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Five Essential Bible
Truths – Part 5
The Temple of God
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Reason
# 3 – The Seat of Christ
Earlier, I wrote that the
Ark of the Covenant represents the character,
ways and government of God. In effect, this is
the essence of God. God designed the Earthy
tabernacle to teach men and women about His
essence without an overpowering spectacle. Even
the tabernacle itself was covered with black
sealskins. (Exodus 36:19) In other words, God
could have “wowed” the Israelites with
a Sinai cathedral dwarfing the all-to-familiar
pyramids of Egypt. He could have ensconced
Himself in some lofty and glorious grandeur that
would have embarrassed Pharaoh and the
Philistines. He could have easily intimidated the
Israelites into submission by showing great
displays of power, miracles, signs and wonders.
On several occasions, God did use marvelous
miracles on behalf of Israel, but He does not
want to be worshiped because He happens to be a
great king, who has great authority and owns
everything. (Psalms 95:3; Malachi 1:14) Rather,
God wants His children to worship Him because of
the truth about His essence. (John 4:24) The more
they understand about His character, the more
they will appreciate His ways and government. God
seeks our worship for our good, not His. God will
not force the worship pf one creature because He
is love. Jesus’ life is an excellent example
of this point. He could have chosen any parents
He wanted, but He chose to live and look like an
ordinary person because the understanding of the
character, ways and government of God are of
greater value than glory.
Therefore, here is why I
believe the Table of Presence represents the
throne of God: During the days of the Earthy
tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant was the focus
of worship. The Shekinah dwelt in the Most Holy
Place because God’s character, ways and
government were to be the focus of God’s
instruction, for man and His glory rested on that
aspect of temple service. However, the evidence
indicates that the Table of Presence was a source
of blessing, in addition to being physically
located on the north side of the temple. Since
God is more interested in our worship than His
glory, the Ark of the Covenant was hidden from
view. The Table of the Presence symbolized His
presence and represented the throne of God. If
this is true, then the physical location of Jesus
makes a great deal of sense. The Bible says that
Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.
(Hebrews 1:3) This places Jesus (the Shekinah)
where you would expect a mediator to sit, between
the throne of God and the Ark of the Covenant.
Summary
– Temple Furniture
We have briefly examined
the tabernacle furniture, learned the purpose of
each item, how it relates to the Heavenly Temple.
Much more could be said, so much more, that it
could fill many books. God is thoughtful and
deliberate in all He does and the Earthy/Heavenly
temple parallel is no exception. Remember that
the essential purpose for understanding the
Earthy tabernacle today is its parallel operation
with Heaven’s Temple. The revelation of law,
sin, penalty, grace and the orderly ways of God
to redeem man is revealed in His Temple. Now to
summarize this section on the temple furniture:
1.
Services at the Alter of Burnt Offering pointed
forward to the death of man’s perfect
substitute, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
2.
Daily services at the Altar of Incense pointed
backward to the intercession of Jesus Christ on
behalf of sinful man. Jesus daily stands between
the demands of the law and guilty man.
3.
The Ark of the Covenant represents the character,
ways and government of God.
4.
The Laver illustrates the daily spiritual
cleansing that sinful man needs.
5.
The Lampstand represents the agents of God who
are to let their light shine for the glory of
God.
6.
The Table of the Presence represents the throne
of God.
Temple
Feasts
Temple services were
augmented with six annual feasts. These feasts
also reveal certain aspects of God’s PLAN to
save man. God required all males to attend three
of the feasts: The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The
Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering.
(Exodus 23: 14-17) Three of the annual feasts
were in the Spring, and three were in the Fall.
These annual feasts always occurred in the first,
third and seventh months. The timing of the
appointed feasts introduces a problem to
today’s Bible student. What month was
considered the first month? When did the year
begin? How did ancient people agree on dates and
times with very limited long-distance
communication? God was very specific in regards
to the timing of these annual feasts, so He gave
the Hebrews a very cleaver calendar to solve the
problem of determining time-periods. God foreknew
that the Hebrews would be scattered hundreds of
miles apart, so He provided a calendar to be used
by everyone so they could know current time
without sending a runner to Jerusalem to
determine the day and month.
Observable
Calendar
Before the Exodus, the
Egyptians (and consequently, the Hebrew) observed
a Summer-to-Summer calendar of 365 days. However,
two weeks before the Exodus, God initiated
a new calendar. God established the first day,
first month and first year by divine decree.
