Day: July 31, 2022

How can we turn ourselves from the experience of Christ as all the offerings to the experience of Christ as all the furniture in the Holy Place with all the related items? In other words, how can we have a turn from the experience of Christ in the outer court to the experience of Christ in the Holy Place? The way to have this turn is by eating. Eating is the secret. In the outer court, the priest does not eat the offerings first. The offerings are slain and presented to God first. The blood of the offerings typifies the redeeming aspect of Christ. After redemption we have to eat. The turning point is the eating. Eating is the secret which turns us from the outer court into the Holy Place. In the outer court the priests first enjoyed all the offerings in the aspect of Christ as their righteousness. Then they went on to enjoy the offerings by eating (7:14-15). After redemption is realized, we must go on to eat. Our eating of the offerings ushers us into the Holy Place. When we get into the Holy Place, the first item is the bread of the Presence for our eating. If you do not know how to feed on the Lord Jesus, you are a Christian merely in the outer court. When you see the vision of eating the Lord and begin to feed on the Lord, this feeding turns you from the outer court into the Holy Place.

BROUGHT OUT OF EGYPT BY EATING

In Exodus 12 the children of Israel enjoyed the shedding of the blood of the passover lamb to fulfill the righteous requirement of God. Following that, they were instructed to eat the meat of the lamb. By this eating they were energized, strengthened, supplied, and enabled to get out of Egypt. Their eating of the lamb was for moving out of Egypt. Eating brings us out of Egypt, the outer court, into the wilderness, the Holy Place. In the wilderness the children of Israel enjoyed manna daily, and in the Holy Place the priest enjoyed the bread of the Presence. The children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, but they were living by heavenly food.

EATING THE FATTENED CALF 
WITHIN THE FATHER’S HOUSE

In Luke 15 the Lord Jesus told a parable of a loving father and a prodigal son. After the son came back, the father clothed him with [127] the best robe and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet (v. 22). The father ran to receive the returning sinner and clothed him outside the house. Before being dressed, the prodigal son was a beggar and not worthy of coming into the father’s house. Although the son had been approved by the father and clothed properly, he was still hungry. Thus, the father ordered his servants to bring the fattened calf and slaughter it for his returning son to eat (v. 23). Then they proceeded to feast on the fattened calf within the father’s house. The robe is Christ as our righteousness to dress us, to clothe us, according to God’s righteous requirements that we may be justified in the eyes of God (Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9). The fattened calf signifies the rich Christ (Eph. 3:8) killed on the cross for the believers’ enjoyment.

Many Christians treasure the fact that Christ is their righteousness, but they neglect the eating of Christ for their inward enjoyment. God used Martin Luther to recover the truth concerning justification by faith with Christ as our righteousness. But the eating of Christ for our enjoyment still must be fully recovered among God’s children. The fulfillment of God’s purpose mostly depends upon the eating of Christ. Christ is our outward, objective righteousness so that we can feast on Him inwardly and subjectively.

After eating the fattened calf and being filled up, the son could do something to please the father. Our doing is not merely something out of the righteousness but out of the eating. If the father in Luke 15 had only dressed the son up and then told him to do something for him, he would not have had the strength. The son was dressed nicely and cleansed thoroughly, but he was hungry and empty within. He had no energy, no power, no strength, and no filling up. After we have been brought to the table to feed on Christ as our feast, we will be so active, waiting for the Father’s command. We will have the strength, the energy, and the supply of life to carry out the Father’s will.

We value the objective side of the Lord’s redemption, our justification through His precious blood. But our redemption and justification are so that we can eat Christ, enjoy Christ. The father of the prodigal son dressed him up outside the door for him to come in and feast at the table where they could eat and be merry. All of us need to be those feasting on the Lord to enjoy Him. We may have been saved through the Lord’s redemption, but how much have we [128] been feasting on the Lord? In our experience are we outside the door of the Father’s house or inside the door feasting on Christ with all His riches? You may be outside the door clothed with the best robe, with a ring on your hand, and with sandals on your feet, but how are you within? Are you satisfied and filled up or empty? We all need to eat the Lord to be filled with Him. When we eat Him, we are enjoying Him as the tree of life. Christ as the Lamb of God enables us to be justified by faith so that we can be brought back to the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life.

EATING CHRIST TO BE TRANSFORMED 
INTO PRECIOUS MATERIALS FOR GOD’S BUILDING

By eating and enjoying Christ, we are transformed. In the outer court there is not gold but bronze and silver. Bronze signifies judgment, and silver signifies God’s redemption. Redemption comes out of God’s divine judgment. The pillars and sockets in the outer court were of bronze, but the capitals, the crowns of the pillars, were overlaid with silver, and the hooks and the connecting rods were of silver (Exo. 27:11; 38:19). This indicates that Christ’s redemption comes out of the righteous judgment of God. Christ was the One who suffered God’s judgment on the cross, and out of Him comes our redemption. The sockets of the forty-eight boards of the tabernacle were also made of silver. The forty-eight boards were made of acacia wood overlaid with gold.

All the furniture within the tabernacle was either made of gold or overlaid with gold. This signifies that the divine nature (gold) is wrought into our being by eating Christ, by feasting on Christ. By eating Him, we will be mingled with God, and this mingling transforms us. If we are going to enjoy the Lord more and more, we have to learn how to eat Him, how to feast on Him. This is a real turning point. If we know how to eat Him, how to feast on Him, we will be transformed into precious materials to be built up as the temple (1 Cor. 3:12), as the house of the Lord, and within this house we will enjoy the Lord more and more richly. As we are eating the Lord and being transformed by Him, we will enjoy the fatness of His house. We will enjoy Him to the fullest extent.

