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No other book in the Old Testament gives us such a complete revelation of God’s economy and dispensation as the book of Exodus. There is a full set of outward appearances that depict God’s economy, or dispensation. There is the passover (ch. 12), and there is God’s mighty salvation to deliver all the people of Israel out of Egypt. There are the outward miraculous doings of God, including the smiting of all the firstborn in Egypt (v. 29). Then in the wilderness God did a lot of miraculous things. For example, for nearly forty years while the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, the manna came to them.
They were also brought to Mount Sinai to receive the decree of the law. Even the decree of the law was a part of the outward set of appearances. Accompanying the decree of the law was the pattern of the tabernacle and the furniture and all the things concerning the priesthood, including the offerings of the sacrifices. These things made up a full set of outward appearances.
Although Moses was the one through whom all these outward appearances were carried out, I doubt that he realized the divine reality of all these things. The deliverance from the Egyptian tyranny was carried out through him. The miracles wrought by God in the wilderness were through him, and he was the mediator for God to give the law to the people. He was brought by God into a position to see all the heavenly designs of the tabernacle and the furniture and the things concerning the priesthood. He himself was personally infused by God to the extent that there was the divine glow on his face. But still I doubt whether he saw the divine reality and the divine significance of these things. I doubt that Moses was clear about the dispensing of the Triune God into His people to be their life, their life supply, and even their nature so that they could be His living expression. After his experience on the mountain, he surely realized something, but I doubt if he really entered fully into the divine significance of those things. I doubt that he realized that the standing boards of the tabernacle, which were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold, were a type of Christ in humanity overlaid with divinity and enlarged to be the church for God’s dwelling place. If Moses himself did not see the inner reality within this set of outward things, who else would have seen it?
Through all their generations after Moses, the children of Israel treasured what was received through Moses. The unity of the Jewish race through the centuries has been mostly due to the things they received through Moses. They have treasured the Ten Commandments, the Pentateuch, the tabernacle, the furniture of the tabernacle, and the priesthood. But history tells us that through all these generations the Jewish people have not known the spiritual significance of these things. They have not known that the tabernacle and the temple are types of Christ. They have not understood the real significance of the table of the bread of the Presence or even why it was in the tabernacle. They have not known why there was a lampstand or why the lampstand had seven lamps. They have not known why the lampstand came after the table. They have not known the significance of the veil. They have not known the real significance of the Ark, which contained the law and the hidden manna and the rod that budded. They have not understood these things, but they have treasured them. Even today they would like to find the Ark. But they do not realize the spiritual significance of all these outward things. Their appreciation of these outward things does not affect their living, because these things are not kept in life but in an outward way of appearance. Of course, they realize that the glory of God was there, but even that to them was a kind of outward appearance. When the Lord Jesus who was the reality of all those outward appearances came, they did not know Him. He was all-inclusive. He was the reality of the tabernacle, the Ark, the lampstand, the table, and so forth, but they did not know Him.
In the Gospel of John the Spirit used two things to indicate that all the things given through Moses are fulfilled in this one person, Jesus Christ. These two things are the tabernacle in 1:14 and the Lamb of God in 1:29. The tabernacle is the central item representing the entire set of the tabernacle, including the furniture, the altar, the laver, and the outer-court separation. This one word, tabernacle, indicates a whole set. The Holy Spirit did not use tabernacle as a noun but as a verb. John says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (v. 14). This indicates that Christ as the tabernacle is not the old one, which had no life. This one has life because it can tabernacle. It does not need people to carry it; it can move by itself. It does not need people to set it up or to take it down. He Himself tabernacles. This tabernacle is a person. This wonderful person is actually God becoming man. This God becoming man is a living tabernacle.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (v. 4). In 1:29 John said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” This one item represents the whole set of the priesthood. If there is a lamb, there is a need for the priests to offer. This indicates the priesthood. The entire priesthood now is a living person. This living person is the fulfillment of both the tabernacle and the priesthood. This is why we say that the Gospel of John is the fulfillment of the tabernacle and the offerings.
We were born in the best age to see these things. The Lord Jesus said to the Jews that Abraham expected with exultation to see Christ’s day (8:56). In Matthew 11:11 the Lord Jesus indicated that no one in the Old Testament age was so great as John the Baptist, because John the Baptist was born later than they were. But then the Lord went on to say that he who is least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than John. In the same principle, we have to say that those who are born in the last days of this age are greater than those born at the beginning of this age.
