The
point at which we have now arrived is that, in the
constituting of the spiritual Israel, God is following
the same line as He took with the earthly Israel, but
with one great difference - with the earthly He followed
temporal lines, but with the heavenly He is following
spiritual lines. However, they are both one in principle.
We have seen something of this and are now going to see a
little more.
Surely
it must be perfectly true that this is what God is doing.
The Letter to the Hebrews is the great document of the
transition from one Israel to another, and in it there
are many evidences of this truth. If anyone has any doubt
at all, there is one fragment which should settle all
such questions:
"For ye are not come unto a mount that might be
touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness,
and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet,
and the voice of words; which voice they that heard
intreated that no word should be spoken unto them: for
they could not endure that which was enjoined. If even a
beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so
fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I
exceedingly fear and quake" (Hebrews 12:18-21).
That is
the old Israel being constituted at the mount. However,
the word to us is: 'Ye are not come to that. That is not
God's way of constituting His new Israel.'
"But
ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable
hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of
the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the
judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and
to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that
of Abel" (Hebrews 12:22-24).
That
surely settles all argument! If we had only that
paragraph in the New Testament we should know the
difference between the old dispensation and the new,
between Judaism and Christianity, and between what they
were in and what we are in.
But that
is not all: it is only a part of the whole argument. I
would have you note some of the titles in this Letter
which are evidences of this truth:
(1)
God's family
We all know that God looked upon Israel as His
family. He said to Pharaoh: "Let my son go" (Exodus
4:22). The evidence is too much for us to follow through,
but it is quite clear that Israel of old was, in a
certain sense, looked upon by God as His family. They
were His children, and, in that sense, He spoke of
Himself as their Father.
Here, in
this Letter of transition from the old Israel to the new,
that idea is carried over into the spiritual realm:
"For it became him, for whom are all things, and
through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they
that are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,
"I will declare thy name unto my brethren,
"In the midst of the congregation will I sing thy
praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again,
Behold, I and the children which God hath given
me." (Hebrews 2:10-13).
You will
notice a whole list of quotations from the Old Testament
in that connection. Formerly it related to the old
Israel. That Israel has now been set aside and God is
taking up in a new way this principle of family life in
relation to Himself. His Son is "the firstborn
among many brethren" (Romans 8:29) and
we are "sons of God, through faith, in Jesus
Christ" (Galatians 3:26).
You have
probably noticed that the very first idea of God was a
family - the idea was born in His heart. This is not some
official society or institution. The deepest thing in
God's heart about us is to have us as His children, and
you, who know the Bible, will be able to quote to
yourself many passages, such as: "Like as a
father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them
that fear him" (Psalm 103:13). We could
build up a tremendous mountain of references to God as
Father and to His people as His children. He could have
made an organization of people into a kind of society. He
could have called some from one place and some from
another, given them the title of some denomination and
said: 'Now you are members of this denomination. You are
formed into this organization.' But God never had any
such idea. His idea is a family, and the Lord Jesus said
that He came into this world especially to reveal God as
Father - "I kept them in thy name which thou
hast given me... I made known unto them thy name"
(John 17:12,26). The name of God which was most on
the lips of the Lord Jesus was 'Father', and God has sent
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts whereby we say the
same thing - "Because ye are sons, God sent
forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6).
That is
very elementary, but there is a very great battle for
this family conception. We do not worry very much if some
organization gets broken up, not even if it is the
'United Nations', but we are always filled with grief and
shame when a family breaks up. We feel that there is
something about a family which carries a very sacred
idea. What a bad thing it is when a family becomes
divided! When children are against one another or against
their parents, and the husband is against the wife and
the wife against the husband. That is a special mark of
the devil's work at the end of the dispensation! There is
nothing more terrible in our time than the break-up of
family life. The lists of divorces are most distressing,
and poor children are left really without father or
mother because of the break-up of the family. This is a
blow at the deepest thing in the heart of God, but it
does not stay there.
The most
distressing aspect of this whole thing is in the family
of God. There is nothing more terrible in this universe
than the break-up of God's family. The devil does not
mind our denominations and organizations, but he does
object to this family matter! It is God's most cherished
idea.
I think
that is one of the most precious things about a time
together like this. Here we are, representing quite a
number of different nationalities. Many of us have never
met before on this earth and have not yet had time to
shake hands with one another, but we are all rejoicing
here together as a family. The family spirit is the most
precious thing, and it is the very hallmark of the
heavenly Israel.
I have
often said, in speaking about the heavenly Jerusalem as
it is presented symbolically at the end of the Bible,
that it has only one street. Our hymn-writers have led us
astray over this, for they talk about the streets
of gold. The Bible says there is only one street of gold.
So we have to live in one street for all eternity! What
do you say about that? How are you going to get on with
your neighbours? Don't worry, it will be a very happy
thing to live on one street, for, you see, it will just
be a holy family. When the whole family is one it is not
a bad thing to live next door to one another!
Well,
that is just a symbolic way of speaking about this, but
you know what it means. This is a spiritual relationship:
Father, big Elder Brother, the all-uniting Holy Spirit...
