Edited and supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust.
Reading: Nehemiah 12:31-44; Exodus 15:20-21; 16:6.
"For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed
thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam." (Micah 6:4)
You notice in Micah 6:4 Moses, Aaron and Miriam are linked
together and in a sense are equal and that the special connection
of their being so related here is that of leading the Lord's
people, in a matter of the Lord's people being led on. "I sent
before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam", so it is the advance and
progress of the Lord's people which is in view with this threefold
element to carry them on, to lead them on. If we could just get
the significance of these three names or persons we should see
three of the great things by which the Lord brings His people on,
and they are to be mentioned quite briefly, quite simply.
Moses always represents authority. Aaron represents priestly
ministry. Miriam represents prophetic influence and
praise. Now you see you have in a nutshell a very great deal
of truth which it would be quite profitable to explore very much
more fully than we shall do now, but what we want to take special
account of is this, that all these elements are gathered up in the
Lord Jesus Himself and very much accentuated.
You see you have the prophet, the priest and the king in
principle here. To put it the other way and in other words, you
have authority and priestliness or priestly ministry, and you have
praise connected with the prophetic influence. Now we are the
Lord's spiritual Israel and we are being, I trust, led by the
Lord. I suppose the prayer of all of us is "Lead me in Thy way",
there is not one of us who probably very often expresses our
hearts desire in some terms like that, that we might be led by the
Lord, led on by the Lord, that He would bring us on, lead us
forward in our spiritual life.
Now, how does the Lord lead? By what means? Into what? Well,
simply into what He is Himself, that is all. The whole of our
progress is in Christ and it is more and more inward into Christ.
It is within the compass of Christ, it is to discover what is
included within the compass of Christ, it is finding out the
inward, spiritually what the Lord Jesus is, coming into the
fulness of Christ. And so these things represent what Christ is
and what is in Christ for us spiritually as that in which we are
to make our progress. If we are going to make spiritual progress
it will be along these two lines, which are only two phases of one
thing, firstly into Christ as Lord, as Sovereign, as the One Who
has all authority. He leads by reason of His authority.
Now, we have been dwelling much upon that, the absolute
transcendence and victory and triumph and power of our Lord Jesus.
We have dwelt much upon the early part of Ephesians, "God raised
Him up and set Him at His own right hand far above all rule and
authority, every principality and power, every name that is named
not only in this age but in that which is to come". Well, it is
because the Lord Jesus is Lord, has all power and all authority
that He can lead His people on in victory. We have to come on by
reason of a faith union with the Lord in His victory. A faith link
in what He is, and where He is in absolute ascendancy. Now, that
is easy to say and easy to hear, but it is not always quite so
easy to work out when it seems that the Lord Jesus is not Lord but
anything else is lord, circumstances, the enemy and what not. But
this faith link with the Lord in His absolute triumph, power and
authority is the way of spiritual progress upward and onward.
But there is the other phase also with which we have been
occupied so much, the latter part of the Ephesian letter where we
not only believe in the Lord as Victor, as having all power, but
where we come into the heavenly position in Him to share that
authority, to stand in it experimentally and to function in the
authority of the Lord Jesus. Now, these are two phases of one
thing: the authority side of the Lord Jesus is the way in which
the Lord would lead us on, and all that I stay now to say on that
is by way of interrogation.
Are we going on in that? We are familiar with the truth. You know
when the Lord teaches people He does not just give them
information. The Lord, when He teaches His children, brings them
personally into relation to the thing that He says, and that is
the meaning of discipline. And the wilderness aspect of things is
simply the discipline of the Lord to bring us into the truth with
which we are mentally familiar.
Now are we making progress in this connection? How much progress
have we made in the last week? It is very real and blessed
progress beloved, when we come to a settled faith in the absolute
sovereignty of the Lord Jesus through all conditions and
circumstances, and perhaps it is something more than that when we
come to the position where we stand in that authority over
situations and conditions. Where the thing that is true in Him is
made true in measure in us; the ascendancy position. Now, that is
very nice for meetings like this, but what about going back
tomorrow to the office and to the shop and to the every other
place, to the home perhaps - are we going to make spiritual
progress there? Have we been making progress in that connection in
the ascendancy of Christ as a fact for us and as a reality in us?
And it is very necessary that it should be so. The glory of the
Lord for us is bound up with that. I just put it to you, how much
real progress in the Lord in this matter have you made? I do not
want you to be in glory without glory. You may be saved alright,
but an abundant entrance is another thing.
The next thing is the Aaron side of the Lord Jesus in priestly
ministry, and that is usually related with love. Aaron is the
affectional side. Moses is the authority, Aaron is the prayer, he
represents the heart principle because the Lord said to Moses that
when his brother Aaron saw him he would be glad in his heart, and
Aaron brings in the heart side of things. Love in priestly
ministry. Now the Lord Jesus is exercising priestly ministry for
us and the letter to the Hebrews says that Christ is greater than
Aaron in priestly ministry.
How much are we learning, increasing in knowledge to our profit,
to our good, to our enrichment, to our progress of the value and
meaning of our Lord's present priestly ministry for us? It would
be a very sad lookout for us if He stopped interceding for us. We
do not know how much we owe to the intercessions of the Lord Jesus
even now. We do not know how much we owe to the prayers of fellow
believers. We ask for them constantly, but what are the prayers of
believers in comparison to the prayers of our Lord who is making
intercession for us in virtue of His own blood? He is carrying on
a priestly ministry there. What He is for us in priestly ministry
now - are we learning what that means in real value in our lives?
