THE RECOVERY OF THE PRIESTHOOD FOR GOD'S BUILDING
Message Three
Christ as the Food, Clothing, and Dwelling of the Priests
Scripture Reading: Heb. 10:5-10; John 6:57, 63; Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14; 1 Pet. 2:5a; Psa. 27:4
I. Christ is the food of the priests—John 6:57, 63; Jer. 15:16:
A. Christ's replacing of all the Old Testament offerings, taking away all the Old Testament types and establishing Himself as everything to us, is God's great will—Heb. 10:5-10.
B. We need to live a life according to God's heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of the offerings for our food to arrive at the divine goal of the Triune God, which is to bring us all into Himself that we may take Him as our dwelling place and allow Him to take us as His dwelling place for His universal, enlarged, divine-human incorporation—John 1:14, 29; 14:23; Rev. 21:3, 22:
1. The sin offering signifies that Christ was made sin for us that through His death on the cross, sin might be condemned—Lev. 4:3; 6:26; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; 3:14.
2. The trespass offering signifies that Christ bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we might be forgiven in our sinful conduct—Lev. 5:6; 7:6-7; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11; John 4:15-18.
3. The burnt offering, which was wholly for God's satisfaction as food for God, typifies Christ as God's pleasure and satisfaction, as the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God; it is God's food that God may enjoy it and be satisfied—Lev. 1:3; Num. 28:2-3; John 7:16-18.
4. The meal offering typifies Christ in His humanity and in His human living, which was proper, even, tender, fine, balanced, pure, and sinless—Lev. 2:1, 3-4; John 7:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6.
5. The peace offering typifies Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who became the peace and the fellowship between God and us by shedding His blood and dying for us, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have fellowship with God in Christ for our mutual satisfaction with God—Lev. 3:1; 7:14, 31-34; Eph. 2:14-15; John 12:1-3; 20:21; Rev. 21:2.
6. The wave offering signifies the resurrected Christ in love—Lev. 7:30; 10:15.
7. The heave offering typifies the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation— 7:32; Exo. 29:27; Eph. 1:21.
8. The drink offering signifies Christ as the enjoyment of the offerer, enabling the offerer to be filled with Christ as the heavenly wine and even to become the wine offered to God for His enjoyment and satisfaction—Exo. 29:40; Num. 28:7-10; Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Judg. 9:13; Matt. 9:17.
9. The bread of the Presence, the face-bread, signifies that God's presence, God's face, is the feast of God's priests to be their serving supply for His building—Exo. 25:30; Lev. 24:9; cf. 1 Sam. 21:6.
II. Christ is the clothing of the priests—Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14:
A. Although we have been baptized into Christ and are already in Christ (6:3; Gal. 3:27), we must still put Him on; to put on Christ is to live by Christ (2:20) and to live out Christ (Phil. 1:21), thus magnifying Christ (v. 20).
B. Putting on Christ is the same as putting on the weapons of light (Rom. 13:12), indicating that Christ is the weapons of light for the warfare between the Spirit and the lusts of the f lesh (6:13; Gal. 5:17).
C. In typology garments signify expression (cf. Isa. 64:6; Rev. 19:8); the priestly garments signify the serving priests' expression of Christ; according to the Bible, no one was clothed more beautifully than the priests.
D. The priestly garments, being mainly for glory and for beauty, signify the expres-sion of Christ's divine glory and human beauty—Exo. 28:2:
1. Glory is related to Christ's divinity, His divine attributes (John 1:14; Heb. 1:3), and beauty, to Christ's humanity, His human virtues.
2. Christ's divinity, typified by the gold of the priestly garments, is for glory, and His humanity, typified by the blue, purple, and scarlet strands and the fine linen (Exo. 28:5), is for beauty; a life that expresses Christ with the divine glory and human beauty sanctifies and qualifies us to be the priest-hood (Phil. 1:20; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Gal. 6:17; cf. Acts 6:15).
E. All the priests wore linen trousers, a tunic, a girding sash, and a turban (Exo. 28:39-42; 29:8-9a); in addition, over the tunic the high priest wore the robe, the ephod, the shoulder pieces, and the breastplate, and on the turban he wore an engraved plate (28:36-37; 29:5-6):
1. The tunic of fine woven linen signifies the covering of Christ as our perfect righteousness in a humanity that has been dealt with (Rev. 19:8); the turban of fine linen signifies Christ as the glory of perfect righteousness and Christ as our boast (Phil. 3:3; Rom. 5:2; 1 Cor. 1:31); the girding sash as the work of an embroiderer signifies the strengthening by the Spirit's constituting work (Eph. 3:16); these three pieces of the priestly garments, with the linen trousers (Exo. 28:42), all signify Christ as righteousness to cover the entire fallen being of the priests (Luke 15:22; 1 Cor. 1:30) that they might be pre-served in life and kept away from death (Exo. 28:43).
