p. 5 | THE RIVER OF LIFE by G. E. Fifield

Pacific Press Publishing Association

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 33.

THE RIVER OF LIFE

By G. E. Fifield

BY G. E. FIFIELD

A GLIMPSE WITHIN THE VAIL.

"The King's daughter is all glorious within." Ps. 45:13.

WE have seen that the sanctuary, whence issue the living waters, is a perfect revelation of the everlasting Gospel; and that Christ, the Incarnate Word, was another perfect revelation and manifestation of the same Gospel. Jesus was the promise and prophecy of the sanctuary perfectly fulfilled. In His heart the divine law was written, and that heart was the seat of mercy, and boundless, limitless love. His whole life was glorified by the divine presence, and all His actions were under the constant guidance of the Spirit. Thus His soul was a perfect sanctuary for God's indwelling. But all this promise of the sanctuary was for us all as well as for Jesus. It was God showing His spiritual Israel how He wanted to dwell in them. Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are. His experience sums up all human experience. So, also, in the sanctuary every phase of the soul's experience in Christ is revealed, and we shall not be surprised to learn that everything about the sanctuary was symbolical and full of meaning. While in Jesus this meaning and promise of the sanctuary were fully realized, in the Christian, sad to relate, we often see God's plan incomplete, and His perfect pattern marred by the resistance of our wills to His. The outer covering of the sanctuary was of badger skin, a material of no great beauty, but perhaps well adapted to protect from the weather. It is easy to imagine a Canaanite of the olden days, one who has heard of the power of Israel's God, and the glory of His sanctuary, gazing down upon this tabernacle from some adjacent eminence. He sees only the badger-skin covering. I think I hear him say: "Is this the sanctuary I have heard so much about? There is no beauty there." Even so of Jesus it was said, "There is no beauty that we should desire Him." The beauty of the Christian is an internal not an external beauty. The priest who had been within the sanctuary could tell of the beauty of blue and purple, and scarlet and fine-twined linen wrought with cunning needlework; he could tell of the glory of gold and of precious stones, and, most of all, of the glory of the shekinah presence that filled and flooded the place. He who was without, saw only the badgers' skins. So Christ is the "Rose of Sharon," the "Lily of the valley," "the chiefest among ten thousand," the One "altogether lovely," to those who have been within and seen Him as He is. So of the Christian, "whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." If that ancient onlooker had cared to investigate a little more closely, he would have found just under the badger skins, the ram skins dyed red. These were the skins of rams offered in sacrifice, and were dyed red to represent their own spilt blood, given freely for others. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." My name is "The Word of God." I am "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood." "The blood is the life." This is the same truth, either in the sanctuary, the Christ, or the Christian. Perhaps there is no beauty on the outside, but look a little deeper, there is the greatest beauty that earth or heaven can know. The life is being given,—given freely for others,—made mighty, too, even in the Christian by the Christ within, "mighty to save." Look a little deeper still, O ancient observer! Just underneath the ram skins dyed red, thou wilt see the goats' hair cloth, from the goats that were always used for a sin-offering on the day of atonement. Look deeper still, and you will behold the fine linen wrought with hovering angel forms waiting to do God's bidding, and all the glory of the shining lamps, the beaten gold, and of the shekinah presence. So of the Christ, so of the Christian—no external beauty, it may be. But he who looks more closely will discover that the life is freely given,—given in the Christian through Christ's indwelling Spirit and power. He who looks more closely still will discern that this free giving of the life, or of Christ's life in us, is making an atonement, and is the only thing that can ever make us one with Him who is the "fountain of life," and who, therefore, freely gives His life to all. We must never forget that "without shedding of blood,"—without giving of life,—"there is no remission." A still deeper look into the innermost truth of the sanctuary will show that this giving of the life, which makes us one with God, is the very basis of that fine linen of righteousness, and of all that inner glory of the tabernacle, which is God's glory,—the glory of His righteousness. It is only when our lives are thus given, and we are one with Him, that His law is really written in our hearts as it was in the sanctuary, so that His will becomes our will. Then, just as the angel forms wrought by fine needlework into the inner covering of the sanctuary, hovered ever around the shekinah presence, just as in heaven the angels that excel in strength "harken unto the voice of His word," so when His will is our will, our eyes will ever be toward the Lord, waiting His slightest word or gesture of command, and all our aims, hopes, ambitions, and impulses will hover near, glad and eager to do His bidding. The pattern of all this was shown to Moses in the mount. It was the pattern of what God wanted to work out in his life, and in ours also. Jesus also was transfigured in the "holy mount"—not the same mountain, but in each case a mountain made holy by God's presence. Jesus also saw the pattern of what He was to be,—saw Himself, not as He was, poor, despised, rejected, without "where to lay His head," but glorified as He will be in the eternal kingdom. He heard also God's voice saying to Him, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Moses came down from that mountain to years of care, temptation, and trial, and to a sad and lonely death, before being permitted to enter the promised land. Jesus came down from that mount of transfiguration to Gethsemane and Calvary. So God sometimes takes us up into the mountain summit with Him. For a moment we see ourselves, not merely as we are, incomplete, imperfect, and sinful, but we catch a glimpse of what we are to be in His eternal purpose. Heaven's glory is around and within. The soul is a sanctuary for His presence, built by His own power and after His own perfect pattern, and God's voice so sweetly whispers to the soul, "This is My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." But when God gives us such an experience, it is not a presage of ease and comfort in this life. Indeed, the soul whom God takes up into the "holy mount" with Him, has ceased, with God, to look for his own ease and comfort, in looking for the good of others. Such a transfiguration, such a revelation to us of God's pattern, to be wrought out in our lives, is invariably a preparation for service, for trial, for crucifixion here, but also for resurrection into a larger, a glorified life. The lonely grave will find its angel of resurrection to contend with Satan and roll away the stone. The true land of promise is not so near Mount Sinai, nor even to Mount Pisgah's summit, as to the unknown grave in Nebo's lonely mountain—unknown to man, but well known to Him who watcheth over all. No experience of trial or of suffering, while we walk with Him, not even death itself if we die in Him, can take us away from the realization of His perfect pattern for us. Surely, with Paul, we may say: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."