Leaves From The
Book
KOHATH, GERSHON, AND
MERARI.
I . - KOHATH.
THE book of Numbers is the
history of the wilderness, the type of our journey through the world to the
rest that remaineth for the people of God. It is preceded necessarily by
Leviticus, in which first we learn what suits God in the sanctuary before we
come out to practise it in the world. Leviticus is therefore the priests
book, as Numbers is that of the Levites: both are types of Christians, who as
priests have access to God where now His glory is for us displayed, and as
Levites have to carry through the world the precious testimonies of that glory
to us displayed. And Christ it is in whom Divine glory shines for us. It is the
glory of the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, but a glory
which now shines out for us from the face of a Man passed into the heavens. In
Him we are brought near to God. In Him we know God. He has descended into the
darkness which hid from us the face of God; He has dispelled it forever. He has
revealed the holiness and the tenderness of Divine love. We know God, and are
known of Him. We are His, and He is ours.
This knowledge it is that we
carry with us through the world; and it is our competency for testimony in the
world. It is in no wise a testimony to ourselves, but to Him. We are "the
epistle of Christ read and known of all men." And this is not responsibility
only, but competency; for the epistle is not written with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on fleshy tables of the
heart. The gladdening light which has shone in, shines out again. And, no
matter what it shines upon, it is easy enough to tell where the light is
shining. The moon, our type, is but herself a ruin, but bathed in the sun's
brilliance, she can reflect it to us. It is a good and happy thing to know that
this is Levite service. As Levites, they had (in one way) as much to do with
the holy things of the tabernacle as had the priests themselves. Their service
was in these. And ours no less is to carry with us through the world One of
whom it is always safe and happy to speak, and occupation with whom is itself a
real and precious testimony. What more real than when men see that He has
attraction for us? what more precious than to feel, as our eyes fasten upon
Him, that here is sunshine for a whole world, and healing, if they will have
it, for every sin-sick, sorrow-sick heart, the wide world over?
"Ye are the
epistle of Christ," says the apostle; not "epistles." It is not after all that
you or I could be individually an epistle of Christ. No single heart of man is
a table broad enough to write such an epistle upon. It takes the whole Church
to make what could be called the "epistle of Christ;" and then, as little as
the world could contain all the sun-rays, or the moon reflect the full
brightness of the sun, so little could even this fitly represent Him. Ah, we
belittle Him, with all we can do. Yet a warm and bright spot can be made
nevertheless with but a few of His beams. The apostle, in Heb. xi. reminds us
of a "great cloud of witnesses" who had exhibited in their day the necessity
and power of faith. But when he comes to the Lord, he does not mix Him up with
these, but speaks of Him alone as the "Beginner and Finisher of faith." They
had shown it out piece-meal: one the energy, and another the patience, another
the strength, another the humility, another the clear-sightedness of faith, and
so on. But in His life there had been exhibited the full dimensions and the
full content of faith, and there alone. The work of the sons of Levi shows us
this. Kohath, Gershon and Merari have each their division of labour in the
things of the Lord, a division which I desire a little to interpret and to
emphasize now. Only by the united work of all could that which needed, be
accomplished. Still we must guard a little against a thought that might arise,
as if it was meant that, for us individually as Christians, there was only a
responsibility to present Christ in a certain character; as if we were to
discern for ourselves whether we belonged to Kohath, or to Gershon, or Merari,
and, if Kohathites, were not to intrude on Gershon's office, or if Gershonites,
then not on Kohath's or Merari's. It is not so at all. We are indeed privileged
and responsible to perform the whole Levite service, however much in fact our
service may be of one kind rather than another. Just as, however much our lives
may show perhaps the patience of faith rather than its energy, or the reverse
of this, we are none the less responsible to manifest energy as well as
endurance, or endurance as well as energy. Now let us try to gather the meaning
of this various service. If we look back to the consecration of the priests in
Lev. viii. we shall find the blood of the ram of consecration, by which they
were set apart to God, anointing the ear, the thumb and the great toe. This
signified the devotion to Him of the whole man.
