4. Abraham is Counted as Faithful
Abraham is called out of Ur. We read in Genesis 15:4-6 that God is giving Abram wisdom…TREE OF LIFE wisdom…and life is going to spring forth from you. Abram is told that he is going to have a son, this is the prophetic word of God. Does Satan provide some corrupt knowledge from the tree of knowledge of good and evil to Abram, symbolically speaking? Yes, in Genesis 16:1-2 Sarai said to Abram; ‘take my handmaid. This is not God’s prophetic word but man word. What did Abram do? He took a bit of some corrupt knowledge. Made the same mistake that Adam made. So, we have the spirit of prophecy (God’s prophetic word) versus self- fulfillment. It is God saying one thing about the future and Abram taking the future in his own hands. Does this sound familiar to you? Have you been there and done that? God will reveal to us what he wants for us. Jeremiah 29:11, what happens is we don’t see things going the way we think they should, so we try to take matters in our own hands. As a side note, Jacob did this with Esau. The lesson we should learn is, do not take your future out of God’s hands. Do not put your future in your own hands. Trust God with your future. This is not to say do nothing, but whatever you do make sure it is in line with what God wants for you.
5 – Abram Eventually has Isaac who has Jacob and Esau
Jacob has twelve sons, and later on they go into captivity in Egypt. Jacob is reunited with Joseph as a result of the famine. Jacob dies and when Joseph is 110, he dies. A different Pharoah rises up and places Israel into bondage. Israel was in Egypt for a total of 430 years (Ex. 12:40-41) before God delivered them (Genesis 37,39-46:7,46:28-50; Exodus 1:6-22). The Lord God calls Moses to negotiate Israel’s freedom (Ex. 3:2-10). Pharoah eventually allows them to leave after the final plague, Israel crosses the red sea, and they arrive to Mount Sinai. The Lord calls Moses up into Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:18). One of the things Moses was instructed to do, was to collect a list of items from the people as a free will offering (Ex. 25:1-7). Why? Exodus 25:8-9 tells us, to make Him a sanctuary.
Why a sanctuary? So, God can dwell among them. (Ex. 25:8). His way is in the sanctuary (Ps. 77:13). It is to be a pattern (Ex. 25:40). The Lord showed Moses this pattern to be the template for him to follow in building the sanctuary (Acts 7:44, Heb. 9:23-24). In Hebrew (H8403), the word for pattern is tabniyth [tab-neeth] meaning structure; a model, resemblance. Exodus 25 – 31, are the instructions for building the sanctuary. Below is a rendition of its structure and furniture items.
The sanctuary is the lens used to understand God, and his word – it answers all the ‘why’ questions. There will be future posts which will go into detail about the structure, furniture, and all that it represents.
Now that we have a basic structure of the tabernacle (sanctuary) we can move on.
- Remember when God instructed Israel to sacrifice the Passover lamb in Egypt prior to their exodus, at which time they painted their lintel and two doorposts with the blood of a lamb? This act pointed forward to the altar of sacrifice located in the outer court of the tabernacle. The burnt offering was the most important sacrifice. It was a very personal experience, and was intended to make an impression on the offerer the true cost of sin. The offerer is to wholly surrender himself to God, placing all he has on the alter to be consumed. Neither the offerer or the priest ate any of the meat. In symbol, it pointed to the perfect unblemished Lamb to come, and He would satisfy the penalty of death for mankind at calvary (1 Pe. 1:19-20, Rev. 13:8). Romans 6:23 tells us ‘the wages of sin is death’. This is our wages, it is what we earned, but Jesus became sin for us, who knew no sin (2 Cor. 5:21). He redeemed us from the curse of the law and became the curse for us (Gal. 3:13). In accepting His gift of mercy, we are to place all that we have at the foot of the cross.
