Crystallization Study of Exodus 2.5

After we see the vision of the burning thornbush and after we come to know who God is and what God is, we still need the three signs. The first sign is that of the rod becoming the serpent. The subtle serpent who poisoned Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 is exposed in Exodus 4. This sign helps us to know the devil. It indicates that anything we rely upon apart from God is a hiding place for the serpent. Through the years I have learned that whenever I trust in something, the serpent is hidden in that thing. We have pointed out that the rod which Moses had used for many years was a hiding place for the usurping serpent. However, Moses did not realize this until, at the word of the Lord, he cast the rod to the ground. Then the hidden serpent was exposed.

The second sign is that of the hand that became leprous. This sign is for knowing the flesh of sin. We are not only leprous, but we are leprosy. This means that we are sin, not just sinful. When Christ died on the cross, He not only bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24), but He was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Because we were sin, Christ was made sin for us. Every called one must have the subjective knowledge that his flesh is a flesh of sin and that nothing good dwells in it. Our flesh is a constitution of sin, rottenness, and corruption.

Furthermore, the called one must realize that the world is filled with death. This is revealed in the third sign, the sign of the water becoming blood. To the people of the world, enjoyment comes from the supply and entertainment of the world, signified by the Nile that watered the land of Egypt. However, in the eyes of God’s called one, the world is not filled with living water but filled with the blood of death. What the world has to offer is not water to quench our thirst; it is death that poisons us and kills us.

As God’s called ones, we must know the devil, the flesh, and the world. Paul had this threefold knowledge. Regarding Satan, Paul said, “We are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). Regarding the flesh, he said, “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, nothing good dwells” (Rom. 7:18). And regarding the world, he said, “The world has been crucified to me and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). Again we see that what Moses experienced in type, Paul experienced in reality. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 117-118)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 2.4

The second title revealed in Exodus 3 is Jehovah, which means “He who was, who is, and who will be.” This title is composed basically of the verb to be. Apart from the Lord, all else is nothing. He is the only One who is, the only One who has reality of being.

[God] calls Himself, “I AM WHO I AM” [Exo. 3:14]....“I Am” denotes the One who is self-existing, the One whose being depends on nothing apart from Himself. This One is also the ever-existing One, that is, He exists eternally, having neither beginning nor ending.

As I Am, God is everything we need. To the words “I Am” we can add whatever we may need....In the New Testament the Lord uses many things to describe Himself: “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), “I am the light” (John 8:12). As I Am, God is everything....God is the reality of every positive thing. This implies that God must be you, even the reality of your very being....This great I Am, the all-inclusive One, is the One who has come to call us.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 2.3

The fact that the thornbush burned without being consumed indicates that the glory of God’s holiness should burn within us but that we should not be exhausted. If a servant of God is exhausted, it may mean that he is using his own energy to do something for God. God does not want to use our natural life as fuel. He will burn only with Himself as fuel. We are simply to be a thornbush with the divine fire burning within it....Through the sign of the burning thornbush, God impressed Moses that he was a vessel, a channel, through which God was to be manifested. It is not easy to learn that we are simply a bush for the manifestation of God. Throughout the years I have been learning one lesson: to work for God without using the natural life as the fuel but letting God burn within me.

We all should be called ones like Moses. Sooner or later, we all shall behold the very sight Moses saw in chapter three of Exodus, the vision of a bush that burns without being consumed. This vision needs to be stamped upon our being. Then whenever we touch the work of God or the service of the church, we shall be reminded that we are nothing more than a thorn-bush. The day is coming when we all shall realize this. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 70-72)

We all need to serve, to function, and to use our one talent, our gift. But we must be careful not to serve in a natural way, with our natural hotness. Of course, the Lord does want us to be hot in the spirit, not cold or lukewarm. But we have to be hot in our spirit, not in our natural life. In Romans 12:11 Paul tells us to be “burning in spirit, serving the Lord.” Any hotness in our natural life is strange fire to God, and this brings in death. (Basic Lessons on Service, pp. 117-118)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 2.2

When by God’s sovereignty Moses was set aside, he must have been very disappointed and he must have lost all hope....A man who had been educated in the royal palace was now forced to live as a shepherd in the wilderness. As the years went by, he lost everything—his confidence, his future, his interest, his goal. Eventually, Moses probably reached the point where he had no further thought that he was the one whom God would use to rescue the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. Moses might have said to himself, “I must care for this flock. But not even this flock is mine; it belongs to my fatherin-law. I have no empire, no kingdom. There is nothing left for me to do except to labor in support of my family. My immediate concern is to find fresh grass for the flock and water for them to drink.” But one day...God appeared to him and called him. At the age of eighty, in the eyes of God Moses was fully prepared and qualified, and at the precise time He came to him. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 51-52)

To be at the back side means that we are not content with our present situation. For years Moses fed the flock on the front side of the desert. But one day, discontented and dissatisfied, he decided to go to the back side to see what was there. If you are dissatisfied with your occupation or with your marriage, this dissatisfaction may turn you to the back side. Every one who has been called by God can testify that he was called at the back side.

