The Sanctuary Study Pt. 7
Sanctuary Study Continued...
-- The Covenants and the Sanctuaries -- Light from the Throne -- (Continued) --
The sanctuary in type cannot be disassociated from the first or "type" covenant.
In Hebrews Paul stated -
"Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." (Heb. 9:1)
This text does not say - There was a worldly sanctuary and with it was associated the first covenant.
The primary instrument was the covenant.
The secondary - the "ordnances of divine service" - provided for breaches by those under the covenant.
Neither can the ministry of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary be disassociated from the new covenant.
In setting forth Jesus as High Priest forever after the Order of Melchisedec, Paul declares the "sum" or chief point of the whole matter is that Jesus is "a minister of the sanctuary" and that "He is the mediator of a better covenant." (Heb. 8:1-2, 6)
Heb.{8:1} 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; {8:2}
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man.
Heb. {8:6} But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better
promises.
The word translated, "minister" (leitourgos), is a compound word derived from leitos meaning public, and ergon meaning work.
It referred to a person with sufficient means who performed a public duty or rendered a service to the state at his own expense.
How much greater the ministry of Christ who though "rich" rendered a service to the universe at a personal cost difficult for the human mind to grasp.
One who died amid the agonies of Calvary, and who chose to be evermore associated in nature with those for whom He rendered such a service is the "minister of the sanctuary."
But He is also a mediator (mesites), an internuncius, the medium of communication between God and man, and man and God.
Prior to the communication of a single sanctuary ritual, the relationship between the "type" covenant and the earthly sanctuary was established.
The 40-Day Covenant -- Before the proclamation 'of the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, God sent a message to "the children of Israel." - If they would "obey [His], voice and keep [His] covenant" then they would be a "peculiar treasure" to God, a "kingdom of priests and an holy nation."
Without waiting to hear His voice, the people responded, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." (Ex. 19:3-9)
Exodus {19:3} 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; {19:4} Ye have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and [how] I bare you on eagles' wings, and
brought you unto myself. {19:5} Now therefore, if ye will
obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall
be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the
earth [is] mine: {19:6} And ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, and an holy nation. These [are] the words which
thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
{19:7} And Moses came and called for the elders of the
people, and laid before their faces all these words which the
LORD commanded him. {19:8} And all the people
answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken
we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people
unto the LORD. {19:9} And the LORD said unto Moses,
Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may
hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And
Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD.
But when "the children of Israel" heard God's voice, they had second thoughts.
They said to Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." (Ex. 20:19)
God obliged, and had Moses set before them "judgments." (Ex. 21:1 23:19)
These "judgments" were prefaced with a very specific command - 'Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold."
(Ex. 20:23)
After receiving from the people a verbal affirmation, Moses wrote these judgments and the preamble in a book which he read to them in a solemn convocation.
They reaffirmed their commitment and Moses sprinkled the blood of sacrifice on both the altar and the people declaring - "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord made with you concerning all these words." (Ex. 24:3-8)
[This "altar" was not the altar associated with the sanctuary, but an altar of worship in harmony with the instruction found in Ex. 20:24-26]
Following this service, Moses repaired to the mountain and was there forty days. (Ex. 24:18)
There was a condition in this covenant which needs to be especially noted.
It was a covenant without mercy.
The "Angel" who would go before Israel to the promised land would "not pardon their transgressions." (Ex. 23:20-21)
{23:20} Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee
in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have
prepared. {23:21} Beware of him, and obey his voice,
provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions:
for my name is in him.
Further, it was based on human promises.
A - single transgression would annul it and break the covenant relatonship.
Two things happened while Moses was in the mount.
First, God gave to Moses a plan whereby mercy could be extended to a transgressor, and through that mercy, He would dwell among the people whom He had chosen. God said "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them." (Ex. 25:8)
This instruction is recorded in Exodus, Chapters 25-31. God also gave to Moses, the Ten Commandments which He had spoken 40 days prior, but which now He had engraved in stone to be placed in the heart of the sanctuary. (Ex. 32:15-16; 25:16)
This would be fundamental in the covenant God would make with Moses, and the basis of the "new" covenant of which Christ would be the mediator.
The other thing which occurred during the forty days was a continuing experience even as Moses descended the mount.
The people had induced Aaron to make a golden calf in direct violation of the preamble of the covenant to which they had so solemnly committed themselves. Their worship of the calf had turned into a licentious orgy which was in progress as Moses entered the camp. (Ex. 32:1-6, 25)
The enormity of Israel's sin and the fact there was no pardoning provision in the covenant caused Moses to become deeply involved.