The ear was anointed to
listen to His word; the hand to do His work; the foot to walk in His ways of
pleasantness and peace. Hearing - the receptive life; walking - the subjective;
doing - the practical, outward life. Hearing - the Godward side; walking - the
selfward; doing - the manward. The whole life was purchased and redeemed to
God. Now Levite service was, and is (as we have seen), based upon the priestly.
The Levites were given to the priests, to wait on them, as ministry or
testimony in the world must wait upon communion. Thus it will not be strange to
see these three parts of priestly consecration connecting themselves with the
three families of Levi and their service in this chapter. Kohath, in fact, we
shall find connected with the consecrated ear; Gershon with the anointed foot;
Merari with the blood-sprinkled hand. To speak generally, the Kohathites
represent the objective side of Christianity; the Gershonites, the subjective;
the Merarites the practical manward side. If I fail to make myself at once
clear, my meaning will come out, I trust, as we go on, and some important truth
along with it.
Let us first, then, consider Kohath. The things entrusted to
his care are the ark, the table of shew-bread, the lampstand (or candlestick),
the golden and brazen altars, with the respective coverings of these.
The
ark was God's throne in Israel, by the blood put upon the mercy-seat, at least
typically, a "throne of grace." In the double material of which it was
constructed (the shittim-wood and gold) it symbolized the Lord, through whom
alone God dwells amongst His people. This was further shown by its being
wrapped in the covering veil, the humanity or "flesh" of Christ. This was
furthet covered with the badger-(or seal-)skin covering, which seems fitly to
typify the impenetrable holiness which resists all outside influences; while
over all the cloth of blue displayed the heavenly colour.
This is, then,
Christ in glory (the gold outside the shittim-wood), maintaining the government
of God in grace towards His people, and withal in unswerving holiness. By
carrying this first, the sons of Kohath proclaim their Master: the Saviour-God,
come down so low, gone up after His work accomplished, having not only put away
our sins, lut the enmity of our hearts also, and brought us back to holy and
loving obedience.
Next comes the table of shew-bread, of the same materials
as the ark, and covered with a cloth of blue, upon which the continual bread is
placed, twelve loaves representing the twelve tribes of Israel, significantly
covered with a crimson cloth, and that again with a seal-skin covering. Here is
Christ again, maintaining His people before God, the fruit, in resurrection, of
His death, the display of the value of the blood of the cross, where as "a worm
and no man" He proclaimed the holiness of God in the very place of sin. That
holiness thus confessed then (in the seal-skin,) is seen enwrapping and
applying itself to all.
*( The loaves are primarily for God, though the
priest afterwards partakes of them. They are, as it were, the fruit of that
"corn of wheat," which would have abode alone if it had not fallen into the
ground and died, but, dying, has brought forth much fruit.
The "scarlet"
or "crimson "is literally the name of an insect (a kind of cochineal,) from
which a dye was and is still produced. It is the same word as that in the text
quoted above from Ps. xxii. where the suffering of the cross is seen.
I
must be pardoned for passing briefly over what is of such infinite beauty and
such importance also. My reader will do well to ponder it. )
Thus, in
the ark and in the table of shew-bread, Christ is seen for God and for His
people. The third object that comes before us is still Christ, and still as in
the sanctuary of the heavens, the Light-bearer for his own: He who has the
fulness of the Spirit, from whose face shines the light of the unclouded glory
in which alone we see light. The two altars follow, and still both are Christ.
The first is the golden altar, from which the fragrant incense rises up to
God:- a double type of Him who is altar and incense both. By Him, as
worshippers, we draw near to God. In the fragrance of what He is, our prayers
and praises find acceptance.
The brazen altar is the only object here for
which we travel outside the heavenly sanctuary. Every Christian heart will
understand why it is linked with what is heavenly. The brass, which here
replaces the gold of the holy places, is the type of enduring strength, easily
apprehended as the result of His being what He was, Son of God as well as Son
of man, as the brass in the altar overlaid the shittim wood. Although not
suffering now, it is the holy Sufferer.
The ashes are taken from the
altar, and a purple cloth now covers it: the royal colour, for the Lamb slain
reigns as such; and once more over all is the unfailing seal-skin covering.
