T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

A Vessel of Testimony

Reading: Exodus 25:31,36; Revelation 3:18; 1 Peter 1:7; Revelation 21.

This candlestick referred to in chapter 25 of Exodus was to have its place in the holy part of the tabernacle, the Holy Place. We understand that the Holy Place was the place of heavenly representation, as here in this world. The Most Holy Place was heaven in signification. "For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself" (Heb. 9:24), not into the similitude of heavenly things, but into the heavenly things themselves. So that the veil of His flesh marks the point between earth and heaven, and that side of things represented by the Holy Place (although there is no veil now) speaks to us of the place of the representation of heavenly things.

But even here, only the consecrated can see and know. Though there may be but a representation, and not utterly, and ultimately, and intrinsically the things themselves, even in the matter of the representation of heavenly things, the understanding, the knowledge, is confined to those who are consecrated, as in the case of the priests of the tabernacle.

A Vessel of Testimony

The centremost thing, then, in this place of representation was, and is, a vessel or instrument of testimony, in the light of which living testimony all else is made living and clear, without which living testimony the other things are dark.

The Character of the Vessel

Inasmuch as great responsibility is connected with the instrument or vessel of that testimony, its character must come in for very special notice and consideration. It is the character of the candlestick which is particularly spoken of, and referred to with such clear emphasis. There will have to be very special attention given to that which is to carry the responsibility of illuminating and making to live those other features of the expression of heavenly things here on the earth. When the question of its character comes into view, there is one thing which naturally governs all, and that is its meetness for such use. If that is its great responsibility and vocation, then its character relates to its fitness for so great a purpose.

Thus we see that it has to be particularly constituted after the likeness of Him Whose glories it is intended to reveal. Within that realm of heavenly representation, there will have to be a display of heavenly glories and values and meanings, all of which are dependent upon this vessel of testimony. It will be as all these other things fall under the rays of light from that living testimony that it will reveal their meaning, and their value; otherwise they become or remain dead and dark things.

The indication, therefore, seems to be that it is only as the Lord has a living testimony in a suitable vessel and instrument that the things of the Lord can become living and flaming, and full of meaning and value to the Lord's people. There are many things in relation to the Lord which have not been apprehended by His people in their true light and value. They have remained or become just forms, words, terms, symbols. While the signification has become a part of the accepted order, the power and life of the things signified is lacking. What the Lord needs in order to make all these things aflame, alive, and of potent value, is that there shall be right at the centre His testimony in life, in a vessel which is suited to such a purpose. It is suitability or meetness that is the dominant note in our consideration in this connection just now. The words here are very explicit: "And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made...."

All - Gold - Beaten

There are three things in the statement, or three parts of the statement. The first is that it is all gold. That means that it is an entirely heavenly instrumentality, and there is nothing of earthliness about it. The second thing is that it is pure gold. That means that it has been refined and purged. There is gold and gold. Peter speaks of that gold which, even refined by fire, falls short of God's thought for His people - "...more precious than gold that perisheth though it be refined by fire." It is not just gold, but purged, purified, refined gold for this purpose. The third thing is that it is beaten work. That is, it is fashioned as well as purified. It is not shapeless gold, though purified gold. The Lord does not take us into the fires of purifying just to have a shapeless mass of purified gold. While He does that, He constitutes according to a design, and the thing becomes beaten work. The word "beaten" there, as the marginal reference will show, relates to the shaping, the forming of this gold, with a design.

Those three things are the basis of this instrumentality for the living testimony of the Lord, bearing so great a responsibility. We will for a few moments dwell upon them. They relate to the Lord Jesus Himself.

1. The Heavenliness of Christ

Number one, All of gold, speaks quite clearly of the heavenliness of Christ in His being and in His manysidedness. The Lord Jesus is no longer an earthly Christ, and for the great dispensation in which God is doing the biggest thing in all the ages, everything is bound up with Christ in heaven. The outworkings of the Cross of the Lord Jesus, which had a necessary relationship to this earth, are outworkings from heaven, and everything now is to come out from Him as in heaven. He is that which is represented by the gold. All that He is in Person and work, in nature and purpose, is apart from this world, and has no spiritual oneness with it.

