Crystallization Study of Exodus 5.6

The flesh of the passover lamb signifies the sinless life of Christ. We received Christ not only in His death and resurrection, but also in His sinlessness, for His life is not only a crucified and resurrected life, but also a sinless life. Therefore, we must eat the flesh of the lamb and also the unleavened bread. This means that from the time we received Christ and were saved and had a new beginning in life, we began to live a life without leaven, a life without sin.

Exodus 13:7 says that no leaven was to be seen with the children of Israel. In our Christian life no leaven should be seen. It is impossible for us to have no leaven at all, but it is possible for the leaven not to be seen. Although it is not possible for us to be without sin, we must deal with any sin that is manifested, with any sin that is seen. This means that we are responsible to deal with the sin of which we are conscious. Whenever we discover something sinful in our lives, we must eliminate it. This, however, does not mean that we shall have no sin. There may be much sin in our lives or in our environment, but we may not be conscious of it. However, as soon as we become conscious of it, we must deal with it. We must forsake the sin of which we are conscious. We should not tolerate any manifestation of sin.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 5.5

A bunch of hyssop was used to put the blood of the lamb on the lintel and the doorposts. First Kings 4:33 says that, in his wisdom, Solomon “discoursed about trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that shoots forth out of the wall.” Hyssop was among the smallest of the plants. According to the revelation in the New Testament, the thing that is the smallest in quantity is our faith (Matt. 17:20). Hence, hyssop signifies aith....God requires that we have just a little faith. Even if our faith is very small, we still can apply the Passover lamb. If a sinner prays, “Lord Jesus, thank You for dying for me,” he will be saved. Even such a small amount of faith will save him. Actually, one can be saved just by saying, “Lord, thank You.” This is faith that is like hyssop that springs out of the wall. It is by such little faith that the blood of Christ is applied.

The children of Israel were required to stay in the house whose door had been touched with the blood; they were not to go out of it until the morning (12:22). To understand the significance of this we need to see that the basic concept in the Bible with respect to redemption is identification or union. Without identification there can be no substitution, which is necessary for redemption. On the cross Christ died as our substitute. However, His being our substitute requires us to be identified with Him.

Our entrance into Christ is through the door to which the blood has been applied. When we use hyssop to put the blood on the door, we are able to enter into Christ. After getting into Christ, we need to remain in Him....We should simply maintain our identification with Christ, with a constant realization that we are nothing and that He is everything. We need to see that we are in Him and that He is in us. As long as we abide in Him, He will abide in us. As the Lord Himself said in John 15:4, “Abide in Me and I in you.”

Crystallization Study of Exodus 5.4

According to Exodus 12:8, the children of Israel were to eat the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. To eat with unleavened bread means to eliminate all sinful things. When we enjoy Christ as our Passover, we must purge away everything sinful. At the same time, we need to eat bitter herbs. This means that we need to regret and repent, to experience a bitter taste regarding sinful things. When we believed in the Lord Jesus, many of us received Him as our life supply and also gave up everything sinful. At the same time, we experienced regret and repentance. This indicates that we ate Christ with bitter herbs.

Exodus 12:11 says, “And this is how you shall eat it: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste. It is Jehovah’s passover.” As the children of Israel were eating the passover lamb, they were like an army. Exodus 12:51 says that the Lord brought the children of Israel “out of the land of Egypt by their armies.” Not many Christians today realize that they should be an army. On the contrary, the prevailing concept seems to be that anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus should be placed in a palanquin and carried away to heaven. However, according to the picture in the book of Exodus, the redeemed ones applied the Passover in such a way that they could become God’s army.

Nor shall you break any of its bones

Exo. 12:46 ...You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break any of its bones.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 5.3

In Exodus 12:8 the children of Israel were given the proper way to eat the flesh of the passover lamb: roasted with fire. Fire here signifies God’s holy wrath exercised in judgment. When Christ was on the cross, the holy fire of God judged Him and consumed Him. Psalm 22:14 and 15 say, “My heart is like wax; / It is melted within me. / My strength is dried up like a shard, / And my tongue is stuck to my jaws.” Then He cried, “I thirst” (John 19:28), because He was being burned by the holy fire of God’s judgment.

