God's Glory

Exodus 29: 43

And I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory.

God's glory appeared as a consuming fire on the Mountain. Now His glory is consecrating all these things of the Tabernacle, and also consecrating these people by His glory.

His glory had some kind of effect on the Priests (and Levites, too) to protect them from the impact of the Ark of the Covenant. That's why God directed them to camp around the Tabernacle, between the Tabernacle and the other Tribes, to act as a barrier to protect the people (Numbers 2 & 3). 

Later, when the Philistines captured the Ark in battle and took it to their own towns, to the temple of Dagon, they found their idol with its face on the ground in front of the Ark. Then the next day, their idol was not only on the ground before the Ark, but its head and hands were broken off. The demon behind the idol was compelled to bow before the Ark of the Lord God. (See Isaiah 45:23-24, Romans 14:11-12, Philippians 2:10-11, and Revelation 5:12-13.)

And God caused the people of those towns to have serious health problems, wherever they brought it (I Samuel 5). Finally they decided to return it to the Israelites (I Samuel 6). 

We need to be careful how we approach our God--He is dangerous to us. That's why He gave so many specific instructions for the Ark and the Tabernacle: God told Moses to, Make this Tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you (Exodus 25:9). This "pattern" is the actual Temple in Heaven (Hebrews 9:11), which God showed Moses, so the people would be safe from it's powerful effects. 

God's glory is something that I can't even imagine. That His glory would consecrate the items and equip the people who would serve near them to protect them, is something out of a fantasy novel to me; but I know that it's true, because God's Spirit of Truth lives in me, and teaches me what is true and what is deceptive. 

I'm not even going to try to count all the times, all through God's Word, where we are cautioned to, "be careful," to, "give attention," to, "listen closely" to all that God tells us. Every book, every chapter, every word has been specifically given to us, God-breathed to His prophets who wrote down His Words (II Timothy 3:16).

Our God is Love, and how we love Him and one another is according to how He has loved us, and He has told us how in His Word. 

God says what He means, and He means what He says. That's why He gave us His Spirit, not only to keep us from falling away, but also to teach us how to understand what God is saying to us in His Word. God wants us to know Him, and He wants us to welcome His knowing us--let Him in to our thoughts and attitudes, so that our words and actions will be according to how He wants us to relate to Him and to one another. 

O my Father, Your glory is beyond what I can imagine. Help me to know You better each day, love You more every moment, and show Your love to others at every opportunity. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Very Best

Exodus 26 & 27

The Tabernacle.

The Courtyard's curtains hung from silver bands with silver hooks, the posts sat in bronze sockets with bronze pegs. And the Altar was bronze.

The Tent of the Tabernacle and all its furnishings were gold, and the posts sat in silver sockets.

The outside was of baser metals, but the inner was of gold. The closer to where God was, the finer the metals.

God deserves only our very best.

He gave His very best for us, His only Son. Now I want Him to have the very best of me: my thoughts, my words, my actions, my very life. My Utmost for His Highest (Oswald Chambers). 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Ark Of The Covenant

Exodus 25: 22

And there I will meet with you, and from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two Cherubim which are upon the Ark of the Testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.

This wooden box covered in gold inside and out, with the cover of pure gold made in one piece with the two cherubim on it with their wings covering it--this is the place where the Presence of the Lord God was centered. Here He spoke with Moses. 

And God's presence here affected this Ark, so that the populace of the Nation Israel had to be protected from it by the Levites camping around it between the Tabernacle and the other Tribes. The Levites shall pitch round about the Tabernacle of Testamony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep the charge of the Tabernacle (Numbers 1:23). 

When they were to travel to another place in the Desert, they would pack up everything, to set up again in the new spot.

But only the priests, the sons of Aaron, were allowed to see the furniture inside the Tent, to prepare them for travel by covering them completely and putting the poles into the rings for carrying (Numbers 4:5-14). 

Then the Levites, the Kohathites, would come in to carry these holy items out of the Tent. But they were not allowed to touch or even look at them, only carry them by their poles (Numbers 4:15). 

Then the Levites, the Gershonites would take down all the curtains of the Tabernacle and the Courtyard, and carry all the soft items in wagons, covered by the porpoise skins. These made them waterproof (Numbers 4:21-28). 

