and resurrection, whether all will go together, whether there will be angelic

accompaniments, etc., etc. All this, which superficially sounds like earnest inquiry, is but

the old unbelief of Israel re-expressed. They wanted to know more than God had

revealed about `the land' which was their inheritance, and they wanted to know more

than God had revealed as to `what way we must go up'. Both these questions were

already answered to faith. God had `espied' the land and had called it `good'. God went

before them with fire and with cloud `to shew them by what way they should go'. Faith

needs nothing more.

If our inheritance is at the right hand of God, `far above all', it is transcendentally

above all human thought and experience, and what words of human language could

describe the riches of the glory of that inheritance of the saints? If in the resurrection and

translation we need adjusting to the new sphere of blessing `in the heavenly places', how

should we be the better if God described the process? It is enough for us that, as we

receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of `Him', the ascended Lord,

and the Mystery, we shall receive as full an answer to our quest for knowledge as God

sees fit to give. If we are assured that `when Christ Who is our life shall be manifested,

we also shall be manifested with Him in glory' (Col. 3: 3), what does it matter if `the

way we must go up' is left unexplained? We shall arrive--praise God. We do not know

how; all that is His responsibility, not ours.

Our refusal to be turned back to I Thess. 4: as the hope of the Church is to be

understood in the light of Numb. 13: and 14: We seek the spirit that enabled Caleb and

Joshua to believe God, and leave the consequences. As we pointed out when dealing

with Col. 1: 23 (see Volume XXI), the great evidence of progress in the truth, or of the

beginning of decline, is closely associated with holding stedfast to `the hope'. Caleb and

Joshua were threatened with stoning for the stand they took. We shall probably get its

equivalent again and again; but as in their case, so in ours, His truth shall be our shield

and buckler.

One of the reasons why the Lord was not too explicit about the land of Canaan and

the way up, was because it was inhabited by a monstrous seed of the wicked one, the

giants, the sons of Anak, and viewing such antagonists with the eyes of the flesh, the

spies said: "We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight"

(Numb. 13: 33). The cities were walled and very great, and grace was not given in the

wilderness to deal with these remote difficulties. When at last Israel did stand before the

walls of Jericho, they fell down flat at the shout of faith.

The pathway to our inheritance is blocked by principalities and powers, spiritual

wickedness and world-holders of darkness. If we should see them with the eyes of the

flesh, we would crumple up as did Daniel (Dan. 10: 9, 10). God mercifully spares us this

vision. We believe His Word; that is enough. If we knew the formidable strongholds of

Satan that must be overcome in `the evil day', we would recoil in fear and unbelief. We

shall not face them until we are all assembled beneath the banner of our true Captain,