by
T. Austin-Sparks
Chapter 4 - God's New Israel
At the
commencement of these messages we made one statement
which was to cover all that follows. That declaration was
that the New Testament is built upon the ground of the
Old Testament; that is, that what God was doing in a
temporal and earthly way then, He is doing in a heavenly
and spiritual way now. There is no change in His purpose,
nor in His principles: the change is in His method. His
one purpose is to take out of the nations a people for
His name (Acts 15:14). In this part of the world’s
history God is working to secure out of the nations a new
spiritual Israel (Galatians 6:16 and the whole
context of 1 Peter 2:4-10 – note verse 10). He
is constituting this spiritual Israel upon the principles
of the old Israel. The first Israel failed Him, violated
all His spiritual principles, and broke His covenant
(Hebrews 8:9). (Note the whole nature and purpose of
the Letter to the Hebrews!) This is the nation to
which Christ referred when He said to
‘official’ Israel: “The kingdom of heaven
shall be taken away from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof”, i.e. the fruits
of the Kingdom of heaven, a phrase which always related
to the Gospel to all the nations. This is a nation out of
all the nations.
I am fully aware that there is a large body of Bible
students standing at my elbow – so to speak –
feverishly wanting to challenge me regarding the future
of the Jewish nation with all the questions about
Palestine and present developments there. This whole
matter has divided Bible readers and their respective
followers into two main schools. Dr. Schofield leads the
one school, i.e. the “Suspended Kingdom” school
with a definite future for the Jewish nation. Dr.
Campbell Morgan (pre-eminent as a Bible teacher in
his generation) categorically denied the future for
Israel (as such) teaching. We refuse to be drawn
into a contention for either view. What we are saying
with emphasis is that for this dispensation, “upon
whom the ends of the ages are come” (1 Corinthians
10:11), “Once at the end of the ages…”
(Hebrews 9:26), the earthly Israel is in rejection, and
the new heavenly Israel – the Church – is in
the forefront of God’s work. Touch this earth and
world in any way and you touch confusion, frustration,
and death! So we say with Nehemiah: “I am doing a
great work so that I cannot come down”.
No one will think for a moment that what we have said
implies that we have no concern for the Jews. Jews are to
contribute as much to the New Israel as are the Gentiles,
but not as Jews or Gentiles, but a New Creation. We are
as much concerned for the salvation of Jews as we are for
anybody!
Let us proceed with the matter immediately on hand. We
are now going to be occupied with:
The Emancipation of Israel.
There are few things in the Old Testament which are given
a greater place than the emancipation of Israel form
Egypt, and the New Testament makes it very clear that God
is taking His new Israel out of the nations on exactly
the same principles as those on which He took out the old
Israel. If this is not clear to you, then you must read
your New Testament again in the light of what I have just
said. All I can do is to put my finger upon some of these
spiritual principles of emancipation; but the old
Israel’s emancipation was a tremendous thing, as we
shall see as we go on, the emancipation of the new
spiritual Israel is still greater. That means that to be
a true child of God is a far greater thing than being a
Jew of Israel.
Well, as you see, we are in the early chapters of the
book of Exodus, and perhaps later on we shall move into
the book of Numbers.
Now for some of these spiritual principles.
1. The emancipation of Israel from Egypt had
spiritual background.
How did God Himself sum up that emancipation? He
comprehended the whole thing in one statement in Exodus
12:12: “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgements.”
It was not Pharaoh in the first place, for he was only an
instrument; nor was it the Egyptians in the first place,
for they were but the victims. It was the gods of the
Egyptians. Behind Pharaoh and behind the Egyptians there
was an evil spiritual system – and there is one
verse in the New Testament which tells us all about that:
“…principalities… powers… world-rulers
of this darkness… spiritual hosts of wickedness”
(Ephesians 6:12). Those were all the gods of the
Egyptians, set over against the one God of Israel, and the contest was not between God, or Moses, and the Egyptians, but between God and the gods of the
Egyptians.
I may not take the time to go into detail, but the
Egyptians worshipped the River Nile. There was the god of
the Nile – so God turned the River Nile into blood.
The Egyptians worshipped frogs. The frog was as sacred in
Egypt as the cow is in India. These just indicate that
God was getting behind things and was dealing with a
great spiritual system. The emancipation of Israel was
emancipation from a spiritual system – and that is
true of the emancipation of every believer from this
world's system. This world is governed by a spiritual
system which is behind it, and every man and woman in
bondage to that system. The Word of God says that
“the whole world lieth in the evil one” (1 John
5:19), and if you do not believe that of yourself, then I
would suggest that you try to get out of this world
system. You would find that your emancipation is a much
bigger thing than you think!
So the emancipation of Israel and the Church is from a
spiritual background of a very powerful system, and
redemption is a tremendous thing.
2. The emancipation of Israel was an exhibition of
ultimate strength.
Of course, God could have just wiped out Egypt with one
word. He who spoke the word and the creation came into
being could have spoken and Egypt would have been
dismissed from history; but God was teaching men a great
lesson. He was not teaching Himself. He was teaching,
first of all, this principle in Egypt, and was teaching
something to Israel, the old and the new, the nations and
the devil.
