"Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel . . . And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword . . . I have slain them by the words of my mouth . . . and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword" (Josh. 5:3, Isa. 49:2, Hos. 6:5 & Rev. 1:16). We would like to pay close attention to the phrase Joshua made him sharp knives. Whenever we see the name Joshua, the Spirit immediately brings a great New Covenant principle to our minds. In light of the conquest of Canaan, everything that the Old Testament Joshua did prophesied of what the New Testament Joshua would do. Joshua simply means "Lord of salvation." In other words, what Joshua means in the Hebrew is one and the same with what Jesus means to those who have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into His kingdom (Col.1:13).
Joshua spent forty years in the wilderness and Jesus spent forty days there. Both of them were led into the wilderness after baptism. "And all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea . . . Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan . . . And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:2 & Mark 1:9 & 12). Both of them were led there for the same purpose. " . . . the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no . . . And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan" (Duet. 8:2 & Mark 1:13). While it does not say in any specific terms that Satan tempted Joshua, in light of the attitude his fellow countrymen had, he was surrounded by devils. He was surrounded by accusers. "And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt" (Num. 14:3). He was surrounded by disbelieving, fearful men void of any vision beyond their own personal comfort. " . . . as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play" (1 Cor. 10:7).
Speaking of their fellow countrymen, both Joshua and Jesus were candidates to be stoned to death at the hands of their own people. "But all the congregation said to stone them with stones" (Num. 14:10, NASB). That was the reaction Israel took toward Joshua in their unbelief. It was no different from the reaction of the Jews
toward Jesus in their unbelief. "Then they took up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by" (John 8:59). There are more comparisons we could make. There are certainly more to be discovered. However, the comparison we find extremely relevant in this hour takes us back to the phrase Joshua made him sharp knives (Josh. 5:3). While the very thought of literal circumcision sounds very painful, we should find great comfort in the One who made the instruments and performed the circumcision. You see, this speaks of the work of the Spirit. This cannot be accomplished through any other means but by the Spirit. Our Lord Jesus knows when and where to cut that which covers our hearts and breeds corruption.
Now we rejoice in the fact that in His burial we are constituted as the circumcision made without hands (Col. 2:11). The Spirit put such terms in the scriptures to draw a sharp contrast between the reality of a changed heart and a system that was never meant to do what only the Spirit can do. We find our completeness in Christ (Col. 2:10). However, that does not do away with the fact that we do experience the cutting away of carnality and all that is enmity with Christ. On the contrary, it is only normal for a revelation of Jesus Christ to pierce our hearts. We can "receive with meekness the engrafted word", but if our hearts are calloused, we may hear what Jesus told the Church in Pergamos ". . . [I] will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (James 1:21 & Rev. 2:16). We may feel that we know ourselves quite well. Yet, even in the Lord's quiet dealings with our heart, we can still come away offended. As a matter of fact, I'll go on the record for saying that if someone has never been offended by Jesus, then they have never met Him. The lyrics to Michael Card's song The Nazarene are so true. ". . . those who hardly knew Him and those who knew Him well, could feel the contradiction from the start."
One of the sharpest contradistinctions that I had ever felt as a newly apprehended vessel of God was realizing the gap between knowing the truth and the thoughts and intents of my own heart. One man simply put it this way- God knows our hearts better than we do. "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12 NASB). Be that as it may, I still take great comfort that it is written that "Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel" (Josh. 5:3). In this, we see a picture of the Lord's work in preparing our hearts. Yes, the element of pain is there, but it is temporal. Victory and complete conquest of all that is contrary to Christ is the result of the needful dealings of the heart. Knowing that a Victor, to begin with, is doing the cutting should at the very least bring an anchor of hope to our souls, if not a shout of joy!
