Through the Bible - Exodus - Part 2 — Zac Poonen

The Tabernacle as God’s Dwelling Place

We're going to continue our study in Exodus, you know that a major part of Exodus deals with the Construction of the tabernacle. Now when we study Genesis, I told you that from the time of Cain there were these two streams that started false religion and true religion Cain and Abel that finally ends up in Revelation in Babylon and Jerusalem in Nimrod and Abraham.

They followed in that stream you find it in the Pharisees and Jesus. There are always these two streams and they are flowing today and we need to make sure that we get into the right stream and The tabernacle is Something that was the seed from which the temple came and We're picture of the ultimate Jerusalem the church the dwelling place of God.

In John chapter 1 verse 14 it says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and the literal translation of that would be tabernacled among us. God tabernacled among us so this is the tabernacle is a picture of Jesus first of all and Then of his body the church the dwelling place of God because When God gave the instructions for the tabernacle, he said in Exodus 25 and verse 8 Let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may Dwell among them.

The purpose of God is that he must dwell in the midst of his people. So the tabernacle was a sanctuary In which God has to dwell. Our home must be a sanctuary for God to dwell. Our church must be a sanctuary for God to dwell.

It's not just a place for meetings and for evangelism. That's what we understand. I Am supposed to be a sanctuary a temple for God to dwell. My home is to be a temple for God to dwell. My church must be a temple for God to dwell.

Everything else is secondary. Bible teaching is secondary evangelism is secondary good works is secondary helping the poor is secondary primary reason is God must dwell there. That's the first lesson.

We learned from the tabernacle and If you lose sight of this what happens is you get into so many good things. Social work is a good thing evangelism. It was a good thing. Bible teaching is a good thing special meetings is a good thing.

God must dwell. Does God dwell in your church. Does God dwell in your home. Does God dwell in your life? That's the main thing. It's no you're saying I live a good life. So, please remember that right from the beginning and I want you to notice another thing about the tabernacle and That is when God gave the instructions for the tabernacle now supposing somebody were making a plan for building this compound here.

He will not start with this pulpit. No, no architect will start spending a long time. Let's start with the pulpit. No, they will start with the dimensions of the compound and with the major buildings and that's how they'd go but when God Gave the plan for the tabernacle.

Beginning With God’s Presence

Do you know what he started with? He didn't tell them first the dimensions of it or even about the tent. He started with the ark. Exodus 25 10. This is the first thing you need to do is construct an ark and The ark was in the most holy place and God dwelt there.

In other words, he started from himself in the beginning God. God's ways are not man's ways and In every church, this is where we must begin. Not with activity not with any type of activity but with God.

With the most holy place. The things that are most holy in the Christian life the ark. That's where we must begin. You see then I'll come to the tabernacle in a moment. God begins from himself and In our dealings with God like like with Adam we saw that in Genesis first spend one day in fellowship with God.

Then you can go and work In the garden whether you're calling his evangelism or teaching or Social work or anything? Whatever it is begin with God and you see that principle in the tabernacle, too. See, these are things which are there in Scripture you read them, but sometimes you don't notice them.

It's the glory of God to conceal a matter. It's the glory of Kings to search it out. Okay, when Jesus taught us to pray the Lord's Prayer. What did he teach us to begin with? Not even forgiveness of our sins, which is such an important thing.

He said when you pray Pray our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. This is the ark in the beginning God, you know if I could Show you one thing. That throughout Scripture God has always backed a man who will put him in the beginning.

Give him the first place in his life in his home in his church. God can do amazing things and that's what he wants. That's the place he wants to have in your life. This tabernacle is also a picture of our body.

The Body as a Temple of the Holy Spirit

You know, our body is a Trinity. The tabernacle has three parts. I'll just come to that Spirit soul and body. That's what man is 1 Thessalonians 5 23 and Just like because man was made in the image of God who is a Trinity.

We are also a Trinity each of us is a Trinity spirit soul and body in another sense. God is three persons. We are one person but with three parts. The tabernacle also has three parts and there's many spiritual truths we can learn from that for our body God dwells in our spirit the deepest part if you think of our human being as three concentric circles.

