BibleStudy – Page 4 – Effects of Anxiety

The Burnt Offering and Christ’s Acceptance of Us – The Tabernacle through the Eyes of Christ #12

You have a lot of people who erroneously make this statement, “I accepted Christ.” Hmm? Haven't you heard that? I have said many times, you didn't accept Him. You may think you've accepted Him, but He accepted you when He went to the cross and died for you, and you were not yet, but your name was spoken before the foundations of the earth. He accepted you. You have a choice to accept or reject, this is true, but He accepted you. The offering, first and foremost represents Christ's acceptance of us. ♪ ♪ We have been looking at shadows and types in the tabernacle that point to the work and ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We saw how God delivered a people out of Egypt's bondage, gave them instructions while they were in Egypt when they came out and continuously along the way. But I'd ask you to take notice of something.

Big difference between the instructions given to the individuals living in Egypt where God basically said to the; for the household to apply the blood on the doorpost and the lintels and then in doing so when the avenging angel or the death angel saw the blood, it would pass over. Big difference between that, which was basically something done for the entire body of people, family or servants living under the roof versus the children of Israel being brought out, out of Egypt and learning how to have fellowship and communion with God in a place of worship.

And so, the first one is pure deliverance, just straight deliverance, there's no strings attached except for applying the blood, nothing else. But the second, leading them out, a lifestyle of devotion and worship. Now we, that's kind of like a bird's eye view of looking at the story in two parts. But think of it this way, this is kind of where the modern church has derailed.

The modern church focuses on the outreach of delivering people, right? “Gotta get people saved, gotta go out and witness to them,” right? All that stuff. But fail to do the second part, which just like God did, there's the pattern right there. People are delivered out of Egypt's bondage. They probably knew that they were slaves under harsh labor but didn't know what it all entailed. Now they get out and they're delivered and they must learn to worship, to practice God's ways. Well, that's the church's problem. We're seemingly experts at going out and trying to “seek and save the lost,” even though that's God's job.

But not so expert in educating, showing people, teaching them that second part, the relationship part. It's not enough to say, let's go and preach the word. It's teaching people how to make the application, how to have the relationship, just like the children of Israel. And that started with God laying out first and foremost what He would prescribe for the children of Israel. And then eventually this would be a, we'll call it a universal application, the Ten Commandments, for example. And then after that there's a whole litany of things that God prescribes. The book of Leviticus starts the laws of offerings, which we're going to be looking at. And this is why it's crucially important not just to look at the tabernacle and how everything in the tabernacle functions, how it relates to Christ, but also understanding the offerings, because if the offerings are properly understood, again it gives a fuller perspective. You know, I can tell you about the altar, the brazen altar, and what would be offered on the altar.

But failure to tell you about what and how and why kind of leaves you with the mechanics without the, the heart or the guts. So that's what we're going to look at. And here the laws of offering kind of come with three parts to them: the offering, the offeror, and the priest. And I will show you how many times in each case of these three things I just said, Christ is in there somewhere in some capacity or fulfilling all of them: offering, offeror, and priest. The book of Hebrews says something regarding Christ, “A body hast thou prepared me as an offering,” His offering, the ultimate offering. So in the context of that, that He might obviously offer Himself up to reconcile us to God. And this is where it gets a little weird because we know without it being specified, it's not spelled out in black and white terms, but just think about it. Only the high priest, for example, could take the blood into the holy of holies and sprinkle the blood there; only the high priest alone.

So when, twenty years ago when I wrote that, what I called it “a little diddly,” Lamb of God, it didn't have necessarily a theological wondrous background. But in that song that I penned, I said that Jesus took His blood to heaven to cleanse an angel's band. Now the principle there may be a little bit caricatured, but the idea is there. Just like the priest only, the high priest alone being able to bring the blood and sprinkle it in the holy of holies, only Christ could bring His blood. And if you think about it, the people who passed away in the Old Testament sense, when it says He went and He ministered, they were awaiting the promise but died before it. That's what the book of Hebrews talks about.

So at some point in some theological way, He had to have taken either by Himself or by the act of Him laying down His life that His blood did cleanse those who were, who were already passed and those who were still considered unclean, not yet washed in the blood. So there's kind of all these interesting things. I didn't, by the way, I didn't have that great theological mindset, but it made sense to me when I was putting the words down, which I know now, looking back, I was just the hand in the pen for God to say, “Okay, write this down”" And I, I'm saying that because I cannot take credit for something that just, it flowed out of me, not of my imagination, but obviously of God kind of directing.

And that is the same mindset in the offerings. Now we see Christ as innocent, without spot or blemish, a sweet savor to God, while He carries the sin that was laid upon Him, bearing it, dying for it. So the offerings laid out in Leviticus, you've got the burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, sin, and then trespass. And there are a few oddities along the way, but when God laid this out, it's very interesting that He started with the burnt offering, and obviously ends with sin and trespass. That's how God started. When we come to God, we can't even; we can't even understand what the burnt offering is. I'll explain in a minute. We come, when we're ready to approach God, we come by way of the sin and trespass, like guilty conscience, “How do I make this right? How do I fix the problem?” Not “How do I worship?” or “How do I submit?” So we do things in the reverse. God sets it up that way, just like I showed you with the tabernacle.

You've got to come through the door, and what was obviously should have been first in the instructions for us would have been build the structure, make the door, but God started first with Ark of the Covenant where His presence would be. So it's always, if you read the Bible properly, God is usually starting with Himself or His ways or His thoughts and then gets to us.

So it's important to study it in that way as well. So before I get to discussing the burnt offering, and if you want to turn your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, the word “offering,” first of all, if we look at the etymological side of the word offering from Old English, “the presenting of something to the deity.” If you look this up in an etymological dictionary, offering, the word “offering” is right beside it. It says, “the presenting of something to the deity; a thing presented,” from the verb offre, “to present in worship,” from ob, the prefix o, b, which is “in the direction of or to,” and ferre, not “fairy,” but ferre, “to bring or to carry,” from the root b, h, e, r, “to carry or bear children.” Actually that word, b, e; b, h, e, r, “to carry or bear children,” brought about the word bern in, I believe in Scottish or in Irish.

I just, that just came to my mind as I'm looking at this, “to bring forth a child or a baby.” The idea expressed in the Hebrew when we get to a concept of “offering” is the word qorbân, a “presentation” or a “gift.” The word that we're going to encounter over and over again, qorbân, has several different tentacles to it, but attached to it is for the burnt offering, the word, the Hebrew word 'ôlâh, “to ascend.” The Septuagint renders 'ôlâh, which is being rendered “burnt offering.” The Septuagint renders it olakautoma, where we actually get our word for “holocaust: to ascend up,” all right? So these qorbân would be brought to God's dwelling place, the tabernacle either delivered to the door, at the door, not entering in, but at the door, or in the court to become appropriated or consumed by and in the service to God.

Three classes of qorbânim, and I put the -im at the end because that makes it plural. One, of dedication for the sanctuary of God, better called the “gifts of dedication.” Two, for the maintenance of the servants of God, which would include firstfruits, tithes, and firstborn. Three, for God Himself, or what is referred to as the “altar sacrifices,” where everything presented is completely consumed to or used for God, and this last class, some of these are even called “most holy offerings.” So there's kind of this class inside, and then there's going to be a breakdown of different classes inside the burnt offering. The law of burnt offering, or 'ôlâh qorbân, defined as wholly consumed to God upward, and in contrast to other offerings, was a sweet saver offered for acceptance. And I'm going to have to explain this by reading the text to show you what I'm talking about.

So we'll read the text in a minute. So in this way, the burnt offering is different than the sin offering. It was also, the burnt offering required a life, so it's different than the meat offering. And then, of course, there are offerings. For example, the burnt offering was a sweet saver offering, as I just said, like the meat or peace offerings belonging to a class offered on the brazen altar, where here, we are not talking, for the burnt offering, sin is not the theme. And there is an extreme amount of confusion. If you read commentaries, there are a lot of people confused about this. The burnt offering is not an offering for sin, and I'll explain why in a minute. The sin and trespass offerings were consumed not on the altar, but usually on the ground, right outside the door. And there there's a big difference there. And we'll detail these as we go through them one by one, because I think there's a lot of homogenized ideas that just, we just kind of mix it together and “Oh, it's offerings,” right? Some of these would be portions designated for the priest to eat, for example, but in some cases, the blood would have to be taken, and that blood would be taken by the priest and sprinkled.

Now, in the burnt offering, Jesus is the fulfillment in that He wholly and completely offered Himself for us. But as I said, not as the sin or trespass offering, that comes later, but as completely accepted and pleasing to God. So some of the characteristics of this offering: perfect, voluntary; when I say “vicarious,” be careful, it's not vicarious as in a substitution. I'll explain. Slain by the offeror, blood sprinkled, and wholly consumed, except for usually the skin that sometimes would be held back. And there are, it seems like God wasted nothing here. Now, In Leviticus, we are given the instructions, the how, but we're actually not told why. Think about that for a minute. Okay? Why sin and trespass, that makes sense, right? That's obvious, I hope. Yeah? Okay. But this offering, it doesn't give a why.

It doesn't say why. Now, if you read carefully, and I'm going to read this right now, and I'll probably reread it again because we have to go to Genesis in a minute, so because I asked you to turn to Leviticus, I'm going to read Leviticus. “And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, you shall bring your offering of cattle, even of herd, and of flock.” And I want you to notice something.

Unlike the prescribed requirement in Egypt to apply the blood, which was considered a corporate application for your family, here this particular offering becomes singular. “Let him, let him, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him.” Now, I want you to focus in on that “it shall be accepted for him.” And the rest of that sense is to make an atonement for him, but do not be confused that “atonement,” the word, the Hebrew word there, Strong's 3722 is kapporeth, but do not make the mistake of thinking that this instruction as you're reading it in English means atonement the same way as sin and trespass, and I'll explain why in a minute.

So just kind of note to self, keep that there, but the more important words is, “it shall be accepted for him.” Okay, now, why am I saying this to you? Because burnt offerings occur, the first place we find them is in Genesis 8. So after God tells Noah to build the ark and tells him that He's going to basically flood the earth. So after the waters abate, Noah emerges. And it's very interesting because it's not as though God said, “Noah, I want you to follow these instructions. Noah, I prescribe or I mandate.” Listen carefully, I'll read it to you. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to, but it says, “Noah went forth,” that would be Genesis 8:18.

I'll read it to you, “Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: every beast, every creeping thing, every fowl, whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, and after their kinds went forth out of the ark. And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD.” I don't read anywhere where God's voice is recorded saying, “Noah build Me an altar so you can sacrifice.” It doesn't say that. So whether God spoke to him or whether this was what we would carry out in the New Testament mindset of an act of God's Spirit leading, but it says, Noah took, “Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; took of every clean beast, of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” Now take a look at something because I, those of you who read Hebrew that I've taught, I highlighted this in my Hebrew Bible so you can see here. So he sacrificed, and you can even see in the word sacrifice, ve-yal, “and he sacrificed,” and here we have 'ôlâh, “burnt offerings.” So it's right there. You can't miss it just in case somebody says, “Well, the English isn't translated properly.” It's there.

So here, this one is unsolicited. God didn't say, “Do this.” We don't have a record. Maybe God did, but we don't have a record of that. We only have a record of Noah coming out of the ark with his wife and his children, and offering of “every clean beast, every clean fowl, offering burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite, any more, every thing living as I have done.” Now, what's interesting here, and I want you to think about this, the burnt offering here cannot be an offering for sin. It cannot. Why? First of all, there was no law yet, so the definition as we understand it had not yet been given. No, we saw the act, for example, of brother against brother, Cain and Abel, killing his brother. But again, there was no law yet given that said, “Thou shall not kill.” So all we have are acts of individuals, which for certain we know there had to be some type of a moral compass, because even in the act of brother killing brother, we have a reaction.

We have a conversation between the individual and God. But here, something very unique, which is God has already smote the earth with water. So if there was an idea that man was evil, that verse I just read 21 says, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.” That expression has to encapsulate the mindset that God knew evil had not been eradicated. Why? Because we're going to see it in the offspring of Noah, and we're also going to see it in Noah himself, so the idea here has more to do if you listen to God's words, He says, “I will not again curse the ground any more.” There's almost a covenant concept behind the burnt offering. I'm not saying it is covenantal in its entirety, but there's this, “I will not again,” almost like an a promise or an oath from God, and then, the last part of that chapter says, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold, heat, summer, winter, and day and night shall not cease.” So, and then it goes on to God will then give a covenant of the rainbow.

But it cannot be a sacrifice that Noah made for sin, and I'm going to explain to you why. And the best way to show this to you is to have you turn to Genesis 22, because when you see the background of the burnt offering, it makes a lot of sense. Otherwise, how can we properly understand this offering if we just simply read the text I read to you that says, “Accepted and shall essentially be an atonement for him,” and it's automatically assumed that if this is wholly consumed to God, something wholly offered to God, that somehow because the word “atonement” appears, it has to be in balance with sin, but it is not. So, let me show you again. Genesis 22, “It came to pass after these things,” you know the story really well. God speaks to; He tempts Abraham and says unto him, basically, “Take your son, your only begotten son, son of promise, not the son of flesh,” so Isaac, “go into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon the mountains of which I will tell thee of.” So, just so you can see it with your own eyes.

If you can recognize the ayin, lamed, chet, those are your words for 'ôlâh, “burnt offerings.” So, God says, “Take your only begotten son and offer him as a burnt offering, wholly consumed up to God,” right? And you know the rest of the story. The rest of the story basically is they're going up the mount. They tell, or Abraham tells, the servants, “Wait here, we'll be back.” They go up the mount. Everything's all ready, and then, of course, when God saw what was in Abraham's heart, that he would have carried out the act of sacrificing the son of promise, Isaac, the angel basically calls to him, his hand is stayed. He turns around, there's a ram caught in the thicket, and God provided another offering in place of Isaac.

Now, again, this could not have been a sin offering. So, you have a problem if you're going to read the opening passages of Leviticus and read “accepted” and “atonement for,” and I'm going to show you why when you look at the sin offering. There you have something coupled. You may have a burnt offering coupled with a sin offering because there are, there are different dimensions of the offerings, but the burnt offering itself can only be again once more; watch what happens, as he, “Abraham lifted his eyes, looked and behold him, there was a ram caught in the thicket,” that's verse 13 of the twenty-second chapter, “Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. He called the place Jehovah-jireh: in the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,” and again, if you can't see it, there's a kind of covenant concept going on here, “and said, By myself I have sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, in multiplying I will multiply thy seed.” There's, there's a covenant given here that will be fully understood as you go through the record to show that the seed of Isaac would produce the seed of Jacob that would lead to Christ.

So you can never think of the burnt offering, regardless of how the wording is in the opening chapters of Leviticus, just by using these two examples alone, that somehow this is a sin offering. But if you're still not convinced, I want you to look at something else. If you turn to Exodus 10; at least we're going in the right direction. This is Moses speaking to Pharaoh. “And Moses said,” Exodus 10 verse 25, “And Moses said, Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God.

Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not be a hoof left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God.” So you can see right there, it's not that we must go and sacrifice these animals as burnt offerings as an offering for sin. Again, the law had not yet been given; an understanding of God's intent or prescription had not yet been understood. And even after the giving of such, I don't think it was understood. You have one more incident, again, there's no concept of something being offered for sin in this passage. Simply Moses is petitioning Pharaoh. Then you have in Exodus 18, you have Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. Take a look, “Jethro, Moses' father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father in law before God.” If you read this whole section, there is no mention here somebody sinned or something happened. So this was the way things worked. And then, of course, as I said, you can see there is a pattern.

So, I think I've shown you enough here. So let, let's go back to Leviticus for a second, Now the intriguing part, as I said, is this offering becomes personal. The offeror offers his offering to the priest, and the priest basically, the involvement of the priest for this particular offering except for one category of it. If you brought of the herd a bullock, of lamb, or goat, the offeror would actually have to slay the animal, and the priest would take the blood. The only exception is the turtledove. That was basically done by the priest probably because it was so small, and to spare the blood, all right. But if you keep reading this, there were appointed times for the burnt offering what would be made every day, morning and evening: every day. That's a lot of burnt offerings. An additional burnt offering was to be offered each Sabbath day, the beginning of each month, at the celebration of Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month with the new grain offering and the feast of weeks, at the feast of trumpets, on a sacred day in the seventh month, and for the celebration of the new moon.

Many times, here's kind of this attaches to what I was saying, the burnt offering many times was done in conjunction with either sin or trespass offering. The offerings offered in Leviticus 5; so let's look there, 5, so for example, this particular section, “He shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin,” that's verse 6, “which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.” So God's really specific when it says “atonement,” specifically for sin, but there would be a burnt offering offered alongside this particular offering. It's not abundantly clear in the English, but reading in the Hebrew makes it crystal clear. Then you've got an accompaniment also with the sin offering, the freewill offering, the sheaf offering, and the new grain offering. They all could be combined, so you could offer an offering of one and offer a burnt offering in conjunction with that.

The burnt offering was also required for certain times, such as, for example, the cleansing of a leper, the healing of a leper, if a man had an issue of discharge from his body, or if a woman had just had a child, the burnt offering would be offered. Also, the Nazarite, who unintentionally made himself ceremonially unclean by coming in contact or touching a deceased person, or when a member of the camp, this is the kicker, when a member of the camp would unknowingly break one of the prescribed laws of God, they'd have to offer a burnt offering for the entire camp. So there's exceptions, there's all this minute detail, but it cannot be, again, I'm going to repeat this, even though I've just given you details that seem rather interesting.

Some of them are for people who were unclean, but they're done in conjunction with other offerings, they're not burnt offerings alone, and that must be understood. Burnt offering would also be required for the consecration of Aaron, the high priest, as well as those in the Levitical line. Remember, we separated out all the different priests and all their different functions.

The Levites would have to have a burnt offering for consecration as well. All right, three types of offerings in this class; from the herd of bulls, the offering from the flock, an offering of birds. Now, this is what I love. God provided a way for every person amongst the children of Israel to participate. Now, if that doesn't tell you God's insight to see that we don't all have the same blessings, we don't all have the same allotment in life, so think about how valuable, for example, the bullock would have been, because we're not talking about an old animal or a maim or lame animal. We're talking about what would have been considered the best, the youngest without blemish, without flaw, the strongest, the one that you'd probably want to keep for yourself, right? It goes like that.

So, what I love about this is even in the class category, for the bullock, for example, symbolic of strength, laboring endurance, or if you were going to go from the flock, the lamb, and it's innocence and its willingness to submit, kind of, again, all of these can be tied into the gospel, animals that are analogous to each Gospel record, or we could put them as symbolism. So, the ox, or the bullock, rather, as a symbol of strength; the lamb, the willingness to submit, if you will; the turtledove, harmless paradox of the lowliness of Christ, and another paradox, which is the lowliness of a turtledove that's able to be humble and low, but also take to the sky. So, there's all these different pictures in there, but within these offerings, again, you've got these specific class categories, and I always think to myself, interesting, right? You would, if you had it, you would have to offer up your best bullock, for example, right? But a turtledove, let's just say you had no possessions, you could easily, I'm sure not so easily, but you could, you could get a turtledove.

You could find one. There's probably an abundance of them. So, God's saying, “There's no excuse for anyone to not be able to participate in what I've prescribed,” It tells you right here, God is saying, “I don't care what walk of life you come from. I don't care what little or what much you have. Everybody who comes into My realm will learn to worship My way, which means you don't come into My presence empty-handed.” God made provisions for every walk of life, and expected by the way, with no exception.

So, when people say, “But I don't have,” or “I can't participate,” or “You don't know,” yeah, I do actually, and I realize that it's, that's like saying, “You know, I'm going to make, I'm going to give you an excuse that I can't,” and the same people who make those excuses are the very people who will argue down to the last moment of their breath about how giving in any way, shape, or form is legalism and the law. So again, I'll just say this for those who are stout-hearted, if you call yourself a Christian, that means you are a follower of Christ, a little Christ, likened to Him, He lives in you or His Spirit lives in you, and He was the greatest Giver of all times, and He's not asking you to go and die on a cross. But if you think about it, Paul said it; we are to present ourselves a living sacrifice.

And the key words in that verse in Romans 12 are “wholly acceptable,” which ties right back into what this, actually, this offering means. Bear with me, because there's a lot of little minutia here to go through. So, let me recap before I go forward. If you remember, in Genesis 8, there were no instructions, not that we know of, not that we have. Noah builds an altar, he offers burnt offerings, there is no mention of sin, and God, for all intense purposes, has dealt with the sin by flooding the earth. That's not really true, but it was caused by the evil that was in man's heart. Genesis 22 is a completely different concept, “Take your son,” the key words in that passage, God was wanting to see, “tempt,” what was in Abraham's heart. Would he carry through? And both of those references have some, as I said, a form of some type of promise or covenant, “I will not again flood the earth.

Here, a ram is presented for you to offer in place of your son, now that I know that you will obey me. And in his seed of this child that you were supposed to offer up, but I provided another sacrifice, in his seed the whole earth will be blessed.” So, you can never look at this and think, offering for sin. Now, remember what I said to you, the key words in the verse 4, “it shall be accepted for him.” And when you're reading that, don't think “it shall be accepted for him to make an atonement for him,” and think immediately “sin.” Think about it this way, and I'll just say it, and then I can keep going.

Think of the burnt offering as God's offering of acceptance, something that was pleasing to God, something that was laid down completely, and in the eyes of the offeror, knowing it would be completely consumed for God. Now, you tell me when you get to the sin offering, and you read about the sin offering or the trespass offering, how they cannot be the same thing. So, it's difficult, but let me say it this way. You have a lot of people who erroneously make this statement, “I accepted Christ.” Hmm? Haven't you heard that? I have said many times, you didn't accept Him. You may think you've accepted Him, but He accepted you when He went to the cross and died for you, and you were not yet, but your name was spoken before the foundations of the earth. He accepted you. You have a choice to accept or reject, this is true, but He accepted you. The offering first and foremost represents Christ's acceptance of us, and you've got to read it that way and see it that way.

Then there's some interesting details in here, but the main thing I want to, I want to show you is this. In the case of the burnt offering that is attached to the sin offering, it's always in conjunction with forgiveness. So, if you went back and you read, let's see if we can find an example for you. I think I read one of them. Yes, “Make an atonement concerning his sin,” and then if you read on it'll say somewhere over and over again, “and it shall be forgiven,” “And the priest shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin, that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him.” So, that's Leviticus 5 and verse 13, and that is within the sin offering, sin and trespass offering. So, what I'm trying to say to you is that sometimes you'd have two offerings done, because remember the burnt offering is morning and evening, and then in conjunction with these other offerings. It doesn't necessarily spell out, but you'd have the offering that was prescribed for sin and trespass. You'd also have the additional burnt offering, or it could be offered alongside in conjunction with.

That's probably a better way to say it. Unlike the offering of meat or meal offering, as some refer to it, frankincense or grain or corn were offered here; for the burnt offering, a life. And again, if you start reading carefully, it says that the offeror shall bring it of his own will voluntarily. So again, remember I said offeror, offering, and priest. So here, when it's speaking of this concept willfully or voluntarily, unlike sin and trespass, where you had to, it was required of you. Here, this is a voluntary offering, wholly consumed, and then of course we can see these concepts appropriated in the New Testament in a diversity of ways, and I'll explain, because sometimes we just, we, we get caught up in one vision, which is “You are to present yourself a living sacrifice; that must be the burnt offering,” but how about, think of it from the inside.

You remember in Matthew 22, Jesus is asked, “Which is the greatest of the commandments?” And He says, “The first one is summed up like this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and basically greatest commandment. The other one is to love your neighbor.” If you think about it, heart, soul, mind, the complete entity of the individual is consumed with God, and there you can make the connection between what is wholly offered to God must have the insides filled with the concepts of God, in order to present oneself. This is why I'd say this, this is why there are so many, I'm nobody's judge, okay, but this is why there are so many impotent Christians. I just want you to stop and think about this. It's like having the best sports car in the world and having no gas in it. You're going to go nowhere, unless you carve out the bottom and do Fred Flintstone, okay? You're going nowhere. Same thing, unless you are filled, that can let the person present themselves and serve God completely.

That doesn't mean that your mind, by the way, is 24 hours a day always consumed with God. It just means; I've used the example of a teabag, being steeped in the word of God. Well, that infusion that takes place, if a person is infused with that word they are essentially wholly committed, consumed to God by His word. So you get, you get the imagery of burnt offering in different ways.

Most people think it's just, I present myself, but you cannot present yourself, as Paul said in Romans 12, without being inside, the inside has to be representative of what the outside is doing. And I think that's one of the bigger disconnects that I have seen within the body of Christ. This is why I start off by saying, most churches do the work of delivering out of Egypt, but they do not want to do the work of teaching the worship practices, of learning God's ways, of understanding things, that a person may actually be filled with the knowledge and therefore able to be, in any capacity, not just as a pastor, in any capacity as a servant of God and a child of God, a burnt offering wholly consumed for God. As I said, that doesn't mean 24/7.

I'm, I am not, if you think I'm the person that sits around and 24 hours a day, all I do is talk about God, you're a lunatic. And anybody who says that they do, I don't know, I can't speak, but I'm going to say I highly doubt it, okay? You're thinking about food at least once or twice a day, and other bodily functions. Don't tell, don't, save that for somebody who's going to believe that skubala, I don't, okay? But what's interesting is that even Christ Himself, you don't read that He had multiple missions. “I must be,” even as a child, “I must be about my Father's business,” and later on He says, “I came to do the will of the Father,” wholly consumed inside with a mission that translated to the outside. As I said, this is a disconnect. Do you remember I taught on a word one time, I probably drove a lot of people crazy. Do you remember I taught on this word, this Greek word homologia, where I said it's basically things that meet, your, call it belief or faith, at the juncture of behavior, where they coincide or where the juncture is.

This is representative of that, and most people, if they even get this concept, will go into, and I'm sorry, but I've met these too, where it's like so well versed in what this says that I can “Polly-wanna-cracker,” tell you, but it's just words, it's, there's nothing in here. I've met those people. God bless them for thinking that's the way, but that's not the way. And the most natural thing that I can say is, the more exposed you are to this word, the more steeped you are, the easier the concept is to understand what it means to be a burnt offering to God, and that you're not burning yourself up or laying on your stove.

You are━I don't know, I just have to say that in case, you never know in this day and age, if somebody identifies today as a piece of pizza that needs to be reheated or something. I don't know. Anyway, all right, I want you to take a look at something else, instructions given for the burnt offering, very interesting, and it is for the offerings that would come of cattle, of herd, but not, not for the bird offerings, okay.

Verse 8 says, “And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: but his inward,” innards “and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar,” to be burnt, “a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of sweet savour unto the LORD.” And this is what's interesting, the catalog here head, fat, inwards, legs. Yes, it's describing the procedure, but the takeaway, if you want to make an appropriation to this, you are, you and I are not animals, but head, where the thoughts are processed; fat is analogous to the seat of emotions or feelings, our thoughts; the inward parts, again, same thing; legs analogous to our walk.

So you could talk about that and say, for example, the inward, the innards and his legs shall he wash in water. That concept we can take right into the New Testament and say, “We must be washed with the water of God's word.” And that process, I just described it, lets you present yourself. Otherwise, how can you? You wouldn't know that. It's not something that you go, “I think I want to present myself today.” It's from it with inside, something that God fills you with.

So I love the fact that even in the offering instructions, there are concepts there. He, “and he wash in water,” again, representative for us as an appropriation to the Holy Spirit that washes us, or what is said in John, “You are made clean through the word,” and the Word that spoke that word, the Logos, Christ speaking, also said, quoting another Old Testament passage, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” So if you think about it, it is interesting that the washing part comes in there. Why not wash the head or the fat, but it says, “But his innards and the legs he shall wash in water.” Those might be considered to the one doing the washing, or to God, unclean until they are washed by water. In our case, we are unclean until we're washed in the word, or washed in His blood.

You can make all these connections, they're there. The only exception where this is not applied, as I said, is the turtledove offering, and I think that's because of its size, and because, again, you wouldn't slaughter it in the same way. There'd be too much, not enough blood to offer if you did it the way the rest of the animals were offered. I know it's kind of gruesome, but we're studying this because it's in the book, so that's what we do. There's every part of this book, the things we like, and the things we may not be so fond of. We study them all. Now, if you read all the way through, He finishes giving all the instructions and the instructions just end with the same thing it started with. In verse 17, “The priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet savour unto the LORD.” So don't think that this first offering, even though it, it's self-evident, for anyone who's been here any time listening to me, I don't think that you could assume that this is attached to a sin offering.

But I want to make it clear it is not. Just because of that verse 4 in there, people will do this thing and say, “Well, there it is.” Better to focus on the word “accepted for him” because that's the essence of the burnt offering. And that's why God starts there. It's not as though God says, “Okay, you've sinned and you're a sinner. Now come and offer a burnt offering.” There was something that the sinner needed to do first, which is basically vicariously lay his hands on the animal that was going to be slain for that person's sin and trespass. And then they could go and offer the burnt offering. There is a pattern to all this, and there is a pattern to the way people come into the church and worship.

When those instructions, so don't think that this is disconnected from our worship practices today. When those instructions are followed and understood, what it represents is two things, maybe three. First and foremost, that as we come into the church, as we start learning, we're not even able to understand the concept of what is acceptable to God because we don't even know Him. So there's no way that you could come in and just say, “Yeah, I'm here to offer my burnt offering.” You don't even know about God. You don't even know about yourself. You don't even know how corrupt and perverted and fallen you are, and I am, so I don't want anybody to think that I'm talking down to you I'm included in the same boat as you. You come into the church, you start learning. And how many times have you heard me say this is the utterance of most people when they are new Christians or first in the church, “I'm basically a good person.” How many have heard that? “I'm basically a good person.” No, you're not.

None of us are. That's not self-abasement. That's exactly what the Bible says, so it's impossible for the person that just comes in to recognize that they are not a good person. Note, the self and the flesh says, “But I'm good. I haven't done this and I haven't done that,” and they've got their checkbox, right? So you can't get to the burnt offering, and the burnt offering isn't about you accepting God. It's about God accepting you. And in an appropriation, if you want to put it into a New Testament appropriation, there's multiple levels for this. So let's sum this up so we can close out the message. The first and probably the most important one is the burnt offering in itself being offered must be Christ, okay, as the Offering.

Why? Because He laid down His life voluntarily, He said, “I lay down my life; no man, take it that I lay it down on Myself, and I'll take it up again,” basically. That's number one. So He has to be the Offering. He's also in the offeror. He was not a sinner, but all sin was laid upon Him. So in that way, we identify with Him. There's the process of identification. Now when we come, we are accepted into the Beloved for one thing and one thing alone. That's our faith in Christ. The minute we come to a saving faith, He indeed died for my sins. I can look to Him. He is the Author and Finisher of faith and all the things written of Him in this book being the Architect of faith. I can stand before Him knowing I have been accepted in the Beloved.

And the idea of the verbiage that people use, “Ah, I accepted Christ in 1979,” okay, and I'm assuming that He went to the cross then too in '79 when you decided to accept Him. Or let's put it a better way. There is a church that decided, I'm sure you know about this, the Mormon church had many rules of who they would let in and not let in. And I think in 1976 or 1978, a revelation occurred that black people should be allowed into the Mormon church because before that they said God didn't allow that. Just think about that. These are the ideas that get things messed up. Where people start making interpretations and they're erroneous. God says, “These are all my children. I made them all.” Now, free will allows you the right to say, “No.” Free will allows you the right to be malicious to another person and basically prosecute for your faith or be angry or reject.

That's free will. But the burnt offering tells me something and demonstrates something right down to my understanding of what happens when I'm open, I have received of God. I then can present myself as a living sacrifice accepted, not just acceptable, accepted by Him. So in that case, in that description, I too become part of that in, in my commitment. Now you can say, “So how is it all of these things? How can the burnt offering represent all of this?” It does. In fact, you're going to see that along the way as we look at all these offerings, they carry the weight of a diversity of meanings. And I know when I say this, people are going to be saying, “Well, but the burnt offering should just be considered like a love gift, right? It's, it's free,” and that could be interpreted that way. But define what “lov”" is first before you put that “love gift” on there, because I've been around ministry now too long to hear people use the term “love gift” and it's got strings attached to it.

No thank you. So this offering basically is, I take, I take the item, whatever it is, it's no holding back. Now I'm going to ask you a question because now this, it has to be applied on the personal level. There's no crime. There's no sin in what I'm about to say, but it requires honesty with the self. How many can say━don't answer me. It's something just to think about. How many can say, “This is me. I have placed myself before God holy and completely”" And I can tell you something, human nature says, “There's a part of me I have to keep. There's a side of me.” There are very few people who are willing to just put it all there and leave it there.

Why? Because there's this fear of, “What if, and what will I become?” And I'm telling you something. You find out something about God real quick. Just like Abraham offering up or willingly, willfully going along in obedience to offer up Isaac. You find out real quick that God is not wanting to put you in some box and manufacture Christians. He's looking for people to trust Him. And when that trust is free-flowing, something amazing happens. Now I don't think that in my years, in my experience, I have not heard God speak audibly to me and say, “And you'll be blessed,” and whatever words that people profess that they hear and that they may hear things. I'm not going to say how they hear them.

They may hear them. But what I am telling you is that for the person who's really trying to understand the burnt offering, the burnt offering has to be attached to two concepts that I read and shared with you out of Genesis 8 and Genesis 22. Out of Genesis 8, I think there had to be on the part of Noah, although it doesn't say so, there had to be an element of gratitude that he survived, that he was spared, that he was delivered.

So you could say, “Well, isn't that a type of sin?” No, the flood did that. The flood took care of that. And the fact that God accepted him as the patriarch, if you want to call it, to start over. And you've got the same thing going on with Abraham in a different way. But if you think about it, God said the instructions were, “Take your son, the son that brought you so much joy, the son that I promised you, the thing that I said you would have that you and your wife laughed at, that you now have. Take that and offer it up completely.” Now think about it. How many of us have come to our own Mount Moriah moment? Just think about that. Don't answer it, because the burnt offering, the understanding of the burnt offering is nestled between those two passages. And you could say to me, “Well, but the rest of it is the law. The rest of it is this.” Yeah, and as we go and delve into the meat, the peace, the sin and trespass offering, all of their functions will become clearer. Once you have the gestalt, you don't have to have the micro-details.

Once you have the gestalt of the offerings, you begin to see God's pattern over and over and over again, not in these oddities of slaying animals, but of Him basically telling us of some dimension, some work, some part of the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's embedded here in all of these offerings in some capacity, and I hope if you will keep listening, I will show you. But for right now, that's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center.

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Moses Is a Type of Christ; Honor Your Father and Mother

What is your idea of honoring the person who gave you life? Because that answer will also help you understand your relationship to God. ♪ ♪ What I want to do is talk a little bit about the story, if you remember, of how the children of Israel came to be in Egypt's bondage. I don't want to get into great detail about this, but if you remember before they were enslaved in Egypt, the children of Israel were prospering and multiplying, so much so that when a Pharaoh who rose up who knew not Joseph, that means Joseph had already died and some time had passed. That Pharaoh was afraid that the Hebrews would become so mighty a people that he stripped them of their freedom and enslaved them. That's kind of a real simple and quick way to breeze through multiple chapters of Exodus. The Bible says the more they were afflicted, the more they proliferated and reproduced and had, they were prosperous even in their captivity. Although they prayed and they prayed for deliverance, in order to stop the population from growing as fast as it was, Pharaoh ordered the midwives to kill every Hebrew male-born child.

The midwives━there's all these little sub, sub-stories. One day I want to go into doing messages and sub-stories within the messages because there's so much there. The midwives feared God and not Pharaoh, so they refused. And I love that. You know, listen, sometimes being disobedient is a good thing. And there's a, there's a perfect case in point of being disobedient. They completely disobeyed Pharaoh and they, they said, “We're, we fear God, not you.” So they kept basically letting the babies live, but Pharaoh gave the order to kill all Hebrew male babies at birth. In the midst of all this, probably one of the most familiar stories, probably even people who are not Christians or Jews or faithing people know the story of the child Moses who is born to mother and father, mother Jehoshabed, father Amram. And he is born during this period where the edict is given to kill all of the firstborn, first it was firstborn and it was all the male children.

