Answers in Genesis--Fall 2016--Lesson 11, Worship in the Tabernacle

We got Quite a bit of ground to cover today and. And, one hour classes are hard to get it all in, so we gotta, we gotta move. Let's start with a word of prayer. You, Heavenly Father, are an amazing God.

And one of the more amazing things is how you reach down to us. How you Have You have inserted yourself into our lives in such a gracious and wonderful way. And Lord, as we Look at your word today. May our, our minds, our, our eyes, our hearts be open to what you have revealed to us and help us to be filled with that sense of awe.

And And comfort and yet reverence before you. Because you are so good to us. We ask that your Spirit would teach us and guide us in, in the things that we have to learn today, and we ask this in the name of your Son. Amen.

All right. Today, we'll be looking at the tabernacle and one of the, the questions that we will try to answer. Excuse me. is how the tabernacle points to Christ.

And, so we'll be looking at that. We are in a program called, and we're in the middle of it called the Seven Seas of History. We're in a state of confusion. this is where the nations have been spread apart.

And now we're in the, the time of God is building a nation. of building a nation that's specific. to be a light to the other nations. That nation is to, be the one that, that God uses.

To, to bless the rest of the world as his promise was to Abraham. So we're now, in lesson 11, worship in the tabernacle. That's what we'll be looking at today. And so, let's do a little bit of review of the last few weeks.

we looked at God's sovereignty over history and what we have seen is, God's sovereign hand in sending Joseph into slavery. If you remember that story, you remember how the way Joseph summed it up was with his brothers. You meant what you did for evil, but God meant it for good. And we looked at that principle of the sovereignty of God, how God Even through the evil acts of mankind accomplishes his will.

He uses their evil acts to do the good that he's going to do. And so we, we saw in Joseph's life, that he's not in Egypt by accident or he's not in Egypt because of the wickedness of his brothers. He's in Egypt because God put him there. And he went through all the stuff that he went through to end up being the prime minister of Egypt.

And so, Joseph, was the one, that we see God's sovereign hand working through. the next one that we looked at. Was that I was Israel in Egypt by mistake. And we saw, we see, we saw in Genesis 15 where God told Abraham, his descendants would be in Egypt.

And they would be there for 400 years and they would endure hardship. They would be in bondage, in fact. so God not only knew, but God purposed for them to go through all of that. we can trust God when His people are favored by the culture in which they live and then even when his people fall into disfavor.

And those are lessons that we take for ourselves. That sometimes we're in good times, sometimes we're gonna be not in good times. Either way, we trust God. And that was, that's the lesson that we see that God is sovereign over history.

We have seen his sovereign hand at work. In saving the life of a condemned baby who would one day become the leader of a new nation. Moses was supposed to be killed by decree of the king. And yet, the mother chose to, to save him and and hid him and then put him in that little basket and floated him down the river and he was then picked up by Potiphar's or not Potiphar, by the Pharaoh's daughter.

And he's rescued and grows up in the, in the palace of the king. So we see that what a remarkable story that God's sovereignty does. God sovereignly works. And, and that's the one that God chooses to be probably the most amazing leader in history.

to lead these people, Out of Egypt We saw God's mighty arm rest Israel. From bondage, deliver them through the Red Sea. And then destroy the mightiest army of the Middle East. One of the things we talked about in that, that scenario in the destruction of the armies of Egypt.

there's really two things that, that God was accomplishing there, at least 2 things. and that is, God is demonstrating. for the nations of Canaan. His power And so we read about, even when they, when they approached Jericho more than 40 years later.

They're still living off the fear of what they heard about what happened to the Egypt Egyptian army. they, they know that this God who's with this people group. is very powerful. Now, these are polytheistic people and so that doesn't mean that they're gonna fall down in repentance to the God of Israel.

They're not ready for that. they're gonna be stubborn and hold out. But the, the fear of this God is gonna go before them. So that's one of the things that gets accomplished with the destruction of the, of the Egyptian army.

