Gen. 35:14-15 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where He had spoken with him, a pillar of stone; and he poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. And Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
It is a great blessing to read the Bible with “the glasses of God’s economy” on.
When we read the account in Gen. 35 with Jacob going to Bethel, setting up an altar, calling on the name of the Lord, having the Lord’s speaking, setting up a pillar and pouring out a drink offering and oil on it, we may think this is something that Jacob came up with then and there, but actually, all these are full of significance.
God called Jacob to Bethel, the house of God, and here Jacob consecrated himself and his whole house to God in the house of God. At Bethel Jacob had God’s speaking, and here God was all-sufficient to him.
At Bethel Jacob set up a pillar, poured out a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it (Gen. 35:14). The drink offering signifies Christ Himself as the One who was poured out before God as the real wine for His satisfaction.
Also, the drink offering typifies the Christ who saturates us – His believers in Christ who experience Him in spirit day by day – with Himself as the heavenly wine until we become those who are poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction, and we are poured out for God’s building (see Phil. 2:17).
Jacob passed through a process of dealings, breaking, and transformation, and at Bethel he experienced God as the God of the house of God; here, what he poured out was not just a drink offering but his whole being before God for the house of God and for God’s satisfaction.
What an uplifted view of Jacob’s being at Bethel this second time!
And the function of Bethel is to express Christ! In the reality of Bethel we have people who are transformed in their soul, saved from their self-likeness and independence, and released from any individualism.
These are being built up as God’s house in spirit; they are willing to pay the price of their natural choice, their natural desire, and their natural life in order for Christ to be expressed and brought forth for the corporate expression of Christ.
Not Hindering God in what He Wants to Do in and Through Us
In Himself, God is omnipotent: He can do anything He wants by Himself, without our help. In eternity past there was no limitation to His power, and in eternity future forever there will be no limitation to what He can do.
But in the present age, God has placed Himself “at a risk” by being willing to be limited by the human will’s cooperation with Him. God created us with a will, and He wants us as human beings to side with Him, be one with Him, and release His will on earth.
The degree to which we are one with Him, we obey Him, we are open to Him, and we respond to Him, is the degree to which we do not hinder Him from what He wants to do.
When Jacob was being dealt with and broken, his whole being was a limitation to God, and there was no way for God to move through him. But after he was dealt with, broken, have his being open to be transformed to a significant degree and built up, he began to be a person in whom God is less and less limited.
It is the same with us: we do not realize how much God wants to do and we are not aware of how much God is limited by us. We may love the Lord, pray, read the Bible, seek Him, meet with the saints, and attend the prayer meetings of the church, but if we act in our natural life in praying, if we’re quick to pray what we think, if we pray our natural concept, the Lord is limited and hindered by us.
The Lord won’t violate the principle of the human will cooperating with Him, and He is willing to be limited until He finds a group of people who would be one with Him. When our soul is subdued and transformed, God can have a person who no longer limits Him.
We see this in Jacob: he became a man in whom El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient God, was no longer limited. At the end of his life the Lord had a free way to flow out of him as torrents of blessing to everyone.
We all are destined to make this turn. We should not wait for the next age to make it, but settle this with the Lord,
Lord, for the sake of Your purpose and for Your building, bring us into the reality of Bethel long before we finish our course! Be the all-sufficient God to us. We want to cooperate with You to be dealt with, broken, transformed, and built up, so that You may have a free way to flow and move through us as Your people on earth!
Becoming the Drink Offering Poured out over God’s Building for His Satisfaction
Phil. 2:17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with you all.
The fact that Jacob poured out the drink offering on the pillar he set up at Bethel indicates that the drink offering is for God’s building.
In Gen. 35:14 we have the first mentioning of the drink offering in the Bible (Num. 15:1-5; 28:7-10), and Jacob’s pouring out the drink offering on the pillar shows that the drink offering is for God’s building and brings in the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:33) for the sanctifying of God’s house (Exo. 40:9).
What is the drink offering? All the offerings ordained by God in the Old Testament are a type of Christ as the reality of all the offerings, and the drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as the real wine before God for His satisfaction (see Exo. 29:40-41; Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10; Isa. 53:12).
Christ poured out His life before God, and He is the heavenly spiritual wine poured out to God for His pleasure. Christ’s pouring out His life before God produced the church and was for the church.
When Jacob poured out the wine as the drink offering on the pillar in Bethel he poured out his being before God. Instead of usurping others, trying to get by scheming what God ordained him to have, or heel-holding to outsmart others, Jacob paid the price to be constituted and then pour out everything for God’s building.
