Using the Divine Telescope to See God’s View: His People are Full of Life and Light

Gen. 37:9 And he had still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Now I have had another dream: There were the sun and the moon and eleven stars, bowing down to me.

The two dreams Joseph had when he was young are very important and practical in our Christian life and church life, since they reveal the nature, position, condition, and function of the people of God.

The main point of these dreams is not that his brothers bowed down to him, but that in God’s eyes both Joseph and his brothers are like sheaves of wheat (full of life) and like heavenly bodies (full of light).

In God’s eyes, according to His view of His people, all the believers in Christ are containers of the divine life and persons full of light. We need to have our view of God’s people uplifted and aligned with God’s view so that we may see our fellow believers as persons of life and heavenly people full of light.

If we see the believers in the church life as people of life and light, we will never condemn them or criticize them but rather appreciate them and shepherd them.

However, if we use our “human microscope” to analyze and dissect and see the shortcomings and mistakes in our fellow believers, we will blame and criticize them, and we will suffer the loss of life.

May the Lord save us from our petty and microscopic way of seeing the saints, and may He give us His “divine telescope” to see the saints through times and into eternity, realizing that all our fellow believers in Christ are part of the New Jerusalem!

If we see that the saints we meet and fellowship with are part of the New Jerusalem, we will see Christ in them and appreciate their portion and measure of Christ.

May the Lord recover in us the first and best love for God and also the first love for the saints, appreciating them according to God’s view and cherishing them as members of the Body of Christ and parts of the New Jerusalem.

In God’s Eternal View, His People are Heavenly Bodies Full of Light

In his second dream, Joseph saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him (see Gen. 37:9). This showed him that, on the one hand, his brothers are all (no matter how evil and lustful they were) in God’s eyes as heavenly bodies full of light, and on the other hand, it’s only because of God’s calling that he, Joseph, was to be the ruler among them.

According to our fallen nature, even though we believed into Christ, we are still evil and unclean; but in God’s eternal view, all the ones in God’s people are heavenly bodies full of light!

We need to see God’s view of His people. We should be careful not to accuse the brothers and the sisters, pointing out their failures. Rather, we should appreciate them as people full of light.

In Revelation 12:1 John saw a woman clothed with the sun, having the moon underneath her feet, and having a crown of twelve stars on her head. The footnote on this verse in the Holy Bible Recovery Version is really helpful,

This woman is “clothed with the sun, and the moon underneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” In Gen. 37:9, Joseph in his dream saw the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, signifying his father, his mother, and his eleven brothers. There the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars, plus Joseph himself, signified the totality of God’s people on the earth. Based on the principle of that dream, the sun, the moon, and the twelve stars here must signify the totality of God’s people on earth, which is symbolized here by a woman. Most of her being is clothed with the sun. The sun signifies God’s people in the New Testament age. Before Christ came to the world, it was the dark night of the Old Testament age. When Christ as the rising sun came from on high (Luke 1:78), the age of the sun came. Before that, it was the age of the moon, which signifies God’s people in the Old Testament time. The moon is underneath the feet of the woman, for the age of the moon was the age of the law, which should not be exalted as the stars are. The stars, which signify the patriarchs, God’s people before the law was given, are on her head as a crown. All God’s people in these three ages, who together constitute this woman, are lights-bearers. Hence, she is the bright woman shining throughout all generations. (Rev. 12:1, part of footnote 1)

In other words, ALL of God’s people are, in God’s eyes, heavenly bodies full of light, those who received Christ as light and have Him shining in and through them.

This Christ as the real Joseph, the reigning aspect of the mature life, never condemns people; rather, He shepherds them and appreciates them (see Gen. 37:5-11; cf. 1 Cor. 13:4-8, 13).

If we look at our fellow believers with our “realistic” point of view, we will condemn them “according to the facts”. But our point of view, no matter how “realistic” we think it is, is not right; we need to see others from God’s point of view.

As soon as we criticize someone or pass on judgement on a brother or a sister we lose the ground to shepherd them.

How much we need the Lord to recover us to the first love toward the Lord and toward all the saints in all the local churches! This love covers all the shortages and bad points, and this love prevails!