- Israel went down and crossed the Red Sea and this pointed to the laver, which is also located in the outer court. It represents, because of our true condition, we need cleansing, a new birth and new life…we need a baptism. In type, the nation of Israel was baptized when crossing the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:2). For Israel it pointed to the coming Messiah, who was to make good on His promise. In the New Testament, as expressed in the act of baptism for the repentant believer – this is where the sinner identifies with the Messiah in his death, burial, and resurrection as a symbol of inner cleansing and newness of life. Also, the priest would wash to prepare for acts of service in the tabernacle. This also is representative for the acts of service of Christ as our High Priest and Mediator in the heavenly.
- When God sent manna to the Israelites it was to point them to the table of showbread, which is located in the Holy Place. This was to remind them who is the life giver and to live according to the word of God. Scripture tells us Jesus is the bread of life (John 6:35) and we are to live according to the word of God (Matt. 4:4).
- God organized Israel as the light of the world, they were to evangelize the world with the hope and promise of the coming Messiah. This was represented by the seven branched candlestick. We are told that Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). The oil in the candlestick is a type for the Holy Spirit (Zech.4:1-6). The Holy Spirit convicts our hearts; brings us to repentance; guides us into all truth; fills us with joy; peace and hope; comforts us, leads us to bear fruits of the Spirit, provides spiritual gifts (scripture).
- Israel cried out God that is representative of the altar of incense (Ex. 2:23-3:22). The smoke from the incense represents prayers of the people that went up and over the veil into the Most Holy Place where God dwelt (Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8; 8:3–4). Jesus is ministering as our intercessor, mediator, and high priest (Hebrews 7:25, Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 2:1).
- The Ten Commandments are declared representing the ark of the covenant. The ark contained the Ten Commandments, a pot of manna, and Aaron’s budded rod. The mercy seat, with two covering cherubims one at each end, sat upon the ark. Above the ark was the Shekhinah glory. This tells us that we stand upon the commandments as lawbreakers which makes us sinners deserving of death, BUT God extends his mercy to us (through Jesus), by accepting this mercy our sins are covered with the righteousness, glory of Christ.
This demonstrates to us that God led Israel via the sanctuary before they were even given the sanctuary. We have just scratched the surface of the meaning of the sanctuary…more on this in a future post.
This is how God led them out of captivity. This sanctuary would fall under the TREE OF LIFE…the wisdom of God. Is there something introduced to counter the sanctuary. Yes, Moses is up in the mount covered by clouds receiving the instructions for the sanctuary and what are the people below doing? Exodus 32:1-4 tells us they made a golden calf and were worshiping it and gave homage to it for bring them out of Egypt. What is the issue here? The children of Israel turned away from that which they knew was true and right for they forgot how and who led them in the past (Deuteronomy 6:12-14). In creating the golden calf, they chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The choice was to remember God and serve and worship him, or forget Him and serve and worship another. Same issue here that we saw previously, the wisdom of God verses wisdom of man. Lesson learned: Do not doubt or forget how God has led you in the past…chose the sanctuary not the golden calf.
6. The children of Israel would worship other gods clear through their Babylonian captivity.
Cyrus delivers them from captivity and they are back in the promised land. They are now waiting for the coming Messiah. At the appointed time, the Messiah comes. John 11:49-50 tells us that the nation came against the Messiah…the cross. Here the cross is the TREE OF LIFE, Christ is hanging on the tree making Christ is the TREE OF LIFE. The people could choose the cross or the nation, and they put nation over Christ. They put their love for temporal and earthly things (money, power, position, patriotism) over the cross. Here are the formulas: Cross = TREE OF LIFE, Nation = tree of knowledge of good and evil. Lesson: Do not put temporal things over earthly things, chose the cross over the nation. Matthew 6:33, seek ye first the kingdom of God. John 6:27 and 1 John 2:15, don’t loving the world and things of the world over Christ for there is no future in the former.
