The Sabbath of Rest
Ministry by G. R. Cowell
– Memorials: Volume 4

Ques. What have you in mind in regard of the importance of keeping sabbath?

G.R.C. The idea of keeping sabbath is introduced in Exodus. The first formal mention of it is in Exodus 16, where it says,

• “Tomorrow is the rest, the holy Sabbath, of Jehovah”, verse 23.

• And then, when the commandments were given, they were told to hallow the sabbath day.

• They were told also – Exodus 31 – to keep it as an everlasting covenant, and as a sign between Jehovah and the children of Israel for ever.

• But I think if we keep in mind the fact that there seems to be no alternative between keeping sabbath and going into captivity, it will help us.

Ques. Is not the seventy years at the end of 2 Chronicles directly related to that?

• “And them that had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they became servants to him and his sons, until the reign of the kingdom of Persia; to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath, to fulfil seventy years”, 2 Chronicles 36: 20- 21.

Ques. Would you say for us what going into captivity involves today?

G.R.C. I think going into captivity includes coming under bondage to feverish human activity, which centres round the glorification of man – the Babylonish system.

• All around us there is feverish activity, and men are in bondage to it; and the only way to keep free from that is to learn to keep sabbath with God,
  • which means that we appreciate what God has done by Himself and for Himself and in which creature hand could have no part.

• Any activity of ours, which does not flow from an appreciation of God's rest in Christ and His completed work, is dead works; and we can soon come into bondage to dead works.

Ques. Would you get the work of God in the six days before the sabbath is arrived at?

G.R.C. It is wonderful that we have the six days of divine workmanship. God says to His people later,

• “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work”, Exodus 20: 9;

• but first there is set out the six days of God's work, and then His rest.
  • Into this work no creature hand intruded.

• So far as we know, the angels were created before the six days; they would be included in verse 1, I suppose;
  • “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.

• But although the angels were there when God began working in verse 3, angels appear to have had no hand in the matter – we are not told that any creature had a hand in the matter;
  • God was working by Himself and for Himself.

Ques. Would it be right to say that keeping sabbath means that the soul comes into the gain of what God has wrought for His own blessed rest?

G.R.C. Just so. We rest with God in what He has done by Himself and for Himself. Man's glory is shut out of the picture. It is God; so that we are before God, the great Author and Finisher of everything which is for His pleasure.

Ques. Would the end be reached in Revelation 4: 11?

• “Thou art worthy, O our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power, for thou halt created all things, and for thy will they were and they have been created”.

• God's triumph finally secured.

G.R.C. That is a note of worship which we shall render in the coming day, but which we ought to be rendering now, to God as Creator.

Rem. Does the sabbath provide for fulness, each day having its own particular glory, but all those glories brought forward into suited conditions of rest, so that the day shall be full, and fulness characterise it?

G.R.C. So that, as to the sixth day, it says that,

• “God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good”.

• It becomes superlative, does it not?

Rem. Yes. I was thinking that the glory of the work of each day would shine in its perfection in conditions of sabbath.

G.R.C. It is wonderful to think of that. What was formed on each day is there in completeness at the close; and the whole is cumulative, headed up in men. The sabbath was made on account of man.

Ques. Would it help us objectively to get a view of the perfection and glory of the sabbath, before we think of it in its application?

G.R.C. That is exactly what is in mind; and to see that the sabbath was made on account of man. You could not conceive of God resting on the fifth day. You could not conceive of God resting until man was there.

Rem. So that blessing is connected both with the sabbath and with man. God blessed man and God blessed the sabbath.

G.R.C. And I think we should note that God was preparing, in those six days of operation, a setting for man.

• The sabbath was made on account of man. There was no thought of resting until man was there.

• “Let us make man” – a very distinctive idea as compared with the other days; the “Let us” coming in – a matter of Divine counsel.
  • “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion”;

• and then, in verse 27 it says,
  • “And God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”.

• So that God was working to provide conditions of life for man, and conditions in which the intelligence of man as head would find scope

• – a world in which He Himself would be known through the creature who is His image; and thus He would retain His own place as Head, as Supreme.

Ques. Is dominion important as contributing to the thought of rest – that there should be rule and not lawlessness?

G.R.C. Yes, rule becomes prominent. There is the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, – that is, there is heavenly rule.

• And then we have rule in the man and the woman –
  • “Let them have dominion”,

• rule in the one who was the image of God, and in his counterpart.

Ques. So that the thought of man includes Christ and the assembly?

G.R.C. Just so. And here it says,

• “God created man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”.

Ques. Would you say that while Christ is the great end in view, the assembly is essential?

G.R.C. Quite so. In Romans 5: 14 Christ is brought before us in the one who was the figure of Him who was to come.

• It is a wonderful thing to think of Christ thus, because the great Operator in this chapter was the Son; it was by Him God made the worlds; so that we hear, I suppose, His words in this chapter.

• And Hebrews tells us not only that by Him God made the worlds, but that He upholds all things by the word of His power.

• It is a marvellous thing that the One who was active in bringing everything into being, and who, ever since, has been upholding all things by the word of His power, has Himself come into manhood.

Ques. Would you mind saying a few words as to the two words in these verses – man earthy, and man as a race, in verses 26 and 27?

G.R.C. In each case the word is apparently 'Adam', but the first time without the article, and the second time with it.

• “Let us make man” is mankind; but the second is really that He created the man. He was the figure of the One to come.

• It would produce worship in our souls if we kept in mind that the One who is the Author and Upholder of all things has come into manhood as Firstborn of all creation, and the Image of the invisible God.

