The children of Israel, however, had absolutely no understanding of God’s intention. But Moses was a man who knew God’s heart and His intention. Therefore, he enacted the law not according to the intention of the children of Israel, but according to the intention of God. No matter how foolish and ignorant the children of Israel were, Moses nevertheless enacted the law according to God’s way. God’s way was to show the people that, in His sight, they were fallen, sinful, and corrupted and that they desperately needed God’s redemption and forgiveness. God, of course, was willing to redeem the people and to forgive their sins. After they received redemption and forgiveness, the redeeming blood would bring them into God’s presence where they could contact Him, receive Him into them, and be constituted into pillars as a living testimony of God, a reflection of what He is. This is a basic principle which operates in the universe unto this day.
According to this basic principle of the divine economy, the Bible first reveals to us what God is. Second, the Bible enables us to realize that we are fallen, sinful, corrupted, altogether hopeless and helpless. However, the Lord has accomplished redemption for us, and His blood is available to cleanse us and bring us into His presence. Now He is waiting for us to repent, turn to Him, and receive His redemption and forgiveness. According to the revelation in the New Testament, we are not only brought into God’s presence—we are brought into God Himself. Oh, the redeeming and cleansing blood brings us into God! This gives us the ground and the standing to receive God, to enjoy God, and to eat and drink of God. Eventually, by partaking of God in this way, we shall become pillars, His living testimony.
Do you have the confidence to say that you are a pillar of God? We all should be able to declare, “Yes, I was a fallen, sinful, and corrupted person. Hallelujah, the precious blood has redeemed me and brought me into God. Now I am filled with God and I have become a pillar.” If you do not have the assurance to make such a declaration now, I am confident that in eternity you will have the boldness to declare that you are a pillar testifying what God is and reflecting Him.
The way to become such a pillar is the way of enjoyment; it is the way of eating of Him as our life supply and drinking of Him as our living water. By eating and drinking Him we enjoy Him and are constituted of Him. This is God’s economy according to the revelation in the Word of God.
The enactment of the law in Exodus 24 was fully according to God’s economy. The principle is the same with the Bible as a whole. Just as the children of Israel were foolish in promising to obey all that the Lord had spoken, so many of today’s Christians are foolish in thinking that they are able to obey what the Bible says. When many believers read the Scriptures, they think that the commandments contained in the Word are for them to keep. For example, in Ephesians 5:22 and 25 Paul charges wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to love their wives. However, no husband is truly able to love his wife, and no wife can submit to her husband. In my entire life, I have never seen one husband who genuinely loved his wife or one wife who truly submitted to her husband. Rather, every wife is stubborn and rebellious, and every husband is full of love for himself. Thus, we simply are not able to observe the commandments found in the Bible. Instead of trying to carry out these commandments, we should confess, in the light of the revelation in the Bible, that we are fallen, sinful, and corrupt. We need to be convinced, convicted, and subdued so that we may repent and receive God’s salvation. Then the redeeming blood of Christ will bring us into the Triune God, and we shall be infused with Him to become pillars. Only such pillars can love their wives or submit to their husbands.
In this message we have seen the basic concept of God’s economy. This concept is not that God’s people should keep the law. The law was decreed by God not that His people might observe it, but that through it they might come to know God in a positive way and know themselves in a negative way. Having a proper knowledge of God and of themselves, they would then repent and receive God’s redemption. Through the redeeming blood, they would be brought into the presence of God to receive the infusion of God to become pillars as a living testimony and reflection of what God is.