Such knowledge of the mystery of God's will, purposed in Himself from the beginning, and to be manifested in the dispensation of the fullness of times, by the gathering of all things, whether in heaven or on earth, in one, even in Christ, was thus in types foreshewn to, and left among, the patriarchs, whether before or after the flood. And just at the beginning of the Lord's subsequent dealings with that nation which He had chosen for His own out of the earth, we may find the same purpose again foreshewn-I mean in the combined types of Moses and Joshua.
Moses came from Egypt through the wilderness; as it is written of him, “This was he that was in the church in the wilderness.” (Acts 7:3838This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: (Acts 7:38).) He stood on the borders of the land of promise, which was destined soon to be God's world, or that part of the earth which God was about to separate to Himself. But Moses was to go no further. There was to be nothing in this world for Moses but the wilderness and a sight of Canaan. The earth to him was to be no Canaan. His foot was never to tread a land flowing with milk and honey. “Die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people,” said the Lord to him. (Deut. 32: 50.) And Moses did so. He went up from the plain of Moab unto the mount of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, and died there. But did he die the death of all men? Died Moses as a fool dieth? No, it was the Lord Himself who put him asleep; the dead may bury the dead, but the Lord buried Moses. “He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.” (Deut. 34:66And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. (Deuteronomy 34:6).) Though He showed His care in another way, yet was it equal care for the body of Moses as had been shown for that of Enoch, and because they were to be equally children of the resurrection. Some sleep, but they which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep, but all shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thess. 4:15-1715For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:15‑17).) The earth does not, to this day, own the body of Moses.
Like others, it is true, it has returned dust to dust, but the Lord Himself buried it with sure and certain purpose of giving it a resurrection unto glory. It was not the power of death that had oppressed Moses. Though a hundred and twenty years old, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. The Lord could have said of him (as of all the children of the resurrection), “If I will that he tarry till I come;” for death is abolished to them all. But He was otherwise minded, and graciously so; for in Moses He has given to all those who may be called to “sleep in Jesus” a sure pledge that their bodies are not forgotten in the grave, but though sown in corruption, they shall be raised in glory; though once in the image of the earthly, they shall be found in the image of the Heavenly.
But there is in Moses much more of a church or heavenly aspect, if I may so express myself, than even all this-as indeed it is only while they were traveling in the wilderness that Israel bears analogy to the church of God on the earth. The stricter analogy ends when Israel gets into Canaan, and is there organized and settled as God's nation; and therefore all things that happened to them as examples, and which are written for the church's admonition, happened to them when in the wilderness, and are found written, all of them, in the book of Numbers, which the Jews called, and properly so, “the book of the wilderness.” (See 1 Cor. 10:1-101Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. 5But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 6Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 10Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. (1 Corinthians 10:1‑10).) And Moses was their leader, and the companion of their joys and sorrows, only while they continued in the wilderness; and thus in the very character of his position while on the earth, his course, as we thus see, ending in the wilderness, and he himself never taking his place among the people of Israel, when organized and manifested as God's nation, we clearly discern in Moses much more of the heavenly than of the earthly calling-more of the church character than of Israel.
Besides, Moses was constantly with the Lord Jesus in the heavens, dwelling unveiled, like the church, in the presence of Christ beyond the region of the lightning and thunder, from whence the law was delivered (Ex. 34:3434But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. (Exodus 34:34); 2 Cor. 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)), and in the presence of which Israel stood. (Ex. 24:1717And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. (Exodus 24:17).) He was in the peaceful sunshine on the top of the hill of God; there he walked amid the fullness of Christ, receiving token after, token of His grace and salvation. He saw face to face, he beheld the similitude of the Lord, and was spoken with mouth to mouth, and he shone with the heavenly glory of Jesus in the heights. And according to all this, he is afterward seen in the holy mount, in company with Elijah, occupying the place which is characteristically the church's place. (Matt. 17:33And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. (Matthew 17:3).)
