THE TRUE TABERNACLE
Wednesday – December 27, 2017
Greetings and welcome back to this wonderful Bible Study from the Book of Hebrews. Our featured picture is of a beautiful buck caught at our feeder one night. We used to have many deer visit this feeder (throws out corn twice a day) which is legal in Texas and it is legal to shoot deer at the feeder during daylight hours. I never shot any of these deer, I guess, I have gotten too softhearted. Now, let’s get back to our primary text from the Book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 8:1-5 (KJV)
1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;
2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Jesus, the Son, is our eternal High Priest, seated at the right hand of Majesty in the true Tabernacle. After Moses led the children of Israel out from bondage in Egypt (Passover, Unleavened Bread, the Cross), they crossed the Red Sea on the third day (Firstfruits, Resurrection), and in the third month came to Mt. Sinai (Pentecost [the giving of the Law and the giving of the Holy Spirit]). God came down on the Mount in the desert and this is where Moses, the Israelite’s, and really all people to this day received the laws of God. Moses was shown the Heavenly Tabernacle and he and the Israelite’s were to build the mirror image of the Heavenly Tabernacle in the earth. Let’s look at the following passage when Moses went to meet God upon the mountain.
Exodus 19:1-4 (KJV)
1 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
Recall that the Day or Feast of Pentecost (third month) is fifty days after the Passover (first month) and so the first Pentecost was when Moses brought the law of God to the people fifty days after the night they left Egypt. The account of this wonderful event starts with the foregoing passage (really back with the beginning of Exodus). By way of reminder fifty is the number of jubilee, every fifty years God had declared a jubilee in Israel.
Leviticus 25:10 (KJV)
10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Jesus purchased our salvation providing us a jubilee! I want to briefly explore another very interesting aside. I think you will enjoy this aside (separate discussion) and rejoice. It will illuminate some critical interconnections and their importance. Notice in Exodus 19:4 the reference to “I bare you on eagles’ wings” as a cryptic reference to a future time when God would preserve His people, the children of Israel, on eagles’ wings. We all know that the American bird is the Bald Eagle. I believe this reference to eagles’ wings is referring to a period of time when Israel, the Jews, would be preserved by a nation associated with eagles’ wings. When Israel once again became a nation on May 14, 1948 President Truman was the first to recognize the new State, many American dollars had gone into the financing of Israel just as a Jew (Haym Salomon) had done much to finance the Revolutionary War and thus this nation. We have been Israel’s guarantor down through the years. For example, President Nixon provided the largest airlift of military materials in history to Israel in 1973 assuring their victory in the war of 1973. To this day we have been a guarantor of Israel’s security. Of course, God Himself is their greatest guarantor. There is much more to this story but I think you can see the wonderful place we American’s have been given as the other Covenant Nation in the plan of God.
Let’s get back to our text and main topic before I finish for today. Jesus is our eternal High Priest, not only is He (and us) seated at the right hand of the Father, but His Throne is in the Tabernacle pitched (created by) by God in Heaven. This Heavenly Tabernacle was built by God and not men as the one built in the wilderness and used there and beyond (until the Temple is built at the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite). Jebusites lived at Jerusalem. The Temple built in Jerusalem was like the Tabernacle built in the wilderness therefore both were like the one in Heaven. This idea of things in the earth being a mirror of things in Heaven is very common. Remember we are created in the image and likeness of God. The Garden of Eden in Eden I suspect was a mirror of the Garden of God in Heaven. God did not have one thing and give His children something altogether different and inferior. The choice of man to sin made the earth inferior by far and separated us from God and Heaven. In Christ Jesus we also are in the image of the Tabernacle in Heaven.
Until our next publication, I speak blessing into your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
Numbers 6:24-26 (GW)
24 The LORD will bless you and watch over you.
25 The LORD will smile on you and be kind to you.
26 The LORD will look on you with favor and give you peace.’
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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