On the one hand, the drink offering typifies Christ, and on the other hand, it also typifies the Christ who saturates us with Himself as the heavenly wine until He and we become one to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction and for God’s building (see Matt. 9:17; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6).
As we enjoy Christ as the new wine to energize and strengthen us, we experience Christ as the vine to enable us to sacrifice, we produce grapes which are pressed into wine, and Christ as the new wine saturates us and constitutes us until, at one point, we are being poured out as a drink offering upon God’s building.
The Apostle Paul was a God-constituted person, one filled with Christ as the new wine, and he was ready to be poured out upon the sacrifice and service of the saints (Phil. 2:17).
Both in Jacob’s case and in Paul’s situation we see a paradox: they were suffering in their soul but rejoicing in their spirit with the joy of God.
Today we are suffering in our soul because we are losing our soul life for God’s interest, but at the same time we are being constituted with Christ as the new wine, we’re filled with joy in spirit, and we are being poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction, God’s building.
Don’t look at yourself and your situation today: our destiny is to be filled with Christ as the new wine and be poured out upon God’s building for God’s satisfaction!
And our pouring out as a drink offering to God brings in the outpouring of the Spirit for God’s building. The more we pour ourselves with Christ as an offering to God for His house, the more the outpouring of the Spirit of God will be brought in.
Lord Jesus, saturate us with Yourself as the new wine until we become a drink offering poured out on the building of God for His satisfaction! We want to enjoy You as the new wine strengthening us and energizing us until we are also enabled to be poured out with Christ as the new wine upon the sacrifice and service of the saints’ faith. Lord Jesus, make us one with You as the drink offering upon the building of God for God’s satisfaction.
The Function of Bethel, the House of God, is to Express Christ
What is the function of Bethel? What is the function of the house of God?
God’s dream and goal is to have a house, a building, a corporate entity composed of God and man being united, joined, mingled, incorporated, and built up together organically SO THAT God would have an expression.
The function of Bethel, the house of God, is to express Christ (Eph. 1:22-23). When we become Bethel, the house of God, we will bring forth Christ for God’s expression, and this will cost us our natural life, our natural love, and our natural choice.
At Bethel there’s nothing natural – here we have only the expression of Christ. For us to become the house of God expressing Christ means that we need to be transformed in our soul and saved from our self-likeness, our independence, and our individualism.
As we are in this process of dealing, breaking, transformation, and building up to become Bethel, the house of God for God’s expression, we are still so full of the self and constituted with the natural life.
But through God’s organic salvation, we are being sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and built up, and we become – together with the saints – the corporate expression of Christ, the reality of Bethel.
God’s ultimate goal is the expression of Christ, and this is not an individual matter but a corporate matter in the house of God (see John 17:22; Eph. 3:21; Rom. 9:23).
For us to bring forth Christ for the corporate expression of Christ it will cost us our natural choice and desire, and our natural life will be put to death. But the result will be glorious: Christ will gain His corporate expression, and we as the many believers in Christ will be part of the glorious expression of Christ!
Lord Jesus, bring us in the reality of Bethel to be transformed in our soul and saved from any self-likeness, independence, and individualism. Keep us in the process of God’s organic salvation to be saved in life much more every day until we are sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, and built up with the saints to become Your corporate expression. Lord, gain Your corporate expression in the church for Your glory!
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 (pp. 1023, 1170-1174), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 4 / msg 4, The Reality of Bethel and the Bringing forth of Christ as the Son of Affliction and the Son of the Right Hand.
- Further reading:
# recommending Life-study of Philippians, msgs. 14, 50 (by Witness Lee).
# picture credit above and footnotes via Christian Pictures blog. - Hymns on this topic:
# Let us drink Jesus till we see / That we are human, Jesusly! / Till rivers flood the barren ground / And quench the thirst of all around. / Drink, drink more of Jesus! / Drink, drink more of Jesus! / Why should we ever thirsty be / When we have His humanity? (Hymns #1146)
# Let me pour wine, while I drink not. / Let me break bread, while I keep not, / Pour my life out that others be blessed, / Be in suff’ring that they be contented. (Song on Being Poured Out)
# Not by gain our life is measured, / But by what we’ve lost ‘tis scored; / ’Tis not how much wine is drunken, / But how much has been outpoured. / For the strength of love e’er standeth / In the sacrifice we bear; / He who has the greatest suff’ring / Ever has the most to share. (Hymns #635 by Watchman Nee)
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