"Ye
also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house,
to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ... But
ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth
the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvellous light" (1 Peter
2:5,9). The
Lord's People Divided Into Three Realms
At
the beginning of the nationally constituted life of
Israel, after they had come out of Egypt and crossed the
Red Sea and arrived at Sinai, and the Lord had given
instructions concerning the tabernacle and all its
materials and its order, and the people were now gathered
around the completed tabernacle which had been set up, we
find that they were divided into three main realms.
There
was, on the circumference, shall we say, the main body of
Israel; it was a very large body. We will call them the
general company of the people of God.
Then,
within them, as a kind of 'Israel within Israel', as it
has been expressed, we have the tribe of Levi. For the
purposes of the service and the journeys of the people
and the tabernacle they are subsequently divided into
three, the three families of the sons of Aaron. Their
respective functions and ministry were, briefly: (1) the
charge and care of the holy vessels - that went to one
section of the priestly family; (2) the charge and care
of the boards and the bars of the tabernacle, committed
to another definite section of the priestly family; and
(3) the curtains, the fabric, and all that had to do with
the coverings, committed to the third section. Later a
fourth function was entrusted to the Levites, namely, the
teaching ministry. This was their scope. But there were
also limitations imposed upon them. For instance, they
were not allowed to slay the offerings, and they were not
allowed to offer incense. These things belonged to the
priests.
Then,
within this second realm, we find at the heart and centre
of things Moses and Aaron: Moses, who is the prophet,
that is, the one who receives the mind of God for His
people; Aaron, the priest, whose function it is to deal
with all that has to do with the presence of God in the
midst of His people, and with man's approach to God, as
present.
That,
very briefly, as Bible students know, is a very, very
condensed outline, covering an immense amount of detail.
But it is sufficient for our present purpose.
Let
us now consider the meaning of these three realms of the
people of God. We shall actually confine ourselves mainly
to the two outer realms, not thinking specially of Moses
and Aaron just now, for we need very little further
instruction about them. We all know of what we might term
the dual value of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, as
God's Prophet and High Priest: as the One in whom is
revealed all the mind of God for His people, and by whom
all the ground is provided for the presence of God in the
midst of His people, and all the means available for the
approach of God's people to Him. We are not going to
dwell upon that just at present. It is the other two that
concern us - the general and the more inward.
Divisions in the Old
Testament Official
Now,
in the Old Testament, the differences and the divisions
which we have mentioned were official, they were
'ecclesiastical', they were formal. We see that clearly
set forth in the sharply defined companies or bodies of
people in different positions, performing different
functions. There is the general mass, and there is the
more particular company called the Levites; and they are
objectively distinguishable. You can see them. Anybody
who has seen a picture or model of the tabernacle in the
wilderness, with the tribes arranged, can see quite
clearly that here are distinct and definite divisions.
That is how it is in the Old Testament: it is something
official.
Divisions in the New
Testament Spiritual
In
the New Testament it is not like that, and I ask you to
follow me here very closely, for so much depends upon the
real grasp of this fact. In the New
Testament the same differences are seen, but they are not
official, formal, or ecclesiastical. They are spiritual.
You can see them, but you can
only see them in a spiritual way, for they are only
present spiritually. One great danger, with which many
other perils are connected, is that of recognizing
distinctions and differences on a basis other than a
spiritual one. The whole system of Christianity has gone
astray on this very point, with disastrous consequences,
and there is no end to it. Even amongst quite spiritual
and evangelical people there is a very great deal of this
Old Testament mentality, and in so far as that is true,
it is loss, it is confusion - it means limitation in
almost every spiritual direction. I do want you to grasp
this, that the distinctions which are made in the Old
Testament are present also in the New Testament, but in
an altogether different realm. Here they are spiritual,
whereas there they are temporal. Let us then examine
these distinctions, keeping in mind the governing law
that they are essentially, fundamentally, predominantly,
spiritual and not official.