And so it's kind of interesting. A set of two people, the foundation of godly parents who would go to whatever lengths they could to protect their child from the evils of the world and the edict of death. Jehoshabed, it's kind of interesting, that's the mother of Moses, she saw that her baby was beautiful. It even interests me that the Bible repeats that three times in different places, that she saw that the baby was beautiful. That prompted me to kind of read between the lines and I think the deeper meaning is not simply that she saw that her child was beautiful as in an attractive child before God, but rather wrapped up in the thought is that the child was given some unique role in life.

But how could a mother know that? All right? I think every mother, every father, every parent looks at their young baby and thinks, “The world is before you; you might go seize it. What great things you might achieve,” but who could know? We don't know. The other thing that I think is it's tragic in today's society, we don't hear of people wanting to dedicate their children to the Lord anymore, it's very few and far in between that say, “I wish to dedicate.” Meaning, even if I do it, what would, what would happen to the child? There's a lot less of that. In fact, in the early years, formative years of this country, almost every child born in this country was dedicated to the Lord. That's kind of an interesting thing if you think about how things have changed. Now the Bible says if you train up a child, specifically in the faith, in the ways of God that he or she will not soon depart, even when they're older.

And I think we tend to make that into a caricature sometimes. I think what it is, is what we are instilled with in those formative years. Whatever that is, it could be the food we eat, the language around us, praying, God, anything that a child is exposed to. It doesn't mean that they are going to adhere to it through the course of their life. But as you get older, you'll find yourself usually reverting back to things that you may not even be aware were implemented and put into your brain in those formative years. So nothing could be more important than raising a child with good, godly values. And I believe that the family of Moses, if you take a look, I'm not going to say that they knew everything because there wasn't a revelation as we know it, but they had some form of worship, of faith. And I say that because if you take a look at Jehoshabed specifically, she had a plan. And think of this, the plan was so risky to hide, to try and hide a child for three months.

Now I know some of you here have babies and have had babies. So you know how difficult it is to keep a baby silent. So if you can imagine that, and you know we tend to caricature this a bit, but if you can imagine each time that baby would cry, the reaction that she must have had to kind of hush it and shush it down and get it to shut up, right, “You're going to draw attention and probably get us all killed,” right? So you've got that going on for three months until obviously she couldn't hide the baby anymore. And of course, you know the story. They built that little ark and they pitched it inside and they put the child inside the basket. Think of this, because we seldom pick this story apart, but all the things that had to align for Jehoshabed's plan to actually work. I want you to think about this right down to the most minute thing. You know, we tend to go back to Cecil B. DeMille's depiction of this event and think that here Miriam was going around the bulrushes and moving the basket along.

Do you realize that the impossibility of that, especially in the Nile? If you don't know what's in the Nile, then stay ignorant, but I highly doubt that a person would be smart enough to step into the Nile and meander around. So the, just the gentle stream had to be moving in the right direction at the right time, at the right flow as the daughter of Pharaoh, the princess, was bathing. All of these things had to align. There had to be some, we'll call it some real markers to say God's hand was in this. And then of course, you know Miriam is right there and points out that there's the child there; brings the child in and points out that the mother might be able to be found. I don't know how that's so miraculous. Find a mother that can nurse this baby, and it just so happens to be Jehoshabed, right? A great coincidence that happened here. Now there are people that would say that Jehoshabed's actions, how could a responsible, good, godly woman put her child at risk? But she really had nothing to lose if you think about it if, if the edict was given for children to be murdered, to be slaughtered, she had nothing to lose but by trusting God.

And I don't want anyone to think that trusting God is just simply wishful thinking in prayer because God really had to be in this. Think of everything that could have gone wrong including, by the way, that basket meandering off to the other side as the Nile's quite wide. It could have drifted off to the other side. There's so many different things that could have happened. I will say this; Jehoshabed had to be very brave if you consider the time that she lived in. I've said this before; do not get mad at me. The time, this particular time that we're looking at, women had one role and that was to produce children and to raise them. To step out of that box could be death for any reason. You could be stoned to death and killed for any reason. So she was a brave woman if you consider the time she lived in, her plan, which had to have been ordained by God. Consider that Moses may not have known the identity of his parents until a little later. So remember I quoted, I paraphrased the Scripture of Proverbs 22, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is older he should not soon depart.” Very interesting that Moses kind of made a full circle back to concepts that he didn't spend the formative years learning, if that makes any sense to you, because we know he was given up when he was three months old and then nursed by his mother for as long as she could.

So in that space of the three months plus the nursing period is all that the mother could have given to the child in terms of, even though the child's just a baby speaking to the child. So it's interesting that we have a full circle on Moses' behalf coming back to the faith that he truly couldn't have possibly known deeply, but was at least exposed to by Jehoshabed. So you've got to think about that. And the other thing that I would say is important is if you think about their whole family. Now Moses' brother Aaron, who would become the first high priest of Israel and his sister Miriam, who was a prophetess and a musician, they all are under this umbrella, if you will. So I think it's kind of fascinating. Moses' story, if you will, at best, is interesting on so many levels. My interest today is actually not Mother's Day. I'm pointing out Jehoshabed because it just fits neatly here. But my message is actually more about Moses being a type of Christ. And I'm going to show you in a few minutes here how much so by Scripture, how much so when you can see the parallels in Scripture.

But what I do want to point out is that Moses, we know, was not God. He was just a human, not; unlike Christ who was man and God, Moses, just a man, all human, one hundred percent human, and interesting. And I will keep repeating this until enough people hear this. Do not, you know, we, we lift people out of the Bible because God highlighted them. But please never forget something, especially for those people who grapple with forgiveness, their issues of past or even present that they seem to fumble on perpetually. God chose Moses. He didn't choose Moses because he was perfect. He didn't choose Moses because Moses wasn't a sinner. Moses killed a man. Moses was trained; Moses was exposed out in the world. If you think about it, Egypt is analogous to the world in all the ways of the world being surrounded by the opulence of Egypt. That whole surrounding, if you will, was, we'll call it the foundation that this person grew up in. So never say that God can't take a person from where they were found and make them something else. Remember my message? “I'll make you fishers of men.

I'll make you something you're not.” That's what God does. This is my whole issue with the people who are fundamentalists or perfectionists who keep going down the same rabbit hole of, “You must be perfect and you must be”━good luck preaching that in this day and age because you've got, it seems every person is either suffering from some form of mental illness or a complete denial of God, which makes for a lot of societal issues we're now having to reap from. So what I'm saying to you is all of this comes back to a very important thing. I'm focused on Moses, by the way. Now I've moved a little bit away from the moms, and that is understanding God's ways. And clearly, if we take a look and we were to put Moses and Christ side by side, they are not the same.

But if you start analyzing, because this whole series in the tabernacle have been shadows and types, we're going to go through some of the Scriptures and I've prepared a good amount of them if you'll come here. I've prepared a good amount of them. If you find, if you're reading this and you see typos, don't shoot the typist, all right? I never said I was a good typist. So we may have you search out, some of these have been condensed because of long lengthy passages that I didn't want to have to write out, but Moses on this side, Christ over here.

And so I put down, for example, here Psalm 105:26, Moses is called “his servant”; Christ in the New Testament is called “my servant.” Psalm 106, Moses is called “his chosen”; God speaking about His Son says “I have chosen” in Isaiah 42. So you can kind of see I've put these. He's referred to, Moses is referred to as “priest” and where there is no personal or pronoun before it, it's simply a reference to show you. So you'll find the scriptural references that I put up here in Deuteronomy 33:4, and 5, “king”" Acts 17. So again, the columns Moses and Christ; if you take a look, Exodus 3:3, “shepherd,” John 10, we know Jesus is referred to many times as “the shepherd,” “the good shepherd,” even “the great shepherd.” “Mediator” in Exodus 33, “one mediator” in 1 Timothy.

“Intercessor,” both of them, you can see the scriptural references. In Acts 7, Moses is called “deliverer” and “ruler,” in Romans we have Christ being referred to as “deliverer” as well as 1 Thessalonians 1:10. And again, “ruler” here, Moses, the same passage, and Christ referred to in Micah. It's kind of interesting, this is what I told you, you cannot, if you start doing these type of studies, you cannot separate Old and New Testament. You cannot. There's no way. You can see how tied together they are and the more you study this, this is what's mind boggling to me. The more you study these, the more you realize that God not only had a plan, but a lot of these are shadow and type or mirror of each other. Only you can see Moses exemplified this as all human. Christ comes as the Son of God, condescends, and takes up a lot of these roles or passages.

It's very clear and as we get into them, you'll see more and more. So here we have the reference, the male children to be cast into the river, Exodus 1:22; the children of Bethlehem to be slain, Matthew 2:13-16. You start seeing the similarities and you start recognizing that there's no error even in the shadows and types pointing to Christ. Hebrews 11 speaking of Moses. So the top one will be Moses, the bottom one will be Christ; “by faith he forsook Egypt,” Hebrews 11, “Out of Egypt I have called my son,” Matthew 2.15. “He endured as seeing him who is invisible,” Hebrews 11:27, “He that has sent me is with me,” or in essence “you will not see the Father; if you came to see the Father, you're going to see Me,” you've got the same concepts. “He supposed his brethren would have understood, but they understood not,” Acts 7:25 speaking of Moses, “his own received him not,” John 1. The rest of these Scriptures they keep just adding on to this, “Who made thee a judge and ruler over us?” That is in reference to Moses, straight out of the Old Testament and then here in the reference to Christ, “Who, who made me a judge or divider over you,” Luke 12.

“This Moses whom they refused, the same did God send to be a ruler and deliverer,” Acts 7:35, “God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” And the Scripture references are right there beside each one of these. “He sat down by a well,” Exodus 2:15, “Jesus therefore sat thus on a well.” I condense these so you see the dot, dot, dot. I didn't want to write it all out. It's a lot to write out. “He looked on their burdens, make them rest from their burdens,” Exodus 2:11; “Come unto me, I will give you rest,” Matthew 11. “Let my people go,” Exodus 9, the passage out of Isaiah 61, this is, Jesus quotes this in, or at least part of it in Luke, “to proclaim liberty to the captives.” “All shall bow down themselves unto me,” Exodus 11, reference to Moses/voice of God speaking; “And at that time, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow,” reference to Christ out of Philippians 2.

“How long shall this man be a snare unto us?” Exodus 10, the people that wanted to stone Moses; “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,”1 Peter 2:8, reference to Christ. “Certainly I will be with thee,” Exodus 3:12; “he that hath sent me is with me,” John 8:29. Do you see the parallels? Pretty crystal clear and the list is very long. I only chose the ones that I chose here, but this is what I'm saying to you. As you start analyzing these, and there are some that are much closer than others, you realize that God was not saying, “I'm just going to keep reinventing and trying something new.” No, this was the plan all along, except that God at some point, seeing a stiff-necked and disobedient people, recognizes; Genesis 3 tells you all you need to know. That is really where we see God's plan spelt out. Most people think, “Well, there was the Old and then there was the New.” God had it all mixed together all at once, so sorry to burst some of the bubbles of people out there who say, “Aw, I can only read one Testament.” Okay, well then you should only be wearing one shoe.

“This is the finger of God,” Exodus 8:19; “If I with the finger of God,” Luke 11:20. “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,” Exodus 14:21; if you remember this passage, “What manner of man is this that even the winds in the sea obey him?” Matthew 8:28; 8:27. “The people thirsted there for water,” Exodus 17; “If any man thirst, let him come unto me,” John 7. “Almost ready to stone me,” something that was going on, the people, again, disappointed, mad, angry at Moses, Exodus 17:4; “They took up stones to cast at him,” John 8, referring to Christ.

“Spring up, O well,” Numbers 21:16-8; “The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water,” and if you read the rest, it's springing up. So you've got these great parallels. “Moses brought their case before the Lord,” Numbers 27:5; we have the reference to Jesus in 1 John as an advocate with the Father. “Who is on the Lord's side, let him come unto me,” and then, “He that is not with me is against me.” So top, Moses, bottom, I repeat again, is Christ, and you can see these parallels very clearly.

The man, Moses, was very meek, Numbers 12; Christ says, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” You've got these parallels. The parallels come down to Jesus being the embodiment. He's not speaking of the reference to another. He is that. Moses could not say he was that, but Jesus comes and He basically becomes all of that in Himself, not speaking about somebody else. There is where we see shadow and type breakdown. “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down,” Exodus 32; “my Lord delayed his coming,” Matthew 24. “I took twelve men of you,” Deuteronomy 1:23; “He ordained twelve,” Mark 3:13 and 14.

“Seventy men of the elders of the people,” Numbers 11; “The Lord appointed other seventy also,” Luke 10. Behold the cup of the covenant; “Behold the blood of the covenant,” Exodus 24; “this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood,” Luke 22. “So Moses finished the work,” Exodus 40; “I have finished the work,” John 17. “I have pardoned according to thy word,” Numbers 14; “even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you,” Ephesians 4:32. “According to all that the Lord commanded him,” Exodus 40, verse 16; “even as I have kept my father's commandments,” John 15.

“He made known his ways unto Moses,” Psalm 103; “the Father loveth the Son and showeth all things that himself doeth.” In Deuteronomy 33:1 we have a parting blessing and then from Luke 24:50 and 51, “While he blessed them; While he blessed them, he was parted from them.” “Let the Lord set a man over the congregation which may lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep with have no shepherd”" and of course, if you go down here, I will not leave you and I am the good shepherd,” and there were so many other references here, I just decided to leave it at two, but there were so many of those. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord,” Exodus 15; “They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,” Revelation 15:3. And then some other points of interest here. So, “The law was broken in his hands,” Exodus 32; Psalms 40 and verse 8 says, “The law is as the law perfectly kept in his heart.” “The bread that sustain life,” which is a reference back to the manna; “the bread that gives life,” John 6:33.

“Moses, in Numbers 7:13, praying for a leper; in Matthew 8:12, He healed a leper. We have in Hebrews the reference to the first Passover; and in Luke we reference to Christ as the last Passover; the last Passover that was celebrated in Christ being our Passover. Forty days in the mount, Exodus 34; and forty days in the wilderness, Matthew 4:2; that gives you just a small, and as I said, it's abridged because the list is very, very long.

In fact, if you really want to knock, I always have these, “If you want to knock yourself out” moments. If you want to knock yourself out, you should start going through the Scriptures and finding all these parallels. What it does is it, it gives you a clear demonstration of something that God was not saying, “Oh, you know what? All this other stuff didn't work. Now let Me show you the plan that I think will. Here's My only begotten Son,” but rather because you can see the parallels, you can see that God's ways have always been consistent.

And the choosing, I go back to this for a second, the choosing of Moses, the question might be; and here's an interesting one for you, we don't get to choose who brings us into this world. It's a novel thought for rebellious children, isn't it? “Well, I don't have to love,” and they'll fill in the blanks, “I don't have to love my mother or my father,” a rebellious child speaking, right? You don't get a choice, but you can look back and be grateful for those people that gave you life. And if you're being raised up in a Christian home, you can be grateful for the fact that God brought you into this family. And everybody's circumstance is different. Some people are brought into this world in luxury, some are brought in poverty, some are brought into a family that's dedicated to trying to do the best and reach for the best and strive for the best, and others it's just que sera, sera. But if you really look at it, we are like the people in the Bible in this respect, just like Moses.

No, Moses didn't say, “I want to be born a child to servants that are slaves in Egypt.” Do you really think that would have been the thought of a child? But if you could look at this, step back and realize this is, there's an underlying point here, which is we don't get to choose, and sometimes it takes a lifetime of looking at the circumstances to recognize God's hand and control in your life and in mine. I've said many times, you know, speaking of my own personal relationship with both mother and father, not, not the greatest, and for decades, lamented certain things about, I wish certain things would have been different, but the reality is when I look back; this is the mature person speaking, this is the child of God speaking that says they did the best they could. You know, I don't think any parent has the exact roadmap. You could be the person that reads every book on how to feed your child, how to bathe your child, how to change your diaper, how to do dah, dah, dah, dah, dah━nothing's going to be perfect.

It's not all going to be mapped out for you. Get to when the child's a teenager. Oh, those are wonderful years, aren't they? And how to figure out how to deal with that, when it seems like you have sacrificed for your children and your children can't even see your sacrifice. You know how many people I talk to or I receive letters from that tell me that? They have a child that is, the child does not care, has blatant disregard that one or both parents went without to provide for the child. And that's why I said growing up in a, in a household of faith, it doesn't mean that that child is going to maintain the faith all the way through. But if the foundation of that life, the first and formative years infused into that life where the values of God and the concepts of God and the workings of God are spoken, are mentioned, and that is the currency of your household.

It may not be that kid gets to be 18 and says, “I'm out of here,” but just remember one thing, something happens as we mature and you start coming back to things. You don't even know why you're going back there. And this is what that Proverbs 22 means. So when we look at the life of Moses, Moses is an example and I use Jehoshabed as an example. Do you really think, I'll ask the question in the reverse now. Do you really think that Jehoshabed could have known who her child was going to turn out to be? No, of course not. And I can do the reverse. The mother who is the parent of a mass murderer, do you think that that mother could ever have envisioned that that would be the future of her child? This is what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about the flowers and the candy and the bravado. I'm talking about where the rubber meets the road, where the frustration, the anxiety, the anger, the improbability of not being able to completely guide that child's life to have the best success both for education, for spirituality, everything, the difficulties there.

You know, if we were going to really look at this day or any other day, these are the conversations that need to be happening on a regular basis and bringing people back to hard concepts of the Bible that make you really recognize, you know, God has this worked out pretty good. The pattern for a mother, Jehoshabed is one of them, willing to risk everything to protect her child and not; hear me out. I am a law-abiding citizen, but she was not abiding by the laws of Egypt when they said, “Every child,” that child was going to live no matter━in her eyes, her faith, her reasoning.

And so let me give you the parallels also of two mothers that come back to the same place, because you've got Jehoshabed, not knowing this child will turn out to be the deliverer of the people, not knowing what God had planned for this child. You've got the same really parallel universe with Mary; Mary, the mother of Jesus, every mother in Jerusalem thought they would give birth to the Messiah. I've said that before. There's at least two scriptural passages that refer to that. But can you imagine for Mary specifically, embarrassment, shame, kind of a freak show if you think about it, that she's pregnant without ever doing it? That's kind of a weird thing, okay? And I'm sure endured everybody calling her liar and being ostracized in her community and then giving birth to this child━“Oh, by the way, an angel talked to me and an angel told me blah blah,” “Yeah, sure; sure an angel talk to you,” right? So you've got all of these different dynamics and even then the child is born, I'm talking about Christ, and there's no way that Mary could have ever have known.

Sorry, you could say, “Well, but she, an angel spoke to her and an angel told her this,” yes, but she didn't believe. Remember, she was gathered with her other children wanting to take Jesus and put Him away because they thought He was crazy. So you've got to stay with within the confines of the Bible to recognize; imagine the difficulty. You know, we tend to just kind of paint the picture of Christ and Mary as very simplified, but I think there, there's a lot of underlying difficulties there, especially when we read about how it says, you know, well, “What about your mother and your father?” or “Your mother and your brethren”" and they're, they're there. And He says, “Who are My family?” And He's talking to His disciples and speaks specifically about those that do the will of God, not necessarily by blood, would eventually be blood family by His blood, but then speaking. It doesn't mean because biologically that━they would have put Him away.

So take that isolated moment and think of the frustration of Mary looking at this child of hers who's making all kinds of proclamations that seem wild, baffling, outrageous, and what? What does the parent; put aside motherhood for a second, what does the parent do with a child who's making all kinds of, think about it, absurd comments, “I am the way,” “I am the life.” You know, if your kid does that, then you say, “Okay, come on, Johnny, it's time to go,” straightjacket time, right? So, but if you think about it, the frustration and everything that she went through to the ultimate end of watching her child being crucified, and that, to me, that's another one of these because we can so caricature the story.

The torment of knowing her Son didn't do anything wrong and watching Him be crucified and watching the fate that He's going to die. And you have to also keep in mind, as much as some of these had heard His preaching and heard Him say, “I will raise up; the Father will raise Me up; I, I lay down my life, I'll take it again,” but they, none of them heard. So, for this mother, this is the end. And so when you take even the two mothers and you compare them, they're not too different.

And I've said before, and this always gets me in trouble, but I'll say it again, a careful analysis of Scripture will show you that Mary was just human. She did not possess any special powers. She should never be deified; never. People that pray to Mary because they believe praying to Jesus is, is too direct. Well, listen, that's like saying, “I want to get to San Francisco, but I'll go to New York to get to San Francisco; and I live in Southern California.” It's kind of a little bit like that, but in the spiritual realm it makes no sense when Jesus revealed Himself to us for the very purpose of going directly to Him. So, I can tell you, as I said, many more parallels between both Moses and Christ and between the mothers. Probably, as I said, the difficulty with me is I'm into looking at more of what's underneath it all. I'm not; I'm not interested in the flowers and the fluff. So when I dig down deep enough, I realize God chose Moses to be a deliverer of the people and he didn't have the powers.

He wasn't, he wasn't part God. So think about, just think about that and again, it's probably something we don't really think about. Imagine the pressure after a life; I've said Moses' life is divided up into forty-year segments. So say the first forty years are spent in Egypt, the next forty years are spent on the backside of the desert, and the next forty years are spent delivering, and you can finish the rest. I could only think of the mind of Moses that, imagine, “God wants me to do what?” Try and put yourself in Moses' shoes for a minute. God, on the backside of the desert, finds him, directs him, calls him by name and, “And You want me to do what?” That's kind of a big, mighty task and of course, you know, Moses basically doesn't want to be the spokesperson.

So God says, “Okay, your brother Aaron can be that.” But what made God choose Moses? What made God choose Jehoshabed and Amram? What made God choose Mary? And you could say, “Well Mary's easy. She had to be in the generations and the genealogies.” I'm not talking about that. There could have been any other person in that family line. The thing is God, He looks down at all this and He says, “That one,” knowing, apart from Christ, the imperfection of us all, the imperfection of the mother, the imperfection of the child, and yet God says, “And I'm going to use that one right there.” And this is the thing I think our society has forgotten. In a day and age where we're constantly arguing these, what I would call a non-argument, you know, people want to talk about when life begins and, and where it's actually life versus when it's not a life.

How about the miracle of this? Think about it. And again, I just like to stir the pot, but it's relevant to what I'm going to say. You think it's an accident that the whole reproductive system that God designed, and it's not, I'm sorry, it didn't happen by accident. If you'd like to think that this man or woman evolved, you, you, you can have your right to that. But the intricacies and the, the brilliant and intelligent design of all this that makes it that, for, for example, in a woman's cycle and the time that she can actually be ready, and what a man is capable of doing.

And God's design did not include, if you want to look at this rightly, making alterations to the pattern, just like the pattern of the tabernacle, not making alterations to the pattern that He designed in man and in woman. Now, listen, highly, highly debatable subject right now, a hot topic for people about gender and gender assignment and gender this and gender that. But, you know, when you go to a doctor at the end of the day and you have to fill out a form, you know, there's going to be a question that says, “How were you born? What were you born as?” I don't care what you want to identify as. Listen, today I woke up and I felt a little bit like a tiger, okay? And I'm sorry; I didn't wear my tiger outfit to church today, okay? But the question is asked, not what you identify as. What are you biologically? And that, my friends, even if you have yourself altered medically, you were made one or the other.

That's not a religious comment. That's not a racist or bigoted comment. That's a thinking person who can stand and honestly say it's one or the other. And if you want to be somewhere in the middle, that can be your, your design, but that's not God's design. That was never God's design. Now step back from all that and recognize something. The child Moses, we don't read that he possessed great, until later on, of course, but in his infancy we don't read that he possessed great skill or anything. We don't read that Jehoshabed was some woman who had an agenda to be the greatest woman in Israel. We just have regular ordinary people following, first Jehoshabed following her desire for her child to live and would do anything for that, and Moses, who eventually will follow God's orders to become the deliverer. Now we are just like the people in the Bible.

You don't get to choose who brings you into the world. Moses didn't get a choice. And I love the fact that God includes these imperfect people. This is what I wish the rest of the world could hear and understand, because it's so much of this, what's been, people have been conditioned to think, “Well, if you're a Christian,” and then they fill in the blanks. This is what our faith looks like. God takes the most imperfect, weak, homely vessels and uses them for a purpose. And if you're willing to submit yourself to that purpose, you find out exactly who you are and what, what plans God actually has for you are much greater than any plan you could conceive of. So I'd say this, if you call yourself a Christian, a follower of Christ; some define Christian as a follower of Christ, a little Christ, in any way, shape or form you're identifying with Christ, then you're also identifying with something else.

Christ specifically, when He told His disciples, “I will not leave you orphans. I must go away, but I won't leave you orphans. I'll send the Spirit.” We're never alone. So the people who are sitting in front of me, in the sound of my voice, your mother may be departed, deceased, or the memory is too painful to even talk about. I'm not asking you to go there. I am saying, “Do you recognize you're not alone?” God gave us that Spirit. And He also gave us the Spirit to look at this in proper perspective.

As I said, “Honor thy mother and father's not a day, one day.” It should be the task of a child. You could have, sorry, I'm just going to say it, your parents, because we're all, we all have parents somewhere or we're either parenting or, or a child. Your parents could be pretty annoying, you know that? Anybody here that's thinking, well, your mom or your dad, you know, right up until the end, they were naggers. They, they annoyed you. They said crazy stuff, right? That's what brought you here; just remember that, okay? That's what brought you here. And maybe if you can step back from yourself, you might be just as crazy as they were. That's the genius part of this, is when you really look in the mirror, you go, you know, a real reality check says, “Who am I?” That's the real reality check.

You know, I, I spent the first probably thirty-plus years of my life being very angry at certain things regarding my parents. And I've, I've shared this with you before. You, you come to a point where you realize they did the best they could. And some of their insanity, as you get a little older, you see it in yourself and you recognize that's what blood does, right? Welcome, welcome to the family, right? “Oh, I don't want to ever want to be,” I know people that say, “I don't, I don't want to be like my dad or I don't want to be like my mom.” And when you talk to them, if you know them, you're like, “Damn, what are they talking about? That's just like a chip off the old block, right? Come on, be honest with yourself.” But for this day, for people who were not close or don't care or have some issues or resentment or whatever it is, I'd say to you, take this as another way to look at life.

Because there are people who wouldn't miss celebrating Mother's Day or Father's Day for the world and there are other people, they just want this day to be over. They just get; just hop over it. Let me recalibrate this as, as Christians. That's why I said I don't like this one day thing. It's like somebody who says, “I'm going to go to church on Christmas because that will be my one, or Easter because that's my one day.” Coming to church one day in a year doesn't make you a Christian. Celebrating Mother's Day or Father's Day, one day a year; sorry, that doesn't make you good or bad. It just means you're, you want me to say it? You're part of the sheeple people.

That means, you know, everybody does this, “We all do this. Come on, we're all going to do this now, right, because we all do it.” Now, I'm probably a little bit different. I'm like the salmon that's going the wrong way, okay? But I'm always going to point out why. Because I'd prefer to tell you, if you're going to, if you're going to honor somebody, you do it year round, you don't pick a day. If you're going to look at, and today is Mother's Day, I'm going to ask the question. It's not: Do you have a great relationship with your parent? But rather, what is your version of honoring them? Now, we have this all wrong because we've succumbed to commercialism. And I want you to think about this. I cannot tell you because we don't really have it written in detail for us, if Moses ever went back to Jehoshabed and, you know, honored her, we don't know that.

And I can't say; we've got some small indicators of things, but not too much. And in Christ's way, He basically, it was very clear if Mary wasn't following basically the voice of God, He said, “Who is My family? It's only those that do the will of the Father.” So I think there's, there should be a little bit of recalibrating here for all of us. Those of us who want to get caught up in the commercialism, that's your problem. Mine is more to stay grounded in, “Why should I pay attention to this day?” And you should for a reason, but not for the reason that everybody wants you to. Not because there's people lining the streets here selling flowers, not because the restaurants are going to make a killing and overcharge you today and make it, you know, so you say, “I'm never going to a restaurant again.” No.

Think about this, as I said the other way, maybe your parents are deceased. I still look back almost on a daily basis and there's, I'm not going to say every day, but it's almost every day and express gratitude to God that these two people who probably I was very harsh with in my growing up, in my years of being a little bit on the other side of the tracks, that they brought me into this world that they gave me life, that they tried their best, and they could not know through the little baby they held in their hands to the years, the difficult years, where I would end up. No one has that.

No one knows. You don't have the luxury of saying, “I want to be, you know,” I'm in the womb somewhere swimming in a sea of stuff, “and I want to come out and I want my mother to be”━it doesn't work that way, right? So you get what you get and the key thing here is to understand what the key concept of honor is. Now, I do believe this and showing you the comparisons of Christ and Moses, that was my point of the message and now I'm going to go circuitously around, back around to where I started to talk about this in another way, so that there's something to take away from this message, not just to keep it in the series on the tabernacle, but something to keep in line with this message and with today, which is I'm going to, I'll probably end up asking you this on Father's Day: What is your idea of honoring the person who gave you life? Because that answer will also help you understand your relationship to God.

I want you to think about that. That whole mindset is a microcosm relating how you relate in the earthly realm and in our early years, we don't know, we're not educated, we have no clue, but as you get older, ignorance cannot be claimed. You come to a knowledge, so your understanding of that is actually a microcosm of your understanding of how to relate to God and how to honor God. Now, if you think, bear with me for a second, if you think that honoring God one day a year by coming to church on Easter, I'm going to pick that day because that's, that's like, it is, if you think about it, it is analogous to what we're doing when we say we're going to celebrate one day of motherhood or one day of fatherhood versus, you know, you may, you may wake up tomorrow with thoughts about either parent, whether they're alive or not alive and think, “Oh God,” because there are Sundays you may wake up and you go, “I'm too tired, I want to go back to sleep,” or, “Oh church”" right? Come on now.

Some of you are liars going to hell just for that! My point is you get up. You get up and you go. You get up and you, you start the moment, the momentum of honoring God. And honoring God isn't just coming into church for one day or one hour. Honoring God is your behavior throughout the course of the week, throughout the course of the day. So that's what I'm trying to say to you. When, when you read honor thy mother and thy father, I think a lot of people think it's their version of honoring is appeasement. It's, it's, and I'm not trying to abase anybody. Don't get me wrong, think, “Well, you know, I, I did this today.” I'm talking about, well, how do you treat that person the 364 other days? Because that understanding will also help you understand your true relationship with God because the same people that gave you life that brought you here on earth, that allowed you to be, well, they were given that grace and that blessing by the Creator.

So the same thing, the Creator that gave me the ability to recognize Him opened my eyes and give me spiritual life, the same concept. Do you get what I'm saying? So I don't want people leaving here thinking, “Wow, Pastor Scott's a downer. She doesn't like to celebrate anything.” I didn't say that. You know? But maybe think of it this way. Maybe instead of, you may already have plans for today, but maybe you plan tomorrow to do something that's honoring; not, not an activity, not spending.

This is, this is where I said we've gone in the wrong direction, the commercialization of things. But how do you honor someone? You show appreciation; you express appreciation, not simply for a task or one isolated thing. And as I said, if, if you really get the concept, it brings something really incredible in my mind, all of these biblical parallels show us, we can, we can learn from all of it. It just happens, as I said, it's Mother's Day today. I'm looking at Jehoshabed and I'm thinking to myself, the women of this world who identify as Christians, we don't have to be, we don't have to be what the rest of the world wants us to be or what Hollywood's ideology of womanhood should be now is every woman should be seen as the, the AK-slinging, “I can kick your butt just as good as anybody,” you've got to, you know, be, be tough.

And you know, I think if people actually get back to their proper, I hate to say it, their proper roles that God ordained we might actually find ourselves again an impressive group of people who are balanced by God's plan. And that plan, by the way, you know, some people find it offensive and they read Ephesians, what Paul describes as the proper plan. They get offended by that, but the reality is, I'm not going to stand here and argue with me that most men, most men, I'd probably say ninety percent of men, are stronger than me physically. They're, they, God, endued that to most men. I'm not going to stand here and say, I, I could do what other men can do; I can't. And I, I'd be an idiot to argue that. And then you've got men in this day and age who would like to believe that they can have a child or that they can have a monthly cycle. Okay. That's another crazy argument. The, the two things I just said are, are both crazy.

They're both insane. But I can stand here and tell you something very sane, that if we embrace what God gave us, that includes how we came into this world, you don't get a choice. So you embrace that, you honor it, you respect it. That's probably the key thing. If I could isolate one singular word that's missing, a huge swath of society has no respect. Not a joke. I'm not saying this because Rodney said it. No respect whatsoever. They have no respect for God, for God's house. Go out on the road, tell me that the people that, most of the people that you are driving around are respectful drivers. Don't answer that especially in, in California. Don't answer that. My point here is this. You've got to see things properly in proper perspective. So yes, it's Mother's Day. I'm highlighting this parallel of even the mothers, but I don't want to be mistaken or taken out of context.

The bigger picture here is that God has given us the gift of life. And whether you are a father or a mother with children, maybe your children are even, here's one for you I haven't mentioned. Maybe your children are estranged from you; they've completely rejected you. And I know that there are at least several here in this sanctuary who, who represent that. The sting and the hurt of knowing that sacrifice, love was poured in, maybe in the child's mind they didn't get, they didn't receive, whatever it was that went wrong and they've taken off and they wholly reject you. They want nothing to do with you. Well, I'm going to say, I pray for those people to come to an awareness like I did, that at some point you open your eyes and you say, “God brought me here and I didn't just magically show up.” It took two people to produce this thing called Melissa and I must be grateful for the life I've been given and I can't start cherry picking.

I don't get the choice to decide. And along the way, maybe I learn that God's got many lessons to teach me, which I found out by the way, about becoming a better daughter even later in life, even though I can't speak to my parents, but becoming a better daughter later in life has made me a better child of God. So that's the ultimate takeaway. This has nothing to do with commercialization or a special day, but rather coming to a greater awareness. And the more and the quicker we come to that awareness, the better we can stand before God and recognize His plans. You know, we don't get to call the shots just like the child doesn't get to pick the parent; we don't exactly get to pick everything that happens. God has a plan. It's not all wound up.

We have free will. But if we're trusting Him like Jehoshabed, then trust me on this other thing. Jehoshabed's trust in God to protect that child, to carry that child, to bring that child to the right place at the right time, wasn't just luck. That was something that had to be from God put into that woman's heart, and every parent should have that mindset. And every child, if they have the luxury of coming to know who God is, should be able to turn around and say, “Regardless of what,” fill in the blanks, “I'm extremely blessed because of the care.” And you can say, “I should have had more, I should have had less.” I don't care what that is. You get old enough you realize that that's your selfish mouth. That's your ego. That's your ideology. And maybe when you became a parent, you weren't that great. You thought you were, because we all have great ideas of how we are in, in, not in reality, but in our own mind.

So all I'm asking you to do is kind of recalibrate this and maybe instead of making it a day, you begin to make it a lifestyle, not just on Mother's Day or Father's Day, but you start recognizing the behavior of the child towards the parent is a reflection and a better understanding of our relationship with our Heavenly Father. That is probably the most important takeaway of the day. It can make comparisons all day long, I can give you Scripture references, I can make all the salient points, but my most important point here, leaving here is how do we become better children to our Heavenly Father? And that goes back to recognizing the blessings we've received, being grateful for them and honoring Him.

So there's no harm and no crime in honoring our parents. That's what the Bible tells us to do. Make sure that it's done in a way that you're understanding. This is all practice, by the way, all of this; not the commercial stuff, the stuff we talk about here, this is all practice for eternity and you start down here. You start practicing your relationship with your Heavenly Father by the way you treat your parents down here.

And that relationship, as I said, more and more, the older you get, you'll begin to see it. It'll all come into place. And for the younger folks listening to me who are rolling their eyes going, “Oh God, you don't know”" I hate to tell you, but I was once your age, I absolutely do. And it's not going to get better. It's going to get worse for you if you don't change your mind. That's all I have to say about that. See, this wasn't just a one-sided message for the one, one people, but for the, all of the people listening to me. Now, with all seriousness, let me just say this to you. These are always difficult days for me because I, I'm more interested in teaching you lessons that are applicable than celebrating what the world does. But I don't want to negate the fact that if you understand where I'm coming from, honoring your mother and father is a good thing year round, so happy Mother's Day.

That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.

