The Tabernacle Explained Pt. 1

So tonight we're gonna go through the tabernacle in the wilderness and that's a nice little depiction of it.

You'll see the outer gate around the whole tabernacle and around at the outside of the gate would be the tribes of Israel and these particular tents would be the priests.

The priests were always the closest one to the tent. Okay, hold on someone just texted me.

All right so let's let's have at it. The tent in the wilderness was instituted after the

Israelites were delivered from Egypt. So once God rescued his people from Pharaoh and he brought the

Red Sea down upon the Egyptians and their chariots, now the

Israelites were being led by Moses through the wilderness, that's why it's the tabernacle in the wilderness, on the way to the promised land.

So this happened after God freed them as slaves and is now about to bring them into the promised land based on the promises that he he gave to Moses who in turn gave them to the people.

So it's important to know that this came soon after the Exodus out of Egypt.

Next, it was instituted after they received the law. So they're delivered out of Egypt and then they have this law.

They still don't really know what that means in the sense of okay how is the law going to be carried out and how are the penalties for the law going to be mitigated.

They don't realize that the tabernacle in the wilderness is going to be the way that God uses to forgive them for breaking the

Ten Commandments or actually sinning. It was instituted to teach the

Israelites how to approach God. Obviously somebody has to come to God on his terms and it's pretty simple.

God tells you exactly how to approach him and we're gonna go through that in the next part.

And it was requested by God in Exodus 25 where we read that's not what we read but God in Exodus 25 is where he tells them that he wants to give them or he tells

Moses that they will have the tabernacle in the wilderness. The tabernacle was a movable meeting that God commanded

Moses to build. God wanted to dwell among his people the Israelites and he wanted to have fellowship with them and be able to communicate.

Very important that it was to know that it was movable because as God moved he led his people they would follow him with the tent of meeting through the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day.

So the tent was portable. It was able to be disassembled and assembled and transported wherever God was leading them in the desert.

The tabernacle and its courtyard were constructed according to the pattern set by God not by Moses. We study the tabernacle to understand the steps the

Lord laid out for sinful people to approach a holy God. It's very important to understand you cannot approach

God on your terms. You have to approach God on his terms. It's an all -consuming fire.

In fact the tabernacle was actually set up for Israelites protection.

If you approached God the same way let's say you approached fire if you did it the wrong way you're gonna get burned.

In the same way if you approached God the wrong way in your sinful condition you too would get burned.

So the tabernacle was built approximately 1440 BC and was the place where God dwelt with his people for over 400 years.

I gotta mute somebody's microphone here. How do I do that? Let's see.

Maybe that works. Okay. That should do it.

Okay. The tabernacle was used from the time of the

Exodus until the time of King Solomon when the temple was built. The tabernacle was the center of the

Israelite camp. The twelve tribes of Israel camped around the tabernacle in a special arrangement which we're gonna go through.

And this is Exodus 25. This is when God tells Moses what he wants.

It says the Lord says to Moses speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me and this is the contribution that you you shall receive from them.

Gold, silver, bronze, blue and purple scarlet yarns and fine twisted linen, goats hair, tan rams skins, goat skins, acacia wood, oil for the lambs, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and the breast piece and let them make a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all of its furniture so shall you make it.

So first God tells Moses to tell the people that they're to contribute to this to the making of this tabernacle and then he tells him exactly what he wants.

He wants gold, silver, bronze, all the things that he just listed so that God could dwell in their midst while he was with them.

It would be a visual reminder to the Israelites because they just had the

Exodus out of Egypt and they're wandering in the wilderness alone they have no protection so this would be a visible manifestation of God's presence with them.

So the book of Exodus that gives us the tabernacle logically follows the book of Genesis because Genesis tells the story of man's failure.

It begins with the glorious expression in the beginning God and then closes with the symbolic words in a coffin in Egypt.

This is where Jacob dies and he's placed in a coffin in Egypt. The book of Genesis is the story of man going from perfect creation to sin and death.

However it also gives us the hope of a promised Redeemer. The book of Exodus follows immediately after and gives us redemption.

It covers 40 chapters, 13 of which have to do entirely with the tabernacle in the wilderness.

So this is important. It also has to do deal with the priests who were to minister within the tabernacle.

So I thought it was interesting Genesis begins in the beginning God and God breathes life into man and then that book closes with Jacob in a coffin in Egypt.

So you see the life that God gives and the death that is a result of man's sinfulness.

So now we get into the Exodus where God takes a sinful group of humans, delivers them, and he's going to show them how to worship him in the wilderness.

Now before any mention is made of the tabernacle the story of redemption is written in language that cannot be mistaken.

The opening chapter of Exodus tells the story of slavery, a picture of the sinners bondage to Satan and sin.

The children of Israel were given a deliverer from the bondage of Egypt in the person of Moses. Now just like Joseph who is a type and shadow of the future

Christ, Moses is also a type and shadow of a future Redeemer being

Jesus. In order to show Israel how helpless they were in their own strength, their need of a promised

Redeemer, and that they could never measure up to God's perfect standard of holiness apart from this promised

Redeemer, God gave them the Ten Commandments and a detailed explanation of their meaning.

The account of the tabernacle begins in Exodus 25 as Moses receives instructions from God during his 40 years on Mount Sinai, not 40 years, his 40 days on Mount Sinai.

It's important to note that God gave Moses two important things on the mountain, the Ten Commandments and the detailed instructions for the building of the tabernacle.

That's very important. Most people think that Moses went up on the mountain and all he received was the Ten Commandments, but that's not true.

In addition to the Ten Commandments, he received instructions, detailed instructions, for the building of this tabernacle.

Again, the tabernacle was designed for the Israelites' protection because God knows that they're gonna sin, and if they sin, they cannot approach him.

If they do, his wrath is gonna break out on them. So the purpose of the tabernacle is threefold.

First, it was to give the Israelites a much -needed physical symbol of God's presence in their midst.

Remember, they just got delivered from the Egyptians, crossed the Red Sea, they're in the wilderness alone.

They need to know that God is going to be with them. The natural tendency of the Israelites, even after all

God had done for them, was to turn from God. Man quickly forgets what God has done for him and needs a visual reminder.

In Numbers 17, the tabernacle is twice called the tabernacle of witness. Thus, the tabernacle was to be a physical witness of the presence of God among his people, as the

Lord said in Exodus 28 .8, that I may dwell among them. It was to be a sanctuary, a place set apart for God to dwell among his people.

Again, it's a visual reminder. He wants his people to know that he's going to be with them.

He wants his people to be able to come to them, to him, but they can't come to him with this, with their sins.

So he's going to explain to them why the tabernacle is necessary. The tabernacle, second, the tabernacle was to represent a divine means through which sinful humanity could approach a holy

God. It was to reveal how the broken relationship with God caused by sin could be restored.

So God's desire is restoration for his people. And third, the tabernacle was to foreshadow the one in whom all the symbolism and sacrifices would be fulfilled.

And we're not going to hit that tonight. I have a lot of material to go over tonight before we get to the symbolism and obviously

Jesus fulfilling all these things. So the tabernacle would be the tangible dwelling place of the

Lord, a place where he could dwell in accord with his character, his holiness, there he would meet with his people, tell them what he is like and guide them to where he wanted them to be.

The tabernacle was a sanctuary, meaning a set apart place. That word sanctuary is very important.

It was important for Moses and all the people to understand that God does not dwell in a place according to man's ideas and standards.

Again, we don't come to God on our terms. We come to God on his terms, or we don't come at all.

Therefore, this place had to be built according to his pattern. Now that word sanctuary comes from a

Hebrew word called mikdash. And it's a masculine noun meaning a holy or sacred place, a sanctuary.

It's as a nominal form of the word kadosh. Now, if you know anything about Hebrew, the word kadosh means holy.

So the Jews would always use that term, the ruach ha kadosh, the

Holy Spirit, ruach is the breath of God, kadosh is holy. So that word kadosh is part of the etymology of that word sanctuary.

So it means to be set apart or consecrated. The noun designates that which has been sanctified or set apart as sacred or holy, holy as opposed to the secular or common.

So the tabernacle is going to bring people and make them holy if they follow its instructions.

Otherwise, they're going to be secular or common. So we see that delineation in God's people, either either they're going to be holy, or they're going to be common and secular, profane.

It's a general term for anything sacred and holy, such as the articles of the tabernacle that were devoted for the use during worship, which we're going to get into now.

We're going to go through each piece of the tabernacle and what it's designed to do. Okay, so the tabernacle stood as a visual reminder to Israel that they serve the true and living

God. It helped keep Israel from the idol worship that was practiced by those living around them, as they made their pilgrimage in the wilderness.

Although the tabernacle made God accessible to the Israelites, he was only approachable in holiness.

We have to remember that the Israelites didn't have the scriptures. So God used visual illustrations to teach them.

And the tabernacle is a perfect example of this. Please remember again that the tabernacle is portable.

It's going to have to be portable if God is going to lead them through the desert. As God moves, the

Israelites are going to have to disassemble that tabernacle and then reassemble it where God sets himself up.