Through the generations the Jewish people held the outward things. One day the reality of those things came. Christ was the reality of the tabernacle and the priesthood, yet those who treasured the tabernacle and the priesthood opposed Him. Saul of Tarsus was a top example. After the genuine One came and accomplished everything, passing through incarnation, human living, and crucifixion and entering into resurrection and even into ascension, there was one, Saul of Tarsus, who was treasuring all the outward things to the uttermost. He had learned all the things concerning the outward appearance, and yet he was taking the lead to oppose the genuine One. However, while he was persecuting, the genuine One came to him purposely. That turned him not from sin or the world but from the types, from the appearances, to Christ Himself. While the Lord Jesus was carrying out His ministry during those last three and a half years, His opposition came mainly from those who treasured and protected the outward appearances. There was a kind of transitional period, during which all the outward appearances of the Old Testament were transferred into the New Testament reality.
In the New Testament, first of all the church was set up, and the New Testament writings came out to unveil the mysterious, all-inclusive Christ. You have to realize that both the setting up of the church and the writing of the New Testament to unveil Christ became the very outward frame treasured by the Christians. The real things, the genuine things, are Christ and Christ increased. Christ is the Christ of God, and Christ increased is the Body of Christ. Both are mysterious; both are divine. Both are hard for the human mentality to understand. So even while the apostles were still living, these divine mysteries were neglected by the people who treasured the outward frame of the church and the black and white letters of the revelation concerning Christ.
Beginning in the first century, different kinds of debates over doctrines came in. Some of the debates were concerning the person of Christ. Different teachings came in. Judaism crept in, and Gnosticism crept in. Other heresies also came in. Both the heresies and the positive doctrines put out by the early church fathers became distractions. The debates between the heresies and the proper teachings attracted and distracted the genuine believers. They kept the genuine believers away from a direct, personal contact with the genuine living Christ. These kinds of debates have continued through the centuries even until now. Today many genuine believers are distracted from Christ Himself.
Because the Christians have been distracted from Christ, organizations have come in to replace the church practice. This began from the time of Ignatius. He considered that the overseers, the bishops, are above the elders. He was a genuine and dear brother, but he was used by Satan to make one error — that the overseers are above the elders. That was the evil root of the bishops, archbishops, cardinals, and the pope. This hierarchy came out of that little root by a genuine brother and fundamental teacher.
Constantine the Great realized that the Christian truth was a prevailing factor that could affect the people in his empire, so he made Christianity the state religion. At the Nicene Council in A.D. 325 he tried to force all the different teachers to be one. This was the first foundation stone of Catholicism. The Roman Church came out of that. By the end of the sixth century the papal system was fully established. After that the entire divine significance of Christ and the church was lost. The church became something in outward appearance. The inward reality was gone. Christ was just a name to them.
However, history tells us that by God’s mercy through all the centuries there was a line of the central things. There was a line of the divine reality, but it was always on a very small scale.
At the time of the Reformation, the Lord used Martin Luther to recover justification by faith, which is actually Christ being our righteousness. To recover justification by faith is just to recover one matter or one item of the doctrine, but to recover Christ being our righteousness is to recover the person. Today the Lutheran Church strongly holds to the doctrine of justification by faith, but so many of the members are not justified. They do not lay hold of Christ the living person as their righteousness. God’s intention at Luther’s time was not to recover justification by faith but to recover His Son Jesus Christ as our righteousness. Unless Christ is our righteousness, our faith cannot justify us before God.
Most people, however, consider that the Reformation recovered a certain kind of doctrine. According to this thought, after the Reformation, other doctrines and practices were also recovered. The presbytery, the rule of the church by elders, was recovered, so the Presbyterian Church was produced. The matter of the elders was recovered, so the Episcopalian Church was produced. Some believers in northern Europe realized that baptism should be by immersion, not by sprinkling. So they practiced baptism by immersion and were called Baptists. This practice produced the Baptist Church. Some recovered certain teachings and practices concerning holiness, producing holiness churches. Since the last century some recovered the practice of speaking in tongues, producing the Pentecostal churches. All these recoveries are just recoveries of doctrines and practices. Mostly they have left Christ aside. A century and a half ago the Brethren were raised up in Great Britain. At first they paid much attention to Christ, but later they were distracted to pay attention to doctrines and different practices more than to Christ. After them the Lord’s recovery was raised up in China. In the early days even the recovery among us was quite strong in doctrines and practices and not so strong in Christ the person.