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Exodus 39 – The High Priest’s Breastplate: We Are Written on God’s Heart

Everything that is represented on the breastplate, including those two stones I'm referring to, is almost symbolic of everything that's here and everything that's here. In other words, it's kind of like what the Bible says about what proceeds out of a person's mouth, that's what's in their heart. Well, put that in the reverse. When God called your name, you weren't an accident. You were already on His heart as His child. ♪ ♪ ♪ I'm going to read, briefly before I get started, the thirty-ninth chapter of Exodus to kind of give you an idea. And I'm, I'm really starting with the two onyx stones, which basically starts at the sixth verse in the thirty-ninth chapter of Exodus, “And they wrought onyx stones enclosed in ouches of gold, graven, as signets are graven, with the names of the children of Israel. And he put them on the shoulders of the ephod, that they should be stones for a memorial to the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses.” Now, I think this is just an interesting sidebar, if you want to think about things in a more bird's-eye view.

Here we have the names of all of the, we'll call them the patriarchal names of the tribes of Israel, showing, we'll call it the, the genesis of organizing the people. And in the final chapters of Revelation, you've got the one hundred and forty-four preachers of righteousness essentially organizing the final chapter in, if you want to call it, organizing the people. I think it's interesting; there are all these bookends, these Alpha and Omega concepts throughout Old and New Testament. You cannot look at this and just say independently, “Oh, that's kind of a cool thing,” without recognizing foursquare, the shape, which is attached to the new city and all the names. There's just a lot here to connect, but I'm just saying, I don't know how anyone could read this and be bored and not have their imagination be sparked on what God was actually saying underneath it all. You know, you can be limited and say, “Oh yeah, He was giving the instructions for this beautiful breastplate of judgment,” but maybe what He was saying is that all of these children will be memorialized in the future as well, not just here.

I love how God does this. “He made the breastplate of cunning work, like the breastplate of cunning work, like the work of the ephod, gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine twined linen. And it was foursquare; they made the breastplate double: the span was the length thereof, and the span the breadth thereof, being doubled. They set four rows of stones: the first row was sardius, topaz, carbuncle: this was the first row. The second row, emerald, a sapphire, and diamond,” remember, these are English words, so please don't, don't go there, okay? They're just giving you an idea. “The third row, a ligure, an agate, an amethyst. A fourth row, beryl, onyx, jasper: they were enclosed in ouches of gold and in their inclosings. And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name, according to the twelve tribes. And they made upon the breastplate chains at the ends, of wreathen work of pure gold. They made the two ouches of gold, and the two gold rings; and put the two rings in the two ends of the breastplate.

And put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate. And the two ends of the two wreathen chains they fastened into two ouches, put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, before it.” So you kind of get an idea of how this was all put together. And if you keep reading, you've got; basically, it spells out the rest of it. But I just wanted to give you an idea so you can kind of envision what this might have looked like. Now, I started last week going through some of the stones. We saw that Zebulun, carbuncle, and I'm not even sure if we have, the way I've translated it, yeah, it is in verse 10, carbuncle, which we looked at light bearer, derived from the Hebrew word, bâreqeth, “to glitter.” And of course Zebulun's name meaning “dwelling.” We kind of went through and connected these, being both the blessing of Jacob/Israel, and Moses.

If you combine them, the things that kind of you can glean out of there, “being a haven for ships by the sea.” And I said it's probably safe to interpret this, they may have been in the shipping business, but there's another meaning to this, which I would like to kind of put on that. These people might have been like the lighthouse for the lost because it also says, “showing them the way to mount Zion.” Topaz, which is Issachar, the Hebrew word “reward” embedded in there, but the Hebrew word pitdâh, pitdâh, and if you want to look up the word in the Greek, also means “seeking.” And we kind of went through putting together, if you want diligently seeking, or the reward for diligently seeking on this stone.

Sardius being Judah's stone, Judah's name meaning “praise,” but I pointed out the Hebrew for this stone, 'ôdem, and if you remember, I've also told you that there were no vowel points originally underneath the Hebrew letters. So when I say 'ôdem, it could have been, again, pronounced, adem, edem, depending on how it was pronounced before the vowel points were put in, and that one singular word, take away the vowel points underneath, can mean “Adam,” it can mean “blood.” There's a whole host of meanings that it; so I find it very interesting as I pointed out last week, specifically because Judah, the tribe out of which Christ came, and He is referred to as the “last Adam.” And much of the, we'll call it benediction/blessing that is given by the mouth of Jacob/Israel, talks about wine or the blood of grapes, and I don't think it's an accident.

We kind of look to and comb the whole Scripture, you find the red blood goes through the book, leads you to Christ. And I pointed out as well that I don't think it's an accident where Jacob is referring to the vine, the vine, the vine, the vine. John 15, Jesus says, “I am the true vine.” There are no accidents when you start connecting the dots. Christ was not; sorry to my friends who can't just get this clear; Jesus Christ was not an afterthought, “Oh, all this didn't work out too good, so now we'll come up with a plan B which includes bringing forth My only begotten Son.” No, Christ was there in the beginning, just not incarnate. So these are all prefiguring, pointing to future references. The diamond, which is attached to the tribe of Gad, and the diamond in this case, something that can “break or bruise,” “cause to increase or to be victorious.” And I made mention that in this case they were attacked by their enemies but overcame.

So there's a dynamic, if you will, of tenacity attached to this stone of toughness. Sapphire, to Simeon in the breastplate as well, and this one, as I said, quite remarkable if you look up all of the references to sapphire, they seem to have a connection to God's throne. As I pointed out, the references in Exodus, I want to say it's in the 24s where it says that they looked, yeah, it's 24:10, they saw God, “They saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as, as, it were a paved work of sapphire stone, as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.” And you'll find this concept a lot in Ezekiel.

So this, this stone, this color, this reference somehow is attached to what's under God or what God is sitting on, repeatedly. I think that's interesting. You know, when we don't have clarity on certain things, you have to go with everything that's repeated. And when it's repeated several times, that's cause to say there's, there's doctrine there, there's concepts there that God is, “Can you hear Me now? Can you hear Me now? (Knock knock knock) Can you hear Me now?” So for the hard heads, He repeats Himself, thank God.

Emerald, which is attached to Reuben the firstborn that lost his position; which didn't stop him from being counted among the brethren. These are the important things I want to point out because they're messages within the message. So if you know the history of all of the children of Israel, and specifically I just mentioned Simeon and Reuben, and they're not the only ones to have committed major faux pas, but I love the fact that even before the new dispensation that we have in Christ, even before then, remember, for example, Reuben's sin of defiling his father's bed had already taken place, okay? And yet God doesn't say “Reuben, or the descendants of Reuben, because you messed up, you have no part in this community,” okay? I wish that the church at large would understand that because there are more Reubens in the church than there are anything else.

I know that that's not a friendly word to some people, but let me say it again because it's, it's, it actually bears repeating. There are more Reubens in the church of Jesus Christ, and God says, “You are counted among My own.” That means all of your past garbage, your mess ups, past, present, and future. He didn't say, “I ripped Reuben off of My chest, and he can no longer be a part,” even though Reuben did what he did.

So there's, like I said, lessons within lessons here to kind of take note of. And I think it's interesting that when Moses was praying the benediction or the blessing on Reuben, and he said, “Let Reuben live and not die, let not his men be few,” even to have Moses pray for Reuben in spite of basically sins that may have been visited upon the children, the father's children to the second, third, and umpteenth generation. And yet Moses is praying for God's mercy.

I just want you to think of that, because we tend to think of the Old Testament as no mercy, no grace, but just the fact that even Moses, the intermediary at this point. And then think of yourself and how bad you may think your situation or your circumstances, past, present, or future may be, and recognize that God's grace is sufficient. And they didn't have the knowledge we have, and yet “Let Reuben live and not die, and let not his men be,” in other words, let him be prosperous. Now that's not saying that God puts His seal of approval on sin, it's simply saying that God knows our frame and knows that we all mess up, period. All right, the amethyst related to Benjamin, if you recall, this stone comes to us from a most unlikely source from the Greek: 'a' putting it in reverse, and mêthustôs, “drink,” so “not intoxicated” or “not drunk” for the name of the stone, this purplish, bluish stone, as I, I pointed out last week.

Probably what is interesting to me is I don't read anywhere of this particular group of people being intoxicated with wine or with strong drink necessarily, but I do read the intoxication of anger and of religious zeal, which is most prominently exemplified in the Pharisee of Pharisees, the Benjamite most famous to us, the apostle Paul, who was very zealous for God, intoxicated with the power that he felt God had given him to go out and persecute Christians.

So now that is the, we'll call it the five or ten minute recap on last week. So now we return to look at the rest of the stones and some of them will be inconclusive. I can't provide you with information that I don't have, and I'm honest enough to say it. In the case of one of these stones, kind of interesting, it says “ligure” in your King James, a ligure, verse 12, 39:12, which is the stone attached to Ephraim, and the agate which is attached to Manasseh. Now the reason why I'm going to do these together is because ligure, it's very, very difficult. Some have translated this, “the stone that comes from Liguria,” and that's possible, but it doesn't help us with understanding what type of a stone this is. And if you recall the story of the two brothers, two boys that were produced in Egypt by Joseph who was there, not by his own desire, but actually God kind of worked it out that way.

Now, and then he's given Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On, has these two boys. We don't know, by the way, there may be other children, but I'm, we're only talking about the boys that are mentioned, Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh, who was the first whose name means “forgetfulness, for God hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.” And the second son was named Ephraim, meaning “very” or “doubly fruitful.” And interesting, at the birth of these, Joseph says, “For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Now what I love about this is, if you remember just before Jacob/Israel dies, these two are brought to him to bless them as he's basically blessed, or made, we'll call them predictions, some, in some cases not necessarily blessings over the children of Israel. He's about to bless the two boys and he basically crosses his arms so that the reverse basically, instead of it being the firstborn receiving the firstborn blessings, it's the younger one that receives the blessing of the firstborn, at the protest of Joseph, mind you.

He's saying, you know, “No, no, no, no; not that way.” And Jacob says, I know what I'm doing.” Basically, “Son put a lid on it,” all right? That's the first book of Scott for you. But what's interesting is their names, of course, fruitful. Joseph saw Ephraim's offspring, it says, to the third generation, that's pretty fruitful. And we know that by the time Moses had counted the tribes, the numbers were like this, Ephraim had over 40,000, Manasseh had just a little over 30,000, so you can see that there was definitely fruitfulness on the behalf of Ephraim. Now, as an aside, I'm just going to say this, you know, it's interesting, these, these things we read, “God has caused me to forget,” or “God has caused me to be fruitful,” I wonder if any of us can think about how we even could make an application to ourselves. If you think about it, Paul says in the New Testament, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” our light afflictions.

And if you remember what Joseph said about God had made him forget in the land of his affliction, it's kind of interesting. I wonder how many of us have said, in spite of our circumstances, “How can I possibly prosper when all of this is going on in my life?” I, I'm going to ask you to take another look at Joseph because he, in spite of everything going on, God still prospered him and there was a reason for that.

He always looked to God first. There wasn't any, Joseph was all about Joseph; Joseph was all about God and God saw that, and God rewarded him for that. So when you are looking around and saying, “How is God supposed to prosper me in all this, my circumstances?” I want you to think of Joseph. Joseph stayed by the stuff. He didn't deviate. He didn't succumb to the flesh and God rewarded him for that. Now we are not, Joseph I know is a type of Christ, we are not perfect, but we can look to that example and we can understand that God can still bless us in our “light affliction.” For some of us it's a little bit lighter than others, but let's not get into that. All right, the stone of Ephraim referred to as ligure, as I said, the Hebrew word is leshem, translated in the Septuagint as ligurion, the stone of Liguria. I'm going to tell you, I looked this up and I found over 27 different interpretations of this stone, so I decided I'm not touching it.

(Laughter.) 'Got to know when to be smart and leave things alone. I'm not touching it. We could have had one singular message on the stone of ligure, yes, because I'm famous for periods and commas, why not a stone? But this won't affect anything if we have a couple of these ambiguous ones, the bigger picture will make sense. With Manasseh there may be a bit more for us to glean the forgetting along with the fruitfulness, if you will. So when we forget the things that are behind and reach forth to the things that are ahead and we press towards the mark, the prize, which is Christ, I think when we think about the name “forgetfulness,” we tend to think like, “Oh, I'm absentminded,” but how about God made Joseph forget all the pain that he went through and all the suffering that he went through, and all the unnecessary things that he endured with receiving the blessing of these sons and receiving the blessing of being reunited with his family.

So again, I'd ask you and I to ask this question of ourselves, it's a rhetorical one: how many of us are living in a trapped past with, without being able to━and I know this is hard. You know, you hear people say, “Forgive and forget.” No, we're not talking about that type of forgive and forget. We're talking about when one is so preoccupied with what God has done in the present and what He's promised in the future, that it makes all of the getting here to this point seem like even though it might have been a bad trip, it almost doesn't feel that way anymore. Does that make sense? (Yes ma'am.) Good, because that's what forgetfulness for me in this context means, not empty-headed mindlessness, but rather that God gave an abundance of other things that caused Joseph to forget all of what he endured and suffered to get to that point. Okay, Manasseh's name was on the agate stone in the breastplate, and agate is supposedly harder than steel, kind of interesting concepts here.

I'm not sure about the proper interpretation of this Hebrew word either, so we're just going to leave it there. If any of you would like to lose your hair, lose sleep; sounds like an ad for medication you see on TV, “May induce nausea, vomiting,” look it up for yourselves. (Laughter.) Yeah? Okay. Jasper is the stone of Naphtali, whose name means “my wrestling.” And if you remember the context in which that name was given, Rachel wrestling, desiring to have a child. And of course the idea of struggling with God in prayer should not be a foreign one to any of us, because that's when, when she talks about wrestling and “my wrestling,” it was because she wanted something, not just desiring to have a child, but recognizing that in that day and age, failure to produce a child at all meant you had no value as a wife or even as a woman. Think about that. How often have you wrestled in prayer over things that you wish God would do or take away or remove from you or add to your life? And this is the concept of this wrestling.

Even our Lord wrestled in prayer in the Garden Gethsemane. So, from the Mosaic blessing, from Moses' blessing to Naphtali, “O Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full with the blessings of the LORD”" And, I should say, prior to that, Jacob, Israel's blessing, “Naphtali is a hind, let loose: he giveth goodly words.” From this I glean; and I'm using these as kind of pictorial concepts as for this particular stone for Naphtali, “agility,” “freedom,” or “liberty” is attached to the meaning of both the stone and the meaning of the tribe, if you will. And interestingly enough, in the book of Revelation, the one who sat on the throne in the fourth chapter, it says, was “like a jasper and a sardine stone.” The walls of the holy city in the twenty-first chapter were jasper and of the foundation stones likewise. So I'm not sure if when we talk about this stone, there are actually two different words for “jasper” being translated.

They may or may not be the same again if you wish to investigate further, knock yourselves out. The second child born to Zilpah and adopted by Leah is Asher, and Asher will be attached to the onyx stone, I believe. I jumped ahead of myself here. But it says of Asher; by the way, his name “happy” or “blessed,” and “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties,” speaking eventually to the richness of the inherited territory, “his bread shall be fat.” Asher would come to represent a people who feed upon the finest wheat, upon the finest bread, if you will, wholesome food making a strong people. Take the pictorial essence of what I'm saying, those who feed on the word of God, the bread of life. You can make the connection there.

The onyx stone which also appears on the shoulders; and this stone is very mixed up again in translation. So the stones on the epaulettes and the singular stone deserve probably to be investigated more, but I'm going to leave that alone. As I said, there's a lot of confusion in the stones. All right, moving on to the tribe of Dan's stone, which is beryl, to give you an idea of the uncertainty, Flinders Petrie, I wanted to write some of these down to show you some of the most expert people, said this shoham, which is beryl referred to as “green jasper.” And professors Coons and others think this stone is related to malachite based on an Arabic translation.

I told you it's like, who knew? So we've got a whole bunch of concepts here for the stones. And I think probably if I kind of just glaze over these, it's because I'm not going to waste time trying to figure out which one is which, but I can tell you something about Dan. Remember that Dan's name means judge. And when it says, “Dan shall judge the tribes” even though that may have been, for example, a person like Samson, who was a judge and did judge the people, but you have to read that very carefully.

It says “shall judge his people as one of the tribes,” not – it's very weirdly worded, “He shall judge his people as one of the tribes.” And that leads back to speculation about something. Where it talks about Dan is “likened unto a serpent, by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that the rider shall fall backwards”" the images that are given are twofold. One of Israel's idolatry which, Dan was no innocent bystander, so if you start looking at the history of idolatry, there you've got the, at the house of Micah in Judges 18 with the image that they took that was made from man. They took it essentially, made it their own. It says, “And the children of Dan set up the golden image.” And if you keep going, you're going to find that there's a lot of these peppered in. You've got to look for them.

So it's possible when it says, “how an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, that shall make his rider fall backwards,” they were like a, a stone in the way to trip people up, because by leading people into idolatry, what do you do? You fall backwards. You don't fall forwards. You don't fall to the side. You fall, you go backwards. So that may be the best way to understand. But again, interesting that this tribe, with all of its issues, is included in the breastplate of judgment; and again, I'm going to repeat this because it bears repeating. If you think coming into the body of Christ, somehow that you're perfect or you take the words and you say, “Well, my sins have been washed away,” there is no but to that.

Do not think that there is anybody in the sound of my voice, from my voice forward, in the sound of my voice that doesn't fit into the category of being a Reuben, a Simeon, a Dan, by many manifold ways. And you could say, “Well, but I've been committed. I've stayed the course.” Well, don't toot your own horn too much. That's all I have to say. A little humility makes one, I've called it, take the spiritual inventory to say, “Maybe I should zip it, because I might actually be guilty of some of these things,” and in such a nonchalant way that it gives way to the things that C.

S. Lewis said in his Screwtape Letters about, no one will know. “Now what's the harm of curling up in front of the fireplace with a good book?” That's the voice of the devil versus if it takes time away from reading the good book, yeah, there's a problem. So all of these things I'm asking you to look at and consider the fact that they were all included; the good, the bad, the u-gly, they're all on the breastplate. No stones were removed. Nobody said, much like the Egyptians, “Oh, that guy messed up. We're going to scratch his name out of everything.” Can you imagine that? So it took some guy doing the carving on these walls.

You know, “I've been working on this thing for twenty years.” “Scratch his name out right now.” “Yes, sir.” It's an interesting procedure right there. But the reason why I'm pointing all this out is, at least for Dan, the beryl stone, which is the stone I'm talking about, very hard, referred to in Ezekiel 10:9 in connection with the mighty and powerful chariots and the wheels seen by the prophet.

The hands of the bridegroom in the Song of Solomon are set with beryl. So it's interesting that this stone has, we'll call it, a diverse amount of references throughout the Scripture, and again it's, it remains somewhat ambiguous. If we're only looking at the English, it's plain as day, but when you look at these names in Hebrew, it's not so clear. So I don't want to get hung up on the lack of clarity because if you string them together, and I'll show you in a minute how this comes together. But before I do that, let me talk about one last thing regarding the breastplate of judgment. It had some type of a pocket or a pouch in it to put what is referred to as the Urim, a repository for the Urim and the Thummim, stones which God would give His judgment or decision in the event of uncertainty or doubt.

Sometimes these stones are rendered “lights” and “perfection.” And what is strange is that, unlike all the other components in the priest's garment, there's not too much we can find about these stones. So God goes to great detail to talk about the gold and the ouches and the shoulders and the ephod and, and here we have very little mentioned. In the Septuagint, the two words being translated Urim and Thummim are delosis and alethea, “manifestation” and “truth.” And that's why I said to you the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible done two, three hundred years before Christ, has some interesting terminology, including using logion to describe the component of these stones as being as “oracle” in nature. So it's kind of interesting. Moses alludes to these as if, when you're reading this, I want you to kind of try and get your mind out of modern day. Moses talks about these stones as if they were common knowledge to everybody. So it should be assumed that rather than making it something so mysterious that we know nothing about, they knew all about it.

And they knew a lot because these were consulted on a regular basis. The Vulgate text, for example, says in Ezra 2:63, “Till there stands up a priest learned and perfect,” that's the Vulgate, the Latin. To show you how the same text reads in the Hebrew, “Till there stood up a priest with the Urim and the Thummim.” So between the two, right, “till there stands up a priest learned and perfec”" versus “a priest with the Urim and the Thummim,” so, then if you start looking historically on how people commented on this, that's a whole different ball of wax. So if you're familiar with the English scholar, Bede, 672-735 A.D., refers to the Urim and the Thummim considered to be on the breast piece “for the diligent inquiry of doctrine and truth.” Calvin called these “ornaments of Christ,” kind of interesting, “symbol and emblems of the ephod.” Now, Josephus, the Jewish historian says that the Urim and the Thummim ceased about two hundred years before he wrote his Antiquities.

That would be about 135 or so B.C. If one consulted the Mishnah and the Babylonian Talmud, the place or the disuse or the cessation, if you will, says it “ceased when the first prophet ceased.” And they're not talking about the Major or the Minor Prophets. They're going right back to calling David and the likes of David prophets and saying it ceased then, because if you look it up, you'll find that one of the last references is from the mouth of David. Now, do what you want with that. I'm only going to read from what's here, and I can only say what's in the book. So, yeah, it seems that it kind of faded out about that time. And if you think about it, at the death of Solomon when the kingdoms split, it also kind of tells you that God kind of said, “I'm going to stand back now.” So in doing so, it makes sense that He wouldn't necessarily give that same revelation.

He sent the prophets to tell the people to repent, “It's not too late to turn back,” but the actual giving of more information, God said, “I'm done right now. The books are closed,” so kind of interesting. But there's a lot of controversy as to when they stop being used, and these thoughts and how they connect to Jesus, this is an interesting one. So what I'd tell you about how this connects to Jesus is somewhat, I think, interesting. The Urim, which would begin with an aleph, and the Thummim, which would end with a, or start with a tav, are the beginning and end of the alphabet in the Hebrew. And I think it's interesting that if you think about it, these would resemble “yea” or “nay” when somebody approached for a decision, for an answer, for a dispute. We know about Christ. Christ says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Here's the Urim and the Thummim, which represent in the Hebrew language the beginning and the end, become that in Christ.

He is; if we want to use the words “lights” and “perfection,” He is the Light. And there's always One guiding who is the Light and who is Perfect. And we don't need those cubes, if you will, or those stones of revelation, now that we have Christ. Okay. If you're interested in Deuteronomy 33:8, Ezra 2:63 and Nehemiah 7:65, the Urim, the Urim and the Thummim are mentioned together. You'll find in some places it is mentioned, the Urim is mentioned by itself, like 1 Samuel 28:6, Saul said, “When he enquireth of Jehovah, Jehovah answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urims, nor by prophets,” so sometimes appearing by itself; sometimes together.

Sometimes the word for Urim, by the way, is also translated “fire” or “fires,” fire, again, the symbol of God's presence. So I don't care how you want to deal with this, but interesting, if, if the Urim and the Thummim represent light and perfection, I want you to try and conceptualize what I just said and import it into the book of Revelation where you find the Son of Man standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. That was, it says, “as a flame,” presence of God, the light and perfection of God, if you will search the ways of the seven churches of Asia Minor.

Interesting that a lot of times what comes out is the foreknowledge, “I know thy works.” In other words, we don't need the revelation of stones because the One who reveals all spoke. Kind of think of it like the woman at the well, “This man told me everything that I ever did,” right? We don't need to consult stones when we have the Rock Himself speaking; and I'm not talking of the actor, I'm talking of Christ. Just to be clear, you never know in this day and age when people can't even read a regular clock anymore, I have to be clear about what I'm saying. “God, help me.” So, wow, that's an interesting sermon today. But what I want you to leave with here is kind of something interesting, that every child of God's name was engraved on the heart, carried on the breastplate. Every child of God's name written in the Lamb's book; put it to you this way, the same concept, written on God's heart.

So when people say, “You know, what does it matter”" or “God doesn't care.” How do you know? Because if this is any indication of the care that the high priest, just a mortal man, and yes, it was by instruction; he didn't take it up on his own and volitionally say, “Let me wear these and go into the Holy of Holies.” But the One who was willing is our High Priest, who willingly said, “Whosoever will, I will in no wise cast out,” and when we come, simply by faith carries our name in His heart, we have been taken into the beloved. I love the way all of this just kind of makes a complete picture for me. Now, there are people that believe that these Urim and Thummim were also used when lots were cast. I cannot speak too much about that, but I can tell you what I've just said.

It is definitely clear that these; everything that is represented on the breastplate, including those two stones I'm referring to, is almost symbolic of everything that's here and everything that's here. In other words, it's kind of like what the Bible says about what proceeds out of a person's mouth, that's what's in their heart. Well, put that in the reverse.

When God called your name, you weren't an accident. You were already on His heart as His child. So, I love the fact that we, we have a High Priest who never takes the breastplate off. He doesn't need the stones; He has all that, He possesses all the wisdom and all the knowledge. And whether you want to kind of now tie up all the stones, if you were to string together all of their meaning from the names of the tribes, of the children, to the value of the stones, so whether, if you string it all together and you might end up with a message that sounds something like, “The light bearer is rewarded to praise for some and breaking apart of others to victory from the eternal, who may use the rolling sea and its instability to harden some to forget, and others to be fruitful, to be strong and able to subdue.” Now, that's everything contained in the information from both the stones and the names, which almost says everything that we could possibly need for us is taken care of in God, in Christ.

I don't know how else to say that, because when I think about that, it, it tells you about those who maybe have a more meritorious place versus those who maybe shouldn't be there, but all are there, all are mentioned. And that's what I love about the God we serve, especially recognizing this beautiful picture. The other thing I want to say is, and we don't tend to think about this, when you think about the tribes and the names of the tribes, we tend to think either of the children themselves; it's really hard to remember the children of the children, of the children's name, yeah? But think of them as families and think, for example, that the family stone, the sardius, for example, the stone of Judah, I want you to think that that stone didn't just represent Judah, but represented a whole family and a family of families of families within that tribe. So whatever the number of people that would have been, I'm going to make up a number and say, if the number was 70,000, just of men alone, and if you add in the women and children, say that number was 100,000.

The priest going in with that one stone of the twelve is not just representing Judah, but everything that encompasses, that is around, that is relevant or attached to Judah going in to the Lord's presence wearing these things. So I want you to think about this. We go into God's presence and we pray. We are bringing with us essentially the same concept, although we can, we can pray for anybody, we can pray for ourselves, we can pray for our friends, our family, but when we come into God's presence, it's almost the same concept as we are essentially, specifically now, I'm going to say this, for your household even, coming in when you're making prayer or petition, much like the high priest representing the whole, that whole that you're responsible for. And I would say this more aligned to the men of the household. Those of you who don't have a man in the house, then you're your own priest anyway, but for the men specifically. And this is a little bit; it's probably information that should have been woven in long ago, because I don't talk too much about this.

But if we would go back to the principles that God set out of the priest of the household; that is not a lording over, that's not somebody who's thumping their fist and, “Get me this and do that,” someone who is calculated in understanding the wisdom of God that can petition for the whole family. That doesn't mean that the rest of the family doesn't pray on their own. But just these small concepts; there are messages within messages in this message that give me insight that sometimes we're not even using our prayer time to its fullest potential.

So just think about that and again, I know we live in different times where not every household has a man, but each individual is a priest in their own home. And if you are still in a traditional home, husband and wife, then the husband, there's a criteria for this. So don't be mistaken. The criteria is the husband must know this word inside and out like the back of his hand to be able to say, “I'm the priest of this household,” otherwise, it's kind of a general blanket for the household. Sorry to say that that way, but that's the way it works. So even there, when we read in the New Testament, we've become a royal priesthood, we are entering into God's presence when we approach the throne of God boldly, and we may bring with us, let's say, the name of your tribe, whatever your; I'm using that as a colloquial way to say your name, your family, your husband, wife, your loved ones, your friends, but you're still stepping in that role, and God sees the same spirit as the high priest that entered in with the breastplate, because that same spirit is the spirit of the mind of Christ, that we would pray for our household, for our family, for our friends.

So just, that's a little footnote there in case people are interested. Now I'm going to jump to real quickly, I'm going to save the last item, which I won't get to, but I'm going to jump to two things real quickly, which are the mitre and the bonnet, so I've, I've jumped off of the breastplate and I'm now on the head for just a second, and it's really brief. Not too much is said about the mitre or its form, but let's just say that there was most definitely a distinction between the headdress of the high priest and those of the other priests. The high priest wore a mitre, the other priests wore some type of a bonnet or a turban, and I know the King James likes the word bonnet.

I don't. A bonnet reminds me of a 1640 Mayflower, elderly woman with a strap on her neck. No, I just don't see the priest looking like women. Yeah, anyway, let's leave that one alone. So they were wearing a turban, okay, a turban. The headdresses were made out of fine linen, denoting the holiness and righteousness of God. The head, which denotes leadership and authority, is in charge of the body. The word “bonnet” is derived from a word meaning “to elevate” or “lift up.” So only the priests wore those, not the high priest, and Christ as our high priest has elevated us. So think about it, we don't need the bonnets anymore or the turbans. Christ has elevated us. The book of Ephesians says, “Seated in the heavenlies,” we're elevated with Him. We don't need something. So again, I'm going to go back and say something that probably inflames a lot of people, but all of this costuming that people tend to wear in the different denominations of the church, why? You know, why? Well, that's, that's a custom maybe of a country, and I can accept that, but custom of the church of Jesus Christ, no, that was done away with.

And you can put that in your pipe and smoke it too, all right? (Laughter.) Because I'm seeing the look on some of your faces like, “Huh?” You know, there were a couple of people that picked this up last week, the regalia of the priest's garb, which I said has been left behind. But if you notice, there are several factions of the church that have kept the regalia and the garb going. And in fact, certain colors on the garb mean certain things and the more bling; the more bling you have, the higher bling position you have, I guess. Have you ever seen the blingy-type things I'm talking about? Okay.

God said, “I did away with that.” You know, I don't know what else to tell you, but anyway, Christ humbled Himself unto death that we may not only live, but have an exalted position because of Him. So we don't need the bonnets anymore. And then if you want to think about this, this is also interesting. In the old dispensation, a man would cover his head and take off his shoes. Remember, God spoke to Moses and said, “The place where you're standing is holy. Take off your shoes.” In the New Testament, a man uncovers his head and puts shoes on his feet. And you tell me what the change is. Well, for starters, I mean, just kind of as a very simple thing, the whole approach has changed. The head is not covered anymore. If you want to talk about symbolism, the head was covered, or instructions to cover the head, “God's too holy. God should not see me. God should not even see the top of my head because I might die.” Now God has revealed Himself in Christ; off with the hat.

Now there are people that get very offended at this because there are churches that are very strict. The woman has to have her head covered because Paul said something in the New Testament. Let me just enlighten you on this, and I don't mean to be, I don't mean to be mean about this, but if you read Paul carefully, he salvaged the faith from turning into a splinter of Judaism. James would have made it just that, a splinter of Judaism.

But please do not forget that Paul was steeped in Judaism himself. So a lot of the things that he said, and there are several, belong in Judaism, not in Christianity. You may say, “Well, how could you say that?” Well, a careful reading if; again, you can't contradict here. He says in one place in Galatians 3:28, “There is neither man, there is neither male nor female,” separating, “There is no more. The wall of partition has been broken down”" speaking of Jew and Gentile, or across the board the sexes. That's what he says right there, and then you've got people who will take what he said, turn around and say, “Yes, but women are relegated to this, this position of staying silent in the church,” because of one verse of Scripture that is taken out of context perpetually. And in that same passage, it talks about women prophesying. So are you talking about women staying quiet or women prophesying? Are you talking about women praying with their head covered or uncovered? That's why I said to you, be very careful about what you interpret and how you interpret it.

It's not open to private interpretation, but realize that Paul said a lot of things and taken out of context produces error. What changed here is the whole dispensation of God. “Come,” Jesus doesn't say, “But you've got to take off your shoes to approach Me.” Jesus didn't say to the woman at the well, “Go and wash before I even talk to you. Go into the mikveh and go get cleansed before I talk to you.” No. So the whole dispensation has changed, but yet you've got people who are lodged in some Old Testament gear and they can't switch out of it, so “You must wear a hat to church, and you must wear this garb.” I only ask one thing, just come be decent.

Don't come like you're coming to the beach. Show respect for God's house. But apart from that, that's all I ask. A little bit of respect for God's house. No, there are no rules of; and sorry if somebody says to you, “But Paul says it here.” Well, then I can also show you where Paul says something else that contradicts that. And if you have a problem with that, take it up with God, because the last time I checked, my authority on all of this, by the way, goes back to the same thing that people like to argue about if you want to parse the arguments in this book. I once met a man who said, “Well, if a person isn't baptized, they're sure not saved and they're not going to heaven.” And I just looked at him, and I said, “Yeah, right.” Do you know why I said that? Because on the authority of what I read, Jesus, when He was hanging on the cross, was hanging by two thieves and neither one of these men were baptized.

And He says to one, “This day you'll be with me in paradise.” I don't see a baptism there. I'm not against baptism. I'm just telling you, don't be a box checker. Don't be this person that says, “Well, this is what it says there”; be very careful with that. Because I know way too many people that they put themselves in this little quaint box and they can't get out of it.

That's because God will not be put in a box, not by you and not by me. And if God said, “I want your feet with shoes on and the head uncovered,” and that's the last revelation we have, then I'm going to go with the last revelation we have. And I think Paul in other areas made it abundantly clear, we're always ready to march and do battle, “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel,” ready to go at a moment's notice. So I don't know how you could be ready to go if you were barefoot and a hat might help you on a sunny day, but that's about it. So why do I put this all together like this? There's a lot more. I've actually, there's other components to the priest's garb that I want to cover, but this kind of ties up all the loose ambiguities for the day. That makes me feel better when I get that out. But what I hope this study does do, this particular message, what I hope it does do is show you something.

God's got this wonderful ability to paint pictures. And the picture that is painted for me in the breastplate of judgment that the priest wore is to show that these are; these were all God's children. And even though eventually we know the North and the South will split and bifurcate, and the North will be scattered and the very few from the South will come back. God sees all this. We're not, the people at that time are not given that revelation except for the fact that they'll be scattered or they'll be carried away. And my point is to say God with all of His knowledge still showed, “This is My family. This is who I care for.

This is who I have lifted up in high esteem.” And if you look at the people that were put on this breastplate, most of them do not have stellar, we'll call them résumés, all right? Flawed people and yet all part of God's program, even God makes a pledge. We know because we have the whole book. God makes a pledge and says that eventually He will bring back the scattered ones.

And you've heard me refer to the two sticks and bring them back again to unite them that those two sticks which represent the twelve tribes will be whole again. And a day will come; this is why the Bible to me is a wonderful book, the bookends of the Bible to show you they started as a cohesive band for God's program. And the final chapters of the book of Revelation tell you they'll be there as the final roll call is called out to all of humanity on earth, those who can hear and receive and be saved. So for me, there's beauty in the knowledge that God is not looking at our past failures or our sins or our mess ups.

He says, “You're still my child, and I still care for you, even though you messed up. And My grace is sufficient for you.” And in spite of, you want to chronicle Dan's sin, you want to chronicle- look at all of them. All of them failed, by the way. We saw this when we were studying the tribes going into seize. They all failed to do what God told them to do. And yet God still says, “And there'll be a day where they'll all be reunited in one hand together.” That breastplate will be put back together. It may look different, but it will be God putting back what He started. So when, when you look at this message, there's just one concept to think about. God truly is the Alpha and the Omega. In the beginning He may have used the Urim and the Thummim, but in the end, He just needed Himself and the revelation of Himself to us. And that's what we have, which makes us incredibly fortunate.

I hope you'll be here next week because we've got a lot more detailed work to carry out, but for right now, that's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you'd like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com

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Why Did God Institute the Priesthood? – The Tabernacle through the Eyes of Christ #9

There are way too many people in ministry today who are self-appointed. And when I say that, people say, “Well, sure, because you didn't want the position, and you can say that”" No, I can say that because I have seen too many people who want to partake as, we'll call it the lead figure in a ministry, but they're not willing to take everything that comes with it, and it's self-appointed, “I should be,” “I am,” versus, you know, at some point, it's kind of like Jonah. It's, it is the Jonah syndrome, okay? If God wants you to go somewhere, eventually you're going to end up going, and that includes every direction of your life.

So I think, you know, I could have said, applied to me, I could have said, “Well, I,” and I did say that, “Who am I? I'm not qualified.” I can━you fill in the blanks of all the things I said over the years. But if God has called you that's going to be something, we'll call it rather inescapable. You may actually close the door and you may think, “Well, God will leave me alone.” Then, no, God will keep nudging you for a while until it becomes a torment. And then you'll either really pass over the precipice of, “I want nothing to do with God,” or you'll give way and you'll submit.

