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The tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth typifies the church; the Ark as God’s testimony on earth typifies Christ. According to God’s arrangement, the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle. After the children of Israel entered into the good land, because of the deterioration of the house of Aaron the priest, they presumptuously removed the Ark from the tabernacle to help them in their fighting, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:3-11). Later the Philistines returned the Ark to the children of Israel, and it was taken by the men of Kiriath-jearim and brought to the house of Abinadab (6:8; 7:1-2). Then it was taken by David from the house of Abinadab and put in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Later David removed the Ark and carried it from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David (2 Sam. 6:2-3, 10-12). During this time, however, the tabernacle remained in Shiloh (Josh. 18:1). During Saul’s time, the tabernacle was in Nob (1 Sam. 21:1; cf. Mark 2:26), and later, during the time of King David and King Solomon, it was in Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39; 21:29). Thus, the Ark was separated from the tabernacle until the building of the temple was completed. Then it was moved into the Holy of Holies in the temple (1 Kings 8:1-11).
The Ark being separated from the tabernacle was a very abnormal situation. The Old Testament shows that the children of Israel took the tabernacle or the temple as their center. From the time the children of Israel built the tabernacle, they considered the tabernacle to be their center. Their encampment, their move, their worship, and their warfare all took the tabernacle as the center, but the tabernacle took the Ark as its center. The Ark is a type of Christ as the center of God’s testimony. The presence of Christ was with the Ark. Without the Ark, the tabernacle was something with a form but without the reality.
The history of the church repeats the history of the Old Testament. In the desolation and decline of the church, Christ has left the formal church and has been separated from it as if He has been captured. In the beginning the church preached a living Christ. However, even during the time of the apostles, the decline of the church began. Some rose up to preach “a different gospel” (Gal. 1:6-7), “destructive heresies” (2 Pet. 2:1-3), and the teachings of the antichrist (2 John 7), and they forsook the apostle and his ministry (2 Tim. 1:15). Revelation 2 and 3 show that the church became so desolate that she forsook her original condition and deviated further and further. When Constantine became the Roman emperor, he legalized Christianity and made it the national religion, and he appointed the overseers of the city of Rome to be the leaders over the entire church. As a result, the church became weaker and was defeated; she lost the testimony of God and became divided so that she could no longer satisfy God’s requirement but could only maintain an outward service in formality.
In the New Testament age, like the tabernacle, the church is the dwelling place of God on earth. Whether in work, service, worship, or fighting, the children of God should take the church as their center. Moreover, the church must take Christ as her center. In the ancient days, the tabernacle needed the Ark inside, and the Ark needed the tabernacle outside. If Christ is in a certain place today, the church must be there, and if the church is in a certain place, Christ must be there. Christ is the life and the content of the church, and the church is the living and expression of Christ. Christ and the church are one and inseparable. The church tells out the Christ who was despised by men but exalted by God and glorified before God (2 Cor. 4:5; 1 Pet. 2:9).
After the passing away of the apostles, the church continued to fall and go downward because of the Nicolaitans, who changed the universal priesthood ordained by God into a clerical class. Later the church imitated the way of the children of Israel by setting up one man to rule over them as their king so that the church looked more to a human leader than to Christ the Head. As a result, many sects were brought forth. When the church degraded and became a worldly organization, the presence of Christ was no longer in the church. Consequently, the formal church had only human ways, doctrines, opinions, criticisms, and judgments. There was no longer the word of God, the riches of Christ, or the authority of God. Instead, there were evil people who captured the children of God into the world. According to Revelation 2:13, even Satan, the prince of this world, set up his throne in the church! Everything was in desolation and corruption.
After the church degraded and became a worldly organization, she was gradually formed into the Roman Catholic Church with a Judaistic hierarchy of overseers. She allowed the deep things of Satan to be brought in (v. 24), and she tolerated the teachings of Jezebel, thereby bringing in confusing heresies, including the committing of fornication and the eating of idol sacrifices (v. 20). The Roman Catholic Church is condemned by God; hence, God calls to His people, saying, “Come out of her, My people, that you do not participate in her sins and that you do not receive her plagues” (18:4).