"holy brethren, companions in a heavenly
calling". It is a glorious thing to have
companionship!
Thus
this very first idea of God in the old Israel is carried
over spiritually to the new Israel.
(2)
The house of God
"Moses indeed was faithful in all God's house as a
servant, for a testimony of those things which were
afterward to be spoken; but Christ as a son, over God's
house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness
and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews
3:5,6).
Did you
notice what that said? "Moses indeed was faithful
in all God's house as a servant, for a testimony of those
things which were afterward to be spoken." When
is the afterward? It is now. "Whose house are
we." The house of God is something which is
carried over in principle by God from the old to the new.
Peter says that we are a spiritual house - but there is
one thing which needs to be made quite clear here. When
we use this word 'house', we usually think of a place in
which people live, but that is not the meaning of the
word here. I do not know whether you can understand the
change that I am going to make, but do you know the
difference between a 'house' and a 'household'? A
household is quite a different thing from a house. A
household is two things: the people who dwell there and
the order that exists. It is a house with a certain kind
of order.
This is
God's house, composed of His people who are under His
order. He is a God of order. He is not only concerned to
have things done, but to have them done in His way. It
matters just as much to Him how things are done as
to whether they are done at all. God's house is a house
which is ordered by God. Everyone in it has to be in
subjection to the Spirit of God and has to come under the
headship of Jesus Christ.
We could
spend very much time on the house of God! However, if you
look into God's ordering of the life of Israel in the old
dispensation, you will see how particular He was as to
what was done and how it was done. God's spiritual and
heavenly house was brought in on the Day of Pentecost,
and He had His own new order. You will see how in those
first days of the life of the Church two things were
happening. God was demanding that His new order should be
observed. Even the apostles had not come fully to
recognize that new order. They were holding on to
something of the old order, and when the Lord was moving
toward the Gentiles in the case of Cornelius, the
Gentile, Peter said: 'Not so, Lord. This is not according
to the old order. I was not brought up in this way. The
old system says I must not do that. Not so, Lord.' But
the Lord is Lord of His own house, and He made it
perfectly clear to Peter that He had brought in a new
order. This was a new Israel. The Cross had made a great
change: "What God hath cleansed, make
not thou common" (Acts 10:15). The Cross has
dealt with all uncleanness and we are moving on to a new
basis.
Peter
came to see that. Of course, this incident was not the
end of the difficulty even for him, but I think that when
we come to his Letters we get to a Peter who has fully
accepted the new order. "A spiritual house",
says he, "to offer up spiritual
sacrifices" (I Peter 2:5).
But we
were noting that in the Book of the Acts we have two
things: there is the movement of the Spirit of God
concerning the new order, but there is also the movement
of the evil spirit against this new order. There is that
terrible episode of Ananias and Sapphira who violated the
new order of God's house. They brought in their own
personal interests, and Peter summed it up in this way:
"Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie
to the Holy Ghost?" (Acts 5:3). On that
terrible day the new order was upset. Satan struck a blow
at this new Israel, but to show how jealous God was for
His heavenly order, see what happened to those two! God
has therefore laid down the principle very clearly, and
He is very jealous for His heavenly order.
Nothing
but trouble can follow if we get out of God's order. While
that is suspended everything is in confusion.
That is
enough about the house of God for the time being - "Whose
house are we".
(3)
The heirs of God
This matter is introduced with the Lord Jesus
Himself.
"Whom He appointed heir of all things"
(Hebrews 1:1).
In verse
fourteen of the first chapter we are spoken of as the
heirs of salvation ("...for the sake of them that
shall inherit salvation").
In
chapter six, verse seventeen, we are spoken of as "the
heirs of the promise", and in the eighth chapter
of the Letter to the Romans, verse seventeen, Paul says
that we are, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ".
In the
earthly sense, Israel were to be God's heirs. The promise
was made to Abraham that his seed would inherit the
earth: God covenanted with him that his seed should be
the possessors. Israel were to be God's heirs and they
ought to have become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. But
they killed God's heir. They said, as in the parable
spoken by the Lord Jesus, "This is the
heir: come, let us kill him" (Matthew
21:38). They killed Him whom God had "appointed
heir of all things", and in so doing they robbed
themselves of the inheritance.
Then the
Church comes in - "heirs of God and joint-heirs
with Christ". The Church is now the heir to the
promise made to Abraham, and this whole Letter to the
Hebrews has to do with the inheritance, the great
inheritance to which we are called as companions of the
heavenly calling. The appeal to us in this Letter is:
'See that you do not miss the inheritance! The old Israel
lost it through unbelief. You can lose the inheritance.'
So the Letter uses Israel by way of illustrating the
terrible possibility of Christians losing the
inheritance.
Do you
notice the little word 'if ' which occurs so often?
