True Tabernacle

So this morning we're going to begin with the reading of Scripture,

and Ida is going to read Exodus chapter 30, verses 17 through 21, and then 38, verse 8.

Exodus 30:17–21

Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a bronze basin with its bronze stand for washing.

Place it between the tent of the meeting and the altar, and put water in it.

Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it.

Whenever they enter the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die.

Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting a food offering

to the Lord, they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die.

This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.

And then in Exodus 38.8, It tells us they made the bronze basin and its bronze

stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

So humanity's first encounter with mirrors was probably as they saw their reflection in the water.

In the story of Narcissus, some 6,000 years ago, it was polished obsidian or

black volcanic ash that formed the earliest man-made mirrors that have ever been found.

The ancient Egyptians made mirrors of polished copper or bronze that they embellished

with decorations. generations.

Both ancient Mesopotamia and the people groups of Central and South America

had polished metal mirrors as long ago as 2000 BC.

Metal-backed mirrors that we have now were first produced in Lebanon around

the first century, and the Romans made mirrors of blown glass backed with lead.

The Bible mentions a bronze mirror in Job 37, verse 8, and it poetically speaks

Job 37:8

of the sky which God spread out.

Isaiah mentions mirrors as part of women's fashion in his day in Isaiah chapter 3, verse 22.

Isaiah 3:22

While there may have been a time in human history, and there may still be be places today with less.

In our 21st century Western world, mirrors are a very important part of our lives.

In fact, I would dare say most of us do not get up and leave the house without

first looking in the mirror, correct?

I mean, we want to find out if there's still spinach stuck in our teeth from last night.

I hope you brushed your teeth last night anyway.

The reverse button on your smartphone apps, your camera apps,

turns them into a mirror.

You can take a camera, take a picture of what's out there, or you can turn it

and look at yourself if you really would like to do such a thing.

There are mirrors in our bathrooms, and you should have at least three on your vehicles.

I'm just telling you, just saying that. You should have at least three mirrors,

mirrors even if you do have backup cameras but

mirrors are everywhere they are on the

walls at the local gym so you can see your progress toward

the goals or how far

you still have to go mirrors line the

walls of some living rooms and restaurants to give them an appearance of greater

depth mirrors are for examination reflection and transformation if we just simply

looked at the mirrors and did nothing about what we see, what good would that be?

Mirrors are the stuff of fairy tales and magic, both good and bad.

The Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs asks the magical magic mirror

on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? But she didn't like the reply.

I'm telling you, sometimes when we look in the mirror, we don't like the reply.

But anyway, the mirror knew that there was someone far fairer than the wicked

queen, and it didn't matter what she did, this other one was going to be more fair.

How often have we looked into the mirror and done the same? Looked in the mirror

and just almost like narcissists, looked at ourselves and thought,

you're such a great, beautiful person.

I know I do that every day.

Don't you? When the Lord gave the commandments for the piece of furniture that

occupied the space between the altar and the tent where they worshiped,

he placed it in the part of the book of Exodus where Moses describes not only the tabernacle,

but the clothing that the priests who served in the tabernacle were to wear.

God had a specific order for them to follow. When they began to serve initially

in the Old Testament priesthood, they were actually and ritually cleansed for their job.

It was a way of setting them apart.

And in that day, the laver, laver, or wash basin, mirrored wash basin,

as it says in the scripture, was made of bronze mirrors that the women had.

These were polished to perfection so they could reflect that image each of them in their face.

And so the bronze basin, the washbasin, was made of these mirrors.

Well, when you get a polished bronze basin filled with clear water,

the reflection is amazing.

The word that the book of Exodus uses for this setting apart of the priests

and the implements in the time of worship is called holy.

It means that they were separated from the ordinary, separated from the rest

of the world for a special purpose, and that purpose was their relationship with God.

The tabernacle was God's dwelling. And we see now that the tabernacle became

the temple that Solomon built, and now we see that we are the temple of God.

We are the dwelling place of the living God.

So we are the true tabernacle, and there it reflects in it the idea of washing and cleansing.

As I said, the tabernacle is God's dwelling among the tribes of Israel.

Those of the tribe of Levi, both the sons of Aaron and their relatives, had a special ministry.

Aaron and his sons were clothed in garments that represented this holy purpose,

and if you want to read about that, do so, because it spells it out specifically

what they were to to wear.

On the priest's shoulders were onyx stones that had the names of the tribes engraved on them.

On the vest of the high priest were 12 roses, precious stones that represented the tribes.

They were carrying their relatives, so to speak, their entire nation on their

shoulders and against their hearts.

The priesthood that the Lord has set up each of us apart for is similar.

It finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus.

