We have seen that if we would share in the building of God we must first enter into and experience all the items in the outer court. But the experiences of the outer court deal only with the matter of righteousness; we must still have the experience of holiness. The items which we have covered in the outer court merely establish the boundary line for God’s building; they are not the actual building of the tabernacle itself. We must still experience the tabernacle, God’s very building. In the outer court are the brass, the silver, and the white linen, depicting God’s judgment according to His righteous requirements, God’s redemption, and God’s righteousness. But these only prepare us, making us fit initially for God’s building. Now we must enter the tabernacle itself, that is, we must enter the holy place.
When we enter the holy place, we are immediately impressed that everything is of gold. There is a lampstand made of pure and solid gold, and all the other items in the holy place are overlaid with gold. Gold is everywhere!
Strictly speaking, God’s building was built through brass, but not with brass. It was built with gold. Gold typifies God’s divine nature, that is, God Himself. His building is built through His judgment, but not with His judgment. The material of God’s building is God Himself. We must have God’s divine nature in order to be the materials for God’s building. How may we partake of God’s divine nature? By spiritually experiencing the holy place.
The first item of the holy place is the table made of acacia wood overlaid with gold (Exo. 25:23, 24, 30; 40:22-23), upon which was the bread, something good for food. This table spread with bread typifies Christ as our heavenly food; we may feed on Christ and enjoy Him as our food. The Gospel of John portrays Christ as the bread of life, so available to us. If we take Him in the form of food, we share the divine life with the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
We have seen that immediately after man was created, God put him before the tree of life that he might freely eat of that tree. This means that God presented Himself to man in the form of food. Most of us have a mistaken concept concerning God. We consider that He is so high and mighty and that we must bow and worship, prostrating ourselves before Him. But God wants us to take Him as food. He desires that we partake of Him inwardly more than worship Him outwardly.
As a youth, I was taught after I was saved that I should be very quiet at the so-called Holy Communion table. I was told that we must remember Jesus by concentrating all our thoughts in meditation upon Him. But later, as I read the Scriptures, I discovered that I had not been taught properly. The Lord told us, “Take, eat: this is my body, this do in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:24). When we take Him by eating of Him, we are really remembering Him. The true remembrance of the Lord is not our meditation upon Him but our eating of Him, our partaking of Him. God’s intention is to work Himself into us. We must consider Him as our food and partake of Him.
The Lord Jesus is our heavenly bread of life. By eating this bread, something of “gold” will be ours. Whenever we partake of Christ as food, the divine nature is wrought into us. In this heavenly bread of life are the “vitamins of gold.” Little children are often fooled by the “candy” given them by their mother. They do not realize that they are actually taking candy-covered vitamins. Mother’s intention is fulfilled in a pleasant way. Our thought is that since we are really hungry, we need the Lord Jesus to satisfy us; so we fulfill our desire by eating the bread of life. But God’s intention is to impart through the bread the “gold.” When we are satisfied with Christ, we will also be full of the divine nature. We can verify this by our experience of the Lord. Whenever we are satisfied with the Lord Jesus, we also have the sense that we are full of God, that the divine nature has been imparted to us.
The measurement of the showbread table is two cubits long and one cubit broad. The number one stands for a whole unit. If the table were foursquare, one cubit by one cubit, it would signify a complete unit; but here it is two cubits long. This signifies a double unit, a double portion, that the table may be spread for people to enjoy. The height of the showbread table is the same size as that of the ark of testimony, one and a half cubits. This means that Christ as our food must come up to the standard of the testimony of God.
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