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Scripture Reading: Exo. 27:1-2, 9-10, 17-19; 38:8; Num. 16:37-40; Exo. 25:10-11, 23-24, 31; 26:15-19, 26-29; 30:1-3
In the first two chapters we briefly looked at the revelation at the beginning and at the end of the Scriptures. We pointed out that both at the beginning and at the end of the Bible, the central revelation is the mystical building. In other words, God’s intention as revealed in the Scriptures is to build a dwelling place for Himself and a Body for His Son, Christ. This dwelling place or Body is His mystical counterpart in the universe. Neither the dwelling place, the Body, nor the counterpart is composed of a single individual. Rather, each is the aggregate of a great number of people as one corporate entity. This corporate entity as the corporate great man is composed of all the saved ones throughout the ages who have been gradually transformed in the eternal life of God and who have been built up together. This corporate great man is the dwelling place of God, the Body of Christ, and the mystical counterpart of God in the universe. I trust that you are clear about these matters. Beginning from this chapter, we will look at the long, middle section of the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20. Due to the limitation of time we will look only at the main points briefly.
If we would carefully read through the whole Bible and look at it with a bird’s-eye view, we would discover that the entire Old Testament is centered on the tabernacle and the temple. In fact, we may say that the entire Old Testament is a history of the tabernacle and the temple. With the exception of a small section at the beginning of Genesis, the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, from the story of Abraham’s calling in Genesis 12 to the end of Malachi, are concerned mainly with the history of the people of Israel, which was clearly centered on the tabernacle and the temple. The tabernacle and the temple were the most central issue to the children of Israel. When their condition was good, the condition of the tabernacle was also good. When their condition was not good, the condition of the tabernacle was not good either. When their relationship with God was normal, God could dwell in the tabernacle. When there was a problem between them and God, God would leave the tabernacle. In principle, it was the same with the temple.
We know that the tabernacle and the temple are in reality the same one entity in two stages and that this one entity is God’s dwelling place or house. The difference is that the tabernacle was God’s movable dwelling place, and the temple was God’s fixed dwelling place. The tabernacle was the temple’s predecessor, and the temple was the tabernacle’s successor. When the people of God were wandering in the wilderness, their center was the tabernacle. After the people of God entered into Canaan and dwelt in the promised good land, their center was the temple. Therefore, the tabernacle and the temple are actually one in significance, function, and typology. Both were the dwelling place of God.
Not only so, in the original language of the Old Testament, both the tabernacle and the temple were called the house of God. This also proves that the tabernacle and the temple were actually one entity denoting the house of God.
What is the story of the tabernacle and the temple? Simply speaking, it is a story of building. After the Israelites held the passover, left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and arrived at Mount Sinai and after they received the law of God and saw the heavenly pattern, the one thing they did together with one mind and with a united effort was to build the tabernacle. Among the children of Israel there were men who worked in wood, bronze, silver, and gold, as well as weavers. They all worked in cooperation to build the tabernacle. On the first day of the first month of the second year, at the commencement of a new year, they raised up the tabernacle according to the command of God. At that time the glory of God filled the tabernacle, and God Himself came to dwell among them. From that day on, God had a dwelling place or habitation on the earth, and He dwelt among the children of Israel.
The book of Numbers clearly shows that the journey of the children of Israel in the wilderness was centered on the tabernacle. When they encamped, the twelve tribes encamped on the four sides of the tabernacle, three tribes on each side. This was a miniature of the New Jerusalem. We all know that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God among men. It has four sides—east, west, north, and south—and on each side are three gates on which the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed. This is exactly like the situation of the children of Israel when they encamped around the tabernacle. Therefore, do not think that the situation of the New Jerusalem will be brought in only at the time of the new heaven and new earth. No, a rough model of this situation was already in existence when the tabernacle was raised up at the foot of Mount Sinai. What were the children of Israel doing in the wilderness? They were doing nothing but ministering to the tabernacle. When they encamped, they raised up the tabernacle, and the twelve tribes offered sacrifices and worshipped around the tabernacle. When the cloud was taken up, they dismantled the tabernacle and carried it with them as they went forward. When the cloud settled down again, they raised up the tabernacle again. What the Israelites did in the wilderness for forty years was actually the story of the tabernacle.