The General Mass of
the Lord's People: An Objective Realm
The
general mass of the Lord's people - the whole body as
represented by all those gathered around the tabernacle
to the uttermost bound of the camp - all stood in the
value of the high priest's work. By reason of the
priestly work of the high priest, they were the Lord's
own people. They were in covenant relationship with the
Lord, in virtue of shed blood. They were in the good of
the presence of the Lord in the midst. All that was true
right at the heart of things, with Moses and Aaron, the
great altar and the sanctuary, went out to them, reached
out to them, embraced them; they were their common
property and heritage as the people of God. In that they
were no different from other Israelites. There was no
difference between them and Levites and priests on that
ground. In virtue of the sacrifice and the blood, the
atonement and the intercession, this was common ground
for all the people of God. They were in the values of the
work of the Levites, because the Levites were, after all,
as we said previously, only their representatives, and
not apart from them.
Now
if we apply this up-to-date, we recognize that all who
are on the ground of the one great offering, Jesus
Christ, on the ground of the precious shed and sprinkled
Blood, on the ground of the great atonement made, on the
ground of the Holy Spirit as given, on the ground of the
High Priestly intercession of the greater than Aaron -
all who are on that ground inherit, enjoy, come into, the
common benefits of salvation, and all that that means.
Well, we accept that, that we are all one in Christ
Jesus, and that there is no difference between us.
But
note - that their good, their position and their realm,
were matters of what was provided for them outwardly,
objectively, and of what they believed to be for them -
what they appreciated as being for them, and what they
accepted as theirs. It was all something presented to
them, of which they had an appreciation, which they
believed to be theirs by God's mercy, and which they
accepted as God's gift. That is the general or
comprehensive realm of the Lord's people.
The Levite Realm
But
then you come to the second realm, the Levite realm, and
you find a difference. There must, of course, be a
difference between the Levites and the general company,
otherwise they would not exist. And there are indeed many
fundamental differences. Many things obtained in the case
of the Levites which were specific and particular. They
were there as a separate tribe, different from all the
other tribes in respects which we may see later on. They
were in another realm.
Now
you will faithfully cling to what I said a little while
ago, that I am not now, in this dispensation, in this New
Testament day, distinguishing officially between these
realms: that is, I am not putting some people into one
specific category, as a people by themselves, and calling
them the general mass, and other people into another
category, and saying they belong to another order of
Christians. Underline that as many times as you like,
because there is a good deal of misapprehension and
distortion about what we teach on this very thing. We are
not talking about Christians in general, on the one hand,
and then of an inclusive company of a different order
altogether, on the other. We are talking about spiritual
realms, not personal. But here, in both Testaments,
whether it is in the Old as temporal, or in the New as
spiritual, there is a distinction discernible, and the
distinction is marked by certain basic things.
Subjective Experience
First
of all, the Levites were those who personally saw and
handled and tasted and knew of those things which were
available to all the Lord's people - which the Lord's
people in general had as their own inheritance, but were
only enjoying objectively, and therefore in a very
limited way. The Levites were those who had come into all
that more inwardly, more experimentally, and it was just
that, was it not, that was the point at which they were
distinguished. In Exodus 32 they were distinguished by
the fact that the object and purpose for which Israel as
a whole was called and meant to exist had entered into
them in a deep way. We can only speak, of course, in
type, but the type contains the spiritual principle. The
difference here between the great mass and this 'Israel
within Israel' is that the one, the great bulk, were
standing in the good of what was objective, and the
others were standing in the experience of that made
subjective; and that is a very great difference.
We
can be the Lord's people; we can know the values of the
High Priestly work of the Lord Jesus; we can know what He
means as our Prophet, as having brought to us the
revelation of God's mind for man: that, and all these
other things, may be our inheritance as Christians. But
they may yet, while of unspeakable value - and
never for one moment let their importance be
minimised - they may yet be but objective things that
leave our inner life still wanting, still lacking in many
respects. I have no hesitation in affirming, though I may
expose myself to much misunderstanding, that that is a
distinguishing mark amongst the Lord's people today: many
standing in the objective good of all that Christ has
done, knowing themselves to be the Lord's, and rejoicing
in it, but amongst them comparatively few in whom all
that has become a powerful, working reality, so that it
is in their very being.
