The Spiritual Background of the Word of God
by
T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 4 - Life Overcoming Death
Reading: Numbers 17:1-13.
We have been saying that the Scriptures throughout reveal an abiding
and deep seated antagonism between God and this world, and that that
antagonism passes into every instrument brought into living
fellowship with God, and becomes the expression of God's antagonism,
as also the means by which the antagonism in the world is dragged
out into the light. So that, all who are in spiritual fellowship
with God, know that from God's side there can be no reconciliation
with the world in that spiritual sense of the word in which we are
using it, and they also know that there is toward them, as toward
God, this strong, deep, relentless spiritual antagonism on the part
of the world.
We have further seen, that in the true nature of fallen man there is
that element which has an affinity with the world, and which causes
man spontaneously to gravitate world-ward.
Then we have seen that the Word of God reveals the existence of a
great system of spiritual intelligence, which has as its business
the maintaining and stimulating of that antagonism, and that all its
might is bent upon keeping that affinity between fallen man and this
world. So that that whole system of spiritual intelligences is all
the time seeking to keep man world-bound spiritually, and to bring
about some kind of involving again, even of the Lord's people and
the Church, in this world, spiritually. The whole history of the
Church's gravitation world-ward in numerous ways is just the history
of the success of those spiritual intelligences, to again entangle
the people of God in the toils of the world spiritually.
Now we have to some extent dealt with those matters; and we come,
therefore, to the next thing which was mentioned in our original
outlining of this whole matter; that spiritual death is the law
which governs that relationship of man with the world. Spiritual
death is the many-sided master-hold of those spiritual forces. In
our second analysis, you will remember, it was pointed out, that the
very essence of the working of the Lord Jesus by His Cross, was to
destroy that affinity, to break the power of that law of death, and
to introduce, on the ground of separation from the world, the law of
life; a counter law to the law of gravitation toward the world, the
realm of spiritual death. So for a brief time we shall be occupied
with the law of life in Christ, that which comes by the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. How to lift out just enough for a little while is
my problem. The Lord will no doubt help.
We may find our helpfulness by reverting to the portion of the Word
from which we were reading in the Book of Numbers. We read the 17th
chapter, the account of the taking of the twelve rods of the twelve
tribes of Israel, and of the sequel in the budding of Aaron's rod.
You will notice, if you have the Word open, that this 17th chapter
has its setting in a scene of death. The chapter before gives the
account of the rebellion of Korah and his company, the disputing of
the leadership of Moses and Aaron, and the calling into question of
God's appointment. You must ever remember that Moses and Aaron are
one, that in principle they are not two men, they represent the two
sides of one. Moses is that side which represents government,
administration; Aaron is that side which represents priesthood,
mediation. Two sides of one ministry, which are clearly seen in the
Anti-type of Moses and Aaron, the Lord Jesus Himself; King and
Priest, Ruler and Priest, Administrator and Mediator.
Korah with his company rose up and questioned the divine appointment
and its absoluteness. You know the issue. The Lord took up that
matter. Moses did not take up that matter; Moses did not turn a hand
for his own vindication; he fell on his face before the Lord, and
his meekness is brought out at that point as never before. But the
Lord stepped in and called for Korah and his company to be brought
to the door of the tent of the congregation. The issue was that the
earth opened, and swallowed up the company of Korah, which, if you
look, you will see to have been a very large company. Death engulfed
all who were touched and tainted with that thing. Chapter 17 is set
in that background of death, terrible death. Korah and his company
have touched something which was death, and which worked out in
death. There had been a contact in spirit between them and that
realm which is death, and spiritual death always precedes the
literal carrying out of it, just as spiritual life in resurrection
precedes the resurrection literally. There will be no resurrection
unto life for anyone who has not already been resurrected
spiritually. And when eventually the judgment of death has its
literal consummation, it will simply be the fulfilment of what has
already been taking place in spiritual death; and in principle Korah
had already touched a realm which implied and involved death, and
the literal judgment was but the consummation of that.