We have to see the vision that there was a tabernacle among the children of Israel, that the history of Israel depended on this tabernacle, and that everything they did was for this tabernacle. Even the warfare that they fought when they entered Canaan was for this tabernacle. The warfare reveals that God wanted to have a piece of land upon which He could securely set up His dwelling place on the earth. Therefore, after the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, they conquered city after city and occupied place after place. Before they possessed the whole land of Canaan, God told them to set up the tabernacle in Shiloh. In this way the tabernacle temporarily settled down until the Ark was taken captive.
Afterward, David moved the Ark into the city of David and set it in the tent that he had pitched. Later, he intended to build a temple for Jehovah. Through the prophet Nathan, God told him, “I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them there, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more; and the sons of wickedness will ill-treat them no more as before” (2 Sam. 7:10). Moreover, God declared that He would make David a house, that He would raise up his seed to sit on the throne after him, and that it was his seed who would build a house for His name (vv. 11b-13). Since God delighted in this matter, the building of the temple was completed during the reign of Solomon. However, not long after the temple was built, Israel became desolate. The temple was torn down by the Babylonians, and Jerusalem was destroyed. After the seventy years of captivity were fulfilled, the children of Israel returned to their own land group by group, and they started to restore the city and rebuild the temple. While they were restoring the city, they worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other (Neh. 4:17). This shows that building requires fighting. This takes us to the end of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Now that we have pointed out these matters in such a simple way, it is very clear that the history of the Old Testament is a history of the tabernacle and the temple, a history of building.
The first great matter in the New Testament is the Lord’s incarnation in Bethlehem. Incarnation is God entering into man, God putting on humanity. John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men. Originally, God dwelt in the heavens, but when He was born in Bethlehem, He came to put on flesh and to be among men. The flesh that He put on was a tabernacle in which He dwelt. Therefore, His incarnation was His tabernacling among men, and His body was the tabernacle that God had raised up among men.
In John 2 the Lord said to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (v. 19). We all know that the temple that the Lord mentioned here denotes His own body. Therefore, in His incarnation the Lord was a tabernacle and a temple, which are actually the same thing. Therefore, the Lord Jesus in the four Gospels was the temple of God among men, and God dwelt in this temple. Jesus the Nazarene is not only our Savior, the Lamb of God, and the Bridegroom who will take the bride, He is also the temple, the dwelling place, the tabernacle of God among men. God dwelt in Him as the living tabernacle, the living temple. The Jews, who were utilized by the devil, hated the Lord Jesus and crucified Him, thus destroying Him as the temple. However, after three days He was resurrected from the dead, and He released His life to regenerate us. As a result, in His resurrection many people were built together to become the enlarged temple, which is the church.
The subject of this section from Acts 2 to the end of Revelation is the church as the temple. In 1 Corinthians 3 the apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers that they were God’s temple (v. 16) and God’s building (v. 9b) and that the apostles were God’s fellow workers for God’s building (v. 9a). Moreover, he said, “As a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it” (v. 10). Are we building with wood, grass, and stubble or with gold, silver, and precious stones? In Ephesians 2 Paul says, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, being built...into a holy temple in the Lord...into a dwelling place of God in spirit” (vv. 19-22). Likewise, Peter says, “Coming to Him, a living stone,...you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:4-5a).
Therefore, the entire New Testament is also a story of the temple. The Lord Jesus is a temple, and the church is also a temple. The Lord Jesus as the Head with the church as the Body form a complete temple. At the end of the Bible a big structure appears—the holy city, New Jerusalem.
