As a conclusion to our Crystallization study of the book of Leviticus, we come to the matter of the processed Triune God, His work, and the result of His work.
We saw in Lev. 25 that God wants His people to proclaim and enjoy the jubilee, for He doesn’t want them to be under slavery or bondage, and even if they lost their possession, they should be returned to it to enjoy it.
And we see the matter of jubilee being such a reality to us in the New Testament, for jubilee Jesus has come (see the gospel of Luke), the jubilee church life is presented in Acts, Paul experienced the rich Christ as the jubilee, the overcomers enjoy the jubilee in reality in the coming kingdom, and finally, we all will enjoy the consummate jubilee in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem.
This really is glorious. But this is not how the book of Leviticus end. God didn’t stop speaking at the end of Leviticus 25, but He continued to speak and at the beginning of the very next chapter we see three marvelous crystals interrelating – the processed Triune God, His work, and the result of His work.
We need to see something concerning God, the work of God and our honoring of it, and the issue of God’s work in bringing forth the church.
Leviticus 26 is a word of warning; after the crucial matters in vv. 1-2 we see from 3-13 the blessings on those who are obedient (they are constituted obedient because they honored, cared for, and gave themselves to these three matters), and in vv. 14-46 we see a series of very severe forms of chastisement as a warning to Israel.
However, Israel didn’t heed the warning and so they were chastised. All these types can be properly applied to the church.
According to our natural understanding or concept we may think that the book of Leviticus should end with the jubilee in ch. 25, but there still are two more chapters.
What immediately follows the jubilee indicates that we should not be too much and too excited. Yes, the jubilee brings us into ecstasy, and we get out of ourselves with excitement because we have been both released from bondage and we have been returned to our divine possession.
But if we stay in the excitement and we do not heed the warning, we lose everything. Israel didn’t heed the warning and lost everything, and Christianity in general has also lost the blessing of the enjoying the all-inclusive Christ as the good land, but we don’t want this to be our future.
We need to have sober mind and consider our situation. If we are enjoying the jubilee but there’s an idol, something or someone who occupies our heart, we may lose the enjoyment of the jubilee. If we seek something other than God and focus on something other than God, we may lose the enjoyment of the jubilee.
What we see and taste from God’s word may be lost and it may just become some precious recollections. We want to live in the jubilee under the speaking of God’s word with its promises and warnings so that we may be in the jubilee for our whole life until we mere the Lord.
We need to have God as our unique goal, know and honor the word of God, and reverence Him and His work.
The Intrinsic Significance of the Processed Triune God, His Work, and the Result of His Work
In Lev. 26:1-2 we are told of three main things which are crucial to our living as God’s people – not having idols (not making idols), keeping Jehovah’s Sabbaths, and reverencing His sanctuary.
Not making idols refers to God as our unique goal and aim. Our God has been processed and consummated to come into us and indwell us.
Keeping Jehovah’s Sabbaths refers to the work of the Triune God, all that He has done and accomplished, and our appreciation and entering into this work by first resting in God.
Reverencing God’s sanctuary refers to the result of God’s work, for as a result of what God is doing the church as the sanctuary of God is produced.
First of all, besides God we should have no other goals that we are seeking for. God should be our unique goal, our unique enjoyment, our unique God, and nothing and no one else should be preeminent in our life.
For us to not lose the position to enjoy our divine possession, we need to have God as our unique God our unique goal, and our unique aim.
Furthermore, we should know that the work of God was done entirely by Himself so that He may enjoy it, and we don’t have to do any work, for God has accomplished all the work.
God has done all the work, and He doesn’t need our effort, work, or struggle to please Him or do things for Him.
God has done all the work, and He enjoys it; we simply enjoy God and His work, and we enter into His work by being one with Him, enjoying Him, and resting in Him.
We need to reverence God’s sanctuary, which means that we need to regard with reverence all that God is and has accomplished in Christ as our dwelling, embodiment, and expression (Col. 2:19; Eph. 2:22).
Also, we need to regard with reverence what God has accomplished in the church as the enlargement of Christ for God’s dwelling and eternal manifestation (see Eph. 2:22; Rev. 21:10).
We need to open to the Lord and ask Him to show us the intrinsic significance of these matters, so that we may live a proper Christian life and church life and be His people with a holy, clean, and rejoicing living.
