Exodus (Lesson 48)

Welcome to the Preaching the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delaney, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in today.

I'm Brother James.

I greet you one more time in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

This is the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We have the honor and the privilege of spending 30 minutes with you on this radio station, day after day, engaged in the wonderful, blessed ministry of God's perfect Bible.

We get to open this Bible, read it verse by verse, comment upon the verses as we see them, and we hope and pray that God will use this program today and every day that you're able to listen to draw you ever closer to our wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're in the midst of a study of the book of Exodus, and in a portion of Exodus that can be, if we're not, if we're not careful, it can be tedious, it can be difficult.

We are discussing the many, many chapters that God has given, which contain the instructions for the building of the tabernacle and the furniture therein.

We have seen so far the purpose for the tabernacle.

We have discussed briefly what the tabernacle was made of, what was found inside that tabernacle.

We have talked about the different names that the scripture gives to the tabernacle and the prominence really that this thing has in God's Word.

Let's read a few more verses from Exodus 25, and then we'll talk a little bit on the program today about some of the symbolism of the tabernacle.

What do all of these things represent to the New Testament Christian?

Now we know this is their importance to the Old Testament Israelite.

They all have to do with his worship, his physical worship of God.

And so let's read Exodus 25, starting in verse 31.

The Bible says, And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold, of beaten work, shall the candlestick be made, his shaft and his branches, his bowls, and his knobs.

That's a tufted top, uh band or bunch.

It's an ornament consisting of a round bunch of flowers or leaves.

So the knobs and his flowers.

So the knob in this case would be leaves, and the flowers uh as part of it shall be the same.

And six branches shall come out of the sides of it, three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side, three bowls made like unto almonds with a knob and a flower in one branch, and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch with a knob and a flower.

So in the six branches that come out of the candlestick, and in the candlestick shall be four bowls made, like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers, and there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.

Now you've seen this, this seven-pronged candlestick, one uh straight up, and then two short branches uh coming off either side of the main branch, and then two a little bit longer, and then three a little bit longer than that.

So all seven equal at the top, even at the top, and yet they have to be a little bit longer as you make your way down the main candlestick in order to reach out to that even position.

Their knobs and their branches should be of the same, and it should be one beaten work of pure gold, and thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof, and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it, and the tongs thereof for uh handling the candles, and the snuff dishes thereof for putting the candles out, shall be of pure gold, of a talent of pure gold.

It's about ninety-four pounds.

Shall he make it with all these vessels?

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.

Now, here's a great lesson.

I don't know if we'll take the time to go into tale about these candlesticks on today's program.

We will on one broadcast before we finish the Exodus study by God's help, but uh here's the main thing.

God did not leave it to Moses or those working with Moses or for Moses to make this candlestick as they thought best.

He did not leave it to them to amend his plans or alter his plans if they came up with a better idea.

It was the duty of Moses to deliver these instructions explicitly to the workmen with no alteration, no amendments, no changes.

He wasn't to add to it, wouldn't take it away.

Then those men were to build this candlestick precisely as the Lord had directed.

Then and only then would it be something pleasing to the Lord.

Now there's a great lesson in this, my brother, my sister.

It is it is all the rage nowadays for a man to worship God in quote unquote his own way.

It's it's the common expression of our generation.

I just felt led.

I just feel.

Well, I believe.

Listen, God didn't write a Bible so you could worship him according to dictates of your feelings.

God didn't write a Bible so that you could worship him in accord with your imagination.

God gave man his words.

How dare a man think he can improve upon the words of God?

What folly to think that we've come up with a better way that that well had had God thought of this, this is what he was uh uh and then the the most blasphemous of all, God told me.

Really, really?

God told you something that he didn't tell the rest of us?

God spoke some word to you that he uh failed to put in his holy Bible for all saved people?

Why must you be special?

Oh, you why you must be superior to all of us.

Why here we are struggling along, just trying to obey the Holy Bible.

You know, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.

Here we are, just just uh muddling along with God's word as the lamp to our feet and the light to our path.

But but you, you, oh, God speaks to you.

God tells you things he didn't tell anybody else.

God gives you revelations he didn't give to anybody else.

And why would he do that?

Because you're special.

And why would you tell us that?

So we would know you're special.

Guess what?

We have one God and it's not you.

We're impressed with one person and it's not you.

We give honor and glory to one being and it's not you.

So stop trying to impress us with your fake spirituality.

Stop trying to wow those of us who believe the Bible with your dreams and visions and imaginations and feelings and voices and inner leadings.

Almost everybody in the institution has those type of experiences.

Stop trying to get us to be excited about you and your spirituality.

Why, who are you compared to Jesus Christ?

And what are your declarations compared to the Word of God?

How's that?

So Exodus 25, verse 40 says, And look that thou make them after their pattern which was showed thee in the mount.

Exodus 25:40

Stick with my word, Moses.

