From Genesis to Revelation

Genesis is the book of beginnings. Revelation is the book of the consummation. And in between we have God's dealings with His people whereby He leads them forward toward this great fulfillment. He is the Alpha and He is the Omega. He changes not. But in His character as Alpha and as Omega His desire is to change His people from what they were in the beginning, to what He has planned they shall become in the end.

We are always slow to adjust, slow to respond to what He is doing, and are inclined to wander away from the pathway. He is always at hand to bring us back and restore us to the original pathway, but never to leave us there to crystallize or to stagnate. We are a people of the Way, as we are called in the book of Acts. It is back to the pathway, but onward to the Celestial City. If we understand this fundamental principle of Restoration, and are prepared to submit to change, we could apply ourselves more readily to the constant and sometimes very distressing changes that He brings about in the structure and administration of His Kingdom. There is therefore a very definite relationship between the former and the latter, but it is a relationship such as exists between the egg and the bird, the seed and the fruit, the worm and the butterfly. In other words, the Divine intent is to be found in the former, but the finished product is always vastly different than the original. The seed of the tomato is like a tomato... but not until there has come about the dissolution and decay of the seed will we discover the growing of the plant and the expression of the fruit. But the potential is there, and God's original intention is there, which is this: that the seed must bear fruit "after its kind." The egg is like the bird--not actually, but potentially. And if the egg does not come forth as a bird, God's intention in the egg has not been realized. So we are like Christ. "As he is, so are we..." And John elaborates, lest we should mistake his meaning, "So are we in this world" (1 Jn. 4:17). We may be far from it now in actual likeness. But this is God's intention, and the potential is now within us! And as we submit to the law of the seed, and the law of the egg, and the law of the cocoon, we shall see--and those about us shall see--the living Christ walking once again in the midst of men, in the corporate Body of Christ in the earth.

We must keep these principles in mind. For if we fail to see what God has in mind in the various temples, and structures, and institutions that we find in the scriptures, His Book will continue to be just that--a history book. And we will never leave the shell of the egg, or emerge from the cocoon, but will remain like Israel of old, "in bondage," with the veil remaining, untaken away, in the reading of the scriptures.

In concluding this chapter on the Tent of David we want to mention just a few characteristics of the City of David, the City of God, with a brief comment on same.