The
second thing about the Levites is that, because of this
realm in which they are found, of the inwardness of
things as extra to the objective nature of things, they
are in a position to minister to all the others. They are
in a place of positive ministry, in the sense that they
have a living, fuller and more inward understanding of
Christ. That is the basis of ministry. It is the ministry
of Israel that is bound up with these people. Now, in our
systematized Christianity, we have made ministers into a
class; we distinguish them from the 'laity' as the
'clergy' - the ministry and the laity; and these are
classes, official, ecclesiastical classes - an utterly
false apprehension of Divine truth. Ministry is not based
upon anything of that kind at all - upon anything that is
external. Ministry is based upon an inward knowledge of
the Lord, and no one has a right to enter into any kind
of ministry - much less take upon them the title of
'minister' - except in so far as they have a personal,
inward, powerful knowledge of the Lord. The other is
merely formal and ecclesiastical. Ministry is not
official or hierarchical, but spiritual. It is a matter
of spiritual measure, and spiritual measure is just the
measure of Christ within. Christ is our measure. There is
no other measure with God but Christ, and we can only
minister according to our inward measure of Christ.
You
see the difference, then, between these two great realms.
I am not saying that one is the Lord's people and the
others are not, I am saying that there are many dear,
saved, believing children of God, who know that their
eternal hope rests upon Christ's shed Blood, His atoning
work, His redeeming activity, and who rest upon His
continuous, High Priestly intercession, but with whom you
cannot enjoy any deep spiritual fellowship in the things
of the Lord. If you try to do so, they do not know what
you are talking about; you are talking another language.
With them everything is objective, as it was with the
main mass of the Israelites. Everything was brought to
them as a congregation, ready-made; they were told what
they should do by others, and they did as they were told.
They just conformed, because that was the thing that was
done in Israel, it was the thing that was believed in
Israel. 'God has made known this as His will for His
people, so we do it.' In just the same way, many true
children of God would say: 'This is how we are told to
behave, this is what we are told to believe. We do as we
are told by our ministers and our teachers. We simply
conform to the established order of Christian doctrine,
of Christian practice. The Church believes this, and so -
well, we conform to that and accept it.'
But
when you come to the Levites, it was not like that. The
thing had entered right into themselves, and they were
those who had a first-hand, personal, inward knowledge of
the mind of the Lord. They did not get anything
secondhand. A vast amount of Christianity today is just
secondhand. You are not surprised that the mass of Israel
could not stand up to the crucial test which came sooner
or later. It is a very, very urgent thing that the Lord's
people, the Lord's own dear people, should be able to
stand up to the severe, fiery tests and trials which come
and are coming; but it will only be as they move from the
merely objective realm, important and precious though
that is, to the realm where they have the root of the
matter in themselves.
The Difference Made by
(1) The Cross
We
shall perhaps be helped in this matter of the Levites if
we go on to ask what it was that made the difference
between the objective and the subjective, as we have
called them - between that which was accepted, believed,
appreciated, obeyed and followed as from without, and
that in the other realm which came first-hand from the
Divine throne and headquarters. What made the difference,
and what makes the difference?
The
answer is a large one, with quite a number of aspects.
The first answer is the Cross, and I take you back again
to Exodus 32, for that chapter is basic to the life and
the realm and the ministry of the Levites. You remember
what is in the chapter. Moses had been in the mount, had
tarried long. The people had lost patience, and had
called on Aaron to make them 'gods that should go before
them' - 'for as for this Moses which brought us out of
Egypt, we know not what has become of him.' And so the
calf was made, and they danced around it, and gave it the
glory of God. Moses came down, having already been told
by the Lord what was happening, came down and verified,
saw and heard, challenged Aaron as to this great sin, and
then took the calf, ground it to powder, strewed the
powder upon the water, made them drink it - the
bitterness of their own folly. We always have to do that
when we depart from the Lord: we have to drink the
consequences. That by the way. Then Moses went off to the
gate, stood there and cried, 'Who is on Jehovah's side?
Let him come to me!', and all the sons of Levi went over
to him. And he said, 'Put every man his sword upon his
thigh, and go in and out and slay every man his brother
and every man his friend and every man his neighbour',
and they did it; and from that time the Lord took the
tribe of Levi, and set it aside for the essential service
of the tabernacle. That is the story in brief.
Let
us come over to the New Testament, to the
letter to the Hebrews, chapter 4, to the familiar words
in verses 12 and 13: "For the word of
God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern
the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no
creature that is not manifest in his sight".
What do we find here as the context of those words?
We
have seen, in the case of Israel, a people in spiritual
weakness and in spiritual immaturity, behaving like
irresponsible children. Look at them down there around
the calf - just like a lot of irresponsible children. And
here, in the letter to the Hebrews, it is like that.
