THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS SERVICE (2)
[p. 39] THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS SERVICE (2)
Exodus 2: 15; Exodus 3: 1 - 6; Exodus 15: 27; Numbers 21: 16 - 20
JT We have considered Joseph of whom it says in Genesis 49: “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well”. He is a type of Christ as the One who sits at God’s right hand having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Spirit is here in the assembly; but there is even a service which makes it possible that the Spirit and all that He is can be available and operative among the people of God. Only the Father or Christ can give the Holy Spirit. But we have the ministry of the word in order that the Holy Spirit might be enjoyed and be for refreshment and power in the souls of the people of God.
In Exodus we find Moses as a type of Christ, but at the same time he is a pattern for others who serve the people of God, or for one who has a place as a leader in the house of God. We see him in Exodus 2 as an administrator. Every country, as we know, has its laws and its state system, but there is also a government for the country, an administration. It is through this administration that its resources are taken possession of and administered in a way that furthers the welfare of the country.
The principles on which the present marvellous dispensation is founded rest on Christ being in heaven after having completed the work of redemption, and on the Holy Spirit down here forming the assembly. But Christ as Lord, and the gifts and leaders which He has given, constitute an administration through which the people of God might come into the good of the kingdom. It is obvious that it is not sufficient to know about the Spirit’s presence, we are to get the good of His presence among us here. We find Moses here sitting by the well; he is a type of a man who understands that there is power down [p. 40] here, and he wishes this power to be of benefit. The seven daughters of Reuel came to the well to draw water for their father’s sheep; and they fill the troughs. They could do so much, but it says that the shepherds drove them away. More than these women were needed to draw water for the sheep. We might consider Reuel’s seven daughters as a type of the saints. They had brought their father’s sheep there to water them, and they drew the water, but they were unable to water the sheep, for others came and drove them away. Then it was that Moses appeared. He helped these women to water the sheep. We see in this incident what God has provided for His people that His flock might drink of the well. God has such at the present time to whom He entrusts the administration.
Ques How do you connect this with the thought of the presence of the Holy Spirit?
JT I wished first to show that there are those who administer. God’s people need to be aware that Christ as the One who has ascended to heaven has given gifts to men. These gifts are true christians who themselves have received the Holy Spirit. There are men who have a place of reputation in the many systems of christendom, and who have not the Holy Spirit. Such a one is not sitting at the well, so to speak. No unconverted pastor or parson, educated or gifted as he may be, can help the people of God to get what is found in the well. Moses represents one who can help the people of God. It says he helped the women to water their sheep. Later on we find in Exodus 3, that Moses led the sheep westward into the desert and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. He did not lead them into the world, but he led them into the desert, to the mountain of God, the place where divine supplies were found.
Ques How can the people of God be brought into the desert and have these supplies?
[p. 41] JT Every one who has learnt from Christ will, as far as he is able, lead the people of God to the place where divine supplies are found. In the gospel of Mark we find that when the opposition against Christ began to show itself, He withdrew with His disciples to the sea. This is the principle, to separate the disciples. Later it says that He went up into the mountain and called unto Him whom He would, and He ordained twelve that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach. These who had been with Christ on the mountain would know His way of carrying out service. Such servants would lead the flock far away from this world to the place where divine supplies are found. It was said in Genesis 22, “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”, and we find later that it was on the mountain of Jehovah where His wonderful instruction about the tabernacle was given. The mount of Jehovah is that which can make His people independent of the world. We do not need church buildings or schools for educating preachers for this service; all such things are part of this world and are quite unnecessary for the service of God. Moses, as sitting at the well, shows in type what this service implies that can lead the people of God into the good of all that which the Holy Spirit has for us.
Ques Do we not see in the shepherds a contrary principle to what comes out in Moses?
JT That is important to see. We find in the gospels that which would correspond to these shepherds, those who prevented the women from watering their sheep. When the Lord healed the woman who had been bowed together eighteen years, we find that those who were looked up to in the synagogue withstood Him and criticised Him. We find the same thing many times in the gospels. The religious leaders were opposed to Christ, but the Lord was concerned about leading others into the good of [p. 42] all that God had for man. Now after He has died and ascended to heaven He has sent down the Holy Spirit, and He has given gifts to men, so that the saints might come into the good of the Spirit’s presence. There are at this present time religious leaders who would hinder the saints from entering into and enjoying God’s things through the Spirit.
Rem Paul was one who separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus (Acts 19).
