Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1)
Scripture Reading: Exo. 3:6, 14-16, 18;5:1; 24:8; 17:6; 25:8-9; 40:1-2, 34-38
I. In Exodus we have a revelation of God in various aspects, including the Divine Trinity:
A. The book of Exodus reveals God in various aspects:
1. God is the self-existing and ever-existing God—3:14.
2. God is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob—vv. 6, 15-16; 4:5; Matt. 22:31-32.
3. God is the God of the Hebrews—Exo. 3:18; 5:3; 7:16; 9:1, 13; 10:3.
4. God is the God of Israel—5:1; 24:10; 32:27; 34:23.
5. God is the speaking God— 4:10, 30; 9:35; 20:1.
6. God is the God of the covenant—2:24; 6:4-5; 24:8; 13:5.
7. God is the sovereign God—3:20-21; 4:21; 7:3-5; 8:10; 9:16;Rom. 9:15-23.
8. God is the redeeming and saving God—Exo. 6:6; 15:13; 14:30, 13; 15:2.
9. God is the blessing God—23:25; 32:29.
10. God is the healing God—15:26.
11. God is the infusing God—34:29-35.
12. God is the courting God—19:4-6; Jer. 2:2; 31:32.
13. God is the processed and consummated God—Exo. 17:6; John 19:34; 7:37-39.
14. God is the God who dwells in the tabernacle—Exo. 25:8-9; 29:46; 40:1-2, 34-38.
B. In Exodus there is a revelation of the Divine Trinity—33:2-5; 34:5-10:
1. Exodus emphasizes two matters concerning the Divine Trinity: the Angel of God, or the Angel of Jehovah, and the Spirit of God—3:2, 4, 6-7, 14-15.
2. The Divine Trinity is revealed in the type of the pillar of cloud, which signifies the Triune God embodied in Christ and realized as the Spirit—14:19-20.
3. The Divine Trinity is revealed in the type of Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah bringing His redeemed into the good land and cutting off their enemies—23:20-23.
4. The Divine Trinity is revealed in the types of the cleft rock, the lampstand, and the compound ointment—17:6; 25:31; 30:23-25.
5. The tabernacle covered by the cloud and filled with glory typifies the embodied Triune God— 40:2, 9, 34, 36-38.
II. As a book of pictures, Exodus reveals that God's building is the goal of His salvation, provision, and revelation—25:8-9; 40:1-2, 34-38:
A. God's complete salvation for His chosen people includes the passover, the exodus from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea:
1. The passover signifies redemption—12:1-13.
2. The exodus signifies the going out of the world—5:1; 7:4-5; 12:31-32, 35-36, 41, 51.
3. The crossing of the Red Sea signifies baptism—14:13-31; 1 Cor. 10:1-2.
B. In the wilderness the children of Israel experienced God's provision—the heavenly manna and the living water out of the cleft rock—Exo. 16:14-15; 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:3-4:
1. To partake of manna is to have a heavenly diet and to be reconstituted with a heavenly element.
2. Christ was smitten for us so that living water could flow out of Him to quench our thirst—Exo. 17:6; John 19:34; 7:37-39.
3. As we eat and drink of Him, the Triune God works Himself into our being—Eph. 3:14-19.
C. At the mountain of God (Mount Horeb), the children of Israel received a revelation concerning God and the tabernacle—Exo. 3:1; 24:13; 19:1-7; 20:1-3; 25:8-9:
1. The spiritual significance of the mountain of God is that it is the place of God's speaking with God's vision.
2. At the mountain of God, God's people saw a heavenly vision by which they came to know God Himself and to know the kind of living that is in accordance with God.
3. At the mountain of God, God's people saw the revelation of the desire of God's heart—to have a dwelling place on earth—vv. 8-9; Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:9b; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16.
D. The goal of God's salvation, provision, and revelation is His building, His dwelling place on earth—Exo. 25:8:
1. God's building is the mingling of God with man (John 14:20; 15:4a; 1 John 4:15), the corporate expression of the Triune God (1 Tim. 3:15-16; John 17:22; Eph. 3:19b, 21), and the enlargement of God (John 3:29a, 30a; Col. 2:19).
2. The central thought of Exodus is that Christ is the redemption, salvation, and supply of God's people and the means for them to worship and serve God so that in Him they may be built up with God together for them to meet, communicate, and dwell mutually.
3. The purpose of the book of Exodus is to show us that the goal of God's full salvation is the building up of His dwelling place— 40:1-2, 34-35; 1 Pet. 2:2, 4-5:
a. Exodus is an account of how God saved His chosen people and gave them a heavenly vision so that they could build His dwelling place on earth.
b. God's goal in dealing with His people, the children of Israel, was to obtain a dwelling place.
c. God's chosen people were saved all the way from their fallen condition into God's dwelling place—1:11; 40:1-2, 34-35.
E. In Christ we and God, God and we, are built together, meet together, and dwell together; this is the divine thought in the book of Exodus—Eph. 2:19-22.
F. The direction of the book of Exodus is toward the building of the tabernacle—25:8-9; 40:1-2, 34-35:
1. What God desires to have is a corporate expression of Himself through His called and redeemed people—25:8.
2. We need to be delivered from the world and freed to participate in God's building—1:11:
a. The world is against God's building, and God's building is opposed to the world—Rom. 12:2.
b. If God's people are willing to be rescued from the world unto God, God can work out His purpose to have a dwelling place—Exo. 40:1-2, 34-35.
3. For God's building we need to have the experience of Marah and Elim and to drink the water of life in resurrection— 15:22-27; 17:6.
4. We must build God's dwelling place according to the pattern revealed on the mountain; the pattern of the tabernacle and all its furnishings is a full and complete type of both the individual Christ as the Head and the corporate Christ as the Body, the church, including many details of the experience of Christ for the church life—25:9; Heb. 8:5; 9:4, footnote 3.
5. God's dwelling place is built with the Christ whom we have experienced, enjoyed, and offered to God—Exo. 25:2-7:
a. The church is built with the Christ who has become our experience—vv. 3-7.
b. The materials with which the church is built are filled with the character of resurrection and are altogether in a heavenly position—v. 2.
c. The materials for God's building are the virtues of Christ's person and work that have been possessed, experienced, and enjoyed by us and offered to God in resurrection as a heave offering—vv. 2-7.
6. For the building up of God's dwelling place, we need a consecration in which we offer precious things to God; without such a consecration, the building of God cannot come into being in a practical way—Rom. 12:1; Exo. 25:2; 35:4-9.
7. The book of Exodus begins with slavery in Egypt and ends with the building of the tabernacle; Exodus consummates with God's tabernacle, His dwelling place, filled with His glory—1:11; 40:17, 34-35.
G. The physical tabernacle (and later the temple), as God's dwelling place in the Old Testament, was actually a symbol of a corporate people, the children of Israel as the house of God— 25:8-9; Heb. 3:6:
1. At the beginning of the New Testament age, the incarnated Christ as God's embodiment was both the tabernacle and the temple of God— John 1:14; 2:19-21.
2. Through His death and resurrection the individual Christ was enlarged to be the corporate Christ, the church, composed of the New Testament believers as the temple, the house of God, and the Body of Christ—1 Cor. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12.
3. Ultimately, the tabernacle and the temple will consummate in the New Jerusalem—the Triune God mingled with His redeemed people of both the Old Testament and the New Testament—as God's eternal dwelling place—Rev. 21:3, 22.