Everything had been done for them, and they had come into
the good of that which was provided in the High Priestly
work of Christ, which is much spoken of here in the
immediate context. They were Christians, that is, they
were the Lord's people, but they were in terrible
spiritual limitation and weakness and childishness, just
as those people were when Moses came down from the mount.
'Gird every man his sword upon his thigh'. "The word
of God is... sharper than any two-edged sword".
Let
us go on, for what we have at the beginning of chapter 6
of this letter to the Hebrews is all of a piece: "Wherefore
let us... press on unto full growth".
Now between that and chapter 4 you have chapter 5, verses
12 and 13: "For when by reason of the
time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that
some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles
of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need
of milk, and not of solid food. For every one that
partaketh of milk is without experience of the word"
- "the word of God is... sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and
spirit" - "without experience of
the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid
food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of
use have their senses exercised to discern good and
evil."
'Let
us go on to full growth'. On the one side immaturity,
spiritual infancy, irresponsibility, and all the marks of
childhood. On the other hand, full growth. What is the
way out of spiritual childishness and immaturity and
feebleness, and all that goes with it - out of that into
full growth? We have it in chapter 4, verse 12: the sword
of the word - the word of the Cross - dividing between
soul and spirit. It is the word of the Cross that makes
this cleavage. Spiritual infants live in their souls. And
what is the soul? It is just the sum of our senses, our
natural senses, our feelings, our natural seeing, our
natural judgment; the way we approach, apprehend and
react to things naturally, even as Christians.
Now,
you see, the Israelites reacted. Moses is away there a
long time. 'We wot not what has become of him.' 'We have
lost him to our senses, we cannot see him, we cannot hear
him, we cannot handle him'; and children must do that.
They must see, they must handle, they must have all the
evidences and the proofs. That is the mark of a child. He
had gone out of their natural realm, and they were living
in that. Now, the Levites took the sword and cut and
cleft between soul and spirit. Their very action was such
an action. "Every man his brother". Do not
think for a moment that that meant the hated brother, the
disliked brother, the brother to whom you would like to
use the sword in any case. It is your brother, your own
kith and kin, your blood relationship, your own family,
the closest ties. Here is a test as to whether you are
going to live in your soul or live in the spirit, whether
you are going to move on the basis of your own feelings,
sentiments, likes, reasonings, or whether you are going
to move with God on principle. There are very, very big
spiritual issues bound up with this.
As
we said in an earlier message, it was a breaking in of
Satan to draw worship away from God to himself, just at
the time when the worship of God was being set up and
constituted; as though he would say, 'I am taking all
that - the very gold of the sanctuary, which is meant for
the tabernacle.' Is not that a very, very big thing?
Satan is always doing that, seeking to steal God's place
and God's rights, even amongst the people of God. Now,
the Levites reacted against that. I am not saying that
they understood all that was involved, but it is here in
principle, and it was a costly thing to their own souls
to slay their own brother and their own friend and their
own neighbour. The neighbourly man, to do it, was taking
the sword to his own soul, was he not? There is no doubt
about that.
Yes,
the sword divided between soul and spirit then, right
enough, and the Cross, you see, is represented by that.
The Lord Jesus connected and linked those two things -
taking up the Cross, or His Cross, and denying oneself.
"He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that
loseth his life for my sake shall find it" (Matt.
10:39). This is the work of the Cross. But it was just
that that made all the difference between these people,
the Levites, and the rest. The Cross brought the Levites
into their special position. Today, a deep application of
the Cross would slay the self-life, the whole self-life;
and God only knows how comprehensive that is, how
many-sided and many-pointed that is. But a deep
application of the Cross to the very centre of the
self-life, the selfhood, for its deposing, that Christ
may have that place, is the only way out of immaturity
into maturity, out of the objective into the subjective;
out of that realm where everything, though precious, is
just presented to us and given to us, to the place where
it is planted in us and becomes a part of us - and there
is a very great difference between the two.
The
Cross severs, the Cross divides. The Cross nullifies a
whole realm. And spiritual knowledge - "for the
priest's lips should keep knowledge" (Mal. 2:7),
says the Word - waits on this work of the Cross. Whoso
has not known this work of the Cross may regard himself
or herself, or may be regarded by others, as an authority
in the things of God, but that authority is not resting
upon a proper foundation. Authority rests upon this - has
it been wrought in you by a mighty, deep, self-destroying
work of the Cross? Out of that, and that only, is
authority. Take the case of all cases - the Lord Jesus.