The Reformation took place when Martin Luther came out of the Roman Catholic Church to recover the open Bible and teach the truth concerning justification by faith. However, at the same time, the Reformation was utilized by many earthly governments to serve their political intentions. Because of the ignorance of God’s people, the Reformation was turned into a movement in which the church and the world were united to oppose the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, state churches were brought forth. They imitated the practice of the Roman Catholic Church and became a union of politics and religion. This was the initiation of Protestantism. Later some people saw that the state churches were wrong, and they received new revelation before God. Based on the revelation they saw, they established the so-called private churches. Both the state and private churches had a name that they were living, but they were dead in the eyes of the Lord (3:1b). In the beginning they had the Lord’s blessing, but they were not completely delivered out of the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, they adopted the organizational way of the Roman Catholic Church to maintain the blessings which they received. Consequently, like the Roman Catholic Church, they had an outward form without the inward reality of Christ.
In both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations there are the people of God who worship the Lord, but the “Ark” is no longer present. They have lost the inward reality of Christ, and all that remains is an outward form. The center of the tabernacle was the Ark, and the center of the church is Christ. The people of God should be with Christ. After Solomon ascended to the throne, he went up to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, “for the Tent of Meeting of God was there, which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness. However David had brought up the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem” (2 Chron. 1:3-4). After Solomon saw a vision in the night and received wisdom, he left the empty tabernacle in Gibeon and returned to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices before the Ark (vv. 5-6).
After the Ark was removed from the tabernacle, it was placed in the house of Abinadab and then in the house of Obed-edom. This typifies that although the presence of Christ is no longer in the formal church, Christ is still present individually with believers who love Him. The church has become desolate, Christ and the church have been separated, and all that the so-called church has is an outward shell of formality. In contrast, the presence of Christ can be touched in the homes of the saints who love the Lord with a pure heart.
In the degradation of the church, in which an outward form is stressed but the inner presence of Christ is lost, the presence of Christ can be found only in the homes of believers who love the Lord. Although this presence of Christ is good and brings in the blessing (2 Sam. 6:11-12), there is no testimony of the church. Hence, there is the need for the raising up of David to build a solid temple as the dwelling place of the Ark, which had been separated from the tabernacle (7:1-2; Psa. 132:2-8). In the age of the desolation of the church, the Lord will raise up a group of people to build up the organism of Christ so that He may have a place to make His home.
After the Ark was separated from the tabernacle, it became movable. Although it was returned to Israel by the Philistines after its captivity, the Ark was moved from the house of Abinadab to the house of Obed-edom, and then from the house of Obed-edom to the tent of David (2 Sam. 6:17). This shows that in the desolation and degradation of the church, the presence of Christ with the believers is movable. Where His lovers are, there His presence is.
It is precious for the believers to have Christ’s presence individually in the desolation of the church. However, the believers should not be satisfied and self-contented. Rather, they should seek after the building up of the church so that Christ may have a corporate dwelling place and the believers may have His corporate presence.
After the completion of the building of the temple by Solomon, the Ark was brought into the Holy of Holies in the holy temple (1 Kings 8:6). This typifies that Christ will eventually obtain the builded church as a dwelling place for His rest. God did not ordain the Ark to bear His testimony in the homes of His people. God’s ordination involved the Ark bearing a corporate testimony in His dwelling place. Although David received the Ark into the city of David and placed it in the tent that he pitched, this still was not according to the heart’s desire of God. Because David knew God’s heart, he was determined to build the holy temple for God, saying, “I shall not go into the tent of my house; / I shall not go up onto the couch of my bed; / I shall not give sleep to my eyes, / Slumber to my eyelids; / Until I find a place for Jehovah, / A tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob” (Psa. 132:3-5). Furthermore, he prayed, “Arise, O Jehovah, unto Your resting place, / You and the Ark of Your strength” (v. 8). His heart’s desire was acceptable to God, and God sent the prophet Nathan to tell David that God would give him a son, Solomon, who would be a man of peace and would build the temple for God. Furthermore, God revealed the pattern of the temple to David through His Spirit (1 Chron. 28:11-12), just as God revealed the pattern concerning the tabernacle to Moses. Before his death, David clearly instructed Solomon concerning the pattern. Thus, Solomon built the temple according to the pattern that his father saw, and the Ark was carried into the Holy of Holies in the holy temple. Then the Ark of God had a proper and secure dwelling place.
