In this message we need to see the experiences of Christ as portrayed by the arrangement of the furniture of the tabernacle. Many Christians think that we can only experience Christ as our Savior and Protector. According to those who have had Pentecostal experiences, Christ is a Healer and a Worker of miracles. To them, experiencing Christ is a matter of witnessing miracles. But Christ is altogether mysterious, and our experiences of Him are also mysterious and very difficult to define. Thank God that this is clearly portrayed in His Holy Word by the arrangement of the furniture in the tabernacle, His dwelling place. This arrangement is of three sections: the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. In each section there was furniture. Many Bible teachers agree that the entire tabernacle with its contents is a detailed picture of Christ. When I studied the typology of the tabernacle as a youth, I was told that it was a picture of Christ, but I was never taught that it was also a portrait of our experiences of Christ. Gradually in my experience throughout the years, I came to realize that the arrangement of the furniture of the tabernacle presents a full definition of our experiences of Christ. In this message we are not concerned with learning typology which was emphasized by the Brethren teachers more than a century ago. The recovery today is not a recovery of the teachings of typology but a recovery of the experiences of Christ as portrayed in the types. We need to enter into the experiences of Christ as shown in the arrangement of the furniture in God’s dwelling place.
In the outer court are the brass altar and the brass laver. Both of these signify the experiences of Christ in an outward way.
At the brass altar, which signifies the cross (Exo. 40:29), we participate in Christ mainly as our sin offering and also as all the other offerings (Heb. 13:10, 12; 10:12). In principle, the offerings solve our problems with God, fully reconciling us to Him and making our situation with God righteous and peaceful. Through the cross of Christ, we are right with God and with one another. Christ as our sin offering has solved the problem of sin, and as our peace offering He has also made peace between us and God and with one another. Thus, through the offerings offered by Christ on the cross, our condition is one of righteousness and peace. This is the first experience that we enjoy in Christ outwardly.
After the altar is the laver, which signifies the washing of the Spirit. Both the altar and the laver were made of brass. In typology, brass signifies God’s righteous judgment. The washing of the Spirit is based upon the judgment Christ has borne for us. At the brass laver (Exo. 40:30-32) we partake of the washing of the Spirit, which is based upon the redemption of Christ (Titus 3:5). Although we have experienced Christ as the offerings, before we can come into God’s presence we also need to be washed, cleansed by the Spirit. This also is somewhat outward.
After having the two kinds of experiences in the outer court, we are qualified to come into the tabernacle. Firstly, we enter into the Holy Place, where our experiences of Christ turn from the outward to the inward. Here, in the Holy Place, we experience Christ in an inner way.
When we enter into the Holy Place, the first item of furniture is the showbread table (Exo. 40:22-23), which signifies Christ as our life supply (John 6:35, 57). On the showbread table twelve loaves of bread were displayed. The number twelve signifies eternal completion and perfection. Christ is our eternal bread. Our inward enjoyment of Him at the showbread table is eternal.
After the showbread table is the lampstand (Exo. 40: 24-25), where we experience Christ as the shining light of life (John 1:4; 8:12). That the experience of the lampstand follows the experience of the showbread table indicates that the light comes out of our enjoyment of Christ as our life supply. When we enjoy Christ as our food, we have light because the “life is the light of men” (John 1:4). This light does not come from knowledge but from the life we enjoy.
While the showbread table has twelve loaves of bread, the lampstand has seven lamps. Seven is also a number of completion, but it is not the number of eternal completion. It is the number of completion in God’s dispensational move, denoting a completion in God’s movement. For eternity we shall have the life supply, but the purpose of the lampstand is to enable God’s people to move and act in the dark age. It is for God’s dispensational move. In His economy and dispensation, God has His movement and action, which need the shining of the divine light. This shining is complete. Without the shining of the light we cannot move or do anything in God’s economy. As we enjoy Christ as our life, this life becomes the light by which we move and act in God’s economy. Our experience proves this. Firstly, we enjoy Christ as life and as the life supply. Then this life shines within us, and we know how to move and act. This is the experience of Christ as light inwardly.
