The Fence, The Altar, and The Cross | The Mystery of the Tabernacle Season 1

Shalom, my beloved friends. We're going to be talking about a foundational topic in the Word of God today. We're going to be talking about the tabernacle that the Lord instructed Moses to build. And this tabernacle is a pattern, the book of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 8, of heavenly realities. Today we hear many different gospels being preached. But if you want to know for certain what the true gospel message is, all you have to do is look at the pattern that was revealed to Moses and the children of Israel 3,500 years ago when God gave them the blueprint for the building of the tabernacle. In Hebrew we call it the Mishkan. So we're just going to take a second and we're going to pray. Father in Yeshua's name, in Jesus' name, we thank you for your word. We love your word. Father, we declare that your word is truth. It's a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet. God, would you help us today to perceive deeper in the realm of eternal reality as we study the tabernacle in Yeshua's name. Amen and amen. As I began to minister the word of God all those years ago, one of the first things I began to teach as I was teaching on the Jewish roots of the Christian faith was the tabernacle. Let's begin just by setting the stage. If you've got your Bible, you can go there. We're going to put it up on the screen so you'll be able to read along with me. Don't let this pass over. Don't let it roll off your back. Listen carefully because this is so important. Hear the word of God. I'm going to Exodus 25. I'm going to begin reading there in verse number one and two. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, the word of the

Lord, the word of Yahweh abides forever. Remember the New Testament is built on the Hebrew Bible. Hear the word. Then the Lord, then Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for me from every man whose heart moves him. You shall raise my contribution. Now what was the contribution for? What was the, what was the contribution going to be used for? We're going to continue now in verse number eight and nine where the Lord tells us. Let them construct a sanctuary or a tabernacle or a mishkan for me, the Lord said. And here's the reason why, that I may dwell among them. So somehow in order for the Lord to dwell intimately with his people, this tabernacle had to be built. Let's read the next verse. The Lord continues, according to all that I'm going to show you as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct it. So the tabernacle was the place where Israel came to meet with the Lord. In fact, for the 40 years that Israel was in the wilderness, from the time that they left Egypt until the time that they entered the promised land, 40 years later, there was a visible cloud that hovered over the mishkan or tabernacle by day. And then as it began to turn dark outside, the cloud would transform into a fire. So the visible presence of the Lord hovered over the tabernacle for 40 years. In fact, the way that it operated, that 40 year wilderness journey, whenever the cloud and the fire remained over the tabernacle, Israel would stay at that place and remain encamped. And they didn't move as long as the fire and the cloud over the tabernacle didn't move. But eventually the cloud or the fire would move. And when the cloud and the fire would move, Israel would pick up camp and they would follow the cloud. They would follow the fire to wherever it stopped.

And when the cloud and the fire stopped, they would pitch the tabernacle there again. So this is just an extremely important thing to understand that God's presence is intimately connected with this tabernacle. And not only is it intimately connected with it, but even more so, it is intricately connected to the pattern by which the Lord instructed Moses to build it by. So listen again. Let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them and get this now, according to all. that I'm going to show you as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall build it. I want you to understand this. Listen. Every part of the tabernacle meant something. It all had spiritual significance. There's an interpretation to it. Why was it so big? Why was it so high? Why did certain pieces be constructed of this material, other pieces constructed of a different material? What did all the different pieces of furniture symbolize? It all means something. And that's what we're going to go into. Now this study that we're going to be doing on television, radio, it's kind of abbreviated. If you're interested in more details, I advise you to get my book The Mystery of the Tabernacle. It's available where books are sold online. You can find it. So let's begin by talking about the tabernacle and how do you enter it? Well the first thing that we want to point out is that there was a fence all around the tabernacle. You couldn't just wander into the tabernacle from 360 degrees, any direction, no. There was a fence all around it. The fence was 150 feet long and 75 feet wide. It was seven and a half feet tall. Now let's think about this. Remember God said, I want you to build this exactly according to the pattern that I'm showing you. The Lord told Israel to build a fence