• And the assembly, as we know, is His counterpart. That is what God, in the figure, was working up to. God does not rest short of that.

Ques. As well as the thought of rest in connection with the sabbath, in Exodus 31 we have the added feature of refreshment. Are we also to take on that feature?

G.R.C. That is after the instruction as to the tabernacle is given. At the completion of all the instruction as to the tabernacle, typical of the great system of fragrance in which God dwells, it says, as to the sabbath, that God rested and was refreshed.

Ques. Is it to be noted that this great work takes six days? It is not all done in one day. I was thinking of the process involved, and whether that has a moral significance.

G.R.C. I think it has. Even in our history things are not done all at once.

Ques. Do you think that in the ways of God the glory of each day is yet to be arrived at, so that what is sabbatical should be introduced in its completeness?

G.R.C. Perhaps you would say a word as to your thought about the glory of each day.

Rem. It is beautiful to consider that God gives each day, and the work of each day, a day to itself; for instance,

• “Let there be light. And there was light”.

• God gives that a whole day, so to speak. Would it not refer to the glory of all that has appeared in Christ personally, and all that is to be known and to shine in its lustre in conditions of rest?

G.R.C. You would link that with the gospel of John, I suppose.

• “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light appears in darkness”.

Ques. Is it not interesting in that gospel that in the first day Christ is alone; God has Christ all to Himself? It is the second and third day when what is operational comes in.

G.R.C. The first thing is that we should appreciate Christ in His own distinctiveness, as the One in whom was life, and the life was the light of men;

• and we should never do that but for the Spirit of God operating.

• We should not have eyes to see but for the operations of the Spirit, of whom the Lord says,
  • “The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit”, John 3: 8.

• Would not that link, in spiritual application, with the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters?

• The Spirit is operating with deep feeling, with a view to bringing to pass conditions in men's souls whereby there is power to perceive the light.

Ques. In chapter 1 God says,

• “Let us make man in our image”.

• In chapter 2 Jehovah Elohim says,
  • “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helpmate his like”.

• What is the distinction between, “Let us” and “I will make”?

G.R.C. We should note that; even in chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 the plural gives way to the singular:

• “God created Man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”.

• Elohim is plural, but the singular pronoun is used; and that is the way God usually speaks.

• God is one; so that while there are three Persons, God normally speaks in the singular.

• But when He says, “Let us”, it may be that it has reference to Divine counsel over this great matter of the making of man.

• The plural of majesty would also enter into it; but I think we may be justified in seeing in it
  • a foreshadowing of the Holy Trinity.

Ques. In what way do you think there was counsel?

G.R.C. I was thinking of the contrast between, “Let us”, and that which precedes the operation on earlier days, where it is just, “Let there be”, “Let the waters”, and so on.

• This stands by itself:
  • “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.

Ques. In the thought of counsel do you include deliberation?

G.R.C. I would not be prepared to speak of deliberation. God is one, and we cannot penetrate into all that that involves – one in eternal Being.

• J.N.D. says that the Persons of the Godhead 'have not the same counsel, but one counsel, mind, purpose, thought; yet They act distinctly in the manifestation of that counsel'.

• As coming into the world the Lord Jesus said,
  • “Thou hast prepared me a body … Lo, I come”, Hebrews 10: 5-7.

• That was personal to Himself; yet He came relative to what was written in the volume of the book, which, one would think, is the book of Divine purpose and counsel.

• Thus the movements and operations of each Person are distinctive, and can be taken account of.

Ques. Deliberation would require time, would it not? Whereas in Divine counsel you cannot introduce the element of time.

G.R.C. If we speak of deliberation, we are in danger of thinking of Divine Persons deliberating as human beings would do.

• But we have to see that God is One; and yet the Persons are distinct, and in Their operations are distinct.

• Why should it be that the One we know as the Son should be the One to come into manhood?

• I would say that it is the result of divine counsel that He should come. No one could impose it on Him. So He says, “Lo, I come”.

Rem. In Ephesians 1 we have the counsel of His own will, and the will of God would enter into the matter of counsel there.

G.R.C. It speaks of, “the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will”, Eph. 1: 11.

• Purpose lies behind counsel; counsel refers to the way things are worked out, as I understand it. Behind everything is purpose. So it says
  • ”being marked out beforehand according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will” Ephesians 1: 11.

• There is purpose; and then the way things are worked out. We are engaged with God's works in Genesis; He, “works all things according to the counsel of his own will”.

Ques. You mean that counsel remains current; we are in the presence of it – “Who works”; it is a present matter. But purpose is a fixed past matter; there is nothing to add to it.

G.R.C. Purpose is fixed; but then, in achieving His purpose, God works all things according to the counsel of His own will.

• And we see the oneness of the Father and the Son in Their movements.

• While we can distinguish Their separate operations and activities, yet Their movements are one in will and mind and purpose; God is one.

Ques. Do you think John 1 would help us?

• “And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him and without him not one thing received being which has received being”.

G.R.C. Quite so. “All things received being”, there is a kind of feeling expression in that – they 'began to be' through Him.

Rem. We often sing,

“The Persons of the Godhead,
In wondrous concord, planned”.

G.R.C. We must not read into that the idea of persons coming to an agreement.

• God is one in purpose and counsel, and we must not allow at all the idea of three Persons coming to an agreement to do something.

Rem. J.N.D. says that the difference between purpose and counsel is that purpose is more the intention of the will, and counsel the wisdom of the mind.

G.R.C. That is very good. “Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” Romans 11: 34.

• We have to submit to the counsel of God. It involves His ways, and the working out of things; and our wills are apt to rebel.

