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In the previous chapters we have mainly covered the central thought of God’s building in Genesis and Exodus. In this chapter we will attempt to cover a long span, from the end of Exodus to the beginning of 1 Samuel. Such a vast scope requires a bird’s-eye view.
In Exodus 40:2 the Lord commanded Moses, “On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting.” This word of the Lord to Moses signifies a new start, a new beginning. Because the building of the tabernacle was completed, there was a new beginning. Verse 17 tells us that according to the Lord’s word, on the first day of the first month in the second year, the tabernacle was raised up. It was indeed a new start. In the first year the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt—that was the new beginning in their history with the Lord (12:2). When the tabernacle was raised up, they had another new beginning. It was the start of their history with God and His dwelling place. Whenever there is a church built up in a certain place to fulfill God’s purpose, that is always a new beginning, a new start in the history of the Lord’s people. It is the sign that we are on the way of the Lord’s leading, that we are taking sides with the Lord, that we are under the Lord’s revelation and in His presence, and that we are ready to fight the battle for the Lord on this earth. May all the Lord’s people have such a new beginning in their history with God.
From the raising up of the tabernacle in Exodus to the capture of the Ark at the beginning of 1 Samuel, there are six major things related to the tabernacle. They are vital to the history of the Lord’s people and worthy of our attention.
The first of these six major things is that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle (Exo. 40:34-38). God’s glory on this earth can be manifested only in and through His building. When the tabernacle was completely set up, God’s glory immediately filled His building. The glory of God was in heaven, but at that time it appeared on the earth in the tabernacle. This was possible only because of the building.
The Lord is longing for local churches to be built up on this earth today, for wherever a local church is built, there the glory of God will be manifested. The manifestation of God’s glory on earth today wholly depends on the building. The manifestation of God’s glory is the very expression of God. The building of God is this expression, the very image of God.
The tabernacle, and later the temple as an enlargement of the tabernacle, were built for the purpose of expressing God. They were both the image of God. The city, which came later, was the representation of God’s authority. We have seen that God’s intention in creating man was that man might express Him on this earth by having His image and represent Him on this earth by having His authority. Later in history the temple in the image of God was for the expression of God, and the city with the authority of God was for the representation of God. In other words, the temple is the house of God, and the city is the kingdom of God. The glory of God filled the tabernacle and later the temple. This means that they became the very expression of God, the glorious image of God. God is expressed in and through His dwelling place. Whenever and wherever a local church is built, God’s glory will be manifested on this earth.
God told Moses to “raise up the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting” (v. 2). Notice that there are two things mentioned here: the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting. The tabernacle belongs to the Tent of Meeting. The cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of God filled the tabernacle (v. 34). The tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting were one, but there was an inward aspect and an outward aspect. Inwardly speaking, this building was the tabernacle for God’s dwelling. But outwardly speaking, it was the Tent of Meeting for the assembling of God’s people. Inwardly it was God’s dwelling place; outwardly, it was the meeting place of God’s people. A real secret is revealed here which has vital meaning for us today.
On many occasions in the church life there is the Tent of Meeting without the tabernacle. God’s presence and glory fill the tabernacle; thus, to be without the tabernacle is to be without God’s presence. If we have the tabernacle with the Tent of Meeting, then God’s presence is with our meeting. We must have both aspects. We must have the reality of God’s dwelling. It was in the tabernacle that God instructed Moses to put the Ark; He did not say that it should be put into the Tent of Meeting. Whenever the church comes together, there must be the outward aspect of the meeting with the inward aspect of God’s dwelling in the meeting. Such a Tent of Meeting with the tabernacle is the very expression of God on this earth. What is your sense when you meet with other Christians? Do you have only the Tent of Meeting without the inward dwelling of the Lord? We must check ourselves in this first major point.
First, God’s glory, God’s presence, is manifested in and through the finished building. Leviticus 1:1 says, “Then Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the Tent of Meeting.” Prior to this time, the Lord had always spoken to Moses in the cloud and in the fire on the mountain. But after the tabernacle was erected, God spoke in the tabernacle, in the Tent of Meeting. We must realize that God’s speaking is in and through His dwelling place. In other words, God speaks in the church and through the church. From the time that God’s first dwelling place was completed, God spoke in that building. Anyone desiring to hear the word of God had to come to the tabernacle. This is exceedingly clear. If we would receive the word of God, we must come to the church. But the church must be one with the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting. God must be in the church, speaking all the time.