Outer circle is the body inside. That is the soul inside. That is the spirit. God dwells in the innermost circle in the spirit. And that's why the tabernacle was divided into three parts. So here we see the tabernacle.

You see that is this thing where you can see the red light is the tent of the tabernacle and this is the Court of the tabernacle. So the tabernacle had three parts. That's the outer court 150 feet by 75 feet and that is the tent and The tent was divided into two parts.

One was the holy place which is 45 feet by 15 feet and the most holy place which was a Square 15 feet by 15 feet and the height of this was also 15 feet. So the Most holy place was a cube same length same breadth same height and It says in Revelation 21 that Jerusalem was also a cube.

Same length same height same breadth. That's that means Jerusalem is not this whole thing. Jerusalem is the most holy place only. You got to get there to be a part of that cube mentioned in Revelation 21.

You got to press on to fellowship with God to be a part of the Bride of Jesus Christ so The tabernacle was Surrounded by the camp of Israel all around they had there was a specific place for each tribe and These three Mirari Gershon and Kohat were the sons of Levi Who looked after the tabernacle they lived closest to the tabernacle and the other 12 tribes.

You know when the tribe of Levi was taken away then Manasseh and Ephraim the two tribes of the tribe of Joseph was split up into Manasseh and Ephraim. So you still had 12 tribes and the 13th was Levi now.

The Outer Court, the One Gate, and the Altar

They in the outer court you had a Plain this compound was marked off by a plain white linen sheet and white linen in Scripture symbolizes Simple righteousness and It was a very simple way by which the tabernacle was separated from the rest of the world.

It's a picture of the righteousness of Christ that separates the church From the rest of the world and there was only one gate as you can see here 30 feet only one gate by which you could enter and It was very small compared to the whole camp and Just like the church is a very small place compared to the world now I'll just show you a picture of the Tabernacle as but I want you to mention one should not mention one thing before I go on in the outer court.

There were only two items visible the brazen altar and The labor. The labor was like a big tub of water and the brazen altar was where all the sacrifices were made. Okay, that's what the tabernacle looked like.

You know the other what you saw was a diagram there's the brazen altar and Lord said you should not make steps up to the altar. You got a sloping thing going up to the altar and that was the labor like a big tub in which They washed themselves and this was the tent Covered over and the back part of this tent was where the veil was the thick veil That separated the holy place from the most holy place and which they had in the temple also, which was rent when Jesus Died on the cross.

And here we have a picture of how the Tabernacle was actually constructed. With a number of boards vertical boards like you see here you see this vertical board. It and it had two legs underneath that rested in a silver socket with two holes in it and This board had these four little projections through which a Board would go through to hold it in place.

Redemption, Faith, and Obedience

Now there are a number of spiritual lessons we can learn from this. It's a picture of the body of Christ many people closely held together without any gap between them close fellowship held together by the bonds of fellowship and resting on.

The silver socket. Silver is a picture of redemption throughout the Old Testament. There are examples of that where the Lord said you got to pay silver when you want to redeem some people and Judas Iscariot took 30 pieces of silver for to betray Jesus.

Silver is a picture of redemption and these this board rested on silver sockets and here was the front of the tent which had a little curtain and at the back you can see the other curtain and These the tent now these two I would say these two legs into the sockets speak about faith and obedience.

Trust and obey those are the two legs we stand on God's Word given us Promises and commandments. If you've got faith and obedience you're a balanced Christian. You're stable. Can you imagine how that?

Board would have been unstable if it had only one leg like a lot of Christians there's to be no gap. There are many many lessons we can learn from this tabernacle and Then I want you to see the coverings of the tabernacle now all this is described in between Exodus chapters 25 to 30 the outer court is described in 27 9 to 19 the 10th of the tabernacle in 26 1 to 37 and Here are the curtains which covered the tabernacle.

There were four curtains Which covered the tabernacle? The first one is made of fine linen with a lot of very intricate Engraving that was on the inside. You could not see it unless you went inside. There's a verse in Psalm 45 which says the king's daughter is all glorious inside.

The outermost covering was a dirty covering of badger skin Full of dust ugly and Dark brown and That's how the Christian and Jesus and the church Are in the eyes of the world it says about Jesus there was no beauty in him that we should desire him.

