August 2, 2023 • 28 mins
Ready to continue unraveling the symbolism and intricate details of the Tabernacle? We're about to embark on an enlightening journey, studying the instructions God gave to Moses and exploring the vital role the priests played. We'll also be analyzing the powerful imagery of the Tabernacle, a testament to our estrangement from God due to sin, and a mirror of the real Tabernacle in heaven.
Have you ever felt the weight of religious rituals becoming overwhelming due to legalism or obligation? We'll be discussing the potential burdens of religious rituals, reflecting on the ceaseless duties of the priests in the temple, and how such legalism can become an oppressive burden. Discover how Jesus provides us with rest and a light load, encapsulated in His words "it is finished" on the cross. We'll also explore the power and significance of prayer, and how our worship should echo the practices laid out in Scripture. Lastly, join us as we delve into the unique atmosphere surrounding those close to God and the striking difference it makes.
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May God Bless you!! - Glenn and Steve
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
Today we're in Exodus, chapter29, and we just learned about
the Tabernacle and Steve.
Today we're going to get intothe things that are implied by
the Tabernacle and some of theother instructions God gives,
and so we've seen here thatthere's a very, very interesting
(00:39):
story here that goes on aroundthis Tabernacle.
It's not just some dry, dustyOld Testament religious ritual.
It applies directly to ourlives today, and specifically
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I know we've spent a lot of sessions on this and the
titles of our sessions are theTabernacle's role in showing
Jesus and the Tabernacle how itcorresponds to Jesus and how the
instruments related to showingJesus.
But that's something that'shere in the text and it's
something that we do want tobring out, because that's what
it means, and there is a lot ofverses that are here, two or
(01:14):
three chapters that are here.
It's not something just to kindof lightly go over.
It is very deep and it is a lotof discussions that a lot of
people, as you pointed outbefore, just kind of oh, it's
Exodus, yeah, this is alltalking about the Tabernacle,
and then they just never go intoit or read it.
But there's a lot of rich stuffthat's in here.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Very rich and, as we saw, just to do a quick review,
the Tabernacle is a picture ofour separation from God and the
great extent that our sin hasseparated us from God and the
great extent that we would haveto do to get to God.
The Tabernacle is also apicture of the real Tabernacle
(01:55):
that's in heaven.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai,god showed him this exact plans
and insisted that everything bedone precisely, exactly, in a
certain way and to a certaindimension.
We saw last time that even thepriest garments had to be a
certain way and the priest hadto be consecrated a certain way.
(02:16):
We're picking up again todayhere at Exodus, chapter 29,
starting at verse 30.
With this, if you remember fromlast time, as part of the
consecration for the priests,there had to be a bowl and two
rams and there had to be someunleavened bread.
These were things that had tobe sacrificed a certain way in
(02:38):
the first ram.
And then today, in Exodus 29,starting at verse 30, aaron, his
two sons, the priests, weresupposed to boil the second ram
and eat it along with theunleavened bread at the door of
the Tabernacle.
Now, they were supposed to eatthat themselves.
(02:58):
Nobody else could eat it and ofcourse, there's no chairs there
, so they have to eat thisstanding up.
And God was very specific it hadto be boiled, not burned or
roasted.
All through this, steve, god isgiving very precise
instructions on why this.
So many of the things we cantell, but what do you say about
(03:19):
some of these things are alittle difficult for us to make
an application for.
But I think, why would it be soimportant for just the priest
to eat this and not have anyleftovers?
Because if there's anyleftovers, that says those are
burned.
But they had to eat this boiled, with the unleavened bread
standing before the doorway tothe Tabernacle.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
There's a lot of things that are here that God is
giving for them to do that wewon't truly understand.
We're, again, Gentiles and whenyou go into the rabbinic
traditions they go into detailsfor a lot of these things.
But, as you've pointed outbefore, we don't really know.
But God has just said this iswhat you need to do.
(03:59):
We will find out a little bitlater in the next couple of
chapters here why God is givingspecific directions to the
people because they're going togo off on their own.
That we'll see here when we getinto chapter 32.
We'll deal with that in moredetail whenever we get there.
I think part of it is as well.
Faith.
This is what God said to do.
(04:19):
This is what we need to do.
This is how God said we need todress.
We dress this way, we performthe sacrifices this way, we
perform the rituals this way,and that God has reasons for us
to do it.
And that's what we need to doand this is how we need to do it
.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And I think part of it is because we don't really
understand.
We've convinced ourselves howgood we are.
So the picture of thetavernacle is a picture in how
distant we are from God.
It's a picture of how sinful weare.
The entire tavernacle ceremonywas to show us how far we are
(04:54):
from God because of sin.
And the priest, before theycould approach God, had to get
rid of their old garments and onspecial garments.
These garments had to be done acertain way and even the eating
had to be done in a certain wayin order for the priest to be
consecrated or set apart enoughto approach God, because the
(05:19):
priests were naturally dirty andsinful and separated from God.
In our day we get it all turnedaround backwards and inside out
we view a priest as somebody oh, they're holy, they're set on a
pedestal and they're givingthings down from God, and it's
really just the opposite.
The priests were just as dirtyand sinful and in need of
(05:42):
atonement as anybody else.
So again, the Ram and the tworams and the bull were there in
order to get them to a pointwhere they were good enough
quote unquote to be able to getcloser to God.
That's part of it.
Is all of these things had tobe done because all humans
priests, laymen, otherwise arejust so separated from God.