Think of the emotional pain that Mary felt at the foot of the cross. Oh, but she went on to be one of the one hundred and twenty in Jerusalem that partook of the joy when the day of Pentecost had fully come (Acts 1:14 & 2:1). "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:5 & 6). Think of the doubt and dismay, the surge of defeat, that must have ran through the disciples' hearts when their Master was arrested. " Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled" (Matt. 26:56). They scattered into the night. But on the day of Pentecost they all stood together in boldness as Peter began to pierce the hearts of the people with the Living Word. "But Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice . ." (Acts 2:14). Think of the tear filled agony Peter must have felt after he denied the Lord for the third time in one night (Mark 14:72). But on the day of Pentecost he could deny nothing! "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:32). These are vivid pictures of the offense that seems to always emerge in some form when God does not do things the way we think He should. These pictures illustrate to us not only the shock we feel when we see the difference between the intents of our heart and the Lord's but also His total disregard for our reasoning and wishes. However, there is joy if we move on to apprehend the purpose of our Lord's dealings. There is power in the Spirit for those who endure the weakness of beholding what we think should have been spared and watching it die.
There was a land of milk and honey awaiting a new generation, the bones of Joseph, and two men foolish enough to simply believe God. But that new generation had to undergo the knife. Not only did they first have to experience the flesh being cut away, but they had to wait and be healed from their painful experience before they themselves could use their own sword and conquer Canaan. "Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed" (Josh. 5:8 NASB). This should speak volumes in light of the fact that unless we receive with meekness the engrafted word and cultivate the precious things that the Spirit sows in us, then we do not stand a chance on the great battlefield of the soul in which principalities and powers play tug-of-war with the flesh and the spirit.
The word for healed in Joshua 5:8 in the Concordant Version is translated as revived. This particular word is most often translated as live and living. It is translated nine times in the Psalms as quicken me (Psalm 119:25, 37, 40, 88, 107, 149, 154, 156, 159). This word is also used in the context of being restored to life and literally being revived from the dead. In light of the circumcision that took place at Gilgal just before Israel took the land, we see another picture of God's seemingly paradoxical principle of life issuing out of death. Circumcision in the flesh is one of the many pictures that speak of these repeated cycles of death, burial, and resurrection interwoven throughout the entire course of the scriptures. They had to embrace the very thing that was a sign of covenant and promise. It means that in the process of saying "be it unto me according to thy word", that we realize it is inevitable that "a sword shall pierce through thy own soul." (Luke 1:38 & 2:35). This cycle that we see in Joshua is echoed in Hosea 6:1-2. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." The Hebrew word translated as revive and live in verse two is the same word in Joshua 5:8 translated as revived in the Concordant Version and whole in the King James Version. In a word, symbolically speaking, they died and were revived, i.e. made alive, quickened at Gilgal.
Circumcision ultimately must find its final fulfillment in the transformation of a calloused heart becoming tender. A heart that has died to the dreams and ambitions of the first Adam. A heart no longer suffocated and covered over by the foreskin of its own desires. A heart with ears to hear and eyes to see beyond the visible sphere of limitation in which the sons of men strive in the vexation of pursuing their own vanity. A heart that pants after the invisible sphere of the kingdom in which the sons of God worship before the throne of their immortal King. A heart that has felt the sword of the Lord cut away all that so easily takes us off the pathway to maturity, a path few have traveled. A lot of turning back and attempted detours take place due to the fact that the heart gets hardened along the way at the offense of the cross."A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh" (Eze. 36:26).
The above passage in Ezekiel simply speaks of a heart made anew, made pliable. These words simply contrast that which is tender and that which is hard. That which has been truly made new has been crushed by the hammer of the Living Word and pierced by the sword of the Spirit. These references to the heart, a part of man, convey God's intent toward the whole man. "You can turn a mortal back to crushed dust and say, Return, O sons of humanity" (Psalm 90:3, CV). The Psalmist speaks of God doing the crushing, which brings us back to Joshua, who typified Jesus, doing the cutting. The picture is one of humiliation unto glorification. It is a picture that cannot be seen without the illumination of our understanding. It is so fitting that we find the Psalmist requesting that God would "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18). However, it is equally fitting that Paul writes to the saints at Corinth, "But even unto this day, when Moses [the law] is read, the veil is upon their heart" (2 Cor. 3:15). Tragically enough, even unto this day, when all scripture is read, including the New Testament, a veil is upon the hearts of many. Nevertheless, when their heart "shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away (2 Cor. 3:16).
