At the end of Exodus we see a profound and wonderful picture of the Divine Trinity. Most readers of the Bible probably do not consider that there is a picture of the Trinity in this brief portion of the holy Word. We need to pray for the proper understanding in our apprehension of the following verses. Exodus 40:2 and 9 say, “You shall raise up the tabernacle...And you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle.” Verse 34 says, “Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.” Verses 36 through 38 say, “Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel set out on all their journeys; but if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of Jehovah was upon the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel on all their journeys.” The crucial figures in this picture that show us the Divine Trinity are the tabernacle, the anointing oil, the cloud, the glory, and the fire.
In Exodus 40 we see the entire, completed tabernacle for the first time. Immediately after the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud descended to cover it, and the glory entered to fill it. For the tabernacle to become an entire, completed, living, and genuine tabernacle, it needed not only to be constructed and raised up but also to be covered by the cloud and filled by the glory. When the tabernacle was raised up, covered by the cloud, and filled with the glory, it became a full type of the Triune God. John 1:14a says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Therefore, the type of the tabernacle was fulfilled in Christ, the second of the Trinity, God the Son incarnated. According to 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 and 12:13, the cloud that descended and covered the tabernacle is a type of the Holy Spirit, the third of the Trinity. That the descending cloud typifies the Spirit is also confirmed by John 1:32, which says, “John testified, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.” John saw the Spirit descending upon Christ, who was identified as the fulfillment of the tabernacle in verse 14 of the same chapter. Furthermore, verse 14b says, “We beheld His glory.” This glory corresponds to the glory that filled the tabernacle. Thus, the picture of the tabernacle covered by the descending cloud and filled with the glory of Jehovah in Exodus 40 was fulfilled in Christ in John 1.
Because the tabernacle is a type of Christ, the cloud represents the Spirit, and glory is God Himself expressed, the picture of the tabernacle covered by the cloud and filled with glory embodies the entire Triune God in figure. The day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud descended and covered it, and the glory entered and filled it was a great day in history. Never before had the Triune God been embodied on the earth. As human beings created by God, what more could we want? The tabernacle covered by the cloud and filled with glory was a great blessing to the children of Israel, but today we have the reality of what they had only in figure.
In order to understand what is recorded and revealed in John 1, we must compare it with the picture in Exodus 40. If we consider these two chapters together, we will see the light. The embodiment of the Triune God was God’s goal throughout Genesis and Exodus. It took more than twenty-five hundred years from the creation of man to reach the goal of raising up the tabernacle. In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” Thus, the Triune God conferred with Himself to produce an expression of Himself in man. However, God did not reach this goal with Adam or any of the forefathers in Genesis. Therefore, God went on in Exodus to deliver His chosen people out of their fallen state and bring them to Mount Sinai, where the tabernacle was produced as the first fulfillment of the desire God expressed in creating man.
Such a profound revelation requires that we be built up in the understanding of the spiritual things and in the apprehension of the inner revelation of the holy Word. We thank the Lord that He has shown this to us. It is easy to see the positive examples of Enosh calling on the name of the Lord, Enoch walking with God, Noah working together with God, Abraham being called and following God, and Joseph living a holy and victorious life. However, it is not so easy to see the significance of the tabernacle in Exodus 40. We need to see that at the end of Genesis God had not reached His goal. Joseph was dead and in a coffin in Egypt. There was no remaining expression of God. Joseph was humanly good, but the tabernacle is divinely wonderful.
There is no record in the Bible of how the children of Israel reacted when the tabernacle was erected, the cloud descended, and the glory entered, but I believe that many were beside themselves with joy. Today we have something much more profound. If we are not beside ourselves, this indicates that we have not seen the revelation. When we read John 1, we need to see that Christ as the fulfillment of the tabernacle is with us today, the covering Spirit is upon this tabernacle, and the glory is filling this tabernacle. This revelation of the Triune God is not mere doctrine. We are seeing a vision of the living Trinity. For years people had told me that when traveling by road between San Francisco and Los Angeles, I should take the Pacific Coast Highway to see the view along the coast. When I finally took this route several years ago, I could not believe the beauty of the scenery. The descriptions that I had heard did not compare to the actual view. I even stopped at several points and got out of the car to better appreciate the scenery. Similarly, we need not only to hear others describe what they have seen of the tabernacle but also to see for ourselves Christ as the tabernacle covered by the Holy Spirit and filled with the glory of God. As long as we see this scene, we will be joyful, regardless of whether others who do not see criticize us. Some are self-righteously content with their traditional concepts and inherited doctrines concerning the Trinity, but we want to see the revelation in the holy Word.