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Scripture Reading: Exo. 15:13, 17; Deut. 12:11; Psa. 73:16-17; 1 Cor. 14:26; Heb. 10:25
Apparently the verses above from Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Psalms have little to do with the matter of meeting. Yet in fact they are on the matter of meeting. Exodus 15, we know, is a section of the victorious praises offered to God by the released people. When the children of Israel were released from Egypt out of the tyranny of Pharaoh, when they crossed the Red Sea, and when they saw that all the Egyptian armies were drowned under the depths of that sea, they offered a praise to the Lord.
Verse 13 says, “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; / You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation.” Have you ever noticed that the destination of God’s guiding is His holy habitation? He guides us to this destination. He leads forth His redeemed people, and He guides them to such a destination, that is, His holy habitation. We know that this is the dwelling place of God. First, it was the tent, or the tabernacle. Eventually, it became the temple. Whether it was the tabernacle or the temple, it was the dwelling place of God, His holy habitation. This is the destination of God’s leading. This is the destination of God’s guiding. God leads us and guides us to this destination, His holy habitation.
Could you realize that God’s habitation is the meeting of His redeemed people? So you have a term that combines these two things together: the Tent of Meeting. The tent refers to God’s dwelling place, and the meeting, no doubt, refers to the gathering of God’s people. This indicates that the gathering of God’s people is just God’s dwelling place.
In the Old Testament the picture was not so clear because it was really hard to portray how the gathered people of God were just God’s dwelling place. In the Old Testament type you have God’s dwelling place typified by the tent, the tabernacle, as the center of God’s gathered people. At the same time you have a gathering of God’s people around the tent.
In the New Testament you have to realize that God’s habitation is the church. And the church, according to the Greek word ekklesia, means a kind of meeting. It is a meeting or an assembly of the called-out ones. When God’s called-out ones meet together, this is the church. The church is the meeting of a collective people, a gathering of the believers.
According to the New Testament teaching, do you believe that the saints in a locality do not need to come together, do not need any gathering, yet they could be the church? You have to realize that without the gathering together of the believers in their locality, there is no practical church life. The practical church life is the gathering of the saints in a certain locality. If you live in Huntington Beach, but you do not come together, there are many saints, no doubt, in that city, but practically speaking there is no church.
The church becomes real and practical when you all come together. That is an ekklesia. The ekklesia is the coming together of all the saints. And this coming together of all the saints is a gathering. You have to realize that this gathering is the habitation of God. So the church is the “Tent of Meeting.” The tent signifies God’s dwelling place; the meetings signify the gathering, the coming together, of all the saints. Exodus 15:13 talks about the meeting of God’s redeemed people. They got redeemed, but what should they do after being redeemed? God led them forth to the meeting. God guided them to the meeting.
Have you noticed that in Exodus 15:13 two predicates are used? First of all, it says that the Lord led His redeemed people forth. Then it says that the Lord guides them. What is the difference between leading and guiding? Some years ago when I was in Elden hall, I heard someone pray, “Lord, lead us and guide us.” That is very meaningful. That was quite impressive to me.
First, the Lord leads us, and then He guides us. Look at the picture in the type. When the children of Israel were traveling through the wilderness, there was the pillar of cloud or of fire always taking the lead. That was the leading. If the pillar of cloud or of fire stayed, they did not move. At the same time that the Lord was taking the lead, He was also guiding them. He was with them, and He was among them guiding them. In our Christian pilgrimage, in our Christian course or journey, the Lord is always taking the lead, and at the same time He is guiding us.
In 1958 when I visited Jerusalem, we used a travel guide. He was not only a guide but also a leader. When we went to the temple or to other places, he was taking the lead. When we had troubles, right away he became the guide. He turned back to us and walked with us shoulder to shoulder, talking to us, and explaining to us. To take the lead is somewhat general, but to guide is somewhat particular.
Today the Lord takes the lead in a general way giving us a general direction. Then at certain times He comes to us to be our guide explaining to us in details. Eventually, it was by His guiding that He brought His redeemed people in His strength to His holy habitation. The leading only took the people on the way, but the guiding took them to a particular point, that is, God’s holy habitation. That habitation, dear saints, is just the gathering. That is the meeting. So following His redemption, God’s leading and God’s guiding are to bring His people into the meeting.
