III. REDEEMED MAN NEEDING
TO OFFER CHRIST AS THE BURNT OFFERING
THAT HE MIGHT BE REGARDED BY GOD
As a redeemed person, man needed to offer Christ as the burnt offering that he might be regarded, respected, by God (Gen. 4:4). Man also needs to call on the name of Jehovah (v. 26), to walk with God (5:22), to work for God that he might be delivered from the corrupted and God-condemned world (6:11-18), and to live before God through Christ as the burnt offering that the earth could be kept in order (8:20-22).
IV. THE PEOPLE CHOSEN BY GOD
NEEDING TO RECEIVE AND ANSWER GOD’S CALL
As people chosen by God, we, the descendants of Abraham, the race chosen by God, need to receive and answer God’s call (Gen. 12:1-4), to live before God through Christ as our burnt offering (v. 7; 13:18; 22:13), to be exposed by the law that we might know that we are sinful and do not have the capacity to keep the law (Exo. 19:8, 21—20:21), and to live with God by taking Christ as the tabernacle, the priest, and the offerings that we may enter into God and enjoy all that God is with Christ and in Christ (Exo. 25—Lev. 27).
The tabernacle in the Old Testament is a type of Christ’s incarnation (John 1:14). The real tabernacle is God Himself embodied in Christ. This tabernacle is a dwelling place not only for God but also for God’s chosen people. This means that, after the incarnation, God is enterable. To be in Christ means to enter into God to enjoy God. Within the tabernacle there are the showbread table for our food, the lampstand for our light, and the incense altar that we may be accepted through Christ as the incense in our prayer. In the tabernacle there is also the ark for God’s testimony. Now through the redeeming blood we can have fellowship with God.
V. A MAN IN THE INCARNATED GOD
AS HIS TABERNACLE NOT NEEDING
TO BUILD UP HIMSELF IN HUMAN VIRTUES,
SUCH AS PERFECTION, UPRIGHTNESS, AND INTEGRITY,
AS JOB DID, BUT NEEDING TO SEEK AFTER GOD
AND TO ENJOY GOD WITH GOD’S PEOPLE
Such a man who is in the incarnated God as his tabernacle did not need to build up himself in human virtues, such as perfection, uprightness, and integrity, as Job did, but he needed to seek after God as a panting hart and to enjoy God with God’s people in God’s feasts (Psa. 42:1-5; 43:3-5) so that God could be everything to him to replace all that he had attained and obtained. This should be the answer to Job’s three friends and even to Elihu and Job. Once again we see that if we would understand the book of Job, we need the entire Bible.
(Life-Study of Job, Chapter 35, by Witness Lee)
