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We have seen that if we would share in the building of God we must first enter into and experience all the items in the outer court. But the experiences of the outer court deal only with the matter of righteousness; we must still have the experience of holiness. The items that we have covered in the outer court merely establish the boundary line for God’s building; they are not the actual building of the tabernacle itself. We must still experience the tabernacle, God’s very building. In the outer court are the bronze, the silver, and the white linen, depicting God’s judgment according to His righteous requirements, God’s redemption, and God’s righteousness. But these only prepare us, making us fit initially for God’s building. Now we must enter the tabernacle itself; that is, we must enter the Holy Place.
When we enter the Holy Place, we are immediately impressed that everything is of gold. There is a lampstand made of pure and solid gold, and all the other items in the Holy Place are overlaid with gold. Gold is everywhere.
Strictly speaking, God’s building was built through bronze, but not with bronze. It was built with gold. Gold typifies God’s divine nature, that is, God Himself. His building is built through His judgment, but not with His judgment. The material of God’s building is God Himself. We must have God’s divine nature in order to be the materials for God’s building. How may we partake of God’s divine nature? The way is by spiritually experiencing the Holy Place.
The first item of the Holy Place is the table made of acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exo. 25:23-24, 30; 40:22-23), upon which was the bread of the Presence, something good for food. This table spread with bread typifies Christ as our heavenly food; we may feed on Christ and enjoy Him as our food. The Gospel of John portrays Christ as the bread of life, which is so available to us. If we take Him in the form of food, we share the divine life with the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
We have seen that immediately after man was created, God put him before the tree of life so that he might freely eat of that tree. This means that God presented Himself to man in the form of food. Most of us have a mistaken concept concerning God. We consider that He is so high and mighty and that we must bow and worship, prostrating ourselves before Him. But God wants us to take Him as food. He desires that we partake of Him inwardly more than worship Him outwardly.
As a youth, I was taught after I was saved that I should be very quiet at the so-called holy communion table. I was told that we must remember Jesus by concentrating all our thoughts in meditation upon Him. But later, as I read the Scriptures, I discovered that I had not been taught properly. The Lord told us, “This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me” (1 Cor. 11:24). When we take Him by eating of Him, we are really remembering Him. The true remembrance of the Lord is not our meditation upon Him but our eating of Him, our partaking of Him. God’s intention is to work Himself into us. We must consider Him as our food and partake of Him.
The Lord Jesus is our heavenly bread of life. By eating this bread, something of “gold” will be ours. Whenever we partake of Christ as food, the divine nature is wrought into us. In this heavenly bread of life are the “vitamins of gold.” Little children are often fooled by the “candy” given them by their mother. They do not realize that they are actually taking candy-covered vitamins. The mother’s intention is fulfilled in a pleasant way. Our thought is that since we are really hungry, we need the Lord Jesus to satisfy us; thus, we fulfill our desire by eating the bread of life. But God’s intention is to impart the gold into us through the bread. When we are satisfied with Christ, we will also be full of the divine nature. We can verify this by our experience of the Lord. Whenever we are satisfied with the Lord Jesus, we also have the sense that we are full of God, that the divine nature has been imparted to us.
The measurement of the table of the bread of the Presence is two cubits long and one cubit wide. The number one stands for a whole unit. If the table were square, one cubit by one cubit, it would signify a complete unit, but here it is two cubits long. This signifies a double unit, a double portion, so that the table may be spread for people to enjoy. The height of the showbread table is the same size as that of the Ark of the Testimony, one and a half cubits. This means that Christ as our food must come up to the standard of the testimony of God.
The second item in the Holy Place is the lampstand (Exo. 25:31-39; 40:24-25). It is full of shining light. Christ is the bread of life, and John 1:4 tells us that this life is the light of men. When we receive Christ as the bread of life, light immediately shines within us. The life becomes the very light. When we have been fed with the bread on the table, we have a lampstand shining within us. When we are hungry for the Lord and pray-read a few verses together, praise the Lord, we are nourished and satisfied, and with this satisfaction we also have something shining within us. The more light we have, the more divine nature we have. There is not any wood in the lampstand—it is solid gold. God’s divine nature comes into us by shining (2 Cor. 4:6).
Upon the lampstand were six branches, with three on either side and one in the middle, and upon each branch were three cups, each in the shape of an almond blossom. Each almond blossom had a calyx. The calyx is the green, petal-like leaf, the outer part of a flower. Thus, each cup of the lampstand was an almond blossom, an entire flower. In Palestine, the first flower of the year is the almond blossom. Following the killing chill of winter, the almond gives forth the first blossom. This flower signifies the resurrection. Aaron’s rod, mentioned in Numbers 17, budded with almond blossoms, signifying resurrection. The number three, as seen in the number of branches on each side of the lampstand and the three cups on each branch, is the number of resurrection—the Lord was resurrected on the third day. Branches on both sides of the stand signify a testimony, since two is the number of testimony. Therefore, the lampstand is the testimony of resurrection.
