The Temple of Jesus
Lesson 4
Jesus told Moses,
“…have them make a sanctuary for me,
and I will dwell among them. Make this
tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like
the pattern I will show you.” Exodus 25:8,9
Moses built a sanctuary
in the wilderness according to the blueprints
given to him by God. Every detail was
carefully followed. The sanctuary complex
constructed in the wilderness consisted of the
following items. (See Exodus 25-40.)
See if you can identify each item from the list
in the drawing on the next page.
- The
courtyard
- A
small building with two rooms: Holy
/ Most Holy
- The
alter of burnt offering
- The
laver
- The
alter of incense
- The
table of showbread
- The
candlesticks
- The
ark of the covenant
The sanctuary was built
in such a manner that it could be disassembled
and carried from place to place. Jewish
history tells that every piece of metal, cloth,
wood and stone used in the construction of the
sanctuary had a name on it – the name of the
person responsible for carrying it. When
the bearer died, the next of kin became
responsible. Thus, the responsibly of
carrying the sanctuary was passed down through
generations until the sanctuary was given a
permanent resting place.
The Sanctuary
Service
The sanctuary service is
a marvelous study. The significance of how
and why each event took place is as broad and
comprehensive as God is. Most Christians do
not understand the value and meaning of the
sanctuary service because the New Testament is
clear that the religious services conducted in
the sanctuary became obsolete with the death of
Jesus.
However, many Christians
are surprised to learn that the religious meaning
of what took place in the sanctuary still applies
today! This will be demonstrated later in
this study.
The
Wilderness Sanctuary
Jesus gave the sanctuary
service to Israel as a model of the plan of
salvation. They were to study into the
meaning of the sanctuary events and understand
the scope of the plan of salvation. Through a
careful study of the sanctuary service, they were
to comprehend the love and compassion of
God. They were to be drawn into the deepest
appreciation of who God is and what He offers to
the human family. They were to discover the
love of God as they contemplated the price He
would pay for salvation. And most of all,
they were to share an understanding of God’s
love with the world! As receptors of
God’s blessing, they were to be the human
agency through which the knowledge of God would
be spread abroad.
Fundamental point
about Israel
There is some confusion
among Christians about God’s relationship
with ancient Israel. Some believe that the
blessings given to the Jews belonged only to the
Jews and not the whole world. While it is
clear that God dealt directly with Israel, it is
important to understand that God was not
excluding the rest of the people living upon the
earth – rather, it was His intention to have
Israel demonstrate in practical terms what He was
like to the rest of the world and thus bring many
to know the love of God. Thus the entire
world would be blessed through Israel.
Israel was to be an agent for distributing
God’s blessings and truth – not the
exclusive object of His affection.
The intended
ministry of the Jews
Jesus told the Jews,
‘…I will also make you a light for the
Gentiles that you may bring my salvation the ends
of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6 When upon
earth, Jesus again emphasized the ministry of the
Jews saying, “You are the salt of the
earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salty again? It is no
longer good for anything, except to be thrown out
and trampled by men. You are the light of
the world. A city on a hill cannot be
hidden…let your light shine before men, that
they may see your good deeds and praise your
Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16
The Pharisees recognized
the responsibility of winning converts – but
the reputation of the Jews among nations became
so bad, that no one wanted to be a part of
them! Jesus said to them, “Woe to you,
teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to
win a single convert, and when he becomes one,
you make him twice as much a son of hell as you
are.” Matthew 23:15
The Jews and Samaritans
understood that the promised Messiah would be a
Savior for the whole world. The Samaritans
told the women at the well, “We no longer
believe just because of what you said: now
we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this man really is the Savior of the
world.” John 4:42
King David recognized
that all people on earth belonged to God.
He said, “Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere him.
For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded,
and it stood firm.” Psalm 33:8,9
God chooses some
poor people
To understand why God
selected Israel and give them the rich treasures
of His blessings, we have to review some Bible
history:
1.
One day God looked down upon the earth and
noticed a deplorable condition. “The
Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the
earth had become, and that every inclination of
the thoughts of the heart was only on evil all
the time. The Lord was grieved that he had
made man on the earth, and his heart was filled
with pain. So the Lord said, ‘I will
wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face
of the earth – men and animals…But Noah
found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Genesis 6:5-8
2.
