04.01. Part 1.

Part 1.

Chapter 1. The Purposes of God, and the State of the People. In the early chapters of the Book of Exodus we have a vivid illustration of the state of God’s people as sinners, before redemption. They are in Egypt, a company of slaves and idolaters. Egypt gives us, in type, the world in its state of nature, fallen and under Satan’s power. They were there in conscious misery, though apparently without any thought but present ease from the bondage under which they groaned. The "iron furnace of Egypt," with the lash of its taskmasters, and the clank of the chains of its slavery was felt, but God was unknown! Even when their cry "by reason of the bondage" was heard, it was not a cry to God. It reached His ears doubtless, for all things are naked and open before Him; His ear is never heavy, so that the groans of this scene do not reach Him. The poor prodigal (Luke 15:1-32) had got to the end of his means in the land of his slavery, but that did not bring him to his father, nor even "to himself;" nor did his heart cry to God for deliverance. To supply the want from which he suffered, he goes further away from God than ever. His will brought him away from his home at the first; his need took him further off still; his complete misery gave occasion for the display of his father’s fullest grace! So with a sinner. You will see one wasting health, talents, and energies, in the pursuit of some bubble which long eludes his grasp; when reached at last, it vanishes from his sight and affords no satisfaction to his craving heart. Then the prodigal goes further, and joins himself to a citizen of that country, but he finds the reality of the principles of that land — it never gives. Ask a man of the world to look back upon his life and tell you, when he was wasting his energies, and appearing so rich and happy, did it satisfy him? He will honestly answer you, No! His want never brought him to God; it carried him further away even than his will; and he barters for the husks his all! It is in a certain sense a mercy to find a soul at this extremity, for in the extremity of misery there is no hindrance to the grace of God, which an "elder son" refused.

"And God heard their groaning" (Exodus 2:14); and God came down to deliver them. He is not merely love, but He is active in His love. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." But "God is a consuming fire." How then can He act in love, and have to do with sinners without consuming them? This is beautifully hinted at in Exodus 3:1-22, where the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses "in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush." The bush burned, but was not consumed. Strange anomaly! "And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt!" This was the wonder. If God had revealed Himself in the character of One whose burning holiness must consume all contrary to itself, who might abide? But He came down and revealed Himself in lowly grace in Jesus. He veiled His glory in that lowly Man. Still "he could not be hid." As the sun in piercing through the cloud proves the intensity of his beams by the light and heat which they convey, so Jesus in His lowly path of service and toil, sent forth His beams of love and light to enter the hearts of those whose need had penetrated His. He came down in grace to seek in a poor lost world for those who would trust His love, before the day of judgment. Thus God, who is a consuming fire, was not consuming, because He was revealing Himself in grace, but in a grace which reigns through righteousness.

He now announces His purpose to Moses: "I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." Not a word is said of the wilderness, and its forty years of endurance and toil. His plan was to test them there, which He did; but His purpose was to bring them to the place where He could dwell, to a land that "drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" (Deuteronomy 11:1-32). He would bring us into a place where His own heart can be satisfied, and where He may dwell with and enjoy His people. How different from the land of slavery where nothing is to be had for nothing, where no man gives! "For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs" (Deuteronomy 11:1-32).

God has redeemed us for heaven and for His own glory to Christ. He has not redeemed us for this world at all, though He tries and tests our hearts here, and teaches us to test and trust His. So He announces His purpose to Moses, and says not a word of the wilderness.

Now when Moses came to announce God’s purpose to redeem His people, Satan began at once to bestir himself. As long as the strong man armed kept his palace, his goods were in peace, but when a stronger than he appears, all is changed. Burdens are increased, and the tasks more severe. Bricks are to be made without straw. The quiet service of Satan, where all are asleep under his power, gliding down the stream, is easy indeed, compared with the moment when God begins to work. The deathfulness of a previous state is even preferred to the pressure of the enemy. The chains which had been noiseless and unfelt are now heavy, and their clank is heard. How many and how varied are the fetters with which Satan binds his victims! And these chains are the saddest of all which are noiseless, and therefore unfelt and unheard.

Cain’s chain was envy. He could not bear to see one who had not toiled like himself accepted without an effort, as Abel was. Balaam’s was the "wages of unrighteousness" which bound his soul in its fetters. He would gladly have died the "death of the righteous," but to break the fetters he so well loved, and to live the life of the righteous, he could not bear, and he was a lost man. With Herod, it was his lust which bound his soul. In him we see the signs of deep workings of the natural conscience, so much so that "he feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly" (Mark 6:1-56). He seemed for a time to be an altered man. But the chain that bound his soul with noiseless power was too powerful for him to break, and to please a courtesan he beheaded John. How deeply solemn!

We might mention other cases in Scripture of this kind. Judas loved money; avarice was the noiseless chain, and it ate away his heart; no eye but the Lord’s could see it. He grasped it more tightly, till the "son of perdition" "went to his own place." With the amiable young ruler, it was his possessions which bound his heart unconsciously to the scene, till Jesus put His finger on the chain, and "he went away grieved, for he had great possessions." With Gallio it was the careless indifference which we see in so many; "He cared for none of those things." With Felix it was procrastination. He trembled at Paul "reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," but put off repentance to a convenient season, which, alas! never came. With Saul of Tarsus, it was his robe of self-righteousness. Cleaving so closely to the heart, these chains are unfelt till the Lord interferes in mercy; then all is changed. Satan’s bondage begins to be felt as it never was before, and all his energies are then put forth to frustrate the purpose of the Lord in delivering grace. Alas! we find that the people whom He has come to deliver now murmur. But we cannot wonder at this, as all was comparatively well with them in that service with which Satan had made them satisfied. But when the chains are touched they complain.

I desire to address the conscience of my reader as I pass on. Is there some noiseless chain, silently but surely woven round your heart, and, alas! it may be, unknown to you! Perhaps it has been touched now and then by the Lord, and the clank heard for a moment in your conscience; still yet you are unbound. It may be a chain which you know yourself — the Lord and conscience have made you aware of it — and still it is there. Some secret sin — something cherished and allowed in your heart and ways — unseen by the eye of others, there it rusts, and cleaves to you. Be warned, and look to Him who has pointed it out; be assured that as surely as His unerring eye has seen it, so surely can He snap the fetters that bind your heart; they will be like "the cords that were upon (Samson’s) arms" — they will become "as flax that was burnt with fire." Do not allow the terrible chain of procrastination to bind your soul till that "convenient season" which never comes; but be warned, and flee to Him (be you saint or sinner), and in His presence He will prove the truth of His words — "If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:1-59)

Chapter 2.

Judgment Announced and the Way of Escape: the Bunch of Hyssop.

I pass over all the signs and wonders wrought in the land of Ham; and also over the compromises proposed by the enemy under the pressure of God’s hand, until the moment when the final message was sent by Moses to Pharaoh. This we find in the eleventh chapter of Exodus. And here I note the marked and striking analogy between this, and the Lord’s present dealings of grace. With the message of the fullest and richest grace of the Gospel, comes the most solemn and final revelation of a judgment to come — as final as it is solemn and searching to the soul. No threat — no language of denunciation or declamation; but the terribly calm, clear statement of the utter ruin, after every trial and test, of man’s estate; of the sure and certain perdition and eternal ruin of every soul with whom God will enter into judgment, according to his works. The truth has come and disclosed all: it has shown what God is, what man is, what Satan is, what the world is, what judgment is — all things are laid bare. He does not threaten; but has revealed judgment to come as the solemn result of grace despised.

"And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt." When all were asleep and apparently secure, the judgment would fall: "And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more." A cry when the blow had fallen. Signs and wonders had produced no contrition of heart: Pharaoh had hardened himself still more. Threatenings of judgment were of no avail. The plan of deliverance was unfolded by Him who knew His own requirements, and who was about to enter upon the scene as a relentless, righteous Judge. The supper-time was the time to hear and to act; when the midnight came the blow had fallen, and then it was too late. The procrastinator might plead how well he understood the plan of deliverance; but he had folded his arms and judgment had overtaken him. He might cry, "Lord, Lord, open!" but the door of mercy had closed for ever!