(06:04):
So this is just one more of theintentionally legalistic
rituals that God put in place todrive home the fact that we're
not able to approach God on ourown.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
And you hit the nail on the head when you said we
have it backwards, that thepriest represents God to us.
No, the priest here representedthe people to God.
They were the intercessorrepresenting the people to God,
and we've lost that.
We've also lost on this side ofthe cross that we're spoiled.
We don't have to go through anyof this sacrificial stuff.
(06:38):
We don't have to give upanything.
We don't have to go and see howbad dealing with sin is, and I
say that use the word spoiledthere, because we have the
ability now, if we are believersin Jesus Christ, to be able to
approach God and pray to Goddirectly, come boldly before his
throne through Jesus Christ.
We're spoiled in that way, asnatural things happen people
(07:01):
that are spoiled.
They forget the reason whythey're spoiled, and I think
that we've forgotten, too, thatsin and dealing with sin is
something that is very, veryugly.
So when we go through here andlook at these texts, we're
reminded of just how ugly anddifficult it was having to deal
with this day after day.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The last of the priestly consecration ceremony.
They've sacrificed the bull,the first ram, the second ram.
They ate the boiled remains ofthe second ram, any that was
left over.
They burn on the altar alongwith some meal, and they took
the any of the leftoverunleavened bread.
And it also says there's a wineas a drink offering.
(07:44):
And just so people don't getconfused that they didn't drink
it, a drink offering was pouredout on the hot coals of the
altar and would then just go upas steam.
That's why over in the NewTestament, paul says I'm poured
out as a drink offering to theLord.
It means my life was justpoured out and it just went up
in vapor.
That's what that's talkingabout.
(08:04):
So let's get to the next one.
There's there's a sort of asummation, starting in chapter
29, verse 42.
There's a summation here thatGod sort of wraps up this whole
section with.
Again, he's given the commandsfor the tabernacle and all the
priestly garments and theconsecration of the priests.
He wraps all that up with avery sort of beautiful,
(08:27):
interesting passage here.
Steve, could you read chapter29, starting at verse 42 and
going to the end of the chapterin verse 46?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It shall be a continual burnt offering
throughout your generations atthe doorway of the tent of
meeting before the Lord, where Iwill meet with you to speak to
you there.
I will meet there with the sonsof Israel and it shall be
consecrated by my glory.
I will consecrate the tent ofmeeting in the altar.
I will also consecrate Aaronand his sons to minister as
(08:55):
priests to me.
I will dwell among the sons ofIsrael and will be their God.
They shall know that I am theLord, their God, who brought
them out of the land of Egyptthat I might dwell among them.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I am the Lord, right there in verse 42,.
It shall be a continual burntoffering throughout your
generations, and so continual.
There's no end to this.
It's supposed to go on and onand on, and it did until Israel
was conquered.
They went through this in themorning and in the evening they
(09:28):
would sacrifice lamps.
Every morning, the priest wouldgo in and relight the lamps and
redo the altar of incense, andthat was done twice a day, every
day, throughout theirgenerations, even on the Sabbath
day.
But one of the only things thatGod commanded to actually be
done on the Sabbath were thesetemple sacrifices.
(09:49):
This drives home again anotherspiritual point Does religion
ever get tiring?
Because that's what this is.
It's a religious ritual, andreligion is doing things to make
ourselves approach God.
Does that ever get tiring?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It does In our day.
We might think that, oh, weneed to be up at the church
Every time the church doors areopen Sunday, Sunday evening,
Wednesday, Wednesday evening,for different activities.
If there's something going onon Saturdays, we've got to be
there.
If you're doing that out of thejoy of your heart, then it's
not tiring.
(10:27):
But if you're doing it out ofobligation and doing it out of
legalism, that's saying, well,if I don't show up, God's not
going to be pleased with me, oryou have peer pressure that
people are going to think badabout me, then it does become
tiring Because your heart isn'tin it.
And in order to get away fromit, you might want to step away.
(10:48):
And before you know it, you'vemissed two weeks, you've missed
three weeks and then six monthsare down the road.
And it all began with I justgot tired, it just got
burdensome for me to be at thechurch every time the door was
open.
But if you're doing it fromyour heart and you're doing it
with joy, then it never does gettiring.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
My wife's grandmother went to Mass every day and she
said a rosary twice a day, everyday.
I'm reminded of that hereBecause these priests, their
work never ended.
Every morning they had to go dothis.
Every evening they had to dothis.
And there's no chairs, nowherein the temple furniture is there
(11:31):
a place to sit down.
They even had to eat standingup.
The priest work was endless.
And I think of legalism and Ithink of religion as some people
have it as oh, I have thisthing I have to do in order to
please God.
If you think like that, it'sendless.
(11:52):
There's no end to religiousrules.
And us, steve, in our corner ofthe world, we come from this
kind of conservative theologicalbackground.
What our traditions are guiltyof is not license, licenses, go,
do anything you want.
What we're guilty of islegalism, is making a set of
(12:13):
rules and imposing it on ourfellow church members.
Okay, you have to.
Not only, it's like Phariseeism.
What did Jesus accuse thePharisees of doing?
Which is?
You increased the amount ofrules and made it like heavy
loads that you would lay onmen's shoulders, and you're not
even willing to lift a finger tohelp them.
(12:33):
Well, that's what conservativestend to lean towards Is
creating even more religiousrules and more religious hoops
and more religious activities,until all you get is tired, and
that's what this is continuousthroughout your generations.