We must remember what a tremendous place and influence that had from the beginning. It was really the pre-eminent factor in what was introduced in this dispensation, that they - a company specially chosen - saw Him actually go up from their presence into heaven, and from time to time their witnesses were given fresh evidence that He was alive in heaven, and it was not merely a vanishing into space. Stephen saw Him through the opened heaven. Paul on his way to Damascus saw Him through an opened heaven. Peter before visiting Caesarea heard Him from heaven. They knew that He was alive in heaven, and in charge of everything. He was in control; a living and heavenly Lord. It was the reality and meaning and value of Christ in heaven which gave character to the Lord's purposes in this dispensation.

What He was doing was apart from this world, and is so still.

That is enough for the moment, until we come to the other side of the matter, where the Church is concerned.

2. The Sufferings of Christ

The second thing, the PURE GOLD, refined and purged, speaks of the sufferings of Christ by which His perfections were made perfect, by which He, although being a Son, learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He was made perfect through sufferings. We are not suggesting for a moment that there was dross in Him, that there was anything in His nature which needed to be purged. But the Word clearly declares that there was a perfecting of Him through sufferings, and we can put it in this way, that His perfections were made perfect, just as the perfections of a child are made perfect by growing up into a perfect man; not for one moment suggesting imperfection in the child, but only possibilities of development of the perfect child into a perfect man. So through sufferings He was enlarged, increased, and His perfections were brought out to full growth, full measure. The pure gold puts the Lord Jesus as a Man in heaven, perfected through sufferings. There was never any need for that to be done in the case of God. This only relates to incarnation.

3. The Formation to a Design and Purpose

The third thing, the BEATEN WORK, speaks to us of formation to a design and purpose, which was the end and the object of the sufferings. God perfected Christ for a purpose, had a design in view. The New Testament shows us quite clearly unto what He was perfected through suffering. He has become the vessel in heaven for the Lord's testimony universally. It is in this Man of heaven, this Man of glory, this Man of perfection, that God eventually is going to display to the universe His own thought, His own intention. It is not only Christ as God, but it is now Christ as Man filled with Divine fulness; a thing which had never been before.

So much for these things as to the Lord Jesus, to Whom they, in the first place, undoubtedly refer. For ourselves for the moment there is the other side. As we said at the beginning, there is a representation in the Holy Place. While for the spiritual there is no veil now but an opened heaven for us all, yet we are not literally in heaven. Though John 17 is so largely, if not entirely, fulfilled in a spiritual way, and that part is certainly true: "I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one" (verse 15), while we are here, we are in a very real sense also in heaven, because there is no veil between. Nevertheless the fact remains that for the time being we are in the world, and there must be a representation of the heavenly things here.

Please do not think that when we speak of a representation we mean types and symbols. We have passed out of that realm. But there is to be an expression here in this world of heavenly things, and the very nature and the means of that expression shows that it is not something of types, and symbols, and forms, and outward matters. It is a spiritual representation.

Jesus, Who is the Faithful and True Witness, now in heaven, has a representation here on the earth in His own; or He desires to have. That is the Lord's purpose. The representation, His vessel, must conform to Himself. If He is the Faithful and True Witness, then all who are His witnesses must be of the same kind as Himself in spiritual and moral nature, and that in these self-same respects, the three things which we have mentioned. Firstly:

That Which is Constituted From Heaven

We shall be growingly convinced that the necessity for this living testimony is the heavenly character of the vessel. It needs, of course, Holy Spirit revelation to make the meaning of that clear, and no one can ever tell others what that means. Often people come and ask questions on this matter of the Church, as to why this is necessary, and why that is necessary. The only answer that can be given is, "If you had the revelation of the thing, you would know, and, until you have it, it is impossible to make it clear to you!" There is a need for all of us to be very much more exercised and concerned before the Lord for an unveiling of the heavenly nature of that which is to be used here for the expression of Christ in glory. That is only saying that there must be utter separation in nature from all that is earthly.