Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Numbers, Chapters 1-2 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
Numbers 1: 1-4; … 17-19 : … [God Calls His Children to Order] … 1 The LORD spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: 2 “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. 3 You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army. 4 One man from each tribe, each of them the head of his family, is to help you.
>>> 17 Moses and Aaron took these men whose names had been specified, 18 and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people registered their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one, 19 as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 2: 1-2, 17 : … [God Readies His Tribes for the Journey] … 1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 2 “The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family.”
>>> 17 Then the tent of meeting and the camp of the Levites will set out in the middle of the camps. They will set out in the same order as they encamp, each in their own place under their standard.
>>> 34 So the Israelites did everything the LORD commanded Moses; that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the way they set out, each of them with their clan and family.
My Journal for Today: Well, … the chronological reading plan moves out of all those rules in Leviticus into the Book of Numbers; and now we begin to see the monumental task ahead for Moses, Aaron, and God’s people to get packed and to journey TOGETHER through the wilderness to where God’s promise was taking His chosen people, the Israelites.
And if one studies and meditates, as I have this morning, on all of God’s organizational orders in Numbers, chapters 1-2, you have to be impressed with how God laid out the packing and pecking orders for the journey. From just in the passages which I’ve copied above, you see that the people had to be counted/documented, ordered into tribes, and placed strategically for the journey in a specific encampment order. And did you note that all of the tribes, which were ordered by family and tribal banner to help them identify and stay ordered for the journey, were placed carefully around the exterior of God’s ordering for the travels ahead. And note where God places the Tabernacle, the Ark where the Lord was to reside during the journey, as well as the leadership of the people; yes, … right in the center of the encampment. This, of course, placed all the people, in this social/geographical arrangement, where they all could see that God was at the center of everything, leading His children, under the guidance of Moses and the Levites. God had His Tabernacle where it could be prominent and protected and where everyone could see where God was leading His people … i.e., toward the promised land.
All of this, I believe is a picture of how God wants His New Covenant CHURCH to be at the center of our world as we sojourn to His promised land … and that is, of course, heaven. God wants His church, the physical representation of His tabernacle in the world today, to be at the center of His world as we journey in this land where we must travel through the trials of life. And we know and can see what God’s primary enemy, Satan (and his system, the world), is doing everything that can be done to tear down the walls of protection for God’s church in the world. In fact, Satan is doing all he can to infiltrate His church and get into the Holy of Holies, which has been implanted into the hearts of God’s people.
But God’s Tabernacle, in the Person of God’s Spirit, is still at the center of the encampment of His true sojourners as they trek to the Promised Land. He resides in the center of my Spiritual being, my heart; and as long as I keep my heart protected and at the center of my Spiritual well-being, I will be able to follow my God as He leads me to His promised land, which is my destination, just as was depicted by the organizations of Numbers 1-2.
My Prayer Today: … Lord, keep my heart of heart, Your Holy of Holies, protected and at the center of my being as I travel through life, following You. Amen
Showing posts with label Holy of Holies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy of Holies. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
February 18, 2012 - Atonement
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Leviticus, Chapters 16-18 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
Leviticus 16: 1-5; … 34 : … [Priestly Preparation for Atonement] … 1 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. 2 The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. >>> 3 “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. >>> … 34 “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.” And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses.
My Journal for Today: There are several good lessons to which I’m drawn to comment in this blog for my devotional journal today from these three chapters in Leviticus which I’m led to study and meditate upon today during my chronological reading plan. Certainly the teachings in Leviticus 18 about sexual sin would be grist for my blog, especially since I was called by God many years ago to found and co-lead a ministry to help Christians find healing and restoration from patterns of sexual sin. However, the section upon which I was drawn to blog today is that at the outset of this three chapters, having to do with God’s instructions to Moses and Aaron about how the Day of Atonement was to be carried out annually, especially the preparations Aaron, as the High Priest, was to make to carry out this ritual of propitiation for sins, i.e., the atonement sacrifice.