In 1933 I began to work directly with Brother Nee in the ministry. At that time he edited a kind of church news publication. All the articles were concerning leaving the denominations, baptism by immersion, head covering, and other outward practices. All the letters that came in from the different places simply testified concerning these few things. Brother Nee was busy, and he was also physically weak, so he had assigned Ruth Lee, the eldest sister co-worker among us, to be the acting editor. Sometimes Sister Lee traveled, and at that time I was charged to do the editing. Once, while I was editing, Brother Nee wrote me a letter that he wanted published in the news publication, which said that from then on, any brother who still preached and taught concerning leaving the denominations, baptizing by immersion, having the Lord’s table instead of “the holy communion,” head covering, and so forth, was not our co-worker. Following this, he wrote another letter to me, in which he said that due to this situation we had to terminate this paper. He advised all the brothers to turn away from the external things to the overcoming Christ. He encouraged them to experience the overcoming life of Christ.
From that time on, my eyes were opened to see that the central recovery of the Lord in this age is not the recovery of mere doctrines and practices. When most believers consider the Lord’s recovery, however, they mostly think of doctrines and practices.
I am afraid that unconsciously you also may still consider the Lord’s recovery as the recovery of some practices and doctrines and spiritual experiences. You may not have the basic understanding that God’s intention is to have a recovery purely and wholly of the person of Christ. God’s desire is to have a recovery of the Triune God dispensed into His redeemed people so that He would become their being, and that this would issue in the church life. This means that such a church life is a golden lampstand, the very embodiment of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We must realize that the Lord’s recovery is just the Triune God dispensed into His redeemed people.
This is why in the foregoing chapters we pointed out from the Holy Scriptures, beginning with Genesis 1 and ending with Revelation 22, that God wants to have a people as His expression. This can only be accomplished when God Himself is wrought into His people as their life and nature. Such a people mingled with the Triune God become His expression. When we are seeking to be holy, to be spiritual, to grow, and to do some spiritual things, it is apparently right. But, actually, the wrong root still remains in our being. We do not need to seek to be spiritual. We do not need to seek to be holy. We do not need to seek to live Christ. We just need to seek the living person. When we have the living person, we have everything. We need a clear and an all-inclusive vision to see such a person. In Paul’s and John’s writings, we can see that they did not mainly teach us to seek this or to seek that. They mainly presented a living person to us. So many Christians today, including ourselves, are seeking after different things but not directly after the living person. Many evangelists today have brought a lot of souls to Christ. But we have to ask how much they experienced and gained Christ. In the same principle, we may have the church life, but we have to ask how much we have experienced and enjoyed and gained Christ.
The book of Revelation has been a distraction to many Christians who have paid attention to it. Students of the Bible like to know how to interpret the prophecies and find out the different ages. Very few have paid attention to the real significance of the lampstands. Very few have paid attention to the eating of the tree of life or to the eating of the hidden manna. Evangelists have borrowed Revelation 3:20 concerning the Lord knocking at the door. Rarely have they gone on to the second point in the same verse, which says that the Lord Jesus will come in and dine with the one who opens the door. They do not mention the dining, because they do not have much of such an experience. They have not seen that through such a practical enjoyment of Christ, the enjoyers become the overcomers who will sit with Him on His throne (v. 21). Not many readers of Revelation have paid attention to the enjoyment of Christ. Instead, they pay attention to so many other things.
As we mentioned in the last chapter, Revelation covers the particular enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life, as the hidden manna, and as the feast. These are the fulfillment of the tree of life in Genesis 2, the manna in Exodus 16, and the feast of the riches of the good land in Deuteronomy 12. Even the sequence is right. First comes the tree of life, then the manna, and then the feast. This indicates that the Son of Man who is in the midst of the lampstands not only purifies the churches but also feeds the churches with a particular enjoyment of Himself as the divine nourishment. By this kind of nourishment we grow and are transformed into a white stone for the building of God’s temple to be His expression (Rev. 2:17). Some may even be built into pillars in the temple of God (3:12).
We also saw that in the consummation of God’s expression there will still be the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life and the water of life. In Revelation 22 there are God and the Lamb with a river of water of life. These signify the Triune God. There is God the Father, there is the Lamb, the Son, and there is the flowing river, the Spirit. This is not merely my interpretation, because the Lord Jesus in John 7 told us clearly that the flowing river is the Spirit (vv. 38-39). So even in eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the Triune God — will be dispensed into His redeemed people continuously. This is the divine reality. We need to pray-read all these verses concerning these revelations and to seek after them and experience them and even learn how to present them to others. Let us all be rescued from paying attention to doctrines and to practices. We should learn how to understand God’s economy according to His divine revelation and His holy Word.
When people ask us about the local churches, it is easy just to talk about the ground and the one city and the one church. But we have to realize that this may be just an outward show. People need the inward divine reality. The inward divine reality is the most convincing and satisfying and subduing element.
