While Satan was carrying out his corrupting work, God raised up Samuel, a Nazarite of voluntary consecration. While the house of Eli was utterly forsaking God, Samuel was absolutely seeking God. According to the account in 1 Samuel, the boy Samuel was in complete contrast to the house of Eli. The house of Eli forsook God, but the boy Samuel sought God. Due to Samuel’s rising up, King David was brought in. Samuel was the heir of the preceding age and a forerunner of the subsequent age. Before Samuel there were priests and judges, and since Samuel was both a priest and a judge, he was an heir of the preceding age. After Samuel, there were kings and prophets. Samuel was a prophet who brought in the kingship. He was truly a pivotal figure who gained the inheritance from the preceding age and ushered in the succeeding age. It was Samuel who brought in David.
Once David was raised up, he had the desire to find a resting place for the Ark of God, so he wanted to build a temple for God. However, God allowed him only to prepare the materials. It was his son Solomon who rose up and completed the building of the temple. The temple was more permanent and solid than the tabernacle. On the day of the completion of the building of the temple, the glory of God filled the temple in an unprecedented way. This signified that God had come to the earth to dwell among the children of Israel in an unprecedented way because He had a secure and solid building on the earth.
Regrettably, this condition did not last long; Satan’s destruction came in once again. Just as he had corrupted the tabernacle, he also destroyed the temple. The descendants of Solomon were corrupt, and the house of Israel became desolate; as a result the Babylonians came. We need to remember that Abraham came out of Babylon, and after he came to the land of Canaan, his descendants built Jerusalem. The Babylonians, sent by Satan, pushed their way into Jerusalem; they destroyed the city, tore down the temple, and carried the descendants of Abraham back to Babylon, to the very place from which Abraham had been delivered. Even the vessels in the temple for the worship of God were carried away to Babylon and placed in the temple of idols. All this shows us how Babylon is opposed to God’s building.
At the fulfillment of the seventy years of the captivity of the children of Israel, Ezra brought a group of people back to rebuild the holy temple, and Nehemiah brought a group of people back to rebuild the holy city. The recovery of the children of Israel was the recovery of the building. The children of Israel were free to return to Jerusalem; this did not stir up any opposition. But when they wanted to build the holy temple and the holy city, enemies from all around rose up to oppose. Here I would like to tell the children of God that there might not be any opposition today as we recover spiritual truth; however, if we are here to recover the building, the enemy will definitely do all he can to oppose this. Satan may allow the recovery of God’s people, but he will fight the recovery of God’s building. This is where Nehemiah’s faithfulness was demonstrated. The book of Nehemiah speaks of how Nehemiah went to Jerusalem and inspected its walls; all of his thoughts and concerns were on these walls, that is, on the building. He held a sword with one hand and worked with the other hand. He was fighting while he was building (Neh. 4:17). Where there is building, there is warfare, because what the enemy hates the most is the building work. This brings us to the end of the Old Testament. All of these are merely symbols; the tabernacle is a symbol, and Jerusalem is also a symbol.
The building work in the Old Testament was merely a figure; in the New Testament God actually comes to carry out His building work. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Here we see that the incarnation of the Lord Jesus was God’s tabernacling among men. In John 2, the Lord Jesus also said that the flesh He put on was the temple of God and that the Jews would destroy this temple, but in three days He would raise it up (v. 19). We should not apply the Lord’s raising up of the temple in three days just to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Himself. We should realize that when the Lord Jesus resurrected, He also regenerated all of us who belong to Him (1 Pet. 1:3); thus, in resurrection He built all of us who have received His life into a mystical Body, which is the temple of God. Before the Lord went through death and resurrection, His body was merely His own body. But after His death and resurrection, He gained another Body. This is His mystical Body, a corporate Body, which is the church. This Body is the temple that God intends to build in the universe. When the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build My church,” He was referring to this building.
According to the major part of the record of the New Testament, the building of the church involves the Lord Jesus coming as the Spirit with His resurrection life to those who have received Him in order to build them as living stones into His Body, the living temple of God. Peter says that the believers “as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:5). Paul also says that we are the Body of Christ, “being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit” (Eph. 2:22). Moreover, Paul says that as God’s fellow workers, the apostles were working together with God for His building (1 Cor. 3:9).
I would like to tell you, brothers and sisters, that in all of Paul’s Epistles, all the words rendered “edify” in Chinese are build in Greek. Today the so-called “edification of the saints” among Christians actually means “building up of the saints” in the original language. Today God’s emphasis is not on edification but on building. Edification is for building. Edification causes people to become vessels and materials; building coordinates the vessels, the materials, together so that they become a dwelling place. The ultimate teaching in the New Testament is not for individual spirituality but for our being built together. Individual spirituality certainly has its value, but without being built together, we cannot attain God’s goal. God’s ultimate goal is not to gain neatly edified stones but to gain a complete, built-up dwelling place.
When the church is built up, a city will be manifested. The final scene, the last picture in the Bible, is a city, which is God’s tabernacle, God’s dwelling place on the earth among men. It is also the bride whom Christ will marry. The New Jerusalem is built with all those who are saved in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and it is also the crystallization of God’s work on the earth throughout the ages. The ultimate crystallization of God’s work of saving people, leading people, and perfecting people throughout the ages is so that they may be built up together to become His eternal dwelling place.
We need to remember that the New Jerusalem is always opposed by the city of Babylon built by Satan. In Revelation, we see two women and two cities. One is the harlot, the city of Babylon, and the other is the holy woman, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the union of God and man; the city of Babylon is the collusion of Satan and man. The work that God is doing on the earth today is to build the New Jerusalem; the work that Satan is doing among people is to organize the city of Babylon. Just as the New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling place, Babylon is Satan’s lodging place. Just as the New Jerusalem is the expression of God among redeemed humanity, Babylon is the manifestation of Satan among fallen humanity. However, in the end God destroys Babylon, and in Revelation 19 and 21 the New Jerusalem is manifested. At this point God’s building work will be complete.
The Bible presents the tree of life and some materials—gold, bdellium, and precious stones at the beginning; at the end a city built with gold, pearl, and precious stones is manifested, having the tree of life as its content. This is the building that God wants to gain in the universe.