Do not forget that Abraham's history is yours. Do you not have a tent where you always have the Lord's presence? The worldly people do not have such a tent. They only have a great city. The only thing that the worldly people can see is their great city. They say, "Look at my corporation. Look at my education, my attainment. Look at how many things I have." But we can say to the worldly people, "You have everything, but there is one thing that you don't have—God's presence. You do not have the tent—you have the city of Babel. All that you have is a part of the great Babylon." Whether we are high-class people or low-class people does not mean very much. All that matters is that wherever we are we have a tent with God's presence. When we have a tent with God's presence, we have the deep sensation within that nothing here on earth is lasting. Everything is temporary. We are looking to eternity. The banks, the corporations, the attainments—all are temporal and mean nothing. We have nothing constant on this earth. I just like to have a tent with God's presence. I like to live in such a situation. We may say to the worldly people, "Dr. So-and-so, I don't have as much as you have, but I have the one thing that you don't have—God's presence. I don't have to wait for eternity to have God's presence. I have His presence right now in my tent. My surroundings are a tent, a miniature of the New Jerusalem. This may not be worthwhile in your eyes, but in God's eyes it means a great deal." This is what it means to pitch a tent.
Whenever we answer God's calling and God reappears to us and we build an altar for God, telling Him that everything we are and have is for Him, we shall immediately erect a tent. Spontaneously, people will see that this is an expression, a declaration, that we do not belong to this world. By pitching a tent we declare that we belong to another country. We do not belong to this country; we are looking for a better one. We do not like this country, this earth, this world. We expect to come into another country. We are sojourning by faith as in a strange country (Heb. 11:9).
Hebrews 11:10 says that Abraham "waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Maker is God." This city which has foundations is undoubtedly the New Jerusalem, which has solid foundations laid and built by God (Rev. 21:14, 19-20). While Abraham was living in a tent without any foundations, he was looking and waiting for a city with foundations. But I do not believe that Abraham knew that he was waiting for the New Jerusalem. Even many Christians do not know that what they are waiting for is the New Jerusalem. But we have to be clear that we are living in the tent of the church life today, waiting for its ultimate consummation, which will be the New Jerusalem—the city of God with foundations.
Abraham's tent was a miniature of the New Jerusalem, which will be the ultimate tabernacle of God in the universe (Rev. 21:2-3). As he lived in that tent, he was living in a shadow of the New Jerusalem. While he was living there with God, he was waiting for a city, a city that eventually will be the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem, the eternal tabernacle, will replace that temporary tent in which Abraham lived. Abraham's tent was a seed of God's eternal dwelling place. This seed grew in the tabernacle erected by his descendants in the wilderness (Exo. 40), and its harvest will be the New Jerusalem, the tabernacle of God with man. God still needs to have such a seed in all of us. We all need to be those who live in a tent and who look forward to a better country, a country in which there will be the eternal tabernacle where God and we, we and God, will live together for eternity. Abraham's interest was altogether in a better country. Although God had told him that He would give the land to Abraham and his descendants, Abraham did not care for that. He was looking for another country and for a city with foundations. Eventually, the Bible tells us that this better country is the new heaven and the new earth and that the city with foundations is the New Jerusalem, the eternal dwelling place for God and for all His called ones.
Today we are repeating the life and history of Abraham. Once there was only one Abraham; now there are many. The church life today is the harvest of the life and history of Abraham. Abraham's life by faith is presently being repeated among us. We all are here building an altar and pitching a tent. Look at the church life: we have an altar and a real tabernacle. This is a picture of the coming New Jerusalem where we shall spend eternity with God.
The Bible ends with a tent. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate tent, the ultimate tabernacle, in the universe. Maybe one day Abraham will meet with God in the New Jerusalem, and God will say, "Abraham, don't you remember that day when we feasted together in your tent? Your tent was a miniature of this eternal tabernacle." Abraham's tent was a seed. The growth of that seed is in Exodus and its harvest is in Revelation 21. In principle, there is no difference between Abraham's tent, and the New Jerusalem, the ultimate tent. If I were Abraham meeting with God in the New Jerusalem, I would say, "Lord, I remember the day You came to my tent. Now I come to Your tent."