The Bible is a Book of God’s Economy, a Picture and a Full Definition of God’s Economy

The Bible is a book of God’s economy, a record of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal economy, and Christ and the church are the basic structure of the Bible. Amen!

This week we start a new series in our Holy Word for Morning Revival based on the 2022 summer training; the title is, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings.

In this first week, the topic is, The Intrinsic Revelation in 1 and 2 Kings concerning the Economy of God Unveiled and Conveyed through Typology.

These are not easy books to digest and study, but praise the Lord, in the church life we have the Lord’s speaking, His up-to-date word; we thank Him that He is still speaking to us.

We need to have the attitude of sitting at the Lord’s feet to listen to the Lord’s speaking to us.

Our existence depends on the Lord’s speaking, and our degree of advancing with the Lord in the church life depends on receiving His up-to-date speaking.

What we want is not merely an inspiring word and then go home; we need to receive the Lord’s speaking, eat His word, dive into His word, and be constituted with His speaking.

When we read the books of 1 and 2 Kings, what may remain with us is who killed who, what king was good and which was bad, who reigned and for how long, etc, but these facts or historical events may not affect us.

We may even think that, since this history was such a long time ago, it doesn’t apply to us.

But we need to come to the Bible as a whole and to these books in particular with the view that the Bible is a book of God’s economy; we need to put on the glasses of God’s eternal economy when we read anything in the word of God.

Praise the Lord for the ministry of the age opening up the riches and deeper truths in the word of God, the ministry that helps us see not just the historical events and their significance but even more, God’s economy and its fulfilment.

What the books of 1 and 2 Kings reveal is what is on God’s heart. God doesn’t waste words; every word He spoke, every word in the Bible, has meaning and purpose, including these two books.

We are not here conducting a word study or a topical study of these two books; we want to see the crystals in these books, the distillation of the most important matters in these books.

A crystal refers to something, a substance, in the purest form, in the most basic state; we need to see the crystals in these two Old Testament books.

We need to get out of the realm of merely understanding the typology or history and get into the realm of the Triune God to touch His heart, His eternal economy, so that we may receive what is in His heart through His speaking.

The Bible is a wonderful book composed of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and what the Bible speaks about is the economy of God concerning Christ and the church.

In the Old Testament, we see types, figures, and pictures concerning Christ, and in the New Testament, we see the reality.

The Old Testament is a section of types and figures, and the New Testament is a section of reality and fulfilment.

May the Lord remove any veils from our eyes so that we may see God’s economy throughout the Bible, and may we receive what is in the Lord’s heart as revealed in 1 and 2 Kings.

The Bible is a Book of God’s Economy: a Picture and a Full Definition and Fulfillment of God’s Economy

From Genesis to Revelation, from the first chapter in Genesis to the last chapter in Revelation, the Bible is a book of God’s economy (Gen. 1:1, 26-28; Rev. 21:1-2, 9-11).

The Bible is not a book of religion, ethics, do’s and dont’s, history, or poetry; the Bible is a book of God’s economy.

The entire Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, is first a picture of God’s economy (in the Old Testament) and then a full definition of God’s economy (in the New Testament, see Eph. 1:10; 1 Tim. 1:4).

The Old Testament, the first section of the Bible, gives us the picture; the New Testament, the second section of the Bible, gives us the fulfilment, the definition, and the reality.

When we want to teach little children when they first begin to learn words and things, we don’t show them how to spell D-O-G but we show them a picture of a dog and say, dog. The picture gives us an understanding.

We may love the New Testament because, as believers in Christ, we love the Lord Jesus and we want to be in the spiritual realm of knowing Him; however, we also need to love the Old Testament as a book of pictures and types.

As much as we love the New Testament, we also need to love the Old Testament, for the Old Testament gives us the picture, and without the picture, we can’t really have a full understanding of the meaning of a certain matter or truth that God wants to speak to us.

The Bible is a record of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal economy, of which Christ is the centre and reality (John 14:6; Col. 1:15; 3:11).

