THE "EARTHLY TABERNACLE HOUSE" AND "THE BUILDING FROM GOD"
THE “EARTHLY TABERNACLE HOUSE” AND “THE BUILDING FROM GOD”
2 Corinthians 4:16 - 18; 2 Corinthians 5:1 - 5
I desire to say a word in regard to the work of God as having reference to us inwardly and outwardly, and in this connection to seek to point out the distinction between the bearing of the first and second epistles to the Corinthians. The second epistle is restorative; it is a question of restoration, and hence the Son is brought in. The faithfulness of God is established in the Son, and the new covenant is introduced; whereas in the first epistle the point is the authority of Christ.
Now it is helpful to compare these two epistles with the first giving of the law by the hand of Moses and the second giving of the law. In connection with the first giving of the law, Moses was absent from the camp. He had received certain communications; he had received the law from the hand of God, as is recorded in Exodus 20 to 23 inclusive, and he “wrote all the words” (Exodus 24:4) and left them with the people when he went up to the mount to God; he left with the people the divine commandments; and Aaron and Hur also remained with them. So we see there the people of God left, as it were, to themselves, to be regulated by God’s commandments, and that became the test. The withdrawal of Moses from the camp put the people to the test. His absence became a test to them, and they said: “as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what has become of him”, Exodus 32:1. They professed not to be able to tell what had become of the mediator, and hence they would have another leader and another god, and thus the most serious situation conceivable resulted.
[p. 227] I compare that with the first epistle to the Corinthians. The apostle Paul was the representative of Christ’s authority. He had communicated to the Corinthian saints the divine commandments and had left them, and his absence from the people became a test to them. Now what puts us to the test is the absence of Christ; that is the position in which the assembly has been left here on earth. The Lord has gone on high, and our affections are put to the test by His absence, and as it happened with Israel so it has happened with the assembly.
When the apostle wrote his first epistle things had not completely gone, but there was the danger of the introduction of idolatry. Out of regard for the saints at Corinth Paul remained away. Had he come to them it would have been serious. Now what I want to show you, beloved friends, is that a condition of that kind renders it impossible for Christ to come in in the light of Head. Moses was on his way down from the mount with the most wonderful disclosures of God’s mind. For forty days God had been speaking to Moses about Christ. He had been unfolding to him what was in His mind to establish in Christ, and all that wonderful disclosure was about to become the property of Israel, but the state of Israel wholly precluded Moses from introducing it. In like manner it is impossible that we should come into the good of the headship of Christ, that we should come to know Christ as the One who unfolds to us the wisdom of God, unless there is loyalty of heart to Him. Everything depends on the affections. Now we see the Lord Jesus is gone on high, and hence there is the unfolding of all that is in God’s mind, and the saints are put to the test by His absence. I take it that the Lord’s supper stands in that connection. It contemplates the absence of Christ from this world. And the Lord, in His gracious love, would in that way revive [p. 228] the affections of His people to Himself week after week.
Moses breaks the tables of the covenant. It was utterly impossible for him to communicate the instructions regarding the tabernacle to Israel on account of their state. Instead of that he took the tabernacle that had existed in the camp and pitched it far from the camp. In other words, there had to be separation from the state of things that had arisen because of the lack of loyalty of heart to Jehovah. And that is just a picture of what we have to do with today. Christendom has become a camp; a camp, I need not say, marked by idolatry, and there is not only idolatry in it, but it is anti-christian: there is rivalry to Christ; another captain has been chosen.
The affections of the people of God have become diverted from Christ, and if they are to get into the light of God’s mind in Christ there must be separation. We cannot be in the light or good of the headship of Christ apart from separation. It is those who love Christ that know Him as Head. His headship is known by affection, and affection for Christ is marked by separation from all that disputes His authority. Whatever it be, there must be the refusal of all that disputes the authority of Christ, otherwise our affection for Him is questionable. It is a very serious thing that there should be cause for any suspicion being cast upon our affections for Christ. The Scriptures throw suspicion on a certain class of believers. The epistles of John, for example, throw suspicion not only on our affections but on our christianity, and surely we do not want that there should be room for any doubt, either as to our affection for Christ, or our christianity.
Well now, that is what I see in regard to the first epistle to the Corinthians. The apostle Paul refrained from going to Corinth out of consideration for the [p. 229] saints there; had he gone the result could only have been judgment. The jealousy of Christ had been aroused. They had been espoused by the ministry of Paul to Him, and had been diverted from Him, and “jealousy is cruel as the grave”, Song of Songs 8:6.
