Reading: Ex.
25:31-40; Zech. 4:1-7.
Let us here say a word
quite briefly as to the two places in which this
candlestick is presented. In Exodus we have the beginning
of things; the Lord is setting up His testimony
originally, bringing it in for the first time. In
Zechariah, as in all prophetic ministry, it is a matter
of recovery, the testimony having been more or less lost.
The candlestick of gold is God's original and full
thought, to be recovered when that fulness of His mind
has suffered loss in the midst of His people and in the
midst of the nations. I just mention that, because the
Lord is always reacting to what is original and basic,
always seeking to recover, never content to move on with
anything less than that original revealed mind of His. It
is in connection with that thought of recovery that we
have felt through the years that the Lord laid His hand
upon us and brought us into being as a ministry and as a
part of a vessel - to seek to show again in a practical
way what His mind is as to testimony in the earth; and
right back there, at the very beginning, it was this
"candlestick all of gold" which the Lord made
basic to this ministry.
The
Testimony - The Fullness of Christ
In our previous
meditation, we were speaking about the form of this
candlestick, and there are some other things which have
to be said about that. Those who have been with us
through the years, will recognise these things as having
been brought at different stages particularly to our
view. I think there are three phases represented by three
lines of consideration of this candlestick. So far as
spiritual history is concerned, what was third for us has
come to be seen as first with the Lord. The Lord did not
begin with us at His own beginning, but He led us to His
beginning. We came eventually along two distinct lines,
by two distinct phases, to that beginning. I will not
mention the other two just now, but speak briefly
concerning the primary and all-governing aspect of the
testimony of our Lord Jesus - the fulness of Christ.
What
Christ Is
(a) All of God
In an earlier
meditation we said that the fact that the candlestick was
all of gold means that it represents something that is
all of God; and in contemplating this candlestick as
Christ, the very first thing that we have to be impressed
with is how utterly of God He was and is; all of God -
fulness, the fulness of God.
There are two primary
numbers in this candlestick, and they are three and
seven, the numbers of Divine fulness and of spiritual
fulness respectively. There are three branches on either
side of the stem and with the stem they make seven. There
is the fulness of God and the fulness of what is
spiritual. That is a key to the life of our Lord Jesus.
He was here in the days of His flesh amongst men as the
candlestick of God, revealing as by a living flame what
it means to be all of God. You know that in the
description of the candlestick it was to be in its own
light, that the light was to shine upon itself - "to
give light over against it" (Ex. 25:37); upon other
things, yes, but upon itself. It was to stand in its own
light and its light was to pour down upon itself; and the
Lord Jesus was found from time to time saying things
which corresponded to that. The testimony could be seen
as in Himself, the testimony bore witness of Him. He
could consistently walk in the light of God; where He was
concerned there was nothing whatever to cover from the
Divine light. The testimony was true in Him, because in
Him all was of God, as could be seen in countless
details. You have to study very closely His inward and
His outward life to see how it was all of God, how He was
constantly putting back everything else that might be of
Himself or for Himself, everything that might come from
any other source, that might minister to any other
object. It was all of God, through and through.
What is the testimony
of Jesus? Oh, again let us rid ourselves of all false
ideas that it is some particular system of teaching. No,
the testimony of Jesus which is to be here, which God
would have in His house, in the midst of His people, in
the midst of the nations by reason of His people - in the
very first place it is that here is something which is
delivered entirely and utterly from everything of
consideration and interest and object and ambition but
God Himself. No one must ever rightly and truly be able
to account for anything on the ground of man, or any
ground whatsoever, save God. It has to be said, 'This is
of God; this is all of God; this is the Lord.'
As we were saying
earlier, the fire produces this gold. Oh, what a work
that fire accomplishes to get rid of the alloy, the
mixture, the dross, so that at last it can be said, 'This
is all of God, there is nothing of man in this, nothing
can account for this but the Lord'. I am quite sure that
in the light of a statement like that you can see the
meaning of the ways of God. What is He doing? He is
seeking to produce a testimony in which the strength, the
wisdom, the very endurance, the very ability to go on at
all, is of God and not of man. All of God - yes, the
fulness of Christ is that.
Oh, our ideas about the
fulness of Christ! 'Oh, for the fulness of Christ!' we
cry. It cannot possibly be until there is an utter
emptiness. If He is to fill all things, everything else
has to go out. It will not be "all things", and
it will not be "all and in all" if there is
something else. The fulness of Christ demands a full
place. But the point is this - the fulness of Christ is
something which is to be entered into, to be experienced.
What fulness! 'I have seen the face of Jesus, tell me not
of aught beside' - do you mean that? Sentiments, hymns,
poems! Are you quite sure they are true? Ah, we are put
to the test over that - what we want beside Him. We do
not know our own hearts. However, the true testimony is
all of God. It was so in the case of the Lord Jesus, and
it is the Lord Jesus Who is being contemplated.
(b)
Universal: The Satisfaction of Heaven and Earth
The next thing is the
fulness of Christ in the matter of universality. This is
only saying the same thing in another way. You have this
candlestick represented as in two places. In Exodus it is
in the sanctuary, in the holy place. What does the holy
place of the tabernacle represent? It is the place
between heaven and earth. Outside the holy place you come
to the world, the outwardness of the testimony. It is the
world that brings you to the holy place. Beyond the holy
place is the Most Holy Place, that is heaven itself;
"into heaven itself" (Heb. 9:24) as the apostle
said. The holy place is the link between heaven and
earth, the boundaries of earth and heaven meeting there.
The person of the Lord Jesus unites them. He stands as
the Son of man between heaven and earth, and unites them
and comprehends them in their entirety. Fulness, heavenly
and earthly, is found in Him in a place not all of
either, but uniting both, satisfying both.
