In this message we shall cover further aspects of Christ’s person in the fulfillment of the types and figures of the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament Christ is typified by the tabernacle with all the furniture: the showbread table, the lampstand, the incense altar, and the ark. Exodus 25:9 says, “According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it” (lit.). This type is fulfilled in Hebrews 9:1-5; John 1:14; and Hebrews 10:20.
Exodus 25:8 says, “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” This sanctuary was the tabernacle, which signifies God’s dwelling place. This dwelling place was not only for living but also for enjoyment. God’s dwelling place is the place for Him to be the enjoyment for His people, the place where God’s people may participate in the full enjoyment of God Himself. The Old Testament tabernacle was a type, a prefigure, of the real tabernacle, which was Christ Himself in the flesh. When Christ was in the flesh, He was the tabernacle of God among men (John 1:14). In the Old Testament God was in the tabernacle, for the tabernacle brought God to the children of Israel. In the time of the New Testament Christ in the flesh was the tabernacle that brought God to man so that man might enjoy Him. Through incarnation God became a man, mingled Himself with humanity, and became His own dwelling place. In Christ, the real tabernacle, God was embodied for our enjoyment.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Here we see that Christ, the incarnated Word, is a tabernacle. This tabernacle signifies the Word becoming flesh as God’s expression. Here the word “expression” is the same in significance as the gold in the Old Testament tabernacle. The tabernacle was built with boards of acacia wood overlaid with gold, which signifies God expressed. When Christ was on earth, there was with Him a certain kind of shining, and that shining was the expression of God typified by the gold of the tabernacle.
As the tabernacle, Christ shared in humanity. For the Word to become flesh means that the Word took on human nature. Humanity is typified by the acacia wood of the tabernacle (Exo. 26:15, 26). The shining gold and the acacia wood signify respectively the divine nature and human nature of Christ. Furthermore, as the tabernacle, Christ is God’s embodiment: “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). The fullness of the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—was embodied in the tabernacle, and this embodiment was God’s dwelling among men.
The fullness of the Godhead was embodied in the tabernacle so that man may enter into God and enjoy Him. Originally, God was mysterious, invisible, and untouchable. But now God has been embodied in a tabernacle that can be entered. This means that God is enterable; we can enter into Him and enjoy Him. Once we enter into God, we can experience Him in Christ as our life supply, signified by the bread on the showbread table, and as our light, signified by the lampstand. We can also experience Christ and, in particular, enjoy Him as the ark.
The tabernacle in the Old Testament had two sections: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The first item of furniture in the Holy Place was the showbread table (Exo. 40:22-23), which signifies Christ as our life supply (John 6:35, 57). In particular, the showbread table signifies Christ as the feast for God’s priests, since only priests were qualified to be in the Holy Place. Because those who ate the bread displayed on the showbread table were priests, this table indicates that Christ is a feast for God’s priests.
On the showbread table twelve loaves of bread were displayed. The number twelve signifies eternal completion and perfection. Christ is our eternal bread. Our enjoyment of Him as the showbread table is eternal.
The showbread table was made of acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exo. 25:23-24). Here acacia wood signifies that Christ’s humanity is the basic element for Him to be our feast. The gold overlaying the table signifies the expression of God, Christ’s divinity. Within Christ, His humanity is the basic element for our enjoyment, and upon Him is divinity as the expression of God. If we enjoy Christ, we shall express God. As we enjoy the Lord Jesus as the life supply with which we serve God, the outcome will be gold, Christ’s divinity as the expression of God.