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Scripture Reading: Num. 7:1, 87-88; 8:12; 6:14-17
In this message I would like to give a word concerning the divine provisions revealed in chapters six through nine.
Numbers 5:1 through 9:14 is a section which may be considered an insertion in the record about the formation of the army. This insertion includes two kinds of matters — God's requirement and God's provision. First we have God's requirement and then we have His provision. Chapters five and six may be considered God's requirement, which includes different dealings, a testing, and the highest requirement of the Nazarite. All these are God's requirements over His redeemed people in order to form them into His army. Chapters seven and eight and the first part of chapter nine may be considered the divine provision.
Let us now consider the items which are included in God's provision.
The first item of the divine provision in these chapters is the ointment for the anointing of the tabernacle and all its furnishings and the altar with all its utensils (7:1). The ointment typifies the consummated Triune God after passing through all the processes. In the entire Bible this ointment is one of the greatest provisions God has prepared for His redeemed.
By the time of Numbers 7, the tabernacle and the altar had been built up by God through His people and belonged to God. But without being anointed, the tabernacle and the altar were still separate from God Himself, having nothing to do with God's life, God's nature, or anything God had accomplished, obtained, and attained.
For us to be anointed means that the processed Triune God is put into us and upon us, even mingled with us. We may use the painting of a wooden article as an illustration. After several coats of paint have been applied to the article, it becomes fully one with the paint. The article may be wooden, but after it is painted, we no longer see the wood; instead, we see the nature, the essence, the element, the character, the appearance, the color, and the expression of the paint, for the paint has been applied to the wooden article and has become one with it. For us to be anointed by God means that we are "painted" with Him, that God Himself is put in us and on us.
After the making of the tabernacle and the altar, God came in to "paint" these two items with an ointment, a type of Himself not as the original God but as the consummated God. In eternity past God was altogether perfect, but He was not completed. He had the divine nature but not the human nature. However, according to His intention, in the coming eternity He, the very God, will be a God not only with the divine nature but also with the human nature. Because in eternity past, God was not completed, He needed to come into time, a bridge between the two eternities, to pass through many processes in order to be completed.
Before God became a man, He came to Abraham in Genesis 18 in the form of a man. Approximately two years ago, a certain denominational journal recognized that this one who came to Abraham was Jesus. God came and spoke to Abraham like a friend. Abraham served the Lord a meal, and He ate it. The very God ate the food served to Him by Abraham. Also, Abraham brought Him water, and He washed His feet. When the Lord was leaving, He did not leave quickly. Accompanying Him, Abraham walked with Him and saw Him off. Abraham did not pray to this man but talked to Him as a friend. According to Genesis 18, God appeared to Abraham in the form of a man long before He became incarnated. Things like this concerning the Lord's person we cannot comprehend.
In the evening of the day of His resurrection, the Lord Jesus came back to His disciples in a physical body (Luke 24:37-43; John 20:19-29). Without the opening of any door, He suddenly stood in their midst (John 20:19). "They were startled and became frightened and thought they beheld a spirit" (Luke 24:37). The Lord said to them, "See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you behold Me having" (v. 39). After speaking this word, "He showed them His hands and His feet" (v. 40). Then He asked them if they had anything to eat, and when they handed Him part of a broiled fish, "He took it and ate before them" (vv. 41-43). Our limited mind cannot comprehend how the Lord Jesus, with a body of flesh and bones, could suddenly come into a room where the doors were shut. This is the wonderful person of Christ.
In eternity past God did not have a physical body. He needed to go through some processes to get Himself consummated so that He could be completed. He was already perfect, but He wanted to be not only perfect but also processed in order to be completed. He did not want to be merely God for eternity; He wanted to be a God-man. In eternity past He was God, but He was not a God-man. Therefore, in time He has gone through many processes in order to be consummated and completed.
The completed, or consummated, God is symbolized by the ointment, which was compounded with four spices and olive oil (Exo. 30:22-25). This ointment is mentioned in 1 John 2:20 and 27. In these verses the word anointing, a gerund, is used to describe the moving of the ointment. When you apply cream to your face, you cause the cream to move. We may say that in Exodus 30 we have the "cream," the ointment, and in 1 John 2 we have the moving of the cream, the anointing. We have this anointing, the moving of the ointment, within us.
The ointment is not a thing but a person — the completed God. The ointment within us is the processed, compounded, consummated Triune God, the God who has passed through the necessary processes in order to be completed. This is the greatest provision God has prepared for His redeemed people.
In the Bible, the last title given to the Spirit of God is "the Spirit" (Rev. 22:17). The completed God is the Spirit. John 7:39b says, "The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." When Jesus was glorified, that is, when He entered into resurrection (Luke 24:26), the Triune God was consummated and completed to become the Spirit. The Spirit, therefore, is the processed, consummated, and completed Triune God.