Then the Levites, the Merarites, would gather all the frames, crossbars, posts, bases, and tent pegs, all the hard items, and carry those in wagons, also (Numbers 4:31-33).

Then God had them all set out in a specific order, all to make sure that no one would be harmed by proximity to this Ark that God "sat" upon (Numbers 10: 14-28). (See also what happened to Uzza in I Chronicles 13:7, 9-10.)

God is God, and He is so grand and glorious, to the extreme, that no person is able to survive too close a proximity to Him without God somehow enabling them (as He did with Moses and Aaron and his sons). I John 4:12 tells us that No man hath seen God at any time, and I Timothy 6:16 says that God is Dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, or can see, in the flesh we live in now. Only after Jesus returns again, and we are Glorified with that New Body that will glow like the Sun, then we will be equipped to see Him as He is (I Corinthians 6:35-58). 

When Jesus fulfilled "all the Law and the Prophets," He also fulfilled all the parts of this Tabernacle and its furniture. He is pictured in every part of it. This Tabernacle shows us what Jesus would accomplish in His Life, Death, and Resurrection. 

God has shown us His whole Plan of the Ages in His Word, and we need to be wholehearted in searching for His Truth, and persevere in digging deeper, in order to gain an understanding of what He is telling us. 

It is a wonderful Plan, and I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of all God is telling us. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Law Of Love

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments. 

In Matthew 5: 17 Jesus tells us, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I've not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 

When Jesus fulfilled the letter of all the Law, it included these Ten Commandments. Now we are not bound to do the very letter of each of these Commandments, but we are to obey the spirit of love that they are all based on. This goes much further than the mere letter of each law, much deeper. 

For instance, not only are we to not commit adultery, but we are to love them and not even look upon another with lust. Not only are we to "do no murder," we are to love them and not even think ill of our neighbor, which is anyone and everyone in the World. 

Even the Sabbath is not a specific day (the letter), but the principle of loving ourselves in taking a day off each week because it restores our own health and well-being, as well as loving God in remembering He is our Creator.

Jesus told us, In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12). This is loving others as we love ourselves.

Matthew also tells us: An expert in the Law tested Him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:15-40). The whole body of all the laws, rules, commandments, regulations, precepts, orders, and decrees are all based on Love: our love for God, for ourselves, and for others. 

So if we really love God, our love will constrain us to do what would be loving, and keep us from doing, saying, or even thinking something that would not be loving. This means that we will not be down on ourselves, because God values us greatly. We will not think ill of any other person, because he or she is our neighbor. 

And we will consider our God to be the greatest, most wonderful and amazing Being Who ever was, is, or will ever be. He is good to the extreme, everything He does comes from the Love He is and has for all He has made. 

Even what we would consider negative or even cruel, still comes from Love, in giving sentient beings the consequences of their own free choices, this freedom having been given in order that they might choose wisely instead of foolishly. 

We see His love in being patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance, before the Day of the Lord comes as a thief [when] the heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the Earth and everything in it will be burned up (II Peter 2:9-10). 

Anyone who waits for that will be too late, the die will be cast, and their eternity will already be set. God has already waited over two thousand years since Jesus died, rose, and ascended back into Heaven. How much longer do you think He will wait? All the signs He gave for the End are present in our World right now. 

Hebrews 3: 15 tells us, Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...

And II Corinthians 6: 2 says, ...I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of Salvation.

How much better to respond to His call today, because every tomorrow is uncertain. We have only right now when we can choose. Let's all choose our God, before our power of choice is over.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Lamb Of God

John 1: 29

The next day (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the World!"

Jesus has been baptized by John, then went into the wilderness for 40 days. Now He's back where John's baptizing, and when John sees Him he proclaims that Jesus is God's Sacrificial Lamb Whose precious Blood will be powerful enough to pay for the sins of everyone in the whole World. Jesus shed God's own Blood, that has eternal value. 

That means that, "the ground is level at the foot of the Cross," and every single person in the whole World has an equal opportunity to accept this verdict of death and let Jesus be their personal Sacrifice.

He also said, the same One Who called me to baptize with water also told me, "the Man on Whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God (John 1:33-34). This is a very strong testimony.

John probably didn't fully understand the full import of what he said here, because when King Herod put him in prison, he sent an inquiry to Jesus to ask Him if He was the One to come (Luke 7:18). So he still had doubts.