In Exodus 12:9 the children of Israel were charged not to eat of the lamb raw. Today those who do not believe in Christ’s redemption attempt to eat Him “raw.” This means that they regard Christ as a model or example of human living for them to imitate. In effect, to do this is to eat the Passover lamb raw.

Furthermore, the children of Israel were not to eat the lamb boiled with water (12:9). To eat of Christ as if He were “boiled with water” is to regard His death on the cross not as death for redemption but as martyrdom. Many today do not believe that Christ died as the Redeemer. According to their concept, He was persecuted by man and died as a martyr, having sacrificed Himself for His teachings. To apply Christ’s death in this way is to eat the lamb boiled with water. To be boiled in water is to undergo suffering but not the suffering of holy fire. Rather, this suffering is simply the suffering of persecution.

The children of Israel were to eat the lamb with its head, legs, and inward parts (12:9). The head signifies wisdom, the legs signify activity and move, and the inward parts signify the various inward parts of Christ’s being. To eat the Passover lamb with the head, legs, and inward parts is to take Christ as a whole, in His entirety. As we eat Him, we take His wisdom, activities, move, and inward parts. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 257-259)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 5.2

The passover is a type of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul says that “Our Passover, Christ, also has

been sacrificed.”...Christ is not only the Passover lamb but also every aspect of the passover. The lamb,

the bread, and the bitter herbs are all related to Christ. In principle, therefore, Christ is not only the lamb of the Passover, but the very Passover itself.

According to Exodus 12, God passed over the children of Israel because the blood of the Passover lamb had been sprinkled on the lintel and the doorposts of their houses. The children of Israel had been commanded to eat the flesh of the lamb in their houses. This indicates that the house was to be their covering under which and in which they could eat the flesh of the passover lamb. The house that covered them was to have blood sprinkled on the lintel and the doorposts. When God saw the blood, He passed over the children of Israel. Hence, this passing over was due to the sprinkled blood.

Just as the passover lamb was examined for four days (12:3, 6), so Christ was examined for the same period of time. After He was arrested, the Lord was subject to six examinations, three at the hands of the priests who examined Him according to the law of God, and three under the Roman rulers, who tested Him according to Roman law. Eventually, Pilate had to declare that he could not find fault in Him. In fact, Pilate declared three times that he found no fault whatever in Him (John 18:38; 19:4, 6). Christ as the Passover lamb was faultless, without blemish.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 5.1

The record of the passover given in Exodus is very detailed....The reason for all the detail is that God wants us to know the redemption of Christ in such a thorough way that we could never forget it. Twice the word memorial is used (12:14; 13:9). This indicates that it is God’s intention that we neither neglect the redemption of Christ nor forget it. Rather, we are to remember Christ’s redemption, not in a general way but in a specific and detailed way. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 261)

Exodus 12:2 speaks of the month of the Passover: “This month will be the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first of the months of the year to you.” This verse indicates that the Passover was held during the first month of the sacred year. Originally, this month was the seventh month of the civil year. According to Genesis 8:4, Noah’s ark landed on the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. Many Bible teachers believe that this seventh month was the first month of Exodus 12. The Passover was on the fourteenth day of this month. This means it was held three days before the day that marked the landing of the ark on the mountains of Ararat. This landing of the ark was a type of the resurrection of Christ. Christ was killed on the fourteenth day, and He was resurrected on the seventeenth day.

According to Exodus 12:3, in the tenth day of the month the children of Israel were to take “each man...a lamb according to his fathers’ house,” and prepare it for a period of four days. Then on the fourteenth day of the month, the actual date of the Passover, the lamb was killed (v. 6). The Lord Jesus was killed on the same day of the month (Luke 22:7-8, 14-15; John 18:28). (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 250-251)

Gereja - Yerusalem Baru

Hari ini merenungkan:

Sebenarnya di mata Allah gereja dan Yerusalem Baru adalah sama. Bagi kita gereja masih belum rampung, tetapi Allah tidak dipengaruhi waktu, sehingga bagi-Nya gereja sudah rampung sebagai Yerusalem Baru. Ini terbukti dengan Kitab Wahyu yang ditulis dalam bentuk past tense.