Thus, in Kohath's charge we have Christ in glory before us continually:
Giving God His throne of grace, as in the ark.
Giving man his place before
God, as in the table of shew-bread.
The Lamp of the Sanctuary, in whose
light alone we see light.
The One by whom our prayers and praises rise up
to God.
Yet still, though reigning, the Holy Sufferer of the Cross.
Thus Kohath (so to speak) has his gaze upon the heavens, and Him who is seated
there. His is objective truth essentially. He is receptive; and thus I have
likened him to the priest's anointed ear. I do not mean that he is not
practical, for this is all of the very first necessity for practice: - God,
known in grace, is now really his God : - he is reconciled - subject.
In
Christ is His place, and he is a new creature. The true light shines which
manifests the character of all things. He is a worshipper and the Father hears
him. And the Crowned One is the Crucified: the way to the glory is the
cross.
What would we do without all this for practice? Yet, I may say
again, they are essentially objective truths: they point the eye elsewhere than
upon self; and nothing can be more practical than this very thing. Our first
Pentateuch of lessons here, is Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ; and
Christ, too, risen and glorified, although still in His heart of hearts just
what He was on earth.
Here, then, let us find our Levite lessons first. The
first form in this school is the highest. We enter the heavens to be qualified
for earth; we do not begin on earth, to reach the heavens. Our simplest earthly
duties require us to be conversant with the "things above."
11. -
GERSH0N.
The family of Gershon have a charge essentially different from
that of Kohath. Theirs is "the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tabernacle
of the congregation, his covering, and the covering of the badgers' skin that
is above upon it, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation, and the hangings for the court, and the hanging for the door of
the gate of the court, which is by the tabernacle and by the altar round about,
and their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and all that is made
for them."
These curtains are, as to material, of goats' hair, or of fine
twined linen; the coverings, of ram skins and of badger skins. The "fine
linen," we are clear, from Rev. xix. 8, is "righteousness " - practical
righteousness (dikaiomata). The curtains which compose the tabernacle itself,
represent this in Christ- in whose flesh the Divine Word "tabernacled," as the
expression is in John i 14. The hangings for the court represent the
righteousness of saints, exhibited outside the sanctuary in the world; the
hangings for the "door" and "gate" again represent Christ, as the only way of
access. The skins, whether of goats or rams or seals (badgers), give also
traits of personal character. That is, it is walk (the manifestation of
personal character) that we find expressed in all with which Gershon has to do:
the anointed tool is what characterizes his occupation here.
Let us look
at these things however more particularly. The curtains which formed the
tabernacle itself are described fully in the book of Exodus. They were of "fine
twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet, with cherubim of cunning work."
The first was pure white, with which the blue, purple and scarlet were
interwoven in patterns of cherubim. We may remember the Lord's own garment,
seamless, woven from the top throughout: and also Joseph's "coat of many
colors." The white is of course absolute purity, the complete reflection of the
perfect ray of light. Blue is the heavenly colour; purple, the royal; scarlet
(or crimson) the sacrificial.*
(* I in no wise refuse another meaning in
Numbers xix. and some other places, and see a profound significance in the fact
of "earthly glory" being thus represented by that which represents also the
suffering of the cross ; but the former meaning seems to me only applicable in
a bad sense; to the Lord here it could not apply. )
These characters in
the Lord combined to form the cherubic patterns which show Him as the One
maintaining the majesty of the throne of God; for the cherubim belong ever to
the throne. The Lord then is here before us in the diverse glories that His
life down here exhibited. King of God's kingdom; heavenly, come down to earth;
highest, and lowliest; absolute purity, self-sacrificing for the guilty. Never
shall we get beyond this wonderful display of grace and goodness in which Deity
has made itself familiar to us: that path in which extremest suffering only
pressed the grapes into that precious "wine, that cheereth God and man." Such
then is Gershon's occupation: and because that wonderful life is taken up from
earth, and exists but as a remembrance, therefore is He indeed "Gershon " - his
life an "exile," though but temporary, from his true home, where Christ is.
But the curtains of the tabernacle, though its beauty, do not give us all.