Another thing is Egypt had been a power of the Middle East and would continue to be a power of the Middle East for centuries. But for this period of time, They're taken out of the picture. And so Israel, the people of Israel would not have to be concerned with an Egyptian army coming up through those trade routes, up through the what we call the Palestine area now. They wouldn't have to be concerned with them cause they're gonna have to rebuild their army.

They have to build all new chariots. They're gonna build, have to rebuild and, and, and train new soldiers. And they're going to have to get over. The, the consequence of having com their army completely wiped out.

At least the portion of the army that Pharaoh took with him to, to, to bring back the Israelites to Egypt. So, God shows his great power, his sovereignty over history and how he is the one who controls events. And so it's been a very powerful lesson and lessons that we've been seeing through our study in, in these passages, in this section. Last week, We looked at some events that happened at Mount Sinai, and so I, I pose these questions to you.

So first of all, what do the events at Mount Sinai tell us about God? As you remember, they're camped around Mount Sinai and, and God is Very demonstrative. So what does it tell us about God? Oh, His Holiness?

OK. Right Yes, His holiness and, and, and it's very powerfully displayed, right? What else does it tell us about God? His Omniscience.

He knows everything. OK. Anything else? OK.

He wants to connect with the people. Right. So he, he's not staying distant, is he? He, he's, he's actually becoming quite personal.

In some of their minds a little too personal. It's pretty scary. OK. What else?

Well, one of the things that he's really awesome. He's up on that mountain and, and, what he's demonstrating there, he's not literally showing himself, but he's showing some of his attributes. And so the mountain is shaking, there's flame, there's smoke, and there's thunder and, and lightning and, and all of these things and, and so they, and, and he tells them, don't touch the mountain. In fact, he, he tells Moses, put a border around the mountain.

so I'm picturing in my mind yellow tape, the caution tape, the, but they're, they're, putting a border around it so that they won't even go close to it, either human or animal. Nothing is to touch, no living person is to touch. the mountain or they will die. the, the, as Joe said, he's holy, that's part of the holiness of God.

see, we're not holy. And, and so for us to approach God in that way, we have to be very cautious because, because God, His holiness is like this great power that just, is, is it describes in, in, in Exodus, it just breaks out. And, and, and so, he's not to be approached lightly. And so that is Another aspect that we see of God, another one that I see there is that he has the right to establish law.

That is a very, that it, it's a position of power, isn't it? The right to establish law. And so, in, in our cultures, our societies, we have leaders, at least in our country that we elect to establish law. They're chosen people.

That is a position of power. And the law is something that's supposed to be above us and that, that we obey, that we look to and, and that we follow. In, in this sense, God is, is the one who's establishing law and there is no one higher than him. His law is over everything.

And so he's the one who has the ability. He doesn't meet in a conference. He doesn't negotiate with Moses and Aaron and, the 70 elders. He doesn't, put together a committee to, to write down, what do we, how do we want to rule ourselves?

No, he just says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before you. And, and, and he begins to list the 10 Commandments. And then later on, he gives more laws up there on the mountain.

Excuse me, more instruction for them to follow. He has the right to do that because he is God. So we see some, some pretty amazing parts about God, things that, that stick out to us. What do the events at Sinai tell us about mankind?

I'm sorry? We're not God. That's right. We're obstinate, yeah.

That's definitely true. What else? Stiff-necked. Yup.

Even if we get the spirit to be willing, the, the, the flesh is holding us back, isn't it? Somebody over here at Right, we should fear God. We don't measure up to God. That's one of the things that, that they were feeling.

This, this supernatural presence that is so huge. And I feel so small. I feel weak and helpless, and that is the appropriate feeling to have when you see God. That we cannot approach us, approach God.

God actually approached them. Right? so the way we meet God is not from our choosing, but it's from God's choosing. God is the one who chooses to meet with men.

And so, they, they learn some, some very, powerful lessons. At least they get to see some things. but as, as human beings are, they are also fickle and, and weak. That's another thing that gets discovered there about mankind is, is that they are, very weak.

