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The land is not only rich in water and food but also rich in minerals. Let us read:
Deuteronomy 8:9: A land whose stones are iron, and from whose mountains you can mine copper.
Please notice here that the iron is put together with the stones, and the copper, with the hills. This means that the iron has something to do with the stones, and the copper has something to do with the hills or the mountains.
Genesis 4:22: The forger of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron.
Bronze and copper are words used interchangeably for the same material in the Old Testament. Here the bronze and the iron are related to cutting instruments.
Deuteronomy 33:25: Your doorbolts shall be iron and copper; / And as your days are, so shall your strength be.
Here the bronze and the iron are related to the doorbolts of the gates and also to strength. The footnote in the American Standard Version gives “rest” or “security” for the word strength in this verse. Really, the word security is better. As your days are, so shall your security be. Iron and bronze, therefore, are here related to our security. If you have strength, you have security, and if you have security, you have rest.
Jeremiah 15:12: Can one break iron, / Iron from the north, or bronze?
This verse shows the strength of iron and bronze. It means that no one can break iron and bronze.
1 Samuel 17:5-7: There was a bronze helmet upon his head; and he was clothed with scaled armor, and the weight of the armor was five thousand bronze shekels. And he had bronze greaves upon his legs and a bronze javelin slung between his shoulders. And the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred iron shekels.
This giant warrior was covered from head to feet with bronze, and his weapon was made of iron. He himself was covered with bronze, and the weapon with which he fought the battle was of iron.
Revelation 1:15: His feet were like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace.
Psalm 2:9: You will break them with an iron rod; / You will shatter them like a potter’s vessel.
In Revelation 1 the bronze is related to the feet of the overcoming and judging Christ: His feet were like burnished bronze. And in the second Psalm the iron is related to the rod with which the Lord will rule the nations.
Matthew 5:14: You are the light of the world. It is impossible for a city situated upon a mountain to be hidden.
Psalm 2:6: I have installed My King / Upon Zion, My holy mountain.
In Matthew 5 the city is related to the hill, and in the second Psalm the hill of Zion is related to the anointed One.
1 Peter 2:4-5: Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Here we are told that the Lord is a living stone and that we too are living stones. All these living stones are for the building of a spiritual house for God.
Ezekiel 37:22: I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king to all of them.
In this verse we see that the nation and the king are related to the mountain. The Lord said that He would make them a nation not only in the land but also on the mountains of Israel, the mountains of the land.
Psalm 87:1: His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Here the foundation of the building is related to the mountains.
Psalm 48:1-2: Great is Jehovah, / And much to be praised / In the city of our God, / In His holy mountain. / Beautiful in elevation, / The joy of the whole earth, / Is Mount Zion, the sides of the north, / The city of the great King.
We must notice here that the city of God is related to the holy mountain, and the city of the great King is related to Mount Zion.
There is much spiritual significance in all these relationships. There are four items altogether: stones, hills or mountains, iron, and copper. The stones are for the building, and the hills or the mountains are for the city, which is the center of the nation, the center of the kingdom. The iron and copper are the materials for the weapons.
We have seen that the land is rich first in waters, second in vegetables and plants, third in animals, and last in mines, or minerals. There are four categories. Let us consider their order — it is very meaningful and very spiritual.
We must have water first; otherwise, the plants cannot grow. Without water, plants and vegetables can never exist and never grow. So water brings in the vegetables and the plants.
In 1958 we went to the physical land of which we are speaking, the land of Palestine. After staying in Jerusalem for a few days, we went to see Jericho, that cursed city. Jerusalem is built on a mountain, which is three to four thousand feet above sea level, and the valley of Jericho, where the Dead Sea is located, is six to seven hundred feet below sea level. So from Jerusalem to Jericho’s “Death Valley,” we went down, down, down — a drive of about three hours. When we arrived at the bottom of that valley, it was like a furnace. There was such heat, and there was no breeze. It was a burning, barren wilderness — just heat and dust. We went immediately to see the remains of the ancient city of Jericho in the midst of that bleak and arid scene, and just outside the city, to our delight, was water, a spring of water. It was the very water that was healed by the prophet Elisha, and because of this we were very interested in seeing it. There it was — a spring, a fountain bubbling up, and a stream flowing forth. Following the water with our eyes, we could see at a distance, in the midst of that wild valley, a place of green grass, palm trees, and many other kinds of trees. It was beautiful. You see, there were the spring, the fountain, the stream flowing forth, and then a land full of green.
