. It is God’s home, the place that He made for Himself to dwell in, dear brethren, and our David is drawing us into that. We are already made accepted in the beloved, that we should be holy, and without blame before God our Father in love. He has our hearts now; that is the result of ministry; but presently a great wave of His power will take us all up. Sometimes in the prayer meeting we get a touch of divine power, that is like [p. 383] the rapture, and reminds us of it. Paul says, “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”, Philippians 1: 23. But think of the delight of the apostle in his being caught up to the third heaven and into paradise. The Lord Jesus spoke about going to paradise: “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. The Lord Jesus and the dying thief were both there together that day — both in the paradise of God, in triumph. What a transposition from the cross of Calvary! We are to become accustomed to these things, our hearts are drawn into them by our David, presently to be taken into them in eternal actuality. One stroke of His power will set us down in our own place. May God bless the word.