In God’s eyes and in Moses’ understanding, the people of Israel were a corporate thornbush as the dwelling place of God as the divine fire burning within and upon them. God redeemed them (Exo. 13:14-16), sanctified them (Exo. 13:2), transformed them, and built them up to become the reality of the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God.
Outwardly the people of Israel might not be that good or pleasant, but in God’s eyes they were His dwelling place. When Balak bribed Balaam to come and curse the people of Israel, Balaam could not say an evil word about them because in God’s eyes His people had no iniquity, no perverseness, but only goodness, fairness, and beauty.
This is the same with the church today: the church is a redeemed thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection, and the church is the dwelling place of God. We should not speak of the church according to how we see the saints in the church life or how we feel about it, but we should always speak well of the church and praise the Lord for the church life.
If we say that the church is poor, low, or dead, we put ourselves under a curse, and we do not enjoy God’s blessing; but if we praise the Lord for the church life and speak well concerning the church, we will put ourselves under God’s blessing.
Throughout history, beginning from the time that king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem until now, every nation, people, race, or individual who cursed the Jewish people has received a curse, and whoever has blessed the Jewish people has received a blessing (Gen. 12:3).
In the same way, our attitude and speaking concerning the church, the spiritual people of God, should be one with the Lord and according to how He sees the church. The Apostle Paul for instance didn’t criticize the church in Corinth, even though they had so many problems and issues; rather, he calls it, The church of God which is in Corinth.
Hallelujah for the church, the corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection! Praise the Lord for the church life! The church is so wonderful, so glorious, and so high! Praise the Lord for the glorious and beautiful church!
The Church as God’s Dwelling Place is a Corporate Thornbush Burning with the Triune God
The vision of the burning bush is full of significance; the burning thornbush typifies both the individual Christian and the church as the dwelling place of God. In God’s eyes, the people of Israel were a corporate thornbush – they were redeemed, sanctified, and built up, and God dwelt in them and among them.
According to our understanding or feeling when we read the Bible we may not say that the people of Israel were transformed and built up, but in God’s eyes they were sanctified, separated from Egypt, made holy unto Him, transformed, dealt with, and built up.
The people of Israel have become the reality of the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God; the holy God who dwells in unapproachable light and who is a consuming fire was pleased to dwell in and among the children of Israel as a corporate thornbush. In a similar way, the church as God’s dwelling place is a corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection.
In this matter I was very much helped by a footnote in the Recovery Version Bible,
The flame of fire denotes the glory of God’s holiness, which excluded fallen man from direct contact with God as the tree of life (Gen. 3:24 and note). According to Gen. 3:17-19 thorns were part of the curse that came because of man’s sin. Hence, thorns are a symbol of fallen man under the curse. The thornbush here represents Moses himself as a redeemed sinner. The flame of fire burning within the thornbush signifies that the glory of God’s holiness would burn within and upon Moses, God’s called one, even though he was a sinner under God’s curse. This was possible because of Christ’s redemption (Gen. 3:21; 4:4), which satisfied the requirements of God’s holiness and removed the curse, allowing the divine fire (the Spirit) to visit and to indwell the thornbush (the redeemed sinner), making the fire one with the thornbush (Gal. 3:13-14). The fact that the fire burned in the thornbush without consuming it indicates that God Himself, not Moses, would be the “fuel” for the burning (cf. Rom. 12:11; 2 Tim. 1:7; Phil. 4:13; Col. 1:29). Moses would be only a vessel, a channel, through which the glory of God’s holiness would be manifested (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7). See note 11-1.
According to Deut. 33:16, the thornbush was God’s dwelling place. Since God’s corporate people are His actual dwelling place (Heb. 3:6 and note), this implies that the thornbush refers also to God’s redeemed people as a corporate entity. After the tabernacle, a symbol of the children of Israel as God’s dwelling place, was built up, at night the cloud of God’s glory upon it had the appearance of fire (Num. 9:15-16). The fire burning upon the tabernacle signified that the people of Israel were a corporate burning thornbush. The church as God’s dwelling place is also a burning thornbush — the Triune God burning within and upon a redeemed humanity (Luke 12:49; Acts 2:3-4). Through the burning of the holy divine fire, the once cursed and redeemed thornbush is transformed to be God’s dwelling place. This is God’s economy. (Exodus 3:2, footnote 2, RcV Bible)
How wonderful it is to see that we together, as the church, are a corporate thornbush burning with the Triune God of resurrection! God sees us this way, and we should also see the church in this way. We should not look at the “thorns” of the thornbush but focus on the divine fire dwelling in us.
