The goal of God’s salvation, provision, and revelation as seen in the book of Exodus is God’s building, His dwelling place on earth.
The purpose for which God redeemed and saved His people from Pharaoh’s usurpation was so that they would enjoy God’s full salvation and build up His dwelling place. The goal of God taking care of His people through their journey in the wilderness by feeding them with the manna from heavens and the water from the cleft rock is God’s building.
The goal of God bringing His people to His holy mountain was not merely to give them the law and commandments but to open His heart to them, reveal the pattern of the tabernacle to them, and have His people build God’s dwelling place on earth.
The goal of our salvation, our daily enjoyment of Christ, and our receiving revelation from the Lord is the building up of the church, God’s building.
Since all God desires to gain today is His building and since the goal of all He does in us and around us is to gain His building, we should give ourselves and all we are to the Lord for His building.
God’s goal is to work Himself into His people so that He may obtain a corporate expression of Himself through man for eternity; His goal is accomplished by God’s building – which in this age is the church, in the next age is the kingdom, and for eternity it will be the New Jerusalem.
God’s building is the mingling of God with man for the corporate expression of the Triune God and the enlargement of God in humanity.
It is for God’s building that the people of Israel were rescued from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, experienced God’s provision in the wilderness, received a revelation of God and the tabernacle at the mountain of God, and built up the tabernacle for God’s dwelling place.
It is for God’s building that we were redeemed and saved by Christ, we are daily saved in the life of Christ, we enjoy Christ, we eat and drink God, we receive the divine revelation from God in His word and through the Body, and we meet with the saints in the church life. The building of God is God’s goal.
The Goal of God’s Salvation, Provision, and Revelation is His Building, His Dwelling Place on Earth
It is easy to read the book of Exodus and be impressed with the stories in it, but it is not so easy to see what is the goal of all that God did in Exodus.
Who among Christians today has seen that the goal of God’s salvation of His people in Exodus is to bring them into His dwelling place on earth? In the same way, who among Christians today realizes that the goal of God saving us from the world is the church, God’s building?
In Exodus we don’t see merely stories of how God rescued His people, brought them through the Red Sea, and cared for them in the wilderness until later they get into the good land. What we see in Exodus is God’s redemption, salvation, provision, revelation, and building.
In the first 17 chapters of Exodus we see how God saved His people, delivered them, rescued them, and provided everything they needed in the wilderness. Then, He brought them to Mount Sinai where He gave them the law and the pattern of the tabernacle, His dwelling place. The goal of God’s salvation, His provision, and His revelation are God’s building.
The revelation God gave His people on Mount Sinai was not merely of the laws, commandments, statutes, and ordinances; it was there that He opened His heart to reveal to them the pattern of the tabernacle, His building.
The divine and spiritual viewpoint of what happened at Mount Sinai is that God gave His people a heavenly vision so that they would build His dwelling place on earth.
As seen in the New Testament, God’s building is the mingling of God with man so that man would be one with God and God would be one with man, man would be built into God and God would be built into man (see John 14:20; 15:4a; 1 John 4:15). The result is that we become divinely human and humanly divine in and for God’s building.
God’s building is the corporate expression of the Triune God (see 1 Tim. 3:15-16; John 17:22; Eph. 3:19b, 21); for God’s corporate expression we need to be saved from any self-likeness, independence, and individualism. What God desires is not a person spiritual in an individual way but a corporate life expressed through a group of men mingled with God.
The building of God is the enlargement of God in humanity (see John 3:29a, 30a; Col. 2:19), and this is what God cares for the most. If we see that God’s goal in His salvation, provision, and revelation is His building, His dwelling place on earth, we will give our all for God’s building. We will have many interactions with the Lord telling Him,
Lord Jesus, build us with other saints and don’t allow any independence in our being! Save us from any self-likeness and individualism. We give our all for Your building. Lord, the desire of Your heart is the desire of our heart, and Your goal is our goal. We give our entire tripartite being, our possessions, our time, our future, our relationships, our family life, our health, our abilities, our intellect, our education, our potential, and our everything to You for Your building!
