THE DIVINE HIGHWAY — J. Taylor, Sr.

Exodus 15:13 - 17; Numbers 33:1 - 4, 50 - 56

My thought is to say a word about the journeyings of the saints. What I desire to make clear, by the Lord's help, is that divine record is kept of all our soul movements. It is necessary, first of all, that our souls should be in the light of what God effects from His own side, and to know that nothing can fail of that. In Exodus 15 the saints are typically under the first impulse of the victory which had been achieved for them, and first impressions are always the richest. They had come to believe, we are told, in the Lord, and in His servant Moses. Since God had undertaken to deliver them, they are to go out of Egypt suitably. So all the plagues brought upon Egypt were not only intended as testimony to Pharaoh, but they were also intended as education for Israel.

Every plague carried with it its own lesson which Israel had to learn, until finally there was the last and greatest plague sent by the Lord, the death of the firstborn in Egypt. They were to profit by that above all the other plagues, and the lesson they were intended to learn from it was that in themselves they were no better than the Egyptians. I do not dwell on that, but as we proceed in the history we find that they finally arrived at definite faith in the Lord: they believed in Jehovah. It is a wonderful time when the saint arrives at that, when there is absolute confidence in God. They believed in Him we are told in a previous chapter, and not only did they believe in the Lord, but they believed in Moses. No mistake had been made in selecting a leader. They believed in Moses, so that they were in the full light in their souls typically of Jehovah in His faithfulness to them, and of Moses as the one whom He had raised up in wisdom to lead them out. So much indeed was Moses before them that they were baptised to him, they "were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea".

Now Exodus 15 is the outflow of the first impulse of victory, and as I said, you get the fullest and best thoughts at the beginning. The difficulties of the way needed God's sustainment, but it is refreshing to start with these wonderful thoughts. And what you find is that God had undertaken to take them out; He led forth the people whom He had redeemed. He had led them forth -- He had brought them out in order that He might bring them in. I want every soul here just to accept that. Not one iota of the divine mind about them can fail. He brings them in and plants them. What a wonderful plantation that must be! No mountain had ever been planted as that mountain, the mountain of Jehovah's inheritance. Think of being planted there! He brings them in and plants them in the mountain of His inheritance. In the light of the Christian's position what is it? It is just that wonderful epistle, known so well to us by name, but alas! known so little in power in our souls, the epistle to the Ephesians. God "has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus". That is what God proposes to do. It is put as if it were done, and the more you value the position the more you value the present tense: for if it is done it cannot be undone. God never repents of what is good. His calling is without repentance, His gift is without repentance; hence, as I said, the more you value the position the more you value the present tense: It is accomplished, and the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

The epistle to the Ephesians is all on the line of gift and calling: that ye might know "the hope of his calling", and what guarantees the hope is the power. What power? The exceeding greatness of His power manifested in the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. There is the guarantee for the hope. "That ye should know what is the hope of his calling ... and what the surpassing greatness of his power ... which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead". And another thing -- "the riches of the glory of his inheritance".

Think of it! It is the mountain of His inheritance all planted over, enriched with plantings such as that. He shall plant them in the mountain of His inheritance. Think of being there! Will you ever admit the thought for a moment that you arrive there by any efforts of your own? He has "made us to sit, down", and we do well to accept that, for the gifts and calling of God are not subject to change. It is viewed as accomplished, and there is no recalling it, and your soul will do well to accept that.

Then, on the other hand, there are the journeyings. You have nothing about Moses planting them in the inheritance, you have nothing about Aaron doing it, the Lord does it. But when you come to the journeyings you need Moses and you need Aaron, so that you find in Numbers 33, "These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron". Now I would be very simple and very practical, and I appeal to you as to whether you have set out under the guidance, "under the hand of Moses and Aaron". Do you wonder why it is that the Lord does not take us in at once? What about that delight, beloved friends, that God has in every movement of the saints? You do not wish to deny Him the delight that He has in every step? Think of Christ; God says, "Mine elect in whom my soul delighteth". That was Christ going through the world to carry out the divine will. He set out in this world to walk through it.