The Day of Atonement was to be the most necessary and carefully observed of all of the religious remembrances God had set up in the Levitical system for the Israelites. And at this time it was the only way that God’s people could be “covered” for their sinful nature and practices. God was setting up a way for these sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, with their sinful natures, to have their sins “covered” in a carefully calculated celebration of God’s love, mercy, and grace. And if, in preparing for this ceremony of propitiation, Aaron – or any subsequent high priest – were to try to enter the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle for this blood ”covering” ritual, he would die, … Aaron’s preparation showing the people just how serious was this atonement ceremony annually.
I’m drawn to meditate on this today because God is so careful with His Old Testament details when He, The LORD, is painting pictures which foreshadow the coming work of His Messiah for His children. When God is showing His children how their sins can be “covered,” He is painting pictures of what His Son, the Lamb of God, would do with His blood sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind. And actually this picture of the atoning grace of God, through Christ’s sacrifice, began to be painted with the “covering” of the ark which Noah was asked to build.
You may have noticed above that each time I typed the term “covered” or “covering,” I emphasized it with bold type and quotations. I did that because the same term in Hebrew, ”kaphar.” which we find used in Genesis 6: 14 [linked here] as instructions for the tar or pitch which God instructed Noah to use to cover the ark, which was to save mankind through Noah’s family, is the same term used in Leviticus to describe the ceremony of atonement which was to be used to save God’s people through the “covering” they would received by the atoning blood sacrifice in the Holy of Holies, so carefully offered by Levitical High Priesthood from the line of Aaron.
And we know – or should know and reverently remember – that we Christians are now of that line of royal priesthood, and our sins have been ”covered” - “kaphar” in Hebrew – with the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. That’s why these pictures in Levitcus, no matter how boring they may seem as we read through them over and over, are such rich word pictures of the One Who came and died on that cross so that you and I could have our sinfulness ”covered” FOREVER by the atoning blood sacrifice of God’s perfect Lamb.
Our sins are ”covered”; and we can – with proper cleansing and preparation – enter the Holy of Holies, which now resides in our hearts, anytime and anyplace and we can be cleansed and made right before God’s throne of grace. And that is because of the ”kaphar” of our Lord and Savior on that cross. His blood ”covers” us all; and I am His priest, coming into His Holy of Holies to remember His atoning grace today. Come with me, dear one; and let’s pray >>>
My Prayer Today: … Most Holy,… Lamb of God, we come into Your presence today knowing that You have shed Your blood – once and for all - that our sins are ”covered” forever by Your sacrifice of atoning grace. Amen
Leviticus 16: 1-5; … 34 : … [Priestly Preparation for Atonement] … 1 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. 2 The LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. >>> 3 “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. >>> … 34 “This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.” And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses.
My Journal for Today: There are several good lessons to which I’m drawn to comment in this blog for my devotional journal today from these three chapters in Leviticus which I’m led to study and meditate upon today during my chronological reading plan. Certainly the teachings in Leviticus 18 about sexual sin would be grist for my blog, especially since I was called by God many years ago to found and co-lead a ministry to help Christians find healing and restoration from patterns of sexual sin. However, the section upon which I was drawn to blog today is that at the outset of this three chapters, having to do with God’s instructions to Moses and Aaron about how the Day of Atonement was to be carried out annually, especially the preparations Aaron, as the High Priest, was to make to carry out this ritual of propitiation for sins, i.e., the atonement sacrifice.
The Day of Atonement was to be the most necessary and carefully observed of all of the religious remembrances God had set up in the Levitical system for the Israelites. And at this time it was the only way that God’s people could be “covered” for their sinful nature and practices. God was setting up a way for these sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, with their sinful natures, to have their sins “covered” in a carefully calculated celebration of God’s love, mercy, and grace. And if, in preparing for this ceremony of propitiation, Aaron – or any subsequent high priest – were to try to enter the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle for this blood ”covering” ritual, he would die, … Aaron’s preparation showing the people just how serious was this atonement ceremony annually.
I’m drawn to meditate on this today because God is so careful with His Old Testament details when He, The LORD, is painting pictures which foreshadow the coming work of His Messiah for His children. When God is showing His children how their sins can be “covered,” He is painting pictures of what His Son, the Lamb of God, would do with His blood sacrifice to atone for the sins of mankind. And actually this picture of the atoning grace of God, through Christ’s sacrifice, began to be painted with the “covering” of the ark which Noah was asked to build.