A Realm of Spiritual Death
Now we pass into this part of the story where the big question for
the Lord's people is the fact of there being a realm of death, and
of our seeing how possible it is for us to become involved in that,
to touch that, and the awful consequences - how can we live? Who can
live? You see that is what comes up at the end of chapter 17, but is
the issue of chapter16. At the end of chapter 17 you read: "And the
children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we
are undone, we are all undone. Every one that cometh near, that
cometh near unto the tabernacle of the Lord, dieth: shall we perish
all of us?" Question followed question. Death is working: Death, a
realm which can be touched spiritually. How can we live? Can we live
at all? The content of chapter 17 is the answer; Aaron's rod that
budded. I think it well nigh impossible to fail to see in that rod
the type of the Lord Jesus. All those rods, even Aaron's rod, when
brought to the tabernacle, were dead. Aaron's rod was among the
rest, apparently like them, in death. Judgment has taken place, sin
has been judged and dealt with, and death through sin reigns
universally. That is sin, as you have it at the end of "Good
Friday," as we call it. Even the Lord Jesus, who has voluntarily
entered into the universal judgment of sin, taken His place amongst
sinful men, and has received the judgment of God upon the sin of the
world, looks, at the end of that day, as though He is like all the
rest - dead; laid up through the night, the dark night. But then we
hear Paul's ringing shout: "God raised Him from the dead," and what
we call "Easter Day" is Aaron's rod that budded, is Christ in
resurrection. These rods, or at least Aaron's rod, was an almond
rod, the stick of an almond tree. In Hebrew the word "almond" simply
means "awakening," and it is given that name because it is the first
of the trees of spring to break the slumber of winter. The first
blossoms of spring are the blossoms of the almond tree, and the
almond gets its name in Hebrew simply from the fact that it breaks
the slumber of winter first. It is the first to show the new life. A
very simple type of Christ, the Firstfruits of them that are asleep,
awakened, breaking the slumber of death.
The Fulness of Christ's Victory
There is something more than that. The marvel, the miracle of this
particular rod was that simultaneously it had buds, blossoms and
fruit, ripe fruit. You have never found that on an almond tree in
spring. You have seen the bud, and then later the flower, and later
the fruit, but here are all at once. Christ in resurrection is
initially the break with death, and at the same time the full fruit
of resurrection, and there is present all the beauty of that in the
flower. It is a matchless picture of resurrection. Christ does not
rise progressively in bud, and later on in flower, and later still
in fruit, all is there in a moment; and that is why we can live; for
in Him is the fulness of resurrection life. Do they ask, How can we
live? Who can live? The answer is here - Christ lives, all is
possible. Even in the presence of death and judgment, in a world
where death rages, to touch which spiritually means death, it is
possible to live in the triumph of His resurrection. I take the
simple and the surface lesson of this almond rod and of the
resurrection.
Much more there is, but we will ravish our hearts with the first
beauty of this thing. You and I know quite well that death is all
around us in this world - spiritually, I mean. We know by painful
experience that it is all too possible, and all too easy for us
spiritually to touch that realm, and to have the touch of it upon
us, to feel that cold touch of spiritual death upon our hearts by
reason of, in some way out of a thousand ways, just getting a
contact. It may be conversation. It is so easy to touch death
through not watching your conversation. How often, after a holy time
with the Lord, frivolity has come in in your conversation, and you
know in your spirit that you have come into a realm of death, it may
be by something said about a child of God; you have come down to
earth levels in your relationships, your criticisms. I could never,
if I tried, touch all the ways in which it happens, but I mention
these simply to give point to the truth. There are innumerable ways
in which the spirit of one who has been touched by the Lord with His
life, can just be involved in that spiritual realm of death. It is a
reality to us - we know it. That new law which He has put within us,
which gravitates toward the Lord, makes us revolt and recoil from
even compulsory dealings with many things in this world. We have to
go back, because of the conventions of this world, because of
certain duties which have to be performed; we have to go back into
the world sometimes to ungodly relatives or associations, but we
want to get away as soon as we can, we recoil. That to us is death
spiritually. We do not, of course, imply here any lack of love or
desire for the salvation of such as are unsaved.