Having stated that it is to a glorious end that our New Covenant Joshua performs the circumcision of our hearts, we must consider the tragic end that others receive in attempting such an operation without first having the veil upon their own hearts removed. If we do not cultivate the relationship the Lord has first brought us into, then we too can be among them. While it is true that we may have the veil removed in one area, that does not mean that we have seen the totality of the multifaceted revelation of Jesus Christ. The removal of the veil simply speaks of the Lord revealing Himself to our hearts in a way that was once hidden to our understanding. For example, Neil Silverburg once pointed out that Michal could receive David as the King of Israel, but she could not receive him as a worshiper of the Most High God (See 2 Sam. 6:20-23). In a word, we only see the side of Christ that has been unveiled to our hearts. However, we are convinced that all who have been truly born of the Spirit have had the initial veil of darkness removed that still lies over the hearts of those who remain dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), for dead men do not behold the glory of the Lord and go from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
We must consider the fact that while our hearts have been tenderized, i.e. made new, if we fail to run to the One that has drawn us into this divine romance, we can become hardened. Think about it. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews was not writing to men dead in trespasses and sins. He was writing to members of the body of Christ, "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1). Yet, concerning their hearts, what does he say? "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness" (Heb. 3:8). We need not kid ourselves into thinking that the humbling of our hearts is a one time thing. Being humble and tender toward the Spirit, and humility in general, should habitually grow until it becomes as natural as breathing.
Having said all that, there is nothing more tragic than a calloused soul trying to cut the hearts of others with the blunt edge of their (lack of) understanding. When we attempt to cut away at ourselves or others without being in harmony with the Spirit and first submitted to the Master Surgeon, where He can then move through us, then we are nothing more than mutilators. When we try to use the Word in hopes of cleansing others from carnality, without first attending to the brazen laver ourselves, in which we behold in a glass the glory of the Lord, then we are operating as one who is unclean, i.e. a dog (Exod. 30:18-21, 2 Cor. 3:18). "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the [true] circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:2-3). "Beware of those whose circumcision is no better than mutilation!" (Phil. 3:2, The New Testament, A translation by William Barclay). What a glorious thing it must be in the eyes of the heavenly host to behold a humble soul gripping the sword of the Living Word. But what a tragedy it is to see the proud hearted take hold of the same sword.
Many people do not see the difference between grasping a word purely by the intellect and being gripped by the Word! The content of our words is not the thing that determines if we are operating in the Spirit or not. It comes down to the question of what has the Spirit revealed to us? I'm convinced that a man anointed and sensitive to the Spirit can communicate the heart of God in a most convincing manner in just one sentence. I'm also convinced that a man can wax on and on for hours, even quoting scripture, but at the same time be so distant from the heart of God in their words. For many learned men have set out to explain and figure out God, rather than simply love Him. A scientist or a physician may be able to communicate a lot of facts about a person, but if that person has a lover, a real intimate lover, then it is the lover that can best communicate what makes that person's heart beat. And I hesitate not one bit to tell you all that the Lord is not impressed with our knowledge about Him. I love to study, dig, and research the scriptures. Oh, but blessed be those who have felt the hand of God dig deep into their soul by the quickening of the Spirit, communicating life, inspiring the heart, and getting lost in the Lord's presence.
Paul had been on both sides of this matter. He knew the facts. His mind was able to comprehend the scriptures. He was zealously pursing the things of God. "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee" (Phil. 3:5). However, he did not know God. "And he said, Who art thou, Lord?" (Acts 9:5). What did Paul think of his credentials after he discovered God? He counted them as a loss for Christ's sake (Phil. 3:8). The ceremonial customs that could only cast a shadow of the things to come came to an end for him. Now those who operated in such things in their efforts to make proselytes were called dogs. In other words, those who tried to make others clean without the Spirit were counted as unclean. Can we make the same mistake?
