Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:8-9, 16-17; Jer. 2:13; 15:16, 19; 23:5-6; 31:31-34; 40:5-6, 13-14

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 6　DAY 1　»

　　Gen. 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…

　　Acts 7:56 And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

　　I would like to give a very brief word on the resemblance of God and man in their images and likenesses ….I would encourage you to study all the following points very carefully. As we consider these, we may wonder whether man resembles God or God resembles man.

　　There was no “mankind” created by God in His creation. Genesis 1 tells us that God created all the fish, the birds, the beasts, and the cattle after their kind (vv. 24-25). Although God created everything after its kind, God did not create “mankind.” In God’s creation there was not such a thing as “mankind.”

　　If God did not create “mankind,” then after what kind was man created? Genesis 1:26 indicates that man is after God’s kind. This verse says, “Let Us [the Divine Trinity] make man [Heb. adam, denoting red clay] in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Hence, what God made here was according to His own kind, that is, God-kind….God created something of red clay in His own image and after His own likeness. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, p. 85)

　　Having the image of God, this work of red clay looked like God. At least we can say that this clay was a figure of God, made after God’s kind. Therefore, it was God-kind. In Genesis 1:26 God created something according to Himself. What He made was a reproduction of Himself. If God had made ten thousand pieces of clay in His image and after His likeness, those ten thousand pieces of clay would all have been figures of God, the mass reproduction of God.

　　In Genesis 18:2-13 three men appeared to Abraham. One of these men was Christ—Jehovah—and the other two were angels (19:1). The appearing of these three men to Abraham took place before Christ’s incarnation. This means that two thousand years before His incarnation, God appeared as a man when He visited His friend Abraham. Abraham prepared water for Him to wash His feet, and Abraham’s wife, Sarah, prepared a meal that this man ate. This is a mystery. When did Christ become a man—at the time of His incarnation or before the incarnation?

　　According to Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel saw a vision of a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, and He came even to the Ancient of Days—the God of eternity—and they brought Him near before Him. There was given Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an eternal dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Daniel saw such a vision of Christ as the Son of Man before Christ’s incarnation.

　　Adam was a type, a prefigure, of Christ (Rom. 5:14). The piece of red clay in Genesis 1:26 was a type of Christ, and Christ is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). Christ, who exists in the form of God, took the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, in His incarnation (Phil. 2:6-8).

　　Stephen saw the heavens opened up and the Son of Man—Christ—at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). Stephen saw this after Christ’s ascension to the heavens. This indicates that Christ is in the heavens still as the Son of Man. In Matthew 26:64 the Lord Jesus said, “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power [God] and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This refers to Christ’s second coming. When the Lord Jesus comes back, He will still be the Son of Man. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, pp. 86-87)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, msgs. 2, 4, 7, 11, 13

«　WEEK 6　DAY 2　»

　　1 John 3:2 …We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is.

　　Rev. 4:3 And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance…

　　21:11 Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, as clear as crystal.

　　Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” Romans 12:2a speaks of our being transformed by the renewing of the mind. He as God has done a lot to make Himself in the form and likeness of man. Now He intends to transform us into the same image and conform us to the image of the Son of God.

　　Philippians 2:15 speaks of our being blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom we shine as luminaries in the world. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, p. 88)

　　We know that if Christ is manifested, we will be like Him wholly, perfectly, and absolutely because we will see Him even as He is (1 John 3:2b)….All this will consummate in the New Jerusalem. Revelation 4:3 says, “He [God] who was sitting was like a jasper stone.” This tells us that the appearance of God, the One sitting on the throne, is like jasper.

　　According to Revelation 21 the New Jerusalem’s light is like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone (v. lib). The building work of its wall is jasper, and the first foundation of the wall is also jasper (vv. 18a, 19). The wall is jasper, the first foundation of the wall is jasper, the light of the city is jasper, and God on the throne is like jasper. Eventually God and man, man and God, all have the appearance of jasper. This is the conclusion of the Bible. The consummation of the Bible is the New Jerusalem— divinity mingled with humanity. Divinity becomes the dwelling place of humanity, and humanity becomes the home of divinity. In this city the glory of God is manifested in man, brightly and splendidly. We will be there, and we are on the way. We are in the process of being made “a piece of God,” to look the same as God—jasper.

