Reading: Numbers
7:1-84.
The first thing that
becomes apparent from the record in this chapter is that
the Lord's people, as represented by their princes - the
princes of all the fathers' houses, you notice - are
looked upon as a princely people. God's conception of His
people is that, and He desires His people so to conceive
of themselves. They are a princely people, a royal
priesthood.
Princeliness:
The Character of the Lord Jesus
What is princeliness in
its real nature, when it is a true princeliness?
Ultimately, fundamentally, it is that which takes its
character from the Lord Jesus. We are very ready to extol
the Lord Jesus, to acclaim Him and proclaim Him as King
of kings and Lord of lords, to put Him in the highest
place. We glory in the fact that "God highly exalted
him, and gave unto him the name which is above every
name" (Phil. 2:9). I trust that it can truly be said
of every one of us, that that is our estimate of the Lord
Jesus. If that is true, and He is to us Prince as well as
Saviour, then surely we who bear His Name, and are of His
family, over which He is Prince, should take our
character from Him. It is God's thought, and God's will,
that there should be about us something of the
princeliness of the Lord Jesus.
(a)
Spiritual Dignity
Princeliness is a very
different thing in the spiritual realm from what it is in
the temporal and the natural. We have already seen
through this series of studies the great difference that
there is in priestliness, in Levitical service, between
what is temporal and what is spiritual: it is a different
realm, a different kind of thing altogether. When it
comes to the Lord Jesus and His princeliness, again we
say that it is not just official, it is not just by
appointment, it is not ecclesiastical or formal. It is
spiritual and it is moral - for princeliness is
pre-eminently a moral and a spiritual thing. If we take
our character from the Lord Jesus, we shall not be mean,
contemptible, petty, or 'little' people, or anything at
all like that. That is not princeliness.
No, to take character
from Christ means something noble, something fine,
something big, great, honourable, dignified. You expect
that of a prince, do you not? Even in the natural realm,
you expect dignity in conduct, behaviour, presence. You
lose all respect for a prince who is mean or
contemptible.
(b)
Spiritual Stature
Princeliness seems to
speak, too, of stature. I expect these princes in Israel
were men of physical stature, dignity of presence - men
whose presence impressed. That is, everybody could look
up to them - perhaps literally, as well as in other ways.
Princeliness is stature, and stature in the Bible is
always spiritually and morally a matter of the measure of
Christ - just how much there is of Christ.
(c)
Spiritual Wealth
It seems an anomaly for
a prince to be poor. Here you find the princes were men
of substance, men of wealth. They were people who had a
competence, who had plenty, who had whereof to dispose.
Not only were their own needs met and satisfied, but they
had plenty to give away.
Now, this is not a mere
artistic presentation of things, or exaggeration in
words. This is exactly what the Lord wants His people,
His spiritual Israel, to be. He wants big people, in the
spiritual sense, people of stature, people of dignity.
And I think, as I have already said in earlier messages,
that that may well come down to very practical matters of
our personal presence and appearance. We can so easily
let the Lord down by our appearance, by our carelessness,
by our behaviour, by the way we talk, and so on. 'Letting
the Lord down' is only another way of saying - taking
from the grandeur of Christ, instead of showing forth the
excellencies of Him.
That covers much ground
and includes many things. But what I am trying first of
all to impress upon you is the Divine conception and idea
of His people: that that is to be true of them, not only
when they are together in meetings, but at home, at
business, wherever they are. There should be something
about them that is fine, something about them that is
grand - not petty, not small; something about Christians
which will lead people to look up to and speak highly of
them; something about them that is honouring the Lord. We
should be people, too, of stature and people of substance
- not going round, as we say, cap in hand, having to try
to get something for our subsistence. No, we have plenty.
I verily believe that, if we really come into what God
wills for us, we shall be people of plenty. There will
always be a margin; we shall never be at the end of
things. Plenty! Plenty! Twelve basketfuls over all the
time! It is the Lord's thought for His people that they
should be spiritually wealthy. That should be true
individually as well as collectively. This is what is
represented here by the princes of the fathers' houses of
Israel.
A
Great Appreciation of the Cross
But what was it that
particularly brought into view their princeliness? How is
it that we are made to take note of them? What was it
that gave them a place in the Bible? What was it that
caused them to occupy all this long chapter of
eighty-nine verses? In a word, what was it that showed
their princeliness?
The answer is very
simple, but very, very striking and searching. It was
their appreciation of the altar, their estimate of the
value of the altar: in New Testament terms, their
appreciation of the Cross. If you think about it, you
will see how true that was. Was the Apostle Paul a prince
in Israel? Was he a man of stature? Was he a man of
substance? Was he a man of dignity? Why? "Far be it
from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Gal. 6:14). It was his glorying in
the Cross, his estimate of the value, the importance, the
meaning, of the Cross. It is our apprehension of the
Cross which reveals our spiritual measure. Measure always
comes along the line of a very deep regard for the Cross
of our Lord Jesus. It is the way of our enlargement; it
is the way that makes a lot of room; it is the way of
spiritual wealth. Despise the Cross, hold the Cross
lightly, think little of the Cross, and you will become a
very small person spiritually. These princes had a
tremendous conception of the significance and value and
importance of this altar which was being dedicated. I
leave that with you to think about. The more you enter
into the meaning of the Cross, as you really do in heart
give an adequate estimate to the sufferings of God's Son,
the greater will your spiritual life be, the more will
you emerge a person of account, the more wealth will God
lavish upon you.