(Exodus 12: 1-12; 40:17) The importance and
accuracy of this calendar are demonstrated by the
fact that God, Himself, said: “This is day
one, month one, year one.” A year in
God’s calendar is a solar year. The
fulfillment of the 70 weeks of prophecy of Daniel
9 proves this point. The decree of Artaxerxes in
457 B.C. extends to 34 A. D. – a period of
490 solar years. God’s calendar reaches from
Spring equinox to Spring equinox. The equinox
offers precise astronomical positioning twice a
year – once in the Spring and once in the
Fall. The Fall equinox is exactly halfway through
the solar year. (A solar year is 365 days, 5
hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds in length.)
Further, each equinox is easy to observe because
the sun crosses the celestial equator at the
equinox and shadows begin to move in the opposite
direction.
The Julian/Gregorian
calendar (named after Julius Caesar who
implemented it in 45 B.C. and Pope Gregory XIII
who corrected Caesar’s calendar in 1582) is
still uses today. It is also a solar calendar,
but it reaches from Winter-to-Winter and a new
year always begins every 365 (or 366) days with
January 1, regardless of the phase of the moon.
God’s calendar, however, is a solar
calendar. A new year begins with the first sight
of a new moon after the Spring equinox.
For example, in 1994 the Spring equinox occurred
on March 20. The first new moon after
March 20 was April 11. (A new moon is totally
dark and a full moon is fully illuminated.) If a
tiny crescent of the new moon could be seen
during the night of April 12, then a new year
began on April 12 and the timing of religious
feast (Passover, ect.) for that year would be
established accordingly. Incidentally, this
method of reckoning always places Passover (the
first feast) and the Feast of Ingathering (the
last feast of the year) on a full moon. The chart
below shows how the new year began in 1994
according to God’s calendar.
After reviewing the
chart, you might ask, “How were the 22 days
between the equinox on March 20 and the beginning
of the new year on April 12 reckoned?”
Answer: They were considered as part of the
previous year. In other words, a new year does
not begin at the Spring equinox unless the tiny
crescent of the new moon is observed during the
night of the Spring equinox. Therefore, the last
month of the old year continues until the
crescent of the new moon is seen – even if
it goes past the Spring equinox. This means that
it is possible under God’s calendar,
depending upon the position of the Sun and Moon,
to have a year longer or shorter than 365.24
days.
Incidentally, God’s
solar-lunar method of reckoning time always
places the Passover between April 3 and May 2.
This timeframe insured the availability of ripe
barley that was waved before the Lord at the time
of Passover. (Leviticus 23: 5-14) Today,
orthodox Jews claim that God’s calendar is
not a solar-lunar calendar, but rather a lunar
calendar. If this were true, it would mean that a
year is 10 or 11 days short of a solar year. For
example, if a lunar calendar were used, the 70
weeks of years (Daniel 9) would be 14 years short
of the required 490 solar years or 475.39 years.
History does not confirm a prophetic fulfillment
of Daniel 9 during this time frame. In addition,
barley begins to ripen around the first April in
Canaan. A lunar calendar would place the Passover
too early in the growing season for ancients Jews
to offer a sheaf of ripe barley before the
Lord.
Another point should be
mentioned. After the Babylonian captivity, the
Jews incorporated a Fall-to-Fall calendar. This
was done to synchronize their civil records with
the dating scheme used throughout the kingdom of
the Persians. However, the Fall-to-Fall civil
calendar of the Medes and Persians and the
Spring-to-Spring calendar of God were never
confused, merged or used interchangeably by the
Jews. In fact, Bible writers sometimes juxtaposed
both calendars to secure a specific date. For
example, notice these two passages:
Kislev
9th
Nissan 9th
- “The
words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the
month of Kislev in the twentieth year,
while I was in the citadel of
Susa…” (Nehemiah 1:1)
- “In
the month of Nisan in the twentieth year
of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought
for him, I took the wine and gave it to
the king. I had not been sad in his
presence before…” (Nehemiah
2:1)
In the first text,
Nehemiah associates the month of Kislev (ninth
month of God’s Spring-to-Spring year) with
the 20th year [of Artaxerxes],
according to the Fall-to-Fall Persian calendar.
Later, Nehemiah dates another event in the month
of Nissan (first month of God’s year) as
though it were still the 20th year of
Artaxerxes. Scholars have asked, “Why
didn’t Nehemiah increment the year of
Artaxerxes to 21?” Simply this – the
year was not incremented to 21 because the king
was still in his 20th year. Consider
the chart above and see the harmony of this
reckoning.