He said to them - "Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin." (Ex. 32:30)
He did plead with the Lord that if forgiveness could not be granted, then "blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." (ver. 32)
The intercession of Moses resulted in a "type" covenant.
After a prolonged interchange between the Lord and Moses, God said - " I make a covenant." (Ex. 34:10)
But it was on a different basis. He instructed Moses - "Write thou these words" - similar to the 40-day Covenant, but much abbreviated - "for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." (Ex. 34:27)
Moses was to be the "surety" of this covenant and under it, the "worldly sanctuary" functioned.
****If there was one lesson above all others which the 40-day Covenant taught, it was that man is unable to keep his promises, or to do what God commands, no matter how sincere his intentions.***
Centuries later, Jeremiah the prophet would express it in these words - "0 Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (23:10)
However, there was a way, and that way, the way of God, was in the sanctuary. (Ps. 77:13)
**
Pausing here I find it so completely true and worthy of noting again-
****If there was one lesson above all others which the 40-day Covenant taught, it was that man is unable to keep his promises, or to do what God commands, no matter how sincere his intentions.***
Have you ever found yourself making promise after promise to God? Your intention when making the promise is sincere. Then somehow without even knowing quite how you turn around and immediately break that promise? Or maybe it took an hour to break it, or a full day, or a week, a month...a year. Promises, we make them and I can't imagine we don't mean what we're promising God. Of course there are numerous parodies of people in dire straits suddenly promising God to give up this and that and the old other thing, but when things turn around they laugh it off as something not really meant and all. Occasionally we'll get a show with a sincere change of heart, a promise made and then kept.
Promises.
Here are a people that HEARD God. Here are a people that witnessed firsthand MIRACLES of God. Here are a people that had God in a pillar of fire by night guiding them and a cloud by day. These chosen people promised God and in less than 40 days they'd gone back on their promise as if it was of no consequence to do so. They learned otherwise.
I sit here right now and I think about all this and I know that promises do matter and we're accountable for those promises we break. I thank God through Jesus Christ we have a savior, One who was able to keep from all sin and prove that it is possible to live as a human, sinless by the grace of God alone. No human will ever be sinless in and of themselves, never. Any sin we see in our lives and by the grace of God are able to commit to Him to save us from that which would bring us down, well all glory and praise to our mighty Savior and King, because we can't by our own power rid ourselves of it at all.
God made a way for mankind to be saved, we have to grasp hold of that way tightly and never let go, never.
Romans {7:24} O wretched man that
I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
{7:25} I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the
flesh the law of sin.
Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
Joh 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was
**
12/20/09
Jesus spoke those words- 'I can of mine own self do nothing.' He'd taken on humanity and left His divinity in the process. He made Him self human which is lower than that angels. He made Himself subject unto death- something an un-glorified divine being cannot do - die. Sounds awful doesn't it? Yet, Jesus was a man and purposely became a man. He was born of the Spirit yet born a human baby in human flesh. He was born a Jew and as the custom was He was circumcised. His divine flesh was cut, it bled. Outwardly He looked no different than any other human baby, human child, human man. He could live among humans and pass for a human because He gave up the divinity and became human to allow Himself to be tempted in all ways- JUST AS WE ARE. He lived connected to the Heavenly Father not through any divine power but through the same power we possess, through the spirit. He prayed to God, He studied the Word of God even though He knew it so well because He was and is the Word. He used the power of the scriptures and admonished us to do the same.
IF Jesus hadn't become human just like you and I, able to be tempted just like you and I in all our weakness, His death would be pointless because all it would reveal to us is that it takes being a God to overcome sin- something we are not. What it takes is being connected to God spiritually, not being a God ourselves. And Jesus was connected to God fully.
