We Really Stink

For reason number 1, I wanted to say either 'Jesus in the offering', or 'Jesus in the furniture', or that 'the tabernacle itself is a portrait of Christ'. Then I glanced into Ada Halbershon's little book Outline Studies of the Tabernacle and she gives seven different statement that go like this: God did (something -- fill in the blank) in the Tabernacle, now He does (same fill-in) in Jesus. I could re-list her list, but going through them, one stands out.

I remember hearing a speaker say that we are good at witnessing and that we are good at providing assurance to the young believer, but we really stink at teaching acceptance (may not have been his exact words...). There was a program in his church to teach acceptance to young believers -- and it took three years to go through the program(!). So, for reason number one why the study of the Old Testament tabernacle should not be neglected (with a little help from the late Miss Halbershon)...drum roll if you like...the tabernacle was the place where God accepted the sinner:

If his offering be a burnt-offering of the herd, he shall present it a male without blemish: at the entrance of the tent of meeting shall he present it, for his acceptance before Jehovah. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Lev 1:3-4

We are now accepted because of Christ:

Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; according as he has chosen us in him before [the] world's foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to [the] praise of [the] glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace...(from Ephesians 1...a really long sentence...wasn't sure where to break it).