So the question is, what does this tabernacle look like? This is what the tabernacle looks like.

Now again, you have this outer curtain, okay, that goes all the way around the whole, this is called the tent of meeting.

This is the outer curtain. Okay, here is the entrance gate.

And there's only one way in, you can't get in any other way. And if you notice, each of these holes are made of copper, and they're fixed by the spikes into the ground.

So the curtain was about seven and a half feet tall, so it couldn't peek over into the court.

This is what's called the outer court. You couldn't crawl under the tent because it was so firmly fixed to these poles and stuck into the ground that you couldn't do that.

So you had to, if you wanted to get in, you have to come through the gate. Right here at the entrance of the gate is where the animal you brought in would be slaughtered.

The priests were kind of like butchers, they would bring them to the slaughter tables, cut up the meat, place it on the brazen altar.

That's what this is, this is the brazen altar. And you see there's a little ramp. God told them that he didn't want them bending over to put the meat onto the altar because that would expose their underparts.

So he put a ramp, he wanted them to put a ramp there so that they could put the meat on there without exposing themselves.

Once the meat was done, the priest would now go continue on his way to the holy place.

But before he got there, he would encounter the brazen laver, where he would have to wash his hands, his face, and anything that had blood on it.

And then he would go into the holy place to make the sacrifice, with the sacrifice, okay, the blood of the sacrifice

I should say, he would take that into the holy place. And it was two rooms in here. The first part here is called the holy place.

The second part is called the holy of holies. This is where God actually dwelled.

Okay, not that not that God could be contained within this place, but this is where God would meet with the high priest.

The high priest could only go into this room once a year. And we're gonna learn what that means. It's called the day of atonement or Yom Kippur.

Alright, so this is what the temple looked like. Tabernacle I should say.

If you're looking, I better move this. If you're looking, this is the size of an

American football field. So the court and the tabernacle here was about say a third, a third of this the size.

Okay, let's see what else we have.

Okay, so this is also the tabernacle. And it's very important to see all of the priests were to camp around the tabernacle.

And God had a very specific way for these people to, one second,

God had a very specific way for each of the tribes to camp around the tabernacle.

He assembled them in a specific way. Again, the tribes closest to the tabernacle were the priests.

And then on the outside of that you had Nathalie, Dan, Asher, Issachar, Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Gad, Reuben, and Simeon.

In fact, it looked more like this. Okay, so you had the tabernacle.

Okay, these were the tribes. This was Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The priests were the ones who were closest to the tabernacle.

But when it had to move, they were the first ones out. They were the who led the charge and followed

God in the pillar of cloud by day and the fire by night. Okay, this is in the scriptures.

God says, you shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side of the court, you shall have hangings of fine twisted linen, 100 cubits long off of one side.

It's 20 pillars and their bases shall be of bronze. But the hooks, just move this up here.

But the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And likewise for its length on the north side, there shall be hangings 100 cubits long.

It's pillars 20 at their bases, 20 of bronze. But the net hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.

And for the breadth of the court on the west side, there shall be hangings for 50 cubits with 10 pillars and 10 bases.

The breadth of the court on the front of the east shall be 50 cubits. The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be 15 cubits with their three pillars and three bases.

So as you can see, God is pretty detailed in what he wants the outer court to look like.

And God goes on. He says on the other side, the hanging shall be 15 cubits with their three pillars and three bases.

For the gate of the court, there should be a screen 20 cubits long of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twisted linen embroidered with needlework.

It shall have four pillars and with them four bases. All the pillars around the court shall be filleted with silver.

Their hooks shall be of silver and their bases of bronze. The length of the court shall be 100 cubits, the breadth 50, and the height 5 cubits with the hangings of fine twisted linen, twined linen,

I should say, and bases of bronze. All the utensils of the tabernacle for every use and all its pegs and all the pegs of the court shall be of bronze.

We're going to learn next week why it had to be bronze and what bronze symbolizes. Okay, once again, this is a little bit clearer picture of the tabernacle.

This is the entrance curtain, again, one way in. This is where the priest would sacrifice.

You get to the brazen altar, the laver, and then into the Holy of Holies. Now, the fence around the tabernacle is called the court of the tabernacle.

It was rectangular and, like we just read, made of fine twisted linen.

It had only one entrance on the east side and was about seven and a half feet tall, which means it was tall enough to prevent anyone from looking inside.

It stood together as one connected and undivided unit. Again, that's going to be very important when we find out what the symbolism of that is.

Okay, just to let you know, one cubit was measured from your elbow to the tip of your middle finger, and this was typically for a man.

It wouldn't be for a child or a woman, but this is what one cubit basically was.

It was about 18 inches. It was more than a foot. Okay, so now what

I want to do is we're going to go through each piece of the tabernacle, not in deep detail, but in some detail, and explain what it was and why it was necessary.

All right, first is the courtyard curtain that went around the whole tent of meeting.

So, after passing through the gate, the person would come into the courtyard through the curtain.

The court fence was made of a long piece of linen held up by posts that surrounded the whole tabernacle, and only the priests from the family or the tribe of Levi were allowed to touch the tabernacle.

So, the fence protected the people from coming too close accidentally, and you'll remember when

Moses and the priests came to Mount Sinai in the desert, God told

Moses to come up the mountain with the priests, but do not let any of the people or any of the animals touch the mountain.

If they touched the mountain, they would die. Okay, so the mountain is a symbol of God's tabernacle with men.

So, the tabernacle that God is telling them to build now would be similar to that mountain, climbing the mountain.

If you touch the mountain, you would die. So, again, it was only the priests who could come in into the tabernacle without a sacrifice.

The courtyard was made of linen curtains, pillars, socket hooks, and fillets, tops and rods, pins of bronze held the linen curtains in place.

Again, it was 100 cubits long by 50 wide, which is about 150 feet by 75 feet.

We find that in Exodus 27, 38. Before you move toward the inner places of the tabernacle, you would be stopped by a large barrier that surrounded the perimeter of the tabernacle complex.

It was an immense curtain supported by massive beams, which bordered what we know as the courtyard or the outer court of God's presence.

The great curtain wall provided a real barrier for anyone approaching it. It was very sturdy in construction and tall enough to deter anyone to try to climb over it.

In addition, it served as a distinct obstacle for any person. Though anyone could enter the courtyard through the gate for the purpose of having the priests offer a sacrifice for their sin, the curtain served as a point at which no one considered their need to enter and caused them to make an intentional decision to do so or not.

In other words, if you were approaching this curtain, this tabernacle in the wilderness, you recognized that you couldn't get in.

You needed to bring a sacrifice to the priest in order to do that. So you didn't just flippantly decide you're going to walk into the outer court without a sacrifice.

Okay, now we get to the gate. All right, and right here, these one, two, three, four, there's four posts, which looks like three curtains.

Notice that the curtains to the entrance into the tabernacle are different color than the rest.

The rest is white, but these are royal blue and purple and red.

Now, to go to the gate of the court to go through, first the person would enter the gate of the court to offer a sacrifice for sin or a

Thanksgiving offering. Again, there was only one way in. The gate was made of hanging curtains, blue, purple, scarlet, and white.

It was four pillars of brass, sockets of bronze, again, brass. It was hooks and fillets, glass or silver on the tops of the pillars.

The door itself was 20 cubits by five cubits, which is about 30 feet wide.

We find this in Exodus 27, 14 through 16, and Exodus 30.

The gate through the fence giving entry to the tabernacle was on the east and was only the only entrance to the court.

Again, remind me next week on the east is very important. Okay, we're going to learn what that means.

It was suspended on four pillars that were exactly like the other pillars of the fence. The gate was in the center of the east fence with 10 cubits, 15 feet of court fence on either side.

The fence that encircled the courtyard was shining white with no color. However, the gate was quite different.

Exodus 27, 16 says, and for the gate of the court shall be a hanging of 20 cubits, 30 feet of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen wrought with needlework, and their pillars shall be four and their sockets should be four.

So the entrance to the tabernacle looked very different than the rest of the gate.

It was colorful, whereas the rest of the tabernacle was white. Next you would come to the brazen altar.

Now, because God wanted to dwell with his people, they would need a sacrifice to come to him, because how can a holy

God dwell among sinful people? How can sinful people approach God? So first,

God required the people to offer a sacrifice for their sins. God told Adam and Eve that the result of their sin would be death.

However, God had mercy on humankind and provided them with a way to temporarily cover their sin.

Instead of immediately requiring their own blood or death, God allowed the blood of an animal to atone or take away sin, making it possible for the worshippers to enter into God's presence.

So this tabernacle in the wilderness is a continuation of what God told

Adam. When God forgave Adam, he sacrificed an animal and covered

Adam and Eve with those skins. So we see that there had to be a sacrifice. It was a blood sacrifice, and it covered the sin of Adam and Eve.

Only the finest animal would be brought to the brazen altar. It had to be perfect. God asked them for a perfect, flawless sacrifice because the animal represented an undeserving recipient of a deserved punishment.

