Exodus 35 and 36 reveal to us the materials and the workmanship of the building of God. All these materials, as well as the service of the tabernacle, typify the things of Christ. By this we know that for the building of the Lord both the material and the workmanship must be something of Christ which we experience.
Exodus 35:21 and 24 and 36:3 and 6 refer to the heave offering. Verse 21 reads, “And they came, everyone whose heart lifted him up and everyone whose spirit made him willing, and brought the heave offering of Jehovah for the work of the Tent of Meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments.” Verse 24a continues, “Everyone who offered a heave offering of silver and bronze brought the heave offering of Jehovah.” Offered, here, can be translated as heaved. Verse 3a in chapter 36 says, “And they received from Moses every heave offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it.” Verse 6b reads, “Let neither man nor woman produce any more material for the heave offering of the sanctuary.”
These verses tell us that all the materials used for the building of the Tent of Meeting, the service thereof, and the holy garments of the priests were heave offerings, offered, or heaved, by the people of Israel. The word heave means “to lift up,” indicating that Christ has been lifted up into the heavens. The heave offering typifies the ascended Christ, the Christ ascended to the heavens.
The ascension of Christ into the heavens is the climax, the highest peak, of Christ’s experience. Before the ascension, there were many things related to Christ, and after the ascension there are more matters related to Christ, but all these, whether before the ascension or after the ascension, are included in the Christ typified by the heave offering. The things of Christ before the ascension began from eternity past. Christ was the very God in eternity past. He was the Word of God (John 1:1), the explanation of God. He accomplished the creation of the heavens and of the earth and of all things within the universe (John 1:3; Col. 1:16). Then He was incarnated to be a man (John 1:14) and lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. When He was on this earth, He experienced human living and all the sufferings and hardships of human life. He went to the cross to be crucified, to enter into death, and He was buried and went into Hades (Phil. 2:8; Acts 2:23, 27). He was raised up from Hades and the grave, and He was lifted up to the third heavens (Acts 2:24, 31-35). By this He reached the highest point of the universe, that is, He ascended to the heaven of heavens.
Then after the ascension He sent down the Holy Spirit, that is, He came down from the heavens as the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 18) to visit His redeemed ones and enter into them to be their resurrection life and their all. He Himself came as the Spirit and entered into us to transform us into a fully renewed new man (Eph. 4:23-24), the fullness of Himself, which is His Body, the church (Eph. 1:22-23).
The church came into being due to His descension as the Holy Spirit after His ascension. In the period between His ascension and eternity future He accomplishes many spiritual things, including the regeneration, transformation, and renewing of the church as His full expression.
After the completion of the renewing of the new man and the building up of His Body, eternity future will begin. He will be the center of that eternal age. All these matters are included in the ascended Christ. This ascended Christ is the heave offering, and all the people of God offered something of this ascended Christ for the building of God. Whatever they offered is referred to as the heave offering.
The Christ in whom we believe is not only the Christ who was born of a virgin and who died for us. The Christ in whom we believe, whom we receive as our life and we enjoy as our all, is the Christ who has ascended to the heavens. All the things offered by the people of God for God’s building were something of the ascended Christ. Therefore, they are called the heave offering. We also need to experience and enjoy Him as the ascended Christ for the building of God.