Crystallization-Study of Exodus (4)
Message Eight
Lighting the Lamps in the Sanctuary of God by Serving as Priests Clothed with the Expression of Christ
Scripture Reading: Exo. 27:20—28:5
I. God is light, and the believers in Christ, as children of God, are children of light—1 John 1:5; 3:1; John 12:36; Eph. 5:8:
A. Light is the nature of God in His expression—1 John 1:5.
B. Light is God's shining, God's expression; when God is expressed, the nature of that expression is light—v. 5.
C. As God is light, so we, the children of God, are the children of light; we have believed into the light and have become sons of light—Eph. 5:8; John 12:36.
D. To walk in the light as God is in the light is to live, walk, and have our being in the divine light, which is God Himself—1 John 1:5, 7.
II. In typology lighting the lamps in the sanctuary of God signifies the proper way to meet as Christians—Exo. 27:20-21:
A. The tabernacle was a place both for God's dwelling and for the meeting of the children of Israel; hence, it was called "the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting"—40:2, 34; 25:8; Lev. 1:1:
1. Whenever we come together to meet as the church, that meeting is God's dwelling place—Matt. 18:20; Eph. 2:21-22.
2. Our meeting is the sanctuary of God, the Holy Place—Exo. 25:8; 1 Cor. 1:2a; 3:16; 14:25-26.
B. The proper way to meet is to light the lamps, that is, to give off light; everything that we do in the church meetings should cause the holy light to ascend—Exo. 27:20; Luke 11:33.
III. The lighting of the lamps is a priestly service, a service of the priests—Exo. 27:21:
A. There is the need for holy persons to light the holy lamps in the Holy Place.
B. A priest is a person who is absolutely for God, who is fully possessed by God, and who lives and has his being wholly for God; in every respect and in every way, his unique interest is God—1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6; 5:9-10.
C. The one who lights the lamps is a person who is possessed by God, who is saturated with God, and who lives absolutely for God:
1. Whatever such a person says and does in the sanctuary of God is the lighting of the lamps; all his actions are the lighting of the lamps.
2. When the holy priests speak in the church meetings, the light ascends, and the sanctuary is full of light—Exo. 27:20; 1 Cor. 14:19; Matt. 5:14-16; Mark 4:21.
IV. The light in the sanctuary of God is neither a natural light nor an artificial light; it is a divine light, a holy light, the real light, which is God Himself—John 1:4-5, 9; 1 John 1:5; Rev. 21:23-24a:
A. Today's Christians are divided by many kinds of natural and artificial light—Isa. 50:10-11; 2 Cor. 11:14.
B. For the building up of the Body of Christ, we need to live and walk under the unique and genuine light, the light of our redeeming and shining God—Rev. 21:23; 1 John 1:5, 7; Eph. 5:8-9.
V. God's light is in the sanctuary, and in this light we see light and the true nature of things; we see what God sees and know His way—Psa. 36:9:
A. "O God, Your way is in the sanctuary"—77:13:
1. God's way is hidden and His paths, with His footsteps, are not known to men—v. 19.
2. His way is revealed in the sanctuary, that is, in our spirit and in the church—Eph. 2:22; 1 Tim. 3:15.
3. When we exercise our spirit and live in the church, God's way becomes clear to us.
B. "When I considered this in order to understand it, / It was a troublesome task in my sight, / Until I went into the sanctuary of God; / Then I perceived their end"—Psa. 73:16-17:
1. Once we are in the sanctuary—in the spirit and in the church—we will have another view, a particular perception, of the situation.
2. In our spirit and in the church, under the shining of God's light, we receive divine revelation and obtain the explanation to all our problems.
VI. Certain elements are involved whenever we experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings—the embodiment of the Triune God, the divine nature, the uplifted humanity of Jesus, and the Spirit of Christ—Col. 2:9; 2 Pet. 1:4; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:9:
A. The light in the sanctuary of God issues from the lampstand, which signifies the embodiment of the Triune God—Exo. 37:17.
B. The light comes out of the gold, that is, the divine nature of Christ—John 1:1; 8:12; 2 Pet. 1:4.
C. Christ is golden (divine), but it is His humanity, signified by the wick, that burns with oil.
D. The oil signifies the Spirit of God, who has passed through a process to become the Spirit of Christ—Rom. 8:9:
1. Oil comes from olive trees, and the olive tree signifies Christ—11:17; Judg. 9:9; Psa. 104:15.
2. Just as olives pass through a process to produce olive oil, so the Spirit of God has passed through a process involving incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection to become the Spirit of Christ—Rom. 8:9.
3. Whatever we utter in the meetings must be with the pure oil of the olive tree—1 Cor. 2:12-13:
a. We need the experience of Christ as the olive tree in His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection; this means that the aspects of Christ's process need to become our experience.
b. We need the cross to work in us so that we may have the pure olive oil—oil that has passed through incarnation and crucifixion and has entered into resurrection—2 Cor. 1:8-9; 4:10-12; Phil. 3:10-11.
E. Meeting to light the lamps in the sanctuary involves every aspect of our spiritual experience in the Christian life—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 6:17.
VII. The qualification for the priests to light the lamps in the sanctuary of God is the expression of Christ, signified by the priestly garments—Exo. 28:1-5:
A. The significance of the priestly garments is the expression of Christ in the priesthood:
1. We have not only Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, the divine nature of Christ, the uplifted humanity of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ with all the steps of His process, but we have also the expression of Christ.
2. The qualification for a priest to light the lamps in the sanctuary of God is the expression of Christ.
B. The garments signify Christ lived out of the priesthood—v. 4; Gal. 3:27.
C. The priestly garments, being mainly for glory and for beauty, signify the expression 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, is for beauty—Exo. 28:5.
3. A life that expresses Christ with the divine glory and human beauty sanctifies us and qualifies us to carry out the priestly service of lighting the lamps in the sanctuary of God—27:20-21.
VIII. The purpose of the gathering of the believers is to have the sanctuary of God with the lighting of the lamps by qualified priests so that we may have a vision of the different aspects of Christ and see the way to enter into the depths of Christ within God—25:23, 31; 30:1.