The return of the children of Israel from their captivity typifies the recovery of the church, and the aspects of the recovery of the children of Israel to their land, the rebuilding of the temple, the rebuilding of the city, and the establishing of the nation and kingdom of God – they all typify the aspects of God’s recovery of the church.
The book of Jeremiah is quite comprehensive in speaking both of the failure of the children of Israel to take God as the fountain of living waters, their going after idols, God’s word to rebuke them and call them back, their refusal to listen to God’s word, God’s chastisement and punishment of His people by the Babylonians taking the people captive, His punishment of the nations that rebelled against God and dealt too harshly with His people, and His promise and prophecy concerning the return of the people of Israel from captivity after seventy years.
The history of the children of Israel in the Old Testament is an all-inclusive corporate type of the church in the New Testament.
Today most of the believers in Christ are in captivity, in the many denominations – the divisions in Christianity, and God is still calling out, Come out of her, My people! again and again, so that His chosen ones would leave the great Babylon and come to Jerusalem, the place of His choice, to live the Christian life and church life according to God’s original intention.
However, just as in the case of the children of Israel in the time of Daniel, Zerubabel, Nehemiah, and Ezra, only a remnant returns to God’s intention and the place of His choice.
Today only a small number, a remnant, receive God’s mercy to return to the place of His choice, the genuine ground of oneness, so that they would build up the church as the Body of Christ with the many rich experiences of Christ.
The majority of Christians still remain in captivity, for only a small remnant have returned to the proper ground for God’s building.
We in the church life in the Lord’s recovery have been shown mercy by the Lord to return to the genuine ground of oneness, to the enjoyment and experience of Christ, and to the building up of the church, so that we may give the Lord the ground to return by being prepared to be His bride.
We are not in any way, shape, or form more special, better, stronger, or more spiritual than the other believers; we have been shown mercy by the Lord and we are here, standing on the ground of oneness, enjoy the Lord with the believers who have also returned, opening to the Lord to enjoy and experience Him daily, and seeking to fellowship in the Body and build up the church as the Body of Christ.
It is such a glory to the Lord when He has local expressions of the universal Body of Christ, those who stand in oneness with God and with their fellow believers, who experience and enjoy Christ for the Body, and who aspire to be the overcomers and cooperate with the Lord to be produced as the overcomers to hasten the Lord’s return!
The Return of the Children of Israel from their Captivity Typifies the Recovery of the Church
In Jer. 30:17 and 33:6 we see that Jehovah said that He will bring recovery to the children of Israel; He promised to bring the city of Jerusalem recovery and healing.
He said that He would reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth, and that He would cleanse them from all their iniquity and forgive all their iniquities by which they had sinned against Him and transgressed against Him (vv. 6-8).
Even more, Jehovah made the promise that Jerusalem would be a name of gladness and a praise and a glory to Him before all the nations (v. 9).
The return of the children of Israel from their captivity typifies the recovery of the church (Ezra 1:3-11; Neh. 2:11, 17).
The church needs to be recovered, for there was something there in the beginning, originally, but it became lost and damaged; even from the first few months after the day of Pentecost, decline and degradation came into the church.
The church was formed on the day of Pentecost, but even during the time of the apostles, degradation started to come in; there was a decline, and it got worse and worse century after century.
Eventually, the church lost what it owned, what it was, and what it had; today what we see in Christianity is not what God originally intended for the church but rather, we see degradation, decline, and even many evil and unclean things.
There is the need for the recovery of the church. God would NOT be defeated; His intention WILL be realised, He will carry out His will, and His intention will be fulfilled.
We see this in the Old Testament type with the children of Israel how God brought them back to the land; the recovery of the children of Israel with the land, the temple, and the city, typifies the recovery of the church.
We are now in the midst of the fulfillment of the recovery of the church; in the church life in the Lord’s recovery we are being recovered inwardly to be the church that God desires to have, the church according to His original intention.
Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God’s original intention (see 1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rom. 12:4-5; 16:1, 4-5; Rev. 1:11; 22:16).
Our God is a God of restoration and recovery; He has created the universe and the earth, and Satan came in to ruin it with his rebellion – so God came in to restore and recover.
God called and chose a people for Himself, the people of Israel, but they degraded and were taken into captivity; so God came in to restore and recover them, and He obtained the proper people and ground for Christ to come forth the first time.
Then, after Christ’s ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, God gained the church, His spiritual people; however, the church became degraded, so God comes in to recover and restore those who are willing to cooperate with Him.
When we speak of the church and look at the church, we shouldn’t have our vision governed by the present situation or the traditional practice but by God’s original intention and standard as revealed in the Scriptures.
We thank the Lord that He has brought us in the church life in the Lord’s recovery; we are still being inwardly recovered to God’s original intention, He is healing us, He is restoring us, and He is working out in us and among us what He desires to do on earth.