Two major points that we would do well to ponder in order to safeguard our hearts from such a mistake are, first of all, to note that God is Spirit, and secondly, that we know no man after the flesh (John 4:24 & 2 Cor. 5:16). The very essence of God is something that the mind alone cannot wrap around without the aid of divine revelation. Even still, once the mind has come to know something of the Spirit, words themselves do an injustice to the magnitude of the personality of the Most High. He, being Spirit, would have those who desire to serve Him to do so in the Spirit, as well as the truth (John 4:24). In others words, all worship and service that is rendered to the Lord apart from the Spirit is mere ritual. If we know Him in a spiritual sense as opposed to knowing Him in an intellectual manner, then this knowing should also be horizontal. In the New Covenant we are to discern one another by the Spirit, not by the evaluation of the outward man. Now some have twisted this to say it matters not what we do in our bodies. Gnostic sects, New Agers, and those who have a warped view of grace have certainly perpetuated this sort of thinking. However, we will just say that the actions we do in our bodies is nothing short of a revealing of the thoughts of our inner world. In other words, our actions reflect to whom it is that we submit ourselves (Rom. 6:16). Those submissive to the Spirit can know others by the Spirit, otherwise they remain blind to such New Covenant realities. To know men by the Spirit is not to say everyone is OK. It is to know who they are spiritually. If we would be honest, most people are judged by their appearance, the way they talk, where they come from, and so on. That is so carnal. Ah, but the Spirit can discern the measure of brokenness or the stench of pride. The Spirit knows who has been quickened and who still lies dead in trespasses and sin. More importantly, the Spirit does not discard a member of the body of Christ for being carnal, but brings correction by way of revelation.
"Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves . . ." (Duet. 14:1). This scripture is very relevant to our subject. We realize God was instructing Israel not to copy the nations around them. However, there is something much deeper than avoiding the practices of those who worshiped false gods and idols. You see, we can have false ideas about God that cause us to cut ourselves, as well as others. In relation to our subject, the literal cutting of the flesh prefigures the cutting with words. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue . . ." (Prov. 18:21). "Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words" (Psalm 64:3).
When we slip into that mode of using the scriptures without spiritual revelation we are no different from the Pharisees of old. They could not see that what constituted someone as a member of God's family was the actions of Christ. No one would argue the fact that it was the actions of their parents that brought them into this world, not their own actions. If we think this principle does not apply in the spiritual realm, then we are taking great liberties to turn a deaf ear to the fact that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead . . ." (Rom. 1:20). The religious mind so often demands that we must initiate something in order to be a Christian or grow in the Spirit, then if we took the right steps, God will react and respond to us. That is all backwards and wrong.
Growth naturally comes with exercise, adversity, testing, and so on. But not one bit of true progress in our spiritual growth comes by cutting ourselves with the letter! Furthermore, God must first deliver us from such madness before we can grow. Our actions should be the reactions and responses to what God first initiates. It is true that He has conditions that must be met. However, even in meeting His conditions, He must first reveal those conditions to us. We must first have a revelation of Him. We must get a hold of what the work of Christ implies. If we do not have a revelation of His work, then all of our actions begin on the wrong premise, which results in dead works.
We would like to compare Paul's warning in Philippians 3:2 to what took place on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah challenged the followers of Baal and all Israel. "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him . . . I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God" (1 Kings 18:21 & 24). The prophets of Baal put their sacrifice on the altar in hopes of fire consuming it. In relation to our subject, this speaks of those who have a revelation or some degree of knowledge concerning the fire of God and what it can do. After all, we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice and our God is a consuming fire (Rom. 12:1 & Heb. 12:29). "And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made" (1 Kings 18:26). Although they did not call upon the name of the true God, we will go on to see that this still has an application to believers today. After Elijah mocks them in verse 27, we go on to see in verse 28 how they tried to get their god to move on their behalf "And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them."
