Scripture Reading: Num. 7:89; Exo. 24:15-18; 25:8, 17-22; Psa. 80:1; 99:1; Heb. 1:3; 9:4-5; 10:19; 4:12, 14, 16; 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:4, 6; Rev. 21:2-3, 10-11, 16, 22-23; 22:1-5

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 8　DAY 1　»

　　Exo. 33:11 And Jehovah would speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his companion...

　　Num. 12:7-8 My servant Moses...is faithful in all My house. With him I speak face to face, even openly, and not in riddles; and he beholds the form of Jehovah...

　　The Bible recognizes that Moses was a companion of God....The Hebrew word rendered "companion" in Exodus 33:11 is different from the word for "friend" used with respect to Abraham in 2 Chronicles 20:7 and Isaiah 41:8. As a friend of God, Abraham had been separated from idolatrous people (Josh. 24:2-3), and he interceded for Lot (Gen. 18:16-33). The apostle James also tells us that Abraham was God's friend (James 2:23). Not only was Abraham justified by God, but he also became a friend of God. God regarded Abraham as a beloved one, a person held in affection. However, Moses was not only a friend of God like Abraham; he was also a companion of God. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1869)

　　The word companion includes the elements of friendship, but it goes much further to include the thought of intimate association. One meaning of the Hebrew word for companion is associate. A companion is an associate. If you and someone else are associates, you have a common interest, a common enterprise, in a common career. I do not wish to imply that there was no common interest between Abraham and God. They did share a common interest, but it was not of the same degree as that between Moses and God. To the uttermost, God and Moses were partners in a great enterprise. They were both involved in the same "career." Moses and the Lord were not only intimate friends; they were associates, partners, companions.

　　From Exodus 32:30—33:23 we learn the serious lesson that we need to know God's heart and also be a person according to God's heart. Then we shall have God's presence as Moses did. Moses had God's presence to the full extent. But the children of Israel had God's presence in a very limited way, for they were far from God's heart. Moses, however, was a person very near to God's heart, a person according to His heart. This was the reason he could have God's presence to the full extent. We all need to learn that only a person like Moses can be a companion of God. Only this kind of person can share a common interest with God and be used by God to carry out His enterprise on earth.

　　In Exodus 24 the majority of the people were at the foot of Mount Sinai, some were on the mountain far off from the Lord, and Moses was on the top of the mountain under God's glory. This difference with respect to the degree of distance from the Lord can be illustrated by the tabernacle with the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. The people at the foot of the mountain were in the outer court, around the altar. The seventy elders, along with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and Hur, were on the mountain, in the Holy Place. Moses on the mountaintop was in the Holy of Holies, where the shekinah glory was. Later, after the tabernacle had been built, the high priest could enter into God's glory in the Holy of Holies, where he could receive revelation and vision from God concerning His people. The principle is the same in Exodus 24 with Moses on the mountaintop under God's glory receiving commandments from God that he may teach the people.

　　It is true that in the Lord's recovery today we all are priests and that we have neither clergy nor laity. Nevertheless, actually and experientially there are differences among us concerning our fellowship with the Lord. Many saints are in the outer court with the altar and the sprinkled blood, others have entered the Holy Place to enjoy fellowship with God to a certain degree, and some are in the Holy of Holies, under God's glory.

　　Moses was actually the only one to receive the direct vision of the tabernacle....God gave Moses vision after vision concerning the design of the tabernacle. It took forty days for Moses to receive a detailed vision of God's dwelling place. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1869-1870, 1883, 943)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 176-177

«　WEEK 8　DAY 2　»

　　Num. 7:89 And when Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the expiation cover that was upon the Ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; and he spoke to Him.

　　Psa. 80:1 O Shepherd of Israel, give ear...; You who are enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth.