The more you read the Bible, the more you will have the impression that the central subject of the Scriptures is that God in Christ came to be life to us so that we may be built up as His dwelling place. The types in the Old Testament and the plain words of the New Testament both speak of this same matter. What a pity that very few in the church today have seen this, and even fewer speak about this. According to my own experience, ever since I was very young, I attended Sunday school where I listened to people telling Bible stories and ministers preaching sermons. I often heard people talking about how Adam had sinned by eating the fruit that had been forbidden by God, but I never heard that the tree of life denotes God Himself and that God wants man to eat Him in order to receive Him as life. For about four and a half years after I was saved, I heard more than a thousand messages in a certain Christian group, yet I never heard a message which said that the tree of life in Genesis 2 signifies that God wants to enter into man in the form of food so that man may have Him as life. Thank the Lord that over ten years after I was saved, I heard from a servant of God that the purpose of God is that He wants to enter into man to be man’s life and that this is why, after creating man, He put man in front of the tree of life. He wanted man to face the tree of life and to eat the fruit of the tree of life. Since that day I have been inwardly enlightened to see that God’s relationship with me is a relationship of life.
However, God’s purpose does not stop there. After speaking about the tree of life, Genesis 2 also mentions that there is a river, and wherever its water flows, there is gold, bdellium, and precious stone. Then in Exodus, when the children of Israel were building the tabernacle in the wilderness, the principal material they used was gold. For example, the lampstand was made of pure gold, and the Ark, the incense altar, the table of the bread of the Presence, and the boards were made of wood overlaid with gold. Moreover, the garment worn by the high priest had a breastplate and shoulder pieces, which had precious stones enclosed in settings of gold. Besides these, the chains were a twisted corded work of pure gold. The shoulder pieces were woven with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet strands. Therefore, when the tabernacle was raised up and the high priest, wearing the holy garments, went in to minister, the situation inside was entirely of gold and precious stones. If you read all of this, eventually you will see that the gold and precious stones are not for anything else but for the building of God’s dwelling place.
When we read the story of how Solomon built the temple, we see again that everything inside the temple was overlaid with gold and that the outside of the temple was covered with large and precious stones. You can imagine the situation when the high priest, wearing the holy garments and the ephod with the shoulder pieces and the breastplate, went into the temple to minister. Outside the temple were precious stones, and inside was the gold; the high priest was standing in the temple in the middle of all the gold and precious stones. Now we can see that the pure gold and the precious stones are for the building of God.
As we read on, we come to the New Testament. In his first Epistle to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul says, “We are God’s fellow workers; you are...God’s building” (3:9). Furthermore, he says, “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it” (v. 10). Then Paul goes on to say that they should not build with wood, grass, and stubble but with gold, silver, and precious stones. At this point we should be even more clear that gold and precious stones are altogether materials for building God’s dwelling place. As we come to the end of the Bible, we see a city of pure gold, like clear glass. Its wall is built with jasper, and its gates are pearls. At this point we should be absolutely clear that the gold, pearl, and precious stones mentioned in Genesis 2 are altogether for the building of God’s dwelling place.
The Bible is a book on building. The entire Bible shows how we human beings who are made of dust have received God as our life and are thereby being transformed within. God as our life is like living water flowing within us. The result is that we who are made of dust are being transformed into gold, pearl, and precious stones and are being built together into the dwelling place of God. This is the Bible’s focus from the beginning to the end. I say again that the Bible is a book on building. At the beginning it shows some scattered materials, and at the end it shows a completed building. At the beginning it shows three kinds of precious materials—gold, pearl, and precious stones—and at the end we see that these three kinds of precious materials have been built into a city of glory and splendor.
Let us now look at the story of God’s building of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. However, before looking at the tabernacle, I would like to speak a word to lay a foundation.