♪ ♪ Our focus has been the instructions to build the tabernacle, to build the furnishing. But I want you to think about something, the tabernacle would not have made too much sense if God didn't plan to have some attendants, attending, performing, carrying out the work that was designed for this particular tabernacle. Now there's always this big question, why did God institute the priesthood? And there's actually several reasons, not just one singular one, the quick and easy one is, well, these would be educated or they would be schooled in God's ways and they would teach the people. That's the easy one, but there's, there are more, we'll call it subcategories in that “why,” why did God bring on the priesthood, which again typifies something pointing to something else.

The qualifications for the priesthood are listed in Leviticus 21, don't turn there, Aaron and his descendants had to be free from bodily defects. So someone who had some type of deformity, something crippled would be disqualified. And by the way, this same approach would be taken if you look at the offerings and the offerings had to be without blemish. Why? Because they pointed to something else; they pointed to Christ. You know, if you're only, I said if you only are reading the Old Testament, none of this makes any sense.

But when you know the bigger picture, you're like, that would make sense. Christ who basically took on the sins of the world, but knew no sin is in fact, fits that type of “without blemish,” both for the sacrifice, the, we'll call it the high priest, the actual act of sacrificing, the sacrifice itself. So across the board, all of these things, but I just say to you, Leviticus 21, if you read it carefully, pretty much disqualifies most people. That's a nutshell. Now okay, that's my message, let's go home. But the reason why I point this out and I say, please read this in your own time is because there are such specifics there and they all have, there's, there's a reason for everything and I don't think I could get through all of the reasons, but I think some of them are self-explanatory and a nice slow reading along with your concordance might help because there's some strange words in there you might want to look up; just saying. All right, so the duties, obviously to offer and to present the offerings and sacrifices to God.

Sometimes it was the laying on of hands, other times quite frequently it was the slaughter of the sacrifice, the, the sprinkling of the blood, to deal with the remaining portions of the offerings, the carcasses; lots of instructions in the book of Leviticus on what to do with certain types of offerings, that certain portions were kept back for the priests. Other portions were to be completely consumed, so there are all these instructions to minister and to tend to the altar, to take care of the fire (if you remember the fire, specific fire, perpetual fire), the showbread, the trimming of the wicks, the care of the golden candlestick, the incense, and in general to conduct all the practices and worship ordained by God.

The law was entrusted, and this is a, this is where we kind of begin to bifurcate some stuff, the law was entrusted to both the Aaronic line, that is Aaron and his descendants, who were given the task of basically everything that pertains to the innermost part, the inner court and of course the high priest for the inner sanctum responsibilities, and then the Levites who were given the task of instruction, of instructing the nation on God's ways. And we tend sometimes I think to homogenize this because they all had specific functions. And we find that out by something that God instructs. If you read very carefully, for example, Exodus 28.

This is about the, the clothing, but, “And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him”" that there's always this reference to Aaron and his sons. So that whole line, which I will be referring to as the “Aaronic priesthood,” and then the, there is the “Levitical priesthood” or the Levites, and then there'll be a subcategory of other folks who would be entrusted to do other, other jobs required. So we'll get to that in a minute. But for most of these people, they were completely devoted to the religious purposes of God. And this is important. Definitions will become important because a lot of times we read about; and people misconstrue this all the time. There are references to the priest being “holy unto the Lord,” and I will talk about this in a few minutes.

That is not the caricature that our modern minds make it. So if you been here any amount of time, think “set apart for God's exclusive use,” holy that way, not holy as in, “I've bleached and bathed and scrubbed and I'm pure and I don't sin,” because whoever says that like somebody actually posted something on my social media feed that said, “We, we're not sinners.” Okay, come back and talk to me when you figured out that, yeah, okay, you're━you knock yourself out there. Anyway, there's also what needs to be talked about these priests, how they were renumerated. And again, this is very important because in our modern understanding, now we're, we do not live in a barter society, not yet; that may be coming, but we don't live in the same concepts of how people operated.

So it's important to understand when God said that these would be renumerated through the firstfruits, the tithe of all the produce of the land, the firstborn of cattle, to be responsible in receiving the presentation of the firstborn males. So, firstfruits and the firstborn were directly presented to the priests, but not the Levites. This is where it gets a little muddy, and people tend to muddy this up a lot. All the tithes that would fall to the Levites, there would be a tithe out of that tithe that would go to the other priests. So it's very, very clear, but again, you've got to read it and separate because we tend to homogenize and put all the priesthood together, and they all had different responsibilities.

When it came time to move the tabernacle; I spent all this time telling you about sockets and boards and things being set up. When it came time to move or to march, guess what? The whole entire camp would have to be taken apart and properly wrapped. God had provisions for everything, coverings, and how to protect and how to carry and how many people would carry, very, very particular. So this increased the number of participants that would be included in the priesthood. We'd get, we'll get to know some of these other names, the Kohathites, the Gershonites, the Merarites, who would have their part in mostly a lot of it being transportation type related service, but they would also have other jobs to do. Of course, as I said, there was a very specific method to moving stuff, but when they arrived at their destination, guess what? They set it all up all over again. How fun, right? Imagine if you're the guy who's got the job of setting the sockets down on the ground.

Never mind. He'd be like, “Wow, again? Can God figure out when we can stop moving?” But every time they arrived at a new destination, the tabernacle, all of its furnishings would get set up again. So for this task now, we have, as I mentioned, the other members of Aaron's family who would be basically drafted into these different positions. The Levites worked more like attendants. So the Aaronites were the priests, of course Aaron being the high priest himself and his sons, and you'll always read, it's very specific, even the header in chapter 29 of Exodus says, “Dedication of Aaron and His Sons.” And I have you notice something very important. Moses is never mixed in with those instructions. He may be given the instructions to, as the mediator, to convey. And remember, this is Moses' family, but Moses is never invoked in any of these instructions, and that's very important. Moses stands apart. Now there is something that happened. There's a passage you've heard me refer to many times over about Korah's rebellion. In fact, I think I mentioned it last week or so, speaking of would God open up the earth and swallow up a couple of━would You be merciful enough to swallow up a couple of people here and there? But that incident, very interesting, because Moses says something when kind of we'll say the battle is on, so to speak, the challenge is on.

And Moses says something very remarkable, which we can glean a lot from, in terms of understanding. Remember, Korah is part of the, the Kohathites, that band from that line. And in the standoff, if you want to call it that, Moses says, “Tomorrow Jehovah will show who is His, who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto Him: and whom He will choose, He will suffer him to come near unto Him.” And that was basically a response or rebuttal to Korah basically saying, “Well, you know, we're just as capable,” a little bit like a Miriam syndrome, “We're just as capable as whoever else is doing this, so why not us?” So very interesting, because in those instructions, in that declaration, if you will, there are a lot of things we can glean about the order of things.

When Moses says, “Tomorrow Jehovah will show who is, who is His,” just put a, put a point right there, number one, “who are His by election” in this case; not self-appointment. And again, I'm, I'm going to go back and forth a lot. This may sound a little choppy, but if you follow the flow, it'll all make sense. There are way too many people in ministry today who are self-appointed. And when I say that, people say, “Well, sure, because you didn't want the position, and you can say that”" No, I can say that because I have seen too many people who want to partake as, we'll call it the lead figure in a ministry, but they're not willing to take everything that comes with it, and it's self-appointed, “I should be,” “I am,” versus, you know, at some point, it's kind of like Jonah. It's, it is the Jonah syndrome, okay? If God wants you to go somewhere, eventually you're going to end up going, and that includes every direction of your life.

So I think, you know, I could have said, applied to me, I could have said, “Well, I,” and I did say that, “Who am I? I'm not qualified.” I can━you fill in the blanks of all the things I said over the years. But if God has called you that's going to be something, we'll call it rather inescapable. You may actually close the door and you may think, “Well, God will leave me alone.” Then, no, God will keep nudging you for a while until it becomes a torment. And then you'll either really pass over the precipice of, “I want nothing to do with God,” or you'll give way and you'll submit. Boy, I'm using a lot of words that people will just go, “Oh, I can't━did you just say that?” Yeah, I just did, because that's the way it works. So the━God will show who, who belongs to Him as opposed to the self-appointed. So that's one.

The next thing He says is, “Who is holy?” Remember, who is set apart, not who is clean, who is set apart for God's exclusive use? And God has a way of sorting that out too, by the way. There's a lot of people that come and they want to be ministers and they're not willing to be exclusively; again, I'm going to get flack for this, they're not willing to be God's tool. They want to be kind of a little bit of everything. So this is very informative for anybody who says, “Well, how does this work?” I'm just telling you, God has not changed, “Who He will cause to come near unto Him,” in this case now we are a complete and royal priesthood, but back then God had said, “Only the ones that I choose to do these certain tasks.” And then we'll call it, because I've gone down the points here, the last two are related to each other in that drawing near to God in any type of service in the Old Testament, the approach to God, the act of bringing an offering or offering before the Lord at different times.

And that would also include bringing back to the people at times, the remnant that would go back to the people or something, a benediction or blessing that would come from God back to the people. So if you think about it, in these words that Moses used which I believe are in Numbers, you really get a good understanding of why God opened up the earth and swallowed up that band of people. And it's very, very clear. You know, sometimes you can read something, you pass it by, but this one makes it abundantly clear. So the offerings, also God didn't want somebody self-appointed to help themselves. And there are folks chronicled both in this book and in real life who have done just that. So now back to the reason why God put all this together. Yes, there was the necessary need to educate the people and explain to the people, but I'd like to point something out which shows you another, I'm going to debunk another one of these modern stupidities that's always put on me or I hear it and it makes me cringe.

Back in Exodus 20, we have something that makes it abundantly clear of why God implemented something. In Exodus 20, you've got the giving of the Ten Commandments and then after all that happens, in verse 18, “And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,” I know you're saying, “Where'd they get the trumpet?” I know, “and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God has come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

And the people stood afar off, Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.” Now I want you to think about something, and please put this in perspective. This goes back to God's sovereignty and God's prerogative. Why were the people afraid? Well, we know what was said in times of old: if you saw God, you would die. But what separated Moses from the rest of these people? I want you to really think about this. Moses was a murderer. Moses murdered a man in Egypt, and this is the one that; no, let me add to that. He murders a man in Egypt. He spends the first forty years of his life basically living in the pleasures of Egypt. The next forty years of his life on the backside of the desert looking at donkey butts probably, okay? And the last chapter of his life he's now going to be this obedient servant to God, somewhat; we'll say 99 percent.

But I'm asking you to think about something. This is the one that God chose to be the mouthpiece. Was Moses perfect? No. More importantly, I don't read, and I can't tell you because it's not chronicled for me, but I don't read of any of these people standing at the bottom of the mount having killed a man. And yet they were afraid of God and Moses presented himself. And there's a lot right there that I said to consider. But if you want to put it in ways to focus, very clearly, God knew everything about Moses, and yet still chose Moses. This is why I won't tolerate people saying, “Well, a person in the ministry has to be,” and they fill in what they think the person needs to be.

It doesn't work like that with God. This tells you right here, take a good look at how God does things. He never chooses the popular person, because Moses had become hated. If you think about it, when he slew in Egypt, when he killed a man, the people turned on him, even though he thought he was doing a good thing. So don't get all this idea, it's all this modern crap that people want to put on a minister or a ministry and it just doesn't work like that. If you're reading this book, it's very clear and I could catalog all the people who are the least desirable, most unsuspecting, and yet Moses is the one who God speaks to at the burning bush.

Moses is the one that God chooses, and yet I don't read Moses was fearful or Moses said, “I fear God.” I mean, there was a point at first, but then of course he is talking with God, receiving the message, receiving the instructions, yet these people at the bottom of the mount, they see all this and they're fearful and they draw back. And Moses says something very interesting, “Fear not, for God has come to prove you,” and we've gone over that word before, “to prove you,” “that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.” So just, I'd ask anybody in the sound of my voice to really pay attention to this.

Ministry, which is what I do, any type of arm of the ministry and the people who sit in, involved in the ministry, hearers, listeners, participants, again, Romans 3:23, “All have sinned,” here's a perfect example for you. But it's all in the way, if you think about it, Moses at the first said, “Who am I? I can't speak. I don't know what to say,” and then begins to have a relationship with God, much different than the people who, by the way, never cultivated; they saw everything that God did, but they never came to know who God was.

And that's another important piece of information here. So, I would just say this is kind of one of those catch-all things when people say, “Well, a minister of God,” just take a good look at the people that God chose and used who stand out as the prominent figures, and Moses, by the way, being both a prominent figure in Christianity and Judaism, yet, I seldom, if ever; and I've heard a lot of different rabbis and commentators, I seldom, if ever hear people speak on the very human Moses, the very sinning Moses who could get mad, get, get mad at the people's grumbling; actually got a little bit miffed at God, because we tend to morph these into special people, but they were just like us. And that's the other thing I want you to put note to self. So, if anybody says, “Well, I don't belong,” because somebody posted something somewhere and said they didn't feel welcomed being a part of the social universe that basically tunes in━you don't have to feel welcomed by other people.

Haven't you learned this? Other people, if we were living back in Moses' day, they'd be stoning you. Instead, now they just play cowardice, and they call you a name and they run away and hide behind a little fake handle, right? You don't have to feel welcome. You feel welcome in the Lord. The Lord makes you feel at home. That's how that works; so don't confuse the things. Okay, so the Levites and the priests had a very unique situation, back to that now, as they did not receive territory as all the other people were prescribed land that once they entered into the Promised Land, this territory would belong to this tribe and this territory to this tribe, but 48 cities were assigned to them as dwelling places, distributed among the tribes that they might teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.

Thirteen of those 48 cities were designated cities of the priests. You can read about those in Numbers 35, Joshua 21, and 1 Chronicles 6. Six of those, of the 48 cities, were cities of refuge and that's another very interesting sub-subject to read about. But that could be for another day. Right now I'm trying to focus on everything that's related to the priests, the priesthood, the Levites and anything that goes along with this work. The consecration of the priests, as I think I just pointed out, you'll find it in Exodus, but the act of consecrating was not carried out until everything about the tabernacle was complete, so we're reading things that are not quite in order. So when God said, “Build Me a place to live; build the ark first, and then all the components,” basically God started from the innermost part and worked His way out. But He still had to make plain the concepts of sacrifice and offering and the function, the work of the ministers.

So these would only be consecrated when everything else was finished. So you probably, you'd be safe to say that the consecration of the priests occurred somewhere very late in the book of Exodus, if we were trying to be chronological about this, or possibly even as early, some part, I will say definitely before the book of Leviticus was written because that is the laws of the offering. By then we would have had dedicated priests, so just a note to self. The consecration had two parts to it, each having three distinct actions. So the first was the washing, clothing, and anointing of the chosen priests or recipients. The second was the need to offer a sin offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering. And what's kind of interesting is there's a whole procedure for this. Let's see if I think I stuck this on the margins of my Bible in Exodus 29, at about the fourth verse it says, “And Aaron and his sons shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water.” So you've got them first being washed with water.

In the fifth verse it is their clothing, “Thou shalt take the garments, put them upon Aaron the coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod,” think of that as more like a belt because it's strange to refer to it as a girdle in our modern verbiage, “thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.” And then the last but not least in verse 7 is the oil; so you've got water, clothing, and oil as the distinct parts, and then finally we would move on to read about how they would take the blood of an animal that would be slayed, specifically designed. The blood would be applied to the altar. And then of course the blood would be applied to the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the priest. And I've covered this before, symbolically you kind of get the idea that the blood on the ear, on the right ear; the right is always considered the side of power.

So the right for listening and obedience, the hand to work, and the foot as the walk, we would say our walk of faith. So you've got that as well as part of the ceremony. As I said, the clothes, the anointing oil, and then the anointing oil, there's a whole detailed recipe for that which would be myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, cassia, along with olive oil, and that would be poured on Aaron's head. Now let me stop right here because I've said to you through all of these teachings, everything points to Christ in some way, shape, or form.

And of course Christ, we know if you go right━read the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, the reference is unmistakable even if we didn't have the book of Hebrews to see that Christ is our high priest, functioning for us just like the high priest did except we don't need these repeated exercises or ceremonies. He did it once and for all. But functioning as our high priest, and then you've got the anointing part to the priest pouring the oil upon his head, which interestingly enough there is not a clear mention of the sons, but specifically to Aaron. So think about that. The high priest is anointed and that oil will take the place of the Holy Spirit which is obviously not poured out at this time, so we'll call it the unction of the Spirit, the ability to function within that realm. And here's another interesting one of these things that I'm going to tell you. See, if you're not reading this and understanding there may be a breakup in events, they're not laid out chronologically.

Remember I've said to you in the book of Exodus you've got events of coming out of Egypt and then you see Moses receiving the tables of stone, and right in the middle of the book of Exodus we have the golden calf event that happened, right? So you've got to put all this in perspective that this would have been kind of behind in Aaron's past as well, him participating in succumbing to the pressure of the people to have something to worship while Moses was up on the mount, so think about that as well when we talk about imperfect servants. Moses was not that and if you look at Aaron's behavior he was not that. A real man of God or a person of God, a servant of God would have said to the people, you know, “We need something to worship.” “Hell no! Just shut that down. It's not happening. We're going to wait for Moses.” But I just want you to think this happened before the dedication and consecration.

So this is in Aaron's past and not a very good look, if you will, if we were looking to, ah, we're going to look at the résumé of the incoming priest: “Oh, I see, he had a golden calf event here.” So, all right, what we have though, the priestly functions that were consecrated, if you will, the introduction; it's Moses. But Moses is not part of that. So I always want you to remember something. Moses stands separate, Aaron and his sons are separate, and then the Levites are separate. And this is important because a lot of times we tend to just kind of blend everything together, but they all had specific tasks and functions. The description of the priest's clothing begins in Exodus 28 beginning at verse 2, “Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for the glory, for glory and for beauty.

Thou shalt speak unto all them that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, mitre, a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, his sons, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office. They shall take gold, blue, purple, scarlet,” or red, “and fine linen. They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, fine twined linen, with cunning work.” So here begins the description of all the clothing.

And of course I described these two shoulder pieces joined at two edges thereof, the curious girdle; think of that more as a belt, which is upon the ephod, if you will, to kind of keep everything together, and then there again, gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine, twined linen. “Thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave upon them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on one, and six on the other that rest on the other stone, according to their birth,” so in, basically in birth order.

“With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, thou shalt engrave the two stones,” all the names are going to be put upon it. “And thou shalt take the two stones,” put them on the, “upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD upon his two shoulders for a memorial.” I want you to stop and think about this for a minute. So these six and six are basically the names of all the tribes of the children of Israel, so twelve in all. And when the priest is going to be wearing this garment and also the breastplate which will have the twelve stones on it, this will be always becoming or being presented before the Lord.

So I want you to think about something, because it seems a little bit like, wow, that must be very blingy. But what it was, if you think about it, carrying the weight of the people on one shoulder and carrying basically the people in your hearts. That's symbolic meaning, and it takes me immediately to our great Shepherd, and the picture of Him going after the one lamb, placing it upon His shoulders.

But it's the same thing, both heart or chest and shoulders. So it seems a little strange because you've got all these strange, we'll call them approach to making garments. For example, he goes on to say, “and thou shalt make ouches of gold”" or settings of gold, “two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shall thou make them, fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches,” or to the settings. “Make the breastplate of judgment.” And that's another thing that is seldom, if ever, people talk about the breastplate, but they don't use the full word, “breastplate of judgment with cunning work, after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it gold, blue, purple,” and we go on with, and I've told you all the colors. You can go back into previous messages and refer to what the colors or the materials are for.

“Foursquare it shall be being doubled; shall span the length thereof, shall span the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in, in its settings of stone, four rows of stone,” and then it goes on to tell “the first row shall be sardius, topaz, carbuncle, first row,” second row, giving all the stones, which we're going to talk about in a minute. Now if you keep going down, verse 21, “The stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name shall be according to the twelve tribes.” So this is all the instructions of, all the way down to the hem of the bottom of the garment for the high priest.

It's very detailed. There's a lot of information there. Why I think this is very intriguing, everything has meaning here. So as I said, the shoulder stones, if you will, and it's kind of interesting, because these people came and they were prescribed ways before God in the offerings: sin, trespass, given all the different offerings, but it was still the burden of the high priest to bear their names, so basically bearing them and bringing them in to the place they could not go.

Now we don't have that anymore. Each person stands alone and before God. We don't need someone to stand in between. This is why it's very frustrating when I talk to a lot of people who are still in the mindset that you need a, an intermediary person here on earth to go to God and I'm sorry, it's not there. It was there in this Testament, but Christ became the mediator for us, the only mediator you'll ever need.

It doesn't talk about Mary being the mediator. It doesn't talk about anybody else but Jesus who is, if you want to say the go-between, but He's the direct line. There's nothing in between that for the believer. I don't know why that's so hard for people to understand. Okay, the breastplate in the Septuagint is translated logion, which is very interesting because if you look up that word, it says “oracle,” and I'm not sure if they might have been referring to what went additionally into that breastplate. With the 12 stones there were something very peculiar, which I will not get to today, but we'll talk about the Urim and the Thummim, which those, we'll call them apparatus if you will, I guess would give guidance in some ways.

So I think that the Septuagint basically took the logion, “oracle” to attach on, not to the stones, but onto these interesting, whatever you want to call them, but the Urim and the Thummim. So that's one thing. And then of course, what, where were these stones found? All of these stones, but the two peculiar ones, which is another mystery that we'll have to talk about. And then the names, as I said, that would appear on the stones. So for example, and please do not do the traditional thing where people will read the stones and then think, “Oh, and that's this color,” because it's not as easy as that. If you start investigating from the Hebrew and you try and look these things up, you're going to pull your hair out. So for example, carbuncle, which is the first stone I'm going to talk about, which would be related to Zebulun. And what is said about the carbuncle in Hebrew is derived from a root used for “lightning” or “glittering,” and the Hebrew word is bâreqeth, a stone that glittered or was like light.

The late Dr. Driver did not translate the stone as carbuncle, but said it should be referred to as “rock crystal,” because it would flash with a great color spectrum. No one is actually sure, a lot of these stones, no one is actually sure of the correct━and trust me, if you start getting into the linguistics of it, you're just going to be very frustrated. So I'm warning you if you decide to go down that pathway, you could say, “She said so.” The Septuagint and Josephus seem to prefer the rendering of this carbuncle as snaragdos, which is emerald.

Don't ask me. And Pliny spoke of at least 12 different varieties of this stone, so not sure what you do with that, but that's why I said it's not cut and dry. But there's, there's relevance to all this. And let me tell you what the relevance is. So back in Genesis 30, we read about when Zebulun came into the world, and Leah says, “God hath endued me with a good dowry; because I have born him six sons: she called his name Zebulun.” The name, his name, all the names mean something. His name means “dwelling.” If you keep reading, when Jacob is about to die, Jacob/Israel is about to die and blesses his children, he says that Zebulun would “dwell at the haven of the sea; and that he should be a haven for ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.” If you keep reading, because Moses will do another blessing on the rest of the tribes as well, Moses says, Zebulun, along with Issachar, “Rejoice Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents.

They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasures hid in the sand,” Deuteronomy 33. So evidently Zebulun had some attachment to the sea, to the portion of water, maybe a place of safety for ships. And minimally, if you want to take everything that's said between Jacob and Moses, it might be a combination of two things, but they would be seen possibly as people dwelling, almost like lighthouses, if you will, “safe haven of ships,” calling the people, because if you read the rest of what Moses says, calling the people unto the mount, which will be those being called to worship. So very interesting that if you want to kind of put it into a pictorial thing, Zebulun might be seen as a lighthouse or a light bearer.

So I, in where it lists the stones, I kind of put down these little ideas that might help, that give some idea, because when you look at all the stones and, and/or the names and what they represent, there's a picture being painted, and that picture's pretty interesting. The next stone is topaz. A stone, again, don't think traditional, how you under━if you know stones, and you're into any type of precious stones, gemology, whatever; do not think traditional here. This stone is described as yellowish, greenish, brownish, from the Hebrew word. Try that one on. Pitdâh in the Hebrew, meaning “engraved,” this stone bore the name of Issachar upon it, Issachar's name in Hebrew connotes “recompense” or “reward.” And so, again, another interesting thing, when I started looking into this, I noticed something. Do you remember when God is speaking to Abram, and He says, “Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward,” you'll find a cognate of Issachar's name. Every time you find “reward,” you find his name attached there. It's very interesting.

Or if you go to the Greek interpretation of this stone, it is “to seek.” So you could, maybe if you wanted to combine the two meanings, I'm not sure that that's doable: a reward for seeking diligently. But nevertheless, again, interesting, I put a little note, “reward” or “recompense.” So we have first the light bearer, like lighthouse; light bearer, reward or recompense. The next one is sardius, which is the Hebrew 'ôdem. That stone is Judah's stone, the tribe of Judah, their stone. And fascinating, this one is really actually very interesting because 'ôdem, if you are familiar with Hebrew, Hebrew does not have vowel letters. It has the vowels underneath, so you'd have to know what the vowels are. So this word 'ôdem is very much, could be very much read as “Adam,” “Edom,” so either like the first man, Adam, or the color red, and interesting that it's attached to the tribe of Judah that ultimately takes us to Christ.

So you've got the reference of Christ the last Adam, and many references in the benediction from Jacob/Israel regarding Judah, a lot of it is regarding wine, the color red, the blood of grapes. I find this very fascinating: “Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's his colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eyes shall be red with wine,” so there's very interesting connections here. And I probably at some point will go back and deal with that prophecy because it's got so much in it. Do you think there's any accident here that hundreds, and I━how many generations before Christ, the mention of “choice vine, washed his garments in wine,” everything connected to the vine, to the blood of the vine? And then you read in the New Testament where Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father the husbandman.” And all of these interesting connections that happen hundreds of years apart, and yet God is saying, “I don't know why people can't see these connections.

They're right there.” All of the information regarding each and every tribe, which we've covered, and then you put the stones with that, really build an interesting picture. So we know Judah's name is “praise,” right? And it says that “your brothers will bow down and praise you.” It's very interesting as well how anyone could not see this. The world who looks to Christ, what does Paul say? “Every knee should bow and every tongue should confess,” if that's not the concept of praise from the one who heralded out of Judah, I don't know what is. So all of these almost lead you back to concepts, they are basically all New Testament, but they're all there on the stones with the names, giving you all of this information. I just say this one last thing because there's so much if you go back to read both what is said from Jacob/Israel and from Moses, because both times there have benedictions given to each of the tribes or blessings or we'll call them informational pieces that are applicable in prophecy even.

The interesting thing about this is that we have basically the concept in the New Testament, “Behold the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world,” everything that's attached to the blood, the shed blood. So all of the words that are basically in the benediction or the blessing point you to Christ; everything points to Christ. It is what it is, if you don't like that, but that's the best way I can tell you is that's how you see Christ and everything.

The next stone is diamond. That is Gad's stone. The Hebrew word may carry the meaning of “to break” or “to bruise” other stones, the ability to break or to bruise others or to scratch others. This one's kind of interesting because Jacob says the following regarding Gad, he says, “A troop shall attach him, but he shall drive them back at the last.” And Moses goes on to say, “Blessed be he who enlarges Gad, he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm and the crown of the head.” It goes on to say, “He saw that the firstfruits were his, for therein the portion assigned by the lawgiver, he was securely located, and henceforth as leading people to execute the justice of Jehovah and his judgment with Israel.” So kind of interesting, attacked by his enemies, yet overcoming; enlarged or increased, remember the words kind of resonating from Moses' mouth, the fear that perhaps some of these people might get wiped out in battle; and he was right, by the way. I like if you kind of look for the meaning of this diamond in other parts of the Scripture, there's something that God says to Ezekiel.

He says, “As an adamant harder than flint.” If you look in a lexicon, “diamond” and “adamant” will be related; “I have made thy forehead,” so “I've given you a strong head; you're a hardhead,” all right, “fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, for they will be a rebellious house,” adamant, as I said the same word in the lexicon as diamond, meaning “impenetrable hardness.” So I'm going to say what we might take away from that is the fortitude we get. If we're putting this all into a New Testament appropriation, the fortitude that we get, that God might ground us the tenacity and the ability to break down or to break apart or to scratch.

And I mean in the sense of fighting the good fight and overcoming, as we are told in Christ, we overcome all these things. So, next stone is even more interesting. The next stone is sapphire related to Simeon. And this one is kind of a little bit mind-boggling for me. I don't care where you get the word either from the Greek or the Hebrew. From the Greek it is “to polish,” “to right,” or “to number,” or “to cut off and divide.” The stone seems to be the same as what's being described as what's under God's feet in Exodus 24:10. Write that down, look it up at another time. But we have the image of the stone itself. I don't necessarily think it's specifically sapphire, because it's blue with some type of gold speckling in it, which reminds me more of something that would, if you know stones, maybe a little bit more like lapis lazuli than sapphire, but whatever.

Here's what's interesting though. In Ezekiel 1:26 and Ezekiel 10, the same word is used. Let me show you, because otherwise it just, it doesn't make sense. Let me show you this. The word appears again, and it seems that there's a correlation now. There's a pattern of, when a word appears, you've got to look at it properly; 1:26 in Ezekiel, “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” And if you turn to Ezekiel 10, you're going to read the same thing.

Ezekiel 10 says, “And I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. And he spake unto the man clothed with linen,” so you get the idea. And then in Exodus 24:10, this is what they saw under, basically under God's feet. So somehow this stone, don't ask me to explain this, because I don't know, I don't have the answers to everything, and I'm very forthright in saying it. But somehow this stone, we know blue is the color of eternity, but somehow this stone is attached repeatedly in Scripture to God's throne. That's mind-boggling, because there's no, nowhere else do we have indicators of something, you know, we don't get these details like somebody said, “Well, God looked a certain way,” or “The angel looked a certain way.” We don't get these type of things unless you're taking apart things and then reconstructing them.

And you can see clearly here that there is a pattern. So this stone has something to do with God's throne. I'm thinking, when we get to see that throne, I think it's going to be a beautiful blue-colored, probably unbelievable coloring to it, but anyway, that as I said, the stone there, connected to Simeon. You've got the emerald, which is connected to Reuben. And if you remember, and I've talked about this and I'm sure you've read about this, but Reuben was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, and the genealogies not to be reckoned after their natural order. So repeatedly we're told, basically he lost his space. He lost his chance because of what he did. Even Moses, in the time of prayer, in that thirty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, “Let Reuben live, and not die, let his men not be few,” so there's something to this in understanding, whatever happened back in Reuben's day, carried forth to this tribe.

Reuben's name was inscribed upon the emerald, and again, do not think emerald like you might envision it. The best description that I could get was a deep sea-green in color. And that's very rich coming from the one who's described as a man, of whom it is said is “unstable as water,” no accident, the imagery of, we'll call it deep, dangerous water, rolling tumult of the restless sea is directly attached to this person. So if you were putting notes down, you would have already light bearer, rewarder or recompense, praise, and obviously the connection to the blood, the bruising or breaking to increase or to be victorious. With the sapphire, we would call it the throne of God or eternal in purpose; Reuben, unstable. The amethyst, which is the next stone we're going to look at, which is Benjamin's stone. And here's another kind of weird twist in looking at things, amethyst, which is usually a bluish, violet kind of quartz. The Greek of this word is very, very interesting.

We say in English, we say “amethyst.” In Greek, “a,” when you put “a” in front of the tongue, it throws it in reverse. And methustos, so “not drunken,” is actually the word translated into the Greek; “amethyst” in English, amethustos, “not drunken,” from methuen, “to drink,” so not drunk. Cannot say that there's a particular incident here of, of people drinking, but I can say that repeatedly there was an intoxication of behavior as in anger. If you remember, the tribe of Benjamin, over 26,000 men faced 40,000 in battle after wronging a Levite, abusing and killing his wife. And it seems like this repeatedly, they, they had this issue of anger. And there is one commentator who used the, the term, so I'm just going to lift it from them, of “intoxicated anger,” because there's no connection to being drunk, not that I've found.

The same would be true, by the way, of Saul of Tarsus, a Benjamite whom we know, who persecuted Christians and was extremely, I think a good word would be zealous, but if you want to use that intoxicated with his religion to wipe out the Christians. So there's, there's a lot to be said. We have, there's more stones that I'd like to cover, but this isn't a, a study in gems. This is like, I gave you the names, and the names tell a story of Aaron and his sons. The stones also tell a story. And this is what's important, the, the idea that with all of their falterings, with some of their successes, it doesn't matter.

The priest, for the time that this was commissioned, the priest wore this ephod bearing two times, both on the front side with the twelve stones and on the shoulder pads with six and six, bearing the names of the people, obviously for different reasons. I, as I said, I believe what was carried on the shoulders as in bearing the weight of the congregation or the camp, and what was placed on the chest to be more like carrying the burdens of the heart of all of the issues, some of them good and some of them bad.

The greatest thing that I want to tell you though, in all of this, if you were to take all of the materials, every part, the mitre, the crown, which again are going to take us to crowns mentioned in the New Testament, every part of this has some shadow or meaning, but in the big picture, we no longer need the clothing or the regalia. Our high priest, by the way, went into the Holy of Holies once and for all, for all of us; shed His blood, so we're no longer needing the repeated sacrifices. But let's talk about even something as simple as the garments, which were needed to separate out for special use, if you will, that certain outfits were only worn on one singular day of the year.

And then I want you to think about why God would choose out, for example, one singular outfit for one day of the year, which would happen to be the Day of Atonement, the great Day of Atonement, in which our analogy to that, the Day of Covering, is the day that Christ died on the cross. And you begin to make these very deep connections to see even the clothing of the priest would become unnecessary. Why? The clothes that Jesus wore, taking up a tent of human━tabernacling in the flesh became unnecessary, if you will; necessary to be recognized, but unnecessary as He'd done the part, performed every act that was required, and therefore the fleshly body He wore to be identified with would no longer be needed.

It will be needed for a future time, I guarantee you. I said this before, I'll say it again, the people that say, “Well, that wasn't my Messiah. That's the Christian Messiah.” This is why clothing will be an important factor, not because I believe Jesus couldn't come back wearing modern garb, because I'm pretty sure that's, it won't be like the pictures we see of long flowing robes. You really think Jesus can't get with the times? I don't think He's going to be wearing a lot of colors, okay? Let's put that aside for a second. If you didn't get that, don't worry about it, okay? But what I am saying to you is the most important piece of clothing will be seeing, that body will still have to be, even though glorified, will still have to be a form that people can, the people who denied Him can look and see “This exactly was the One we should have been worshiping and looked for all this time,” and the clothing in that respect, the earthly clothing will be necessary for one last time.

But for right now, all I want to tell you is I actually love this study as it's very verbose. There's a lot in here, but what it does is, trust me, you go back and you start rereading these passages, and it's, it's almost energizing. It's not dry, it's not two dimensional, but you begin to see how every single detail God wanted exactness. Why? Because it's all pointing to something else, this is all just a shadow of what the original and type is. So if you're interested in part two, be here next week. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.

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The Meaning of the Silver in the Tabernacle

Each person, whether you were rich or poor, was required to pay the ransom money of pure silver, every man to pay his half shekel, clearly showing the way of salvation. And this is what's important; we don't pay to be saved; Jesus paid for us. But there's another part of this that shows you clearly each person had to come and bring their own, which means salvation, even for us, is an individual action, not a collective.

Now somebody, “My church, my group,” no, even here showing each person had to come and present themselves presenting their portion. We don't come and present a portion, but we're not saved by a group; we're not saved by a priest. It's individual. You must present yourself. That action of presenting that redemption money keeps that clear and distinct. ♪ ♪ Alright, so we are going to look at something a little bit, we're still within the tabernacle, but it's a little bit different. And this message is almost like a hodgepodge. It falls under one category, but you're going to see there's many subsections.

So don't think, oh wow, she went all over the map. There was thought in this, but it's almost like putting things together, connecting dots, if you will. So I'm starting right now in Exodus 35, if you wish to turn there. “Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD,” key words here, “whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD: gold, silver, and brass.” Interesting, gold, silver, and brass, those materials, obviously, as I've referenced, gold, the color of divinity or a reference to divinity; silver of redemption; and brass, usually of judgment. And then, of course, the colors, “blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair.” These are all the things that the people would bring, “rams' skin dyed red, badgers' skin, shittim wood,” or acacia wood, “oil for the light, spice, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.” And if you keep reading, “And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make all that the LORD hath commanded; the tabernacle, his tent, his covering, his taches, his boards, his bars, his pillars, his sockets, the ark, the staves.” You just keep going and you'll get down to where it talks about even the clothes or the cloths of service; sorry, “and do service in the holy place, holy garments for Aaron the priest, the garments of his son, to minister in the priest's office.