　　The offering in Numbers 7 afforded Moses a time to speak with God. "When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the expiation cover that was upon the Ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; and he spoke to Him" (v. 89). At the expiation cover upon the Ark of the Testimony, there was a conversation between man and God. In this conversation Moses could hear God's voice. How wonderful that God and man could be one to the extent that they could have such a conversation! (Life-study of Numbers, p. 91)

　　The expiation cover, mentioned in Hebrews 9:5 and corresponding to the propitiation place in Romans 3:25, was the lid of the Ark. It signifies Christ as the cover of God's righteous law and also as the place where God meets with His redeemed people and speaks to them in grace (Exo. 25:22)....The pure gold of which the cover was made signifies Christ's pure divine nature. (Exo. 25:17, footnote 1)

　　That the two cherubim were one piece with the expiation cover indicates that God's glory shines out from Christ and upon Christ as the expiation cover to be a testimony (cf. John 1:14; 2 Cor. 4:4, 6). The form, size, and weight of the cherubim are not given, indicating that the glory of Christ's shining is immeasurable and mysterious. (Exo. 25:19, footnote 1)

　　Upon the expiation cover there were two cherubim (Exo. 37:7-9), signifying the glory of God (Heb. 9:5). The glory of God is the manifestation of God. God manifested is glory. We may compare glory to the shining of electrical lights, which is the glory of the electricity. When God shines Himself out, He becomes the glory. God is manifested in Christ, so upon Christ you can see the glory of God.

　　The two cherubim signify the glory of God, that is, the manifestation of God....Exodus 37 tells us that there was not only one cherub but two cherubim. Two is the number of testimony....Upon Christ and with Christ, there is the manifestation of God, which is the glory of God, and this manifestation as the glory of God is the testimony of God. This truth is very rich and very deep in thought and meaning. (CWWL, 1963, vol. 1, "Spiritual Applications of the Tabernacle," pp. 134-135)

　　That the wings of the cherubim covered the expiation cover indicates that God's glory is expressed in Christ to be a full testimony (Heb. 1:3a; Eph. 3:21...). The faces of the cherubim were toward each other and toward the cover, signifying that God's glory watches over and observes what Christ has done. (Exo. 25:20, footnote 1)

　　That the cherubim and the expiation cover were made of pure gold (Exo. 25:17-18) signifies that the shining of Christ as the effulgence of God's glory (Heb. 1:3a) is divine. That the expiation cover of gold was put on top of the Ark of acacia wood (Exo. 25:10) signifies that Christ's humanity, not His divinity, is the base for Him to express the glory of His divine nature. (Exo. 25:21, footnote 1)

　　That God met with His people and spoke to them from above the expiation cover and between the cherubim signifies that God meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating Christ and in the glory expressed in the propitiating Christ as His testimony (cf. 2 Cor. 3:8-11, 18). Thus, the expiation cover with the blood of the sacrifices sprinkled on it on the Day of Expiation (Lev. 16:14-15, 29-30) portrays the redeeming Christ in His humanity and the shining Christ in His divinity as the place where fallen sinners can meet with the righteous, holy, and glorious God and hear His word, thereby being infused with God as grace and receiving vision, revelation, and instruction from Him. (Exo. 25:22, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 80, 178

«　WEEK 8　DAY 3　»

　　2 Cor. 3:8-9 How shall the ministry of the Spirit not be more in glory? For if there is glory with the ministry of condemnation, much more the ministry of righteousness abounds with glory.

　　The first part of Exodus 25:22 says, "And there I will meet with you." This indicates that God met with His people in the propitiating Christ.

　　In verse 22 God also said, "I will speak with you from above the expiation cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, of everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel." This means that God speaks to His people from the glory expressed in the propitiating Christ as His testimony. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1011)

　　We have seen that the cherubim signify God's glory shining out from Christ. Thus, for God to speak to His people from between the cherubim means that He speaks to us in the midst of His glory. God does not meet with His redeemed people in any place other than the midst of His glory. God cannot meet with us in any other place or in any other condition. Whenever God meets with us, that meeting must take place in the midst of His glory. We can testify of this from our experience. Whenever we meet with God, we sense that we are in the midst of glory, a glory like that signified by the cherubim on the cover of the Ark. On the day we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into a realm of glory. God never meets with us in darkness. On the contrary, He always meets with us in glory and speaks to us from between the cherubim of glory.

