"Then the cloud
covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord
filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
into the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode
thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle,
the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their
journeys: but if the cloud was not taken up, then they
journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the
cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and
there was fire therein by night, in the sight of all the
house of Israel, throughout all their journeys"
(Ex. 40:34-38).
Life Must be Viewed as a Whole
In this matter of
guidance, life has to be viewed as a whole. That is the
first thing about it, and a very important thing. The
guidance of the nation of Israel through the wilderness
is always viewed from the standpoint of the end, the
goal. There are such words as: "He led them safely,
so that they feared not" (Psa. 78:53); "He led
them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city
of habitation" (Psa. 107:7). In the phases and the
stages of the journey very often that seemed not to be
true. He led them on safely? by a straight path? In
neither of those matters did it always seem to be true.
But in this matter of their guidance, the end was always
in view from the beginning. The fact is that they got
there at last, and it is the end and the verdict which
covers the whole course.
It is like that with
Divine guidance. We must recognise this, and settle it,
that we have got to take life as a whole. If we only take
it at given times and in given situations, we shall be in
confusion, contradiction, in a great deal of perplexity,
uncertainty, doubt, perhaps with big questions, and a
feeling that there is no guidance at all in our lives -
that we have just been left. But we must take the long
view, and the end will prove that we were being guided,
even when we thought otherwise, that the Hand was upon us
when it seemed that it was not so. Divine guidance has to
be viewed from the standpoint of the whole. It is life in
its entirety that has to be related to the guidance of
God.
When we have got that
clear - and the Word of God bears it out very fully - we
are able to take another step, and to see that this
inclusiveness and 'conclusiveness' of Divine guidance is
related to two things.
God's Purpose of Fullness
Firstly, it is related
to Divine purpose. His purpose is a very clearly defined
thing, a very concrete and definite thing, a set and
fixed object, and His guidance is completely bound up
with His purpose. When His purpose is really governing,
when it has become the sole interest and object of our
lives, we find there is a sovereignty over everything.
"To them that love God all things work together for
good, even to them that are called according to His
purpose" (Rom. 8:28). That is a very comprehensive
"all things". The statement is that not one of
the "all things" is without some good being
definitely put into it, and got out of it, by the
sovereignty of God, when His purpose governs. That cannot
be said of the 'all things' which compose lives which are
not so governed. Their 'all things' do not work good. The
guidance of God is therefore inseparable from His
purpose.
This is perfectly clear
in the case of Israel. The purpose of God was made known
from the beginning very clearly and definitely: it was to
bring them into the land. It came out most definitely and
positively when they were over Jordan, and Joshua was
actually about to lead them in. The Lord said to Joshua
that he was to be strong and of good courage, because he
was to bring the people into the land which the Lord had SWORN
to give them (Josh. 1:6). That was His purpose. We know
that that is an historical figure and type of what we
have in the New Testament - the heavenly country and all
the riches and fullness of Christ. That land of Canaan was
a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of wealth,
riches, mines, and so on. We know that it was only a pale
foreshadowing of what came in with Christ. "O the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God!" (Rom. 11:33). "The unsearchable riches
of Christ" (Eph. 3:8). The purpose of God is the
fullness of Christ, and all Divine guidance is bound up
with that.
God's Vessel of Realisation
In the next place,
Divine guidance is bound up with, and centred in, God's
vessel. Here in the case of Israel it is set forth in the
tabernacle. Immediately the Lord had accomplished the
redemption of His people, He proceeded to reveal that
great design which embodied His purpose - the tabernacle,
His vessel. And again we know so well that the tabernacle
was a twofold figure of Christ and His Church: if you
like, Christ dominant, and then in corporate expression;
Christ the foundation, Christ giving it its character,
nature and meaning. That is the vessel of God's purpose.
That was to govern - to be central or to precede, as the
case might be - and all Divine guidance was related to
that.
This is a point that
perhaps has not been clearly recognised. This tabernacle
was a far, far more important thing than we have
realised. We like the pictorial aspect of it; we are very
pleased with all this typology of the tabernacle; but it
has been brought down to such an earthly level. Just
reflect for a moment that for forty days and forty
nights, in unceasing communion, God was revealing to
Moses the details, the whole conception and construction
of that tabernacle. Forty days and forty nights Moses was
with the Lord in the mount, receiving the pattern; and
then, when he had received that so meticulously and fully
from the Lord, it required a definite coming in of the
Holy Spirit to superintend the making of it in every part
and detail. It needed men full of the Holy Ghost, with
the Holy Spirit definitely in charge.