And all the congregation of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. They came, every one whose heart stirred up in him, every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the LORD'S offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all his service and for the holy garments.” And you could go on if you were going to read this in your own time straight through to the twenty-ninth verse, which it's kind of where I end here, “The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.” Now there's something interesting in this chapter I just read and it's repeated several times.

You'll find it in the fifth verse where it says, “Whosoever is of a willing heart,” and if you read the Hebrew of these words, lev is “heart,” but the word for “willing,” nâdiyb, Strong's 5081, if you're interested you can look it up. But the definition there in the concordance, “free, liberal, noble, prince or princely willing (hearted).” And this word comes from another word. It sounds like nâdab, like one of Nadab and Abihu, the same word, right, from the same root, “to volunteer (as a soldier), to present spontaneously:━to offer freely, to offer, (to make or offer oneself).” So “princely generosity,” if you will, can be found in these passages over and over again. God starts this way. Remember I've been referencing this Exodus 25, “Speak to the children of Israel, tell them to bring Me,” and He specifically, God calls it His offering. He doesn't say it's the priest's or it's the people.

He says it's His offering, but He says, “Speak to the children of Israel, tell them to,” and fill in the blanks. So I'm going to actually flip this, this narrative for a second and show you something in the New Testament. You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to talk about it to show you that a lot of times when we read the Old Testament we get locked into, “Yes, but it was the law”" Well, the law had not yet been given. Now by, by this point that I just read out of, yes, we have, we'll call it the first law had already been given, but in the attempt when God says, “Speak to the children of Israel,” they did not know what the law was.

So I think a lot of times when I mention willful giving in the Old Testament, people automatically assume, “Yes, but they were under some form of a prescription.” No, here it's just basically willful heart, but so that we're clear on what willful heart looks like, it's not under coercion, but it can be under an order. God can say, “I want you to do this,” and the people would still have a choice to not do it. The choice of not doing it probably would result in death, just FYI. But in the New Testament, for example, just don't turn there because they're stories we're familiar with, of what I'd call princely or willful giving. The first one, of course, is probably the most famous one, the woman with the alabaster box, and she pours that gift of the most precious ointment upon Jesus, placed upon Him.

And if you think about it, the commentary that goes around this act, “Why this waste?” which is how the world normally perceives giving: “It's wasteful,” or “Somebody else will do it,” or “Don't give that much.” And we tend to, we'll call it minimalize that gift because the, what the contents of that box would have been very costly, probably the most expensive thing that she owned.

And yet it's poured out upon Jesus, and if you think about it, obviously, as it's poured out upon Him, the same person that would, by the mocking hands of a mocking crowd, bear a crown of thorns, she was pouring this out on Him basically in preparation for His death, with a vision I'm not quite sure that she fully or completely understood. Nevertheless, what she did is memorialized, and it's free, willful, I would even put it as princely giving. There was no rhyme or reason to the world looking on, yet.

She pours this ointment upon Him and somebody might say, “Well, if He's going to die anyway, or He's going to go to die, why would you waste it there?” right? You could do something else with it. That's the world. So very much misunderstood, when we talk about willful giving, princely giving, generous giving in the church, it's always grossly mischaracterized or people will put some spin on it, but God sees the heart. God looked upon that act and she's memorialized for that act in the New Testament. The other one is a nameless widow who Jesus was observing the people casting their money into the treasury, if you will, and many rich that gave; it's not as though He memorialized the rich and said, “Look at how much they've given.

Look at such a great gift they've given.” But to her, He memorialized her giving. She gave the two mites she had basically out of the money she needed. And again, somebody might look at that and say, “Well, you know, that's not real smart or that's not real bright,” but somehow a nameless woman is remembered for her sacrificial giving that's willful; she didn't do it under duress or coercion. And if you think about it, God who looks on the heart sees there was no reservation on the part of this woman to cast what she needed. Not; she didn't have excess, she cast what she needed into the pot, if you will. So when we start to look at princely giving, and I use these New Testament examples for a reason there; we're not applying any law, yet I want you to think of something.

These two individuals I just spoke about, there was also a law in place, right? The law that was the law of the people and the religious law was in place. It, you don't read that either one of these events is marked by somebody saying, “You must.” And I point that out because when we look at the children of Israel, it's easy to think, “Well, but all of these events eventually are going to sound mandated.” Even, you'll hear me talk about this later, even the redemption or ransom money that would have to be paid, the shekel or half shekel; I want you to think carefully about this because we tend to think, “Well, God said, 'I want every man of a certain age to bring this money.'” Do you read anywhere that anybody showed up and didn't? Hmm? Right.

So even though, even when God mandated something, we still have free will. There could have been people saying, “Hell no, I ain't bringing no shekel tax,” right? “And hey, let's see what happens,” right? So there's a point there. Even when there may be a prescribed amount, there still may be the willful submission in obedience to bring it. And I'm sure there was consequence━we don't read that there's consequences for not, but I'm sure that there was. So with that being said, the big question is asked, these people were slaves in Egypt. And okay, we know that livestock can reproduce very easily, right? That's not like; it doesn't take a scientist to figure that out unless you have “they” and “them” problems. But animals multiply, right? Okay, good. So we're on the same page there. Never know these days. So the big question is, when it says, “Take silver and gold and brass and all of this stuff,” they were slaves in Egypt. So you have to go, and I'm doing this for the benefit of people who say, “Well, you know, where did they get all this stuff?” It's; the Bible says where they got it.

You read in Exodus 12 and verse 35, on their way out, “And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they,” the King James says, “borrowed”━“they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and raiment.” There you go, silver and gold, “And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.” Now, I, you know, I, I sometimes do criticize the wording of this. I don't think that they exactly “borrowed,” and I don't think they exact, exactly “lent,” but probably the word “spoiled” is, is pretty close to what we'd, we'd want to figure. So if you're asking, “Where did they get this stuff”" Think about this. If they were slaves in Egypt, they did have some possessions. We're not talking people who were possession-less, but the possessions they had wouldn't have been that great. Now they maybe would have had some livestock, and they may, may have had certain things, but not in the volume that we're going to read required to make the tabernacle.

So a couple of things are, there's the first lesson here that I want to point out. And this one is kind of important because we can read this stuff and never make an application to ourselves, and they want this one to be applied. We always say Egypt and the bondage of Egypt represents sin and the world. So the children of Israel got these riches from, essentially, from the world. The riches came out of the world to be used for the things of God. And you know, you can read this and you can say, “Well, how does this apply to me?” I just gave you an application. We live in the world. We make money in the world. And if you think about it, you can make money and you can worship money, or you can apply the principle that there are things we do out in the world to be applied to God's work.

And this is exactly the same thing. They basically took what God ordered them to do, basically “Get it from where you came from. You're going to 'borrow' from these people, and it's going to be used for My work, the tabernacle where I shall dwell, where you shall worship.” So if you can't make an application right there to Giving 101, because too many people, again, day in and day out, will talk about giving in the church and it always comes back to the same thing, “Well, you know, I don't know how this all applies.” I just told you, money taken from the world applied to the work of God.

The second thing we come across is, obviously, willing hearted, but it says, “Men and women: bracelets, earrings.” And I'm not going to say all bracelets and all earrings, but a lot of these were symbols of their former life as slaves. So they took from the world and the slavery of the world to become, essentially, whether you think of it or not, they're under, they will be under the law, but they will become free by God's liberation.

So God says, “I want you to use these things.” Now whether these earrings and bracelets fully all represent, maybe some of them were decorative and some of them were; but I guarantee you a lot of these represented their former life. So just kind of put that in perspective when we start talking about how the work of God is supposed to function. The next thing we read about, in Exodus 38 there is a reference to; let's see, 38, 38:8 regarding, you remember I just mentioned to you “gold, silver, brass.” And this is to make the? laver, “And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which is assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation”" So a lot of these materials would have been used for the self. So here's another one of these that I think is very important. If you want to talk about application of spiritual, worldly, and spiritual things, these people had a choice to love self and to look at, or love looking at oneself, or to be looking at the laver of cleansing, which had a much greater significance.

One is flesh and one is spiritual. It still took, still took these women, I don't think too many men had lookingglasses back then. My, how things have changed. But the women gave up their mirrors, and try again to see there is a concept there of not worshiping self, but worshiping God. So these materials, you know, imagine if you didn't have a mirror, even the brass that they would have looked in would not have been that great of a mirror, okay? You can kind of see, kind of not.

But imagine now you're not going to see anything, but you might be actually able, think about this, if you could even approach that laver of cleansing to see yourself in the reflection of the water, which represents more of the things of God, the cleansing of God than it does of the admiration of self. So there are concepts even within the tabernacle, the, we'll call it the elements that are to be brought, to be offered that carry significance, specifically what I'm talking about is giving here. Then of course, as I was referencing the, the gold, and there's a passage back there in 35, Exodus 35:22, I believe. It has a very strange wording in the King James; 35:22 says, “And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted,” it's being repeated over and over again; I don't know how you could miss that, “and brought bracelets, earrings, rings, tablets,” and now, we're not talking about computers, “all jewels of gold: every man that offered,” this is what's worded strangely, “that offered,” in your King James has an italicized “offered an offering of gold unto the LORD”" If you read that in the Hebrew, very interesting because what it says there in the Hebrew is they basically presented their gold as a wave offering.

You don't read that in the English, but it was a wave offering. And that may not really sound that big of a deal except that there were other things offered and done in wave offering fashion. And I can't help but think that this would be along the lines of, think of it, what's the most precious material even back then that a human could hold in their hands? Gold. Waving that before God, showing God the, we'll call it the value or the greatness of it, and in God's eyes looking down, it representing the divine nature.

Now maybe these people weren't informed of that just yet, but the two colliding together, the act of what it says here that “every man that offered offered an offering,” they were offering as a wave offering. The expressly showing it before God, however you want to say that, has a significance which I think if you want to say whether God was looking down to see what was being lifted up to Him. Now if we were talking about the offerings, which I probably will get into eventually, there's greater significance in detail, and I don't want to get burdened down here, but just to say it's important to recognize there are some nuances here we're not reading in the English that make these just a little bit more special in terms of how they were brought, what was brought and how it was offered.

So as I said, gold, divinity; silver, redemption; brass, judgment, and these are instances of the offerings that I've just kind of read to you. Now gold we know, we're going to find a lot of gold in the tabernacle, a lot of things are overlaid with gold, and there are a couple of items that are pure gold as we discovered going through some of the furniture. Silver is a little bit more interesting and I say a little bit more interesting, there's a lot more diverse pieces of information to put together, so two instances in the Bible where silver is exchanged for life. One of them is Joseph, right, the 20 pieces of silver, Joseph. And the other one is Judas with his 30 pieces for Jesus. It's kind of interesting, silver being the color or the metal of redemption, and only two places where we read about exchange for life, and yet it is peppered through the tabernacle.

The silver that was used in the construction of the tabernacle was taken from the atonement money. Now, I know, please don't go, “Where'd they get the money?” right? I don't want to deal with that one just yet. But write these down, I'm not going to read them, write down these Scriptures, Exodus 26:18-25, Exodus 36:23-30, Exodus 38:25-28, and in the first chapter of Numbers fills in the details of some of the ways that this temple tax or shekel was━not temple tax, that's later, that the silver shekel or redemption money was collected. There would be a census of the people. So the number of men that paid the ransom money, ransom for one soul as the Bible describes it, would have been 603,550 each paying a half shekel, so the total would have been 3,000; sorry, 301, 775; 3,001; 301,775, bleh. All right, most of this silver; you might say, “Well, what's the issue with the numbers?” I'll tell you in a minute. Most of this silver would have been used to hold up the boards. And remember I used in one of the messages back there, I used the word “socket”" or “ankles,” okay? So each board on the exterior wall of the tabernacle would be supported by two ankles, if you want to call them that, of silver.

Each ankle would have been the contribution of 6,000 men, making each board supported by 12,000 men's redemption money. Why is that important? Of course, I'm, I like to mess around with numbers here, so I was looking at that and there, there is something remarkable there. If you take the number of 48 boards times 12,000 gives you 400-and; 576,000, but more importantly, if you divide that by 4, it gives you 144,000, which is an important scriptural number. We'll come back to that maybe. A little dangle there and we move on. All right, so there were 100 talents forming 100 sockets and that would be 171,775 shekels. Each socket, as I said, would bear the ransom money of 6,000 men, so 12,000 holding up for each board. And then if you look at the numbers again, this is why I said it's inescapable, the numbers, the material. So we know 6 being the number of man, 12 if you want the number of divine government, or 6 being the number of man multiplied obviously in the tens, so 1,000, and/or times 2 making 12, adequate witness.

However you want to add it up, I don't care. What's important is at the bottom of everything in this structure, the symbol is redemption, the bottom of this complete structure. Remember, God said, “I want you to make Me a house where I'm going to dwell among you.” And that's awesome. That's amazing that God would deign to condescend to dwell among men, but the whole premise of the Tabernacle, the whole perimeter is routed in one simple concept: at the foundation, redemption, the whole thing.

So it's inescapable. In other words, underneath it all, God can say, “I'm going to come dwell among men,” but it was necessary for this whole thing to be presented for a purpose. God could have said, “I'm going to dwell among men,” but we are unholy, we're unclean, we're━keep adding to the list. So this representation is pretty powerful. And yes, I know in the New Testament we read what Peter says, we're not redeemed by things like silver and gold, but by the blood of Christ. And there you go; if you start looking at it, they didn't have that yet. So you've got the concepts of redemption, the vicarious sacrifices that would be offered. And he goes on, by the way, Peter, to say the, the traditions received from your fathers.

In other words, they could never redeem, but they were pointing to something. And I don't know if I can say this enough and it could be understood enough, but what's sad is that even the New Testament writers, there was no Christianity while all this is being written. Yes, they were followers of Christ, but the faith itself had not yet come to be what we know it today. So the writers, the writers are steeped themselves in Jewish tradition. That these writers could turn around and say, “You're not redeemed with these things, but rather,” it's almost like saying, “For the rest of you, can you not hear what was being said?” And I guess not, right? But anyway, that's a story for another day. So the whole tent itself, you've got the concept of sacrifice, you've got the concept of redemption.

We see that God was not going to miss any opportunity to teach how our approach would be. Remember I said to you, you've got to come to the door, and the door for us is Christ. And from the moment you pass through the door or you're looking at the door, you're confronted with the holiness of God and what's rooted in the ground, which is redemption, silver. So these lessons, you, you kind of, like I said, everywhere you turn, you're confronted with them. Each person, whether you were rich or poor, was required to pay the ransom money of pure silver, every man to pay his half shekel, clearly showing the way of salvation. And this is what's important; we don't pay to be saved; Jesus paid for us. But there's another part of this that shows you clearly each person had to come and bring their own, which means salvation, even for us, is an individual action, not a collective.

Now somebody, “My church, my group,” no, even here showing each person had to come and present themselves presenting their portion. We don't come and present a portion, but we're not saved by a group; we're not saved by a priest. It's individual. You must present yourself. That action of presenting that redemption money keeps that clear and distinct. Now, I mentioned that Hebrew word as I said, nâdiyb, or nâdab, both of those words, “to volunteer as a soldier” is another one of these definitions if you look up the word. And I think this is interesting because these people who paid the redemption money to kind of be encamped around God, God being at the center of everything, I want you to think about this, they also ultimately became part of God's fighting force.

They became; their payment before God didn't make them that, but the word carries the connotation of a soldier, someone who signed up for duty. So just by virtue of them participating, if you think about it, how they encamped, they weren't having a camping trip. Eventually they were going to have to go in as soldiers, as we'll call it the army of the Lord to get rid of the people out of the land. They were fighting or, or designed to basically fight as they went into the land. So don't think they were just camped out there. So the Hebrew word carries meaning just way beyond the act of giving the ransom money. And for us, how that would be applied if for them being encamped around and God is at the center dwelling; Christ becomes the center of our life.

And we read and pick up in the New Testament how basically we are supposed to by faith, one of the passages talks about being a good soldier. That is the warfare that we ensue. We're not here to, I think how some people have depicted Christianity as this, it's like a caricature of what they did in the wilderness. They all got together and they had a Bud Light; just joking. No, they didn't do that actually, but just checking to see if you were asleep, by the way. Some of you are sitting there going, but much like when we come to Christ, or Christ finds us and Christ is at the center of our life, like the center of being in the camp, there is a sense if you're really connected to the word that there's a battle, an ongoing warfare. And that kind of puts every Christian in the framework of being a soldier. So that word nâdiyb in the Old Testament is very much applicable both ways, both for the giving, the presenting, the willful heart, and also as someone who basically is now enlisted or part of a company of people that belong to the fighting forces of God.

Now one more thing about the ransom money that we find in Exodus 30; in Exodus 30, beginning at verse 11, which is where if you read it says, “A Tax for the Tent,” kind of interesting the way that's worded. “The LORD spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them.” You know what I find remarkable about this? That word where it says “ransom” is a cognate, if you will, or close relative to the word we looked at last week for Kapporeth, “covering” when I talked about the mercy seat.

This is, that word is attached to that. So it's very interesting that everything that really would pertain to redemption had a connection to this Kapporeth, even in the language. We don't read it in the English that way, but the Hebrew is very clear. Those words are connected, the Kapporeth, kappor, they're all connected. So “every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them when thou numberest them. They shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered a half shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:)” or gerahs, “and a half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old above, shall give an offering unto the LORD.

The rich shall not give more, the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation”" I cannot repeat that enough. See, again, I really didn't intend for this to be a message on giving. I wanted to talk more about silver, but everywhere you look, you see it clearly. The money collected, there's a purpose for it: “shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD to make an atonement for your souls.” And that money, as I said, would have been used primarily for things within the construction of the tent, specifically, as I just referenced, those sockets or ankles at the bottom.

There are other silver items that I will probably reference in a little bit here, but I just think this is pretty amazing, because even here where God says they are to do this, they are to “give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls,” I'm not reading this the way I might have read this 25 or 30 years ago: This was a mandate. Yes, it definitely is, that's what they're supposed to do. But the reason why I say I can't really look at it as a mandate is if God said, “This is so that you might live,” you'd be pretty dumb to not go, “Okay,” right? It's kind of a no-brainer.

And I think that's why we're not reading that somebody said, “No, I'm not bringing my temple tax. I'm not bringing my money,” okay? And this is part of the problem of how we approach the things of God today. There's too many people; remember what I started with; too many people thinking, “I make money out in the world and that's my money,” and they use all these phrases. And yes, that's the way the flesh speaks. But God gave a pattern that what you do out in the world, there should be a purpose for that. We can't, we're not able to live apart from the world. We are, that's, we're surrounded by it. And most of us go out into the world and make our living in the world, but you are to make that living and then you come back and you're looking at the things of God, how to manage your household in a godly way, all the things that can be applied that way.

The same thing is true of things that can be applied to self and the worship of self and self-deification versus those very same things applied to the house of God and the work of God. And again, here, somebody might say, and this is the argument that I, I tell you, I kid you not, if I could just have a recording where I could press and give the answer because it, it seems like every single week there's somebody who will say, “Well, but, but, but, well, the tithes and offerings, that's, that's Old Testament.” And you're completely missing the point.

God said, “I made you.” You know, I love that people say, “Oh, freely give, freely receive,” and everything's, we're just a bunch of hippies. Tell me what was free in your salvation, because it costs something somewhere. It may not cost you, but it costs something somewhere. That's how God says, “This is My way.” And if you can't understand that, I don't even know why you're even bother. When people say, “Oh, you know, well, God wants to bless you”; He does want to bless you. I believe that there are people that come into the church or they come into some good fortune or whatever it is, but they never come to learn the lesson. God will bless efforts. God will bless your hands. God will bless your heart and your mind to be able to be the best at what you do.

But those blessings also come with, do you turn around and recognize God in those things, or is it just about, “I was in Egypt and I got the stuff of Egypt and I left Egypt and while I was on my travels in the desert, you know, I was really blinged out and I had a lot of nice clothes and everybody's complimented me on the way I looked.” And, or when it came time for the service of God, I recognize that these things were granted to me for that purpose. That's always the missing ingredient with modern day giving, people don't get that; and all the arguments that I've talked to you about over the years. So anyway, there's something very unique about this, this ransom of the soul. And that is something that's taken up in the New Testament which can be confused to something else. But I want to show you even where something can be slightly confusing how to make these connections.

Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 17. It's a passage that people will not understand clearly. And you read it and there's some stuff in there that bears really looking at closely. So this is right after the experience, if you will, of the Mount of Transfiguration, all right. So, I want you to keep in mind that there's a fresh revelation in Peter's mind about who Christ is or what he saw. It says, “When they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?” Now some people think that that's taxes like Roman taxes, but hold that thought for just a minute. “He saith, Yes.

And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom did the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? And Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, cast a hook, take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take and give unto them for me and thee.” So a couple of things to note here, and I'm sorry, there's a lot of sub-things that I have to point out, but it, you missed the message otherwise.

So the first thing is, don't think that this is some Roman regular tax. By virtue of Him saying, “Lest they be offended,” two things, “Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?” And the answer of Peter, “Peter saith to him, Of strangers.” That tells you kind of cryptically, we're not talking about some state tax. This goes back to some, something if you want to call it of a religious nature, and I'm sure that the tax probably morphed over time and became something, this would be the temple tax, but I want you to pay attention to a couple of things here. The first thing is, look at, in verse 25, look at how Jesus replies to Peter, “What thinkest thou, Simon?” Every time that Jesus goes back to referring to “Simon,” it's usually Simon who slipped back into the flesh. Remember we're talking about his name being Cephas or being known as Peter. So it's interesting that this, in the, in the verse above it says, “They came to Peter.” But when Jesus replies, He says, “What thinkest thou, Simon?” And there's, the questions that are asked almost as if to say, “What were you thinking when you answered them? What was your thought process?” Now, it might not be clear abundantly, but there are two things that, that come to my mind when He says, “Go and get the money and take it and give it unto them for me and for thee.” Now, if it, if we were talking about tax taxes, it would have been “Render unto Caesar,” where He says that somewhere else, but He says, “For me and for thee,” that has to be a religious tax.

That's number one. Number two, as I said, pointing out Jesus addresses him by his old name several times over where he slips back into the, we'll call it the fleshly dumb, “Uh, why are we here, Boss?” mode, okay. He addresses him in that way. And then there's something else that I find kind of interesting, because Jesus replies to him “of strangers?” But listen carefully. Then He says, “Then are the children free.” Well, that kind of makes me think of what Jesus said somewhere else when He says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” It means anyone who has seen Him who has seen the Father would make you a child of God and not a stranger anymore. And He says, “You go pay the tax, strangers pay the tax. You go pay the tax for me and for you.” So what makes this kind of crazy, Paul explains this a little bit better, and I know this may be a little bit choppy, but bear with me. Paul says, “If we have known God, or rather we have, or we are known of God, we are no longer aliens or strangers, but children and heirs.” So Jesus was making a point here, “Go on and do what you need to do, lest anybody be offended.” But on top of all that, there's a message within the message, which is when He says to “Go, cast a hook,” basically the first fish that comes out, up out of the deep.

Poetically in the Bible, poetically, you see, you'll find it in places like Micah and other place, the depths of the sea is sometimes represented as teeming with life, but also representing death. So out of the depths of the sea, which in this case is being presented as analogous to death, comes the money, the redemption money, or the atonement money, or the temple tax money to redeem. And that's kind of interesting because think about it, the Lord could have just said, at a wave of a hand, “Here's the money, go take it and go.” But the exercise in and of itself almost has a picture attached to it. Why? Because the few verses before this happens, Jesus is talking about His death and Resurrection. I don't think it's an accident when you step away in a bird's eye view to see that when He says, “Go get that money,” coming out of the depths of the sea, being brought up, that that money will be used, what would be analogous to ransom money for the soul, even though Jesus did not need to be ransomed; He was our ransom, as a type showing something in a picture way.

So we can paint all of these pictures, but when you go back to look at the redemption money, even where its placement to the ground, something that had to be in the ground to come up, always is painting the same picture over and over again. It's inescapable that something must be to the depths in the ground, must die, must come up to be redeemed, even in this short, brief picture that Jesus exchanges with Simon Peter. So it's kind of interesting. I like the, the ideas here, but if you go back to look at the temple; or I'm sorry, the half shekel ransom money, it's important to understand something. They had to bring this money, and the money would be turned into something else. And no one would say, by the way, you wouldn't have anybody saying, you know, at the base here, there's the sacrifice of 12,000 men on one board. So you think anybody would walk by those boards and say, “What part of my action contributed to the picture of redemption?” You wouldn't be able to.

It's all put together. It's all blended together. The same thing, we have no part in that. It's all Christ. We come. He lets us come, but we have no part in the action. Now, I know people say, “Well, it breaks down. They had to bring the money.” That's true. God had to start somewhere teaching the lesson. And He does it very well in the tabernacle. Now, if we go back, I need to talk about one more item of silver. And this one doesn't have anything to do with giving. It doesn't have anything to do with a willful heart, but it does have to do with the concept of, we'll call it soldier or presenting oneself.

But it ties into the silver, because I wanted to spend enough time talking about this. So if you want to turn with me, we're going to look at the silver trumpets, because that's a thing that's left out a lot. Let's see if we'll go first to Numbers 10. You remember, I said to you that in Exodus, we have the collection of the shekel, or the half shekel, which undoubtedly would be used for the construction of the tabernacle. Well, we have another census that's taken up. If you want to read that in your own time, which occurs in the book of Numbers, don't turn there. I'm just telling you where it is in case you want to look it up later, Numbers 3. The firstborn males of Israel were counted and numbered. The number of those was 22,273, but something very weird happens. God says, “I'm going to substitute out, minus the 273, instead of it being the total camp, I'm going to put this number towards the Levites,” which is very strange, a very strange substitution, if you will.

And God goes on to say that each of these will be redeemed at five shekels each, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is shekel is twenty gerahs or gerahs; five shekels each. Kind of interesting, I don't know why there's this drop or this difference, but I suspect, because it is within the book of Numbers, that this collection was used to make the trumpets. We don't read of it, we don't read of them before. So I, I really believe that this is the connection to these trumpets.

Now, this is kind of very interesting. We're looking at people having to bring things, so again, silver is brought and trumpets will be made. Numbers 10, “The LORD spoke unto Moses saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece thou shall make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.” And you stop right there, because He starts out with basically giving the general reason. There are actually two right there, the calling of the assembly and when it's time to get up and march; to assemble at the door and to march.

And then there's going to be four categories additional to that broken down. But why is this important? And I have to do this here so it, it, you make the connection with me. First of all, please do not make the mistake that a lot of people have made when I peruse things, books and articles, people homogenize the shophar, the ram's horn with the silver trumpets. They are two different instruments used for two different purposes, so do not conflate them. For example, we read about the shophar, I think the first time we read about it is in Genesis. This is not a ram's horn. I just read to you, it is two trumpets of silver, and they actually have two distinct Hebrew names.

In fact, if you really want to be technical, there are three different blowing instruments in the Hebrew Bible that are the most prevalent, and they each serve a particular purpose. So this one is spelt out and the question then is asked, are these trumpets, are these the trumpets when we read about in the New Testament, the trumpets for example in the book of Revelation? And the answer to that is, yes, and most likely, but they tie together in a greater picture. So you're going to find, for example, the apostle Paul writes things like, “When the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable,” or 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which basically says, “Once the trump is blown, and then first the dead in Christ shall rise.” So let me talk about our application to the trumpets, not to be confused with shophar. Our application here is anytime the silver trumpets are being referenced, one has to think they are representational here in Numbers.

They're representational for us in a New Testament appropriation to the proclamation of the gospel, a sounding of the horns is a declaration of the word of God. Now I, I'll explain to you why in a minute, but let me break down the four categories because as you break down the four categories, it becomes clear as to why I would say that. Verses 3 and 4 of that same chapter that we looked at, chapter 10 of Numbers, “And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee.” So stop right there and recognize one thing. We have here people gathering, that the trumpet, if you will, being the heralder for people to gather at the door before God's representative. We, someone who's preaching Christ, is putting out the clarion call of God for people to gather and assemble.

It doesn't mean that it can only be done through that method, but this application takes you there. So in other words, then God's representative appears and will speak and that's the heralding. Now we can say at a future time, the trumpets being sounded and the people who have not yet heard, they will appear at the door. That means they will appear before Christ. There's all of these applications to be made, make no mistake. Otherwise it sounds like a little bit of a nutty exercise of Doot-doot-da-doo! all right. Even the writer of Hebrews makes clear, “The congregation shall be assembled to this glorious temple not made with hands.” So it's kind of important to kind of tie all these together.

We read then in verses 5-8 that the, the sounding of the trumpets would also be a call to worship and a call to march. Let's see what it says: “When you blow an alarm, then the camps that lie on the east part shall go forward. When you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys. But when the congregation is to be gathered together, ye shall blow, but ye shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and they shall blow; they shall be to you for an ordinance for ever throughout your generations.” So here we have two things, a call to worship and a call to march. And I can say again, think about this in this initial depiction, the trumpets in the New Testament realm right now, the sounding of people basically to walk according to the word of God and the same thing is true in worship.

Why do we gather if we're not opening up the word of God? So there's this constant connectivity, if you will. If you want to go down to the point of where it's going to talk about going to war, which is in verse 9, “And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies.” I want you to think about this for a second. We don't operate in the same fashion, but if you think about it, we do. Ephesians 6 says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,” the things that are immediately around us, but not necessarily visible, those fighting and opposing forces that, if you want to put it this way, are even able to beguile some of us.

We are not fighting the war like these people were. And in fact, very interesting, there are two recorded episodes only, where the trumpet was sounded at the hand of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the priest, as a thousand from each tribe went forth to avenge themselves against the Midianites, that's the one. The other one was Abijah and Jeroboam, where the trumpet is blown for war. Abijah was still trying to stay true to the worship of God, and Jeroboam was busy with his idolatry. And the trumpet is sounded, the priest cried out, and the Lord smote Jeroboam. And my, I just wish that God was doing a lot of stuff today like that and I told you, you know, if God would just do one thing for me in my lifetime, He's done so much, I'll never asked for another thing because I've received so much.

But if He'd just open up the earth just for like a millisecond, because there's some people I'd recommend, “You know, you've got to go look at this. That's a nice vacation spot down there. Go check it out.” Whoosh! Okay, so, you know, what's interesting is yes, there will be a day, as Paul describes, where the sounding of a trumpet will summon those, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and there will be a period. You read it in the book of Revelation, I believe starting at the seventh chapter, where you've got seven trumpets that will be sounded and they all bring about some other dimension of, we'll call it tragedy upon the earth, or punishment, or judgment, sounding, warning.

You know, the word of God is twofold. It's, it is a clarion call to those who will hear, come, receive, and it's also judgment and warning. You don't receive it, you don't hear it, you don't want to know about it. The same word brings life to them and death to others, and that's just what the Scripture says. But what I believe in looking at this passage as we've looked at it, okay, so the silver will be the call of the redeemed. Those trumpets will call, and the people who have heard, and the people who have yet to hear will be gathered. All of these applications, by the way, you could say, well, you know, some of this is a little bit confusing, because, now today specifically, I kind of mixed a lot of things together, but there's one thread that goes through this whole message that is inescapable. As I said, if we're Christians and we are following Christ, or we're described as little Christs, or Christ followers, and the pattern is set, then I'm looking at all the ways that God has described actions, mindset, activity, from summoning the people to take from the world, to bring it into the church, or to the tabernacle, from people saying, “Quit,” God saying to the people, “You can either look at yourself, or you can have yourself cleansed” and be a part of God's program.

Right down to the last of the greatest Sacrifice of all times, which is Christ laying down His life that someone like me might live and have eternal life. So what I'm going to tell you is this picture of the tabernacle with all of its silver, gold, brass, all the colors, all the values, keep me coming back to the same essential message: Christ is at the center of it all. He was always at the center of it all. And to the, to brothers and sisters that I know who are, they can't connect the dots, as I said, I'm praying for you to see the light. But for those who do, go back and read and parse even verse by verse to see how this applies. Last but not least, if you read that in the tenth chapter, it says, “Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, in the beginning of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings,” those, what's called a Holocaust offering, fully offered to God, “and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.” Even on the occasion of offering, the trumpet was blown, as if to say, these two things have never been anything but tied together, the declaration of the good news of the gospel and people's memorial, sacrificial, day in and day out, weekly or monthly, whatever you do, giving.

It's right there. So for all those people that like to say, “I don't see it,” I can't help you. But for those who do who can see all the dots connected, and we've got a lot more to dig into, but at least today you've got another dimension of the tabernacle, specifically focusing on silver, and the concepts attached to it. And I hope that somewhere somebody says, “Yeah, I'm beginning to see the dots being connected,” but I'm going to keep still working on those who can't just yet quite see it, because I believe once you do, you can't un-see it.

That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.

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1 Corinthians 15, Luke 16 – Don’t Fear Death

foreign [Music] one day we're all going to be dead period I will be dead too everybody has a time I don't care what science is coming up with in fact I'm a firm believer that if the world keeps going the way it's going some of the Fulfillment of the Book of Revelation sang a third of the earth Earth's population has to die maybe even started already I don't know if that's part of it or not I can't say I don't want to speculate just saying so somebody who doesn't want to talk about death and I've met people like oh God I can't talk about that it means the resurrected life and understanding of the resurrected life has not penetrated into your soul what do you mean I'm saying exactly what I mean here go back to the disciples their beloved master who foretold of his death multiple times over and of course while he was alive no no no be it far from me no no this can't happen right they didn't understand but how is it that after he died Rose and ascended they were able to go out and talk about his death they talked about his death in light of the Resurrection the Ascension and his return and the scriptures abundantly clear Jesus was the first goer the first of his kind which means anyone who calls himself a Christian following Christ will follow in his footsteps which means when we read death has no more sting over the believer that's what it means it doesn't mean that losing a loved one is not going to hurt it will that's the flesh part and trust me I know there are a lot of widowers in the sound of my voice it does not take away the sting it does not take away the absence or the void it does not but what it does do is it lets you look at the reality that person devoted to Christ Christ is not a liar if Christ said basically I am the first goer and you're following him you too shall follow as he did that means you too will enjoy the resurrected life now somebody who has not got the mindset I don't care what you think there isn't some playing tiddlywinks when the end comes let me show you something I know I haven't opened up the scripture very much but let me show you something that has an impact for me in Luke 16 the passage about the rich man and Lazarus and and if you read this with the eyes I'm speaking about it'll really make sense to you a certain rich man clothed in purple fine linen fared sumptuously every day and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table moreover the dogs came and licked his sores it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom the rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom cried saying Father Abraham have mercy on me send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue frame and torment in this flame but Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things just for a little footnote Lazarus received evil things what does that mean it means probably that he suffered he probably didn't have money he probably grappled with a lot of things that we grapple with that's evil things whatever that is but now he is comforted and thou art tormented in other words you spent your time here on Earth pleasuring yourself with the pleasures of this Good Earth but not paying attention to God and what comes next is what I want you to focus on and besides all this between us and you there is a great Gulf fixed so they so that they which would pass from hence you cannot neither can they pass from us basically if you understand this and all the other things that are said about heaven and hell there is a Great Divide there is a chasm the resurrected mindset fixed on Christ understanding we too shall rise that there are sometimes we'll call them mild or light afflictions which Paul talked about which are only for a Time don't think because Something's Happened to you that God isn't with you actually it usually might be a sign that God is with you that he's letting certain things buff at you just like he did to many of the people in the book but it drives home the point there is a Great Divide between those who have a changed mindset towards death dying in the resurrection versus those who may have heard it but are indifferent don't care couldn't be bothered by it Great Gulf fix so you know you might say well that's pretty terrible but if you think about it and if you believe the proofs Jesus is the tangible proof and so many times in the book it says to him that overcometh death so you know I'm thinking to myself there is something to be said there in our understanding you are either fearful of that it brings about fear it brings about the shiverings that's the flesh the spirit says when is my time I'm going to go be with the Lord I don't exactly know 100 what exactly that's going to look like but that's what I'm told multiple times over that makes for good doctrine that makes me stand on that rock to say that's that [Music] [Music] said goodbye coming to this house

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The Ark and the Mercy Seat: God’s Plan to Dwell with Man – The Tabernacle through the Eyes of Christ

From the get-go it was God's plan to dwell among us. And as you travel through the Scriptures, you, you see it's not, this tabernacle wasn't really a new thought. It may have been a new way in expressing God's prescribed method with man, but not new in the concept of dwelling among Him. ♪ ♪ ♪ We are investigating and going through the tabernacle and I probably may even go back to a couple of areas that I was very generic on, because I'm now seeing that more people are catching on when I've told you to go back and read how it changes the reading.

