Scripture Reading: Gen. 28:10-22; 35:1-15
Ⅰ
God's building is the desire of God's heart and the goal of God's salvation—Exo. 25:8:
A
God's building is the Triune God as life being wrought into us so that we may become His corporate expression—Eph. 3:17a, 19b, 21.
B
God's building is the mingling of God with man; the principle of God's building is that God builds Himself into us and builds us into Himself—John 14:20; 15:4a; Eph. 3:17a.
C
To be built up with fellow believers is the Lord's supreme and highest requirement of His faithful seekers according to the divine oneness of the Divine Trinity—John 17.
D
Being built up with fellow partakers of the divine life is the highest virtue of one who pursues after Christ according to God's eternal economy—Phil. 3:12.
E
We need to be enlightened by and fully saturated with the thought that in this universe God is doing only one thing—building His eternal habitation—Matt. 16:18; Rev. 21:2-3.
Ⅱ
The account of Jacob's dream at Bethel is the most crucial word in the revelation of God, including the whole Bible in its scope and requiring the rest of the Bible to explain it—Gen. 28:10-22; Matt. 16:18; 1 Tim. 3:15:
A
Genesis 28:10-22 is the first place in Scripture where God reveals that His intention is to build Himself together with man and to have a dwelling place, a Bethel, on earth.
B
Jacob's dream is a revelation of Christ, for the center of this dream is Christ as the ladder—v. 12; John 1:51:
１
The purpose of the dream at Bethel is always that we see Christ as the ladder; this ladder issues in Bethel, the house of God on earth.
２
Christ, in His being the heavenly ladder at Bethel, speaks to us how God desires to have a house on earth constituted with His redeemed and transformed elect, that He may bring heaven to earth and join earth to heaven, to make the two as one for eternity.
C
In the account of Jacob's dream at Bethel, there are four outstanding items: the stone, the pillar, the oil, and the house of God—Gen. 28:11, 17-19, 22:
１
The stone signifies the Christ who has been wrought into our being to become our rest—v. 11.
２
Jacob set up the stone as a pillar; this signifies that the Christ who has been wrought into us becomes material for God's building—v. 18a.
３
Jacob's pouring oil upon the stone which was set up as a pillar signifies the Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God reaching man—v. 18b.
４
After the oil was poured upon the pillar, the pillar became the house of God—vv. 19a, 22a.
D
Although God unveiled to Jacob the desire of His heart to have Bethel, this did not transform Jacob at all; Jacob still needed to be dealt with, broken, and transformed—vv. 20-21.
E
Every step of Jacob's life was involved with Bethel—v. 19; 35:1, 3, 6-7, 15.
Ⅲ
In Genesis 35 the vision of Bethel came again; however, this time it did not come as a dream—it came as a reality:
A
We all come into the church life twice—28:12, 16-17; 35:15:
１
The first time we come in a dream, and the second time we come in reality; we need both the dream and the reality.
２
The dream in the beginning was a true picture, and everything in the reality is the same as that in the dream.
B
God's desire was to bring Jacob back to Bethel; the first thing Jacob did at Bethel was to build an altar according to God's desire—vv. 1, 3, 7.
C
At Bethel Jacob set up a pillar and poured out a drink offering on it; this indicates that the drink offering is for God's building—v. 14a.
D
Our pouring ourselves out as a drink offering to God brings in the outpouring of the Spirit for God's building—v. 14b.
E
At Bethel Jacob's name was changed to Israel, indicating that his being had been changed; now he was Israel at Bethel—32:28; 35:10.
Ⅳ
In Genesis 35 there is a crucial and radical turn from the individual experience of God to the corporate experience of God—the experience of God as the God of Bethel—Eph. 3:17-21; 4:4-6:
A
In Genesis 35:7 we have a new divine title—El-bethel, God of the house of God.
B
Before this chapter God was the God of individuals; here He is no longer just the God of individuals but is El-bethel, the God of a corporate body, the God of the house of God.
C
Bethel signifies the corporate life, which is the Body of Christ; thus, in calling God the God of Bethel, Jacob advanced from the individual experience to the corporate experience—1 Cor. 12:12.
D
The altar built at Shechem was called El-Elohe-Israel, by the name of God as related to an individual; the altar built at Bethel was called El-bethel, the name of God as related to a corporate body—Gen. 33:17-20; 35:6-7.
E
The all-sufficient God is revealed for the building of Bethel; only at Bethel is it possible for us to realize the all-sufficiency of our God—v. 11a.