There was nothing attractive about The Lord Jesus outwardly. Oh, he was just a carpenter Not very highly educated. They despised him and that's how God has allowed the church. The true church is always despised.

It's never popular it's got this badger skin covering of Very simple and Not very attractive and a really godly man is also not always attractive on the outside. The real glory of Jesus was inside his life.

The these this inner curtain, which you could only see if you went inside with all that intricate work of many many colors and gold could only be seen within and That teaches us also that in our personal life There must be more glory inside than outside.

Now a lot of Christians are not like that. There's more glory on their outside than inside. They got the badger skins inside and all this fancy Design work on the outside. That's all you got it wrong, brother.

That's not the way it should be. The glory must be within in other words. Your inner life must be better than What other people see of you. There must be more prayer and fasting in your life that other people don't know about Than what they know.

There must be more sacrifice and giving in your inner life than what other people can see. That is a true tabernacle of God. But a tabernacle where all the glory is displayed for other people. That's not a tabernacle of God.

That's the way of Babylon. There's a lot of difference between Babylon and Jerusalem and one of the differences is seen here. Where do you put the most glorious covering on the inside or the outside? Do you try to show that you are a great man of God or is it enough that God Almighty knows that.

Or do you want people to know that that's very important. So here was this first curtain of rams of fine linen. Symbolizing the righteousness of Christ. It says the bride of Christ in Revelation 19 is clothed in fine linen and.

And then next to that was a covering made of goats hair. Probably white like you see here. And a goat. You think of the scapegoat? One of the offerings is a picture of the sin offering. Offered for my sin the goat offered for my sin a picture of Christ.

And then you come to the rams skins dyed red. Ram skin dyed red and red speaks of blood substitution the blood of Christ. That was the third covering and the fourth covering was the badger skins. Speaking of the reproach of Christ the ugliness of.

The lack of attractiveness. To the rest of the world. The church is not attractive when we don't try to attract people to the church with music and money. We try to attract the church to people to the church with godliness.

Otherwise you can attract the wrong type of people to the church. That's what I've discovered. Do you attract people to your church with a godly message and with godly people and Godly homes or do you attract people to your church with a lot of fancy music and a lot of fantastic building and a lot of other External things which are great in the eyes of men.

I'm not against music. I'm not against good buildings. I'm saying that's not the basis of attraction. It should be godliness inward righteousness the church must be known for. More glory inside. In other words when people come to our church, they should be able to say boy.

I didn't think much of this church when I first came. But after I came in and I saw the quality of life of these people the quality of their families the quality of fellowship. It's far more glorious than I thought like the Queen of Sheba said even the half has not been told me of what I first Heard, but unfortunately many churches are the other way around.

A Lot of people are attracted when they come inside they discover. It's another story. It's full of politics and fighting and quarreling and confusion. It's the same with many godly men many preachers rather I Found that in my life as a younger Christian I would be attracted to a person because his preaching was so wonderful.

And then I got close to him and I found he was very proud. I couldn't get close to him. I Found that he didn't live properly with his wife he hadn't brought up his children properly and Many things like this you get close and you find so many things they lose their temper and they Lord it over their co-workers.

I was very disappointed in my younger days, and I saw this as What God wanted me to do. I studied this 37 years ago as a Christian. And I found this is what God wanted me to be and I'm very thankful For what I saw that the glory the real glory was seen only on the inside.

The Brazen Altar and Christ’s Inner Sufferings

Now I Want to show you about the two? Pieces of what I call furniture which is on the In the outer court you remember the outer court. In the outer court I said there was a brazen altar and a brazen labor.

It was made of bronze or copper. The brazen altar was a hollow box in which the animals were put in and Sacrificed and it had a grating perhaps to remove the ashes and it had four horns on the four corners of the altar and It was made of wood overlaid with bronze.

So we are talking here about this altar it was made of wood overlaid with bronze and Can you imagine with all the fire burning inside there day and night? Burning burning burning burning burning. It doesn't do anything to the bronze.

The bronze still shines. But can you imagine what happened to the wood? Inside the bronze if you opened it up, what do you think it looked like it must have been all charred and black. And that's the picture of Jesus Christ dying on the cross and his suffering.

