Numbers 15: 37-41
Philemon 8-16
I am impressed by what our brother has said. It is very beautiful to see Christ and what is heavenly and spiritual manifest in the gospels. And then the saints have to be marked by the spirit of Christ. In Numbers 13 and 14 there is breakdown and unbelief; only two of the spies who had been up to the land were quite confident that the Lord could deliver their enemies into their hands. The other ten said they were as grasshoppers (chapter 13: 33). It has been said ’was Jehovah a grasshopper?’, JND vol 24 p119. Chapter 16 is the intrusion of the Levites into the priesthood, seeking to be priests simply because they were Levites. We are surrounded by this rebellion, beloved, man taking up priestly office that he is not fitted for. But here in chapter 15 there is instruction. Instruction as to what is to happen when they go into the land. God has not changed his mind; He is going on with the truth. People may fall away but, whatever may happen, He knows that there is a generation that is going in.
So I read this here beginning from verse 37, "that they make them tassels" - the note says ’flower‘ - "on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they attach to the tassel of the corners a lace of blue; and it shall be unto you for a tassel." There is to be the manifestation amongst us, beloved, of what is heavenly and what is spiritual. It may be that we get ourselves into a corner; it is the corners of their garments here. We would have to say humbly that we are not always very spiritual, or manifest the spirit of Christ; we find ourselves in a corner. We are caught unawares perhaps, and there is a manifestation of something that we have to judge in ourselves. There should be some manifestation of the lace of blue, what is heavenly, what comports with the ark, what is truly of the Spirit and of Christ; because we are to be marked with the spirit of Christ. It is very beautiful. We have been reading of the men of faith, all of them in some measure were marked by the spirit of Christ. How beautiful that is! It is said officially that the spirit of Christ was preaching in Noah, 1 Pet 3: 19. It is very wonderful, beloved, that what is heavenly and what is spiritual is manifested in these conditions in which we are, where what is natural is overcome by what is spiritual and kept in its place. It is an evidence - small it may be - but nonetheless, an evidence of what is heavenly; there is an evidence of Christ, a Man out of heaven. How beautiful and great that is!
Well, I read about Philemon because he is in a corner. Onesimus had run away; no doubt he had not run away empty-handed. He had made for Rome. He did not know anything about the counsel or purpose of God. In the ways of God he came in touch with Paul and became converted. How is this position to be reconciled? There is Onesimus, Paul and Philemon. He was a slave and had run away, although Paul would have liked to keep him. There is a wonderful evidence of the blue in the apostle’s writing here in how he meets the situation. How would Onesimus have felt when he was going back there? Paul had it all worked out. He has all in order and assures Philemon about the genuineness of his love; how this corner with the tassel and lace of blue is manifest in Paul. It is to be manifested in Onesimus and it is to be manifested in Philemon; also in the sister Apphia who no doubt knew all that may have been missing after Onesimus went. Why she should be mentioned is a question, but she is mentioned in the epistle. So we need help (from our living Head that we sung of; wisdom is resident there in Him) in how to solve these problems. The solution comes in the manifestation of the spirit of Christ and the wisdom from Christ as the living Head. Look at the wisdom that shines in Paul as he meets the situation. He says, "having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting, for love’s sake I rather exhort, being such a one as Paul the aged". Then he goes on to say he would like Philemon to "possess him fully forever; not any longer as a bondman, but above a bondman, a beloved brother, specially to me, and how much rather to thee, both in the flesh" - he would still work for him, be linked "in the flesh" in that sense - but also “in the Lord”. "If therefore thou holdest me to be a partner with thee, receive him as me." Note how he makes no differences: "receive him as me" - how beautiful this is. If Paul went to Philemon’s it would be a great thing, a wonderful spread, everything set out and prepared for him. ’Well’, he says, ’just do the same for Onesimus. He has come to know Christ as his Saviour, his sins are forgiven; he is changed. He is manifesting the lace of blue’.
Beloved, these are wonderful things, very powerful and substantial; and we need to see that we have this tassel and this lace of blue on the corner of our garments, so that when we are in corners there is a manifestation of the spirit of Christ. That is just it: nothing else is testimony, but that is testimony. If this is the case with us we will go right through into the inheritance. We will not be caught up in the rebellion of chapter 16. We will get the gain of the priestly service of Aaron and his rod, right through to the leadership of the Spirit. The teaching of the book is wonderful, but I just want to leave that impression with you and myself. It is a challenge to us. It is to me anyway, the matter of whether there is a lace of blue and a tassel on the corners of my garments. It is at the corner, and we get in a corner; the Lord would put us in corners. He makes sure we are put in corners so we can prove what is in ourselves and judge it, prove His grace, wisdom and delivering hand, to prove the fact that the spirit of Christ is what He supports and what overcomes. And this is a testimony to Him, a Man in glory.
That is all I have to say, beloved. I thought it was very beautiful what our brother said about the ark covered in blue. There is with us what relates to heaven in the lace of blue and the tassel.
Aberdeen
4th October 2011