In the Old Testament we see that God chose some of the forefathers, such as Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was the last among the forefathers whom God chose. Out from Jacob came the twelve tribes, the Israelites. We all know the story of Jacob. Jacob was a person who grasped, struggled, and supplanted. When he was in his mother’s womb, he struggled with his brother Esau to get out first, but he failed. Then he used his craftiness to seize the birthright with its blessings. Consequently, his brother Esau wanted to kill him, so his mother told him to flee to Haran. As Jacob went out from Beer-sheba toward Haran, he came to a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of that place, made it his pillow, and lay down to sleep. Then a marvelous thing happened—he had a dream. In this dream there was a ladder set up on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Furthermore, Jehovah was standing above it, and He spoke to him, promising to give him and his descendants the land on which he lay. After Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Then he rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put under his head, and he set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, which means “house of God.” Then Jacob made a business deal with the Lord, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and garments to put on, so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then Jehovah will be my God, and this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God’s house” (Gen. 28:10-22).
I would like you all to take note that this is the first time that the house of God is mentioned in the Bible, and in this revelation we see that the house of God comes from the oil poured upon the stone. Most readers of the Bible know that oil in the Holy Scriptures denotes the Holy Spirit who is God coming forth to reach and enter into man. The stone denotes a saved person. Previously, we were pieces of clay, but after we were saved, we were transformed into stones. When Peter confessed to the Lord Jesus, “You are the Christ,” the Lord immediately said to him, “You are Peter [or, a stone]” (Matt. 16:16, 18). Therefore, the pouring of the oil upon the stone indicates the mingling together of God and the saved ones, and this mingling becomes the house of God. Therefore, a principle of primary importance concerning the building of God is the mingling of God with man.
When God revealed this vision to Jacob, He promised Jacob that He would give the land on which Jacob lay, which was the land of Canaan, to him and to his seed. God also promised Jacob that his seed would be as the dust of the earth (Gen. 28:13-14). We all know that the seed of Jacob later became the house of Israel, which was the house of God.
Here we again touch the story of building. In Genesis 2 we see that the flow of the water of life produces gold, bdellium, and precious stones as materials for the building. Then in chapter 28 we see oil being poured upon a stone, issuing in the house of God. In these passages we see the story of building. We see the stones as the materials for building, the pouring of the oil upon the stones as the way of building, and the house of God as the result. At this point the vision of building is clear enough—God uses the way of pouring the oil upon the stone to build His house on the earth.
Jacob stayed in his uncle Laban’s home for twenty years and then returned from Paddan-aram and dwelt in Shechem (33:18). One day God came again to Jacob and said, “Rise up, go up to Bethel, and dwell there” (35:1). God was calling Jacob to go back to the place where God had appeared to him when he was fleeing from his brother. In other words, God was calling him to return to God’s house. Subsequently, Jacob and his household went down to Egypt and dwelt in Egypt until Moses was raised up by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When the Israelites came to the foot of Mount Sinai, God wanted them to build a tabernacle to be His dwelling place on earth. We know that this tabernacle was only a type. In reality, the children of Israel themselves were the house of God.
From this point onward, the story of building is completely made manifest. God had a group of people on the earth who were coordinated, knit, and built together to be the dwelling place of God. Therefore, when the tabernacle was raised up, God’s glory filled the tabernacle. God’s glory filled the midst of the children of Israel, and therefore, God could dwell among them.
Now let us go back and look at some matters on the negative side. Most readers of the Bible know that after God’s purpose and the way to fulfill it were revealed in the first two chapters of Genesis, the serpent, who was the incarnation of Satan, appeared in chapter 3. Satan came to harm and damage man by injecting his poison—sin—into man, thus bringing man into death. If we have the light concerning building, we will see that the reason Satan wanted to ruin man and put man to death was that he wanted to frustrate God’s building. The man created by God was God’s material for building. Therefore, in his stratagem to frustrate God’s building, Satan’s first step was to poison the material for the building.
Satan not only used subtlety to poison the material prepared by God for His building, but he also preceded God by producing a counterfeit that was according to what God had wanted to produce. Satan knew that what God ultimately wanted was a builded city, so before God could do that, Satan did something to produce a counterfeit. God wanted to build a city, so Satan stirred up some persons whom he had poisoned to build another city. Hence, in Genesis 4 Cain built a city, and he named the city after the name of his son, Enoch. That city was full of sin and wickedness. What kind of image did the city of Enoch have? What did it express? No doubt, the city of Enoch altogether had the image of Satan and completely expressed Satan. The city of Enoch was a mixture of Satan and man.