Now we live in that realm, in that world. How can we live
triumphantly in a world where death is, and not perish in it? More
than that! How can you and I, as the Lord's people, seeking to live
a heavenly life in this death-ridden world, live, not only in the
presence of men, and women, and things which are dead, but in the
presence of all the spirits of death, which are with increasing
intensity coming upon the children of God, to register death upon
them; these spirits that seek to make them accept death, to put up a
real conflict spiritually with something - the only word which
expresses it is death; that which is active, malicious, wanting to
crush the life out of you and to bring you down and under; how can
we live in that? We need a very full victory. That rod declared the
fulness of the victory, going right on to the end - ripe fruit. It
covers the whole field of resurrection life. Christ risen answers
the question, How can we live? Because He lives we live. He, risen,
is our life, even in the midst of death.
I know how very simply, very elementary that statement is, but it is
not too elementary for me. That does not set the standard, of
course, but for me that is a message, and because it is a message to
me I give it to you. Beloved, as children of God, we cannot live in
this world, only in the power of the risen life of the Lord Jesus,
but we CAN live, even in this world, in the midst of the full force
of spiritual death, if we know Christ in risen life, the fellowship
with Him in His resurrection. We can live, and it is what we have
got to learn to do. We have to learn from day to day how literally
in our hearts to lay hold of the Lord as our life, to make it
possible for us to go triumphantly through this world, this living
tomb, this realm of death.
Now all that is according to the truth: all that can have the Word
of God brought to its support throughout. You probably realise that
more or less. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus has got to become
to His own a daily reality. It is not merely something that happened
so many years go. We do not celebrate something that happened
centuries ago, we celebrate something that is real now in
experience. I cannot sing a hymn about something that happened so
many centuries ago. I can only enter into this thing if it is a
reality to me now. I want the value of it to my own heart now, and
then I can sing. This matter of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
has got to become an increasing reality to us in our life, to live
in triumph in the midst of death. It is so real and true to
experience; very often it is wrapped up so carefully and so cleverly
by the enemy, that the whole tendency and peril is to put things
down to the account of something else; to put it down to the fault
of people, to the accidents of life, to the mere converging of
circumstances, to blame somebody, or something. And so it is wrapped
up really to divert us from the source of it, so that, being
occupied with something which is not the original occasion, but
merely a means of it, we shall not get right to the source, and be
able to tackle it there. If your experience of spiritual death comes
about, in measure, through some means seen or known, and you become
occupied with the means, the channel, the instrument, the person or
the thing, you have no power to deal with the matter at its fountain
head. You simply get up against people and things, and blame them
and feel sorry about them. But if you recognise that that is only
the wrapping of the enemy, and see that the issue is a question of
life and death, and you get right to the source of it, and say, now,
although so-and-so may have been unwatchful, unwise, and in measure
responsible, I see that the enemy is back of that, and the effect of
this thing is intended to be that I am spiritually put out of
action, brought down into death; then you are on the way to being
able to master the whole situation. And how often when we get back
of the thing or the person, and deal with the thing in its spiritual
realm, the other thing of itself clears up, and you find that that
is taken out of the enemy's hands. It is very true! It is important
for us to recognise the ultimate matter, and that is the one of
spiritual conflict between the prince of this world and our spirits,
to bring us again into the bondage of spiritual death.
Ministry in Resurrection Life
That is not all, but I must close. I want to remind you that it is
not only a matter of living. Chapter 18 carries this thing further.
It carries it into ministry. The answer of the end of chapter 17
works two ways. It works, on the one hand, toward living in the
presence of death, and being delivered from death; it works in the
other way, in the matter of spiritual service. It is a glorious
thing to notice that it is not only a matter of being able to
maintain yourself in life, or being maintained in life, but a
ministry in resurrection comes into view. Chapter 18 brings the
whole matter of spiritual ministry in resurrection in a new way
before the Lord's people. Aaron, his sons, and the Levites, on the
ground of this great miracle of resurrection come into a spiritual
ministry. It is not necessary for me to remind you that the Levites
are, in representation, all the people of God; all the people of
God, in consecration, in separation unto the Lord; and their
ministry is the ministry of all the Lord's people, and all the
Lord's people have their ministry in the Levites. In the New
Testament you do not divide the Body literally. Here it is a
principle, a type, an illustration of a spiritual reality. In the
New Testament it is Christ and His own.