Above these, as a tent upon the tabernacle, were the curtains of goat's hair,
in which it puts on (so to speak) its prophetic garb - " the rough garment,"
assumed so often "to deceive" (Zech. xiii. 4), but here the garment of the
absolute truth itself. This is the John Baptist covering of separation from the
world, which the Lord did not wear externally, or as outward separation,
refusing meats and drinks and social intercourse with those after whom as a
physician, or a shepherd, He had come to save them. Still if He could touch the
moral leper and be undefiled, that only showed how much deeper in, as nature
and life, the separation lay. It was an essential unlikeness that made Him able
to approach so near, as oil and water can be mixed and never mingle: contagion
requires that the being to whom the disease is carried, should have affinity
with the one from whom it is brought.
Yet was He true man, truest that ever
was, the pattern and perfection and archetype of man; the "corn of wheat"
which, till it fell into the ground and died, abode alone, and yet was to be
that from which all human harvest was to grow for God. Strange to those to whom
He was nearest, essentially unknown where most accessible, His words to Philip
apply to more than to him: "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast
thou not known Me, Philip?"
And it was the goats' hair; for the goats'
hair speaks of sin, and of its due from God, and of the needed offering for it;
and the whole condition of the world, and all God's dealings with it connect
themselves with this. He hated sin with a hatred none but God could have, yet
longed over men with a longing none but a Divine heart could know without
breaking. And these two things, this hatred and this longing, the prophet's
garb implies; for the prophet is God's mouthpiece to men before judgment, and
in view of judgment, yet God speaking, that He may not judge. And such, though
more than such, He was. Over these curtains was another covering of rams'
skins, dyed red, the beautiful symbol of devotedness even to death. - For the
ram is not simply the sheep, the meek surrenderer of life, but, as the male
sheep, imports the bringing into this surrender a firmer and stronger will, an
energy of character which makes it purpose, determinate surrender. Hence the
ram was "the ram of consecration," and the typical trespass, or restitution,
offering. The reddened ram skin shows the purpose actually carried out, and to
its extreme result.
Over all this was, again, the seal-skin covering.
For my purpose here I need not enter into further details. All this is Christ,
however it may be in measure reproduced in His people. This part of the
tabernacle was indeed Christ exclusively; for if "we" too "are God's house," it
is in the boards and bars we find our representatives, that over which these
coverings fell, and wrapped them in their beauty. Yet outside the sanctuary, as
I have said, we do find, in what was Gershon's case, that which typifies the
"righteousness of the saints," their practical character as manifested in the
world, where indeed manifested. The hangings of the court exhibit this.
They were of fine twined linen five cubits high, two hundred and eighty cubits
(*) in their compass round the court; hanging by silver hooks from pillars of
brass, resting upon brazen sockets in the sand of the wilderness. The fine
twined linen we have already looked at. The numbers also speak, if we have
skill to read them. Five is the stamp of what is human - the divine measure for
us is still the "measure of a man," yet beyond what we esteem man's measure, as
we shall find if we reckon it here. The compass round, 280 cubits, seems to
yield the numbers 7 X 4 X 10. Ten, the number which tells of responsibility, as
the ten commandments are the measure of man's duty under the law. Four, the
testing as to this, which the world-journey implies; these two together give us
forty, the well-known stamp of perfect probation. Finally, seven is the sign of
perfection, but not merely of human, but of Divine work. Thus we have not only
the fulfillment of responsibility, as measured by God and tested in the world,
but also in all this " God working in" us what we "work out." The brazen
pillars again are Divine strength upholding human testimony, while the silver
hooks show how all hangs upon the redemption-work of Christ. (
* Taking
the cubit at Parkhnrst's estimate or thereabouts 17 inches, it would be over 7
feet high.
This perfects the picture. We are now in a position, then,
to see how peculiar is Gershon's charge. He is occupied, whether in Christ or
in His people, with what we may properly call subjective. It is not Christ in
His offices or in His work that he has to do with, but Christ in His personal
character, as manifested by His blessed walk. And thus naturally we find
associated with this the same thing as to the believer: not his position, nor
his worship, nor what he is in the holiest, but what he is to be as a man upon
earth. And this comes in its rightful and proper order, as dependent upon
Kohath and his objective side of things. The "foot" must wait upon the "ear."