Praise the Lord for the Church Life! Hallelujah for the Glorious Church!
The way God sees the church is as His dwelling place; the church is a corporate thornbush having the Triune God dwelling and burning in it. We should forget about how we see the church and take God’s view of the church as our view.
We should not say that the church is poor, low, or dead; the more we say this, the more we put ourselves under a curse, but if we praise the Lord for the church life and speak well concerning it, we will put ourselves under God’s blessing.
Balaam could not curse the people of Israel because God had only words of blessing toward them. God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen trouble in Israel (Num. 23:21). Rather, Jacob’s tents and Israel’s tabernacles are fair (24:5), and blessed is everyone who blesses them and cursed is everyone who curses them (v. 9).
God sees Israel as being perfect, holy, fair, and beautiful; God sees the church as being perfect, holy, fair, and wonderful! How do we see the church: do we see it with our own eyes and feeling or do we see it as God sees it? If we see the church the way God sees it we will speak well of the church, not allowing ourselves to speak anything according to our old fallen view.
The more we speak well of the church according to how God sees the church, the more we are under God’s blessing. From the time that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city of Jerusalem until now, every nation, people, race, or individual who has cursed the Jewish people has received a curse, and whoever has blessed the Jewish people has received a blessing (Gen. 12:3); it is the same with our attitude toward the church — if we curse the church, we will be cursed, but if we bless the church, we will be blessed.
In a similar way, even though the Apostle Paul knew of the division, sin, confusion, abuse of gifts, and heretical teachings in the church in Corinth, he still called it the church of God – because of the divine and spiritual essence which makes the assembled believers the church of God (1 Cor. 1:2).
The church is of God, and all the believers are in the process of being sanctified, transformed, and built up to become God’s dwelling place, from a thornbush into the New Jerusalem!
Praise You Lord for the wonderful and glorious church life! Praise You for putting us in the church, Your dwelling place. Lord, the church is wonderful. In Your sight and in our eyes the church life is glorious! Hallelujah for the church, the corporate manifestation of God in the flesh! Praise the Lord for the divine and spiritual essence of God in all the believers in Christ who meet on the ground of oneness as the church! Lord, we thank You and we praise You for the church life!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 7, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 4 / msg 4, The Corporate Thornbush (you can buy this morning revival book here via LSM and here via Amazon).
- Hymns on this topic:
# How lovely is Thy dwelling-place! / Within Thy courts I long to be; / Thy presence, Lord, my spirit craves, / For this my heart cries out to Thee. (Hymns #851)
# The Church of God—we are the church, / So important to God’s great plan; / Organic, full of God’s rich life, / We’re born into the living church. / Essence, nature of God, not man, / The foundation is Christ, Himself. / The glorious church the glorious church / Is God expressed. Is God expressed. (Song on the Church in God’s Plan)
# Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221)
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When Moses spoke of God as the One who dwelt in the thornbush, it is difficult to tell whether he was referring to the actual thornbush he had seen forty years before or to himself and to the children of Israel respectively as an individual and a corporate thornbush. I believe that his word includes all this. On the one hand, we are still a thornbush; on the other hand, through redemption, sanctification, transformation, and building, we are God’s dwelling place. Hallelujah, today God has a dwelling place on earth! Satan might say to God, “Your people are merely a thornbush.” But God would reply, “Satan, get behind Me. Don’t you know that this people has been redeemed, sanctified, and transformed? They have also been built up, and now they are one. Therefore, I am dwelling among them. You say that they are a thornbush, but I declare that they are My dwelling place.” The church today is God’s dwelling place. You may think that the church is uncomely, but to God it is lovely. You may criticize the church for its shortcomings, but God says that He sees no iniquity in His people. Regarding His people, God says, “I find no fault in them. I am in their midst, and they are My dwelling place on earth.” This is the church as the corporate thornbush. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 79-82)