Lev. 14. When the leper, white all over, stands before the priest, and the sparrow is slain, one drop of that blood is sufficient to cause him to be pronounced clean. It is a very feeble apprehension that he has (are not five sparrows sold for two farthings?), but the moment the blood is sprinkled on him there is cleansing, and the living bird is let fly towards heaven. The moment the sinner rests on the precious blood of Christ, however feebly, he is meet for heaven, and wants to go there. Why? The will of God is done perfectly there. The soul has been doing its own will long enough, “the time past may suffice,” and it longs to be there, never to have thought or wish contrary to the grace that now has cleansed it. But there is a place on earth where the will of God is done (though Satan, alas! often hinders). Where is that? In the assembly of God. The leper was washed with water and took his place in the camp. As cleansed by the water of the word, our place is in “the assembly” where God orders. Each tribe in the camp pitched according to commandment by its own standard. The Lord ruled there. It would be presumptuous for me to go into dear Mr.'s house and order his servants, putting one here and another there. He is master, and he orders. Christ is “over his own house,” and He puts one here and another there. “No,” says a man from the pulpit—I am now speaking of when we “come together in assembly” (1 Cor. 11:18), not of the individual prosecution of a man's gift, preaching or prophesying— “you listen to me and be quiet.” I cannot; the Lord must order me, not man (1 Cor. 12; 14).
Yet there is more. A man may say, the will of God is done in heaven, and I am cleansed and made meet to go there. Well, he may also take his place in the “assembly” and carry out the will of the Lord there; but how about his tent life It is one thing to know His will as done in heaven, and see it done in the assembly, but are you doing His will in your hearts and your surroundings of home? This comes last in the chapter before us. Let us see what provision is made for it.
The prominent thing is the trespass offering; the sin and burnt offerings were not missing, but this comes first. Have you had the specter of some sin of omission or commission committed long ago, perhaps in childhood, rise before you? Does it cause sorrow? We should have a tender conscience about that which caused Christ's death.
But is the sorrow eclipsed by the joy of knowing it all forgiven? “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
Then the blood is put on the ear. If I am to do the will of God, I must know it. The ear is first cleansed, the hands to do, or feet to walk, follow. The blessed Lord had His ear opened, but no blood was needed there. He was sinless. Upon the blood the oil was put (type of the Holy Ghost). We need power for walk. There are plenty of instructions in the word for our tent life. Let us learn them and do them in the power of the Holy Ghost. It was on the eighth (resurrection) day all this was done for the leper. It is in the power of resurrection life that we are to carry on our home duties even as lepers cleansed.
9.
Ex. 15:2, 3; Josh. 14:6-11; Phil. 4:12, 13. There are many dear saints who are passing through trial and affliction who, while sustained and patient under it, yet cannot say they “glory in tribulation.” They are not filled with joy in it, and in this consciousness are grieved that they are clogged and feeble instead of sending forth streams of blessing around. To any such, it is hoped the following reflections may be helpful.
In the first scripture we have the first public display of the power of God towards Israel, not the first manifestation of His love to them. That had been shown in their exemption from the stroke of the destroying angel. What greater proof of love than their perfect security when God was pouring out His furious judgments all around? The universal wail ascended; not a house where there was not one dead. Yet “when I see the blood, I will pass over you.” That was God's provision for a wicked people. Here we have His power for a weak people. How utterly powerless they were, with the spears of the Egyptians behind, and the waves before! What is their resource? “Jehovah shall fight for you!” “And they saw all their enemies dead on the sea shore.” But we have not only Jehovah's deliverance from “all the power of the enemy,” but also His constant care right through the wilderness—raining down manna, giving streams from the rock, sustaining till the end.
Look at the second scripture. You know the history of Caleb—how God would have His people know something of the land before they got there, and sent the spies; and how, those spies brought up an evil report, at first, owning it was a good land, but looking at their enemies; and then threatening to give it all up and go back to Egypt, while Moses and Aaron were powerless and fallen on their faces. But Caleb stands up with Joshua; it was not difficulties he had to fight (he saw none), but declension that he had to stand against. The ten who had gone with him were his enemies, and “bade stone him.” But he had two things alone before him, and the man will get on well who sees only these two. What are they? If “Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us in,” and “Jehovah is with us; fear them not” (Num. 14:8, 9). He comes before Joshua at the age of eighty-five; and oh! what an experience his was! He had felt the lash of the taskmaster, had known the bitterness of bondage, had toiled at the bricks without straw, he knew Egypt well, and he had been through that night, had seen the blood sprinkled, had fed on the roast lamb, and had marched triumphantly through the sea. What an experience! And now he says, “I [am as] strong this day as in the day that Moses sent me.” If there was a word in the song of Ex. 15 that Caleb enjoyed, it must have been the one that also suits me best, “Jehovah is my strength.”
