Hebrews
10:19-20: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the
Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way
opened for us through the curtain (veil), that is, His body....
Nothing
or no one can become eternal except through Jesus Christ. The Word
of God spoken throughout the Older Testament became “living” and
“eternal” in Jesus who is the Word of God that spoke all creation
into being in the beginning. Jesus began holy and spiritual, was holy
and spiritual as He walked the earth because He had no sin, and will
come back holy and spiritual at the end of the age.
Jesus
had to fully obey the Law so even the Older Testament saints would be
released from its penalty of death for disobedience, and could be
resurrected by His shed blood to eternal life. These Older
Testament saints died under the Law--the penalty of which was death
for their sin and disobedience. God provided a temporary way for atonement, but this didn't remove the penalty of death. Only One who is God could remove it because this penalty was given by God. Once the sinless blood of Jesus was
shed and He was resurrected, the Older Testament saints could follow
Jesus in His ascent to the Father. Jesus had to be the Firstfruit of
the resurrection to the Father to fulfill the Law. It was His shed
blood that opened the way for these Older Testament saints to ascend
to the Father. His was a new and living way! Even though these
Older Testament saints were sinners, they died believing in the
coming Messiah. Therefore, they ascended with Jesus the Messiah to
the Father. Now, all must come to the Father in the same way that
Jesus and the Older Testament saints did—through His shed, sinless
blood and His perfect obedience to the Father--not through Law. The
“old” became alive (living
– spiritually and eternally) in
Jesus including the Law and the Prophets. Jesus is the “new” and
“living” way opened up for us through the veil of His body of
flesh. When Jesus gave up His flesh in death, the veil between the
Holy Place and the Most Holy Place was torn in two from top (God)
to
bottom (Man).
The Law made no one righteous. (2
Corinthians 3:6)
It was the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the Truth (Word)
that kept Jesus in all the ways of the Father. The letter of the Law
as a whole brought death. No one could live up to its high, holy
standards. The Apostle Paul tells followers of Christ that we are to
be Christ's letter, “written
on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a
letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink
but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on
tablets of human hearts. Such confidence as this is ours through
Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim
anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” 2
Corinthians 3:2-6
Tabernacle
of Moses
In
the Older Testament, the tabernacle of Moses was made of earthly
things that foreshadowed a heavenly, spiritual reality. Every inch of
this tabernacle was a picture of Jesus and His Eternal, Living
Tabernacle. We will see the fullness of the tabernacle of God in God,
Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the heavenly sanctuary in the New
Jerusalem.
Moses'
tabernacle was not living. It had to be carried by the priests when
it was moved. But Jesus walked and talked with mankind while in His
flesh body that housed His Divine shekinah glory within. God also
walked and talked with the first Adam who was clothed in God's glory
and light when he was lovingly shaped and formed by the Godhead. The
tabernacle of Moses pointed to Jesus, the living, spiritual reality.
He is the Living (Eternal) tabernacle of God who dwelt among mankind.
The Word (of God)
became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory,
the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth. John 1:14 Moses
was a servant to whom God gave the Law, but Jesus is the Son of God
who is FULL of grace and truth and heir of all that belongs to the
Father. In other words, He had the fullness of grace and truth!
Those who walk with Jesus in His grace and truth are His tabernacle
in the flesh who walk according to the Spirit.
Jesus
is also the shekinah glory. “For
the Son of Man is going to come in His Father's glory with His
angels....” Matthew 16:27 Jesus'
Divine glory within was veiled by His flesh as He walked the earth.
It was right after Jesus spoke of His coming again in His Father's
glory that He revealed His Divine glory within by bringing it without
on the Mount of Transfiguration to the three disciples who drew the
closest to Him – Peter, James and John. Jesus did and spoke in the
“natural” what He would do in the “supernatural.”
Jesus
didn't fix the “old” way; He brought a “new” and “living”
(eternal)
way through Him. His is a “new covenant” and a “new creation.”
Jesus wants us to take off the “old” sinful man and put on the
“new” man in Christ. (Ephesians
4:24)
The “old” creation was marred by sin through Adam. Jesus by
taking on the flesh of humanity and remaining holy, removed any
“fleshly” barrier between God and mankind. Our fleshly ways
obstruct our view so God wants to remove them.
The High Priest of the
Law wore a garment of white linen as he entered the Most Holy Place
on the Day of atonement. This white robe symbolized
purity/righteousness in the flesh. However, since no one was
righteous because of the Law, Jesus had to be righteous in His flesh
body in order to remove the curse of eternal death over all. Because
Jesus was the only person to ever walk the earth who was righteous in
the flesh, He could qualify to rend the veil that was a barrier to
the presence of God in the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle and
temple. Jesus' death in His flesh body took the place of us and
allows us to enter into the presence of God freely and boldly.
(Hebrews 10:22)
There is no barrier of sinful flesh stopping us from entering into
God's presence. As the shekinah glory of God looked down through the
blood of the innocent animals sprinkled on the mercy seat in the
Older Testament and declared the sin of His people atoned for, God
looks down through the blood of Jesus who is the mercy seat of God
and declares us forgiven and righteous.
Jesus
became the pure High Priest and the veil that the Older Testament
high priest had to pass through to enter the Most Holy Place. “In
Him, all things consist.” Why?
