THE BOOK OF GENESIS
In the first book you have creation, the foreshadowing of the new creation, the work of divine life in the soul. So what is the answer to this in simple language for our souls? Isn't it the new birth? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless anyone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” ( John 3:3 ). There must be a new birth, a new nature must be imparted if there is to be a relationship with God. But is that all He has to reveal to us regarding our relationship with Him? No, this is just the beginning.
THE EXODUS BOOK
What is the next point? This is the foundation of our relationship with Him. And in Book 2 we find the outstanding idea that is consistently the basis of all relationship with God, redemption through blood. Through the sovereign act of the Spirit of God a person is born again, that is the new birth. But what is the basis of our relationship with God, what is the basis of our peace with him? Is it not this Exodus truth, this great truth of redemption? So you see that Exodus is clearly a different book, and it presents clear and progressive thought. First, we have life, second, we have salvation.
THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS
Now move on to the 3rd book. The theme of this book, as I said, is the sanctuary of God. It is the principle of divine holiness that must be maintained. They come to Leviticus and find it very different from Exodus. What God is concerned with there is the holiness that becomes His house, it is the ground upon which His people can draw near and enjoy the communion with themselves to which they were led in the second book. The conclusion of the book prepares you for what you will find in Leviticus, but throughout the book what emerges as a clear truth is an advance from what we had in Exodus - the truth of holiness and access. Translate that again into our practical, everyday lives. “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” ( Romans 5:1 ). Now peace with God is peace through the blood of the Passover lamb. But “access by faith to this grace in which we stand” corresponds to Leviticus. It is the access, the closeness, the beholding of the holy glory of God and the joy of it. What losers we would be if there were no principle of holiness, as we find in Leviticus. I fear, unfortunately, for most of us, that we are quite content to remain in Exodus, so to speak, quite content to move on only with the knowledge of salvation, without enjoying the precious privilege of entering the sanctuary and to share the thoughts of God.
But does that sum up the whole life of the believer? Certainly not. Our feet are on the desert floor, we encounter a variety of challenges. What should we do in this hostile world? As far as our souls are concerned, we are occupied with the infinite fullness of Christ. We delight in all the precious things revealed to us regarding Him, but what about our daily lives? What about our witness in a world like this? What about the development of character that comes through practice? I would like to quote again from the same chapter in Romans: “Not only this, but we also boast in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces endurance, and endurance produces probation, and probation produces hope; but hope does not put you to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” ( Romans 5:3-5 ). Where do we find such experiences? Not in Leviticus, but we in Numbers. When we enjoy access to the nearness of God, we can boast in the tribulations we must go through in this world.
THE NUMBERS OF MOSES
This is exactly what is revealed to us in Numbers: It is the test, the testing, and even as the flesh is tested, its weakness, its failure, its dishonor to God are brought out. But is that all? Thank God the infinite patience, longsuffering and wisdom of our God also comes to light. If on the one hand I learn what I am in this desert experience, on the other hand I learn to know God in a way that I could not know him - I say it with reverence - even in the glory up there. I learn Him here as the One who upholds me and sustains me in the midst of the most difficult trials. He is the One who, when I have stumbled and fallen or become cold and careless, can restore me, can bring me back, can bring me through and can bring me to the end of it all. And I couldn't learn that in heaven.
THE DEUTERONOMY
Aren't you grateful that we have a book like this? that He has given us in His precious Word a whole volume for our earthly journey, a whole volume for His grace in the place where we need grace? So in Numbers we find a clear progression, a further step in the progress of God's people, and that brings us to the final book, Deuteronomy. Is it just about us being guided through the world? that God will support us and bring us to the end of our journey? That's not all. The holiness of God demands that when we have reached the end of our journey and there is no more step to take in the desert, His love for us demands that we now turn with Him and look back at this history and see the steps, that we have gone, and see our faults and shortcomings with him to tell them to us, and so you find the whole of Deuteronomy devoted to a recapitulation.
We find no new event narrated there. But the old events, things that happened long years ago, will be recorded and never forgotten by our God, not one step we have taken, not one failure we have made will ever be forgotten by Him. He takes them all in, and there at the end of the journey He passes over them all. For what reason? To humiliate us? We had our humiliation long before that. He humbled us in the desert and taught us that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He goes through history not to humiliate us, but to give us lessons for eternity. We are so inclined to think of heaven as a place where we don't need lessons. We are just beginning to learn our lessons there; Most of us are so slow here that we learn very little. The first thing we have when we get to heaven is to learn the lesson of our journey through the wilderness. I don't need to tell you that it is the Judgment Seat of Christ where we all learn this; when the Lord Jesus gathers his redeemed people up there, in glory with himself and like himself, that he opens the record of their whole life and goes through it. The 5th book is the final step in the progress of the saints.