Let me check with you according to your experience. Right after you got saved, it was wonderful. It was excellent. But you did not have the sense that you were at home. You had not arrived at the destination until the time that you were brought into a meeting. When you got into that meeting, right away you had the sense that you were at home. No one had to tell you. When you got into the meeting, you had the sense that this was the right place for you. That is God’s habitation and your meeting.
Most Christians do not realize the matter of meeting in this way. Mostly they consider the Christian meeting a kind of service for worship. They do not realize that the Christian meeting is a destination that they have to arrive at. And with their arrival this destination becomes God’s habitation. I must say that when God is homeless, then we are also wanderers. When God does not have a home, neither do we have a home. When God has a home to dwell in, that home becomes ours. God’s home is our home. Many times when we come to the meeting, we have the sensation that we are home. If we stay away from the meetings for two months, we will have the sense that we have become homeless. We have become wanderers. Then when we come back to the meeting, we feel that we are home. This proves that our meeting is God’s habitation, and God’s habitation is our home.
When God is dwelling properly, we are too. This dwelling is our meeting. I mention this to show the importance of our meeting. It is not just a kind of service or a kind of worship or a kind of coming together to have a Bible study or a prayer time. It is not just that. It is to have God’s dwelling place on this earth. When we come together, we constitute God’s dwelling place. In this dwelling place we are home with God; we are home with our Father. Every gathering is a family reunion.
Verse 17 says, “You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, / The place, O Jehovah, which You have made for Your dwelling, / The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” Mount Zion is the mount of the Holy Land. And the Holy Land is God’s inheritance. So the mountain of God’s inheritance is Mount Zion. According to this verse, God wanted to plant all the children of Israel on Mount Zion. We may think that geographically speaking, it is impossible to plant all the children of Israel on Mount Zion. This is our natural understanding. According to God’s understanding and in God’s view, all the children of Israel were planted on that mountain. At least three times a year — at the time of the Passover, at the time of Pentecost, and at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles — all the males came together to stay on that mountain. So in the eyes of God all the children of Israel were planted on that mountain.
We have to realize that this plantation was the gathering and the habitation of God. During those days of the feasts, all the children of Israel stayed there on the mountain day and night. If their feast lasted seven days, they stayed on the mountain seven days. When God looked upon Mount Zion and saw all His chosen and redeemed people staying there, He was so happy. That gathering was God’s dwelling place on this earth. All His chosen and redeemed people stayed with Him on that mountain. That was a plantation, that was a gathering, and that was a habitation. And that was a mutual home to God and to His chosen people.
That was a picture in the Old Testament, and today our meetings are the fulfillment of that type. In the past we have had two slogans: Christ is our life, and the church is our living. We need to change the word church to the word meeting. Christ is my life, and the meeting is my living.
Do we not realize that all the people today on this earth are miserable? Whether they are dancing, or surfing, or playing ball, or eating, or drinking, or gambling, or stealing, they are miserable. Whether they are strong or weak, they are miserable. Whether they are well or sick, they are miserable. How about us? Are we also miserable? If we do not come to the meeting, are we miserable or pleasant? I can testify that I am happy every day in my home, but often I am not that happy. But I am guaranteed to be happy when I come to the meeting. In my fifty years in the church life I cannot remember a meeting in which I was miserable. I was miserable sometimes in my home, but I do not remember even once being miserable in the meeting.
Why are we so pleasant in the meetings? Sometimes I have had the feeling that the meeting was too long. Recently, our Lord’s table meeting lasted two hours and forty minutes. I was really tired out by sitting there for one hundred and sixty minutes. But I must tell you that I was not miserable. I was tired out, yet I was still pleasant. In a sense I wanted to go home, yet in another sense I wanted to stay there. I was hesitating to go back home. As long as I am in the meeting, I know I will be pleasant, but when I get back home, I might be miserable. I do have the assurance and the guarantee that I will be pleasant as long as I am in the meeting.
We need to spend some time to re-study our meeting life so that we could see something more. In a sense I am not encouraging you to come to the meeting, but I would like to tell you what is the difference between coming to the meeting or not coming to the meeting. You have a choice, life or death. It is up to you. If you like to die, you just remain there at home. If you like to live, come to the meeting. Outside the meeting you are about to die. But if you come to the meeting, you are guaranteed to live. It is pleasant here. From my experience I can say that the most pleasant place on earth is the meeting.
