Part two, lesson three:the manna from heaven

The manna from heaven was a guaranteed portion. God never failed and I think so many times we worry and fret that we are going to run out but God provided for the children of Israel every day…how much more will He provide for His blood washed and redeemed?
The manna was white speaking of the purity of Christ.
It was like our frost which we will see any morning now and if you did not appropriate it immediately it would disappear and sometimes that is why we miss out on God’s provision because we put off appropriating the promises until it is too late.
It tasted like fresh oil and isn’t that just like Jesus when He comes with that fresh anointing to lift us above the cares of life that burden us down?
It was sweet like honey and He is that honey in the rock that we sing about tonight.
It looked like a white pearl and Jesus is that pearl of great price.
It was there every morning at their doorstep; this too is just like Christ, He is there all the time, just when we need Him.
The old hymn says “Jesus is near to comfort and cheer, just when I need Him most.”
The provision is fresh daily; we don’t have to live on past experience, wonderful though that may have been. We can fill our cup new every day. That doesn’t mean that we should forget the past and what God has done for us, in fact He tells us to do so. In Deut. 8:2, 3 “Remember the long way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. NRSV. We need to remember what we came out of, some of us more than others. The old song declares “I’m never going back again.” Remember the pit from whence you were digged, the Bible says.
Pg. 6 Do not get caught living a compromising life, one where you compromise your testimony- and this is for each and every one of us no matter how long you or I have been serving the Lord.
The provision was there every day and it was always fresh. If they left it until the next morning, it bred worms and stunk. And when the sun came up it melted (that which they had not gathered) I thought about this for awhile and prayed for more insight. If we try to keep it to ourselves and I am speaking about this gospel message and we don’t share it with others and we think we are the only ones with truth; we try some way to horde it perhaps, then that work within us will die. If we don’t gather when the Spirit is moving us then it will disappear
The old hymn writer said “work for the night is coming when man’s work is done” We just may have another opportunity to experience another outpouring of the Spirit of God…let’s not squander it. Look again in that chapter here in Ex.16 and we’ll read from verse 13 down through verse 35. Sad to say, many in our churches today when they see the Spirit of God moving in our midst also ask that question…what is it? THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN what we have seen. Have we failed to pass the torch?
The only time they could gather more than one day’s supply was on the sixth day so the provision would be there for the Sabbath. It did not go bad on that day. Here God was establishing the day of rest and we won’t go there now. Again there is a balance in our walk with God as we saw in the staves for the Ark. The manna was for all ages, just as it is today. It could be baked, boiled, ground or beaten; new converts can drink it like milk, It can be boiled down for new growing converts, it could be beaten or ground for the toothless aged, or it could be baked for those who want solid food. Amen! The question is asked…has the theologian ever exhausted its marvelous truth? Has the babe gone away empty because it could not eat? He supplies every need and there is always enough. It was stored in the Ark in a golden pot. Here again we see Jesus typified by the gold as well as that bread from heaven, the manna. He is the bread from heaven, is He not? Read John 6:32-35 and also verse 41. Next read verses 48-58 of John 6. He that eats this bread shall live forever! Praise God!

This is lesson three in the series of the Tabernacle:
The Tabernacle/ God’s pattern;
Hebrews 8:5 says in the last part of that verse “see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” NKJV. This of course was God’s instructions to Moses when He told him to build Him a dwelling place. Now tonight we are talking about the contents in the Ark. The first piece of the furnishings that is listed in Ex. Ch. 25. We talked about the Mercy Seat and the Cherubim last week. The lid or covering…tonight… the contents.
The contents contained in the Ark told a story in themselves, for in them we see the provision of God for His people. In the Ark’s contents we see the history of God’s deliverance of His people. As we look at the scripture reading in regards to the two tablets of stone we are made to realize that He had delivered them from bondage. These tablets of stone upon which the finger of God had written the Law that has been referred to as the moral, law were placed inside the Ark and under the Mercy Seat upon which was sprinkled the Blood of the everlasting covenant. Now I know that in it’s beginnings it was the blood of an animal which was a type or representation of Jesus blood that was sprinkled there.
Before I get carried away on the Blood we had best read some scripture. Exodus 20:1-17. These of course are the ten commandments and not the ten suggestions. And they still stand today. This is the law that God gave to Moses, firstly by word of mouth and the reference is found in Ex. 19:19.