The last item of furniture in the Holy Place is the golden altar, which is the incense altar. The incense altar, lampstand, and showbread table form a triangle. The showbread table was on the north, the lampstand on the south, and the incense altar between them on the west, very close to the separating veil. At the incense altar we share in Christ as the sweet incense toward God for our acceptance by God (Eph. 1:6). God accepts us because of Christ, not because of what we are. This is why we must pray to God in the name of Christ. If we pray in, by, and with ourselves, our prayer will never be accepted. Christ as the acceptable, sweet incense must be added to our prayer. Our prayer is like a censer, and Christ is like the fragrant incense that is put into the censer. When we pray in and with Christ, Christ as incense is mingled with our prayer as it ascends to God. This incense becomes the element that makes our being and our prayer acceptable to God. This experience is more inward, leading to the most inward experiences in the Holy of Holies.
Although the incense altar is not in the Holy of Holies, it directs and leads us into the Holy of Holies. It is in the Holy Place, but its function is for the Holy of Holies. Hence, it is more inward than both the showbread table and the lampstand.
Regarding the standing place of the incense altar, there is apparently a discrepancy between the mentioning of it in the Old Testament and its mention in the New Testament. Exodus 30:6 says that the incense altar is put “before the veil,” that is, outside the veil. This indicates clearly that the incense altar is put in the Holy Place, which is outside the veil, not in the Holy of Holies, which is within the veil. But Hebrews 9:4 says that the Holy of Holies has the incense altar. Therefore, most Christian teachers and Bible readers have thought that some error or misconstruction should somehow have occurred. When I was expounding the book of Hebrews to a group of believers in 1937, I also was troubled by this matter and thought that a mistake or misconstruction had taken place. I consulted a number of books, including one which says that verse 4 does not refer to the incense altar but to the incense censer. It says that in the early days the incense censer was always put outside the veil but that it gradually slipped into the Holy of Holies. This book has some ground for its interpretation because the Greek word for altar in verse 4 may also be translated as censer. But here it must refer to the incense altar, not to the censer, because according to the record of the Old Testament, there was no incense censer in the Holy Place or in the Holy of Holies. Recently, as I was writing the notes for the Recovery Version of Hebrews, the Lord gave me a clear and complete revelation regarding this matter. There is no error or misconstruction in verse 4. The apparent discrepancy has a very spiritual significance according to the following points:
The Old Testament record of the incense altar’s standing place implies the closest relation of the incense altar to the ark of testimony, over which is the propitiation-cover, where God meets His people. According to the Hebrew, Exodus 30:6 says, “Thou shalt put it [the incense altar] before the veil that is over the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.” We must be very careful in reading this verse. The incense altar was put before the veil that is “over the ark of the testimony.” The King James Version says “by the ark,” but the proper translation must be “over the ark.” The preposition used here makes a great difference. The preposition “by” means that the veil is separating the ark from the incense altar, whereas the preposition “over” means that the veil is not separating but simply covering the ark. The veil did not separate the incense altar from the ark; it covered the ark. Therefore, putting the incense altar before the veil was the same as putting it before the ark. Exodus 40:5 even says that the incense altar is set “before the ark of the testimony” without mentioning the separating veil that stands between them. Thus, the incense altar was before the ark. According to God’s economy, the covering veil was not to exist for eternity; it was to be removed. When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, this veil was taken away. According to God’s eternal economy, the veil should no longer be there. In a sense, it was there not as a separating veil but as a covering veil. It was not counted, because it was destined to be taken away. When the veil is removed, the incense altar is in front of the ark. When the book of Hebrews was written, the veil was gone. There was no veil in the eyes of God. Moreover, in Revelation 8:3 we see that the golden altar is before the throne of God. There is no separating veil. Thus, even in Exodus 40:3 and 21 the veil was, in the eyes of God, a covering veil, not a separating veil. It simply covered the ark temporarily, not eternally.