You can see that Kislev,
God’s ninth month, and Nissan, the first
month of God’s new year, fell within the 20th
year of Artaxerxes reign, even when the
king’s 20th year is reckoned from
Fall-to-Fall. Today, Americans reckon time in a
similar way without confusion. When producing new
cars, auto manufacturers observe a Fall-to-Fall
calendar for each model year. New cars appear in
auto dealer’s showrooms in September, even
though the calendar year begins on January 1.
One last point needs to
be made before leaving the matter of calendation
behind. Notice this text: “Celebrate the
Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the
crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the
Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when
you gather in your crops from the field.” (Exodus
23:16) Some people have questioned how the feast
of Ingathering (also known as the Feast of
Tabernacles) could be “at the end of the
year” since the feast itself begins on the
15th day of the seventh month.
(Leviticus 23:34) The context of this language
has to do with agriculture. The Feast of
Ingathering marked the end of the
year’s growing season. Some have claimed
that this text proves that the Jews observed a
Fall-to-Fall calendar prior to the Babylonian
captivity. However, No Biblical or archeological
evidence has been found to support this claim.
Think about the specifics of this text. How could
one celebrate the Feast of Ingathering and the
end of the year if the feast occurs on the 15th
day of the seventh month! (Leviticus 23: 34) The
seventh month is not near the end of the year! If
the feast were celebrated near the end of the
year, then the Lord would have placed the feast
during the 12th month.
I have introduced the
subject of solar-lunar calendation so you can
appreciate how God enabled the Hebrews to mark
the passage of time, especially the timing of the
feasts. In addition to the six annual feasts, God
required a feast to coincide with the observance
of each new moon. How thoughtful of God! By
placing a “monthly party” on the
arrival of new moons, the Jews unwittingly
documented the passage of time for those of us
who would live thousands of years later.
The
Passover
The story of
Israel’s miraculous deliverance from slavery
in Egypt has significant meaning. Remember that
god not only designed the deliverance process, He
also required Israel to perpetually commemorate
the events surrounding the Exodus each Spring,
beginning the 14th day of the first
month. (Exodus 12: 10-14) There are four lessons
surrounding the Exodus that are particularly
noteworthy, so pay close attention to the
parallels as they relate to end-time events:
1.
God tested the loyalty of the Hebrews through a
Sabbath Rest Test before He delivered them.
2.
God tested the faith of Hebrews and Egyptians by
demanding, “blood be posted on the door
posts” the night He passed over the nation.
3.
God punished Egypt with ten plagues because of
rebellion.
4.
God destroyed Pharaoh and his army because of defiant
rebellion.
Exodus/End-Time Parallels
1. A test
of loyalty: First, most Bible students understand
that a time is coming when no one will be able to
buy or sell unless he receives the mark of the
beast. The mark belongs to a “beast”
that will appear in the near future. This beast
is none other than that great fallen angel,
Lucifer. He is symbolized as a “beast”
in Revelation 13:11 because he will come with
great deceptive power. John describes Jesus as
the lamb in Revelation 5:6. Interestingly, John
describes Lucifer as having “lamblike”
appearance to the people of Earth, but speaking
like the great red dragon of Revelation 12.
Lucifer is the great imposter who will physically
appear in the form of a man-god with his fallen
angels. He will have a mark that represents evil.
The widely known number “666” will be
tattooed on the right hand of those who submit to
him and his mark will also be his assumed name
which will be tattooed on the foreheads of his
lieutenants. Those people who choose to worship
or submit to the demands of the devil will openly
display these marks. This ancient Antichrist (the
devil) will demand that all people who oppose his
laws and authority be executed. (Revelation
13:15) In this setting, God will test the loyalty
of all people on earth through a Sabbath Rest
Test just before deliverance comes – just
like He tested the Hebrews before they entered
the Promised Land. The prophet John states very
clearly that the remnant that remain loyal to God
during Earth’s last days will obey
God’s commandments. (Revelation 12:17), even
to the point of forfeiting their lives.
(Revelation 6:9) God’s fourth commandment
will become the focus of this worldwide contest.
God requires the human race to rest on the
seventh day of the week. (Exodus 20:8-11) The
devil, imposter that he is, will exalt the
sacredness of a counterfeit day of worship and
demand that everyone render homage to him on that
day. The contest will be simple to understand,
just like the Sabbath contest was easy to
understand in Pharaoh’s day.
