THE TWO ENDS OF THE BIBLE
REFLECTING EACH OTHER
All the materials that comprise this holy city are found in the first two chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 2 there is the tree of life. By the tree there is a river. Where the river flows there is gold, "and the gold of that land is good." There is bdellium, a pearl produced by the plant life, and onyx stone (Gen. 2:9-12). Following this, at the end of the chapter, there is a bride for Adam (2:21-23).
In Revelation 21 and 22 there is a bride, a city built of gold, pearls, and precious stones. Within the city is a river, and in the river is the tree of life. These six items—the bride, gold, pearls, precious stones, the tree of life, and the river—are all found in the first two chapters of Genesis. The difference is that in Genesis the city had not yet been built. The three materials were there but not built into a city. Some six thousand years later, through God’s building work, all the materials have been built into a city. Do you see how these two ends of the Bible reflect each other?
In 1963 I went to Tyler, Texas and stayed in a brother’s home. After one of the meetings a friend of his, who was a traveling minister, picked up the phone in his home and called his friend, James Barber, in Plainview, Texas. He told James to come and hear me at any cost. The next evening James Barber was in the meeting. That night I gave a message on how the two ends of the Bible reflect each other. This man James Barber was caught. After the conference he said he was clear to take this way. This was the beginning of the church life in Texas. I hope we also can have such a glorious impression of the Bible’s beginning and end reflecting one another. This is God’s economy—to build up His eternal dwelling with the created things transformed to be His materials.
GOD’S BUILDING
IN EXODUS
When the children of Israel had been brought to Mount Sinai, God revealed to them the design of His tabernacle, and they built it. That was a type. In the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle there was nothing but gold to be seen. Gold overlaid the boards, and upon the ceiling could be seen the golden thread. Upon the high priest was the golden breastplate complete with twelve precious stones. The twelve stones on the breastplate had the names of the twelve tribes of Israel (Exo. 28:15-21). This was God’s special "alphabet" to reveal His thought to His children by means of the Urim and the Thummim (Exo. 28:30). We can see, then. that the thought of God’s building, using precious stones, is also in Exodus.
(The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee)
