The church as the testimony of Jesus is a testimony against this evil generation. God’s eternal purpose is to have a corporate expression of Himself. For this purpose, He created man in His own image (Gen. 1:26). However, man failed God in this matter, but the Lord Jesus came as the second man (1 Cor. 15:45, 47), who was successful in expressing God. Therefore, Jesus is the testimony of God, signified by the golden lampstand in Exodus 25:31-40. Now Jesus as the unique lampstand is spreading Himself, branching out, as signified by the six branches of the lampstand. The one lampstand has become seven lampstands (Rev. 1:12, 20). The one testimony has become a sevenfold corporate testimony and expression of God Himself.
Satan always comes in to damage what God does. God created man in order to have a corporate testimony of Himself. This was something wonderful, but Satan, the serpent, quickly came in to damage man, and the man whom God created to be His testimony fell again and again. By the time of Noah, mankind had fallen to such an extent that it became a crooked generation contrary to God. The Lord Jesus likened the present age to the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39). In the New Testament this present age is called a crooked and perverted generation (Phil. 2:15), and when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost, he told the people, “Be saved from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). When man’s nature was changed into that of a crooked and perverted generation, God’s judgment came in. Under this judgment, God revealed to Noah the way for him to be saved out of that perverted generation, instructing him to build an ark, which would save him through water not only from God’s judgment on the earth but also out of that perverted generation (Gen. 6:11-14; 1 Pet. 3:20). The water of the flood executed God’s judgment upon the entire world, and it also separated Noah from the crooked and perverted generation. Moreover, the ark ushered Noah and his descendants into a new age on a new earth, where they began a new generation. Noah and his family living on the new earth was a type, a shadow, of the church life today.
Not long after that, however, Noah’s descendants were divided into the nations, from which Babel was raised up (Gen. 10:32; 11:9). This forced God to call Abraham out of that situation (12:1-2). However, even Abraham’s descendants fell into Egypt, where there was another perverted generation. Therefore, God came in again to call Abraham’s descendants and bring them out of Egypt (Exo. 1:1, 13; 3:8). This exodus was not only out from God’s judgment but, even more, out from the Egyptian generation. The water of the Red Sea executed God’s judgment on Pharaoh and all his army, and the water also saved Israel out of Egypt and the evil power of Pharaoh (14:27-30). Noah was saved through water out of his generation, and Israel was also saved out of Egypt through the water of the Red Sea.
After the Israelites were delivered out of the Egyptian generation, God charged them to build a tabernacle, which was the testimony of God against the present evil generation in Egypt (25:8-9). Then after they fought to enter into the good land, they built a temple as the testimony of God against the nations, who were the crooked and perverted generation at that time (2 Sam. 7:12-13; 1 Kings 6:1). Among this crooked and perverted generation there was the temple as God’s testimony on the earth. Nevertheless, Satan came in to also damage that testimony, not only by outward destruction but also by inward corruption. The Babylonian army came to destroy the temple outwardly, and after the Jews returned from Babylon and rebuilt the temple, Satan corrupted the divine worship inwardly, changing the testimony of God into the system of Judaism. Therefore, even Judaism became a crooked and perverted generation.
Eventually, the Lord Jesus came as the testimony of God, not only against the Roman Empire but also against the present generation of the Jews, Judaism with the temple. The temple was built to be God’s testimony against the Gentile nations, but that temple was inwardly corrupted by Satan and changed into a corrupted system that became a sinful, evil generation. The Lord Jesus came to be the living testimony of God, testifying mainly against that system. When the Lord Jesus came, the very God whom the Jewish religion worshipped came. However, He was opposed and persecuted by Judaism, which claimed to worship God. One day this God, who was Jesus Himself, went into a small house at Bethany to talk with Mary and Lazarus and be served by Martha (John 12:1-3). Jesus, as God Himself, was happy there. While He was talking, fellowshipping, drinking, eating, and rejoicing with those dear ones, the priests with all the Jews were worshipping God in a very orderly and seemingly scriptural way. However, at that time God was not in the temple; He was in that small house at Bethany. This did not seem to be according to the Scriptures. The Old Testament did not seem to tell people that God would be in a small “cottage.” Nevertheless, this is what Jesus did.
Today it is easy to know the history of the Gospels, but at that time if we had been seeking after God, we probably would have gone to the temple, not that small house. However, if we had gone to the temple, we would have missed the mark. God was not there. We would have needed to go to that small house in Bethany to worship God in a simple way, not with an altar, rituals, or a priest in priest’s robes. Eventually, it was the chief priests, elders, and scribes who condemned to death Jesus, who was God. They stirred up the people to shout, “Crucify Him” (Mark 15:11-13), and in this way they killed the very Savior who was their God.