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Scripture Reading: Num. 1:1-3, 44-46
In this message we will continue to present a vital sketch of the divine revelation in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers concerning God's economy with His chosen and redeemed people.
The book of Numbers as a whole reveals the need of God's chosen and redeemed people to be formed into an army to carry out the holy war.
In order to be formed into a holy army, God's people must first be numbered according to maturity in life (Num. 1:3, 18).
God's chosen and redeemed people were also built up into one body (1:44-46). If we consider how the children of Israel were in array at the foot of Mount Sinai, we will realize that they had truly been formed into one body.
After God's people were numbered and built up into one body, they journeyed with God. This means that they traveled with Him.
In their journey with God, the children of Israel had the presence of God, signified by the cloud in the day and by the fire in the cloud at night (Exo. 33:14; 40:36-38; Num. 9:15-23). The cloud and the fire were both the expression of the Triune God. The presence of the cloud and the fire indicated that as the people were journeying in the wilderness, they were journeying with God. In this journey they were led by God Himself.
As the children of Israel were journeying with God, the Angel of Jehovah took the lead (Exo. 32:34). The title "the Angel of Jehovah" is a particular title of Christ in the Old Testament, as revealed in Exodus 3. The Angel of Jehovah took the lead, always walking in front of the army of Israel.
In their journey the children of Israel were moving, walking, and living with Jehovah, the Triune God. This is a type, a picture, of our living as Christians today. Day by day we are moving, walking, and living together with the processed and dispensing Triune God.
God's chosen and redeemed people passed through the great and terrible wilderness with all kinds of trials, sufferings, and divine care, supplies, and discipline (Deut. 1:19; 8:2-5). This also is a picture of our Christian life today. Some say that the Christian life is wonderful. However, according to typology, the Christian life is a life of passing through a great and terrible wilderness. In this wilderness we have all kinds of trials and sufferings, but we also have the divine care and supplies. Moreover, because we, like the children of Israel, are often "naughty children," in addition to God's care and supplies we also have His discipline.
On their journey through the wilderness, the children of Israel passed through forty-two stations to enter into rest in the good land promised by God (Num. 33:1-49; Josh. 1:2).
As a priestly army, God's chosen and redeemed people fought together with God and for God. If we would fight together with God and for God today, we must first move, walk, and live with Him and also pass through many things in the wilderness. Only in this way can we be qualified to fight together with God.
The children of Israel fought not only with God but also for God. In the church life today, we should also fight for God. This indicates that our church life is actually for God and not mainly for us. However, our feeling concerning the church life may be too subjective and selfish. In the meeting someone may testify, saying, "Before I came into the church life, I was homeless. Now in the church I am at home. Oh, how good is the church life!" Yes, we are at home in the church life. Nevertheless, we need to realize that the church life is not mainly for us but for God. We should be able to say, "Lord, the church life is actually Your life. You want to live this way, and we are living together with You. If we did not live and move with You, You would not have Your satisfaction. You do not want to be alone. You have chosen, redeemed, and saved us to accompany You in Your move. Our church life, Lord, is really for You."
In their fighting together with God and for God, the children of Israel defeated the king of Arad and destroyed his people (Num. 21:1-3). By doing this, they overcame the first enemy among the Canaanites.
God's people also defeated Sihon king of the Amorites with his people and Og king of Bashan with his people (21:21-35). This means that they overcame Canaan's two gate guards.
The children of Israel also defeated the Midianites with their five kings (31:1-12). By defeating the Midianites the people overcame Canaan's gate army.
The kings defeated by God's chosen and redeemed people signify the spiritual powers, rulers, and authorities in the air. Today we need to fight against these powers and defeat them.
The fighting of God's people against the kings was for the entrance into the God-promised good land that the kingdom of God might be spread and established there. The principle is the same with us today. When we defeat the rulers, powers, and authorities in the air, the kingdom of God surely is spread and established.
As the priestly army carrying out the holy war, God's chosen and redeemed people bore with them God's dwelling, the tabernacle of the testimony with the ark of the testimony. This indicates that in the church life today we are bearing God's testimony with God Himself. Upon our shoulder we not only have God's dwelling place but also the dweller, God Himself. As long as the church bears the testimony of God, the church is God's dwelling place. Actually, the dwelling place of God is the testimony of God. Today, this testimony of God, this dwelling place of God, is upon our shoulder.
The tabernacle of the testimony signifies God's chosen and redeemed people built up with Him as His dwelling on the earth (the church in the New Testament).
Here we would point out that, spiritually speaking, the history of Israel and the history of the church are one. The history of Israel is a prefigure, and the history of the church is the reality of the prefigure. This means that what is recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers prefigures what is recorded in Acts and in the Epistles.
The ark of the testimony signifies Christ as the center of God's economy among His chosen and redeemed people. Today we have the ark among us; that is, we have Christ with us in a personal way.
The testimony signifies the law, which is a portrait of what God is. Because the testimony, the tables of the law, was put into the ark, the ark was called the ark of the testimony.
The tabernacle with the ark was the testimony borne by God's chosen and redeemed people. During the years in the wilderness, the children of Israel, who were more than two million in number, did not do anything except take care of God's testimony. They did not engage in commerce or work to make a living. God cared for their living by sending them manna and by giving them water from the rock. For a period of forty years, God's people, with the Angel of Jehovah taking the lead, camped and journeyed in the wilderness. In the eyes of the nations, the children of Israel were wasting their time. Likewise, in the eyes of the worldly people, we in the church life who have given ourselves to bear and to care for the testimony of God are also wasting our time. In the sight of God, however, it is actually the worldly people who are idle and who are wasting their time (Matt. 20:3). Others may think that we are wasting our time, but we in the Lord's recovery are happy to use our time to care for and to bear God's testimony.
In this message we have seen a bird's-eye view of the book of Numbers. According to this view, Numbers is a record of God's chosen and redeemed people being formed into a priestly army to fight for God and to journey with God so that they may be prepared by God to possess the all-inclusive Christ as the good land.