With the above thoughts in mind let us again consider Deuteronomy 14:1 in light of Paul's admonition. "Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves . . . Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Deut. 14:1 & Phil. 3:2 & 3). Beloved, it is altogether possible to be confident in the fact that if we just take the letter of the scriptures and attempt to hack away at ourselves, then we can bring ourselves along to a greater standing with God. And just how might we do this? By simply misapplying the scriptures. We do this when we attempt to deal a deathblow to the flesh by focusing on ourselves and our sins. When our time, energy, and attention are centered around our shortcomings, then we obviously are not worshiping God in the Spirit, and we are not rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Many in Christendom have very little reason, if any at all, to rejoice in the Lord. No light has dawned in their dark time of beholding their old humanity. They spend more time reckoning themselves alive and well to sin. They may give lip service to the Kingship of Jesus, but in their mental estimation Adam still wears the crown. There are two ways by which people in Christendom put the crown back on this dethroned stinking corpse. One of them is by simply yielding ourselves to the service of the flesh. We are not so much dealing with that. The other way we keep Adam crowned in our minds is by refusing to believe that Jesus took him to the cross and that in doing so, sealed Adam's fate by way of burial. For when the Lord rose from the grave, He was raised a new creation, a new humanity. This attitude is summed up in these words: ". . . for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow" (Rev. 18:7).
If we refuse to embrace the truth concerning the old humanity, then we not only fail to worship God in Spirit, but we also fail to do so in truth. Our revelation is incomplete. When we do not have the full understanding of the work of Christ, we ignorantly try to fill in the void with works dead to the Spirit and dead to the light of spiritual understanding. In essence, we add to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. That is why we read in Revelation 18:8 and in Revelation 22:18, "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day . . . if any man shall add unto these things [the prophecy of the book, the revelation of Jesus Christ], God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book." When the cross of Christ is not judged in our minds as sufficient enough for the old man and we come along with our pseudo spirituality and carve away on a corpse and do violence with our theology, then we, like Paul's religious enemies of old, are adding to the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We are not so much contending that this is the only way to interpret the above passages in Revelation. However, our point is that the principle is valid and relative to our subject, as well as crucial to our spiritual growth. We have a vivid picture in history of what becomes of those who add to the revelation of Jesus Christ. It was a very pivotal time in Jerusalem when the epistle to the Hebrews was written. The word Hebrew comes from the word Eber or Heber. It means he who passed over; to pass over a river; to go through a land. After the fulfillment of Pentecost, people were coming to a place in which they had to decide where they stood. Were they to simply add Christ to the Old Covenant or fully embrace the New Covenant? In other words, they were being admonished to cross over. Those who failed to do so experienced what is mentioned in Revelation 18:8. "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." Some of the most horrific accounts of famine, death, and destruction were recorded by the Jewish historian Josephus of the destruction of Jerusalem in the last few years that led up to the temple finally being laid to waste in 70 A.D. However, those that embraced their old humanity being laid to waste on the cross had no need for an outdated covenant. Those who followed on to know the Lord and what the New Covenant implied were not among the staggering death toll in the destruction of Jerusalem.
There had to be a time of transition and overlapping so to speak, but what a glorious day it was for those who had purified their hearts by faith (Acts 15:9). The shadows that the temple in Jerusalem cast and all its ordinances fled in the glorious light of Jesus Christ. The fulfillment had come. They had no need to attend the altar of the old priesthood and cut themselves, so to speak, with the letter. They crossed over. In light of this, we have the admonition in Hebrews 13:10-16. "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."
"Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips . . ." Ah, the fruit of our lips, how revealing. You see, the concept of a god that responds to his servants cutting themselves will never bring the consuming fire from heaven. Such concepts keep people locked up in their cold self-made hell. But those that are too busy looking to the Lamb, those who have their eyes fixed on the only One that can make them acceptable, have something pleasing to offer God! It is very interesting to note that, at least in the case of Elijah on Mount Carmel, God sent the fire as an answer to one man's obedience. The fire did not fall for the disobedience of a bunch of men who did violence to themselves in the process of clinging to their false concept of God. In other words, God did not show up to honor their sacrifice.
