The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Rest of God, #9

He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)

It is time for the Head of Christ to be placed on the Body of Christ. The day of Saul, of the man who is "head and shoulders above the people," is over. The members of the Body of Christ, like the boards of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, are all the same height. We must decrease so Christ may increase.

It is not possible for the believer who has not died to self-seeking to go across Jordan and enter the land of promise. Even Moses, the man of God, was not permitted to enter the land of promise because he had not exalted the Lord in the eyes of the people. Moses had struck the rock instead of speaking to it, thereby calling attention to himself and Aaron:

And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? (Numbers 20:10)

We may view Moses' exasperation as pardonable because of his obedience to the Lord on all other occasions. But the Lord was unmoved. Moses was not allowed to set his foot on the soil of Canaan. God will not give His Glory to another.

The day of the self-willed, self-centered Christian ministry is over. Moses is dead. It is time for God to speak to Joshua. God's true Israel stands at the entrance to resurrection ground. Only those who have died in Christ and in whom Christ is living will be able to cross the Jordan and enter the inheritance promised to the saints from the creation of the world. The spiritually ambitious believers must humble themselves, while the timid and careless must seek the Lord and grow in His service. It is time for us all to seek the Glory of the Lord.

. . . thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. (Joshua 1:2)

The children of Israel came out of Egypt as the congregation of the Lord, and then were organized into an army while in the wilderness. By the time they came to the east bank of the Jordan they were prepared to fight together as one force.

So it is today that many members of the Christian churches are of the family of the Lord. But it is time now for the army of the Lord to be formed.

Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. (Numbers 10:2)

The trumpets of the Lord are sounding today in fulfillment of the Levitical Blowing of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24). The Blowing of Trumpets is the convocation following Pentecost (the feast of Weeks—Leviticus 23:16).

The two trumpets remind us of the two witnesses of Revelation, Chapter 11. Perhaps the two witnesses, in addition to warning the nations of the earth concerning the soon coming of the Kingdom of God, will also sound the signal for "the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps," so to speak, indicating that the invasion of the earth by Christ and His saints is at hand.

To be continued.