Jesus is the Creator with God and the Holy Spirit. “Without
Him, nothing was created.”
The
earthly city of Jerusalem is a type and shadow of the heavenly
reality in the New Jerusalem where the Father and Jesus will be its
Light, and the Holy Spirit will flow from them. Nothing earthly will
reside in this Holy City – only the spiritual. There will be no
sacrifices offered in this heavenly sanctuary except the sacrifices
of thanksgiving, praise and worship.
The
tabernacles and the temples were erected by man, but Jesus is the
tabernacle and temple erected by God not man. (Hebrews
8:1-5) No
man had anything to do with Jesus' birth, resurrection or ascension.
It is all God's doing. No works of man could have done what Jesus
and the Father did. It
is the observance of the writer that many in the Body of Christ have
reduced Jesus' Divinity, power and glory to their own fleshly sight.
He is far more than a Jewish man who came in the flesh. He is the
Light of the world and the Divine glory and power of the Father. He will
return to Israel and the whole world will see Him because He is the
Light of the world! Our fleshly eyes can't comprehend the fullness of
His Light and glory, so we tend to reduce it to our earthly
understanding. The Light of Jesus—the Light of the world— will
light the whole earth as His Light did in the beginning. (Genesis 1:3) The whole
earth will see Him coming because He is coming in a cloud of His
Divine glory and light. Jesus won't be confined to a temple or
place. His glory and radiance will shine forth throughout the
universe. All of mankind will know the true tabernacle and temple of
God when we see Him. The
One who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth
belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who
comes from heaven is above all. John 3:31 Yes,
this includes the Law and the Prophets since He is the One who gave
Moses the Law and the prophets the Word of God. Jesus is and will ever be the voice of God.
Tabernacle
of David
The
tabernacle of David has no veil, no brazen altar, no laver, no
lampstand, no table of showbread or golden altar of incense. It has no
division. All that is in David's tabernacle is the Ark of the
Covenant and the presence of God in the shekinah glory over it. The
tabernacle of David is a type and shadow of Jesus and His Body. No
sacrifices were offered in David's tabernacle. One entered David's
tabernacle through praise and thanksgiving. There was no threefold
pattern in this tabernacle. In this simple tent, there was open
access to the presence of God. This one room tent represented
oneness both of the Godhead and the Body of believers.
David's
tabernacle is a picture of the Body of believers who enter the
presence of God through Jesus in praise and thanksgiving. Jesus came in the simpleness of holy
flesh, grace and truth--walking and working in harmony with the Father
and the Holy Spirit. We enter His gates with thanksgiving and
praise. In Christ, we have an open heaven into the presence of God.
Acts
15:16-18: After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of
men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear My Name,” says
the Lord, who does these things that have been known for ages. It is
my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the
Gentiles who are turning to God.
It
is David's tabernacle that God will rebuild. The one that has no
divisions and that you enter with thanksgiving and praise in the
presence of Our Lord. God called David a “man
after My own heart”
in spite of David's sins. David's heart was the Lord's dwelling
place! David's tabernacle will also be full of men and women after
God's own heart who seek the presence of God. These will be both
Jews and Gentiles—not offering sacrifices—but offering
thanksgiving and praise to the Lord from their hearts. David's
psalms reflect his deep desire for a deeper and deeper knowledge and
intimate relationship with God. His psalms also illustrate His love
for the Lord's Word.
It
is interesting to note that the tabernacle of Moses was also
operating at the same time as David's. The
tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the desert, and the
altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at
Gibeon. But David could not go there because he was afraid of the
sword of the Angel of the Lord. 1 Chronicles 21:29-30 Sacrifices
were still being offered in the tabernacle of Moses but the Ark of
the Covenant – God's presence – wasn't in it! It was in David's
tabernacle in God's city of Jerusalem. Notice that David wouldn't go
to Moses' tabernacle because he feared the sword of the Angel of the
Lord. David didn't want to go against the sword (Word)
of
the Angel of the Lord (Jesus).
“The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The Angel of the Lord came to David in judgment after David disobeyed God and took a census of his fighting men. The Angel of the Lord told David to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah. David obeyed and stayed the sword of judgment. So David was not about to go to Gibeon in direct disobedience to the Word given through the Angel of the Lord to build the altar in Jerusalem.
David's
tabernacle is a picture of the Body of Christ in oneness who enter
His gates with thanksgiving and praise for all that He has done for
us. His is a finished work! Nothing has to be added to it. Jesus is
the son of David in the flesh, not Moses! He is also David's Lord.
Jesus is not only the offspring of David, He is the Root (Source)
of
David. (Revelation 5:5)
May
God help us to see Jesus as He truly is—the Light and glory of God
that illuminates the whole world. May He help us to understand that
we are the carriers of His light and presence, and the awesome
responsibility connected to being His light and presence to a lost
and dying world. May He encourage us to offer ourselves as living
sacrifices to Him so we too will be His bright light to the whole
world. May His beauty, power and glory radiate through each one of
us as we become One with Him in every way so collectively we are
indeed a bright light to those who are lost and spiritually dying.
In Jesus' mighty and precious Name, I pray.
Amen
Blessings
and love,
Sandy
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