He is not wholly of
this earth, of this world; He is apart; and yet, so to
speak, He has His hand upon it. He is representatively
related to it, it meets in Him - He is at the point where
all the nations find their fulness. The world finds in
the Lord Jesus the answer to everything. There is not a
nation, not a tribe, not a people, not a language, not a
constitution, national or temperamental, in this whole
creation in any age, which cannot find the answer to its
need, its true need, in Him. He is outside of time, He is
above time, He is as good for the twentieth century as
for the first and every century between - just as apt,
just as suitable. All the conditions of all the ages of
this world met on earth in Him.
On the other hand,
heaven is satisfied with Him, all heaven's fulness is
found in Him. Heaven had a need at a point; heaven waited
breathlessly while something was carried out upon which,
in a sense, its very existence seemed to depend. Heaven
was tremendously and solemnly interested in that drama of
the Cross; nay, more, in the whole drama of His earthly
life. Heaven is always watching, concerned; angels are
intent. Heaven met in Him, and now all heaven is
satisfied because of Him. God finds His satisfaction in
Him.
So the Lord Jesus is
just there between heaven and earth, meeting all needs.
How universal is the testimony of Jesus to answer need!
We find the candlestick
mentioned again in Scripture - in the book of the
Revelation; and we find there confirmation of what I
have just said. If you wanted to present two pictures of
the candlestick, as in Exodus and Revelation
respectively, you would put the former in the holy place
of the tabernacle. Where would you put the other? You
would need to have a map of the whole area then known as
Asia, as representative of the creation, the world, the
nations, and there you would put a candlestick in Ephesus
and another in Smyrna, another in Thyatira, in Pergamos,
and so on; and yet you would see one Man covering the
whole of that area - the candlesticks, so to speak, being
brought into that one Man. It is Christ in testimony in
all the nations. It is not now only centred in one place,
in the holy place; it is now in the nations. The first is
in the holy place - everything is in Him. But when He is
seen as the seven candlesticks in the nations, it is He
in everything - a picture of God's ultimate intention
that the fulness that is in Him shall be found
everywhere, in the nations, in the whole creation. Paul
says, "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in
pain together until now" waiting for its redemption
(Rom. 8:19-22). The creation groans. What is it groaning
about? Why do we groan? Because, in some form, we want
something we have not got. If we are in pain, we groan
because we want to be free from pain. We groan if things
go wrong - we want them to go right. The creation is
groaning because it has not got something which is
necessary to it. What does it need? - Christ, that is
all. He answers to the creation's need. Christ in all the
nations - that is the ultimate vision. The universality
of Christ - that is the testimony. All heaven's need, all
earth's need, all man's need, all the creation's need,
met in fulness in the Lord Jesus. That is a comprehensive
statement, but it is also a challenge to us. Is that the
testimony we are talking about?
A
Vital Impact of Christ, Not a Teaching
What do we mean by the
testimony? Is it Christ in fulness known in that way by
us? You say, 'Well, what is there particularly different
about that so far as this vessel is concerned? Is not all
Christianity supposed to be that? Is it not all centred
in Christ? Is not its witness that Christ is all, to be
all, and that Christ meets all need?' Yes, it is quite
true as to language, quite true as to terms of
Christianity; but there is a good deal extra to Christ in
Christianity - how much we do not know. Many of us would
strongly affirm that, so far as we are concerned, Christ
is all, but we do not know our own hearts. The Lord has
only to put His finger upon something very precious to us
and a big battle flares up; it is not so easy then to
say, 'Christ is more than that to me.' The issue becomes
very practical and personal. But you can spread that out
over a wide area - all the extras to Christ that there
are in Christianity from centre to circumference; and
only the fires of God can discover what are the extras
that we Christians and Christianity must have. Oh, look
on Christianity today as we know it in this world! Do we
not have to say that there is a lot that is called
Christianity that is not Christ? There is a lot added in.
There is not this fiery work of separating between the
pure gold and the dross. It is a pure gold testimony
wrought in the fire that God is after, and only His eyes
know what has to be dealt with in the fire. There is a
difference between the general, ostensible Christian
testimony about the Lord Jesus and the actual spiritual
one - a great deal of difference. I do not know that in
this life we shall ever get to the point where it is so
utterly Christ that there is nothing else at all, but God
is working toward that. All of God; all is spiritual,
nothing carnal; all is heavenly, nothing earthly. What is
in view is not a movement, a mission, a work, a sect, a
'fellowship' as an institution, something here on this
earth. It is something which is behind the very people
who constitute the physical body of it all, something
intangible but very real. There is something about this
candlestick which is more than itself. It is its
spiritual and heavenly nature. In a word, you do not meet
a thing at all, you meet the Lord. You are not impressed
with the thing, the organization, the company of people,
or the place, or anything like that; you just meet the
Lord. 'The Lord is here' - that is the testimony of
Jesus. Do you not covet that for yourself personally?
Surely if people were able to say of our passing this way
- a way which we shall pass only once - that we brought
the presence of the Lord with us, that there was
something of the fragrance of Christ about us, something
that suggested the Lord, would not that be the greatest
thing that could possibly be said? Would not that be the
answer to our heart's deepest desire? If, by our being
together as companies of the Lord's people, everyone
coming into touch with us could say, 'It is not the
people, nor the phraseology, nor the peculiar teaching,
but somehow or other it is the Lord you meet there' -
well, there is no end greater than that. For the Lord to
do that necessitates deep, fiery work. That is the
candlestick all of gold. It is the Lord Jesus. The Lord
give us grace to seek that it shall be so, that our
presence here is His presence.