It's endless.
Here's a question Is there away in the Bible to rest,
(12:58):
because these guys don't get anyrest.
Where do we get our rest?
What did Jesus tell us abouthimself?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
We get our rest through Jesus because he said
take my yoke upon you because myburden is easy and my load is
light.
And that's what he was talkingabout.
You don't have all thislegalism of the day after, day
after grind.
You can be free of that and youcan take his easy load because
(13:26):
he has paid the price and he hasborn that load himself.
That's where we can find rest.
We can find rest in JesusChrist.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So again, verse 42, continual burnt offering
throughout your generations.
It never ended, it was neverfinished.
What was the last thing Jesussaid on the cross?
It is finished, it is finished.
And he gave up his spirit.
And he also said in there notonly it is finished, but he was
saying come to me and I willgive you rest.
(13:56):
So there's rest in Jesus Quote.
When he had made purificationof sins, he sat down at the
right hand of majesty on high.
It says in Hebrews 1, verse 3,there is no place for this high
priest, this earthly high priest, to sit down, but there was a
time for the heavenly highpriest.
His work was finished and hesat down.
(14:18):
That's the message of at leastone of the many messages of the
Tabernacle.
Then in verse 43, he says Iwill meet there with the sons of
Israel, and verse 44, I willdwell amongst the sons of Israel
and will be their God.
To me that's the tender part.
On one hand you have thisendless, continual works, never
(14:40):
finished, but then God says Iwill come down and meet with you
.
The Tabernacle was the placewhere God would meet with them.
So it's true, god did meet withIsrael at the Tabernacle and he
was there in the pillar of fireby night and the cloud by day.
That's where he would meet withthem until over in Ezekiel.
The glory leaves because of allthe sin.
(15:00):
God judged them and the gloryleft and he no longer met with
them there and there was silencefor many years until Jesus came
.
That's the message here.
Any last things on that, steve,before we get to the next
chapter.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Well, he also mentions I will be their God,
because I'm the God that broughtthem out of Egypt.
Not only does he mention thatseveral times, but we also see
several times in Scripture whathe said here I will be their God
.
This is in the midst of allother nations Today.
We have national flags, we havenational birds, we have
(15:33):
national symbols that aren'tgods, but at this time, the
nations around they had nationalgods.
They had gods that theyworshiped and that they bowed
down to and that they served.
And we see God tell them don'tincorporate the other people,
because you're going to betempted to go off and worship
(15:53):
their gods.
So God deliberately saysmultiple times I will be their
God, God the actual creator ofeverything, the creator of the
earth and all creation.
He is the God of Israel, he'stheir national God and he's
going to dwell among them, whichis different than the other
(16:15):
gods, national gods from theother nations.
So this is another thing thatwe'll see continually, over and
over again he's the one thatbrought him out of the land of
Egypt and he's also their God,the national God.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
So let's move on to Exodus, chapter 30.
And in chapter 30, it talksabout the altar of incense,
which is a new one, still onemore piece of furniture, and it
also talks about a specialanointing oil that is used in
the tabernacle, and these madethe tabernacle smell good and
also is one more symbol for oursalvation.
(16:49):
In Exodus 30, it gives somedimensions and directions, just
like everything else had to beexactly a certain way.
There's to be a small table, asmall altar that was made out of
wood.
It was supposed to be one byone, by two cubits made out of
wood covered in pure gold, andit was supposed to sit in front
of the veil.
(17:10):
If you remember the diagram ofthe tabernacle, there was the
innermost part, was the holy ofholies and that's where the Ark
of the Covenant was, with thetablets, and then there was a
veil Outside the veil.
We now have one more piece offurniture which is all of
incense, and it was supposed tohave a small fire with some
(17:33):
incense burning on it.
The incense was to be burningcontinually, so the priest would
go in in the morning andrelight the incense and keep it
going, and then again in theevening.
So every day, all day.
This incense was supposed to bein there and it was a special
incense, and God gives specificingredients here and he also
(17:56):
gives directions that no oneelse could use this incense.
It was against God's law tomake this particular incense for
your own use.
The only place it could be usedwith this particular smell is
on the altar of incense in frontof the veil.
So, steve, what does all thatspeak to?
(18:17):
What is again?
Everything else here has asymbolism to it, and I submit
there's even just a practicalone, but there's also some
symbolism there.
What can we learn from thisaltar?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
of incense.
The practical sense is that tohelp with the smells that are
going on on the outside of thetent of the slaughter and the
smells that might be there.
So that was one of thepractical ways and it also
represented the prayers thatwere going up to God.
As God wants things done aparticular way and I keep
wanting to jump ahead here acouple of chapters, but we're
(18:49):
going to see why God is sospecific in telling these people
you've got to do it this way,You're going to worship me in
this way.
He's not just leaving it up tothem to worship him however they
want to, he's telling them theparticulars you're going to
worship me in this manner.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
And where we see that today.
Steve, at least the most commonways I see it in our culture
today is we see churches thatbring in ideas and concepts that
are just found nowhere inScripture.
And we could make a long list,and that's not really our
purpose here.
But just the idea is very wrongthat, while I've come to the
(19:31):
conclusion that there's theseother ideas that need to be
brought into our church services, that, okay, I can't find a
Bible passage or there's nochurch tradition that speaks to
these, but it seems right to me,so I'm going to bring these
into our worship services.
