2 posts tagged “tabernacle”

Incredible Patterns of the Bible

One of the most interesting studies in the Bible is looking at the patterns that are developed and then repeated in a variety of symbols. What I would like to do is compare five sets of sevens. The seven days of the creation…the seven pieces of furniture in the tabernacle…the seven feasts of Israel, the seven last words of Christ and the seven dispensational periods of history. Out of these five comparisons, the only ones that might be debated as to the order would be the last words of Christ on the cross. To find all of the seven last phrases that Jesus uttered from the cross on Calvary, one must read all four gospel accounts. The sayings would have been originally uttered by Jesus in His common tongue, the Aramaic, but only one of those last seven phrases is preserved in the original Aramaic, namely; “Eli, Eli, lama Sabacthani” or “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me.” This is also the only of the phrases found in more than one of the gospels (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34) Three other phrases are found in Luke and three more in John. The order that I use is the generally accepted order from all of the gospels and reflected in the writings of the early church fathers. The seven dispensational periods of history are periods of time where God has used a particular theme to show man his need for a redeemer. Each historical period is also generally linked together with one of the predominant biblical events during that period of time. Innocence…Adam and Eve in Eden. Conscience…Cain and Abel. Human Government…. The Tower of Babel. Promise…. Abraham. Law….Moses. Grace….Jesus Christ. And the Millennium…… New Jerusalem.

The First Day of creation “Let there be Light”…and the separation of light from the darkness. This was not an ordinary light illuminated by the sun, moon or stars, which were created on the fourth day. This was God’s presence that entered into the darkness of this new universe. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5) The first piece of furniture in the outer court of the tabernacle was the Brazen Altar. This is where it all begins. The place of sacrifice. A place of separation between evil (darkness) and good (light). The first feast is the Feast of Passover. It too has to do with sacrifice. “For Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” Christ is the light of the world (John 8:12) The Passover candles are lit by a woman because the light of the world would come through the seed of woman not by the seed of man. The first of the last seven phrases recorded by Jesus on the cross was , “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Like the Brazen Altar of old, the altar of the cross was a place of ultimate sacrifice…… forgiveness and grace. This is the dispensation of innocence. The sacrifices on the Altar were not righteous…they were innocent. But Jesus was the perfect righteous lamb.

The Second Day of creation saw the water formed and separated above and below the firmament. The second piece of furniture in the tabernacle is the Laver. The Laver is a large round open polished brass bowl that the priests would use for ceremonial washing of there hands and feet before coming into Gods presence. It was made of mirrors so shiny it reflected the sky…and the priest as he washed.. above and below. It was a place of cleansing of sin. A separating the clean from the unclean. As Christians we see our baptism. Buried with Christ in baptism. The Feast is the second night of Passover…the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The house is searched for leaven (sin) which is swept onto a white cloth and thrown into the fire. This was the evening before 6:00 pm (before the beginning of the Sabbath) when Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathia. “Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”. (John 12:24) Jesus said to the thief, “Today, you shall be with me in paradise”. The repentant thief was washed with the water of the Word. This is the dispensation of conscience. Like the brass mirrors that made up the Laver, we see ourselves as sinners in need of a savior. “Purge out therefore old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us;”

The Third Day of creation saw the creation of the oceans and the land. It also saw the creation of grass and all the vegetation bearing seed. Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rye. The third piece of furniture is the Table of  the Shewbread. Twelve loaves of unleavened wheat bread representing the twelve tribes as well as the 12 disciples. The Table of the Shewbread represents the place where God kneads us, forms us, and makes us into useful creations. It is the place of sanctification. It is a place seen where we are changed from glory to glory. Even as we see sanctification as an instantaneous aspect of our new birth, here we see our progressive sanctification. Here we pick our cross daily and follow Jesus. The third feast is the “Festival of First Fruits.” An offering of barley (the first grain to ripen) is offered to the Lord. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. The stone had been rolled away and Jesus was not there. Like the Passover prayer, “Blessed art thou, Oh Lord, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” Jesus, the Bread of Life, brought forth from the earth. On the cross Jesus said, “Woman, behold your son. Then He said to the disciple, Behold your mother.” Part of that sanctification is that we become responsible members of Gods family. Here Jesus takes care of the last of those earthly responsibilities as the physical son of Mary, making sure she will be cared for as He prepares to leave this world. The third dispensation is that of human government. The Table of Shewbread represents nations as well as us individually. Man felt that human government is the solution to our problems. He is wrong. As Babel was destroyed and the nations scattered….mankind still is trying to prove that his own wisdom and knowledge is enough to heal the human heart and spirit but it is only in the power of His crucifixion and resurrection that mankind will ever find peace.

