Precious

     This Sabbath reading portion are two reading portions combined together which will cover two Sabbaths. The first portion is titled Va-yakheil, meaning "and he assembled/gathered", and the second reading portion is titled P'kudei, meaning "amounts of/accounting of". The readings begin in Exodus Ch. 35. Before we begin there, we read at the end of Ch. 34 that Moses' face began to shine because of his presence before God on the mountain: "So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him...And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face." (Ex. 34:29-35). The glory of God was reflected in Moses' face. 

     Immediately thereafter, "Moses gathered all the (Hebrew letters aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega in Greek letters as the reference to Jesus Christ in Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13) congregation (eda/ed/ud - fixture, assemblage, people/witness, testimony, what testifies, evidence, a recorder, prince/surround, bear witness, enjoin solemnly, stand upright, give warning) of the children of Israel together..." (Ex. 35:1). Moses called the aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega congregation as witnesses, and he told them all that the LORD had commanded for His people to do. Moses told them about the offering to be made from willing hearts only for the crafting of the tabernacle of God's presence and the articles to be used in the tabernacle. Moses listed the various items that would be needed to accomplish this command of God (v. 4-19). "And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD's (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. They came, both men and women..." (v. 20-22, 29). Artisans gifted by God by His Spirit with wisdom and workmanship were assigned, and the work began (Ex. 36:1).

     Every precious item that was used to construct the tabernacle and furnishings, including the priests' robes, were willingly brought. An inventory or an accounting of every item that was used was made at the command of Moses (Ex. 38:21, 24-31). Nothing was considered too small or insignificant to be accounted for, even the dyed threads used to embroider the linen. Everything given by these willing hearts was considered to be most precious to the LORD. Both the tabernacle and the later-built temple, while they were natural tents/buildings, also represent something spiritual. The New Testament tells us that we also, each one, are being built into the spiritual temple of God. Each of us is a living stone set into place in the dwelling of God. Each of us who offer ourselves to stand in place with a willing heart in this spiritual temple is precious to and accounted for by the LORD. Not one of us is insignificant to Him: "(you) Coming to Him (the gracious Lord) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 2:3-5).

     When all the work on the components of the tabernacle and the priests' garments was finished, the children of Israel brought the unassembled (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) tabernacle to Moses (Ex. 39:32-33). Every item that had been commanded by God for the tabernacle was accounted for and inspected by Moses: "According to all that the LORD had commanded (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work. Then Moses looked over all the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) work, and indeed they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, just so they had done it. And Moses blessed them." (Ex. 39:42-43).  "And it came to pass in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was raised up (qum - to rise, rise up, stand, establish, fulfilled, become powerful, to arise as a witness, to raise up a name or posterity)." (Ex. 40:17).

     Keeping in mind that each of us is the spiritual tabernacle in Christ/Messiah, Moses assembled the tabernacle in a certain order. We might picture the tabernacle as something that one enters into from the outside, but this is not how the tabernacle was assembled by Moses. It was assembled from its innermost chamber outward. First, in the most inward chamber, the Holy of Holies, or Most Holy Place, the ark of the covenant was placed (Ex. 40:3). No one would be able to enter this chamber because of the presence of the LORD except the High Priest, and then only once a year on the Day of Atonement with the atoning blood of sacrifice. The ark placed in this chamber contained the Word of God written on the two stone tablets and the ark was covered with the solid gold Mercy Seat, also called the Throne of God's Presence. It was on the Mercy Seat that the atoning blood was applied. So the Word of God was the most interior item of the tabernacle. It was contained "within the within". We also know that Jesus is the Word of God (Jn. 1:1-3, 14), and He came to fulfill the Law of the tablets, and the prophets (Mt. 5:17-18). 

     This innermost chamber of the tabernacle, established before the other parts of the tabernacle, is very much like our hearts, and therefore to the LORD it is the most holy of holies because this is where His work of salvation begins in us: "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do (asa - do, make, produce, act with effect, bring about, accomplish, fulfill, fabricate, create:to be made, branches that bring forth fruit, prepare:make ready, offer a sacrifice) it." ..."that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Deut. 30:14, Rom. 10:8-10).  The LORD also promised that He would write His Word on our hearts rather than tablets of stone (2 Cor. 3:3, Jer. 31:33). The Word in our hearts creates, fulfills, prepares to make ready, brings forth fruit as it effectively "does".

     As we read in Ex. 40:3 above, the next item that Moses installed in the tabernacle was the veil or curtain that separated the Holy of Holies where the ark of the covenant rested, from the second most interior area, the Holy Place. It is this veil of separation that was torn in two at the moment that Jesus died on the cross, completing His sacrifice (Mt. 27:51, Mk. 15:37-38). The veil remained intact through the ages of Moses, the Kings, the prophets, and up until the moment when the sacrifice to end all sacrifices was completed by the Son of God, Jesus, and the separation placed before the presence of God was done away. We can now approach God with a "true heart" upon which God's Word has been written (see Heb. 10:16-22). The verses from Hebrews use the term a "true heart". The Concordance explains the Greek meaning of "true" (alethinos) as used in this instance in this way: "that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, in every respect corresponding to the idea signified by the name; real, true, genuine; the opposite to what is fictitious, counterfeit, imaginary, simulated or pretended." With God's Word written in our hearts, combined with the salvation work of Christ that ended our separation from God, our hearts are not a resemblance to God's heart, but of the genuine character and name of God Himself. What an awesome work! 

