Spring 1973
In Disguise

Joseph Nieves

The Tabernacle as a whole is made up of three realms or divisions: first, the OUTER COURT which consists of a curtain of fine twine linen sustained by 60 pillars of brass in sockets of brass. You enter the gate and are inside the OUTER COURT which brings you to the next part of the Tabernacle called the Tabernacle proper. The Tabernacle proper is called the HOLY PLACE. It also has an entrance made up of a veil. Inside the HOLY PLACE, we find the lampstand, the table of showbread and the altar of incense. The HOLY PLACE is a type of a life in the Spirit, a walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit.

Next, the second part of the Tabernacle proper is the HOLY OF HOLIES. Inside here, we find the Ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah Glory, or the manifest presence of God. The Tabernacle proper had four coverings over it. The fist was fine twine linen. The second was made of goats’ hair, speaking to us of Christ our scapegoat being sacrificed for us. The third covering is that of rams’ skin dyed red and speaks to us of the ram of consecration that is brought out in Leviticus 8:22. The fourth and last covering of the Tabernacle proper was made of badger skins, which was a rough and unattractive covering, but was impervious to the dust, rain, wind, sun and all elements. Actually, the only purpose of this covering was to resist the elements in order to protect the interior of the Tabernacle proper. The badger skin speaks of Christ, our covering. The Word of God says in Isaiah 53:1-2—“Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of the dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not.” He hath no form nor comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. To those who are in the OUTER COURT and look at the Tabernacle proper, it only looks like a commonplace covering. It has no attraction to appeal to the natural man. In I Corinthians 2, the Word declares the natural understands not the things of the spirit, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. To the natural eye, there is nothing we desire as we look at the Tabernacle proper. But, to the one hungry of heart and with the discerning eye, he is drawn by the hunger and by that urge of the Spirit into the HOLY PLACE and the HOLY OF HOLIES. For the Tabernacle is not of the outward but of the inward; the gold and the beauty of this inner sanctuary is hidden, is veiled, from the natural eye. The natural man cannot know or understand but it must be perceived by the Spirit.

I believe that because of a hunger in your heart, God begins to draw you and out of that comes this understanding and perception. Several places in the scriptures Jesus appeared to the disciples and to others, but was not recognized or they did not perceive Him. And so it is today: the Lord Jesus is coming in disguise and the natural man is not understanding the things of the Spirit. The scripture says concerning the comeliness of the Lord that there is no beauty in Him that we should desire; in Phil. 2:5-8, the apostle Paul admonishes the Philippian church “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. The Greek brings out that He emptied Himself. He took the form of a slave and was made in the likeness of man.

In John 6:41-42, we find the Jews murmuring against the Lord because He said He was the bread that came down from heaven, but they said to themselves, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? They had a traditional revelation of Jesus; they could only see Jesus as the son of Joseph and Mary, whom they knew. They could not perceive beyond the natural. To many people today, He is just Jesus, the son of Joseph and Mary.

In John 7, we find the feast of Tabernacles at hand and Jesus’ disciples and brethren going up to the feast and they inquired concerning Jesus’ going to the feast. They desired that He manifest works that they might see and believe. They said there is no man that doeth anything in secret and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, show thyself to the world. In other words, those in His day desired that He would show Himself openly.

The disciples went to the feast but Jesus went not up. Later in verse 10, Jesus also went up but not openly, but as it were, in secret. This is part of “coming in disguise,” part of the badger skin. Later in verse 14, Jesus went in the midst of the feast up to the temple and taught; revealing Himself, manifesting Himself. In John 21:1-6, Jesus reveals Himself to His disciples as He stood on the shores of Galilee, but they didn’t recognize Him.

In Luke 24:13-33, there were two disciples on the road to Emmaus after the death of Jesus and He joined Himself to them but their eyes were holden and they did not know Him. They conversed and were sad, and then Jesus beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded to them the scriptures concerning Himself. They drew nigh to the village and He made as though He would go on but they CONSTRAINED Him saying abide with us. He went in with them and as they sat at meat, He took bread, blessed and broke it and gave to them and their eyes were opened and they knew Him.

So it is today, that the Lord Jesus Christ comes to us in disguise. But it’s in the breaking of the bread, that time of communion that we can know Him. That time when He would make as though He would go on further, and those who hunger for Him, desire Him, will constrain Him, that He will come and abide and their eyes are opened to behold more of Him. Praise His wonderful name.

John declares in John 1:26, “There stands one among you whom you know not.” Many are the times Jesus is standing among us and we know Him not. We ask Him to manifest Himself, for a revelation of Himself, and we ask Him to give us a ministry and to use us, but He often comes in a form that is not recognizable to us, in disguise. He often comes in disguise to see whether or not we mean business, whether we are sensitive enough to discern Him and to know Him. There stands one in your midst whom ye know not. Many of God’s people are unaware of and insensitive to His presence and to the knowledge of His person because they lack the relationship and communion with Him. I believe this is the desire of the heart of God today—to have a people who will get to know Him, who will fellowship with Him, have communion with Him by spending time in His presence.