After the children of Israel got into the wilderness, they ate manna (Exo. 16:14-15; John 6:51). Manna was a kind of heavenly food which rained from heaven. It did not come from this earth. That was a type of the ascended Christ. The Christ in the heavens comes to us all the day long as the heavenly food. First you enjoy the redeeming Christ, and then the crucified Christ. Afterwards you enjoy the resurrected Christ and eventually the ascended Christ. The redeeming Christ redeems you. The crucified Christ energizes you to get out of Egypt. The resurrected Christ enables you to live a life without sin. And the ascended Christ becomes your daily supply to keep you living every day. This is the Christ who is in the heavens, and yet who also comes into you every day. We all have this kind of experience. Every morning when we spend a few minutes with the Lord, we do have the sensation that Christ in the heavens is raining upon us. We pick up the manna to eat. Manna is the ascended Christ in the heavens raining to us for our daily supply.
In the wilderness the children of Israel needed manna for food, but they also needed something to drink. So there was living water flowing out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6; John 7:38-39; 1 Cor. 15:45b). This signifies the pneumatic Christ, the very Christ who is the Spirit. So you have the redeeming Christ, the crucified Christ, the resurrected Christ, and the Christ in ascension. Such a Christ became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This is the pneumatic Christ. This pneumatic Christ becomes our drink, our living water, which quenches our thirst. In Exodus we have to see the redeeming Christ, the crucified Christ, the resurrected Christ, the Christ of ascension, and the pneumatic Christ. Hallelujah, this is our Christ! Such a Christ is for the building up of the tabernacle.
After experiencing the Passover, eating of the heavenly manna, and drinking of the living water, the children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai. Today due to the background, many Christians don’t like the word Sinai because that was where the law was given. The law was given on Mount Sinai, but the law was only a part of what was given. There the design of God’s dwelling place was also given. The children of Israel built up a tabernacle. The law as God’s testimony was just a little part within the tabernacle. Eventually those people who were redeemed, who partook of the lamb and the unleavened bread, the manna and the living water also partook of the riches of the tabernacle with the offerings, which typified the corporate Christ, that is, Christ and the church (Exo. 40:34-38; John 1:14; 1 Cor. 12:12). The tabernacle is too rich.
Not only did they take part of the tabernacle itself, but the tabernacle with all the offerings. Look at the riches of all the offerings, and look at the riches within the tabernacle. Both inside and outside of the tabernacle were many riches. Outside of the tabernacle on the altar there was the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the free will offering, the wave offering, and the heave offering. All these are different aspects of the riches of Christ.
Yet all these riches are outside of the tabernacle. After enjoying all these riches outside on the altar, we need to enter into the tabernacle to enjoy the riches within the tabernacle. Within the tabernacle there was the showbread table, the lampstand, the incense altar, and the ark. Within the ark there were further riches. Within the ark there was the law as the testimony of God, there was the hidden manna within the golden pot, and there was the budding rod of Aaron. My, what riches! All these items are the riches which God is dispensing into us in His dispensation.
By enjoying Christ as all the offerings outside of the tabernacle, you are able to enter into the tabernacle. Today the tabernacle is the proper church life. Within the tabernacle, that is, within the church life there is bread on the table. This is much better than manna. Upon the table are rows upon rows of bread. This is Christ to be your life supply. This is much richer than manna. Then there is the lampstand with the light shining. This light is the light of life (John 1:4). First you enjoy Christ as your life supply, your daily food. Out of this enjoyment you receive light. The more you enjoy Christ as life, the more you have the shining of the light. In the tabernacle Christ shines, not just by one lamp, but by seven lamps. And these seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lamb. The seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven lamps before the throne of God. These are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 4:5; 5:6). In the church life we have the rich enjoyment of Christ on the table. Out of this rich enjoyment of Christ, we have the seven Spirits of God shining. The lampstand comes out of the showbread table. First comes the bread and then the light.