What is the connection between the law and the gospel? This is another thing we looked at last week. OK, that's good. The, the law tells us why we need the gospel.

The law is exposing, it's like shining a light into the darkness and we're seeing, oh. I got this problem and that problem. I fail here, I fail there. I need help.

God is holy, we already said. It's been already been established. God is holy. I don't measure up to His holiness.

And so yes, we need the gospel. So, the connection there is the law does its work to expose our need and the gospel is the, the, salvation, the, the means to our, to meeting that need. And so, the gospel does give, give that to us. All right, we're going to today's material.

And one of the, the first things that we notice as we read about the tabernacle, the building of the tabernacle, the instructions of the tabernacle is the precision of God. God gives very precise instructions, very clear instructions on how he wants things done. And, and one of the things he's establishing also are the rules of the relationship. Between man and God.

and, and the rules of the relationship are going to, to a large degree center around the tabernacle. a lot of those, that, at least the ones we'll be looking at here, will be centering around the tabernacle. And this tabernacle that's going to be built. is going to be a point of connection.

Between man and God. we're looking a lot at that, in our lesson today. And it's also not just a, a place, a point of connection, but it's also a manner of, of connection. There's gonna be certain procedures and policies, things that are gonna, need to, protocols, if you will, a way for men to follow.

To meet with God. You don't just walk in and knock on the door and say, God, are you home? Can I, can we talk or you wanna go do something? It's not like that.

there are certain ways of, of, of coming to God and so those are gonna be explained. In, in this whole thing. We're also gonna see. That even here, We're gonna see something that Jesus talks about later in his ministry.

And that is, he was explaining to the woman at the well, John chapter 4. she's bringing up the question of where do we worship? Because here we're, we're seeing established a place of connection, right? And Jesus is going to clarify something that too many of us lose because we get As human beings, we tend to be external.

we hide what's internal and we tend to do our religion on the outside. and it's not always for, other people to see, it's just how we live. We tend to be really external and Jesus said the day is coming and it is even now, when they that worship God must worship Him. How?

Right, in spirit and in truth. And There, he, he does, I believe, give some explanation of that. In the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Think about.

Those beatitudes, the things that he listed of how we come to God, all had to do with what's inside of us. Beginning with blessed are the poor in spirit. The bankrupt, those who recognize. Their poverty before God, that I have nothing to give to God, I have nothing with which to please God.

I am bankrupt. Blessed are those people who recognize that. For theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn.

For they shall be comforted. When we are confronted with our sin. There should be grief. There should be mourning.

That's the right response to our sin is mourning and grief. Think about the bringing of a sacrifice to the tabernacle or later to the temple, and you go to your flock. And you pick out the best one. The one who, that's perfect, that has no blemishes, because that's what God requires.

It requires the best of your flock. So you pick out the best one, and that's money to you. This, this, this flock, this is your inventory. this is money to you.

You pick out the best one. And if you are the good shepherd, you care about your flock, you care about their well-being, you care about them, you get attached, you have some connection to them. You take that, lamb Carry it To the place of, of worship. And you have it offered up as a sacrifice.

It is killed. Its blood is sprinkled on the altar. It's, it's, flesh is burned before God. Those are reminders of the heaviness and the grief.

Of our sin And if we don't mourn over our sin, we don't have a chance of ever getting past our sin. It will always own us. We need to grieve over that. That's a healthy thing for us to do.

Because what does God say? or Jesus said in here, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. That word comfort Means to be given power. They should be strengthened.

And so it's through our grieving of our sin. That we get help. That's our therapy. That's our way to power over those sins.

Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful.

See, worshiping in spirit and truth involves being in truth with God, being honest with God. Having that sense of, of coming to God. Not hiding, but being honest with him and being open with him. And so God is gonna be demanding of that, to be demanding that of his people, Israel, as they begin this system.

So we have here, the place of sacrifice, but I'd like you to turn with me to, to Leviticus. Chapter 16, we'll see a connection between What goes on At the tabernacle. To what Christ did for us. OK, verse 11.