When Moses went to the back side of the desert, he “came to the mountain of God, to Horeb” [v. 1]. Many times the back side of our situation turns out to be the mountain of God. Moses, however, did not know that the mountain of God was at the back side of the desert. Nevertheless, as Moses was slowly making his journey with the flock to the mountain of God, God was already there waiting for him....In verse 5 God said to Moses, “Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” The “holy ground” in this verse refers to land untouched by man. This indicates that God’s calling occurs in a place where there is no human interference. God’s calling always comes to one who is on virgin soil, soil touched only by God. This means that every genuine calling comes in a place where there is no human manipulation or opinion. If we would be called by God, we must be in a place reserved wholly for Him. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 52-54)

Crystallization Study of Exodus 2.1

In those forty years Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him (Acts 7:34-36; Heb. 11:28). Moses eventually became a person who did nothing according to his will. He always acted according to the Lord’s leading. The Lord led him, and he followed. He had no faith in his ability. Although he was very capable, he did not use his natural ability. His natural ability was dealt with, so it became an ability in resurrection. The ability in resurrection corresponds with God’s move....After being dealt with by the cross, our ability becomes one with God’s move. Actually, God was wrought into Moses’ ability. His ability eventually was full of God.

Exodus 2 shows us a natural Moses, a Moses with his natural strength and ability. That was purely, solely, wholly, and absolutely Moses without God. Then after chapter three we can see another kind of Moses, a Moses that was fully dealt with by God. After chapter three, God was in Moses and whatever Moses did in his acts and move was full of God, having the divine element.

Light and Enjoyment

Salvation, Provision (Supply) and Revelation (Vision): 
Christ possessed, enjoyed, and experienced by us in resurrection and in the heavenlies.

God’s building material: 
Christ possessed, enjoyed, and experienced by us in resurrection and in the heavenlies offered to God.

Crystallization Study of Exodus 1.6

The church is not built with any natural materials, and it is not even built with Christ directly. Rather, it is built with the Christ who has become our experience. The church is built not merely with the Christ prepared by God, but with the Christ possessed, enjoyed, and experienced by us in resurrection and in the heavenlies. We need a rich experience of Christ’s resurrection and ascension. We should not be natural or earthly. On the contrary, we should be in resurrection and in the heavenlies. (Life-study of Exodus, p. 956)

The last verse of Genesis says, “And Joseph died...and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” In this verse we can see death, which is the result of sin, and also the world. This is the conclusion of Genesis.

How different is the conclusion of the book of Exodus! At the end of Exodus we do not have a coffin containing a dead body; we have a tabernacle containing the glorious God.

The book of Genesis ends with a dead person in a coffin in Egypt. Exodus begins with a picture of God’s people serving as slaves in Egypt. As we consider the situation both at the end of Genesis and at the beginning of Exodus, we see that we were dead, on the one hand, and also slaves of Satan, typified by Pharaoh, on the other hand. We all were usurped by Satan and were enslaved to him. But Christ as our Passover has delivered us, released us, from this slavery. Christ’s redemption has brought us out of the satanic slavery in Egypt into a land of freedom (the wilderness). In the wilderness God’s further activity brings us to a glorified tabernacle. Here there is no death, no sin, no world. Instead, we have God with His presence and glory. No longer are we dead and in the world, but now we are part of a living and moving tabernacle for the accomplishment of God’s purpose on earth. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 955, 1954-1955)

The physical tabernacle (and later the temple) as God’s dwelling place in the Old Testament was actually a symbol of a corporate people, the children of Israel as the house of God (see footnote 1 on Hebrews 3:6). At the beginning of the New Testament age the incarnated Christ as God’s embodiment was both the tabernacle and the temple of God (John 1:14; 2:19-21). Through His death and resurrection the individual Christ was enlarged to be the corporate Christ, the church composed of the New Testament believers as the temple, the house of God, and the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Cor. 12:12). Ultimately, the tabernacle and the temple will consummate in the New Jerusalem—the Triune God mingled with His redeemed people of both the Old Testament and the New Testament—as God’s eternal dwelling place (Rev. 21:3, 22). (Exo. 25:9, footnote 2)