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Scripture Reading: Exo. 39:1-31; 36:8, 14, 19
Exodus 39 is a record of the making of the garments of the priests. The holy garments with the shoulder pieces and the breastplate of gold and precious stones signify the fellowship of the Body of Christ brought in through the priestly ministry. By this fellowship the Lord’s people can minister to the Lord and minister to His people, and by this fellowship the mind, the thought, and the will of God concerning His people are revealed.
The people of the Lord are a kingdom of priests (19:6). First Peter 2:5 says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” All the living stones for the building of God’s spiritual house are priests. The spiritual house of God is the building up of a group of priests, and this building up is the priesthood. The priests are the members of the Body of Christ, and the priesthood is the Body. The garments upon the priests signify the fellowship of the Body of Christ brought in through the priestly ministry. The fellowship of the Body of Christ is the reality of the building up of the Body and is an issue of the building up of the Body. If there is the real building up of the Body, there must be the fellowship. The fellowship of the Body comes out of the building up of the Body.
The priesthood and the house of God provide a picture. All the priests are the materials, the living stones, for the building of the house of God, so the house of God is simply the composition of all the priests built together. The priests built together are the Body, and the garments upon the priests represent the fellowship of the Body brought in through the priestly ministry as an issue of the Body and as something built with the Body. In this fellowship of the Body there is the ministry to God and to His people and the revelation of God about His people.
The making of the garments in Exodus 39 shows us that the fellowship of the Body is something built up. The blue, purple, and scarlet strands and fine twined linen were woven together in the garments. To be woven together simply means to be built together. Furthermore, verse 6 and verses 8 through 14 speak of the precious stones set in gold settings. The setting of the stones also indicates a building. The fellowship of the Body of Christ, the fellowship among the Lord’s children and between God and His children, is something built up. We have to build up this fellowship.
The priestly garments were made of blue, purple, and scarlet strands and fine twined linen. Linen represents righteousness before God, even the righteousness of God. The fellowship of the Body of Christ is something constructed of the righteousness of God. The divine righteousness, the righteousness of God, is Christ Himself. Christ Himself is the fine linen. The number two signifies testimony, so the linen being twined, or doubled, indicates that the testimony of Christ as the righteousness of God is always strong. The color blue represents heavenliness, purple signifies kingship, royalty, and scarlet signifies the redeeming work of the cross. The fellowship of the Body of Christ is composed of Christ Himself as the righteousness of God with heavenliness, kingship, royalty, and the redeeming work of the cross.
Verse 4 says, “They made shoulder pieces for it, joined to it; at the two edges it was joined.” Verse 8 goes on to say, “He made the breastplate, the work of a skillful workman, like the work of the ephod, of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and of fine twined linen.” The two shoulder pieces and the breastplate were built upon the foundation of the garment composed of the riches of Christ with heavenliness, kingship, and the redemption of the cross. The shoulder pieces and the breastplate were made with precious stones and gold. Gold, as we have seen, signifies the divine nature of God. The divine nature of God should be experienced by us to be the material for the building up of the fellowship of the Body. Precious stones represent the appearance, the likeness, the image, of God. When God reveals Himself in the Scriptures, there is the appearance of precious stones (24:10; Rev. 4:3). In our experience this appearance comes out of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Precious stones are not natural materials created by God; they are created materials transformed into another kind of material. We must be transformed. The Holy Spirit works with us and transforms us into the likeness, the appearance, the image, of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). After being transformed, we become the precious stones, and we have the appearance, the likeness, the image, of God. The precious stones were set in gold settings, indicating that transformation is something set in the divine nature of God. We must be built up with the divine nature of God and with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, which are the means, the instrument, for the fellowship of God’s people brought in through the priestly ministry.
Exodus 39:24-26 says, “They made on the hem of the robe pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet strands, twined. And they made bells of pure gold and put the bells between the pomegranates on the hem of the robe all around, between the pomegranates; a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe all around, to minister in; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.” On the hem of the priestly robe were pomegranates and bells. Pomegranates, in type, signify the riches and the beauty of life. If you would look at a pomegranate, you would see that it is full of life and full of the beauty of life. The pomegranates help us to realize that there is something of life upon the priestly garments. The fellowship of the Body of Christ must be full of the riches of life and the beauty of life.
The bells, on the other hand, represent our words, our voices of testimony, and the things we preach. With the fellowship of the Body of Christ there are always the words, the voices, and the songs as a testimony, as a message preached continually. At the hem of the robe of the garments there were the pomegranates and the golden bells, showing that with the fellowship of the Body of Christ there are always the riches and the beauty of life with the voices, with the words, as the messages of the testimony of God. Moreover, the bells were made of gold. All the messages we give, all the words, the utterances, and the voices of our testimony, and all the songs we make must be something divine, of God’s divine nature. Between the golden bells were the pomegranates, and between the pomegranates were the bells. The riches and the beauty of life go together with the testimony, the voices, the sounds, of the divine nature.
On the top of the priestly garments were the precious stones and the gold built up together as the shoulder pieces and the breastplate for the ministry of the Lord and for the revelation of God, and at the bottom, on the hem of the robe, were the pomegranates and the bells for the testimony of the divine nature with the riches and beauty of life. The garments signify, on the one hand, a ministry, and on the other hand, a testimony. These are both components of the fellowship of the Body of Christ. By this fellowship we can minister to the Lord and to the Lord’s people and have the revelation of the Lord concerning His people, and by this fellowship we can also give to people a testimony full of the riches and the beauty of life with the divine nature. On the one hand, every time we come together to have a meeting, there must always be, before God, the shoulder pieces and the breastplate of precious stones set in gold settings. On the other hand, before man there must also be the pomegranates and the bells, the riches and the beauty of life with the voices of testimony and the sounding of the words of the message of God.
