Loving Lavishly Part 4
Loving Lavishly • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Tabernacle of David (Continued)
The Tabernacle of David (Continued)
As an example of why we see God using David’s heart of worship as an illustration of God’s desire for relationship with us, let’s look at a parallel in Scripture in 1 Samuel 21:2-6.
And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
David did not treat the Bread of the Presence as common but sought to use it to sustain holy men who stood for the honor of the Lord. We see this same fulfilment in the act of the Christ in Mark 2:23-28.
One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
Some would teach that the Tabernacle of David makes a separate way for a Christian Church through a covenant in Christ void of the covenant God made with Israel. This is called replacement theology and is a heresy.
As you will hopefully see, there is but one covenant. We are but grafted into the covenant of God with Israel. The same intent of God’s covenant with Israel is with you and me. The same intent of the sacrifices, the same intent of the Tabernacle, the same intent of the commandments, the same intent of the Messiah, the same intent for pure relationship with a holy God.
It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.
I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests.
Two original concepts of the Tabernacle and Temple must be understood. “The first is the idea of the temple as God’s dwelling on earth. The God of Israel was considered invisibly present in the Holy of Holies, and this gave the whole temple an aura of unparalleled sanctity, and its servants a large measure of authority” (Skarsaune, O. (2002). In the shadow of the temple: Jewish influences on early Christianity (p. 93). InterVarsity Press.).
These are essential as we look at the life and work of Christ. Through the work of Christ, the invisible God became flesh among us. Through the work of Christ, the Holy Spirit of God dwells within us. Through the work of Christ, we are being sanctified. Through the work of Christ, the disciples had delegated authority. Through the work of Christ, we have the full authority of the Word of God and the power of His Kingdom to live a holy life free of sin.
The second concept of significance in relation to the Tabernacle, the Temple and the work of the Messiah is found in the atonement through sacrifices. “Simon the Just, high priest ca. 200 B.C., said, ‘On three things does the world stand: on the Torah, on the temple service, and on deeds of loving kindness’ (Avot 1:2). It is clear that this learned man considered the atoning sacrifices offered in the temple to be indispensable to Israel’s relationship with God. When the temple fell in A.D. 70, both rabbinic and Christian sources testify that the most irksome question asked was How could the people now obtain remission for their sins?” (Skarsaune, O. (2002). In the shadow of the temple: Jewish influences on early Christianity (p. 95). InterVarsity Press.).
So, you can see why Jesus’ prophetic declaration of the destruction of the Temple in their day would have caused an uproar and gotten Him crucified. As well, you can understand His indignation at the perversion of the Temple or “The Father’s House of Prayer”.
Unfortunately, these understandings are lost because so much of modern-day Christianity has made Jesus into their own image. The distance from the original Jesus in Scripture has given us a religion with a non-Jewish Jesus. Even today, when you justify your choosing of a life in opposition to the design and instruction of God, yet claim relationship with His atoning work, you indeed create a Jesus in your image, not His. As such, you defile the Temple, the Tabernacle, or the dwelling place of God’s holy presence.
A perfect example of what I am talking about is an image of a sign in Germany during the Holocaust that reads, “Jews Not Welcome” with a crucifix of Yeshua the Christ, a Jew. How is that for a church sign? Do you wear such a sign? Do you claim to be a Follower of Christ but your life says, “The Messiah Not Welcome”.
Some would get into a debate concerning if Jesus was an Essene or a Pharisee. Regardless, many times Jesus confronts issues relating to the temple.
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
From the Garden of Eden and the Tabernacle of Moses; from The Tabernacle of David to Yeshua, God has intended to dwell intimately with those who love Him. This is the essence of the House of God. That we all dwell together in the unity of His great love.
We can see this intent spoken through the Prophet Amos in Amos 9:11
“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old,
We see this again in Acts 15:16-18.
“ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
Christ has made us the dwelling place of His presence and the door keepers are the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. And you must keep it consecrated and pure. This is why God commands us to be holy.
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.
This culture is filled with swarming things. The atmosphere is filled with all kinds of perversions and ideas that are of the wicked. Do not defile yourselves with the things, the ways, the practices, or the ideas of those who do not know your God. He has redeemed you. You have been built for His presence. You are the Tabernacle, the dwelling place of the Most High.
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
You are the House of God! Be a good door keeper and keep unholy things out of your tent!