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Scripture Reading: Exo. 35:25—36:7
The order in which the materials for the building are mentioned in Exodus 35:22-29 is very significant. The first category of materials is the ornaments made of gold (v. 22). As we have seen, this category represents the experiences of the divine nature of Christ. This is the beginning of all our spiritual experiences.
The second category is the weaving materials and the coverings for the tabernacle. Exodus 35:23 says, “Every man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine linen and goats’ hair and rams’ skins dyed red and porpoise skins brought them.” Silver and bronze, the third category, and acacia wood, the fourth category, are mentioned in verse 24. However, following this, verses 25 and 26 again speak of the woven materials. We must have the experiences of the weaving materials in a more detailed way. Verses 25 and 26 say that the weaving materials—the blue, the purple, and the scarlet strands, the fine linen, and the goats’ hair—had to be spun by the women. The aspects and characteristics of Christ typified by the weaving materials have to be experienced by us in a very detailed way. We must labor by the Holy Spirit to experience Christ as our righteousness, the heavenliness of Christ, the kingship of Christ, and the redemption of Christ. Then these characteristics of Christ will be subjectively “spun” into us, and Christ will be wrought into our being in our experience. We should not view the heavenliness of Christ, the kingship of Christ, the authority of Christ, the redemption of Christ, or Christ as our righteousness in an objective way. All these are very subjective and must be experienced by us. We must labor to “spin” all these characteristics of Christ so that they may be subjectively ours as the material that we could offer to the Lord for His building.
We may know what the heavenliness, the kingship, the authority, and the redemption of Christ are. We may also know what it means for Christ to be righteousness to us. However, we need to experience all these matters. We need to spend our energy to labor on these things so that they will all become something belonging to us as our wealth. Even though the weaving materials in verse 23 are listed as the second category of materials, they are repeated in verses 25 and 26 after the silver, the bronze, and the acacia wood. The experience of the weaving materials is more subjective than the experiences of the silver, the bronze, and even the acacia wood.
The acacia wood is listed as the fourth category of materials in verse 24b. We have pointed out that acacia wood refers to our transformed character. The experience of the transformed character is more subjective than the experience of the silver, Christ’s redemption, and the bronze, the judgment and test that Christ suffered. To experience Christ as our transformed character for the renewing and transformation of our human nature, our human character, is more subjective than the experiences of the silver and the bronze, which represent the foundation and the safeguard of the building.
The order of the offered materials is arranged in such a way as to list the most subjective things at the end. According to spiritual experience, the experience of the last two categories, the precious stones (v. 27) and the spices and oil (v. 28), are the most subjective. Verse 27 says that these last two categories of materials were offered by the leaders. The leaders signify the mature ones who have a certain degree of authority among the Lord’s children. The “leaders” are more mature and have the most subjective experiences of the spiritual life.
The precious stones were offered for the fellowship of God with His people, but the oil and spices were offered for the service to God. The precious stones were materials for the breastplate and the ephod (v. 27), which were part of the priests’ garments. The breastplate was the instrument by which the priests could contact God and have fellowship with God and could know the mind, the thought, and the will of God. Thus, it represents the fellowship between the people of God and God Himself. This fellowship is based upon the precious experiences of the matured persons. If among us there were not a group of matured ones with such subjective experiences, we could not have much real fellowship with God. In order to have a real fellowship with God among us, we need certain ones who are very mature and have the subjective experiences as the precious stones. We need the subjective and precious experiences as the precious stones to offer to the Lord as materials to build an instrument for the fellowship with the Lord. The fellowship with the Lord among His children is based upon the experiences of the mature ones.
The leaders also offered the spices and oil for the service to the Lord (v. 28). The spices are for incense, whereas the oil is for the light of the lamp and the holy anointing oil. To light the lamp, to anoint the persons and items related to the tabernacle, and to burn the incense are the main items of the service to the Lord. In order to have the service of the Lord, we must have the oil for the lighting and for the anointing, and we must have the spices for the incense to be burned before the Lord. We have seen that incense signifies the resurrection of Christ, and the oil represents the Holy Spirit. We must experience the resurrection of Christ and the Spirit of Christ to such an extent that we could have something to offer to the Lord for His service.
The tent, the fellowship, and the service are all constituted of the experiences of Christ by the Lord’s children. Whether we shall have the real Tent of Meeting, the real fellowship with the Lord among us, and the real service to the Lord depends on our experiences of Christ. Without the experiences of Christ, we will be poor and will have nothing to offer to the Lord as the materials to build up these basic matters. The more we experience Christ, the more materials we will have, and the more the Tent of Meeting, the dwelling place of God, the fellowship, and the service will be built up among us.
All the materials offered by the people for the building of the tabernacle typify something of Christ experienced by us. However, in order to have the building, the skillful workers and the workmanship are also needed (vv. 10, 30-35; 36:1-2). As we shall see, the workmanship for God’s building is also Christ Himself experienced by us.
