(5)
Scripture Reading: Num. 13:1-33; 14:1-10
In this message we come to another failure among the children of Israel — not believing in God (13:1—14:38).
God commanded Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan (13:1-20). At that time the atmosphere and morale among the children of Israel had been severely damaged by their rebellious situation. Thus, it was not a good time for the spies to be sent. But under God's sovereign arrangement, they were sent.
From a human standpoint, it was necessary to spy out the land. But spiritually speaking, in anything we do, it is better not to spy out the situation. To spy out the situation is to test God, and the result is usually negative.
"From each tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, every one a leader among them" (13:2b). These twelve "heads of the sons of Israel" (v. 3) included Caleb and Joshua, whose name means "Jehovah is Savior."
The spies went out to see what the land was, whether the people who dwelt in it were strong or weak, whether they were few or many, whether the land in which they dwelt was good or bad, whether the cities in which they dwelt were camps or strongholds, whether the land was fat or lean, and whether there was some wood in it or not. Also, the spies were to bring some fruit of the land, for the time was the season of the first fruits of the grapes (vv. 18-20).
To spy out a situation in this way weakens our faith. We should simply believe in God without knowing anything.
The twelve men went up and spied out the land. They cut down from the Valley of Eshcol (which means "cluster") a branch with a single cluster of grapes and carried it on a pole between two of them, with also some of the pomegranates and figs (vv. 21-24). From this we can see how rich the land was.
At the end of forty days, the twelve men returned to Moses, Aaron, and all the assembly of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadesh (13:25—14:10). Kadesh is at the border of the good land.
The twelve men brought in news that the land of Canaan flowed with milk and honey (13:26-27). However, most of the men went on to say, as an evil report, that the people who dwelt in the land were great and strong, that the cities were fortified and very large, and that the children of Anak (the Nephilim — the giants) were there (vv. 28-29, 31-33).
Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to prevail" (v. 30).
All the assembly of Israel cried aloud, wept, and murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or died in this wilderness! Why does Jehovah bring us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" (14:1-3). Then they even dared to say to one another, "Let us choose a leader, and return to Egypt" (v. 4). These unbelieving and rebellious people were very eloquent, clever, insistent, and strong in their opinion.
Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the whole congregation of the assembly of Israel (v. 5). This shows their meekness. They did not fight against the people.
Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes and said to all the assembly of Israel, "The land, which we passed through to spy out, is an extremely good land. If Jehovah delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against Jehovah; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our bread; their defense has departed from them, and Jehovah is with us. Do not fear them" (vv. 6-9). It is difficult to say what "their defense" means; it may refer to the god who protected them. The words "Do not rebel against Jehovah" indicate that not to believe in the Lord is to rebel against Him.
All the assembly said to stone Joshua and Caleb with stones. Then the glory of Jehovah appeared at the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel (v. 10).
At this point, I would like to speak a word concerning the spiritual significance of the good land, the land of Canaan. When I was first sent to this country with the Lord's recovery, at the first conference in Los Angeles, I gave a series of messages, based mainly on Deuteronomy 8:7-10, that were published in the book The All-inclusive Christ. In those messages I pointed out that the good land is a picture of the all-inclusive Christ. The good land was used by God to typify a person, who is the embodiment of God. This embodied God is the Triune God, who has been processed and consummated in one person, Jesus Christ.
The Bible is a marvelous book, and it contains many different kinds of writings and subjects. Actually, the entire Bible presents one matter — that God desires to be embodied in one person, who is the unique One in the universe. It is impossible to exhaust the telling of this wonderful person. God and man are in this person; He includes all the elements and attributes of the divine nature and all the virtues of the human nature. In Him we have the reality of both the divine nature and the human nature. In Him we also have life, light, and the Spirit. All the positive things in the universe are embodied, contained, and realized in this one person, the all-inclusive God-man, who is the center and meaning of the universe.