The Wood speaks of the inner sufferings of Christ. The charred wood inside the bronze which other people couldn't see. If you burnt an animal here, of course, you could see all the fire and the bronze getting hot and Getting dirty that that's the external sufferings of Christ on Calvary but inside that bronze was wood acacia wood and That was burnt much more than the bronze.

And I believe that the closer we get to God we learn more of the inner sufferings of Christ on Calvary's cross. Particularly his being forsaken by the father on Calvary. To compare that suffering with the nails and the spitting and the crown of thorns and all that's nothing.

Crown of thorns and all is absolutely nothing compared to the nails. I mean compared to the Break of fellowship with the father now most of us don't know what break of fellowship with the father means.

Because our fellowship with the father is broken so often and we don't even bother about it. And so we sort of got used to it. It's like people who live in a slum, you know people who live in a slum. They don't know what hygienic conditions are.

But people have lived in houses where they never seen a lizard or never seen a cockroach in their life. They sort of shrink back when they come to situations which are dirty and there's a little picture of how Jesus from all eternity he had fellowship with the father and Then in Gethsemane he faced the prospect that in a few hours.

I will hang on the cross. He was not afraid of that. He was not afraid of any amount of physical suffering. He'd have been willing to go through a hundred physical crucifixions, but he said is it father?

Is it true? Is it there any other way do I have to drink this cup? What was that cup? That cup was not the physical suffering the cup was. Does my fellowship with you have to be broken for three hours?

That's what he wanted to avoid. Is there any other way? And he prayed and he prayed and he prayed and the father said no, there's no other way. And he said, okay father I'll accept it and I tell you when you get close to God you discover the love of Jesus Christ there in Gethsemane more than on Calvary.

You tell little children about the physical sufferings of Christ and when we are immature, that's what we think of most. But the closer we get to God, we are more taken up with the inner sufferings of Christ.

Which he went through throughout his life. I don't have time to explain all that from his childhood. He was considered an illegitimate child people made him pointed at him and they said did Mary's his mother.

We don't know who the father was there many inner sufferings that he went through throughout his life which finally culminated in the greatest inner suffering which is break of fellowship with the father and There we see the depth of his love for us that he was willing to even let go of that In order to save us because there was no other way.

So that's what we see in the. The acacia wood inside the bronze is not visible. Nobody could ever see all those priests could not see the condition of that wood. It was much worse than what you saw on the outside and the four Horns on the corners of the altar.

Picture, you know, there's a verse in Psalm 118 which says about Binding the sacrifice. Psalm 118 verse 27 bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You know when you bring a bullock or something like that, they would tie it to the core horns of the altar.

Bind the sacrifice and that speaks of Jesus being bound To go to Jerusalem to the cross. It says in Luke chapter 9. He steadfastly set his face To go to Jerusalem. Nothing would deter him and for us the message is that if we want to follow Jesus We also have to steadfastly set our face To take up the cross every day.

That's the only way to walk with God. We live in a world and in a Christendom where people don't take up the cross they don't understand the way of death to self of humbling yourself and going down and and I Pray that there will be some at least in our midst or many Who understand what it is to steadfastly set our face, even if other people are not going that way.

It doesn't matter. I've got one goal. I've got to take up the cross and follow Jesus. That's what the horns on the altar speak about. And then the labor which is this brazen labor on top here that speaks of The Word of God the washing of water by the Word.

You know the priests had to come and wash themselves their hands and feet before they went into the you know immediately this was just at the entrance to the tent and So you wash yourself and then go in and this was made out of polished brass.

So you could see your face in it. The Bible says in James chapter 1 that God's Word is like a mirror and You should not forget what you see there it says. So these people could see whether their face was dirty.

When they came to the labor this polished brass you could see your face in it. In fact, that was we read what people used in those days as mirrors. The ladies in Israel used this as mirrors and they contributed that for the making of the labor so.

That's a picture of the Word of God and Ephesians 5 26 speaks about Jesus Washing the church. By the water of the Word it speaks of cleansing for service. It could also be taken as a picture of water baptism if the altar is a picture of where our sins are forgiven the next step after that is water baptism.

Which symbolizes the external cleansing from sin, it's a symbol of external cleansing of our life now. Now we go inside the tent. Now you remember I told you that there is there was this outer cord. We just revised that.