2. A test
of faith: The events surrounding the
‘Passover” contain three important
parallels: First, God Himself, passed over the
land and examined each household for Himself to
see if blood was properly applied over the
doorposts. (Exodus 12:13) This close scrutiny
parallels the final judgment of mankind when each
heart will be examined to see if the blood of
Jesus has been applied. The great question asked
of every person in the judgment is this:
“Did you live by faith?” (2 Corinthians
5:10; Romans 8:1) Second, the Bible is plain
about the human condition – everyone has
sinned against God and deserves to die. The wages
of sin is death by execution. (Genesis 2:17;
Romans 6:23) The parallel is this: The guilt that
rested upon the Hebrews before the Exodus is the same
guilt that rests upon all sinners today. Yes,
God allows for the transfer of guilt, but the
application of blood (from the Lamb of God) still
must be placed on the doorsteps of the heart
(submission to the will of God), in order to be
saved. The blood on the doorstep in Egypt
revealed the faith of those people who believed
that (1) God would pass over, and (2) God would
accept the blood of the Lamb. The people that
believed the Word of God acted accordingly were
saved. (James 2:17) In days to come, the will of
God will be fully proclaimed to every nation as a
testimony. (Matthew 24:14) Then, the actions of
people will reveal their faith or their great
rebellion! The question that will confront the
inhabitants of Earth will be: “Who will
receive Jesus as their Passover Lamb? Who will
depend upon His shed blood for salvation?”
Finally,
God did not execute the first born in Egypt that
night, whether man or
Beast, Hebrew or
Egyptian, without warning. The object lesson here
is twofold. First, God will warn the world of His
actions. Second, He wants the world to understand
a profound point: His law cannot be changed. In
fact, when Jesus offered to be man’s
substitute, the Father had no alternative but to
execute the firstborn over all creation! (Romans
8:29; Colossians 1:15) Jesus is called the
Firstborn of creation because of His preeminence
over all created beings. This title firstborn is
often used by men to indicate the first-born
child. However, in the United States, we also use
the term “First Lady” to represent a
preeminent position (the wife of the President of
the U.S.). The second context is how Paul used
the term “Firstborn” to represent
Christ, for Jesus has always been an eternal
member of the Godhead. By killing (or threatening
to kill) the firstborn of Egypt, God revealed the
sacrifice He would have to make for the salvation
of man. This drama also reveals that God would
someday kill His firstborn Son because the PLAN
of salvation requires the substitute to die
according to the demands of the law. Jesus became
sin for us, so He had to be executed as a sinner.
(2 Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 20:9) The killing
of the firstborn becomes significant when we
realize how the first-born male was regarded in
ancient times. First-born males were viewed as
“much more special” than the other
offspring because the first-born was heir to the
family name and blessing.
3. Ten
plagues – result of rebellion: The ten
plagues that fell on Egypt reveal two important
truths First, we have to marvel at the rebellion
of Pharaoh after reading the narrative in the
Bible. His kingdom was decimated by the plagues
and yet, he continued to rebel against the
authority of the Most High God. What does
Pharaoh’s mindset say about man? Paul wrote:
“The sinful mind is hostile to God. It
does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do
so.” (Romans 8:7) When we consider the
end-time parallel, remember that a time is coming
when the authority and the will of God will be
just as plainly presented to the inhabitants of
the Earth as it was to Pharaoh. Unfortunately,
many people will respond the same way Pharaoh
did. (Revelation 11:8) Second, the Bible is very
clear that God is going to punish the inhabitants
of Earth with a series of 14 plagues will be
real, painful and deadly. However, the good news
is this: The seven last plagues (Revelation 16)
will not affect the children of God, just as the
last eight plagues in Egypt did not affect the
Hebrews.
4.
Destroyed because of defiant rebellion: This
parallel should not be hard to grasp. At the end
of time, Satan is going to lead the armies of the
world into conflict with the Almighty. God will
completely destroy His enemies just as He
destroyed Pharaoh and his army. (Revelation
19:11-21)
God
carefully designed these four object lessons so
the Passover’s perpetual observance would
continuously keep the issues that actually
concern man’s salvation before the minds of
the Hebrews. Did the Hebrews appreciate these
lessons? If they did, it was never for very long.
In fact, history indicates that the celebration
of Passover became an outward religious ritual
having little or no transforming effect upon
those who commemorated the event. How sad that
the true significance of the Passover was largely
lost by those who observed it because they failed
to search beneath the surface of this ceremonial
law.
The
Feast of Unleavened Bread
“Celebrate
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on
this very day that I brought your divisions out
of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting
ordinance for the generations to come. In the
first month you are to eat bread made without
yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day
until the evening of the twenty-first day. For
seven days no yeast is to be found in your
houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in
it must be cut off from the community of Israel,
whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat
nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you
must eat unleavened bread.” (Exodus 12:
17-20)
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