around this mishkan, around this tabernacle. Now before I explain anything further, I want you to also hear me when I say that the book of Hebrews chapters 8, chapter 8, tells us that this mishkan, this tabernacle of Moses, was a pattern, Hebrews chapter 8, of heavenly things. So what does it mean? What is the heavenly thing that we understand by the fact that there was this fence all around the tabernacle so the people couldn't just approach it from any direction? The fence, beloved, symbolizes that there's a separation between entering the divine presence and mankind. Let me state it another way more simply. People can't just approach God on their own terms. We can't just approach the Lord any way we want to. We can't just be creators of our self-styled spirituality. No. There was only one way in through the fence. We're going to study that next. There was a fence around showing the separation between God and sinful humanity, and there was only one door in through that fence. You see, a fence keeps something out. If you have a property and you're in a neighborhood where you feel you're vulnerable, you might build a fence around your property to keep out what you don't want in. Thus is the case with the Lord. God is holy. We can't just approach him, you know, in the way that so many contemporary people, especially in the U.S., do. No. There's a separation between God and man, and there's only one way in. There was only one door into the tabernacle, and that symbolizes that Yeshua is who he said he was when he said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no man cometh to the father

except through me. Jesus said, everybody that came before me was a thief and the robber, but I am the door, and if anybody enters through me, they'll be saved. You see, Jesus is the bridge between a holy, loving God and mankind that fell from God's grace at the Garden of Eden. Jesus came in the love of the Father to bridge the gap and to become the door through which we can enter. See, when Moses met the Lord and the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush, God said to Moses, take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground. He's a holy God. God's a holy God. The fence shows us we just can't approach God in our, you know, we're drinking our cappuccinos in the pew and using God to achieve the American dream. It's a whole wrong concept of the gospel. No, the first thing we need to understand is that man's sin has separated him from a holy God. There's a fence. But in the love of God, he's made a way in. Jesus is the door, and Jesus is the way. You know, as believers in Him, we declare that we believe that. We declare that we believe, I am the way, Jesus said. I am the truth, and I am the life, and no man cometh to the Father but through me. If someone's a Bible-believing Christian, they would affirm that. But the truth is, don't some of us lack backbone? In other words, we go to church, we say we believe in Jesus, we say that He's the door, that He's the way, but yet when we get around people that don't believe in Him, how many of us are reluctant to state that Jesus is the only way to the Father? How many of us are timid about saying to the outside world the words of Jesus? Jesus said, unless you believe that I am He, Yeshua said, you will die in your sins. There was only one door into the Mishkan. There was only one door in.

It was a small door, relatively speaking. Jesus said, broad and wide is the way that leads to destruction, straight and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. And so we assert this as a declaration of the Christian faith, but the truth is, many people that self-identify as Christians, they're not really convinced that Yeshua is the only door. And this is proven by the fact that many of us don't share the Lord with other people or command it to. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. His last marching orders to the church were, preach the gospel to all creation, be witnesses. Tell people how to come into a relationship with the Father. Tell people how they can be delivered and made whole and healed. Tell people how they can have hope. Tell people how they can find peace and joy. Tell people how their life can come into order. Tell people how they can develop a personal relationship with God through the one way God has made, through his son. But many of us, because we don't really believe it enough, we don't tell people about it. But Jesus said he was the only way in. And the fact that there was only one door in to the tabernacle was a prophetic foreshadow of Jesus coming. He truly is that door. And when people enter through the door, they came to the tabernacle, because once again, if you wanted to have a relationship with God 3,500 years ago, when God gave Moses instructions to build this tabernacle, if someone wanted to have a relationship with God, if they wanted to experience God, how did they do it? They had to come to the tabernacle. That's where the visible presence of God was manifest. When they came to the tabernacle, again, they saw the fence, but there was a way in. There was one door in.