　　When we listen to someone speaking in a meeting, as long as that speaking is the word of the Lord, we should have the sense that we are in glory. Whenever the word of God is spoken in the ministry, we sense glory within us. Many preachers today are eloquent. But when you hear them speak, you do not have any sense of God's glory. You may admire their eloquence and appreciate their knowledge, but there is no sense of God's glory. However, when you listen to the genuine ministry of the Word, you are attracted, not by eloquence or knowledge but by a sense of God's glory. After you return home, the glory may follow you. Years later, you may still recall the glory you sensed in that meeting. From our experience we know that God meets with us in the midst of His glory and speaks to us in His glory. Even when God speaks to a sinner, God speaks to him in His glory.

　　The glory in which God meets with us and in which He speaks to us is the shining of Christ. The cherubim signify Christ shining.

　　What kind of Christ is this shining Christ? We have pointed out that the Ark was made of acacia wood overlaid within and without with gold. Acacia wood typifies Christ's humanity, and gold signifies His divinity. The expiation cover was made of pure gold; it did not contain any acacia wood. This indicates that the shining of Christ, who is the effulgence of God's glory, is divine. However, Christ's divinity is not the base for this shining. Rather, the base for His shining is the acacia wood used to make the Ark. It was not the gold which bore the acacia wood; it was the acacia wood which bore the gold. With His humanity as the base, Christ expresses divinity. In our experience today, we need the humanity of Jesus in order to express Christ's divine nature.

　　Exodus 25:17 tells us the length and width of the expiation cover, but it does not tell us the thickness of the cover. Therefore, we do not know the weight of the lid of the Ark. The fact that the thickness is not given and that the weight is not known indicates that the weight of Christ is immeasurable. No one can say how weighty Christ is. Experientially speaking, His weight is according to what we are able to bear....How heavy Christ is to us depends on how much of Him we are able to bear. I am concerned that some saints are able to bear only an extremely small amount of Christ. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1011-1013)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 86-87

«　WEEK 8　DAY 4　»

　　2 Cor. 4:6 Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

　　Heb. 1:3 Who, being the effulgence of His glory and the impress of His substance and upholding and bearing all things by the word of His power...

　　We are not told anything in Exodus 25 about the form, size, or weight of the cherubim. This indicates that the glory of Christ's shining is immeasurable. It also indicates that Christ's glory is unexplainable. Just as we cannot describe the cherubim, so we cannot explain the glory of Christ's shining. However, we know from the fact that the cherubim had faces and wings that this glory is not lifeless, but is something living. Christ's glory is living. We may even say that this glory has a face, eyes, and wings. From our experience we know that when God meets with us and speaks with us, we have the sense that glory is watching over us and that this glory is living. Actually, this glory is the very Christ Himself. Thus, the general concept of the expiation cover in Exodus 25 is that it signifies that Christ is the shining of the divine glory and that God meets with us and speaks with us in this glory. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1013)

　　We need to be impressed with the fact that the expiation cover with the cherubim signifies Christ shining. It also signifies that the glory of God as the shining of Christ is living. It is something with a face, eyes, and wings. To have a proper understanding of this, we need light from God and also a certain amount of spiritual experience. Apart from being enlightened by the Lord, we may read these verses again and again without seeing anything of their significance. But when the light shines upon us, we realize that the propitiatory cover with the cherubim is nothing less than our dear Lord Jesus Himself. Whenever God meets with us and speaks with us, this precious Christ is present. Actually, it is in this shining Christ that God meets with us and speaks with us. When we realize this, we may say, "Lord, You Yourself are this very propitiatory cover. Without You, Lord, there is no place where God can meet with me or I can meet with Him. Lord, without You as the propitiatory cover God cannot meet with me or speak with me in glory."