Karena itulah Dia berkata,” Aku tidak mendapati kesalahan apapun pada mereka. Aku di tengah-tengah mereka, dan mereka tempat kediaman-Ku di bumi.”

Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.6

The church of God! Not the church of Cephas, of Apollos, of Paul, or of any practice or doctrine, but of God. In spite of all the division, sin, confusion, abusing of gifts, and heretical teaching in the church in Corinth, the apostle still called it “the church of God” because the divine and spiritual essence which makes the assembled believers the church of God was actually there. Such a spiritual address by the apostle was based on his spiritual view in looking upon the church in Christ. Such a simple address alone should have eliminated all the division and confusion in both practice and doctrine. (1 Cor. 1:2, footnote 1)

The very God in the thornbush, the One who called Moses, was the God of resurrection. This is proved by the Lord’s word to the Sadducees in Mark 12:18-27. As the Sadducees were arguing with Him concerning resurrection, the Lord said, “But concerning the dead, that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the section concerning the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” Here the Lord pointed the unbelieving Sadducees to the section in the Scriptures concerning the thornbush. The title, “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” implies the God of resurrection. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have all died. If God were the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and there were no resurrection, then God would be the God of the dead. But God is not the God of the dead; He is the God of the living, the God of resurrection.

As those who are still in the flesh, it may be difficult for us to believe or to realize that we are in resurrection. If I were to ask you whether you are in the natural life or in the resurrection life, you would probably say that, for the most part, you are in the natural life. However, if you say this, you do not have faith. We need to be strong in faith and declare that we are in resurrection because our God is not the God of the dead but the God of the living. In myself, I am in the flesh and in the natural life, but in my God, I am in resurrection....In resurrection He is the great I Am. We all need to say in faith that we are in resurrection. The more we speak this in faith, the more it will become our experience.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.5

The children of Israel could be a corporate thornbush because they had been transformed and built up. God believed this, and we need to agree with Him. The tabernacle signified the children of Israel as God’s dwelling place. Do not regard the tabernacle as something apart from the children of Israel. Actually, it was the children of Israel who were God’s dwelling place. The tabernacle was merely a symbol. [Imagine tabernacle without children of Israel]

When Moses spoke of God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush, it is difficult to tell whether he was referring to the actual thornbush he had seen forty years before or to himself and to the children of Israel respectively as an individual and a corporate thornbush. I believe that his word includes all this. On the one hand, we are still a thornbush; on the other hand, through redemption, sanctification, transformation, and building, we are God’s dwelling place. Hallelujah, today God has a dwelling place on earth! Satan might say to God, “Your people are merely a thornbush.” But God would reply, “Satan, get behind Me. Don’t you know that this people has been redeemed, sanctified, and transformed? They have also been built up, and now they are one. Therefore, I am dwelling among them. You say that they are a thornbush, but I declare that they are My dwelling place.” The church today is God’s dwelling place. You may think that the church is uncomely, but to God it is lovely. You may criticize the church for its shortcomings, but God says that He sees no iniquity in His people. Regarding His people, God says, “I find no fault in them. I am in their midst, and they are My dwelling place on earth.” This is the church as the corporate thornbush. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 79-82)

Gereja - Yerusalem Baru

Gereja suatu hari pasti akan menjadi rampung menjadi Yerusalem Baru. Inilah pandangan Allah. Kalau dibaratkan manusia, gereja hari ini adalah manusia yang belum dewasa sepenuhnya. Apakah kita bisa menyalahkan anak umur 5 tahun kalau ia tidak bisa mengangkat beban 10 kg? Tunggu saja 10 tahun lagi, ia akan dengan mudah mengangkat beban 20 kg. Kalau diibaratkan bangunan, gereja hari ini sedang dibangun. Apakah kita mengeluh jika banyak ketidakteraturan pada bangunan yang belum jadi? Setelah bangunan itu jadi maka semua akan teratur dengan rapi.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.4

