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The God of Bethel

by T. Austin-Sparks

A Consideration of the Great Revelation in the Scriptures Concerning the House of God

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1931-1932.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The God of Bethel

Chapter 2 - The Law of the House

Chapter 3 - A Heavenly Revelation

Chapter 1 - The God of Bethel

There are two great things which must impress thoughtful readers of the Word of God.  These two things run from start to finish of the Scriptures. One is the breaking in of God in relation to this world, and His persistent and unwearying intervention in its course and history. The other is the unbroken chain of attempts to cast Him out of the world and to rid it of God. It would appear that something like this latter had taken place before the creation, one was recorded in Genesis. After that attempt had been made which is recorded there, in which Adam was involved, and through him the entire race, the breakings in of God are for a time connected with individuals. These stand to represent Him and His rights, and to maintain His testimony, and the most conspicuous thing in that representation and testimony is an altar. Thus it was with Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Isaac. These men, standing by their altar, formed a break in the well-nigh universal usurpation of God's rights in the possession of the world and its government. Upon them fell the weight of holding it in token for God, and the test of faith was terrific. When we reach Jacob, while there is an inheriting of what has befeatured the testimony until then, there is a new development. This new and extra factor is the House of God. The greatest experiences and crises of his life are in some way connected with Bethel. The introduction of this feature is a landmark in the course of the ages. It is not merely a man's dream, it is a Divine intervention. Not many times do we read of the heavens opening and God speaking through the rifted clouds, but it is significant that whenever it is so in some way it relates to the great spiritual truth which is central to what happened on that night at Luz, and which cause it to be known forever after by a new name - Bethel - the House of God.

All the continuously growing revelation of the truth of the House of God through both the Testaments can be traced back to and gathered up in the breaking in of God that night with the result that that designation sprang spontaneously into everlasting being. One wonders if it was an inspiration which came to Jacob on the spur of the moment, leading him so to define and express his experience, or whether the spontaneity of it did not imply a familiarity with the idea of God having a house here. However that may be, we know now that it was not new at that moment to God Himself, but that the thought and intention sprang out of the Counsels of the Godhead in the past eternity. That being so, we might expect to find in the first definite reference to it a good deal, at least of what would subsequently be made more clear. Not only is that true here, but, as a matter of fact, there is a most comprehensive microcosm of all subsequent revelation in "Bethel" as Jacob first had to do with it.

We shall proceed almost immediately to note these elements, but it may be as well to warn readers that we are approaching, not just a study of Bible teaching, or an interpretation of Scripture, but a tremendous challenge to our whole mentality and acceptance. So many of us from our infancy upward for many years thought of the house of God as some one or other special kind of building where the public religious service took place. Either a church, a chapel, or a mission hall. It was linked in our minds with the idea that the Church is either a building for the formal worship of God or it is a denomination, such as the Anglican, Roman, or Nonconformist.

Probably there are tens of thousands whose mentality in these matters does not go much beyond that. Their horizon and definition is limited either to a specific material place, or a specific historic "connection." Thus we hear of such things as "church connections," "the church," and "church membership," &c. Now it need hardly be said that the mentality which is indicated by such speech is foreign to the Scriptures, and the "church" or "house of God" which is meant by this manner of speech is not that which is revealed in the Word of God.

We are not embarking upon mere Bible study as such, but we are very seriously and solemnly burdened with a sense of the need for a fuller recovery of the real spiritual truth of things, and that the Lord should have that in the earth which is according to His own mind. We may be assured that all that is otherwise is going the way of the "wood, hay and stubble," in the fires of His testings, no matter how expensive and elaborate and long-standing it may have been. We are entering more and more deeply into a time when historic structures are failing to meet the need and justify their existence. There is a growing sense of weakness and ineffectiveness and failure in the hearts of religious leaders and God's servants. On the other hand there is a deepening spiritual hunger in the true children of God; a longing for the Lord; a disappointment with things as they are; and a growing realisation that the "churches" have not got the real thing to offer for their spiritual sustenance. There is a tremendous amount of bolstering up having to be done, and weakness is advertised in glaring ways by the introduction of all kinds of institutional and social means of maintaining the "church."

Many of the true servants of God are breaking their hearts over the state of things spiritually. Conscious in themselves of the need for a new vision and a new power, they feel the acute pain of a sense of something akin to

Putting Money Into Bags with Holes,

pouring water into a sieve, or seeing the fruit fall to the earth long before it is ripe.