We can personally testify and prove that when a local church is properly built, God is always speaking there. A Christian may spend much time in personal Bible study, but he can never receive such a living word from God as when he is in the church. The word spoken by God in His dwelling place can never be substituted by any other kind of word. We must come to the church. We must be clear, however, that God’s living word is spoken only in the real building of the church, the real tabernacle. We do not want the old word, the old doctrine. We want the fresh, living word of God. Therefore, we must come to the real building of God to receive His word in full.
Leviticus is a book of service and the priesthood. The third major point is that the service of God is entirely related to the building of God. 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.” This word clearly reveals that the service of the priesthood is totally related to the building of the house of God. Following the words spiritual house there are the words a holy priesthood. This means that the spiritual house is the priesthood. Christians are the living stones that are being built up as a spiritual house, that is, the priesthood. In the Old Testament boards were used for the building of the tabernacle, and the priests served within the tabernacle. This gives the semblance of two categories of things. But in the New Testament the living stones of the house, which correspond to the boards of the tabernacle, are the priests. The spiritual house and the priesthood are one and the same thing. The priests are the material of which the house is built. The priesthood is not an individual matter. All the priests formed together as one compose the priesthood. This is the house and also the priesthood. It is a corporate matter, a collective body. Strictly speaking, service to God is not an individual matter but something of a corporate body. In typology, not one priest could serve God individually. All the priests served in coordination with one another as one body.
We must all realize that we cannot serve God by ourselves individually. We must serve in coordination with others. One stone can never be a house: it must be built up together with other stones to form a building. It is impossible for an individual Christian to constitute the priesthood. I can never be a house by myself; I must be built up with others. This means, strictly speaking, that if there is no building, there is no real service to God. How many Christians there are who think that as long as they love the Lord, they can serve Him individually, irrespective of the church. They take the attitude that they can serve the Lord regardless of whether the church is built up or not. This is wrong. It is only when we are built together that proper service can be rendered to God. Real service to God is something of the building.
Romans 12 speaks clearly of the Body of Christ functioning together in all kinds of ministries and services. Prior to this chapter, which introduces the Body life, there is no mention of service. This clearly indicates that the service of the Lord’s people must be in the Body, the building, the church. In principle, this is why the book of Leviticus follows Exodus. Exodus is a record of building, and Leviticus is a book of service. Service always follows building. If there were no tabernacle, there could be no priests to serve. They certainly could not minister in their homes, for real service is a coordination with others in the tabernacle, in the building of God. As Christians, we are individual persons, but we cannot be individualistic Christians. We cannot serve the Lord independently of others. Each individual priest must be coordinated with all the other priests. It is a dreadful thing to attempt to serve the Lord apart from the proper church life, apart from being built up with others. I have witnessed too many Christians attempting to do this. Eventually they failed God. We must be built together as the priesthood to serve God in the building, the church, in a coordinated way.
We come now to the fourth major point, which is in the book of Numbers. Most expositions of Numbers give the impression that it is a book of wanderings and repeated failures. This is not quite accurate. Properly speaking, Numbers is not a book of failures but a book of victory and glory. Is it not glorious that on this earth God not only has a dwelling place but also a camp with an army?
In Numbers 2 we read, “Then Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, The children of Israel shall encamp each by his own standard with the ensigns of their fathers’ households; they shall encamp facing the Tent of Meeting on every side” (vv. 1-2). Each tribe had a specific place in which to pitch its tents round about the Tent of Meeting. The tribes on the east were Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; those on the south were Reuben, Simeon, and Gad; on the west were Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin; and on the north were Dan, Asher, and Naphtali (vv. 3-31). In the very center were the Levites, who cared for the tabernacle (1:50-53; 2:17). The priests could never be separated from the tabernacle; they were one with the tabernacle and always with it. This picture of the twelve tribes encamped on the four sides of the tabernacle with the Levites in the center is a preview of the coming New Jerusalem. That city portrayed in Revelation has twelve gates, three on each of its four sides, containing the names of the twelve tribes (21:12-13). That means that the New Jerusalem in Revelation is not a new concept. It was revealed many centuries before, in the book of Numbers. Thus, we see again that the whole of the Scriptures is of one line, related to one thing—God’s building. Even as the tabernacle in the Old Testament was the center of the twelve tribes of Israel, so God and the Lamb are the temple in the center of the New Jerusalem.
