Will you please turn to Exodus, chapter 25? We begin with verse 1.
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering:
of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take My offering.
Verse 8:
And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
According to all that I shew thee, the pattern of the tabernacle,
and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.
Verse 10:
And they shall make an ark of acacia wood:
two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof,
and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof,
and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold,
within and without shalt thou overlay it,
and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it,
and put them in the four feet thereof;
and two rings shall be on the one side of it,
and two rings on the other side of it.
And thou shalt make staves of acacia wood,
and overlay them with gold.
And thou shalt put the staves into the rings on the sides of the ark,
wherewith to bear the ark.
The staves shall be in the rings of the ark:
they shall not be taken from it.And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
And thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold:
two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof,
and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
And thou shalt make two cherubim of gold;
of beaten work shalt thou make them,
at the two ends of the mercy-seat.And make one cherub at the one end,
and one cherub at the other end:
of one piece with the mercy-seat shall ye make the cherubim
on the two ends thereof.
And the cherubim shall spread out their wings on high,
covering the mercy-seat with their wings,
with their faces one to another;
toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark;
and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
And there I will meet with thee,
and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat,
from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony,
of all things which I will give thee in commandment
unto the children of Israel.
Please turn also to Romans, chapter 3. We begin with verses 25 and 26.
Whom God set forth to be a mercy-seat, through faith, by His blood,
to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime,
in the forbearance of God;
for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season:
that He might Himself be just,
and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.
Finally, turn to Colossians, chapter 1, beginning with verse 15 through verse 19.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;
for in Him were all things created,
in the heavens and upon the earth,
things visible and things invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things have been created through Him, and unto Him;
and He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist.And He is the head of the body, the church:
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it was the good pleasure of the Father
that in Him should all the fulness dwell.
And Colossians, chapter 2, verses 9 and 10:
For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,
and in Him ye are made full.
May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Dear heavenly Father, how we do praise and thank Thee that whenever Thy people meet in the name of Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, we know Thou art here. We truly are in Thy presence.
We do desire to remove our shoes, because we are standing on holy ground. What Thou hast to say to us, we are here listening. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
I wonder how many who are here this morning were here last year. Will you please raise your hand so I know? Thank you.
Last year, when we were together, we shared on the golden lampstand. If you still remember, we talked about the function, the supply, and the reality of the lampstand.
We know the lampstand represents the church. It is very essential that we know what the church is in the mind of God, because all of us are very deeply involved in the church, which is the vessel of God’s testimony.
However important the church may be, it is not the center of God’s purpose. The very center of God’s purpose is Christ. So we cannot stop at the lampstand. I think we have to go on to the ark, because the ark is the very center and the very heart of the tabernacle.
When we think about the ark, probably our minds immediately go back to Noah’s ark. We remember how God, before His judgment fell upon that generation, asked Noah to prepare an ark made of gopher wood. Through that ark, Noah and his family—and, as a matter of fact, all the species of living creatures—were saved from the flood.
So Noah’s ark is a type of Christ crucified. Because of Christ crucified, and in Christ, we are safe.
Again, when we talk about the ark, especially after our brother mentioned Moses last night, people may think of Moses’ ark. You remember Moses, when he was three months old. His mother made an ark of bulrushes and put him in it. By that ark he was saved out of the water.
The meaning is the same. Even though Noah’s ark was a huge one and Moses’ ark was a tiny little one, they served the same purpose and have the same meaning. It is Christ crucified, and in Christ we are safe; we are delivered.
Here in Exodus, God commanded Moses and the people of Israel to build an ark. Of course, those who know Hebrew will tell us that the Hebrew word is different. The word used for Noah’s ark and Moses’ ark means a boat or a vessel. But the ark mentioned in Exodus, chapter 25, is another word, meaning a chest.
Strangely enough, it is the same word found in Genesis, chapter 50, in the last verse, where Joseph was put in a coffin. The coffin is called an ark; it is the same word.
Yet, even though there are these two different Hebrew words, when you come to the New Testament Greek, it is the same word. Whether it is Noah’s ark, as we find in Matthew 24:38, or the ark in the tabernacle, as found in Hebrews 9, it is the same Greek word.