The only way to practice is by faith; and a faith which puts Christ in the
place which He has taken for us, and puts us in corresponding relation to Him
as in that place. The objective must be before the subjective, as the Levite
himself waits upon the priest, and as the book of Leviticus precedes the book
of Numbers.
But then it has its place, and a most important place it is.
Could we be really in the glory of the holy place, and not come out, as Moses
from the Mount, with something of that glory reflected in our faces? We are not
simply citizens of the heavenlies; we are also, and on that account, strangers
in the world. The practical way in which we show ourselves the latter is the
real measure of how far we have entered into the other. Gershon surely follows
Kohath: not precedes indeed, but inseparably follows. We must learn Ephesian
truth really, properly to understand Hebrews; but Hebrews is then as necessary
as Ephesians.
In our place in the heavenlies we have no failures and no
weakness. "In Christ" we have, blessed be God, unchanging perfection and
abiding rest. In the wilderness there is frailty, and too often failure. Yet
God has united the two together for us now, as in the holy places of the
tabernacle, the feet still pressed the desert sands. And we must remember that
if the wilderness had its pains and difficulties, it had its own peculiar
privileges also. The manna fell nowhere but in the wilderness. It was there the
power of the living God was made known for and to His people. It was there that
living guidance was needed and obtained. It was there that in God's holy
discipline the lurking evil in His people got its rebuke. Precious- and
wonderful lessons, which we may find hereafter it was worth while even to have
stayed a while on earth to learn. His power and His grace are not alone found
in the sanctuary, but suit themselves to the desert also. The very things of
the sanctuary can put on their traveling dress and accompany us by the way. We
do not lose them. The world is the sphere rather in which we -need to carry
them with us, and tell out their preciousness.
III MERARI.
Merari's charge is given us as "the boards of
the tabernacle and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof and the sockets
thereof, and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their
pins and their cords, with all their instruments and with all their service."
We have seen that the curtains of the tabernacle speak of Christ Himself
as the One in whom the Word, made flesh, "tabernacled" amongst us: just as with
a kindred meaning He spake to the Jews of "the temple of His body." In Him, in
fact, as thank God we know full well, dwelt bodily all the fulness of the
Godhead. But there is another aspect of the tabernacle also, for we too are
God's "house," that house which Christ as Son is over (Heb. iii. 6). And this
is shown out in the boards of the tabernacle over which these curtains fell,
covering them with their manifold beauty. The boards were forty-eight in
number, upright, and fitted together with "tenons," - in the Hebrew, "hands;"
each board resting upon two silver sockets, made from the atonement money, and
each overlaid with gold, with golden rings for the bars which united all
together. Thus the Church consists of those individually resting on the
testimony of redemption, and fitted together by God as His own habitation, in
which His glory shines out of the face of men as the typical gold (*) from the
shittim-wood. The bars of shittim-wood, covered with the same gold, and fitted
into golden rings upon the boards, speak of special gifts for maintaining all
in place, which need however a corresponding receptivity on the part of the
saints individually, in order to make them available: the "bar" was of no use
without the "ring." The pillars were first the pillars of the veil, four in
number, of shittim-wood and gold as before, each standing on one silver socket,
the veil hanging from these by golden hooks. Secondly, the door of the tent had
five, of the same material, but upon brazen sockets, the hanging being here
also suspended from hooks of gold. The gate of the court was again a similar
hanging, suspended by silver hooks from four pillars of shittim-wood, with
silvered capitals, and standing, like the last, upon brazen sockets.
In
veil and door and gate we shall have no difficulty in seeing Christ; and Christ
as a way of access; though the veil must be rent before we can in fact draw
near to God.
( *The "cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy seat," (Heb.
ix. 5), I do not doubt to be the Scriptural key to the meaning of the
"gold.'')