We beg to offer the suggestion that God cannot support what is not according to His mind, and in a day when it is becoming more than ever necessary for Him to have something as such, He is less and less able to bless even a good thing when it is the enemy of the best: to use what He has used when it fails to lead on to what is His ultimate object and thought.

If some of the Hebrew prophets were here today there would have to be a very little revision of many of their utterances to make them apply to things as they are now. Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, would easily recognise the symptoms, and have the explanation. They would say, "Yes, I see how it is. I have seen it that way before. You are tremendously busy in your religion. You seek with great energy to keep your religious system going. The strength and energy, and wit, and ingenuity, and effort put into it is considerable. You are concerned for the traditions, and are ready to try any new and novel idea if you could thereby obtain success. But, withal, you know in your heart of hearts that it is like flogging a dead horse. You know that you are, for the most part, having to prop up a leaning wall. You know that the expenditure of time, strength and means produces nothing like a commensurate result. You try to be philosophical and talk about it not being for us to "count heads" or trouble about results, and that statistics are not a true means of judging. But, however true that this may be in some realms, you know that this philosophy is often only something to cover what would more honestly be called failure. You are busy but not effective. Many years ago I put it this way - 'when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten (that is, they were disappointed to the amount of half their expectation), when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty vessels, there were but twenty' (less than half). 'Mildew, blasting and hail, smote your field and your barn. You looked for much, and lo, it came to little, and when you brought it how it vanished as by a breath.' Yes, yes, and you are getting weary of it all, and asking questions, and wondering if God is really in it all, and why He does not more manifestly co-operate and prosper. The fact that you have to resort to so many means and measures to try and maintain things is only your unconscious acknowledgment that the thing would dry right up if you did not, and therefore its life is not in itself.

"Well, well, we could explain it all for you, as we did in similar conditions long ago. On one occasion it proved to be as we said because there were those who hearkened and obeyed; but on another occasion almost entire extinction came - but for a few secret souls - 'because our words were unheeded.'"

If we were to ask these prophets for an explanation of the situation, and what the vision is that we so consciously need in order to bring things up into the sphere of Divine interest and power, while there might be several things mentioned by them, they would undoubtedly say with instant precision and emphasis -

"My house, saith the Lord."

They would then take us to the Scriptures and we should rub our eyes and open our mouths in astonishment as they led us from Genesis onward and showed us God's all but supreme concern for His house. We say "all but supreme" because there is one thing above it and that is the purpose for which it was conceived. Bearing this distinction in mind, we should be most startled to see how God has linked everything with His house; all blessing or judgment, prosperity or curse, glory or shame, life or death, service, discipline, fellowship, revelation, administration, authority, &c. We should be solemnly impressed when we saw that He has linked Himself with His house so that the fullest knowledge of Himself is only to be had in relation to His house. Thus He would say to an enquiry as to why so much miscarriage and labour in vain in His name -

"Because of My house which lieth waste."

Let us hasten, however, to say that this has but a very remote connection with the empty pews of "churches" or "chapels." This is no attempt to deal directly with the present problems of "church attendance," or non-attendance, or the decline in the general religious life of the nation. The two things may be and probably are related, but we do not begin at that end.

It is of the greatest importance that we very early in our consideration get clear of some false mentality as to what the house of the Lord is in the mind of God, and as to the dispensation in which we live.

We would again point out the tremendous difference between an appraisement of any great truth of Scripture by an intellectual process and that truth coming as a revelation from God by the Holy Spirit to the heart. Some of us have had our lives entirely revolutionised by the latter even after we had known and preached all the same truth for years. It is not the difference in the substance of the truth, but it is the difference between the head and heart, between intellect and the Holy Spirit; which is all the difference between death and life, labour and inspiration, man and God. The one is arrived at through study; the other through spiritual experience. The question naturally arises, how can one come to the latter position? The answer is that first of all there must be a deep and desperate exercise concerning the need for it. It must be a matter of life and death, that or nothing. Not just a quest for power, influence, usefulness, a blessing, but the honour and glory of God being so much involved that nothing less than His absolute and utter and best can possibly be accepted. This must be accompanied by a willingness to pay the price and go all the way whatever the cost. Then finally there must be a definite transaction with the Lord in an understanding that He takes in hand the bringing of one there by any necessary means or way.