　　We have pointed out that the expiation cover was made of pure gold. It did not contain acacia wood, which typifies the humanity of the Lord Jesus. However, the blood of Jesus certainly was derived from His human nature. Christ's humanity is for redeeming and His divinity is for shining. The cherubim on the expiation cover signify Christ's shining with His divinity, and the blood sprinkled on the cover signifies His humanity for redeeming. Therefore, we have here a picture of Christ not only as God, but also as man, even the God-man. As God, Christ shines in His divinity, but as man, He accomplished redemption in His humanity, signified by the blood. Now, because of Christ's divinity and humanity, we and God can meet together and talk together in the redeeming and shining Christ. This is Christ as the propitiatory cover, as the place where God and we meet together.

　　[In the Old Testament] the King James Version speaks of the "mercy seat" instead of the expiation cover. The word seat implies that the lid of the Ark was the place for God to sit when He talks with us. The word mercy indicates that God showed mercy to people. Actually, the lid of the Ark is not a mercy seat; it is a propitiatory cover with the shining of Christ's divinity and the redeeming of Christ's humanity as the place where we can meet and speak with our righteous, holy, and glorious God. This place is Jesus Christ Himself, the One who is both God and man. In His humanity Christ shed His blood to redeem us, and in His divinity He shines with God's glory. Today He is for us the redeeming and shining Christ as the place where the righteous, holy, and glorious God can meet with fallen sinners. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1013-1016)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 88-89

«　WEEK 8　DAY 5　»

　　Heb. 4:14 Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession.

　　16 Let us therefore come forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

　　Upon the propitiatory cover and in the midst of the shining of His glory, God can meet with us and converse with us. This is the place where we hear His voice and learn the desire of His heart. No doubt, this was the place where Paul received the revelation of the completing ministry. In our experience day by day we also need to meet with God at the propitiatory cover and in His glory. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 1016)

　　When we spend time with the Lord in the Holy of Holies, we are infused by Him with all He is. We may illustrate this by the case of a young man who spends an hour in conversation with a famous university professor. After this hour spent in the presence of such a professor,...he may even unconsciously imitate the professor's way of speaking. How much more will the Lord infuse Himself into us if we spend an hour of fellowship with Him!

　　Upon this lid as the propitiatory cover, God can meet with the people who broke His righteous law without any governmental contradiction of His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim, which bear His glory overshadowing the lid of the Ark. Because the law with its demands is covered and God's glory is satisfied, God can speak with sinners, and these sinners can be at peace with God and receive grace from Him. Therefore, this propitiatory cover equals the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16). (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1030, 1036)

　　Hebrews 10:19 tells us that we have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus. It is a great matter to enter the Holy of Holies, for there God is sitting on the throne of grace. In order to enter into such a place we must have boldness, and we have it by Christ's death and by His blood. By the blood of Jesus we have the boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies at any time, unlike the high priest in the Old Testament, who could enter into it only once a year.

　　The Holy of Holies today is in heaven, where the Lord Jesus is (Heb. 9:12, 24). Even though we are still on earth, we can enter the Holy of Holies. The secret is our spirit, referred to in Hebrews 4:12. The Christ who is in heaven is also in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). He, as the heavenly ladder (Gen. 28:12; John 1:51), joins our spirit to heaven and brings heaven into our spirit. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. Here we meet with God who is on the throne of grace.

