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)