First Kings 6:22 (ASV) says that the incense “altar... belonged to the oracle.” “Oracle” here means the “speaking place” of God, denoting the Holy of Holies, in which was the ark of testimony with the propitiation-cover, where God spoke to His people. Thus, the Old Testament indicated already that the incense altar belonged to the Holy of Holies. (Though it was in the Holy Place, its function was for the ark of testimony in the Holy of Holies. On the day of atonement, both the incense altar and the propitiation-cover of the ark of testimony were sprinkled with the same blood for atonement — Exo. 30:10; Lev. 16:15-16.) Hence, in Exodus 26:35, only the showbread table and the lampstand are mentioned as being in the Holy Place, not the incense altar.
The incense altar is related to prayer (Luke 1:10-11), and in Hebrews we are shown that to pray is to enter the Holy of Holies (10:19) and to come to the throne of grace, which is signified by the propitiation-cover over the ark of testimony in the Holy of Holies. Our prayer often begins with our mind, which is a part of our soul, signified by the Holy Place. But our prayer always ushers us into our spirit, signified by the Holy of Holies.
Due to all these points, the writer of this book had to reckon that the incense altar belongs to the Holy of Holies. Verse 4 does not say that a golden altar is in the Holy of Holies, as the lampstand and the table are in the Holy Place, but that the Holy of Holies has a golden altar, since it belongs to the Holy of Holies. This concept fits the whole emphasis of the book of Hebrews which is that we should press on from the soul (signified by the Holy Place) to the spirit (signified by the Holy of Holies).
The incense altar belongs to the oracle — the speaking place of God, that is, the Holy of Holies. The incense altar typifies Christ in His resurrection as the sweet and fragrant incense in which God extends His well-pleasing acceptance to us. We pray with such a Christ to contact God that God may be pleased to speak to us. We speak to God in our prayer with Christ as the sweet incense, and God speaks to us in the sweet savor of this incense. This is the dialogue in the sweet fellowship between us and God through Christ as the sweet incense.
Now we can understand this apparent discrepancy. As we have seen, there is actually no discrepancy at all. According to the Old Testament, the incense altar belongs to the Holy of Holies. Although it is in the Holy Place, it does not belong to the Holy Place but to the Holy of Holies. Thus, Hebrews says that the Holy of Holies has the incense altar, not that the incense altar is in the Holy of Holies. As we experience the incense altar in our prayer, we often begin with our mind and are ushered into the spirit. Now it is easy for us to be ushered into the spirit because the veil has already been taken away.
After the Holy Place is the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies we experience Christ in the innermost way. Firstly, at the ark of testimony (Exo. 40:20-21), we partake of Christ as the embodiment of God for God’s testimony (Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3a). The word testimony here actually means the law of God, the ten commandments, which were put into the ark. Since the law was God’s testimony, the ark into which it was put was called the ark of testimony. According to our natural concept, we think that the law is something which regulates us and makes demands and requirements of us. In the Bible, however, the law is not mainly for regulations but for a testimony of what God is. God is pure, God is love, God is holy, God is light, etc. Because the law is made according to what God is and expresses God, it is God’s testimony. Any kind of law is the expression of the one who makes it, the legislator. The ark of testimony is a type of Christ, the true testimony of God, who is the embodiment and expression of all God is. In the Holy of Holies, in the innermost part of God’s dwelling place, we experience Christ as the ark of God’s testimony. It is here that we enjoy Christ as the embodiment and expression of all God is, not only as the Redeemer, the life supply, and the light of life, but as all God is. The riches and the fullness of the very Godhead are our enjoyment here in Christ. Nothing in our experience of Christ can be richer and higher than this. Here in Christ we participate in the divine element, the divine attributes, and even the divine expression of our God.
