Reading: Ex.
25:31-40; 37:17; Zech. 4:1-7.
"And thou shalt
make a candlestick of pure gold." (Ex. 25:31). It is
the latter part of the sentence that is the more
important - "a candlestick of pure gold," but
there is something very significant and important about
the former part. "Thou shalt make..."
The
Need for a New Spiritual Position
In approaching this
matter of the candlestick of pure gold, we do so from a
more distant point. We stand back, withdrawn. I think
that we are all conscious of a growing sense of need
among the Lord's people for a new spiritual position. It
may not be universal or general, but it is something
which we are meeting a good deal in these days, and, when
you come to think about it, it is a thing which marks the
Word of God throughout - that is, a challenge to reach a
new place. You find it in the Word, you find it in
subsequent history. Even when the Lord's people are in
the right way or in the right direction, this need is
constantly brought before them - the urge not to stay
there, not to rest there, but to move on. That is very
true in a general way as to the spiritual history of the
Lord's people and all the ways of the Lord with His
people - constantly challenging, constantly creating a
sense of need to reach some position which has not been
reached, or, it may be in some cases, to recover a
position from which they have receded.
But among ourselves
(and when I say ourselves, I mean those of us who have
been related here in this ministry, in what we have often
called this testimony) this sense is growing - a sense of
the need of coming to a new spiritual place. One and
another has expressed that to me during these past months
particularly - 'I must get to a new place with the Lord,
I must somehow get to a new position.' It is expressed in
different ways, but what lies behind it is this sense
that we are being exercised, wrought upon, and that
prevailing conditions are forcing us to this. We must
somehow get to a new spiritual place. I think that many
of you will find a response to that in your own hearts.
There are many with us
who have not been with us for long, and do not know the
spiritual history of things among us. To them, what I am
going to say must be an explanation of why we are here,
of what this means as something more than just an
occasional coming together of Christian people for
conferences, to hold meetings.
Now that sense of which
I have spoken, while it carries with it to those
concerned a good deal of trouble and exercise and trial
and suffering, is, after all, a very healthy sign. The
most unhealthy thing would be that we were able to settle
down with our spiritual position. Such a sense of need
and challenge leads to heart searching, and that heart
searching leads to a reach out to the Lord. It may lead
to adjustments, correcting what may be wrong or false. It
will lead to a clarifying of our position. The main
upshot of such exercise must, and will, be that we come
to closer grips with that to which the Lord has really
called us. It will, or it should, lead us to the place
where we say, 'Well, what is it all about? What does the
Lord mean by this? What is He after? What is it that He
has called us to?' And to discover, or rediscover, that
will be to have a good deal of explanation of the Lord's
dealings with us. It will help us perhaps to get rid of a
lot that is superfluous, and to get right into line with
what is essential.
Now, this calling, this
purpose of God, this object of the exercise, this meaning
of the challenge and of the sense of need, is very
concretely and, I think, inclusively represented by this
candlestick all of gold. Many of you will realise that in
that very phrase we are going back to the beginning of
our local history, behind everything of all these years.
It lies behind the very title of the paper - "A
Witness and A Testimony" - upon the cover of which
the candlestick all of gold is seen. That is where we
began. That is what is supposed to have been governing
all through the years. That is not only superimposed upon
a magazine; that is what has been imposed upon us by God
from the beginning - "a candlestick all of
gold" - and there is a challenge to us to make it
so, to produce it, to have the thing actually in us,
really, truly.
There seem to me to be
three aspects of that candlestick. One, its function;
two, its character; three, its form.
The
Function of a Candlestick - to Give Light
Simply and precisely,
the function of a candlestick is to give light; not to be
an ornament, not a pretty thing to look at, not some
mystical symbolism to interest and to fascinate and to
intrigue; not some abstruse, imperceptible suggestion. No
- to give light! That is what it is for - light. In God's
thought and intention, the function begins and ends
there. At the opening of the book of the Revelation the
Apostle in recording his vision, said, "I turned to
see the voice that spake with me. And having turned I saw
seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the
candlesticks one like unto a son of man" (Rev.
1:12-13). And as the Lord proceeded to speak to and
through His servant, what issued was this - for every
church, the one question upon which their very existence
depended was the function of the candlestick. There were
many things noted, but the one vital thing was the light;
and the Lord said quite clearly that the churches had no
justification for continuing their existence except on
the ground of the function of the candlestick. "I...
will move thy candlestick out of its place" - when?
- when it becomes merely a candlestick and not a
light-giver; when the thing without its meaning is there;
when the instrument, the creation, exists without its
function. When those conditions obtain you may as well
remove the candlestick, and the Lord said that He would.
The function of the candlestick which the Church is
called to make is to provide light - that is all.
True
Light is an Impact
But there are one or
two things to be said about the light. The first is that
this light, for which the people of God are created,
formed, constituted, is an impact. True light is an
impact. It is such an impact that anything that is
contrary to it cannot co-exist with it, but has to go.
That is the proof that it is Divine light. We know quite
well something of the impact of light. We come suddenly
out of darkness into the blaze of the sun, and we cannot
bear the light; we have to shade our eyes, the impact is
too much for us. When we let light into a dark place
where there are things which belong to the darkness and
not to the light they very quickly make their departure.