It was one labyrinth of evil, there was no way in it. You have in the Scriptures the idea of a divine highway. In Judges 5 Deborah tells us that before she was raised up the highways were untrodden. I want you to bear in mind that there is a divine highway. That highway has been marked out through this world by the steps of Christ, and there is no crookedness in it. In the heavenly city there is only one street, and it is Straight. I mean to say there is only one street mentioned in the city. The street in which Paul was found was "called Straight". Acts 9:11. He was found in that street. It was a straight street. Now Deborah tells us that the highways were neglected, and the travellers went in byways, and the result was there were no villages. Depend upon it, if the highway which the Lord Jesus has marked out for us is neglected, we are in by-ways, crooked paths. How is it that the Lord's people are in crooked paths? They turn aside from the "highway", and there are no villages, no meetings, to use a well-known term. A meeting is scarcely a city. A village is not a city or town, there were not even villages, that is what Deborah tells us. Now the Lord Jesus has marked out a highway, a divine highway. He has gone before us, and, oh! with what pleasure the eye of God rested on those steps which turned not to the right or to the left! He went straight on I was speaking last night of Mary's anointing of Jesus' feet in John 12. It expressed her appreciation of the way He had taken. It referred to her appreciation of the path He took, and of where it led to. It led down into death. That is the way the divine highway led. You may depend upon it the highway out of every difficulty is on that line. Mary anointed those feet. And, beloved friends, feet like those deserve our attention. I do not pursue that; I only wish to point out that in the journeyings of the saints God has His pleasure. He had pleasure in Christ's footsteps, and we are to follow in those steps. It is "steps"; that is to say, there is one step at a time; not one complete journey, but one step after another, after Christ. It is in that way that the elect of God come to light, for in the epistles of Colossians and Romans we are regarded as the elect of God. God has His pleasure in His elect, and so we find in this remarkable chapter that by the commandment of the Lord all the journeyings of His people, from the moment they set out on the fifteenth day of the first month until they arrived at the banks of the Jordan are noted, Well, you may say, there were many crooked ways. Yes, they did not keep to the highway. But God followed them even in the crooked ways. The crooked ways are recorded. I do not know that any one could trace out on a map of the desert of Arabia the journeyings of the people, but God followed them. This chapter gives the spirit of what occurred, and we want to get at the spirit of things. If you have to do with prophecy you need the spirit of prophecy, and if you want to look at the journeys of God's people you need the spirit of them. The spirit of it is that God's eye follows you ever step. What! you say, in those crooked by-ways? Yes! even in crooked by-paths. Did not the Lord's eye follow Peter when he turned in there into the palace; that was not the highway. No, that was a crooked way, but the Lord's eye still followed Peter even in that crooked way. He had said, "I have prayed for thee". He follows us in grace in the crooked ways, but think with what pleasure He follows us when we come back into the straight path. In Psalm 107 we read how "they wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in", but He led them forth and placed them on the right way. I connect that for the moment with Numbers 21.

I do not believe that any Christian is really on the right way until he recognises the Spirit instead of the flesh. If you recognise the flesh in any way it will divert you, but if you recognise the Spirit you are on the right way. Then you begin to move on. "That they might go to a city of habitation". You have power now to go there.

I want to engage you specially with the interest that God manifests in every one of us from the very outset of the journey until we arrive at the end of it. First, I would dwell for a moment on the start they made. We have often heard that it is a great thing to make a good beginning, and I desire to point out in Numbers how they began. They began publicly; and what I would say to you is that you begin with God publicly. Israel "went out in the sight of all the Egyptians". Many of us would like to go out privately; many a saint is content with that, but the Israelites went out publicly. What does it come to? It comes to this, that I have come to love Christ, and I want to make known to the world that I am on the side of Christ. I take a public position as identified with Christ. Have you done that? Are you doing it? They went out, it says, in the sight of all the Egyptians. What a glorious beginning that was! You may say, What do you mean? I mean that you take a public stand for Christ in the sight of the world, and in taking that public stand you are turning your back on the world, not only because you do not want it, but because it has rejected Christ; the world has rejected Christ, and in sight of that you go out of it. And what do you find then? You find the hand of God supporting you. If you follow what I am saying you will get profit by putting it in practice. If you take a public stand for Christ daily you will find His support. God has a high hand; His support is with the believer as he goes out publicly.

