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Scripture Reading: Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1a
II. The corporate type:
А. The corporate Israel — the church as the Body of Christ — Exo. 12:3a; Gal. 1:2; 6:16:
1. Experiencing the passover, having God’s judgment pass over them — the whole church experiencing Christ as the Passover — 13, Exo. 12:21; 1 Cor. 5:7-8.
2. Leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea — the believers baptized to be delivered from the world — Exo. 12:41; 14:22, 29-30; 1 Cor. 10:1-2; 1 Pet. 3:21.
3. Passing through the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God — the believers being led by God to serve God — Exo. 3:18; Matt. 28:19-20.
4. Experiencing the bitter waters becoming sweet — the believers experiencing the bitter situation becoming sweet through the cross — Exo. 15:23-25; 2 Cor. 6:9-10.
5. Enjoying the manna from heaven as the daily supply — the believers enjoying Christ as their daily life supply — Exo. 16:14-15, 31; 1 Cor. 10:3; John 6:48-51, 57b.
6. Drinking the living water that flowed from the rock — the believers drinking of Christ as the living water — Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13.
7. Defeating Amalek — the believers overcoming the flesh by the Holy Spirit — Exo. 17:8-16; Gal. 5:16-17.
8. Coming to the mountain appointed by God, receiving revelation, and erecting the tabernacle — the believers being led by the Lord to receive revelation and build the church as God’s dwelling place — Exo. 19:1-6; 25:8-9; Eph. 2:18-22.
9. Wandering and dying in the wilderness — the believers wandering and failing in the soul — Num. 14:32-33; Heb. 3:12-13; 4:1, 11-12.
10. Crossing the river Jordan and entering into Canaan, the good land — the believers’ natural life passing through the death of Christ, and in resurrection their enjoying Christ as the good land — Josh. 3:14-17; 4:8-9; Col. 3:1-4; 1:12.
11. Defeating the enemy, gaining the land, and building the temple — the believers defeating the spiritual enemies, gaining the territory in Christ, and building up the church as God’s temple — 1 Chron. 22:17-18; Eph. 6:10-20; 2:21-22.
12. Becoming desolate, failing, and being carried away to Babylon — the church becoming desolate, failing, and being carried away to the mysterious great Babylon — 2 Chron. 36:11-20; Rev. 2:14-15, 20; 17:5.
13. Returning from captivity to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of God on the original foundation — being recovered from the great Babylon to the original ground of the church to rebuild the church of God — Ezra 1:1-11; 3:3-13; Rev. 3:1, 4, 7-12; 18:4.
14. Rebuilding the city of Jerusalem as the circumference of God’s temple, and further rebuilding the temple and the city of Jerusalem during the coming restoration of the nation of Israel — the overcomers in the church and the overcoming saints of the Old Testament eventually becoming the New Jerusalem in the millennium, ultimately consummating in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth to be the enlargement of God’s temple — Neh. 2:17-18; Ezek. 40:2, 5; 48:15-16, 30-35; Rev. 3:12; 21:1-2.
B. The tabernacle and the temple having the Ark as the center — the church being the enlargement of Christ with Christ as the center — Exo. 40:2-3; 1 Kings 7:51; 8:1-6; Col. 3:10-11.
Prayer: Lord, by Your precious blood we look to You again. You are the Lord who is with us and the One who speaks to us. This morning reveal Yourself to us through Your word. Speak to each one of us, and touch the spirit of every one of us that everyone would feel Your presence in the Spirit and would feel deeply that You are near us and are being gracious to us. Lord, open up Your word. Shine forth the light from Your word and enlighten us. Vindicate that You are one spirit with us and that we are one spirit with You. May our spirit be joined to Your Spirit, and may Your Spirit be mingled with our spirit. Lord, send down Your blessing and pour it out upon everyone who is here in this meeting. Cover us also with Your victorious blood. Oppose the power of darkness for us. Bind Your enemy, who is also our enemy. By Your victorious name we pray. Amen.
We have seen that in eternity past, before the creation of all things, God had an eternal economy, which is simply to dispense the Triune God Himself into the tripartite man. On God’s side, He is triune — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. On man’s side, we are tripartite, with a spirit, a soul, and a body. The God who lives in unapproachable light is the Father; He is the source. When He is manifested, He is the Son. When He visits us, cares for us, and comes upon us, He is the Spirit. This Spirit enters into our spirit to be mingled with our spirit. In this way the two spirits become one spirit. Hence, the spirit is the highest part of man. If you live in the spirit, you are the most uplifted person, one of the highest class. If you live in the soul, you are much lower; you are of the second class. If you live in the body, you are the lowest of all; you are of the third class. For this reason, do not remain in the soul or the body. Rather, you should strive to get into the spirit to touch the Spirit of God and to be mingled with Him.