So somehow I come to the conclusion that, whether there are two Hebrew words or one Greek word, it is the same principle. In Noah’s ark and in Moses’ ark, I think the emphasis is upon being in Christ. We are in Christ, and it is Christ crucified, because all the judgment fell upon Him and we are safe.
But in Exodus, chapter 25, the ark is put in the tabernacle. Therefore, I feel that the ark here is Christ Himself. You remember Paul said, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” In Noah’s ark and Moses’ ark we see Christ crucified, but the ark in the tabernacle is Christ Jesus Himself—He Himself in us. He is in the church, and He is in us.
Before we go into the details of the ark, we should mention another thing. When God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai. There, on the mountain, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.
Probably in our minds, that is about all we remember: Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. But, as a matter of fact, when Moses went up the mountain, he received more than the Ten Commandments. The Bible actually spends more chapters on what he received later on—the pattern of the tabernacle.
Why? Because the Ten Commandments were given to the children of Israel as a way, a means, to God. But the purpose of God is actually revealed in the tabernacle.
God told Moses, “Build Me a tabernacle” through the heave offerings of the people—love offerings from those whose hearts were prompted by love. Because of their love for God, they gave the materials for the tabernacle.
God said, “Make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” So, brothers and sisters, God’s purpose concerning His people is that He wants to dwell among His people. That is the purpose.
In order to dwell among the people, God commanded Moses to build the tabernacle. In a sense, God dwells with His people through the ark, because the glory of God rested upon the ark. The presence of God with His people was on the ark in the tabernacle. That is why the ark is the very center and the very heart of the tabernacle.
This ark was made of acacia wood. Now, we know acacia wood is a hardwood. In typology, wood always represents human nature.
Of course, our fallen human nature is corrupted, defiled, and perishing. But when God commanded Moses to build an ark, it was to be made of acacia wood, a hardwood. It stands for an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading human nature.
This immediately reminds us of our Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus came to become a man. The Word became flesh; He took upon Himself the form of a man. But, brothers and sisters, there is a difference: His human nature was sinless.
He took flesh just as we are, but not quite in the same way. Even though He took flesh and blood like we have, the flesh that He had was sinless. It was noble, incorruptible, undefiled, incapable of defilement, and unfading.
We do thank God that He loves us so much that, in order to save us, He sent His Son into this world to become a man like we are. But He is One who knew no sin. Because He knew no sin, He could be made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God.
So this ark, made of acacia wood, speaks of Christ in His humanity. He came to be a man, and yet He is different: incorruptible.
But the ark was overlaid with gold. Notice that it was overlaid with gold both inside and outside. Gold in Scripture always speaks of the divine nature—of divinity.
This tells us that before He came to become a man, He was God. That is the gold inside. He was God, and yet He emptied Himself to become a man.
Now, again, when we say that He emptied Himself, He could not empty Himself of His divinity or His deity, because He is always God. Yet He emptied Himself of certain attributes of His fullness.
For instance, He emptied Himself of His omnipotence. God is omnipotent; He can do everything. He is Almighty God. Yet when He came to become a man, He emptied Himself of His omnipotence. He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing.”
He emptied Himself of His omnipresence. God is everywhere; you cannot leave God. Yet when our Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem, He was not in Galilee. He had to travel.
He also gave up the exercise of omniscience. God knows everything from the beginning to the end. Yet the Lord said that no one knows the day; only the Father knows—not even the Son. He emptied Himself of these attributes, and of all the glory, honor, and worship that accompanied the Godhead, in order to become a man.
But He is still God. Therefore, on the outside the ark was overlaid with gold. He is the only God-Man—Emmanuel, God with us. Humanity and divinity are joined into one, and this is our Lord Jesus.
The ark had a border, or crown, of gold all around. What does that represent? To me, I feel it probably speaks of the glory of God.
You remember John 1:14:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us
(and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father),
full of grace and truth.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world to become a man, there was still that border of gold around Him. If we have spiritual eyes, if we contemplate Him, we can see the glory of God all around Him.
It was like the day when He took the three disciples to the Mount of Transfiguration. The glory diffused from Him, and they saw His glory.
There were staves to be put into the rings in order that the ark might be carried. Why? Because the ark was in a travelling position. The ark was travelling with the people of God, seeking to find a place of rest for them.
