The fact that God met with His people and spoke to them from above the expiation cover and between the cherubim signifies that God meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating Christ and in the glory expressed by Him as His testimony.
This is very significant, for we cannot just meet God and have His speaking anywhere unless we are in a certain condition, even in a certain place.
The place that God meets with His people is Christ Himself, and this Christ is full of shining, glory, and testimony; in this Christ who has made propitiation for our sins and has opened the way for us to come into the Holy of Holies, in this One and upon this One we can meet with God and have His speaking.
In the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers we see that the place where God met with Moses and with His people is not generally the Tent of Meeting and not even just the Holy of Holies but the expiation cover, the lid of the Ark of the Testimony, under the cherubim and upon the sprinkled blood.
Where does God meet us? What is the place that we have to be in to be acceptable to God, received by Him with joy and peace, and have His presence and His speaking?
It is not based upon our merit, our effort, our endeavor, or our good temper and sinless living; the place where God meets with us is the propitiating Christ, the shining Christ, the glorious Christ.
God has a law, a testimony, and this law expresses who He is; He is holy, righteous, and glorious, and His standard is very high. We, however, are sinful, full of sins, and even rotten to the core, and there’s no effort of the flesh that can cause us to be pleasing to God.
How can we therefore come to Him as we are? It is only because of and on Christ as the propitiation cover; on the propitiating Christ who shed His blood to cover our sins, we can meet with God.
He lived a perfect human life, having an upright and uplifted humanity (signified by the acacia wood, the base of the ark), and in His divinity He expressed God in glory.
He died for us, and on the cross He shed His human blood – His God-man blood which is eternally effective – for us to apply freely and come forward to God.
God wants to speak with us, have fellowship with us, and bring us into His heart’s desire so that we may be His people and build up His habitation on earth today. Christ has become the place where God meets with His redeemed people and speaks with them in grace. Hallelujah!
God meets with us and Speaks to us in the Propitiating Christ and in His Glory
In Exo. 15:22 God told Moses that He will meet with him and speak with him from above the expiation cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony; there He will speak everything He wants to speak for the children of Israel.
What is the significance of this in our experience? God today meets with us and speaks to us in the propitiating Christ as His testimony and in the glory that is expressed in the propitiating Christ (see 2 Cor. 3:8-11, 18).
Christ solved all the problems between us and God; He offered Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice, and as the High Priest He carried out the action of propitiation.
Now in His ascension Christ has become the place where this propitiation is applied, and here, in His ascension in the Holy of Holies, we stand upon Him in glory to meet the Lord of glory!
Here in glory we stand upon the propitiating Christ to meet God and have His speaking, having the full realisation that we are thoroughly washed by His blood, the law which condemns us is covered by Christ (the reality of the lid of the ark), and the blood is applied.
We have the assurance that we can be here – we have the right to be here, for the blood was sprinkled, Christ has become the meeting place of God and man, and God wants us to be here!
Hallelujah, God can meet with us in the propitiating Christ without violating His government or His divine attributes and requirements, for here, in this Christ and His glory, we are under His rule and we are open to His speaking!
This place where we meet with God is not just a place but a person – the propitiating Christ and the glory of God shining out from Christ.
Just as the cherubim are on the lid of the ark and God spoke to His people from between the cherubim, so the glory of God is present whenever God speaks to us, and when we touch the propitiating Christ and apply His blood, we have God’s glory with His shining and His speaking.
Whenever God meets with us, that meeting must take place in the midst of His glory.
We all can testify of this from our experience; whenever we meet with God, whether personally or in the meeting, that meeting is in the midst of His glory.
When we meet with God in Christ, when we apply the blood of Christ and come forward to God to meet Him and have His speaking, we have the sense that we’re in the midst of God’s glory. On the day that we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into a realm of glory.
On the day that the Lord’s light shone upon us and we came into the church life, we came into a realm of glory. God never meets with us in darkness; He always meets with us in glory, and He speaks to us from between the cherubim of glory.
For God to speak to His people from between the cherubim means that He speaks to us in the midst of His glory (Num. 7:89; Exo. 25:22; Psa. 80:1, 3; 99:1).