Elijah summed up the key to his success when he stated in 1 Kings 18:36, ". . . I have done all these things at thy word." In light of our subject, the contrast we would like to make is found in verse 28 when it is stated that it was "after their manner" that they cut themselves. The Hebrew word for manner in that verse is often translated elsewhere as judgment. Elijah went by what God told Him. His religious opponents went by their own judgment. Contrary to the Christianized relativist of our day, judgment in and of itself is not evil. However, the only judgment God desires for us to agree with is His! This echoes to us the exhortation in 2 Corinthians 5:16, ". . . henceforth know we no man after the flesh . . ." It is not God's judgment to have those whom He has apprehended to behold themselves as an old creation. It most certainly is not His judgment for His children to condemn themselves over and over, in hopes of making Him move for us. Needless to say, it is difficult to hear God and know His judgment when we are too busy cutting ourselves with the letter.
There is another point that we will do well to make concerning the showdown on Mount Carmel. The first thing that Elijah did when he went to offer his sacrifice was repair the altar of the Lord that was broken down (1 Kings 18:30). The altar speaks of worship. The altar Elijah repaired speaks of the restoration of true worship, as in a true revelation pertaining to worship. We may discover error and make some adjustments on our doctrines, but when both truth and worship are married we have something far greater on our hands than theology and religious activity. "And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord" (1 Kings 18:31 & 32). The passages in1 Kings, as well as other places in the scriptures, that speak of a renewal of the altar are pregnant with more meaning than we could ever exhaust (See 2 Chr. 15:8 & Ezra 3:2). But one thing these passages do not imply is that the altar alludes to nothing more than a song service. It does not typify nor allude to sitting around a camp fire singing our favorite songs. However, that is the way worship is so often treated. As we said, the altar speaks of true worship, which implies ministering to the Lord.
Now, what we find so vital at this point in our subject is this: when Israel worshiped Baal, the false god, they broke down the altars of the true God (1 Kings 19:10). This speaks to us about the possibility of quenching the Spirit. In a word, when we begin to entertain false ideas about the Lord, ideas that promote the heaping on of self-condemnation, or ideas that have us beat ourselves with our bibles, then we have killed the atmosphere for true Christ centered worship. If we would just first minister to the Lord, that is to say, prayerfully offer ourselves to Him, His Spirit will deal with our hearts. We do not have to try to make an incision on ourselves. We can leave it to Dr. Jesus to make the cut. He has the cleansing power of His Word to prep us for any operation our hearts may need "with the washing of water by the word" (Eph. 5:26). But if we insist on tearing ourselves down, then we have in essence torn down the true place of worship.
The subject of worship will emerge over and over again in the passages we have dealt with and it takes us to our next point. We would like to state that it is by no insignificant choice that Paul used the word dogs to insult the zealous souls of his day that added salvation through physical circumcision to the Gospel (Phil. 3:2). It is not insignificant that the woman who was so engrossed in Baal worship, a belief system that condoned the cutting of oneself for religious purposes, was thrown down and dogs ate her flesh. "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision . . . In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel" (Phil. 3:2 & 2 Kings 9:36). In the death of Jezebel, we have a picture of things in the spiritual realm. We have the confrontation of a mentality that is best described in Galatians 6:13. "For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh." All that glories in the flesh is unclean. It does not matter how religious it looks. It is still unclean in the Spirit! So this woman who condoned that which gave consent to the cutting of oneself was judged to fall and be food for dogs. If we glory in a mentality that cuts ourselves in order to make ourselves more holy, more acceptable, then we are in reality carnal. We are making ourselves food for unclean words, from within or without, hence dogs.
The word dogs must have been the ultimate insult to Paul's enemies because they were so confident in being ceremonially clean and so sure that anything that did not comply to their ideas was unclean. But in reality, they were spiritually filthy due to the fact that they had not been cleansed by spiritual revelation. No doubt there are many dogs running loose in the body of Christ today. However, we pray that our chief concern would be the possibility of dogs that can emerge in our own thinking.