Don't add, don't add anything of your own invention to what I said.

Now, that's that's the only safe rule for a life.

That's the only safe rule for a church.

If we could just get back to believing that God is wise and that God knows best, and that God wants the best for us and just and just do things God's way.

Can you not see what a mess we're in because we're following our own imaginations and walking in the ways of human, I started to say human understanding, human misunderstanding.

Let's get back to the Bible, please.

All right, the symbolism of the tabernacle.

That's what I told you we'd talk about today.

Had to take that little side trip there because uh somebody out in Radio Land obviously needed to hear that.

All right, the tabernacle was a picture of the true tabernacle.

The writer of Hebrews deals with the symbolic significance of the tabernacle at great length.

The interest of the reader of that book is uh is excited.

There's an understanding that what was erected in the wilderness was an object lesson, showing eternal truths.

And indeed, it's to rob the believer of a great amount of divine truth.

If it's uh if we imagine the tabernacle and its offerings and its priesthood were just the provision made by God for an ancient people who couldn't understand anything more than the simplest forms of worship.

I've read those commentaries.

The tabernacle has lessons to teach believers today.

That's clear.

Hebrews says this plainly.

It says the tabernacle is an example, it's a pattern of heavenly things, according to Hebrews 8.5 and Hebrews 9.23.

It's the shadow of heavenly things.

Hebrews 8.5.

It's an image cast by an object when light is shown on it.

You know, in order to create a shadow, there has to be a real object and there has to be light.

If there's light but no real object, you don't get a shadow.

If there's a real object but no light, you don't get a shadow.

You have to have both.

Now, the image which is cast is a shape of reality, but it lacks one dimension, it lacks it lacks depth, it's devoid of all color.

A shadow has no substance of itself, but requires the real thing in order for it to be in existence.

So in heaven there is the sanctuary.

In heaven there is the tabernacle.

The one on earth was a shadow, a pale shadow of the heavenly.

Also, it is said to be a figure for the time then present in Hebrews 9, 8, and 9.

Now, a figure would be putting something side by side.

You can view one thing, and it provides you with a comparison that uh deepens your understanding of something else set beside it.

So the tabernacle in the Old Testament in the wilderness was an object lesson in truth concerning what is in heaven.

Also, the right of the Hebrews states that Christ is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are figures of the true, Hebrews 9, 24, but into heaven itself.

So, so what you have in the in the that uh holy place, that most holy place, that furniture, altar, so forth, it all prefigures or or figures, pictures for us something in heaven in relation to Jesus Christ.

That's what Hebrews says.

Now, regarding the priests and their service in the tabernacle, it is written that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law.

They serve under the example of heavenly things.

Again, that's Hebrews 8.

And the Bible says in Hebrews 9, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with ease.

It's Hebrews 9 23.

So example, patterns.

These things are copies of the real thing.

The tabernacle is an example, a pattern, a shadow, a figure.

But heaven itself, heavenly things themselves, those are the reality.

But what are we to learn?

If the tabernacle is a picture and object lesson, a picture and object lesson of what?

That's that that's the marvel.

Now, no blood, no sacrifice shed in the worship of the earthly tabernacle could ever take away one single sin.

Remember that.

Day by day the sacrifices were slain, day by day the flames of the altar rose into the sky, day by day the priests carried out their work, and yet no sin was ever forgiven by the blood shed and the sacrifices laid on the brazen altar in the tabernacle.

All this was but a picture, a necessary picture, but a picture to teach Israel and to teach all people that the shedding of blood was the basis of approach to God and the maintenance of fellowship with Him.

It all pointed forward to the one perfect sacrifice that would be offered on Mount Calvary by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, when we study in this light the truths seen in the tabernacle come alive, they enlighten our soul, they cause us to worship God.

Horatius Bonar wrote these words in a hymn that we like to sing No blood, no altar now.

The sacrifice is o'er.

No flame, no smoke ascends on high, the lamb is slain no more, but richer blood has flowed from nobler veins to purge the soul from guilt and cleanse the reddest stain.

Now, what do we have in this in this uh tabernacle?

What was there?

Well, a number of things that were overlaid with gold.

Gold is the first and the most precious material mentioned in the Bible, starting in Genesis 2, verse 11, in the building of the tabernacle.

Genesis 2:11

It was used in the construction of nine items the ark and its staves, the mercy seat, the cherubims, the golden altar and its staves, the table of showbread with its dishes and spoons and goblets and bowls, the lampstand, candlestick, the four pillars on which the veil was hung at the entrance of the holiest of all, the five pillars on which the curtains were hung, forming the door at the entrance to the holy place, and the boards which made up the main structure and the bars which gave them stability.

Now, all these vessels and boards were to be found in the holy place and the holiest of all.

Where else was gold used?

In the making of the ephod of the high priest, in making the shoulder settings in which were the precious stones bearing the names of the tribes, the breastplate of judgment, the chains linked with the breastplate, and the rings linked with the breastplate.