There is something here
of tremendous significance and account. It is a great,
heavenly order of things, a vast, heavenly system,
condensed into the framework and material of a symbolic
representation, but all there implicit in principle. And
when it was set up, all Divine guidance was bound up with
it. When the cloud rested, they could not move; the
people could not move without the tabernacle. These
prefigured Christ and the Church - His Body. The
tabernacle was the combination of the Lord and His
people, and although, in the wilderness, the people were
apart from and objective to the tabernacle, in type they
were one. What, then, was taught was that God moves
Churchwise, and His people are governed in their
movements by God's movements in the Church. It is the
Church - when it is as God would have it - which governs
Divine movement. God always moves in relation to His
Church. He may have to stay and wait because a pause is
called for in relation to the spiritual life of the
Church. It may be a deeper unifying or an adjustment. It
may be to deepen faith and patience. It may be unto
deeper direct fellowship with Himself, which can be
weakened if there is too much 'keeping on the go'.
Whatever may be the occasion, God is concerned for His
Church, and a supreme lesson to be learned by His people
is that their way to fullness (the Land) is a collective
and corporate one.
These are very
important things for progress, for guidance. You are
exercised about the guidance for your life. Your
guidance, if this is true, very largely, if not
absolutely, rests upon these two things: God's purpose,
the fullness of Christ, and God's means or vessel, His
Church. It is a related matter. I know that difficulties
arise, but I am only enunciating the principle.
See, then, how jealous
God was for this tabernacle - jealous over every detail
of it, and jealous over relationships to it. For He was
not seeing a THING called a 'tabernacle', or the
tent of meeting and all its paraphernalia. He was seeing
His Son, He was seeing His Church. God always has in
view, not things, but the eternal reality, that of which
this is only a pattern.
The Demand for Faith
Do take that to heart
and think about it for it may answer some questions, or
solve some problems. Now we note further that there was
an element of mystery about this guidance, as there
always is. God's wisdom and God's knowledge, in His ways
with us, are not always revealed to us. The element of
faith has always to be present. God's wisdom is a hidden
wisdom, His full knowledge is a secret thing which He
does not disclose to us. His 'whys' and His 'wherefores',
what He is doing and why He is doing it, in this way or
that, He does not explain. But there is always a meaning,
as this history of Israel shows, in each stage of the
Divine guidance. There is something lying within every
phase of the Divine movements - or non-movements. This is
not just something random, casual, inconsequential. With
His purpose in view, God has a meaning in every phase and
every stage of His ways with us. It is important for us
to believe that, and always to look upon any particular
phase or aspect of our life with God from this
standpoint: What has God got in this? That is the thing
that matters. Not, Let us get out of this as soon as we
can, let us get past this, let us go on; but: What has
this got to reveal? What has this got to teach? God has
something there, and we have to discover it, because the
cloud will not move until we have.
It may be that some are
in the stopping place of Divine guidance, and you are all
restless and hot to get on to the next phase, the
next stage. You are impatient. But are you quite, quite
sure that you have got your hand upon the meaning of the
phase that you are in at present? Are you quite sure,
quite clear, that you can say, 'Well, I do not know, I
did not know, why the Lord brought about such a
situation, such an arrest, allowed such an experience:
but I have believed that He had some meaning in it, and I
have definitely had this understanding with Him that I do
not want to miss what He has got at this present time
because it is all a part of that cumulative value which,
after all, is the fullness of Christ'?
For the fullness of
Christ is not some place to which you and I are going. It
is a spiritual life which is growing now. We have to
eliminate these geographical factors from an earthly
representation of heavenly things, and remember that here
time and distance have no place at all. They only have a
place - if they have a place at all - in this, that we
can proceed years in a moment, we can move miles
spiritually in a step. We have only got to grasp what God
means in the sense that we are determined not to move
until we know that we have got what God means by our
present experience. If we can only grasp it, see it, come
alive to it, we have moved on years and moved on a great
distance. Time is only a factor while we are failing for
some reason or other either in apprehension or obedience.