JT This is a good application. This incident is mentioned after twelve men at the same time had received the Holy Spirit. They had been instructed through the baptism of John, but had not received the Holy Spirit. Then Paul preached the gospel about Christ to them, and laid his hands on them, and prayed, and they received the Spirit. Afterwards Paul enters the synagogue and was teaching them there during three months. But when the leading men in the synagogue were opposed he separated the disciples and taught them in the school of Tyrannus.
Rem In Exodus 3 where Moses came into the presence of God it says that Moses should draw off his shoes, but in Luke 15 it was said to the servants that they should put shoes on the feet of the returning son.
JT I suppose that the Old Testament shows us that as redemption was then not completed the truth of sonship could not be known. Galatians shows us how God’s people under the old covenant, were, so to speak, not of age, but that “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, ... that we might receive sonship”. It says further: “But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God”. It is in the light of this that shoes may [p. 43] be put on our feet. At the same time this scripture in Exodus 3: 5 is a reminder, as long as we are here in the world, of the reverence that is due on our side. As a son I am in Christ and thus not in the flesh at all; but in reality we are still in a condition of flesh and blood, and it is wholesome to remember that “our God is a consuming fire”, and therefore we ought to serve Him in holy fear and reverence. It is beautiful to see the spirit which came out in Moses; it says he consented to remain with the man, but it does not say that he received any wages. Moses stayed with Reuel forty years, and at the end of this time he led his father-in-law’s sheep to the mountain of God; that is Horeb. This shows that Moses corresponds to God’s thoughts of a servant who is faithful in his administration. He is unselfish and satisfied with his lot. The Lord Jesus says, “Now he who serves for wages flees because he serves for wages”, John 10: 13. It seems as if God honoured Moses by appearing to him in this way in the wilderness. If God reveals Himself to us in our service it means far more than any recognition from men.
Ques To whom do these shepherds who drove away the women correspond?
JT Christianity has many such in these days. They want everything done according to men’s thoughts and ways. There are those who have an official place as shepherds, but they have no real love for the sheep. In Moses we find the unselfish servant who will help the people to get water.
Rem When Paul took leave of the elders of Ephesus, he said, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you”, Acts 20: 29.
JT Yes, and he says, “Not sparing the flock”. Moses is thus a pattern for us in this respect. He is unselfish in his service, and he commences with [p. 44] giving help; the flock was not his own. There are those who have the place of shepherds and who speak of their flock, but the flock belongs to God and Moses understood this. Here it was a question of Jethro’s flock, and Moses did the best for it when he led it to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Rem You said that we need to understand more what the assembly is in order to comprehend better the truth about the Spirit.
JT That is true, and I believe it was what Paul presented when he taught in the school of Tyrannus. In Acts we find three periods in connection with teaching. It says in chapter 11 that Paul and Barnabas were for a whole year together in the assembly, and taught a large crowd. And it says that at Corinth he remained a year and six months teaching among them the word of God. Later on in Acts 19 he reasoned daily with the disciples in the school of Tyrannus, and this took place for two years. And from chapter 20 we see that he was with them for three years in Ephesus. It was in Ephesus that the assembly reached its climax. It is also in the epistle to the Ephesians that we find the highest divine truths presented in connection with the assembly. It says there that the assembly is the fulness of Christ, and also that God shall have glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages.
Ques Do we find the same thought in Exodus 15: 27 in connection with the seventy palm trees?
JT I was just thinking of this. I believe that we see in these twelve springs of water and the seventy palm trees an indication of the help which a perfect administration affords us. This type speaks of what God has placed in the wilderness for us. Pharaoh thought that the wilderness would compel the people to return to Egypt, but in the wilderness God supplies all that the people of God need. In [p. 45] His goodness and love God gave them twelve springs of water in the desert. I am sure that when the people came to this place their hearts were filled with deep gratefulness to God.
Rem Although the flock was led into the desert, and not yet into the land, they had these resources.
JT It was God’s resources in the desert, as expressed in J.N.D.’s hymn.
‘Is the wilderness before thee,
Desert lands where drought abides?
Heav’nly springs shall there restore thee,
Fresh from God’s exhaustless tides’. (76:2)
Rem The wilderness in its spiritual application is not an inferior side of the truth if we are in it with God.
JT Not at all, for it is where we learn to apprehend what God is for us. Therefore it says in the verses read in Numbers 21 that they came to Pisgah “which looks over the surface of the waste”. From Deuteronomy 34 we understand that one could from there look into the land of Canaan, but the thought in Numbers is to show what God has been for me in the wilderness.
