Scripture Reading: Deut. 1:9-18; 15:10; 22:9; 25:13-16; 1 Cor. 10:6, 11

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 & DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 11　DAY 1　»

　　1 Cor. 10:1 For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.

　　6 Now these things occurred as examples to us, that we should not be ones who lust after evil things, even as they also lusted.

　　In His old administrative arrangement God chose the children of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, and made them His people as a type of the church (Rom. 9:11-13; Acts 7:38). In the Old Testament the church is not mentioned in plain words. However, there are types that portray the church. The children of Israel, as the chosen people of God, are the greatest, collective type of the church, in which we can see that the church is chosen and redeemed by God, enjoys Christ and the Spirit as the life supply, builds God’s habitation, inherits Christ as its portion, degrades and is captured, is recovered, and awaits Christ’s coming. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 156)

　　In Hebrews and 1 Corinthians Paul points out clearly that what happened to the children of Israel is a type of us (1 Cor. 10:6). The entire history of Israel is a story of the church. The Bible, then, contains two histories—the history of Israel and the history of the church. The history of the children of Israel is a type, and the history of the church is the fulfillment of the type. Thus, the entire Bible gives us one revelation, the revelation of God’s economy concerning the church. In the Old Testament we have a type, a picture, of God’s economy concerning the church, whereas in the New Testament God’s economy concerning the church is fulfilled. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 156)

　　Before the New Testament age, that is, before the Lord’s incarnation, God had chosen a people on this earth called Israel….Their forefather was Abraham. Then by Moses’ time, at their exodus from Egypt, they became a race that had at least two million people. Since then, they have become a type of the church as God’s elect in the New Testament. Thus, the Old Testament has a people, and the New Testament has a people….These two peoples are a description of one thing that God has done, and this one thing is the accomplishment of God’s economy. Before God came to accomplish this economy, He first put out a type, a figure, a shadow. In God’s economy the people of Israel are just a type, a figure, a shadow.

　　Some verses from the New Testament…show that the people of Israel are a type of the church. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul says, “Our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed” (v. 7b). After the descendants of Abraham became a people, they eventually fell into the hand of Egypt and its king, Pharaoh. Pharaoh typifies Satan, and Egypt typifies the world. This means that God’s chosen people fell into the hand of Satan and Satan’s world, so there was the need of God’s salvation to save them.

　　God exercised His salvation to save Israel out of Pharaoh’s hand, out of Egypt, and bring them into the wilderness. In the wilderness God came to be a “tabernacle,” indicating how He would come to dwell with His people to save them further and further so that they might become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.

　　At the end of the New Testament, the Lord Jesus called the degraded church…the great Babylon, the mystery (Rev. 17:5). Eventually, the outcome of the church is the same as that of Israel. Israel’s outcome was to be captured to Babylon.…In Revelation 17 the Lord called the degraded church the great harlot, the great Babylon, and the mother of harlots (vv. 1, 5). This shows that the church is a fulfillment of the type of Israel. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” pp. 179-181)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 Corinthians, msgs. 47-48; Truth Lessons—Level Three, vol. 2, lsn. 29; CWWL, 1982, vol. 1, “Experiencing Christ as the Offerings for the Church Meetings,” ch. 3

«　WEEK 11　DAY 2　»

　　Rev. 4:2 Immediately I was in spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne there was One sitting.

　　5:6 And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

　　Because the church has been degraded, whenever the word government or administration is mentioned, some begin to wonder immediately if this is Roman Catholicism. For this reason, among most Protestant Christians, and particularly among the more spiritual ones, there is a common concept that it is better to have no government and no administration than to have one. To them, as long as you understand that the church is the Body of Christ and the house of God, it is good enough….As long as others are helped to have the life of God and to walk before the Lord, everything is all right. To them, there is no need to have anything like government. But, brothers and sisters, we are not more wise than God. In the universe there is such a thing as the government of God and the administration of God. This is something ordained by God, and we cannot neglect it. (CWWL, 1960, vol. 2, “The Elders’ Management of the Church,” pp. 134-135)

　　In the Bible the kingdom is a matter of government. The kingdom of God is the government of God. It is also the administration of God. Today the universe is in disorder because God’s government has not been honored. The elders should not only see that in the universe there is God’s salvation, God’s church, and God’s house; they must further see that in the universe there is God’s government and God’s administration. God is not a God of confusion. He is not a God without principle and rule. God is a God with principles, rules, order, and discipline. For this reason God must establish His administration and government in the universe.

