Tabernacle Lesson #4
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Recap:
Recap:
Our study of the tabernacle has been a blessing thus far!
Last week we considered the materials and the workers.
We looked at the boards as a type of Christ and of the church.
Then we compared the horizontal, stabilizing bars to Christ and the church. A fivefold ministry that stabilizes the building.
It was interesting to think about the foundation and how that each board was slotted into 200lbs of silver!
I added it up again today and realized my numbers were off last week.
In actual fact, the foundation, just the foundation of the Tabernacle cost $5,877,100!
That’s quite a foundation you say. Yep!
Foundation is everything folks! Because, you can only go as high as you go deep...
Three hours from here, is one of the deepest gold mines in California.
Before it ran out of gold, it reached an incline depth of 11,007 feet!
The Empire mine has 367 miles of underground passages!
5.8 million ounces of gold were pulled from that hole, until every little bit was taken out and they closed the mine in 1956.
Sounds like a cool field trip!
We oughtta go!
But listen, this study of the Tabernacle, is a gold mine of truth and a treasure trove of spiritual insight that never runs dry!
It keeps going deeper and keeps getting better!
The Coverings.
The Coverings.
Consider for example, the coverings of the Tabernacle:
Now the last time that I went camping in a tent, I was reminded just how thin those fabric walls are!
The first night, T and I just about froze!
Hot in the day and cold at night!
And while the Tabernacle might technically be called a tent, it was so, so much more than that!
And the coverings of the tabernacle, were acutally pretty serious stuff!
Four coverings were spread over the Tabernacle framework.
The outer covering was of badger skins, the next was of ram skins dyed red, the third was of white goat har, and the fourth was of linen.
And tonight, we are going to consider the significance of each one!
The Badger skins.
The Badger skins.
The badger skins, or outside covering, illustrate the outward form of Christ. (See Ex 26:14)
These skins were not dressed or adorned.
They were a dull blue gray color and were not pleasent to look at.
Isaiah speaks of Christ Jesus and this is what He says in Is 53:2-3.
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of a dry ground:
He hath no form nor comeliness;
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men;
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
And we hid as it were our faces from him;
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.
This passage gives us a picture of Christ Jesus in his humiliation.
The outward did not look different from anyone else!
Jesus was not a white man with blond hair.
He did not have a halo!
I mean, if you were walking around with a halo, that would tend to make you stand out!!!!
Not so, Jesus.
He was a normal looking man that fit in with the people of his day and time.
Plain old badger skin.
Now folks, in the Africa I come from, pound for pound, there isn’t a tougher critter than a badger!
In fact, I looked it up! Did you know that the Guniess book of world records calls the Badger the world’s most fearless creature?
They have this thick, rubbery skin, 1/4 “ thick that is nearly impervious to traditional arrows and spears.
Even a chp from a sharp machete rarely cuts through!
We have a whole catalogue of lethal snakes, but even they don’t kill a badger!
And this is just me folks, but I gotta say it’s fitting.
Jesus had to have a pretty tough hide to listen to those Pharisees go on like they did.
Oh they mocked and reviled him, all thoughout his earthly ministry!
Jesus let that roll rigt off his back!
He kept right on truckin!
What did the Amorites and Amalekites think of the Tabernacle?
Jericho? They knew they were living on borowed time.
What did they think of this people and their God and His tent?
I’ve often wondered if some of those other desert people sent spies into the camp of Isreal.
I mean, everyone knew that Isreal was going back to their land, the land God had given to Abraham!
That land was now occupied by various kingdoms.
It would be a pretty sloppy king, not to send spies to scope out an invading force!
Imagine that you were one of those spies!
Wrapped in a cloak, head down, you slowly make your way through the crowds.
What an experience!
You’ve been eying their organization and counting people and fighting age men and resources and I mean you are a spy after all!
Strange sights and smells, foreign customs and this strange devotion to only one God.
Get caught here and it’s tickets for you!
Finally, you get close enough to see the outer courtyard, but guess what?
That’s as far as you go!!!!
It don’t matter how sneaky you are:
Ain’t now way you’re getting any closer to the glory!
The heathen no doubt despised the tent that was the center of Israel’s worship.
Nothing they could see on the outside would cause them to desire to go inside.
They would have had to pass the altar of sacrifice in order to enter the tabernacle and behold the beauty inside!
And still today, those who would behold the beauty of Christ cannot do so my merely looking on.
They must come in the kingdom through the door, pass the altar of sacrifice where Christ was slain, and enter into the sanctuary by seeking his face!
What a contrast the ugly badger skin was to the inside of the sanctuary:
Gleaming walls of the purest gold on both sides; tapestries of white linen overhead, in front and behind, and then there was the light of the golden candlestick showing off the beauty of each piece of furniture!
