The recovery of the children of Israel was not only from Babylon but back to Jerusalem, the God-ordained unique ground. Jerusalem was the place the Lord had chosen (Deut. 12:5). Jerusalem, therefore, was the center for God’s people to worship Him, and this unique center preserved the unity of the people of God. Without such a center, after the children of Israel had entered the good land, they would have been divided. Foreseeing this problem, God repeated the commandment again and again concerning the place of His choosing (Deut. 12:5, 11,13-14). The people of Israel had no right to choose their own place to worship. That right was in God’s hands; He alone could make that choice, and the people were to take His choice, the divine choice. God’s choice became the center of the gathering of His people, and this is the unique ground of unity. For this reason, it was necessary for God’s people in the Old Testament to be brought back to Jerusalem, the unique ground ordained by God.
For God’s people in the Old Testament, Jerusalem was the unique place of worship, the uniting center. Babylon caused division, but Jerusalem maintained the oneness. Today’s Babylon is division, and today’s Jerusalem is oneness. When we come back to oneness we come back to Jerusalem.
Those who went back to Jerusalem from Babylon brought with them all the vessels of the temple of God which had been captured to Babylon (Ezra 1:5-11). These vessels, which were of silver and gold, signify the experiences of Christ and the riches of Christ. All the vessels in the temple are the experiences of the various aspects of Christ. The people of God were scattered, and all the spiritual experiences were carried away. That was a shame to them and to God. Even today, some dear Christians have real experiences of Christ, but they are in Babylon. This means that they have the experiences of Christ in the place of captivity, and in the place of idols. The experiences are right, but the place is wrong, for the vessels are right, but they are the vessels of the temple of God in the temple of idols. Therefore, all the vessels of silver and gold must be brought back to Jerusalem.
In typology, silver refers to Christ’s redemption, and gold refers to the divine nature, the nature of God. The children of Israel bringing vessels of silver and gold with them from Babylon to Jerusalem indicates that our experiences must be the experiences of Christ and His redemption and of God and His nature.
Today’s Babylon has not only captured God’s people but also robbed all the riches from God’s temple. The vessels, signifying the riches of Christ, have been carried away. This is the reason that in Roman Catholicism and in the Protestant denominations very little is said, if anything, concerning the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). The believers are not encouraged to eat Christ, to drink Christ, to feast with Christ, to enjoy Christ in full. The reason there is little or no enjoyment of the riches of Christ is that all the vessels in the temple have been carried away by Babylon the Great. Now the Lord wants to recover the experience of the riches of Christ. He wants not only to call His faithful people out of Babylon and back to the proper church life, but also to recover and bring back all the different aspects of Christ which have been lost.
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