• Peter needed adjustment in the working out of things, in bringing the Gentile in; his natural will would have rejected the idea.

• And that applies in a multitude of ways in our lives. Submission to God involves that we accept His ordering.
  • “Who has been his counsellor?”

• He does not take counsel with us; He does not ask what we would like, or what we think.

• He has taken counsel with Himself, and He, “works all things according to the counsel of his own will”,
  • and in the detailed working of it out it involves where we are set in our localities.

• If we are subject, we shall be where we are set according to divine counsel, with a view to bringing to pass His purpose, of which those days in Genesis are but a foreshadowing.

Rem. It is the grandeur of this chapter that the Divine will in its sovereignty is operating without any other will!

Ques. Would you say that man would be the crown, so to speak, of God's operations?

G.R.C. Yes. And so the Sabbath was made on account of man, and the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath.

Rem. I would like you to say something more about the Spirit hovering. You referred to the Son in creation, but then there is the Spirit also.

G.R.C. I wondered whether the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters suggested deep feeling, and may convey, too, some foreshadowing of the operations the Lord refers to in John 3.

Ques. Do you think that, at the moment these operations creatorially were being put into effect, the blessed God envisaged moral correspondence in man with regard to them?

G.R.C. Yes, I do. So that if you take the beginning of John, the light shone in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not. That is, there was no result. Darkness was upon the face of the deep.

• And there would have been no result, and nobody would have appreciated the light, though it was shining, but for the operations of the Spirit.

• So that the dividing between the light and the darkness in John's gospel was really through the operations of the Spirit.

Rem. It is beautiful to think of two Divine Persons being in the matter right at the outset, one acting in this creatorial way, and the other having in view the positive results in man.

G.R.C. Quite so. I think we should bear in mind what you have said as to the fulness which marks each day, and how cumulative it is, as all bearing on the final rest of God. It says,

• “And the heavens and the earth and all their host were finished”.

• God does not cease work until the work is finished. Every day was complete and beautiful in itself, except perhaps the second day which is not said to be good.

• But even that was essential. So that every day has its own essential part, and then it says,
  • “The heavens and the earth and all their host were finished. And God had finished on the seventh day his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made”.

• That is the idea of sabbath – rest from work; the word means that; and while the noun 'sabbath' is not used, the verb 'rest' in verses 2 and 3 of chapter 2 means 'to keep sabbath' – that is, to rest from work.

• But then God does not rest from work until it is finished. He rests in what is complete and very good, and therefore the rest is a complacent rest.

• God had worked for six days, by Himself and for Himself; and, the work being finished, He rested.

Ques. Do we not often think of rest in relation to the thought of weariness and burden, whereas the thought of completeness is what is distinctively in mind here, is it not?

G.R.C. It is. Who could think of God ceasing from work until He had finished? And so the finishing thing, as we may say, is man.

• Each day has its own place, and is essential to the whole scheme; but finally,
  • “Let us make man in our image”.

• That is the final thing; that God should be represented by an order of being capable of representing Him.

• Not that a creature could fully carry this out; but we look on to the One, of whom Adam was but a figure, and who is not a creature.

• All this had in view that the One who was uttering these words, bringing the worlds into being, and upholding all things by the word of His power,
  • would come into manhood, and thus be the Image of the invisible God.

Ques. Does the rest referred to in chapter 8 – God smelling a sweet odour – depend upon the sacrifices, the burnt offerings, which were offered by Noah?

• He “took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar”.

G.R.C. Quite so. It seems to me that this section would help us to have a right view of the present creation, now that sin has come in and the antediluvian world has been judged.

• God has taken on the creation again on a fresh basis.

• Right from Noah's day God has gone on with the present heavens and the present earth on the basis of sacrifice, Noah's sacrifices looking on to the sacrifice of Christ. It says,
  • “Jehovah smelled the sweet odour of rest”.

• So now, on the basis of Christ's sacrifice, God has an outlook of rest on the physical creation, even in its present state; and I think He would have us enter into that with Him.

• As anticipating the sacrifice of Christ, and the true sweet odour which came out there, He brought certain fixed conditions into the present order of things, which Christians need to understand.

• So that we can be restful, in this sense, even in the present order of things.

Ques. Is that why it says,

• “And Jehovah said in his heart, I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of man”,

• because He had Christ in view?

G.R.C. He had Christ in view, and He was going to carry through all His thoughts in regard to man, in spite of what had happened.

• He has given up no thought of His as regards man.

• On the ground of Christ's death, anticipatively, He has continued with the present heavens and the present earth, even from Noah's day, and promised certain fixed conditions which we can thoroughly rely upon.

• That is, we can thoroughly rely upon seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night; and we can thoroughly rely also on government being maintained in the world –
  • “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed”.

• Thus, after the flood, God set up two established things.
  1. One is that there will be no more destruction in the way in which there had been: while the earth remains the seasons will go through; we can rely on creational mercies.

  2. Secondly, we can rely on magisterial government – the punishment of the evil-door, and the reward of those who do well.

• So that, if we understand chapters 8 and 9, in spite of the fact that we are in a world of turmoil, it will give us stability and a certain restfulness;
  • because God has committed Himself, in virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, to go on with the present order.

• And of course it is in keeping with His counsel that He should do so.

• It is on account of man. God has not given up His thought as to man; and Christ's death has laid a foundation which justifies God in going on with the present order,
  • and in preserving seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, on the one hand, and preserving ordered government on the other.

• I believe an understanding of this would give us stability and confidence in God; and also would help us in the prayer meetings, in our priestly functions, particularly in regard of government.