In the Holiest Place, the glory of God shone brilliantly!
When people know you are a believer. Like a true believer, sometimes they treat you differently!
Ever experienced that?
They look at you and your lifestyle and seem to shake their head. “Extremist!”
“You just take things too far!”
Sure, they say that, or think that...
It’s because they are unable to see beyond the badger skins.
The look at Jesus and to them, He’s no big deal.
But then you ask them again, just a few years down the road..
After they’ve repented of their own sin,
After they’ve been washed white as snow!
After the light of God’s glory illuminates His word!
After, after, after all that, they’ll sing a different tune!
Because friend, once you come inside, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen!
It’s richer and deepr and greater and more beautiful, more pure than anything you’ve ever imagined could be!
Now listen folks, there are many devout folks trying to please God and serve Him as best as they know how. I applaud them!
But until the blood has been applied, until you’ve been made righteous and your sins washed away, no mere verbal confession can get you into the Holy of Holies!
Mark me: You can confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord until you are blue in the face!
But without the altar and the laver, you aint getting to the glory!
It takes the Spirit!
“Unless a man be born of water and Spirit.....”
Many, many in our day, are simply milling around in the outer court and they don’t even know it!
Millions, just milling around.
They want he shekinah, but they don’t know how to get there!
God has more for them than that!!!
He wants them inside!
There is light inside!
Illumination of truth!
There is intercession and there is glory!
I was driving through Salt Lake City. And right off the freeway, you can see the Mormon Temple.
There on the top is a statue of an angel they call Moronai.
More than thee meters tall, and covered in 22 kt gold, it is quite a sight in the setting sun.
Now you notice, we don’t do that around here.
And if you do happen to have a bunch of gold folks, then let me just remind, you we are going to take a special missions offering at the end of this month… Just saying! LOL!
We want to have a nice church and I appreciate those who work so hard to keep what we enjoy nice and clean and sorted. Thank you!
But you notice we don’t build temples no more.
You, each of you are the temple now!
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
How awesome is that? the glory of the church is not in costly decorations any more, not in statues of marble and gold!
The glory is the indwelling presence of a holy God!
I don’t need a thousand dollar suit! wouldn’t wear one if I had!
Ladies, you don’t need paint on the face and gold in your ears and draped all over you!
Glory has never been about the outside anyway!
Badger skins!
The glory is found in the inside!
And when the glory resides within, people will know it!
Ram Skins Dyed Red.
Ram Skins Dyed Red.
The covering of ram skins was placed just underneath the badger skins and was also without any specific dimensions.
And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers’ skins.
The ram’s skins signify Christ as our substitutionary sacrifice.
The red dye in which they were dipped pointed to the blood that Christ would shed as He took our place in death.
The Word of God pictures the ram as a substitute for the death of another!
Remember, when Abraham was about to slay his son Isaac, I mean the knife was in the air, an angel of God stayed his hand!
All of the sudden, he looked over and there caught in a thicket was a ram!
Sacrifice the ram instead!
This was a foreshadow of the greatest sacrifice the universe will ever know!
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ’s crucifixion in the place of Barabbas pictures what He has done for every guilty sinner!
LIsten, we are not a perfect group of people!
In fact, you can look as long as you want to, you’ll never find a perfect group of people!
We are flawed, we are imperfect, but the blood of Jesus has cleansed us!!!!
We should have suffered God’s wrath, the judgement of sin!
You gotta remember, God did not just do away with the wages of sin!
He didn’t say “I’ll fogive the debt and we’ll just call it good!”
No!
The wages of sin is death!
So He suffered them instead!
In your stead! In my stead!
What is the color of love?
I’ll tell you what the color of love is: Blood red!
During the Boer war in South Africa, a small detachment of British troops were surprised by an overwhelming enemy force.
The British fell back under heavy fire, men falling dead all around!
Thing was, those South African farmers knew how to shoot!
I mean, when dad gives you one bullet and says: “Bring back dinner.” You learn how to shoot!
Armed with brand new magazine fed German Mauser rifles, they were decimating the British!
All along their path, wounded men lay dying!
One of those men recalled: “I knew we were dead men!”
“The only way we might surive is if we came under the protection of the red cross flag.”
One of the men had a piece of white cloth, but there was no paint.
And so they used the blood from their own wounds to paint a cross on that cloth!
Their attackers respected that grim flag as it was held high, and the wounded British were pulled to safety.
That’s how it is you know:
My only safety comes from the blood!
The blood of Jesus Christ is our only hope!!!!!!
Jesus Christ spent His blood for you and for me!
And the only way we’ll ever make it, is if we stay under the blood!