If we examine the parable of the Great Supper in Luke 14:1-35, we find that it was not those who were living in open sin who refused this final call of grace. I say final, because you will note that the Gospel Feast is set forth as the final meal of the day of God’s dealings with men. The Lord was at dinner in the house of this Pharisee at the time. The supper is the last meal of the day before midnight comes. This is very significant and striking. The gospel comes after all God’s previous ways of testing and trial have passed. The morning of innocence, with its lovely moments of freshness, when God came down to visit His creatures, when His creation was unsoiled with sin, soon passed away and man fell, never to return to this state of creature blessedness.

Then came His noon-day dealings with man, now with a conscience obtained when he fell. During their continuance came the frightful wickedness of men and angels, the earth was filled with corruption and violence; and God had to wash the polluted earth with the mighty baptism of the flood. Then men set up the devil for God in the renewed earth, and the whole world was worshipping him, in the passions and corruptions of their evil hearts. The afternoon testing of the Law followed. It told man what his duty was, both positively and negatively — its "Thou shalt," and "Thou shalt not," taught him what he ought to be. But it never disclosed what he was, utterly and hopelessly ruined. Nor did it tell him what God was, with a heart full of tender pity and perfect love. Then the prophets were sent to recall him to its observance lest judgment should overtake him, and these they stoned.

It was in the averting that at last God revealed Himself in Christ. Would man now be won? Alas, no! Not one single heart was attracted to Christ of itself. They saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. It was a lovely evening, after a day of storm and evil, which was ushered in so brightly; but how soon to close in around the darkness of the cross, where men quenched (as far as they could) the light of heaven.

God had another moment of mercy. The supper-time of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, with the message that "All things are now ready;" "Come," for the midnight of judgment was about to fall. But "all with one consent began to make excuse." Men who were not living in sin, but who were doing lawful and right things — attending to the farm, the merchandise, or their family affairs — even they also refused the gift of God.

I know nothing more solemn than the fact that when the Lord lifts the veil and points to the awful judgment of a future scene, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:1-31), we learn there the compelled remembrance (the deathless sting of remorse) of times gone by and advantages lost for ever, in this present day of grace. How dreadful then for the professor, the procrastinator, the careless man. "Son, remember!" tells its own tale more truly than the many words which might be used to paint the scene. But it is not my present task to dwell on this side of the picture; I desire rather to unfold in some measure the certain way of escape from this judgment to come. The one is as certain as the other.

God had a serious question with Israel on the night of the passover. They were sinners, and sin had constituted Him a Judge. He had come down to deliver them and to bring them to the land. He appoints a way in which he can righteously pass over them as sinners when judging the world. The blood of a spotless lamb was to be taken, and placed upon the two side posts and lintel of the doors of their houses, which were to be closed, and none of the people were to leave their houses until the morning.

I did not purpose dwelling lengthily on this well-known scene, which has been such a fruitful theme to others. But I would press a few points which may not have been fully noticed. In the evening the lamb was to be slain, and its blood sprinkled by the believing Israelite in the "obedience of faith." This was done by means of a "bunch of hyssop." Now this points to a most significant and important thought in connection with the gospel. Many know the plan of salvation, as it is termed; they are as clear as possible as to the truth that salvation is by faith alone, and that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it only, is that by which security from coming judgment depends. They know well those words, that "without shedding of blood is no remission"; yet they never have had, so to speak, the Bunch of Hyssop in their hands, though this illustrates the real link between their souls and their acceptance of the gospel. This is the point concerning which so many are ignorant. A Bunch of Hyssop is used in Scripture on two occasions. (I do not now refer to its typical import in the offerings: see Leviticus 14:1-57, On one occasion it is used by an Israelite with blood (Exodus 12:1-51). On the other it is used in the hand of a clean person, for an Israelite, with water (Numbers 19:1-22). In both cases it signifies humiliation. The Psalmist refers to it in this way in Psalms 51:7, where he cries, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." This was the moral cleansing of his soul by complete humiliation. An Israelite who believed Moses concerning the plan of deliverance on that "night to be remembered," did not fold his arms quietly, as many, and do nothing. No; he was up and doing, in "the obedience of faith" (Romans 1:5; Romans 16:26). "Believing in his heart" the glad tidings by Moses, he was seen outside the door of his house, before the world "confessing with his mouth" the acceptance of this message, and thus appropriating his personal share in the efficacy of the blood of the lamb. It was truly humiliating for him to go outside before a world of idolaters, into whose sins he had sunk (Ezekiel 20:6-8), and confess that, although he was one of God’s chosen people, he could claim no immunity from judgment but by the shelter of the blood of the lamb. He thus justified God and condemned himself. It was humiliating, but right to do so. "Let God be true, and every man a liar." Here is the link between the soul and Christ, which so many need. The Bunch of Hyssop has never been grasped; the soul has never bowed in the obedience of faith, and in the conscious reality of its state, not only believing the gospel in the heart, but confessing it with the mouth to salvation.

How many are the dealings of God with souls to awaken them to the sense of their need, that His heart may thus be free to pour its love into theirs! How varied are His ways to bring them down to the point of blessing — even the sense of their own ruin in His sight. Once there, there is no hindrance; how simple then becomes the story of His grace "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:8-9). The poor thief was there in conscience, when he rebuked his fellow, and said, "We indeed justly." He had the Bunch of Hyssop in his hand at that moment. Not claiming superiority over the railing robber; not excusing himself; but justifying God, and condemning himself; then there was no hindrance to the love of Christ making itself known to bins. He believed in his heart, and he confessed with his mouth, and went to paradise with Jesus that day. So with the woman of Syrophenicia; "Truth, Lord," confessed the fact that she could claim nothing from Him who was there before her, with His heart full of mercy. "Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs" — told that her heart had penetrated God’s, and knew and believed that there was a blessing there even for one who had neither promise, nor right to claim His grace. It was the bowing of the conscience before the Lord in the obedience of faith; and the moment she is there the spring is touched — His heart is free to give the blessing which He had come down to reveal and bestow. "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt." You cannot think too well of God! Like Jehovah of old wrestling with Jacob until he brought Him to the point where He might bless him, Jesus, as it were, wrestles with her till she has a sense of her true state, and then the blessing comes. An Israelite on the evening of the Passover, with the bunch of hyssop in his hand, conveys this truth to our souls. The blood he sprinkled was to meet and satisfy the eye of God. It was to present a righteous ground to Him in judgment, for passing over a man whose sins deserved that the blow should descend on him, even more righteously than on his Egyptian neighbour next door. The midnight of judgment came, but all was settled beforehand, as it must be for us. Our sins cannot be worse in the day of judgment than now. God’s way of escape from judgment then will not have changed. It is as certain now as then. His love has anticipated that day in giving His Son. His Son has come, and has presented His blood before God. God has pronounced on our state as sinners already; and the day of judgment cannot speak more plainly than "There is none righteous; no, not one!" Christ has borne our sins and put them away before that day comes, and God has sent the news of His having done so. "He that believeth not is judged already (ede kekritai) because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). But you may say, I know it all. I ask then, Are you forgiven? Are you safe under the shelter of the blood of Christ? I do not ask, Do you hope to be so? I ask, Are you safe? If you believe God, you are. If you believe your own heart, you are deceived: "He that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool" (Proverbs 28:26). May you know what it is to have had the Bunch of Hyssop in your hand; your heart confessing that your only security is that God, against whom you have sinned, has looked upon that precious blood of Jesus, that He has accepted it already, and the day of judgment will not change its value, or make it less precious in His sight. In virtue of it He has declared, "I will pass over you." Do you dare to doubt that He has accepted it? You could not, for you know He has. I do not ask, Have you accepted it, but do you believe He has done so? The proof that He has is that Jesus is at God’s right hand. "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3). He has by Himself purged the sins, and he who believes has his conscience purged of them. Suppose some one has paid a debt which I owed and could not discharge; well, I cannot be sued for it, but I shall be afraid to meet my creditor. To be happy in his presence, I must know that some one has been kind enough to do it: so God declares that it is done. Then my conscience is free, and I can afford to look now into my heart, which I dare not do before. The question of all our sins has thus been settled before the day of judgment, and according to God’s mind. If not, we never can put them away. Christ cannot die again "death hath no more dominion over him." He "was once offered to bear the sins of many." I say "all our sins;" for all were future when that precious blood was shed — when Jesus bore them in His own body on the tree. If all were not there, if all were not borne and put away, they will most surely come up again at the day of judgment, and that would be eternal ruin. Thank God He has borne ours who believe. Others may reject it and perish, but there the love is, and there is the work of Christ to save all who believe in Him.

