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I. The Triune God in the Old Testament
II. God being triune in His relationship with man
III. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob
IV. The golden lampstand symbolizing the Triune God
V. The Triune God as revealed by the cleft rock
In the last six lessons we have covered the basic truth concerning the Triune God. We hope you have seen something and are experiencing Him more in your daily life. In the next six lessons we want to see how the whole Bible tells us about the Triune God. Certainly we cannot cover everything in the Bible in six lessons, but we will mention some of the crucial points.
The structure of the entire Bible is just the Triune God and His full salvation. God is triune in His dealing with man, saving of man, and dispensing of Himself into man. By this, man may become His sons and members of the Body of Christ.
You should know that the Old Testament tells about God and His chosen people before the birth of Christ. The New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus. Do not think, though, that we cannot see the Father, Son, and Spirit in the Old Testament. In fact, the Old Testament is full of the Triune God for our experience; it is just that He is still somewhat hidden and presented in symbols. But what is often very hard to describe with words can be understood much better by seeing a picture. This is true of the Triune God. With the help of the New Testament to explain the pictures in the Old Testament, we will see how excellent and experiential our God is.
The first sentence in the Old Testament states, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). In the Hebrew language the subject "God" is triple in number, whereas the verb "created" is singular in number. This means that God is three-one. From the very first verse of the whole Bible, we see that God is triune!
Often in the Old Testament the one God refers to Himself as "Us." In Genesis 1:26 He says, "Let us make man in our image." This clearly declares that God is plural; but here, in verse 26, the Hebrew word used for the "image" of God is singular. Although God is "us," plural, the "image" of "us" is singular, one. Therefore, this also means that God is three-one.
From Genesis 1, we go to Genesis 3. After man's fall, God again uses the plural pronoun for Himself: "The Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3:22).
In Genesis 11, men had become so rebellious against God that they built the tower of Babel and the city of Babel. Then God said, "Let us go down" (Gen. 11:7). Again God uses the plural pronoun in referring to Himself.
Therefore, we can see clearly that when God uses the plural pronoun in speaking about Himself, it is always in His relation to man. When God created man, He used the plural pronoun for Himself. When God took care of fallen man, He used the plural pronoun again. And when God came to deal with rebellious man, He also used the plural pronoun. This means that the Triune God is for God's dealing with man. In Genesis 1, when God was creating all the other things, He never used the plural pronoun for Himself though the word "God" is triple in number. It seems that to all the other creatures, God was just God Himself. But whenever God is related to man, He is Triune.
In Exodus 3:6 the Lord said to Moses, "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." This passage reveals that God is threefold when related to His chosen people. With the God of Abraham the emphasis is on the Father; with the God of Isaac the emphasis is on the Son; with the God of Jacob the emphasis is on the Spirit. By the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we can see something of the Triune God — the Father, Son, and Spirit.
First, with Abraham we see one who was called out of a godless background to participate in God's blessing and purpose. This reveals the Father's calling (1 Cor. 1:9; Eph. 1:3-5). Second, Isaac was the son promised to Abraham who was later required to be offered up to God. This reveals to us the Son who was promised to us from God and was offered back to God through death and resurrection. Last, in Jacob's experience we see the Spirit. Jacob was a person always under God's dealing. He tried so hard to make things work the way he wanted, yet God always arranged the environment to cause Jacob to trust in God rather than in himself. This represents the transforming work of the Spirit. Hallelujah for our God! He is the One who called us into His wonderful purpose. He is the One who is our promised portion. He is the One who is transforming us into His very image. He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Exodus 25 describes the golden lampstand in the tabernacle. This lampstand is a marvelous picture of the Triune God. We cannot understand this symbol in a shallow way: it is not just an object that holds some lamps to give light in the dark. With the lampstand we see three important things: the gold, the stand, and the lamps.
First, the lampstand was made of one talent of pure gold (about 100 lbs.) which was beaten into the shape of the stand. On its top it had seven lamps. The substance or essence of the lampstand, then, was gold. In the Bible, gold stands for the nature of God. Unlike iron, gold will not rust or change chemically, no matter where it is put. God's nature is constant, unchanging. The gold, then, represents God the Father as the essence and source.
Second, the golden lampstand was not just a formless lump of gold. It was gold formed and shaped into the form of a lampstand. This means that the gold was embodied into a shape; the shape is God the Son. All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in the Second of the Trinity bodily (Col. 2:9). Jesus Christ is the form of God.
Third, there is the expression of the lampstand. The lampstand is for shining, and the shining is the expression. The expression is the seven lamps. The Bible tells us that the seven lamps are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5). The lampstand, then, also symbolizes the Triune God expressed. Its substance is the Father, its form and shape is the Son, and its expression is the Spirit.
What a wonderful picture of the Triune God — the gold, the shape, and the shining. This lampstand is seen throughout the Bible until it appears finally in the last book, Revelation. In Lesson Twelve we will see how the lampstand in Revelation shows something even more wonderful about the expression of the Triune God.
The cleft (split) rock in Exodus 17 is a picture showing us that the Triune God is for our enjoyment. The children of Israel were journeying in the wilderness but had no water to drink. The Lord told Moses to smite (hit) the rock for water. When Moses struck the rock with his rod, water flowed out for the thirsty people to drink.
First Corinthians 10:4 says, "The rock was Christ." Moses with his rod represents the authority of God's law. Moses' striking the rock shows us that when Christ died on the cross, He was judged by the authority of God's law. In the eyes of God, the Lord Jesus was put to death not by the Jews, but by the law of God. The water, of course, shows us the Spirit. Just as the water issued out of the smitten rock, the Spirit issued out of the judged Christ (John 19:34). The Israelites could not have the water without the smitten rock, and we cannot have the Spirit without the judged Christ. John 7:37-39 shows us that the Spirit would be available for anyone to drink after Christ was judged on the cross for our sins and resurrected to be the life-giving Spirit.
Praise the Lord for Christ our smitten Rock! He was judged on our behalf that we might enjoy the eternal life. That life is now in the Spirit and we were all given to drink of that Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). Do you ever have hardships? Are you ever dissatisfied? Do you ever complain? These are signs of being "thirsty." You need to drink! No one can live without water. As Christians, we need to drink the living waters of the Spirit. Do you realize you have a Rock in your spirit? "Oh, Lord Jesus! Oh, Lord Jesus! You are my smitten Rock!" The Lord Spirit will revive us, refresh us, and make us living.
We hope you realize by this lesson that the Old Testament is not just some stories about the children of Israel. Together with the New Testament it unveils to us the infinite riches of the Triune God — and we have only covered a few points out of hundreds of pages! The pictures in the Old Testament greatly help us appreciate and enjoy the Triune God; each one is surely worth a thousand words.
