Notes of an Address on Num. 17
OUR Lord tells us that Moses wrote of Him, and after His resurrection, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto His disciples the things concerning Himself. We have then a divine warrant for expecting to find Christ presented to us in the books of Moses. It may be in dim shadows or types, but, like the other Scriptures, we may be sure that they testify of Christ.
In the New Testament, we find that our Lord took up some of the commonest incidents of life to illustrate the profoundest truths. A. woman mending a garment, a marriage feast, a sower casting in the seed, or even the act of putting wine into bottles, and various other occurrences, were used by our Lord to convey instruction to His hearers as to some of the deep things of God, In the Old Testament also, the simplest illustrations abound. The chapter we read is about a lot of dry sticks, and in it God shows us how He would cause to cease the murmurings of the people of Israel from Him.
The account of the murmurers is brought before us in the previous chapter. Korah and his confederates had set up their own opinions about the things of God, and despised God's order of priesthood, for which the most solemn judgment had been executed upon them. We read that " the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods; they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation." (16:32, 33.) Then, in the 41St verse, we find that all the congregation murmured, and God came out in such terrible judgment that fourteen thousand and seven hundred were at once destroyed, and the plague was stayed only by Aaron, the high priest, running in between the living and the dead with a censor of incense; which prefigured the infinite value of the offering of the Lord Jesus. This is followed by the 17th chapter, which shews, as I have said, the way in which God would make the murmuring to cease from Him.
Without entering further into the exposition of these chapters as they stand in connection with the people of Israel, my purpose is to show how simply and blessedly this rod that budded illustrates the grace of God; His mercy to men in guilt and ruin, and the place of wondrous blessing to which He has brought the believer in Christ risen and glorified. This rod only had life, fruitfulness, and glory connected with it.
Except the rod belonging to the priest, all were dead. When laid up before the Lord, brought into His presence, there was no sign of life; nothing but death was there. So God describes men as "dead in trespasses and in sins," and that we are "all by nature children of wrath even as others." We are then sinners practically, doing nothing but evil in God's sight, and having a bad nature. But the rod that so beautifully bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds, had been dead, was laid before the Lord as dead, which sets before us the wondrous mystery of the Lord's death. That blessed One who is now alive again, and that for evermore, was dead; He was numbered with the transgressors, bare the sins of many, and poured out His soul unto death. It is the death of the holy Son of God—even the death of the cross—that is the foundation of all our hopes. In this way God has graciously met our case, and Christ has glorified God about our sins; the claims of God's infinitely holy throne have been met, His divine righteousness established, and the ungodly justified in the way of faith. The two things which we needed have been accomplished for us by the death of Jesus—God's judgment of our transgressions, and condemnation of "sin in the flesh," our bad nature. We were exposed to the condemnation of God for both—both were met for us by Christ. Through Him we have full deliverance; eternal redemption has been accomplished. Christ bare our sins in His own body on the tree; there He suffered for sins; and by His death and blood-shedding He purged our sins. Then, too, our "old man"—the evil nature, the thing that did the sins—was crucified with Christ. Thus, not only have our sins been judged, but our evil nature our old man—has been judged, condemned, and crucified with Christ. (See Rom. 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6); Gal. 3:2020Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. (Galatians 3:20).)
Thus we are taught not only that Christ suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God, but that He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Observe, then, that the infinitely holy Son of God was made sin for us, stood in our room as our substitute, and, in Him crucified, God judged every atom of our evil nature, as well as judged our sins, thus blotting out our transgressions, and delivering us in judgment from that evil nature that has so often made us cry out, “O wretched man that I am!" Hence we are not only told, "Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more," but that" our old man is crucified with Christ." “Ye are dead, or have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." How blessed this is!
But there is far more here. The dead rod budded, and blossomed, and yielded almonds. So Christ rose from the dead, and ascended up into glory. Having so completely satisfied the Divine claims, He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and is now the source of life, fruit-bearing, and glory to all the redeemed. And surely the object of the death of Christ was to bring us to God, not only to free us from all condemnation, but to bring us into positive nearness and blessing before God. This is done by God giving us a place in Christ—life, standing, righteousness, and glory in Him. It is life then, a new-creation life and nature, a risen life, that God gives us who believe in Christ. "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." A man, then, must be connected with the Son of God to have life. Have whatever he may, if he has not Christ, he has not life. Oh, my dear friends, what are you trusting in? Is it Christ crucified, risen, and glorified? Religion cannot give you life. Ordinances cannot give you life. You cannot obtain eternal life by your doings. Your feelings can never give you life. Oh, no. Christ alone is "the life," and the eternal life God gives is in His Son. We are therefore told that as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God;" not to those who received creeds, or doctrines merely, but to those who received Him. Oh, my friends, this is a vital point. I beseech you make no mistake, for "he that hath the Son of God hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." Nothing can be plainer or more decisive. The rod that budded was the only one that life, fruitfulness, and glory were connected with.
But further, having received Christ, you have life. You are in the new creation; you are regarded no longer by God as standing in the flesh, but as complete in Christ. Though you feel the flesh, its lusts and affections in you, "you are not in the flesh." Though you may sin, you are no longer a miserable sinner, but a child of God, though it may be in some respects a naughty or disobedient child. Having life in Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost, you have power, and God looks for fruit. You are united to Him who is raised from the dead that you should bring forth fruit unto God. Well, it is having to do with Christ in glory, drawing from Him, abiding in Him, that we bear fruit. Apart from Him we can do nothing. How absolutely necessary then it is for a child of God to be in living personal connection with the Lord Jesus Christ, so as to bear fruit to God. The power that works now in us is the same power which raised up Christ from the dead, so that the believer can most truly say, "I have strength for all things in Him that gives me power.”
As to glory, Jesus will share with us the glory He has merited. “The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them." For this we wait. Being now in Christ, on the other side of death and judgment, accepted in Him, having life, righteousness, and nearness to God in Him, we wait for Him to descend from heaven to catch us up to meet Him in the air, and so to be forever with the Lord. Then it will be seen that we are all the fruit of His suffering and death, and that God has made Christ to be unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
Lastly, observe that in the ninth verse all the rods were brought out unto all the children of Israel. This wondrous mystery of death and life was to be published, so that every man by taking his rod might be made to know his personal connection with life or death. Aaron's blooming rod of glory and beauty was to be laid up before the Lord for a token against the rebels, and to quite take away their murmurings before Him, who could afterwards say, He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor seen perverseness in Israel. (chap. 23:21.) The people then cried out, "We die, we perish, we all perish;" but do not you dear friends, be unbelieving, for God delights to save, and declares that He will save to the uttermost all that come unto Him by Christ. Come then, dear friend, come now to God through, Christ, and you will be safe from the coming wrath.
The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in the crucified Lord,
Forgiveness at once he receives,
Salvation in full through His blood.