God wanted people to trust in his provision, so he asked that the sacrifice be valuable. Again, when you ask people,

I asked an Israelite one time, what did it cost your

God to forgive your sins? And he was never asked that question before, because obviously there's no temple that a

Jewish person can come and bring a sacrifice to. So I said, well, what did it cost you, your God, to forgive your sins?

And he scratched his head and finally looked at me, he said, nothing. It didn't cost him anything. So I looked him back, and I said, well, then what is your forgiveness worth?

You know, without a payment or value to that sacrifice, your forgiveness is not worth anything.

In Christianity, obviously, God sacrificed his son. It was the greatest sacrifice, the greatest possible cost to do away with sin.

And because these sacrifices in the tabernacle are only temporarily, it just covered the sins of the people.

They need to be offered on a regular basis. It had to be continual. The people would bring the offering and put their hand on the head of the lamb.

While it was killed, they would slice its neck and blood would come pouring out. This symbolically, yet temporarily, put their sins onto the animal, and the animal died in their place.

The brazen altar was made of acacia wood and covered with bronze. The four corners had horns.

If you can see them here, these are the horns on the altar. There were bronze shovels, basins, forks, and fire pans to collect the ashes.

And a bronze grate with a ring in each corner was put under the brazen altar. Carrying poles made of acacia wood covered with bronze were used to carry it.

So when God would up and move, the priests would come, disassemble the tabernacle, they'd put the poles in the brazen altar, and start walking after or walking behind God to follow him.

The offerings at the altar included several different things. Burnt offerings of bulls, sheep, goats, doves, or pigeons.

They took grain offerings of cakes or wafers with fine flour. They made peace offerings of a goat or a lamb.

There were sin offerings of a bull or a lamb. There was also trespass offerings of a female from the flock, a lamb, a goat, which is also called a kid.

I don't want my kids to get nervous thinking I might sacrifice them, although that's a possibility these days.

So there was goat sacrifice, doves, pigeons, and grains. The bronze altar stood in the courtyard of the tabernacle, and this is where the animals were sacrificed to cover the sins of the

Israelite people. So that's the brazen altar. Now let's move to the next thing, which is called the bronze laver, which is basically a big bowl, a big bowl full of water.

The rest of the steps were performed by the priest. After this point, after the priest put the offerings on the brazen altar, they would take over from that point.

After making the sacrifice, the priest washed himself at the brass laver. This washing purified the priest and prepared him to enter into the tabernacle.

The Lord said that the priest must wash so that he would not die. The brazen laver was made from brass mirrors donated by the women, and again, that's going to become important.

It may have had a shiny mirrored surface, which would help the priest wash thoroughly and remind him that the

Lord sees past the outward appearance but straight into the heart. We find this in Exodus 27, 40, and Exodus 30.

Coming into the courtyard, a priest would first make sacrifice for himself at the brazen altar, then he would approach the laver of bronze, which is placed between the altar and the door of the holy place.

It was significant that the altar representing sacrifice came first, then the laver preparing for cleansing came second.

So you would have to make a sacrifice first, and then the priest would cleanse himself. This was the last step before coming into the tent of meeting with God.

And all these steps had to be followed very, very, um, very, very, uh, stringently.

So this is in Exodus 30. The Lord said to Moses, you shall also make a basin of bronze with its stand of bronze for washing.

You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar. You shall put water in it. Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and feet.

When they go into the tent of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn a food offering for the

Lord, they shall wash with water so that they may not die. They shall wash their hands and their feet so that they may not die.

It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.

Now, to those of you who read your Bible, um, when you, when you see they shall wash with water so that they may die, they shall wash their hands and feet, something should come to mind.

And we're going to get to that next week, but this is very important. They had to wash. Why? So that they may not die.

If you didn't follow God's instructions perfectly, you could die. That's how serious this was.

That's why God is going to the extent of giving them this very detailed information.

It was for their protection. Okay. Continuing with the bronze labor, use of the labor was given to Moses in greater specificity.

Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they do not die.

Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire, they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die.

This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.

Key element mentioned in these instructions is washing with water. Aaron and his sons had to wash their hands and feet with water before entering the holy place or offering sacrifices, or else they would die.

Couldn't be any clearer. The critical, the critical, criticality of this statement is underscored.

And that is mentioned twice as a warning that disobedience would result. Now we're going to look at the tent of meeting.

And again, I told you there's two pieces in the tent of meeting. First, this is called the holy place where the priest right here would walk through this curtain, enter into this room.

Then this room was separated from this room by this, this veil here.

Okay. It was, the veil was four inches thick and the priest, the high priest would go into this room only once a year.

This room was known as the holy of holies. And this is where God would actually meet with the priest in order for their sins to be forgiven.

So in the tent of meeting, you would walk through this door. This is going to be the first room that we talk about.

So the priest entered the tabernacle through the curtains at the entrance. Although sometimes the term tabernacle refers to the tent and the outer court and fence, it's generally used only of the tent in the middle of the court.

The word tabernacle literally means to dwell. So the promise of God is this,

I will be your God and you will be my people. And I will dwell or tabernacle in your midst.

The statement is repeated in various forms throughout the old and new testaments. You'll see in Exodus 6,

Jeremiah 7, and Zachariah 2. We're also going of it when we look at the symbolism and Jesus fulfilling.

Tabernacle was divided into two sections. So like I told you before, the holy place, which is here and the most holy place or the holy of holies.

And this was made of goat's hair. This top layer was made of goat's hair with linen covering beneath.

It was ramskin. There was a ramskin covering dyed red, which would be right here.

It was also badger, porpoise, or sea cow skin covering. These were animals that were found in the water.

Again, that's going to lend to the symbolism of the tabernacle. It was 48 boards, a hundred sockets, 96 silver sockets for the boards, four under the pillars of the veil.

That was down here. You'll see those pillars. There's bars, pillars, and hooks, curtains at the entrance here and here.

It was 30 cubits long, 10 cubits wide, 10 cubits high. It was 45 feet long and 15 feet wide.

So I just want to remind you that the entrance into the outer court was 30 feet wide.

The entrance into the tabernacle is only 15 feet wide. I want you to think about that for a second and ask yourself, what's happening?

We're going from something that's wide to something that's narrow.

Is there any verses in the New Testament that might jog your memory when you go from something wide to something that's narrow?

Maybe we'll touch on that a little bit in the next presentation on symbolism.

In the Tent of Meeting, in the holy place, once you pass through that curtain, the priest would go there every day into the holy place to serve the

Lord. Inside was the table of showbread, the seven -branched golden lampstand, and the altar of incense in front of the veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies or the most holy place.

Now, we're going to go through each piece in the tabernacle so that you understand what it is.

First is the golden lampstand. When the priest walked through that curtain, on the left -hand side, he would see a golden lampstand.

The lampstand provided light in an otherwise dark room. There were no windows. The priest trimmed the wicks to keep them burning brightly.

That was their job, to keep that lampstand lit. The lampstand was made from a single piece of gold.

It wasn't pieced together. It had a central shaft with six branches, three on each side, making it a seven -branched lampstand.

Each branch had knobs, flowers, and an almond -shaped bowl to hold pure olive oil.

Symbolizing light from God, the intricately patterned lampstand was to give light continually fueled by clear olive oil.

All the elements inside the tabernacle's tent of meeting were made of gold. The lampstand alone, also known as the menorah, the golden candlestick, or the candelabrum, was constructed of solid gold.

The gold for this sacred furniture was given to the Israelites by the Egyptians when the Jews fled Egypt.

Now, a lot of the pieces of the furniture in the tabernacle were made of acacia wood covered with gold, but not the lampstand.

The lampstand was made of pure gold, and it was hammered out, and we're going to get into, again, what that means at a later date.

God told Moses to make the lampstand from one piece, that's important, hammering in its details.

In other words, it was hammered together. No dimensions are given for the lampstand, but its total weight was one talent, or about 75 pounds of solid gold.

Think about how much that would be worth today. The lampstand had a center column with six branches extending from it on each side.

These arms resembled the branches of an almond tree with ornamental knobs, ending in a stylized flower at the top.

Because this chamber had no windows, the lampstand was the only source of light. So again,

I want you to look at the lampstand, realize that it's symbolic of something else, maybe a tree, just food for thought.

Next came the table of showbread. This would be on the priest's right side when he walked in through past that first gate, past that first veil.

It's the table of showbread. The priest placed 12 loaves of bread made from fine flour, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.

The loaves were a continual reminder of the everlasting promises between God and the children of Israel, and a memorial of God's provision of food.

The bread of presents was eaten only by the priests, by Aaron and his sons, and was replaced every week on the

Sabbath. Now, let me just read that to you again. The bread of presents was eaten only by the priests, by Aaron and his sons, and was replaced every week on the

Sabbath. Now, if you're a New Testament Christian, what does that remind you of? The table of showbread was made of acacia wood.

It was overlaid with gold and had a crown or frame of gold around it. The gold carrying poles were put through the rings on the corners of the table.

There were also gold dishes, pans, pitchers, and bowls. So this basically was like the kitchen table, which is where you put your bread, you would put your pitchers, bowls, dishes, and anything that you would drink.

