In the first two messages we briefly looked at the revelation at the beginning and at the end of the Scriptures. We pointed out that both at the beginning and at the end of the Bible, the central revelation is the mystical building. In other words, God’s intention as revealed in the Scriptures is to build a dwelling place for Himself and a Body for His Son, Christ. This dwelling place or Body is His mystical counterpart in the universe. Neither the dwelling place, the Body, nor the counterpart is composed of a single individual. Rather, each is the aggregate of a great number of people as one corporate entity. This corporate entity as the corporate great man is composed of all the saved ones throughout the ages who have been gradually transformed in the eternal life of God and who have been built up together. This corporate great man is the dwelling place of God, the Body of Christ, and the mystical counterpart of God in the universe. I trust that you are clear about these matters. Beginning from this message, we will look at the long, middle section of the Bible from Genesis 3 to Revelation 20. Due to the limitation of time we will look only at the main points briefly.
If we would carefully read through the whole Bible and look at it with a bird’s-eye view, we would discover that the entire Old Testament is centered on the tabernacle and the temple. In fact, we may say that the entire Old Testament is a history of the tabernacle and the temple. With the exception of a small section at the beginning of Genesis, the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, from the story of Abraham’s calling in Genesis 12 to the end of Malachi, are concerned mainly with the history of the people of Israel, which was clearly centered on the tabernacle and the temple. The tabernacle and the temple were the most central issue to the children of Israel. When their condition was good, the condition of the tabernacle was also good. When their condition was not good, the condition of the tabernacle was not good either. When their relationship with God was normal, God could dwell in the tabernacle. When there was a problem between them and God, God would leave the tabernacle. In principle, it was the same with the temple.
We know that the tabernacle and the temple are in reality the same one entity in two stages and that this one entity is God’s dwelling place or house. The difference is that the tabernacle was God’s movable dwelling place, and the temple was God’s fixed dwelling place. The tabernacle was the temple’s predecessor, and the temple was the tabernacle’s successor. When the people of God were wandering in the wilderness, their center was the tabernacle. After the people of God entered into Canaan and dwelt in the promised good land, their center was the temple. Therefore, the tabernacle and the temple are actually one in significance, function, and typology. Both were the dwelling place of God.
Not only so, in the original language of the Old Testament, both the tabernacle and the temple were called the house of God. This also proves that the tabernacle and the temple were actually one entity denoting the house of God.
What is the story of the tabernacle and the temple? Simply speaking, it is a story of building. After the Israelites held the Passover, left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and arrived at Mount Sinai and after they received the law of God and saw the heavenly pattern, the one thing they did together with one mind and with a united effort was to build the tabernacle. Among the children of Israel were men who worked in wood, bronze, silver, and gold, as well as weavers. They all worked in cooperation to build the tabernacle. On the first day of the first month of the second year, at the commencement of a new year, they raised up the tabernacle according to the command of God. At that time, the glory of God filled the tabernacle, and God Himself came to dwell among them. From that day on, God had a dwelling place or habitation on the earth, and He dwelt among the children of Israel.
The book of Numbers clearly tells us that the journey of the children of Israel in the wilderness was centered on the tabernacle. When they encamped, the twelve tribes encamped on the four sides of the tabernacle, three tribes on each side. This was a miniature of the New Jerusalem. We all know that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God among men. It has four sides—east, west, north, and south—and on each side are three gates on which the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are inscribed. This is exactly like the situation of the children of Israel when they encamped around the tabernacle. Therefore, do not think that the situation of the New Jerusalem will be brought in only at the time of the new heaven and new earth. No, a rough model of this situation was already in existence when the tabernacle was raised up at the foot of Mount Sinai. What were the children of Israel doing in the wilderness? They were doing nothing but ministering to the tabernacle. When they encamped, they raised up the tabernacle, and the twelve tribes offered sacrifices and worshipped around the tabernacle. When the cloud was taken up, they dismantled the tabernacle and carried it with them as they went forward. When the cloud settled down again, they raised up the tabernacle again. What the Israelites did in the wilderness for forty years was actually the story of the tabernacle.
We have to see the vision that there was a tabernacle among the children of Israel, that the history of Israel depended on this tabernacle, and that everything they did was for this tabernacle. Even the warfare that they fought when they entered Canaan was for this tabernacle. The warfare reveals that God wanted to have a piece of land upon which He could securely set up His dwelling place on the earth. Therefore, after the children of Israel crossed the Jordan, they conquered city after city and occupied place after place. Before they possessed the whole land of Canaan, God told them to set up the tabernacle in Shiloh. In this way the tabernacle temporarily settled down until the ark was taken captive.
Afterward, David moved the ark into the city of David and set it in the tent that he had pitched. Later, he intended to build a temple for Jehovah. Through the prophet Nathan, God told him, “I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them there, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more; and the sons of wickedness will ill-treat them no more as before” (2 Sam. 7:10). Moreover, God declared that He would make David a house, that He would raise up his seed to sit on the throne after him, and that it was his seed who would build a house for His name (vv. 11b-13). Since God delighted in this matter, the building of the temple was completed during the reign of Solomon. However, not long after the temple was built, Israel became desolate. The temple was torn down by the Babylonians, and Jerusalem was destroyed. After the seventy years of captivity were fulfilled, the children of Israel returned to their own land group by group, and they started to restore the city and rebuild the temple. While they were restoring the city, they worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other (Neh. 4:17). This shows us that building requires fighting. This takes us to the end of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. Now that we have pointed out these matters in such a simple way, it is very clear that the history of the Old Testament is a history of the tabernacle and the temple, a history of building.