In the ark of testimony we enjoy Christ in three aspects. Firstly, we enjoy Him as the hidden manna (Exo. 16:33-34). The hidden manna was in the golden pot, signifying our experience of Christ as our life supply in the innermost way, much more inward than that signified by the showbread table in the Holy Place. When the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, they ate the outward, open manna, but now we eat the inward, hidden manna in the Holy of Holies, the manna hidden in the golden pot in the ark. This is the manna promised to the overcomer in Revelation 2:17. The open manna was food for all the people who were outside the dwelling place of God wandering in the wilderness, whereas the hidden manna is for the person who is remaining in the innermost part of God’s dwelling place, no longer wandering in the soul but abiding in the presence of God in the spirit. For the enjoyment of Christ as such an innermost supply, we need to overcome all the outward frustrations, cross through all the worldly, fleshly, and soulish barriers, and enter into God’s Holy of Holies.
In the ark of testimony there is also the budding rod, signifying our experience of Christ as our acceptance by God in resurrection life for authority in the God-given ministry (Num. 17:3, 5, 8, 10). This is more inward than the experience of Christ as the incense for our acceptance by God. Aaron’s budding rod signifies resurrection life. Where there is resurrection life, there is authority. Hence, the budding rod means authority in the resurrection life for our God-given ministry. The Israelites were debating about who had authority to represent God. When God caused Aaron’s rod to bud, it signified that in resurrection he was authorized to represent God, to be God’s deputy authority. It is the same today. The elders and ministers of the divine Word must have the authority which comes from resurrection life. The incense altar only signifies our acceptance in Christ by God, whereas the budding rod not only signifies Christ as our acceptance by God but also Christ as our authority given by God in His resurrection life. Within the ark, in the Holy of Holies, that is, within the very Christ who is the embodiment and expression of God, we enjoy Christ as our God-given authority in His resurrection life. Here nothing is natural or within ourselves; everything is in resurrection, in the hidden Christ. It is here that the resurrected and hidden Christ becomes our God-given authority in His resurrection life, which is budding, even in the cold darkness, without any element of death. For the church life today, we need the experience of such a budding rod — the resurrected and hidden Christ.
In the ark of testimony, Christ is also experienced as the tables of the covenant, the tables of the testimony, the ten commandments, that is, as our inward law of life, testifying, enlightening, and regulating us according to God’s divine nature (Heb. 8:10). We have seen the law of the ten commandments was the testimony of God. It was only a figure, a form, not the reality of all God is. But the inward law of life, which is Christ Himself as the testimony of God, is the real testimony of God. When this inward law of life testifies, enlightens, and regulates us according to God’s divine nature, it infuses God’s divine nature and divine attributes into our being, conforming us to the image of God that we may express Him and represent Him. The last point in our experiences of Christ is that God’s divine nature is imparted into our being to make us the same as God in nature and expression. The function of the inward law of life is to permeate and saturate us by infusing into us the elements of the Firstborn Son of God, the standard model, making us a reprint of the standard model so that God might have a corporate expression of Himself to fulfill His eternal purpose. This is the ultimate consummation of the experiences of Christ. We should not linger at the altar, for that is simply the starting point of our experiences of Christ. We must come forward until we reach the ultimate experience, the inward law of life, the focus of all the experiences of Christ in God’s economy.
Negatively, the inward law of life, which is the automatic working of the divine life, kills the Adamic element within us, and, positively, it supplies us with all the elements of Christ. As the inward law of life works within us, the Adamic element is continually reduced and eliminated and the element of Christ, the divine element, is gradually added into our being. This discharging of the old element and adding of the new element is metabolic transformation. Eventually, we shall become exactly the same as Christ. Christ has passed through a process to enter into His perfection and glorification. Now He is repeating this process within us, bringing us into His perfection and glorification. This is the Christian life process and it must be our daily experience. When we open ourselves to the Lord and say, “Lord Jesus, I love You and I want You to occupy me, possess me, and make me one with You,” the divine life, which was sown into our being at the time of Christ’s resurrection, will work automatically. This working will bring about a thorough transformation, and we shall be conformed to the image of God’s Firstborn Son. We shall be wholly “sonized” and brought into Christ’s perfection and glorification. As this process transpires within us and the inward law of life works Christ into every part of our being, Christ is formed in us (Gal. 4:19). This is the most secret mystery in the whole universe. Eventually, God will be wrought into man and man will be mingled with God. God and man, man and God, will thus become one entity. This is today’s church and tomorrow’s New Jerusalem. This is the divine economy. How blessed we are to see this! We are truly a special people.
