Scripture Reading: Psa. 84
Ⅰ
God's eternal economy is to make man the same as He is in life and in nature but not in the Godhead and to make Himself one with man and man one with Him, thus to be enlarged and expanded in His expression, that all His divine attributes may be expressed in human virtues—1 Tim. 1:4b; Eph. 3:9; 1:10.
Ⅱ
The two altars—the bronze altar for the sacrifices and the golden altar of incense—are for the carrying out of God's economy—Psa. 84:3; Exo. 27:1-8; 30:1-10:
A
According to the divine revelation in the Scriptures, God's work is to complete His economy, and God's desire in His economy is to have a unique incorporation—John 14:20.
B
The purposeful God has an economy, and in His economy He intends to have an enlarged, universal, divine-human incorporation—v. 2.
Ⅲ
The bronze altar and the golden altar are related to God's complete salvation—Heb. 13:10; 9:4; Rev. 8:3; Rom. 5:10:
A
The bronze altar for the sacrifices is related to God's judicial redemption accomplished in the physical realm by Christ in His earthly ministry—v. 10a; 8:3; Heb. 9:14; 7:27; 10:10.
B
The golden altar of incense is related to God's organic salvation carried out in the divine and mystical realm by Christ in His heavenly ministry—Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; 9:24.
Ⅳ
The bronze altar typifies the cross of Christ—13:10:
A
God traveled from the ark to the bronze altar in order to bring man into Himself—John 1:1, 14, 29; 14:3, 20.
B
The cross is the base, the ground, for all spiritual experiences; our experience begins from the cross, from the altar—Gal. 2:20; 6:14; 1 Cor. 2:2.
Ⅴ
The incense altar signifies Christ as the Intercessor to maintain the relationship between God and His people—Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34:
A
The incense altar is the place from which the activities at all the other places in the tabernacle are motivated.
B
Christ's interceding life, His prayer life, is the center of the divine administration—Heb. 7:25; Rom. 8:34; Rev. 8:3:
１
The executing of God's administration is motivated by the prayers offered to Him from the incense altar.
２
Revelation 8 is a picture of the incense altar being the administrating center for God to execute the judgments of His administration.
C
After His resurrection and ascension, the individual Christ has become the corporate Christ; thus, before God today not only is the individual Christ interceding, but the corporate Christ, the Head with the Body, is interceding as well—1 Cor. 12:12; Acts 12:5; 1 Tim. 2:1:
１
As members of Christ and as parts of the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ, we cooperate with Christ in His ministry of intercession, carrying out His intercession in our prayers of intercession—Rom. 8:34, 26-27.
２
We need to pray for the executing of God's purpose, for the carrying out of the divine administration, and for the dispensing of God's supplying grace.
Ⅵ
The tabernacle in the Old Testament is a sign of the universal incorporation—Exo. 25:8-9; John 14:20; Psa. 84:
A
To eat the hidden manna is to be incorporated into the tabernacle—Rev. 2:17:
１
The hidden manna corresponds to the four ins in John 14:16-20.
２
By eating the hidden manna, we are incorporated into the Triune God to become the New Jerusalem—Rev. 2:17; 21:2-3.
B
By loving the Lord with the best love, we are incorporated into the Triune God to become His dwelling place—2:4; John 14:21, 23; Eph. 3:17:
１
It is love in God that gives Him the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate with us, and it is love in us that gives us the yearning to unite, mingle, and incorporate with Him—1 John 4:19, 8, 16; Psa. 84:1-2, 5.
２
By loving the Lord with the best love and by participating in every aspect of the divine romance, we become the New Jerusalem—the consummate, universal, divine-human incorporation—Rev. 21:9-10.
Ⅶ
The tabernacle as God's dwelling place is actually a mutual dwelling place, a mutual abode—Psa. 84; Rev. 21:3:
A
This abode is God's dwelling place and also the dwelling place of God's serving ones; there is a mutual dwelling in a mutual abode—Psa. 84:4.
B
This wonderful dwelling place is the center and reality of the entire universe.