When you're looking at, instead of looking at very bland instructions of constructing or materials, and you start seeing all of this, it tells you God had a plan. There were shadows and types prefiguring and pointing to Christ. Exodus 25:8 basically says, “Build me a tabernacle that I may dwell among them.” So I want you to stop there for a minute, because this is all familiar territory and I really want you to think about this. And I'm even going to go so far as to say to my Jewish listeners, please listen to what I'm saying, because I think there are people out there in the sound of my voice that know what I'm saying is true, but your traditions, Jew or Christian, make void the word of God. So it's pretty staggering when you start to think that God from the beginning wanted to dwell with man. Just kind of pretend you just are not going to think about anything else except the concept that God from the beginning; I'm not talking about the beginning of building a tabernacle, I'm talking about from the beginning when He said, “Let us make Adam.” And Genesis 3:8 and 24, Genesis 3:8 and 24 both express that God was with Adam in the Garden.

So from the get-go it was God's plan to dwell among us. And as you travel through the Scriptures, you, you see it's not, this tabernacle wasn't really a new thought. It may have been a new way in expressing God's prescribed method with man, but not new in the concept of dwelling among Him. The same is true of Noah, the same is true of Abram, the same is true of Isaac, the same is true of Jacob. When we see the close proximity, you know, we, we tend to read God spoke to these patriarchs, but think about it. Whether it was a voice that came from wherever or whether it was an appearance of Christophanies or Theophanies, pre-incarnate, sometimes referred to as the “angel of the LORD,” which is a hard thing to pin down because some people believe that could be Michael or Gabriel, or that could be Christ Himself pre-incarnate, as I said, a Christophany.

Nevertheless, God was repeatedly manifesting Himself to these people. So the plan of dwelling among the people, we read it in Exodus, but it's not new. And in fact, think about this. This is what's so heartbreaking. You start to look at the Bible. If you're going to investigate this book, God starts out wanting to dwell among man, knowing, by the way, giving man the free will to make his own decisions, to not listen, to disobey. And what you end up with, eventually, the proximity that was designed, the space goes and increases more. As sin increases, the greater the distance between God and man and the dwelling portion, if you will. So it's kind of sad, but in this, there's this beautiful concept that God is saying, if you read and study the tabernacle, you'll see that God was always saying, “I want to dwell with My creation, but My creation now is so stained with sin that there must be a prescribed way to approach that we may be able to reconcile and still be together.” The revelation to Moses takes up many chapters in the book of Exodus.

You've got, and by the way, you have that same pattern right there with God speaking to Moses; think about this, at the burning bush and then repeatedly up in the mount. If that doesn't tell you that God still desired to dwell among His people, you see the same thing later with David, but here's the interesting thing. God says to David when David desires to build a house for the Lord, He says basically, “No.” But David, who's called a man after God's own heart, He says, rather, “I will be with thee wherever thou goest.” To Solomon who has the idea to build the temple, we have the glory of the Lord that settles in. And then, of course, after that, we'll call it prophecy of the divided kingdom, we see no more of this for a time. But the point, the clarity is when you start reading the New Testament and you realize over and over again, but specifically the opening portions of John make it clear that God had to come; God was in Christ, taking up a tent of human flesh.

Again, the Greek word there in John's Gospel when it says the eternal word or “The word was, or became, flesh and dwelt,” more specifically, that Greek word eske-, eskenosen, which if you look that up, Strong's 4637, “to have one's tent,” or “to tabernacle,” God was in Christ tabernacling among us. So we have what was being alluded to, prefiguring, being pointed to, now realized, made in the flesh in Christ in the New Testament. So it's important when I say study the tabernacle, because not only do you see God's design, you can really find yourself.

As I've said, the way of approach, if, if we were being honest, if I think about my real eyes-open approach some, how many years ago; 25, 30, more than 30 years ago, really in reality trying to understand God, it made me see the white boards, the holiness of God, and made me almost say, “How could I approach?” The same thing is true by these people as they were living around the tabernacle, camped around the tabernacle, constantly reminded of God's holiness by those outward walls that basically were a constant reminder of what was inside. So just to recap, I made a list here; of course, on my list I have chapter and verse, so this one just has a list somewhat in order. But you can see kind of the order that God gives for the things that were important to Him, as I said before.

And if you think about that, He starts with offerings and materials to be brought by the people. And that is directly said in the opening of Exodus 25, “Speak to the people.” He doesn't say, “Demand it; manipulate them, make them feel bad.” God says to the ones that will “bring it with a willing heart,” and God has not changed that. But here's the interesting thing. I just, before I get too far into this, I want you to think about this. God being God could have created all of this tabernacle without the resources, without anyone bringing, without anyone lifting a finger. I'm not saying that God's a magician per se, but if He had created the heavens and the earth and all the creatures and everything that's in it, He could have surely made a tabernacle without the help of human hands, without the help of human resources.

You think? (Yes ma'am.) So it's interesting that He didn't, and that's the starting point. And I'm going to keep repeating this, because I think there are some people just waking up to this fact. So it bears; it's a worthy endeavor for me to keep repeating this. You can, you can rationalize or justify however you want your approach to God, but when God says, “This is the way of approach,” and He starts with this, “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering.” And interestingly enough, if you really think carefully about this, those words read in the Hebrew can only be translated one way, “My offering,” God's offering; never anyone else's offering, nothing that the people actually possessed.

If you think about it, as they came out of Egypt, they possessed nothing. It was what they took along the way that became their possessions. And so it's, these are the things that I think are very important, God giving these instructions, a necessary step to begin building. And then from there, God goes immediately, the first place, if you look on that list right there, to the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. He doesn't say, “Build Me a door, or make Me a curtain, or make boards.” He says: ark and mercy seat.

Why? Because that was going to be the place where God would make His presence known and dwell among the people. So it's kind of very interesting. You go down the list and you, you can kind of see a level of importance, and then bookends because God starts with where He's going to dwell and the final reading in; between Exodus and Numbers is that God's glory settles down to reside. So, “Build Me a tabernacle where I may dwell; mercy seat, ark of the covenant,” and the final place is God's glory, chapter 40, I believe, in the book of Exodus.

So it, it is relative to the study to understand this. There's nothing that is accidental. And when man would approach what, I've said this before, what God started with, that was, think about this, the last thing that, except for the, by the way, only the high priest would get to go into the Holy of Holies. But think about where God started; ark of the covenant, only the high priest would get to go in. So think of it this way, what He started with that was most important to Him would be the least likely to be seen by the congregation; they couldn't.

So that's kind of interesting. Now when we start, as I say, we start in the outer area looking at the white boards. So God is gracious to show us what's important to Him first. And then, when He lets us approach, He knows our frame and He gives us basically the furthest point away to start our journey inward. There's a very interesting imagery that one could draw upon, which I'm sure I'll, I will maybe go to in the next message or two, but it's interesting to see that if you really see the whole tabernacle in a bird's-eye view, it is the way of salvation in its entirety.

It spells it out from start to finish. So what we're going to look at today will be mostly around the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. The designated high priest would approach the ark of the covenant as God's representative. The special area called the Holy of Holies basically curtained off another partition to keep it separate. And so when you are inside the tabernacle, now you've come in the door, you would actually not even see the ark of the covenant, because it was behind a curtain.

So if you were even allowed to come in and do service, only the high priest would go behind that special veil. That special veil has a particular Hebrew name, pârôketh, “separation” or “partition,” only used for this particular veil, because you'll see reading the King James sometimes can be a little bit confusing. You'll have references to actually two different veils, but in the Hebrew they are two distinct words. One should be properly more translated, “curtain,” the other one, “veil.” And this veil, actually the concept of the veil and the Holy of Holies becomes very important to understand as we, future perhaps, may look at the temple, because in the New Testament it describes that the temple veil was torn from top to bottom.

And that has a very important representation, which in the tabernacle is still represented but could not have the same application. There is a reason for this that I may again get to. But everything within that pârôketh, within that special veil required blood, and without the blood no one entered in, or if the high priest did so, he entered at peril of death, which was certain. The veil that partitioned off the Holy of Holies basically was the ultimate symbol of God's holiness and the inability of any person, not cleansed by the blood, consecrated and cleansed by the blood, to be able to even approach. I want you to think about that because every step of this message and all of these messages keep saying the same thing. How can you approach Christ if you're not willing to look at what happened at Calvary and the shed blood that He spilled? The writer of Hebrew spells it out so eloquently, but you'll see people who are, they don't want to talk about the blood of Christ, it repulses them.

Well I'm sorry, friend, if it repulses you, then you're not interested in God's prescribed way which is the, the picture is here, it's graphic, it's terrible to see animals being slaughtered and death, but this is the way God was painting a picture to say, “This is the way of salvation,” which will ultimately end in the final sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who as the book of John says, “taketh away the sin of the world.” So the, the writer of Hebrew says, “Having therefore, brethren, the boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, his flesh.” So understanding the veil, even as I said, even though it is not 100 percent the perfect type, which it will be in the temple, signifies something about Christ's finished work, so just kind of note to self, the body of Jesus, if you want to put it this way, was a veil that hid the inner glory of His deity, because He was all-man and all-God.

For it was the Father's good pleasure for all fullness of the deity to dwell in Him. At a later time, as I've referenced already, how the veil was torn symbolizes something about the flesh body of Christ completing its ultimate and final work here on earth for the time prescribed. I'm not talking about future return, I'm talking about in the work that was needed at that particular time that He came to do. So the veil we would say is symbolic of the incarnate life of Christ, but more specifically the flesh body, the tearing of the veil, His death on the cross. His death opened up a new and living way, as I just quoted from Hebrews. And what is important for us is that we no longer need a veil or a cloaking or a way of approach, because He provided it. This is a difficult thing I'm going to say, but I'm going to keep repeating it, because people misconstrue, and they selectively hear what I've been saying.

If you really; Jew or Christian, if you're really reading this book, you're going to see something with great clarity: God brought an end to the old dispensation. And you can say, “Well, there, there are people still celebrating.” I have many friends who still celebrate their Jewish faith. And that is, I mean, no disrespect, but the reality is if, if this is the pattern and the prototype, then it's like saying people are still going out to slay saber tooth tigers when they're extinct. You've heard that before, right? Yeah. So just to put that in perspective- and it becomes important, not, you know, people say, “Well, yeah, are you a person who is anti-Jewish or anti-whatever?” No, I'm a person looking at this and understanding that even people that came before me. I was reminded by something that the staff handed to me a week or two ago concerning this particular subject of the tabernacle, because I've been saying Old and New, you can't understand one without the other, nor could you actually live in the mindset of simply the Old Testament.

It lacks every fulfillment. It's like saying, “Yeah, I'm only going to wear the right shoe today.” Go out there and walk, brother. So, back on the inside, the veil itself, five cubits in height, five if you remember, the number of grace, and also speaks of the fullness of Christ. So at some point I'll, we'll prepare a chart of the numbers for those of you that are not familiar with the numbers and the dimensions, because I think that becomes important as a study tool.

But the area of this enclosure, we're talking about the Holy of Holies and what is in the Holy of Holies today, ten by ten by ten; I know that's a strange number, but a thousand cubits more or less. And I, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that that concept of a thousand cubits is represented in a thousand-year millennial, if you want, reign of Christ. There is something connected, which we'll see, but obviously the foursquare concept that is presented in not only Ezekiel, but Revelation is presented right there in the Holy of Holies. It's kind of another important piece that we would want to look at. You cannot study this without seeing God did not leave any details out. So I've already talked briefly about the ark, box if you will. The Hebrew word is 'ârôwn, meaning “chest” or “ark.” And there are different arks mentioned, of course, in the Bible.

The most, we'll call them the most common, well-known, obviously Noah's ark, different from the basket that carried the Moses child, which is also referred to in some translations as “ark.” But the box, or I'm sorry, the basket for Moses was called têbâh, in Hebrew; not the same as the word I just referenced, meaning the “ark of the covenant.” But they all served a purpose, a same or similar purpose to save or to preserve.

And some people may not understand that just yet because you'll hear me reference later that at a later time the lid being moved off of the ark seems to kill people, because people who don't understand why will go, “Wow, God was really sadistic. He just killed people.” No, it's called; it's like a traffic law out there, you know, the speed limit says 35, you want to go 75 in a 35, you're probably going to have a consequence attached to that. It may not be death. In some cases it might be. You might kill somebody, okay? But there's a reason for prescribed things, and God's way was no different. He said this was how it's going to be. So of course, let me go back a little bit. God tells Noah to build an ark that he and his family would live and they would find safety in the ark. Moses, the same thing, was preserved in that ark. So we know what was placed inside the ark, which I've referenced before.

The ark itself made of shittim wood, acacia wood overlaid with gold. And again, the number four appears everywhere on that ark. I reference the number four as meaning the four corners of the earth; the whole earth being covered. The items placed inside: the unbroken tables of stone, and it's important to repeat this part, “upon which the Ten Commandments were written,” representing God's truth; the pot of manna showing us the way; and Aaron's rod that budded overnight showing us the life. So if you want to call it “the truth, the way, and the life” right there, preserved within that ark. No matter what fallen man would do, these things would be safe and preserved within the ark.

So there's again that attachment. We see the ark to preserve life. This would actually preserve our lives if we understand how these are all in Christ. So let's look at the covering that would, the lid that would cover the ark of the covenant called the mercy seat. On the mercy seat, the blood of the sacrificed bullock would be sprinkled. Leviticus 16, “The LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died. The LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.” Again, you know, how many of you feel this way? You read something and you're familiar with it, but when you really start to try and put all the pictorial sense and bring it to life, it has such a deeper meaning, because now you're looking at this in a sense like I just explained.

God is speaking, which means He's amongst men, He's giving the instruction, and He says basically to “not come at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.” And I will probably go through the offerings at a future time, but right now, just stay with what's being said here.

“He shall put on the holy linen coat, he shall have the fine linen breeches upon his flesh, shall be girded with a linen girdle, a linen miter,” he shall be attired this way, “these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, put them on. He shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, to make an atonement for himself, and for his house.” So before he could even deal with the rest of the congregation, he had to deal with his sin and the sin of his household.

And this is why I categorically reject all of these people who do not read and understand, don't just go, “Oh, that's Old Testament.” Every priest, every pastor, every minister is no different than any parishioner. We have all sinned. There isn't a one, I don't care if you're wearing a white suit with a white beanie on your head. You are as much a sinner as I am, brother or sister, whatever you are, whatever your pronoun is. And don't try and make it otherwise. It's, it, these are the things that I look at. People say, “Oh, well, you know, a person of God.” Still sinning flesh, not perfect. I make mistakes, they make mistakes; sinning is part of every person's lot. Put a period there. So I like the fact that God includes this, that he has to make an atonement for himself first, for his house, before he can even deal with the great Day of Atonement for the congregation and the camp.

“He shall take two goats, present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the LORD, the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat which the LORD'S lot fell upon, bring him as the sin offering. But the goat, which the lot fell on to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and let him go for a scapegoat in the wilderness.” And I leave that there because there's a whole bunch of other instructions here, but the one that probably needs to be repeated so that it's abundantly clear, because you can keep reading down, but there's a mention of the blood, and it's repeated over and over again.

“And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.” Again, numbers have value and have reason, not just because, “Because seven is my lucky number today.” No, there was reason, okay? It's a perfect completed act. “Then,” he goes on to say, “he shall kill the goat of the sin offering. That's for the people.” So if he's dealt now with himself and his house, now we're going to deal with the people; it's for the people, “and bring his blood within the vail, and do that,” which he did with the other blood, basically the same thing.

“And he shall make an atonement for the holy place.” Again, everything that is touching the things of the Lord and His people will be covered or sprinkled by the blood, and there's no escaping that. And anybody who says, “Well, I just can't deal with that,” I don't think you really want to deal with what God's saying here that is the prescribed method, which again brings you right back to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now in Leviticus 17, the blood is then called “sacred.” And a particular verse there, which unfortunately over time has been misquoted, which is 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” So it's very important to see God's method with man, the approach, the blood, the mercy seat.

So the mercy seat then, we're talking about how it fit and covered the ark. And I'm going to come back to the blood and some other aspects, but this at least gives you the, the bullet points that are needed for this. The mercy seat that covered the ark was the same length and breadth as, we'll call it the box. But the top lid or covering was made of pure gold; there was no wood in the lid at all. And I love this. You've got the two cherubims at each end, basically facing each other, wings folded inward, almost like everything's pointing to, like two fingers going “This way,” right? And what I think is important here is you can always look for symbolism and numbers. Here you've got the two cherubim, which is adequate witness of God's presence, and their faces basically looking down towards the lid itself, which is important, because these are not, like some have said, “Whoa, are the angels on the lid to be; were they meant to be worshiped?” No, they were guardians and heralders, and they've always been that in the Bible.

So, you know, people say, “Well, how do you make a distinguish; how do you distinguish between Aaron building or making the golden calf and God prescribing this on the lid?” They were two very different things. One was at the behest of the people's impatience to wait on Moses to worship something they made with their hands versus something God said, “You make this, and I'm going to be there, and you will worship Me there.” So, you know, don't, don't homogenize or mix things up. But I love the fact that if you go and you read through Scripture, once more, you go back to Genesis, and you find when God basically gets them, first parents, Adam and Eve out of the Garden, He puts a cherub there with a flaming sword to, to guide the way, to protect the way. And again, there are different ways to understand this, if you want to look at and say, “One that stood watch,” but it is definitely progressive revelation as you go through the Scripture that you can see these cherubim, these angelic beings.

And some of them are called cherubims, regular wings, some of them are seraphims with multiple wings, some of them are called “angelic ones,” “messengers of the LORD”" But what's important is they are usually heralding or announcing. Sometimes it's good news; sometimes it's not such good news, right? If you remember in Genesis 19, they were dispatched to get Lot out of Sodom. And I'm not sure that I'd call that good news or not because, if you know the story, maybe Lot should have stayed there. Leave that one alone. In Genesis 28, you've got them, the angelic beings are communicating to Jacob as he slept. So messengers with purpose, sometimes guardians of the way, and I think on the ark itself, I think they were doing double duty there, guarding the way, if you will, as a symbolic meaning.

Remember there was also cherubim on the veil itself, embroidered into the veil itself. So it's almost like we're going to keep repeating this. You're, if you were approaching maybe the, the design of the cherubim on the curtain would, was the heralding announcement, if you needed one: “You're approaching God's presence,” or “You're approaching something sacred and holy,” but certainly definitely guarding the way that no ordinary person would enter in. All right, so some other things that are interesting here. Moses had gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with God. It is then that he hears the voice of one speaking to him off the mercy seat, I think that's equally interesting, that was upon the ark of the testimony from between the two cherubim. Sounds strange, unless we know the original promise: “Build Me a tabernacle that I may dwell among you.” So if you didn't read that part, you'd say, “Well, that's strange that God's only going to be heard in that little area.” But God's prescription was that He would meet him there, and commune with him there.

That is also part of Exodus 25:22: “I will meet you there, commune, commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony.” And put a period right there. It, it's not like God said, “And if you don't meet Me there, I'll catch up with you over here,” right? These are the things we tend to do, we like to kind of fudge things and maybe, maybe, you know; no. This is what God said. A similar thing is stated, by the way, in Psalm 99, “The LORD reigneth: sitteth between the cherubim.” And what I would like you to just take note of is we, sometimes in the New Testament, we mention something called “the throne of God; to approach the throne of God boldly.” I want you to think about this because God said He would speak to Moses there from that particular place, which is called the mercy seat, for which no man ever sat upon. Yet when we read the New Testament, we talk about the throne of God. This is the depiction, the shadow, if you will, of the reality of God's throne.

Again, I don't care how you do this, you're going to be confronted with every picture here points back to the same place. That's why I love it. And it's important to study these. The dimensions, by the way, of this furniture, and I'm now talking about the base, two and a half by one and a half cubits; again, the numbers, and they're repeated on both sides, basically 5 and 3. If you're taking the numbers and making them whole, 5 and 3; again 5, the number of grace and the fullness of Christ, and 3, the number of divine manifestation, which is what you would get if you were to be able to approach and see or hear God speaking. So I think there's a beautiful design right there. If you remember, three items placed inside, as I just referenced them. So think about this, and then the lid is placed on there, and no human eye is to basically see these items again; that kind of sounds strange. They would be discerned in a spiritual way.

Now the people, the children of Israel would not have that capacity, but we do, knowing what these embody. Remember Christ said that He came to fulfill the law, and the law was fulfilled in Him. But prior to Christ coming in the flesh, and this is what's really important, there's a story, if you remember in the Old Testament, after the death of Eli, which happens in 1 Samuel, I believe the fourth chapter, where we read how the Philistines took the ark, and they took it from Ebenezer, which is being translated “the stone” or “the rock of help” unto Ashdod to bring it into the home of Dagan, the heathen idol worshiped, carved, little whatever it was made with hands.

1 Samuel 5:7; let's see if we can find that passage. It might be a little bit more helpful if I can read it to you or show it to you. So 1 Samuel, I think it's 5:7; yep. So it's, I'm going to pick up here to show you something. People often talk about this incident that happened. It says, I'll start in verse 6, “The hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us,” and get this thing away from us, right? “For his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagan our god.” Because if you remember, if you go back and read that, that little carved god keeps somehow falling on the floor.

If it was me, I would have just been pushing it off, but it just kept falling on the floor, right? Hey, at least I'm honest. That's what I would have done. “They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried unto Gath.

They carried the ark of God of Israel about thither. And it was so, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: he smote the men of the city, both great; small and great, they had emerods in their secret parts,” whatever that means. "Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. It came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of God, of the God of Israel to slay us and our people.” They recognized that. Now, if you remember, there is the passage. Ultimately these people, they want to “Send the ark back to the children of Israel, get it away,” because it, there was destruction everywhere.

But you remember, they had it in their possession. If you read this whole story, they had it in their possession for seven months, and they decide to send it back towards Beth-shemesh. If you remember that, they lifted the lid. And that's probably the most important thing that people get wrong, because they say, “Well, God's sadistic. He wiped these people out for lifting the lid”" or they caricature it like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

There was a purpose, do not look inside the box. And that purpose is so abundantly clear, the law, the tables of unbroken law, that we know no human being could keep, not a one. What does the New Testament say? The New Testament says, “For sin comes death.” So someone not covered by the blood already and then looking to the law: death, “For the wages of sin is death.” The law acted directly upon them. Don't think that because they just merely glanced in; the consequences of being exposed to the law brought death. And this is what Paul explains, by the way, so brilliantly in Galatians. The law could never bring life. It could only bring death. So when people say, “Oh, well, God's pretty sadistic; He wiped those people out for looking inside.” Yep. But think of the purpose and really go, don't look at the pot of manna or those are secondary items, the most important one, because the rod that budded was an emblem of the resurrected life. But it was the law and that exposure to the law, direct exposure to the law would bring death.

And still to this day, if you think about it, the tables of stone do not make up the whole law as we know it. The whole law is 316 do's and don'ts. But if you split the Ten Commandments in half and the relationship between man and man, and God and man, I'd say there is a very good likelihood that no one in the sound of my voice, including yours truly, could live if that's all we had, could stay alive if that's all we had. And now, you might say, “Well, how could something like 'Honor thy mother and thy father' or, well” think about what's on those stones, but then translate them into everyday life, and then you'll realize, if that's all you had, we'd all be dead. So don't be too harsh on God wiping these people out.

And I often think this one story in the Old Testament helps clean up and clarify what most people do not understand about God. The apostle Paul said, “I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.” Even he understood that. Now, why is it? Talk to people who don't understand these concepts. I remember talking to somebody who said, “Oh, I, I love the law. The law is good.” Well, you may love the law, but that's like saying, “I like to have a noose around my neck,” because that's what it, if you really understand it, that's what it means because no one can live to those standards. Even the most simplistic man-man or God-man relation, no one can live to those standards, not a one.

And as I've said repeatedly over the years, Jesus raised the bar. So let's talk about “Thou shalt not kill, which some people want to parse and say, “Well, is it kill? Or is it murder? Or how would you describe that?” Jesus said, “If you hate in your heart, you're as guilty as a murderer.” So don't parse the words of killing or murdering. Just put a period on that. And then Jesus says, “And if you hate,” okay, I hate to do this. Don't put a camera on anybody. How many of you have ever hated somebody? Okay? So that's what I'm saying to you. And that's the importance of studying this to see if you really, really understand it the Old Testament could not ever be a complete book to follow.

You want the canonized version of it. If you understand what I'm saying, the prescribed method could not have represented the fullness of God's desire for humankind ever. So it would take the shed blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat to change what was judgment towards man and upon man into grace. And even there, this is the remarkable thing, people say, “Oh, well, the God of the Old Testament – there's no grace there.” Of course there is. Just in that one act of letting the priest go in and sprinkle the blood that would cover the whole congregation, that's an act of grace in and of itself, because, if you think about it, without that blood being applied, they would have died.

In fact, you've got the same application. You don't like this one? Go back to the children of Israel in Egypt's bondage. And God says, “Apply the blood and my avenging angel, when he sees the blood, he shall pass over.” But failure to apply that blood meant death; pretty simple. So God's holiness and mankind's sinfulness could not meet unless the blood was authenticated, validated in that sacrificial death that had to take place, and then God's wrath ceased. People don't even like to talk about the wrath of God. And that's another disturbing thing. Again, you have ever heard people say, “Oh, I just can't read the Old Testament. You know, God, God's an angry God. I like the God of the New Testament.” Like somehow God said, “Excuse me, bear with Me”" I; bear with me, I don't mean to be blasphemous, “but I'm, I'm going to be trans-testamental.” (Laughter.) I'm just going to slip into something a little bit more comfortable for you all in the New so that you can all appreciate it.

God has not changed. Just God has not changed. So it's no different in type, as I've said, if you cover to cover, see what God did, whether it is the Passover, where, whether it is the slaying of animals to clothe Adam and Eve, or through and through even, as I've mentioned, the cord that Rahab hung out the window to save her and her family. Through, cover to cover, you find this concept of blood and God's way with fallen man. So to reconcile man back to God, we read of the effects: the finished work of Christ. Therefore, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace. We can now approach! The veil is now open. We can approach. There's no more fear that if we approach without covering, we shall surely die. And so it's kind of interesting. Covered in Christ's sacrifice, we no longer fear the wrath of God. I think, try and make the application now to a Scripture, again, I've quoted abundantly over the years, Romans 8, “There is therefore now no ultimate condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Think of “ultimate condemnatio”" as judgment, wrath; all the things that would have been poured out, now covered in the finished work of Christ.

There is no more. There are remaineth no more. So what the Old Testament could not accomplish in full, we see it in the New. So again, every concept is going to come back to one thing here, Exodus 25 where God says, “And there I will meet thee and commune with thee.” If that's been God's intent since day one; this is why I feel sorry for some people who are stuck in an old dispensation and don't understand this. If that was God's desire for man from day one, and basically Adam and Eve messed it up, and along the way God is showing us it's still His desire, think about what God gave us in this new dispensation to, to basically commune with Him, to be at one with Him.

Not only first and foremost the death of Christ, the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but remember when Jesus said, “It's expedient that I go away. If I go another way, I cannot send you the Holy Spirit.” So the Holy Spirit has sent to us for all the reasons I've said, but also to dwell with us, part payment. So it's like God's saying, “I'm no longer going to dwell with the people as I originally proposed. I'm going to dwell with them all in fullness as they come to Me in faith.” So I'm going to ask this question again, because I, I'm repeating it, but I'm trying to nail something down here. If you only had the Old Testament, could you actually understand God's desire for humankind? With, (no ma'am) right, without Christ and without the finished work of Christ, you'd be left with half of a picture and honestly quite confusing one at that.

Not that the words themselves or the book is confusing, but the fact that you're left with an incomplete picture, and it's incomplete in so many ways. Even if you want to go down to, as I said, materials, the numerology, everything here speaks and points in the direction that I've been pointing to you. And so it's, it's very clear what was made possible by God through the blood is the gateway, if you will. The picture is clear. As I said earlier, this is why Jesus is called “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the”- this is mind boggling.

Think of now everything I've said and pretend for a second you never heard this book. You never heard anything about this except for the descriptions I've given you regarding the tabernacle. And here are these people early on in the first and second chapter of John, Jesus doesn't say, “I am the Lamb of God.” They say, “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin”" It's kind of, if you really think about it, it was God's prescribed way.

These people in Christ's time were Jews, knew the Old Testament, which was the only Testament. So even that declaration, see, we're familiar with it so it doesn't have the same impact, but if you, if you really could try and not be so familiar you'd realize that even that in itself, that declaration is pretty staggering. That somebody did not recognize this in the flesh by themselves. God had to open up the eyes and give the declaration to be uttered to say, “That's Him. No longer the blood of bulls and goats, but that's Him. That's the one that's going to do it.” And all the names of God even that we've covered over the years, the “with us God,” the “all sufficient God”; these all are tied up in Him. So I just feel really terrible when I hear people say, “Well, but you know,” and I, as I said, I have a lot of Jewish friends.

“You know, I, I just can't, can't read the New Testament.” Well, I feel sorry for you because you're missing out. Like I said, you're only wearing one shoe. Go run a marathon. So the other thing that becomes clear is that not only how Paul declares in Romans 3:25 and 1 John about the word “propitiation.” He was not only our Reconciler and Propitiation and Propitiatory, both the essence of what was needed to reconcile, the Reconciler and actually the place of reconciliation all in one, which is again back to the mercy seat, so every detail in this work that we're looking at to try and figure this out, it keeps revealing over and over again concepts, and they all are materialized in Christ.

Then you've got passages, for example, like Luke 18:13, where you've got the publican saying, “Be merciful to me, a sinner.” And if you read that again, it would be very easy to see the publican saying, “Be mercy seated to me,” the way it is written in the Greek. All of these, again, we're, we're reading a New Testament where they were still primarily a Jewish community. So even these words to them would have been staggering to hear somebody say, “Be mercy seated to me,” but this is exactly what we see. So last but not least here, let me just say it this way, the most oft repeated Scripture. You go to these big gatherings, sometimes I'll see it on the back of a truck somewhere, John 3:16, “God so loved the world,” and you know the verse of Scripture. When it says “he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” what should be understood by that as well is that had God not given His only begotten Son, where exactly, I want you to think about this, because this is why Paul wrote a certain thing about “if Christ be not risen, our faith is vain.” I want you to think about what that would mean living in a world where there was no ultimate sacrifice.

And the ongoing sacrifices, at some point, I said this to you, ceased. Why did the, why did the old way cease? Now people say, “Well, because they; Jerusalem was destroyed. The people were expelled, or they were put, they were deported.” But if this was so that they believed that this was the only way of salvation, even if they didn't have a high priest, but they believed this was the only way of salvation, don't you think they would have still been practicing it? (Yes ma'am.) Right. So it leads me to some conclusion about something, and I know when I say this, people will take what I'm saying out of context.

So if you do, that's your problem because the spirit in which I intend to be meant. There is no way that God intended this ceremony, sacrificing, and the rituals to continue. No, there's no possible way. And in fact, a closer examination of some of the Hebrew words, and in the New Testament, some of the Greek words really hit that home to the point of asking the question. So how could people still be steeped in something that technically no longer was meant to exist? And this is why I use all these Scriptures frequently, but they all tie together.

This is why when it says, “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced,” because it's the same people perpetuating the same customs, the same traditions that make void the word of God, who also perpetuate that Christ did not live or that He was a mere prophet or that He was not the Messiah. And these will be the same people where it says, “They will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they will mourn,” because they will recognize that the whole time that they were perpetuating ceremonial concepts, no longer carried out and actually slaughtering animals and applying the blood, but in conceptual concepts, but the whole time they were doing that, God was here, Emmanuel, God, the with us God, showing us that that dispensation came to a close and is no more. Now, why build that temple for the future? Why? Because that temple in the future will teach people who Christ is who did not know Christ.

That temple in the future to be built will point in every dimension. You know, I, I've talked about this both here and on Festival, about the red heifer, about all these special tools that they're trying to make, but the bigger point is being missed which will be revealed, but it will not be revealed until Christ reveals Himself. And that's the part that I just want to kind of pause here right now to bring this all to a close to say, you and I may not live perfect lives, and we don't, and we can't, but we look unto Him who is the Author and Finisher of faith.

He's shown us the way. He's shown us as I taught last week and spoke about the resurrected life, that all of that is encompassed in the finished work and that there is no need to go down this ceremonial trail. And to people in other, we'll call them dimensions of the quasi-Christian faith who, who are insistent on ceremony plus Christ, people who are still, by the way, eating the body of Christ or drinking Christ's blood, again, you've made void the word of God; these traditions, or if they are religious traditions or traditions of man. And I do challenge some of my listeners out there who may be, you be in total disagreement with me, that's fine. I'm not asking you to just nod your head and go along with me. I'm asking you to go back and reread the passages that we've looked at so far, and you tell me how they could ever be complete; complete for the person of that day, complete in this day and age or at any other time because I go back to one thing that still looms large over this whole populace that insists on those traditions: the law.

You want to live by the law? You're going to die by the law. You want to live by faith, you'll have eternal life in Christ. And these two, I'm sorry, you say, “Well, but the law is good.” Yes, but what does Paul say? The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. That comes out of the mouth of the most zealous Jew that ever lived: the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. So if you understand that and every other thing that Paul wrote about, saying, “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree.” Well, the curse fell on, the curse being the curse of the law, fell on Him, and because of what He did, we pass out. We are no longer exposed, lid open, looking at the law. The law, the curse fell on Him, we get to walk out from under it, and because of His work, we live. And we don't just live in the now, we have eternal life. So to all of my listeners and particularly people out there that say, “This is, it's very simple.” It's also very complicated, because if you're not willing to leave your baggage and your traditions at the door, none of this is going to make sense even though it's so simple.

Furthermore, as I've said, and I appreciate the messages that you've communicated with me, to go back and to reread, even just portions of the mercy seat, portions of Leviticus 16 and 17 now, with Christ in mind and with all of these various depictions in mind, and see that God was always saying one thing, “I want to commune with you. I want to dwell with you, and I want us,” that's what Christ said in His high priestly prayer, “to be one.” Well, that oneness will not occur at the moment, but the part payment has, the deposit of the Spirit has, and we will be one with Him in eternity.

So the messages will, we'll see if we continue on in the tabernacle, but I hope this is helping people fill out some of the areas and recognize you are incomplete with just one Testament, but you put the two together and you see the big picture. And the big picture is pretty incredible, because God from the beginning was saying, “I want to be with My creation”" Now sin, sinning man and free will messed that up, but God said, “I'm going to give you the door. I'm going to give you the way and the truth.

And it's no longer the truth that is the law that kills, but the truth that's in Christ. And I'm going to give you the way, which is the manna, the bread from heaven, no longer gathering it up daily, but basically, if you want feasting on it, 'Taste and see that the LORD is good.' And I'm going to give you the life. Aaron's rod that budded, symbolizing the resurrected life; I'm going to give you that too, in My Son Jesus Christ, who is the First Goer.” And if you call yourself a Christian, you're a follower of Christ; you follow after Him in that same way. So I can't see how anyone would not want to look at the whole picture and say, “That's where I'm going to stand, the complete picture, all fulfilled in Christ.” For right now, that's my message, possibly to be continued, but that's my message. (Applause.) You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center.

If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you'd like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.

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Understanding the Resurrected Life

Part of understanding how His Resurrection affects you life is what God was doing the day after Adam and Eve fell from grace. It didn't just start with your birth or with the coming of Christ. It started way back there and it's a whole history of redemptive process until God said, “This is the final way.” ♪ ♪ If we're going to talk about Easter, the first thing we have to talk about is that Jesus lived.

