Crystallization-Study of Exodus (4)
Message One
Going outside the Idolatrous Camp and Entering within the Veil
Scripture Reading: Heb. 6:19-20; 13:13; Exo. 33:7-11
I. In Exodus the Ten Commandments are called the tablets of the Testimony; the commandments testify of God in two ways—32:15:
A. First, they testify that God is the unique God—20:2-3.
B. Second, they testify that God is a God of love, light, holiness, and righteousness.
II. The law and its ordinances were decreed by God in 20:1—23:19; then, in 24:12 God called Moses up to the top of the mountain to give him the tablets of the law, the Testimony:
A. As the word of God (20:1; 34:28) and the testimony, the expression, of God, the law is a type of Christ as God's Word and God's testimony, God's expression (John 1:1, 18; Rev. 19:13; 1:5; Col. 1:15).
B. Christ is the reality of the law as the testimony of God; the testimony of God signifies Christ, the embodiment of God (2:9), as the living portrait of what God is (cf. Psa. 119:1-2).
C. The reality of keeping the law is to live God and express God; such a living, a living in the eternal economy of God, is the living of a God-man, a life of continually exercising the spirit to deny the self and be crucified to live Christ, who is God's testimony, by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for the enlarged and expanded expression of God—Matt. 16:24; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a; Rom. 8:4.
III. Even before the decree of the law was completed, the people broke at least the first three commandments of the law (Exo. 20:2-7) by falling into the sin of idolatry; the shattering of the tablets of the Testimony (32:15-19) indicates that before the children of Israel received the law, they had already broken the law and the covenant of the law:
A. Man's replacing of God with idols causes man to be unable to keep God's commandments—1 John 5:21; Ezek. 14:3; Jer. 2:13.
B. An idol in our heart is anything within us that we love more than the Lord and that replaces the Lord in our life, corrupting us and bringing in many sinful things—Exo. 32:7; cf. Rom. 1:18-32.
C. Those who set up idols in their hearts are estranged from the Lord through their idols (Ezek. 14:5); all who have idols within them yet seek God in an outward way cannot find Him (v. 3; cf. Jer. 29:13).
IV. After the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf, Moses moved to a place outside the camp, where everyone who sought the Lord went to meet with him, for both the Lord's presence and speaking were there—Exo. 33:7-11:
A. We need to see and be warned by the principle of the golden-calf idol, an idol made by God's redeemed people to make them an idolatrous camp—1 Cor. 10:5-7:
1. The gold earrings were worn by the people for self-beautification; this indicates that self-beautification leads to idolatry—Exo. 32:1-3; 33:5-6; Gen. 35:2-4; cf. Exo. 28:2; Isa. 60:21.
2. Furthermore, the gold in the earrings was given to the children of Israel by God before their exodus from Egypt (Exo. 12:35-36) and was to be used for the building of the tabernacle (25:3; 35:5).
3. However, before the gold could be used for God's purpose, it was usurped by Satan and used by God's people to make an idol.
4. Hence, idolatry is Satan's usurping and man's abusing of what God has given for His purpose, in order to make it a waste; it is our abusing what God has given us and not using God's gifts, both material and spiritual, for God's purpose.
5. The golden calf was not a pagan idol, for it was made by Aaron, a genuine high priest appointed by God; furthermore, Aaron made the calf in the name of Jehovah and took the lead to worship the idol in the way of presenting offerings to God and worshipping God—32:4-6, 8.
6. Thus, God's redeemed people worshipped an idol in the name of Jehovah their God and in the way ordained by God—cf. Psa. 106:19-20; Rom. 1:23.
7. With idolatry there is the pretense of worshipping the true God, and there is mixture in the worship of God—Exo. 32:4-6, 21-24; 1 Kings 12:26-30.
8. A calf is not for labor but for eating and therefore signifies enjoyment (Gen. 18:7-8; Luke 15:23); after the golden calf was made, the people ate, drank, and rose up to play in front of it—Exo. 32:6, 18-19a; 1 Cor. 10:7, 11.
