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Scripture Reading: Exo. 35:20—36:1
Exodus 35 through 39 is a record of the building of the tabernacle, its furniture, and the priestly garments. Chapter 35, as the first chapter in this section, is full of spiritual meaning. If we enter into it in a full way, we will realize that it is very rich. This portion of the Word shows us how the building of the Lord, the service to the Lord, and the fellowship between the Lord and His people can be built up.
Exodus 35:21 says, “They...brought the heave offering of Jehovah for the work of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments.” Three items are mentioned here—the Tent of Meeting, the service, and the holy garments. The Tent of Meeting differs slightly in meaning from the tabernacle. The tabernacle refers to the dwelling place of God, whereas the Tent of Meeting refers not only to the dwelling place of God but also to the place where the people of God meet together with God. The place where God dwells is the place where the people of God meet together. What the people of Israel were to build up was a tent, which was, on the one hand, the dwelling place of God, and on the other hand, a place, a center, where they could meet together before God and with God. This is a picture of the church life. The church, which is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15), is the dwelling place of God and the place where all the children of God meet together before God and with God. The tent was the first item that they were to build up.
The second item in Exodus 35:21 is the service of the Tent of Meeting. With the dwelling place of God where the people of God meet together there is always the service of God. Whenever we come together with God and before God, there is always the service. The service at that time among the people of Israel mostly depended on the oil and the incense (v. 28). The oil refers to the Holy Spirit, and the incense signifies the resurrection of Christ. This means that all the service must be something of the Holy Spirit and of the resurrection of Christ. The service to God and of God, the genuine service, the real service to the Lord, must be something built up by the people of God. Not only the building, the house of God, has to be built by the people of God, but even the service to God has to be built up by us.
The third item in verse 21 is the holy garments. The holy garments represent the priestly ministry, or the priesthood, and the priestly ministry was the fellowship between the people of God and the Lord Himself. Between God Himself and the people of Israel there was a priesthood, a priestly ministry. Everything in this ministry was contained in the garments with which the priest was clothed. The relationship between God and His people absolutely depended on the priesthood, and the garments of the priest represented that priestly ministry. Therefore, the garments here represent the fellowship between the Lord’s people and the Lord Himself. Without the priestly garments there could be no priesthood, and without the priesthood there could be no relationship between God and His people. The holy garments as the fellowship between God and His people also have to be built up.
What we are building up today is of three items. We must build up the dwelling place of God where we can meet with each other before God and with God. We must also build up the service to God. Something in the Holy Spirit and in the resurrected life of Christ must be built up by us in coordination. The service to God is not natural but is something in the Holy Spirit and in the resurrection of Christ to be built up by the experiences of God’s children, God’s people. We must also build up a fellowship between God’s people and God Himself. These three items have to be built up by the experiences of the Lord’s children. If we have no experience of the spiritual life, we will have nothing with which to build, and we will not know how to build. We must have the material and the gifts (vv. 21-29) with which to build, and we must have the wisdom, the way, to know how to build (vv. 25-26, 31, 35). The dwelling place of God, the service of God, and the fellowship with God have to be built up by the experiences of the Lord’s children.
Exodus 35 speaks of the different materials offered by the people of God for the building of the tabernacle. All these materials offered by the people of Israel represent the things of Christ that were experienced by the people of God. They experienced these items, so they possessed them. What they offered were the things that they possessed, earned, and had in their hands. The things experienced and possessed by them they now brought to offer to God to be the material for the building.
The items offered by the people are listed in six categories. The first category is the articles of gold (vv. 5, 22). Gold in type represents the divine nature, that is, God Himself. Each child of God has something of gold, something of God’s nature. There is not one exception. With the other categories of materials, some shared in them, and others did not. But with this first category of the offerings, everyone had a share. Exodus 35:22 says, “They came, men together with women, as many as were of a willing heart, and brought nose rings and earrings and signet rings and pendants, all kinds of articles of gold; even every man who waved a wave offering of gold to Jehovah.” This means that every saved one, every one of God’s children, has something of God’s divine nature. The nose rings, earrings, signet rings, and pendants represent the ornaments of the Lord’s children, consisting of the divine nature, which we have experienced.
Because we have the experiences of the divine nature, we can have something to offer to God for His building. Without the experiences of God’s divine life and nature, we would have nothing to offer to God for His building. With what shall we build the church? We are building the church with God’s divine nature. First Corinthians 3:12 says that we build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones. When the divine life and nature become our experience, we have something to offer to the Lord as material for His building. The more we experience God’s nature, the more we will have to offer to the Lord as material for His building. We are building the church, not with mere humanity or human things but with gold, with the divine nature, which we have experienced, which we possess, and which we have in our hands as our wealth.