When God gave Moses the law initially it was by Word of mouth, the next instance was when God wrote on the first set of stone tablets. Ex.31:18 & 32:16. Moses broke these tablets when he saw Israel in idolatry. Exodus 32:19. And then God told him to prepare two new ones like the first two and bring them up into the mountain. That’s found in Ex. 34:1-4 God wrote the law on these tablets and eventually they were put into the Ark.
These commandments are divided in two parts and they are all to do with relationship. Firstly; relationship with God or Godward and there are four, Have no other gods; Worship no other image, Reverence His name; Honor Him by keeping the Sabbath day.
Secondly, or the second part of these commandments have to do with our relationship toward one another or manward. There are six and they are, Honor your parents, this is the first commandment with a promise. What is the promise? Next, don’t murder anybody, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not tell lies, and don’t covet what belongs to others.
Look at how Jesus equates the two laws regarding the God ward and the Man ward. Matthew 22:37-40….on these two commandments, He said, hang all the law and the prophets. I like what the NLT says “The entire law and all the demands of
The prophets are based on these two commandments.”
The law however good it may have been, could not save anyone because in the first place no one could keep it and secondly because no one could keep it, everybody was condemned. So what good is the law? Look up Romans 3:20. The law condemned everyone, only Christ could keep the law; only the golden lid, the Mercy Seat with the Cherubim and the Blood applied could keep man from the judgment of the law.
Romans 6:14. Christ has fulfilled the demands of the law through the shedding of His own Blood. He becomes the Blood on the lid, as well as the fact that He is the lid (solid gold represents Deity and He is the Deity), and He is the Cherubim that covers and meets the demands of the law.
Look up Matt. 5:17 and then Galatians 3:24 and 25. Remember I said at the beginning of this study that all of these symbolisms and every piece of the furnishings point to Christ and the finished work at Calvary? I did say that didn’t I?
The Law led us to Christ as we fled for refuge and He keeps the demands of the Law under lid and cover. Can you praise His name tonight?
If we sin we have an advocate, we have a mediator, and HE IS OUR Divine substitute. Look up 1 John 2:1
The lid, the Mercy Seat was a perfect fit for the Ark. It completely covered the Ark, not a part of it remained uncovered. When the high priest approached the Ark, he could only see the Mercy Seat, he couldn’t see the law. Between the law and the Shekinah glory was the blood applied and God’s holiness and justice could only see the applied blood. The priest was safe because God could only see the blood and the blood speaks grace…not judgment. Hallelujah! Thank God for the blood! Exodus 25:21, 22. Hebrews 10:19-22
Jesus could not have been our substitute if He had not kept the law in its entirety. Not one jot or tittle did He not keep.
He fulfilled every requirement and became our substitute when He died and shed His blood for you and for me, He became a curse for us and we have our debt paid in full and He has cast all of our sins behind His back. Isa. 38:17 tells us that God has cast all our sins behind His back. Let’s read that portion of scripture…read the whole verse. That is what God does when we repent of our sins…He casts them behind His back, never to be remembered against us any more. I have been trying to find a scripture that talks about the sea of God’s forgetfulness (you know the song) and I have searched but to no avail. Is there such a scripture? Maybe this week you can search and let us know next time we come together.
Gal. 3:13 tells us that He took the curse. Because Jesus kept the law so perfectly and because He met all the demands of the law for each and every one of us, He is fully able to come into our lives and redeem each one of us individually. Sometimes we say that He came to redeem the world, but I am glad tonight that He came to redeem me and He came to redeem you. He writes His law on our hearts and puts it into our minds and He sent us His Holy Spirit to give us power to walk in the Spirit so we won’t have to succumb to the lusts and desires of the flesh, so that we can live a holy life and that we will be that kingdom of pg. 4 priests, that holy nation that has been sealed with the Spirit under the new covenant. Hebrews 8:10.
But you say what if I do succumb to the lust of the flesh? What if I do sin? And every one of us fail in this way from time to time. God doesn’t want us to fail, it is not His will …but it still happens, Amen? 1 John 2:1 says “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
Read Galatians 5:16 Here is the antidote for continuing in sin. Let us as born again believers, and as Spirit filled believers, walk in the Spirit so that we do not sin. Thank God, Jesus has fulfilled the law to the nth. degree and we do not have to continue in sin.
