The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church

In Relation to the Old Testament Type

7. In Relation to the Old Testament Type

In the following discussion, Witness Lee explains the worship of the children of Israel through their offerings and compares this Old Testament type to the meetings in the local churches. The ancient Israelites brought the rich produce, the harvest of their labor on the good land, to the feasts to offer to God. There they enjoyed fellowship with the Lord and with one another. Similarly, all Christian meetings should be a rich exhibition of the Christ experienced by His believers in their daily lives, through their spiritual exercise to contact and enjoy Him.

In the Old Testament type, all the children of Israel were required to come to Jerusalem with some produce from their labor upon the good land as an offering to God; in the local church meetings, the believers come together to offer Christ, whom they have experienced, as the reality of the Old Testament offerings. As Witness Lee elaborates:

The second point concerning worship in these four books is that everyone must come to Jerusalem with their hands full of the produce of the good land (Deut. 16:16-17). No one was to come with his hands empty. Each had to have something to offer to God, and that offering was the real worship to God. Today, in principle, it is exactly the same. Whenever we come together in the church meetings, the important matter is how much of Christ we bring. In the proper worship meeting, all the saints must bring something of Christ—not Christ in teaching or in doctrine, but Christ in their experiences.

The people of Israel first of all had to labor on the good land. They had to till the land, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. Afterward they had to grind the grains to obtain the flour for the meal offering. Then when they came together to worship God, they had something to bring and present to God as real worship. Today the Lord is going to recover this worship not only in spirit, but also in reality. Reality is just Christ as so many kinds of offerings.

. . . .When the Samaritan woman spoke with the Lord, she told Him how the Jews insisted to worship in Jerusalem, but her fathers worshipped God in another place. The Lord Jesus then told her that the dispensation had been changed. Real worship to God is not in this place, but in spirit and in reality (John 4:20-24). The reality is Christ as all the offerings typified in the Old Testament. We must have something of Christ experienced by us to bring to the tent of meeting, which are the meetings of the local church.

(Witness Lee, Christ as the Reality, 59-60)

Elsewhere, Witness Lee compares the need for the Old Testament people of God to present their offerings in the tent of meeting to the need for proper worship in the local church meetings:

The second of the four things which we need in order to properly present the offerings to God is the tent of meeting. What is the tent of meeting? This is the meeting of the local church. Without the church meetings, how could we present the burnt offering to God as His food? We all need the church meetings. If you do not believe it, just try to offer Christ as the burnt offering to God in your home by yourself. It will not work. Some may say, “Brother Lee, you are too narrow. You are limiting God. If I can present Christ as the burnt offering to God in the meeting, I can surely do it in my home!” All I can say is that those who feel this way should go home and try to do it.

According to the type, the picture is very clear. Not one Israelite was allowed to present the burnt offering in his home. Have you read this? Today, so many Christians say that they do not care for the meetings. As long as they are fellowshipping with the Lord in their home or somewhere else, they feel that it is all right. In a sense, it is all right, but it is not all right for offering Christ as the burnt offering to God. No Israelite in ancient times could kill a bullock for a burnt offering to God in any place he chose. He had to be at the tent of meeting. Only at the door of the tent of meeting was he able to present the burnt offering. You may enjoy Christ in your home tonight, and you may enjoy Christ in your home tomorrow morning, and you may enjoy Christ anytime in any place, but you can never present Christ as the burnt offering to God for God’s food in any place other than the meeting of the local church.

In the meetings we have a certain kind of sensation that is so sweet and pleasant. There is the sensation that something here is so unique, so pleasant, and so good. Try to imitate this sensation at home. You simply cannot do it. You can never have such a sensation outside of the tent of meeting. We all must come to the church meetings to present our burnt offering to God. In the church meetings we sense something of Christ which we can never sense in any other place. Leviticus 1:3 says clearly that we must present our burnt offering at the door of the tent of meeting before the Lord. This is the only place to present Christ as the burnt offering. You may try to do it according to Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” However, I know that many of us have tried this already and have no desire to try it again. Praise the Lord that today we are on the unique ground, and we do have the tent of meeting where we can offer our burnt offering to God as food!

(Witness Lee, Christ as the Reality, 28-30)

Main

Meetings

Lord’s Table

Prayer

Prophesying

Small Group

Gospel

Children’s

OT Type

Spiritual Exercise

Reading

Praying

Singing

Speaking

Thanksgiving

Praising

Serving

Calling

Pray-Reading

Bibliography

Links