So this is kind of like an eating and drinking that the priest would have with God in that holy place.

Next comes the altar of incense. So when the priest walked through that first veil on the left would be the lampstand, on the right would be the table of showbread, and directly in front of him, in front of the curtain that would go into the holy of holies was the altar of incense.

The high priest burned the incense on the altar every morning and evening. The four corners of the altar each had a horn, same as the other pieces, and a crown molding on the edge.

Once a year on the day of atonement, the horns of the altar was sprinkled with blood of the sin offer.

The Lord required that special incense be burned constantly on the altar of incense. It was a special sweet incense, a mixture of spices to be used only for the tabernacle.

God specifically required the specific recipe for that incense.

None other was to be burned on the altar except that one. God's very detailed about what had to be put into that mixture of incense.

The incense was a matter of life and death. As Leviticus 10 clearly shows us, when two of Aaron's sons offered strange fire before the

Lord, they were struck dead. The altar of incense was made from acacia wood covered with gold, and on each corner was a which the high priest would dab with blood on the annual day of atonement.

Drink and meat offerings were not to be made on this altar. It was much smaller than the brazen altar.

And again, golden rings were placed on both sides, which would accept poles used to carry it when the entire tabernacle was moved.

The altar, sitting as it did just outside the Holy of Holies, was as close as you could get to God without literally being in his presence.

So this was like the last stop before you went through the veil into the

Holy of Holies. Speaking of the veil, this is our next stop.

After the priest would offer the incense on the altar and put the blood on the horns of the smaller altar of incense, he would be facing the veil.

And again, the veil is made of blue and scarlet and purple linen, and there were inscriptions on it.

It was angels and cherubim inscribed, sewn into that veil. The veil was a divider between the holy place and the most holy place where the

Ark of the Covenant was kept. It was a barrier between God and man. You could not pass this barrier without your sin offering, and it was only once a year.

Only the high priest would be able to enter into the most holy place. The veil was made of heavy woven cloth.

There was no separation in the middle. The high priest had to go around the side of it. A woven veil of blue, purple, and scarlet thread with designs of cherubim embroidered on it was hung on four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold.

Four gold hooks were put in four sockets of silver. That's also very symbolic.

The veil was a heavy curtain that closed off the most holy place. Historians like Josephus wrote that it was as thick as a hand's breath, which is about four inches, and that a team of horses pulling in each direction couldn't tear it.

The veil separated the holy place from the inner holy of holies inside the Tent of Meeting.

It hid a holy God who dwelt above the mercy seat on the Ark of the

Covenant from sinful people on the outside. Again, this was designed for the Israelites' protection.

God wanted to dwell with them, but he knew because they were sinful if they approached him without the proper sacrifice, they would die.

The veil was four -colored blue, purple, scarlet, and white of fine twisted linen. It was embroidered with cherubim, and it was erected on four gold -plated pillars.

The purpose for the veil was to serve as a partition between the holy place and the holy of holies where the Ark of the

Covenant was kept. The veil was the work of a skilled weaver. This was the last item to protect the priest before he entered into the presence of God.

This is a thrice holy God that would meet with the high priest right behind that veil. In fact, it was so dangerous that on the bottom hem of the priest's garments, they made pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet and woven linen, and they sewed bells into the bottom of his garment.

They put the bells between the pomegranates all the way around the hem of the robe. It would alternate pomegranate bell, pomegranate bell, all the way around the hem of the robe as Adonai had ordered

Moses in Exodus 39. Now, it's interesting. While the high priest was engaged in his purification rituals, the common priest who was standing outside the sanctuary, outside of the holy of holies, they'd be in the holy place.

They would be on high alert, always listening for the jingling of the golden bells.

If the jingling of the bells stopped, in other words, if the priest wasn't moving and the bells stopped for a considerable period of time, the other priest would assume that the

Lord killed the high priest due to some breach of protocol. This is how serious it was approaching

God. If you didn't do the right thing, God could strike you dead. So, if they didn't hear the bells jingling, they would pull them out of the holy of holies with the rope that was attached to his foot.

Meeting with God was very serious business. Next, we're going to get into the most holy place, or what's also known as the holy of holies.

The high priest had the most holy place once a year on the day of atonement. The focus was the ark of the covenant.

The glory of God rested upon the lid of the ark, or the mercy seat. The high priest entered the sprinkled blood on the mercy seat to atone for his people's sins.

Somebody is, I think, messing with their microphone or fidgeting or something because I'm getting a little bit of feedback.

I don't know who's doing that. Okay, a little distracted. All right.

The holy of holies was the innermost chamber in the wilderness tabernacle, a room so sacred only one person could enter it, and then only one day out of the entire year.

This is important. The room was a perfect cube, 15 feet wide, 15 feet tall, and 15 feet long.

Only one object was in that room, the ark of the covenant. There was no light inside of the chamber other than the glow from God's glory.

A thick embroidered veil separated the holy place from the holy of holies inside the tent of meeting.

Regular priests were allowed in the outer place, but the holy of holies could be entered only by the high priest on the annual day of atonement, or Yom Kippur.

All right, bear with me. We've got a couple more things to go. On that day, on Yom Kippur, the high priest would bathe, then put on a clean linen garment for the priest.

His robe had solid gold bells hanging from the hem. The noise of the bells told the people he was making atonement for their sins.

He entered the inner sanctuary with a censure of burning incense, which would produce thick smoke, hiding the mercy seat on the ark where God was.

Anyone who saw God without atonement would die instantly. The high priest would then sprinkle the blood of a sacrificed bull and a sacrificed goat on the atonement cover of the ark, making amends for his sins and the people's sins.

Now, the blood he put on the mercy seat covered the ark of the covenant.

This piece down here that has the poles in it, this piece down here is the ark of the covenant.

Up top here is what's called the mercy seat. The central focus of the entire tabernacle was the ark, the most holy place where God spoke to the high priest above the mercy seat, the area where the winged cherubim face each other.

So God would be in the midst right there. Annually, the high priest would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat to atone for the sins of the people.

Then friendship or peace between God and his people was restored. God reached out and made possible for people to know him.

The contents of the ark included the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them, known as the testimony given by God.

The law of God reminded people that God would protect them if they were obedient to him.

The other thing, there's three things in the ark, the law. Next was a jar of manna, reminded the people that God constantly provides for them.

God provided them manna as they were walking through the wilderness every day. And third was

Aaron's rod, which budded and bore fruit and it proved that Aaron was chosen by God.

The rod also reminded the people that God had the power to bring life from death.

Very important. The ark was made of acacia wood, like I said before, and it was overlaid with gold with the crown molding around its edge, same as the table of bread in the altar of incense.

The carrying poles were placed through the four gold rings, the poles were wood overlaid with gold, and the mercy seat was placed on top of the ark of the covenant.

It was two different pieces. One is the mercy seat, one is the ark of the covenant. Once a year, again, the priest made atonement for the people of Israel by sprinkling the mercy seat on top of the ark with blood, sacrificed from bulls and goats.

The term mercy seat is associated with the Hebrew word kippur. In other words, also known as atonement.

Hence yom kippur. Yom is the word for day in Hebrew. Kippur is the word for atonement.

So yom kippur means day of atonement. The lid of the ark was called a seat because the

Lord was enthroned there between the two cherubim. In other words, this actually was the throne of God.

He would sit above this, figuratively, with his feet hanging over the ark.

Now we get to the mercy seat, and this is a little bit clearer picture. The mercy seat was symbolic of God's divine throne and his presence.

With the sprinkling of blood on the mercy seat, the judgment of God is transformed into grace and mercy. The mercy seat was made of pure gold.

Again, the top here, this is all pure gold. Same as the lampstand.

The two winged cherubs facing each other with their wings outstretched towards each other were on it. Their faces were facing down, facing the top of the seat.

The mercy seat was beaten or hammered from one solid piece of gold. It was placed above the ark.

Again, the similarity between the mercy seat and the lampstand is that it was one solid piece of gold and it was hammered into this shape.

Special care was taken on the lid, solid gold with two hammered gold cherubim or angels on it towards each other with their faces facing down and their wings overshadowing the lid.

This would be the earthly throne of God where he would meet with the high priest. This is where God dwelled between the cherubim and spoke to the priest in 2

Samuel 6 .2 Psalm 99. God told Moses there above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony,

I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites. God told

Moses to place the tablets of the 10 commandments inside the ark. Later a pot of manna and Aaron's staff were added, which we went through.

All right. That was all the pieces of the tabernacle.

We went through the outer courtyard, the curtain. Then we went through the gate.

Then we went to the brazen altar. Then we went to the laver that was also made of bronze.

Then we went to a second gate and a veil. We went into the holy place where on the left was the lampstand.

On the right was the table of showbread and directly in front was the altar of incense.

Right behind the altar of incense was that veil that separated the holy place from the holy of holies where God would meet with the high priest above the cherubim on the mercy seat.

What I want to do is try to get you a little bit better visual. Let's do a walkthrough through the veil, through the tabernacle,

I should say. Now this is outside in the wilderness.

