Message 180
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 34
In the foregoing message we saw that in Exo. 34:18-35 there are three important matters: feasting and resting with the Lord, five conditions for enjoying the Lord as our feast, and God’s infusion into Moses by His speaking with him. In the previous message we considered the matter of feasting with the Lord and resting with Him. In this message we shall go on to consider the five conditions that must be fulfilled in order for us to feast with the Lord.
The first of the five conditions is described in verse 20: “And the firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before Me empty.” This signifies that our natural man must be replaced with Christ so that we may live a sanctified life for God. Even though we have been redeemed, we still are natural. We are a “donkey,” an unclean animal; we are not a lamb. Yes, we have been redeemed, but we are not clean. Therefore, as “donkeys” we need our natural being to be replaced with Christ as the Lamb.
As far as sanctification is concerned, we are not sheep or oxen; we are donkeys. Even though we have been redeemed, our natural man is still unclean in the sight of God. Hence, in order to be sanctified to the Lord, we need Christ to be our Substitute. The Passover lamb typifies Christ as our Redeemer. Through Him as our Substitute, we have been redeemed. However, because we are still unclean and natural, we cannot be a living sacrifice for God’s satisfaction. We need Christ to be our Substitute in sanctification. For more regarding the firstling of a donkey being redeemed with a lamb, see Life-study of Exodus, Message 27, pages 305-307.
No matter how nice we may be, or how good, we still are natural. On the one hand, I like to meet nice people. On the other hand, I realize that the nicer a person is, the more natural he is. I am not implying, of course, that in order to be spiritual we should be crude instead of nice. The point here is that even our natural niceness needs to be replaced with Christ. We need to remember that in our natural life we are a “donkey.” We have been redeemed, but we are still donkeys. So many “donkeys” have been gathered together in the church life. Now there is the need for all of us to be replaced with Christ. If our natural “donkey life” is not replaced with Christ, we shall be hindered in the enjoyment of the feasts and also in the keeping of the Sabbath. Having our natural life replaced with Christ is a condition both of feasting with the Lord and resting with Him.
The second condition is found in 34:25a: “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread.” This indicates that we should not mix Christ’s redemption with our sinful life. We should never mix Christ’s redemption with a sinful life. We should not declare that we are redeemed and then continue living in sin. To do this is to offer the blood of the Lord’s sacrifice with leavened bread. A person who is still living in sin should not boast that he has been redeemed.
We have pointed out that we need to keep the feast of unleavened bread. This is to purge away everything sinful as evidence that we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. When a believer clears up his sinful life, this is a testimony that he has been redeemed by Christ.
It is not hard for us to realize that if we still live in sin, yet claim that we have been redeemed, we shall not be able to enjoy Christ. We all have been redeemed by the blood of Christ in order to enjoy Christ. Nevertheless, we still must fulfill the condition of clearing away all leaven, the requirement of not mixing Christ’s redemption with a sinful life.
A third condition of feasting with the Lord and resting with Him is found in the second part of verse 25: “Neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover remain until the morning.” What is the significance of not allowing the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover to remain until the morning? This signifies that we should enjoy the riches of Christ in this age and not leave them until the next age. We need to enjoy Christ today. We need to enjoy Him in full in this age. We cannot exhaust the enjoyment of Christ. We can enjoy to the utmost our particular portion of Him. Whatever portion we receive of Christ should be enjoyed today. We should not leave anything for the next “morning”; that is, we should not postpone the enjoyment of Christ until the coming age. Enjoy Christ now. Do not wait for the future to enjoy Him.
Some saints may have the thought of waiting for a period of time before they enjoy Christ. Certain young people may say to themselves, “I am still young. Let me enjoy the worldly things for a time. Later I’ll come back to the enjoyment of Christ.” Do not make this mistake. If you put off the enjoyment of Christ until the future, you will not fulfill the third condition of feasting with the Lord — the requirement that we not hold the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover until the morning. Do not wait to enjoy the riches of Christ.
Exodus 34:26a says, “You shall bring the first of the firstfruits of your ground to the house of Jehovah your God.” Here we see another condition: bringing the first of the firstfruits to the house of God. This signifies bringing the topmost experience of Christ to the church meetings for God’s satisfaction.
Many saints are very poor in the experience of Christ. As a result, they do not have any fruit. Some may have fruit, but most of this fruit is not firstfruit. We all need to have some of the topmost experiences of Christ. We should not share these experiences of Christ with anyone until we bring them to the church meetings for God’s satisfaction. Those who have adequate experience know what it means to bring the topmost experience of Christ to the church meetings for God’s satisfaction.
Now we come to the last condition, a condition that may seem very strange: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk” (v. 26b). You may be surprised at the significance of the requirement not to boil a kid in its mother’s milk. This requirement indicates or typifies that we should not seethe young believers with the milk of the word; that is, we should not “boil” them with the word of life that is for nourishment (1 Pet. 2:2).
In ancient times some people probably did have the practice of boiling a kid in its mother’s milk. This may have been regarded as a delicious dish. As we have indicated, we should not use the milk of the word to seethe young believers. This is to use the milk of the word, which is for life-nourishment, to kill the young ones. The point here is that the milk of the Word of God is for nourishment. However, today many Christians use the Word to kill young believers. Be careful never to use the Word to kill the young ones. The Word is for the nourishment of the believers. It is possible to use the Word either to nourish the saints or to seethe them, to kill them. In the past many of us have used the Word of God to seethe the saints.