He says then Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his household, and he shall slaughter the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself. He shall take a fire pan full of coals of fire from upon the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground sweet incense and bring it inside the veil. He shall put the incense on the, on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony, otherwise he will die.

Moreover, he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side.

Also, in front of the mercy seat, he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger 7 times. Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people. And bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull. And sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

He shall make atonement for the holy place because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities. When he goes in to make atonement, he, in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides.

With his finger, he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it 7 times and cleanse it, and from the impurities of the sons of Israel consecrate it.

When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tenant meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the life goat. And confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

This is The day that became known as Yom Kippur. The Day of Atonement. Happens once a year. And every year, they would offer this sacrifice, go through this ceremony.

to symbolize a covering of their sins. And so the, the symbolic work here is meant to demonstrate to the people the heaviness of their sin. And yet God is making a way. But there still is something that's not full with this, and it won't be fully realized until Christ comes.

And so let's look over in Hebrews. Chapter 10 And we begin reading in verse one. Since for the law, since it is only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers, having once been cleansed would no longer have consciousness of the sins.

But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come.

In the scroll of the book, it is written to me to do your will, oh God. After saying above sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have not desired nor have you taken pleasure in them which are offered according to the law, then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, that being Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins, for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. Waiting from that time onward until, until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

So their understanding, even at this time, in fact, these quotes, they are from Psalms, they knew that the, the, the sacrifices. We're not Completing the work. They knew that they were just symbolic, that there was just something there, that there had to be something more. They did not know exactly what that was because the prophetic things that are notices they were given.

didn't make that clear. There were, there are certain indications and for us as we look back on it, we can see, from the prophet Isaiah. We can see from Psalm 22, we can see from different places, the, the indications and, and, and really pretty clear, prophecies about the suffering Messiah. But for them, for some reason, it, it wasn't.

They knew there had to be something more. But By faith They would follow after this, trusting in what God was going to do. And really it's not that much different for us. By faith, we trust in what God has done.

It's just a matter of, of past tense or, or present tense, or future tense. we trust in that. It, it's still by faith. It's trusting in it by faith and so for them it was the same way.

Now In Exodus 25 to 31, we see here God's instructions up in this section of scripture, Moses is up on the mountain, the first time, receiving the 10 Commandments, also receiving a lot of instructions. And so, we're gonna kinda highlight some of those. We're not gonna read through all those chapters, but I do recommend it to you. Because there is some great stuff here.

You, you, especially if you're the person Who likes to, to make things, build things, whether it's carpentry, whether it's you're, you sew fabrics together, whatever it is, just to see, the, the construction, how things were going to fit together, is, is a fascinating thing. And so if you like to, to do any work with your hands, it, it's a great thing to, to read through and, and to see what they were gonna be doing. but in, in, Exodus 25 to 31, we see some things that they're gonna do.

First of all, there's gonna be a collection of raw materials.

If you're gonna do any construction, you're gonna have to have something to work with, right? And so, God gives a list of things they're going to need. it's a great list. And, so one of the things that's on there that I think is, is pretty amazing is, the acacia wood.

The acacia wood, I have for a long time wondered where in the world did they get all this wood? They're gonna build stuff with? Cause it's gonna be, not only what the implements are made of, like for instance, the Ark of the Covenant. The box is made of acacia wood.

The poles to carry it are made with acacia wood. But that's just one of many things. All of the boards, that are made, they're planks. They're used for the, for the walls of the tabernacle.

All of the, the walls are, that, that goes around the courtyard, all made of acacia wood. And these are not little planks, these are big planks. And so where are they gonna get all that? well, I've been to Home Depot and then they don't have any of this stuff.

Acacia wood, from what I have, read, is a tree, a acacia tree. It is something that grows in, in, that area. around, it grows, of course, like any other trees around where there's water. So, if there's springs, in, in some area, some location, there would likely be, along with palm trees, acacia trees.

it said that the, the trunk of the tree could grow up to 20 ft. So you would have the length and 24 inches in diameter. So you're gonna get some pretty good sized planks out of that. how they milled it, I don't know.