We need to see that there is a connection between Genesis 3 and Exodus 3. In both chapters we have the thorn and the fire. The thorn in Genesis 3 indicates that man is under a curse (vv. 17-18), and the flame of fire indicates that man is excluded from God as the tree of life (vv. 22-24). According to Genesis 3, thorns came from the curse due to sin. Hence, thorns are a symbol of fallen man under the curse. Immediately after the curse was pronounced, a flaming sword was placed at the east of the garden “to guard the way to the tree of life” (v. 24). Thus, sin brought in the curse, and the curse brought in the flame of fire. The function of fire in Genesis 3 is to exclude sinners from the tree of life, that is, from God as the source of life. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 74-75)

If the Bible had ended with Genesis 3:24, our situation would be forever hopeless. According to chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis, we were created specifically to receive God as life. The man created by God was placed in front of the tree of life. Then in chapter 3 sin came in, man fell under the curse, and the fire of God’s holiness excluded the cursed sinners from any direct contact with God as the tree of life....Man’s situation in Exodus 3 is much different from that in Genesis 3. In Exodus 3 the cursed thorn becomes the vessel of God, and the flame of fire becomes one with the thornbush. Through redemption, signified by the lamb slain and offered to God for fallen man (Gen. 4:4), the curse has been taken away, and the fire has become one with the thorn.

Considering this in the light of the picture in Exodus 3, we see that the thorn and the flame are one. In Genesis 3 fallen man was under the curse signified by the thorn. There the flame of fire excluded this fallen man from God as the tree of life. In Exodus 3, however, the thornbush, which can be considered a type of vessel, and the fire are one. In Genesis 3 the fire keeps the man who is under the curse away from the tree of life, away from God as the source of life. But in Exodus 3 the flame of fire visits the thornbush and indwells it. This indicates that through the redemption of Christ the very God Himself, the holy One whose holiness excludes sinners from His presence, can come to visit us, to stay with us, and even to dwell in us. Hallelujah, Christ has taken away the curse and has cast down to earth the fire of the Holy Spirit! Now that the curse has been taken away, we are no longer excluded from God as life. Praise the Lord that the excluding flame of Genesis 3 has become the visiting and indwelling flame of Exodus 3! Now the once-cursed thorn can become God’s dwelling place. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 75-76

Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.3

Both the thornbush and the tabernacle are symbols. God’s actual dwelling place was neither the physical thornbush nor the tabernacle; it was His people. After the children of Israel had been dealt with by God, they became acacia wood overlaid with gold and also linen embroidered with golden thread. The church today is the fulfillment of this type. At present the church may be a redeemed thornbush. However, the day is coming when we shall be gold, pearl, and precious stone. Praise the Lord for the marvellous vision of God’s dwelling place! This vision covers God’s habitation from the initial stage, the stage of the thornbush, to the consummate stage, the stage of the New Jerusalem. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 111)

When Moses was called by God, he saw the holy fire burning within the thornbush. When Paul was called, he saw the same vision, at least in principle. He saw the Triune God burning within His redeemed ones. Through this divine burning, the holy fire was one with the thornbush, and the thornbush was one with the fire, which is the Triune God Himself. Today God the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit have come down upon us as fire. The Lord Jesus once said that He came to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came in the form of tongues of fire. Today the Lord is still casting fire upon the earth. This holy fire, this divine burning, has captured us, and now we are part of the thornbush that is burning with the Triune God. The Triune God is burning within and upon the church He has chosen and  redeemed. Thus, the church is the Triune God burning within a redeemed humanity. This is the divine economy (1 Tim. 1:4).