When the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — enters into the spirit, the soul, and the body, man becomes one with God. This is what God in His economy has purposed to accomplish. This matter is recorded in the Bible in a plain and clear way. Unfortunately, when most people read the Bible, they see only the stories on the surface; they do not see the revelation in its depths. They see only that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and committed a mortal sin, that Abel offered a sacrifice acceptable to God, that Enosh called on the name of Jehovah, etc. They do not see much significance in these things. Actually, all these things are recorded in the Bible as types. They are there to show us how God accomplishes His economy. When Adam sinned and fell, he hid himself and dared not see God’s face. God came to seek him out and covered him with coats of skin from the sacrifice. Surely he must have been full of gratitude to God, and God’s Spirit surely must have entered into him then. The issue was Abel. Abel offered sacrifices to God, thereby having a further contact with God, resulting in God’s Spirit entering into him. Then we come to Enosh, who called on the name of Jehovah in his weakness, and the Spirit of God again entered into him. Following that, Enoch walked with God. It must have been due to God’s working Himself into Enoch and joining Himself to his spirit that he was able to walk with God. After Enoch there was Noah. Not only did Noah walk with God, but he also worked together with God to build the ark. This also must have been done through God’s Spirit contacting and fellowshipping with man’s spirit.
This matter is proved by Genesis 6:3. There it says that the Spirit of Jehovah would no longer abide in man forever, for he had become flesh (see margin ASV). We see from this that from Genesis 1 to Genesis 5, from Adam to Noah, the Spirit of Jehovah was abiding with man. It was due to the fact that the Spirit of Jehovah was abiding in him that the fallen and sinful Adam was able to obtain God’s redemption. In the same way it was due to the fact that the Spirit of Jehovah was with Abel that he offered a sacrifice to God. That Enosh would call on the name of Jehovah, that Enoch would walk with God, and that Noah would work with God were all due to the fact that the Spirit of Jehovah was with them.
Today when we call “O Lord Jesus,” it is also due to the fact that the Holy Spirit is with us. First Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” When we call on the Lord Jesus, it proves that the Holy Spirit is with us. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the coming of the Triune God into us. First He enters into our spirit; then He spreads to our soul, uplifting and transforming it. Finally, He will uplift our body, transfiguring it into a glorious body like His own. Hence, God’s coming to save us is a gradual descent, working Himself into us to effect in us a gradual ascent. First He enters into our spirit, then He uplifts our soul, and then He uplifts our body so that we may become the same as He is. Before we were saved, all day long our thoughts, desires, and decisions were on low and dishonorable things. After we are saved, the Spirit of God enters into us to uplift our soul. Now the things we think, desire, and decide in our heart are much higher than before. Moreover, they are daily being uplifted higher and higher. Not only is our soul uplifted; even the functions of our body are uplifted. Before we were saved, our mouth frequently spoke evil words, and our feet walked the way of corruption. Now our mouth speaks words of praise, words of the gospel, and words that build others up. Our feet are now walking to the place of the church meeting. Today we are no longer the fallen Adam; we are Noah. We have been uplifted by the Triune God. We are all high-class people. On the one hand, we offer sacrifices to God and call on His name. On the other hand, we walk with God and work with God. This is what God has planned and intended. It is what He wants to obtain in His economy.
This is not all. When we go on further, we will realize that all that we pass through is the experience of the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Spirit. In our experience there is a part that is what Abraham experienced. There is also a part that is what Isaac experienced, and there is a part that is what Jacob experienced. Jacob was a supplanter. Even while he was in his mother’s womb, he took hold of his brother Esau’s heel (Gen. 25:26). When he grew up, he cheated to take Esau’s blessing from his father (27:23). After he escaped to the house of Laban his uncle, he still used deceiving means to turn the flock into his own (30:42). But he could not escape the transforming hand of God. In the end the transforming work of the Holy Spirit totally transformed him. When he was old and mature in life, not only did he no longer deceive others, but his supplanting hands were turned into blessing hands, blessing people everywhere. When he went to Egypt and saw Pharaoh, he blessed Pharaoh (47:10). He also blessed the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh (48:9). Before he died, he gave a separate blessing to each of his twelve sons (49:28). The supplanting Jacob became Israel, the prince of God. Joseph came out of Jacob. He represented the reigning aspect of Jacob. He was commissioned by Pharaoh to rule over the whole land of Egypt (41:43). At the time when famine was over the whole world, he distributed the rich food to all the people. All these are works in God’s economy.
