From the beginning of Scripture to the very end there is a definite line of God’s building. Among the many items of His creation recorded in Genesis one and two, God mentions three precious substances: gold, bdellium (pearl) and onyx stone. Why are these items mentioned at the very beginning, and what are they for? The answer is revealed at the end of Scripture. In Revelation twenty-one and twenty-two there is a building, a city, called the New Jerusalem. This city is composed of gold, pearl and precious stones. The precious substances mentioned in Genesis are the materials for the building portrayed in Revelation! At the beginning of Genesis we see the materials, and at the end of Revelation we see the New Jerusalem, composed of these materials.
Then we may ask, what does the portion of Scripture between Genesis and Revelation deal with? If we read carefully, we will see the line of God’s building from Genesis to Revelation. But we can also see some building work which is not of God. The whole Scripture is a record of building!
Immediately after the fall of man, mentioned in Genesis three, we read of the city of Enoch, built by the fallen sons of Adam. Later, another city named Babel was erected, along with a high tower. Then the city of Sodom was built. But in contrast to these cities, God mentions some men living in tents. Noah lived in a tent opposite the city of Enoch. And later, Abraham lived in a tent opposite the cities of Babel and Sodom.
Genesis also relates the story of Jacob, a man who had a wonderful dream one night. When he awoke he set up the stone which he had used for a pillow and poured oil upon it, saying, “This is the House of God.” This is God’s building! A stone will be the House of God.
The Book of Exodus relates how Jacob’s descendants, the people of Israel, were taken captive in Egypt. As slaves of Pharaoh they worked laboriously to build two cities for him. But instead of using building materials of gold, pearl, and precious stones, they used mud. They used something of the earth. Bricks were made from mud hardened by the heat obtained from burning straw. Pharaoh’s two cities were made of earthly things.
God eventually delivered the Israelites out of Egypt and took them to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. There He asked them to build Him a tabernacle. If we could have looked into the tabernacle and observed the priest worshipping in the holiest place, we would have seen him clothed with a breastplate and two shoulder plates full of precious stones. Surrounding the priest was a scene of gold! There was not any hay, straw, or mud bricks in that building; just gold and precious stones. We need to remember also that the tabernacle was the very center of the people of Israel during their history of wandering in the wilderness.
When they entered the good land of Canaan, the essential work of the Israelites was the construction of a temple- another building. But, before they could erect this structure, they had to defeat and drive out all their enemies. They had to gain the ground, the site for the building. On that cleared ground they built the temple, which became the center of the history of Israel.
Years later, after the enemy defeated Israel and took the land, the temple was immediately destroyed. The enemy destroyed their center. But after seventy years of captivity there was a recovery, a rebuilding of the city and the temple. The main item of the recovery was building-the building of the city and the temple. This brings to a close the history of the Old Testament.
The first outstanding event of the New Testament was the incarnation of Christ in human form. The Gospel of John relates, in the American Standard Version, that the Lord Jesus “tabernacled among us” (John 1:14, margin). God Himself was incarnated as the tabernacle, the building! The Lord Jesus was the building portrayed in the four Gospels.
The enemy, Satan, utilized the Jewish people to destroy this building by putting Jesus to death on the cross. But the Lord had already told the Jews: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). This means the Lord raised up His destroyed body in resurrection and by resurrection. This includes His mystic Body, the Church.
In the Epistles we are told the Church is the House of God, the Temple of God. So the Church is the very building of God. Then, praise the Lord, at the end of Scripture there is nothing but a building, a city, the completion of God’s building work throughout the generations. In this holy city, the New Jerusalem, there are the names of the twelve tribes of the Old Testament, and the names of the twelve apostles of the New Testament. These two groups represent all the redeemed people of God. This means the New Jerusalem is a composition of all the redeemed ones. But this is not all; in the New Jerusalem, God and man are completely mingled as one building. That is, divinity is mingled with humanity. God is the content and man is the vessel; God is the life and man is the expression of that life. This is the ultimate building of God.
We have now briefly covered the entire Bible. Do you see the line, the vision of God’s building, throughout the Scripture? Remember, at the beginning there were the materials, but at the end there is the finished building composed of these materials. In between are the accounts of the building procedure, and, of course, many inserted stories. Briefly, these interesting insertions are the numerous accounts of the serpent, Satan, who crept in soon after the materials were mentioned in Genesis 2. But after the serpent appeared, God immediately foretold that the Seed of woman, Christ, would bruise that serpent (Gen. 3:15). The serpent brought in sin and death, but Christ brought in righteousness and life (Rom. 5). Christ Himself destroyed the devil. Eventually the serpent is chased away, cast out by Christ into the bottomless pit and the lake of fire (Rev. 20). That is the end of the insertions. But the building of God stands completed! This sums up a brief sketch of the Scripture, which is the record of God’s building.
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