How we thank God that He will not rest until He has found rest for us. When He has found rest for us, then you remember later, when the ark was brought into Solomon’s temple, one version says the staves were pulled out because it had come into rest. It did not travel anymore.
He travels because we are travelling, because He is seeking to find rest for us.
The ark is a chest. It is empty—in other words, it was built to contain things. At the beginning, just after the ark was built, God put the testimony into the ark.
What is the testimony mentioned here? We know that God gave the two tables of stone, and on those two tables were inscribed the Ten Commandments.
In a sense, these Ten Commandments reveal to us the character of God. What kind of a God is He? Unless He reveals Himself, we do not know Him. Through the Ten Commandments, He reveals who He is.
On the first table, there were four commandments. These four commandments show us that God is holy. There is no other God. He is the only God—unique, separated, holy, uncommon, all by Himself, incapable of comparison.
You cannot create an image and worship it, because He is the only One who is to be worshipped. That is holiness. You cannot take His name in vain, because His name is holy. Even the Sabbath was set apart, because it was the day in which He rested.
So the first table of stone tells us one thing concerning the character of God: God is holy. Our God is a holy God.
Then the second table, containing six commandments, tells us that our God is righteous. He is not only holy, but He is righteous. Therefore, He requires that His people be holy and that His people be righteous.
So far as God Himself is concerned, the Ten Commandments are His testimony. They testify who He is and what kind of a God He is. But when that testimony reaches our hands, it becomes law. It becomes an obligation, a duty—something that we shall do and shall not do.
So far as it is in God, it is a testimony. So far as it is in our hands, it is the law.
God testified to His people what kind of a God He is, and He wanted His people to keep the Ten Commandments. If they kept these commandments, if they kept the law, they would live. They would be God’s people, and God would be their God.
But unfortunately, we all know the history. Before the Ten Commandments even arrived, they were already broken. While Moses was receiving the law on the mountain, the children of Israel made a golden calf and worshipped it.
They broke the law before the law reached their hands. That is why, when Moses came down and saw the situation, he cast down the two tablets of stone and broke them into pieces. In other words, the law had already been broken.
That shows us, brothers and sisters, that no one can keep the law. Even though we may have some idea and some knowledge of what kind of a God He is, by ourselves, in our flesh, there is no strength and no power to keep the law.
On the contrary, there is everything in us to break the law. I remember our dear brother Watchman Nee said something which, if you do not listen carefully, may be misunderstood: “The law is given to be broken, not to be kept.”
Now, from God’s side, the law is given to be kept, because God says, “Keep them, and you shall live.” But from our side, how true it is that the law is given to be broken in order to give us the knowledge of sin.
We do not know how sinful we are. We do not know how corrupt our flesh is. But when the law came, it exposed and revealed all that was within us. We find that within us there is everything that is against the very character of God. We break the law.
That is why God told Moses, “Build an ark and put the testimony in the ark.” Why? Because the testimony can only be kept in the ark.
No one can keep the law completely. We all break the law. But there is one Man—our Lord Jesus. When He was on earth, He was the only One who kept the law.
In His life, the holiness of God and the righteousness of God were maintained. Romans 10 tells us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.
Our Lord Jesus is the only One who kept the law in perfection. He fulfilled all the requirements of the law, not only in Himself, but for us, by taking upon Himself all the penalty of breaking the law. Because of this, He becomes righteousness to all who believe in Him.
So, brothers and sisters, we know that the law is kept in Christ. It is not kept in us—that is, in our flesh.
Before we believed in the Lord Jesus, we tried to keep the law. Even though we did not have the Ten Commandments, because we were not of the chosen race but were Gentiles, Romans 2 says that the law was inscribed upon our hearts.
In our hearts, within our conscience, we know God is holy and we know God is righteous. We know that, but we could not keep the law. We tried.
Thank God, when we found that we could not keep it, finally we gave up and came to the Lord Jesus. Thank God that He became our righteousness.
But unfortunately, after we are saved, we still think that now we are able to keep it. This is Romans 7. The Apostle Paul tells us of his experience. He thought that because he had a new mind and knew the law, he was able to keep it.
“Thou shalt not covet.” So he thought, “Well, I will not. I am determined not to.” But the more he willed, the more he found the contrary working in him.