Hence, the experiences of all these nine persons in Genesis are part of God’s economy. God worked Himself into every one of them and worked every one of them into Himself. They were joined and mingled with God and were transformed, even to become the prince of God, reigning for God on earth and distributing to others His riches. This experience was high enough. But it was only on the individual side. God had not yet obtained a corporate dwelling place. He still did not have a place on earth in which to dwell.
God’s intention is to have a corporate Body. The nation of Israel was a type of this Body. For this, God went on from Genesis to Exodus, working Himself into the corporate Israel so that they would become the house of God, which is God’s habitation on earth as typified by the tabernacle in the midst of the Israelites. This corporate Israel is a type of the church as the Body of Christ to be God’s dwelling place on earth among men.
At that time the Israelites went down into Egypt and were enslaved by the Egyptians. In order to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt, God had to judge Egypt and smite the firstborn of the Egyptians. To spare the Israelites from the same smiting, God gave them a way of salvation. He commanded them to slaughter the passover lamb and apply the blood on the lintel and the doorposts. Under the covering of the blood, the destroying angel would pass over them and would not smite them (Exo. 12:21-23). But all the firstborn of the land of Egypt were judged by God and were smitten by the destroying angel. In this way the Israelites were delivered from the enslaving hand of Pharaoh and were freed from Egypt.
After the Israelites experienced the passover, they left Egypt the same night and crossed the Red Sea. This is a type of all the believers in the New Testament, that is, the whole church, experiencing Christ as the Passover and being baptized to be delivered from the world. For the Israelites the experience of the passover, the exodus from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea were not individual matters but were all corporate matters. They experienced the passover as a corporate body, they left Egypt as a corporate body, and they crossed the Red Sea as a corporate body. In the eyes of God, we believers are not saved one by one individually. Instead, we enjoy Christ as the redeeming Lamb together, we are baptized together, and we are delivered from the world and saved from this age together. In God there is no difference in time and space. We the believers experience our Passover at the same time, and all of us leave Egypt and cross the Red Sea at the same time.
The Israelites were led by God out of Egypt to cross the Red Sea and enter into the wilderness to serve God. Today it is the same for us, the saved ones. We are in the wilderness, away from the bondage of the world, having been released from the enslaving of man and having true freedom. Here we learn to serve God.
In the journey through the wilderness, God led the Israelites to pass through many experiences. First, they experienced the bitter waters becoming sweet. The Israelites came to Marah. Because of the bitterness of the waters, the people complained to Moses. Jehovah commanded Moses to cast a tree into the waters, and the waters became sweet (Exo. 15:25). The bitter waters signify bitter situations. The tree signifies the cross of Christ. Christians are like the Israelites in the wilderness; often we are confronted with difficulties while journeying on earth. During these times, if we consider the cross of Christ and receive it into us, our bitter situations will turn sweet.
The Israelites also enjoyed the manna from heaven as their daily supply. They did not plow nor did they reap in the wilderness. What they ate was the manna from heaven (16:15). We who follow the Lord have God’s manna from heaven, which is the Lord Jesus. He is the bread of life. When we eat Him, we will not be hungry. He who eats Him will live because of Him (John 6:35, 57).
Not only did the Israelites need food in the wilderness; they needed water as well. God solved the problem of their need for food by sending manna, but there was still the need to solve the problem of drinking. For that, God commanded Moses to strike the rock. Out of the rock came water (Exo. 17:6), and their thirst was quenched. Today the Lord Jesus is our manna. He is also our living water. We can drink of Him and be satisfied.
While the Israelites were journeying in the wilderness, Amalek came and fought with them (v. 8), hindering them from going on. Through the prayer of Moses, the Israelites defeated Amalek. In type, Amalek signifies our flesh. Our flesh is always hindering us from following the Lord. But through the intercession of the Lord Jesus in heaven and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to overcome the flesh. Hence, after we have left Egypt and are in the way of following the Lord in the wilderness, there are many needs. The Lord is able to meet all our needs. He turns the difficulties into sweetness. He satisfies our hunger and quenches our thirst. He overcomes the hindrance of the flesh for us. In this way we can go on fearlessly to the place that God has appointed.
The Israelites came to Mount Sinai, which was God’s appointed place (19:1). Here they received the revelation to build the tabernacle so that God would have a dwelling place on earth (25:8). Later, the tabernacle became the center of the move among the Israelites. This typifies that we the believers are led by the Lord to receive revelation and to build the church as God’s dwelling place.