Making progress in that priestly ministry in Christ? He would lead
us on by what He is, but also lead us on into what He is, lead us
on by reason of His priestly ministry, but He would lead us on
also in His priestly ministry. Have we been taking up this
ministry of intercession? Praying at all seasons for all saints?
Do we take them on our hearts? How often do we go round the local
company and pray for one another unless there is a very real
emergency call for it? How much time are we spending in this
matter of intercession? That question is not for you to answer me
but before the Lord. How much real intercessory ministry are we
fulfilling before the Lord for all saints? That is the way of
spiritual development, growth, enrichment; there is nothing lost,
but much gained by that.
Miriam, with this double phase of her representation. There is
prophetic influence as a factor in spiritual growth. Coming to the
New Testament, of course that prophetic element does not
necessarily mean the forthcoming of events but the forth-giving of
truth. The prophet in the New Testament was not always the man,
probably very rarely he was the man, who would forecast things;
sometimes he was. The Spirit of prophecy would operate in that way
at times, but more generally the prophet was the man who gave out
truth. The Lord Jesus is still fulfilling a prophetic ministry by
the Holy Spirit, the things of Christ are being taken and revealed
to us, not extra to the Scripture, but what is revealed therein or
hidden therein. Are we growing, progressing? In the unveiling of
Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit as the Lord Jesus, so to speak,
gives to the Holy Spirit His things for us, are we getting them?
Can we say, "Now, the Holy Spirit has shown me that"? In the
measure in which that is true we are moving on, we are growing; we
do not grow by simply knowing doctrine headily, but we do grow by
knowing truth heartily.
What the Holy Spirit reveals to our hearts the Lord Jesus is
giving; He would lead us on by His prophetic ministry now. Are we
really going on? If it were possible for us to gather up the last
five years of ministry with which we have been associated, what a
tremendous heap of it, what a heap of these conferences and
meetings, it would reach to heaven! But standing alongside of it,
how do we measure up? What difference does it make? Blessed be
God, most of us can say it has made a difference. Can we all say
that? But is the difference commensurate with what the Lord has
given? Are we nearer the end of the Lord for it than we were? The
Lord would lead us by His prophetic ministry of giving forth and
He would bring us into that, that we in turn might fulfil His
prophetic ministry, and you know, giving forth is a great factor
in our spiritual growth. Ministering is a great feature in our
spiritual growth. Testimony; what a place it has in our own
spiritual growth.
My last word is this other side of Miriam: Praise. "Then sang
Miriam". She was the praise factor in this leading on. There is a
very real progress related to praise. In Nehemiah 12 Nehemiah said
he set two bands of those who offered praise. Remember two is
adequate or full testimony. An adequate testimony in the realm of
praise. I went back with my own Bible to 1 Chronicles 16, and
notice it says there it was on that occasion that David instituted
the service of praise and appointed Asaph. And you go to Nehemiah
12 and read "the son of Asaph... and the instruments which David
the man of God appointed". This continuity of praise, coming back
to the first things. It is a blessed thing for us to remember that
with all the war that is on in the heavenlies and all the conflict
and all the pressure, our Lord Jesus is in the place of praise. "I
will sing praise in the midst of the congregation." Now these are
the words of the risen Lord and we have been noting that so often
the issue of a great conflict did not depend upon the people going
out armed and fighting, but their going out praising. I feel there
is a place for that in the victory. The Lord Jesus would bring us
more into the place of praise. We would make much more progress if
there was more praise.
I think sometimes the enemy does frighten us from praise. I have
to confess that very often I have thought twice of giving praise
lest that praise should be immediately challenged, but if we do
really believe in the first thing, the absolute ascendancy of the
Lord Jesus, that ought to lead on to the last thing, praise
without fear. Now praise is a way of spiritual growth, a way of
spiritual progress, and the Lord has laid down that principle in
His Word, that when there is praise there is progress, "He that
offers praise glorifies Me and prepares a way whereby I may show
him the salvation of God." That is an open way of God, to the
glory of God. It says here in Nehemiah: "I sent before..." The
thought we had at the beginning is being led on by the Lord and
the factors used by the Lord for leading on are, authority,
priestly ministry, prophetic influence and praise, and praise not
by any means the last.
The Lord teach us the value of praise in spiritual growth, in
spiritual progress. The value of praising sometimes before we see
the issue of the battle, before entering into the fight. If I was
giving my own testimony I would have to say how along that line
often of late, tremendous conflicts, battles, challenges which
have been repeatedly hurled upon us, on several occasions there
has been an inexplicable sense of a welling up inside of praise
and victory. I did not understand it, did not know what it meant,
but one found a few hours afterwards there was some new tremendous
issue to be faced, and that was the explanation. It is not
something that we do, it is what the Holy Spirit does in us. If
the Holy Spirit can get praise into us it must mean He is going to
lead us into battle, but He has given us the spirit of victory
before we go in. It is no use facing the issue in a spirit of
defeat. This thing can only be gone through as we sing our song of
victory before we start fighting. That is the way of progress. He
would lead us that way into His fulness.