Chapter 3. The Seal of the Holy Spirit on the Forgiveness of Sins. On receiving the forgiveness of our sins, there results a most important matter for our souls. I allude to the sealing of the Spirit of God. The sealing of the Spirit takes place at once when we receive this forgiveness — when we believe in Christ. This is quite different from the work of quickening, which makes us see our need of forgiveness. It is the personal indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our bodies. This truth comes out very blessedly in the type of "the things which happened" to Israel. The moment the blood had met God’s claims, the pillar of cloud and of fire descended. "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people" (Exodus 13:21-22).

It was blessed to be safe from a God of judgment on the night of the passover. But God was outside, and the Israelite was within: there was no communion between them. They could have no thoughts in common with One who was judging. To keep Him outside the house was the thought of that solemn night. But now He comes down at once to take His place amongst the people whom blood has sheltered. Forgiveness was known, but deliverance was not; still the conscience was clear with God, and in virtue of this the cloud descended before they were out of Egypt. A soul may know no other truth than the simple but blessed fact of the forgiveness of his sins. Never mind; the rest will come! God seals him. While Peter yet spake these words — "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43) — here were quickened people, needing forgiveness, listening; there was Peter declaring forgiveness in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in virtue of His work — needy hearts accepted the message; it was this they wanted, and at once, as the words entered their hearts, "the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." No doubt He had been at work in quickening them before Peter’s visit. He had created desires and the need of forgiveness which Christ alone could satisfy, but now He comes with the message of forgiveness, and they believe; consequently He takes up His abode in the bodies of those who believed in this message of pardon. This was the gift of the Holy Ghost; quite distinct from the gifts which, to mark His presence in the sight of others, were also seen at that day. This makes the sealing of the Holy Ghost very plain. So it was understood by Peter, and taught by Paul. Peter tells them in Acts 2:38 that, on the remission of sins, they would receive the Holy Ghost. Paul so teaches in the Epistle to the Romans. The blood of Christ having been shed (Acts 3:25); and the ungodly sinner having believed on Him that justifieth the ungodly (Acts 4:5), and who raised up Jesus from the dead, who had been delivered for our offences (Acts 4:24); "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (at once) by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us" (Acts 5:5). All this is before deliverance is known (Acts 6:1-15, Acts 7:1-60) from their state as sinners before God.

Thus, the reception of the Holy Ghost is a positive result on our believing in Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. Much has to be learned doubtless, but the result is plain — the Holy Ghost dwells in us as a consequence, and as a seal; "Having believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13).

Hebrews 10:1-39 also shows us this truth. The moment the work of Christ is accomplished, the Holy Ghost is sent that we may know the forgiveness of our sins. "Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more" (Hebrews 10:14-17). Here it is not the witness of the Holy Ghost in us, which is spoken of, but that to us. He comes to dwell in the Church, and to tell us not only that Christ had purged our sins before He went on high, but to bring to us the testimony, that we may have our consciences purged, and that God will remember our sins no more! He will not be untrue to His own Word; nor to Him whose precious blood has been shed; nor to His Spirit’s testimony to us. Thus we have the (unasked) presence of the Holy Ghost, consequent on the putting away of our sins through the blood-shedding of Christ; as Israel had the cloud and the glory (unsought), consequent on the blood-shedding of the paschal lamb. It was as if God desired to be with His people at once; so the moment He could righteously come down to dwell amongst them, He did so.

Chapter 4.

Redemption. To possess the forgiveness of his sins is the portion of every child of God. An unforgiven child of God is unknown in Scripture. False theology may, and has darkened the souls of His people; or they may never have known the light. Still forgiveness is their portion, and they are forgiven whether they know it or not; but God would have them know it as well, and when they receive forgiveness, He gives them the Holy Ghost. It is no matter of attainment, but of simple faith; taking God’s thoughts and giving up our own. "Abraham believed God;" that was faith. Experience will often contradict what God says, but faith is not experience, and we are saved by faith and not by experience. "The full assurance of faith" is the only normal Christian state. It rests upon what Christ has accomplished, and upon what the Holy Ghost declares in the Word of God. Unbelief may reject it and be lost; but faith — child-like, Christian faith — believes God; it "sets to its seal that God is true," and God sets His seal (the Holy Ghost) on him who believes. But to know forgiveness is not to know redemption. A man may know his sins are forgiven for which he would have been judged, and in conscience still be in Egypt. He may think himself "a sinner" merely, still. He may suppose he is still a child of fallen Adam, and thus he may have no sense of deliverance from that state at all. Now it is one thing to know that I had sins, and that I had earned judgment for those sins, and that grace stepped in and sheltered me by the blood of Christ, both blotting out the sins for ever, and delivering me from a judgment to come; but it is quite another thing to know that I have been wholly delivered from a present state before God — that of a responsible and sinful child of Adam, and that I am now a forgiven child of God, and never can be a child of Adam again!

Here the truth of redemption comes in, and we have both. "We have (both) redemption through his blood, (and) the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

It was one thing for Israel to know that they had been safe from judgment on the night of the Passover, and quite another to have been saved out of Egypt. They had been slaves there, making bricks without straw. They are God’s freed men, as they sing the song of Moses on the wilderness side of the Red Sea! Here is where so many err. They are trusting in Christ as their only hope; they may know too that their sins are pardoned, but they go on all their lives through, perhaps, crying out "miserable sinners" or "sinners." Plainly they do not know redemption, or this they could not do.

Suppose that an Israelite, instead of singing Moses’ song of redemption, was crying out, because he found himself the same person still, "I am a poor slave in Egypt," what would you have thought of his folly? Yet there are plenty of the people of God in no better state. How thoroughly dishonouring to the work of Christ! But it satisfies systematic religion, and ministers to it. Redemption is ignored in its true force; I do not say in words, for, alas! that is one of the most successful plans of the enemy, to use orthodox words without their true import, and thus blind the souls of the people of God as to their real meaning, keeping them in darkness and uncertainty all their lives. An Israelite who was redeemed was dealt with from that moment on an entirely new footing — never as a slave in Egypt again; but according to the new place and relationship in which he now stood with God, and so it is with the Christian.*

{*Here I may remark that we must not confuse two thoughts that are quite distinct in Scripture. I refer to Redemption and Purchase. Christ is the "Head of every man" — even the heathen. Every man must be presented to Him in grace now, or in judgment by-and-by, because of the rights He has over all men by purchase. This is alluded to in 2 Peter 2:1, and in Jude 1:1-25, where it speaks of those who profess His name, denying the Master who had bought them; but it is not said that He redeemed them. In the parable of the Treasure, in Matthew 13:1-58, you have the man buying (agorazo from agora — the market-place) the field (the world), in order to obtain the treasure which he had found in it. He purchases the whole inheritance, the world and all that is therein; but He redeems His people (apoluo, from luo, to loose). Buying them makes them your slaves; redeeming them is setting them free! It is never said that He redeemed all men; it is said that He bought them; and therefore He has, on this ground, although not on this only, indefeasible rights over all men. A Christian is both purchased and redeemed. Made free by redemption from Satan and the consequences of his sins, he is Christ’s by purchase — he is "bought with a price," and therefore is "not his own," but the possession of Him who has purchased him.} And now comes another thing altogether: not merely have we to learn what we have done, and the forgiveness we need for this; but we have to learn a far more trying lesson — what we are, and the deliverance we have in Christ. We never obtain the sense of thorough deliverance from what we are, until we are forced to cry out, "O wretched man that am, who shall deliver me?" Forgiveness may be known in measure, at the same time, as we have seen. This is unfolded in Exodus 14:1-31. They started to leave Egypt, but the bitter lesson was then learned that they could not deliver themselves. Forgiveness does not give strength, nor does the possession of life. And here comes in experience; but experience before deliverance, and therefore not experience on proper Christian ground yet.* Experience will never give deliverance; it will "bring me into captivity," but it will never set me free (see Romans 7:14-24); that is the work of another.