When Jesus carried the cross on his shoulder, it was as if our names were written there on his cross.

And who can deny that he carried us close to his heart?

This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to

be a sacrifice for our sins, as Liz mentioned in her prayer earlier.

He laid down his life for us.

The New Testament teaches us that we are to pray for each other,

both for our friends and our enemies, those who live with us and those who don't.

Neighbors, school personnel and students, business leaders and workers,

government employees and government officials, even politicians we don't agree

with. We're supposed to pray for them.

Pray for those in leadership over you in all places.

In this way, we serve as priests unto the Lord. Jesus prayed for his apostles

in John chapter 17 in what's referred to as the high priestly prayer,

John 17 · chapter mention

and he also prayed for us who would believe in him through their words.

The priests were washed with water once initially by Moses in Exodus chapter 29.

Exodus 29 · chapter mention

This is like baptism in Jesus' name. When we are baptized,

we testify to the work that Christ Jesus has done in our lives to represent

the cleansing of our hearts and the recognition that God has set us apart for

his special purpose as a part of his royal priesthood and holy nation.

It's not something we should do frivolously.

We don't just commit to baptism because it's the thing to do,

and our friends are doing it.

We do it as a testimony of what God has done in our life, and what recognition

and a testimony to those around us that God has indeed changed us into to something

new, and we're no longer the people we were.

Just like communion, we should make sure we really mean to be set apart and

live our lives in purity for Christ.

It was after this washing with water that the priests were then clothed and

anointing oil was poured on their heads.

This was also designating them for special purposes.

Moses did three things with the blood of the sacrifice of a lamb that he offered

when they acted out the ritual of setting the priests apart for God's service.

They were cleansed by the blood, or by the water. They were washed,

and then he took the blood from the sacrificed animal and put it on their right

earlobes, their right big toes, and I'm not going to take my shoes off and show

you, and their right thumbs.

That was to represent that they were being blessed and touched by the blood

of the Lamb, and everything was redeemed from what they said,

what they heard, what they did, and where they went.

So how we live our lives

really matters to god the first thing i want us to look at

is when we look at this mirrored wash basin

in the old testament and that mirrored wash basin in us what we're looking at

as we look at cleansing first thing we should do is we should look into and

reflect the precepts of the holy word of god first corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 through 11 says,

1 Corinthians 6:9–11

or did you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers

nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers

nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

That's a mouthful, but it says it right.

And that is what some of you were, but you were washed, you were sanctified,

you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In verses 18 through 20, Paul continues, flee from sexual immorality.

All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually

sins against their own body.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you,

whom you have received from God?

You are not your own. You have been bought with price. Therefore,

Therefore, honor your God with your bodies.

We are to reflect what the precepts of the scriptures tell us.

We belong to God. And after Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the Lord,

they could serve in the tabernacle worship.

But right in the center of their service to the Lord and others,

the Lord placed the washbasin, the bronze mirrored washbasin.

It was made of bronze, like I said, which represents judgment from sin.

These priests were to wash at this basin every time they went about their work

of offering sacrifices and lighting candles and cooking and eating bread and praying for the people.

Nothing they could do in the service and ministry of the church,

of the tabernacle, could be done without first being cleansed and purified.

You know, it says, Jesus talks about the washing of our feet,

and we may have our bodies cleansed, But we're walking through the muck and things of life.

And so the priests, when they came to the tabernacle to serve,

they had to be cleansed entirely so they didn't take the filth of the world

in with them as they worshiped God in purity.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Death is kind of a languishing

thing. It's entropy. It's falling apart.

It's decay. Decay, when plants do not have the right soil or sunlight or water, they shrivel and die.

So too with humans. If we don't have the sun, S-O-N, we shrivel and die.

This is what sin does to us. It causes us to decay in our relationship with God.

It separates us from the love of God that is for us.

And so we need to follow the precepts and reflect those precepts of the Bible, of the Word of God.

Second, we should look at and reflect the person of Jesus Christ.

The scripture goes on to say, after the wages of sin is death,

it goes on to say, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ

our Lord. Life is flourishing.

The life that Jesus gives is a life that causes us to grow and be fruitful.

If we are living in the Spirit of Christ, if we are acting and looking at the

reflection of Christ and wanting to reflect him in everything that we do,

we will grow and we will become fruitful.

It's a life that bears the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace,

gentleness, goodness, faith, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance.

If you notice that scripture, it says the fruit, not plural, but fruit, singular.

All of those things are part of the fruit of the Spirit.

All the good things of life are in the eternal life that Jesus gives.

So the priests were to wash their hands and their feet so that they did not

find themselves in violation of God's purity as they ministered in the tabernacle.