The affections of God’s people today have been diverted from Christ by the doctrines of Balaam, and the issue is tremendous. It is appalling to think of the consequences of the issue that has arisen between Christ and Christendom. Paul asks, “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?”, 1 Corinthians 10:22. The result will show that Christ is stronger. Well now, Paul remained away so that the Corinthians might escape, and thank God they did escape, and we may thank God that we have escaped. The only escape now from the result of the burning jealousy of the Lord is separation. We take sides with Him against idolatry and the spirit of Anti-christ, and as we take up that position we attest our love for Christ, and that results in our getting divine disclosures; that is to say, those who show their love for Christ, their loyalty of heart to Him, get into the light and good of what He is as Head.
Now in the second epistle you have what corresponds in a sense to the second giving of the law. Although the same law was given, it was given under different circumstances. It was a law given by Jehovah as One who was sovereign in mercy; so that in a certain sense it was a new law, and in that respect there is in it an allusion to the new covenant. It was not the new covenant, but there was a partial foreshadowing of the new covenant in it. There was a shining in the face of Moses in connection with the second giving of the law; that is, there was some outshining of Christ in it.
That is what you get in the second epistle to the Corinthians, and what I wish to show you for a moment is that Paul corresponds with his great [p. 230] type; namely, Moses. Moses takes the ground of representing the people before God; he says, “if thou wilt forgive their sin ... but if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book”, Exodus 32:32. He was actuated by the Spirit of Christ. There is no man in the Old Testament who possessed the Spirit of Christ in a more pronounced way than Moses. A man who can wish to be blotted out of Jehovah’s book rather than that Jehovah’s people should be blotted out was actuated and controlled by the Spirit of Christ; and that is what you see in Paul also. His attitude towards the Corinthians was prompted by his affection for them, and he was in entire accord with God’s character; that is, he was true and God was true. They had questioned Paul’s veracity at Corinth; he cared nothing for that; God was true. He had preached the Son of God to them, and He was true. “The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us ... was not yea and nay, but in him was yea”, 2 Corinthians 1:19. Paul was in entire accord with what he had preached. He was bent upon the complete restoration of the Corinthians. Where there is departure God will never give up His ways with us until there is complete restoration.
And where is the faithfulness of God seen? In the Son. I should like to enlarge on that for a moment. It opens up the whole question of the position of Christ here on the earth. He was the Son of God. No other man save the Son could carry out and maintain and establish the faithfulness of God. The Son here in manhood was the guarantee for everything for the Father. The Son accomplishes everything in affection for the Father. He is not merely an official; He has affection, and here on earth He maintained everything for God on that ground. Paul preached the Son. God revealed the Son in Paul that he might preach Him, and in preaching the Son he preached the faithfulness of [p. 231] God. Every promise was Yea and Amen in that Person. It is a most wonderful consideration to my mind that in the Son becoming a man you have the guarantee of everything for God. The Son will do all. He is not simply there to accomplish something specific; He is there in the full enjoyment of the heart of God. He entered into all the Father’s thoughts, and He has carried out everything and established everything on the ground of affection. You cannot have true recovery apart from that. Departure from God is in the affections being diverted by some object, and recovery is in the Son.
And then you get the writing of God. The writing of God is a most interesting consideration. There was writing on the tables of stone; that was the writing of God; and there was the writing upon the ground by the Lord Jesus in John 8; that was the writing of God; and there is the writing upon the heart of man. The stone was simply the heart of the unregenerate man; it was the heart of adamant, wholly unsympathetic with the writing. There is no sympathy whatsoever in a stone; you may engrave something upon it, but it is utterly without sympathy. The Lord Jesus Christ wrote upon the ground. He wrote twice; the first writing excluded the Jew, put him out completely. We read, “they ... went out”, John 8:9. The second writing retained the sinful woman and preserved her from judgment. The second writing signified the death of Christ. He wrote upon the ground. When He rose up the second time there was no one present but the sinful woman, and He says to her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more”, John 8:11. The writing on the ground secured her from judgment; that is to say, it indicated the preservation of man apart from sin through the death of Christ, and I have no doubt that that is the result of God’s covenant.
Then chapter 3 of this epistle shows that the [p. 232] shining in the face of Christ brings in a new order of man here. The apostle speaks of the Lord as the spirit of the covenant, and His face shines. We all, looking at the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image. We are all made alike by beholding the glory. There is a generation here upon earth produced by the shining of the face of Christ. So that you have a wonderful generation. They are all alike in one sense, and yet in another sense there is infinite variety. According to chapter 15 of the previous epistle, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead”, 1 Corinthians 15:41. The difference is simply a difference of glory. It is a marvellous thought, beloved friends. It is the world that God has in His mind, a world out of death, each one in it having a body divinely given, but it is a body according to God’s pleasure.
