There are two things needed to make good our journey through the wilderness: first, an object, a divine object, and second, the assurance of the love of God as the foundation of all our hopes.
From the time of our knowing redemption to the obtaining of our rest, there is a path we have to tread. When the Lord visited Israel, the redemption of the good land was promised, but not a word was said of the wilderness, for the wilderness was not part of redemption, properly speaking. God would show them what was in their hearts, and thus what was in His heart, but this was not properly the fruit of redemption’s work.
In Romans 5 we have “peace with God,” “access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,” and we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God”: In all this not a word is said of the wilderness. But when he says, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also,” there we have the wilderness. This is not properly a part of redemption, but rather the exercising of us for the discovery of what we are, though it is in the presence of the God who has redeemed us. The danger is in not holding the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. There is no doubt of the faithfulness of God to lead us on to the end; still, as regards detail, there is danger along the journey. When the joy of deliverance is first known, confidence in God is unbounded. But then we have to learn the unbelief and waywardness of our hearts. We may own it, but we have to learn it. And if the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, these exercises will not in the least touch the sense of our relationship with Him.
The Secret of Going on Rightly
The secret of going on rightly along our way is holding the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end, for we have a difficulty when the conscience is active under the sense of failure in laying hold of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to apply it at all times to our need. It is not that the Lord would have our consciences unexercised, but the danger is that the eye which is conscientiously turned inward is apt to be turned off from Jesus and grace.
In Romans 7, when Paul found out the difference between getting better and being saved and despaired of the former, then he was willing to be saved as he was — ungodly and without strength. Then God comes in, and there is “no condemnation” (Rom. 8). Now he is brought as a believer, as saved, into the wilderness. Once there, we are apt to be either careless, saying, It is all grace, or anxious, asking, Is it all by grace? We may be honestly searching our hearts, but if we are not doing it with God, we shall do it imperfectly. But if we are sure that God is for us, we shall not spare ourselves.
All of Grace
After all, though we may be exercised and brought under responsibility, it is Christ that is carrying on the work all through; it is grace from beginning to end. It is not merely priesthood, for Christ is “Son over His own house.” He has an individual interest in it. The good Shepherd sought His own sheep. Christ is carrying on, not only God’s house and affairs, but His own house. He takes the immediate care of what is His own, and He is doing it all as God. Thus we have all the nearness of being His own house, and yet it is God who is over it. He never fails in taking care of His house.
In the failure of Moses, we see that He did not get up to this principle of grace. But man can never be brought through the wilderness but by grace. The rod is the authority of Christ, but it is authority which has life-giving power. We need grace, special grace, which will not pass over a single fault. It would not be grace to do so, for it hinders our enjoyment. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:11And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: (John 2:1)). He will not pass it over, but work in our hearts to show us the root of our sin, that it may not hinder our fellowship. He carries us to the end, through faith. Moses did not sanctify God. How? He did not manifest God. But God did sanctify Himself in spite of the unbelief of Moses, by giving all the water needed.
When we see redemption, we see God to be for us. But then we see failures, and then we think anything but God for us. But why? Has God changed? No, but we have. Then comes exercise to bring this out and to deepen the soul in the knowledge and enjoyment of the unchanging love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Adapted from J. N. Darby