God’s economy is His plan and arrangement for Him to work out what He desires, what is in His heart.

God is a God of purpose; He’s not just someone high above in the heavens wondering what to do to help people.

He is a God of purpose, and from the day He created man, He made both man and the earth and the heavens and all the things in them with a definite purpose in view, for He wants to gain something.

God has a good pleasure; there is something in the heart of God that makes Him happy and pleases Him.

Based on what He desires, and what He is pleased with, He made a determination which the Bible calls, His purpose. God’s purpose is His determined intent.

Following this, he made a counsel, referring to a resolution arrived to according to the council in the Divine Trinity. The issue is a marvellous plan, an eternal economy.

The Bible is a book of God’s economy. God’s economy, His plan and arrangement, is an issue of God’s eternal will and His good pleasure, His purpose and counsel.

This is not a small thing; when we speak about God’s economy, it is connected to God’s will, to what God wants.

God is not so small as we men are; He is eternally great, and He has a will according to which we all were and were created (Rev. 4:11).

We are made for God’s will; we are not here to exist in a random way without any purpose – you and I were made for God’s will, His intention, His desire.

God desires to work Himself into His chosen people to be their life and everything, to be one with them, and to make them one with Him.

This is the degree to which God loves man.

God loves man according to His economy to the degree that He wants to put His entire being into them to make man one with Him and make Himself one with man, so that He can be expressed in and through man in a corporate way in the universe. This is God’s will.

He wants to be our life, our centre, and our everything, so that we may be filled with Him, saturated with Him, and constituted with Him to the extent that we corporately express Him in the universe.

We need to be deeply impressed that the Bible is a record of the divine revelation concerning God’s economy with Christ as the centre.

Strictly speaking, the economy of God is not about you or me; yes, we are the centre of God’s plan in His economy, for His work is focused on man, so that through man He would regain the earth, but His economy is centred on Christ.

He wants Christ to become our everything to the extent that we become the church, the enlargement and expression of Christ to corporately express the Triune God in the universe.

Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God and the church is the Body of Christ (Col. 3:2; Eph. 1:22-23).

Christ and the church are the basic structure of the Bible (Eph. 5:32).

The whole Bible is a book of God’s economy, and the structure of the Bible is Christ and the church.

Apart from Christ, God has no pleasure or interest in anything else.

He desires that this Christ would have preeminence in all things (Col. 1:15) and that He would fill the universe to be all and in all.

And this Christ has a fullness, and enlargement, which is the church; we are the corporate Christ, the enlarged Christ as the centre of God’s economy. Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that the entire Bible is a book of God’s economy. May we realize that the Bible is a record of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal economy with Christ as the centre. Remove the veils from our eyes to see Christ, be infused with Christ, and be filled with Christ to be the church, the Body of Christ, the corporate expression of Christ. Amen, Lord, grant us to see a heavenly vision of God’s eternal economy and realize that the whole Bible is structured with Christ and the church! Hallelujah for the all-inclusive, wonderful Christ as the centre of God’s economy! Praise the Lord, we are the church, the enlargement of Christ, the expression of Christ, as the corporate Christ to manifest God on the earth today!

Using the Key of God’s Economy to Read the Bible and Realizing the Bible is the Revelation of God’s Economy!

The key to the Bible is God’s economy; the key to unlocking the meaning and significance of the Bible is the economy of God. The Bible is a book of the economy of God.

In order for us to understand and enjoy what the Bible speaks about, we need to know the key: God’s economy.

Especially as we come to the books of 1 and 2 Kings, we need to use the glasses of God’s economy to read these books so that we may see Christ and the church in these books.

If we have not seen the significance of God’s economy, we will not be able to get into the real significance of the whole Bible.

We may read the Bible again and again without realizing what is the central thought of the Bible.

May we see the key of God’s economy and use this key to unlock the Bible so that we may see a clear revelation of Christ and the church on every page and in every chapter in the Bible.

The Old Testament is full of types and figures, and the New Testament is the complete fulfilment of the typology concerning God’s economy.