We shouldn't stop at the information in the Bible. I know a lot of people are reluctant. They read the Bible and say, “Oh, it's, it's a collection of good stories written, and we can't really”━save that for somebody who hasn't done the years of studying. But for the benefit of those people who are suspicious that this is just a mere collection of things, I step outside of the Bible for a minute to say you've got a first century Jewish historian, Josephus, who writes about Jesus. He does not say too much, but he does indeed admit that Jesus lived. You have evidence from the Babylonian Talmud, which was written between 70 A.D. and 200 A.D., although there, there is a continuation that takes you all the way up to 500 A.D., but the specific portions I'm interested in actually come around 80 A.D. and do indeed mention Jesus that He lived. He was not a figment of the people's imagination. And if you really want to go to the extremes, even the prophet Muhammad, who lived some 600 years, more or less, after Christ's death, in the early-600s when he was writing the Quran, he spoke of Jesus, although Jesus, in his version lived, Jesus was a mere prophet.

Nonetheless, even Muhammad acknowledged Jesus lived. And if you want to go even beyond that, you've got the writings of a Roman, non-Christian source in Tacitus recording Jesus and the life of Jesus. Pliny the Younger, who was the Roman governor of Bithynia Asia Minor, who wrote to the emperor Trajan in 112 A.D., asking what was the proper legal conduct, “What should we do about these followers of this one Jesus Christ?” And we know from these writings obviously that are outside the Bible, they are all talking about a living━a person who lived, not a figment or an invented persona. Also Lucian, the Greek satirist who wrote about second century A.D. as well, so there is abundant evidence outside the Bible for Jesus' living, being an actual person and not some made-up fabrication as some would tell you. The next bullet point is that Jesus was crucified. That's not difficult to believe, because crucifixion, and anybody studying, just even go beyond the Roman period, we've, actually here we've taken a look at crucifixion in a historical way to see that it existed long before the Romans took it up as punishment.

So there's no doubt in my mind if somebody says, “Well, could it be possible that this man was crucified?” Beyond, beyond plausible, as that was the punishment of that day. So two things: that Jesus lived and that He was crucified. If you start there, you're starting at a good place. You know, don't, if you, if you're not even willing to consider that He lived, don't even bother studying this, let alone that He was crucified. That He died on a cross, this is an important one, because there are many people who doubt━good Lord and Lord help us━that this methodology could kill anyone. Okay, well, I highly urge those people who are doubting of that to actually do some research to understand that the whole premise of this type of death was to be slow and painful, and that the victims didn't usually die because they were nailed to a cross.

But they usually would die from collapsed lungs or other things, not necessarily the first but second and tertiary events that would occur in the body to bring about death; and slow and painful usually. So we've got to put that there. But of course, there are many theories that people have propagated over time. For example, that He really didn't die on the cross, but He fainted, and when they took Him down from off the cross He resuscitated in, in the coolness of the tomb. Or that this is all made up. There, there's so many theories as to what really happened on the cross. In fact, if you google, “Did Jesus die on the cross?” you will find a lot of fantastic ideas. They're all fantastic, but if one actually understands the science, and there is a science behind crucifixion, the likelihood that any individual could actually survive crucifixion is slim and none.

So let's just put that there that Jesus did indeed die on a cross. All right, the fact that He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, a high-ranking person in Jesus' day and this is important, because the controversy still goes to this day. There are two tombs in the Holy Land that people visit and people argue about which tomb. Let me help you out with this. We know from the Scriptures that Joseph of Arimathaea went to beg, went to Pilate to beg for the body of Christ. And the question must be asked: why Joseph of Arimathaea? See, there are a lot of minutia in Jewish law that most people don't know about, and one of them is that only next of kin could go and ask for a person's body.

That was basically according to actually both Roman and Jewish law. They both had their intricacies. We know that Joseph of Arimathaea was uncle to Mary, mother of Jesus. So put that down as one not so odd if you consider that. The greater oddity is that Joseph of Arimathaea was a high-ranking person in the Sanhedrin, and it is the body of the Sanhedrin, the 71 elders, that had the influence to crucify Jesus at the behest, by the way, of the Jewish leaders. Do not say all Jews, because His disciples, many of them were Jews, so at the behest of the Jewish leaders. So what's important here is we know Joseph of Arimathaea, much like Nicodemus was a secret follower or an underground follower of Christ. And something written in Mark 15:43, it says he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God. It didn't say he was devastated at the death of Christ, but he was waiting expectantly. That tells you that Joseph of Arimathaea believed what Jesus was saying about Himself. So put that as a one-second pause right there. Now, the other thing that's important to recognize is when we talk about the tomb.

As I said, I'm not going to argue about which tomb, but I am going to point out a few things that are of interest. As you know, there were Roman guards posted outside of the tomb. The tomb was closed with a large stone rolled in front of it and sealed with a Roman seal. Now let me give you the small details of that. The Roman guard would have been a detail of 16 guards, each guard responsible for a 6-square-foot area. And this is what people don't talk about. If you were a Roman guard and you fell asleep there was punishment. You would be beaten and you'd be burned in your clothes.

But not only that, the entire unit of guards would also be put to death. So it would behoove each guard to be keeping watch not only on the tomb, but on each other. You get my point? Hmm, okay, good. The stone, the stone weighing anywhere from one to two tons, and here's the, the magnificent thing. The stone would have been on a track somehow, grooved, but it would have been on a decline. That means that the stone would be easy or easier; two men could have, two men, two strong men could have facilitated rolling the stone to close it.

But because if was on a slant, two men could not push up to two tons up a hill. So the likelihood of somebody tampering, once it was closed, is very unlikely. Furthermore, the Roman seal put on the tomb itself; that seal, the breaking of that seal, which represented the authority of the Romans, breaking that seal was the death penalty. So you've got a whole, what we'll call it a conundrum of how do you explain all of this? You know, were the guards on the take? Did they accept a bribe? Come on, even if that happened, they all would have been put to death.

So when people talk about this, the tomb, it's important to understand this is not some cartoon version of what you think. There were a lot of details. And those details need not be excluded from a close examination. The tomb that Jesus was buried in was indeed, after the fact, after He rose, empty. And this is another interesting thing that we should discuss. The followers returned to find the stone rolled away and the body is not there, and in fact, at least in one or two records we have angelic beings saying, “He is not here; He is risen,” basically “go find where He is, you'll see Him.” If you go and read Matthew 28, it says that the Jews were saying that the disciples had stolen the body. Just by those words alone, they were acknowledging that the tomb was empty. Sorry, but you did it to yourself. And I could go on, but I'm trying to do this in a very quick fashion. The leaders who instigated the crucifixion had an agenda to try and disprove the Resurrection. Theories to deny or disprove the Resurrection were being circulated because, think of it this way and this is probably the most important thing I could say, if the Resurrection actually happened, who would have greatest problem on their hands? The Jewish leaders, why, because if it was true, if it was actually true and could be verified as true, let's just say that you were all part of this Jewish leader community and you had heard that this man rose from the dead and He was seen amongst His followers preaching, what would you do? I know what I'd do.

I'd jump ship from that conglomerate of people and I'd go follow the One that came out of the grave, as He said He would. So food for thought, this would have endangered the future of Judaism. And if you think about it, the Gospel starts in John with, “He came to his own, and his own received him not.” The idea that they could have acknowledged Him; now some did, as I said Joseph of Arimathaea is one, Nicodemus is another. And I'm sure we've got a catalog of many more, but the bulk and the vast majority, it would have injured their religious careers in the future, so their best interest is to disprove and put out as many ridiculous stories as possible. The disciples preached what they had seen: Christ was raised from the dead. The record tells me that Jesus called forth Lazarus. Now Lazarus had to die anyway to eventually live a resurrected life, but calling him forth was a sample in kind. And this is why the apostle Paul talks about “If Christ is not risen our faith is vain”; we're all gathered for naught.

But the fact of the matter is that if you want to talk about this, actually this book cover to cover has more people being raised from the dead. And I would say pre-Christ's incarnation, proof of God's ability to raise people up from the dead, then God sent His only begotten Son, tented in human flesh, and still continued to do the same thing that was being done in the Old Testament. You just have to read and wonder, why would such things be written? To give us false hope? Or did they actually happen? And in Lazarus' case, I believe it actually happened. The more important thing is as they were preaching that Christ raised from the dead, they also preached that He would be coming back, that He would ascend and that He was coming back. Now, we cannot relate to this, because 2,000 years ago something happened, but put yourself closer to the event and they were all waiting for His immediate return.

And that's what stoked the fire under the early church: “Christ is coming back!” “Christ is coming back!” So we have to kind of be mindful. They were all basically saying, the disciples were all saying the same thing: He is alive. He was crucified for our sins. That He was raised up just as He Himself had said He would. And that brings me to the next thing. How do you explain the birth and growth of the church? There is no logical explanation.

If you start from the day of Pentecost, there is no logical explanation for the testimony of hundreds of thousands that have been radically changed, but specifically the Scripture says so many thousands were brought into the church in one singular day. How does one explain that? Except the power of God, the speech that was coming forth that was so powerful, not the words themselves nor the speaker, but the power of God coming through that individual that moved the hearers. So you can say, “Well, if this is not true, these poor, delusional followers, they were making up a lie, they built a church on a lie,” but you still have some problems explaining how. Remember, these are just regular people, how did they remember? How did they come up with? Why is it that people were gravitating towards these people and expressing things like the belief that these individuals had “super powers”? And I use that term, they thought it of Peter, they thought it of Paul, except that they had been endued by the Holy Spirit, which Jesus said, “If I go not away, I can't send the One basically who will do this for you.” Now you're either reading the most fantastic woven tale or you're reading an absolute chronicle of what happened.

And I get it. I, I understand people would say, perhaps they were just protecting the memory of their dead leader that they loved so much that they'd do anything to keep perpetuating a lie to protect this poor, dead Jew. You think about it. The problem is if you would think about how they all dispersed, Jesus told them before He left and ascended, He said, “Go into all the corners of the earth and make learners basically of all that I've told you.” And that would only be made possible, by the way, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we know they all took off in far-flung corners of the earth.

They all, they all went in different directions and they all started repeating the same message: Jesus was raised from the dead, just as He said He would after a set period of time, three days, three nights, just as Jesus, He Himself had said, “There will be no other sign but the sign of Jonah.” And interestingly enough, you've got perhaps the most doubting person of them all, Thomas, who by the way, had the exposure, he was with all the other disciples, and yet he's the only one that would not actually believe that Jesus was risen, until the Lord appeared in front of him and he could touch the nail-pierced part of His body, look at where He was pierced on His side. And that brought about the exclamation or his declaration, “My Lord, my God,” the reality, “Oh my God, this is true.” Now I think there are a lot more Thomases than anything else.

And a lot of people, who can be following in the church, who can be going along with this great, “Let's just gather and waste an hour's time every Sunday,” much like Thomas. But here's where the rubber meets the road. At some point exposure to all this is going to produce something. It's not for, it's not just for entertainment value, it's not an educational purpose, if you will. Thomas, the most doubting one goes off to the most philosophical part of the world, India, think about that, to preach and proclaim Christ. We still have Thomas; basically they're called Thomas, Indian Thomas. There's different denominations, but they all have “Thomas” in them to this day.

So you think about that. What would it take to make you pick up, let's just put ourselves in modern times, pick up from California, although for me it wouldn't take much, but what would it take for you to pick up from California and, say, go to Turkey and start teaching people over there. You don't even speak their language, and start talking to them about everything that you've learned from this book. And you'd have to say, “You're out of your mind.” Well, that's what I'm saying to you. These people were either out of their mind or what they were telling was the absolute truth. But on top of all that, as I've repeated year after year, they all died terrible martyrs' death, all but John, and John probably would have died.

They dipped him in hot oil, burnt his body and somehow he was spared. And I believe the reason he was spared is to be exiled to Patmos that God would give him the final Revelation, the book of Revelation. I believe that's why he was spared, like God was saying, “Wait, wait, wait! I've got to save this one because this one I'm going to use to write the last chapter of the book.” But all the others died a terrible death. And it was very simple. They all could have said, “Oh, we're lying! We made it up!” to be spared, but none of them changed their tune.

None of them stopped preaching. In fact, they all went their death saying, “He rose, He ascended, He's coming back.” Think about that. And I don't know about you, but at some point even the most hardened criminals will usually roll, and they'll usually to spare, to save themselves. So there's a lot to put into this. And then, of course, as I've pointed out we can talk about the disciples, and we can talk about Christ, but as I introduced to you probably a couple of years ago the most important factor for me is one who was not part of the disciples.

He was a zealous Jew, Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. He was not part of the close band of followers. In fact, he persecuted the church; he persecuted Christians. And you tell me why a man who had everything going for him; he's a member of a high religious council, he's highly respected, he's doing his own commission, which is to go and persecute and stone and kill Christians. What is the interest or the value for him to make up a story that he had an encounter with Christ? And Christ said, “Why are you doing this?” What is the; what's the benefit? You're going to be ostracized from your community, you will become persona non grata, no one is ever going to let you back into that circle, because you're a traitor for━in their eyes you're a traitor, you deserve to die; an infidel. So what was the benefit of the apostle Paul to make up this story? There is none, except that he had an encounter that changed his life and the consequences for him, it was more important for him to preach Christ than to revert back or to, excuse me, cover his derrière about anything.

He could have gone back and said, “Yeah, I met the guy; nothing to it,” and kept on doing what he was doing, but he didn't; a complete life change, radically changed. In fact, all of the disciples were transformed. There isn't one of them that wasn't changed or touched by an encounter and time with Christ. Peter, from the impetuous, fast-talking big mouth, to the man who stands up and collected and in measured, we'll call it eloquent oration, preaches the sermon on the day of Pentecost.

The two brothers, but specifically John, they were known as “the sons of thunder,” and in the Bible, John is known as the disciple of love. And we could probably catalog even, by the way, Judas. Although I said he wasn't affected, he had to be somewhat transformed, because at the very end he does end up repenting and feeling bad for the deed he did. See, when you actually are exposed to the evidence, the Resurrection of Christ, if you study it, believe it, have analyzed it, it should change the way you think, your mindset.

That's the first one. Write it down if you will, because someday somebody is going to ask you, “What? What is the purpose of all this?” Once a person has truly looked at the evidence with an open mind, I believe it changes the way you think about almost everything. The apostle Paul wrote something, which you've heard me reference many times over, but put it in the context of this message. He said that those that basically live in the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and those that live in the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. People who are unaffected by this message are still living in the flesh. They heard it, many people will hear it, but they don't know what it is to live in the Spirit.

And let me dial this back a little bit. The conversation that was had between Jesus and Nicodemus, and He says clearly to Nicodemus, because Nicodemus is asking the question, “Well, how? How am I saved?” “You must be born again from above.” Do not use the expression “I'm a born-again Christian” unless you understand what that is. All Christians are born again from above, that is the Greek word: to be born again from above; the second birth. The first one is when you came out of the womb, so put that down as correct verbiage. And Jesus says basically the Spirit goes where it wills. Someone who is born from above, the Spirit will come and inhabit them.

Don't think that it's going to make you speak in tongues, roll on the ground, jump up and down, and do crazy stuff. I've said to you before the Spirit of God is given for service. And service is not limited to the pastorate. Service is across the board. It empowers people, it helps you to remember the Scripture, it keeps us guided, directed; there's a whole host of things. If you, especially reading the book of John, you can see how this actually would affect yours and my life. Now I'm standing in front of you. And if somebody said to me, “Well, I, I don't know how it could change the mindset,” then listen to me, because I came into the church, you've heard me say this before and this is not personal testimony; this is a fact. I came in the church in the mid-'90s, the early-, mid-'90s. I did not know one verse of Scripture, not one. Now, do I just have a good memory? No, that's just not true. But Christ's words say, “If you abide in My word, My word will abide in you.” That's the essence of John 15.

Think about that. You don't need to be━I've met people who are writing down verses of Scripture, trying to remember them. That's not going to help you. That's like what you do in the flesh. But mining the Spirit is being in here, and let this word, as the apostle Paul said, “Dwell richly in you.” That is the first marker of the Resurrected life: you have interest in the word of God.

You don't just read it on Sunday, and it's living in you, it's guiding you, it's giving you direction. So what about the people who read this and are still unaffected? I'm going to tell you that that's a big problem, because I believe there are people who hear, they've heard the message, but nothing else has penetrated. There's no word dwelling in them. No, I'm not your judge.

I can't know like the person who criticized me and said, “I don't even know if she's saved.” I can't tell you who's saved and who's not. That's God's job. That's God's responsibility, but I can tell you change of mindset is at the top of the list. Now, why does the Resurrection matter? We're still sinners. We are covered by the blood of Jesus, washed and forgiven by the blood, but I still sin every day. I'm not going to stand here and lie and say, “Well, I don't sin anymore.” We're all sinners, every single one of us. 1 John says, anyone who says they don't sin is a liar, and the truth is not in you. And there's way too many pastors and parishioners, who think once they've come to the Lord, they sin no more. Good luck, because you're still wearing your Adam attire, surprise. Don't run out with some perfectionist ideology that somehow because you came to the faith you're perfect. There's only one perfect One, that's Christ.

But learning about Him, His word, and His way is part of our life. So the Resurrection matters on so many levels. This is probably the biggest one and the one every time I talk about this I have people that just, they do this. One day we're all going to be dead. Period. I will be dead too. Everybody has a time. I don't care what science is coming up with. So somebody who doesn't want to talk about death, and I've met people like that, “Oh, I can't talk about that.” It means the resurrected life; an understanding of the resurrected life has not penetrated into your soul.

“What do you mean?” I'm saying exactly what I mean. Here, go back to the disciples, their beloved Master, who foretold of His death multiple times over, and of course, while He was alive, “No, no, no! Be it far from You! No, no, this can't happen,” right. They didn't understand. But how is it that after He died, rose, and ascended, they were able to go out and talk about His death? They talked about His death in light of the Resurrection, the ascension, and His return. And the Scripture is abundantly clear. Jesus was the First Goer, the first of His kind, which means anyone who calls themselves a Christian following Christ will follow in His footsteps, which means when we read, “Death has no more sting” over the believer, that's what it means. It doesn't mean that losing a loved one is not going to hurt; it will, but that's the flesh part. And trust me; I know there are a lot of widowers in the sound of my voice.

It does not take away the sting, it does not take away the absence or the void, it does not. But what it does do is it lets you look at the reality. That person devoted to Christ; Christ is not a liar, if Christ said basically, “I am the First Goer,” and you're following Him, you too shall follow as He did. That means that you too will enjoy the resurrected life.

Now, somebody who has not got the mindset, I don't care what you think. There isn't some playing tiddlywinks when the end comes. Let me show you something. I know I haven't opened up the Scripture very much, but let me show you something that has an impact for me. In Luke 16 the passage about the rich man and Lazarus, and, and if you read this with the eyes I'm speaking about it will really make sense to you, “A certain rich man, clothed in purple, fine linen, fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. He cried, saying, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am in torment in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things,” just for a little footnote, Lazarus received evil things.

What does that mean? It means probably that he suffered. He probably didn't have money. He probably grappled with a lot of the things that we grapple with; that's “evil things,” whatever that is, “but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” In other words, you spent your time here on earth pleasuring yourself with the pleasures of this good earth, but not paying attention to God. And what comes next is what I want you to focus on: “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so they, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass from us,” basically, if you understand this and all the other things that are said about heaven and hell, there is a great divide, there is a chasm. The resurrected mindset fixed on Christ, understanding we too shall rise that there are sometimes, we'll call them mild or light afflictions, which Paul talked about, which are only for a time.

Don't think that because something is happening to you that God isn't with you. Actually, usually it might be a sign that God is with you, that He's letting certain things buffet you, just like He did to many of the people in the book. But it drives home the point. There is a great divide between those who have a changed mindset towards death, dying, and the Resurrection versus those who may have heard it but are indifferent, don't care, couldn't be bothered by it; a great gulf fixed. So you know, you might say, “Well, that's pretty terrible.” But if you think about it, and if you believe the proofs, Jesus is the tangible proof, and so many times in the book, it says, “to him that overcometh death.” So you know, I'm thinking to myself there is something to be said there in our understanding.

You are either fearful of that, it brings about fear, it brings about the shiverings; that's the flesh. The Spirit says, “When it's my time, I'm going to go be with the Lord.” I don't exactly know 100 percent what exactly that's going to look like, but that's what I'm told multiple times over. That makes for good doctrine. That makes me stand on that rock to say, “That's that”" Now, you might say, “Well, how are you dividing this?” Let me show you from Christ's own words. People came to Him and said, “Lord, Lord, Lord! We did this in Your name and we did that.” What did He say to them? “Depart from Me.” Why? “I never knew you.” Do you think all these things are written so that we can just read a good story, or are they given to us as instruction? “I never knew you” means you never spent the time to know who He is to get acquainted with Him to even have a relationship: “Depart from Me; I never knew you.” I want you to think about that, because that changed mindset would bring about somebody who says, “I need to know everything I can know about Christ,” and not just as a onetime deal like you read an article in the newspaper.

I need to know everything I can know about the One who said these words. And I'll tell you for me, I, I would pray I never hear, “Depart from Me, I never knew you,” but rather I'm hoping it will be, “Enter in; well done, good and faithful servant.” The idea here, a lot of people come, even in Jesus' day, with lip service. Now we just kind of discount that in today's world, because you know, there, there's different levels of people in the church. They have different levels of faith, different levels of all kinds of things, but we all have one thing united that binds us all together. That is you do not have an excuse for not taking the time to learn and to know about Christ; again, a changed mindset would bring about that frame of reference. And as I said, many of us start off like Thomas, doubting. We're exposed to it, “Yeah, I don't know.” But let me tell you what happens when you spend time in this book. You come as close as humanly possible to touching the nail, the nail holes or the scars, if you will, of Christ as Thomas did when you spend time in this book learning about Him.

That's as close as you're going to come in this lifetime. Don't think there's going go be some other thing to come and show you; there isn't. So you may start off as a Thomas, and that's fine, but eventually, as I said, spending time in this book is going to reveal certain things to you that may actually make you just like Thomas say, “Oh, my God; this is all true!” I, I hope and I pray for that. I, I don't know if anything I can say can bring that about because I know it's not possible. Only God can do that. We call that prevenient grace; God is the Initiator. Okay, what else happens if I am focused on this resurrected life? What other things will be impacted in my life if I understand; I've looked at the Resurrection, I've looked at all the proofs? Okay, it all happened, what else? Tell me honestly; don't put cameras on anybody.

Tell me honestly; is there anybody here in the sound of my voice that still grapples with forgiveness or being forgiven? Okay, that's a lot of you. That's actually most people. When I traveled, here's the best place to find out, into the institutions, into the jails, into the prisons, even with inmates that had really been, you could tell they were in the word, not just passing time reading. They were in the word. They still grappled with something, whether it was guilt of the event or many times over we'd hear the expression, “But I can't forgive myself.” Do you remember that? “I can't forgive myself.” And the idea is you don't have to be a hardened criminal or be incarcerated for that to be your mindset. See, what happens is what regrets or mistakes we make, Jesus offers forgiveness to each and every one of us, because the Bible says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died.” Again, you'd have to believe all that. You'd have to believe that that was the purpose of teaching the disciples to forgive one another, because in a microcosm how those instructions affect our lives also affect our relationship with God.

You may not see it that way, but that is the truth. Holding something in is a blockade, not letting go of it is a blockade between you and God. So the resurrected mindset says, “I'm going to work at this until I can figure out what it actually means.” You're looking at the evidence of that. I've told you the story many times, but hear it again in this particular message. The wrongs that were done to me in the first few years of ministry, the attempt to try and violate, tear down, rip apart, from some of the closest people; by the way, most of, a good chunk of these people are now dead. And I'm not going to say where they are, because I don't know. I really don't. I can have speculation, but I don't know. The very people that were trusted, insiders even, who tried to rip apart this ministry and told lies and you know, I'll just say it.

Here's a man who was even let in the most personal space, got to sit on Festival and talk to you all, who was in the room when Dr. Scott gave the final orders. They were, they were in writing already, but gave the final orders and spoke them out in this person's ear just before he had fallen into a stroke. Actually, it was, it was before he was in the hospital. This person turned around and said, “Oh, I, I don't know of any orders. I think she just usurped the position.” That spawned a whole bunch of people who listened to that person saying, “Well, she's a usurper,” that spawned other people making up lies. And it just became an implosion of people trying to attack. And I understood. It took me a while to process this; I don't even know how, because I am not wired this way. I was never wired this way. I was never good at forgiving; never. But I remember sitting in what was our old library, on the floor with my Bible praying and asking God to help me, because it was weighing so hard on me, “How could all these people be believers, followers of Christ, instructed in the word,” and yet they were hell-bent on destroying me and this ministry.

And I sat and I prayed, and I started reading the Scriptures and it dawned on me: I have to let all that go and release them. Not, I don't have to tell it to their face, I don't even have to ever see them again, shake their hand, do nothing. I have to release that. I have to forgive them before God, and theirs is the problem, not mine. I didn't commit the wrong.

Now sins against fellowman we forgive, we can forgive each other. Sins against God and the body of Christ, that's not for me to forgive. So I forgave the part that I could. The rest of it I left with God, because there was a lot of stuff against God and His work that, I'm not God, I'm not put in that position to do. Guess what happened? It happened in front of your eyes. I went from being so weighed down it was almost crippling that I couldn't even talk to you to one day after many months of processing the Scriptures and praying about it the clarity came to me. And it was like some heavy weight had been lifted off my back. And no, God didn't speak me in audible terms, but it became clear to me from Scripture that that is God's way. That's why He told Peter when Peter asked, “How many times should I forgive, Lord?” And basically Jesus' answer is “Indefinitely.” Well, in the flesh I can't do that.

That's right, but in the Spirit it's possible. So you think about these things how it changes everything, but forgiveness, I must digress back to that. If you read the Scriptures, how many times did Jesus say, “Your sins are forgiven; go and sin no more”? And we always take that out of context, but idea is that the Lord Himself looked upon people and forgave them. And remember what, what somebody said to Jesus, “Only God can forgive sins,” well, there you go. Forgiveness happened fully and completely on the cross to reconcile fallen man back to God, not to be put in the state of original Adam, but to be put back in the state to be able at some point to be eternally with God. So all I can tell you is part of understanding how His Resurrection affects you life is what God was doing the day after Adam and Eve fell from grace. It didn't just start with your birth or with the coming of Christ. It started way back there and it's a whole history of redemptive process until God said, “This is the final way.” I've been teaching on the tabernacle trying to show you that even there God was saying, “Christ is the way,” except Christ hadn't come in the flesh yet.

So by different shadows and types the depiction of Christ, His vicarious sacrifice; you can list all of them, they're all there. Don't think I'm preaching on the tabernacle because I want to talk about furniture. He knows our frame. I wish I could say this colloquially, because it would hit home for some of you. He knows how messed up we all are. Don't think; you're not fooling me and you're not fooling God and I'm not going to fool you; we're all messed up. There is no person in the sound of my voice that isn't a little messed up in the head, and God knows that. Only some delusional person would say, “Well, some of you are and some of you aren't”━you're all messed up! I'm messed up! And that's part of forgiveness is understanding our frame. You can be the most; you could be a strong person on the outside. You can give all the verbiage of strength, but inside, I don't care if you're a man or a woman, you are as frail and as weak in the frame that God knows that.

Not designed to be a stoic. This is my grievance with some people. They think somehow, “I can't possibly show any weakness at all.” Try that with God, because God knows the façade, He knows the games and the charades we play. That is, by the way, a changed mind before God through the Resurrection will change that. The next one is hope; hope is a part of the future as in life and death, hope through the resurrected Christ offers something else, the ability to see how He is able to help you when everything else is lost, bleak, and gone. Now, that's not battlefield prayers. That's hope that's always been there. That's the knowledge that, and don't misinterpret this, we spend our entire lives messing things up. We do. Even with good intentions, even with the best of intentions. He doesn't somehow with a magic wand fix everything, but it is through the things we mess up. If you're willing to see the direction that He gives, there's hope in watching how God will use certain things to help shape and form and give us direction.

That can give great hope, when you understand that not everything is a disaster. Let me give you a perfect case in point. Look at this crazy world. It looks like it's gone off the rails completely. Would you agree? (Yes, ma'am) But hope, for me, is looking at this crazy world and understanding something that for some people these current events are going to drive people who would never pray and never ask God, “Help me,” that gives me hope that not all is lost, because you know, God has a way of bringing the ones that He wants to their knees. And that may come sometimes through sickness, it may come through loss, poverty; you name it, but God has a way, knowing exactly what it is that will bring me to my knees; same for you. That gives me hope.

And you might say, “Well, what kind of hope is that?” It's the hope that I'm not alone in this world, even when I feel like it. It's the hope that through all of this, I know this sounds like a really cheesy statement, but I have a singular most important Friend, who will never leave me. So when everybody else is running because they're scared, I know the One who not abandon me. That gives me hope. What else will this do? Well, it will definitely change your heart. And by that I mean, and I hope this one hits home, how many people will listen and not have a change of heart? And by that I mean they will never make an attempt to understand what being part of the kingdom of God and being a child of God is. That means I'm part of, I'm actually part of a community of believers. I belong somewhere.

I am not some outsider. Do you know how many people I've heard say, “Well, I come to church, but”━you don't have to come to church to be a Christian. But a changed heart says, “I actually long to be amongst people that are likeminded.” Just think on that. A change of heart can also bring about a change of mind when it comes to things like giving. I know people that are so greedy or so cheap or so tightwad, the idea of actually giving every single week or month to the work of the ministry is absurd, “Oh, no.

I've got to keep the money in my bank account. I might need it. I've got to buy myself something,” fill in the blanks. But I, I'm sure about this; you have a medical emergency, you'll, you'll find the money for that. You have something dire, you've got life or death, you'll find the money for that. And don't tell me that understanding about God isn't life and death either.

See, that change of heart changes everything. Now some people come into the church, and let me talk about this for a minute. Some people come into the church and they are not generous, they are not givers, they have no understanding; they just come. They're happy to just be. And I get that. But at some point there's a nagging that starts to happen, “What can I do? How can I help? What is there more than just sitting in a seat and listening? What is it?” That is the genesis, and I've seen it; trust me, with a lot of new people that have come, “What? What more can I do? How can I help?” And it's not because they believe their help is an embodiment of works; they want to put their hand to the plow and participate, because anybody who understands the work of God and the work of the ministry and doesn't make it into a caricature, you can't help yourself.

And with the resurrected mind you cannot stop yourself, you are going to be, in fact, I've had this problem of telling people don't be here so much. Now you think, “Oh, okay, this person's got problems at home, that's why they don't want to be here, right?” Wrong. You've got husbands and wives coming to fulfill commitments together. That's not because there's a problem in the home. I can give you all kinds of scenarios, but I can also give you the people who give excuses, “Somebody else is doing it. Oh, I'm not really needed.” That's not the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ says, “How can I participate?” Like the disciples who were called, maybe initially they didn't understand what Jesus meant when He said, “I'll make you fishers of men from mere fishermen.” But you come in contact with the resurrected Christ and you take in that evidence and the change occurs, you might actually see it's not going to be some change from A to Z, but the context, the frame of reference, your focus will be different; it will be changed.

Or you'll be like I said the one who's indifferent and decides, “No, not my problem.” That's the flesh talking, by the way, not the Spirit. So I will say one last thing on this, on this particular sub-header here, and that is when I look at some of the most famous converts, which I would highly urge some of you if you are still not hearing down to the core, read the story of the most reluctant convert, C. S. Lewis and how his friends, like J. R. Tolkien, who I believe was a Catholic, but influenced in his inimitable way. But C. S. Lewis didn't come to the faith because of Tolkien. He came to the faith because of God. And there's a whole list of these, but you know what is amazing? From a man who discounted and said, “This is all mere rubbish,” and he goes on to write what I would call one of the most genius books that children and adults alike can read and enjoy, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is cloaked in Christian symbolism all the way through.

And you read that book and it has to make you shake your head for a minute that this was written by someone who absolutely discounted the faith, let alone reading the Bible. There's something to this that somehow if we are really looking at the evidence and we're really looking at everything what comes after that is a change. And as I said, it may not happen instantaneously, it may happen over time. Some people will frustrate the grace of God because they say, “Well, maybe I'm turning soft, or maybe I'm becoming this.” But the greatest thing that I can tell you that I have seen with my own eyes, I have watched people, not just for 18 years, but for all the time I've been with this ministry I have watched people that were living a certain way, and not under the, the coercion of anybody else, but they came to a conclusion: this has to stop, this has to change.

And not just words, with my own eyes I've seen. And I'm not going to stand here and take the time to calculate and enumerate how many. That's not the point. The point is exposure to the evidence should produce a change, a change in heart, a change in mind, a change in attitude; a change, by the way, that starts with I'm interested in learning more, tell me more. And maybe like many people who tune in, they say, “I'm not sure that I understand everything you said.” That's okay, because I didn't understand everything at the first. And most people; tell the truth, so that the world can hear. When you came in and you first started listening, did it all make sense to you? (No, Ma'am.) So don't think out there that you're somehow unique because you don't understand. It's called tenacity to stay with the stuff until something clicks, the lights come on, and you actually say, “Oh, my God! Why didn't I see this sooner?” How many, that's, that was my experience, why didn't I see this sooner.

How unfair is that that God didn't open my eyes sooner? But thank God He did. And that's the attitude we have to summarize and, and stay with. So, yes, maybe sometimes your pastor gets a little analytical or she gets a little parsing and things, but I wanted to keep this as simple as possible for the people out there that say, “What am I supposed to do?” I've given you enough in this to tell you there should be something that happens, and don't expect it to be something radical, something overnight; things that happen over time.

And I, I urge you to just consider this one thing. The disciples were with Christ for over three years. Did they change in three years? No. What changed them? The Resurrection, that single event, not just analyzing it, not just being a witness to it; that singular event just radically changed everything. And that same process, don't think that that event stopped and there was a terminus. You know, the terminus will be when God says, “I have enough souls. The number of souls that I desire to have with Me in My eternal kingdom has been met,” whatever that is. I have no idea. And when that number is fulfilled and God says, “Okay, the time is up here on earth.” But that shouldn't scare anyone who has this mind, because it opens the door to something else.

You know, this age we live in where people want to live forever and it's chasing after the fountain of youth, and “How can I keep this? And how can I hold onto it?” instead of thinking this old thing is going to rot. I'm more interested in the eternal clothing I'm going to get that I get to wear forever that I don't have to think about disease, I don't have to think about wrinkles, dying, disease, what I, whatever I just said in multiply it by a million, because everything will be magnified in the positive with Christ, with Him forever. That is really if you take; the takeaway from all this is about the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God starts the moment a person's eyes are opened. And I don't just mean because you heard, but the words have sunk down, taken root, and somehow that change is happening. My prayer today is for all those people who have not even understood what the application is, that your eyes may be opened and that something starts to click with you that this is not some exercise like a checkbook that you just check off that “I've done that,” but rather, a process that will last until you depart from this earth.

And the process is a beautiful one; pain along the way, there's some tumult along the way, there's some suffering along the way, but all the while you recognize there's a purpose in all of this. My purpose I understand, your purpose I understand, is to be a child of God in the kingdom with Him forever. That can only be understood in the Spirit. And I can't make somebody have the Spirit, but somebody who's desiring, somebody who earnestly wants, they will come to that conclusion and understand that's God's job and He is still doing. What He did back here in the book He's still doing today. So you say to me, “Well, change hasn't happened to me yet.” Be patient, my friends. Stay in the word and keep looking unto Him who is able to accomplish all in your life. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass.

If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.

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The Concept of Biblical Numerology

foreign [Music] for people who do not understand biblical numerology seven I'll give you examples you can understand seven days makes a complete week does it not thank God all right so seven if you're reading the book of Revelation that's a number that keeps reappearing why because in the Book of Revelation It's the final basically outflow of God's message to humanity and seven is a number that keeps reappearing over and over to say this is a complete Perfection fulfillment of what God has laid out as his plan speaking for Humanity on Earth until something else happens so you look at it that way as I said seven and four are not added they are multiplied and there is a reason for that and I'm going to explain this this may not make sense to all but try and bear with me if you remember the passage where Christ is being tempted the Temptation Of Christ and Satan comes and several times tries to twist scripture it's important to see that while Christ was being tempted he did not succumb he still remained within the Temptation he remained perfect now when you try to look at this as how we're going to do math all right and these in all of these it's almost like saying he was tempted but he was still perfect he remained sinless he did not succumb when we're looking at adding the numbers up it's not this plus this plus that it's almost an intensification which brings about multiplication so many times when we reference for example there are passages in the Bible that talk about punishment punishment that's upcoming in weeks in terms of weeks it's usually multiplied so when we count in Bible Concepts it's usually multiplication it's not Plus and I'm probably sure I lost a couple of people with the Temptation Of Christ but the idea is it's intensified in it's not added on to [Music] you [Music] so Tuesday coming to this house

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The Purpose of the Golden Altar and Table of Showbread

I think it's safe to say when we talk about prayer and pray without ceasing in the context of the altar, the same concepts, I don't think it necessarily means that you are to pray in the sense of, you know, I'm going to lock myself in a room and for, for ten hours I'm just going to not stop praying. If you want to do that that's your business, but the idea is that it is perpetual, it's continual. That means whatever I might have prayed for yesterday, I may come back again tomorrow and do the same thing and likewise and so on. And I think that's where people get a little bit nutty. They think taking it literally, which is I will, I will pray without ceasing, I will pray at all times. No one can pray at all times, okay. Just get, get that idea out of your head. ♪ ♪ So we've been studying the tabernacle in the wilderness, its particular; its dimensions, its material, colors, the structure itself, and the furniture therein. And today I want us to turn our attention to the table of showbread, the showbread, and if times permits, we will move onto the golden altar.

