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At the beginning of the book of Genesis we see one man bearing the image of God. But at the end of the book of Exodus we see a corporate house filled with the glory of God. God’s intention in His creation of man was not simply to have man; it was to have a corporate house as His dwelling place on earth, a house that could be filled with His glory for His expression. When God has such a house, He can dwell on earth. Heaven is a place where He lodges temporarily. God, however, desires an eternal dwelling place. At the end of the book of Revelation we see that the New Jerusalem, God’s eternal habitation, comes down out of heaven to the new earth (21:2). God’s dwelling place on earth is a corporate man redeemed by God, indwelt by God, saturated with God, and one with God. In this dwelling place God is able to express Himself. This is God’s eternal plan. Today God is still working toward the fulfillment of this plan.
At the time of Exodus 1, God’s corporate people had fallen in at least three ways. First, they had become so sinful that they had fallen under God’s judgment; second, they had fallen under the slavery of Pharaoh and had become worldly; and third, they were permeated with the smell of garlic. Hence, they needed to be redeemed from God’s judgment, delivered from bondage in Egypt, and reconstituted with a pleasant-smelling element. When God’s people were in Egypt, they frequently ate garlic, leeks, and onions. No one likes the smell of garlic. Anyone who contacted the children of Israel in Egypt would have been offended by the odor of garlic. Before God the children of Israel were condemned; in Egypt they were held under bondage; and in relation to themselves they smelled like garlic. They surely needed to be redeemed, delivered, transformed, and reconstituted. They had to become a different kind of people, people no longer under God’s judgment, no longer held in bondage in Egypt, and no longer giving off the odor of garlic.
God’s intention was that His chosen people would be His dwelling place on earth. But His people were under His judgment, they were under bondage in Egypt, and they smelled of garlic. How could God dwell with such a people? How could they be His dwelling place? It seemed impossible. However, it was not impossible with God. Christ came into their situation as the delivering Angel, as the speaking Moses, as the redeeming Lamb, and as the nourishing unleavened bread. This Christ is wonderful.
According to Exodus 3, Christ as the Angel of Jehovah is the Triune God. In verse 6 the Angel said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The God of Abraham refers to the Father; the God of Isaac, to the Son; and the God of Jacob, to the Holy Spirit. Hence, the Angel of Jehovah is the Triune God. We were in a fallen condition in Egypt, but Christ as the Angel of Jehovah came to deliver us. Although we do not have the strength to escape from Egypt, Christ has the strength. In fact, He even is the very strength.
Christ also came as the Lamb to shed His blood to cleanse us and to accomplish redemption for us, that is, to redeem us out from under God’s judgment. We are no longer under the judgment of God. We are free! We are a redeemed people covered by the blood of Christ. As the Lamb, Christ also nourishes us, strengthens us, and affords us the energy to walk out of Egypt. His blood redeems us from God’s judgment, and His life is the nourishment, giving us the energy to escape from Egypt.
Exodus 12 reveals that Christ is also the unleavened bread. The fact that Christ is the unleavened bread signifies that Christ is the sinless element. With Him there is no sin; He is entirely pure. When we eat Him as the unleavened bread, we take in His sinless element. By eating the flesh of the Lamb, we receive the strength to walk out of Egypt, and by eating the unleavened bread, we partake of the element that purifies us and keeps us from sin. Praise the Lord that we are out of Egypt and that we are eating unleavened bread. This bread is making us sinless.
As the children of Israel were crossing the Red Sea, the armies of Egypt pursued them. But the Angel of Jehovah miraculously buried the armies of the Egyptians. This refers to our baptism. After we received Christ as our Redeemer, our life, and our nourishment, we crossed the Red Sea. This means that we were baptized. When we crossed the Red Sea in baptism, all the worldly forces, the Egyptian armies, were buried in the baptistery. After we were baptized, we found ourselves in the wilderness on the other side of the sea. We have been redeemed, we have been delivered, and now we are able to be for God. In Egypt we were not good for God. But once we cross the Red Sea, we are good for God. We are no longer under God’s judgment, in Egyptian bondage, or in sin. God’s judgment, the bondage in Egypt, and sin are all over. We are free, purified, and absolutely good for the building of God’s house on earth.
Although the children of Israel had eaten the lamb and the unleavened bread, they still needed to take the heavenly element into them. If they were to be God’s dwelling place, they had to be heavenly. Hence, in the wilderness Christ came to them as the heavenly manna. As the Angel of Jehovah, Christ is great, but as the manna, Christ is small, like coriander seed, and tiny, like frost. Our Christ is both great and small. In delivering us, He is great, but in nourishing us and making us heavenly, He is small. Hallelujah for the great Christ and for the small Christ! No one is greater than Christ, and nothing is smaller than Christ. He is great to deliver us, and He is small to nourish us.
