Its Pattern

by PRASHER, G. | Category: The House Of God | Nov 1957

Of the many subjects which may occupy the hearts of God's children there is none perhaps of more importance than the House of God. This line of truth, which has been given prominence within the last seventy years, views God's people together in testimony on the earth.

During many centuries, so far as we are aware, there was no collective testimony answering to the divine pattern given in the Holy Scriptures; and though there was doubtless much individual godliness, and much accomplished by God's children, there seemed to be no House of God. The House of God must of necessity be built according to the pattern in the Word of God.

When Moses was being commissioned to build the dwelling for God in the desert the instruction he received has a voice for us. God said, "And let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it" (Exodus 25.8, 9). We should give special attention to the words, "According to all that I shew thee." God was showing His servant, as he spent those many days with Him in the Mount, the kinds of material He required for His House, and the manner in which they were to be assembled.

It was not to be according to part of what God showed Him, leaving room for the inventive mind of men to add thereto as they might choose. Note also the words" the pattern of all the furniture thereof." What was true in respect to the House was also true of the furniture. Everything had to be made and assembled just as God had indicated.

Moses, furnished as he was in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and "mighty in his words and works," might naturally have been inclined to introduce into the LORD'S work some of his own ideas but we read : "My servant Moses ... he is faithful in all Mine House" (Numbers 12.7). And again, "Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he." "So Moses finished the work" (Exodus 40.16, 33).

To follow the faithful example of God's servant of old, and be guided by the revelation of God's will as found in the Scriptures, was the desire of heart of certain of the Lord's servants some seventy years ago. It was evident to them that companies with whom they then met were not so gathered as to form God's House. Faithful efforts were made to make known the doctrine of the Lord. Much needed truth was expounded showing the distinction between the Church, which is Christ's Body, which Christ calls, "My Church," and which Christ Himself builds, and local churches, the churches of God which together form the House of God, and wherein men are the builders (cf. Matthew 16. 18; 1 Corinthians 1. 2, 3. 9, 10; Ephesians 2. 21). The importance of baptism in subjection to the risen Lord prior to addition to an assembly, and the necessity for separation from religious and moral evil, were clearly taught. Alas! that indifference regarding God's ways, and opposition to His truth should have been so manifested that in order to do the will of the Lord an outpurging from the evil had to be effected, and churches formed in agreement with the divine pattern given in the Scriptures.

Some may consider the matter of closely following the pattern to be of little importance, but were these to read carefully the accounts of the building of the dwelling of God in the days of Moses, Solomon and Zerubbabel evidence would be found to show how very important this is.

At the close of Exodus 25 we read, "And see that thou make them after their pattern, which hath been shewed thee in the mount." This has reference to the Lampstand and its vessels. In chapter 26.80 God says, "And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which hath been shewed thee in the mount." A further reminder is found in chapter 27.8 regarding the copper altar, "As it hath been shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it." Then in emphasizing the faithfulness of Moses it is written, "According unto the pattern which the LORD had shewed Moses, so he made the lampstand"(Numbers 8.4).

Then "David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch of the houses ... treasuries ... upper rooms ... inner chambers, and of the house of the mercy-seat: and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit ... All this, said David, have I been made to understand in writing from the hand of the LORD, even all the works of this pattern " (1 Chronicles 28.11, 12, 19). This was the pattern which wise King Solomon followed until, with the completion of the work, the house was filled with the glory of the LORD.

The close adherence to the pattern by the willing workers of remnant days is revealed by the references to what " is written in the law of Moses the man of God," and such as followed the law were described as "those that tremble at the commandment of our God" (Ezra 3.2; 4.10; 6.18; 9.4; 10.8).

The Pattern in the New Testament

Is there then a pattern of God's House in the New Testament? The answer to this question is, most assuredly, Yes. The House of God was composed of the Churches of God in the first century of our era. Each individual church is referred to by the Holy Spirit as a building (1 Corinthians 3. 9). These, though localized by the boundaries of towns or cities, were not isolated units. They were seen united firstly in provinces (2 Corinthians 1. 1; 9.2), then in groups of provinces (1 Peter 5.12; 1.1), and as comprising the whole, and forming "a holy temple in the Lord," we find EVERY BUILDING fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also, the building in Ephesus," are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit" (Ephesians 2.21, 22).

A shadow of this grouping is seen in the tabernacle, where we find first a curtain 28 by 4 cubits. Five of these are joined making a group: then to complete the dwelling two such groups are joined together, thus making a compound unity.

The material which formed the churches of God is of great importance, and this is given us quite clearly in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the Epistles. Disciples were made through the preaching of the word. These were baptized and added together, and "they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2.41, 42). "These companies formed the House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3.15).

The word in Ezekiel 43.10, 11, should be laid to heart by all who have regard for the divine will: "Shew the House to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known unto them the form of the House, and the fashion thereof."

PRASHER, G. | Nov 1957
The House Of God