On the fourth day God created “the lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth”…the sun, the moon and the stars also. The fourth piece of furniture in the tabernacle is the lampstand. The lampstand always stayed lit, except when the moved the tabernacle and then they followed the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of smoke by day. The fourth feast is that of Pentecost…the great harvest festival of Shevous. The name “Pentecost” actually means 50 and referred to the number of days from the Festival of First Fruits (Resurrection Day) and the Great Harvest Festival of Shevous (Pentecost), which was 7 Sabbaths of days (49). Jesus told the disciples, “And behold, I send the promise of the Father upon you; buy tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49) On Pentecost that promise was fulfilled as the Holy Spirit descended upon those in the upper room, “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they all were filled with the Holy Spirit..” (Acts 2:3-4) As Jesus struggled in agony upon the cross He said, “My God, My God, Why hath thou forsaken me?” He said this as the sky gave up its light and it became as night. The Father turned his back on His son and gave Him up unto death as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. This phrase is also the first verse of Psalm 22, which is an incredible description of the crucifixion written over 500 years before crucifixion was even invented by the cruel Romans. The next dispensation was that of Promise. “For the promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off (even), as many as the Lord shall call.” (Acts 2:39)

On the fifth day God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life and fowl (that) fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven”…..whales…fish and every winged fowl after its kind.” The fifth piece of furniture is the Golden Altar of Incense. This Altar was directly before the last veil that entered in the Holy of Holies. The Golden Altar, the Table of the Shewbread and the Lampstand were all in the Holy Place, the second of the three courts of the Tabernacle, which represents the Holy Spirit. The Holy of Holies, a 15 foot cubical room, separated from the Holy Place (15’ x 30’), by a 8” thick curtain, contained the Ark of the Covenant. It was here that God would meet with the High Priest once a year on the Day of Atonement. It was here that God met with Moses in the wilderness. But to get in there they had to offer prayers, petitions and offerings of incense at the Golden Altar. This is where every aspect of the law had to be finished exactly for the High Priest to enter into Gods presence. Like the fowls above the firmament, the prayers and smell of incense went up before God. The fifth feast was the “Feast of Trumpets” or Yom Tervah. Later it would also be called Rosh Hashanah.. the Jewish civil New Year. The Shofars (Rams horn’s) are blown and as we see in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, this is our announcement into heaven. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall ever be with the Lord.” Jesus fifth statement at the cross was “I thirst”. Truly, He must have been thirsty, but not just for physical water, but for this final fulfillment of Gods plan. Thirsty for man to come back into the presence of God again. Thirst for that paradise that was lost to be regained. The fifth dispensation is that of the law. It was here at the Golden Altar where the law was seen insufficient in truly bringing man into a relationship with God as sons and daughters. Only through the altar of the cross was this possible. Not by the law but by grace is man justified.

On the sixth day God created everything other living creature on the earth…including man and woman. The sixth piece of furniture in the Tabernacle is beyond the veil….beyond the thick curtain into the Holy of Holies. It was the Mercy Seat which sits upon the Ark of the Covenant. The Mercy Seat was a solid gold lid with two cherubim’s on top. God told Moses that He would appear between the Cherubim’s to commune with him. There was no light in the Holy of Holies, except that illumination that radiated from Gods presence. The “Shekinah”. The High Priest each year would take the blood of a sacrificed ram, without spot or blemish, into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood upon the Mercy Seat. This was done on the sixth feast of Yom Kippur…..the Day of Atonement. All this was done for man. Not for the angels or any other creature. God loved man so much that prepared a way that man could come back home. Paradise lost could be regained. Jesus would enter into the presence of His father with His own blood, shed on the altar of the cross, and like the High Priest would sprinkle His blood upon the Mercy Seat of heaven. “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” Jesus on the cross said, “It is finished”. His sacrifice was enough. His mission was completed. The sixth dispensation of course….is grace. “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Roman 6:14)

“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.” The last piece of furniture in the Tabernacle is the Ark of the Covenant. It represents the abode of the Father. The veil had been ripped in twain from top to bottom and access was now open to God by man. The feast is the Feast of Tabernacles..or “Succoth”. Sometimes referred to as “booths”, Jewish families would build canopies “Succas” outside and cover them with grapes and fruit. They would celebrate as families together under Gods blessings. It was a place of joy, rest and peace.

The holy of Holies was an exact cube 15 feet by 15 feet, just like New Jerusalem as seen in Revelations 21:16. Jesus last words on the cross were, “Father, into thy hands, I commend my Spirit.” God had left His throne and entered humanity as Jesus, God the Son, in the little town of Bethlehem. Now it was time for Him to take back His mantle of majesty and prepare our new homes in heaven. The last of the dispensations is the Millennium. This is the last 1000 years of human history after the tribulation. It will be a time of peace until the very end when Satan will be allowed to once again temp mankind. God will squeeze the last bit of sin and rebellion from our race…and the rest of eternity we will “Tabernacle” with God. We will enter into His rest. “And God shall wipe away every tear from our eyes.”