　　Every book of the Bible shows God’s government and administration. Consider the story of the Israelites leaving Egypt to pass through the wilderness to enter Canaan. Whether in the book of Exodus or in Numbers, we can see a very tightly knit coordination and building. This coordination and building is fully under God’s government and administration. Among the Israelites, there was a situation full of God’s government and administration. God did not let one thing get by loosely….Everything great or small was under God’s government and administration. Even minute details concerning the manner in which to wash themselves, the way to wash their clothes, and the way to shave their beards were not left to the choice of the Israelites. This was the Old Testament. Does this mean then that in the church God has no more government and administration? This cannot be true. In the New Testament every aspect of God’s dealing with the church is under His government and administration. When the New Testament mentions the church, on the one hand, there are words full of life and the Spirit. On the other hand, there are also words full of government and administration.

　　In order to manage a church properly, an elder has to know that God desires to execute His government in the universe through the church. The church is definitely not a place without government and administration….You can read about the government of the church in the book of Romans. You can also read about the government of the church in the Epistles to the Corinthians. You can even read about the government of the church in Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. There is hardly a book among the New Testament Epistles that does not touch the government of the church. (CWWL, 1960, vol. 2, “The Elders’ Management of the Church,” pp. 135-136)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1960, vol. 2, “The Elders’ Management of the Church,” ch. 1

«　WEEK 11　DAY 3　»

　　Deut. 16:18 You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your cities which Jehovah your God is giving you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

　　33:8 And concerning Levi he said, May Your Thummim and Urim be with Your faithful man…

　　The portions of Deuteronomy which deal with the divine government are the word of God, not merely the word of Moses [Deut. 16:18-20; 17:8-20; 19:15-21; 21:1-9, 18-23; 22:13-30; 24:1-4, 7, 16; 25:1-3, 5-16]. We need to study all these portions in order to know God’s mind and to know what He is thinking. God knows man and man’s need, condition, and situation. Therefore, whatever God speaks regarding man is the final word. The divine government among God’s people is neither autocracy nor democracy but theocracy. Theocracy is government by God according to what He is. In the church life today, we exercise neither autocracy, which is a kind of dictatorship, nor democracy, which is according to the opinion of the people. Instead, we honor God’s authority as our government, and thus the government in the church is a theocracy. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 117)

　　[Complicated cases were] investigated mainly by the priest [Deut. 17:8-9]. First, the priest investigated the case by going to God and staying with God. Second, in the presence of God, the priest would consider God’s holy word. Third, as 33:8 indicates, the Levitical priests had the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim, which provided instant enlightenment….Eventually, through the presence of God, the word of God, and the Urim and Thummim, the priest would gain a clear understanding of the divine judgment and then pass on this judgment to the presiding judge. The judge would then make a judgment according to what the priest had received from God and passed on to him. The judgment of the case, therefore, came through man, but it was of God and according to God. It was truly a matter of theocracy.

　　The government in the church should be neither autocratic nor democratic but theocratic….All the saints are priests, but the elders are the leading priests. As such priests, they should stay in the Lord’s presence with God’s holy word and with today’s breastplate—the mingled spirit with Christ and the church. As they remain in the Lord’s presence with the word and the mingled spirit for the church, they will receive an understanding that is according to the Lord’s thought, and this will become a decision as a kind of judgment. The elders should then administrate according to this divine judgment. Thus the elders function first as the leading priests and then as the administrators. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 119)

　　Among the children of Israel in the Old Testament God governed His people according to His constant speaking, as written in the law, and His instant speaking, as revealed either through the breastplate of the high priest by means of the Urim and Thummim or through the prophets by the Spirit of God coming upon certain ones to enable them to speak God’s word….Moreover, God’s government was executed through some human agents: the priests and the elders, the judges, or the kings as direct administrators, who worked together for God’s theocracy. In the church in the New Testament the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42) replaces the law in God’s administration, and the elders of the churches (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5) are the direct administrators, who administrate according to the teaching of the apostles (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17). In relation to the instant speaking of the Lord, all the believers in Christ, including the elders, are priests to God (1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 1:6), having Christ as the High Priest living within them (Heb. 8:1; Rom. 8:10) and having the Holy Spirit mingled with their regenerated human spirit (Rom. 8:16) to replace the function of the Urim and Thummim. (Deut. 16:18, footnote 1)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msg. 17

«　WEEK 11　DAY 4　»

　　Deut. 17:18-19 And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write out for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, in order that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them.