It is an impact.
What I mean is that the
testimony of this candlestick is not the giving of a lot
of information. It is not just the statement or
presentation of cold facts. It is not just a matter of
doctrines and truths; and it is so easy, in the course of
time, for that which began as an impact of light to
degenerate into words, mountains of words, and ideas -
scriptural, spiritual, in a way Divine ideas - and yet,
still only ideas. It is so easy to degenerate into that,
and for all that to be present in great volume, and yet
somehow or other the mighty impact not to be present and
to be registered and felt among those who have it all. I
find that that is one of the challenges to the seven
churches in the Revelation. They had their orthodox
teaching and beliefs; they would have laid down their
lives for this truth and that; they hated certain things
which were not sound; but the impact had gone. It was all
right in its way, but not the impact of light. The
surrounding darkness was not provoked and challenged by
their presence. The kingdom of the evil powers was not
made aware that here was something to take account of. We
know it all - ah, but that is not enough; that might be
more to condemnation than otherwise.
Now this is not
intended to be a word of condemnation or judgment or
criticism; but may not this explain a lot - the Lord's
dealings and ways with us? Especially may this be so
where there is this deep sense of the need of a new
position. We have tried to weigh up our position,
perhaps, from the standpoint of our beliefs, our
doctrines, our teaching - we have said, 'Yes, but our
position is such a right one according to the Word of
God, it is so scriptural' - but we may not have weighed
it up from the standpoint of the impact of our beliefs.
What effect is being produced? Light, from God's
standpoint, is not just cold light; it is a mighty
impact. So these churches in Asia were challenged on the
ground, not of what they believed, held, or even taught,
but of the effect of their position over against every
aspect of the realm of darkness.
The
Light of God's Holiness
Another thing about the
candlestick, or this testimony, concerns its object of
illumination - that is, what it lights up. What does it
light up? What does it make clear with an impact? It not
only shows certain things, but it shows them with an
impact, and it is here, I think, that we can best
understand what we mean by impact. One of the things
which the candlestick all of gold is intended to illumine
with an impact is the eternal holiness of God - the
eternal holiness of God brought into the midst of the
Church in the Person of the Son of man. Early in the
description of the Son of man in the midst of the
lampstands is this - "And his head and his hair were
white as white wool, white as snow." Go back to the
book of Daniel, and you find that that description is
given to One Who is called "the Ancient of
days" - "the hair of his head like pure
wool" (Dan. 7:9) As I understand it, the head and
the hair as white wool symbolises age - timelessness, all
time compassed - and utter holiness, utter purity. When
you recognise that everything is being brought to
judgment before this "Son of man," this
"Ancient of days," this "Father of
eternity," you understand that that means that all
things are being first of all dealt with and challenged
on the ground of His eternal holiness; and the
candlestick brings that testimony to light with an
impact.
"Thou shalt make a
candlestick of pure gold." What does that amount to?
It means that, where God is going to have what He wants,
holiness is going to be an impact, an impact upon
unholiness. You cannot have anything unholy persisting
there. Holiness is not a word that is greatly loved; it
is very much feared. It is not a matter into which we can
go in any detail now; but it is one about which we can
have our own secret understanding and life with God. But
be assured that inasmuch as those eyes of flame see
anything that is inconsistent with that head and hair as
white wool, the impact of that testimony is weakened, is
lost, and the justification of that candlestick is
forfeited. It is a solemn word, but is it not true,
grievously true, that we can have a lot of first-class
doctrine, of truth, of Divine ideas, and stand for a very
high level of teaching, and yet at the same time there
may be very much in the private, personal life that is
not holy, not pure, that could not bear the light of
God's presence. I say that, and leave it there.
This is, of course,
where responsibility comes in. "Thou shalt make a
candlestick." There are things to be dealt with
before the Lord which are not holy. I leave it to you;
but we are concerned about our effect upon the powers of
darkness, upon the darkness around us - our effect upon
darkness both absolute and comparative; that we should
register, not our teaching, not our system of truth, not
our ideas, but the presence of something which is more
than words, much more than even scriptural language - the
registration of an actual power. That is what we are
really concerned about, that the forces of darkness in
every degree should meet something by our presence. It
can never be if those forces of darkness have some
darkness inside us, if they have their own ground. Their
strength is unholiness. Their strength is not official,
it lies in their nature. If they can get some unholiness
in, they have undone us; they laugh at our teaching, they
ridicule what we call our testimony; it matters nothing
to them how much deeper truth we have. They are in the
place of power because of unholiness, and we learn from
the Scriptures that the unholiness of one life in a
company is enough to arrest the progress of the whole; an
Achan may bring all Israel to a standstill and defeat.
"Make a candlestick" - deal with it! This is
your matter, it is my matter. The light of the eternal
holiness of God is a tremendous power. Oh, that evil
coming in should feel it cannot abide this, it has to do
something about it! Oh, that people who are wrong should
feel, 'If I am going to stay here, I must put things
right'; things revealed as needing to be dealt with, not
because of something said, but because of the presence of
the Lord in holiness. Holiness is a tremendous power.
