The acacia wood was overlaid with gold both inside and outside. This signifies the divine nature mingled with the human nature—God and man becoming one. This also signifies that the divine nature penetrates the human nature and also rests on the human nature so that it may be expressed through the human nature. If only the outside of the ark had been overlaid with gold, this would have signified joining instead of mingling. Mingling is signified by the fact that the acacia wood was overlaid with gold both inside and outside. The acacia wood was between two layers of gold. This is mingling.
Another illustration of mingling in the Bible is in the meal offering described in Leviticus 2. The basic elements of the meal offering were fine flour and oil. The oil was mingled with the fine flour and also poured upon it. The fine flour is in the oil, and the oil is in the fine flour. Likewise, in our relationship with the Lord, we are in God, and God is in us. This mingling is typified both by the meal offering with the oil mingled with the flour and by the ark of the testimony with the acacia wood overlaid inside and outside with gold. Both types point not merely to joining, but to mingling.
Today some oppose the teaching that as children of God we are mingled with Him. They claim that to teach that the believers are mingled with God is to teach that we actually make ourselves God Himself. There is no doubt that as God’s redeemed people, those who have been born of Him, we do possess God’s life and nature. Second Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature. How can a child not have the life and nature of his father? In the same principle, how can we be genuine children of God, those born of Him, and not be the same as He in life and in nature? To repeat, as children of God, we do have the life and nature of God. But although we share in God’s divinity, we shall never attain to the Godhead or be worshipped as God. To say that we shall attain to the very Godhead and be worshipped as God is blasphemy. But it is also a serious error to deny the fact that the genuine believers in Christ have the divine life and nature.
Jesus Christ is the God-man, the mingling of God with man. He is true God and a true man as well. Some who oppose our teaching concerning the mingling of God with man claim that mingling entails the producing of a third nature, a nature which is neither altogether divine nor completely human. This is nonsense, and we repudiate it. When the acacia wood of the ark was overlaid with pure gold, there was no third nature produced. Likewise, when the oil is mingled with the fine flour, a third nature, something which is neither altogether oil nor flour, does not come into being. Christ is one Person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. Although divinity and humanity are mingled, this does not involve a third nature. We certainly do not teach that Christ was neither fully God nor fully man. According to the Bible, we teach that He is both God and man, hence, a God-man.
Exodus 25:10 tells us the size of the ark: “two cubits and a half its length, and a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.” Notice that these measurements are all halves of complete units. Two and a half cubits, the length, is half of five cubits; and one and a half cubits, both the width and the height, is half of three cubits. The numbers five and three are numbers of God’s building (Gen. 6:15-16). The ark built by Noah was the first building of God in the Bible. It is significant that the measurements of the ark are with the numbers three and five. If we read carefully the description of the measurements of the tabernacle in Exodus, we shall discover that the numbers five and three are mentioned repeatedly. However, the measurements of the ark of the testimony are halves. This signifies that the ark is a testimony. A half implies that another half is needed for a full testimony. For example, half a watermelon causes us to realize that another half is needed for a whole melon. Furthermore, in married life we sometimes speak of a wife being her husband’s other half. Thus, the husband and wife together make a complete unit. The fact that two and a half cubits is half of five, and one and a half cubits is half of three indicates that the ark is a testimony. The halves imply another half, and these halves put together make up the testimony.
Every detail in the Bible, including the measurements of the ark given in halves of complete units, is meaningful and purposeful.
Verse 11 says, “And you shall make upon it a rim of gold round about.” The rim of the ark was the border in the form of a wreath as a crown. The King James Version even uses the word crown. As the embodiment of God’s testimony, Christ has a rim, a wreath as a crown. This rim of gold signifies the glory of the divine nature. Christ as God’s embodiment expresses God by showing forth His glory. The glory of God is upon Christ as a border, a rim. This rim which is upon Christ is the glory of God, the effulgence of His glory, which expresses God. Furthermore, the glory of the divine nature as a rim signifies the divine keeping power and holding strength.
When we as a living testimony of Christ live Him out, there will be a rim of glory upon us. Others will sense that there is something wonderful and glorious with us. This rim of glory will keep us and hold us. However, if we do not live Christ in this way, we shall not have the rim with its keeping power and holding strength. Actually what keeps us and holds us is the very Christ whom we live out day by day. Praise the Lord for the golden rim which is to us the keeping power and the holding strength!