Rem Their resources in the wilderness were unknown to Pharaoh even as to the world today.
JT The resources are for those who in faith have gone out into the wilderness: all are available to them. One can understand how these types that we have considered allude to what is, so to speak, outside of us, objective things. They have to do with the divine administration.
Ques Is it possible for believers to lose the enjoyment of this?
JT Let us look at Numbers 21 in order to see how the believer’s portion comes out. What they found at Elim alludes to what a young believer finds when he takes his place amongst the people of God. Here he finds these springs and these palm [p. 46] trees where there is shadow. He has not himself procured these things. God has provided them, and they are found here. The young believer encamps beside the waters. You find young believers sometimes wishing to return to the world; they do not encamp by the waters. The number twelve speaks of perfect administration. The seventy palm trees speak of something which is beyond that. We find that the Lord sent out twelve disciples and later seventy others.
Ques What is the difference between Egypt and the wilderness?
JT Egypt is a figure of the world, the place where the flesh finds its life. It says of Moses that he esteemed the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For us Egypt prefigures also the world as the sphere where Satan holds souls in bondage. This world becomes a wilderness to one who believes in Christ and it is here in the wilderness that God opens for us another world. In the tabernacle we have what prefigures the heavenly things (see Hebrews 9: 23). We have there presented to us that world to which God will bring us. These things which God has given us in the wilderness are in view of sustaining us on the journey through it.
Ques Does what you have spoken of correspond to the land?
JT The tabernacle was a figure of heavenly things. It is true that there was a foretaste of the land in the tabernacle, but while we are walking here in the wilderness we are reminded that we are not yet in reality in heaven, although we get the good of the heavenly things. So we find that these two sides go on simultaneously, our public life in the wilderness, and our private intercourse with God, outside the wilderness. It is in Numbers that we are made ready, in an objective way, for entering into the land. After they had sung, “Rise up, well!
sing unto it”, they went forward from one place to another until they came to Pisgah which is on the border of the land of Canaan. The springing well in Numbers is found in the same chapter as the brazen serpent. In Romans 8 the brazen serpent stands in connection with our life in the wilderness, so that the righteous requirements of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit.
Ques Is it by entering into our heavenly privileges that in the power of the Spirit we can take up our responsible side down here?
JT In John 4 the Lord says that the fountain of water in the believer springs up into eternal life. This stands in connection with the land, but in John 7 we have the other side in view of testimony; namely, that he who comes to Christ and drinks, from him shall flow rivers of living water. This points to the wilderness, the place where water is so needed.
Rem Caleb’s daughter sought springs.
JT She was in the land already, and she desired that which could maintain her there. But what we find here is what can help us to come into the land, namely the Holy Spirit which springs up to eternal life in the believer, from whom should flow rivers of living water to meet the need of others.
Ques Does the word ‘perish’ in John 3 mean to be without water in the wilderness?
JT It refers to those whose bodies fell in the wilderness. It is not exactly the judgment of God. All men are perishing, but God would save men from it. No believer perishes in the wilderness. How solemn that their bodies should be left in the wilderness! They were not buried.
Ques Does this correspond to a worldly believer?
JT I do not think so. I do not believe that any true believer falls in the wilderness. Hebrews shows [p. 48] plainly that they did not go in on account of unbelief; they were apostate, they were not even buried. It is remarkable that all those who had faith, and of whom it says that they died in the wilderness, were buried; they are Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. It says of the unbelievers that their carcases, not their dead bodies but their carcases, a very ignominious word, fell and were wasted in the wilderness. It was as if God would show His abhorrence of the unbelief that rejects the heavenly testimony. Numbers 21: 18 reads, “from the wilderness they went to Mattanah”. They are beginning to leave the wilderness now in order to enter the land.
Ques Is this the thought that they who do not enjoy eternal life do not enter the land?
JT Yes, that is why it says in Hebrews: “For we enter into the rest who have believed”. It does not say that we shall enter in a time to come, but we are characterised by entering into rest now. This chapter shows us how we may enter. We enter by the Spirit.
Ques Have our meetings and our exercises to do with the wilderness, and if so, how can we combine the thought of life with this?