Ques. Would you say in that connection that the powers that be are ordained of God?

G.R.C. Yes, and particularly in this setting of magisterial government.

• Political government is not in mind here.

• Political government develops later, and God merges the two. The political powers now are responsible under God to maintain this kind of government.

Ques. In regard to this odour of rest, does the scripture in Colossians 1, which reads,

• “By him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace by the blood of his cross – by him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens”,

• enter into the matter?

G.R.C. That is exactly what I have in mind. While things are not yet publicly reconciled, peace has been made by the blood of His cross.

• The blood of Christ's cross is seen in the gospel of John, which presents the burnt offering character of His death.

• Of course we know that the sin offering was involved in it, too; but the reference in Genesis 8 is to burnt offerings.

• The blood of Christ's cross has secured peace for the Fulness; and in virtue of that, while things are not yet publicly reconciled, God looks upon the world as in provisional reconciliation;
  • so that this is a well-accepted time, and we should have great liberty to pray to God as to creational and governmental matters.

Rem. What we are considering now would give us a greater apprehension of what the blood of Christ and His death have meant, and still do mean, to God.

G.R.C. I think so, because the end of all flesh came fully before God in the death of Christ.

Rem. So we have a beautiful allusion to the heart of God here –

• “Jehovah said in his heart”.

• Man's heart is exposed. It was exposed at the cross, was it not? But was not God's heart laid bare there in its great love?

Ques. Is it significant that Noah had no specific instruction to build the altar?

G.R.C. Quite so. And we might take him, too, as a type of Christ. It is anticipative here, of course, but in Christ's death the end of all flesh came before God.

• It came before Him in the flood, but in the fullest degree it came before Him in the death of Christ.

• But then, in the place of the corruption of the flesh, which had corrupted its way on the earth, there remains the sweet odour of rest from Christ's sacrifice. How pleasurable this was to God!

Rem. “An offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour”.

G.R.C. The fact that there is this sweet odour would encourage us to pray to God about the seasons, whether actual or spiritual.

• I believe God would have His priesthood to enjoy much more liberty with Himself in their supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings – far more than we have ever known yet; and this is a basis for it, we have this covenant.

• It is not a covenant with a particular nation; it applies to the whole earth; and, Christ having come, we are now in the full intelligence of the position.

• The world standing in provisional reconciliation, we can pray for great things.

• We can pray for great things creationally, for anything that is needed testimonially, anything that is needed for the good of men. God is the preserver of all men.

• The prayers of Timothy would bear on this scripture:
  • “God, who is preserver of all men, specially of those that believe”, 1 Timothy 4:10.

• I believe God counts upon us to approach Him with much liberty and intelligence in our prayers, knowing that this covenant remains;
  • and that in this day, when the world stands in provisional reconciliation, it is a well-accepted time;

• not simply a well-accepted time for the sinner to draw near to God; we can apply it thus, but that is not the main point.

• The main point is that it is a well-accepted time for God to hear the priesthood;
  • and to answer every intelligent request, both creationally and in government,

• as well as in everything which relates to the furtherance of what He is doing as the spiritual counterpart to the six days of Genesis 1. God is still working.

Rem. The literal bow in the cloud would be a constant reminder of this to us, and would stimulate our exercises in faith in relation to what you have been saying.

• Peter also brings in the idea of God as a faithful Creator, despite the fact that there was persecution and much to disturb the mind.

G.R.C. Very good.

Ques. Would this help us in approaching the authorities? I was thinking of matters of conscience.

• Although we have to speak to them as part of the constitutional government, we are to keep this magisterial side before us.

• I was wondering if that would give us a boldness in our approach.

G.R.C. Yes, because they are responsible to God; and He is in the matter, and is using them, whether they know it or not.

Genesis 1 and 2 are of great importance in understanding this subject. There is no thought there of man enjoying sabbath with God;

• although man was there, God was alone in it.

• But in Exodus, having secured His sons by way of redemption, He brings us – speaking typically now – into it in the liberty of sonship.
  • “Israel is my son, my firstborn”, Exodus 4: 22,

  • and later, “Hallow unto me every firstborn – it is mine”, Exodus 13: 2.

• You can understand God's heart requiring that His sons should be intelligently with Him in that in which He rests.

• The first formal mention of sabbath is in Exodus 16, standing related to the manna. It says,
  • “Tomorrow is the rest, the holy sabbath, of Jehovah”, Exodus 16: 23.

• The thought of rest being linked with sabbath is interesting – “Tomorrow is the rest”.

• The word sabbath means ‘rest’, rest from work; and in many of these scriptures there is an emphasis on it. It is sometimes called the sabbath of rest, as in chapter 31: 15;
  • “On the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, holy to Jehovah”.

• I do not fully understand the use of the two words, but there is something important in it. They are two cognate words.

• Sabbath is ‘shabbath’, and “rest” in these passages is ‘shabbathon’, both carrying the idea of rest from work; but one would judge that the word translated “rest” – ‘shabbathon’ –, stresses rest.

• Rest is greatly stressed when you get both of these words together.

• J.N.D. habitually translates ‘shabbathon’ as “rest”; “Tomorrow is the rest, the holy sabbath, of Jehovah”.

We might consider how the sabbath is introduced in Exodus – God's rest in Christ as typified in the manna and then, how He would have us to enjoy that rest with Him.

• Then, in chapter 31, after the instruction as to the tabernacle is complete, the Sabbath is brought in again as the everlasting covenant, suggesting God's full rest in the great anointed system, in which Christ is enshrined as risen and glorified.

