READING IN EXODUS
READING IN EXODUS
JP I suppose we might say with regard to the tabernacle that in it God reaches, in type, that which was really in His heart — His dwelling-place among men.
JT I think that God takes us up as in Egypt, and relieves and delivers us by what the gospel presents: and instructs us as to the things prepared for us in our individual path. Then He, as it were, takes us aside and opens up to us what is in His heart for us, which, I think, is the idea of the covenant. This being understood, saints are prepared to be occupied with what God has before Him for His own glory. Having all your need met, and being personally in every way provided for, God would unfold His things to you, and He would expect you to enter into His thoughts; He would expect you to be in sympathy with what He has His pleasure in. This is a system of things in which He dwells and shines forth.
JP The very language that Jehovah uses, supports what you say “Let them make me” Exodus 25: 8. It is no longer a question of the people, and any need that they might have, but, “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”. It is marvellous. I think we are quick enough to lay hold of that which proposes to meet our need, but we are much slower to take account of God, and lay hold of that which He has had in His heart for His own satisfaction and delight — His dwelling-place.
I could not but think as the chapter was being read (especially verse 8 — “Let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them”) of Revelation 21:3, as showing the great end that God has in view. “The tabernacle of God is with men”. It [p. 408] does not say that man will dwell with God (although this is true); God says, “I will dwell with them”. Exodus 25: 8.
JT It is a very much greater thought morally that God should dwell with men, than that men should dwell with God. It is a very blessed thing to know that you are to dwell with God, but the thought of God dwelling must be greater than that of man dwelling. Anyone can see that a king, for instance, might build a house for one of his subjects to dwell in, but if it be a question of building a house for himself the house must be in accordance with himself, and so the conception of God’s dwelling-place must be greater than the thought of ours, even though it he true that God’s dwelling-place and ours are identical.
JP If you take account of the thought current amongst God’s people generally, it is that at last we go to heaven to dwell with God, but that is not the way things are put in Scripture.
JT No, what you get in Scripture is what this chapter presents: that is, that God would dwell with men.
GWH In chapter 24, you get Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel with God; then in this chapter it is, as it were, God with men.
JT “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink”. Exodus 24: 10,11. That was the privilege accorded to them, but this chapter is much greater than that, because it is a question here of God dwelling.
Ques What was God’s purpose or object in condescending to dwell among men?
JT It shows evidently that God takes pleasure in man, but there is more than that in it: that is,
[p. 409] the greatness of that in which He dwells. But dwelling can hardly be said to be for a purpose: a man dwells where his affections are. That is his home. God loves His people and they love Him, hence He dwells with them. It is most important to see that dwelling follows upon the covenant.
Ques Does it not in a way set forth the grace of God, that He would take His place among men?
JT It is an act of grace, but I doubt that the point is grace, because it is His desired dwelling-place. God would not dwell among men simply to accommodate them. It is His delight. A great man might come and honour you with a visit. It would be a condescension on his part to do that; a favour conferred upon you. It is grace for God to dwell with men, but it is not only grace: it is what He delights in.
RSS Evidently David had the thought you are speaking of. In Psalm 132: 1 he says: “Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions”. The character of his afflictions was very remarkable: “How he sware unto the lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob”. Psalm 132: 2 - 5. Then God’s response to it is most beautiful in the latter part: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever here will I dwell;for I have desired it”.
Ques Can you account for God’s having chosen to pass by every created intelligence, and take up man?
JT You can only account for it by the fact that it is so. In Genesis 1: 26, we get: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. We know [p. 410] now that it was man as seen in Christ that was before God.
Ques I had in mind, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” Psalm 8: 4.
JT That question is answered in that we see that the Man who was before God was really His Son, the Second Man out of heaven. So we have no difficulty now as to why it is God has given man that wonderful place.
The initial thought in the tabernacle is separation. This is seen in Jacob at Shechem. Jehovah said to him, “Arise, go up to Bethel”, (Genesis 35: 1) and Jacob recalled what Bethel had been, so he said to his household, “Put away the strange gods that are among you”. Genesis 35: 2. They buried their idols and earrings under the oak which was by Shechem, and Jacob repaired to Bethel and there built an altar. He had carried with him for twenty years a sense of the holiness of the house of God.
GWH “Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever”. Psalm 93: 5.
JT It was mournful that Jacob should have gone to Shechem, on returning from Padan-aram, for he knew where Bethel was and might have returned there. But instead he went to Shechem, where he bought a piece of ground, and then built an altar and called it “El-elohe-Israel”, which means, “God, the God of Israel”. He bought a piece of ground, and connected Jehovah with himself and his piece of ground. The next thing you find is that Dinah went out to see the daughters of the land. That is the inevitable accompaniment of getting a piece of ground — you get into touch with the world. Dinah, going out to see the daughters of the land, gets into disgrace with Shechem, and her brothers, Simeon and Levi, in cruelty murder the Shechemites. All this was disastrous to Jacob. Then the word of God comes, “Arise, go up to Bethel”. Genesis 35: 1. This meant that Jacob was to turn away from the interests of his own natural heart, which had led him into ruinous contact with the world, and repair to that in which God’s interests were — His house.
JP Is it not wonderful how religious we become when we deviate from the path of faith? Jacob built an altar and connected the name of Jehovah with it. You see a great deal of that: people put up the altar and they connect God with their institutions here, and all that sort of thing, and really it passes very well in a great many quarters, but it is not faith.