The Holy Place: Light, Bread, and Prayer

See here. We have seen the brazen altar and the labor which is in the court of the tabernacle and Then when you go inside the labor is the entrance to the gate and you go in through into the tent. There are three things here before you find another curtain which blocks off the most holy place.

The three things are here on that side, which is the northern side the table of showbread and The southern side the lamp stand and At the entrance to the most holy place is the altar of incense those are the three pieces of furniture inside the candles inside the holy place.

There's just one more thing. I wanted to mention here with this diagram. If you see down at the bottom you see where north south east west is. The tabernacle entrance was at the eastern end. Every time they set up the tabernacle it had to be with the gate at the eastern end and There's a reason for that.

Everywhere around them Were people who worshiped the Sun? The Sun was the God for most people including Egyptians and God Wanted Israelites to have their back to the Sun When they came in to worship God.

Exactly the opposite of a lot of church buildings that face east and a lot of people whose face east today Praying to the Sun God even today among Christians. It's very interesting to see that how God made the Israelites turn their back to the Sun and face West So that they would deny the God of the Egyptians.

The Sun God and the devil has done such a tremendous work of bringing a lot of so-called Christendom Full circle back to worship the God of the Egyptians that's the Sun God and As they came here, they came to these three pieces of furniture and Then in the most holy place, there was only one piece of furniture.

That's the art with the mercy seat. So please keep that in mind as we see the next few pictures. So what you see here is first of all the lampstand with seven branches and The golden table of showbread was called a candle sticking the King James Version.

But they never had candles those days it means a lampstand which was lit by Oil there were vessels kept there for oil to be poured into this lamps, and that's how the lamps burnt. Now the lampstand is a picture of Christ as as the light of the world and what Jesus said to us the church you are the light of the world.

It's a picture of our Manifesting the life of Christ as a light in him was life John 1 4 and that life was the light of men. The table of showbread where twelve loaves of bread they had to be renewed regularly by the priests Symbolized the twelve tribes of Israel and Speaks of God's Word as Our of Christ as our food and in in the word we see Christ.

Everything is Christ. Christ as our as a light and Christ Whom we see in scriptures as our food Jesus Christ is our food. It's not just the printed words in Scripture. It's Christ. That is our food. Most of these things were all about just about three feet high the brazen altar was About four and a half feet high, but this was a little smaller three feet high small one and a half by one and a half the altar and but This was a little bigger one and a quarter by two and a quarter or so one and a half by two and a quarter feet and There was another Piece of furniture, which I want to show you here.

This was the third bit of furniture inside the Holy place that was the golden altar of incense, which is different from the bronze altar in The outer court. This was the third item inside the holy place Where no animals were sacrificed only incense and there was a sweet perfume of incense and Inside and this speaks of the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ in prayer.

So there was the bread and the lampstand and the incense speaking of God's Word and prayer and a witness for Christ for us Inside the most holy place. There was only this one item of furniture the Ark and The Ark as you see here If you can see on top had the blood.

The animals blood was put there once a year on the Day of Atonement. The high priest would go in his white dress with the blood in a vessel and he would put it inside the On the on the mercy seat. The mercy seat was just a lid.

But along with the mercy seat there were these two cherubims and they speak of holiness. You know when God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden he put cherubs. Cherubim is the plural of cherub. He put these cherubs to guard the tree of life and those cherubs or cherubim were part of this mercy seat speaking of God's holiness and that was in the most holy place and the high priest could go in there only once a year and inside this Ark There were three items kept.

One was the two tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written and The other was Aaron's rod that budded that you read off when there was a question about whether Aaron was the true high priest his rod budded overnight a Broken rod produced fruit at night and the third was a pot of manna this speaks of God's Word and obedience and this speaks of resurrection power and This speaks about feeding on Christ as our manna and on the Word of God and this speaks about obedience to God's Commandments.

Manna, Freshness, and Living in God’s Presence

Now there's one interesting thing. I want you to want to tell you about this pot of manna Which has kept these three things were kept inside the Ark. Now, I don't know whether you remember in one particular place when David brought the Ark back.

There were certain people who were very curious to find out what's inside the Ark and they lifted the lid of the Ark and it Says God smote a number of people there for being curious. They had no right to look inside the Ark.