The second category of materials are the weaving materials, such as the blue, purple, and scarlet strands, fine linen, and the other materials for the coverings, the goats’ hair, rams’ skins dyed red, and porpoise skins (Exo. 35:6, 7a, 23). These represent the things that the Holy Spirit has “woven,” or wrought, into us. Blue represents heavenliness, purple represents authority and kingship, and scarlet represents redemption, the redeeming power. Furthermore, fine linen represents the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself, the goats’ hair represents Christ enduring the judgment of God, and the porpoise skins represent Christ as the power to endure the sufferings of human life. The porpoise skins were the outermost covering of the tabernacle (36:19) and protected the tabernacle from the sunshine, wind, rain, and all manner of attacks. They represent the enduring power, strength, and energy of Christ to suffer all kinds of attacks during His human life on earth. All these things—the heavenliness, the kingship and authority, the redeeming power, the strength to endure the divine government and judgment, and the strength, the power, to suffer all manner of attacks—the Holy Spirit will work into us. These items will gradually be wrought into us by the Holy Spirit and woven into our life so that we may offer them to God as materials to build up the fellowship between God and His people for the Lord’s service. The weaving materials are mainly for the fellowship because these materials pertain mostly to the priestly garments. Even the coverings of the tabernacle are actually related to the garments. The items of the weaving materials are also things that we experience. The more we experience the work of the Holy Spirit to weave something into us, the more we will have to offer to the Lord as the materials for the Lord’s fellowship.
The third category of the offerings is the silver and bronze (35:5, 24a). Silver represents the redemption of the cross, and bronze represents the judgment and the testing of God and even the trials from the enemy. We have to experience the redemption, the cross of Christ, and we have to experience the judgment and testing that Christ endured and suffered. Then the silver and bronze will become our possession, and we can offer them to the Lord for His building.
The fourth category of materials is the acacia wood (vv. 7b, 24b). Acacia wood represents renewed humanity. The tabernacle was made mainly with acacia wood overlaid with gold. This points to the human nature of the Lord Jesus, not the fallen human nature. This is the human nature that is good for God’s building. With us, this must be the human nature renewed, the human nature transformed. We are fallen people with the fallen nature. This fallen nature, our humanity or human nature, has to be renewed. If we are going to have God’s building built among us, each one of us must have the proper human nature, or character. The renewed humanity, signified by the strong and durable acacia wood, is the material for the building of God.
One may be loose and lazy in his fallen nature and character. However, after he has been saved, this one will gradually be renewed by the resurrection life in the Holy Spirit. Through the resurrection life his character changes, and his human nature is transformed into something new. He becomes so strong and strict in his character. Such a humanity can be used as material for the building of God’s dwelling place. The building of the church needs the renewed and transformed humanity as the basic material. If our nature, our character, still remains in the fallen condition and the old state, we can never be used as material for the building of the church. Thus, we have to be transformed and renewed in our humanity, our character, and human nature. Then we will become acacia wood for the building of the Lord’s church.
The fifth category is the onyx stones and the other precious stones (vv. 9, 27). The precious stones represent the work of the Holy Spirit through our circumstances. Precious stones are not in the original creation of God but are created things that have been burned and pressed to be changed into precious stones. This indicates that the Holy Spirit will work on us through the arrangement of certain circumstances and environments to “burn” us and to “press” us so that we may be transformed into precious stones.
The sixth category is the spices and oil (vv. 8, 28). Oil, representing the Holy Spirit, is for anointing, and spices, representing the resurrection of Christ, are for the incense. The resurrection of Christ always goes with the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the resurrection of Christ could never be realized. The oil and the spices, the anointing and the incense, always go together. These things need to be experienced by the people of God so that they may possess all these things as their wealth. When the Lord had need of these items in Exodus, the people had them to offer to Him as the material for His building.
We must experience the Lord in many items. Then we also will be rich in what we possess, and we will be able to offer them to the Lord for His building. All the materials for the building of God were experienced and possessed by God’s people. They had all these things in their hands, and these became their possession, their wealth, for them to offer to the Lord as material for His building.
The building of the church, the building up of the service of God, and the building up of the fellowship between the Lord’s children and the Lord Himself must be with the Christ experienced and possessed by us to be our wealth. Then we bring all that we have experienced and possessed to offer to the Lord as the material for the building up of the dwelling place of God where we could meet together, for the building up of the service to the Lord, and for the building up of the fellowship between the Lord and His children.