No, we see this all around usin our day, people that are
leaders of churches that thinkthat, well, we can just worship
(19:55):
any way we want, using anylanguage we want, and I submit
that's a very dangerous thing todo, because the whole message
of the Tabernacle is no lessthan our salvation in Jesus must
be done a certain way, even ifwe don't understand why do it a
certain way.
Now, the altar of incense, asyou said, is probably not going
(20:17):
to smell real good when we'vebeen slaughtering animals out
there for the last few weeksright outside the tent, so it
would need something.
But think of it.
The whole picture of theTabernacle is God is special and
he's separated.
The closer we get to God, thebetter it smells.
Think of it.
This was special incense thatonly could be used there.
(20:41):
So when the priest was to go in.
Again, it's a word picture.
So when I say close to God, weall know now God's not
physically separated fromanybody, spiritually separated
from sinners, but he's not overon one end of the town and not
over on the other end of thetown.
And he wasn't physically behindthe veil in the sense of really
(21:06):
, but the picture of the worshipwas such that it showed our
separateness from sin.
So when you got closer to theveil, closer to where God was,
the more it would smell.
And when the priest would gointo where he was close to where
God was and came back out, hewould have this aroma about him.
He would smell like thatspecial incense that's only
(21:30):
around where God is.
And if you were to be outsidethe Tabernacle and oh, oh, that
priest has been near God.
Here's a question, steve Can wesmell people today that's been
close to God?
Do people that are really intune and in fellowship with God?
(21:51):
Do they have an atmosphereabout them, maybe not a physical
smell, but can you tellsomething about them because
they've been close to God?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I'd rather use atmosphere than I would odor in
relation to how we might smell.
There is an atmosphere thatpeople have.
We've heard stories over andover again about people say
there's something special aboutthis person and because they
were special that drew me to God.
It drew me to look further intogodly things or look more at
(22:23):
the scriptures and listen towhat this person had said.
So most definitely I think itgoes back to pleasure.
It goes back to enjoyment.
If you're truly in a lovingrelationship with Jesus Christ,
you're going to have anatmosphere of joy and you're
going to have an atmospherethat's going to express itself
(22:45):
to the outside world Again.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Everything's a picture.
The priest, the garmentsremember.
The garments could only be wornwhen they were going in to do
the work inside the Tabernacle.
So when someone had been inthere, close to God, they would
have a different look about them.
They would have a differentsmell about them.
They had that incense, thatspecial aroma.
They'd been near God.
They look different, they actdifferent.
(23:09):
There's an atmosphere aboutthem that's just different.
That's the picture.
When we get close to God, we'regoing to be different.
Our language will change, ouractions will change, our
demeanor will change.
I think even our facialexpressions will change.
People can see that around usand sometimes, if you look like
(23:30):
you've been eating lemons forbreakfast, maybe it's because
you hadn't been close enough toGod, because you should have a
different look about you.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, I never ate lemons for breakfast.
By the way, I think there's areason why.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Now going on with the altar of incense.
Again, it's in front of theveil and there's incense burning
there all the time.
It would be kind of smoky andhazy a little bit in there and a
little bit mysterious.
Being around God is always alittle hazy and mysterious
simply because we don't allunderstand everything about God
(24:05):
and we can't always seeeverything about God.
We see what he reveals to us,but God is always a little
mysterious and he's always.
He reveals some things, butwe're never going to be able to
see everything about God becausehe only reveals certain things.
So I think just the smoke ofthe incense would add some
mystery and aura around God.
(24:28):
That again would drive homethis concept that God's just
special and different.
The other thing is prayer.
Psalm 141, the first couple ofverses talks about the evening
offering and the incense and ourprayers being mingled with the
incense as they go up before God.
That is the picture here.
(24:49):
You mentioned that a minute ago, steve is the other thing that
the incense speaks to is ourprayers.
David said may my prayer becounted as incense before you.
And then in Revelation incenseis offered with the prayers of
the saints on a golden altarbefore the throne of God, that's
in Revelation 8.
(25:09):
There's all this idea of prayermixed up with the incense.
So any other things, steve,about the altar of incense?
I do have one interestingtidbit that's doing the homework
for this lesson.
Remember, over in the NewTestament, chronologically, the
very first thing that kicked offthe New Testament was when John
(25:34):
the Baptist's father do youremember John the Baptist's
father's name was Zacharias.
He was.
What was his job?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
He was a priest and he was going into the holy place
to light the lamps and do theincense.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
And it says in Luke, chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, that
he was in there burning incense.
And it also says in Luke 1 thatthe multitude were outside at
the hour of prayer.
So at the time people werepraying and the priest was in
(26:11):
there with the incense.
That's when the angel appearsand announces the very first
thing, which is the forerunner,is going to come before Jesus.
So one of these special littlethings of the incense, this
altar of incense, was involvedwith the prayers of the saints.
That is one of the things thatkicked off the greatest thing
(26:35):
that happened in the Bible,which is the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The lesson for us neverunderestimate the power of
prayer, because our prayers willgo up as a sweet, smelling
aroma to the Lord God.
Does God love the smell of ourprayers?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Absolutely.
It's the way we communicatewith him.
My prayer life isn't how Iwould like for it to be, but
definitely God wants us to prayto him.
I think he does, because hewants a relationship with us,
and the way to have thatrelationship is to do it on a
daily basis.
Do your prayers and not justone time during the day.