　　Deuteronomy 17:14-20 speaks regarding the setting of a king over the people….[God] Himself is the King; therefore, for His people to want a king means that they want someone to replace God. But God as our King should not be replaced and cannot be replaced….The people wanted a king, even though this was offensive to God (1 Sam. 8:4-22). Because of their insistence, God gave them a king—Saul. Saul was not a good king, for he was not a king who was according to God’s heart. Later God exercised His own choice and raised up David to replace Saul. David was a king not according to God’s preference but according to God’s heart (1 Sam. 13:14). In the sight of God David was the most pleasant king.

　　The king was to write out for himself a copy of the law in a book, out of that which was before the Levitical priests (Deut. 17:18). The law here refers to the Pentateuch. The king was then to read in this copy of the law all the days of his life in order that he might learn to fear Jehovah his God by keeping all the words of the law (v. 19). This indicates that in ruling over the people, he first had to be ruled himself by the word of God. A proper king among the children of Israel was one who was instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, pp. 120-121)

　　The principle should be the same with the elders in the churches today. If the elders do not read the Bible and are not controlled by the word of God, they cannot administrate the church. In order to administrate, to manage, the church, the elders must be reconstituted with the holy word of God. As a result, they will be under God’s government, under God’s rule and control. Then spontaneously God will be in their decisions, and the elders will represent God to manage the affairs of the church. This kind of management is theocracy. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 121)

　　In the place God had chosen, the children of Israel were to eat before the Lord and rejoice (Deut. 12:7). Nowhere in the book of Deuteronomy were God’s people told that they should go to the unique place to engage in mere “worship.” Of course, they were expected to worship the Lord in the place He had chosen but not to worship according to their concept of what worship is. Instead, they were to worship according to God’s thought, concept, of worship. According to the natural, human concept, to worship is to kneel, to bow down, or to prostrate ourselves before God. Even Muslims worship in such a way in their mosques. Once I visited a Muslim mosque at the time of worship. I noticed that among the worshippers there was no sense of enjoyment. On the contrary, due to the lack of enjoyment, many of those worshippers looked older than their years. The worship indicated in Deuteronomy 12 is not a matter of kneeling, bowing, or prostrating ourselves. According to this chapter, to worship is to eat before the Lord. When they came to the place God had chosen, God’s people were to eat the top portion of the offerings and sacrifices before God.

　　Have you ever thought that this is the kind of worship God desires? In Deuteronomy 12 there is no mention of singing or even of praying. According to this portion of the Word, proper worship is a matter of eating before God the rich produce of the good land. (CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” pp. 275-276)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msg. 29; CWWL, 1979, vol. 2, “The Genuine Ground of Oneness,” ch. 5; CWWL, 1975-1976, vol. 3, “Young People’s Training,” chs. 12-13

«　WEEK 11　DAY 5　»

　　Deut. 12:19 Be careful that you do not forsake the Levite all your days upon the earth.

　　1 Cor. 16:1-2 Now concerning the collection for the saints, just as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also do. On the first day of the week each one of you should lay aside in store to himself whatever he may have been prospered, that no collections be made when I come.

　　In Deuteronomy 13 we see that God takes care of Himself, and in Deuteronomy 12, that He takes care of His people as His expression. Now in the verses concerning aid to the needy [14:28—15:18] we see that God takes care of all those who are part of His expression.

　　The Levites, who had no job or other source of income but who lived on God, serving Him full time, were to be taken care of [12:19]….There was also to be provision for the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow [14:29]. Today we should also care for the needy ones among us….In the Lord’s recovery, we need to care for the full-timers and the other needy ones.

　　In New Testament terms, this means that Christ takes care of every member of His Body. We all should follow this pattern. We should love the Lord Jesus, we should love His Body, and we should take care of the needs of all the members. In caring for the needs of the saints, it is best that we prepare for this by having a budget. This means that in a regular way we should lay something aside to use in taking care of needy saints. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, pp. 97, 96, 97)

　　The people were required to open their hand to the poor one and to lend enough for his need in whatever he lacked (Deut. 15:8). Today we should not be reluctant to give to the poor brothers among us. When we give to meet the needs of the poor brothers, the Lord will return to us much more than we gave. All the believers who give willingly can testify of this.