JT We have to consider the assembly from two sides. One is found in Corinthians where the assembly is looked upon as a local gathering, as was seen in Corinth, but in Ephesians the assembly is considered as being placed in the heavenlies, and this is not a material thought, but a wholly spiritual one. When we get a view of the assembly as we find it in Ephesians, it is then we come into contact with eternal life. As we have been saying previously, where the people of God are gathered there is a sphere where life can be experienced. The more holy, spiritual and separated we are as believers, the more we shall touch a heavenly condition which is outside this world. Eternal life is considered as [p. 49] something which is quite outside the sphere of natural things. John writes: “These things have I written to you that ye may know that ye have eternal life who believe on the name of the Son of God”. The word ‘know’ in this verse means conscious knowledge. I am conscious of having it. If we receive rightly the truth in John’s epistle we should be conscious of having eternal life, and this can only be in the power of the Spirit of God. Eternal life is in His Son; that is to say, it is something which is wholly outside the conditions of flesh and blood. It is on the other side of the Jordan. In 1 John 5 it says: “This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ”. He is looked upon as the One that has died. Later we find a threefold witness; the Spirit, the water, and the blood. When we apprehend these three witnesses, we are able to enter into eternal life, for it is outside the sphere of flesh and blood; it is in the Son.
Rem We may view the assembly in two ways. Firstly as in the epistle to the Corinthians, and this leads us to fellowship, and then as in Ephesians where the features of Christ are seen in the assembly.
JT Quite right. In Ephesians we find what is wholly the work of God.
Rem Believers may not have light as to the truth of Ephesians though they might apprehend what comes out in Corinthians.
JT I do not think I should be able to apprehend this if I were connected with any human system.
Rem Believers may not understand the precious truth we have in Ephesians, yet I thought that all christians could comprehend something of the truth of the Corinthian epistles.
JT I do not think it is possible for one who is connected with any acknowledged religious system to have a right apprehension of the assembly either from the Corinthians or the Ephesian side of the [p. 50] truth, for if he has this, he acts against the light. The epistle to the Corinthians condemns severely anyone calling himself by any other name than christian. If I say: I am a Lutheran, a Methodist and so on, I am condemned by the epistle to the Corinthians. Paul says there: “Each of you says, I am of Paul, ... and I of Cephas, and I of Christ”. And he asks: “Is the Christ divided?”. If I cannot say: I am of Paul, I should not either be able to say I am of Wesley or of Luther. We find that after Barnabas and Saul had spent a whole year with the saints at Antioch, the believers there were called christians. Then we find in scripture that they are called brethren. They are also called saints. Why should we assume human names? Paul asks: “Has Paul been crucified for you?”.
Ques Are not these the things that contribute to what we call the ruin of the assembly?
JT Yes, they are. The saints of God are divided into groups and parties, but Scripture says that it is one faith, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”, Ephesians 4: 5.
Rem Christians will acknowledge that all believers belong to the assembly, but many affirm that it is something that cannot be realised these days. They speak of an ‘invisible church’. If you asked, Are you the only ones that form the assembly? they answer: ‘No, the assembly includes all believers’.
JT When they state that, they really confess that they are partisan. They are of Paul, of Cephas, and so on. If they confess that there is one assembly they ought to withdraw from all that which is not.
Ques Is it right to say that we may stand on the foundation of Scripture in spite of all being in ruin?
JT Yes, “The firm foundation of God stands”. So that we can say there is only one assembly. This is the language of Scripture, and if every true believer in the world took this ground, all real [p. 51] believers would be found together. This implies that I must withdraw from all that which contradicts it. Therefore we find, as we have said before, that Paul separated the disciples. The Lord Himself withdrew with His disciples to the sea. In 2 Timothy 2 Paul says: “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Then he says that we should “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. There is thus found a way for the people of God today in spite of all these parties.
Ques Would you kindly say something more about the twelve springs in the wilderness, and of the well that the princes dug?
JT They had no need to dig these twelve springs. They speak of something which God gives us through the ministry of the word, what the believer finds when he is converted. But the well in Numbers 21 had to be dug out. This digging points to the removing in us of all that is a hindrance to the Spirit’s work in us. And as they were digging they sang to the Spirit. When I sing to the Spirit I acknowledge the Spirit as a divine power, the only power that can bring me into the land, as the Lord says in John 6. “It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing”. That is why it says immediately after they had sung to the Spirit: “And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah”. They left the wilderness behind them.
Ques Does the digging speak of self-judgment?
JT Yes, I think so. They did this by the word of the lawgiver. For us it is by the word of Christ. The digging must go on.
Ques Would you say that the digging depends on us and the spiritual power we possess, whereas the springs are what God has provided?
JT I think that is right.