Footnote Exodus 3:2 - 2 (MC)

(2)flame, (2)thornbush,

The flame of fire denotes the glory of God's holiness, which excluded fallen man from direct contact with God as the tree of life (Gen_3:24 and note). According to Gen_3:17-19 thorns were part of the curse that came because of man's sin. Hence, thorns are a symbol of fallen man under the curse. The thornbush here represents Moses himself as a redeemed sinner. The flame of fire burning within the thornbush signifies that the glory of God's holiness would burn within and upon Moses, God's called one, even though he was a sinner under God's curse. This was possible because of Christ's redemption (Gen_3:21; Gen_4:4), which satisfied the requirements of God's holiness and removed the curse, allowing the divine fire (the Spirit) to visit and to indwell the thorn-bush (the redeemed sinner), making the fire one with the thornbush (Gal_3:13-14). The fact that the fire burned in the thornbush without consuming it indicates that God Himself, not Moses, would be the "fuel" for the burning (cf. Rom_12:11; 2Ti_1:7; Phi_4:13; Col_1:29). Moses would be only a vessel, a channel, through which the glory of God's holiness would be manifested (cf. 2Co_4:7). 

According to Deu_33:16, the thornbush was God's dwelling place. Since God's corporate people are His actual dwelling place (Heb_3:6 and note), this implies that the thornbush refers also to God's redeemed people as a corporate entity. After the tabernacle, a symbol of the children of Israel as God's dwelling place, was built up, at night the cloud of God's glory upon it had the appearance of fire (Num_9:15-16). The fire burning upon the tabernacle signified that the people of Israel were a corporate burning thornbush. The church as God's dwelling place is also a burning thornbush-the Triune God burning within and upon a redeemed humanity (Luk_12:49; Act_2:3-4). Through the burning of the holy divine fire, the once cursed and redeemed thornbush is transformed to be God's dwelling place. This is God's economy.

Catatan Kaki Keluaran 3:2 - 2 (MC)

Api yang menyala-nyala menyatakan kemuliaan kekudusan Allah, yang membuat manusia yang telah jatuh tidak bisa berkontak secara langsung dengan Allah yang adalah pohon hayat (Gen_3:24 dan cat.). Menurut Gen_3:17-19, semak duri adalah bagian dari kutukan yang muncul karena dosa manusia. Maka, semak duri melambangkan manusia yang telah jatuh yang berada di bawah kutukan. Di sini semak duri mewakili Musa sendiri sebagai seorang dosa yang telah ditebus. Api yang menyala-nyala di dalam semak duri itu menandakan bahwa kemuliaan kekudusan Allah akan membara di dalam dan di atas Musa, yang dipanggil Allah, meskipun dia adalah orang dosa yang berada di bawah kutukan Allah. Hal tersebut dapat terjadi karena penebusan Kristus (Gen_3:21; Gen_4:4), yang memuaskan tuntutan kekudusan Allah dan menyingkirkan kutukan itu, membiarkan api ilahi (Roh itu) mengunjungi dan menghuni semak duri (orang dosa yang telah ditebus), dan membuat api itu menjadi satu dengan semak duri (Gal_3:13-14). Fakta bahwa api yang menyala-nyala di dalam semak duri tanpa menghanguskannya menunjukkan bahwa Allah sendiri, bukan Musa, yang akan menjadi "bahan bakar" bagi pembakaran itu (cf. Rom_12:11; 2Ti_1:7; Phi_4:13; Col_1:29). Musa hanya akan menjadi satu bejana, satu saluran, yang melaluinya kemuliaan kekudusan Allah dinyatakan (cf. 2Co_4:7). 

Menurut Deu_33:16, semak duri adalah tempat kediaman Allah. Karena umat korporat Allah adalah tempat kediaman-Nya yang sesungguhnya (Heb_3:6 dan cat.), maka hal ini menyiratkan bahwa semak duri juga mengacu kepada umat tebusan Allah sebagai satu kesatuan yang korporat. Setelah Kemah, lambang bani Israel sebagai tempat kediaman Allah, dibangunkan, maka pada malam itu awan kemuliaan Allah yang turun ke atasnya tampak seperti api (Num_9:15-16). Api yang menyala-nyala yang turun ke atas Kemah itu menandakan bahwa umat Israel adalah satu semak duri korporat yang menyala-nyala. Gereja sebagai tempat kediaman Allah juga adalah satu semak duri yang menyala-nyala-Allah Tritunggal menyala-nyala di dalam dan di atas keinsanian yang telah ditebus (Luk_12:49;Act_2:3-4). Melalui pembakaran dari api kudus ilahi ini, semak duri yang dulunya terkutuk dan kini telah ditebus, diubah menjadi tempat kediaman Allah. Inilah ekonomi Allah.