7. The children of Israel chose nation over Christ and what happens is their nation is destroyed and they are dispersed.
The Christian Church is now taking the gospel to the world which is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. We have another choice to make. Hebrews. 8:1-2, Christ is our high priest is in the heavenly sanctuary ministering on our behalf (bread, incense, light) this is where we need to look. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, don’t be deceived by any means. It is truth verses error, and in a sense we might say it is the two trees versing each other. Daniel. 7:25 and 8:11-12 gives us information that our enemy will cast down truth, the sanctuary; and set up his own sanctuary. We understand the counterfeit in respect to the little horn power. Lesson: 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to study to show thyself approved so we can come to understand truth from error (wisdom vs. corrupt knowledge).
8. Mark of the Beast vs the Seal of God.
Revelation 7:1-3 , the seal of God is nothing more if we trace it back than the TREE OF LIFE. This is our present truth. Revelation 13:16-17 describes the counterfeit is the mark of the beast. Revelation 22:14-15 tell us they that do His commandments have the right to the TREE OF LIFE, which brings it full circle back to the very first test in Eden. Revelation 14:6-7 message is fear God. What is the fear of God? Psalms 111:10 says it is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 8:12-16 identifies that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. If I want the fear of the Lord I need wisdom. We are told in Proverbs that wisdom is a person, and that person is Christ. So, now it begins to make sense when the Bible says in Isaiah 7:14-15, which is a scripture that foreshadows the coming of Christ, that Jesus knows how to refuse the evil and chose the good. If I want wisdom I need to choose Christ. Phillipians 2:5, if we have His mind we will chose the TREE OF LIFE every time.
Summary
It is and has always been about two trees, it began in the garden and has continue and will continue until the end. It is going to be about two days. Most people are not going to be able to see that – within those two days are the TREE OF LIFE and the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. The tree of knowledge of good and evil says I can determine for myself what is right and what is wrong.
Present Truth vs Present Error Recap:
TREE OF LIFE versus tree of knowledge of good and evil
ark versus dry land
rainbow versus tower
spirit of prophecy versus self-fulfillment
Sanctuary versus the golden calf
cross versus nation
heavenly Jerusalem versus Mystery Babylon
seal of God/commandments of God versus. Mark of the beast/commandments of men
In all of these we have Christ who is personified. Christ is the TREE OF LIFE, he is our ark and wants us to hid in Him, Christ is our rainbow of glory, the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus, the sanctuary is the temple I (Jesus) will raise up in 3 days, the cross is Jesus as the way the truth the life, commandments – Christ is the law of God personified.
We have a picture of Jesus. Those who receive the seal are those that chose to eat from the TREE OF LIFE, who are hidden in the ark which is Christ, who are surrounded by the rainbow which is Christ’s glory, those who receive the spirit of prophecy have the testimony of Jesus, those who are dwelling in the temple – dwell in Christ, those who bear the cross are followers of The Way, those who embrace truth over the tradition of men are not deceived, those who keep the commandments of God (Christ personified) over the commandments of men are lovers of God and their neighbor. These are those who receive the seal of God. Don’t determine for yourself what is right and wrong. Don’t imagine evil against your neighbor. Don’t trust in yourself or works to save yourself. Don’t take your future in your own hands which is the same as removing it out of the hands of God. Don’t doubt how God has led you in the past. Don’t put trust in temporal things over heavenly things. Don’t accept tradition over truth. And you will receive the seal of God which is reserved for those who chose the TREE OF LIFE over tree of knowledge of good and evil.
What are we called to do? To do God’s will above self-will.
Love my neighbor.
Don’t trust our own flesh or works.
Trust God with our future.
Remember how he has led in the past.
Chose the cross over earthly things.
Chose truth over tradition.
Chose the law of God over the commandments of men.
This will keep us on the right side of all the versus. The final versus of the Bible are a culmination of all present truth that came before it. God has given us all these versus to prepare us for living at the end of time. The whole of scripture is Christ-centered depicting redemption and restoration. The question is will you be ready my friend? You can be ready. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…this is why the seal of God was placed in the mind (forehead) because His people are thinking like Jesus’ thought and choosing like Jesus chose.