No. 827
“My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” (Exod. 33:14)
The children of Israel had come out of Egypt, had crossed the Red Sea, and had come to Mount Sinai. Moses had gone up into the Mount, had received the tables of the Law, and had come down and found the nation in idolatry, worshipping the golden calf they had made. While Moses was still in the Mount, the Lord had told him that Israel had already turned aside from the true God to idols, and was offering sacrifice to a molten calf as the god who had brought them forth out of Egypt. He instructed Moses to go down to the people. The wrath of God was hot against them, and He proposed to consume them and make a great nation of Moses instead. But Moses appealed to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord spared the nation from annihilation, and promised Moses that he would still be their leader.
When Moses went down from the Mount, he realized that Israel had grievously sinned, and his anger was kindled against them. When he saw and heard the dancing and feasting and shouting around the idol, he cast down the tables of the Law in his hands, and broke them. Here was a nation delivered by God from Egyptian bondage. The Red Sea had opened for them to pass over, by the power of Jehovah. They had also received various blessings along their way, notable proofs of divine guidance. Yet in spite of all this, here was rebellion and idolatry! What could he expect of a people who had so little appreciation of God, that they were quickly turned aside? Even Moses’ own brother, Aaron, led astray by the insistence of the people, felt it necessary to cooperate in the making of the golden calf.
Then Moses took the calf and burned it in fire, ground it to powder, scattered it upon the water and compelled the children of Israel to drink of it. He reproved Aaron, and then stood in the gate of the camp and said to all the people, “Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.” (Exod. 32:26-28)
MOSES’ CRY AND ITS ANSWER
The following day, Moses explained to the people how great was the sin of which they had been guilty and told them that he would go to the Lord in prayer, if perchance he might make atonement for their sin. Then he went to the Lord in earnest supplication, pleading that if God would not forgive His people, He would also blot out his name from His book. But God answered, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” (Exod. 32:33) He promised to send His angel before Moses to lead the people to the land of promise, but He assured Moses that He was not through dealing with Israel for their iniquity. He instructed Moses to tell them of their stiffneckedness and to command them in His name to put off their ornaments, that He might know what course He would pursue with them.
The people obeyed God. They laid aside their ornaments, humbled themselves, and worshipped the Lord. Moses, heavy of heart, felt he would be utterly insufficient for the undertaking of leading so perverse a people into the promised inheritance unless God in some special way gave him the necessary wisdom and grace for the great task. He appealed again to God in earnest prayer, telling Him of his fear and his earnest desire for His sustaining help and presence. Then the Lord assured Moses that He would go with him, that he would have His presence throughout the entire journey to the Promised Land, for he had found grace in His sight. He said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Moses then besought the Lord, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.” It was here that God put Moses into the cleft of a rock and covered him with His hand while He passed by and let Moses see His glory from behind, saying, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” (Exod. 33)
When God speaks of His presence with His servants, we are not to think of Him as being with them in His bodily presence, but by His Spirit and through His angelic messengers, sustaining, blessing and guiding them. He protects them from whatever will harm them. He watches over their every interest and tenderly cares for them.
GOD IS NOT OMNIPRESENT
It is a common but erroneous thought that God is actually present in person everywhere. This generally prevailing error that God is everywhere in person, and at the same time, has led many to think of Him as being not a person at all, but merely an influence. We understand the Bible to show that God has a personal, bodily presence, aside from the power and influence He exerts, and that He has a central seat of government, where He resides.
“Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.” (Isa. 66:1) He who has His seat in Heaven and whose footstool is the earth is a great God! This is, of course, a forceful figure of speech, showing His all-embracing power and control. God does not actually sit in a certain part of His Universe and have His literal feet in another part. The language of Scripture accommodates itself to the mind of man, speaking of God as if He possesses the same bodily members as human beings, but we actually do not know what a spirit body is like. As the Apostle wrote to the saints of the Lord while still in the flesh, “Beloved . . . it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” (1 John 3:2)
We understand from the Bible that the bodily presence of Jehovah is in Heaven, and that He is very great – infinite in power. We read: “The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.” (Psa. 33:13-14) He has beheld men in their distress, and has provided for their deliverance “in due time,” but we should clearly distinguish between this thought of God looking down from Heaven and the thought that He is personally present on earth.
Through the power of modern technology, we can be “present” on the other side of the world and beyond. In that sense of the word, the Lord is present everywhere throughout His mighty universe, and His power can be exerted everywhere. He has the means to know of all earthly affairs and all matters pertaining to His great domain. We have these powers only to a very limited extent. Electronic communications, the telescope, etc., are all means by which our presence, power and influence are extended to a certain degree; but our powers are mostly limited to this small planet, except as we further extend them by means of prayer, but this privilege is only for a few at present. Not many have access to the Power which controls the Universe, and those having the privilege of coming to the mighty King of Heaven may come only in His appointed way, subject to the conditions He has made.