But we can know, and recognize Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah that had been promised since the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15). We can see that He came from the line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and through the regal line of King David--directly through His legal father, Joseph (Matthew 1:1-16), and through David's other son Nathan through His mother (Luke 3:23-37). 

We can also see that Jesus fulfilled over 400 of the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah, and He will fulfill the rest of them when He comes again to reign.

And if you have realized that Jesus suffered the death that you deserve as your personal Sacrifice, then you know that God gave you His Spirit of Truth to live in your spirit, and He is teaching you that all this is True. 

I pray that all who read this humble blog of mine will be called of God to faith in Christ Jesus, even this Christmas season, as you think about the real Reason for the Season.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Jesus, The Rock Of Living Water

Exodus 17: 6

"Behold I will stand before you there on the Rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the Rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of all the elders.

I Corinthians 10:4 tells us that it was a spiritual Rock that followed them in the Desert, and that Rock was Christ. 

Moses was told to strike the Rock, as Jesus was struck down once for all in Crucifixion (Hebrews 10:10-14 & I Peter 3:18), and so much water poured out of it that all those people (millions!) had enough to drink, and water all their animals, as much and more than they all needed.

But when they came back to the Desert of Sin and needed water again, God told Moses to speak to the Rock, because He had already struck it before. But in his anger at the people, he struck it again, twice, and the water still flowed. But Moses had damaged the picture of what Christ would do, and was forbidden to enter the Promised Land with the people (Numbers 20:1-13 & Deuteronomy 34:1-4.) God is serious about our understanding of Who He is and what He does for us.

Jesus is our Source of Life, the life-giving water that we all need. He is sufficient to meet all my needs, even when He uses improbable and impossible sources. Even when I cannot see at all how my needs can be met, He will always come through for me. 

Thank You so much, my dear Father, for sending Your only Son to be my Savior, to be my Lamb of God to take my place in death and cleanse me of all my stains, past, present and future. Thank You so much for loving me even though I know I will never be worthy of You, yet You deem me worth it. You have put such great value on me! And I trust You to keep all Your promises in Your Word, as You will always be true to Yourself.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Cleansed With Blood

Hebrews 9: 22

...All things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

This verse is key to salvation. From the very beginning God taught that something or someone needed to die to cleanse from sin, killing the animals to provide Adam's and Eve's clothing.

Then when Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, Abel brought a firstling lamb (a blood sacrifice), while Cain offered some of his vegetables (the work of his hands). Abel knew he deserved death, but Cain thought he could work his own way to God, and God did not accept his offering.

Then God gave the Law to codify this concept of a blood sacrifice.

This was God's plan from before the beginning, to send the Second Person of the Godhead to be the Sacrifice to redeem this race of Man. He was the Lord God Who always dealt with Mankind, then He broke into our World by being born as a Man, so He could die for us as the Lamb of God, the Perfect Sacrifice, that would not just cover, but actually wash away every stain of sin, making us pure enough to withstand the very presence of our very God, without burning up. 

Our God is more than we can stand. His being is so intense, a human person would be destroyed in His full presence. "There shall no man see Me, and live" (Genesis 33:20).

When Moses was on the mountain, requesting to see Him, but only seeing His backside, he came back down that mountain with his face glowing. He didn't feel any different, he didn't even know he glowed, until they made him wear a veil. 

When Jesus came the first time, it was to fulfill all the Law, and to be the Final, Perfect Sacrifice for sin. When He died on the Cross, He fulfilled all the sacrificial laws, beginning with the first one, in Leviticus 1. 

This is the first sacrifice every person was required to offer, the personal sacrifice. The individual would bring his own animal to the priest, put his hand on its head (identifying with it), and it would then be slaughtered, offered on the altar, and its blood would be splashed on the sides of the altar. Jesus fulfilled this, His Precious Blood splashed on the sides of His altar, the Cross. He died individually for each one of us, for salvation. We all deserve death, and He took our place, one by one, to pay for our sins.

He also fulfilled the corporate sacrifice, for the Nation, when He bought the whole World; He is now our Owner by Creation and by purchase, our rightful Judge.

Jesus fulfilled over 400 Old Testament prophesies about the Messiah. He will fulfill the rest of them when He returns again, to set up His Kingdom on this Earth, and rule justly for 1000 years.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!