And I would add this, that Moses got a wife and children when he was, through their unbelief and resection of him, separated from his brethren, the children of Israel, and when, consequently, as he says himself, he was an “alien in a strange land.” (Ex. 2:22; 18:322And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land. (Exodus 2:22)
3And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: (Exodus 18:3).) And so has the Lord been brought in among the Gentiles through the unbelief and rejection of Israel, and is gathering a church, a wife and children, out from among them. And thus, in all this, Moses is strikingly in character with the Lord in the present dispensation and calling of the church, bearing upon him ninth more of the heavenly than of the earthly calling, exhibiting the Lord in connection with the church rather than with Israel. “This is he that was in the church in the wilderness."
But Joshua, who comes after Moses, presents another thing altogether. He stood in the land, the good land, which the Lord gave for an inheritance to Israel. The heathen were given to him, and the kings and rulers of the earth he broke in pieces like a potter's vessel. He divided the land by lot among the tribes, the children of the circumcision, and their reproach he rolled away. Joshua raised the altar of the Lord in the land, taking possession of it in His name, and the earth smiled around them, the garden of the Lord, again. Joshua was thus the man of victory, and the heir of the inheritance here; Moses had been but the man of Egypt and the wilderness, who died on the other side of Jordan. But Moses was laid up by the hand of the Lord for resurrection) while Joshua still stood upon the earth. Like Enoch and Noah of old among the patriarchs, Moses and Joshua now in Israel tell out the same wonderful tale, the purpose of God concerning the heaven and the earth, and in the same order of time also. For as Enoch was translated to heaven before Noah inherited the earth, so Moses was buried by the Lord in Mount Pisgah before Joshua crossed the Jordan, and took possession of the land of promise. But in their turn, under the guiding hand of God, they each take up the same mystery, and foreshew the dispensation of the fullness of times, and of the gathering of all things in Christ, whether things in earth, or things in heaven. The glories are two, but the same Lord is the center and sustainer of both. In a glass darkly we see the heavenly family, whether alive or asleep at the coming of the Lord, in Enoch and Moses, and we see the earth restored and inherited again in Noah and Joshua.
Again, in the combined histories of Elijah and Elisha we shall find the same testimony among the prophets, another foreshewing of the same mystery; every age being thus made to witness this purpose of God. Elijah, like Enoch before him, stands in an evil day. He is called forth in a day of deep apostasy, in Israel, and, in the spirit of a righteous reprover, he suddenly breaks in upon Ahab and all is iniquity with a voice of judgment. “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word.” (1 Kings 17:11And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word. (1 Kings 17:1).) The Baptist's voice in another day, “Repent ye, O generation of vipers,” was, as it were, but the echo of this voice of God's prophet before Ahab. The same spirit and power were in both. And their course on the earth was of one character also. The prophet suffers for his testimony; this was his only portion here. There was, it is true, a rejoicing in his light for a season, as afterward with the Jews in the light of the Baptist. The people fell on their faces, acknowledging the Lord God of Elijah, saying, “Jehovah he is the God, Jehovah he is the God;” and the prophets of Baal were taken down and slain at the brook Kishon: (1 Kings 18:39, 4039And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. 40And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. (1 Kings 18:39‑40).) But the burning and shining light of God's prophet was quickly disowned, as afterward was John, his companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. Another Herod and Herodias are confederate against Elijah, and he is exiled, afflicted, and destitute; the world hates him, the hand of man is against him. The Lord acknowledges His suffering witness, and comforts him, but it is the comforting of one who is cast down, cast down by the enmity of man. The still small voice of love meets his ear, but it is in that wilderness out to which the hand of a persecutor had driven him. His enemies are strong and many, and from the beginning to the end he continues to be the suffering and exiled one, the righteous witness of God cast out by an evil generation. This was his coarse on earth; till at last, when the suffering was all accomplished, and he had fought his fight, and finished his course, and kept the faith, he is made to enter into glory. Having believed, he lives; having suffered, he reigns. Earth disowns, but heaven receives him. Another cloud takes him out of our sight. (Acts 1:99And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1:9).) The chariot and horses of Israel seat him as a child of the resurrection among the angels (Luke 20:3636Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. (Luke 20:36)), and the world, which had troubled him for his righteousness' sake, now only knows that his reward is great in heaven. (Matt. 5:1212Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matthew 5:12).)