The Holy Spirit put the water first. The spring, the fountain, and the stream bring in all kinds of plant and vegetable life.
Then what do the cattle feed upon? They feed upon the vegetables, upon the plant life. So you see the order: first the waters, then the vegetables, then the animals. After these three the Spirit turns to something else — to the stones and to the mountains, out of which the iron and the copper come.
Brothers and sisters, we must be deeply impressed with this order. It corresponds one hundred percent with the stages of the spiritual life.
In the first stage of the spiritual life, we experience Christ as the living water. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). This is the gospel for the sinners. Come and drink, and you will be filled; your thirst will be quenched. When we come to the Lord, we experience Him as the living water, as the living stream. By continuing in this experience, we are brought further. We are told that from the throne of God and of the Lamb, there flows a river of living water, and in this river grows the tree of life. The living water brings us the supply of Christ as food. By experiencing Christ as the living water, you will find growing in this water different kinds of plants; you experience Christ as your food supply. With the flowing of the living water is the bread of life, the food of life. This means that you not only experience the waters but also the supply of Christ as different kinds of food. All these kinds of food will bring you to maturity; they will bring you to the place where you are filled with the Holy Spirit. You will be an olive tree before the Lord, a son of oil.
At this point you are mature. Your experience of Christ is so rich and sweet, just as milk and honey. What is honey? Honey is the cream of all the plant life. And what is milk? Milk is the cream of all the animal life. Milk and honey are the cream of all the food supply. Sometimes when you are weak in spirit and you taste a little of Christ, you sense how rich and sweet He is. You have enjoyed just a little of Christ as milk and honey. But when you are really mature in the life of Christ, Christ will be just as milk and honey to you through the whole day. When you first come to receive Christ, you feel that you are drinking the living water, but when you are matured in Christ, you feel day by day that you are drinking milk and honey. He is so sweet and so rich to you. Of course, the living water is included in the milk and honey, but this drink is exceedingly richer than water.
The first time I came to America, I received a deep impression. I was thirsty and asked the brother with whom I was staying for something to drink. I asked him if he had a teapot, and he replied that he was sorry, but he had no teapot. I exclaimed, “Is America so poor? You don’t even have a teapot!” Where I come from, we have all kinds and sizes of teapots. Then I asked him if he had some thermos bottles of water. He replied that he had none of them either. “What is the matter?” I thought. Then to my surprise he gave me a cup of milk, saying, “Brother, here in America we drink milk instead of water. Every day, morning, noon, and evening, we drink milk.” I was much impressed. I said, “You are really rich in this country. You are so rich that instead of water, you drink milk.”
The first experience of Christ is that of living water, but after growing in Him and maturing in life, a certain point is reached where Christ is not only the living water but also the flowing of milk and honey. You must notice the order. The Holy Spirit put honey at the end of the list of the vegetables, and He put the milk and butter after the cattle and the flock, the animals. This means that if you enjoy Christ to a certain extent as the plant life, you will enjoy Him as honey. And if you enjoy Him to a certain extent as the animal life, you will feel that He is just as the milk. He will be so rich and sweet to you. This means that you are somewhat mature.
Now we come to the last stage, the stage of the minerals. We come to the place where we have something to do with the stones, the mountains, the iron, and the copper. What are these for? They are for the building, for the kingdom, for the battle, and for the security. Whenever there is a matured life in Christians, the building of God’s house will take place, and the battles of the spiritual warfare will be fought. In other words, when there are believers who are matured by experiencing Christ, with them the house of God is built, and by them the battle is fought. We must be very clear that whenever we enjoy Christ to a certain extent, there is always an issue — the building and the battle. These two always go together. If you would have the building of God, you must prepare to fight. For the building of God we need the materials, and for the fighting of the battle we need the weapons. All of these depend on the stones, the mountains, the iron, and the copper.