It took a good deal of time and effort for me to learn why in such a crucial chapter as Exodus 34, a chapter concerned with the recovery of the broken covenant, these five seemingly small points are mentioned. Why did God not replace these points with the last five of the Ten Commandments? To us, these commandments are much greater in significance than the five conditions covered in these verses. However, it is important for us to see that it was not God’s intention for His people to keep His commandments. God’s intention was for the children of Israel to enjoy the produce of the good land. Today God’s intention is that we enjoy Christ. He does not want us to try to be good, ethical, or moral. This certainly does not mean that we should be unethical or immoral. If we enjoy Christ daily and rest with Him hourly, we shall live Christ, and Christ’s life surpasses the highest standard of morality. The important point is that God’s concern is whether or not His people enjoy Christ.
Chapter thirty-four is a chapter of repetition. It contains many things that have already been spoken. The aim of this chapter of repetition is to recover the broken covenant. This is related to the enjoyment of Christ typified by the three feasts mentioned here — the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of ingathering — and the resting with the Lord as typified by the keeping of the Sabbath. Feasting with the Lord and resting with Him requires the keeping of five conditions. First, we need to have our “donkey life,” our natural life, replaced with Christ. Do not have any trust in your “donkey nature.” No matter how good it seems to be, it still needs to be replaced. Second, you need to clear all the leaven out of your life. Then you need to enjoy Christ today as your portion and have the firstfruit of the experience of Christ to offer to God in the meetings for His satisfaction. Finally, you must be careful not to use the Word of God to kill the young ones, but rather feed them and nourish them with the milk of the Word. If we have the proper spiritual experience, we shall realize that these five conditions are crucial to our daily enjoyment of Christ.
In order that we may be deeply impressed with these conditions, especially with the sequence in which they are presented, let me say a further word concerning them. Not only is every condition meaningful, but the sequence of the five conditions is particularly meaningful. The first condition is that of redeeming the firstling of a donkey with a lamb. This indicates that if we would enjoy the Lord, we need to realize that we are “donkeys,” that we are poor beasts under the load of a heavy burden. Furthermore, as donkeys we are unclean. According to Leviticus 11, a donkey is listed among the unclean animals. We have seen that the donkey here signifies our natural life and natural being. We cannot enjoy the Lord with our natural being. If we remain unclean beasts under a heavy burden, we cannot have the enjoyment of Christ as the feasts, and we cannot rest with Him. Therefore, our natural life needs to be replaced. Concerning this matter, the New Testament is full of light. The natural life has been crucified on the cross. Now it must be rejected and fully abandoned by us in our Christian life.
According to the sequence, the next condition is that, as redeemed ones, we should not mix the redeeming blood with a sinful life. If we intend to enjoy the Lord, we must stay away from leaven.
It is logical that this condition is second and not first. It would not make sense to first require that we not mix the redeeming blood with leaven and then go on to require that our natural life be replaced. The proper sequence is that first our natural life is replaced with Christ. Then after this replacement, we must learn to stay away from sinful things. This is to fulfill the condition of not mixing the redeeming blood with leaven.
The third condition is that we enjoy our present portion of Christ to the uttermost and not leave any part of it for the next age. However, very few of today’s Christians exhaust the enjoyment of their portion of Christ. Not many Christians, including us, enjoy Christ to the uttermost.
As an illustration of the third condition, we may speak of a mother who tells her little child to finish his food, to clean his plate. She may say to him, “I want you to finish your food. Clean your plate. If you don’t finish what you have, I won’t give you anything else to eat.” Certain mothers are strong with their children regarding this. But some mothers are too lenient and easily let their children have their way. They may give a child something to eat, and if he does not like it, they will offer him something else instead. However, other mothers will insist that the children eat what they have before they give them something else. I believe this illustrates the way God would train us to enjoy Christ today. He may say, “Finish what I have already given you of Christ. If you do not enjoy the portion you have now, I will not give you anything else. You must exhaust your portion of Christ today.”
The next condition in the sequence is that as we enjoy our portion of Christ in a full way, we should reserve the topmost portion, the firstfruit, for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction. We should bring this topmost portion of our enjoyment of Christ to God’s house for His satisfaction.
The last condition is that we should not kill any believers, especially young ones, in the sphere of the life supply. The milk in 34:26 indicates the sphere of the life supply. As we are enjoying Christ to the uttermost and offering God something of Christ for His satisfaction, we should be careful to avoid killing others. We should never boil a kid in its mother’s milk.
These five conditions describe the actual experience of the enjoyment of the Lord. I came to understand these conditions through my experience in the Christian life. Through my experience I see that in my natural life I am a donkey and that I need to be replaced. I also see that I need to stay away from leaven, that I need to be obedient to the requirement to enjoy Christ today, that I need to have the topmost experience of the enjoyment of the Lord for God’s satisfaction, and that I must not commit any kind of spiritual killing in the sphere of the life supply. I believe that many of us can testify that what is signified by these five conditions corresponds to our spiritual experience.