Ques. How would you apply the six days now? It says,

• “And it came to pass on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one”.

G.R.C. In the spiritual application, we have to get away from the idea of literal days.

• There are the working periods when work has to be done, but I think the great thing to keep before us now is that the sabbath must not be neglected.

• There was no gathering of the manna on the seventh day. As to the other days, they gathered the daily need on its day. That is to say, we are thinking of our needs.

• But on the seventh day, having gathered the double quantity, the people were free to keep the rest, the holy sabbath of Jehovah; and not to be occupied with their need, but with God's satisfaction and rest in Christ.

Ques. Would the sixth day in chapter 16 remind us of Paul's day to which you referred? They gathered twice as much bread on that day.

• Would you link it in any way with Paul's great ministry, leading pre-eminently to the enjoyment of sabbath?

G.R.C. That is an interesting suggestion. There is fulness with Paul in every aspect of the truth which he touches.

• In the Gospels themselves you get the manna in the fullest way, but I am thinking particularly of Paul's word in Timothy –
  • “Confessedly the mystery of piety is great” 1 Timothy 3: 16.

• The manna was a mystery; the word means that. When they first saw it they said, “What is it?”; and that became its name.

• Paul speaks of the truth of Christ and the church as great; but when it is a question of the mystery of piety, he says,
  • “And confessedly the mystery of piety is great”.

• It may be that it is the greatest feature of mystery –
  • “Confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh”.

• The great question mark is always over the manna: “What is it?”:
  • “What sort of man is this?”, Matthew 8: 27.

• So would we not say that the incarnation itself will always remain a mystery?

Rem. I fully go with that. And here the people are to feed on it. As partaking of it, there would be sustained in them the element of mystery.

• So that what is said of the manna would, in measure, be true of the saints – as typically feeding on Christ?

G.R.C. You mean that in a sense the saints be come mysterious? That is so.

• The saints become mysterious, because they bring God into their circumstances, and have links with God which unregenerate man cannot penetrate.

• Every truly pious man, marked by piety in Christ Jesus, is a mystery man.

• Piety means that we bring God into our circumstances, and that makes us mystery men; but the mystery of piety is that God has been in the circumstances Himself.
  • “God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels”.

Rem. It says in Psalm 78: 25 that,

• “Man did eat the bread of the mighty”.

G.R.C. That is an expression to take note of. The Authorised Version says, “angels food”; and, as here, manifested in flesh, the Lord was seen of angels.

• They waited on Him. What a sight for angels! I think we can also apply it otherwise.
  • “Man did eat the bread of the mighty”.

• I would like to eat that food. It was the food of the apostles, the food of Paul, the food of J.N.D. They were among the mighty of this dispensation.

Rem. It says that bread strengthens man's heart.

G.R.C. Quite so, and that would apply to bread generally, as well as in the bread we are now speaking about.

• But this expression, “the bread of the mighty”, if understood, would make us desire to appropriate the manna.

• Mighty men have gone before us, and what has sustained them in their might is this bread. I doubt whether we have given enough attention to the manna, and the importance of it.

• Then, as getting the gain of the manna, we can rest before God in His appreciation of what has come into manifestation in the second Man out of heaven; and, as we see at the close of the chapter, it is treasured up before God for ever.

• An omer of it is put into a pot, which we are told in the New Testament was a golden pot. There it is; but it is still manna; that is, the mystery remains. It is the hidden manna.

• Even as entering the holiest we are still in the presence of mystery.

• The mystery of Godhead will always remain a mystery, as will also the mystery of the fact that there is a living glorious Man in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells.

• There will always be mystery attached to Christ's person.

Ques. Would it divert to ask as to the pot of manna, and what bearing it would have upon us in this connection?

G.R.C. In Christianity, the place of rest is the holiest.

• There is the gathering of the double portion, the wealth of Paul's ministry, so that we are freed from ourselves and what simply meets our need.

• We have to think of our need day by day; but there should be a time when we are free from looking at things from the standpoint of our need.

• If we have eaten and truly appropriated the bread of the mighty, we shall have strength in our souls to keep the rest, the holy sabbath of Jehovah,
  • and be with God in the appreciation of what He has found in Christ, which ever remains before Him.

• The days of Christ's flesh will never be forgotten. They are spoken of in Hebrews,
  • “Who in the days of his flesh”, Hebrews 5: 7.

• They are treasured up before God in the golden pot; and, I believe, in Christianity – the surest way of keeping the sabbath of God is to enter the holiest.

Rem. Would the feeding on the manna every day develop a constitution in which the rest of God would be assured?

• Was His rest not disturbed by the pride of man at the beginning, and would this not bring in the features of Christ as the One who humbled Himself, the heavenly man?

G.R.C. That is very helpful. An appreciation of the manna became a cardinal issue in the wilderness. There can be no rest for God and His people if we do not appreciate the manna.

• Things came to an issue in Numbers 21, when they said, “our soul loathes this light bread”.

• How out of accord with God they were in His rest in Christ! “Our soul loathes”; think of that – that the flesh, even of Christians, loathes it!

• Think of calling it, “light bread” – this mysterious food, God manifested in flesh. What an awful thing!

• It became a great issue; and, in God's mercy, as we face it, it brings us to judgment of ourselves; a judgment that, in the flesh, we are utterly unsuited to God, worthy only of complete condemnation, the brazen serpent typifying that.

• There is no correspondence whatever between the flesh – our flesh – and the manna. Our flesh has got to go. So this becomes a cardinal issue.

• Man's loathing of the manna led to the crucifixion of Christ.