At all points during the dayit's fine to go to God with
(27:13):
prayer.
I do believe that he is pleasedby it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So with that we'll stop for today, but that's a
great lesson about prayer in theTabernacle.
There's still more to come.
We're going to find out nexttime what happens when Moses
starts to come down from themountain.
We'll see that next time hereon Reasoning Through the Bible.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Thank you so much for watching and listening, and may
God bless you.
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
Today we're in Exodus, chapter29, and we just learned about
the Tabernacle and Steve.
Today we're going to get intothe things that are implied by
the Tabernacle and some of theother instructions God gives,
and so we've seen here thatthere's a very, very interesting
(00:39):
story here that goes on aroundthis Tabernacle.
It's not just some dry, dustyOld Testament religious ritual.
It applies directly to ourlives today, and specifically
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I know we've spent a lot of sessions on this and the
titles of our sessions are theTabernacle's role in showing
Jesus and the Tabernacle how itcorresponds to Jesus and how the
instruments related to showingJesus.
But that's something that'shere in the text and it's
something that we do want tobring out, because that's what
it means, and there is a lot ofverses that are here, two or
(01:14):
three chapters that are here.
It's not something just to kindof lightly go over.
It is very deep and it is a lotof discussions that a lot of
people, as you pointed outbefore, just kind of oh, it's
Exodus, yeah, this is alltalking about the Tabernacle,
and then they just never go intoit or read it.
But there's a lot of rich stuffthat's in here.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Very rich and, as we saw, just to do a quick review,
the Tabernacle is a picture ofour separation from God and the
great extent that our sin hasseparated us from God and the
great extent that we would haveto do to get to God.
The Tabernacle is also apicture of the real Tabernacle
(01:55):
that's in heaven.
When Moses was on Mount Sinai,god showed him this exact plans
and insisted that everything bedone precisely, exactly, in a
certain way and to a certaindimension.
We saw last time that even thepriest garments had to be a
certain way and the priest hadto be consecrated a certain way.
(02:16):
We're picking up again todayhere at Exodus, chapter 29,
starting at verse 30.
With this, if you remember fromlast time, as part of the
consecration for the priests,there had to be a bowl and two
rams and there had to be someunleavened bread.
These were things that had tobe sacrificed a certain way in
(02:38):
the first ram.
And then today, in Exodus 29,starting at verse 30, aaron, his
two sons, the priests, weresupposed to boil the second ram
and eat it along with theunleavened bread at the door of
the Tabernacle.
Now, they were supposed to eatthat themselves.
(02:58):
Nobody else could eat it and ofcourse, there's no chairs there
, so they have to eat thisstanding up.
And God was very specific it hadto be boiled, not burned or
roasted.
All through this, steve, god isgiving very precise
instructions on why this.
So many of the things we cantell, but what do you say about
(03:19):
some of these things are alittle difficult for us to make
an application for.
But I think, why would it be soimportant for just the priest
to eat this and not have anyleftovers?
Because if there's anyleftovers, that says those are
burned.
But they had to eat this boiled, with the unleavened bread
standing before the doorway tothe Tabernacle.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
There's a lot of things that are here that God is
giving for them to do that wewon't truly understand.
We're, again, Gentiles and whenyou go into the rabbinic
traditions they go into detailsfor a lot of these things.
But, as you've pointed outbefore, we don't really know.
But God has just said this iswhat you need to do.
(03:59):
We will find out a little bitlater in the next couple of
chapters here why God is givingspecific directions to the
people because they're going togo off on their own.
That we'll see here when we getinto chapter 32.
We'll deal with that in moredetail whenever we get there.
I think part of it is as well.
Faith.
This is what God said to do.
(04:19):
This is what we need to do.
This is how God said we need todress.
We dress this way, we performthe sacrifices this way, we
perform the rituals this way,and that God has reasons for us
to do it.
And that's what we need to doand this is how we need to do it
.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
And I think part of it is because we don't really
understand.
We've convinced ourselves howgood we are.
So the picture of thetavernacle is a picture in how
distant we are from God.
It's a picture of how sinful weare.
The entire tavernacle ceremonywas to show us how far we are
(04:54):
from God because of sin.
And the priest, before theycould approach God, had to get
rid of their old garments and onspecial garments.
These garments had to be done acertain way and even the eating
had to be done in a certain wayin order for the priest to be
consecrated or set apart enoughto approach God, because the
(05:19):
priests were naturally dirty andsinful and separated from God.
In our day we get it all turnedaround backwards and inside out
we view a priest as somebody oh, they're holy, they're set on a
pedestal and they're givingthings down from God, and it's
really just the opposite.
The priests were just as dirtyand sinful and in need of
(05:42):
atonement as anybody else.
So again, the Ram and the tworams and the bull were there in
order to get them to a pointwhere they were good enough
quote unquote to be able to getcloser to God.
That's part of it.
Is all of these things had tobe done because all humans
priests, laymen, otherwise arejust so separated from God.
(06:04):
So this is just one more of theintentionally legalistic
rituals that God put in place todrive home the fact that we're
not able to approach God on ourown.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
And you hit the nail on the head when you said we
have it backwards, that thepriest represents God to us.
No, the priest here representedthe people to God.
They were the intercessorrepresenting the people to God,
and we've lost that.
We've also lost on this side ofthe cross that we're spoiled.
We don't have to go through anyof this sacrificial stuff.
(06:38):
We don't have to give upanything.
