Walking in Agreement (ii)

God met His people at the Mercy Seat. “There I will meet with thee” (Exodus xxv. 22). The Mercy Seat was in the Holy of Holies, and was approached only once a year by the High Priest alone. He brought the blood of sacrifice with him, and sprinkled that blood in front of and upon the Mercy Seat; the Holy Ghost thus signifying that God and His people were now at peace, reconciled on the basis of sacrifice. The predominant thought of the Mercy Seat was that of propitiation, and in that propitiation God “met His people by appointment.” For us today the spiritual meaning and antitype are found in the Cross of Christ. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood” (Rom. iii. 25). God meets us by appointment at the Cross, and fellowship with Him is only possible on the basis of that sacrifice. The intimate connection of the believer with the Cross of Christ is not to be limited to the moment of conversion, or even to the elementary experiences of the Christian life. The death of Christ touches the Christian life at all points and at all times, and is concerned with the deepest and most mature experiences of the Christian soul. The teaching of the Apostle Paul (Rom. vi.; Col. v.) clearly connects the death of our Lord with the whole course of our Christian life. We are not only justified by His blood (Rom. v. 9), we are also sanctified thereby (Heb. xiii. 12). Never for an instant can we get away from or pass beyond the power of the propitiation of Calvary; it is there that God continues to meet with us day by day, and at this meeting place we have the first part of a truly blessed walk with our Heavenly Father.

Walking in Agreement

How then can this life of walking with God be realised? “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” We know how true this is in an earthly walk. The two friends must be agreed as to the time of starting, the direction of the walk, and also as to the topics of conversation.

In like manner, there must be “agreement” between God and the believer if there is to be a walk together. What, however, does it really mean for the believer and his God to “be agreed”? In the margin of the R.V. there is a very interesting reading – “Can two walk together, except they make an appointment?” A still closer rendering of the Hebrew would be, “Except they meet by appointment.” In the proper interpretation of this word lies the secret of walking with God. The Hebrew root from which the word comes is used in connection with the Jewish Tabernacle, which it will be remembered is, literally, “the tent of meeting,” and there are three passages in particular which suggest to us the secret of walking with God.

To be continued…

Friends Indeed

One man and one man only in the Old Testament has the great privilege of being called “the friend of God” (2 Chron. xx. 7; Isa. xli. 8; James ii. 23); and to this very day in the Arabian desert Abraham is spoken of as El Khalil, God’s friend. But this very title is applied in the New Testament to all the Master’s disciples: “I have called you friends” (John xv. 15), “Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John xv. 14).

Friends of God

Enoch and Noah seem to represent the two aspects of the Christian life – the inner and outer; character and conduct; contemplation and its action. It is not quite correct to imagine Enoch as living entirely the life of adoration, contemplation and communion, for we are told (Jude 14, 15) of his faithful testimony to the ungodly around him, and no one can be so faithful amidst surrounding idolatry and wickedness without experiencing opposition and real discipline of soul. In the case of Noah, however, there is no possible doubt about his being a man of affairs, a practical, hard-working servant of God who in the midst of his labours and testimony was nevertheless enabled to walk with God. It is impossible, therefore, for anyone to say that this walk with God is impracticable and beyond our power. What man has done, man can do, for the grace of God is the same in all ages and the Lord is “rich unto all that call upon Him.”

Prepositions

It is interesting to note the various prepositions that are found in Scripture connected with the Christian walk. “Walk before me” (Gen. xvii. 1). Abraham is called to sincerity, to live his life in the presence of God. “Ye shall walk after the Lord your God” (Deut. xiii. 4). The believer is also required to follow God in close, careful obedience. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him” (Col. ii. 6). The believer is commanded to walk in union with his Lord. But highest of all we read of walking “humbly with God” (Mic. vi. 8). This is our highest and truest companionship, keeping step with God day by day.

Walking Together in Love

Dead people do not walk, and it is impossible to think of a Christian “walking” until we realise that he possesses spiritual life in order to enable him to do so. “He that hath the Son that life,” and when we receive into our hearts by faith the life of God in Christ we have the certain guarantee of our Christian walk.

The Christian walk means activity in Christ and for Him. The life is not to be quiescent, but energetic. The proof of our possession of life lies in our Christian walk.

The Christian walk is not a solitary one, for, there is companionship in it; the Christian does not go it alone. This is true with reference to our fellow-Christians, and the New Testament is very clear in its emphasis on Christian love and fellowship. A purely individualistic Christian is no Christian at all. A solitary Christian is an utter misnomer. No one can be a New Testament Christian apart from fellowship with other Christians. In this companionship there is joy and strength and inspiration, and truly to be a saint in the Bible meaning of that word requires an experience of “the Communion of Saints.”

The Walk

The Christian life is described and illustrated in Holy Scripture by means of several faculties and actions of the human body. Sometimes the eye is used: “Look unto Me, and be ye saved” (Isa. xlv. 22). At others times the ear is mentioned: “Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa. lv. 3). Yet again we have the hand: “Let him take hold of my strength” (Isa. xxvii. 5). And not infrequently the mouth is employed: “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. xxxiv. 8). But perhaps the commonest, and in some respects the most suggestive, is the illustration of the “walk” which is found very frequently both in the Old and the New Testaments. In the Epistle to the Ephesians the metaphor of “walking” is found no less than seven times. There is a remarkable appropriateness in this use of the metaphor to express the Christian life. Walking is one of the few perfect forms of exercise, those in which all parts of the body are brought into play; and its suggestiveness and appropriateness for Christianity are evident when we remember that religion is intended to affect with vital, practical reality every part of our being, and that every faculty of our nature is to be exercised to the fullness possible extent, “ever, only, all” for God.