Crystallization-Study of Exodus (4)
Message Twelve
The Erecting of the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle, the Cloud, and the Glory Being a Full Type of the Triune God
Scripture Reading: Exo. 40:2-3, 9, 17, 34-38; John 1:14, 32; 1 Cor. 10:1-2; 12:13
I. With respect to man, the tabernacle was the Tent of Meeting, but with respect to God, it was the tabernacle; the tabernacle is related to God's testimony (Exo. 38:21), whereas the Tent of Meeting is more outward, external, related to God's interest on earth and to His move.
II. The first item of the furniture to be put into the tabernacle was the Ark, indicating that the Ark was the central item of the tabernacle and its furniture—40:3, 20-21:
A. Most Christians focus on the experience of salvation at the altar, but the book of Exodus reveals that God's intention is to have the Ark of the Testimony in the Tabernacle of the Testimony—40:2-3.
B. Eventually, the Ark in the tabernacle will consummate in an eternal tabernacle, the New Jerusalem, with the Ark, the redeeming Christ, as the center—Rev. 21:2-3; 22:1.
C. God's eternal goal is to have the New Jerusalem as the ultimate fulfillment of the tabernacle and the Ark.
III. The tabernacle, the cloud, and the glory are a full type of the Triune God—Exo. 40:2, 34-35:
A. When the tabernacle was raised up, covered by the cloud, and filled with the glory, it became a full type of the Triune God:
1. The type of the tabernacle was fulfilled in Christ, the second of the Trinity, God the Son incarnated—John 1:14a.
2. The cloud that descended and covered the tabernacle is a type of the Holy Spirit, the third of the Trinity—1 Cor. 10:1-2; 12:13.
3. John the Baptist saw the Spirit descending upon Christ, who was identified as the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle—John 1:32, 14a.
4. John 1:14 says, "We beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father"; this glory corresponds to the glory that filled the tabernacle.
5. The picture of the tabernacle covered by the descending cloud and filled with the glory of Jehovah in Exodus 40 was fulfilled in John 1:
a. When we read John 1, we need to see that Christ as the fulfillment of the tabernacle is with us today, that the covering Spirit is upon this tabernacle, and that the glory is filling this tabernacle—vv. 14, 32.
b. This revelation of the Triune God is not mere doctrine; we are seeing a vision of the living Trinity.
6. Because the tabernacle is a type of Christ, the cloud represents the Spirit, and glory is God Himself expressed, the picture of the tabernacle covered by the cloud and filled with glory embodies the entire Triune God in figure—Exo. 40:34-35.
B. The day that the tabernacle was raised up, that the cloud descended and covered it, and that the glory entered and filled it was a great day—vv. 2, 34-35:
1. Never before had the Triune God been embodied on earth; the embodiment of the Triune God was God's goal throughout Genesis and Exodus—Gen. 1:26.
2. The tabernacle covered by the cloud and filled with glory was a great blessing to the children of Israel, but today we have the reality of what they had only in figure—John 14:2-3, 6, 10-11, 16-18, 20, 26; 15:1, 4-5, 16, 26; Eph. 1:3-23; 2:18-22; 3:16-21; 4:4-6.
C. The anointing oil used to anoint the tabernacle in Exodus 40:9 typifies God the Spirit compounded with the Triune God, Christ's humanity, Christ's death with its effectiveness, and Christ's resurrection with its power—30:23-25:
1. The anointing oil corresponds to the Spirit after Christ's resurrection—John 7:39.
2. As the anointing oil, the Spirit first anoints us, and then as the pillar of cloud and fire, He leads and guides us—Exo. 40:9, 36-38.
D. The Triune God was embodied in Christ as the tabernacle for the purpose of dispensing Himself into His redeemed people for their enjoyment of all the riches of His being—vv. 2, 34-35:
1. Everything that is mentioned in the New Testament concerning God is related to the divine dispensing for the divine economy—Rom. 8:3, 11; Eph. 1:3-23:
a. The revelation concerning the Triune God in the holy Word is not for doctrinal understanding but for the dispensing of God in His Divine Trinity into His chosen and redeemed people for their experience and enjoyment—2 Cor. 13:14.
b. The Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—has been processed to become the life-giving Spirit so that we can drink of Him and that He can become our enjoyment; this is the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity—John 1:14; 4:14; 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13; 15:45b.
c. The Divine Trinity is for the divine dispensing, that is, for the distribution of God into the believers in Christ; the Father as the origin is the fountain, the Son as the expression is the spring, and the Spirit as the transmission is the flow—John 4:14; 7:37-39.
2. In type, the children of Israel enjoyed and possessed the Triune God in the divine dispensing and mingling, and the Triune God enjoyed and possessed them—Psa. 36:8-9.
3. The New Testament reveals the full reality of the divine dispensing and mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed ones—Rom. 8:11; Eph. 3:16-21.
4. Ephesians is composed with the Divine Trinity as its basic element and structure, and every chapter reveals the Triune God; thus, Ephesians is a clear explanation and definition of the tabernacle in Exodus 40—Eph. 1:3-14, 22-23; 2:18-22; 3:16-21; 4:4-6, 16; 5:19-20, 23, 25-26, 30, 32; 6:10-11.
5. The divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity is the unique way to build up the church, which is the Body of Christ and the dwelling place of God—4:12, 16; 2:21-22; 1 Tim. 3:15.
6. We need a vision of the central matter in the Bible—the divine intention, the divine economy, and the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity into the believers in Christ for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal corporate expression of the Triune God—Eph. 1:5, 9-11, 22-23; 3:14-21; 4:16; Rev. 21:2, 10-11.
IV. In Old Testament times, the house of God was the house of Israel, represented by the tabernacle and later by the temple—Lev. 22:18; Num. 12:7; Exo. 25:8; Ezek. 37:26-27:
A. The children of Israel, as the people of God, are a type of the New Testament believers—1 Cor. 9:24—10:11:
1. Their entire history is a prefigure of the church.
2. Today the house of God is actually the church—Heb. 3:6; 1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17.
B. At the end of Genesis an individual Israel was produced as a miniature of God's house to express God and represent Him by exercising His authority.
C. At the end of Exodus a corporate Israel was produced as God's house to express God and represent Him by exercising His authority on earth—Exo. 40:2, 34-38.
D. The goal of God's eternal purpose is to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity—Eph. 2:21:
1. The books of Genesis and Exodus together consummate with God's tabernacle, His dwelling place, filled with His glory—Exo. 40:2, 34.
2. Likewise, the entire Bible consummates in the New Jerusalem as the eternal tabernacle of God filled with the glory of God and exercising His authority for His divine administration for eternity—Rev. 21:2-3, 10-11; 22:1, 5.