Holy cow! (the Leviticus study gives some new insight into the meaning of that phrase now doesn’t it!) What an amazing God we have, that He has fought so long and hard to establish communication -communion- with us. Thank you Jesus that you never stopped trying to clear the way home for us.
This week we are going to learn some details of the first earthly tabernacle, the actual tent itself. Remember this letter is written w Jewish Christians in mind. Think a minute about the thousands of years between the desert Tabernacle and the establishing of the Levitical priesthood, and the coming of Christ. We complain when we change the service times, imagine how hard it would be to rethink thousands of years of worship traditions, the foundation of how you learned to worship God and change everything. It makes it easier to see how the Apostle Paul* found the movement Jesus started an ungodly threat to the temple traditions. It absolutely was a threat, but not ungodly. Two thousand years this side of the cross we know it was not a threat but the actual fulfillment of the promise that God made to Israel, it just looked so different than was expected. How true for me and what God tries to teach me, He is so faithful yet so often outcomes are so unexpected.
*a very cool note by Paul about his spiritual turn around from the Message;
1Timothy 1.12-14 I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were invective and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing—didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.
Heb.9.1-28.ESV Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.
Feel free to look back at the review of Exodus 24-30 if you like to refresh yourself on the original statements God made to Moses about these furnishing. Look at a picture or 2 to have a mental image of the heavenly furniture God chose to have Israel replicate for the earthly Tabernacle.
PS notice where the Golden Calf episode falls in relationship to God giving all these details to Moses….hint chapter 32….their faithfulness did not last long…..:(....does yours?
Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.(in other words, this would be a bunny trial the author does not want to take, the author was as human as you and me… :) )
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age).
The first section of the holy place was still standing until the day Jesus died on the cross and the curtain was torn, from the top to the bottom,( Matthew 27:51) giving us direct access to the Holy of Holies, thank you Jesus.The temple itself stood until 70AD when it was finally destroyed and the system of sacrifice ended.
According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Take a moment to visualize what it might have looked like; after His death on the cross, Jesus literally walking into the Holy of Holies, the Great High Priest before the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat and seeing the glory of God the Father. I dont know if that is exactly how it happened. But what an amazing visual. The Son beholding the Father, the Father beholding the Son…...communion restored.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Remember a will is not in effect until the subject of the last will and testament is dead, death was a necessary part of the formula.
For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
Remember the covenants God made w Abraham, Gen15 and Gen 17...both bloody...
For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Remember these are shadows to the heavenly things, the tent, the furniture and even the sacrifices.
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Lest we think this new covenant is easy remember what it cost Christ to make this one sacrifice. Leaving heaven, becoming flesh and blood, normal everyday bumps and bruises of life to His heart and soul and knees and toes. Forty days and nights of temptation in the desert. Three years camping with 12 men and their entourage. The brilliance and the disappointments of His friends. And then the Garden of Gethsemane. And then the trial and the beatings, then the cross, then death, and hell. Separation from His Father getting greater and greater until He became forsaken. This is one great priest and one enormous sacrifice.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Again we see a section of comparisons. Take time to notice some of these, ponder them. What did you learn? About Jesus, the Old covenant, sacrifices?
It is appointed for man to die once and face judgement. Are you at peace with your High Priest? Is your temple ready? Judgement is not frightening if we are…..1 John 4:18….
God loves you and His love is perfect so we can have no fear…. love h
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