9. This picture indicates that the children of Israel worshipped what they enjoyed; their worshipping of the golden calf was an amusement and an entertainment, indicating that amusement and entertainment were their idol.
10. What we care for is the presence of the Lord; in His presence is fullness of joy—Psa. 16:11.
B. Because Moses realized that the Lord's presence would no longer be in the midst of the people, he removed his tent and pitched it some distance from the camp; his tent then became the tent of God—Exo. 33:7:
1. The camp signifies a religious people, who belong to the Lord in name but who, in actuality, worship idols, worshipping something and seeking something other than the Lord Himself.
2. In the history of God's people, the camp may be seen in three periods:
a. The camp was first the children of Israel after they worshipped the golden calf."
b. The Jewish religion became the camp at the time of the Lord's living on the earth—Matt. 15:7-9.
c. Later, the church changed in nature from being a tent to being a camp, a religious system, religious Babylon, comprising a group of religious people belonging to the Lord in name and honoring the Lord with their mouth but having their hearts set on something other than the Lord—Gen. 11:4, 7, 9; 2 Chron. 36:6-7; Ezra 1:11; Matt. 15:7-8; Rev. 17:3-5; 18:2a, 4.
3. After Moses removed his tent and separated it from the idolatrous camp, the Lord spoke to him face to face, just as a man speaks to his companion—Exo. 33:11:
a. God and Moses were companions, associates, partners, involved in the same career and having a common interest in a great enterprise.
b. Because Moses was intimate with God, he was a person who knew God's heart, who was according to God's heart, and who could touch God's heart; thus, he had God's presence to a full extent—v. 14.
c. We need to enter within the veil and go outside the idolatrous camp to have the closest and most intimate relationship with the Lord so that we can be persons who share a common interest with God and who can be used by Him to carry out His enterprise on earth.
4. All those who are seeking the Lord have to go outside the camp and go forth unto Him at the tent.
V. The goal and ultimate conclusion of the book of Hebrews are that we would enter within the veil and go outside the camp—6:19-20; 13:13:
A. To enter within the veil means to enter into the Holy of Holies, where the Lord is enthroned in glory, and to go outside the camp means to come out of religion, whence the Lord was cast out in rejection:
1. The camp signifies the organization of religion, which is earthly and human.
2. Every religion is a human organization and an earthly realm that keeps people away from God's economy.
B. We must be in our spirit, where, experientially speaking, the practical Holy of Holies is today, and outside religion, where the practical camp is today:
1. The more we are in our spirit, enjoying the heavenly Christ, the more we will come outside the camp of religion, following the suffering Jesus.
2. The more we remain in our spirit to contact the heavenly Christ, who is in glory, the more we will go forth outside the camp of religion unto the lowly Jesus to suffer with Him.
3. The genuine New Testament ministry brings us into the enjoyment of Christ in our spirit, within the veil, and strengthens us to follow Jesus outside the camp in the fellowship of His sufferings for the sake of His Body—2 Cor. 11:2-3, 23-33:
a. Within the veil we participate in the ministry of the heavenly Christ that we may be equipped to minister Him to the thirsty spirits outside the camp.
b. By entering within the veil and going outside the camp, we are perfected in every good work for the doing of the will of God, who does in us that which is well pleasing in His sight—Heb. 13:20-21.
C. To enter within the veil is to get into our spirit; when we turn to our spirit and exercise it, we enter within the veil—1 Tim. 4:7-8:
1. We have to exercise, to use, to employ, our spirit by fanning our spirit into flame, setting our mind on the spirit, and discerning our spirit from our soul—2 Tim. 1:6-7; Rom. 8:5-6; Heb. 4:12.
2. We must exercise our spirit that we may enter within the veil to have direct contact with the heavenly Christ, the man in the glory, beholding Him to be transfused and infused with Him so that we may become His corporate reproduction—2 Cor. 3:18.
3. To be within the veil is to be in the Holy of Holies, in a realm where we partake of Christ and enjoy Him as the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the law of life, issuing in God's corporate expression for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose—Heb. 9:3-4.