THE TABERNACLE
[p. 297] THE TABERNACLE
Exodus 25:1 - 9; John 1:14 - 18; 2 Corinthians 5:1 - 5;2 Peter 1:12 - 21
JT The thought is to look into these scriptures as to the tabernacle, the divine dwelling among the saints. So therefore it is proposed to look at the types; then at the Lord Jesus dwelling amongst us, and then at Paul and Peter, confirming all that. As to the tabernacle, we could go further, into the book of the Revelation, where the tabernacle of God is seen among men, not even among the Jews (we shall see that later, in the millennium), but among men. So all that is to be in mind in the places where the worship of God is recognised, and the work of God in this time, first as to the types, then as to the assembly, the great dwelling place of God, not in the air, or in houses, but in persons, men and women formed into an assembly; God is there. Then we come to the furnishings and the manners in the assembly.
Rem Moses, in his song in Exodus 15, speaks prophetically of this, “the place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling”, Exodus 15:17.
JT That is clearly a reference to it. But we must come to the New Testament, Paul and Peter, the ones who have been used to set out the truth as to the assembly. When we are caught up, we shall be an immense number, but God knows each one.
Rem In Ephesians 2:21,22 it refers to “all [the] building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in [the] Spirit”.
JT That also clearly relates to our subject, and of course, we shall be glad to hear all who can help. The number here is comparatively great, and we are very grateful to God for His goodness to us.
[p. 298] Ques Does what you are calling attention to enhance the Spirit’s service?
JT It is the time of the Spirit, we could almost say; the Spirit’s day. He was sent down here to occupy till the Lord comes. He carries on God’s service according to His own principles, in order to save us from what is around.
Rem “That I may dwell among them” (verse 8) is a very precious thought.
JT I think that.
Rem If we desire to take up the service of God, we shall find copious conditions amongst the saints.
JT Yes, but the assembly contemplates material, for it is the dwelling of God, and He garnishes it, as He garnished the heavens. Our children are brought up, and should learn what it means.
Rem It says, “According to all that I shall shew thee, the pattern of the tabernacle ... even so shall ye make it” (verse 9).
JT Just so; “the pattern”.
Ques Does 1 Corinthians 14:24,25 apply, “But if all prophesy, and some unbeliever or [simple] person come in, he is convicted of all, he is judged of all; the secrets of his heart are manifested; and thus, falling upon [his] face, he will do homage to God, reporting that God is indeed amongst you”?
JT That is the word coming in reference to persons, those coming in as we have here. Tomorrow we shall fall upon our faces, to worship God, beginning with the Lord’s supper.
Rem Because God dwells in the assembly.
Ques Would “God is indeed amongst you” have in mind how we come into this?
JT So God with complacency sees that; brothers and sisters and young children would be affected in view of His coming in. We come in first, and make way for Him.
Rem “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power”, Psalm 110:3.
JT We have a book called ‘My willing people’ (see J.T., N.S. Volume 32).
Rem You have raised an important point, that adjustment must be in relation to the Supper.
JT That is how it stands. It is now some one hundred and fifty years and still we are getting help to regulate us, one with the other. God is ready to come at any time. The Lord Jesus is the Mediator. He is the One to carry on mediation.
Rem Moses was typical of that. He had to arrange and control it all, though the people brought the things to him.
JT Christ is the Mediator; not the Jew, but the Man.
Rem “And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it as Jehovah had commanded — so had they done [it]; and Moses blessed them”, Exodus 39:43.
JT It was all done in order and all finished, and at the end of the book God had come in among them.
Rem So in Psalm 132:14 it says, “This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”.
JT God rests complacently among His people. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). That is the Lord’s supper.
Rem “That they bring me a heave-offering; of everyone whose heart prompteth him”, Exodus 25:2.
JT Yes, it is the working of the heart. Corinthians is the most prominent part of the service as to the assembly. And John says, “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”, Revelation 1:10. That was the day, but the assembly is the vessel.
Rem “And they shall make me a sanctuary”, Exodus 25:8.
JT A dwelling [p. 300] or habitation.
Rem They would secure conditions for God to dwell there.
JT And order is a great part of it.
Ques Is the thought of order in 1 Corinthians?
JT The word ‘order’ is a very prominent word. That epistle peculiarly stresses the service of God. In Acts 20:7 it says, “we being assembled to break bread”; that is when the service of God begins. We begin with Exodus as a type, for God speaks in types.