The two testaments, the old and the new, together give us a full picture and definition of the economy of God.

If we want to see a picture of God’s economy, we come to the Old Testament.

If we want to see a definition of God’s economy, we come to the New Testament.

The key to unlocking the riches in the Bible is God’s economy, for the whole Bible is a book of God’s economy.

If we don’t use the key of God’s economy when we read the Bible, we will be clueless about what the Bible speaks of.

Saint Augustine once said that the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New Testament.

It is not enough for us only to see the types and figures of Christ and the church in the Old Testament; we need to have a vision of God’s economy as we read the Old Testament.

The Bible is not a book of history; it is a record of the divine revelation concerning God’s eternal economy.

May we use the key of God’s economy to read the Bible so that we may realize that the Bible is a revelation of God’s economy.

As we approach the books of 1 and 2 Kings, we need to use the key of God’s economy to unlock them and enjoy the riches of Christ.

If we see this key and use it, the Bible will become to us what it is to God – the revelation of God’s economy (Luke 24:44-46).

To God, the Bible is a revelation of God’s economy; to us, however, unless we have and use the key to unlock the Bible, this book may not be the same as to God.

Many of us, when we read the Bible, do so according to ourselves, according to our background, our situation, and what our condition is, so the Bible is not to us what it is to God.

We want to read the Bible according to the One who spoke it and how He wants to reveal it. It is crucial for us to use the key of God’s economy to unlock every book of the Bible.

In Luke 24:44-46 the Lord Jesus opened the minds of the two disappointed and perplexed disciples walking down to Emmaus to understand that the whole of the Old Testament speaks concerning Christ.

Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, He explained to them clearly in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Everything in the Old Testament speaks of Christ, the centre of God’s economy.

As we come to the books of 1 and 2 Kings, we need to realize that these two books don’t talk merely about the history of the kings of Israel but even more, they are written in the inspiration of the Spirit of God in the way of being related to God’s eternal economy.

We need to be before the Lord and ask Him,

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see a vision of Your economy in the word of God. Cause us to realize that the key to unlocking the Bible is God’s economy. Save us from reading the Bible according to ourselves, our background, and our situation. We want the Bible to be to us what it is to God – the revelation of the divine economy. Open our mind, Lord, to understand the Scriptures according to what is in Your heart. May we come to You, the Author of the Bible, as we read the Word. Infuse us with Yourself through Your word. We want to see Christ and the church in the holy word. Amen, Lord, we come to You as we come to Your word, and we want to read the Bible through the glasses of God’s economy so that we may be infused with Christ and become the church, the Body of Christ, for God’s corporate expression to fulfil God’s eternal economy!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, vol. 1, “Living a Life according to the High Peak of God’s Revelation,” chs. 1-2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Kings (2022 summer training), week 1, entitled, The Intrinsic Revelation in 1 and 2 Kings concerning the Economy of God Unveiled and Conveyed through Typology.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – What is God’s economy in the Bible? (via holding to truth)
  – Truth questions, What is God’s economy, via Amana Trust.
  – God’s economy: to be one with man and to make man His organism (via, The Overcomers, by Witness Lee).
  – What is God’s economy and how it relates to God and man, via, The Economy of God, Chapter 5 (excerpt).
  – The hearing of faith newsletter on the matter of, What is God’s Economy? (see here).
  – The economy of God, via Wikipedia.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Oh, may a clear, controlling vision of / The Lord’s economy direct my heart, / And burn in me until my spirit’s wholly set afire! / With spirit strong and active we’ll press on / To consummate God’s goal— / New Jerusalem, Hallelujah! (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)
  – In His Christ to head up all things / Is our God’s economy; / Taking Christ as Head and Center, / All is one in harmony. (Hymns #981)
  – God the Lord has spoken, and His mystery shown, / Christ and His expression has His counsel willed: / Christ with all God’s fulness as the glorious Head, / And the Church His Body, with His riches filled. (Hymns #800)