For instance, Israel could have got through to the land
in eleven days. It took forty years. Why? Not because the
Lord had appointed forty years, but because the purpose
of God was not strongly enough settled in their hearts to
rule out personal interests and considerations. And so it
was they who made the extra time and the extra miles, not
the Lord.
But let us come back to
our main point. We have to make sure that we are learning
what God is trying to teach us now, because there will be
no movement until we do. The cloud will not lift and go
on until we have grasped it. What has the Lord been after
in all this? That is vital to the next phase and all
subsequent phases. Have we got it? Are we quite sure
about it? There is something hidden to be discovered and
to be laid hold of in every phase and stage of the way.
Discipline
And all that is
discipline. You see, the fact that God has a great
purpose settled and fixed and clearly defined, and that
we are called according thereto, and that there is a
working of Divine sovereignty - all that never eliminates
the factor of discipline, for the simple reason that God
is not acting mechanically. This is not a machine just
put together and wound up and started going by itself, by
its own momentum. In God's purpose and in His methods
with us, there is always the element of responsibility.
God never made a machine, He made man, and man has
responsibility. We are responsible creatures, and
therefore discipline has its place. God will not reach
His end mechanically, but only along the line of our
choice. Will, of course, is the focal point of
everything. Will, will, will - that was the trouble with
Israel; that is the trouble with us all. The human mind
will always be baffled, very largely, but the way through
is a will that is absolutely set upon God's end, whatever
that may cost.
Divine Sovereignty Over All
And then, with all this
element of mystery and perplexity, discipline and
instruction, growing intelligence unto responsibility,
there will always remain a large margin for Divine
sovereignty. Think again of Paul and his journey to Rome.
You remember what he says at the beginning of his letter
to the Romans, long before he went to them. The opening
of his letter told them of his love and his unceasing
prayer for them, and then he says that he wants them to
know that he would have come to them again and again, but
that he was hindered. Here is a man with his heart set
upon the interests of the Lord in His Church as
represented at Rome. He is a man whose life is wholly and
utterly abandoned to Christ and to the Church, who is
longing to be able to minister Christ to them in greater
fullness. And he purposes to go, and then is hindered; and
purposes again and is hindered; seeks to move in their
direction, and apparently is frustrated once more.
The point is, what a
strength of purpose and desire for God is here - and what
a mystery of hindrances, frustrations and delays! And
then, at last, at long last, how did he get to Rome?
Very, very differently from what he had intended,
purposed and thought! He had never calculated with that
last voyage and all that was in it. It seemed, on the one
hand, that all hell was determined that he should not get
there. On the other hand, we see God's mysterious ways.
We do not know what would have happened if Paul had gone
to Rome in the way in which he had gone elsewhere, if he
had just paid a visit, as he had to other places; but God
had some infinitely greater thought in his reaching Rome
than Paul ever thought. This is the mystery of God's
ways.
We know the story of
the imprisonment, the voyage, the shipwreck - the way in
which he did get there. But the historian just sums it
all up in one clause: "and so we came to Rome"
(Acts 28:14). - "We came to Rome." Divine
guidance has to cover everything. If Paul had settled on
any one of these incidents, he would have been in very
great difficulty indeed with the Lord. But he got there
at last. If you and I are so governed, dominated,
mastered, by God's end - the fullness of Christ - and
wedded to Christ Himself; if we will allow the Lord to do
things in His own way, and will seek to get hold of the
meaning and value of every part of the way, then the end
is sure, the end is secured. The end will be - "and
so we came..." Sometimes it may have looked as
though we should never get there. We may have known
shipwreck, in many ways. It looked very much as though we
would never arrive, but the fact is, we are here!
We must
see the principles of Divine guidance. The first is God's
purpose of fullness; the second is God's vessel of
realisation, the Church. The Church is the fullness of
Him, and a law of fullness is relatedness. Thirdly, there
will always be enough mystery about God's ways to demand
faith, which is another law of guidance. But, fourthly,
sovereignty is over all; and no matter what the delays,
frustrations, hindrances or threats, at the last we shall
write over all those times and experiences and situations
when we thought it was so otherwise -
'Jesus led me all the way.'
First published in "A Witness and
A Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1955, Vol 33-6