　　When we think of ourselves as God-men, this thinking, this realization, revolutionizes us in our daily experience. For example, a brother may be unhappy with his wife. But he remembers that he is a God-man, and immediately his attitude is changed. Then he will desire to be a God-man husband. In God’s view mankind is a negative term referring to fallen man. As believers in Christ and children of God, we are not mankind—we are God-man kind….This is the highest point of God’s gospel.

　　According to this gospel, we were fallen, yet Christ died for us. If we believe in Him and receive Him, we will have the eternal life to be the sons of God. Christians today admit that all the believers in Christ are the sons of God or the children of God, but they do not dare admit that the believers in Christ are God. At the end of this age, we are teaching and preaching the truth that God became a man in order to make man God, the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. It is a great blessing to hear this truth. After hearing that God wants a group of God-men, how can you be content to be anything else? What do you want to be? Do you want to be a typical Chinese or a typical American? Do you want to be merely a Christian or a believer in Christ? We should all declare that we want to live the life of a God-man. Eventually, the God-men will be the victors, the overcomers, the Zion within Jerusalem. This will bring in a new revival which has never been seen in history, and this will end this age. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, pp. 88-89, 27-28)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 1, “The Central Line of the Divine Revelation,” ch. 5

«　WEEK 6　DAY 3　»

　　Jer. 2:13 For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water.

　　Gen. 2:8-9 …And there He put the man….And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden…

　　In Jeremiah 2:13 Jehovah speaks concerning the two basic sins committed by the children of Israel. The first sin was forsaking Jehovah as the fountain, the source, of living waters; the second sin was hewing out for themselves broken cisterns that could not hold water. This second sin was a matter of not trusting in God but of trusting in themselves to do something for their own enjoyment. These two sins govern the entire book of Jeremiah.

　　The principle in the Bible is that God does not want His chosen people to take anything other than Himself as their source. After God created man, He placed him in front of the tree of life, which signifies God as life. By doing this God was indicating that He wanted man to partake of the tree of life, not anything else. To partake of the tree of life is to take God as our unique source, as our source of everything. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 217-218)

　　Sin is a matter of leaving God and doing something by ourselves and for ourselves. This is exactly what the children of Israel did. They forsook God as the fountain of living waters for their supply, and, according to their opinion, they did whatever they could to work out something by themselves for their enjoyment ….Sin is to forsake God and to do something by ourselves and for ourselves. This is the principle throughout the Bible, and Jeremiah repeated this principle again and again so that we would be impressed.

　　Jeremiah 34—45 is a section of twelve chapters showing us the stubbornness of Israel in sinning against Jehovah. In these chapters one thing is made clear—that Israel has forsaken God as the source, the fountain, of living waters. Consider, for example, the situation with Gedaliah. Although he was faithful in caring for Jeremiah, God’s prophet (40:5-6), he did not seek the Lord’s word (vv. 13-14), because this was not his habit. He did not take God as his source to be one with Him and to receive whatever issued from Him. If he had been such a person, the first thing he would have done would have been to receive the word of God. (Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 218)

　　The principle of the tree of life is dependence. If you have the living God as your co-driver,…He will be your living map and your living guide. Actually, you will even cease being the driver and let Him drive. You may sit near Him and enjoy His driving, saying,”…Lord, You drive in my place.” We may apply this principle to the teaching about marriage in Ephesians 5. All Christian wives know the verse in Ephesians 5 which tells them to submit to their own husbands. All Christian husbands know the verse which tells them to love their wives. Nevertheless, wives and husbands fail to fulfill the requirements of these verses because they take Ephesians 5 as the tree of knowledge, not as the tree of life. Husbands and wives, you should not live according to the tree of knowledge. You must live by the tree of life. As a wife you should say, “Lord, I don’t know how to submit to my husband. Lord, even if I do know, I cannot do it. I will forget about it, Lord. I won’t use my effort or energy to fulfill this requirement. Lord Jesus, I simply stay in Your presence. I want to abide in You and enjoy You twenty-four hours a day.” If you do this, submission spontaneously will flow out of your inner being. It will be the overflow of your enjoyment of Christ as your inner life. This is dependence on the tree of life. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 162, 164-165)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man,” chs. 1-2

«　WEEK 6　DAY 4　»

　　Jer. 15:19 Therefore thus says Jehovah,…If you bring out the precious from the worthless, you will be as My mouth…

　　Phil. 3:8 But moreover I also count all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as refuse that I may gain Christ.