We can place no limitations upon the power of Jehovah. The inventions of this Time of the End, which have increased our powers of communication, and so have united all parts of the globe, give us but a very faint conception of the infinite powers of the Almighty God. These inventions, we believe, will continue to increase and multiply through the incoming age, thus adding more and more to the powers and blessings of mankind. These will give mankind a greater and greater appreciation of the majesty, glory and might of their Creator as they come to know Him as He is and to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Yet no human mind, even in perfection, will be able to comprehend the Mighty Maker of the Universe.
GOD’S GUIDANCE THROUGH THE WILDERNESS
God promised Moses that His presence – His power and sustaining grace – would go with him all the way. He wanted Moses to understand that he could not perform this great work alone, without God’s all-sufficient support. He promised that His presence would be with him, and the Lord’s presence was indeed with the children of Israel in a very marked manner. It was continually with them from the time they crossed the Red Sea; it guided them by either blessings or by chastisements, as needed. He was with them in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and by His presence in the Shekinah glory which covered the Mercy-seat in the Most Holy of the Tabernacle. After the Tabernacle was set up by God’s instruction, these manifestations of His presence, His power and His watchful care never failed. The pillar of cloud and of fire guided their journey. When they stopped, it was an indication from God that they were to stay where they were until the pillar of cloud or fire again moved from its place.
Moses had said to the Lord, “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.” (Exod. 33:15) He told the Lord that the task was too great for any man to accomplish alone, but if His presence would continue with him, direct him, and show him God’s will, then he would be able to lead this people through the wilderness journey to the land of Canaan. The Lord frequently spoke to Moses through the Tabernacle, so we see that the promise of His presence was fulfilled.
The Lord gave him rest. He lived to be one hundred and twenty years old, yet his strength was not impaired nor his eye dim. We remember that there was a time when Moses realized that the work of judging the people was too great for him. He took the matter to the Lord, and seventy judges were then chosen to share his burden. The matters that were too difficult for them they brought to Moses. He went to God with all his difficulties and burdens and he had continual blessing.
THE LESSON FOR SPIRITUAL ISRAEL
The experiences of Natural Israel have very important lessons for Spiritual Israel. Originally a part of the world, they have been invited to come out from the world and to journey to a new country, to come into a heavenly inheritance. They have been marching toward the glorious Kingdom promised if they are faithful. There have been trials and hardships along the way, but God has promised the faithful, as He promised Moses His servant, that His presence would go with them. Sometimes He seems to withdraw and to leave us to ourselves; but He does not really do so. He tests our loyalty and our faith in Him by withholding the sense of His presence at times.
Shall we, then, like Israel of old, conclude that God is no more with us, and turn again to the gods we formerly worshiped – gods of wealth or of pleasure, gods worshiped by the nations around us? Shall we give ourselves up to revelry, worldly merry-making and sin? Shall we forget all the way by which our God has led us, all the great deliverances which the past of our lives have recorded? “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35-39)
The closer we live to the Lord and the greater our faith, the more we realize the divine direction, and the more we can make use of the means He has provided for our strengthening and upholding. We may call upon Him in time of trouble; we may go to Him in prayer. He never fails those who put their trust in Him and earnestly seek to walk in His appointed way. This being true, we may go forth upon our journey in perfect trust and confidence. Having consecrated our all to the Lord, we are to seek for His guidance, for His presence is with us, in all the affairs of our life.
Few have such mighty burdens to carry as Moses had. But all of God’s children have burdens to bear, and important responsibilities are resting upon each of us who have taken upon us the vows of our God. Each member of the Body of Christ, the true Israel of God, has been privileged to have the continual guidance of the Lord in every experience of their wilderness journey. Heavenly Manna is furnished for the daily sustenance of the Household of Faith. The Water of Life flows out to us for our daily refreshing, from the smitten Rock of Ages. Our Father’s chastening rod restrains us when we are in danger, or when we wander into any forbidden path. How lovingly He brings us back into the right way, and heals our wounds, and graciously forgives our stumblings and weaknesses! We may surely have implicit confidence in our Heavenly Guide. Thus, we may rest in Him and be kept in perfect peace. He who so faithfully cared for Israel after the flesh, who were a perverse and fickle people, will surely care more abundantly for His true, Spiritual Israel, who love Him supremely and are daily seeking more fully to know His will that they may do it.