Sometimes due to your subjective personal problems, you brought your miserable situation from your home to the meetings. You should not blame the meeting. You should blame your foolishness. Sometimes I brought my miserable situation right to the front door of the meeting hall, but then I said, “Don’t follow me! Go away!” Then I came into the meeting without my miserable situation.
According to the human life, the unique pleasant time and the unique pleasant place is the meeting. Some might say that their wedding was the most happy time and the most happy place. It might be. But even if it was really a happy time and place, that was only once for your whole life. But we can experience the meeting time and the meeting place again and again and again.
Comparatively speaking, our meeting is the most pleasant place and the most pleasant time. The unbelievers do not have this kind of meeting, so they have never tasted such a pleasant place. But we have! If you were to ask me according to my human life experience what is the most pleasant time and what is the most pleasant place, I would say that it is the meeting.
I love America, but I must tell you the truth that if there were no meeting, the United States would not be a pleasant place. What could I do here? Watch TV? That would be disgusting! Listen to the music? That would be terrible! What shall we do? We have to believe in the Lord Jesus that He will lead and guide us into His dwelling place. That is the meeting.
How can I say that the mountain in verse 17 refers to Mount Zion? It is because that is the dwelling place of God. The sanctuary that God dwells in is the temple. First, God made Mount Zion. Then God built and established the temple on Mount Zion. Mount Zion with the temple as God’s sanctuary was the meeting place of all the children of Israel. Three times every year they all had to go there, not just to have a visit but even to stay, to dwell. They dwelt there not just by themselves but with God for seven days. Seven days in the Bible indicates a full course of time. This means that for the full course of our human life we must stay in the gathering with God. We must stay in God’s dwelling place. We must stay in the meetings.
Now we need to read Deuteronomy 12:11: “Then to the place where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I am commanding you, your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and all your choice vows which you vow to Jehovah.” This verse refers to a place. God charged the children of Israel that after they entered into the good land, they should not come together at just any place. There was only one place that was legitimate for them to gather together. That was Mount Zion, where God’s temple was. Three times every year they had to bring all their top produce from the land to that place for gathering. There they stayed together with God. That was their meeting time. They met there every year. We know that these are different aspects of one thing, that is, our today’s gathering. Our today’s gathering should be like that.
How can we prove that to meet is to do the will of God and fulfill God’s purpose? Psalm 73:16-17 says, “When I considered this in order to understand it, / It was a troublesome task in my sight, / Until I went into the sanctuary of God; / Then I perceived their end.” When the psalmist thought about certain matters, it was painful for him, but when he went into the sanctuary of God, he began to understand.
I believe that in the past many of us were seeking after the Lord’s will concerning our families, our marriage, our job, our school. Many times it was painful. We were seeking to know the will of God concerning these things, but it was painful. But a number of times when we simply came into the meeting, the thing that we were seeking to know became very clear to us. The message did not cover that particular thing. No testimony referred to it. We simply came to the meeting and sat there, and the clearness came. Of course, many times the testimonies helped us to be clear, and even more times the message helped us to be clear. But anyhow we all can testify that coming to the meeting is the best place and the best time for us to know God’s will. Quite often not many have gotten to know the Lord’s will outside the meeting, but quite often many have gotten to know the Lord’s will in the meeting. Too many times we prayed concerning things again and again, seeking to know the Lord’s will, but we failed to get clear. However, when we came to the meeting, it became so clear. To do the Lord’s will first depends upon the knowing. If you could know the Lord’s will, the major part is accomplished already.
When we come together, our intention may be to pray, to worship, to serve, to hear a message, to be taught, to be exhorted, to be strengthened, to be comforted, and to be encouraged. This is our understanding. Actually, with our meetings there are so many wonderful things underneath the surface. We gain a lot of benefits and profit that we do not realize by participating in the meetings. So this means that we do not treasure the meeting as we should. We do not appreciate the meeting as we should.