We don't have to go and see howbad dealing with sin is, and I
say that use the word spoiledthere, because we have the
ability now, if we are believersin Jesus Christ, to be able to
approach God and pray to Goddirectly, come boldly before his
throne through Jesus Christ.
We're spoiled in that way, asnatural things happen people
(07:01):
that are spoiled.
They forget the reason whythey're spoiled, and I think
that we've forgotten, too, thatsin and dealing with sin is
something that is very, veryugly.
So when we go through here andlook at these texts, we're
reminded of just how ugly anddifficult it was having to deal
with this day after day.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
The last of the priestly consecration ceremony.
They've sacrificed the bull,the first ram, the second ram.
They ate the boiled remains ofthe second ram, any that was
left over.
They burn on the altar alongwith some meal, and they took
the any of the leftoverunleavened bread.
And it also says there's a wineas a drink offering.
(07:44):
And just so people don't getconfused that they didn't drink
it, a drink offering was pouredout on the hot coals of the
altar and would then just go upas steam.
That's why over in the NewTestament, paul says I'm poured
out as a drink offering to theLord.
It means my life was justpoured out and it just went up
in vapor.
That's what that's talkingabout.
(08:04):
So let's get to the next one.
There's there's a sort of asummation, starting in chapter
29, verse 42.
There's a summation here thatGod sort of wraps up this whole
section with.
Again, he's given the commandsfor the tabernacle and all the
priestly garments and theconsecration of the priests.
He wraps all that up with avery sort of beautiful,
(08:27):
interesting passage here.
Steve, could you read chapter29, starting at verse 42 and
going to the end of the chapterin verse 46?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It shall be a continual burnt offering
throughout your generations atthe doorway of the tent of
meeting before the Lord, where Iwill meet with you to speak to
you there.
I will meet there with the sonsof Israel and it shall be
consecrated by my glory.
I will consecrate the tent ofmeeting in the altar.
I will also consecrate Aaronand his sons to minister as
(08:55):
priests to me.
I will dwell among the sons ofIsrael and will be their God.
They shall know that I am theLord, their God, who brought
them out of the land of Egyptthat I might dwell among them.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
I am the Lord, right there in verse 42,.
It shall be a continual burntoffering throughout your
generations, and so continual.
There's no end to this.
It's supposed to go on and onand on, and it did until Israel
was conquered.
They went through this in themorning and in the evening they
(09:28):
would sacrifice lamps.
Every morning, the priest wouldgo in and relight the lamps and
redo the altar of incense, andthat was done twice a day, every
day, throughout theirgenerations, even on the Sabbath
day.
But one of the only things thatGod commanded to actually be
done on the Sabbath were thesetemple sacrifices.
(09:49):
This drives home again anotherspiritual point Does religion
ever get tiring?
Because that's what this is.
It's a religious ritual, andreligion is doing things to make
ourselves approach God.
Does that ever get tiring?
Speaker 1 (10:07):
It does In our day.
We might think that, oh, weneed to be up at the church
Every time the church doors areopen Sunday, Sunday evening,
Wednesday, Wednesday evening,for different activities.
If there's something going onon Saturdays, we've got to be
there.
If you're doing that out of thejoy of your heart, then it's
not tiring.
(10:27):
But if you're doing it out ofobligation and doing it out of
legalism, that's saying, well,if I don't show up, God's not
going to be pleased with me, oryou have peer pressure that
people are going to think badabout me, then it does become
tiring Because your heart isn'tin it.
And in order to get away fromit, you might want to step away.
(10:48):
And before you know it, you'vemissed two weeks, you've missed
three weeks and then six monthsare down the road.
And it all began with I justgot tired, it just got
burdensome for me to be at thechurch every time the door was
open.
But if you're doing it fromyour heart and you're doing it
with joy, then it never does gettiring.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
My wife's grandmother went to Mass every day and she
said a rosary twice a day, everyday.
I'm reminded of that hereBecause these priests, their
work never ended.
Every morning they had to go dothis.
Every evening they had to dothis.
And there's no chairs, nowherein the temple furniture is there
(11:31):
a place to sit down.
They even had to eat standingup.
The priest work was endless.
And I think of legalism and Ithink of religion as some people
have it as oh, I have thisthing I have to do in order to
please God.
If you think like that, it'sendless.
(11:52):
There's no end to religiousrules.
And us, steve, in our corner ofthe world, we come from this
kind of conservative theologicalbackground.
What our traditions are guiltyof is not license, licenses, go,
do anything you want.
What we're guilty of islegalism, is making a set of
(12:13):
rules and imposing it on ourfellow church members.
Okay, you have to.
Not only, it's like Phariseeism.
What did Jesus accuse thePharisees of doing?
Which is?
You increased the amount ofrules and made it like heavy
loads that you would lay onmen's shoulders, and you're not
even willing to lift a finger tohelp them.
(12:33):
Well, that's what conservativestend to lean towards Is
creating even more religiousrules and more religious hoops
and more religious activities,until all you get is tired, and
that's what this is continuousthroughout your generations.
It's endless.
Here's a question Is there away in the Bible to rest,
(12:58):
because these guys don't get anyrest.
Where do we get our rest?
What did Jesus tell us abouthimself?
Speaker 1 (13:03):
We get our rest through Jesus because he said
take my yoke upon you because myburden is easy and my load is
light.
And that's what he was talkingabout.
You don't have all thislegalism of the day after, day
after grind.