　　To take, receive, and keep the word of God, we must be absolutely one with God. We must trust in Him, rely on Him, and not have any opinion that comes out of ourselves. We should simply enjoy what God has done and what He will do for us. This is the way to fulfill God’s economy, and this is the new covenant. In the new covenant we are one with God and let Him write Himself into us as our life and as our life law with its capacity for us to function. We all need to see this.

　　The principle of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, is that God opens Himself to us that we may enter into Him, receive Him, and become one with Him. Then He will be in us, and we will be in Him, taking Him as everything. The first thing we will take is His word to express His thought, His will, His heart’s desire, and His good pleasure; we will not care for our opinions or preferences. In this way we become His mouthpiece to speak Him forth to others for their supply. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 218-219)

　　Once a person is saved, his concept of value changes. He no longer cherishes what he once cherished, and he treasures what he once despised. This is a change in his concept of value. Anyone who has not witnessed such a change in concept is not a genuine Christian.

　　Matthew 10:37-38 says, “He who loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” A father, mother, wife, and children are the most precious things to a man. They are the most important things a man has in this life. When these are not compared with the Lord, there is nothing wrong in loving them. But when a situation arises where we have to choose between the two, which one will we choose?…We have to help the brothers and sisters know the real precious thing. We can ask new believers, “Whom will you choose?” If they are not clear about this, they will be lost when they face temptations in the future. The responsibility of providing proper guidance is on our shoulders. We have to tell the new believers, “If, for the Lord’s sake, you have to draw a separation line between yourself and your parents, wife, and children, will you choose Him? For His sake, that is, for the sake of the Lord who died for us, we should choose to be His disciples and follow Him.” Our own kin are precious, but they are no comparison to the Lord. Our Lord is more precious. [According to Philippians 3:7-8], we see that Paul…had a change in his concept of value. What things were gains to him, these he counted as loss on account of Christ. Why was Paul able to reject the things that were gains to him? He was able to consider them as loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Paul reckoned the Christ whom God had anointed as Lord, as King, and as the most excellent One. For His sake he suffered the loss of all things and counted them as refuse. This is the kind of change in valuation that happens to a Christian.

　　Jeremiah 15:19 [says] that if we bring out the precious from the worthless, we will be as God’s mouth. If we cannot tell the proper value of things, God will reject us and cast us aside….We have to see the importance of such a change in concept of value. May the Lord grant us the light to have a thorough change in our concept of value so that we will know to choose the most excellent portion. (CWWN, vol. 60, pp. 387, 390, 395)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 60, ch. 45

«　WEEK 6　DAY 5　»

　　Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

　　2 Cor. 2:10 …Whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ.

　　The stubbornness of the children of Israel was due to their not being one with God. For example, Johanan, the leader of the remnant, strongly determined to go to Egypt to take refuge. He feared that the Babylonians would come to avenge the murder of Gedaliah. But God wanted them to remain in the Holy Land to be a remnant of His people. God would visit them and grace them and even use them to be His people as a testimony of the living God on earth. However, they altogether misunderstood God by their consideration and by their opinion. Nevertheless, all the leaders of the forces and all the people begged Jeremiah the prophet to pray for them concerning the way in which they should go and the thing which they should do, promising him that whether it was good or evil, they would listen to the voice of Jehovah (Jer. 42:1-6). They said they would obey because they expected Jeremiah to go along with them. They expected that he would give them a “sugarcoated” word. Jeremiah, who was not one to speak such a word, told them that he would pray to Jehovah according to their words. (Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 219)

　　Instead of being in a hurry to speak, Jeremiah waited for ten days. After ten days the word of Jehovah came to them through Jeremiah, telling them not to go to Egypt but to remain in Judah. Jehovah said, “If you will still remain in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up” (Jer. 42:10a). This indicates that He would bless them, and they would enjoy Him. However, if they did not listen to this word but went to the land of Egypt, they would die there. Concerning this, Jehovah said, “If indeed you set your faces to go to Egypt and go to sojourn there, then the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, about which you are worried, will follow hard after you there in Egypt; and you will die there. And all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt, to sojourn there, will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or any who have escaped from the evil which I will bring on them” (vv. 15b-17).