If we see that today God is accomplishing the recovery of the church among us in the church life, we will have a resolve and a determination to stand on this position to work out the recovery of the Lord in cooperation with God.
Hallelujah, God can never be defeated: even though the church became degraded, the Lord has a recovery of the church on the earth today! Thank You Lord for recovering us to Your original intention concerning the church. Thank You for recovering us, healing us, and restoring us from within so that we may be suitable materials for the building up of the church. We stand on the ground of oneness, Lord, and we seek to enjoy You and experience You for the church. Recover us inwardly more, Lord, and bring us up to Your standard for the church. Bring us fully back to Your eternal purpose, Your intention concerning the church, and Your desire for the church to be Your bride for whom You will return! Amen, Lord, fully recover the church in this age!
Being Recovered to the God-ordained Unique Ground to Worship Him and to the Enjoyment of Christ’s Riches for the Church
There are many aspects of the Lord’s recovery of the church, just as there are many aspects to God’s recovery and restoration of the children of Israel after they captivity in Babylon.
The children of Israel were scattered all over Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon; the believers in Christ today, however, are even more scattered and divided than the Jews were in those days.
There are hundreds of denominations, free groups, and divisions in the Body, and there is an abundance of sects and so-called “churches” available today in just one city.
God knew that His people Israel would be divided, so He decided to choose one place where He would put His name, and it is there that the people had to come and worship God corporately at least three times a year; this kept the oneness of God’s people.
When the kingdom of Israel divided themselves from Judah, the first thing they did is set up different worship centers, so that the people would not go to Jerusalem, the place of God’s choice.
Praise the Lord, in His recovery of the church today, one of the most important things He recovers is the oneness of the Body of Christ in actuality, by bringing His seeking ones to the genuine ground of oneness, the unique place of His choice.
Just as the recovery of the children of Israel was from Babylon and back to Jerusalem, the God-ordained unique ground, so we today are being recovered to the unique ground of oneness of the Body of Christ expressed in the principle of one church in one city.
This is something that has been lost throughout the ages; it is there in the Bible, it is the way the early believers practiced the church life, but it has been lost and degraded.
What we see today in fallen Christendom is human organisation, human leading, human expression, and the whole church has been transmuted – it’s nature has become like a big tree with a lot of evil things hidden and lodged in it and like a big lump that is leavened (see Matt. 13).
Thank the Lord for recovering us in this matter, for in meeting on the unique ground of oneness of the Body – and not on the ground of any -ism (Pentecostal-ism, Bapt-ism, Presbyterian-ism, Evangelical-ism, etc), not in any other name but in the name of Jesus, we are recovered to God’s original intention and can truly be built up as the church, the Body of Christ!
Even more, just as the children of Israel returned from Babylon with the riches that were robbed by the Babylonians from the temple, so in the recovery of the church we are brought back to the enjoyment of the riches of Christ.
In Roman Catholicism and in the Protestant and Evangelical denominations very little is said or practiced concerning the riches of Christ which are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8).
So in His recovery of the church, God brings us to enjoy Christ, eat Christ, drink Christ, feast with Christ, and experience the riches of Christ in our daily life; then, when we come together, we bring our enjoyment and experience of Christ to the meetings for the building up of the church.
Today God wants to recover the experience of the riches of Christ; He wants not only to return His people from division and confusion and to the proper church life, but also to bring them back to all the different aspects of Christ which have been lost.
Thank You Lord for Your recovery of the church back to Your original intention. Thank You for recovering us out of any division and confusion back to the genuine ground of oneness in the Body so that we may be the pure and holy church that You desire to have. We come back to the unique ground ordained by You, Lord, and we want to enjoy and experience the riches of Christ. Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ! Amen, Lord, recover the experience of the riches of Christ in our daily life. Bring us into the enjoyment and experience of this all-inclusive, unsearchably rich Christ, so that we may have something of Christ to bring to the church meetings for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 230 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 10, The Promise, the Prophecy, the Remnant, and the Recovery.
- Hymns on this topic:
– In the church the sound of life upon our ear is falling, / Then we see the joy of Christ expressed on every hand; / Babylon and things of earth in vain to us are calling. / We are home forever in Christ our land. / We’re churching in the Spirit / On the church’s local ground; / We’re churching with our brothers, / Our family we have found. / Oh, yes, we’re churching with the churches, / And we’ll make the earth resound / With hallelujahs for Christ our land! (Hymns #1236)
– Eating is man’s destiny / And the Lord’s recovery; / This defeats the enemy— / Overcome! / Come enjoy the tree of life, / Leave the doctrines, leave the strife! / Overcome by eating Christ— / Overcome! (Hymns #1273)
– Praise the Lord, we’re in the Lord’s recovery— / Home at last, here in the church. / Praise the Lord, we’re in the new creation— / One new man, the end of our search. / With the saints, builded, coordinated; / No more I, forever “we.” / We are one in the Son, standing here till He comes; / Yes, nothing can stop our God till He’s done! (Hymns #1256)
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