We need to ask the Lord to show us the intrinsic significance of the processed Triune God (God and the process He went through, His person), His work (the work that God accomplished and He is doing, and how we can cooperate), and the result of His work (Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the corporate expression of Christ).
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to understand the intrinsic significance of the processed Triune God, His work, and the result of His work. Thank You Lord for bringing us into the jubilee, and now we are freed from any bondage to enjoy You as our all-inclusive inheritance. Lord, we don’t want to lose our enjoyment of the jubilee by being to excited, by having idols, and by not reverencing Your work and Your person. Enlighten us and impress us with what is in Your heart concerning the processed Triune God, His work, and the result of His work.
We should Not have Idols – God Himself should be our Unique Goal, the One we Seek
In Lev. 26:1 God reminds His people again of the importance of not having idols; we should not have idols, that is, we should not have any other goals besides God that we seek for. For us to not lose the position of enjoying our divine inheritance, we need to not have idols.
The jubilee brought us back to God as our divine inheritance, and we do not want to lose the position of enjoyment the jubilee. God’s requirement is that He becomes our unique goal; He wants to be our God, and there should be none other beside Him.
We may ask God to do this or that for us, we may want to experience or get this or that, but eventually we have to come to Him face to face in His presence and tell Him that all we want is Him alone.
There has to be a time when we come to the Lord and tell Him that He is our unique goal, our unique aim, and we live for Him and until Him. God Himself must be our unique goal; we should not have idols, that is, we should not seek anything other than Him (see Psa. 73:25-27).
We may be distracted or perplexed of the situation around us, seeing that the unrighteous prosper while we as righteous ones suffer so much; but when we come into the sanctuary of God, when we are under His shining, we will perceive their end, and we will realize that we have no One in the heavens but God, and we desire nothing else on earth besides Him.
We may have some practical goals such as finishing our studies, getting a job, buying a house, getting married, etc, but God’s requirement is that He becomes our unique goal. We may have children and dream big for them, but our goal should be God Himself.
Idols refers to the heretical substitutes for the true God (see 1 John 5:21); an idol is everything and anyone that replaces the true God, the Triune God, experienced by us as our life.
As those who are genuine children of a genuine God, we should be on the alert to guard ourselves from any heretical substitutes and from all vain replacements for our genuine and real God (see 1 John 3:1; 5:11-13, 20-21).
We have been organically united with God, and God is eternal life to us; we need to guard ourselves from idols and refuse to have any vain replacements of God.
We all need to be warned concerning having idols, because this is the first thing that God wants from us – He wants that we have God as our unique goal, the only One we seek and love.
Our God is real and genuine, and He has begotten us as His genuine, bona-fide children; now we need to enjoy Him, be filled with Him, and spend much time with Him, and we also need to be warned not to have any idols.
May we experience the Triune God as life and refuse any substitutes or replacements of our genuine and real God!
Thank You Lord for regenerating us with Your life and making us organically one with You. Hallelujah, we are genuine children of the genuine God, and we have the divine life in our spirit. Lord, we take You as our goal, our God, and our unique aim. Save us from any idols. Save us from having any vain replacements of the true and living God. Save us from seeking anything other than You. We tell You in faith, Lord, that You are our only goal. Lord, we live to You, by You, and for Your purpose!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, p. 535 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 12, The Processed Triune God, His Work, and the Result of His Work.
- Hymns on this topic:
# My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace, / Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God; / ’Tis His to lead me there—not mine, but His— / At any cost, dear Lord, by any road. / One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay; / One thing I do, I press towards my Lord; My God my glory here, from day-to-day, / And in the glory there my great Reward. (Hymns #350)
# Not the crushing of those idols, / With its bitter void and smart; / But the beaming of His beauty, / The unveiling of His heart. / Captivated by His beauty, / Worthy tribute haste to bring; / Let His peerless worth constrain thee, / Crown Him now unrivaled King. (Hymns #437)
# Tell me not of earthly pleasures, / Tempt me not with sordid gain; / Mock me not with earth’s illusions, / Vex me not with honors vain. / I am weaned from sinful idols; / I am henceforth not my own; / I have giv’n my heart to Jesus, / I belong to Him alone. (Hymns #452)
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