Don’t get out from beneath His cover!
Stay beneath His banner!
Red is the color of love!
Got a pen? Here’s what you need to know:
The coveing of Badger’s skins typify our Lord’s humanity, the curtains of ram skins portray the purpose of HIs humanity- to be sacrificed upon Calvary!
The Curtains of Goat Hair.
The Curtains of Goat Hair.
The third Tabernacle covering consisted of eleven goat hair curtains.
Why goat hair?
Why not grizzly bears? Why not beavers pelts???
I mean they make good mukluks!!!
Do you know what a mukluk is? LOL
I just like saying the word: “Mukluk.”
Well folks, no beavers in the desert!!!!
And God has a specific reason for everything He does!
These goat skin curtains portray Christ as our sin offering.
Consider this verse:
And he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first.
You know, Jesus as our sin offering, was treated as sin itself!
God allowed the wrath of judgment for all sin to be meted out, in full measure upon the Man Christ Jesus!
As though He were the criminal of the universe!
Because our sins were laid on Him, they are as completely covered as the Tabernacle was by the goat hair curtains.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no guile.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
And, as a cloud, thy sins:
Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
The Curtains of Fine Twined Linen.
The Curtains of Fine Twined Linen.
Ten linen curtains were placed under the goat hair curtains, forming the ceiling of the Tabernacle.
They were dropped over the outside of the boards, leaving the golden boards for walls
Here’s what you need to know:
The linen curtains were shorter than the others, and not allowed to touch the ground.
That is because they signify Christ’s righteousness!
What was it John the revelator wrote?
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Christ’s purity was never contaminated by the world!
And we have to remember: “I don’t belong down in the dirt!
Jesus has more for me than that!
He was holy, harmless, undefiled and seperate from sin!
For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
That white linen was dazzling! But not just a white curtain!
Cherubim were embroaidered on the white linen in blue, purple and scarlet.
The outspread wings of the cheribim overhead remind us of the overshadowing of God’s presence!
How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever:
I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Because thou hast been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
The Pins and the Cords
The Pins and the Cords
Brass pins and linen cords secured the court and the Tabernacle.
Even with the foundation of silver,
Even with the horizontal bars to stabilize the boards, this tent of meeting, this tabernacle, had to get tied down!
This is the desert we’re talking about!
Sand storms, wind that could scour metal clean like a sand blaster!
Any tent, fancy or not, has Got to get tied down!
Thus the pins and the cords.
You can read more about them in Ex Ch 27 and Ch 35.
Now here’s an entirely non spiritual tip:
Folks, when you tie down a tent, before you hammer in the pegs, run the lines through a pool noodle!
Nice bright color pool noodle! I mean $1.00 at the 99 cents store!
It will save you from sprawling in the dirt on your way out in the middle of the night!
Free tip folks! For that I will only charge you a cup of coffee!
So, no tent will stand for long without cords and pins.
It’s just the truth!
Without them, you’re tent will blow away like a tumbleweed!
My dad had a gospel tent we used in Africa.
My job was to shimmy up the center pole and lash the florescent light up as High as I could get it!
And I was proud of that job!
It was my job!
And I needed it to save face, becasue I couldn’t hammer in the tent pegs.
It’s not that I was week, I just wasn’t big enough!
Okay, those tent pegs were three foot long and 3/4 thick!
And the ground was super hard!
The men in the church would take turns swinging a 10lbs sledge to put those pegs in the ground!
Folks, I know not a single thing about Trigonometry or calculus.
I can barely spell the words!
But I know a thing or two about tent pegs!
And I know that the pins that held the tabernacle were made out of brass.
The Bible says so!
And since they were made of brass, they did not rust in rain or storm!
They withstood any test!
They show Christ to be the One who was tried and tested!
He was tempted!
And the enemy hit him after that fast!
At the weakest point!
But Jesus overcame!
He suffered and was tested in the Garden of Gethsemane!
Did you know that certain olive trees can live three thousands of years old and more?
Did you know that they actually have some living Olive trees that old?
And did you know that if you go on a tour and they take you to the garden of Gethsemane today, there are olive trees there that might have been alive the night that Jesus was tested?
Jesus endured and overcame!
And becasue of that, we can hang all our hopes on Him!
Everything in that Tabernacle was perfect!
And even though those pins were perfect, had they been left lying on top of the ground, they would have been useless!
The fact that they were buried deep within the earth made the structure secure!
Yes, Jesus was without sin! Perfect!
But the sinlessness of Christ alone, can never make the believer secure!
We have hope and life because Christ died for us!
He was buried in the ground and then He rose again!
It would have never worked folks! Except that He went into the grave!!!!
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.