The
way from Gilgal leads to Bethel. From Gilgal alone!
Because Bethel is the house of God. We only get to
the house of God through the Cross.
What
do we mean by the house of God?
The
expression ‘houses of God’ has created much
confusion. It has given rise to the idea of holy
ground, that is, places that are holier than
others. Have you noticed that there is no
comparative for the word ‘holy’? We can
say that someone is prettier in comparison to somebody
else. We cannot say, however, that someone is holier
in comparison to someone else. There are no degrees
of holiness. That which belongs to God is
holy. That which does not fully belong to God is not
holy. Whether we are in reality, as the Word says, "holy
and beloved," depends on whether we belong to
God in reality or not. That is why the church of
Jesus Christ is a holy Temple in the Lord, because
He Himself lives in His Own people, because they are
builded together for an habitation of God through the
Spirit (Eph. 2:21,22). And there is no other
habitation of God. “The Most High dwelleth not in
temples made with hands” (Acts
7:48). God lives in the hearts of those that have
accepted Christ, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
When
we speak of the house of God, we speak of the church of
Jesus Christ, of His holy Temple, nothing earthly, but
something heavenly. The house of God is connected to
heavenly fulness. Those that have become living
stones have come to know this experientially. They
know it on the basis of the love that binds them together
on the basis of the life that fills them all. In
Hebrews 12:22 and 23 we read: “Ye are come
to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven.” That is the church. It is a
heavenly assembly. It is an assembly of those who
have been born again. And as long as she is on this
earth, she is in reality a representative of heavenly
things, through whom the Lord wants to reveal Himself to
the world. If there is to be a practical expression
of the heavenly reality that fills the church, then it is
necessary that all believers come to a living realization
of the unity of all members of the body of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Only together do we arrive at the fulness of
God. The fulness is given to us in as far as we, the
many, are one body. That is why every
division means loss to us and for the time being also
loss to the Lord.
In
the Old Testament no one was allowed to come to the
temple with empty hands. What do we have, we who are
His temple? Nothing else but Himself. Only that
which is of Christ is worthy to be presented, because our
unity is only based on that which is of Christ.
Let
us look at the house of God from different angles.
Firstly from the point of view of fellowship. We
have already spoken about it. Fellowship in Jesus
Christ is what makes the church so wonderful. It is
only through fellowship that the church is
formed. Who could have brought together into one new
man those who are so different according to nationality,
social standing and gender? That which came into
being through the Cross is so wonderful, so unfathomably
great, that all human efforts to create fellowship have
remained poor, bungled attempts. For exactly this
reason the devil tries to destroy this
fellowship. The devil does not want that which
Christ has brought about to become visible. The
devil creates divisions, denominations and even uses the
truth, divided into truths, just so that the unity does
not become visible, and that the power that is in unity
does not become effective.
Instead
of fellowship we could also say love, because this
is the true essence of fellowship. Love is the
practical value of fellowship.
Beside
that there is life. The house of God is the
expression of the life of God. Wherever there is
fellowship in Christ, fellowship of love, there we have a
wonderful fellowship of life, life as an indivisible
life, from which we cannot withdraw ourselves, from which
we cannot separate ourselves without immediately sensing
the powers of death. There is such oneness in this life
that James says: “Is any among you sick? Let
Him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil... and the prayer of
faith shall save him that is sick” (James
5:13-15). Here we see the church. We do not
only see her in the representation of the elders. We
see her in her totality, because if “one member
suffers, all the members suffer with it” (1
Cor. 12:26). The purpose for the members is to have
life. The fulness of life that is in the Head is
available for the members. The Holy Spirit will transmit
it to them. They may come and as members of a body
intervene for one another, acting together, so that the
whole body in wonderful growth becomes an expression of
the fulness, given to our Head for us all.
The
third angle from which we want to look at the House of
God is light. Bethel was the place where
Jacob’s ladder stood. It stood under an open
heaven. This is an indication of revelation, of
light from above. Light that illumines us inwardly,
to see the things of God in the light of God. Therefore
we can say that the house of God is there where God
reveals Himself. Where has God revealed Himself more
gloriously than in the Lord Jesus Christ! While He was on
earth, He was the temple of God. As we are now sent
by Him, we may be His temple, a living temple, full of
the knowledge of God and full of His love.
Let
us state one more time that the way to Bethel starts at
Gilgal. One cannot come to the House of God and that
which is heavenly cannot come into being as long as the
earthly is not put off and all flesh is
judged. However, where this has taken place, the
road leads on to Bethel. It leads us to the House
of God. It leads us to where we have fellowship
in life, in love and in light.