In fact, the Ark could not even be touched by those who were not Levites. Uzzah Once tried to touch the Ark. That was this Ark and God Killed him on the spot. He said you're not a Levite. You've got no business to touch God's Ark.

God was very strict about these things. Now one thing about this pot of manna that I spoke about is that You know When people kept the manna in their home In 24 hours, it began to stink and not only stink but breed worms.

Now if you keep a loaf of bread for one day, it doesn't get bad so quickly. But manna got bad much quicker than even meat. Even meat may not start breeding worms in 24 hours. But manna which was non vegetarian which is vegetarian not non-vegetarian wasn't animal food at all.

It began to breed worms and began to stink in 24 hours. Teaching God was teaching Israel thereby you need to go every day out and pick it up. You can't pick up one day's portion for two days, you got to be in touch with God every day and But we see that when this manna was put inside the Ark It did not stink.

It did not breed worms for 40 years and more than 40 years. The Ark was there even years later four or five hundred years later in David's time the Ark was there and for 500 years. That manna did not stink.

Now the lesson we learned from that is that even though the manna fell from heaven it lost its freshness. You can get an anointing from heaven and Tomorrow you've lost it. You can get a word from heaven and It blesses you today and tomorrow when you speak the same word.

It's not fresh. You see. This is the reason why a lot of Preaching of God's Word today is so boring. It's not fresh. There's no life in it. Here is the answer if you can understand this you have learned the secret.

Why did the manna stink when it was kept in your home? And why did the manna not stink when it was kept inside the Ark? Reason because The Ark was in the most holy place and God's Word and God's truth and God's anointing must be kept in God's presence.

Then it will always be fresh. In other words if I am to preach a truth that I understood 35 years ago. I remember taking a study on this 37 years ago and If I am to teach something in a fresh way year-by-year, I Have to live in God's presence.

The truths are in my head. But it won't be fresh. It won't be anointed. If I don't live in God's presence, that's the thing which we learn from this. Otherwise in one day it takes only 24 hours for things to begin to stink for freshness to go.

The Bible says Hebrews 3 13 says exhort one another daily. Daily. Otherwise, you'll be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Now I want to mention show one other thing you see here. This is the dress of Aaron when he went on the Day of Atonement one day in his life.

He wore this dress completely white. Completely simple when he went into God's presence the rest of the time. He wore this dress when he came before the people he wore this dress. When he went before God he went in a simple white dress.

Now, there are two lessons we learned from that. One is when you come before God. You can't come with all your worldly Pomp and glory and all these things you got to throw all that out. Come before God in simplicity.

God wants you to come just as you are naked open and The other thing we learned from this is God said particularly you read in Ezekiel 44 that When you go to the people The Lord said don't go with this.

Holy white dress to the people. When you go before the people change your clothes and go like this. That's what Jesus said When you fast. Don't let anyone know about it. Let your holy white dress be before God.

When you come before people anoint your face and Appear to men as though you're not fasting. Appear to men as though you're feasting. Appear to men as though you're grandly dressed. I remember when I was a young Christian and I decided to leave my job to serve the Lord full-time.

I Was encouraged to read something that said Even when you don't have any money Act as though you got plenty. Then nobody will give you money like a beggar. You know a lot of people give work money to Christian workers just like they give to beggars out of charity.

Oh this poor man. I see his torn shirt. I better give him some money and That really helped me that my need must be known only before God. Before men I must anoint my face and appear that I'm feasting this grand dress before men.

And a very simple dress before God the number of truths we learned from this. Aaron had a tunic that's down there and a robe on top of that a blue robe with bells and pomegranates underneath and a thing called an ephod.

This is the ephod address on top of that a turban on top and A shoulder. Two shoulder plates you see here one on this shoulder one on that shoulder. Two stones. Two precious stones. Where symbolizing his carrying on his shoulder God's people.

And a breastplate in Front which had twelve precious stones. With the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. Showing that he carried them not only on his shoulder. He carried them on his heart. God's servants must carry other people on their shoulders.

Lifting their burdens like you carry little children on your shoulders and you also got to carry them on your heart. That means you got to love them. Have a concern for them. I always say that if you want to be a prophet you got to have two things in your heart.