After the light comes the ark as God’s testimony. In the ark there is the deeper enjoyment. The hidden manna is there. In Revelation 2 the Lord promised the overcomers that they would eat of the hidden manna (v. 17). This is not the public manna under the sky, but the manna hidden in the golden pot. The hidden manna is concealed within the golden pot, the golden pot is concealed within the ark, and the ark is concealed within the tabernacle. There are three layers of concealing. How deep is this hidden manna! Some Christians today enjoy the manna under the sky. A few enjoy the bread in the Holy Place. It is the overcomers, the saints who seek after the Lord to the uttermost, who enter into the Holy of Holies and even into the golden pot where they enjoy Christ as the hidden manna.
Here there is such a deep enjoyment of Christ to strengthen you to bear the testimony of God. The testimony of Jesus is quite requiring and quite demanding. Sometimes you may consider that in the local churches the demand is too high, and you cannot fulfill it. But right by the side of such a testimony there is a golden pot, that is, the divine nature, holding the hidden Christ for your enjoyment. You don’t need to fulfill the requirement of the testimony by yourself. The hidden Christ in the divine nature affords you the hidden manna to strengthen you to fulfill the testimony.
When you enjoy the hidden Christ in such a deep way there will be the budding. What does it mean to bud? It is to blossom, to spread the resurrection life. Then there will be the glorification. The budding, the blossoming, is just the glorification.
Up to this point, dear saints, God would be dispensed into His chosen people to the uttermost. We all need to see this. This is God’s dispensing in His dispensation. I love the dispensation, but without the dispensing the dispensation means nothing. We need the dispensing of God Himself in His dispensation. Throughout all the centuries God has been carrying out His dispensation to dispense Himself into us. We don’t want simply to learn about His dispensation; we want to enjoy His dispensing, He Himself being dispensed into our being.
Then we would have the inner testimony, the hidden Christ. We would have the budding rod blossoming to express God. Up to this point the Triune God will have become one with His chosen people. Such a tabernacle becomes God’s oracle where we can enjoy God’s speaking. The local churches are God’s oracle where God’s speaking is going on every day. In Christianity you can hardly hear God’s voice, but in the recovery the Lord has an oracle. This is the church life. It is the place for God to speak. Immediately after the tabernacle was completed in Exodus 40, the Lord called unto Moses and spoke to him out of the tabernacle (Lev. 1:1). Today the tabernacle is the proper church life where there is a kind of infusing with God’s constant and instant speaking. We enjoy His constant speaking, and His speaking always brings us His presence. This is the blessing of the Lord’s recovery.
At the end of the book of Exodus there is the tabernacle as a corporate expression. When the tabernacle was completed, the glory of the Lord descended, overshadowed the tabernacle, and filled it up (40:34-35). That was a corporate people mingled with the glorious God. The tabernacle was a symbol of the people of Israel. Actually it was not the tabernacle made of wood and other materials that was God’s dwelling place. That tabernacle was only a symbol that the children of Israel were God’s dwelling place.
When God’s glory descended, overshadowed, and filled the tabernacle, it was a symbol that the entire people of Israel were mingled with God’s glory and enjoyed that glory. Many times in our meetings we too have the sensation that God’s glory is overshadowing and filling us. The hall is filled with glory, and we are under the saturation of the glory. This is God’s dispensing.
This kind of infusing glory is also God’s leading. Exodus 40 tells us that the glory upon and within the tabernacle was God’s leading to the children of Israel. When the cloud of glory was taken up, they went onward. When the cloud of glory was not taken up, they did not journey (Exo. 40:36-38). The leading was just the glory of Jehovah. Today the Lord’s leading is His glory with the church. The best way to be clear what you should do or where you should go is to enjoy the glory in the church. In the church God’s glory breaks and you have a “highway” to travel on. You are so clear about your future, your destiny, your human life. The best place to be is on the highway of the church life. The best thing to do is to carry the church life. Our leading and our guidance is just the glory of the Lord, overshadowing and filling up the church life. As long as you are kept in the church life, you are in the Lord’s leading, and you are on the highway of God’s purpose. Here you enjoy the tabernacle with all its riches.