Scripture Reading: Isa. 8:14-15; John 1:14; 2:19, 21; Rev. 21:2-3, 22; Matt. 21:44a; 1 Pet. 2:7-8; 1 Cor. 1:22-23
In the previous message, we saw the revelation of Christ in Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6. In those verses He is revealed as a child of both the divine and human natures born of a human virgin and as a son in the divine nature given by the Eternal Father. In this message we want to see the revelation of Christ in Isaiah 8:14-15. In these verses Christ is revealed as a sanctuary to the positive ones. He is also seen as a stone to strike against, a rock of stumbling, a trap, and a snare to the negative ones.
Christ is a sanctuary to the positive ones (Isa. 8:14a). In order to enter into this revelation, we need to see that the Triune God is our dwelling place. In Psalm 90:1, Moses said, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." Our God is our eternal dwelling place. Because He is our dwelling place, we can rest within Him. There is also food and drink within Him. Light, air, a wall for the dweller's protection, and entrances also accompany a proper dwelling place. Our God is such an enterable dwelling place to us with all of these aspects.
The Old Testament shows that God gained a collective people, the people of Israel. He brought them to Mount Sinai and charged them to build a tabernacle. Eventually, when they entered into the good land, they built the temple to replace the tabernacle. The tabernacle and the temple were not only the dwelling place of God but also the dwelling place of His serving ones, the priests. They lived and served in the temple of God. They were living together with God. God was their "roommate." We have to realize that God is not only our Savior, Redeemer, Master, Lord, and life but also our dwelling place. He is also one of the dwellers, so He is our roommate. The very God in whom we believe is our roommate, with whom we are living every day.
We have to see the central thought of God toward the positive ones, His chosen people. The positive ones are the ones who were chosen, called, redeemed, and saved by God, the ones who have been regenerated and are being transformed into the divine image. God to them is not just an ordinary dwelling place. God to them is a sanctuary, and the sanctuary is the inner temple for God's dwelling. The most inward part of the temple is the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God. God's dwelling becomes our dwelling. Such a revelation of God as our sanctuary should cause us to aspire to live a life with God as our roommate all the time. We need to have definite, intimate, and sweet times with God as our roommate. We should live, stay, and dwell all the time with God and in God.
Christ is the sanctuary, the Holy Place, for us as the priests to stay and to serve God.
When God was incarnated to be a man, He tabernacled among men on earth. The incarnated Christ is a tabernacle to God's people (John 1:14). He is the tabernacle of God.
When Jesus came out to minister, He told the Jewish people that He was God's temple (John 2:19, 21). The God-man, Christ, is the inner temple of God. In John 1 He is God's tabernacle; in John 2 He is God's temple. The book of Isaiah, written about seven hundred years before the incarnation of Christ, prophesied that this coming One would be the sanctuary of God's chosen people for them to live with God, taking God as their roommate.
When we enjoy Him as our dwelling place and as our roommate, we have light, air, water, food, and everything that we need. When I am away from my home, the place where I stay may have many things, but it does not have what I have at home to meet my needs. There is no place on earth as good as our home. Whenever I return to my home, I have a feeling of "home, sweet home." Our home today is a person — Christ, who is also God's dwelling place.
In the New Testament, we are made a part of this sanctuary, so in the Epistles we are told that we are God's temple (1 Cor. 3:16). Christ as the Head and we as the members of His Body are the temple of God. Eventually, this temple will consummate in the New Jerusalem, the enlarged, extended sanctuary of God. Christ with all the members of His Body will be consummated as the enlarged tabernacle and temple of God — the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2-3, 22).
In Revelation 21, John said that he did not see the temple in the New Jerusalem, because God and the Lamb are the temple. In the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be a mutual dwelling place for both God and us for eternity. The holy city as the tabernacle of God is for God to dwell in, and God and the Lamb as the temple are for us to dwell in. God dwells in us, and we dwell in Him. God is our dwelling place, our sunshine, our air, our water, our food, our rest, and our everything. We also become His enjoyment, satisfaction, and rest. In the New Jerusalem, all of God's children throughout the ages will be His roommates for eternity. All of those who followed Satan will be his roommates in the lake of fire. The church life is a life in which we take our God, our Lord, our Christ as our sanctuary and as our roommate.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus charges us to abide in Him (John 15:5). The word abide means not only to remain but also to dwell. In John 14:23 the Lord said, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him." The abode is the dwelling place. This is a mutual abode for the Triune God to abide in the believers and for the believers to abide in Him. In Ephesians 3 Paul prayed that the Father would strengthen us into our inner man, so that Christ could make His home in our hearts (vv. 16-17). This is Christ making us His home for us to take Him as our home. If Christ takes us as His home, we can be assured that we will have Christ as our home. Then He will live with us and we will live with Him. This is God and man living together as roommates. Eventually, the conclusion of the divine revelation is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the aggregate of God and man living together. For eternity God will love man, man will love God, and God and man will live together as roommates.
It is amazing that seven hundred years before Christ was born, Isaiah prophesied that this One, who is Jehovah's Shoot to branch out Jehovah, in His divinity, into humanity, would be the sanctuary of all His chosen ones. When we are in God as our sanctuary, enjoying Him as our roommate, we see Him everywhere. He is our sunshine, our drinking water, our food, and our air for us to breathe. It is wonderful that we can take a deep breath of God as our fresh air. We enjoy God in all these aspects when we dwell in Him as our sanctuary, our dwelling place.
