In chapter nineteen, the marriage of the lamb is come, and His Bride has made herself ready with white linen (Rev. 19:7-8). This is really good, but it is not good enough. We must read on until we come to chapters twenty-one and twenty-two. Here we see that the Bride is the holy city. Now she is not only ready, but adorned. She is not just a bride, but a city. She has become a city-bride. She is God’s tabernacle, the holy city, New Jerusalem.
I really like the sight of this New Jerusalem. I have traveled through almost forty countries, and I have seen many great cities. However, by the time I came to this country, I lost my interest in seeing big cities. I have seen the holy city, so I do not need to see any other city. The holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the Bride of Christ and the tabernacle of God.
Now we have seen at least five aspects concerning the church. There are the seven lampstands, the wonderful woman with the manchild, the crop with the firstfruits and the harvest, the Bride prepared for a wedding, and the New Jerusalem, the adorned Bride. When we come to the book of Revelation, we must spend most of our time with these five aspects as well as all the revelation regarding Christ. We should forget about the Antichrist, the ugly beast, the ten horns, and the wrong set of sevens, and spend our time with Christ and the church.
In this book, the church is a wonderful thing. Firstly, we see that the church in this dark age is God’s shining testimony; so the church must be the lampstand. As God’s shining testimony, all the local churches must be the lampstands. Of course, as the lampstands only, they could not shine. The stand must hold the lamp. And we have seen that the lamps in this age are the seven Spirits, the intensified Spirit. The testimony of Jesus is the speaking Spirit, and this is the lamp. Seven times in this book it says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). The speaking Spirit is the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 19:10 says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” This is the speaking Spirit. Prophecy is not just to predict, but to speak. It is to speak something of Jesus, something concerning Jesus, and something for Jesus. The Spirit of this kind of speaking is the testimony of Jesus. This is the real lamp. The church must hold this shining lamp in this dark age.
The church is also the greater part of this wonderful woman in Revelation 12. God’s people in His eyes are never a male, but a female. In the whole universe, God is the unique male. He is the husband. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea all tell us that Israel was God’s wife (Isa. 54:5; Jer. 3:14; Ezek. 16:32; Hosea 2:19-20). God is the husband, and His people are His wife. The church, we know, is the wife of Christ. Since God’s people are a woman, God’s enemy from the very beginning has tried to damage this woman. To understand the woman in Revelation 12, we must go back to Eve in Genesis 3. The serpent sought to damage her. God told the serpent that He would put enmity between him and the woman (Gen. 3:15). This means that there is enmity between Satan and God’s people. It is the same in Revelation 12. The woman is God’s people, and the dragon seeking to devour her child is the old serpent, the devil. We have seen by this woman that God’s people are composed of three sections: the patriarchs, the people of Israel under the law, and the church under grace. The church is symbolized by being clothed with the sun. Israel under the law is symbolized by the moon under her feet. This indicates that this part is not respected so much as the other parts. Yet the patriarchs were a crown on her head, because the principle with the patriarchs was the same as that with the church: it was the principle of grace, not the principle of law.
Since the woman is the weaker vessel, she needs a stronger part. The stronger part of the woman in Revelation 12 is the manchild within her. “And she brought forth a manchild, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne” (Rev. 12:5). The manchild is not Christ, but a corporate person consisting of the overcomers. In Revelation 12:10, the manchild is called the brethren. This proves that this manchild is not individual, but corporate. It is this manchild that defeats Satan and casts him down from the heavens. “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their soul lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:10-11, Gk.). This woman’s child is the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15: “He shall bruise thy head.” The individual seed of the woman on the cross bruised the serpent’s head, and the corporate seed of the corporate woman eventually casts down Satan from the heavens. The corporate manchild is raptured to the heavens, and casts down the old serpent, the devil. Because of this the salvation and the kingdom of God with the authority of His Christ are come. Praise the Lord that the brethren overcame him! This is the corporate manchild.
The church as the people of God needs to conceive a stronger part. The present part of this manchild should be in the local churches. I do not mean that every member of the local churches is a part of that manchild. But I do mean that today in the local churches there are a number of stronger ones who are the strong part of the church. The gentler part of the church is the woman, and the strong part of the church is the manchild. This is for the purpose of defeating God’s enemy and casting him down.