"We are become companions of Christ if we
hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the
end" (Hebrews 3:14): "Whose house are we, if
we hold fast our boldness" (Hebrews 3:6). That
little word is a very big word! A lot hangs on it. We are
not talking about the loss of eternal life, but of the purpose
of salvation, which is a very much larger thing than
just being saved. Paul says that there will be a lot of
people who get into heaven having lost everything. All
their life work will go up in smoke: "He himself
shall be saved; yet so as through fire'' (I
Corinthians 3:15). Everything but their salvation will be
lost. Do you want to get into heaven "yet so as
through fire"? No, this Letter says there is
something more than being saved. There is a great
inheritance, but we can miss it. Read the Letter again in
the light of that.
However,
our point here is that this principle of being heirs of
God is carried over into the heavenly Israel.
(4)
The city of God
If you look into this Letter, you will find that the city
is referred to on several occasions, such as: "Ye
are come ... unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews 12:22).
The life
of Israel was, of course, centred in the earthly
Jerusalem. It was the centre of their unity. They were
all united because of that city. That is why their males
had to go up to Jerusalem so many times every year, and
as they came, from the north, the south, the east and the
west, a wonderful caravan, they sang the songs of Zion.
Those Psalms about Zion are wonderful Psalms, and these
men were glorying in their city, finding the expression
of their national life there. It was the centre of their
government. Their whole national life came out from the
government in Jerusalem. Yes, Jerusalem was everything to
them.
The
writer of this Letter to the Hebrews is speaking about
the approaching day, when that will have gone forever, or
for a whole dispensation. Jerusalem today is the very
symbol of division. The Jews have one bit and the Arabs
have another, and they cannot live in peace together. It
is the symbol of disunion, and with God it does not
stand. It has been passed over and God has brought in His
heavenly Jerusalem - "Ye are come... unto
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem".
We have
been made "to sit with him in the
heavenly places, in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians
2:6). All our unity, as the new Israel, is centred in Him
above. There will only be a true expression of unity
amongst the Lord's people when they have a heavenly
position. Our unity is in heaven, not on earth. Our
government is from heaven, not from earth. Paul says we
are "fellow-citizens with the saints" (Ephesians
2:19), and that our "life is hid with Christ
in God" (Colossians 3:3).
Yes, the
city exists. God's thought concerning it has been carried
over to the spiritual Israel.
(5)
The flock of God
These are all wonderful conceptions of the old
Israel! If that Israel was God's family, the house of
God, the heir of God, the city of God, so it was thought
of as God's flock, God's sheep: "Thou leddest
thy people like a flock" (Psalm 77:20). That
idea, of course, lay behind the cry of the prophet
Isaiah: "All we like sheep have gone
astray" (Isaiah 53:6). Israel was God's flock
and He was their shepherd. We will dwell more fully upon
that later (See Volume II) - it is indeed a very large
matter in this new relationship to the Lord.
God has
carried this over and it is a very precious thought of
His concerning the heavenly Israel. We are "the
people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand" (Psalm
95:7), and when we come to the end of this Letter to the
Hebrews we have this beautiful word: "Now the
God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great
shepherd of the sheep... even our Lord Jesus" (Hebrews
13:20).
There is
a sense in which that spreads itself back over the whole
Letter. The companions of Christ are His sheep: "I
am the good shepherd; and I know mine own, and mine
own know me.... My sheep hear my voice, and I know them
and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal
life" (John 10:14,27,28). That is a grand idea
for sheep!
(6)
The Kingdom of God
We all know that Israel of old was God's kingdom,
over which He was king. Do you remember that when they
chose Saul to be the king, Samuel was very distressed and
went to the Lord about it? The Lord said to him: "They
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I
should not be king over them" (I Samuel
7:7). The Old Testament has a great deal to say about
Israel being God's kingdom.
Then we
come into this new Israel: "Wherefore, receiving
a kingdom that cannot be shaken" (Hebrews
12:28). In the Greek the tense is: "Being in process
of receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken". We
are God's kingdom, and people under His kingship and
government.
We will
have much more to say about this matter later, but I
think I have said enough now to show that this is a very
real thing. We have come in a spiritual way into all that
which was foreshadowed in the Israel of old. The Lord
Jesus said to that Israel: "The kingdom of God
shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew
21:43). Peter said that we are "a holy
nation" (I Peter 2:9). We are the
inheritors of all that God ever meant for His people. In
us, that is, in His true Church of this dispensation, God
is in process of realizing all that which He had
foreshadowed through many centuries.
We are a
very privileged people. The great need of our time is for
Christians to know what God has called them unto. Many do
not know. You can go over this world and find Christians
in the majority who have no idea of these things. They
know that the Lord Jesus came into the world as the Son
of God and lived His wonderful life, did His works, gave
His teaching, died an atoning death and rose again, has
gone to heaven and is coming again; but they do not know
one bit of what it all means, that is, what it is all
unto, the great eternal purpose of God in it all. They
are mostly quite ignorant of the things about which we
have just been speaking, and that is why Christianity is
in such a poor state today. They have not been given true
instruction and have not a true understanding of God's
great purpose in His Church through Christ Jesus. It is a
very wonderful thing that we have come into in this
dispensation.