You can be free of that and youcan take his easy load because
(13:26):
he has paid the price and he hasborn that load himself.
That's where we can find rest.
We can find rest in JesusChrist.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So again, verse 42, continual burnt offering
throughout your generations.
It never ended, it was neverfinished.
What was the last thing Jesussaid on the cross?
It is finished, it is finished.
And he gave up his spirit.
And he also said in there notonly it is finished, but he was
saying come to me and I willgive you rest.
(13:56):
So there's rest in Jesus Quote.
When he had made purificationof sins, he sat down at the
right hand of majesty on high.
It says in Hebrews 1, verse 3,there is no place for this high
priest, this earthly high priest, to sit down, but there was a
time for the heavenly highpriest.
His work was finished and hesat down.
(14:18):
That's the message of at leastone of the many messages of the
Tabernacle.
Then in verse 43, he says Iwill meet there with the sons of
Israel, and verse 44, I willdwell amongst the sons of Israel
and will be their God.
To me that's the tender part.
On one hand you have thisendless, continual works, never
(14:40):
finished, but then God says Iwill come down and meet with you
.
The Tabernacle was the placewhere God would meet with them.
So it's true, god did meet withIsrael at the Tabernacle and he
was there in the pillar of fireby night and the cloud by day.
That's where he would meet withthem until over in Ezekiel.
The glory leaves because of allthe sin.
(15:00):
God judged them and the gloryleft and he no longer met with
them there and there was silencefor many years until Jesus came
.
That's the message here.
Any last things on that, steve,before we get to the next
chapter.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Well, he also mentions I will be their God,
because I'm the God that broughtthem out of Egypt.
Not only does he mention thatseveral times, but we also see
several times in Scripture whathe said here I will be their God
.
This is in the midst of allother nations Today.
We have national flags, we havenational birds, we have
(15:33):
national symbols that aren'tgods, but at this time, the
nations around they had nationalgods.
They had gods that theyworshiped and that they bowed
down to and that they served.
And we see God tell them don'tincorporate the other people,
because you're going to betempted to go off and worship
(15:53):
their gods.
So God deliberately saysmultiple times I will be their
God, God the actual creator ofeverything, the creator of the
earth and all creation.
He is the God of Israel, he'stheir national God and he's
going to dwell among them, whichis different than the other
(16:15):
gods, national gods from theother nations.
So this is another thing thatwe'll see continually, over and
over again he's the one thatbrought him out of the land of
Egypt and he's also their God,the national God.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
So let's move on to Exodus, chapter 30.
And in chapter 30, it talksabout the altar of incense,
which is a new one, still onemore piece of furniture, and it
also talks about a specialanointing oil that is used in
the tabernacle, and these madethe tabernacle smell good and
also is one more symbol for oursalvation.
(16:49):
In Exodus 30, it gives somedimensions and directions, just
like everything else had to beexactly a certain way.
There's to be a small table, asmall altar that was made out of
wood.
It was supposed to be one byone, by two cubits made out of
wood covered in pure gold, andit was supposed to sit in front
of the veil.
(17:10):
If you remember the diagram ofthe tabernacle, there was the
innermost part, was the holy ofholies and that's where the Ark
of the Covenant was, with thetablets, and then there was a
veil Outside the veil.
We now have one more piece offurniture which is all of
incense, and it was supposed tohave a small fire with some
(17:33):
incense burning on it.
The incense was to be burningcontinually, so the priest would
go in in the morning andrelight the incense and keep it
going, and then again in theevening.
So every day, all day.
This incense was supposed to bein there and it was a special
incense, and God gives specificingredients here and he also
(17:56):
gives directions that no oneelse could use this incense.
It was against God's law tomake this particular incense for
your own use.
The only place it could be usedwith this particular smell is
on the altar of incense in frontof the veil.
So, steve, what does all thatspeak to?
(18:17):
What is again?
Everything else here has asymbolism to it, and I submit
there's even just a practicalone, but there's also some
symbolism there.
What can we learn from thisaltar?
Speaker 1 (18:27):
of incense.
The practical sense is that tohelp with the smells that are
going on on the outside of thetent of the slaughter and the
smells that might be there.
So that was one of thepractical ways and it also
represented the prayers thatwere going up to God.
As God wants things done aparticular way and I keep
wanting to jump ahead here acouple of chapters, but we're
(18:49):
going to see why God is sospecific in telling these people
you've got to do it this way,You're going to worship me in
this way.
He's not just leaving it up tothem to worship him however they
want to, he's telling them theparticulars you're going to
worship me in this manner.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
And where we see that today.
Steve, at least the most commonways I see it in our culture
today is we see churches thatbring in ideas and concepts that
are just found nowhere inScripture.
And we could make a long list,and that's not really our
purpose here.
But just the idea is very wrongthat, while I've come to the
(19:31):
conclusion that there's theseother ideas that need to be
brought into our church services, that, okay, I can't find a
Bible passage or there's nochurch tradition that speaks to
these, but it seems right to me,so I'm going to bring these
into our worship services.
No, we see this all around usin our day, people that are
leaders of churches that thinkthat, well, we can just worship
(19:55):
any way we want, using anylanguage we want, and I submit
that's a very dangerous thing todo, because the whole message
of the Tabernacle is no lessthan our salvation in Jesus must
be done a certain way, even ifwe don't understand why do it a
certain way.