The religion of Christianity has been on earth for over nineteen hundred years. Nevertheless, since the time of the apostles, the wonderful person of Christ has not been presented to people in as full a way as He is revealed, somewhat hiddenly, in the Bible and as we see Him today. We thank the Lord for opening His holy Word to us, enabling us to see aspects of Christ which have been veiled for centuries.
Very soon after the first century, the Bible, the revelation of this wonderful person, became veiled and later was locked up by Catholicism. During the Reformation, the Bible was unlocked, but it was not yet unveiled. Since that time, the things Christians have seen in the Bible are related mainly to God's salvation. These things include God's creation, the divine attributes of faithfulness, righteousness, holiness, and love, man's fall and sinfulness, God's love for man, Christ's coming to save and redeem man through His vicarious death on the cross, His resurrection from among the dead, and the Holy Spirit's being poured out at Pentecost to make the believers the church. For the most part, Christians have not seen God's economy. What they teach, preach, and propagate is largely according to human thought, with only a little that is according to the divine thought. In their preaching they do not emphasize the impartation of life. Instead, they stress the matters of forgiveness, redemption, justification by faith, and sanctification, but they have not seen the dispensing of the Triune God into the tripartite man, that man may have the divine life and possess the divine nature to become part of the enlarged Christ. (Some of those who stressed the inner life saw that the believers are members of the enlarged Christ, but they saw this only vaguely, not clearly.)
Students of theology are commonly taught that they should not invent any new theological terms. The concern is that new terms might be used to introduce heresy into orthodox theology. However, during the past sixty years, the Lord has opened His Word to us and has shown us many items that had been veiled for centuries. In order to describe these things, we have been forced to invent a number of new terms. For example, in speaking of God's dispensing Himself into His chosen people, we use the term dispensing. This term should be differentiated from the noun dispensation, which refers to the various ages arranged by God for the accomplishing of His economy. Thus, when we speak of the arrangement of the divine government, or of God's arrangement in His economy, we use the word dispensation, but when we speak of God's dispensing Himself into us, we use the word dispensing.
A major revelation in the Word which the Lord has shown us is that in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, the Spirit, who was "not yet" before Jesus' resurrection (John 7:39), is called "the Spirit" (Rev. 22:17). The Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. When we receive the Spirit, we receive an all-inclusive person who is the consummation of the processed Triune God. This is not my theology; it is scriptural theology, the theology of the Bible. No theology is as high as this.
In the beginning of the Lord's recovery in China, we adopted much of the Brethren theology. But during the past sixty years, the Lord has brought us on and on, and a number of advancements have taken place among us. Today, the theology we have seen of the Bible is much higher, deeper, and richer than the Brethren theology. The main item of the biblical theology is God's economy, which is altogether centered in the all-inclusive Christ.
We might have enjoyed this all-inclusive person in an initial way as our Savior, but this does not mean that we have possessed Him as the good land. Consider again the typology in the Old Testament. In type, when the children of Israel were in Egypt, they accepted Christ as the lamb, sprinkled the lamb's blood for their redemption, and ate the meat of the lamb as their life supply so that they could walk out of Egypt. Then in the wilderness they went on to enjoy Christ as the heavenly manna and as the living rock that followed them and that was cleft to flow out the living water. At Sinai, they received the law and built the tabernacle, both of which are types of Christ, and they entered into the tabernacle to fellowship with God and to enjoy the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar. Although they enjoyed Christ in all these ways, they had not yet enjoyed the good land. Therefore, they still needed to enter into the good land.
We have participated in Christ as the reality of all the items enjoyed by the children of Israel. We have experienced Him as the Passover, the manna, the rock, the living water, the law portraying God, the offerings, and the tabernacle. However, we have not yet entered into Christ as the good land. We are still on the way, and while we are journeying, God is testing us. Perhaps we are now on the border of the good land, that is, on the extremities of the all-inclusive Christ. If we try to spy out the land, we will lose our faith. Instead of spying out the land, we should say, "Hallelujah for the all-inclusive Christ! He is the good land flowing with milk and honey. I don't need to spy out this land — I will enter into the land by faith." We need to enter into the land and take the land by faith, as Caleb and Joshua did.
