"And they
commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the
covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the
Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place,
and go after it." (Joshua 3:3).
First of all, it is this
fragment - "the priests, the Levites, bearing
it", bearing the ark - that is the key to our
present consideration.
In this book of Joshua,
the Levites have a large place. They are referred to
quite a number of times. Indeed, at one point the whole
chapter circles round them, and it is the significance of
the Levites in relation to heavenly fullness that I
want by the Holy Spirit's help to try to bring to
you. Many of us are quite familiar with the history of
the Levites, but it is necessary for us just to go over
that ground hurriedly to begin with.
In this book of Joshua
the Levites are presented in three ways. Firstly, as we
have just seen, as bearing the ark of the covenant into
the bed of the Jordan and standing there with it, with a
two-thousand-cubit space between them and it and the
people - a very great distance, as we saw in chapter
five. Then, secondly, in Joshua 14 it is stated that the
Levites were given no inheritance. That is, in the
dividing up of the land, unlike the other tribes they
were not apportioned a particular area, they were given
no inheritance in the land. But, thirdly, in chapter 21,
the chapter which circles round the Levites, you find
that all the tribes had to give something of a plot, a
place, to the Levites. The Levites were distributed among
all the tribes, and their place and their portion was not
all together in one place, but in relation to the whole
country, so that you might say the Levites were just
scattered all over the land, everywhere, in relation to
the rest of the people. Those are the three things about
the Levites, in this book, full of wonderful
significance.
LEVITES
REPRESENT THE HEAVENLY THOUGHT
What do they signify?
Let us go back. You remember how the Levites came into
being as a tribe. It was on the occasion when Israel
departed, when the calf was made, and they cried,
"These be thy gods, O Israel" (Ex. 32:4), and
they left the Lord. And Moses came down, heard and saw,
destroyed the calf, stood in the gate and cried,
"Whoso is on the Lord's side, let him come unto me.
And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together
unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, the
God of Israel, Put ye every man his sword upon his thigh,
and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp,
and slay every man his brother, and every man his
companion, and every man his neighbour. And the sons of
Levi did according to the word of Moses" (Exodus
32:26-28). All earthly considerations were sacrificed
to the heavenly interest, all earthly relationships
severed for the heavenly thought; everything of natural
sentiment and emotion, all that was of the mere soul, was
slain in the interests of that which governed the very
coming out of the people of God. For it was in the
thought of God that they should be a heavenly people, and
not thus involved in the spiritual system governing this
world. In that alone the Levites are seen to represent
the heavenly thought of God. A very drastic and utter
thing, was it not, that they should do that.
And you remember the
Lord never forgot it. Right at the end of the Old
Testament, in the last book, Malachi, referring to the
matter of Baal-Peor, where Phineas maintained the stand
for heavenly interests originally taken on the occasion
of the making of the golden calf (Num. 14), the Lord
said, "My covenant was with him {Levi} of life and
peace" (Malachi 2:5). 'He did not acknowledge his
brethren' (Deuteronomy 33:9): that is, he did not look
with sympathy even upon his own flesh when that moved
away from God's high thoughts. God made His covenant with
Levi. So at the very outset the Levites were selected,
and separated from all the rest of Israel, as taking the
place of the firstborn in Israel, and they became the
tribe of the firstborn ones; and from that many of you
will at once in your minds leap over to the letter to the
Hebrews - "Ye are come unto... the church of the
firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" (Heb.
12:22,23). Here is the heavenly thing coming in again:
the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven - the Levites,
the heavenly thought.
Now we said in chapter
five that there was this space of two thousand cubits at
the very least - for we cannot determine at this time
which cubit it was of the three: the distance was over
one thousand feet at the very least, and could easily
have been more than three thousand feet; a great space
between the ark and the people, indicating the immense
distance between Christ and all others in this work of
salvation, of redemption, of deliverance; - but the
Levites were bearing the ark. You say, 'Is not that a
contradiction? Christ stands in solitary isolation from
all.' But you see the principle of the Levite. He
represents the heavenly thing. This is the heavenly
Christ. That is the principle of the Levites bearing the
ark there. This is not just the earthly Christ, the Jesus
of history, a man amongst men, though greatly better.
This is the Heavenly One.
If you want that
principle proved, you remember the incident in the days
of David, when he consulted with the elders of Israel to
bring up the ark, and made a cart to do it. He got his
idea from the land of the Philistines, where he had been
during the reign of Saul, and where he had seen them make
a cart. They put the ark on a cart, and tragedy followed.
Uzzah died before the Lord. David was very grieved with
the Lord because He had made a breach that day; but,
being the man he was, always adjustable to the Lord - one
of the glorious things about David was his adjustability
- he did not have a long controversy with the Lord, or
the Lord with David. David got back to the Lord, and
probably tried to argue it out - but the Lord won the
argument. The Lord took him back to the Scriptures and
showed him that the Levites were to bear the ark - it is
not machines, not organizations, but a heavenly people,
that is to carry the testimony of Jesus.