As I said before, how would it be if we came into the presence of God and began

to minister in his tabernacle, in his service? Oh, by the way,

we're the temples of Christ.

How would it be if we ministered in this world with Christ dwelling in us but

didn't reflect the purity of Christ?

We build things with our hands and we can tear them down.

It all depends on what end we've allowed our hands to be dedicated to.

Our feet take us in the place we should go, ways we should go,

or they take us away from the Father.

It all depends on in what direction we've allowed our feet to be dedicated.

The Lord was reminding those priests and us that it matters what we do.

We can believe, but true belief has to be followed with action.

So the Lord made it a point that they were to continually look at those hands

in the washbasin. If you've ever.

Been at a reflecting pool. And by the way, if you're familiar with the bombing

of the Murrah building in Oklahoma

City, where the building stood back in 1995 when it was blown down,

there is now a reflecting pool in the center of the street where that is.

You walk in on one side of the thing, it's 902A. You walk in on the lockout, the other side is 903.

And everything thing that happened happened right in the middle there's a

reflecting pond there in front of 300

and i don't remember 60 some chairs of

all different sizes reflecting the people that were killed in that bombing but

in that reflecting pond you can go walk up to it and you look in and you see

a perfect image of who you are and you have to pause and think what is it in

mankind kind that would cause this destruction.

What is it in me that needs to be purified and washed?

We build things and we reflect things.

The Lord was reminding those priests and us that it matters what we do.

So he made it a point that they were to continually wash themselves in the wash basin.

This bronze wash basin was very shiny, as I've said before.

It was made of the bronze mirror of the women. By the way, do you know where

the women got those bronze mirrors?

They got them from the Egyptians when they left Egypt. The Egyptians were favorably

disposed to them and gave them all kinds of jewelry and mirrors and clothing

and food and everything else when they left.

And so they were the mirrors in which these Israelite women beautified themselves.

Now, I don't know about you, but I...

I'm not sure if I was in the wilderness of Egypt, or Egypt and in Israel,

if it would really matter if my face was clean.

But then when you're with two million others of your best friends, maybe it would.

But they were mirrors in which the women looked to beautify themselves.

Like we do today, they looked to see if their hair was set, if there was anything

in their teeth, if there was any dirt on their face.

We are made in the image and likeness of God, and we need to look in the mirror

of Christ to find out if we look like Christ.

Oh, to be like me, the blessed Lord Jesus, the song says.

These women gave their mirrors up when Moses asked for freewill offerings for the tabernacle,

and Bezalel took these shiny polished bronze mirrors and formed them into the

place where the priests would continually wash themselves as they served.

Every time they sacrificed an animal, they'd have to go and wash again because

they had touched dead animals and they needed to be cleansed.

It was a place where the priests could look to see if everything was as it should be.

The Lord has given each one of us some mirrors through which we can do the same.

James 1, verses 23 to 25 says this,

James 1:23–25

anyone who listens to the world word but does

not do what it says is like someone who looks at

his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately

forgets what he looks like but whoever looks intently into the perfect law that

gives freedom and continues in it not forgetting what they have heard but doing

it they will be blessed in what they do proverbs chapter 27,

Proverbs 27:19

verse 19 says, as in water, face reflects face.

So the heart of men reflects man.

When we read the Gospels, we are looking at the life of Jesus.

We're looking into a mirror to see how our priesthood is measuring up to the mirror of Christ.

We are looking into that mirror to reflect ourselves and to examine ourselves

and see where we need to be changed. Do I look like Jesus?

Am I as patient as Jesus is? Am I as kind as he is?

Are my doings like his doings? Are my goings like his goings?

You know, you've heard it said, whatever you do, make sure that you're thinking,

I would not want to be, or I would want to be doing this if Jesus was right with me.

Is that something I would want to be doing?

But in our going and in our doing and whatever we do, we need to examine ourselves,

in the light of the supreme example of Jesus Christ.

Are we perfect? Not at all. But the blood of Christ makes us his. is.

First John says that if we walk in the light as he is in the light,

then the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

The Hebrew priests had a bronze basin to wash in.

We have the blood of Christ that cleanses us. As long as we walk in the light,

we are continually washed in Christ.

It also says if we confess our sins, this is 1 John, John, if we confess our

sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and will cleanse

us from all unrighteousness. It's not just a part of all of our righteousness,

unrighteousness, but all of it.

Jesus, the blood of Jesus will cleanse everything in us.

We used to say he would remove the sin from us as far as the east as from the

west. And that's a pretty long ways.

And then third, we should look for and reflect the presence of the Holy Spirit. it.