The death of Jezebel also foreshadows a passage we have already touched on - the fall of Babylon in Revelation 18:8. The Spirit tied the two together in the fact that the doom of Babylon is put in the terms of a fall and Jezebel was thrown from a window (2 Kings 9:30-37). You see, a window is the part of our house from which we look out to see. It speaks of our view. Those that hide the word of truth in their hearts and view things from the perspective of our redemption in Christ are like another woman, Rahab (Josh. 2:18). You see, she hid the spies, the men with the report that says, "Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us" (Josh. 2:24). She hung the scarlet cord in her window, the very cord she used to lower these men with the good report down her window. This cord and its color speak of the shed blood of our Lord and how His death, burial, and resurrection give us the victory. We need to have a scarlet thread hanging in our window. We need a view that beholds what Christ has done for us before the Spirit can do anything in us. Then, when all is shaken, our house will remain (Heb. 12:27). In casting down vain imaginations that would have us believe in alternatives to the redemptive work of Christ, we throw our Jezebels out the window (2 Cor. 10:5).
All victories start with "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb . . ." (Rev. 12:11). This is what the scarlet thread spoke of. Any grounds for our acceptance outside the blood of the cross is religious confusion, i.e. Babylon, and it must fall. If we keep Jezebel around, then she will seek to kill the true prophets of God (1 Kings 19:1 & 10). In a word, carnal ideas will always seek to tear down the prophetic words of the Spirit. However, praise be to God, there are still those Obadiahs that, if need be, will hide those prophets in a cave, like Rahab hid the spies in her house! (1 Kings 18:4, Josh.2:4). "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11). Before it is all said and done, Elijah will prevail. Jezebel will become dog food (2 Kings 9:36). So we have this picture for our admonition. Does the altar of God, the place of true worship, stand in our hearts? Do we welcome the true words of victory? Do we understand like Rahab and view life through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord? Or will we insist on adding to the Revelation of Jesus Christ? Will we worship in Spirit and truth? Or will we be given over to that which glories in the flesh and becomes food for the dogs?
We would like to consider one more thing that worship speaks of and that is sacrifice, for the purpose of the altar is to have a place on which to offer a sacrifice. In the New Covenant, all sacrifices find their meaning, inspiration, acceptance, and purpose by way of the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ! We have no place for contaminating the altar with sacrifices of self-analysis, self-condemnation, self-disappointment, and so on. Now there is indeed a place for correction and godly sorrow working repentance (2 Cor. 7:10). But that is not to be confused with the subject of sacrifice. Conviction of the heart, rebuke, correction, and godly sorrow deal with that which is not acceptable to the Lord. Sacrifice is the offering of that which is acceptable to the Lord.
We must come to terms with the fact that everything pertaining to life in the Spirit, life in the New Covenant, and the life God would have us to lead, all hinges on revelation, the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ! Without a true revelation from the Spirit we cannot "offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 2:5). Our identification in Christ, our acceptance, will go on unrealized and unappreciated by the soul that is void of such a wonderful truth. As a result, our hearts will be unable to offer the sacrifice of praise to God (Heb. 13:15). Such a person needs to hear from the Lord what it means to truly reckon ourselves dead to sin (Rom. 6:6-11). In light of this, we would like to consider the following comments by Watchman Nee:
"What, then, is the secret of reckoning? To put it in one word, it is revelation. We need revelation from God Himself (Matt. 16:17; Eph. 1:17-18). We need to have our eyes opened to the fact of our union with Christ, and that is something more than knowing it as a doctrine. Such revelation is no vague indefinite thing. Most of us can remember the day when we saw clearly that Christ died for us, and we ought to be equally clear as to the time when we saw that we died with Christ. It should be nothing hazy, but very definite, for it is with this as basis that we shall go on. It is not that I reckon myself to be dead, and therefore I will be dead. It is that, because I am dead--because I see now what God has done with me in Christ--therefore I reckon myself to be dead. That is the right kind of reckoning. It is not reckoning toward death but from death.
What does reckoning mean? 'Reckoning' in Greek means doing accounts, bookkeeping. Accounting is the only thing in the world we human beings can do correctly. An artist paints a landscape. Can he do it with perfect accuracy? Can the historian vouch for the absolute accuracy of any record, or the mapmaker for the perfect correctness of any map? They can make, at best, fair approximations. Even in everyday speech, when we try to tell some incident with the best intention to be honest and truthful, we cannot speak with complete accuracy. It is mostly a case of exaggeration or understatement, of one word too much or too little. What then can a man do that is utterly reliable? Arithmetic! There is no scope for error there. One chair plus one chair equals two chairs. That is true in London and it is true in Cape Town. If you travel west to New York or east to Singapore it is still the same. All the world over and for all time, one plus one equals two. One plus one is two in heaven and earth and hell.
