Life-Study of Exodus

Life-study of the Bible #2

by Witness Lee

In the Lord’s recovery during the past five hundred years the church’s knowledge of the Lord and His truth has been continually progressing. This monumental and classical work by Brother Witness Lee builds upon and is a further development of all that the Lord has revealed to His church in the past centuries. It is filled with the revelation concerning the processed Triune God, the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the experience of life, and the definition and practice of the church. In this set Brother Lee has kept three basic principles that should rule and govern every believer in their interpretation, development, and expounding of the truths contained in the Scriptures. The first principle is that of the Triune God dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people; the second principle is that we should interpret, develop, and expound the truths contained in the Bible with Christ for the church; and the third governing principle is Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. No other study or exposition of the New Testament conveys the life nourishment or ushers the reader into the divine revelation of God’s holy Word according to His New Testament economy as this one does.

1957 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

Witness Lee (李常受, pinyin Lǐ Chángshòu) was a Chinese Christian preacher associated with the Local Churches movement and the founder of Living Stream Ministry. He was born in the city of Yantai, Shandong Province, China, in 1905, to a Southern Baptist family. He became a Christian in 1925 after hearing the preaching of Peace Wang and later became a close coworker of Watchman Nee. Witness Lee moved to Taiwan in 1949 as the Communists were advancing in mainland China. During the 1950s, his ministry extended throughout Southeast Asia and in 1962 Lee moved to the United States, relocating the base of his ministry to Southern California. He gave his last public conference in February 1997 at the age of 91. Many of Lee's spoken messages have been published in over 400 books and translated into more than fourteen different languages. Lee's major work is Life-study of the Bible, comprising over 25,000 pages of commentary on every book of the Bible from the perspective of the believers' enjoyment and experience of God's divine life in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Lee was also the chief editor of a new translation of the Bible entitled the Recovery Version.

Reviews

[Reese Walling · Rating 5 out of 5]

"For the things that were written previously were written for our instruction" (Rm. 15:4a). "Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our admonition" (1 Cor. 10:11a).

According to the principal or hermeneutic laid out in the New Testament for interpreting the Old, Witness Lee dives in to the spiritual depths of the second book of the Pentateuch in this life-study, unfolding incredible spiritual principles hidden beneath the black-and-white.

The book of Exodus gives us a full portrait of the spiritual experiences of God's people. We were once enslaved by Pharaoh (Satan) in Egypt (the world). But God came in and rescued us by the prevailing blood of the passover lamb (Christ). We then escaped Egypt through the Red Sea (baptism) and began living a new life under the heavenly diet of manna (Christ as our spiritual food) and water from a cleft rock (the Spirit as our spiritual drink). God eventually led us to His mountain where we could receive His commandments and begin to walk in His ways. However, these laws weren't meant to be followed and lived out by ourselves, rather we needed to be infused, like Moses, with the Law-giver that we may begin to reflect Him (c.f. 2 Cor. 3).

The ultimate goal of God, however, wasn't just to gain a bunch of individual, spiritual Hebrews. He desired a corporate dwelling place on the earth! Half of the book of Exodus describes this wonderful tabernacle of God, and over half of this life-study unpacks all the various spiritual mysteries hidden in the items of furniture.

Anyone wanting to understand the significances (and relevance for Christians today) of things like the compound ointment, incense, priestly garments, pillars, curtains, and all the other items have to read this series. Exodus has become a new book to me.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

After almost a year I finally finished reading the wonderful life study of Exodus. During the journey, I was impressed again and again by not only all the typologies revealed and explained, but also how practical they are still to our today's Christian life. One thing that I found truly profound was the two "beginnings" in the book of Exodus. The first beginning was with the Passover in chapter 12, which typifies the salvation of the children of Israel from the Egyptians. The second beginning was recorded in chapter 40, which is the erection of the tabernacle, the beginning with God’s dwelling place. These two beginnings are just what we experience today. Through the experience of the Passover, we have God’s judgment to pass over us, which has been experienced by every genuine Christian when they are saved. Nevertheless, what is more urgent for us to realize is the significance of the second beginning, the building of God’s dwelling place. Today, God’s dwelling place is the church, and the erection of the tabernacle is the building up of the church. We say that the book of Exodus is a glorious book because at the end of it we see a tabernacle occupied by God and possessed by Him in the way of glory to express Him. Praise the Lord that today we can build up His Body to contain and express Him in His glory!!

[Randall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rivers of living water

Life flows in the Spirit as you read this life study on the book of Ephesians. It is enlightening and watering. Praise the Lord!