How the History of the Ark and the Tabernacle Prefigures the History of the Church

What God desires to obtain today is not only the local churches but the reality of the Body of Christ being lived out and expressed in the local churches all over the earth.

What God desires is not merely the “tabernacle church life”, that is, the many local churches with many saints who enjoy the Lord every day and pursue Him, but the “temple church life”, the solid reality of the Body of Christ being expressed in the local churches, the corporate God-man living of the many believers in Christ who are built up in Christ.

But how can we enter into this more solid expression of the Body of Christ today? It is by means of the ark and the tabernacle, just as the people of Israel entered into the good land (where they built the temple) by means of the ark and the tabernacle.

It is both enlightening and sobering to see the history of the ark and the tabernacle in the Old Testament, and it is so good to realize that today we need to go on with the Lord from the tabernacle church life to the temple church life.

The Lord within us wants to go in us and with us so that we may no longer live in the wilderness of our soul but enter into the good land of our mingled spirit to live in spirit, be built up in spirit in the Body, and live in the reality of the Body of Christ today in the local churches. Within those who genuinely seek the Lord in the church life there’s a dissatisfaction – which is also in the Lord Himself, a hunger and a thirst for something higher in the church life than we have yet experienced.

The Lord within us – and we one with Him – aspires that we would have the temple church life in the good land, that we would be out of the soul and into the spirit. May we be those who go on with the Lord day by day until we reach the highest peak, the reality of the Body of Christ, so that the Lord may gain the temple church life among us today for His satisfaction.

How the History of the Ark and the Tabernacle Prefigures the History of the Church

If we look at church history and compare it with the history of the ark and the tabernacle we will realize that, spiritually speaking, the history of the Ark and the tabernacle prefigures the history of the church, and throughout the church history we see the spiritual fulfillment of the history of the Ark and the tabernacle.

You could say that with the tabernacle and the Ark there were five main stages with spiritual significance: the setting up of the Ark and the tabernacle in the time of Moses, the losing of the Ark when it was captured by the Philistines, the recovery of the Ark and it being in the house of Abinadab for 20 years and Obed-Edom for 3 months, David moving the ark into the house he prepared for God in Jerusalem, and finally Solomon building the temple and putting the ark in the enlarged and more solid temple, and God presence filling the temple.

Let’s see now what these stages are and how they are fulfilled in church history.

1. The setting up of the Ark in the Tabernacle with Moses: when Moses set up the tabernacle and the ark inside it, God’s presence came in, and God was pleased with His people (Exo. 40:21). This first stage refers to the beginning of the church from the day of Pentecost, when the church was the expression of Christ, and Christ was the content of the church; this is the normal condition, and God’s blessing was upon the church in this stage (see Acts 1-3).

2. The losing of the Ark to the Philistines, the enemy, typifies that the church became degraded and lost the reality and presence of Christ; the church became for many years an empty vessel without the inward reality of Christ. In Rev. 3:20 in the church in Laodicea (which was both a real local church and a stage of the church history), the Lord is outside the door of the church, knocking at the door and trying to get in.

Many believers think they’re rich, full, wealthy, and in need of nothing, but they don’t realize they are wretched, miserable, poor, and naked; they need to buy gold refined by fire (the divine nature of God), garments (Christ as our lived out righteousness), eye salve (the anointing Spirit to see). We need to not be complacent or think we know and have it all, but pay the price to buy more and gain more of the Triune God!

This stage in history corresponds to many “state churches” and denominations which have a lot of good outward things but the essence, the preeminence of Christ and Christ as the content, is missing.

3. The Ark being recovered from the Philistines and being brought first to the house of Abinadab at Kiriath-jearim (for 20 years, see 1 Sam. 6:2-7:2), and then to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite (for three months, 2 Sam. 6:10-12) – this stage corresponds to many “Obed-Edoms” that rose up, having the Lord’s presence (the ark) but not having the proper church life.

Throughout the centuries there have been many dear believers who love Christ, had Christ real in them and through them, and enjoyed Christ – but they didn’t have a proper church life. Some may have the tabernacle but not the ark (the form of the church but without the reality, Christ), while others had the reality of Christ but with no proper church life to contain Him and express Him.

While the Ark is being moved, some may even use fleshly means and ways to do this, and spiritual death comes in (see the story of Uzzah who died when he tried to “help” the Ark not fall from the cart pulled by oxen). Sometimes in the church life, it may see that “the Ark is falling” but if we try to “straighten it up” with our fleshly hands, we cause more trouble and bring in spiritual death.

4. David moving the Ark from Obed-edom’s house to a tent that he prepared for it in his own city, at Mount Zion, the choicest place in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:12-19; 1 Chron. 15:1-16:1) – this is an improved situation, but the Ark was still in an improper place because it had not been returned to the tabernacle.

This situation happens quite a lot today where many believers who have a good heart for the Lord – just as David did – and they attempt to practice the church life according to their own choice, not according to God’s revelation. Some believers really enjoy Christ, have Him real to them, and read the word fervently, but they have Him with an improper practice of the church life, just as David didn’t have the Ark in the tabernacle but in the tent he prepared for it (see 1 Kings 3:3-15; 2 Chron. 1:10).

Nowadays there are many “house churches” and “organic churches” as they call themselves, where the believers love the Lord, seek Him and want to live Him out, but they “pitch a tabernacle” according to their own understanding, according to the same principle practiced by David.

5. After Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, the Ark was moved into the Holy of Holies in the temple and God’s glory was manifested (see 1 Kings 8:11, 48); today in His recovery the Lord is working to bring us into the reality of the Body of Christ as the “temple church life” (Eph. 2:21-22).

The Lord today is working in His recovery to bring us into the corporate living of Christ in our spirit as the Holy of Holies for His enlarged and expanded expression, and we want to be those who cooperate with Him to the uttermost by living in our spirit, exercising our spirit, serving God in spirit, and doing everything according to the mingled spirit for the building up of the Body of Christ.

We need to see how the history of the church is prefigured in the history of the tabernacle with the Ark, we need to be warned, and we need to allow the Lord to work in us to recover us fully and bring us into the reality of the Body of Christ as the temple church life.

Lord Jesus gain the reality of the Body of Christ as the temple church life with a corporate living in our spirit today in all the local churches for Your enlarged and expanded expression! Lord, recover us fully to Your original intention, and bring us completely into the reality of the Body of Christ in our daily living! We don’t want to merely have Christ and practice the church life according to our understanding but according to Your intention and economy. Lord, strengthen the proper and genuine church life so that the saints would all enter into the reality of the Body of Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and The Vision of the Building of the Church, chs. 6-7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 1 / msg. 1, Going On with the Lord from the Tabernacle Church Life to the Temple Church Life.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Freed from self and Adam’s nature, / Lord, I would be built by Thee / With the saints into Thy temple, / Where Thy glory we shall see. / From peculiar traits deliver, / From my independent ways, / That a dwelling place for Thee, Lord, / We will be thru all our days. (Hymns #840)
  # Oh mystery of mysteries— / Lord, Thou in me and I in Thee! / The church, Thy tabernacle, we; / Our temple, Thou eternally. / Lord, make Thy home more ev’ry day, / ’Til one with Thee in ev’ry way, / ’Til on me write Thy holy name, / ’Til on me write Thy city’s name. (Song on the church, God’s temple)
  # We are for the Lord’s recovery / Of the local church; / We are for the Lord’s recovery / Of the city and the earth. / Standing on the ground of oneness, / Oneness in the Lord, / We are building up the temple / Of our glorious Lord. (Hymns #1255)