Rem The word in verse 8 is “that I may dwell among them”, not with them.
JT It implies the freedom or latitude that God gives His people. Christendom is rebuked in this scripture. Exodus, and all that we have read, belongs to the service of God. So “I became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” is the kind of state we should be in on the Lord’s day. All who have the Spirit should be glad to be there on the Lord’s day.
Rem In 2 Corinthians 6:16 it says, “I will dwell among them, and walk among them”.
JT Walking is outside, dwelling is inside; it is where He loves to have us with Him.
Rem “Be separated, saith [the] Lord, and touch not [what is] unclean”, 2 Corinthians 6:17; we should know what we have come out of.
JT “And I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people”,2 Corinthians 6:16.
Ques Is the state of Christendom the result of not taking account of the pattern?
JT It was in my mind all day that our meetings should be patterned on these scriptures, and on the New Testament, especially John’s gospel, for it is marked by it; even that our hymns should be properly sung, and so on.
Rem It says in John 14:23, “If anyone love me, he will keep my word”.
JT So in the number of men here, the masculine [p. 301] idea is prominent; the sisters are to learn in silence, though they have been adjusted lately!
Rem Outwardly there has been deterioration from the pattern, but we have the divine instructions here.
JT God is dwelling among us, and we have the great servants, Paul and Peter, telling us what to do; Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, and Peter in his second epistle (2 Peter 1:13), “But I account it right, as long as I am in this tabernacle”, that is his own body, and then in the next verse, “my tabernacle”, a word for all of us, “knowing that the putting off of my tabernacle is speedily to take place, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has manifested to me”.
Rem There is the need for instruction; it is to be handed down.
JT That is just the word. The children should know and think of the breaking of bread, and should be told of the order that belongs to it.
Rem What Jehovah says to Moses in Exodus 34:27 is meant to impress them, “Write thee these words; for after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel”.
JT Very good.
Ques Is the tabernacle meant to be a representation of God’s thoughts? Peter refers to his body, and God should be expressed in each of us.
JT Peter could so speak because the Lord had told him he should suffer martyrdom; so he says “speedily”, it was not long, he was not an old man.
We need to think of that, the possibility of the Lord taking anyone at any time. At the same time there is the translation, and we are looking for that.
Rem In 1 Thessalonians 4:4 Paul speaks of the believer’s body, “that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour”.
JT So that the vessel there [p. 302] is the body.
Ques Is the tabernacle the same thought as the body?
JT Just so, it is. But the word ‘tabernacle’ is convenient to use. Of the Lord, John says, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt (see note, ‘tabernacled’) among us”, John 1:14.
Rem The expression “established in the present truth” is impressive.
JT I think so, and it accounts for the freshness of the truth; it is to keep us fresh. So the Lord Jesus says twice over in John 14 (verses 18 and 28), that “I am coming to you”, that is, not at any special time, it is at any time; it is not ‘I come’ but “I am coming”.
Rem That word in John follows on the word as to the coming of the Spirit; in the Spirit, conditions will be right for His coming.
JT I believe that will be so till the last minute. God has control of His own affairs. It may be now, or soon, or it may be delayed a little. Pleasing God is the great thing now.
Ques What about John 1:14?
JT “Tabernacled” is a reference to the Lord’s own body. He tabernacled among the brethren, but it was His own body that was in mind.
Rem The tabernacle is a greater type than the temple.
JT It is. It involves the thought of dwelling.
Rem The temple is a static thought, but the tabernacle is movable.
JT Just so; at times His own would come together, and God was among them; even two or three, He would be content with that, “there am I in the midst of them”, Matthew 18:20.
Rem There are not only the movements of the saints, but of divine Persons Themselves.
JT “And has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together”, Ephesians [p. 303] 2:6.
WS I am thinking of the word ‘speedily’ (verse 14).
JT A good word. You and I are about the same age, and can apply the word to ourselves.
Rem It is a word for us all; also the word in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “in the twinkling of an eye”, and what will be done in it!
JT Read it, please.
Rem “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in [the] twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet”.
JT The “twinkling of an eye” is very simple, the act of the eye and what enters into it. Clearly that passage peculiarly applies to the Lord’s coming and then to the Lord’s supper, to keep us fresh.
Rem “Quickly” is His last word; Revelation 22:20.