Let us consider what the Spirit comprises. Within the Spirit is divinity, the divine nature. The Spirit also includes humanity, the human nature. This means that the Spirit includes the element of incarnation. How great a thing was the incarnation! God was conceived within a virgin's womb and stayed there for nine months. The divine conception was part of a marvelous process. This conception was followed by the Lord's birth and human living. For thirty years the Lord Jesus lived in the home of a carpenter. Then He came forth to minister for three and one-half years, passing through all kinds of sufferings. In His crucifixion He accomplished an all-inclusive death. Then He walked through death, came forth from death, and entered into resurrection. In resurrection He, the last Adam, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), and this life-giving Spirit is now the Spirit — the consummation of the processed Triune God. Now He is ready to be applied to us as the ointment. He is the Triune God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit. Within Him are God, man, redemption, the impartation of life, and the power of resurrection. What a wonderful divine provision! Our God is now anointing us with this provision. He is anointing us with the compounded Spirit, the consummation and completion of the processed Triune God.
I can testify that when I am preparing myself to speak for the Lord, I usually pray, "Lord, fill me with Yourself as the essential Spirit and pour Yourself upon me as the economical Spirit. O Lord, in my speaking be one spirit with me so that You speak in my speaking." Whenever I pray like this, I am strengthened, confirmed, infused, and filled inwardly and outwardly with the consummated Triune God.
In His New Testament economy, God does not want us merely to be good men — He wants us to be God-men, those who are mingled with the processed Triune God. The more the ointment, the completed Triune God, is applied to us, the more we become God-men. Once again, we may use painting as an illustration. Before a wooden article is painted, it has nothing to do with the paint. But when the paint is applied to the wooden article, it becomes a painted article. It is no longer merely a wooden article; it is now a wooden article to which paint has been applied. In like manner, we are being painted with the processed Triune God. The more we are painted by Him and with Him, the more we are mingled with Him to become God-men.
Since God has prepared such a great provision for us, what should we do? We should offer ourselves to the Lord to receive His provision. Although God has prepared this provision for us, we may not come to Him, or we may come to Him without offering ourselves to Him and submitting ourselves to Him. To offer ourselves to the Lord means that we surrender to Him. We must receive the divine provision by offering ourselves to the Lord, submitting and surrendering to Him. We should pray, "Thank You, Lord. You have prepared everything for me. Now I surrender to You." This is to offer ourselves to Him.
In Numbers 7 we first have the anointing on God's side and then the offering on our side. God has been processed to become the ointment that is to be applied to us. To receive the application of this ointment, we need to be willing to surrender to the Lord, placing our entire being into His hands and saying, "O Lord, do whatever You like to do." The Lord likes to paint us with Himself within and without, making Himself one with us.
After we offer ourselves to the Lord to enjoy His provision, Christ is available to us as the replacement for and consummation of all the offerings. In the Old Testament there are many different kinds of offerings, but today we have one, all-inclusive offering — the all-inclusive Christ. The offering of ourselves to God is God's second provision, and the all-inclusive Christ is the third divine provision.
For our practical experience and enjoyment, Christ is mainly three kinds of offerings — the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. As those who are being anointed by God and who offer themselves to Him, we need to lay our hands upon Christ as our sin offering. Whenever we enter into God's provision through our offering of ourselves, we feel condemned. In our conscience we feel that we are unrighteous in many things. We sense that in various ways we are lacking, wrong, and unclean. At such a time we need to put our hands on Christ and take Him as our sin offering. Whenever we do this, we know that we are redeemed, propitiated, and forgiven, and we have peace within. At this juncture we desire to live for God. However, we realize that we have failed in this and that in ourselves we cannot live for Him. But the One on whom we have laid our hands is also our burnt offering. Thus, in our experience, the sin offering becomes the burnt offering. Then we can pray, "O Lord Jesus! I am one with You in living for God and living to God absolutely." After enjoying Christ as our sin offering and burnt offering, we no longer have condemnation, rebuking, or conviction. Instead, we have peace. We now enjoy Christ as our abundant peace offering. This peace then becomes a fellowship between us and God in which we and God enjoy Christ in mutuality.
Along with the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, we have a basket of bread, cakes, wafers, and the drink offering. The bread, the cakes, and the wafers typify Christ in different aspects as our food supply. The drink offering is also a type of Christ. As the real drink offering, Christ has been poured out to satisfy God and also to satisfy us. As the bread, the cakes, and the wafers, Christ is edible, and as the drink offering, He is drinkable.
Our Christ is not only edible and drinkable — He is also enterable. By eating and drinking Him, we enter into Him, and He enters into us to become our very being. Our Christ is enterable! Now we are in Him, and He is in us.
The Christian life is a life of daily partaking of the divine provisions. This means that we should not try in ourselves and in our natural strength to live the Christian life. The hair, which signifies the natural strength, must be shaved off (8:7), indicating that our natural strength must be cut off. Instead of relying on our natural strength, we should simply partake of and enjoy all the divine provisions.
The last item of the divine provisions revealed in Numbers 6 through 9 is the Passover. In the following message we will consider the record concerning the Passover in 9:1-14.