Now I have often thought we do not go into heaven publicly. I quite admit the two witnesses in Revelation are said to ascend up to heaven in the sight of their enemies: that was God showing His approval of them. But the Lord Jesus went up into heaven privately; He did not go out of the world privately. He went out of the world at Jerusalem from the cross. The world never once saw Him after that. He remained on earth forty days after that in private, and when He went up to heaven it was not in the sight of all the world but in the sight of His loved disciples. Those who loved Him were His witnesses; they saw Him go into heaven, their hearts followed Him in, but He went out of the world in the sight of all the Egyptians. What a glorious testimony that was, and we are called to follow it. I dwell upon that especially for young believers, that they may make a good start and go out "in the sight of all the Egyptians". God records that. You notice how much He makes of it here. There is a great deal more said about that than of any other point in the passage, but nevertheless the Spirit of God through Moses records every step of the journeyings of His people. Oh, may the Lord give us to have a sense in our souls -- in our movements -- that He is taking account of us! If we had a sense of that there would be much less discouragement even in the presence of failure.

Now take Exodus 17. The apostle, in alluding to this, says "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them". 1 Corinthians 10:4. Notice that! It is not which they carried, but the Rock that followed them. And who was the Rock? "That Rock was Christ". He follows you. If you notice in the allusion to Rephidim in Numbers 33 you will see there is nothing said there about the people's murmuring; they did murmur grievously, and "tempted the Lord". But what does it say? "There was no water for the people to drink". How touching that is! Instead of complaining about the murmuring of the people, it is said, "there was no water for the people to drink". That is a touch of grace. The Rock was there. So that in the presence of evil, even in the presence of failure, though it is not condoned, your heart is not discouraged in the journeying, for the Rock follows you. The Rock is there with the bountiful supply and refreshment of Christ; we have not to go for it, it follows us. Moses cried unto the Lord: "What shall I do? ... the people will stone me", and the Lord tells him to take the elders, "And thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb". Think of that! Think of God turning a deaf ear to the murmurings of the people and being at Horeb when the rock was smitten. The Rock was Christ: Christ was smitten, and God said, "I will be there". Ah, and He was there at the smiting of Christ. The people deserved chastisement, but the rod fell upon Christ and the water flowed forth. Now where is the need for discouragement? There is no excuse for murmuring, but God turned a deaf ear to the murmuring and said, "there was no water for the people to drink". What a touch of grace! He provides the water through the smiting of Christ. The Rock followed them.

Then we come to Numbers 20, and there you have another Rock. I touch on this point just for a moment. We are all liable to failure on the journey. There are again murmurings in Numbers 20 long after the event recorded in Exodus 17. There are murmurings again; so much so that Moses called the people "rebels", but there is not a word about rebellion in the record which Moses wrote long afterwards under the hand of the Spirit. The Lord says to Moses, "Take the rod". What rod was that?

There was only one rod now. It was Aaron's rod, that is, in type, Christ in resurrection; not now Christ as smitten, but Christ as risen. If Christ be risen, if Christ is at the right hand of God, what may we not get from Him? God has raised up Christ and exalted Him in heaven, that your faith and hope might be in God. What now? What did the Lord say to Moses? "Speak to the rock". Do you habituate yourself to speaking to Him? It is not the time of smiting now, it is the time of speaking. If Christ be risen and glorified it is time to speak to Him. The way is open for men to speak and the water flows. The rod then taken was the rod that sprouted, blossomed and bore almonds; that was no rod to smite the rock with. You cannot connect smiting with Christ in heaven. It is the time of speaking. Now suppose you speak in the hour of your need, you will never be disappointed; the water flows, and the soul is refreshed.