But I do know this. These are people who have been doing construction for a long time, right? that's their hard labor. That's their bondage, in, in Egypt.

They've been building stuff. And I'm pretty sure that when they left, they took a lot of tools with them. And so They would have that, they would have knowledge of construction. They would know how to put things together, and they probably knew how to mill wood.

Somehow, I'm sure. It wasn't easy. if you're ever into mills that we have today, it's really cool. especially if you like the smell of sawdust, but, which I do, but, it's, they can take that tree and, and, they actually can program it into a computer and the computer controls all the blades, the cuts, they, and they can maximize their use of it.

Now, I'm pretty sure they didn't have that ability. So they would need a lot more trees, right? It's not gonna be as efficient as, as we can make it. One of the things about the acacia tree that's, that's really good for what they're doing.

I it's a very tight grained wood. Which means, and it's a hardwood, it, it withstands against rot, against moisture, and also against insects that can go in and eat it up. It's very, it, it lasts a long time. Probably make a great flooring for your house.

if you wanted to import some acacia wood for your house. I don't know how it stains though, so I don't, I can't help you with that. But, but, Anyway, that's one of the things. Another item that they needed was linen for the garments, for the priests, for some of the hangings that they would have.

Where would they get linen? Linen is made out of cotton. there's no cotton fields out there in the desert, but The best cotton in the world. Comes from Egypt.

I'm sure They took a lot of fabric and, and stuff made from that Egyptian cotton. And had that with them. So when they're to, to bring their offerings, they had plenty of everything. In fact, when you read the account of the actual collection that takes place, it was over a period of days and the people who are doing the actual construction came to Moses and said, tell them to stop.

We got too much stuff already. And, as every pastor knows, that never happens in church. But anyway, That's one of the, the really interesting things. Then you see the design for the Ark of the Covenant.

How it is to be made. And as I said, it's the, the box was made of acacia wood. Then it was covered in gold. And then rings on the sides for the poles.

The, the top, however, the mercy seat was pure gold. Which Would make it top heavy. Which would explain why when later on, David is trying to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and it's on the back of that cart, and it's bouncing around. They're afraid it's gonna fall off.

why it's bouncing around like that? It's because it's top heavy. And God designed it to be carried on poles. That was the problem that they had., a lot of really, cool things you can find out when you read through this, list of things.

There was a design for the table of bread of the presents, commonly in our time called the, the Table of show bread. 62 rows of 6 loaves of bread on it for each tribe of, of Israel. And so, that was gonna be inside of it. There was a design for the golden lampstand.

The design for the various coverings, the veils, the coverings that go over the outside, everything. All those fabrics and so on, the colors that were specified by God, the sizes, everything is specified by God. The design for the walls and the courtyard borders, that's all those standing wood and, and, and everything, remember, is, is made. Without a permanent foundation.

So, there's the, the, the standing wood is gonna be standing inside stands of silver, and it's gonna have pegs that go down into slots, and, and that's how they're gonna stand and be solid. Very cool designs. Designed for the bronze altar that's gonna be out in the courtyard. The design of the priestly garments, very specific in how they're to be made.

For the, the, the instructions for the consecration of the priests, you'll read in this section. The design of the altar of incense. and then the exclusive formulas. I, I always think this is so fascinating, the exclusive formulas for the incense and the anointing oil and how God says, It's only to be used here.

Do not duplicate it for anywhere else. And only use this formula here. Don't use anything else. Don't come up with your own, fancy designs, which was a problem later on because Aaron's two oldest sons.

Decided to play around with it. And and so they ended up dying. God killed them because of that. And one of the things this tells us is, this is called the strange fire that was offered by Nadab and Abayou.

We see that God is not Careless or casual, and he's not, he doesn't want us to approach worship in a careless and casual way. nor is it to be done with our own agendas. God was, was building or was constructing a specific manner of worship for these people. And I think there's, there are powerful lessons for us as well.