We're approaching the tabernacle. See the white curtain? This would be the tents that the

Israelites dwelled in surrounding the tabernacle. This is the gate. You would walk in.

You would see the bronze laver with the horns on top of it. This is where the fire would be burning.

They would be putting the meat on top of that and blood on the horns. On the side of the altar was splashed with the blood of the animal.

The priest would get dirty. He would have to wash his hands and his face and anything else that got dirty in the bronze laver.

This would be the tabernacle itself. The first gate right there is the holy place.

These are the coverings that go over the tent of meeting.

Again, that was the ram's skin dyed red. Then you had the porpoise skins.

Finally, the last skin. This is the altar of incense right here. On the left is the lampstand.

This is the lampstand. Seven branches.

This is the table of showbread with the 12 loaves with the picture and the bowls on it, kind of like a kitchen table.

This is the altar of incense that stood before that veil that was four inches thick.

The priest had to keep the incense burning 24 -7. The incense could not go out.

This is inside the Holy of Holies. This is the Ark of the Covenant with the manna, the law, and Aaron's staff.

This is the mercy seat with the cherubim where God would meet with them above it. That was a walkthrough.

Next week, we're going to go through the symbolism of the tabernacle. Let's see.

Stop sharing this. Now, we'll open it up for questions. Eric, do

I have to unmute everybody? I just unmuted me, I think. You unmuted me.

Hey, Jake, how are you? I unmuted myself. You unmuted yourself, okay.

That's Jake from Hope Reform Baptist Church, not Jake from State Farm. What is he wearing?

I'm not wearing khakis. He's got khakis on, right? Are you wearing khakis?

So, did that make sense to everybody? Yeah, definitely. Okay, any questions about what you saw or was it confusing?

Do you understand the process? Definitely. I have a few comments when you're ready.

Sure, go ahead. All right, well, I'm just going to go through some scattered ones that I jotted down as you were talking.

One thing that's interesting, and I'm not sure the significance is the temple was first erected one year after the

Passover of the children of Israel leaving Egypt. I don't know, you might even get into that.

The other significant thing I'm sure you're going to get into is that the tabernacle, just like the temple, is the garden image.

Oh, definitely. That's extremely important, and even each one of the elements is associated with that.

Bear with me. It's very interesting that each piece of the furniture would be a reminder, and again,

I'm trying not to touch on symbolism here, but just to give some thought along with some of the things you've said.

It's a reminder of who Yahweh is in relation to his people and the fact that he's a covenant

God and he's looking to dwell with his people. The other interesting thing, and you pointed it out, is every time that that tabernacle was reconstructed, it was always arranged so that it faced the east.

That's an important thing. Every Israelite had to enter the same gate no matter what their rank was.

That's another thing. I'm sure a lot of this you're going to get into. Also, I was reminded of Psalms 104, enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise, be thankful unto him and bless his name.

I think that explains that entry process. I'm almost done and then

I'll shut up. The other thing that you made very evident was

God's willingness and desire to tabernacle with his people. Again, that emphasizes the covenant that he had as provider and protector, etc.

I think that's all I jotted down. That's all for now. Those are good observations.

My goal was just to get everybody familiar with the tabernacle itself, with the pieces that make up the tabernacle, and the reason why

God gave them the tabernacle. The tabernacle is a visual reminder of his presence.

It's a visual reminder that they need to make atonement for their sins, and the tabernacle is really for their protection.

If they were to try to approach God without making a sacrifice, they would be killed.

A sinful person cannot approach a holy God. In the description of the tabernacle, and I would recommend that everybody read it, starting in Exodus 25, it goes 13 chapters,

God is very, very detailed in what you have to do to atone for your sins and what the priest had to do.

Any error could result in death. If you didn't wash, it could result in death.

If you didn't do the steps correctly, it could result in death. It's very serious, and I think sometimes today, because we hear, well, that was the

God of the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament is happy now because Jesus was sacrificed, we don't have to worry about his wrath breaking out on us.

Yet, we see things like the coronavirus and 9 -11 and other judgments that God brings upon the earth.

God is the same God. He's the same God yesterday, today, and forever. He's merciful, and he's gracious, and people, what happens is people presume upon his mercy and presume upon his grace, and in the moment something bad happens, they shake a fist at God and say, why did you allow this to happen?

When the real question is, why did you allow anything good to happen to sinful people?

Because you were merciful and gracious to them so often. Because our hearts are sinful and because our minds are stained by sin, we forget how sinful we are, and we forget how holy

God is. This is a visual reminder that you cannot approach a holy

God on your own terms. You have to approach him on his terms.

That's why there's only one way into that tabernacle. There's not many ways into that tabernacle.

That's something that we're going to explore next week, go through some of the symbolism of the tabernacle, but it's very important that God has a specific pattern and a plan in approaching him, and again, it was designed for the people's protection.

It was due to, like you said, Jerry, the covenant that he had with them.

He bestowed his love upon a group of people that he delivered out of Egypt, and because of his love for them, he wants to draw near to them.

This is what he institutes to bring about the atonement and forgiveness for their sins so that he can dwell in their midst and he can protect them.

He's going to be with them wherever they go, and again, there's much greater symbolism to that than just God being with them in the desert.

I don't want to ruin what's coming next week, but there's more stuff coming.

So does anybody have any specific observations? I do. Joe here.

Yes, I have two questions actually. Sure. One being the tabernacle itself.

What is the significance in the pot of manner and Aaron's death?

I can realize the 10th commandment. We have to obey a history man, but other than that, what's the matter in the staff after death?

Okay, that's a good question, and we're going to hit it next week, but I'll give you a real basic understanding of it right now.

Well, leave it for next week. That's what you're going to go through. You don't have to say it now, but the second question

I have, what in today's age is similar to what they were going through with the tabernacle, like Seder table,

Yom Kippur, what Jewish people, what do they go through as a ritual, what they symbolize in Moses day?

Well, it went from the tabernacle to the temple that Solomon built, and then it went from Solomon's temple to Herod's temple.

Now, because the Jews rejected Jesus as Messiah and said that they have no king but Caesar, they rejected

Jesus. In fact, they called for his crucifixion. The Jews said, let his blood be upon our heads and our children's heads, and God granted, unfortunately, granted them their request, and he destroyed the temple in 70

AD. He basically took away any means by which they could get atonement.

They were no longer able to bring animals to the temple for sacrifice or for atonement, so their whole system of atonement has been eradicated.

In fact, Paul would tell us in Corinthians that the end of the ages has come upon us.

In other words, the end of the Mosaic covenant and the sacrificial system is over.

It's done. Jews no longer have a sacrifice for their sins outside of Jesus as Messiah.

So now, Orthodox Jews today say, well, we have the day of atonement where they take one day, they don't eat, they fast, and they confess their sins to God, and it's after this day that they say

God forgives their sins. So again, this precipitated the question that I had asked this gentleman in the mall as he was talking to me about his faith, and I was talking to him about my faith and Messiah, and I asked him, well, if all you have to do is confess your sins for one day and God forgives them, what did it cost

God to forgive your sins? And again, he didn't know what to say, so he said, nothing,

I guess. So my next question was, well, then what is your forgiveness worth? If it didn't cost

God anything to forgive your sins, well, then sin really isn't serious. Sin really doesn't require a payment, whereas the whole

Old Testament says sin requires a payment. In fact, it says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission or forgiveness of sins.

So I turned it back on him and said, listen, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

How are your sins going to be atoned for? Now you also have in the

Old Testament in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the promise of a new covenant. We have

Isaiah 53, where God says he will send a suffering servant who's going to bear the sins of many.

In Zechariah 12, we have a prophecy of the Messiah who says they will look upon me, the one whom they have pierced.

You look at Psalm 22, which we read in church on Sunday, which points to the suffering servant,

Jesus who would die on the cross. So all of these things pointed the

Jews to Jesus, and they should have recognized him. But Jesus wept. They missed their day of visitation, so much so that they actually called for his crucifixion and his death.

And to this day, there are some Jews who receive Jesus as Messiah. There are some who don't.

The bottom line is there's no salvation outside of the Messiah. So I was talking recently to a cousin of mine, and we were talking about truth.

And I said, well, doesn't God respect people of all religions, as long as they're sincere?

You know, they may not know specifics about God, but they know God. I said, well, that sounds good in my flesh, right?

And it sounds like, oh, God will just accept everybody. I said, but is truth absolute?

And she was like, well, what do you mean? I said, well, is two plus two four? She says, yes.

I said, is there any chance it could be five or it could be three? She said, no, of course not.

I said, well, why not? Are you prejudiced against three? Are you prejudiced against five?

Why can't the answer be three or five? She says, because two plus two is four. I said, and only four.

I said, exactly. Two plus two is only four. Truth is absolute. Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father, but through me. Now, either

Jesus was telling the truth, or he was lying. He would also tell the Jews, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

So if we take the words of Jesus as at face value, he's basically telling people, not just Jews, but everyone, if you don't trust in him, as you recognize him as God in the flesh, and trust in him as Messiah, you will pay for your own sins.

It doesn't matter how sincere you are. In fact, I brought to mind the first commandment to her.

