Tabernacle and Priests (Youth 4/28/2024)

Review: What did we learn about last week? The Ten Commandments

This week, we are not going to do as much reading because we are going to summarize a large part of the Bible. What we are going to talk about is taught in much of Exodus and all of Leviticus.

Lesson:

Remember, the Israelites were very special people. They were special because they were the only ones in the whole world who believed in God and obeyed him. Some people, like the Egyptians, thought that there were many gods, but God knew that he was the only true and living God.

God is powerful and special. Do you remember some of the things that are special about God? He sent the Ten Plagues so that Israel could be free from Egypt, and He wrote the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. Obeying the Ten Commandments were how the Israelites could be holy and have a relationship with God.

Do you remember what it means to be holy? Holy means to be different, apart from the sin of this world. God is different from everything else. He is perfect, never making mistakes or sinning. God is kind. He loves his people. He took care of Israel and protected them even when they were hungry and thirsty in the desert after leaving Egypt.

All of these things about God can be said in one word. What is that word again? HOLY. God is Holy.

He is so special that nothing can even come close to being special like him. God wants his people to know that he is holy. He wants us only to worship him.

Do you remember some of the Ten Commandments?

Do you think that the Israelites were able to keep all of these perfectly?

Of course not!

When the Lord gave the 10 commandments, the Lord revealed the impossibility of following rules to be holy like God.

Now the people were ready to learn God’s way to acceptance.

God told Moses to build a sacred place called the Tabernacle or the tent of meeting.

God was not asking them to do this because he needed a house. Rather, he was creating an elaborate visual aid to help explain what it would take to remove the sin-penalty. Since the people were not holy, they had to have a way to get rid of their sin.

So God chose the family of Aaron (who was Moses’ brother) to be priests.

What are priests? Priests were supposed to represent the people to God. Their job was to offer sacrifices in the tabernacle. The people would bring their best bulls, sheep, goats, or doves to the priests. The priest would have the people place their hands on the animals, showing that the sin from the people was being transferred to the animals. Then the people, not the priest, would slit the throats of the sacrifices. The animals died. In God’s eyes, the person deserved death because of his sin, but instead, the animal took the sins and died in the person’s place.

When Moses had finished telling the people all of the rules for God’s holy place, the tabernacle, and for the priests, and for how to do sacrifices, God did something very special. A cloud covered the tabernacle. It was so glorious that Moses was not even able to enter the tabernacle.

Do you know what the cloud represented? It signified God’s presence with his people.

Since the animals had paid for the sins of the people with their death, God was able to still be with the Israelites, even though they did not keep the 10 commandments perfectly, even though they were not fully holy. Of course, the death of animals could not permanently pay for sin.

God was showing Israel how He was planning to pay for sin in the future. Can you guess how God paid for our sin?

Read 1 Peter 1:18-19

18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, [like] silver or gold, from your aimless conduct [received] by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

That’s right. When the Israelites put their hands on the animals and killed them, it paid for their sins for a short bit of time before they had to go back to the priests and offer another sacrifice. But when Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, He paid for all of them. That is what “redeemed” means. When we trust him as Savior, we are forgiven of our sins and have the Holy God with us all the time.

Application:

Have you trusted in Christ to pay for your sins?

There is no other way to have a relationship with God since we cannot be holy on our own. If you have not, I invite you to accept Jesus today. Talk to one of us after class and we’ll talk to you about trusting in Jesus.

If you have already trusted Christ to pay for your sins, how does that change how you live? Read 1 Peter 1:14-16

14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written: "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."

What can you do this week to be as holy, as kind and loving, as God?

Close in prayer