From beginning to end the book of Numbers is a glorious book. In the beginning God formed the army, and at the end we have a record of the dividing of the land conquered by this army. In the beginning the camps were arrayed in preparation for battle. In the forming of the house of Israel into a fighting army, we again see the principle revealed in Genesis 1: God desires a corporate man to represent Him in subduing and regaining this earth from the usurping hand of Satan. God had given Israel a good land called Canaan, but the Israelites had to take this land from the usurping hand of God’s enemy. They could not gain the land easily; they had to fight inch by inch, defeating all their enemies. The purpose and goal of the fighting was to possess the land.
The book of Numbers is a book of vital principles for us to apply today. Where is the army now? Are you in the army? This is the problem. There is no army, because there is no building. If the church is not built, there is no priesthood, and if there is no priesthood, there is no army. In Numbers 4:35, 39, and 43, the Hebrew word for the service of the priesthood really means “warfare” (see the footnote on Numbers 4:3). This signifies that whenever the priests served together, they were fighting the battle. It was a warfare. We can testify of this from our experience: whenever we are in the real service of the Lord, there is always a battle taking place. This is why in the book of Joshua the priests took the lead when the children of Israel went into battle. The priests were the generals, the real soldiers. This is why we also must first have the building, and then we may have the priesthood, which becomes the army to fight God’s battle.
The book of Numbers presents a glorious scene with the standards and ensigns, the formations and the order. All these things are full of application for us today. The army consisted of twelve tribes in four divisions, with three tribes in each division. Again we see the numbers, three and four—the Triune God mingled with man. The principle of mingling is represented by three times four, which equals twelve. God is not only added to us but also is mingled with us. The book of Revelation begins with a record of the seven churches, which are divided into one section of four plus another section of three. This signifies that the Triune God is added to the creature, as three is added to four, equaling seven. But Revelation ends with the New Jerusalem, where all the numbers are twelve; that is, three times four, signifying God’s mingling with us. The real building of God is this mingling of God with man.
In the army there was only one weapon—the Ark. The Israelites fought their battles with the Ark. In the center of the army of Israel was the tabernacle. All their activities, all their moves, depended upon the tabernacle. When the tabernacle remained in a certain place, the house of Israel, the army, also remained. When the tabernacle moved, everyone moved with it (Num. 9:17-23). These Old Testament illustrations reveal clearly the principle that all the fighting of God’s army accompanies the building of the church. When the church moves, the fighting proceeds; when the church stops, the fighting ceases. The fighting is one with the move of the church.
Following the book of Numbers, the book of Deuteronomy describes the good land of Canaan and reveals how the children of Israel conducted themselves in that land. In typology, this land is exceedingly meaningful to us today. It is a picture of the all-inclusive Christ. We must go on to experience this Christ, but the more we experience Him in our daily life, the more spiritual warfare we will encounter. The children of Israel enjoyed the land in Egypt apart from any battle. Even so, if we experience Christ only as the passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), we will not experience any warfare. If we would go on to enjoy Christ in a further degree, such as the heavenly manna day by day (10:3), then we must defeat the Egyptians (Exo. 14) as well as the Amalekites (ch. 17). Deuteronomy gives the details of the enjoyment of Christ as the all-inclusive One. First, He is enjoyed as the passover lamb in Egypt. Then He is enjoyed as the heavenly manna and the living water in the wilderness. His enjoyment is also typified by all the offerings, as well as the Ark with the enlarged tabernacle. All the furniture of the tabernacle—the table of the bread of the Presence, the lampstand, the incense altar, and the Ark—are types of how we must enjoy Christ by a daily experience of Him. Eventually, we must enter the good land of Canaan, typifying an enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ. Here we are confronted with many battles. The enemy of God does not want us to enter into such an experience. He is determined to frustrate us and keep us from enjoying the good land, the all-inclusive Christ. Therefore, we must fight the battle and defeat the enemy.
Not one battle was fought by any individual Israelite. All the battles were fought by the army. We can never fight the battle alone. Chapter 6 of Ephesians speaks of the spiritual warfare. Such warfare is a matter of the whole Body of Christ, not any one individual believer. We must fight the battle in the Body. This is why we need the house, the building, for the house is the serving priesthood, and the priesthood is the fighting army. This is why we must be built up and formed as a priesthood to serve God; it is only then that we may be the army that can fight the battle in a coordinated way.