The Israelites could very well have entered into the good land of Canaan through following the tabernacle had it not been for their evil heart of unbelief, which offended God. For that, God was disgusted with that generation. In the end they all died in the wilderness. This typifies the believers wandering and failing in the soul.
The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years until a new generation rose up. God brought the new generation through the river Jordan to enter into Canaan. He ordered Joshua to choose twelve men from among the people to bring twelve stones from the river Jordan over to the other side. In addition, they set up twelve stones in the river (Josh. 4:2-3, 8-9). This was done as a symbol that the old Israelites were buried under the river Jordan and that the new Israelites were brought through the river into the good land. This typifies that the believers’ natural life passes through the death of Christ, and in resurrection they enjoy Christ as the good land.
When the Israelites entered Canaan, God delivered into their hands the people of that land. They were able to defeat the enemy, gain the land, and build the temple of God there. The temple was an enlargement of the tabernacle. It was the dwelling place of God. This typifies that we the believers defeat the spiritual enemies, gain the territory in Christ, and build up the church as God’s temple. When we follow Christ, we receive the feeding of the manna, we receive the supply of the living water, and we overcome our flesh by Him. Furthermore, we deny the natural life by passing through the death of Christ, dying and resurrecting together with Him, and enter into Him, being joined together with all the saints to be built up into a solid dwelling place of God in Him.
After the temple was completed, the Israelites gradually became desolate, failed, and were eventually carried away to Babylon to be put under the rule of the Gentiles. After seventy years, when the time was fulfilled (2 Chron. 36:11-21), God called them out of Babylon to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple on the foundation of the original temple (Ezra 1:3). This typifies the history of the church after it came into being. From Revelation 2 and 3 we see that the church gradually became desolate, failed, and was carried away to the mysterious great Babylon, which is the Roman Catholic Church. When the Reformation began during the sixteenth century, the church was delivered from Roman Catholicism back to the original position. Today we are like the returned Israelites, coming out of the mysterious great Babylon and being recovered to the original ground of the church to rebuild the church of God.
The Israelites returned, rebuilt the temple, and recovered the holy city. When the Lord Jesus comes back again, the nation of Israel will be restored. By then they will rebuild the temple again and will build a bigger Jerusalem. According to Ezekiel 48, the Jerusalem that they will build will have twelve gates and will be their dwelling place with God in the millennium. This typifies the overcomers in the church and the overcoming saints of the Old Testament, who will eventually become the New Jerusalem in the millennium. They will be the heavenly part of the millennium and will be the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. There they will exercise authority to rule with the Lord Jesus over the nations.
After the one thousand years this heavenly Jerusalem will be enlarged to become the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth. She will include all the redeemed ones from all the ages to be the dwelling place and the expression of God in eternity future. She will also become the dwelling place of us, the redeemed ones. Hence, the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth will become the mutual dwelling place for God and man. God will dwell in the redeemed ones, and the redeemed ones will dwell in God their Redeemer. This New Jerusalem in eternity is the ultimate consummation of the church to be God’s eternal expression.
By now, we can clearly see that the history of the nation of Israel is a full type of the history of the church. The history of Israel begins with the Israelites corporately experiencing the passover during the exodus from Egypt and goes on until the Lord comes the second time, when they will be restored to build the city of Jerusalem with the twelve gates. The history of the church also began with the Passover, which is Christ who has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7), and goes on until the millennium with its heavenly Jerusalem, which also has twelve gates. Hence, whether it is the Old Testament or the New Testament, in type or by revelation, the whole Bible speaks of the same thing, which is God’s economy. The economy of God is the Triune God working Himself into us, the tripartite men. He desires to be man’s life, content, and complete supply so that man would become God’s representation and expression. In the beginning God gained individuals, from Adam through Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Then God gained a corporate Israel. When we are first saved, seemingly we are individuals; but gradually we feel that we need a corporate Body, which is the church. Because of this we begin to come together for the church life. Today we are the genuine, real nation of Israel, expressing God as His dwelling place on earth.
I hope you would all see that this is what the Lord is after in His recovery on earth today. First He gains individuals; then He gains a Body. Today we all have our individual experiences; but we are also living a life in the church. It is a life in which the Triune God is joined to the redeemed ones as one spirit. He is our life and content, and we are His rest and habitation. He is our enjoyment, and we are His expression. All these begin with His Spirit mingling with our spirit, continue with the uplifting and the transformation of our soul, and consummate with the uplifting of our body, which is the redemption of our body. Eventually, all the redeemed ones will become the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling place of God and us and as God’s eternal expression. May we all see this vision of God’s economy so that we would know how to live in the church and walk in a proper and bright way.
