An Opening Word"The native notion of a creature is, that it is a contingent, necessitous being: For his pleasure they are, and were created (Rev 4:11). The Lord did not make all or any creature because he needed them; but he made them that they might need him. He did not build this glorious fabric of heaven and earth, as a house to dwell in, or to contain him (1 Kings 8:27); but he made this world as a stage, on which to display his glorious wisdom and power: and he made some of its inhabitants, angels in the upper rooms, and men in the lower, to be spectators and praisers of his glory. It is not proper to say, that creatures needed their being before the Creator gave it: For when there was nothing but God, there could be no need. Need and want is essential to a creature, and springs up with their being. As soon as the creation received its being by the word of his power, it needs upholding by the same power: (Heb 1:3) our Lord Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power. The whole creation would fall back immediately into its mother Nothing, if the same power that gave it a being did not every moment preserve it. Would you have a joyful view of heaven and earth? Look on all as in our Lord's hand. Why do the heavens keep their course? Why doth the sun shine so gloriously, move so regularly, and influence the earth so virtuously with his light and heat? It is because Christ upholds all things by the word of his power. He is before all things, and by him all things consist: all things were created by him, and for him (Col 1:16,17). Many are without Christ in the world (Eph 2:12). Many see daily the works of creation and providence, and never think on Christ as the head of all. But it is no wonder, that men that have no eyes to see Christ in the new creation of grace, cannot see him in the old creation of nature. We, as creatures, are needy of God's helping grace and favour: for in him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28), In his hand our breath is, and his all our ways are (Dan 5:23) (Sermons Concerning the Throne of Grace" by Rev. Robert Traill).
Introduction
Acts 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Acts 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
God will one day judge the world in righteousness, and in the Tabernacle of the wilderness, he has given us a picture of just that. When Jesus came, He told the woman He spoke to in John 4 how the temple would one day be torn down:
John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
In all of these verses, we see Jesus as the light of the world scattering the shadows of the worldly Tabernacle to bring in their spiritual realities. We want to pull all of these verses, and many more, together to paint a picture of the ramifications of the Tabernacle in the Tribulation period to come.
In Exodus 25, the Lord told Moses of all the things the people should gather together in order to build a Tabernacle:
Ex 25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. . . .
8 And let them make me a sanctuary; THAT I MAY DWELL AMONG THEM.
9 According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
In Verse 8, we are given God's reason of why He wanted the Tabernacle built: "that I may dwell among them." To begin to accomplish that, God told Moses to build this Tabernacle "according to all that I show thee." God was very exact in the way the Tabernacle was to be built, and Hebrews 8:5 tells us why: because it was a "SHADOW OF HEAVENLY THINGS, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle."
If He had the shadow built in order to dwell among Israel in Moses' time, how much more must He desire to dwell among His people based on the reality of the shadow? And when will He bring that about? The shadow of heavenly things was in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, and if there is a shadow, then there has to be something real that casts that shadow. Where are the realities of these shadows? That's what we want to look at, and we want to begin by taking a quick look at the Holy Place:
The earthly Tabernacle was a shadow of heavenly things, and we know the Golden Altar of Incense (Rev 6:9), the Mercy Seat, and the Ark of the Covenant (Rev 11:19) are seen in heaven in the Book of Revelation. It is these that are representations of Christ.
He is our High Priest, our Altar before the Father through whom He hears us, the one who died, but now lives to make intercession for us. He is also that Altar for those who are His in Israel, all who cry out to Him for mercy, but also for Him to avenge the blood shed within her, and He alone is the one who can answer those prayers.
He is also the Mercy Seat, sprinkled with His own shed blood, to whom we draw near in the time of need, to receive grace and mercy at the proper time to all who are repentant toward their sin. He is also that Mercy Seat to Israel, to all who seek Him with all their heart.
And He is our Ark of the Covenant, containing the broken Law (death), the Rod of Aaron (resurrection) and the Hidden Mana (eternal life). He is the bread that gives life to the world as all who believe and eat of Him and receive life everlasting, the bread that sustains us until He returns to take us to Himself. He is the resurrection, the rod that budded when cut down from the earth to death for our sins that He might raise us up on the last day. He Himself is the Law which we have violated, the very righteousness of it, which we have broken by our nature and our sins as He submitted to the cross of Calvary to be broken for our redemption. That Law requires vengeance for the breaking of it, yet it is covered by the blood on the Mercy Seat and God has forestalled His wrath that all men might be saved. All will not be saved; however, yet God waits for all men to repent.
In spite of these outrages against the Son of God, the Ark remains covered by the blood spattered Mercy Seat that we might be His. And He is the hope of Israel to fulfill every covenant and promise made to the Patriarchs, a fulfillment that will be found also in His return. Though this is a short synopsis, in these figures we see the past work of our Lord, but also a future one to be completed at His coming that all things might be fulfilled in Him. In these we see His present mercies, but also we see His future wrath for those who have not offered prayers of mercy through Him, who have not settled the issue of the broken Law through Him, who have not eaten of the Bread of Life that they might have the victory over death in all of its forms. And it is through the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles that these things, too, will be fulfilled and God will dwell among those who remain, those who are His own. As with the furnishings of the Holy Place, the Altar is associated with the Feast of Trumpets, the Mercy Seat with the Day of Atonement and the Ark itself associated with the Feast of Tabernacles.
I've lightly touched on the furnishuings of the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. Now what of the Bronze Altar of Burnt Offering and the Laver? It is these that we need to move from the shadows of the Tabernacle to the realities of God dealing with the entire earth in mercy and judgment and He will do that through the Feast of Passover.
Contributed by Ed...Continued