Read Exodus 16:14,15. Read Numbers 11:7-9 and then Hebrews 9:4a. Anybody know what “manna” means in Hebrew? “What is it?” The children of Israel had never seen anything like it before so they asked the question, “What is it?”
It is a beautiful type of Christ, in fact he declares Himself to be that manna in John 6:32, 33. He came down from heaven to be all that we ever need…the dew fell first and then the manna. The Holy Spirit of God is that dew and He came to present Jesus Christ and not to speak of Himself. He always exalts Christ. John 16:14 they had to rise early in the morning; it was their first priority to gather their daily portion. There is a lesson here and that is to seek His face as our number one priority. The manna they gathered was sufficient for each days need and it was for each and every family member. Young and old alike. The bread from heaven satisfies all of our needs, there is no need for any one to go hungry or without. HE SUPPLIETH EVERY NEED. They all ate of the same bread, the same manna; they did not need something special to satisfy the young people. Jesus satisfies all who seek him; there is no need for a generation gap in God’s economy. When the dew rises and presents the manna and we partake, it is glorious. The dew of heaven who is the Holy Ghost presents Jesus in HIS BEAUTY AND IT TRULY IS GLORIOUS. Can you say amen? Part two tomorrow

Part five lesson two/ the Cheribim:I said that the mercy seat was a lid of protection for the contents inside. It was where the blood of atonement was applied and on the two ends of it were two cherubim, two angels and the whole thing was one piece of beaten, hammered work. They were not three separate pieces welded together but all were made of one piece. Cherubim are symbols of power and guardianship; they protected that which was most important and no other created being was afforded this privilege.
It was cherubim that protected the Garden of Eden and the tree of life. They represent power and guardianship. The Blood is that Tree of Life, it is the only source of life; man could not eat of the Tree of Life that was in the Garden so we must be partakers of His blood to have that eternal life, in Him alone is eternal life and the oversight and the preciousness and the importance of that truth must be protected at all cost and by all means and the cherubim provided that so wonderfully well.
This symbolism speaks of power and authority, assurance and security which are found in the only begotten Son of God. Can you say amen? The Blood has been applied, the Shekinah glory has fallen, the heavenly Father has accepted the sacrifice and there is no power in heaven or in earth or under the earth that can ever change it! Also remember that the lid itself provided a covering for what was inside…two tablets of stone, the golden pot of manna and Aaron’s rod that budded. Lastly tonight, I would mention the fact that the cherubim faced each other. This is a lesson for us as well today. This speaks of agreement and unanimity. When there is no agreement we see that backs are turned and people who are in disagreement have their backs turned and that is when the enemy can sneak in and we are vulnerable and I submit to you tonight that is just what is wrong in our Pentecostal circles; we have been sitting with our arms folded instead of outstretched toward one another and with our backs turned toward each other and the enemy has come in and robbed us of our power. We have been so concerned about our own little circles that we have failed to fellowship like we should. And we are all guilty. This is not a competition. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said in chapter 10 and verses 1-5 “Moreover; brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea; all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” I pray that sometimes in this BIBLE study we will allow the Holy SPIRIT to teach us just what He would require of us. Next lesson is all about the contents of the ark.
That will be on Tuesday evening at 7 o’clock at the church on Sidney St.

