As God’s chosen people, we all have been redeemed, no matter what our age may be, spiritually speaking. However, we need to ask ourselves what our spiritual age is according to our maturity. Perhaps your spiritual age is only a few weeks or a few years. The total number of the children of Israel at the time of Exodus 30 was at least two million. But less than a third, 603,550 to be exact, were qualified to be in God’s army. More than two-thirds of God’s people, all the females and the males under the age of twenty, could not be numbered in this military census.
The spiritual significance of this is that if we would be in the army to fight for God’s move, we need to mature. We need to grow until we come to the spiritual age of twenty. The intercession offered at the incense altar is for this growth and maturity so that the army can be formed. The more intercession there is at the incense altar, the greater will be the urgency for God’s people to grow. More and more we shall realize that the need for maturity is desperate. There is the urgent need for more of us to grow, reach maturity, and thereby become qualified to be formed into an army. Only when such an army has been formed will God be able to move on earth for His purpose. Apart from an army formed of mature ones, there is no way for God to move. Oh, God’s chosen people need to grow! The intercessory prayer offered to God at the incense altar is for this.
The sisters should not be disappointed to hear that only the males among the Israelites could be formed into God’s army. In spiritual experience a male signifies someone who is strong. Today, spiritually speaking, some sisters may be males, whereas some brothers may be females spiritually. Whether we are spiritually a male or a female does not depend on whether we are brothers or sisters; it depends on whether we are strong in spirit or weak in spirit. If you are strong in spirit, you are a male. But if you are weak in spirit, you are a female. Too many among us are females. Therefore, there is the need of maturity.
Let us suppose that you are mature enough to be in God’s army. Because your spiritual age is at least twenty years, you are qualified to be numbered among those who are able to go to war. But does this mean that you should enter directly into the fight? It certainly does not mean this. If you try to fight directly, you will suffer a plague. Exodus 30:12 says, “When you take the sum of the sons of Israel according to those that are numbered of them, then every man shall give a ransom for his soul to Jehovah when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them.” In order to avoid any plague, we should never go to war in ourselves. We should say, “In myself I shall never go to fight in God’s army. Only in Christ and by Christ shall I go. I have Christ as my half-shekel, as my ransom silver. He is precious and valuable.” If we would fight in God’s army, we must fight only by this precious Christ.
The Christ typified by the ransom silver is not the crucified Christ, the Christ who died on the cross as the sin offering and the trespass offering. On the contrary, the propitiation silver is a heave offering, and the heave offering signifies the resurrected and ascended Christ, the Christ in the heavens. According to the type of the propitiation silver, the Christ by whom we fight is not the crucified One—He is the ascended One. Perhaps you have never considered this matter before, but this is the picture presented by the type.
Furthermore, from experience we know that whenever we go to war by ourselves and not by Christ as the ransom silver, we suffer a plague. This means that in spiritual fighting we have a disaster. However, at least some among us have had the experience of fighting the spiritual warfare not by themselves but by Christ as the ransom silver. They fight by Christ as the heave offering, as the resurrected and ascended One.
All those who have engaged in spiritual warfare know that this warfare is not fought on earth. The battles of spiritual warfare are waged in the air. In order to fight this kind of battle, we need to be in the heavenlies with the ascended Christ. We need to be in the heavens with Christ as our heave offering. Elsewhere we have pointed out that the wave offering signifies the resurrected Christ and that the heave offering signifies the ascended Christ. Therefore, the heave offering is an advancement beyond the wave offering; that is, the ascended Christ is an advancement over the resurrected Christ. In ascension Christ defeats His enemy.
According to the record in Exodus and Numbers, only through a military census can God’s army be formed. When God has such an army, He is able to move on earth for His interests. However, as we fight in this army for God’s move, we must fight by the resurrected and ascended Christ. We should never fight by ourselves.