Why did Noah find favor in the eyes of the Lord?
“Noah did everything just as God commanded
him. The Lord then said to Noah,
‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family,
because I have found you righteous in this
generation.”
Genesis
6:22, 7:1 Because Noah was willing to do
everything God commanded, God declared Noah
righteous.
About 400
years after the flood, God again looked down upon
the earth and found a descendant of Noah that
loved Him just as Noah had. God chose Abram
to be a special representative through which all
people on earth would be blessed. God said
to Abram, “I will make you into a great
nation and I will bless you…I will bless
those who bless you and whoever curses you I will
curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you.” Genesis 12:2,3
One night
God asked Abram to count the stars – if he
could. Then God said, “So shall your
offspring be.” Genesis 15:5
The Bible
says that, “Abraham believed the Lord, and
He credited it to him as
righteousness.” Genesis 15:6 It is
important to realize that both Noah and Abram
were both declared righteous because they
believed what God said, Notice what Paul says
about these two men,
“By
faith Noah, when warned about things not yet
seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his
family. By faith he condemned the world and
became heir of the righteousness that comes by
faith. By faith Abraham, when called to go
to a place he would later receive as his
inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did
not know where he was going… And so from
this one man… came descendants as numerous
as the stars in the sky and as countless as the
sand on the seashore.” Hebrews
11:7,8,12
Timeout
for a thought question
Do you
think God promised Abraham a great number of
biological descendants or was God promising to
make Abraham the spiritual forefather of all who
would live by faith?
Note: A
spiritual relative is someone that lives the same
way as Abraham or Noah lived, that is by
faith. Jesus said to the Jews,
“…if you were Abraham’s children.
Then you
would do the things Abraham did.” John
8:39 Christians often use the term
“brother” or “sister” to
denote kinship in a spiritual sense. See
Matthew 12: 46-50 for more information on
spiritual relatives.
Before
answering the question, consider this
question: Can the faith and righteousness
of an ancestor save a descendant from eternal
death? Can the evil deeds of an ancestor
condemn a descendant to eternal death? The
answer is no.
(See
Ezekiel 14:12-23) Then what spiritual
advantage comes with being a Jew?
Abram and
Sarai, his wife, thought the promise of God
referred to biological offspring. To solve
their childless problem, Sarai suggested that
Abram sleep with Hagar, her maidservant, and thus
they would begin a family. Hagar bore
Ishmael, and Ishmael became the father of 12
tribes. It may come as a surprise to learn
that Abraham is the biological father of a great
multitude currently exceeding 1 billion people:
the Arabs. (For further study read Genesis
16-21, 25:7-18.)
But the
Arabs are not the great multitude of descendants
that God promised. Neither are the Jews
that great multitude of descendants promised to
Abraham for they only number about 15
million! Revelation 7 however, describes
the great multitude promised to Abraham. It
is the redeemed of earth! The great
multitude promised to Abraham is those who live
by faith just as he lived!
The
Apostle Paul tried to convince the Jews that
being a descendent of Abraham was beneficial,
after all, Israel had been especially favored of
God – BUT, he insisted, “A man is not a
Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is
circumcision merely outward and physical.
No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and
circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the
Spirit, not by the written code.”
Romans
2:28,29
Back
to choosing poor people
About 400
years after the call of Abram, God again looked
down to earth and choose a descendant of
Abraham. This man would become a great
leader for God. This man was Moses.
Paul says,” Moses, when he had grown up,
refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s
daughter. He chose to be mistreated along
with the people of God rather than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a short time. He
regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as a
greater value than the treasures of Egypt,
because he was looking ahead to his
reward.” Hebrews 11:24-26
(Notice
that Paul says Moses regarded disgrace for the
sake of “Christ.” This again
supports that Jesus is the God of the Old
Testament!)
At the
end of his life, Moses summoned the Israelites
and said, “The Lord did not set his
affection on you because you were more numerous
than other peoples, for you were the fewest of
all peoples. But it was because the Lord
loved you and kept the oath he swore to your
forefathers that he brought you out (of Egypt)
with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land
of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of
Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is
God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant
of love to a thousand generations of those who
love him and keep his commands.”
