Joshua 18:1
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
After these tribes had received their portion, all Israel assembled at Shiloh. “And the land was subdued before them.” Shiloh signifies rest or peace, there the people “set up the tabernacle of the congregation.” Shiloh is henceforth Israel’s center. The tabernacle was God’s, and Israel being God’s people, it was “the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Until the believer has divinely given peace, he cannot worship in spirit and in truth. If the consciousness of the load of sin bows down a soul, there is no ability to sing the song of praise “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” And although the believer may be assured of his acceptance in the Beloved, and know the forgiveness of sins, yet if his conscience accuse for unconfessed transgression, until restored to communion with God, he cannot worship Him. It is when at rest in the finished work of Christ upon the cross, and at rest in His holy presence, that the believer in spirit and truth worships the Father.
Jehovah had given Israel victory and possessions, “the land was subdued before them.” If they had not conquered their foes, and received their inheritance, they would have required Jehovah’s promise of victory instead of being at liberty to assemble around His tabernacle. If we are asking God to bless us, we are not at that time worshipping Him, for prayer is seeking benefits from God; neither is hearing of His grace worshipping Him, for this is learning of His goodness; yet both prayer and preaching may and should lead the soul into adoration. The heart of the worshipper is a vessel filled by God and overflowing with thanksgiving; a heart, which lacking nothing delights in Him who made it rich. Worship is blessing the Giver of the gifts Himself, and not alone for the gifts He bestows.
At Shiloh were the one altar and the one tabernacle; this was Israel’s center, and around this divinely appointed center the circle of the twelve tribes was drawn. The breadth of the circle would be according to the multitude of the children of Israel, the center could never vary. Thither would each faithful heart of the vast congregation turn, as every compass points to the one common attraction. Christ is God’s center for His people, and around Him is the circle of His redeemed. “Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be” (Gen. 49:10). Christ alone is the object of each heart’s adoration. God has given no other attraction for His people. Christ will be the center in the glory, and even now upon the earth, despite all the divisions of language and of race, yes, and of creeds and isms, Jesus only is the center for His people.
Israel’s tabernacle was the common inheritance of the nation, the chief of the fathers and the humblest of the people worshipped there as one people, for Jehovah’s one people they were, and He dwelt among them. It was as a body, therefore, and not simply as individuals, that Israel worshipped at Shiloh, all the Lord’s congregation looking to the Lord’s tabernacle.
There could be no divinely owned association of the tribe save where the glory of God was – at Shiloh. True association of God’s people ever has God’s presence in it, it is fellowship of heart and purpose in the light of God. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 John 1:7). Christ is the only center of true fellowship, and there cannot be true fellowship among those who are united to Him and to each other, unless this be practically recognized. Christians are now God’s circle upon the earth of which Christ is the center. God has made them, though many, one body by His Spirit who dwells in them, and this oneness no power can disturb; but notwithstanding the perfection of the unity of the Body, unless Christ be foremost in His people’s hearts, the oneness will not be manifest.
In the days of Israel’s freshness and simplicity, as we read in the Twenty-first chapter of the Book of Joshua, they regarded with feelings of abhorrence the erection of another altar, considering it nothing short of rebellion against the one God and His one congregation. As time elapsed, the people at large departed from the Lord, and the union of their tribes was broken; then self-will and independence erected other altars (1 Kings 12:27-33), and at length Israel became the “children of the captivity”; still, the faithful heart, true to the one God and one congregation, turned from the stranger’s land towards the place where the glory of Jehovah stood, and linked itself in spirit with the twelve tribes of Israel (1 Kings 18:31; Dan. 6:10).
How welcome is the scene here described. God’s people prospered with victory over all their foes, surrounded with an inheritance greater than all their needs, assembled in one body, and in the excellence of God’s peace worshipping Him as one spirit.
It foretells a brighter day of the gathering together of the scattered tribes of Israel to the Christ they now reject. And it has its encouragement for the Christian believer. We find, in John 17, the union of God’s people which nothing can sever (John 17:11), and their union displayed upon the earth a testimony to the world (John 17:21), and their union which shall be displayed in the glory (John 17:23), in that coming day of peace and rest, the one undivided company of God’s people shall behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, which the Father has given Him. Then all hearts shall be united eternally, then all shall be fixed undistractedly upon Christ, then “shall all see eye to eye.” Until that day dawns, though the testimony of the oneness of Christ’s people is not manifested upon the earth, may it be the anxious care of each believer to endeavor “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”