The hanging of the gate we easily read as pendent from the
silver hooks of atonement, and these borne up upon the four pillars which speak
of tried and perfect humanity, the silvered capitals proclaiming still
pre-eminent grace. That of the door of the tabernacle hangs from golden hooks,
for Christ "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father" receives as "Son
over His house" those already partakers of salvation by His blood. Here
therefore the pillars of shittim-wood are overlaid with gold; but they stand,
as do those of the gate, upon the brazen sockets which speak of unchanging
perpetuity of strength. - The veil (rent, as we know) gave the way of access to
God Himself, and it too hung from golden hooks supported on four pillars of
shittim-wood overlaid with gold; but which stand again upon silver sockets. Is
it not "the gospel of the glory of Christ" that is here expressed to us? of Him
in whom, as "the image of God," we find God expressed?
The pillars of the
court rest upon brazen sockets, and are surmounted with silver capitals, while
the fine linen curtains are suspended from them by silver hooks. Thus grace
enables us to hold up before the world the character of Christ, and divine
strength is what we rest upon in doing so; the pins and cords still further
coming in to brace all up against the contrary influences which are too much
for our unassisted strength.
Merari's service thus has to do with the house
of God, the church of the living God, with the holding up of Christ as the way
of access in to God, and with the supporting, strengthening, and steadying of
that which is His witness in the world. He represents the workman, as Gershon
does the "stranger"- pilgrim, and Kohath the one occupied with Christ. His name
- Merari, "bitterness," - speaks of the painful character of such service at
which self-love will break down, or run off from it into some eccentric path,
less burdensome to flesh and blood. Indeed in our day the family of Merari has
dwindled down into a very small number; and their work has been very ill done.
Who cares for these boards and bars, and pillars and pins and cords? Who thinks
of God's plan and pattern, and all the minutia of Divine appointment? Who
desires work of this menial kind, costing so much and bringing in so little?
The pattern is old, and will not adapt itself to the fashion of changed times.
It gives no room for human invention to display itself in. It requires only
plodding accuracy and diligent obedience. And yet is it not true, that in the
Divine interpretation of these types, Merari's service is the full ripe fruit
of what we have seen depicted in Kohath and in Gershon?
"If we love one
another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us." And this love,
if true, manifests itself in service; if Divine love, in service according to
the Divine pattern. To put a "pin" in its true place may involve a surrender of
one's own will to God, a voluntary taking up of what is little, not counting it
little, - an attentive hearkening to God's words, which to Him is sweeter than
much that is thought more costly sacrifice. Service about God's house must own
Him Master, and that He may have things to His taste, not we to ours.
Does
it disparage Kohath or Gershon to put Merari's lowly and painful service as the
fruit of theirs? Not so! For without Kohath you can have no Gershon and
with-out both these no true Merari. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead,
being alone." Does this disparage, or exalt, faith? It is faith must have the
works. These are not independent of this, any more than fruit is of the root it
grows on, and which nourishes and gives it character. So faith comes first,
because Christ, whom faith alone embraces, and from whom it draws all
sustenance, is absolutely needful. And then faith's fruits are produced by
love, which is the stem upon this root. - "Faith worketh by love." Thus Gershon
is the link between Kohath and Merari.
How important this connection! How
needful to maintain this order! First Christ : - "high truth!" as high as
Christ in glory. Never lower it, never omit it, never talk against it as
unpractical. If Merari fails, never turn Kohath from his work on that account.
Only your truth must be high enough to reach Christ Himself, a living, personal
Christ, who is at God's right hand alone. If it be not this it will fall with
its own weight, - and be wrecked utterly. But then Gershon, the "stranger,"
will display the beauty of his fine linen, his curtains and his veils. The
response of love in man to the Divine love will be also maintained. The moon,
because in the sun-light reflects the sun to us. Our responsibility is measured
by our place, and the grace, which has given it us, is alone power for the
fulfillment of our responsibility.
Then comes Merari, the Timothy-service
in the house of God. Ear, foot, and hand, all testify to the power of the blood
of Christ, and are set apart to God as purchased by it. The living water, being
drunk in, flows out, and in channels already prepared of God, that it may bring
fertility and beauty to many a plant of the Lord's planting, and carry His seed
moreover to enrich many a bar ren spot, and make the desert blossom as the
rose.
God's Thought About Restitution
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