We must remember that upon the land, the city and the temple are built, and they are built with these very materials — stones, iron, and copper. These minerals signify that there is something in the life of Christ as materials for the building of God and as weapons for the fighting of the battle. All of these things are still something of the riches of the life of Christ.
Whether or not we have arrived at this stage depends upon the measure of our experience of Christ. If we just enjoy Christ as the living water day by day, we can never reach the point where the building of God will be realized among us. We are still very young. We must enjoy Christ as the living water, as the wheat, as the barley, and as this and as that. We must enjoy Christ to a certain extent; then there will be a building for the Lord and the battle with the enemy.
Sometimes you meet a brother or a sister, and you feel that he or she is quite good, but there is something short; there is a real lack. It is not that these brothers or sisters are sinful; on the contrary, they are upright with the Lord, and their attitude is positive. But deep in your spirit you sense a lack. You can hardly explain it; it is difficult to find the right word. Perhaps you could say that they are a little limp, a little soft. I believe that you know what I mean. They are just like a piece of bread. The bread is good and wholesome, but how soft and limp it is. Or they could be compared to a cup of milk. The milk is good and rich, but it is only liquid and as weak as liquid. Now take a stone or a piece of iron or copper — here is something strong. But these people are not like that. It seems that they are not a stone, and no iron or copper is in them. You cannot fight with milk as a weapon. You cannot do battle with a piece of bread or go to war with a fig. That would be ridiculous. You must have some iron or copper; you must have something of strength. You cannot build a house with milk. You cannot pile up loaves of bread and have a building. You must have stones; you must have building materials. Furthermore, you must have a mountain from which you may quarry the materials and upon which you may build the house.
Sometimes when I meet one of the Lord’s servants, I have the feeling that I am meeting a mountain. I cannot tell how rich, how strong, how solid, and how secure he is. He is just like a mountain. When he is sitting there, a mountain is there. You cannot beat him. If you attempt it, you will be beaten by him. This is a mountain; this is a hill. You cannot deal with him; you have to be dealt with by him.
This is the last stage of the spiritual life. It is quite possible for you to come to this point. It is quite possible for you to be a stone among the children of God, a pillar in the church. Can you use bread for pillars? Can you pile up grapes for pillars? No, you cannot do that. You can make a pillar of stone, of iron, or of bronze — that will be quite adequate. The building of God requires the stone, the iron, the copper, and the mountain. All of these materials are related to the building of God and, as we will show later, to the kingdom of God.
When we are just babes in Christ, drinking the living water, how is it possible for the building of the Lord to be among us? It is impossible. We must be grown; we must be matured by experiencing Christ. We must be stones. The Lord is the living stone, and we too must be the living stones so that we may be material for His building.
Figuratively speaking, in Adam we are a piece of clay; we are not stone but clay. The Lord’s building is built with stones, but we are made of clay. How could we as a piece of clay be material for the Lord’s building? It is impossible. We must be transformed from clay to stone. We must be transformed by the Holy Spirit through the practical experience and enjoyment of Christ.
Sometimes a brother comes to me, and I sense that he has been somewhat transformed. But, regrettably, he has only a small amount of stone in him; for the most part he is still clay. You may have met brothers like this. You can recognize a little transformation; they look like a stone, but the greater part of their being is still in the original state. They are still very much in Adam, very much in the clay. They are still too natural.
One day I had fellowship with some brothers. At a certain point in our fellowship, one brother insisted very strongly on a certain matter. I pointed to the brother and said, “Brother, there in your spirit is a little piece of stone, but your head is a piece of clay.” The mentality of so many brothers and sisters is still not renewed, not transformed. Their mentality is just that of the natural man, full of natural concepts and natural thoughts. It is a head of clay. By the renewing of the mind we are transformed from a piece of clay to a stone. After becoming a stone, we are burned and pressed so that we may be transformed even further — from an ordinary stone to a precious stone. In the New Jerusalem you cannot find one bit of clay. Neither can you find any ordinary stones. Every stone is a precious stone. The New Jerusalem is built with precious stones.