Mercy

. Part four of lesson three/mercy To be merciful is to forgive. I wrote a series on forgiveness in a blog we call “moreaboutHisWord” and here is an excerpt from that blog, July 08, 2007
The test of our spirituality is in forgiving.“Brethren, if any person is overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsible and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on yourself , lest you should be tempted also. 2)Bear (endure, carry) one another’s burdens and troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete what is lacking (in your obedience to it).” A quote from the Amplified Bible found in Galatians ch. 6:1-2. The next verse 3 really should make us squirm if in fact we have been guilty of judging somebody else in their indiscretions. It says “For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another’s load] when he is nobody [of superiority, except in his own
estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.”What a responsibility we have for each other as Christians and it brings to light the importance of the scripture found in Hebrews that says “exhort one another daily while it is called Today”. Heb. 2-13. That means to warn, urge admonish and encourage one another every day. Wow! Have we missed the mark or what? That verse in Hebrews goes on to talk about the deceitfulness of sin by the fraudulence, the stratagem and the trickery which the delusive glamour of sin plays on an individual. The delusive glamour of sin. Now that is a mouthful isn’t it? But oh, how true and how many times we fall for it. I believe we can do more and we need to do more. When I look around at many of what were once thriving congregations filled with a good contingency of young people and young families, and today our numbers have been decimated and our average age is somewhere in the fifties or sixties, is this part of the reason …..We have not been caring for each other like we should be? Are we spiritual? Let us encourage each other and exhort each other….daily the Bible says. Do you pray for a specific individual each day? I’m talking about somebody outside your own family, someone you may or may not like all that much, maybe. I have a friend who will remain nameless who prays for me each and every day. And I pray for him, although I have to confess I am not as faithful as he is. (Forgive me brother) But I am going to get better. I am determined to do better and I can because the Bible says I can. In the book of Romans ch. 12 and verses 9&10 it says “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. I have been doing a kind of series on forgiveness and the responsibility is ours to forgive one another when we fall into sin. Whispering and murmuring and backbiting have no place in the life of a Christian. It is the opposite of forgiveness, in fact it is judging another person and in itself (I’m still speaking of the backbiting et al) in itself is sin. May God convict us and may we ask His forgiveness and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Mercy means forgiving one another, it means not pointing fingers at one another, in fact it means forgetting those things that have happened that have caused you or I to look down on some brother or sister that may have caused us pain. Remember the words of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10. He prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory and that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”NKJV that should be
the prayer of every one of us tonight. The Blood has been applied to the Mercy Seat tonight! Can you say Amen?

Part three of lesson two/balance1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in Him ought also to walk just as He walked.”(Also read 1 John3:1-10 and 4:17 and 1 Peter 2:24) Would Jesus have put this in His Word if it were not possible for us to live pg.9 as overcomers? One more point I want to make before going on to talk about the mercy seat is this and I am quoting from Dr. Ness, “Our Lord never ceased to be God when He became man, but the life He lived was lived in total dependence upon Him who sent Him. He did all things by the power of the Holy Spirit and never did anything of His own inherent Deity.” End of quote. Jesus lived and did what He did as a man in total dependency on His heavenly Father. And He expects the same from you and me tonight.
As I was studying, preparing this area of our study, I was so engrossed in this Ark that I almost …in fact I did overlook the four rings of gold with the two staves or carrying poles. We read it in our text from Exodus 25:12, 13, “You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it and two on the other side. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.” Verse 14 says “And you shall put the poles on the sides of the ark, by which to carry the ark.” As anyone can see, the poles provided a good balance for the ark, so that when it was being carried and moved to another place, its contents would be protected. We need to balance the scriptures; we need balance as we walk this Christian walk. If we do not have that Godly balance we pg. 9) can soon upset the ark and its contents and if we don’t have balance we will bring disaster upon our lives or someone else’s life. Remember the story of Uzzah I think it was, when they were moving the ark on an ox cart and it began to wobble. He reached out his hand to balance the ark and God struck him dead. We should not touch the ark. Draw your own
pg. 10 conclusions. The poles represent God being brought to man by means of the preaching of the Word and man being brought to God through the atoning blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat.
The mercy seat…reading again from Exodus 25:17, “And you shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be it’s length and a cubit and a half shall be it’s width.”
Dr. Ness asks this question in his book “Pattern for living” He asks, “Dare we say that the Mercy Seat is the most important item in the whole tabernacle provision?” Mercy is a characteristic of God isn’t it? Mercy does not originate in man. It is not a human thing to be merciful; you don’t see a lot of mercy in this world. Certainly not in countries who do not honor God. The Mercy Seat was all solid gold…it was all God. It represented God. Because it was all gold it was very costly and it was upon the Mercy Seat that the blood was applied. The Blood that has been applied at Calvary is priceless and it has been applied to the Mercy Seat for your sins and my sins and we ought to stop right here and praise Him for the Blood.