That, that we don't approach God carelessly or casually., like he's our, our best fishing buddy or something. God is, is not like that. And we need to remember who he is as we come to worship and that, that he has the rights to say how this wor worship is to be. And the last item is the calling out of the two craftsmen.

These are the ones that are going to lead the whole project. And. What's special about these two people, these two men, is that it describes them as having special giftings. And It it is as if their craftsmanship is a spiritual gift.

And so it makes me think about, all the people I've known who've been really good at making stuff, good with their hands. They can, just from, from their mind, think of things and, and, and build them and they're really good. they can have their own design, and they can build it, and then, and it works and it's beautiful and, and so on. And, that is a gift from God.

it's not because They made themselves to be special like that. God gifted them with that. God gifts humanity with people. who are good at building things.

And God chose these two men. To lead this project and to see it through, to be finished to the exact specifications that, that he had laid out. And, and, even in our work, whether, whatever you do, when we go to work and we do our job, we're to see ourselves as, as doing God's work. That, The, the gifts of God.

Even the spiritual gifts of God are not just, singing up here or, or, or preaching a sermon, but they're also the work of the hands of Monday through Friday. Of, of the things that we do that sometimes we see as being so mundane and so common. But they're the work of God. And, and God is the one who gifts us to do the things that we do.

Then we see. I think the overall big picture of what God is doing. And that is the idea of Emmanuel. God is going to put his tent.

In the middle of the congregation. And he's going to dwell with them. And what an amazing thing that is. That God would do that.

He says, I will dwell with them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. This is a common theme throughout the Bible. man, I don't think I left enough time for all of this.

But let's look at Exodus, see if we can get through these. With enough time Exodus 29:45. He says, I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. So this is in Exodus, he says this in Leviticus 26.

Turn over there. Leviticus 26. Verse 11. Moreover, I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul will not reject you.

I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. Jeremiah 31:1. At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

Ezekiel 37. Verse 26. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them.

I will place them and multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them, and I will be their God and they will be my people and the nations who know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forever. 2 Corinthians 6:16, and these are just A sample portion. Of, of verses that promote this idea.

This is written to, to Christians, and yet here's the same idea. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, I will dwell in them and will walk among them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And we're gonna see actually a few more verses in a little bit of that same theme.

But the, the idea is that God is moving in with them. And what an amazing and precious thing to them that would be. And after God gave these instructions to Moses, it was then, he goes down to the mount, down to the bottom of the mountain and there's the great uproar with the golden calf. That whole scenario, and it's good to read that too after you read through chapter 31, verse chapter 32 and 33 gives some, some really powerful imagery about God's relationship with man and how excruciating it is.

How, how, how it feels and how even God feels about it. Because after the confrontation, after the, the idol is broken down, After all these instructions for the tabernacle have been given to Moses, but no construction has started yet. God tells Moses, I want you, and this is after the people have been killed who are doing the worship around the idol. God tells Moses.

Tell the people that I'm not going to dwell with them. Tell the people that I will send an angel, and the angel will lead them into the promised land. And Moses is, is downcast. He begins to plead with God.

Moses tells the people, and they go into mourning. This is a grievous thing. Because Think about what it would feel like. For us to get news like that.

God says, I'm backing off from you. I'm backing away. I'll send an angel to watch over you. But our relationship is broken.

That's painful. And that's how, see, not everybody was into that golden calf thing. Not everybody was, was into it. There were people who were holding back and, and they were repulsed by it.

And they were heartbroken over this news that God, God said, I'm not going with you. Through the process of pleading for Moses with God, God says, OK, I'll do it. So God goes, God says to Moses, make 2 more tablets of stone, bring it up to the mountain, we got to go through all this again. 40 more days, Moses comes back.

Then he begins to actually give the instructions for the building of the tabernacle, and they actually do it. But what we do see is this, this idea of God with us. Really it's something we need and something that's inside of us that wants. We need God, very much.