You may have noticed above that each time I typed the term “covered” or “covering,” I emphasized it with bold type and quotations. I did that because the same term in Hebrew, ”kaphar.” which we find used in Genesis 6: 14 [linked here] as instructions for the tar or pitch which God instructed Noah to use to cover the ark, which was to save mankind through Noah’s family, is the same term used in Leviticus to describe the ceremony of atonement which was to be used to save God’s people through the “covering” they would received by the atoning blood sacrifice in the Holy of Holies, so carefully offered by Levitical High Priesthood from the line of Aaron.
And we know – or should know and reverently remember – that we Christians are now of that line of royal priesthood, and our sins have been ”covered” - “kaphar” in Hebrew – with the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. That’s why these pictures in Levitcus, no matter how boring they may seem as we read through them over and over, are such rich word pictures of the One Who came and died on that cross so that you and I could have our sinfulness ”covered” FOREVER by the atoning blood sacrifice of God’s perfect Lamb.
Our sins are ”covered”; and we can – with proper cleansing and preparation – enter the Holy of Holies, which now resides in our hearts, anytime and anyplace and we can be cleansed and made right before God’s throne of grace. And that is because of the ”kaphar” of our Lord and Savior on that cross. His blood ”covers” us all; and I am His priest, coming into His Holy of Holies to remember His atoning grace today. Come with me, dear one; and let’s pray >>>
My Prayer Today: … Most Holy,… Lamb of God, we come into Your presence today knowing that You have shed Your blood – once and for all - that our sins are ”covered” forever by Your sacrifice of atoning grace. Amen
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
February 7, 2012 … Building The Tabernacle
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Exodus, Chapters 25-27 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
Exodus 25: 8-9, 40 … : … [God’s Place of Residence] … [Yahweh’s Instructions to Moses] … 8 “Then have them [i.e., specially selected craftsmen from God’s people] make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. … 40 See that you make them [i.e., everything in the tabernacle] according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
==========
Exodus 26: 31-33 … : … [Setting the Holy Place] … 31 “Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. 32 Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. 33 Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place."
==========
Exodus 27: 1 … : … [God’s Altar of Sacrifice and Atonement] … [More of God’s Instructions to Moses] … 1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide."
==========
My Journal for Today: Okay, … for those who’ve taken your time to read what God (I believe) has given me to write in this blog through Exodus, admittedly the second book of Moses can get a bit tedious; but that doesn’t detract from it’s importance. For example, in the next few days I’m going to be plowing through God’s description – to Moses and to God’s people – of how they should build THE TABERNACLE, … that place where God was going to reside as God’s people journeyed to the promised land. And there was great detail in Yahweh’s description through Moses and his scribes to the craftsmen who would do the building of the Tabernacle. And this detail can seem – on the surface – as tedious and non-essential reading. But stick in there and read these chapters (linked for you as usual above); because there are several reasons for the importance of all of this description. And the commentary that I use as I read along in my chronological study this year describes these three reasons why all of this is important. Therefore, quoting from the Parsons Online Commentary, it offers the following description as to why God gave such detailed instructions for His dwelling place.
>>> “First, the high quality of the precious materials making up the Tabernacle shows God’s greatness and transcendence. >>> Second, the curtain surrounding the Most Holy Place shows God’s moral perfection as symbolized by his separation from the common and unclean. >>> Third, the portable nature of the Tabernacle shows God’s desire to be with his people as they traveled.”
Those truths are worthy enough for us to pay attention as God also gives us a physical description of the most important reason He was building this tabernacle for His dwelling; and that was as a picture of the place His Son, Jesus, … the Messiah, … would dwell one day in the hearts of believers like you and me. And in this description, which we’ll be reading about in the next chapters of Exodus, we begin to see that Yahweh, as the the Messiah, would one day dwell in the hearts of His disciples as our place of worship and sacrifice.
Think about it, fellow Christian. As Parson’s Commentary again puts it, ” When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the curtain in the Temple (which had replaced the Tabernacle) tore from top to bottom (see Mark 15:38), symbolizing our free access to God because of Jesus’ death. No longer did people have to approach God through priests and sacrifices.”