{*I would here notice the significant typical import of the fact stated in Exodus 13:18. The people went up as far as Etham by five in a rank. (margin ) Now five, in the typical use of the number, means weakness — it is "relatively small." "Five thousand of you shall flee at the rebuke of five," etc. Here it was God’s ordering that they should go out by five in a rank from Egypt; while on their side man’s weakness must feel that it cannot deliver itself. Satan’s power is typified by six, or its multiples: and "six hundred chosen chariots" of Pharaoh (Exodus 14:7) pursued them to hinder their escape from his hand. This is the more striking if we compare it with the fact that they crossed the Jordan afterwards by five in a rank (see Joshua 1:14; Joshua 4:12). The beginning of the picture shows man’s effort in his own strength which is only weakness to leave the territory, and deliver himself from the thraldom, of Satan; this he finds by bitter experience that he is unable to do, and that he must be delivered by another. The other end of the picture shows us that it is only man in weakness who is permitted to pass through, and man’s weakness which God will use on the new ground of practice in the heavenly warfare, so that when he is weak then he is strong. They must by God’s ordering leave Egypt by five in a rank, as afterwards they must also by His ordering, in the same way pass over Jordan, to meet the Canaanite on the other side.} On the night of the Passover it was a question between God and Israel: on the day of the Red Sea, between God and the enemy. Was God or the enemy to have those whom blood had purchased? In the salvation of the Red Sea we learn in type the efficacy of Christ’s death and resurrection in delivering from the world, and Satan’s power who had formed it as a sphere in which to please the flesh in man. The blood of Jesus answered for our sins before God as a Judge. His death and resurrection takes us clean out by redemption into a new place; delivering us for ever from the attacks and accusations of the enemy. God counts to us in grace, and we possess by faith, the efficacy of what Christ has passed through for us. The children of Israel had encamped at Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the Sea. Pi-hahiroth bears the significant meaning of "The opening of liberty." Here Satan’s power is put forth in a final effort to frustrate "The salvation of the Lord." All his hosts are marshalled against the people, who are "sore afraid." But the Lord permits this pressure which eventuates in their learning Him in a far more blessed way than as a Judge. They experience what souls do who find that a day of quiet slavery to Satan was more easy to be endured than the pressure of his power against them, in their first efforts to escape. They may have dreamed of escape in days gone by; but now the trial comes. Will Satan permit it? The bondage of the Egyptians was preferable to this trying moment: "For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness" (Exodus 14:12). Death was before them, and up to death Satan wields his power. Once death is past, Satan’s power is over.

Now God’s resources are seen; the blood which had answered for our sins has come from the side of a dead Christ; but He has risen, and left the whole domain of Satan’s power — nullifying death for him who believes. "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord . . . The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:13-14). And Moses lifted up the rod of judgment, and divided the waters of death; and the people passed over to the other side through death, which stood before them a moment before. The Lord has gone into the last stronghold of Satan’s power, and wrought complete salvation for His people. A very real work may have to be done in them, that they may know themselves, and that when put into the pressure of such a moment they may be forced to find that all must be of God. But the Lord has wrought the work of salvation for us; and what He has passed through is counted to us in grace. It is not merely that His blood has cleansed us from every sin and saved us from judgment to come; but He has died and risen, and left the whole sphere into which He entered; we have died also to the sin and sinful state for and to which He died in ending it before God; and now He liveth unto God. "Christ being raised froth the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also (i.e., count it true in faith, what God has counted to you in grace) yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:9-11).

How then can Satan touch or accuse? If we have died with Christ out of the scene into which He entered in divine love, we have died to it for ever. Satan may try to follow (as Pharaoh and his hosts), and find that there is his ruin. He put forth his worst, in leading on the whole world against Christ to drive Him out of it; but therein Christ destroyed his power. His accusations are over; his attacks frustrated. He might accuse and attack one who is alive; but we have died with Christ, and this he can do no more.

If we were simple, this truth of deliverance would be simple too. But alas, we are not simple, and hence the bitter experiences we have to pass through, till we cry out, "Who shall deliver?" Then all is clear. We have been translated completely out of the place and condition in which we committed the sins, and as cleansed from them, put into a new place "in Christ" risen from the dead. By no efforts of our own could we ever reach this place. It is by complete surrender, and by giving up every effort that we obtain this deliverance in Christ, who has accomplished it all, and who now stands in this new place Himself.

You find this experimentally described at length in Romans 7:14-24. Not that these verses give you the experience of any person at the time they were spoken. They are the past experiences of a delivered man, who had struggled for freedom until he found he was rather getting further from deliverance than nearer the goal. He is now standing on dry ground, so to speak, and describing what he experienced before he was free.

You see a remarkable illustration of this in Jonah 2:1-10. He is put into the place where none could deliver him but God alone in the "belly of hell" — as he describes it. Three times over he promised what he would do, if he only could get out; but no! "I will look again toward thy holy temple." No; vows and resolutions will not do. "But," he cries, "I will sacrifice to thee with the voice of thanksgiving." Will this set him free? No. Again he cries, "I will pay that I have vowed." All in vain! Promises and vows, efforts and resolves which are made in such a state will not do; they all come from "I," and as long as "I" is recognised you have not given up "I" as one in whose flesh "dwelleth no good thing," and turned the eye away to Christ alone.

"Well," said Jonah, "Salvation is of the Lord!" Ah, Jonah, you have found out the secret; you have touched the spring of the lock, and you are standing on dry ground the next moment! How simple, and yet how blessed to have the eye removed from self — hopeless self — and turned in the sense of utter, helpless weakness upon Christ! Then all is done, and we are free! In passing I may remark that there are three steps learned in the bitter experience of this chapter (Romans 7:14-24). First, the hopeless evil of the nature of the flesh, in which is no good: not merely that the tree has produced evil fruit, but that the tree itself is corrupt. Then, secondly, it begins to dawn upon the soul that, after all, there are good desires, and earnest longings to do the right thing for God. The very aspirations of a new nature, which is sanctified to the obedience of Jesus Christ, are there. The first cry of the quickened soul is "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" But oh, what distress of soul, to find that even with good desires and earnest aspirations after God, the evil nature is stronger than the good, and leads me captive, so that I do the thing I hate; and I detest and abhor the thing I do! Bitter lesson; but useful to learn. Lastly, then, I learn that I have no power over it, and some one else must step in and set me free. Sad enough to find its total evil; sadder still to find that it is not myself, and yet I am captive to its desires. But the moment I give "I" up, and cry "Who will deliver?" my eye has turned away from all the efforts of "I," and at once I am free. The Lord has been there in the depths, and the evil nature has been completely condemned in Him, so that I can reckon myself dead by faith and for deliverance; though in fact and experience, I find the nature alive, and its tendencies unchanged, but am entitled to treat it as "not I," but an enemy to overcome and subdue.

Thus we are "in Christ" — not "in Adam" at all, and now, for the first time, God will have fruit from us. All this work of redemption (Exodus 12:1-51, Exodus 13:1-22, Exodus 14:1-31) is what God has done for us. The experience we pass through is a work in us, that we may enter upon what He has accomplished. Now, for the first time, the mouths of those who in solemn silence ate the paschal lamb on the night of judgment; whose cries of fear had been silenced at the Red Sea by a God of salvation, are opened in a rich song of praise for what the Lord has accomplished in His delivering grace.

Thus sins, and death, and judgment, are all behind the delivered soul. The sins are gone — for Christ has borne them. Death is past for us in Him. Through it we pass (if we have to die physically) into the presence of the Lord, and "death is ours" — not now the wages of sin; but Christ having taken its wages, we are free, and instead of sinful man’s portion, "after this (death) the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27); it leads us to the glory where Jesus is. Judgment is past, for He has borne the wrath, and he that believeth "hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). And "the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them: there remained not so much as one of them." "Thus the Lord saved Israel" (Exodus 14:28-30). The same waters that silenced the foe, flowed back into their mighty channel; there was no retrogression — no return. Redemption once accomplished is accomplished for ever! The waters, flowing back in the channel, precluded the possibility of returning by that path into the land of slavery and sin

Chapter 5.