In Numbers 21 again you have water, not from smiting, nor speaking, but from digging. The flesh is now refused definitely in the history of the believer, and judged in the cross of Christ as set forth typically in the lifting up of the brazen serpent; and the water springs up. It is now within you, a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life, and you go on with that. You are on a straight road now. You are on the highway of which Deborah spoke. So the people went straight forward until they arrived at the banks of the Jordan. Thus you have step by step God's supply on the one hand and God's notations on the other, and I believe that there will be many more books, that is records, in the future than we think, and amongst them will be the record, the divine record, of the spiritual movements of God's saints in the wilderness.

Now when they come to Jordan all that stops, and what you find is that the people are to go in and take possession. I was speaking of God taking us in and making us to sit down together. I do not know anything more beautiful. Think of God doing that! Raising us up and making us to sit down.

What attention we get in heaven! Not even an angel deputed to do it, God Himself does it. Think of the attention that saints receive at the hand of God in heaven, and in company with those we love there. After all the journeyings they want to go in to, Canaan. I do verily believe that the Spirit of God would put it upon the hearts of the saints to go into Canaan. I believe the Lord would speak to us as to what belongs to ourselves, as to what is our own distinctive territory. In Numbers 26 the inheritance is carefully divided by Eleazar and Joshua amongst the tribes, whereas here they are to go in and take possession and divide it amongst themselves. I will just say one word about that. What is it to be doing things amongst ourselves? It is one thing for Christ to do things for us, or for God to do things for us, for truly we shall be allotted our position there by divine appointment; but according to this chapter the people are to go over and divide it amongst themselves. What mutuality there is in that, and how are they to do it? Is there to be selfishness? Is there to be a me first? No, there is consideration for others who have large families. See the grace of the Spirit of Christ. What puts us to the test is to do things together, dividing things between ourselves. There is nothing more pleasing to God than mutuality if it is governed by divine affection, and that is what this passage supposes. It supposes that the people have arrived, in the power of the Spirit, at the banks of the Jordan. And He says, Now go over and divide the inheritance amongst yourselves.

I would put it before you, beloved, that mutuality of affection is one of the greatest features attaching to the Christian position. God does not leave anything indefinite from His side: all is carefully divided under the supervision of Eleazar, but here they are to go in and divide it themselves; it is this mutuality that brings out where we are spiritually, and it soon becomes apparent as to whether self rules or whether love rules. If we are under the influence of love there would be consideration. The circumstances of each are taken account of, and that is the principle that obtains in Canaan. I would add that I am not speaking now of heaven literally; Canaan is not heaven literally, it is the light of heaven for us now. When the Lord comes to take us to heaven He comes Himself. Abraham's servant does not represent the power that takes us to heaven actually, but the power that takes us to Christ now in the history of our souls. When it is a question of being taken to heaven the Lord Himself comes for us; He does not leave it even to the Spirit, although the Spirit would do it faithfully; the Spirit brings us to the banks of Jordan. I want you to understand that. You go over in the Spirit's power to Canaan now, but Christ comes to take you to heaven literally. Christ comes for us, "The Lord Himself shall descend", and we shall go up with Him; our place there is already arranged, our abode is already prepared; we do not divide it amongst ourselves there; it is all arranged by Christ in heaven. Hence this chapter alludes to what we have now. It is the light of God's purpose known now in our souls, and the mutuality that is to mark the saints, due consideration for each other; that is one great feature of Canaan.

May the Lord use these thoughts, for one feels the seriousness of the day, that we may journey and that we may go on the straight highway that Christ has marked out. I love that thought! The Lord Jesus Christ has marked out a highway, the apostles trod it, and all the men of faith trod it, and there it is now for us. Deborah spoke about the highway as untrodden, so that the travellers went in by-ways; and is it not so with many at the present time? To a great extent the highway is deserted, people have turned aside into by-ways.

May the Lord turn our feet into the highway. You will minister pleasure to God's heart as you walk in the steps of Christ.