There is to be the light of that holiness present, making
itself felt.
The
Light of the Strong Love of God
Then it is the light of
the strong love of God. Another thing said about this Son
of man in the midst of the candlesticks is that He is
girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. Symbolism
again; a girdle speaks of strength, strength unto action;
the breasts, the affections, the seat of love. Girt with
a mighty strength of Divine love in the midst of the
candlesticks. The candlestick, the testimony, is to be
this also - the impact of this light, the strength of
Divine love. Oh, here we must all confess our failure,
and go down before the Lord. We have so much truth, so
much teaching, so much knowledge, so much spiritual
information, but what do people meet in the matter of the
impact of love? This strong love of God is one of the
things that Satan really cannot get over. Do you not feel
you need a new position over that? Have you not had any
exercise about love? What is the use of going on? - that
is the point to which we come - what is the use of going
on keeping a candlestick? We have no room for ornamental
candlesticks. It is the function that justifies the
candlestick, and its justification is here - the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ in terms of the strong love of God, the girding of
Divine love.
Listen! "Make a
candlestick." There is something we have to do about
this. We have been waiting for a flooding of love,
something to happen to us in this matter, waiting for it
to come to us. We have been asking the Lord to fill us
with love. Quite rightly so; but there is another side.
Make it! Do something about it! We have a part in this
matter of the strong love of God. It will all be a mighty
battle - God only knows what a battle! - because of the
importance and value of such a testimony, of the terrific
effect that it will have in the kingdom of darkness, the
kingdom of hatred. All this work of suspicion and
criticism and doubting, all that many-sided work of the
hatred of Satan from what we will call its simple forms
(if there are such things as simple forms of hatred)
between Christians, out to that awful thing we are
finding in the world today, Satan's work of universal and
terrible hatred - the only counter to it all is the
strong love of God. Think about that. We have to do
something about it, we have to make the candlestick. We
can only make it by Divine grace, but we will make it
when we think on these things, we will make it when we
face these matters, when we deal with our own hearts
before the Lord.
The
Light of the Power of Divine Righteousness
Then it is the light of
the power of Divine righteousness. Another thing said
about the Son of man in the midst of the candlesticks is
that His feet were "like unto burnished brass, as if
it had been refined in a furnace." Brass is always
a symbol of strength, but it is also the symbol of
righteousness; and, seeing that it is His feet that are
as burnished brass, this speaks of His goings, His ways,
His steps, in righteousness, absolute righteousness. It
speaks of our activities, the righteous acts of the
saints, our ways. As I see it in the Scripture,
righteousness is that which always stands over against
the dark works of Satan. Unrighteousness, iniquity, in
the Word of God is that which at any point, in any way,
in any degree, has a complicity with Satan. Satan's one
inclusive object is to take from God what are His rights,
and that is unrighteousness in its root and nature -
taking another's rights away. And while the taking away
of rights will and does work out between man and man,
creature and creature, behind it all God's rights are
involved. When you rob your brother of his rights, you
rob God. So that righteousness is the opposite of every
work of Satan to deprive God of what He ought to have.
Very often we have to sacrifice, to let go what we call
our rights, in order that the Lord should be honoured. So
often, when we stand on our rights, it is our
honour and our vindication, not the Lord's, that
actuates us. Sometimes it does amount to this - that we
have to let go what we believe to be, and what may quite
rightly be, our rights; to allow the Lord to be
glorified, to give the Lord an opportunity.
If we track this matter
of unrighteousness to its very core, we find it is self
in the place of the Lord. Think that out. Look at any
work or act of unrighteousness, track it to its source,
and you find it is self every time. Robbery, withholding,
misrepresentation - there is a self motive behind it. And
here is this Son of man Who has now come back from the
Cross; He Who has been dead is alive; He is in the midst
of the candlesticks; and He is the embodiment of that
utter selflessness which is utter righteousness, which
means that God has everything, that is, all His rights;
there is no question at any point, no debate with the
Lord, the Lord must have all, whatever it costs. It cost
the Son of man everything in order that God should have
His rights. He says in effect to these churches, 'Look at
My feet!' There is the impact of an utter selflessness
which is the impact of not only an utterness for God
but an utterness of God. "Make a candlestick
of pure gold."
Has this seemed a hard
word? I feel, as I said at the beginning, that the Lord
has brought us back together at this time to come to a
new position, and it is of this kind. For my own part, I
tell you I am taking this to heart. But we say to one
another together - what matters it that we have meetings,
larger or smaller, and go on with our teaching, with our
magazine with a candlestick of gold printed on it? None
of these things matters at all. I say, let them go, the
Lord save us from them, unless, as the fruit of all and
as the source of all, there is this light which is an
impact - without any inconsistency, without
contradictions, without a lie - so that our teaching is
not in the first place heard but seen. If there is to be
a coming and an enquiring, it is because something is
seen. "I turned to see the voice."
People are hearing things, and they are turning to see.
What do they see? A light, not a teaching? A light with
an impact? May the Lord make it so.