Why does God say that we are to reckon ourselves dead? Because we are dead. Let us keep to the analogy of accounting. Suppose I have fifteen shillings in my pocket, what do I enter in my account book? Can I enter fourteen shillings and sixpence or fifteen shillings and sixpence? No, I must enter in my account book that which is in fact in my pocket. Accounting is the reckoning of facts, not fancies. Even so, it is because I am really dead that God tells me to account it so. God could not ask me to put down in my account book what was not true. He could not ask me to reckon that I am dead if I am still alive. For such mental gymnastics the word 'reckoning' would be inappropriate; we might rather speak of 'mis-reckoning'!
Reckoning is not a form of make-believe. It does not mean that, having found that I have only twelve shillings in my pocket, I hope that by entering fifteen shillings incorrectly in my account book such 'reckoning' will somehow remedy the deficiency. It won't. If I have only twelve shillings, yet try to reckon to myself:'I have fifteen shillings; I have fifteen shillings; I have fifteen shillings,' do you think that the mental effort involved will in any way affect the sum that is in my pocket? Not a bit of it! Reckoning will not make twelve shillings into fifteen shillings, nor will it make what is untrue true. But if, on the other hand, it is a fact that I have fifteen shillings in my pocket, then with great ease and assurance I can enter fifteen shillings in my account book. God tells us to reckon ourselves dead, not that by the process of reckoning we may become dead, but because we are dead. He never told us to reckon what was not a fact.
Having said, then, that revelation leads spontaneously to reckoning, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are presented with a command: 'Reckon ye . . .' There is a definite attitude to be taken. God asks us to do the account; to put down 'I have died' and then to abide by it. Why? Because it is a fact. When the Lord Jesus was on the Cross, I was there in Him. Therefore I reckon it to be true. I reckon and declare that I have died in Him. Paul said, 'Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God.' How is this possible? 'In Christ Jesus.' Never forget that it is always and only true in Christ. If you look at yourself you will think death is not there, but it is a question of faith not in yourself but in Him. You look to the Lord, and know what He has done. 'Lord, I believe in Thee. I reckon upon the fact in Thee.' Stand there all the day" (The Normal Christian Life, p.50-52). End quote.
If we turn a deaf ear to what God says is already true in our past, then how can we hope to have any success in our present spiritual conflicts? It is through the Spirit that we "mortify the deeds of the body," not by reckoning, or should we say, mis-reckoning, ourselves alive when God says, " ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Rom. 8:13 & Col. 3:3). We pray that the scarlet thread will hang all the days of our life in the window of our understanding. For it is in this that we see, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" (Gal. 3:13). When Jesus hung on the cross, all of the first humanity, the old man, the first Adam, the man who is earthy, i.e. red, hung with Him. It is true that the Hebrew word for scarlet is different than the Hebrew word for Adam. Nevertheless, Adam means red earth and the principle of hanging the scarlet thread is there for those who have ears to hear. However, beware of the dogs from within and from without. All who herald a true revelation run the risk of locking horns with spirits and ideas that are not unlike the Jews that took counsel to kill Paul (Acts 9:23). Ah, but Paul was also led to safety through a window, like the spies in Joshua's day. "And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands" (2 Cor. 11:33). So it is through our window, that is to say, our understanding, that we will escape that which would have us commit spiritual mutilation (Phil. 3:2). And it is only through the Spirit, not through the religious knife of another, save the flinty knife of our Joshua, that we will mortify the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13).
To be continued . . .
*** We have just added to our website an
excellent exhortation on suffering and humility entitled "Micah
and Paul" by Phil Scranton. You can
view it at
http://pages.prodigy.net/travis.ogletree/micahpaul.htm