But here is what's important. So this table, which you'll find in a diversity of places, but in Exodus, specifically the mention for the building of the table, which is sometimes called “the table of showbread,” sometimes called “the pure table,” when eventually when we get to Solomon's temple it will be called the temple of; “the table of gold,” but again, made of acacia wood. If you remember I said to you there's a translation from the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament, and if you read the Septuagint version of these verses and passages, they call the translation of the acacia wood is “incorruptible wood.” And I think that's really pretty cool.

Always overlaid with pure gold; and the dimensions of the table, two cubits in length, and if you heard me explain the cubit, from the elbow approximately to the length of the, we'll call it the middle finger would have been a cubit, so two cubits in length and one cubit in breadth and one-and-a-half cubits in height. And as I've said, the numbers always mean something. And I've done enough on the numbers that you could probably go back into the other messages and see what those, if you don't know them, what the numbers symbolize. I've already explained the gold, referring to Christ's divinity and the acacia wood referring to His humanity, which He was both all at once. So I love that these pieces of furniture, except for the candlestick, which we saw, which was pure gold, I like that everything in here points to a description. Which, by the way, think about this: God could have just said, “Make everything out of gold.” They had enough, by the way. Don't think they didn't have enough; they had enough. Remember, at some point God says, “Tell them to stop bringing; we have too much.” Remember that? So it's not as though they couldn't have done it some other way.

This was God's design and this is why you read in the New Testament, “See to it that you build it exactly according to the pattern.” Why, because there was built into that pattern, we'll call them the shadows and types that reveal and point to Christ. So this table had two, what are referred to as crowns, separated by a border and four golden rings, one at each corner through which poles or “staves” would be put through in order to carry that table when it was time to move. I also want you to keep in mind; obviously they wandered in the wilderness for forty years, so I want you to keep in mind that everything that God did here, pretty interesting that God saw this is going to be a moving event, perpetually. So the fact that everything is incorporated into the design is, is pretty interesting, because you know, if you think about it, we humans would go, “Okay, let's build a table,” but we wouldn't think maybe of putting the rings on for the staves, because we don't; it would be an afterthought. God included all this in the design.

So what I like about this is if you're reading about the table itself, when it says it has two crowns, there are three pieces of furniture mentioned with crowns, and I think this is not an accident either. The ark of the covenant has what's referred to as “crowns” on it, the table of showbread, and the golden altar. And I need to say something here, because I hope I haven't confused people, who don't maybe have this down pat. The brasen altar, which is outside versus the golden altar of incense, which is what we're talking about; I'm moving towards that, which would have been on the, in the same realm, if you will, of the candlestick, in that same area. So three pieces of furniture that had crowns on them, and what's interesting about this is these three pieces of furniture at some point we might take a bird's-eye view, but having these crowns, I thought it interesting that the table, in fact, has what I would call a double crown on it. And I don't think it's an accident.

Obviously crowns in this case, at this point in time, can only have two references. One would be to the miter that the high priest would wear, which was referred to as a “holy crown,” and that obviously of a king. And if you think about it, Jesus fulfilled both the high priest and kingly role, so when you read about, for example, two crowns on one piece of furniture, it, to me, fulfills both of those roles. This is a lot of, as I said, type. We're looking at types, but you know, if you look at all the furniture it is not a mistake.

As I said, the numbers, for example, we're talking about four corners in this case of the table, which I've already said in numbers, four corners of the earth, like we have four seasons or four quarters. These numbers are incredibly important. The same thing, this table is described as having four feet. Luckily it has four and not two. You'll get that one later. Again, balance, representing what will be presented to the whole earth or what's available to the whole earth. So I love all of these examples in type. But the table itself would have twelve loaves of bread weekly, basically. So these twelve loaves would be baked and placed on the table every week, and at a certain set time during the week these loaves would be replaced. And we know from different parts of the Bible there's an explanation that once this bread basically has been replaced, the old bread can be consumed by the priests.

So it's almost as though everything in the tabernacle has a purpose. There's really no waste. And as I said, kind of interesting, if you go to the book of Leviticus; Leviticus, for example, explains in just a few verses about the showbread. Leviticus 24 says, “Thou shalt take the fine flour, bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenths deals shall be in one cake.” And you see, even that you might think, “Well, why is that important: 'two tenths deals shall be in one cake'?” I'll tell you in a minute. “Thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD,” there it is. It's not called “the table of showbread,” but “the pure table,” right there. “Thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And every sabbath he shall set in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.” So it's kind of interesting this bread, baked every week, but the two tenths deal kind of got my attention, and why is that? Because if you read some of the other places where you find this “two tenth deal” for, for example the meal offering in the feast day of the sheaf of the firstfruits was to be two tenths deal of fine flour.

The wave offering, for example in the feast of Pentecost, the same thing: two tenths deal of flour. But the manna that was to be gathered on the sixth day of the week, you would actually end up with a double portion, because you had to gather twice as much, because you were not allowed to gather on a set day that was set aside where no gathering could occur. So I want you to think about this. It's equally interesting that the twelve loaves, inside each loaf basically would contain a double portion.

And that might not hit you right away, because the loaves are a little bit tricky to explain in their type, in their meaning, but I'll, hopefully I'll get to it. And then you come back to the understanding of the manna. And the manna has, I think, kind of baffled a lot of people. And I say that because, think it, think of it this way. God rains down this light bread, which the people, after they murmured that they were hungry, right, God rains down this light bread, the “what-cha-ma-call-it,” right, gives them instruction on how to gather, what basically what to do with it, and so forth. And one of the stranger things is when the instructions are given to gather up manna and put it in a pot that will be placed inside the ark, along with Aaron's rod that budded and the unbroken tables of stone, but what's strange is those, that manna that's placed inside the ark is, it's called something, we'll call it continuous or perpetually contained in the ark. And we'll say once the lid or the mercy seat was placed upon the ark, covered and not seen anymore.

And I've said this for many weeks now, with people asking, “Where's the ark?” When you read in the book of Revelation, and I believe it's in the second chapter, it talks about “To him that overcomes I will give to; to him I will give to eat of the hidden manna.” That's why I said to you be very careful to not exclude Scriptures that tell you that God had a purpose in taking away the ark. So think about that. While all of these mystery hunters out there think they're going to solve the problem and it will be an “Aha moment,” uh, okay. Knock yourselves out. So with that being said, I also read here about this frankincense that would be placed upon the loaves. And then of course, these loaves would be replenished weekly. Now, frankincense, there's kind of this shades of meaning. It can be representing holiness, righteousness, truth, even deity.

But if you recall of the gifts that were brought to the Christ child, it was gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And we know that there in those offerings we see a type again. The gold obviously was representing His divinity or His deity, the myrrh in preparation for His death, and the frankincense we can kind of ambiguously say either sweet savor, sweet aroma to God, but also His righteousness. There's a whole━there's kind of that. So applied to the bread it becomes, well, what would be the purpose if the bread, by the way, is going to be consumed by the priests? But it's, it is consecrated bread, in some places called “consecrated bread,” other places called “hallowed bread.” So why would God have them put this frankincense on there? And I think a lot of times there's, there's all these little nifty things we can read about, but the frankincense could also serve as a form of preservative.

So imagine, you know what happens when you leave something out, especially bread. What happens after a week of it being exposed? It's nice and hard, right. So I'm assuming that the frankincense actually had a preservative-type action with the bread. There's something else that's equally interesting about the bread. We read that the bread was pierced. And I think that's interesting, because the bread had to be pierced in order for it to rise.

Do I need to explain that one? That's pretty━okay, but I'm going to do it for the sake of the people that say, “Okay, well what? What the hell did she just say?” So if the bread, remember this I said it's tricky, because the bread is actually an offering out of God's provision from, basically from God, the people take it, and then the people bring it back as an offering to God, right. But so it has multiple, we'll call it, it could have at least two or three meanings or two or three interpretations.

So the bread being pieced, as I said, if we call Christ, as He referred to Himself as “the bread from heaven,” or “the bread of life”" that Bread of life also had to be pierced so it could rise. I love these little━they're very simple, but they're very clear. It's almost like God's saying, “Can you hear Me now?” right. All right, the measurements of the table, as I've already said, the height is one-and-a-half cubits tall, the same as the ark of the covenant. And this is important because the table being the same height as the ark, where the bread would be placed, puts it on the same level, if you will, as the mercy seat.

So the redemptive act where the blood would be sprinkled and applied would carry the same value in height as the bread placed upon the table. And this kind of is important to understand, because the bread may also be considered representing communion or fellowship with God. So if you think about it, the redemptive work of Christ and communion with Christ kind of go on the same level as the measurements depict. It's one of those things that if you're moving around you see that every detail here points to something. God didn't waste a crumb; pardon the pun. All right, there is I said, I mentioned a crown around the table; two crowns, in fact. And I love this, but be very careful about how you interpret what I'm about to say, because I know a lot of people will go far with this one. The crown around the table may have had a practical purpose, and that practical purpose may have been from keeping the bread from slipping off the table. Now if you go back to what I said about our two crowns and the full fulfillment of high priest and king being fulfilled in Christ, then Christ does help us, but unlike the bread that doesn't have free will, we do.

So we can slip and fall, if you will, off of God's table. All right, don't make the mistake. This is, again, one of those things denominationally speaking that some believe “once saved, always saved.” I do not preach that and do not believe that. I have seen more people in my lifetime, some very impressive, brilliant minds for the Lord, they were incredible, they made incredible contributions in ministry that fell away.

And then the people that believe in the doctrine of eternal salvation, “once saved, always saved” will say, “Well, they were never saved in the first place.” That's pretty hard to actually remedy when you look at some of the writings of some of these people who spent thirty and forty years of their life studying the book, preaching the word, and for whatever the events that happened fell away. So I, I don't think that this crown around the table, we can't go too far, as I said, because I don't believe in “once saved, always saved,” but it did have a purpose. And I'd say if you want to take this and make it something that could be applied, looking to the crowns, the high priest and king, can help you.

It doesn't mean it's going to stop you from slipping, but it can help you, and I, I'm just going to leave that there. The bread, sometimes called “the bread of faces,” the bread that would be placed before God, bread, lechem, and pânîym, so it's interesting. The bread of faces, if you translate the word “showbread,” just the word “show” from our English going back into the Hebrew is “to say,” or “to declare.” So it's, it's kind of a strange thing.

I'm not even sure why or how that came to be, but that's what it is. Sometimes also, as I said, referred to as “the continual bread,” and I like that. Remember that each one of these in proper context, the continual bread, which would mean the bread never ceases, even though the manna stopped the bread never ceased. If the bread for us is Christ, He is everlasting and ever liveth, so you can take that how you want. If you remember, there is a passage where David is fleeing for his live and runs in. He finds the priest and he's asking for two things: food and weapons.

Do you remember that? Okay, when he asks the priest, the priest says, “I only have hallowed bread here; not common bread.” And I like the fact that just in that one distinction it lets us know this is no ordinary bread. The priest did not see it as ordinary. Even though it was bread, it was not considered common or ordinary. And again, if you're going to keep going back to these references of Christ, who is the bread of life, no ordinary situation here in Christ either. So all of these, as I said, have great meaning if you're going to comb through the furniture here. The bread, as I said, represents both an offering; and this is where it get complicated and I'm going to try and do this as clearly as I can, but it's difficult, because the bread is, yes, an offering from the people to God, but let me take a little pause right here.

There are too many places specifically in the first five books of the Bible that talk about offerings and giving that explain something that if we all just kind of took a minute to process this, there would be no confusion here. Even that offering from the people to God came out of God's provision to the people, and if you think about it, every single offering that God along the way asked, whether; it didn't matter, it all came out of the provisions that God provided. This is what is frustrating to me as, as a preacher, but also as a person of God. I don't understand this.

And maybe someday, someone will come and argue and enlighten me on this, but I don't understand. If it's as clear as day here that God multiple times over gave to the people, in order that they could give back and participate in worship. What does that tell you about our response? I don't care what you've been taught; what does that tell you about our responsibility, first in recognizing who the Provider is, where the provisions come from, and why we need to be givers? It really kind of; you know, think about this. Have you ever given something to somebody, and we're just human flesh pots, but have you ever given something to somebody and they don't even say, “Thank you.” They don't even━it's like someone who's entitled.

They don't even recognize the gift that was just given to them. And you don't do it because you're expecting “Thank you” or recognition. Now put that on steroids. God, who has given us our faculties, our abilities, the breath in our lung, and yet; lungs, and yet people will still make this an argument. And I think probably this year for me has been the most crystal clear on this subject. It's not discussable. It never was discussable. For all the people out there, for all of you out there who still play this game of “Well, I don't think it's necessary,” or whatever it is, you're just deceiving yourself, because if I'm showing you the patterns that God put down here, not just the patterns of Christ and everything that points to Christ, but also how we are to relate to God. And even, remember I told you a couple of weeks ago, the approach to the tabernacle, those white curtains, right; think about this. Before you came into the church you might have been thinking, you might have been, you know, wondering about God, but then if you're like me, I stayed away from the church.

And I stayed away from the church, A) because I left the church long ago and out of, from a myriad number of reasons. But I also in my mind thought I couldn't possibly be accepted into the mix. So those white curtains still exist today. They're for any person who hasn't come to know the door that you must go through or the sacrifice that was made or the laver of cleansing; all of these things help us, including the structure in which God organized it. See, too many people focus on this idea of the tithe, and not enough focus is given here on who gave to be able to make you a giver. Think about that. Cain and Abel; who, who provided the offering for them? Who? And you keep going and you recognize all the way through it, every juncture it's the same thing. So what happens when we come before God? And I'm just going to say it like this, because the Bible talks about coming before God empty-handed.

What does it say? It says, “I completely deny that You ever provided for me in the first place.” Sorry, but if you can't see that you may not have the Spirit of God in you, because that's exactly, without telling somebody how much you need to give, but rather what's underneath it all. What is in the person's heart? Failure to recognize that, you can't━it doesn't matter what you take out of your pockets afterwards, it's all going to be works of the flesh, an endeavor to check a box and not see how God has laid this out crystal clear. So just put a little period right there, because that tells you my take.

Again, every week I'm going to maybe hammer on this. My take on giving is not some optional ideology or let's describe a percentage. Let's start with the right first place here. Every place here we're looking at, so the, the bread placed on the table, as I said, the oil in the lamps. And yes, there are two distinct types of oil; it doesn't matter. Again, the people had to gather it and bring it and produce it. So you've got enough there, all of the material that was required to build the tabernacle: all the threads, all the gold, all the silver; all of it, where did it come from? You could say, “Well, they came out of Egypt and they basically looted the Egyptians as God told them to do.” That's a good obedience right there. I mean, you know, we, we got people thinking they're coming out of Egypt in San Francisco and Sacramento all day long. That might; you'll get that one later.

No. All right, I was meaning in the looting part there, okay. So don't say, “Oh, well, it's biblical! I just went into whatever place to rip it off because it's biblical.” No, this is━but I'm, what I'm trying to show you is even there God made a provision and said, “Go get it from these people,” and there was a reason for them. Obviously, God didn't━think about this. God said, “Go get it from these people and take it from them as you go.” Why? If God wasn't planning to have this, all of what they took be a part of a pattern to build, then they'd just be a bunch of rich, heavy laden wanderers in the desert and with no point.

So again, this kind━I, I hope I've killed that one and it's clear. So I said the bread is complicated, because the bread, as I said, as an offering the bread can also be a representation, as I said, of Christ as I described that the bread being pierced in order for it to rise. So there, there could be multiple ways to interpret this, and I'm not going to get dogmatic over which one to go with.

They both embody the concept that I'm trying to convey. Twelve: the number of loaves that would be placed there every week, and replaced weekly; this number, as I've pointed out reoccurs over and over again. You've got the twelve tribes, you've got the, the twelve disciples. So twelve in this case, the number of divine government, which kind of is the pattern we're going to see spread throughout. Some people have labeled twelve as apostolic fulfill-ness or fullness, if you will. I, I'm just going to say I prefer to say divine government. It, it takes care of everything here. The number twelve also is carried into the heavenly city with its gates, if you think about it, twelve is everywhere in the Bible; twelve foundations, twelve precious stones, so not an accident in terms of the number.

I love the fact, by the way, that if you look at some of the references of twelve, like the twelve stones that Joshua took where the waters were basically arrested so that they could cross over, or the twelve stones of Elijah. Again, probably more of a mystery to me, the twelve stones of Elijah, because we're dealing with 1 Kings 17 or 18, where we're just starting to see the fracture that is beginning to occur within the kingdoms, and yet God didn't say, “Pick up two and ten.” He said, “Twelve”" there were twelve stones.

So again, with all of the separation we know that will occur, God's language is always going to be united; multiple parts, but united within. And I like that too. There's a mention in the table that might not make sense, and it says that there was a “border of a handbreadth between.” So I want you to think about this. Think about the table itself, and then almost a table within a table, so that you can understand what the border might be. And that border of a handbreadth, this is a tricky one, because no one is quite sure. And trust me; I went to some of my Hebrew sources. No one is quite sure what to make of the proper interpretation of this word, because it's so ambiguous. But I'm going to go for how I understand it, almost as the word connotes “fortress, safe place, enclosure,” a “handbreadth.” So I'm going to say that that concept basically separates. In other words, there is a ledge that is probably designed for the placing of utensils.

The table came with spoons and bowls and other things, so probably that area might have been to put some of those items on. That would have been enough space for it. But I'd like to say that the interior, what we'd call the interior border or that interior walled-off section was a way of separating. And I like this because it, it reminds me of a very strange, it's a very strange analogy I'm going to tell you right away. But if you remember, in the book of Ezekiel, God's describing the city, and He's taking Ezekiel through every part, and He says once He's finished in one area He takes him outside, and He mentions, in the Hebrew━you won't see it in English, but it's the same concept of a hand, hand's breadth to denote separation from other things coming in contact with other things.

So I think that's interesting that God put that there on the table. And whether that is to suggest the bread, if that is possible, being separated out, which it was, it wasn't common bread, or whether that is to represent those people who could approach the table, who were separated out, the high priests. But in any case, it denotes a form of separation, which I think it's like saying this bread is specific and not everyone is invited to partake and to touch, okay. And you might say, “Well, that's kind of unfair.” Well, whoever said it was fair? All right, I think I've probably covered enough on that to talk about, so why I say the separation of the bread is because within all of these pieces of furniture you're also going to find different concepts theologically that we talk about in the New Testament.

So I believe that part of the design of the table, you know, I just used the word “separation” or to keep out would represent what we would call in the New Testament “sanctification,” a separating apart. So kind of just put that as an important thing. And then I love this. In the realm of the tabernacle God basically says, I read it to you that Aaron and his sons, they shall eat it in the holy place. So God made a provision for the people who would be serving and doing the work of basically everything that was contained within that holy place.

Now we don't have a designated place anymore, but I love the fact that right there it basically says God provided. You know, bread is always interpreted as “the staff of life.” God provided for those serving Him the ability to partake. Now take yourselves right into the New Testament. We are a royal priesthood. There is no priests; Jesus is our high priest. But again, this comes back to provision.

And I believe this wholeheartedly. Someone who serves the Lord; and don't just say, “Oh, are you talking about being a pastor?” No, I'm talking about anyone who serves the Lord; you are a servant in your own home. You are a servant unto the Lord when you come here and you do whatever you do, if you do it in the name of the Lord that the Lord provides. And this is another one of these built-in messages that says to me when it says, “And Aaron and his sons, they shall eat it in the holy place,” as if to explain to us that anyone who's going to be committed. You know, there's another Scripture that says, “I have never seen his righteous ones begging bread.” Well, I've seen people begging for bread, hungry, okay. And that doesn't mean, no, they didn't serve. But I'm talking about I have yet to see God abandon the hand or the mouth of someone who is committed to serving, why, because God knows what's in your heart.

That's not to say that God's going to put out fillet mignon for you every night, but it's simply along the same lines of the Lord knows exactly what we need. And if bread is the staff of life, I'm going to go beyond the provisions of food to talk about the provisions of the total person, which come to us in the form of Christ. Again, everywhere you turn it's like mirrors that keep reflecting Christ throughout this whole tabernacle.

It's inescapable. And that's what I love about these studies. You cannot, if you're reading the same Bible I'm reading you cannot escape these types. And they tell me something. They over and over and even deeply or deeper every single week tell me God did not make━there were no accidents here like, “Oops, you know, I just, I decided I wanted this.” No, they're very deliberate. When I talk about these things, and I just mentioned the vessels that would be used in accompaniment with the table, the vessels were set apart for a specific purpose. You'd never see the flagons or the covers or the spoons being used for something else. They were specifically used for service at that table and nowhere else. And that tells me just like each and every one of us as vessels, we have a unique purpose.

That doesn't mean that we can't do multiple things or multitask, but we have a unique purpose in God's plan. And again, I, I think the concept, the question that's asked, you know, “Could God set a table in the wilderness?” Well, of course He did. And this paints the picture rather clearly, not only was this a table of fellowship and communion, but if you think about it, from the very beginning where they would have to go and gather the manna, I want you to imagine what that must have been like, all right, because God gives a specific command for how much they can gather and when they can gather and how they can gather it. So from start to finish God provided opportunities for the people of God to participate. Now I'm going to stop right there and ask you a question. Why is it that, fast forward into the New Testament church world and people think, “There's nothing for me to do”? I'm not talking about works.

I'm just saying that if you look even at the pattern of how everybody participated, each had their own. I said this last week. Some people were responsible for gathering the olives to make the oil, some people were charged with gathering the manna, some people were charged with the craftsmanship, but everybody did something that brought the whole camp to be involved. So think about these things, because I think it's pretty important. Now, when it came time to move the table, like other pieces of furniture, God provided the covering. And it's the same covering that I described, more or less. You've got the table that would be covered with a blue cloth that would be underneath it all. And of course, I've already blue, the color of eternity. The dishes, spoons, and bowls had a scarlet covering on them or red covering on them.

And the final covering would be badger skin. And I always like this because even the last time I mentioned this, people were like, “What the hell is that?” But think of it as the ugliest nondescript covering that you could have; nothing to look at. And this is what I love. To the natural eye, to the person in the flesh, if they saw the badger skin it, it would almost probably be repulsive. They would say, “What? What? How could that be holy?” because, you think about it, look at the complete opposite here. The complete opposite when people think of “holy” they think of opulence and they think of grandiose.

They think of the Catholic Church with its pomp and splendor and all the ornate-ness, right? You don't think badger skin. Badger skin is like, “Yuck, that's repulsive” to the natural man, to the natural eye. But someone who can look at this and really understand the meanings of these coverings, you're seeing what we'd call the, the, what the Bible refers to in Isaiah, speaking of Christ: there was no beauty in Him. So one has to look at the covering, and if it is with the eyes of the Spirit, you can see beyond the badger skin down to the blue and see the eternal purpose. But someone who doesn't have the Spirit is going to look at this and say, “What is this? This is like a junkyard with all kinds of stuff being transported, covered up with all kinds of”━it's like going to Grandma's house with all these different coverings on everything, right? What the heck? All right, so I think I've, I've given you enough of the picture of this table and its, its purpose.

I'm going to move on to the golden altar of incense, which was also in the holy place, as I realize if I keep going at this speed we will never get out of the tabernacle. So this piece once more, acacia wood overlaid with pure gold, sometimes called “the altar of gold before the throne.” There is that reference, by the way, in Revelation 8:3. I want you to ask yourself the question, why are there references to articles of furniture or concepts that were in the Pentateuch that appear in the book of Revelation if it's not because God is saying, “That was a shadow; I'm showing you what the actual substance, the tangible substance is now”? That's what will be revealed, the real thing.

So as I said, the altar before the Lord, also called “the altar of sweet incense,” it's dimensions, one cubit square and two cubits high. And I think this is pretty interesting myself, because that right there, one cubit square, means it was a square. It was square square. And I don't, again, I don't think this is an accident. If this golden altar, being probably the tallest or greatest in height of the table, of the ark of the covenant, or whatnot, the interesting thing here is that you have the shape. The shape brings me back to something pretty important, the, the city that is described as foursquare, the city that's yet to be, the heavenly city of Jerusalem described as foursquare. And again, the interesting relationship to the other pieces of furniture, what this particular altar, we call it the altar of incense; incense would be burned upon it, if you will. That altar represents for us what we would call another form of communion, prayers ascending to God, in the New Testament form if you will.

This golden altar had horns on each corner, a crown molding of sorts, gold around the edges with two rings of gold underneath what I'm calling the “crown molding,” which would kind of be a decorative something that goes around the exterior square. This altar would be found just before the veil. And I want to make sure that I make this really, really clear, because I know there'll be people that will be confused about this. So the difference between the brasen altar, which is further back, go back towards the entrance, all right. And sometimes I think people confuse the brasen altar with the golden altar. So the brasen altar is where the sacrifice for the sinner was offered. We call that judgment, we'd call that everything that you want to look at in terms of the act required to redeem or to forgive the sins of the sinner.

And you cannot, you would not be able to approach the altar of incense without having made or seen the sacrifice. So in translation for us, you come through the door to see the sacrificial and finished work of Christ, and when you are able to see, understand, recognize, no, and it doesn't have to be perfectly, but with that focus, then you approach and the incense of prayers can ascend. You know, people say, “Well, can I just pray?” Well, who are you praying to? So there, there is a pattern with purpose here. It's not just simply, “Okay, I'm going to go through the motions and check the box.” There was actually a method to this. Also, once a year on the great Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, they'd also apply blood onto this altar as well. In fact, I think everything got blood-covered. The blood obviously being a picture of this sacrifice accomplished, and so the foundation of worship therefore and praise was going back behind what was already done, the shed blood that was already shed.

So again, none of this would have━do you realize if I wasn't giving you the other side, which is showing you Christ, it just kind of sounds like, “Well, what's the purpose?” because you'd have to repeat this every year, and some of this you'd have to repeat every day or every week. What's the point? So again, that's why I said to you, you cannot read this without seeing that God actually had a vision to carry out the fullness of His Son, but these all point in that direction. The incense, this is another interesting one, made of four sweet spices in equal amounts would be blended and burned, produced fragrant odors or perfume.

One of these spices, the Hebrew word nâtâph, “to drop,” or “to distill,” a balm, which suggests fragrant outpouring of a life yielded. It's kind of interesting if you look up that word. The second one is a little bit more strange, because the second ingredient would be, would come from a shell or a scale that would be ground down into a fine powder. They'd find this shell around the Red Sea. It sounds a little bit weird to grind down a shell, but when finely ground it would produce a very fragrant perfume. Some scholars have equated the, this kind of incense, the full compound of the incense with a complete dedication or devotion. I'm not sure that I want to go that far, but it all has meaning. The next ingredient was a sap-like substance called, “galbanum,” which is purported to have medicinal properties. And finally frankincense, which you can see frankincense would have a place almost, almost throughout the whole tabernacle.

Our English word refers to its fast and free-burning qualities. Frankincense as a medicine or antidote to poison in some cases, equally like that, it's kind of interesting, but it could also be used if you remember I talked about it being put on the bread as preservative. It could also be used in the context of purity. So remember that this consecration would also be like the memorial of the meat offering. So all of these ingredients, they are, it's not just one time that they appear. They appear in different places and I believe they all have a part, an important in; we'll call it the recipe and the formulation that God put together. So you put all these ingredients together; they're blended for one singular purpose to be put on the altar of incense, and then obviously it is something that ascends.

Now we are not burning incense, but that altar does represent our place of prayer, the prayers going up. And Christ, who is our high priest, would pass into the holiest place of all to obtain that eternal redemption for us. So it's, again, nothing can be done, it's weird, like everything is connected. You can't even start understanding all of the furniture, unless you come through the door; sorry, okay. And once you come through the door, that one singular door that brings you in from, from being outside of those white curtains, once you come through the door and you begin to see this furniture there must be an understanding of the purpose of the why.

And for example, if one was just going to stand at the laver of cleansing, we'd say, “Well,” as I pointed this out, we're washed and cleansed by the word of God. Each one of these has a connection. And the more you look at this━I'm just giving you a very generic picture. You want to knock yourself out, if you can read Hebrew or you have access to a Hebrew Old Testament, look up some of these that words I've talked about just in reference and you see, wow, there, there are deeper meanings to these words.

I'm trying to keep this generic, because I realize that I'm describing furniture, which you might say, “Well, a message on furniture; okay, interesting.” As I mentioned earlier, I believe the coals that came off of the altar of burnt offering were used on the golden altar as well. And God was very particular about this. If you remember the episode that happened with Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, remember where they took false fire, right. God basically warned them, by the way, it wasn't like they just stumbled upon and said, “Oh, let's try this.” God said, “Do not use strange fire,” meaning if there was a fire that was perpetually burning, that is from where you get the coals or whatever for whatever you need; you don't go and get it elsewhere. So I like the fact that God's very specific, even right done to the fire, when He says, “This is what I want you to do and this is how I want you to do it.” Of course, their disobedience and their blatant disregard for God's instructions and God's ways obviously cost them their life.

You have a similar scenario that plays out with Korah and the rebellion of Korah; not so much over fire, but the idea is still there, direct denial of God's chosen way, direct denial of God's way of approach. And of course, the same thing with Korah and Korah's band, it cost them their life. And my only lament is why God is not opening the earth up nowadays and swallowing people up, I don't know, but 250 men that followed Korah were consumed, completely consumed. So I think it's safe to say with God obedience is better than sacrifice. Let's leave that one alone. But what's unmistakable here about this altar is if, as I said, if the brasen altar was where satisfaction was made to the holiness of God for the sake of the sinner, then the prayers being offered by the saint are what are seen essentially in the golden altar of incense, accepted, by the way, because of the sacrifice that was already done. So I like to put it this way. If the first altar, the brasen altar flesh is sacrificed, here at the golden altar of incense you have basically the soul; if the flesh has been sacrificed the soul is communing with God.

So those are the two pictures that I like to use as a New Testament appropriation. I have one final thought here on, on the altar, on the golden altar, which is Aaron was instructed to offer a perpetual incense upon it. In the New Testament we are told by Paul to “pray without ceasing.” And this becomes a stumbling block for a lot of people, because the idea I think a lot of people think is, “What does that mean? Should I lock myself in a room and I, I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray and I pray, and I keep praying? Or I pray redundantly? Or I pray from a card? Or”━no, it doesn't mean that. The picture that has been depicted here, and I want you to think about this, if the offeror, in this case Aaron, was told to offer perpetual incense, then think about this.

What he brought, whatever those four ingredients were, had to be basically consumed before he would bring and replenish more. So I think it's safe to say when we talk about prayer and pray without ceasing in the context of the altar, the same concepts, I don't think it necessarily means that you are to pray in the sense of, you know, I'm going to lock myself in a room and for, for ten hours I'm just going to not stop praying. If you want to do that that's your business, but the idea is that is perpetual, it's continual. That means whatever I might have prayed for yesterday, I may come back again tomorrow and do the same thing and likewise and so on. And I think that's where people get a little bit nutty.

They think taking it literally, which is I will, I will pray without ceasing, I will pray at all times. No one can pray at all times, okay. Just get, get that idea out of your head. Not even the people who profess to pray all the time pray all the time. At some point you've got stop for some bodily functions here, okay, and I don't think that while you stop for that you're equally praying at the same time. Just save it for somebody who might believe you. All right, so I just want to say this about everything, because I've kind of done a very more generic approach here.

But these concepts, the table of showbread and the golden altar of incense, they do represent something to me that I think is desperately needed in this particular time, and that's called communion with God. And this got me to thinking a little bit, especially with Easter coming up, and I'll just tell you straightway in advance, because I was having a conversation with somebody last week, and I said, “You know, we have enough Resurrection, proofs of the Resurrection, different approaches to the Resurrection, many, many years of, of these messages.” But the application, it dawned on me; I think a lot of people don't actually know how to apply the resurrected life into their lives.

And that actually requires communion and fellowship with God to understand that. So when we look at these items you don't look at the table of showbread and the altar of incense without, as I just finished mentioning without all that came before. And recognizing just even how you came into the tabernacle, how the way of approach explains that without recognizing and understanding; you don't have to be a mathematician and understand formulas, but you do have to look at the big picture to recognize your standing of who you are before God, which as a sinner. We're all sinners, there's not one person in the sound of my voice who isn't.

We are sinners being basically washed and cleansed by the final and finished sacrifice of Christ, washed and cleansed by the word as He described in John 15. But all of this kind of comes down to a bigger picture, which is how do we understand this in fellowship and communion? Because it is in the fellowship and communion that the relationship is developed or built, it is a relationship. And you can't have the relationship just simply built on what I just described, the table and the altar of incense without recognizing the sacrifice, the way of approach, the way in, what walled you out, what kept you away.

And that that wall of partition has been broken down. But all of that is to say that when I do get around to, I believe next week is Easter, it may not be a traditional proofs of the Resurrection, because it dawned on me in all the years, my 18 going on 19 and probably 30 years of Dr. Scott's ministry here, I don't think I've heard a message on why it matters to understand about that resurrected life and how to apply it, because there begins the concept. See, I think a lot of people come in and it becomes it's an obligation for one day, “Okay, I've got to go because I know this is kind of a commemorative thing.

I go because, and here's all the reasons.” But there all the wrong reasons, because if you come to understand the proofs, and the proofs properly applied to your life bring something incredible to the believer that without that you may just say, “Well, it's enough for me to know, because Christ resurrected sits at the center.” But the lack of understanding, in my opinion, brings about a lack of communion, a lack of fellowship, and a lack of worship. And those things that are lacking keep the distance, in my opinion, between the believer and God. So hopefully we will, I'll get to that next week and I'll talk to you about that next week, but what I want to say in wrapping up; I'm not done in the tabernacle by any means. But I wanted to keep this simple because, as I said, showing each measurement or each color or each dimension is it, it's there, so you can go back and read the descriptions of the table and read it for yourself or the descriptions of the altar of incense and read it for yourself.

And understand now with the understanding of what is, what is a cubit and what the numbers mean or that the materials mean. But go back and read it, as I've said for many weeks now, looking at through the eyes of God in Christ, looking at how amazing God is to paint this picture. And the picture as I said, wasn't painted for a few people. That's why, again the numbers matter.

This four corners of the earth, to all ends of the earth; it wasn't designed for a singular people. This is the mistake that people get into when they say, “Well, this was given,” and I've heard people say this, “This, this was given to the Jewish people.” No, the Jewish people didn't exist at this time. I've already gone through that, and please, if you haven't listened to my message do not argue with me, do not post on my social media page. If you have not listened that means you are still ignorant as to what this book; not me, not my opinions; what this book says about what I just said. This was given as a pattern of what God would do for the whole earth. And when you come to see that it just makes God and His plan of salvation all the more amazing, because He said, “I don't need for people to keep coming to the door perpetually and slaughtering an animal anymore. I chose My only begotten Son,” and He gave His life that you and I may have life eternal.

And that life eternal is something so powerful in, especially in this day and age where people are vacillating in fear and confusion and everything else. This resurrected life says, “No matter what's going on, God has a plan.” He had it here, He had it here, He had it here, He has it here at the end of the book, and He's got it here and He's got it there. And if you just look it will bring something else to your life: peace. And without that I don't know how you're going to get along in this world, in this crazy lunatic world right now. So with all that being said, I hope that you can take what I've said today and without it being too detailed, very generic, to say there is definitely reason to go back, reread and study, and see the beauty of Christ in the Old Testament. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass.

If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com.

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