Here we have, then, an exhibition of final power. God is
slowly but steadily drawing out the power of this evil
system, exhausting all the power of the evil
principalities. Each one of these ten judgments is an
increase upon the one that went before. God is saying:
‘If you resist Me on that, very well, have some
more!’, and you notice that in the tenth judgment He
has gone far beyond all the ten powers in Egypt.
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is
death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). That is the full and
final power against God, but the “power of His
resurrection” is “the exceeding greatness of
His power”, and it exceeds all power in this
universe.
Dear friends, have we really understood the greatness of
our salvation? Have we really appreciated what it means
to be a member of this new Israel? What was the great
note of the Apostles as they went over the world? Men and
devils killed the Prince of Life! They did the last thing
that they could do, but the shout of the Apostles
everywhere is: ‘God raised Him! You killed Him, but
God raised Him!’ This is something beyond all the
power of evil spirits and men, and it is a principle upon
which God is constituting His new Israel. No wonder that
the Apostle Paul, who had seen this, cried: ‘Oh,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection! If
the fellowship of His sufferings will result in that, all
right!’ It was an exhibition of ultimate strength,
against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.
3. The emancipation of Israel was an
expression of the virtue of the Blood of the Lamb.
You know Exodus 12 in which the Passover lambs are slain,
but I wonder if you have recognized where the Passover
lambs were slain! There was no temple, no tabernacle and
no altar, so where were the lambs slain? They were slain
on the threshold of every house, and the blood of the
lamb was sprinkled on the two side posts and on the
lintel. What have you there? A circle of blood – a
national circumcision. The nation was circumcised that
night, and circumcision was the sign of the covenant, the
sign that the people were God’s people. They were
in a covenant of blood with God, and that is a covenant
of life. The Egyptians were not under that covenant.
Their first-born died that night, but Israel lived, and
they went out through this circle of blood – the
mighty virtue of the blood of the lamb.
Well, all Christians know about that! Our Christian life
begins there, with the mighty virtue of the Blood of
Jesus, and it will end there. The fullness of God’s
new Israel, taken out of every nation and kindred and
tongue! What are they singing in glory? “Worthy is
the Lamb that hath been slain!” (Revelation 5:12).
Oh, the mighty virtue of the Blood of the Lamb! Do you
not thank the Lord for that every time you pray? I can
never pray without remembering the precious Blood, for it
is the way out of death into life.
4. The presence of Israel in Egypt was an
expression of the menace the elect is to this world.
This battle in Egypt revealed a very wonderful thing
– what a menace the elect is to this world. The
presence of Israel in Egypt was like a thorn in the side
of the Egyptians, and every day poor Pharaoh was feeling
that thorn in his flesh. He would say: ‘There is a
people in my realm who are a threat to my kingdom. I
killed all their male babies and now they have become six
hundred thousand men, without women and children. What am
I going to do with these people? If they go on like this
I will have no place left for myself, for they will take
the kingdom of this world.’ Have your minds leapt
over into the New Testament? ‘What can I do with
these people? I will give them as hard a time as I can
and do everything that I can to make them serve my
interests.’ Can you see the work of the devil in
this present age? Is the prince of this world making it
as hard as he can for the people of God? Is his mind set
upon making them serve his interests? That is the nature
of the battle, and you only have to leap right over into
the wilderness with the Lord Jesus during the forty days
and forty nights. The prince of this world came to Him
personally and tried to get Him to compromise, to accept
the kingdoms of this world on his terms. “All this
will I give Thee if Thou wilt worship me.” ‘If
You will serve my interests I will give You a
prize!’ And behind his word there was this: ‘If
You don’t, woe betide You! There will be a Cross for
You! And I will rally all my principalities and powers
and concentrate them upon You on that Cross.’ The
Lord Jesus gained the victory in that battle! The devil
did his worst, but what is the verdict of the Word of
God? Read it again in the letter to the Colossians:
“(He) stripped off from himself the principalities
and the powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in his cross.”
Dear friends, this applies to the new Israel. It applies
to us here. We, as the Lord’s people in this world,
are a menace to Satan, a menace and a threat to his
kingdom, and he knows that unless he destroys us we are
going to take the kingdom – and, praise God, we are!
“Fear not, little flock; for it is your
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”
(Luke 12:32). But what a big word: “Fear not”!
Well, there are four mighty principles. We could, of
course, spend hours on every one of them, but “what
seest thou?” Are you getting some light? Are you
seeing that Satan will do everything in his power to keep
you from breaking away from his kingdom? If you are still
in spiritual bondage, do not put it down to secondary
causes. Do not say: ‘Well, it is because of
So-and-so… it is because of my husband… it is
because of my wife’, or it might be a thousand and
one other things. You go right to the root cause of it!
If you are in spiritual bondage and darkness, it is the
prince of this world who has put you in prison, and you
will have to appeal to the victory won on Calvary by the
Lord Jesus, and take your position by faith in the virtue
of the Blood of Jesus.