The Tabernacle In The Wilderness

Before in the “Mystery of the Trinity”, I showed just a few of the Old Testament inferences of the “Trinity”. Probably the most beautiful and detailed explanations of not just the Trinity but the Deity of Christ .. and every other doctrines of the scriptures…is found in the study of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle, also called “Gods Dwelling Place” and the “Tent of Meeting”, was built to exact specifications given by Moses, under Gods command. It was an exact duplicate of what God had shown Moses on the mount. It is interesting that there are only 2 chapters in the Bible on creation…but 50 chapters on the Tabernacle. Another interesting point is that the symbolism used in the Tabernacle…the numbers of items, the materials, the precious gems and metals, the dimensions, the pieces of furniture, the attire of the priests, the sacrifices…all remain the same throughout the entire holy writ. The physical elements of the Tabernacle only have their meanings in the light of Christ and refer to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the history of the church, the redemption of the believer, the body of Christ and the Kingdom of God. The tabernacle also paints a beautiful picture of the Godhead.

Without going into a lot of detail, the Tabernacle, or the “Tent of Meeting” was made to be able to be taken apart and transported from place to place, as the Hebrew children followed the pillar of fire by night or the cloud by day. The “outer court” was 150 feet long by 75 feet wide and consisted of a linen barrier 7.5 feet high supported by 60 gold covered pillars with brass sockets and silver caps….10 on each width and 20 on each length. The tabernacle was laid out with the length going east to west…and had an opening on the east side, with a white linen material covered entrance, with colors of scarlet, purple and blue in designs of cherubim.

If you were to walk in through the first veil entering the outer court…. in front of you would be seen the “brazen altar”. The bronze square altar with horns on the corners was the place of sacrifice. After the “brazen altar” you would come to the laver. The laver was made of shiny brass, filled with water and was used by the priest for ceremonial washing. West of the laver was a structure, 45 feet long by 15 feet wide and 15 feet high.

The Tabernacle building was made of gold plated wooden walls on both sides and on the rear (western end) of the structure. There was an entrance on the east side made of material hung on five gold plated pillars. The three walls were constructed of wide, thick boards standing on end, having two tenons inserted into heavy silver sockets. The sockets were placed on the ground. The boards were 15 feet long, twenty-seven inches wide and 4.5 inches thick. The inside of the tabernacle building was dived into two areas: the front (eastern room) was the Holy Place and was 15 feet by 30 feet, taking up 2/3 of the structure. Another material curtain separated that area from the Holy of Holies, which was a perfect cube 15 feet in height, length and width.

The tabernacle structure was covered with 4 layers of material: a white linen with hues of scarlet, purple and blue in the designs of Cherubim; next was a tent of black goats hair; next red dyed Rams skins and lastly badger skin.

Back to your journey, you have passed the Laver and now enter through the second curtain into the Holy Place. Thirty feet in front of you is the Golden Altar of Incense (actually directly in front of the last curtain entering into the Holy of Holies). On your right is the Table of the Shewbread and on your left the Lampstand. The Lampstand is the only light in Tabernacle. Behind the last curtain, which is about 6 inches thick, is the Holy of Holies. In the center of the square room is the Ark of the Covenant. The top of the Ark is a removable lid which has two gold cherubim on it, facing each other, kneeling in prayer, which is called the Mercy Seat.

As I said, this is an incredible study, that I truly encourage you to explore. There are a number of good books on the Tabernacle by Henry Soltau, David Levy James Strong and William Brown. If you can find Alexander Ness, Patterns for Living, which has been out of print for many years…you will be blessed.

So here is some facets of this incredible teaching.

There are three courts. The outer court, which is open to the elements of this world. The light, the rain, the heat, the stars, sun and moon. To get in this outer court you must come in through the first entrance. Jesus said “ I am the door”. This is the only way. This court represents God the Son. Jesus laid aside His robe of majesty and girded Himself with the towel of humanity. God became man. The two pieces of furniture are the Brazen Altar..the place of sacrifice (the cross) and the Laver…the place of washing. (Baptism…and being washed by the water of the Word. Jesus is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

The three courts represent, God the Son…God the Spirit…and God the Father. The entrances… the Way, the Truth and the Life. Only ONE Tabernacle …containing three specific partitions.

You enter through the second veil (the truth) into the Holy Place (God the Spirit). The only light is the Lampstand. Remember at Pentecost how the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples as a baptism of fire. The Holy Spirit illuminates us and shows us truth. On the right is the Table of the Shewbread. The 12 loaves of unleavened bread representing not only the 12 tribes of Israel but the 12 disciples. It represents Gods work on each of us to knead us, mold us and bake us in the fire of trials and testing. The Table of Shewbread represents “Sanctification” which is a work of the Holy Spirit within us. In front of us the “Golden Altar of Incense”. The place of prayer, supplication, praise and worship, which is our way of entering into the presence of the Father.

The last curtain (veil) representing the life.. enters us into the Holy of Holies (The Father). The only light here is the presence of God Himself. In Revelations 21:23 John describes New Jerusalem (also a perfect cube like the Holy of Holies) saying, “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” Jesus came before the Father with His own blood, sprinkling it upon the mercy seat of heaven, as a propitiation for the sins of the race of Adam. God said He would meet with Moses between the wings of the Cherubim. And Moses was a type of Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”