Praise: the Song of Grace and Glory.

"Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me," saith the Lord. God is pleased to receive our praises for what He has done for us, as also for what He is. Who would refuse to sing to His praise! Who would be silent in rendering to Him "the fruit of our lips; giving thanks to his name"? But mark the moment when the note is heard. The enemy was silent, he had "sunk to the bottom as a stone," "like lead in the mighty waters." God had wrought, and Israel was free; now He will have His meed of worship. How can He be worshipped when the heart is not free, when the conscience is not at rest? Impossible. The ordinary thought of worship is the going through of certain religious formularies, and a routine of praying and singing, and perhaps hearing a sermon. All well in their place, but such things will not be in heaven. Worship characterises heaven: "They shall be still praising thee; "They rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." The Father seeketh those that worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:1-54). Worship is the expression of our fulness, as of His blessedness. Prayer is the expression of our need and our dependence on Him.

God first cleanses us from our sins, that we may be happy in His presence. He bestows on us a nature which is capable of enjoying Him in the light of His presence. Then He sets us before Him, "holy and without blame" in Christ, seals us with the Spirit of God; then having redeemed us, Christ takes His place in the midst of His people to lead their praises up to God. He was alone in death, sin-bearing, and judgment; the moment He has accomplished this and has risen, He says, "In the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto thee." (Compare Psalms 22:22, with John 20:17, and Hebrews 2:12.)

Now I believe we should sing as Christians — believers, if you please — or not sing at all. The idea of setting sinners, as such, to sing, has no warrant from Scripture. We should sing in the consciousness of our blessing, and to Him, or of Him who has blessed us.

We will examine some features of interest in Moses’ song, the chorus of which was taken up by Miriam and her maidens, with timbre’s and dances. "Music and dancing" were thus heard outside the house and bore their testimony towards others. Even if it provokes the elder son’s enmity, it tells out the father’s and the household’s joy! (Luke 15:1-32)

There are two distinct parts in this song; that of Moses, and that of Miriam. Moses’ song took in both the present grace that delivered, and also the future glory to which they were called. Miriam only sang of present grace, but did not take in the glory beyond. This is marked and striking, and the more so when we find that she died by the way, in the wilderness, before they entered the land (Numbers 20:1-29). Doubtless Moses too died on Mount Nebo; for the Law, of which he was representative, could never lead into the possession of the land; but that does not affect the lesson which we learn here; besides it must have been so, as he "spake unadvisedly with his lips," and it "went ill with him for their sakes." His faith saw the delivering grace of the Lord, and so he sung. It also saw the sure glory that would come, and it took in the Jordan (v. 16) and the entrance into the mountain of the inheritance of Jehovah, which He had made to dwell in; the sanctuary which His hands had established.

Miriam only sang of present grace. A lovely note to be sure! But the heart must enter into something more than the look behind into those mighty waters of judgment, out of which Jesus rose, having left our sins, and death, and judgment for ever! Such a joy would never carry us through the desert where faith and patience are tried and tested every day. It needs that the heart be carried into the glory beyond, where He is, and to rejoice in the hope of it in the time to come; in the present sense of peace with God, and the consciousness of standing in the present favour of God — that favour which is better than life. (Compare Romans 5:1-2).

She pre-figures here the first bright joy, so full and real, which we have perhaps experienced ourselves, or have seen in others. It is bright and blessed, but it is a joy that never lasts very long on the journey. You see it at times in those freshly converted. In such a state the soul frequently becomes occupied with the joy, and this frequently takes it off true dependence on the Lord, and a fall is the result.

There is another kind of joy which is full and deep, and which never dies. It survives all the vicissitudes of the way. No desert sorrows or privations can ever touch its spring. "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice" (Php 4:5). The Lord is the spring of it here, and He never fails. Paul was at the end of the desert journey there, and yet he never was so full of this joy. There was everything to try and wrench his heart. Like the caged eagle, he was pent up in the walls of a prison — shut out from the fellowship of the saints — all they that were in Asia, the scene of his most successful labours, had turned away from him; the saints were going on badly — the Church failing — need had pressed on his soul — and he was cut off too from that service which was his life: yet he finds marrow and fatness filling his heart, and his mouth is praising with joyful lips, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is (Psalms 63:1-11).

There is, as has been noted, another exceedingly lovely desire which springs up at once, seen in this song. It is to have God dwelling with them; the soul desires to prepare Him an habitation. It is going to dwell, by and by, with God in the land; but meanwhile it would have God dwelling with it in the desert: this is the alternative of John 14:2; John 14:23. Satan is now in the Land; that is the strange anomaly in the present state of things. We are with God in the wilderness, and He with us: but with Satan, or rather against him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. The holiness of the Lord, too, is now spoken of for the first time. It was hinted at to Moses, in Exodus 3:1-22, in the words, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." If God had come down to redeem His people out of bondage and corruption, He must have holiness; and now that they are free, they sing He is "glorious in holiness."

I believe we never understand what holiness is until we know redemption. You will find a sincere soul distressing himself dreadfully because he does not find holiness in his heart. He thinks rightly, Must I not be holy? You ask, Where do you look for it? And you find he is looking for it in his own heart. The fact is, he is not established in righteousness yet, and he is looking for holiness where "there is no good thing." But when he finds himself with God in righteousness, and redeemed, then it is all right to look for it as becoming the new sphere into which he has been introduced, to be with God. "Be ye holy, for I am holy" is all right then.

They are thus saved — but "saved in hope," as Romans 8:24, says. It never takes you further than the wilderness, with a hope of the land and the glory, and meanwhile the groaning in unison with the Spirit here; but singing the praises and blessings of the Lord.

Chapter 6.

Heavenly Places.

Redemption is the starting-point of the Christian in his course and his relationships with God. Many and bitter are the experiences which lead the soul up to this; but they do not find the soul consciously on proper Christian ground at all. This redemption is in Christ. We come into all the blessings and benefits of it on believing — but the work was done long before — our sins were borne, and all was finished before we came on the scene. Then came the work in our consciences which made us feel our need of cleansing; then of deliverance; but it only led us into the value of what Christ had already accomplished. This is note learned by experience — though experience may lead up to it — but by simple faith in Christ. Faith is the empty hand which stretches itself forth to be filled from Him; and true faith may always be tested, in that it has Him for its object!

Some are troubled, too, about measures of faith, as to the assured sense of deliverance or otherwise. There are no measures of faith in this respect. Faith is faith; and there is no such thing as faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that does not save. You may ask, When? I reply, When you have got it! Just as a drop of water is water as much as is the Atlantic Ocean; so faith is faith — be it great or small. Faith casts the soul wholly upon God and what He has said, apart from feelings or experiences altogether. No doubt when faith is simple right feelings and experiences will follow; but it rests upon the word of God as its true and only basis.

