This is Christ typified by the tabernacle. But without the offerings there could not be any bread on the table. The bread on the table came from the offerings. So there is the need of the second category of types, the offerings. The tabernacle portrays how Christ brings God to us. It portrays how He offered God to us that we may enter into God and enjoy God. But the tabernacle has no way to get into us. It could only be our dwelling; it could not be our nourishment. The tabernacle may be likened to our house in our daily life. Our house is for dwelling. Christ came to be your tabernacle. He came with God and He came to present God to you, and you entered into God. Now you have a dwelling place. But if you have a house without any groceries you are still empty. You are still hungry. You have gotten into the house, but nothing has gotten into you.
As the tabernacle Christ came to us with God. As the offering He goes back to God with us. This is a two-way traffic. He came to us with God, and He goes back to God with us. As the tabernacle He came with God to us, and now as the offerings He is going back with us to God.
Not many Christians have seen and experienced these two aspects adequately. Many only have Christ as the tabernacle for them to enter into and for them to experience. They don’t have Christ as their offerings for them to enjoy as food by eating Him. Not many Christians today speak of how to enjoy Christ. Sometimes they may speak of an experience of God or an experience of Christ. Seldom would they use the word experience as a verb directly. Seldom would they say, “I have experienced Christ.” This means they don’t adequately realize how to have Christ in them. To be in Christ in our experience means to experience Christ as the tabernacle. We can travel through Him and in Him. But to have Christ in you is another aspect. To have Christ in you is not only the hope of glory, but the food of today. It is not just a matter of glory in the future but of daily food. Christ in you is the daily food.
This is where many Christians are short today. Some even oppose our declaring that Christ is in us. According to their concept Christ is too great to be in us. There is a hymn entitled “How Great Thou Art” which I appreciate very much. Eventually we wrote a sister hymn concerning how small the Lord is. He is small enough that we can eat Him (John 6:57). Not only is He great, but He is also small enough to eat. He is all-inclusive.
The tabernacle is one category of types showing how that Christ came with God to give us a way to enter into God. Now He is the offerings for us to take Him in. He is the offerings for us to eat Him. To enter into your house is one thing, but to get food into your body is another thing. Although we may not buy a house every day, every day we need to eat several times.
These illustrations show us that many of the spiritual things are the same in principle as the physical things. Physically speaking, we need a house to dwell in, and we need food to eat. We need Christ not only to be the tabernacle as our dwelling but also to be the offerings as our food. If you have only the tabernacle without the offerings, it is not adequate. To enter into the house may be considered as a matter once for all, but the offerings are a daily matter. There was a morning offering and an evening offering (Exo. 29:39). It is just like eating.
The tabernacle mainly signifies that God was available for you to experience, not for you to enjoy and not for you to take in. As the tabernacle God is available for you to enter into Him, but He is not available for you to take Him into you. So there is the need of the offerings. The offerings typify God who is good for us to take in.
The offerings also signify that God can be mingled with us. When you enter into the tabernacle, you are joined to it. But you don’t need to be mingled with the tabernacle, and even you cannot be. But whenever you eat something, you are mingled with it. Eating does not bring about just a kind of joining. Eating brings about a kind of saturation and mingling. This is why it mentions in Leviticus 7:10 and 12 that some of the cakes were mingled with oil. Whatever you eat saturates your cells and mingles with your fibers. If you were to eat something inorganic like a piece of rock, that surely could not be mingled with you. But if you eat something of life, something organic, it will be digested and assimilated, and it will saturate your being. It will be fully mingled with your being and even become your being. This is why the dietitians say that you are what you eat. Whatever you eat becomes you. This matter of the mingling is a deeper thought found throughout the entire Bible.
In the second chapter of Genesis after God had created man, He put him before the tree of life, signifying that God Himself was to be man’s life supply. So the thought of eating was there even in Genesis 2. There was the thought of some food to saturate our being, to mingle us with Himself. Then in John 6 when the Lord Jesus came He indicated that He was the bread of life (6:35). He went on in verse 57 to say that whoever eats Him shall live by Him.
Paul continues this thought of the mingling by saying that “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). How could we be one spirit with Him? It is because He is the Spirit, and we also have a spirit. By regeneration the two spirits are mingled as one. If He mingles with us it should be a mingling of the Spirit. This thought of mingling is deep, but it is clearly revealed in the Bible. Yet people’s eyes have been blinded and covered by the natural thought, by the religious teachings, and by the traditional theology. Hallelujah! Our God is edible. He is our food. We enter into Him as the tabernacle, and He enters into us as the offerings. We all have to testify strongly that we are in God, and God is in us. Christ is the tabernacle to us, and Christ is also the offerings to us.