There are also a total of seven lamps on the stand. These signify the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5; 5:6). The seven Spirits of God are the seven eyes of Christ. This means that Christ as the Spirit is the light of life in resurrection. Christ could only be the light of life in resurrection as the Spirit. All these things are very meaningful to us. We must study the Scriptures in this way. It was into the cups of the branches of the lamps that the priests put oil. The flower of resurrection holds the oil. This means that the oil for light is in resurrection power. The light must be in resurrection, and resurrection is with the Spirit. The light issues from the seven Spirits, which are the seven eyes of Christ. Christ does not look at us with two eyes but with seven eyes. He looks upon us by the seven Spirits of God as seven lamps. An automobile at night “looks” at others by shining its headlights as two shining eyes. When Christ looks upon us, it is like the shining light. The book of Revelation tells us that His eyes are like a flame of fire (1:14). Christ can only be life and light to us in resurrection and as the Spirit. In other words, Christ is the light of life to us as the Spirit of resurrection.
On each branch of the lampstand there are three cups, but on the shaft, the stand of the lamp, there are four cups. Four signifies creation. Without these four cups, we could find no hint in the lampstand that Christ has anything to do with His creatures. But, praise the Lord, we have these four cups. Christ as the Spirit is the light of life in resurrection, but He still has something to do with the creation. Christ Himself is a part of the creation, even the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). Thus, He is also represented in the number four. All these things are exceedingly meaningful; we can never exhaust them. First, Christ is the bread of life, and then this life becomes the light, shining in resurrection with the Spirit.
Notice now that there is no measurement specified for the lampstand. It is immeasurable and unlimited.
Following the lampstand in the Holy Place is the incense altar, upon which sweet incense is burned to God (Exo. 40:26-27). The incense altar is closely related to the lampstand. When the priests dressed the lampstand in the morning and lit the lamp in the evening, they had to burn the incense (30:1-8). This signifies that the lighting of the lamp is vitally related to the burning of the incense.
What does the burning of the incense signify? Whenever we are enlightened by Christ, we must turn to God in prayer. This is not a matter, however, of ordinary prayer. This is a kind of inner utterance to God with a sweet odor. Such prayer is the fragrant odor of Christ in resurrection, which is so pleasing to God. Whenever we are enlightened by Christ within, we spontaneously turn to God and express something from within. We have a sense then that we are pleasing to God, that we are fragrantly sweet to God. This is the burning of the incense.
The incense is Christ Himself in resurrection as our acceptance to God. God accepts us in Christ. Oh, may we realize that whenever we eat Christ, enjoying something of Him, on the one hand, we are satisfied, but on the other hand, we are enlightened by His shining within us. It is by this shining that we express something to God in a sweet sense—this is Christ in resurrection as the sweet odor to God. God accepts us in the resurrected Christ. In Him we have sweet communion with God, and we are acceptable to God.
The measurement of the incense altar is square, one cubit by one cubit. We have seen in the measurement of the table of the bread of the Presence that a square measurement of one cubit signifies a complete whole, an absolutely perfect unit. The sweet incense of the resurrected Christ is absolutely perfect in the eyes of God. It could not be more perfect. The height of the incense altar, however, is two cubits. This means a double unit, a double portion, by way of ascension. The table of the bread of the Presence was spread horizontally in a double unit for our enjoyment, but the incense altar is built up vertically in a double unit; it is in an ascending position, signifying enjoyment for God.
It is by all these experiences that we are overlaid with gold, the material of God’s building. Through these experiences we become suitable material and actually become part of the building. Prior to the experiences of the inner court, the most that we had was bronze, silver, and linen; we had nothing of gold. And prior to the experience of the outer court with its fine linen, we had only the clay and filth of our fallen nature. Through the work of the bronze altar and laver we were purged and purified from everything of Babel, Sodom, and the treasure cities of Egypt. We were made white linen, the righteousness of God; we were made right with God and with man. However, we had nothing of gold until we learned to enjoy Christ, until we took Him into our very being day by day as food. Then, the more we eat Him, the more light we receive; and the greater the light, the more fragrance we have to offer to God. By such experiences we are overlaid with gold, the divine nature of God. We must be thoroughly overlaid with God as gold. It is only possible as we feed on Christ and enjoy Him as the bread of life and only as we are enlightened by Him as the light of life and made acceptable to God in the fragrance of His resurrection. We must truly experience Christ in this way, rather than merely listen to teachings about Him.
