The God of Abraham is our God, and Abraham’s experience of God needs to become our experience of God in our Christian life today. According to Rom. 4:17, Abraham had a twofold knowledge of God: first, he knew God as the One who calls things not being as being, and then he experienced God as the One who gives life to the dead.
With the birth of Isaac, Abraham experienced God coming in and making it possible for the seed to be brought forth – He called things not being as being. Years later, after Isaac grew in grace, God was experienced by Abraham as the One who gives life to the dead.
In Gen. 22 we see that God put Abraham in an exceedingly difficult and seemingly contradictory situation: He tested Abraham by requesting him to bring his son as a burnt offering to Him on Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22:1-2). Why did God require this from Abraham? Wasn’t Isaac the promised seed? How could Abraham have done this to Isaac?
In Gen. 21 we see that Abraham redeemed the well in Beer-Sheba, planted a tamarisk tree, and called on the name of Jehovah, El-Olam, the eternal God. This experience strengthened and prepared him, and caused Isaac to grow in grace until God could require Abraham to bring Isaac as a burnt offering for His satisfaction.
Our experience today is very similar: in the church life we drink of Christ as the Spirit as the living water, we eat the tree of life and express the riches of His life (the tamarisk tree), and we call on the name of the Lord with a fresh appreciation for what He is to us.
This experience qualifies us and prepares us to go to Mount Moriah and become a burnt offering for God’s satisfaction. We don’t “take the initiative to go to Mount Moriah”; rather, in His time, when He considers we are ready, God brings us to Mount Moriah and He is satisfied with the sweet-smelling savor ascending from the burnt offering which we become in Christ…
The Life at Beer-Sheba Produces a Burnt Offering that is Offered to God for His Satisfaction
“Do you know that your destiny is to be a burnt offering? To be a burnt offering is to be killed and burned. The growing, living, and calling on the name of El Olam at Beer-sheba are all for the building up of a burnt offering that we might be burned on the altar on Mount Moriah. The water at Beer-sheba is for the fire on Mount Moriah. The more we drink the water from the well of Beer-sheba, the more we shall grow, and the more we grow, the more we shall be prepared for the fire on Mount Moriah.” (Witness Lee, Life-study of Genesis, p. 759)
It is so good to be at Beer-Sheba, enjoying God as the fountain of living waters and as the tree of life, overflowing with the riches of His life, and calling on the name of the Lord. The church life is wonderful, filled with eating, drinking, and breathing Jesus with all the saints, those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
However, this is not “the end”; rather, we enjoy the Lord, drink Him, and eat Him so that, in His time, God would take us to Mount Moriah where we become a burnt offering for His satisfaction.
In our good and honest heart toward the Lord, according to the capacity and ability He has given us by birth, we would like to “serve God” and “do things for God” by using what we have to “do things for His glory”.
Even more, when some saints come into the church life they may have a desire in their heart to “be somebody”. As we read the Bible, enjoy the Lord, and get into the ministry of the age, we may have a desire to be someone and do something big for God. But God is constantly showing us that He doesn’t need us to DO things for Him; He wants us to enjoy Him until we are led by Him to be a burnt offering for His satisfaction.
Christ is the reality of all the offerings, and in particular Christ is the real burnt offering: He is the only One absolute for God. The animal brought to God to be a burnt offering was burnt completely and a sweet-smelling savor was ascending to God for His satisfaction, even for His food (Num. 28; Lev. 1:3).
The burnt offering typifies Christ not mainly in His redeeming man from sin but in His living a life that is perfect and absolutely for God and for God’s satisfaction and in His being the life that enables God’s people to have such a living (John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:29; 14:24; 2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:19-20).
The burnt offering solves our fundamental and basic problem: we are not for God. Only One person has ever been fully for God, and this One is Christ; we need to be identified with Christ to be the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.
God doesn’t want spiritual giants or great works done in His name; He desires and hungers for burnt offerings, those who grow in life in a normal way by enjoying Christ as the living water and tree of life, and who are led by Him to Mount Moriah to become a burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.