Lord, we come forward to You based on the precious blood of Christ to have Your presence and Your speaking. Thank You Lord Jesus for carrying out propitiation for us and becoming the propitiating Christ, the place where we can meet God, be in His presence, and have His speaking! Hallelujah, we can apply the blood of Christ and come to fellowship with God in Christ, under the glory of God! Thank You for this new and living way to enter into the Holy of Holies – the shed blood of Christ, and for the place where we meet God – the propitiating Christ and His glory as the testimony of God!
God meets with us and Speaks to us to Infuse us with Himself in the Shining of Christ
What is God’s glory? When God meets with us, He meets us in the propitiating Christ as the place and under the cherubim of glory, which means He meets us in the midst of His glory.
But what is this glory where God meets us? The glory in which God meets with us and speaks to us is the shining of Christ (2 Cor. 4:4, 6).
The gospel that we have received is the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and whenever our heart turns to the Lord, our veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:17) for us to behold the Lord face to face and be infused with Him (v. 18).
It is here, in the glory of God shining in Christ, that we meet with God, we have His presence, and we have His speaking with His infusing.
When we wake up in the morning and turn our heart to the Lord, even though we may grope to consciousness and there’s a battle in our being, we exercise our spirit and apply Christ as the sin offering and trespass offering, and we believe in His blood.
As we apply the blood of Christ, asking the Lord to apply this blood according to His evaluation of it, we behold the Lord face to face, and we behold His glory.
The God who said, out of darkness light shall shine, this One has shined in our heart to give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to infuse us with Himself.
How wonderful it is that, right now, we can turn our being freshly to the Lord, exercise faith in His blood, enter into the Holy of Holies in our spirit, and behold the glory of the Lord, standing on the propitiating Christ and being infused with God!
His glory is in His shining, His beaming, His radiant face, with His countenance uplifted for us.
God is glad for us to be here and meet us here, and even though we don’t know what we need, He knows, and He infuses us, He works Himself into us, He saturates us with Himself, He permeates us, He saves us organically, and He makes us the same as Christ!
As we behold the glorious face of Christ in spirit, we are being sanctified, renewed, transformed, conformed, built up, and glorified!
The Lord wants us to look at Him, to behold Him; He gave us the right to come forward based on His blood, He opened the way for us, and the way into God has been opened – we simply need to come to Him! Amen!
What kind of Christ is this shining Christ? On one hand He is divine – shining out God in His glory through His divinity; on the other hand, He has humanity, which is the base for His shining.
Just as acacia wood was the base for the Ark of the Testimony and the lid of the ark was made of pure gold, so the base of His shining is His humanity, and in His divinity He shines on us.
In our experience today we need the humanity of Jesus in order to express Christ’s divine nature. We need to enjoy and experience Christ in His humanity and His divinity, and this can take place as we stand on the propitiating Christ and behold His face in the shining of Christ, being infused with God.
The fact that the thickness of the lid of the ark is not given and that the weight is not know indicates that the weight of Christ is immeasurable. Experientially speaking, His weight is according to what we are able to bear.
We need to spend more time with the Lord, standing on the propitiating Christ by applying His blood, and beholding the Lord face to face, so that we may infused with Christ and gain more weight of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we turn our heart to You; remove any veil from our face and bring us into the place where we can behold You face to face. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to behold You, standing on the propitiating Christ, and to be infused with You, saturated with You, and permeated with You! We exercise faith in Your blood, we enter into the Holy of Holies in our spirit, and we behold the glory of the Lord! Amen, we love to be under Your shining, Lord Jesus! We love to meet You face to face, standing on the blood and in the glory, and be infused with the desire of Your heart, Your living testimony on earth!
Read this article / blog post in Romanian – puteți citi acest articol și în limba română la următorul link – Dumnezeu ne întâlnește, ne vorbește și ne infuzează pe Cristosul Ispășitor în glorie.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msgs. 86-87 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallisation-Study of Numbers (1), week 8, God’s Speaking from between the Cherubim of Glory.
- Hymns on this topic:
# By Thy separating blood, / We have all been sanctified; / ’Tis by Thy preserving blood / Holiness is testified. / By Thy propitiating blood, / We have all been justified; / ’Tis by Thy redeeming blood / God is fully satisfied. (Hymns #224)
# Take time to behold Him, / Let Him be thy guide; / And run not before Him / Whatever betide; / In joy or in sorrow / Still follow thy Lord, / And, looking to Jesus, / Still trust in His Word. (Hymns #643)
# Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / In the spirit seek His face; / Ask and listen in His presence, / Waiting in the secret place. (Hymns #784)
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