Light and Enjoyment

I was just a sinner under the curse. (MC)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.2

If we are like Moses, the man of God, we shall have a twofold consciousness. On  the one hand, weshall be conscious of the fact that we are thornbushes; on the other hand, we shall be conscious of God’s glory dwelling within us as a burning flame. Moses became a man of God, but he still considered himself a thornbush. In the same principle, God’s glory dwelt among the children of Israel and made them His glorious dwelling place, but they were still a thornbush, even a corporate thornbush.

According to Deuteronomy 33:1, Moses was a man of God. This indicates transformation. Apart from the process of transformation, how could Moses, a man so strong and active in his natural life, become a man of God? Only through transformation could he become such a person. One example of Moses’ transformation was his experience with the Lord on the mountaintop. After Moses had been with the Lord on the mountain for forty days, his face was shining because the flame of God’s holy fire had been burned into him. Moses was like steel that is thrust into fire and kept there until the steel glows with the fire that has been burned into its very essence. When Moses was on the mountaintop, God’s glory was burned into his being. When he came down from the mountain, his face was shining [Exo. 34:30]....Was that not a sign of transformation? It was a sure indication that Moses was being transformed. According to his training in the palace, Moses could have become an expert in all the Egyptian knowledge. But because he had been redeemed, called, sanctified, and transformed, instead he eventually became a man of God.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 4.1

God’s goal in dealing with His people, the children of Israel, was to obtain a proper dwelling place. Deuteronomy 33:16 speaks of God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush. This word, written by Moses, indicates that God possessed that burning thornbush as His house, His dwelling place. Who would ever have thought that God’s habitation on earth would be a thornbush?

In referring to God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush, Moses’ heart must have been full of thanks to God. During the last forty years of his life, Moses knew that he was just a thornbush. But he knew also that God was with him. We all need to have such a realization. Whenever we have a proper spirit before the Lord, we know that we are a thornbush. We know that even our natural virtues, such as kindness, humility, and patience, are “thorns.”...As he was blessing the children of Israel, Moses must have had such a sense about himself.

In Deuteronomy 33:16 Moses spoke of God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush. This word was uttered when Moses was one hundred twenty years of age, forty years after he had seen the vision of the burning thornbush. Moses never forgot that vision, even after the tabernacle had been built and God had come to dwell in it. In Deuteronomy 33:16 why did not Moses speak of the good will of “Him who dwelt in the tabernacle”? I believe that for Moses to speak of God dwelling in the tabernacle would not have been as sweet as it was for him to speak of God dwelling in the thornbush. I believe that even when we are in the New Jerusalem we shall recall how we once were a thornbush indwelt by God. How marvellous that a thornbush can be God’s dwelling place on earth today! (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 73-74, 110)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 3.6

The Lord Jesus has set His suffering life before us as an underwriting for us to copy by tracing that He may be reproduced in us [1 Pet. 2:20-21]. This is spiritual xeroxing: Christ Himself is the original copy, the Spirit is the light, the divine life is the ink, and we are the paper for Christ to be reproduced in us. While we are bearing sorrows, suffering unjustly, we experience the grace of God, enjoying the motivation of the divine life within us and its expression in our life, that in our behavior we may become a reproduction of Christ, suffering as He suffered and living as He lived. This is God’s calling us to the suffering of Christ.

God has called the believers not only unto the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ but also into the eternal glory of God (1 Pet. 5:10). For this, the God of all grace is ministering to us the riches of the bountiful supply of the divine life in many aspects and in many steps of the divine operation on and in us in God’s economy. The initial step is to call us, and the consummate step is to glorify us. Between these two steps are His loving care while He is disciplining us and His perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and grounding work in us. In all these divine acts, the bountiful supply of the divine life is ministered to us as grace in varied experiences, that we may enter into His eternal glory and express the God of all grace.