He spoke with authority. Why? Because, all the while He
was speaking, and in all His life, He was utterly
self-crucified - crucified to self.
Ministry,
too, is consequent upon a work like this. Let me ask any
of my readers who are in ministry: How did you take up
ministry? If you like to put the article there, How did
you take up 'the ministry'? On what ground? Let me tell
you something. It has not been an unknown thing for men
who have been in what is called 'the ministry', to come
to an end of that whole thing, and quit it, because they
have discovered that they were in it on a wrong basis.
Yes, called ministers, wearing the garb of the minister,
on the ministerial list, and all the rest: and yet
eventually, by some eye-opening work of God, they have
realized that theirs was a false position. They were in
it, not on this ground that God had done some terrific
thing in their being, shattering the natural life. And
out of those ashes there sprang a knowledge of the Lord
for His people which is the only qualification for the
ministry. If that is not the ground, it is better to
quit. Do not be in a false position, under a false
interpretation of: "No man, having put his hand to
the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God" (Luke 9:62). With your hand on that plough, you
may yet be in a wholly false position. You may have no
right or proper basis for having your hand on that plough
at all.
Forgive
the seriousness and solemnity of this word, and the
emphasis, but these are very vital things. Much more
could be said. The first answer to the question - What
makes the difference? - is the Cross.
The Difference Made by
(2) The Blood
The
second part of the answer is the Blood. Many people
confuse the Cross and the Blood. Do not confuse them. If
you have done so in the past, let me now try to help you
to discriminate between them. Of course, they go together
- they are two parts of a whole; but there is a
difference, and the Blood itself has two aspects.
First
of all, there is the aspect of implication. You can never
have the blood unless a slaying has taken place, unless
the death of a body has taken place. The word 'body' in
the Scriptures is often used representatively of the
whole man. When Paul says, "I beseech you,
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom. 12:1), he
means yourselves, your entirety, the whole being. He
speaks of the whole "body of the flesh" (Col.
2:11). There the body is just the 'embodiment', as it
were, of the whole man. But note that nowhere in the
Scripture is it said or implied that Christ's Blood in
itself carried or bore our sin. Perhaps you ask, What
about blood shed for the remission of sins (Heb. 9:22)?
Let me repeat: it is nowhere said or implied that Christ
's Blood bore our sins. "He bare our sins in
his" (not blood, but) "body upon the tree"
(1 Pet. 2:24). It was His Body that bore our sins. The
shedding of the Blood implied, carried with it, the fact
that the Body had been broken, had been slain, had been
offered. It was not that which was shed which bore our
sins. It was His Body which was broken that bore our
sins. The implication is that there is an entire body or
embodiment of things that is slain, and in His Body He
was made sin for us, and the judgment, the sword of God,
fell upon His Body. He was smitten and stricken of God in
His Body. It was then that our sins were met and judged
and dealt with.
But
by that slaying His Blood was released: and, look where
you will in the Bible, you will never find other than
this concerning the Blood, that the Blood is always the vivifying
factor - not the death factor, but the
vivifying factor. "The life... is in the blood"
(Lev. 17:11). "He that... drinketh my blood hath
eternal life" (John 6:54). The sprinkling of the
blood upon the tabernacle and its vessels, and everything
else, spoke of a vivifying, a making alive; and in the
Blood of Christ an incorruptible life, which was never
touched by our sin, was released for all future purposes,
in principle to vivify everything. The Blood itself is
the vivifying of everything subsequent to the slaying, to
the dying, to the offering. The life has been taken from
the body which has been made sin, or which has borne the
sin, and released to become the life of another body. We
are members of Christ, of His Body; and all that is
represented by His life, His deathless life, the life
that could not see death, could not touch death - if it
could have been touched of sin, it could have been
touched of death; that holy, perfect life that was in
Him, signifying by His Blood that it was incorruptible,
that it could not taste death - all that has been
released by His slaying to be the life of His spiritual
corporate Body.