The probability is that sooner or later a breaking up or drying up process will begin, and an experience of deep death will be entered into. This is necessary if things are all to be constituted on a basis which is all of God and none of man in the natural. There must be such a transition from one realm to the other through death and resurrection. It has ever been, and is a fixed law of the realm of the heavens. There are three things which, if brought to us in this way will mean a new world, a new vision, a new power, and a new ministry. Each of them can be had in the natural without the said result, even though the conviction may be very strong and the emphasis upon them be with passion and great earnestness. Still the great difference remains, and some of us know that difference experimentally. These three things are:

The Person of the Lord Jesus.

The meaning of the Cross.

The Nature and Purpose of the Church which is His Body - the House of God.

It is quite pertinent to ask those who speak of these things, has it come to you by revelation of the Holy Spirit?

Now having said so much by way of approach, we are ready to return and see something of what the House of God is as represented in germ in Genesis 28, where Jacob's vision is recorded.

We gather up the elements and leave the fuller consideration of them for the later chapters.

1. Where Jacob Was.

He was in a place of detachment.

The narrative would lead us to think that the dream took place on his first night out. But unless he went by fast camel this was not possible. The distance from Beer-sheba to Bethel was about sixty miles as the crow flies. It is more probable that it would be his third night, and he had yet over two hundred miles to go. It is interesting how time and distance or space do not enter into this story. The feature here, however, is that Jacob was well out away from everything, apart from all his connections in this world. Bethel came in there. The House of God has this feature spiritually. That will come up again.

2. What Jacob Saw.

1. "A ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven."

This represented a link and a communicating link between heaven and earth. The heavens and the earth were united and made one by this instrument. Heaven came into touch with earth, and earth with heaven by this means.

2. "The angels of God ascending and descending on it."

Angels in Scripture represent the agents of Divine administration in relation to men concerning the purpose of God.

They are "all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall inherit salvation" (Hebrews 1:14). They are connected with the purpose of God in Christ and with the work of Christ in relation to men.

3. "And behold, Jehovah stood above it."

The supreme and all dominating thing is the place and revelation of the Lord Himself in this matter. He has broken in here in the place apart, as it were, out of the world, and is in evidence in sovereign activity. The pre-eminent feature is God's association with this. It constitutes, defines, and gives character to all else. It remains the factor which governs all that takes place from that time onward. It comes to be realised that He has associated Himself with something, and never again does He disassociate Himself from that which is spiritually introduced. He is for the rest of the ages the God of Bethel, the God of the House of God, and for all the fulness of His mind and purpose men will have to come into that which is meant by His house.

3. What Jacob Heard.

"I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed. And behold I am with thee and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again unto this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of."

Now without analysing the above we take its general implications and effect. It represents several things:-

1. Bethel is linked with a  continuous purpose of God which was related in a spiritual way with God's dealings with Abraham and Isaac. The spiritual elements in the relationship and experiences of those two are carried on to Jacob and come out at Bethel - the House of God.

2. In an outside place - a place apart - with one who is not personally according to God's mind, He sovereignly and in grace makes covenant announcements and commitments, and involves Himself to unconditionally secure an end, and exercise that sovereignty. The purpose is His and does not begin with or ultimately rest upon man's action.

3. Man is in view, however, and what is said relates to man in a very real way; not in a limited way either, but Bethel takes a relationship to all the families of the earth. What God had said concerning Abraham and Isaac is now said concerning Jacob, but it comes in in relation to Bethel. A glance forward will show that this is not straining the point, but Bethel has come to stay and be vitally connected with the future of this purpose.

4. What Jacob Said.

"And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely Jehovah is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

The inferences of this statement are very plain.

1. The House of God is where God is.

2. Where God is that which is not in accordance with His mind feels it to be a terrible place and is smitten with fear. Jacob here is the man in the flesh, and the flesh is not fitting to the presence of God and must realise that it is so. "Holiness becometh Thy House, O Lord, forever," and to bring an unholy condition into God's House is not meet and a sense of the unfitness must strike awe into the conscience.

3. "The gate of heaven" at once brings us into the place where directly above the heavens are open and the voice is heard. An open heaven, a voice, and a revelation of the mind of God were the features of the commencement of our Lord's life and ministry at the Jordan; also at that climax in relation to His Cross in the mount of transfiguration. They were also connected with Pentecost and the conversion of Paul. These instances are all one in their deepest connection with the eternal purpose of God. Bethel, the House of God is characterised by the open heaven, the voice of God, and a revelation of His mind.