In the New Testament age, following the desolation and decline of the church, Christ left the formal church to be individually with the believers who love Him with a pure heart and who also have a desire to let Christ make His home in them. However, even though this desire is good, it cannot remain to eternity because it is not according to what God has revealed, and it is not of God or what God wants. God’s intention, His eternal purpose, is that the believers would be built up to be the universal house of the processed and consummated Triune God, which is the holy temple in the Lord (Eph. 2:21), and to be the organic Body of Christ as a great corporate vessel for His expression to consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as the dwelling place of the processed and consummated Triune God in eternity forever and ever.
The tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth typifies the church; the Ark as God’s testimony on earth typifies Christ. According to God’s arrangement, the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle. After the children of Israel entered into the good land, the Ark was captured and separated from the tabernacle because of the deterioration of the house of Aaron the priest. Although the Ark was returned to the children of Israel, it was separated from the tabernacle until the building of the temple was completed, and then it was moved into the Holy of Holies in the temple.
The Ark being separated from the tabernacle typifies that Christ has left the formal church and is separated from the church. The church has lost the testimony of God and become divided. She no longer satisfies the requirement of God but merely maintains a formal service outwardly. In the New Testament age the church as the tabernacle is the dwelling place of God on earth. The children of God should take the church as their center, and the church should take Christ as her center. Christ is the life and content of the church, and the church is the living and expression of Christ. Hence, Christ and the church are one and inseparable. Because the church became degraded and a worldly organization, she lost the presence of Christ. In the degraded church there is no longer the word of God, the riches of Christ, or the authority of God. Instead, evil people came into the church to capture the children of God into the world, and Satan, the prince of the world, even set up his throne in the church. Then the Roman Catholic Church was gradually formed. She had the Judaistic hierarchy of overseers, allowed the deep things of Satan to be brought in, and she tolerated the teachings of Jezebel and thereby brought in confusing heresies, including the committing of fornication and the eating of idol sacrifices. The Reformation issued in so-called state and private churches. In the eyes of the Lord, they had a name that they were living, but they were dead. In the beginning they had the Lord’s blessing, but they were not completely delivered out of the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, they adopted the organizational way of the Roman Catholic Church in order to maintain the blessings they had received. Consequently, like the Roman Catholic Church, they had an outward form without the inward reality of Christ.
After the Ark was removed from the tabernacle, it was returned to Israel by the Philistines. After a time it was moved from the house of Abinadab to the house of Obed-edom, and then from the house of Obed-edom to the tent of David. This typifies that in the desolation and degradation of the church, the presence of Christ among the believers is movable. Where His lovers are, there His presence is. Although the presence of Christ is precious, the believers should not be satisfied and self-contented. Rather, they should seek after the building up of the church so that Christ may have a corporate dwelling place and the believers may have a corporate presence.
After the completion of the building of the temple by Solomon, the Ark was brought into the Holy of Holies in the holy temple. This typifies that Christ will eventually obtain the builded church as the dwelling place for His rest. God did not ordain the Ark to bear His testimony in the homes of His people. God’s ordination involved the Ark bearing a corporate testimony in His dwelling place. In the New Testament age, although Christ is individually with the believers who love the Lord with a pure heart, this is still not what God wants. God’s intention, His eternal purpose, is that the believers would be built up to be the house of the Triune God, the holy temple in the Lord, and to be the organic Body of Christ as a great corporate vessel for His expression. This will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the dwelling place of the processed and consummated Triune God in eternity.