Rem. Is there not mystery in Matthew 11: 27 where the Lord said,

• “No one knows the Son but the Father, nor does anyone know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal him”?

• Does it not show the inscrutability of the person of the Son?

G.R.C. That scripture was on my mind. Jesus was speaking as a lowly dependent Man here, whom they could see and handle and listen to, but He said,

• “No one knows the Son but the Father”.

• The fact that in Jesus, the lowly Man here, God was present – indeed all the Fulness was pleased to dwell in Him – will ever remain a mystery.

• Yet we are assured of it. It is not a mystery in the sense that we have doubt whatever as to it.

• The believer, in his own experience, is absolutely assured of it; but it is beyond human comprehension or explanation.

Rem. It leads to the worship of the Person of the Son and to the worship of God following upon that.

Ques. Have you not got the sabbath in Christ in that chapter, the Lord turning to the Father in the repose of His own person?

G.R.C. And He says, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11: 28.

• It is in coming to Him, without any activity of the critical mind of man, that we receive rest.

• No doubt that involves, for us, His death and resurrection; He gives us rest – we rest in Him and His work. But He goes on to say,
  • “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me … and ye shall find rest to your souls”, Matthew 11: 29.

• I would say the yoke would be a thing which we can carry only as we feed upon the manna. Those who take His yoke upon them, and learn from Him, are the mighty.

Ques. Would Matthew 12 – the disciples in the cornfield with the Lord – suggest, perhaps, those who are brought restfully into the spirit of the sabbath?

G.R.C. They were in the restful liberty of Sabbath, and went through the cornfields and plucked and ate the ears. They were in the liberty of God's rest figuratively.

• The Lord also says there that,
  • “the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless” Matthew 12:5,

• because the priests had much to do on the sabbath. That was not servile work.

• The priests, for instance, had to put the shewbread hot on the table on the sabbath.

• If we are not keeping Sabbath, we are not free for our priestly functions in putting the shewbread hot before Jehovah on the sabbath.

• They had also two morning lambs and two evening lambs to offer on the sabbath.

Rem. On the other hand, there were those who gathered manna on the sabbath, and Jehovah said to Moses,

• “How long do ye refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?”

• Is there not the danger, in that way, of occupying the sabbath with our need?

G.R.C. That is what I think we have to learn.

• If we are simply on the line of the need of man, including ourselves, we never reach the sabbath of God, and we shall go into captivity.

• All Christians who limit themselves to the need of man, and never consider for God and what He has in His rest, go into captivity.

Rem. In Deuteronomy 8: 16 it says,

• “who fed thee in the wilderness with manna … that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end”.

G.R.C. It leads us, if we appropriate it fully, into the rest of God.

Rem. In Luke 10 it is Mary who is enjoying the Sabbath and the manna, whereas Martha seems to be occupied with need only.

G.R.C. Yes. Mary was at rest, was she not, at the feet of Jesus? What a sabbath that was for her!

Rem. The Lord's promise to the overcomer in Revelation 2: 17 is,

• “To him … will I give of the hidden manna”.

G.R.C. As far as I understand it, that would refer to the manna put into the golden pot, which was in the ark.

Ques. Would the dew suggest a restful state, so that the manna can be properly appreciated?

G.R.C. It is the bread from heaven. We could not get it by any labour of our own. It is just a question of gathering it; and the dew may suggest, that, even in the gathering of it, there is restfulness and refreshment.

Ques. Is it not significant the number of times the Lord Jesus operated on the sabbath to set souls free, according to Luke?

• Would that not indicate that priestly service and the service of God must depend upon conditions of sabbath?

G.R.C. Exactly; and the Lord never broke the sabbath.

• He was only breaking rules and ideas of men, who were seeking in a legal manner to enforce the letter, and who had no heart for God at all.

• What the Lord did, everything He did, on the sabbath day, was entirely legitimate, even according to the law of Moses.

Rem. In verse 16 the word says,

• “This is the thing which Jehovah has commanded”,

• and there are about four other references to Jehovah's commandment. Is there some importance in that?

• The manna surely speaks of One who learned obedience in the things that He suffered – see Hebrews 5: 8 – and do we not need to come under divine command?

• The thought of lawlessness is completely inconsistent with the manna.

G.R.C. I am glad you have mentioned that – verse 4,

• “that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or not”.

• And then, “How long do ye refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?”

• So that this question of the sabbath became an initial test as to keeping God's law and His commandments. It shows that the sabbath is a primary matter with God.

• If we do not keep it, we are breaking the law of God, and it becomes the test of obedience in a general way.

Ques. How would the food of John 6 fit in to what you have in mind?

G.R.C. The food of John 6 is comprehensive. I think it includes the Passover, the manna, and the old corn of the land.

• Verse 38 of that chapter would refer to the manna, where the Lord says,
  • “I am come down from heaven, not that I should do my will, but the will of him that has sent me”.

  Then He speaks of eating His flesh, and drinking His blood – referring to His death. Then He says,

  • “he that eats me shall live also on account of me”, verse 57 – that is the old corn of the land;

  • “If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before”.

• I think it is a comprehensive chapter on food.

Ques. What is the difference between gathering the manna and eating it? They were allowed to eat it on the sabbath.

G.R.C. Eating manna on the sabbath would be appropriating it before God from the standpoint of what Christ is to God. Freed from all activity in the gathering of it, they were now resting before God to enjoy it with Him.

Ques. Is that involved in the thought of hallowing the sabbath?

G.R.C. Yes. “Remember the sabbath day to hallow it” – chapter 20: 8 –

• and then at the end of verse 11,
  • “Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it”.