Exodus 39:30 says, “They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold and wrote an inscription upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH.” The plate of the crown was fastened to the turban on the head of the high priest (v. 31). It was a label placed on the high priest. Actually, this label belonged to the holy garments as a whole. The garments, as we have seen, signify the fellowship of the Body of Christ with the ministry to God and to His people. This label signifies that the fellowship of the Body with the ministry and the testimony among the Lord’s children is something absolutely holy. The pure gold signifies that the holiness of the fellowship of the Lord’s children is something composed of the divine nature of God.
The priestly garments were woven, or wrought, not only with fine linen but also with gold thread. The gold thread is mentioned as the first material for the garments, and the fine linen is second (v. 2). Verse 3 says, “They beat the gold into thin sheets and cut them into threads, to work into the blue and into the purple and into the scarlet strands and into the fine linen, the work of a skillful workman.” The ephod and the breastplate were made of gold and linen woven together (vv. 2, 8). Furthermore, on the shoulder pieces and the breastplate precious stones were set in gold settings. The gold of the priestly garments signifies that the fellowship among the Lord’s children is something of the divine nature.
The flow of the water of life in the middle of the golden street of the New Jerusalem signifies the fellowship of the holy city (Rev. 22:1; 21:21). This shows us again that the fellowship among the Lord’s children is in the divine nature and of the divine life. Because this fellowship is something divine, it is holy. Only the divine things are holy. The divine nature of God is holy. Thus, the plate of the holy crown was made of pure gold and engraved with the words HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH.
Exodus 39:32-43, as a conclusion to chapters 35 through 39, is a record of all the things made by the people of Israel for the tabernacle. In these verses and in chapter 40, two different terms are used for God’s building: the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting. It is difficult to discover the significance of the meaning of these two terms. Actually, the tabernacle is the tent; these are two terms or titles for one entity. With the tabernacle, the emphasis is the dwelling place, the habitation, of God. With the tent, the significance is the place where God’s people meet. The tabernacle points to the place where God dwells, but the tent points to the place where God’s people meet together.
Apparently, the dwelling place of God and the priesthood are two different things. But as we have seen, the priests are the living stones, the materials, for the house of God (1 Pet. 2:5). The building of the house of God is the body of the priests. The priests are coordinated together to form a body, and this body is the building. In God’s original intention all the people of God are priests. As the priests, the people of God are the materials for the building of the dwelling place of God, and when they are coordinated and composed together, they become the dwelling place of God. Therefore, on the one hand, God’s building is a tabernacle as a dwelling place, a habitation for God, and on the other hand, it is a tent as a meeting place and a composition of the Lord’s children. Everything positive is here in this composition. Christ is here, the church is here, the fellowship is here, the ministry is here, and the revelation is here. This portion of chapter 40 is actually a summary of the entire tabernacle with its furniture, showing us the building as the composition of all the Lord’s children.
If you will compare the items of the building listed in 39:32-43 to all the items in the foregoing chapters, you will find that two items are not mentioned here. These are the curtains of fine linen and the covering of goats’ hair. The coverings of rams’ skins and porpoise skins are mentioned in verse 34, but the first two layers of the covering are not mentioned by name. Strictly speaking, the curtains of fine linen and of goats’ hair are the tabernacle and the tent. Verses 32 through 34 say, “Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting was finished...And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars and its sockets; and the covering of rams’ skins dyed red and the covering of porpoise skins, and the veil of the screen.” Its, mentioned six times in verse 33, refers to the tabernacle and the tent. All the other items mentioned are the furniture of the tabernacle and the tent. With this understanding, verse 33 could read, “And they brought the curtains of fine linen to Moses, the curtains of goats’ hair, and all its furnishings, its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars and its sockets.” All the “its” in this verse are the items belonging to the curtains of fine linen and the covering of goats’ hair as the tabernacle and the tent.
Exodus 36:8 says of the curtains of fine linen, “All the wise in heart among those who did the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains, of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet strands.” The construction of this sentence shows that the curtains of fine linen are the tabernacle; they made the tabernacle with ten curtains. Verse 14 continues, “He made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle, eleven curtains he made in all.” The first layer, the ten curtains of fine linen, is called the tabernacle. The second layer, the covering made of goats’ hair, is called the tent. Verse 19 says, “He made a covering for the tent, of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of porpoise skins above it.” The tabernacle is the curtains of fine linen, the tent over the tabernacle is the covering of goats’ hair, and the rams’ skins are the covering over the tent. The reason why the first two layers of coverings are not mentioned in 39:33-34 is because these two coverings are the tabernacle and the tent.
Now we may understand what the difference between the tabernacle and the tent is. From within, it is the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, and from without, it is the tent, the meeting place of God’s people. The inner layer is the tabernacle, and the outer layer is the tent. These two layers are the basic components; all the other items belong to them. The church is the building, the composition of God’s people. From within, it is the dwelling place of God, and from without, it is the meeting place of the Lord’s children. These are the two characteristics of the building of God.