　　“You must give to him, and your heart shall not be displeased when you give to him; for on account of this matter Jehovah your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings” (v. 10)….We today should not be displeased when giving to the poor; instead, we should be happy, knowing that God will bless us and return much more to us. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, pp. 98-99)

　　All of fallen mankind are under the domination of mammon and material possessions (Matt. 6:19-21, 24-25, 30; 19:21-22; Luke 12:13-19). At the day of Pentecost, under the power of the Holy Spirit, all the believers overthrew this domination and had all their possessions in common for distribution to the needy ones (Acts 2:44-45; 4:32, 34-37). That practice, due to the weakness of the believers’ fallen nature (see Acts 5:1-11; 6:1), did not last long. It was already over by the apostle Paul’s time. Then the believers needed grace to overcome the power of mammon and material things and to release them from Satan’s domination for an offering to the Lord to fulfill His purpose. Resurrection life is the supply for the believers to live such a life, a life trusting in God, not in treasures of material possessions, a life not for today but for the future, not for this age but for the coming age (Luke 12:16-21; 1 Tim. 6:17-19), a life that overthrows the usurpation of temporal and uncertain riches. This may be the reason that this dealing [in 1 Corinthians 16] follows the one concerning the reality of resurrection life [in chapter 15]. In any case this dealing is related to God’s administration among the churches.

　　[In 1 Corinthians 16:2] “the first day of the week” is a symbol of the Lord’s resurrection…[indicating that] our giving must be in resurrection life, not in our natural life….[This is] the victory in resurrection over your use of your money and material possessions. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 625-626, 628)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msgs. 14-15; Life-study of 1 Corinthians, msg. 69; Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msgs. 46-47, 49

«　WEEK 11　DAY 6　»

　　Deut. 25:13-15 You shall not have in your bag differing weights. …You shall not have in your house differing measures….A full and righteous weight…and a full and righteous measure you shall have…that your days may be extended upon the land which Jehovah your God is giving you.

　　Gal. 6:10 …Let us do what is good toward all, but especially toward those of the household of the faith.

　　Deuteronomy 25:13-16 covers the judgment concerning weights and measures. The children of Israel were not to have in their bag differing weights, one heavy and one light, nor were they to have in their house differing measures, one large and one small (vv. 13-14). To have differing weights and measures is a lie, and all lies come from the enemy, Satan. The dishonest practice of having differing weights and measures is surely from Satan.

　　The children of Israel were to have a full and righteous weight and a full and righteous measure in order that their days might be extended upon the God-given land (v. 15). Here longevity is related to righteousness. Those who have lived a long life often attribute their longevity to such matters as taking care of their health, getting adequate sleep, and having a proper diet….In this verse living long upon the land is clearly related to having full and righteous weights and measures. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, p. 134)

　　Those who have differing weights and measures actually have differing scales. In the church life today, we may have differing scales—one scale for measuring others and a different scale for measuring ourselves. Having differing scales, we may condemn a certain thing in others but justify the same thing in ourselves.

　　In the house of God, the church, there should be only one scale….The same scale should be used to weigh everyone. If we have only one scale, we will be fair, righteous, and just, even as God is. Because God is fair, righteous, and just, He measures everyone according to the same scale.

　　Although we should not have differing scales in the church life, one scale for weighing ourselves and other scales for weighing the brothers and sisters, we all have failed in this matter. Not one of us is an exception. Using the language of accounting, we may say that it is easy for us to “debit” others and “credit” ourselves. Instead of doing this, we should give others more credit and ourselves more debit.

　　Some saints who have the practice of using differing scales may move from one locality to another, hoping to find a more satisfactory church with more satisfactory elders. But because these saints have differing scales, no matter where they may go, they do not find the church and the elders to be satisfactory.

　　I emphasize the practice of having differing scales because this practice is a sickness, a disease, in the church life. This is the source of disaccord. Instead of keeping the oneness and the one accord, we have disaccord. May we all receive mercy from the Lord to no longer have differing scales but, like our God, to have the same scale for everyone. (Life-study of Deuteronomy, pp. 134-136)

　　For more than fifty years, I have been living by faith in the Lord. Often I have been very poor. Nevertheless, I can testify that even though I have been in extreme poverty, I never had any lack. I gathered little, but I had no lack. At other times I had an abundant supply, even large sums of money. However, I must testify that I did not have any excess. Therefore, I can testify from my experience that whenever I have gathered much, I have had no excess and that whenever I have gathered little, I have had no lack. Who balances the supply in this way? It is done by God with His heavenly balance. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, p. 423)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Deuteronomy, msg. 19; Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 48