We have to realize that today on the earth, besides our inner life, no other thing is so crucial, so important, so profitable as the matter of meeting. Believe me! One day you will testify that to lose your job is not so important as to miss a meeting. To miss a meeting means the real loss. To lose your job does not mean some real loss. I do not want to assure you in the way of superstition, but I would say that if you meet properly, the Lord would probably keep you in a job. If you meet properly like the children of Israel did and you do not have a job, then the Lord might send the manna to you. Then you might say, If this is so, let us all quit our jobs. We would take this hall as Mount Zion, and we would meet here every day and stay here daily. This is superstition.
But you have to remember that in 2 Corinthians 8 Paul reckons our regular job as the gathering of manna. You know the story of the gathering of manna. Some greedy ones gathered more, but afterward the measurement was the same. Many of us like to gather more, but eventually it comes out the same. Those who receive more or gather more have no excess. And those who gather less have no lack. It comes out the same. Even though you gather so much with all your energy and endeavor, eventually what you get is the same.
We who are the meeting people do live on manna. Do not live on your job. Go to do a job, but do not live on your job. Live on manna. Even your job is manna. God can take away all the manna. God can use just His little finger to touch the American economy, and the jobs are gone. When the jobs are gone, there is no manna. You think that this is your job, but this is manna sent by God to you.
The Lord’s word is trustworthy. He says not to worry about tomorrow. He says not to have any anxiety about tomorrow. Tomorrow is not in your hands. Do not live a life of tomorrow. Live a life of today. Seek first His kingdom. Then what you need for eating, for drinking, and for clothing, your Father will add to you. He will give you the kingdom that you first seek, plus all the necessities (Matt. 6:31-34). This is the manna. To lose your job should not worry you, but to miss a meeting should bother you.
I have been serving the Lord for about fifty years. I did not lose my job at the beginning of the fifty years; rather, I quit my job. I had a good job, but I gave it up. When I was about to make the decision to quit my job, that seemed bigger than the earth. But fifty years have passed now, and the fact is that the Lord’s word is trustworthy. We surely do not need to worry about our living. We do not need to have any anxiety about our necessities as long as we seek after Him.
We have to realize that the practical kingdom life is the meeting. If we seek after His kingdom, yet we do not meet, what kind of kingdom is this? The practical kingdom is the meeting life. To meet is to seek the kingdom first. To attend the meeting is to seek the kingdom first.
Now we come back to the matter of doing the will of God. We live on this earth, and our goal, our purpose, is to do the will of our Father. How could we know His will? There is no other way except by attending the meetings. I can assure you that without coming to the meeting it would be more than hard for you to know God’s will. The way to know God’s will is to come to the meeting. When you begin to miss the meeting, you begin to miss God’s will. Then you would begin to go back to that miserable life under Satan’s tyranny from which you have been delivered already.
So we must do whatever we can not to miss any meetings. If this would jeopardize our job, let it jeopardize it. Coming to the meeting must be first. I have never seen one saint who eventually really suffered because of coming to the meeting. I have never seen one. Rather, I can testify that I have seen thousands in the past who kept coming to the meetings and who were much blessed by the Lord, not only spiritually but even physically. The Lord is faithful, and His promise is trustworthy.
Saints, be encouraged and be assured. This is not only the right way; this is also the unique way. We have no choice. To be a human being, we have to be a Christian. To be a Christian, we have to come to the meeting. There is no choice. This is our destiny. To come to the meeting is not only our destination; it is our destiny. Our Father predestined us this way. To come together is our destiny. If we go along with God’s predestination, surely we will be under His blessing. If not, we are kicking against the pricks, and we will suffer.
Some might consider that they sacrifice too much time to come to the meetings. They might consider that if they used all their time to do business, they would make more money. Let them try four or five years, and they will see the suffering. I have seen too many cases like this. This thought is quite deceiving and quite misleading. We have to stand on the trustworthy word in God’s Holy Scriptures. We have to trust in His promise, and we have to obey His commandment to come to the meeting. If we come to the meeting, we are keeping His predestination, and the destiny of blessing will come to us. It will come not only to us, one generation, but perhaps even to the third generation, or generation after generation. Both we and our children will be under God’s blessing.
This is our destiny, dear saints. To meet together is not a small thing. It is our destiny. We cannot have any other choice. Here we know the will of God, here we do the will of God, and eventually we will fulfill His purpose.
