Numbers 7:1 speaks of "the day when Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, and had anointed and sanctified it, and all its furnishings and the altar with all its utensils." This indicates that after the setting up of the tabernacle, Moses anointed the tabernacle with its furnishings and the altar with its utensils.
We need to know the spiritual significance of the anointing. The ointment with which the anointing is accomplished may be likened to paint, and the anointing may be likened to painting. The ointment, which is a compound of different elements, typifies the compound, all-inclusive Spirit. This compound Spirit is the consummation of the processed Triune God. As the consummation of the processed Triune God, the all-inclusive Spirit includes Christ's divine nature, human nature, incarnation, human living, all-inclusive death, wonderful resurrection, and exalting ascension. The ointment, therefore, typifies the Triune God with all that He has passed through. (See Life-study of Exodus, Messages One Hundred Fifty-seven through One Hundred Sixty-six.) To anoint is to put this ointment upon the anointed object. This can be illustrated by painting. To paint an object is to apply paint to the object. Eventually, layer upon layer of paint may be applied to that object. Likewise, to anoint is to apply the processed, consummated Triune God with His divine nature, human nature, human living, death, resurrection, and ascension, as a whole, to the object of the anointing.
Without the anointing, the tabernacle and the altar had nothing to do with God. Thus, the ointment, a symbol of the compounded and consummated processed Triune God with all His elements and processes, as a whole, had to be put upon the tabernacle and the altar. From that time onward, the tabernacle and the altar were absolutely one with the compounded, consummated Triune God. We today have also been anointed. This means that we are identified with the processed Triune God.
After the tabernacle and the altar were anointed, they became most holy, and whoever touched them was sanctified, made holy. Furthermore, by being anointed, by being identified with the processed Triune God, the tabernacle and the altar were dedicated.
Numbers 7:2-9 speaks of the offering of six wagons and twelve oxen. This offering was for the transporting of the tabernacle (not including its furnishings) and the altar, and it was to match God's move in His dwelling place on the earth. The six wagons and the twelve oxen were offered by the people who had dealt with defilement and had been sanctified to receive the blessing of God in His divine trinity.
God, according to His eternal economy, will not do anything by Himself. He did something by Himself only in producing the old creation. But in the new creation He will not do anything by Himself and He will not move by Himself. He must move and work through man.
In Numbers the omnipotent God moved in a portable home in wagons drawn by oxen. We may find it very surprising that God moved in such a way. At the end of the Bible the Lord said, "I come quickly" (Rev. 22:20). Why has the Lord not come yet? It seems that He is coming very slowly. Actually, it is not the One in the wagon who is slow; the oxen are slow. This indicates that the transportation we offer Him is slow. If we could offer God a faster means of transportation, such as a 747, surely He would take it. My point here is that, according to God's New Testament economy, God will not move, act, or do anything by Himself. He needs man's cooperation, even man's coordination. He needs us, and we need to offer ourselves to Him.