Before we were called we were outside the kingdom of God, having nothing to do with God. However, God called us to partake of His divine life and nature that we may enter into the kingdom of God. Today we, the called ones, must live in the church that we may grow and develop in the life of God unto full maturity. Thus, we shall be richly and bountifully supplied with the entrance into the millennial kingdom in the coming age and into the new heaven and new earth in eternity within the kingdom of God, in which we shall reign as kings (Rev. 22:5b). (Truth Lessons—Level One, vol. 3, pp. 35-38)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 3.5

God’s calling is not only according to His predestination but also according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28b; 2 Tim. 1:9a). His purpose is His plan according to His will to place us into Christ, making us one with Him to share His life and position that we may be His testimony. According to such a purpose, such a plan, God predestinated us in eternity past and called us in time.

God’s calling is in Christ (1 Pet. 5:10)....He called us in Christ as the sphere. “In Christ” also indicates that the God of all grace has gone through all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish the complete and full redemption, that He may bring His believers into an organic union with Himself. Thus they may participate in the riches of the Triune God as their enjoyment. Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:9), has become the allinclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17) as the bountiful life supply to us (Phil. 1:19b). It is in this Christ, through His all-inclusive redemption and based upon all His achievements, that God can be the God of all grace to call us into His eternal glory, and to perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground us in the Triune God as the solid foundation, thus enabling us to attain to His glorious goal.

God’s calling is that He may bring man out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9b)....Darkness is a sign of sin and death; it is the expression and sphere of Satan in death. The fact that mankind is in darkness proves that mankind is under the authority of Satan and dead in offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1). When God comes to call man, He opens man’s eyes and turns man from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to Himself. Light is a sign of righteousness and life; it is the expression and sphere of God in life. To be turned to God means to be turned to the authority of God, which is God’s kingdom of light. God has called us that He may deliver us out of the death-realm of Satan’s darkness into the life-realm of God’s marvelous light.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 3.4

If we could bring people out of the tyranny of the world into the wilderness and take them to the mountain where they see the revelation of God’s economy and eventually build a tabernacle for God, we would surely be satisfied. However, with the tabernacle we do not yet have the solid building, which is signified by the temple in the land of Canaan. Hence, if we would reach the ultimate goal of God’s calling, we must journey onward and enter into the good land....Many Christians, however, have not yet reached the stage of the tabernacle, the temporary church life, much less that of the solid building.

God has called us with a purpose. This purpose is to use us to bring people out of the tyranny of today’s world into the wilderness, a place of separation. It is also to bring them to the mountain where they may see the revelation concerning God’s economy and the design of the tabernacle, so that the tabernacle may be built. Furthermore, it is to bring them into the rich and all-inclusive good land to defeat God’s enemy and to enjoy the riches of Christ. Then God will be able to establish His kingdom in which He will have His dwelling place on earth. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 125, 138, 140-141, 131-132)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 3.3

In 3:18 [the term wilderness] is used in a positive sense, for here the wilderness is opposed to the world. It is the place of separation from the world. As soon as one is saved, he should be brought out of the world into the wilderness where there is no Egyptian element. When the children of Israel entered into the wilderness, they were set free from Egypt. In the same principle, if we would get out of the world, we must get into the wilderness. However, not many Christians have been brought into the wilderness. This means that some have been saved, but have not been delivered from the world and separated from it.

It is a very great matter to hear God’s speaking and to see His vision, especially the vision concerning His dwelling place. It is of vital importance that we go to the genuine mountain of God, to God’s mountain on earth today....In our experience we need to come out of Egypt, cross the Red Sea, and journey through the wilderness until we arrive at the mountain of God. At this mountain we are brought into God’s presence....Many of us can testify that whenever we gather together into the Lord’s name, we enjoy His presence. We hear His speaking, and we see His vision at the mountain of God. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 133, 123-124, 137, 583)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 3.2