     In another explanation of this amazing work of salvation, Paul wrote: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God...For who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct (symbibazo - to cause to join together, to coalesce, to unite or knit together, to cause a person to unite with one in a conclusion, to drive together) Him? But we have the mind (nous - the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, of recognizing goodness and hating evil) of Christ." (1 Cor. 2:12, 16). To know and be united with the mind of God  - Paul said that this was impossible for a natural man by his own spirit, but now is possible because of the Spirit of God whom we have received through Jesus Christ.

     Perhaps we can we see this reality more easily now by seeing our hearts as the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle for the purpose of understanding the spiritual tabernacle that God is building in the earth using each of us. It is not so that we may think more highly of ourselves than we ought to (Rom. 12:3-5), but it is for the purpose of "doing" (creating, fulfilling, making ready, bringing forth fruit) the Word of God, as we saw above. As we are changed in our innermost chamber, we also then bring that change outward into the creation.

   After veiling off the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the tabernacle, Moses assembled the furnishings of the next chamber of the tabernacle moving outward from the center. That chamber was the Holy Place. The three golden furnishings of this chamber represent the Messiah/Christ who was to come: The golden lampstand (menorah) with its seven lamps to be kept lighted continually (Jn. 8:12/Mt. 5:14-16), the golden altar of incense where prayers were offered up by the priests (Heb. 7:24-26), and the golden table of the shewbread or bread of the Presence that was mixed with frankincense (Jn. 6:33, 41, 48-51; Lk. 24:1-4, 1 Cor. 11:23-24). The sacrificial presence of Jesus tore the separating veil which represented His own body torn: "...enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh..." (Heb. 10:19-20). 

     Moving outward from this second chamber, we are in the courtyard of the tabernacle. This courtyard was enclosed about by linen curtains. The tabernacle courtyard is the outermost place of our transformation and assemblage into the living spiritual temple of God. Within this courtyard, the sacrifices and burnt offerings were made at the large brazen altar. Also in this courtyard was the laver where the priests washed themselves and put on their priestly garments. 

     We also find this courtyard to be present in the spiritual tabernacle into which we are being assembled/gathered. The Apostle Paul wrote about this courtyard in a believer's life: "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies (oiktirmos -heart/bowels of compassion) of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Rom. 12:1-2). Paul also wrote of our washing (in the spiritual courtyard laver) this way: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5:26-27). This is another reason why I think that our being built into the spiritual temple of God is like the pattern of the assembling of Moses' tabernacle: from the innermost first and moving toward the outermost. We cannot even begin to come to the point of offering ourselves, our lives, as a holy and acceptable spiritual sacrifice to God unless we first have received the heart of God, as Paul wrote above, and the mind of Christ. A natural person cannot even comprehend the scope of what this means, much less offer it, without that heart and mind (see 1 Cor. 2:14). With the courtyard laver, we have the washing, preparing and perfecting of the Church as Christ presents His Church/Bride to Himself. This is found at the culmination of our walk with Christ, not at the beginning of our walk with Him. Then we have the outer curtains of fine linen (the whiteness/purity/cleanness of God's righteousness) that surround the courtyard/tabernacle compound (Ex. 27:9-16). This reminds us of Paul's words above that we are not to be conformed to the world around us but transformed. Jesus said that we were sanctified for the purpose of being sent into the world, but not to be of the world (Jn. 17:14-19, also 2 Cor. 6:14-18, 1 Jn. 2:15-17, James 4:4). These fine linen curtains that separate the tabernacle from the rest of the area also remind us of the fine linen garments of righteousness with which the bride of Christ will be clothed for her wedding to Him (Rev. 19:6-9).

     A final thought here. When Moses had finished assembling the tabernacle from the inner part to the outer, the glory of the LORD filled the (aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) tabernacle. No one, not even Moses who had stood in the presence of God until his face shone with light, could enter the tabernacle of this glory (Ex. 40:34-35).  What kind of glory was this that not even Moses could be present in it? For those of us who are being assembled into God's spiritual tabernacle, Jesus said that He had given us the same glory as He had with the Father from the beginning (Jn. 17:22-24). Paul wrote that this glory is a far greater glory than Moses or Israel had ever experienced (2 Cor. 3:7-11). It is the glory of the Spirit of God which we have been given through Jesus Christ in the new covenant of which Jeremiah wrote. It is the glory of the oneness with God and Christ in the Holy of Holies.

     This is part 1 of a 2-part blog reflecting the double Sabbath reading which will be concluded next week. 

     If you would like to know more about our life in Christ as prophesied by the pattern of the assembling of the tabernacle of Moses, you can pray with me: "Heavenly Father, Maker of Heaven and earth, Builder of a spiritual house for the families that have been named by Your name, let me be transformed by Your (living) Word, Jesus, in my innermost being according to the assembling of Your tabernacle. Let me have the true heart of Your character and name, and the mind of Christ, according to the promises of your Word. Let my life in Christ be like the walk through Your tabernacle until I am "doing" and being Your Word of creation as I am in the world, but not of the world. Lord Jesus, You have given me the same glory that You had with the Father from the beginning, and Father, You have given me Your Spirit to lead me into the knowledge of the truth. Let my life become a holy and acceptable sacrifice of service before You as I am transformed, and my mind is renewed. I ask these things in Jesus' name. AMEN."