It may now be demanded, why I have brought together the heavenly place of a Christian, immediately following the salvation of God, and complete deliverance of the soul out of all its former relationships and responsibilities. Has not, it may be asked, the great and terrible wilderness to be traversed before we reach that place on high? Did not Israel wander for forty years in the desert before they arrived in Canaan? This was all true with them. They traversed the one to reach the other. We have, on the contrary, reached our Canaan already, as being in Christ; it is then, and only then, that we have found the world a wilderness to us. I do not think we ever really find it so, until we are conscious of our place and possessions on high "in Christ" — united to Him by the Spirit of God. I do not say that with all it is so known; many think the wilderness of life has to be traversed before the soul is conscious of its place on high — but this is not God’s way. "Not as the world gives" gives He unto us. He brings us into all that Christ possesses as a Man before Him — and this is a present thing. There is no experience at all in learning this. Much experience had brought the soul to the consciousness of powerless fear, and such exercises of the heart and conscience that it might learn God as a Saviour — delighting to save! But God has brought a Man into glory, and seated Him on the throne of God. Faith tells us that there is a Man in heaven — faith which is based upon the testimony of the Scriptures. They tell us that this is the new place for man by redemption. If I look upon Him as the forerunner, He has entered in for me, If I look upon my union with Him in that new place, then I am united to Him who is there. If I was alive in sins, He shed his blood and put them away. If I was dead in sins, He died for my sins. If He was raised, God has raised us together with Him. If He is gone up on high, we are raised up together and seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There never was such a thing as a man being united to Christ in heaven before the Holy Ghost came down from heaven to dwell in our bodies. There never was such a thing as the Holy Ghost dwelling in a man whose conscience was not purged, and this could never have been until after the work which purges the conscience was done. Hence no saint before the cross ever knew all his sins put away, and his conscience purged. He knew of certain sins being forgiven. Nathan is sent to tell David of his horrible sin in the case of Uriah being put away. But no one ever knew God in the light of His presence within a rent vail, and that the very blow which rent the vail had put him in God’s presence without one single sin! As a consequence, the Holy Ghost never was given till Jesus was glorified. (See John 7:36-39). The Holy Ghost inspired the prophets; came on them for a time, and then left them. He did this even on men who were not converted to God at all, as Saul and Balaam. He guided and taught the saints, and quickened the souls of sinners; but He must have the conscience purged of every sin before He could dwell in our bodies. The Spirit of God wrought in souls, and they were born again of the Word and Spirit of God. They had a new nature, which longed for complete deliverance before the cross made it possible that God could make known to any that all their sins were there put away. The children of God were then in bondage, hoping for a Saviour, and a salvation which they needed. Still none of them had the Spirit of adoption — the Spirit of His Son, whereby they could cry "Abba, Father," given them. Now, it is true (since the cross) that "Because ye are sons (already, by faith in Jesus Christ; Galatians 3:26), God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). We stand thus consciously in relationship to God as our Father, which no saint of God ever did; although they were born of God, this relationship as sons never was known. Confidence in God characterizes the Old Testament and before the cross; relationship characterizes the New. The people of God before the cross were under the "forbearance" of God. When the cross came and discharged all God’s claims, and purged their sins, they are on another footing altogether. They now stand as those who have been righteously forgiven and justified. Romans 3:25-26, brings this truth out very plainly; "Whom God hath set forth a propitiation (or mercy seat) through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the passing over (margin), of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time, his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

Suppose a man owed a debt which he could not discharge. Well, some kind person says he will be security for that debt. Then his creditor forbears with him; he does not press his claim. Still the creditor’s claim has not been settled, nor is the debtor relieved; the debt hangs over him still. But suppose the rich man has kindly discharged the debt himself, unknown to the other. How very kind! you exclaim. But still the debtor’s mind is not relieved; he thinks he is still under the forbearance of his creditor. Then some one comes with the news that all has been discharged, and that the creditor wishes to assure the person that he wishes him to know it, and not be afraid to meet him any more.

Now this forbearance was the state of the saints before the cross — they confided in God — trusted His promises. They knew that some day or other these promises would be fulfilled. They thus lived and died in confidence in God. God was looking on towards the cross, and the Son was in the heavens; the One who had presented Himself to come some day and do all God’s will (Psalms 40:6-8). Thus God waited, and His people were under "the forbearance of God;" and the Son was security, so to speak, for their sins; one day or other He would take up the claim and discharge it. At last came the Son of God; in holy love He took up the work — "bore our sins" on the tree, discharging every claim. He died and rose, and went on high. From the heavens which He entered by His own blood (Hebrews 9:12), He sent down the Holy Ghost with the message that the sins were borne and put away, and thus our consciences are purged in receiving His testimony to us (Hebrews 10:15-17); then having believed this testimony to us, He then comes to dwell in us, uniting us to Him who has purged our sins, and then making us members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones! But more. Then comes out all God’s delight, and the purposes of His love. He gives us the same place, and joys, and blessings, and inheritance with His own Son! He had become a Man, and as a Man — the firstborn amongst many brethren He took His place in glory, and God set us in Him there on high. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). He has quickened us together with Christ; raised us up together, and seated us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).

Thus His people have, by sovereign grace, this new and wondrous place, and they should be the exponents of a heavenly Christ, on earth, by the Spirit of God. The Church of God, looked upon in the truth of it, is the reflex on earth, produced by the power of the Spirit of God, to the glory of Christ in heaven.

We will now examine this a little more in detail. Forty years’ endurance brought Israel up to the plains of Moab, and Jordan lay before them. The wilderness is a subject of deep interest to our hearts. In no place do we so learn the sympathies and tenderness of Christ as there, where faith and patience are tried and tested — where God leads and feeds, and trains His people in obedience and brokenness of will, for the heavenly warfare of the land. This is not properly the subject of these papers, though we may enter a little upon it in the next chapter. They had been safe from judgment forty years before in Egypt, on the night of terror. They had come out of it by redemption, never to return by that way again. Still they were not come in to the Canaan to which God had purposed to bring them; and there rolled the barrier to the land. The Jordan is commonly taken as a type of death, and very justly. But it is not death physically — or in other words the death of the body. It is the fact of Christ’s death and resurrection being counted to us in grace, and so used that it is death and resurrection morally to us, leading us "in Christ," into a new scene altogether; a place where we know no man after the flesh, yea, if we had known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him thus no more (2 Corinthians 5:16).

We read in Joshua 3:1-17, that the Ark of God — borne by the Levites — was first to pass down into the waters of death, the last token of the enemy’s power. There was to be a space between it and the Host which followed after. Then as the feet of the priests touched the brim of the waters, they stood upright on an heap, and all the Host of the Lord passed over into the land in which the Lord delighted, at the other side of Jordan. God had passed over them when He was judging Egypt. They passed over here, when it was a question of sovereign grace bringing them into the land in which He chose to dwell.

None could pass that way till Christ first was there. He must dry up that mighty stream of death in which God’s judgment was expressed. He must thus end human life, which the enemy could touch, before He introduced us into the life beyond it all. The waters compassed Him about, and flowed over His head. Deep called to deep as they reached His soul. But all was borne, and the bed of the river of death proved, as His people traversed it with dry-shod feet, that all had borne down upon Him; "All thy waves and billows passed over me." The priests "stood firm," bearing the Ark; and "the people passed over right against Jericho." There was the organized strength of the Enemy in unbroken power — the seven nations of Canaan were also there. Thus has the Lord died and risen; ascended on high He has entered, as Man, into a new sphere for man, and has introduced us into life on the other side of death, and given us all that He possesses as Man. In Ephesians 1:1-23 this new place is unfolded according to the counsels of God. It is remarkable that there you have an allusion, not only to the Passover and Red Sea; that is the judgment of sin, and redemption of the people of God; but we have also in it the Ark in and out of the Jordan, and in our Canaan — the heavenlies. Thus, the whole wilderness is dropped; fulfilling most fully in the antitype the statement of God’s purposes to Moses in Exodus 3:8, and the full result of those counsels in introducing man into His presence on high.

Thus we read (Ephesians 1:7), "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." The blood of Christ, on the ground of which we have this forgiveness and the redemption which is in Christ, is the way into those counsels of His grace and purposes in Christ before the world began. Then we read (Ephesians 1:19) of "The exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places." Thus the true Ark of the Covenant has been in the waters, and in the next chapter (Ephesians 2:3-6), the people of God have passed through. "Even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together in Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

We have thus been introduced into this new land. We might say in the language of Psalms 119:3, "The sea saw it and fled: Jordan was driven back." As the Psalmist links together the deliverance out of Egypt of the Red Sea, and the entrance into the land through the Jordan; so does the breadth of the purposes of that God, "who is rich in mercy," take in, in Ephesians 1:1-23, Ephesians 2:1-22, our present introduction into "heavenly places in Christ Jesus," as the people whom He has cleansed and redeemed!

Chapter 7.