So, brothers and sisters, thank God that we know we are not able to keep the law, but He has kept it for us. In Him, we are able to go even beyond the requirements of the letter of the law, because we are taking upon us the character of God Himself.
Later, as they travelled in the wilderness, more things were put into the ark. First, they exhausted all the food they had brought out of Egypt. They could neither sow nor harvest in the wilderness.
But God rained manna to sustain them throughout the forty years in the wilderness. Every morning, before the sun became warm, manna came with the dew. The children of Israel were commanded to go out and collect each day’s portion. This became the food of the people through the wilderness.
God told Moses to put some of the manna in a golden pot and deposit it in the ark as a witness and testimony of how God sustained His people by food that came from heaven.
Again, brothers and sisters, we say that this manna represents Christ, the bread of heaven. In John, chapter 6, after our Lord Jesus fed five thousand men, aside from women and children, with five loaves and two fishes, the people followed after Him.
The Lord said, “Labour not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which abideth unto eternal life.” He said, “I am the bread of life.”
Your forefathers ate manna in the wilderness. God gave them manna, not Moses. God gave them manna to sustain their lives, but Christ said, “I am the bread of life.” He that believes in Him shall not hunger anymore.
Brothers and sisters, we thank the Lord that our Lord Jesus is our spiritual food. He is the bread of life, and He sustains us throughout our wilderness journey.
Today, we are passing through this world. This world, to us, is a wilderness. We are only passing by. The only way we can be sustained through our days on earth is by the daily portion of our Lord Jesus.
How we need to receive our daily portion from the Lord. You cannot keep it overnight, because it will breed worms and cannot be eaten.
Brothers and sisters, how important it is that daily we should go to Him early in the morning, before the day dawns. It is then that we collect our daily portion of the living Christ out of His Word.
He is our life. He is our bread. He sustains us through the wilderness.
Then, as they went on, something else happened. There was a rebellion against Aaron and Moses. The people began to rebel and say, “We are all holy. Why do you usurp the privilege of the priesthood?”
Because of this rebellion regarding ministry—who is worthy to minister unto the Lord—God told Moses that every tribe was to prepare a rod. A rod cut from a tree is dead. Each leader’s name was to be written on his rod.
The rods were placed before the ark overnight. The next morning Aaron’s rod had budded, flowered, blossomed, and borne almonds. Now, the almond always represents resurrection.
This tells us that only those who are in the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus are qualified to minister unto the Lord. This settled the matter of ministry.
Brothers and sisters, how true it is that even today we have great problems with ministry. We have problems with righteousness, first of all, and then we have problems with life. People think they can live without Christ. We also have problems with ministry, thinking that we can minister unto the Lord in ourselves.
The only ministry acceptable to God is ministry in the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus. It must be out of His resurrection.
In other words, we have to go through the dark night. We have to go through death. All our natural ability and all our natural talents have to go through death. Only in resurrection will the Lord accept it as ministry unto Himself.
That rod was deposited in the ark. Thus, in Hebrews, chapter 9, the writer mentions these three things kept in the ark.
The ark was open on top. It had sides, but it needed a cover. God told Moses to make a cover, and that cover is called the mercy seat.
In the original, “mercy seat” means a cover or a lid. It was the covering over the ark, and it was made of pure gold. The ark was made of acacia wood, overlaid inside and outside with gold; but the cover was all gold.
Out of that gold, by beaten work, two cherubim were made as a covering over the mercy seat.
The mercy seat was all gold. In other words, on the basis of Christ’s coming into this world to become a man—and on the basis of His becoming our righteousness, our life, and our resurrection—God is now able to show mercy to us.
There is no difference: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But God has set forth Christ as a mercy seat. In the original, it is the same word: mercy seat. Many versions use the word “propitiation,” but actually it is mercy seat.
God has a wonderful nature. You remember Moses prayed before God, “Show me Thy glory.” I believe this is the highest prayer we can pray: “Show me Thy glory. I want to see Thy glory.”
God said, “No man can see Me and live.” But God was gracious. He said, “I will let you see My back—not My face, but My back.” God put Moses in the cleft of the rock, covered him, passed by, and declared His name.
The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
You find that our God, in His very nature, is a merciful and gracious God. Even though He is righteous and holy, He is merciful and gracious.