We know that stones are always related to mountains and hills. If we want some rocks, we must have some mountains. It is rather difficult to find stones in the plains. Then what is the meaning of the mountains and the hills? The mountains and hills in the Scriptures always represent resurrection and ascension. They are something that is raised above the earth, above the plain. How could you, a piece of clay, be transformed to a stone? It is only in the resurrection life. All the spiritual, living stones are in the resurrection life; they are stones joined to the mountain of Christ’s resurrection. If we are all living in the adamic life, in the old life and nature, we are simply in the plain. Since there is no mountain among us, there is no stone among us. But if we are living and walking in the resurrection life, we are enjoying the reality of the hills and mountains, and with these hills and mountains inevitably are the stones.
Let us illustrate. Suppose I meet together with a few brothers and sisters. As a brother, I walk according to the natural life, and there is another brother who is always living in the natural life. A dear sister who meets with us is continually walking and living in her emotions: sometimes she is so happy, and sometimes she is exceedingly sorrowful and depressed. In fact, we are all a group of such believers; we are all so natural, continually living and walking in the natural life. Could you sense something in the nature of a hill among us? Certainly not. We are all clay; we are all on the plain. If you looked for a stone, you could find nothing but dust — dust, earth, and clay. Since there is no mountain, there is no stone. If you want stones, you must go to the hill country.
Suppose, then, there is another group of believers. They know something of the cross, and they know something regarding the denial of the natural life; therefore, they have realized the resurrection life to a certain extent. They are walking in newness of life and serving in newness of the spirit; they are living in resurrection. When you come to them, you sense there is something raised, something exalted, something that is higher than you. You realize that within them and among them is some spiritual hill, some spiritual mountain. It is not difficult to find many stones, even precious stones. If you look at this one, you see a stone; if you look at that one, praise the Lord, you also see a stone. There are stones because there are mountains and hills.
The mountains and the hills are for the building of the house, the city, and the kingdom of God. So many cities in the Scriptures are built upon hills and mountains. When I was in Palestine and traveled throughout the land, I noticed that nearly all the cities were built in this way. There were very few cities built in a valley or on a plain. A city is the center of a nation, a kingdom. In the Old Testament Scriptures the city is always the symbol of the nation or the kingdom. The thought of the Holy Spirit in such passages, therefore, is that whenever there is some spiritual hill or mountain among the Lord’s children, there are automatically some stones, some materials for the building of the house and the city. The authority of God and the kingdom of God are there. When the Lord was raised from the dead, He told us that all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him. The spiritual authority, the heavenly authority, is always in resurrection. If you and I are living and walking in the resurrection life of Christ, we will have the authority of heaven.
The concept of many people concerning the authority of the church is entirely mistaken. The authority of the church has nothing to do with organization. It is absolutely a matter of resurrection. If two brothers in a local church are so much in the resurrection, to them the divine, heavenly authority is committed. They are the authority of the church. They are the hill in that local church. With them is the resurrection, so with them is the authority of the kingdom.
If we are just babes in Christ, we have experienced Him as living water and perhaps as our food supply. We are always having good times together and are so happy with each other, but we are very young. Many times we are just naturally happy, and many times we are sorrowful in our natural emotion. There is no hill among us, and there are no stones among us. We are all a lump of clay. Could you realize the authority of the church in such a situation? Never. The authority of the church is where the saints know what it means to be crucified with the Lord Jesus and live in the resurrection. If they laugh, they laugh in resurrection; if they cry, they cry in resurrection. Even when they are angry, they are angry in the life of resurrection. They experience the Lord’s resurrection life in their daily walk. It is not a mere teaching to them but a practical daily enjoyment. When you meet them, you feel that they are stones in the mountain. They are the ones to whom the heavenly authority is committed. They are the authority of the church. If the saints are like that here, then the house of God and the kingdom of God are here. Here the house is built up, and the kingdom of God is established.
Please do not think that because you have read this, you have it. What we have been speaking of requires years to obtain. I am only giving you the directions; this is simply the map for you to follow. Take it, and humbly practice it. Do not think that tomorrow you will be a mountain. No. Pray about these matters and seek to put them into practice. Then after this you will be profited.
