“The great issue in the universe all along has been God dwelling in His creation and sharing His life with His creation," says Jordan. "The tabernacle God gave Israel is a foreshadowing of that. As the verse says, ‘The Lord chose Zion and desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell for I have desired it.’
“His intention is to put His throne in the city of Jerusalem on the hill of Zion; that special place in Jerusalem that was the dearest to David’s heart.
“The tabernacle, built by Moses, is a picture of the first coming of Christ and the temple, built by Solomon, is a picture of the Second Coming of Christ.
“The tabernacle was a temporary structure--made to be moved from place to place—but the temple was a permanent place built in the city of the great king, Jerusalem. Moses is the prophet who builds the tabernacle and it’s the king who builds the temple.
“The temple is the second meeting place; the tabernacle’s the first. The temple was renowned for its glory, majesty and beauty; it was like the city on the hill. People would come and marvel at its majesty.
“The tabernacle was just the opposite. It wasn’t built in the city; it was built for life in the wilderness. Not life in the kingdom reign of glory, but in the wilderness of nomad life. It was humble and unattractive in its outward appearance.
“When you walked up on the tabernacle, what you saw was a funny-looking wall made out of boards and skins and post. It was not outwardly attractive.
“What does Isaiah say about Christ in His first coming? ‘There was no comeliness about him.’ He was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief.
“The tabernacle was a place where God’s majesty dwelt but it was veiled behind the skins of that building. I keep emphasizing that the building was made out of badger skins and goat skins and all kind of skins. Well, where does God put His life? If He puts it in you, where does He put it? He puts it in a body of flesh. That’s the idea back there.
*****
“God
gives Moses the dimensions of the tabernacle. It’s going to be a tent and
there’s going to be an opening and an altar and then there’s a laver to wash. Then
there’s another little building inside, and in that is the table of shewbread
and the altar of incense and the candlestick.
“After
you get saved and have forgiveness of all of your failures and your guilt and
shame for all the things you’ve done, you begin to walk and discover that you
still have stuff inside you that seeks to manipulate you.
"God takes that
righteousness that you have and brings it into your life and how does He do it?
The priest goes in and lights the candle. That’s the light of the Spirit of God
working. The oil that lights up, it shows light on the table. What’s on that
table? That table is the table of shewbread.
“They
had six loaves of bread in one column and six loaves of bread in another. Six
plus six because there’s provision for the whole; every tribe in the nation
Israel. But when you see 66, what have you got? You ever count the number of
books in your Bible?
“Now
how in the world, before Moses ever wrote a book in the Bible, did he know how
to lay out the number of books on the shewbread?! Well, Moses didn’t, but God
did! Amen, amen, amen! This kind of stuff makes me want to turn into a Pentecostal
for a morning.
“The
Word of God is the bread of life. He puts light on there and when the Spirit of
God works in your life through the Word of God, the altar of incense is prayer.
Prayer is like the breath of your new nature. The Word of God is like the food
of your new nature. Prayer is simply talking to God about the light His Word
puts upon the details of life.
*****
“You
and I often forget that the footprint of Adam’s sin resides in us and it
distorts us. We’re born with it. God didn’t make you that way. Sin did. People
excuse their sin, saying, ‘Well, I was born this way!’ Yeah, but it isn’t the
way God intended for you to be born. You’re born that way because of Adam’s sin.
It puts a fingerprint on you.
“That’s
why this whole tabernacle is housed in boards. You remember how many boards there
were? Twenty boards on one side, twenty boards on the other and then another six boards. What’s 20 + 20 + 6? There are 46 boards that make up the structure of
this little tent that hold the linen that make the wall. They’re made of
shittim wood, which is the Hebrew word for what we call acacia wood today. That
is, it’s a thorn bush.
“Thorns
in the Bible are associated with a curse. Genesis 3. God says, ‘I’m going to
make my house inside of some walls made out of a curse.’ Now, the way you hang
those boards up with the sockets and stuff, you’re to have silver sockets.
Silver in the Bible is a picture of redemption. Are you beginning to get the
picture?
“You
know where God lives in you? He lives inside of a house. You’ve got an old sin
nature. That ‘body of sin,’ as Paul calls it. And He lives inside of your body.
“By
the way, the altar and the Ark of the Covenant is also made out of that cursed
tree. The difference is that inside the tabernacle, the shittim wood on the
altar is covered with brass, which is a symbol of judgment in the Bible. God
has judged our sins at the Cross of Christ and put us inside the protective
covering. Your life is hid with Christ in God.
“Then
when you get into where the ‘mercy seat’ is, where the Ark is, that little box
in the most holy place, it’s made of the same shittim wood that that altar is
made out of.
"The altar is covered with brass and the Ark is covered with gold;
a picture of the deity of Christ. Do you know how God sees you? He’s accepted
you in the Beloved. There’s not a precious metal more beloved than gold. But there
you are, covered with Him!
*****
“When
God saw the altar, He didn’t see the shittim wood; He saw brass. When He looked
down from between the cherubim on the ‘mercy seat’ He saw the gold and He also
saw the blood that came off of that altar. And because of that judgment that Jesus
Christ suffered at Calvary for your sins, God can reside, look down and see you
in His Son.
“The
outside walls are made of 46 boards. Because this tabernacle is not simply a
picture of redemption, God’s conquest over sin—actual sin, indwelling sin and
original sin . . . It’s not just a picture of man—our body, our soul and our
spirit—it’s also, literally, a picture of the cellular structure whereby He
made you! Because as you sit here right now, you originally started as one
cell.
“Do
you know we all started as a female? There’s the egg and then it’s fertilized.
When they’re 23 chromosomes from mom and 23 chromosomes from dad joined
together, it creates a cell, a little zygote, that’s you and everything you
are. How you look, all about you, was all in that original cell. We now know it
was all in what we call DNA, and in those 46 bundles of chromosome pairs that
make up you, everything that you are is there.
“David
says in Psalm 139:15, ‘My substance was not hid from
thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of
the earth.’
“That’s
talking about when God made Adam, He made him out of the dust of the earth.
Genesis 2:7 says, [7] And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul.
“He
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Adam BECAME a living soul. David
says in verse 16, ‘Thine eyes did see my
substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.’
“That’s
describing the development that takes place in every person from the time you
are conceived to the time you get to be an adult. There’s a book of DNA written
in every one of us. DNA is literally a book written in the nucleus of your
cell.”
(to
be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment