Sunday, February 13, 2011

THE TABERNACLE, EDEN, AND YOU

The tabernacle is a picture teaching of the garden in Eden, and of the human body. I want you to keep this in mind as I share some connections that help us understand what happened when Adam and Eve sinned, and what Jesus did by means of his death.

The tabernacle consisted of 3 basic sections, the outer court, the holy place, and the most holy place. Both the holy place and the most holy place had curtains which prevented anyone from seeing what was inside. We will shortly see what those curtains represent. Inside the holy place we find the table with the bread on it, the menorah lamp, and the altar of incense. Inside the most holy place we find the ark of the covenant, in which was the ten commandments.

The outer court represents Eden and the physical body.
The holy place represents the garden within Eden and the thoughts and emotions of man, pictured in his heart.
The most holy place represents the midst of the garden where the tree of life and of the knowledge of good and evil were and the spirit of man, where God and man are one.

In Genesis 2:25 we find this statement:

They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
(Gen 2:25)

Compare that with what happened after they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil:

The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
(Gen 3:7)

We do not see of any outward change in them, for the change was inward, in their perception, as it says 'they knew [experienced] that they were naked.' Their eyes being opened is an expression meaning that they now were aware of something they formerly were not. Their awareness was of physical nakedness. That new awareness produced the first symptom of evil on the earth, shame.

Picturing the tabernacle in this instance, we see that man was able to look unhindered and without shame at the holy place, relating to his creator spirit to spirit, as he was created to do. Now however, there was something preventing man from seeing the holy place, and that means of spirit to spirit communion was cut off in their perception. This occurred by means of a veil, a covering which served to separate what was there from being seen. I believe this veil, this covering, is what is pictured by the curtains in front of the holy place and most holy place.

When they ate of that tree, God told them that in that very day they would certainly die:

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die."
(Gen 2:17)

Yet we know that they lived several hundred years afterward, so this death is speaking of something different that physical death; at least on one level. I am aware of the teaching that a day with the Lord is as 1000 years, and Adam died at 930, meaning he died within that type of 'day.' I have no problem seeing that as another midrash, but I also see this death as occurring literally at the time when they ate of that tree, and that the death showed itself in how they now saw themselves, and related to their maker. Isaiah helps us make the connection between the death spoken of in Genesis, and a veil, by means of Hebraic parallelism.

And He shall swallow up on this mountain the surface of the covering which covers all people, and the veil which is spread over all nations. He shall swallow up death forever, and the Master יהוה shall wipe away tears from all faces, and take away the reproach of His people from all the earth. For יהוה has spoken.
(Isa 25:7-8 The Scriptures 1998+)

The phrase 'swallow up' poetically links what is talked about in verse 7 with what is in verse 8. Here are the 3 related words:

1) Covering
2) Veil
3) Death

This is God's way of teaching us by means of parallelism that death is the same as the covering and the veil. It affects all peoples of all nations. Why is death related to a veil covering? Because when Adam and Eve ate of that tree, when attempting to look into the holy place, they could only see that veil, that curtain. No longer was the holy place open and accessible to man's perception. I say perception between the holy place did not go away. This was not a literal separation, but one of perception, and the curtain was what caused that perception. So in looking at that veil, that curtain, what were they really looking at?

Paul gives us another piece of the puzzle by explaining what that curtain also represented:

Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
(Heb 10:19-20 WEB (R))

Yes, that veil, that curtain, is the flesh, specifically, the likeness of sinful flesh:

For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
(Rom 8:3 WEB (R))

This veil was torn from top to bottom when Jesus hung on the tree:

Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.
(Mat 27:51 WEB (R))

Something that needs mentioning here is the fact that it was the veil of the holy place that was torn in two, not the veil to the most holy place. Only the veil to the holy place could be beheld from where Jesus died. This is why Paul says we can now enter, not the most holy place, but the holy place, in the passage in Hebrews.

We can therefore see that what Adam and Eve were looking at when they were now seeing the veil covering called death was the flesh, sinful flesh to be exact.

When we look at the instructions given to Moses concerning the building of the tabernacle, we can also see how that curtain represents the flesh of man.

You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shall double over the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tent.
(Exo 26:9 WEB (R))

Notice that it is the 6th curtain which served as the cover over the forefront of the tent. The number 6 is the number of man, he being a creation on that day.

Thus we see that mankind since Adam has had this death passed on to them, a sight limited by sinful flesh. They now only relate to their creator on a physical level. So, not seeing the light that is within them [pictured by the menorah lamp]:

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
(Joh 1:4 WEB (R))

nor the fact that they are living by every expression of God [pictured by the table of bread]:

For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.
(Joh 6:33 WEB (R))

but instead seeing only darkness, and having an inner hunger, they would seek for light and to be filled through the flesh, attempting to enter the holy place while the veil was still there, resulting in death.

When Messiah came and died, he condemned sin in the flesh, (Rom 8:3) which was pictured by the veil tearing in two, thus enabling the way for man to now, in Messiah, see and have access into that holy place. As believers, that veil upon our holy place is removed in Messiah:

But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes away. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.
(2Co 3:14-18 WEB (R))

We are now enabled to see that reality and live in it. The glory of the Lord is seen by us when we look at ourselves as in a mirror. A mirror reflects what we are looking at, so we can see that the glory of the Lord is seen in us. This is pictured in that Menorah found within the holy place.

It had a central lamp, representing Jesus himself, and also had 3 lamps on each side facing toward that central lamp, making a total of 6 other lamps, the number 6 representing mankind. With the central lamp, we have a grand total of 7 lamps, representing completion. The Menorah was in the shape of a tree with branches. This reminds us of Jesus illustration that he is the vine, and we are the branches. It also reminds us of the olive tree in Romans 11 that is Messiah himself, with natural branches of natural Israel, and people of the nations who are grafted in by belief.

There are two scriptures which share a thematic connection, which teaches us of the menorah being a physical shadow type of the lamp of God:

and the lamp of God [the menorah] hadn't yet gone out, and Samuel had laid down to sleep, in the temple of Yahweh, where the ark of God was;
(1Sa 3:3 WEB (R))

This points to the reality, the spirit of man, which every man has, being his lamp:

The spirit of man is Yahweh's lamp, searching all his innermost parts.
(Pro 20:27 WEB (R))

There are many, many more things that could be said about all this, but this should give us all much to meditate on. May he be blessed forever for his may beautiful ways of teaching us his precious truths through the many, many connections found in scripture.

Ron