I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. That's commandment number one.

Why on earth would God abrogate that commandment because somebody is sincere?

Jesus didn't take that route. In fact, he says, if you deny me before your fellow man,

I will deny you before my Father in heaven. It sounds like Jesus thought that truth was absolute.

Now, people talk about other various religious leaders and say, well,

Moses was a faithful Jew, and he helped lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

He was a good man. You have Muhammad, who was the leader of the Muslims. He taught that religion.

You have Buddha. He taught that religion. These are all great teachers. Jesus is just another one of great teachers.

He's another path or way to God. He's a good teacher just like the rest. So my response to that is, well, if Jesus was a good teacher, he claimed to be

God. Now, a good teacher doesn't lie. So if he claimed to be

God and he wasn't, he's a liar, and he doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Moses, Muhammad, or Buddha, or any other

God. But if Jesus was a good teacher, and he told the truth, and he was

God the way he says he is, well, then Moses, Muhammad, and Buddha shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as him.

Jesus is exclusive. He claimed to be the only way, okay?

So we can't have it both ways. Jesus can't be a good teacher and a liar at the same time.

And Moses, Buddha, and Muhammad can't be telling the truth if Jesus says he is

God. If those three leaders say he's not God, well, then one of them is wrong, right?

Because truth is absolute. Two plus two is four. It's not three, four, and five, no matter what common core might teach you.

So it's very important to understand that truth is absolute.

Jesus made an absolute statement. If you do not believe that I am, I am is the

Old Testament name for God, Exodus 3 .14. God told Moses, tell them,

I am that I am, sent you. Jesus is pointing back to that, saying,

I am. Before Abraham was born, I am. And when he said that, the

Jews picked up stones to stone him because him, a mere man, claimed to be God. They recognized what his claim was.

They recognized that he was claiming deity. Now, if he claimed deity and he wasn't deity, well, then he's the greatest deceiver the world has ever seen, and he's not a good man.

But if he claimed deity and is deity, well, then he is God in the flesh.

Now, Paul makes it real clear. He says in 1

Corinthians 15, this is the clearest presentation of the gospel in all of scripture.

He says Jesus was born, died on the cross according to the scriptures, was buried, rose again according to the scriptures.

This Jesus is Lord. He says, if Jesus has not been raised, we are most of all people to be pitied.

In fact, we're still in our sins and we're dead. So Paul basically said everything hinges on the resurrection.

Jesus claimed to be God. He claimed that before Abraham was born,

I am. He claimed that the Jews would destroy this temple, but in three days later, he would raise it up.

He was crucified. He died and was raised again, witnessed by Paul, witnessed by the other apostles, witnessed by 500 other people.

That was written down by the apostle Paul in the late 50s, early 60s.

So this was something that the eyewitnesses who lived at that point in time could verify. This news of this resurrection spread like wildfire throughout

Jerusalem and eventually Rome. Anybody could falsify the gospel, the resurrection by doing one thing, producing the body.

If they produce the body of Jesus, Christianity is a fable and not to be believed.

But what do we have? We have an empty tomb. How could

Christianity be come on the scene and burst into existence if that tomb wasn't empty?

Now, even the Jews said in the scriptures that the disciples stole the body.

That's real important. That's called enemy attestation. When your enemy is agreeing with you about a certain point, it's a good chance that it's true.

So what are they admitting when they say the disciples stole the body? They're admitting that the tomb is empty, that the body's not there.

It's gone and they don't have an answer for it. So their answer is the disciples stole it.

Now, if the disciples stole the body, they were questioned about it.

All 12 of them and probably more people would have been in on that. I don't know if you've ever seen when they bring a mob guy to trial, okay?

If he's done something wrong or he knows of someone else who's done something wrong and they say, look, we're going to put you away in prison for life unless you tell us what happened.

And then he rolls over on him, he becomes a rat and he tells that he squeals on all his friends.

Each one of the apostles were given an opportunity to squeal on their friends and say, where'd you hide the body?

None of them admitted to that because it wasn't true. In fact, most of them died a martyr's death.

Peter, tradition has it was crucified upside down. Now, what would be the benefits package of telling this lie that Jesus rose from the dead?

Well, they would get beaten, thrown out of the synagogue, cast out, pursued.

They were trying to kill them. There was no benefit for them physically to make this claim.

It was a death sentence basically saying that Jesus was Lord. In fact, the early

Christians were given an opportunity. Confess Caesar is

Lord and live or confess Jesus is Lord and die. Now in Romans chapter 10, we have a real interesting statement by the apostle

Paul. He says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is with the mouth that one confesses and it is with the heart that one believes unto salvation. Now we read that and we're like, oh good.

All we got to do is confess Jesus is Lord. We say this prayer and we're in. Not during Paul's day.

What Paul meant by that was if you confess Jesus is Lord in the society at that point in time, that was a death sentence.

Remember Luke tells us to count the cost. You have to count the cost when you become a

Christian because life may not get better. In fact, it may get worse. People don't like Christians.

Jesus says, if they hated you, it's because they hated me first. They don't like Jesus.

They're not going to like you. It's going to convict them. The way we act is going to bring conviction to certain people.

When we don't go along with their coarse joking, when we don't go along with their lies or whatever it is that they're trying to get away with, maybe even if we point it out to them and call them to repent, the flesh doesn't like that.

You're not going to be liked. So the apostles had nothing to gain by claiming that Jesus rose from the dead.

Their benefits package, like I said, included scourgings, beatings, being destitute, being chased.

It was not a happy time for them, no matter what the health, wealth, and prosperity guys would have you believe.

So it was basically a death sentence. And when Paul says, if you confess with your mouth,

Jesus is Lord, that was a very, very serious thing for someone to do at that time.

It's not like here in America where you're in the middle of a church and you're not being persecuted and the government is allowing you to worship.

In fact, they're giving you tax -free status, which is probably going to come under fire soon. But as Christians, we have to be prepared for that.

It's not a matter of money for us. It's a matter of faith and truth. I mean, we're going to pursue the truth wherever it leads.

Jesus says, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it.

But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So Christianity in one sense is a death sentence.

We're called to die to self. We're called to die to the desires of our flesh and follow

Jesus. And as you see, when something like the coronavirus happens or some kind of trials or tragedies happen, this is how

God separates the fans from the followers. The phonies from the fakes, the believers from the make -believe.

This is very tough because sometimes we feel it in the flesh. It's not a happy time for me.

I mean, a lot of the places that I write insurance for are out of business. They have no way of paying for their insurance.

If they have no way of paying for their insurance, that's how I make a living. So I'm going to get affected by this.

They're going to get affected by this. We're all going to be affected by this. The question becomes, how do we handle the adversity?

Do we roll over? Do we despair? Or do we do what

Paul says to the Thessalonians? Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.

Rejoice in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. James says, rejoice in your trials.

Paul says, do not be surprised by the fiery trial. In the fiery trial, you're blessed.

Rejoice in the midst of it. We're constantly hearing this refrain to rejoice, rejoice, rejoice in the midst of a trial.

And again, I find myself, I find it hard to rejoice in these trials. And that's another reason, another reason on the long list of reasons of why

I'm not an apostle, obviously, right? Because I'm not rejoicing in the midst of this. My flesh hurts, but my brain and my spirit tells me

God is refining us in these circumstances. He heats up the kiln, right?

You put gold in a kiln, you heat it up, and the dross comes to the top. That's the impurities.

It comes to the surface of that gold. And then they wipe away the top.

And all that's left is a pure gold. And that might give you a little hint into the symbolism of the lampstand.

The lampstand is made of pure gold, pure gold. And you know how it was created?

It was hammered. In other words, craftsmen took a hammer and hammered that into shape.

So if you feel like you're being hammered, it's for a good reason, right?

We're being shaped and molded into the image of Christ. And I think it's

Hebrews chapter two. It says, Jesus learned obedience through suffering.

Now, if the sinless, spotless son of God learned obedience through suffering, what should we expect?

Health, wealth, prosperity, Mercedes, mansion, trips to Hawaii and all these other wonderful places?

I don't think so. I think we're called to be faithful in this world, faithful unto death.

And if that's what it means, that's what it means. So we have to follow him knowing that there's a kingdom that's coming where there's going to be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears.

There's going to be peace, joy, love, and the presence of God. The way the tabernacle was in the midst of the

Israelites, the people of God, we are going to be surrounded by the presence of God and his light is going to be the light that lights up wherever we are.

So that makes sense. Any other questions? We got anything else?

Get Rob. I don't hear you right now.

Here we go. Yes, I can hear you.

Okay. Um, no, I was thinking as we were going through the whole, uh, and that was awesome, by the way, the whole, uh, pictures of the tabernacle and precisely what everything was and what it meant.

It just reminds me how, uh, specific God is, how purposeful he is.

Everything, there's a reason behind everything he does, everything he tells them to do.

And obviously God then is the same God as today. Hasn't changed in any way, shape or form.

Look at today where we're at, what's going on right now. Specifically, there is a purpose.

God has a purpose. It's not just willy nilly, just for the heck of it is an absolute reason behind what he's doing and what's going on.