Gradually, the wickedness of this city became so great that it incurred God’s judgment by the flood. We must remember that the age that was destroyed by the flood had the city of Enoch as its center. God saved Noah and his household from that destruction, and Noah’s building of the ark was again a story of building. Not long afterward, Satan came again to corrupt the descendants of Noah, and he instigated them to build Babel. They wanted to build a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven so that they might make a name for themselves. Their rebellion directly touched the realm of heaven. Therefore, God Himself intervened and stopped their rebellion.
After judging Babel, God called out from Babel a person named Abraham. God promised to give Abraham and his seed the land of Canaan. Moreover, God also promised to make Abraham into a great nation. Therefore, Abraham pitched a tent and built an altar in Canaan (12:7-8). I want you to see that the one matter emphasized in the entire Bible is the matter of building. The people utilized by Satan were building something, and Abraham, who had been called out by God, was also building something. Abraham’s whole life was a story of pitching his tent and building an altar in the land of Canaan. The tent that he pitched and the altar that he built were a miniature, a scaled-down model, of the tabernacle built by his descendants in the wilderness.
On the other hand, Lot, Abraham’s companion, went down to another city, the third corrupt city recorded in the Bible. The first corrupt city was the city of Enoch, which was destroyed by the flood. The second was Babel, which was judged by God. The third was the city of Sodom, where Lot went. Sodom was also a building constructed with the mixture of Satan and man, and Lot fell into its midst. Eventually, Sodom suffered God’s judgment and was destroyed by fire. Only Abraham was still dwelling in a tent, building an altar, and serving God in the land of Canaan.
Subsequently, the descendants of Abraham went down to Egypt. At that time the fourth city that Satan built appeared. This city comprised the two storage cities that the Israelites built for Pharaoh when they were serving as slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh forced them to build these two cities with bricks of baked clay. One day, however, God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt so that they no longer had to bake clay into bricks to build cities for Pharaoh. Instead, they refined gold and silver to build God’s tabernacle.
When the children of Israel entered into Canaan, they rose up to build the city of Jerusalem and the temple. In contrast, Satan also built something; he built the city of Babylon. At the end of the Bible we not only see the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s building throughout the ages, but we also see the great Babylon as the consummation of Satan’s building throughout the ages. These two cities are in contrast with one another. We all know that it was the armies of Babylon that destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple and carried away the vessels that were in the temple to Babylon. When the children of Israel were restored, they came back from Babylon. Ezra said that on the first day of the first month of the year he began to go up from Babylon to return to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:9). Babylon represents Satan’s building, and Jerusalem represents the building of God. The two are in contrast with one another from the beginning to the end of the Bible. Therefore, the entire Bible speaks of the matter of building, both on the positive side and on the negative side. Satan wants to utilize man to build the great Babylon, whereas God wants to gain a group of people to build the New Jerusalem. We can clearly see these two lines in the Bible.
Now let us look at the building of the tabernacle. After the children of Israel held the passover, applied the blood of the lamb, ate the flesh of the lamb, left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, were instructed by God at the foot of Mount Sinai, and received the pattern on the mountain, they rose up to build the tabernacle to be the dwelling place of God.