The Apostle Paul, in warning Spiritual Israel not to fall after the same example of unbelief of Natural Israel, and thus lose their hold on the Lord, said, “For we which have believed do enter into rest.” (Heb. 4:3) It was unbelief that led to the disobedience and perversity of Israel after the flesh, and that led to their final rejection by the Lord as His favored people, to whom should apply the most precious promises. They have lost forever as a nation the special place of favor which was theirs by inheritance. What a lesson this should be to Spiritual Israel! And yet we see that today the great mass of Spiritual Israel are falling “after the same example of unbelief.” (Heb. 4:11) And they, too, will lose the chief place of favor, which was offered them when it was taken from unbelieving Natural Israel. Only a faithful “remnant” of both Natural and Spiritual Israel will gain the great inheritance held out to them by the Lord.
THE GLORIOUS INHERITANCE OF SPIRITUAL ISRAEL
Those who have proven faithful during the present dispensation are to inherit the most precious things God has to offer, the secret things which were kept hidden for ages, but now have been revealed to the true saints of God. The faithful of past ages will also have a rich inheritance. They will inherit the earth as rulers and princes over mankind, during the glorious Reign of Messiah, and those of Natural Israel then living will be gathered to them.[1] We cannot know with certainty what remains for them in the ages of glory to follow, but we may be sure it will be a blessed portion.
Of the faithful spirit begotten of the Gospel Age, the Apostle wrote, “And [God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:6) These faithful ones are the twelve tribes of Israel who are to reign with the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.” These – only a Little Flock, in all 144,000 – are of the faithful remnant of Natural Israel, who were gathered at the beginning of this Gospel Age, and the faithful remnant from the Gentile Church of this age. (Rev. 7:4-8; Rev. 14:1-5) These have “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7), and which none others can know. The Master whispers to them, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” (John 14:27) Those who have a rest of faith in this age are assured that, if they do not faint, they will enter into complete rest. (Heb. 4:9)
The God of Israel is indeed ever present with His true people. He never forgets us, but is constantly looking out for our interests, guarding us in every time of danger, providing for our every need, both temporal and spiritual, whatever is best for the interest of our spiritual development. He reads every thought of our hearts; He marks every impulse of devotion and love to Him; He shapes all the influences surrounding our lives for our disciplining and refining, and hearkens to our every cry for aid and comfort and sympathy and fellowship with Him. He is never for a moment forgetful or off guard. “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper.” (Psa. 121) If we call Him in the busy hours of the day or the silent watches of the night, He is near to uphold, sustain, and protect, whether we can realize His presence at all times or not.
How blessed the assurance of His abiding care and faithfulness! No real child of God lacks these evidences of his precious relationship to the Father – the God of Israel. The saints who have been called with the Heavenly Calling, and have faithfully responded, are His true Israel in the highest sense, heirs of all His choicest promises.
(Adapted from Reprint 5547.)
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THE VISION OF DRY BONES
“I will put my spirit within you.” (Ezek. 36:27)
The lesson of this vision (Ezek. 37:1-14) is frequently confusing to the Lord’s people, even after they have learned what the Apostle Paul so positively declared – that the body sown in corruption, planted in death, is not the body which shall be in the resurrection. The Apostle’s statement is not only backed by his inspiration, but also is reasonable and logical. One atom of matter is no more valuable or necessary than another in the great work of restitution to be accomplished in the world’s resurrection. The decomposing human body becomes food for plant life, which in turn becomes food for man and the lower animals, so that the atoms of matter composing a human body are continually changing, and in centuries would pass through many changes.
We have also seen that this process of change progresses while we are still alive, resulting in a complete change in the human organism every seven years. The atoms of matter composing the human body at the moment of death are no more precious, valuable or necessary to the future body than were the atoms sloughed off through the natural channels during previous years. What God has promised is that the being, the soul will have a resurrection, and that in the resurrection God will give it a body as pleases Him: to the natural man a natural, human body, through restitution, and to the new creature in Christ a new spiritual body, according to divine promise.
The Lord, through the Prophet, was addressing fleshly Israel, who were then in captivity in Babylon. The dry bones represented the Israelites themselves. As a people they had lost heart, lost hope, and said, “Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.” (Ezek. 37:11) They were cut off from all tribal and national union. Looking at the present, they were strangers in a strange land. Looking backward, their deliverance from Egypt, their favor as a nation under David and Solomon, etc., were lost blessings. Looking forward, they could see no hope of ever again becoming a nation. All the great expectations for their nation as God’s favored people and the heir of the promises made to Abraham were dead. The condition of Israel, scattered throughout Babylonia, was indeed well illustrated by the dry bones of the vision.
