Crystallization-Study of Exodus (4)
Message Four
The Three Tabernacles
Opening Word of the Prophesying Meeting
Reading the verses in each day.
Reading the main points in the outlines.
Pray-reading the verses:
How lovely are Your tabernacles, / O Jehovah of hosts! My soul longs, indeed even faints, / For the courts of Jehovah; / My heart and my flesh cry out / To the living God. At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God—Psa. 84:1-3.
…the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God—Rev. 21:3.
Word of Appetizer
What is the goal of the three tabernacles revealed in the Holy Scriptures?
The three tabernacles in the Holy Scriptures—the type of the tabernacle, the reality of the tabernacle, and the consummation of the tabernacle—reveal the goal of God’s economy to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity.
Spiritual Burden
Psalms 84:3 says, “At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God”. Through such an experience of Christ (The two altars—the bronze altar for the sacrifices and the golden altar of incense) we are incorporated into the tabernacle, the incarnated Triune God, to become a part of the corporate Christ as God’s testimony for His manifestation.
Concluding Word of the Prophesying Meeting
The Revelation of the Truth
The three tabernacles in the Holy Scriptures—the type of the tabernacle, the reality of the tabernacle, and the consummation of the tabernacle—reveal the goal of God’s economy to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity.
Psalm 84 is the secret revelation of the enjoyment of Christ as the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle so that we may be incorporated into Him to become the reality and consummation of the tabernacle.
The Experience of Life
The cross of Christ, typified by the bronze altar, is our “nest,” our refuge, where we are saved from our troubles and where we “lay” our young, that is, produce new believers through the preaching of the gospel.
When we experience the resurrected Christ in His ascension, typified by the golden altar of incense, we are accepted by God in such a Christ and find a home, a place of rest, in the house of God.
Practice and Application
Psalms 84:5 says, “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion”. The highways to Zion in our heart mean that we need to take the way of the church internally, not externally. The highways to Zion are not external, superficial, or cheap; we must pay a price to take the way of the church.
Using Key Verses to Have a Bird’s-Eye View over the Whole Outline
Key Verses (1)
According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its utensils, even so you shall make it—Exo. 25:9.
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality—John 1:14.
… the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God—Rev. 21:3.
The Type of the Tabernacle, the Reality of the Tabernacle, and the Consummation of the Tabernacle
I. The three tabernacles in the Holy Scriptures—the type of the tabernacle, the reality of the tabernacle, and the consummation of the tabernacle—reveal the goal of God’s economy to have a corporate people to be His dwelling place for His expression and representation in eternity.
• The type of the tabernacle in the Old Testament is a full and complete revelation of the individual Christ as the Head and the corporate Christ as the Bodythe church
• The reality of the tabernacle in the New Testament is the incarnated Christ, the individual Christ, and the corporate Christ, the Body of Christ.
• The consummation of the tabernacle as the conclusion of the complete Bible is the New Jerusalem, a great corporate God-man.
Key Verses (2)
How lovely are Your tabernacles, / O Jehovah of hosts! My soul longs, indeed even faints, / For the courts of Jehovah; / My heart and my flesh cry out / To the living God. At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God—Psa. 84:1-3.
The Enjoyment of Christ, the Two Altars—That We May Be Incorporated into Him
IV. We must serve God according to the vision of God and of the pattern shown on the mountain:
II. Psalm 84 is the secret revelation of the enjoyment of Christ as the fulfillment of the type of the tabernacle so that we may be incorporated into Him to become the reality and consummation of the tabernacle.
III. The intrinsic content of Psalm 84 is the secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of Christ as the incarnated Triune God, the God-man.
IV. The psalmist longs and even faints to be in God’s tabernacles.
V. “At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / And the swallow, a nest for herself, / Where she may lay her young, / O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God”
Key Verses (3)
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yet be praising You. Selah. Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of Baca, / They make it a spring; / Indeed the early rain covers it with blessings—Psa. 84:4-6.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand; / I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God / Than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield; / Jehovah gives grace and glory; He does not withhold anything good / From those who walk uprightly—vv. 10-11.
Dwell in Your House, in Whose Heart Are the Highways to Zion—Blessed Is the Man; through the Valley of Baca—The Early Rain with Blessings
VI. “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / They will yet be praising You. Our church life should be a life of praising
VII. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / In whose heart are the highways to Zion“. We need to take the way of the church internally.
VIII. “Passing through the valley of Baca, / They make it a spring; / Indeed the early rain covers it with blessings”
IX. For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand;…For Jehovah God is a sun and a shield; / Jehovah gives grace and glory”
Prophesying Topics—Twelve Topics per Week
D1
T1 The type of the tabernacle, the reality of the tabernacle, and the consummation of the tabernacle (Exo. 25:9; John 1:14; Rev. 21:3)
(Please explain that the three tabernacles in the Holy Scriptures reveal the goal of God’s economy.)
T2 The New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle of God with men for eternity. (Rev. 21:3, footnote 1)
(Please explain that the New Jerusalem will be a mutual habitation for both God and us.)
D2
T1 “How lovely are Your tabernacles, / O Jehovah of hosts!” (Psa. 84:1)
(Please explain the intrinsic content of Psalm 84.) (Refer to Outline III. A-B)
T2 The love in Psalm 84 is a love which follows many trials. (Psa. 84:1, 6)
(Please use personal experience to testify how lovely the local churches are after a certain period of trials.)
D3
T1 “At Your two altars even the sparrow has found a home; / and the swallow, a nest for herself, / where she may lay her young.” (Psa. 84:3)
(Please explain that in our experience the bronze altar and the golden altar of incense are closely related.) (Refer to Outline V. A. 1-3)
T2 Whereas a home is a place of rest, a nest is a place of refuge. (Psa. 84:3)
(Use experience to explain that in the church we first find a refuge, and then we find a home.)
D4
T1 The secret revelation concerning the enjoyment of the incarnated Triune God (Psa. 84:1-3)
(Please explain that in the Old Testament the incarnation of the Triune God was a hidden mystery.)
T2 The blessings of dwelling in the house of God to enjoy God as the sun, the shield, the grace, and the glory. (Psa. 84:11)
(Please explain the four aspects in Psalm 84.)
D5
T1 “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; / they will yet be praising You.” (Psa. 84:4)
(How can we exercise so that our church life could become a life of praising?)
T2 “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, / in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” (Psa. 84:5)
(Please explain the significance of the highways to Zion.) (Refer to Outline VII. A-D)
D6
T1 “They go from strength to strength.” (Psa. 84:7a)
(Use personal experience to explain that the more we go on in the church life, the more strength we will gain.)
T2 “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.” (Psa. 84:10a)
(Psalm 84 shows us how excellent the church life is; please explain how we should treasure it.)