In the Mercy Seat we have a clear picture of our Lord the Mercy Seat was where the blood of atonement was applied. As I began to read and study and look further in to the Word of God about these things I realized that we could be here ‘til JESUS COMES AND WE WOULD NEVER EXHAUST THIS SUBJECT. It caused me to ponder how in depth we should take this subject of the tabernacle. There is so much and we pg. 10) are only scratching the surface. But it is fundamental to all we believe.
pg.11 The Mercy Seat was not a seat to sit on; it was really a lid for the Ark. It was not a chair; in fact there was no provision in all the furnishings for sitting down. It was a covering for those things that were contained within the Ark. There was no place for the priest to set down because his work was never finished and the only time we read where the High Priest ever sat down is when Jesus sat down after He had purged our sins and these are references found in Hebrews 1:3, 8:1, Eph. 1:20 because Jesus has finished the work and His sacrifice is once and for all forever. There may be more scriptures referring to this but they all refer to this one thing; the finished work. Aren’t you glad that the Blood of the everlasting covenant has been applied to the Mercy Seat and when the God of heaven looks down at us tonight He only sees us through that precious Blood? What a thought! What a truth! I, who am so weak in my old sinful flesh, have been made worthy tonight because the Blood has been applied to the Mercy Seat.

Part two of lesson two: Last meeting we were talking about the Ark of the Covenant and we discussed the construction of it, especially the materials that went into it’s making…the acacia wood and the gold.
The acacia wood, the incorruptible wood, represents His humanity, the gold; His deity. And so we see Jesus coming to man as the Ark of the Covenant. It provides a picture of our Lord in His blameless walk with His heavenly Father, a picture of meekness and obedience. A picture of perfection.
And yet even though He was a man and even though He is God. He did not operate in those powers that make God God. In another way of saying it, He laid aside His position as God and as the Son became obedient and subservient to His heavenly Father. He as God became man and lived a sinless life using only the same power that is available to you and I. Let us read from chapter 2 of Philippians beginning with verse 5 and reading through verse 8. You will see what I mean;


5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Reading it from the Amplified version
Philippians 2:5-8 (Amplified Bible)

5Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] 6Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God] possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained,
7But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being.
8And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!
You cannot put God to death and yet He was and is God, therefore in order for Him to die and shed His blood for the remission of sins, He had to become man and in order to prove Himself a man He voluntarily stripped Himself of all position and powers as God and used the same power as we have available to us and that was the power of the Holy Spirit that was in Him. He faced death as a man; He faced the cross as a man. He did not use His eternal power and Godhead to live the life that He lived even though He was and is that eternal power and Godhead. We cannot proceed further into our study until we establish what the Bible declares about Jesus and the position He took as man. And I am not going to go into any doctrines regarding the Godhead as my position may not agree totally with yours, so I shall avoid as much as possible doing so.
I have already told Pastor Knowles that I would leave that up to him. It is not my place to teach a doctrine class. Although that is what doctrine is; teaching. However I will endeavor to avoid anything that may be controversial as much as possible.
We know without question that Christ was essentially one with the Father, ONE WITH God and we can see that in the type of the ark. The wood and the gold. However, He laid aside His equality when He stepped through the portals of glory to come to this earth, He stripped Himself of all the privileges that make God Who He is and became a man. He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Hebrews tells us that He faced the same trials and temptations struggles, tests that you and I have to face and he overcame them all with no other power than that power that is available to us. Hebrews 2:17 “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” If God had said “now Son I’m sending You down there as a Man to be a true example of the perfect man; You will have to suffer and die on the cross but I will make it so that You can be that perfect example by keeping Your powers and You won’t have to lay them aside unless You really want to and that will ensure that when You face temptation You won’t fail…would that have made Him a true example? If He was omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent?
The first Adam yielded to temptation, did he not? Romans 5:19 says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” If Christ Jesus had not laid aside His attributes (for want of a better word), then how could He expect you and I TONIGHT WHO ARE JUST FLESH AND WHO ARE JUST SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE ….how could He expect us to be overcomers as well?
Turning to the Gospel of John, the 5th chapter and verses 19&20, NRSV...”Jesus said to them, Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on His own, but what He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise.” Vs. 20 “ The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing; and He will show Him greater works than these so that you will be astonished.” “So that you will be astonished”. Remember Jesus was and still is God…He never stopped being God; but He made Himself of no reputation…it was His decision…He stripped Himself of His privileges. He said He had power to lay down His life and power to take it up again. and that’s because He was God. God in the flesh and as man He had to be baptized in the Holy Ghost just the same as we do today.