I need not say how all this is characteristic of the Lord and the church. The rejected One walking by faith on earth, there knowing the enmity of man, and the consolations of God, is at length glorified among the angels in heaven. All this tells us of that heavenly family who walk here in faith unvindicated and disowned; but who, believing, are to live, and who, suffering, are to reign. And as in the case of Moses, Elijah is seen in the holy mount, the companion of the glory, as he had been of the sufferings of Christ, occupying that which is to be the place of the church, or the heavenly glory.
But in Elisha we have something altogether different. No suffering for him after his master was taken from him. He stands before kings, and is not ashamed. It is not with him as it had been with his master; the wrath of the king prevailing to exile and to trouble him, but chief captains wait at his gates, and kings send presents to him; he discloses the secrets of one of them, disappoints the purposes of another, gives pledges of victory to a third, and grants supplies to combined armies of them. Chariots of salvation fill the mountain as attendants on the prophet. Every path on which he treads wears after him some trace of the greatness of him who had been traveling there; famine, disease, and death seem to own him; mercies and judgments are dispensed through his hand. He stands above all difficulty, going onward still in the Lord from strength to strength. Nature changes its course at his bidding; and at length even his dead body puts forth strange and surprising virtue. (2 Kings 13:2121And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. (2 Kings 13:21).) It sends forth the prisoners out of the pit, that they might not die, but live, and walk on earth again, as before the Lord, in the land of the living.
All this was a traveling in greatness of strength; but it was a traveling in greatness only upon the earth. The things that Elisha did were great things (as it is said of them, 2 Kings 8:44And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. (2 Kings 8:4)), but still they were only things of the earth. It was the earth that witnessed the power of God in the prophet; his was not, with Elijah, glory among the angels in heaven, but glory in the earth, power amid the resources and over the circumstances of the world. And thus again, in these two prophets, the same wondrous tale is told out, the same purpose of God concerning the heavens and the earth in the world to come. And the very same seasons may be observed here as we have observed above. Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind into heaven before Elisha received the double portion of his spirit, and went through the earth in the greatness of the strength of it. All this being to foreshew the heavens receiving the church; and then, but not till then, Israel and the earth receiving blessing again in the restitution of all things.
Such are, to me, very distinct and significant foreshewings of the heavenly calling, and of the purpose of God, which in the dispensation of the fullness of times is to be manifested. But it must not be understood that in this comparative view of Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, with Noah, Lot, Joshua, and Elisha-I mean to present the first rank as individually and personally belonging to the heavenly family, and the second rank of them to the earthly. Surely not. I speak of them only in their typical bearing. They stand, when thus combined, as foreshewing the two departments of the coming kingdom of our Lord-the church called up to heaven and the throne-Israel seeded in honor and in blessing, with the attending nations on the earth or the footstool. But as Enoch will be found among the children of the resurrection, so will Noah; and Joshua will appear with Moses, and Elisha with Elijah, in the true mount of transfiguration.
And this is just what we may observe upon that typical mount itself. There Peter, James, and John, in type, presented the place which the earthly family is to hold in the kingdom; for still, in bodies of flesh and blood, they stood merely before the heavenly glory, and not in it. But we know that in the antitype, or the kingdom, they will hold the other place, and be where they then saw Moses and Elijah, in the glory on the heavenly mount with the Lord. Himself; this St. Peter clearly declares. (2 Peter 1:1616For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16).) The inheritance of all the saints is in heaven. (1 Peter 1:44To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:4).) The patriarchs looked for a “heavenly” country. (Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19).) The Lord is to come, and all His saints with Him, as Zechariah prophesies. (Zech. 14:55And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:5).) Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets are to be seen hereafter in the kingdom of God. (Luke 13:2828There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. (Luke 13:28).) I do judge that scripture instructs us that all the elect, as well those who came before the Son was revealed, as well as those who are now under the ministry of the Spirit of the Son glorified, will be found together in the heavenly glory of the kingdom-for all are of one body. Until the Son was sent forth, they were as children under tutors and governors, under the rudiments of the world but still they were of the Father, as we are. No better than servants, but still lords of all, as we are.