… And now, dear one, because of Jesus, the living tabernacle, we can come into the Holy of Holies anytime, any place, for anything. I have the Tabernacle and the High Priest, in Person of Christ, in my heart; and I don’t need a human high priest to bring my blood sacrifice to God’s altar of grace. No, every day … every moment … becomes my living sacrifice on God’s holy altar of worship in my heart; because Jesus made the ultimate - and last - blood sacrifice on Calvary so that He could (and does) tabernacle in my heart, which is His Holy of Holies.
ISN’T THIS MAGNIFICENT!! And it certainly brings pertinence and power to the reading in Exodus of all the details of God wanting His tabernacle for His people to be so perfect and infinitely special.
My Prayer Today: … Lord, thank You for dwelling in the Tabernacle of my heart where I can become and be a living sacrifice before Your altar of grace. Amen
Exodus 25: 8-9, 40 … : … [God’s Place of Residence] … [Yahweh’s Instructions to Moses] … 8 “Then have them [i.e., specially selected craftsmen from God’s people] make a sanctuary for Me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. … 40 See that you make them [i.e., everything in the tabernacle] according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."
==========
Exodus 26: 31-33 … : … [Setting the Holy Place] … 31 “Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. 32 Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. 33 Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place."
==========
Exodus 27: 1 … : … [God’s Altar of Sacrifice and Atonement] … [More of God’s Instructions to Moses] … 1 “Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide."
==========
My Journal for Today: Okay, … for those who’ve taken your time to read what God (I believe) has given me to write in this blog through Exodus, admittedly the second book of Moses can get a bit tedious; but that doesn’t detract from it’s importance. For example, in the next few days I’m going to be plowing through God’s description – to Moses and to God’s people – of how they should build THE TABERNACLE, … that place where God was going to reside as God’s people journeyed to the promised land. And there was great detail in Yahweh’s description through Moses and his scribes to the craftsmen who would do the building of the Tabernacle. And this detail can seem – on the surface – as tedious and non-essential reading. But stick in there and read these chapters (linked for you as usual above); because there are several reasons for the importance of all of this description. And the commentary that I use as I read along in my chronological study this year describes these three reasons why all of this is important. Therefore, quoting from the Parsons Online Commentary, it offers the following description as to why God gave such detailed instructions for His dwelling place.
>>> “First, the high quality of the precious materials making up the Tabernacle shows God’s greatness and transcendence. >>> Second, the curtain surrounding the Most Holy Place shows God’s moral perfection as symbolized by his separation from the common and unclean. >>> Third, the portable nature of the Tabernacle shows God’s desire to be with his people as they traveled.”
Those truths are worthy enough for us to pay attention as God also gives us a physical description of the most important reason He was building this tabernacle for His dwelling; and that was as a picture of the place His Son, Jesus, … the Messiah, … would dwell one day in the hearts of believers like you and me. And in this description, which we’ll be reading about in the next chapters of Exodus, we begin to see that Yahweh, as the the Messiah, would one day dwell in the hearts of His disciples as our place of worship and sacrifice.
Think about it, fellow Christian. As Parson’s Commentary again puts it, ” When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the curtain in the Temple (which had replaced the Tabernacle) tore from top to bottom (see Mark 15:38), symbolizing our free access to God because of Jesus’ death. No longer did people have to approach God through priests and sacrifices.”
… And now, dear one, because of Jesus, the living tabernacle, we can come into the Holy of Holies anytime, any place, for anything. I have the Tabernacle and the High Priest, in Person of Christ, in my heart; and I don’t need a human high priest to bring my blood sacrifice to God’s altar of grace. No, every day … every moment … becomes my living sacrifice on God’s holy altar of worship in my heart; because Jesus made the ultimate - and last - blood sacrifice on Calvary so that He could (and does) tabernacle in my heart, which is His Holy of Holies.
ISN’T THIS MAGNIFICENT!! And it certainly brings pertinence and power to the reading in Exodus of all the details of God wanting His tabernacle for His people to be so perfect and infinitely special.
My Prayer Today: … Lord, thank You for dwelling in the Tabernacle of my heart where I can become and be a living sacrifice before Your altar of grace. Amen
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