Although this is good, it is only the experience of the outer court. There are a number of good things in the outer court: bronze, silver, and white linen. However, there is nothing of gold, which typifies the divine nature. This means that when we are in the outer court, nothing of the divine nature has yet been wrought into us that can be expressed. There is only the judging and purging away of the negative things. In other words, as a result of the judging and purging in the outer court, a brother who was proud when he came to the church becomes very humble and seems to have no self-righteousness, self-glory, and pride. But this is merely in the realm of human conduct and the purifying of one’s conduct. At this stage there is nothing of God wrought into this brother that can be expressed—there is no gold manifested. This situation is good on the outside, but it is only the outer court, not the building. It is still in the open air, with no shelter, no covering, and no building. We need something divine to be mingled with our nature. We need the mingling of divinity with humanity. Therefore, we must press on from the outer court to the Holy Place and even to the Holy of Holies.
If by the mercy and grace of the Lord we entered into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, nearly everywhere we would have seen gold—the golden table, the golden lampstand, the golden incense altar, the golden Ark, and golden boards. All the surroundings were gold, the contents were gold, and every piece of the utensils was gold. What is the meaning of this? The wood of the boards (26:15) signifies humanity, the human nature, and the gold overlaying the boards (v. 29) signifies divinity, the divine nature. In the boards of the tabernacle divinity and humanity became one. On one hand, the boards were wood, and on the other hand, they were overlaid with gold. Within the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, divinity is mingled with humanity. That is why the two places are called the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, for anything holy must be of God. In the outer court we are righteous but not holy. Every aspect of our behavior and conduct in the outer court is right, for it is judged at the cross and purified at the laver. There is righteousness there but not holiness, which is the divine nature wrought into man. Not until we enter into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies do we see everything overlaid with gold. Nearly everything, every part, has the element of wood, but it is overlaid with gold. Humanity is there, but it is mingled with the divine nature.
Unless we enter into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies and have something divine wrought into us, it is impossible for us to be the boards built up together as the dwelling place of God. The church is built with the mingling of God and man. The mingling of God Himself with us becomes the very material for the building up of the Body of Christ. No matter how much we have been purified, we can only be white linen; we cannot be the boards for the building of the tabernacle. But the more we are overlaid with gold, the more we become the materials for the building of God. This is the reason that we must enter into our spirit, exercise our spirit, walk according to the spirit, and always be mingled with the Lord in our spirit. It is by this mingling of divinity with humanity that we become the materials for the building of the house of God.
The boards overlaid with gold in the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies stood on silver sockets (v. 19), which means that Christ’s redemption is the base and foundation for the building of God’s house. But where does the gold for the boards come from? It comes from the experiences of the golden table, the golden lampstand, the golden incense altar, and the golden Ark. The more we experience Christ as our life, as our light, and as our resurrection savor, and the more we experience Christ Himself in the deepest way, the more the divine nature is wrought into us. The gold that overlays the boards comes from the very experience of the contents of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The divinity that is mingled with our humanity comes only from the experience of Christ as our life, our light, and our resurrection savor, and even from the deepest experience of Christ Himself. This forms the materials for God’s building. We must experience Christ daily as our manna, our light, and our resurrection savor, and we must experience Christ Himself in the deepest way, in order to gain the divine mingling.
In order to be built up, there are at least three other things that we must be clear about. First each board was one and a half cubits wide (v. 16). We must realize that we are only one and a half cubits and no more. There were forty-eight boards in the tabernacle, which were combined in pairs, each pair of boards measuring three cubits in width. The reason that each board was only one and a half cubits wide is that each was only half the full measure and needed to be matched by another board. We must realize that we are only a half. When the Lord Jesus sent His disciples, He always sent them out by twos (Mark 6:7; Luke 10:1). Peter needed John, and John needed Peter. We are only a half, and we need another half to complete us. We should never act and work independently or individually. All our service and function in the church must be accomplished in a corporate way. Two boards must be put together. We are not a complete whole; we need another half. Who is your other half? We must realize that each one of us is not three cubits but simply one and a half cubits. We cannot go alone; we cannot serve individually; we cannot function and work independently. We must be a coordinated member in the building of God.
Furthermore, each board had two tenons, two extra parts extending into the sockets (Exo. 26:19). Why were there two tenons instead of one for each board? One tenon would have allowed a board to spin around, but two tenons held it firmly in place. Two means confirmation. To illustrate, a human being has two feet. If a man stands on one foot, it will be easy for him to turn or fall, but if he stands on two feet, it will not be easy for him to fall, and it will be awkward for him to turn around. God’s building does not need many “turning around” brothers. In the morning such a brother may be facing one direction, and in the afternoon he may face the opposite direction. By the next morning he may have turned yet another way. He is always turning around. It is difficult for us to know in what direction such a brother is facing. We may say that he is always spinning around on one tenon. With such unstable brothers and sisters there can be no building. In order for them to be built up, they must become stable. No matter what happens, they must stand in their place until they die. When a person is willing to sacrifice his life, the building of the church is possible. We need others to match us, and we need their confirmation continually.
In addition to the boards, there were bars of acacia wood overlaid with gold and rings of gold that connected and united all the boards together as one (vv. 26-29). The rings represent the Holy Spirit. We received the Holy Spirit as the rings at the very beginning of our Christian life, when we were regenerated (Luke 15:22; Gen. 24:47). The rings held the bars, which also typify the Holy Spirit, but with the human nature, signified by the acacia wood within the overlaying gold. As we have already seen, after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven with both the divine nature and the human nature; thus, He is now the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7). It is this wonderful Holy Spirit with both the divine nature and the human nature who combines and unites us together. Through the rings and bars all the boards of the tabernacle became one. Suppose all the gold had been removed from the boards, the rings, and the bars. Then, with all the gold stripped away, all the boards would have become disconnected individual pieces. The oneness of the boards was not in the wood but in the gold. If the gold had been taken away, there would have been no uniting element, and the boards would have been left as separate and individual pieces. By this picture we can clearly see that the unity, the oneness, the building up, of the boards was not in the wood but wholly in the gold. This means that the building up of the church is not in the human nature but in the divine nature. It is in the divine nature that we are all built together. It is the divine nature that joins us, unites us, and holds us together as one.
You and I must learn, first of all, that we are only a half. Second, we must never act independently and individually without the confirmation of others. Finally, we must act, live, and serve in the divine nature. It is in the divine nature that we as the boards are united together as one. In such a oneness by the divine nature, we will have the building of God. Again, it must be repeated that all of this comes from the experience of Christ as the bread, as the lampstand, as the resurrection savor, and as the very Ark, including the hidden manna, the hidden law, and the hidden rod. How meaningful this is! May the Lord fully, deeply, and wholly impress us with this picture. This is the right way for us to be built up together as the dwelling place of God. The church is not a matter of conforming to a certain pattern; rather, it is produced by the real experience of Christ as our life and everything. Therefore, the only way for the church to be built up among us is for us to experience Christ in our spirit.