5. What Jacob Did.

"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel."

A pillar in Scripture is always the symbol of a witness or a testimony. See Genesis 31:52; Joshua 4:7; Isaiah 19:19-20.

The oil is a type of the Holy Spirit. So that Bethel is symbolised by a testimony set up under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This also is seen in the case of the Lord Jesus on the far side of Jordan and of the Church in the same position on the day of Pentecost.

Having surveyed the features of this first bringing in of the House of God, we shall, with all that we have to say, find ourselves moving almost entirely within these principles. If there is a spiritual apprehension of them there will be some very rich and true knowledge of what the House of God really is as to its nature and its purpose.

The vehicles of revelation change, the instrumentalities vary; the true develops; the forms pass; the aspects are different; but the purpose is the same, never changing, never abandoned, always surviving every failure in the means used. It is a spiritual thing, and when the material agencies of representation break down, the spiritual reality only becomes the more intense.

Chapter 2 - The Law of the House

In the opening of this consideration of the great revelation in the Scriptures of the House of God we noted the fact that God, in His creation of the world, had in view His dwelling with man. The end of the revelation sees that realised when the great declaration is made, "The Tabernacle of God is with men." At the beginning there was something which pointed to this in that He walked in the Garden and conversed with unfallen man. Then things became unsuited to His presence, for His rights had been challenged and man was found on the side of the challenge rather than on that of the Challenged: and more, man was - and has for ever since been by nature - on the side of the challenger. This fact comes out invariably when faith in God is subjected to certain tests.

From the time when He could no longer move freely in a state suited to Him, the Lord sought to have a place among men, and thus He never abandoned His original purpose, but persistently broke in and sought to have His rights recognised. Men of faith who had taken up the testimony to the utter rights in Lordship of God have always had to meet the full impact of a spiritual hierarchy which is set on keeping God out of the world. "The whole world lieth in the wicked one," hence, that which is God's house must be utterly separated from the world: though linked with it in testimony, yet not one wit of it. This leads us to the first and pre-eminent feature of God's House: remembering that believers individually and corporately are His house, His dwelling (this we shall consider more fully later.)

We proceed then to consider what, in Ezekiel, is called

"The Law of the House."

"This is the law of the house: upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold this is the law of the house." Ezek. 43:12.

This principle of suitability to the presence of the Lord runs throughout the revelation of all His associations with man. Holiness has often been taught as a branch of truth in itself, but every great aspect of truth in the Word of God is related to a centre, and that Centre is the Lord Himself. To have the adequate motive for any one requirement it must be seen in its setting with its great eternal and universal background. It is perilous to concentrate upon a fragment or a phase and give it a place in itself, and it robs it of its own dynamic to do so. So holiness must be seen - like all other Divine elements - in connection with the one great all-inclusive purpose of God, and the "House of God" is intended to be a cumulative, concrete, crystalisation of all the Divine features as capable of impartation to man. (This does not include Deity.)

Thus the matter of holiness applies to the whole desire and intention of God to make His dwelling with man, and carries with it the fitness for that abiding.

Seeing - as we have previously pointed out - that the House of God first definitely comes in with Jacob at Bethel, we go back in that connection to take up this "law of the House." From the time of his meeting with God first at "Bethel" till the time when he was Divinely commanded to "arise and go to Bethel" (Gen. 35:1) twenty years elapsed. What a twenty years it was! suffering, testing, being sinned against, sifting, and proving God. He had had plenty of time for thinking over the events and elements of that historic night, and of coming to some fuller understanding of its meaning and implications. So it was that when - after twenty years - the command came he instantly gave to his household some significant instructions. "Put away the foreign gods from among you." "Bethel," the house of God, is no place for other gods, that which suggests the false god, "the god of this age," or divided worship. That is unholiness and is utterly unfitting for the presence of the Lord. Not only is this so in the case of worship, but it is also true in the matter of the whole resource of the flesh. Before the Lord commanded Jacob to go up to Bethel there had taken place that terrific episode at Jabbok where the sinew of his thigh - the symbol of his self-strength - had been withered. To the end of his life he carried that weakness, and when at length, an old man, he blessed his sons, he did so in faith, "leaning upon the top of his staff." What a reminder that faith in self has to be broken and faith in God is our only strength. Yes, from that time onward this great fact is always kept in view, that the flesh is altogether out of keeping with the House of God.