And when they entered through the door, the first thing they saw, the first piece of furniture was a brazen altar. Now what was that about? Remember, Hebrews 8, the tabernacle that Moses built was a shadow or a type of heavenly things. So somebody came because they wanted to draw near to the divine presence. They wanted to meet with Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, which is the God of Israel. They came to the tabernacle, they walked through the door, who's Jesus, and they came to a brazen altar. What did they do at the brazen altar? Well, when they walked through the door, they brought a sacrifice. The sacrifice was to die for the worshiper's sin. See, the scripture tells us the soul that sins, it shall die. God said to Adam, Adam, the day that you eat from the tree, you shall surely die. Once somebody sins, once somebody comes into contact with sin and receives into themselves their own actions, and then also because we've inherited from Adam, what happens is a separation from God instantly, and spiritual death is the ensuing result. The only way that can be resolved, the only solution and remedy for that problem is if an innocent one dies on behalf of the guilty. Why is it necessary for an innocent one to die on behalf of the guilty? for the guilty because the penalty for sin is death. And so the only way that you or I cannot die for our sin is if an innocent one would die in our place, he becomes the ransom. It's a it's a sacrificial atonement, a substitutionary sacrificial atonement. Someone dies on our behalf. Of course, we know this is what Yeshua did, but in the tabernacle, we see it. We see it demonstrated in prophetic form, because what happened at the tabernacle is when the worshiper walked through the door and came to the brazen altar, he brought his sacrifice with him. And if it was it depended on how much

means, how much monetary or wealth an individual had that determined what sacrifice they would bring, not everybody could afford the same type of sacrifice, but a person would bring their innocent animal. And the worshiper then would lay their hands. On the head of their animal, we read about this in the book of Leviticus, chapter one, and when the worshiper laid his hands on the head of the animal, the Hebrew conveys that he didn't just lightly touch the animal's head, but the worshiper literally pressed his way into the sacrifice, symbolically teaching us that the worshiper's sin was being translated into the animal that was about to die on the worshiper's behalf. Then after the worshiper laid his hands on the head of the animal, the priest would then bind the animal to the horns, the four horns at the brazen altar. Then the priest would put the sacrificed animal to death and they would take the blood of the animal, the sacrifice, and smeared around the four corners of the altar upon which the animal had been laid. The point, the worshiper was now able to continue in relationship with the holy God. Why? Because God loved him so much or her so much that he dealt with the worshiper's sin through the sacrificial system. Do you see how plain and easy, beloved it is? But I want to ask you as we close today, is that the gospel that you've been taught? Because many of us have not really been taught about how important it is to repent of our sin, to understand that we're sinners, to confess our sin to God, to turn away from it.

We think that God exists only to bless us, to give us a bigger house, to give us a better job, to help us get pregnant, to give us a husband, to give us a wife, to solve this problem, to solve that problem. And thank God he cares about everything in our lives. He's a loving father that gives good gifts to his children. But beloved, that's not where the gospel begins. The gospel begins with the fact that sin has separated man from God. That's why there's a fence around the tabernacle. But because God loves us, whom he created in his own image, mankind, he made a way into a relationship with him through the grace of providing for us a sacrifice, which was illustrated in primitive form in the tabernacle when the innocent animal died in the worshiper's place. It shows us the consequences of sin. And it also helps us understand, as we continue here in the next episode, it also helps us understand that sin must be turned away from and repented of if the sacrificial system is going to truly have merit for us, because the Bible says if we go on sinning willfully after receiving a knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a terrifying expectation of judgment. This is the gospel, beloved. God has forgiven us for our sin through the blood of his son, which was demonstrated in primitive form in the tabernacle. And we need to recognize the seriousness of this and the gospel that we preach to people must be accurate. It begins with sin, repentance and drawing near to God. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people,

I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. Ya'er ya'weh panayv eylecha v'chuneycha Yissa ya'weh panayv eylecha ve'asem lecha Shalom The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by His countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and Shalom.