Well, it seems to me you have recovery set forth in all that. The effect of glory is to produce agreement; we are changed into the same image. The word same in Corinthians has reference, largely, to something in common. There is the idea of the same Spirit; we all partake of the same loaf; we all drink of the same cup. It is useless to talk of recovery, beloved friends, unless there is unity, and unity is in affection. The shining of the glory is really the display of God’s nature, and it produces similarity in His people down here.
Well, what I see in chapter 4 is the character of the minister. Paul was a minister, and he was in entire accord with his ministry, so that we may take him to represent the inner work of the Spirit. He says, “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts”, 2 Corinthians 4:6. That is inward. It had shone into Paul’s heart for the [p. 233] shining forth. I take it that he in that way represents the effect of the inward shining. This produced similarity to Christ outwardly. The allusion really is to Gideon. The testimony that came out in Gideon was that he was a leader, and that his followers were all to act as he acted. He said: “Look on me, and do likewise”, Judges 7:17. Now what has Christ done? He is our great Leader. What has He done? He has died. And what will the Spirit of Christ do in the believer? He will work out in him the same kind of character. The character of Christ is reflected in Paul. Christ was his Leader, and he followed Him closely. It was a question of the shining forth of what was of God. The Lord Jesus Christ went into death that there should be the shining forth of the love of God. He wanted to make that known, and hence He died. Well, Paul was on the same line, so that the vessel, the “pitcher”, as it were, was broken. He says, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us”, 2 Corinthians 4:7. To Paul it was altogether a question of following Jesus.
Now in chapter 4:13 he touches the point of faith. He says, “having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak”. From that point he is led on to the full fruition of God’s work. There was the inner and the outer, the former having reference to the great future; the great eternal future. Paul compares his body to a tabernacle, as contrasted with that which he shall have eternally. What we are at the present moment by the work of God internally is far in excess of what we are externally. The first verse of chapter 5 shows that he regarded his body as a tent — a tabernacle. The allusion is to the tent in the wilderness. There was nothing imposing about the tabernacle in the wilderness; it was no [p. 234] building of outward show. It was simply a tent in which the divine treasures were; God’s testimony was treasured there.
Now the buildings of Solomon present an entirely different view; the point in the temple was magnificence and glory, and it was abiding — a building. And so our present bodies are simply tents, temporary abodes for God’s testimony; that is their only value. The Lord takes care of our bodies; but the death of a christian always reminds me of the taking down of a tabernacle, which has finished its career on earth; it has served its purpose for God’s testimony. But the man is to reside in a building; the man that had been in the tabernacle is to reside in a building; and hence the apostle says, “if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. We have all seen the dissolution of the tabernacle; God takes it down. The death of a christian is never an accident: it is God terminating that aspect of His testimony, but we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Now I wish to dwell on that for a moment, and I will close. You will recall, perhaps, in Leviticus 25, that if a man sold a house in a walled city and failed to redeem it within a year, it remained with the purchaser for ever; but if he bought a field, the field returned to its owner in the year of jubilee, regardless entirely of whether the original owner redeemed it or not. I take that as a type. The earth belongs to Israel, and to Israel it returns. The gentile possesses it for the moment; he lays claim to it; but he has to surrender it. The year of jubilee is coming in which all will return to the original owner, but the Jew failed to redeem his place in the walled city. Israel failed to redeem it when God, in His patience, waited upon them, and [p. 235] it remains in the hands of the gentiles. We, on earth as believers, have a place not upon earth. Like Barnabas, we have surrendered the earth. I do not know who bought Barnabas’s land, but Barnabas secured a place for himself in a “walled city”, and that place remains to him eternally. And so it is with each of us. We have a residence, a building from God, eternal in the heavens, a place secured for us for ever. I do not enlarge upon that. I have only wished to show you the course that God takes with us in restoration, and how that course ends in regard to the believer. Now he is only in the tent character, liable to be taken down at any moment, but he will have a house eternal in the heavens. That is the goal. The apostle says, “he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit”. In the meanwhile we have the earnest of that which is eternal, and so Paul did not look at anything else; he knew that everything in this scene was passing away, and therefore he looked at what is eternal. In the power of the Spirit he was able to anticipate the joy of eternity.
Well, beloved, that is all I have to say. One is exercised that the Lord’s people should get a bit of heavenly light, for really it is, perhaps, what we need most. The Lord would revive in our hearts the wondrous place that we have in God’s thoughts, and it is intimated here in the expression “a building of God ... eternal in the heavens”.