CHAPTER SIX

THE TREE OF LIFE FOR TRANSFORMATION

Scripture Reading: Lev. 2:7-10; 7:14-15

OUR NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE 
WITH DIVINE INSIGHT IN AN INNER AND LIVING WAY

The entire sixty-six books of the Bible are the Holy Spirit’s revelation (John 16:13) and are the speaking from God by men borne by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). The entire Bible was inspired by the one Spirit and was written with a definite purpose to show us God’s heart’s desire. To acquire the divine insight into the Bible in its entirety is not an easy task. Matthew 22 records that one day the Sadducees came to question the Lord concerning the matter of resurrection. They did not believe that there was a resurrection. The Lord told them that they did not know the Scriptures nor the power of God (v. 29), and He answered them in this way: “Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (vv. 31-32).

As God is the God of the living and is called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so the dead Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be resurrected. This is the way the Lord Jesus handled the Scriptures—not only by the letter but by the life and power implied within them. From the divine title of God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Lord Jesus saw the truth, the fact, of resurrection. It is not so easy to understand the Bible in such an inner way and in such a living way. Apparently, there is nothing to see in this title, but in such a title there is the truth of resurrection because God could not be the God of a dead person. If God is the God of Abraham, who has died, Abraham will be resurrected because He is not the God of the dead but of the living. [124]

EATING THE TREE OF LIFE

The Lord needs to bring us into the understanding of the Scriptures in an inner and living way to see what is on His heart. After the creation of man, God presented Himself to man as the tree of life for man to eat. The only thing God desired man to do was to feed on Him, to partake of Him as the tree of life. He wanted man to take Him in as life, to learn how to live, how to exist, by the tree of life. Without eating, a person cannot exist. You may have life, but your life cannot last without your eating. In presenting Himself to man as the tree of life, God’s intention was for man to learn how to live by depending on God, by taking God as his daily supply and as his entire supply. Most of us eat three meals a day for our life supply. We live, exist, by eating. God did not command man to do anything but to eat. Man has to take care of his eating. If he eats in a right way, he will be right. If he eats in a wrong way, he will be wrong. If you eat something of life, you will have life. If you eat something of death, you will have death. The Christian life is not merely a matter of doing or working but a matter of partaking of God as the tree of life. This point was clearly made by the Lord Jesus in John 6 where He said that He was the bread of life (v. 35) and that the one who ate Him would live because of Him (v. 57).

THE LAMB OF GOD

The tree of life was the first item presented by God to man, but after man’s fall God made coats of skin of the sacrifice for Adam and his wife and clothed them. The coats fully covered them, which means that God justified them (Gen. 3:21). To be justified means to be covered with the righteousness of God, which is Christ Himself. In order to make coats of the skin of the lambs, God probably killed the lambs in the presence of Adam and Eve. Their putting on of the coats of skin was based upon the shedding of the blood of the sacrifice, for the sacrificial lamb became a substitute for sinful man. Before the fall in Genesis 2 is the tree of life presented to man by God. After the fall in Genesis 3 is the lamb, the sacrifice, offered to man by God. The tree of life in Genesis 2 changed to a lamb in Genesis 3. The tree of life is Christ, and the lamb is Christ. These two items are one. Because of the fall the tree of life had to become the lamb. [125]

In John 6 the Lord Jesus said that He is the bread of life. The bread of life equals the tree of life. Both of these items are of the plant life, the vegetable life. But in the same chapter where the Lord Jesus spoke about eating Him as the bread of life, He also said, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink” (v. 55). In a physical sense bread cannot have blood. But according to the spiritual reality, the bread of life includes the blood. This is because the bread of life without the blood could never be eaten by us. The tree of life was closed to us by the fall, but it is opened to us by the Lamb with His redeeming blood.

After the fall the Lamb is the first item of our enjoyment of God in both the Old and New Testaments. All the other items of the enjoyment of the Lord follow and come out of this first item. Even in eternity in the New Jerusalem, Christ will still be the eternal Lamb of God (Rev. 21:22; 22:1). In Revelation the Lamb is the lamp, and within the lamp is God as the light (21:23). Whatever God is as our portion for our enjoyment is in the Lamb, who is the lamp. We must enjoy Him first as the Lamb of God. After the presentation of the tree of life to man, from Genesis 3 through Exodus 12 there is the Lamb of God for the enjoyment of His chosen people.

THE SECRET OF TURNING FROM THE OUTER COURT 
INTO THE HOLY PLACE

Now we have to go on to see something more, something richer, something deeper, and something higher than enjoying Christ as the Lamb of God. After the book of Exodus is the book of Leviticus with all the offerings. All the offerings are based on two things—on the tree of life, the vegetable life, and on the lamb, the animal life. All the offerings are composed of these two kinds of lives. The burnt offering is of the animal life, but the meal offering is of the vegetable life (2:7-10). The animal life is for redeeming, and the vegetable life is for generating, for nourishing. All of the offerings, such as the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering, were enjoyed in the outer court of the tabernacle. These offerings are types of Christ as the unique offering. In the Holy Place there were the table with the bread of the Presence, the lampstand with the light, and the golden incense altar with the incense. The table, the stand, and the altar are Christ, and the bread of the Presence, the light, and the incense are Christ. All [126] the offerings are Christ, all the furniture in the Holy Place is Christ, and all the items related to the furniture are Christ.