The nation of Egypt typifies the kingdom of darkness, and Pharaoh typifies Satan, the devil. How can God’s people be delivered out of the hand of such an evil power and be rescued from the kingdom of darkness? Today this is done through the preaching of the gospel. Do not think that preaching the gospel to bring people to salvation is an easy task. To bring a person out of Satan’s hand and out of the kingdom of darkness is a mighty work. For this reason, the divine revelation in the New Testament places a very high value on the preaching of the gospel. Paul says that the gospel is the power of God (Rom. 1:16). (Life-study of Exodus, p. 62)

The purpose of God’s calling...is not to give His people a little enjoyment of the animal life and the vegetable life in Egypt; it is to bring them into a spacious land flowing with milk and honey. Do you have the assurance that in the church life today you are enjoying Christ as the good land? I can testify that I daily enjoy Christ as a spacious land flowing with milk and honey.

The land of Canaan is a type of Christ. However, this type has not yet been fulfilled in the experience of the saints....If we consider the good land and all its riches as being a full type of Christ, we shall realize that we are lacking in the experience of Christ.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 3.1

Pharaoh was a type of Satan, and Egypt was a type of the world. Just as Pharaoh was the ruler of Egypt, so Satan is the ruler of this world (John 12:31). God is still seeking to deliver His chosen people out of the usurping hand of Satan and out of the tyranny of the world. As God’s called ones, we need a clear view of what the world is. The world is not a source of enjoyment; it is a place of tyranny. In the world Satan is keeping God’s chosen people, those destined for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, under his usurping hand.

Every aspect of the world is a form of tyranny. In Exodus Pharaoh kept the children of Israel under tyranny by forcing them to do hard labor. The same principle operates today. As people work, they suffer under various forms of tyranny. Even making a long drive to work on a crowded freeway is one kind of tyranny. Likewise, the competition for promotion and the insecurity about losing a job are also kinds of tyranny. Nevertheless, anyone who does not labor for Pharaoh in the world will not receive the supply of the Nile....Shopping is another form of the world’s tyranny. Many young women are held in tyranny in a subtle way through shopping for the latest fashions.

Recently some saints told me that they do not have the time to pray or read the Bible. I pointed out that they have plenty of time to make telephone calls or to read the newspaper. This indicates that even the telephone or the newspaper may be a means of tyranny.

For us to live for Christ, we need to exist. Without our human existence we cannot live Christ. But today those in the fallen world care for nothing but their existence; they do not care for the purpose of their existence. To exist is one thing, but to exist for the divine purpose is another thing. The purpose ordained by God for our existence is to live Christ, to live God out, and to have God’s testimony. But the people of this world have only their existence; they have no purpose. Eventually they make their existence itself the purpose of their existence. They know nothing but existence. Satan picks up the existence of human beings or of human living and uses this existence to usurp people so that today the whole world cares only for existence, not for God’s purpose in existence.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 2.6

Moses...needed the male help and the female help. The male help is that of matching. This kind of help balances us, restricts us, and humbles us. Through his brother’s matching Moses learned to let others do what he was able to do....Whatever Aaron did, Moses was able to do also, but he was restricted from doing so. In the church life the Lord will often raise up an environment that forces us to allow others to do what we can do. This should be a principle of our functioning in the church. If a brother is able to do a certain thing, let him do it, even if you can do it better. This will humble you. However, I have seen many, especially sisters, who insisted that they alone be allowed to do a particular thing. According to our natural makeup, we do not want others to interfere with what we are doing. Nevertheless, we all must learn to let others do the very thing we are able to do. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 118)

Both in the church life and in married life we need to be such a “bridegroom of blood.” If a brother is to be truly God’s called one, he needs to be cut in a subjective way. We learn a great deal through the cutting. Sometimes my wife cuts me by restricting my eating. This cutting keeps me healthy and prevents me from indulging myself....Thus, the cutting keeps us from living according to the natural life.

Only those who are willing to be cut can be useful to God. Every useful one is a “bridegroom of blood.” Daily and even hourly we need to experience the circumcision of the natural life. It is not sufficient merely to see that we are sinful. Our natural life must also be circumcised, either by those in our family or by the brothers and sisters in the church.