• That is, Jehovah hallowed it; and now we remember it, and hallow it. Let us see to it that we never forget sabbath.

• We are not referring to a particular day of the week. Everyone here will realise that.

• We never forget sabbath; we remember the sabbath day, and hallow it. It is a question of our spirituality.

Ques. Is Paul personally, in his own experience, at the end of need when he says,

• “I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself”, Philippians 4: 11?

G.R.C. Yes, he was free to keep sabbath in all circumstances – content in himself; and therefore free to rest before God.

• We often get disturbed and restless when circumstances are trying, but not so Paul.

• It is interesting that in the corresponding passage to Exodus 20 in Deuteronomy certain things are added. In Deuteronomy 5: 14 it says,
  • “that thy bondman and thy handmaid may rest as well as thou”.

• In another passage, Exodus 23:12,
  • “that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid”,

• showing that, for God to rest, there must be conditions of compassion and rest for all His creatures – for the ox and for the ass, and for the bondman and the handmaid.

• It brings out what God is – how blessed He is! It would disturb His rest if even the poorest, and if even the animal creation, were not at rest also.

• It adds in Deuteronomy 5: 15,
  • “remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt”.

• It is a day of remembrance in that respect. God has brought us out likewise with a powerful hand, and with a stretched out arm,
  • “therefore Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee to observe the sabbath day”, Deuteronomy 5: 15.

• We never forget the work of redemption.

Ques. Was Paul enjoying this rest when he was lying fallow in prison, and receiving fresh impressions of Christ and of the assembly as a result of it?

G.R.C. God ordered that Paul should be in prison, so that he should keep sabbath in the sense of the sabbatical year.

• He was able to lie fallow; and, as a result of that, we get the best from prison.

• If Paul had not learned to be content in his circumstances, the prison would have tried him; he would have been restless.

Rem. His greatest epistles came from the prison.

G.R.C. Yes. It is a wonderful tribute to the apostle that the most trying circumstances did not hinder him from keeping sabbath: they helped him.

Ques. Is God expecting us to come to His side of things in chapter 20? because He goes back to,

• “in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth”, and so on.

• Is that the people entering into God's rest?

G.R.C. That is the great point of sabbath. We are to rest in the sense of what God has done by Himself and for Himself, without any creature help;

• and that is what we shall come to finally in the new heavens and the new earth – that God has done everything.

• He may have used certain instruments, but He worked in them the willing and the doing. It leaves God, in all His greatness, before the soul.

Ques. Does Jehovah reach this climax in His words with Moses on the mount? I thought sabbath was the great culmination.

• God will carry His Sabbath through in a remarkable way of triumph, and the enemy would ever seek to attack the highest point.

G.R.C. How Satan is set to rob God of His portion, and to rob us of ours in this holy sabbath! It is holy to Jehovah, and is to be holy unto us.

• “Keep the sabbath, therefore; for it is holy unto you”, Exodus 31: 14,

• and, “the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, holy to Jehovah”, verse 15.

Rem. Yesterday you remarked that if we failed to keep the sabbath, we would inevitably come into captivity and bondage. Verse 15 of this chapter seems to be a more drastic penalty – the reference being to putting to death.

G.R.C. It is indeed very drastic here. One who will not keep the sabbath, “shall certainly be put to death”. It is executive action.

Rem. On the other hand we were speaking a few moments ago about hallowing –

• “It is I Jehovah, who do hallow you”.

G.R.C. Because God's rest is really in His people. I believe the idea of the sabbath is that we are resting in God in the full outshining of Himself and His purpose, and He is resting in us as the fruit of His work.

Ques. Is the certain outcome of this the praise and worship of God Himself as in rest before Him – the rest that comes through Christ, and being there with Him?

G.R.C. So I think we need to keep in mind that Satan is set against this. The attack follows.

• And in the recovery at the end of Nehemiah, there is a chapter full of the way the enemy was attacking the sabbath. From every angle the enemy was trying to destroy sabbath keeping.

• We have got to watch that, for we are in days of recovery.

Ques. Is it not instructive that this intrusion in Exodus 32, as to idolatry, is followed immediately by a resumption of the teaching as to the sabbath – chapter 35?

G.R.C. It is most striking.

Ques. Is there a link between the sabbath and the first day of the week?

G.R.C. We have to be careful not to make the sabbath a particular day at the present time.

• It is a matter of the state of our souls, and the principle of it; and I would say the way we can be certain of keeping sabbath is to be sure that we habituate the holiest.

• That would be the idea in Hebrews,
  • “we enter into the rest who have believed” chapter 4: 3.

• We are to be habitually entering the holiest. We are on the way to the final rest, but we enter the presence of God day by day.

• That would specially colour the first day of the week, of course. We should begin the first day of the week in the holiest, before we gather together; and the atmosphere of that should govern the whole day.

Rem. I was thinking of Moses speaking to Jehovah, and how his face shone; and it is the man with a shining face who begins to speak about the sabbath.

G.R.C. He had been in the holiest; he knew the rest of God as having been inside.

Rem. Seven times we have, “Jehovah spoke to Moses”, from chapter 25 till this one: this is the seventh.

G.R.C. I think we need to see the setting of this. The manna is Christ manifested here, and God's rest in Him, the days of His flesh never being forgotten.

• But in Exodus 31 it is Christ in glory, and the system of which He is the centre.

• We get here a very full idea of God's rest through what had been communicated to Moses on the mount.
  • It is, “the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”, Hebrews 8: 2.

• It is again what God has done by and for Himself. The true tabernacle is now existing, “which the Lord has pitched, and not man”, and Christ is the centre of it.