This gold was, as you know, gold is shimmering, it's bright in its color, may symbolize the sun greater than all the planets surrounding it, the giver of light, the bestower of heat.

Amongst all the metals it stood as the most precious.

Gold, therefore, in the tabernacle and elsewhere, is a symbol of deity, of the one who is greater than all others, of the giver of light and heat, the one who cannot be ignored by those who dwell on earth, whose majesty and glory can be seen by all who will acknowledge it.

Also in the tabernacle, much use was made of silver.

Silver.

This precious metal was used in the sockets on which the boards of the tabernacle structure sat.

We'll read all this in programs to come.

The rods connecting the pillars forming the outer court, the hooks on the pillars forming the outer court, the trumpets used by the priests.

Now the significance of silver is seen in the fact that the atonement money was paid in silver coin, half a sheikle for each man.

We'll read about that in chapter 30 and chapter 38.

Silver is therefore a symbol of atonement, the money being the redemption money which each man of responsible age had to pay for his ransom.

It was this payment that was in the mind of Peter when the Holy Spirit directed him to write.

For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold.

From your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

The reference to gold has to do with special circumstances surrounding the numbering in Numbers 31 after the battle of the Midianites, when the money was paid by bringing the gold spoil from the battlefield.

But these men brought their gold to God, and they brought their silver to God as they were commanded to do and as they should have done, but it didn't redeem their souls.

It didn't save them from the penalty of their sin.

Only the blood of Jesus Christ could accomplish that.

Also, in much use in the tabernacle?

Brass.

Now this metal was not uh, well, it wasn't copper.

It's it's it's brass, just what it is, like like brazen, the brazen altar.

The great altar, now it may be copper, uh similar to copper in color, but uh we let's let's keep it with the Bible.

It's it's brass.

The great altar which stood inside the gate of the tabernacle and which was overlaid with brass, the pots and shovels for use at the brazen altar, the touches or clasps for the goat's hair curtains, the bases or sockets on which the pillars of the court were placed, the sockets on which the pillars at the door were placed, all the fixing pins, and the lever and its base, all of this made of brass.

Brass is that metal which was able to stand the heat and flame of the altar.

It refers, therefore, to the redemption which has been purchased for others by the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Anything else melted, consumed, burned, destroyed, but the brass, the brass, could endure that heat and fire in the midst of all that sacrifice and not be harmed or damaged thereby.

That's Jesus Christ.

Only, only the Lord Jesus Christ could have endured the wrath of God and the suffering of the cross and come forth alive forevermore.

Then we read of colors connected with the tabernacle blue, purple, scarlet.

Blue was probably obtained from the Cerulean muscle.

The offering was of thread and material which had been dyed.

Being the color of the heavens, it would denote, obviously, that which is heavenly.

The uncertainty of the results of dying in those days made it very difficult for men and women to reproduce colors with precision.

But God blessing and God directing.

He put together a collection of colors from the brilliant red to the deep purple and the heavenly blue to show that life was not limited.

Relationship to God was not limited to earthly things.

Look at that blue in the tabernacle.

Look up in that blue sky.

Turn your eyes, your heart, your attention heavenward, man.

Don't be earthbound, be heaven bound, purple.

Shades from, as we said, deep red, black to violet.

The purple signifies the regal dignity, the royalty, the majesty of the one sitting on the throne, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scarlet said to have come from the bodies of dead maggots or from the Kermes insect.

It's not without significance that the name Adam means red earth.

David, the king, was ruddy, red.

The color, therefore, refers to the humiliation of the Lord Jesus in becoming man, being obedient unto death, shedding that scarlet blood upon the cross at Calvary.

Now put them all together: blue, heavenly, purple, kingly, scarlet, humanity and blood.

Down from heaven came the king of kings and became man and shed his blood to pay for your sins.

The scarlet was seen in the veil, the door, the gate, together with gold on the ephod of the high priest.

Now think about this.

The veil.

Man couldn't get to God.

There's a veil in between.

Man was was blocked, his passage was blocked.

There's a door in between.

Man cannot enter, there's a gate standing in the way.

And so down comes the Lord Jesus Christ.

The veil of his flesh was rent on the cross.

He is the door by which men may enter into the presence of God.

He is that very gate that swings open to all who will believe and allow sinful fallen man access to God.

Think of it again: the gold.

God in all his glory, the silver, redemption, fallen man being bought with a price.

Brass, sacrifice of tremendous heat and fury, and yet the material is not destroyed.

Blue, the Lord coming down from heaven.

Purple, the king dwelling among man, scarlet, and in his humanity shedding his blood that we might be saved.

My friend, some parts of the Bible may seem more difficult than others.

Some parts of the Bible may seem less dynamic or exciting than others.

But I say to you that if you'll stay with it, every page of God's holy word contains within it that which causes our heart to give praise to our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen.

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