Now if we turn to the New Testament we find the same thing with added effulgence. In the Epistle to the Philippians we find a man who had been four years in prison, chained to a soldier, and not only so, but in need often, wanting food and thinking about a “cloak” and the approaching winter (he had not much to keep him warm). Yet he loved the saints, and enjoyed their love too—had just received their gift, and now wishes to cheer them. “Rejoice in the Lord.” Think of a man, four years in prison, telling others to be happy! “How can you do it, Paul?” “I have strength for all things in him who gives me power.” It is not only in any great emergency that the power is felt—a man may be a hero at a push—but in the long-continued path of suffering, the daily trials and friction, the every-day life. We should be like a baby in its mother's arms! She has all the strength and sustenance, and the baby soon knows it; and only rarely will it be found going to a stranger. And I love it for it. But it teaches me a lesson; do I treat my Lord so? In 2 Cor. 12 we find the Lord's power on a special occasion. The story really begins with verse 32 of chap. xi. Think of Saul, the fiery persecutor, exceedingly mad against the church, “compelling them to blaspheme,” “beating them oft in every synagogue” like a tiger, having once tasted blood, ravenous for it. Think of such an one stricken down on his way to Damascus! The lion is turned into a lamb, the fiery persecutor is led into the city, meekly listens to Ananias, joins those he sought to kill. Persecution at once begins for him. The Jews of course are against him, the Damascenes too. It is the brethren who come to his aid, they help him Christian sympathy is very sweet, very real, very comforting, but it won't strengthen in the hour of weakness. He is caught up into paradise, forgets his body, whether he is in or out of it he does not know, hears unspeakable words which he may not utter, though we see the result in his ministry. Then be gets what Job had, a “messenger of Satan to buffet him.” It was a physical infirmity, something that rendered him contemptible, and seemed to hinder his work. So he had the suffering, the contempt, the attacks of the enemy. How well we can enter into his thrice repeated cry! What answer does he get? “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” “Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses.” “Take what, Paul? Pleasure?” Yes, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
You that are young, bear for a moment with an old man, and weakly; you should rejoice in your youth. You have strength and health. Thank the Lord for them, and use them for Him. But remember, that death may come at any moment. We know not what a day may bring forth. We think of one now lately deceased, a widow (the wife of the Archbishop), and for all in sorrow we are called to feel. These shocks have surely a voice for us all. Let us look just before we close at a scene of death. Turn to Acts 7 We see Stephen's spirit taught wisdom as he testifies to the Sanhedrin. They won't stand it, they (like the Furies) gnash upon him with their teeth. But he forgets all. Looking up to heaven, he is not occupied with them, but with Jesus, Jesus at the right hand of God, the One from whom all power flows. That is what makes the Epistle to the Hebrews so precious—an opened heaven and Jesus always seen at the right hand.
Think what those moments must have been as they dragged him from the Sanhedrin outside the city. Does he look at circumstances? Does he pray for strength? No; he is occupied with Jesus. He has one moment, just while the witnesses (who must throw the first stone) take off their clothes for greater force. He says, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” How like his Master! One moment yet. “And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” No Israelite ever prayed that before. And “he sleeps.” Is that all? What more do you want?
10.
John 5:44, Rev. 2:7-29. In the first of these texts we have the hindrance to faith and hope, namely, receiving glory of each other and not seeking the glory that cometh from God only or “the only God."... There has been One on this earth Who said at the end of His journey, “I have glorified thee on the earth,"... “and now, O Father, glorify thou me.” God has answered this, has already glorified Him, and further (wonder of wonders!) “the glory that thou gavest me I have given them” (John 17).
There are four witnesses of the Lord's glory—Peter (2 Peter 1:16, 17), Stephen (Acts 7:55, 56), Paul (Acts 9:4, 5; 26:13-16 Cor. 15:8), and John (Rev. 1:13-18).
Rev. 2:7. Why did Adam eat of the tree of death—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—but never touched the tree of life? In man's paradise the tree of life was not eaten, for man by nature cares not for that tree, but it is promised to those in God's paradise....
Verse 11. The promise to Ephesus was positive, this negative....
Verse 17. The “hidden manna” refers to the golden pot, kept before the Testimony (Ex. 16:33). The manna was wilderness food. Eating of the hidden manna bespeaks the preciousness of reviewing all that the Lord has been to us individually through, the wilderness journey—
“There with what by reviewing,
Past conflicts, dangers, fears,
Thy hand our foes subduing,
And drying all our tears:
Our hearts with rapture burning,
The path we shall retrace,
Where now our souls are learning
The wonders of Thy grace.”
The white stone is the seal of God's approval on that which we have done for Him....
Verses 26-28. The politics of a Christian reigning over the earth with Christ. The answer to all ideas of setting the world right now. Christ has to wait for His kingdom—so must we. To try to rule the world now is to go before Him and to go without Him—a grievous dishonor to Himself. We shall reign with Him if we endure for Him.
But are not these promises to the overcomer only? The enjoyment of them should make us overcomers. Keeping Christ always before the heart, we must conquer. Why do we hear so much of men—great, good, kind men? Let us cease from man and be occupied with Himself. “I will give him the morning star.” Ruling with Christ may be blessed, must be interesting, but it does not attract the affections. “The morning star” is the hope of the church. When all the stars have faded, yet before the sun arises, the morning star shines out having all the heavens to itself.
W. B.