The Holy Ghost was His source of power; power to live the life, power to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. He overcame and because of that we too can be overcomers. Yes we can!

Lesson two on the Tabernacle part one The Ark and the Mercy Seat
Scripture text Hebrews 9:4 and Exodus 25:10-22 (Amplified Bible)
Hebrews 9:4 (Amplified Bible) 4It had the golden altar of incense and the ark (chest) of the covenant, covered over with wrought gold. This [ark] contained a golden jar which held the manna and the rod of Aaron that sprouted and the [two stone] slabs of the covenant [bearing the Ten Commandments. We see here three different things within the ark.
10They shall make an ark of acacia wood: two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. (A CUBIT is app 18”) So that would make the ark 45” x 27” x 27”)
11You shall overlay the ark with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold crown, a rim or border, around its top.
12You shall cast four gold rings and attach them to the four lower corners of it, two rings on either side.
13You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold,
14And put the poles through the rings on the ark's sides, by which to carry it.
15The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it [that the ark be not touched]. 16And you shall put inside the ark the Testimony [the Ten Commandments] which I will give you.
17And you shall make a mercy seat (a covering) of pure gold, two cubits and a half long and a cubit and a half wide.
18And you shall make two cherubim (winged angelic figures) of [solid] hammered gold on the two ends of the mercy seat.
19Make one cherub on each end, making the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat, on the two ends of it.
20And the cherubim shall spread out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, facing each other and looking down toward the mercy seat.
21You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony [the Ten Commandments] that I will give you.
22There I will meet with you and, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the Testimony, I will speak intimately with you of all which I will give you in commandment to the Israelites. The Ark of the Covenant. What a representation this piece of the furnishings is. Normally I am given to understand by teachers and their writings that the study of the Tabernacle begins with the outer court and proceeds inward until it ends at the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat but the text that I am using starts with the Ark and the Mercy Seat and proceeds outward. And the reasoning behind this is that we will study God’s approach to man first rather than the other way around and I’m referring to man’s approach to God.
John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the WORD AND THE Word was with God and the Word was God.”
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God” And Hebrews 1:1,2 says, “ God who at sundry times and in divers places spoke in times spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets , has in these last days spoken UNTO US by His Son,…..
These three scripture references point out the fact to me that God came to us, not the other way round. He came to me. I was lost and Jesus found me. I was the sheep going astray. I was the prodigal who came to himself in a pigpen. And it was the call of home and heaven and the father that made him come to himself. I was the backslider that the Spirit convicted and drew back unto Himself. IT is always God coming to us. The initiative has always been on God’s part…not ours. Some folks from their hearts say “I found God” but in reality it is because He found me first. The gospel of Luke records the story of that one lost sheep that the shepherd risked the ninety and nine for, to go out and find it and bring it back home and Jesus said that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety nine just persons that need no repentance. The initiative is always His. Amen?
And so it is that we study this portion of scripture which we will refer to as the “Pattern” from the inside out; that is we will begin in the Holy of Holies with the furnishings and work outward. God came to us. (To this point tonight ….just a little review.) With this principle in mind (that God came to us first) we will start with the furnishings because that is what God did when He gave Moses the Pattern in Exodus ch. 25 The Ark of the Covenant of course represents the very Presence of God. His Presence dwelt above the Mercy Seat between the cherubim and that is where He met with Moses and He talked with him and gave him instructions to govern and care for the children of Israel. What an awesome place that must have been. But that is getting a little bit ahead of where we want to be right now.
Before we go on tonight, I want to refer you to our text verse found in Hebrews 8:5 which is a reference to Exodus 25:9,where it says “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” The NRSV reads, “In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and all of its furniture, so shall you make it.” And then God says in the very next statement, “they shall make an ark of acacia wood.”
I hope you see the reason behind this seemingly reversal of the order of teaching this subject; starting with the furnishings…God came to us. Jesus said in the book of Revelation, ch. 1 vs. 8 “I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending…….which is, which was and is to come, the All Mighty. So we will start with God and we will end with GOD. Instead of starting with man’s approach to God we will start with God’s approach to man. (part two of lesson two tomorrow.)