And, uh, you know, as believers, we could take comfort in that as it, you know, that God is in full control and is an absolute purpose for every little thing that he does.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. God is a very detailed God. And when I look at all of the things that the priest had to do, uh, and know, uh, with regard, you go through the book of Leviticus, you try to, try to memorize, uh, all the offerings, uh, and all the sins and what each sin deserves and how the, the, the sacrifice has to be.

On certain sacrifices, you, you cut out the fat and the entrails and the kidneys and you burn them on the fire.

And then you take the, the rest of the, the carcass outside the camp. On other ones, you put the whole animal on the altar.

I mean, it was different for each specific sin. And as I'm going through Leviticus, um,

I'm seeing all these different sins. I'm seeing all these different sacrifices for each one of them.

And then I'm recognizing I've committed every single one of those sins. That's number one.

And number two, Jesus atoned for all of them perfectly. He's a perfect priest.

No human priest could ever do that. So this God who is so detailed and so concerned about even the most minute sin is the same

God who redeems us from it and becomes the high priest to deliver us from those minute sins, the sins that a regular priest might miss.

So it's, it's, it's just mind boggling when you think about, uh, the detail that God put into the sacrificial system, the detail that God put into the entire universe.

I mean, even science, you know, sees certain things like they got these quantum physics in the quantum realm.

They see these little particles coming into and out of existence, right? And we're able to see that with, with modern technology.

But all that does is point us back to a God who is infinitely smarter and greater than we could ever imagine, because those things don't come from nowhere.

You know, if you believe that the universe popped into existence out of nothing, you have a lot, lot more faith than I do.

That's an impossibility, just a straight out impossibility. So when you look at God's creation,

I mean, we start studying something like the tabernacle and we see, you know, think of the gold clasps, the gold clasps that hook onto the curtain.

And then the bottom of the curtain has the silver clasps. Why gold up here and why silver down here?

Then why the bronze? Why the bronze basin? You know, the base that holds the pole into it.

Why does that have to be bronze? These are all things that have symbolic meaning and I can't wait to get through them all.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to exhaustively get through them, but I'll get to as many as I, as I can, you know, not having too much work,

I should be able to get to a good amount of them. And, you know, we'll, we'll dig into this and, and learn a lot more about,

I'm learning a lot about it. You know, myself, it's just awesome when you start going through God's word and you start making the connections that God makes through, throughout his word.

You know, Jake, you got a question? Hey, I was just going to ask you, um, next week, are you going to talk about how, cause

Jerry had mentioned how this relates with the Genesis account with the garden and all that. Are you going to, um, talk about that a little bit next week or?

Sure. Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. I was reading, I've been, I started reading

Genesis again and, uh, I got to the part in chapter three at the end where it says, uh, he drove out the man, um, and at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed a cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way of, to the tree of life.

Um, I was reading the commentary and it said that, um, the coming heavenly

Adam who bears the curse of toil, sweat, thorns, conflict, death on a tree and descent into dust will ultimately restore access to the tree of life, tearing apart the veil of the temple on which cherubim were sewn.

And I was like, oh man, when, when you showed the, uh, the walkthrough of the, uh, tabernacle, you saw the, uh, in the

Holy of Holies, the two cherubim guarding, right? So, uh, I'm very intrigued by this.

Yeah, no, no, that all has deep, deep, rich meaning. Yes. Um, you know, we go through that veil and I'll explain what that, who that veil is, you know, the testament tells us, you know, what the veil is.

It, it takes away a lot of the mystery, but yeah, Adam was cast, Adam and Eve were cast east of the garden.

Okay. And isn't it amazing how the, the tabernacle has to face the east.

The gate is towards the east. Um, when I did, uh, when he did the study in Jonah, um, we talked about the east wind, the great east wind, right?

The east wind was a form of judgment and blowing the people out of God's presence.

So the east wind was a, a term of, of judgment, right? I think I made mentioned that a lot of people get married at the east wind, but once you know what it means, you may not want to do that anymore.

That's, that's a good one. They obviously didn't read the Bible when they, when they, when they picked up that name.

But anyway, um, yeah, the east gate has, has tremendous, tremendous significance.

Okay. And the Holy is the whole, you know, the table of showbread, the lamp stand, the altar of incense, these are all rich, rich, symbolic, um, instruments that that are going to point us closer to God.

So again, what I wanted to do was lay the groundwork. So we saw that the Israelites, as they were, um, delivered from the

Egyptians, crossed the red sea and are now in the wilderness, they're on their own. They just saw

God send the plagues on the Egyptians. So they saw

God's power. In fact, Romans nine tells us that he raised Pharaoh so that he could demonstrate his power for the objects of his mercy.

So the Israelites saw the power of God, saw God deliver them from the

Egyptians, crush them in the red sea. Now they're in the wilderness alone, right?

They don't have food. They don't have water. They start grumbling, right? Right. The human heart immediately.

Well, what about me? I'm hungry, thirsty. Yeah. You know, they just got delivered from the

Egyptians. So they get hungry and thirsty and God starts feeding them. And you know, they start complaining to Moses, you know, we were better off eating leeks back with the

Egyptians. Again, the depravity of man's heart forgets that they were just delivered from the

Egyptians. God gives them the law. So now they've been delivered. They have a law. God made a promise, keep the law and I'll bring you into the problem.

I shouldn't say that. Getting the land was not contingent on keeping the law.

They were given the law so as to know how to live once they got into the land.

However, God was showing them that he's holy. He's going to be with them. That's why he has the tabernacle in the midst of the people.

Okay. That was the, that was the illustration. He's going to be with his people, but for their protection, they couldn't approach him willy nilly.

You know, you, again, you have to talk to God on your terms, his terms, not yours. And so many people these days, you know, they like to use that term or have a personal relationship with Jesus.

And what they mean by personal is that, well, there's certain laws, you know, that I break on a regular basis, but God knows my heart.

So I have a personal relationship with him. And nothing could be further from the truth.

When Jesus comes back, read Psalm 2, he's going to come back with a rod of iron. And the rod of iron doesn't bend.

It doesn't break. It's not like a, a reed or a, or a, you know, a wire, a plant.

It doesn't bend in the wind. The rod stands straight and each one of us are going to be lined up to that law.

And we're going to receive our rewards done in the body, whether good or evil, right? We're not going to be condemned. We're not going to be cast out of his presence, but our lives are going to be evaluated in light of God's law.

And we're going to see what we've done with the talents, gifts, and abilities that he's given us. So it's very important.

You know, I think a lot of times as Protestants, we're so, um, uh, programmed to come against Roman Catholicism and talk about, well, they, they believe you're saved by works, works, works, works.

I'm not saved by works. And I wholeheartedly agree. We're saved by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.

Right? But we don't put enough emphasis on our works. Our works are vital.

Our works vindicate and prove our salvation. If you have somebody who says they have faith, but has not works, what does

James say? You, you, you, you're not really a

Christian. Your works must flow from the faith that you say you have.

If we don't see works, well, then maybe there is no faith there. Now, the illustration

I like to use is when you light a candle, you'll see a flame, but if you put your hand over it, you'll feel the heat.

It's the same thing with the Christian. The Christian, once he's born of God's spirit, now will exercise faith.

And what is, what is the result or the consequence of that exercise of faith? You will see good works coming from that person.

They're going to die to themselves. They're going to look to help and love others for the other person's benefit, not their own.

They're not going to be doing those works with an attitude of, well, if I do these things,

God's going to pay me back. That's not why we do those things. Even though God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, right?

He will reward us. Praise God. He's going to give us something we don't deserve. Right? So we do those works out of love for God and love for neighbor.

Right? Love doesn't look for anything in return. So the definition of love is giving yourself over to someone else for their sake.

Right? So when I say to someone, I love you, what I'm doing is I'm taking responsibility for that person.

When I tell my wife, I love her, I'm telling, I'm basically telling her I'm responsible for you. So love is much greater than the mushy, gushy stuff we see in these romantic comedies as much as some people in my family like to watch them.

That's not love. Right? That's temporary. That's fleeting because they never really get to like, you never see a romantic comedy last three hours because if it did last three hours, everybody would be separated and dating someone else.

Cause that kind of love doesn't last. You know, we watch these shows on TV, you know, married at first sight and some of the couples they get together and it's like,

Oh, wonderful for two weeks. Oh, I love them. I love, Oh, I love her with the word love. Oh, this is going to be forever.

And then the next day they're at each other's throats and they're patient. I'll take you out in a little while.

Oh, thank you, Jerry. You gotta take me out. I forgot

I was still on. No, that's okay. Where are we going? I know my dog's scratching at the door.

Now you're calling me a dog. You know, I just, I try.

I try. I don't know what he's doing to me. All right.

Well, before you guys leave, can we sing happy birthday to Auggie? Sure. Is that okay?

Of course. Do the one, two, three, and then we'll sing. Put the candles on.

Hold on. Carmella made a galaxy cake.

Can you sing? Yes. To you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear

Auggie, happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, Auggie. How old are you? Seven.