Our life at Beer-Sheba and our experience and enjoyment of Christ here produces a burnt offering. The more we stay in the church life, the more we enjoy the living water flowing, the tree of life growing, and we are produced as a burnt offering. Our growing in life today by enjoying and experiencing God as life is so that we may become burnt offerings for God’s satisfaction.
The Proper Church Life Produces Burnt Offerings
Enjoy Christ in the church life until He brings you to the experience of being a burnt offering for His satisfaction
Being a burnt offering may not be anyone’s goal in life or new year’s resolution but it is what God desires. In His sovereignty He has placed us in the proper church life in the Lord’s recovery and here we drink from the redeemed and covenanted well. As we drink, the law of life forms Christ in us and saturates us with Him.
We need to live in the church life not in an extrinsic and outward way, merely taking care of the many necessary and indispensable practical things – but in an intrinsic way, enjoying Christ all the time. As we live a life of meeting, serving, shepherding, feeding, prophesying, preaching the gospel, etc, something intrinsic should take place in our being day and night.
As we eat the tree of life, drink the water of life, and call on the name of the Lord to enjoy all His riches, the law of the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:1-2) operates in us to make us the same as He is in our organic union with Him.
As we exercise our spirit, turn our heart to the Lord, and open our being to Him every day, we will enter into the mysterious experience of God as the El-Olam, the eternal God, and the eternal life which is God Himself is seeping in us, saturates us, permeates us, saves us organically, and enables us to reign in life. The result of this day-by-day experience of God as life is that we realize: we are not here for ourselves but for Christ and the church.
We are in the church life for the desire of God’s heart, and we seek nothing for ourselves but, in the organic union with the Christ who lives in us, we care for what is on God’s heart. This is the reality of being a burnt offering, and this takes place in the proper church life.
The reality of the burnt offering is formed in us and is being expressed in us without our being aware of it. The more we stay in the church life, the more we are brought from Beer-Sheba to Moriah.
The proper church life, on the one hand, causes us to be supplied and reconstituted with the Triune God, and on the other hand, brings us to Moriah that we may be a burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.
However, we should NOT try to be a “spiritual hero” and “lead the way to Mt. Moriah right now”, but we should stay at Beer-Sheba enjoying God as life until He will bring us to Mt. Moriah, in His time and in His way.
Lord, keep us in the church life eating the tree of life, drinking the water of life, and calling on the name of the Lord! May we grow in grace day by day as we drink Christ, eat Christ, enjoy Christ, and breathe Christ in the proper church life. Saturate us, Lord, and permeate us, fill us, and grow in us until You bring us to the experience of being a burnt offering for Your satisfaction. We are here for You, Lord, and for Your heart’s desire. We want to seek nothing for ourselves: our interest is only Christ and the church! Gain what You are after in us! Bless all the churches and strengthen our experience of God in the church life today!
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 Genesis (msg. 57), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 11 / msg 11, The Offering of Isaac and Experiencing God as the One who Gives Life to the Dead.
- Further reading: recommending msg. 8 in Life-Study of Romans (by Witness Lee), and ch. 6 in Watchman Nee’s, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, I take You as my sin offering for what I am, / But Lord, I take You as my burnt offering for what I’m not. / I’m not loving, submissive, patient, kind, or meek, / I’m not single in view, Lord, nor is it God I seek. (Hymn on taking Christ as the burnt offering)
# As we eat Thyself, Lord Jesus, / Consecrated we become; / By Thy wondrous life within us, / Thy obedience is our own. / No more need we strive and struggle, / Consecrated try to be; / Consecration dwells within us— / Now our part to eat of Thee. (Hymns #1138)
# Lord, You are my only goal! / You’re my only hope! / I only care for You! / I never could replace You, / And I would never want to. / I have everything, Lord— / I have You! (Hymn on Consecration)