In their measure, too, they continued with the Lord in His temptations, standing each in his day faithful, like Jesus among the faithless; and therefore their place must be that of the children, and their reward that of the faithful witnesses. They lived by faith, and they died in faith, and are laid up surely as children of the resurrection; no longer of the earth, earthy, but to bear the image of the Heavenly, in the day when death is to be swallowed up of victory.
And now, in closing, let me, while having that, sought to know the deeper parts of God's ways and purposes concerning us, call to your remembrance, brethren, the ever fresh and blessed truth of the love of God our Savior. The command to you is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength;” and again, the command is, “Rejoice in the Lord alway.” Now, never would He have thus commanded us, if He had not forgiven us, and would have us to know this forgiveness. For it were but a thankless task to try to love Him thus, and to rejoice in Him thus, while we know not that He is ours in the full joy of forgiveness. It were a commandment beyond obedience altogether, if we were not to know Him in the reconciliation. He who commands us to love and rejoice in Him, commands us to know Him to be at peace with us. He never would have said to us “Give me thy heart,” if He had not addressed us with “My son.” (Prov. 23:2525Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. (Proverbs 23:25)) The call tells us of the relationship; the demand made upon us implies the grace which has been brought to us; and in this way we may use the sweet words of our Lord, “I know that his commandment is life everlasting.” It is His command that we believe in His forgiving love. God is disobeyed if we receive not the blessing with joy. Our obedience to God, therefore, thus depends on our receiving the reconciliation.
But not only this, our godly use and apprehension of the things around us depends, in like manner, on knowing the reconciliation through the death and rising again of Jesus. It is this which the new creature in Christ apprehends in them all, as the apostle speaks, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ.” And not only so, all that which as saints is our service to others depends on this likewise. For instance, our ministry flows from it: for it is to us, as the apostle further speaks, who are reconciled that the ministry of reconciliation is given. (2 Cor. 5:1818And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:18).) “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus.” Our intercessions flow from it, for it is only in the consciousness of our own acceptance that we can intercede for others. Abraham drew near to the Lord when he prayed for Sodom. The high priest under the law went into the holiest of all. The altar of incense stood close to the second veil. And therefore, when the church is exhorted to make prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks for all men, she is, doubtless, by that very exhortation commanded to know her own full acceptance, and thus to pray without doubting. (1 Tim. 2) So blessedly thus, dear brethren, does everything help to assure our hearts before God our Savior, and keep us in the sense of His forgiving and accepting love. The very commands He has delivered, the spirit in which He calls us to walk, the services He requires, all are made to witness to us the reconciliation. The full abiding sense of the reconciliation we should bear about with us everywhere; as Adam, though sent out to a world which his own sin had defiled, and which was thus a constant witness against him, bore on his shoulder the coat of skin, the pledge and witness of grace and forgiveness towards him from the hand of God Himself.
And I would add one other thing, which has touched my own soul with comfort while writing these pages-that if we even now rejoice (as surely we do daily), and that in a world of such offense and trespass as “this present evil world” is—if the sunshine and fruitful seasons, and a thousand other springs of constant, ever-flowing joy be such as they are to us here, what must be the joy when the offense is forever removed,-and all is subjection and service! when God again rejoices in His works! when in the dispensation of the fullness of times He has gathered together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him! May the brightness of that day be much before us, and our hearts know more and more what it is to long for His appearing.
(Concluded.)
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