2. The long robe, with all its adornments, worn by the high priest signifies the church as the fullness, the expression, of Christ's divine attributes and human virtues—Eph. 1:22-23.
3. Within the tabernacle there is gold, and on the breastplate of the robe of the priest there are twelve stones with the names of the twelve tribes, indi-cating that the tribes (signifying the church) are transformed into precious stones, held by the gold, and built up together; on the shoulder pieces of the priest's robe were two onyx stones with the names of the twelve tribes— Exo. 28:9-12:
a. The priests have Christ as their sanctification, signified by the gold, and Christ as their transformation, signified by the precious stones.
b. The priests have Christ as their glorification, signified by the shining of the stones, and Christ as their building up, signified by the twelve stones built together in the gold settings.
4. The ephod is a type of Christ expressed in His two natures, divinity and humanity, with His attributes and virtues; it was a part of the priestly gar-ments used for fastening, or binding—vv. 4-6:
a. The two shoulder pieces with the two onyx stones (v. 9) and the breast-plate with the twelve precious stones (v. 15) were bound, fastened, to the ephod (vv. 12-28).
b. This signifies that Christ holds, binds, and fastens the church to Himself by His divine glory and human beauty, the components of the ephod— 2 Cor. 1:21.
c. The gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen were threads of dif-ferent colors; thus, the ephod signifies the composition of Christ's divinity (gold), His heavenliness (blue), His kingliness (purple), His redemption (scarlet), and His fine humanity for the expression of His divine glory and human beauty (linen).
d. The two onyx stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod became a memorial, a pleasant remembrance, before God; the church is fastened to Christ, and Christ holds the church in the presence of God as an eternal memorial—Exo. 28:12.
5. The holy crown on the turban (29:6) refers to the engraved gold plate, worn on the turban of the high priest, that says "HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH" (28:36):
a. To be holy is a matter of having the divine nature wrought into our being to make us holy, as God is—2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; cf. Rev. 21:2.
b. The engraving "HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH" indicates that the entire priest-hood is sanctified unto the Lord, separated to the Lord, and saturated with the Lord.
III. Christ is the dwelling of the priests—Psa. 90:1; 91:1; 27:4; John 15:5; 14:23:
A. The garments of the priests were composed of the same material as the taber-nacle:
1. The curtains, the veil, and the screen at the entrance of the tabernacle were made with blue and purple and scarlet strands and fine twined linen, and the priestly garments contained these materials as well—Exo. 26:1, 5-6, 31, 36; 28:8.
2. The tabernacle had many items made of gold, and the priestly garments were made with gold thread and gold settings for the precious stones—vv. 6, 11, 13, 20; 39:3.
3. Thus, in principle, the materials of the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, were worn by the priests; this simply means that what the priests wore was their abiding place; their clothing was their housing—cf. 2 Cor. 5:1-4.
4. In the Old Testament the priests' clothing was the same as the tabernacle, and in the New Testament both Christ and the church as the tabernacle, the house of God (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:15-16), are the place where the priests dwell.
5. The new man is the Body of Christ, and to put on the new man means to put on Christ as the Body, which is to be clothed with the Body; in other words, we must "wear" the Body; the Body is our clothing and our covering— Eph. 4:22-24; 2:15-16.
B. "You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood"—1 Pet. 2:5a:
1. The holy priesthood, the corporate body of priests, is a spiritual house; when we are filled and saturated with Christ, expressing Him in an accurate and full way, we will become God's dwelling place, the tabernacle, in reality.
2. We must have the expression of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet; when we express Christ in such an adequate way, we have put on the new man; we are clothed with the Body of Christ.
3. When we are filled with Christ and express all that He is in a proper way, the new man becomes our clothing, and this clothing is our housing, the reality of the tabernacle, which is the reality of the Body of Christ.
4. In the New Testament God's spiritual house, His dwelling place, the church, is the built-up priests; when we are filled with Christ and express Him, we become the church in reality; then we, together with God, have a place to rest, to dwell, and to abide—cf. Psa. 132:8, 13-18; Isa. 66:1-2.
5. Every moment we must be found enjoying Christ so that an expression of Him may emanate from within us; Christ expressed from within us all is the church, the holy priesthood as God's spiritual house, the mutual dwelling place of God and man—Psa. 90:1; 91:1; John 15:5; 14:23; Eph. 3:16-17; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:3, 22.