Isaiah was very honest and faithful to show us what Christ is to both the positive and negative ones. Christ is so wonderful to the positive ones, but He is unpleasant to the negative ones. To the positive ones, He is an all-inclusive sanctuary. To the negative ones, He is a stone to strike against, a rock of stumbling, a trap, and a snare (Isa. 8:14b-15).
The Pharisees and the Jewish leaders struck against Christ as a stone (Matt. 21:44a), and the unbelieving ones stumbled at Christ as a rock (1 Pet. 2:7-8; 1 Cor. 1:22-23). Christ was despised by the Pharisees and Jewish leaders. Because they despised Him, they struck against Him but could not move Him. Instead, He became a stumbling stone to them (Rom. 9:33), and they fell upon Him (Matt. 21:44a). Many negative ones throughout the centuries have been stumbled by Christ.
There are many things concerning Christ that stumble people. The Old Testament prophesied that He would be of the seed of David (2 Sam. 7:12-14a) and that He would come out of the city of David, Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). His mother Mary was a descendant of Nathan, David's son (Luke 3:31b), and Joseph was a descendant of Solomon, another of David's sons (Matt. 1:6b). Joseph and Mary were poor people who lived in the despised region of Galilee in the city of Nazareth. Because of the enrollment decreed by Caesar Augustus, Joseph had to return to David's city, Bethlehem, because he was out of the house and family of David (Luke 2:1-5). By this enrollment Mary and Joseph were brought from Nazareth to Bethlehem so that the Savior might be born there for the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the place of His birth. After His birth, He was laid in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn (Luke 2:7). Later, Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up as a Nazarene (Matt. 2:23). This was a stumbling to the unbelieving Jews, who thought He came out of Nazareth (John 7:41-42, 52). He was born in Bethlehem in a stumbling way.
Even today many things concerning Christ are a stumbling to the negative ones. Throughout the centuries thousands of people have been stumbled by Christ. Most of the people who are extremely wise, intelligent, powerful, and of the upper class do not care for Christ (Matt. 11:25; 1 Cor. 1:26-29). The church of God is composed not mainly of the upper class, but of the lowborn of the world and the despised. To appreciate the upper class is against God's mind and a shame to the church. Because Brother Nee realized this, he visited the homes of the poor saints, not the wealthy ones. God chose mostly the foolish, the weak, the lowborn, and the despised, so that no one would be able to boast before Him.
Christ is also revealed in Isaiah 8:14 as a trap and a snare. He is a trap for the negative ones as the running animals and a snare for the negative ones as the flying fowls. A lion cannot be snared; it must be trapped. A bird, on the other hand, must be snared. The Pharisees and the Jewish leaders can be likened to the running animals who were trapped by the Lord Jesus. They attempted to trap the Lord Jesus, but instead He became a trap to them. Matthew 22 records how the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees worked together to confront Him with questions, doing their best to trap Him. They were like hunters, hunting together to trap Jesus. After answering all of their questions and avoiding their traps, Jesus asked them one question. Through that one question, He trapped all of them (vv. 41-46). Christ was a trap to these ones.
The book of Acts records that the Jews were following Paul in their opposition of him. We can say that these Jewish opposers and persecutors of Paul set snares for him. Because Paul was so capable, he could use his wisdom to escape their snares. He had a Savior who was always delivering him out of the hands of these opposers. Instead of them snaring Paul, Christ became a snare to them.
Anyone who thinks that he is more clever or wiser than Jesus will eventually suffer. To the negative ones, the unbelievers, Christ is a stone to strike against and to fall upon. He is a rock of stumbling to those who do not regard Him. He is also a trap and a snare to catch those who are negative. No one can escape from Christ. Everyone has something to do with Christ and is related to Christ. We can either be a positive one toward Him or a negative one toward Him. We may say that we do not care for Him, but He cares for us. He is the Lord and the Creator of all men. Even among today's Christians, some are positive and others are negative. Many may acknowledge that Jesus is their Lord, their Savior, and their Redeemer, yet they may be indifferent toward Him, not caring for Him. However, He cares for us and will deal with us.
To the positive ones He is a sanctuary. We can live in Him as our sanctuary, and in Him we can receive Him as our bountiful provision and all-inclusive supply. To the negative ones, however, the unbelieving ones, He is a stone to strike against, a rock of stumbling, a trap, and a snare. One day everyone will have to stand before Him to pass through His judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). Even we Christians will have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ after our rapture to the air (2 Cor. 5:10). At that time we will have to give an account to Him concerning our life and service.
We hope that we are the positive ones in our relationship with Christ. We want to dwell in Him and enjoy Him as our dwelling place, even our Holy of Holies. He is our sanctuary in whom we can enjoy all the divine riches. In Him we can enjoy Him as our divine sunshine, our divine air, our divine water, and our divine food. All of the rich provision in Him as our sanctuary is divine. This means that God is here as everything to us for us to enjoy. The only way that we can enjoy God in every way is to live in Him, taking Him as our sanctuary and living with Him as our roommate.