Seven. Oh my goodness. There's seven stems on the lamp stand.

There you go. A good number. A good number.

Thank you, guys. You couldn't do it at church. It's not the same without your church families. I know. I know. Well, listen, this is temporary.

Hopefully we'll be back. Listen, you know, one of the things that I think God is teaching us in the midst of this whole, you know, social distancing thing, just how much we miss fellowship and how much we desire it as a people.

And when we're together, there's just a different atmosphere, a different love that takes place.

I so miss it, not just because I'm Italian, because we do this all the time, but because I miss my church family.

You know, there's a bond that we have. It is a mutual edification that happens when

I hear how God's working your life. You know, I may be going through a rough spot or a downtime.

And then when I hear how God's working in your life, it fills me up and it just draws me closer to God. So I was going to do a post and maybe

I'll do it tomorrow. You know, just because we're separated from each other physically,

God tells us, draw near to him and he will draw near to us. We're never alone. We have to remember that, especially in times like these.

Remember our forefathers who have gone through serious persecution and serious disease, war and famine.

They came through it. Really what we're going through is not as bad as that.

Although because we live in America and been on top of the world for so long, we've become accustomed to it.

And now when a little bit of it is taken away, look what we do. You know, and I'm not saying this isn't serious.

It is. Of course it is. Comparing it to the Black Plague and other diseases that people have, wars and famines, it's not like that.

But this is an opportunity to pray more, read your scriptures more, love on people more, look to help people.

This is an opportunity for the church to shine. I don't know if anybody heard

Trump this afternoon gave opportunity for some of the businesses that were helping out.

And one of them was, I think it's called MyPillow or something like that. The guy's name is

Michael something. And he made a point of emphasizing he's at toward the end of his little time that he had, he said, this is opportunity for families to get together, to pray together.

They took prayer out of the schools now. Now God is, you know, he went on and on and emphasized the fact that we definitely was is clearly a

Christian. Definitely. Yeah. Yep. Well, you know, one of the things I was thinking of and I was going to say when

I was doing announcements is, you know, think about what America has done.

They don't even want to take one day a week to pause, to rest from what they're doing and focus on God.

So God says, all right, you don't want to rest one day a week. I'll make you rest every day. This week. How's that?

Not this week, next week, the week after that. And the week after that, you're going to be resting. You got nothing to do.

You want, you don't want to rest. I'll make you rest. Oh, that was going to come out of your noses, out of your nostrils.

That's right. Exactly. Exactly. I think God did this for me because he knows how busy that I always am.

I would never slow down. So he did it because of me. Joel was praying that I would slow down. And that's what happened.

That's for me, everybody. Just so that, you know, yeah,

I was praying for you and he said, don't worry, we'll slow it down. But this, there's so many, there's so many different lessons that we can learn, you know, listen, and I've been telling people, you know, obviously about the

Corona, everybody's worried about the Corona virus. I said, did you, have you heard of the virus? That's worse than the Corona virus.

You're like, what are you talking about? I said, yeah. I said, have you lied? Have you stolen? Have you used God's name in vain?

Have you committed adultery in your heart? Murder? Yeah. Yes, I am positive. You realize that everybody's going to die from that disease.

There's only one cure. His name is Jesus. So it's, it's really an opportunity, right?

It's an opportunity to share the gospel. And I've been able to do it several times, more than I have in the past.

So let's, let's as a church be focused on God.

Let's be focused on evangelism. Let's love our neighbor as ourself, right? Love warns its neighbor.

If we know that these people don't have a relationship with God, it's incumbent upon us to warn them of the judgment to come, to call them to repentance, to turn from it and cling to Jesus.

Now, I know people don't like using the R word, you know, repent. You know, that's not what the modern evangelical churches use, but I use that word and I clarify what it means.

I said, listen, you need to repent of your sins. And that just means to turn from your sin.

Stop thinking about sin the way you think about it and start thinking about sin the way God thinks about it.

You know, God hates sin and you and I are sinners. We're lawbreakers. We've broken

God's law. So we have to turn from what we know about sin and turn to God and what he knows about sin.

And every time you repent, you turn from something, you're letting something go, so your hands are empty.

But when you turn, whatever you turn to, you have to grab onto. So you can repent of drinking beer, right?

And turn from that and start smoking cigarettes, right? You're always going to turn from something and turn to something else.

So you need to turn from your sin and it's important that you turn to the remedy for your sin, which is

Christ and cling to him. Christ now becomes your idol such that you won't have any other idols.

Once he's your idol, he's tops. He's preeminent in all things.

So once you cling to him, you don't need to cling to anything else. And once you recognize that Jesus is all you have, you also recognize that Jesus is all you need.

So it's very important that when we tell people to repent, we tell them what to turn to and what to grab onto.

So don't be afraid of that word, repent. It's a biblical word. We need to use it.

So any final thoughts, observations? Anthony, I did the math on the lamp stand.

It would be $1 ,125 ,000 today for 75 pounds of gold. Oh, wow.

I would have thought it would have been more, but okay. It's $1 ,500 an ounce.

Well, that's a Troy ounce. So I don't know exactly how that works out, but I use that ounce to go to a pound.

It's a million dollar candlestick. Yeah. That's heavy duty.

That's heavy duty. All right, guys. It was either that or a goat. Either that or what?

Or a goat. They were melting the gold they took from the Egyptians into a goat. The calf, right?

The calf. Yeah, a calf. Exactly. Yeah. Think about what the calf symbolizes.

I think I did this. One of the first messages that I ever did at Hope, I talked about the golden calf.

My question to the congregation was, if you were going to start a football team, and this you would resonate with, right,

Jay? You're going to start a football team or a soccer team and you had to pick a mascot, what would you pick?

The bulls, the eagles, the cougars, the lions.

Lions, yeah. Pick a really strong animal that's going to strike fear into the heart of your opponents. But what if I came to you and I said, we're the

Hope Reformed Baptist Church calves? You'd be like, really? Yeah.

Veal. Yeah, veal. Exactly. We're going to get some cheese and make you feel good. So they picked a calf.

Why? Because a calf is not intimidating. I put a rope around the calf's neck.

I lead it wherever it goes. I lead. It follows me. I don't follow it. It doesn't strike fear in my heart.

It listens to me. That's what they wanted. They wanted a god that they could control.

A baby. Something that wasn't going to erupt on them. And I always remember the line from the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe.

I forget who said it, but he says, Aslan is the lion.

We lost you. He's dangerous. Who did? Oh, Aslan is dangerous.

So God, like we're seeing in the wilderness, is dangerous. If you approach him the wrong way, you're going to die.

Yeah. This is a god who you cannot tame. This is a god who you cannot put into your debt.

That's why nobody can keep the Ten Commandments. If I could keep the Ten Commandments, I could at that point tell

God, You owe me. Basically put God's arm around his back and say, You owe me. We're never going to be able to say to God, You owe me.

He will always be able to say to us, You owe me. We owe

God everything. The very fact that we're alive and healthy, my goodness, not too many people get that same privilege.

All right. We passed nine o 'clock. I think we're good. Did everybody enjoy this? Okay. Good.

Good. Good. All right. So we'll do another one for next Monday. And Jerry, you want to close this out?

We'll have another tent meeting, right? We almost made it.

We almost made it without a pun. I'll close it out in prayer. Thank you.

Blessed Heavenly Father, Lord, what a great time we've had together, even though we're doing electronically and we can't be actually together physically,

Lord. But Lord, you've blessed us with your word, Father. And as we've learned tonight about the tabernacle or at least been introduced to it, we look forward to the further studies that we'll have,

Father. But even more importantly, Lord, we are reminded about who you are, how great you are, the awesome

God you are, and how, Lord, it was your great grace and mercy that saved us.

We were enemies to you, Father. And outside of you, our hearts and softening them and turning us to you,

Lord, we would continue to be enemies, Lord. Father, as our brother Anthony has shared this opportunity that we have now, even in this situation that seems so dire, to share your word, to share our faith.

Father, help us to be strong, inspire us, Lord. Let us not be ashamed of your gospel. And Father, we would pray for each person here that has joined tonight,

Lord, as well as their families, their friends, their neighbors, Lord, that you would have mercy on them,

Father, and keep them, Father, safe from this virus, Lord.

We have many loved ones that we're concerned about. Even more than that,

Lord, that we would learn from this, Father, that indeed our hearts would be turned to you,

Lord, that we would remember who we are in you, Lord, that we would be praying people, that we'd be people that study your word,

Father, but not people that become spiritually fat with it, but that we would also share it, that we would love our neighbors as ourselves and love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Remember, guys, as the church, you know, we live in America.

I want to, as the church, make America grateful again, right?

If we don't remind people why America was great in the first place, they're never going to understand, well, they're going to have a wrong understanding of what great is.

If we're grateful to God, this country, and the blessings that he's given us, and we put him first, we'll automatically be great.

We'll prosper because it's God's plan and promise. We're covenanted to him, and the blessings go along with the covenant.

If we're obedient, we'll be blessed. So let's make America grateful again. Well, he tells us, right, that we bow our knees in prayer, that he'll heal our land.