For many years the Lord has been keeping me in the constant practice of entering the Holy Place to enjoy Christ. The more we enjoy Him as the bread of life, the more He becomes the light within, enlightening us and turning us to the Father to express the sweetness and fragrance of Christ. There need not be any separation, any kind of veil, between the Father and us. We may experience the sweetness of Christ to the Father, and we may also experience His sweetness to us in the fragrance of His resurrection. By this blessed presence and acceptance before God, we are spontaneously overlaid with the divine gold.
Partaking of God’s divine nature has absolutely nothing to do with endeavoring to correct our conduct. When we try to improve our behavior outwardly, we are still in the outer court. We must go on to experience Christ within the tabernacle. We must leave the outward correction and enter into the inward enjoyment of Christ. It is then that we experience an inward mingling of Christ with us. We must experience Christ in this way. Within the tabernacle we are never conscious of good or evil; our only thought is to enjoy the bread of life. We are fully and completely occupied with Christ as our enjoyable food. The more we thus enjoy Him, the more life we have. And the more we experience Him as life, the more we are enlightened by Him. Such an increase in life causes more fragrant communion with God. Thus, we are more fully overlaid with God in Christ as gold.
In the outer court we have God’s righteousness, but in the Holy Place we have God’s holiness. God’s holiness is God’s nature, even God Himself. Only God is holy. There is nothing common with God. When we are overlaid with the divine gold, we also are holy. To be holy means to be divinely “golden.” In the outer court we are right with God and with men. Everything is right—all wrong has been done away on the cross and cleansed away by the laver. Yet we are only righteous, we are not holy. Within the holy place, however, it is not a matter of the cleansing of sin and defilement but a matter of partaking of the bread of life, of enjoying Christ first as the life, then as the light within us, and eventually as the fragrance to God. Have you had such experiences of Christ? I must confess that I experience the Lord in such a way every day. Day by day I feed on Christ, enjoy something of Him, and sense the enlightening within me and the sweet odor towards God. Spontaneously I say, “O Father! My dear God!” How sweet it is! Such prayer is the burning of incense to God. It is only in this way and at such a time that our prayer becomes incense, for it is then that we are in the light and in the Spirit of resurrection. When we enjoy Christ in such a living way, we are overlaid with gold. Our intention is to enjoy Christ as food, light, and fragrance to God, but God’s intention is to add more of His divine nature into us, to overlay us with more gold. Thus, we are made fit for God’s building.
God’s purpose is not fulfilled merely by judging us, purging us, and delivering us from the negative things. We have seen the steps for the fulfillment of God’s full intention outlined in Genesis 1 and 2. All these steps reveal God’s original intention and purpose to make man the proper material for His building. The judging and the purging are only to deal with the negative things resulting from man’s fall. If man had never fallen, there would be no need for this. After man is purged, God intends to go on to fulfill His original plan.
First, we must be dealt with and purged from satanic forces, sins, and worldliness in the outer court. Then we may enter the Holy Place to enjoy Christ. We no longer try to adjust our outward behavior but deal inwardly with Christ day by day. We enjoy Him as our food, our life, our light, our incense, and our everything. By this we are transformed in nature.
It is easy to help Christians realize they must abandon idolatry and sins, but it is not so easy to help them see how worldliness keeps them from God’s purpose. It is even more difficult to help Christians differentiate between the correcting of their outward behavior and the inward enjoyment of Christ. If we could only be brought from the place of outward adjustment to the constant, inner enjoyment of Christ, we would experience great deliverance. When we enter the Holy Place, we know nothing but the inward enjoyment of Christ.
As Christians, we must press on to enter into the Holy Place. We should not be satisfied merely with being righteous in outward conduct and behavior. We should not be content with the fine linen of righteousness in the outer court. We must proceed into the Holy Place to enjoy Christ Himself as food, life, light, and sweet incense. Such experiences in the Holy Place greatly transcend those of the outer court.
It is God’s intention that we proceed from the negative work of the cross and the washing of the Holy Spirit in the outer court into the positive experiences of Christ at the table, the lampstand, and the incense altar in the Holy Place. God uses the outer court to recover us by purging us from our fallen condition. But this dealing with the negative things is only the beginning. We must go on to positively enjoy Christ in the Holy Place as the life with the constant inner shining, bringing us into sweet communion with God. By such experiences of Christ in the inner life we will be transformed for the building of God.