　　When Jeremiah finished speaking the words of Jehovah, all the people, including Johanan, accused him of lying…(43:2). Refusing to listen to the voice of Jeremiah to remain in the land of Judah, Johanan and all the leaders of the forces took the remnant and went to Egypt.

　　Once they were in Egypt, there was an argument between a great assemblage of those who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods and all the women who stood by, and Jeremiah the prophet (44:15-30). They told Jeremiah that they would not listen to him. Instead, they would burn incense to the queen of heaven (the wife of Nimrod) and pour out libations to her, just as they did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. They even went so far as to say that when they burned incense to the queen of heaven, they had plenty of food and were well off and did not see evil …(vv. 17-18). That was a lie. When they were in Jerusalem, they were besieged and even forced to eat their children.

　　The children of Israel were a people who were not one with God. If they had been one with God, there would have been no problem. If they had been one with God, they would have received God’s word and would have known His heart, His nature, His mind, and His purpose. If they had been one with God, then spontaneously they would have lived Him and would have been constituted with Him to be His testimony on earth. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 219-220)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 6-7, 13-14

«　WEEK 6　DAY 6　»

　　Jer. 23:5-6 …I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot….And this is His name by which He will be called: Jehovah our righteousness.

　　31:33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

　　We as Christians have…transgressed the principle of being one with God. We may not have a heart to be one with God, yet we like to be His people. The result is that we do not go along with God’s will or God’s mind, but rather express our opinions and care for our likes and dislikes. This is the reason for the lack of oneness among believers today. If we are not one with God, we cannot be one with one another. Those who are not one with God do not take His will and good pleasure but express their opinions and pursue their preferences. To do this is to hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 220-221)

　　Because we, like the children of Israel, were not one with God and did not have the heart to do God’s will or take His good pleasure, we offended God, transgressed His ordinances, and committed sins against His commandments. We were a people whose heart was deceitful and incurable (Jer. 17:9). We were exposed as having a nature that is sinful and rebellious, a nature that…could not be changed (13:23). Since this was our situation, how could we be reconciled to God?

　　The answer [is] in 23:5-6….The only way that we can be reconciled to God and justified by Him is by Christ, the new Sprout, the righteous Shoot, who is called Jehovah our righteousness. As the righteous Shoot, He came in the flesh as the descendant of David to die on the cross and shed His blood in order to accomplish redemption for our justification.

　　Based upon Christ’s redemption we have been justified, and the Triune God has come into us to be our life, our person, and our everything. This creates a situation in which God is free to work out His eternal economy in us by His dispensing of Himself into our being. If we see this principle and grasp it, we will understand the entire book of Jeremiah.

　　The book of Jeremiah was not written according to the historical sequence, but this book surely has a spiritual sequence. First, Jeremiah shows us the basic sins of God’s people—forsaking God and hewing out their own cisterns. Then the human heart is gradually exposed as being deceitful and incurable. We are wicked and hopeless, having a fallen nature that cannot change. In order to be one with God, we need Christ as the Shoot of David to be our redemption and justification. This ushers the Triune God into us to be our life, our inner life law, our capacity, and our everything. This is the new covenant (31:33). In the new covenant, we do not do anything. Rather, we are simply one with God to let Him write Himself into us as the law of life. This law of life implies the Triune God with the highest capacity for our function. God lives in us and has the freedom, in matters great and small, to dispense Himself into our being to carry out His economy. This dispensing will bring in the restoration of all things and will consummate in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of the economy of God accomplished by His eternal dispensing.

　　In Jeremiah we see that we are redeemed, that we are justified, and that we have become one with God. Eventually we will know God, live God, and be constituted with God in His life and nature that we may be His corporate expression. This is the complete teaching of the Bible, especially in the New Testament, and this is the essence of the book of Jeremiah. (Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 221-222)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Jeremiah, msgs. 1-5, 26, 32-33; Life-study of Galatians, msgs. 9, 16