Deep in the center of His very being, this is our God. He wants to show mercy, but He could not overlook sin, because He has to execute His holiness and righteousness. He cannot deny Himself.
But thank God, in His great love, He prepared His Son for us as the ark. Because of that, there is now a mercy seat upon the ark. God has set forth Christ.
The two cherubim are also a mystery. It is strange that the first time we read about the cherubim is in Genesis, chapter 3. Immediately after Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden, God placed cherubim on the east side of the garden, with a flaming sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
That is the first mention of the cherubim, but they are not described. When God commanded Moses to make the ark with two cherubim, He did not tell Moses what form the cherubim were to have.
We begin to see something of their form when we come to Ezekiel. There we see the living creatures; they are the cherubim. Then, of course, in Revelation, we find the cherubim again—the living creatures. Yet their form seems to be somewhat fluid.
Now, we do not know with certainty about the cherubim. There are many different ideas about them, so I can only share what seems more satisfactory to me. You may have your own understanding.
To me, the reason the cherubim appeared when man was driven out of the garden is that they stood in the way of man’s returning to take of the tree of life.
Again, on the veil which separated the holy place from the holiest of all, there were cherubim embroidered. Why were they there? In a sense, the cherubim stood in the way because of our sin. We had sinned; therefore, we were not fit to approach God.
They stand for the righteousness of God. In Isaiah, you find that they stand for the holiness of God. In other words, these cherubim represent God’s original thought of creation.
God’s original thought is that there should be a creation that is holy because He is holy, and righteous because He is righteous. That is how we can have communion with Him.
Man is the masterpiece of God’s creation. God’s original concept concerning man is that man should have the character of God. Man was created in His image and after His likeness, and man is to be conformed to the image of God’s only beloved Son.
That is God’s original idea concerning His creation. Sin did not cause God to give up man—not at all. God says, in effect, “I still have My cherubim there. My purpose never changes.”
Even though temporarily the cherubim stood against man’s approach to God, the day would come when the veil would be rent. When the veil was rent, the way into the holiest was opened.
In Christ, by the new and living way, we are able to enter into the holiest and there commune with God. So, brothers and sisters, in one sense the cherubim represent the righteousness and holiness of God. They give glory to God and worship Him.
In Revelation, they lead in worship because they represent God’s original concept of creation.
The ark was to be put in the holiest of all. The tabernacle had three parts: the outer court, the holy place, and the holiest of all. The ark was put in the holiest, separated from the children of Israel.
The children of Israel could come to the court. There was a great altar there, and they could offer sacrifices and gifts upon the altar to be accepted.
The priests could enter the holy place. There they burned incense, worshipped, prayed, attended to the golden lampstand, and placed the showbread. They served and ministered unto God.
But no one could enter the holiest of all. Only once a year, the high priest, with blood and incense, could enter within the veil for a very short time to make atonement for the children of Israel. Then he hurriedly came out.
There was always the danger that he might not come out. Therefore, there were golden bells on the skirt of his garment. As long as the bells sounded, they knew he was still alive.
God is holy and righteous. Who can come into the very presence of God? No one can. If anyone dared to come improperly, he would be stricken to death. God is to be feared and worshipped.
In Old Testament times, even though God wanted to dwell among His people—and that was God’s heart, that He might dwell and commune with His people—because of their condition, the way to Him seemed so difficult and elaborate.
He wanted them to come, and yet they could not come. He opened a way, but it was a most difficult way. According to Hebrews, the Holy Spirit was signifying that the way into the holiest had not yet been made manifest.
They could worship only from afar. But, brothers and sisters, how wonderful for us: the fulness of time has come. Christ has come. He is the ark, the end of the whole system. The veil is rent.
Now we can go into the very presence of God through Him, and even live there. We dwell there, and He dwells in us. This is the glory of the new covenant that we are enjoying today.
In Old Testament times, the ark, even though it was in the midst of the people and represented the presence of God among them, was hidden.
When they began to travel, as we read in Numbers, the priests had to go in and cover the ark with the veil, then with a covering of sealskin, and then with a cloth of blue before it was carried. In other words, no one could see it.
Anyone who dared to look upon the ark would be stricken to death. Even the high priest, when he entered the holiest of all, did not really see it clearly, because the incense filled the place with smoke.