Now, I pulled a couple of pictures off of the internet. And this one, gives a little bit of a diagram. It's not a great diagram of the actual tabernacle, but the thing that I wanted to point out to you was The blue part around. The outer court and then the orange stripe around it.

And that is where the people were assigned. To put their tents in groups. And so, on the The eastern side, the sunrise side, is where the, the gates are open. So you see the red strip there and And so that's really the eastern side.

It, it was always to face the, the, the front, the front of the tabernacle was always to face the sunrise or the east. And immediately around in that blue strip there represents the spaces where the Levites would all put their camp. So they would be the closest. They're the ones who do all the serving and do all the work of the, that takes place in the tabernacle.

Where the gate is, is where Moses and Aaron and his sons put their tents. And then there's 3 divisions of the Levites. In 33 main families that are around that. Then on the outer part, you have in, in groups of 4.

3 tribes in each group. you have the, the rest of the tribes of Israel, and they are camped around that. Now, a picture I really like, I've seen one like it some years ago. but this to me, is a word that, when I see this picture.

That's the word Emmanuel comes into my mind. Because God has pitched his tent. With the tents of the people. And God is saying, I am with you.

And God has made a way to do that. Now, his tent is obviously different than their tents, but God is different than us, right? And it's supposed, we're supposed to remember that as we see it, but God has condescended to mankind to be with us. Emmanuel is an amazing idea that God would be with us.

So when Jesus is called Emmanuel. That he is the one who, who is the fullness of that idea. He fulfills that idea. that's how precious that is to us.

That he would pitch his tent with us. In one of those tents. On the, the site in the tribe of Judah. He was a young man or maybe even a little boy.

He was certainly under the age of 20. his name was Naha. And he would have been growing, growing up with this. And seeing it, experiencing the deliverance, the provision.

In the majesty of God. Seeing all of these things, experiencing all of these things. Naho would later become the main leader of the tribe of Judah as they go into the promised land. Now Sean was the great, great, great grandfather.

Of a man who would write these words. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil. Say it with me, for you are with me.

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. This is the power of Emmanuel, the power of God dwelling with us. This is what it means to us. That as we walk through life as we're experiencing the things that we experience, that God hasn't left us.

He's not ignoring us. He's not decided to do other things. He's got better things to do. No, God is with us.

And so that idea that David writes down is a powerful, a huge idea for us. Another one I didn't, think of until I'd already sent in the, the PowerPoint, but John 15. Jesus begins to describe himself as divine. That where the branches, and what does he say?

He says, if you abide in me, I will abide in you. And he's, he's talking about the relationship. Between us and Christ. And that idea of abiding, abiding means to live with, right?

If I'm gonna abide with, with you, I'm gonna move into your house, right? I'm gonna spend time with you. That's the idea that, that we abide with Christ and he abides with us. And again, I, I really like this one in, in Revelation 3:20, after Jesus has given his messages to the seven churches.

He sunk, he, he, he ends it with, with this statement. But I will come in and we'll dine with him, and he with me. That's what Jesus wants. I don't understand it.

I don't know why he would want to spend time with me. I'm not that interesting. I've got nothing to offer him. But he, he's expressed it over and over and over again.

His heart is to give to us. His heart has been from the past all the way till now to the future. That is our future and so, that is something that we should treasure. That, that God dwells with us.

And that's what I see with the tabernacle. I see God. Being willing to be with us. Being willing to be right down there on ground level.

With us And so that's We'll, we'll close today. It's closing prayer. Thank you, Lord For your amazing grace. And your great love.

Thank you for Jesus, who would be our Emmanuel and who still is our Emmanuel. And Lord, may we treasure it. And treasure this relationship we have with you. So much so that we pursue after with all of our heart.

That we would be like Paul when he wrote. That I want to know you and the power of your resurrection and the fellowship of your suffering. That I want to know you, that I press on. For the mark.

Lord, help us to be people. who will be willing to set aside everything. For this relationship with you, that we may have communion with you, that we may know you, and that you may dwell richly in our lives, impacting everything about us. I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. God bless you.