If you are a true child of God, if you have come out of
bondage, are you seeing now why the devil tries to give
you such a bad time? Do you see why he will make it as
hard as he can for you? The explanation is that he is
afraid of you! Yes, Satan is afraid of the true Church.
He is not afraid of the imitation church, of the false
Israel, but he is afraid of the elect, and he does not
give them an easy time.
The New World
Well, the people are out of their bondage in Egypt and
are out unto the Lord. What about it? They are in a new
place, a place that they have never been in before. They
are not accustomed to anything in this place. They are in
another world which is altogether different from the one
in which they have been living. Yes, they have a real joy
in being out and sing the song of redemption: “I am redeemed, O praise the Lord!” But what kind of a world is this into which they –
and we – have come?
We are strangers in this world! What is it that Peter is
saying? “I beseech you as sojourners and
pilgrims…” (1 Peter 2:11). Somehow we do not
seem to belong here, and we have to learn everything all
over again. Well, in Egypt we could at least see where
our bread was coming from. It may not have been
everything that we would like but every time we needed
food there was at least something to see. We knew that at
a certain time someone would sound a trumpet and call out
‘Come to the cookhouse!’ We could see things in
Egypt! Things were such that we could handle them, and we
did know that our meals would be provided at the right
time, but what kind of a life is this? We cannot see
anything here. We just do not know what is going to
happen out here! We are absolutely dependent upon
supernatural power. This is a most unnatural life! Well,
from time to time, God works a miracle. We have a very
wonderful experience of Him, and then it is as though He
goes away and leaves us, and this unnatural life goes on.
Do you know what I am talking about? Is that true to the
Christian life?
We have come into a new place, and in this place God has
to be everything. We have to prove Him every day, and we
are tested by the very place into which we have come. We
say: ‘We are going out with the Lord.’ All
right – but do you know what that means? It is going
out to the Lord, and to the Lord only. Out in this new
place we seem to be suspended between heaven and earth.
What is the meaning of this new place? Well, all our
natural abilities and facilities are useless. I have more
than once flown over that wilderness in the days of
flying boats which did not go very high, and from six
thousand feet I could see everything in the wilderness;
and I came to one conclusion: it would be a hopeless
thing to bring a plough into that, or to sow corn in
that! That would soon break any farmer’s heart!
Fancy living in that for forty years! Only God Almighty
could keep you alive in that. So it was for these people
– but what did this new place mean?
Testing of Motives
First of all, it was the place where their motives were
tested. What is the motive that has brought you to this
place? Did you come out to the Lord in your own
interests, or for the Lord? If your motive was a
‘self’ motive, you are going to die out here,
but if it really was for the Lord, only He will carry you
through this.
Probation for a Life of the Power of the Holy Spirit
The second thing about the new place was that it was the
probation for a life of the power of the Holy Spirit. The
book of Joshua is the book of the power of the Holy
Spirit, and shows that you will never come into that
power if you have selfish, personal motives. Your
spiritual circumcision is going to be tested here: Is it
all of the Lord, or is there something of myself?
In the New Testament there are two books which are set
right in this new place, and in them you have Christians
between Egypt and the land; and it is all a question of
motive.
In the first letter to the Corinthians the Christians are
with Israel in the wilderness. Their motives are being
tested, and in chapter ten Israel’s failure in the
wilderness is used as a warning to Christians.
Then there is the letter to the Hebrews. There was a time
when Israel in the wilderness said: ‘Let us go back
into Egypt! Things are too difficult for us this
way.’ Stephen said in Acts 7: “(They) turned
back in their hearts unto Egypt”. You see, their
hearts were not truly circumcised. In the letter to the
Hebrews, those Hebrew Christians who were having a
difficult time, were inclined to go back, and
Israel’s example is taken as a very solemn warning,
and the writer says: “They (Israel) were not able to
enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19). But
the word in the letter to the Hebrews again and again is:
“ Let us go on!” “Let us… let us…
let us…” “Let us therefore give diligence
to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same
example of disobedience” (4:11). This world is a
great power, and that power is set against our going on
to God’s full purpose. First it will do all that it
can to keep us from coming out to God, and then it will
exercise its power to turn us back. But there is another
power, what Paul calls: “the power that worketh in
us” (Ephesians 3:20), and that is a secret and
hidden power. You want to feel it, but you do not feel
it. What is the evidence of that power? How do you know
that there is a power working in you which is greater
than all the power of this world? How do I know? I have
sometimes thought that the devil has almost exhausted all
his schemes to get me back to the old place! I say that
very carefully – but how do I know that there is a
greater power? Because, after all that the devil has
done, and after over sixty years of being out with the
Lord, I am still going on! Not by might, not by human
strength, and not because of anything in us; we are
“kept by the power of God”, and we know that
power because today we are still out with the Lord. That
is a tremendous thing, because of all that has been
against.
“What seest thou?” Are you getting a little
light? I hope this will explain quite a lot!
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