The power of the Lord caused Ezekiel to see this vision – he was not literally transported to any literal valley of dry bones. In the vision, he passed among the dry bones that he might get a full view of the situation, as they lay strewn all over the valley. The Lord then explained that these dry bones represent the whole house of Israel. They did not represent merely the two tribes which went last into captivity, nor merely the ten tribes which went earlier, but the whole house of Israel, the twelve tribes. They were no longer to be considered as two distinct nations, as they had considered themselves for the preceding four hundred years. They were to understand that in divine providence they were henceforth a reunited nation, and the reunion is pictured in this same chapter by the miraculous uniting of two sticks into one in the hand of the Prophet. (Ezek. 37:15-22)
From the time Cyrus gave his decree that all the children of Israel could go free and return to their own land if they chose, the division into two nations was no longer recognized. The people that returned, although chiefly of the tribe of Judah, represented all of the various tribes who had faith in the Lord’s promises, and desired to return to Palestine. The returned and restored people were recognized by the name Israel for the more than five centuries preceding our Lord’s first advent, and were also so recognized by our Lord in all of His ministry, and by the Apostles in all of their writings, which constitute the New Testament. There are no “ten lost tribes” as some well-meaning but deluded people seem to rest their hopes in, instead of the hope set before us in the Gospel.
The Lord asked the question, “Can these bones live?” Is there hope for the scattered people of Israel to become a restored nation of Israel? The Prophet, referred the question back to God: “O Lord God, thou knowest.” Any hope of a reorganization of Israel must come from God.
The divine message foretold things to come under divine providence: God would exercise His power to gradually revive those who were dead and dried up with respect to their national hopes, and cause them to become one people, a nation in their own land. The dried and hopeless would first come together, and gradually assume a national existence. Finally, they would be infused with the spirit of the Lord, begotten of faith in the promises, and would stand again as a nation.
The people’s dead hopes were represented as buried in the various provinces of Babylonia, “among the heathen.” Combining this figure with the figure of the dry bones, the Lord sent the message, “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezek. 37:12-13) In the vision, the Prophet was shown the process by which the dry bones would be gathered and revived: “So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.” (Ezek. 37:7)
The mightiness of the empire that had taken them captive undoubtedly contributed to Israel’s despair. Babylonia at that time was the most gigantic empire ever known. Her overthrow seemed impossible, and escape from her power unthinkable. The noise (thunder) and shaking (earthquake) no doubt represented the fall of Babylon and the transfer of the empire to the Medes and Persians. As a result, the hopes of Israel in the divine promises began to revive, and shortly they were delivered.
The withered hopes of Israel, scattered throughout the provinces of Babylonia, cut off from one another, and from national cohesion, was only a foreshadow of the more general scattering of that nation among all the nations of the civilized world (mystic Babylon) during the Gospel Age. Now, in the end of this Gospel Age, the due time has come for these dry bones, scattered all over mystic Babylon, to be gathered and revived with hope in the promises made to the fathers. The great noise is the “seventh trumpet,” which has begun to sound; the shaking is the coming great revolution in which mystic Babylon will fall before the great Prince prefigured by Cyrus.
As we look at the dry bones of Israel, we see that they are already moving, already drawing near one to another, and organizing as “Zionists.” The hopes of the Israelites probably began to revive as soon as they learned that the army of Cyrus had begun the conquest of Babylon, and so now the hopes of Israel are reviving as they witness the march of events, and realize that a great day of trouble is coming upon the nations of Christendom.
Spiritual Israel was also permitted to go down into Babylon – to be swallowed up by worldliness, as represented in our Lord’s parable of the wheat-field, choked by the “tares.” For centuries the “Gospel of the Kingdom,” the good seed which our Lord sowed (Matt. 13:37-42), has been lost sight of, and Kingdom hopes have lost their vitality, and the many promises of the Kingdom of God, joint-heirship with Christ and a future blessing of the world, have become dead hopes. Spiritual Israel has been cut off from its parts and mixed with the Babylonians, and has become interested in the hopes of Babylon rather than in the Kingdom of God.
But in the end of this age, the time came for God to call His people out of Babylon, and the voice of a greater than Cyrus is heard by those who have ears to hear, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen . . .Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev. 18:2-4) There is a commotion among the dry bones, among those who are Israelites indeed. Their hopes in the Kingdom had perished, but the Kingdom hopes are revived and the promises of God are becoming more distinct.
(Adapted from Reprint 2505.)
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[1] Brother Russell, commenting on the status of those who present themselves in consecration after the close of the High Calling, noted that since God is unchangeable, He is always pleased for any to devote their lives to doing His will. (See Reprint 4836) It is because these “Youthful Worthies” have the faith of Abraham that they will be blessed with him and have the privilege of participating with the Ancient Worthies in the blessing of all nations.