In Exodus 35 and 36 the workmanship is related to wisdom (35:31, 35; 36:1-2). Exodus 36:1-2 speaks of “every man who is wise in heart, in whom Jehovah has put wisdom.” The heart of these workers was full of wisdom. Wisdom is simply Christ (1 Cor. 1:30). To have wisdom is to have the ability to know and understand spiritual matters and to know how to carry out matters. Therefore, wisdom, strictly speaking, is Christ as the way. If you have Christ, you have the way to know matters, understand matters, and know how to do things. Christ is our way. We must have Christ and be filled with Christ.
With the building of the church and with the service of the Lord, there is the need of the experience of Christ, and there is the need of being filled with Christ. Our heart has to be filled with Christ. Then we will have the wisdom to know how to serve the Lord and how to build the church. The wisdom, the way for us to serve the Lord and to build the church, is Christ Himself. The spinning women in Exodus 35:25-26 and the skillful men in 36:1-2 were all filled in their hearts with wisdom; that is, their hearts were filled with Christ.
Exodus 35:31 says of Bezalel, a principal worker for the tabernacle, “He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, and with knowledge, and with all kinds of workmanship.” This verse implies four steps. The first step, being filled with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, is in our spirit and our heart. When our spirit and our heart are filled with Christ, Christ becomes the wisdom in our spirit and heart. If we are going to serve the Lord in the church, that is, if we are going to have a share in the building of the church, our spirit and heart must first be filled with Christ.
From our spirit Christ will expand to our mind, our mentality. Christ will become our understanding in the second step. Wisdom is mainly in our spirit, but understanding is something in our mind. In our mentality we will understand the things concerning the service and the building. After we have understanding, we will have general knowledge, the third step. Spontaneously, we will have the knowledge and will know how to serve and how to build up the church.
Finally, after we have general knowledge, we will have the workmanship. We will have the divine idea of what to do and what to make. We will know what the shape, form, and style of our work should be. We may feel to visit the brothers and sisters. If we have the manner of workmanship, we will have a proper idea of how to visit them and a proper idea of what we are going to build by visiting them. We will have the proper form, style, and expression.
The order in verse 31 is significant. First, Christ fills our spirit and heart, and we have Him as our wisdom. Then He expands into our mentality, and we have the understanding in our mind. After we have the understanding in our mind, we have a general knowledge. Then we know how to function, how to fellowship with others, and how to visit the brothers and sisters. We know how to help the saints to make a clearance of their past, offer themselves to the Lord, and follow the consciousness of the inner life. We know as well how to help the saints to have a prayer life and study the Scriptures. We do not work blindly, not knowing what we are going to build. We know the style, the expression, and the shape of what we are building because we have the manner of workmanship. We know what the need of the brothers and sisters is at the present time, we know how to help them, and we know by helping them what we shall be building.
A person with all kinds of workmanship will also be able to teach others. Exodus 35:34 says, “He has put in his heart to teach.” We must experience Christ beyond what is needed for us to conduct the spiritual work ourselves, to the extent that we can share with others and teach others. In the building of the church there is the need for us to teach others to do the same thing as we are able to do. The apostle Paul told Timothy to teach those who will be competent to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2). We ourselves have to serve and build, but at the same time we must have wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds of workmanship to be competent to teach others, to help others to be able to serve as we serve and to build as we build.
Exodus 35:32 says that the workers could fashion skillful designs. This is not the general kind of workmanship but rather something special. To fashion skillful, artistic designs requires additional wisdom. In the service and in the building of the church there is sometimes the need to fashion something artistic and skillful.
Verses 32 and 33 say, “To fashion skillful designs, to work in gold and in silver and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for setting and in the carving of wood, to work in all kinds of skillful workmanship.” To work in gold we must know how to work with the divine nature of Christ. To work in silver we must know how to work with the redemption of Christ, with the cross, with the death of Christ. And to work in bronze, we must know how to work with the judgment, the tests, and the sufferings that the Lord endured. We must also know how to work in the cutting of stones for setting, that is, with the precious, deep, and most subjective experiences of Christ as the precious stones. We must also know how to work in the carving of wood. This means we must know how to work with the human character to make something out of it for the Lord’s building.
Verse 35 goes on to say, “He has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all kinds of workmanship, of an engraver and of a skillful workman and of an embroiderer in blue and in purple and in scarlet strands and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do all kinds of workmanship and of those who fashion skillful designs.” We need to know how to embroider with the heavenliness of Christ, with the kingship, the authority, of Christ, with the redemption of Christ, and with Christ as our righteousness. We should know not only how to “spin,” but also how to “weave.” To spin is to make the thread from fiber, but to weave is to use the thread to make cloth.
If we spend some time to consider these matters, I believe that the Holy Spirit will speak more to us. What is presented in these verses is a full picture of the work of the building of the church. The way to build the church and to serve the church in the Lord is exactly as depicted by this picture. Sometimes we have to know how to work in gold, that is, with the divine nature of Christ. Sometimes we need to know how to work with silver and with bronze, and sometimes we need to know how to engrave, how to cut, or how to carve. Sometimes we need to know how to spin with the heavenliness of Christ, the authority of Christ, or with the redemption of Christ, and sometimes we need to know how to weave with Christ as our righteousness.
I believe that in these last days these experiences of Christ will be recovered among us. Many skillful men and women will be produced among us. Many will be spiritually skillful to work for the building of the Lord’s dwelling place.