The Central Thought and the Purpose of Exodus focus on God’s Building
The central thought of the book of Exodus is that Christ is the redemption, salvation, and supply of God’s people, and the means for them to worship and serve God so that in Him they may be built up with God together for them to meet, communicate, and dwell mutually.
The reality of the Passover is Christ Himself: He is our Redeemer, our redemption, the redeeming lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs. The reality of God’s provision and supply in the wilderness is Christ: He is the real manna (the living bread, the bread of life, the real bread which comes out of heaven and satisfies us) and the living water (which flowed from Him freely in His resurrection).
Christ is the reality of all the offerings; He is our sin offering, our trespass offering, our peace-offering, our burnt offering, and our wave offering – He replaced all the offerings with Himself. Since the offerings were the means for God’s people to worship and serve God, Christ Himself became the means for us to worship God and serve Him.
It is in Christ that we are built up together with God so that we may meet with God, communicate with God, and dwell with God.
The central thought of Exodus focuses on and consummates in God’s building for which Christ became everything to us. The purpose of the book of Exodus is to show us that the goal of God’s full salvation is the building up of His dwelling place (see Exo. 40:1-2, 34-35; 1 Pet. 2:2, 4-5).
In Exodus we see how God fully saves God’s people for the purpose of building up His dwelling place on earth. God rescued, saved, and supplied His people is that He may give them a heavenly vision for the purpose that they would build His dwelling place on earth.
God’s goal in dealing with His people was to obtain a dwelling place. God’s goal in all His dealings with us, the believers in Christ, is so that He may gain His building. We may have a wrong goal when we seek to be dealt with or broken; the goal of breaking and dealings is not to become spiritual persons who are so approachable and nice, but to be fitted into God’s building.
It is crucial for us to have a clear vision of God’s building, grow in life unto maturity day by day, and be in God’s building so that we may also shepherd others into the reality of God’s building. Christ is everything to us and in us for God’s building.
It is in Christ that we and God, God and we, are built together, meet together, and dwell together (this is the divine thought in the book of Exodus). In our Christian life Christ is our redemption, salvation, heavenly manna, living water, and the realm in which we are built up together with other saints in the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being our redemption, salvation, and supply for God’s building. Lord, build us into God and build God into us for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ. Keep us enjoying You by eating You as the heavenly manna and drinking the Spirit as the living water so that we may be built up together into the church. Lord, show us Your goal, Your building. Impress us with what You are after, the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, so that we may give everything for the building!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus (pp. 10-11, 570-573), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 1 / msg 1, A Revelation of God and God’s Building as the Goal of His Salvation, Provision, and Revelation.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Do you know what you were saved for? / Do you ever wonder why? / What is God’s intent and purpose? / Why has Christ become your life? … You will ne’er be fully satisfied, / Or be content inside, / Till Jesus has His Bride. / Did you know the Lord is seeking you / To build into His building true? (Song the Goal of God’s Salvation)
# And let them make a sanctuary for Me, / That I may dwell in their midst, / Our prayer is “Lord, we give ourselves to Thee, / We’ll be the builders for Your economy.” / Under a clear sky, / On the mountain, / Beholding the glory of the / Vision of His building, / That He may have His dwelling place, / That He may have His dwelling place. (Song on God’s Building)
# Build me, Lord, with other saints, / Independence ne’er allow, / But according to Thy plan / Fitly frame and join me now. / In experience not my boast, / Nor in gifts would be my pride; / For Thy building I give all, / That Thou may be glorified. (Hymns #839)
About aGodMan
God’s goal is to work Himself into His redeemed people. God wants to work Himself into His chosen people that He may have a full expression in eternity. This is the goal of God’s full salvation. God’s dispensation is toward this goal. We must see not only God’s dispensation but also the goal of God’s dispensation, that is, God is working Himself into His chosen people. (Witness Lee, The Divine Dispensing of the Divine Trinity, p. 8)
Amen. The goal of God’s full salvation for us all, in His redemption, saving, provision and revelation, is the building up of the church, the dwelling place that God is after, which is a mingling of God with man and man with God, for a corporate and greater expression of Himself, for His coming kingdom and which will be fully expressed as New Jerusalem. Lord Jesus!