• And here we have the light of it as given to Moses; and then this full thought of sabbath, that God rested and was refreshed.

• It shows that the full sabbath of God is in an anointed system where Christ is enshrined, and where God dwells.

• He dwells amid fragrant praise, as the hymn says. The fragrance is brought out in Exodus in the anointing, and the praise under David.

• It is in this great system that God will finally rest.

Rem. It is all the more interesting and touching, that it is not only in Christ personally, but in relation to the system of which He is the centre, that God finds His refreshment.

G.R.C. Exactly. Every part of the system speaks to God of Christ – “In that which ever speaks to Him of Thee”, as the hymn says.

• The whole fragrant anointed system takes character from Christ; and Christ Himself is enshrined in it personally, and the glory dwells there.

• What a system it is; what a system of rest!

Ques. How would you understand the thought of refreshment as applied to God? I can understand how we need it; but in relation to God, it is a wonderful suggestion.

G.R.C. It is indeed. This is not said in Genesis, although, of course, literally it is referring back to Genesis here.

• But it has in mind heaven and earth as typified in the tabernacle system – filled with families named of the Father, and Christ enshrined in the whole system.

• God rested and was refreshed. How could it be otherwise in such a system as that?

Rem. Should we not think of Divine labour – what Divine Persons have taken on and think of Christ in His sufferings, and labour, and sorrow; and the Spirit in His present labour?

G.R.C. Yes because it really is work. And when anyone is working for something with the pattern before him, what rest and refreshment there is when the work is finished! Think of God working thus!

• It is really work, because the operations in scripture always have the background of a scene of moral disorder as in Genesis 1 – a scene of chaos. So it involves work, in the sense of toil, to bring this about.

Rem. So God can be stimulated in His affections, and in His holy feelings, as seeing the fruits of His own blessed work! Should we not come to that in assembly service?

• “He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will exult over thee with singing”, Zephaniah 3: 17.

G.R.C. And the drink offering suggests that God is refreshed when our emotions are so affected that He is stirred.

• The drink offering was poured out in the sanctuary – strong drink.

• So that when the system is functioning in such a way that the souls of the saints are filled with emotion, God Himself is refreshed.

Ques. Do you think there is a sense of that in Ephesians 3: 21, where it says,

• “to him be glory in the assembly”?

G.R.C. That would be in line with the drink offering poured out – the souls of the saints prostrated, filled with emotion before God. God is moved, and He is refreshed.

Ques. Why was no fire to be kindled on the sabbath day? – chapter 35: 3.

G.R.C. I think chapter 31 presents the truth abstractly, as subsisting in,

• “the true tabernacle which the Lord has pitched and not man”

• – what Moses saw on the mount.

• We serve in the light of that great conception – that which is ever before God, complete in His mind.

• But then we are to work out in our localities what corresponds with what is on the mount.

• That is in chapter 35. We are to work out what corresponds with the true tabernacle, and to secure tabernacle conditions locally. That involves work; but we are to do it in the spirit of rest.

• So that in chapter 35, before giving instruction about all the work which was to be done, Moses speaks of the sabbath of rest to Jehovah.

• It is in the spirit of rest, as in the gain of chapter 31, knowing what subsists before God relative to a glorified Christ, that we settle down to the work in our localities; not in the spirit of restlessness, but in the spirit of rest.

Rem. The word as to it indicates that it is a sign,

• “between me and the children of Israel for ever”, Exodus 31: 17.

• Is the stamp of restfulness to be upon the people of God?

G.R.C. It affects people to see persons who are serene and restful whatever the conditions are, and who, even in their practical service locally do it in a spirit of rest.

• Nothing disturbs them because they are with God in His rest in Christ, and in all that is established and centred in Him.

• That is like the many allusions in 2 Timothy to what is,
  • “in Christ Jesus”.

• It is beyond the reach of breakdown, and the soul is in the sense of that.

Rem. Would that be the point in the mount of transfiguration? I was noticing that in both Matthew and Mark, it is after six days that they go up to the mountain. Is it a question of God's sabbath in Christ there, do you think?

G.R.C. After the six days they went up to the mountain. That would be rather like Moses would it not?

• They really, as you say, saw God's rest in a glorified Christ, and what centres in Him.

• They would come down, according to Matthew, in restfulness, to take up assembly administration in the spirit of a little child – a lowly dependent spirit.

Ques. There are many references to rest in the book of Judges. It says that in the days of Othniel there was rest, and in the days of Ehud there was rest, and in the days of Deborah there was rest.

G.R.C. That was God giving His people rest. It is not the same word as this rest, “sabbath”, but God was giving His people rest.

• He does that in mercy, but it is in view of our taking up His rest, and being with Him in His rest.

• As to not kindling a fire in our dwellings, does it not mean that, in connection with the sabbath, we are not warming ourselves, or stimulating ourselves, by anything of nature?

• We celebrate it in our dwellings, but it is not celebrated with any natural heat. Is that so?

Rem. So that in Isaiah 56, where the sabbath is mentioned in regard of the alien and the eunuch, it combines with keeping the sabbath,

• “choose the things that please me”.

• Is that kindling no fire?

G.R.C. We need to beware of social links, or anything on the line of natural heat which would do away with God's rest in the saints.

Rem. I was going to refer to our dealings with one another in our local settings, as to how we handle one another, whether we set things alight, so to speak.

G.R.C. If we are on the line of nature we shall do that.

Rem. Does not verse 21 of chapter 34 bear on this? In ploughing time and in harvest they were to rest.

G.R.C. Very good.