Deuteronomy 7:7-9
Moses
made it quite clear that Israel was not going to
receive the land of Canaan from the nations
occupying the territory because of their
righteousness! “…No, it is on
account of the wickedness of these nations that
the Lord is going to drive them out before
you. It is not because of your
righteousness or your integrity that you are
going in to take possession of their land; but on
the account of the wickedness of these nations,
the Lord your God will drive them out before you,
to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…for you are a
stiff-necked people.” Deuteronomy
9:4-6
When
Jesus delivered Israel out of Egypt, He took them
to an isolated place to teach them about His
ways. There were no enemies in the Sinai
desert to torment Israel during their early days,
as a nation for that barren desert did not
support life in any form. There He sent
water gushing from a rock and dropped manna from
heaven for forty years. Their clothing did
not wear out neither did their shoes.
See
Deuteronomy 29:5
Because
Jesus wanted to be close to these people and
teach them about His ways of truth and
righteousness, He commanded Moses,
“…have them make a sanctuary for me,
and I will dwell among them. Make this
tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like
the pattern I will show you.” Exodus
25:8,9 Consider the condescension of
God. God took the uneducated low-life group
of “stiff-necked” slaves and desired to
transform them into a great nation of noble and
beautiful examples of His creative power.
There was
one condition, however, Moses told them, “If
you full obey the Lord your God and carefully
follow all his commands I give you today, the
Lord your God will set you high above all the
nations on earth… However, if you do not
obey the Lord your God and do not carefully
follow all his commands and decrees I am giving
you today, all these curses will come upon you
and overtake you.”
Deuteronomy 28:1,2,15,16
Moses did
not imply a “legalistic” relationship
with God would bring greatness. No, Moses
pointed out many times during his speech that
Israel was to love the Lord. He said,
“Love the Lord your God and keep his
requirements, his decrees, his laws and his
commands always.” Deuteronomy
11:1 “Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength. These commandments that I
give you today are to be upon your
hearts.” Deuteronomy 6:5,6
“Because he loved your forefathers and chose
their descendants after them, he brought you out
of Egypt by his Presence and his great
strength…Acknowledge and take to heart this
day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on
the earth below. There is no
other.” Deuteronomy 4:37,39
Think it
through
Consider
for a moment that Jesus, the Creator of Heaven
and earth, the Holy One of Israel, Jehovah God,
The Great I AM, The Almighty, and The God of
Israel is also the meek and lowly Jesus of
Nazareth. Many Christians are overwhelmed
to learn that the one called “Jesus” in
the New Testament is the same God of the Old
Testament! Most Old Testament references
actually refer to Jesus our Creator instead of
the Father! Jesus said to the Jews,
“…you diligently study the scriptures
because you think that by them you possess
eternal life. There are the Scriptures that
testify about me…if you believed Moses, you
would believe me, for he wrote about
me.” John 5:39
Sanctuary
services
To
appreciate that Jesus is the God of the Old
Testament, we must study into the sanctuary
services of the Old Testament. The role of
Jesus in the plan of salvation is wonderfully
explained in the symbols and ceremonies of the
Old Testament. Jesus designed that each
service teaches a special and specific lesson
about the process of salvation that could be
fulfilled at Calvary. For this study, we
will explore the meaning of the three most
important services:
1.
The Morning and Evening Sacrifice
2.
The Sin Offering
3.
The Day of Atonement
The morning and evening
sacrifice
The morning and evening
sacrifice were conducted at sunrise and sunset
each day. A flawless year old male lamb was
sacrificed on the Alter of Burnt Offering.
The priest conducting the service sprinkled some
of the lamb’s blood upon the alter.
The service also consisted of burning special
incense on the coals of the Alter of Incense in
the Holy Place.
This sacrifice became
known as the “daily” or
“continual” for it took place every
morning and evening. It was through the
atoning merits of the “daily” that
Israel could dwell in the very presence of God
without being destroyed! (See Exodus
29:38-46; 30: 7,8.) In other words, the
“daily provided corporate atonement on
behalf of the whole nation of Israel and was not
directed towards any one individual.