Now, the altar of incense, asyou said, is probably not going
(20:17):
to smell real good when we'vebeen slaughtering animals out
there for the last few weeksright outside the tent, so it
would need something.
But think of it.
The whole picture of theTabernacle is God is special and
he's separated.
The closer we get to God, thebetter it smells.
Think of it.
This was special incense thatonly could be used there.
(20:41):
So when the priest was to go in.
Again, it's a word picture.
So when I say close to God, weall know now God's not
physically separated fromanybody, spiritually separated
from sinners, but he's not overon one end of the town and not
over on the other end of thetown.
And he wasn't physically behindthe veil in the sense of really
(21:06):
, but the picture of the worshipwas such that it showed our
separateness from sin.
So when you got closer to theveil, closer to where God was,
the more it would smell.
And when the priest would gointo where he was close to where
God was and came back out, hewould have this aroma about him.
He would smell like thatspecial incense that's only
(21:30):
around where God is.
And if you were to be outsidethe Tabernacle and oh, oh, that
priest has been near God.
Here's a question, steve Can wesmell people today that's been
close to God?
Do people that are really intune and in fellowship with God?
(21:51):
Do they have an atmosphereabout them, maybe not a physical
smell, but can you tellsomething about them because
they've been close to God?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I'd rather use atmosphere than I would odor in
relation to how we might smell.
There is an atmosphere thatpeople have.
We've heard stories over andover again about people say
there's something special aboutthis person and because they
were special that drew me to God.
It drew me to look further intogodly things or look more at
(22:23):
the scriptures and listen towhat this person had said.
So most definitely I think itgoes back to pleasure.
It goes back to enjoyment.
If you're truly in a lovingrelationship with Jesus Christ,
you're going to have anatmosphere of joy and you're
going to have an atmospherethat's going to express itself
(22:45):
to the outside world Again.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Everything's a picture.
The priest, the garmentsremember.
The garments could only be wornwhen they were going in to do
the work inside the Tabernacle.
So when someone had been inthere, close to God, they would
have a different look about them.
They would have a differentsmell about them.
They had that incense, thatspecial aroma.
They'd been near God.
They look different, they actdifferent.
(23:09):
There's an atmosphere aboutthem that's just different.
That's the picture.
When we get close to God, we'regoing to be different.
Our language will change, ouractions will change, our
demeanor will change.
I think even our facialexpressions will change.
People can see that around usand sometimes, if you look like
(23:30):
you've been eating lemons forbreakfast, maybe it's because
you hadn't been close enough toGod, because you should have a
different look about you.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, I never ate lemons for breakfast.
By the way, I think there's areason why.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Now going on with the altar of incense.
Again, it's in front of theveil and there's incense burning
there all the time.
It would be kind of smoky andhazy a little bit in there and a
little bit mysterious.
Being around God is always alittle hazy and mysterious
simply because we don't allunderstand everything about God
(24:05):
and we can't always seeeverything about God.
We see what he reveals to us,but God is always a little
mysterious and he's always.
He reveals some things, butwe're never going to be able to
see everything about God becausehe only reveals certain things.
So I think just the smoke ofthe incense would add some
mystery and aura around God.
(24:28):
That again would drive homethis concept that God's just
special and different.
The other thing is prayer.
Psalm 141, the first couple ofverses talks about the evening
offering and the incense and ourprayers being mingled with the
incense as they go up before God.
That is the picture here.
(24:49):
You mentioned that a minute ago, steve is the other thing that
the incense speaks to is ourprayers.
David said may my prayer becounted as incense before you.
And then in Revelation incenseis offered with the prayers of
the saints on a golden altarbefore the throne of God, that's
in Revelation 8.
(25:09):
There's all this idea of prayermixed up with the incense.
So any other things, steve,about the altar of incense?
I do have one interestingtidbit that's doing the homework
for this lesson.
Remember, over in the NewTestament, chronologically, the
very first thing that kicked offthe New Testament was when John
(25:34):
the Baptist's father do youremember John the Baptist's
father's name was Zacharias.
He was.
What was his job?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
He was a priest and he was going into the holy place
to light the lamps and do theincense.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
And it says in Luke, chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, that
he was in there burning incense.
And it also says in Luke 1 thatthe multitude were outside at
the hour of prayer.
So at the time people werepraying and the priest was in
(26:11):
there with the incense.
That's when the angel appearsand announces the very first
thing, which is the forerunner,is going to come before Jesus.
So one of these special littlethings of the incense, this
altar of incense, was involvedwith the prayers of the saints.
That is one of the things thatkicked off the greatest thing
(26:35):
that happened in the Bible,which is the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
The lesson for us neverunderestimate the power of
prayer, because our prayers willgo up as a sweet, smelling
aroma to the Lord God.
Does God love the smell of ourprayers?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Absolutely.
It's the way we communicatewith him.
My prayer life isn't how Iwould like for it to be, but
definitely God wants us to prayto him.
I think he does, because hewants a relationship with us,
and the way to have thatrelationship is to do it on a
daily basis.
Do your prayers and not justone time during the day.
At all points during the dayit's fine to go to God with
(27:13):
prayer.
I do believe that he is pleasedby it.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
So with that we'll stop for today, but that's a
great lesson about prayer in theTabernacle.
There's still more to come.
We're going to find out nexttime what happens when Moses
starts to come down from themountain.
We'll see that next time hereon Reasoning Through the Bible.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Thank you so much for watching and listening, and may
God bless you.
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