As we continue the messages on the meetings, we need to consider once again the picture of the tabernacle with all the offerings. Surely the record concerning the tabernacle and all the offerings shows us clearly that the Bible is the divine revelation of God. If the Bible were not inspired by the Holy Spirit, who could design such a tabernacle? No one could imagine or even dream of such a thing. Who could imagine a tabernacle that has an outer court? Within the outer court is an altar and a laver. By means of all the offerings you enter into the tabernacle. After entering you see the showbread table. From there you turn to the lampstand to be enlightened. The lampstand then turns you to the ark. From the ark you turn back to the center where there is the incense altar. If all these things had not been revealed by God, how could Moses have had such an excellent mentality to design such a thing? No philosopher has ever said something like what is revealed in the Bible concerning the tabernacle and the offerings.
Here is a portrait showing a tabernacle for you to enter into, for you to travel in, and for you to stay in. And within this tabernacle is some wonderful enjoyment: a bread table, a lampstand, an ark, an incense altar. Then you need something to fill you up, to enable you, to energize you, to strengthen you to enter in. So there is another category of types, the category of all the offerings. From God’s end coming to us there is the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. But from our end, going to God, it is just the opposite. From our end there is first the trespass offering, then the sin offering, then the peace offering, then the meal offering, and finally the burnt offering. On our end there is nothing but trespasses and sin. Outwardly we have trespasses; inwardly we are full of sin. The more you try to wash your trespasses by improving yourself the more you will see something worse.
Close to fifty years ago Brother Watchman Nee used a very simple illustration in a message. In the olden days the Chinese didn’t have so many wonderful toys as today. Most of the little girls had a doll made of clay. They whitened its face and put a little pink color on the cheeks and some black color above the eyes. This was their doll. They all loved it, but by touching it and playing with it, they got it dirty. One of the little ones, after getting her doll dirty, decided to wash its face. The more she washed the face of the clay doll, the more the dirt came out. When she cried and showed her mother, she was told that the doll was not washable. Saints, don’t you know that you also are not washable? Don’t try to wash yourself. You are full of trespasses. You need to take Christ as your trespass offering. When we go to God, we always start from our trespasses.
As you go on you will realize that not only do you have trespasses outwardly, but you also have even sin inwardly. Then you have to offer Christ as your sin offering. God comes to us from the burnt offering to reach us in trespasses. We begin our journey to God from trespasses and sin. If the Bible were not inspired by God, who could imagine these kinds of things? Who could imagine the trespass offering, the sin offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering, plus the wave offering and the heave offering?
We have mentioned previously that the Gospel of John is a fulfillment of the tabernacle and of the offerings. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and this Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1, 14). It is so clear that the incarnated God by the title of Jesus Christ was and still is the tabernacle. He is the tabernacle for us to enter into and for us to travel in. We all have to declare and shout, God is enterable! God is here for us to enter into and to travel through and to stay with Him. By what means can we enter into God? By the means of all the offerings.