Message 124
(9)
Scripture Reading: Exo. 28:15-21; 39:8-14
We have seen that the breastplate was of the same workmanship and material as the ephod and that it was squared and doubled. The breastplate signifies that the church is of the same formation and constituent as Christ and that it is a perfect testimony held in Christ’s hand. Now we shall go on to consider the twelve stones on the breastplate.
Verse 21 says, “And the stones shall be according to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, each according to his name they shall be, for the twelve tribes.” The names of the twelve tribes of Israel engraved on the twelve stones signify all the redeemed people of God. These twelve stones do not signify God’s redeemed people in a separate or individualistic way, but in a corporate way. The stones are separate pieces, but they are not divided. On the contrary, they are incorporated, put together. Using a New Testament term, the stones have been built together. The twelve stones have been built together to become one entity, and the name of that entity is the breastplate.
The Lord bears us in a corporate way, even in an incorporated way. The Lord Jesus has built us together; He has incorporated us into one entity. The breastplate was one entity composed of twelve separate, individual stones. This indicates that the believers are distinct individuals, but they are not divided. We are separate pieces, but we are not separated, individualistic pieces. However, today’s Christians have been separated and divided. According to their understanding, the Lord bears each one individualistically. If this is the situation, then the Lord’s bearing of one believer does not have anything to do with His bearing of another believer. But the Lord does not bear us individualistically. On the contrary, He bears one entity, the church, which is His Body.
If we have received light from the Lord, we shall mourn over the situation among Christians today. We shall grieve over the divisions among God’s people.
To be sure, there were twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Each tribe was represented by a stone on the breastplate. But all these stones were built together into one entity. Therefore, the breastplate was actually a building of precious stones set in gold. The gold was the element which enabled the twelve stones to become one building.
The twelve stones on the breastplate were precious stones. These precious stones signify transformation of the human nature by and with the divine nature. How do we know that they signify transformation? We know it by the fact that they were precious stones. Precious stones are not something originally created by God. On the contrary, they are formed into precious stones by a process of transformation. Through this process clay or some other material is transformed into precious stones.
An illustration of the process of transformation can be found in the way wood is changed into petrified wood. Over a period of time, water saturates the wood, carrying away its natural element and replacing it with another kind of element. Eventually, the wood is transformed into stone.
Christian living involves a daily process of transformation. The Bible says that man was created from the dust of the ground: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). One day the heavenly flow with the divine mineral entered into our being. This divine mineral is the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), and the water is the divine life, the divine Spirit. Once this living water came into us, it began to wash away our natural life and to add more of the divine element into our being. This is transformation. Day by day we are living a life of transformation. We are all undergoing God’s transforming work.
In the Lord’s recovery we have paid a great deal of attention to the matter of transformation. However, not much has been written by others on the importance of transformation. Nevertheless, it is a fact that all believers eventually will be transformed. If the process of transformation cannot be completed in this age, God will have a way to complete it in the next age. In the New Jerusalem all the believers will be transformed precious stones. Babel was built with bricks, but there will be no bricks in the New Jerusalem. This city will be built with transformed material; that is, it will be constituted of God’s redeemed, transformed people. What Christians, then, will share in the millennium? It will be those who have been transformed during their lifetime. But in eternity in the New Jerusalem all the people of God will be there as transformed ones. The Christian life is a life of transformation. Daily God is seeking to transform us.
This transformation is a transformation of the human nature by and with the divine nature. This means that a better material is being wrought into us. As a result, although we were made of dust, we are being transformed into something precious and transparent. This comes from being saturated with better materials, with heavenly materials.
I can testify that I still need more transformation. I know that I am certainly not perfect and that the process of transformation has not yet been completed. However, I can testify that I am very different from what I was many years ago. When I was a young Christian, I was a man of clay. But over the years I have experienced much of the Spirit’s transformation. Therefore, I can testify truly that I am more transformed today than I was years ago. Many believers can give such a testimony, for we all are living a life of transformation.
The twelve stones were set in golden mountings (vv. 17, 20). This signifies that the believers are kept in Christ’s divine nature.
The twelve stones were arranged in four rows. Once again, the number four used here signifies the creatures.
Exodus 28:17-20 says, “And you shall mount it in mountings of stone, four rows of stone: a row of sardius, topaz, and emerald, the first row; and the second row, a carbuncle, sapphire, and diamond; and the third row, a jacinth, agate, and amethyst; and the fourth row, a chrysolite, and onyx, and jasper.” From this we see that there were three stones in each of the four rows. We may ask why the twelve stones were arranged in this way, since there were many other ways in which they could have been arranged, many other patterns and shapes. God’s way, however, is the most simple way, a way seemingly without artistic beauty, but a way full of spiritual significance.
The four rows of stones with three stones in each row signify the Triune God in resurrection. The number four signifies creatures, and three signifies not only the Triune God, but the Triune God in resurrection. In order to be in resurrection, the Triune God had to be processed. Today the God we enjoy is the Triune God processed to be in resurrection. Now this Triune God is the all-inclusive Spirit dwelling in our spirit as the superior mineral, working in us to saturate our whole being so that we may be transformed. In this way our human, natural being is transformed with divine minerals. This is the significance of twelve precious stones arranged in four groups with three stones in each row. This is not my interpretation. This is the way God planned it, and it fits in with the full revelation of the Bible.