The
Levites came into the good of that. They came into the
immediate value, on the one hand, of the slaying of a
body, the setting aside, the cutting off, of the whole
body of the flesh, the natural life, the self-life, as
dominant; and, on the other, of all the vivifying power
of the released and sprinkled blood, speaking of another
life and another body. Again, I beseech you, do not draw
artificial distinctions between the people of God, but
see that these are spiritual principles. It is a
tremendous thing to have entered into the meaning of the
setting aside of the body of the flesh. All Christians
have not done that. Many of us know in our own experience
that at one time we laboured in the flesh with natural
resources for God, and very earnestly so, and yet we knew
we were not getting very far - it was a heart breaking
business. Yes, until the day came when the Lord brought
it home to us that that whole body has been set aside. It
is out of another life and in another relationship with
the Lord Jesus that this ministry is to be fulfilled.
The Difference Made by
(3) The Spirit
The
Cross, the Blood; and thirdly, the Spirit, the anointing
of the priests. The Cross is on the death side, but the
Blood and the Spirit are on the vital side, the potency
side, the resurrection side, so do not always dwell on
the Cross aspect. The Blood and the Spirit are united,
and this is an important point. It is the Spirit of life
- "the law of the Spirit of life", as Paul
calls it (Rom. 8:2) - which means that this life that is
released through the Cross is not just some abstract
element, some force at work. This life which is given us
in Christ in and by the Holy Spirit is conscious life and
intelligent life. Let me say to young Christians, to any
who are new on the way of the Lord: this is one of the
most important things that you should know. The
conscious, intelligent life of the Holy Spirit in you is
going to make all the difference between a child and a
grown Christian. It differentiates between those who just
do what is expected of them, because they are told it is
the thing that they ought to do, and those who know in
their hearts what they should do, and need not to be
told. How good it is not to need telling everything, when
your life with the Lord is such that if anybody does
bring some point to your notice, you are able to say,
'Yes, the Lord has spoken to me about that already: the
Lord has been dealing with me on that matter.' Do you not
think it would make a lot of difference if Christians on
the whole were like that? - if they could say, 'The Lord
has been speaking to me, the Lord has been showing me,
the Lord has been putting me right; the Lord has been
touching things in my life; He has been talking to me
about my dress - or my no dress'?
Perhaps
this sounds amusing; but there are many practical
matters. One is distressed at the way in which some
Christians can behave, even in this matter of dressing -
or not dressing - when they come into the house of
prayer. They have the Word of God before them. What is
the matter? Either they are not reading the Word of God,
or the Spirit finds some difficulty. I beseech you to
give heed to this. Many, many matters which concern our
spiritual growth, our full growth, depend upon this -
that the Holy Spirit within is truly governing. The thing
that has distressed and appalled me perhaps more than
anything else for a large number of years is that dear
children of God, men of God, servants of God, can accept
and pass on things that are positive lies, and yet never
seem to hear the Holy Spirit inside say anything about
it. What is the matter? I tell you - if the Holy Spirit
within us is really in government, and having His way, we
shall never hear a lie without knowing that He does not
agree with it. We shall have a check-up about it. We
shall never be able to speak or pass on a falsehood
without something inside 'going wrong', so that sooner or
later we have to go back to the Lord and say, 'Well,
Lord, I do not know how it is, but I feel that was wrong.
I must get right over that.' Do you not think it would
make a great difference to Christians and Christianity if
it were all like that? What is the matter? I am afraid
the Cross needs still to do something, and the Blood. I
pass no judgment, but I have to draw conclusions from
facts. The fact is that it is possible.
Yes,
there is a great difference between childhood and
maturity. The Levites were spiritual men who had to walk
before God, and were checked up all along by the
anointing, by the Spirit. It was not an objective fact,
as it was with the whole mass of Israel, that the cloud
and the pillar represented the presence of the Holy
Spirit overshadowing, and, in a general kind of way,
leading. With these men that thing became an inward
positive reality. They had discernment as to the movement
of the Spirit, and their discernment was for the rest of
the people who had not got it.
Do
take this to heart. These are the principles. It is very
important that we should be clear on these things,
because it is going to make a great difference to life,
to service, to ministry, and to going through. I am glad
to see that the Levites, although they were in the van
when the people passed through Jordan overflowing all its
banks, were not a separate, exclusive company of people,
but were in the midst of God's people, as a spiritual
company.