III. THE GOD OF THE TABERNACLE
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of the tabernacle.
A. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob each lived in a tent (Gen. 12:8; 13:18; 18:1; 26:17, 25; 33:18; 35:21; Heb. 11:9). It is significant that the Bible does not say that Joseph lived in a tent. This shows that Joseph was a part of the life of Jacob. While Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were living in tents, they were eagerly waiting for the eternal tabernacle of God, the city of New Jerusalem (Heb. 11:10; Rev. 21:2-3). The tent in which they lived was a type of the New Jerusalem as the coming reality, the eternal tent. They were living in a type, eagerly waiting for the reality, the New Jerusalem.
B. The Triune God Embodied in the Son Being
Incarnated to Be His Tabernacle on the Earth
The Triune God embodied in the Son was incarnated to be His tabernacle on the earth. The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14). That man was a tabernacle. He was God becoming a man, a God-man. By His incarnation He mingled God with man. This person as the mingling of God with man is God’s tabernacle. By incarnation God eventually became our dwelling, making us His dwelling, a mutual abode of God and man.
The tabernacle of God was first the individual God-man Jesus (Matt. 1:21-23). The individual God-man Jesus as the tabernacle of God consummates in the corporate New Jerusalem. This corporate New Jerusalem will be the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles in the millennium (Lev. 23:34, 39-43; Rev. 2:7b). The Feast of Tabernacles was the last feast of the year for the Israelites. In the millennium Christ will be the reality of that feast as the full enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God in eternity (Rev. 22:14, 19). Christ in eternity will be such a full enjoyment for us to enjoy God as our eternal portion.
In eternity future, the New Jerusalem will be the enlargement of Christ, the eternal mingling of God with man, and the mutual abode of God and man. Revelation 21 says that the New Jerusalem will be the tabernacle of God for God to dwell in and that God will be the temple for His elect to dwell in. Therefore, the upcoming New Jerusalem will be a mutual abode for the redeeming God and for His redeemed to express the processed Triune God mingled with the regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man. This is the ultimate consummation of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with Joseph.
(The History of God in His Union With Man, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