It is good to exercise our spirit, touch the Lord, enjoy Him in His word, and then exercise to declare,

Praise You, Lord for the saints! Oh, the church life and the saints are wonderful! The saints are sheaves full of life and heavenly people full of light. According to God’s view, no matter how they are outwardly, the saints are full of life and full of light! Lord, thank You for placing us in the church life among Your people who are nourishing us with life and shining on us with the divine light! Praise the Lord for the church life! Hallelujah for the saints!

Not Blaming or Condemning Others but Using the Divine Telescope to See the Saints in the New Jerusalem!

We have to use the “divine telescope” to see through time and behold the New Jerusalem, where there is nothing but sheaves full of life and stars full of light. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Genesis)

I am not here trying to encourage you to “overlook the saints’ faults” and just blindly praise the Lord for the saints no matter how they are outwardly. This is not a blog post on being “politically correct” or being “socially and morally acceptable” in the church life, neither is this something to exhort others to have a Utopian view of the church life.

Rather, we all need to be certain of one thing: whoever condemns the church or blames the saints will suffer the loss of life and is making himself one with the accuser, Satan. But whoever praises the Lord for the saints being full of life and light will be the first to participate in life (Gen. 12:2-3; Num. 24:9).

This is not to negate or put aside the negative aspects of the saints in the church life, and this is not to merely overlook their faults. When we see problems and faults, we should exercise our spirit to pray, and then instead of naturally condemning and criticizing the saints we should be filled with God’s view of them and praise the Lord for the saints – they are full of life and full of light!

We need to enter into God’s view to see His people in their nature as sheaves of life and heavenly bodies full of light. This is NOT to “speak lies” and not be realistic and truthful to the situation we see right in front of us, but to have God’s view of things, realizing that Christ is in all the saints, and Christ in us is the hope of glory (Col. 3:4).

Don’t stand with Satan and the flesh under the cloak of being realistic; stand with Christ – He is always right, and He sees us all the way in the New Jerusalem, where all the saints will be!

In God’s eyes, the saints’ position and nature is heavenly – they are heavenly bodies shining with light, and they live on earth as sheaves of life with a heavenly nature and position.

How we need to use the “divine telescope” to see through time and behold the New Jerusalem, where there is nothing but sheaves full of life and stars full of light! Put away your microscope and take God’s telescope!

We may use our own microscope to see others’ faults and problems, but if we back off a little bit and take God’s long telescope, we will see beyond what apparently we can see now, beyond time, and into the New Jerusalem!

That brother or sister that has faults now and who seemingly causes you trouble will be in the New Jerusalem, part of the jasper wall! Each believer has a Christ-constituted part in his being, and if we put away our microscope and take God’s telescope, we will see Christ and the New Jerusalem!

Praise the Lord that He doesn’t use a microscope on us but He uses a long telescope seeing us all the way to the New Jerusalem!

Lord Jesus, save us from using a microscope to analyze the saints’ faults or mistakes. Give us Your eternal view, Your long divine telescope to see the saints through time and into the New Jerusalem as parts of the jasper wall! Lord, uplift our view of our fellow believers to see them as persons full of life and shining with light. Hallelujah, there is a Christ-constituted part in each of the believers in Christ, and Christ in us is the hope of glory! Lord, we choose to see Christ in others and minister Christ to others for the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis, msg. 120, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (3), week 7 / msg 7, The Life of Joseph as a Copy of the life of Christ and Living as a Sheaf of Life and as a Star of Light.
• Similar sharing with portions in the ministry: see Phil. 3:20 Christian Pictures Blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Christ in me, Christ in you, / Christ in us, O wonderful story, / Christ in me, Christ in you, / Christ in us, the hope of glory. (Song on Christ in us)
  # Look! God’s tabernacle now is with the saints; / Emmanuel—God with us, we proclaim. / Everything is done, so let His children come; / Christ and the church—where God and man are one! (Hymns #1222)
  # And inwardly their life is from above, / The Lord’s Almighty Word hath quickened them; / Flames kindled from the everlasting Love, / The children of the New Jerusalem; / Their brethren are the saints in light, / And songs of sweetness infinite / They sing with them to God Most High, / A deep and wondrous melody. / …They walk upon the earth, and dwell in heaven, / Though pow’rless, guard the world with arms unseen. (Hymns #598)