The main point concerning the possessing of the good land is the actual fighting, as seen in the book of Joshua. The book of Numbers informs us concerning the formation of the army, whereas Joshua records the army marching and fighting to possess the land. We have already mentioned the weapon used by the army—the Ark. Now we must see the way of engaging in the warfare. The way is simply this—the priests bear the Ark on their shoulders into battle. This Ark is called the Ark of the Testimony. The only way for us to fight as a spiritual army is to bear Christ as our testimony. Christ as the testimony is sufficient. We should never argue, debate, or quarrel with others but simply bear Christ as the testimony. He is the most powerful and the most prevailing weapon.
The first stronghold encountered by the Israelites was the city of Jericho. Let us see how that city was defeated. The Lord commanded Joshua, “Seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Ark” (Josh. 6:4). The priests were the real generals, the real soldiers. Their weapons were not guns but the Ark, and with the Ark they also blew the rams’ horns. The ram is something related to God’s redemption and God’s peace. We have seen how the rams’ skins were used as a part of the covering over the tabernacle (Exo. 26:14). The priests blew the trumpets of Christ’s redemption and peace in the time of war.
We need not argue with others; we should simply bear Christ and sometimes blow the trumpet. Blowing the trumpet means giving the testimony. If someone argues, just praise the Lord. The more they try to condemn you, the more you should give the testimony and praise the Lord. If you bear the Ark and blow the horn in such a way, you will win the battle. Jericho will surely fall. The more they quarrel and fight, the more they will collapse. Your part is to do nothing but bear the Ark and blow the horn.
The sixth major point concerns the setting up of the tabernacle after the battle has been won. Joshua 18:1 says, “The whole assembly of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh, and they set up the Tent of Meeting there; and the land was subdued before them.” Praise the Lord that the land was subdued! Here we must be reminded again of Genesis 1 and the principle of the earth being subdued by man as God’s representative. The tabernacle was erected and established because the land was subdued. There was no more wandering because the victory was won. The tabernacle was set up at a place called Shiloh; the tabernacle was an established center where the people could seek and find God. The book of 1 Samuel tells how the father of Samuel left his own city once each year to worship and sacrifice unto Jehovah of hosts in Shiloh (1:3). He made this yearly trip because the tabernacle was there.
In 1 Samuel 1:9 the tabernacle is spoken of as the temple. This was not the future temple built of stones but the existing tabernacle, which was called the temple. In 1 Samuel 1:24 the tabernacle in Shiloh is called the house of Jehovah. These two references are full of meaning. When Samuel was weaned as a child, his mother brought him to the house of Jehovah in Shiloh. Samuel’s mother and father had a definite place where they could go to meet God. If in the whole land of Canaan there was not such a definite place with the tabernacle established, the people would have no place to meet God. Even so, when the proper church is built up and the battle is won, a center is established where people can easily meet God. There must be such a place as a center where seeking ones can meet God. However, all of this depends on the building.
With the bird’s-eye view of this vast scope of the Scriptures, from the end of Exodus to the beginning of 1 Samuel, we realize that it is a record of only one thing—God’s building. Exodus reveals the finished tabernacle. Immediately following, Leviticus tells us that it is from the tabernacle that God speaks, and then it goes on to describe the priesthood serving God. Numbers then reveals the formation of the army for the purpose of conquering the enemy and possessing the land. Deuteronomy tells the people how to enjoy the land, and Joshua gives the record of the fighting, of the final victory, of the ground being gained, and of the tabernacle being erected in an established center. The tabernacle is set up in a definite place as a center for God’s seeking ones to come and worship Him. Praise God for this definite place where His glory was manifested! The enemy was defeated, the land was subdued, and God’s dwelling place was set up. It was so easy for God’s people to meet and worship Him. All this depended upon the building.
The Old Testament is but a type, a shadow, of the New Testament. These books have presented a picture of the real church life. Today we also must be built together and formed as a priesthood to serve the Lord. Then we will be an army to fight and win the battles, and thus we will recover the land that God’s house may be established. On the ground that is won we will have a definite center where the seeking ones may meet and worship God. This brief sketch from these Old Testament books is the key which opens to us the secret of God’s Word. This is the key to the real building, the real church life.