　　When we enter into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus and by the new and living way, we come to the throne of grace within the veil to receive mercy and find grace from the ascended Christ in the heavens (Heb. 4:14, 16; 6:19-20). Hebrews 4:16 speaks of coming "forward with boldness to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help." The throne of grace is undoubtedly the throne of God which is in heaven (Rev. 4:2). The throne of God is the throne of authority to all the universe (Dan. 7:9; Rev. 5:1) on which God sits to control and rule over the universe. It is the throne of God's administration. But to us, the believers, it is the throne of grace, signified by the expiation cover (the mercy seat) over the Ark of the Testimony (Exo. 25:17, 21; Rom. 3:25) in the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:3, 5) sprinkled with the blood of Christ (Lev. 16:15; Heb. 9:12). Here God meets with His people and communes with them (Exo. 25:21-22). When we come to the throne of grace through the blood of Christ, we meet with God and commune with Him. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1628, 1627-1630)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 150; Life-study of Hebrews, msg. 44; CWWL, 1983, vol. 3, "Abiding in the Lord to Enjoy His Life," ch. 6

«　WEEK 8　DAY 6　»

　　Heb. 10:19 Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus.

　　Rev. 21:23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

　　Within the temple there was the Holy of Holies, and within the Holy of Holies there was the Ark. The covering of the Ark, the expiation cover, signifies the throne of grace (Exo. 25:17, 21). The Ark is a type of Christ, and the Ark is in the Holy of Holies. Therefore, since Christ is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), our spirit today is the Holy of Holies. (CWWL, 1964, vol. 2, "A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 3—Hebrews through Jude," pp. 394-395)

　　According to the Bible, where do we hear God's voice? At the throne of grace, the oracle in the Holy of Holies. If you are still around the cross, it will be difficult for you to hear God's speaking. But whenever you come to the throne of grace, the propitiation cover, you will immediately hear the divine voice. You will hear God's voice because you are in the oracle, at the throne of grace. It is here that we hear God's speaking, see His countenance, and enjoy His presence. It is here that we are one with Him in His economy. So the book of Hebrews turns us from the altar in the outer court to the place of God's oracle in the Holy of Holies. (Life-study of Hebrews, p. 345)

　　What do we do at the throne of grace? We pray, worship, and look to the One on the throne. We praise and thank Him. From this throne flows the river of life. If we stay here a while, we shall have the sense that something from the throne of grace flows into us, through us, and out of us. We are experiencing the eternal life as the supplying grace. We receive mercy and "find grace for timely help" (Heb. 4:16). By coming to the throne of grace we are corresponding to Christ's heavenly priesthood. Whenever we turn to the spirit and come to the throne of grace, we correspond to His heavenly interceding. His interceding and our praying constitute a traffic between heaven and earth. (CWWL, 1980, vol. 2, "The Heavenly Ministry of Christ," p. 113)

　　By beholding and reflecting the glory of the Lord, we are gradually transformed. Beholding and reflecting like a mirror in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is only one word in the Greek. A mirror beholds and reflects what it beholds. These are the two functions of a mirror. Beholding is to see the Lord by ourselves; reflecting is for others to see Him through us.

　　Second Corinthians 3:18 indicates that the goal of transformation is to be "transformed into the same image" of the resurrected and glorified Christ. To be transformed to have the same image as Christ means that we are gradually being conformed to the resurrected and glorified Christ, to be made the same as He (Rom. 8:29).

　　When we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, the Lord infuses and dispenses into us the elements of what He is and what He has done. Through His life power and by His life essence, we are gradually transformed metabolically to have His life shape, and through the renewing of our mind, we are gradually transfigured into His image. (Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 3, pp. 32-33)

　　The light in the Holy of Holies was God Himself in His eternal glory. In the same way, the holy city in eternity future will have no need of the sun or of the moon because God Himself will be the light. This indicates that the entire city of the New Jerusalem will be the Holy of Holies.

　　The glory of God as the light and the Lamb as the lamp signify that God in Christ is the light of the New Jerusalem in eternity. In the new city there is no need of the sun, the natural light, or any man-made lamp because God Himself will be the light, and Christ will be the lamp, shining out God to enlighten the entire city. This means that God in Christ is everything in the New Jerusalem. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 4404-4405)

　　Further Reading: Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 3, lsn. 46; Life-study of Revelation, msgs. 64, 66