So the Levites are
carrying the ark. This heavenliness of things is the
principle of the Levite function, and that of course goes
to the root of their not having an inheritance in the
earth. They do not belong to the earth: they belong to
heaven. They are not going to be rooted down here; but
even so, as men representing the heavenly things, they
are going to be distributed amongst all the people of God
to keep the people of God in touch with heaven. The
people of God are always so prone to become
earthly. That has been the peril and the tragedy of the
Church through the centuries, always gravitating toward
this earth, becoming something here after the fashion of
man, after the ideas of this world.
THE
LORD'S NEED OF LEVITES AMONG HIS PEOPLE
Now we come to our
point. The Lord must have those who have been through the
suffering, through the Cross, through the sacrifice,
through the deep work of separation; who have not
compromised on any considerations of sentiment or earthly
interest: those who have stood and are standing wholly,
utterly, at all costs, for His full heavenly thought
concerning His Son and concerning the Church. He must
have them, and He must distribute them everywhere and
bring them into vital relationship with His people, in
order to keep those people from succumbing to that
tendency earthward - from becoming world-bound.
HEADQUARTERS
IN HEAVEN
And do you not see that
this is exactly what happened in the New Testament? It is
quite fascinating to see it. When you come into the New
Testament, you have left types and figures - I expect
some of you are rather tired of types and figures; you
get a surfeit of that. It is a grand thing to see the
actuality. When you come into Acts, you find this whole
thing repeated. What has happened? You begin with the
Lord Jesus placed in heaven: headquarters in heaven,
every bit of government now in heaven; and then the Holy
Spirit coming to make everything heavenly, to govern
everything in relation to heaven. That is what we were
speaking about in our last chapter: the Captain of the
host of the Lord coming to take everything up in relation
to heaven, and then everything moving from heaven.
It moved from heaven
first of all in Jerusalem, a mighty movement from heaven,
and things were happening. But note the tendency after a
time (of course the story is told in a few phrases, but
it covers a very considerable period). After a time
Jerusalem gravitated earthward, and tended - and not only
tended, but actually began - to become an earthly
headquarters of the Church. It was only to be, in the
Lord's command, the beginning, the commencement spot:
"beginning at Jerusalem". Jerusalem was never
intended to be the inclusive and final thing, but it
constituted itself a kind of headquarters to govern the
Church, and you will find that sort of thing developing
as you go on in the book of the Acts. Look on a bit to
Paul the heavenly man, and see how he repudiates
Jerusalem.
However, you come to the
seventh chapter of the book of the Acts, the stoning of
Stephen, and that is the end of Jerusalem. From that
point heaven re-asserts itself to say, 'No; no earthly
centre or headquarters; headquarters is in heaven'; and
at that point they are all scattered from Jerusalem. They
are stirred up and thrown out of the nest and go in all
directions. Wherever they go, whether it is Philip or
whoever it is, they are testifying everywhere to the
heavenly Lord, bringing in the heavenly side of things.
Yes: everywhere these Levites are placed in relation to
the whole world, to keep things in a heavenly way. So it
develops like that.
You move on to chapter
9, and it is one of heaven's tremendous movements. Saul
has come from Jerusalem, on his way to Damascus - and
Jerusalem is his headquarters, right enough. He has
authority from the High Priest, from the rulers.
Jerusalem governs where he is concerned. But he discovers
before he gets to the end of the journey that the
government is in heaven, not in Jerusalem. The heavens
are cleft; there comes a light from heaven and a voice
from heaven; and that is the end of earthliness for Saul
of Tarsus. From that moment he is a heavenly man - and
see how, for ever afterwards, that man is moving in
relation to heaven. That could bear following out in
detail; but here is a mighty Levite. And so it was no
more at Jerusalem, but Antioch. The Lord has moved from
Jerusalem. Antioch is a very pure spiritual thing.
Jerusalem has become the centre of Christian officialdom
- but there is nothing official at Antioch. What you have
at Antioch, which now supplants Jerusalem, is a company
of men who are fasting and praying: and heaven breaks in,
and the Holy Ghost says, "Separate me Barnabas and
Saul" (Acts 13:2). This is something in relation to
heaven, you see. It is wonderful.
So we could go on giving
the evidence. But what is the point? Is it not very clear
that from God's standpoint, in God's mind, everything is
intended to be related to heaven and governed from
heaven? Heavenly fullness is His objective with His
people: to make them a heavenly people and to fill with
His heavenly fullness. And right at the end we see the
new Jerusalem - not the old one, but the new Jerusalem -
coming down from God out of heaven, in great heavenly
fullness. It is something immense, is that Jerusalem -
twelve thousand furlongs in every direction (Revelation
21:16). There is great fullness here. All the nations are
going to derive their resource from it. The fruit of its
tree of life, the waters of its river of life, are for
all the nations. Its light is for all the nations.