On the breastplate there were a total of twelve stones. Here the number twelve is composed of three times four. The twelve stones signify the mingling of God with man for the completion of God’s eternal purpose and the administration of God’s government. In the book of Revelation the number seven is often used, especially in the early chapters. We read of seven lampstands, seven stars, seven churches, seven Spirits, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls. But at the end of Revelation, in the description of the New Jerusalem, the number twelve is used: twelve gates, twelve angels, twelve foundations, twelve Apostles of the Lamb, twelve pearls, twelve fruits. The number seven signifies the Triune God (three) added to His creature, man (four). This is merely a matter of joining, of addition; it is not a matter of mingling, of multiplication. Twelve, however, composed of three times four, signifies mingling, multiplication.
I have been condemned as heretical for teaching the mingling of God with man. Most Christian teachers speak only of the union of God and man or the joining of God to man. But the Bible reveals not only the union, the joining, but also the mingling. What we have in the Word is multiplication as well as addition. Three added to four is addition, but three times four is multiplication. Eventually, in eternity, we shall not be the number seven. Ultimately, we shall be the number twelve.
It certainly is not accidental that the number twelve is found both with the breastplate and the New Jerusalem. This surely is according to what God planned in eternity. God’s plan is to have something signified by the number twelve, that is, the mingling of the Triune God with His creatures. In the sight of man, the churches today are the number seven. But in the sight of God and according to His eternal view, the churches are the number twelve.
With God there is no time, for He sees matters from eternity to eternity. In the heavens with God there is no clock. There is only eternity. Hence, according to God’s sight, the church is the number twelve. Furthermore, according to the significance of the breastplate, what Christ bears on His heart is an eternal church, not a temporal church. The church Christ bears is a mingling of divinity with humanity.
Today some oppose the revelation of the mingling of God with man. Sooner or later, those opposers who are genuine brothers in the Lord will accept this and enjoy it themselves. I believe the time is coming when they will admit that it is absolutely correct according to the Bible to say that the eternal church, the church Christ bears on His heart, is a mingling of the Triune God with redeemed humanity. Then these dear ones will enjoy the very thing they once opposed.
In the New Testament there are fourteen Epistles written by Paul. To a large degree, these Epistles are concerned with the church. But not even in these fourteen Epistles can we find the details regarding the church that are shown in the type of the breastplate in Exodus 28. For this reason, I encourage you to pray-read 28:15-21. It would be helpful to use this message along with your pray-reading. If you spend adequate time praying over these verses, I believe you will worship the Lord and say to Him, “Lord, I praise You. These verses show me some precious details of the church.”
Just as the breastplate was borne on the heart of the high priest, so the church typified by the breastplate is on Christ’s heart. The word breast in these verses actually signifies the heart, the loving and caring heart of Christ. The church is on Christ’s heart and is within the span of His loving care. Hallelujah, we are being mingled with the divine life and the divine nature, and we are undergoing the process of transformation! As we are transformed and mingled with Him, we spontaneously become parts of the heavenly alphabet signified by the stones on the breastplate. Then we shall all bear the letters that constitute the divine language that reveals God’s will.
It is easy to read these verses concerning the breastplate in a natural way and not be very interested in them. If this is our situation, then we shall not care to spend much time on this portion of the Word. But if we read these verses according to the Lord’s revelation and according to the divine view, we shall love them and desire to read them again and again, for in these verses we shall see a vision of some of the finest details of the church.
The points we have covered in this message and in the foregoing message concerning the church are deep. The church is portrayed by the breastplate with twelve precious stones. We have seen that these stones are produced by a process of transformation. This signifies that the church is something produced by transformation; it is transformed from something natural into something divine. The precious stones are not created by God directly. Instead, they are produced through the transformation of other materials created by Him. Today the Lord’s desire is to have a group of transformed people, a group of believers signified by the twelve precious stones on the breastplate.
It is difficult for any translator of the Bible to say exactly what precious materials are indicated by the Hebrew words used for the various stones on the breastplate. No doubt, at the time of Moses each word and each stone had a certain significance. But now, thousands of years later, it is difficult for us to explain definitely the meaning of each of these Hebrew words. However, it is certain that these twelve stones are transformed precious stones. We also know that these precious stones signify the believers, God’s redeemed people. The precious stones do not signify believers from different nationalities or cultures. No, they denote a group of transformed people, those who have been transformed from something natural into something divine. Furthermore, the fact that the twelve stones were arranged in four rows with three stones in each row indicates that the believers are not only transformed, but also mingled with the Triune God. These transformed, mingled believers are also set in gold, the divine nature of Christ, and thereby built into one entity. These people, being of the number twelve, complete the eternal purpose of God and become the administration of the divine government in the universe. The matter of the administration of God’s government is also indicated by the number twelve. Such a church is on Christ’s heart and is in the span of His hand.
Because the type of the breastplate portrays aspects of the church not covered clearly in the New Testament, I encourage you to pay close attention to this matter. We need to see the vision of the church conveyed by the breastplate, and, having seen this vision, we must be faithful to it.
Our concern in the Lord’s recovery should not be with numbers or with the outward spreading of the work. That is not the Lord’s way. His way is to create Adam and then fill the earth by reproduction and multiplication in life. Out of the life of one man, Adam, billions of human beings have come into existence. This is God’s way to replenish the earth. Adam did not form a mission board, and he did not have plans, programs, and schedules for the carrying out of a work. Adam simply lived and produced children. As a result, the earth is filled with people.
We may think that the way of reproduction in life is slow. Today many Christians take the way of work, programs, organizations, and schedules. But that is not the way of life. I urge you to be faithful to what the Lord has shown us and live according to it. If we see the vision and live according to it, the recovery will spread and will replenish the earth.
Thank the Lord that we are genuine Christians. May the Lord have mercy on us so that we may be not only genuine but also valuable — precious stones, transformed, mingled with God, and built together to be God’s testimony. This is what the Lord wants today.