JT “Yea, I come quickly”, you can see it is linked up with the service of God in the assembly.
Ques Are we to know what transformation “according to the same image” is, in the service of the assembly (2 Corinthians 3:18)?
JT How many times we have said it in the Lord’s day morning meeting! It is the time of change; it involves the saints and the Lord, too.
Ques Has “of his fulness we all have received” (John 1:16) any bearing on our service in the assembly?
JT The fulness there is what Christ is in the familiar way in which the Lord comes in among us; it is a time for the assembly; it is Christ’s assembly; it is Christ that died for the assembly, a wonderful thought, to be ready for the dwelling and His coming into the assembly.
Rem Ephesians 2:22 says, “ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”.
JT That is the same idea.
Rem The reference to the Word dwelling among us is in the past tense, so also is verse 16, “we all have received”. Does that not make it only apostolic?
JT Dwelling among us is an historical fact, and that fact remains in its bearing now.
Rem In Colossians 1:19 it says, “for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”.
JT It does not say what “the fulness” was.
Rem It dwelt in His Person as tabernacling here.
JT Now as to 2 Corinthians 5, “For we know” is the knowledge that belongs to the apostles, but it is characteristic of everyone who has the Spirit. A ‘house’ is the same idea as ‘tabernacle’, “a house not made with hands”; it is what we are coming into presently. “We know”, it is those who have the Spirit know this, for He is the earnest. So the word ‘house’ here is the general thought of God’s habitation, and it has a collective character to it. The passage is intended to accustom us to the heavenly side of the truth. It is what we are coming into.
Rem It is “our earthly tabernacle house”, a collective thought, over against 2 Peter 1 where it definitely refers to his own body.
JT “We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. I would think that enlarges out in the mind as to the assembly.
Rem So the footnote to verse 2 refers to ‘(out of)’, that is, out of heaven now, in relation to our own bodies, in keeping with what is coming down.
JT Just so; so the city is seen “coming down out of the heaven from God”, Revelation 21:10.
Rem The Spirit came down and He makes all fresh and new.
JT “Out of heaven” implies origin; the coming season will be earthly blessing, but what we are going on with is the assembly; we are to be taken up with it, and to be intelligent, and know what to do,
especially on the Lord’s day, and each day as it comes: “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge” (Malachi 2:7); we are made intelligent by God.
Rem If we have any lack of “ardently desiring” this change (verse 2), the ministry would greatly enhance that in us. The Spirit would form a faculty in us for these ardent feelings.
JT For the last sixteen or seventeen years the Spirit of God has been working for this. So that at the Supper we do not speak to the Father immediately. In olden days the bread was not broken for a long time, and so on, but now it is different; God is helping us; the three-day meetings are of great help because the truth is enlarged and worked out in detail.
Ques Why is it “we know” and “we have” here?
JT It is to intelligent persons; Paul speaks to such.
Rem Paul at Thessalonica, in Acts 17:3, was “opening and laying down” the truth.
JT Just so; opening up first, and then laying down; so that, maybe, we get something by the end of the meeting!
Rem The Lord gathered the crowds and fed them.
JT How many were there? “About five thousand men, besides women and children”, Matthew 14:21. The sisters have to come to it, but the men are more important as divine material; it was “five thousand men”.
Ques In Acts 2:41 we have “there were added in that day about three thousand souls”. Would that be more general for the working out of the assembly?
JT “Souls” speak of intimate feelings.
Rem We speak of ‘soulless’ people. They have hearts, but ‘soul’ is a word by itself.
Rem In John 6:10 also we have the men referred to “in number about five thousand”.
JT That is it; the men predominate. ‘Souls’ [p. 306] is different. The soul is an organ we have in a moral sense. A doctor cannot dissect out the soul!
Rem In Genesis 2:7, “Man became a living soul” in view of response.
JT Just so.
Rem The whole of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians is written in view of that.
JT And also that the dear brethren may become better acquainted with the dwelling-place of God.
Ques Is the zeal Paul speaks of in verse 9 a matter of the soul?
JT ‘Zeal’, that is the word.
Ques What about “the crowd of names” in Acts 1:15, “about a hundred and twenty”?
JT That was a number that was of value at that time. Learn to count the brethren; they may not be of the same value as the number.
Rem We are always to include the children.
JT Yes; if they are converted and have the Spirit. They can come in at ten or even less.