Most Bible readers acknowledge that it is not easy to study the type of the tabernacle. I would like to tell you that if we want to understand the tabernacle, we must read the Bible with the matter of building in view, because the tabernacle is essentially a story of building. On the perimeter of the tabernacle were the hangings, which were like an enclosing wall, and within these hangings was the outer court. In the midst of the outer court was the tent, the dwelling place of God. This was altogether a building. Whenever a person entered the tabernacle, the first item he met in the outer court was the bronze altar, upon which all the sacrifices to God were offered. Proceeding a little farther, he came to the bronze laver, where everyone who came to minister before God first washed his hands and feet, purging away all the defilement of the earth. Then a little farther on was the tent, within which were four items. The innermost item was the Ark, which was also called the Ark of the Testimony because it contained the two tablets of the testimony (Exo. 25:16, 21). Outside the Ark on the north side of the tent was the table of the bread of the Presence upon which the bread was continually set. On the south side opposite the table was the golden lampstand whose lamps shone continually. In front of the Ark and between the table of the bread of the Presence and the lampstand was the golden incense altar upon which the priest burned fragrant incense to God. These four items and all the boards inside the tabernacle were either overlaid with gold or were completely made of pure gold. The tabernacle was entirely a matter of gold. Therefore, whenever a person entered the tabernacle, all he saw was pure gold. This picture altogether depicts the building.
Now let us look at the tabernacle and its furniture according to the order shown in the Bible. The record of the tabernacle in Exodus first mentions the altar and the laver and then speaks about the hangings of the outer court. The spiritual meaning of this is that in God’s building there is first the altar, and then from the altar the hangings are produced. In the same principle, the four pieces of furniture within the tent are mentioned first, and then out of these four items the tent is produced. This is very clear from the record of Exodus. The spiritual meaning of this is quite rich. Hence, we need to look at these items one by one according to their order of spiritual significance.
In this chapter we will examine only the first item in this picture of the building. In this building the first item according to our experience is the bronze altar. The altar is the only way that man can come near to God. Man can fellowship with God only through the offerings on the bronze altar. The meanings hidden in this picture are too numerous. We will look briefly only at three aspects of the altar.
The first meaning of the altar is judgment. Since man has been damaged by Satan and has the poison of sin, sin must first be dealt with in order for man to draw near to God. There is no other way to deal with sin but to pass through judgment. Therefore, at the altar there is a fire to burn all the offerings. Furthermore, the altar is overlaid with bronze, and this bronze came from the censers that were held in the hands of the two hundred fifty rebellious people. They were judged by fire, and God commanded that their censers be taken out of the fire and be beaten into plates for a covering for the altar (Num. 16:37-40). Therefore, bronze signifies God’s judgment.
The second meaning of the altar is redemption. Whenever God judged the sacrifice offered on the altar and burned it with fire, redemption was accomplished. Thus, anyone who passes through God’s judgment at the altar is also redeemed by God.
The third meaning of the altar is consecration. Everyone who has been redeemed by God must ultimately be put on the altar and offered to God as a burnt offering.
This is the way the building of God begins in us who were sinners poisoned by Satan. If we want to be built by God to be His dwelling place, then we must begin by being judged. This is why the Lord said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment” (John 16:8). God has already judged our sins on the cross, so we must also judge ourselves in the light of this judgment. Our living must be judged, our clothing must be judged, our family must be judged, and our career must be judged. Everything that is ours must pass through the judgment. This is in contrast to the praise and flattery in human society. The first sentence that the church of God must tell someone who comes to listen to the gospel is, “Dear friend, you are a sinner!” Many people cannot take this, for they consider this as a rebuke. However, if you and I are not sinners, then what are we? Therefore, if we want to be built, the first thing that we must do is to condemn ourselves. What we are, what we have, and what we do, whether they are good or bad, all have to be put on the cross, pass through the burning, and be put to death.
All those who have not passed through this kind of judgment and have not been judged at the bronze altar cannot be redeemed. All those who have passed through the judgment have been cleansed by the blood and have been redeemed. All those who have been redeemed are required by God to consecrate themselves to be offered as burnt offerings. Therefore, the altar of redemption becomes the altar of burnt offering. Everything that is placed on the altar is completely gained by God. If you are not completely gained by God, you cannot be built by God. To be gained by God, you must first judge yourself; second, you must be redeemed; and third, you must offer yourself completely to God, allowing God to gain you as material for the building. Remember that the building of God starts at the altar; blessed is he who starts here!