JT When you come to the book of Exodus you get the same thing in relation to the establishment of the tabernacle. Although the tabernacle mentioned in chapter 33 could not be that of which Moses had received the pattern, yet he calls it “The tabernacle of the congregation” (Exodus 33: 7) and separation of evil stands connected with it — Moses pitches it “without the camp, afar off from the camp”. Exodus 33: 7. Moses had no command for this as far as we know, but idolatry was in the camp, and Jehovah’s Name could not be connected with this. Jacob understood that idols could not be taken up to Bethel. Moses pitches that which represented the dwelling-place of God outside the camp: idolatry was there. That gives you the initial thought of the tabernacle: you could not have the dwelling place of God apart from holiness.
Ques What would you say is the difference between our dwelling with God and God dwelling with us?
JT Both thoughts appear in chapter 15. The people would prepare God a habitation, and God would bring them into the habitation, which He had prepared for Himself — “Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance,
[p. 412] in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established”. Exodus 15: 17. I think our being brought to dwell with God is properly in the land of Canaan, but the thought of God’s dwelling comes out in the tabernacle.
Rem Many have the idea of going out of this scene, while really God’s thought is to come into it and dwell with men.
JT By coming into this scene you would mean He comes into the sphere designed for man, and not only for man but also for the display of His glory. The tabernacle is a type of the created universe as the sphere in which God displays Himself, and from this point of view the holiest represents heaven; but the more general significance of the tabernacle is moral: that is, it prefigures a moral universe — a universe connected with persons. In this sense the holiest is typical of Christ personally.
The tabernacle speaks of unity: it was to be “one tabernacle”. Every part of the moral system in the future (the church, Israel, and the nations) will be held together by the love of Christ.
Ques Would you say something about the second verse? “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering”. Exodus 25: 2.
JT I think it shows that the dwelling-place of God is the outcome of the affections of man. Those who love God wish Him to dwell with them, and would prepare Him a habitation.
GWH The material for the dwelling-place would be that which the Holy Ghost produces in the saints.
JT It was Christ who formed the habitation for God, but this Scripture shows that the material for it was to be the outcome of the affections of the saints.
RSS The connection between love in the saints [p. 413] and God dwelling with them is seen in John 14: 23 “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”.
GH Is Philadelphia akin to John 14?
JT Yes. Philadelphia keeps His word, which proves that there was love for Christ there. When the Lord said, “We will come unto him and make our abode with him”, (John 14: 23) He meant to convey what would be regarded as privilege by those who loved Him.
JP Mr. Darby renders “heave-offering” in verse 2: “Of every one whose heart prompteth him ye shall take my heave-offering”. Exodus 25: 2. It is the heart heaving up in responsive affection to the love of God. You are not prompted by anybody outside: the prompting is from within — “whose heart prompteth him”.
Ques Is the Spirit of God anywhere outside of the house?
JT Not as actually dwelling. But we must always bear in mind that God acts sovereignly by the Spirit, as in new birth for instance. That we must leave, but there is the dwelling here of the Spirit. He is here in the church, and in no other sense.
WHF Do you connect the habitation of God now, as in Ephesians 2, with the temple?
JT The two thoughts are there: the church is both temple and habitation. The temple suggests understanding: the habitation, love. The distinction between the house and the temple may be seen in Psalm 27: 4: “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple”. The Lord was the temple when here: from Him alone the mind of God could be learnt. Now the church is [p. 414] the temple.
CHB Have you any thought as to the order in which the different parts of the tabernacle are presented?
JT The first thing mentioned and the greatest, is the ark of the covenant. It represents Christ, not as meeting man’s need, but as the One by whom God effects all His counsels. “And in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee”. Exodus 25: 16. Christ had the law in His heart — He was unswervingly devoted to the carrying out of the will of God. The ark, the mercy seat, and the cherubim, all of which were connected together, set forth the manner in which God in Christ has placed Himself in relation to the whole universe.
The things in the holy place refer to the earth — Christ in relation to Israel.
WHF Does gold set forth divine righteousness?
JT I suppose it does, and more, I judge. I take it to be typical of what is divine, but divine in Man, because all in the tabernacle refers to what came out in Christ,
RSS The “head of gold” (Daniel 2: 38) in Daniel’s image, representing the government that was of God, would sustain that.
JT Yes; gold speaks of what is of God. When the priests entered the holy place and the holiest of all, what they met with engaged them with God at once. It is wonderful that you can withdraw from what is so contrary to you and enter into a sphere where everything speaks to your heart of God.
Rem Everything human was covered up by that which is divine.
JT Not exactly human: the shittim wood answers to the humanity of Christ, which, as we know, was absolutely pure and heavenly in its character.
JP Speaking of this chapter, Exodus 25, Mr. Raven (in the pamphlet, “The Testimony of the Christ”) said it was the greatest in the Pentateuch, because in it you have a wonderful presentation of the entire scope of God’s purpose. The universe is really in view, and that by means of which God will really make it His house and fill it with all that is of Himself, and suitable to Himself that in which He will dwell.
I have been impressed with the fact that Mr. Darby’s closing ministry was almost identically on the same line as that of Mr. Raven. I will take the liberty of reading from his introduction to the Bible, written as late as October, 1881, which was only a few months before his death. He says (speaking of God): “His moral being and His determinate purpose, until then eternally hidden in Himself, are, while testing man and manifesting what he is, revealed and fulfilled through the Son, that they may in their final result appear in an eternity of glory to come, in which God, surrounded by blissful creatures who know Him and understand Him, will manifest Himself as light and love in the full results of His own eternal and imperishable thoughts”, etc.