If we want to eat something large, it must be cut into pieces and made small enough to eat. Praise the Lord that Christ is as small as a coriander seed. Although He is so small, He is full of life. He is a small seed, not a small grain of sand.
Exodus 16:14 says that the manna was round. Roundness in the Bible signifies eternity, that which is without beginning or ending. Although the Christ we eat is small, He is full of life and eternal. Exodus 16:31 also tells us that the manna was white, which indicates purity.
As the children of Israel ate this wonderful manna day by day, they gradually lost the smell of garlic. Instead, they had the aroma of heavenly honey, for the taste of manna was “like wafers made with honey” (v. 31). Many years ago in Taiwan, our family doctor told me that his daughter’s skin had become yellow in color from eating carrots. She ate so many carrots that she expressed carrots. Likewise, if you eat a great deal of manna, you will become white, the color of manna, and you will express Christ.
My maternal grandparents ate a great deal of fish. They ate fish two or three times a day. Whenever my mother took me to visit them, I was bothered by the fact that everything in their home smelled of fish. My mother explained that, because my grandparents always ate fish, they naturally smelled like fish. Praise the Lord that we have a heavenly fragrance because we are eating the heavenly food, Christ. Christ is being wrought, constituted, into our being.
After the children of Israel were redeemed from God’s judgment and delivered from Egyptian bondage, they were transformed by eating the manna. They were changed from having the odor of garlic to having the fragrance of the heavenly manna. Thus, with the children of Israel in the wilderness, God eventually gained a dwelling place among His chosen, redeemed, delivered, and transformed people. We also have been freed from God’s judgment, from Egyptian bondage, and from the smell of garlic, and now we are good for the building of God’s tabernacle.
All this is a picture of Christ and the church. Christ is the delivering Angel, the speaking Moses, the redeeming and nourishing Lamb, the sanctifying unleavened bread, and the transforming manna. Oh, Christ is so much to us! Eventually, we are redeemed, delivered, enlivened, and transformed. We are no longer good for anything of Egypt; we are only good for God’s dwelling place. God’s glory filled the tabernacle in the wilderness. For God’s glory to come down means that God Himself comes down to earth to dwell in His habitation for His expression. The church today must be like this. Out of the enjoyment of Christ, the church comes into being to fulfill God’s purpose, that is, to express God and fully satisfy Him. Now we have the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth.
The tabernacle, however, was not stationary. Rather, it moved about from place to place in the wilderness. God did not want just a movable tabernacle in the wilderness; He needed an established temple in the good land. Although the tabernacle we see in the last chapter of Exodus was good, it was temporary; it was not established. Although the children of Israel had the tabernacle and were God’s dwelling place, they were not yet fully established because they were still in the wilderness. Hence, they had to go on to enter into the good land.
According to the Bible, the good land is a complete picture of Christ. Christ is the Angel of Jehovah, the speaking Moses, the redeeming Lamb, the unleavened bread, and the manna. Now we must see that even the good land is a type of Christ. Christ today is our good land, and we must enter into Him as the good land. We have enjoyed Him as the Angel, the Lamb, the unleavened bread, and the heavenly manna, but probably we have not yet entered into Him as the good land and experienced Him as the land.
Formerly, the children of Israel were in Egypt. After they crossed the Red Sea, they were in the wilderness. In order to enter into the good land, they had to cross the water again, this time the river Jordan. In the Red Sea the Egyptian forces were buried. However, the children of Israel themselves were not buried. Hence, although they enjoyed Christ, they were still very much in themselves. Because they were so much in themselves, they had to cross the water another time so that their old man could be buried. When the Israelites crossed the Jordan, God told them to take twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, out of the river and to place another twelve stones at the bottom of the river (Josh. 4:2-4, 8-9). This signified that the old man of the children of Israel was buried. Their natural being was buried, and they became a resurrected people. They were not only redeemed and delivered; they were also resurrected. They had been redeemed out from under God’s judgment, they had been delivered from Egyptian bondage, and now they were resurrected so that they might depart from their natural being. This is deeper than redemption and deliverance. Those who still live in their natural being must cross the Jordan so that their old man can be buried and so that they themselves can be in resurrection. When we are resurrected, we immediately find ourselves in the good land, in Christ.
The Christ portrayed by the good land is very rich. This land is very spacious and rich. The good land is rich in four categories of things: water, food, animal life, and minerals (Deut. 8:7-10; 32:14). These categories signify the richness of Christ as our good land. Christ is not only the manna and the water flowing from the rock. In the good land we have streams, rivers, and fountains. These streams flow from the mountains, and the valleys are full of water. Now that we are in Christ, we do not lack water. Wherever we are, on the mountain or in the valley, water is flowing. Both during pleasant times on the mountaintops and during sorrowful times in the valleys, there is an abundance of water.
