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.