Canaan First; then the Lessons of the Wilderness. The people of God are a heavenly people — they are already "in the heavenlies in Christ," as we have seen. We require no experience in learning this blessed truth — nothing but simple faith. We pass through many experiences before accepting the truth of being dead with Christ to our whole sinful state as children of Adam; the more so when experience contradicts God’s Word, and we find we are, if we look at ourselves, still alive. The evil nature is still ready to lend itself to everything contrary to God. But for faith, and for God, it is dead. The only thing which lives in us, in His sight, is that new nature which He has given us. The feeblest throb of it is fragrant before Him, because it is the exhibition of the life of Jesus, in whom was all His delight, in our mortal bodies.

We have thus been introduced into a life on the other side of death and judgment. The very life we have in Christ is a witness that our sins are all put away. Before He bestowed it upon us, He first bore the sins which He found in the way, as He passed down, in holy love, into the depths in which we lay — "dead in sins." He then rose, leaving them all behind. He introduced us into a peace on high with God — a fitting sphere for that life to grow and flourish. He gives us the glory He has as a man: the possessions of all He will inherit. Then He looks for the works and fruits suited to that new condition which God had foreordained for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).

Thus, in this new place, having this new life, and being already set in possession of all things in Christ, we are not in Egypt; we did walk according to the course of this world; we are not in the wilderness; but we are in the heavenly places, which are our Canaan: "We are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." And here comes in the paradox of the Christian state. He looks on high and sees Christ in the glory, and is conscious that he is in Him. He looks below and he finds himself traversing a world under Satan’s power, in which there is not a breath that is not noxious to the new and heavenly life within. But having first begun in the glory, with the consciousness of His place there, he is in the race which leads to the attainment of the goal — the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. He looks at himself, and he can say, "as having nothing." He looks at Christ, and says, "yet possessing all things."

Now, there is no place for learning the tender sympathy of Christ — the blessings of a Father’s love and patience and care as in the journey through. True, he must first have reached by faith the Canaan to which be has already come in Christ. Then he finds that this world is not the sphere in which God can bless him fully; but that there is no place where his own heart is more thoroughly learned, and the heart of Christ, as in the wilderness way. In Deuteronomy 8:2-5 we read — "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna (which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know), that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." The wilderness is the place of education for our warfare in the land — the place where faith and patience are tried, and where the ultimate thought of God in the training is that obedience may be perfect, and our wills broken, by learning to live by every word of God. The first stage in the wilderness journey gives a character to the whole. We find it in Exodus 15:1-27, just after the song went up to the Lord. The first thing we have to do is to give thanks unto the Father, "Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:12-14). This takes in the whole range of what God wrought from the night of the passover, until the morning when the note of praise ascended to Him from the hearts of His redeemed people, on the shores of the Red Sea, in which the hosts of Pharaoh had sunk to the bottom as a stone. Then we need to be strengthened according to the power of His glory unto patience by the way. The salt or bitter waters of death have delivered us, because they have been borne by Jesus. But now we must taste them because we have been delivered. We must find that death is in the scene. Tribulation is our portion in this world — but in Christ, peace. What, then, must we learn? That we are crucified with Him; that the cross, in which we can glory, when put into the trial, makes it sweet indeed. Take reproach — how bitter to endure! but let it be the reproach of Christ, and how different is the taste! Take the needed discipline of His hand in correcting that which is evil in us, or likely to spring up in our hearts — how hard to be borne, how hard to be continually humbled! Now if we were thoroughly humble we should not need to be humbled, but because we are not, we must be broken down. See the thorn given to Paul. He goes to the third heaven, where no one had ever been before and returned again but Paul, and now he must have his thorn. What trying work thus to be humbled before others, just because he had been in the heights! He did not need it there, but he did when he returned, and lest he should boast of having been there, he must have a thorn in his flesh. He prays thrice that it may depart from him. It was the bitter water to Paul. But no! The Lord knew better than Paul what was needed, and he must have the thorn. Very well, says Paul, "most gladly;" "I glory in it." Ah, Paul, now you are at Elim! You have made an Elim of the trial, and you can sit under His shadow with great delight, and His fruit be sweet to your taste.

There are three sorts of tribulation or dealings of God in the way of discipline in the wilderness with us. First — Tribulation in which we may glory; for instance, suffering for Christ in this evil world. This is different from suffering with Christ. All Christians suffer with Him, because they possess life in Him, and that life must necessarily suffer in a scene which was all suffering to Him. If we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him. But to some the suffering comes for faithfulness to Christ; it is also looked upon as a gift. "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Php 1:29). In this we can indeed make our boast. How far this goes beyond suffering for conscience’ sake! A man to suffer for it may be a loser, because he does his business conscientiously: perhaps his profits may not be as large as those who have no conscience in the matter. But the same man may have found the pathway of a rejected Christ in this evil world, have had grace to turn his feet into the track, and the result may be that he loses his business altogether. The mistake is in judging things merely as right and wrong by conscience. Conscience is never a guide. Paul followed his conscience, and persecuted Christ and wasted the Church of God. Following Christ is the only sure pathway, and it is a Christ whom the world has cast Out, and whom God has set in glory. Can I have better treatment from the world than He had? "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him who sent me;" that is the Father (John 15:19; John 15:21).

There is a second kind of suffering under which I must humble myself, and in which I cannot boast. I allude to the suffering of various kinds which comes under God’s righteous government, and from Him as a Father, for evil allowed and unjudged in our ways. The Father, without respect of persons, judgeth according to each one’s work, therefore we have to pass the time of our sojourning here (to which this judgment applies) in fear; there is no fear in heaven (1 Peter 1:17). How much these retributive dealings of a Holy Father with us are forgotten!

Then there is another tender and merciful order of chastening or discipline, which is more what Paul also had to endure. It is a preventive discipline, because of a tendency to be puffed up. The Lord knows our hearts well; who knows them better? and His dealings are suited to the temperament of each, and to the tendency of each to get away from Christ, to which each is most liable. "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous;" His eyes are on them for their good, and the righteous should not withdraw their eyes from Him! A striking fact comes out now. I mean when the Marah bitterness is approved of, as God’s true and loving yet firm dealing with us, the sorrow and bitterness become but the occasion for the next step; the cross sweetens the cup. It brings to mind that murmuring self has been dealt with on the cross, and when self is gone, then the bitterness that self tasted is gone with the self that tasted it. Then the soul is at Elim with its wells and palm trees, its refreshment and shelter. But I allude to something else which is not told us in Exodus — their return to the Red Sea again. How strange to go back to that through which they had just passed!

If we turn to Numbers 33:1-56 we find the interesting itinerary of the journey, step by step, and stage by stage, marked and registered under God’s eye. From Pi-hahiroth to Marah, from Marah to Elim, and from Elim, with its fountains and palm trees, back again to the Red Sea! (Numbers 33:8-10) What do we learn from this? I believe a blessed lesson. We should be able to turn now, without a quiver in our hearts, and calmly survey that death by which we have been delivered — the death of Him who passed through its dark raging flood for us. We can contemplate it as that which silenced every foe; "The waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left" (Psalms 106:11).

Chapter 8.

"Gilgal": the Stones of Memorial in the Jordan and at Gilgal.

God has thus given us eternal life in His Son — a life on the other side of death and judgment, which were borne by Jesus before it was bestowed. This life is a witness that the sins we had committed are all for ever put away. When He was passing down in holy love into those depths where we lay "dead in sins," He found our sins: He took them up and made them His own — died and rose, leaving them all behind Him at His cross.

We have also been introduced, "in Christ," into a new sphere on high with God; a fitting place for the life He has bestowed. He has given us in title the glory He possesses as Man, and the possession too of all He will inherit by and by. Thus, in this new place, we have wholly left the Egypt to which we once belonged, and the wilderness which we traversed, as we look at ourselves "in heavenly places" "in Christ." And here comes in the double character of the Christian state, as we have before said. If he looks up he is in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, united to Him by the Holy Ghost sent down. But he is traversing the desert as a pilgrim and stranger, if he looks below; a place in which every breath is noxious to the heavenly life he possesses in Christ. He has begun in the glory, and he is in the race which leads to the attainment of the goal; the mark for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. He looks at himself and can truly say, "As having nothing;" he looks at Christ, and says, "Yet possessing all things." The first spot where Israel’s feet stood after crossing over was at Gilgal. There is no student of Scripture who will not have noticed the deep importance of this spot subsequently, in all the wars of the Lord, as also in the history of the people. (See Joshua 4:3; Joshua 4:8; Joshua 4:19; Joshua 5:9; Joshua 6:11; Joshua 6:14; Joshua 6:23; Joshua 9:6; Joshua 10:6; Joshua 10:15; Joshua 10:43; Joshua 14:6.)