If you want the proof of
that, read your Letter to the Hebrews again, and you will find, in
the very first chapters of that Letter, the Lord Jesus, Who comes in
as the greater than Aaron, speaks again and again of His own as
being brethren, children: "I and the children..." "I will declare
Thy Name unto My brethren..." "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus...." And there Christ is
seen as "A Son over God's house, Whose house are we." It is a
priestly family that comes in with the New Testament. The Letter to
the Hebrews makes it perfectly clear that that is all on
resurrection ground. He, through death, has destroyed him that had
the power of death, that is, the devil; and delivered all those who
all their lives were in bondage through fear of death. On the ground
of resurrection this priestly family comes in with Him as its Head.
That is Numbers 18 quite clearly. And so spiritual ministry comes
in, not for a class, but for all the Lord's people. If there is any
difference between the sons of Aaron and the Levites it is one of
spiritual development, and not of class distinction. It is
approximation to maturity, as represented by the sons of Aaron, but
the ministry of the House of God is spread over all the Lord's
people. Every one of you - take it to your heart - every one of you
stands now, in the New Testament day, in the position of the priests
and the Levites of Numbers 18. That is a privilege; that is a
responsibility.
Now, of course, your mental difficulties will be as to the nature of
ministry, and you will perhaps be asking questions. You may ask,
Have I to preach, have I to be on the platform, taking meetings? No,
it does not mean anything of the kind. It does mean that you have a
ministry spiritually, by your very relationship to the living Lord.
Oh, that we could get delivered from this mechanical idea of
ministry. The Lord has taken tremendous pains with some of us in
this matter. Ministry does not consist in someone getting Bible
addresses ready, Bible readings and subjects, preparing them, and
getting up and giving them forth at meetings. That is not the
ministry. The Lord has shown to us that it is impossible to minister
in the power of the Holy Ghost, in the Word of God, in truth, unless
we have the fruit of Christ's resurrection in us. You have to come,
not only to the initial experience of the bud, being raised together
with Christ; you have to come to the place where the beauty of
Christ in the flower is there; and then the fruit of Christ is there
in ripeness. I would not come to you to minister at any time simply
because there is in the Bible a good deal of interesting matter that
I have seen, and which I would like you to know. My cry to God is,
Forbid me to speak to this people, unless You give me a word in my
own heart that is meaning something to me. Ministry flows out of
living union with the Lord Jesus, and if ministry is not that, it is
not the ministry of God. Do not take on ministry in a mechanical,
organised way; that will kill you sooner or later. This ministry is
only possible in the power and fruit of His resurrection.
Are you knowing the fruit of His resurrection in your own heart, in
your own life, so that He is really causing you to partake of the
fruit of His resurrection - ripe almonds? It may be in a simple way,
but you are knowing that beauty, that unction, that fellowship with
the Lord in your own heart. If you are, you need not worry about
ministry; that will show itself. The Lord will find ways for you. I
have no doubt whatever but that when the Lord gets a child of His
into a place where they are really in their own hearts enjoying the
fruit of the risen Lord, the Lord will make contacts with that life
which will be fruitful, and that will be ministry. He knows where
there is someone who is just longing for a taste of the fruit of His
risen life, and He will make the contacts. That does not exempt us
from being ready, anxious to be used as the Lord will, on stretch to
be of service to Him; though all eagerness to minister will be in
vain if we are not in resurrection with the Lord Jesus, but, given
that, ministry follows, it comes out of that.
Numbers 18 comes out of Numbers 17. The ministry of the House of God
is spontaneous, when there is union with Christ in risen life; the
fruit is there at once.
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