He said- I can of mine own self do nothing - and He wasn't just saying that, He meant it. He continued saying - as I hear I judge and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
More proof that He gave up His divinity to become human- He said- And now O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Jesus had given up His unique glory- a glory He had before the world was. Why before the world was and not just before He became human? Because before God made the world and made humans He had it all thought out a plan was put in place much like we make contingency plans. Not that the plans have to be put in place, but that they are there just in case they are needed. More often than not contingency plans become obsolete upon a successful endeavor, but they are there to be used in an emergency and the human emergency came about and the contingency plan was enacted, a plan set up before the world was made, before mankind was created. If angels could fall and separate themselves from God through sin it stands to reason that any creature given the power of choice could fall as well. There is no one to save the angels- non-procreating beings, perhaps God knowing that in making man in His image would need to provide a way for them to connect to Him once again if the connection was broken. The angels eventually all made a choice for good or evil and we too make that choice by either believing in Christ or not. Believing that it takes us being connected through Christ to God, that Christ was born and lived, then died to reveal that it was entirely possible for mankind to live sinless and through Him we can live sinless. Through Him we can have our sins washed away. Christ of His own self could do nothing. We of our own selves can do nothing, we must live through the will of the Father by the grace of Jesus Christ.
It's not easy trying to believe fully in Christ. It's easy to superficially say we do, but to LIVE our lives as we believe, that's not easy at all. Surrendering our will to God's- it's more that just words to say, it a way of life.
By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may we surrender all to God and live by His will.
Amen.
12/20/10
Psa 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psa 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Psa 139:17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
Psa 139:18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
God knows us while we are in our mother's womb.
God makes us- fearfully, wonderfully, marvelously.
Before we are even created, before we are conceived…God knows us!
It's so incredibly hard to imagine, isn't it? Being known before we are even conceived, being known as we are growing in our mother's womb.
I read this today and thought immediately of my great niece, Rayne Elizabeth born this past Sunday, and my great niece Lyla Rose still in her mother's womb growing soon to be born. God knows these babies! God knew US as babies! We are not conceived by chance without our Creator knowing. The very same Creator who formed the first human beings from the dust of the earth- creating every single part of us from the tiniest cell to the deepest hidden parts inside of us- is the same God today who knows each and every one of us before we are formed.
Some people might speak up about now and start in about all the babies born deformed and such and they'd start blaming God for that and how horrible He must be to allow a baby to be born suffering. These are the same people who become atheists, the same people who would rather believe there is no God than believe there is a God who allows horrific things to happen not only to adults but to tiny innocent babies who've not even had a chance to commit any wrong.
People don't get the whole big picture. They focus on a few bits and then form their opinions, their beliefs. The horrors this world has in it exist because of a choice made by first- an angel, and secondly another choice the first human couple made- NOT because God designed evil and forced it upon that angel or the first humans. People then say God should NEVER have given the angel or mankind a choice but simply made everything perfect without any chance at all whatsoever to do anything wrong, to disobey, no choice between good and evil.
That good and evil exists, and has existed since long before mankind is a mystery- a mystery that we're not allowed to delve into. One of those secrets that belong to God.
Deu 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
God knows of good and evil- it exists and God in making angels gave them the power of choice in knowing evil and good to choose one or the other. Then God made mankind and they didn't know of good and evil other than there was a tree that possessed the key to that knowledge and they were forbidden to eat from that tree and told rather to trust solely in God for all things, they were given everything perfect just like people say they want. Of course people say they NEVER should have been given a choice, that tree should NEVER have been put in the garden and people should have just been allowed to live in this perfect existence without any choice but to do so. We in essence should have been the puppets of the master, NOT ever being allowed an opportunity to love God. Seriously, love can never be forced and setting up a situation where there is NO choice takes away the love. When we love someone it's because we CHOOSE to love someone. Love is a choice, it's not a lustful emotion as so many believe. Love is a choice to make and we do it over and over again in good and bad times as the ol' marriage vows go. Unfortunately the marriage vows aren't enough- we need to choose to love our neighbor, not just a single partner in life, not just our family members. Love is a choice we make and we make it constantly- not just once or once in a while.
Yes, God could have given us no choice- and in return He would have had no love.
That WE made the wrong choice is on US, not on HIM and this is where people get it all messed up. Taking the blame for things goes against our sinful nature- the nature Adam and Even inherited instantly upon disobeying.
Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
The blame went where? Not on themselves. Yes, they had help- Adam had temptation from Eve and Eve had temptation from Satan, but they ULTIMATELY made the choice to disobey, they were not forced.
God did NOT want evil for us. God did NOT want sickness for us. God did NOT want death for us. Yet so many are eager to blame Him for it all, unwilling to take any responsibility at all for anything.
We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who loves us so deeply He forbears with us after all these many, many, many thousands of years not willing that any will be lost that would be saved, that would choose love over all- even self.
May God bless those little babies, born and unborn - they were fearfully and wonderfully made by our amazing Creator. May their lives be filled with His love now and always.
Amen.