But today, brothers and sisters, what a privilege! Christ has come, and we may come to Him. Indeed, we may dwell with Him forever.
If you look at the tabernacle, you find that the ark is in the very center. Spiritually, the holiest of all is the center of the tabernacle, and the ark is in the holiest.
All the other furniture represents the work of Christ. But the ark represents Christ Himself.
It is through all the work of Christ that we are able to come to the Person of Christ, to know Him Himself. Never stop short at the work. Come to know Him. That should be our pursuit.
Many times we know the works of Christ. We enjoy the work of Christ. We thank God for His work. But do you and I really have a passion for Christ Himself?
God’s desire is that we know Him. He is the center of the tabernacle, the very heart of the church, and He should be the very center of our life. As a matter of fact, in the purpose of God, He is the center.
The ark reveals to us the mystery of God. No one knows God except through the Son. He who knows the Son knows God.
Finally, to me, this ark in the tabernacle tells us something of the eternal purpose of God.
Before the foundation of the world, before anything was ever created, God purposed according to His good pleasure. He did not consult anyone; there was no one to consult.
He purposed according to His good pleasure. We call this the eternal purpose of God—the purpose of the ages. Once this purpose was set, everything worked according to it.
He never changes His purpose. There is no deviation. As our brother said, it is a straight line from eternity to eternity. There is no break, no bend, and no deviation.
You and I are not detached from that purpose. We are very closely and intimately related to it, because nothing happens in this world, corporately or individually, that is not connected with the purpose of God.
How much we are involved in that purpose is important. What is that purpose? According to Colossians, God’s purpose concerns the Son of His love. He wants His Son to have the first place in everything—the preeminence of Christ and the centrality of Christ.
God gave all things to His Son as His inheritance. So far as His relationship with God the Father is concerned, He is the image of the invisible God.
God is Spirit, but the Son is the exact image and expression of the very being of God. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. There is nothing of God that is not in Him.
He is the image of the invisible God. He is the One who reveals God, makes God understandable, attainable, and knowable. He is with God, and He is God.
So far as His relationship with creation is concerned, Colossians says that all things were created in Him. He is the Designer, the Architect. When everything was created, it was created out of His mind, out of His character, to express His character.
All creation exists to express Him and to glorify Him. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is the One who holds all things together and makes them one harmonious whole.
When you take Christ away, the whole universe breaks apart, loses its purpose, and becomes scattered.
In relation to the new creation, to the church, He is the Head. Out of His side came the church. He is the firstborn from among the dead. He is the first One in resurrection life, and He is the Head of the church.
So, brothers and sisters, the eternal purpose of God concerns His Son. God wants His Son to be the center of all things, the Head over all things, and the expression that glorifies God. He is to have the first place and to be all in all.
There in the tabernacle, the ark is the center. It is not only the center of the tabernacle; it is the center of all that concerns God, His people, and His purpose among the nations.
So, brothers and sisters, when it comes to ourselves, how we need to come to Christ. We cannot stop short at the work of Christ. We cannot stop even at the golden lampstand in the church. We have to come to the very heart of God.
We need to know Him—not merely to know Him mentally, but to know Him experientially. In other words, we want to let Him be everything.
God is a jealous God. That is why God has to deal with us. He has to clear away everything that is not Christ, because Christ must have the first place, personally and collectively.
God’s desire is that Christ may completely reign. Unfortunately, there are men in this world who do not respond to God’s purpose. They live outside the purpose of God and do not receive the Lord Jesus as their life.
But it is God’s desire that we may be those who dwell in Christ, and that God and man may dwell together in Christ forever. That is the New Jerusalem.
Dear heavenly Father, we do thank Thee that Thou hast given us many clues in Thy Word, even in this living passage, concerning what Thy heart really is, what Thou dost really desire to have, and what Thou wantest us to be as Thy people.
We pray, Lord, that Thou wilt open our understanding, that we may see Thy Christ Jesus, and that we may really desire to know Him: the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, that we may attain unto the resurrection from among the dead.
We praise Thee that whom Thou hast foreknown, Thou hast also ordained; whom Thou hast called, Thou hast also justified and glorified. So, Lord, we commit ourselves into Thy hands. We believe that Thou wilt bring us into Thy purpose to satisfy Thy Son.
Lord, Thou art able to keep us and to qualify us. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.