Rem At Ephesus in Acts 19:7 it says, “And all the men were about twelve”.
JT It was meant to be that number, which refers to administration. God is looking for administrators.
Rem The largeness of what you are referring to is very attractive as to the glad tidings. We should think of it not only in word, but in deed.
JT How we shall be greeted when we get to heaven!
Rem It is a wonderful word here in verse 4, “that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”.
JT That is it, and in John’s gospel the great thought is life. John 3:16, “may ... have life eternal” is the great quantity of it.
Ques What does “the earnest of the Spirit” (verse 5) refer to?
JT It is the quality. It may be ten times [p. 307] as much in one as compared with another, but the thing is there in each.
Ques Is it the thought of a token, a part of the original thing?
JT Heaven looks down and sees it, and says, I have that! It is a question of quality; and to bring the children up to the standard is the great thing.
Rem 2 Corinthians 3:18 takes in quantity and quality, “But we all”; but in chapter 4:18, what is “not seen”, is our outlook in view of quality.
JT The first thing is the glory of the Lord. Can I look at that? It requires power in the soul. When He comes we shall not be hesitant, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2), but it also says, “all the tribes of the land shall wail because of him”, Revelation 1:7.
Rem As we look at one another we see the transformation.
JT That is it; so that we are not brothers and sisters, but as we proceed in the service we come to the thought of divine Persons, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and Christ as the Mediator; the sisters as a distinct feminine thought goes, and the assembly comes in.
Rem So it says here in verse 5, “Now he that has wrought us for this very thing is God”.
JT It is God operating in view of it, and the Lord Jesus, the Minister of the sanctuary, and the Holy Spirit who will go up with the assembly. Then there is the thousand years to come in. Peter says, “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8); that is the divine way of reckoning!
Rem We should be occupied with building, not with destruction in the world.
JT Well, there is some order in the world; God is looking after things, though He is hiding His face from the Jew.
[p. 308] Rem The Lord impressed the disciples that the Spirit was coming, and now the Spirit is impressing us with the Lord’s return.
JT Each divine Person is doing His part; to us there is one God.
Ques Have you a word on 2 Peter for us?
JT “The present truth” (verse 12) is as to the Spirit. The Spirit is asserting Himself now.
Rem The thought of ‘tabernacle’ is a movable idea.
JT That is it. They were going somewhere, but the time came when they were settled.
Rem “The present truth” is what should occupy us now.
JT That is it. The gospel came first, then the truth of the assembly; this has been so for fifty years or so, and it is getting brighter and brighter, and more and better understood.
Rem The Levites and the whole camp of the children of Israel began to move at once when the priestly trumpet sounded; when God is moving, all are to move; so Peter says we are to be “established in the present truth”. So the cloud moving decided their encampments.
JT That was seen in the books of Moses, especially Numbers. We should all be reading the Pentateuch, and then Paul’s writings. Paul was a great architect.
Rem Peter speaks of him in this epistle (chapter 3:15) as “our beloved brother Paul”.
Rem Hebrews 13:17 reads, “Obey your leaders, and be submissive; for they watch over your souls as those that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you”.
JT That is a word alluding to the assembly as travelling on through the wilderness; the word is always available.
[p. 309] Rem It is fitting that in the levitical character of things the second day of the week is marked by prayer.
JT Just so, it is fitting.
Ques Would prophecy under the power of the Holy Spirit imply that the meeting for prophetic ministry should follow early in the week?
JT That is a question of experience, and where we learn to take things up with God in this way.
Ques The Lord had shown Peter something here (verse 14), and likewise Paul. Should not the assembly be the same?
JT That is in mind in the reference to the “earthly tabernacle house”.
Rem Paul says, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief”, 1 Thessalonians 5:4. The saints are to become increasingly intelligent as the translation becomes imminent.
JT The hour of our translation is at hand. How little we take it in! But God is not anxious that any should perish; we must not forget that.
Rem Peter speaks of the “scope of prophecy” in verse 20.
JT Yes, and many are taking up the Old Testament to read. Do you here?
Rem Yes, indeed.
JT The brethren are taking it up as much as the New.
Rem The “power of the Holy Spirit” that Peter refers to in verse 21 is available to us, too.
JT It is that whereby we get intelligence in questioning and answering. The care meetings are also very good, as the brethren exchange thoughts; and three-day meetings are good, too.