"The nations shall walk amidst the light
thereof" (Rev. 21:24). This is heavenly fullness,
the thing to which the lord has been working all the
time.
He is working now in you
and me. I sometimes think that we are two persons, one
here and one in heaven. Naturally we are here, but there
is something of ourselves 'going up' all the time, when
the Lord is getting in us something more of heaven. It is
being stored up there. Is not that perhaps what the Lord
meant, when He referred to Himself as "the Son of
man, who is in heaven" (John 3:13), even while He is
on earth? There is an aspect of us that is growing in
heaven. Do not think of heaven as some remote planet. We
are growing in that heavenly thought of things. Something
of us is 'going up'.
I believe the Church is
like that. The real Church is an invisible thing. You do
not know, except by the Spirit, what the Church is
really. You cannot say that people attending a certain
place are the Church. You cannot say that people who
profess certain doctrines and Christian truths are the
Church. They may be or they may not be. But if you meet
in the Spirit - and that is something intangible - there
you have the Church. The Church is like that, and that is
its heavenly character - and that is 'going up', so to
speak, all the time, and it is going to come down
presently in fullness out of heaven. It is being built in
that way now. It is God's will that it should be like
that.
But my point now is that
the Lord must have that kind of representation, be it in
individuals or in companies, to place alongside of all
His people here to keep them in touch with heaven, to
keep the heavenly things always in view. One of the
functions of the Levites was to teach the Word of God -
that is, to keep the Lord's people in touch with God's
thought. That is functional, not official. You need not
call yourself a Levite, any more than 'Reverend'. Do not
take on titles, but grasp the principles. If we here on
this earth are keeping people in touch with heaven, if we
are linked with heavenly things, if people are built up
by our presence - not by our preaching necessarily, not
by our getting down and saying, 'Now you see this and
this...'; no, just by our presence, by our embodiment of
the heavenly life and nature and fullness - if they are
coming to see God's fuller thought because we are here,
we are Levites without the title and that is what the
Lord must have.
It may be as
individuals. The Lord has the disposing of His people. In
this very book, heaven disposed of the people, of the
tribes, and said, 'You shall be here, this is your
place'. Sovereignly the Lord will dispose of you, and put
some of you in Germany, some in Holland, some in England,
some in America; and when He has disposed of your life
you are there by heaven's appointment, to be a link with
heaven, to keep things from settling down spiritually on
to this earth level.
That, of course, is also
the meaning of churches in the New Testament. That is the
Divine idea - to have companies of the Lord's people,
planted here and there and everywhere, as a corporate
Levitical ministry, to keep heaven near, and to keep
things near heaven. Oh, that every church were like that,
keeping things near heaven!
Well, that is the
beginning. Much more could be said. We could begin now to
consider all the letters of the New Testament and to see
the outworking. We would begin with Romans 12 - for here
you have a Levitical principle: "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned
according to this world". That is Levitical, the
living sacrifice not conformed to this world. So we could
go on through it all. But the great issue of our
meditations together is this - that we have to be here in
relation to heaven, under heaven's government, bringing
in heavenly things. We are ministering in relation to
heaven. It must be as true of us, in our measure and in
our calling, as it was of Paul, that we have a heavenly
vision and we are not disobedient unto it. What do we not
owe to that dear man for all the sacrifice and the
suffering that he knew for heavenly things! But how
faithful he was to heaven, right to the end - cast into
his prison, on his chain, and talking about nothing else
but the heavenly places.
Do you say your
situation is too difficult to bring heaven in? Well,
there are difficult situations. Daniel's was a difficult
situation - his three companions were in a difficult
situation; but they brought heaven in. A grand phrase in
the book of Daniel is - "the heavens do rule"
(4:26). And they proved it. Headquarters is in heaven:
not in Babylon, not in Rome, not in Jerusalem or anywhere
else, but in heaven. The Lord help us to live up to and
out from heaven.
And now, at the end, we
bring the specific object of these messages into view
once more.
God has but one end
which will bring Him complete satisfaction - the
'Fullness of Christ'. That fullness is meant to be found
in a people taken out of the nations. By that people in
that fullness He purposes to rule the creation in the
ages to come. This will not be attained to willy-nilly,
but only by infinite cost and conflict now.
All who "come
out" do not "enter in" to this ultimate.
Many will not go all the way, fulfil all the conditions,
'make their calling and election sure', but will enter
the Kingdom to inherit in different measures; smaller or
larger.
Unto the fullness of
purpose, pioneers are necessary, and the way of the
pioneers is a peculiar way, fraught with experiences,
sufferings, perplexities, and testings, of which others
know little.
But God must have
His pioneers - individuals or companies; and these are
they who
'WHOLLY
FOLLOW THE LORD'.