God has given us another mirror. We are told in the New Testament that if someone

offends us, that we are to go to them and tell them.

Jesus said this. He was not teaching that we should continually be offended by others.

When someone is consistently offended, it is not because they are so emotionally

rattled as much as if it was that they want to control.

Sometimes there are people that live in a spirit of being offended, right?

If we are constantly upset with what others are doing or saying,

then perhaps we need to find a place alone with God and ask him to wash whatever

spirit of offense has gripped our soul.

But here are some scriptures that Jesus quotes in Scripture.

Jesus and Paul, Matthew 18, verse 15, If your brother sins against you,

Matthew 18:15

go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

Brother luke chapter 17 verse 3 says pay attention to yourselves if your brother sins,

Luke 17:3

rebuke him and if he repents forgive him galatians

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 once his brothers if anyone is caught

in any transgression you are to you who are spiritual should restore him in

a spirit of gentleness keep watch on yourself lest you be too tempted and just

as if we have to look to everybody else's things, the scripture also tells we should look to our own.

Jesus says, if you're going to present your offerings at the tabernacle,

at the temple, and you realize that your brother has some reason to think that

you've caused an offense,

lay down your offering, go and be reconciled to your brother,

and be forgiven by your brother, and then come and offer your sacrifice in the Spirit of Christ.

The priesthood was not the job of any one man alone, and they didn't wash their

hands and their feet alone. They washed together.

Why is regular fellowship with the people of God important?

Sometimes we need someone else to hold up the mirror for us.

You know, sometimes we need somebody just to reflect off of,

not in a judgmental, condemning way, but for the purpose of loving us.

We are to love one another and help one another through this.

In Paul's epic description of love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13,

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

he ends it by saying, For now we see in the mirror dimly, but then face to the face.

Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.

Have you ever been to the fairs where they have these mirrors, distorting mirrors?

They can either make you look fat or skinny or tall or completely distorted.

And mirrors do that. They reflect an imperfect and sometimes distorted image. it.

But whenever we look in that image of God's perfection, we see the holiness

and we understand that we can look at his holiness in him alone and move toward his likeness.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And when he created

man, he said, let us make man in our own image.

Man has walked away from his love.

But in the power and the blood of Jesus Christ, in the presence of the Holy

Spirit, we are being remade into the likeness of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3.18 says, But we all, with veil faces, beholding as in a mirror

the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory

to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

Mirrors are not just for examination, but also for transformation.

If we stand in the washbasin of Calvary or the cross, or if we look in a mirror

and we see imperfections in us, but we do nothing about it, what value is there to our mirror?

If we look at the perfection of Christ, if we look at Christ's example,

if we look at the precepts of the Holy Scriptures,

if we look at the presence of the Holy Spirit and see an imperfect person ourselves

and see that we're not measuring up to his holiness, but do nothing about it, why are we even looking?

As we look into the mirror of the spirit on

a daily basis we notice that we're not what we used to be praise

god but we also realize that we're not what we should be and could be we're

not what we used to be thank god in first or second corinthians 5 17 says therefore

if anyone is in christ the old create or the new creation has come the old is gone the new is here we

understand and we see that we have been made new in the likeness of Christ. But if we.

Ask for his forgiveness and be made new and stop there, what good is it?

When we look at ourselves in the mirror of Christ's life, we can experience

becoming more and more like him every day.

How do we look at ourselves in the mirror and become more and more like Christ every day?

Again, we have to look at the reflection that we see, the image that we see

in the precepts of the Scripture.

We need to look at and reflect the person of Christ.

We need to look for and reflect the presence of the Holy Spirit.

So here we are, standing at the bronze washbasin.

We're examining ourselves, and as you examine your life and heart through the

help of the Holy Spirit, if you see something that's not like Christ, confess it to him.

Surrender and turn back toward Christ. If you you realize that something that

you are doing needs to change, confess it to him and ask for the grace to change it.

Jesus said that if you find yourself standing at the altar, as I said before,

and you remember that your brother has something against you,

first go to them and be reconciled, and then come and offer your gift.

You see, as we come to the washbasin of Christ, Christ.

There is a scripture that we can say often, and I don't do it every day,

but I try to do it often, and this is it.

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

If we would look at that and remember that and pray that on a daily basis,

we will be looking at and reflecting reflecting the precepts of Scripture.

We will be looking at and reflecting the person of Christ, and we will be looking

at and reflecting the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we come to the close of this worship session,

this worship time, this worship hour, we do so with a desire to reflect your

holiness and your perfection.

Resurrection you made us in your image we

have walked away and destroyed that image in us so father help us to look at

our image as a reflection of you and see where we need to be brought clean and

new by you may we be like jesus amen.