In the portrait of the tabernacle we see a number of threes. Firstly, there are the three sections: the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Secondly, there are the three items in the Holy Place: the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar. When we come into the Holy of Holies, we see within the ark of testimony another group of three: the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the table of testimony. In each group of three, the third item is the most important. Of the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies, the Holy of Holies is the most important. Of the second three, the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar, the incense altar is the most important. Of the third three, the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the table of testimony, the table of testimony signifying the inward law of life is the most important.
The last and consummate experience of Christ as portrayed by the arrangement of the furniture in the tabernacle is the inward law of life. Romans 8:2 says that this is the law of the Spirit of life. The experience of Christ begins at the cross and consummates with the Spirit. Even the Triune God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, consummates with the Spirit. The Father is far from us, the Son is close to us, and the Spirit comes into us. Although the Son and the Father may be present, without the Spirit we can have no experience of Them. All the experiences of the Triune God depend upon the consummation of the Spirit. The inward law of life is just the working of the Spirit who is the Spirit of life. God is Spirit (John 4:24). Christ, as the last Adam, was made a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b); hence, He is now the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The third of the Triune God is the Spirit. All our experiences of the Triune God must consummate with the Spirit. Moreover, the outer court corresponds to our body, the Holy Place to our soul, and the Holy of Holies to our spirit. Of these three parts, the spirit is the most important. Eventually, the consummate point of the experience of Christ is the Spirit of the Triune God in the human spirit of the tripartite man. The inward law of life signified by the table of testimony within the ark of testimony in the Holy of Holies simply denotes the Spirit of the Triune God working in the human spirit of the tripartite man. It is like the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit (Rom. 8:16).
All real Christians have been to the altar — the cross of Christ. We thank God for this. But many Christians insist on staying at the altar, desiring to remain at the cross for eternity. If you were to tell them that today Christ is the Spirit, they would say you are a heretic. When we say that we must turn to and be in our spirit, we are accused of practicing mysticism. How terrible is such an accusation! Many people say, “Isn’t the cross sufficient? Isn’t the Lord’s blood precious?” We appreciate the cross and the blood as much as, if not more than, all Christians do. But this is elementary; it is just the ABC’s. If we look at the portrait of the furniture in the tabernacle, we shall see that we must come forward. We must tell all Christians to come forward. Do not merely come forward to the laver, where you may have some washings of the Spirit. Come forward to the experience of the rich supply of nourishment at the showbread table and to the enlightenment of the lampstand. But there is still more than this. We must come forward to the incense altar which ushers us into the Holy of Holies. Our incense altar today is our prayer with Christ. Many times we begin praying in our mind, but our prayer ushers us into the spirit, into the Holy of Holies.
In the Holy of Holies is the ark. The first of the three items in the ark is the hidden manna. With respect to the hidden manna, there are three layers of coverings: the tabernacle covering the ark, the ark covering the golden pot, and the golden pot covering and containing the hidden manna. Here in the golden pot we enjoy Christ in the most hidden way. It is not only in the Holy of Holies and in the ark but also in the golden pot. What is the golden pot? It is the divine nature of the Triune God which contains Christ, the standard model, as our life supply. How deep is this thought! When we enjoy Christ as our life supply in such a hidden and mysterious way, we shall experience the rod budding with authority in resurrection life. If we are to be a true minister of the Word or a genuine elder in the church, we need to have this kind of authority in the resurrection life of Christ. The budding rod brings us to the consummate item of God’s economy — the inward law of life (signified by the table of testimony), the working of the Spirit of the Triune God within us. The inward law of life is working within us, infusing the element of God into our being and making us a corporate reproduction of the standard model. In this way, God can have the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. This is what God desires today.