Here I may remark that Canaan is not the type of the Father’s house where we hope to be when the Lord comes and receives us to Himself, and conducts us to that scene of bliss. There will be no conflict, no enemies found in that place of rest. Canaan is a figure of the heavenlies which we are in, as a present thing by faith; and as united to Him who is there. All is yet in possession of the foe. The heavenlies are the abode, for the time, of wicked spirits — the rulers of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12). We have therefore, to maintain our place as heavenly men, under the Lord, against all the hosts of Satan’s power.

Gilgal has five characteristics, of which we shall now hope to speak in detail. They are —

First, The stones of memorial set up at Gilgal, and those in the Jordan.

Secondly, The characteristic of the place — Circumcision.

Thirdly. The eating of the Passover there, on the plains of Jericho.

Fourthly, Feeding upon the old corn of the land of Canaan; and —

Lastly, The presence of the Captain of the Host of the Lord, who now presents Himself to lead a circumcised people to victory.

If all things then are ours, there is that which we never may and never would lose sight of; nor would our God allow it to be so. I mean the way into this new sphere, and what it cost the Lord of glory that He might have us there. It would seem as if He only waited until His people were safely over, to speak of that which was nearest to His heart (Joshua 4:2).

There were two heaps of stones of memorial set up. One, at the command of Joshua, by twelve men, in the place where they lodged at Gilgal. This was composed of twelve stones taken out of the spot where the Ark stood firm till all had passed across dry shod. The other by Joshua himself, in that spot where the feet of the priests bearing the Ark stood, in the bed of the river of death. No doubt both are attributed to Joshua (Joshua 4:20), but there is a striking significance in the difference.

There are two ways of looking at these stones. They point to the Lord Jesus Himself at the moment when the waves were flowing over His holy soul in death. And they point to Him as the risen One, who was dead, and is now "alive for evermore." They also point (for such is the perfect identification between Him and His — He the Redeemer, they the redeemed; He the Sanctifier, they the sanctified) to our being now one with Him in life who was dead, and who lives for ever; also that as thus risen with Him, we are dead with Christ. The moment we are introduced into this life in resurrection, the remembrance of the path into it for us — the path of death for the Lord, is the constant food of the soul. Instead of death having fed upon us, its lawful prey — we feed upon death; but this death is the death of the Lord. It was thus we received this life at the first; eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of the Son of Man; thus appropriating Him in faith, and in the consciousness that except thus we have no life in us (John 6:53). Having fed upon Him by faith in death, and having received eternal life in Him, we live by that which produced it. We feed upon Him as risen, and who was dead, and thus we live by Him. "He that eateth me, even he shall live by me" (John 6:57). This is practical life: all else is death. It is but the Adam life (if you can call it such), and God owns it not. The Lord instituted the supper when here below on the same night on which He was betrayed; but this was not enough. We do not (as the Church of God) eat the Lord’s supper merely as thus appointed. He has gone on high in glory, and again — as the true Joshua, type of a heavenly Christ, by power of the Spirit, Leader, and Guide of His people — has He re-instituted the feast. It is from the heavens He speaks through Paul, by the Spirit of God sent down; and thus does the Church of God partake of it in the unity of one body. It had not this character as at first given, and the Church of God partakes of it, as the symbol of its unity as one body — breaking one loaf, which expresses this unity. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The loaf which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (i.e., His own body.) For we, being many, are one loaf, one body (i.e., the Church, His body); for we are all partakers of that one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). With Israel, it was twelve stones, as the symbol of the unity of the twelve tribes. With the Church it is "one loaf" — because it is "one body" in union with its Head in glory. There is no room in this for the independency of the present day. There is no room for the self-will of man in having as many tables as he pleases, or each one for himself; as many have done through the "commandments and doctrines of men."

Thus the Church of God, if obediently acting under a glorified Christ, by the power and direction of the Spirit of God, has the precious memorial in that feast (in its verity), the touching and heart-searching remembrance of the death of the Lord, antitype of these stones taken from the bed of death. We carry with us death, which once was our enemy, but now our ally, to this place of strength. She is conscious of her union with Him who died. There was no union with Him till He rose. Till then He abode alone. But also (now that we are in union with a risen Christ), we know that we have died with Him, and are now risen with Him, and thus introduced into this sphere of glory.

Oh what a crowd of thoughts would freely flow through our hearts, by the Spirit of God, were we to meditate further on those that present themselves as we contemplate this feast! But we must be satisfied in presenting the meaning as far as we can in this meditation; bearing in mind the basis of our thoughts as noted in our introductory chapter. The other heap of stones was set up by Joshua, in the bed of the river Jordan. The first heap, set up at Gilgal, was placed there by the twelve men, at his command. These he is said to have placed himself, in the place where the priests’ feet stood firm with the Ark. To me this difference conveys a most touching truth. We are are told in Joshua 4:18, that the waves flowed on, over this second heap of memorial stones, as soon as the Ark of the covenant, borne on the priests’ shoulders, came up out of Jordan: "and there they are unto this day."

Both these heaps of stones refer to Him in His death, and in His resurrection. They also speak to us (because twelve were thus used in the type) of our being risen with Him who was dead; and as risen, we know too that we have died with Him.

One heap — that at Gilgal — was ever to be seen; while the other was hidden, deep in the waves of the river. There are two sides, so to speak, amongst the host of thoughts which encircle the Lord’s Supper, one of which the church has always — but I do not think that practically she invariably enjoys the other. The stones which the twelve men took under Joshua’s command (or with us, the Church acting under the power and directions of a heavenly Christ), are ever to be seen and enjoyed. She always has the remembrance of Him in His death, carried to the place of communion — the ever freshly-speaking memorial of her blessing, and of the death of Him who gave Himself for her. "Till he come" marks its continuance. But, let me ask my reader, do we always have that of which the second heap of stones speaks? Is Christ always free (it was Joshua’s action in the type) to lead us to the brink of that river? — are our hearts always in order that we may be led there? Yea, more; are our souls spiritual enough to be so led? Can He, I say, ever freely lead us back to the river — while we have only stepped to that spot from the Gilgal where self is gone, and put back the stream — draw aside the vail of waters, and allow us to gaze down into their depths, and behold the spot where His precious feet stood fast; and let us read His heart, and His sorrows — His cry!

How blessedly have we enjoyed Him speaking to our hearts, of our blessing in feeding together in peace at the Supper of the Lord; but have we always been let into what flowed through His heart at that memorable hour? I can answer for myself — perhaps for others — No!

Oh, for the children of God to come together in such condition of heart and conscience, that He might be ever free to manifest Himself and allow us thus to discern His body! That we might not only have (what, thank God! we ever have) the truth conveyed to us in the heap of stones at Gilgal; but that He might be free to carry us in company with His spirit to the place His holy soul was, when deep called to deep at the noise of God’s waterspouts (Psalms 42:7); when the waters compassed Him about (Jonah 2:5); when they flowed over His head (Lamentations 3:54); or when they came in to His soul (Psalms 69:1); letting us into the secrets of those moments when nature veiled her head; when the sun put on his mourning, and the rocks rent, because the Son of God was pouring out His soul unto death; when His heart was like wax, melted in the midst of His bowels! (Psalms 22:14.) There in His solitary path through death’s river, He stood fast, there was God most fully glorified; there to the Father was presented a fresh motive to love His Son. And He values our remembrance of His love — now that we are free to think of Him who gives us His company at Gilgal.

Thus we have death, our foe, converted into our ally in this new scene; and Joshua, in his explanation of these stones of memorial, takes in the Red Sea in looking back (Joshua 4:23); as Moses’ faith, in the song of deliverance, took in the Jordan when looking forward to the completeness of God’s salvation (Exodus 15:16).