God never has committed Himself to man's "flesh," and He never will do so.   If Paul brings in the House of God more fully than any other, then he will have more than any other to say about the "flesh" and the need for its putting away. Note this in connection with every reintroduction of the House of God. What elaborate precautions  were taken in connection with the Tabernacle that all who were associated with it should have their flesh covered.  Linen robes long enough to cover the ankles. Linen, without an admixture of wool lest perspiration of flesh  should be induced. The holy anointing oil was not to come upon man's flesh apart from the blood. There were to be no steps to the altar lest lower extremities should be uncovered in going up. The physical flesh of the Old Testament was but a type of that moral "flesh" of the New. It would seem that the one great concern in all this exhaustive system was to guard against man's natural life as such coming uncovered before God.

Then when the Temple comes in through David the same law is immediately met with. David must not build the House of God because of his hands being stained with blood. This was true in a general way, but there was also that specific thing which had made him unclean and had weakened him for good. He had been the cause of death and plague in a realm which was not just straightforward warfare, but where Satan had had a hand, and where the "flesh" had governed. So, while the plan could be given to David, the execution was committed to Solomon. Then again there is the elaborate care that everything shall be suitable to God.

There are few more impressive things in the Bible than the three great Confession chapters of Daniel (9), Ezra (9). Nehemiah (9). Those all are related to the house of God at Jerusalem and the unhappy state of things amongst the Lord's people. They represent one great cry and sob because of conditions which are entirely out of harmony with the glory of God. What were all the splendours and glories of Babylon to Daniel when the House of his God at Jerusalem was in ruins. To him there was only one thing that mattered and it was the glory of God. That glory was beclouded while things were as they were there. That state of things, that departure of God from His house was - as the confession makes clear - due to "flesh" being in evidence in the Holy Place and in the holy things.

Ezra's prayer is a terrible thing, it moved all who heard it to action, and action of the most drastic and costly character. The holy seed had become mingled with what was foreign. Foreign wives had been taken and there were families. Speaking in spiritual symbolism this represented the affections being set on things beneath, and the results. It speaks of affectional principles influencing the Lord's people earthward, and then the responsibilities which follow. How difficult it is to get rid of these! How costly this is in the matter of the Lord's presence and glory.

Carrying all this forward into the New Testament we see, firstly, how the Temple is set aside because of inward uncleanness. The Lord Jesus takes its place as the true Temple, but for those who do not as yet recognise the significance of His Person He is saying and doing those things which - being placed on record - will forever reveal His mind as to what is related to the House of God. Vehement denunciations of all that is not holy to the very core, and burning acts of indignation against any caricaturing of the Divine dwelling. A passion for holiness and truth marked His attitude to all who had any official connection with the Temple. Going on still further we see that before the "Body" which is the Church, can be brought in in Romans 12, all that work of chapter 6 has to be settled and a chapter 8 position has to be occupied, leading on to 12:1, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, which is your spiritual worship: and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The same is true in both Ephesians and Colossians, where death, burial and resurrection unto newness of life are placed before going into the "House" or "Body" or "Church."

All this is one great prolonged emphasis upon the words of the Psalm, "Holiness becometh Thy House, O Lord, for ever."

Again let us say that Holiness is not a department of truth, a line of teaching, but it embraces the whole house of God from centre to circumference, from foundation to top-stone, and all that is in it.

Men organise movements and constitute societies. God sanctifies people as the instruments of His purpose.    Men think more of the work to be done. God thinks most of the spiritual state of His children.

Of the twenty-seven books comprising the New Testament, six are largely history with much spiritual teaching in them, and all the rest - twenty-one books - are devoted to the spiritual life and state of believers.

God never guarantees to keep work or workers going beyond the spiritual condition or standard that He requires. There comes a point where men have to assume the responsibility and take the strain, and the Lord lets it fall on them if the spiritual standard is lowered.

Bigness and what man calls success is not the determining feature of spiritual value, but spiritual suitability to God. What determines things according to God is whether they proclaim Him at every point.

The last verdict of man passed upon Christ here on earth was, "truly this was a righteous man." Not "a successful man" or "an able man" or "a clever man," but "a righteous man." Our chief concern must be, not for what others will call successful, but for what God can establish forever: what can be made to really serve His end - i.e., the manifestation of Christ, and such must be above all else marked by holiness.

