Making a bee line into the Presence of God
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If you have ever seen the high tech movies where some one is preforming a heist trying to steal the crown jewels from the palace. Once they finally break in to the room where the priceless treasure lays behind the glass they cannot just walk in an take it, for there are invisible laser beams that are crisscrossed all over the room and the criminal must preform the finely tuned dance to avoid breaking any of its beams which would trigger the alarm and alert the authorities.
Such is true with the old Covenant. The treasure that we all desire is what is behind the veil the very presence of God Himself. But the problem that we run into is that the old covenant that is the cultic, ritualistic, traditions connected with the Old Covenant are not sufficient, they are actually hidden barriers keeping us from the presence of God.
That which is earthly and passing away cannot bring us into the presence of God.
That which is earthly and passing away cannot bring us into the presence of God.
Think about it for a moment the very design of the Tabernacle and later the more permanent Temple were full of things that reminded the people that they were hindered in their desire to worship God without impediment.
Impossible to make a bee line straight to God.
The first five verses are dedicated the the memory of all that is in the temple. Lets look at them for just a moment as it will help is to see how these things are meant to point us to a greater reality.
As we look at the tabernacle it was meant bring the people that is the nation of Israel into the presence of God, but not completely.
There are basically 3 sections of the tabernacle the the court yard, the inner temple which comprised of 2 sections the “holy place”, and the “holy of Holies” In the court yard you have the bronze altar where the sacrifices are offered, and you have the bronze basin where the ritual cleansing takes place. The Israelites were permitted to enter into the courts but not into the temple itself. Only the levitical priests could enter into the holy place to minister daily in the temple services which consisted of trimming the wicks and replacing the oil for the lampstand which contained 7 branches, each fashioned into the branch of an almond flower. You also had the table of showbread. Which consisted of a table made of Achaia wood overlaid with gold, and 12 loaves of bread to symbolize the 12 tribes. The priests were to eat these loaves and replace them each sabbath day. And the last object to be tended to by the priests was the altar of incense. To maintain the coals and provide a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord.
There is some question about the placement.
Now behind this is the veil separating the priests from the most holy place. No one was to enter through this curtain, not even the high priest except once a year on the day of Atonement, and even then he could not enter on his own merit but but take with him the blood of sacrifice.
2 times he enters.
“Azazel”
WHY cant these things usher us into the presence of God?
Earthly and external rituals cannot touch the inner conscience
The is issue is the conscience.
The really effective barrier to a man or woman’s free access to God is an inward and not a material one; it exists in the conscience. F. F. Bruce
What is the the conscience?
It is closely associated with the “image of God in us” It is what makes us distinctly human, and separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. It is to be self reflective of our creaturlyness and aware of our accountability to God as the creator. It is that inner voice that either condemns us or else commends us for our actions and out motives.
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
How did Adam react to God’s after they had sinned. They hid from Him, they felt thier own nakedness. The Lord asks them who told you you were naked, it was their inward conscience that had just been awakened by their sin, and was now working over time to remind them of thier rebellion and guilt. And this is the issue the issue is the reminder of sin
But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
The old could not remove the guilt of sin, but in the new our sins are removed and remembered no more, always before us.
To be sure this is not the same as the law being written on the hearts of New Covenant people. Even the unregenerate are image bearers and in a limited way have the law of God written on their hearts. They instinctively know that they ought not to murder other image bearers. Even wholly secular nations have laws against stealing and lying.
The conscience is generally a reliable instrument but it can be and is corrupted by sin, and can even be seared or silenced. The knowledge of God can be suppressed to the point that we no longer hear it and are no longer pierced to the heart and called to action. Our smoke alarms usually go off once or twice a year, they are are very sensitive, especially when the temperature changes, maybe the atmospheric pressure who knows but they go off and almost always it is in the middle of the night. Do you know how painful it is to be woken up suddenly by a blaring smoke alarm. Do you know how many years of my life have been sucked out of me. If feel like Wesley from princess bride being hooked up to the machine that sucks life out of him. But the crazy thing is that over the years we have gotten used to it, so that it does not effect me the same way. Sometimes I even wake up and just lay there for a few minutes knowing that it is a false alarm, and my children forget it, those alarms have no effect on them.
To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Worship of God is more than just external. It must deal with the internal heart, this is why the old is ineffective. Like trying to deal with an infection with topical solutions, you need to ingest the medicine and it needs to work from the inside out, and for this the earthly tabernacle is wholly inadequate. We need a religion of the heart for this.
This is the major difference from the Old Covenant and the new. The old was based on external signs and rituals. The temple, the various sacrifices and offerings, even the covenant sign of circumcision was external.
Turning back to chapter 8 and the quotation from Jeremiah 31, and remember there were no chapter divisions in the original, those came later and are not apart of the inspired word, though they are helpful.
Remember that the superiority of the New Covenant is the medium upon which it is written. The Old is external and ritualistic. Written on tablets of stone. But the New is written on the heart. The old covenant was comprised of believers and unbelievers, the promises were to Abraham and to his seed. The sign of the covenant circumcision was administered to all males at 8 days old. But not the new it is superior in that they all know God. The new covenant comprises of believers only. It is established in the blood of Christ and he is constantly interceeding for them.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
APPLICATION: we must take care lest our religion to become rote and routine. But only if we let it. We need to do our best to be sincere in our worship. We sing every Sunday the Doxology and if we are not careful we can find our selves just going through the motions.
We have our traditions and rituals as well. What motivates us to do what we do? Do we go to church because that’s just what you do, echoes of a cultural past that still speak to our conscience and so to silence it we go to church, because that's what you do. You go to church and if you have something left over from all of the expenses and things that we want to buy we might even put some money in the offering.