Message Two

The Three Tabernacles

Scripture Reading: Exo. 25:8-9; 40:34;
John 1:14; 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Rev. 21:3, 22

1. The three tabernacles in the Holy Scriptures—the type of the tabernacle, the reality of the tabernacle, and the consummation of the tabernacle—reveal the goal of God’s economy to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity—Gen. 1:26; Exo. 40:34; Rev. 21:2-3, 10-11; 22:1, 5:
   1. The type of the tabernacle in the Old Testament is a full and complete revelation of the individual Christ as the Head and the corporate Christ as the Body, the church, including many details of the experience of Christ for the church life (as God’s dwelling place, the tabernacle and the temple were one)—Exo. 25:8-9; 1 Kings 8:1-11; Heb. 9:4.
   2. The reality of the tabernacle in the New Testament is the incarnated Christ, the individual Christ, and the corporate Christ, the Body of Christ; through His death and resurrection the individual Christ was enlarged to be the corporate Christ, the church, composed of the New Testament believers as the temple, the house of God, the Body of Christ—John 1:14; 2:19-21; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12.
   3. The consummation of the tabernacle as the conclusion of the complete Bible is the New Jerusalem, a great corporate God-man as the eternal, enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God with His regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite people—Rev. 21:3, 22; 22:17a.
2. Psalm 84 is the secret revelation of the enjoyment of Christ as the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle so that we may be incorporated into Him to become the reality and consummation of the tabernacle:
   1. “At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God”—v. 3:
      1. The two altars—the bronze altar for the sacrifices and the golden altar of incense—are the leading consummations of the work of the incarnated Triune God, who is Christ as the embodiment of God for His increase—Exo. 40:5-6:
         1. The first altar is the bronze altar for the offering of all the sacrifices (Christ in His crucifixion) to solve all the problems of man before God.
         2. The second altar is the golden altar of incense (the resurrected Christ in His ascension) for God’s acceptance of the redeemed sinners.
      2. Through our prayer at the incense altar we enter into the Holy of Holies—our spirit (Heb. 10:19)—where we experience Christ as the Ark of the Testimony with its contents (Exo. 25:22; 26:33-34; Heb. 9:3-4; Rev. 2:17).
      3. Through such an experience of Christ we are incorporated into the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to become a part of the corporate Christ as His testimony for His manifestation—Exo. 38:21; 1 Cor. 12:12.
      4. Through these two altars God’s redeemed, the “sparrows” and “swallows,” can find a nest as their refuge and a home with God in rest:
         1. The cross of Christ, typified by the bronze altar, is our “nest,” our refuge, where we are saved from our troubles and where we “lay” our young, that is, where we produce new believers through the preaching of the gospel.
         2. When we experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension, typified by the golden altar of incense, we are accepted by God in such a Christ and find a home, a place of rest, in the house of God.
      5. This house is the processed and consummated Triune God united, mingled, and incorporated with all His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect to be the Body of Christ in the present age and the New Jerusalem as the mutual dwelling place of God and His redeemed in eternity—John 14:1-23; Rev. 21:3, 22.
   2. “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yet be praising You. Selah... / O Jehovah of hosts, blessed is the man / Who trusts in You”—Psa. 84:4, 12:
      1. Praising the Lord should be our living, and our church life should be a life of praising—22:3; 50:23; 1 Thes. 5:16-19; Phil. 4:4, 11-13.
      2. In the church life we trust in God, not in ourselves or in our natural human ability to work out a solution to our difficult situations—2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12.
   3. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion”—Psa. 84:5:
      1. The highways to Zion are the blessed highways for seeking the incarnated Triune God in His consummations, typified by the furniture in the tabernacle—Heb. 9:2-5; 10:19-22.
      2. The highways to Zion in our heart mean that we must take the way of the church internally, not merely externally; when we are deeply in the inner life, we will certainly be in the way of the church—Psa. 42:7; Matt. 6:6.
      3. Zion is the very spot where God is, the Holy of Holies; the overcomers become Zion, and the Lord’s recovery is to build up Zion—Rev. 21:16; cf. Exo. 26:2-8; 1 Kings 6:20; Psa. 48:2.
   4. “Passing through the valley of Baca, / They make it a spring; / Indeed the early rain covers it with blessings”—84:6:
      1. The highways to Zion are not external, superficial, or cheap; we must pay a price to take the way of the church; while we are weeping on the highways to Zion, we are being filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes our spring—Matt. 25:9; Rev. 3:18; Acts 20:19, 31; Psa. 56:8.
      2. As we pass through the valley of weeping, our tears become a spring (John 4:14), and this spring becomes the early rain that covers the valley with blessings; this blessing is the Spirit (Zech. 10:1; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3).
   5. “They go from strength to strength; / Each appears before God in Zion... / For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand... / For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield; / Jehovah gives grace and glory”—Psa. 84:7, 10a, 11a:
      1. The more we go on in the church life, the more strength we will gain—Prov. 4:18; 2 Cor. 3:18; cf. S. S. 8:6.
      2. If our service is intrinsically according to God’s will in the church life, each day will be worth many days in God’s eyes—Joel 2:25a.
      3. The blessings of dwelling in the house of God are our enjoyment of the incarnated and consummated Triune God as our sun to supply us with life (John 1:4; 8:12), as our shield to protect us from God’s enemy (Gen. 15:1; Eph. 6:11-17), as grace for our inward enjoyment (John 1:14, 17), and as glory for the manifestation of God in splendor (Rev. 21:11, 23).