Oh, the
sweet wonders of that Cross
Where Christ my Saviour loved and died!
It is a tremendously
enlarging thing to grasp, rightly and sufficiently, the
meaning of the Cross.
A
Spontaneous, Voluntary, Heart Expression
Now these princes had
such a large appreciation of the altar that it required wagons
to convey their appreciation. A wagon is a very large
vehicle. It is not an ordinary little thing that you can
carry in your hand. They did not want just a little bit
of truck! Here are wagons, and here are these many
wagon-loads expressing the large appreciation of the
altar.
But note two other
things about the wagon. All this was something for which,
so far as we know, no prescription had been made, and,
from the account, it almost looks as though Moses did not
know what to do with it. He had nothing in the 'Blue
Book' about this! God had said nothing about this sort of
thing; there were no laws and regulations about what was
to be done should a thing like this happen. Evidently
Moses looked to the Lord about it, and the Lord said,
'Take it, receive it, turn it over to the ministry of the
sanctuary'.
Here is something that
is not by legal demand. This is a voluntary, spontaneous
expression from the heart, something altogether outside
of the book. This is princeliness, this is greatness: not
just to do what we are expected to do and what is
required of us and what is commanded to be done; not,
'Lord must I do this?' - but, 'Can I do it? Is there
anything that I can do - in the book or out of the book?'
That is the spirit of it. It was the spirit that prompted
this offering that made it so princely, so grand, so
noble.
A princely life is one
that is not just doing because it must, or giving because
it is expected to conform to the regulations, but a
spontaneous life that 'goes the second mile'. It does not
stop just at the set time, but looks for how much more
can be done. There are some Christians - watch this,
young Christians! - who talk like this: 'Must I give this
up if I am going to be a Christian? Is this not allowed?
May we not... this, that or something else - do this, go
there? What is wrong with it?' That is so negative.
Princeliness, if it is taken from the character of the
Lord Jesus, never talks or argues like that, it says:
'What more can I do? Is there anything more that I can do
for my Lord, who did everything for me?' You are not
surprised that the Lord takes note of that sort of thing,
and those people become the expression of His thought.
That is princeliness -
the voluntary giving without any consideration whatever
of whether it must be done. Can we give like that? How
grand it will be when we are all people whose worship is
so lavish, so free, so spontaneous, that we so to speak
do not know what to do with it all! Our worship is so
little, so poor, instead of being a lavish pouring out of
the heart. And in many other ways it is like that. May
the Lord make us His princely people like this - large of
heart, magnanimous of spirit: not for its own sake, but
because we have come to see something of the greatness of
what our Lord has done for us in His Cross. The Cross,
rightly apprehended, is a wonderful delivering power from
all littleness - from our poor, miserable, contemptible
little selves.
A
Covered Wagon
They were covered
wagons. I do not know altogether what they may have
implied from their standpoint, but I think I can see
something at any rate in the spirit of it. Princeliness,
real princeliness, makes not display. It does the large
thing and never calls attention to it, never lets it be
known or seen. Real princeliness is that kind of meekness
and humility accompanying an uttermost outpouring for the
Lord, without looking for admiration, or any return. An
uncovered wagon with all this might have drawn attention,
so that people might have said, 'Look what So-and-so is
giving!' It is like a Harvest Festival: that used to be a
great occasion for people to bring along the biggest
cabbage, or the biggest bunch of grapes, to draw
attention. 'Who brought that?' 'Oh, So-and-so!' The
lesson of the covered wagon is: "Let not thy left
hand know what thy right hand doeth" (Matt. 6:3) - a
real spirit of meekness; going, perhaps, further than
many others, but covering it.
In this series of
meditations, which we now conclude, we have heard much
about the service of the Lord, what is service to the
Lord, and the spiritual character of the servants of the
Lord, but it all gathers up into this. The Lord is
seeking a great people, in every spiritual and moral
sense; not perhaps in the eyes of the world, but in the
eyes of God. Sometimes the smallest and most
insignificant person, naturally, can be somebody very
princely, very precious, full of values to the Lord. We
do not judge and estimate naturally, but always and only
according to the measure of Christ. You may be a very
small person naturally, either physically in stature,
which sometimes produces a serious inferiority complex,
or you may be small of gifts, small of resources; but you
know the Lord Jesus attributed far greater stature to the
widow who cast in her two mites than to those wonderful
fellows who were displaying before everybody what they
were giving. Stature is different in the sight of God
from what it is in the sight of man.
No, you may not be of
much account in any way naturally, but you can be
something in the eyes of the Lord if the Cross has become
a great thing in your life and in your heart, and its
deep, full, rich meanings have come to be practical
realizations in your life. I have no hesitation in saying
these things, dear friends; they are true. Enlargement of
life comes by the application of the Cross, the
apprehension of the Cross. The more there is of the
Cross, the larger your life. It sometimes seems like
reduction, but - make no mistake - it is increase.
The Lord make us a
princely people - in this sense, that we have so
greatly seen, grasped, sensed, the wonder of His Cross
that our hearts go out, leaping over all the regulations,
to be able to bring to the Lord all that is possible
through life and through service, the fulness of our
hearts turning to the service of the sanctuary.