The Sin Offering
From time to time,
individuals for specific sins made
offerings. This sacrifice was conducted on
the Alter of Burnt Offering and was ultimately
consumed by fire. Here the sinner placed
his hands upon the head of his offering and
confessed his sin. With his own hand, the
sinner took the life of the sacrificial
lamb. The priest then carried some of the
blood into the sanctuary and deposited the blood
on the horns of the alter of incense and he also
placed incense on the burning coals of the
alter. The idea that Jesus wanted Israel to
understand was that sin could only be transferred
from the sinner via blood.
An important
contrast
The difference between
the “daily” sacrifice and the sin
offering is significant. The
“daily” was a corporate offering for
the nation of Israel; the sin offering was a
person or a family.
The Day of
Atonement
Near the
end of each religious year, Israel faced a yearly
judgment day known as the Day of Atonement.
The high priest had to
receive the approval of God before he could
officiate on behalf of Israel. The office
of high priest did not automatically qualify the
high priest for this sacred occasion. He
had to be found worthy of the service.
The word
“atonement” means reconciliation,
bringing together or at-one-ment. This day
always fell on the 10th day of the 7th
month. This day was a special Sabbath and
no work was done on this day regardless of the
day of the week it fell upon. All Israel
was required to come before god in person on this
day to account for their deeds during the past
year. Only the high priest officiated in
the temple services on the Day of Atonement.
Other priests that
normally served in the temple throughout the year
could not represent Israel before God on this
day. The high priest had to go through a
very interesting process before he could
represent the nation of Israel in the most holy
compartment of the sanctuary. He had to be
found worthy of conducting this work before he
could officiate on behalf of Israel! (See
Leviticus 16:13)
The high priest had to
personally provide a great sacrifice and present
the blood of his sacrifice in the most holy
portion of the sanctuary on the Day of Atonement
before he could officiate for Israel. With
trembling and reverence, the high priest entered
the second room of the sanctuary on this special
day to stand in the very presence of God.
The basic purpose of this
day was to cleanse the sanctuary. All year
long, the sins the people had been transferred to
the sanctuary through the blood of the offerings
described above. On this very special day,
the sanctuary was cleansed of all sins by the
high priest. He transferred the sins from
the sanctuary to the scapegoat. More will
be said about this later on.
These three services
demonstrate the basic elements of the plan of
salvation. The daily demonstrates unmerited
justification (the gift of God), the sin offering
demonstrates willful sanctification (the response
of man) and the Day of Atonement demonstrates the
final judgment and disposition of sin (the
consummation of salvation). These elements
will be expanded in our next two lessons.
For now, we need to look at the sanctuary
building to understand how these things work
together.
The Most Holy
Place
The back room, or most
holy compartment of the sanctuary, contained one
small piece of furniture; the Ark of the Covenant
or testimony. Exodus 25:10-22 The ark
consisted of a small golden box containing the
tables of stone written by Jesus (the ten
commandments).
A “mercy seat”
or special cover formed the top of the box, and
two angels figurines facing each other stood at
both ends of the ark with the mercy seat between
them. When
The high
priest entered the most holy compartment on the
Day of Atonement, a room strictly off limits to
everyone else; he approached the ark and
sprinkled some of the blood from his sacrifice
onto the ark and into the mercy seat.
Leviticus 16 There God communed with the high
priest indicating His acceptance of the
sacrifice.
After presenting an
acceptable sacrifice for himself and his family,
the high priest continued the atonement service
by leaving the Most Holy place. He went out
into the courtyard to select one of two goats as
sacrifices for the sins of Israel. One goat
was chosen to pay the penalty for sin; the other
was left to bear the consequences of sin.
There is important difference between
“paying the penalty” of sin and
“bearing the consequence” of sin.
One goat paid the penalty for sin by becoming a
sacrifice for sin while the other goat received
the consequence of sin by being taken into the
wilderness to die.
Here is a major
point. There is a vast difference between
paying the penalty for sin and reaping the
consequences of sin. This service pointed
forward to the death of Jesus as the sacrifice
for the sins of the world and to the death of
Satan when he receives the consequences of sin.
After sacrificing the
goat, the High Priest entered the most holy place
again to officiate on behalf of Israel.