In Christ as our good land there are also many types of food: wheat, barley, figs, vines, olives, and pomegranates. Christ is wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, and pomegranates. He is the wheat and the barley as bread for us to eat. He is the grape wine to make us happy and the fig tree to satisfy us. He is also the oil, signifying the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and the pomegranate, signifying the expression of the riches of life. He is also the cattle, signifying His redeeming and nourishing life. Christ is so rich! If you would know the details of all these aspects of Christ, I encourage you to read the book The All-inclusive Christ.
Christ is not only the water, the food, and the cattle; He is also the minerals dug out of the mountains. He is the stones, the iron, and the copper. If we read the Bible carefully, we shall see that the stones are for God’s building. Stone signifies Christ as the building stone (1 Pet. 2:4-6) to establish the kingdom (Dan. 2:35). Iron and copper are metals used in making weapons for war. These weapons are used to subdue the enemy.
After the children of Israel entered into the good land, they still had to face many enemies. God’s intention was that the Israelites would build the temple in the good land. However, because the enemies were still present, God could not build the temple. Therefore, He raised up David, an excellent fighter, to defeat the enemy and gain the ground for the building of the temple. Furthermore, David even gave the design of the temple to Solomon his son and charged him to build the temple. Solomon did so. After the temple had been built, the glory of God came down again and filled the temple. On earth there was something more than a movable tabernacle; there was an established temple.
The temple is also a type of the church. The tabernacle was neither stationary nor permanent, but the temple was established. Some churches are good, but they, like the tabernacle, are not settled and solidly established. Praise the Lord that some churches are the temple, fully settled and solidly established. In order to have such an established church, we must take Christ not only as the manna but also as the good land. We must take Christ as solid food, not just as the manna. German bread is very hard, and babies cannot eat it. Although babies might be able to eat manna, they cannot eat barley bread. Those in some local churches constantly eat manna. Although this is good, it is not good enough. We all must pass through the wilderness and enter into the good land. We must progress from eating manna to eating hard bread. We must also experience Christ as the stone and as the iron and copper. Christ is the stone to smash the enemy and to build the house of God. How we need to experience Christ as the iron and copper for the defeat of the enemy!
Some saints in the church life are very good. Day after day they eat manna. But when the enemy attacks, they are not able to deal with him. They are young, immature, and not at all strong. But some of the saints are very strong. They are like iron and copper. Each of them is a rock that can smite the enemy, build up the temple, and even establish the kingdom.
Christ is the Angel, Moses, the Lamb, the unleavened bread, the manna, and the good land, including water, food, cattle, and minerals. It is by experiencing Christ as the minerals in the good land that we become rock, iron, and copper. If we experience Christ in this way, we are good not only for the building but also for fighting the battle, defeating the enemy, and subduing all the adversaries. When the enemy and the adversaries are defeated, we have the ground for the building of the house of God and for the establishing of the kingdom of God. This is the church. Once again we see that the church comes out of the enjoyment of Christ.
We have seen two stages of the church: the stage of the tabernacle and the stage of the temple. Is the church in your locality the tabernacle or the temple? I would be very glad to hear that the church in your city is the temple. As we have seen, the tabernacle is good, but it is not very solid or weighty. But the temple is weighty, solid, and settled. In order for the church to be the temple, a good number of saints must become stones, iron, and copper. Only by becoming iron and copper can we fight the battle and defeat the enemy. Are the saints in your locality stones, iron, and copper, or are they wafers that are sweet, delicious, tender, and kind, but not at all solid? If you pour water on a wafer, it will easily fall apart. But if you pour water on stone, iron, or copper, no damage will be done. Those who are solid and strong can stand against any storm or flood. They are able to stand against the enemy. This is the church in the stage of the temple. If we would have the church as the temple, we need to experience Christ as stone, iron, and copper, not simply as manna.
Whether the church is the tabernacle or the temple, the function, the foundation, and the nature are all the same. Both the tabernacle and the temple are unique. There cannot be more than one tabernacle, and there cannot be more than one temple. The tabernacle and the temple both come out of the experience of Christ. If we lack the experience of Christ, we simply cannot have the proper church life.
Thus far, in this book we have come to three stations. The first station is at the end of Genesis, the second is at the end of Exodus, and the third is the building of the temple in 1 Kings. At the time of 1 Kings 8, God had gained an established temple on earth. God was able to put His name there, and He could fill it with His glory. Praise the Lord that in Stuttgart and other places God has such a solid temple, a solid church life. This temple is not built with wafers but with stones. Praise the Lord that a good number of saints are stone, iron, and copper. They are strong to stand against the enemy, to express God, to be His dwelling place on earth, and to satisfy the desire of His heart. This is the kernel of the Bible, Christ and the church.