The one thing upon which the Lord Jesus could challenge men as to Himself was the question of sin.

He did not say, "Which of you can charge me with being unlearned, or without ability, or prestige?" but, "which of you chargeth me with sin?"

Nothing is of value in God's eyes beyond the degree of its holiness. The instruments which have been mostly used of God have been those which had a spiritual state mostly in view. With these the spiritual state of the Lord's people was of infinitely greater influence than the success of the enterprise embarked upon.

Many great instrumentalities have sprung out of ministries concerned with full sanctification. If Jacob is to be God's "Prince," which means to have power with God and man, and this is to be related to Bethel, The House of God, then, if it takes twenty years to do it, God will discipline and chasten and smite the flesh in order to make him a suitable head of the House of Israel - which was God's dwelling.

It is important and helpful to note that often the Lord gives some revelation of truth far ahead of it becoming effectual, and then begins a history of dealings with us to bring us into conformity - spiritually - with that truth. So it was with Jacob. When the time arrives then we know quite well why He has so led us and dealt with us, and are able to enter into it in a living way, rather than just a mental way.

Chapter 3 - A Heavenly Revelation

In our contemplation of the great eternal purpose of God to dwell with men, we have utterly been taking account of what is called in the prophecy of Ezekiel "The Law of the House," or what the Psalmist refers to when he says, "Holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, for ever."   We have seen the introduction of the house of God with Jacob and noted that from that introduction in Genesis 28, to his return to Bethel in chapter 35, there had taken place twenty years of discipline in order to make him a fit subject for Bethel, the house of God. In this latter chapter where the Lord commands him to arise and go up to Bethel and dwell there, we have seen that he had come to realise that the house of God demands the putting away of everything not in accordance with the absolute holiness and the undivided rights of God; so that he instantly commanded his household to put away the foreign gods that were among them. Those represented idolatry, and idolatry is purely and simply worship according to man's thoughts and not according to God's truth. Thus we see that a relationship to the house of God must be upon God's basis and not man's thoughts.

God never brings His house down to us, we have to be brought up to it. Very often there elapses a long period between our introduction to the truth of the house of God, and our coming to dwell experimentally and with understanding in it. During that period, as with Jacob, the flesh has to be crippled, a new and spiritual name, which implies a spiritual nature, has to be received. We note that on his way to the house of God it says that a man met him and wrestled with him; angels had met him on the way, but it was a man that wrestled with him. If we rightly understand the significance of this, it is God in Christ, a man wholly governed by the Spirit who challenges man in the flesh and proves how weak he is at best in the strength of the flesh, and how necessary it is for that flesh to be broken and its strength withered, and how that man until his name, which is his nature, is changed, cannot dwell at Bethel. We can never be in the house of God to abide, in the flesh. This can only be as we are in the Spirit. "They that are after the flesh cannot please God."

At the time of our new birth we receive everything in germ. The fulness of God's purpose is all there in truth from the beginning, but it is often not until years afterward that we come to realise what was contained in the germ. So many there are who think that such revelations as the house of God, are extra or different truths from the truth of salvation, but in reality this is that which God had in view from the very beginning, and herein is the necessity for going on unto full growth, or completeness.

Jacob also teaches us that there is a peril of, even after receiving the Spirit, reverting to carnal methods or earthly connections. This is seen in the period between Genesis 32 and 35. The New Testament is not without examples of this, but it is always fraught with the most perilous elements.

When Jacob eventually reaches Bethel he builds an altar and pours out a drink offering to speak of that which is unto God's pleasure and satisfaction.   He has now come to delight himself in the Lord and this as the outcome of the Lord's taking pleasure in him though unworthy he had been. By this drink offering he is declaring himself wholly for the Lord. In  chapter 28, while Jacob received a revelation of the house of God, he was really ahead of his spiritual state; now in chapter 35 he has come abreast of the revelation and it is no longer a strenuous obligation, it is a matter of spiritual delight and satisfaction. He has moved from the place where his own interests were mainly in view, to the place where God's interests are supreme. It is the difference between having light and having life.