Upon completing the second service, the high
priest washed or cleansed the accumulated blood
off the horns of the alter of incense that stood
before the veil in the first compartment (or holy
place). Leaving the holy place, the priest walked
out into the courtyard to the remaining goat and
wiped his bloody hands on the head of this
animal. This animal was known as the
scapegoat or the sin bearer. After doing
this, a very capable man took the animal miles
out into the desert to die. Thus the sin of
Israel was removed from the sanctuary and the
sanctuary was cleansed or restored.
Picture the scene,
millions of Hebrews gathered around the sanctuary
in the middle of their desert camp. Every
voice is hushed. Every eye is on the
sanctuary. Every ear within range listens
for the bells on the bottom of the high priests
garment indicating the high priest is still alive
as he stands before God. All Israel
anxiously waited for the appearing and
announcement of the high priest telling them that
God has accepted the offering and all sins are
blotted out.
Revelation includes these
The Daily Offering, the
Sin Offering and the Day of Atonement will have
very important significance in our study of the
book of Revelation, for Revelation’s story
includes a considerable amount of sanctuary
service!
For example, in
Revelation 8:3-5, an angel ministering at the
“alter of incense” throws down a censer
and “seven trumpets” follow. In
Revelation 11 John was told to measure the
“temple” of God and the alter. In
Revelation 11:19, God’s temple in heaven is
opened and the “ark of His covenant” is
seen! These few sentences from Revelation
point out that Revelation’s story is
intimately connected to the sanctuary services of
the Old Testament. In fact, Paul tells us
that Jesus is directly involved in the heavenly
sanctuary. “…We do have such a high
priest, who sat down at the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves
in the sanctuary, the true sanctuary set up by
the Lord, not by man…(for men) serve at a
sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in
heaven. This is why Moses was warned when
he was about to build the tabernacle:
‘See to it that you
make everything according to the pattern shown
you on the mountain.”
Hebrews 8:1-5
In other words, the
sanctuary services described in the Old Testament
are actually a “shadow” or model of
what is actually taking place in heaven!
Jesus, the High Priest of the human race, serves
in the heavenly sanctuary which God built while
the sanctuary built by Moses was only a teaching
model based on the one in heaven. What is
Jesus doing up there? How do the services
of the Old Testament relate to the end of the
world and the great judgment day of the human
race?
Here’s the heart of
the problem – many Christians today miss the
entire point of the earthy sanctuary just like
the ancient Jews did. The Jews
actually believed the sacrificial services
brought salvation when in reality they never made
salvation possible! Paul clearly states,
“But those sacrifices are an annual reminder
of sins, because it is impossible for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Hebrews 10:3,4
God told Isaiah,
“The multitude of your sacrifices –
what are they to me?’ says the Lord. I
have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams
and the fat of fattened animals; I have no
pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and
goats.’” Isaiah 1:11
A clearer
understanding
Now the plan of salvation
begins to focus. The sacrifice of animals
in the Old Testament was only a
“teaching” model. God gave the
model to the Jews so they might understand the
price and process of salvation. The Jews
turned the model into a perversion –
thinking (like the pagans) that salvation came
through religious acts rather than a broken and
contrite heart.
When Jesus died on
Calvary, the model became useless. The
price had been paid for sin
“Once for all.”
The meaning of the model continues today for the
Great Day of Atonement is coming. A great
day of judgment! This will be the subject
of our next study.
Think it through
Lambs are not sacrificed
in heaven for “The Lamb of God” has
been slain. Thirty times in Revelation,
Jesus is called “The Lamb.” The
blood of bulls and goats did not save sinners in
times past – nor can the blood of animals
pay the penalty for sin. Just as the Father
provided the sacrificial offering for Abraham
when he was ready to offer up his son, Isaac, He
has provided a sacrifice for the human
race. His name is Jesus.
Quiz
1. Name three articles of
furniture in the sanctuary:
A.
B.
C.
2.
What is the difference between the daily offering
and the sin offering?
3.
Why did Jesus choose Israel as a special nation?
4. Why was
Jesus so concerned that Moses follow the pattern
concerning the temple?
Memory
Verse
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world
that He gave His one and only Son.”
Notes
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