Second Phase: The House as a Heavenly Revelation

We now pass to a further development of the great truth of the house of God. The scripture is now in the book of Exodus, chapters 32, 33 and 40. That which is supremely before us here is not so much the condition of those who are associated with the house of God, as it is the necessity for things being constituted wholly according to the mind of God, as under His most particular direction. Glancing back for a moment to Exodus chapter 15 it is important and interesting to note that in the song of Moses and Miriam on the resurrection side of the Red Sea, with the power of Egypt broken, and the enemy overwhelmed in judgment, the object of  Israel's deliverance is brought into view thus - "Thou wilt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Jehovah, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established" (verse 17). Thus  we  see  that the house of God is the ultimate object for which the people of God are delivered out of the authority of darkness. So the individual and corporate dwelling place of the Lord is linked with salvation as its very purpose. When we come to chapter 25, we find that the Lord takes the initiative in this matter, saying "Let them make me a Sanctuary," and in this connection, the whole pattern to the most remote detail is produced by His own mind; man's wisdom or judgment have no place whatever in it. That is a thought which it would be well to carry right through into our present-day conception of the Church, the house of God.

It seems clear that there was a lapse of time between the giving of the instructions and the actual carrying of them out. In that period we have the events of chapters 32 and 33 in which there is the lapse on the part of the people and the making of the golden calf by Aaron. Here idolatry is introduced once more and, as we have seen, it is not a matter of departure from Jehovah altogether, but the constituting of the worship of God according to man's own ideas. It is bringing God down to a level which is not worthy of Him and which is more the creature than the Creator. Let us remember that this is the nature of idolatry; not that a Supreme God is ruled out but that He is reduced to the ideas of man.

The House of God and the Judgment of Sin

This led to a very severe course with the people on the part of Moses as we see in the narrative; judgment and destruction followed and Moses took and placed outside of the camp the Tent of meeting; evidently not the one referred to in chapter 32, but a temporary one, and it would seem quite clear that he had spiritual understanding as to the meaning of the dwelling place of God, namely, that it is a place altogether separate from sin and darkness and idolatry and has its being upon the very basis of the judgment of sin.

It is a thing of which to take notice, that wherever we have the house of God coming into view, we also always have the forces of evil coming out. It is here in Exodus, the adversary breaks in amongst God's people with idolatry to capture the worship of God for himself, and to frustrate the completing of that habitation of God. It is most clearly seen when we come to the letter to the Ephesians, where the main subject is "the Church which is His Body" and as against this the Principalities and Powers are seen to be in active operation. One of his most successful methods of destroying the true House of God, is that of constituting worship according to man's thoughts instead of according to God's revelation, and the bringing in of the house of God in the book of Exodus as we have noted, particularly relates to things being made according to the pattern as shown in the Mount. To deal with this false thing which has broken in, there needs to be that spiritual priestly energy as displayed by Moses and the sons of Levi in taking the sword, judging this idolatry without regard for sentiment or natural relationship. "The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God" is "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, joints and marrow" (Hebrews 4:12).

We further note that when on the basis of this complete judgment of sin the Tent of meeting was pitched outside of the camp where worship had been constituted according to man's thoughts, then the Lord talked with Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. Thus fellowship, communion, revelation are bound up with complete separation from all that is of man, even though it be religious. When we come to the New Testament and to the place where the Church comes actually into being, we find a company spiritually separated from the religious order of the day, as it were outside the camp, and there the Lord manifested His presence, constituted them the first members of His spiritual house, and gathered to them a company of the saved who had come under the power of the sword, the Word, piercing, cutting, and leading to repentance. It is in this sense that the Church is the Ecclesia or "called out" company, partaking of the nature of Him Who was "Holy, harmless and separate from sinners." Thus it is that the "true habitation of God through the Spirit," "The Church which is His Body," "The House of God" is that which comes to be known by the Believer, not along the line of historic conception, or traditional acceptance, or even doctrinal presentation, but by revelation to the heart by the Holy Spirit. It is essentially a heavenly thing; a spiritual thing.

The Apostle Paul had to be caught up into the third heaven to be shown the true nature of the Church, and when seeking to speak of that revelation to saints here on earth, he realised the necessity and prayed earnestly for them that they might be given "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of their hearts being enlightened." The dimensions which he goes on to mention "the breadth and length and height and depth" are the dimensions of that ultimate dwelling-place of God when the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven and it is said "the tabernacle of God is with men." This is Christ in His fulness as corporately manifested; in other words, the Church of the living God. Our need today is for a fresh revelation of what the house of God is according to God's mind and not according to man's construction. We have said that in that which is of God, man's judgment and wisdom have no place, everything is by the Holy Spirit.